#multiple other charlotte family members appear as well!

[mew-ya]

hello everyone! i'm proud to share my halloween-themed fic for raven's (@swampstew) event, where writers all incorporated a costume + a character into a fic! at the end of the month on October 29th, there will be a vote to see who wins the costume contest! check out the other fics and get ready to vote when the time comes!

character: Charlotte Katakuri

warnings/notes: no warnings (SFW fic), so fluffy it hurts, non-gendered reader, gender neutral reader, reader is average human sized

length: 4,016 words

summary: Your employer, Charlotte Cracker, Minister of Biscuits, gives you a last-minute invite to the Charlotte family's yearly Halloween party. As a newer resident of Totto Land, you'd not yet been to one of the Charlotte family's reputed parties, so your curiosity led you to the foot of Whole Cake Island on the night of Halloween.

You’d heard the Charlotte family threw a party for every occasion. And based on your arrival at the foot of the great Whole Cake Island, Halloween was certainly no exception. Hosted by Big Mom herself, every candied and frosted structure was painstakingly decorated by Streusen and his team of chefs. The cakes lining the horizon were decorated in the colors black, orange, red. Creepily smiling bats, balloons in deep red, and cotton candy clouds of a deep blue filled the darkening sky, contrasted brightly against the orange sunset. Fake blood oozed from the frosted fences lining the cracker-laden paths that led you to the delicious town of Sweet City. The singing, dancing homies you’d grown accustomed to seeing were eerily silent, silence a rare and disturbing thing in the archipelago you’d come to reside in. You spotted a few homies who took the shape of gravestones, attracted by the only sound in the whole area beyond the plodding footsteps of other partygoers. The gravestone homies sang a dark dirge as they sullenly watched a shovel homie dig up a fresh grave. Even the juice river had been dyed red to look like blood, deep red reflecting on the horrible grins of the trees peering from the edge of the Seducing Woods.

Having once glimpsed the true darkness of Totto Land, you couldn’t help but wonder if its morbid, Halloween-themed makeover was the truest reflection of its nature. Memories flashed back to your initial arrival to the archipelago. You watched the man in front of you die as Big Mom’s Incarnation swiped the final months of his life as payment for his residency. Vivid memories of him collapsing to the floor with a final breath danced in your brain, followed by the hollow smile of the creature with its white glowing eyes. The creature you’d come to pay twice a year for your ability to live here.

You shuddered at the thought, shaking away the uncomfortable memories. You’d lived here for about 3 months, happily, but saw the hints of darkness creeping behind the picturesque frame of the candy-encrusted landscape…

--

Inside Whole Cake Chateau, the highest of extravagance was on full display. The smell as you stepped inside the massive cake building was perhaps the most memorable—powerful, luscious notes of candy corn, lollipops, gumdrops, marshmallow, chocolate all tickled your nose in unison yet each distinct. The large buffet table to your right was a mountain of confections modeled after zombie parts, skeletons, bat wings. The serving dishes were massive and well-stocked, an army of chefs and rook knights replacing every calorie taken from the table with finesse and speed. To your center, a red velvet chocolate fountain so large that it rivaled an Olympic swimming pool. Guests dotted every corner of the ballroom to your left, dressed from head-to-toe in expensive costumes of classic horror creatures, characters from the latest trends, jokes, and other displays of amazement and fantasy.

You recognized some of the partygoers, primarily from your work as a baker in the cracker bakery housed on Biscuits Island. Visitors from across the entire archipelago came to your workplace to place orders for customized cracker flooring—the area’s edible replacement for tile flooring. While most often you’d seen the Charlotte family’s aides and assistants placing orders at your workplace, some of them preferred to complete the work themselves. Charlotte Katakuri was one of them—an ominous figure he painted against the colorful showroom, tall, dark and quiet. But his attention to detail and patience with ordering the perfect set of cracker floors for each of his projects made you come to realize that there was more than meets the eye with him. He was a figure that intrigued you more than you’d care to admit, but you’d only ever seen him in a work setting. He was a person that you looked forward to seeing, though you held your feelings about him deep within—he seemed too perfect, too unobtainable.

Until today. The most extravagantly dressed you recognized as members of the Charlotte family, who were both the children of the land’s queen as well as its appointed politicians. Charlotte Smoothie stood out immediately, tall as ever, effervescent in a red and blue princely outfit, epaulets encrusted with rhinestones and a beautifully detailed sword laying at her hip, her hair in a low ponytail like a fairytale prince. Charlotte Compote was next to her in a vampiress costume, signature bowl hat filled with a deep red liquid like blood, hair adorned in a slick black wig, fangs poking from red lips, and a beautiful blood red gown, and they appeared to be discussing the décor in detail. Young children in a rainbow assortment of costumes swarmed around their feet, and given their appearances, you could only assume those were younger Charlotte children as they ran in circles at Compote’s feet. From a distance, you spotted a tall figure dressed as Frankenstein’s Monster chatting with a woman dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein, though most of their outfits were obscured by the crowd.

As you approached Compote, another regular of your cracker establishment, you heard Smoothie call out: “Katakuri!” and the Frankenstein’s Monster turned his head. You immediately saw that Katakuri’s skin was painted a pale green that made his pink hair, irises, and tattoo pop in contrast. Steel bolts were attached to each side of his head, and his mouth was covered, as usual, by a scarf, although this one was tattered and worn to fit the outfit. Before she could say anymore, Katakuri was there, crouching down and saying something to the children with a gentle, yet stern look in the eyes peering above his tattered scarf. The way they stopped and listened to him so intently was telling of their respect for him—could these be his own children? Ah, well. After he spoke to them, they became quiet and orderly, walking single file towards the pink candy spiral staircase leading up to the second floor. The woman dressed as his bride showed up behind him, cooing, “Oh Katakuri—you’re always so good with them.” With a nod of acknowledgement, he stood back up silently, and noticed you standing 15 feet from them, staring directly at him. He looked at you up and down, and blinked.

“You’re the one from Cracker’s bakery,” he uttered at you with the gentlest hint of a furrow in his brow. The woman dressed as Frankenstein’s Bride next to him grimaced, the wrinkles in her face scrunching to her brow as she failed to hide her frustration. You felt an ounce of hostility from her, and wondered if she had somehow noticed your fascination with Katakuri…

You nodded coyly in response and approached the group of large individuals, but before you could try to politely continue the conversation, you felt a smack on the flat of your back. A large figure leaned in next to you, grin penetrating a hole in the side of your face. “You made it! I’m so glad,” Cracker exclaimed a little too loudly in your ear.

Smoothie groaned, “speak of the devil…” and Cracker gave her a smirk as he acknowledged his siblings standing before him in a circle on the ballroom floor. You noticed Cracker wore a bordering childish lion costume with a mane created from craft paper. Compared to the other costumes, it didn’t make sense to you until you saw him later on in the evening next to the rest of the Wizard of Oz cast…Mont-d’Or in a scarecrow costume, Moscato in a tin man costume, and Poire in an adorable and well-crafted Dorothy costume. You had learned their names because they all stood together in a line to be judged at the costume contest you watched later in the evening.

The siblings bantered around you, discussing each others’ outfits, nearly forgetting you standing there, small in stature and already quiet to begin with. You craned your neck to follow the conversation going on in the air above you.

It struck you as a bit odd that Cracker invited you, one of many employees of his, to this party. There was no one else from your workplace you recognized. On top of that, the Charlotte family all in a single room was a party entirely on its own, without any need for additional guests. This party appeared to be much the same, thick with Charlotte blood, common folk mostly appearing in (Halloween-themed) serving garb, some friends and in-laws dotted between the unusual shapes and sizes of the Charlottes.

--

You mostly enjoyed yourself throughout the party, learning everyone’s names and becoming more familiar with Cracker’s close siblings. The woman Katakuri was with was named Brulee, though you spent most of the night averting your eyes from them, feeling awkward for having ever had a crush on him. Of course he had a wife, or a girlfriend, or whoever she was.

Instead, you paid attention to the costume contest put on by Perosperos and Charlotte Linlin. The contest’s comically large scroll full of rules that’d been penned throughout the years of their lives together as siblings was read through at the very beginning like a very boring educational speech. Poire explained to you that it basically boiled down to: “make your costume yourself, don’t use devil fruits, and anyone discovered cheating on either of those rules would be banned from participating in the costume contest forever.” After learning that, your eyes opened to the absolute craftsmanship of this family’s dedicated costumers. Even the worst costumes such as Cracker’s childish lion seemed less bad after considering the amount of work he had spent at a craft table, hot gluing whiskers to his hand-sewn furry hood.

You had come wearing a mummy costume, but it was store bought and nothing special. Just something cobbled together last minute in preparation for the party, so you had no reason to enter the contest.

There was no real prize beyond the ability to brag—but bragging rights were an incredibly important prize to the Charlottes, and doubly so when a party was involved. Even a cool woman such as Smoothie was swayed by its power, giving her all to craft the most beautifully detailed prince costume this year in the hopes of winning. A teenaged girl named Flampe was swarmed with chess knights all dressed up in the theme of her costume: a musician with all of her adoring fans. You weren’t really sure what popstar she was supposed to be—her skin was painted like a skeleton, hair curled densely, a large crown upon her head, heart shaped sunglasses resting on her head with an orange feather boa around her shoulders. She held a green guitar shaped like a shark that she never actually tried to play. Given how nearly everyone in the room watched her entrance and participation on the stage, you guessed it was someone famous.

Later on in the event, you noted that Katakuri and Brulee joined as a team with their matching Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein outfits. You wouldn’t have pegged Katakuri as the type to want bragging rights for anything, but the crowd’s response to them was incredible—for Katakuri in particular. Oven noticed your surprise. He leaned down to you and explained, “he’s been voted the most popular brother, after all. He’s cool, perfect, and utterly undefeated in battle.”

In the end, the costume contest voting boiled down into a popularity contest, as things so often do within the family’s politics. Charlotte Linlin, dressed in the most expensive and extravagant Queen costume, sat at the large chair behind the judge’s table and laughed her signature “mama-mama” when she counted the results. Flampe’s skeleton musician-themed group was the winner and she accepted the honor with the smallest amount of grace, followed by Katakuri and Brulee’s Frankenstein pair in second.

--

The party came to a close, its music dying down, the youngest children all retired to bed or gone home. You’d been invited upstairs into one of the many candy-rococo rooms in the upper echelons of the Whole Cake Chateau by Cracker, and sat on the floor with a grouping of older Charlottes and friends sitting in a circle, all laughing and chatting. Katakuri and the woman he was with were there.

You’d chosen dare. A bottle was spun in the middle of the group. Whoever it landed on would be the second player of 7 Minutes in Heaven—a game typically played by hormone-ridden teens looking to make out in a closet. But you were adults, joking around. You’d been recruited as the first player in a game of 7 Minutes in Heaven, which made you feel a bit uncomfortable—this was a party your boss invited you to, after all. You weren't usually a dare person either, but you’d never gotten to play spin the bottle growing up, so you figured why not. The gentle haze of an alcoholic beverage helped, too.

The bottle stopped. Of all the people in the circle, it pointed at Charlotte Katakuri. Brulee looked uncomfortable, but didn’t say anything—why would a married couple play this game? You thought to yourself. But in the single night you knew him, Perosperos was the one making up the rules, and he was a stickler for those.  You decided not to protest. Maybe you’d stand silently in the closet for 7 minutes with the perfectly terrifying Katakuri as he gazed down upon you in the darkness.

Words were exchanged, and you were both sent to the closet for 7 minutes of heaven.

You entered the dark closet, shuffling in and out of a multitude of large dresses belonging to Charlotte Linlin, the fabric nearly engulfing you. The door shut behind you both, and a voice rang out, “timer starts now! Don’t get too naughty, you two!” followed by Brulee’s audible groan.

You heard Katakuri audibly gulp above you. The feelings of shock and nervousness had blinded you to his expressions, so now that you were smashed together in the dark, you had absolutely no read on him whatsoever.

So you quietly asked, “Katakuri…?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“Why did you—aren’t you married? Isn’t this weird?” but you were interrupted by a large gloved hand on your shoulder, sending a wave of nervousness in a whirlwind through your body.

“I am not married,” he responded, simply.

You gulped, biting your lip.

“But, Brulee…?” you responded in your head, but the words didn’t come out. Somehow, he heard you anyway.

“Brulee is my sister. She likes scary movies a lot, so we dressed up for the contest.” He changed the subject. “I think your costume is nice,” he gestured, withdrawing his hand on your shoulder to touch the fabric with a respectful tap of his finger, unable to point in the darkness.

“Wait, then whose kids were—well...Okay. Thank you,” and you laughed a little as you went along with him. “If you’re wondering, I didn’t make it. The mummy wraps came pre-stained.”

“Oh?”

“I didn’t know you guys had all these rules. Hell, I didn’t even know there was a contest. I just grabbed something from one of the shops last minute. You did such a great job on your costume, I feel embarrassed for you to even have to look at me! Cracker didn’t even tell me about this party until the day before.”

Katakuri sighed. “Sorry.”

“What’re you apologizing for?”

“He invited you because of me.”

You didn’t understand what he meant. Katakuri continued.

“I…mentioned you once...” That revelation piqued your interest. He talked about you? Why?

Katakuri shifted his weight from one foot to another, causing some of the dresses around you to move. “Because I thought you were…cute.” The words choked out of him, you could almost feel the heat of his blushing cheeks radiating from above you as he spoke. He cleared his throat.

“Let’s talk about something else.”

An awkward silence filled the closet—he’d stunned you twice in a row, first with the truth about his relationship status, and second, that he’d requited your attraction. What to do?

Katakuri cleared his throat again, uncomfortable and trapped in a closet with his head nearly touching the ceiling, stuffed awkwardly against the shelf with the person he’d just admitted he liked. You wanted to respect his request to drop the subject, so you didn’t push it.

Following his earlier lead, you offered a compliment. “I like your costume too.” You lightly touched the thick canvas fabric of his baggy pants where they tucked into his heavy platform boots, outlining a patch stitched with wide embroidery thread. “You really made all this yourself?”

The leg under your hand shifted in its pants as Katakuri kneeled before you, pushing Big Mom’s hanging clothes surrounding you out of the way by sheer size of his frame. A protective arm rested on the floor next to you, and he uttered, “Yes. The rules are very explicit. You can incorporate basic, store-bought items such as shirts, pants, but they must be modified in some tangible way.”

“Is it okay if I touch?” you asked, not wanting to be too presumptuous. You continued, “I didn’t have much of a chance to look at your costume too closely, but it must be good if you won second place.”

“I worked hard on it, but I am not sure it was deserving of second place. You’re welcome to touch it.” The air felt less thick between you as the awkwardness simmered into a cool comfort.

You explored the details of his costume in the darkness, your hands small against the 16’ man’s frame. The large arm resting on the ground next to you was adorned in the sleeve of a thick blazer, artificially weathered by his own hands, its threads exposed and rough with rips and tears near the seams. Thickly woven patches were sewn into his entire suit using embroidery thread. The blazer was opened at the center to reveal his shirtless chest, and although you couldn’t feel it, you remembered how his skin had been carefully painted green around the pink tattoos, and how the juxtaposition of those two colors created such a bright and engaging contrast on his skin.

“Did you sew the patches with a machine? The detailing feels so even,” you asked as you felt the perfectly squared stitching, betraying the imperfect nature of the Frankenstein Monster.

“I sewed all of the modifications by hand, though the jacket and pants were something I had already owned. Have a couple of injuries on my fingers to prove it.” Katakuri replied as he twisted his wrist, opening his palm next to you.

“You? Injuries? One of your brothers told me you were undefeated. To think you’d been bested by a needle and thread…” Reaching down to his hand, you ran yours against his palm to the ends of his fingertips. He let out the lightest flinch when your hand pressed against a small needle injury at the end of his pointer finger.

“How the mighty fall,” he answered with a spark of amusement.

Resolving not to waste this private moment, he made a move.

Katakuri wrapped his hand around yours, and with the softest motion, pulled you in towards his body as he leaned his head down. You were close enough to him to feel the warmth radiating from his core. You swore you smelled a hint of fried dough. The ruggedly tattered scarf wrapped around his lower face tickled your skin as electricity grew between you and the seconds stretched into what felt like minutes. You were so close that you felt his breath on your nose, but the scarf stayed put as a barrier between you. You looked into the eyes you couldn’t see in the darkness, and yearned for the touch of his lips against yours.

Both yourself and Katakuri imagined the feel of each others’ lips pressed against skin, the taste, the touch, the smell—although you had no idea what his mouth looked like. He always covered it, so your imagination ran wild in the dark. You kissed the scarred and torn lips of the face you imagined in your head, then you kissed a mouth with sharp teeth so pointed that your own lips were cut in the process. Maybe he had big cute buck teeth under there that stuck through a pair of swollen lips. You kissed that too. Your imagination ran through the possibilities like a rolodex, and each was good, wonderous, and electric.

Meanwhile, Katakuri’s rolodex of imagined scenarios was not so idyllic. He imagined the multitude of ways in which you’d reject him, how you’d take his scarf from him and embarrass him, how you’d reveal the secret of his mouth to the entire world, painting a target on the backs of all his siblings. He remembered all of his past relationship failures, and most of all, he remembered the great bloody wound across his sister Brulee’s face as he stood there powerlessly. He froze.

The hesitation began to hang thick in the air like a fog, and you were nearly able to feel the discomfort circulating from his body. You weren’t sure what changed. Time had been dilating and you wondered how much longer the 7 minutes would last.

You took your chance.

You grasped his hand which held yours so gently but stiffly, and pulled it close enough to plant a sweet kiss upon the top of his painted knuckle. Underneath your lips, his body notably relaxed. The gesture brought him back to reality.

Katakuri’s eyes glinted with the color of the future, where he saw the moment the door opened to light, just moments away. In a flash, he pulled your hand through his scarf to his lips and returned the kiss so quickly that you could hardly process what might be under there by feel. He then stood straight up and gave you both a once over that lasted no more than a single second, any hair or mummy wrapping out of place put in its proper configuration by the quickest swipe of his finger. As if nothing had happened.

The door opened.

His siblings joked, poked, prodded, and laughed at what they thought may or may not had happened between the two of you. He spent the rest of the night avoiding your eyes, as if nothing had happened. Eventually, his siblings dropped the subject. Deep down, they were rooting for Katakuri—most of the older Charlotte children had already been married, through virtue (or iniquity) of arranged marriage. But perhaps the strongest and most perfect Charlotte, intentionally held from the world of political marriage, would be allowed to pick his own partner.

The party moved on. Other games were played, other topics broached, other siblings bullied and jested and the family was having a great time. Katakuri thought he’d gotten away with keeping up his perfect illusion that he’d kept his distance during the closet game, but sometime later, his eyes widened at you like plates, face turning red under his scarf, burning through the green face paint. He observed his hand and saw a hardly noticeable kiss mark on his knuckle. It’s already too late, he thought to himself.

Seconds later, Cracker’s burst of laughter turned the entire room to your face.

“Hold on, hold on! Your lips are GREEN!”

“GREEN?!”

“What did those two get up to…?”

“Katakuri! You DOG!”

Brulee looked concerned and attempted to play interference by standing between you and Katakuri to block the line of sight. She’d grown to be very protective of him, knowing that his hidden heart was kind and undeserving of the expectations those had thrust upon him. While she knew he was truly not the perfect being the world had decided him to be, she would do anything to help him protect that because it is what he had chose.

Despite Brulee getting in the center of it, the chatter raged on, the rumors spread, and you gained some kind of reputation. Your eyes met Katakuri’s as he leaned over Brulee to look at you. You furrowed your brows at each other.

The start of a beautiful relationship…

[heir-less]

But have you seen that freaky deranger that made a tweet about Charlotte's "age appropriate" dress at Easter day and fashion like this "protecting children from pedophiles"? Ofc they're getting dragged because Andrew is behind Kate and her and Charles alone is linked to multiple pedophiles but just foul that this is the norm in that fandom and the type of audience the Waleses *knowingly* pander to. To comment on a child's clothing is to view them sexually and this weirdo needs to be removed from the internet and be locked away forever. Literally saying you can easily tell when a child is well adjusted, proper fashion will keep pedophiles away, Charlotte fashion icon in the making...my blood boils everytime this shit happens because the platform lets the tweet stay up and fellow derangers post other children. You damn well know there's pedophile saving these tweets and images.

TW rape, pedophilia, abuse

Oh, yeah, these people are freaks. People like this also suggested that it was inappropriate for Charlotte and Co. to not wear tights during Harry and Meghan's wedding. They go around applying these weird sexual standards to little girls when it comes to their skirt lengths and them having bare arms and legs outside. Charlotte has worn shorts and short-sleeves in official photos, her doing so doesn't mean her parents dressed her "inappropriately".

Yeah, it is interesting that an alleged child rapist is allowed within proximity to little children, considering that, if Andrew was a regular citizen, he would have been placed on a sex offender's list and prevented from doing these things. Andrew isn't being cut off when he could literally be a danger to those around him, he literally compared Virginia to Beatrice. Like he literally told her she was "his daughter's age" and proceeded to rape her. People who are sexual predators pray on members that are vulnerable, this includes family members. It doesn't always have to be a sexual thing, either: Andrew was very good at manipulating his dying 96-year-old mother into doing his bidding. Who knows who else he's gas-lighting and taking advantage of behind closed doors? I assume he's still allowed around the family at private events. Elizabeth wasn't a victim in this situation, but Andrew 100% exploited her emotional state for his own gain.

And your final point! YES! Let's not forget that pedophiles online will literally save "cute" pictures of little girls that appear unassuming in order to get off on them. This was a recent issue that was reported happening on Pinterest of all places. It's disgusting at these idiots are playing right into these people's hands when they post content like that. I have seen so many "royal children" Pinterest boards and Instagram accounts that are downright weird in their commentary about children. It's sick.

[pennylanefics]

Soft Alphabet v.2 - Michael Gray

a/n: this is a second version of the soft alphabet format. i had a different set of words for my alphabet blurb event, and i thought this was a good way to get back to writing stuff :) who do you wanna see next??

warnings: the letter x is a bit steamy

A - Attention (how much attention they give you/when they do/what they do)

it really depends on his mood. most times, mainly during the week, his attention is on work, even when he’s home. on the weekends, though, he is all over you, as much as his ego allows him to, honestly. he tries so hard to get away and work on a couple things, but you always force him to go into town with you to either run errands or shop or to the pictures.

B - Baby (do they want a family/how are they as a father)

michael never imagined having children. before he met you, he got charlotte pregnant, and everyone knows how that ended. so he promised himself to always be safe. but when he met you, literally everything changed. he was so smitten and so in love with you, and his thoughts were constantly consumed with the idea of having kids with you. and these thoughts only intensified when he saw you with john’s kids. surprisingly, he’s an amazing father. he’s so attentive and protective, if something is wrong, he is right there, changing them or entertaining them.

C - Certain (when did they realize they wanted to be with you)

when you stood up to arthur, by yourself. when you were first introduced to his extended family in the early stages of your relationship, arthur wouldn’t stop making comments about you. ranging from you are really a whore in disguise as michael’s girlfriend, to you being ‘ugly’ and not one to fit in with the family. you were growing tired of it, so you shouted at him to shut up, not thinking twice about it. everyone was silent and michael just stared at you in awe. arthur thankfully wasn’t angry, he just smiled and nodded his head at michael. “she’s a keeper.” michael couldn’t agree more.

D - Doubt (what happens when you or him doubt your relationship/being together)

when he starts to become distant well into your relationship, you question if you should even be together. he rarely came home, he never gave you answers when you asked him something, and he focuses more on work and the company. you ran to polly when you had no idea what to do anymore, and she assured you that he gets like this sometimes, and it’s not because of you. she then has a stern talking to him and that’s when he realizes that he’s been hurting you. she doesn’t tell him everything, she leaves you to do that, and in that time, you mention how you’ve been feeling abandoned and wondering if your relationship was worth it.

E - Emergency (how do they react to you being hurt/in danger, vice versa)

when you get hurt, it’s the end of the world for michael. one day, you got in a car accident with ada. she walked away without a scrape, but you were left with multiple bandages and a cast on your arm. when polly told michael the news, she had to hold him back from yelling at ada and the doctors treating you. he wanted to see you, but you were still out from being in surgery. he spent the night in the waiting room, not leaving until he saw you and knew you would be okay. when they finally let him in, he’s holding your hand, crying, saying he loves you over and over again.

F - Family (introducing each other to your families)

he was hesitant about introducing you to his family. i mean, they’re the shelby’s and the peaky blinders after all. it was well into your relationship before you were introduced to tommy, arthur, ada, and finn. on the other hand, you were quick to bring him home to meet your family, about a month into your relationship. he was beyond nervous, knowing everyone in the city knew that he was related to the peaky men. so he was obviously scared of your mother or father judging him. but it went great and they absolutely loved him. your younger siblings even wished he would come back soon.

G - Grief (comforting one another in rough times)

when john gets killed, he’s so distraught. he has nightmares, he sees john and hears him sometimes, it’s rough. he’s never experienced loss like this, and even though he only knew john for a short time, they bonded really well, so it was obviously hard. you were by his side every time he had a bad dream, letting him either talk it out or just hold him while he cried. you knew it was serious in the times that he cried because michael...doesn’t like showing emotion. so you made sure to comfort him and hold him tighter during those times.

H - Hold (holding each other/holding others/holding pets)

the first time michael holds you in his arms, you never want to leave. his touch and his warmth is so inviting and cosy, if you could, you would live in his arms. that’s what you loved about nighttime, when he finally allows himself to relax after work. you’ll light a few candles to set more calming mood and lay with each other. you will read by yourself while michael just closes his eyes, or you’ll put some music on and talk about your day. whatever it is, michael has his arms around you and close to his chest, and it’s the perfect way to end a day.

I - Insomnia (what you/they do when either of you can’t sleep)

when you can’t sleep, either you or michael makes a cup of tea and sits in the living room, on the couch. michael tends to be a heavy sleeper, so it’s usually you who makes the cup for yourself. but, there are nights where work or personal problems keep michael up, and you, being the light sleeper, stay up with him. he tells you every time to go back to sleep, he’ll be fine, but you ignore him and sleepily chat with him until he tires himself out.

J - Jewelry (gifts they give you, fancy or not)

once you are introduced to the shelby’s, they are always pushing michael to get you fancy ass gifts. you were never the type for super fancy jewelry or anything like that. you wore a couple rings every day and a special necklace from your grandmother, but you didn’t like anything flashy. so when michael shows up at your house with a beautiful diamond necklace, you don’t know what to say. he looks a bit lost and nervous giving it to you, so you know right away that either tommy or arthur, or hell, even isaiah, picked it out and gave it to him to give it to you. but nonetheless, you wore it and cherished it because it was “from” him.

K - Kryptonite (their weaknesses)

your touch. whenever you put your hands on michael, in a sexual way or not, he is putty in your hands. this can be you rubbing his back while at an event or party, or your hands running up his chest as you kiss him. the feel of your fingers on his skin makes him lose his mind. so much that he tries to hold your hand when you’re out in public because he can never control himself if you happen to touch anywhere else on his body.

L - Lingerie (their reactions to seeing you in fancy lingerie)

for your first year anniversary, you wanted to do something special for michael. so, you and ada went shopping for some new, lacy lingerie. you spent close to an hour trying to decide on the perfect one, which you ended up getting a baby blue set. after a fancy dinner at your favorite restaurant, you and michael headed back to his place, which he had to himself for a few days. he was getting ready for bed, not expecting anything else, when you step into the bedroom, stripped down to the new set you bought today. his eyes widen and he sits down on the bed, gazing at you up and down. his jaw drops and he moves back a bit. you stand in front of him, teasing his lips with your finger. a smile appears on them as you quietly tell him you got this special get up just for him. and it’s off within minutes.

M - Marriage (what a wedding is like with them/what married life is like)

being apart of the shelby family, they have to throw you and michael a huge wedding. it’s not what you wanted, but you went along with it, knowing they liked the excuse to party. your family wasn’t too fond of the night, some of your cousins having gotten into fights with members of michael’s family. it wasn’t good, but that didn’t matter to you. being married to michael was so much more different than dating. he is so much more attentive and cautious about what he says and how he acts. he knew that before you could have left at any moment and nothing would have mattered, but now that you’re legally together, it would be much more difficult and be a lot more scandalous if you were to get a divorce. and michael doesn’t want that at all.

N - Nervous (were they nervous for any first times in your relationship: first meeting, first kiss, first time)

surprisingly, your first kiss, he is super nervous about. right away, he knows that you’re a really special person, and having kissed only one girl before, when he was young, he didn’t want to do something wrong or gross or uncomfortable. he of course had to get tips from isaiah, who was actually no help, and just made michael more nervous. but when the time came, you took control of the situation after sensing that he had no idea what he was doing, and it was so sweet that he went in for another.

O - Overreact (how often do you/they overreact and how bad does it get)

michael overreacts all the time, unfortunately. early on in your relationship, anytime you asked him something relating to work or his family, which he rarely mentioned, he always got mad. he accused you of wanting him for his money or job or family, wanting to be apart of it when you have no idea what they do. you put him into his place every time, though, and he apologizes as soon as he realizes he fucked up.

P - Past (how does their/your past affect your relationship)

he has a lot of emotional trauma when it comes to his adoptive parents. he never mentioned that he spent 17 years of his life not knowing his real family, and it only ever came up when polly told michael that his adoptive mother died. you sat there dumbfounded, confused as to what she was talking about. michael walked out of the room to collect his thoughts, and polly ended up telling you everything. later that night, when you and michael were settling down, you cautiously asked him about it. he surprisingly told you his side of the story, the entirety of it. you were up well into the night, just listening to him recall what he went through. he breaks down at some point, so you comfort him for the rest of the time, turning the topic of conversation to something different.

Q - Quarrel (fighting with each other)

if he’s stressed out from the business, you tend to fight more. he takes his anger out on you, not in a physical or mental way, but when he gets home from a stressful day, you’ll ask him a simple question like why he’s home so late or what he wanted to do the following day, he blows up. and after knowing michael for a while, you know when he means what he says and when he doesn’t. in those times, he never means it. but in more serious fights, that somehow always have to do with his family, he’s genuinely upset. those fights last much longer and you can go days without saying a word to one another.

R - Romance (how your relationship has progressed over time)

in the beginning, it was quite slow. it took you a few weeks to get used to the idea of being in a relationship, for both of you, so it was pretty awkward at times. but once you started feeling more comfortable and more open with one another, it was great. michael was always telling you he loves you and whispering sweet things in your ear, any place, any time of the day. for your one month anniversary, he got you a big bouquet of flowers and a few small gifts. he kept up with that tradition, so every month, he got you a new set of flowers and a new set of gifts.

S - Sorry (what happens after fights)

you try to make michael apologize when he’s truly in the wrong. you never want to apologize for something that he started. and as soon as he realizes you’re not going to break, he comes running to you and says sorry, and you always ask him if he knows what he’s sorry for. apologies are usually long, since you take that chance to talk your problems out and strengthen your relationship.

T - Tender (how sweet they can be in different moments)

when you’ve been together for a long time, he gets super sweet during nights off of work. when he’s not stressed out and more relaxed. he’ll give you cuddles close to his body, kisses all over your face and down your neck, sometimes even escalating to full body kisses. he always giggles when doing so, making it such a tender moment between the two of you. he can be so loving yet so playful in the same moments, and those are the times you cherish the most.

U - Upset (what you do that upsets them/vice versa and how they react to it)

when you talk down on yourself. michael hates it. he hates that you compare yourself to other women, especially his family like ada and esme. the idea of someone as beautiful as yourself not believing it was beyond him, and he always got sad when he hears you. to help make you feel better, he’ll just hold you in his arms and whisper little things that either you do or about your appearance that he absolutely loves. he never wants you to think less than what you are, so he always takes it into his hands to cheer you up.

V - Violence (what you do when they turn to violence)

unfortunately, being a peaky man, he resorts to violence way too much. you spend lots of your time cleaning him up, when he allows you to. he attempts to hide in his office from you when he’s in decent condition, knowing you’ll make a big deal out of it. if he’s in horrible condition, tommy or arthur, or most times it’s isaiah, will drop your limping boyfriend off, unable to take care of himself. you are silent while you clean the cuts all over him, tending to his bruised eye or cheek, wiping the dried blood away. nights like those usually end with michael apologizing for making you take care of him. you kiss him sweetly and tell him you’ll talk about it in the morning.

W - Wait (how long they wait to make a move or do something)

it surprisingly took michael quite a while to make a move to even talk to you. when he first arrived in small heath and had a night out with his newfound family, he saw you from across the bar. tommy told him to not talk to you, since you were the daughter of a rival group of the peaky blinders. well, your dad and tommy and arthur didn’t like each other. so, every time michael saw you at the pub or out in town, he avoided you like the plague. but one night, he was out with isaiah, and he forced michael to talk to you, getting sick of his ogling and drooling.

X - X-Rated (are they dirty in inappropriate times)

michael is filthy. let’s be real. he will fuck you anytime, anywhere. in his office, in the private room of the garrison, any room of yours or his house, alleyways even. but, the times where he’s the most inappropriate, is in the privacy of your bedroom. there, he can be as dirty as he can, spanking you, choking you, pulling your hair, any kind of things both of you enjoy. plus his words make cry out in pleasure every time he talks.

Y - Year (what you do to celebrate one-year celebrations)

the first birthday of your daughter was extravagant, to say the least. she was a peaky baby, after all. tommy insisted on hosting a party at his manor, with just the family, but still, they went all out. lots of decorations, lots of presents, a big cake, music playing. she was so happy to be around her favorite people and you and michael were filled with love as you watched her interact with these tough gangsters; they all turned soft and sweet when around her. needless to say, she was out before the party even ended, full of cake and worn out from giggles.

Z - Zzz (what it’s like to sleep with them, just sleep)

sleeping with michael varies. some nights, he wants or needs his space so he’ll lay on his side or back, leaving you by yourself for warmth. he radiates tons of heat, so not being in his arms leaves you freezing cold during the winter, especially. but when he does hold you, it’s your favorite. he holds you close and if you’re curled into his chest, he nuzzles his face into your hair. if you’re spooning, he nuzzles his face in your shoulder, often pressing kisses to your skin. right before he falls asleep, he’ll whisper that he loves you and he’s so lucky to have you.

[paralleljulieverse]

‘Gentlemen like you are few...’: A Supercentenary Tribute to Irwin Kostal

1 October 2021 marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of Irwin Kostal, the musical arranger, orchestrator and conductor whose work helped shape the sound of the post-war American stage and screen musical. In this post we look back at the career of this remarkable 'music man’ with a particular focus on his collaborations with the equally remarkable Julie Andrews -- who, as it happens, shares the same birthday, so this post is doing double birthday honours.

A gentle, unassuming man, Kostal or ‘Irv’ as he was known by associates, was not one for the limelight. It’s possibly why he gravitated to the ‘behind-the-scenes’ art of musical arranging. Unlike composers, performers, or even conductors, arrangers seldom loom large in public perceptions of professional musicianship. They are, for the most part, the ‘invisible artists’ of the music industry: their contributions to the sound and experience of music are immense, but they remain largely ‘uncredited in records, liner notes or books or records’ (Niles 2104, p. 4). That Irwin Kostal would ultimately prove a rare exception to this tradition of thankless anonymity -- becoming sufficiently well-known to have his own name not only included on recordings, but emblazoned on the front cover alongside those of the ‘star’ vocalists with whom he worked -- is a testament to the singularity of his talents. 

Born the son of first generation immigrant parents in Chicago in 1911, Kostal claimed he was instantly ‘smitten’ by music when he saw a piano at the age of two-and-a-half, but his family was too poor to afford such luxuries. Moreover, his father -- a hard-drinking Czech with a fiery temper -- was ‘rigidly opposed’ to his interests in music and ‘could see no future in it’ (’Irwin’ 1962, p. 70). So Kostal initially had to content himself with listening and absorbing as much musical knowledge as he could indirectly. When he was eleven, his father finally brought home a broken player piano salvaged from a removals job and it provided the young Kostal with the launch pad he needed. 

Kostal devoted himself to his musical education with single-minded zeal. His formal training was intermittent -- enabled by a supportive mother who ‘surreptitiously managed to save money from her weekly allowance for my musical instruction’ (’Irwin’ 1962, p. 70) -- but he was a passionate autodidact who would spend countless hours studying and practising on his own. By age 15, he was already playing professionally with local touring bands, while also offering his own services as a piano teacher with, at one point, more than 40 pupils (ibid.).

When he wasn’t playing, Kostal would be found in the local library poring over musical scores and reading about the greats of the classical canon. He was particularly intrigued by orchestration and the possibilities it offered for varying the sound and feel of music. He recalls how he would take orchestral scores home and study all the parts learning ‘about musical instruments I never knew existed’ (Suskin 2009, p. 56).  He progressively worked his way through the music of the masters, going alphabetically: 

‘Bach...Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Elgar, Frank, Gounod, on and on through the alphabet...I tried to absorb everything. By the time I came to Ravel, Tchaikovsky and Wagner, I knew quite a lot about music in a jumbled way’ (Suskin 2009, p. 57).

While still in his teens, Kostal started to experiment with arrangements of his own, scoring a high school production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin with multiple variations on the American folk melody ‘Way Down upon the Swanee River’. ‘By taking away the rhythmic aspects and playing it in a minor key,’ he recounts, ‘I found lots of ways to play this song, making it fit the dramatics of the half-hour long story’ (ibid., p. 56). Thus, Irwin Kostal the arranger was born.

Throughout the 1930s and early-40s, Kostal honed his talents in a professional capacity, working with various big bands, before finally landing a job as a resident arranger for an NBC radio affiliate in Chicago. Following the war, Kostal moved to New York where, after a rocky start, he secured regular work as conductor and arranger on a number of long-running radio and TV variety shows including Your Show of Shows (1950-54), Max Liebman Presents (1954-56), and The Garry Moore Show (1959-63). It was demanding, fast-paced work with Kostal having to arrange and orchestrate hundreds of score pages a week, but it consolidated his musical versatility and capacity to work across a wide range of styles and forms (Suskin 2009, pp. 57-60).

Throughout this period, Kostal was also orchestrating for Broadway shows, racking up over 52 credits on theatre productions big and small (Allen 1995, p. 18). Many of these assignments were done in a ‘ghost-writer’ capacity including contributing work to such classic musicals as Wonderful Town (1953), The Pajama Game (1953) and Silk Stockings (1955). A major breakthrough came when Kostal was contracted to work in a credited capacity as co-orchestrator on the original Broadway production of West Side Story (1958) -- collaborating with Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Sid Ramin. It earned him his first Grammy Award and a subsequent invitation to arrange and orchestrate a string of other big Broadway musicals including Fiorello! (1959), Sail Away (1961) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962).

The success of West Side Story also saw Kostal do repeat honours on the film version (1961) which would, in turn, earn him an Academy Award and kickstart a hugely successful Hollywood career. In 1963, Kostal was invited by none other than Walt Disney to take on the major job of arranging the songs for Mary Poppins (1964) which had been written by the in-house Disney composing team of Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman. The Sherman Brothers claim to have suggested Kostal because they were fans of his Broadway work and they wanted a bright theatrical sound for the score. However, Walt Disney demurred. He reasoned it was a period film and they needed someone who could write music for any style or era, suggesting they get the musical director from The Garry Moore Show instead. Cue mutual delight when it was discovered they were all referring to the same man, Irwin Kostal (Sherman & Sherman 1998; Suskin 2009, p. 65).

Kostal’s work on Mary Poppins catapulted him to new heights of mainstream success. It not only secured him another Academy Award nomination -- he lost to Andre Previn for his work on My Fair Lady -- but it also brought him a tidy fortune in royalties from the film’s best-selling soundtrack album (’Kostal’s’ $65,000′, 57). His fame -- and fortune -- skyrocketed even further the following year when Kostal was contracted to arrange the score for The Sound of Music (1965). His dazzling efforts on this box-office blockbuster confirmed Kostal’s status as Hollywood’s presiding musical wonder-boy and saw him walk home with his second Oscar. A string of other big screen musicals followed including Half a Sixpence (1967), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). 

Many of these films were repeat collaborations because Kostal favoured working with people he knew and with whom he clicked personally and creatively. He would for example continue as the de facto ‘house’ arranger for Disney well into the 1980s, working on various assignments for the studio including Pete’s Dragon (1978), Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983) and the controversial re-recorded 1982 release of Fantasia (1940/1982) (Tietyan 1990). Kostal would also maintain a long association with the Sherman Brothers, acting as musical arranger for all their big screen musicals including the aforementioned Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), as well as Tom Sawyer (1973); Charlotte’s Web (1973); and The Magic of Lassie (1978) (Sherman & Sherman 1998).

The other great collaboration of Kostal’s career was of course with Julie Andrews. Perhaps it was the fact that the pair shared the same birthday but Kostal had an extraordinarily sympathetic relationship with Julie and he would work with her more than any other vocalist. Long before they teamed on Poppins and The Sound of Music, Julie and ‘Irv’ were making musical magic together. Kostal was the arranger and conductor for Julie’s first two solo albums for RCA: The Lass with the Delicate Air (1957) and Julie Andrews Sings (1958) where his sensitive facility with a wide range of musical idioms from English classical to Broadway and Tin Pan Alley came to the fore. Reviewing the first of these albums at the time of its original release, one music critic lauded it as ‘a record to charm every member of the family...[with] a combination of sincerity and simplicity and wholesome sweetness...Thank goodness arranger and conductor Irwin Kostal met the challenge and set the ballads winningly without overpowering Miss Andrews’ light pure tones’ (RRS 1958, p. 5A). In a similar vein, another reviewer praised the second album for ‘its charming unforced version of standards, well known and almost forgotten...Miss Andrews still sings naturally and purely [and] the deft accompaniments played by an orchestra under Irwin Kostal are agreeably restrained’ (Masters 1959, p. 11).

In this early period Kostal also worked with Julie as guest star on several episodes of The Garry Moore Show, where he was resident musical director. In this context, Kostal was pivotal in helping establish the legendary teaming of Julie and Carol Burnett which came out of the Garry Moore appearances. He would go on to act as musical director for their breakout 1962 TV special Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall which would earn Kostal his first Emmy (Taraborelli 1988, pp. 172-79). He would secure his second Emmy a few years later working with Julie again on the 1965 variety special, The Julie Andrews Show (1965) where, among other highlights, Kostal scored a series of stellar song-and-dance medleys for Julie and guest star Gene Kelly. The same year, Kostal teamed up with Julie on yet another recording with the 1965 edition of the annual Firestone Christmas albums. 

It was however their combined work on the two big musical mega-hits, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, that secured the Kostal-Andrews partnership a place in the history books. A cultural phenomenon of the highest order, the soundtrack recordings for these two films remain among the most successful albums of all time. Mary Poppins held the #1 spot on the US national music charts for 14 consecutive weeks in 1964, beating out Elvis Presley and The Beatles (Hollis and Erhbar 2006, pp.72ff). The album for The Sound of Music sold over 9 million copies in its first four years of release alone, remaining in the Billboard Top 100 for an unbelievable five-and-a-half years, and becoming the highest selling LP of all-time in the US up to that date (Murrells, 1978)  The Sound of Music continued its record-breaking run abroad, dominating the international charts and holding the #1 spot for 75 weeks in Australia, 73 weeks in Norway and 70 weeks in the UK, becoming in the process the single biggest selling album worldwide of the 1960s (Harker, 1992, pp. 189-91).

Commentators have frequently singled out the combination of Julie Andrews’ soaring vocals and Kostal’s dynamic arrangements as instrumental to the phenomenal success of these two albums. ‘Miss Andrews glows--positively glows--right through the record groove, vinyl disc, amplifiers, speakers, and all other mechanical barriers,’ enthused one contemporary reviewer of the Mary Poppins soundtrack, noting how the ‘songs that Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman have written’ and ‘the handsome arrangements by Irwin Kostal have the perfect balance ‘of lilt and flair to provide Miss Andrews with an effective working basis’ (Wilson 1965, p. 109). Apropos The Sound of Music, another critic pronounced it ‘as good a reproduction of a score as has ever been made’, noting how it ‘presents Julie in a most appealing role and given the splendid musical direction of Irwin Kostal, her talent comes shining through...as a treat beyond measure’ (Moore 1965, p. B6). 

In total, Julie Andrews and Irwin Kostal would work together on six recordings, two musical motion pictures, two television specials, and a host of other TV appearances representing some of the very best of Julie’s musical work during her heyday of the 1960s. Considered alongside the wealth of Kostal’s other work across film, stage, television and recording, it’s hard not to concur with Disney’s Nelson Meecham who, on the occasion of Kostal’s passing in 1994, eulogised: ‘He brought the joy of music to more people than it is possible to count’ (Allen, p. 19).

Sources:

Allen, John F 1995. ‘Remembering a Music Man: On the life and work of Irwin Kostal.’ Boxoffice. August: pp. 18-19.

Harker, Dave 1992. ‘Still Crazy After All These Years: What was popular music in the 1960s?” Cultural Revolution? The challenge of the arts in the 1960s. Bart Moore-Gilbert and John Seed, eds. Routledge, London and New York: pp. 186-200.

Hollis, Tim and Erhbar, Greg 2006. Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

‘Irwin Kostal: Music in all its many forms is his life.’ (1962). The Province. 2 June: p. 70.

’Kostal’s’ $65,000 Poppins Score’ 1965. Variety. 10 March: p. 57

Levy, Charles 1964. Mary Poppins: About the stars and photo-story features [Press kit]. Buena Vista Distribution, New York. 

Masters, John 1959. ‘Off the Record: Enchanting Music.’ The Age. 7 January: p. 11.

Moore, Robert 1965. ‘Record Turntable: Julie Andrews out in front again in film album of”Sound of Music”.’ The Arizona Daily Star. 7 March: p. B6.

Murrells, Joseph, ed. 1978. Book of Golden Discs: Records that sold a million. Barrie & Jenkins, New York.

Niles, Richard 2014. The Invisible Artist: Arrangers in popular music (1950-2000). BMI, London.

Oliver, Myrna. 1994. ‘Obituaries: Irwin Kostal; Film, TV Orchestrator.’ The Los Angeles Times. 1 December: P. B8.

RRS 1958. ‘On the Record: ‘Lass with the Delicate Air.’ Bristol Herald Courier. 9 February: p. 5A.

Sherman, Robert B &  Sherman, Richard M 1998. Walt's Time: From before to beyond. Camphor Tree, Santa Clarita, CA.

Suskin, Steven 2009. The Sound of Broadway Music: A book of orchestrators and orchestrations, Oxford University Press, New York.

Taraborelli, J. Randy 1988. Laughing Till It Hurts: The complete life and career of Carol Burnett. William Morrow & Co, New York.

Tietyan, David 1990. The Musical World of Walt Disney. H. Leonard, Milwaukee, Wis. 

Wilson, John S. 1965. ‘The Lighter Side’. High Fidelity Magazine. 15: 4: pp. 107-111.

© 2021, Brett Farmer. All Rights Reserved.

[originalwinnercheesecake]

Chain of Iron theories: Who is the Killer

Its coming up on a week since last made a COI theory post. I said that I was going to try to post all my theories on COI BEFORE it comes out next month, so this posed a problem. So mow I am going to give my input on one of the biggest Mystery’s for COI, Who is the Killer? So in COI Belial will have a new minion who will target the shadowhunters, manages to kill 5 of them (same number Tatiana needed for the ritual) and is difficult for them to apprehend because they are somehow able to disappear. CC has left some hints that the killer is actually another Shadowhunter that Belial has somehow managed taken Possession of, despite protection rituals that should have been placed on this individual at birth ( My theory on that is that since this book is called “Chain of Iron” we will learn that Belial controls all his pawns with “chains of iron”. All hidden on their persons and glamored to look like ordinary accessories.) Our synapse for the book says that James Herondale has been having strange nightmares and fears he may actually be the killer. In COI he will start to tie himself up to sleep at night. We all know its not James right? In mysteries like this you always throw out your first guess/ the obvious guess. I have seen a lot of posts theorizing on who the true identity could be. I have seen some theories do not make much sense to me and some that were really good.

One theory that seems off to me is the idea that the killer is actually multiple killers, more specifically a collection of the survivors of Belial’s illness. If you support this theory I get your reasoning:Belial was able to briefly posses these people before, and the illness may have left biological changes in them. But here’s where I am confused, the killer is implied to be a massive threat wielding enhanced dark magic. At the end of COA there are 30something cured shadowhunters released from Silent City. CC says that the killers body count will be 5. If Belial has 30something new pawns that he can posses, gift his terrible powers to, and send out to prey on shadowhunters, I feel like there should be a lot more than 5 victims. I know Beial is not yet at full strength from battling Cortana, but he should at least be stronger than that. I have also heard theories that it is one of the Blackthorns. This also does not make much sense to me, given that for one thing none of them have training, Tatiana and Grace already have established rolls in Belial’s plans, and while I know Jesse is a part of Belial’s plan I believe his part will be save for COT after he has been resurrected. IF Belial were using Jesse’s empty body to walk the earth, then wouldn’t he also need to stop anyone from trying to resurrect Jesse?

 I have heard many theories on Elias Carstairs being the killer. Many of them just want to make Elias out to be CC’s newest and most horrible monster parent, and absolve Alastair of any responsibility or need to apologize for the cruelty he has shown to our mains. If this is your reasoning for believing Elias is the killer than let me stop you right there. CC has written multiple series and her skills have evolved beyond the need to rely on such easy black and white tricks. But I also saw some people posting about how Elias goes home so late and stopped writing to his family. Some are theorizing that the real Elias Carstairs was intercepted and killed on his way back home and that the being that arrives in COI is actually an eidolon demon pretending to be Elias. This theory is AMAZING. It makes a lot of scenes, would give Belial another spy in a key place, and could potentially explain why Cortana starts acting so weird. I love this theory I do. I am just putting it t the side right now because I need the real Elias alive for other Carstairs family theories, and again have been working with the theory that the killer is a real shadowhunter whom Belial is controlling with another “chain of iron”. My theories are below.

1.) Lucie Herondale is the Killer

 I am working with he theory that all Belial’s pawns have “chains of Iron” on them, which means all three blackthorns have them. In old art CC released of Grace she is seen wearing a pearl necklace that I was convinced had to be her’s. Tatiana’s (who probably consented to wearing hers) could be anything, maybe that stupid, creepy bird, she wears in her hat. Jesse... is mentioned several times to wear a locket.... that we know is connected to Belial.... and was weakened when he took it off to give to Lucie... who is wearing it now. Do you people see where I am going with this? It can also be noted that one of the parts of Lucie’s arc is that she is frequently overlooked in favor of James and how that is a mistake on peoples parts.  Everybody knows that James has powers, he has had 4-5 years of people helping him figure out what they are and how to control them. Nobody but ghosts know that Lucie has powers, she has no training, and is only starting to understand what they mean. James is vulnerable but so is Lucie. I do not want her to be the killer. Lucie is such a fun character, and I was so happy to finally have a female Herondale play a role that was close in size to her male relative’s. I truly feel that Lucie deserves better than to be just a tragic character in the story. I want her to be that plus a hero, but I cannot deny that she is a possibility.

2.) Charles Fairchild is the Killer

I have seen Charles name appear on multiple lists of theory’s on the killer’s identity. People never really give reasons as to why they believe he is the killer. They are just mad at him for choosing to put his career higher on his list of priorities than his relationship with Alastair, or him being the killer would hurt less because he is not written to be a fan favorite. If you are someone who wants the killer to be Charles, but are unsure how likely it is your in luck. Because I can give you a whole list of reasons it is likely

Charles is already acting strange. We know he made some kinda screw up in Paris and had to come home. Apparently Charlotte is sending Tessa and Will to Paris to Start the fix up and Charles will go back afterwards. Well based on what we have gotten on Charles making a mistake like that is unlike him. Casting Long Shadow’s reveals that Charles has been working as a politician since he was 13 and is normally known for being very dependable and reliable. That’s part of the reason he is considered such a shoe-in for Counselor once his mother retires.??? I have theories on Charles mental state (which I will address in a later theory post that will be centered around the Fairchild’s) and do consider the possibility that he was sett off by fear over the outbreak or grief over losing Alastair... But this sudden change could be from other things as well

As of COG2 Charles is engaged to Grace Blackthorn, who controls him like a puppet. Grace herself is the puppet of Tatiana Blackthorn, who is the puppet of Belial. So Charles is now part of a very dangerous carnival. Charles decade of study and knowledge of clave politics at the top could be very useful to Belial in taking them down. Also previous short stories say that Charles spends most of his time in Idris for work and when in London usually stays at home going through law books and records. So I could easily believe he does not completely  know his way around London and (like the killer is hinted to) would need to use a map to get around.

Now on to my biggest reason for theorizing Charles for the killer. Charles and Matthew’s relationship with each other. Charles and Matthew do not get along, like at all. They did once, but that was a real long time ago. A lot of the reasons they don’t get along is dumb sibling stuff: Charles calling Matthew an immature child, kicking him and his friends out of rooms in their house, and lording his increased age over Matthew. Matthew making more noise to annoy Charles, telling everyone Charles embarrassing middle name, and regularly sneaking into Charles room to steal his cologne instead of just buying his own. We are not hear to discuss any of that. All of that has me laughing because it is peak sibling rivalry. Rivalry aside Charles and Matthew model  the old dynasty trope for Ssons with Charles being “the Heir” and Matthew being “the Spare”. The Heir’s life is decided for them as soon as they are born, they will succeed their parent and continue their legacy. The Spare is just that, a back up plan kept around should the heir die, become disabled, never marry, or turn out to be infertile (happens way more than people like to think about). Charles struggles with the weight of his parents expectations. Matthew is more or less the Black sheep of his family, living his life day by day with no grand plan. Because of this he is cut off from them in a way, and goes through a lot of loneliness and isolation in his own house. Neither brother see’s the others hard time; the other has what they themselves want: Charles has attention, Matthew freedom, so they wrongly assume the other must be doing fine. This is a lot like Matthew and James relationship in Dust and Shadows. Matthew and James talked things over with each other and were good after. Matthew and Charles stay apart and ignore each other when they cannot. They will not just talk and be good after. So maybe if put on different sides they will fight out their issues with each other? On the subject of Matthew having to fight Charles, lets say hypothetically Charles is the killer and is possessed. We know from previous books that clave protocol is to place a kill order on possessed members. If that becomes the case do you think Matthew would be able to follow through with those orders? Be able to hunt, fight, and kill his older brother? No. No matter how rough their relationship I doubt Matthew would ever be able to do that. It would be to much for him, to similar to his “sin”. He would want to catch Charles, then try to find a way to free him from possession. Maybe if Mathew could successfully accomplish this then maybe he could forgive himself for his “sin”. If Matthew tries to save him and fails than at least this time other people would know and could potentially get him some help.  

3.) Filomena DI Angelo is the Killer.

Ahh our upcoming new arrival from  Italy. Why are you coming to London girl? Haven’t you heard about all the crazy things that happens there last fall? What possible role could you play in the story that couldn’t be filled by one of our many already existing characters from COG2? (Do you even know your way around?) How suspicious that Filomena should show up around the same time as this killer? Wouldn’t it be great for the story if the killer came from a different country? Wouldn’t that do wonders for showing how powerful a threat Belial is? His dark influence stretching across country lines, maybe even across oceans! We have already been told that TLH characters will need to travel to other countries. How the villain is less one person and more a force. Filomena could start that. She could provide reason to search countries besides London for Belial’s influence. Proof of it being so wide spread would definitely make Belial feel more like a force. Oh but wait, cheesecake wait. Filomena cannot be the killer! That would make her evil, and CC said she was a nice girl! Oh I am sure Filomena is a nice girl, but people tend to change when under demon control. But she is a girl and the killer is hinted to be a male shadow hunter! Are we sure the killer isn’t presented as male because Belial is presented as male? Is it impossible that while on the hunt as the killer Filomena DI Angelo dress in men’s cloths in order to more safely move through the streets? I feel like we have saw that trick once before in TID.

All we really know about Filomena is that she came to London, will interact with some of our established characters, and she will get a crush on someone we know, thus presenting herself as a possible love interest. Matthew was my first guess, hey he was every bodies first guess. CC shut that down, Filomena is not being brought in to fix the love triangle between James, Cordeila, and Matthew. Matthew is one of the only ones to not have at a least semi-confirmed endgame ship. So this means that Filomena will probably not be endgame with her crush. Why?   My next guess was her crush was on Anna. Ariadne is shown to be relentless in her attempts to “win Anna back” and Anna is not having it. Tweets time and time again depict her basically telling Ariadne “Its not going to happen. Give up and leave me alone”, but falling on deaf ears. So maybe Anna will try to get a new girlfriends and keep her around until she is ready to forgive/ go back to Ariadne. Well Anna is more a secondary character, a loving big sister figure to our mains. She gets less page time because of this. We already know she will spend time with Cordelia, Lucie, Ariadne, Eugenia, Thomas... not much page time left for Filomena. After further analyses I have theorized that Filomena must have a crush on Thomas.

A quick google search on the name Filomena shows that it is an Italian name that means “loving friend” “strong friend” and “lover of music” all these sound kinda like Thomas. (Filomena is also the name of a character in the 14th century Italian collection  of short stories called the Decameron, who liked to make stories up about plagues... or so some digging around google told me ). This could fit quite nicely into Thomas’s story. First of all to everybody who has been calling Thomas “gay” please wait a moment to be sure. Thomas does not yet publicly or self identify as gay. He clearly has an attraction to one man, but CC says that he has not yet realized his sexuality and will spend TLH figuring out. He might be gay, but he could just as easily turn out to be bi or pan. For the sake of this theory lets assume Thomas is Bi. Thomstair is definitely endgame. We know Alastair is gay, and CC usually likes to pair gay characters up with bi characters in queer ships, see Malec and Heline. Should Thomas be bi, should he start to become close and develop feelings for Filomena, it will have to go wrong. More wrong than he considers his feelings for Alastair at the end of COG2 (Filomena do not hurt this boy, he has been through enough). We got a tweet that suggests Thomas is interested in the killer, and a hint that he is planing something big. We got a kinda frightening picture that suggests the Killer may be very interested in Thomas.

If Lucie is the killer she will somehow be freed from Belial’s control,. I can 100% guarantee it, Charles I feel will have a 50/50 chance, Filomena will die from it. It would be a herculean task to free her, and she is not important enough to the mains for them to actively try and do anything more than give her a merciful death. Should she and Thomas become close than it will break his heart. But if Alastair is there for him afterwards, able to emphasizes and offer him comfort that will go along way to redeeming Alastair to Thomas. The whole experience could be love is hard, both men and women have the ability to hurt you. but the right person will make it up to you and it is good to forgive them when they do. I personally think that would be a pretty cool direction for Thomas’s arc to take.

[cringeyvanillamilk]

It’s time to finally introduce the teammates Koli and Adva would have during the Royal Knight Selection Exam!

Koli’s Teammates: Fergus and Latrice.

Adva’s Teammates: Conny and Dara

Brief information on each one of them under the cut!

Fergus Fall

Oct 13 (Libra)

24 years old

Noble

Gravity magic

During the exam, Fergus mainly uses his gravity magic to levitate Koli and Latrice and immobilize his opponent by adding a large amount of pressure.

He is known for his friendly and confident personality. He’s very cooperative with others, unless you did something to make him upset. When he’s upset, it’s hard to work with him until you properly apologize.

He also happens to have terrible memory (which later bites him in the ass). 

He used to be very ignorant and selfish before joining the Crimson Lions. It was thanks to Fuegoleon that he learned how to clean up his act.

He was the one who falsely accused Koli for stealing his family’s heirloom. He mainly did it because he and his noble friends thought it would be “hilarious”. He changed for the better, but Koli isn’t so forgiving (and for good reasons).

Has a bad relationship with Koli because she would constantly screw him over during joint missions and doesn’t understand (remember) why. When he does find out why Koli is angry with him, he felt extremely guilty for his past actions. He later visits Koli’s village to apologize to her family and offer himself to help them in any way that he can. That is, until he was possessed by an elf.

Fergus as a child was a real try hard.

Fergus likes social gatherings, art, star gazing, and cats.

Fergus dislikes being treated poorly, being bored, and reading.

Main character arc: Taking responsibility and confronting the past.

Latrice Arrhenius

Feb 25 (Pisces)

33 years old

Noble

Acid magic

During the exam, Latrice mainly uses her acid magic to melt any solid obstacles (walls, shield, etc.) and create an acid shield. She can also use acid creation magic to create acid weapons or acid beetles.

Latrice looks intimidating and evil, but she’s really a kind-hearted person. She prefers to have peace in her relationships and can be very motherly. She mainly acts as the mediator in Koli’s team.

Latrice first joined the magic knights to help those in need, but ended up helping Gueldre's illegal activities even though she never approved of it. She didn’t want to be ostracized for not cooperating with the others, but felt a huge amount of regret for not speaking up.

She had to deal with the guilt of being an enabler and wanted to redeem herself by participating in the Royal Knight Selection Exam as a better person.

She is well known for her ‘evil goth’ aesthetic.

Even when she’s saying heartwarming compliments, she still looks very scary to others. Latrice doesn’t know how to control her facial expressions to appear more approachable.

Latrice’s family are very prideful of their nobility, but Latrice doesn’t care that much about it. She understands the privileges she has as a noble, but doesn’t use her class to belittle others.

Latrice likes tea, gothic novels, going out for a stroll, and taking care of others. 

Latrice dislikes conflict, peer pressure, and bright colors. 

Main character arc: Redeeming oneself and learning from the past. Redeeming the Purple Orcas.

Conny Barack

May 30 (Gemini)

21 years old

Commoner

Lightning magic

During the exam, Conny mainly uses his lightning magic as a means of transportation and sometimes offensive attacks. He uses lightning creation magic to conjure lightning skateboards that helps his team fly through the sky. He could also create a huge electrical charge through the ground which can make the area explode. He gained this ability during the exam when he felt extremely determined to win.

Looks intimidating but is actually a coward. He prefers not to get hurt or fight any opponents head on. People are too scared of Conny’s appearance to realize this side of him.

When he’s scowling at others, he’s actually panicking internally and  generally can’t control his facial expressions.

He first joined this competition to be more brave as a magic knight, but during the competition he was too anxious and scared to actually do anything helpful (at first).

Gaining confidence from Adva helped Conny become an essential member of the group. It was thanks to his mobile magic that they won a few matches.

In the Green Mantis, Conny usually runs errands, so he rarely gets into dangerous missions. His lightning skateboard is very handy with transportation. People get pretty scared of him when he’s delivery messages or doing mundane tasks. It usually makes Conny’s self esteem go even lower.

Conny likes dogs, writing in his journal, heroic stories, and friendly people.

Conny dislikes scary people/events, himself, and rejection.

Main character arc: Being mentally and emotionally strong. Being the hero he always idolized as a child.

Dara Celik

Sept 01 (Virgo)

19 years old

Noble

Steel magic

A very logical and by the book type of person. She's very confident in her plans and strategies, and doesn't take other member's advice or suggestions because she thinks she knows best. She constantly brushes off Adva's advice because she's a black bull and "foolish peasant". She can be very demanding and critical as a leader. She is, however, very respectful and dutiful towards those she admire (Captain Charlotte). 

Because she has high standards, it’s hard for people to meet them and gain her respect. As a result, Dara doesn’t have that many friends. 

Dara hates to admit it, but she always feels lonely and isolated.

Dara came from a noble family who pushed and provided Dara everything she needed to get ahead. As the next head of her family, Dara was raised to be the best of the best. Anything less than perfect is seen as a failure. Growing up this rigid environment impacted Dara’s mentality and personality.

During the exam, Dara provides defensive and offensive steel magic. She mainly uses a steel shield to protect Adva and Conny, and conjures multiple steel weapons to attack her opponents.

She joined the Royal Knight Selection Exam to gain merits and make a name for her noble house.

Dara was very adamant that she wasn’t going to follow Adva’s plan until the very last minute when they were about to lose the match.

Dara likes reading, studying, succeeding, and receiving praise from those she cares about.

Dara dislikes loneliness, chaos, and failure. 

Main character arc: Learning how to work with different types of people and learning how to lean on others.

[aion-rsa]

Midnight Mass Cast: Previous Credits From Hill House to Bly Manor, Legion & Sherlock

https://ift.tt/3zyXTIl

If you find yourself thinking ‘where have I seen that guy before?’ while watching a Mike Flanagan show or film, the answer may well be ‘in another Mike Flanagan show or film’. The horror writer-director is known for his rep company of actors, many of whom appear in multiple roles across various projects. Below is a spoiler-free rundown of the main players in the Flanagan gang’s new Netflix horror series Midnight Mass, about the ripples caused by the arrival of a mysterious priest in a remote North American island community. There’s also info on who they played in past collaborations, and a few other places you may have encountered them on screen. A good handful will additionally be seen in Flanagan’s next series The Midnight Club, on which filming is already complete, and which will be coming to Netflix next year. But first though, welcome to Crockett Island. Be not afraid…

Hamish Linklater – Father Paul

A newcomer to the Mike Flanagan acting family, Hamish Linklater is now fully ensconced so expect to see much more of him in future and rejoice, because he’s the absolute stand-out in Midnight Mass. Commanding, charismatic, intense, and utterly committed, this is a big performance that’ll be hard to forget. Previous to Father Paul, Linklater played Division 3 Agent Clark Debussy in trippy comic book series Legion, and IRS agent Larue Dollard in Fargo season three, both for Noah Hawley. Prior to that were recurring roles in sitcoms The Crazy Ones and The New Adventures of Old Christine, with Robin Williams and Julia Louis Dreyfus respectively, plus recent Amazon crime thriller Tell Me Your Secrets, with his partner Lily Rabe. Honestly though, Father Paul is the only role anybody’s going to be talking about for a good while yet.

Samantha Sloyan as Bev Keane

The villainous Bev Keane is another stand-out performance in Midnight Mass thanks to Samantha Sloyan, whom you might remember as Leigh Crain, the wife of novelist Steven Crain in 2019’s The Haunting of Hill House. Prior to that, she played Maddie’s neighbour Sarah in Mike Flanagan’s Hush, as well as the recurring roles of Jeannine Locke in Scandal, Dr. Penelope Blake in Grey’s Anatomy, and several appearances as Victoria in SEAL Team. Look out for her among the cast of Flanagan’s next Netflix series, The Midnight Club, which is already in post-production.

Kate Siegel as Erin Greene

Where would a Mike Flanagan project be without regular collaborator (and wife) writer-actor Kate Siegel? We barely have to know because Siegel is a bedrock of the Flanagan collective. In addition to the role of schoolteacher and former runaway Erin Greene in Midnight Mass, she played glove-wearing empath Theodora Craine in The Haunting of Hill House, 17th century Viola (who became the Lady in the Lake) in The Haunting of Bly Manor, Sally in Gerald’s Game, Jenny in Ouija: Origin of Evil, Maddie in Hush (which Siegel co-wrote) and Marisol in Oculus. Siegel wasn’t in Doctor Sleep, possibly because she and Flanagan welcomed their daughter Theodora to the world almost exactly to the day filming wrapped on The Shining sequel.

Zach Gilford as Riley Flynn

In Midnight Mass, Zach Gilford plays Riley Flynn, whose return to his Crockett Island family home coincides with the arrival of the mysterious new priest Father Paul. Gilford’s known to many as sensitive young quarterback Matt Saracen in Friday Night Lights, but he’s appeared in plenty since, recently including Greg in NBC’s Good Girls, Ben in LA’s Finest, a central role in The Purge: Anarchy and recurring parts in ABC series The Family and Off the Map. He’s also going to be back for Mike Flanagan’s next Netflix project The Midnight Club.

Annabeth Gish as Dr Sarah Gunning

Sarah Gunning is Crockett Island’s resident doctor who’s caring for her dementia-suffering elderly mother. She’s played by Annabeth Gish, who you’ll have seen in… well, loads of stuff, including The Haunting of Hill House in which she played housekeeper Mrs Dudley. Gish also played Jed Bartlet’s eldest daughter in The West Wing, Lt. Jarry in Sons of Anarchy season seven, the therapist in Pretty Little Liars, venture capitalist Diane Gould in season three of Halt and Catch Fire, and FBI agent Reyes in The X-Files revived seasons.

Read more

TV

Midnight Mass: Cast and Details for Netflix Series from Haunting of Hill House Team

By Joseph Baxter

Movies

Doctor Sleep Director Mike Flanagan on the Possibility of The Shining 3

By John Saavedra

Rahul Kohli as Sheriff Hassan

British actor Rahul Kohli plays Crockett Island lawman Sheriff Hassan, following up his role as the internet’s boyfriend, chef Owen in The Haunting of Bly Manor in 2020. Prior to that, Kohli was best known for playing Ravi Chakrabarti on iZombie, popping up in a couple of episodes of Supergirl and recently voicing The Scarecrow on animated series Harley Quinn. He’ll soon be heard as the voice of Egill in Zack Snyder’s Norse mythology-inspired anime Twilight of the Gods.

Kristin Lehman and Henry Thomas as Annie and Ed Flynn

Here’s a fun fact: Kristin Lehman and Henry Thomas, who play Riley Flynn’s parents in Midnight Mass, are only 10 years older than actor Zach Gilford in real life. Another fun, but extremely well-known fact is that Henry Thomas, who played Hugh Crain in The Haunting of Hill House and Henry Wingrave in The Haunting of Bly Manor, started out as young Elliott in E.T. Thomas is a regular Flanagan collaborator and has also popped up in Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, Ouija: Origin of Evil to name but a few. He recently had recurring roles on Stargirl and Better Things. Canadian actor Lehman has a similarly full back catalogue, featuring a great many TV and film roles from The Outer Limits to Altered Carbon and The Killing, as well as several TV directing credits.

Robert Longstreet as Joe Collie

Crockett Island’s town drunk Joe Collie is played by Robert Longstreet, who appeared opposite Annabeth Gish (see above) as caretaker Mr Dudley in The Haunting of Hill House, and in the Mike Flanagan-directed Doctor Sleep. You can also see him in horror sequel Halloween Kills and as Professor James in Aquaman, and he’s part of the cast of Mike Flanagan’s forthcoming Netflix horror series The Midnight Club.

Michael Trucco & Annarah Cymone as Wade and Leeza

Michael Trucco and Crystal Balint (not pictured) play Wade and Dolly Scarborough, parents of Leeza (above), Crockett Island’s sole devout teenager played by Annarah Cymone. Trucco will still be best recognised around these parts as Samuel Anders in Battlestar Galactica, but he’s done plenty more, including recurring roles in One Tree Hill, How I Met Your Mother and Netflix stoner comedy Disjointed. Balint has a similarly full back catalogue, with roles in Prison Break, The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco and recently Riverdale. She’ll be seen again in The Midnight Club too, along with Cymone, the actor who plays her daughter in Midnight Mass, whose TV debut this marks.

Louis Oliver, Igby Rigney and Rahul Abburi as Ooker, Warren and Ali

It’s unlikely you’ll recognise Louis Oliver, who plays teenage altar boy Ooker on Midnight Mass, from his first screen role as he’s grown up since then, but he was the young Sherlock Holmes in BBC episode ‘His Last Vow‘ (and also happens to be the son of Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat and producer Sue Vertue). Igby Rigney, who plays Riley’s younger brother Warren, played the young Jesse in the recent film F9: The Fast Saga and will also be appearing in The Midnight Club. Sheriff’s son Ali is Rahul Abburi’s second TV role after appearing on YouTube Red series Good Game.

Matt Biedel as Sturge

Crockett Island resident and Bev Keane’s right-hand man Sturge is played by Matt Biedel (a little unrecognisable under a full and healthy beard), who’ll also star in The Midnight Club next year. Biedel is probably best known for playing Daryl in Narcos: Mexico, Sgt. Dale Chedder in The Umbrella Academy and Dimi in Altered Carbon.

Alex Essoe

Another Mike Flanagan rep company member, popular horror movie regular Alex Essoe played Charlotte Wingrave, mother to Flora and Miles in The Haunting of Bly Manor, and the Flapper ghost in The Haunting of Hill House, as well as playing Wendy Torrance in Doctor Sleep, a role made famous by Shelley Duvall in The Shining.

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Midnight Mass comes to Netflix on Friday the 24th of September.

The post Midnight Mass Cast: Previous Credits From Hill House to Bly Manor, Legion & Sherlock appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[photolover82]

The Masked Singer Season 5 Episode 5 Recap: Group B Finals ft a plot twist (Commentary & Guesses)

Hi everyone! Welcome (or welcome back) to Ana’s Masked Singer recap, where I, Ana, recap every episode of The Masked Singer. So, this week, we are back to Group B with yet another wildcard and it is the last time we are gonna see the groups on their own since after Group A’s final, we got the Super Eight (yup, it’s 8 this time... much better still than last season’s format). Anyways, let’s get into it (this is gonna be super repetitive from last week guess wise but I am gonna try to keep it interesting and fresh for you guys, don’t you worry):

Alright, so usually I would save the wildcard for the end as like a surprise, but since the wildcard got eliminated, let’s introduce (and say goodbye to at the same time) to the:

Bulldog!! 🐶

Commentary: Ok, he sang Candy Girl by New Edition (which is really funny and ironic for a whole other thing, I’ll explain in a moment I swear) and um how do I say this nicely?... he’s a great dancer, but the singing is, what Randy Jackson would say, “a no from me dawg.” (Get it? Dawg.. bc the bullDOG... oh ok I will stop now). Anyways, yeah no, he was not good, I kind of expected this to happen honestly, so I am not surprised nor disappointed by any means. However, the person under this mask kinda did surprise me lol... even tho I kind of saw this coming.

He was revealed to be, in the biggest plot twist of the century, no voting, just Neicy Nash picking it:

*SURPRISE SHAWTY*

Nick Cannon, our very own host and Ken’s “daddy*”

*which is ironic because he legit just announced he was gonna have another baby

Ok, ok, did I get this right on my own? Nope, but Twitter helped me out so thank you Twitter. I did officially guess him before he was unmasked (but that’s because I had no other guesses sooo can I really count this a win? Hmmm... TBD... you guys let me know). Anyways, BOOM PLOT TWIST BABY, he’s back! Just in case you guys didn’t know (I don’t really talk about the judges or the host here because I watch for the contestants not for them and it would make this already long blog longer and we don’t want that): Nick had COVID so he couldn’t host the first few episodes of the show, but now he’s better and BOOM he’s the host again... Neicy Nash was taking over for him and now he’s back! So yeah this was just a transition for him to be back on the show, but like imma be honest: he might have been married to Mariah Carey but he don’t got any pipes like her, but he’s a good host so he should stick to that.

Anyways, NEXTTTT, let’s talk about the remaining 4 (which are legit the same freaking ones from last week):

1. Black Swan 🖤🦢

Commentary: So she sang Whitney Houston's How Will I Know and I swear she gets better and better each week like she murdered this song, it was absolutely amazing, my favorite performance of the night hands down. I really love Black Swan, she has one of the best voices on the show and I think either her or Robopine could win the entire season tbh.

I think this has to be (tripling down/final answer/insert buzzer sound here):

Jojo

Reasoning/Clues:

10-10-10= She has appeared on multiple singing competition shows (she did a lot of those shows as a kid), she was on America’s Most Talented Kids and was a guest judge on celebrity X Factor

Montana= get this... if you are around my age, this will surprise you. Did you guys know that Jojo was the original person that the producers of Hannah Montana wanted to play Hannah but she turned it down because she wanted to focus on her music

In her physical clue, she talks about a female singer who passed away at a young age that she was friends with= she was referring to fellow R&B singer Aaliyah

2. Crab 🦀

Commentary: He sang Give it to Me Baby by Rick James and it was a very strong performance, it almost took me aback the song choice. I didn’t expect him to go that hard in the beginning, the hip thrusts were a bit uncomfortable for me and he can’t dance for shit (I am sure it’s because he’s a bit older, not faulting him by any means), but it was really strong vocally speaking. He did actually loose his breathe and started hyperventilating under the mask and had to take a break to cool down (literally, because he was burning up under there), which honestly I hope he’s ok, I am not sure if he’s gonna last that long because of that hyperventilating (remember Mickey Rourke?), but tbh it would have been so unfair for him to go because he did an amazing job and I enjoyed his performance. He got soul.... crab’s got soul.

This has got to be (doubling down, like omg even the picture matches w the body type and everything, I am onto something here):

Bobby Brown

Reasoning/Clues:

Mom kept him in the straight and narrow and taught him how to cook= well, he has spoke about how his mother has gotten him away from the gangs and trouble around his neighborhood and into cooking (he even has a food line, hence the Mac and cheese), which also made him take up singing and thus his band New Edition (remember how I said Nick singing Candygirl by New Edition was ironic? Well this is why... because crab is Bobby Brown aka one of the members.... also Black Swan sang his ex wife’s song so yeah this can’t get any more ironic) was formed

Big Ben= Initals, BB aka Bobby Brown and also he had a show in 2005 called Being Bobby Brown and one of the episodes “Bobby Does London” he goes to London

Ribs= he has a line of BBQ sauces and seasonings called Bobby Brown Foods

3. Piglet 🐷

Commentary: This time, he went a bit softer with the song choice which I feel compliments his voice better, with 7 Years by Lukas Graham, which made Jenny, who apparently hasn’t listened to this song before (wtf Jenny, this song was all over the radio in like 2017 and you are like a radio host hun), cry. I mean it was really amazing and ballads actually suit him a lot more than super upbeat songs like last week’s Andy Grammar song and I really enjoyed it, I’ve heard that song a million times so no I didn’t cry but I still loved it. I do think Piglet will go super far, my guess is he will make it to semifinals.

I am a 100%, tripling down sure that this is:

Nick Lachey

Reasoning/Clues:

Genie Lamp= He did a cover of Aladdin’s A Whole New World with his ex Jessica Simpson on Disney Mania 3

The “spider” who made him a family man= referring to Vanessa Lachey, it was supposed to be this whole Charlotte’s Web thing not really referring anything specific about her that she’s a spider, she could have been another pig for all we care

Dog Tags= in the physical clue, there are 3 dog tags, which he has been seen wearing (you can Google those pics) and they represent his 3 kids which his wife gave him before they had their third kid, Phoenix (btw there’s a P on the bottom dog tag shown)

4. Chameleon

Commentary: Ok so he rapped again but this time the song was Hip Hop by Dead Prez (which I have felt like I have heard but I have no idea where) and I usually hate rappers on this show, but like he’s legit. What I mean by that is like he’s an actual rapper (well Bow Wow was too... but Bow Wow only went as far as he did because of his dancing, Chameleon is just pure rap talent) and his flow is insane. I am not a rap fan whatsoever but I can appreciate good rapping and that was good rapping, actually it was great rapping. Sure, he’s the weakest link of the four but he’s also the coolest one could argue.

Mark my words, this is as I said the last 2 types, again tripling down:

Wiz Khalifa

Reasoning/Clues:

His little Chameleon/lizard= he has an 8 year old son named Sebastian (he also says Cam in the package which is his real name... by him I mean Wiz.... his real name is Cameron)

Martial Arts= the dude likes Martial Arts and has been trained in it and Jiu Jitsu, he has mentioned it in interviews, has been spotted training in gyms, it’s no secret at this point that he likes that stuff

Hot wings= he has a wings place called HotBox by Wiz and he was also on Hot Ones (for those unfamiliar, it’s a YouTube show where celebs eat 10 super spicy chicken wings while answering questions) idk if that counts but I am also gonna say it

So that’s it, guys! I hope you enjoyed! Follow me on Twitter because I do live tweet the show, it’s the same username as here @photolover82 and I do some of these in video form on Tik Tok too if you wanna follow, it’s photolover820 (close enough lol). So yeah, see you guys in the next one! Byeeee! 👋🏼👋🏼

[gstqaobc]

The Royal Fascinator Friday, May 07, 2021

Janet DavisonRoyal Expert Hello, royal watchers and all those intrigued by what’s going on inside the House of Windsor. This is your biweekly dose of royal news and analysis.

A fleeting glimpse of family life

(Chris Floyd/Camera Press/Press Association via The Associated Press)

Glimpses of what family life is like for Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, are fleeting at best. The couple, who marked their 10th wedding anniversary the other day, are well-known for the priority they place on their three young children and protecting their privacy. But they opened up — a bit — on April 29, a decade to the day since their marriage at Westminster Abbey, posting a short video full of family fun at the beach, roasting marshmallows and taking a turn on the teeter-totter. “We are enormously grateful for the 10 years of support we have received in our lives as a family,” they wrote on Twitter in setting up the 39-second video, which has been viewed 1.2 million times. While the video focused on their family — Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — there is also the sense that William, 38, and Kate, 39, could be increasing the time they spend on royal work. That seems particularly possible given the fact that other senior members of the Royal Family — notably Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, as well as Prince Andrew — have stepped back from official duties. Royal author and biographer Penny Junor suspects William and Kate will try to balance the two. “Family is hugely important to them both — they know that security in a child’s early years is crucial — but they also recognize that royal work is important, particularly when the family is short of some key players,” Junor said via email. “So [it's] a difficult juggling act, but they seem a very secure couple with a very happy family life and an exceptionally good work ethic.” That work ethic has been questioned at times over the past decade, with media murmurings now and then about just how hard they were really working. But those questions have faded. For Kate in particular, there is an increased emphasis on issues she has made a priority, especially early child development. There is also a sense that Kate’s transition into the Royal Family has been a careful, gradual one, and stands in some contrast to how William’s mother, Diana, found the experience of joining the family. She later complained that she received little guidance or praise as she settled into her role. “Kate has grown in confidence over the last 10 years since she married William,” said Junor. “She has really settled into her role and established herself as a role model as a mother and royal wife.” As much as the video posted for their anniversary offers glimpses of their family enjoying time at play, there is also a sense that it was a carefully crafted impression they chose to share. “In publicising their happy family life, William and Kate follow a well-trodden royal path,” author Matthew Dennison wrote in The Telegraph. Dennison takes that path back two centuries, to public portrayals of family life for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who would go on to have nine children. “The vignettes of their life off-duty that the Cambridges do share with the public invariably depict them as a loving couple and devoted parents, casually dressed, without the trappings of royal status,” said Dennison. In that, Dennison sees “a new embodiment of a concept Victoria and Albert embraced with zeal 200 years ago, that led to [political analyst] Walter Bagehot’s well-known reflection: ‘A family on the throne is an interesting idea. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life.'" The happy family times weren’t the only video offering from William and Kate in recent days. They also launched a YouTube channel this week, with the first video focusing mainly on multiple glimpses of them on official duties over the years. That 25-second clip has garnered more than 2.4 million views since going live on Wednesday.

More of Mike

For a while now, there’s been a sense the Royal Family is undergoing a streamlining in its upper echelons when it comes to official duties. Some of it is thought to be part of a broader view of the future — and the idea that Prince Charles is ultimately looking to a smaller core group of royals to carry the House of Windsor forward when his time comes to follow his mother, Queen Elizabeth, on the throne. Some of it is a function of circumstance — Prince Harry and Meghan have stepped away from official duties, as has Prince Andrew, in the fallout from his disastrous interview with the BBC regarding his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. When it comes to considering which members of the family might step up and do more, the list has become relatively short: along with Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, there is Princess Anne, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, along with William and Kate. Nowhere on the list is Mike Tindall. And while there is nothing official to suggest the husband of Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara, is assuming a specific roster of new duties, it has been interesting to see him pop up more often recently. Tindall, 42, took part in an online chat regarding Parkinson’s disease with the Duchess of Gloucester that was posted the other day. Tindall’s father has Parkinson’s, and he’s been a longtime supporter of efforts to help those with the disease. In a recent interview with the BBC, where Tindall also spoke about the impact of Parkinson’s, he offered some family perspective on the recent death of Zara’s grandfather, Prince Philip. Tindall said Queen Elizabeth mourned her husband with bravery and was "amazing" at his funeral. A former England rugby player, Tindall is no stranger to media chatter. He’s part of a laddish podcast — The Good, the Bad & the Rugby — that has also become an unexpected source of some royal news in recent months. Word broke on the podcast late last year that he and Zara were expecting their third child. A few months later, Tindall shared the happy news that son Lucas had arrived, albeit not quite as they were expecting — with Zara giving birth on their bathroom floor. Happy birthday — to Louis, Charlotte and Archie

(Kate, Duchess of Cambridge via The Associated Press)

Royal social media channels have offered up a number of photos of late to mark the cluster of birthdays among younger members of the Royal Family in late April and early May. Public glimpses of the children are relatively rare, so the photos sometimes become news stories in and of themselves. Prince Louis turned three on April 23, and his elder sister, Charlotte, turned six on May 2. In both instances, and following what has become a tradition in their family, the birthdays were marked with photos taken by their mother, Kate. Louis was captured on his bike as he headed off for his first day of nursery school, and Charlotte’s photo was a close-up. Their cousin, Archie, turned two on May 6. His parents, Prince Harry and Meghan, posted a sepia-toned photo on their website of Archie shot from behind and holding a bunch of balloons. In a message on the website, Harry and Meghan urged people to “join us in advocating for vaccine equity on Archie’s birthday.”

Royally quotable

"It is clear that reconciliation, equality and mutual understanding cannot be taken for granted, and will require sustained fortitude and commitment."  

— Queen Elizabeth, in a

message marking the centenary of Northern Ireland.  

Royal reads

1.Prince Charles says the Royal Family was

“deeply moved”

by the way the military carried out their duties at the funeral for his father, Prince Philip. [ITV]

2. The Duke of Edinburgh’s death certificate recorded his cause of death as

“old age.”

[The Independent]

3. Prince Harry called for COVID-19 vaccines to be

"distributed to everyone everywhere"

at a star-studded charity concert in Los Angeles. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also appeared via video during the event. [BBC]

4. Meghan is publishing her first children’s picture book,

The Bench

, which is inspired by Harry and Archie. She also

won the remainder of her privacy claim

against a British newspaper group. [CBC, BBC]

5. Christopher Geidt served as Queen Elizabeth’s private secretary for a decade. Now the former army intelligence officer, who has been described as charming and suave,

has a new role

: adviser on ethical standards for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. [The Guardian]

Cheers!

I’m always happy to hear from you. Send your ideas, comments, feedback and notes to

royalfascinator@cbc.ca

. Problems with the newsletter? Please let me know about any typos, errors or glitches.

💜🙏🏻🙂✝️💟PG💟✝️🙂🙏🏻💜

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿

[thessaliah]

Imaginary Scramble: a lazy collection of plot bullet points underneath the shallow harem pandering

Disclaimer: I didn't like Imaginary Scramble, but I tend to dislike forced harem-like events like this one. Admittedly, I expected something better than this, after hearing it was like Ooku, an event I disliked and had enormous issues with but still had a plot relevance I can't deny with the appearance of Beast III/L. Imaginary Scramble, on the other hand, seems like it doesn't introduce anything new or relevant (other than “evil god” lore which shows they are about accurate to Lovecraft as Greek Pantheon was when Nasu turned them into the parts of an alien Robot Megazord). There are plot hints echoed in the event structure but none of them are new. It was like reinforcing what we already know in a very obnoxious and fanservice way. Most of these was covered with more class and effective parallels in Epic of Remnants (ok, fine, Agartha was an exception in the classy aspect) and previous Lostbelts or events. But I was asked about them a while ago. I'll cover that now, from what I remember. Just keep in mind this is my interpretation, and I haven't re-read (nor I plan to because I disliked the story)  so I could commit mistakes or bypass other hints:

First plotpoint: We're trapped in a Wolf Game.

Fate/Requiem collab event involved playing the game, where the objective was to find the "wolf" among the flock (that was Marie Alter in the end). This event was written by someone who wrote a VN version of the Wolf game. This event started to push that strongly from intro with Sion's phrase about how opposing foes might become crewmates to later chapter, with Raikou's warning about how the external forces are a distraction to internal enemies. It did that, but was it necessary? Not at all, when Person of Chaldea already blatantly warns you at least of a person you shouldn't trust in the Storm Border. But it reinforces maybe that the idea of an internal enemy is multilayered: 

The most obvious layer is the "traitor/suspicious person plot" brought up by the Chaldea Man, that seems to be, twist pending, Sherlock Holmes. But it doesn't stop there. Like the Wolf Game in Requiem and this event, there could be multiple players that end up being the wolves (Yang Guifei, Clytie=Van Gogh, Hokusai). Sion could very well another suspicious element, or Gran Cavallo, or Munierre, that aren't the Person of Chaldea's concern (if they knew of his presence or not). 

The other layer is the general plot: the enemy that was played as an "alien invasion" (an eternal force) seemed to be a mask for Chaldea own resources and members, the Crypters first, and then Olgamarie and possibly her father or their entire family who created Chaldea.

Second plotpoint: The enemy side is not a harmonious hive but rather everyone has their own agenda and will sabotage their peers which gives Chaldea a chance of victory.

In the event, there is an explanation of how some evil gods faction are in harmony and others are in conflict, and even those end up backstabbing each other for resources. The Foreigner in question also goes against them for her own goals. I've spoken of this before, unlike part 1 which had a hive with was 99% after the same goal and smoothly carried it out, part 2 is a cluster of shaky alliances between multiple players with agendas who are wary of each other. In part 1, Goetia was supportive of Tiamat's release, but in part 2, the Beasts regard each other as potential competition and rivals even with the professional contract between two of them. Not just among the Beasts, but also between the Apostles (for example, when Rasputin saves Kadoc after Douman injures him), and between Crypters (Beryl being the best example). And Crypters toward the "God" (Kirschtaria, Beryl, potentially Daybit) or the Apostles (Pepe vs Douman). This inner dispute was able to disrupt Beast VII's optimal manifestation and Kirschtaria's Human Order Reorganization far more than Chaldea's actions. It would have been better for this event to have existed before Atlantis and Olympus, because it seems superfluous to remind us the enemy has factions and agendas when the main story chapters already highlight them.

Third plotpoint: the nature of reality, dreams, and fiction, and how it connects to the plot.

The story takes place in the Imaginary Numbers Sea, but also within a dream inside it. Guda never left their bed and was asleep all the time as were everyone they saw. One of the most important lines is about how if a real object is in contact with a fictional world, it could absorb it and affect it. And vice-versa. While it could also be a hint about the potential connection of Chaldea's computer simulations, the lostbelts, the Tabula Rasa, Chaldeas, and Specimen E story. I think we don't have the full picture of it to affirm it as a certainty, what we can affirm is how this affected Kirschtaria's body after he 'dreamed' of those simulations where he went through the part 1 Singularities seven times over. He was the 'real' person in the fictional world.

Fourth plotpoint: a hero can't turn away from a pitiful person.

I put "person" instead of girl as the story does, because Guda has tried to help pitiful people regardless of their gender since Goredolf's rescue scene. This has to do with the "hint" of Mash's and Guda's resolution to save Olgamarie, like they tried to save those Foreigners. And in a "direct sequel", of Charlotte Corday in Atlantis and Europa (=Hera) in Olympus. It's possible a similar scene to what happened with Yang (appealing to what lingers of the human self) takes place. This said, I don't think the method of creation of the Foreigners is going to be similar to Beast VII dilemma. Abigail in Salem was a better foreshadowing with her background too of a sheltered miko girl.  The foreshadowing exists, but it was redundant like most of the things the event brought to the table.

Fifth point: Patchwork Servants (Phantoms)

Rather than a foreshadowing, this was a continuation of what was introduced in Shinjuku. The ability to mix or combine Saint Graphs, sometimes resulting in hybrids (Hessian-Lobo and Nemo) and sometimes with a more dominant base (the one providing the body) with sprinkles of others (Moriarty, Clytia = Van Gogh). Could this be related to the Person of Chaldea? Perhaps, but he wasn't called a Servant, and I think Carter and Raum, or Surtr and Sigurd cases will serve as a more solid set up. Also because Lev, Goetia, Solomon and Roman should have shared or similar Saint Graphs (like Enkidu and Kingu, or the Oda Sibling connection) to be proper patchwork Servants that look completely unrelated to each other.  I don't rule out the possibility, however, I'm looking at this more connected to Sherlock Holmes' secrets because was introduced in the chapter where James Moriarty faced him.

I still think he could be a Beast, and the opposite L or R to the Fox because she acknowledged him in a special way. Going by this event ‘three enemies of the same class’ it could work as: Yang (Holmes) who was on your side to sabotage the other two who were cooperating/sabotaging each other (Tamamo Vitch and U-Olga). Something like a lower scale of what happens in the main story with the Beasts.

[sagehaleyofficial]

HERE’S WHAT YOU MISSED THIS WEEK (3.4-3.10.20):

NEW MUSIC:

·         Blink-182’s Travis Barker, YUNGBLUD and Machine Gun Kelly shared that they are currently in the studio working on a brand new track for the latter’s upcoming pop-punk album, Tickets to My Downfall. Kelly also revealed other previous collaborators on his new project.

·         In a recent Instagram posts, Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba replied to a comment saying we can expect a new EP very soon. Skiba explained the three upcoming songs are mixed and mastered, and come out the day before their tour with Bad Religion.

·         Asking Alexandria revealed their sixth full-length record will be titled Like a House on Fire, which comes three years after their self-titled 2017 release and arrives on May 15th via Sumerian Records. The band also delighted fans with a single, “Antisocialist.”

·         FEVER 333 wrote, recorded and released a new song, “Presence is Strength,” in light of last Tuesday’s primary elections in 14 U.S. states. In addition to the song, lead singer Jason Aalon Butler also released a new solo track, “Bulletproof.”

·         Machine Gun Kelly gave us his new music video for “Why Are You Here” after it was leaked by a fan. The video is colorful, action-packed and centered around fruit, and Kelly went on to ask fans to stream the track as much as possible.

·         Boston Manor surprised fans with two new songs, “Ratking” and “On a High Ledge,” off of their upcoming third album Glue. The aforementioned album is set to release on May 1st via Pure Noise Records.

TOUR ANNOUNCEMENTS:

·         PVRIS dropped a new song, “Dead Weight,” as well as announced the “Use Me U.S. Tour” that will take place two months prior to their tour with Halsey this summer. The tour kicks off on May 8th in Columbus, Ohio, and finishes up on June 10th in Seattle.

·         Sadly, YUNGBLUD is the latest musician to join the list of performers that have canceled shows in Asia over coronavirus concerns. The singer took to his Instagram to announce the unfortunate news.

·         My Chemical Romance officially announced another European show in St. Petersburg, Russia, which offers another look at the skeletal figure from their previous “An Offering…” video. The gig takes place two days after their performance in Moscow.

·         Falling in Reverse canceled the final show of their tour on March 4th, which was set to take place in Sacramento, California. The band cited its reasoning to drummer Johnny Mele’s food poisoning and emergency surgery for Ronnie Radke’s girlfriend, WWE’s Paige.

·         Hayley Williams is celebrating the release of her debut solo album by heading out to Europe and across North America on a tour this summer. The vocalist gave her first single, “Simmer,” its live debut at Collina Strada’s show during NY Fashion Week in mid-February.

·         Armor for Sleep revealed the support for the whole tour, Never Loved, as well as the Cold Seas for all East Coast dates and Silence of You for all West Coast and Central dates. The tour celebrates the 15th anniversary of the 2005 album What to Do When You Are Dead.

·         SXSW’s website stated they have been forced to cancel this year’s festival by the City of Austin, Texas. The festival is exploring options to reschedule the event and is working to provide a virtual SXSW online experience as soon as possible for 2020 participants.

·         Post Malone fans expressed concern for his well-being after performance videos from the second leg of his Runaway Tour began making the rounds, where he appeared unwell. The rapper has since addressed the claims from the stage of his latest tour stop.

·         Halsey played her Bring Me the Horizon collaboration “Experiment on Me” from the Birds of Prey soundtrack live for the first time in Glasgow. Prior to this date, she had been closing her sets out with the songs “Ashley,” “Gasoline” and “Without Me.”

·         Scary Kids Scaring Kids are resuming celebrating 15 years of The City Sleeps in Flames at the end of June. The band has recruited the Classic Crime, Picturesque and Eidola as supporting acts for the new leg.

·         Four Chord Music Festival is returning for its seventh year this summer in Pittsburgh. In the first wave of announcements, the annual event has revealed Blink-182 and the Used will appear as headliners at the July 11th date.

·         Linkin Park is planning on celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album Hybrid Theory all year long, asking fans for contributions to help make the events they have planned special. The band members asked fans for submissions of videos, photos and souvenirs.

·         Jimmy Eat World announced the Criminal Energy Tour in support of their latest album Surviving, which will kick off on August 6th in Atlanta and end September 5th in Phoenix. They will be joined by the Front Bottoms, Turnover and Joyce Manor.

·         City and Colour declared he is playing a one-off show in Toronto for the 15th anniversary of his debut album Sometimes. The show will take place at the Budweiser Stage on August 7th, which marks the 10th time he has performed at the venue.

·         According to YourEDM, Coachella is being moved ahead six months to give more time to assess the coronavirus outbreak. Fans and local residents initially started a petition to have organizers cancel the event over the growing issue.

·         After revealing the 320 Project, Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman and 320 Changes Direction founder Talinda Bennington announced the first-ever 320 Fest, taking place on May 9th at L.A. Live. The free event strives to bring awareness to mental health.

OTHER NEWS:

·         The Hit Like a Girl drumming contest has returned for its ninth year of competition, which gives female drummers and percussionists the opportunity to show off their skills. Executive director of the organization, David Levine, first created the contest in 2011.

·         The Maine drummer Pat Kirch and his wife Shacara Nemetz announced that their first child, Charlotte Rose, was born on Leap Day. Kirch shared photos of their family’s newest member with a brief, loving caption.

·         A new app, Jadu, was revealed that allows users to interact with holograms of their favorite musicians and share them to social media accounts. Among the app’s familiar faces are Palaye Royale, Poppy, Vic Mensa and more.

·         Green Day announced they are auctioning a guitar on Reverb.com to raise funds for ALS research. The gesture is in memory of Kim Shattuck, leader of iconic 90s punk outfit, the Muffs.

·         At the very end of their tour in Sacramento, California, the Word Alive posted that they were robbed of nearly $10,000 worth of personal effects and merchandise. In response to the crime, the band later released a new merch item, a shirt, to cover the expenses.

·         According to Deadline, Machine Gun Kelly is set to star alongside Sam Worthington in the action western film The Last Son of Isaac LeMay, which begins production in Montana next month. The rapper’s role will see him as the leader of a gang of young outlaws.

·         Dance Gavin Dance announced they are creating a graphic novel called Robot’s Tale: A Dance Gavin Dance Graphic Novel, which will hit stores this May. The book is a collaboration with Z2 Comics, which has also worked with BABYMETAL, YUNGBLUD, Poppy and more.

·         Dr. Martens and Sanrio, the creators of Hello Kitty, revealed their new collaborative line is celebrating anniversaries for both of them after they released a similar collab a decade ago. The new collection includes multiple sets of boots, kids’ footwear, sandals and a satchel.

·         On March 7th, Twitter and Reddit users realized all of Fall Out Boy’s music videos the From Under the Cork Tree era have disappeared from YouTube. In attempting to access the links, viewers are told, “Video unavailable. This video has been removed by the user.”

___

Check in next Tuesday for more “Posi Talk with Sage Haley,” only at @sagehaleyofficial!

[yourboatholiday]

When the Sea Beckons, Arrive at US Virgin Islands Sailing

Let’s share a story first –

The James couple was planning to celebrate their 35th marriage anniversary in a unique and intimate manner. Sailing the US Virgin Islands with their immediate family members was their plan. These islands comprising three primary domains – St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix are known for their turquoise blue waters, endless powdery beaches, and tranquil atmosphere, (November through April are the best chartering months) in the Caribbean! 

Sounds interesting, does it not? Well, this summer, you too can sail with those westerlies in a crewed motor yacht and enjoy the water lapping up on your yacht as you anchor it in the US Virgin Islands! 

The islands to visit –

If you are sailing in the US Virgin Islands, then start from the main US island of St. Thomas. With the capital city of Charlotte Amalie, this town is known for its fine dining and impeccable fashion range. Pick up a souvenir for memory.

Next, sail east to the island of St. John which has the very famous Virgin Islands National Park along with 22 self-trekking courses and plenty of beaches. As you sail from St. Thomas, don’t forget to check out the beauty of Christmas cove, Thatch Bay, Lolik Islands, and Red Hook. (Magen’s Bay provides a place to anchor for the night).

Now, with the crewed motor yacht that you received from sailing in the US Virgin Islands, follow the trade winds and reach out to St. Croix. Once you reach and spend some time on the pristine beaches of St. Croix, sail around East End and set up a mooring at Salt Pond Bay. As you take a round trip, a stop at the bustling Cruz Bay is a must!

Why is sailing the best option in the US Virgin Islands?

There are multiple reasons that will make you fall in love with yachting in the US Virgin Islands. Those taking the air-route will miss out on these fronts!

The bays are replete with dead corals and the coves are tangled in mangrove roots, making the beaches a sight to behold.

Francis Bay, Maho Bay, and Caneel Bay are anchorages for an overnight stay. So from beach camping tonight parties to water activities (snorkeling), you are in for some gala time! Ample reason to choose sailing services in the US Virgin Islands.

Anchor your yacht at the bay and check out the ‘must-visit sites’ during the day. At night, enjoy a warm bath and a taste of local delicacies ruffled up by your crew.

For reserving your choicest crewed motor yacht, do make it a point to book in advance. The idea of a yacht charter in the US Virgin Islands can get an ideal form only if you have every aspect well planned. What are you waiting for? This fall – make Caribbean seas your destination! 

SEND NOW YOUR ENQUIRY FOR SAILING THE US VIRGIN ISLANDS:

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[hollidayishere]

Run. Hide. Fight.

    I am a student at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and on Tuesday April 30th, 2019 a student brought a gun to campus and opened fire in a classroom.

   Our school is in a suburb of Charlotte, so from time to time in surrounding areas there will be gun violence and the school will notify us that it doesn’t appear to be a threat. But at 5:50pm I received a text from the UNCC Alert System saying “Niner Alert: Shots, reported near kennedy. Run, Hide, Fight. Secure yourself immediately. Monitor your email.” Looking back now I can see whoever sent out the alert was obviously in panic just from the building’s name not being capitalized. I can only imagine having to be the one to send that message. Instead I was the one receiving it.

   I was off campus at a networking event when the text messages flooded everyone’s phones. Immediately everyone started calling and texting their families letting them know they were safe. Friends desperately texted each other trying to figure out if you were on or off campus. My mom called me in full panic.  The news was reporting it less than half an hour later.

   What was strange was my first reaction- and everyone’s first reaction. It wasn’t an emotional one, it wasn't “oh my god why is this happening?” or “I can’t believe this is happening.” My first thought was “It’s happening.”  

   There were rumors going around those of us off campus at the time that the students walking into an on campus concert got into a fight and that’s how the shooting happened. It wasn’t until later that we realized the truth as more stories came out. It wasn’t until I saw the library that I had spent hours and hours in studying, hanging out with my friends, and writing papers in, on the news with students coming out with their hands up as police run past them. I wasn’t until I saw the walkway that I take from Chick fil A to class on Tuesdays and Thursdays that I started to understand. And suddenly I saw the Kennedy building- a building I walked by that day after my last day of classes for the semester plastered across news headlines with the words “ACTIVE SHOOTER AT UNCC” that it hit me.

   The next 24 hours were filled with tweets and emails and text messages. Emails from professors asking for students just to email them back so that they would know they were okay. Texts from family members and friends and people checking in “Safe” on Facebook.  Tweets and videos showing doors barricaded that I’ve walked through. I recognized the tables in the library and the tables from study rooms being stacked in a panic on top of each other against doors as desperate protection. I saw a student’s white dress shirt covered in blood laying on the ground and I recognized the bricks underneath it and knew what building it was outside of.  I imagined over and over again the shooter walking into a classroom that I had classes in and firing.

   There was a tweet from a girl saying that her friend’s boyfriend wasn’t texting her back. She couldn’t find him and was worried about him and asking for information if anyone knew where he was. The next day I saw an article with his name spread across the headline “Riley Howell hailed as a hero for jumping on the shooter to save the lives of others.” He was dead. The kid was dead.

   Riley Howell and Ellis Parker will never walk across the stage at graduation. They will never have another summer vacation after finals week. Ellis will never celebrate his 21st birthday. Riley’s girlfriend will never receive a text saying, “I’m okay!” like I had the privilege of receiving from all my friends.

  Drew Pescaro, Sean DeHart, Rami Alarmatin, and Emily Haupt will never forget being shot in a classroom. They will never forget the feeling of seeing the shooter. They will never forget the ambulance ride or calling their families. They will never be able to walk into a classroom and not look for an exit door. They will never. forget.

 The students on campus will never forget where they went when they got the text message. What study room or classroom or building. The students who ran will never forget their heartbeat as they sprinted away as fast as they could. They will never walk the same path they ran and not think about how their backpacks slapped their back as they desperately tried to get off campus and the noises of helicopters and ambulances passing them, going in the other direction.

  As a student who didn’t experience the shooting first hand I have felt a lot of guilt about my strong reaction to it. I wasn’t there, I didn’t know anyone in the classroom, and all of my friends were okay. But  I’ve had nightmares every night. I had to stop looking at social media and reading articles and news headlines. When my mom would wake me up or open my door while I was sleeping I would wake up and scream. I’ve cried every day since then. My mind plays the same things over and over again. The gunman walking into a classroom of kids just trying to give their final presentations. The kid looking down and seeing his white shirt turn red. The students running and being in lock down for hours all over campus. A place where I never realized that I actually felt at home suddenly felt broken. I felt like something had been robbed from us. This caused me to realize that I shouldn’t feel guilty about my feelings about it. UNCC is all of our home. Every student and teacher that steps foot on to campus.

   The support of the students and faculty and the community has been incredible at our school. Emails constantly being sent out about counseling and wellness events, therapy dogs, a candle light vigil, a March for Our Lives rally, people offering rides and homes to those who didn’t want to stay on campus.

   But on May 1st, 2019 there was a shooting outside of a student apartment complex a mile from campus. The shooting was not in any way related to the shooting on campus at UNCC. But once again we got an email “UNC Charlotte is monitoring multiple reports of persons injured at University Village Apartments, which is located near main campus. Police officials do not believe there is a threat to campus but we are monitoring the situation.”  One person was killed, they were not a student. It felt like the world was ending.

  I keep up with a lot of mass shootings, and have strong views that I will not get into here. I went to March For Our Lives in D.C. after the shooting in Florida and while I was there I thought I was marching for my sister’s safety and the safety of all students. I was oblivious to the fact that all students would include me. I was marching for my life as well, and the lives of the students at UNCC.

   On that I will say this- seeing shootings in the news is nothing like having it happen at your own school. You don’t recognize the bricks underneath the blood soaked shirt. You have never walked past the building after finishing your last exam and feeling the sunshine on your face of your first minute of summer vacation. You will never see the places you once felt comfortable and be filled with tears and images of students running for their lives. You have never texted your loved ones and don’t know if it will be the last time or heard your mom’s panicked voice on the phone because she doesn’t know if you’re alive.  And I hope you never have to. But we did. And so have so many other students.

  My friend texted me a few hours after the shooting had happened and said “I just want to know why.” I responded with “It doesn’t matter why he did it. He did it. He did it easily. It happened.”

  I hope at some point it stops happening.

[riilsports]

Frederick Mallay, Anna Vygoder selected as RIIL Student-Athletes of the Year

     WARWICK, R.I. (July 1, 2020) – The Rhode Island Interscholastic League is pleased to announce that Frederick Mallay of Mt. Pleasant High School and Anna Vygoder of Lincoln High School have been selected as the 2019-20 RIIL Student-Athletes of the Year.

      The Honorable Monsignor Robert Newbold Scholarship Award winners are typically announced during the annual RIIL Awards Luncheon. However, with the luncheon cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the RIIL paid surprise visits to Mallay and Vygoder this week to inform them they had been chosen.

      The RIIL Student-Athlete of the Month program recognizes the outstanding efforts of student-athletes in Rhode Island high school athletic programs who excel in the classroom and during competition, participate in multiple school sponsored sports and demonstrate good citizenship in their school and community.

     First selected as the RIIL Male Student-Athlete of the Month for October, Frederick Mallay graduated with honors from Mt. Pleasant High School in June, where he competed in football and track for the Kilties and established himself among the best in the state in both. Leading the state in rushing yards, touchdowns and yards per carry last fall, he led Mt. Pleasant to an appearance in the 2019 Division II Super Bowl. Several months later, Mallay helped the track team to a third-place team finish at the 2020 RIIL Indoor State Championships, running a leg of the Kilties’ winning 4x200-meter dash, placing third in the 300-meter dash and sixth in the 55-meter dash. In addition, he was a member of the Mt. Pleasant chorus for three years, as well as a member of the math team and was involved in student government. Mallay will continue his academic and athletic career at the University of Rhode Island, where he has received a full football scholarship.

     Selected as the RIIL Female Student-Athlete of the Month for March, Anna Vygoder competed for the girls volleyball, girls swim and boys tennis teams at Lincoln High School. Last fall she earned All-Division honors in her first year playing for the volleyball team, then helped the swim team win the Division II Championship as a member of the Lions’ fourth-place 200 medley relay team and second-place 200 freestyle relay team. The team captain also helped Lincoln to a fourth-place finish at the State Swim Meet. Before the cancellation of the spring sports season, she was set to be a big contributor on the boys tennis team at No. 1 doubles, compiling a career doubles record of 24-3. A member of the National Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society and Business Honor Society, while also interning with the Lincoln Police Department, Vygoder will attend Rhode Island College, where she plans to compete for both the swim team and tennis team and will double major in criminal justice and psychology.

      Asked to share a piece of advice with other student-athletes around the state, Mallay and Vygoder had this to say:

      “I got this advice, being a lucky man,” Mallay said. “It’s all about preparation, how you prepare yourself. Just going into every task at hand, make sure you have a plan, make sure you have a vision. And even if others don’t see your vision, make sure you see it. As long as you see it and you know how to get there, just put in 100 percent effort and you can’t fail.”

    “I would say don’t worry as much. Just try to take it one day at a time,” was Vygoder’s advice. “Everything isn’t the end of the world, even though it does [feel like it sometimes]. Just stick with the right people. You have a lot of great kids throughout the state that are there for you. The bonds, they’re unbreakable, and if you ever have questions or need help, just ask your friends, ask your coaches. They’re like a family. They would always help.”

      The RIIL also congratulates the following students, who were recognized as RIIL Student-Athlete of the Month selections throughout the school year:

September: Nathan Silveira, Mt. Hope HS, and Berenice Saucedo, West Warwick HS.

October: Frederick Mallay, Mt. Pleasant HS, and Brianna Andrade, Shea HS.

November: Rocco Cillino, Westerly HS, and Marianna May, Rogers HS.

December: Kyle Moison, Lincoln HS, and Cheyenne Figueroa, Classical HS.

January: Cameron Erickson, North Providence HS, and Charlotte Simmons, North Kingstown HS.

February: Theodore Simmons, North Kingstown HS, and Alaynah Rubio, Davies Career & Technical HS.

March: Mason Clarke, Coventry HS, and Anna Vygoder, Lincoln HS

[anghraine]

I’ve grumped about it before, but:

I was reading some articles about the significance of the Fitzwilliam references in P&P, which I’ve always found fascinating, but they all assume that Darcy’s family pride comes from the Fitzwilliams. Most scholars do. Most fans do. But this is never stated or even really implied in the novel. 

The Fitzwilliam connection is important, absolutely. But there is literally no point at which anyone attributes his pride solely to his relationship to the Fitzwilliams.

Before anyone knows anything about his connections, Charlotte says:

One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.

Elizabeth, who later explicitly says she knows nothing of his connections, originally thinks:

She hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so great a man; and yet that he should look at her because he disliked her was still more strange. She could only imagine, however, at last, that she drew his notice because there was a something about her more wrong and reprehensible, according to his ideas of right, than in any other person present.

Mr Gardiner, although familiar with the Fitzwilliam connection by then, echoes her characterization of Darcy’s position in its own right:

“But perhaps he may be a little whimsical in his civilities,” replied her uncle. “Your great men often are.”  

Wickham says:

It has often led him to be liberal and generous,—to give his money freely, to display hospitality, to assist his tenants, and relieve the poor. Family pride, and filial pride, for he is very proud of what his father was, have done this. Not to appear to disgrace his family, to degenerate from the popular qualities, or lose the influence of the Pemberley House, is a powerful motive.

Even Lady Catherine, though predictably prioritizing the Fitzwilliams, persistently treats Darcy’s status as linked to both the Fitzwilliams and Darcys, not her side alone. For instance, when she’s congratulating herself on providing the appropriate retinue for Georgiana, she says:

Miss Darcy, the daughter of Mr Darcy, of Pemberley, and Lady Anne, could not have appeared with propriety in a different manner.

Consummate snob that she is, she sums up the respective roles of the families as:

My daughter and my nephew are formed for each other. They are descended, on the maternal side, from the same noble line; and, on the father’s, from respectable, honourable, and ancient—though untitled—families. Their fortune on both sides is splendid. They are destined for each other by the voice of every member of their respective houses.

i.e., the history and wealth of the de Bourghs and Darcys would be even better if they were titled, but that history and wealth still goes a long way. She doesn’t talk about them as country squires only raised to importance by intermarriage with the Fitzwilliams, but as great families—though inferior to hers—with similar resources and interests. 

As a sidenote, she also complains that a marriage to Elizabeth would be to someone “of inferior birth, of no importance in the world, and wholly unallied to the family!” The last is interesting, because “allied” could mean different things. The most obvious would be that she’s not related to the Fitzwilliams, by blood or (currently) marriage, since “alliance” is a frequent shorthand for “marriage.” 

And that’s possible, given that Darcy and Anne’s familial relationship is a plus in Fitzwilliam terms. But it could also more vaguely mean something like “associated,” personally or politically. That is, it could mean that it’s particularly offensive that Darcy and Anne’s marriage would be impeded by someone whose family has no association with the Fitzwilliam-de Bourgh-Darcys as well as being much lower-status. (If the families share anything like their RL counterparts’ predilections, it would be true.)

Anyway. Going back to the “great man” description that Elizabeth and Mr Gardiner use: that was a fairly widespread way of referring to the upper class of influential, high-status men, as “great lady” was for women (Lady Catherine is repeatedly described this way). It bypassed quibbles around titles and precedence and other signifiers to get straight at what ultimately defined that class: inheritable power and property. Elizabeth doesn’t need to know that Darcy’s uncle is an earl to realize that he belongs to that class. The fact that he has inherited a “very large property” bringing in ten thousand a-year from a long line of previous heirs makes it apparent.

The number is significant. According to G. E. Mingay's English Landed Society in the Eighteenth Century, the propertied classes in the eighteenth century could be essentially divided between great landowners and lesser landowners. In the 1790s, when P&P was written, lesser landowners had incomes ranging from about five hundred to five thousand a-year, depending on their stature (gentlemen without qualifiers: about £500-1000 p/a; squires: £1,000-3,000 p/a; wealthy gentry: £3,000-5,000 p/a). Great landowners formed an aristocracy of families with a) around 10,000 acres of land or more, b) a manor-house, c) a house in town, and d) incomes usually ranging between £5,000 and £50,000 p/a. The average income for that group was £10,000 p/a.

This is Darcy, point-for-point. In eighteenth-century terms, Darcy isn’t a genteel squire who just happens to have a really big income. He’s a great man with the “splendid” fortune you could expect of one. We hear about the house in town. We hear about Pemberley as a “mansion,” old enough that its period is a matter of debate between the Gardiners. We hear that Pemberley comprises multiple estates, with a ten-mile round park that would correspond to well over 10,000 acres. Obviously we hear about that “clear” £10,000 p/a. Austen is careful to lay all of it out.

And none of that has anything to do with the Fitzwilliams.

The sole attribution of Darcy’s elevated position to the Fitzwilliams tends to also undercut one of the most important moments in the book, when Elizabeth tells Lady Catherine that she is Darcy’s equal.

To be clear, her position is far from egalitarian; she’s not his equal because of a common humanity or whatnot, but because of her own birth as a lady. But this is the same woman who thought Darcy so much a great man that she couldn’t even imagine him being interested in her. Her ultimate insistence that any gentleman’s daughter is a social equal to any gentleman is not an objective sociological fact, but a drastic change from her earlier position—when she did not know he was the nephew and grandson of earls.

That’s also around the time that Elizabeth turns out to have felt “offended by the neglect” of Darcy. She couldn’t imagine him being interested in her, but she sure wanted him to be.

And I think that’s important to this later scene. Because the first one is ... uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable enough at the time, but would be a hell of a lot more when they’re on the point of marriage.

The reversal is particularly important, IMO, because Elizabeth is so eager for a different sort of society than she’s experienced at Longbourn. But Austen is careful to frame it in terms of quality of life, in terms of marrying away rather than up. She really, really does not want Elizabeth looking—or worse, feeling—like a social-climber.

And we don’t want it either. Sure, Mr Bennet talks of her needing a husband she looks up to as a superior. But she doesn’t, personally or socially. She can’t, for a proper resolution. Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship is about balance. The social gap worked as an obstacle to their marriage, but it can’t be a feature of their marriage.

And—okay, there’s a lot more going on, too. But I think Elizabeth’s reversal with regard to Darcy’s position in society is important. And reducing that position to the Fitzwilliam connection cuts out the reversal altogether.

[logh-icebergs]

Episode 29: One Narrow Thread

Early 798/489. Adrian Rubinsky meets with Bishop Degsby of the Earth Cult to discuss his plans to aid Reinhard’s forces in capturing Iserlohn and then assassinate Reinhard to seize power for Phezzan. Degsby points out that under this scheme the Earth Cult’s investment in setting up a puppet government on Heinessen would be a wasted resource, but Rubinsky plans to use his financial control over the Alliance government to manipulate them into backing Yang into a corner. Degsby reminds Rubinsky that he owes the Grand Archbishop for his current position and had better tread carefully. Rubinsky sends his minion Kesserling to Remschild to propose a scheme that will ensure that the Empire and Alliance continue to fight each other, while Admiral Kempf attempts to perfectly sync twelve warp engines to avoid trapping all of Geiersberg fortress in null space. ….....Meanwhile back in the actual show we’ve been watching, Yang loses at 3D chess, Julian attempts to drink wine, and Hilda visits Kircheis’s grave.

A Quick Language Rant

“Words are like icebergs floating on the ocean called ‘heart.’” This quote provides the guiding philosophy for this project: LoGH is a text that uses the nuances of language, in concert with facial expressions, body language, symbolism, etc., to point the viewer to deeper layers of meaning in the story being told. As a close reading of the queer narratives in LoGH, this blog attempts to tease out and expose these slightly hidden layers. But…..we are writing in English. You’re reading this in English. The gifs we reference have English subtitles and no sound. And uhh, how do I put this diplomatically…

Every English translation of LoGH sucks.

...Okay that’s a bit harsh. Translation is fucking hard, especially of such a complicated work, and everyone who’s put hours and hours and hours into bringing LoGH to the English-speaking world deserves a hell of a lot of gratitude and credit. We never would have been able to watch the show without them. But. When we get into the nitty-gritty details of analyzing a scene, the fact that often none of the existing translations matches the nuance of the Japanese gets in the way. I’d much rather be plunging into yelling at Cazellnu right now than writing this note, but the conversation between Cazellnu and Yang in this episode is a mess in both sets of subtitles that I have access to, so here we are.

Let’s start with the fansubs, on the left—notice a couple whole clauses that aren’t in the official Hidive subs at all? Care to guess where they come from? That’s right, they come directly from the novels, as does the word “perfect” in Yang’s “perfect parent” line. Hey, I totally get it, fansubbers, the novels are a fantastic resource for figuring out the kanji or double-checking words that are hard to hear. But the dialogue in the anime is not in fact lifted verbatim from the novels; and while not every difference is super meaningful, we are interested in the intentional choices made by the anime staff, and that makes deviation from the books especially ripe for analysis.

The official subs, which are generally quite reliable, are also unsatisfying in this scene. As I’ll discuss below, the word that Yang uses replacing the novel’s “perfect” is 人並みに, hitonami ni, an adverb meaning “like others/as much as anyone else.” The official sub translation makes it sound more like “under normal circumstances” than “like normal people,” and while that’s not a life-altering difference, the nuance is relevant to my analysis. And they got the grammar of the sentence in the last gif here backwards; indeed, neither subtitle translation understood what I believe Yang is saying in those lines, but the English translation of the novel agrees with my interpretation. (Not that the novels don’t have their own translation problems, which is outside the scope of this blog but also frustrating…)

Phew. What all of this means is that before we can even start writing a post, we have to go through a whole process of triangulating all of the slightly different translations of any scene we want to analyze in detail, making sure that we understand the nuances of the language and can convey them accurately. (Not to mention checking the original LD version to make sure no significant changes were made to the animation in the DVD remaster!) In the case of the conversation between Yang and Cazellnu, the subtitles used in this post are my own synthesis based on the fansubs (modified to reflect the actual anime dialogue) and the translation in the novel (where I believe it to be more accurate).

With that out of the way, we are now ready to plunge into the main battle of this episode, so buckle up for....

Yang vs. Cazellnu!

That’s right, we’ve seen Yang battle Imperial fleets to improbable stalemates at Astate and Amlitzer, outsmart the commanders of Iserlohn to capture it from the inside, and annihilate one of his own nation’s fleets on his way to defeating the military coup; but how does Yang the Magician handle the most intimidating of all battles: having dinner with a married friend?? I’ve said before that Icebergs is not a relationship advice column, and nor is it, usually, a tips and tricks guide for dealing with pressure from peers to conform to heteronormative expectations, but hey—when we have the chance to learn from a Master Tactician, we should take it, right?

...Hmm.

...Well in any case, what’s fascinating and important about this conversation is that it does have the back-and-forth tension of a battle, with multiple strikes and counterstrikes: Yang employs a wide range of different strategies tactics to parry the various arguments that Cazellnu makes in his quest to convince Yang of his duty to marry. This conversation is key to understanding both Yang’s attitude toward marriage and family, and the way that Cazellnu often speaks explicitly in the voice of the normative pressures society puts on people to fit into the “married with kids” box. The dynamics of the entire interaction set Yang and Cazellnu up as opponents, and the sum total of Yang’s resistance to all of Cazellnu’s different angles of attack paints a clear picture of his current reluctance to see himself in the role of husband or father.

Yang does indeed provide the first opening to be scolded about marriage, when he takes offense at Charlotte using the suffix -ojichama (an affectionate “uncle”) in contrast to -oniichama, “big brother,” for Julian. Keep this moment in mind; I’ll be coming back to it in…*checks calendar* about eight months.

Immediately Cazellnu frames marriage as a societal obligation, and failure to marry as a “luxury.” Aww Cazellnu you romantic you.

In the previous episode we saw Mittermeyer pushed toward a normative marriage by subtle, insidious pressures—his upbringing within the context of a traditional family and the (possibly unspoken) expectations from his parents that he’d follow that model; the preponderance of visible heterosexual romance in his society. We’ve seen Yang swept along passively into romantic situations in which he was obviously uncomfortable. But Cazellnu’s line right here is the first time that a character has actually given voice to the institutional heteronormativity of society, actually advocated for it in so many words, actually leveraged it to criticize someone’s deviation from that norm.

Bantering with a friend in the abstract is way less uncomfortable for Yang than being thrust directly into a potentially romantic/sexual situation—unlike when Lapp pushed him to dance with Jessica or when Jessica threw herself at him, here there is no immediate danger, no specific person to reject or offend. This is an intellectual battlefield. And so Yang does fight back actively, starting with Tactic #1: appeal to historical precedent.

Note that while in his initial grumbling Yang said he wanted to be called oniichama while *still* a bachelor, now that he’s talking in the abstract rather than about himself he’s taking the even stronger stance that people can be productive members of society while *never* getting married. This line of argument makes sense; history is where Yang feels like an authority, and even the syntax of his “shall I make you a list?” reinforces his expertise here.

If Cazellnu’s thesis were that marrying is the only way to be an asset to society, Yang pointing out the existence of plenty of queer people—er sorry, “lifelong bachelors”—making contributions throughout history would be an effective rebuttal. (No, I don’t think that Yang is consciously talking about queerness, but yes I do think the creators are, through him.) But Cazellnu’s thesis is that participating in marriage and reproduction is an obligation on top of whatever other accomplishments someone might have, and Yang bringing up historical precedent opens the door to Cazellnu pointing out that not only is marriage the norm right now, but it has been for much of history. 

In case you think I’m just being overly cute with all the battle analogies, it comes directly from the source material: The narration in the novel here contains lines like “And the point goes to Cazellnu, Julian thought” and “Yang didn’t attempt another counterstrike.”

In the anime, however, Yang does attempt one more counterstrike here, which is important because it’s the closest he gets to just saying “but I don’t want to.” 

For Tactic #2, Yang complains that he didn’t pass thirty on purpose; in other words, Cazellnu may think he’s at an age where he ought to be married, but on the inside he doesn’t feel ready for that role. In case there was any suspense about Julian’s feelings on the matter, he is in no rush for Yang to decide he has to get married—keep this line in mind too, as I’ll be coming back to it in a mere six months.

Cazellnu switches the issue from Yang’s feelings to his outward appearance—a subtle but symbolic shift. If only Yang would suck it up and play the proper role, he would become (outwardly at least) a true adult. The issue of Yang’s desires is casually brushed aside.

This entire exchange is good-natured banter—Cazellnu’s intention here, at least on the surface, is to tease Yang, not to seriously condemn him for his choices. But the framework in which people joke is telling; and Cazellnu’s teasing is framed around the assertion that Yang is selfish for neglecting his duty to play the part of husband. Stage one of the battle is interrupted at this point for dinner, and for stage two, during a 3D chess match after dinner, Cazellnu’s joking tone is gone. The topic at issue this time is not just marriage but also parenting; when Cazellnu casually (but correctly) criticizes Yang’s parenting skills, Yang defends himself with Tactic #3: appeal to special circumstances.

Notice that Julian is paralleled to Hortence here in the role of caretaker to the girls. He’s simultaneously being included by implication in the younger generation—as Cazellnu and Yang discuss Yang’s pseudo-parental role in his life—and acting as an adult vis-à-vis the younger kids. At the risk of becoming a broken record...keep this moment in mind, as I’ll be coming back to it in the future.

The key to what Yang’s trying to say here is that adverb I mentioned earlier, hitonami ni, which is a deviation from the dialogue in the novel and therefore something the anime staff thought about explicitly. Hitonami is an adjective meaning average or ordinary (literally “in line with people”), so the adverb form means “like other/most people.” Yang is situating himself as fundamentally outside of the norms that Cazellnu is so fond of imposing: He couldn’t be expected to be a parent like normal people, because he didn’t grow up with a model of a traditional family and because he’s single.

His upbringing is in the past and outside his control; but being single is (on the surface) a choice that he has made—between the tables full of love letters, and Jessica being none too subtle about her continued interest, and everyone on all of Iserlohn knowing that Frederica has a thing for him, it’s always been clear that he’d have options if he were interested. It’s not that his point here doesn’t stand—I agree, the fact that he’s a bachelor who lives alone and has zero interest in or experience with kids did make him a strange choice for Julian’s guardian. But tactically, within this conversation, this was a huge blunder: It opens the door right back up for Cazellnu to continue the marriage guilt trip that was interrupted earlier. And sure enough...

This is such an obvious error that it seems revealing; in Yang’s subconscious, when he’s thinking about why he can’t be expected to be a parent “like most people,” his status as single might feel like something more innate about himself than a temporary circumstance or choice. His shock here is overdone considering the earlier banter. Tactic #4, blaming the ongoing war, is presumably one he’s used before, as Cazellnu is expecting it and doesn’t bother engaging with it directly at all, instead…

...finally delivering his thesis statement on marriage and reproduction clearly. And well, it’s a doozy.

A human being’s greatest duty is to bring forth new life. Damn Cazellnu. The use of the word “duty” (Japanese: 義務, gimu) echoes what Poplan started to say to Konev and Julian about a man’s “duty” to have sex with women; within the first three episodes of the season we’ve had two different characters explicitly describe heterosexual sex and/or reproduction as an obligation. (And throw in the slightly more coded discussion of Mittermeyer’s parents’ “expectations” about his role in society that preface the depiction of his marriage, as well as Reuental’s discussion of his own parents’ unhealthy and unromantic marriage that we haven’t even had time to talk about yet…..hmmmm is it possible that a theme is being established here?)

I can’t emphasize the importance of these lines enough: This is not passive, silent, subtle heteronormativity. This is Cazellnu voicing a view of the main purpose of human life that positions essentially all queerness as not just unusual or different, but specifically a deviation from the greatest duty of human beings. He is not joking. He’s not bantering. This is his worldview.

...And it pisses Yang off. Leaning forward in his seat, setting his brandy glass down with a noticeable thud, furrowing his eyebrows—this is more visibly angry body language than we usually see from Yang. As for the actual content of Tactic #5, well, as much as I love Yang I have to accuse him of a bit of an obnoxious-Reddit-poster argument style here, completely avoiding what Cazellnu actually said and deflecting the topic to something he’d rather be arguing about instead.

Yang: “Yo can we please go back to talking about how much war sucks? I thought I signed up to be on an anti-war show, not to be lectured at about heteronormative social structures…”

The best I can do to relate this reply to what Cazellnu said is that Yang’s either implying that his own record of causing death as a commander morally disqualifies him from being worthy of participating in the whole creation of new life thing, or possibly questioning the wisdom of bringing new life into the middle of a war. Cazellnu seems to take it to be about Yang’s sins, as he counters with—somehow—an even more obnoxious view of the point of reproduction. 

“Okay little Timmy, I’ve caused the deaths of approximately three million soldiers in war, so just be a good boy and go do enough good to compensate for that so Daddy doesn’t go to hell, okay?”

Yang is done with this crap by now, and the next gif is a tactical three-for-one: First he points out that for this specific point of Cazellnu’s, about passing along one’s unfinished ambitions to the next generation, there’s no need for one’s protégés to be biological children (#6); then without giving Cazellnu time to respond (perhaps by pointing out that this doesn’t address his original argument about biological imperative to create life), he adds that this whole discussion is moot in the case that there isn’t unfinished ambition to pass along in the first place—again positioning himself as outside the scope of Cazellnu’s arguments (#7); and finally…

...the ultimate maneuver to win any difficult argument: Tactic #8: get up to go pee.

If you’re keeping score, I’d say that the great undefeated Admiral Yang loses this battle badly. Cazellnu is constantly a step ahead, turning Yang’s arguments back around on him and taking advantage of every opening. Yang is a scholar and a brilliant logical thinker, but you can’t fight convictions like “humans have a duty to reproduce” or “being a bachelor is anti-social behavior” with the kind of logic that Yang is practiced in. Heteronormativity is, for Yang, a more difficult opponent than the Imperial army.

Julian

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The first episode of season two was all about Julian beginning to grow up as a soldier; this episode forms the natural complement by focusing on Julian’s more domestic roles. Back when Julian was first introduced I mentioned that he’s one of the only male characters who embraces more traditionally feminine roles, and in this episode that side of his personality is emphasized—from happily puttering around the kitchen doing laundry and cooking dinner, to helping look after Charlotte and her little sister (henceforth known as Demon Child Cazellnu, D.C. for short, until someone gives me a better explanation for her namelessness…). 

Did I say Yang vs. Cazellnu is the main battle of this episode? I should have said it’s second after the epic clash of Gensui vs. the Roomba.

Fun fact: 1600 years in the future everyone has finally gotten over being pedantic about calling it “Frankenstein’s monster”!

It’s not played up in the anime except in background shots like this, but from Julian’s diary it’s clear that, along with Yang, Schenkopp, Poplan, etc., Hortence also serves as a role model and mentor for Julian—he speaks admirably of her ability to quickly turn her new Iserlohn quarters into a true home, and eagerly seeks out new cooking ideas and tips from her.

Julian is by nature a caretaker and nurturer; it’s as much a part of his identity as his urge to fight to protect the things he cares about. I can’t express how fucking cool it is that one of the main protagonists of this show is a teenaged boy who’s completely comfortable putting on an apron and making stew while the washing machine whirs in the background, who looks up to both soldiers and housewives, who spends the evening playing with two little girls until they fall asleep on his lap. The landscape of fiction is generally not filled with men who are defined by empathy and nurturing. It’s so badass and so important that Julian embraces these sides of himself, without feeling the need to somehow reject or outgrow them in order to become a Real Man.™

.....Okay Julian yes you are a badass but please dear god learn how to hold a wine glass.

...and Yang

Icebergs Canon: The reason Julian’s suit and Yang’s pajamas are the exact same color is not the animators being lazy, it’s that both items were gifts from Hortence, who clearly bought them at the same store.

Oooh what is this? Actual backstory about what the fuck Julian is even doing in Yang’s life? One keyword of the storytelling style of LoGH is “patience,” and the show has taken its sweet time offering any real explanation of their whole deal. From episode 3 we know that Yang is Julian’s “guardian,” that Julian’s father was also a soldier, and that the military has paid for Julian’s schooling, but in typical LoGH fashion we’re forced to try to piece the details together ourselves. Here, finally, we’re given a few more snippets: Julian was sent to live with Yang four years ago, when he was twelve, and the person who had the brilliant idea to entrust Yang with a child was none other than…

This is the one skirmish of their battle in which Yang is clearly victorious. Even Cazellnu can’t come up with a defense of this decision. Seriously, Cazellnu…..why.

Poor baffled Yang has absolutely no clue what to do with this small human who showed up at his house and immediately started cleaning up. I love that Yang appears to have repeatedly gotten frustrated while writing something and strewn crumpled drafts all over the room...wtf Yang.

This flashback, which takes place earlier in the episode, complements and reinforces Yang and Cazellnu’s discussion of Yang’s total lack of parental instincts: Although he’s come to care about Julian a lot, he had no enthusiasm for this arrangement when Cazellnu first foisted it upon him. He’s Julian’s guardian not because he wanted a child, but because Cazellnu, tasked with managing supplies of all kinds, had a surplus of war orphans needing housing and pressured his friend into taking one in.

Back in the present, Julian continues to stress about Yang’s disapproval of his military career, leading to my third-favorite failure of the Yang-Bechdel Test:

Julian’s main reaction to his promotion is to wonder how Yang will react; his pout shows that, doing a bit of Icebergs-style analysis himself, he reads between the lines of Frederica’s words to understand that Yang did not act pleased.

This tension is underscored again when Yang, rather than toasting to Julian’s promotion, toasts his safe return. Geez Yang, kinda passive aggressive.

This episode is all set-up, laying out clearly the main themes of Julian’s arc that will continue to develop through the season: 1) He’s awkwardly between child and adult—offered wine but unable to drink it smoothly; playing together with the girls but in a caretaker role; promoted for his heroics in battle but insecure about Yang’s reaction. And 2) his dynamic with Yang is evolving, with question marks about how exactly they’ll relate as he grows up and about how Yang will deal with the reality of his becoming a soldier.

And of course, we’ll be keeping an eye on Gensui’s evolving dynamic with the Roomba as well.

Stray Tidbits

This breathtaking scene in which Hilda visits Kircheis’s grave is one of the first key signs of how seriously the show takes Reinhard’s grief and the hole that Kircheis left in his life going forward. Naturally we’ll be coming back to this moment in the future, so for now I’ll just say, god damn, I have chills.

Worldbuilding alert! Yang’s fleet may be currently stationed on Iserlohn, but lest we forget that it was originally constructed by the Empire, the incredibly fancy paneling of the living quarters is here to remind us. The animators really live and breathe this world and it shows in these details.

I’d be off-brand if I didn’t comment on Hortence Cazellnu finally getting more than a few frames of screen time; but other than being a cheerful hostess and more or less actually knowing how to hold a wine glass (unlike anyone else at the table—I made fun of Julian but in fact he’s just imitating Yang and Cazellnu!), she remains an enigma. Patience, the Hortence Discourse will come.

And then there’s Phezzan, back on its anime bullshit... Seriously wtf is this guy and what’s wrong with his eyes?? I’m scared.