#THE NARRATION IS KILLING ME. WHO WROTE THIS SCRIPT

[theropoda]

watching life on our planet and im not even halfway into the first ep and i already feel like this

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Tentative Timeline (Pt2c) - Unreliable Narrators, Armand & the Trial

Thanks for the response to Pt2b, @usuallydeepalpaca-blog! I really want people to talk to me about the IWTV timelines, cuz this show is SO confusing! 😩😭

"I think if you create the timeline with info the show doesn't provide, i.e. Armand was involved from the start, then you're bound to get it wrong."

Absolutely. I fully expect that I got some stuff wrong, which is why I said it's a TENTATIVE Timeline.

I've in no way said it's THEE CORRECT™ timeline, cuz chile IDKWTF is going on. 😅 I openly say what confuses me, questions I have, and how I come to the conclusions that I draw. I'm being as transparent as possible to let y'all know that I DON'T know. 🤷 The show doesn't provide EVERYthing, so I'm just piecing things together in a way that makes an iota of sense to me, following the logic of what the show HAS provided. The only solid details we have are diehard IRL dates, that gave us a time range when certain events can/can't happen. AFAIK I'm working with the same set of details everyone else has, until AMC gives us more info in S3+. And unfortunately, the 2 biggest unknown variables are Lestat & Armand, and to what extent they were/weren't involved in the Trial that got Claudia killed & Louis buried alive.

"saying Armand messed with Louis' memories re: the trial is also something not supported by the show."

The show obvs. wants us to assume that Armand made Louis hallucinate Sam guarding him in the theatre box (thus painting Armand as a "captive" along with Louis & Claudeleine).

Even if Armand didn't use the Mind Gift on Louis, he lied at least twice:

lies by omission: letting Louis think a hallucination of Sam was real

lies to Louis' (& Daniel's) face: going along with the premise that he was Sam's "captive" & Armand sat there the whole time thinking of a way to rescue Louis

And we KNOW this is a lie, cuz Daniel calls it out explicitly, asking how Sam can be "in two places at once," allegedly "guarding" Armand, but ALSO helping to torture Louis in the Wet Room.

Armand never denied or contradicted Louis saying Sam was in either place. Maybe Louis really did misremember Sam being in the wet room--the ONLY one who can corroborate all this is SAM--whom Armand ALSO lies on, throwing Sam, Daniel & the Talamasca all under the bus by saying the script with his handwriting all over it was forged! No honor amongst thieves I guess! 🤣

(Eff Lestat's POV in S3--when is SAM gonna give HIS POV of the Trial?!)

So I'm operating on patterns of behavior, and the logic that if he's deliberately lying about one thing (a VERY BIG THING, actually), then what else is he lying about? How are you "atoning" for anything, when you're just heaping lies on top of gaslighting on top of manipulation?

Armand has used Louis' obvious confusion to his advantage, just going along with whatever will make him look better & more sympathetic. Which ofc, is the exact same thing he does with the "Banishment" lie. "They gave me a choice...I could not prevent it" is the truth and a lie all rolled into one incredibly manipulative cocktail, cuz if it was just a simple matter of Armand selling Claudia out to save Louis, that would be one thing--but Armand KNEW the script planned LOUIS' death the whole time. The "seismic lie" about "Banishment" effs up Armand's whole defense.

Cuz Sam already wrote the script in April 1949 (and I said this is confusing, cuz if it's the WHOLE script, then this implies Lestat's half was written by then, too, and NOT in September after the Eiffel Tower crime--which means he was ALREADY in Paris & working with the coven; inc. Armand (which would also explain WHY Armand took Louis to the library so much--perhaps anticipating that Loustat would feel e/o's presence if Louis was around the theatre too much? But that doesn't explain Claudia)--omfg I'm confused). Wtvr--we KNOW that at some point b/t April & September 1949, Armand made his edits & directed the entire production--from Santiago to Lestat to Tuan's projections--ALL of it. And we know Tuan's projections started being made in June/July 1949.

Armand KNEW Daniel had been given the OLD script from the archives, WITHOUT Armand's edits & directions, and LET Daniel AND Louis think that was the truth--

--same way he went behind Louis' back and removed extra pages from Claudia's diaries that would reveal MORE of his shenanigans--

--and the same way he lied about Nicki (& Gabrielle) in 2x3.

The show ALSO provides us with quotes like this:

And this:

And this:

Which in retrospect make Armand look even more insidious, esp. when we wonder to what extend Louis' been "driven to form new conclusions about myself" when he doesn't even KNOW himself; let alone WHAT memories he has that are real or false.

It's so effed up, and it makes me side-eye all the insistence that LOUIS is the one mostly at fault, when he's got literal double-hypnosis Brain Scramblies from WWDITS. 😭🤦

Ofc there are unknown-unknowns when dealing with unreliable narration. But there are also known-unknowns, too, that also make Armand sus.

Sure, Loumand was away at the library in July (IF that memory's even real, Mr. "I Had A Hunch")--but how on earth would Armand have NOT known that the coven was working on the Trial right under his nose for MONTHS prior & after July--Luchenbaum sewing new barrister costumes & wigs; Tuan painting projections & testing new lens/film tech; and Sam writing a new script (when we already KNOW Sam can't multitask when his "head's in a hat")?

July is only ONE month in over HALF A YEAR of Trial prep. Louis was never around the coven to know what was going on--but ARMAND was; it's where HE lives.

Whose POV was it that showed the whole coven passing around Claudia's diaries? Whose POV was it that revealed Santiago being called Maitre in every scene that ARMAND was also in?

Armand was in the park with Tuan when Tuan called Santiago Maitre; and Armand was in the theatre with Sam when Sam called Santiago Maitre--so this is clearly either Armand's POV telling on himself; or it's AMC screwing with us.

It's TRUE that Turning Madeleine was the straw that broke the camel's back, as Armand was like I can't keep THAT a secret from the coven, too (and ofc he couldn't--they're VAMPIRES; they'd FEEL a new vamp in their territory). But Loumand's problems PREDATE Madeleine; the same way Loustat's problems predate Claudia. I blame Les for not dealing with Lou's BS, just like I blame Armand, cuz THEY are the Coven Masters, NOT Lou--esp. cuz Armand had 14 other vamps in his coven he SHOULD be prioritizing over Lou. The same way Loustat's guilty of being bad fathers (which they BOTH admitted to), Armand's guilty of being a bad coven leader (which HE admitted to).

IMO, all this makes any & all discussion about Armand's trustworthiness difficult, when his "seismic lie" throws EVERYTHING else he's done into question. Esp. since the show ALSO provides us with the FACT that Armand knew from DAY ONE that Claudia lied about "Bruce"/Lestat; and that Louis was a terrible liar & terrible with the Mind Gift; and that he'd ALREADY planned on killing Louis in 2x3! Armand knew from the get-go that he couldn't do EFF ALL to keep Louis & Claudia out of danger, and TOLD Louis so.

"It also ignores that Louis softens his participation in certain things because he can't live with the guilt of his full participation, e.g. Claudia's turning, which he continued to lie to Claudia about even during the trial and only accepted the extent of his involvement in Dubai"

The Trial Timeline's purpose is to pinpoint when the preparations took place, NOT to hash out how bad of a father Louis was to Claudia. 🤨

And it certainly isn't meant to provide a timeline for the events in S1 wrt Claudia's Turning--we already know the dates for all of that, that she was made in 1917. I focus on the 1940s in S2, and the European dates, NOT the NOLA dates. LOUIS did not participate in the Trial's preparations, ARMAND & LESTAT did. My timeline has ZERO bearings on Louis' guilt for not warning her, etc.

But on the subject of Louis & Claudia, I've cussed Louis out for not telling Claudia about Armand b4 (x x), I don't ignore it at all. I fully understand & even agree with Armand being fed up with dealing with Louis' BS. But HE CHOSE not to kill Louis when he had the chance, and it's obvs that whatever arrangement they made when they had sex in 2x3/2x4 allowed Louis to TRUST that Armand would keep "the secret" & keep Louis & Claudia SAFE from the coven. (Which is a BOGUS claim for him to make, when Santiago'd ALREADY peeped that they were lying about Lestat & being from NOLA, but wtvr). I've called Louis a naive idiot 1000x for overestimating Armand, putting his life in Armand's incapable hands--just like he would AGAIN by trusting him about "Banishment;" and AGAIN by asking Armand to wipe his memories in SanFran (and LIE by omission about Les saying "I love you, Louis").

"Louis remembers the trial, he remembers what was said and what Lestat showed him."

HOW can Lestat have showed Louis ANY memories during the Trial (inc. the Ep4 revisit), when Makers/Fledglings CANNOT read each other's minds???????

I love this show so much, but I effing hate this show--they don't even give us an answer, Daniel just moves right past it, like wtf are we supposed to do with that, AMC? There's plot threads, vs plot HOLES. Louis' TOO unreliable, Armand's a shysty liar, white savior Lestat to the rescue~~~! "BANishMEnT~!" As if Lestat's any less impartial?

Esp. when at least SOME parts of the Ep4 Revisit were OBVIOUSLY Scripted lines written by the coven to implicate Louis in breaking the Great Laws that Lestat allegedly taught him AND Claudia to follow?

Like, Louis HATES himself, and is quick to blame himself for things beyond his control (a la Paul, a la the Ordinances; "Can we be forgiven if we do not forgive others ourselves?"); so if one is determined to see him bad faith then of course one can easily pounce on him Florence DPDL style / Santiago style, and blame him.

(Esp. since in 1x4 we literally SEE Louis admit to begging & emotionally baby-trapping Lestat into turning Claudia--the revisit in 2x7 is more (melo)dramatic & extended, sure, but it does NOT contradict Louis' account in S1. So I get REAL confused when people say he lied about 1x4 or wtvr.)

Louis invalidates his perspective cuz he KNOWS he's an unreliable narrator--he spends 2x1 sobbing about wanting to remember & "get every detail right"--and ARMAND is there constantly tryna STOP the interview; having directly contributed to his already deteriorated (& inherited?) mental illness, by bending Lou's trauma into "a Lestat shaped-effigy" with all that "I will not harm you" bullcrap.

TL;DR: We won't know for sure what the Trial timeline actually looks like, unless S3+ revisits it with more context.

But as things stand at the end of S2, NO, I don't trust Armand as far as I can throw him, cuz there are waaaay too many instances where he's deliberately lied & obfuscated & omitted in ways to deliberately confuse the narrative surrounding the Trial--that go beyond Louis' already confirmed trauma, PTSD, mental illness, repressed/faulty memory, and guilty conscious.

If y'all want a timeline of S1 events, those have already been made by other people in the fandom (this one is goated).

I wanted to know what was going on in S2; so I used every single date and IRL reference possible, and put them in chronological order in a way that makes sense based on how I TENTATIVELY understand things currently; NOT how AMC has confirmed yet--if they ever will.

If anyone has more relevant in-show references & IRL sources we can cite, to help make better sense of S2 than I did, let us all know!

[nalyra-dreaming]

im definitely not the first person to have noticed this but in ep1 of season 1 when louis is talking about lestat he says 'I was being hunted' and i remembered that in chronological order, its lestat who said that first. At the trial in Paris he uses those same words 'i was being hunted' only this time, hes most likely reading it from the script that ARMAND wrote.

kinda poetic to me in the sense that those were armands words, but louis is 'taking' them from lestat (im not sure how to describe that) who said them 70 years prior. (because ofc louis doesnt know that armand scripted it all)

i think im putting something down but im unsure if you could be able to pick it up because this doesnt make complete sense (the way i worded it) so im sorry for that 😭

Well... I'm not sure if Louis is "taking" them from Lestat? Because, remember, edited tale and all that?! In fact, it might be another clue that Louis is narrating it as Armand wants him to... because Lestat did NOT hunt Louis.

They spent months courting, shopping, reading, talking. Months. Lestat was not hunting for sport (though that does happen in the chronicles with vampires, and in a way, it describes Armand's and Daniel's "hunt", too) to kill Louis - no, he was trying to build enough trust to start a relationship.

And then went and turned Louis.

That's... not a hunt.

That's courting.

It will be very interesting to see if they ever pick that up again, and how Louis might describe it himself at a later point - because there is a part in the books, at the end of "Prince Lestat" (which we know Rolin is taking from), where Louis sits down with his own story and reflects and comes to terms with it - and then leaves it behind.

And I cannot wait to see that on the show (and no, I do not think the scene we saw of Louis in Dubai at the end there is that... not yet).

I cannot wait to see what Jacob will do with that Louis.

[just-your-average-author]

TIT RECAP/THOUGHTS

SPOILERS OBV

Okay so firstly the open PSA that Dan wrote about "no photos or videos if you do, I will sue your ass to the ground" and "no flash photography do you want Phil to fall off the stage...again?!?!?" killed me. it was so cute

preshow playlist, stunning, beautiful all around bops.

the sudden cut off of the music and lights to signal the show started, genuinely shocked and I was SAT let me tell you.

THEY CAME OUT AND THEY WERE REAL?!? NOT A SIMULATION?? listen I still can't get over that, I can't believe they were real people who look and sound exactly like they do on my tv at home!! I was so focused on them and soaking every moment in, I couldn't handle it

have I mentioned how attractive they are?!?!?

okay also literally Phil straight up STOPPED THE SHOW BECAUSE HE HAD TO SNEEZE AND DAN JUST STARED AND WAS LIKE PHIL WTF and I loved every second I was like yes this is straight up what they do in videos, let's have our little squirrel moment babes.

plus it made it feel even more silly and improv, overall I know obv they scripted a lot but it was sooo interactive and they ad libbed so much and I adored it

the dollhouse recap i swear wtf. first off, it was such a creative and fun idea and the different sets, and dressed up dolls that the clothes matched!! also okay I'm so sorry I had no idea the random sex positions would be a theme of the show so I was gobsmacked, but the 69ing during pinof??? "so we did what 2 closeted twinks did upon meeting each other for the first time.... put sharpie's cat whiskers on!!!" shut up for the love.

I genuinely loved the role model or no-el model segment. my show was in NC so they first option for Dan as the Mr. Lawyer was he bans ___ and someone said south carolina and they both just were rendered speechless and were like damn oh dear but laughing too.

The boxing match was so hot dear heavens, Dan's expression when Phil came out in the fake- *cough* I mean very real abs. He was acting for his LIFE.

the confessions were so good, just wish it lasted a little longer. the yapping was good and also idk if this was standardized but the whole thing where Phil said "I have a cute but also sociopathic thing going on and I think it's working for me 😌" like shut up you're so adorable

omg the quick change where they kept their mics on and narrated so many innuendos I was dying omg so silly and so funny I loved it. I was really impressed with how fast they changed, but also talked the whole time.

I loved every single solitary part of this show and I loved how they joked about how they were sorry we all went to school with whiskers then got out in the trash (cause yeah basically) and how they literally did raise us and should be blamed for us being feral not our actual legal guardians.

okay so. this show 9/10. here's where the last 1 point went.

please don't kill me, but I wasn't a fan of the song. I'm not entirely sure what it was, but the whole show was so raw and perfect and then the song was just really synthetic and overly autotuned where I personally didn't even hear their voices. like I couldn't tell who was singing which part. the ukulele part was cute, and I really hoped that would've been all of it, I guess the internet is here and interactive introverts and everything's fine just was so good you couldn't raise the bar again, but that was just my personal opinion, I know a lot of people loved the song and it was catchy and cute, I'm just not personally a fan of kpop/synthesized music so I was a little disappointed in the song but the dancing slapped so hard.

Dan flawlessly executing every move and strut and making eye contact with us while Phil very intentionally was focused on not tripping or walking off the stage and looking at Dan a few times to check if he was doing it right MY HEART.

cuties, gay, both of them, love them

overall I spent last night frantically calculating if I could afford to spontaneously go see the Nashville show as well and spend another 10 hours in the car today but regretfully thought against it.

[dcggersedge]

the long quiet

swordmaster mastery drabble (wc 896)

You are on a path in the…

Oh. Well, this isn’t right. It seems you’re not on a path at all. How strange. Nearly every time we’ve done this before, it always starts the same. This is the first time it’s ever been different, I think.

(Explore) “Why are you surprised? This was what we decided on the old man’s deathbed, isn’t it?”

No, not we. You decided. You decided that you wanted to try to deviate, that you hated the script soooo much that you just couldn’t stand to follow it any longer, and that you’d go running off at first opportunity. I told you that it doesn’t matter if you run. There are certain things that are consistent and that will happen, and that you were just delaying the inevitable.

Now, if you’ll excuse me. You are on a path in the

Why do you say that? It’s not really accurate, is it? We’ve never even seen the woods that the script talks about, have we?

“Firene.”

You went to Firene. I’m stuck in Brodia.

(Explore) “You probably wouldn’t have liked it.”

Well, we’ll never know, will we?

I liked it better when there was one of you. You were so much easier then. Quieter, too.

But seriously, why is it a path? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say something like “you are on a street in Brodia”?

Because…because that’s just now how the script goes!

(Explore) “Don’t you write it?”

Of course I don’t write it, I’m just the narration. If I wrote it, we would have gotten to the point a lot faster without all this back and forth. Now, you are on a path-

Road.

(Explore) “Did you say we weren’t on either of those?”

The path or road doesn’t matter, because it’s beneath your feet whether you see it or not! But fine! Since the two of you are so nitpicky, you’re in a room! It’s a room you’ve seen a hundred times before, only this time it is not quite as big as it used to feel. It’s dark, the windows are boarded up, and there is nothing there except the door and a table.

You left out the old man’s shitty chair.

He’s not around to be important anymore.

Maybe not to you, but I still see him. Sitting in his chair, talking in the other room, stopping around with those big boots. He’s still here, even if he’s not.

(Explore) “This is why you can’t leave.”

And ignoring it doesn’t mean you did.

Upon the table sits the pristine blade you know so well. You’ve taken it up time and time before. You know that you cannot walk through the door without it, because it is every bit a part of you as your hand itself. 

[Try to leave without it]

…okay. I see what we’re doing here. Very funny. You try to leave, but you find the door is stuck. No matter how much you yank or pull, the door won’t open, because you cannot leave without your blade. 

[Kick the door]

It doesn’t move.

[Kick it again]

Maybe he really is gone. We’d never get away with making this much noise while he was home.

[Kick it one more time]

It doesn’t move because it won’t move. Do you think I’m telling you all of this for fun? The script exists for a reason and you’ve been following it since you came here. You can’t just change because you decide you want to! You aren’t just different now because you decide you are! You are on a path. You take the blade. And you slay the-

The blade is gone.

What do you mean the blade is- Oh. Okay. You turn around and the blade is, in fact, gone. Instead of the familiar knife, a sword sits in its place. There’s no mention of a sword in the script, but it is a sort of blade…we can still work with this.

[Take the sword]

You take up the sword. It is old and beaten, with small dents and nicks along the blade from years of use. It doesn’t look like it’s in a shape to kill anyone any more.

Not with that attitude.

(Explore) “Is the door still locked?”

Of course the door’s still locked. The door is for the you that follows the script, not a you who conjures up new weapons out of thin air and tries to fight against the path. You’ve done this time and time before. Just because you’ve made a small change doesn’t mean you’re off it. Just turn the sword back into a knife.

…if we can’t get off it, can we really make a new one?

What? Of course not.

(Explore) “Would you be mad at me?”

I’m already stuck with here with him. Doesn’t mean we should both be.

[Raise the sword and aim it at yourself]

…Wait, hang on. Maybe I’ve been a bit rash. Maybe we can talk about the door again? I haven’t even told you who you’re supposed to slay yet this time.

[Cut down the path]

Oh, fine. The old rusty sword plunges into its target. Everything goes dark, and then you die.

[longitudinalwaveme]

Flash #296.5: A Cold Day....

My sister's boyfriend and I get along quite well, and, as a result, he's read a lot of my Flash fanfics (at my request). This eventually led to him asking to read some of my Flash comics, which I subsequently loaned him. Then, for Christmas, he wrote me a Flash fanfic of his own, which I loved enough that I'm going to share it here with everyone.

Note that this story is based pretty heavily on Cary Bates' Bronze Age comics.

The story/comic script is below the cut.

TEASER PAGE  

Roscoe Dillon (The Top) stands behind Leonard Snart (Captain Cold) in a red prison  cell. Snart sits in the center of the room on a single metal chair, with his arms and  legs strapped down. An electronic glow, like that from a television screen, reflects on  the floor of the cell and on Snart’s face. Snart wears an orange prison jumper, while  Dillon wears a tattered version of his yellow-and-green striped Top jumper. The Top  laughs with arms akimbo while Snart looks off of the panel in terror. 

CAP/NARRATOR: 

Leonard Snart, alias Captain Cold, who wants nothing more then to put The Flash on  ice--Roscoe Dillon, The Top, whose efforts to use his gyroscopic powers for evil led to  his untimely demise. 

THE TOP: 

Welcome home forever, Captain! You arrived just in time for your turn in the hot seat! 

CAP/NARRATOR: 

But how could a heist gone wrong cause the King of Cryogenics to meet the  deceased Royal of Rotation?--And what torments has the treacherous Top been  planning since his untimely demise?--Captain Cold will find out, on “A COLD DAY...” 

Writer’s Note: This fan script is set just before Flash #297, in which Henry Allen is  briefly killed in a car accident and The Top possesses his body. I wanted to explore  what might have happened to Roscoe Dillon in his time as a disembodied spirit and  what led him to realize that he could repossess a dead corpse. This script only  attempts to stay true to lore contemporaneous with its numbering; it is likely at odds  with material published after Cary Bates’ run as author of The Flash. Spinning off from  a pun about “a Cold day in hell,” the rest of this script followed. Hope you enjoy! 

PAGE ONE (FIVE PANELS) 

Panel 1. The moon and stars shine down on a quiet street in downtown Central City.  The storefront of “Cary’s Pawn Shop” is visible on the left side of the street. An  armored car sits idling on the curb in front of the shop. 

CAP/NARRATOR: 

The nights in Central City always start peacefully-- 

Panel 2. The glass of the pawn shop window suddenly shatters outward with a red  wave of fiery energy. CAPTAIN COLD’s voice comes from within the pawn shop. 

SFX: 

CRASH!! 

CAP/NARRATOR: 

--but in a town where costumed crooks abound-- 

CAPTAIN COLD: (OP) 

C’mon Rory, I’ll load up the truck. Let’s blow outta here! 

Panel 3. Full shot of Captain Cold (Leonard Snart) and HEAT WAVE (Mick Rory) as  they step through the shattered pawn shop window in full costume. Heat Wave wields  his heat gun, from which a smoking residue rises. Captain Cold carries a sack of  stolen jewelry over his back. A burglar alarm begins to blare in the background. 

SFX: 

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! 

HEAT WAVE: 

Right behind ya Len! This burglar alarm will have him hot on our trail. 

CAP/NARRATOR: 

--they never end that way! 

PAGE ONE, CONTINUED 

Panel 4. A full side view of the armored car. Heat Wave sits in the driver’s seat and  turns suddenly to look at the sideview mirror. Captain Cold lugs the sack of loot from  his shoulder into the open rear hatch. 

HEAT WAVE: 

Looks like The Flash is racing up behind us! 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Heh. Right on cue! 

Panel 5. Medium rear shot of Captain Cold as he sits in the back of the armored car.  We see the approaching red-and-yellow blur of THE FLASH racing up the street.  Captain Cold looks back over his shoulder to shout at Heat Wave in the driver’s seat. 

THE FLASH: (THOUGHT) 

What are Captain Cold and Heat Wave up to? Must be trying to bait me-- 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Time to test your anti-Flash auto mods! Let’s burn rubber! 

PAGE TWO (FIVE PANELS) 

Panel 1. Rearview of the armored car from The Flash’s perspective. The car peels  out, and a huge burst of flame shoots from the exhaust and tire tracks. Captain Cold  smiles grimly from the open rear of the car. The Flash holds up his arms to protect his  face from the blaze. 

SFX: 

SKRRRRRRRT! 

Panel 2. Overhead view of the speeding armored car surrounded by a shield of fire,  followed closely by the Flash. Flames are left behind in the vehicle’s path. Captain  Cold’s voice comes from the rear hatch of the car. 

CAPTAIN COLD: (OP) 

Let’s see The Flash work his way through an ionic heat-shield! 

THE FLASH: (THOUGHT) 

I’ll have to dodge these flames faster than their heat can reach me! But how to get  through that flaming shield? 

Panel 3. In the driver’s seat of the armored car, medium shot of Heat Wave as he  turns the wheel into a sharp turn. The Flash is seen approaching in the sideview  mirror, dodging between the flaming tracks in the street. Captain Cold’s voice comes  from the rear of the car. 

HEAT WAVE: 

He’s running between the flames! I’ll try to shake him. 

SFX: 

SCREEECH 

CAPTAIN COLD: (OP) 

Chill out, I’m still back here! 

Panel 4. Close up on one of the tires of the armored car as it hits a tall bump in the  road. 

SFX: 

Ka-Thunk! 

Panel 5. Side view of the speeding armored car as it bucks from the road bump.  Captain Cold tumbles out of the open rear hatch, through the flame shield, and  toward the speeding Flash. Meanwhile, The Flash zig-zags at super speed through  the flaming tire tracks left in the car’s wake. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Argh! 

THE FLASH: (THOUGHT) 

The Captain fell out of the truck! A headbutt should do the trick-- 

PAGE THREE (FIVE PANELS) 

Panel 1. Close up shot of the scorched Captain Cold and The Flash’s faces, inches  away from each other before impacting at super-speed. Flames rise up around them. 

Panel 2. Captain Cold’s face crashes into The Flash’s head at impossible speed,  immediately rendering him unconscious. 

SFX: 

Crack! 

Panel 3. Full shot of Captain Cold lying crumpled in the street, surrounded by flames.  In the background, we see The Flash speeding after Heat Wave and the getaway car. 

THE FLASH: (THOUGHT) 

I’ll have to come back for CC, I’ve got bigger fish to fry! 

CAPTAIN COLD: (THOUGHT) 

All this fire around--but still--so cold-- 

Panel 4. All is black, except for Leonard Snart’s internal monologue. His thoughts  creep between multiple bubbles. 

CAPTAIN COLD: (THOUGHT) 

Oof, my head--What a hit!--Wait, where am I?--I’m not in the street, but all the same-- 

Panel 5. An overhead view of the interior of a red-scaled, two-story cell block within  Central City prison. Figures in tattered orange prison garb walk in a manacled line  down the hall. Wardens in red police uniforms stand guard with billy clubs. This is  how Leonard Snart’s mind comprehends the Astral Plane--the holding place for the  

Astral Bodies of deceased humans. 

CAP/CAPTAIN COLD: (THOUGHT) 

--it feels so familiar! 

PAGE FOUR (SIX PANELS) 

Panel 1. Full shot of Captain Cold as he sits up on a cot in a barred prison cell. He  wears an orange prison jumpsuit. THE TOP’s voice comes from the other side of the  prison bars, 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Central City prison? I must have been out cold for a while! 

THE TOP: (OP) 

Nice guess, Captain. But as usual-- 

Panel 3. Full shot of Roscoe Dillon looking proudly through the cell bars. He wears a  tattered, torn version of his yellow-and-green striped costume. A large key ring  covered full of gold keys is attached to his waist. Snart looks up in shock. 

THE TOP: 

--you’ve spun a bit off the mark. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Roscoe Dillon?!* Impossible!! I went to your funeral! 

CAP 1: 

*Roscoe Dillon is--or was--the given name of the villainous Top! 

Panel 4. Medium shot of The Top with a smug expression as Snart grips the cell bars. 

THE TOP: 

Ah, yes. I watched that sad affair unfurl from here. 

PAGE FOUR, CONTINUED 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

So they’ve had you secretly locked up this whole time? 

THE TOP: 

If this were Central City prison-- 

Panel 5. The Top reaches his hands through the bars of Captain Cold’s cell--a red  warping surrounds his wrists as they emerge through the bars and take hold of  Snart’s waist. 

THE TOP: 

--could I-- 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

What the--!? 

Panel 6. Roscoe pulls Captain Cold through the bars of the cell into the open hall of  the cell block. The same warping effect surrounds Snart’s body as he reaches the  halfway point through the bars and then is freed.

THE TOP: 

--do this? 

PAGE FIVE (FIVE PANELS) 

Panel 1. Full shot of Captain Cold and The Top walking down the cell block hallway.  The Top leads the way as Snart looks down at his rematerialized body. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

C’mon, we’ve seen Mirror Master pull better stunts than that--right? 

THE TOP: 

If I were Scudder* in disguise, would I be modest enough to resist gloating? 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Hmph. 

CAP 1: 

*Sam Scudder, alias the notoriously narcissistic Mirror Master! 

Panel 2. Zoomed out shot of Captain Cold and The Top as they walk down the cell  block hall. A variety of thugs and criminals occupy cells behind them while a guard  stands at attention. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

So if we ain’t in a dream or a mirage, where are we? 

THE TOP: 

I call it The Penitentiary. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Like a jail? But for who? 

Panel 3. Medium shot of The Top and Captain Cold as they stop in front of a hallway  blocked off by bars with a prominent lock. The Top whirs through his large keyring at  impossible speed and, after finding the right key, inserts it into the lock. 

SFX: 

Chink! 

PAGE FIVE, CONTINUED 

Panel 4. Close up shot of the space just above the barred hallway door. The top of the  barred door slides to the side just in view at the bottom of the frame. Above the door  are words carved into stone: “The Rogue Block”. 

SFX: 

Whoooosh 

THE TOP: (OP) 

You’ll soon see! 

Panel 5. Full shot of the Top and Captain Cold as they stand in the center of a circular  prison room with eight barred cell doors. The Top spreads his arms almost gleefully. 

THE TOP: 

Welcome to The Rogue Block! The eternal holding cells for our little Gallery. 

CAPTAIN COLD: (THOUGHT) 

Each of these cells has a Rogue’s name on it--Trickster, Captain Boomerang, Mirror  Master, Weather Wizard, Heat Wave--even me! 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

What oddball tricks have you spun up down here?

PAGE SIX (SEVEN PANELS) 

Panel 1. Close up of The Top’s face as he smiles devilishly, eyes gleaming through  his black, top-shaped eye masks. 

THE TOP: 

From what I can tell, every person who dies comes to this Next World.  

Panel 2. A warbled panel frame indicates a memory, ibid for Panels 3-6 on this page.  The Top lies dead in a forest clearing, as seen in The Flash #243. The Top rises in  ethereal form over his body, still wearing his traditional costume. 

CAP/THE TOP:  

After my untimely demise, which ended in a flurry of rage and vengeance-- 

Panel 3. Wide shot of The Top waking up in a prison cot in a red cell in the Astral  Plane. He now wears the orange jumpsuit of a prisoner. 

CAP/THE TOP: 

--I found myself here, amongst the spirits of thousands of other crooks. 

Panel 4. Medium shot of The Top with his head against the bars of his cell, knuckles  white from clenching the bars. 

CAP/THE TOP:  

As I spent months pacing, my anger rose. I was furious at that scarlet speed demon  for destroying my beautiful mind. But I was even more furious that you Rogues could  plunder Central City while I was trapped here. 

Panel 5. A wide frame with a montage of events on Earth. From left to right: Captain  Cold, THE TRICKSTER, and the WEATHER WIZARD play cards; LISA SNART weeps  as she sharpens an ice skate on a grindstone; Barry Allen hangs up his hat as he  kisses his wife IRIS after a day of work. In each of these scenes, The Top’s ethereal  bust watches, unseen, in dismay. 

PAGE SIX, CONTINUED 

CAP/THE TOP: 

I can still see Earth, Snart. I’ve watched you carousing--my darling Lisa mourning-- that wretched Flash, coming home to a happy wife. It all became too much. 

Panel 6. Full shot of The Top as he warps open the bars of his cell and steps through  them. He is surprised by this new power. The warping effect on the bent bars  resembles that seen when Captain Cold was pressed through the bars.  

CAP/THE TOP: 

Around that same time, I realized that my superhuman mind had retained some  power here--if I exerted enough mental energy, I could mold the substance of this  place. 

Panel 7. Full rear view of The Top as he stands in front of what once was an empty  wall. With arms raised, he begins to force a new hallway to progressively appear  where there had formally been blank space. 

CAP/THE TOP: 

So I hatched an idea. Why not prepare punishments for those two-bit Rogues who  thought they could get all of the loot with less competition? We’ll all come here  someday, right? 

PAGE SEVEN (FIVE PANELS) 

Panel 1. Close up of The Top’s eyes gleaming with madness behind his mask. 

THE TOP: 

And now, Captain Cold, you’ll be the first to see my triumphs here. I’m back on top! 

Panel 2. Medium shot of Captain Cold as he rushes toward The Top in an effort to  body slam him to the ground. The Top slips out of the way just in time. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

You’ve lost it! Give me those keys, I want out of this circus! 

Panel 3. The Top turns behind Captain Cold and begins to spin a rain of rotating  punches into his back at super speed. Captain Cold is thrown forward. 

SFX: 

Thwak Thwak Thwak Thwak Thwak Thwak 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Ugh! 

Panel 4. Front view of Captain Cold as he lies flat on the ground, weakened by The  Top’s vicious blows. The Top’s green-and-yellow-clad feet are visible standing beside  him. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Erg, that smarts. 

THE TOP: 

Let’s continue our tour. Since you mentioned the circus, let’s start off with our friend-- 

Panel 5. Wide shot of a cell with its door hanging open. Inside the cell is what  appears to be a long dark hallway with a single thin rope extending out into the  darkness. Above the cell, words in stone read “James Jesse.” Rear shot of The Top,  arms akimbo, and Captain Cold lying on the ground. 

PAGE SEVEN, CONTINUED 

THE TOP: 

--The Trickster! 

PAGE EIGHT (SIX PANELS) 

Panel 1. Full shot of Captain Cold crouching on a high wire rope, dozens of feet above  the ground in a big top. A tiny crowd and circus ring below are red-scaled. The Top’s  lower half gyrates at super speed while he floats alongside Captain Cold. His upper  half retains human form as he gloats. All of the panels on this page are, like the rest  of the astral plane, depicted in red-scale. 

CAPTAIN COLD; 

How did we get here? Get me off this thing! 

THE TOP: 

The Trickster’s greatest fear was always falling--why else would he spend decades  inventing floating shoes? So, I figured 100,000 miles of barefoot tightrope-ing would  keep him occupied! 

Panel 2. Captain Cold slips and tumbles off the tightrope. As he hurdles head-first  toward the ground, the Top floats beside him right-side up. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Argh!!!! 

THE TOP: 

Although I do wonder--is he more afraid of hitting the ground, or of the jeers of the  crowd? Let’s see another spot. 

Panel 3. Captain Cold and The Top suddenly sit next to each other in an opera box.  Captain Cold looks about him rapidly. A full orchestra plays a song below them. A  handful of other guests seated in the opera box with them wear formal dress and  watch the show. There is no noise in this room other than Captain Cold and The  Top’s voices. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Where are we now? Why can’t I hear anything? 

THE TOP: 

This is our friend The Pied Piper’s cell. Isn’t it wonderful--all of that dreadful racket he  loves doesn’t make a peep in here! 

PAGE EIGHT, CONTINUED 

Panel 4. Medium shot of a GENTLEMAN, Captain Cold, and the Top sitting side-by side in the opera box. Captain Cold shakes the Gentleman’s shoulder to get his  attention. The Gentleman looks down toward the orchestra and pays no mind to  Captain Cold. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Hey pal, you’ve got to help me. The man next to me is crazy! 

THE TOP: 

Nobody hears a word you say when you’re trapped in here, Snart. The Piper loved  making people dance to his tune--but once he’s here, not a soul will listen to a word  he says again! 

Panel 5. Full overhead view of Captain Cold, who suddenly is sitting on a stool in a  different room. The Top stands beside him. The angle of the view keeps the walls of  the room out of frame. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

What the--Wait, this room is empty! 

THE TOP: 

The Mirror Master’s Hall of Reflection may look like a room of empty mirrors-- 

Panel 6. Medium rearview shot of The Top standing beside the seated Captain Cold.  In the mirror straight ahead, Captain Cold sees a reflected memory of himself being  shot by a misfire of Heat Wave’s heat gun while The Flash punches him unconscious  (see The Flash #166). The walls of the small room they are in are all made of mirrors  which reflect the same image. 

THE TOP: 

--but in fact, they will reflect back all of his memories of The Flash outwitting him! He’ll  never get to admire his own pretty face again, and his ego will be crushed. I simply  can’t wait! 

THE FLASH: (MIRROR MEMORY) 

That knocks the Captain--Cold! 

PAGE NINE (SIX PANELS) 

Panel 1. Full shot of The Top and Captain Cold standing in the center of a circle of two dimensional target dummies shaped like Central City policemen . A rack of  boomerangs sits next to Captain Cold. Cold has just thrown a boomerang at a  dummy, which harmlessly clunks off of its head and falls to the floor. All of the settings  in panels 1 to 3 of this page are red-scaled like the rest of the Astral Plane. 

CAP/THE TOP: 

Let’s spin up the pace of this tour! Here’s our friend Digger’s* new digs-- 

SFX: 

Clunk 

THE TOP: 

Infinite target practice with ‘rangs that don’t come back ‘round! 

CAP 2: 

*Digger Harkness, alias Captain Boomerang! 

Panel 2. Full shot of Captain Cold and The Top standing in a small crowd in front of a  podium. CLYDE MARDON receives a trophy from an ACADEMIC at the podium.  

CAP/THE TOP: 

--and the Weather Wizard’s “storm cell”-- 

ACADEMIC: 

And the Central City prize for philanthropy in the sciences goes to--Clyde Mardon! 

THE TOP: 

A parallel world where his brother Clyde lived--and got all of the kudos for inventing  the weather stick! 

Panel 3. Full shot of Captain Cold and The Top standing in an industrial freezer.  Captain Cold shivers violently, but The Top is unaffected. 

CAP/THE TOP: 

--and your hot-and-cold chum Heat Wave! 

PAGE NINE, CONTINUED 

THE TOP: 

Locked in a freezer with no thermostat! 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

This is cold even for my taste! 

Panel 4. Full shot of The Top and Captain Cold once again standing in the center of  the Rogues’ Block, surrounded by the dark cells.  

THE TOP: 

So, what do you think of my new Gallery, Snart? I think gathering you all here will make  up for the time I lost! 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

What you’ve lost is your senses! Why go through all of this? 

Panel 5. Medium shot of The Top, who spins a small toy top in his hand, and Captain  Cold beside him. 

THE TOP: 

Did I ever tell you why I like Tops? You were one of few who never questioned my  interest. 

Panel 6. Close up shot of the toy top whirring in The Top’s hand. 

CAPTAIN COLD: (OP) 

If the job gets done, I don’t ask questions. I mean, Digger likes boomerangs. 

PAGE TEN (SIX PANELS) 

Panel 1. A memory from The Top’s childhood. Medium shot of BOY ROSCOE  DILLON, who lies on the floor in front of a spinning dreidel during a Hanukkah  celebration. A lit menorah sits prominently on the table behind him. 

CAP/THE TOP: 

When I was young, I loved tops because they were predictable. When you spin a top, it  shows you the same faces and colors over and over again. What’s more, it can only  spin in one of two directions--directions I could choose! 

Panel 2. Cut to a more recent memory from The Top’s adult life. He lies on a prison  cell cot in an orange “Central City Prison” jumpsuit. He spins a whittled toy top on the  floor in front of him. The ground is littered with tops of various sizes. His posture  mirrors that of the previous panel. 

CAP/THE TOP: 

I used to dream of a top that would never stop spinning. It would never change the  schedule of my day. It would never turn a corner and force me into an unplanned  conversation. It would never lock me in prison and change my plans. 

Panel 3. Return to the present, with a wide view of the red-scaled cell blocks of the  Astral Plane. A manacled line of prisoners walks by rows of cells. In the foreground, a  guard brandishes with his club. 

CAP/THE TOP: 

Don’t you see it, Snart? The way that time goes on here without the interruption of  days--the way that I can shape every inch to realize my vision-- 

Panel 4. The Top and Captain Cold again stand in the center of the Rogue block. Full  shot of the room, where snippets of the six punishment cells can be seen behind  their bars. 

THE TOP:  This place is my infinite, perfectly predictable top!

PAGE TEN, CONTINUED 

Panel 5. Medium shot of The Top, who clutches Captain Cold by the collar of his  prison jumper and holds him within inches of his face. 

THE TOP: 

But you’ve distracted me. You must’ve noticed there’s one cell we haven’t visited yet. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

You don’t have to do this Dillon! Maybe we can work out a deal. 

Panel 6. Front medium shot as The Top leads Captain Cold toward an unseen cell  with his arm around the Captain’s shoulder. The Top points straight ahead with one  hand. Captain Cold’s expression is sarcastic, but his face is tight with fear. 

THE TOP: 

Yeah, yeah--there’s no loot to barter down here, old ally. Besides, don’t you like what I  have planned for you? 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Oh great-- 

PAGE ELEVEN (SEVEN PANELS) 

Panel 1. Full shot of The Top and Captain Cold from within the cell. Inside, there is a  heavy metal chair bolted to the floor with untied leather restraints. The wall is covered  in a dozen television screens which glow with variegated images. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

--I was thinking I would miss T.V. down here. 

THE TOP: 

Welcome home, Captain! 

Panel 2. Medium shot of The Top dragging Captain Cold into the room by one arm,  toward the chair. 

THE TOP: 

The screens in this room are tuned to the earth frequencies of each member of our  Rogues’ gallery. You’ll also notice that some screens show the interiors of their cells  here in the Rogue Block. 

Panel 3. Close up of one of the television screens, which shows a simultaneous  scene from Earth. The Flash hands over a handcuffed Heat Wave to a police officer.  The burnt-out remains of the armored getaway car stand behind them. Flash’s voice  comes from the TV. 

THE TOP: (OP) 

See, it looks like your pal Heat Wave has caught some heat! 

THE FLASH: (TV STATIC) 

That takes care of Heat Wave! Now to find Captain Cold. 

Panel 4. Medium shot of The Top as he forces Captain Cold down into the metal chair  and snaps one of the leather straps shut around his wrist. 

SFX: 

Click!

PAGE ELEVEN, CONTINUED 

THE TOP: 

You always pegged yourself as a planner, Snart. You loved to plot heists and make  bargains. Now, you’ll have a front-row seat to watch our fellow Rogues fall apart. 

Panel 5. Close-up shot of The Top snapping the strap shut on Captain Cold’s other  wrist. 

THE TOP: (OP) 

First you’ll see their earthly passing--which will come one day, no matter how lucky  they get. 

Panel 6. Full shot of Captain Cold strapped to the chair. He strains against the  restraints to no avail. 

THE TOP: (OP) 

Then, you’ll watch them here, living out their fears forever! 

Panel 7. Close up of The Top’s face as his expression changes to fear. 

THE TOP: 

Wait--what’s happening!? 

PAGE TWELVE (SEVEN PANELS) 

Panel 1. Same shot as Page Eleven, Panel 6, except that Captain Cold has begun to  fade into a translucent astral shade. He smiles. The restraints around his arms and  legs go limp. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Looks like you jumped the gun, Dillon. I can feel it--my body--I’m waking up! 

THE TOP: 

What do you mean waking up!? You’re dead! 

Panel 2. Full shot of Captain Cold’s astral form floating above the chair. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Keep the seat warm for me until I come back! 

THE TOP: (OP) 

No! It’s impossible! 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Impossible, Dillon? Or unpredictable? 

Panel 3. Back on Earth. Overhead full view of an ambulance, sirens blaring and lights  flashing, as it races down a dark Central City street. A doctor’s voice rises from within  the ambulance. 

CAP/NARRATOR: 

Meanwhile, as a prison ambulance speeds to Central City hospital. 

SFX: 

Wee-Woo! Wee-Woo! Wee-Woo! 

DOCTOR: (OP) 

You’ve done it!--

PAGE TWELVE, CONTINUED 

Panel 4. Interior of the ambulance. Captain Cold lies on a stretcher in a neck brace as  his eyes come open. A Doctor stands beside him with a hand on his wrist. The Flash  lays his hands on Captain Cold’s chest. 

DOCTOR: 

--Your superspeed CPR has restarted his heart! 

THE FLASH: 

Thank goodness! I’m so sorry Captain--I got carried away in that car chase and forgot  my strength. 

Panel 5. Close up of Captain Cold on the stretcher. He smiles despite the pain in his  broken neck. 

CAPTAIN COLD: 

Don’t mention it. Say, this ambulance isn’t going to Central City prison by chance? I’d  love to go somewhere familiar. 

Panel 6. Back in the astral plane. The Top sits cross-legged on the floor in the center  of his empty Rogue Block. A toy top spins on the ground in front of him. 

THE TOP: (THOUGHT) 

How had I never thought of it? It would only take an empty corpse for me to return to  earth like Snart. 

Panel 7. Close up on the toy top, which has stopped spinning and lies still on its side. 

THE TOP: 

The only question is--whose corpse? 

THE END. 

[faunastanza]

Circlet of the Sun pt. 3

(part 2) (part 4)

Sila and Papaya go back and forth about the script some more, with Papaya repeatedly saying how much she loathes Sila but never says it to her face. They does have a funny line about how she makes an expression that doesn't make sense though.

there's an emoticon for this somewhere

The impression throughout all this ranting is that Sila likes dramatic anime-like fight scenes for her Mary Sue. Doesn't seem like a crime to me but I guess I wasn't there. She is mocked for it. More direct parallels are drawn between Glip's abusive real life dad and the real life gun he threatened his family with and this person on the internet who wrote bad stories and hurt people's feelings.

After a bunch of that, we cut back to Papaya and a new character, Jaxi, at the shop. Jaxi is a stand-in for one of Glip's real life partners Axi, I'm pretty sure. Anyway, Jaxi says that Sila came to them the next day and told them about what happened, and that Papaya really scared her when she yelled at her. They say that, knowing Glip, scaring her would have been intentional. They say Glip shouldn't be so mean to someone who's doing their best and trying to help. Glip doesn't remember yelling or why. Hey, guess what train of logic shows up again! Guess! GO ON! GUESS!!!

sure have trouble remembering when i yell at people for some reason

Papaya says she feels ashamed and starts to explain (crossed out) BLAME herself. She says she should have known better and shouldn't have yelled and just explained it calmly for the tenth time but instead she yelled. "I'm so tired of everyone being scared of me," she says. Gee, I wonder why that would be? Maybe this whole VN is a reason. Jaxi says that Sila is really scared of her and they can't think of a reason now to tell her why she shouldn't be.

We cut back to Tox and her two minions. Inkcat is called Vacuumania which makes me think of a fetish site more than a character name but hey. Toxinuate throws a pity party about how her two friends, Obverse and Vacuumania, tell her everything she does wrong and that makes her get better at things, which is a theme that came up when Tox was first introduced. This whole scene has very weird vibes since it seems like Glip is aiming this at Jaxi, their real life partner, who was talking to them completely reasonably a second ago. I don't know man. It's weird, that's what I'm saying.

i'm not talking about you, jaxi! (or am i)

Tox keeps rambling her big irritating pity party to herself about how she can't have boundaries and does everything wrong and everyone hates her yada yada we've all heard this before. It's also implied at one point that Tox should accept every kind of story/medicine people want to inflict on her, so I guess we're back to kinkshaming lol.

It goes on to touch on being cancelled again and how people blame Tox for things it totally didn't do. I'd remind you that Tox is another self-insert of Glip's but at this point you might as well assume that's a given.

step on me more plz (just kidding) (or am i)

Scissors and Inkcat, sorry, Obverse and Vacuumania actually tell her to shut up at one point which is pretty funny though.

thank you

There's some more of Selfish-Harm being a strawman villain then out of nowhere this hilarious thing.

lol what

There's a whole bunch more yelling and Selfish-Harm being evil and Selfish-Harm stabs Papaya repeatedly with very deliberate rape imagery, which is weird. She tries to explain but Selfish-Harm never listens, so she thinks of a way to make them listen.

Papaya shifts into Lily! Hey, Lily! One of the actual characters! I'm shocked. There's a bunch of rambling in the corners about Lily panicking about how she's put into a role that doesn't fit and she can't remember who she was because she keeps getting killed in someone's mind so she can never grow, because they don't know her. She'd never like someone as pathetic as you! The narration says. "You're Sylvan! You kill her in your mind! You're the one who restarts the universe everytime!"

What does it mean? It means Sila likes Lily the wrong way and writes stories about her dying, basically.

Anyway, Lily holds a baby Jupet in her hand. She says that Jupet is small, but they're a nekopossum, so that'd be why. That'd explain the fairy circle in their room as well! It does imply that maybe Lily had other children in other frequencies but who cares at this point.

hachacha

TAL's been using a laser to collect data and heal. Lily is scared of it, but it helps her. It takes away her pain and creates the wall out of the inability to feel pain. This is the quarantine line, it says. The quarantine line for paranoia! What does it mean. Someone says that you've lost the Heaven's Keys, and that Clear Watching is an underground prison on one of the Keys.

Glip and Lily go into the Keys. Glip says they found an anomaly, and we get a shot of Jupet with an X over their head. No one remembered them, they became a child of the story, never to have been, it says (what). There's then an odd panel with someone rambling, Glip I think, saying you're a terrifying person and that writing about their own character in their own story fills them with dread, so they're going to kill her off for good. I assume this is about Sila. Glip throws Lily into Clear Watching, WHERE ANGELS GO TO DIE.

Anyway, we have a frequency shift from Andre to Sample, because great, whatever that means, and cut to Amdusias pony, now named Sinpony. Beleth is talking to her, but they have a new form now with a diamond over their eye. Another AU form of Beleth. Sigh.

Beleth thinks about how they're so cool and that they can beat anyone up with their three favorite toys. They call them and Tox, Obverse, and Vacuumania show up, baffled. Sila is there again, saying Sinpony belongs to her, and Beleth squares off to fight.

We then get a card saying it's the end of part one and Papaya never wrote the second part because Sila attacked her. It's a poor workman that blames their tools, you know.

:3c

We go to Callclout writhing in pain from Bugsy's rule, yada yada. They try to figure out a way to get out from under it. There's another childish "this is you!" moment with Glip introducing another new dumb angel, Socketpuppet.

wait i'm missing a thumb

As you might guess, Socketpuppet puts on puppets of other characters and pretends to be them. Socketpuppet pretends to be Papaya for a while and I'm not really sure who's talking. Of note though is that Glip again gets defensive about people hating on Call-Clout and says they'll kill off Lily and Neon if it continues. okay.

how to respond to criticism

The voice, Glip I assume, declares Rule Zero, that you (Sila I assume) can never talk to them or their friends again. I don't know why they think Sila would at this point, it sounds like it'd be the last thing on her mind. But hey.

They then explicitly blackmail Sila, saying that if Sila talks about Glip to anyone or has any bad feelings about anything in this VN, they'll kill off Lily and Neon (maybe Jupet too). They get really defensive about Call-Clout again which is hilarious to me. Call-Clout, of all characters. Imagine being defensive of a character called Call-Clout IN a call-out you wrote!! it's kind of amazing.

i'm the hero!! glip says, like all the villains say, but it's different when they do it

It then says Hostage Taker, Selfish Hurt, so maybe Selfish-Hurt is threatening this to... who? Themselves? Someone else by pretending to be Glip? I don't know. Maybe they're blaming Selfish-Hurt for making them take hostages? This is a mess.

Hilariously, Glip then says that Sila made them realize that callouts are a useful tool, but they didn't want to do one. :( They just wanted to write a story about what it felt like for Sila to be a horrible creep! Look what you've made them do! This is your fault!! They say they're recovering just fine without Sila, as the VN clearly shows. No issues here.

We get a bit more clarity now with a goop like sort of Glip being confirming that they are the ones holding Lily and Neon hostage, and that if they die everyone will know it was Sila's fault and know she's a pervert who gets off on killing loving mothers. If they keep quiet then maybe Glip will keep them alive, or maybe not.

conflict resolution, by glip

Glip yells at Sila some more, then gets mad at them for driving them to do this. Sila cares more about jerking the characters around than how it hurts Glip so much when she does that! :( Glip says that this actually made them stop caring about Lily and Neon, because caring about them turned into endless suffering for Glip. I wonder if this could have been avoided if they just banned Sila when they suggested a script that creeped them out in the first place. Just spitballing though. "Who cares, it's just a comic" they say. Who cares indeed.

Glip says Sila radiates violent and murderous feelings and thinks that Sila would physically attack them if they met in real life. You're a dangerous person, Glip says, sorry you had to hear it from me. :( So they say they'll just kill Lily and Neon off right now. I mean, I guess it's not like Glip was even doing anything with them at this point, is it so much of a loss?

Just in case you were wondering, Glip then takes an opportunity to tell you how much they enjoyed writing this callout and screaming at this rando for hours. Callouts are great and cathartic! I guess people get their kicks in all sorts of ways.

call outs are great! not when they're about me though

Papaya laughs, saying that it's just a story. "Stories with no basis in reality don't matter", it says, although then it crosses "don't matter" out and replaces it with "creates that reality".

As threatened, we return to Lily and Neon. Neon says that something's been bothering her. Lily asks her what it is, while narration says THIS IS THE SCHOOLYARD DISEASE, THIS IS WHAT'S ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR. Spite, apparently. Actually that adds up.

Neon says that she's really scared of Lily, that entering this chamber with her and trying to teach her about what's going on is terrifying because she knows she looks like a traitor. Lily breaks, again, finally, whatever that means. Everyone in this comic is breaking constantly. Anyway, she doesn't know why Neon would talk about being a traitor, like she's forgotten that Neon told her exactly why. To be fair that was a pretty long time ago.

Lily wonders if Neon really feels bad about it or if it's just paranoia. Not sure how those two things are different. Why was she joking about something so serious? she wonders. Neon is a stranger, right? It gets crossed out and replaced with danger.

Neon says that this is what she's talking about, when she says again and again that she doesn't want Lily to kill her and Lily doesn't respond. Neon says she's had nightmares for years about Lily killing her (with beholding sirens involved somehow presumably) and that Lily acts like that never happened and just makes jokes and makes Neon feel good, and it doesn't add up to Neon. Neon can't tell if she's paranoid or if Lily is hiding how much she wants to kill her.

looks a bit like a rabbit

"I can feel it again, the way you hide your violent thoughts," Neon says. "You can't get mad or you'll snap and kill me, because Jupet's gone and I caused it." Not sure if this is due to the Jupet going into Beleth thing or Lily getting stuck on the wrong frequency. Neon says she can finally feel Lily's malice. She doesn't know what to do other than try to fix it, and says she'd try to fix it even if Lily wasn't here and Jupet wasn't gone, and she apologizes.

The Schoolyard Disease starts trying to take root in Lily's heart, where it would bring them full circle and begin them anew. But something about Neon said sticks with her. Had she said something new?

Lily feels ashamed of herself. She didn't think Neon would notice all of her violent negative feelings, but she did because she was scared and quiet and loving. I'll just have to take Lily's word for it. Neon noticed Lily leaking violence and hostility and somehow managed to apologize for it. That phrasing is a bit weird I think.

look into my eyes

Lily connects to the feelings she'd been lying to herself about. She'd almost scared Neon to death! This should be in its own separate VN, why it's tacked onto this rant is beyond me. No wait, it's because this scene is written out of spite, that's right.

Lily says that she's tried to kill Sylvan a hundred thousand times, but he can't die. He always comes back to life because he's a necropossum. This explains that mention of coming back to life so long ago with Jupet. Lily then says she can also never die, he can never kill her and she can never kill him. She describes it like she dies, then decides she just didn't die and ends up back here, and then takes it out on Neon. Neon also always comes back. "Are we monsters?" Lily wonders. I have to say, finding out that Lily and Neon are trapped in an endless cycle of death, murder, and rebirth with each other has made their relationship way more interesting. Oh no I'm part of the problem!!

Abruptly, they're back in the Amdusias pony form. Lily wants to say she'd never murder Neon, but she's not entirely sure that's true. She misses Jupet terribly. Lily says that she's not scared of not recognizing Jupet when she sees them again, but of them not recognizing her. She says she knows she wasn't a good mother sometimes, and wonders if that's what factored into them leaving.

She wasn't trying to blame Neon for her feelings about what Sylvan did to Jupet (will we ever find out?), and tells Neon that it's not her fault that all this happened. She's ashamed she hurt her and isn't sure what possessed her to do that.

Anyway, Sinpony collapses on the ground next to white Beleth, we're back at the end of... Schoolyard Disease? Is that the VN I'm thinking of? Anyway, Sinpony feels three other consciousnesses leave it or be forgotten. There's an odd bit about wishing for the universe to take her identity and leaving her with a life of malice for her and her child.

lily?

Not sure what to make of that. Sinpony talks to Beleth like they're her child but doesn't know why. This freaks Beleth out a bit. They say Beleth's memory isn't all there and they shouldn't play dumb, asking why they're playing the same tricks as their father ("may i remind you what a horrible monster he is?"). They weren't always a doll and they can't keep this charade up, Sinpony says.

Beleth breaks (everyone breaks!) and realizes that they don't have a childhood or a past and that maybe something's controlling them. They realize their body is indestructible and that's boring and wonder what death is like, then flip out at Sinpony and threaten to kill them for "touching her memory." Sinpony is terrified and has no idea what they're talking about. Unable to tell Beleth that they just want to see their child again, they pass out.

Anyway we cut back to CC. Sadly they seem to have escaped Bugsy's rule thanks to their "forcesight" to do a bunch of redacted things. They say that the paranoia on Neon had incubated and turned into Socketpuppet because of Beleth. Or Bugsy. Fine, whatever.

i'm the good guy

It does say that CC tried to protect Lily/Neon/Chip from getting their identities eaten, which doesn't really match what we were shown in that VN at all. CC then says she has to deliver a mask to its recipient because they've solved an instance of Schoolyard Disease by predicting what hurt to do in advance! Oh man, remember that?? I actually had to go back and reread it because it was already barely explained to begin with. I think solving an instance of Schoolyard Disease has now told them who they need to deliver the mask to.

Call-Clout remembers that this is where Median isn't saved, because Beleth is busy arguing with Sinpony over there. Beating a dead horse, am I right! Anyway Andre said a long time ago that without Median the plague spreads out of control and everyone dies. Oops! Srinivasa says they hate this world as much as they love it, and that they don't even feel real anymore, just a thing being manipulated by their mask. Stardrop warned you about this.

Call-Clout wants to take off the mask and just exist, but it'll look like the Unmasked Sun (Glip) and no one will help them then. So unfair. :( CC says the shift is inevitable and that they've lost this round and three identities. CC has a big hole in their chest and Socketpuppet shows up and eyes it. CC bleeding out summons an ENCORE (but wasn't Encore already here...?)

Encore shows up and says they can take the hole away from CC's chest, although CC is too weak to say anything with Socketpuppet nearby. It has a thorny ring looped into it like a keyring.

i guess you can call for multiple encores

CC says they're not good and are tired of playing the villain. Encore says they'll do it instead and they'll give them what they deserve, a fair trial. CC laughs at the idea, asking Encore where they were when they got blamed for the plague and exiled back in the Masked Sun VN. Socketpuppet lols in the background and again sizes up the hole in CC's chest.

CC calls them an idiot, resonating with "the entire cycle Socketpuppet had completed", and the hole in their chest congeals and becomes a Circlet of the Sun. Title drop! After all this time what is it?? What's the circlet of the sun??? What is it???

It's just the receipts of what Sila did.

the secret of this callout is... that it's a callout

Anyway CC rambles on disjointedly about exaggerating feelings and some talk of suicide and Sila assaulting her brother or mom or something, I can't keep track of this since it's not explained and I don't care. This is already so long and we're so close to the end...! CC goes on to describe malice and I thought maybe Glip was describing themselves but I think it's supposed to be directed at Sila. Not sure how I could've mixed that up!

got a face made of taffy

There's also a "diagram" that looks a lot like a uterus.

and some fallopian tubes i suppose

Anyway out of nowhere, Ms. Warmheart appears again. CC asks her to help them by yelling at CC as if she's yelling at Socketpuppet. Warmheart is peeved and says that CC already has a "little doll" in back to play with, and says that this is why CC got into this mess in the first place, their little experiments. Anyway CC and Warmheart and Socketpuppet argue and it's boring and doesn't make a lot of sense. Malice gets brought up again. Warmheart does say that CC is some kind of abomination that holds multiple souls and identities within themselves though.

She also mentions razing the land again! I remember that getting mentioned before. It's not explained any more here than it was back then.

burn it all to the ground

CC pulls out the mask they were supposed to deliver, saying it's time to eat it. Socketpuppet demands it but CC gives it to Warmheart instead, although she seems pretty hesitant about the whole thing. Encore meanwhile makes a big circlet portal and goes through it, figuring everyone else can handle it on their own. They wonder what they'll do when this frequency is completely drained of magic. They shrug and say it's just the natural consequence of trying to solve a problem by lying to yourself.

Mr. 5 meanwhile is covered with worthworms while everyone else is doing other things. What'll he do now, the narration wonders? Die, hopefully. Encore keeps going down a hole and Glip brings up being cancelled again out of nowhere.

this red circle is about to charge

Encore, looking sillier and sillier as they go, yells at Sila again. I thought at first they were yelling at themselves sarcastically but now I think it's genuine yelling at Sila? It's weird how the same accusations seem to fit between the two of them. Probably a coincidence.

/srs or /j? /srs or /j?????

There's more yelling at Sila, along with accusations of trying to kill herself to make Glip feel bad. It goes on and on for a while and then Glip's like "let me make it a violent cartoon, you like those!" and Bugsy shows up again. Bugsy likes punching things but sometimes feels bad about it and doesn't know why. What could it mean? At one point Bugsy holds up a list of all the people Glip's ever hurt and says they'll hold Glip accountable for it if Glip hurts them like they've ever hurt anyone ever. Just in case it's too subtle, Glip's name is scribbled out.

Bugsy wearing a fetching bra

There's more yelling at Sila. Glip/Encore says that when Bugsy acts like their bad feelings are reality, it erases theirs. They then say that that's fine, let's talk more about Bugsy's feelings. Let's make sure the rest of the story is agreeing with Bugsy! Let's see what happens, Glip says.

We go back to Clear Watching, WHERE ANGELS GO TO DIE. There are two new inmates in the cell of the prison (the channel on the discord, remember), Lily and Neon. No one ever escapes Clear Watching, where angels are held against their will for as long as the judge deems appropriate.

Glip appears and mocks them for being stupid enough to have their identities stolen/raped, especially by Bugsy of all people. Lily and Neon look on and while we saw Glip in a disguise, they see Encore as Encore. They say they've seen this creature in their dreams, overlooking every instance of Schoolyard Disease. Let's do it all again, let's see the tragedy from the top! Encore says. That does fit with what we know about Schoolyard Disease, to be fair.

The narration scolds Lily for not being a good mom, saying that Jupet is off hurting people all the time, with no idea how their mere presence brings plagues into existence. Jupet's getting hurt because they were never told that hurting others was bad, since Lily herself is good at hurting others. Lily feels bad and decides to swear off violence.

Since Lily can't die, there were never any consequences for killing others, so she just got used to it. Lily is upset, telling herself that killing shouldn't be normal, but it's become normal to her. Lily can't tell Jupet that what they're doing is wrong because she can't connect with Jupet's feelings without infecting them with an unnatural bloodlust, and leaves the feelings that Jupet picks up on anyway unexplained. While this is going on Lily is turning into a worm for some reason.

a furry slinky

Lily tries to understand what's happening to her as a constellation (Stardrops rule about reading stars?) appears on her. She must have stolen someone else's identity, she wonders, because why else would someone be stealing hers? It must be her fault and she deserves this, she reasons. She becomes a full furry slinky called Salivent, the cyclic solvent, swearing that she'll solve this problem if it's the last thing she does. Don't know why the saliva theme with her.

Some scribbles yell about victim blaming. I have no idea who they're supposed to be. Glip I assume.

odd equivalence i think

On closer inspection I THINK it's supposed to be Lily talking about being raped and Encore talking over her, but again I'm not sure. Encore goes on with more victim blaming and then says this is boring. Lily screams how this can be boring, and Encore says she's seen this hundreds of times. Lily swears off violence and then kills Neon again. Lily insists that she's changed and isn't like that anymore, and Encore says oh, like all those other times you said you wouldn't kill her? And Lily stays quiet.

Lilyworm writhes in her cell about how no one believes she's changed even though she says she has and how unfair that is. It's disgusting that Lilyworm thinks its intentions matter, someone says, no one cares. The "acid" escapes Lilyworm's throat and she says "why don't you like me" which isn't what she meant to say, and it gets rewritten to "why don't you believe me".

Neon has now merged with Obverse for whatever reason, asking why Lily would think she doesn't like them. Maybe it's because she doesn't like her. I'm not making a joke, that's what it says. It's implied by font though that it might be Obverse saying it and not her.

simple enough

Lilyworm screams "why won't you believe me" while Obverseneon says she does... believe she likes hurting her! Oh! Got you good!! It actually might be Obverse saying that though. They go on to say that they believe they don't like Lily, while what I think is Neon says that she does believe her. There's a bunch of rambling about Obverseneon believing Lily hates her and such and she's scared.

Obverseneon, with the subtitle Obnoxiously Oblivious, gets to a chalkboard to explain how she's wrong. There are more faux mathematics as we AGAIN go to the same theme, where Obverseneon thinks that she must not have been expressing her love for Lily correctly if Lily had to ask in the first place, so the blame is on her. She reasons that Lily is asking because she hasn't actually changed, otherwise she wouldn't ask. Whatever.

Obverseneon laughs about how funny this all is and how they could ever expect Lilyworm to change. "We're just feelings machines" she says, "none of this is real and never has been". Lilyworm also has a stupid face, kind of looks like a playground kiddy ride.

or an indie horror game villain

[be-side-my-self]

First watch of Season 4 of Only Murders In The Building. (E5)

Rewatch of ONLY Murders In The Building to prepare for season 4:

<Part I> // <Part II> // <Part III> // <Part IIII> // <Part V> // <Part VI> // <Part VII> // <Part VIII>

<S4 E1> // <S4 E2> // <S4 E3> // S4 E4

This is no rewatch but my new posts can also easily be blocked because I'll continue to use #OMITBRewatch as a tag. I'll also tag #OMITBS4. While quoting, I use M, O, C for the main characters.

S4 E5

... the script writer for the movie - Marshall P. Pope - is probably such a fanboy... I wonder if he wrote/read fanfiction...

Oh lol! I was not aware that he narrates the beginning. I just wanted to mention him when I saw the "what happened in the last episodes" or what you call it.

Fake beard.

Quoting Ace Ventura is always good. I have no idea who David Foster Wallace is... but I looked him up. Yeah idk.

-> Intro to Joel & Clementine -> The relationship -> The procedure -> Discovering the Truth -> escaping the procedure -> resolution I never saw "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" but that is the second Jim Carrey movie within one or two minutes.

I assume the movie poster in the background is for Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blowup", though I could not find that movie poster but we can read the name and "first english film" (what a weird plot in that movie).

No, the voice in your mind that calls you a fraud will never go away.

Lmao Oliver had that speech prepared.

OKAY, BEV.

Why would someone on the movie kill Sazz?

Bev: "Well, here's me that night, in LA, at Variety's Power Women Party for the 100 Most Powerful Women Under 100. It was of course, at the Power Room."

Lmao... not everyone is you, Charles.

Bev is a freak.

"Jack Jonk" I'm surprised he was an olympic swimmer with that name and not a wrestler or a porn star.

... Detective Williams is into big guys and pretty women?

Mabel is a podcast producer!

.... the twins are so weird.

"The Jonk jonked my jonk till I jonked."

lmao Charles.

Marshall is just a nerd, not a killer.

Pretty sure that neither of the main trio read teh script.

Bev: "Come sit down with me. Let's see if we can pass the Bechdel test."

The podcasts are about... peoples and buttons. She could have gone with the "working animals" idea because that is actually good.

Glen: "Ah, when'd you grow the beard, lassie?" C: "That's not Mabel."

Marshall did a great job with the script.

... lmao Charles put himself in a suit and the story he tells is hilarious.

... Oliver trying to reenact Charle's theory and failing amazingly and running into John McEnroe? Hilarious xD

... guys it's been more than one! It's been a team of murderers. Or a stunt person? Or multiple stunt persons?

Holy shit.

... creepy.

Jack Jonk jonked all seven dwarfs on the gender-bend version from Snow White. ... I'm... what.

What

.... WAHT

... two people.

Yes.

The twins

HOLY SHIT?!

Now to wait until tuesday...

[k00299935]

PAINTING ELECTIVE

Brief One- "Portrait"

Anselm Kiefer Powerpoint

Due to some technical difficulties I unfortunatley was not able to present my powerpoint on my selected date. Thankfully Eoin was very understanding and instructed me to simply post my powerpoint onto tumblr.

I chose my artist somewhat randomly, so I was surprised at how much I related to his artistic process, particularily how he is inspired by poetry and incorporates it heavily into his work. I enjoyed researching this artist from various websites and from the books I took out of the library, and this has definitely made me take an interest in this artist outside of this project.

With that, here is my powerpoint. Trigger warning for themes of war and the Holocaust. I wrote a script to read while I presented each slide, so each page will be written under its assigned slide.

Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor, best known for his works depicting the horrors of the Holocaust. His works often incorporate unconventional materials such as straw, clay, ash lead, and shellac.

Kiefer was born to a Jewish family amongst ruins on 8 March 1945 in the German town of Donaueschingen. As the town came under intense bombing, Kiefer was born in the cellar of the family home that served as their improvised bomb shelter. In the first few weeks of his life his mother would take him during the day into the surrounding forest to shelter from the bombing. The house next door was blown to pieces.

The ruin next door became Kiefer’s playground. Before the age of six, when his family moved, he would spend his days playing in the rubble, prising loose bricks to build ambitious structures. Hitler’s ruins have haunted his work. Rubble piles up relentlessly in Kiefer’s work, and he deliberately portrays such imagery in his sculptures and paintings.

The past plays an important part in Kiefer’s work. His works are characterised by an unflinching willingness to confront his culture's dark past, and unrealised potential, in works that are often done on a large, confrontational scale well suited to the subjects.

This made him a very controversial artist when he first began his career as Germany and the German people were not ready to face and acknowledge the countries past. 

Kiefer often credited the poetry of Paul Celan to have had a key role in developing his interest in Germanys past and the cruelty of the Holocaust, and frequently dedicated paintings to him.

Paul Celan was born in 1920 Romania to a German-speaking Jewish family. His surname was later spelled Ancel, and he eventually adopted the anagram Celan as his pen name.

In 1938 Celan went to Paris to study medicine, but returned to Romania before the outbreak of World War II.

During the war Celan was apprehended by Nazi soldiers and forced to work in labor camp for 18 months, while his parents were deported to a Nazi concentration camp where they were both killed.

After escaping the labor camp, Celan lived in Bucharest and Vienna before settling in Paris. Due to his radical poetic and linguistic innovations, Celan is regarded as one of the most important figures in German language literature the post World War 2 era. His poetry is characterised by a complicated and cryptic style that deviates from typical poetic conventions.

Two of Kiefers his most renowned paintings, Your Golden Hair, Margarete and Sulamith, are drawn directly from Celans most famous poem, 'Death Fugue' or 'Todesfuge'.

Widely read in postwar Germany, the poem is set in a concentration camp and narrated by the Jewish inmates, who suffer under the camps blue eyed commandant. Singing "your golden hair, Margarete/ your ashen hair, Shulamith," they contrast German womanhood, personified by Margarete, and Jewish womanhood personified by Shulamithe.

In Kiefers paintings titled Mararethe and Sulamithe he depicts this contrast visually, depicting Margaret with strands of straw amidst light blue paint, and depicting Shulamithe using dark colours and harsh brush strokes. One artwork out of hundreds that Kiefer has been inspired to create because of Paul Celans poetry.

Aswell as painting and sculpting, Kiefer has also dabbled in the world of photography and performance art.

In fact, he was one of the first German artists to address the Nazi crimes in a series of photographs and performances called Occupations and Heroic Symbols. Dressed in his father's Wehrmacht uniform, Kiefer mimicked the Nazi salute in various locations in France, Switzerland and Italy. Naturally these pieces caused much controversy among critics and the general public. The meaning of this photography series was to remind Germans to remember and to acknowledge the loss to their culture from the xenophobia of the Nazi occupation.

At 79 years old Anselm Kiefer is still quite active in the art world and is still sought after by collectors and museums for his captivating artwork. These are some of his most recent works from the past 5 years.

[radsunny]

CHURL - VERS 1.5.2

As soon as I sit down to write about how I want to be able to hide the fact that you can’t really have a responsive loop for the ‘end of month’ reports, I get feedback after playtests about how it’s hard to care about the report writing because players don’t know what to put in the text box (no guiding questions, for example) or that the game world changes because of it. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Got a ton of great feedback though, and I am working on how to fix a lot of stuff now.

This post though - I finally want to dig into documentation related to the writing process, theory implementation, and overall themes of CHURL.

The narrative arc from Month 1 to 2 is supposed to represent a pattern of perceived triumph and then unexpected loss. BEED is established as the main narrator of the project at the beginning of Month 1, and just as she says that she is getting somewhere with the biography’s focus on Beowulf’s status as a ‘hero,’ she posts the dispatches from Heorot: WORLD and RIM talk to actual Halfdanes and report back information that feels if not contradictory, maybe more telling of what the passage of time has done to the idea of Beowulf’s Heroic Identity. If 50 years have passed and BEED still thinks of Beowulf as the young hero, what can the narrative show that contradicts that myopic POV?

The woman WORLD talks to is largely uninterested in his legacy and is more pre-occupied with trying to survive rather than remembering what the warriors of a past generation fought for. RIM’s short lesson on riddles/poetry is all about contextualizing heroic poetry like Beowulf in a specific time & place – tall tales from lord-warriors are being told and re-told over and over, the cultural practice of hearing a scop perform these stories is perhaps fading but RIM, an outsider, is willing to learn from him and continue participating in it.

These are narrative branches that can only really stem from Beowulf’s arrival, stay, and departure from the Danes’ shores, and the hope for BEED is that Heorot is rife with opportunities to bolster the imagined heroic identity Beowulf has kept throughout the 50 years he’s ruled from the Geatlands. WORLD and RIM question that assumption: their dispatches are completely devoid of any heroic exploits, but the echo of Beowulf’s presence in the conversation trees speaks to what his legacy is vs. what BEED thinks it is.

But these moments are crucial because the Heorot scenes transition the blog’s activity from the project drafts to the beach scene on Day 27. The beach script was the first big screenplay I wrote for the project back in 2023 when I did the initial CHURL prototype. It felt, at the time, like a potential final scene for the entire game (until I wrote the ending for CHURL last summer). The idea for BEED’s first big setback for the project was always about the dragon’s carcass floating up to the shore after the Geats throw it off the cliff where Beowulf’s Barrow is built (the end of the poem).

I knew, early on, that BEED needed to continually cycle between the HIGH of writing about Beowulf (writing more and more on the blog) and the LOWS of interacting with the material reality of Beowulf (hitting a wall with WORLD and RIM out in the world). That sentence makes sense to me, but I have a feeling it’s one of those things that will inevitably get me yelled at by my supervisors for making no sense to regular people.

ANYWAY – Month 1, Day 27 is the first opportunity BEED has to actually touch a part of Beowulf’s life, and she has to be saved from killing herself in an attempt to sample the dragon’s flesh. To analyze it. To have it to herself! And it just can’t happen. WORLD and RIM, who actually experience the world in a visceral real way, must stop her. It leads to a moment of silence, pause, inaction…

Month 2 starts with the beach scene looming in the background, because it’s clear that BEED never really recovers from the loss that she felt on Day 27. The structure is set up so that the fragmentation between calendar days is felt just as strongly by someone choosing to play day-by-day or not.

And a lot of what I yapped about in my thesis proposal lit. review related to analyzing the poem’s structure: What events matter? Which ones don’t? How do you summarize the plot of Beowulf without mentioning the digressions? Can the poem’s many episodes be split into tiny pieces and sown back together in a different manner than what is presented to us in the first place? And more importantly, to get to the core of my research question:

How can the polyvocality of Beowulf be depicted through the use of IF game design while problematizing notions of the poem’s assumed narrative linearity?

(I have to change the RQ’s wording, notably “be depicted” being really basic and inaccurate at this point. I think CHURL does more than just depict polyvocality, it highlights it and, in many ways, prioritizes it over the narrative control BEED attempts throughout the game.)

One of the things Tolkien argues for in “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” is a new perspective on Beowulf’s structure at the time: “the structural role of Beowulf’s homecoming, because it is not a heroic event in Beowulf’s life, tends to be forgotten. Yet the transition is structurally essential.”

I brought this quote up while talking about the different ways scholars would characterize the ‘plot progression’ of Beowulf – it seemed to me, as I looked around, that the main events are always: three fights, death, boom. Or some variations of that cycle – Beowulf as a young hero, fights, death, boom. It just often revolves around this idea that the most important bits are the big fight pieces. Beowulf dying is also then not really important enough to be point n.4, it just gets jumbled into point n.3 (fight with dragon). Tolkien’s argument about the homecoming, the return to the Geatlands and the historical run through the speaker gives about the noble lineages of several Viking peoples, being crucial yet tossed aside, struck me as becoming more and more of a North Star for how CHURL progresses from Month 1 to 2 to the remains of 3.

The homecoming as not being a “heroic event” – that in particular – is also wildly in line with how I perceive Beowulf as a character...and that characterization is hopefully going to be fleshed out and more eloquently worded in the final thesis draft than what I have been rocking with so far, which is just repeating in all caps: WHAT IF BEOWULF WAS JUST A GUY? WHAT IF BEOWULF WAS JUST A GUY? WHAT IF BEOWULF WAS JUST A GUY? WHAT IF BEOWULF WAS JUST A GUY? WHAT IF BEOWULF WAS JUST A GUY? – the gravedigging in the first half of Month 2 is indicative of this chant slowly getting louder and louder in BEED’s head and her refusing to admit it to herself.

And if Beowulf is just a guy, if BEED’s perception of Beowulf is distorted and constantly leads to her cycling through mythologizing to disillusion, if WORLD and RIM are meant to discover a 50-year-long history but keep running into side-quests (digressions), how many times can this transition between HIGHS/LOWS keep going before it unravels the project completely?

I talked to Yeager about how I want to incorporate the fights into CHURL in some way, and that would include Grendel as a potential character coming back to the narrative. He mentioned that I already addressed the dragon, and if I am going to bring up Grendel, his mother should probably be next. My interest in Grendel, the dragon, and Grendel’s mother is really rooted in how much I believe monstrosity in Beowulf always returns and despite the heroic efforts made by humans, monsters will always survive. Humans won’t. So, there is something there that speaks to me – Grendel takes over the blog and kidnaps the TYPEWRITER – what is that Month 2 storyline transitioning to in Month 3?

[gaminggarmr]

So my friend sent me the link to a picture on Twitter and the posters name is Julia

I said "there can only be one 🔪”. She said "horror movie strings play”. I said "massacre of the Julias”

Then I wrote the start of a movie script about a murderer named Julia who kills people named Julia

Fade in

INT: Police precinct

The camera swoops down threw the hustle and bustle of police and detectives, until slowing down on one detective standing in front of a cork board. The board is coved in pictures of dead women, with strings attached to the picture of a question mark. The detective in front of the board is an older black man in a black suit who's visible stressed and drinking a coffee. Besides him is a brunette woman in a black suit with her hands on her hips

Detective 1: Julia, you can't be on this case! The only thing we know is that every victim's name is julia and they've all been stabbed! I won't have my partner be this monster's 67th kill!

Detective Julia: I'm no safer out there! Wouldn't it be better to be around police until I'm safe? I have more motivation to kill this guy than anyone else here!

detective 1 looks visibly hurt

Detective Julia: except for you. Sorry. Your wife is in a better place

I obviously didn't finish because this was for a joke

I then decided to see what ChatGPT could do with the prompt and both attempts were AWFUL

Title: "Fatal Julia"

INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT

Detectives JAMES and LILY, a seasoned duo, review a series of mysterious murders targeting victims named Julia.

JAMES

(looking at photos)

All the victims share the same name, Julia. This can't be a coincidence.

LILY

(skeptical)

You're telling me we have a Julia-targeting serial killer?

EXT. CITY STREETS - DAY

The detectives investigate crime scenes, questioning witnesses and gathering clues.

JAMES

(discovering a pattern)

Look at this, Lily. Julia's signature: a single red rose left at every crime scene.

LILY

(realizing)

Could it be a personal vendetta against these Julias?

INT. VICTIM'S HOUSE - NIGHT

The detectives interrogate the latest Julia, desperate to find answers.

JULIA

(teary-eyed)

I don't know why someone would want to kill all of us with the same name.

JAMES

(determined)

We need to dig deeper. Find connections between these victims.

EXT. GRAVEYARD - DAY

The detectives uncover a common thread among the murdered Julias – they all attended the same college years ago.

LILY

(puzzled)

What happened at that college? Something they're not telling us?

INT. COLLEGE ARCHIVES - NIGHT

The detectives delve into the college's dark past, unveiling a hidden secret involving a mysterious Julia who suffered a tragic incident.

JAMES

(realizing)

This is a revenge spree. The victims might be connected to what happened to Julia in the past.

EXT. ABANDONED BUILDING - FINAL SHOWDOWN - DAWN

The detectives confront the vengeful Julia, discovering her motive for seeking retribution against those who wronged her.

JULIA

(angry)

They ruined my life, and now they'll pay!

A tense standoff ensues, leading to a climactic resolution as the detectives try to apprehend Julia.

FADE OUT.

EPILOGUE:

The detectives reflect on the case, realizing that justice is sometimes a blurred line.

JAMES

(narrating)

In the pursuit of truth, we uncovered the haunting past of a vengeful soul. Justice served, but at what cost?

FADE OUT.

"Fatal Julia" – a gripping tale of revenge, redemption, and the thin line between justice and vengeance.

The Motivation is completely different, every scene is one or two sentences!

So I gave chatGPT another try with a more specific prompt

Title: "Solo Julia"

INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT

Detectives ALEX and RYAN are puzzled by a series of murders targeting only individuals named Julia. They connect the dots and discover the killer shares the same name.

ALEX

(looking at evidence)

We're dealing with a Julia who wants to be the only one. This is personal.

RYAN

(skeptical)

So, we're hunting down a Julia who's eliminating other Julias?

EXT. CITY STREETS - DAY

The detectives chase leads, trying to understand the motives behind Julia's unique killing spree.

ALEX

(realizing)

What if she's eliminating the competition, trying to stand out as the sole Julia?

RYAN

(nodding)

We need to find her before she erases every Julia in town.

INT. VICTIM'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

The detectives question the latest victim's family, trying to piece together Julia's identity.

FAMILY MEMBER

(confused)

Our Julia was just an ordinary person. Why would anyone want her dead?

RYAN

(determined)

We need to find the killer's connection to these victims.

EXT. JULIA'S HIDEOUT - ABANDONED WAREHOUSE - DAY

Following a trail of cryptic clues, the detectives arrive at Julia's hidden lair, where they confront her.

ALEX

(confronting Julia)

Why are you doing this? Killing others named Julia won't make you the only one.

JULIA

(defiant)

I want to be the one and only Julia. No one else can share my name.

A tense standoff ensues as the detectives try to apprehend the murderous Julia.

FADE OUT.

EPILOGUE:

The detectives reflect on the complexity of human desires and the lengths some go to stand out.

RYAN

(narrating)

In the pursuit of identity, Julia lost sight of what truly makes her unique.

FADE OUT.

"Solo Julia" – a suspenseful exploration of identity, obsession, and the consequences of trying to be the only one.

The scenes are still very short and they already know who the murderer is before the movie even starts!? What the hell??

(Also, mine has better camera directions)

[back-and-totheleft]

Chasing the Light review

They told him he wouldn't direct. But he did it, although his first two films as a director were a failure. He had written 20 scripts, was in debt up to his eyebrows and was about to turn 40, in the mid-eighties, filming his third film in Mexico, a drama against the currents of the industry, when he began to take notes of his experiences. “In Hollywood they have not supported me: they neither grow on me nor think that a film about a ‘shithole country’ like El Salvador has the slightest interest,” he wrote then. “I missed the race […]. “I have made too many enemies, I have burned too many bridges,” he insisted.

This is how Oliver Stone's memoirs begin. Chasing the Light was written during the confinement of the pandemic and is now published in Spanish by Libros del Kultrum. Stone (New York, 77 years old) assures me that they are complete, and that there will be no more volumes, but he only covers his life since he was born - the product of a marriage between a 34-year-old American sergeant of the General Staff and a young French woman who had was 20, who met in Paris at the end of the Second World War - until his success on the night of the Oscars on March 30, 1987, when Salvador and Platoon, both written and directed by Stone, received nominations. He even competed against himself in original screenplay (he did not win in this category, but did win best director and best picture for Platoon). It is in that moment of glory that he also begins to leave behind his conservative ideology to become one of the most left-wing voices in Hollywood at the end of the 20th century. He also describes how a volunteer soldier in the Vietnam War, later a night cab driver in New York and finally a drug-addicted screenwriter, rose to the top of the film industry.

Today, Stone is considered an outsider in Hollywood. “Mine has been a career with ups and downs, but the films have been shock absorbers that have helped me digest decades of intense American experience, something almost insane,” he notes. The book is a ruthless portrait of the film industry, from which there is only one person who comes out worse: himself, which is why the volume also talks about “precocious success and arrogance.”

Stone remembers the marriage of his parents: a couple who “if they had gotten to know each other better, they would never have married,” their divorce when their only son was 15, who he left Yale to take a sabbatical and teach in Vietnam in a Catholic school. He would return from Asia as a merchant marine, and after failing with his first novel, in April 1967, he volunteered to join the US infantry to fight in the Vietnam War. He entered combat when he turned 21. He spent over a year there, during which he was wounded and evacuated twice: “No one should ever witness so much death.”

Damaged, he returned to New York. Stone, a powerful narrator, only notes a few details of that stay in the first part of his book, and speeds up to describe his first marriage, his days as a night cab driver in the Big Apple, and his studies and beginnings as a screenwriter. Halfway through the volume, he will drop many more painful stories about the Asian conflict, to which he has dedicated the best of his filmography.

It is also curious to observe that at the age of 40, his head was already buzzing - some even had a draft script - with the films to which he will dedicate the next two decades of his career. “I was a weirdo [on his return from the war] and I behaved as if I wanted to be killed.” With drugs, he managed to escape from his rage and from the question that his friends pester him with about Vietnam: “Why the hell did you go?” That questioning, that different vision from what other twenty-something Caucasian children of a Republican stockbroker would have (a job his father dedicated himself to on Wall Street with both determination and failure) cemented his reflections on life.

By studying film at New York University, with a professor named Martin Scorsese, he learned to channel that wildness through screenwriting. And he discovered that - thanks to his time in the Asian jungle - he had to be attentive to everything he saw and heard, to everything he felt, in order to survive, which prepared him to be a filmmaker: “You are a camera and with that camera you take the same time and space, no matter how ordinary they are, and you destroy them, as if you were fucking them, to penetrate that reality with all your senses and create something new and fresh in a film."

Scorsese was the first to praise one of his university shorts, and curiously, Stone ended up becoming a nighttime taxi driver to earn a living and write during the day. His first marriage also derailed. Chasing the Light advances in that timeline while remembering Vietnam: “I was not a hero. I had ignored my conscience. Not just me, but the whole country. But, at least, if I could tell the truth of what I had seen […] I could relate the emptiness of a senseless war and the waste of lives.”

However, until he was able to talk about the violence that interested him - either because of close friendships (Salvador) or because he had provoked or suffered it (Platoon) - Stone rose little in the film meritocracy. Writing Seizure (first failure as a director); Midnight Express (which brought him fame as a screenwriter, although his drunk and drugged speech at the Golden Globes also earned him a legion of enemies in the industry); The Hand (second disaster as a director); Conan The Barbarian or Scarface. He is not shy about criticizing the directors of his scripts, such as Brian De Palma, Michael Cimino or Alan Parker. He describes Al Pacino in a very bittersweet way (he is fascinated by his talent, but unnerved by his selfishness) and, on the other hand, he praises the sanguine of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the astuteness of Tom Cruise (Stone considered Warren Beatty and Cruise to star in Wall Street years later). He defends, in the face of Hollywood's attempts to appease him, his machete-driven film writing: stark, humanist and truthful. After voting for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and feeling that “cocaine is stealing my brain,” he ends up quitting drugs and becoming a stubborn progressive.

Then there's the guilt: beyond his memories of Vietnam, Stone begins to discover the excesses of the United States in the rest of the world. Salvador reflects that commitment - born of his friendship with the eccentric journalist Richard Boyle, who had covered the conflict in that Central American country. To describe the filming as chaotic, with financing up in the air day by day and James Wood, the protagonist, butting up against the director, is an understatement. Both in this film and in Platoon, which he made immediately afterwards, Stone is afraid of going crazy like Francis Ford Coppola on Apocalypse Now. In the end, both swept the box office and found their place on the Oscar night with which the book ends: “Thirty years later, I look back and realize that I had no idea of the storm that was coming.”

-Gregorio Bellicon's review of Oliver Stone's memoir Chasing the Light, El Pais, Nov 28 2023 (translated)

[beevean]

Anyway, to comfort myself after the absolute dogfuckery (haha) that is Netflixvania’s treatment of that poor character wearing Hector’s skin, I thought to revisit a scene I wrote a while ago: my rewriting of the Hector vs. Isaac’s fight shortly before Dracula’s death, heavily based on the manga version. Script form only, sadly, because I hate narrating, and I’m a dumbass who thought I could handle a fighting scene :^)

Isaac’s POV, but I hope Hector got some good lines as well.

(and, well, if you have some comments or suggestions I’d love to read them ^^)

*Hector is running away on a horse. Isaac is chasing him on an Indigo. Isaac orders the Indigo to shoot ice at the horse, shattering its back and sending Hector tumbling on the ground. Isaac lands and stabs the horse through the head to put it out of its misery*

Isaac: “Well, Hector, it seems like you found yourself another thing you’re the best at! Running away with your tail between your legs.”

Hector: “It’s not what it seems…”

Isaac: “You know that I cannot let you live, right? When Lord Dracula told me that you disappeared, for the first time I hoped that He would be wrong. But of course, He never is. What were you thinking? Why have you betrayed him, Hector?”

*Hector doesn’t answer*

Isaac: “I deserve an answer! How could you turn your back on our Lord?”

Hector: “He’s not my Lord anymore! I won’t be affiliated with the likes of him ever again!”

Isaac: “After everything you’ve done? After spending nearly your whole life at His side, now you’ve all of the sudden put in your head that you can simply leave? We bask in the same demonic powers. You and I have spread death and suffering in the entirety of Wallachia. What makes you think you could go back and mingle with the common people?”

Hector: *shakes head* “Forget it. You wouldn’t understand.”

Isaac: “No, I don’t! And I never will! Because I am grateful to the one who gave us a new life!!”

*fighting ensues*

[I’ve sparred with Hector numerous times, ever since he learned how to forge weapons for himself; but we always stopped short of discovering who would have been the true winner. I know Hector’s fighting style by heart, like poetry: he’s agile, so eager to show off his dodging techniques, and he prefers to bide his time to strike at the perfect moment. However, I am stronger than he is, and my spear gives me the advantage of range.]

Isaac: “What does the human world have to offer that Lord Dracula hasn’t? Aren’t you proud of your work, your purpose, what we’ve built together?”

Hector: “No, in fact, I’m not. I wasted so much of my life, and I’m going to salvage what’s salvageable. We are killing innocent human beings, Isaac: don’t you feel anything?”

Isaac: “Humans don’t deserve the air they breathe.”

Hector: “Some of them don’t. Some people, I’ll gladly decapitate myself, like those who condemned the Count’s late wife. But not all of them! Mothers, young children, what could have they possibly done to deserve–”

Isaac: *rolls eyes* “You spent too much time with that brat, Adrian. What does it matter what we feel, or who deserves what? Lord Dracula has His reasons, our job is to act on them.”

Hector: “I knew it. You ran away from Christians, but sometimes you sound no different than them.”

Isaac: *swings the Chauve-Souris and slaps Hector* “Don’t you dare compare me to them!”

[...]

Hector: “You think you’re above me, so high and mighty! Who do you think you are? Who do you think I am? Just because you’re the Lord’s favorite–”

Hector: “That’s not true! You have always been my closest friend… despite our recent divergences.”

Isaac: “You snuck out like a rat. Hadn’t I found you, you would have cast me aside without remorse. You have an amusing idea of friendship, Hector.”

Hector: “Had I told you my plans, you would have gone straight to Dracula to stop me.”

Isaac: “Then your first concern was your own safety. And here I thought you were too nice for your own good.” I can’t deny that I would have not hidden Hector’s treachery from Lord Dracula, but he doesn’t deserve any justification.

There used to be a time where we were each other’s closest confidants. And yet here we are now, admitting that we don’t trust each other. It’s all his fault, he had to ruin what we had.

Hector: “Very well. If you value our friendship, I’ll ask you once. Do you wish to join me?”

The question is so out of this world, so utterly nonsensical, that I’m forced to stop dead in my tracks to stare at him.

Isaac: “Have you gone mad? Asking me to betray Lord Dracula as well?!”

Hector: “Listen to me! You’re intelligent, you’re resourceful, and you’re determined: your talents and strength, aren’t they wasted in being Dracula’s mere pawn? He… He may have offered us a sanctuary, and I will forever be thankful, but he does not truly care for us, no more than a knight cares about his sword. And we are worth so much more than that. Think about it! We could be free! We could tear the streets of Wallachia together like we used to do, but it will be on our own terms, no more orders, no more pointless slaughters, just… our lives in our hands. …Or you could stay here and do Dracula’s bidding until you die. If that’s your choice… I’m sorry, this will be the last time we’ll see each other.”

I listen to his impassioned speech, too stunned to retort, but eventually his words sink into me like rocks thrown in a lake.

What a shameless liar you are, you make me sick. You have just admitted that I am an afterthought with such warmth in your voice that I’d almost believe you.

You want to make me choose between my Lord and you. I would have never expected you to sink so low.

Isaac: “You disgust me. You think you can win me over with flattery? If you truly believe traitors would be safe from Lord Dracula, you’re more foolish than I thought.”

Hector: “Are you afraid, then? Is that it?”

Isaac: “I’m not.” *readies the Chauve-Souris* “You’ve forgotten one thing: I’m also loyal.”

Hector: *sighs and readies his sword* “I know.”

[...]

Isaac: “Is that your best? Have you always been this weak, or are you holding back? Some sort of sentimentality, perhaps?”

Hector: “I could say the same thing about you. If you really wanted me dead, Abel would have torn me to shreds already.”

Isaac: “Bah! I don’t need Abel for that. You deserve a more appropriate death, as a turncoat: I’ll slay you with my own hands!”

[...]

[I straddle him, and I press my knife to his neck. I could shatter his chest with the Chauve-Souris, but that is the death I reserve to the common fools. I will slit Hector’s throat like an animal to the slaughter, a sacrifice to expiate his blasphemy.]

Isaac: “I’ll confess something to you. My Lord has asked me to bring you back, to deal with you as He sees fit. But after what you did, you don’t even deserve to be in His presence anymore. Besides, if He comes to know even a fraction of the nonsense you said, death would be bliss for you. So I’d just do you a favor. As a friend.”

Hector: “So… you would also be willing to disobey your Master if you do not agree with his orders. This is what it means to be human, Isaac: you can be more than a tool.”

Isaac: “Oh, is this what this is all about? Your precious ‘humanity’? The same humanity that drove your village and your own family to shun you? You bite the hand that fed you and protected you, for the sake of those who cast stones on you? You’re not one of them anymore, if you ever were: you and I, we are above.”

Hector: “I am a human being whether I want it or not, whether my body is infused with dark magic or not. I do not seek acceptance or forgiveness, for I know I don’t deserve it, but I refuse to be an instrument of senseless death against my own kind. I know that I am above that.”

Isaac: “We are Devil Forgemasters! We are meant to serve Lord Dracula until our last breath!”

Hector: “Are these your own thoughts, or is the Count speaking through your mouth?”

Isaac: *digs the knife a little deeper* “You are spouting a lot of sass for someone in your position.”

Hector: *smirking* “And you didn’t answer my question. As I thought.”

*Castlevania collapses, the two gravely wound each other, Hector crawls away leaving Isaac for dead, and Isaac’s heart and mind are both broken*

[cipher-fresh]

i was just reminded of the Star Wars play I did that was written by one of my classmates and I had a TIME with this so here’s what I remember because man, I loved it.

it was originally covering the entire saga, but it got cut down to just the original trilogy and the prequels for timing, and even just those 6 movies in an extremely cut down high school play fashion took 40 minutes to perform

The script was hysterical, the guy who wrote it clearly loved the franchise but wasn’t afraid to make fun of it. We had a well, limited budget, and the group of us all played multiple characters. A lot of us got to play Jedi who got taken out easily, and during a scene where Palpatine used Force lightning, someone behind the curtain threw blue streamers, and all the Senators he murdered would try very hard not to laugh from their positions dead on the floor. The kid writing it brought in the majority of the lightsaber props used by the whole cast, and they ranged from how accurate they looked to the movies.

I had one scene where I had to chuck off my coat and then run backstage to put on a black cloak and enter from the opposite side of the stage, and then I got to just twirl around with a lightsaber and slaughter the Jedi in my way. R2-D2 kept trying to tell Luke that thinking Leia was hot maybe wasn’t the best thing, Anakin and Luke had a lightsaber fight set to Darude Sandstorm, George Lucas was there and tried to update the movies as we were acting them. It was great, and the cast I did it with was amazing. The only video I’m aware exists is one of me as Boba Fett getting pushed into the Sarlacc Pit (offstage, toward the house), and I’d have to scamper to get back onstage as soon as I could.

I've got the whole script saved because I'd hate to have lost it. snippets from the script + image IDs under the cut

[Image ID: The Star Wars in 40 Minutes or Less script reading

Anakin: Who are you!? Who do you work for?

Obi: This seems like a really interesting character, I’m sure that she’s going to be developed a lot more in the future-

(Zam is shot by a poison dart.)

Obi: Oh, well. There goes that.

(Obi-Wan picks up the poison dart.)

Obi: A poison dart. I’m going to find out where this came from.

Anakin: What should I do?

Obi: Stay with Padme (Pad-may). Don’t do anything romantic with her! Ok?

Anakin: Ok! I swear. I won’t do anything romantic with Padme.

(The narrator enters.)

Narrator: Anakin and Padme were married on Naboo. Obi-Wan goes to Kamino to investigate the origin of the poison dart.

///

Narrator: Obi-Wan tells Luke about the force, and gives him his father’s lightsaber. Luke goes back home to find his Aunt and Uncle have been literally burned alive and are now just skeletons.

(Luke enters)

Luke: Uncle Owen?! Aunt Beru- oh my God! Was shooting them not enough?! Did they really have to burn their bodies too?! That feels really extreme!

Narrator: Obi-Wan takes Luke to Mos Eisley to look for a way off of tatooine.

///

Windu: The oppression of the sith will never return. You, have lost.

Palpatine: No, no, no! You have lost!!!

(Palpatine uses force lightning against Windu. Anakin just stands there. After a second, he gets out popcorn or some food and starts eating it while he’s watching this unfold.)

Palpatine: Anakin!

Anakin: Oh! Right, sorry.

(Anakin takes out his lightsaber, and attacks Windu’s hand. He is thrown back and killed. Someone comes out from offstage and drags Windu back offstage with them.)

Palpatine: Good, Anakin. You shall now be my apprentice. Take the clones and eliminate the rest of the jedi. We will save Padme, Anakin. I promise.

(Palpatine winks at the audience.)

Palpatine: Bring me my cloak!

(Someone runs from offstage with a cloak and gives it to Palpatine.)

Palpatine: Sick, I’ve been waiting to wear this for a while.

End ID]

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Chapter 2: Phoenix in the Cloud

Narrated by Luanyun.

Narrator: It all began when the peach blossoms were in bloom, and banquets were filled with nobles throughout the day.

Narrator: People were partying to celebrate the spring. They wrote poems praising the best season in Cloud Empire.

Narrator: I thought I might be the only person who was terminally bored in this huge palace.

You: Is this the Cloud Palace? Who are you?

Narrator: I’m Princess Luanyun of Cloud Empire.

Handmaiden: The critic Sean wishes to invite you for a discussion.

Luanyun: No. He’s a fool unworthy of my presence.

Maid: What about reading Miss Whitney’s new novel?

Luanyun: That so-called bestselling author? Same-old, same-old. I’m tired of her.

Maid: Maybe you could listen to music then? Mr. Yuan Ming...

Luanyun: Throw his albums away. He smokes so much that all his albums smell like tar.

Choose either “You seemed too harsh” or “Nothing interesting?”

If “harsh,” ...

You: Aren’t you too hard on them? They’re all famous for their works.

Luanyun: Everyone has the right to be picky, including me. I demand better. Should I apologize for having good taste?

If “interesting,” ...

You: Is there anything you’re interested in?

Narrator: It doesn’t matter how good they are, they’re all lacking in originality because I’ve seen so much.

--

Maid: There’s a show starring Qin Yi at the Grand Capital Theater tonight. Would you like to attend?

Narrator: Ling, the maid, looked expectantly at me. She just played her trump card.

Luanyun: Fine. The Fair One’s shows are nothing new, but his costumes are always interesting.

Ling: I’ll get everything ready.

Narrator: The show was average, but my attention drifted at the end.

Luanyun: What is that, Ling?

Ling: Huh? I’m sorry, Your Highness, I was watching the show...

Narrator: I ignored Ling and stood up to grab the notebook in the corner.

Narrator: Its owner left it behind, and it helped me kill time.

Narrator: The handwriting was beautiful, with the first half detailing his thoughts on Qin Yi’s shows.

Narrator: And there was an unfinished script for the second half.

Choose either “What kind of story is it?” or “Wait, doesn’t it belong to someone else?”

If “story,” ...

Narrator: A story of a princess falling in love with a commoner. Somewhat naive, but sympathetic... It wasn’t bad.

If “else,” ...

Narrator: I’ll keep it for now.

--

Narrator: Although the emotions were genuine, the knowledge about nobles was lacking...

Ling: Wait, you can’t go in there!

Young Man: I’m a playwright. I watched a play here this afternoon and forgot my notebook!

Ling: I didn’t see a notebook. Anyway, you can’t go in.

Young Man: It won’t take long. I’ll grab it and leave right away. Just give me two minutes. Please?

Ling: No, you can’t go in!

Narrator: Ling was having a noisy argument that disrupted my reading and annoyed me.

Luanyun: Let him in, Ling.

Narrator: As soon as he entered, his eyes firmly locked onto the notebook in my hand. He looked at it as though it were a treasure.

Young Man: Thanks for holding onto that. It’s mine. Can you return it to me?

Luanyun: You call yourself a playwright? There’s no way your work is selling.

Young Man: How rude! You just read someone’s private notes and you have the audacity to rant?

Luanyun: Am I wrong? Your story is completely implausible and you know nothing of noble life. It’s ridiculous!

Narrator: His face flushed with shame and his eyes flashed with anger. Strangely enough, he didn’t quarrel.

Young Man: If you’re going to insult my writing for inaccuracy, at least tell me what’s wrong.

Luanyun: Where do I start? You had the princess wearing a 12-layered dress for a walk in the garden. Why?

Luanyun: A true noble doesn’t need to constantly flaunt themselves. The elegance just comes off naturally.

Narrator: I was surprised he wasn’t upset at my sarcasm. All his anger changed into introspection.

Young Man: You’re right. I can’t use her noble status as a crutch. She’s her own person with her own life.

Luanyun: Maybe you should do more research. The New Book of Jade does regular stories on Cloud Empire Royalty.

Young Man: Got it. Can you tell me more about what’s wrong?

Luanyun: I’m afraid I can’t. I should go, and you should, too.

Narrator: Maybe it was fate because something stopped me from leaving when I wanted to.

Ling: It’s starting to rain, Prin... Miss. We’ll have to wait a bit before we can leave... Hey, why were you still here?

Luanyun: Forget it. He can wait here, too.

Young Man: Can we discuss more about the script, then?

Luanyun: You are persistent.

Narrator: He was naive and didn’t hide his love of art. As soon as he started talking about anything creative, he couldn’t stop.

Young Man: My family has been a military family. No one had a creative cell in their body, and they don’t understand my dreams...

Young Man: I ran off to the capital in anger, thinking I had to get away. But guess what?

Luanyun: You must have hit a wall.

Young Man: Yeah. I haven’t sold a single script for a year.

Luanyun: If you want to change careers, you could make ends meet from ghostwriting.

Young Man: No, you’ve inspired me. I will finish this script. I’m going to be the world’s greatest playwright!

Young Man: When this play premieres, I’ll save a front-row seat just for you, who saved my script!

Narrator: I was amazed by his confidence. He’d been a big fish in a small pond, but he was in the Cloud Capital now, where few succeed.

Narrator: His eyes were wide and bright like a child’s. I swallowed what I was going to say.

Narrator: But I still didn’t think he could succeed. This chance encounter would be the first and last time we saw each other.

Narrator: Yet I thought about it a lot because... well, I counted as a contributor to the script.

Luanyun: Did he finish the script?

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

[kellyvela]

Has GRRM ever said in any interview or on his blog that he hates Sansa's complete storyline after 4th season? I dont really follow all of his fan/media interactions but from what I can recall he has spoken abt how LF in books wont give sansa to ramsay or how noone had issue when Jeyne was given the Ramsay storyline in books etc. Asking this question to you bcs you rightly point out how ppl misunderstood his interviews/posts ( sansans/targ stans etc) & I cant recall him ever saying he 'hates' sansa's story in the later seasons of the show ( not s5 in particular but even s6 to s8).

Capclave 2013:

A change that has repercussions for season 4 is Marillion’s tongue removal from the first season. Martin said that the change was made (from an anonymous singer being the victim of a de-tonguing) because they wanted Joffrey to maim someone the audience would recognize. He believes this is an issue because of the part the singer plays in Sansa’s storyline, how he affects her interactions with others in the book, and he doesn’t believe another character will be fulfilling that role on Game of Thrones.

—GRRM talks season 4 & beyond - Winter is Coming - October 13, 2013

2014 Fan Reports about Capclave 2013 (*):

In a convention panel this year, George said on the record that he had no idea what they were doing with Sansa or where they’re taking her storyline, which now makes sense perhaps. He was not pleased when he was talking about it, so who knows what’s going to happen with her! Knowing GRRM, that could mean they’re going off the canon reservation, and/or that they’re going to be making a lot of shit up

I have notes I’ll be responding to (thanks!) but enough people commented about Sansa that I thought I’d share that tidbit, since it happened back in September iirc (was the same panel where he criticized the exclusion of Tyrell brothers)

—starkalypse - June 3, 2014

GRRM’s comments at capclave about Sansa (which I was in the third row for, for those asking about legitimacy) were among others during the panel that had a general theme of dissatisfaction with show changes. He was not in good spirits for that con and didn’t really have anything positive to say regarding the show. So take it with a grain of salt; there are deviations away from the books in the episodes he gets writers credit for, so maybe they’re doing something stupid or they really don’t have a gameplan!

—starkalypse - June 4, 2014

(*) These reports were posted in June 2014, during the airing of Game of Thrones Season 4, about Capclave 2013 that happened in October 2013.

Just after the rape episode:

How many children did Scarlett O’Hara have? Three, in the novel. One, in the movie. None, in real life: she was a fictional character, she never existed. The show is the show, the books are the books; two different tellings of the same story.

There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one. And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect. Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes. HBO is more than forty hours into the impossible and demanding task of adapting my lengthy (extremely) and complex (exceedingly) novels, with their layers of plots and subplots, their twists and contradictions and unreliable narrators, viewpoint shifts and ambiguities, and a cast of characters in the hundreds.

There has seldom been any TV series as faithful to its source material, by and large (if you doubt that, talk to the Harry Dresden fans, or readers of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, or the fans of the original WALKING DEAD comic books)… but the longer the show goes on, the bigger the butterflies become. And now we have reached the point where the beat of butterfly wings is stirring up storms, like the one presently engulfing my email.

Prose and television have different strengths, different weaknesses, different requirements.

David and Dan and Bryan and HBO are trying to make the best television series that they can.

And over here I am trying to write the best novels that I can.

And yes, more and more, they differ. Two roads diverging in the dark of the woods, I suppose… but all of us are still intending that at the end we will arrive at the same place.

In the meantime, we hope that the readers and viewers both enjoy the journey. Or journeys, as the case may be. Sometimes butterflies grow into dragons.

—The Show, the Books - Not A Blog - May 18, 2015

Report about the last Game of Thrones Script that GRRM wrote:

No Wedding for Sansa and Ramsay: Without question, one of the most controversial changes the show made in trying to streamline the books was by slotting Sansa into the role of Ramsay’s wife and rape victim in Season 5. In the books, Ramsay marries and assaults Sansa’s best childhood friend, Jeyne Poole—who is being forced to impersonate Arya—instead. (You can actually see Jeyne briefly sitting next to Sansa in the show’s pilot.)

At the time Martin wrote this script, though, substituting Sansa for Jeyne was not yet the plan. Martin has Roose Bolton tell his bastard son: “We have a much better match in mind for you. A match to help House Bolton hold the north. Arya Stark.” It should be noted, however, that in Martin’s script, Sansa isn’t free from menace either. At his own wedding-day breakfast, Joffrey still threatens to rape the older Stark sister—once he’s “gotten Margaery with child.”)

—Game of Thrones: The Secrets of George R.R. Martin’s Final Script - Vanity Fair - December 7, 2018

A month before the Game of Throne S8 Finale:

Sansa’s story, in particular, has really deviated from the books. Ramsay Bolton — that marriage obviously was with a different character. When they start deviating like that, did you initially have any emotional reaction, even though you worked in Hollywood for many years yourself?

GRRM: Well, yeah — of course you have an emotional reaction. I mean, would I prefer they do it exactly the way I did it? Sure. But I’ve been on the other side of it, too. I’ve adapted work by other people, and I didn’t do it exactly the way they did it, so ….

Some of the deviation, of course, is because I’ve been so slow with these books. I really should’ve finished this thing four years ago — and if I had, maybe it would be telling a different story here. It’s two variations of the same story, or a similar story, and you get that whenever anything is adapted. The analogy I’ve often used is, to ask how many children did Scarlett O’Hara have? Do you know the answer to that?

I know it’s different in the book and the movie …

GRRM: Three children in the book, one by each husband. She had one child in the movie. And in real life, of course, Scarlett O’Hara had no children, because she never existed. Margaret Mitchell made her up. The book is there. You can pick it up and read Mitchell’s version of it, or you can see the movie and see David Selznick’s version of it. I think they’re both true to the spirit of the work, and hopefully that’s also true of Game of Thrones on one hand, and A Song of Ice and Fire on the other hand.

—George R.R. Martin on the Stark Sisters and Ending ‘Game of Thrones’ - RollingStone - April 22, 2019

James Hibberd’s Book:

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: Jeyne Poole was included in the pilot—she’s shown giggling next to Sansa—but she’s never seen or referred to again. I actually wrote Jeyne into “The Pointy End,” my first script, when Arya killed the stableboy. I had some stuff with Jeyne running to Sansa being all hysterical and dialogue in the council chamber with Littlefinger saying, “Give her to me, I’ll make sure she doesn’t cause any trouble.” That was dropped.

DAVID BENIOFF: Sansa is a character we care about almost more than any other. We really wanted Sansa to play a major part in that season. If we were going to stay absolutely faithful to the book, it was going to be very hard to do that. There was a subplot we loved from the books, but it was a character not involved in the show.

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: I was trying to set up Jeyne for her future role as the false Arya. The real Arya has escaped and is presumed dead. But this girl has been in Littlefinger’s control for years, and he’s been training her. She knows Winterfell, has the proper northern accent, and can pose as Arya. Who the hell knows what a little girl you met two years ago looks like? When you’re a lord visiting Winterfell, are you going to pay attention to the little kids running around? So she can pull off the impersonation. Not having Jeyne, they used Sansa for that. Is that better or worse? You can make your decision there. Oddly, I never got pushback for that in the book because nobody cared about Jeyne Poole that much. They care about Sansa.

—Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series by James Hibberd - October 6, 2020

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: My Littlefinger would have never turned Sansa over to Ramsay. Never. He’s obsessed with her. Half the time he thinks she’s the daughter he never had—that he wishes he had, if he’d married Catelyn. And half the time he thinks she is Catelyn, and he wants her for himself. He’s not going to give her to somebody who would do bad things to her. That’s going to be very different in the books.

—Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series by James Hibberd - October 6, 2020

I hope it helps you.

Thanks for your message.