#not to mention the scene right before that one where Herbert is just

[apotheosisend]

Herbert West is a violent beast until Dan is near him and then he’s just a sopping wet little baby, like that one scene in bride of re-animator where Herbert kills a cop with Heart Attack Juice but then instantly goes whiny mode “ 🥺🥺🥺 Dan noooo it wasn’t my faultttt Daaaannnn” as soon as he’s confronted

[machinesonix]

Somehow I have made it this long without realizing that none of the screen adoptions of Dune so much as mention the Butlerian Jihad. Like I guess it's burned into my brain so hard I sort of assumed it was part and parcel of the universe. Don't get me wrong, I think that's probably the first thing you learn if you want to dive deeper into the setting, but it still hits me like if the LotR movies showed us the big flaming eyeball tower and was like ‘Oh, that's why there are bad things, but don't worry, that's just background stuff.’ Yeah, you can understand the movie, but if the story is just like Frodo vs. The Witch King you are losing out on any of the conversation about the corruptive allure of power or theological undertones. So without further ado let's pretend this is for the benefit of interested new fans roped in by the movies and not part of my desperate attempt to silence the howling specters of literary analysis that live in my blood.

The Butlerian Jihad is an event set ~10k years prior to the events of Dune in which humanity won their freedom from the machines that they had enslaved themselves to. As a result, it is a religious taboo to create a machine that thinks like a human. That's frankly the bulk of the information presented by Frank Herbert in the text without dipping into books 7+, but whether or not those are canon is frankly an enormous can of worms, which really makes sense when you consider the size of the worms. But boy howdy, Frank loved his subtext and parallelism. Everyone has a foil character, every theme is hit from multiple angles, and Villinueve has been doing an excellent job of capturing a lot of that in repeated imagery and dialogue. The Butlerian Jihad happens off camera, but it's themes are absolutely critical to the big picture.

The Butlerian Jihad was a holy war. It was not merely a rebellion against the machines, it was a crusade against them. The prohibition against thinking machines isn't just a law, it's in the pan-universal Bible. Absolute psychopath Pieter DeVries himself claps back at the Baron for insinuating he might have a use for a computer, and this is a guy who has been hired specifically for his preternatural absence of morals. Let's hold onto that idea for a minute. 

Probably my favorite scene in the first book is the one where planetologist Liet-Kynes is dying out in the desert. As the last of his strength fades to dehydration he hallucinates conversations he had with his father concerning terraforming Arakkis for human habitability. He's told that the means are not complicated. There is already enough water on the planet, the Little Makers just have it all trapped deep underground as part of the sandworm reproductive cycle. You just need to isolate enough water to start irrigating plant life, and once it's established that'll keep the water on the surface on its own. The hard part is making sure everyone on the planet is environmentally conscious enough to foster a developing ecosystem. Nobody can drink any of that water while it's being collected, because they'll just introduce it back into the water cycle where the Little Makers are. It's going to take generations, so that sort of water discipline is going to have to go above and beyond a social convention. People need to be willing to die before they'll take a sip and compromise the plan. Ghost Dad Kynes concludes that the only mechanism in the human experience to enforce this consensus is religion. 

In the context of this whole parallelism thing, you have probably noticed that the Butlerian Jihad is not the only holy war in the narrative. Paul sees a new jihad as the only way of creating a future where humans can flourish. Now you might be saying ‘Wait now, Machines. I thought the point of Paul’s holy war was to avenge Leto and disempower established power structures by taking away the control of the spice!’ And you’d be right. The thing is, without getting into spoiler territory, Dune Messiah is not going to be about how everything just gets so much better now that Paul has destroyed the economy, government, and untold billions of human lives. This isn’t the endgame. Dude can see the future and the way he does it involves looking into the past. Paul lives in a society defined by a holy war and his goal is to redefine society. 

Putting it all together you can see what I mean about the Butlerian Jihad being essential to the themes even though the story never shows us a thinking machine or a narrative beat where the absence of computers changes the outcome. It helps us see the big picture. I’ve seen a lot of dialogue lately on whether Paul is a tragic hero or a consummate villain and I’m not here to answer that, but I am here to underline the critical detail. Paul intends to be seen as a tyrant. Just like Kynes’ hallucination says, religion is the lever to make a value stick around forever. He wants to traumatize humanity to hate chosen ones and emperors the same way the machines traumatized humanity to change them forever. The Water of Life ritual doesn’t invert his values, it lets him realize these visions of war are the means, not the ends. He is absolutely not happy about it, but this is Paul’s terrible purpose. 

[snoozingredpanda]

Random Facts/Headcannons (Benni, Nox)

GN!Reader

Warnings: mentions of alcohol, depression, abuse, swearing

—

Benni

• Girl’s addicted to apple juice. She will not go one day without a cup and will get grumpy if she runs out. Funny enough, she hates apples.

• She prefers candy to chocolate. Chocolate is too rich for her, and would rather just have a starburst or something.

• As I said before, is terrified of spiders. However, she will not kill them because she feels really guilty about ending anything’s life, even a small fly.

• Benni’s favourite film is A Dog’s Purpose. She bawls her eyes out whenever she watches it, the same with any other sad films with dogs.

• She is allergic to oregano and cats.

• She took an eight week language course just to learn how to tell her French neighbour to fuck off and stop stealing her mail.

• She accidentally walked into a nudist beach when taking the kid she was babysitting out on a walk. She has never run quicker in her life.

• Benni had a gecko called Herbert but it died cause she fed it too much.

• She has the urge to bite people a lot. Dunno why.

• She gets shy whenever sex scenes come on in films. Even if she’s alone, she’ll blush and hide her face in her hands.

• She’s a morning person.

• Works out a lot and eats as healthy as possible. She likes to take care of herself, but won’t mind skipping a day at the gym or eating pizza when she can’t be bothered to cook.

• Photography is everything to her. It’s what makes her happiest, snapping shots of beautiful landscapes and brilliant moments. She’s the top of her class and has even had famous photographers showing interest in her unique skill to show certain perspectives in a single picture.

• That being said, Benni hates having photos taken of herself. She says that she wants to only capture pretty things, which is stupid cause she’s the prettiest fucker alive fight me-

• Team Jacob.

• Ok that’s enough miscellaneous stuff.

• Now the more sad bit

• Benni struggles with alcohol. It’s been a problem for her since she was around 14; she needed a way to cope with her negative feelings and unfortunately alcohol was at easy access. She quickly became addicted and even though nowadays she drinks nowhere near as much, she still has days where she can’t help herself. She wakes up the next day hungover and guilty and ends up moping around for ages.

• She really wants to change. She manages to get sober for a few weeks, then falls of the wagon and ends up getting really depressed over it which makes it even worse.

• It’s not even like she’s an aggressive drunk or is problematic for the people around her. She just gets so down about everything that she starts to get certain thoughts which she knows she shouldn’t be having. It just makes her want to drink more for those few hours that numbs her mind.

• She’s lonely.

• She’s obsessive.

• She gets attached easily.

• If only there was a willing person who likes her yandere tendencies and can distract her from the temptation of alcohol…

• *cough cough* you right? *aggressive wink*

Nox

• Nox is left handed.

• She loves horror films. Especially gory ones. She’s never really grossed out, but can’t stand when there’s animals involved cause wtf kill the humans not the dog

• She works as a bartender but wants to do something else in the future, but doesn’t know what.

• She dislikes pretty much everyone just because.

• She has heterochromia, one eyes is a deep blue, the other an icy blue. It makes her stand out, which she absolutely hates.

• Nox has dyslexia and is ashamed of it.

• She can’t cook, but can bake. And she can bake good.

• She doesn’t like bright lights, or loud noises. Fireworks are a nightmare.

• She has an incredible spice tolerance. Whilst others would be sobbing, she’d just be munching away unaware she’d just consumed three ghost peppers.

• She’s terribly embarrassed about it, but she absolutely loves gardening. It’s just so calming, and she loves looking after her little flowers and veggies and cares for them so much they are her babies do not touch or she’ll put sand in your bed-

• Nox loves all animals, big or small. She even has a owl that she rescued when he was rejected by his mother. She named him Merlin. She doesn’t call him her pet, as she lets him come and go from her apartment as he pleases. She says it’s not fair to keep a wild animal inside as if it’s a budgie.

• She loves to play video games. She’s very good at them too. Her favourites are Pokémon, Cuphead and the Resident Evil series.

• She’s extremely ticklish. Like, to the point where if anyone were to touch her neck, she’d screech out and claw their eyes out.

• She prefers cats over dogs.

• Her brother’s name is Vincent. As much as she denies it, the two are very close and he’s probably the only person she feels comfortable around.

• She doesn’t really like kids. They’re annoying.

• She is not a morning person. And by that I mean she will backhand you if you try to wake her up before 9 am.

• Ironically, she has insomnia, so when she finally is able to get a bit of rest, and you wake her… she’s grumpy af.

• Nox and her brother were put in an abusive orphanage after their parents passed, and she had a horrible time there. That’s probably the main reason to her hateful and aggressive attitude, and her hephephobia.

• Nox is convinced she’ll never fall in love. She’s convinced she doesn’t need anyone.

• To translate: she’s scared.

• But she just needs a ray of sunshine to shine into her life.

• Could that be you?

[amporella]

There’s this little part in Herbert Garrison’s School for Unwed Fathers where Stan picks up his child and asks her who he is and who she was in a mirror. And then the child nods her head and goes “yes” after pointing and answering Stan’s questions and Stan gets emotional because the way she said yes so confidently reminds him of Kyle. And I just think about that sometimes LMAO.

Oh my god, yes. I think about this fic literally all the time, and the scene you mentioned legitimately destroyed me? Actually, all of this fic destroyed me. I clicked on it snickering to myself about the insanity of the premise and came out a changed person.

A friend of mine actually brought this up first when I showed her this ask (I was SO delighted to get this, you don't even know) so I can't take credit for the concept, but you really can tie this back to Kyle's Post-Covid kids; Stan would have such nostalgia about Kyle in their youth, and he would absolutely love his kids all the more for how much they remind him of him!! Like, when the kids laugh like Kyle does, or get so particular about things like Kyle does, or say something reminiscent of something Kyle would say as a kid, Stan would just get so teary!!! Especially since they parted ways/ended their friendship in Post-Covid before adulthood, it's kind of like a second chance for him... he's NOT leaving those kids' sides, ever.

Anyway, ugh. You're so right. The scene I think about most from that fic is when Kyle rejects the baby book at first but then Stan finds out that he bought one anyway, and he just cries over it because of how happy he is... like, something about that scene just tore my guts out.

I'm such an enthusiast of this fic, god. Thank you for sending me this and reminding me of it!!! I will now reread some of my favorite scenes and weep.

[stumblngrumbl]

i was pretty much commanded to watch Dune 1 because Dune 2 is apparently a must-see in the movie theater and i hadn't seen Dune 1 and Dune 2 will leave the theaters shortly

i'm just kinda gun-shy about seeing movies, they're usually just so fucking disappointing the last number of years i practically see only repeats of safe movies, boring right?

so anyways, yeah, saw Dune 1. considering i had a few years where i mostly read and re-read dune 1/2/3 books (then suffered with 4, then a few years later read 5&6 and said ok this is just getting fluffy, refused to read the other stuff that Frank Herbert didn't write because he was dead), and having suffered through Lynch's disastrous version - i never saw the syfy version - this movie was pretty dang good.

the good: followed the book story line surprisingly closely. really surprising.

also good and surprising: there's a character that was male in the book, they made female. good character; a named one; making the character female didn't change the plot at all, so why not? good deal. in retrospect, you could've done this with a few others, including some of the more badass ones.

the bad: i can't point to anything actually bad about it other than

the ugly: i had the sound up REALLY LOUD with a good sound system. i couldn't understand half of the dialog. i still knew what was going on because of the aforementioned being well-versed in the story... but still, wtf? and the darkness! i turned every light out, i usually have a dim light in the room because my eyes don't like hella contrast, but with true full darkness (there are zero lights outside anywhere here, and no moon last night) some scenes i would've got almost as much out of by turning the TV off. fucking hollywood, yeshua eff christo

specific things under the cut.

further observations and specific complaints:

Thufir was the Duke's master of assassins. In the movie, this guy may've been a mentat but he's not going to assassinate anyone. maybe in his youth he could've but book-Thufir was still a physical badass - not a Gurney or Duncan but still a lethal danger. You could easily imagine him and Piter de Vries circling each other in the arena. Not this guy. This guy was too nice, too.

The ornithopters were AMAZING. Loved them. damn. seriously, i didn't consider damselflies in my imagination before but what a perfect model. Whoever designed that deserves an Oscar, i hope there's a category for that. Does raise a question as to why is it an "orni" thopter if it's more buglike, but I'll let that slide. Also enjoyed the sand compactor which was mentioned in the book but i previously had no good visual on that.

The carryall (spice crawler mover/rescuer) was supposed to be a really big thopter. I think what they had in the movie probably makes more sense, kinda. Though those balloons were probably way too small to help much at all, but maybe spice gas has super intense buoyancy, or maybe those were some special suspensor globe thingy thing idk. Regardless, a thopter big enough to pick up a crawler seems a bit absurd once you see the size of the crawler (which the movie got right, it's a reasonable sized thing - consider that the worms always come and will clean up the spice blow, so you can't just use a small crawler and come back - you need to get all the spice from the blow right now).

Muad'dib is cute. I mean the kangaroo mouse. Not the mousy actor.

I thought Jessica was played a little too weepy, book-Jessica wasn't unfeeling but she was ready for battle pretty much all the time. She was seriously a strong and intense woman, and while she had her "human" moments she wasn't weepy except when they were in the tent after the storm. i don't think this is the fault of the actress and think she did a good job.

I was ready not to like paul in this movie because of the actor, but he did a decent job. i'm not well versed in current young male actors so i can't suggest a better one; there's likely a better one IMO but it wasn't bad

They cut the political dinner in Arrakeen and that's ok. it was interesting in the second or third read of the book but it bogged down the beginning of the first read (gg i almost stopped reading the book because of the slow beginning the first time) and was probably an easy cut making the movie. They also cut the solarium/greenhouse and moved Mapes's confrontation with Jessica forward. Way forward. That should've been completely private without a house guard present, Mapes would not have shown the blade with anyone else around. Are crysknives special or not? Apparently only kinda.

I don't recall there being a fairly big deal about the duke letting Duncan Idaho join Stilgar's sietch as compensation for some of Stilgar's men having been killed when trying to warn the Atriedes of a treachery. We just get duncan dancing around looking happy about whatever instead. It was a major coup getting him in there and having their trust that way, Leto's entire strategy banked on alliance. While Duncan & Gurney & Thufir (haha movie-thufir sorry) had trained a fighting force to within a hair's breadth of sardaukar strength, they couldn't do it large scale, and he knew that the fremen would allow them to take on the sardaukar face-to-face and win - safeguarding the house if not forcing a political marriage.

Speaking of marriage. "I should have married you". wha????? yes us readers understood. Everyone else: the fuck does this mean? They completely glossed over the politics that underpinned the entire story.

Still it seemed to me like they'd just landed on Arrakis when they came under attack; in the book i'm pretty sure there were at least a number of days if not weeks - seemed a bit quick and compressed. they at least needed to wait for the next heighliner, right?

Yueh's conditioning was never brought up so the shock that he was the traitor wasn't there. He had a pretty serious part, and the lengths that the baron went in subverting the conditioning crucial, but yueh was just some guy in the movie. nice to see they kept his symbol in the thopter but there was no reason given why it was even there, how had he left the goodies in the right thopter? in the book - he and specifically called out a desert-prepared thopter to use in disposing of P&J.

Sardaukar - first, salusa secundus was known as the emperor's prison planet, not army planet. nobody knew for certain where the sardaukar came from, though Leto &co strongly suspected it was S.S. surprise that SS is where nazi looking army dudes are from, right? yeah well ok nm. still. Also: the sardaukar were talked about in the book such that you could actually see their faces (remember when thufir was captured? oh wait they cut that from the movie too). why would they fight with this weird ass helmet on that blocks so much vision? are you trying to make pathetic imperial troopers? even under shaddam hussein iv, a sardaukar was still considered a match for seven typical landsraad levies - even if that's down from 10, 7:1 is still really badass.

Ok I mentioned the gender swap character - Liet Kynes - as I said, the character being male didn't matter to the plot so it's cool that they found another slot (in this as-is-typical mostly male movie) for a woman. But, what a stupid way to kill her off. She took like three steps outside the base onto the sand and called the maker and just stood there like a fucking idiot. Big surprise she got stabbed in the back isn't it? I think they could've done it better. Also this ended lost the ability to have the scene from the appendix which gives a lot of backstory about Arrakis (with Pardot Kynes).

Given that they did it to Kynes, why stop there? Thufir could've easily been female. I've never met a male Thufir, so it's not an obviously male name. What about Gurney? Duncan is kinda a male name, so you can keep him male I guess. Do we have to keep the Fremen so patriarchical that a woman can't lead a sietch? They let Kynes be female, and Kynes as pretty much the leader of the Fremen, in fact if not in name, so if they're ok with Kynes being a woman, Stilgar could've just as well. I'm fine with the H being male because they're obviously nazis... but does the Guild have to be all male? Don't forget Dune was written in a different time, but there's no reason we can't swap more.

When Paul & Jessica meet the fremen after the desert crossing, Paul pwning Jamis as he gtfo'd was key to Jamis being a hothead. ok jamis was a hothead all the time anyways but he was particularly pissed off about this little shit getting the drop on him and that's really why the fight happened. What's a sayyadina? i know and you may know, but my movie date didn't have a clue and neither did 90% of the movie watchers; in the book jessica was surprised to hear the word used at this point and realized the opportunity to take advantage of the natives' fremen superstition as a result.

Book-Chani gave Paul some tips about how jamis turns to the (right?left? i don't remember) after a particular attack. Why? Seems like she's already besotted with Paul or something after such a quick time? I liked the movie-Chani's attitude more, no tips or tricks, good luck i'll help jamis drink your water tonight white boy. Definitely more realistic.

Also in the final fight scene, i'm really surprised they didn't take advantage of this - in the book they took off stillsuits for the ritual fight. This is the reason given why the winner of a fight gets the loser's water, because they lose water due to perspiration in the process. As i said, surprised they didn't give the audience a show and have the actors strip to loincloths for the fight. Would it have been the case if one or both contestants was female?

ok that's more than a couple and i'd probably find more if i watch it again but i'll stop here and reiterate that

besides the seemingly long complaint list this was a good movie and overall really well done. i always figured that this book had too much going on in the characters' heads to make a good movie but i guess i was wrong and that's good. could it have been better? sure. i'd like to see a director's cut with the dinner and thufir's capture. oh and gurney shacking up with the smugglers too, that's not there.

[being-worthy]

Sunday cinema: The King’s Man

I haven't done one of these in a while (again xD), but when I watched today The King's Man, there was this quote that I found amazing and wished we would hear it more (or at least, similar to it) and it moved me to make a review about the film.

Nevertheless, I have got good news and bad news about the film.

> SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!! <

Let's start with the good news/parts:

A great aspect that I loved was how the film includes true events and real-life people of importance from the era. It depicts a number of key figures involved in World War I such as King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Tsar Nicholas II, Grigori Rasputin, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Herbert Kitchener, Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, Erik Jan Hanussen to name a few (the three royal cousins are all portrayed by Tom Hollander). This way it mixes fictional core characters with what really happened during that time. Moreover, it also illustrates the real deaths of some of these key history figures.

Another aspect worth mentioning is the fight scene between Orlando, Duke of Oxford (later on Arthur, played by Ralph Fiennes), Conrad Oxford (the son), and Shola (later on known as Merlin) and Grigori Rasputin (played by Rhys Ifans) is a terrific action sequence! Rasputin shows off some incredible fighting skills and twirls through the room almost like he is dancing. His dancing/fighting skills reminded me of the mazurka scene from The Addams Family (2019), but this scene is actually based on the Russian cossack dancing (or hopak in Ukraine). I'm just going to mention here (and in small) the part where Rasputin does something quite weird, disgusting, and quite unhygienic to Orlando's leg before the fight and I think it would have been preferable if he had just given him a bj, not to mention that I do NOT need to see people throw up in movies!! NOBODY NEEDS TO SEE PEOPLE THROWING UP IN MOVIES!!

However, the main reason I'm writing this review was due to some of the great quotes.

The first one is right at the beginning where the Oxford family (patrons of the Red Cross) visit a "prisoner" camp in South Africa in 1902, although most of them look like civilians among them are also children, and they are all malnourished (your typical concentration camp).

"Do you remember why King Arthur and his knights had a round table? Because it meant that all men were equal. It's important that people born into privilege lead by example. That's why your father and I are patrons of the Red Cross, helping others, not hiding behind our status. Never forget that."

The 2nd quote I love (and wished many people would have the guts to admit) happens when the Duke and his son visit the Kingsman tailor shop for the first time together. The Duke's father brought him there to get his first suit too and wants to pass this tradition to his son, Conrad Oxford.

"Our ancestors, they were terrible people. They robbed, lied, pillaged, and killed until one day they found themselves a nobleman. But that nobility, it never came from chivalry. It came from being tough and ruthless. Back then to be called a gentleman, would have been a death sentence, not the mark of honour it is today. We are oxfords, not rogues."

These two quotes should be the mantra of many of the royal members, politicians, governments, and even famous people (e.g. actors, singers, etc.). For instance, I have never heard the English monarchy admitting and owning their sh*t of all the cruelties they did in the past to get all the power and money they hold to this day, much less to right those they wronged, or at least, asked for forgiveness, and I doubt we will see this happening. Furthermore, people born into privilege (and this can be any type of privilege, not just royal status) should lead by example and be more humble, but the truth is, they rarely do and when they do, the cameras are not far away and in many occasions, they end up receiving some incentive for doing so.

Now about the negative characteristics; my main and big critique was why bother casting Gemma Arterton as Polly Wilkins aka Galahad, and one of the only female lead roles, if you are going to give her barely any screentime and mostly have her doing mundane nanny duties? What happened to her action scenes? After all, she had to undergo a demanding training schedule (for scenes that weren't even shot in the end) all of it for nothing? This shows that men still have preferences when it comes to action scenes in movies.

The action scenes are not quite as spectacular as in Kingsman or Kingsman: The Golden Circle and quite ordinary, frankly. Besides the one mentioned at the beginning of this post.

Last but not least, the film is okay if you want to watch something to pass the time, but they could have saved it. I sadly have to say that the film is not as good as its predecessors and it is also extremely predictable, from who dies, who ends up together, to who is the main villain of the movie and therefore, a truly unnecessary prequel.

[alittlefrenchtree]

Helloooo! Guess who’s back? The Dune notes! yaayyyyy!

ok, chill.

SPOILERS BOOK 2 : MUAD’DIB (Chapters 1-4)

Chapter 1:

I’m still struggling to get all the politic aspects and understand who’s on which side but that’s not what I’m focusing on right now. Once I’ve read the whole thing and had the whole picture, I’ll study all the details of this part of the story.

I loved this quote:

in the French translation, and thought it was beautiful to see Arrakis through Paul’s mind and eyes only to find out that the original quote said stuff like Cheddar-colored. Damn you, American people.

Chapter 2:

Bless you, Muad’Dib, your father and Princess Irulan. Might your words be heard loud and clear on every planet of every universe.

I love, love, love this chapter. This whole conversation between Hawat and the Fremen, the world building made through it and through the Fremen is really good. I don’t think the Fremen has a name because he’s exactly what he describing of his people. He’s only one to serve the whole clan.

Many interesting stuff about the conversation and the scene.

First, I wonder if the Mentat’s abilities can work on Fremens? This part seems to say that they can’t : "But still he did not know what this Fremen wanted and this rankled. Mentat training was supposed to give a man the power to see motives." Then here again : "He said worm. He was going to say something else. What? And what does he want of us?" It’s funny to see how Hawat’s powers seem to be limited after we saw part of what Jessica and Paul were able to do.

"You must make a water decision, friend."

is my favorite quote of the chapter. The whole chapter is built to make Hawat and the reader really understand how primordial the water is. Blood doesn’t exist in the Fremen’s mouth, life is all boiled down to water. They doesn’t seem to care about the Spice either. When he’s thinking in terms of currency, it’s not about the Spice or money, it’s still about water:

"You think we have the Byzantine corruption. You don’t know us. The Harkonnen have not water enough to buy the smallest child among us."

It’s one thing I find fascinating about sci-fi/fantasy writers who are creating whole new worlds in different universes. It’s not only about thinking about crazy new technologies or super powers or anything like this. It’s when they shift the whole logic because context is different and you see it in the smallest details, in ways of speaking, in turns of phrases. It’s where you find so much richness for a fandom. And get so easily immersed in the said new universe. Every time I'll get really thirsty in the future, I'll think about this chapter. And the water decision.

I’m guessing water is one of Dune’s real plot? Every stranger coming to Arrakis comes for the Spice, thinking it’s the goldmine of the planet, the way to conquer it and truly owns it. But it’s not and the Fremen are still the one owning the desert powers because they’re the only one seeing that Arrakis needs to be ruled by water and not by the Spice? I don’t know. But that’s where my guesses are heading at the moment.

About this,

I’m really curious about how they’re going to handle on screen the deep religious roots of a large part of the story. We all know how tricky it can be. Is it going to be tone down? Are we going to see people living in the desert worship a young white male? We’ll see.

Chapter 3:

It’s cute to see how, even if Paul sees himself as a some kind of monster or as something else and undefined, he’s still sensitive to what he sees with his powers of prescience. But it's difficult to get a grip on what he is exactly, and how he feels.

Ok-- wait a minute. Last time I’ve heard about Liet, it was supposed to be a local divinity and now… Liet is Kynes. Ok. If you say so. — does it mean there going to be some kind of competition between Liet and the Muad’Dib? About who has the biggest divine aura? About who’s supposed to lead?

Anyway, what Kynes says, it goes with what I mention earlier. About how all the different people who came on Arrakis have failed to make it a Paradise because they were all focused on the Spice instead of the water.

I love how convenient Paul and Jessica are as characters to introduce the descriptions of every room they step in. You can go wild on details and just be like that’s not me, the bene gesserit/mentat/whatever Paul is things are calling for all. the. details. I should do that. Only write characters who allow me to naturally waste 7 lines of words on the pattern of a wallpaper. Frank Herbert doesn’t do that, but I definitely would.

Again, it’ll be interesting to see how Tim is going to handle the Paul and Kynes’ confrontation/conversation. We’ve seen him touch on these kind of feelings and behavior with The King but Paul seems to require a lot more of everything. So I’m impatient to see.

And I’ve already leaked the quote but let's look at it once more time. Quickest way to prove Timmy is the right cast for Paul.

"In this moment he'd give his life for Paul, she thought. How do the Atreides accomplish this thing so quickly, so easily?"

Because that’s what Timmy does, right? Makes people ready to give their life for him.

Ok about Duncan… We’re back at it, right? He’s not dead until I’ve seen the body. And I didn’t see the body so, he’s not dead. I think? Paul’s abilities don’t seem to be 100% reliable (at least not yet) so even if he believes Duncan’s dead, he might not be. I certainly hope so. My boy Jason deserves more.

I still wonder how the power of prescience is working. Are the blind spots blind because Paul is living through them at the moment and can’t have knowledge of the immediate future OR would they have been blind even if he had looked in their direction long before?

I was also wondering if Paul was going to rely too much on the new dimension of his abilities and how long it was going to take until he realized he made that mistake. It was… quick but I guess it’s Paul, so it shouldn't be surprising.

And that fear litany ❤️ I could kill to write something as iconic and powerful. I could read it every day and still got the chills each time.

Chapter 4:

The Baron is like me, he needs to see bodies to believe in death. I’m delighted to have common ground with that creepy, disgusting asshole. Delighted. To be honest, I’m not that interested with the Baron himself. So far, he’s been nothing but clichés over clichés and really not the best ones. He’s the evil character so he's all the kinds of evil. Shocker. I usually like evil characters (very often more than I love "good" ones) but not him. Really not him. I hope it'll change but I’m afraid he’s too far gone and beyond redemption.

I’m very interested by what’s Hawat is going to become though. Will he turn his allegiance to the Baron? It kind of remind me of Teal’c in Stargate SG-1, but the other way around. The Baron opposes two things : Hawat’s loyalty and his admiration towards those who calculate without emotions. Based on what we know about Mentats and how the human part carried by the human body overpower the Mentat’s education and training, I’d say loyalty should win? And the part of me who is part Mentat agrees on the loyalty so, we’re all good. But it can be an interesting storyline, so I’m waiting for it.

What’s funny about this quote

is that he could very much be talking about Paul and still be right. Or the baby sister. Or Lady Jessica. All Harkonnens are waiting.

And what’s also funny is how The Baron thinks of Feyd-Rautha. In addition of being absolutely disgusting there are some similarities between what the Baron wants for Feyd and what Paul is meant to be/already is.

I wonder if Feyd is meant to become some kind of opposite alter-ego to Paul. A better, more subtle opposant than the Baron. Could be fun.

You know what? Every time I start this kind of post, I said to myself: I'm pretty sure I haven't that many notes this time, it should be quick. And then here we are again 🤷🏻‍♀️ See you next time! 🌖💛

[realisaonum]

book meme

thank you, jen @det395​ !! i feel like this meme got away from me a bit, but no shame! i love talking about books and writing so onward ~under the cut~

1- how many books are too many books in a series? 

mhmmmmm i guess it depends on the objective of the series, right? is the plan to have x number of books in the series and if so, when we finally get to the end will it be satisfying considering all the books we’ve read leading up to it? OR is the objective of the premise / characters just to exist doing whatever? both can be done well. i would say a lot rides on how much i trust the author.

2- what do you think about cliffhangers?

so this is meant for cliffhangers in a series like between books? i don’t really care if there’s a cliffhanger as long as i have the next book sitting right next to me. otherwise uh, only if the wait between books is tolerable, because at that point you need to know that the author can clear this mess up, right? there’s this other thing, like you know how if the entire series was already written, then they might release the books a month apart or a quarter apart - that could be alright too. but years in between? not especially a fan. is anyone a fan?

3- hardback or paperback?

jen, you and me are complete opposites here. paperbacks stress me out. i will go out of my way to buy a used hardcover if given the choice. of course, there are some publications i don’t mind in paperback —thinking poetry and super indie books that don’t have a hardcover release OR books where the spines are thin enough they won’t break and i won’t be holding them long enough for them to wear. hardcovers are sturdy and i don’t have to worry i’ll accidentally bend the cover in some damaging way. I am invested in keeping my books nice to the point that i create covers for my books out of kraft paper or brown grocery bags while i am reading them. this is something i started when i was in college and didn’t want these books i was hoping to probably resell get thrashed coming in and out of my bag for all these classes. My home library is probs more half and half paperback/hardcover but if given a choice usually it’s hardcover.

4- least favourite book?

i think it’s good to at least attempt to meet a book on its level. there are lots of books i didn’t like, but i wasn’t meeting them on their level and i know that so we’re ignoring those. i do however have a shelf on my goodreads dedicated to books that i have beef with so i’ll just go off on two of them.....

tana french’s the likeness for being plagiaristic shit. it is essentially poorly concealed alternate universe OC insert fic of the secret history. you’ve got french’s dublin murder squad folks and then this group they are investigating who bear a STRIKING resemblance to the greek students in tsh 🤔. this would be one thing. it is pretty well acknowledged that nothing is original and there are enough changes to The Likeness that MAYBE i could let it slide if not for this other thing: french’s book, the likeness, has lines that are just basically reworded quotes from the secret history and french positions these lines so they are said by the counterpart (essentially same!) character that gave them original life in tsh. i cannot stress this enough: you can HEAR how similar the sentences are and their core intent is always the same. it’s thinly veiled theft! it astounds me that French hasn’t been sued frankly. it is one thing to want to capture some of the genius that tartt’s debut novel holds, but it is completely lazy and disgusting theft to go about it in the way French did with this book. and YES the secret history was published before french’s book. if i could stomach how fucking goddamn boring the likeness was to read it a second time and cite every one of these offenses i would, but that’s yet a third strike against it—it’s too boring to be worth it. 

T. Kingfisher’s second book of the Clocktuar War duology : The Wonder Engine. this is a book that i feel violated the contract between writer and reader. the first book feels almost like a YA book. the stakes while described as very high are treated, as actions unfold, as very low. nothing truly irreparable happens until the climax of the second book and the fallout of that action is so off-tone of everything that came before i felt deeply betrayed. no, like, completely betrayed as in it ruined the rest of my afternoon, i am still viscerally angry eight months later, and i will never trust this author again. sure, maybe none of those actions that led to the climax were out-of-character, but there was nothing NOTHING in the proceeding action that even came close to that level of consequence. it’s a pity because right up till that point i was having a really good time. the entire vibe of the rising action to the climax of book one all the way through the rising action of book two was just a quippy fun version of roadtrip/quest - it felt like a comfort read. the abrupt tone shift had all the subtlety of dropping a graphically, brutal murder into Blue’s Clues. you don’t do that - this is a basic tenet of a writer / reader relationship. i’m not touching this bitch’s shit again.

5- Love Triangle, yes or no?

not so much. i like jen before me will scream ‘just be poly.’ love triangles that lead into poly relationships? yes, awesome will be glad i read. but i am at a stage in my life where your standard will-they-won’t-they-love-triangle is just fucking pointlessly frustrating to me. an example: i read a Nic Stone’s book Odd One Out a couple years ago and something about the synopsis or the hype made me think that it would resolve the love triangle that way, so when that did not happen i was incredibly frustrated and immediately wanted to resell the book. it’s the potential of the thing. stone’s book could have been the perfect vehicle for opening up the concept of polyamory to a ya audience but instead just really squandered that potential with weak floundering — in my opinion!

6- the most recent book you just couldn’t finish

uhhhhh i’ve got two and i’m not sure i’ve entirely given up quite yet buuuuuuuut 

fucking dune. i got really pissed off with this book. So just…setting aside the whole vaguing at a pedophilically inclined queer coded villain - it’s done so poorly, that it's almost funny? like it doesn’t (as of half way through) actually have any consequence on…anything at all and is tacked on like an afterthought to the end of his scenes. honestly it all could just be cut out entirely with no recourse to the larger story. So my actual beef with this book is the pacing is ATROCIOUS. like yo, not only do you expect me to give a shit about these Atreides cunts, when we just met them and we spend the same amount of time with them IF NOT MORE with the antagonist? but you also expect me to believe Paul was able to just convince the leader of the Arrakis people —the leader of an entire planet!!— with a single fucking sentence??? yeah, not so much. it was not set up for me to believe that Paul could do that! maybe if Kynes hadn’t died immediately after—or at least not died at that moment? baring the fact I thought he was by far the most interesting character, IF he had been convinced by Paul in that scene, it would have been great to see some actual work done around that - with a transfer or a liaise of power between Kynes and Paul and the Fremen. By not having any substantive scene that does it - it begs the question of what the fuck was the point of the character in the first place? unplumbed potential!!! over all there seem to be some key scenes missing to get the reader to where the narrative expects us to be? but the choices made of the characters we spend time with and the moments we see with them, the benefit to the larger story…is not always there. hey herbert, these words you have written aren’t doing what you want them to?? i feel like i should finish it but i reaaaaallly don’t want to :) the only thing i can say is it looks like from the trailer, villeneueve is giving space to these moments so that the viewer can foster a genuine connection with the characters? radical concept.

our lady of perpetual hunger - i started this one optimistically bc i like chef memoirs, but i am at the point where she has just given birth to her son and honestly DON’T CARE. i still haven’t officially given up on it yet since i actually fucking bought it like a dope. i certainly would not have if i knew how much NOT about working the line this was gonna be

7- book you are currently reading

Aside from the failures mentioned above, I am working on the second book in B. Catling’s Vorrh trilogy, The Erstwhile. Also very close to finally finishing Iain Sinclair’s The Last London - there’s a review of his work from the LA Times that goes “One of Sinclair’s greatest skills has always been his ability to take diverse if not chaotic source material and refashion it in a way that sometimes seems downright alchemical” which captures some of the wonder I experience when reading his work. His style and how he creates atmosphere and setting is just unique and astounding.

8- last book you recommended to someone

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Before that I told my brother to read Eat a Peach, as we both love Anthony Bourdain and David Chang talks about him a bit here, plus it’s just a fucking great book. any book that gives insight into Chang’s methodology and paradigm is worth a shot.

9- oldest book you read

I think it might have to be Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (which apparently according to wiki premiered on the stage a whole four months before Hamlet so that’s what we’re going with) and if plays don’t count, I don’t care. I think they count and that’s what we’re going with.

10- the most recent book you read ?

Given the previous question, the most recently published book, right? It’s gotta be the one I just finished: The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic - Revised and Expanded edt., which like just came out this summer. I watched Jessica Hopper’s promo zoom, curtesy of my local indie bookstore, and went ahead and bought it. This was a great decision! It was just what I needed to read these last couple of weeks. i love there’s lots of short pieces that made the read quick and the fact that it’s non-fiction so there was no pressure of a plot or the emotional weight of character investment when I had a lot of big stressors dragging me down irl -it was such a relief. Hopper’s criticism is fun to read and there’s some real art in her appreciation of music here.

11- favourite author?

These are the top in a kind of order but not really: Donna Tartt, Jeff VanderMeer, Megan Whalen Turner, Flannery O’Conner, Chuck Palahniuk, Anthony Bourdain

Other faves very much worth mentioning: Emily O’Neill, Richard Siken, Brandon Sanderson, Warren Ellis, Nathan Englander, Stephen King, Eddie Huang, Carl Hiaassen, Anne Carson, and Iain Sinclair.

12- buying books or borrowing books?

Depends on if my library has it, of course! I nearly always see if my library has a copy first if i have never read it or the author before. If i’ve read the book before or trust the author, I’ll buy it. Like I’ll straight out buy new stuff from Jeff VanderMeer even though with him it’s either this-hits-exactly-and-is-my-new-fave or i-really-disliked-this-but-admire-the-boundaries-you’re-pushing-my-dude - so it’s always a gamble but a worthy one.

12- a book you dislike that everyone else seems to love

a little life (just bc it's torture porn elevated to art doesn’t negate the fact that it’s torture porn. Yanagihara’s project here is repugnant and the fact that this book is lauded as moving lgbt fiction makes my skin crawl)

sharp objects (good writing, compelling story, BUT typographical scarification doesn't work like that - i am not going to get into it but i know from first hand experience how Flynn described it is not accurate)

nesbø’s the snowman (what kinda dumbass detective would think THAT when a woman finds her missing father’s corpse? absolute idiocy - so obviously reverse engineered with that end in mind)

the raven cycle (fuck ronan lynch to start and then fuck him to end as well - there’s some other stuff but mostly he’s a total CUNT and if i don’t say that once a day i have probably died)

14 - bookmarks or dogears?

Bookmarks and sticky notes. Then I can place it pointing directly to the paragraph I last stopped on.

15- The book you can always reread?

This is my question because I reread all the time. ALL THE TIME. Books I reread often: The Secret History, Medium Raw (especially chapter 17 The Fury), Crooked Kingdom, The Violent Bear It Away, and The Goldfinch. Every year like clockwork (since it came out apparently) I will reread Stephen King’s The Outsider.

Other books I feel the urge to reread: VanderMeer’s Acceptance, Englander’s Dinner at the Center of the Earth, Frazier’s Nightwoods, Fresh Off the Boat, the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, the Peter Grant Series (which is queued up for another go here soon I think), any of the stories from A Good Man is Hard to Find, Sanderson’s Wax and Wayne Mistborn books, simon vs the homosapiens’ agenda, and there are two of Alan Morinis’ books on Mussar that I am technically always revisiting—when i need a reminder, i’ll jump around and read specific sections to get centered again.

16- can you read while listening to music?

Yes, but only ambient or near ambient (only usually one track on repeat) or a soundtrack I am extremely familiar with. No new music. I do usually need some audio stimulation or my mind will wander terribly.

17- one POV or multi POV?

Multi pov can certainly be done well (looking at the soc duaology and VanderMeer’s Acceptance) but working a multi-pov means there are more plates spinning, it’s more of a challenge, and some authors pull it off better than others.

18- do you read book in one sitting or in multiple days?

I don’t really do this anymore. that might have something to do with me picking up thicker books? but also i have a full time job now and let’s be real the book has to be hella good if i don’t want to put it down. the last book i attempted to shotgun was the final installment of my favorite series and it still took me two days so....i can get through a lot of books but none of them are ever in one sitting anymore.

19- who to tag:

@sybilius​ @mouth-rainboy​ @iwonderifthatisart​ @phereinnike​ @magnificentmoose​ @wambsgangs​ @moriarteaparty​ and anyone else if you feel so inclined!

Bonus Question: What’s on your to-read shelf? 

As for me, I am excited about one i just picked up, Danforth’s Plain Bad Heroines, which i might start tomorrow and I will be taking Paul Madonna’s Come to Light on my trip to see my brother this coming weekend. 

[ssa-pretty-boy]

Movie Nights: Steel Magnolias

Summary: Part 4/10 of a series of ficlets where Spencer’s girlfriend introduces him to some of her favorite movies.

Series Master List

Link to the scene referred to (its a real tear jerker okay be prepared if you watch it)

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

Directed By: Herbert Ross (1989)

Word Count: 776

A./N.: Alright this one is definitely self indulgent… I ugly cry every time i see this movie and Ouiser 100% reminds me of my grandmother when she’s feeling a little spicy ha. It really is such a good movie y’all. i highly recommend it

——

It had been a long, long day. A day full of seemingly endless paper work and meetings and Spencer felt like he could just collapse into a heap on the floor. He didn’t even have the energy to call out his usual cheery ‘Honey! I’m home!’ as he trudged his way into his apartment. Dumping his coat and satchel right at the front door, he made a beeline for Y/N’s blanket clad form on the sofa. He dove into her, his head instantly going to the crook of her neck as she laughed lightly, the sound instantly easing some of the weight off of his shoulders. 

“Long day, bubs?” she questioned softly, her hands going to cup his cheeks and pull his face up towards hers. His eyes were tired, the purple smudges beneath them darker than usual. 

She hated to say the pout he gave her was adorable but it was. Bottom lip still jutted out, he nodded his head before dropping it back down to her chest. He sighed deeply before toeing his shoes off and rolling over in order to wiggle between her body and the back of the sofa. 

Their legs tangled as she gladly made room for him, welcoming his embrace as he threw one arm over her middle and slipped the other under her. “What are we watching?”

“Steel Magnolias,” she mumbled as she got comfortable in their new position, her head resting comfortably on the arm he had tucked under it. “Have you seen it?”

He hummed out a soft ‘no’ and she told him to get comfortable because it had just started. He didn’t have to be told twice. 

“Its so good. Ouiser, she’ll be on in just a minute, reminds me of my grandmother. Well, just the mean part. My grandmother isn’t nearly as funny.” She admitted casually and Spencer was glad he was behind her so she couldn’t see him grimace at the mention of her maternal grandmother. He’d never met her but he did have the unfortunate experience of talking to her on the phone once. And he would very much like to not do that again for a long time. 

Surprisingly he found himself really enjoying the film. The plot was easy to follow despite how exhausted he was and the dialogue and banter between all the women was incredibly amusing.

Until it wasn’t. 

He felt Y/N stiffen in his arms when Shelby was rushed into the hospital for what he suspected to be kidney failure. He had never seen it before but based Y/N’s sudden shift in demeanor and the grim tone the dialogue had taken, he knew it wasn’t going to be a happy ending. 

Soft sniffles could just barely be heard over the audio of the film and he pulled back just enough to be able to see her face, blueish hue cast over her from the light of the television. Sure enough, Y/N had fat tears clinging to her lashes and a few tear tracks down her cheeks.

Spencer cooed at her and sat up before reaching for her. She instantly went to him, her head going right into the crook of his neck as his hands gently started rubbing slow circles on her back. Her sniffles turned to a choked sob as M’Lynn had her gut wrenching breakdown in the cemetery. 

Shoulders shaking with the force of her tears, she managed to choke out, “I’ve seen this 500 times and I still cry my eyes out every damn time.” He chuckled softly, pressing a soft kiss to her temple as she started to chastise him, “Don’t you laugh at me, Spencer Reid. This movie just breaks my heart.”

“Oh, sweet girl,” he cooed, a laugh dancing in his eyes as he pulled pack from her so he could look in her eyes. “I could never laugh at you for having such a tender heart. It matches mine.”

He took her face in his hands, thumbs brushing away the stray tears just under her eyes. It was her turn to pout and he couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss her. It was slow and gentle, tasting vaguely of the brine due to her tears. He pulled away and placed a quick peck on her nose before she settled back into him.

She huffed out a breath as she turned her attention back to the screen, “We’re gonna have to watch something happy after this is over or I’ll be thinking about it all night.”

His fingers were absently running up and down her arm as he hummed. “We’ll stay up as long as you want, bubs.”

——

Tag List: @babykillbill @ellegreenawayapologist @badwolf00593 @missdowntonabbey @samayoshito

*If you would like to be tagged in future parts of this series (or any of my other works) please send me an ask or a message!

[spideyhexx]

jessica drew: the arachne

Spider-Woman (updated) movie concept.

This is very similar to my old one with some changes! This is also a loose concept, I have ideas for specific scenes I may write out eventually! Also sidenote in my idea, takes place after Endgame. When she is taken into HYDRA, it is only about two months after Endgame. Jessica's first appearance in my mcu headcanon is in Falcon/Winter Soldier when they are in Madripoor. So during that time, it would mean she is with HYDRA, but rebelling against them (before she gets brainwashed), and she is also chased by Bucky after she steals from him. However, he ends up letting her go and he does not tell anyone about this encounter. When Jess is tasked to kill Sam, the story is taking place after the events of TFATWS.

Jessica’s father brings her and her mother to Mount Wundagore in order to do more research on genetics. Along with them comes Dr. Herbert Wyndham.

Jessica gets uranium poisoning from the work her father is conducting and he and Wyndham inject her with a spider serum, saving her life. However, it was working too slowly, so they placed Jessica in a cryochamber and she was there for decades.

Jessica wakes up after the Avengers have restored everyone from the blip.

When Thanos snapped, Jessica “died” so when everyone comes back, she does as well, outside of her cryo.

She is then approached by Wyndham who informs her that he is a friend. She trusts him. And she lives in his home. She soon learns that she has spider-like powers due to the radiation and serum she was exposed to.

While working at a diner, Jessica falls in love with a man named Jerry Hunt. She accidentally kills him when their group of friends attempts to scare her. Her venom blast strikes him and he is dead.

Because this was seen by many, she is chased after and called a monster.

While in hiding, she is “rescued” by Otto Vermis, who is a leader of HYDRA.

Jessica is trained at a HYDRA facility and learns how to control her powers. Vermis purposely suppresses her memory as more of it starts to come out, so that she would be a loyal member to HYDRA. He also gains her loyalty by telling her that she was a spider evolved into a human form by Wyndham and this messes a lot with her head. They also do attempt to brainwash her, since she had a tendency for rebelling against orders. The brainwashing is a success (however it is not as powerful as like, Bucky's brainwashing).

Jessica is tasked with killing Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, for HYDRA, under the code name The Arachne.

In her ambush on Sam, she is outnumbered and taken into custody. At this prison facility, they are determined to experiment on Jessica and her peculiar powers and Bucky and Sam talk against that.

We see Jessica clearly in distress, she is not really sure who she is and what she is.

Sam and Bucky attempt an interrogation with her, where she admits she is with HYDRA. Bucky explains how HYDRA are the bad guys and Jessica is further confused since she has been manipulated by Otto to think HYDRA were the good guys.

Sam sees her as out of control and thinks she should stay in the prison, but he’d work to keep scientists away from experimenting on her.

Meanwhile, Bucky feels for her. He was once a toy for HYDRA and he can’t help but think she is in a similar situation. He still hasn’t told Sam that he saw her in Madripoor. He goes to talk to her alone, making sure the cameras are off for some time.

She asks him why he even helped her back in Madripoor and Bucky says he doesn’t really know, but he just felt like he needed to.

She tells him there’s too many contradicting voices in her head, but Bucky tells her his HYDRA experience and she is devastated he went through that. Bucky also tells her, even though he was told not to, that she wasn’t a spider evolved into a human. He tells her about her parents, that they’re dead. How she was put in cryo. How Otto lied.

Jess wonders if she could trust Bucky, but he has no reason to lie. She tells Bucky she wants to kill Otto for lying to her, but she needs his help escaping.

Bucky does help her, even though he knows Sam will be mad and it’s possible Jess is lying and is still gonna stay with HYDRA, but once he starts to help her, he doesn’t question it.

Jess goes back to the HYDRA facility and kills Otto. He takes the chance one last time to mess with her head by saying no one will ever care for her and that she will always be a monster. That she was trained to kill and they would never accept her as a hero. And that she will not be rid of Vermis, even if she kills him…and that her mother is still alive.

Jessica, distraught, runs off on her own after killing Otto. She changes her appearance and decides to reside in San Francisco, where she meets Jared Kurtz, who offers her a job. (and he is secretly HYDRA)

Meanwhile, Sam and Bucky make a deal with the government that they would find Jessica, Sam keeps it a secret Bucky helped her escape and Sam promises Bucky he would try to make sure she wouldn’t be hurt when they find her. If they don’t find her in a certain amount of time, the government will step in, and use any means necessary to detain her.

While searching for her, Bucky and Sam learn that Otto was killed and Bucky is relieved she actually did it.

When they do find Jessica, She desperately tells Bucky and Sam to let her be. She just wants everything to be normal. She feels alone.

They both sympathize with her. And while trying to have a calm conversation with her, government agents ambush her apartment. Bucky thinks Sam betrayed their trust and called in assistance earlier (but really the government just sucks and did not fully trust Sam and Bucky to get her in).

Kurtz also attacks saying he needs to avenge Otto’s death. A bunch of HYDRA goons fight Jess Bucky, and Sam. They get separated from Jess and Sam tells Bucky he didn’t call anyone and that the best choice right now is to take Jess in and convince the government to bring her to Nick Fury instead of sending her to the raft again. Bucky reluctantly agrees.

More HYDRA goons follow Jess as she tries to run.

Everyone is looking for Jess.

She thinks she is in the clear and then runs into Bucky. He’s supposed to capture her if her found her but they share this moment again, like the one in Madripoor. Where Bucky knows he should follow orders and take her in, but looking into her eyes, he just can’t. He’s holding her against a wall and Jess thinks he will detain her, and she doesn’t fight back because she does not want to hurt him.

He slips his hand into hers, and puts a comm device in it. He tells her to go and run far away from here. And to use the device if she ever needed him.

He lets go of her and Jess hugs him. Bucky is surprised at it, but gives into it.

She looks at him for one more moment before thanking him and running off.

Mid credit scene is Jessica in a bar with her hood up. She’s watching tv when they show the newsreel of when spidey’s identity is revealed. Jessica, astonished by another spider person, who seems in peril, quickly leaves the bar, leaving us wondering if she’s off to NYC to see this spider-man.

The end credit scene depicts Bucky looking at his own comm device. Like he’s hoping it’ll beep and her voice will come through. He can’t really decipher why he longs for her. Sam comes in and Bucky hides the device. Sam tells him that he knows what he did and starts to make fun of him for doing so, cause it MUST mean that he likes her. Bucky deflects it a bit, but just says she reminds him of himself. Sam also mentions that if they did take her in, he would’ve made sure she would be okay, just for Bucky. Bucky understands this, but knows how she didn’t want to be “taken in” to be dealt with. Sam also is like “maybe we should just...find her. I live in the middle of nowhere Louisiana, we can bring her there?” We don’t get to see what Bucky responds with to that.

[atamascolily]

"...history will call us wives."

I love Jessica's line here for so many reasons. First of all, it's such a badass way to end--and it's telling that Herbert lets Jessica have the last word here. It's also a Crowning Moment of Character Development, as Jessica--unmarried concubine to Leto Atreides for 16+ years for political reasons--was initially standoffish towards Chani, because she figured Paul was going to have to make a political marriage, and didn't want him to lose that option by marrying a Fremen instead. But then just as Paul is about to follow Jessica's original plan by proposing to Irulan, Jessica tells him to stop and follow his heart instead, to learn from her mistakes, and that she actually does love Chani.

However, Paul is busy trying to prevent a religious war in his name from engulfing the galaxy, and marrying Irulan is the easiest way to avoid it. He reasons that he can marry her in name only and he and Chani can keep going as before. Even though Chani agrees to this, it's still hard for her to watch, and she doesn't believe Paul will remain true to her when he explains. So I like that Jessica tries to comfort her here. But it's also supremely ironic because Paul hasn't even finished negotiating his victory and the seeds of his downfall are already sown in the resulting love/power triangle that's just emerged.

Furthermore, it's ironic that Jessica is appealing to history, RIGHT AFTER she makes fun of Irulan's "pretentions of a literary nature"--"Let us hope she finds solace in such things; she'll have little else." The reader knows, even if Jessica doesn't, that Irulan is going to write A TON of stuff about Paul--each section of the novel has been introduced by a thematically relevant quotation from one of Irulan's works--and Chani isn't mentioned in ANY OF THEM, AT ALL, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. History is written--if not by the victors, than those who write, and Irulan is poised to make herself come off as the victor to history, even if she can't get Paul. And we realize that Irulan is not an unbiased narrator, calling everything she's written into question.

This meeting with Irulan also parallels Paul's first meeting with Harah, where he "inherits" her along with Jamis's other possessions, and he's asked point-blank if he's going to marry her. He declines, because he's in love with Chani, and keeps it up, and I don't ever see Chani being jealous of Harah - perhaps because they're both Fremen and they know where they stand with each other because of the shared cultural background/low-level telepathy between members of the same sietch? Irulan is a Bene Gesserit-trained princess, and Herbert makes a point of telling us she's beautiful - while implying that Harah is a little past her prime, but still appealing to her looks to attract Paul because that's the only chance she has at real status under the circumstances.

We don't get to see much of Irulan in this book outside her writing, but I really like how she's looking over Paul during his confrontation with the Emperor, and being like, "No... no... Daddy, it's fine, I can work with this". She's a Bene Gesserit, and thus in on their Plan for Galactic Dominion Through Eugenics, which is yet another reason why Paul doesn't trust her and their marriage is in name only. Because the entire book is pretty much Paul giving the Bene Gesserit the finger after meeting Reverend Mother Gaius Mohamian in the first scene.

Also, the shipper in me enjoys Jessica low-key eyeing Gurney Hallack, newly minted Earl (not Duke!!) of Caladan, and being like, "Maybe I wanna..." and Paul's all "Whatever you want, Mom, I owe you big time, go fuck the bard if that makes you hapy, you deserve it" like it's no big deal... which it probably isn't to him, in the grand scheme of things.

[miax1119]

Mysterious Island - New life

Mysterious Island

 Tv-show from 1995

Characters: Joanna Pencroft Captain Cyrus Harding Gideon Spilett - writer Herbert Pencroft – son Captain Nemo  - fantom hidden, trying to control, experiment and spy on the inhabitants of the Island Jack Pencroft – Joanna’s husband Cutler: Pirate

Place: Island near New Zealand

New Life

The year 1866. Living in a stone cave called Granit house on a dessert Island, Joanna was glad no one remembered her birthday last week. She felt old. 30 years. Stuck here on this dessert Island with four men. Well three men, and a boy wanting to be a man. But at least she had both er husband Jack and her foster son Herbert with her. They had been here for three months when a pirate ship with three pirates set foot on the Island returning for a hidden treasure. The Pirate leader, Cutler, was ruthless and so was his two shipmates. Jack had gone with Captain Hardin and Herbert as an agreement to spare all their lives. They had agreed to help relocate Cutlers’ treasure while Gedion and Joanna stayed at Granit House captives of the two remaining prates.

The bald pirate, tall and big as a house, had his eyes on Joanna. He asked Joanna for a drink of water. Gideon who had noticed the way the pirates had their eyes on Joanna, was fast to fetch it, but the second pirate hit Gideon in his knees and sent him scrupling to the ground. Joanna was quickly by his side when the bald pirate yelled “Woman! Get me water!”. Joanne cautiously went for the water but when she got close enough the pirate grabbed her by her waist and kissed her neck while groping her body. Gideon got on his feet and tried to aid her but yet again he was sent to the ground by the second pirate and his hard fist. Gideon tried to defend himself in a quit impressive fight, but when both pirates let their fists rain upon him, he fell to the ground unconscious. With Gideon out the pirates had free play over Joanna and this realization sent both fear and rage through her. She picked up one of the pirates’ swords and challenged them to fight which humored both pirates. They laughed at her pitiful attempts to fight for herself.  It didn’t take long for the pirates to out clever her and the tall bald pirates’ hands were yet again all over her body ripping off her clothes, kissing her neck, her chest and mouth while Joanna called out for Gideon. 

All this didn’t go unnoticed by Nemo, an unknown fantom who was trying to control the interaction between the castaways. He had the whole island equipped with surveillance, cameras and traps. Usually, he loved when the group of castaways were presented to challenges to cause disturbance in their otherwise well socialized group. But this was too much. This violation of Joanna was beyond his control, and the outcome could be fatal. Nemo had to act quickly. He grabbed his gun and his coat and headed for granite house.

Meanwhile in Granit House the two pirates had Joanna pinned to the ground. One was holding her arms above her head while big and baldly was making himself ready to have his way with her. Joanna cried and called for Gideon while the two men laughed at her dismal.

Gideon slowly awoke all foggy in his head. He heard someone call out his name from a distance but it seemed impossible to fight the pain and cloudy vision.

The big pirate had ripped Joanna’s skirt to pieces and made his move, when a gunshot was fired and he fell on top of her. The other pirate looked panicked towards the entrance of the cave and was met by a tall black hooded man pointing a rifle directly at him. The hooded man talked slowly: “Move, away, from the woman!” The Pirate slowly moved away. Joanna was blinded by the body of the big bald pirate laying on top of her. She didn’t see the hooded man, but she heard his deep voice. Then she heard yet another gunshot and something fall to the ground. Nemo considered if he should free Joanna of the heavy body, but thought against it in fear of being discovered or having to explain his presence to her. He therefore retreated back to his underground layer.

Joanna was fighting to get the pirate off of her. He felt like a ton and breathing was becoming more and more difficult, not to mention the compromising position between her leg. Suddenly she felt fresh air enter her lungs as the heavy body was pushed away from her. Gideon had woken to the sight of two dead pirates and Joanna’s whimpering underneath one of the bodies. He caught eye of Joanna’s bare legs underneath the big pirate but he wasn’t prepared for the sight of Joanna when he pushed the pirate of her. With big surprised eyes he quickly pulled Joanna towards him so she was covered against his chest. “Oh Gideon” Joanna silently let a few tears slip down her cheeks and Gideon did his best to steady her against him. She was still out of breath and shaky on her legs. She looked up at Gideon and discovered his bloody nose and a big scar above his eye together with a very swollen eye. She let her cold hand caress his chin “you´re hurt, let me take care of you” He smiled at her heartwarming empathy. Only minutes ago, this woman was facing abuse and rape, and here she was, mostly naked, very bruised and only thinking of his injuries. She wanted to take a step away but a small cough from Gideon polity reminded her, of her current situation. She tired to pull what little fabric was left to cover her naked body. Gideon looked at her with great compassion:” are you alright? I mean… Did he?… Are you?” He didn’t know how to ask the simplest question and Joanna felt his dismal:” I’m fine, thanks to you”. He smiled at her and kept his eyes on hers, and then leaded her towards her sleeping area. He turned his back on her as she climbed the steps up to her place, to get dressed.

Gideon looked confused at the bodies on the ground: “How did you manage to shoot both?” He didn’t expect an answer and went on to inspect the scene. “where´s the rifle?”. He didn’t find any. Joanna came down again, dressed in a pair of pants and a loose shirt. Gideon all of a sudden felt she looked more fragile than ever. She, on the other hand, felt liberated in a pair of pants, seeming they were more comfortable moving around. She looked lovely he thought. Breathtaking actually. She smiled as she stood by him trying to fix her auburn-colored hair into a bun. Her hands were still shaking and a blue/yellow mark was taking its form on her chin where the pirate had struck her. She was shaky on her legs and Gedion took a step towards her to offer his hand to of support. He couldn’t help but notice her blouse was missing a few top buttons and her well-shaped cleavage was showing, and very hard to keep his eyes off. He was only a man. A man with urges and needs. He couldn’t help to notice a small bleeding scare from her collarbone and blood had run downwards into her cleavage. What a remarkable woman he thought to himself. She was seconds away from rape. She had been beaten up, and still she had the strength to stand on her own. Almost. Maybe the female sex wasn’t as vulnerable as expected.  Meanwhile by the beach, Jack, Cyrus and Herbert didn’t make as much progress as hoped in the search for Cutlers treasure. Cutler had all three men at gunpoint at all time, and Nemo, who had followed their quest from his hidden camera, was fearing this could turn out fatal to the wrong people.

And it did. Cutler was furious. His treasure was missing and he blamed the castaway. Seaming this was an Island Cutler knew very well, he had planted several traps around the Island. He got Jack separate from the rest and with one blow, he fired a toxic arrow into Jack neck. Jack was dead within minutes, but not until Cutler had swearer death over Joanna. Nemo had no chance to stop Cutler and tried to save Jack with antidote, but without luck. Jack was lost. Nemo let Jacks body float to sea and it was found two days later washed ashore. Joanna was devastated. She cried herself to sleep and woke up with nightmares. Herbert tried to comfort her. She loved him like her own but he could not make up for the whole in her heart.

  They had been here for six months. Four months ago, she lost her husband Jack to a pirate’s hand of death. In the time after Jacks death Joanna and Cyrus had made a bond. They had gotten attracted to one another. There are possibilities here, new life, Cyrus had said just moments before he kissed her the other day. Their first kiss. He had laid his arms around her waist and gently squeezed her into his chest, and she felt a warmth spreading through her body. Her head was spinning when they pulled apart and a smile spreading across both their faces. It felt so right. She was thinking about new life. Their life, their situation. Her situation. She let her hands caress her abdomen. New life growing within her. Jacks child. If she survived childbirth. Her mother and sister didn’t survive. It was one of the reasons she and Jack never had children. She was too afraid and had avoided pregnancy until now. But she didn’t have the herbs to make the tea to avoid pregnancy. So here she was. Four months pregnant, with the prospect of dying a cruel death in childbirth. She was so afraid and yet safe in Cyrus ‘arms. She had missed Jack something fierce. But Cyrus filled the whole in her heart.

Her mood was black and Cyrus felt it. He tried to comfort her, for whatever reason she was down. She had looked pale for some time now. He encouraged her to relax but she refused any comfort. She didn’t want any of them to think of her as weak.

She was working by the fire cooking dinner when nausea overcame her. A hand to her mouth she took a few steps away from the fireplace heading for the water bucket. She emptied her stomach and looked around, concerned anyone would see her. Luckily no one was around. But someone was always watching: Captain Nemo watched her through his hidden camera. Success! he thought to himself. New life. The chance to observe the pregnancy, birth and upbringing of a baby was something he hadn’t dare to dream off. How lucky he was to be given the chance to control new life from its beginning. Joanna went to lay down. Rest. She had been able to hide her symptoms but today was different. She feared something was wrong. She might lose Jacks baby. When Gideon and Herbert returned with firewood they found it curious Joanna was nowhere to be seen. Herbert pointed at her bed and the drawn curtains. Cyrus joined the men and they agreed to let Joanna rest. She had looked pale for some time.

A few days went by when Joanna and Cyrus were out collecting firewood near the cave. Joanna still found it more and more difficult to hide her pregnancy. She felt faint and stopped for support by a palm tree. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a few deep breaths. Cyrus silently approached her from behind asking if she was alright. She reassured him she just needed a moment to collect herself. Cyrus had noticed the small signs: her fatigue, mood swings, dizzy spells and her missing appetite in the morning. He also knew what they indicated. She was carrying Jacks child.

He supported her by the waist and found a place they could rest.

“You need to take care of yourself, Joanna!” He looked at her kindly and took her hand. She rested her head on his shoulder. “you know I’m here for you. I care for you very much” She looked at him with great passion. “yes, and I you” She wanted to tell him of the child but was not sure how. So, they just sat in silence listening to the music of the ocean. She rested her hand on her abdomen and the soft caress didn’t go unnoticed by Cyrus. He smiled as he smelled her hair and held her a little tighter. He made himself a promise to protect Joanna and the baby. This was joy in their dark life. New life. A few days later a native from another Island visited their place. His purpose was a spirituel quest and the arrival of his people the following month. With this arrival they felt a chance of rescue and a chance of medical help. Peter was the name of the native and he was a very good fisherman, who took time to show Herbert how to fish with great success. Peter also took an inkling to Joanna. One day they went off together looking for herbs and sharing knowledge. They sat by a river and talked about joy of life and Peters tattoos. Peter made a crown of flowers for Joanna.  She was fascinated by his culture.  He touched her face, her chin and her lips and leaned towards her. Just inches from her nose he stopped… he looked down at her body and slowly let his hand come to rest on her stomach. Her eyes were filled with surprise and flew to cover his hand with hers trying to stop him from discovering her secret. He smiled and then she realized, he knew. From afar Herbert watched the whole ordeal and was furious. Peter had no right to touch his mother and certainly not like that. He was supposed to be HIS friend. Not blinded by his mother. He ran from his hiding place and towards the cave, furious and with no one to talk to. Peter gently indicated for Joanna to lay down on the ground. “Let me feel this child. I sense great worry in you, but I also feel no cause for this”. He let his hands hover above her body, chanting spiritual words and rhythms when his hands came to rest on her abdomen. Joanna breathed out loud. Surprised by his touch. Peter felt around her abdomen. He smiled at her with the words “Strong” and pulled her shirt up to feel her skin just below her waistline. Gideon had felt a need to follow Joanna, not feeling sure of Peters intention and with a great protective feeling towards Joanna. Watching Peter feel around Joannas stomach from afar, he felt conflicted with erotic feelings and on one hand wanted to see how far this would go, but on the other hand also feared this would escalate into something it shouldn’t. He made his presence known to them by shouting: “What do you think you are you doing to her?” Gideon approached with speed. “move away from her!” Joanna tried to cover herself but too late. Gideon noticed the prominent swell of her stomach. A month ago, when she was injured, wet and unconscious he and Cyrus had to change her out of her wet clothes and had seen her naked. She didn’t have a prominent abdomen at that time, and by the food that was available to them, she couldn’t have gained that much weight. Only if she was… pregnant. But how could that be? Jack died so long ago. Thinking about it, he realized it was only about four months. All these thoughts only took a split second. He helped Joanna to stand but the movement didn’t go unseen by her body which reacted with dizziness and nausea. She quickly covered her mouth and turned to the side as she emptied her stomach. Gideon looked bewildered and shocked at Joanna while Peter was fast at her side. “She´s been feeling poorly lately. I don’t think she get enough food” Gedion explained. Peter smiled a bit and helped Joanna to stand. She looked a little shy. Ashamed the men had seen her like this. Cyrus whom had tried to talk to Herbert upon his return to the cave, came looking for Joanna. From the look on her face, she was indeed in need of a rescue. He went to Joanna’s side and put a protecting arm around her. “let me help you back to the cave Joanna and get you some water. You need rest” She didn’t resist and felt reassured and safe in Cyrus ‘arms. Gideon stood by unable to comprehend what was going on. There seemed to be some unspoken understandment between Joanna, Cyrus and Peter. He looked questioning at Peter. “Come sit with me Mr. Spilett” And Peter went along to explain what Gideon didn’t seem to understand.

On their way back to the cave Joanna stopped all of a sudden. “Joanna, are you alright?” She tried to compose herself, but truth was, she felt sick to her stomach and her vision was blurred. Cyrus approached her from behind and put a hand on the small of her back. “Joanna you look very pale” “Yes, I…” She let out a small gasp and fainted right into Curys´ arms. Cyrus carried her back to Granite house and laid her down on their primitive sofa. Cyrus brought her some water and kneeled beside her. She slowly regained consciousness. He took hold of her hand. “How are you feeling my dear?” He asked. “Better. And thank you.” Cyrus smiled “How are you, really?” Joanna looked down still very uncertain on the changes coming. She felt a small fluttering in her abdomen and gasped in surprise as her hands felt for the movement. Cyrus´ concerned grew and he put a hand onto hers Cyrus felt movement underneath their hands. “It´s moving!” Cyrus stated “I felt the baby move”. Joanna looked shocked at Cyrus:” You know?”  “Well, the signs are the same as Elizabeth’s when she was expecting our girls. I´m very happy for you, and be sure, that you are not alone. I´m here for you. And I’m here for the baby” “Thank you Cyrus”. He leaned towards her and gently kissed her soft rosy lips as his hands moved around her waist in a loving embrace. Herbert was watching the scene unfold from his bed up high in the cave. He was shocked. A baby. His mother was having a baby with Cyrus? She was cheating on his father? He was furious and stormed down the ladder. Joanna and Cyrus were surprised by his sudden arrival “Herbert? I didn’t know you were in here” Joanna spoke. She tried to stand but Cyrus urged her to be seated. Herbert came flying at Cyrus and swung a fist at him, almost hitting Joanna. Cyrus´ military training quickly prevented collision. “You and my mother!” Herbert shouted. “You seduced her! She´s having your child”. “Herbert please” Joanna pleaded. “Herbert, listen to me. I´m not the father of Joanna’s baby. Jack is!” Herbert looked confused between Joanna and Cyrus. “What? But how? How ´s that possible? Dad´s been dead for months”. Cyrus was not surprised by the fact, that a 16-year-old boy didn’t know anything about human reproduction and looked at Herbert with compassion. “Herbert. Surely you know, that a pregnancy takes several months? Nine to be exact, and it´s not more than four months ago since Jack died”. Herbert calmed down and sat down on a nearby rock as Cyrus continued. “But you are right. I do have feelings for your mother and being a father of two, I hope to be of some help to Joanna and the baby”. Herbert felt foolish. How could he have been so selfish. Of cause his mother wouldn’t go behind his back to have a romantic relationship on this Island where everybody knew what everyone was doing all the time. No secrets were possible here. So how had Joanna succeeded in hiding her pregnancy for four months? Herbert felt ashamed of himself. Without words he went to sit beside Joanna and took hold of her hand. “I´m so sorry mother. I didn’t mean to…” “It´s alright Herbert. I understand” She smiled motherly at him and he then went outside. He needed some privacy and distance.

  A few weeks passed and one day Captain Nemo cornered Joanna. She was going to the river for a bath. He watched her from a distance. Her beautiful wet body. She had brought food and water with her, and Nemo carefully let a few tranquilizing drops of sedative spill onto her fish and waited for her to be asleep on the ground. He carried her to a nearby cave he had prepared with candlelight for both light and heating. He had organized for a closer examination of Joanna, and so she was placed on a stone as big as a table. He measured her stomach, her breasts, her waist and drew some blood from her. He took notes and then placed her by the riverbank again. The tranquilizer was wearing off but being as defend less as she was, he waited for her to wake up. He didn’t want any harm to come upon her. She was carrying a precious gift.

Gideon found her sleeping by the river and went to check on her. “Joanna, Joanna are you alright?” He shook her gently by the shoulder but with no response. He studied her sleeping form. The sun was shining on her hair and her partly parted glittering lips. She looked radiant. He slowly touched her cheek and removed a few strays of her hair. He stole a few glances at her chest, curvy hips and swell of the stomach. She was absolutely gorgeous, breathtaking and so much off limits. Feeling his stare and his soft touch, Joanne slowly woke up. “Gideon, what´s going on?” she asked. “You seemed to have fallen asleep”. “What?” she sat up confused. “Why would I do such a thing?” The remaining tranquilizer in her system was making her a bit dizzy. “Easy” Gideon urged her to lie down. “It takes a lot of energy to grow new life” Gideon smiled at her. “You must take good care of yourself”. Almost on que the baby gave a good kick and with a gasp Joanna’s hand flew to her stomach. “What is it? Is the baby alright?” He asked. Joanna smiled and pulled his hand on top of her pregnant abdomen. Gideon felt a strong kick into his hand. He smiled surprised. It felt like nothing he´d ever experienced before. Joanna moved his hand around following the baby’s movements. Gideon wasn’t used to this kind of physical contact and was a little withholding at first, but his curiosity found it fascinating to feel this new life. Oh, how he would have loved for Joanna to be his wife. For this baby to be his. But their fate on this deserted island had condemned him to solitude. He would never experience the great joy of fatherhood as long as they were imprisoned here. Joanna felt his melancholy. She knew he was thinking about his fate to never know what love, marriage and children of his own would be like. Her heart was breaking for him and to show him sympathy she let her hand slide into his curly blond hair and drew him towards her. She looked at his soft lips as she planted a gentle kiss. He looked confused at first, but quickly found comfort and satisfaction in her touch. Laying on one arm beside her, he moved to let her head rest on the blanket while their kiss deepened and his left arm slowly embraced her. They were almost the same age. He knew she and Cyrus had something going on and had felt it somewhat unfair for a man 10 years his senior to run off with a woman more like his own age. He felt his temper building up. This should be his woman! His hand roamed her body, cupped her breast and she couldn’t help but let a small moan of pleasure escape her lips. Her sudden sound caused him to pull back a bit to see if he had hurt her but Joanna hungered for more and gently pulled him back into their kiss. She had missed psychical contact since Jack died. She had often fallen asleep crying for him. With closed eyes she could all most imagine Jack holding her. As if the baby read her mind it gave a good kick and it drew her attention to the present. They pulled apart gasping for air and the reason she had kissed Gideon surfaced when she looked into his sky blue eyes. This wasn’t Jack. She had just felt sorry for Gedion. “We should stop” Gedion reasoned. “I´m forgetting how to be a gentleman. I must hold back. However, tempting this is” He smiled at her “I must be intoxicated by my company”. Joanna looked down a bit shy and embarrassed by the way she had let her feelings run away with her. “I´m sorry Gideon” “Don’t be… We both found the comfort we sought” He realized she didn’t know she had whispered Jacks name during their kiss. Gideon longed for a woman, and Joanna for her husband. They smiled at each other and Gideon helped her to gather her thing. They walked home in silence. This was not to be mentioned to anyone. Nemo watched from his hiding place. This certainly was a surprise to him, but one he was looking forward to follow.

   The days went by in Granite house. Herbert spent more and more time in an abandoned hut higher up in the mountain. He was determined to find a way home keeping a look out for any ship that might come to their rescue. Gideon and Joanna made sure to keep distance between them and Cyrus was hovering over Joanna like she was a precious diamond. Joanna felt a little confined a truth be told she hadn’t felt well the last couple of days. Some pains had been coming and going in her abdomen, and a constant fear of loosing the baby was making her mad. Both her mother and sister had died painfully in childbirth and she was afraid the same thing was happening to her. She had been making herb-tea to subdue the pains. She didn’t want to alert the men. There was nothing to do about it.

But from the hidden cameras, Captain Nemo observed how Joanna often bent over in pain when she knew no one was watching. In his underground layer he had a well-equipped library, and he was reading everything he could find on pregnancy and the difficulties it might cause. This new life is testing me, he thought to himself. But I will not let anything happen to neither the baby nor Joanna. He made preparations for a new examination of Joanna. He would do everything in his power to help her.

“The dinner was lovely Joanna. My compliments to the cook” Gideon was in a festive mood. They had been so fortunate to capture three goats, and goat milk was a welcoming diversity to their trivial meals containing fish and fruit. They had also found seeds and vegetables growing at the top of the mountain. Surely, they had been the product of the previous inhabitant, Ayrton’s work. They had found his diary and a goodbye note. Loneliness had driven him to sea. His body never to be found. But he had left boxes of garments, pots and pans, dishes, books, tea and tobacco. It felt like Christmas day when they brought it all back to Granite house. It also allowed them a change of clothes and extra to spare. Cyrus helped Joanna finish the dishes even though she encouraged him to join Gideon outside for a pipe of smoke. Cyrus on the other hand, had noticed how she seemed unwell and didn’t want her to overwork herself. “Joanna why don’t you let me do this. You need some rest. Go lie down” Joanna was struggling with tears of frustration and was a little fast to reply “Don’t tell me what to do. I can take care of myself”. A small cry of pain escaped her lips and she doubled over the table. “Joanna!” Cyrus´ arms was quickly around her. “Are you alright? Is it the baby? Here let me help you” He supported her to the primitive sofa. She held her stomach and tried to breath calmly. Sweat was glistering and a few drops running down her beautiful face. Her hair clung to her skin. “How long have you been in pain?” Cyrus asked “It comes and goes… Oh Cyrus, what if I lose Jacks baby” “You won’t. I won’t allow it! Try to relax. Breath slowly. In. out” It was actually helping and Cyrus presence was calming on her.  Cyrus looked around the cave. He was certain they were being watched. He had found evidence of another presence on the Island. Someone who had the power to leave the island at their own will. To be continued

[the-little-crime-writer]

Allen, Louis - murder victim (1964)

A native of Amite County, Mississippi, born in 1922, Louis Allen dropped out of school in the seventh grade to become a logger and part-time farmer. Drafted by the U.S Army in January 1943, he served 19 months in uniform, including combat duty in New Guinea. Upon discharge from service, he returned to his wife and two young children, the beginning of a family that soon increased to six. Although a proud African American, Allen had no part in the civil rights movement that challenged Mississippi's pervasive system of racial segregation in 1961. He would become a martyr to that movement by coincidence, strictly against his will.

One who joined the Amite County movement willingly was 50 year old Herbert Lee, a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and participant in the 1961 voter-registration drive by Robert Moses of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Blacks who sought to vote in Amite County faced intimidation and worse, from racist vigilantes and from Sheriff E.L. Caston Jr., whose deputies raided NAACP meetings and confiscated membership lists. A neighbour of Lee's farmer E.W. Steptoe, led the local NAACP chapter and complained to the U.S. Department of Justice about Caston's harassment. On September 24, 1961, Justice attorney John Doar visited Amite County with Robert Moses, interviewing Steptoe and requesting names of any other blacks who had suffered harassment. Herbert Lee's name was first on the list, but Doar missed him that afternoon, as Lee was called away from home on business. There would never be another chance for them to meet. Early on September 25, the day after Doar returned to Washington, Lee drove a truckload of cotton to the gin near Liberty, Mississippi. Behind him, as he pulled into the parking lot, was another vehicle occupied by state legislator E.H. Hurst and his son in law, Billy Caston. An argument ensued between Hurst and Lee and climaxed when Hurst drew a pistol and shot Lee once in the head, killing him instantly. Robert Moses later described the event and its aftermath to journalist Howard Zinn. 

Lee's body lay on the ground that morning for two hours, uncovered, until they finally got a funeral home in McComb to take it in. Nobody in Liberty would touch it. They had a coroner's jury that very same afternoon. Hurst was acquitted. He never spent a moment in jail...I remember reading very bitterly in the papers the next morning, a little item on the front page of the McComb Enterprise-Journal said that a Negro had been shot as he was trying to attack E.H. Hurst. And that was it. Might have thought he'd been a bum. There was no mention that Lee was a farmer, that he had a family, nine kids, beautiful kids, and that he had farmed all his life in Amite County. 

One witness to the shooting was Louis Allen, who arrived at the cotton gin moments before Lee was killed. He watched Lee die, then saw a second white man lead E.H. Hurst to a nearby vehicle, whereupon they departed from the scene. Allen retreated to a nearby garage, where one of Liberty's white residents located him and walked him back to the cotton gin. En route to the crime scene, Allen's escort told him, 'They found a tire iron in that nigger's hand. They found a piece of iron, you hear?' 

Allen knew better, but he had a wife and four children to consider. Within the hour, he found himself at the county courthouse, where a coroner's hearing had been hastily convened. White men armed with pistols packed the hearing room, glaring at Allen as he took the witness stand and lied under oath, confirming the tale that Herbert Allen had been armed, assaulting E.H. Hurst when he was shot. The jury wasted no time in returning the verdict of 'justifiable homicide.' Hurst subsequently told the New York Times that he had quarrelled with Lee over $500 debt, which Lee refused to pay. When Lee attacked him with the tire iron.' Instead, he had struck Lee with the trigger unconsciously.' Hurst denied Lee's civil rights activity, dubbing his victim ' a smart nigger' who normally avoided conflict with whites. Guilt-ridden by his false testimony, Allen confessed the lie to his wife and to Robert Moses. Elizabeth Allen described the conversation in a 1964 affidavit, as follows:

The day Herbert Lee was killed, Louis came home and said that they wanted him to testify that Herbert Lee had a piece of iron. He said that Herbert Lee didn't have no iron. But he said for his family and for his life he had to tell that he had an iron. Louis told me that he didn't want to tell no story about the dead, because he couldn't ask them for forgiveness. They had two courts about Herbert Lee's killing. When they had the second court, Louis did not want to testify. He said he didn't want to testify no more that a man ad a piece of iron when he didn't have it, but he said he didn't have no choice, he was there and he had to go to court. He said he told the FBI the truth, that Herbert Lee didn't have a piece of iron when he was shot

The 'second court' was a state grand jury hearing, convened in Amite County a month after Lee was shot. Allen approached Robert Moses, reporting that he had told his story to FBI agents, suggesting that he could get protection with the Justice Department he would testify truthfully and 'let the hide go with the hair.' Moses then telephoned Washington, and heard from Justice that 'there was no way possible to provide protection for a witness at such a hearing' )In fact, such protection is routinely offered to witnesses in organised crime cases and similar matters.)  Allen went on to repeat his false story before the grand jury, which returned no indictments. 

Things went from bad to worse for Allen after that, as Amite County whites apparently learned of his abortive effort to tell the truth. Strangers visited Allen's home and accosted his children, threatening his life. In June 1962 Allen was arrested on trumped up charges of 'interfering with the law'; he spent three weeks in jail, and was threatened with lynching, and suffered a broken jaw after one of Sheriff Caston's deputies struck him with a flashlight. White customers stopped buying logs from Allen, and local merchants cut off his credit at various stores. Only his ailing mother kept Allen from leaving Amite County, but her death in late 1963 freed him at last. Eagerly, Allen made plans to leave Mississippi for Milwaukee, where his brother lived.

Unfortunately, he had already waited too long. On January 1st, 1964, one of Allen's white creditors stopped at the house to collect a bill payment. While Allen counted out the money, his visitor pointed to Allen's three year old daughter playing nearby, and remarked, 'It would be mighty bad if she turned up burnt, wouldn't it? She's an innocent baby, but she could get burnt up just like that. I could tell you more, but I'm not. If I was you I would get my rags together in a bundle and leave here.'

Resolved to do exactly that, on January 31, 1964, Allen sought work references from some of his former clients. The first, Melvin Blalock, declined to provide a letter, concerned that he 'might be helping a communist.' Another, Lloyd King, later recalled speaking to Allen around 8:10 pm. Two cars were seen trailing Allen's pickup when he left King's farm, driving home. At the foot of his long driveway, Allen left his truck to open the gate, then apparently threw himself under the vehicle. The move failed to save him, as two shotgun blasts ripped into his face. Son Henry Allen found his father's body hours later, when he returned from a dance.

No suspects in Louis Allen's murder were never identified, but Robert Moses placed partial blame for the slaying on the FBI's doorstep. Moses and other activists believed that G-men routinely leaked the contents of confidential statements to local police in civil rights cases, thus leaving witnesses vulnerable to attack by racist authorities or the vigilante Ku Klux Klan. The segregationist McComb Enterprise-Journal theory in its description of the murder, noting that 'Strictly non-documented rumours have been current that Allen may have become a 'tip-off man' for the integration-minded Justice Department. Similarly, of the spearheads of a reported complaint that 'economic pressure' being applied against some Amite County Negroes.'

[fuckyesdobiegillis]

hey dobie nation! it’s been awhile but im back with some ~dobie episode thoughts~ lol. basically that means i have work im procrastinating on but writing this’ll be like pulling teeth i know. alrighty let’s get into it!

1. will success spoil dobie’s mother? (february 28, 1961)

i've only watched this episode in full a few times. whenever i watched it i would usually just skip to the “don’t shoot the man in the moon” number and watch that over and over lmao. they really saved the best dobie song for last with that one!

i have a take, and y’all are probably gonna be like “what’s this dumbass talking about now” ... but just hear me out. this is the most lesbian episode of dobie gillis-- now dont click away! i have reasoning!!! the whole premise of this episode is winnie writing a letter about why she wants to go on a date with an actress that is so good that she wins the contest!!! and THEN dobie hits on a girl using lines that ZELDA WROTE. literally the premise of the half of it (a movie that i was hyped for and then majorly let down by rip)

anyways “don’t shoot the man in the moon” alone makes this episode top tier. possibly my favorite scene (def most watched scene) in the whole show. dobie and herbert in this episode were so awful to winnie. and another thing- it was kind of interesting to see the show break into straight up pop culture parody with merilee maribou. but atp we, as a society, have progressed past the point of making fun of marilyn monroe.

2. “the second childhood of herbert t. gillis” (march 7, 1961)

another great episode!!! so many good moments in this episode, and the trio finally graduates! honestly i think season 2 is great for ~the lore~ and this one is an example of that. i like getting the backstory of herbert dropping out of high school to work and then never getting around to finishing because of the war. 

one thing i dont like about this ep is mr. milfloss. i think it’s pretty clear this episode was written with william schallert and mr. pomfritt in mind- there’s a scene with him and trio in the school courtyard that definitely drives home that impression. all the pomfritt shtick is piled onto this guy and he just doesn’t have the same vibe and energy to pull it off. he was probably a good actor lmao i feel mean but it just wasn’t working here. i also think this episode would have been really interesting with mr. pomfritt to further develop the mr. pomfritt & herbert relationship that i think we get a lot more of in season 3.

also-- one last note before i move on! it’s kinda bizarre that this is the episode where the kids graduate, right? like they’ve spent almost two years on the show in high school, and the episode where they graduate is herbert-centric? kinda a weird choice huh? pls chime off haha!

ALSO! what a crazy idea to take this formula that’s working and then throw them into the army halfway through the season. what a risk. i really wish i knew what went into making that decision. alas and alack...

3. dobie vs. the machine (march 14, 1961)

oof okay this is one i had definitely only seen once. overall tho i liked it! mr. pomfritt is back in this episode, and dang it was good to see him. this is one thing i hadn’t mentioned with the last episode, but this stretch of episodes really made use of that classroom window that overlooks the courtyard... you know the one im talking about?

alrighty there are two gifs. i don’t know what it is, but im obsessed with this window. and i feel like that ivy didn’t used to be there? it’s a nice touch. i love this window lol and the shots look so interesting! like that shot of pomfritt teaching the class??? soooo good

anyways one thing that was kinda weird in this episode is that dobie and maynard apparently graduated last week (like in the timeframe of the show they said it was literally a week ago) but everyone is still in class??? is that a 60s thing? idk

basically the premise of this episode is herbert taking maynard and dobie around looking for guidance on what they should do with their lives. they stop in at the inside at the outside, our favorite location in the show haha. this is sadly the second and last appearance of the inside at the outside, and also i believe the last appearance of tommy farrell as riff ryan. i think he only did 2 episodes in season 2. it’s sad he was a good character, and it was nice for maynard to have an adult character who was in his corner/spoke his language, so to speak.  i really appreciated the scene between herbert and riff, talking about thoreau. this is definitely reading too much into it, but i kinda interpreted this as fuck capitalism lmao. which like, true. 

the episode wraps up with a bunch of doctors running tests on dobie and maynard, i guess to see what career they’re most suited for??? idk im not a stem major. anyways they have this big machine that they feed the data into and it spits out the answer, which is something that seems very commonplace today. (i also thought the machine looked pretty damn cool). dobie says he doesn’t want a machine to tell him what to do, so he rips up the piece of paper with the data. he says “you let machines tell you what to do next thing you know they’ll be running the world. people will be obsolete.” this scene hit me like a ton of bricks lol. we rely on technology for so much today we don’t even think about it. for those of us still in school we do EVERYTHING online. i guess dobie’s attitude in this episode must have reflected how a lot of people thought. nonetheless, it was interesting to see.

this episode wraps up with dobie deciding he’s going to enlist in the army. he has to do it anyways, so might as well get it out of the way now. herbert seems to show some reservations about this choice at first, which i would’ve liked to see more of. im not a pro-military person, and i've been watching m*a*s*h recently which is very anti-military, so i think it would've been interesting to see that angle and really get all of herbert’s feelings.

this week, i believe it’s one more episode at home, and then off to the army. like i said before, it’s a pretty crazy risk to give up a formula that works and throw the boys into the army. i don’t think that risk really paid off in 1961, but we’ll see how it holds up now. til next time dobie nation! <3

[harry-lloyd]

In many ways, the horrible wig was the best thing to happen to Harry Lloyd.

The shock of platinum blonde hair, slashed to a sensible bob at his shoulders like a high-fashion Legolas, was the coif that tied Lloyd’s indelible, insufferable Game of Thrones character together: Viserys Targaryen, the petulant narcissist whose play for the Iron Throne melts along with the rest of him under a pot of molten metal poured over his head, one of the show’s first and most iconic gruesome death scenes.

The splashy HBO production was the biggest job the young actor had ever landed, and as a character with an unmistakable, unforgettable look, to boot— the better to sear into TV fans’ consciousness.

Blessedly, that unmistakable, unforgettable look in no way actually resembled him, a then-27-year-old rising star with short, dark brown hair and alabaster complexion. He played one of the most memorable characters in recent TV history on possibly the last truly massive global TV phenomenon, yet, by the grace of a wig, he was still unrecognizable.

“I kind of loved that,” Lloyd tells The Daily Beast over Zoom from the loft study in his North London home. “And I kind of loved that he died. He had this lovely arc, and he still has his place in this enormous and infamous canon.”

Given how vivid that arc is in Thrones lore, it’s almost startling to remember that he was only on five episodes of the show.

“I had my go,” he says. “I got in early and I got out early. And he didn’t look like me, which, number one, is good because he is a little shit. And so I was happy to not have people throwing stuff at me in the streets. But number two, and I didn’t notice at the time, but it has since become the biggest show on TV. It doesn’t make me worry about being typecast so much.”

In the years since becoming a scalded puddle of boiling jewels and flesh, Lloyd has been able to shapeshift through an impressive résumé of prestige TV series and award-nominated films—Manhattan, Wolf Hall, Counterpart, Legion, The Theory of Everything—relieved of the kind of limitations actors who play little shits in garish white wigs on TV’s biggest show typically shoulder.

The occasion for our conversation is yet another transformation, as Bernard Marx in Brave New World, the splashy adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian sci-fi novel. The series is the marquee original offering for Wednesday’s launch of the new Peacock streaming service, casting Downton Abbey alum Jessica Brown Findlay and Han Solo himself, Alden Ehrenreich, alongside Lloyd in an updated take on the classic work.

Brave New World thwarts the idea of a restrictive, Orwellian dystopia with one in which society is instead forced into surrendering their inhibitions. “Welcome to New London,” a prologue explains. “We have three rules. No privacy. No family. No monogamy. Everyone is very happy.”

The new series boasts modernized flourishes when it comes to style—if there had been this much sex in Huxley’s book, we would have paid far more attention to it in high school—and sensibility; some of the problematically racist and misogynistic themes and plot points have been corrected.

Lloyd’s Bernard is an upper echelon member of society, called an Alpha-Plus, whose job is to maintain social order. Throughout the series, he experiences a crisis of conscience, an existential awakening at odds with the blissful stasis he’s meant to both control and enjoy.

If a narrow escape from typecasting and a career playing snooty, megalomaniacal manchildren has meant a diverse array of opportunity for Lloyd, then Brave New World marks more new territory: It’s his first outright leading role.

Lloyd had never read Huxley’s book before being cast, but was impressed by the ambition of the script, “almost like a mega tentpole movie in scale” but esoteric and satirical at the same time. “I was like, this has the whole package if they can shoot this, but I don’t think they can.”

It took one day on set for him to catch wise to the technical prowess at play. “I was like, wow, this really is a brave new world,” he says.

Don’t worry. He promptly scoffed at himself and rolled his eyes.

It is one of the best opening lines to a profile that I’ve read, from a 2011 feature on Lloyd that ran in Britain’s The Independent: “There was a time when Harry Lloyd worried that he was forever going to be typecast—as a woman.”

It was in reference to Lloyd’s days as a student at Eton College, where the young teen’s voice had not yet broken and he was cast as women in a slew of all-male Shakespeare productions.

Here we were prepping to engage with Lloyd about the perils of typecasting following his Thrones stint, ignorant of the fact that he had already confronted the issue decades earlier.

Lloyd laughs good-naturedly when the era of fake bras and bonnets is brought up.

“I hated it,” he says. Just when he had vowed never to agree to it again, in his last year at school he was asked to play Rosalind in As You Like It, by all counts a fantastic leading part. He nailed it, and earned raves. “At an all-boys boarding school, it took balls to put on tights, as it was.” A perfectly-earned smirk at his own joke follows.

The truth is that being typecast or pigeon-holed is a stressor that followed Lloyd, who grew up in London with parents who worked in the book industry. “Sometimes it’s just the face you have at a certain age…” he says.

His first major role came at age 15 in the BBC’s 1999 adaptation of David Copperfield, opposite Daniel Radcliffe. (Adding another fascinating layer to the trivia: Lloyd himself is the great-great-great grandson of Charles Dickens.) One of his first jobs after that was playing a bullying prefect in the series Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

“I guess that’s what I looked like, and I did that a couple of times,” he says. “Then I was like, I don’t really want to just be that guy. He’s a bit of a dick. And then I think next up I played the murderer in some procedural police thing, some young kid that’s gone sideways.”

Each time he felt a box starting to close its sides around him, he actively sought out something different. Having Great Expectations, in which he played Herbert Pocket, “the loveliest, most benign chap you’d ever meet,” air months after his Thrones debut was key. But he can’t refute that, with or without a platinum wig, there’s something about the way he looks that telegraphs a certain kind of sinister character.

“If I turn up in a murder thing, it’s often me who’s done it,” he says, grinning. “I don’t want to give anything away from the stuff I’ve been in. But I don’t know, there’s something about my face that is like, ‘He could do it.’”

After he had finished filming his part on Thrones and the series was about to come out, he was cast in the buzzy West End production of the Tony-winning play The Little Dog Laughed.

If you’re familiar with the work, a satire about Hollywood illusion (and delusion) in which an acerbic, big-wig agent crisis manages her rising-star client’s pesky “recurring case of homosexuality,” you understand why it’s a fairly hilarious, if sobering, project to be involved in just as an actor’s own fame and industry profile is about to skyrocket.

“Because I was about to be on Game of Thrones, I thought, this is the time for me to get an American agent,” he recalls. “And so the American agents, when they were in London, would come and see me in this play, which basically looks at agenting and their ways with quite a big, angry magnifying glass. They would come backstage and say, ‘Look, I am not like that…’” He laughs. “It was always quite a funny way to start the proceedings.”

Having starred in episodes of Dr. Who and played Charles Xavier in Legion, not to mention his connection to Thrones, Lloyd has had his taste of the particular brand of rabid, Comic-Con fandom. Though he prefers to classify himself as “adjacent-adjacent” to that world.

While there are certainly those who will know right away that he was a Targaryen, what he gets more of is a “Wait, how do I know you?” awkward conversation. “Genuinely, people are like, ‘Hey, did I go to school with you?’ I’m at that level of renown. You can’t quite place why you might recognize me.”

Asked how life under the coronavirus shutdown has been, Lloyd is very British about the months spent with his wife and their almost-2-year-old. “We’ve done alright,” he says. “We learned how to finally kind of plan our fridge. And now we know how to do our shopping tactically. We cooked some good stuff.”

For fear of sounding “solipsistic,” to use a word employed often in Brave New World, he identifies the extended time home with typical feelings actors have throughout their career.

“You have accelerated times in your life when things happen like a dream,” he says. “Things are so fast and our whole world’s rebuilt entirely every time you get a job. And then is the come-down and the fallout.”

He remembers that feeling from when he was doing plays: the energy and pace of putting on the show, and then a few weeks after it ends there’s a massive crash.

“It feels a bit like you’re in lockdown. You stare around on a Tuesday afternoon. You don’t want to watch anything. You don’t know what to do or who to call, and you kind of lose your style. There’s been a bit of that.”

Just when things got to the point that he felt like he might lose his mind, he was contracted to record an audiobook. So for a couple of days a week, he would sit up in his “sweatbox made out of duvets” and read Great Expectations aloud for Penguin. “That saved me for sure.”

On the subject of works by his great-great-great grandfather, Lloyd used to be at a loss for what to do when people brought it up. Often they would say, “Congratulations!” on the relation, as if he had accomplished something himself by being born into Charles Dickens’ lineage. “But these days, I’ll take it, I’ve decided. ‘Yeah, thank you so much.’ It’s a nice thing to celebrate.”

The 150th anniversary of Dickens’ death was in June. There had been plans for a commemoration ceremony at Westminster Abbey that, because of the shutdown, became a Zoom event instead.

“I don’t know how many people’s deaths get a 150th anniversary,” he says. “The fact that I have any kind of personal connection with that is very much secondary. But something that I’m very proud of.”

At risk of belaboring the point, we ask if working on any of the Dickens adaptations he’s starred in on TV or recording this audiobook makes Lloyd feel any sort of profound or poignant connection to him.

He laughs. “I can’t point to a physical sensation like hairs in the back of my neck standing. ‘I feel him. It’s me and Chucky D in the room right now.’”

[terribleco]

Ghost Town

Coventry has never been a skate mecca, but fun can definitely be had on a skateboard in the city of peace and reconciliation. With that being said, over the last couple of years, some of the great spots I, and many others, grew up skating have been removed by Coventry City Council. With no plans for a new skatepark from the council, it can feel like the skate scene is constantly being slapped in the face with the number of places to skate dwindling. I spoke to some of the Cov locals about some of their favourite long gone spots, in an attempt to understand why our dead spots, no matter how innocuous, are part of skateboarding history. 

Header photo by Ryan Bradley.

I grew up skating in Coventry in the early 2000's. By the time I had started skating, the spots had been skated for decades prior, but still had plenty of life left as the new boom of skaters entered the city. The spots have always had a rough and raw quality to them, but then again that was part of the charm. Banks, ledges, rails, stairs, even the odd street transition - but all of them had a common aesthetic of a city that had been rebuilt and reimagined through a brutalist lense after the second World War. The spots are decent enough to get the attention of Stereo's Carl Shipman, Darkstar's Joe Hinson, and the respective Get Lesta and Baghead crews: so it stands to reason that they are most certainly important in British skateboarding history. 

Andy Clare, one of the OG Cov Street skaters, is the owner and operator of Spray Station - a graffiti shop in Coventry’s Fargo Village. He's a lifelong skateboarder in the city, having seen new spots crop up again and again. He remembers many of the spots from the 90's era, many of which were still present when I started skating, and only recently were demolished:

"Brickies was great, I grew up skating those banks and loved it there despite the terrible floor and smell of piss. The balcony spot (aka Virgin Wall rides) was fun with good flat, grindy ledges and steep banks. The marble bank/wallride behind the west orchards escalators was great, and there used to be some big square wooden benches too."

P: Gaz Taylor boosts a melon out of Brickies for his “New Blood” article in Sidewalk.

Brickies, aka The Brickworks, was my favourite spot in the world. So much so, I wrote an obituary on this very blog when it got demolished last year. For many of us who grew up in Coventry, Brickies was endless fun: lip tricks, bank tricks, raw, unforgiving ground, and the openness of a skatepark made it the perfect challenge for anyone who enjoyed riding a skateboard. 

Gaz Taylor was part of the same generation of skaters as Andy, and has been skating in Coventry almost as long as I've been alive. Consistently adept at tackling the street spots in the city, he even got snapped doing a melon at Brickies in an issue of Sidewalk. Brickies wasn't his only favourite place to skate though:

"There was a flat bar outside the Belgrade theatre next to the fountain, about knee high.  Perfect for learning rail tricks on. I remember it used to shoot you off the end at speed as it was slightly down hill, that was really fun. Also, the old banks at Cov and Warwickshire Hospital were really good fun, that was a very long time ago though."

Ryan Stanway was one of the first skaters I met down the Memorial Park, before Terribleco was even a thing. Despite meeting at a skatepark, he is largely a street skater, and knows the spots of Coventry better than the back of his hand. He remembers one of the most infamous stair sets in Cov:

"Pigeon Shit has to be up high in the list of spots. It was the first decent sized set of stairs I landed tricks down when I was younger. There always used to be massive session there with 20 plus people all trying stuff." 

P: Moose throws a Varial Heel down at Pigeon Shit. Photo by Ryan Bradley

Pigeon Shit was a stairset in a "golden triangle" of spots in Coventry: an area surrounding the University where you couldn't walk for more than 10 seconds without encountering more skateable architecture. It was a long 4 set, merging into a 5 set as the landing was on a slight hill, and had a knee high ledge running along the right hand side. The ledge was battered from years of abuse at the hands of trucks and BMX pegs alike, but it didn't stop people like Kris Vile, Josh Walters, Ant Smith and others getting bangers on it. Josh's last trick in my vid "Batface" saw him getting a FS Tailslide Bigspin out on the ledge, and the same video saw Ralph Cooper close out his part with a switch hard flip down the stairs at Pigeon Shit. It was a proving ground for any half decent street skater in Coventry. 

Ryan Bradley, a regular contributor to this blog, lives out in the Warwickshire village of Cubbington, but his real home is at the street spots in the centre of Coventry. A regular of the scene for more than 15 years, Ryan's memory of street spots is pretty similar to my own. He remembers some of the more obscure spots and lesser remembered favourites:

"The pyramid spot at the old precinct entrance, next to New Look was so tight back in the day, and got so rinsed, especially by Tony Lui. The old blue fountain with transition at Belgrade was cool from what I remember, and was pretty fun to skate around in. The double death set, with the double rail that was right next to Brickies was great too. Obviously gotta mention Brickies itself, just because so much shit has gone down there for so long. There was a road gap on the hill in between the Boy's club and Gosford Street at the University library: I remember Duffman trying to conquer that, and I’m pretty sure they filled that in."

Some of the spots Ryan brings up were incredibly gnarly and were rarely skated. The double death rail didn't see many tricks go down on it, but Stan Byrne caveman boardslid it in the 2013 Terribleco video "Concrete Jungle". The road gap at the University library was like something straight out of San Francisco - a hill bomb spot with a gap over cobbles about the width of 1 and a half cars. The only person I know to have cleared it is Tony Lui. Finally, the old precinct pyramid spot was a small, whippy bank spot, which saw plenty of quick footed lip tricks go down from Tony Lui, Harry Myers, Kyle Smith and a wallie over the whole thing by Joxa. 

P: Tony Lui boosts a FS ollie out of the Pyramid Bank spot. Photo by Ryan Bradley

New spots (at the time) like the Herbert were popping up a lot, replacing old 1960's architecture. It was a reminder that the city had been evolving and changing long before some of us even considered standing on a skateboard, or even before we were born. Gaz Taylor remembers dozens of spots I had never even seen in my time skating:

"Manual pads in Whitefriar's car park were popular in the 90's. Barrack's car park had some rad free standing painted curbs, and some small banks shaped like half of a pyramid that we used to use to get air out of. There was a small rail outside the transport museum with no run up, that was good for cave man slides."

"In the late 80's there was a mini ramp in the woods in Canley next to Tesco, built by Phil Hunt. I remember it had bright orange coping on one side and bright green on the other side. The paint would stay on your trucks for a while after. Safeway's car park on Holyhead Road had some rad slick curbs and some mud gaps. That was one of the main hang out spots for skaters in the early 90's too. Grindable window ledges of the Coventry tax office building were very good fun."

P: An after dark session at the Virgin Wallrides. Photo by Ryan Bradley

This article was inspired by the demolition of the concrete benches at the Littern Tree spot - named after the pub nearby. Current skaters in the scene mourned the loss of the spot, but speaking to sources who have had an eye on the redevelopment a brand new hub of spots is planned. Old spots are great and we miss them when they're gone, but there's a lot to be said for the excitement of new architecture and the spots that are yet to be. 

Nostalgia and history are powerful things, and they definitely contribute heavily to skateboarding. The cyclical trends, the feeling of skating a park you haven't been to in 10 years, and the stories people tell of what trick was done at which spot. No matter what new spots are planned for Coventry, the old spots like Brickies, Virgin Wallrides, Littern Tree and Pigeon Shit will live on through what we remember about them, and of course the footage we got along the way. 

The Brooklyn Banks, Wallenberg, Hubba Hideout: These are all legendary, long gone spots that skateboarders talk about in hushed tones, but they don't compare to our own personal spots we grow up skating, and miss immensely when they are gone. I would give my left nut for the chance to skate Brickies again, without a shadow of a doubt. For every local spot that gets demolished, it takes fond memories of a whole skate scene with it. Everything is temporary, so skate your spots whilst you got 'em.