Creative Corner
Calling all creative writers! This is a column run by Liv Akers and Mariah Lumsden to inspire readers to write. The column includes writing prompts, pieces by the coordinators, and occasional submissions from readers.
Calling all creative writers!
Welcome to Creativity Corner, a space for readers to write in The Scroll without having to be journalists! The deadline this month is October 29th. We will be giving a $10 Dutch Bros gift card to the author of our favorite submission, so we hope to see you participate soon!
How to participate:
Below are a set of prompts for different styles of writing beyond journalism. The idea is that you can create some kind of creative writing piece inspired by one of the prompts, but it doesn't have to be. You can submit any piece of writing you'd like to share! All submissions should be school-appropriate. You can also suggest prompts to be featured in the next issue.
Send in your submissions to gphsthescroll@gmail.com to be featured in the column! You are more than welcome to send in anonymously or put your name on your piece. Please just specify when emailing us. Thanks!
Prompts:
Here are some prompts to inspire your writing this month! If you try one, let us know how it goes. :)
Write a letter to your favorite teacher at GPHS. It can be anonymous if you’d like, and it doesn’t have to be addressed to them if you’d rather leave it a mystery. Share a memorable moment you have with them.
If you could change exactly one thing about the world, big or small, what would it be?
Tell a story that you think sums up the most important things anyone should know about you.
Write a poem about someone (or several people) in your life that you wish you could say something to, but can’t. It can be good, bad, or anything in between.
What did you do this summer? Tell me all about it!
If you have any prompt ideas in mind that you haven't seen on here yet or would like to see someone else respond to, drop them in the Google Form below and they'll be listed in the next issue!
screaming about nothing: class of '22 renewed edition
By Liv Akers
Those of you who read this column last year: You know the drill. If you’re new, welcome! Leave while you still can. This article does not matter at all. That said, here is my in-depth explanation of why The Owl House being cut off at two and a half seasons is NOT the same as Gravity Falls only having two seasons. Also, I’m gonna talk about Avatar: The Last Airbender a lot because I don’t know how to be concise.
Some background info: Gravity Falls aired June 2012 through February 2016 and was a smash hit. It follows twins Dipper and Mabel Pines who spend a summer in their Great-Uncle (Grunkle) Stan’s “Mystery Shack” nestled in the Pacific Northwest, and learn the small town of Gravity Falls is a hotspot for weird happenings. I’ve personally never seen a show so heavily theorized upon by its fandom, and it left a lasting mark on the network years after its conclusion. Despite airing over the course of four years, it only has two seasons, both of which are jam-packed with lore and mystery. I’ve never met a cartoon fan who hasn’t seen Gravity Falls, and I rarely meet anyone else in my generation who hasn’t at least seen an episode or two. I’d consider it one of Disney Channel’s most iconic shows.
Despite the popularity and huge cultural impact of the show, the creator, Alex Hirsch, made the choice to end it at two seasons. He explained in a lengthy Tumblr message on November 20 of 2015 that he had intended for the show to come to a conclusive ending fairly quickly from the beginning. As he put it, “Gravity Falls was never meant to be a series that goes on and on forever.” He wanted to capture the impermanence of childhood and allow the show to end on his terms when Dipper and Mabel’s summer was over. To this day, fans everywhere still wish there was more to see of our characters, and it has come up in a new context once again, five years later.
The Owl House is the story of Luz Noceda, who passes through a magical door and ends up in the land of the Boiling Isles, a place of witches, demons, and magic. In her attempts to return home, she finds a band of friends and decides to prove herself as a human-made-witch. The creator, Dana Terrace, actually worked on the storyboard of Gravity Falls, and in 2020 aired the first episodes of her first very own show. The Owl House has been doing incredibly well (one might even call it the modern Gravity Falls) and has become well-known for its Latinx and LGBTQ+ representation. The downside of having an amazing triumph of a show like Gravity Falls air on your program is that every other show of that genre is going to be endlessly compared to its predecessor, and upon Terrace revealing the end of the show, that was exactly what happened.
Supposedly, due to budgeting conflicts following the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney executives cancelled the show. Season two, which is currently halfway over, will finish airing, and season three will consist of three 44-minute specials as opposed to being a full-length season. Terrace clarifies in a Twitch stream that it is too late to extend season three, and that it’s a battle she has been raging for a year. “That’s been set in stone… that ship has sailed,” she stated. If I had a penny for the number of people I’ve seen say, “Well, at least we get more than two seasons, that’s better than Gravity Falls,” then I would have enough money to pay for the next season. This whole situation has exposed a lack of understanding in how plot works in the general public that I feel way too passionately about and have taken as a personal insult, so allow me to rant about it.
Gravity Falls was planned, from the very beginning, to be a two-season show. It was meant to be “short and sweet.” Hirsch started writing season two knowing it would be the end of the show, and had the opportunity to decide what subplots he would include, which characters would be developed, and how the show’s conclusive ending would happen. The Owl House being cut short despite plans of extension is a completely different scenario; characters that were meant to be developed will have to lose some dimension, subplots will be removed all together, and the ending will likely have to be rushed in order to make it conclusive enough to end the show on. Still confused? I have an example.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was three seasons long. Each season made steps towards one overarching plot, and many of the characters’ goals were the same from start to finish. It is one of the most iconic cartoons ever aired on modern television, and was an absolute masterpiece of animation. Its sequel, The Legend of Korra, did not receive the same praise. I could go on and on about the misogyny running rampant in this fandom and how that likely plays a role in the general public’s dislike of the second series, which stars a female protagonist, but the biggest reason it didn’t have the same success as A:TLA was the format. Unlike its predecessor, TLOK was not planned to be a set number of seasons from the beginning. The creators planned for it to be one season long, but then it was extended, so they added another, and then another, etc. Each season had to have a conclusive enough ending that it could wrap up the series, but it also had to be ambiguous enough that the story could pick up where it left off. Each season has its own distinct story and villain, and each villain had to be more powerful than the last for the show to remain relevant, but they kind of took it too fast; by the second season, she battles the literal spirit of evil itself, and then the third season is underwhelming because it’s just some dude. Sure he’s, like, a powerful dude, but compared to Vaatu, an ancient spirit of darkness and chaos and the physical manifestation of literal evil, he is NOTHING! They had to remedy it by making him the most disgustingly immoral human being to walk this earth and make Korra the weakest she’d ever been in order for him to overwhelm her. Don’t even get me started on season four; it’s just a really attractive woman who girlbosses too close to the sun.
Does TLOK still absolutely slap? Yes, and I will die on this hill, but it’s got a TON of issues that are all directly related to the fact that it just wasn’t as well-planned as A:TLA, and I fear that The Owl House is doomed by the same fate. It is for this reason that TOH and Gravity Falls just can’t be compared in this scenario, because they are absolutely not the same. This is Liv, who is done ranting for the day, signing off.
Sources:
https://decider.com/2021/07/16/the-owl-house-fans-react-to-cancellation/
Why I Have the Whole Entire Rocky Horror Movie Memorized
A commentary by Mariah Lumsden
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a movie that I watch daily. I have the whole movie memorized, and I even performed a short monologue from my beloved movie for an acting class. Although the acting class was online and I already had memorized the whole movie in advance, it was not cheating because, as I like to say: “Work smarter, not harder.”
In the beginning of the movie, we see a wedding scene, and, actually, you can see Tim Curry out of character at the doors of the wedding chapel. I did not notice this at first but, after my 200th time watching the film, I realized that and freaked out. The first musical song is a type of love ballad between Brad and Janet where he proposes to Janet and she accepts. I think Brad and Janet are a solid couple; that is how they appear at first, but of course, after they meet Tim Curry’s Dr. Frank N. Furter, their whole relationship gets a little “rocky.” Ha... ha...
Brad and Janet decide to announce their engagement to a close friend and ex-tutor of both of them but, as it happened to be a dark and stormy night, their tire blew out and they walked back to a mysterious castle they found a while back. Inside the castle, there seemed to reside a strange, humpbacked man. This, of course, was Frank N. Furter’s handyman, Riff Raff. He seemed very strange and off-putting to both Brad and Janet, pointing out that they were wet when it had been raining. Major red flag. Riff Raff then suggests that Brad and Janet better come inside and they do.
Inside the castle, Brad and Janet ask Riff Raff if they are having a party, pointing out loud music echoing off the walls. This is where we are introduced to Magenta. Magenta is another one of Frank N. Furter’s servants and sister to Riff Raff. Magenta also comes off as a little weird to Brad and Janet. I think Brad and Janet were the outsiders of the whole film, but we will save that argument for another time. At this point, Riff Raff and Magenta both start singing the iconic song Time Warp. It’s astounding.
After this little musical number, Brad and Janet back away from the crowd of the strange little dancing people that we encounter during the Time Warp and Janet starts to become progressively more anxious. Brad responds to this by telling Janet to get a grip on herself. I would probably tell Janet the same thing. They have basically just encountered some unusual androgynous little aliens from another planet. I personally would be very excited, but I suppose I wouldn’t know that they were unusual androgynous little aliens at that point. It kind of just looks to me as though Janet is afraid of parties, which is somewhat relatable-- but it was the 70s…
After this iconic performance comes another, even more iconic performance to which I shiver with antici...pation everytime I watch it. Out comes Dr. Frank N. Furter. The moment we have all been waiting for, whether we knew it or not. This is my personal favorite scene and performance. Tim Curry really threw himself into this role. The character himself is so grotesque and monstrous throughout the majority of the film. The character introduces himself with an abstract amount of narcissism and definitely has a god complex. Frank N. Furter identifies himself as a “sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transilvania.” He is seen wearing fishnet tights, a corset, a pearl necklace, and an insane amount of makeup. This entire outfit is a complete serve and I think about it every day.
After this incredible performance, Frank N. Furter goes up to his lab. Columbia (who we met during the Time Warp dance), Magenta, and Riff Raff begin to strip Brad and Janet of their old clothes. I think this has some sort of symbolism, like how Brad and Janet are being stripped of their plain old identity and at the end they transform into a similar brand of Frank N. Furter, wearing corsets and makeup and fishnets. More on this later. Riff Raff, Columbia, and Magenta take Brad and Janet up to Frank N. Furter’s lab.
When Brad and Janet step out of the elevator, they are met with a twisted-looking Frank N. Furter. He seems to be staring blankly, waiting for them. He then extends an arm out to the both of them to shake their hands and offers them some clean clothes so that they feel “less vulnerable.” He then says that it was not often they received visitors there, let alone offered them hospitality. Brad jumps at Frank, saying they did not ask for hospitality and simply asked if they could use their telephone. Frank begins to flirt with both Brad and Janet after this small hiccup and then is interrupted by Riff Raff, who tells Frank that everything is ready and they merely await his word.
This scene was a monologue I perfected for the one and only acting class I had ever taken before. This next part will be me repeating this monologue from memory and, if you don’t believe me, you wouldn’t know that I am crazy and obsessive and I do know most of the movie word for word and you are lucky that I have not done this the whole entire time.
“Tonight, my unconventional conventionalists… you are to witness a new breakthrough in biochemical research, and paradise is to be mine. It was strange the way it happened, suddenly, you hit a break. All the pieces seem to fit into place. What a fool, what a sucker you’ve been. It took a small accident to make it happen. An accident! And that’s when I discovered the secret, that elusive ingredient, that spark! That is the breath of life. Yes, I have that knowledge. I hold the secret to life itself!”
Okay, I know that wasn't perfect. I feel like I’m probably missing something, but I swear I typed that all from memory. It’s hard being so talented sometimes.
Anyways, after this Frank N. Furter reveals his creation. He created a man with blonde hair and a tan. This would be Rocky. Frank N. Furter tells Rocky, through a fantastic musical number of course, that he can make him a man.
I will skip these next few parts, as they are slightly inappropriate but, honestly, most of the movie is inappropriate. Basically, after all these important scenes, Columbia gets mad at Frank for killing Eddie, who was her old lover and then Frank medusas everyone and puts on a crazy little musical performance featuring Columbia, Rocky, Brad, Janet, and of course, himself. I skipped a few parts, like the dinner scene, which is definitely a little bit of a biblical reference because Magenta and Riff Raff end up betraying and killing Frank N Furter. Sorry about the spoilers, but it did come out in 1975 so you are about 40 ish years late.
This movie is a satire on Frankenstein, but it is also deeply tragic and funny and perfect and it’s my favorite movie, so I have nothing bad to say about it. I love Tim Curry and the whole cast is amazing but mostly Tim Curry. He’s such a talented actor and is definitely best known for Rocky Horror. Moral of the story is: watch Rocky Horror because then this whole commentary and this review will sound like less of a fever dream.
