#because that used to be a job you could have in france apparently!!!!

[coquelicoq]

le robert de poche: bougnat n. m. fam. et vieilli Marchand de charbon (qui tenait souvent un café)

me: somebody who sells coal...and drinks a lot of coffee? someone who sells coal while holding coffee? why would this be a thing, france?

wordreference french-to-english dictionary: bougnat nm argot, vieilli (vendeur de charbon et de boissons) (historical) coalman and barkeeper n

me: ...why would this be a thing, france??

[arcadianambivalence]

IWTV S2E2 and History

One thing I really appreciate about this show is how it interacts with its historical setting. I worried that when Louis and Claudia left New Orleans last season, the show would start to shirk the historical details, but the latest episode has given me enough historical tidbits to chew on (pun intended).

Hidden behind the humor of lines like "Paris is shit" and the thrill of meeting other vampires, there's a sense of foreboding lingering beside the recent traumas.

As with the first episode of season 2, Louis and Claudia are surrounded by reminders of war, even if they do not have the context (or empathy) for the survivors they encounter. Claudia complains that she has to pick twice as many pockets to get by, but the two are still able to afford an apartment. Meanwhile, food staples and clothing are still rationed, but people and pigeons are easy to come by.

"Paris was Nazi scar tissue at the time..."

Louis explains, but the scars historically ran deeper than a tourist (and Louis is The stereotypical tourist in this episode) could understand. Blackouts, food shortages, rations, soldiers, and refugees linger at the corners of the episode.

Even Madeline is introduced to us by a man warning Claudia that she was a collaborator or Nazi sympathizer (he does a subtle salute and points to the shop window), which will certainly influence how the next episodes take her through her narrative beats.

The plays performed by the Théâtre des Vampires cross 1920s to 1940s expressionism with absurdity and horror. Even after all this time, Louis is unenthused about the theatrical performances.

"The plays were weird. They always ended in death or some kind of cruel, barely motivated violence."

Armand's reply is dulled by the onstage spectacle:

"Life is cruel. Life is violent. [...] It was all a seduction to lure the cattle into a willing belief of disbelief."

It's a line that is all the more concerning if you know where the story is going...

Annika, the doomed woman onstage, is from Belgium, yet another country recovering from occupation and war. When she desperately tries to convince the audience to flee (not just for them to help her, but to save themselves), she speaks Dutch, so neither the French nor English-speaking audience members understand her.

Still in character, Santiago pretends to offer her a choice. She could live if she gives up someone to die in her place, if she, as the phrase goes, "turns someone in." First, he offers to take her husband, and she refuses. Then he offers to take her son, and again she refuses. Finally, he points to a man in the audience. She nods vigorously, but it's a cruel joke.

Santiago has already made up his mind about her. He addresses the man, warning him against trusting his neighbors:

"They'll give you up in a wink."

As if someone who spent the last five years in occupied France would need reminding.

The warning is for us, the viewers.

Later, the troupe takes Louis and Claudia to a mansion, ostensibly to eat people who, apparently, hoarded resources from the black market. Another show for Claudia and Louis, tourists who still think of themselves as the "good" vampires. Because why would a troupe of vampires concern themselves with that? They don't need anything from the black market. They don't eat anything from the black market. Where was this sense of justice in recent years?

As with Annika, it's yet another excuse to enact cruel and public violence against people they consider less than them.

So when Santiago's introductory prologue includes lines like:

"Being vampires, and by nature superior to you mortals, we can [...] disrupt your tiny ship called human decency."

"Our jobs, which is at the heart of it, to laugh alongside your misery while you cry and scream for more."

"Everything you're about to see is real. Remember that when you leave here tonight. You are all complicit [...] I love you for it."

You know things are not going to get better for Louis and Claudia.

[saintsenara]

One thing that confuses me about the Dursleys is how they're supposed to be a parody of the British middle class, but isn't Vernon like director/chief of a company? Like, he owns a business and it doesn't seem to be a failing one so wouldn't they be more accurately described as upper class? Maybe it's just me who's dumb but it's something that really confuses me lol

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

the dursleys would never be thought of as upper-class, because that implies a certain aristocratic or gentry connection which they evidently don't have.

the most they could be is upper-middle-class - which is one of those fun british class-brackets which has a very specific "look" in the wider cultural imagination, and which defines itself as something vastly different from being middle-middle-class or lower-middle-class in terms of its vibe.

which is to say, this intra-class division isn't really financial [although that is a factor - just not the only one] so much as it's based in performance. how one changes social class [which is possible, these class divisions aren't immutable] isn't by becoming rich, it's by learning how to perform. mundungus fletcher, for example, could be a billionaire, but the way he presents himself to the world would still read as working-class. the teenage voldemort has nothing in his bank account, but he behaves in a way which is indistinguishable from his posh pureblood friends.

the dursleys' class performance - the way they dress and speak, the way they behave, their attitude towards their possessions [such as vernon's pride in his car], the places they want to go on holiday - indicates a bang-in-the-middle vibe, simultaneously aspirational to someone like petunia [who grew up below it] and hilariously unimpressive to someone like james potter [who grew up above it].

the best illustration of this is to compare them to the grangers, who are clearly upper-middle-class. the financial difference is negligible - vernon, as a company director, could feasibly be on a salary which was in the same ballpark [or which potentially even exceeded] what a dentist who only or mainly took private clients [which is the case for many dentists in the uk] could expect to earn - but their performance of class is totally different.

the grangers go skiing and spend their summers in the south of france; the dursleys' ideal holiday destination is majorca - which, while this is very unfair to a lovely bit of spain and the lovely people who live there, is used by jkr because it has that sort of middle-tier association in the british cultural imagination [posher than going to the costa del sol, rougher than staying in a converted farmhouse in cantabria]. the grangers name their daughter "hermione" - which, whether they get it from greek or from shakespeare, is a statement of their class performance - while the dursleys name their son "dudley" - which is the same.

and - of course - the grangers are dentists, which means they went to university. vernon makes drills - but is not an actual builder; which, while a blue collar job which would be understood as working-class, is also understood as something authentic - and clearly did not.

the interesting thing about the dursleys' class-status, though, is that vernon seems to have gone down from a childhood which was upper-middle-class. not in the same way as the grangers - apparently city-based, europhile, undoubtedly voted for tony blair in 1997 - are upper-middle-class, but in a way specifically associated with posh people who live in the country - whose poshness is considered to be more parochial and more politically conservative.

marge dursley - with her tweed and her bulldogs and her brusque manners - is a perfect stereotypical example of this. so too is smeltings, the fee-paying boarding school which both vernon and dudley attend - it wouldn't be unusual within the dursleys' class-bracket for dudley to be privately educated, but it is unusual for this to be at a school with the vibe that smeltings [whose uniform, for example, is so obviously based on that of schools like eton and harrow] has.

it's really interesting to think about why vernon might have ended up shuffling down to the middle of the middle, especially because there are plenty of careers for a man from that country-posh bracket which would retain his class-status without requiring a university education - above all, going into the army. that he doesn't do this - that he becomes a managing director, a job which has financial but not cultural cachet as an upper-middle-class signifier [if you care about these things - which i do not] - has a certain degree of deliberate choice behind it.

and this provides a fascinating comparison with petunia - who was clearly raised working-class and has ascended into the middle through performance, and who then becomes desperate to retain her status by continuing to perform "correctly". vernon also lives behind a mask, which also depends on the correct performance of a class-bracket which he wasn't born into, even if his class journey is one of descent.

vernon and petunia's fear of magic relates to this - they're both terrified that the neighbours will learn, if they discover the existence of magic, that they're not as bang-in-the-middle normal as they claim to be.

and this is fundamentally because magic is something eccentric and strange. and eccentricity [especially in dress and manners - the thing that vernon hates about wizards] is read as either a sign that someone is very posh or a sign that they are very much not.

but not as something in between.

[georgevilliers]

Mary & George thots

I watched all 7 episodes this morning starting at 4:30am on about 4 hours of sleep so here are all of my very sleep deprived but professional opinions. Also, I read the book The King's Assassin by Benjamin Woolley so i have Extra Opinions

(spoilers and lengthy thots beneath the cut)

These are not going to be in any specific order because I can not be bothered (see: me being up since 4am on 4 hours of sleep) and as a blanket statement I loved the show!!!!! Most of the things I will say are going to be neutral statements relating to differences I saw between what I read in the book and what was in the show. These are not good or bad things, just observations! I think it's fun and interesting to look at the things they changed to make it more interesting and palatable for a tv viewing audience, and I don't think it changes the quality of the product at all! With that out of the way, let's get on to the content:

we'll start with the things I loved

NICHOLAS GALITZINE. Like. HELLO??? I am very familiar with his work (watched everything he's been in and recorded a podcast about it) and I know he's been criminally undervalued in almost every project he's ever done but this really, really tested his limits and I mean that in a very good way. You can tell this whole project was a test of his abilities as an actor both physically and mentally and he really rose to the challenge in such an impressive way. I'm not really sure if this is ever going to be Emmy/awards fodder (if they meant it to be they released it at a very poor time but thats a different discussion for another time) but I do think this is going to lead to some very interesting places for him. People (important decision making ones) are going to see this and realise what his abilities are and this is a very good thing.

The costumes are so incredible. The details, the colours, the cuts, the CAMP. I'm not a costuming expert so I have no way of knowing how accurate any of the costuming was but damn did it look good.

On that note the CAMP. Oh my god. This really had that je ne sais quoi that makes something camp in the way only queer people can make something camp, so really hats off to everyone involved in the production value.

I should mention all of the actors here, including Julianne Moore and Tony Curran. I am biased, being that I now seem to only exist to consume Nicky G media, but everyone did such a great job.

The script is so complex and rich, I really don't envy the actors having to memorize some of the tongue twisters that were part of the dialogue.

I think they did a really good job of crafting George as a character. As someone who is predisposed to love Nick's face (lol) I really did feel a bit of hatred towards him sometimes. I found him embarrassing, hot headed, full of himself, and pitiable, sometimes all within a few scenes!

Let's talk about some of the big changes I noticed

they really REALLY made up about 95% of Mary's storyline, I would say. This is just going off the King's Assassin, mind you, but from what I learned about Mary from that book is that essentially her only role in the course George's life took was the initial bit: sending him to France to become a learned gentleman, and sending him to London to try to catch the king's attention. If anyone has any recommendations for sources about Mary's life I could read about I would be very interested in it in order to piece together more fact and fiction! In general, I would just assume the vast majority of Mary's storyline did not happen, but it was fun though! One thing that is mentioned in the book is that her and the king did become good friends.

I really missed the use of nicknames from James. I guess it was hard to show most of them on screen as a lot of them appeared in letters they wrote to each other when they were apart, but James often referred to him as "Steenie" referring to St Stephen who apparently "had the face of an angel", amongst numerous other nicknames such as wife, dog, and child etc.

I also really wish they had included this famous speech of King James' to his privy council, because it is burned into my brain I can literally recite it word for word now: "You may be sure that I love the Earl of Buckingham more than anyone else, and more than you who are here assembled. I wish to speak in my own behalf and not to have it thought to be a defect, for Jesus Christ did the same, and therefore I cannot be blamed. Christ had John, and I have George."

I think they sort of removed some of George's abilities in order to make him rely on Mary more to involve her character in the storylines. In reality he made all of his own political decisions, knew how to play the king without help if he needed, and was a competent (if not terrible and easily swayed by bribery and trying to level up his own interests) member of the government

One of my favourite things to learn from the book is that when George took a wife (which, I believe in reality he was all too happy to marry in order to secure his possessions with an heir) she was welcomed by the king with open arms. King James became besties with Katie and he considered her as sort of part of their "family". In general I think they played up the "jealousies" from King James.

While it is alleged that George did kill James, it was not by asphyxiation. According to the book, he was suffering what is now known as malaria and had a violent fit, thought to be brought on by a "medication" George gave him which was provided by a doctor but actually administered by George, which is what ended up finally killing him

In general I wish the end hadn't felt so...rushed? Maybe it only felt that way because I know how it actually plays out and maybe if I rewatch while not trying to think about real life events so much, it might feel less so. But the whole issue with Spain took up such a small amount of time in the show when in real life it was like...a problem spanning multiple years. And I know they obviously can not show all of that within a 7 episode television show, it does seem like maybe they should have left it out altogether if they weren't really going to see it to its full justice?

My other small complaint is that it felt to me in some parts that the love between King James and George wasn't there. Certainly it feels to me like perhaps George did not feel the same level of love towards King James as the king felt for him, but the king certainly felt so much love for George. There were multiple instances outlined in the book in which they were "on the outs" because George started ignoring him in favour of Charles, or for other reasons, and it seemed to really tear at the king and he seemed to often be the one reaching out to George trying to keep his love close, rather than George trying to rein the king back in under his power. At that point, George had all of the power he needed and the king was so passive and loved him so much, he stayed the king's favourite until death, and George had very little to worry about in that regard.

There! That's all I can think of for now, and I think this has gone on quite long enough. I feel I need to rewatch the show and try harder to not think about real life situations and just enjoy the story. The fiction in the series is greater than the fact but I still think it's fun! And I recognise that there is a need to dramatize things greatly because the way things really played out in reality would not make good television at all. I hope no real history scholars find this post, and if you do please be gentle with me! I am not really an expert, just a history fan (even though I do find myself wanting to quit my job and become a George Villiers scholar).

If you read all of this you really deserve a medal, and you have all my thanks!

[sillygoose067]

Charles’s Angel(s)

Ch.6

Charles Leclerc x Reader

Author’s Note: Finally! The moment has come, when we get a snippet of Charles’ first appearance. Stay tuned tomorrow for more.

The following few weeks in Monaco were spent settling in and looking for new jobs. You had been working part time at a music production studio, having been certified to do so early in your high school career. But you had also been appointed as a choreographer for a large Korean Entertainment company, JYP. 

You felt so fortunate, being able to not only choreograph dances for some of the most famous groups in the world, but also contribute to their discography, often writing lyrics, producing music, and singing the guide tracks to help the artists when they’re in the recording booth. 

Of course, this meant that you were often out of the country, and you missed Leila and Marie dearly. But you were glad that you were finally able to do things that you enjoyed. 

One day, as you were back home in Monaco, your mother called for the weekly check-ins she had been doing since you’d left California. “কেমন আছ?” (Kemon accho?: How are you?)

As you continued conversing, Marie knocked on your doorframe. “Hey, I have to ask you something”

“Yeah just hold on one sec”, you finished up talking with your family and turned to her. 

“So…”, recognizing the tone she used when she did something impulsive, you demanded she spit it out. “I may or may not have gotten us tickets to the next F1 race in France…”

You sighed and asked when it was. 

“And I made sure that it was on a day where you were going to be free”

She looked at you guilty. You sighed again and just held her close. “Of course I’ll go for you”. 

You face palmed as she explained to you that maybe, just maybe, one of the many handsome drivers that were, of course, not already taken, would catch your eye. Or even better, that you would catch their eye and something could begin from there. 

You just stood there with a reluctant look on your face. You had given up hope long ago and had accepted that perhaps there was no one in the world for you. But you accepted begrudgingly, not wanting to squash Marie’s sunshine. 

As the days passed and came closer to race day, Marie grew more and more excited. Apparently, she had loved watching the F1 races since childhood, and knew all the names and scores, times, and podiums of all the current racers. 

Finally, the day came, and you both got dressed, donning red, because apparently We’re here to root for the Ferrari team, Y/N! Even Leila was not spared from the wrath of Marie. Dressed in a cute red dress, Leila looked like the cutest little flower you’d ever seen. 

As you made your way to the stands, Marie pulled two passes out and showed the security team. Wow this girl really went all out and got us passes to the paddock and basically everything behind the scenes. To say you were impressed would be an understatement. 

The three of you settled into a corner, surrounded by screens, technicians, mechanics, and all the engineers and mathematicians bustling around, preparing for the race. You watched in awe as everyone worked in harmony and completed one task after another. So caught up in the moment, you failed to notice two new people step into the garage. Only when Marie clutched at your arm and let out a squeal, did you look to where she was staring and notice them— both extremely beautiful specimens of men. 

[mask131]

I am reposting this in its own post, since a reblog usually doesn’t get seen much.

It is about the disappearance of the Titan underneath the sea. The current “Titanic disaster” happening. I originally wrote this because if you are on Tumblr, all you see is “Who cares about a handful of billionaires?” “Just eat the rich!” “Let the billionaires die” “Everybody is making a fuss about some rich people’s endangering themselves for pure tourism”. And I need to add something, something a lot of people if not everybody on Tumblr seems to have completely missed, an info that apparently you can only have if you are in France. Just to explain why, for example, this event impacts France a bit more directly than other countries, and why simplifying the situation to “A bunch of stupid billionaires killed themselves due to being stupid” can be very annoying to hear. And it all lies in the fact that there’s one specific man in Titan. This introduction being done, here is the copy-paste of my original reblog:

The reason France talks so much about it, for example, is because there is one French man inside this machine: Paul-Henri Nargeolet. And the whole thing that is taking everybody’s mind is the fact that Nargeolet is one of the greatest French experts of the Titanic. He is described by everyone as an adventurer and explorer, and he has always been doing jobs related to underwater diving (his first job was to work as a deminer-diver from the 60s to the 80s, getting care of a lot of underwater bombs and explosives. But in the 80s it is when he started getting involved with the Titanic - and became one of THE French names tied to it. His first descent to the Titanic was in 1987 in the submarine Le Nautile, and he kept going down there again and again, decades after decades.

Because as I said, he was an explorer. He studied the Titanic, he explored the sunken ship carcass - and more importantly he brought back a lot of objects from the Titanic. He brought up more than 800 different objects (he was part of the RMS Titanic and oversaw a lot of other exploraton operations of the Titanic). Mind you, him bringing up the 800 objects was in the 90s. In his own word, I think he said that in 1993 (but I’m not sure), he brought all these objects because he wanted that future generations might have something that came from the Titanic. Mind you, his explorations have been quite divisive - in fact, he perfectly resumed it in one of the books he wrote about exploring the Titanic. He had received the visit (when he was still digging up the Titanic objects) of two sisters, survivors of the Titanic sinking. One came to him to say “I do not like what you are doing. Our father died in this ship, and I think what you are doing is wrong.” But the other came to him saying “I appreciate a lot what you do. Before the sinking, our mother had placed her pearl necklace by the little cupboard near her bed. Could you try to fetch it back for us?”. As he explains in his book, it was the best illustration of how polarizing him, his explorations of the Titanic and his fetching of items were.

But the point I am trying to make is that this man’s life was entirely about the Titanic. He was part of many research and studies about the Titanic, he kept writing books about the Titanic, he dived down there and explored the Titanic more than two dozen times, and he is the man responsible for us having today more than 800 items taken out of the carcass on the seafloor. In fact, in the French news this was brought up when we learned he was aboard “But... he has been down there like 25 fives already! Why would he pay to go down there yet again? On top of that he’s 77 today, he should just quit going down there!”. And one of his friends answered on TV that, basically, Nargeolet had described him how seeing the Titanic, exploring it, going down there to be near it, became like a drug - an addiction. He wanted to keep going down there for as long as he could, to keep exploring and searching for the ship’s secrets, before its total destruction.

As I do a quick fact-check to make sure I don’t say anything stupid (and I probably will have because I am not a Nargeolet’s biograph) I discover that there is some British billionaire aboard this machine - and I will say you honestly, I have been stuck near 24h info channels in France (thanks to having to work with sound in the background) and never once did they mention this rich British guy. All we talk about here is Nargeolet and his life - and what nobody says but everybody thinks, is how much of a tragic irony it would be if one of the great French explorers and experts of the Titanic died by wanting to see it one last time. This is why, at least in France, we talk a lot about this. (And to be frank, honestly the French news REALLY do not care about the others - if you listened to them there’s only Nargeolet in this little machine down there and nobody else)

EDIT: I just learned he wasn't even going down there purely to see the Titanic. He was going down there to test the Titan - because he had some hopes that maybe, if a mechanical arm was added to the Titan, he could get some items and objects he couldn't have with his own exploration submarine, the Nautilus.  Though it was quite a slim hope, because apparently he also didn't believe the Titan could work with a mechanical arm - but he still decided to do one descent with it just to see how it worked down there...

[lol-jackles]

There's quite a few hellers out there claiming Jensen Ackles had his agent with him over this recent con. Why would any agent accompany an actor to a convention? Thoughts?

Not this anon and I don't know about "quite a few hellers" (but I also have a lot of them blocked because they are generally insufferable) but the only instance I did see of this being mentioned (and then people talking about that ask - not anyone saying they heard the same thing, just rehashing that post) was from an anon ask on an anti-Jared/heller blog, and not just any one, the one who admitted they didn't watch the show and only joined the fandom because they love starting drama - cynifer.

Their first ask was this one saying Jensen was supposed to vaca with Jared and Clif in Sweden (between PurCon in Germany and DarkLight in Paris) but had to "go home for work". Then they sent in another to clarify why they were the only one who seemed to have heard this info (no one could corroborate so they now claim it wasn't from a panel or M&G but from their autos... somehow still no one overheard that convo though 🤔) and then added that Jensen had his agent with him "at autos and throughout the con":

https://www.tumblr.com/cynifer/751832974078754816/

https://www.tumblr.com/cynifer/751842970226081792/

The thing is, it doesn't even make any sense that Jensen would have to "go home for work" in between overseas conventions. He was in Germany one weekend and due in Paris the following weekend, what could he need to do for work that couldn't have been done over zoom? Filming is the only thing I can think of but even then with flight lengths to fly from Germany to the US and then back to France he would only be able to be in the US to work for 2 maybe 3 days tops. It just isn't logical. And what would his agent have to do with that anyways? Agents don't generally accompany their clients to each job and certainly not overseas cons. And if the agent was needed for whatever "work" this anon is claiming they could and probably would just meet Jensen wherever he flew to in the US instead of going with him to Germany for 2 days just to fly right back with him to the US.

Obviously you have different insights into this, but from my point of view it sounds like this anon is trying to prove a couple things - that Jensen is "booked and busy" and also that he would rather do anything but spend time with Jared. Especially given the blog they sent that "info" to. If you only share your super sekret Jensen personal info with a very well known Jared anti blog?? Yea, I'm going to be supppppeeeer skeptical.

Huh, I'm apparently blocked by Cynifer. How did that happen? I've never heard of her.

Regardless, going by your description, yeah the whole thing sounds like self-soothing fanfiction that the person misheard or misunderstood during the autograph session. I'm guessing German cons are run similar to American ones where it's quick and you only have a few seconds to interact with the celebrity.

Jensen in the same convention as Jared is of course going to drive hellers into over drive to find any implausible ways to separate the two. J2 tinhatters are similar, they'll find a way to get those two together if one is not at the con, especially when Jared had personal crisis that forced him to withdraw from conventions and somehow Jensen will fly to the U.S between international cons one week apart just to check in on him.

Sounds like Hellers use Cynifer as an outlet for their self-soothing fanfictions because as you said, she is ignorant and just accepts everything the hellers throw against the wall. Even BNF hellers have to abide with certain standards or reality in order to keep their cred, like Will (of Team Free Will 2.0) hunting down sources. I've seen past BNF hellers stand up for some of Sam Winchester's choices because they had to acknowledge real life phycological sources and not just the sake of personal agendas. But Cynifer lets hellers have their full fantasy, no question asked.

Anyways, you are correct, there is no reason or purpose for Jensen's talent agent to travel with him all the way to a fan convention in Germany. Doesn't make any sense. If Jensen is doing a commercial in Germany, he still doesn't need his agent for that.

An agent typically has about 50 clients. They are constantly making contacts and building relationships with journalists, TV bookers, radio pluggers, and brand marketers.  Meeting celebrities is actually the least useful part of their job because it’s not going to get the clients work.  Remember kids, don’t become an agent or publicist to meet celebrities because they’re not the ones going to help your clients' careers. 

[shivvytheshiv]

ao3 is fucking me up so i’ll post here for the time being. please share with the credits only!!

fandom: hbo succession

ship: roman roy x gerri kellman

themes: it was supposed to be a five times fic but we lower it to three and dont ask questions. precanon + s2 + postcanon. gerri’s practically doing roman character analysis and roman is a slime puppy

It’s 2AM when that happens for the first time — or, at least, that’s how she recalls it an abyss of ten years later. A crazy day filled with Baird’s relatives, hyperactive five graders and “Happy Birthday” pop-tarts was soon to be over, with girls in their beds and Baird hopefully deep in his sleep, and Gerri is cherishing her moment. Any crazy management malfunctions consisting of sleepless nights and Logan throwing laptops at the wall could never stress her out as much as kids birthdays did, but for all she knew she did okay. This one wasn’t a total disaster. Was about time she’d take her mascara off, finish that martini (or what’s left of it), and head to sleep.

Obviously, that’s when the phone rings. How could it not. Gerri takes a long sip and makes up her very own mental kill list, — she will flip Kendall off, she will give Frank a minute to try and talk some sense and flip him off eventually, she will flip Karl off.

”Roman Roy mobile”, her screen confidently says. Gerri likes to think that’s where the problems started.

Roman has always struck her as some twisted middle ground, if that fuckery of a family could ever produce a middle ground. He wasn’t the second Ken, being all over Waystar sniffing cocaine off the executive floor. He wasn’t totally estranged in a different career field (or most literally a field) like Shiv or Connor. Roman was… there, technically. Middle son, various boarding schools, now constantly flying back and forth from California and being a pain in Frank’s ass. Pretty eccentric around the studio. Never missed a corporate retreat. Most information Gerri had on Roman Roy would fit in a nice dry portfolio.

Heavy caged breathing, almost loud enough to disturb the speakers, would not. Sobbing — is he sobbing?

“Gerri. Did they, did I even get the fucking number right? Did they tell you? Are you, like, there yet? You going at all?”

She can physically feel a freezing blow down her spine. He was surely sobbing. Did the old man have a stroke overnight?

“I’m home, Roman. What’s going on?” She tries to balance out the world’s stiffiest question with some softness, too much to her liking, but to no avail.

“Fuck. Fuck! Because I’m dragging my ass all the way from the fucking La-la-land to some hospital, I don’t have the slightest clue where the fuck that’d be, and they didn’t even tell you, and Shiv’s in France for all I know, probably eating a lobster and blowing the cruises dingbat. And dad’s gonna go mental. A great fucking night. They didn’t tell you?”

The shook in his voice is real, and Gerri wishes to believe it’s from the rush: dealing with her own emotions is enough of a challenge, figuring out emotions of a twenty-something nepobaby sounding so broken something sinks down in her ribcage, while knowing so little, is cruel.

“Gerri. Is he, like. Dying?”

Yet, she tries. She puts the glass back on the kitchen sink with a loud, dull noise, she goes for her jacket and the door keys. This fucking job, Gerri thinks. And this fucking family.

“No one is dying, alright? I’ll check on the hospital address and will get back to you. I’ll see you there, Roman.”

*

Surely it was Kendall. Kendall used a bunch and drove his car into an ice cream stand somewhere around Upper Side; smashed the hood, passed out thanks to the airbag and the weight of his own stupidity; the Hosseini kid company didn’t help much. Karolina gets ahold of the situation an hour later, and that’s how Gerri finds out he got away with few broken bones and that the car was apparently Logan’s (a wild and unfortunate combination of factors, if you ask her, but at least Roman’s concerns didn’t live up to be real).

Gerri walks down a hallway and it’s as messy as hospital hallways get: nurses here and there, Shiv’s nervous voice soaking through Karolina’s firm grab (she’s on speakerphone for God knows what reasons), Frank on his phone. She steps into one of the most depressing waiting rooms she’s ever seen and there’s Roman.

Roman is sitting on the floor, head pressed against a couch, eyes closed. An hour isn’t long enough to fall asleep like that, is it? She’s still quiet when sitting down on that very couch. He moves an inch and rests his head against her knee in dead silence.

Not exactly corporate ethics.

“I told you it’s gonna be alright.”

“Yeah, well. He’s one dumb motherfucker.”

The kid’s a mess, after all. Gerri freezes but gives him a moment, — silence, a hand on his forehead, bit of nothing and everything, — and moves out of the picture right before it turns weird.

**

Gerri is reading through an impressive pile of emails when her phone buzzes. And it buzzes some more.

Roman’s been on the trainee programme for three days.

“Roman. What is it?” No deep breaths could help her get through that bullshit, but oh well. Gerri puts him on speaker and tries real hard to concentrate on the legal department’s claims.

“I will literally unalive myself. Not even joking. You have no idea how many rape victims kill themselves per year and this is worse, because that’s mind rape. They have a chainsaw going through my fucking head.”

“You don’t how many rape victims kill themselves per year. How’s that my problem anyway?”

“Yeah, let me think, Professor Fucking Evil. For starters, you sent me.” Roman sounds like he’s about to howl. Gerri hides a smile in her palm and looks around at the office, lights from her lamp playing on glassy walls, her daughters’ framed picture by the computer. Good god, she must look stupid. Nothing about the thing was normal, but Roman Roy had a free pass to everything not-so-normal, and she was genuinely confused at the borders of professionalism and playfulness.

Not unamused though.

“It’s for the better. The outlook back in here is highly positive, Logan’s content, Frank is ecstatic. If I were you I’d strategically choose less whining, more working. Yeah, soldier?”

“Okay, whatever, Herr Gerr. One quality picture would’ve bo-o-o-oosted my work efficiency, just saying.” The line between recent despair in his voice and cat-like audacity is way too blurred.

“Oh, fuck you.”

***

There’s beeps. Some more. Gerri sees him through the matte glass door, back hunched, a red shirt she recognizes from a lifetime before; he doesn’t hang up and stares at the screen. She waits for a split second before hanging up.

Honestly, she’s thankful for not seeing his face.

Gerri thought walking inside is hard but approaching the bar is painful. Roman is gazing at his vodka tonic like there’s some serious answers at the bottom, she breathes in one more and thinks about that nightmare of a company, the work that’s to be done, the way Kendall popped his stitches in that room, the way he stomped all over her twenty five years of work, — not something Gerri would easily forgive, — and the way there’s no saving for these kids. If there was, is it right to drown it in a fucking vodka tonic?

“Hey, rockstar”.

“Hey, molewoman”. A chalk-on-the-board voice. Gerri hesitates for another moment and puts both of her hands over his shoulders.

They stay for a while like that.

[jadespadegames]

My ★★½ review of Napoleon on Letterboxd https://boxd.it/5pDz3x

"YOU THINK YOU ARE SO GREAT BECAUSE YOU HAVE BOATS!!!"

-Napoleon Bonaparte (apparently)

The fundamental problem with this film can be summed up by the ending text which describes how Napoleon fought in 61 battles and lists out the few battles that were seen in the movie. Beside these names are, of all things, the number of casualties of each battle. It then says that in total, 3 million people died in his battles.

I'm not sure why that's the final takeaway Scott wanted us to have about Napoleon. The man was certainly flawed and ended up losing his power, but there is no denying that he was a military genius so charismatic and cunning that he swiftly rose from general to emperor. If you knew nothing about him before watching this movie, you would never know that he won almost 90% of his battles despite being outnumbered in many of them. Instead, we only see about 5 of these battles, 2 of which he loses and the others being strangely insignificant. During the battle of Waterloo, the British commander even points out that Napoleon is sleeping. Is this movie all just one big joke?

We see none of his military prowess or political acumen and instead have to watch him behave like a pathetic, petulant child desperate for power and his wife Josephine. While I believe there could be a good movie centered around Napoleon and Josephine, this was certainly not one. Despite their complicated relationship being the emotional crux of the film, it was absolutely cringeworthy and painful to watch and I was not invested in either of them. Part of that cringe was intentional, but I feel like that only makes it worse. It boggles my mind that Scott thought it was more important to depict Napoleon whining and stomping his feet because his wife wouldn't have sex with him NOW than his true military accomplishments or any of the major reforms he made to France as emperor.

This is an absolute joke of a Napoleon film that is so inaccurate and insulting to its subject that I can't even call it a biopic in good faith. I truly believe it was only made to tear down his image, and while I am all for depicting the flaws of historical figures, this was done insincerely here. Worst of all, it's not even entertaining to watch—the few battles were underwhelming and it felt like the film was mostly just dragging us through scene after scene with little connection in-between. I barely got by with the little knowledge of French history I had, I cannot imagine comprehending this film without any. Things just happen on-screen with little emphasis on their significance. It also does a bad job of depicting the passage of time, and sometimes I only realized years had passed between scenes because of a line or two of dialogue. Perhaps this is because of the hours of content that were cut out for the theatrical release, but the fundamental issues with this film make me believe that the director's cut will not be much better.

Do not watch this if you want a film that actually depicts Napoleon and his life. Watch this if you want to see a film that's "so bad it's funny" though the funny parts are few and the rest is just cringeworthy.

(I also have to point out how lazy and mismatched the soundtrack felt. Twice they used the iconic piano song "Dawn" that was ripped straight from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film of all things. Having had to watch that movie countless times growing up because my older sister loved it to pieces, I instantly recognized the song and it took me out of the movie each time. That song is far too iconic and inherently linked with P&P and I'm not sure why the composer chose to use such a gentle, romantic tune for scenes with Napoleon and Josephine when their toxic relationship was nothing like Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy's. It just left me feeling like I could be watching a better film that actually makes me feel invested in their central pair.)

[nearestend]

bronwyn ( @morteuse ) asked what plants i associate with the muses so here's a list of some, along with reasonings (only the ones i have actually thought through). might get long, so i will throw it under the cut:

alice: forget-me-nots. it is mostly the name; alice has a deep set fear of being forgotten or abandoned. she needs her work to leave a lasting impact after she's gone and done with it because otherwise all the things she had to go through to achieve them were a waste of time. it's not enough to be good, it's about being remembered. forget-me-nots are also associated with promises, fidelity, and true love, which are kind of appropriate for her too when you consider The Lore. i could go on but we have places to be, other muses to talk about, and i need to stop playing favourites with her all the time.

amelie: white lilies because they're often associated with chinese funerals. i believe in western cultures, they're more of a symbol for purity, but in chinese culture, they're not typically used outside of funeral arrangements because they can carry an aura of death or afterlife. they're sometimes seen as omens for mortality and life's fragility and a vase of wilting white lilies can signify upcoming illness or death.

eleanor: milkweed, for so many reasons. apparently if you have a dream pillow and you fill it with the little fluffy bits that grow off milkweed, it will cause the user to dream of fae. (ellie is based off the folklore of changelings, which were believed to be malicious fairies.) it's been used for its healing qualities, but can be poisonous if used incorrectly. something something about there being a fine line between healing and poisonous. it's also associated with the moon and the earth and if there is one thing most of you know about me, it's that i love symbolism, in case this whole post didn't make it obvious.

gus: i initially wanted to say morning glories would be his plant, but then i remembered that moonflowers are closely related and they felt more fitting! moonflowers bloom only at night, so they tend to be associated with dreams and there's been scientific studies that suggest they are influenced by the phases of the moon. they have very powerful medicinal properties (anti-inflammatory, pain relief, and possibly antidepressants, to name a few), which ties into gus and his whole job — entering dreams with the intent to heal or provide answers for others.

kate: the obvious answer would be dandelions, which we know she uses to forecast wind direction, but i'm more inclined to associate her with cardabelles — they've been used in areas of southwest france for centuries to predict weather. it's very durable against strong winds due to its structure, but it also reacts differently to certain weathers. it will unfurl its blooms in sunlight, but when humidity increases before rainfall, it will close up, indicating that it's time to take shelter. additionally, they're often hung on doors as good luck charms and said to ward off evil spirits.

i won't list every character, partly because i haven't thought out every single one (YET — i will eventually), but these are my favourites that i have come up with. i love symbolism and hidden meanings, etc etc.

[redwineconversation]

lose something, babe, risk something (Lyon - Fleury Postgame Thoughts)

Where the fuck was this Lyon last week?

It's always been true that this team plays better when vexed. They need their feelings hurt, they need to get pissed off, because it brings something out in them. They're better for it in many ways. You would have thought the possibility of not playing in a final would have brought that out in them, but apparently mediocre performances are now deemed acceptable standards.

This team got a lot of backlash after the semi-final loss, and I think it was good for them, I do. There's a somewhat flimsy argument that players should be protected at all costs. I get it in theory but fans should be able to hold players accountable for their performances. If you can say when a team played well, you should also be able to say when they played badly.

And there was a lot of the latter. There was a lot of "get rid of Bompastor" (still true), "sell the dead weight players" (also still true), and more importantly, "this team was a disgrace". The fans were frustrated and disappointed and let their feelings be known. I think that's a good thing. Hold your team accountable when they fall short of the standards you know they are capable of meeting.

I think it's necessary to do that because we saw in Friday's game what happens when Lyon does meet those standards. We saw some really good sequences of play. The movement was better, the passing was crisper. They genuinely looked better. it was nice to see Lyon being, well, Lyon again.

The standout player was obviously Dabritz. She's really become such a big game player, and is genuinely fun to watch. She's just a no-nonsense player, keeps her head down, does her job, and will do her upmost best to drag Lyon over the finish line. She's starting to show some really interesting leadership qualities too. I wonder if she will become like Endler, what the team psychiatrist referred to as a "quiet leader" in that they aren't necessarily vocal / giving big speeches, but players follow by example.

Dabritz flies under the radar a lot of the time, but I think her profile will grow. My true German royalty player. (Can I make royal monarchy jokes considering the Kate Middleton scandal going on? Ehh, why not)

It was nice to keep a clean sheet again though once more I fucking hate how everyone uses "le clean sheet" every time their goalkeeper does the minimum. It's so, so fucking annoying, especially because it was taken out of context. Anyway, defense was good, though I do think Gilles could have done better. She wasn't bad, but when you compare her with her top form, the level definitely wasn't the same. M'Bock is getting back to her pre-injury form, which is always nice to see. Bacha was a little inconsistent but it was nowhere near as inconsistent as the Coupe de France semifinal. Carpenter didn't really do anything which stood out, which is more a reflection on the defense not really having much to do for most of the game than anything else.

Van de Donk was good but not great. It's one of those situations where she played well, could have played better, but was still a good performance. The scuffle at the end which resulted in not one, not two, but three Lyon players having to intervene did make me laugh a little, especially because the audio picked up Bompastor going "Daan Daan Daan DAAN" as soon as van de Donk got up from the foul. Van de Donk is similar to Lyon in that she plays better when she is a little pissed off. Again, not her best performance ever, but she was good, it must be said.

So it was a good win, a good performance. Have they played better? Sure. But they've played worse, especially the horror show that was last week, so it's nice to see Lyon looking like themselves again before the trip to Benfica next week. Bompastor said in the postgame that she's been following Benfica closely, so we'll see that actually translates to the field or not.

[mcflymemes]

RATATOUILLE (2007) PROMPTS

if you focus on what you left behind, you’ll never see what lies ahead.

last night, i experienced something new.

you must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from.

only the fearless can be great.

take a good long look.

we must live carefully.

when all is said and done, we’re all we’ve got.

you’re telling me that the future can only be more of this?

this is the way things are. you can’t change nature.

where are you going?

do you know what you’d like this evening?

which one would you like?

i’ll make you a deal.

you’re slow for someone in the fast lane.

i will return tomorrow night with high expectations.

pray you don’t disappoint me.

every second counts!

no one knows for sure.

i defrauded a major corporation.

i robbed the second largest bank in france using only a ball-point pen.

i killed a man... with this thumb!

no, i don’t think anyone can do it.

wait. you read?

i don’t like secrets.

it’s like you’re involving me in crime, and i let you. why do i let you?

thank you, by the way, for all the advice.

don’t look at me like that!

you’re aren’t the only one who’s trapped.

you’re the one who was getting fancy with the spices!

i need this job. i’ve lost so many.

did you nod? have you been nodding?

you understand me? so i’m not crazy!

look, don’t be so modest.

whatever you did, they liked it.

do you think you could... do it again?

i’m going to let you out now.

regrettably, we are all out of wine.

uh... excuse me a moment?

i think it’s apparent that i need to rethink my life a little bit.

if you are what you eat, then i only want to eat the good stuff.

look at him out there, pretending to be an idiot!

should i be concerned about this? about you?

i would have followed your advice to the ends of the earth.

so, we have given up.

you are better than that.

food will always come to those who love to cook.

why do you care?

you can smell all that?

now don’t you feel better?

it isn’t stealing if no one wants it.

let’s just say we have different points of view.

i don’t really drink, you know.

why are you walking like that?

what are you blathering about?

that storm’s getting closer.

always do something unexpected.

welcome to hell.

we gotta figure something else out.

so this is it. it’s not much but it’s, y’know. not much.

well, i just lost my family. all my friends. probably forever.

why am i talking to you?

you know how to fix it. this is your chance.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

RE: "Story time of the craziest thing you've ever done?"

First of all I'd like to thank you for taking the time to answer my question, I had a blast reading your anecdotes (especially the "I'm queer, byeeeeee" lol).

But since you've mentioned it—

Can we get the story time of you working at Borders?

(Only if you feel comfortable sharing ofc! I know how much it sucks to reflect back on poor life decisions).

Once again thank you for answering all of my dumb asks; it never fails to put a smile to my face when I see that you've replied to me :D

the "I'm queer, getting on a plane now" only happened because I was like 15 and my mom was reminding me about the importance of using contraceptives if I hook up with a guy while in France and I was like "yes, agree, but also I might be into girls too" then got on a plane.

--

For Borders - oh it wasn't terrible. Just, you know, upon reflection it could have been bad.

I was 19 and hooked up with my manager one summer. He was like 35(ish) and would show me the cool secret areas of the store, like the spooky attic, which was a lot of fun. We had sex in the staff room after hours and went to a lot of bad movies.

It's one of those things where like, it could have been bad. But it wasn't because the guy was pretty chill (I mean...don't hit on your staff. That's a bit messed up, but you know what I mean). Like, I never felt pressured into doing things I didn't want to do.

So my own personal experience with him is fine. I have no idea of there were other women, I assume there were, and they might have a very different story to tell.

One of the reasons I agreed to it was that I knew there was an end date. I was leaving the job in August because I was moving to the UK for a bit. If that wasn't the case, it had the possibility of being a lot worse, you know? The power discrepancy really would have shown up, I think. And this was very, very pre #Me Too and all those conversations so if I had ever needed to tell someone, that conversation would have focused much more on "why did you seduce your boss" rather than "why is the boss sleeping with his staff".

Oh I remember he had a son. Apparently I'm Single Dad catnip because the cartel guy who gave me his number was also a Single Dad. Also this guy nicknamed Gambo who I dated for a hot minute was a Single Dad. ...I feel like there are a few others that I'm forgetting.

Ah - the Manager was also really into Scott Pilgrim, which tells you a lot, I think, about where he was mentally at that time.

--

This was also around the time I went out with this guy who was really into French New Wave and man he was 100% worse than the Borders Manager. So whiny and passive aggressive and guilt trippy. smdh, miss me with that nonsense.

--

also I'm glad you're enjoying my little replies! You're getting all the Lore ;)

[sissa-arrows]

France is cooking a law again about employment. Long story short and to simplify if you don’t work you’ll have to work at least 15 hours a week for free to get your unemployment benefits. It applies to everyone including people like single parents who don’t have anyone to take care of their young children or disabled people who are “not disabled enough” to be unable to work.

Now France plans to apply the law in overseas territories with an order rather than a law. It allows them to take a shortcut with democracy and apply the law faster. They do that a lot with overseas territories.

Except this time the representatives were taking none of it. One of them, Frederic Maillot, a representative from La Reunion, actually said the fucking words in the middle of the National Assembly. He said I quote “ Debré said, it pains me to quote him here, he said “Once a Creole, always a Creole” Tonight we can see that “Once a colonizer, always a colonizer.””

An other representative said “I’m sure your words exceeded what you actually think and feel. You should apologize.” The speaker said something similar that the words Maillot used were too strong and that he crossed a line that doesn’t allow “peaceful debate”. Maillot was then allowed to answer probably because they expected an apology… you know what he said “I will quote Thomas Sankara. “A slave who doesn’t stand by his revolt doesn’t deserve to make us feel sorry for his situation”.”

And then he just went back to his seat. The National Assembly was then dismissed for a couple minutes because of how butthurts they were 😂

This is what happens when you treat whole territories whole communities of Black and North Africans citizens are colonies and colonial subject. They end up calling you a colonizer.

The way the new generation is taking the job our parents and grandparents left behind. This fight is our legacy and apparently we are willing to take it to go beyond what our ancestors managed to take from colonizers for us and our rights.

(Debré is a former French politician. He was a representative of La Reunion and was pro colonialism that’s most likely why Maillot says he is pained to quote this specific man)

Article in French here

Note: I will take no shit from people saying “the youngest generation takes no shit unlike the old ones. We will finally show them what resistance is” There’s this very popular thing in France were young Black and North African (less with Algerians specifically but still) people be saying shit like that saying “We won’t submit and shut up like our grandparents” and it pisses me off a fuck lot. They were not weak. They were not submissive. Just because they didn’t achieve full freedom and equality doesn’t mean that they didn’t do anything. The rights we have today? We owe them to that generation who fought for themselves and for us. That fight is our legacy we are not creating it. They went as far as they could and now it’s our job to take over.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Thoughts on the new leaks/season 2?

As I've said before, I honestly like the idea of Melissa joining for S2. It could just be flashbacks, but even if it's not, the symbolism from S5 tells us they always planned for Carol to be part of Daryl finding Beth. So, it's a good sign in my book. Here are some of my fellow theorists' thoughts about it as well:

@wdway

Well what do you know Melissa is in France. They don't look like they're in the on their honeymoon to me though. I am not worried about this, she was supposed to be in the spinoff anyway. This only thing I absolutely do hate about this is that that gloating the Carylers are gonna put us through until, yet again, nothing romantic happens between Daryl and Carol.

Apparently the Carylers believe this is the wedding ring that Daryl gave to his beloved wife Carol. His wife, his forever love. Of course unless this photo was flipped she's wearing it on the wrong finger and hand.

@galadrieljones

It’s also possible she got married to Ezekiel! I don’t believe she’d marry Daryl that would be like marrying your brother.

Also hmmm this is interesting tho. How does she end up there?

Also why is her hair short…?

Flashbacks?

Do you know where these came from? Like I wonder if this is them in costume?

Tempted to try and find Carol in that outfit in an old episode to see if it’s possible she’s filming flashback scenes.

If I were a Caryler I’d be worried about the fact her hair is short again. We know the story of why she cut her hair. Growing it out again was like a point of pride and moving on. Why would she cut it again?

Unless okay it’s just MMB’s hair

And she wears a wig?

Anyway I am probably wrong she probably wears a wig. But yeah actually this intrigues me and like idc about Carylers.

@wdway

Remember in the last scenes of, Rest in Peace, after the year time jump Carol had cut her hair.

@galadrieljones

Omg I forgot lol

@wdway

With all the crew around them I'm sure that this is their costumes. And I think it is present time Europe.

@wdway

I guess that life raft drifted back across the ocean for Carol to hitch a ride.

@galadrieljones

Seriously tho did she follow him? Track him? I’m actually extremely interested in how Carol got there because unlike Daryl, Carol is a major troublemaker and has less moral convictions when it comes to getting what she wants

@wdway

In one of the shots above we see Daryl holding a map. Why does he need a map? He's found his true love (sarcasm). I just think it's part of all the pattern of maps we're seeing.

@galadrieljones:

If she got some sort of distress signal from Daryl while out on a fishing boat at Oceanside or something like yeah she’d shoot people and hijack a ship and sail all the way to France and continue to shoot ppl till she found him (and then she’d shoot more ppl and Daryl would have to be like CAROL STOP)

I’m imagining Daryl on the mission of a lifetime and then somehow getting word home to Carol: “I need your help. Meet me.” She would go in two seconds

@wdway

The very best scenario would be that is Beth sent her!!

@galadrieljones

(To help him find Beth ofc in a “reprise,” or another “rendition” if you will, of Consumed to the coda)

Either way would be fine with me.

@wdway

I definitely think her joining him will be a replay of Consume and we know what happened at the end of that. BETH.

@galadrieljones

Daryl gets sucked into France, Carol gets lost on a side quest re: “Diverged.” She finds Beth.

Honestly I actually love Carol because she’s such an active character like she can’t help herself, she’s always getting into some sort of mess

She guarantees excitement lol

(Just, unfortunately for the Carylers, not the sexy kind.)

@wdway

And Daryl's job is to try his best to rain her in. And Ezekiel is the only one that looks at her and believes that she represents light.

@galadrieljones

Is it a coincidence these shots of Carol leak the day after the mid season finale of Fear? Is there any doubt these leaks are all on purpose?

@wdway:

Very, very good point.

Hopefully there will be some clarifications on a lot of these things we've talked about today at this year's comic-con.

As if tptb are very aware of what the chatter is in the fandoms.

@galadrieljones

Yes and as if they have pretty decent control over what we see and when.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Really fascinating stuff, Gals. I’ve loved reading all your thoughts. I’m actually kind of excited that Melissa is there. As you said, it means that there will be a replay of Consumed, and I’ve always thought that would happen before Beth appears. I assumed they would have to change what they set up for all those years ago, but it looks like it just got a bit delayed.

@wdway

There are so many articles wanting us to believe that it's Troy, it just makes absolutely no sense that they didn't just show his face if within hours it is published in multiple articles that it was him. I don't believe it was either Emily or the actor that plays Troy. I think it was someone that would give us that very questionable debate. That blonde hair did not come from the Troy actor. Even if he now has very long hair and bleached it, his hair is naturally curly, that was not curly man's hair.

My take is that if the character Troy is coming back it's a definite a nod to someone coming back that everyone presumed to be dead because of the obvious hammer bashing wound that was shown. If he doesn't actually appear it's still the same thing, someone can come back from what appears to be have been an un-survivable wound.

How they dressed the mysterious person in neutral unisex clothing says that it could be anyone but you will never convince me that the slight show of blonde hair was not a message to TD, to remain hopeful, that Gimple has not forgotten us. And as Tarah pointed out it appeared the night before the Carol and Daryl photos dropped. Way too many come coincidences to be a coincidence here.

I just finished watching a cute, quirky movie on Netflix. Something was said that struck a cord with me and I even Googled it to make sure it was true and then I went to my husband's closet and checked it out. I had known this but it was something that most people don't really pay attention to. In the movie the guy mentioned that the girl was wearing a man's shirt. The girl asked, how do you know that. The guys replied that men's shirts (coat, sweater...) has buttons on the right side, women's have buttons on the left side.

The buttons on the person's coat are on the left. It might not seem to be an important thing, but we know that is the type of thing that tbtb would use as a hint. By the way, that's a little white button on Beth's necklace was always on the right side of the heart which would be Daryl side. She also wore the color white=Beth shoelace on her right shoe at Grady. I always interpret that as her belonging to Daryl=right, just as Daryl wore the black leg wrap on the left=Beth side, he belongs to her. I just thought I would drop in and share the thought.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Love it!

@galadrieljones

Ooh interesting, Ann. I remember I used this knowledge once to prove something in the fandom for the last of us. To me the mystery isn’t solved. You are so right that if they just planned on straight up telling us it was Troy like 12 hours after the episode aired then why didn’t they just show his face in the coda. The secrecy, the blond hair, I’m not saying it’s Beth but it’s a question that they clearly want us to ask.

@wdway

And with what I had mentioned above about the buttons, I know that's not a huge deal-breaker by any means, but why even have a garment with buttons? You see what I mean, I think everything that we were able to see in that scene was purposeful. Nothing was just thrown in half hazardly, each object was placed and shown for a reason. That's why I'd love to figure out what some of those other objects were that we haven't identified, yet.

@galadrieljones

AMC hasn’t confirmed yet. Hmm.

Obviously she’s on the show but I wonder why amc is dragging their feet.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I can’t help but wonder if there’s some spite going on there bc the Carylers were so nasty about it. So AMC is just not going to confirm anything. After all, they said she needed a break and would be back, and the Carylers called them liars. Clearly they were telling the truth. Can’t say I blame them for turning up their noses as the online haters.

@wdway

They might be wanting to save the official announcement until comic-con, Which is less than a month away. Then again they might want to promote the first season instead of trying to promote s2 before the show ever airs. Supposedly Carol's in the last episode of s1 and will be in at least some if not most of season 2. Supposedly there working on e3 of s2 so that's assuming that they'll still be only 6 episodes to a season.

The other thing is how long do they want to wait for the real nastiness of the carylers to set in, because they have demanded, yes, I use the word demand that the character Carol have equal billing to Daryl. I typically would have no problem whatsoever if in fact they are equal leads in the series, but the minute a bunch of very nasty people demand something my back goes up.

Bottom line, I really think it's about just wanting to make a big announcement at Comic-Con. Probably bringing Melissa out so her carylers can feel good that they have bullied a network and brought her back. I know I'm being ugly, but these people really are nasty. They really want the credit for her being in s2 instead of seeing it for what it was, that she wasn't ready to commit to s1. And truly none of us will know what happened unless we're told by Melissa or tptb and I don't see that happening.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Good points about Comicon. I can't believe we're almost to July already!

@wdway

I mentioned last week how tptb are promoting the characters Origin Stories, especially Maggie and Negan's since their spin-off has begun, so after I got through watching the episode I was just checking some things out and I could not remember if I had watched Carol's Origin Story or not, so I put it on and went quickly through it.

Things I was consciously aware of was how she always referred to Daryl as her friend or even her dear friend and sometimes the fact that he's always there for her. But she never implied that there was more than deep loving friendship between them. I smiled when it came to the storyline of Carol and Ezekiel. The writer made sure that we know that there was more than just friendship between them.

It was so sweet that they showed the scene where he's wanting to propose to her, she knew that, he had written a speech but she did not want it to be showy in front of everyone else. She happily took his ring and told him that he could read his speech to her later in private. I love the fact that they included hope in describing Carol and Ezekiel's relationship, because hope isn't necessarily something she finds in Daryl, because Daryl himself struggle so with it.

They're emphasizing that hope was something that Ezekiel gave her. In s11 Ezekiel tells Carol that she is, light. Seriously, that is a description that no one else, I think in the series, would ever attach to Carol. They might say, badass, driven, caring for others, willing to sacrifice, but not light or hope.

As I'm writing this it just occurs to me that the Dwight and Sherry storyline is a replay of Carol and Ezekiel, after Henry's death. It's was too much for Carol and she needed to separate herself from the memories of their happiness and the life they had made together with Henry and she leaves Ezekiel.

And here Dwight is doing the same thing with Sherry. Which I believe might leave hope that they will not reunite again somewhere down the line. My take away from Carol's Origin Story, is all the things we've talked about for years reinforced, that Carol and Daryl love each other as friends and will forever be bound together by their friendship. There are no worries of that relationship changing going into the spinoff, it's just not even a possibility.

Another thing that I had forgotten about the Origin Stories is that after the actor/ character goes through the series highlighting their storylines then we are offered their favorite or considered best episodes. Here's Carol's episodes.

The episode, Pretty Much Dead Already, does highlight Daryl and Carol and the Cherokee Rose, but the main point to that episode being chosen imo as one of Melissa/Carol's best is the barn scene, with Sophia emerging from it as a walker.

Here is Norman/Daryl's episodes.

We can all smile at the fact that Still is presented as one of the best of Daryl/Norman's episodes. You will have absolutely no argument on that fact from me, haha. Now some people (carylers) might say that the characters were limited on how many episodes could be included in the choice of best episodes. They would be wrong. In JDM's/Negan's best episodes he has five.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Loved your thoughts here! Agree with everything you said.

[foreverlogical]

Well, Twitter owner Elon Musk is being vile again. That's a frequent enough occurrence that it usually doesn't rise to the level of news, since Musk spends most of his day looking for affirmation in the mentions of far-right sh-tposters and memelords, but Musk remains one of the richest people on the planet and whenever a man willing to blow $44 billion on a website just so that he could rig it up to give himself a louder voice than anyone else, it becomes news when the very rich cultivator of far-right adulation keeps promoting antisemitism, neo-Nazi themes, and attacks on democracy itself.

So yeah, apparently we have to do this again. As per usual it started with Musk putting his two cents in in the replies of another anti-Muslim tweet by notorious far-right conspiracy promoter and fascism-booster Amy Mek, because—again—Musk appears to crave the attention of every fascist and protofascist on the internet. Mak promoted a video allegedly from an imam vowing France will "become an Islamic country through Jihad," upon which some other ultracreep piped up with "Thanks to the white female vote," which caused allegedly richest person in the world to himself reply that "The childless have little stake in the future."

That's already about five kinds of creepy and weird but we'll set that aside for the moment, because it's yet another of Musk's blue check weirdos who set the ball rolling toward its natural Worst Possible Take.

"Democracy is probably unworkable long term without limiting suffrage to parents. Helps solve the procreation problem, too," mused blue-check user "fentasyl".

"Yup," replied Elon.

All right, so here's where we're at. Musk is poking around in the replies of one of the most notorious anti-Muslim boosters of neo-Nazis and white supremacists, as he so often does, sees Some Dude opine that "the white female vote" are the reason that France will supposedly fall to jihad, elaborates with his own belief that "the childless have little stake in the future" and are the real problem here—because the imaginary white females are apparently childless, too?—and by the end is agreeing that democracy itself is "probably unworkable" unless we bar non-parents from voting at all. Just another normal day.

Incidentally, while all of this was going on, Twitter itself was going belly up, with engineers having to hastily put together a new Elon scheme to put new caps on how many tweets you're allowed to read, possibly because Musk's previous decision to not pay his damn bills was now reaching the "find out" end stage.

You can understand, then, why the man would need to relax by yet again questioning the usefulness of democracy. It's that or do his damn day job, and he's terrible at his day job.

The reason all of this matters is that Musk is again diving into some very, very sketchy stuff. Musk is perhaps one of the most famous figures in the small and bizarre "natalist" movement, people who believe that society will collapse if human population growth isn't maintained. If you think that sounds suspiciously close to the neo-Nazi belief that it's "white" humanity that is in danger of dwindling, or to the arguments of eugenicists in general, you're right: The movement is almost entirely white and is clogged with just those sorts of people.

"It would be so easy to dismiss this as yet another unhinged comment, except for the deep intersections between natalism and fascism. These ideas are dangerous, and when we start to see them spread casually by people in power, we shouldn't stand idly by," tweets Dr. Jacquelyn Gill, and that is the problem. Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter, a struggling company not likely to be worth half of that, was initially portrayed by Musk as some sort of grand plan to improve society. On taking over, it became evident that Musk's "improvements" consisted of rigging the algorithm to give himself virtual site omnipresence, while using that to boost pandemic conspiracy theories, delegitimize government, and repeatedly call into question whether democracy itself was sustainable.

Musk keeps wallowing through far-right hate accounts and coming up with his own theories of how the world should work. His inability to not share those pearls of wisdom with the rest of us has, however, fully laid to rest any notion that Musk's "genius" consists of anything but relentless narcissism. Most of the billionaire's critiques for society fall somewhere between bizarre and malevolent.

What does it mean, that the "childless have little stake in the future?" That's just crank talk. So children themselves have no stake in the future, until they've either impregnated someone or been impregnated? How does adoption play into this? Do you have a stake in the future if you adopt a child, or is it only the genetic parents who have this stake? When limiting "democracy" to bar everyone but parents from electing 

the United States government, would voting certificates be transferred along with the child during an adoption?

What if a child dies? Would the parent, again childless, be again barred from voting? How in the artisanal ketamine-tinted hell would any of this work, and do the people making crank suggestions like this even listen to themselves, or is it all pumped out for shock value, unmolested by such trivialities as common sense?

The notion that "white females" in particular are valueless to democracy until and unless they give birth is some deeply creepy Aryan shit, but Musk keeps diving right in to support it, over and over. The man has a fetish for fascism, and he's certainly not shy about showing it off.