#drake real estate partners | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thedemostop · 2 months

Text

Drake Net Worth: How He Became One of the Richest Rappers

Aubrey Drake Graham, known to the world as Drake, has become one of the wealthiest rappers in the music industry and one of the most influential. His journey from a child actor in the Canadian teen drama "Degrassi: The Next Generation" to a global hip-hop icon is a testament to his talent, business acumen, and relentless drive.

This blog explores the evolution of Drake net worth, the key factors contributing to his financial success, and how he has maintained his position at the top of the music world.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

From Aubrey Graham to Drake

On October 24, 1986, Drake was born in Toronto, Canada. His father, Dennis Graham, was a drummer for Jerry Lee Lewis, and his mother, Sandi Graham, was an educator. Growing up in a multicultural environment, Drake was exposed to diverse musical influences, which would later shape his unique sound. He began his acting career by playing Jimmy Brooks on the television series "Degrassi: The Next Generation." Although this role brought him initial fame, it was his passion for music.

Transition to Music

Drake's transition from acting to music began with his first mixtape, "Room for Improvement," in 2006. This was followed by "Comeback Season" in 2007 and "So Far Gone" in 2009. The latter received critical acclaim and featured the hit single "Best I Ever Had," which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. These early successes laid the foundation for Drake's music career and set the stage for his eventual rise to stardom.

Breakthrough and Major Success

Signing with Young Money Entertainment

Drake inked a recording deal with Young Money Entertainment, owned by Lil Wayne, in 2009. Under the guidance of Lil Wayne, Drake released his debut studio album, "Thank Me Later," in 2010. After debuting at the top of the Billboard 200, the album was certified platinum.

It featured collaborations with prominent artists like Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj, and Jay-Z, further cementing Drake's position in the music industry.

Subsequent Albums and Chart-Topping Hits

Drake's subsequent albums, including "Take Care" (2011), "Nothing Was the Same" (2013), and "Views" (2016), all achieved critical and commercial success. "Take Care" won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and featured hits like "Headlines" and "The Motto."

"Nothing was the same" included the popular tracks "Started from the "Hold On, We're Going Home" and "Bottom." "One Dance," the album's top-charting song and Drake's first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 as a lead artist.

Diversifying Income Streams

Touring and Concerts

One of the significant contributors to Drake's net worth is his success as a touring artist. His tours are known for their high production value and consistently sell out arenas and stadiums worldwide.

The "Summer Sixteen Tour" in 2016 featured Future as a co-headliner and grossed over $80 million, making it one of the highest-grossing hip-hop tours of all time. The "Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour" in 2018 further solidified his status as a top touring artist.

Endorsements and Business Ventures

Beyond music, Drake has leveraged his brand for lucrative endorsement deals and business ventures. In 2013, he signed a multi-year partnership with Nike's Jordan Brand, releasing several successful sneaker collaborations. He also partnered with Apple Music in 2015, securing an exclusive deal worth $19 million.

Drake's entrepreneurial spirit extends to his record label, OVO Sound, which he co-founded in 2012. Successful musicians signed by the label include Majid Jordan and PARTYNEXTDOOR.

Real Estate Investments

Drake's real estate portfolio is another significant component of his net worth. In 2012, he purchased a luxurious mansion in Hidden Hills, California, for $7.7 million. The property, known as the "YOLO Estate," features amenities like a swimming pool with a grotto, a tennis court, and a recording studio.

In 2019, Drake acquired a sprawling mansion in his hometown of Toronto, reportedly costing $100 million. These investments reflect his penchant for luxury and contribute to his overall financial success.

Drake's Impact on the Music Industry

Setting Streaming Records

Drake's influence on the music industry is undeniable, particularly in streaming. He holds several records on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, including the most-streamed artist of the decade (2010-2019). His 2018 album "Scorpion" set a record for the most first-day streams on Spotify, with over 132 million streams. The single "In My Feelings" became a viral sensation, demonstrating his ability to dominate digital platforms.

Cultural Influence and Legacy

Beyond his financial success, Drake's cultural impact is significant. He has popularized phrases and slang, such as "YOLO" (You Only Live Once), and his style has influenced fashion trends. Drake's ability to blend different genres, including hip-hop, R&B, and dancehall, has expanded the boundaries of rap music. His collaborations with artists from various backgrounds have further diversified his sound and broadened his appeal.

Philanthropy and Giving Back

Charitable Contributions

Drake's success has enabled him to give back to his community and support various charitable causes. In 2018, he donated $1 million to different individuals and organizations in Miami as part of his "God's Plan" music video.

The video featured Drake paying for groceries, funding scholarships, and supporting families in need. He has also contributed to educational programs and disaster relief efforts, demonstrating his commitment to making a positive impact.

OVO Fest and Community Engagement

Drake's annual OVO Fest in Toronto exemplifies his dedication to giving back. The festival, which started in 2010, features performances by top artists and attracts fans worldwide. It has become a significant cultural event in Toronto, boosting the local economy and providing a platform for emerging artists. Drake's involvement in his community and efforts to support local talent highlight his role as a mentor and influencer.

Conclusion

Drake's net worth reflects his immense talent, business acumen, and relentless drive. From his early days as an actor to his current status as one of the wealthiest rapper Drake, he has consistently pushed the boundaries of what is possible in the music industry. His ability to diversify income streams, set streaming records, and influence culture has solidified his position as a global icon. As Drake continues to evolve as an artist and entrepreneur, his net worth will grow, further cementing his legacy in music and beyond.

FAQs

What is Drake's net worth in 2024?

Drake's net worth in 2024 is estimated to be around $250 million, making him one of the wealthiest rappers in the world.

How did Drake become successful in the music industry?

Drake became successful through his unique sound, consistent hit singles, strategic collaborations, and business ventures, including his record label OVO Sound and various endorsement deals.

What are some of Drake's most successful albums?

Some of Drake's most successful albums include "Take Care," "Nothing Was the Same," "Views," and "Scorpion," all of which achieved critical and commercial success.

What business ventures has Drake pursued outside of music?

Drake has pursued various business ventures outside of music, including partnerships with Nike's Jordan Brand, Apple Music, and real estate investments. He also co-founded the record label OVO Sound.

How has Drake contributed to charitable causes?

Drake has contributed to charitable causes through donations, community engagement, and hosting the annual OVO Fest in Toronto. His "God's Plan" music video featured $1 million in donations to individuals and organizations in Miami.

#drake net worth 2024 #drake net worth

0 notes

don-lichterman · 2 years

Text

Rate Hikes, Industrial Sales, CREFC and Power DC! – Commercial Observer

It finally happened. After years of talking about it, thinking about it, making incremental moves toward it and quietly dreading it, the Fed bit the bullet and upped its benchmark interest rate by a whopping 75 basis points. (It was the largest rate hike in 28 years.) And Fed chairman Jerome Powell was pretty explicit that this wasn’t the end of the Fed’s plans to curb inflation; the rate is…

View On WordPress

3 notes · View notes

evanseiden-blog · 2 years

Text

SCP and Drake Exit an Industrial Property

A resident of Miami, FL, Evan Seiden has served as the CEO of Relentless Capital, LLC, since 2017. As a real estate investment executive, he looks for commercial real estate investment possibilities and opportunities with a high rate of return in FL and other areas. Evan Seiden also works with reputable real estate investing companies, such as Drake Real Estate Partners, a real estate and asset management business located in New York City. On April 27, Soma Capital Partners (SCP), a San Francisco-based private real estate investment and advising business, announced the sale of 2277 Pine View Way. The 120,000 square foot Class A industrial building in Petaluma, California, sold to an affiliate of DRA Advisors for $25.15 million. In April 2019, SCP bought the Property in collaboration with Drake. This is SCP's second 320,000-square-foot industrial sale since April 2020. The property is the corporate headquarter of Workrite Ergonomics, an industry leader in the design and marketing of ergonomic workstations and office accessories. Workrite, a Novato-based company founded in 1991, has held space in the building since 2011. In 2018, Workrite increased its tenancy to the entire building.

#SCP

2 notes · View notes

hateswifi · 4 years

Text

No More Second Chances: Chapter Six

I honestly have no idea what this chapter is, in my opinion it’s kinda cracky, but yeah leave what ya think, also ask to be tagged and stuff. Btw u proud of me twice in the same month, it’s a miracle. Also it’s a bit on the shorter side.

The Master: Master List

No More Second Chances: Master List

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

As soon as she left, Damian left and holed himself up in his room. He spent hours doing research on his cru-- friend’s new sister. He realized she fought hard even sometimes when her partner, who he figured out was a blonde model named Adrien Agreste, who may or may not be her boyfriend, decided he didn’t like Adrien, he left her to fight alone too much. She had won some of Gabriel’s competitions before he was sentenced to life in jail for obvious reasons, she was offered an internship with Audrey Bourgeois but had given it up in hopes of finishing high school, she worked as Jagged Stone’s personal designer, probably one of the reasons why Drake recognized her.

He sighed and tried to go to sleep, but his thoughts were just filled with her. He wakes up in a daze, still his thoughts were filled with her. He gets dressed and almost falls down the stairs. He stumbles into the kitchen and grabs a cup of coffee.

“Demon, you good? You hate coffee,” Jason says, opening the fridge.

“Fine, I just didn’t sleep well,” he grumbles into his mug.

“Were you thinking of the magic girl?” Dick asks, entering the kitchen.

“Why would I be thinking about Marinette?”

“Oh? She’s Marinette instead of Dupain-Cheng?” Jason snickers.

“She’s not Dupain-Cheng because she decided she is going by Wang after her parents disowned her,” Damian says, grabbing food.

“Speaking of her being disowned, does she have people lining up to be her parents, or is it like free real estate?” Bruce asks, pouring himself some coffee.

“Bruce, you realize she’s a person, right?”

“Sorry, I know, but I stayed up a majority of the night trying to figure out how to get her in our family,” Bruce yawns.

“The easiest way is Damian to marry her, but that may be as hard as adopting her,” Tim yawns, taking the pot of coffee from Bruce.

“That’s funny and impossible,” Jason laughs.

“What’s so funny about the notion of me dating her?” Damian asks, almost looking offended.

“Do you like her?” Dick asks, looking up from what he was doing, the silence was enough for an answer. “Oh my god! You do like her!”

“I do not,” Damian denies before leaving the kitchen.

He’s silent as he is driven to school by Alfred. As the car pulls up to school he sees his friend and the girl he may or may not have feelings for, he hasn’t figured it out yet. He gets out of the car and greets the two raven-haired siblings.

“Father stayed up all night trying to figure out how to adopt you and Dick is convinced you’re a magic girl,” Damian says.

“I’m technically a magic girl, and your father has to get in line, there’s Adrien’s aunt, then,” Marinette starts, and Jon cuts in. “My parents are also trying to adopt her.”

“Well Jon, we don’t want a repeat of last time out parents fought, do we?” Damian asks, raising an eyebrow.

“That was before you or eye were here, and also that was for a stupid reason, this would be for a great reason,” Jon shrugs.

“No matter who adopts, if anyone does, I’ll get siblings, but I’m not some doll to be fought over, just remember that,” Marinette says over her shoulder as she leaves the boys to bicker, or whatever an argument including Damian is called. She sighs and grabs her things from her locker, she was exhausted after she left the Manor last night. She ate dinner, did the little homework she had to do, and went to bed, totally didn’t pass out from exhaustion, hahaha.

When she had woken up that morning, she was met with many notifications mostly from her ex-classmates and Adrien asking how she was doing and stuff. She blocks the unwanted messages, including those from her parents, and chooses to just answer, Adrien and Aunt Amelia’s, she was asking how she was doing and how open she is to adoption, there was even one from Felix! He was checking up on her and made sure she got a reasonable amount of sleep.

She’s brought back to school by Damian clearing his throat behind her. “So magic girls get tired then?”

“Could you not talk so loud? Just because it’s in European news doesn’t mean people know who I am, also yes we do get tired, we are humans, also I am not tired just a bit distracted,” Marinette sighs, closing her locker.

“I’m not one to be tired or distracted so no, I don’t know. Back to you being a magic girl, as Dick called you, the League will most likely contact you about your situation.”

“It doesn’t matter what they do, they laughed in our faces and practically called Chat Noir and I a joke, well no so much they, more like Green Lantern, that’s not the point they didn’t help us, so why would I try to be on their good side, my team was left to struggle against a mental villain that takes advantage of any negative emotion,” Marinette says, walking to first period.

“You’re being dramatic, except for the terrorist that attacks mental and emotional health more than physical.”

“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not, they will never know the extension of the damage that they left Paris in, now can we drop it? I just want a nap before first period”

“We can drop it, also this proves you can be tired.”

“I already told you we’re humans and can be tired, in fact Adrien lived on coffee for a majority of out schooling while still in Paris.”

“Your caffeine addiction may be bad, but its nothing compared to Tim’s, by the way, can you come back over today to work on the project? We didn’t finish enough for me to be satisfied yesterday,” Damian asks, sliding into his seat.

“Yeah sure, whatever floats your boat, Dami,” Marinette sighs, putting her head on her desk. She swears that the whole class was silent, so she looked up. Everyone was looking at her in some stage of shock, she looks over at Damian, his face is red. She shrugs and puts her head on the desk trying to get a power nap before class.

Little did she know during her little preschool nap news would spread all over the school about the Ice prince turned blushing boy, Damian, and the epitome of innocence Marinette and their supposed “relationship”. She just wanted to sleep and all the talk was stopping her. Heck, what does a magic girl have to do to get some sleep in America?

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

Tag List:

@sturchling @maribat-is-lifeblood @sonif50 @thestressmademedoit @myazael @mochinek0 @messymessyml @amayakans @weird-pale-blonde-person @animalgirl05 @justafanwarrior @kalianoble @mewwitch @elmokingkong @noirdots @itsmeevie01 @colorfulmongerpsychicranch @tis-i-beanbandit @thetinymoonflower @whats-she-gonna-post-next @alwaysnumberonetruth @hauntedwintersweets @not-annoying @wargraymon0709 @tired-butterfly @heldtogetherbysafetypins @toodaloo-kangaroo @feliciakainzofspades @lozzybowe @imnotfluffy @moonlightstar64 @angelofmusickaterinapetrova @pirats-pizzacanninibles @sassakitty @gwennex @whats-she-gonna-post-next @dawnwave16 @ccwkm6967 @softlysobbingpostendgame @pale-lady-dreamer @a-star-with-human-name

Tag List extended:

@sociallyanxious-1

#maribat #marinette dupain cheng #batfam #damian x marinette #marinette x damian #ml salt fic #damian wayne #ml x dc #damimari #adoption war #crack magic girl #blushy boi #marinette just wants sleep

228 notes · View notes

groovesnjams · 3 years

Video

youtube

“This is Heaven” by Nick Jonas

DV:

Music and marketing have been intertwined longer than I can track; back in 2014 I was arguing “music is a vehicle for the performer” about some dumb Drake song because every so often someone decides this is a bad thing. So I want to be clear that “This is Heaven” isn’t doing anything new, but it is doing something that feels accelerated, or maybe intensified, or both, in our current era. Nick Jonas is married, all The Jonases are now. And their partners are celebrities in their own right, whether independently or because marrying a Jonas brother simply means you exist in the spotlight as soon as you enter their proximity. And in that rarefied ecosystem, “This is Heaven” functions as brand management, just as its predecessor “Spaceman” did. The latter was a downtempo, thoughtful piece that framed its “it’ll change if we vote” and “mask off soon as I get home” lyrics with enough ambiguity that they could apply to any situation - current, future, or metaphorical.

“This is Heaven” is much less ambiguous: it’s about Nick and Priyanka. It’s a song designed for a People Magazine feature about their relationship, that follows from a People Magazine news item on Nick and Priyanka’s latest vacation, and that sets up a People Magazine half page on a recipe they’ve been loving recently. This is music designed for the middle of a wedding reception; effectively, it’s a solo rewrite of last year’s “What’s a Man Gotta Do”, another song about being happily, bouncily, comfortably in love. And to be clear, there are worse goals for an artist to aim for as they near two decades in the spotlight! Adam Levine’s going more rancid by the day; if we could collectively agree to replace him with the collective Jonases I’d vote yes in an instant. But instead “This is Heaven” failed to even chart in the US - your grandparents will never recognize it, your parents will use this song to refill their drinks. So the question is, what does it mean to perform brand management that no one connects to your brand? When your SNL performance fails to make any mark on the collective consciousness, when your repeated attempts to stir up entertainment press fall flat? I mean maybe it’s just that producer Greg Kurstin (Sia; Adele; so many others) is losing his touch. Or maybe it means pop songs and pop stars are coming unstuck from each other, in ways I can’t quite put my finger on yet.

MG:

Unfortunately, I think Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello brand managed to more attention in 2021 and that’s all I have to say about them. It’s a genuine shame that “This Is Heaven” didn’t get a warmer reception (I guess here is where I’ll confess that I haven’t listened to Nick Jonas’s album and didn’t need to in order to get the idea that it was all about his marriage. It’s all either of them have promoted since hooking up.) because it’s warm and well-crafted and because the fact that we still have celebrity culture in the middle of a pandemic means that we’ve run out of real estate wherein to complain about the Chopra-Jonases ceaseless need for attention. Plus, he’s churning out classic J. Crew sweaters here! We better start appreciating these sweaters in a timely, capitalist fashion or the manufacturers will be forced to cut costs and churn out half-plastic garbage sweaters assembled by slave labor, or wherever this metaphor ends. We don’t, in fact, owe Nick Jonas anything -- by desiring to make music at all he should desire to make good music -- regardless, I do appreciate that desire and reality aligned, as they so rarely do.

#nick jonas #this is heaven #jonas brothers #priyanka chopra

1 note · View note

st-just · 4 years

Text

Cities, Conquests and Tributaries of the Federal Republic

Because I already did one for the Empire, and world-building continues to be at least mildly engaging/keeps me writing, anyway.

The Free Cities: The core of the Federal Republic, and the beating hearts of cultural, economic, and political power. Beautiful and rapturous parasites, which trade ephemera and mesmerizing baubles for all the treasures of the world. Unending and many-coloured chaos, joyous festival turning to bloody riot in the blink of an eye. Without censor or police-spy, they are the generous refuge to every heretic and dissident in need of one, provided they bring a sharp knife and a friend to watch their back.

Quepta, Chirtial and Celmy itself all share a coastline, though travel by land is rendered deeply impractical by steep hills and the lack of convenient rivers. Inara totally dominates the island on which it sits, and Khasal sits on the opposite coast of its sister cities, but shares an easily navigable river route with Celmy. In all cases the cities’ hinterlands have been thoroughly mastered, but each has grown to the point where only daily shipments of grain and rice can sustain their populations.

The Broken Coast: The core of the Republic’s mercantile empire isn’t particularly impressive at a glance – vast stretches of rocky islands and small coastal planes, isolated from their hinterlands by mountains or plateaus. Its trade winds do, however, ensure safe and easy shipping up and down its lengths – ensuring that the small trading ports that dot every viable harbour capable of supporting a population can trust that ships will arrive regularly to buy everything worthwhile they can transport from further inland, and provide everything they lack. Formally, the vast majority are ruled by boqors or rajahs – whether extracting tribute from distant inland principalities, governing a federation of coastal towns, or ruling an independent city-state – but in every real sense power is held by the merchant factors and trading captains, and their Celmean friends and partners.

The Piper’s Wake: Before they were free, the cities were the troublesome and distant trading ports of an ancient empire. The specifics have long since been lost under the weight of a thousand different dramatizations, but what was once the empire’s rich and fertile core bears witness to how the matter was finally decided. Burned and brutalized (so they say), the fleshweavers and skinchangers of Khasal made common cause with the ecstatics and mad mystics or Chirtial and conducted one of the grander rituals of the age. A Caller of the Host, grander than any who have walked before or since, was made from the sacrificial flesh, and life rebelled as she played. The demon herself was slain by the crown prince as his empire tore itself apart around him (as the tale goes), but regular expeditions are still launched into the region – both to cull the goblin population, and entice or bind more advanced specimens for use or sale.

The Spine of the World: A range of inhospitable and imposing mountains that would be difficult to cross even if they weren’t Drake-infested, mainly notable as serving as a hard northern border for the Republic’s influence for cartographers, with its few major passes serving as something of a trade artery for luxury exports to the Illyrin empire. More recently, mining prospectors have begun swarming the area like flies after the discovery of major silver deposits – and, with the increasing ease of transit, certain thrill-seekers and would-be dragonslayers have taken to braving the peaks. Being fair, they still have a high survival rate that the particularly zealous devotees of Askopar, who attempt to convince the wyrms to accept their inheritance as a Prince of Demons – something they are rarely amenable to, as they’re happy to quite lethally explain.

The New Cities/The Colonies: Past the farthest edges of the Broken Coast, and weeks of open ocean beyond that, lays the most remote real centre of the Federation’s power. Acquired through a (by now thoroughly mythologized) mixture of trade, fraud and force, the islands and coastline the dozen cities (glorified town, in most cases. Only barely glorified, in a few) are scattered across are a the source of untold fortunes for many back in the Inner World. Each city sends a steady stream of extraordinarily valuable imports back to its parent – rare furs, plantation crops, precious metals and jewels – and in exchange receives the weapons, tools, and especially people they need to sustain and expand their dominions. Enticing new colonists with land grants or the chance for riches is entirely commonplace, which does require regular low-level warfare with each other and the native populations to make good on them. And, although no upstanding citizen of the metropolises can be known to take part in it, the colonies lack both the freedom loving mobs and temperamental patrons of their parents, and so quite a few interests wasted no time at all making a fortune in the trade of indentured labour.

The Shipbreaker Isles: Given its utter dependence on maritime trade, as a general rule the great and the good of the Free Cities have a decidedly draconian view of piracy (the mob’s opinion may differ, given how popular epic and romantic tales of their exploits can be). But, in the final analysis, this really amounts to taking offence at pirates targeting their ships (the existence of a ‘Federal Navy’, the only officially existing common institution of the Republic, can be largely attributed to no one trusting their rivals to stop attacking their ships the moment they were out of sight of port without a sword hanging over their heads). Hence, the Isles, where pirate queens and kings can repair and recruit in safety, merchant factors on hand to buy any and all loot they can carry, their ships returning with a steady supply of gifts, luxuries, and fresh meat (naive young things with a penchant for violence, or people who have burnt every possible bridge but still have debts to run away from, generally). All with the tactic understanding that they only target Esheri or Illyric shipping, of course. Every settlement on the isles has been destroyed at least three or four times from punitive expiditions, and the Celmean willing to cut them loose without raising a finger is the only reason a general war has not yet resulted.

The Ashen Steppe: Only slightly more habitable a place than the name implies, this vast and lightly populated expanse has mostly served as a hard border for the Federal Republic’s influence, rapidly consuming all effort and attention paid to it buying off various nomad tribes rather than dealing with their raids, paying tribute to the appropriate leaders along the major caravan routes to the Commonwealth, and suffering the occasional invasion searching for land or treasure. In recent years, Esheri expansion has seen some growing hostility form the nomads, which Celmean agents have been more than happy to help arm and organize, culminating in two cities officially recognizing their chosen candidate as Khagan of the whole steppe – an entirely aspirational claim, at least for the moment.

The Kayal Empires: Conquest states in the purest form, this region represents the other major bridgehead of Celmean influence in the outer world. ‘Influence’ rather than ‘power’ or ‘rule’, as this is a region that makes cartographers weep and war profiteers grin. The result of a particularly ruthless and ingenious mercenary-adventurer who parlayed a civil war in one the continent’s more impressive empires into employment, power, and eventually a chance to claim the throne himself. It was quite possibly the most lucrative mercenary contract in history for his soldiers, as grand estates and piles of gold were freely distributed as reward for their loyalty. That was just under fifty years ago. Technically speaking his granddaughter is still empress, largely because she married a prince of the old ruling house and used the residual legitimacy of both names to rally an army to retake the old capital. Of course, there are a dozen other would-be emperors – both newly arrived and well armed adventurers, the now partially assimilated conquerors, or various flavors of native rebellion - and all manner of small principalities and over-mighty pirate chiefs in between. If it wasn’t for how rich the land was, they might just be left to it – instead, the supply of over-ambitious and ruthless new arrivals hasn’t slowed once.

The Soya Principalities: The most powerful and organized states which lay inland of the Broken Coast trading network, the principalities – which really have rather less in common then the Celmean travel guides imply, and in many cases would take great offence at being lumped together – are, officially speaking and as far as their rulers are concerned, entirely free of foreign control. While this is entirely true as far as your average peasant is concerned, in practice a few rather fundamental transactions have been made – Khasali court mystics and physicians, a particularly dashing trader from Chiritial who won the princesses’ hand, Celmean mediation over the succession ensuring the more pliable child inherits – and, in all cases, the most important of all – foreign control over ports and tarrifs, and free navigation of rivers and coasts, in exchange for generous gifts to sustain the royal court without resort to taxation.

The Paramountcy of Joyi: The other major outgrowth of Celmean power inland form the Broken Coast, the Paramountcy is a new and intentional creation – stabilizing trade routs upriver and overland to the increasingly valuable mountains to the north. Originally the scheme was to subsidize and glorify some chieftains near the waystations and trading posts on the route – but, in the sort of luck that you usually get for praying to archdemons, one of the chiefs chosen had ambitions of his own, and has used the sponsorship and support to conquer vast swathes of the region, and been recognized as ‘paramount chief’ by his allies for his efforts. The partnership is undeniably mutually profitable, though both parties are certain the other will betray them at a moment’s notice.

#writing #worldbuilding #abhari #this is theoretically a writing blog

16 notes · View notes

lizzybeth1986 · 5 years

Text

Quick Thoughts on TRR Book 1 Chapter 8

• So…umm…I LOVE this chapter! More in hindsight than when I was actually playing it because back then it just sounded like a jealous woman trying to sabotage the MC and failing. But now having played through this chapter and even written a fic about it…I have to say there’s a lot going on in this one.

• I’ve often found the 8th chapter in the series pretty interesting. This was the first chapter in the series to feature diamond scenes from all three of the original LIs in a single chapter. This would happen again in Book 2, but by Book 2 the imbalance was a lot more tangible. I will speak more about this later…but suffice to say that back when we had just two books in the series, I would call the 8th chapter The Magical Number Eight.

• A common misconception that seems to stem from this chapter (and others, often by Kiara-haters) is that Kiara “agrees to be our friend” this chapter, and then jumps ship to Madeleine in Book 2. That’s bullshit. Kiara never mentions the word friend. She says ally. And she delivers.

• THIS is also where you get the first little inkling that Maxwell could be romanced, though we would only know for sure by the middle of Book 2. This chapter is also where you also get the first of many Drake’s plot related scenes. Which meant that sometimes, even if a fan did not like him, they would end up buying his scenes anyway for some crumb of information on their LI. Drake was already getting popular, but dropping hints of plot into his scenes gave him an added edge and often encouraged fans of other LIs who didn’t like him, to buy his scenes.

• Anyway, since the buildup took an entire chapter, the book pushes us straight into the dressing room for this one!

• Title: A Waltz to Remember.

Alternative Title: Lizzy Turns This QT into a Kiara Gush-fest And Does Not Regret It (Even If It Gave Her Hand-Cramps).

I love how over the course of three books, this particular dance form of Cordonia has gained the importance it has. And it’s lovely how - even though we’re not meant to like Olivia at this point - our first glimpse of Cordonian culture through this dance, is in her estate.

• Hana’s silver dress makes its debut here! Honestly, I kinda would’ve liked this one a LOT better as a gown than as the bodycon it eventually became. That pleated bodice really needed a long, flowy skirt to work. I’m always going to be a little sore they made it a short bodycon instead 😑

• Okay I love both our options for the ball, okay. They’re both big, and glamorous, and make a real statement. Which is necessary, because the plan is to show Olivia up at her own home.

Winter Goddess is gorgeous - it has that vintage Hollywood feel to me, and the caption for it sounds pretty romantic (“will capture the winter moonlight”). Snowflake Sweetheart is very on-point for the whole snow/ice theme Lythikos itself has going on. I’m very fond of the crystals and the illusion sleeves on the second one….but I have to say that silk-satin one with the fur stole is the winner for me 😅

Me Back Then (on one of my million replays): If I really have to take a diamond option, I’m taking the second one. I’m cheap.

Me Now: Still cheap. I’m not spending 25 whole diamonds on another gown when there’s already a cute one free in my closet.

• Maxwell is trying hard to channel Bertrand 2.0, and is badgered enough by 1.0 over the phone to almost succeed.

• One of the formal phrases he uses is “a diamond of the first water”, a phrase you’d see very commonly in the Regency era…which kind of solidifies my belief that Regency England was one of their world building inspirations even back then.

• We don’t fully understand the kind of power the hostess can wield in her homeplace, until this sequence. On principle, Olivia is not exactly answerable to anyone, not even the royals visiting her in Lythikos - she can decide on seat arrangements, she can give instructions to the staff on who gets the best portions of the meals and who gets the worst, she can monopolize on the Prince’s time with her if she wants. And she takes full advantage of that.

• However, her being the hostess doesn’t always leave her completely free to do what she wants, without consequences. Lythikos is not just a turning point for us - it’s one for her as well. And not exactly in a good way.

• Here’s what Olivia does to sabotage us at the ball:

- seats us away from our sponsor, and away from the head table. In fact this is something she does to all the suitors - Maxwell tells us that not a single one has a place at the head table.

- seats us way back, next to a commoner who is also constantly given the same treatment - which Hana points out is meant to be viewed in the court as an insult. To an MC who is still learning the ways of the nobility, this move is pretty much a miss…but it does give us a very clear idea of how hypocritical the nobility and royalty can be. Hana is not immune to the prejudice either (seen as she does not censor the statement when she says it in front of Drake, a commoner), but she eventually grows to fiercely guard him and defend him from those kind of attitudes later on… and you can see a lot of that growth in TRH’s Walker Ranch chapters.

- has her servers give us ice-cold lobster bisque on purpose, thirty minutes after serving has begun. With no lobster in it. Remember, we’re in a wintry region where you require piping hot, creamy, fattening foods to stay warm. This isn’t just ruining a meal: Olivia is sending a clear message about how unwelcome they are, by giving them cold food devoid of the main protein, in the freezing cold of Lythikos.

- given the timing of her kiss on Liam during the waltz, she probably did that to send a message to us as well. It happens shortly after our dance with him, and from her reaction (angry, immediately establishing claim on him) to Liam’s dance with the MC, we can tell she’s more affected than she’d like to admit, and that’s what informs her actions during her second dance with him.

• Me Back Then: There is a nice option and a rude option. It’s Drake, but he’s Liam’s bff and I want to be nice.

(+ romance point)

Me Back Then:

Me Now: Romance points in Lythikos fall from Drake the way pee falls from someone with weak kegels. One tiny laugh and pssssshhhh.

• From the rude option you find out that Drake plays chess and often wins in his matches with Liam, so that’s a nice touch.

• The MC can acquire the fresh bisque for herself and her friends if she dramatically faints in front of a server. I quite like this (optional) moment because it shows her thinking on her feet and quickly ensuring she gets her way. The other options are pretty hilarious too, though, the obnoxious “do you know who I am” option comes with a Game of Thrones reference 😂

•

Me Back Then: …someone should leave Drake hungry at a party till the wee hours of the morning with access to only whiskey bottles. Whiskey for entrèe, whiskey for main, maybe we’ll be kind and give him brandy for dessert. Let’s see how far his love for whiskey goes then 😈

Me Now: Holy shit, Me Back Then, you just predicted the best scene in Book 3 🤣.

• One of my favourite TRR Tumblr posts ever, was the one where someone took a screenshot of Drake saying “I’m not one to complain about food” from this chapter, and placed a gif of Nicholas Fraser’s “Why You Always Lying” lyrics just beneath it 😄 If that isn’t the truth idk what is.

• Most of the chapter after this will focus on the Cordonian Waltz, Olivia’s little stunt and getting allies, so the buildup to Drake’s scene will happen now (and Hana’s just before we meet Drake). Hana will be dancing with Tariq, and then other partners in the meantime, so no opportunities to dance with her there.

I loved this dialogue option when I first saw it, but now that I know how much in love with dancing Maxwell is, this scene is ten times more fun! 😃

• On first playthrough…this didn’t seem like that big a problem. Maxwell was fun, and seemed to genuinely like us, and was berated a great deal by Bertrand - so it was easier then to perhaps forgive his gaffes and want to comfort him instead. But when you approach his character as someone who brought a complete foreigner to his country and then didn’t make much of an effort to educate her with what little time they both had…I wind up finding his character a lot less endearing. I’m honestly more irritated by his carelessness. There was a lot he could have done even if he forgot or didn’t know what to do. He could have asked around! Hana was right in front of him! He could have found out what to prepare for if he didn’t know or if Bertrand didn’t handhold him (which Bertrand himself isn’t exactly doing a good job of in the first place). The other LIs shouldn’t have to constantly step in and do his job as sponsor and guide!

• It’s only when we’re dancing that Maxwell realizes he’s not taught us the dance. Of course, if you bought Hana’s waltz scene, she whispers her advice just before you dance with him, and you give her credit for teaching you. If not, you go into it knowing very little (but because the options are easy to choose from, so you can still manage). Maxwell does explain its uniqueness in terms of the flirting potential and the fact that it’s a courtship dance…but the true beauty of that description only comes with Hana.

• Istg, if Hana weren’t around to repeatedly save our ungrateful asses…

• So THIS is the first opportunity you get to ‘romance’ Maxwell. He looks sad and tells you that you should only be here for the Prince, but it’s also that vague kind of sadness that you can interpret differently and write detailed fanfics about! I think a huge part of Maxwell’s appeal (besides the overall sparkling personality, and the fact that he was so different from both Liam and Drake) was the “will-he-won’t-he” nature of the LI question itself.

• We now move on to Liam, who is fighting a losing battle with his desire to favour the MC exclusively, but wants her to know that she is special to him. Notably he does say this in the “courtship” part of the dance.

• How do you know that the Cordonian Waltz was a strategic choice? Because Olivia chose to dance with Liam twice! And because she’s the hostess, it’s harder for Liam to refuse.

I remember being pretty uncomfortable with this scene the first time I saw it, I still am, and often I wonder if I’m the only one who feels that way. Whenever I see this scene being referenced, it’s often referenced in the most flippant ways. And it baffles me.

• Honestly, Olivia was clearly overstepping her boundaries here and didn’t even bother to ask Liam before doing it (Liam himself mentions he was “caught by surprise” and calls it an “unexpected advance”). Was Olivia doing it out of complex, understandable reasons? Like jealousy or frustration or showing the MC up? Well, sure I guess. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that her doing so was nonconsensual and downright wrong.

The funny thing is often this incident is either downplayed or erased completely, especially in contexts where people try to argue that Olivia “deserves better” than Liam, or sympathize with her for loving a man who “does not care about her”.

Does Olivia deserve to be loved back by a person she loves? Absolutely.

Is Liam a lesser person for not loving her back? No, and he shouldn’t have to be penalized or judged by a fandom for not doing so.

Is the fact that most people who uphold this “penalizing/blaming Liam for not returning Olivia’s feelings” argument, also tend to forget/downplay this particular incident…particularly disturbing? Well, yeah, definitely.

• Even the narrative fails with regard to this, actually. It is written in a comical style, with a couple of out-there dialogue options (like screaming loud enough of break poor Maxwell’s eardrums) and the MC is given a chance to lash out at Liam for not reacting fast enough or throwing Olivia off of him. And guess what his reaction is. Sad, contrite, trying to explain his position. It’s almost like it’s okay for him to feel guilty about something that was done TO him, that he was never asked permission for.

Olivia does suffer consequences, but more for her “power play” than for anything else. Her move isn’t viewed as negative for what it may do to Liam, it is negative because it is seen as a direct “fuck you” she is delivering to her competitors. The scene itself is written for laughs…which I’m surprised more people don’t find even a little uncomfortable.

• The reactions from the other suitors is pretty on point for their character types at this point. Madeleine is smug and condescending, confident that she will never be “unrefined or insecure” enough for such “ostentatious displays” (says the woman who will bully her entire court, run around Italy roaring drunk and name a drink after herself in Book 2). Penelope doesn’t exactly have a personality at this point, she merely comments that the kiss was a bold play. It is Kiara who points out the power dynamics involved and views it as the last straw in her waning support for Olivia.

Remember - the ladies of the court weren’t treated half as badly as we were, but they were probably more aware (than us) that they were being denied a seat at the head table, and had to put up with Olivia monopolizing Prince Liam’s time. While Kiara’s suspicions that Olivia is “mad with power” here probably aren’t too far off the mark (even though her feelings of jealousy and confusion may be involved, we can’t deny that there is a clear sense of “I’m the hostess here, I can do what I want”), it’s not just an assumption that simply stems out of nowhere.

• Maxwell sees and opportunity to gain allies, and encourages us to capitalize on it. The wrong options are pretty interesting: if you mention “slapping the smirk off Olivia’s face”, Maxwell tells you that the political equivalent would be to “attack her alliances”. If you suggest making out with Liam in public, Maxwell exclaims that doing so would lead to people gunning after you. Which is telling, because in Book 1 PDA is mostly shown as being frowned upon in Cordonian society in general. So Olivia’s very public kiss isn’t just brazen and bold to the courtly ladies, but also viewed as inappropriate and a jab at their own lack of power in this situation.

• I love that Maxwell gets the opportunity to encourage us to play politics. Love it. He is the first one to notice the change in Kiara’s attitude towards Olivia, and he recognizes that the time is ripe for us to captialize on it. While Bertrand, or Bertrand-and-Maxwell, are the ones who tell us the importance of gaining support from the press and the royals, getting the court to support us is wholly Maxwell’s idea. This added another layer to the way he was built in the story, and I’m not happy that we didn’t see a lot of that perceptiveness and skill around court later on. By Books 2 and 3, he was mostly relegated to the funny guy, the court jester. Book 1 Maxwell may make a lot of mistakes but you bet he’d be too smart to toss brushettas in the face of dignitaries at the UN. It was like his own writers forgot Maxwell was capable of more.

• OKAY SO THE KIARA SECTION IS A FAVOURITE OF MINE OKAY. And it only wound up being a favourite when I realized there were changes in her dialogue between my Esther playthrough and my Persephone one. I mean if I weren’t already a fan of her…this definitely would have converted me.

Before I get into the actual gushing…I’ll just summarize what the MC has to do to gain her approval:

- Language: Kiara is known for her proficiency with languages - it is the skill that defines her in court (to the point that you barely notice her other qualities). Her home language is French, and if you know how to respond to comment ça va she is cheerful and more willing to hear you out (if you choose the fromage answer she’ll a bit surprised but not too hostile, and if you say voulez-vous coucher avec moi, well…of course she’ll be pissed off because you just accidentally asked her to sleep with you). In any case, to gain her approval you need to respond in French.

In fact even Kiara’s goodbyes vary based on whether she becomes your ally or not. If she’s your ally, she says à bientôt before leaving (which is “see you soon”). If she’s not convinced by your arguments, she says adieu, which has more of a sense of finality to it and is often said when you don’t expect to meet again (in fact I’m surprised they had her say it) and is different from au revior (which means “until we see each other again”).

- Olivia’s Actions: Kiara reiterates to you what she’d just told the others - Olivia is on a power trip, and while Kiki is well aware that she’s not a top contender in this competition, she is not going to stand for being treated like she is lesser than the ones who do have power. Interestingly, in both Chapter 7 of Book 2 and this chapter, Kiara’s first visible signs of discontent/frustration come when both Olivia/Madeleine go on massive power trips (“she even named a drink after herself. Quelle narcissique”, Kiara says about Madeleine in the next book).

I feel like Kiara’s frustration may have already been there with Olivia’s treatment of the ladies of the court at the start of the Ball (but perhaps she may have been brushed it aside as a strategy you could expect from a noblewoman in her own estate) but it is Olivia kissing Liam and trying to establish a claim on him that is seen as the tipping point for her.

However, she’s also pretty pragmatic and is lowkey impressed with Olivia if you state that she went too far. She is irritated by the message Olivia is sending, but acknowledges that not many would have dared to do that in her place. A more neutral response works well with Kiara’s train of thought, because to her the important thing is seeing what works in the long run, and the MC has to convince her that she is a good alternative.

- Alliance: Kiara already anticipates this, since she is the one who straight-out asks this question. At this point Kiara is not exactly aiming to be Queen - she knows she is up against more powerful people, people who have more access to the royal family (perhaps her dad Hakim would have had a similar amount of access if Constantine wasn’t such a dick). She is not going to waste her time wishing for what she won’t get, when she can easily network instead. The answer that works best with her is the one where the MC speaks of Olivia’s friendship as being a one-way street where she always gets her way, which is ironic considering how the MC behaves in a likely worse manner towards Kiara in Book 3.

• One of my favourite Kiara lines is from the wrong option (“I’m nicer than Olivia”) for the Alliance segment: “Nice? Nothing about being here is nice. If I wanted nice I’d buy a teacup pig. 😡”

• Back in Books 6’s QT, I mentioned Queen Regina and Duke Bertrand as being the two people in the first book who watch out and keep track on our progress. Bertrand does it because he is our sponsor, Regina does it because after all we are one of the candidates for her stepson’s hand in marriage, and we’re the one he eventually shows the most interest in. But there is one other person who seems to be taking notice of our good performance as well:

On my fail run, where Persy doesn’t gain approval either from the press, or from the royals, those last two lines simply do not appear. She asks us about whether we’re looking for an alliance, and we immediately answer her. She will still join hands with you if you convince her (I did a test run where Persy said all the right things) but those words will not feature anywhere. Because the dialogue is coded such that it will only appear if you’ve done well in your previous two tasks.

That is fascinating to me, because Kiara is the only lady of the court who is written as noticing these things at such an early stage in the competition (the Lythikos Ball is only the third event in the social season, and the maximum approvals come from the Derby, which was the event just preceding it). She is the only person, besides Bertrand and Regina, who keeps track of our progress (even if that is only uptil this point, because if you win her support here, it stays that way until the Coronation). Even Madeleine, who has been part of a social season before and is viewed as having a lot of experience in the court, compared to the other ladies, spends most of her time simply underestimating the MC. It isn’t until Applewood and Ramsford that Madeleine even begins to think there might be more to this person.

Kiara, on the other hand, is observant. She is competitive but she knows when other people have the upper hand, and she will honestly acknowledge that you have an edge if you have proven yourself to the press and the Queen. For someone who would be seen as just a lady of the court….that level of foresight, observation skills and pragmatism is pretty phenomenal to me.

• I’ve said this many times and I will say it again: Kiara has always been upfront about what she’s bringing to the table in an alliance. She isn’t your friend and she won’t pretend to be your friend either. She mentions she will put in a good word and support you in becoming Queen, and she keeps her promise.

She keeps her distance from you otherwise, so you can’t dub her a ‘friend’ even then, but she will do her work as an ally. She doesn’t get involved in smearing your name while supporting you to your face. At the end of the day, she is a woman in the court trying to thrive and carve a space of her own, but she won’t dirty her hands to do that - and I don’t think she gets enough recognition for that.

• Alright I’ll stop gushing about Kiki otherwise this QT will never end 😂

• We now meet Liam, who tells us about the hot tub in his room, and invites us there. The intent is clearly romantic (the MC specifies as such, smiling, and Liam winks at you before he leaves).

• This chapter also marks the second time you see Penelope with Liam, after which you will only see her directly interact with him at his Coronation. Funny how Kiara doesn’t get even one opportunity in the narrative to talk to him.

• It’s the end of our big night in Lythikos, and we’ve got three invitations to spend time with an LI! Liam’s setting up candles near the hot tub, Hana is playing exquisite melodies on the piano, and Drake is drinking whiskey in Olivia’s wine cellar. Maxwell is…doing Maxwell things that we are not privy to yet. Or taking a nap.

• I won’t be going too much into detail esp for Liam and Hana’s scenes - because I have essays written on both! Both will be under the “Liam: Diamond Scenes” and “Hana: Diamond Scenes” sections of my essay masterlist if anyone is interested 😃 They will be titled “Hot Tub at Lythikos” and “Piano at the Parlour”, respectively. (another recommended read is “Exploring Hana in Her Context” where I talk about this scene, and her characterization. It’s a little further down on the masterlist).

•

(Screenshots for Drake from the HIMEME YouTube channel)

Liam: This is undoubtedly meant to be a romantic scene, and is hinted as much in the lead-up to it while still giving the MC the space to not go (since she says “I won’t make any promises”). He puts candles around the tub, and the tub itself is situated in an area where you can get a wonderful view of the mountains.

This scene is divided into two parts: the first where Liam gets to sincerely tell the MC he trusts her (optionally) and where they lightly flirt, and the second where he admits to feeling conflicted between giving in to his feelings and being fair to the other women. At this point he knows his feelings for the MC are stronger, implicitly trusts her (“I thoroughly believe that if you thought I was a pompous ass, you wouldn’t hesitate to tell me. I trust you, MC. Anything you say”), doesn’t want to call it love just yet but is well on his way to doing so. He tells us about his brother Leo, hinting at the events of the RoE series and explaining that seeing how love affected him made Liam think more about it. It’s not one of Liam’s absolute best scenes…but it is a sweet one where Liam tentatively explores his growing love for her - in some ways leading to his “almost-declaration” of love at the Forgotten Falls. In each scene of Liam’s, he takes a step further, and another, and another, to admitting his love for her and growing less guilty about his desire to be with her. He is still torn between his duty and his desire at this point, but you can already see him slowly inching towards the prospect of keeping what he wants first, for once.

Hana: This, in my mind, is Hana’s most powerful scene. As many adjectives as I can use to describe her in this scene would be inadequate, because it’s that good, that layered, that rich with nuance and detail. But I do think I can sum a bit of it up with a quote from a Book 3 Liam scene that instantly took me back to this one:

“Hana’s a tough one. She’s clearly had the kind of lessons I’m giving you now, and then some. Her posture is almost always polite and attentive…but when she feels strongly about something, you can sense her real feelings even before she speaks up. Her eyes grow darker and more serious.”

Compare the scenes from last chapter where she speaks about ice-skating, or even waltzing, to this one. In both those scenes, her expression is mostly neutral (or joyful when she is imparting her knowledge), speaking of it in a way that makes you understand that her heart isn’t truly in doing those things. But in this one, she is lost in her music when she plays it, she is feeling its melody in her bones, she speaks of guarding her most precious skill fiercely against her parents’ control because it’s the one thing she wants for herself. She is fierce and passionate and absolutely beautiful in the way she expresses her love for music.

In an essay I did on exploring Hana’s character in her larger context, I spoke at length about how this scene is important because it highlights that her struggle for her own autonomy began at a very young age - she recognized her art as sacred to her and had the foresight to understand that parading it around the way her parents wanted her to, would make her love it less. This scene is amazing because Young Hana is described as pushing back in the only way she knew how, so she could keep what was hers, on her terms.

The other thing this scene explores is her childhood loneliness and lack of friends, and how music helped her in those difficult times too. At this point we now know how deep that loneliness was, and how damaging to her, but back then this scene gave a wonderful insight to Childhood Hana.

So for her to trust us with her art - with the art she fought to keep her own…that’s a tremendous leap in that relationship - whether the MC is a friend or a potential lover. Romantically, she is at the point where she is slowly…slowly getting comfortable with the MC’s touch, allowing it to linger before she pulls away from her. She’s a bit like a butterfly who doesn’t know yet if she’s ready to leave her cocoon.

Drake: The picture presented to us of Drake here is the diamond-in-the-rough, the underdog, the one who views court and palace differently from everyone around him. He is there to remind us that this is not the charmed place we think it is, that even friends can stick knives in our backs. He speaks of the forced politeness of the nobility, the fact that he’s here only to protect Liam, that the MC is an innocent woman who doesn’t know what she is getting into and needs protection as well.

This scene comes with what was regarded as an important plot point at the time: who almost sold pictures of Liam’s bachelor party to the press? Drake and Bastien managed to get hold of them and prevent them from being published, knowing that having those printed before the social season would cast Liam in a more negative light, and make things harder for him. At this point, Drake is sure that someone he knows and possibly considers a friend is involved (close enough, but not quite there yet), but can’t yet figure out who (because, yknow, Olivia was the brains between the two, she cracked that mystery in under five minutes or something).

If you don’t buy this scene, you only get to know about the pictures in Book 2 Chapter 4. A lot of Drake’s scenes involve important plot points - some of which we won��t even hear the same way - or at all - if we don’t buy the scene (eg. the flashback scenes about Hana’s return and the Italian restaurant scene about Liam’s assassination). I recall buying quite a few of his scenes in the latter half of Book 1 and most of Book 2 just to find out stuff about other LIs.

The scene is pretty sweet - it highlights his now-famous whiskey obsession, has Drake openly show his protectiveness towards her minus the jaded sarcastic veneer, and has him warn her about the nature of this court. It has a line that I quite liked when I first saw the scene, but that fandom has pretty much ruined for me - “the moments in between”. Where he speaks of how the nobility are so busy schmoozing and being superficial that they miss the really important parts. It’s a beautiful thought, but the fact is I’m still paying like 17 diamonds to get it, which makes it a…pretty expensive moment.

But overall…it’s a nice scene. The look and feel of it is different from the other two, and so is the purpose.

• The focus of all these three scenes is clearly trust.

Liam completely trusts her opinion of him and confesses openly his desire to let go of all that is holding him back, even though he is still confused and conflicted about his own feelings.

Hana trusts her so much, that she will share piano pieces that she lovingly composed to the MC, even though she never performs for people. It is a measure of how much Hana values the MC that she will share such a secret part of herself with her.

Drake, who once came this close to calling the MC a crown chaser, now views the same woman as an innocent who doesn’t know what she is getting into. He will later tell her that that aspect of her journey reminds him of Savannah. He trusts the MC enough to give her important information about something he still views as a possible plot targeted at Liam, and tells her their moments mean something to him.

Chapter 8 of the second book took this theme forward for the initial three LIs, by showing us trust in other forms. Liam’s firm belief in his father’s dedication to his nation (which will crumble soon). Drake’s being convinced by the MC to stay on and hear out his sister, to give her a chance to explain what really happened to her, and his emotional reunion with her. Hana’s scene…was more about gaining someone’s trust - particularly Penelope’s. (it is also one of the worst scenes the series has ever given an LI, whoever wrote that one can fall on a cactus).

We are approaching a midpoint in the story, so at this point the narrative is progressing each of these relationships towards the point where they trust this woman, view her as a valuable person in their lives, and inch ever-so-slightly towards that eventual realization that they are in love with her.

•

Another point in the Tariq shoe tally!! I wonder if this ‘ghost’ deals with 'future misdeeds’ as well…

• We spend a few more days in Lythikos before we move back to the Capitol for the Royal Regatta, and both Esther and Persy are like “YOU HAD A FEW DAYS TO ASK IF I KNEW WHAT A FUCKING REGATTA WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MAXWELL”.

• So…a lot happens this chapter. The MC begins to rope in (or not) her first allies in the court, she has a strong foothold by now and is beginning to get noticed as more than just a random contender who wouldn’t last, she gains the trust of the people she is growing close to.

But most of all…Lythikos is where Olivia begins to lose the hold she once had on the court, and this is never more apparent than if you are losing supporters rather than gaining them (if you are more popular, it won’t be that apparent, since you will move far ahead of the competition). There will be times when the press may not pay attention to her, there will be ladies who club the MC and Olivia both together as “not a proper fit for becoming a queen”. She is still very much a frontrunner, she may win the Regatta if you fail all the steps to the boat race, but after this it will be harder for her to gain support whether or not the MC succeeds.

Shortly after this point, Olivia also doesn’t antagonize the MC as blatantly as she did in Lythikos, save for a snide remark to the MC (with a life jacket of all things) if you choose to go to her yacht in the next chapter. She will eventually begin to thaw towards you in Applewood.

• Constantine and Regina are conspicuous by their absence this chapter, and Constantine announces that he is stepping down the next. Which probably means he found out sometime between the Masque and this event that he was ill (since we don’t see him at the Derby). I’m headcanoning that they visited Leo around this time (optionally with the RoE MC, since the housewarming party in Newlyweds seems to happen sometime around the social season (it could be earlier or later too…but humour me 😂)

• So…Regatta in Chapter 9! Lots of sun, fun and (Persephone-willing) PLENTY of mess.

• Before I sign of, here is Persy’s Share of Mess this chapter (except for the bloodcurdling scream she gives when Olivia kisses Liam, I forgot to screenshot that 🙈 How on earth did Maxwell’s poor ears survive??):

• Until next week, folks!

–

• Tally Counts:

Number of Times Drake has Called Esther/Persy by Their First Names: 5

Number of Times Tariq Has Mentioned His Shoes: 3

Number of Times Drake Has Taken An Alcoholic Drink that’s Not Whiskey: 1

Number of Times Someone Has Called A Reigning Monarch 'Your Highness’: 2

Number of Times You Can Leave Hana Shook. SHOOK I TELLS YA: 4

Number of Times We See Penelope’s Angryface: 2

–

#long post #the royal romance #trr quick thoughts #trr qts #hana lee #trr kiara #king liam #olivia nevrakis #drake walker #i stan for kiki #this was honestly one of my fave chapters to write for

37 notes · View notes

pug-bitch · 5 years

Text

That’s not why I’m going (27)

Let’s enjoy ourselves, dammit

Book: The Royal Romance

Pairing: Drake Walker x Amara Suarez

Rating: some foul language, some extremely suggestive. This is absolutely NOT appropriate for people under 18.

Word count: about 3,700 (let me know if the ‘keep reading’ cutoff isn’t working well!)

Notes: This picks up where we left off, as Hana, Maxwell, and Olivia arrive at the cabin, starting with Amara’s POV.

*****

Amara, Hana, and Maxwell jump up in the air, shrieking, for a good thirty seconds, until they realize that Liv is behind them, looking annoyed as hell. Without thinking, Amara wraps Olivia in a tight hug.

‘Liv! It’s so good to see you, girl!’

‘Ugh,’ Liv says, disgusted, ‘keep your hands off of me, Suarez, before some paparazzi thinks we’re having an affair.’

Amara lets her go, and looks her in the eye. ‘Are you ok? Like, for real?’

‘Yeah,’ Liv responds, rolling her eyes. ‘I was told this would be relaxing. Clearly it doesn’t mean for me.’

Drake pops his head through the door. ‘Of course you can relax, Nevrakis. Come on in guys. Amara made drinks, and there’s a shitton of food.’

Maxwell comes in first, and wraps Drake in a bear hug. Amara feels like her heart might explode. ‘Thanks for having us, Drake. We missed you guys.’

Hana hugs Drake too, and chimes in, ‘It’s true! What would we do without Dramara?’

Liv rolls her eyes and sighs. ‘Walker, where’s the drink you were talking about?’

*****

Liam glances at his phone, finally a text from Drake.

Hey, sorry I missed your calls, I’m tied up at the cabin and reception is terrible, catch up tomorrow? Hope all is good.

Dismissive, but it’s something. Liam sighs. Only five minutes until his next meeting. In the end, he’s glad Bastien talked him out of going to the cabin unannounced. Bastien was right, he wouldn’t have had enough time to make it back to his meetings, and he had one with the Ambassador of Greece.

He feels silly all of a sudden, being so needy towards his friend, after they had such a complicated few weeks. Sure, he’d been there for Drake after Jackson died, but who wouldn’t have? Plus, Drake had been there for him countless times before, and after that. So, really, he doesn’t know why he’s counting points right now. He types back.

No worries. I’ll see you in Portavira tomorrow.

Typing bubbles.

Why don’t you come by the cabin for lunch? I’m having the Beaumonts over, Hana, Liv, and Amara.

Liam catches himself sighing in relief. He wasn’t being completely iced out. Maybe Drake was really busy, maybe there was some maintenance problem at the cabin, maybe it was all in Liam’s head. He replies as fast as he can, before Drake changes his mind.

I would love to. Is noon ok? We have to be at Penelope’s estate at 3.

The bubbles come back.

Perfect. See you then. Don’t bring anything.

Heh, Drake knows him well. He was already thinking about which vintage bottle of wine to bring. Liv will be there, which he’s thrilled about. He’ll get to see how she’s doing, without having to do it one-on-one again. Less awkward.

A knock on the door. One of his butlers, George, peeks his head in.

‘Your Highness, Miss Ioanna Papadakis, Assistant to the Ambassador of Greece.’

Surprised, Liam promptly answers, ‘Let her in, thank you George.’

*****

Drake puts his phone away and joins the crowd outside on the patio. Everyone is already moderately tipsy, thanks to the strong margaritas prepared by Amara.

‘Guys,’ Drake announces, ‘Liam said yes to lunch here tomorrow.’

Maxwell nods, ‘Good, I’m glad you two touched base. He was distressed today.’

‘Thanks for telling me,’ Drake says, grabbing his glass again. ‘I can’t believe that Bertrand covered for us. I’m in shock.’

Hana swallows her sip of margarita. ‘It was glorious, Drake, you should have seen it. He lied for you, just like that! And thank goodness, because Max and I were at a loss for words, and Liam looked very suspicious.’

‘It doesn’t matter if you manage to cover it up or not,’ Liv says, breaking her silence. ‘when it comes out, and it will come out, Liam will be furious.’

Drake doesn’t know what to say to this. She’s probably right, but he doesn’t need this right now, and neither does Amara. He looks at her, she’s nodding and frowning, staring intently at her glass. Finally, she speaks.

‘You’re probably right, Liv, but what do you suggest, then? That we stop living our lives? That we break up? That we just jump out the window?’

Drake didn’t expect Amara to react so viscerally. Upon hearing her say ‘break up’, his heart shattered. No, he certainly doesn’t want that. He glances at Liv, who went even paler than usual.

‘I’m sorry, Suarez,’ Liv finally says. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you. I know, things are shit, but it doesn’t mean that we stop ourselves from living our lives in the meantime. Let’s enjoy ourselves, dammit.’ She raises her glass and says ‘It obviously pains me to say this, but cheers to all of you guys, who are...pretty decent people. I guess.’

Amara finally breaks into a smile and clinks her glass to Liv’s. ‘Very heartfelt, Nevrakis. I’m almost tearing up.’

‘Shut up,’ Olivia replies. ‘Before we all get super drunk and Beaumont inevitably forces us to play Never Have I Ever or some shit--’

‘Ohh, good idea,’ Maxwell whispers.

Liv glares at him. ‘I was saying, before we get shitfaced, there’s something I want to say. I’m ok. Don’t worry about me. I’m dealing with all of this, and I don’t need to talk about it.’

Amara smiles and nods, until she finally talks. ‘You know we’re here for you, if you need, though. But before we change the topic, can I ask you an inappropriate question?’

Liv sighs. ‘Yes.’

‘How is Ilya coping? I mean, his dick was under everyone’s plate.’

Drake almost chokes on his margarita. Olivia chuckles, and responds, ‘You know what’s funny? I hadn’t even wondered about that until Rashad asked me. To me, Ilya was never anything more than, well, his dick. Never occurred to me that there might be a man attached to the genitals.’

Amara raises her glass and her eyebrow. ‘I’ll drink to that.’

*****

‘Wait, so you mean there’s someone out there blackmailing everyone?’

He doesn’t know how they got here, drinking whiskey in the middle of the afternoon and talking about his life. He simply had offered her a drink, and next thing he knew, he was pouring more than whiskey. There was no stopping the flow of words, and Ioanna was not even attempting to make it stop.

‘Well, I wouldn’t really say blackmailing,’ Liam responds, ‘because so far, no one has asked for anything in return. Just revealing private things about two of the contestants, and hopefully it stops right here.’

Ioanna whistles, and says, ‘Forgive me, Your Highness--’

‘Liam. Please call me Liam. Our official meeting is over.’

She nods. ‘Sure. Liam. I don’t mean to be indiscreet, but do you know who that might come from? Maybe one of the contestants who is trying to keep your favors?’

‘Could be. Honestly for right now there’s not much I can do, I put my bodyguard and the security team on the case, they’re looking for clues.’

‘Wow,’ Ioanna says, shaking her head.

It felt good to talk to someone, even a complete stranger. He had met Ioanna before, he recognizes her, but they’d never talked. He’d always talked to the Ambassador, but today he had the stomach flu, so Ioanna filled in.

‘Thank you for listening,’ he says, smiling brightly. ‘I didn’t mean to bore you with my life story.’

She dismisses him with a hand gesture. ‘Please. Your life story is everything but boring.’

He chuckles. ‘Thanks. I don’t know if it makes me feel better. Oh, and thank you for filling in today. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy the Ambassador’s company, but it was lovely to get to spend some time with you.’

She laughs lightheartedly. ‘I’ll be sure not to tell him that, and just so you know, I enjoyed our meeting too. Thanks for having me.’

They say their goodbyes, and Liam lets his next meeting in.

‘Bertrand! Hello again.’

Bertrand looks stressed. He is dressed way too formally, even though Liam told him this morning that it was going to be more of a friendly chat regarding Barthélémy Beaumont’s legacy. Bertrand is wearing a black tuxedo, and underneath, instead of his usual sweater vest, he has a bright blue cumberbund, embroidered with satin in the shape of little squids. Liam wonders for a second whether he lost his top hat and his monocle.

‘Hello, Your Highness,’ Bertrand responds formally, curtsying. ‘Thank you for having me.’

‘Thanks for coming, come have a seat, and maybe let’s have a little drink, huh? We’re just gonna have a friendly chat, so you can relax.’

Bertrand nods and sits down, visibly a tad relieved. ‘Yes, well,’ he says, still nervous, ‘I would like to seek your council on the best way to announce that my father loved a man, without harming his memory. My brother and I talked about it, we researched Father’s long-time partner, and as it turns out, he passed away last year. Maybe we could do something in their name, like a donation to an LGBTQ foundation?’

Liam smiles broadly. ‘Wow, Bertrand, that is extremely thoughtful. I don’t think any of this would ever harm your father’s memory. Maybe you and Max could draft a statement, I can take a look at it when it’s convenient, and we can put all that in place together. We’ll call an official announcement.’

Bertrand’s smile relaxes slightly. ‘That would be great. After you left this morning, Maxxie and I drafted something already. Here’s a paper copy, and I will send it to you via email as well.’

‘Wow, you guys are efficient,’ Liam says as he pours the scotch.

‘Ha! Well, we want it done as soon as possible. I’m itching to fire that… that weasel Albert, who’s been blackmailing all of us for years. I want to do that once we have made the announcement, though. We don’t want Albert twisting the truth or taking over the announcement.’

Liam nods, ‘Of course. Let’s get this show on the road, then.’

*****

‘Never have I ever slept with a woman!’ Liv slurs, pleased with herself.

‘No fair!’ Maxwell squeals. ‘I never win either way in this type of thing.’

Hana reluctantly has another sip, although she definitely is tipsier than ever and does not need any more alcohol. After he finishes drinking, Drake says, ‘Don’t take the bait, Max, it was a ploy to make us all drink except Amara. These two are going for a face-off.’

Amara laughs, and takes her turn. ‘Never have I ever… owned a squid suit!’

‘Amara!’ Maxwell yelps. ‘You betrayed me, you little bastard.’ He drinks another big gulp, and pursues, ‘I never thought my beautiful squid suit would be the death of me.’

‘Alright Max, your turn,’ Amara says, laughing.

‘Hmmm,’ Max hums, in an exaggerated thinking pose. ‘Never have I ever had sex on these very lawn chairs.’

‘Come on, Max,’ Hana giggles, ‘that’s too specific, and who would do that outsi--Oh…’

She interrupts herself as she notices both Drake and Amara taking a huge gulp from their drinks, all the while trying to contain their laughter.

‘Sorry hun,’ Amara says, after finishing her sip. ‘I promise we cleaned them, though.’

Hana laughs, blushing, ‘Oh, good to know. I mean, get it girl, or, like Bertrand would say, Yass Kween.’

Liv lets out a throaty laugh. ‘What? Bertrand said what?’

Max snorts, ‘Yeah, I made him watch Queer Eye and now there’s no stopping him! He’s going full Jonathan Van Ness on us!’

‘Wow,’ Liv continues, ‘he’s gotten woke ever since he found out that your dad liked dick.’

‘Olivia!’ Amara cries out.

Max smiles sadly. ‘It’s ok, Amara, we might as well laugh about it, right? I knew when I told Liv, that there would be no stopping the jokes, so here we are.’ He takes another sip. ‘Bertrand is coping well, actually. I’m proud of him.’

Liv nods, visibly flushed. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound this crass. I know it must have been weird to deal with. And for what it’s worth, I didn’t tell anyone, and I won’t. I’m only talking about it because everyone here knows.’

Max shrugs. ‘I know, Olivia, it’s fine. I appreciate that you feel comfortable enough to laugh about it, I prefer it this way. As for Bertrand, he’s always been a bit stuck up, but he’s only been this bad since Dad died and he was left in charge. Before, he had a very sweet side, which I’m starting to see again, little by little. It’s nice to have my brother back.’

Amara’s eyes flutter down, just like every time someone says something like that. She feels Drake’s hand on her knee, discreetly comforting her.

It’s all different now. Someone is there for her.

Several someones. She looks around and feels her heart filling with love, and curses herself right away for being too sappy. Her new, close friends around some drinks, teasing each other and dropping truth bombs. That’s exactly what she needed.

Maybe that’s why she came, after all. That, and the handsome, brooding man from the bar. And to think it was the end of her shift, too. She’d have to thank Daniel for bailing on her that night. Bless his Grindr hookup, really.

Feeling a tear escape from her eye, she takes a deep breath and gets up. ‘Let me refresh your drinks, guys. I’m the bartender after all!’

She disappears into the kitchen with the tray of glasses, and preps some more margaritas. She’ll make them frozen this time. They need a serious buzz.

‘Hey, you ok?’

She turns around and sees Drake approaching her, and soon enough, his arms are around her waist. ‘I’m fine.’

‘You don’t look fine,’ he says before kissing her neck.

‘Gee, thanks!’

‘Heh, I meant you look wistful. Was it Max’s brother comment?’

She shakes her head. ‘Oddly, no. I mean, it triggered me a little. Fuck, I would give just about anything for Sergio to be here with all of us.’ Her voice breaks. ‘I miss him even more when something good happens to me, you know. But I don’t want to be the weirdo with the dead brother, I don’t want Max to have to tiptoe around his relationship with Bertrand when I’m here.’

He kisses her neck again. Damn, that’s efficient. ‘You’re not a weirdo. You’re an awesome badass bitch, and you’re hot as hell.’

She giggles. ‘And you’re a hot, drunk mess.’

‘I’m fine, just giggly because of the tequila. I’ll probably have to be supervised while grilling. You changed the subject though. What made you tear up?’ She stays silent and he continues, ‘I saw it, Amara. I know you more than you think.’

She sighs. He really does. ‘I feel stupid saying it. I’m just happy to have met all of you, and, well, remember when I made you watch Jane the Virgin?’

He rolls his eyes in an exaggerated manner to signify that he hated it, but she knows that he secretly loved it. ‘Yes Ma’am.’

‘You know when her heart glows when it’s full? Well, I felt the same out there, just now. I’m happy to be here with you, and I don’t want it to stop.’

He sniffs her hair, probably wanting to be sneaky, but she hears the sniffing loud and clear. He says, ‘I get it. I feel the same. I’m happy we’re all here, and I hate to say it, but it feels like a last hurrah. Like something bad’s gonna happen.’

‘Exactly. I don’t know if it’s gonna be in Portavira tomorrow, or this weekend at the Decision ball, but I’m not feeling good about the near future.’

He flips her around, and takes both of her hands in his. ‘Do you feel good about the future-future?’

She chuckles, ‘What?’

He shrugs, and brushes his thumb across her hand. ‘I don’t know. Maybe this week is just a bad storm that we have to get through. Maybe we could see it like that. Maybe if we hold on really really tight, during that shitstorm, maybe then, we’ll be ok?’

She throws her arms around his neck and places a long kiss on his lips. ‘I love that. Let’s hold on really tight.’

*****

Liv gets up to go to the bathroom, and realizes to her surprise that her legs can barely carry her. She didn’t have all that much to drink, did she? Well, Suarez’s cocktails are deceptive. They taste good, but they’re all kinds of strong.

Not like last night’s vodka. It tasted like pure alcohol, and it got her just as drunk as she thought it would. The only surprise in all of that, was Rashad.

Why is she even thinking about Rashad right now? She doesn’t have time for this bullshit. She has to watch her back. What if he’s in on it? What if he’s one of the people who exposed her?

Meh, she thinks. She would be really, really surprised. Not because he couldn’t, but because he really wouldn’t have a proper motive. He doesn’t give two shits about court, as long as he can conduct business.

‘Ew, gross,’ she says as she stumbles upon Suarez and Walker making out in the kitchen. ‘The cook and the bartender sucking face, that’s hygienic.’

Suarez laughs, ‘Well you’re a delight.’

Liv shrugs. ‘Do you think I hurt Beaumont’s feelings?’

Walker chimes in, ‘I don’t think so. You didn’t mean anything offensive by it, and it’s Max, not Bertrand. He wasn’t shocked.’

Olivia snorts, ‘True, he’s also very much into dick.’

‘Don’t push your luck, Nevrakis,’ Suarez replies.

‘Alright, I’ll stop. Where’s the bathroom?’

‘There’s one right there, near the stairs on the right.’

‘Thanks.’

On the short walk to the bathroom, she notices a family portrait of the Walkers as kids, and the parents as well. She almost forgot what Jackson Walker looked like. She’d always esteemed him. Honorable guy, willing to lay down his life to save the King’s. Tragic for his family. She thinks of her own, for a split second, just like she does several times a day. She realizes she can’t really remember what her own parents looked like, not without the aid of a photo. She remembers smells, voices, smiles. Not entire faces.

As she washes her hands, she looks at her face. Her makeup is a fucking mess, she’d need to fix it. Or maybe it’s not necessary, it’s just them. No one to impress here.

In one swift motion, she removes her lipstick. It stains the side of her mouth. Dammit, she thinks, in all movies, women are able to remove their makeup seamlessly, why not her? She wets her face until it disappears. She removes the tiny dagger that holds her hair up, until it curls down her shoulders. A while since she let her hair down, literally.

She stares at herself for what feels like a brief moment, but it must have been longer than that, because when she gets out of the bathroom, Suarez is outside, a worried look on her face.

‘Everything ok?’ she asks.

Olivia wants to be annoyed. She wants to tell her to mind her own fucking business. But she can’t. She’s actually touched that she cares. ‘I’m fine. You need the bathroom?’

Suarez shakes her head. ‘No. You look pretty with your hair down.’

Liv stifles a smile. ‘Thanks. And you’re glowing. You two must have fucked like rabbits.’

She laughs, ‘Well, you’re not wrong. But it was a little more elegant than that, I like to think.’

Liv smirks, and walks back to the kitchen alongside Amara. She looks at her pouring the frozen margs into the salt-rimmed glasses.

‘Suarez, you sure we can handle so much booze? I have to admit I’m a little...shitfaced.’

‘Ha! Me too. But Drake is firing up the barbecue, it won’t take long for the burgers and hot dogs to be cooked. He’s setting the table outside, there’s potato salad, coleslaw…’

‘You got yourself a nice little house boyfriend, huh?’

Suarez smiles in a sweet way, completely ignoring what was meant to be a dig. ‘You have no idea how much I’ve been enjoying this. It feels real. Shopping with him, cooking together, being outside in nature--’

‘Fucking outside in nature.’

‘Yeah, that too. But, the normalcy, you know. It did something to me. Made me realize some stuff.’ She stops herself and shrugs, chopping a lime to put some slices on the glasses.

‘Suarez?’ Liv asks hesitantly.

‘Yeah?’

She takes a deep breath. Damn you, margarita. ‘You know when you said that I might have been too focused on Liam to see anything else?’

‘Yeah, I remember saying something super insightful along those lines. Go on.’

Liv chuckles. ‘Well, I… Don’t make a big deal about it, and don’t run your big mouth. But um, last night, I think I had a moment. With someone else.’

Suarez looks up from her cutting board, her eyes widening. Liv worries that she might cut herself until she puts the knife away. ‘What? You met someone in just one night? As Bertrand would say, apparently, Yass Kween!’

‘Calm down, bitch. It’s not like that. Nothing happened, it was just a nice moment, but when you said being here made you realize some stuff, I thought of last night. It did the same for me.’

Suarez nods, and breaks into a broad smile. ‘I’m happy for you, Liv.’

She shrugs. ‘Well, it’s probably nothing, but it made me feel good.’ She pauses. ‘Valued.’

‘That’s great. You deserve this much, and more. Do we know this gentleman?’

Liv sighs. She has no idea why she’s telling her all that stuff. ‘It’s Domvallier. Rashad.’

Suarez’s jaw drops. ‘What? Liv, he’s hot!’

‘Shh, come on. I said don’t run your big mouth. Nothing happened, he showed up in my room with vodka and pastries, he wanted to cheer me up. He didn’t expect anything from me, he just...wanted to be there. It was nice.’ She steals a glass and drinks from it. ‘We watched Killing Eve.’

Suarez raises her eyebrows several times and shimmies her shoulders. ‘Oooooh, Killing Eve! Did all the murders make you horny?’

Liv rolls her eyes. ‘Shut up.’

*****

Taglist:

@andy-loves-corgis @drakeandcamilleofvaltoria @jovialyouthmusic @mariahschoices @drakesensworld @thequeenofcronuts @alesana45 @notoriouscs @drakewalkerisreal @nikkis1983 @simsvetements @iplaydrake @emceesynonymroll @lily1999love @drakewalkerwhipped @drakxwalker @drakewalkerrosenberg @bryclahela @drakelover78 @silviasutton1989 @dcbbw @carabeth @furiousherringoperatortoad @hollygirl1269 @sirbeepsalot

Thank you for your encouragements, everyone! Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist :)

#that's not why i'm going #drake x amara #drake walker x amara suarez #drake x mc #drake walker x mc #drake walker trr #drake walker #drake trr #trr drake #choices fanfiction #the royal romance fanfic #trr #trr choices #choices trr

39 notes · View notes

extraneousdominomask · 5 years

Note

⭐star⭐ for your favorite of your Slyfox week fics! (I think my favorite of yours was either Tango or Paris!)

Thank you so much! ^^ It’d be a toss-up between “Partners”, “Rooftops” and “Paris” for me, and since I covered the last two in my previous post, let’s turn to Prague!

Weirdly enough, this is one of the extremely rare times I’ve written a Sly Cooper fic set in an actual Sly Cooper location. The fics I’ve written mostly take place in the future, or other timelines, or other franchises - certainly my version of Sly has seen plenty of the city of Zootopia. I don’t often draw on the beautifully realised environments of the games, which is kind of a shame.

(Checking my backlog real quick, Zer0 takes place during the Clockwerk boss fight and The Birth and Death of the Tennessee Kid briefly features the Old West safehouse. So it’s not the first time I’ve used a location, per se, but I’d say this is the first time a level from the games informs the plot in any way)

That location, of course, is the Contessa’s fortified estate right after the gameplay events of Operation: High Road. The fact Sly was vague on how exactly he “helped” Carmelita worked to my favour, since I could fit whatever I wanted in the space between the gameplay ending and the end-of-level cutscene beginning.

Much like how Uncharted players postulate that Nathan Drake probably doesn’t murder hundreds and hundreds of mostly nonwhite thugs every time he steps outside, I think it’s fair to assume that the gameplay and story might give each other some space, and Prague is not the size of a mid-tier sportsball arena. In other words, the area is bigger than it appears in the game, which is my justification for how Sly and Carmelita get a full dramatic conversation while waiting for the boat to cross what looks to be about 15 meters of water.

The Cooper Gang still opened their safe house on the exact same square Neyla set up her HQ, though. Because that’s 30% funny, 70% very very tense.

#secretmellowblog #thanks again!

3 notes · View notes

jayietheriverwarrior · 5 years

Photo

I mentioned on my drawing of the Wardens' Mabaris that I planned on drawing Hawke's mabari from Dragon Age II, and a pet for the Inquisitor from Dragon Age: Inquisition. So here they are. I based the Mabari pretty heavily off of this photo of a mastiff: images-na.ssl-images-amazon.co… and the pig-like creature, called a tusket, off of screenshots of tuskets from the game. I'll talk a bit about each pet down below.

The gray Mabari on the right is a male dog named Drake. When their firstborn daughter turned out to be a mage, Malcolm and Leandra Hawke decided that their child might require extra protection against any Templars that might come after her, so they saved and scraped together enough money to buy a Mabari pup, praying that the dog would imprint on their daughter and protect her against all dangers. Luckily, the pup took to Valerie Hawke right away, and young Valerie was absolutely delighted with her new canine companion. She tried to name the dog Dragon, since dragons were the biggest, baddest, coolest thing she could think of to name her cool new war hound after. Malcolm tentatively suggested Drake instead, as Drakes are male dragons, and it sounds a bit more like a real name. Valerie agreed, so Drake it was. Drake grew up as Valerie's guard dog, and later helped protect Carver and Bethany as well, when the twins came around, though he was always Valerie's dog. He helped out with work around their farm and always kept a close eye on any Templars in their little village, lest they come after his master. When the family had to flee Lothering from the destruction of the Darkspawn, Drake dutifully followed the family. He grieved Bethany's death with the rest of them, and he struggled to adjust to their new, cramped life in Kirkwall. Valerie did her best to take Drake out as often ass she could, taking him out on jobs, letting him help train recruits with Aveline, and just generally keeping him well-exercised and keep him from being too bored. Eventually, Drake settled well enough into city life, especially when the family moved to the Amell estate and their lodgings were more comfortable. He stood by Valerie's side through all the heartache to come - the loss of Carver to the Grey Wardens, the loss of Leandra to a horrifying death, the betrayal of Anders and having to execute her own friend, and eventually having to flee Kirkwall after helping save the mages. No matter what losses Valerie suffered, no matter how she blamed herself, Drake was always there, always by her side, always full of love for his master and never blaming her for a bit of it. When Valerie left to aid the Inqusition in their pursuit of Corypheus, Drake stayed behind with Merrill, to keep watch over her while she worked to help the alienages. He would rather be by his master's side, but Valerie couldn't risk her beloved pet with the stakes so high, not with how old he's getting, and she needs her beloved Merrill safe. Eventually, they will be reunited, and Drake will be at his master's side once again. Unlike the stoic Enasal and the goofy Liquorice, Drake is an easy-going, chill sort of dog, far more laid-back and prone to thinking before he acts than his often rash master. However, he is far too loyal to Valerie to ever leave her side, so he allows himself to be roped into all of her schemes with a dog's equivalent of the roll of hhe eyes, even the ones he knows are foolish, because he has to be there to help her if something goes wrong. He is a steady, loyal presence in Valerie's tumultuous life. He never fully liked Leandra, since she could be rather harsh to Drake's master, and he wasn't above growling at Carver when he got too snippy with Valerie, though he protected Valerie's younger siblings just as fiercely as his own master. He adores Merrill for the happiness she brings to his Valerie's life, and he enjoys hanging out with Valerie's other friends, especially Varric, who is always a good partner to play Wicked Grace with. The pig-like creature, a fictional species called a Tusket, is a male Tusket named Wrinkles. Inquisitor Kenina Adaar (drawn at that link very beautifully by @ghilenart) was out on a mission with some of her inner circle in the Fallow Mire when a nearby squealing sounded quite loudly. Out of fear that the sound would alert any nearby undead to their presence, they hunted down the source of the squealing to find a Tusket that had gotten its foot caught by a fallen rock and was now trapped in place. Kenina couldn't bring herself to kill the creature to silence it, not when it was looking at her with those scared eyes, so instead she freed it from the rock, even sparing one of her own elfroot potions to soothe the pain of its leg. That done, the Inquisitor and her companions went on their way, ready to return to their mission. Except the Tusket didn't leave. It followed behind the group like a lost puppy, clearly grateful for the aid and curious about its rescuers. Kenina had always had a soft spot for animals, and couldn't help dropping little bits of food for the Tusket, or cooing to it when they stopped to camp at night and the Tusket inched closer and closer. When he finally came close enough to touch, she scritched behind its ear and it leaned into the touch with a happy snort. The rest of Kenina's companions were less enthused about their tagalong, but the Tusket eventually proved itself to them by squealing an alarm to them one night, just in time to warn them about an Avvar attack. After that, the Tusket was welcome warmly into the group. When it was time or them to leave the Fallow Mire, Kenina was delighted that the Tusket continued to follow them. They brought him back to Skyhold with them, where Kenina named him Wrinkles and declared him to be her pet. Though she leaves him behind at Skyhold for all but the safest of outings, she spends as much of her time as she can with him when she is at Skyhold, and she dotes on her beloved pet and spoils him rotten, sneaking him bits of her food at mealtimes and giving him belly rubs and wrapping ribbons around his neck and tying them in big bows. Wrinkles, for his part, adores his Qunari master and follows her around as closely as her own shadow, snorting happily. When Kenina is away from Skyhold, Josephine looks after her lover's pet. Though she isn't as besotted with Wrinkles as Kenina is and was initially unsure how to look after such a pet, she comes to love Wrinkles dearly as well. After the events of the Exalted Council, Wrinkles moves in with Kenina and Josephine as they move in to the Montilyet estate, where all of Josephine's siblings, especially Yvette, spoil him rotten. I'm really happy with how both of these guys turned out here. I played around with different ideas for a pet for Kenina for a while, but I think having a Tusket rather fits her, and I just love the idea of her spoiling this thing rotten and him completely adoring her in return. And of course, I had to draw Hawke's Mabari as well. I'm going with the idea of Mabaris having a longer lifespan than regular dogs, for it to make sense for him to still be alive by Inquisition. Anyway, this was fun, I hope you guys enjoyed hearing about my Dragon Age pet headcanons.

#Dragon Age #dragon age ii #dragon age 2 #Dragon Age Inqusition #DAI #DA2 #Mabari #Tusket #Hawke #Inquisitor #Inquisitor Adaar #Adaar

3 notes · View notes

youngandhungryent · 5 years

Text

Young And Hungry Entertainment Launch Day: 1 Our Fist Blog Entry

So, today I have set up must of our social and blog channels, as well as the YouTube channel, which is our main real estate. I have creative commons on #FUCU and now we are off tho the races. This is our fist syndicated post in our network.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOdFTQCCzXjP-JHIv7bpkHA

Young And Hungry Entertainment is a Free For Unlimited Commercial Use Instrumental Type Beat Producer based in Lake Charles, LA that specializes in Drake instrumental type beats, Juice Wrld instrumental type beats, J Cole instrumental type beats, XXXtentacion instrumental type beats, Travis Scott instrumental type beats, Lil Peep instrumental type beats, Playboi Carti instrumental type beats, NBA Youngboy instrumental type beats, Lil Pump instrumental type beats, Boss of Bosses instrumental type beats, & Mac Miller instrumental type beats.

Young And Hungry Entertainment, Inc (YAH) is a U.S. record label, recording studio, music publisher, entertainment company, production house, and DJ pool based in Lake Charles, LA whose mission is to educate, develop, support, & empower independent artists and producers as a strategic joint venture partner, helping them to make a living and thrive in the music business without sacrificing their personal integrity, family relationships, artistic freedom, or publishing rights. Contact Us Today! +1 337-409-9499

youtube

#youngandhungryent #typebeat #freetypebeat #instrumentaltypebeat #draketypebeat #typebeat2019 #fucu #fucul

1 note · View note

protectblackchildren · 6 years

Text

OVERLOOKED

These remarkable black men and women never received obituaries in The New York Times — until now. We’re adding their stories to our project about prominent people whose deaths were not reported by the newspaper.

Since 1851, The New York Times has published thousands of obituaries, capturing the lives and legacies of people who have influenced the world in which we live.

But many important figures were left out.

Overlooked reveals the stories of some of those remarkable people.

We started the series last year by focusing on women like Sylvia Plath, the postwar poet; Emma Gatewood, the hiking grandmother who captivated a nation; and Ana Mendieta, the Cuban artist whose work was bold, raw and sometimes violent. We added to that collection each week.

Now, this special edition of Overlooked highlights a prominent group of black men and women whose lives we did not examine at the time of their deaths.

Many of them were a generation removed from slavery. They often attempted to break the same barriers again and again. Sometimes they made myth out of a painful history, misrepresenting their past to gain a better footing in their future. Some managed to achieve success in their lifetimes, only to die penniless, buried in unmarked graves. But all were pioneers, shaping our world and making paths for future generations.

We hope you’ll spread the word about Overlooked — and tell us who else we missed.

Read about the project’s first year, and use this form to nominate a candidate for future Overlooked obits.

1907-1960

Gladys Bentley

A gender-bending blues performer who became 1920s Harlem royalty.

BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

When it comes to loosening social mores, progress that isn’t made in private has often taken place onstage.

That was certainly the case at the Clam House, a Prohibition-era speakeasy in Harlem, where Gladys Bentley, one of the boldest performers of her era, held court.

1867-1917

Scott Joplin

A pianist and ragtime master who wrote “The Entertainer” and the groundbreaking opera “Treemonisha.”

BY WIL HAYGOOD

When Scott Joplin’s father left the North Carolina plantation where he had been born a slave, there was one thing he wanted to hold on to: the echoes of the Negro spirituals he had heard in the fields. In those songs he found a sense of uplift, hope and possibility.

In the post-Civil War era, the cruel breath of slavery and the aborted plan of Reconstruction still hung over the American South. But in the Joplin home, banjo and fiddle music filled the family’s evenings, giving the children — Scott in particular — a sense of music’s power to move.

1834-1858

Margaret Garner

In one soul-chilling moment, she killed her own daughter rather than return her to the horrors of slavery.

BY REBECCA CARROLL

Margaret garner, who was born as an enslaved girl, almost certainly did not plan to kill her child when she grew up and became an enslaved mother.

But she also couldn’t yet know that the physical, emotional and psychological violence of slavery, relentless and horrific, would one day conspire to force her maternal judgment in a moment already fraught with grave imperative.

1878-1932

Major Taylor

A world champion bicycle racer whose fame was undermined by prejudice.

BY RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

More than 100 years ago, one of the most popular spectator sports in the world was bicycle racing, and one of the most popular racers was a squat, strapping man with bulging thighs named Major Taylor.

He set records in his teens and was a world champion at 20. He traveled the globe, racing as far away as Australia, and amassed wealth among the greatest of any athlete of his time. Thousands of people flocked to see him; newspapers fawned over him.

1905-2001

Zelda Wynn Valdes

A fashion designer who outfitted the glittery stars of screen and stage.

BY TANISHA C. FORD

More than a half century before a “curvy” model made the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, and before hashtags like #allbodiesaregoodbodies, there was a designer who knew that it was the job of clothes to fit the woman, not vice versa.

Zelda Wynn Valdes was a designer to the stars who could fit a dress to a body of any size — even if she had to do so just by looking at the client. “I only fit her once in 12 years,” Valdes told The New York Times in 1994 of her long-time client Ella Fitzgerald, “I had to do everything by imagination for her.” Valdes would simply look at Fitzgerald in the latest paper, noting any changes in her full-figured body, and would design the elaborate gowns — with beads and appliques — that she knew Fitzgerald loved.

1941-1970

Alfred Hair

A charismatic businessman who created a movement for Florida’s black artists.

BY GORDON K. HURD

“Well-Known Artist Alfred Hair Slain,” read the headline in The Fort Pierce News Tribune newspaper in Florida.

But before he was killed in a barroom brawl on Aug. 9, 1970, at just 29, Hair had become more than just an artist. With his drive, charisma and business acumen, he helped start a collective of Floridian artists, all African-American, who painted vibrant landscapes of their home state. They would later come to be known as The Florida Highwaymen, or more simply The Highwaymen.

1912-1967

Nina Mae McKinney

An actress who defied the barrier of race to find stardom in Europe.

BY ANITA GATES

About 20 minutes into “Hallelujah,” Hollywood’s first all-sound feature with an all-black cast, Nina Mae McKinney appeared on screen as Chick, a singer and dancer, in a sexy flapper dress.

She had flashing eyes, an armful of jangly bracelets, and no qualms about cheating a handsome young cotton farmer out of the money he had just gotten for his family’s crop.

1856-1910

Granville T. Woods

An inventor known as the ‘Black Edison.’ He found that recognition came at a hefty price.

BY AMISHA PADNANI

He carefully sealed the drawings in a mailing tube and quietly placed them out of sight from his business partner, then went to a meeting.

But when he returned, Granville T. Woods found that his drawings — a design for a novel invention that held the potential to revolutionize transportation around the world — were gone.

1884-1951

Oscar Micheaux

A pioneering filmmaker prefiguring independent directors like Spike Lee and Tyler Perry.

BY MONICA DRAKE

Almost as soon as you settle in to watch the 1939 melodrama “Lying Lips,” you can figure out who is the victim, who is the villain and who is the hero. And even if you know how it all will end, you want to watch anyway.

That was the beauty of the filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. He made you want to soak up the exuberance he clearly felt in delivering a whole new way of telling stories.

1814-1907

Mary Ellen Pleasant

Born into slavery, she became a Gold Rush-era millionaire and a powerful abolitionist.

BY VERONICA CHAMBERS

When the abolitionist John Brown was hanged on Dec. 2, 1859, for murder and treason, a note found in his pocket read, “The ax is laid at the foot of the tree. When the first blow is struck, there will be more money to help.” Officials most likely believed it was written by a wealthy Northerner who had helped fund Brown’s attempt to incite, and arm, an enormous slave uprising by taking over an arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. No one suspected that the note was written by a black woman named Mary Ellen Pleasant.

In 1901, an elderly Pleasant dictated her autobiography to the journalist Sam Davis. As Lynn Hudson writes in the book “The Making of ‘Mammy Pleasant’: A Black Entrepreneur in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco,” Pleasant told Davis, “Before I pass away, I wish to clear the identity of the party who furnished John Brown with most of his money to start the fight at Harpers Ferry and who signed the letter found on him when he was arrested.” The sum she donated was $30,000 — almost $900,000 in today’s dollars.

1827-1901

Elizabeth Jennings

Life experiences primed her to fight for racial equality. Her moment came on a streetcar ride to church.

BY SAM ROBERTS

Because she was running behind one Sunday morning, Elizabeth Jennings turned out to be a century ahead of her time.

She was a teacher in her 20s, on her way to the First Colored American Congregational Church in Lower Manhattan, where she was the regular organist, when a conductor ordered her off a horse-drawn Third Avenue trolley and told her to wait for a car reserved for black passengers.

1876-1917

Philip A. Payton Jr.

A real estate magnate who turned Harlem into a black mecca.

BY ADEEL HASSAN

“Human hives, honeycombed with little rooms thick with human beings,” is how a white journalist and co-founder of the N.A.A.C.P., Mary White Ovington, described the filthy tenements that black New Yorkers were relegated to at the turn of the 20th century.

As more rural Southerners arrived in the city, the teeming Manhattan slums in which African-Americans were living had become the most densely populated streets in the city, nearly 5,000 people per block, according to one count, as landlords rented almost exclusively to white tenants.

1857-1924

Moses Fleetwood Walker

The first black baseball player in the big leagues, even before Jackie Robinson.

BY RICHARD GOLDSTEIN

When Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, becoming the first African-American player in modern major league baseball, he was not only a trailblazer in the sports world, but an inspiring figure in the modern civil rights movement.

But Robinson was not the first ballplayer in the long history of big league baseball known to be an African-American. That distinction belongs to Moses Fleetwood Walker.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/obituaries/black-history-month-overlooked.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

#Emma Gatewood #Gladys Bentley #Scott Joplin #Margaret Garner #Major Taylor #Zelda Wynn Valdes #Alfred Hair #Nina Mae McKinney #Granville T. Woods #Oscar Micheaux #Mary Ellen Pleasant #Elizabeth Jennings #Philip A. Payton Jr.#Moses Fleetwood Walker #Ana Mendieta #NYT

14 notes · View notes

bbclesmis · 6 years

Text

TV Is Unwhitewashing History One Character, Period, and Genre at a Time

From “Les Miserables” and “Harlots” to “The Spanish Princess” and “The Terror,” TV producers are restoring the historical narratives of people of color.

Black characters on a show set in Tudor England would be a “stark anachronism” one consultant told “The Spanish Princess” co-showrunner Emma Frost in no uncertain terms. “Even I knew just from basic research that that wasn’t true,” she said in an interview with IndieWire during a set visit last year.

As TV shows seek out more inclusive storytelling, many producers are looking to the past to find new ways to freshen old stories. And while historical records and artwork have shown plenty of black, brown, and Asian faces through centuries of Western history, that same diversity has been largely absent in history class and on the screen unless it takes place after the 1950s. This dearth has affected the types of roles offered and even considered by actors of color.

Mandip Gill, who plays a British police officer of South Asian descent on “Doctor Who,” has only performed in contemporary projects. “I have always said I won’t be in a period drama. I just don’t see it happening,” she said. “I can’t even imagine it. When I’ve written down what types I like to play or where I would like to push the boundaries, it’s not with period dramas. I don’t watch them because I can’t relate to them.”

Danny Sapiani has had a better track record for landing period roles — such as Will North in “Harlots” and Sambene in “Penny Dreadful” — but that wasn’t always the case. “Period drama on screen was not a consideration when I began my professional career. Most film and tv roles were confined to the modern era, post-1950s, ghetto-ized in nature or victims of oppression,” he said.

David Oyelowo, who stars as Inspector Javert in the upcoming PBS-BBC adaptation of “Les Miserables,” agrees. “That was the case for me. And having grown up in the UK, and more specifically, on period drama, I had just resigned myself to the fact that, ‘Okay, those amazing shows are going to be shows I love, but they’re never going to have folks like me in it.’”

Sites like The Public Medievalist and historians like Onyeka have worked to challenge the narrative of the pure-white Western history that’s been widely accepted, even by people of color. Now actors and producers are following their example to restore the place of marginalized people on screen and into the public consciousness.

“The excuse has been used that it’s not historically accurate, and that’s just not true,” said Oyelowo. “If you are an actual genuine student of history — and not just coming from an ignorant kind of purely white lens in relation to European history — you’d know that people of color have been in France, in the UK, all over Europe, for centuries, and not just as slaves.”

Sapiani points to the discoveries and documentation available for anyone to research about the existence of people of color in Europe for centuries.

“As evidenced by the discovery of Cheddar Man, the first complete skeleton found in a gorge in Somerset, the first modern Britons who arrived on the island 10,000 years ago had black to brown skin, blue eyes and dark wavy hair. It is from these earliest arrivals that the inhabitants of Britain derive their origins,” he said.

“In fact, there are very few periods in history where people of color do not feature, not only in Britain — the setting of most costume dramas — but across the entire European continent. The census notes 20,000 blacks living in Britain in 1780, the century we focus on in ‘Harlots,’ more than half that number living in London, which is where ‘Harlots’ is set. Even though this was during the height of the slave trade, not all those people were slaves or victims of white racism. Fascinating characters like Will North, spanned social and class boundaries, often, though not always, against incredible odds.”

Hulu’s “Harlots,” about the war between two brothels in Georgian London, not only features the free man Will North, but also several black harlots, one of whom ran her own brothel.

“There were tens of thousands of people of color living in London in the 1760s. We have found stories of musicians, estate managers, fencing masters, actresses, grocers, prize fighters, haberdashers, soldiers, poets, activists, librarians and clerks,” said “Harlots” co-creator Moira Buffini.

“Some were clearly people of means, like the ‘black lady covered in finery,’ spotted by Hester Thrale at the opera. ‘Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies’ has entries for several women of color who were making their living in the sex trade and The Nocturnal Revels tells us of ‘Black Harriot,’ a very successful courtesan who ran a popular ‘house of exotics.’ All our stories are about people trying to find agency when society gives them none — and this seems in especially sharp relief for our characters of color. Violet is a street whore and pickpocket but from her perspective, society is the thief. Her mother was stolen. Violet, in her own eyes, is neither victim nor criminal. She has a raw integrity and a personal truth that others find both intimidating and irresistible.”

For “The Spanish Princess,” an adaptation of two Philippa Gregory historical novels set in Tudor England about Catherine of Aragon, Frost and co-showrunner Matthew Graham turned to books by Onyeka to develop characters of color who would have fit in during that time. In particular, they discovered the story of the real-life Lina de Cardonnes (played by Stephanie Levi-John in the series), a high-ranking noble woman who acted as Catherine’s lady-in-waiting and companion.

“There was a character that was referenced in Phillipa’s books who was what they call a dueñas or a lady-in-waiting to Catherine. Her name was Catalina de Cardonnes and she was just this larger than life character who was depicted as white Spanish,” said Graham. “Then we just did a bit of cursory research and discovered that it was based on Lina de Cardonnes and that she was African Iberian. She was a black lady. So, we were certainly like, ‘Wow, this is a bigger story and a more interesting story than we can possibly imagine.’”

This discovery of the larger part that people of color have played throughout history has been increasing the more people look into telling marginalized stories. The author of “The Miniaturist” Jessie Burton and Netflix’s “Anne With an E” creator Moira Walley-Beckett had similar epiphanies and added black characters in significant roles to their stories set in the Dutch Golden Age and Edwardian Canada, respectively.

In many of these cases, ignorance or acceptance of the dominant narrative could explain the lack of representation in these TV shows. The absence of photographic or film evidence made it easier to whitewash the presence of people of color.

But there’s really no excuse with period dramas set in the 20th century and beyond, when plenty of visual records show the diversity present. As with the #OscarsSoWhite campaign started by activist April Reign, the biggest problems facing more inclusive TV lay in challenging the mindset at the studio level and changing who’s behind the camera.

As seen with many of the shows that are including people of color in historical narratives, the show’s creators are often women, people of color themselves, or part of the LGBTQ community. When marginalized groups help each other, this can address intersectionality.

For example, Carol Hay and Michelle Ricci co-created the Jazz Age mystery adventure show “Frankie Drake Mysteries” coming to Ovation on June 15. Not only did they make a show about Toronto’s first female private detective, but they also cast Chantel Riley as Trudy, Frankie’s partner who happens to also be a black woman.

“When Shaftesbury [Films] came up with this idea and decided to have a black female lead, it was mind-blowing to me because you never really hear about black folk or Asian folk, in that time,” Riley said. “We touch on the Asian community, the black community, even the Indian community as well. That’s why I was really attracted to this particular show, because no one’s really doing that in this particular era.”

In some cases, actors have had to step behind the cameras themselves to increase the opportunities for people of color. Daniel Dae Kim left “Hawaii Five-0,” and the first series that he produced afterward is ABC’s “The Good Doctor,” which has provided numerous on-screen opportunities for actors from marginalized groups.

Similarly, Oyelowo became an executive producer on “Les Miserables” to take control of how his role of Javert and the other people of color were portrayed. Oyelowo also co-produced and starred in the period film “A United Kingdom.”

“I wanted to make sure that me being in [‘Les Miserables’] wasn’t going to be a token thing. I wanted to make sure that people of color were integrated through the story in an organic way that didn’t feel imposed,” he said.

“But also, something very important to me was the American distribution. I wanted it to be on a channel that was worthy of the work that everyone was putting into it. And so, I had a hand in it going to PBS Masterpiece. Anything that takes me away from my kids for any period of time better be worth it. And so, some of the times I produce in order to develop. Some of the times I produce in order to be able to have a say in how things are cast, how they are marketed, how they are distributed. And that’s basically been the case with this.”

Currently, there aren’t many period shows by people of color about people of color on TV. John Singleton’s “Snowfall” on FX is set in Los Angeles during the 1980s crack epidemic and was renewed for a third season.

Over on broadcast, the late 1990s-set comedy “Fresh Off the Boat,” based on the memoir of Eddie Huang and created by Nahnatchka Khan, a queer woman of Iranian descent, is currently in its fifth season. It’s the first TV show with an Asian cast in over 20 years — since Margaret Cho’s short-lived “All American Girl” — and stars Randall Park and Constance Wu as the Huangs, who had relocated to the Florida suburbs with their family. Khan had to make a case for why the show had to remain in the ‘90s to replicate the real-life Huangs’ feelings of alienation.

“I remember having a creative discussion with 20th [Century Fox] at the very beginning about them asking me, ‘Why does it have to be set in the ‘90s?’” she said. “For me it was creating a sense of isolation with the family. They moved to Orlando in the middle of the white suburbs and they don’t know anybody. But in the present day, you can get online and talk to your friends and you can text people. You have a connection outside of your everyday life, even if it’s virtual.”

Other than those, “Underground” was the last period show about people of color by a creator of color, Misha Green. WGN’s critically acclaimed slavery-era period drama lasted two seasons and was canceled shortly after Sinclair Media Group announced it would purchase Tribune Media, which owns WGN.

Fortunately, this scarcity won’t last for long. Many period shows that feature significant narratives for people of color are on the horizon. Green has teamed up with Jordan Peele for the HBO drama horror “Lovecraft Country,” which takes place on a road trip during 1950s Jim Crow America. Barry Jenkins executive produces and directs the upcoming Amazon series “The Underground Railroad,” an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s book. Justin Lin and Jonathan Tropper’s “Warrior” premieres April 5 on Cinemax and is based on Bruce Lee’s original concept about a Chinese immigrant who becomes a hatchet man for the most powerful tong in late 1800s Chinatown in San Francisco.

One other upcoming series explores a new genre for the period TV show that adds a provocative take on a historical event. In its second season, AMC’s anthology series “The Terror” explores the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II through the lens of Japanese horror. Actor George Takei, who experienced internment, acts as a consultant and series regular.

“We’re telling the story of a very underserved piece of American history using the vocabulary of Japanese-style horror as an analog for the terror of the actual historical event,” said co-creator and showrunner Alexander Woo.

“I don’t want the audience to feel removed from the events that are happening on screen. What a horror movie or horror series does is it makes you feel viscerally in the shoes of the person who’s trapped in the house or the person who’s running away from the monster or whatever it is. So we’re using that style, that language, to make you really feel how terrifying the experience of the Japanese Americans who lived through this terrible experience.”

While the Japanese ghost story trappings fits the tone of the narrative in “The Terror: Infamy,” Woo acknowledges that the genre twist might have helped pitching the show.

“We’re in an era of so much content and a period of such creative power, we have more sophisticated viewers that will hopefully appreciate a period drama told in a specific style,” he said. “Those two things used to not mix. That was not something that you would want to try because it might seem complicated or it might seem challenging, which I think now, in this time, that sounds very appealing… It’s also a terrific lens for us to understand things that are happening in the present. The story of internment is obviously relevant in a host of ways to the present day, so I think it’s a valuable story and has to be told now.”

While these more inclusive narratives continue to be discovered and told, inevitably people used to the status quo will resist and deny those stories. It’s the very reason that these stories haven’t been told in the first place.

“The more recent phenomenon of whitewashing, a political tool of the imperialists, dates back only a few hundred years,” said Sapiani. “I am so proud to see, and be a part of this change towards a more accurate and frankly more interesting dramatized interpretation of our world history. Needless to say, there is so much further to go.”

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/03/tv-unwhitewashing-history-period-dramas-hbo-hulu-pbs-abc-1202049639/

#les mis bbc #bbc les mis #david oyelowo #javert #Interviews #articles #indiewire

5 notes · View notes