#also credits to matthew for bringing this scene to life

[yrsonpurpose]

Taylor Zakhar Perez from Book to Screen I would say this is a really pivotal moment for Alex and Henry

[tinylilvalery]

people are taking matthews quote from a recent interview out of context abt tomgreg (he said he didnt play it as romantic but thinks it's fun that the fans see it that way) and claiming it means tomgreg is dead and he hates it... i'm so frustrated with this goddamn fandom smh...

It's interesting that he said that (I haven't seen the interview) considering how he acted Tom, but also people gotta realise

1. It's shipping... You can ship things whether actors ship it themselves or not. Hell, William Shatner has said time and time again that Jim Kirk is heterosexual, and yet you can watch TOS and see how Jim interacts with Spock and like... I really don't need to explain, I'm sorry sksnsk. So I look at Tomgreg the same way if it's really true MattMac doesn't ship it (again, idk what he said, but if he did say that these are my thoughts on shipping even when an actor doesn't). I have very close friendships and I don't behave in the way Tom does with Greg, but that's just me 🤷‍♀️. To summarise I'd say, it's like death of the author actor, because the performance itself transcends the actor's comments on it after the fact.

2. Actors aren't solely responsible for the character and the characters relationships W others, therefore they can't really take full credit of the character. Yes they embody and bring them to life, but there's also the script (multiple writers), the showrunner, as well as editing and direction as all the other massive contenders as to who creates the characters and the relationships on screen. As a writer myself, I do find it really um,, like very irritating¿ that people keep anointing actors as the sole creator of a character. They interpret script and bring it to life with direction but they didn't write the character and so they didn't create it. Kieran Culkin's acting practice is that he doesn't like to know where his character is heading, so he lives in the present and episode to episode when acting Roman. What I mean by this, is regardless of Kieran, there was ALWAYS a set path for Roman as to where he was headed in each season, and it didn't matter what Kieran was up to, his plotline still existed despite not knowing it. Does that make sense? My point is, whether an actor knows it or not, things are written in by writers, and I consider Tomgreg VERY MUCH a part of the text and subtext of the show.

So to summarise, if MattMac really said he didn't play Tomgreg as romantic and doesn't see them that way he basically achieves Death of The Actor because his performance speaks louder to me than his comments about his approach to acting Tom. Tom looks at Greg with such adoration that I've never seen him look at another character, he speaks to him in tones that he doesn't speak to other characters in, so again, his acting transcends his post comments. And SECONDLY, MattMac's comments still aren't a ship killer to me because he didn't actually create Tom alone. He interpreted the character, brought him to life, and definitely would have had say + freedom in his performance considering what we know of Succ's production, but he didn't CREATE Tom. That credit is owed to the writers who literally wrote Tom, and wrote Tomgreg's scenes how they did. The credit is also owed massively to editors in how they edited all the many hours of footage to portray Tom and Greg's relationship as we saw it.

We all know Succession is an incredible show. There's so many undercurrents happening all at once that surface at various times in forms of parallels and callbacks. I think it's funny to think that despite the pedigree of Succession, something as massive as Tomgreg was some sort of shared hallucination. It wasn't. Tomgreg is part of the sauce, and they're an intentional ingredient.

[warningsine]

Judged purely on style, HBO’s “True Detective” is a great show. Every week, it offers up shiver-inducing cable intoxicants, from an over-the-top action sequence so liquid it rivals a Scorsese flick to piquant scenes of rural degradation, filmed on location in Louisiana, a setting that has become a bit of an HBO specialty. (“Treme” and “True Blood” are also set there.)

Like many critics, I was initially charmed by the show’s anthology structure (eight episodes and out; next season a fresh story) and its witty chronology, which chops and dices a serial-killer investigation, using two time lines. In the nineteen-nineties, two detectives, Marty Hart and Rust Cohle (Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey), hunt down a fetishistic murderer, the sort of artsy bastard who tattoos his female victims, then accessorizes them with antlers and scatters cultish tchotchkes at the crime scene. In the contemporary time line, these ex-partners are questioned by two other cops, who suspect that the murders have begun again. If you share my weakness for shows that shuffle time or have tense interrogations—like the late, great “Homicide” or the better seasons of “Damages”—you might be interested to see these methods combined. The modern interviews become a voice-over, which is layered over flashbacks, and the contrast between words and images reveals that our narrators have been cherry-picking details and, at crucial junctures, flat-out lying. So far, so complex.

On the other hand, you might take a close look at the show’s opening credits, which suggest a simpler tale: one about heroic male outlines and closeups of female asses. The more episodes that go by, the more I’m starting to suspect that those asses tell the real story.

This aspect of “True Detective” (which is written by Nic Pizzolatto and directed by Cary Fukunaga) will be gratingly familiar to anyone who has ever watched a new cable drama get acclaimed as “a dark masterpiece”: the slack-jawed teen prostitutes; the strippers gyrating in the background of police work; the flashes of nudity from the designated put-upon wifey character; and much more nudity from the occasional cameo hussy, like Marty’s mistress, whose rack bounces merrily through Episode 2. Don’t get me wrong: I love a nice bouncy rack. And if a show has something smart to say about sex, bring it on. But, after years of watching “Boardwalk Empire,” “Ray Donovan,” “House of Lies,” and so on, I’ve turned prickly, and tired of trying to be, in the novelist Gillian Flynn’s useful phrase, the Cool Girl: a good sport when something smells like macho nonsense. And, frankly, “True Detective” reeks of the stuff. The series, for all its good looks and its movie-star charisma, isn’t just using dorm-room deep talk as a come-on: it has fallen for its own sales pitch.

To state the obvious: while the male detectives of “True Detective” are avenging women and children, and bro-bonding over “crazy pussy,” every live woman they meet is paper-thin. Wives and sluts and daughters—none with any interior life. Instead of an ensemble, “True Detective” has just two characters, the family-man adulterer Marty, who seems like a real and flawed person (and a reasonably interesting asshole, in Harrelson’s strong performance), and Rust, who is a macho fantasy straight out of Carlos Castaneda. A sinewy weirdo with a tragic past, Rust delivers arias of philosophy, a mash-up of Nietzsche, Lovecraft, and the nihilist horror writer Thomas Ligotti. At first, this buddy pairing seems like a funky dialectic: when Rust rants, Marty rolls his eyes. But, six episodes in, I’ve come to suspect that the show is dead serious about this dude. Rust is a heretic with a heart of gold. He’s our fetish object—the cop who keeps digging when everyone ignores the truth, the action hero who rescues children in the midst of violent chaos, the outsider with painful secrets and harsh truths and nice arms. McConaughey gives an exciting performance (in Grantland, Andy Greenwald aptly called him “a rubber band wrapped tight around a razor blade”), but his rap is premium baloney. And everyone around these cops, male or female, is a dark-drama cliché, from the coked-up dealers and the sinister preachers to that curvy corpse in her antlers. “True Detective” has some tangy dialogue (“You are the Michael Jordan of being a son of a bitch”) and it can whip up an ominous atmosphere, rippling with hints of psychedelia, but these strengths finally dissipate, because it’s so solipsistically focussed on the phony duet.

Meanwhile, Marty’s wife, Maggie—played by Michelle Monaghan, she is the only prominent female character on the show—is an utter nothing-burger, all fuming prettiness with zero insides. Stand her next to any other betrayed wife on television—Mellie, on “Scandal”; or Alicia, on “The Good Wife”; or Cersei, on “Game of Thrones”; or even Claire, on “House of Cards”—and Maggie’s an outline, too. Last week, Maggie finally got her own episode, in which she is interrogated by the cops. She lies to them, with noir composure, as the visuals reveal a predictable twist: Maggie had revenge sex with Rust. That sex is filmed as gasp-worthy, though it lasts thirty seconds. We see Monaghan’s butt, plus the thrusting cheeks of McConaughey. Yet the betrayal has no weight, since the love triangle is missing a side. An earlier sex scene is even more absurd, and features still another slice of strange: a lusty, anal-sex-offering, sext-happy ex-hooker. She seduces Marty with her own philosophical sweet nothings (“There is nothing wrong with the way he made us”), and, since she’s a gorgeous unknown, we get to see her ride Harrelson like a bronco, as ceramic angels and devil dolls look on from the dresser.

I’m certain that, if you’re a fan of the series, this analysis irritates you. It’s no fun to be a killjoy, particularly when people are yelling “Best show ever”; it’s the kind of debate that tends to turn both sides into scolds, each accusing the other of being prudes or suckers. A few months ago, a similar debate erupted about Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a film that inspired its advocates to rage that those who didn’t “get it” just needed to get laid. There were more nuanced arguments out there, though: in the Times, A. O. Scott argued that, while the film did a fine job sending up the corruption of the grifter Jordan Belfort, there was little distinction, visually, between Belfort’s misogyny and the film’s own display. Cool girl that I am, I didn’t entirely agree: like “True Detective,” “Wolf” unfolds in flashback, through voice-over, but its outrageous images bend and ripple with Belfort’s mania. With the exception of a few shots—like one of a stewardess, whose assault is treated as a joke in a way that made me twitch—the nudity, however nasty, makes sense.

On “True Detective,” however, we’re not watching the distorted testimony of an addict, punctured by flashes of accidental self-revelation. The scenes we see are supposed to be what really happened. And when a mystery show is about disposable female bodies, and the women in it are eye candy, it’s a drag. Whatever the length of the show’s much admired tracking shot (six minutes, uncut!), it feels less hardboiled than softheaded. Which might be O.K. if “True Detective” were dumb fun, but, good God, it’s not: it’s got so much gravitas it could run for President.

It’s possible that my crankiness derives from having watched so many recent, better crime series, telling similar stories, in far more original ways. Most notable were Jane Campion’s soaring “Top of the Lake,” on Sundance, and Allan Cubitt’s nightmare-inducing BBC series “The Fall.” In “Top of the Lake,” Campion jolts the viewer with actual taboo nudity: she films the saggy bodies of middle-aged women, members of a feminist encampment. Then she stitches this subplot, in which she satirizes the cult of self-help victimhood, onto a small-town mystery about sex crimes against teen-age girls, who are filmed with comparative discretion. A moody, pastoral twist on the rape-and-murder genre, Campion’s mini-series torqued viewer expectations, exploring provocative themes about the way that communities agree to treat these crimes as if they were bad dreams. “True Detective”’s hinted-at mystery seems strikingly similar. The difference is that, while “Top of the Lake” is about survivors, “True Detective” is about witnesses. The acts themselves are mere symbols of the universe’s unspeakable horror.

“The Fall” (which is available on Netflix) has even more conventional nudity than “True Detective.” It, too, tells a story about a team of detectives hunting for a rapist-murderer obsessed with symbolism. It features pervy stalker shots, along with sick-making imagery of female corpses, in bondage, photographed as keepsakes. Some critics called the show “misogynistic torture porn”: by turning viewers on, they point out, it takes a rapist’s-eye view. But this imagery has a sharp purpose. The show reveals the murderer immediately, forcing us to see the world through his eyes. Then, episode by episode, it tears that identification apart. Just like Rust Cohle, “The Fall”’s rapist has an elaborate pseudo-intellectual lingo, full of Nietzsche quotes and talk of primal impulses. But an icy female cop, played by Gillian Anderson, sees through him—and, in the finale, she shreds his pretensions with one smart speech. Anderson aside, “The Fall” overflows with complex female characters, and not merely the killer’s victims but their families, the murderer’s wife, his daughter, and his mistress. Beautiful as “The Fall” looks, it’s harder to watch than “True Detective,” because there is a soul inside each body we ogle. When women suffer, their pain isn’t purely decorative.

“True Detective” isn’t over, of course: like any mystery, it can’t be fully judged before the finale—it might yet complete that mystical time loop Rust keeps ranting about. There are hints of the supernatural, with endless references to the “Yellow King” and the “Lost City of Carcosa”: maybe the show will reveal that it was Cthulhu all along, in the library, with the candlestick. But for now I’m an unbeliever. Bring me some unpretentious pulp, like Cinemax’s “Banshee,” or an intelligent thriller, like FX’s “The Americans,” which is beginning its second season later this month, and actually does have fresh things to say about sex, sin, and the existential slipperiness of human identity. Or, to quote Nietzsche: “Is life not a hundred times too short for us—to bore ourselves?”

[whileiamdying]

A Man With a Past Best Forgotten Goes to All Lengths to Remember

By Dave Kehr Jan. 23, 2004

Even by the lax standards of January film releases -- this month is the traditional dumping time for studio films that didn't quite work out -- ''The Butterfly Effect'' is staggeringly bad.

Starring Ashton Kutcher, the shaggy-haired young actor best known for ''Dude, Where's My Car?'' and for dating Demi Moore, ''Butterfly'' is a supposed thriller that mines the memory loss theme that has been turning up with striking regularity in American movies, from ''Memento'' to ''Paycheck.'' Mr. Kutcher's character, Evan Treborn, is an earnest college student whose life has been marked by a series of blackouts surrounding traumatic events. Majoring in psychology (he keeps a rat maze in his dorm room), he hopes to discover the reason behind the mysterious black holes in his mind.

Simple self-protection might be one possible explanation, given that his repressed memories include, as the film reveals in a spiraling series of flashbacks, being nearly strangled to death as an 8-year-old by his criminally insane father; being forced to participate in a child pornography video directed by the abusive father (Eric Stoltz) of the little girl, Kayleigh, he has a crush on; watching as a young woman and her baby are blown to bits in a practical joke gone wrong; and watching as the neighborhood bully, Tommy (who also happens to be Kayleigh's brother), ties Evan's beloved terrier up in a canvas bag and sets it on fire. That's a lot to handle right there, but the film's writing and directing team, Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, have some even more appalling atrocities in store for Evan as a young adult.

For reasons the film does not trouble to explain, Evan discovers that, if he reads a few lines from his childhood journals, he will be projected back in time to his traumatic moments, where he can change his behavior in small ways that will make a big difference later on. (This is where the title comes in, with its reference to the old canard about a butterfly flapping its wings in China and producing a tidal wave in New York.)

Sometimes Evan's adjustments seem to work out, as when he awakes from a time-travel session to find himself sharing a sorority house bed with Kayleigh, now grown into a radiantly happy 18-year-old (played by Amy Smart). But mostly his changes just lead to greater disasters, including one alternate reality in which Kayleigh is a scarred, drug-addled prostitute, living in what looks like Jodi Foster's old digs in ''Taxi Driver,'' and another in which Evan loses his arms and the use of his legs.

The complicated plotting soon spins wildly out of the control of the filmmakers (their last credit: ''Final Destination 2'') and begins producing unintentional laughs, as when Evan wakes up to find himself the newest and prettiest resident of a prison full of predatory neo-Nazi homosexuals.

But if the storytelling induces brain cramp, the imagery brings on a bad case of acid indigestion. The filmmakers return again and again to their movie's most repulsive visuals: the two naked children standing before a video camera, the dog squirming in the flaming bag, the mother, with her baby in her arms, approaching the mailbox in which Tommy has planted a lighted stick of dynamite. ''The Butterfly Effect,'' which opens nationwide today, is inhabited by a genuine spirit of cruelty, both toward its characters and its audience.

''The Butterfly Effect'' has been rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It includes several scenes of graphic violence, many directed against children and animals.

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

Written and directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber; director of photography, Matthew F. Leonetti; edited by Peter Amundson; music by Michael Suby; production designer, Douglas Higgins; produced by Chris Bender, A. J. Dix, Anthony Rhulen and J C Spink; released by New Line Cinema. Running time: 113 minutes. This film is rated R.

WITH: Ashton Kutcher (Evan), Amy Smart (Kayleigh), Eric Stoltz (Mr. Miller), William Lee Scott (Tommy), Elden Henson (Lenny), Ethan Suplee (Thumper) and Melora Walters (Andrea).

[solutechdigital]

Exploring the world of fanart

Critical Role Fanart: Exploring the World of Fanart

Introduction

Critical Role is a popular web series and live-streamed Dungeons & Dragons game.

Critical Role fanart is a form of creative expression that has gained immense popularity in recent years.

The increasing popularity of fanart has made it an essential part of the fandom culture.

II. Understanding Critical Role

Critical Role is the brainchild of Matthew Mercer, a voice actor and dungeon master.

The series involves a group of talented voice actors who play Dungeons & Dragons.

The unique storyline, well-developed characters, and high-quality production have contributed to the popularity of Critical Role.

The fandom culture associated with Critical Role consists of passionate fans who create new content such as fanart, fanfiction, and cosplay.

III. What is Fanart?

Fanart is a form of art created by fans based on their favorite characters or storylines.

It can include drawings, paintings, digital art, and even sculptures.

Fanart is popular across a variety of mediums and genres, from video games to TV shows to comic books.

Critical Role fanart is a unique subcategory of fanart that is tailored towards the iconic characters and storylines in the series.

IV. Critical Role Fanart: An Overview

Popular themes in Critical Role fanart include character portraits, battle scenes, and romantic moments.

Fanart creators often use different styles and techniques to bring their vision to life, such as realism, anime, or cartoon-like styles.

Some common elements of Critical Role fanart include the use of props and costumes, as well as incorporating the individual personalities and quirks of the characters.

Fanart can be found on various social media platforms, such as Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter.

V. Creating Critical Role Fanart

To get started with fanart, it is essential to have a good understanding of the characters and the world they inhabit.

Some tips for creating fanart include studying the source material, experimenting with different techniques and styles, and seeking feedback from the fan community.

Best practices for creating fanart include giving credit to the original creator, avoiding plagiarism, and following copyright rules and regulations.

Artists’ profiles and interviews showcase the journey, struggles, and successes of fan artists, providing insight into the creative process.

VI. Showcasing Fanart

Fan communities and events are an excellent way to showcase fanart and connect with other fans.

Popular fanart galleries and websites, such as DeviantArt and ArtStation, provide an online platform to showcase artwork.

Social media platforms like Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter also play a significant role in showcasing and sharing fanart.

VII. The Impact of Fanart

The significance of fanart lies in its ability to create a sense of community within fandoms.

Advantages of fanart include nurturing creativity, providing a channel for self-expression, and giving fans the chance to contribute to the fandom culture.

Disadvantages of fanart include potential legal and ethical issues related to copyright and plagiarism.

The relationship between fanart and canon material, especially in the context of Critical Role, is that fanart expands on the existing storyline, providing fan interpretations that supplement or diverge from the original canon material.

VIII. Fanart and Intellectual Property

Copyright and legal issues are among the primary concerns for fan artists and creators.

Fanart falls under the umbrella of fair use, which allows for the creation of transformative works.

Ethical considerations for fan artists include providing credit to original creators, avoiding plagiarism, and not profiting off of other people's intellectual property without consent.

IX. Fanart as a Creative Outlet

Fanart is a way for fans to express their creativity, whether it be for personal enjoyment or to contribute to the fandom community.

The psychological and emotional benefits of creating fanart include reducing stress, improving mental health, and boosting self-confidence.

Fanart also provides an opportunity for artists to hone their craft, experiment with different styles and techniques, and build their portfolio.

X. Fanart and the Future of Fandom

Fanart plays a crucial role in shaping the fandom culture and influence on pop culture.

There is a potential professional career in fanart, with creators turning their passion into a viable business.

The digital age has brought new opportunities for fanart creation, such as augmented reality and 3D printing.

XI. Conclusion

Critical Role fanart is an essential part of the fandom culture.

It offers fans numerous opportunities to showcase their creativity and contribute to the community.

As the world of fanart continues to grow and evolve in the digital age, the future looks bright for fan artists and creators.

XII. FAQs

What is the best way to get started with fanart?

Start by studying the source material and experimenting with different styles and techniques. Seek feedback from the fan community to improve your skills.

How can I showcase my fanart online?

Platforms like Instagram, DeviantArt, and ArtStation provide an online platform to showcase your artwork to a broader audience.

Is it legal to sell fanart creations?

The legality of selling fanart creations depends on the nature of the artwork and the intellectual property laws of the source material.

What is the relationship between fanart and canon material?

Fanart is a fan interpretation of the source material and can either supplement or diverge from the original storyline.

How has fanart impacted the Critical Role fandom?

Fanart has contributed to the Critical Role fandom culture, providing a way for fans to express their creativity and connect with other fans.

[matwalerian]

Israel, The Soundtrack Of My Life - review - Okuden | Walerian Shipp Parker Drake - by Adam Baruch

"... archetypal example of a metaphysical conversation between experienced musicians … perfect coherence and mutual respect …remarkable calmness and ease, without any compromise..."

"... definitely the strongest and most mature statement by Walerian so far ... brings on a true satisfaction to see a Polish Jazz musician perform with esteemed American partners without any inferiority complex. It must be said that as far as Shipp, Parker and Drake are concerned, this is also some of the best work they recorded..."

"... recommended to all listeners of Free Spirited Jazz music anywhere … which will be rewarded by a couple of hours of highly aesthetic and spiritual experience."

This is the fourth album by Polish (resident in NY) Jazz multi-instrumentalist / composer Mat Walerian, released by the reanimated legendary NY ESP label. The lineup, under the Okuden moniker, is expanded to a quartet and includes all three musicians who took part in the three previous recordings: pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake – icons of the American Free Jazz / Improvised Music scene. The 2CD album presents six (one a three-part piece) original compositions, all by Walerian.

The music, recorded during one session, is an archetypal example of a metaphysical conversation between experienced musicians, which moves freely from subject to subject, in perfect coherence and mutual respect. Although Walerian sets the tone and direction, ever so gently, moving between the saxophone, clarinets and flute, the rest of the quartet follows suit fluidly and the musicians add their input to the conversation with elegance and remarkable aptitude.

Despite the “usual” aggressive atmosphere associated with Improvised Music, this recording offers a completely calm and orderly fashion of mutual exchange and development of ideas, relaxed cooperation and as strange as it might sound results in “pleasant” aural vistas, certainly not what one would expect from these musicians. Walerian proves to be not only an excellent catalyst, but also an anodyne. As a result, the music offers a remarkable calmness and ease, without any compromise whatsoever of the complexity and quality of the music.

Overall this is definitely the strongest and most mature statement by Walerian so far and brings on a true satisfaction to see a Polish Jazz musician perform with esteemed American partners without any inferiority complex. It must be said that as far as Shipp, Parker and Drake are concerned, this is also some of the best work they recorded, and they all have an extensive recording legacy to their credit.

In many respects this album is much better and more interesting than many Free Jazz / Improvising Music albums released in Poland lately, where this idiom seems to be lost wondering in the desert and devoid of clear musical / spiritual leadership, with many of the original Avant-Gardists being no longer with us.

This album is warmly recommended to all listeners of Free Spirited Jazz music anywhere and definitely worth the effort of searching out a copy, which will be rewarded by a couple of hours of highly aesthetic and spiritual experience.

read full review here :

http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106607

[kingstylesdaily]

Eternals Writer Blames Harry Styles’ Marvel Character For Infinity War

Exclusive: Eternals writers Matthew 'Kaz' Firpo & Ryan Firpo say that Harry Styles' Eros is to blame for Thanos' actions in Avengers: Infinity War.

Warning: this article does contain spoilers (most of which we already know) but if you still wanna be surprised, don’t read ahead!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry Styles' Eros/Starfox is to blame for Thanos' (Josh Brolin) misguided actions in Avengers: Infinity War, Eternals writers say. Marvel Studios' latest film directed by Chloé Zhao introduced a whole new superhero team to the MCU. But, it also debuted a couple of more characters who are not members of the main Eternals lineup such as Kit Harington's Dane Whitman, as well as Styles' Eros.

As per the comics, Dane will eventually become Black Knight in the MCU despite appearing as a non-powered human in Eternals. Meanwhile, things are a little bit different for Eros. Introduced in Eternals' post-credits scene as Thena (Angelina Jolie), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), and Druig (Barry Keoghan) attempt to find their other missing teammates, Starfox was introduced by Pip the Troll (voiced by Patton Oswalt). Not much is known about the character thus far, but Marvel Studios is sticking to his print origins as the younger brother of Thanos. While the MCU has yet to learn what their dynamic was like, the writers for Eternals are convinced that Eros has something to do with how the Mad Titan turned out to be.

In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Matthew 'Kaz' Firpo & Ryan Firpo were asked if there was any intention of bringing in Thanos' dad, A'lars, who was first mentioned in Avengers: Infinity War, in Eternals. The pair acknowledged the Mad Titan's fascinating origins story having ties to both Eternals and Deviants. In the end, Kaz went further by saying that having a perfect brother who's able to make everyone adore him in Eros may have scarred Thanos. Inadvertently, this was why he was hell-bent on making an impact through the snap. Read the writers' quotes below:

Kaz Firpo: We were actually, like, powerfully familiar with the crazy Thanos origin story, which I'm pretty sure is full-blown Greek myth where he, like, killed his own mother I wanna say... It's been a little bit since I read those arcs, we did a deep-dive into Thanos...

Ryan Firpo: She rejected him.

Kaz Firpo: Yeah, he was born from an Eternal and raised as a Deviant, and he's sort of caught in between the two, so there is a lot of... again, that early connective tissue.

But I think, for the sake of this movie as a film, we really just decided to tell this story, and maybe when we get out into the cosmos you might... I mean, we're literally meeting Thanos' actual brother at the end of the film, and I think there's room for Eros - well, Harry [Styles] - to have a conversation about that.

I think that Starfox is a lot responsible for why Thanos is the way he is, to have that... all jokes aside, to have this perfect brother who can make anyone fall in love with him? It does something to you. So I hope we get to see a little bit more of that in Number 2.

For those unfamiliar with Starfox from the comics, Thanos' brother didn't have the Deviant gene that gave the Mad Titan his purple skin. Instead, Eros looks like a normal Eternal — even a good-looking one. He has all the basic Eternals powers, but his signature skill is that he's able to psionically stimulate the pleasure centers of someone's brain. Essentially, Starfox can control someone's emotions, primarily making them like him. Given Thanos' issues with his image, hence the moniker Mad Titan, it's possible that he was psychologically scarred by the inevitable comparisons to his brother. Because of this, he became obsessed with his life-long crusade to supposedly save the universe via the snap in Avengers: Infinity War. In hindsight, this makes Thanos a more empathetic villain. Not that the decimation is suddenly justifiable, but this offers a better insight as to what the purple villain's real motivation was.

With Thanos now dead in the Sacred Timeline, it's curious if Marvel Studios ever plans on showing him with Eros through flashbacks or other forms of creative storytelling. It's safe to assume that Starfox has a long future in the MCU as one of the newest characters to be introduced in the franchise via Eternals. This gives them plenty of time to explore his origins and relationship with his big brother, and perhaps even confirm or deny if he has anything to do with the snap in Avengers: Infinity War.

source: screenrant.com

[matthewgiggles]

The Colour Room (2021)

First Impressions

Oh Wow this was such a lovely film to watch! Really enjoyed this one as it combined some of my favourite GoodE subjects. Having a master degree in history of art, this movie really speaks to me and watching Matthew’s brilliant performance as Colley Shorter is such a delight!

Matthew like always, is just a lot of fun to watch. He had quite a vast spectrum of acting scenes to bring the personality of Colley to life. I just loved how supportive he was of Clarice’s ideas from the get go. There was fun & giggles, determination, romance, quite a few explosive scenes where he quarrelled with his brother, and frailty. Hey we’re all biased here concerning Matthew, but I can truly appreciate his amazing acting talent when it comes to portraying emotions on screen. I hope he had as much fun with his scenes as I did watching this project.

Phoebe Dynevor did such a fantastic job with her portrayal of Clarice Cliff, hope she gets some recognition and more opportunities out of this. I think like many others, I knew Phoebe as ‘Daphne Bridgerton’ from Netflix show “Bridgerton”; I’m so happy to see she is definitely one of those versatile young actresses who are able to tackle different roles. I’ve definitely become a fan of hers!

I recently rewatched “Ophelia” (2018) which was also directed by Claire McCarthy, and I am such a fan of her directing style and choices. Especially the way she uses splashes of colour in her shots and the filters she applies throughput. They really add something quite unique, every shot is just worthy of a screencap really as they are just gorgeous to look at.

This is just a short first impressions review, but Kudos to the rest of the ensemble cast and entire production team. I loved all the amazing artwork and the Bizarre range copies that were made. They are worthy of a rewatch on their own. Sets and costumes were just fantastic to look at as well. Again, I absolutely adored the film from beginning to end. Congrats to all involved!

Fingers crossed the DVD & BluRay gets released soon, and for the love of all….please Sky, BRING on the EXTRA’s! I would love to see a set/ production design tour, costumes, and cast & crew interviews of course! (There are quite a few interview gems with Matthew to be found on those DVD’s whenever production companies bother to include them…)

Pic credit: Sky / Caspian Films

[modernday-jay]

i love your office au, do you have anything you wanna share?

i've been avoiding talking about this because i wanted to draw it all out and have it be revealed in parts but i think i'm a bit too lazy for that

BUT, i have always thought about the timeline for it like... if this was a show, this would happen here. like "this season would be abt that, oh the finale would be this, etc etc" y'know? so here's the vague outline i had (and yeah, it's VERY fruk-centric)

season 1

romerica/geritapan

it would start out with the beginning of alfred's time as a manager, he's just trying to figure out how to run the business and how to get everyone on board with his ideas.

lovino's current struggle is that he's got a huge crush on alfred but y'know, now that alfred's his boss it's just a weird power dynamic that he doesn't like so he's TRYING to get over it. it doesn't help that feliciano is constantly trying to talk to him about his love life and his complicated feelings over ludwig/kiku

fruk

fruk are just mean desk mates that usually bully each other OR team up to bully alfred, who used to sit with them and yao when he was just a normal salesman. 

slowly it'd reveal that arthur writes smut on his computer, and that francis reads it. and the season finale would be the part where they stay back overtime and ALMOST sleep together, which i get into more detail in this post

season 2

romerica

alfred’s really upset that his coworkers (who used to like him!) refuse to listen to him, so he tries really hard to boost office morale with a raffle. unfortunately, no one puts their name into it :( that day, when everyones leaving the office, lovino notices alfred near the box being all sad and even though he’s been trying to make some distance between them, he can’t help but ask what’s wrong. alfred says smth sad like “gee maybe i’m not good enough to be a manager, huh?” and leaves, so lovino’s left staring at the box. 

the next day the raffle box is FULL of names by lunch, and alfred’s like MAD excited about this. he takes a paper out and calls out “arthur? arthur you won the raffle buddy!” and arthur’s just like ??? i didn’t put my name in ??? and he’s right, he didn’t. but lovino spent his whole night writing down everyones names a couple of times and put them all in when alfred left for lunch. alfred doesn’t know this, and lovino obviously never gets credit where it’s due, but it’s worth it to see alfred at least a little more confident again. 

fruk

fruk shenanigans where they're sneaking around and sorta half dating?? but they're both stubborn and don't want to admit to each other that they actually want to pursue a weird relationship. explained more in this post!

everyone kinda knows what's going on because they're really obvious, except for alfred. but alfred notices that SOMETHING'S weird because the sales from both francis and arthur have been going down lately (because they're too busy hooking up around the office, but alfred thinks it's because they must miss him, so he tries to hold an intervention for them where he tries to tell them to stop missing him so much!) + yao actually catches them in the act which makes both arthur and francis panic

season finale would be arthur going down for a smoke break with joao, but then gilbert and antonio are making fun of arthur because of the smut (as they should), arthur gets embarrassed and confronts francis about it which leads to them having a big fight. and arthur would get a chance to say the stuff in this post

season 3

fruk 

this one opens with arthur at a new branch and he’s just like “i had to move for... reasons” (reasons being the fact that he can’t deal with his feelings for francis anymore so he just runs away from it) 

obviously francis is pretty crushed about this but he won’t admit it. arthur probably comes back halfway through the season and they finally talk about their relationship properly, because the time away from each other made them realise how much they needed each other and all that sappy stuff 

season 4

romerica

alfred needs to go to a conference and brings lovino along with him for a quirky little roadtrip. we also meet ivan here! by this time, lovino thinks he’s gotten over his feelings for alfred completely but the roadtrip reminds him of the good times they had when alfred was just a salesman. they end up kissing but alfred pulls back, obviously a little heartbroken and says “hey, we can’t... i’m your boss... but you’re still my bestfriend so can we just stay friends?” and lovino just stares at him for a sec before nodding. it’s a little awkward for them the rest of the way home.

when they’re back at the office, alfred ends up absorbing himself into his work since ivan sparked that rivalry in him and lovino’s stopped talking to him aside from normal work talk.

fruk

things are finally going good for them, they’re dating and finally have a steady relationship. their numbers are finally up because now they’re hooking up AFTER work hours, and they finally tell the entire office. alfred is the only one surprised. 

season 5

romerica

so throughout all the seasons, lovino would show a big interest in art and it turns out that he’s pretty great at painting. he’d love to pursue art school or something like that, but until now he’s been too scared to try it out. his relationship with alfred is weird and he thinks that NOW is finally the time to try and do something new. working for alfred’s proving to be too hard. he doesn’t tell anyone, but he finally applies for art school and he gets in! he still works at the office though while he’s studying because y’know, he still needs the money

fruk

after a good long while of dating, one of them proposes. alfred comes in late the day they’re announcing it, so arthur has to repeat it and alfred TACKLES him in excitement because he’s THAT happy for them - like this scene

the season would end with their wedding. alfred cries when arthur doesn’t ask him to be his best man lmao 

season 6

canukr

ANOTHER wedding, it’s not a season finale type deal since katya and matthew are just side characters but it’s a fun opportunity for hijinks between alfred and ivan. plus, alfred finally gets to be a best man! 

fruk

just them navigating marriage. they’re scared they’re becoming boring so they try to spice things up every once in a while and their hijinks become increasingly more stupid throughout the season. 

romerica

nothing much really happens between them, but they are starting to be friends again but there’s still that tension. lovino likes alfred and alfred likes lovino, but alfred also likes his job. 

season 7

fruk

they eventually calm down and finally start talking about making their family bigger. they choose to adopt two baby girls at the end of the season

romerica

lovino’s finished art school and by the end of the season, he finds a new job as an art teacher. he’s reluctant to leave this job because he was afraid to mess up something he ACTUALLY enjoys, but alfred encourages him to go ahead with it because even though he’d miss seeing him everyday, this is lovino’s dream!

it’s really sad and dramatic UNTIL they both realise... alfred’s not his boss anymore, they can finally try out a relationship. the final episode ends with alfred coming to this realisation, running out to the parking lot before lovino can leave the office for the last time to kiss him!  

[justatidalwaveoffeelings]

Ok, so I don't write. I have never written a fanfic. This doesn't have a name and it's probably poorly written. It's Rachel's point of view around the time of Cammie's second kidnapping attempt. I was bored and I had this idea stuck in my head so here it is. I debate not even posting it but what the hey🤷🏼‍♀️

@averagejoesolomon you totally got me hooked on the Rachel only calls Matt, Matthew. So all the credit to you on that one!

This whole thing is basically read at your own risk. Haha

Just like that, what she had left of her world was crumbling. It happened so quickly. Rachel hadn't seen what had happened. She just knew that one moment she had been talking to Cynthia McHenry and the next she felt her instincts as an operative hit her like a swift punch to the gut.

Something was wrong. She looked around the ballroom looking for Cammie but she didn't see her. She didn't see any of her freinds or even that Goode boy. Never one to be dissuaded from her mission, she  decided to look for Abby. She at least she might know where her neice was.

As much as her sister annoyed her, she was happy to have her back in her life. However temporary it might be. She was aware how an operative's life gets crazy. She knew her sister was dedicated but she didn't know how far they would be pulled apart when she stepped out of the field after Matthew's passing. They had just recently talked about why there hadn't been much contact between the two of them in recent years. Why Abby had walked farther away from Rachel and Cammie and deeper into her various covers. Rachel knew the guilt the came with losing Matthew. The countless nights that kept her up thinking about what might have happened if she told if him to stay home. If she had pulled the "wife card" and asked him not to keep secrets. She knew that Abby had been hurt. Rachel had never lived through anything harder. It didn't surprise her that everyone else who also loved him felt the same. When he died there was a very real whole in each of their hearts. She had suspected Abby just didn't know how to miss Matthew with her. After all, her sister had never been one to grieve in front of others. Rachel hadn't know just how deep routed her sister's guilt and regret had dragged her. Rachel regretted not going to get her baby sister back sooner after Matthew's passing but she hadn't wanted to press Abby too hard in a time of grief for both of them.

Now, if only she could FIND HER.  Her sister always had a knack for being where she wasn't supposed be. So, if Rachel could think if the most inconvenient spot for someone to be she might find her.

When she had finished looking around the ballroom the hair on the back of her neck started to stand on end. She felt a cold sweat start. Her blouse was too tight. She pulled at her collar and silently chastised herself being so obviously uncomfortable. Rachel wanted to tell her instincts to shut up, that nothing was wrong. She knew better though, something was off.

She felt eyes. She pretended to check her make-up in a small compact while checking behind her. She locked on a familiar pair of green eyes staring back at her. Of course he was there. She had just checked the whole room and hadn't spotted him once. If Joe was about to poke fun about her being off now was not the time. When she turned to face him she realized that he wore an expression just as grim as her own.

"You got the same sick feeling in your gut?"

Before she could respond something seemed to dawn on Joe.

"Where's Cammie, Rachel?"

"I don't know. I've been looking for her, or her roommates. Even Abby."

"Zach". Joe mumbled the boy's name. "He's probably with her, right? Did you see them slip out?"

"No, well maybe, but if I knew that I wouldn't be so gosh darn worried now would I, Joseph?!" She hadn't meant to snap but she was feeling worse by the second. Now her instincts seemed to be at work on her stomach.

When the shot went off they didn't question where it had come from. They didn't need to wait for some sort of command. Old habits did truly die hard.  They were across the ballroom in seconds. Not drawing the attention of a single onlooker. They slipped out the back door into a dark ally. The Circle. They were there. Beside her Joe started to speak into thier comms unit. There was a big problem. Rachel looked for Cammie. She was being snagged back down the ally, toward the safety of the door by Zach. Neirher of them was bleeding. She was able to breath agian. The bullet could have been a warning shot. It didn't feel that way though. Where did it land?

She brought herself back to the scene. They were after her daughter and she had to protect her daughter. The kids were fighting like operatives. That was something the headmistress in her couldn't have missed and was quietly proud of. Now only if they could all get out of it. Other gallagher girls rushed out beside her, ready for the fight, ready to protect Cammie.

The second that Rachel could she ran at Cam. Yelling Cammie's name she threw herself against her daughter, deeper into the shadows of other gallagher girls. Farther into safety. Only after the immediate securing of Cammie did Rachel realize that people were still screaming. It was Macey standing over.....

Abby. Abby. Abigail. She knew Cammie was secured. Joe would help make sure of it. She needed to get to her sister. She needed to help her sister. She was bleeding from the shoulder, there was so much blood pooling beneath her. Rachel couldn't breathe. She couldn't catch her breathe. Rachel had always been cool under fire; a natural operative. This felt so different. The operative in her was mad for missing the fight. For not getting there in time. The mother in her was scared and hurting for her daughter. The sister in her felt cheated and so very crushed. She couldn't lose Abby on top of everything else. Her heart beat to one terrible pulse-  She was not ready to lose anymore family. She dropped to her knees beside her sister. She didn't know if she had told Macey to go back to her roommates but she got up and walked away. Rachel pressed some leather jacket into her sister's wound. She didn't realize that she was crying until she saw her own tears falling on Abby's face. Rachel was screaming. She really. couldn't. breath. She heard screaming and crying in the background. Cammie. She couldn't take this or rather she didn't want to. Her sister way dying in front of her and her daughter was being emotionally tormented. She debating getting up, but she couldn't stop crying. She didn't want Cammie to see her so emotionally distraught and she couldn't bring herself to her feet. Cammie would have to be strong.

Joe was on the seeminly knew what she was thinking because instead of coming toward Abby he commanded the women around Cammie. Keeping her safe. Cammie's sobbing became softer. Rachel's didn't.

She didn't get up when the paramedic team arrived. She wasn't going to leave Abby. She couldn't lose her. She didn't feel like a good operative in control. She felt like a big sister, weak from all that crying. She felt Joe behind her. Pulling her up from her knees. Trying to tell her to let go of Abby's hand. She forced Joe to let go of her arms. Desperate to be the one who fixed it. To do something, anything. All she could do was tell the medic what she saw, and tell Abby that she was going to be ok.

When she turned back around he was there. Teary but not crying yet.

"She's strong. She'll pull through". He tried to reassure her but his voice shook. His hand on her arm felt unsteady. Joe never cried. It was going to be a long night. She had to keep busy. She went to check on her daughter. She couldn't lose any more of her family. 

Rachel saw the footage. She knew in that it all happened in a few minutes. It felt like this night would never end. She watched that security footage obsessively outside of her office, sitting on the corridor floor with her head on the wall, right underneath Gilligan's sword. Cavan's sword. Maybe Abby was right. They should have thrown it in the lake. Her daughter was asleep inside her office, away from danger for now. Abby was in surgery. Abby might of died. Abby could still die. Every time she let herself linger on that fact she felt like crying all over again. So, she didn't let herself think of it. She watched the security clip again waiting and watching for a clue. Something. She couldn't truly focus on it though. She was too tired or emotionally distraught. It didn't matter the reason, she knew that a truly great operative had to know when to wave her white flag. In that moment she didn't even feel a little guilty about turning off the video.

Joe stepped out of her office. She did a double take, the last time she had seen him look that way was the night he told her about Matthew. He had been crying. Joe Solomon does not cry. There he was though. He face was streaked eith tears and his shoulders shook slightly. She braced herself for the worse but he just stood there. He looked awful. She moved forward to give him a hug. She couldn't help herself, she started crying again too. Rachel hated to cry in front of anyone but she figured that this secret was safe with him, just like any of the other she had shared with him.  She was thankful that she had a freind in him. Thankful that someone else loved Cammie and was willing to fight for her. 

After a moment they separated and sat down on the corridor floors.

"I'm so sorry Rachel. I'm so so sorry."

"For what?"

"For everything."

"Joe. After everything that's happened tonight, we are not going over this again..  Its not your fault". Joe started to cry again. Rachel hadn't seen Joe cry so much. She couldn't resist asking him

"What?"

He looked at her pitifully. "You don't know whats my fault, belive me. I.... I think you should think it's my fault."

She wasn't suprised that he was saying these things. She knew of course that he felt guilty. Matt went on the mission he was supposed to. She just wished that he didn't get so hung up on it.

He continued "This never would have happened if Matt were here. He would have taken care of it, you know?"

Of course she didn't know that to be true but she had felt it as well. She didn't want to dwell on what it could have been so she told him that they didn't know that. That he couldn't control who the director sent on that mission. The circle might have come after Cammie even if Matt was alive. Matthew was just a human being, who made mistakes. They didn't know if Matthew being alive would change everything. Joe didnt seem convinced though and Rachel couldn't blame him. It was well worn territory in a familiar conversation. They didnt truly fight, but when it came to blame about Matthews death they didn't exactly see eye to eye. Rachel thought about Matt. It struck her though that as bad as it was at times it could also be worse. Rachel thought about losing Cammie or Abby or even Joe and shuddered. She didn't want to lose anymore family.

She tried to reassure him

"Hey, it will be ok. We will take care of it together ok? We'll all take care of one another. We will do the best we can. Just promise me we will try. Ok?"

Joe had stopped crying but his attention seemed to be drifting.

"I'll try...ok?" It sounded so defeated. Rachel didn't want to press him further. Everyone had already had such a rough night. She let the conversation go until he quipped.

"I feel like I should be telling you these things."

They couldn't help each giving a small laugh

They sat there. They waited for a doctor to come tell them that Abby would make it. They sat and waited for Cammie to wake up. Theorized ways to keep her out of harms way. They talked about surviving. All of them. Together.

Rachel rested in knowing that at least for that day. She wasn't losing any more family. 

[jadelotusflower]

Robin Hood Rewatch - 3x03 Lost in Translation

This episode is all filler, no killer. The Bible in English, blackmailed clergyman, the gang excommunicated or something, idk.

At this point I’m desperately waiting for Isabella  and PJ to show up and inject some life into this season because wow was this a boring episode.

The Abbot of Kirklees Abbey is summoned to see the Sheriff, who reveals that he has one month to execute Robin or he’s done for. But the Abbot couldn’t care less until Vaisey reveals he’s uncovered his secret and blackmails him.

Robin, Much, and Tuck walk down the hill towards Locksley ready for a food delivery, and I get nostalgic for episode one and the hand-through-the-grass shot. I miss that kind of wistfulness to the show.

Vaisey and the Abbot arrive and claims that the gang has stolen from the Church, alongside some manipulation that Robin returned from the Holy Land a “satanic killer.”

He also gets in Kate’s face and pulls her little sister away in a creepy show of power - declaring that if the village doesn’t help him capture Robin, they will be wiped out, and is backed up by the Abbot’s edict, invoking the power of Pope Celestine III to brand them heretics.

Kate’s sister actually has a bit of a role this episode, and I can’t help but wonder why she wasn’t the little girl Guy threatened to send over the cliff and Robin saved in 3x01. That would have made a lot more sense and given Kate’s mother more of a reason to initially distrust Robin and fear for the lives of her children around him. 

This is actually a clever scheme of Vaisey, knowing that perhaps the only way people would turn on Robin is to use the power of the Church. Of course, he could have saved a bit of time and just threatened to kill Kate’s sister unless Robin turned himself in, but we need a story don’t we. However it does feel rather reminiscent of 1x04 when the Sheriff tried to convince everyone the gang were killers.

It’s panic stations back at the camp, where Allan is quick to say he wasn’t near the Abbey. Tuck expresses disbelief that the Abbot, being a renowned scholar, would go along with this, and wants to confront him. Robin wants to make his case to the people, and forbids Tuck to go.

Of course he goes anyway, and we get a bit of literal toilet humour. Gross.

Tuck put his monk robes back on for this scene, a nice touch. There’s an implied history between the two of them, but it’s never fully expressed, and the Abbot calls the guards on Tuck, who pulls out some Nightwatchman-esque fight moves (I particularly liked the handstand-kick-to-the-face) but is eventually captured.

Meanwhile the gang go to Locksley, where Kate’s sweet little sister is so happy to see them! It’s very cute.

Kate’s mother however is not, accusing Robin of playing war games with the Sheriff while the people sacrifice and suffer.

Now, I actually think this could have worked if it came from a different place - if it was based on Robin ignoring them while he was so concerned about the king last season, if bad things happened because he went away to the Holy Land, etc I could buy this. But the other outcome is Vaisey’s cruelty running unimpeded - the village was literally starving before Robin came back! Some critical thinking please Rebecca!

Oh, Kate’s mother’s name is Rebecca, which Robin knows as of this scene.

The Sheriff arrives with Tuck, and Kate hides the gang in her house.  

To their credit, none of the Locksley villagers give Robin up.

Rebecca continues to be awful, blaming Robin for Matthew’s death telling Kate not to be like him (i.e. following Robin and ending up dead). She tells the gang to leave and never come back.

The Abbot and Tuck argue, and it’s revealed the Abbot has completed a translation of the bible into English, which Vaisey has threatened to burn if he doesn’t help him bring down Robin.

Has there ever been a non-corrupt clergyman on this show? 

Robin talks to the tar dealer, while Much asks Allan to cover for him so he can go chase Kate, and the one bright spot of the season so far is the interaction between the two, even if I hate the Kate-chasing plot.

Speaking of which, watching Much try to woo Kate is physically painful.

“You’re dirty. You smell. And you’re trouble.” It’s a little harsh, but it is best for Kate to be direct with Much that nothing will ever happen between them. Will he take it to heed though?

I mean, why Much is even interested in Kate when she clearly doesn’t like him is beyond me. It’s not like there’s another pretty blonde out there who actually did show interest in Much and he once promised to go find... Oh wait.

Essentially, I am once again asking for them to bring back Eve. She would have been the perfect character to fill the Smurfette spot in the camp: she’s an established character, an accomplished spy, and it would have shaken up the camp dynamics a bit.

How old is Kate meant to be anyway? Joanne Froggatt was 28 at the time of filming, but I very much doubt Kate is meant to be more than early twenties at best. The writing skews young, which is perhaps some of the disconnect in Kate’s character - she acts like a teenager, but I don’t think she’s actually mean to be one?

Tuck is in the castle courtyard ready to be racked, getting his stomach painted for some reason?

I mean...??????? They’re going to rack him, not draw and quarter him.

“You start off, I’ll harmonise!” A good line for Tuck.

“You took your time”/”We were a bit stretched” from Allan is good too.

Much and John throw tar on Vaisey and Robin a shoots a flaming arrow, and we’ve seen this before as well.

“I just thought I’d put a spark back into our relationship, Sheriff!” Robin gives him a thumbs up, and it would have been funnier if he’d blown him a kiss.

Much is incredulous and excited hearing about the bible, John thinks its blasphemy, Robin seems ambivalent.

They plan to steal the book, while Vaisey is at the Abbey is digging up a grave, in order to claim it as a holy relic that Robin was trying to steal.

The Abbot is threatened with a book burning again, ho hum.

The feast day for St Barnabas is 11 June, which puts us 7-8 months after they left for the Holy Land, which seems...about right, taking into account travel time?

Barnabas was an early Christian martyr that appears to have no relevance to the actual story, other than perhaps he purportedly sold all of the land he owned to give to the poor.

Regardless in the context of the show it’s an important enough feast day for everyone to go to Kirklees Abbey with flowers in their hair.

Vaisey makes a cute Latin pun (”Te Dei, Te Deum, Tedious”), and then spins a story about a religious awakening in the deserts of the Holy Land where he found the hand of St Luke the Evangelist and was healed by it.

Tuck has the Bible but is waylaid, so Robin chooses to enter the Abbey where he trades barbs with Vaisey and pleads with the Abbot to tell the truth.

But he doesn’t, and they’re arrested. Kate, however, is visibly moved by Robin’s speech.

“If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Tuck quotes Corinthians and threatens to burn to book unless the Abbot saves Robin, but Vaisey intercedes.

The crowd that wouldn’t give up Robin and the gang in the church is now chanting for them to burn; Kate performatively, Rebecca probably not so.

Kate also slaps Robin as the opportunity to slip him an arrow head, which we could have figured out just with their exchange of looks - we definitely did not need an immediate flashback of it! Way to dumb it down for us director Alex Pillai, and not to even give us the unintended hilarity of hairpin! Hairpin! HAIRPIN! of 1x01.

The guards are about the light the pyre, but Vaisey just can’t get out his own way can he? More hubristic than ever, he stops them so he can fetch Kate’s sister from the crowd and try and force her to be the one to light the fire.

And Kate’s sister finally has a name! It’s Maggie. Poor thing is obviously in distress, and Robin tells her it’s alright, and just to do it. But she obviously takes after Matthew in the courage stakes and refuses. I’m more invested in this little girl who has had no lines than I am in Kate to be honest.

“Look..I’m burning them!” Just a great line delivery and I wonder if it was an ad lib.

But the Abbot finally grows a conscience and reveals the deception, buying the gang time to free themselves and run off. Vaisey burns the Bible in retaliation.

The gang toasts to the Abbott for doing the right thing at the eleventh hour, while somewhere in France he starts again. Try not to almost let innocent people die over it this time!

The writer for this episode was Ryan Craig, who only wrote this and Something Worth Fighting For Pt 1. That’s right, the penultimate episode of the entire show was written by a guy who only had one other episode under his belt, and it was this one.

I guess it wasn’t outright bad, just...void of any interest? (as evidenced by my simply recapping the events of the episode without really having to say about them).

This plot could have revealed a bit more about Tuck, but there’s nothing here we didn’t know about him from the first episode. It could have been about Robin’s loss of or re-commitment to religion (I’m still curious about that tattoo), or about the affect the gang’s jaunt off to the Holy Land had on the people, or a true examination about whether they are doing more harm than good as outlaws.

Or perhaps a scrap of plot or character development for John, Allan, and Much, who have been seriously sidelined so far!

[mallowstep]

What are your opinions on forbidden relationships in Warriors? I've seen people label it as a "trope" because of how common this is. Some find the forbidden romance aspect intriguing, though others find it extremely repetitive and old

I'd like to know your thoughts!

hm. well, it is a trope. i mean, there's an average of one major one a series, right? greysilver, leafcrow (and others, but that's the big one), heatherlion (and implied others), tigerdove, idk i don't remember anything from avos but violetshine luv her but there's probably something, bristleroot. dotc doesn't count bc well it's dotc.

anyway.

definitely a trope.

but that's not a bad thing.

what i think people don't give warriors enough credit for is that these are not all the same forbidden romance. most of them are handled in different ways and bring up different conflicts. i understand why people are tired of them, but let's not discredit one of the only good things in warriors romance: that they make forbidden relationships different.

like, with grey and silver, it's about loyalty and responsibility. leafcrow is just bad idea central, both heatherlion and tigerdove are about responsibilities and young cats, and they have two different answers, and bristleroot is challenging the whole idea from the start.

so like. give credit where credit is due: we're not doing the same (forbidden) relationships again and again. i don't see enough people talk about that.

okay so it turns out i have um. a lot of thoughts about this. idk i just kept writing and now it's over 2k words. so you know. under the cut: matthew does half-baked media analysis to talk about why the code and cats' relationships to it are misunderstood. while actually staying on topic.

anyway from here on i'm just going to say relationship/romance, and understand that i'm generally talking about the forbidden kind. also i'm talking exclusively within the realm of warriors romance, which is, on average, bad. so when i say "X is good," i don't mean "X is good in general," i mean "given what we have, X is good." just to be clear.

right! basically, this is a tool. it creates tension and drama, and that's fine. warriors is a soap opera, remember. soap operas use secrets and relationships and all sorts of plot devices over and over again. warriors is not Serious. it can be dark. it has serious moments. but it is not a Serious Book Series for Serious Kids. it is a soap opera for Future Theatre Kids. yeah?

from that perspective, i'm a-ok with forbidden romance. (also, as a mini-aside, it creates some much-needed genetic diversity when kits are involved.) and again: all of the major relationships are different, so i think that's better than a lot of people give it credit for.

yeah, heatherlion and greysilver and tigerdove are all about the same general idea (loyalty and responsibility), but they all have different circumstances and different resolutions.

so like? yeah. sure. why not?

plus, like, who's reading warriors for the romance? i separate the concept of "romance" from a "relationship" here: i like the relationships in warriors (ivy and dove tension my beloved), but i'm not here to read about tigerheart wooing dovewing. (yes, i do love the tigerdove scenes in oots. no, that's not because i think they're very good at being romantic.)

but i digress.

if warriors was a Serious Book Series for Serious Kids, i'd have a different take here. having been in an IRL forbidden relationship, i have the Personal Insight and Experience to say they're this weird mash of "very much how it feels" and "not at all how it feels."

tigerdove is probably my favourite bc it's the closest to my circumstances, and i think dovewing is a good pov. i like how she breaks up with him because it's a bad idea, but that's not the same thing as not feeling for him.

(heh. twelve-year-old me reading oots like "this will never apply to my life" what did you know)

but to the point, if warriors was serious, i'd point out that the consequences always seem to be internal. we haven't seen characters be punished for their actions. and so on.

but warriors is a soap opera.

and here's my actual thesis: we haven't seen characters be punished for their actions, because "forbidden relationships" are a normal and expected part of clan society.

like no, fandom-at-large, you're kind of missing the point. okay, you know how like. people complain about. idk. ivypool and fernsong being distantly related?

(third aside/very long ivyfern rant, i put a nice big "rant over" after it if you want to skip past it: they're third cousins. they share, max, 2.2% of their genetics. they are fine. do you know your third cousins? do you? yeah. and like. they live in a closed society. there is no one new.

i've never seen someone complain about forbidden romance and ivyfern at the same time, and i do generally agree we should have more mystery fathers, altho for a different reason, but like. idk. this bothers me.

their last shared relative was nutmeg. that's so far back. god. i get it, there was a prophecy saying they're related, but if you remember my rant about how dovewing shouldn't be a part of the prophecy because of how distantly related to firestar is, you know how i feel about that already.

complaining they're related and that's a problem is. deep breath here. it requires demonstrating that warriors has kept track of kinship all the way back to firestar's mother. and even if you wave that requirement, you still have to convince me they would care about that. this isn't a "they're cats, harold" situation, this is a "you would not know your third cousin even if you lived in the same town" situation.

i mean maybe you would. some people do. but my hometown has generations of people who married within its borders. you get as far as "cousin," maybe "second cousin" if you're feeling fancy. i'm not trying to make an always true statement, i just. every time i see someone complain about ivyfern being related, it strikes me as not understanding how extended families work?

i know third cousins isn't technically classified as a distant relative, but you have, on average, 190 third cousins. i feel so strongly about this i looked it up.

like i'm not. okay if you say, "I don't ship ivyfern because they are third cousins and that makes me uncomfortable" you are Valid. in general, you are all valid. i do not think you have to, on a personal level, be okay with ivyfern. you are free to do as you wish.

but. if you want to argue "ivyfern is a Bad Ship because they are third cousins" you have a hell of a burden of proof. simply saying "they share a great-great-grandmother" does not meet that, because like. yeah. we're all pretty damn related.)

(ivyfern rant over)

IVYFERN RANT OVER

right so. anyway. if you remove forbidden romance? you're forcing a lot more of those situations.

i've been messing around with modelling some small-scale fan clan-adjacent stuff to double-check the ratios for wbcd, and it's. it quickly becomes a necessity, is what i'm saying.

but i got distracted like. researching how related third cousins are. my point is not about that, that's like. a different topic. that i crammed into here because i have no self-control.

no, no, what i was trying to get to is: oakheart straight up tells us that cats have half-clan kits all the time, it's not a problem, no one talks about it. and that? that is exactly what we see modelled by warriors.

the only reason greystripe and silverstream have a problem is that silverstream dies and greystripe claims the kits. i feel very strongly that if she had lived, the kits would have been born and raised riverclan kits, that might, maybe, one day, guess who their father is.

we haven't had any half clan kits in a while, which yes! i think is a problem, but like. the fact that the three are medicine cat kits seems to be a bigger issue. which feels right.

and i'm not trying to argue what i think should be, i legitimately believe the text of warriors defends this, even in newer books which throw out a lot of the older world building in favour of more human-like conflict.

as readers, we are naturally following protagonists. we are following the interesting story. but imagine you're just a background riverclan cat. minnowtail, if you will. do you think, do you honestly think, anyone cares about minnowtail?

not in a bad way, just. if she's meeting up with mousewhisker at night, do you think anyone cares? of course not! no one cares. she's not a Protagonist. her kits aren't going to be prophesized about.

heck, finleap switches clans! and it's barely a big deal. it feels like one, but when's the last time anyone bothered dealing with it? that's what i thought.

(also i forgot like all of avos so that very last point might be a bad one if it is my argument stands i just literally do not remember anything in avos but violetshine. none. zero.)

but it's easy to get caught up with characters like hollyleaf and bristlefrost and forget that like. not everyone cares about the code. most of our protagonists do, because it's become mostly equivalent with being moral. and i have an essay draft titled "the code as religion vs the code as law" where i want to expand on this more, but i think like. that idea, that we as readers should use the code as a way of evaluating cats' behaviour, is flawed.

like, i'm not talking about being inconsistent with how that is applied. if you want to say, "the trial leafpool goes through for having half-clan kits is legitimate because of the code," i still think your approach is flawed.

because the cats themselves don't seem to think that way.

the code doesn't, to me, feel like the ten commandments. it does not feel like "you must do this to be a good cat."

rather, it feels like aesop's parables. "here are mistakes cats made and what we do instead of that."

i don't think the cats know the code the way we do. i do not think they memorize a list of rules as kits. i think they know what is and is not part of it, but i imagine they know the stories far more than the rules.

(i'm working on my lore stories to replace code of the clans.)

and even if that's my thoughts, i do think this is supported by the text. no one ever teaches the warrior code, cats just learn it in pieces. "don't waste food because we don't have enough to spare" is taught, not "there's a rule about food and starclan on the code."

that's why the whole arc of the broken code even works: the reason the imposter is able to manipulate things is because cats don't treat the code as a rigid set of rules and commandments, but guiding principles.

the parts of the code that we tend to focus on the most are relationships, apprentices, and battle. or that's my perception. i didn't do a poll to obtain that. there's also the leader's word, but readers don't usually think of that as a good rule, so i'm not including it.

but the parts the cats focus on most are food, territory, and the leader's word. which makes sense: those are basic needs: food, security, and...i don't want to say authority so much as some kind of social system. explaining it would be a whole thing. just trust with me, if you don't mind.

i don't think we have any real reason to believe cats care about half-clan relationships half as much as we do. yes, apprentices are chastized about it, but that's not really the same thing as being punished.

and it's hard to tell, because apprentices being punished has really fallen off, and that's kind of the problem with any argument i try to make about warriors, but.

wow.

i'm actually still on topic? i'm 2k words in and i'm still on topic? a day i never thought would come.

let's wrap this up. cats seem to care about half clan relationships in that: a) they lead to conflicted loyalties, b) they mess with borders and prey, and c) they are in the code as bad. in that order.

and again, if the code was some high and holy religious doctrine, we couldn't have the broken code as an arc. it does not work if the cats are already following it to a t, and know it word for word, because it's signfiicantly harder to manipulate people if they do.

not to the level the imposter does, at the speed he does.

and yes, you could argue that it's more bad writing, but. i think that discredits warriors. yeah, it sure has its fair share of bad writing, but i don't think that's in the way the imposter works. instead, he seizes on a big important doctrine that's nebulous, and uses that to control people.

and that? that feels much more interesting.

so with that in mind, i don't think the cats would care about your typical, non-protagonist forbidden relationship, and i don't think we should, either.

as far as a plot device, i think we're okay with what we have. don't get me wrong, i understand why people are tired of it, but i think we also should remember that warriors is not repeating itself. having multiple forbidden relationships is not repetitive. now, if medicine cats were having half-clan kits every series, i'd make a different argument.

but all of the major forbidden relationships have different outcomes, lessons, and circumstances, and for me, i think that's signficantly interesting.

i didn't really check sources and quotes for this, so like, if you spotted something wrong, feel free to correct me. my overall point stands, but there's a lot of warriors and i have a bad memory, so i could have missed somthing major.

[arctic-comet]

Osblaine week 2021, Day 2: Lyrics

Over the last several weeks, I have carefully curated a playlist for Osblaine. The final total length of the playlist is 2 hours and 53 minutes.

The playlist can be found HERE

Click "Keep Reading" if you're interested in the introduction, commentary, more graphics and the full tracklist.

For full disclosure, I have to give some of the credit to my amazing fellow Osblaine fangirls @dystopiandramaqueen, @splitscreen and everyone who participated in a certain conversation for the original inspiration and even bringing up some of the songs.

You should look at the playlist in five parts: one section for each season that's aired and one section for the future (because I like to end things on a hopeful note).

The playlist contains a lot of the following:

Music from movie and TV soundtracks

Instrumental music

Remixes

Classics and covers of classics

Country music. I blame Florida. My sincerest apologies.

Some of the songs were chosen because they reminded me of a certain Osblaine scene, and some of them aren't specific to particular scenes but chosen for the general Osblaine vibe. And most of the movie/TV music I chose have been used for couples that remind me of Nick and June.

Part I- Season 1, first 12 songs of the playlist:

Forbidden Love- Abel Korzeniowski, Jasper Randall, The Hollywood Studio Symphony (Romeo & Juliet)

Fireflies- Owl City

Echoes in Rain- Enya

My Ghost- Glass Pear (Bones)

Daring to Hope- Anne Dudley (Poldark)

Everytime We Touch- Cascada

1000 Times- Sara Bareilles

Too Good At Goodbyes- Sam Smith

In Case You Don't Live Forever- Ben Platt

To Find You- Cast of Sing Street, Brenock O’Connor

She- Elvis Costello (Notting Hill)

Miracle- Instrumental- Cö Shu Nie

Hanging By A Moment- Lifehouse

Commentary:

The first instrumental song IMO works as an intro for their entire love story.

The next two songs are more about having the right vibe. It's a little ambiguous and dark because that's how their life is in Gilead.

Leave my door open just a crack

Please take me away from here

'Cause I feel like such an insomniac

Please take me away from here

Why do I tire of counting sheep?

Please take me away from here

When I'm far too tired to fall asleep

***

Wait for the sun

Watching the sky

Black as a crow

Night passes by

Taking the stars

So far away

Everything flows

Here comes another new day

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

***

"My Ghost" is June's POV before they sleep together, wondering if she can trust Nick:

Who can you trust, in this place?

And whom can I put my faith?

If you're real, then show me now,

Who you are

The last two songs are for episode 1x10, for both Nick’s reaction to June’s pregnancy and the beginning of her first escape attempt (arranged by Nick).

She may be the face I can't forget The trace of pleasure or regret May be my treasure or the price I have to pay She may be the song that summer sings Maybe the chill that autumn brings Maybe a hundred different things Within the measure of a day

Part II- Season 2, next 10 songs:

Love Will Keep Us Alive- Eagles

So Easy- Phillip Phillips

Incomplete- James Bay

Rewrite the Stars- The Piano Guys (The Greatest Showman)

I’ll Be Your Shelter- Taylor Dayne

Love Never Fails- Brandon Heath

P.S. I Love You- 05:11- John Powell (P.S. I Love You)

It's A Girl- Mychel Danna (The Time Traveler's Wife)

I'll Stand By You- Josh Groban, Helene Fischer

The Miracle of Love- Eurythmics

Commentary:

The first four songs cover June’s escape attempt and the time they share at the Boston Globe.

"Incomplete" is Nick's POV from when she's on the run and he knows she'll be gone from his life soon. He lives in the moment.

I don't wanna look down

I don't want us to break up in the clouds

All I want is to stay us, to stay with you now

"I'll Be Your Shelter" is for when June's mental health is at its lowest point and he goes to Serena to beg for her to get June help.

What you need is a friend to count on

What you got baby you got someone

Who will stay when the rain is fallin'

And won't let it fall on you

P.S. I Love You takes me back to episode 2.09, Nick’s selflessness in the episode and of course the scene where after telling June that Luke loves her, he tells her that he loves her too, despite believing she probably doesn’t feel the same way.

It's A Girl makes me think of the beautiful moment they share during June's false labor when he helps her out of the van and they climb the steps together.

I’ll Stand By You is for 2.10, Nick holding June after she was heartbroken over Hannah and over what the Waterfords did to her and clinging onto him.

Part III- Season 3, next 6 songs:

Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close- Alexandre Desplat (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)

All I Ask- Adele

Never Enough- Loren Allred (The Greatest Showman)

I Don’t Wanna Live Forever- Taylor Swift, ZAYN (Fifty Shades Darker)

Love is Gone- SLANDER, Dylan Matthew

Constellations- The Oh Hellos

Commentary:

For obvious reasons, it was extremely difficult to pick songs for this season.

The first (instrumental) song is for the beginning of the season with June coming back to the Waterford house and them then saying goodbye to each other on the street.

All I Ask, Never Enough, I Don't Wanna Live Forever and Love Is Gone are for their night together in June’s room at Lawrence’s (the one we didn’t get to see sigh). They know it's possible it's all they'll ever have, and they'll take it, but it'll never be enough.

I will leave my heart at the door I won't say a word They've all been said before, you know So why don't we just play pretend? Like we're not scared of what's coming next Or scared of having nothing left

Look, don't get me wrong I know there is no tomorrow All I ask is

If this is my last night with you Hold me like I'm more than just a friend Give me a memory I can use Take me by the hand while we do what lovers do It matters how this ends 'Cause what if I never love again?

***

All the shine of a thousand spotlights

All the stars we steal from the night sky

Will never be enough

Never be enough

Towers of gold are still too little

These hands could hold the world but it'll

Never be enough

Never be enough

***

I'm sorry, don't leave me, I want you here with me

I know that your love is gone

I can't breathe, I'm so weak, I know this isn't easy

Don't tell me that your love is gone

That your love is gone

"Constellations" is for their long separation and the doubts that I'm sure plagued them both during it. Would they ever see each other again?

Part IV- S4, next 12 songs:

All of Me- John Legend

(Everything I do) I Do It For You- Bryan Adams

Iris- Natalie Taylor (City of Angels)

She Was Like A Bright Light- Hans Zimmer, Rupert Greyson-Williams (Winter’s Tale)

Noah's Last Letter- Aaron Zigman (The Notebook)

What’s In The Middle- the bird and the bee (Bones)

ivy- Taylor Swift

Footprints in the Sand- Leona Lewis

Remember Me (Lullaby)- Gael Garcia Bernal, Gabriella Flores (Coco)

On The Nature Of Daylight- Max Richter

My Heart Will Go On- Basil Jose (Titanic)

The Story- Sara Ramirez (Grey's Anatomy)

Commentary:

There were sooo many songs I wanted to include in part IV, but I controlled myself and ended up with this particular dozen.

"She Was Like A Bright Light" and "Noah’s Last Letter" are an instrumental double punch to the gut for Nick’s time in Gilead during episodes 4.07-4.09. The first one is meant for when he finds out June made it to Canada, and the 2nd for is for when he starts to gather info on Hannah to give to June.

"What’s in the Middle" and "ivy" are June’s POV of episodes 4.07-4.09.

"What's In The Middle" has more of an angry and confused vibe, and June was definitely both in episodes 7 and 8.

Losing your head is such a common theme

All your brains are falling out, falling out the open seams

Where is the heart, is the heart of the matter

I will empty out my skull of all this useless chatter

On the other hand, "ivy" has this haunted vibe, but there's also reverence and acceptance, which she begins to achieve in episode 9.

Oh, goddamn

My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand

Taking mine, but it's been promised to another

Oh, I can't

Stop you putting roots in my dreamland

My house of stone, your ivy grows

And now I'm covered in you

The next three songs are of course all for their reunion in 4.09, and I couldn’t resist including the song that was actually played in the scene.

"The Story" draws the season to a close nicely, with June understanding that her current needs are different from what they used to be and that there’s someone who understands her completely (and it’s not Luke).

You see the smile that's on my mouth

It's hiding the words that don't come out

And all of my friends who think that I'm blessed

They don't know my head is a mess

No, they don't know who I really am

And they don't know what I've been through like you do

And I was made for you

Part V- Season 5 and Beyond, the last 6 songs

Secret Love Song- Little Mix, Jason Derulo

Burn With You- Lea Michele

The Bones- Maren Morris

Feels Like Home- Auli'i Carvalho, Keegan DeWitt

Love Will Find A Way- Piano Covers (Lion King II)

Like I'll Never Love You Again- Carrie Underwood

“Secret Love Song” is a more angsty tune about a love that’s still kept a secret like June and Nick’s love (as far as most people are concerned). Now that they’ve already made out in front of the man who raped and abused June and made Nick watch him do that, I want to believe they can let go of the secrecy in S5, at least when it comes to a few people.

I'm living for that day Someday Can I hold you in the street? Why can't I kiss you on the dancefloor? I wish that we could be like that Why can't we it be like that? Cause I'm yours, I'm yours Why can't you hold me in the street? Why can't I kiss you on the dancefloor? I wish that it could be like that Why can't it be like that? Cause I'm yours Why can't I say that I'm in love? I wanna shout it from the rooftops I wish that it could be like that Why can't we be like that? Cause I'm yours Why can't we be like that? Wish we could be like that

***

“Bones” is about a relationship with a strong foundation, which IMO they do have. It will carry them in the future, too. They’re more into each other now than ever before and especially June is coming to terms with how strong that love is. They’ll weather any storm.

When the bones are good, the rest don't matter

Yeah, the paint could peel, the glass could shatter

Let it break 'cause you and I remain the same

When there ain't a crack in the foundation

Baby, I know any storm we're facing

Will blow right over while we stay put

The house don't fall when the bones are good

***

“Feels Like Home” is more hopeful. Their home is with each other and I hope that’s something that will be explored more in the future.

Take me, I'm ready

Go slow but go steady

To a place that we can call our own

I wanna know what feels like home

***

“Like I’ll Never Love You Again” is a good conclusion for the playlist. It’s hopeful and a testament to an epic love.

I wanna love you like the rain on a roof

Stronger than a bottle of a hundred ten proof

I wanna take love to places that love has never been

Yeah, I wanna love you like I'll never love you again

And I'll love you again

Oh, and again

[twdmusicboxmystery]

99% Sure Leah is a Hallucination

Okay, I REALLY wasn’t going to post anything else. I know the two template posts I gave you yesterday were a lot to chew through. But something happened last night that made this come together for me and my buddies, and I just couldn’t sit on it. I promise I’ll keep this brief, though.

After watching the episode yet again last night, @frangipanilove found an article in which Norman says something interesting about this episode. Well, maybe interesting isn’t the right word. More like BOMBSHELL.

Remember how we at first thought she might be a hallucination? Well, we moved away from it because we learned that Carol knew about her. That, and I thought it was safer for us all to make our peace with the idea of Daryl having a relationship with this woman. Just accept it and move forward, you know?

But after watching the episode, yes, Carol knew about her, but only what Daryl seemingly told her. She never met Leah. Not a single soul in the world other than Daryl ever saw her. Hmm.

So, here’s the article @frangipanilove found:

I honestly wouldn’t have gone back to the hallucination theory, if not for reading this. But now Norman is saying that nothing in this episode is what it seems. And he’s specifically referencing Daryl’s relationship with Leah.

(P.S. I have to laugh that fans are asking him what’s wrong with him. Um...he’s not Daryl? He’s Norman. And he doesn’t write the show. The writers do. Lol. But also notice that he talks about staying true to Daryl, and we all know that this Leah thing is the opposite of that. Unless....)

So, let’s look at some weirdnesses in the episode. And @wdway deserves most of the credit for this. Once we started discussing the article and brainstorming, she came up with most of this.

1.  When he meets Leah. My fellow theorists and I were actually talking about this before the episode aired yesterday. Why does he just run into her cabin? He follows Dog, but the funny thing is, Dog doesn’t run into the cabin. Only Daryl does. How does he know there’s not 47 walkers in there? How does he know there aren’t a dozen armed people? You’d think he would stop and observe and evaluate. But he doesn’t. He just charges in. And that’s very unlike Daryl.

And of course we could come up with some sort of explanation. Like maybe he heard Leah yelling while fighting the walker in the back bedroom and thought she needed help. Maybe, but the show doesn’t actually suggest this. There aren’t any subtitles or anything that give us any clue as to what his thought process was for just charging in.

2.  When he brings Dog back to her, when his eye scar has appeared, if you listen to the dialogue between him and Leah, it’s a little bit odd. Maybe not quite as odd as him charging into her house at first, but still it leaves some questions. About the eye scar, she says, “looks like you got the raw end of the deal.” He just says, “yeah.” Well, that scar isn’t jagged or shaky at all. It’s very straight. Clearly made by a knife, not a walker. So, it’s a little strange that she doesn’t ask what happened. If she wants to be left alone, wouldn’t she be concerned that there might be someone else out there. Why doesn’t she just ask about it? Why doesn’t he just tell her about it? In a way, it almost sounds as if Leah knows more than she’s saying in this scene.

3. When she opens up to him about her family and her past, all the stories she tells are almost like amalgamations of Daryl and the characters on TWD. Obviously everyone noticed the similarities to Carol. That’s a big one. But the story of the blood and the running could be them running from the prison, or the deaths of a lot of different people Daryl has had to say goodbye to. When she talks about meeting and fighting with her squad and how they gave her hope? TF in a nutshell. And even that she hints at having an abusive family. Daryl. Carol, too. But mostly Daryl.

4. It’s still odd that no one else ever met Leah. Yeah, she said she wanted to live out there alone. And we talked about how this makes it an unhealthy relationship, because if she really loved him, she would want to go meet his friends and family and know about every part of his life. Into this, I’m going to lump the fact that she never seems to have gone with him to search for Rick. Once again, if you love someone, you participate in their lives. And she’s just alone at the cabin anyway. Why not go with him?

5. Outside the show Weirdness: Look at that top pic I used for when he met Leah. Remember when we discussed that there is someone kneeling behind her? I assumed it was her son, because spoilers didn’t reveal when or how he would die. But that’s not the case. This person looks to be a teenager or an adult (much older than Matthew was) and we never learn who it is. 

People have said it might be a set person or a mic guy who accidentally made it into the shot, but I don’t buy that. They scrutinize these pictures and could easily have fixed that with the computer if they’d wanted to. I don’t know if we’ll ever find who it is. It might just be a hint that there’s more going on here than meets the eye.

But then I found this pic:

There’s someone lying dead on the ground behind them, and we didn’t see this in the episode. @wdway thinks it’s just Leah. That she was dead when he arrived, but he made up this story about how she was this strong, survivor woman and could have become his companion. I think that’s a super-viable theory, but of course we won’t know the details until they actually show us.

There are more weirdnesses than this, but I’m sure you get the idea. The more we think about it, the more sure we are that she’s a hallucination. And obviously that would make more sense anyway from the “why would the writers handle Daryl’s love life this way and piss off the entire fandom” perspective.

One thing we also noticed was that on TTD, the writer emphasized that this story is told from Daryl’s perspective. We’re seeing his PERCEPTION of it, and that’s important. I heard her say that, and wasn’t quite sure of what to make of it. Before realizing the hallucination thing, I thought she might be hinting that there was more we hadn’t see, or Leah might not be who he thought she was. Something like that. But if she’s not real, that makes way more sense, doesn’t it.

So, some things to consider. The strong parallels to Carol. The exact ones, actually, like spear fishing and all the identical dialogue. That’s because he’s taking those things from his time with Carol and incorporating them directly into Leah’s story.

Everything I said yesterday still applies. Mostly because that’s the symbolic template and here, we’re talking about the reality of what’s happening, so the two don’t affect each other directly. But while Leah’s personality is based on Carol’s (probably because that’s who he spends the most time with these days) the romance element is definitely molded out of his time with Beth.

Real:

Hallucination:

The cross that represents the grave? The one Chris Hardwick said would make some people think Leah is dead? Yeah, we think that really is her grave. We do think she probably really existed, and he met her, but she died relatively quickly, and the rest of the relationship didn’t happen. It’s all in his head. I’ll give you some more possibilities on that in a minute.

We think she’s the one who gave him the eye scar. If we’re right about that, I’m sure they’ll show it to us eventually. I mean, if she’s a hallucination, they’ll have to tell us that eventually, but probably not until S11. Think about the dialogue. “Looks like you got the raw end of the deal.” Daryl: “Yeah.”

This is also why the ending makes little sense. His argument with her about where he belongs is really him arguing with himself. That’s why he cries when she asks where he belongs, and he says he doesn’t know. But then later, we see him charging off to look for Rick, and not seeming at all sad or conflicted about anything. It’s because there is Leah. There never was. He’s just looking for Rick.

@frangipanilove also said something insightful about Carol. I think I took most of my mentions of the Carol flashback scenes out of my meta yesterday. Only because it was already so long and I wanted to focus on laying out the symbolic template for you. But while watching the episode, I actually felt kinda bad for Carol. Every time she came to see him, she seemed so upset. Like she felt as abandoned by him as he does by her. And I’m not saying she doesn’t deserve a taste of her own medicine, but I guess that sadness from her kind of surprised me.

But what @frangipanilove said is that maybe her worry for him really was warranted. Because he’d been out there on his own so long, it started to mess with his head and he really was losing his sanity. Carol might have been starting to see that, and she really was terrified for his mental health, which is why she kept trying to get him to come back.

And you know, it creates an interesting sort of irony for Daryl and Carol’s fight at the end in present day. He says that when things get tough, she runs, and he’s sick of dragging her back. And that’s true. We’ve seen that he’s right and Carol does do this, so I was 100% behind what he said to her. Was it harsh? Sure. But it still needed to be said.

But the irony is that during these 6 years after Rick, Daryl was doing exactly the same thing. Him staying out there to look for Rick, when after years, it would have become clear that he wouldn’t find the body, was him running away from the pain of what happened. Carol kept trying to drag him back, but he wouldn’t go with her.

Also, the two of them on opposite sides of the river here could represent the divide between reality and Daryl’s hallucinations.

The note. It’s a little hard to know exactly how to interpret the note from a PTSD perspective. Symbolically, I’d say the note he left was for Beth. Maybe he doesn’t even realize that in the episode, but with all the Beth parallels, it’s just about him wanting to belong somewhere. He wants to belong with someone who loves and needs him.

But I talked yesterday about how the cabin was trashed, and the picture was gone, right? By the time he wrote that note, Leah was long gone. Dead, I mean. The fact that the picture wasn’t there is especially significant. Why would the picture have disappeared, unless it wasn’t real to begin with.

Another thing I noted was Carol’s somewhat bizarre reaction when Daryl suggested they go down toward the river to hunt. She looked worried about that, but agreed. At the time, I was thinking she was worried because he’d spent so much time down there before looking for Rick, and she didn’t want the obsession to resurface. And that’s probably still true, but it’s even more interesting now, isn’t it? And maybe that’s why she’s always wanting to go out with him when he goes hunting or looking for supplies or whatever. She just doesn’t want him falling back into that mindset and disappearing again.

And it will make what I said yesterday about what will happen in the spinoff—her wanting him to stop looking for Rick and come with her—make more sense, too, won’t it?

Okay, I’ll stop now. I really haven’t covered everything we could possibly talk about with this. I’m sure you’ll all think of tons more. But you get the idea. And remember, this isn’t just my theory or our theory. I wouldn’t have come back to this at all if I hadn’t read that article where Norman hinted at it. And he would know, right?

And hey, if this turns out to be incorrect, I’ll be okay with that. I’ll eat my words (not literally 😉). But Norman is referring to SOMETHING here, and given how few characters were in this episode, and that he was directly talking about Leah in that quote, there really aren’t many things he could actually mean.

Special thanks to both @frangipanilove​ and @wdway​. Honestly, they did way more work on this one than I did.

Thoughts?

[padawanlost]

Pt. 1: Do you remember the politics episode with Ahsoka, Padme, and Mina (and briefly Anakin)? When Ahsoka asks Anakin about the politics of the Clone Wars, he replies by telling her that the Separatists find the Republic corrupt, so they left, but they’re wrong, so it’s up to the Jedi and the clones to bring them back. (I can’t fit my whole ask in here so I’ll put another if that’s ok)

Idk if this is an OOC moment or not, because on one hand I feel Anakin would have problems with the Republic because of how it lets things like slavery in the outer rim thrive. That’s why in the picnic scene in AOTC he talks about how the system isn’t working, progress isn’t being made, etc. On the other hand, maybe he’s just blinded by people like Padme and Chancellor Palpatine being in the Senate and not paying attention to the intricacies of the political situation because he hates politics? 

I think Anakin’s behavior on that particular situation is a mix of TCW trying to turn Anakin into an inept comic relief and Anakin’s own complex views on politics and loyalty.

Anakin *KNOWS* the Republic is not perfect.

I should have done it before now. Wasn’t that my other childhood dream? Become a Jedi and free the slaves. Instead I became a Jedi and let myself forget. Let them convince me that it’s not our job to remake the Republic. The Jedi were keepers of the peace, not legal enforcers. That was the Senate’s job. How many times had he been told that? He’d lost count. But the Senate was falling down on the job, wasn’t it? What was the use of having anti-slavery laws if the barves who broke them never paid for their crimes? It was enough to shake his hard-won and harder-kept faith. If scum like Watto and Jabba and the other Hutts kept on making their fat profits on the backs of living property—and if the Senate continued to turn a blind eye—how could anyone believe in the Republic? How could he? Padmé says she understands, but she hasn’t pushed for a Senate hearing. And Palpatine—he’s promised he’ll tackle the problem but nothing’s been done. It’s too political. Too corrupt. Too complicated. There are credits in slavery—and credits trump justice. Always have. Always will. And the Jedi? They didn’t want to get involved. Even Qui-Gon …[Karen Miller. Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth]

But he’s also loyal, extremely loyal.

“For Anakin,” Obi-Wan said at length, “there is nothing more important than friendship. He is the most loyal man I have ever met—loyal beyond reason, in fact. Despite all I have tried to teach him about the sacrifices that are the heart of being a Jedi, he—he will never, I think, truly understand.” He looked over at Yoda. “Master Yoda, you and I have been close since I was a boy. An infant. Yet if ending this war one week sooner—one day sooner—were to require that I sacrifice your life, you know I would.” 

“As you should,” Yoda said. “As I would yours, young Obi-Wan. As any Jedi would any other, in the cause of peace.” 

“Any Jedi,” Obi-Wan said, “except Anakin.” 

Yoda and Mace exchanged glances, both thoughtfully grim. Obi-Wan guessed they were remembering the times Anakin had violated orders—the times he had put at risk entire operations, the lives of thousands, the control of whole planetary systems—to save a friend. More than once, in fact, to save Obi-Wan. 

“I think,” Obi-Wan said carefully, “that abstractions like peace don’t mean much to him. He’s loyal to people, not to principles. And he expects loyalty in return. He will stop at nothing to save me, for example, because he thinks I would do the same for him.” [Matthew Stover. Revenge of the Sith]

I guess we could say it’s cognitive dissonance. Anakin knows the Republic is broken but he’s also fighting a war to protect the people he so desperately wants to save. So he can’t allow himself to dwell to often on the political intricacies of the war.

Unlike most, I don’t see Anakin as this politically inept being without a single original thought. Anakin is brilliant, and he knows how the Republic is failing people (especially on the Outer Rim). But he also loves the people defending the Republic and knows that turning his back to it would mean turning his back on them, and that’s something Anakin is utterly incapable of doing.  Because of his trauma and his lackluster political education, Anakin can’t be rational about it. he doesn’t understand that he can recognize the Republic is deeply flawed at the same time he can fight to keep it alive.

To be fair, most people can’t grasp that politics is usually not an all or nothing game. That you can support someone at the same time you recognize they are not perfect, or you don’t even fully agree with them.

I think that scene is the result of people not fully understanding Anakin’s behavior during the picnic scene. I mean, it’s so easy to watch it from Padmé’s perspective and see nothing but a naive kid with authoritarian dreams. But once you put yourself in Anakin’s shoes it becomes easier to understand why a kid who grew up in slavery and poverty would want power to stripped from the elites in a desperate attempt to level the field and improve the lives of the disenfranchised.

I see TCW’s scene as a (dumbed down) attempt of turning Anakin’s complicated political views into an easier to understand, black and white comic relief moment.

[hallmark-movie-fanatics]

CROWN MEDIA FAMILY NETWORKS INKS EXCLUSIVE MULTI-YEAR OVERALL DEAL WITH LACEY CHABERT

STUDIO CITY, CA – February 21, 2022 – Crown Media Family Networks andLacey Chabert (Wedding Veil, Christmas at Castle Hart, Mean Girls, Party of Five) have signed an exclusive multi-picture overall deal, the company announced today. As part of the deal, Chabert will headline and executive produce movies and develop other content for Hallmark Channel and other Hallmark platforms over the next two years.

“Lacey��s warmth, talent, relatability, and creative sensibilities have endeared her to millions of Hallmark viewers for more than ten years, making her one of our most in-demand stars,” remarked Lisa Hamilton Daly, Executive Vice President, Programming, Crown Media Family Networks. “In addition to shining on screen, Lacey is a prolific behind-the-scenes creative partner, developing and executive producing many of our highest-quality, most-beloved projects. She inherently understands and embodies what our networks are all about – the transformational power of love and making people feel good – and we look forward to continuing our work with her to create heartfelt, compelling stories that will entertain, inspire, and touch our audience.”

“My experience at Hallmark, a home to me for over ten years now, has been wonderful and it’s beyond rewarding to create characters and develop stories that resonate so strongly with viewers,” Chabert said. “I’m also incredibly grateful to Crown’s programming team for supporting me as a producer and empowering me to develop and star in projects that bring my passion and creative vision to life. I am so excited for what’s next and to continue connecting with Hallmark’s audience.”

Chabert is an all-time Crown Media fan favorite, starring in many of Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries’ most-watched original movies. Most recently, she developed, executive produced, and starred in the Wedding Veil trilogy, a new movie series for Hallmark Channel. The first installment, which premiered on January 8, became an instant classic, registering as the 2nd most-watched non-holiday movie among Households and Women 18+ in network history. Debuting on February 13, the second installment was the most-watched cable program of the week among Women 18+. The third and final Wedding Veil movie aired this past Sunday. In addition, Chabert’s 2021 holiday movie, Christmas at Castle Hart, was the season’s most-watched among Women 18+ and Total Viewers. Chabert also stars in and executive produces one of Hallmark Movies & Mysteries’ most popular movie series,Crossword Mysteries. Chabert’s history with the networks began with Elevator Girl, her first original movie for Hallmark Channel in 2010. Since that time, she has starred in 24 original movies across Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

Chabert’s resume is as extensive as it is versatile. She received her first break in a cough syrup commercial before successfully auditioning for the Broadway production of Les Miserables, in which she played young Cosette for two years. In 1998, she made her feature film debut as Penny Robinson in Lost in Space. 

Best known for her role as Claudia on the Golden Globe Award®-winning FOX television series Party of Five, Chabert has appeared on ABC Family’s Baby Daddy and ABC’s All My Children, as well as in several made-for-TV movies, including Gypsy starring Bette Midler; A Little Piece of Heaven with Cloris Leachman; and Lifetime’s What If God Were the Sun? starring opposite Gena Rowlands.

Chabert’s feature film credits include Warner Bros.’ Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, starring opposite Jennifer Garner and Matthew McConaughey; box office hit Mean Girls, for which she received outstanding reviews and an MTV Movie Award; Daddy Day Care, starring as Anjelica Huston’s daughter; and A&E’s The Brooke Ellison Story, playing the lead in Christopher Reeve’s final directorial project.