#i could talk about how well traditional fits with your style of lining/coloring etc but man i think i'll pass out on my pillow right now hh

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

aqshfjf it's THEm!!!!! the boys the legends the sweethearts<333

i still can't believe i didn't see the updates to COLORS of LOVE before today i am in utter denial</3 well to make up for that some fanart for this awesome comic!!!

colors of love belongs to @kotikaleo

studio au is by @zu-is-here

[showtunesdream]

Ok, so I have seen almost every English version of Cinderella made since 1950 and it is my favorite fairy tale. So I saw the new Amazon version and I have a LOT OF THOUGHTS: (Spoilers)

I am here for Cinderella remakes, and I really hoped this one would enchant me. But...it didn't. I've read several reviews to help me specify just what didn't work for me, and I think it ultimately comes down to discord in nearly every element. Discord: too many notes at the same time; no unity, no connection. I'm all for pulling popular tunes, but they have to fit the character's emotion. I'm all for powerful female choreography, but having a chorus of women violently pelvic thrusting in ball gowns was...just weird. The artistic choices have to fit the narrative. 

All the women in the story are trying to assert some authority and agency in a world we are consistently told is exclusively patriarchal "because tradition." But it feels like that tone clashed with the producers' desire to include all the fairytale elements they felt audiences would expect. I think they could've done it, but they didn't get it right. It would be a fine line to tread, bc on the one hand you are talking about female disenfranchisement and lack of agency/rights, and on the other you’re trying to do fairytale love--the subject matter is really quite a heavy burden for that storyline.

 I've also seen comments that the cinematography and pacing were a mess, but I didn't get past my "do I like this?" vibe enough to notice. 

A few other assorted critiques: There was no chemistry between the prince and Ella, there was a lot of tell and not show (you can have a chorus sing it multiple times but I'm not gonna buy it unless you back it up with acting), and also the prince was not appealing in the least. Like, maybe that was the point, but if so, forget the romance plot altogether bc if I'm not falling for the guy, why would our heroine? There was more chemistry between the prince and his manservant (braid guy) than between Ella and him. There was nearly more depth of character in the manservant than in the prince as well, which is saying something.

One of the most annoying instances of tell and not show was Ella’s appearance. They kept talking about how dirty she was, and the stepmother even says “you would be so pretty if…” but the only real difference in Ella’s appearance is that she has a darker complexion… So what are we saying here, that she is unappealing bc she isn’t white enough? Admittedly that is reading into it a bit much, but just put some damn ash on her face and it’s a non-issue!

Moments of magic included the original songs (why did they not do the whole score this way???), and the performances from the sterling cast members as you'd expect. Also, I loved the building they chose for Ella's family estate/basement. (Oh, and also if you are going to turn the stepmother into Mrs. Bennett, then you have to show the financial difficulties in some wayyyy...) 

Overall, I could see what could've been a homerun concept in the script. I wanted to love it. I really did. But the execution fell woefully short for me.

**If I could, like Fab G, wave my wand and fix some things:**

-All original songs, not poorly fitting pop covers. The worst offenders in my eyes were “Material Girl,” “What A Man,” and “Find Me Somebody to Love.” The ball song should be about the princesses/stepsisters’

/Gwen/Ella’s aspirations, and maybe the prince’s too, if this fix version means he gets character development, like, say, a superobjective. 

-We open as before, with the narrator telling us how tradition has ruled everyone’s lives for years. As the townsfolk sing, we get the feeling that Ella isn’t the only one who is not so happy with the status quo. Ultimately everyone will learn through Ella that they don’t have to be struck in the same old ways. 

-As she works in the house we see Ella using her flair for fashion, her gift for making women feel beautiful to act a modiste/lady's maid to her stepmother and stepsisters. We see her transform an outfit/hairdo with a clever and fresh idea noone would have thought of. We get that speech about “it doesn’t matter if I think you’re beautiful. What matters is how you feel...etc.” Insert song about fashion and how amazing women are just in general, with makeover magic. (She didn’t feel like a fashion designer to me, I didn’t feel that creative spark/passion. I needed them to amp this up.)

-Ella’s personal appearance reflects her gift for inventive style as well.  (I really struggled with her being on one hand a fashion designer and on the other hand having no color in her dress, AND having everyone talk about how untidy her appearance was (which again, it wasn’t. Also, were she really covered in cinders and ash, she wouldn’t be able to handle fabric without making it dirty….)

-Ella’s dresses are made of found and reused materials, cleverly crafted. Like a set of old drapes a la Sound of Music, or forgotten antique dresses harvested for their fabric. After the prince buys her dress she can afford to buy new fabric and make her pink dress (that then gets ruined by Vivian.)

-If we *are* going to keep the idea of borrowed pop songs, then at some point all of the women sing No Doubt’s “I’m Just A Girl,” illustrating how their gender in this society makes them second class citizens: the stepsisters, Vivian, and princesses have to marry to gain opportunity/privilege, Gwen can’t get a word in on state matters, the queen is constantly shut down by her husband, etc. However, better for them to sing an original song that reflects this--maybe have “Dream Girl” come in earlier and get expanded/reprised.

-We needed to see the hardship that Vivian spoke of, bc I never saw it. Why remarry when you are clearly a wealthy widow?

-I still haven’t figured out how to give the prince a character that Ella could fall in love with. Show his kindness separate from supporting Ella? Give him an “I want” song that isn’t about his father wanting him to get married? Give him some kind of point? We’ve seen the “I don’t want to be king and am lost until this amazing girl inspired me” trope work before, but your boy has to have more to him than this guy did. 

-I also would like to find some way to extend the insta-love a bit. I’m a huge fan of meeting as commoners, as in the 1997 Cinderella, and there, they make a connection that properly works. Maybe it all boils down to a lack of chemistry between the actors? And/or give me better lyrics? Hmm. 

Anywho, I'm just rambling. So sad to see this fall so short of its potential.

[bluekaddis]

Today is 11/11 which marks 101 years of Poland regaining independence and I thought it is a perfect time to publish a post that I’ve been working on for a while. 

Ferelden from Polish Perspective aka Why We Can Relate to Dog Lords So Much. 

This is a sort of compilation of my own thoughts I had while playing the games and various talks with my Polish friends. It is not supposed to force any ideas or teach others how to interpret the game. I just thought it could be entertaining for anyone interested in history and culture. I was trying not to elaborate too much on the subject here but it still ended up being A Very Long Post TM. To make this post a little neater to read, I divided this post into 4 sections:

1. History

2. Fashion and Food

3. Politics

4. Relationships with Other Countries

I will be very happy if you find a minute or two to read some of my points. If you have any additional questions or comments feel free to leave me a message :)

And once again - enormous thanks to @aeducanka​ for proofreading. I would be a poor mess without you. 

DISCLAIMERS

1. Yes, I know that Ferelden is based mostly on Anglo-Saxon England and I have no problem with that. True, I may be a little disappointed that the game includes references to so many European cultures and countries (France, Byzantine Empire, Venice, Roma culture etc.) and yet practically ignores Central and Eastern Europe completely, BUT this post is not meant to be a “Where is my representation?!” rant. If I wanted a game with Slavic culture vibes, I could always play the Witcher trilogy again. We are doing alright. 

2. I am in no way an academic specialist on culture or history, even these of my own country. I did some research, but most of facts and figures can be easily found on wikipedia. You can treat this as just some observations and headcanons of a 29 y/o Polish woman, who has grown up and lives in Poland. 

3. The main focus of this post is Poland in different moments of history. However, when talking about fashion and political system I will mostly refer to Polish culture between the 16th and 18th century. During that time Poland and Lithuania formed a dual state known as The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. So, whenever I refer to this particular period, I will use the term “Commonwealth” instead of “Poland”. 

PART 1 – HISTORY

The country’s name origin

Ferelden means „fertile valley” in Alamarri tongue [WoT vol. 1], Poland most probably comes from the Slavic word „pole” meaning „field”. They both refer to land that can be cultivated.

History of unification

Ferelden lands were divided between many tribes until they were unified by Calenhad Theirin. He fought and defeated other Alamarri tribes’ leaders, proclaimed Andrastianism as the new official religion of his kingdom and started the Theirin dynasty.  

A similar story can be told about Mieszko I of Poland – the leader of the Polans tribe (one of many Slavic tribes of that time) who, by means of war and diplomacy, united many Slavic tribes and created the Polish country in 965. In the same year he was baptised, abandoning native paganism in favour of Christianity. Mieszko started the Piast dynasty which ruled Poland for over 400 years. He never officially became a king, though – his son, Bolesław, was crowned king in 1025.

Also, Ferelden is a relatively young country compared to countries like Orlais or Tevinter. Even if Poland has over 1000 years of history as a country, it has to be noted that some Western European countries have a longer history (eg. the Carolingian Empire or the Visigothic Kingdom). Polish lands have also never been a part of the Roman Empire. 

Fun fact – the half-legendary sword of the first king of Poland, Szczerbiec, was stolen by Prussian troops during their invasion on Poland in 1795. Calenhad’s sword, Nemetos,was lost during the Orlesian invasion on Ferelden [WoT vol. 1].

Ostagar

Now, I will tell you a story. It is about a young king (in his twenties), a little reckless, wanting to be the leader who stood against the great invading threat to his country, a little blinded by the perspective of glorious victory. Just before the battle one of his allied forces betrayed him and did not provide the promised aid. The enemy army was too strong, too large. The king’s army was defeated, the king was killed in battle and his body was taken by the enemy. The king did not have children and his younger brother had succeeded him.

No, I’m not talking about Cailan, this is the story of Władysław III of Poland.

PART 2 – FASHION AND FOOD

Fashion

All cultures in Thedas have their own style and fashion. Ferelden is supposed to be this “We like fur and warm fabrics” culture, opposite to the extravagant Orlesian style. However, I have few problems with how Fereldan fashion is shown in the game.

1. It is too early-medieval looking. I know, it is a fantasy, you can mix ancient Egypt with steampunk and nobody should care. But we see, from cultural and technological perspective, that Thedas in Dragon Age is more renaissance/baroque than your typical medieval. Heck, some elements, like the infamous Formal Attire, look like clothes from 18th or even 19th century! In comparison, outfits like Arms of Mac Tir or Robes of the Pretender (though good looking) look like something from the Vikings era.

2.  We do not see many good looking Fereldan outfits in the games. I like Alistair’s royal outfit and some of Fereldan armors and clothes from DA:2 but remember this?

Or this?

Yeah, Dog Lords can do better :/

And that’s why I like to headcanon Fereldan fashion as something more resembling the Commonwealth fashion between the 16th and 18th century. It was an interesting mix of European and Asian influences and I think it would work perfectly with canon Ferelden because:

1. People LOVED fur elements in their clothing. Fur lining on coats, fur caps decorated with feathers, pelts of wild carnivores (lions, wolves, bears, etc.) on armour  - fur was everywhere.

2. It is simple but regal. The quality of materials and patterns were more important than volume and the number of layers. A typical male noble outfit consisted of a long garment (żupan), a long, ornate sash, one of two types of cloak (delia or kontusz) and a fur cap decorated with feathers and jewels. If you compare it with the baroque fashion from France it is less extravagant and more practical. No wigs, no flounces, no man tights. 

Compare these two dudes – the older one is dressed Commonwealth style, the younger – in French style. 

The Deluge, 1974

Of course some wealthy noblemen who spent a lot of time in France or other Western countries tended to adapt their style, but from what I know it was not that common. Women, on the other hand, tended to dress more similar to their Western counterparts (especially when they wanted to look fashionable) but their everyday dresses were not that much elaborate. They also wore kontusz (though the female version was shorter) and fur caps when outside. 

Below I post some more costumes to better illustrate my point. They all come from Polish movie adaptations of H. Sienkiewicz’s novels (I looove both the books and the movies).

With Fire and Sword, 1999

The Deluge, 1974

Fire in the Steppe, 1968

And I could not NOT to mention the wonderful interpretation of Fereldan armor and clothing for my OCs drawn by @ankalime​ - I still can’t get over how beautiful they look :3

Food

From what we know, Fereldan food is very similar to traditional English cuisine (lamb and pea anyone?), HOWEVER, I can totally see some traditional Polish dishes on Fereldan tables. Let us look at this part of Alistair’s banter with Leliana:

“Now here in Ferelden, we do things right. We take our ingredients, throw them into the largest pot we can find, and cook them for as long as possible until everything is a uniform grey color. As soon as it looks completely bland and unappetizing, that's when I know it's done.”

Dishes like bigos, flaki or goulash (mostly associated with Hungary but also present in various forms in Slavic countries) totally fit this description. Tasty and hearty but I know some foreigners see them as totally unappetizing :P

Poland is also culturally more into beer than wine  (high five, British Isles!), so Fereldan ale fits this image, too.

PART 3. POLITICS

When I first played DA:O and heard about choosing the new queen/king on Landsmeet I was like “omg, they have wolna elekcja!”

The canon Ferelden is a feudal country, however, there seems to be less focus on the king's absolute power – instead, the nobles can choose the king they like, the hierarchy inside this particular social class is also less striking than one can expect. 

And this brings me to the concept of Golden Liberty. (I will quote Wikipedia here, I am not that smart to explain this well in English on my own).

The Golden Liberty was a unique political system of the Commonwealth – a mixture of monarchy, oligarchy and democracy. The most distinctive elements of that systems were:

- All nobles regardless of rank or economic status, were considered to have equal legal rights (and you did not have to own a town or two to be considered a noble – a large part of the nobility owned nothing more than a farm, often little different from a peasant's dwelling, and some did not even have that much). The rights were, for example:

-  Neminem captivabimus ("We shall not arrest anyone without a court verdict").  

- right to vote – every nobleman, whether rich or poor, could vote. Of course if someone was rich, they could bribe others to gain more political influence, but it is the same as today. 

- religious freedom – unlike many other European countries of the time, people in Commonwealth were legally free to follow any religion. The Commonwealth became a common refuge for people who were persecuted for religion in their homelands. The religious freedom was not restricted to nobility but to all social classes. 

- rokosz - the right to form a legal rebellion against a king who violated nobility freedoms.

- the monarchy was elective, not hereditary, and the king was elected by the nobility. That “democracy” was not, of course, perfect, as only male noblemen had the right to vote and elect the king. However, it was still between 10-15% of the population who could vote. In comparison, “in 1831 in France only about 1% of the population had the right to vote”

The Landsmeet in DA:O is basically the free election (well, maybe minus the duel :D) and I would say the Fereldan nobility does not feel obliged to be obedient 100% of the time. 

PART 4. RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES

Orlesian occupation

We know from the game that Orlais invaded Ferelden in 8:24 Blessed and occupied it for decades. The Fereldan forces were rebelling against the occupant and finally, under the command of Maric Theirin, they won their freedom.

Again, it is a huge topic, so to summarize: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth suffered a similar fate in 1795 as it was conquered and divided between Habsburg Austria, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire. For 123 years Poles have been trying to regain their country, have started several uprisings and lost many lives in their fight for independence. Finally, at the end of WW1, independent Poland reappeared on the map of the world. Then came the WW2, probably the most tragic event in Polish history – the cities were razed to the ground, a vast part of national heritage destroyed or stolen, and over 6 million people (1/5 of the pre-war population) were killed.

So yeah, a country invaded and occupied for decades by its neighbour sounds way too familiar to be ignored. 

Ferelden in the eyes of Orlesians

The Fereldans are a puzzle. As a people, they are one bad day away from reverting to barbarism. (...) They are the coarse, wilful, dirty, disorganized people [DA:O Codex Entry: Culture of Ferelden].

Yeah... this, unfortunately, sounds familiar. I fear that the stereotype of a drunk, stupid, poor, thieving Poles (and other Slavic nations), which originated from WW2 propaganda, is somehow still alive in the West. I will not dive deeper in this subject because I want to believe my followers have their own brain cells and I do not need to explain how hurtful and offensive those stereotypes are.

My point is – I could identify easily with a fantasy country that is located east from the “centre of culture and civilisation” and is unfairly believed to be more barbaric.

So – for all two of you who bothered to read the whole thing - thanks for coming to my TED talk.I really appreciate the time you spent here :)

[aboveallarescuer]

GRRM interviews about (or mentioning) Dany - Part 1

I went to So Spake Martin and collected excerpts of GRRM's interviews that talked about Dany in some way. Some observations here:

I didn't have access to broken/unavailable links or newspapers that require subscription.

I didn't get video or podcast interviews, only ones that were written down.

I also added some excerpts about how he enjoys grey characters or how he wants to be "realistic" and other topics that may relate ... not necessarily to Dany's character, but to his writing in general. It may be useful for some metas, even if they should not be divorced from the actual text.

I didn't mind collecting interviews about the same topic.

Maybe I did a poor job collecting these interviews or the SSM is incomplete, but, in any case, there are still several key interviews missing; I couldn't find the ones about how GRRM relates to Dany's character or how he wishes the Targaryens were black, for instance. 

Even with these limitations in mind, there is still quite a bit to dig into here.

November 1998

The Targaryens have heavily interbred, like the Ptolemys of Egypt. As any horse or dog breeder can tell you, interbreeding accentuates both flaws and virtues, and pushes a lineage toward the extremes. Also, there's sometimes a fine line between madness and greatness. Daeron I, the boy king who led a war of conquest, and even the saintly Baelor I could also be considered "mad," if seen in a different light. ((And I must confess, I love grey characters, and those who can be interperted in many different ways. Both as a reader and a writer, I want complexity and subtlety in my fiction))

 December 1998

Was it a conscious decision to paint things in grey, killing off good guys, etc.

Definitely a conscious decision. Both as a reader and a writer, I prefer my plots to be unpredictable and my characters to be painted in shades of grey, rather than in blacks and whites.

 July 1999

Just out of being curious how a writer goes about his work -- do you generally write a certain POVs chapters in batches? Or are Dany's chapters, given how generally unconnected they are to the rest of the books as she goes along her own plot thread, easier to do that way? I suppose the momentum can help with a tough character.

Yes, I generally get in a groove on a particular character and write several chapters or chunks of chapters at once, before hitting a wall. When I do hit a wall, I switch to another character. Some characters are easier to write and some harder, however. Dany and Bran have always been toughest, maybe because they are heaviest on the magical elements... also, Bran is the youngest of POV kids, and very restricted as well because of his legs. At the other end of the spectrum, the Tyrion chapters often seem to write themselves. The same was true for Ned.

 Jon was not born "more than 1 year" before Dany... probably closer to eight or nine months or thereabouts.

November 1999

Also, just how much impact did the Rhoynar have on the modern customs of Dorne? Beyond the gender-blind inheritance laws, the couple of Rhoynish gods that smallfolk might have turned into saints or angelic-type beings, and perhaps the round shields, that is. In particular, given that Nymeria was a warrior-queen, is there a certain amazon tradition?

The Rhoynar did impact Dorne in a number of ways, some of which will be revealed in later books. Women definitely have more rights in Dorne, but I would not call it an "Amazon" tradition, necessarily. Nymeria had more in common with someone like Daenerys or Joan d'Arc than with Brienne or Xena the Warrior Princess.

September 2000

It has been my intention from the start to gradually bring up the amount of magic in each successive volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, and that will continue. I will not rule out the possibility of a certain amount of "behind the scenes" magic, either. But while sorcerous events may impact on my characters, as with Renly or Lord Beric or Dany, their choices must ultimately remain their own.

 November 2000

This third Targaryen might very well be -not- a Targaryen, to quote his exact words... "Three heads of the dragon... yes... but the third will not nessesarily BE a Targaryen..."

 He mentioned his frustration that Tranter books don't have maps since Tranter tends to describe journeys using ALL the available landmarks (I also stupidly complained about there not being a map of the landmass Dany's on in the books, and he VERY politely pointed out to me that there was one in SoS [O the shame!]). 

 December 2000

NG: A Song of Ice and Fire undergoes a very interesting progression over its first three volumes, from a relatively clear scenario of Good (the Starks) fighting Evil (the Lannisters) to a much more ambiguous one, in which the Lannisters are much better understood, and moral certainties are less easily attainable. Are you deliberately defying the conventions and assumptions of neo-Tolkienian Fantasy here?

GRRM: Guilty as charged.

The battle between good and evil is a legitimate theme for a Fantasy (or for any work of fiction, for that matter), but in real life that battle is fought chiefly in the individual human heart. Too many contemporary Fantasies take the easy way out by externalizing the struggle, so the heroic protagonists need only smite the evil minions of the dark power to win the day. And you can tell the evil minions, because they're inevitably ugly and they all wear black.

I wanted to stand much of that on its head.

In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.

 NG: You've frequently expressed admiration for Jack Vance. How Vancean is A Song of Ice and Fire in conception and style? In particular, does the narrative thread featuring the exotic wanderings of Daenerys Targaryen function in part as a tribute to Vance, to his picaresque inventiveness?

GRRM: Jack Vance is the greatest living SF writer, in my opinion, and one of the few who is also a master of Fantasy. His The Dying Earth (1950) was one of the seminal books in the history of modern Fantasy, and I would rank him right up there with Tolkien, Dunsany, Leiber, and T.H. White as one of the fathers of the genre.

All that being said, I don't think A Song of Ice and Fire is particularly Vancean. Vance has his voice and I have mine. I couldn't write like Vance even if I tried... and I did try, once. The first Haviland Tuf story, "A Beast for Norn," was my attempt to capture some of Vance's effects, and Tuf is a very Vancean hero, a distant cousin to Magnus Ridolph, perhaps. But what that experiment taught me was that only Jack Vance can write like Jack Vance

 NG: Three more volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire wait to be written. What shape do you expect them to take, and are their titles finalized as yet?

GRRM: Yes, three more volumes remain. The series could almost be considered as two linked trilogies, although I tend to think of it more as one long story. The next book, A Dance With Dragons, will focus on the return of Daenerys Targaryen to Westeros, and the conflicts that creates. After that comes The Winds of Winter. I have been calling the final volume A Time For Wolves, but I am not happy with that title and will probably change it if I can come up with one that I like better.

 You tend to write protagonists with strongly negative personality quirks, people who certainly don't fit the standard mold of a hero. People like Tuf in the Tuf Voyaging series, and Stannis and Tyrion inSong of Ice and Fire. Do you deliberately inject your characters with unattractive elements to make readers consciously think about whether they like them and why?

Martin: [Laughs.] Well, I don't know that I'd choose the word "unappealing," but I look for ways to make my characters real and to make them human, characters who have good and bad, noble and selfish, well-mixed in their natures. Yes, I do certainly want people to think about the characters, and not just react with a knee-jerk. I read too much fiction myself in which you encounter characters who are very stereotyped. They're heroic-hero and dastardly-villain, and they're completely black or completely white. And that's boring, so far as I'm concerned. It's also unreal. If you look at real human history, even the darkest villains had some good things about them. Perhaps they were courageous, or perhaps they were occasionally compassionate to an enemy. Even our greatest heroes had weaknesses and flaws.

 There seem to be two different styles competing throughout the series: historical fantasy in the Seven Kingdoms series, and a softer Roger Zelazny/Arabian Nights style for the scenes abroad. Is there a conscious split between the two for you, or is it just an aspect of the setting?

Martin: I try to vary the style to fit each of the characters. Each character should have his or her own internal voice, since we're inside their heads. But certainly the setting has great impact. Dany is moving through exotic realms that are perhaps stranger to us than Westeros, which is more based in the medieval history with which we're more familiar in the West, so perhaps those chapters seem more colorful and fanciful.

 You do tend to be very brutal to your characters.

Martin: Well, yes. But you know, I think there's a requirement, even in fantasy--it comes from a realm of the imagination and is based on fanciful worlds, but there's still a necessity to tell the truth, to try to reflect some true things about the world we live in. There's an inherent dishonesty to the sort of fantasy that too many people have done, where there's a giant war that rips the world apart, but no one that we know is ever really seriously inconvenienced by this. You see the devastated villages where unnamed peasants have lived, and they're all dead, but the heroes just breeze through, killing people at every hand, surviving those dire situations. There's a falsehood to that that troubles me. A writer can choose not to write about war. You don't have to write about war if that's not a subject that interests you, or you find it too brutal. But if you are going to write about war, I think you need to tell the truth about it, and the truth is that people die, and people die in ugly ways, and even some of the good guys die, even people who are loved.

 June 2001

I'm a bit concerned about Dany's skills as a commander. To succeed with the invasion of Westeros, I believe she will need a lot of sound military advice (both tactically and strategically). What's your thoughts on this issue?

She will need counsel, yes... she will also need to learn to tell the good counsel from the bad, which is perhaps the hardest task of all.

 Was it difficult to you when you wrote Dany's scene with the slavers in SOS? Was that one of the moments where the character spoke to you and changer their direction? Cause for me that act of Dany's seemed out of character. I know she dislikes slavery, but she must have killed an awful lot of innocent people there, plus her motives to me seemed suspect. Yes she freed the slaves, but she also got a large army for nothing. And right after she left the slavery started up again.

Dany is still very young. She has lessons to learn. That was one of them. It is not as easy to do good as it might seem, no matter how noble your intentions.

 February 2002

1. Was Mirri Maz Duur telling the truth when she told Daenerys Targaryen that the latter could never have children again?

I am sure Dany would like to know. Prophecy can be a tricky business.

 3. Is Daenerys Targaryen or anyone in her entourage able to tell whether her dragons are male or female? (Is the question relevant to dragons?)

Not yet.

 4. Daenerys Targaryen believed that her brother Rhaegar loved Lyanna Stark. Does she also believe that Lyanna Stark returned this love?

Dany is not sure what to believe.

 5. Since all of their mothers died, who gave Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen and Tyrion Lannister their names?

Mothers can name a child before birth, or during, or after, even while they are dying. Dany was most like named by her mother, Tyrion by his father, Jon by Ned.

 March 2002

3) Is your world round. I mean if Dany traveled far enough east couldnt she come to the other side of westeros?

Yes, the world is round. Might be a little larger than ours, though. I was thinking more like Vance's Big Planet.... but don't hold me to that.

 Oh, stupid fan question. I've been trying to get a visual of what the Quarth look like in my mind. In terms of what race they might be in our world. Tall and pale but I don't believe their hair color was mentioned. Would they be Western European looking? Slavic? Whenever their culture is mentioned I always think of either Persian or Indians.

I have tried to mix and match ethnic and cultural traits in creating my imaginary fantasy peoples, so there are no direct one-for-one correspodences. The Dothraki, for example, are based in part on the Mongols, the Alans, and the Huns, but their skin coloring is Amerindian. The Qartheen are an even more exotic hybrid, and offhand I don't recall where I got all the cuttings.

 April 2002

[Shaun] How do you view Dany's place in the series. She seems an heroic character to me, but the writeups on the back covers always speak of her as a villain...

[+GeorgeRRMartin] to shaun ignore the blurbs on the back cover and make up your own mind who is the hero and who is the villain

 [Erix] Dany will be betrayes 3 times. Did ser Jorah betray here once for money? so does this make it 2 betrayels so far?

[+GeorgeRRMartin] to erix no comment (twice!)

 He said that in his original plan (when he wanted to write a trilogy) the Red Wedding would take place in book one, and Dany's landing in Westeros in book two. Now he says that Dany's arrival in Westeros will take place in book 5, A Dance with Dragons.

 December 2003

Shaw: You created Jon as a bastard and an outcast from the get-go. Yet he's also one of the most attractive characters. Did you choose to make Jon a bastard to make him more attractive as an "underdog," or was his bastard birth central to the shaping of his character itself?

Martin: Almost all the characters have problems in some way. Very few of my major viewpoint characters have all the answers or have an easy path through life. They all have burdens to bear. Some of them are women in a society that doesn't necessarily value women or give them a lot of power or independence. Tyrion of course is a dwarf which has its own challenges. Dany is an exile, powerless, penniless, at the mercy of other people, and Jon is a bastard. These things shape their characters. Your experiences in life, your place in life inevitably is going to change who you are.

 Shaw: As the novels unfold, Jon becomes increasingly identified with the northern cold and ice, just as Dany is closely tied to the southern heat and fire. Will these two ultimately embody the central image of the series, Ice and Fire?

Martin: That's certainly one way to interpret it. That's for my readers to argue out. That may be one possible meaning. There may be a secondary meaning, or a tertiary meaning as well.

 Shaw: Are all the Targaryans immune to fire?

Martin: No, no Targaryans are immune to fire. The thing with Dany and the dragons, that was just a one-time magical event, very special and unique. The Targaryans can tolerate a bit more heat than most ordinary people, they like really hot baths and things like that, but that doesn't mean they're totally immune to fire, no. Dragons, on the other hand, are pretty much immune to fire.

 February 2004

Jon and Dany will be the two focal characters of AFfC (in the sort of way in which Ned was the focal character of AGoT). 

 May 2005

He doesn't feel that it's fair to call his work gratuitous. He wants the reader to live vicariously though his books (a function of fantasy writing), feel the characters emotions. If a character is at a feast, he wants the reader to smell the food, experience Dany's discomfort at being served an unappetizing dish. The same with the sex scenes-he wants his readers to feel like they are there.

Another bit of information that I found interesting- we *WILL* hear about the POVs who will not have front stage as it were, but will have it in ADwD. The reports of those chars will be somewhat garbled and messy as can be expected from any news that has travelled that distance and is that important. ex) Varys' manipulation of the Dany information, or Theon's skinning of the miller's information (we didn't know it wasn't Bran and Rickon until later). *THOSE* are the kind of reports we will see in AFFC about the missing POVs. We will get information on them, but have no idea which parts, if any, are correct.

I have some more things to add about things I asked, but I will probably trickle out things as I sober up and recall them. :p

The following will show up in ADwD:

Arya, Bran, Jon, Dany, Tyrion, and Asha (she will be in both books, as she gets involved in affairs of the North)

[Note: Spoiler POV redacted] has the most number of chapters in AFFC, while Dany has the most in ADwD. Also, the number of Tyrion chapters is going up from 4 to 7 in ADwD (his storyline is basically beinbg expanded).

 GRRM said Dany and the Wall is excluded. That removes Dany and probably Tyrion plus the Wall which presumably means Jon and Davos. 

Dragons will deal with Daenerys and the North. He decided to split by character, rather than in the middle of the story, as he wanted a complete book, rather than FfC part I and II.

This is no hoax.

I swear it by ice and fire. I swear that I will never post again should this prove false. I swear I will never touch wine again, if it is not true.

George said it is done.

But he had to make a major change. It had grown too large.

Daenerys will not appear. There will be little if any action in the North. Those chapters will be moved into the next book, which should come out shortly thereafter.

AFFC will be the size of AGoT.

 The next book will still be called aDwD. (Dany will be in it after all). 

 That being said, Dany will be presented with a map of the world from a fellow whose name I cannot remember because the pronunciation was very odd indeed.

 There was some talk about the Targaryen bloodline and how it worked when there weren't enough siblings to marry. Uncle might marry niece or aunt, nephew. There were also cousins in that family at one time. 

 Dany has more chapters than anyone. He also said that Dany's love life is going to become "extremely complex"

 Parris has proclaimed that Arya cannot die! (No, she wasn't there :( but he mentioned it when someone said that he's not allowed to kill Dany)

So yeah, in short, book not done but soon, lots of Dany, the Ironborn, and the Dornish, and Renly and Loras were INDEED knocking boots.

October 2005

The main point of discussion was the reason for the five-year wait since A Storm of Swords. I'm sure most of you know this already but, briefly, he wanted a 5-year gap between ASOS and ADWD to allow the kids to grow up. Some characters, mainly the children and Daenerys, really benefited from this, but most of the other characters suffered and the book was degenerating into a flashback-fest. After about a year he decided that wasn't working, ditched everything, and started again. 

 November 2005

His analogy is that the series is a symphony and each book is a movement, and explained that he likes each character arc to have some sort of finale in each book, whether it's on a cliffhanger, or a completion of some phase of the character's story arc (or death hehe). Ultimately, he decided to divide it geographically as you all know, since Dany's story is taking place in Martinland's China, and the rest is taking place in Martinland's England.

 One man asked whether George ever learns of people naming their kids after his characters. He pointed the guy to his website, where he even has baby pictures of Sansas, Aryas, even a Daenarys, Nymeria, Eddard, Bran, Chataya, and several Cerseis. He won't take credit for the Jons, though (hehe). It was great; someone in the audience made a crack about Cersei, and someone else said "as long as they aren't twins"). He mentioned meeting a little girl whose parents had named her Daenarys and he made a joke about how she was really going to hate spelling that when she gets to first grade. He also once got a letter from a 23-year-old girl named Lya whose mother said she was named after a character in one of his stories (A Song for Lya) and wanted to know who the heck Lya was. George sent her a copy! Hehe. He said he finds it flattering overall, but thinks it's a bad idea when the story isn't done yet and some of the characters will come to a bad end, and then those parents will be pissed with him!

 He was asked or mentioned most of the stuff that's already been covered, but one thing he talked about that I found particularly interesting was Romanticism. He said that he is a romantic, in the classical sense. He said the trouble with being a romantic is that from a very early age you keep having your face smashed into the harshness of reality. That things aren't always fair, bad things happen to good people, etc. He said it's a realists world, so romantics are burned quite often. This theme of romantic idealism conflicting with harsh reality is something he finds very dramatic and compelling, and he weaves it into his work. Specifically he mentioned that the Knight exemplifies this, as the chivalric code is one of the most idealistic out there, protection of the weak, paragon of all that is good, fighting for truth and justice. The reality was that they were people, and therefore could do horrible cruel things, rape, pillage, wanton killing, made all the more striking or horrifying because it was in complete opposition to what they were "supposed" to be. Really interesting stuff.

 At the San Diego signing, I asked GRRM at the Q&A, "Besides Dany's dragons, have all the Targaryen dragons been descendants of Aegon the Conquerors three?" GRRM answered "yes".

 And that one of the things he regrets losing from the POV split is that he was doing point and counterpoint with the Dany and Cersei scenes--showing how each was ruling in their turn.

 Q: 5-year gap?

A: It worked for characters like Arya and Dany but not so much for the adults or those who had a lot of action coming. He was writing chapters where Jon thought, "Well, not a lot has happened these past five years, it's been kinda nice." And Cersei chapters where she thought, "Well, I've had to kill sooo many people the last five years." So he ended up dropping it. He said he would have done it sooner if he hadn't told so many fans about it. And there is no gap anymore. "If a twelve-year old has to conquer the world, then so be it."

 (Petyr is just Peter, for example.)

Some he did say during the course of the evening:

Cersei = Sir-say

Jaime = Jamie (I think that was obvious but just in case)

Sansa = Sahn-sa

Tyrion = Tear-ion

Arya = Ar-Ya (Ex, Are ya?)

Daenerys = Dane-err-is

 TARGARYEN KINGS

SUBMITTED BY: AMOKA

[Note: The following information was sent to Amok for his contribution to the Fantasy Flight Games artbook.]

These are all Targaryens, of course, so there should be a strong family resemblence from portrait to portrait. All of them (except as noted) will have the purple eyes and silver-gold hair for which House Targaryen is noted. All of them should be wearing crowns... the same crown in many of the pix, though it will change once or twice along the way, as noted.

The hard part will be making each of the kings an individual, despite the similarities, and evoking each one's character through facial features, pose, clothing, background, and other elements in the portrait.

Here's the lineup:

DAENERYS I. Daenerys Stormborn. No description necessary, I assume. Show her wearing the three-headed dragon crown she was given in Qarth, as described in A CLASH OF KING. Might be good to include the three dragons in the picture. Show them very young, as hatchings, one in her lap, one wrapped around her arm and shoulder, one flying just above her.

 January 2006

He repeatedly emphasized that he prefers to write grey characters, because in real life people are complex; no one is pure evil or pure good. Fiction tends to divide people into heroes who do no wrong and villains who go home and kick their dogs and beat their wives, but that reality is much different. He cited a soldier who heroically saves his friends' lives, but then goes home and beats his wife. Which is he, hero or villain? Martin said both and that neither act cancels out the other.

 February 2006

NAERYS TARGARYEN

SUBMITTED BY: AMOKA

[Note: The following continues GRRM's series of descriptions of notable Targaryens (and Targaryen bastards) for Amoka.]

The sister of King Aegon the Unworthy and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight was beautiful as well, but hers was a very fine and delicate beauty, almost unworldy. She was a wisp of a woman, smaller even than Dany (to whom she bears a certain resemblence), very slender, with big purple eyes and fine, pale, porcelain skin, near translucent. Naerys had none of Dany's strength, however. 

 July 2006

George regrets that Cersei and Dany will not be contrasted directly. I told him of how some dedicated boarders try to defeat him and piece together a timeline. George replied that he tries to keep it vague.

He likes the extra breathing room to flesh out the characters. Bran didn't have any chapters and Dany's ending was different. Now he likes the way she ended. I think he actually may be doing more with Dany.

 SPOILER: Possible for ADWD

The second Dance of Dragons does not have to mean Dany's invasion.

Geroge stopped himself short and said he shouldn't say anymore. The response came because of my question of whether the dance would take place in ADWD because AFFC and ADWD parallel. So now my friends, speculate away.

 February 2007

Some other bits of info from Q&A: In Song, he considers Bran the hardest viewpoint character to write, while Tyrion is the easiest. The Red Wedding was partly based on a historical event in Scotland called the Black Dinner. His biggest lament in splitting A Feast for Crows from A Dance with Dragons is the parallels he was drawing between Circe and Daenerys.

 E. His dragons have no front limbs -- just rear legs and wings. He said that although the traditional depiction of dragons as six limbed creatures has become a staple of fantasy -- the fact that no animal in nature has ever evolved in such a way always bothered him. As a sci-fi writer originally, he insists on the depiction of the dragons with just four limbs. I never heard that before and though it was pretty neat.. In addition, he said that although AsoIaF dragons are intelligent, they cannot speak and will never evolve into the sort of dragons we see in Tolkien or Le Guin. Specifically he said’ Drogon is never going to share witty aphorisms with Dany. The Targaryens rule by Fire and Blood and that is what the dragons represent in the story". I guess the power icon is more Nedly for them than some of us thought when they were first rolled out back in AfoD.

 F. Cersei and Daenerys are intended as parallel characters --each exploring a different approach to how a woman would rule in a male dominated, medieval-inspired fantasy world.

 May 2007

GRRM: Well, the next book out is A Dance with Dragons, of course, and that's the fifth book of the series but in some ways it's really 4B, as those of you who follow the series knows that A Feast for Crows got so big I had to pull it in half. I split it not by chopping it right in the middle but I split it by characters. The one I'm working on now is going to have an awful lot of the characters that that aren't in A Feast for Crows, it's going to have a lot of Jon Snow, a lot of Daenerys, a fair amount of Davos, and it's going to have have a lot of "me" -- Tyrion, who is your favorite, and my favorite, so I'm enjoying writing a lot of those right now.

 And you know I got phone calls from people at the studio afterwards saying, "There is a way to make this as a feature. There's a way to do it as a movie. You could just take Jon Snow and Daenerys and just concentrate on them and get rid of some of the minor characters." And it just, it was kind of appalling because, much as I love Jon Snow and Daenerys, I didn't want to lose the other characters. I mean this is an epic and the only way we could conceive of doing it properly was to tell it as a series. And you can't do it as a series where's it interrupted every twenty minutes by a commercial for toothpaste. And you can't do it where I'd have Tyrion saying the things he says and doing the things he says, all of which network TV would have had a huge problem with.

So we really felt from the beginning that the best way to do this was on HBO or possibly Showtime. 

 August 2007

Just because I still love Popinjay and the Turtle and my other Wild Cards characters does not mean I have stopped loving Arya and Tyrion and Dany.

 April 2008

BERBERS AND DANY

[Did the unrest during the transition between Arab and Berber rule inspire Dany's storyline?]

No. Sounds fascinating, but I'm afraid I don't have enough experience with the Berbers or their history to draw on them for inspiration.

 July 2008

GRRM was asked the typical question, of where the idea for ASOIAF had come from. He replied that in the summer of 1991, when he was working as a Hollywood screenwriter, in a gap between assignments he began work on a new novel, a sf novel called Avalon ( personal note, no I would not swap it for ASOIAF, but I would have loved to have read it), set in his future history universe. And somehow, he found himself writing the first chapter of AGOT, about the direwolf pups un the snow. And after that came a second chapter and pretty soon he spent the whole summer writing AGOT.

From there he started to plan a trilogy, since there were 3 main conflicts ( Starks/Lannisters; Dany; and the Others) it felt it would neatly fit into a trilogy (ah!), but like Tolkien said, the tale grew in the telling. 

 April 2010

GRRM said he regretted mentioning the eye color of any of his characters. He also noted that as a brown-eyed person, he finds it annoying that brown-eyed characters are always portrayed as ordinary, while the doers of great deeds always have blue or hazel eyes or something - he notes that he himself was somewhat guilty of this with the violet eyes of Dany or the red eyes of Melisandre.

 (25) Any particular storyline he is enjoying right now?

He said that Dany's storyline is emerging in increasing importance. But he is struggling with the Meereenese Knot. So he can't say he is enjoying it. But he is really enjoying writing Arya's story. He could write an entire novel of it. He could write an entire YA novel about her...(at this point the audience starting clapping and calling out YES! DO IT!)...but her entire story isn't part of the greater novel. He has 12 novels worth of info for this book and its hard to fit it all in.

 February 2011

Sam Thielman: So, why did "A Dance With Dragons" take longer to write than the other books in the series?

George R. R. Martin: Well, you know, that's a good question and I'm not sure I have an easy answer for that. #1, none of the books have been exactly fast, I mean, I'm a slow writer, I've always been a slow writer, and the books are huge. I mean, they're three, four, five times the size of most novels being published. And they have extremely complex interweaving storylines. I remember back when I did the first book, 'A Game of Thrones,' Asimov's Magazine wanted to publish an excerpt and I pulled out the Daenerys storyline from the first book, and they published that as an excerpt, and after I pulled out all the Daenerys chapters and put them together for Asimov's, I did a word count and discovered, technically, I had a novel, just about Daenerys. I'm never gonna be one of those writers who has a book a year, or two books a year like some of my colleagues do. I simply can't write that fast. I do a lot of polishing and revising, and it's a big task.

 July 2011

Tad: Question: Do you purposely start a character as bad so you can later kill them?

GRRM: No. What is bad? Bad is a label. We are human beings with heroism and self-interest and avarice in us and any human is capable of great good or great wrong. In Poland a couple of weeks ago I was reading about the history of Auschwitz – there were startling interviews with the people there. The guards had done unthinkable atrocities, but these were ordinary people. What allowed them to do this kind of evil? Then you read accounts of acts of outrageous heroism, yet the people are criminals or swindlers, one crime or another, but when forced to make a choice they make a heroic choice. This is what fascinated me about the human animal. A lot of fantasy turns on good and evil – but my take on it is that it’s fought within the human heart every day, and that’s the more interesting take. I don’t think life is that simple.

 Tad: All of us work with multiple viewpoints – I hear this next question a lot: with story-driven plots, how do you decide which character viewpoint to write from – do you write several characters, taste them, then decide?

GRRM: No, not several, at least not intentionally. I had more choice early in the series, I frequently had situations where 2 or 3 were present at the same time. But as it’s progressed they have dispersed, so I need to be in the viewpoint of whoever’s there. There are some cases when I have a choice and in that case, I weigh which one. Without talking exactly about "The Mereenese Knot" – I’m not going to talk exactly about it, but but [there was a time when] a number of viewpoints were coming together in Mereen for a number of events, and I was wrestling with order and viewpoint. The different points-of-view had different sources of knowledge and I never could quite solve it. I was rewriting the same chapter over and over again – this, that, viewpoint? – spinning my wheels. It was one of the more troublesome thickets I encountered. There’s a resolution not to introduce new viewpoint characters, but the way I finally dealt with things was with Barristan, I introduced him as a viewpoint character as though he’d been there all along. That enabled me to clear away some of the brush.

 Tad: Question: do you choose characters because they will provide you with a viewpoint or something characterful?

GRRM: Actually, no. I try to give each viewpoint character an arc of his own, and ideally I would like to think that you could pull the material out – in the early books I was able to pull out the Daenerys chapters and publish them separately as a novella, and I won a Hugo Award for that. It'd be great if I could pull out each [character-arc] and it would resemble a story. In some cases a character died and that was a very short story. My prologue and epilogue characters always die but even then I try to give them a story.

 Your books, especially recently, are full of women trying to exert power in a male dominated world who have to compromise themselves along the way. Are you trying to make a feminist statement?

You could certainly interpret it that way. I don't presume to say I'm making a statement of this type or that type. But it is certainly a patriarchal society, I am trying to explore some of the ramifications of that. I try to write women as people, just as I try to write any other characters. Strong and weak, and brave and cowardly, and noble and selfish. It has been very gratifying to me how many women read my work and how much they like at least some of my female characters.

 The one thing I must confess to being frustrated by is the first Tyion chapter where you set up this expectation that he’s going to meet Dany, and I got excited. Then about 600 pages later I’m realizing, “OK, that’s not gonna happen, at least not in this book.”

Yeah, it’s the “kind of bring ’em together but don’t give them the confirmation.” In some ways it’s not so different than the sexual tension in TV shows — are Catherine and Vincent [on Beauty and the Beast] finally going to kiss? Same philosophy. This is the kind of stuff I wrestle with. I could have ended the next chapter: Tyrion gets off the boat and there’s Dany. But the journey itself has its own interest.

 There’s a point in the series where you feel like you’re reading a bunch of separate stories. Toward the end of Dance, you feel the threads starting to come back together. Is that accurate?

That’s certainly the intent, and always was the intent. Tolkien was my great model for much of this. Although I differ from Tolkien in important ways, I’m second to no one in my respect for him. If you look at Lord of the Rings, it begins with a tight focus and all the characters are together. Then by end of the first book the Fellowship splits up and they have different adventures. I did the same thing. Everybody is at Winterfell in the beginning except for Dany, then they split up into groups, and ultimately those split up too. The intent was to fan out, then curve and come back together. Finding the point where that turn begins has been one of the issues I’ve wrestled with.

 There was a fair amount of explicit sex in the series and some fans of the books were taken aback.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this with HBO is that I wanted to keep the sex. We had some real problems because Dany is only 13 in the books, and that’s based on medieval history. They didn’t have this concept of adolescence or the teenage years. You were a child or you were an adult. And the onset of sexual maturity meant you were an adult. So I reflected that in the books. But then when you go to film it you run into people going crazy about child pornography and there’s actual laws about how you can’t depict a 13 year old having sex even if you have an 18 year old acting the part — it’s illegal in the United Kingdom. So we ended up with a 22 year old portraying an 18 year old, instead of an 18 year old portraying a 13 year old. If we decided to lose the sex we could have kept the original ages. And once you change the age of one character you have to change the ages of all the characters, and change the date of the war [that dethroned the Mad King]. The fact we made all these changes indicates how important we thought sex was.

 References the chapbook with the first three Dany chapters from 2005 and that it offers insight as to how much the book has changed since then.

 There's been an interesting discussion on our forum concerning "orientalism" as it's expressed in your work, and one question it's led to among readers is whether you've ever considered a foreign point of view characters in Essos, to give a different window into events there.

No, this story is about Westeros. Those other lands are important only as they reflect on Westeros.

 Part of the difficulty of this particular novel was what you called the "Meereenese Knot", trying to get everything to happen in just the right order, pulling various plot strands together in one place, and part of the solution was the addition of another point of view character. Was this something where you tried writing it from a number of different point of views before settling on a new one? Did you actively resist adding a new character?

The Meerenese Knot related to everyone reaching Dany. There's a series of events that have to occur in Meereen, things that are significant. She has various problems to deal with at the start: dealing with the slavers, threats of war, the Sons of the Harpy, and so on. At the same time, there's all of these characters trying to get to her. So the problem was to figure out who should reach her and in what order, and what events should happen by the time they've reached her. I kept coming up with different answers and I kept having to rewrite different versions and then not being satisfied with the dynamics until I found something that was satisfactory. I thought that solution worked well, but it was not my first choice.

There's a Dany scene in the book which is actually one of the oldest chapters in the book that goes back almost ten years now. When I was contemplating the five year gap [Martin laughs here, with some chagrin], that chapter was supposed to be the first Daenerys chapter in the book. Then it became the second chapter, and then the third chapter, and it kept getting pushed back as I inserted more things into it. I've rewritten that chapter so much that it ended in many different ways.

There's a certain time frame of the chronology where you can compare to A Feast for Crows and even A Storm of Swords and figure out when they would reach Meereen and the relative time frames of each departure and each arrival. But that doesn't necessarily lead to the most dramatic story. So you look at it and try and figure out how to do it. I also wanted to get across how difficult and dangerous it was to travel like this. There are many storms that will wreck your ship, there are dangerous lands in between where there are pirates and corsairs, and all that stuff. It's not like hopping on a 747, where you get on and then step off the plane a few hours later. So all of these considerations went into the Meereenese Knot.

Then there's showing things after [an important event], which proved to be very difficult. I tried it with one point of view character, but this was an outsider who could only guess at what was going on, and then I tried it with a different character and it was also difficult. The big solution was when I hit on adding a new point of view character who could give the perspective this part of the story needed.

March 2012

If you listen to the CBC interview which you'll see the link for under General ASOIAF, much of what he said was repeated tonight. He admitted Tyrion was his favourite, and if he was having dinner with 3 characters, they would be Tyrion, Maester Aemon and then he thought of Arya, but feared she would throw food at him, so he'd go with Dany, because she's hot!

 June 2012

Near the end of the signing, a man presented Martin with two books and his daughter. “This is Daenerys,” he told Martin, “I sent you a letter about her five years ago.” Daenerys, a squirmy blonde in a pink jacket, looked about five years old. “Hello there,” Martin said, “do you like dragons?” She nodded, and they made room for the next fan.

Now that we know how the "Meereenese knot" played out, what was the problem with this? For example, was it the order in which Dany met various characters, or who, when, and how someone would try to take the dragons?

Now I can explain things. It was a confluence of many, many factors: lets start with the offer from Xaro to give Dany ships, the refusal of which then leads to Qarth's declaration of war. Then there's the marriage of Daenerys to pacify the city. Then there's the arrival of the Yunkish army at the gates of Meereen, there's the order of arrival of various people going her way (Tyrion, Quentyn, Victarion, Aegon, Marwyn, etc.), and then there's Daario, this dangerous sellsword and the question of whether Dany really wants him or not, there's hte plague, there's Drogon's return to Meereen...

All of these things were balls I had thrown up into the air, and they're all linked and chronologically entwined. The return of Drogon to the city was something I explored as happening at different times. For example, I wrote three different versions of Quentyn's arrival at Meereen: one where he arrived long before Dany's marriage, one where he arrived much later, and one where he arrived just the day before the marriage (which is how it ended up being in the novel). And I had to write all three versions to be able to compare and see how these different arrival points affected the stories of the other characters. Including the story of a character who actually hasn't arrived yet.

 October 2012

What's exciting to me about this session is that in this conversation, Martin talks at length about craft. He's been in the business of telling stories for many decades -- as a television writer and as a writer of fiction -- and he has a great deal to say about what works and what doesn't in different mediums. How is information conveyed to the audience (or the reader)? How do you keep sophisticated audiences on their toes? How do you create worlds in which most characters have to choose between the best of many bad options? How do you examine power from the perspective of outsiders, rejects and those who are constrained by conventional wisdom? Martin shared the insights of someone who has been contemplating these questions -- practically and philosophically -- for a very long time.

About midway through the podcast, there's a interesting discussion of his use of "close third person" narration and why that's effective in the creation of memorable characters. It's also interesting to note that he doesn't write the chapters in the order in which they appear in the books, and that he may write four or five Tyrion chapters before stopping and switching to another character. (Another fun fact that emerged -- and I'm sure hardcore "ASoIaF" fans already knew this -- Martin originally signed a contract for a book trilogy. I'm betting his publishers aren't sad he's now working on the sixth book in that "trilogy.")

Eventually, Martin zeroes in on his least favorite thing in any story: Predictability. But he admits that it's "very hard" to shake up the audience, which has grown more sophisticated with every passing decade. When he was writing for the revived "Twilight Zone" in the '80s, for example, network executives wanted the producers to end episodes with a twist of some kind, as the original Rod Serling series had often done. But the audience "could see all these twist endings coming a mile away," Martin said.

He also spoke about his fascination with power and with hierarchies that appear stable but are actually anything but. He mentioned reading a history of Jerusalem in which a mad ruler began killing dozens of courtiers and ordering the hands chopped off the women of the court.

"Why doesn't the captain of the guard say to the sergeant, 'This guy is [expletive] nuts?'" Martin said. "'We have swords! Why don't we kill him instead?'"

But loyalties -- clan loyalties, family loyalties, strategic alliances -- are powerful influences in the lives of Martin's characters, and their personal desires and their traditional duties or roles are often in conflict. And those kinds of unresolvable dilemmas are at the heart of what makes his stories resonate with those of us who didn't begin fighting with swords as children.

Paraphrasing Faulkner, Martin said "the only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself." And that's a scenario that is very familiar to anyone who's ever visited Westeros, either as a reader or a viewer of the HBO drama.

 Is A Song of Ice and Fire a parallelism or a criticism to our society?

No. My work is not an allegory to our days. If I wanted to write about the financial crisis or the conflict in Syria, I would write about the financial crisis or the conflict in Syria, without any metaphor. However, it’s true that in my novels appear several elements which we can find in world history. Things such as power, sex, pain… I have grown up as a science fiction reader, and it was my first love, even before fantasy. But science fiction, then, presented an idealistic world: the space, a bright future, but unluckily that optimism disappeared very quickly and the future wasn’t as good as we had expected. Nowadays, science fiction is very pessimistic and talks about dystopias: about a polluted world, about a rotten world… Of course I would prefer to be part of another world; a better world, but I can’t. Perhaps winter is not coming only to Winterfell, but in the real world.

 March 2013

The readers are unhappy with leaving out the five-year gap?

Well no, some of the storylines from Feast for Crows. I get complaints sometimes that nothing happens — but they're defining "nothing," I think, differently than I am. I don't think it all has to battles and sword fights and assassinations. Character development and [people] changing is good, and there are some tough things in there that I think a lot of writers skip over. I'm glad I didn't skip over these things.

[For example], things that Arya is learning. The things Bran is learning. Learning is not inherently an interesting thing to write about. It's not an easy thing to write about. In the movies, they always handle it with a montage. Rocky can't run very fast. He can't catch the chicken. But then you do a montage, and you cut a lot of images together, and now only a minute later in the film, Rocky is really strong and he is catching the chicken.

It’s a lot harder [in real life]. Sometimes in my own life, I wish I could play a montage of my life. I want to get in shape now. So let’s do a montage, and boom — I'll be fifty pounds lighter and in good shape, and it will only take me a minute with some montage of me lifting weights and running, shoving away the steak and having a salad. But of course in real life, you don't get to montage. You have to go through it day by day.

And that has been interesting, you know. Jon Snow as Lord Commander. Dany as Queen, struggling with rule. So many books don't do that. There is a sense when you're writing something in high fantasy, you're in a dialogue with all the other high fantasy writers that have written. And there is always this presumption that if you are a good man, you will be a good king. [Like] Tolkien — in Return of the King, Aragorn comes back and becomes king, and then [we read that] "he ruled wisely for three hundred years." Okay, fine. It is easy to write that sentence, “He ruled wisely”.

What does that mean, he ruled wisely? What were his tax policies? What did he do when two lords were making war on each other? Or barbarians were coming in from the North? What was his immigration policy? What about equal rights for Orcs? I mean did he just pursue a genocidal policy, "Let’s kill all these fucking Orcs who are still left over"? Or did he try to redeem them? You never actually see the nitty-gritty of ruling.

I guess there is an element of fantasy readers that don't want to see that. I find that fascinating. Seeing someone like Dany actually trying to deal with the vestments of being a queen and getting factions and guilds and [managing the] economy. They burnt all the fields [in Meereen]. They've got nothing to import any more. They're not getting any money. I find this stuff interesting. And fortunately, enough of my readers who love the books do as well.

 And meanwhile, you've got Daenerys visiting more Eurasian and Middle Eastern cultures.

And that has generated its controversy too. I answer that one to in my blog. I know some of the people who are coming at this from a political or racial angle just seem to completely disregard the logistics of the thing here. I talk about what's in the books. The books are what I write. What I’m responsible for.

Slavery in the ancient world, and slavery in the medieval world, was not race-based. You could lose a war if you were a Spartan, and if you lost a war you could end up a slave in Athens, or vice versa. You could get in debt, and wind up a slave. And that’s what I tried to depict, in my books, that kind of slavery.

So the people that Dany frees in the slaver cities are of many different ethnicities, and that’s been fairly explicit in the books. But of course when David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] and his crew are filming that scene [of Daenerys being carried by freed slaves], they are filming it in Morocco, and they put out a call for 800 extras. That’s a lot of extras. They hired the people who turned up. Extras don't get paid very much. I did an extra gig once, and got like $40 a day.

It's probably actually less in Morocco since you don't have to pay quite the same rate. If you're giving 800 Moroccans 40 bucks each, you're not going to fly in 100 Irishman just to balance the racial background here. We had enough trouble meeting our budget anyway.

I know for some readers, they don’t care about this shit. But these things are about budget and realism, and things you can actually do. You are shooting the scene in a day. You don't have a lot of time to [worry] about that, and as someone who has worked in television this kind of stuff is very important to me. I don't know if that is answer or not. I made that answer, and some people weren't pleased with that answer, I know. They are very upset about that.

 August 2013

Amid reports of a dramatic uptrend in babies named “Khaleesi” and tourism to Dubrovnik, Croatia (aka King's Landing), we're guessing George R. R. Martin doesn’t need much of an introduction.

 AC: How do you decide what you're going to work on, whose voice you're going to work in today?

GM: Well, I don't write the chapters in the order in which you read them. I get into a character’s voice. It's always difficult to switch gears, actually. When I do make that transition from one character to another, I usually struggle for a few days trying to get back the voice of the character I'm just returning to after some hiatus. But once I get into it, I tend to write not just one chapter by that character, but three or four. So I'll be writing Jon Snow chapters, and I'll carry that Jon Snow sequence as far as I can. And then at some point, maybe I'll get stuck or not be sure what I should do next, or maybe I've just gotten way ahead of all of the other characters in the books, so I need to sort of rein myself in and make myself switch from Jon Snow to Sansa or Daenerys or somebody like that.

 November 2013

We can't leave Martin without pressing him for his thoughts on which of his characters keeps the best table. Would it be the wealthy, sun-loving Martell family with their Mediterranean-leaning flatbreads, olives and spiced snake? The sensualist Tyrion Lannister? Or the moveable feast of the court of Daenerys Targaryen with its duck eggs and dog sausage?

"Oh, Illyrio Mopatis, the magister, no question. Just watch out for the mushrooms."

 March 2014

Was it a big shift for you, when you were writing the scenes that take place at Winterfell and suddenly you have the Daenerys scene, with an entirely different location?

Pretty early on, in the summer of ‘91, I had the Daenerys stuff. I knew she was on another continent. I think I had already drawn a map by then – and she wasn’t on it. I’d just drawn the map of the one continent that would come to be called Westeros. But she was in exile, and I knew that, and that was sort of the one departure from the structure. It’s something I borrowed from Tolkien, in terms of the initial structure of the book. If you look at Lord of the Rings, everything begins in the Shire with Bilbo’s birthday party. You have a very small focus. You have a map of the Shire right in the beginning of the book – you think it’s the entire world. And then they get outside it. They cross the Shire, which seems epic in itself. And then the world keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And then they add more and more characters, and then those characters split up. I essentially looked at the master there and adopted the same structure. Everything in AGame of Thrones begins in Winterfell. Everybody is together there and then you meet more people and, ultimately, they’re split apart and they go in different directions. But the one departure from that, right from the first, was Daenerys, who was always separate. It’s almost as if Tolkien, in addition to having Bilbo, had thrown in an occasional Faramir chapter, right from the beginning of the book.

 Although Daenerys is hooked into Winterfell, because we hear talk of her family, the Targaryen family, early on.

You see overlaps. Daenerys is getting married, and Robert gets the report that Daenerys has just gotten married and reacts to that and the threat that it poses.

 Fortunately, the books were best sellers, I didn’t need the money, you know, so I could just say no. Other people wanted to take the approach of, there are so many characters, so many stories, we have to settle on one. Let’s make it all about Jon Snow. Or Dany. Or Tyrion. Or Bran. But that didn’t work, either, because the stories are all inter-related. They separate but they come together again. But it did get me thinking about it, and it got me thinking about how this could be done, and the answer I came up with is – it can be done for television. It can’t be done as a feature film or a series of feature films. So television. But not network television. I’d worked in television. The Twilight Zone. Beauty and the Beast. I knew what was in these books, the sex scenes, the violence, the beheadings, the massacres. They’re not going to put that on Friday night at eight o’clock, where they always stick fantasies. Both of the shows that I was on, Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast, Friday night at eight o’clock. They think, "Fantasy? Kids!" So I wasn’t going to do a network show. But I’d been watching HBO. The Sopranos. Rome. Deadwood. It seemed to me an HBO show, a series where each book was an entire season, was the way to do it. So when I sat down with David and Dan at that meeting at the Palm, which started out as a lunch meeting and turned into a dinner meeting, and they said the same thing, then I suddenly knew we’re on the same wavelength here.

 June 2014

Q: What can you tell us about a warg dragon rider?

A: There is no history/precedent for someone warging a dragon. There is a rich history of the mythical bond between dragon and rider.  There have been instances of dragons responding to their riders even from very far away (hmm) which shows it is a true and very strong bond. We will learn more about this. Keep reading (we hear “keep writing” from the back of the room).

 Q:  What is your favorite line in ASOIAF?

A: I can’t single out one line but my favorite passage is Septon Meribald’s speech about war in… what was it?  (crowd yells out Feast for Crows).

 November 2014

For people who are not familiar with your work, the series takes place in an imaginary world. There is a struggle for control of the kingdom. This dynastic war is essentially one of three main plot lines. There are the other plot lines involving these sort of superhuman characters, and then there’s the exiled Targaryen daughter who seeks the return of her ancient throne. Why those three main plot lines?

Well, of course, the two outlying ones — the things going on north of the Wall, and then there is Targaryen on the other continent with her dragons — are of course the ice and fire of the title, “A Song of Ice and Fire.” The central stuff — the stuff that’s happening in the middle, in King’s Landing, the capital of the seven kingdoms — is much more based on historical events, historical fiction. 

 Pop culture has grabbed “Game of Thrones.” It’s been featured in “The Simpsons” and “South Park.” What goes through your mind when you see these references?

Well, I think it’s tremendously cool, of course. It’s nice to be doing something that everybody is so aware of and that has entered the cultural zeitgeist in that manner. The only aspect of it that really astonishes me is not that the characters and the story is being parodied or referenced in these various places but the extent at which I personally am. I mean, when I see myself as a character on “South Park” or I see Bobby Moynihan imitating me with the suspenders and the hat on “Saturday Night Live,” when I see companies selling Halloween costumes, not Halloween costumes to be Jon Snow or Daenerys but Halloween costumes to be me, that’s pretty freaky. That’s something I could never have anticipated, and I just don’t know what to think of it. 

 May 2015

Still, it’s only natural that there’s a few characters Martin would have liked to have seen on the show that did not make it in.

“Strong Belwas, who was part of Dany’s entourage,” Martin said. “I understand why he was cut, but I kind of miss him.” In the books, the massive eunuch warrior is a former pit fighter who joins Dany in Qarth. Belwas’ story elements have essentially been combined with the character of Daario, who is arguably more essential to Dany’s journey.

  June 2015

I explained that in my own head, Yandel is in King's Landing, clutching his book, showing up each day for an audience with the king... and each day being told perhaps the next day. Except on those occasions where, you know, they tell him the king's getting married today, and then whoops, Joffrey is dead, etc.

I also noted that of course, given how he wrote about the reign of Aerys and and the rebellion, that if Aegon or Daenerys take King's Landing he may indeed end up having his head chopped off... George seemed interested in the idea, I think. :P

 May 2016

4. GRRM and Picacio both made the joke about "you need to pay the artist" and such regarding general fan fiction. And then GRRM said he has issued some sub-licenses to things like art and games, etc. GRRM also mentioned that HBO owns the rights to the exact likenesses of the tv version of the story, meaning, no art can be made where Dany looks like Emilia. He was very careful in avoiding a real link in feeling between him and HBO even though he was asked about it twice. Then GRRM mentioned, and Picacio joined in, how GRRM knew the show would overtake the books. Not too much new.

Reactions after the episode

c. Dany on Drogon seemed random and a repeat of previous seasons.

d. Others loved Dany on Drogon.

 December 2016

And the most revealing: he said that for Winds, Winter is the darkest time 'where things die' and many characters will go dark places.

 At last I was able to ask him the question I had sent for the tombola. I have always been fascinated by how ASOIAF embodies the theories put forward by Acemoglu and Robinson about countries with extractive institutions (which hamper development). So my question was: Why do you think the political institutions in the Seven Kingdoms are so weak? His answer: the Kingdom was unified with dragons, so the Targaryen's flaw was to create an absolute monarchy highly dependent on them, with the small council not designed to be a real check and balance. So, without dragons it took a sneeze, a wildly incompetent and megalomaniac king, a love struck prince, a brutal civil war, a dissolute king that didn't really know what to do with the throne and then chaos. Interesting answer.

 July 2017

To a certain degree, also, it’s so intertwined, tragically and unfortunately, with the character histories. Daenerys doesn’t get to where she is unless she’s sold as a child bride, effectively a slave.

And I should point out, and you probably know this if you’ve read the books and watched the show, Daenerys’ wedding night is quite different than it was portrayed in the books. Again, indeed, we had an original pilot where the part of Daenerys was recast, and what we filmed the first time, when Tamzin Merchant was playing the role, it was much more true to the books. It was the scene as written in the books. So that got changed between the original pilot and the later pilot. You’d have to talk to David and Dan about that.

 I had all these meetings saying, “There’s too many characters, it’s too big — Jon Snow is the central character. We’ll eliminate all the other characters and we’ll make it about Jon Snow.” Or “Daenerys is the central character. We’ll eliminate everyone else and make the movie about Daenerys.” And I turned down all those deals.

 When you’re walking down the street in Santa Fe, do new character or historical details just pop into your head?

Sometimes it happens to me on long-distance drives. When I was younger I loved to take road trips, and get in the car and drive for two days to get to L.A. or Kansas City or St. Louis or Texas. And on the road, I would think a lot about that. In 1993, I think it was, I visited France for the first time. I had begunGame of Thrones two years before in ‘91 and I had to put it aside because television was happening. And for some reason, I had rented a car, I was driving all around Brittany and the roads of France to these little medieval villages and I was seeing castles, and somehow that just got me going again. I was thinking about Tyrion and Jon Snow and Daenerys and my head was full of Game of Thrones stuff.

 You’re in unusual territory, with your characters very much still in your hands but also out in the world being interpreted for TV. Are you able to have walls in your mind such that your Daenerys, say, is your Daenerys, and Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys is hers and the show’s?

I’ve arrived at that point. The walls are up in my mind. I don’t know that I was necessarily there from the beginning. At some points, when David and Dan and I had discussions about what way we should go in, I would always favor sticking with the books, while they would favor making changes. I think one of the biggest ones would probably be when they made the decision not to bring Catelyn Stark back as Lady Stoneheart. That was probably the first major diversion of the show from the books and, you know, I argued against that, and David and Dan made that decision.

In my version of the story, Catelyn Stark is re-imbued with a kind of life and becomes this vengeful wight who galvanizes a group of people around her and is trying to exact her revenge on the riverlands. David and Dan made a decision not to go in that direction in their story, pursuing other threads. But both of them are equally valid, I think, because Catelyn Stark is a fictional character and she doesn’t exist. You can tell either story about her.

 Is there anything we didn’t get to talk about?

I suppose there are issues we could have explored more with the whole question of sexual violence and women — it’s a complicated and fraught issue. To re-address that point a little, I do a lot of book signings, and I think I have probably more women readers than male readers right now. Only slightly, but it’s probably 55 percent, 45 percent, but I see women readers at things and they love my women characters. I’m very proud of the creation of Arya and Catelyn and Sansa and Brienne and Daenerys and Cersei and all of them. It’s one of the things that gives me the most satisfaction, that they’ve been so well-received as characters, especially by women readers who are often not served.

 August 2017

- My question about Daenerys was chosen as the third question (I was lucky!) but he refused to answer it lol … I asked “How old was Daenerys when she left the house with the red door, and was it located close to the palace of the Sealord of Braavos?” (thanks Butterfly for suggesting it to me) I don’t know why he refused to answer about her age, but about the house with the red door he said there will be more revelations about it in future books.

- He was asked to comment about the differences between the book and show characters, particularly Daenerys. GRRM ignored all the other characters and talked only about Daenerys - he said that the show one is older because there are laws in USA that prevent minors from having sex scenes so the decision was made to age Daenerys. Otherwise, book Daenerys and show Daenerys “are very similar” and “Emilia Clarke did a fantastic job”. (I guess he can’t really say negative things about the show, can he?)

- “Will Jorah ever get out of the friendzone?” (side-eyeing the person who asked this). GRRM: “I would not bet on it.”

 August 2018

Q: if you did have a child what would you name him or her?

A: “I don’t know... probably Not Daenerys”

 November 2018

“I have tried to make it explicit in the novels that the dragons are destructive forces, and Dany (Daenerys Targaryen) has found that out as she tried to rule the city of Meereen and be queen there.

“She has the power to destroy, she can wipe out entire cities, and we certainly see that in Fire and Blood, we see the dragons wiping out entire armies, wiping out towns and cities, destroying them, but that doesn’t necessarily enable you to rule — it just enables you to destroy.”

[...] “If you read Fire and Blood, you’ll know there’s definitely a bond between the dragons and their riders and the dragons will not accept just any rider,” says Martin. “Some people try to take a dragon wind up being eaten or burned to death instead, so the dragons are terribly fussy about who rides them.”

[...] The prince defeated the threat in the North by driving his sword through his wife’s heart. Will Jon have to do the same to Daenerys? Or is she the prince, Azor Ahai, reborn? Martin suggests all may not be as it seems.

“The Targaryens have certain gifts and yes, taking the dragons and dragon riding and dragon breeding was one of them,” he says. “But the other gift was an occasional Targaryen had prophetic powers and could see glimpses of the future, which they didn’t always necessarily properly interpret because, you know, they were fragmentary and sometimes symbolic.

“But to what extent did they share those gifts, what did he see, what prompted him to do all this? These are things I find really interesting to ponder.

 What was interesting from The Guardian interview you did, is this book — as daunting as it would seem for most authors to attempt, and as tough as Winds has been for you — this was curiously easy for you to write. Yes. Partly because it’s linear. Although it covers 150 years or so, it’s very straightforward — here’s what happened in the year 30, here’s what happened in 25. In Winds, I have like 10 different novels and I’m juggling the timeline — here’s what’s happening to Tyrion, here’s what’s happening to Dany, and how they intersect. That’s far more complicated. 

 August 2019

On the fame thing, does it ever feel surreal to stop and think about the reach that your work has had? I mean, couples meet through Game of Thrones, there are Thrones-themed wedding ceremonies, and babies are named after your characters. Is that something you ever dwell on and think to yourself  'God, my work has had this massive effect on people?'

It's very gratifying when you get letters, emails, and hear stories like that. They definitely do name children after my characters and send me pictures of their babies.

People also name their dogs, cats, iguanas, after my characters. Sometimes, it’s a little surreal. I often wonder about all the young Daenerys’ out there because kindergarten teachers will hate me because they have to spell it!

[gyakutengagotoku]

GS4 vs AJ:AA - Episode 3, Part 5

At last, I’ve completed this case. I’m not sure how I managed to stretch it out for this long, even when they haven’t been too long of posts. I wasn’t even rewatching the ballad on tape for the umpteenth time, but it sure felt like I was. Then again, I’ve been distracted and busy and...

AVOCADO, NOOOO!

I was so distracted and busy, I just realized yesterday that she’s (yes, it’s a she in my mind, shush), started turning yellow! Aaaaahaagh... It wasn’t because I wasn’t watering her enough, it seems, but the dirt in her tiny pot has been all but sucked dry. I just replaced some of it with a touch of fertilizer, but those roots are deeply entangled in that dry dirt. I hope she can recover...

Ahem. Anyway, let’s finish this episode.

--

> Court Lobby

<???> ‥‥さすが、ぼくが見こんだだけの ことはあるね。 ...I knew you had what it took.

<Trucy> あ‥‥パパ！ Ah... Daddy!

<Apollo> 成歩堂さん！ Mr. Wright!

オレのコト‥‥ 見こんでくれていたんですか！ You... believed in me?

<Phoenix> いや、どうなんだろ。 Not really.

<Apollo> え。 Huh?

<Phoenix> ここは、そう言いながら出てくると いい感じかなと思ってさ。 I just thought that'd make a cooler entrance than, say, "hiya"!

<Apollo> ‥‥聞くんじゃなかった。 ...Why do I even bother hoping?

"...I didn't just hear that."

Kinda reminds me of the "I left my ears back in 2015" meme... which would be all the more hilarious coming from Apollo because Nick started his career in 2016.

> Courtroom

<Judge> わかりました。それでは、 証言していただきましょう。 Yes, it's high time we did. Let's hear your testimony.

まずは‥‥そう。先ほどの証人、 ラミロアさんの証言に対して‥‥ You may begin with your response to Lamiroir's testimony.

あなたの言いぶんを 聞かせてもらえますかな。 If, in fact you have anything to say about it.

<Daryan> ああ。 言いたいコトはヤマほどあるぜ。 Oh I got plenty to say.

歌姫さんの証言は、 デタラメもいいトコだ。 Lying must be a national pastime in Borginia.

アンタのデッチ上げもなァ‥‥ 弁護士クンよ。 ...And wherever you're from, Mr. "Justice". Hah!

In the JP, he simply says Lamiroir's testimony was nonsense and calls Odoroki out as a "cheater" or in another way, a "forger".

But no one at the time expected that Apollo would come to have backstory in a different country altogether down the line. First the Harlem Shake meme and now this! How does the loc team keep predicting stuff in the future!?

> 1st Witness Testimony

> Present igniter then mixing board, or present mixing board then igniter

> If present mixing board first, then present anything but igniter

<Apollo> これこそが、銃声の正体です！ This is your "gunshot"!

<Judge> ‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥ それがあなたの答えの正体ですか。 ...That's your answer?

<Klavier> おデコくん。あまり、ぼくを がっかりさせないでくれよ‥‥ And I had such high hopes for you, Herr Forehead...

<Judge> その証拠品が、銃声の正体とは とうてい思えません。 I'm having trouble understanding how that piece of evidence is a gunshot...

<Judge> “幽霊の正体見たり枯れ尾花” ですぞッ！ Next you'll be throwing pie plates in the air and calling them UFOs!

<Apollo> （ううう‥‥） (Even I wouldn't stoop quite that low...)

Heh. In JP, the judge cites an old proverb: "The ghost upon closer look is withered pampas grass," or basically "It's not as scary as it seems."

Pampas grass is seen all over Japan. In any traditional-style Japanese movie, game, anime, etc. featuring the grand countryside, you're bound to see grass just like it. When the winds blow, entire fields sway in motion like a moving painting, and in a way, they can fool weary travelers late at night because of their pale-colored ears.

> 2nd Witness Testimony, press 1st statement

<Apollo> マネージャー‥‥ですか。 でも、レタスさんは‥‥ Her manager, sure, but Mr. LeTouse was...

<Daryan> おっと。すまんね。国際警察の 潜入捜査官だったんだっけ？ Oh, right. Sorry. An Interpol agent, wasn't he?

あのオッサンが捜査官だったなんて、 イメージがわかなくてな。 I just have trouble picturing that big lunk as an undercover cop, you dig?

捜査官のくせに、 すぐ殺されちまったみたいだしよ。 And not a very good one, seeing as how he got wasted.

ハッハッハッハッハッハッハッ！ Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

<Apollo> （‥‥笑いすぎだろ） (That's cold, dawg!)

Wocky sure has been some kind of influence on Apollo; one thing I wish the original JP also did more of, since Apollo never actually goes into Kansai dialect or any Yakuza lingo. (That bit last episode was my bad, sorry!)

> Press 3rd statement

<Daryan> はずかしいハナシなんだけどよ‥‥ オレ、海外行ったことないんだよね。 Yeah. It's a bit of an embarrassment... but I've never been sent overseas.

<Apollo> え！　それはないでしょう！ 国際課なのに！ What!? But you're in International...

<Daryan> オレは、飛行機ってヤツが苦手でね。 シートが、オレにはせますぎるのさ。 See, me and planes got a difference of opinion. We don't like each other much.

<Klavier> おデコくん。残念だけど‥‥ ダイアンの言う通りだよ。 My condolences, Herr Forehead, but he's telling the truth.

たしかに、彼はこの国から一歩も 出た事がない。ぼくが保証するよ。 He's never set foot outside the country. I can guarantee it.

<Daryan> 国内にも、国際課のシゴトは あるんだよな。コレが。 As it turns out, my division has plenty of work to do locally as well.

<Apollo> （そんな‥‥ 　そんなのサギだろ‥‥） (That's... so unfair.)

There was one bit missed in the English script when Daryan was disagreeing with planes: he can't fit in those seats. I can only assume his giant torpedo hair also easily gets caught when people are stuffing their luggage above their seats.

> Press 4th statement

<Apollo> コンサート中にも、 親交はなかったのですか？ So you didn't fraternize with him at all during the concert?

<Daryan> ないね。そういや、ヒトコトも 口をきいてないんじゃないかな。 Fraternize? Hah! I don't think we exchanged a single word.

ダレが好んで、あんなオッサンと 話をするかってーの。 As if anyone would want to talk to that old Eastern "Bloc"-head.

かわいこちゃんなら、ハナシは ベツだけどな。 Now the ladies, that's a different matter altogether.

...He says, as he strokes his massive hairdo.

Though it was clearly established in the JP script that Borginia is in Northeastern Europe, they barely give mention to it beyond how "foreign" it is, but with mysterious fascination rather than any weirdness, and treat the people from there as they would any native Japanese.

And then you have "Eastern Bloc-head" here. Oh, loc team, you lovably cringy people, you.

> Present at 2nd statement

<Apollo> 裁判長‥‥ これを、見てください。 Your Honor... Take a look at this.

<Judge> これは‥‥なんですかな？ キャンデーのように見えますが‥‥ What's that? Hmm... Looks like candy.

<Apollo> ああ。ちがいますから ナメないでください。 Er, it's not. Don't lick it, please.

眉月刑事。 ‥‥コイツに見おぼえは？ Detective Crescend. ...Ever seen this?

<Daryan> ‥‥キャンデー、に見えるな。 ...Looks like a piece of candy.

<Apollo> オレをナメないでください。 What it is... is evidence. Don't lick it before you try it.

The line here in JP is: "Please don't take me lightly either", where the verb for "to lick" is the same for "to take lightly" or "to underestimate". Nice job from the loc team to come up with their own using the same word.

> 3rd Witness Testimony, press 4th statement

<Apollo> 逆に、希少価値が高い ということにもなりませんか？ But, wouldn't scarcity drive up prices?

<Daryan> それも、モンダイなんだよ。 Yeah, and attention.

奪い取ろうって危ないヤツが 大量におしよせてきやがる！ Every gangster and his brother would want a piece of that action!

あんたのおデコなんか、 すぐにハチの巣だぜ。 They'd turn your forehead into swiss cheese before you could say, "Objection!"

<Klavier> 前髪も、消えてなくなるだろうね。 Maybe we could get them to cut his hair, too.

<Trucy> ダレだか分からなく なっちゃいますね。 Who's on trial here again?

<Daryan> ようするに‥‥ カンゼンなシロウト考えなんだよ。 Man, you so obviously know nothing about the market!

<Apollo> （‥‥そりゃあ。 　こっちは、シロウトだもんな） (...And that's a bad thing?)

I'm not sure if Trucy's line here may have been mistranslated because it sounds too different from the original line: "Then no one would be able to tell who you are."

You know, 'cause his spiky hair is part of his identity.

> Present newspaper at 3rd statement

> Press 6th statement

<Klavier> たしかに、いささか異常な 厳しさではあったね。 I do recall it being a bit extreme.

コドモたちは、のきなみアメ玉や マシュマロを取り上げられていたよ。 They were even confiscating gumdrops and marshmallows.

<Judge> なるほど‥‥このマユと 見分けがつきませんからな。 Yes... it would be hard to distinguish them.

<Apollo> （そっか。牙琉検事、ボルジニアに 　行ったことがあるんだっけ‥‥） (That's right. Gavin was in Borginia, wasn't he.)

<Klavier> ぼくは、何度も金属探知機が 反応するのがイチバン困ったね。 I remember setting off the metal detectors several times.

反応するものをひとつずつ脱いだら、 最後には、ほとんどハダカさ。 I had to practically strip naked to walk through.

<Apollo> （それは、ジャラジャラしてる 　アンタに問題があるだろ‥‥） (Here's a travel tip for you, Gavin: leave the bling at home, you glimmerous fop.)

Man, I can understand Daryan not taking planes, but how does Klav manage to endure through all that every time he has to fly somewhere for his rock star tours?

Alternatively: "(That's your fault for always jangling everywhere you go.)"

> Present at 8th statement

<Apollo> ひとつだけ‥‥ 方法を知っています。 Actually, there is one way.

<Daryan> なんだと‥‥？ Whaa--!?

<Apollo> ボルジニア共和国から、チェックを 受けずにニモツを持ち出す方法です。 One way to get something out of the country, no checks.

<Judge> そ。それはいったい‥‥？ What is it!?

<Apollo> ‥‥検事になることです。 ...You become a prosecutor.

<Judge> けんじ‥‥？ A prosecutor!

<Klavier> あ‥‥あああああ‥‥ッ！ Ah... Aaaaaaaaaaah!

ま。まさか‥‥ I don't believe it...

<Apollo> そうなんですよ。 ‥‥牙琉検事。 Believe it, Prosecutor Gavin.

Is this a Naruto reference? I think it's a Naruto reference. This game came out in 2008 in the US; Naruto was definitely popular by then and his memes were (still are) everywhere online. I would know, since I was a rabid Naruto fangirl at the time until I was introduced to One Piece.

>

<Judge> そ。それでは‥‥ この発火装置は‥‥ So the igniter...

<Klavier> こうなってみれば‥‥その意味は アキラカ、なんじゃないかな。 ...Was placed in there for a clear reason, it seems.

<Apollo> そう。いわばコイツは “安全装置”だったんだ！ It was a safety precaution!

<Judge> ‥‥あんぜんそうち‥‥ A precaution...?

<Klavier> そうか‥‥おデコくん。 Ahh... Herr Forehead.

すべてがつながったようだね。 今になって‥‥ついに‥‥ At last, it all comes together.

<Apollo> コンサートの日に起こった、 すべての“フシギ”‥‥ Every strange thing that happened that day.

今、もう一度‥‥ たどってみましょうか。 Care to review?

ラミロアさんの歌に乗せて。 Maestro, the gentle sounds of Lamiroir's ballad, if you please.

This may be the first and last time Apollo ever refers to the "Maestro", which I assume to be the bailiff (because who else would it be?), so I'm documenting this for the record. Fyi, the original line is pretty similar; suggesting that they review the case to the sounds of her ballad too.

> Present Machi as accomplice, present proof but it's wrong

<Apollo> コンキョは‥‥ この証拠品です！ The basis for my claim... is this evidence, Your Honor!

<Judge> ‥‥‥‥‥‥これは、 どういうイミですかな？ ...I'm not sure I follow.

<Daryan> ハッ！ ハッタリもいいところだぜ！ Hah! You can't bluff your way out of this one!

<Klavier> その証拠品では被告人がスイッチを 押せたことを証明できないよ。 Nor can you prove anyone pressed the switch with that... "evidence".

<Apollo> （どうやら、 　まちがったみたいだな‥‥） (Maybe... I picked the wrong evidence.)

<Judge> ハッタリには、 バッチリ、ペナルティを与えます！ For every bluff, there is an equal and opposite penalty!

I just love this line. It's so condescendingly snarky yet comfortably assuring coming from the judge.

The original line here is just "That bluff will earn you a perfectly matched penalty!" I notice that "ハッタリ" (hattari), "bluff", and "バッチリ" (bacchiri), "exactly", look kinda similar, though.

> Present mixer, point out section, present witness to prove Daryan's guilt

> Not Guilty, back to Court Lobby

<Lamiroir> 目の手術を‥‥ 受けてみようと思うのです。 I am considering an eye operation.

<Phoenix> ぼくがね。オススメしてみたんだよ。 It was my suggestion, actually.

<Trucy> え‥‥じゃあ。 見えるようになるんですか？ You mean, you'll be able to see again?

<Lamiroir> 今まで‥‥“光”というものが、 怖かったのです。 It's funny. I have always been afraid of the "light".

何もかもをアキラカにしてしまう、 “光”が‥‥ Light seems so harsh, so unforgiving...

Alternatively: "It can make anything and everything clear to see, the 'light'..."

>

<Apollo> （こうして、殺人事件のバラードは 　静かに流れ、そして終わった） (And so, like a ballad, the trial flowed on and on... until it came to the end.)

（この事件のおかげで‥‥） (Thanks to the trial...)

（《恋するギターのセレナード》は 　大ヒット） (..."The Guitar's Serenade" was a huge hit.)

（牙琉検事のハデなアクセサリーが、 　また増えたみたいだ） (Prosecutor Gavin's even more dazzling to look at now.)

（でも‥‥検事さんに 　言っておきたいことがある） (But... there's something I want to say to that guy.)

（今度また、バラードを 　作るときは‥‥） (Next time you write a ballad...)

<Trucy> 歌の最後で、ちゃんとハンニンを つかまえておくこと！ ...Have them catch the killer at the end!

Just a note that he's more "dazzling" because he's gotten even more flashy accessories, and I'm laughing at the image that popped up in mind. Hey, Wocky! You lookin' for a new gangsta icon?

[okbyokaybye]

Kill the Cop in Your Head

Authoritarian Leftists: Kill the Cop in Your Head

By Lorenzo Komboa Ervin - Black Autonomy, April 1996.

It's difficult to know where to begin with this open letter to the various European-american leftist (Marxist-Leninist and Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, in particular) groups within the United States. I have many issues with many groups; some general, some very specific. The way in which this is presented may seem scattered at first, but I encourage all of you to read and consider carefully what I have written in its entirety before you pass any judgements.

It was V.I. Lenin who said, "take from each national culture only its democratic and socialist elements; we take them only and absolutely in opposition to the bourgeois culture and bourgeois nationalism of each nation". It could be argued that Lenin's statement in the current Amerikkkan context is in fact a racialist position; who is he (or the Bolsheviks themselves) to "take" anyone or pass judgement on anyone; particularly since the privileges of having white skin are a predominant factor within the context of amerikkkan-style oppression. This limited privilege in capitalist society is a prime factor in the creation and maintenence of bourgeois ideology in the minds of many whites of various classes in the US and elsewhere on the globe.

When have legitimate struggles or movements for national and class liberation had to "ask permission" from some eurocentric intellectual "authority" who may have seen starvation and brutality, but has never experienced it himself? Where there is repression, there is resistance...period. Self-defense is a basic human right that we as Black people have exercised time and time again, both violent and non-violent; a dialectical and historical reality that has kept many of us alive up to this point.

Assuming that this was not Lenin's intent, and assuming that you all truly uphold worldwide socialism/communism, then the question must be asked: WHY IS IT THAT EACH AND EVERY WHITE DOMINATED/WHITE-LED "VANGUARD" IN THE UNITED STATES HAS IN FACT DONE THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT LENIN PROCLAIMS/RECOMMENDS WHEN IT COMES TO INTERACTING WITH BLACKS AND OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR?

Have any of you actually sat down and seriously thought about why there are so few of us in your organizations; and at the same time why non-white socialist/communist formations, particularly in the Black community, are so small and isolated? I have a few ideas...

I. A fundamentally incorrect analysis of the role of the white left in the last thirty years of civil rights to Black liberation struggle...

By most accounts, groups such as the Black Panther Party, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, American Indian Movement, and the Puerto Rican Independence Movement "set the standard" for not only communities of color but also for revolutionary elements in the white community.

All of the above groups were ruthlessly crushed; their members imprisoned or killed. Very few white left groups at the time fought back against the onslaught of COINTELPRO by supporting these groups, with the exception of the smaller, armed underground cells. In fact, many groups such as the Progressive Labor Party and the Revolutionary Union (now known as the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA) saw the repression of groups they admired, and at the same time despised, as an opportunity to assert their own version of "vanguard leadership" on our population.

What they failed to recognize (and what many of you generally still fail to recognize) is that "vanguard leadership" is developed, it doesn't just "magically" happen through preachy, dogmatic assertions, nor does it fall from the sky. Instead of working with the smaller autonomous formations, to help facilitate the growth of Black (and white) self-organization (the "vanguard" leadership of the Black masses themselves and all others, nurtured through grassroots social/political alliances rooted in principle), they instead sought to either take them over or divide their memberships against each other until the group or groups were liquidated. These parasitic and paternalistic practices continue to this day.

The only reason any kind of principled unity existed prior to large-scale repression is because Black-led formations had no illusions about white radicals or their politics; and had no problems with kicking the living shit out of them if they started acting stupid. Notice also that the majority of white radicals who were down with real struggle and real organizations, and were actually trusted and respected by our people, are either still active...or still in prison!

II. The white left's concept of "the vanguard party"...

Such arrogance on the part of the white left is part and parcel to your vanguardist ideas and practice. Rather than seeking principled partnerships with non-white persons and groups, you instead seek converts to your party's particular brand of rigid political theology under the guise of "unity". It makes sense that most of you speak of "Black/white unity" and "sharp struggle against racism" in such vague terms, and with such uncertainty in your voices; or with an overexaggerated forcefulness that seems contrived.

Another argument against vanguardist tendencies in individuals or amongst groups is the creation of sectarianism and organizational cultism between groups and within groups. Karl Marx himself fought tirelessly against sectarianism within the working class movement of 19th century Europe. He was also a staunch fighter against those who attempted to push his persona to an almost god-like status, declaring once in frustration "I assure you, sir, I am no Marxist". It could be argued from this viewpoint that the "vanguardist" white left in the US today is generally ,by a definition rooted in the day to day practice of Marx himself, anti-Marx; and by proxy, anti-revolutionary.

Like your average small business, the various self-proclaimed "vanguards" compete against each other as well against the people themselves (both white and non-white); accusing each other of provacteurism, opportunism, and/or possessing "the incorrect line" when in fact most (if not all) are provacateurs, opportunists, and fundementally incorrect.

The nature of capitalist competition demands that such methods and tactics be utilized to the fullest in order to "win" in the business world; the white left has in fact adapted these methods and tactics to their own brand of organizing, actively re-inventing and re-enforcing the very social, political, and economic relations you claim to be against; succeeding in undermining the very basic foundations of your overall theory and all variants of that theory.

Or is this phenomenon part and parcel to your theory? In volume four of the collected works of V.I. Lenin, Lenin himself states up front that "socialism is state-capitalism". Are you all just blindly following a a dated, foreign "blueprint" that is vastly out of context to begin with; with no real understanding of its workings?

At the same time, it could be observed that you folks are merely products of your enviroment; reflective of the alienated and hostile communities and families from which many of you emerge. American society has taught you the tenets of "survival of the fittest" and "rugged individualism", and you swallowed those doctrines like your mother's milk.

Because the white left refuses to combat and reject reactionary tendencies in their (your) own heads and amongst themselves (yourselves), and because they (you) refuse to see how white culture is rooted firmly in capitalism and imperialism; refusing to reject it beyond superficial culture appropriations (i.e.-Native american "dream catchers" hanging from the rear-view mirrors of your vehicles, wearing Addidas or Nikes with fat laces and over-sized Levis jeans or Dickies slacks worn "LA sag" style, crude attempts to "fit-in" by exaggerated, insulting over-use of the latest slang term(s) from "da hood", etc), you in fact re- invent racist and authoritarian social relations as the final product of your so-called "revolutionary theory"; what I call Left-wing white supremacy.

This tragic delemma is compounded by, and finds some of its initial roots in, your generally ahistorical and wishful "analysis" of Black/white relations in the US; and rigid, dogmatic definitions of "scientific socialism" or "revolutionary communism", based in a eurocentric context. Thus, we are expected to embrace these "socialist" values of the settler/conquorer culture, rather than the "traditional amerikkkan values" of your reactionary opponents; as if we do not possess our own "socialist" values, rooted in our own daily and cultural realities! Wasn't the Black Panther Party "socialist"? What about the Underground Railroad; our ancestors (and yes, even some of yours) were practicing "mutual aid" back when most European revolutionary theorists were still talking about it like it was a lofty, far away ideal!

One extreme example of this previously mentioned wishful thinking in place of a true analysis on the historical and current political dynamics particular to this country is an article by Joseph Green entitled "Anarchism and the Market Place, which appeared in the newsletter "Communist Voice" (Vol#1, Issue #4, September 15, 1995).

In it he asserts that anarchism is nothing more than small- scale operations run by individuals that will inevitably lead to the re-introduction of economic exploitation. He also claims that "it fails because its failure to understand the relation of freedom to mass activity mirrors the capitalist ideolgy of each person for their self." He then offers up a vague "plan of action"; that the workers must rely on "class organization and all-round mass struggle". In addition, he argues for the centralization of all means of production.

Clearly, Green's political ideology is in fact a theology. First, anarchism was practiced in mass scale most recently in Spain from 1936-39. By most accounts (including Marxist-Leninist), the Spanish working class organizations such as the CNT (National Confederation of Labor) and the FAI (Federation of Anarchists of Iberia) seized true direct workers power and in fact kept people alive during a massive civil war.

Their main failure was on a military, and partially on an ideological level: (1.) They didn't carry out a protracted fight against the fascist Falange with the attitude of driving them off the face of the planet. (2.) They underestimated the treachery of their Marxist-Leninist "allies" (and even some of their anarchist "allies"), who later sided with the liberal government to destroy the anarchist collectives. Some CNT members even joined the government in the name of a "united front against fascism". And (3.), they hadn't spent enough time really developing their networks outside the country in the event they needed weapons, supplies, or a place to seek refuge quickly.

Besides leaving out those important facts, Green also omits that today the majority of prisoner support groups in the US are anarchist run or influenced. He also leaves out that anarchists are generally the most supportive and involved in grassroots issues such as homelessness, police brutality, Klan/Nazi activity, Native sovereignty issues, [physical] defense of womens health clinics, sexual assault prevention, animal rights, enviromentalism, and free speech issues.

Green later attacks "supporters of capitalist realism on one hand and anarchist dreamers on the other". What he fails to understand is that the movement will be influenced mostly by those who do practical work around day to day struggles, not by those who spout empty rhetoric with no basis in reality because they themselves (like Green) are fundementally incapable of practicing what they preach. Any theory which cannot, at the very least, be demonstrated in miniature scale (with the current reality of the economically, socially, and militarily imposed limitations of capitalist/white supremacist society taken in to consideration) in daily life is not even worth serious discussion because it is rigid dogma of the worst kind.

Even if he could "show and prove", his proposed system is doomed to repeat the cannibalistic practices of Josef Stalin or Pol Pot. While state planning can accelerate economic growth no one from Lenin, to Mao, to Green himself has truly dealt with the power relationship between the working class and the middle-class "revolutionaries" who seize state power "on the behalf" of the latter. How can one use the organizing methods of the European bourgeoisie, "[hierarchial] party building" and "seizing state power" and not expect this method of organizing people to not take on the reactionary characteristics of what it supposedly seeks to eliminate? Then there's the question of asserting ones authoritarian will upon others (the usual recruitment tactics of the white left attemping to attract Black members).

At one point in the article Green claims that anarchistic social relations take on the oppressive characteristics of the capitalist ideology their rooted in. Really? What about the capitalist characteristics of know-it-all ahistorical white "radicals" who can just as effectively assert capitalistic, oppressive social relations when utilizing a top-down party structure (especially when it's utilized against minority populations)? What about the re-assertion of patriarchy (or actual physical and mental abuse) in interpersonal relationships; especially when an organizational structure allows for, and in fact rewards, oppressive social relationships?

What is the qualitative difference between a party bureaucrat who uses his position to steal from the people (in addition to living a neo-bourgeois lifestyle; privilege derived from one's official position and justified by other party members who do the same. And, potentially, derived from the color of his skin in the amerikkkan context) and a collective member who steals from the local community? One major difference is that the bureaucrat can only be removed by the party, the people (once again) have no real voice in the matter (unless the people themselves take up arms and dislodge the bureaucrat and his party); the collective member can recieve a swift punishment rooted in the true working class traditions, culture, and values of the working class themselves, rather than that which is interpreted for them by so- called "professional revolutionaries" with no real ties to that particular community. This is a very important, yet very basic, concept for the white left to consider when working with non- white workers (who, by the way, are the true "vanguard" in the US; Black workers in particular. Check the your history, especially the last thirty years of it.); i.e.- direct community control.

This demand has become more central over the last thirty years as we have seen the creation of a Black elite of liberal and conservative (negrosie) puppets for the white power structure to speak through to the people, the few who were allowed to succeed because they took up the ideology of the oppressor. But, they too have become increasingly powerless as the shift to the right in the various branches of the state and federal government has quickly, and easily, "checked" what little political power they had. Also, we do not have direct control over neighborhood institutions as capitalists, let alone as workers; at least white workers have a means of production they could potentially seize. Small "mom and pop" restaurants and stores or federally funded health clinics and social services in the 'hood hardly count as "Black capitalist" enterprises, nor are any of these things particularly "liberating" in and of themselves.

But white radicals, the white left of the US in particular, have a hard time dealing with the reality that Black people have always managed to survive, despite the worst or best intentions of the majority population. We will continue to survive without you and can make our revolution without you (or against you) if necessary; don't tell us about "protracted struggle", the daily lives of non-white workers are testimony to the true meaning of protracted struggle, both in the US and globally. Your inability or unwillingness to accept the fact that our struggle is parallel to yours, but at the same time very specific, and will be finished successfully when we as a people, as working-class Blacks on the North American continent, decide that we have achieved full freedom (as defined by our history, our culture, our needs, our desires, our personal experiences, and our political idea(s)) is by far the primary reason why the white left is so weak in this country.

In addition, this sinking garbage scow of american leftism is dragging other liberating political vessels down with it, particularly the smaller, anti-authoritarian factions within the white settler nation itself and the few [non-dogmatic and non- ritualistic] individuals within todays Marxist-Leninist parties who sincerly wish to get away from the old, tired historical revisionism of their particular "revolutionary" party.

This seemingly "fixed position", along with many other fixed positions in their "thought", help to reveal the white left's profound isolation and alienation from the Black community as a whole and its activists. Yet, many of them would continue to wholeheartedly, and retardedly, assert that they're part of the community simply because they live in a Black neighborhood or their party headquarters is located there.

The white left's isolation and alienation was revealed even more profoundly in the criticisms of the Million Man March on Washington. In the end, the majority of the white leftist critics wound up tailing the most backward elements of the Republican Party; some going as far as to echo the very same words of Senate majority leader Bob Dole, who commented on the day after the march that " You can't seperate the message from the messenger." Others parroted the words of House majority leader Newt Gingrich, who had the nerve to ask "where did our leadership go wrong?"

Since when were we expected to follow the "leadership" of white amerikkka; the right, left, or center without some type of brutal cohersion? Where is the advantage for us in "following" any of them anywhere? What have any of them done for us lately? Where is the "better" leadership example of any of the hierarchical political tendencies (of any class or ideology) in the US and who do they benefit exclusively and explicitly? None of you were particularly interested in us before we rebelled violently in 1992, why the sudden interest? What do you want from us this time?

Few, if any, of the major pro-revolution left-wing newspapers in the US gave an accurate account of the march. Many of them claimed that only the Black petit-bourgeosie were in attendence. All of them claimed that women were "forbidden" to be there, despite the widely reported fact that our sisters were there in large numbers.

"MIM Notes" (and the Maoist Internationalist Movement itself) to their credit recognize that white workers are NOT the "vanguard" class: yet because they themselves are so profoundly alienated from the Black community on this side of the prison walls they had to rely on information from mainstream press accounts courtesy of the Washington Post. And rightfully alienated they are; who in their right mind actually believes that a small, "secret" cult of white campus radicals can (or should) "lead" the masses of non-white people to their/our freedom? Whatever those people are smoking, I don't want any! I do have to say, however, that MIM is indeed the least dogma addicted of the entire white left millieu that I've encountered; but dogma addicted nonetheless.

I helped organize in the Seattle area for the Million Man March. The strong, Black women I met had every intention of going. None of the men even considered stopping them, let alone suggesting that they not go. Sure, the NOI passed on Minister Farrakhan's message that it was a "men only" march, but it was barely discussed and generally ignored.

The Million Man March local organizing committees (l.o.c.'s) gave the various Black left factions a forum to present ideas and concepts to entire sections of our population who were not familiar with "Marxism", "anarchism", "Kwame Nkrumah", "George Jackson", "The Ten-Point Program", "class struggle", etc.

It also afforded us the opportunity to begin engaging the some of the members of the local NOI chapter in class-based ideological struggle along with participating community people. Of course, it was impossible for the white left to know any of this; more proof of their profound isolation and alienation. At the time, despite our own minor ideological differences, we agreed on one point: it was none of your business or the business of the rest of the white population. When we organize amongst our own, we consider it a "family matter". When we have conflicts, that is also a "family matter". Again, it is none of your business unless we tell you differently. How would you like it if we butted in on a heated family argument you were having with a loved one and started telling you what to think and what to do?

This brings me to two issues that have bothered me since January, 1996. Both comments were made to me by a member of Radical Women at the International Socialist Organization's conference at the University of Washington. The first statement was: "I don't recognize Black people as a 'nation' like I do Native people."

My first thought was "who the fuck are you to pass judgement upon a general self-definition that is rooted in our collective suffering throughout the history of this country?"

She might as well join up with the right-wing Holocaust revisionists; for this is precisely what she is practicing, the denial of the Black holocaust from 1555 to the present (along a parallel denial, by proxy, of the genocide against other non- white nations within the US). Our nationalism emerged as a defense against [your] white racism. The difference between revolutionary Black nationalists (like Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party) and cultural nationalists (like Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam) is that we see our nationalism as a specific tool to defend ourselves from groups and individuals like this ignorant person, not as an exclusive or single means for liberation.

We recognize that we will have to attack bourgeois elements amongst our people just as vigorously as we fight against white supremacists ("left", "center", or "right"). The difference is that our bourgeosie (what I refer to as the "negrosie") is only powerful within the community; they have no power against the white power structure without us, nor do they have power generally without the blessing of the white power structure itself. Our task, then, is to unite them with us against a common enemy while at the same time explicitly undermining (and eventually eliminating) their inherantly reactionary influence.

The second stupidity to pass her lips concerned our support of Black-owned businesses. I pointed out to her that if she had in fact studied her Marxism-Leninism, she would see that their existence goes hand-in-glove with Marx's theory that revolution could only ensue once capitalism was fully developed. She came back with the criticism, "Well, you'll be waiting a long time for that to happen".

Once again, had she actually studied Marxism-Leninism she would know that Lenin and the Bolsheviks also had to deal with this same question. Russia's economy was predominantly agricultural, and its bourgeois class was small. They decided to go with the mood and sentiments of the peasantry and industrial workers at that particular moment in history;..seize the means of production and distribution anyway!

Who says we wouldn't do the same? The participants of the LA rebellion (and others), despite their lack of training in "radical 'left-wing' political theory" (besides being predominantly Black, Latino, or poor white trash in Amerikkka), got it half right; they seized the means of distribution, distributed the products of their [collective] labor, and then burned the facilities to the ground. Yes, there were many problems with the events of 1992, but they did show our potential for future progress.

Black autonomists ultimatly reject vanguardism because as the white left [as well as elements of the Black revolutionary movement] has demonstrated, it errodes and eventually destroys the fragile ties that hold together the necessary principled partnerships between groups and individuals that are needed to accomplish the numerous tasks associated with fighting back successfully and building a strong, diverse, and viable revolutionary movement.

The majority of the white left is largely disliked, disrespected, and not trusted by our people because they fail miserably on this point. How can you claim to be a "socialist" when you are in fact anti-social? How do you all distinguish yourselves from the majority of your people in concrete, practical, and principled terms?

III. Zero (0) support of non-white left factions by the white left.

I've always found this particularly disturbing; you all want our help, but do not want to help us. You want to march shoulder to shoulder with us against the government and its supporters, but do not want us to have a solid political or material foundation of our own to not only win the fight against the white supremacist state but to also re-build our communities on our own behalf in our own likeness(es).

Let white Marxists provide unconditional (no strings attached) material support for non-white factions whose ideology runs parallel to theirs, and let white anarchist factions provide unconditional (again, no strings attached) material support for factions in communities of color who have parallel ideologies and goals. Obviously, the one "string" that can never be avoided is that of harsh economic reality; if you don't have the funds, you can't do it. That's fair and logical, but if you're paying these exorbitant amounts for projects and events that amount to little more than ideological masturbation and organizational cultism while we do practical work out of pocket or on a tiny budget amongst our own, it seems to me that a healthy dose of criticism/self-criticism and reassessment of priorities is in order on the part of you "professional revolutionaries" of the white left.

If the white left "vanguards" are unwilling to materially support practical work by non-white revolutionary factions, then you have no business showing your faces in our neighborhoods. If you "marxist missionaries" insist on coming into our neighborhoods preaching the "gospel" of Marx, Lenin, Mao, etc, the least you could do is "pay" us for our trouble. You certainly haven't offered us much else that's useful.

To their credit, the white anarchists and anti-authoritarian leftists have been generally supportive of the Black struggle by comparison; Black Autonomy and related projects in particular. Matter of fact, back in October of 1994 in an act of mutual aid and solidarity the Philadelphia branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) printed the very first issue of Black Autonomy (1,000 copies) for FREE. One of their members actually got a little upset when I asked how much we owed them for the print job. In return (and in line with our class interests), we allied ourselves with the Philly branch and others in a struggle within the IWW against the more conservative "armchair revolutionary/historical society" elements within its national administrative body.

Former political prisoner, SNCC member, Black Panther, and Black autonomist (anarchist) Lorenzo Komboa Ervin credits the hard work of anarchist groups in Europe and non-vanguardist Marxist and anarchist factions in the US for assisting him in a successful campaign for early release from prison after 13 years of incarceration.

In no way do we expect you or anyone else to bankroll us; what I am offering is one suggestion to those of you who sincerly want to help; and a challenge to those who in fact seek to "play god" with our lives while spouting empty, meaningless rhetoric about "freedom", "justice", "class struggle", and "solidarity". To those people I ask: Do you have ideas, or do ideas have you? Actually, a better question might be: do you think at all?

IV. Bourgeois pseudo-analysis of race and class.

It only makes sense that the white left's analysis of race and class in amerikkka would be so erroneous when you're so quick to jump up and pass judgement on everyone else about this or that, but deathly afraid of real self-criticism at the individual or collective level; opting instead to use tool(s) of self- criticism as a means to reaffirm old, tired ideas that were barely thought out to begin with or by dodging real self-criticism altogether by dogmatically accusing your critics of "red- baiting". Clearly, it is you who "red-bait" yourselves; as the old saying goes, "Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones!" Action talks, bullshit walks!

Some of the more backward sections of the white left still push that old tired line "gay, straight, Black, white, same struggle-same fight!" Nothing can be further from the truth. Sure, we are all faced with the same "main enemy": the racist, authoritarian state and its supporters; but unlike white males (straight or gay) and with some minor parallels to the experiences of white women, our oppression begins at birth. This is a commonality that we share with Native people, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, and Asians.

As we grow up, we go from being "cute" in the eyes of the larger society, to being considered "dangerous" by the time we're teenagers. As this point is driven home to us day in and day out in various social settings and circumstances some of us decide, in frustration to give the white folks what they want to believe; we become predatory. This dynamic is played out in ghettos, barrios, chinatowns, and reservations across the country. Even those of us who choose not to engage in criminal activity, or aren't forced into it, have to live under this stigma. In addition, we as individuals are still viewed as "objects" and our community as a "monolith".

We then enter the work force...that is, if there are any jobs available. It is there that we learn that our people and other non-whites are "last hired, first fired", that our white co-workers are generally afraid of us or view as "competition", and that management is watching us even more closely than other workers, while at the same time fueling petty squabbles and competition between us and other non-white workers. Those of us who are fortunate enough to land a union job soon find out that the unions are soft on racism in the workplace. This only makes sense as we learn later on that unions in the US are running dogs of capitalism and apologists for management, despite their "militant" rhetoric.

Most unionized workers are white, reflective of the majority of unionized labor in the US; who constitute a mere 13% of the total labor force. This is why it is silly for the white left to prattle on and on about the labor "movement" and about how so many of our people are joining unions. That's no consolation to us when Black unemployment hovers at 35% nationally; many of those brothers and sisters living in places were "permenent unemployment" is the rule rather than the exception, and many more who find work at non-union "dead end" service industry jobs. One out of three of our people is caught up somewhere within the US criminal "justice" system: in jail, in prison, on parole, on work-release, awaiting trial, etc as a direct result.

In addition, many white workers are supportive of racist Republican politicians, such as presidential candidate Pat Buchannan, who promises to protect their jobs at the expense of non-white workers and immigrants. What is the white left or the union movement doing about all of that?

It shouldn't be suprising that the white left still preaches a largely economist viewpoint when it comes to workers generally, and workers of color in particular. This view is further evidence of not only your own deviation from Marx, but also from Lenin, by your own varied (yet similar) definitions.

Lenin recognized why the majority of Russian revolutionaries of his time put forward an economist position: "In Russia,...the yoke of autocracy appears at first glance to obliterate all distinction between the Social Democrats organization and workers' association, since all workers associations and all study circles are prohibited; and since the principle manifestation and weapon of the workers' economic struggle, the strike, is regarded as a criminal (and sometimes even as a political) offense."

In this country, the distinction between the trade unions and revolutionary organizations is abundantly clear (even if some groups like the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) still fail to make the distinction themselves) and the primary contradiction within the working class is that of racial stratification as a class weapon of the bourgeoisie and capitalists against the working class as a whole.

Yet, the white Left (along with the rest of the white working class) fails to see its collaborationist role in this process. And this goes right back to what I said earlier in this writing about the need for a serious historical and cultural critique amongst all white people (and not just the settler nation's left-wing factions) that goes beyond superficial culture appropriations or lofty, dogmatic proclaimations of how committed you and your party is to "racial equality". To even consider oneself "white" or to call oneself "white" is an argument FOR race and class oppression; look at the history of the US and see who first errected these terms "white" and "Black", and why they were created in the first place.

I remember last summer, around the fourth of July, I had a member of the local SWP try to tell me that the American War of Independence was "progressive". Progressive for whom? Tell us the truth, who were the primary beneficiaries of the American Revolution? You know the answer, we all do; only a total, unrepentant reactionary would lie to the people, especially on this point.

Howard Zinn, in his work "A People's History of the United States", points out how early 20th century historian Charles Beard found that of the fifty-five men who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to draw up the US Constitution "a majority of them were lawyers by profession, that most were men of wealth, in land, in slaves, manufacturing, or shipping; that half of them had money loaned out at interest, and that forty of the fifty- five held government bonds, according to records of the [US] Treasury Department. Thus, Beard found that most of the makers of the Constitution had some direct economic interest in establishing a strong federal government: the manufacturers needed protective tariffs; the moneylenders wanted to stop the use of paper money to pay off debts; the land speculators wanted protection as they invaded Indian lands; slaveowners needed federal security against slave revolts and runaways; bondholders wanted a government able to raise money by nationwide taxation, to pay off those bonds.

Four groups, Beard noted, were not represented in the Constitutional Convention: slaves, indentured servants, women, men without property. And so the Constitution did not reflect the interests of those groups." (Zinn, pg.90)

Come to terms with your white skin privilege (and the ideology and attitude(s) this privilege breeds) and then figure out how to combat that dynamic as part of your fight against the state and its supporters. Your continued backwardness is a sad commentary when we uncover historical evidence which shows that even before the turn of the century some of your own ancestors within the white working class were begining to take the first small steps towards a greater understanding of their social role as the white servants of capital. A white shoemaker in 1848 wrote:

"...we are nothing but a standing army that keeps three million of our bretheren in bondage...Living under the shade of Bunker Hill monument, demanding in the name of humanity, our right, and withholding those rights from others because their skin is black! Is it any wonder that God in his righteous anger has punished us by forcing us to drink the bitter cup of degradation." (Zinn, pg.222)

We can even look to the historical evidence of Lenin's time. Prior to the publishing of Lenin's "On Imperialism", W.E.B. DuBois wrote an article for the May, 1915 edition of the Atlantic Monthly titled "The African Roots of War" in which he vividly describes how both rich and poor whites benefit from the super- exploitation of non-white people:

"Yes, the average citizen of England, France, Germany, the United States, had a higher standard of living than before. But: 'Whence comes this new wealth?'...It comes primarily from the darker nations of the world-Asia and Africa, South and Central America, the West Indies, and the islands of the South Seas. It is no longer simply the merchant prince, or the aristocratic monopoly, or even the employing class that is exploiting the world: it is the nation, a new democratic nation composed of united capital and labor." (Zinn)

Yet, the self-titled "anti-racists" of the left continue on with their infantile fixation on the Klan, Nazis, and right-wing militias. Groups that they say they are against, but in fact demonstrate a tolerance for in practice. Standing around chanting empty slogans in front of a line of police seperating demonstrators from the nazis in a "peaceful demonstration" is contradiction in its purest form; both the police and the fascists must be mercilessly destroyed! As the Spanish anarchist Buenventura Durruti proclaimed back in 1936 "Fascism is not to be debated, it is to be smashed!" There is no room for compromise or dialogue, except for asking them for a last meal request and choice of execution method before we pass sentence; and even that is arbitrary!

True, tactical considerations must be examined, but if we can't get at them then and there, there is no "rule" that says we can't follow them and hit them when they least expect it; except for the "rule" of the wanna-be rulers of the Marxist-Leninist white left "vanguard(s)" who only see the fascists as competition in their struggle to see which set of "empire builders" will lord over us; the "good" whites who regulate us to the amerikkkan left plantation of "the glorious workers state", or the "bad" whites who work us as slaves until half-dead and then laugh as our worn out carcasses are thrown into ovens, cut up for "scientific purposes", or hung from lamp posts and trees. You people have yet to show me the qualitative difference(s) between a Klan/Nazi- style white supremacist dictatorship and your concept of a "dictatorship of the proletariat" in the context of this particular country and its notorious history. So far, all I have seen from you all is arrogance in coalitions, petty games of political one-upmanship, and ideological/tactical rigidity.

Let's pretend for a minute that one of the various wanna-be vanguards actually seizes political power. In everyone of your programs, from the program of the RCP, USA to even smaller, lesser known groups there is usually a line somewhere in there about your particular party holding the key levers of state power within a "dictatorship of the proletariat". Have any of you actually considered what that sounds like to a community without real power? Does this mean that we as Black people are going to have fight and die a second time under your dictatorship in order to have equal access to employment, housing, schools, colleges, public office, party status, our own personal lives generally?

Look at our history; over one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclaimation (the 1960's) we were still dying for the right to vote, for the right to protest peacefully, for the right to live in peace and prosperity within the context of white domination and capitalism. Today, after all of that, it is clear that the masses of our people are still largely powerless; we stayed powerless even as public schools were being desegregated and more of our elites were being elected to Congress and other positions. The same racist, authoritarian state that stripped us of our humanity was now asserting itself as our first line of defense of those hard-won concessions in the form of federal troops and FBI "observers" (who watched as we were beaten, raped, and/or killed) sent to enforce The Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

As we have seen since that time, what the white power structure grants, it can (and will) take away; we can point to recent US Supreme Court decisions around voter redistricting as one part of our evidence. We can also look to the problem of mail and publication censorship in the US prison system (state and federal) that has come back to haunt us since the landmark 1960's first amendment legal challenge to the state of New York that was won by political prisoner and Black/Puerto Rican anarchist Martin Sostre. And then there's the attacks on a prisoners' right to sue a prison official, employee, or institution being made by the House and Senate. Give us one good reason to believe that you people will be any different than these previous and current "benevolent" leaders and political institutions if by some fluke or miracle you folks stumble into state power?

No "guarantees" againt counter-revolution or revisionism within your "revolutionary" party/government you say? There are two: the guns, ammunition, organization, solidarity, political consciousness, and continuous vigilance of the masses of non- white people and the truly sympathetic, conscious anti-authoritarian few amongst your population; or a successful grassroots- based revolution that is rooted in anti-authoritarian political ideas that are culturally relevant to each ethnicity of the poor and working class population in the US. Judging by the general attitudes and theories expressed by your members and leadership, we can be rest assured that it is virtually guaranteed that the spirit of 'Jim Crow' can and will flourish within a white-led Marxist-Leninist "proletarian dictatorship" in the US. It's clear to me why you all ramble on and on about the revolutions of China, Russia, Vietnam, Cuba, etc; they provide convienient cover for you all (read: escapism) to avoid a serious examination of the faults in your current analysis as well as in the historical analysis of the last thirty years of struggle in the US.

These are the only conclusions that can be drawn when you all are so obviously hostile to the idea of doing the hard work of confronting your own individual racist and reactionary tendencies. When your own fellow white activists attempted to put together an "Anti-Racism Workshop" for members of the Seattle Mumia Defense Committee, many of you pledged your support (in the form of the usual dogmatic, vague, and arguably baseless rhetorical proclaimations of "solidarity" and "commitment to racial equality") and then proceeded to not show up. Only the two initial organizers within the SMDC and two coalition members (neither affiliated with any political party) were there. Make no mistake, I have no illusions about white people confronting their own racism; but I do support their honest attempts at doing so. Here we have a situation in which an ideological leap amongst the white left in Seattle may have been initiated; yet, the all- knowing, all-seeing "revolutionary vanguard(s)" of the white left were too busy spending that particular weekend picking the lent out of their belly buttons. Are we saving our belly-button lent for the potential shortages of food that occur during and shortly after the revolution [is corrupted by the mis-leadership of your particular rigid, dogmatic, authoritarian party]?

V. The bottom line is this: Self-determination!

For most white leftists, this means that we as Black people are demanding our own seperate nation-state. Some of our revolutionary factions do advocate such a position. Black Autonomists, however, reject nation-statism [For more on that, refer to page 15 of any copy of Black Autonomy newspaper].

Regardless of whether or not the Black masses opt for a seperate homeland on this continent or in Africa, we will be respected as subjects of history and not as objects that the state, its supporters, or the white left decides what to do with.

The answer to "the Black question" is simple: It is not a question; we are people, you will deal with us as such or we will fight you and the rest of the white settler nation...by any and all means necessary! We will not be cowed or dominated by anyone ever again!

Too many times in the course of American (and world) history have our people fought and died for the dream of true freedom, only to have it turn into the nightmare of continued oppression. If the end result of a working-class revolution in the United States is the continued domination of non-white people by white "revolutionary leaders" and a Left-wing [white supremacist] government, then we will make another revolution until any and all perpetrators and supporters of that type of social-political relationship are defeated or dead! Any and all means are completely justifiable in order to prevent the defeat of our revolution and the re-introduction of white supremacy. We will not put up with another 400+ years of oppression; and I'm sure our Native and Hispanic brothers and sisters won't tolerate another 500+ years of the same ol' shit.

Ultimatly, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"; that's the main reason I decided to publish this, as yet another humble contribution to the self-education of our people. The second reason is to, hopefully, inspire the white left to re- examine your current practices and beliefs as part of your process of self-education; assuming that you all in fact practice self-education.

Reject the traditions of your ancestors and learn from their mistakes; or reject your potential allies in communities of color. The choice is yours...

"It is a commentary on the fundementally racist nature of this society that the concept of group strength for black people must be articulated, not to mention defended. No other group would submit to being led by others. Italians do not run the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. Irish do not chair Chistopher Columbus Societies. Yet when black people call for black-run and all-black organizations, they are immediatly classed in a catagory with the Ku Klux Klan." -Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael), Black Power; Vintage Press, 1965.

via IWW

[lettersnorth]

Aislinn North

Name: Aislinn North

Race: Hyur

Gender: Female

Age: 32

Sexuality: Demisexual

Server: Balmung

Residence: She has a small apartment in Limsa Lominsa and is employed by a Free Company based out of Gridania.

Birthplace: Ala Mhigo

Religion: Adheres to the Eorzean religion of the Twelve.

Patron Deity: Nymeia, goddess of Fate. Her life, being as filled with chaos as it has, has taught her that the individual has very little control over what happens to them in life. All a person can do is control themselves and their reactions. “I’ve done all the preparation I can. Once the arrow leaves the bow, I have no control over whether it hits the target.“

Occupation: Takes on various odd jobs mostly related to engineering and aetherological research. Works for a mercenary company based in Gridania.

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Proficiencies: Sharpshooting, Aether manipulation through arcane maths, Engineering

Interests: Tinkering, Philosophy, Travel, Aetherlogical Studies

Relationships:

SPOUSE: None.

CHILDREN: None.

PARENTS: Deceased

SIBLINGS: None.

OTHER RELATIVES: None.

Likes: Learning new things, reading, travel, people watching, letting her mind wander, triple triad, fixing broken things.

Dislikes: Large crowds, bullies, pushy men, being touched, Ul'dah, wordplay

Fears:

Abandonment - For one reason or another Aislin has lost everyone important to her over the years; childhood friends, mentors, family. She doesn’t realize how much of an impact this has had on her over time, slowly chipping away at her willingness to open herself to new people. As a result, she tends to keep her distance, using her work as an excuse to maintain space.

The Dark - She had an unfortunate experience as a child at the hands of her bullies. To this day she can’t sleep without the glow of a lantern or candle nearby.

Black Magic - She once found herself on a mage’s bad side. The harrowing experience left her convinced there is some knowledge no one is meant to possess.

Being Dependent - Spending years as a refugee in Ul'dah, Aislinn and her father were constantly reminded of how much their survival depended on those with the coin and the power. Ever since then, Aislinn has worked hard to make sure she’s never at the whim or mercy of someone else ever again.

Personality: Generally even-keeled with a steady hand. Aislinn is easily overlooked, she’s never the loudest or the most flamboyant one in the room, but loyal and steadfast to those she’s close to. More often than not, she will put the needs of others above her own, even to her detriment. She gives off a quiet and calm energy but does light up when she gets a chance to nerd out about one of her interests. Some see her quiet disposition as aloof but Aislinn was raised not to use seven words when three will do. As a child she spoke so infrequently that some thought her mute. And while she is well past that, rhetoric is better left to someone more eloquent than she. She still trips over her words or speaks in broken sentences when she gets flustered. In combat she is often underestimated due to her diminutive stature. But what she lacks in brute strength she’s learned to make up for in speed, being quick and light on her feet has saved her many a time. She’s also a crack shot with a variety of ranged weapons. An avid student of philosophy, she prefers to retreat to quiet nature spaces for reading and reflection when she finds herself with free time. Analytical and logical, Aislinn relates best to a person when they are frank and forthright. Her weakness lies in her inability to discern subtlety and innuendo or to read between the lines.

Traits –––

* Bold your character’s answer.

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between /  Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Love and Romance:

Turn-Ons: Strength, protectiveness, kindness, warmth, confidence, tenderness, a sense of safety

Turn-Offs: Loudness, Yelling, Mercurial personalities, pushiness, arrogance, cruelty, inexperience, alpha males, roughness

Relationship Tendencies:  Aislinn has built quite a shell around her due to the hardships and abuse she’s experienced in life. She doesn’t trust easy and has a tendency to withdraw. If she ever reaches out or touches someone of her own volition, it’s a pretty clear indicator that she cares deeply for that person. She’s absolutely monogamous and has no interest in playing games or competing with rivals, she will cut and run and she senses this is the case. After all she’s been through she has trouble believing anyone could see her in a romantic light and subtlety is lost on her so the other person would have to make their interest abundantly clear. Any romance with her would take time and care to build.

Physical Description: Aislinn is on the shorter side though she’s slender and fit from a life lived outdoors. Her most distinctive features are her red hair, which is usually pinned back just enough to keep it out of her eyes, and a scar across her face, just under her eyes. She carries herself with the quiet, earthy confidence of someone who is comfortable in her own skin and knows what it’s capable of. Her attire tends towards the simple and understated as if she’s trying not to attract attention. She eschews bright and garish colors in favor of subtle, muted tones. Instead of a distinct style, she will readily wear whatever is best suited for the city or destination in which she finds herself. She prefers to blend in whenever possible. Her expressions are subtle, a twitch of an eyebrow or slip of a smile is usually as animated as she gets. She’s soft-spoken, with a husky quality to her voice.

History:  A general background and more in depth stories can be found here

RP Hooks:

Tinkering - Have some piece of machinery on the fritz? A clockwork that’s gone haywire? Or maybe that gunblade of yours just isn’t shooting straight. Aislinn knows her way around a variety of magitek and only too happy to get her hands dirty repairing old pieces of machinery or devising new ones.

Ul'Dah’s Seedy Underbelly - Aislinn is no stranger to the street gangs of Ul'dah. She used to be a runner for a cartel during her time in the city. Though she’s left that life behind it’s possible she would be recognized by someone who traveled in the same circles.

Limsa Lominsa - Though the nature of her work has her frequently traveling, she currently calls Limsa Lominsa home. When she’s in town, she can usually be found in the Missing Member tavern, or lounging in the sun, her nose in a book.

Aetherlogical Research - Aislinn is always up for talking about the finer points of aetherlogical study and loves to collaborate on experiments or research.

OOC:

I’m 30+ and prefer to RP with fellow adults. Pretty chill and patient, I’ll roll with most things though I would like the people I play with to be emotionally mature. I don’t have time for toxic behavior, people who can��t keep IC and OOC separate, tantrums or guilt trips.

I’m in the EST time zone. My weekdays are pretty busy between a full-time job and a side job that takes up a significant amount of time. I’m usually around a couple of weeknights long enough to run some roulettes or do some light RP but lengthy RP scenes would probably need to happen on the weekends or in Discord.

I’m interested in plots and long story arcs, relationships that take time to build. I don’t really do tavern RP as my RP time is limited and I’d rather spend it building depth in story and character. Aislinn has a lot of walls and while the potential for romance is there, she’s not going to jump right in off the bat.

I’m absolutely up for plotting a variety of previously established relationships or how our characters might know each other.

I do love running all sorts of content and am happy to have people to run with. So if you’re looking for company for roulettes, maps, raids, etc. I’m there.

[22drunkb]

Please could you talk about the weird and specific visual language of person of interest? I haven't noticed it before but now I'm intrigued

Hi, Anon. You sent this ask 8 months ago. I took this long to answer because I wanted to really lay it all out for you, with the right screencaps and reference images and a whole theory of why the show looks the precise way it does. But the fact is, that’s not going to happen. I don’t have the time or mental energy to do it properly, and I have finally accepted that because the almost completely written long-ass answer to a different question about a different show that’s been sitting in my drafts for about as long is still languishing! and it’s almost done! wild what grad school can do to a person.

So since I have accepted that I can’t do the Full Treatment I wanted to, I’ll just do the quick explanatory version.

POI has 5 main visual ideas it returns to over and over. These are:

1. Surveillance footage. This is notable because it tends to look, by normal framing and cinematography standards, bad; they are very deliberately putting out “bad” images to tell the story, which after all is in large part about surveillance and privacy. I can’t remember now where I read/heard this, but the EPs definitely talked about the struggle to get cameras into these really inconvenient spots to get the properly terrible angles that would play as plausible CCTV-type footage.

2a. Edward Hopper’s style. By this I mean less his use of color than his tendency to show one or a few static figures, small in relation to their (usually urban) surroundings, often locked off by a frame-within-the-frame (someone framed in a window within the larger setting, for example); and significant contrast in lighting. The emblematic example for me is the wide shot of John cradling Carter’s body next to the phone booth, right after the moment of her death. But a lot of the comedic exterior shots of a bar or other establishment inside of which John is wreaking havoc actually fit as well.

2b. Noir, which was probably influenced by Hopper in the first place (or at least was responding to similar aspects of the zeitgeist). “POI noir” is a very popular thing in the fandom, and I assume you don’t need me to explain it. I will say, though, that as a film genre noir is about the failure of institutions, loneliness, isolation, and doom, so the choice is both telling and appropriate. (The same applies to the Hopper point.)

3. This is related to 2 and 3, but there is a broader theme of small isolated figures against a big, empty (or sometimes empty by virtue of being anonymously crowded) urban backdrop. (This is something noir does a lot also.) The reason I’m separating it here is that POI does this a lot of the time without making it noir; it creates something lighter-colored, lower-contrast, and more contemporary-looking, but maintins a similar effect. Takeshi Miyasaka’s work evokes it very directly for me. What’s interesting about his paintings as well as these compositions in POI is that they often come off as unstudied, not overthought or excrutiatingly composed. This is not the case; they are very carefully thought out (in both cases). But they convey a sense of naturalism you don’t get from a traditional noir composition (or most of Hopper’s noirish work--some of his other stuff is different, but not relevant here), while maintaining that feeling of a small subject in a big, uncaring, not particularly beautiful world.

4. Comics. POI is often compared to Batman; in some ways it more closely resembles Batman’s even noir-ier antecedent, The Shadow. It obviously leans into this in 4x06, “Pretenders,” but it’s there in a lot of the action sequences. I’d cite the one where John goes after Quinn in “The Devil’s Share,” a lot of “Relevance,” or this as examples.

5. The “interior,” thinking/processing shots of the Machine and Samaritan. For these they obviously invented a lot. They definitely drew on what was at the time cutting-edge data visualization as well as the marketing materials of some leading tech and security companies to create them, but I think it’s one of the ways in which the show was most original. (Interestingly, you can see some of this idea being worked out before the show even began in the movie Eagle Eye, which had the same producers. It’s not a good movie, mind you, and its notion of AI is super simplistic, but some of the visualization in this area is clearly prototypical of what would play out on POI.)

A lot of these visual choices don’t stand out as noticeable (aside from the AI visualizations, which of course are unmissable). There are two main reasons for this. One is that none of them are constant. POI never set out to make every shot a stylistic masterpiece, the way a show like Hannibal more or less did. I assume this was partly because of the logistical realities of a 22-episode season, but it also works with the show’s storytelling. The idea they want you to get, that they reiterate over and over, is that the world looks normal but isn’t underneath. So the 5 stylistic ideas I mentioned above tend to appear in short spurts--an action sequence, a shot framing Harold against a New York skyline or the whole team by a bridge, etc--stitched together by pretty standard TV framing (shot/reverse shot, close-up, medium). This allows them to kind of ramp up and ramp down the level of visual intensity, using noirish or comicky compositions, or particularly intense AI visualizations, in line with the storytelling. It is also a kind of metaphor for the entire premise: things look regular most of the time, but they aren’t if you pay attention.

The second reason is that we are so incredibly used to surveillance footage! It doesn’t stick out to us anymore! This is actually very significant because, as I noted above, surveillance cameras are not positioned for aesthetic value. The point is coverage, not composition or image quality. So this is a cinematic product (a television show) that is working overtime to give you technically “bad” images. But those images don’t really stand out as ugly, per se; instead they denote truthfulness. So for example, the Machine’s POV (as opposed to its thought process, which is digitally animated) is almost always in this surveillance style. This reminds us of what the Machine is and how it works, and it also tells us that what we’re seeing isn’t subjective. It is not someone’s memory or their perception. It is a literal recording. This allows the Machine to act as our guide through the whole timeline, moving us back and forth through that horizontal scroll, zooming in on a moment or incident for replay. We never have to question if the Machine is lying to us or mistaken (aside from 5x02), because its memory is a video archive presented to us with all the hallmarks of video that means “proof,” not video that means “feelings” or “perceptions.” Once we’ve been transitioned into a flashback scene, that style can go away so that we can abandon the distance that surveillance introduces to engage with the emotion of the flashback scene, but they use that device to move us around because it automatically tells us “this is true.” Simultaneously, the ubiquity of surveillance-style shots reinforces that same message I talked about above: that we are being watched (because the world has gone sideways).

(Perhaps I should mention that Nolan and Plageman said a big goal of theirs with the show was to make people more aware of how profoundly the technological and therefore social world around them was changing with little notice or fanfare. One of the obvious ways they were trying to direct our attention on this point was to issues of privacy. Finch helping John out of a sticky situation by exploiting a homeowner’s smart TV isn’t just a matter of making Finch look clever. They wanted to let us know that if your smart TV has a camera, someone can remotely turn it on. [I know this is common knowledge now, but that episode was like 2012. I found out what Palantir was because of POI!] Just to contextualize why to me, “you are being watched” and “the world has gotten very weird” are basically the same message in the context of POI.)

One of the show’s key influences is The Naked City (the show and the film). The film version of The Naked City is notable because it was one of the first post-WWII movies to shoot on location instead of on a film set, and it was shot in NYC. It’s also one of the earliest police procedurals, in the form we know the genre today. It’s not exactly noir, but it’s not exactly not noir. It’s based on the photography of the famous ambulance-chasing, poverty-documenting photographer Weegee; you could say it’s an early example of a “gritty” film. It doesn’t have the elegant devastation of The Third Man or the deep shadows of Double Indemnity. It was all about bringing audiences the amazing spectacle of a real place; the paradoxical insistence on authenticity in cinema goes way back. The Naked City to me is somehwere between noir and cinema verité, and in that sense, POI is true to it as an influence.

[thatschicfashionblog-blog]

Shoes Every Girl Should Own

When it comes to shoes there are so many different types, varieties, styles, and colors for all occasions and types of people. Now these staple shoes for me may be different for you depending on your style and what you consider basics, but overall I went off the most commonly owned basic staple shoes.

1. A Basic Heel

Okay, now this may not be everyone’s cup of tea but as you get older owning a simple heel is important for wearing to job interviews, formal occasions, or parties. There are many options out there when it comes to owning a pair of heels. Personally my go to heel for any occasion is a black or nude block heel with small straps. The reason being because this type of heel is very versatile since it is so simple and dainty. It can be dressed up by being worn with: dressy pants, skirts, a dress, jumpsuit, etc. Or it can be worn more casually with a pair of boyfriend jeans or a simple pant. The heel itself is also more comfortable when it’s blocky because the base of the heel is wider providing more support when walking and depending on heel height lessening your chance of rapid heel pain, if any. This heel is very popular amongst girls to wear during homecoming so there are many places to find one that is inexpensive and will suit your style. For this type of shoe you don’t need to find one that is expensive in order for it to do its job. Now for more of black tie white tie occasions or a serious business vibe go towards owning a classic stiletto heel which ranges from both high end to moderate so you can find/own a little bit of both.

(photo courtesy of: left-Target, right- Nine West)

2. Sandals

Along the line of open toed shoes is sandals. A flip flop is a basic need which almost everyone already owns. It can be found for very cheap starting at $1 and is used for sanitary reasons like when using somebody else's shower, for a day out at the beach/pool, or when just lounging around the house. Sandals, however, provide more support and comfort and are more commonly worn for spring/summer outfits. For me a brown strappy sandal is the way to go. During the spring time a brown or nude colored sandal is the perfect color contrast for brighter colors or floral patterns. Especially if you’re wearing a floral pattern of  lighter colors brown will tend to match more. During the warmer seasons wearing black is more of a harsh and too dark of a color, so if you want to go with a more spring/summer vibe stick to lighter or neutral colored sandals. You will also notice to that brands typically have sandals which come in a variety of lighter and brighter colors.

(photos courtesy of: Nordstrom) 

3. Athletic Shoes

Everyone person no matter how athletic should own at least one pair of tennis shoes. Tennis shoes are often misperceived as being dad like, to colorful, or even not fashionable enough. However there are plenty of tennis shoes out there in the market that come in multiple varieties so you find one that suits your style best. Yes! There are even simplistic, light weight, and trendy ones out there. Just like most people I was also never of fan of really colorful shoes but brands such as Nike or Adidas make some really nice sleek black or white tennis shoes. You always want to have a pair of tennis shoes for the reasons of them being such versatile shoes, you can wear out for exploring a city, when you’re doing lots of walking, running or performing an athletic activity. Overall my favorite thing about athletic shoes is that you can find ones specific to your needs. For example there are shoes specific to running, hiking, or just walking use, and etc.

(photos courtesy of: Nike)

4. Sneakers

When it comes to sneakers this includes shoes like Vans, Converse or your everyday street style shoes. My favorite basic pair which is a staple that everyone already owns are Vans Old Skool a classic for being an everyday use shoe. The black and white combo and style of this shoe literally makes it match with every outfit. Even when scrolling through instagram and finding styling videos I always see girls style their Old Skools with skirts and even dresses. Overall my favorite thing about this shoe is one how it goes with everything, two how long these shoes last, and the style of the shoe including the combo of canvas and suede. Along the lines of sneakers are slip ons. Now these are the perfect swap for a traditional ballet slip on if that it is not your vibe. This shoe is great for wearing with those outfits when you’re not exactly sure what type of shoes to wear. Personally, I believe that the slip on sneakers look best with ankle cut or cropped jeans.

(photos courtesy of: Vans)

5. Boots

For this category I will be talking about three different types of boots. One is the rain boot which unless you don't live in place that gets a lot of rain, is a staple item. Even if you live in a place like California which does not get much rain sometimes the weather patterns are weird and we get those weeks or random days of rain. That is why instead of storing the traditional rain boot which can be bulky and take up space opt for a low cut ankle bootie rain boot. These rain boots will still do the job of keeping your feet dry but they are also a lot less bulkier and lightweight. Also appearance wise I‘d go for the look of low cut rain boots just because of the style. As for over the knee boots, these are great if you want to elongate your legs/body or give the appearance of thinner legs. Now on the spectrum of thinner legs, if you do have skinnier legs then go towards adjustable over the knee boots with ties in the back so it can fit to your liking. Over the knee boots are also more on the girly feminine side for people pair them with dresses and skirts. This is also a great way to add to your outfit if you are feeling lazy. You can always throw on an oversized sweatshirt (with shorts underneath of course) and put on some OTK boots which give the appearance of a more put together outfit. Depending on where you buy the OTK boots is can be both affordable and expensive so buy something which you know will last awhile but for a good price. Finally, every girl must own at least one pair of regular boots. Whether that be ankle boots, boots with heels, combat boots or fuzzy boots such as UGGs owning a pair of boots is a staple. Boots can be worn dressed up or down and are great during the fall and winter time when the weather is colder.

(photos courtesy of: Nordstrom and Asos)

6. Statement Shoes

For this last section, I though I’d throw in something a little extra which is not necessity but something which I know quite a few people own. That is statement shoes or shoes which are life of an outfit. Statement shoes can include one of kind custom sneakers, unique high heels, or out of the norm shoes in general. For example, shoes that are covered in bling, have a uncommon print/design to them, or are very bright color are types of statement shoes which are typically worn with a more plain or monochromatic outfit. For most women this is just an extra in their closet which they prefer to own but even then we all have that one pair of shoes which we only wear for certain occasions or at certain times.

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog all about basic shoes every girl should own because let’s be honest here we all for the most own plenty of shoes and could not go without the ones we wear everyday. Well that’s all for today folks!

Till next time!

-Thatschicfashionblog 👋🏼

[juleschurchill]

TASK 009 >>> questionnaire

What are your character’s nicknames, if any?

Contrary to popular belief, “ J u l e s ” is in fact, her given name. 

Not Julia, Juliet, Julianne — it’s just Jules. ( after the author of an crumbling, unreadable old book her father has had in his possession since he was a boy. The story inside is worn and warped by war and age, but the cover is still clear: TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA by JULES VERNE. 

It was an impossible, unthinkable feat now, to travel that far under. Unimaginable. But Aaron Churchill wanted his daughter to do impossible things.) 

She wouldn’t go by Jules if it weren’t her actual, given name — nicknames aren’t exactly professional. But at home it’s fine — she’s called Jule-bug, J, Jul, and a rather ridiculous collection of petnames, courtesy of her father.

Do they have any bad habits?

Her bluntness is a rude habit, one her mother  e n d l e s s l y  scolded her on. Be nice, Jules! Be polite, Jules!  ( But Jules doesn’t like being a liar. She  likes telling the truth, the brutal, boring, terrible truth. Is that so bad?) With that comes her habit of being judgmental, of thinking she’s the one who has it all figured out, the only one who understands anything. 

(Doesn’t help that so far in her life, she hasn’t exactly been proven wrong.)

Do they have any tattoos? If not, would they want one?

Absolutely not, tattoos are for vagrants and capitolites, and the Churchills don’t have a particularly high opinion of either group. Nothing is that important that it needs to be permanent, anyway. 

Do they have any scars? How did they get them?

Jules is lucky insofar that the only scars she has is from a childhood well-lived. There’s remnants of scraped knees from tripping playing tag, a burn behind her ear from letting her little sister straighten her hair. 

But nothing traumatic, nothing awful, nothing bad. 

Not yet.

How do they dress most of the time?

( ooc ; Do you know how, in the Sound of Music, the captain has his seven children wear literal uniforms before Maria comes?

                                                      ...Yeah. Her dad was like that.)

Her clothes are high-quality, as fits one of the richer families in District Seven, but not ostentatious. She’s never casual — her wardrobe had a wide array of  blouses and sweaters and skirts and corduroys, but no jeans, no sweatpants, no t-shirts. If it’s not appropriate for Sunday Mass, Jules Churchill doesn’t wear it. 

What words or phrases do they use frequently?

More than phrases, Jules has a distinct style of speaking — she repeats things for emphasize, instead of saying things like “very,” she says “this is bad, bad, bad, “or I love love love this dress.” 

Also, notably, Jules rarely swears unless she’s in extreme circumstances. It’s not very proper.

If anyone, who do they trust to protect them?

Short list: Her dad, only her Dad.  She trusts the other members of her family, but when it comes to protection, only one person could do it, and that is Aaron Churchill. She very much views him as her one and only protector, her guardian against all things. 

(And he would say the same thing. The fact that he can’t possibly protect Jules in the Hunger Games in any discernible way — it eats the man alive. He’s supposed to be her protector, he’s supposed to take care of her, and he can’t, can’t can’t. 

What is the point of power if you cannot protect your little girl?)

Are they argumentative or do they avoid conflict?

Depends on who you are. Do you have something Jules wants, a position or authority? She can play the yes-man all you like. But if Jules decides you’re not worth it, get ready to hear her monolingual on how incredibly wrong, wrong, wrong you are.

Did they have any role models growing up other than their parents?

No. Only Dad. No one outside of the family really mattered.

When was the time when they were the most frightened?

...Does this very moment count? Jules trusts herself, trusts her instincts, but she’s also terrified every waking moment of the games. From the moment her name was called out in the city square, every moment has been more terrifying than the last.

(Jules doesn’t want to die, her entire life so far has been planning from the future, they cannot take that away from her. If there’s no future, there was no point to any of it at all. 

That can’t be the story. 

                                    I want a different story!)

When was the time when they were the happiest?

Jules Churchill, age ten, the sort of age where everything is wrong with you and the world is against everything you do. Despite fate and biology and puberty working against her, Jules is successful, well-liked, the darling of her teachers. So much so, in fact, one of her teacher’s tells her: 

“Jules Churchill, you truly are your father’s daughter.”

She ran straight to City Hall after school, just so he could tell them, as she stood panting, red-faced in her father’s office, he simply laughed. 

“Jules, we already knew that. It’s clear to anyone who meets you that you’re mine.”

What is their most embarrassing moment?

After she turned fifteen, her father occasionally brought her to city hall for the day to shadow him. At fifteen, Jules thought she knew everything about the world, and acted as such to peacekeepers, her father’s staff, and plenty of other high-ranking officials. 

The chewing-out by her father midway through the day made it clear that she was not as smart as she seemed. Not yet, anyway.

Are they optimistic or pessimistic?

Pessimistic about the world, but optimistic about her own prospects in it. Jules is very much aware that the world she lives in is a cruel, ugly, unforgiving and unwelcoming place. But she also has the deeply-held belief that she can overcome that if she’s smart enough, if she works hard enough. 

(I wish that counted for something. I wish it counted for anything at all.)

What is their most treasured possession?

Her father own a bronze pocket-watch of incredibly old age, put together before the dark days. She has always, always, always wanted it, always made comments about how she hopes someday it will be given to her. It’s an heirloom, a piece of their family that has always been in their family. 

Her father gave it to Jules to have as her token. She intends to return it to him, though.

How do they spend a typical Saturday night?

Not terribly surprising, but Jules was rather popular at her school back in Seven. The wealthy, charming daughter of the Mayor had no trouble finding friends, and as such, if her schedule of studying allowed it, Jules was a regular attendant of District Seven’s house parties, though no, she never partook in any of the more inappropriate activities that defined teenage parties. 

(She just liked dancing.)

What song would you use to describe them?

baobabs by regina spektor

and i wouldn't raise my child inside this city anyway / they grow up too savvy and they grow up too fast / and they know about buying shit and they know about sex / and they know about investment banking and also about brokerage firms / and they know about the numbers and they know about the words / and they know about the bottom line and also about stones / and they know about careers and about the real deals /and they all grow up and become people's people with people skills

but you have tamed me / now you must take me / how am I supposed to be / I don't have my thorns now

Are they introverted or extroverted?

Extroverted, if only through sheer force of will. Jules prides herself on being able to talk to anybody and everybody. Especially in her element (District Seven, with her family, etc), Jules owns the room she goes into, knows how to light up the room she’s in.

Are they organized or messy? 

Organized in terms of her room, messy in terms of her desk. Too many thoughts, too many papers, too many things to keep track of when it came to her brain. Her room, however, is immaculate — clothes arranged by color, nothing on the floor at all.

What do they like about themselves?

To be frank, there’s a lot. Jules is a more than a little bit full herself, if you haven’t noticed yet. 

She loves her brain, her calculating, clever way of thinking her way into and out of every situation she needed to. She knows she’s attractive, though it doesn’t matter all too much to her (who cares if I’m pretty if I fail my finals?!), though it’s certainly a plus. 

She loves where she comes from, her intelligent, ambitious, historic family. She loves her role as the heir apparent of that very family. She loves being Jules Churchill.

How do they relax?

A good book — HISTORY OF PANEM, usually, maybe a folk story or two. Fire roaring in the parlor of her home in Seven, a cup of tea squealing from the kitchen. 

What is their ideal date?

Traditional, traditional, traditional. Wear something nice, take her to dinner, pay for it, and make sure to entertain her with the conversation — if she’s bored, you’re over. 

(also, eating her out afterwards wouldn’t hurt)

Do they want children? Why or why not?

Yes, but that doesn’t exactly mean Jules wants to be a mother. She wants to continue her family line, maybe even have someone love her unconditionally in the way a child does. But raising a child? Changing diapers and feeding and comforting and crying with a child for eighteen-plus some years?

Who had time for that?

Where do they see themselves in five years?

The plan has changed since she was reaped — though her heart can’t fully rule out following in her father’s footsteps, she’s not sure a Victor would even be eligible to be chosen as the mayor. But a Victor has a power all it’s own, probably more so than a mayor — something Jules wants to wield wisely.

What would be their three wishes if they found a genie’s lamp?

To win ( d u h . ) 

For her family to wield power comparable to the snows in the capitol (yeah, something she has seriously thought about) 

For pomegranates to grow in Seven — she tried one here in the capitol, and it is the closest Jules has come to falling in love.

Describe your character sitting in their favorite spot.

See above — the parlor of her home in Seven, with it’s ancient Persian rugs, warm fire-lit lamps, shelf after shelf of books and usually at least one member of her family inside. Add herbal tea for an especially happy Jules.

[fqrtescue]

                                  BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME: Alice Louise Fortescue PRONUNCIATION:  Alice  Louise Fortescue MEANING: Alice ( Noble ), Louise ( Famous Warrior, Renowned Fighter ), Fortescue ( Shield, Valiant, Strong Warrior ) REASONING: I mean, isn’t it obvious? NICKNAME(S): Al. Ally Cat. Ally. Fortescue. BIRTH DATE: July 28, 1959 AGE: 17 ZODIAC: Leo Sun, Taurus Moon, Scorpio Rising

Slytherin Leos can be either very good, or very bad. At their best, they exemplify all that“nobility” is made of: confidence, openness, charm, initiative, generosity of spirit, wisdom, judgment, and poise. At their worst, they become elitist, bullying bigots. How they end up depends on the company they keep, and how they are encouraged to act early in life. Either way, they never lack attention - it’s hard to ignore a Slytherin born under this sign. These Slytherins usually end up in positions of responsibility and leadership, because of their charisma and natural ability. Their creativity and drive also makes them very resourceful.

I thought this fit perfectly for Alice because not only does her name Alice mean noble, but this is just EXTREMELY Alice. She shines so brightly, like sunshine, really. I thought this also fits Alice because had Alice grown up around bigots, grown up around a father who trained her to be a weapon &not to help human kind, a mother who didn’t instill altruistic beliefs into her – she would’ve easily fallen into being on the bad side of being a Leo. Alice is open-minded and an open person, something she’s been since she was younger, something she will never grow out of. She believes the impossible as much as the possible, she believes in it and because she’s not rigid or thinks she knows EVERYTHING, she’s often got an edge during dueling when it comes to figuring out her opponents strategies. It adds to her being resourceful, while Alice isn’t always the most creative in a traditional sense, her being a fantastic dueler and able to navigate herself in her house is due the fact that not only is she cunning, but is so resourceful & able to see other people’s side of things while having the ability to manipulate people’s perception of her to work in her favor. She knows how she’s seen, she uses it to her advantage, often taking mental ( and physical ) notes of her classmates to be used in the future.

Leo is the fifth sign of the zodiac and rules the back, the spine, and the heart. Positive traits include creativity, charisma, generosity, warmth, enthusiasm, a natural talent for leadership, and a great deal of inner power; negative traits are haughtiness, snobbery, an expectation that one is the centre of attention and should be waited on by everyone else,profligacy, lack of realism, dominance that can lead to bullying, and a refusal to change one’s mind even in the face of solid facts.

Alice sees the world so openly and vast, she thinks, why not? Facts are only facts because they haven’t yet been proven otherwise, and Alice believes it only takes a little bit of doubt to undermine a fact – something easy to do. I bolded ‘profligacy’ because Alice has grown up never having to worry about money, and is the type to spend it on people she loves, buy them thing after thing, anything they need. Alice always has the latest record and few extra to give away to friends, she’s there to cover your bus fair or even a train ticket if needed. She’s mothering and maternal, especially as she gets older, she wants to take care of anyone who needs to be taken care of and give back in any way she can – which is where the dominance can come in. Sometimes overbearing, when Alice believes something is best for someone, it’s hard for her to change her mind about it – this oftentimes comes off as extremely controlling even though she means well. She’s the type of person to check up on you if you even mention that you’re having a slightly off week, and ask if there’s anything she can do to make it better. This is definitely due to her generous and hospitable nature, but it is excessive and always has been – not something she would ever change as long as she lived.

GENDER: Non-Binary PRONOUNS: She/Her and They/Them ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Panromantic SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Pansexual/Demisexual

Alice’s natural hair color is a really dusty blonde, even dirty blonde. She really loves to experiment with it though, so she’ll cut it and dye it all sorts of colors - from neon green to blonde to rainbow. From a pixie cut down below her waist. Anything and everything. Sometimes, in an attempt to just get out of her own head and escape for a bit, cutting & coloring her hair is fun and gives her some of a respite. She knows it’s just hair and it’ll easily grow back with a hair potion and just does it as a way to cope with not feeling completely comfortable in her appearance. She also does ridiculous makeup, sometimes adorning very shimmery glitter all across her eyelids and wearing funky socks that don’t always match her school robes. Sometimes she prefers to wear pants instead of a skirt, and puts pins of all sorts up and down her tie. Alice also owns an extensive sunglasses collection that she tries to wear on weekends or brings at least one fun pair with her Hogsmeade weekends. Until the last year when she finally expressed her self consciousness to her uncle about how she looked, her Uncle Florean helped educate her on the Queer community etc. Alice definitely IDs as queer and she’s openly not straight ( has been for forever ), but her gender is something she keeps more close to her heart & is really trying to figure out even with the information her uncle has given her. If I had to put a label on her sexuality it would be panromantic pansexual/demisexual. She also would probably fall under and be extremely interested in Polyamory, completely loving the free love movement currently going on.

NATIONALITY: Irish ETHNICITY: French/Irish/English

                                              BACKGROUND

BIRTH PLACE: Galway, Ireland HOMETOWN: Galway, Ireland SOCIAL CLASS: Upper Class EDUCATION LEVEL: Student / High School FATHER: Gervais Fortescue, 60, Deputy Head Auror in the Auror Department of the Brtitish DMLE

Her idol. Her rock. Her mentor. Her monument. Gervais Fortescue is everything to Alice, and then some. It is thanks to him that the Fortescue’s are now labled blood traitors having been relatively neutral seeming in the past. Gervais was one of the most vocal wizards in favor of intervening in WWII, even moving to England to find a way to help the war effort as France was not a good place to be – especially after surrendering to Nazi Germany. He packed up along with Florean and made it a mission to make a difference in Wizarding Britain, succeeding as he became an extremely political and physical asset to the Ministry as years went by. Gervais is the sole reason the Ministry of Magic has been able to anticipate as many missions as they have and the reason the Order currently has half of the information that they do. His missions have now spanned all accross the world, making important & vital connections with people all over the globe. His side projects have included much research into runes, lycanthrophy, and different styles of magic. He’s not just a mentor to Alice, but a mentor to many within the Auror department, having been a mentor & trainer to many a Auror who’ve come through the department, often extending his home as a safe place for them to be in case they need somewhere to go. The only reason he’s not Head Auror is because he knows he’d lose the freedom of traveling & researching as much as he does today. Gervais has unfortunately been on many a Death Eater & Co. radars, having infiltrated their plans, throwing quite a few Dark Wizards in Azkaban over the years.

MOTHER: Lucille Fortescue neé Rowle, 57, Former Herbologist & Current ‘Stay At Home’ Mother

Once a woman who could electrify a room, Lucille was an Irish woman with more life than her Pureblood family could handle. They were far too traditional, treacherous, straight laced, close minded for her tastes and always had been. When Lucille could, she moved away from her family, cutting ties and moving in with her best girlfriends, taking a job in Ireland as a Herbologist. For a few years, she was happy that way, having grown an extensive garden, finding home in Galway, finding family, and finding a random man hiding in her garden who’d later introduce himself as Gervais Fortescue. Over drinks she learned he was an Auror currently on mission, who later explained he’d been hiding from someone chasing him. Love at first sight might’ve been impractical, but, Lucille felt an instant connection to Gervais. Two years later, they were married, living their independent lifestyles while finding a way to share their life together. Alice remembers her mother as the woman who sang to her, who read stories to her, who soothed her fears, who inspired her love for Herbology and so much more. After the death of her unborn son, Tiernan, she became a ghost of the woman she once was. In Lucille’s mind, she was every horrible thing her parents had thought of her, she was a failure of a mother, she was a failure to her whole family. The woman who used to attend every Ministry party on the arm of her husband now retreats, barely coming out to greet company, barely talking to her loved ones at all. While Gervais, Alice, & Florean know that she needs professional help, it didn’t seem like she’s able to accept it. Luckily, she was no danger to herself and has lived out her days borderline catatonic & completely detached.

SIBLING(S): Tiernan Fortescue, Deceased. EXTENDED FAMILY: Emmeline Vance ( cousin, verse dependent ), Florean Fortescue ( uncle )\

FLOREAN FORTESCUE:  | 58 | OWNER & CREATOR OF FLOREAN FORTESCUE’S ICE CREAM PARLOUR & LEATHER JACKET GAY/BI

Coming from a long line of Aurors, protectors, Hit Wixes, even noblemen who went up in the ranks because of their hardwork & success at protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves ( eventually being labeled blood traitors in French Wizarding Society for it ), Florean was much more of a creative mind. He as always working with hands, whether it was working on muggle & wizard cars & motor cycles or cooking, he always was able to create with them. He had the ambition to do something great, but didn’t like the idea of fighting. Of making the world more chaotic & less focused on the things that made your soul thrive. His love of food started at young age, and his love of making weird combinations of food started shortly after. Discovering that ice cream would be one of the perfect ways to express this mixed love of food that didn’t quite make sense was a revelation and with his trust fund, he created Fortescue’s in England. There he figured not only would it be a new start for the Fortescue name but something completely his own. Needless to say, it flourished and he’s been making flavors like Salted Caramel w/ Garlic to Strawberry Bubblegum (his niece’s favorite ), ever since. Florean also plays an important part for the Order of the Phoenix, using the apartment above Fortescue’s as an Order Member retreat and safe area. He’s also an informant & the eyes and ears keeping notes of the people of Diagon Alley.

BIRTH ORDER: Oldest! PET(S): BABY ( 7 ) & KIWI ( 9 and a half ) & BONAPARTE ( 2 ) & LILA FORTESCUE ( 15 ):Baby an Australian Shepherd, Kiwi a yellow lab, Lila a black cat that mainly keeps her mother company as her familiar. While Baby is much more Florean’s dog, it doesn’t stop Alice from kidnapping him from time to time, especially over the summer. Kiwi is Alice’s first true love, the dog she got after her brother’s death, who brings her immense support and comfort. When at home, Alice sleeps with the dog, eats with the dog, walks around her neigborhood and visits friends via floo with her dog, you name it. The pair are close, Alice still able to carry the dog even though she’s nearing tean years. When Kiwi had puppies, Alice kept one of them – Bonaparte – who separated himself from the rest with his boundless energy, constant attempt at barking ( that was often just a whine ), and non stop attention seeking nature. Alice fell in love with him right away, naming him after Napoleon as a joke because of his demanding but small nature. The runt of the litter, Alice loves him fiercely, whenever Alice is home he follows her practically everywhere – even the bath. Lila’s been around for what seems to have been Alice’s whole life, always more fond of spending time keeping Lucille company than bothering with Alice.

                                    SKILLS & ABILITIES

PHYSICAL STRENGTH: 7.5/10 only because as much as she tries to make up for it with all the training she does, while she can be lethal, she still is short and still training and always learning how to make up for that against people much bigger than that. OFFENSE: 9/10 DEFENSE: 8.5/10 SPEED: 9/10 INTELLIGENCE: 8.5/10 ACCURACY: 10/10 AGILITY: 8/10 STAMINA: 9.5/10 TEAMWORK: Fantastic at teamwork and often more of a leader than a follower. However, she will respect who is the leader if she feels they are competent enough, acting as a perfect right hand. TALENTS: Dueling. Fighting, physically. Compassionate & empathetic and able to manipulate people’s emotions to help them and if needed, help herself. SHORTCOMINGS: Emotionally repressive and compartmentalizes to an insane degree. Too forgiving. Unable to stop, take breaks, and can give into her obsessive tendencies. LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: English, French, conversational German, DRIVE?: Yes! JUMP-STAR A CAR?: Yes, haha, thanks Uncle Florean! CHANGE A FLAT TIRE?: Yes. RIDE A BICYCLE?: Yes. SWIM?: Yes. PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?: Yes, the piano! PLAY CHESS?: Sometimes. Definitely not her first priority or something she’ll go to automatically. She’s not bad at it but she’s definitely not the best out there. BRAID HAIR?: Yes! Especially loves braiding flowers into hair. TIE A TIE?: Yes! Alice loves her ties! PICK A LOCK?: Yes!

             PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS

FACE CLAIM: Marilyn Lima EYE COLOR: Blue HAIR COLOR: Currently, a dark brown. Though as mentioned before, Alice loves LOVES to change up her hair, changes up her hair often. Her favorite hair color is between bubblegum pink and her natural dirty blonde. She really really loves pink though. HAIR TYPE/STYLE: Naturally, Alice was blessed with easy to manage, loose waves and fairly soft. Alice makes sure to condition and manage it really well between all her hair coloring charms, doing a few hair masks every week. The only issue she has with her hair is it’s sometimes can get oily, though she makes sure to wash it enough as to where that doesn’t happen often. Alice’s hair styles vary from Leia like space buns to loose and free. Half up, half down is probably her usual most practical style she likes to wear, adding her favorite sunflower clip at the base of the top bun. GLASSES/CONTACTS?: Alice needs glasses but only slightly – she’s slightly farsighted. She only wears them when she’s got intense studying sessions where she has to read a lot, she uses them. DOMINANT HAND: Left! But she writes with her right. Her duelling hand is her left, though. She’ll duel and write a letter at the same time! HEIGHT: Alice is a shortie. A short hoe. 5′2″ on a good day! WEIGHT: 54 kgs/120 pounds BUILD: While Alice definitely has the appearance of looking extremely thing, she’s ALL lean muscle. Most of her body weight is muscle and bones, but she is healthy enough to make sure maintains a healthy amount of fat. EXERCISE HABITS: Every morning Alice goes for a run, at least 5 miles during the school year. During the summer her training is much more intense and diversified. Alice has been learning Krav Maga as of late and takes boxing lessons from some of her father’s Auror trainee’s. She’s exceptionally trained in Savate, has been since she was a child. Alice does an intense round of stretching at night before bed for 30 minutes, rolling out her muscles, the works. After her daily run, Alice practices her Dueling, using an empty classroom she’s scouted out for Dueling Club, charming dummy after dummy to approach etc. At home, Alice trains for at least 3 hours a day ( but will take one week off a month to train less and to explore more, so, only an hour a day ), reading up on any new developments in the martial arts and dueling worlds. SKIN TONE: Bitch is white! Basically, a few shades darker than pale. TATTOOS: Carefully placed floral tattoos. As her Uncle Florean went with her this past summer ( end of June ) to get her first tattoo, something her father would blow a gasket at. While she’s planned for a good few more once she’s left home, this was her first tattoo.   PIERCINGS: Ears & Bellybutton. When I say ears I mean Helix, Forward Helix, Industrial,  Lobe Piercings, Rim/Auricle. MARKS/SCARS: Sweet lord, well, Alice has freckles very lightly spattering across her cheeks and some on her shoulders. And when I mean light, I mean LIGHT. As for scars, USUAL EXPRESSION: Usually a smile or a very open warm expression. Unless she’s Dueling or working on something, then she’s ridiculously focused and almost a resting bitch face. CLOTHING STYLE: Truly this gyal is clothing goals. When she wears jeans, they have to have a floral pattern stitched on. She loves loves loose fitting tops that are cinched at he waist. Long maxi dresses. But also? Alice loves wearing overalls when she does anything Herbology related, especially when she tends her families garden at home that her mum hasn’t kept up. When Alice means business or is just feeling like she needs to go slay, she’s very inclined to wear suits, much like Harry Styles style of suits though? Dark Florals, withplatform leather boots of all different colors. Or styles.  Jumpsuits of all colors and patterns as well. Another favorite combo is short skirts with leather jackets. When going to concerts, Alice wears her favorite floral charmed Doc martens. With EVERY outfit, Alice wears a pair of sunglasses. She has an extensive sunglasses collection she cherishes. On New Years, she goes even more into sparkles & such than she usually does. Christmas, she’ll wear something that emulates the star on top of the tree or some really ugly cheesy Christmas sweater that Florean likes to knit. On Easter, she’ll wear something long, floral and flowy.  When working out, the recent invention of the sports bra has saved her ass. Unless she’s practicing Krav Maga or Savate where uniforms are involved, for running she wears a Sports Bra with a cut out tight fitting shirt or a tank top with extremely short shorts. Some other styles include: [ x ] [ x ] [ x ] [ x x ] [ x ] [ x ]  With her school outfits, Alice gets away with as much improv as she can, wearing funky socks, adding pins on ties and jewelry galore. Alice’s favorite sort of lingerie and underclothes are lacy and delicate, otherwise she’d prefer not to wear a bra or anything too heavy duty – luckily she doesn’t have to. Sometimes Alice will bind when she’s feeling somewhat dysphoric, and those are the days she’s definitely more masc in appearance. Otherwise, Alice really does enjoy being topless & naked, unfortunately, that’s not usually socially acceptable. JEWELRY: Alice ADORES jewelry. She’s always wearing a piece of jewelry at all times. Usually stacked rings, stacked necklaces. Dangling pendants. Hanging pendants with crystals on the bottom. A ring for almost every finger. A family heirloom with the Fortescue family crest is perhaps her most prized possession. It’s been past down from son to son, until Alice, who was not a son but just as worth. Alice’s heirloom is a sword pendant. Though not in that picture, there are flowers near the base of the sword and on the blade there’s a phrase that means ‘With A Warrior’s Heart’. ALLERGIES: Bigots. Walnuts. Penicillan.

[nhouvang-blog]

Words from the Bride: Q1: Tell us about your wedding! What was the inspiration behind your day? Did you have a specific theme, style or color palette? Did you incorporate any cultural or religious traditions in any part of your day?

We had a secular and fusion wedding of American traditions and Bengali culture. Prior to our wedding day, a family friend hosted a Girls’ “Mehendi” (aka henna) Night and a local henna artist, Navya Sangam, from Little Elm applied a beautiful and intricate custom design for me. There is an omen that the darker the mehendi appears on your wedding day, the more the bride will help build a prosperous marriage. Integrating the Bengali cultural ceremony called the “rusmat” was really important to me. In this ceremony, the bride and groom are asked to say out loud what they view in the mirror so everyone can hear them describe the traits of their soon-to-be beloved spouse. In the traditional ceremony, the bride and groom say a single line of poetic prose such as “I see the moon” or “I see my life”. My husband and I repurposed and modernized the ceremony by exchanging heartfelt vows. The fashion was mostly South Asian. My husband dressed in a traditional South Asian groom’s wedding suit called a “sherwani” and then changed into a classic American white tuxedo after the ceremony to incorporate both South Asian and American fashion. The bridal dress was an Indowestern gown which was designed by an Indian designer. The dining we provided was a full Indian meal including samosas with chutney, chicken tikka masala, chicken tandoori, garlic naan, and white rice. The order of events and general organization for our wedding day was American-influenced for example the procession, the first dance, reception, and open bar. The signature cocktails were something I was really particular about because I am a home bartender. I was very happy with the final results and even happier to hear that our guests enjoyed our selections. The groom’s signature cocktail was a “Mint Julep” which fit him being from Mississippi. The bride’s signature cocktail was a “Blueberry Southside” which I chose to match my pink wedding gown and symbolize the “blushing bride”. The dessert we choose were s’mores and lemon blueberry macarons. The only reason behind our wedding dessert choice is the mere fact that neither I nor my husband care for cake; sometimes a decision is just that simple. Our wedding decor was inspired by Samuel Burgess Johnson’s album artwork for Ta-Ku; his artwork played a heavy artistic influence for our save the dates, invitations, wedding programs, florals, and color palette. We went with a lighter and brighter design instead of a dark and moody design because it matched our desired photography editing style and our beautiful open and airy venue.

Q2: Let’s talk wedding decor. How did you decorate your space for the ceremony and the reception? Was any part of the decor DIY?

Our venue, The Stonegate Mansion, had all the fireplaces lit as well as candles in every room so it made the entire place feel very warm and inviting. The curtain lights in main reception room made the room feel dreamy with all the twinkly fairy lights especially after sunset. I created our own wedding brochures from scratch which covered the order of events, the menu, the signature cocktails, our bridal party, explained the cultural “rusmat” ceremony, and a short and sweet thank you note from the me and my husband. My husband gifted me a set of fountain pens so that I can play around with calligraphy and was able to use that learned skill for our mailed invitations and the name place cards. My mother handcrafted the floral bridal shade, the centerpieces, as well as the bride & groom’s chairs at the sweetheart table which matched our wedding theme. I am both grateful and jealous of her craftiness.

Q3: What were the florals like in your wedding? Did you use flowers in any of your design elements like the bridal bouquets, centerpieces or ceremony backdrop? Did they play an important part in the overall style of your wedding?

Flowers were a huge inspiration for our wedding but our budget only allowed for so much. One solution was to print as much floral wedding paraphernalia to save us some money. I also searched far and wide for quality start-up wedding vendors who were looking to make a name for their business in the Dallas-Fort Worth marketplace and I was really impressed with the floral arrangements by Judy Fetzko at TCU Florist. She worked with me, our budget, and my vision to make our wedding day aesthetically pleasing. She understood that importance of the floral pieces to me especially the the bridal bouquet and our floral arch. The lush floral arch resembled a new-age altar which seemed very fitting for our secular ceremony and the arch elevated the lushness and beauty of the venue.  The bridal bouquet matched the arch, it accentuated the elegance of my dress, and it was a lovely burst of color which contrasted my husband’s two outfits.

Q4: Did you personalize the day in any way (food trucks, guest entertainment etc.)? What were some of your favorite parts of your wedding?

I picked out all the music from the pre-ceremony all the way up to the exit. I personalized everything for our MC who gave special shoutouts to all friends and family so they were recognized for traveling from a certain location or reminiscing about a certain memory that we shared together. It’s so hard to choose a favorite since the whole day really felt like such a dream. But if I absolutely had to, I would say these few moments: . Our first look was more emotional and more powerful than I anticipated. Chris and I had our civil ceremony mid-December 2018 so we didn’t expect to be so moved by just  seeing each other and being together for our first look. I’m so happy we shared that intimate moment together before the ceremony and reception began. . when we were planning our exit and shared with my husband, “I wish we could have danced more.” We still had another 10 minutes and he took me by the hand and led me to the dancefloor, he requested a few of my favorite songs to dance to our DJ and partied until we had to leave. . when my husband was giving a speech and surprised me by thanking me for planning our wedding. . when my father’s eyes welled up with tears after he walked me down the aisle . dancing down the aisle after our ceremony to Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day”

Q5: Let’s talk fashion. How did you both choose your wedding day look? Describe the looks in detail.

I was inspired by a blush pink and mauve gradient lehenga with upward cascading gold embellishments designed by Tarun Tahiliani but our budget did not accommodate a designer dress like that. Luckily, I was able to work with a local designer in Carrollton, Ruby Bhandari at Silk Threads. She saw my vision and helped me create my own bespoke dress at almost a third of the cost. I was insist on a few designs aspects such as the color, the cut, the portrait back, the type of fabric, and the stitched dupatta (South Asian shawl-like scarf) and she helped pick out exactly what I was looking for to make me feel beautiful.

Q6: How did you meet? Tell us about the proposal.

We swiped right on Tinder! I was not optimistic about a long-distance relationship with a man in the military but as hard as I tried not, I could not help but fall totally head over heels for Chris and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. He proposed in Ireland 12 hours before our flight back home. He asked me in the underneath the bell tower, the Campanile, at Trinity College in the heart of Dublin. That moment was private, intimate, and we will both cherish it forever.

Q7: What was the most anticipated or special moment of your wedding day?

That the rain finally stopped an hour before taking photos! That alone, was a such a sweet surprise. My darling husband being by my side and sharing the whole day with him. The signature cocktails, the dancing, the processional and recessional music, surprising all our guests with a rehearsed first dance, and hearing how much our guests adored the decor and the venue.

Q8: Do you have any wedding planning or marriage advice that you’d like to share with other couples planning their day?

The best advice I can give you is actually a rule my fiance-at-the-time set for us. Chris noticed how much anxiety and restlessness that wedding planning was causing me so he made sure I did not work on anything wedding related an hour before bed. The unwinding and relaxation before sleeping took a lot of weight of our shoulders and I was able to sleep soundly and peacefully. Other than that, make sure you and your significant other are on the same page. It is important to stay united as a couple, after all that’s exactly what your committing to for your marriage.

  The post Chris + Najwa // Texas Stonegate Mansion Wedding Photography by Kimberly Harrell appeared first on South Asian Bride Magazine.

[schpiedehl]

An open letter to Hamilton (etc) fan artists, Re:whitewashing

Hello. Time for another ill-constructed rant on probably already well-tread ground. Specifically whitewashing in fan art (even more specifically Hamilton art though this could be applied to any fandom) and when it is ok. lol jk it’s never ok. PLEASE NOTE: I am an (amateur) artist. I am not ragging on artists because I “don’t understand how hard making art is,” “how hard artists work,” or what have you. These are legitimate problems of representation in fanart (that I have witnessed firsthand) and this is my earnest attempt to elucidate these issues. Feel free to interact with this post as you see fit. I am always free for debate if you disagree, would like clarification, or have anything to add.  

+Look out for those embedded hyperlinks for more content 

Preface: I am a member of far too many fb Hamilton groups. Sometimes people post their art, apparently forgetting that when you post things online you open yourself to critique. Hilarity ensues.

I often see Hamilton characters (generally portrayed as original Broadway cast members - Lin-Manuel Miranda, Okieriete Onaodowan, Anthony Ramos, etc.) who have been horrifically whitewashed - complete with lightened skin, bizarrely red or light brown hair, lightened eyes, and so forth. The most common defenses for this misstep, from both artists and fans, are personal style and apparent inability to approximate accurate skin tone (“I tried but skin color is hard”). Here’s why both of those excuses are utter bullshit.

1. Personal Style:

A lot of things in life are open to interpretation and all art is inherently interpretive. But the racial and cultural identity of a real life person is not one of these interpretive things. [PAUSE: before anyone says that this is precisely what Hamilton is doing with its casting, don’t.] First of all, I get it, personal style is important to art. Some people trend toward realism while others prefer more abbreviated, abstracted, and/or cartoony styles and part of that is selecting stylized color palettes, interpreting color in new and inventive ways, and playing with light, value, line, form, etc. This is NOT what I am talking about. It is entirely possible to honor a person’s background using relative or approximated shading/tone/coloration and to create beautiful art in the process [example: Chris Vision’s color series]. This little rant is specifically directed at people who "attempt" to depict Hamilton (etc) actors/characters using realistic/semi-realistic color palettes (as in, how they appear irl, accounting for abstraction, drawing style, etc) but fall short when it comes to depicting the actors, particularly in regards to racial background. You can find excellent examples of what I mean at Calling Out Whitewashed Hamilton Art and I’m positive you can find far too many examples in this and many other fandoms simply by scrolling through the tags on Tumblr and Instagram.  So without further ado, lightening a person/character’s skin in fanart is racist. There’s really no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Foremost, the practice of editing a person of color to appear more European (skin, hair, eyes, even facial features) intentionally erases the cultural, racial, and ethnic background of the person in question. This is incredibly disrespectful to the actors who portray these characters and works to undermine what Hamilton as a whole is trying to build. If Hamilton is trying to reclaim American history for People of Color, stripping the racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds from the actors represents a rejection of conceit and, perhaps, even a form of appropriation. It is as though “fans” are saying that they want the art that is made by and for POC while simultaneously rejecting the distinctly racialized aspects of that art. When artists depict Lin!Hamilton as white, they are rejecting the Nuyorican background which Lin brings to the character in both writing and performance and projecting faux whiteness upon the character. In doing so, whether consciously or not, they are rejecting the actor’s race as well. Lin is beloved because of the art that he makes which allows many fans to look past his racial and cultural identity rather than accept it as an intrinsic aspect of both the man and his art.  Moreover, the ubiquity of this whitewashed art also reveals a lot about what “fans” find visually appealing and acceptable - e.g., the Eurocentric standard of beauty. Whitewashing in art represents not only a rejection of POC’s culture but, obviously, their physical attributes as well. Dark skin is lightened and or whitened, hair is often straightened and/or lightened to a light brown or red hue (with the exception of Laurens, whose features, hair in particular, are often feminized as a form a queer fetishization but that is a rant for another day), and features are changed to appear more European. Often, depictions of characters are changed so much it is nearly impossible to tell that the art is based on any particular actor. In addition to being, again, extremely disrespectful to the actors, this further perpetuates the extremely harmful notion that beauty only exists in European features and sends a direct message to POC fans that their appearance is neither beautiful not accepted by the fanbase of a piece of media that was made by other POC specifically to appeal to them. This seems especially true of dark skinned black individuals who are often completely stripped of the melanin in fan art, further driving home notions of ingrained cultural colorism and anti-blackness. With Hamilton in particular, it is fine to “change” a character’s race if and only if you are depicting a character as a different actor. For instance, while Lin!Hamilton is Latino, Michael!Hamilton is a black man and depicting Hamilton as such, while uncommon among fan communities, is better than fine [*the lack of art of dark skinned actors is another point of contention. Not only are dark skinned actors frequently whitewashed, many are ignored altogether]. Depicting Michael!Hamilton as light skinned or white, however, is obviously not fine.  Having established that lightening a character’s skin or depicting them with more European features is inherently racist, the claim that whitewashing is a stylistic choice is invalid. If you make the “stylistic choice” to depict a POC as white, you are racist. End of story.  And if you want to do better but find yourself wanting to draw Lin!Hamilton as white, remember that this guy existed and just draw him instead. It’s not that hard.  2. Technical Difficulties:

One of the most unfortunately common excuses for whitewashing in fanart seems to be that, for some reason or another, artists have difficulty accurately approximating actors’ skin color so they presumedly just make something up, This results in Lin!Hamilton and Phillipa!Eliza looking a bit like Snow White, Oak!Mulligan looking a little tan, and so forth. As an artist, I understand that approximating realistic skintones can be rather hard, especially with traditional mediums, but it is glaringly obvious when artists don’t put in any effort.  With traditional mediums such as paint, markers, or color pencils, artists can blend to create the colors which accurately (or as accurately as possible given the limitations of certain mediums like watercolors) approximate actors’ skin tones. If the colors dry lighter than intended, the artist generally layer and blend more to achieve a better approximation. If they then scan their image, they can use a photo editor to fix or correct any mistakes. It might not be the easiest to find good matches (speaking from experience, there aren’t a ton of good warm brown toned markers and thus a lot of blending is sometimes required) but, as previously stated, it’s generally easy to tell when someone at least tried to get close to a correct skin tone. With digital art, it’s even easier. Fact: Nearly all art programs have a nifty eyedropper tool which can be used to pull color swatches directly from a reference picture. Even MSpaint has this function. By pulling multiple swatches from a variety of reference images (to account for different lighting conditions), an artist can build a relatively accurate gradiented palette for skin tone. It’s really that simple! And if an artist notices that the color isn’t quite right, it’s nothing a few tweaks to hue and saturation can’t fix!  If my tone seemed a bit sarcastic/passive aggressive in that last paragraph, it’s because it totally was. I see this excuse so much more often than I see any other excuse for whitewashed fan art and it is incredibly frustrating but also, as an (extraordinarily mediocre) artist myself, it rings incredibly inaccurate, especially for digital art. I completely understand that it sometimes takes a lot of time to get used to a medium but when an artist’s color palette is literally limitless, there is absolutely no reason (aside from personal, possibly subconscious/implicit but no less real, biases) for an actor/character to be depicted as white/light skinned when they are not. As previously discussed, that is disrespectful and harmful, and really only serves to make the artist (and those that support work) look like a jackass.  And look, if you find yourself making whitewashed art, it’s not as though it is impossible to change. When someone criticizes your whitewash-y art, don’t get defensive. Don’t claim that it’s your style or that you don’t know how to color POC. It looks and sounds really fucking ridiculous. Instead, evaluate your art and place it into a cultural context. Take it as an opportunity to improve. And maybe also take the opportunity to learn a little about yourself and your biases.  This wasn’t meant to be a call out post and I’d like to end this on a positive note so here are a few wonderful Hamilton fan artists who are worth a look:  terror-in-a-dream zzzoehsu linmanwhydididothis mikiprice thegentlehoneybee dorothywonderland maeng

[princehcmlet]

Hi Guppy! I'm May, an Admin for CHVRCHESrp. Would you be willing to give us an opinion? Thank you for your consideration!

I’d be glad to give you an opinion, May! DISCLAIMER - everything said in this is just an opinion, if something seems insensitive I’m just trying to give my opinion honestly. Alright, let’s start with the icon (which I can see as the favicon on the blog). From what I can make out it is a wing with text over it. I think that you could take out the overlaying bar of text, and just write the initial of “churches” as a “C” in a dark colored, bold text over the wing. This would make icon much more simple and clear up what it is. Now for the main theme, I like how simple it is, but the detail of the church in the header, and the white, gray, red color scheme makes it feel heavenly or even hellish with the red. The only thing that bothers me is the embossed stroke effect and the transparent red. I would prefer, personally, for it to be a darker, straight, non-embossed stroke that is closer to the maroon you have set as an incorporation of you color scheme already. Red is such a difficult color to work with in graphics, and it looks a lot more professional and beautiful (to me at least) when it is a darker maroon/deep red, and when it is not embossed out. Otherwise, the theme is very organized, I think you could shorten your timeline (even though it does show each of the milestones of the story, maybe there could be a better location where they’re listed?), this also applies for the event dates, because it goes all the way back to 2016, which it’s always nice to update and keep things tidy with spring cleaning. You could always create an archive sideblog that has a page of events and what occured, the progression of the storyline, and leave the main to the most current updates and upcoming/past events? 

For now I’ll be talking more about the plot of the rp, the organization of information, and pages that contribute to that. Your navigation is very well put together, and I think all the links are very fitting. It allows players to click through links for every step of the rp. Now to touch on the plot, which I love that you’ve separated it into seasons. It gives a full detail of what has happened, and lets new players in on what’s happened in the past. While the plot is very interesting and full of details, it does feel a bit diluted. By that, I mean that there are so many details and characters to keep track of that by the end I had more questions than answers. I think maybe before the plot (in another tab section) you could have a list of terms, people, and character information that is important to understand the plot. For example, it would’ve helped to clear up if Lucifer and Satan were the same person because I did not understand that well. And also, because the characters were very specific to the group, it would have been helpful to add their descriptions beforehand so I wouldn’t have to go searching through the blog for their information/bios/players. Another question I had was about the Church of Saints and Sinners. I’m guessing from the names that the Saints revere the God that died from illness/angels and that the Sinners revere Satan/Lucifer/demons, but this is something that is not made clear in the plot. Or if it was made clear I missed it. You have something really good going for yourself because the plot is very original, but I feel like it was a little confusing to follow or understand some points that are not gone over in much depth. I should be able to understand most if not all the rps components without having to go onto several different pages. However, your powers page helped me gain a lot more understanding with each of the character types and how they fit into the story line. I still think it would be worth it to add short summaries at the beginning of the plot, so if you happen to click the plot first, like I did, you won’t be confused continuing to go through the links. Similar to the power types page, the churches page gives more information, but still I want to know if they worship a specific deity in each of the churches, that is still unclear to me at least. Continuing on, I love this unique style of Events and Tasks you’ve created, as well as the way you’ve developed your point system. I’ve never seen this done before, and I applaud the admins on this idea. Nothing bad to say there. Your page for characters is also very organized and easy to get around. I like the way the page is set up so that the players will have plenty of open opportunity to develop their character because there is no full restricting bio, but the characters still have pieces that make them standout! I can say nothing bad about the characters. I like your use of diversity in faceclaims, both underused and frequently used. 

Let’s talk about the rules and the application. I’ll start with the application, which . For your rules, I think that you should move this rule “Once accepted, please adhere to game canon, including bios, posted information, and your accepted application,” into it’s own bullet point. It doesn’t quite relate to the section before about the OOC blog. I also think it would be nice to move the OOC rules you have on the checklist over to the main rules page anyways (that way it’s note broken up and if it’s left in the checklist it’s just an important restatement of the rules). If more of the OOC rules were on the main rule page, I think it would feel a lot more complete, otherwise all your rules are very clear and helpful to players. I think the application is fine, too, it’s in basic form! 

I’ll wrap this up with the other pages and sidenotes. As for the checklist, it was very nice to include all the needed links. It’s also very organized, but I still think that the OOC rules (and even maybe the IC rules) should just be on the main rule page. That way it keeps everything a bit more organized and, unless you’re restating important information to the players, makes it feel like less information to sort through. This is more of a sidenote, but I see that your main tag to track is just “chvrchesrp”, which makes sense to keep everything in one place, but it’s a personal thought that it might get cluttered with starters, tasks, activities, admin posts, etc., and therefore get very hard to sort through. So, it might be nice and more organized to develop separate tags for specific information. And let me know if I just missed the other tracked tags, but I swear I went through your navigation several times for a page! Otherwise, checklist looks good. I really love the cohesive themes from each of the pages, I think that the locations page is really lovely, the way you set up your masterlist is wonderful, too, and I like the admins page which gives us more detail into you as admins. The only page that I take issue with is the weather page, which while an important detail seems insignificant and like something I, as a player, wouldn’t want to have to go into the navigation to look for it. I’d suggest replacing that page with something else, and just adding another sidebar place with widgets you can just incorporate into your theme. If you end up going through with this idea of moving the widget to another section of the main theme, I can suggest a few websites for that. Otherwise, the worldbuilding you’ve created is relevant (especially with the other blogs of the radio, the musing blog, and so on). This is just another personal sidenote, I think you should call the “customs” tab on the navigation “custom roles”, take it off when the roles are all filled, move the link to the top of the application/rules, or possibly something else? When I first read it I thought it might be some kind of etiquette or traditions section of the blog, but I was surprised to find out that it was actually targeted towards player-created characters.

So, before signing off, I’ll give my final thoughts. I think that this roleplay is fixed up with extremely dedicated admins who have most likely spent days and restless hours trying to formulate each piece of this roleplay. For that, I commend you and congratulate you for keeping a roleplay open for this long and for creating a unique property. The main points I struggled with when going through the blog is just how complicated it seemed and how much information there was. I am the kind of person who gets overwhelmed as a new player if I join in the game a bit late, or it there is already a lot that has happened. So, I think that the plot and the terms and keeping track of all the pages did become a bit engulfing and overpowering. So, I think it would be very, very helpful, if you as admins kept the main page as organized and tidy as possible, it would help new players feel more comforted in joining and allow old players to more easily look through past accomplishments. I had so much that I really didn’t get to talk about in this opinion, but I hope what I focused on helped to organize my thoughts a bit more and got through to the admins.

[legendary]

Creating a World of Witches and Wonder

A Conversation with Firebrand's Jessica Chobot, Erika Lewis, and Claudia Aguirre.

Firebrand, the latest original title from Legendary Comics is heading into the home stretch of its inaugural run on digital comics platform, LINE Webtoon. The weekly series follows teenage witch Natali Presano as she comes to terms with her role in a supernatural war, while dealing with the everyday pressures of young adulthood. Firebrand is the brainchild of Jessica Chobot and Erika Lewis. Chobot is best known as host for Nerdist News. Before joining Nerdist, she was a host and recurring personality on IGN and G4. Lewis has made a name for herself as a young adult and fantasy author with her work Game of Shadows, and The 49th Key, in addition to Firebrand. “Jessica Chobot has been such a huge part of the Legendary family for years,” said Robert Napton, Vice President and Editorial Director of Legendary Comics. “We were so thrilled to have an opportunity to support her exploration of a new creative venture and we know that she and Erika Lewis have created a truly compelling new heroine and story that fans will truly become immersed in.” Legendary Backstory had the opportunity to talk with Chobot, Lewis, and artist Claudia Aguirre about the exciting new series as it heads into the second half of its season. See what they had to say about creating the comic below!

Q: As an intro, can you tell the readers a little bit about what Firebrand is all about and talk about the process in which it’s come to fruition. Where did the idea originate from, how did it develop, how did each of you become involved and come together to create it, etc.?

JC: You know, Firebrand is sort of a combination of a coming of age story and a traditional hero’s journey. At its heart, it’s really about a young woman who we’ve seen growing up, who basically just never felt like she belonged anywhere. This was actually an idea that Erika had that she came to me with one day when we were just talking and hanging out. We started volleying ideas back and forth and eventually realized we should do something with this because it started to grow so quickly during that first conversation. So we just started meeting up after that and exchanging ideas and characters and relationships. Eventually it really felt like we had something and we wanted to shop it around and obviously one of the first places we went to was Legendary. EL: Jessica and I worked together at G4 and both had obsessions with witches and magic and all things insane. But for me, I’m obsessed with ancient myths and legends, especially when it comes to magic in different places around the world. Basque is such a unique place and culture and really unlike anything else around it. I did a lot of research into pre-Christianity times in Basque, finding timeless myths. We hope to bring to pieces of them to life in a very unique Erika-Jessica-Claudia type of way. I saw (artist) Claudia Aguirre’s work at another publisher and I was so impressed, and was like ‘oh, how cool it would be to have three women!’ So (Legendary Comics’) Robert Napton got in touch with Claudia and thankfully she was excited about the idea!

Q: Claudia, can you talk about the process in designing the look of Firebrand from early sketches to the finished art?

CA: Well, the creative process for me is like a movie in my head. Jessica and Erika are great. They are very, very cinematic in what they describe so I can see it in my head. I initially try to make sense of my own idea and I do some thumbnailing on paper and try to make it look really cool. Then, I start translating that onto the computer, so I’ll draw it and show everything to the team. They’ll tell me if it doesn’t work and give me feedback. After that, I do the inking process and then the colors too.

Q: Which real stories and history (if any) did you pull from to inspire the style of witchcraft/characterization of the Sorgin in the series? Are there references to any of these in the story or in the artwork?

EL: Historically speaking, the Spanish Inquisitions have been incorporated into the backstory of "Sorgin" mythology, our fictional universe. The inquisitions put paganism on trial during the spread of Christianity in Western Europe. Although you can find a good deal about the Spanish Inquisitions and witch trials, the specific story we tell in Firebrand is something Jessica and I made up. CA: For the art, there is definitely a strong influence from Spain, the border between Spain and France. It’s definitely a process of trying to piece things together to make a whole universe that isn’t there. It’s quite fun.

Q: It’s evident that Natali Presano is a badass. How important is it to have kickass female protagonists like Natali in comics? Are there any comic characters out there that you drew inspiration from in fleshing her character out?

JC: It’s always been important, and we’ve always tackled the story with Natali being a character with a lot of self-sufficiency. But, with how things stand in the U.S., it feels even more important right now. Not only to have that represented for women and girls, but really for anybody who feels left out from “average society." It’s helpful to have a character that shows, if you are true to yourself, you can utilize your power to get through tough times. You can be admired and I think that is so important to have that in a character right now. EL: Absolutely. When Natali sees a wrong, she wants to right it. She wants to do the right thing. But sometimes what she wants to do butts up against Sorgin law, and causes her to get in trouble. Not that it would ever stop her. Deep down inside, she has what it takes character to do the right thing and stand up for what she believes is fair. CA: We always needed people like Natali in comics - we need to not feel alone. For people who feel alone or have been through things, it is important to have these characters portrayed. We have the opportunity to be someone who makes a difference, so we have to make use of it.

Q: Going back to the artwork, it features a cool contrast between the realism of the human world in Washington that Natali comes from and the more fantastical setting of Eder. Claudia, what went into imagining and designing both settings and what key differences did you want Eder to have to set it apart from the human world?

CA: Well, I tried to make the culture. I sadly couldn’t find much in history before Christianity, so I found out a little of their principles and dialect and some stone monuments that they had. Essentially, I took a little of all of this and tried to make an evolving city of Eder. I tried to stay away from the Stone Age so I could make it a little more medieval. I could Google Map a lot of the places in Seattle, so that made that setting easier to do. But the main expansion for me was to try and make it a bit more magical. I tried to make the magical more blueish and the realistic setting of Seattle more grey.

Q: Were there elements of your own lives that you drew from to go into the story or even into the artwork?

EL: On the story side, I will say that for me, I am from D.C. and grew up in a politically charged environment. A very argumentative atmosphere. The kind of place you either love or hate. Also I am from a divorced family. Some of the characters may have been developed around real people. Also, I understand Natali's need to want to feel accepted for who she is, to be a part of a family that allows her to be herself, because I never felt like I fit in anywhere. JC: I guess for me, it wasn’t too specific besides growing up and being interested in the paranormal and the occult and being the weird girl at school. I was kind of shunned by a lot of the kids growing up, so for me it was a matter of identifying as not part of the group mantra. Also though, as I grow up, realizing that there isn’t anything wrong with me, it is just what I like. So that is what I think I brought to Natali in a little bit of a subconscious way.

Q: The “direct address” to the reader style of narration is a cool device that makes the story feel almost interactive in a way, drawing the reader in and directly questioning them. How did you decide on that and what do you think it brings to the storytelling?

JC: Well, we didn’t start with that in the beginning - we had a traditional approach. But we decided to bring in Natali’s voice, because we wanted to break the fourth wall and feel more invested by having Natali talk more to them. EL: She is sarcastic at times, and very powerful. The real parts of her, like everyone, can be insecure and afraid and we try to really humanize her and let people into the fact that she isn’t necessarily what she puts out to the world. All of those things surrounding Natali, her internal voice, we were hoping to give people an insight into who she truly is.

Q: The series is at times hilarious and at times deals with some pretty dark themes. How do you walk that tricky tightrope in the writing and the tone to maintain that balance?

JC: It is a fine line, especially if you have a younger audience. However, these things really happen, so sugarcoating it isn’t necessarily a great thing to do either. So, drawing on all of the traumatic experiences of Natali’s we really wanted to approach all of them from the best angle we could. We wanted to give the backstory and make it relatable, but not turn off the readership by going overboard. These are all issues kids and families deal with growing up, so we wanted to address them but remain respectful. EL: You can see in the comments on each issue: people talk about things they go through. With Natali specifically, the balance of keeping the comic relief but also the dark tones, the greatest thing was using that inner voice and letting the reader into her head; knowing when she was excited, or feeling sarcastic or funny. We tried to make it palatable. We tried to do moments of light-heartedness, especially during those first few chapters.

Catch up on Firebrand's entire first season before new issues are releasedevery Wednesday over at LINE Webtoon

[healthnotion]

The 4 Sport Coats of a Well-Rounded Wardrobe

We’ve highlighted the benefits of sport coats numerous times here on AoM: they lend you a fitter, more masculine silhouette regardless of your body shape; offer plenty of pockets to stash your stuff; and give you a removable layer that helps you adjust to changing temperatures. Perhaps best of all, these versatile garments allow you to look sharp and put-together — in a variety of situations, with a variety of dress codes — without appearing too formal or overdressed.

Need we go on?

You may have been convinced of the desirability of adding a sport coat, or several, to your wardrobe, but just haven’t known where to start, and/or how to expand your collection. How many sports jackets does a man need, and what kind of jackets should they be?

The number will really depend on your lifestyle: the climate and local culture of where you live, your personal style, and how often you have the opportunity, and simply the desire, to look snazzier both on and off the job.

With that in mind, today we’ll suggest 4 types of sport coats that, for a good segment of men, will make for a well-rounded, yet un-bloated wardrobe. Changing seasons call for different colors and materials in sport coats, and these 4 will carry you through the whole year, and every kind of event, in style.

Hopsack Sport Coat

If you only have one sport coat, which kind should you own?

Many style experts will recommend a navy blazer as the first, core piece of your jacket wardrobe.

I disagree though. Navy blazers are certainly sharp and versatile (and have a spot on this list). But I find I really don’t wear mine very often; it never seems quite right for the social and professional occasions in my life (being a little too formal), and I don’t think I look as good or feel as good in it as I do in another one of my jackets: the hopsack sport coat.

In our more casual society, I think one’s foundational, and perhaps only, sport coat should be a bit more laid-back. That’s where the hopsack comes in.

The “basket weave” of this wool coat keeps it very light, breathable, and naturally wrinkle resistant, and gives the material a coarser texture and the kind of sporty feel that makes it look great with jeans — which really, is what you wear sport coats with most often these days. At the same time, the weave still feels substantial and drapes nicely, so that you can dress the jacket up with trousers or khakis if you wish.

The hopsack sport coat is at least a 3-season piece, and can go all year in many places. The airy yet substantial weave makes it fine for the summer, most at home in the fall and spring, and passable in the winter — if you live in a place that’s not too frigid.

Brown’s a great color for this jacket, as it’s neutral and versatile and pairs well with denim. Gray is another good option. Consider going for one in green, if you plan to pair it often with khakis and/or trousers.  

Functional and handsome, you’ll find yourself throwing on your hopsack sport coat for everything from date night, to a company dinner, to parent/teacher conferences, to your travels and trips.

Navy Blazer

The above caveats aside, the navy blazer is a good staple to have in your wardrobe. While, just like the other jackets on this list, the blazer can be worn in more casual situations, it alone can be dressed all the way up to the semi-formal and business professional range.

For the blazer isn’t technically a sport coat at all, but its own kind of garment, differentiated by a simpler, sleeker, smoother, “hard-finish” wool fabric and a more structured fit.  

On the formality scale, the blazer resides just below the suit jacket and just above the sports jacket, but can be dressed up or down to encompass a wide variety of styles and dress codes. While blazers come in various colors, the most traditional is navy blue. Sharp and masculine, a navy blazer can be worn year-round and goes with just about everything.

That includes jeans, though the formality of the jacket doesn’t pair best with denim. If you want to wear jeans, the other jackets on this list would be better choices. For that reason, while choosing plastic or mother-of-pearl buttons that match or complement the color of the fabric is recommended if you want to give the blazer the most versatility (muted buttons give it a more casual look), if you already know your blazer is going to be the jacket you put on when you aren’t wearing jeans, then dial the formality up to its fullest by going with classic, metallic buttons. Designate the blazer as your classy jacket.

Click here for tips on how to wear a navy blazer with style.

Thick, Textured Cold Weather Sport Coat

You could wear a hopsack jacket in the winter, but it’s not ideal; not only is the fabric too light to keep you warm, it won’t complement the heavier-weight garments you’ll be wearing in colder weather either. That is to say, a thin sport coat doesn’t look right when paired with thicker, chunkier trousers, sweaters, scarves, etc.

So, while you can skip this suggestion if you live in a temperate or consistently warm clime, if you live someplace where the temperature gets chilly, it’s a good idea to invest in a thick, textured, wintertime sport coat.

Here I’m talking about jackets made with a fabric like tweed or corduroy. Fabrics with substance, warmth, and texture. You can do some interesting patterns here – checks, stripes, plaid – but as most guys have trouble even figuring out what to wear with a solid colored coat, I’d recommend getting just that, or something with a very subtle, minimal pattern (Herringbone is a safe way to add visual interest while keeping things simple). Brown or gray in color. Coats in this kind of straightforward style will go with the most things in your wardrobe, and be easiest to wear.

The sturdy jackets in this category have the same sharp-yet-casual vibe as hopsack coats, and can be worn in the same kind of situations; they’re not business wear (unless you work in a more casual or professorial line of work), but more for social events and outside-of-work-work events. They look great over a sweater or under an overcoat; in fact, they can function as your overcoat, if you throw on a pair of gloves and a scarf (a great look), and the temps aren’t too frigid. They look great with jeans, but can also work with nice wool trousers for dressier occasions.

Thin, Lightweight Warm Weather Sport Coat

Here you have the flip side of the suggestion above: you could wear a hopsack jacket in the summer, but it isn’t ideal, both because your warm weather jacket could be even cooler, and because it doesn’t read as a “summertime” garment.

A hopsack sport coat is cool and breathable, but it’s still wool; better to have a jacket that’s made from lightweight, open-weave cotton or cotton blends — think linen or seersucker-esque materials. You’ll also want a jacket that’s only half-lined — that only has that silky inside lining in the sleeves (to allow your dress-shirt-sheathed arms to slide smoothly through them), but not in the torso — to maximize breathability.

You want your summertime sport coat to match the looser, laid-back vibe of the season. That means a softer, less structured construction (don’t be afraid of a few wrinkles and rumples), and brighter, bolder colors and patterns. Though I’d suggest getting the other sport coats on this list in solid, neutral colors, summer is the time to break out of this box a bit. You’ll pretty much only be wearing it with white or light-colored button-downs, so you don’t have to worry so much about matching it with other pieces. Blue and white is a can’t-miss summer jacket color combo, but try some interesting patterns with it — I like gingham check myself.

You don’t necessarily need all 4 of the above sport coats in your wardrobe, but if you live in a 4-season locale, having them all at hand will ensure you always have a jacket that’s ideal in function, feel, and look for each time of year, and for various kinds of events. Keep in mind you don’t have to get all of the coats at the same time; start with the hopsack (or whichever kind of jacket you think you’ll personally get the most use from), and then slowly build out some additional options over time.

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