#Ken Spain

[chiropteracupola]

sing me silence, my soldier / sing us gently into death...

[recherchestetique]

Casa Batlló, by Antoni Gaudí- pic by Ken Kaminesky

[lumpsbumpsandwhumps]

I was imagining the plot and setting of each sequel gets more ridiculous each time. Leading up to Ashley and the Stranger managing to get stuck on a space station together. Stranger X

The year is 3086. Earth is destroyed, leaving its last few humans to survive in a space station. In an attempt to repopulate society, they make clones from DNA samples they found through obscure means. Ashley and the Stranger are subsequently brought back to life, only now the Stranger is going around and killing the only 17 other people in existence so it can just be him and Ashley. There's also a cameo from some 90s action star who hasn't been relevant in 15 years. 6% on Rotten Tomatoes.

[rabbitcruiser]

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

In Canada, over 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were forced to attend residential schools from the 1880s to 1990s. Shortly following the country's founding in 1867, there was an effort to create a Canadian national identity. This meant that the indigenous population would have to assimilate, to the point that their culture would be eradicated. A report released in 1879 said that the only way assimilation could be accomplished would be by taking children from their parents and putting them in residential schools. The report recommended that the government work with Christian churches to open the schools. The Canadian government started funding them in 1883, with the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church being the main organizations running them. The schools did away with indigenous language and culture and replaced them with English and Christianity.

There was resistance from the indigenous population, so, in 1894, the Canadian government made attendance compulsory, and gave the Royal Canadian Mounted Police the authority to take children from reservations and bring them to schools. The schools were underfunded and were rampant with diseases, forced labor, and sexual abuse. Students who spoke in their native language were beaten. When students died, their parents often weren't told about it, and the children were buried in unmarked graves. The 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report estimated that 6,000 children died while attending the schools.

In the 1950s, the Canadian government started making moves towards shutting down the schools, and they took control of the schools from the churches in 1969. There were still a few schools open in the 1980s, and the last one closed in 1996. The United Church of Canada apologized for its role in the schools in 1986, and the Anglican Church did the same in 1992. Although some Catholic organizations have offered apologies, and Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged the wrongs in 2009, as of 2021, the Catholic Church has not formally apologized.

In 2008, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for the residential school system on behalf of the Canadian government, and formed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, to get to the bottom of what had happened at the residential schools. The final report came out in 2015 and said that the residential school system inflicted "cultural genocide" against the indigenous population. The report outlined the ramifications of the schools. It found that the schools undermined parents' ability to pass along language, which led to 70% of Canada's indigenous languages being classified as endangered. It found that the residential education was deliberately poor, and led to a poorly educated indigenous population that did not make high income in adulthood, which in turn impacted the education of their children and grandchildren, continuing a deficit of education and income in indigenous communities for generations. It found that the physical and sexual abuse that residential school students experienced led to lifelong trauma, and that trauma and abuse sometimes was passed down to children and grandchildren.

The St. Joseph Mission Residential School was in operation from 1891 to 1981, in Williams Lake, British Columbia. The St. Joseph Mission Residential School Commemoration Project and Reunion organized events that were held in Williams Lake in May of 2013. The events commemorated the residential school experience, witnessed to and honored the journey of healing of the survivors and their families, and were a moment of commitment to the ongoing process of reconciliation. They were attended by former residential school students and their relatives, of the Secwepemc, Tsilhqot'in, St'at'imc, and Southern Dakelh Nations, as well as by others in the Cariboo Regional District.

Phyllis Webstad, an alumnus of the residential schools, was the spokesperson for the reunion group leading up to the May 2013 events. When she was six, her grandmother bought her a new orange shirt to wear to her first day of school. On that day, she was stripped of her clothes and the shirt was taken from her, never to be returned. Throughout her life, the color orange reminded her of the event, but also of how the school stripped her identity from her—as it did with so many other children—and how no one had cared what the feelings of her and other children were. She spent years dealing with the repercussions of her residential schooling. She shared her story at the May 2013 events, and it inspired the creation of Orange Shirt Day, which was first held on September 30th, 2013.

Orange Shirt Day facilitates global conversation on all aspects of residential schools, providing an opportunity to have meaningful discussions about their effects and legacy, which spurs reconciliation. The day reaffirms to survivors and others affected that they matter, and, aptly, the official tagline is "Every Child Matters." Orange Shirt Day reminds Canadians that the cultural experiences of all people are relevant and should be embraced and celebrated. On Orange Shirt Day, Canadians are encouraged to learn more about the residential schools and their assimilation practices. Film screenings, memorial walks, and public lectures are organized, and orange shirts are worn.

September 30th was chosen as the date for Orange Shirt Day because it was around that time of the year when children were taken to residential schools, and also because it is a fitting time of year to set forth anti-racism and anti-bullying policies for the upcoming school year. School districts, local governments, and First Nations near the Cariboo Regional District, as well as some from far away from it, have passed resolutions supporting the day. For example, the Assembly of First Nations Chiefs-in-Council passed a resolution in support of the day.

When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report was released in 2015, it called for a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. In 2018, the Department of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism announced that it was considering creating the day as a statutory holiday to honor the legacy of residential schools. September 30th, the date of Orange Shirt Day, was chosen for it, and a bill for the day was introduced to the House of Commons by Georgina Jolibois. It was passed on March 21, 2019, but didn't make it through the Senate before the next election.

On September 29, 2020, during the next parliamentary session, a similar bill was tabled by Steven Guilbeault, Canada's Heritage Minister. On May 27, 2021, the bodies of 215 children were found in an unmarked cemetery on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The House of Commons agreed to fast-track the bill the following day, and it passed by unanimous consent. The Senate passed it unanimously six days later, and on June 3rd, it received royal assent, and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation became a federal statutory holiday. It is a paid holiday for federally regulated employees in Canada, and for some private-sector employees. Today, Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation coincide with each other, grapple with the same history, and have similar goals.

How to Observe Orange Shirt Day

Some ways you could take part in the day include:

Wear an orange shirt. This could spark a conversation about the residential schools.

Learn more about residential schools and their assimilation practices, perhaps by reading a book about the schools.

Check for, organize, or attend events like film screenings, memorial walks, and public lectures. Share your story or listen to the stories of others. Post pictures on social media of events you attend.

Watch Every Child Matters: Reconciliation Through Education.

Read Orange Shirt Day or another book related to Orange Shirt Day.

If you're an educator, explore the Orange Shirt Day teacher resources.

Take part in the Orange Shirt Day Design Contest.

Visit the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation or explore its website.

Learn about similarities and differences between Canada's residential schools and those that were in the United States.

Join the Orange Shirt Day mailing list.

Donate to the Orange Shirt Society.

Source

[ifreakingloveroyals]

Through the Years → Felipe VI of Spain (2,028/∞) 5 April 2017 | King Felipe VI is seen during their visit to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) in Tokyo, Japan. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia are visiting Japan from April 4 to April 7, 2017. (Photo by Ken Ishii/Getty Images)

[littlestardude]

⏤͟͟͞͞☆Dating Kenny HCS|| Reader x Kenny McCormick

✰ - SFW & NSFW - ✰

Plot: Just sum HCS!

Note: I love Kenny McCormick so fucking much he's so pookie smookie, also first post yippee!

TW: Drugs, death bcs of drugs (its Kenny he comes back-), incest ment (concerning rats), smut HCS at the end

Gender: AFAB Gen neutral

✰ - SFW - ✰

FLIRTS NONSTOP. all day every day, he just doesn't fucking stop. But the moment you flirt back.

Bro is dead, 6 feet under, giggling and kicking his feet

Has trouble falling asleep and sometimes you'll wake up and he'll be just staring at you

"Kenny what the fuck are you doing... "

"You're so pretty... Can I not stare at my partner in the middle of the night!? :(("

Demands you cuddle him to sleep

Did I mention touchy?

Yea

Super fucking touchy

Literally has to be touching you all the time as if you we're his phone in his pocket or he'll freak out

Actually learned the value of life once you stepped in. He's died only once.

Why you ask? In his words

"I can NOT just say no to free drugs"

Drugs in question were something called... Crazy 8...basically 8 fucking drugs mixed together.

Yea he wasn't gonna survive.

Now you have to keep an eye on him, and tell him to just stick with weed

Oh yeah weed

Bro is toasted most of the time.

AND reeks of weed 24/7

Anytime you smell weed the first thought that pops into your head is, "where's Kenny? "

Basically weed is a comforting smell to you now 💀

Asked you to get high with him

You were reluctant at first but then you tried it... Let's just say it's a common occurrence now

You think he's flirty when he's sober? When he's high omfg.

Compliments like crazy, and can actually take compliments back when he's high

You adore high Kenny because he literally turns into the silliest mf alive

Super duper touchy when you're both high, like on top of each other the whole time

Piercings out the wazoo

Tattoos to come...

You let him shower at your place so he actually became CLEAN once you started dating.

Like his hair is actually touchable now, and not greasy

He's still a rat boy tho, and does dirty rat boy things

Actually HAS rats

You came over one time and he introduced you to his ratty children

"This is Frankie, and Frankie Jr, and Frankie Jr Jr, and that's Maggy, and Rosie and- FRANKLIN JR GET OFF YOUR SISTER RIGHT NOW! >:("

"Um, Ken... I don't know how to tell you this but rats dont care about incest..."

Almost cried, "it's like medieval Spain all over again... "

You pat his back, "it never gets easier... " you sighed dramatically

Loves animals, you guys wanna get a dog and cat together!

He loves you and adores you so much

He thinks you're the best person to ever come out of this cruel world, and he tells you that all the time

You also love him. So much. You think he's the prettiest, sweetest boy

You tell him that most of the time when you think he's asleep, he usually isn't because he loves hearing it

Back to the weed thing, LOVES when u guys order McDonald's when ur both high and have the munchies

Bro can throw down 2 big macs, 1 double quarter pounder, 20 piece chicken nuggets, and 2 orders of large fries and still be like

"I need something sweet... " 💀

Anytime you're out with your friends, Kenny's usually wearing his parka and you're the only one who can understand Kennish

Also holding hands the whole time

It took you awhile to get used to the fact you had a super clingy partner but you got used to it

You guys were able to get a place together eventually after high school

It's super shitty but it's home <3

You'll eventually upgrade after grueling work and endless shifts

But you definitely make time for each other

✰ - NSFW - ✰

(The fun begins *rubs hands evily together*)

SWITCH KENNY SUPREMACY!!! Literally does not mind either, as long as he's with you and he's naked? And you're naked? Bros chilling

Fucking loves oral, receiving and giving

First time he ate you out, you were on cloud mf 9, seeing stars n shit

He LOVES your thighs, like before he eats you out he just likes kissing and squeezing your thighs

HOWEVER. The first time you sucked him off. Omg, HIS thighs were MESMERIZING.

Something about boys thighs... Just seeing them pushed together, your fucking weakness.

His thighs are pale and ever so slightly plushy... Help me

KNOWS WHAT TO DO WITH HIS MF HANDS‼️

He grabs you and stimulates you in the best fucking spots

LOVES COCKWARMING. NEED I SAY LESS.

You guys will just be chilling watching a movie, and he'll just go like

"Babeeeee... " that's literally all he needs to say bcs you know what he wants.

After some time of just being on his dick it kinda hits you, "I'm on his cock, I could literally do what ever I want... " you think, evily

You'll shift your body around to where you're looking at him and he already knows what's coming, his hands are IMMEDIATELY on your hips

And you start slowly bouncing up and down

Doesn't take him long to start making noises

He's very vocal during sex, he sees no point in staying silent

Plus the first time he moaned super loud during sex you literally came on the spot.

Now he can't help but moan and whimper when you're on top of him because he knows you love it

AFTERCARE KINGG

Usually urges you two to take a shower after sex

Sometimes ends up into shower sex if the both of you still have the energy

You bought a shower stool so you both could fuck in the shower because one time he almost slipped and will NEVER live it down

"IT WAS SUPER SLIPPERY OKAY"

"You stepped on the soap babe... You almost went flying"

Yea a shower stool and those mats for the shower floor

[woso-dreamzzz]

Romantic Masterlist

_ - Smut

Alexia Putellas x Reader

Pet Problems -> Social Media

Pet Problems II -> Your cat gets pregnant (It's all Mapi's fault)

Pet Problems III -> Meeting the kittens is very stressful

Pet Problems IV -> The first two kittens go off to a new home

Pet Problems V -> It's adoption day for the last of the kittens

Shot Through The Heart -> Social Media

Shot Through The Heart II -> The story of your love

Shot Through The Heart III -> You're pregnant

Shot Through The Heart IV -> Your last final

Leah Williamson x Reader

Nothing But Net -> Social Media

Nothing But Net II -> You've got one of the biggest games of your life and your girlfriend comes to support you

Holiday -> Social Media

Strictly Come Dancing -> The final of Strictly Come Dancing

Sorry -> The aftermath of the World Cup

Alessia Russo x Reader

Muse -> Social Media

Muse II -> You attend one of Alessia's matches

Champion -> You're riding a high and make sure to keep it going

Grace Clinton x Reader

Race -> Racing at its finest

Lena Oberdorf x Reader

Enemies -> Out on the pitch, you're enemies

Laura Feiersinger x Reader

Tea -> You're part of her routine

Kyra Cooney-Cross x Reader

Accident -> It wasn't planned

Accident II -> Lunch with your sister

Charli Grant x Reader

Reunion -> Your girlfriend moves to Spurs

Courtney Nevin x Reader

Movie Night -> You see your girlfriend

Chloe Logarzo x Reader

Birds -> Your girlfriend comes to your place

Mary Fowler x Reader

Date -> You're a bit of a wallflower

Date II -> Social Media

Ellie Carpenter x Reader

Hangover -> A holiday with your teammates

Katie McCabe x Reader

Carded -> The comeback of McCard

Power -> You and Katie both know who really holds the power

Power II -> You put Katie in her place

Ona Batlle x Reader

Home -> Social Media

Aitana Bonmatí x Reader

Ma'am -> You steal your father's plane

Ma'am II -> The plane ride

Shy -> You still get shy around your girlfriend

Jana Fernández x Reader

Hi Barbie -> You're Barbie and Jana's just Ken

Hi Barbie II -> Bruna interrupts

Bruna Vilamala x Reader

Escape -> You need an escape plan

Escape II -> Your sister meets your girlfriend

Escape III -> You visit Barcelona

Fridolina Rolfö x Reader

Mornings -> Early mornings with Frido

Mapi Leon x Ingrid Engen x Reader

Flirts -> Your cousin's two friends are definitely flirting with you

Flirts II _ -> Mapi and Ingrid take you home

Flirts III -> You have doubts

Janine Beckie x Reader

Brewing with Beckie -> You go on the podcast

Chloe Kelly x Reader

Flowers -> It's a tradition

Lauren Hemp x Reader

Master Builder -> You work at Legoland

Laura Coombs x Reader

Cookies -> You bake a bit too much

Cookies II -> Social Media

Deyna Castellanos x Reader

Uni Love -> Social Media

Uni Love II -> You'll follow Deyna anywhere

Amanda Ilestedt x Reader

Pictures -> Your girlfriend visits you in London

Laia Codina x Reader

Treat You Better -> Laia thinks you're in a relationship with your best friend

Treat You Better II -> Social media

Treat You Better III -> You visit Spain

Treat You Better IV -> The Conti Cup

Andrea Medina x Reader

My Wife -> You've known Andrea for a very long time

Vicky Losada x Reader

Anger -> Your phone kept ringing

Anger II -> Social Media

Anger III -> It was meant to be a quiet night

Leila Ouahabi x Reader

Tesco -> How Leila got the bruise on her cheek

Laia Aleixandri x Reader

If Music Be The Food Of Love -> Leila can't quite believe that Laia's bringing her to see the orchestra

If Music Be The Food Of Love II -> Social Media

[rgr-pop]

My goal for the year was to watch & log 100 movies. Shorts count, didn't matter whether I had seen them before, but they can only count once for the year. I logged 117!

First & last watched: Ken Russell's Women in Love (1969)--the reason I cared about movies so much this year, just an obvious life-changer for me--and Ken Russell's The Rainbow (1989)--Westlin's suggestion for the perfect round out. Surprised to be surprised by how good it was. Great films! Totally on the program! Questions to this day unanswered! Let's go!

Shorts (everything short of Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story) watched: 16

Favorite shorts: Nuit et Brouillard (Alain Resnais, 1956) (decided this year one of my all-time favorite films); Un Chant d'Amour (Jean Genet, 1950); Fireworks (Kenneth Anger, 1947)

Next year my shorts watching will be more programmatic

Films I watched twice in 2023: Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1987) (another film I realized this year obviously belongs in my top ten--more specifically I decided finally that this is my favorite non-Texas Chain Saw film); Beau is Afraid (Ari Aster, 2023); The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993)

By decade: Before 1900: 0 1900 - 1910: 1 1910 - 1919: 1 1920 - 1929: 1 bro come ON what the FUCK 1930 - 1939: 1 im literally evil 1940 - 1949: 7 1950 - 1959: 3 1960 - 1969: 24 1970 - 1979: 14 1980 - 1989: 16 1990 - 1999: 17 2000 - 2009: 13 2010 - 2019: 9 2020 - 2023: 10

By nation/language roughly: uk/english: 6 us/english: 66 canada/english: 6 france/french: 10 italy/italian: 4 italy/france/french: 1 italy/english: 1 czechoslovakia/czech: 5 palestine/arabic: 3 soviet/russian: 2 russia/russian: 1 austria/german: 1 austria/french: 1 spain/spanish: 1 japan/japanese: 1 poland/yiddish: 1 poland/polish: 1 senegal/wolof: 1 brazil/portuguese: 1 sweden/swedish: 1 eur/farsi: 1 south africa/afrikaans: 1

numbers not adding up there but w/e

By director: Not sure if this is surprising or totally unsurprising, but in spite of my auteurial talk (and all the thematic/completionist plans I like to make), I very rarely watched more than two movies by the same director. I can't decide how I feel about this, nor do I know how to proceed this year given that my goal is to discover who my top five directors might actually be. How do you go about investigating that?

Overwhelmingly the director I watched the most was Adrian Lyne, with five films. I have a few more things to work on but I'm close to done with my shakedown/theory. Neither my favorite director nor favorite guy, I would say I probably 'enjoy' and 'personally get more out of watching' his films more than most. In second place, I watched three Kenneth Anger films--all shorts of course. I watched two films each by the following directors: Ken Russell, David Cronenberg, Stanley Kubrick, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Paul Schrader, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ti West, Todd Haynes, Michael Haneke, Jan Švankmajer (both shorts), and Billy Wilder (one of which being a war department documentary short).

I have mixed feelings about this approach (let me watch man movies if i I want to!) but a quick skim suggests I watched about 15 films directed by women (12%)--lower than expected and probably low for me typically. I always have a romance habit on the backburner so it's never hard for me to watch a lot of movies by women, but obviously my focus on revered directors I never previously wanted to spend time on has had an impact here, meaning I should make an effort with Great women directors in 2024 to keep that in check. I will also say that I specifically recall having a hard time getting my hands on things I wanted to watch by women in a few different cases, including by Great women directors (Barbara Hammer and Akerman), and especially also soviet women directors. There's an overlap here with difficulty accessing short films!

I'm not an active or thoughtful starrer, but these are the films I watched in 2023 that I've given five stars to:

Women in Love (Ken Russell, 1969) (upgraded from four after the year of appreciating it) Mandabi (Ousmane Sembène, 1968) Crash (David Cronenberg, 1996) Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1987) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974) Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1956) Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975) (demoted Teorema [1968] to four stars to prevent Salo is A Perfect Film deflation) Un Chant d'Amour (Jean Genet, 1950)

Least favorite films watched in 2023: Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi, 2019), Barbie (Greta Gerwig, 2023), All My Good Countrymen (Vojtěch Jasný, 1968), Zahrada (Jan Švankmajer, 1968), the one streaming true crime doc I watched that I then had to log (will not repeat in 2024)

Loved/treats for me: Barry Lyndon, Crossing Delancey, Unfaithful, The Cremator, The Night Porter, Cabaret, talking to people about Funny Games and realizing I love it more than I think I do

Recommended for the romance girls as a thank you for the good romance you have recommended me: Habibi (Susan Youssef, 2011)

Most incredible movie experience of the year by miles and I can only hope 2024 has something this good to offer: House of 1000 Corpses (Rob Zombie, 2003) anniversary screening my birthweek

The otherwise defining film of 2023 for me: Hostel (Eli Roth, 2005)

Onward! Back to work! On the Terror and Violence line! The Family is out there, comfortable, in relative peace…

[polite-pandemonium]

(preview) coincidences and cosmic signs

OK, so here's the thing, the other day I was going through my WIP files (of which there are SO MANY) and I noticed that I never, not once, have ever written anything happy about this pair ever, even though they are probably my favourite OTP of all time. While chatting with @piedrpiper, I noticed that I often don't even view them as a happy couple, despite wanting Toei desperately to let them canonically smoosh their faces together and kiss in some media where I can see it.

So I'm challenging myself to write a happy, comedic Takeru/Hikari fic. I haven't written anything happy in years and I haven't written anything comedic in even longer, so a challenge this is. So I'm posting a little preview cause I unabashedly need a little encouragement. Pls. :(

IDK how long this will be or even what it really WILL be, but here it is so far. Title is from 'Serendipity' by Laufey, which is a gorgeous, gorgeous song I encourage you all to listen to.

x x x

coincidences and cosmic signs takeru/hikari, ken/miyako, background yamato/sora

There's no rulebook for falling in love with your best friend. Takeru and Hikari are learning this the hard way.

x x x

There’s no rulebook for falling in love with your best friend. No guidelines, no best-seller, no simple Google search that can explain how to navigate it in three easy steps.  There’s only works of fiction that make it look all too easy, with everything uncomplicated and clean, tied up in a neat bow by the end of the story. Happy endings, one after another, the friends to lovers trope never sees a broken heart. 

But in reality, there’s reams of Reddit threads and personal blogs showing the mixed results that only trying to turn a friendship into something more can wield. There’s plenty of broken hearts there; in the short, preliminary research that he has done, Takeru has found there are more unhappy endings than there are happy endings in this regard. Someone always doesn’t feel the same way and then the friendship? Ruined. 

It was anxiety inducing to read about, which was what had brought him to his current state of inaction. 

Though, he was finding this to also be miserable. 

Takeru groaned, leaning against the checkout counter at Ai-Mart, fixing his gaze sadly on the handful of nikuman still sitting in the glass display. 

From behind the counter, Miyako looked up from her text book and raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with you?” 

It was a Wednesday evening and like many evenings, instead of going home to the apartment he shared with his mother, Takeru decided to go pay Miyako a visit at her family’s Ai-Mart. She often loudly complained about how boring evening shifts were - how busy was a conbini in Odaiba really going to get on a weekday? So Takeru, who would talk to a wall if it could talk back, would frequently visit her while she worked (work was a loose term - she mostly just studied and rang through the odd customer), using Miyako as a sounding board for whatever was on his mind. 

Given that Miyako considered Takeru her third least annoying male friend, she didn’t mind the visits, though she tuned him out at least some of the time. It beat being alone and bored. 

Tonight was one such evening, but unlike their usual discussion topics, (pros and cons about whether or not Miyako should go back to Spain, a detailed plot summary of whatever book Takeru was reading, and often a heated debate around whether or not Takeru could give Miyako a ride to Ken’s place after this and if he did, what food would she give him for free?) Takeru found himself in a rather melancholy mood. 

Sighing heavily, Takeru placed a finger on the glass, tracing the shape of one especially lonely looking nikuman. “Miyako-san, I’m going to confess something to you, but you can’t make a big deal out of it, okay? I just really need someone to talk to.”

Miyako stood a little straighter, though her hand still remained clutching her book, poised to turn the page. “Um, okay. Again, what’s up?” 

“I’m in love with Hikari-chan,” he said, drawing a sad face over the nikuman. He wondered if it was as sad as he was - it must be, knowing that it was going to come to an untimely end, first getting ripped to shreds by someone’s teeth and then getting boiled alive in stomach acid. 

Being in love, Takeru was finding, was awful. Sure, he had probably been some type of in love with Hikari for almost ten years, but he kind of thought he would get over it. Yet here he was at 23, decidedly not over it and definitely not with Hikari and all of that was making him very miserable. 

He had to let it out. He wasn’t going to tell Yamato (what did Mr. Wife’d Up Since He Was 14 know about unrequited love?) and he certainly wasn’t going to talk to Daisuke, Ken, or Iori, all of whom were equal shades of busy or would mock him relentlessly. 

Which left Miyako, who, trapped behind the counter of Ai-Mart, really had no choice but to listen to his sob story. 

“Oh,” Miyako responded, blinking. “That’s all?”

Takeru stiffened, eyes darting away from the bread. “What do you mean that’s all?”

Rolling her eyes, Miyako folded her arms. “I mean that’s all as in obviously you’re in love with Hikari. Everyone knows that.”

“Everyone?!” Takeru yelped. “What do you mean everyone?!”

“I mean everyone,” Miyako said matter of factly. “Our entire friend group. Hey, are you drawing faces on the nikuman again?”

“No,” Takeru dropped his hand. “And what do you mean everyone?” 

Circling around the counter, Miyako sighed. “Takeru-kun, I mean that everyone in our friend group knows you’re in love with her cause it’s obvious. It’s been obvious since you were like, seventeen. You just have to watch you two interact for more than five minutes and see how you look at her to notice it.” Coming to a stop beside him, she bent over and peered at the glass. “You liar, you were drawing faces on the nikuman! Stop doing that! Someone complained last time and said this store was creeping him out.” 

“Sorry,” Takeru said, distracted. “How do I look at her?”

Miyako turned to him, her face suddenly serious. She smiled softly. 

“You look at her like she’s special. Like you could be in a room with every single person you’ve ever met in your life and you would look for her first.”

Instantly, Takeru felt his face flush. “Um, I think, well, that’s quite the description Miyako-san, I don’t know if it is that deep, I—”

“Oh, stop, seriously,” Miyako waved her hand, turning to head back to the other side of the counter. “It’s so obnoxious to hear men try to downplay their feelings. Just own it. You’re head over heels for her. You’d rip worlds apart for her.”

Takeru swallowed, flushing deeper. “I mean, technically I kind of have.” 

“I know,” Miyako stationed herself beside the register and flipped her book closed. “I heard all about it. That’s why I said it. Now. What do you want to do about it?” 

A beat passed between them before Takeru slumped back against the counter. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?!”

“I mean I don’t know!” Takeru snapped. “I have no idea how to navigate this. I’ve tried Googling. I’ve tried reading. I even considered talking to my brother, but that would be no help at all cause he and Sora got together so young and have stayed together for so long, so what does he really know about dating? And all of the advice online is so mixed and I just truly have no idea where to even start.”

Miyako pursed her lips. “You want to know what I think you should do?” 

Takeru nodded, eagerly. “Yes, please.”

“I think you should tell her.”

Takeru groaned. “Miyako-san, I can’t just tell her. Are you crazy?”

“No!” She narrowed her eyes. “And I resent the question. Just tell her how you feel, you idiot!”

“I can’t just tell her how I feel,” Takeru said slowly, pointedly. “What if she doesn’t feel the same? I could ruin our friendship.”

Miyako shook her head. “You’re not going to ruin your friendship. Hikari is very understanding, very forgiving.”

Takeru nodded. “She is - wait. Are you saying that she’s going to reject me?”

[yellowkitkieran]

In My Plans (Kieran Tierney)

Masterlist

Word Count: 2.6k

Summary: NSFW! Kieran tries to break things off when he gets news of his transfer, but you refuse to let him.

"I'm going to Spain."

Though you're good at hiding your emotions, the pain that flickers across your face is unmissable. It is there and gone, replaced by a bright, genuine smile by the time Kieran has blinked. 

"Baby that's great! You'll get tons of playing time, and you won't have to worry about getting called up for scotland. You'll be a shoe in! They won't be able to say no when they see you scoring more goals than any left back in the prem."

Your hands settle on Kieran's chest, though the gesture provides none of the usual comfort. His stomach has become home to a roiling ocean, complete with thunderclouds and boisterous waves. He's contemplated this all week, trying to decide the best course of action. Spain isn't just a short train ride away like Newcastle would have been. Spain requires a plane, and multiple free days for you to dedicate to visiting him. With so much on your plate already between finishing your degree and hunting for the perfect place to start your career, Kieran can't be selfish. He cannot expect you to set aside what precious little free time you have for him. He cannot, in good conscience, ask you to move with him either. So in his mind, there's only one option. 

Kieran takes your hands in his, cool against his clammy palms. Despite the lack of options, Kieran doesn't want to do this. It will hurt you both, but in the end he believes it to be the right thing to do. So he kisses each of your fingertips one by one, purposely avoiding the question he is sure to find in your eyes. But per usual, you know him too well. His silence speaks volumes, practically screaming his discomfort. You read his mind, plucking the thought from his head and giving it a life by voicing it. 

"I'm not leaving you." 

Kieran sighs, dropping his hands to rest on your waist. Even now, on the brink of losing you forever, he is powerless to keep from touching you. You are his comfort, his person, the one he wishes to be with forever. It's a shame that it has to end this way, but it's best for you in the long run. 

"A full season is a long time to ask you to wait for me-"

"I don't care," you interrupt, firm and unyielding. "You're in my plans Kieran- I know your gaffer let you down when he said that but… you know I won't. I'll follow through. I'm not gonna run away just because I can't see you every day. I love you too much for that. Do you really think I would give this up so easily? That I wouldn't fight for us?" 

The hurt carried on your words is nearly too much for him to bear. "I cannae ask you to wait here for me. I'll be in Spain, you'll be here for school… it's not fair to ask you to wait. I think it's best for us both if we don't drag this out.."

If he's being honest, Kieran has been waiting for this moment. When he's dated in the past, his partners have always left when things got hard. Distance like this isn't something many people are willing to overlook, even in the face of once-in-a-lifetime love. 

"Kieran-" 

"Look, I dinnae ken when I'll be able to come visit, and I know you won't let me fly you out every weekend-"

"Kieran."

He powers on, ignoring your chastising eyes as his hands begin to tremble. "It's too far. It's too long. We can't- I won't let this wreck you, I won't be responsible for that. Maybe if you're single when I get home, we could see about trying again but I don't expect you to be." His world is irreversibly changing and he doesn't like it. He likes the idea of causing you pain even less, though. 

"Kieran. Stop." 

Kieran's eyes are wild like that of a frightened deer. He flinches when your hands come up to his jaw, then settle on either side of his neck. Pulse frantic beneath your fingertips, Kieran searches for any reassurance in your face. He is wound tighter than a cornered lion, set to lash out at anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby. 

When your lips meet Kieran's brow, he nearly sobs. "I don't want anyone else." His body shakes when your mouth slowly makes its way down the bridge of his nose, and he lets a tear fall when your kiss soothes his soul. "I want my Kieran, my bold, witty Scotsman and no one else." It's a ghost of a kiss, nothing more than a quiet promise, but it is enough. "Distance doesn't scare me, we can make it work. But losing you? That's terrifying. My worst nightmare." When your fingers thread into his hair, nails scratching at his scalp, all of Kieran's fears leave with his exhale. 

"I'm staying," you murmur, holding his gaze when he finally looks up. "I can look after the house for you, sleep here a few nights a week… It'll be nice to be in a place with so many memories when I miss you." Kieran draws strength from your unwavering voice. "I'll keep things clean, make sure it's not so dusty that your allergies act up when you come home to visit." 

Kieran uses his grip on your waist to pull you into his lap, one knee on either side of his thighs. Your weight comforts him like it always has, the same way a weighted blanket helps some with their anxiety.  You use the pads of your thumbs to collect the moisture on his cheeks before giving him a proper kiss, one that Kieran finds the energy to return by tilting his head up to meet yours. 

"I love you." Kieran tucks his head in the crook of your neck, arms like a vice around your waist. He's afraid if he lets go, you'll realize your mistake. He is terrified that you might change your mind and walk out his front door without a second thought. He needs you, probably more than you realize. He shouldn't be so attached after only six months, but losing you would feel like playing with a missing limb. 

"And I love you Kieran, so so much. I love you so much that if I wasn't in my last semester, knee deep in my dissertation, I'd drop out and follow you to Spain."

"I wouldn't let you." Kieran shakes his head, nose rubbing your neck as he does so. The sensitivity causes you to squirm, rewarding him with a whiff of your peony and rose perfume. It's the one he picked out for you a few weeks ago, the glass bottle engraved with your name and the date of your anniversary. He loves the way it smells on you, complimenting your shampoo and creating his own personal bouquet that he'd gladly enjoy every day. 

Your voice drops to a conspirators whisper, your breath hot on his ear. "I'd quit in secret darling. You wouldn't know it until I showed up at your doorstep in Spain with everything I owned in two cases."

"Two cases? That's all you'd need?" 

"I'm a light packer." Your cheeks rests atop his head and Kieran feels the last of his fear drain from his overworked muscles. "Mostly it would be the shirts I've stolen from you and some photos in one case, and the other would be filled with books and trinkets. I don't need much to survive, aside from you."

Not for the first time, Kieran is eternally grateful for how adept you are at switching off his brain. When he finds himself on a proverbial ledge, you're the one he wants to have to talk him down. When he feels the weight in his boots, you're the one that reminds him to take them off and shake them out. Your voice is the only one that can quiet the 'what ifs' in his head, leaving behind a garden of promises to be redeemed in the future. 

It might be a purr that Kieran lets out when you card your fingers in his hair again. Whatever it is, it's something born of unfiltered gratitude. Never has he loved someone as hard as he's loved you. He didn't dare dream that someone could love him with the same intensity, let alone someone as perfect for him as you. Kieran could conquer the world with you at his side, his rightful queen who cradles his heart in her hands. 

Kieran feels your cheek lift with a smile when his lips trail over your shoulder, left exposed by the well-worn neck of the shirt you stole from him. He rests his forehead on your damp skin, wanting nothing more than to melt into you until he becomes nothing more than a part of you. 

"I love you." Though he's muttered the words a dozen times in the last hour alone, it still doesn't feel like nearly enough. He wants the seriousness of his love to strike you like cupid's arrow, the heart shaped scar forever serving as a reminder of the man who will one day make you his wife. 

"You keep saying that…" your arm encircles his head, keeping his mouth on your skin. "Why don't you take me up to bed and show me how much you love me, Key?"

Kieran doesn't need to be told twice. Strong fingers dig into your thighs as he lifts you up, reaching the stairs in three long strides. He takes them two at a time, not eager to find his own pleasure but eager to help you find yours. Tonight will be about you and only you, and proving himself worthy of your unwavering love. It won't hurt to give you something to think about while he's gone, either. 

Flicking the lights off as he enters, Kieran sets you in the center of his bed with a tenderness you've come to love. With previous lovers you found yourself craving things hard and fast, wanting it to be over as quickly as possible. But with Kieran? You'd beg for hours with him, each artfully placed kiss or drag of his fingers against your skin leaving you with an insatiable craving for more. 

Your head tips back when Kieran lowers his mouth to your throat, his downy lips leaving shining kisses on your heated skin. You're already desperate for him, desperate to touch and be touched by this god of a man. You know he'll be especially soft tonight after his earlier vulnerability, and somehow that only turns you on more. 

"I love you," he murmurs, accent impossibly thicker than the last time he said it. His brown doe eyes see straight through you, penetrating right to your soul. Something tugs in your chest, heightening your desire and stoking the fire in your gut.  

Sliding your fingers in Kieran's hair, you tug hard until he gets the idea and kisses you properly. It starts soft, nothing more than a peck, but the second his tongue darts over your lips you open for him, wanting him to explore your mouth until he's mapped every bare inch of you. His tongue doesn't fight yours but moves in tandem, complimenting you in the most basic and intimate way possible.

Your leg develops a mind of its own, hitching over Kieran's hip to beg him to come closer. He relents, allowing his hips to press against yours while you helplessly squirm under him. You need something, anything, to ease the ache that has already started in your core. 

Kieran correctly interprets the way you claw at his shirt to mean you want it off. You're left slack jawed when he throws the fabric aside, his bare chest on full display for you. Soft, teasing touches are your weapon of choice as you trace each dip and curve of muscle that makes up Kieran- your Kieran. The only man you ever wish to see this way. 

When your hand reaches the button of his jeans, Kieran's hand circles your wrist to stop you. "Not me- just you." 

Oh, you're in for a long night.

Liquid fire melts you from the inside out when Kieran eases you out of your bottoms and kisses his way down your abdomen. His hot breath ghosts over your folds, already slick with your arousal. 

"I love you so-" Kieran flicks his tongue over your bud, eliciting a moan from deep in your chest, "fucking-" another, harder this time, "much." When Kieran sucks lightly on your clit, your vision explodes with black dots. He's barely done anything at all and you're already whining, his name dropping from your lips like dew as he spreads your juices with his tongue. 

Kieran's chin shines nearly as much as his glazed eyes when he pulls away for air. "Taste so fucking sweet baby- I'll never get sick of it."

"Probably taste even better mixed with your cu-" You gasp when Kieran surprises you by plunging two fingers into you. He pumps them in the perfect rhythm, attuned to your body and what you enjoy. You watch, eyelids heavy, as Kieran sucks on his tongue, then opens his mouth and lets his spit spread over your cunt. 

Your incoherent moans take the shape of his name. 'Kieran' is the only thing you manage to babble out as he fucks you with his fingers, curling them to drag across your gspot with each pass. 

As the seconds tick by, your spine begins to arch. When Kieran adds a third finger you nearly explode- perfectly stretched and wonderfully fitted with just the slightest bite of pain from the fullness. Kieran moans against you himself when you sink your nails into his shoulders, begging for him to be impossibly closer. Muscle ripples under your fingers as he works his own in and out of you, searching for the release he knows you're teetering on. 

You're right there, right-

Kieran's free hand snakes up your stomach to toy with your breast, pinching and squeezing your nipple. That last push of pleasure is all you need to ascend. Mouth open in a silent scream, you unravel around Kieran, his fingers continuing to fuck you through your high as you struggle to breathe. They go still when you suck in air, filling your lungs with sweet, salty scented oxygen as you start to come down. 

Kieran leaves his fingers where they are, kissing the insides of your thighs while you come to. Your heart races for a fair few minutes, though eventually you find enough of your wits to smile at what just went on.

"I that think-" You shake your head, words jumbling in the aftermath of your release. "I think that proves how much you love me. God, Kieran- you're perfect."

You whine when Kieran withdraws his fingers. That whine quickly turns into a moan when he licks them clean, cheeks hollowed to lap up every last bit of you that remains. "I don't think it does… we're gonna need three more rounds at least before I believe it."

And really, who are you to deny him?

"Better get to work then Tierney," you grin, settling back on the pillows and spreading your legs further, "Because the sun is setting. Tick tock."

[seventeenlovesthree]

These loose character descriptions are KILLING ME.

Daisuke: While attending culinary school, he has already begun to training at a ramen ship. On days when the store is closed, he is allowed to use the store as it is and serves family-style ramen as the owner. He spends his days researching ramen with V-mon, even though he lives alone at home. (Living alone, huh. Just like your senpai, huh. You better not spiral into depression too, boy.)

Ken: As the winter of his sophmore year of college approaches, the brilliant & talented Ken is gradually beginning to look more to his future, and he continues to study for the police officer's exam. On campus, he continues to be the object of heated attention from those around him, but not one can get in the way of his leasurely reading time with Wormmon. (Everyone is still swooning over Ken, pass it on.)

Miyako: After completing her studies in Spain, Miyako is now studying programming in India. Because Koushiro is extrmeley busy, the 'Digimon Connected' community is mainly run by her. She still likes to wear brightly colored clothing. (SHE’S TAKING AFTER MIMI SO MUCH, I AM SO PROUD. Also Koushirou being “extremely busy”, so she has to take over the Chosen Children network, huh... Now I’m even more curious than before, thanks a lot, Toei, if my boy is taking over the world, you need to let us know.)

Iori: Iori, the youngest member of the group, has already decided to go to law school and has started working part-time at a lawyer's office, although doing simple tasks. He continues to practice kendo, which he learned from his grandfather, and while he has a serious side, he values the relaxed time he can spend with the cheerful and optimistic Armadimon. (The boy is so committed and straightforward, but he’s learning to relax too, I am so proud.)

Takeru: He is a sophomore in the department of literature. He enjoys spending days with everyone, male and female alike, but when it comes time to get to his computer, he's serious about his writing. However, when it comes time to play with Patamon, he thinks nothing of it. (BISEXUAL!TAKERU CONFIRMED.)

Hikari: While studying early childhood education at a junior college, she also works part-time at a daycare center and plays with children in the field. In place of her busy older brother, she works hand-in-hand with Tailmon in Digimon related activities and serves as a hub for her friends. (WHY CAN I PICTURE HER PLAYING WITH CHILDREN SO VIVIDLY. Also, yes, Taichi is busy too, huh...)

[jiatiful]

i was tagged by @noonaracha (thank uuuu 🫶🏻 it makes me happy to see these hehe) to: Tag 10 people you wanna get to know more and make a few cool questions!

favorite color: burgundy !! but i also like pastel colors

favorite food: spanish food (i'm kinda picky anw 😭)

song stuck in my head: i just woke up with this one in my head "i'm sorry, tokyo" by brooke alexx.

last song i listened to: i can't remember but probably a nct or skz one 😚

dream trip: i really want to visit london idk it's been my dream trip since i was 12 lol, also scotland is really pretty and i wanna visit too !! but i NEED to go to south korea sigh.. many dream trips :/ i guess i need money

last tv show/movie i watched: documentaries count? i watched one about a crime that happened in the south of spain about 12 years ago??? it's really sad tbh

spicy/sweet/savory: sweet definitely

i'm tagging (no pressure tho 🫶🏻): @dalkyum @pisces-moons-world @jellojeongguk6 @catboy-jaebeom @catgirl-yeji @kahecki-ken @proudahgase @miskarisa @hyunpic @bffjohnny @peachjy @lislis80 @tuyuyunho @nanamikentoseyebags @onedirecton

(and whoever wants to do it !!!! :D)

[canmom]

Animation Night 119: Dick Williams

heeheehee, dick

So. If you’re an animator, or have even thought about trying animation at some point in your life, you’ve probably ended up recommended a copy of this book...

Which is fair, it’s a fucking great book. It pretty much set the standard for animation pedagogy forever since.

You may also likely know the legend of its creator, Richard Williams. I believe I may even have mentioned him on Animation Night before, but since it’s been some time, let’s set the scene.

Animation is about compromise. On every production, from TV to film, you have to accept some limitation on your vision: drawings you don’t have time to correct, shots that might look better on 1s, CG where hand-drawn animation might look better. Part of the art of the animator is learning to do more with less, like developing a style that demands a more manageable drawing count.

Yet animators are proud creatures. It’s painful to let go of a sequence you know could be better with more time!

Which means... in the great annals of Animation Lore, there are a few times where some industry legend gets enough clout where they can get away with just going completely all out on a film. In the best cases, this results in films like Takeshi Koike’s Redline (Animation Night 19), which occupied Madhouse for a good seven years, but resulted in an exhilarating, one of a kind sakuga feast.

This one paid off, and while it rather strained the resources of Madhouse and they weren’t in a hurry to let Koike do whatever he wanted again, It’s clear that he levelled up a lot from the effort, with the nigh perfect understanding of 3D form becoming the foundation of his later Lupin films. But in these cases, actually finishing the film is maybe more of the exception than the rule...

The next famous case is that of Yuri Norstein - a titan of Soviet animation, who I have regrettably not yet covered on Animation Night! But Animation Obsessive have, in wonderful detail, so please go read what they have to say.

Norstein, famed for his films like Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale of Tales but fiercely independent, had a somewhat tense relationship with his superiors at Soyuzmutfilm. This came to a head when he set out to make an insanely ambitious feature-length adaptation of The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol. In 1985 he was fired from Soyuzmutfilm for working too slowly... but he found private investors after the fall of the Soviet Union... and has worked on it ever since, with an animation team consisting of just Yuri Norstein himself and his wife Francheska Yarbusova whose drawings form the cutouts which Norstein animates. Even now, 37 years later, he is still working on The Overcoat. Occasionally, clips surface.

It probably won’t be finished before Norstein dies, and at that point someone will probably find all the finished footage and edit it into something like a film. But the investors still seem to be willing to indulge him, perhaps because it’s not exactly expensive and it has the aura of a legend so they’re willing to play the long game.

But of course, the most famous of these quixotic passion projects is The Thief and the Cobbler, directed by Richard Williams. So let’s set the stage.

Richard Williams, in his own account, got interested in animation at age 10, in 1943, when he got a paperback book called How To Make Animated Cartoons. He started pursuing it seriously at age 22, while working as a painter in Spain, returning to London and working briefly in advertising while self-funding a short fim The Little Island, which he describes as a ‘half-hour philosophical argument’, released in 1958 when he was aged 25.

After making this film, Williams came to a very familiar realisation: he didn’t know nearly as much about animation as he had imagined. He describes watching Bambi for the second time and ‘crawling out of the theatre’ trying to figure out how they did that. He started idolising the animators at Disney and Warner Bros such as Ken Harris - someone he would one day work alongside, and become a close friend, and in the end be a pallbearer at his funeral. And The Animator’s Survival Kit‘s prose is still soaked in reverence for these animators, with a lot of cute little anecdotes about moments Williams spent with them.

His reverence for the Disney ‘full animation’ school was cemented after seeing the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine (Animation Night 86) and watching an unimpressed audience walk out - something Williams at the time attributed to the jerky animation that didn’t respect the movement principles of Disney. He describes by contrast how completely he was blown away by The Jungle Book, seeing the hand of some of the Nine Old Men like Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston - so he wrote them a letter about how much he was impressed and they invited him to come visit.

At this point his intro drifts away from autobiography, so let’s give a brief summary from other sources. During this time, Williams had founded a studio in London, which mostly made TV ads and animated segments for live action films such as the comedy Casino Royale (1967).

Notably also in this period, Williams animated segments for a film about the Crimean War, The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968). The drawings for this sequence were insanely intricate, calling to mind the woodcut engraving style of newspaper illustrations contemporary with the war.

1971 saw his adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which was warmly received in the States. At this point he was frequently inviting talented animators from the States to come and teach the pathetic British how it’s done, including Grim Natwick (who is described as ‘still brilliant’ in the Survival Kit) and Ken Harris, who gets a fascinating little paragraph:

It takes time. I didn’t encounter Ken Harris until I was nearly forty and he was sixty-nine. I had to hire most of my teachers in order to learn from them.

I hired Ken in order to get below him and be his assistant, so I was both his director and his assistant. I don’t know if this is original, but I finally figured out to that to learn or to ‘understand’ I had to ‘stand under’ the one who knows in order to catch the drippings of his experience.

This period in the 60s and 70s was also the beginning of the saga that would lead, eventually, to The Thief and the Cobbler. Originally the film was to be titled Nasruddin, about the folk character Mullah Nasreddin. Williams had a hard time finding any sort of funding for the film, falling out with other production companies at times, so he quietly plugged away at it while working on other projects.

The Nasruddin connection runs a little deeper actually, because Williams was hired in 1976 to illustrate a collection of Mullah Nasreddin stories by the Sufi occultist writer Idries Shah. I’m not sure how this came about exactly - whether Williams went out of his way to draw Nasreddin, or if he happened to get hired by coincidence. In any case, the idea was clearly occupying a lot of his thought - but more on that anon.

The 70s also saw Williams work on animation for the title sequences for two of the Pink Panther movies, during which time he invited Art Babbitt to come to London to teach - Babbitt being the man who had been fired from Disney after the animators’ strike in the 40s, thus evading canonisation as one of the Nine Old Men. Babbitt also did some work on Thief and the Cobbler, and rendered this memorable quote about Williams:

He's a director, designer, animator, and has a good layman's knowledge of music. He's a dreamer. He has more to learn as far as animation is concerned, but God, he can draw like a bastard

By this point, Williams would have been 42 years old. He was still making ads, despite ‘despising the form’, and making the occasional film or TV special such as Raggedy Ann & Andy (1977) and Ziggy’s Gift (1982).

Of course, the real point he became famous was when Who Framed Roger Rabbit came about. The strange Disney/Spielberg collaboration is actually one I’ve written about before, back on Animation Night 40, where I said some kinda mean things about old Dick. What I don’t really talk about there is what the film is about: yes, it’s about the animation industry and full of little injokes, but it is also to adult eyes recognisable as a parable for how San Francisco lost its public transport system, leaning on the idea of the auto-makers conspiring to destroy it. The real story may be a little more complicated, but having now seen the strip mall sprawl in both ends of California, I can see why people would come up with it. It’s grim out there.

I also didn’t talk much about the production. Williams was involved precisely because Spielberg saw footage of Thief and the Cobbler and was so impressed that he approached Williams.

By all accounts, working on Roger Rabbit was intense for everyone involved. Williams writes of drawing scenes late at night in the hotel room, and there was all sorts of goofy studio politics with neither Disney or Warner Bros wanting the film to favour one or the other (leading to situations like the piano scene where Donald and Daffy Duck were obliged to have exactly even screen time; the same goes for Bugs and Mickey.

It was also, I learned recently, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for one young James Baxter, then 20 years old studying animation but frustrated by the more experimental approach taken at his course, wanting to learn - like Williams himself - something more tied down like the Disney tradition. Traditionally animated films on the scale of Roger Rabbit are basically never made in the UK (and odds are, never will be again now CGI is king), so Baxter and some of his university friends dived for the chance.

Baxter joined the production as an inbetweener, working basically non stop on animation for that year (‘eat, sleep and animate’) but so impressed the Disney animators with a brief test he did of Thumper from Bambi that they gave him a few small scenes of feet and hands to animate. His success at this led to him getting more scenes, and this is where we get a little anecdote about Richard Williams (see, this is relevant!):

Baxter: Not being a seasoned animator, not being, y’know, knowing kind of the ropes of that, I did the classic junior animator mistake of going too far with something before you show your director or your supervisor, and I got the beatdown! I got the classic beatdown from Dick, which was great. I had gone way too far on like a shot of one of the weasels and, you know, he said ‘yeah yeah yeah! No, get the drawings, go get the drawings!’ So I had to stand behind Dick for an hour or so while he drew over my pencil drawings with a pen, one by one.

Interviewer: Ohh, wow.

Baxter: That’s kind of awesome. Not on a separate sheet of paper either, just like, my drawing, his pen.

Still, Roger Rabbit was completed on something like a schedule; the animation helped kick off the Disney Renaissance and now everyone wanted a piece of Dick. Off the back of that, Williams was able to negotiate a ‘negative pickup deal’ with Warner Bros: they would buy the film on a specified date for a specified price. Williams believed he could fund the film through a major studio, so rather than seek European arts funding, he went for the Warner Bros deal - a decision that would eventually be fatal to the project.

So at last the passion project, at this point already ‘in production’ for around 25 years starting in 1989, could really get underway. Thanks to the work done by the visiting animators, it represented the final film for a number of notable animators: Ken Harriss, Errol Le Cain, Emery Hawkins, Grim Natwick and Art Babbitt.

Williams’s approach was... utterly uncompromising. Sakugabooru commenter pkoduah provides a nice summary of the issues:

1. The film was led by animation rather than story. He thought of the most technically impressive animation scenes and then tried to shoe horn them into a story. If even half of the care that went into the animation went into the story and clear locked down storyboards it would had fared better and not been such a hydra. Even after the 2+ decades the story is still not fully resolved. 2. Richard Williams had an almost religious commitment to working on 1's, even for relatively slow scenes. If he just changed that one thing he would have greatly increased his chances of meeting the deadlines. 3. The decision by a particular still powerful animation exec to steal his thunder with Aladdin which is heavily based on the Thief & Cobbler, put further pressure on the execs to take drastic measures with William's glacially paced project.

We can also add that the story - with its goofy orientalist framing featuring jokes like Grand Vizier Zigzag and Princesss Yumyum, and an incredibly simple story that simply revolves around a macguffin - feels like a relic of a different era of animated film. Despite Williams’s disdain for it, it feels like it has a similar feeling to Yellow Submarine.

As an animator who’s tried it, the insistence on working on 1s is especially crazy to me. At first glance it sounds like twice as much work, because twice as many drawings, but it’s worse than this - because issues in an animation, inconsistences of shape and line, become much more obvious on 1s than they do on 3s or 2s where you can get away with larger changes of shape.

The modern worldview is quite different, incidentally. Lower framerates, when used properly, can also create a snappy, impactful feeling (c.f. the Kanada school, or Mitsuo Iso’s ‘full limited’). It requires a slightly different approach with stronger poses and a lot of drawing skill, since each frame is pulling more work, so a sequence designed to run on 1s will not look better with half its frames missing, but a sequence designed to run on 2s or 3s can look just as good.

In the Survival Kit, Williams briefly comments on the issue, saying in his entire career he’d basically only found one sequence that worked better on 2s for reasons he didn’t understand - to him, animating on 2s was purely a cost saving measure, and now he finally had the chance to do his passion project, he wasn’t going to accept anything less than the best possible.

But then, I think Williams’s motivation was less about appealing to audiences, and more about showing off to his art senpais - the great animators he idolised. It’s telling that one of the first anecdotes in the Survival Kit is about Williams and Ken Harris:

In 1967, I was able to bring Ken to England and my real education in animation articulation and performance started by working with him. I was pushing forty at the time, and, with a large successful studio in London, I had been animating for eighteen years, winning over one hundred international awards.

After seven or eight years of working closely with Ken, he said to me, ‘Hey Dick, you’re starting to draw those things in the right place.’

‘Yeah, I’m really learning it from you now, aren’t I?’ I said.

‘Yes,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘you know . . . you could be an animator.’

After the initial shock I realised he was right. Ken was the real McCoy whereas I was just doing a lot of fancy drawings in various styles which were functional but didn’t have the invisible ‘magic’ ingredients to make them really live and perform convincingly.

So I redoubled my efforts (mostly in mastering head and hand ‘accents’) and the next year Ken pronounced, ‘OK, you’re an animator.’

A couple of years after that, one day he said, ‘Hey, Dick, you could be a good animator.’

The anecdote continues with Williams going down to visit Harris in his trailer when Harris was aged 82, and finding that Harris could still correct his work. He still didn’t have Harris’s ‘thing’. But, at least, Harris said he ‘had his own thing going’.

It’s never mentioned explicitly, but the shadow of The Thief and the Cobbler hangs over the Animator’s Survival Kit. The footage that earned this praise from Ken Harris was footage from that film. By that logic, it should have been an immense success for Williams: finally earning him his place among the canon.

So why is it instead such a negative memory for Williams?

Well, in 1992, the film was still in progress, with just fifteen minutes left to complete - but it was too much for Warner Bros, who didn’t want to be seen as making a knockoff Aladdin. Williams was booted from his own passion project, putting Fred Calvert on to hastily fill in the gaps in the story and discard the unfinished sequences, adding a number of musical sequences with far lowre quality animation performed by a number of subcontractors including Sullivan Bluth Studios, Kroyer Films, Wang Film Productions/Thai Wang Film Productions in Taiwan and Thailand, Pacific Rim Animation in China and Varga Studio in Hungary. A second recut was performed by Miramax, removing even more of the original.

The resulting mess landed poorly in theaters, and Williams, utterly dejected for obvious reasons, shut down his animation studio and went back to Canada, spending the next few years as a teacher while nursing his wounds and starting work on writing what would become The Animator’s Survival Kit, published in 2002. And, in a sense, the story has a happy ending: Williams’s book became a bestseller, the reference on animation; Williams could pass on the secrets of the masters he revered, and trust that he would be remembered as a great teacher and animator.

In 2008 he was invited to become an artist in residence at Aardman; in 2010 he finished a film he’d begun in Ibiza in the 1950s titled Circus Drawings, and then he spent the rest of his life setting out alone on a new grand passion project, an adaptation of the ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata by Aristophanes. The first part of the film, titled simply Prologue, was released in 2015, featuring elaborate hand-drawn camera moves and background animation all done in pencils and photographed directly. You can watch it:

What of The Thief and the Cobbler? Well, the workprint of the film prior to the edits has survived, and the legend of it gradually spread across the industry. Williams showed his workprint in 2000 at the Annecy festival, impressing Roy E. Disney, who started on a project to restore and finish the film... but this fell through as Disney turned away from hand-drawn animation and Roy left the company.

Instead, the restoration effort was led unofficially by fans. A filmmaker Garrett Gilchrist, created the Recobbled Cut of the film, which used all the Williams-era footage that could be found from various sources, including unfinished pencil tests and scenes rotoscoped by Gilchrist to deal with dodgy footage, all edited to basically the structure of the workprint with some added music. As more and more people saw the Recobbled Cut, the film began to be rehabilitated, and Gilchrist created further revisions as more sources of original footage came to light.

So a good ending for Williams, right. But I’ve talked a lot about how it is made, what is the film itself actually like?

In its Recobbled form, The Thief and the Cobbler is very very obviously an animator’s passion project lmao. It’s full of Williams’s homages to Islamic art, with the stark geometric patterns creating some very clever shot compositions.

The actual story is very light on dialogue, and in contrast to Aladdin, it keeps its characterisations very simple. The thief and cobbler themselves are both basically mute, driven by very simple impulses: the cobbler is simple and well-meaning and enchanted by simple things, while the thief is single-mindedly determined to steal the Golden Balls, never mind the consequences. It’s not a surprise it didn’t land well in a time when the rule in animation was Don Bluth and the Disney Renaissance: there are no ‘I want’ songs or really, character arcs as such.

So the Cobbler gets with Princess Yumyum, but... like a fairytale or a Golden Age disney film, not because we’ve been sold on them as characters who have chemistry and want to get with each other, but more because Yumyum seems to find the Cobbler kind of... a weirdly endearing little pet and that’s what the plot demands. The Thief continues his thieving throughout. Late in the movie, a massive army of barbarians shows up out of almost nowhere, leading to a spectacular scene in the cogs of their giant war machine, but we aren’t really asked to believe in them as a culture. It is basically a series of setpieces loosely strung together.

I have said in the past that The Thief and the Cobbler is callous in the treatment of the historical Islamic culture it depicts. It is certainly an Orientalist film and certainly very British in its outlook, there’s no question of that. Still, while I do still think the joke names like Vizier Zigzag and Princess Yumyum are tasteless, I think it would be hard to say that Williams does not have reverence or devotion. It’s a different beast than Aladdin - the way he shows this devotion is through his mad, obsessive craft. I’m not quite sure how I’d feel about it if I was on the receiving end of it, mind you. (I would be quite curious to find out what the Arabic dub does with it, if there is one.)

The thing is that Williams is, far more than a director, an animator. Like, say, Masaaki Yuasa, he loved the medium of animation more than anything - no matter what he’s animating, he’s clearly beyond happy if he can make it move in a cool way. The Animator’s Survival Kit is intoxicating because he really sells you in this fascination with how things move - the nuances of a walk, the effects of timing and spacing and gesture, like what does happen if you make this frame go up and this frame go down? The previous generation of animators was his god, but he also was keen to experiment, find new possibilities. For this reason, Williams is still relevant. Even if he had... fascinatingly strange ideas about how gay people walk!

But this means, unfortunately for this film, that he was far, far more of an animator than he was a director. In fact this ends up a very endearing quality. The Thief and the Cobbler is an intensely idiosyncratic film, a true expression of the worldview of Richard Williams both good and bad... the workaholic maniac that he was, a man with something to prove.

And for a man with a great deal to say about acting, we should look at the acting in this film. Since many scenes are wordless, it falls to the acting to convey the emotions of the characters in the scene. And... they’re certainly not subtle, but they are creative, full of clever and surprising images. It is I suppose a very theatrical mode of acting: a lot of exaggeration and big movements.

On the other hand, the characters’ inner worlds are like... well they aren’t really there. Pretty much everything is right there on the surface. Everyone is really exactly what you see. It’s interesting to contrast this with the psychological turn soon to be taken by anime in the 90s, in Eva or films like those of Mamoru Oshii. A character like Motoko Kusanagi has incredibly graceful 3D movement, yet she barely emotes... and nevertheless through the framing and script, we know a lot about what she might be feeling. Shinji sits still listening to his tape player. Sometimes less can be more.

What of the Thief? He is the most enigmatic character in the film, and yet he too is not complex. We don’t know why he wants the Golden Balls, why he tolerates flies buzzing around him, but he surely does. He’s just a weird little slinky gremlin guy, and in the end he gets away.

Of course, Williams talks a fair bit about gender in his presentations on animation acting. The Animator’s Survival Kit bonus DVD includes videos of lectures, so here’s a clip someone uploaded of some examples of what he’d say:

You can see how his interest here is in really pushing and exaggerating that gender difference - of course, pushed to extremes for pedagogical purposes, but still, it says something about the worldview he was operating under. Especially at the end when he gets a laugh by, essentially, animating a very effeminate walk for the bodybuilder character.

So a character like ‘Princess Yumyum’ is exactly what she appears: curious, vulnerable etc., a feminine ideal. There is little room for contradiction, or even straining against the bounds of this role like Princess Arete. The same is true in a lot of Williams films. Animation is about exaggeration, of course, but Williams was inescapably a man born in the 30s.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from him. Learn a lot, really. Thanks to Wiliams, even though the renowned animators of Disney and Warner Brothers have died, we can get a sense of how they used to think about things, and build on them. We can understand the tricks of spacing he uses to create a sense of impact, and pick up on some of his observations and insights about acting. And certainly, his exhortation to do figure drawing has caught on in a big way since the book has been published.

I feel like, in many ways, I can see myself in the young Richard Williams - well, not nearly as accomplished, but the awe he feels towards those old Disney animators, I feel towards people like Weilin Zhang, Mitsuo Iso, Shinya Ohira, James Baxter... the ‘how can they do that’, but also, one very important line:

Irrepressible ambition made me change my opinion that they alone could attain such heights; I figured, I think correctly, that given talent, experience, persistence - plus the knowledge of the experts - why should everything not be possible?

I couldn’t stand it any more. I had to know everything about the medium and master all aspects of it. Cap in hand, I made yearly visits to Milt and Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Ken Anderson at Disney.

For my part, I joined a lot of animation discord servers and now, starting this month, I’m trying to hit that “James Baxter’s first year” sort of pace. We’ll see how it goes. But like... all these guys are human. My muscles aren’t any different than theirs - I just need to see if i can shape my brain to acquire that power of observation and intuition for drawing. The method is clear enough. Like Williams, I won’t be an exact clone of my idols - I’ll become my own thing. If I just keep at it.

Anyway, I have gotten over my reluctance to screen The Thief and the Cobbler - orientalist as it may be, it is an important movie to animation history, and one worth seeing again, as well as Williams’s earlier animations to see where he came from. So if you fancy joining me, we’ll be at Twitch tonight - please head to twitch.tv/canmom and we’ll begin the movies in 15-20 minutes probably!!