#larry is so real

[braverytattoos]

idk if you guys noticed but harry literally wore the peace ring all leading up to him and louis being in NY together and then today, the first time we see him since HE DOES NOT HAVE THE PEACE RING. like let that sink it, larries stay winning

[inkskinned]

no, actually, where is the whimsy?

my ex had a best friend named larry who asked me once: what do you think comes after irony?

we were at the bar where larry worked. it was a quiet night, and he'd hopped over to sit with us on the patron side. i swirled the lemon around my limoncello martini.

earnest positivity, i said, while my ex said, art self-destructs.

i stared at my ex. he stared at me.

his argument was the cinemasins argument: look how bad media is becoming! look at the loopholes and the dumb shit!

it was roughly 2011. galaxy print was still in. at the time, i had a favorite shirt that was a wolf howling at the moon. it got ripped in half in the wash and i honestly still mourn it. i dressed like effie stonem, because everyone did. and irony was the name of the thing. men liked MLP "ironically." the internet liked the kind of crass, "anti-mainstream" vibes of things like fuck romance, touch my butt and buy me pizza. we put cats in sunglasses everywhere, which was because we only liked things in irony.

and media had the same vibe in it: anti-hero white men would be "hard to love" and then storm off the scene. nobody was just earnestly trying to save the world: they were jaded, angry, unoriginal. mad you even asked them to try to help.

my ex ends up not being wrong. cinemasins becomes super popular. a lot of people start viewing media with this lens that is the cruelest, most jaded depiction. it's wrong for your character to have unexplained powers, even if the entire movie is about how strange it is she has unexplained powers - that is still considered a "loophole." characters make thoughtless, panicked choices? loophole. characters are actually kind people, despite hardship? loophole. features a woman doing literally anything without assistance? loophole. movies become hyper-aware of scrutiny, and now irony rules the media.

which means you go to a movie, and the character has to turn to the screen and say "beats me!!" or one of the side characters has to have some kind of quip like "are you seriously telling me that you think this is normal?" because nothing can happen in earnest. like a sitcom laugh track, we now anticipate the fourth-wall break: the moment that the media acknowledges it is telling a story. the media has to apologize for itself, or else someone like my ex rolls their eyes.

but here's the thing: i wasn't wrong either.

the difference might be that i am (and always have been) so soft-hearted that any crack in the light of this world will spear me into the ground. and i was the poet in the relationship. (he thought that was the same thing as being naïve and stupid). i was making things daily. i knew how all of us artists are driven by some strange desire to evolve. he notably liked to critique art, not to create it.

so yes, i've made things that are bitter and angry and even ironic. i've made long, sharp poems with all capital letters, and i've made poems about how the silence stretches out like a song. someone wrote once that we will spend our whole lives just circling the place we grew up. i think it's more that we spend our whole lives trying to remake a home. i think it's that as we age, it becomes less exciting to build the castle on the beach - we become aware of erosion, of windforce. we realize what we really want is to come home to our dog, castle or not.

and while art in the foreground is mired in white male violence and irony, and aggression, and not taking anything seriously - i don't think that's true of all art. i think more and more artists are leaning in to the things we love. the world has changed so much. they have taken so many things from us. the only thing we have left is love. at the bottom of the moving box - all we get is the faint sense that we have to appreciate what little we've got. i can't enjoy this stuff ironically anymore: what room do i have for irony? if it makes me happy, that is an amazing thing. there are so few happy places left for me. i want to be happy because of how leaves shiver beside each other like nestling birds. i want to be happy because of the color pink, and how magenta doesn't exist. i have spent so much of this life suffering, i have earned my right to a gentle ending. if nothing matters, i get to assign meaning to the nothing. i get to create meaning. i am an artist first and foremost, which means creation is my thing.

where is the whimsy? wherever i fucking put it. because if this is my last fucking chance to do any good in this world - i want to do it earnestly. i want to write things that make you happy. that make people feel heard and seen. what comes after irony has to be positivity.

it was close to my 21st birthday. in 7 years, i would end up writing a book about this relationship, which is hopefully coming out somewhere around May 2024. i come back to this bar scene in my memories a lot. i keep thinking of how pale my ex was. the look that crossed his face. how i looked back at him. how for a moment, both of us couldn't recognize the other person. like the gulf between us was a suddenly wide and cavernous thing. like we were alien to each other. he never took my opinion seriously, and he always seemed surprised whenever his manic-pixie-dream-girl ever broke free of the plot. like in the whole time we were together, i wasn't human enough.

this knowledge: where he said nothing comes after, my only instinct was what comes after is love.

[distanttraceofbeauty]

they're coming out with some official suit jackets and the phoenix one has dahlia and iris in it. Btw. If you even care.

[carpe-mamilia]

Ghosts’ Larry Rickard Explains Why They Chose the Captain’s First Name

Photo: Monumental,Guido Mandozzi

It couldn’t be a joke. That was one rule laid down by the Ghosts creators when it came to choosing a first name for Willbond’s character. Until series five, the WWII ghost had been known only as The Captain – a mystery seized upon by fans of the show.

“It was the question we got asked more than anything. His name,” actor and writer Larry Rickard tells Den of Geek. “Once we got to series three, you could see that we were deliberately cutting away and deliberately avoiding it. We were fuelling the fire because we knew at some point we’d tell them.”

In “Carpe Diem”, the episode written by Rickard and Ben Willbond that finally reveals The Captain’s death story, they did tell us. After years of guessing, clue-spotting and debate, Ghosts revealed that The Captain’s first name is James. At the same time, we also learned that James’ colleague Lieutenant Havers’ first name was Anthony.

The ordinariness of those two names, says Rickard, is the point.

“The only thing we were really clear about is that we didn’t want one of those names that only exists in tellyland. It shouldn’t be ‘Cormoran’ or ‘Endeavour’. They should just be some men’s names and they’re important to them. The point was that they were everyday.”

Choosing first names for The Captain and Havers was a long process not unlike naming a baby, Rickard agrees. “It almost comes down to looking at the faces of the characters and saying, what’s right?”

“We talked for ages. For a long time I kept thinking ‘Duncan and James’, and then I was like ah no! That would have turned it into a gag and been awful!” Inescapably in the minds of a certain generation, Duncan James is a member of noughties boyband Blue. “Maybe with Anthony I was thinking of Anthony Costa!” Rickard says in mock horror, referencing another member of the band.

Lieutenant Havers wasn’t just The Captain’s second in command while stationed at Button House; he was also the man James loved. Because homosexuality was criminalised in England during James’ lifetime, he was forced to hide his feelings for Anthony from society, and to some extent even from himself.

In “Carpe Diem”, the ghosts (mistakenly) prepare for the last day of their afterlives, prompting The Captain to finally tell his story. Though not explicit about his sexual identity, the others understand and accept what he tells them – and led by Lady Button, all agree that he’s a brave man.

Getting the balance right of what The Captain does and doesn’t say was key to the episode. “It wasn’t just a personal choice of his to go ‘I’m going to remain in the closet’,” explains Rickard. “There wasn’t an option there to explore the things that either of them felt. That couldn’t be done back then – there are so many stories which have come out since the War about the dangers of doing that.

“We wanted to tell his personal story but also try to ensure that there was a level at which you understood why they couldn’t be open, that even in this moment where he’s finally telling the other ghosts his story, he never comes out and says it overtly because that would be too much for him as a character from that time.

“He says enough for them to know, and enough for him to feel unburdened but it’s in the fact that they’re using their first names which militarily they would never have done, and in the literal passing of the baton”.

The baton is a bonus reveal when fans learned that The Captain’s military stick wasn’t a memento of his career, but of Havers. As James suffers a fatal heart attack during a VE day celebration at Button House, Anthony rushes to his side and the stick passes from one to the other as they share a moment of tragic understanding.

“From really early on, we had the idea that anything you’re holding [when you die] stays with you. So it wasn’t just your clothes you were wearing, we had the stuff with Thomas’ letter reappearing in his pocket and so on. And the assumption being that it was something The Captain couldn’t put down, it felt so nice to be able to say it was something he didn’t want to put down.”

Rickard lists “Carpe Diem”, co-written with Ben Willbond, among his series five highlights. He’s pleased with the end result, praises Willbond’s performance, and loved being on set to see Button House dressed for the 1940s. He’s particularly pleased that a checklist of moments they wanted to land with the audience all managed to be included. “Normally something’s fallen by the wayside just because of the way TV’s made, it’s always imperfect or it’s slightly rushed, but it feels like it’s all there.”

Rickard and Willbond also knew by this point in the show’s lifetime, that they could trust Ghosts fans to pick up on small details. “Nothing is missed,” he says. “Early on, you’re always thinking, is that going to get across? But once we got to series five, there are little tiny things within corners of shots and you know that’s going to be spotted. Particularly in that very short exchange between Havers and the Captain. We worried less about the minutiae of it because you go, that’s going to be rewound and rewatched, nothing will be missed.”

The team were also grateful they’d resisted the temptation to tell The Captain’s story sooner. “We’d talked about it every series since series two, whether or not now was the time, but because he’s such a hard and starchy character in a lot of ways you needed the time to understand his softer side I think before you had that final honest beat from him.”

“What a ridiculously normal name to have so much weight put on it for five years,” laughs Rickard fondly. “Good old James.”

From Den of Geek

[latenightsundayblues]

I got bored lol

[poptocinema]

just ruined myself thinking THIS is how he lays his head on #his far away tattoo

[rainbowsunflower]

Yes yes, we have been talking about this a lot. But I want to just...

Did you catch that smug little :> smile? No?

THAT is the face of a man who knows something chaotic. A man that knows someone is about to pull something unhinged that would make us all freak out. In conclusion... Larry is more real than my sanity. hehe (insp.)

[wishfulsketching]

Finally was able to finish season 4 of Doom Patrol and I am. Dead.

Larry and Rama 5ever

[cc-horan28]

If y'all need another breakdown over the fact this was today here yall go

This is so husband coded

@surrowndedbylights @heartstopperlarrie if I cried so will you 😭 ILY KELLY ILY NASH

[dobythealpaca]

sometimes i wonder if these feelings are even my own.

[thisiskatsblog]

Copy pasta is passing that old list of all larries bloggers. There are more than 50 people in the group and they started with about 20. They see that it is working. That popular larries and louies bloggers have deleted or closed their asks box and refuse any discussion. There are only two discussion blogs answering new larries right now and copy pasta bully them and send fake asks all the time. They won't stop until they force all the larries bloggers on that list to go silent or delete.

To be fair, I think it’s not only the bullying that makes some people leave. Babygate and Harry’s stunts are equally disencouraging for those who were here back in the days when they were fighting the closet and it seemed like there may be a point when they’d come out and we’d feel vindicated. At the time that distant hope would have made it easier to deal with the bullies.

Right now it seems like it is no longer Harry’s or Louis’ wish to come out any time soon, there are far fewer signs also of their sexuality and/or relationship if it’s still alive, and so the certainty you have as a someone who believes they are/were together is that you will not be proven right any time soon.

And to be clear: it doesn’t even matter if you are solidly of the conviction that it is Harry and Louis’ right to come out whenever they want, if they even want to. I mean, it matters what you think, and that them having the right to choose whether and when to come out is the only ethical position in this.

But even when that is your position and you can accept it, the current situation where there is “no end in sight” is really not going to encourage you to be louder or to fight harder against the bullies.

At some point you’re going to say, well they get to choose whether and when to come out, and I can choose to leave and not deal with this shit because they aren’t going to bail us out of this shit any time soon by the looks of it.

And that’s a choice Harry and Louis are making. They needed us then and used the power of the “rebellion”. And now they are in a different place, they do not need us anymore, and they are choosing to watch us leave one by one.

It’s the reality. I am not happy with it, I would have wanted it to be different for myself, for my friends, for all the LGBTQ people in this fandom I wish it was different. But I can accept that this is their life and their choice and so I will accept the negative consequences that choice has for me.

I know I was right about certain things, I know what I am worth and I know I can leave any time I want. And I choose to stay - or watch it all from a bit of distance more like. Check in once in a while to see if the rainbows have survived, if LGBTQ kids are feeling alright here.

[babaroqa]

marian feeling backed into a corner trying to pass of tears of desperation as tears of joy literally men should be forbidden from proposing

[persephoneflouwers]

Harry sits messily on the floor like a delicate flower lay crushed and scattered on the ground, trampled by careless feet. Yet even in his brokenness, there is beauty to be found. Like petals, Harry’s lips and pale skin blend together in a mosaic of soft pinks and red, his glassy eyes blinking slowly as he starts to realize just now Louis is standing in front of him.

DE AMORE EX TEMPORE - part ❤️/🎨

READ NOW on AO3

[larrylimericks]

14Aug23

Ten years! The betrothed, we wish well. From the record, someone’s been expelled. Not the swinger of purse — No, in fact, the reverse: It’s Louis who’s now been Danielled.

[glitchadeli]

Oh my god it's been a hot minute since I've uploaded ANY art on here??? Damn... my BAD!!!! 1.) In my AU SmallLarryKaren is canon, I've mentioned it before. Karen and Larry were together, but Karen was aware that Larry and Small had feelings for one another so she was open to Larry dating him. (Small is gay so, she knew it'd be just Larry that he'd date) and, yeah it worked out!! Lenny and Kathy are my LarryKaren next gens. Kathy is a wee little baby but Lenny is a toddler when Small practically moves in. They do have a live-in nanny so Small doesn't have to watch them all the time but, sometimes!!! 2.) Mainly just Rem X Lei doodles!! (Rem is a GumRob kid and Lei is a Chi Chi and LeXing kid!) ... Who's LeXing? He's "Miracle Star" for those unfamiliar. (I think I've explained it before so I'm not gonna again LMAO) Jin and Li are Lei's older adopted siblings in case that was .. confusing. 3.) I drew this back for Trans Visibility Day which.. also happened to land on Easter, so I had the perfect idea!! I've said before that PenTeri is canon and Polnias is canon and I think both couples fit the drawing! If it wasn't obvious, yeah, Teri is trans in my AU (and Echo's lol) and if you have an issue with that well.. idk what to tell you. Fuck off I guess?

4.) GumRob being GumRob <33333 (I based it on an image I saw, which.. I have no idea if I saw it on tumblr or twitter but.. whatever. I had it saved for a while and wanted to draw it with them.) 5.) Aaand finally, some Darwin x Hot Dog Guy doodles!! (DarDog.. DogWin or someone recently said "HotWin" which is hilarious) Tbh I'm still figuring out how DarDog will work in my AU but.. ye!! Idk why I like them but their dynamic is interesting lmaoooo - I swear I'll try posting art more often