#even more parallels between him and frank castle...

[youwillfindilluminating]

shawn wore his IRL wedding ring by accident one fucking time and now I have to read about jack's dead wife in every fic

[this is a joke... mostly]

[elen-tari2]

My Kastle Scene Wishlist

I’m not sure what Kastle content we might get in Daredevil Born Again, but there is also talk that they might make a new Punisher show. What are some scenes/parallels that you would like to see between Frank and Karen? Here’s a few of my musings

Reversed Hospital Scene! I would like to see Frank momentarily panic over Karen getting hurt and have a turn holding her hand in a hospital bed. I feel like we deserve this scene so bad. (Caveat: Frank CANNOT be the reason Karen got injured, even if it’s just she got shot in the arm or has a concussion; Karen is in dangerous situations regardless of Frank being near her or not and he needs a wake up call for that). Bonus points for the total opposite of telling her to walk way—this time HE GETS IN THE HOSPITAL BED and puts his arms around her and just holds her and Karen gets to feel completely safe for a few minutes. Just go all out with the hurt/comfort trope for these two. Anyway, I have a whole WIP fic devoted to this, so honestly it has become my top wish to see some parallels drawn with another hospital scene.

Karen gets to help in a fight and shoots someone. I feel like since they never got to have the Wesley conversation, a way to show-not-tell would be for Karen to kill a bad guy and then Frank come check on her to be like, ‘hey are you okay?’and she’d be like, ‘yeah, I am.’ She’d be a bit shaken up but grimly holding it together because it’s not her first time killing someone. This would also work in contrast to the scene where Amy shoots the guy in the hall and then Frank infamously takes the gun from her and takes the responsibility of his death away from her. Sorry to make Karen suffer because I know she’ll feel bad about it, but I’d be okay with seeing her character go a little bit darker to save someone’s life. She’s been carrying that gun since DDs2, she deserves to take out a baddie on her own and it’d be a great segue into rehashing some of her past that Frank NEEDS to know about

Frank meets Paxton Page. Will the show make time for this? Probably not. But damn do I want to know what Frank would say if he knew that Karen’s dad cut off his only daughter, when Frank would do anything—anything—to spend one minute with Lisa again. I’d love to see Frank go to Fagan Corners with Karen to put flowers on her mom and brother’s graves. We spent three seasons of Frank being able to open up around Karen and talk about his family with her. Meanwhile she has never once said anything about the losses she’s suffered. Frank needs to know and I don’t want it all jammed into one big backstory dump where she tells him she killed her brother and Wesley in the same conversation. Another option would be for Frank to accidentally visit Karen on the anniversary of her mom/Kevin’s death and she is having a breakdown. If we can’t get into any of Karen’s past, have Frank find out Karen has his burner phone saved in her contacts listed as Home. I’ve seen that idea in several different fics and it just needs to be canon. They are Home to each other.

A scene where Frank holds Karen all night and they don’t have sex, but it’s profound. (Think like Spike holding Buffy). If they are nervous about comics fans being mad about Frank Castle finding love again, give us some physical intimacy and closeness where you know they mean everything to each other but can’t cross the line and make things real. Fan fic writers will know we won and then fill in the rest for those cowards.

If they’re willing to make Kastle real, give us a goddamn kiss. Actually, just let them have sex, because Karen Page has been forced to stay chaste for YEARS and she deserves to get laid. And Jon Bernthal seems to be more than comfortable doing sex scenes soooo please just make it the most beautiful thing ever filmed because they are so in love with each other. It has to be noticeably different in tone from the scene with Beth. And Karen cannot get shot the next day, don’t even start with any of that bull$hit trauma for Frank.

Kastle pillow talk scene. Since it’s Disney Marvel now, I don’t know how much we can hope for with a sex scene. So the pillow talk scene that follows had better be some life-altering confessions of love and cuddles. Do not even think about him sneaking out before she wakes up like he almost did with Beth. Karen deserves something good to happen to her for once, let her have a perfect night and a gentle, soft morning after. She deserves it even if Frank isn’t sure if he does.

Karen Page and Dinah Madani Friendship. I’m rewatching The Punisher s2 and one thing that pissed me off was the scenes of fake bonding between Dinah and Krista Dumont, drinking wine together and discussing men (Frank and Billy, who else). So. To make up for that, we need some genuine female friendships, like Karen and Dinah going to a shooting range together or gym or going out to a nice bar for girls night. Even if Frank has been keeping his distance, these ladies have struck up a friendship and Karen has someone to hang out with besides her lawyer coworkers.

Karen gets to meet Micro/The Lieberman family AND Curtis. David knows how Frank really feels about Karen. Curtis needs to find out Frank DOES still have something good holding him in this world. And Karen should meet Frank’s friends.

Okay those are some of the scenes I want to see for Frank and Karen! If someone could please get this list to the Punisher writers for the future of the show, it’s actually very important that we get some of this or I’m gonna have to come write for the show myself. 🙈

[reveriixs]

❝  𝖯𝖤𝖮𝖯𝖫𝖤 𝖫𝖨𝖪𝖤 𝖴𝖲 𝖣𝖮𝖭’𝖳 𝖶𝖠𝖨𝖳 𝖥𝖮𝖱 𝖯𝖮𝖶𝖤𝖱—𝖶𝖤 𝖶𝖠𝖫𝖪 𝖨𝖭 𝖠𝖭𝖣 𝖳𝖠𝖪𝖤 𝖨𝖳 ❞

𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛⧸dossier : alexie bhod  ›› nocturne's SIC ››  michael b. jordan

❛❛   𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.  ❜❜   ―   ◜   . ―    They say the city never forgets a name and ALEXIE BHOD is no testament to that. The THIRTY- EIGHT-year-old has carved out their place in NYC’s underbelly. On the surface, they’re all WITTY, smooth moves and sharp eyes. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find something far more dangerous , TEMPERMENTAL, with no hesitation and even less remorse. They move through the streets like they own them, wearing the colors of the NOCTURNE and running the game as a SECOND IN COMMAND . Some say they’ve always been here. Others swear something’s changed. Either way, they’re not just part of the story. They’re rewriting it. ―   .

𝐀���𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐄 / basics:

full name: Alexander Cassian Bhod nickname: Alexie age: Thirty-eight dob: November 19th occupation: Second-in-command, Nocturne languages: English, French, Haitian Creole, some Russian hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana hair color: Black eye color: Dark brown, almost black orientation: Pansexual religion: Raised Catholic, long since abandoned it marital status: Single (no one survives long enough to love him properly) notable scars: Burn mark across his right shoulder blade; no one knows the story character song: “House of Glass” by Leah Kate

𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐄 / personality:

positive: Calculated, magnetic, brutally clever, composed under pressure negative: Power-hungry, emotionally detached, sadistic streak, unpredictable moral alignment: Lawful evil deadly sin: Pride hogwarts house: Slytherin in Prada element: Smoke emotional stability: Controlled chaos—dangerous when cornered alcohol use: Expensive taste, only the finest, always neat prone to violence?: Absolutely—he just makes it look like art drives / motivations: Power isn’t just survival—it’s seduction. Alexie knows the cost of weakness, and he’s paid it in blood. Everything about him is sharpened for control: his voice, his smile, even his kindness. He’s not looking for love or redemption. He wants influence. Legacy. Fear. But the game is getting riskier… and his twin might be playing by different rules. character parallels: Ghost (Power) + Frank Castle (The Punisher) + Lucien (ACOTAR) + Tom Ripley (Ripley 2024) + Smoke/Stack (duality lives)

𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐄 / family:

twin sister: (Wanted Connection) They’ve switched places before. Lied for each other. Killed for each other. But something’s fractured between them. And that crack is growing. parents: Dead. Or so he says. found family: Nocturne. He built it with blood and brilliance. And no one knows how deep his roots go.

𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐄 / tldr:

He doesn’t just play the game—he is the game. Polished and poisonous, Alexie walks through shadows with a smirk and a blade tucked behind every word. Born with a twin and a secret name he’d kill to keep buried. He’s here to win—whatever the cost. And he always, always, collects.

[etymology-of-the-emblem]

Igrene / イグレーヌ, Gorlois / ゴルロイス, and Astolfo / アストール

Igrene (JP: イグレーヌ; rōmaji: igurēnu) is the Guardian of Nabata, taking up the role after her father's death in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. Her husband was a man by the name of Gorlois (JP: ゴルロイス; rōmaji: goruroisu). The names of this couple originate from the Matter of Britain, the medieval works primarily centered on the legendary King Arthur. In these, Gorloïs is said to be the duke of Cornwall (or Tintagel) and husband of the beautiful Igraine. When the newly-crowned King Uther first laid eyes upon Igraine in his court, be became madly infatuated with her. Though she rejected his advances and promptly returned to Cornwall with Gorloïs, Uther refused to take no for an answer. He waged war against Cornwall, sieging the castles of Tintagel, where Igraine retreated to, and Terrabil, where Gorloïs took up arms. While the duke of Cornwall fell at the hand of Uther's men, the king of the Britons infiltrated Tintagel under a veil of magic from the wizard Merlin, giving him Gorloïs' appearance. Uther took advantage of this opportunity and laid with the target of his obsession, and later would take Igraine for his wife. From this terrible union, King Arthur was born.

Though nothing as drastic as the story of Igraine and Gorloïs is seen in the Fire Emblem characters bearing their names, the estranged relationship between Igrene and Gorlois is most likely inspired by the legends. Even Gorlois leaving his wife was sparked by conflict closing in on their home, though according to Igrene it was mere bandits.

After leaving Nabata, Gorlois took up the name Astolfo instead. This name comes from a different assortment of legends: the Matter of France, or the stories surrounding Charlemagne, King of the Franks, and his Twelve Peers. In many of these tales, Astolfo—or Estout in the original French—was the name of one of the Twelve Peers. He allegedly was the son of King Otto of England and cousin of the hero Roland. Most depictions of Astolfo have him take a more minor and comedic role, characterizing him as a beautiful and nimble prince, though conceited and plagued with ill-luck. It is possible that the thief by the name of Astolfo gets his class from the legendary Astolfo's role in Orlando Furioso. In this tale, Astolfo defeats two thieves: the giant Caligorante and the nigh-immortal Orillo single-handedly. It is also in this story that Astolfo ventures across the world and to the moon in a quest to reclaim Orlando's (Roland's) sanity and reason. That said, as far as my research goes, there are not any strong parallels between the characters.

In the original Japanese, Astolfo's name is アストール (rōmaji: asutōru), officially romanized as Astore. There are a handful of interpretations to this name. If wanting to relate to the Matter of Britain like the character's other name, you could view it as a reference to Astor of Panfatis, a count appearing in...a single line of the German story Parzival. If you instead expect it to be derived from the Matter of France, Austore is the name of a duke of Valence who dies alongside Roland at Roncevaux Pass in The Song of Roland. Much like Astor, however, he is named once in all the work.

More likely than naught, アストール is another name for the paladin Astolfo. Of course, in Japanese Astolfo is rendered as アストルフォ(rōmaji: asutorufo), though I have some claims (primarily amongst those in the Fate/ fandom) that the rendering used for Fire Emblem's Astolfo is a less-common option. It seems to be derived from Estoult or Estouls, less common renderings of Astolfo's name in French work works.

EDIT: I have made a major oversight in regards to the original Japanese name of Astolfo. As it turns out, the name Astore appears in Arthurian Legend as a secondary name for a fairly important character. Hector de Maris is the illegitimate son of King Ban and the Lady de Maris, making him the half-brother of Lancelot. He was staunchly loyal to Lancelot; when the knight's affair with King Arthur's wife Guinevere came to light, Hector de Maris was amongst those who came to her aid to keep her from being burnt at the stake. He would leave the Knights of the Round Table, joining his brother in exile, and served as one of the most valuable knights in the conflict between Arthur and Lancelot.

Hector de Maris was known by a few different names. This could be based on the language the work was written in, or by the author wanting to further distinguish him from the similarly named Sir Ector, adoptive father of Arthur. Two names he was called were Estor and Astore. The latter was primarily tied to the Italian Cantare di Astore e Morgana, which follows him and Morgan le Fay. Astore swore devotion to Morgana after the enchantress saved his live. As he prepared to leave, Morgana told him that he could only if he donned a new set of armor and weapons she provided. As it turns out, these arms are cursed, instilled with the essence of the demon Beelzebub. In accordance with Morgana's will, Astore goes to Arthur's court and captures all of the men present after claiming victory in a sequence of jousts. Before he can fulfill Morgana's end goal of drowning Arthur and his knights, the errant knight Galahad saves the men and frees Astore from his possession.

[night-unfurls-its-splendour]

The Critique of Manners, Part II

~Or~

A Candid Review of ITV's Emma (1997)

Disclaimer: I do know that both this and the Miramax version were released in 1996, but to avoid confusion, I refer to this one as the “1997 Emma” in reference to the US release date.

The bones of this review were written some six years ago after my initial viewing. I’ve watched it three or four times since then, two very recently (Within the past year). I’d started to soften on it in the most recent watch. So many people love it so much I thought surely maybe I’m just crazy or even wrong; until I found this blog post from 2008 (a year before my favorite version was released) that hit on almost EVERY SINGLE thing that skeeved me out about this version when I first watched it.

Like my previous review of Emma. (2020), I’ll be covering the cast and overall handling of the script in comparison with what I know from reading the book. I will also be commenting on my thoughts about the costumes (Whether they are attractive or accurate, or both, or neither) which will be a bit more in depth than it was for the 2020 version, and this will set a pattern for the costumes section going forward.

Directed by Diarmuid Lawrence with screenwriting by Andrew Davies (Or should I say “Written by Andrew Davies with direction by Diarmuid Lawrence”?), this version was  a fan-favorite among Janeites for many years for … well, reasons I’ve never been entirely certain of. I’ve read the book twice through and referenced pertinent passages MANY times besides, and really I don’t see what they’re raving about.

Let’s dive in.

Cast & Characterization

I’d known about this adaptation for a while, but I held off on watching it, largely for one reason: my apprehension about Mark Strong playing Mr. Knightley.

     I was concerned because when I watched this I had already seen Mark Strong as Sir John Conroy in The Young Victoria and as Lord Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes, both very unpleasant characters. But there have been several occasions when I expressed displeasure with casting choices only to eat my words when I actually watched the movie. So I entered into watching this with an optimistic outlook, sure that Mark and Kate would surprise me with brilliant performances. And I would like to say that they did, but that would be an untruth.

My biggest fear about Mark Strong playing Mr. Knightley was that his rebuking of Emma was going to be a watered down version of ‘RAAAWWWRRR’ that I was familiar with, specifically because of The Young Victoria. It’s very hard for me to see Mark Strong point his finger in Emily Blunt’s face and shout at her, and then watch him do the same thing with Kate Beckinsale (only somewhat less aggressively) and expect to feel all warm and fuzzy about their romance. I expected that to be a tall order. And it was. Whenever he raises his voice, the right side of his face pulls up into a snarl. Now since it does this no matter what role he’s playing I’m guessing that’s just how his face is. It’s not his fault really and it’s almost certainly unintentional, but I’ve seen that snarl before and it does NOT belong on Mr. Knightley’s face.

   Don’t ever think I don’t LOVE Kate Beckinsale, and I don’t necessarily think that my problems with this interpretation of Emma are her fault; these things very rarely fall on the shoulders of the actual actors, but those of the screenwriters and directors who guide them. However – and I am aware that this might sound a bit harsh – I would say that at points, Kate Beckinsale’s performance in this movie (In my opinion) barely outstrips community theatre or even very good high school drama club level acting. It seems to me that there’s burden on her here to sound historical or period. This lends to this interpretation of Emma feeling at once both cold and childish (more on that later.)

Her best moments are when she runs into Jane as Jane is leaving Donwell and when she speaks with Robert Martin at the end of the film. I always like scenes where Emma tacitly apologizes to Mr. Martin, and her feeling when she invites him to Donwell is Kate’s finest moment in this movie.

I found Raymond Coulthard’s Frank Churchill insignificant at first, but on repeat viewings I really started to hate him. I don’t think Austen intended Frank’s caddishness (to use more modern vernacular I’d say he’s an utter “Douche”) to be quite this obvious on first glance. He’s a creep in this version and Raymond Coulthard is just not at all attractive to me, from his big nose to his little shark teeth.

Olivia Williams was a good, even great, Jane Fairfax, and in my opinion does a much better job of portraying Jane’s vexation than, say, Polly Walker did (more on that next time), while still quietly looking like she’d like to arm-bar Frank rather than take his vulgar teasing lying down.

She also has the distinction of being the only Jane Fairfax who’s singing REALLY blows Emma’s out of the water, and I like that all of the songs she sings are in languages other than English (primarily Italian I think?). This achieves the double whammy of showing how much more accomplished she is than Emma by emphasizing that not only does Jane sing and play better, but she knows languages too.

Samantha Morton is a superb actress whom I love and I was sort of appalled at how she looks in this movie. Is she dying of a wasting illness? She looks like a gust of wind will carry her away, although since she looked the same in the 1997 Jane Eyre (In which she played the title role under similarly appalling direction) perhaps that was just her look that year?

Dominic Rowan, as Mr. Elton, is… there’s a perfect word to describe it and I just can’t think of it right now. Like every other young man in this movie (other than Robert Martin) he’s got this feeling of skeeviness to me but it’s more than that. It’s a dweebie-ness as well. This is so dissatisfactory to me because Mr. Elton is supposed to have every appearance of charm and agreeableness, with his only obvious fault being his over-eagerness to ingratiate himself to Emma and some rather vulgar locker-room type talk about marrying for fortune. He’s just so… (I’ve hit upon it now after some discussion with my sister) dingy. He looks less like a “very handsome young man” who “knows the value of a good income” and more like the kind of guy that scrubs up okay, but still you can tell from the rumple of his clothes and the pizzaroni odor wafting from him that he lives in his mom’s basement.

The shining star for me in this production was Alistair Petrie as Robert Martin. I love him as an actor and especially after watching him in Cranford, I think he was an excellent choice for Harriet’s Mr. Martin.

Davies wrote the character to be a little more romantic (Actually buying Anne Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest, where originally Mr. Martin was supposed to forget to – something Emma uses as a mark against him to prove how he will age into an “gross vulgar old farmer” who is “obsessed with profit and loss”.)

I especially like an inserted scene where Mr. Martin, working in his field, sees a distressed Jane Fairfax from afar as she is walking home (I think from Donwell). I thought it drew an interesting parallel between two emotionally wronged characters that otherwise would have no interaction.

What’s with Mrs. Elton (Lucy Robinson)? I don’t think nearly enough people question this. I’ve seen it explained away as her being from Bristol and trying to make herself sound more hoity-toity to hide the fact that she’s New Money. I’m not positive on what a Bristol accent sounds like (For that is where Augusta Hawkins is from) but… this sounds like an American trying to sound posh. At some points she almost sounds Texan. It’s all very confusing, because the actress is British.  

Prunella Scales lists among her achievements being an outstanding actress and comedienne, as well as bringing into the world Samuel West, one of my all time favourite British screen crushes. She's probably best known for her work on Fawlty Towers, so its interesting to see her range as much less inscrutable Miss Bates. Her performance is by the book, but so much more engaging than Constance Chapman's 1972 offering, although i find her perhaps a shade too placid. She lacks a certain nervousness that I associate with the character (for more information, see my previous review.)

As for Bernard Hepton as Mr. Woodhouse, I can only say I. Didn’t. Like. Him. I have every consciousness of this being a personal bias. I have seen him play too many insufferable characters in too many things to like him as Emma’s lovable if tiresome father. This isn’t a knock on him or his performance; his reaction to Mrs. Elton is some great subtle visual comedy, this is just a me thing.

Another one of the better characterizations, though a relatively small role, is John Knightley. Played by Guy Henry, he is shown to be a good father, and an “Gentleman-like man”, with just the right blend of good humor and caustic comments.

Sets & Surroundings

I’d never paid MUCH attention to or questioned the houses and interiors used for estates in Austen adaptations until the 2020 version of Emma used such ridiculously lavish houses for relatively provincial gentry it forced me to sit up and pay attention. I think the houses used in this version are mostly suitable.

The part of Donwell Abbey’s exterior is played by Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire. The Key words for Donwell from the text are “rambling and irregular” and while perhaps not as big as the Former Claremont House (Which, it is believed, was Austen’s inspiration for Donwell Abbey) it definitely is a suitable architectural style and situation and furthermore, having been purchased in the 19th century by a glove manufacturer and having been up to that point left in a little bit of a state of disrepair, fits the “neglect of prospect” Austen describes as well. Its interiors are a cobble-work of the Great Hall at Broughton Castle (Oxfordshire), various rooms at Stanway House (Gloucestershire), and the Strawberry beds at Thame Park (Oxfordshire)

(Top, left – Sudeley Castle; Bottom left – Trafalgar Park; Right – Dorney Court)

Trafalgar Park in Wiltshire and its interiors (a minty sage-green drawing-room fitting in perfectly with the mint-chocolate – primarily chocolate – color palette of the production) played the role of the Woodhouse’s home, Hartfield. A typical Georgian style house in red brick, I believe is consistent with Austen’s description of a “well built, modern house”.

Dorney Court in Buckinghamshire was used for Randalls, Mr. Weston’s recently purchased estate. It’s a Tudor style red brick house and it looks pretty on the mark from the front facade, but I think it’s still too big for a “small estate” with only two guest rooms (Although there’s no panic about the snow in this version – perhaps because it’s already snowing when they set out.)

My biggest problem is the lighting of this movie. I understand natural lighting and I LOVE it when you can even it out – but it is so dark in the evening scenes that it adds to the colorlessness of an already colorless production.

Fashion

Oh Jenny Beavan. You are a well-respected costume designer with good reason. However, I know that most of these costumes are rentals, but why is every-fucking-thing in this movie a shade of brown, beige or green?

As you can see, a rich tapestry of brown and beige. And this isn’t selective. this is (just about) every day-wear outfit in the movie (barring repeats and a few exceptions that I’ll give mention to below.)

Emma’s outerwear is brought to you by Hershey’s Chocolate. Also I’m not certain but I think  that her light brown redingote is the same one as Elinor’s in the 1995 Sense and Sensibility? If anyone can confirm, drop it in the comments.

Perhaps the evening wear will be more colorful?

Barely – Mrs. Weston in a brownish orange; Mrs. John Knightley in an orange-ish brown; Emma gets a dark blue? Or is that just the wintery glow from the window on a dark green velvet? Green (either so dark it’s almost black, or washed-out mint) appears to be the only color Emma is allowed to wear other than brown or ivory/white. Even her gown for the Crown Inn Ball (upper right) is an underwhelming and rather dingy ivory. The champagne number she wears for Christmas at Randalls is not only lack-lustre, but also sports what I’m now calling a “Bridgerton Bust” (where the Empire waist comes up too high, with the seam apparently resting across her bust rather than under it.)

The pink frock (seen properly only from the back) on Mrs. Weston is as close to real color as a main character gets in this production, and can be recognized as one of Jane Bennet’s dresses from the previous year’s Pride and Prejudice.

Even Jane Fairfax doesn’t get a break. Rather than putting her in Jane Fairfax Blue ™ (honestly, Jane Fairfax being costumed in blue is so consistent at this point Crayola should just name a crayon in her honor - this is gonna come back in future reviews) she gets a black-green evening number with no trim at all, and a succession of what the Ladies over at Frock Flicks like to call the “Dumpy Regency Little White Dress”, or drab gray-blues.

Some of the background dancers in the Crown Inn Ball scene get to wear pink! Why not put Harriet in a nice pink frock for this scene?! Why is this so difficult?!

Strawberry picking at Donwell is the only time main characters are consistently wearing identifiable colors that aren’t brown or green: Mrs. Weston in pink, Miss Bates in (oddly the most colorful dress of them all) a nice refreshing lavender blue; Jane gets grey/blue and Mrs. Elton, a pastel mint. Harriet is also given a little break in Mrs. Elton’s introduction scene in a (very) pastel blue frock, while Emma sports white (with a trademark green shawl.)

So how about the...

Similarly dull. I almost screamed for joy when I saw that Frank’s jacket was actually blue, and a vibrant blue at that. (The red is too close to brown, I’m sorry.)

So yes, in short the costumes, while perfectly technically accurate (I didn’t get a lot of caps of them but the trousers sufficiently tight, not that I care to look), are drab as a peahen.

As always I’ll outsource any dancing critique by linking Tea With Cassiane on YouTube, since I find her insights on the approach to dancing in Austen adaptations just fascinating and I would like to share such witty and informed reviews.

The Andrew Davies of it All…

*Strong Opinions Ahead*

There are so many reasons why this adaptation isn’t for me. First of all the very idea of making Emma, one of Austen’s most socially complex works (certainly her most vivid) into a sparse 107 minutes is baffling to me. Perhaps I can understand if it’s a Theatrical release but this is a TV production. Why not at least make it a two part special?

And besides the issue that, in order to make this fit the time frame, the story is severely truncated, there’s… the Andrew Davies of it all.

I have some issues with Andrew Davies’ screenwriting for this adaptation particularly. A LOT of issues. Where does one start? I think Knightley is a good place.

It’s not just the casting I don’t like here; but it does say something to me that they chose Mark Strong for this role. It’s a casting decision I discovered with disbelief when I first saw clips from this version in a Period Drama men compilation video on YouTube. I mentioned above that I know Mark Strong as unpleasant characters with man-handling habits. That’s the kind of role Mark Strong is associated with because that’s just what he does well. And I think this played into the casting here, because Davies’ interpretation of Knightley is a bit… fierce. He shouts SO MUCH in this movie and in scenes like the Harriet Smith debacle (where Mr. Knightley of the book even gets a bit angry with Emma) I can understand this, perhaps. But in the book Mr. Knightley takes many pauses to collect and calm himself, because his goal is not to quarrel with Emma but to argue a point. 97 Knightley takes no such pauses and spends the whole scene in what some might call an escalating rage.

Knightley’s cheerful arrival to Hartfield to tell Emma that Robert Martin intended to propose to Harriet is cut out so we start right off with his indignant exclamation of “She refused him?!” and it’s all go from there. To make matters worse, Emma’s own arguments are crippled by Davies’ editing. Many of her more (what might even latterly be considered “feminist”) arguments are cut out. In fact once Knightley gets going, he juggernauts his way through all of his rebukes and speeches from the book, but Emma hardly gets a word in edgewise after arguing that Robert Martin is not Harriet’s equal. What Austen wrote as a heated debate is turned by Davies into a one-sided tirade. (By don’t take my word for it, watch the clip.)

The final cherry on top is having Emma, after Knightley leaves the room with the last word firmly in his grasp, childishly pout “You are wrong Mr. Knightley, and you will see you are wrong and then you will be sorry.” I half expected her to cross her arms and stomp her foot. Worth noting is the fact that Davies adds an additional “It was badly done. Emma,” in this scene where there was none in the book. Rather overkill to my mind. Is this his catchphrase?

At Box Hill, Davies has Knightley begin his climactic rebuke of Emma’s insulting behavior by grabbing her arm and hauling her aside, and concludes by leading her, still holding her arm, to the carriage. Well at least he doesn’t shout at her in this scene; but again, all but one of Emma’s responses are cut out and she stands there, pouting until Mr. Knightley leaves and then she bursts into tears.

When Mr. Knightly proposes to Emma I was feeling good about this scene, until he dropped the “I held you when you were three weeks old” line, and I immediately felt uncomfortable. Maybe you DON’T want mention how you held her when she was a baby after you asked her to MARRY you. But perhaps worse is Emma’s response to the line: “Do you like me as well now as you did then?”

Bringing up holding Emma when she was three weeks old at the proposal (A line which was not in the book) is bad enough but there seems to be a peculiar repeated emphasis on Knightley recalling Emma as a baby. He dragged it up previously when he and Emma make up after the Harriet debacle, as he holds John and Isabella’s baby daughter (whose name, I would mention, is Emma.) In this instance too, the line is a Davies addition.

Let’s talk about Knightley’s strawberry line.

This is delivered in voice-over as a transition to the strawberry picking party at Donwell, and is portrayed as a formal invitation: “Mr. Knightley invites you to taste his strawberries, which are ripening fast.”

At first I was confident that I was reading too much into this (but I think at this point I can safely say that I’m not). I can’t help bursting out laughing every time I hear that line. It was a questionable way to word that if you ask me, especially considering that this is (once again) NOT the line in the book, and it was NOT a formal invitation. It was said to Mrs. Elton and intended to be a joke.  

“You had better explore Donwell then,” replied Mr. Knightly “That may be done without horses. Come and eat the strawberries; they’re ripening fast.”

   ‘ If Mr. Knightly did not begin seriously, he was obliged to proceed so...’

   And here I thought Janeites hated adaptations that cut out “Miss Austen’s biting wit.”

To top it all off, we have Frank Churchill (Who I have already pointed out is a bit of a creep in this adaptation and even more detestable than he already was as Austen wrote him) praising Jane: this would be fine, if he wasn’t drooling into Emma’s ear about the turn of Jane’s throat, (He actually utters this line)

and how fine his dead aunt’s jewels will look against her skin. May I just be the first to say “Ehewhegaugh”.

I juxtapose this with the book where Frank's lines are almost exactly as Davies renders them, except Jane Austen never wrote the "have you ever seen such a skin?" Line. The difference i have highlighted in bold:

"... She is a complete angel. Look at her. Is she not an angel in every gesture? Observe the turn of her throat. Observe her eyes as she looks up at my father. --- You will be glad to hear that my uncle intends to give her all my aunt's jewels. They are to be new set. I am resolved to have some in an ornament for the head. Will it not be beautiful in her dark hair?"

Because talking about how pretty your fiancee's hair is, is normal and marginally less creepy than talking about what a fine skin she has or how lovely your (i cannot stress this part enough) dead aunt's jewels will look against it. Davies' script also makes no mention of having them reset, which makes me think he’s talking about the actual necklaces and bracelets Mrs. Churchill would have worn.

But hey, maybe its just a me thing.

Harriet Smith’s story suffers, primarily, I can with some candor admit, due to the time constraints. After Mr. Elton is married, we never see Harriet in any distress. It’s almost as though she’s forgotten all about it! Emma never has to appeal to her to exert herself or to move on. Perhaps this is better than Doran Godwin’s Emma gaslighting Harriet and manipulating her by constantly chastising her for… well general heartbreak (but that’s a bugaboo for a different review.)

My last complaint of note is that ludicrous harvest feast at the end of the movie. The whole concept of this scene just does not seem at all Janely to me. I was under the impression that I was meant to be watching an Austen. Not some bullshit Thomas Hardy knock-off. This is another Davies touch and I hate it more on the principal that it is one of his numerous, obsessive tweaks made solely to point out the existence of the lower classes.

If Davies wanted to show Mr. Knightley’s being an attentive landlord and gentleman farmer then I don’t see why he couldn’t just show Knightley actually running his farm?

“Okay’, you might say, “but I think the highlighting of the servants is to show how good Knightley is by treating them like real people compared to everyone else”, and I hear you. And in the situations where that is the case, like him greeting the Woodhouse’s butler and asking after his family I think that’s totally fine and in character. But things like the servants moving the knee cushions every time someone moves down the line at strawberry picking, to me, is AS ridiculous as the “servants clipping the lawn on their hands and knees with tiny scissors” trope. Like we get it, people took the lower classes for granted, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that it would be easier and more realistic to have Mrs. Elton have to move her own knee cushion. I don’t think Knightley would instruct his servants, who he treats so well, to do that kind of thing, but you could write in Mrs. Elton’s expectation of it if you wanted. It seems like the kind of thing she would expect the landed gentry to do.

Screenwriter for some of the best loved Austen’s (including the sacrosanct 1995 P&P Mini-series and my favorite Sense & Sensibility), I thought of Davies for years as untouchable; until Sanditon happened and left everyone who knows anything about Jane Austen really wondering where this mess came from. I put it to you now that it was there in Davies all along.

Davies admitted, when talking about the drastic “Sexing Up” he did in Sanditon that he felt Austen’s works could have done with a bit more sex appeal. I can hardly disagree and additions like Darcy’s little swim in the pond and Edward Ferrars’ angsty wood-chopping are welcome and beloved. But it seems that what he really wanted all along was what he gave us in Sanditon; and finally, without actual source material to stand in his way, he had a chance let his dirty old man show and gave “Austen” the sexing up he thought it needed.

And it gets more troubling as you look back.

In my opening paragraph to this review I mentioned a 2008 blog post that not only agreed with me that there’s something very off about this screenplay, but gave me some possible insights as to why. It points out numerous things that I have always questioned in this version but have never seen anyone else criticize (though I am informed that more recently it has gained its’ share of critics). In fact the post itself actually points out that almost no one in the Austen Blog-sphere had (at that point) criticized this version’s faults in any meaningful way, but my favorite thing about it is that it points out what you find in Davies’ screenplay if you pay careful attention to it “Rather than sitting there and cataloguing what is “technically faithful and whatnot”.

Many Austen bloggers have kind of been playing Miss Taylor to Davies’ Emma for some two decades and change.

The most troubling thing of all is Davies own comments on Mr. Knightley (and other things, more inferred in his screen play). All of the aspects of this interpretation of Knightley that I mentioned earlier seem to stem from the fact that, as quoted in Sarah Caldwell’s book on his works, Davies thinks there’s “Something odd going on with Knightley.”

Davies clearly reads foul, or at least questionable, intentions in Mr. Knightley but I find it interesting that, rather than cutting out material he may have found troubling about Knightley in the book out of his screenplay, he doubled down by adding MORE troubling lines and situations (that were never in the book at all, and imagined solely by himself) in a romantic story with a happy ending.

Perhaps there’s not so much something odd going on with Knightley, Mr. Davies, but with you.

Final Thoughts

At this point I might ask what it is that everyone sees in this version that makes them think it’s so perfect, but that would be a bit pointless since all I’ve read since I discovered this version is people on elaborating on just that and I don’t care to hear much more.

“The lines are verbatim!” textually, perhaps, but it’s the ones that added that trouble me.

“The leads have so much chemistry!” I’m glad you think so, but I can’t find it.

“The costumes are damn near perfect!” And brown. So, so very brown.

As a 90's TV period drama, this version is pretty standard. It sticks to the book (except in those places where the screenwriter saw fit to dabble with some subtle but troubling suggestions about the characters.) And if it floats your boat, as always I'm glad it gives you what you want from the story.

I know I hold unpopular opinions on Jane Austen adaptations, and perhaps this is one of them, but every time I watch this version I feel the need to read the book as a cleanse. Perhaps Davies’s ferocious Knightley was simply a pendulum swing reaction to Douglas McGrath’s almost too laid back interpretation in the Miramax film from earlier in 1996, but even if that’s the case it’s just uncalled for and is my biggest turn off for this film.

Tone: 3

Ribbon Rating: Badly Done! (40 Ribbons)

Casting: 5

Acting: 6

Scripting: 4

Pacing: 2

Cinematography: 4

Setting: 3

Costumes: 5

Music: 2

Book Accuracy: 6

[daresplaining]

Have you ever done a post regarding Elektra and all her love interests in the comics? I know it's done often with DD (and how he is quite the ladies man) but was wondering who she has been romantically involved with in the Marvel Universe.

    I haven’t, and I really should, so thank you for asking! This is one of those questions where the longer I thought about it, the more difficult it became to actually answer, and the reason is this: Elektra tends to be a sexualized character. She is frequently written as something of a femme fatale, and people are constantly lusting after her. This means that in some cases-- especially cases in which Elektra is not the narrator of the story-- it’s difficult to distinguish between Elektra partnering with someone who is attracted to her and Elektra actually being engaged in a romantic relationship. There is a ton of subtext involved in some of her interactions with people, and I will be the first to admit that I’m not the best at decoding romantic subtext. A great example is Agent Garrett from Elektra: Assassin (who I have not included on this list). We are in his head for most of the story, and he is going gaga over Elektra the entire time. On the page, it doesn’t look like she’s reciprocating, but Garrett imagines that she might be, and so you get into this situation where you start to think... maybe they’re being romantic off-panel. Maybe Elektra is actually into him. But since we’re not in her head, and because Garrett is an unreliable narrator, it’s very difficult to parse what is actually going on between them.  

    In any case, here is a list of people with whom I’m pretty confident Elektra has been romantically involved (in roughly chronological order). 

Matt Murdock 

[ID: Elektra and Matt seen from the shoulders up, kissing. Elektra has her arms around Matt’s neck.]

    Obviously, number one on the list is this guy, the college boyfriend, Elektra’s first love, the one that accidentally got her father killed which caused her to become so disillusioned with life that she dropped out of school and became a ninja assassin got away. Elektra is very much her own character and has been for a long time, but she will always-- to some degree-- be defined by her relationship with Matt. This is partly because Matt was a significant player in her origin story, but it’s also because their relationship embodied a happier time, and is something that Elektra has continued to cherish through all of the chaos that she has been through in the years since. Matt serves as a bit of an ideal for her; she will occasionally compare other men she meets to him-- particularly men who she is considering involving herself with. If you want to play Elektra bingo, “Thinks About Matt” should be the free space because it happens at least once per run.  

    I tend to think of Matt and Elektra’s relationship as one of a connection that transcends their actual interactions. Their lives are so intensely paralleled, and their college-era time together was so important to both of them, that they are always present in each other’s lives even when they aren’t physically together. Elektra will frequently show up when Matt needs help-- sometimes in person, sometimes psychically, sometimes just in his imagination. They have shared a lot of closeness and are very important to each other. But they haven’t actually spent that much time together. Elektra was interested in resuming a romantic relationship with Matt immediately after her resurrection, during Chichester’s Daredevil run, but Matt wasn’t in the right emotional place for it. They tried, briefly, to date during Elektra volume 1, but that fell apart right away. Now, in the current DD run, they have started up a relationship-- which is hugely significant after years and years of pining and angst and near-misses. I’m curious to see where this will take them moving forward.     

Tekagi

[ID: Two panels showing Elektra and a burly man embracing in a stream in the moonlight.]

Tekagi (caption): “My past with Elektra? Is that what really troubles you, Genkotsu? It was exotic and intense, yes... but it is also long over!”

    In Elektra: Root of Evil, we learn that during her time training with/infiltrating the Hand, a lonely Elektra had a passionate but brief relationship with one of her teachers, an ambitious (and ultimately bad news) Hand warrior named Tekagi. While they both end up with fond memories of their time together, they also both treat it as being very much in the past. When they meet again as enemies, years later, Elektra doesn’t suffer too much angst about killing him. 

Wolverine

[ID: Elektra and Wolverine, both in costume, are sitting together on a low wall with a Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters sign on the front. Wolverine looks sad; Elektra is embracing him from behind. They are surrounded by green trees.]

    When Logan has the Adamantium ripped out of him and the trauma causes him to revert to a feral, animalistic state, Stick sends Elektra to help him find his way back. This comes at a time when Elektra is also struggling to re-find herself after returning from the dead. Together, the two go on an emotional journey of self-discovery that turns them into very close friends. Since then, they have frequently stepped into each other’s lives for team-ups and to provide emotional support. I have to admit a little ignorance on this one. While Logan’s appearances in Elektra-focused comics appear platonic, I haven’t read many Wolverine comics, and I've gotten the sense through my general Marvel reading that there is a romantic element to Elektra and Logan’s relationship that I just haven’t come across yet, which is why he’s on this list. If any of my followers can clarify this one, please do!

McKinley “Mac” Stewart

[ID: Elektra (in a jacket) is leaning down toward Mac, a beefy guy with a mustache and a ponytail. Her hand is on the side of his face. The scene is tinted dark blue.]

Elektra: “Stop talking. The answer is yes, Matt.”

Mac: “You mean... Mac.”

Elektra: “That’s what I said.”

    Elektra’s first solo series takes place soon after her resurrection, and is centered around her attempts to put her life as an assassin behind her and start anew (spoiler: she fails spectacularly). One of her projects in this new life is a dojo that she founds and funds to give local kids a place to go to receive training and support. Elektra brings in two guys to help run the dojo: a martial artist named King Lau and a heavyweight boxer named Mac Stewart. Mac quickly develops an attraction toward Elektra, and while she at first hesitates to accept his advances for personal baggage-related reasons, she eventually ends up engaging in what seems to be a mostly physical relationship with him. However, this relationship doesn’t receive much development. Most of their interactions happen off-panel or in the background of the main plot, Elektra almost ditches him for Matt at one point, and when the series ends, Mac is in a coma thanks to an attack by the Hand and (to my knowledge) never appears again.       

Frank Castle

[ID: Elektra and Frank are sitting across from each other at a diner-style table, drinking out of the same cup with straws. They are pointing weapons (sai and gun) at each other under the table.]

    Elektra and Frank have tended to run in the same circles, kill the same types of people, etc. and through encountering each other and learning each other’s reputations, they end up developing a healthy admiration for each other. Frank asks Elektra to train him, in recognition of her superior skills. This blossoms into a romance that lasts throughout their time working together on the Thunderbolts team (she gives him the heart of a mobster she killed and he gets it bronzed... it's very sweet). They end up having a (verbal and physical) fight and breaking up at the end of the run, though they still seem to be on fairly good terms.

Stephen Strange 

[ID: Elektra and Doctor Strange, both in costume, are kissing in front of the big window in the Sanctum Sanctorum. A full moon is rising over the buildings behind them.]

    This is new! Elektra and Stephen are currently working together on Conan-related shenanigans in Savage Avengers, and a few issues ago they slept together. For the moment, they both seem to be treating it as a casual one-time thing, but time will tell if that remains true.   

[popculturebuffet]

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: The Last of the Clan McDuck!  Review “It Was Worth THE Dime”

This is one of my faviorite comic book stories of all time. Given i’m a massive comics nerd, for both books and strips, that is the highest praise I can give this wonderful, epic, beautifully drawn and deeply emotoinal story. I first discovered it in the local library that had the second volume, and found the rest online at a now long dead fan site. And while it took me longer than I care to admit to really dig into Duck Comics, and even now i’ve only scratched the surface, I can say without a doubt this story is the reason I’m so deeply attached to Scrooge as a character, and that I was excited as  I was for Ducktales 2017. This comic showed me just what Scrooge McDuck should be at his core as a character, and showed me what a wonderful character that is. So with all that glowing praise as you can guess i’ve been wanting to cover this for years, and even considered though back when I was more primarily a comic book reviewer last year. Any time i’ve reviewed stuff before now, i’ve considered it, and with Scrooge’s Sisters Hortense and Matilda presumably and definitely debuting on Ducktales soon, and it’s about damn time, the timing could not be better or clearer to dig into this utter triumph.  But before we can take a look at the story itself we naturally have to take a look at the man behind it: Writer and Artist Don Rosa. Don Rosa is easily one of the best Duck Comics writer out there, seen by many as only second to his own faviorite duck comics writer and God of Ducks, Carl Barks. For those 1 of you who do not know, Barks was the man who created pretty much everything in the duck universe comics wise and a bit in animation too: He created Daisy, Scrooge, Gladstone, Magica, The Beagle Boys, The Junior Woodchucks, Gyro, Little Bulb, Glomgold, Rockerduck, and the list goes on. While he didn’t make EVERY duck, he made so many that it’d be impossible to imagine either version of Ducktales being possible without him.  So of course Rosa was a fan and while he took up the family buisness, he was also an artist and duck comics fanboy on the side. So when, even if it meant a paycut, the opportunity to actually write and draw them came up, he lept at it and thus became one of their publishers go to guys, even if said publisher published the stories overseas where the Duck Comics are far more popular and still going to this day, and ironically where most duck comics printed nowadays get their stories from. Rosa was known for his meticous historical research and gorgeous art that he took his time drawing to get just perfect and showed on the page. The man has easily some of hte best and most detailed duck art around and I still haven’t found a duck artist that can match him.. and if you have or found one close i’d genuinely love to see that. He is a genuinely talented, spirited guy who was sadly mistreated by disney and that, coupled with tragically failing eyesight, eventually ended his career. He’s still around and I genuinely hope to meet him some day as he still does conventions.  The man is not without fault: I don’t get his hatred of superhero comics, as while I get them overshadowing funnybooks and that around the time of his career they were in decline, but it’s just as unfair to write off Superhero comics as mindless.  garbage as it is for people to write off the Duck Comics as “only for kids” and I genuinely wish he’d see that and see how the medium has evolved so much since then. I also grumble a bit as his refusal to allow anything besides barks into his bubble, and having to be forced to include fethry on the family tree, but that’s more personal preference. I like using as much material as you got. IT’s why i’ve wanted to, and hopefully will eventually get around to, write a sonic fanfic using bits of all the various universes that for legal, ken penders being an absolute waste of a human being, and sega being stupid reasons can’t be used anymore. I like taking everything in a franchise and putting it in a blender and it’s why I love the reboot. But there’s nothing wrong with taking things as is, not stepping on toes canon wise, but still being awesome. We’re just diffrent people and that’s okay.  And a lot of his fanboy showing actually lead to REALLY good things: Goldie O’Gilt was a one off character, and while used ocasoinally overseas, didn’t really pick up as a character again until a combination of Ducktales 87 and Rosa’s work with her, as he always loved the character, and fleshing her out lead to her being used more, and gaining a sizeable fandom. He also gained the Cablleros an even bigger fandom by giving them two stories of their own, and fleshing them out a bit more.  And this very comic is the peak of that, taking EVERY mention of scrooge’s past from various backstories to set up adventures, every tiny scrap, and to his credit going to both Barks Himself and various other Barks Experts Rosa was friends with to check his work, especially difficult given he likey had to find these stories in issue or pullt hem from disney archives, and complied it into one long epic that not only uses all this info effortlessly, but spins a compelling story that gives us a clear vision of what Scrooge should be, how he became the man he is, and how he lost himself only to find himself again with the help of three precocious boys and a cynical 30 something duck. So taint all bad is what i’m saying.  As for how this got started, thankfully rosa himself provided the origin story for this project in the back of the volume of his works that contained the first 7 chapters of life and times, as well as detailed notes for every chapter. At the time Rosa was working for Egmont, the big european publisher who handles Disney’s much larger european comics market, hence why most of his stories appeared years earlier in Europe before debuting here. The american publisher at the time , and an old friend of his, called Rosa with an idea: A 12 issue Maxi-Series focusing on Scrooge’s history, since at the time they were all the rage.. and really even today mini series are still a viable market and many indie titles just have several minis instead of an ongoing. So it wasn’t a bad idea, Rosa just simply offered a tweak: He’d tell his publisher at Egmont about the idea, and let her get a crack team of writers and artists to do this proper, and thus Disney could publish it for free once it was done and for no extra cost. Rosa gave his publisher a fax detaling both the idea and the fact that it needed to be done right, given to the best person possible, and done with the greatest care. She agreed.. and naturally handed it to him, as he admits he hoped. She made the right call, a legend was born and here we are.  One last bit before the read more and before I get to the first story itself at last: Since barks wrote a lot of side stories that fit into the canon, I COULD slot them in between chapters, but have instead chosen to review the original 12 part story as was, and do the various side stories and two epilogues, the utterly fantastic “Dream of a Life Time”, easiliy one of my faviorite comics ever, and the also really great “Letter From Home”, which will likely on some level be the basis for the upcoming at the time of this review “Battle for Castle McDuck!”, after completing the story. In other words i’m probably going to be at this for years. so join me under the read more won’t you as I begin the journey of a thousand miles with a single step as we look at the humble start of a legend. 

We begin, after a fun short teaser with present Day scrooge saying his past is no one’s buisness only to get hit with an oh yeah?,  with a scrap book title for the issue, something I want to bring up since while I got that’s what it was what I never got, and  must’ve glanced over when I first read rosa’s notes when I got this copy, was that it isn’t SCROOGE’S scrap book, but his sister Matilda’s who dutifully and happily catologued her brother’s adventures. It’s a really sweet moment.. and something that will hit VERY hard when we reach Chapter 11. If you haven’t read this story or heard of it.. .that’s this story’s equilvent of “Last Crash of the Sunchaser” and clearly Frank and Matt drew from that story a bit for it, but we can get more into the parallels when we get there. A smaller but fun note is that Rosa had specific coin drawing templates, for different indentions and what not he used, and used them for the coins in these intro bits. Yes he admitted he has a problem and yes that’s damn impressive anyway. 

It’s Scrooge’s 10th birthday, and his father Fergus has taken him up to see the family land, Dismal Downs to tell him of the mighty Clan McDuck and show him the ancestral lands, graveyards and Castle. He admits to having taken this long because the Clan McDuck currently lives in Glasgow so it’s kind of a long trip just to show your son “Hey look at the decay and rot that’s our ancestral homeland”. The Clan is on hard times, as a bad shipping deal, the backbone of a rather good barks story and I wont’ be interjecting for every barks reference as it’d get rather tiring though for what it’s worth Rosa provided tons of detailed footnotes in the back of each Fantagraphics collection, so good on him. Speaking of which though they do include 10 pages of Mc Duck family history that was supposed to open this story.. until Rosa’s editor wisely pointed out the story isn’t about them but scrooge and having read his roug draft, yeah.. there’s a good gag here and there, as well as “Dirty” Dingus McDuck, scrooge’s Grandpa and the reason Dewey is cursed with that middle name. Why anyone thought Dingus was a good name is beyond me, nor why Donald thought that was a good middle name back in 2009 is again, beyond me. Good on Don though for getting that past the censors.  But yeah with no money they can’t buy the land back and they were scared off it years ago by a mystical ghost dog, the hound of the whiskervilles. There is treasure in the castle, Sir Quackly’s gold, but he accidently sealed himself into a wall while sealing his treasure in there. Their interrupted by the town assholes, the Whiskervilles who have been grazing sheep on the land and are naturally behind the hound, using the sound of it to scare off Fergus once they realize he’s a McDuck. Because apparently you can keep a Scooby Doo style hoax up for Centuries if you don’t have meddling kids around. Who knew.  Back in Glasgow, we meet the rest of Scrooge’s family: His Uncle Jake, his sisters Matilda and Hortense, and his mother Downy. Jake hasn’t really been mentioned at all in Ducktales and I know next to nothing about him, which given I share a name with the guy you’d THINK I would. I mean I know a decent amount about this Jake. 

But nothing about who the hell Jake McDuck is or why he lives with his brother and his family. Here, you guys watch the dancing Jake, i’m going to probably do that for hours after this review is done, i’m going to go sort this out.  Okay one google and finding the Scrooge Mcduck wiki page on him, Jake shows up here likely because he was referenced in the story “A Christmas For Shacktown” and apparently borrowed from Scrooge and never paid it back. Otherwise.. there’s not a lot about him and unlike the rest of Scrooge’s family he really dosen’t do much that I can remember. Except like 2017 Scrooge, he apparently has become extremely long lived, as Scrooge and Donald STILL think he’s alive in the 1950′s.. and likely is STILL alive in some form in the Don Rosa stories, given his take place after Barks and thus in the 40′s and 50′s where Barks stories were set. Hence why unlike the Reboot, Scrooge isn’t inexpecilbly over 210. But Jake McDuck sure as heck is. Maybe this highlander is a highlander.. you know the movie and tv show type. Maybe someone cut off his head. That’s what i’m going with.

This does bring me to another point about this story: While Barks gave all of scrooge’s family their names, it’s where Rosa got them after all, it’s Rosa who really made them into characters. Fergus as a loving father ashamed his family legacy has fallen and wanting his son to do better than him, Downy as an equally loving wife and mother, Matilda as his sweet and caring sister and later her brother’s moral center, and Hortense.. well here she’s just a babbling baby but her character will become clear and glorious as we go. She is adorable here though and we do get some great bits with her.  Getting back to the plot now i’ve made my points, Jake is riled up wanting to understandably kick the Whiskerville’s asses with Scrooge, who even as a sweet innocent ten year old still has the family temper already, agreeing.. but Downy gently shoots them out pointing that two middle aged-ish men and a 10-year old just aren’t enough to fight an army of them and while she doesn’t mention it the fight would just tire them out for work and accomplish nothing as while it is the McDuck’s land the combination of the hound and the lack of money to move back means it’s pointless. She also mentions their younger brother Pothole, who went to America. This will be important later. 

Scrooge storms off and Fergus laments, in a scene that’s more painful the more I think about it, how his clan has fallen, with he and his brother lamenting their chances at glory are long gone.. but Fergus has hope his son can do better, and for his son’s birthday makes him a shoeshine kit in the hopes of inspiring him to greatness. This scene still resonates since many of us are poor, struggling and not doing so good money wise. I’m sure many parents have doubts and regrets about not being able to do more for their kid.

 Not only that but the story carefully avoids the trap of Fergus accidently being abusive by you know, pinning his family’s future on one 10 year old. While yes he is asking a lot of Scrooge, to restore their family name.. it’s very clear he mostly just wants his son to do better than him. Even if Scrooge was just slightly more successful, Fergus would likely be happy with that. He’s not using the legacy as a “This what you must be” like say the Gems in steven universe did for Steven with Rose’s Legacy, the kind where it sort of suffocates you till youc an make it your own. He’s just saying “this is what you can be” He believes his child can be great and simply once him to reach his full potetial and is simply giving him a means to hopefully do so, a simple home made shoe shine kit. While Jake scoffs, the narration notes the idea isn’t worth a dime.. it’s worth THE dime. The dime that would set Scrooge’s destiny in motion. 

The next morning, Fergus goes to check up on his son and his new buisness but Scroogey’s having no luck and about ready to just quit, the poor child. Also Matilda is dragging her baby sister around like a doll and it’s entirely precious as it is funny. 

But as for those Dorty Boots, Matilda wonders why her dad dosen’t just tell Scrooge that Burt the Ditch Digger is coming. Fergus tells her to quite and then explains his plan: he’s sending Burt to scrooge, with an American dime Fergus and Matilda found, to teach his son a lesson: By giving him a hard days work, he’ll teach him what hard work truly means.. and by having Burt “cheat” him with the American dime, it’ll give him the motivation to keep going and to nto be as wide eyed and trusting. It’s a well meaning if harsh lesson, and the kind you’d expect from 1900′s parenting and fits the origin well: Scrooge still earned his first money square, as he still did work.. but his getting cheated being a lesson dosen’t diminish what it taught scrooge, and helps flesh out what I talked about above, Fergus knowing his son has great potential he just needs inspiration to reach it. And instead of just telling him that he does a con job but it’s the 1900′s. This orign, and Fergus’ part in it would be entirely untouched in Ducktales 2017, the first scrooge based adaptation since this comic came out, and I bless them for it. Frank even said this comic was used as a bible by the writers and while theirs clear deviations, and we’ll get to that, they were mainly done for good reason, and it’s very clear that while scrooge’s history is very VERY diffrent in the reboot, the core of his past is still there. 

So the plan is on and young scrooge spends half an hour killing himself to get Burt’s shoes clean before getting his dime.. and realizing he’s been had, makes this proud decleration that will be the bedrock of his entire life and character. 

Scrooge being naturally stubborn as you can see takes his cheats a leson: There will always be hard honest work, and he will be there to do it and he’ll be tougher and sharper than anyone trying to cheat him out of his pay. Fergus’ plan has the intended effect, and Scrooge having learned a hard lesson now has the drive and determination we know him for. As for why it gives it to him.. I had to think on it a bit but it makes sense: For some a setback like this would make them quit.. for Scrooge it’s just proof he CAN find customers, he CAN do this job, or any at his hardest and instead takes this as a lesson to be prepared ot out think and outfight anyone who dares cheat him again, and to not earn his money by being the kind of guy who cheats a kid out of an honest days pay, but as a good honest duck like his father and his father before him. =He will make his money square so he can be the kind of person this seeming stranger SHOULD have been. Granted we’ll see Scrooge doesn’t end up as the best person at times but .. we’ll get there.  So with the fire inside turned from a spark into the flame Scrooge soon got to work, and by the next panel we see he’s eventually worked his stand up from a small box given to him by his dad, to a three seater shoeshining bench, who he wipes all at once by stretching one of his mother’s girldes over a light pole, a detail I didn’t get the first time around but now love. Naturally being a good kind boy much like his Nephews, Scrooge always gave his proud father a portion of his earnings, if with a full receipt for tax purposes. Because he’s still scrooge after all. His dad wonders he did too good a job while Hortense glxbit’s in agreement. 

As the years go on, a now tween Scrooge is eventually able to save up for a horse cart, and starts selling Fire Wood up in the city. He eventually realizes Peat, an earthy subtance found in bogs I only know about because I had to look it up for this review, is more profitable and with some snappy marketing moves into selling Peat for the rich instead, also showing the young lad already has a grasp of how to sell to obnoxious rich people. 

But while his business is booming, our young hero can’t resist visiting his family’s ancestral home and longing for it, hoping one day to have it for himself and in a nice show of how despite his temper and tenacity forged over the last few years he’s still at hear the kind, sweet optimistic lad he was just a few pages ago, he decides to tidy up the Clan’s Cemetary while he’s here. 

Unfortunately as proof that Donald and Della’s terrible luck comes from both sides of the family the Whiskervilles are sub-glomgold levels of human beings.. or Dogfaces in this case, and are digging up the McDuck Clan’s graves to hunt for treasure. Scrooge tries to simply do the smart thing and flee, but the asshole brigade catch sight of him and mistkaing him for a peat burgalar chase after him.. and spend WAY too much time and energy chasing a teenage boy over some fucking bog grass you clearly aren’t selling yourselves. I mean spare a thought for how dumb this is: They could easily sell of of that peat to put up a fence or chop down some trees to get the material if their really that concerned about someone getting in the bog. Then again this isn the 1800 and 1900′s where the child death toll was simply “Yes”, so they likely thought whose gonna notice one more dead child on our property?

Scrooge heads toward the castle and is gestured in by a friendly mystery duck who gladly shows him around and can tell he’s a McDuck just by look, showing the castle is still in glorious condition as the whiskervilles are too spooked to go in, hence why they didn’t chase Scrooge inside. I’d say being afraid of ghosts but not murdering a child is weird but these are the same guys who thought murdering a child was plan A. We’re not dealing with a brain trust is what i’m saying.  So the mystery duck shows Scroogey around, showing off some colorful stories about his ancestors recycled from that scrapped prologue I mentioned. THe mystery man, who brushes off Scrooge thinking he’s a McDuck asks Scrooge what he’s doing to restore the family glory and while Scrooge points out he’s already working on it, Mystery Duck points out he’s still missing something: He has the drive and the dream, but peat and shoeshining, while getting him good money for his family, aren’t the thing you can build a fortune or a future off of. He then points out where Scrooge’s dime comes from: America.. and that gives the boy the idea to head to the states. As for what he could possibly DO there to start, the mystery guy mentions his uncle pothole. So Scrooge has the dream, the drive.. and now a plan: Go to america, work for his uncle on the riverboats, and work his way up from there till he finds his fortune and restores his family name.  But while his future is settled, the present is still an issue and Scrooge wants to teach the child murder club a lesson and thus borrows, though MM wisely points out it’s all his property a horse and some armor, and stuffs the armor with peat. As for what his plan is.. welllll

That.. is fucking awesome. And far from the last fucking awesome moment in this thing. It also shows off even as not quite a teen yet, Scrooge is still a badass already, and while he doesn’t have his trademark strength or fighting skills quite yet, his ingenuity is already there.. and that will always trump both. The Whiskervilles run away and into some quicksand and Scrooge vows to return one day as laird and reclaim his family land. But that’s a story for a few chapters down the line. As for who the mystery duck is, he’s naturally Sir Quackely himself, or rather his ghost, who was simply guiding Scrooge and didn’t give him the treasure as simply handing him the money wouldnn’t restore their family’s good name or continue their bloodline now would it? 

For now Scrooge returns to work for a bit before finding his way to America: A cattleboat to New Orleans looking for a Cabin Boy. And so Scrooge bids farewell to his family. His Dad, feeling bad he can’t even give his boy shilling, gives him the family pocketwatch with jake pitching in with the family gold dentures. While Scrooge naturally refuses to sell the watch, he does plan to sell the teeth as soon as possible for good reason. We then get some sweet goodbyes with him, his sisters (With hortense uttering her first words to everyone’s astonishment) and loving mother as he wonders just what awaits him in America. 

And there he stands on the bow of a ship, heading for a new land, in New Orleans he can be a new man. And we’ll see just what kind of man he becomes as this series continues. For now this is the end of a chapter but the beginning of a lifetime. 

Final Thoughts on Last of the Clan McDuck:

This story is excellent. While there are even better chapters to come, this one is still one of the most memorable and most joyous, showing just how Scrooge became what he is, where some of his values come from, others will be instilled along the way , and beginning to flesh out his family. We see Scrooge’s love of wealth comes from starting from the bottom, growing up with a family that barely had anything and badly needed everything, but was loving and instilled fine morals in him. We also see a Scrooge far removed from the bitter old man he is in present day, an optimistic naïve young lad who only wants best for his family. It’s a nice stark contrast to who he’ll become, good and bad, and a nice way to both compare him to Huey Dewey and Louie and break your heart as his own hardens before briefly turning black later on.  The art, as is standard for this series and Rosa, is breathtaking, and the story isn’t lacking in good jokes, their just downplayed so the story itself can take center stage. There’s nothing really more to say: it’s an excellent start to an even more excellent tale and stands proud among an already stellar story as one of it’s finest outings. 

NEXT RAINBOW: Scrooge goes down to the mighty Missipi to work on the riverboats and meets one of his signature Rogue’s for the first time in their first form, as well as Gyro’s dad.. or grandpa.. or possibly both I don’t know his family tree. Point is, tune in next time for some riverboat hyjinks.  Until then if you’d like to comission an episode of any animated show, especially ducktales and the various other duck related disney shows, or another Duck Comics story you really like from Rosa, Barks or whoever you want really, I take commissions for 5 dollars a review, with 5 dollars off your full order when you put in for more than one episode or issue. You can also follow me on patreon.com/popculturebuffet and for just two bucks a month get access to polls (which i’ll start once we have at least three patreons), and my exclusive discord server. And if you liked this review be sure to reblog it to show off. My self promotion done until next time: There’s always another rainbow. 

[littlemisssquiggles]

Do you think ,oscar wilde ok fine nal get an episode to him self in v8 caz I love to see him m out for ng something by him self in maybe episode 1 or 2 than meet back up with the other ,we never get to see Oscar do anything it's really starting to up set me

“…Do you think Oscar Pine will finally get an episode to himself for V8?”

 …Uhmm…well given the sneak peek footage that was shown prior to the trailer and given the fact that we know that Oscar will meet up with Ren, Yang and Jaune down in Mantle, my assumption is we probably might only see Oscar on his own briefly during the start of the first episode before he reunites with his peers. That’s my best guess here.

“…We never get to see Oscar do anything. It’s really starting to upset me…”

…Well……I can’t really say that Oscar doesn’t get to do much, anon-chan.  

Personally I was hoping that us Pineheads would’ve gotten to see Oscar go on his own journey back to Atlas, during which he and Oz reconcile and learn to live in harmony with one another before reuniting with the others. Unfortunately, the CRWBY Writers felt it best to have Oscar reunite the others immediately despite where last volume left him off out in far Mantle without the slightest clue where he was or where the others will be for that matter.

…Look, I’m going to be frank with you here anon-chan. This squiggle meister can’t really speak for the CRWBY Writers and their writing decisions regarding particular characters. I don’t wish to knock you for your own issues with the show in respect to Oscar’s treatment. I don’t want to sound like one of those RWBY fans who like to kiss up to the CRWBY Writers and think that everything they do is absolutely perfect while ignoring the legit glaring issues with the writing of the show and roping anyone who says anything negative about the series in with the HTDM; even if it’s constructive.

Despite having my own grievances with the writing of RWBY, I will give the writers credit where it’s due. While I haven’t enjoyed everything they’ve done with Oscar over the course of the show, I will admit that they have done things with him. Some actually really good. Like for example, I still hold the Dojo scene from V5 as one of my favourite Oscar-worthy moments since, apart from helping Ruby to confess her true feelings regarding her repressed pains from the Fall of Beacon, that scene also did a lot to reveal more about Oscar as a person, at least for me.

Like I said, Oscar does get to do some things but… only things that I realized either services the PLOT and/or the development of other characters while his own growth is quite sparing ^^);

Needless to say, all I can do as fan of Oscar Pine is hope that the story uses him less as a plot device and do more to develop him as a character; particularly his supposed shared story with Oz.

Oscar represents one half of the Man with Two Souls archetype. Based on what we learnt in the Lost Fable, part of Oscar’s development is supposed to be him learning to coexist with Oz as a part of him since it will help in the ole soul’s transition to merging with Oscar completely in the end.

However, the show hasn’t done much to really develop Oscar and Oz’s relationship with each other. As a matter of fact, Oz was absent for nearly two whole volumes, during which we barely heard Oscar even mention Oz unless encouraged by another character who was closest to Oz before; like Ironwood.

I was honestly hoping that V8 would’ve involved Oscar bonding with Oz during their separation from the team. It really would’ve been the best time for the two souls to truly connect with one another while allowing the audience to see the development of this relationship. I don’t know how much of Oscar reconciling with Oz we’ll get to see next season if he re-joins the group so soon. However, I’m willing to give the Writers a shot at seeing what they actually do with Oscar for next season before giving my opinions on his development.

One thing I’m actually hoping for is that Salem will be successful in taking Oscar prisoner leading to the poor little prince being locked away inside his own lonely tower similar to how Salem was in First Remnant. I really like this concept since, as I said, the solitude would definitely provide a great avenue to bond Oscar to Oz as all they would have is each other while in captivity.

Seeing that the V8 Trailer teased Oscar becoming a target for Salem, I want Salem to succeed and for V8 to conclude with Oscar becoming Salem’s prisoner while our heroes are left to lick their wounds from a humiliating defeat that costed them the life of one of their comrades.

In the Wizard of Oz story, Dorothy Gale was captured and taken to the Wicked Witch’s Castle by her flying monkeys. During her imprisonment, Dorothy Gale was made into an unwilling slave to the Wicked Witch of the West while she plotted to steal her ruby/silver slippers.

Since it has been said before that Oscar bares inspiration from Dorothy Gale of Oz as well as Princess Ozma (who also had a book where she was captured leading to Dorothy leading the charge to rescue her), I’m hoping this is paralleled in RWBY. As strange as this may sound, this squiggle meister WANTS Oscar to become Salem’s prisoner. I WANT our heroes to lose Oscar to Salem. Perhaps then Oscar will finally get to grow from his experience as Salem’s slave. 

This is yet another opportunity for the CRWBY Writers to develop Oscar; both as his own character and as the successor to Ozpin in the Ozma Lineage. Whether or not they will actually do it this time, I don’t know. Not going to lie to you anon-chan. As a fellow Pinehead, I’m also getting fed up of the Writers setting up chances for Oscar to receive great character development only to do absolutely nothing with it.

V8 will mark the fifth season where Oscar has been in the series as part of the main cast. And it honestly hurts my heart as a fan of his character when other RWBY fans still comment that Oscar isn’t really a character after all these seasons based on how the showrunners continue to treat him and his writing.

What’s even sadder is that Oscar isn’t even the only RWBY character who suffers from their writing! I would go as far as to say that our four main girls---Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang also suffered their own fair share of shortcomings when it came down to how the CRWBY Writers progressed their respective storylines and developments. Yet they’re still considered to be ‘characters’ compared to Oscar.

Basically what I’m trying to say here bottom-line anon-chan is that I feel your pain on wanting the show to do more for Oscar. But as of now, we can’t really know what’s in store for sure. All we can do is wait and hope that the show does better for our boy. While I doubt Oscar will get his own focus episode (since the showrunners don’t really like to give those out), what we can at least hope for is that Oscar has more great Oscar-worthy moments next season.

Since Ozpin is back and there is still tension between him and the group, I’m hoping this will be Oscar’s chance to step up and be the mediator within his team. I want to see Oscar mend the broken bonds within the heroes. Since he showed a willingness to do so last season I hope to see more of that next season; hopefully.

I’m also hoping that since the show highlighted Oscar using magic at the end of V7, this means we’ll FINALLY get to see Oscar in a real fight where he gets to showcase everything he’s learnt over the seasons in respect to combat. He might even get his own battle team finally.

A part of me is eager to see if that scene where Oscar is taken by a Grimm leads into him making a daring escape and then defeating the Grimm on his own with his newly awakened powers.

That’s what I want to see. But who knows? We’ll see how things go when V8 drops next month.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[general-klumpp]

THEORY: DuckTales S3 is about bringing the McDuck FAMILY together. LITERALLY.

Greetings, fellow DuckTales fans! Very pleased to make my first theory out in the digital world, with my own illustrations to support it!

MAJOR/POTENTIAL SPOILERS

Part 1: Brothers and Sisters

According to Frank Angones, one of the main directions Season 3 is heading to is challenging ‘Clan McDuck’ to its core. We already know that includes the triplets, Webby, Scrooge, Donald, the manor staff, Lena, Violet, Gladstone...

With that said, what if a plotline surfaces, in which we learn about bringing the actual McDuck family together...?

A thought occurred to me the other day, that due to the challenging circumstances, the triplets are eventually going to estrange each other. How do I know? 

1. Huey will go through absolute hell this season. It is heavily implied that he will start investigating F.O.W.L with no-one in his family believing him - including his brothers.

2. Disney has accidentally leaked footage of a Halloween special, in which Louie dresses up as his weird red hat brother. Assuming that the next episode is about Team Magic, it could be because Huey’s investigations are creeping Louie out, thus the green triplet dressing up as Huey.

3. The last episode so far involves the triplets supporting each other. They seemed too ‘on good terms’ with each other, if you know what I mean. More about that later.

Now I don’t know exactly when we will learn about Scrooge’s relationship with his sisters...but to make things parallel and poetic, I believe we will find out once it seems that the triplets will split up. FOR GOOD.

According to numerous Duck stories, Scrooge spent a lot of his life away from his sisters, the latter seldom having coverage. From what I’ve seen so far, I believe that the team will use Rosa’s A Letter from Home, as a stimulus toward their fates: Hortense MAY have died a long time ago with her husband (hence Donald and Della being raised by their uncle), whereas Matilda is still out there, somewhere. 

These are not 100% my ideas, but I’d love to imagine Hortense having a love for discipline and splendour more than Scrooge (Team Guile), whereas Matilda could have a passion for science, thus her probable love for Ludwig Von Drake (Team Science). Any information about whether or not Matilda is married to Von Drake is currently confidential, but I believe that marriage was his big mistake - making Scrooge’s sister an easy target for F.O.W.L, and that the two are hiding. OR MAYBE MATILDA WAS THE TRAITOR THAT WAS MENTIONED ON WEBBY’S BOARD THE ENTIRE. TIME. Could make sense, acknowledging they toned down Scrooge’s love for money. 

I don’t have a clear scenario about how this would play out, but I believe that the episode regarding this would start as a hasty attempt from Scrooge to bring the triplets back together with another visit to Castle McDuck. Scrooge’s parents would then tell the triplets about his relationship with his sisters, which Scrooge may or may not expect at all. Other than that, I don’t have much, but we may find Matilda using the opportunity to take care of her parents as a way to hide from F.O.W.L. or in the slim chance of Hortense still being alive, the triplets attempting to bring Scrooge and his siblings together and make up.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING MAY BE A HUGE STRETCH

According to Frank, every member of Clan McDuck will have a counterpart working for F.O.W.L. I’d imagine that in this canon, Scrooge and his siblings are three aging birds wearing slightly different eyewear. Who else are three aging birds wearing slightly different eyewear?

If that is true, and if each sibling is alive, then whatever Bradford’s brothers were to him could be what Scrooge’s sisters are to the richest duck in the world himself. Perhaps once Scrooge reunites with his sisters, the other Buzzards may start a rocky path with Bradford.

Part 2: NO SECRET - This part of the theory is leaning towards what I want to be true...cheeky me!

“I’m your grandmother, dear. I have no more secrets from you from here on out.”

I believe that in the beginning of the season, positive aspects between characters such as the triplets, Donald and Della, etc. will be explored - and then what? 

Apart from Huey, it is obvious that Beakley and Webby are going to have the big oof this season. And as part of F.O.W.L’s motive, they could split the two apart. How? With the help of a familiar face. Webby’s mother. Bentina Beakley’s daughter - Bianca, also known as Darkwing Duck’s Bugmaster. I REALLY WANT THIS TO BE TRUE. They could take the most interesting route by making Bugmaster an agent/journalist of F.O.W.L. But...why?

PIC UNRELATED

I’d imagine the beginning of this story as Webby crossing the boundaries of her grandmother, and cue an entire ‘The Reason You Suck Speech’ from Webby to Beakley, about how Beakley’s strict parenting affected her life. Webby could then storm off and find someone else to latch onto - like her mother... 

It could make sense, because Webby is always curious about information, and has a camera of her own...that kind of stuff seems kinda fitting for a job in the news industry, as Bianca’s job in DW was a news reporter for St. Canard. On the other hand, Bianca could be the exact antithesis of what Beakley wants her daughter to be. Unlike Webby, I’d imagine a younger Beakley being more laid back/absent with Bianca, and so that could have angered her a lot - probably even more with Webby in the picture, kinda like Eleanor Shellstrop from The Good Place. As a result, Bianca could have grown dishonest and rebellious, joining F.O.W.L to take revenge on her own mother, becoming Agent Bugmaster.

One potential scenario in mind of a battle between Agent 22 and Bugmaster - probably too dark and edgy, is that upon Bugmaster’s defeat/death - she tells her mother to take care of Webby, as if having a second chance to raise her Bianca. Cue big Beakley-Webby hug. Ow.

Part 3: The Rest

I have plenty of other ideas in which the relationships within the McDuck clan and friends may fall apart 

- Scrooge may be framed as working for F.O.W.L.

- Donald and Della may fall apart due to the shocking revelation that Donald and Scrooge hated each other for 10 years, or Daisy.

- Donald, Della and Scrooge may fall apart because of a potential lie from Scrooge about the fates of Hortense and Quackmore.

- Launchpad may be isolated from the McDuck family due to his insecurities.

- B.O.Y.D. may be a hacking target by Gandra Dee.

- Webby’s hypothetical growing distrust in the world may cause her to grow distant from her grandmother, and two best friends.

- Changing dynamics between Gyro and Fenton. What if Gyro finds out about Gandra and loses trust in Fenton knowing that the two are in a relationship? 

- A few members losing trust in Fethry letting some dumb secret slip.

TLDR: 

Part 1: Scrooge’s sisters may be revealed once HDL falls apart, Matilda McDuck and Ludwig Von Drake are alive and hiding

Part 2: Webby has Granny issues, Webby’s mom is The Bugmaster from Darkwing Duck

Part 3 and OVERALL: F.O.W.L is trying to split Clan McDuck, and it is up to the individuals to bring the family together!

...and that’s it! Thank you for reading this large ambitious theory! mcautismo signing out! peace

[cryptid-killjoy]

The Other Side - A Review

The Other Side. Hell. The Upside Down. Pandemonium. Limbo. The Veil. Purgatory. The Void. The Abyss. The Dead Zone. Dante’s Inferno. Heaven.

Death. 

Delta had decided all the signs, names, and labels were all bullshit.  In the end no matter which locale whether in terrain or state of mind death was all the same place to her. It was the place the dead were alive. It was her new life. But, she didn’t see it as her after life. She saw it as her life, period. This was simply her life now. The earth was like some foreign land she didn’t care to visit like Idaho or Iowa. She didn’t see the attraction. 

Her life with Frank. 

Sure, sometimes the earth would find ways of seeping in and reminding them it’s a small world after all even when they weren’t in that one. She did enjoy the strange and unusual and one of her favorite moments was seeing Zero appear like an actual dog. He finally approached her unlike the first time. He brought her some dead flowers. She’d know it was him by the tag again. But, the fact he was in that shape had to do with where they were on the other side. It was a place where the dead could be their soul’s truth, their inner most desire. It wasn’t heaven. It was more like the Mirror of Erised. It was a place a soul could get stagnant and stuck in their dreams. She’d tell Frank a little more about Zero and how Heresy was a foster parent. She still didn’t know him well enough to know she was a foster parent after his Jack Skellington adoption didn’t work out. But, she’d let Frank know he was an okay kid in her book. She assumed he was dead. But, as a dog she couldn’t ask him what  happened. She didn’t know him well enough to know his abilities or situation. 

Delta’s appearance would not change in that space. Just as Dumbledore said about the Mirror of Erised a truly happy man would only see himself. She didn’t know what that space on the other side had done to Zero, but she was exactly the same. It was a testament to how content she really was with Frank in that new life of theirs. She wouldn’t change one thing. 

--

There were others she didn’t know personally, but saw watching them in the distance. If it wasn’t for music covers and fame she wouldn’t have had a clue. But, she knew it was Lock Skellington. He wouldn’t approach, but he’d be a figure that sometimes was in a crowd or off in the distance if she and Frank ventured out of their own little splice of the underworld. Delta never found reason to approach either, but she wouldn’t try to stop Frank if he found the need. Lock had always been a suicide risk and not because of depression or unhappiness. He had been so obsessed with the other side that when he chased the crows by the graveyard next to the tree house, there were so many times he was tempted to cross. All the secrets were no longer a mystery to him. He was there in the mystery with them and all the other dead. 

--

Diablo would show more than once. That was his magic. He was the space between life and death. Delta welcomed him in. He was one familiar being from her old life she didn’t mind at all showing up. She remembered a time she had considered shutting him out of her life, but she was glad she didn’t. He was the only connection to her mother she was ever going to have while Maleficent was trapped in that time loop. What she did not know was the more often he came by this world was him feeling her transition was coming. He was a harbinger of death and also a psychopomp as well as a familiar. If only she understood her own existence. She’d learn here forevermore. 

--

Arthur would show face more than once, but three was a crowd. Delta never truly let him in. He would see them and it was always like looking through a glass wall with no door with the emotional barriers Delta put up. She only talked to him one other time than the day she and Frank tried to shove him back to earth. She again told him to go home. But, she’d add that the merry men didn’t have her anymore. She told him it was his job now to watch over them. Then she’d refuse more contact if he’d slip into their world due to sickness, coma, or surgery. She wouldn’t give him any reason to want to stay. She’d roll her eyes about the merry men to Frank that day. They were hers. But, they were Robin Hood’s first. They’d be just fine without her. But, if she gave Arthur a purpose in life maybe he’d stay the fuck away. She’d toast to his good riddance. 

--

Then there was Dr. Jenner Chernabog. He’d become the one “friend” they’d see. It’s not like they went over for afternoon tea, but Jenner was a hellion after all. He had access. The first time she saw him she’d stand offish at first because it brought back the moment he couldn’t fix Frank from damage of Oogie’s mind invasion. This one human plague era doctor was no witch healer with magic hands. She just wished he had been. She’d embrace him just like she had the day in the castle she met him finally meeting her shadow stalker that had always been there. He might have been no angel, but he was a guardian that watched over her, much like Diablo in his own way. He would have heard how the pair dealt with the demons of Hell and dug their own pit staking a claim on their own little piece of this other side they all walked on. Jenner would be proud of that. He of all people knew what it was like for Hell to seep in. The madness had taken him long ago, but he owned it. He refused to let it be torture. He became the torture instead. Delta felt connected to that. So, sometimes if they bumped into one another in the darkness of the other side they’d take a moment to catch up, say hey, and move along with their endless eternal night. Whatever Frank thought, he remained “Uncle Jenner” to her. 

--

Time was a concept that wasn’t linear. Pierre would probably know this best. There were wrinkles in the fabric of time. Delta and Frank would feel like it had been years upon years of their time together on the other side. But, earth time did not run parallel with them. What felt so long to them had only been a couple months to all the people they used to know. It had been long enough to plan funerals, and have them accosted as their bodies were stolen. Dr. Frankenstein and Zero worked diligently on Frank’s rebirth putting his pieces back together again. It was a gruesome assembly that required Zero to dig graves to fill in some missing places. He’d reconstruct the boy to best of his mad scientist ability. Victor was having fun with this particular challenge. He put in extra care because he knew it was important for Zero. This was who he was truly devoted to pleasing with this one. 

--

Then there was River ever vigilant on taking care of Delta’s body. He only needed a little more time. He had everything set and perfect for the ritual. The ice cream trolley freezer had been holding out, but it was starting to kick the bucket. It started to make motor noises. He kept his fingers crossed it would hold. He’d take ice out there daily just in case when he got there it had broken down in his absence. River would notice the crow that kept flying around. What he wouldn’t know was it was Diablo or that he was sensing the change coming in Delta and was trying to be there to help her from one side to the other. Her body being so cold was actually slowing down her process, not that anyone would know that, not even Triton. He was hardly a fae world after life expert. Maleficent kept him on a need to know basis. But, it was coming. It was coming soon. 

[jewish-privilege]

...But the Netflix series “The Punisher,” which just released its second season, makes it clear that Jewish creators don't necessarily lead to Jewish superheroes. The stereotype of Jewish people as weak, nerdy, and lacking in physical courage and aptitude persists, as perhaps does a sense that most viewers don't identify immediately with Jewish characters. The series ends up a reminder that no matter who their creators were, we have great difficulty in imagining Jewish people as mighty figures.

This disconnect between Jewish creators and Jewish creations goes back to the beginning of the genre. Jewish creators, in order to avoid prejudice and to appeal to a mainstream audience, virtually never wrote their characters as Jewish. Superman was an alien who fell to earth as a child to be adopted by Kansans. While the narrative arguably speaks to a Jewish immigrant experience, there's no explicit reference to or acknowledgment of Jewish identity in Superman's origin story. Superman is Kryptonian and Christian not Jewish.

Another Jack Kirby/Stan Lee character, the Thing, was given an ethnic working class background. Many fans read him as a kind of stand-in for Kirby himself. But the Thing wasn't openly identified as a Jewish character until 2002 — 40 years after his creation.

The evolution of the Thing’s public identity shows that there has been some change over time; Jewish superheroes are less rare than they once were. Yet, it's still remarkably difficult to see Jewishness in our heroes. Besides the Thing, the only onscreen Jewish superhero on film is the Flash — who self-identified as Jewish in an ad-libbed quip by Jewish actor Ezra Miller in “Justice League: Dawn of Justice.” Magneto from the “X-Men” is Jewish, but he's mostly a villain, not a hero...

The dearth of Jewish heroes is especially noticeable because Jewish actors are not rare in Hollywood, and some very prominent Jewish actors star in these films. Scarlett Johansson plays Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films. Gal Gadot plays Wonder Woman in the DC film universe. The actors are Jewish, but their characters are not.

“The Punisher” carries this dynamic to almost parodic extremes in its first season. Just about every major character in the series is Jewish. That includes Joe Bernthal as the Punisher/Frank Castle and Ben Barnes as antagonist Billy Russo. It also includes Amber Rose Revah, whose mother is of Polish-Jewish ancestry, and who plays Dinah Madani, a member of Homeland Security.

If these Jewish actors played Jewish characters, “Punisher” would provide strikingly diverse Jewish representation. Frank is a working-class bruiser, oozing testosterone and integrity with a face that looks like a "rough road," as one character quips in the second season. Billy Russo is a slick pretty boy with a ruthless core. Madani is a determined crusader traumatized by violence. She's also a Jewish woman of color — a group almost never represented in the media or entertainment.

But of course, Madani's not a Jewish woman of color onscreen in the narrative; she's Iranian-American. Frank and Billy aren't Jewish either. Billy's background is nebulous, but Frank is Italian-American — an ethnic group often associated with violent masculinity. Jewish people play a range of roles in the “Punisher,” but the range is dependent on them pretending to no longer be Jewish.

There is one central character identified onscreen as Jewish in the first season. That's David Lieberman (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), a government computer programmer who risks his life to expose a drug-running ring run by national security higher ups. Lieberman is a great character in many respects: witty, intense, unexpectedly courageous. At several points he shows himself to be more than a match for Frank, and he serves to some degree as the moral center of the show. He also, though, plays into a lot of stereotypes about nerdy, intellectual unmasculine Jewish men — his nickname is Micro.

“Expected” Jewish roles don't include traditional heroism. David is admirable, smart, and fights the good fight, but he's not the star. Instead, that role goes to Frank, the angry white man. Bernthal is a wonderful actor, and he gives Frank a brooding, laconic physicality. The Punisher is a man who lives in his body, a stubbornly uncompromising cowboy with a code who is beaten and battered and bloody but never broken. That's a common, beloved American heroic archetype. But it's exceedingly rare for that archetype to be inhabited by American Jews (though it's somewhat more common to see Israeli Jews inhabit these roles onscreen.)

Twisitng the knife a little, the second season of “The Punisher” specifically underlines the connection between stoic heroism and Christianity in the character of John Pilgrim (Josh Stewart). Pilgrim is a kind of anti or alternate Punisher. He's a former criminal who has converted to conservative Christianity, and now serves as the cat's paw for a fundamentalist right-wing oligarchs. Pilgrim's reserve and uncompromising determination are presented as an outgrowth of his rigid belief system — a rigid belief system oddly like the Punisher's. Pilgrim and Frank even have parallel crises of faith.

“The Punisher” doesn't approve of Pilgrim's brand of Christian fundamentalism, but by creating a parallel between the characters, it acknowledges that Christianity has something to do with the Punisher's code and the Punisher's heroism.

[D]espite the importance of Jewish comic creators to the genre, and despite the fact that many Jewish actors do end up portraying superheroes, there is not a single major film or television superhero show centered on a Jewish hero. When Jewish people are heroes, they're not seen as Jewish; when they're seen as Jewish, they often aren't heroes. Jewish people made Superman, Captain America, Batman and the Avengers. But the culture that loves them still can't quite see us at the center of our stories.

[Read Noah Berlatsky’s full piece at NBC News.]

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

Class 1-A’s Comic Book Projects

I’ve been getting a lot of comments on Butterfly about how much people like the project the kids are working on.  First off, thank you for the lovely feedback! It started as an excuse to shoehorn in some themes and foreshadowing, while also giving the class something outside of the plot to talk about.  I didn’t think so many people would gravitate towards it.

With all that in mind, I decided to make some project headcanons for the whole class.  Relatively few of these will actually show up in the story, and the project itself will be mentioned less and less as it goes on.  All the more reason to put it here.

Here’s the link to the story itself for anyone who stumbles across this:  https://archiveofourown.org/works/17165612/chapters/40360787

The project is that the students had to pick out a pre-quirk comic book superhero, and write about how that hero relates to modern hero society.  They also had to pick a specific storyline to analyze, but I’m a filthy casual and won’t go into that.  Let’s go.

Midoriya - Superman

The only one actually relevant to the story.  Superman is like All Might, so naturally, Izuku would pick him.  Superman was also the first superhero as they are understood today, so there is also the meta perspective that they wouldn’t have their jobs without him.  But the thing about both of them is that their symbolic power is almost as effective as their physical power.  And with all that power, people too often forget that there’s a real person behind it.  A person who makes mistakes, who can’t alway save everyone, and who fears for their own future. Heroes are still human.

Bakugou - The Punisher

Isn’t Bakugou liking the Punisher basically canon?  But what Bakugou takes from him is perseverance.  Frank Castle fights an uphill battle that he can never truly win and could die from at any moment.  Yet he keeps going.  Because there’s nothing else he can do.  And that’s what heroes are supposed to do.

Todoroki - Firestorm

Firestorm is a guy who is two guys.  Todoroki feels like that sometimes.  But if he wants to accomplish his goals, he has to learn to work together with himself.  Not super relevant to broader hero society, but isn’t he a part of that society? (He had to argue a little on that one)  

Sero - Spider-Man 

Like most of his peers, Sero chose his hero based on the similar power set.  He spent admittedly too much time trying to recreate classic moves instead of analyzing Spidey’s place in history.  But then he realized that with how important the secret identity was to the character, not many people go for that anymore.  He ended up with a pretty deep look at hero regulation and how it’s hard to fit a secret identity with the current model.

Hagakure - The Invisible Woman (and the Fantastic Four)

Same initial deal as Sero, went for the similar power.  What she ended up discovering was that the Fantastic Four predicted close-knit hero teams would be rare.  Marvel’s first family is a disfuctional one, and probably wouldn’t last long with the added stress of modern hero bureaucracy.

Kouda - Aquaman

Insert obligatory talks to fish joke.  But Kouda did a fairly straightforward paper of how heroes protect the environment as well as people.

Yaoyorozu - Batman

She picked up Batman based on their similar need to be prepared; Yaoyorozu needs to memorize chemical formulas in advance, Batman needs to bring the right tools to a case.  But through her research, she found the much more interesting perspective of the dichotomy between hero and villain.  Anyone, powers or not, can make the choice to hurt another person.  And someone else can make the choice to stop them.  Both often involve violence.  So where should the line be drawn?

Tokoyami - Moon Knight

Moon Knight’s powers wax and wane with the cycle of his namesake, much as Tokoyami must carefully consider his actions based on the time of day.  Both must also contend with an additional voice telling them how to proceed.  Also, Moon Knight is Marvel’s answer to Batman and Yaoyoruzu beat him to it even though he called dibs this transgression will be avenged!

Iida - The Flash

The Flash is what Iida is working towards: a friendlier, funnier person that friend and stranger alike can open up to.  And shouldn’t all heroes want to be the sort of person the people they save would want to save them?

Mina - Wonder Woman

Something not as many people talk about in regards to Wonder Woman is the way she typically prefers to attempt nonviolent solutions to conflict before moving on to fists.  Mina is the same way, so she felt right at home (for once) while writing.

Kirishima - Luke Cage

A guy who’s skin is bulletproof?  So manly!  But Luke Cage and his stories have almost alway paralleled some real-world issue going on at the time.  In some cases, people believed his appearances to have helped influence public opinion about those issues.  Kirishima thinks more modern heroes should try and get involved like that,

Ojiro - Iron Fist

A quirk is just an extension of the body, and the body is the real weapon.  Both must be sharpened, not just one or the other.

Tsuyu - She-Hulk

Tsuyu doesn’t mind that people make assumptions about her based on her quirk; she’s a frog, so she’s easy-going and likes water.  But that doesn’t mean everyone is okay with stereotypes.  Jennifer Walters is a successful lawyer and hero, but still gets undermined by others for “anger issues.”  Tsuyu also admired her choice to remain in her She-Hulk form for the confidence it brings her, while many people in real life feel pressured to hide more extreme quirks in order to conform.

Aoyama - Dazzler

Searched “sparkly superhero” online and Dazzler was the first result.  Talked about the importance of aesthetics. 

Uraraka - Booster Gold

Like Uraraka, Booster started out in it for the money.  He didn’t have the noble goals she had right out the gate, but was never a bad dude.  But after great hardship, he learned the valuable lesson that fame and fortune should always be second to saving people.

Kaminari - Thor

He had a bit of trouble figuring out what to do with his go-to god of thunder.  Unlike the more well-known MCU version, comics Thor isn’t super funny.  He’s got stuff going on, but Kaminari was really gunning for that humor angle.  So, he settled for discussing Thor’s origin and about the importance of staying humble in the face of great power and influence.

Sato - Hulk

When powering up costs you your intelligence, it can be hard to make good decisions in tough situations.  That’s why you need to make a plan before going rage-mode.

Shoji - Martian Manhunter

Shoji connected to J’onn J’onzz and his struggle to find acceptance with “normal” people right away.  The traditional image of what a hero is “supposed” to look like was out of date even then, and no one should be confinted to that box.

Jirou - Black Canary

The best heroes are good at a lot of different things.  Black Canary’s Wikipedia page under “skills” is nuts.  And Jirou epimmediately started looking up how to incorporate her musical skills into her arsenal.

Mineta - Rogue

I know what you’re thinking: why would I give one of Marvel’s best female characters to me of Hero Aca’s worst?  Two reasons.  One, Rogue is consistently near the top of “hottest hero women” lists, so Mineta probably found her there.  Second, the ethos of her character’s evolution is a line I think he could benefit from.  That being: get your shit together.  You can accomplish amazing things if you just get your shit together.  Sometimes, you are the problem.  Adjust your actions and mindset accordingly.  Get your shit together.

Well, that was long.  Thanks for reading if you made it this far.  Part of me kind of wants to write some of these essays mayself now.  But I think that would be a poor choice of time given my other projects.

Thanks again and please read Buttferfly!

[buckleyswift41319]

Jamko/Blue Bloods Recap/Review/Rant 9x04

Because this is a thing I am doing now apparently. Full disclosure: I’m firmly planted between the two camps that seem to be popular in fandom of “omg the best thing ever!!” and “thanks I hate it!” 

Bare with me for this one, I haven’t written a true episode recap rant since probably 2014 for Bones or Castle, and I’m crafting this one between chapter review questions on Bandura’s social-cognitive theory. Gonna break it down by scene for “funsies” or least so I don’t lose track of thoughts between tabs lol. 

The Opening Scene: 29th Precinct: This scene in particular left me with warm fuzzy feelings of seasons of old. It was absolutely wonderful to see both Sargent Reagan and Officer Janko in their own elements being the badasses they are while also clearly still having each other’s backs and keeping an eye. If the writer’s could keep it functioning like this, I might actually be on board eith this whole Superior/Subordinate BS. Eddie in particular left me excited here, in her element. I really hope they explore her running cases like this more and more. Also I’m totally just #TeamDetectiveEddieJanko in general y’all. 

Diner Scene: Okay, so I’m angry with a lot of stuff from here on out, but was surprisingly happy with most of this scene. This is the most like themselves Jamko has acted all season, in the context of their new relationship. The set up was their pure banter with Eddie’s “Are we the kind of couple that talks about the office..” Jamie bringing his concern was also the most pre-Sarg Jamie we’ve seen all season. Their ability to openly express their concerns with each other has been...less than the past three weeks, but it seems finally be back (A little rocky, but the most present we’ve seen it). Eddie standing up for herself was also the first time she’s really let herself come through since the engagement. Strong Independent Eddie is not someone I want to lose as a trade off for Jamko, 

But here’s where I started having issues with this episode (woah, boy, buckle up. Ya girls got opinions). Overprotective Partner! is standard issue when it comes to how these two work. Jamie in particular plays stuff close to the vest until he explodes into action, heart before head (not that I blame him exactly, the boy has seen shit and has some serious trauma re: losing those he loves. He had to have been no older than 20-26 in the time period they lost Mary and Joe). But I draw the line at overprotective jackass, and the writers hurled Jamie right over it by having him tell Eddie she’s “smarter than this”. Partner Jaime never said that shit, and even if fiance Jamie is finally showing some actual god damn emotion it’s not about to be this shit either. (I will @ the show on Twitter and riot, don’t try me). 

Family Dinner: AKA The Interlude: From my first watch, I have no real insight into this scene other than I enjoyed Eddie’s facial expressions far too much to truly pay attention past her agreeing with Frank. Second watch through gives me more of an idea of how they may be trying to parallel Jaime and Erin some this season which I’m totally into. And also I’m still enjoying Eddie’s reactions to Jaime about what Frank had to say faaar to much (SorryNotSorry). Also as an added note, this is the most normal family dinner scene we’ve gotten all season and I need them all to be like this from now on (just y’know...with not always passive aggressive fighting Jamko every week obviously). 

Eddie Undercover: My mom watches the show with me and we spent some time discussing how the actual op went down, because while he once again reacted heart before head, he might not have been 100% in the wrong here?!?! Jaime’s sixth-sense on his partner where definitely telling him something was off, and I wish we knew more about this detective so we could judge if he reacted poorly or not there’s no arguing Eddie was in danger when Jamie came flying out of nowhere like freaking Spiderman, I just need like...context. (imagine that Blue Bloods writers?!?). Regardless Jaime really needs to hold back like this if he wants to stay her superior (You’re weekly reminder that I hate the whole power imbalance thing so much and want Eddie to never have transferred).  

The Ambulance Scene: Part of me reacted to this with a bit of “OMG MAKE IT STOOOP!!” but most of me left this scene with a feeling of “PRAISE LORD HALLELUJAH!!”. These two dumb idiots finally had a (mostly) legit conversation. Jamie showed some honest emotions. Eddie said her piece, Jamie made some valid points even if I hate is mehtods, and all three of us almost cried (The break in his voice when he said thank God, destrooooyed me).

Overall, I can finally see where they are trying to head this season and I’m intrigued and kind of don’t hate it. I just hope we get past the growing pains soon, and that the writers stop writing Jaime’s “how to be the boss” struggle at the expense of Eddie and their relationship. I have...less than optimistic faith in them for that, which mostly fuels my negative feelings for this season. 

[rocinantexandria]

tmithc

okay i just finished season 3.

i would say it was a good season, almost really good. probably feel the same with all the netflix/amazon prime shows because the entire season comes out at once and you watch the whole thing so it feels like it passes too quickly and there is no time to process after every episode and its true.

okay so the entire helen and john storyline this season i loved. i can understand why she ran at the end because as long as he is in that position they are gonna have to be stepping on eggshells all the time and killing to protect their girls. however i hate that she left john alone. he is going through a ton of shit right now and he needs her.

himmler being shot at the end was such a surprise i was not expecting that i loved it i hope he dies from it but i have a feeling that he’s gonna survive and just be even more vengeful and want to get rid of any american history. also what a great distraction from asking john to keep his family in line since now im sure he has bigger things to worry about.

rip frank. tbh i was half surprised that he survived the explosion in the first place and his story was sweet all about redemption for what he did and i’d like to think he found peace in the end. kido as well.

tagomi needs to live. im sick of people trying to kill him. he is so vital to everything regarding travelers he has all the knowledge i was sad that his and john’s conversation ended so quickly i was hoping they would dive deeper into parallel worlds but no chance.

ed and jack. my babies. both of them need to live they need to carry on franks message. robert, sigh. im so 50/50 with him because its partly his fault that frank is dead but also he stepped up in the end so thats good.

poor nicole holy fuck she’s gonna have to go through the same as joe. her and thelma were so cute together i loved that relationship i feel sorry for them.

the man in the high castle. love him. he’s my spirit animal. his attitude is everything. i hope he survives season 4.

i cant think of anything else so im gonna get onto the topic i am so heartily avoiding. joe blake. that conversation between juliana and john confirmed the only reasonable argument i could find of why she could kill him, that he was no longer her joe. its the hunger games all over again sigh. doesn’t make it hurt any less.

i dont want to drone on i may even make a seperate post about the many reasons why i hated joe’s death besides you know, loving his character.

but long story short, he didn’t need to die. i accept it however because it follows to the exact measurement of how his death happens in the book, fine. but his death was truly a waste of a character who had so much potential and it has left a gap that will be hard almost impossible to fill. ps, thanks Luke for everything.

on juliana, she did everything she wanted to this season. well almost. after joe, i don’t know how to feel about her character anymore, i suppose she just wants to bring down the nazis, fuck anything else. however im still so curious about what world she travelled to at the end, and how her getting shot will impact it.

[clairen45]

The Dark Crystal Connection

First, kudos and shout out to the first bloggers who brought forth this amazing connection between the ST and this hauntingly beautiful 1982 movie whose main message was: evil and good must unite because out of their division comes death and decay. Sounds familiar? Maybe there is a lesson learned there. Because Frank Oz, one of the chief engineers of that beautiful movie that entirely puzzled me as a child, also worked on the original trilogy. So it would come full circle, in a poetic way, if the ST reflects some of his work. @karlaaaay for instance points out, very cleverly that the code name for episode ix, Black Diamond, might be just that: a clever reference to Dark Crystal. The idea has definitely some merit, even though we can also keep in mind what the gem also stands for (I did one of my first posts on that). But let’s give Dark Crystal a try.

Ok, so what about the similarities, what elements have we seen, and what could we infer from there? So we have a kingdom divided between the Good pottery and music loving Mystics on one side and the evil, power driven Skeksis on the other. The Skeksis live in a castle built around a purple crystal that was shattered long ago. They commit genocides, exploit and enslave creatures that they use to steal their essences in order to stay alive. Both Mystics and Skeksis are a dying race whose fates are intertwined: each time one of them dies, death comes to one of the other side. A prophecy states that a gelfling (a race that has been almost exterminated by the Skeksis) will destroy the Skeksis and repair the Crystal. As it turns out, the fate of this world lies in the hand of a couple of gelflings, Jen and Kira, who both thought they were the last of their kind. They finally restore the missing shard of the crystal and Skeksis and Mystic are fused together into creatures of light, bringing back peace, harmony, and life.

As @karlaaaay pointed out, the names Jen and Kira have some resonance for the new trilogy. Jen is reminiscent of Ben and Kira was the name originally used for the character of Rey. But it is highly debatable if Jen is Ben and Kira is Rey as I will stress out later. It is hard not to miss all the similarities though. You have the Skeksis with a dying emperor, their feuds of succession and power, their armies of armored creatures and flying spies, so pretty much the First Order. And you have the Mystic, peace loving creatures, living like hermits in nature, who adopt and teach a young one that may be the chosen one to bring back balance to the world, so pretty much Obi Wan, Luke and Yoda. When the emperor of the Skeksis dies, his body is shattered and crumbles to pieces, like Snoke in the throne room. When the leader of the Mystic dies, his body vanishes into thin air like Obi Wan, Yoda, and Luke. The emperor clings desperately to life (I am still the Emperor) like Snoke affirms being unbeaten and unbetrayed at the very moment he is. The Mystic accept their death with peace and serenity like all the characters afore mentioned.

Another character that seems to have been transplanted straight from Dark Crystal is Maz Kanata. In the Dark Crystal, Jen has to go see Augrah in order to find the missing shard that he is supposed to return to the Crystal. Augrah is a thousand years old, has terrible sight since she only has one eye that she can remove and put back as she pleases, and besides owning a significant piece of the puzzle, has more questions to offer than answers: “you want to know what it is all about?”, “too many questions “, “there is much to learn and you have no time”. Sounds familiar yet? Maz is the same age, is pretty much defined by her huge glasses, holds Anakin’s lightsaber for some mysterious reason, and also delivers lines like “a good question for another time”. Besides, Augrah’s mysterious cave is attacked by the Skeksis army just after Jen’s arrival, like Maz’s castle is attacked right after Rey’s arrival. And Jen happens to run in a forest to cross the path of two significant characters right after fleeing Augrah ‘s cave: the banished Chamberlain who is following him from a distance, and Kira, the other gelfling and future love interest. When Rey flees into the forest, who does she meet but Kylo Ren? So if we follow the parallels between the two stories, Jen’s journey is more reminiscent of Rey’s journey. At the same time, Rey, like Kira, is followed by a little companion, since in TFA she is followed by BB8 until she meets Kylo. And like Kira, Rey is able to understand and communicate with many different creatures. So you could say that Rey is a mix of both Jen and Kira.

Yet, how does Kylo Ren fit in? When Kira and Jen meet for the first time and touch hands, they exchange immediately all their memories, something called dream fasting. In TLJ, something rather similar happens to Kylo and Rey as the Force brings them together and they start having flash forwards when their hands meet for the first time. But Jen and Kira are a unit from the get go, they are the last of their species. Kylo and Rey could be similar because they are also the last of their species in a way, they are the last Jedi (even though it turns out others are Force sensitive), they feel constantly alone, which makes them akin to each other. And when they are able to function together, in the throne room, they form a great partnership. But, remember that in the forest, also lurked the banished Skeksis. So when Rey meets Ben, she meets her other half but she also meets her opponent. Kylo is the gelfling but also the rogue Skeksis, the one that does not belong, has been brutally victimized, and strives for power and revenge. One line from the Chamberlain is also a give away. When he tries to lure the gelfling back to the castle, seeing he is failing, he keeps on pleading: Please? please? So, to me, Kylo is both the gefling and the Skeksis.

Another important element would be the shattered crystal. I think it could be 2 different things here. It is hard not to see a wink between the shattered crystal and Kylo’s shattered kyber crystal in his lightsaber. And because the saber is so much a part of his identity, it is also hard not to see this shattered unstable saber as a metaphor for his shattered unstable identity. So Kylo is the Dark Crystal of sorts. He is the pure power that has turned to the Dark side because something is shattered in him, because something misses to make him whole again. What is missing? Something Rey, like Jen and Kira, could bring him: the healing power of Love. And Rey, as his other half, has the power of making him whole, just like he has the power of making her feeling whole again. Together they are no longer alone. Just like Jen reacts to Kira: “I thought I was the only one”.

You are not alone

Neither are you

But the Dark Crystal could also stand for the Force itself, that has been shattered between the Dark side and the Light side, something that after thousands of years, is finally not satisfactory. What is the solution? They have fought each other, Sith and Jedi almost extinct. Kylo’s solution would be to let them die, to kill the past. But there is another solution that has not been attempted yet, and it is to fuse the two together, like at the end of Dark Crystal. Maybe Rey will realize that, or maybe that will just come from them coming together as they are.

The final element that the movies have in common is the prophecy of the chosen one. In Dark Crystal, a gelfling is supposed to restore the shard and save the world. In the PT, Anakin is proposed as the chosen one, the one that will restore balance to the Force. Failure. Luke is a likely candidate. Failure. If the chosen has to be a Skywalker, Kylo is the last in line. Maybe he is the chosen one, maybe Rey is the chosen one by helping him figuring out who he really is, maybe they both are and their coming together will restore the balance.

The end of the Dark Crystal shows that restoring balance between the conflicting natures of good and evil demands a sacrifice. But once the sacrifice is accomplished, and order is restored, peace, light, and life are restored. The lines uttered by the pure being of light at the end of the movie, as Jen is carrying the lifeless body of Kira, would fit right at the end of the saga:

Now the prophecy is fulfilled. We are again one. Many ages ago, in our arrogance and delusion, we shattered the pure Crystal and our world split apart.Your courage and sacrifice have made us whole and restored the true power of the crystal. Hold her to you, she is a part of you, as we are all a part of each other.

Kira is brought back to life

Now we leave you a crystal of truth. Make your world in its light.

We have already got the line about delusion and arrogance from Luke when he talks about the Jedi. We know that both sides have erred. Replace crystal with Force and you get the picture. Kylo’s insistance about killing the past may also be prophetic of the fact that one of them has to die in an act of pure selfless sacrifice to save/help the other. Can the Force bring a person back to life? If the ST is inspired by the Dark Crystal, it might just happen. And it would be a beautiful end to the saga to see the Force restored and whole, and these two, part of each other, able to create a new generation of Force users, a new world.

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The Mosley Review: Halloween Ends

I think I've said it before and I'm definitely gonna say it again. I believe that out of all the classic slasher franchises, the Halloween franchise is the definition of longevity. It has had so many sequels, reboots, remakes and now a new requel trilogy that ignores all of its canon after the original 1978 film. I have enjoyed alot of them, my top 3 being the original, Halloween: H20 and Rob Zombie's first film, but the franchise has had its pitfalls as well. What I've loved about it is that of course we get some brutal, funny and inventive moments of carnage, but also the amount of genre bending the franchise consistently done over the past 40 years. In this new trilogy we have dealt once again with PTSD, townsfolk being effected and mortality. In this as announced final film in the franchise, it all comes together in a fun and sometimes wacky psychological finale that is reminiscent of the past films in the franchise and with a few sprinkles of Natural Born Killers. There are some truly great moments of viscera and a great deal of dumb decisions made by one of the lead characters that sort of destroyed them.

Jamie Lee Curtis returns one last time as the iconic final girl Laurie Strode and I loved that she had tried to move on with her life as a survivor. It has been a long time since Laurie truly had a smile on her face, but it doesn't take long for that smile to drop off. Laurie has been on a epic journey over the past 40 years and this was definitively the best her character has ever been. Andi Matichak returns as Laurie's granddaughter Allyson Nelson and I liked her character up to a point. She tried to live a normal life and possibly start a new relationship, but man did she ignore ALL the red flags. It was almost like the writers didn't know what to do with her and it shows as she made some seriously dumb decisions as if she hadn't seen evil before in a person's eyes. Will Patton returns as Deputy Frank Hawkins and I liked that he was more happy and jovial. The chemistry between him and Laurie was electric and cute as the grocery store scene between them was one of my favorite scenes. Rohan Campbell did an amazing job as Corey Cunningham. He was a good kid turned bad by the constant reminder of the accident that opens the film and how nobody showed him compassion. He was a great younger parallel to Laurie as a what if scenario of a babysitter that became evil. His dark decent was a fun one to watch and Rohan delivered the emotional turmoil in spades. Nick Castle returns as The Shape/Michael Myers and I loved that we see his mortality. He is still the brutal boogeyman of the night, but the film quickly reminds you that he is flesh and blood and I loved that he was not at 100%. The bond between him and Laurie was much stronger this time around and their 40 year battle comes to a blood and satisfying end.

The score by the master composer John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davis has always been the highlight of this current trilogy and it is once again in this blood soaked finale. "Evil Eyes" is one of my favorite tracks in the film along with that iconic them that will always be a jam. Halloween Kills featured a less than stellar story, but this film makes up for it as it focuses on what made the first installment great. Aside from the really dumb love story for Allyson, this was actually a fun finale for the iconic slasher series. I found myself smiling from ear to ear as the last 45 minutes of the film began to climb to the last and brutal fight between Laurie and Michael and it didn't disappoint. I always thought Halloween: H20 was the perfect ending to the franchise, but this one offers up an even more undeniably definitive end to an amazing saga. I truly enjoyed this film and I wouldn't mind adding this new trilogy to the rotation of horror films I watch every year. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!