Tumgik
#prissy blaire
thicksexyasswomen44 · 2 months
Text
Already
@_prissy
@thicksexyasswomen44🍸🍹
130 notes · View notes
jonismitchell · 26 days
Text
fun dair au: dan is a physicist who’s trying to get funding for a harebrained experiment and blair is his prissy benefactor who doesn’t really think he’s going to pull it off but it Sounds Interesting…
4 notes · View notes
citruslullabies · 7 months
Note
greetings!🌌 would you like to write something about Blair & Marie from "soul eater"? this is one of my favorite dynamics; besides, I think it can turn out very comfortable, warm and at the same time funny and kind X)
Of course I would love to!
Trigger warnings: none
Romantic/platonic: unspecified
Requested by: ideological-rudiment
Category: short and sweet
Ship (romantic or platonic): Blair x Marie
Word count: 245
Bitchy Witchy
Tumblr media
Marie was a very gentle woman, generous and kind but had a spark of fierceness behind her eyes. The total opposite of her dear friend, Blair. A witch who was mischievous and seductive.
The blonde death scythe was walking around, just taking a deep breath of fresh air. It felt suffocating having such a high role.. but before she could have a true moment of peace, a black cat started running beside her. She already knew who it was but tried to act oblivious. “Marie~!” Blair happily cooed in her car form, prancing around all prissy like she always does. Marie took a deep breath and looked down at her witchy friend, letting out a sigh.
“..you could've just.. walked up to me instead of being in cat form. I don't want to see you naked if you transform back.” She said softly, stopping and picking the feline up before continuing to walk. Blair didn't argue but instead stretched out in her arms as if she was exhausted and did the hardest work in the whole world.
The witch got snug and looked all smug and comfortable in Marie’s arms. “C'mon, what's the fun in that? Besides, you can't carry me if I'm in my regular form.” She pouted, before yawning and complaining about her day as usual as she summoned nail clippers and a brush to tend to herself as she whined. She was nice enough to share though.
Marie really needed new friends.
Tumblr media
Thanks for requesting!
3 notes · View notes
candygrlsworld · 10 months
Text
Tumblr media
Characters like Cher Horowitz, Hilary banks & Blair Waldorf , really get me like I really do love fashion and shopping this much. I love Chanel, Tiffany’s, miu miu and Dior. I love finding new ways to do my hair and my makeup. I love diamonds. I love self care and pampering myself. There is nothing wrong with being a prissy and boujie girl. Nothing wrong with being high maintenance and holding yourself up to standards. Or even looking up to women like Marilyn Monroe. Who was hyperfeminine, smart and sexy. To me these women truly embody princess energy. As for me? I really am a princess brat. And forever a material girl.
Tumblr media
4 notes · View notes
themorgueblog · 1 year
Text
::actin real rude, bad attitude::
Tumblr media
┊credits┊
—✧ body+cosmetics
◦ Hair: Truth - Prissy Hair
◦ Toe Nails: Bunk - Basic Nail Applier @ Mainstore
—✧ apparel
◦ Gauges: Bunk - Broken Heart Tunnels @ Mainstore
◦ Choker: Rotten - Dearest Choker
◦ Dress: Palette - Blair Dress
◦ Slippers: Fluid - Buttafly Slides @ Mainstore
༺♡ Thank you to my Sponsors ♡༻
• Bunk
• Fluid
➳♡ Featured
• Truth
• Rotten
• Palette
2 notes · View notes
disappointingyet · 1 month
Text
Less Than Zero
Tumblr media
Director Marek Kanievska Stars Andrew McCarthy, Robert Downey Jr, Jamie Gertz, James Spader USA 1988 Language English 1hr 38mins Colour 
Oooh, aren’t these rich kids screwed up? Tsk, tsk
For a few minutes at the start, it’s possible to believe that this movie’s stinking reputation was undeserved, that like, say, Absolute Beginners, it’s worth a more sympathetic look now that time has passed… A college kid somewhere in America’s snowy east gets a phone call, The Bangles’s propulsive cover of Hazy Shade Of Winter accompanies him as he flies back to LA, goes to his huge midcentury family home and then to a party that has been decorated with (nothing could be more ’80s) hundreds of TVs. 
Tumblr media
If Andrew McCarthy always had a somewhat blank screen presence, that’s maybe OK for one of those observer/narrator characters. James Spader as a suave coke dealer who calls people ‘old sport’ is just about perfect. Jamie Gertz at least wears the clothes impeccably. And who could be more suited to playing a charming, indulged addict than Robert Downey Jr, a man whose career somehow survived his many substance-fuelled fuck-ups? (We’ll get back to that.) 
But, alas, this movie does stink. In two different ways, one of which matters more than the other. It stinks as an adaption of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, adding a clunky sense of morality, turning the main character, Clay, from a kid who very slowly comes to realise how much his time at a New England college has left him out of sync with his old friends to a prissy guy who arrives in judgement mode. It forces BEE’s drifty, episodic book into a simple, finger-wagging story about two boys, a girl and the dangers of DRUGS. 
Tumblr media
Just say no, kids
That it very much isn’t the book – and frankly, there was no way that anything resembling the novel could have been made by a Hollywood studio in the mid-80s* – isn’t a fatal flaw. There are unfaithful adaptations that are good films. But it’s worth asking what you would want to take from the novel: as I’ve said, it doesn’t have a story structure that lends itself to conventional filmmaking, nor are the characters carefully constructed.
What made the book such a phenomenon – and believe me, people went nuts about it (and I was one of them) – was the way the distinctive present-tense prose style immersed the reader in this world of numb, spoilt, rich brats who are sensation-seeking but not sensation-finding because nothing, it turns out, is so screwed-up it actually manages to wake them up.  When I read it, aged 15, I wasn't sure whether it was any good or not but I did know that no writer – not even Raymond Chandler – had insinuated their rhythms and phrasing into my thought train so completely. Whenever I read a couple of chapters of the book, my brain would shift into continuous flat narration for the rest of the day.
Tumblr media
One of the many excellent decisions Mary Harron made in her great adaptation of Ellis’ American Psycho is understanding that we need the writing, that without the sensibility of the prose this is a just a horrible story about a rich guy murdering people that tells us nothing.  I’m not sure that having Clay narrating would fix Less Than Zero, but I do know that without it much of what makes the book work has gone.
Tumblr media
And so what do we have in its place? In LTZ-the-movie, Clay (McCarthy) is summoned home during the Christmas holidays by Blair (Gertz), his ex-girlfriend. He’s thinking she might want to get back with him, but in fact she’s worried about Julian (Downey), Clay’s bestie but also the guy Blair left Clay for. Will Clay forgive them both? Can they help Julian, whose bottomless appetite for freebasing coke has him 50G in hock to the elegant but dangerous Rip (Spader)?
They go to lots of clubs and spend much time driving through the LA night in Clay’s vintage Chevy Corvette. There are a couple of terrible, terrible 1980s movie sex scenes. Parents just don’t understand. Clay disapproves – he would be pouting but I’m not sure McCarthy’s tiny mouth can manage a pout. 
Tumblr media
And Downey is incredibly annoying. God, is he annoying. He’s this whirlwind of puckish energy, constantly doing something to remind us he’s on screen. He’s as overactive as McCarthy is inert. Considering that to some extent, Downey was the guy he’s playing, it might be true to life. But it’s pretty near unwatchable. 
Some of it looks pretty. Gertz gets some good outfits, as do McCarthy and Spader. Some of the songs on the Rick Rubin-masterminded soundtrack are great, some very much not. But the story is so clumsy, so basic and so obvious. 
Tumblr media
The director is Marek Kanievska, who I will willingly say I had never heard of. Before this, though, he had directed Another Country, a film about gay Marxists at a posh British boys school in the 1930s starring Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, and which – perhaps ironically – had its biggest impact encouraging the fashion for interwar clothes and hair styles. And that’s a pro-gay film, at least by 1980s standards, whereas LTZ-the-movie is homophobic – making Clay, who is casually bisexual in the book, aggressively straight and seeming to suggest that the sex-with-men aspect is one of the main issues why the fact that Julian is turning tricks is disturbing. I wonder if the director started this with very different intentions.
So, then, no, this is not a lost classic. Its reputation as a classic instance of Hollywood taking a book and forcing it into both an ill-fitting structure and an unnuanced moral stance is well-earned. Not even a fun, trashy watch, even. 
*This film, the thoroughly sanitised version of the story, still got an 18 certificate in the UK; in the US it was an R at a time when studios certainly did not dabble in X-ratings. 
1 note · View note
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Prissy Blaire
2K notes · View notes
jaw--droppingwomen · 6 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Prissy Blaire
2K notes · View notes
tingsparis · 7 years
Photo
Tumblr media
546 notes · View notes
hellotheres · 4 years
Text
under  the  cut  you’ll  find  a  masterlist  of  FORTY - FIVE  ( 45 )  OF  UNDERUSED  FIRST  NAMES  +  NICKNAMES  &  MEANINGS  !  the  names  are  loosely  organized  by  feminine ,  masculine  ,  and  gender - neutral ,  and  there  are  fifteen  ( 15 )  of  each  .
please  like  or  reblog  if  you  use  /  find  this  helpful  ,  thank  you  !
Tumblr media
FEMININE  !
shelagh  ( shell / shells / leigh )  —    heavenly  .
cynthia  ( cyn / cyndy )    —    moon  goddess  .
beatrix  ( trix / trixie / bea )    —    voyager  ,  traveler  .
louise  ( lou / louie )    —    famous  warrior  .
rosemary  ( rosie / rose / mary )    —    dew of the sea  .
millicent  ( mills / milly )    —    honeybee  or  strength  .
sybil  ( syb / sibby )    —    prophetess  .
hadley  ( hads / haddy )    —    meadow  of  heathers  .
theodora  ( dora / dori / theo )    —   divine  gift  .
miriam  ( miri / mira / ree )    —   sea  of  sorrow  .
phillipa  ( phil / phils / pippa )    —    lover  of  horses  .
rosalind  ( rosa / rose / lyn )    —    pretty  rose  .
priscilla ( cilla / prissie )    —    ancient  one  .
elvira  ( vira / elvie )    —    foreign  and  true  .
mirabelle  ( mira / belle )    —    a  wondrous  beauty  .
MASCULINE  !
alistair  ( ali / alis )    —    defender  of  the  people  .
arthur  ( art / artie / archie )    —    noble  or  couragious  .
sebastian  ( seb / ashton / ash )    —    revered  .
aldrich  ( al / aldie )    —   old  king  .
dorian  ( dori / rian )    —   child  of  the  sea  .
tyron  ( ty / ron )    —   from  the  land  of  the  yew  tree  .
ashford  ( ash / ashby / ford )    —    by  the  ashes  .
winston  ( win / winnie )    —   wine’s  town  or  friend’s  town  .
walden  ( wally / alden )    —   valley  of  the  welsh  .
leonard  ( len / leo )    —    lion  strength  .
ellery  ( el / lery )    —    alder  tree  .
abner  ( abby )    —    father  of  light  .
beckett  ( beck / becks )    —    dweller  by  the  brook  .
benjamin  ( ben / benji / benny )    —    son  of  my  right  hand  .
atticus  ( attie / atty )    —    of  attica  .
GENDER - NEATRAL  !
wesley  ( wes / leslie / lee )    —    field  or  pasture  .
brent  ( bree )    —    hilltop  or  burnt  .
daley  ( day / days / lee )    —    valley  .
blair  ( bee / lairy )    —    battlefield  .
valentine  ( val / len )    —    healthy  and  strong  .
harlan  ( harly / lany )    —    land  of  the  hares  .
kelsey  ( kel / kels / kelly )    —    ship’s  victory  .
kennedy  ( ken / kens )    —    helmeted  chief  .
brighton  ( brigh / bright )    —    the  bright  town  .
emerson  ( emmy / em / emery )    —    brave  and  powerful  .
oakley  ( oak / lee )    —    oak  tree  field  .
sawyer  ( saw / sully )    —    wood  cutter  .
julien  ( jules / julie / lien )    —    youthful  and  downy  .
florian  ( flor / rian / flora )    —    flowering  .
landry  ( lan / lans / dree )    —    land  ruler  .
228 notes · View notes
Text
ooc: All Available Muses/Characters on the blog!
Final Fantasy 14:
Tumblr media
Shay Pierina: (A Miqo’te who was found as a child outside a small village that is part of the Ul’dah kingdom. Adopted by kind Hyurs, she lived in poverty but didn’t let it bother her and worked to protect her family. After discovering the Echo, she happened upon a member of the Scions and decided to join and travel away from home and became the Warrior of Light.)
Fandomless:
Tumblr media
The Augustina Sisters: Iris, Lillianne and Camillia, the three princesses of a kingdom called Lapis. They are gifted in water and ice elemental magic. Lily is the oldest and is soft and mature, her older sister personality showing to even those who are not her sisters. Iris is very flirtatious and playful and quite carefree. Camillia the youngest is shy, sometimes prissy, but can warm up to others.
Genshin Impact:
Tumblr media
Yueliang Song (An Electro Claymore user who is an adventurer working for the adventurer’s guild but is also a dancer on the side, performing for festivals held usually in Morax’s honor. Confident in her skills as an adventurer and her dancing, she works hard day and night.)
Tumblr media
Kyana Aeira (A Pyro Vision user from Mondstadt who dreams of becoming a Knight of Favonius one day. She works hard taking on random tasks from the people to prove herself capable. She is  determined and optimistic and tends to  listen more to her emotions than think with logic. Has a One Piece AU!)
Digimon:
Tumblr media
Christina Terrwyn (A spunky digi-destined with the Digimon Dracomon. She is rambunctious, hyper, and a tad reckless, willing to rush into a fight without thinking. She also can go a bit overboard in a fight out of excitement.)
Fandomless:
Tumblr media
Sylvao Ter’on (A clever demon in charge of a mercenary group including a couple of odd twins he found as children. He can be ruthless to those who oppose or disobey him but otherwise treats whoever follows him with kindness and helps them with anything they need.)
Kingdom Hearts:
Tumblr media
Ai Malificia (The Somebody of Xia who lives in Radiant Garden. A sweet, innocent girl who was sheltered due to her overprotective parents. She grew up around flowers and a flower shop and developed magic pertaining to plants which carried into her Nobody form. Has a Fire Emblem Three Houses verse and a Goddess verse!)
Tumblr media
Xia Malificia (A Nobody who is flirtatious, mischievous, and a bit manipulative. She wants to become a part of Organization XIII and use them for her own ends. A trouble maker. Has multiple AUs including a One Piece AU.)
Tumblr media
Diana Fotieni (A keyblade wielder with a keyblade that is supposed to represent a balance of light and darkness. But Diana believes all darkness should be  eradicated to protect the people. Acts rather knight like. Has a Pokemon verse, Final Fantasy 15 verse and a Fire Emblem Three Houses verse!)
My Hero Academia:
Tumblr media
Kalliphae Myressei (A moth girl with a healing Quirk who is a nurse in training. She is also a noble from a far off place that traveled to Japan and takes that position seriously, having a royal air about her. She can also be quite stubborn, having a desire to follow her dreams no matter what. Kalli always tries to be dignified and lady-like in everything she does.)
Fandomless/Naruto:
Tumblr media
Midori Mihata (A clumsy, scared ninja girl who one  would possibly say is the worst ninja ever. Wants to make her clan proud and tries hard to be the best she can be. Also gets rather flustered and shy around boys.)    
Pokemon:
Tumblr media
Blair Mahou (Braixen Gijinka who thinks she is a magical girl. Flirty and mischievous sometimes but mainly likes to help  people with her ‘powers’. Likes to put on a show in order to gain  reputation and hopes to get her own tv show) 
Tumblr media
Piper/Peeps (An Altaira Gijinka girl who can’t speak human very well and tends to just say Peep or chirp or hum. Very innocent and naive and loves to give hugs to people and can be a tad air-headed.)
Fairy Tail:
Tumblr media
Emilia Clarimond (Emilia is a Celestial Wizard  with the Jade Zodiac Keys, Mouse, Monkey, Tiger and Sheep! She is clever, stubborn, hard headed but can become friendly when she gets close to someone. To her, her Zodiac summons are like family. Has a Fate series Master verse!)
Fandomless:
Tumblr media
Iyumi Akuma (A bratty, whiny, wannabe queen with high delusions. She can be a major  pain, demanding attention or demanding  servants but deep down wants a  king to serve and be submissive towards. Can change to be better with time. Has a Genshin Impact verse, a Pokemon verse, a Demon verse and a Dark Goddess verse!) 
Monster Hunter:
Tumblr media
Sonafuwa (A Paolumu who gained the ability to turn human. Sonafuwa is shy and tends to stay in the trees and away  from hunters so she won’t get hunted. When she meets someone friendly,  she becomes more calm and is happy to make a new friend.)
Tumblr media
Sakura (A Pink Rathian that gained the ability to turn human. Territorial at first but can become friendly if she sees the other means no harm. Prissy and doesn’t mind Hunters so long as she isn’t their target.)
Fandomless:
Tumblr media
Ourania Thanos (A dragon that can turn into a human. Cocky, egotistical, and  loves to show off to others. Loves to fight people just to fight strong opponents  and also loves to eat lots of meat and drinks lots of ale. Has a Monster Hunter verse where she is a Zinogre gijinka)
Yugioh:
Tumblr media
Miyuki Tenshi (A sweet, kind-hearted girl with a deck of angelic creatures revolving around Sanctuary in the Sky. She has the duel spirit of Happy Lover and is convinced she is the only one who has one as she has yet to meet anyone else who can see her. Has multiple AU verses including a fairy au, angel au and Light Goddess verse that goes with Iyumi!)
Tumblr media
Aku Yazoi (A wannabe punk boy who is hot tempered and  tries to act cool but is a sucker for cute girls. Is kind of a dweeb. Is from 5Ds. Also has fandomless verse for non-Yugioh threads)
10 notes · View notes
murkserious · 4 years
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Prissy Blaire
32 notes · View notes
adamwatchesmovies · 5 years
Text
Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms (2006)
Tumblr media
The animated Hellboy adventure Sword of Storms was released to get people excited about the upcoming Hellboy II: The Golden Army. At this, it does a fine job. We're not talking cinema-level quality but if you’re watching this, it’s on TV or home video, paired up with the Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron so you get your money’s worth.
When Japanese folklore expert Professor Sakai discovers the Sword of Storms, an ancient weapon containing the demons of thunder and lightning, it could mean the end of the world. BPRD members Liz Sherman (voiced by Selma Blair), Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), and Hellboy (Ron Perlman) are sent to investigate. 
Based on the comic by Mike Mignola and taking queues from Guillermo del Toro’s live-action films, the character designs and styles are their own. It’s not a bad thing but between the practical effects of the movies, the distinct style of the comic book and this, it’s my least favorite. You can tell compromises have been made to accommodate the animation studios and the limited budget. Overall the characters move with weight and the motions are fluid, but this is TV-quality stuff. You’ll notice, for example, that the BPRD insignia is not consistent from scene to scene and a couple of the computer-generated effects stick out. It's not a huge criticism, but worth noting.
Ron Perlman does well with the voice work, having done many animated films before. Doug Jones and Selma Blair are just ok. Sometimes they come off as a little wooden. On the upside, the story introduces a number of pleasant side characters - hopefully, we'll see prissy psychic Russell Thorne (Mitchell Whitfield) and troll expert Kate Corrigan (Peri Gilpin) again.
The strength of this hour-long animated adventure is its fairytale/mythical sense of reality and logic. The possessed Prof. Sakai throws Hellboy into a realm filled with Japanese monsters and seeing him confront one after another is fun. Rather than try and modernize or make them hip and cool, the story embraces the weirdness of Kappas and Yōkai. It's the right way to go about it. Folktales are weird, which can make them seem silly under the wrong light. This is also what can make them creepy or scary. When placed next to the already outlandish Hellboy, the steady flow of bizarre rules makes sense in the way only stories like this can.
Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms is nothing groundbreaking. As a way to pass the time, or as a means to get a little bit more of the character while you’re sitting on the couch - perhaps introducing the big red to young, potentially future fans, it’s fine. The film is short, it’s got cool action and plenty of monsters. You get what you want and expect. (On Blu-ray, April 23, 2019)
Tumblr media
1 note · View note
Note
Blair's style was bad but the worst part was they seemingly gave up on styling her eyebrows in the later seasons. it made her look so unkept compared to her prissy outfits lol
And they stopped using mascara
1 note · View note
aion-rsa · 3 years
Text
Doctor Who’s Best Comfort-Viewing Episodes
https://ift.tt/2UgJy48
I mean, it’s not like absolutely everything is terrible right now, but certainly a lot of things are and we could all do with a break. As a result, here’s a list of Doctor Who stories – one chosen per Doctor – that I put on for comfort. Sometimes you need something familiar and well-worn to unwind with.
This list is very much subjective, some of it is down to which Doctor Who videos I could afford when I was 10. These stories work for me and it’s unlikely they will work completely for someone else. Also worth mentioning is that this list is incomplete; these are not the only stories I watch for comfort, and indeed sometimes that’s not the reason I watch these stories.
First Doctor: ‘The Aztecs’
‘The Aztecs’ is a great example of Doctor Who that can be both familiar, endearing and brutal. In this story Barbara is mistaken for the goddess Yetaxa, and attempts to use her influence to stop the practice of human sacrifice. The Doctor rails against changing history, the High Priest plots to reveal Barbara’s ploy. To escape, Ian has to fight to the death, Susan has to avoid an arranged marriage, and the Doctor has to pretend to romance an Aztec woman who might have the key to letting them reach the TARDIS again. It’s all very morally murky yet comes away feeling generous.
A lot of the characters are flawed and interesting. You understand their motives even if you don’t agree with them. The original TARDIS crew, who have hit their stride now, are included in this. The Aztecs are shown to both practice human sacrifice and meet writer John Lucarotti’s description of ‘a highly civilised and cultured race’.
It’s also a well-made show, and if anything the improved picture quality has been cruel to Barry Newberry’s backdrops – not for lack of detail, but for picking out the folds in the material. With the script doing the same for the characters, ‘The Aztecs’ shows us that comforting does not have to equal light.
Second Doctor: ‘The Macra Terror’
There’s something counterintuitive about choosing a Troughton story with almost no existing pictures because so much of his performance is visual. However, having first experienced a lot of Troughton stories as audio there’s still a lot to admire in his expressive vocal performance.
Also something potentially counterintuitive here is that I’m picking a story outside of the Base Under Siege format that dominated Season 5, which for many people is their platonic ideal of Doctor Who. However I feel that this does a great disservice to a subgenre I’m going to call ‘Weird Troughton’, defined by being an outlier from the series format or featuring Troughton still working out the role (so ‘The Highlanders’, despite being a historical with no science-fiction elements, counts because Troughton is still trying out strange and fun things with the character). ‘The Underwater Menace’ is ridiculous and I love it anyway, David Whittaker very much ploughs his own furrow, and ‘The Mind Robber’ raises the possibility that Doctor Who is a self-aware entity. ‘The Macra Terror’, now available as an animation, is for me one of the best pieces of drama produced from this group, managing to be sinister, fun and have giant crab monsters in it.
It’s an angry take on uniformity, jingoism and control and feels very current. The Second Doctor’s response to having his clothes cleaned and hair combed in accordance with colony beauty standards is great. Ben’s brainwashing gives Michael Craze a chance to show his range, and by choosing not to play it in a zombie or fugue state it’s all the more chilling. Plus, and I can’t stress this enough, giant crabs.
Third Doctor: ‘The Sea Devils’
‘The Sea Devils’ is a sequel to ‘The Silurians’, Malcolm Hulke’s story of prehistoric lizard people who were the dominant species on Earth before humanity. That story was a more considered, intense tale, whereas this is more of a romp with depth. With aquatic lizards instead of underground ones, it also features the Navy rather than UNIT, and the Navy is credited with assisting the production.
Possibly because of this collaboration Jon Pertwee (formerly of the Naval Intelligence Division during World War Two) is clearly having a great time. Otherwise the tropes of the era (the Master, the military, meddling civil servants, Jo Grant gets to be resourceful and plucky, six episodes that could have been done in four) are all present and correct and ready to be argued at. It’s extremely comfortable, and directed with pace and energy by Michael E. Briant (he also knows when to slow down: the submarine attack, for example, where the sailors arm themselves and get into position, watching in horror and confusion as the door melts in front of them).
Hulke injects just enough detail into the characters to bring them to life, with the cast rising to the challenge. Colonel Trenchard, for example, feels like someone you could hear at a golf club complaining about immigration. The final two episodes dispense with any notion of depth and instead we get a big ol’ fight scene where the Navy gets to show off its machinery and the stunt team gets to show off its flips and falls.
This story also features an experimental synth score and a swordfight between the Doctor and the Master where one of them stops for sandwiches. The Pertwee era is pitched incredibly astutely. Sure, it’s absolute nonsense, but it’s amiable nonsense with teeth.
Fourth Doctor: ‘The Ribos Operation’
‘The Ribos Operation’ (or, as it should be known ‘The Best Fourth Doctor Story’) kicks off The Key to Time arc by systematically undermining the entire concept. The Doctor is given a mission by the White Guardian (ostensibly nicer than the Black Guardian but with a hint of unease to him), to find six pieces of The Key to Time and restore balance to the universe. The Doctor is given a new companion, a recent Time Lord academy graduate with all the book knowledge but no experience of the universe.
Robert Holmes’ script is layered, funny, and treads a perfect balance between anger and (unexpectedly) kindness. It hides its subtleties with engaging dialogue and characters, all played with the right levels of bombast. And such characters! Garron and Unstoffe, one of several Doctor analogues (he’s a big, booming and charismatic conman, with Unstoffe as his game but questioning companion who brings compassion that Garron can’t) are rightly regarded as the standouts, but it’s also worth noting the Graff Vynda K: a villain of the piece, a prissy warlord full of self-importance but never heard of before or since, a backwater despot bullying his way across a tiny corner of the universe. The Doctor’s solution to a vainglorious, self-mythologising monster? To blow him up. An interesting response on a number of levels.
There’s nothing wrong with this story. It’s superbly constructed and well-made. It’s a perfect anti-epic, and the only story I’ve rewatched on DVD as often as I did VHS.
Fifth Doctor: ‘Enlightenment’
A wondrous peak in Eighties Doctor Who, starting as a cerebral science-fiction adventure before morphing into a cerebral science-fiction adventure that’s camp as tits.
You may recall Craig Ferguson’s description of Doctor Who as ‘the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism’. ‘Enlightenment’ is a great example of this, with the romantic image of seafaring ships sailing through space corrupted by both the aloof officers and the Black Guardian’s influence. The Guardians here are ostensibly still representations of order and chaos, but mostly they’re ‘nice old man with bird on head’ and ‘ridiculous hyuk hyuking villain with bird on head’. The officer class are made up of Eternals – a race of godlike immortal beings who created this space race for entertainment – a great concept invented by writer Barbara Clegg after witnessing her rich relatives interact with her poorer ones at a family gathering.
The Doctor, through his intellect and faith in his companion, removes the corrupting forces. It’s not clear what happens to the surviving ships after the race is finished, but imagine finding one abandoned in space. It’s such a strong image in a story full of them. Clegg’s writing is full of great concepts and characterisation, including some excellent work with the regulars that makes them feel much more like real people than usual.
Read more
TV
How Doctor Who Was Quietly Revolutionised By Its Least Popular Season
By Andrew Blair
TV
Doctor Who Series 13: Jodie Whittaker Leaving Rumours, the Next Doctor, and the Future
By Jamie Andrew
Sixth Doctor: ‘The Mark of the Rani’
In which Time Lady the Rani experiments in a north-eastern mining town, causing violence to erupt.
First of all there’s the score, which is still of its time but feels distinctive due to its more tranquil ambient feel. It doesn’t sound dissimilar to The Microgram, someone who travels round the North East of England recording ambient noises and playing synths over them. There’s even one recorded at Beamish, which completes the loop here.
‘The Mark of the Rani’ is set in Killingworth, north of Newcastle, and technically so are the accents. They sound like someone went round RADA asking ‘Has anyone heard the song “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” by PJ and *checks notes* Duncan?’
This slightly askew version of reality fits Pip and Jane Baker’s version of Doctor Who. Their debut script for the show establishes their style of endearingly serious batshit nonsense (landmines that turn people into plants, leading to the immortal line ‘The tree won’t harm you’). It’s like their stories are written by Wallace with minimal input from Gromit.  
As a result ‘Mark of the Rani’ stands out amidst the aggressive stories surrounding it. It can be taken as merely enjoyably daft, but it’s also got some substance to it. Pip and Jane clearly remember Doctor Who as being the kind of show where the Doctor and his companion got on, so Peri is subjected to less arguing and is even defended (admittedly in terms of utility) by the Doctor.
The Rani is actually a character here, as opposed to her other appearances where she is simply A Villain In Doctor Who, and her presence immediately reduces Anthony Ainley’s Master to a supporting comic relief character. This suits him. When you’re standing in a field caked in shit pretending to be a scarecrow and laughing at passers-by for not noticing you clearly we can’t take you seriously anymore, so at least this story doesn’t pretend he’s a credible threat.
So on the one hand it’s daft, silly fun, but on the other it’s a mid-Eighties story featuring a chemist torturing Northern miners for her own gain. Guess what degree Margaret Thatcher graduated from Oxford with?
Speaking of Thatcher:
Seventh Doctor: ‘The Happiness Patrol’
Within Doctor Who fandom, no one has ever said ‘Oh you don’t like the McCoy era? I’m sorry, you never mentioned it’, and ‘The Happiness Patrol’ revels in all the things its detractors hate about the era. It’s intentionally camp and uses symbolism rather than demanding to be taken literally, like a more confident version of Season 24. The Kandy Man is rightly noted as (visually) a Bertie Bassett parody, played as the ludicrous creature he undoubtedly is.
Knowing that it is restricted in what it can show in terms of violence, the show had now worked out how to be ostensibly child-friendly and incredibly morbid, hence the screeching sweetie-creature, the Day-Glo ray-guns, and the guy who gets drowned in a vat of jam. When you’re three and have never seen Doctor Who before the Kandy Man is downright terrifying, this bizarre monster who twists and turns and screams. This was my first experience of Doctor Who and, appropriately enough, it scared the hell out of me.
As an adult, I find it’s a pleasing return to the ‘Weird Troughton’ stories of the Sixties, the ones where the Doctor was an unassuming but powerful anarchic figure. Here we have a variation of this, where the Doctor has been trying to explore the universe but finds it full of monsters, and starts doing something about it.
Before Season 26 attempted something approaching realism, this story suits Ace and the Seventh Doctor who both feel like Children’s TV archetypes who have grown tired of their roles. Ace’s CBBC leanings (with crap swearing and Blue Peter badges) fits into this heightened reality better than she does a less tonally certain story (like ‘Battlefield’). ‘The Happiness Patrol’ feels like a combination of the different approaches of the McCoy era, a best of album with a life of its own.
Eighth Doctor: ‘Night of the Doctor’
This is specifically because of the circumstances of broadcast, although it’s also a melancholy meta-commentary on the show’s cancellation and wilderness years in which Paul McGann gets to demand ‘Bring me knitting’.
It’s not merely the return of McGann to the onscreen role of the Eighth Doctor after 17 years, it’s that this was kept a surprise until the mini-episode was released in the build-up to the 50th anniversary special. It was such a treat, and I still remember the email I sent to the site’s TV editor when I watched it for Den of Geek. It read ‘OH MY F***ING GOD’ and was sent while the episode was paused just after the word ‘expecting’.
And so I told my friends. I know people watched this in work meetings on their phones under the table. It’s associated with a lot of feelings, not least building excitement. This one is connected very clearly to a moment of shared joy.
Ninth Doctor: ‘The End of the World’
While ‘Rose’ is rightly adulated as bringing Doctor Who back to a large prime time audience, ‘The End of the World’ had a different job to do. Viewing figures went down for this episode after over 10 million people watched the series opener, but went up again after this, suggesting positive word of mouth from this episode, consolidating the success of ‘Rose’.
The production team were aiming to use this episode to show off how Doctor Who could look in 2005, with hundreds of CGI shots and dozens of aliens gathered together. It also showed the new Doctor’s emotional distance, in that his idea of showing off to his new companion is to take her to see her planet getting destroyed.
We also get, in a late addition to the script, Russell T. Davies’ knack for making the alien familiar with the character of Raffalo (‘You’re a plumber?’) who is almost immediately killed, further demonstrating RTD’s knack for knowing which character’s death will have the most impact (and if you’ve not read his novelisation of ‘Rose’ you really should if just for Clive’s death in prose form. Honestly it’s incredible).
‘The End of the World’ is a comforting reminder of the nascent excitement surrounding the 2005 series, that feeling of turbulence that eventually settled because of the strength of these early episodes.
 Tenth Doctor: ‘The Fires of Pompeii’
The episode itself has a soothsay-off between Metella and Lucius to set up a plot point and the series arc, and the first TARDIS trip for Donna as a full-time companion. You immediately get to see the strengths that Catherine Tate is going to bring to the series, not merely her comic and dramatic ability but the way Donna is able to stop the Tenth Doctor from his worst impulses, and by bluntly dismissing the notion of fixed points in history meaning just allowing bad things to happen. This is, for me, the best episode in the first half of Series 4 by a long way.
Sure, there’s a colossal death toll here which is far from comforting, but as ever nostalgia and context plays a huge part here. This was an episode broadcast on the night of our fan club’s night out, a phase of my fandom that turned me from someone who liked Doctor Who in primary school into an adult fan. This has, overall, been worth it. So what this story reminds me of is, following on from ‘The End of the World’s establishing the series, is the initial excitement and patterns of Russell T. Davies’ series where he set up some key words or phrases early on and fandom tried to work out their significance, resulting in the heady days of someone saying Norman Lovett was going to play Davros in ‘The Parting of the Ways’ on IMDb.
Eleventh Doctor: ‘A Christmas Carol’
Quite a few contenders here, but I’ve gone with my favourite Christmas Special because these episodes are often Doctor Who at its broadest, suitable for the half-cut who dwell in food-comas. This episode is one of the last of these stories, before the Christmas Specials became steeped in the main continuity of the series. It’s also a great example of the childlike impulsiveness of Matt Smith’s Doctor before he became more of a teenager in Series 6. It’s great fun and the riffing on Dickens lands really strongly for people like me, who often respond more to a strong realisation of an idea than they do pathos.
This story is designed to be comfortable and succeeds by establishing what a Steven Moffat Christmas Special will look like: lots of time-travel, obviously, but also a big budget version of ‘The Happiness Patrol’s daring the audience to find it too ridiculous. As a result we get a remix of A Christmas Carol featuring flying sharks pacified by a mezzo-soprano, with the joy of these disparate elements coming together through that most underrated of Moffat staples – a grumpy old man learning to let go while being dragged through the sky by animals who usually lack the power of flight.
Twelfth Doctor: ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’
With Capaldi realising his initially abrasive take on the character was too much, this story relieved the tension that had been building with the Doctor’s behaviour, allowing him to explain himself and setting up the arc that culminates in ‘Hell Bent’.
Once this was broadcast I breathed a sigh of relief. Despite wanting it not to be the case I’d had to reach for the positives in the Capaldi era thus far; with the exception of ‘Listen’ the stories had felt like treading water until ‘Kill the Moon’ split the room. Even if you don’t like it (and I mostly don’t) that was the first story that felt like it was trying something different and paved the way for the increased complexity of the Twelfth Doctor’s character. Ultimately what the show needed at this point was a run of good stories, and – appreciating some people don’t get on with ‘Forest of the Night’ (and I mostly do) – this was the start of a really strong run.
‘Mummy on the Orient Express’ is a mash up of concepts that Doctor Who excels at, with an enjoyably horrific Mummy and the actual countdown to its victims’ demises contributing to making each death count. This is harder than it looks, the balance between violence and pathos taking into account the family audience, but the combination of ideas really makes them land as brutal without gore. By putting the Doctor through this writer Jamie Mathieson manages to explain his apparent heartlessness as weariness at making tough choices, but being unable to resist getting into situations that require them. The path is now clear from here to the heights of ‘Hell Bent’ and ‘The Doctor Falls’.
Thirteenth Doctor: ‘It Takes You Away’
Obviously there are fewer Jodie Whittaker fewer stories to choose from, and for me it has to be one from Series 11 because that felt like a palette cleanser for an approach to Doctor Who that never manifested. For all its ups and downs, limiting continuity references and focus on new characters or threats felt like a good move. Certainly the guest writers all provided solid stories, and while the series didn’t soar for me it felt like a good platform to improve from, which is partly why Series 12 was so disappointing (it felt like it addressed problems that weren’t there, ignoring the ones that were).
cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });
‘It Takes You Away’ is frequently surprising, offering a simple blunt horror of loss (the childlike refrain of the title, the fear of absence) combined with endearingly outlandish performances by the actor Kevin Eldon and a sentient universe manifesting as a talking frog. It allowed Jodie Whittaker a rare success in negotiating her way out of a situation, and progressed the character arc of the series with Ryan and Graham’s changing relationship. It’s obviously imperfect (ideally, Hanne’s Dad’s manipulative behaviour would be properly addressed) but it’s also imaginative, moving, and weird, and these are three things I really want Doctor Who to be.
Share your go-to Doctor Who comfort viewing episodes below.
The post Doctor Who’s Best Comfort-Viewing Episodes appeared first on Den of Geek.
from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3jv4sqO
0 notes
wildname · 7 years
Text
In the quiet hours of the night, Thalin sat. His desk had been cleared away save for a few books and a single troll tusk. A candle lit the room and showed unique etchings across the surface of the tusk. In that dim light, Thalin matched runes from it to runes in a nearby book, and if not there, then another book would have them.
He had spent hours on end in his room, reading over these bothersome runes. “Dammit,” Thalin sighed, leaning back in his chair while running his hands through his hair. “Zal, you never made anything easy.” He looked down at what he was able to ‘translate’. What was given was a sort of story, from what Thalin could guess, a sort of family history of the troll. He leaned forward and scrolled to the newest rune he could find, Blood will show the path.
“Lovely,” he mused, pondering what this new riddle meant. Thalin thought back to his dealings with the witch doctor this tusk came from, Zaladrin. The old bastard was cunning, constantly sending Thalin, Ave, and others on wild hunts across the jungles of Stranglethorn. Thalin’s face dropped to a frown as he remembered the last ‘job’ they were given.
The heat of the jungle wore down on Thalin as they lay crouched on a ridge overlooking old Gurubashi ruins. Ave lay close beside him, scouting the area as best she could from this vantage. Further down the hill, three others readied themselves. 
A human male of Thalin’s age read through an old looking scroll, smiling as he did so. He wore silk garments that allowed ease of movement while maintaining some flair, something the man claimed was always necessary. His long, blazing red hair was tied back into a tight tail, framing his sharp features. This was Aden Castelle, a mage of lower birth yet great skill.
Close by was a long bearded dwarf with a scowl pointed at Aden. His grim features showed many scars of past battles, some of which Thalin was a part of and knew, while others were kept from him. The greying dwarf wore rugged leathers overlying mail links, and sported a large rifle. Thalin knew the man simply as Grimm, whether that was his given name or not, he didn’t care to ask.
Finally, near the back, was a hunched figure in strange hide robes. Bones dangled up and down the male’s frame, mixed with feathers, beads, and more grisly trophies. A large wooden mask hid the most discernible features of the troll, which was impossible to hide from his stature, tusks and ears, and recognizable accent. Zaladrin, a name Thalin knew he’d remember.
Aden hummed quietly as he read, seeming to know he was pissing the dwarf off. “You seem angry, Grimmy,” the young man toyed.
Grimm grunted, “Shut it, prissy little git,” The dwarf scowled, pointing a fat finger at the mage.
“Both’a ya stow it, I dunna want da how jungle ta know we here. I wasn’t lying ta ya when I say des ruins be special. Da spirits be awake here, remember dat.” Zaladrin warned, making sure that both Thalin and Ave could also hear him. The pair quickly quieted down, Zaladrin chuckled, “Now, let me see what we be dealing wit.” The troll crouched down, drawing strange shapes into the dirt beneath him. A chilling breeze swept through as the witch doctor brought a flint dagger from his side, holding it against his hand. “Blood will show da path,” he said.
Thalin looked down at the tusk with a grim sigh. He brought his hand to the dagger Ave had given him. “Maybe not...” he winced, still not wishing to use the small blade. He reached over and grabbed hold of Windhowl, his greatsword. Running his bare hand across the blade’s edge, he remained silent as blood dripped onto the tusk, small drops would do. Thalin murmured to himself, “Blood will show the path,” as he watch. A second passed. Then two. “Damn, cut myself for nothing.” he sighed, setting Windhowl back to it’s place, he’d need to clean it again. As he looked back, he watched the runes upon the tusk glow a bright crimson. “Uther’s balls...” The tusk twitched on the table, spinning before stopping, point facing the wall. 
Thalin looked at the tusk with confusion, thinking he should ask Blair, Aisleen, or Zina, hell, even Daveon if he were still around. He watched the tusk for a moment longer, then looked to the wall it was pointing at. Thalin blinked as the cogs began to turn in his head. He pulled out his compass and map. “Blood will show the path, eh? Didn’t think you were literal in that.”
2 notes · View notes