#reference to sister mary cynthia

[notyour-valentine]

CONGRATS ON 1K VAL💕💗💓✨️🎉🧚‍♂️ you are a gift from God I tell🛐

I saw you write for all chars and wondered if you'd do a 27 for queen Lizzie?

May the seal be always in your favour🦭🙏

Apple and Serpent ~ Lizzie Stark x Reader (Fluff)

[Celebration] [Celebration Masterlist] [Masterlist]

Warning: Oswald Mosley. (18/21+). I do not consent to my work being translated, copied or posted elsewhere on this platform or any other.

Words: 1683 words

These things were gold in every way possible and always the opposite of boring. 

She never came unprepared, on the contrary. She had scanned the entire catalogue already, made her inquiries, taken her notes both mentally and physically and by now she was more than sure in what she would walk home with today. 

The prize, however, was only one part of the fun. Like all others, it was a fun social get together, with a lot champagne and even more gossip. But this place was one of very few where she could be sure to see the masks slipping soon, exchanged for battle armour as the bidding war began. And yet no one wanted to lose face. 

“Look who decided to show their face.”, her husband mumbled as they nodded towards a small group of people looking at the display of a painting - Eve and the Serpent, she remembered. 

“You shouldn’t have told me.”, she sighed. “Now we have to go and say hello.”

Her husband chuckled. 

“Family duties.”, he teased as they walked up to them. “Cimmie, darling!”, she greeted her cousin Cynthia with her best socialite smile as she leaned in for kisses. 

“How is Cousin Mary?”

“As well as can be, I suppose.”, her cousin replied with a slight shrug. She wasn’t a real cousin, just a second cousin, but she might as well have been a fifth cousin and she’d still referred to her as such. 

“Still vehemently refusing to settle down.”, her husband said. 

Your smile came a little too late while his was a little too wide. 

“Oswald!”, she greeted, giving him the obligatory greeting, not missing how his hand lingered on her waist. 

It wasn’t enough, apparently, that he was sleeping with Cynthia’s sister and her stepmother too. 

Why not add a cousin to the mix, eh?

Well, Sir Oswald Mosley was on her to do list right between eating glass and walking barefoot on red hot iron. 

He greeted her husband too, and she was already planning her escape, but apparently her pest of a cousin in law wasn’t keen of letting them leave yet. 

“Have you met Thomas Shelby yet?”, he asked her husband and before long they were introduced to the solemn businessman from Birmingham and his tall and elegant wife. 

Shelby - not a name she had heard before and a questioning look to Cynthia confirmed just that.

An upstart then. 

Oh well. Rather an upstart than Sir Oswald. 

But it seemed she wasn’t the only one who was on Sir Oswald’s list of items for consideration at this auction. She didn’t miss his hand on Mrs Shelby’s back as he guided her forward for the interaction. And she certainly didn’t miss how the woman flinched at his touch. 

“Are you interested in this?”, her husband asked, waving the program in the direction of the painting. 

Eve was in the nude, her head turned away from the snake in dramatic fashion, but her eyes betraying her. The apple gleamed a bright red. 

“Oh I am always interested in artwork like this.”, Oswald insisted, licking his lips. 

“The concept of seduction is fascinating, isn’t it, Mrs Shelby?”

“What?”, she asked, her cheeks flushing bright red. 

Beside her, her husband shifted, the muscles in his jaw clenching. 

“Especially with Eve - equally the seduced and the seductress in equal measures.”

Now all colour that had only just climbed up her face faded, leaving behind an ashen grey colour. 

“But then again, a woman is at once apple and serpent in more manners than one - the birth of all sin.”

Mrs Shelby looked to her husband but he seemed to be content with silent stares. 

Her, not so much. So she giggled. 

Loudly. It made them all look at her as if she had lost her mind. 

“Oh Oswald, really?”, she asked, clasping a hand on her chest. “You must take him to church more often, Cousin. It seems he has forgotten a few rather important details.”

She saw his lip twitch in anger, after all, he hated nothing more than mockery. 

“And what would that be?”, he hissed. 

She put her hand on his chest and smiled. 

“Well everyone knows the story. Adam and Eve could eat any fruit from the Garden of Eden except the apples from…?”

When there was nothing but confused silence, she answered her own question. 

“The tree of knowledge of good and evil, as it would give them freedom of thought and will, of judgement, the capability to make their own decisions.”

Murmurs and nods greeted her. 

Oh this is going to be fun. 

“Now remember the details. What were the exact steps?”

“The snake seduced Eve to eat the apple.”, Cynthia said. 

“And then they were cast out.”, her husband added. 

“Ah - not quite. Cimmie, you’re right. The first step is the snake seducing Eve to eat the apple. By logic she would have gained the knowledge over good and evil and the capability to make her own decisions, no?”

Once more sounds of approval greeted her, as well as a few raised eyebrows. 

“And what happened then?”

“They were cast out of Paradise.”, Oswald said impatiently. 

Perfect. 

It couldn’t have been better if she had scripted it. 

“Only they weren’t, dear! Not yet, anyways. Eve gained knowledge first and nothing really happened. The problems only started when she decided to share the knowledge and the freedom with Adam. As soon as he had a bit of knowledge, he started making problems for everyone. You recall, the whole fuss about being naked? That was his idea, not Eve’s.”

Beside her, her husband chuckled. 

“So it wasn’t really men and women, or rather women and men gaining knowledge that was the problem but rather men using that knowledge to start making problems as soon as the apple touched their tongue.”

Cynthia smirked and even Mrs Shelby wore a hint of a smile. 

“Although there’s also a point to be made that Eve must’ve already have had free will to be able to pick the apple and eat it so the original sin was not her having that capability, but rather her sharing it with Adam.”

She looked from one to the other, and then directly at Oswald, seeing his silent rage. 

“Now I am not a supporter of smiting, but it seems in either interpretation, God really did not seem to want men to have knowledge or capability, don’t you agree?”

End.

Thank you so much for requesting and participating in my celebration - I hope you liked what I wrote.

Thank you everyone for reading and as always, I hope you enjoyed and would love to hear your thoughts!

Taglist

Overall

@lilyrachelcassidy @jyessaminereads @chlorrox @watercolorskyy @books-livre @quarterpastmidnight  @lilyevanswhore  @polishcrazyone  @zablife  @just-a-harmless-patato  @stevie75 @flyingjosephine-blog @runnning-outof-time @babayaga67 @butterfly-skinnylegend @cillmequick

[inevitablemoment]

CATHLEEN PAIGE SPENGLER - OC INFO

(Special thanks to @ariel-seagull-wings for this manip; it's so beautiful!)

FULL NAME: Cathleen Anne Spengler (nee Paige)

NICKNAME(S): Cath (by everyone, started by Egon), Cathy (by everyone on her side of the family), Cat (by Janine), the Ghostbuster's Guard Dog (by tabloids and critics), the Wicked Witch of Summerville (by Summerville citizens)

FACECLAIM: Linda Purl

FANDOM: Ghostbusters (1984-1989; 2021-)

BIRTHDAY: January 2nd, 1945

ZODIAC SIGN: Capricorn

SEXUALITY: Demisexual

GENDER: Female (she/her/hers)

OCCUPATION: Actress, writer, singer, dancer, choreographer, voice and dance teacher, Ghostbuster

BIRTHPLACE: Madison, Wisconsin

LIVES IN: Madison, Wisconsin (birth-age 12) || Cleveland, Ohio (age 12-18) || Manhattan, New York City, New York (age 18-24, 25-48, 77-currently) || Cambridge, Massachusetts (age 24-25) || Summerville, Oklahoma (48-77)

NATIONALITY: American

FAMILY:

Egon Spengler (husband, m. 1974-2021 (his death))

Felicity Spengler (daughter, miscarried 1978)

Callie Spengler (daughter)

Marie Spengler (daughter)

Trevor Spengler (grandson)

Phoebe Spengler (granddaughter)

Benjamin Paige (father, died 1988)

Colleen Paige [nee Tillens] (mother, died 2002)

David Paige (older brother)

Joanne Paige [nee Vogel] (sister-in-law)

Jill Paige (niece)

Mark Paige (nephew)

Mitchell Paige (nephew)

Lucinda "Cindy" Paige (niece)

Christopher Paige (nephew)

Theresa Paige (niece)

Sharon Paige (niece)

Caroline Tiffin [nee Paige] (older sister)

Glenn Tiffin (brother-in-law)

Ronald Tiffin (nephew)

Anthony Tiffin (nephew)

Jackson "Sonny" Tiffin (nephew)

Abel Paige (younger brother)

Rebecca Paige [nee O'Connor] (sister-in-law)

Loretta Paige (niece)

Erika Paige (niece)

Dominic Paige (nephew)

Eleanor Paige (niece)

Melanie Paige (niece)

Katrina Paige (niece)

Constance "Connie" Whelan [nee Paige] (younger sister)

Douglas Whelan (brother-in-law)

Monty Whelan (nephew)

Timothy Whelan (nephew)

Gina Whelan (niece)

Felicity Whelan (niece)

Adam Paige (younger brother)

Helen Paige [nee Rafferty] (sister-in-law)

Olivia Paige (niece)

Holly Paige (niece)

Cynthia Paige (younger sister)

Edison Spengler, Sr. (father-in-law, deceased 1983)

Ruth Spengler [nee Westelman] (mother-in-law, deceased 2001)

Elon Spengler (brother-in-law, deceased 2014)

Noelle Spengler [nee Rosenfeld] (sister-in-law)

Edison Spengler, Jr. (nephew)

Cyrus Spengler (uncle-in-law, deceased 2002)

Peter Venkman (honorary older brother)

Dana Barrett (honorary sister-in-law)

Oscar Venkman [born Wallance, formerly Barrett] (honorary nephew)

Eliana "Elly" Venkman (honorary grand-niece)

Andrew Venkman (honorary nephew)

Kelly Venkman (honorary nephew)

Ray Stantz (honorary older brother)

Willow Olson (honorary sister-in-law)

Addison Stantz (honorary niece)

Natalie Stantz (honorary niece)

Grace Stantz (honorary niece)

Janine Melnitz (honorary younger sister)

MOODBOARD:

CHARACTERISTICS: Creative, daring, valiant, quirky, brave, sweet, headstrong, theatrical, hopeful, romantic, prone to vanity and a quick temper, plucky, brilliant, enigmatic, cunning, maternal, devoted, protective

LIKES: Musicals, reading, writing, learning new things, singing, dancing, traveling, planning events, research, baking, cooking, photography, cuddling with Egon and the girls, snipe battles with Peter, being the center of attention

DISLIKES: Ignorance and close-mindedness, her blood family, Slimer escaping the display case, the Peck family, bullies, the fact that her sister Connie gave her youngest daughter the same name of the baby that she lost

WEAPON OF CHOICE:

PKE Meter

Proton Pack

Ghost Trap

Gigameter

Tobin's Spirit Guide

Occult Reference Net

OTHER PERSONAL INFO:

Raised Catholic, but converted to Judaism shortly before her wedding to Egon

Attended Julliard to study music and NYU to study literature/creative writing

After years of struggling to conceive and eventually becoming pregnant only to lose the baby at eighteen weeks, Cathleen took up alcohol to cope

Idolized Julie Andrews, Debbie Reynolds, Judy Garland, Chita Rivera, and Shirley Jones growing up

Fluent in Hebrew, Yiddish, French, Greek, European and Latin American Spanish, Flemish, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Latin, and Sumerian

INSPIRATION: Sherrezade (Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier), Juliet O'Hara (Psych), Becky Barnes (Hatchetfield series), Elliot Reid (Scrubs), Miss Holloway (Hatchetfield series), Annabel Lee (Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party), Elphaba Thropp (Wicked), Ramona Trousers (Headless: A Sleepy Hollow Story), Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard (Once Upon A Time), Princess Aurora/Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty), Gwen Barrymore (The Solve-It Squad Returns), Marlowe Viccellio (Psych), Dr. Julia Ogden (Murdoch Mysteries), Dr. Helen Magnus (Sanctuary), Dr. Bedelia du Maurier (Hannibal), Jane Seymour (Six)

NAME ANALYSIS:

Playlist available here

[lboogie1906]

Swintayla Marie “Swin” Cash Canal (September 22, 1979) is a former basketball player who played professionally for 15 seasons in the Women’s National Basketball Association. She serves as vice president of basketball operations and team development for the New Orleans Pelicans. A prolific scorer and rebounder, as well as a capable ball handler and defender, she helped lead the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team to national titles in 2000 and 2002. In her second WNBA season, she led the Detroit Shock to their first-ever WNBA title. In 2015, she was named a studio analyst for MSG Networks covering the New York Knicks pre-games and post-games as well as the weekly coaches show. She was named the Director of franchise development for the New York Liberty. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

She is one of 11 women to receive an Olympic gold medal, an NCAA Championship, a Fiba World Cup gold, and a WNBA Championship.

She was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and raised by her mother, Cynthia. She has two brothers and one sister. She holds basketball camps and clinics under her company, Swin Cash Enterprise LLC, and is involved in charity events through the WNBA. She married her longtime boyfriend Steve Canal.

She is an advocate against gun violence and police brutality. In 2016, she was fined $500 by the Association, along with her teammates and players from two other WNBA teams, for wearing warm-up shirts that read “#BlackLivesMatter” and “#Dallas5”, both serving as references to gun violence. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[the-unforgotten]

book 8 for the year

Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo

libby read ebook and audio

knew nothing going in it was added to the list because it was an always available thriller that had chicago in the title.

read it 2 days last week the 28th and 29th

it was interesting enough

it is about a detective cop lady (booo acab acab!!) and a collection of cases that involve teens ending up dead.

so very early on it is relayed that her cop peers don't like her bc nepo baby shit of her father being a well respected cop

but the community she works in doesn't like her because she has had some policing situations that ended up with people dying.

so anyway first incident the book focuses on is a shooting in a park no witness but there is some fresh graffiti at the scene it says pied piper.

and cop lady takes this very seriously.

her partner is more concerned about her childhood since it was big news that her sister died in the area and she claims to remember nothing from that time after being found in a park nearby.

her father passed and even his retiring partner is like take few days off for his funeral and she is like noooo

theres a few other pov characters those being the kids in the case

it revealed that theres a unit in fairy tales in the highschool english class

and also that cop ladys husband is into fairy tales especially as they relate to the local history.

theres a lot of focus on the fairy tale aspect as this isn't just a regular thriller its a horror magical one in which the fairy tale story of the pied piper who lures kids away from a town after not being payed is the driving force

the kids have this bloody mary like ritual game they do and read a passage of that story which is the catalyst for all this teen related crimes.

cop lady is trying to get ahold of the book this passage is in but can't get it for a few days as it's a historic relic on display being a really old copy of brothers grimm fairytales.

copy lady knows of the book because she had that same teacher in hs and he took them to a archive and she saw the book then.

supernatural stuff aside they book has very interesting tidbits about chicagos history sprinkled throughout. like statueand their inscriptions or various writers being from or living in Chicago. at one point cop lady is even like hmm I wonder is this is the path that inspired the yellow brick road.

anywho another incident happens this time with 4 teens a two are caught bloodied and with a weapon.

some spooky interviews ensue. the kids reference things they shouldn't know about they say thing like pay the piper. but they re teens so they are send to juvie.

oh there's a scene of cop lady emptying her clip into a hallucination in her house !?!?!

its revealed that cop lady did the ritual in her youth and that's why her sis is dead

then the story ramps up the reliance on the fairytale tropes. cop ladys dad remarried after the og wife disappeared and the sis was the new wife's and was all like you don't have a mom.

the story then basically make the pied piper from a man into a version of triskster god pan for some reason.

the piper gets rid of someone for you but then comes back and asks you to kill as payment or he will kill you??

there are a lot os instances of her ignoring protocol by getting info out of her peers or connections.

I'm pretty sure the cop lady killing people in duty was a part of her payment???

strange book.

[dear-indies]

hi, i hope i’m not bothering you! i’m currently looking for face claims who can play the father and younger half-sister of timothy olyphant (referring to his look in the show justified, the character i’m playing would be in his mid-forties) .. would you mind maybe helping me out? i’m sorry if this is a lot to ask!

Father:

Bob Geldof (1951) Ashkenazi Jewish (one quarter).

Peter MacNicol (1954) Ashkenazi Jewish (one quarter).

Paweł Pawlikowski (1957) Ashkenazi Jewish (one quarter).

Matt Salinger (1960) Ashkenazi Jewish (one quarter).

Half sister:

Hannah Simone (1980) Brijwasi Indian / Greek Cypriot, Italian, German.

Chrissy Metz (1980)

Bethany Joy Lenz (1981)

Abigail Spencer (1981) English, German, Scottish, Cherokee.

Dawn Olivieri (1981)

Elodie Yung (1981) Cambodian / French, Italian.

Sophia Bush (1982)

Dichen Lachman (1982) Nepalese Tibetan / German, English, some Scottish.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw (1983) Zulu South African / English.

Christina Chong (1983) Hongkonger / British.

Kate Mara (1983)

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (1984)

Janet Montgomery (1985)

Lilan Bowden (1985) Taiwanese / English, Welsh.

Jessica Lucas (1985) Black Canadian / European.

Cynthia Addai-Robinson (1985) Ghanaian / English.

Oona Chaplin (1986) Chilean [Mapuche, Spanish, evidently Romanian] / English, Irish, Scottish.

Jenna Coleman (1986)

Leighton Meester (1986)

Shelley Hennig (1987)

Melissa O'Neil (1988) Hongkonger / Irish, possibly other.

Cleopatra Coleman (1987) Afro-Jamaican / Scottish.

It wasn't too much to ask, don't worry anon!

[barbaramoorersm]

January 1, 2023

January 1, 2023

Solemnity of Mary

Book of Numbers 6: 22-27

Moses shares with his family how they should bless the Israelites.

Psalm 67

The Psalmist asks for God’s mercy.

Paul’s Letter to the Galatians 4 :4-7

Paul refers to Jesus’ birth when he writes that God’s son was “born of a woman”.

Luke 2: 16-21

Luke shares the visit of the shepherds and the prescribed circumcision of Jesus.

  Happy New Year.  I pray it is one of peace and justice for you, those you love, and all God’s people.

 On this feast day for Roman Catholics, Mary is again presented as a central figure in the history of Christianity.  Sister Elizabeth Johnson has written a beautiful book about her entitled, “Dangerous Memories.”   But realizing that folks who are not Roman Catholic also have very positive and respectful feelings for her, let me refer you to a book entitled “Blessed One; Protestant Perspectives on Mary,” edited by Beverly Gaventa and Cynthia Rigby.   In the foreword, Kathleen Norris a Protestant author and a committed participant in the spirituality of St Benedict writes, that her experience with Benedictine values, “…enabled her to open her eyes and ears to the treasure house of the early church; and I could reclaim Mary as a significant figure in my Christian faith.”

What does it mean to reclaim Mary?  Perhaps some of our Protestant brothers and sisters, believe that she became center stage and over took the centrality of Jesus. But as time, the work of Scripture scholars and reflections grew, many have learned to see her in the words of Kathleen Norris; Mary is “the interpreter of God’s work.”

By reflecting on her life and context we can learn so much about her.  Elizabeth Johnson in her book, “Dangerous Memories” reveals an unappreciated fact about her.  Johnson reviews the instances in both the Old and New Testaments when God sends a messenger to a person with a request.   Those requests came to Moses, and over twenty others in the Old Testament and over twenty in the New Testament, of which Mary was one.  The visitation from heaven contains five steps.  First the messenger appears, and secondly, the recipient is filled with awe. The third step happens when the messenger declares God’s intent. Fourthly, the recipient raises an objection and lastly the angel offers Divine reassurance.  These steps happen in all these angelic visitations with the exception one.  Mary is the only one who takes a sixth step and accepts the request and challenge.  “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word.”   Mary according to Johnson is spoken to directly by the angel and not through the male leadership in her family.  Kathleen Norris writes, “…in this scene Mary finds her voice, rather than losing it.”

She also finds her voice as she shares the Magnificat with Elizabeth.  “God has done great things for me….”  And her prayer and voice take on a note of prophecy.  “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.”  In the 1970’s the “Mothers of the Disappeared” in Argentina were begging for the return of their children captured by the government.  They recited this prayer that Mary proclaims, and the government banned the public recitation of the Magnificat.

While Mary finds her own voice in the Magnificat, she also brings great balance into her life.  We will find that during this holy season, she reflects, prays and as the text says today the visit of the shepherds and the stories about the birth were circulating but “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”

She raises Jesus with Joseph, accompanies him in some circumstances, educates him in the family’s faith and in time realizes that his life and ministry are headed for resistance.  Resistance not only from the religious leadership but also from some corners in Rome.   The mothers of the Ukraine and Russia can understand her sorrow and concern as their children are dying in a war based on claims of power.

Mary understood who she was and had the heart and strength to accompany the Apostles after Jesus’ death.  She was praying with them and receives the Holy Spirit with them on Pentecost.  What a forgiving and strong woman after what they had done during Holy Week.

Beverly Gaventa shares a statement that we can all “ponder in our hearts”. “Mary’s association with the cross recalls for Christians the scandal at the heart of the Gospel: that God’s actions on our behalf meet ever and again with misunderstanding and rejection. In Mary’s  “standing near the cross” (John 19:25)  Christians may find themselves  alongside the suffering world and its vulnerable God”.

[lhaagain]

@sicktember Prompt 20 - Cold Sweat

Set between S6:E5 & E6

Julienne woke up with a start. Her heart was racing, her pulse pounding in her ears as she gasped for air. The sense of terror, of utter desolation, of the dark encroaching with all the evil it contained had followed her out of the nightmare. Again. She lay perfectly still. listening to the sound of her own breathing in the darkness and trying to focus on calming down. She could feel the rapidly cooling sweat pooling on her skin and as though noticing it set off the reaction, she started to shake.

Read more on AO3

[thenightling]

Who are The Hecateae?

     In issue 2 Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman we are introduced to a trio of witches known as The Hecateae.  Someone in my Sandman Facebook group asked me about them.  Part of why you might not know who they are is because Neil accidentally invented a new spelling for the name.

      The original spelling should probably have been Hecataea.  It all originates with Hecate, the Greek Goddess of magick and witchcraft. In modern neo-Paganism the concept of the Triple Goddess is very popular.  Maiden, Mother, and Crone.

       Their sigil is usually the waxing, full, and waning moon respectively.  

        Neil Gaiman uses the Maiden, Mother, and Crone a lot in The Sandman.  With the Hecataea, and Eve, for example. Eve can transform to a Maiden form, Mother, and Crone. And the story behind this is told in issue 40 of The Sandman, A Parliament of Rooks. The story talks about how Adam may have had three wives, or they may have all been the same woman. And how “both” are true.

      Three women, as a powerful magical force, is popular in folklore and mythology.  There’s also The Fates of Greek Mythology, and the Furies AKA The Kindly Ones.  The Norse had The Norns.  In The Sandman Neil treats them all as aspects of the same entity.

      When Morpheus summons The Hecataea in issue 2 of The Sandman “Imperfect hosts” he refers to them as Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos.  This is the name of the Fates (Moirai) in mythology.  However these characters answer to Cynthia, Mildred and Mordred (Sometimes corrected to Morgan or Morgain).  This is because The Three Witches used these names in their own horror anthology comic “The Witching Hour.”  Nearly every character introduced in The Sandman issue 2 was an old horror anthology comic host.  The title of the issue was a pun. “Imperfect hosts.”  

The horror hosts introduced in this issue are Cain, Abel, Lucien, The Three Witches (The Hecataea), Eve (Also known as The Raven Woman), The Mad Mod Witch (Fashion Thing), and Destiny (now Destiny of The Endless).   Cain, who began as DC’s equivalent to EC’s The Crypt Keeper, hosted The House of Mystery.  Abel hosted The House of Secrets.  Lucien hosted Tales of Ghost Castle (which is retroactively Morpheus’s castle in The Sandman). The Three witches hosted The Witching Hour.  You get the idea.

But before they were even horror hosts, the trio was an architype common in folklore and popular culture. You will find that in most works of folklore and fiction if it’s not a witch acting alone, she’s usually in a coven of three. They’re not literally a Maiden (virgin or child-like), Mother, and Crone.  Sometimes they just fit the physical appearance or personalities heavily associated with these concepts.  

A popular famous example of this is Disney’s Hocus Pocus.   Winifred, the leader, is the Crone of the group as she is the leader and most cantankerous. She’s also the eldest sister.  Mary, the middle sister, is a bit heavier and is maternal toward her sisters.  She loves food and loves to cook and care for her siblings.  This is the mother. And Sarah (though not virginal) is the most child-like.  Much like Cynthia in The Hecataea, she is surprisingly sensual and a bit dim.  

Another good example is Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters who served as a parody on the trope, particularly from Shakespeare’s famous play.

   Disney’s Gargoyles even had a version of The Sisters. In that continuity they are of Oberon’s court, meaning that they are fae folk.  But much like The Endless in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman their appearance changes based on who is addressing them.  Goliath and his clan of Gargoyles saw them as human children. Demona saw them as woman Gargoyles (as she does not like or trust humans).  MacBeth saw them as human women. 

              There’s also the Hex Girls in Scooby Doo and The Witch’s Ghost.

     A helpful version of the three appear in the Fairy tale The Three Spinners where, like Rumpelstiltskin, they aid a girl who is forced to spin for a king.

         Once you start to notice it, you realize the three turn up a lot in pop culture.  It’s also common in religion.  In Christianity there’s The Father, son, and Holy Spirit.   Goethe’s Faust has Pagan roots despite its use of demons, Angels, and God.  In fact the entity at the end may well be the Triple Goddess as she is referred to as “Virgin, Mother, and now Queen.  Goddess grant your mercies.” -  A. S. Kline translation of Goethe’s Faust Part 2.  It’s no surprise that this also fits the Virgin Mary. A Maiden and a Mother, and also Queen (as opposed to Crone).

Note: Sometimes the Maiden, Mother, and Crone are actually referred to as Maiden, Mother, and Queen as it’s considered more respectful. 

             In The Sandman, at one point, Morpheus refers to the three-in-one as Witch Queen.

          Again, this is because of the roots with Hecate, Goddess of Magick and spells.  The neopagan popularity of The Triple Goddess also helps perpetuate the archetype.  Almost every witch coven has three (sometimes four) members.  Three is considered the sacred number. And once you notice it, you’ll start to see the Maiden, Mother, and Crone in a lot of things.

         I will also point out here that though it’s popular to consider Midnight The Witching Hour, the actual traditional Witching Hour is three AM or as Ray Bradbury called it in Something Wicked This way Comes, The Soul’s Midnight. 

          Neil Gaiman takes the Hecataea and also uses  The three-in-one for The Furies AKA The Kindly Ones.   

[proflazarus]

The habit of the nuns of the order of Raymond Nonnatus; named and explained

(The post no one wanted, but you get it anyways bc I’m an insomniac.

I’d also like to put out a disclaimer: I’ve got no idea about any sort of clerical garments and all the info in this post is researched through various sources and none of them were about Anglican nuns or Anglican religious sisters. There are definite differences between what we see in the show and what’s been discribed for catholic nuns or friars, so I’ve filtered out a lot and I’ve drawn some conclusions, if you most definitely know that there’s a mistake in my post PLEASE let me know.)

Let’s start with the basics:

Now to the finer details...

Tunic:

The tunic is a base dress worn over the undergarments.

(I’m not even sure if that’s the actual tunic or if it’s a special garment for postulants)

Scapula:

The scapula is the apron like garment worn over the tunic. It’s a rectangular piece of cloth that covers the front and back.

We see Sister Evangelina rolling it up and tucking it into her belt while riding her bike and Sister Bernadette shows how the garment is fixed with a strip of fabric to keep it from flowing wherever.

Belt:

The belt of our Nonnatuns is a white rope knotted very complicated at their left side.

We also see the end of the belt, which is knotted three times. These knots stand for their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Cap:

The cap covers the nuns hair.

Guimpe:

The guimpe is the round white piece of fabric that covers the neck and chest.

Wimple:

The wimple is the white fabric which is seen the most often on our nuns heads.

And to explain this further, Sister Bernadette and the mirror:

We can see how the chin band is pulled over the cap and not attached to it. Where as the wimple is attached to it with buttons on either side.

In the last seconds we also see how the guimpe is put together at the back usually covered by the wimple.

Veil:

The veils show up during various events in the show, they wear them during Compline, for weddings, funerals and (what I termed) general special occasions. They’ve also been referred to as “prayer veils”.

The veil is a fairly long piece of black fabric attached over the wimple.

(The parallels in the wedding pic are just *chefs kiss*)

Cross:

A cross is worn by every nun and postulants, in Sister Mary Cynthia’s picture we see a smallish metal cross and in every other picture we see the nuns with a wooden cross affixed to a black cord.

Ring:

A ring is worn by every nun (not postulants) and symbolises the nuns finalised vows and their status in connection with God. The Nonnatuns wear their rings on the right hand.

[nunonabun]

Can I ask what's your favorite headcanon for the CTM characters? Like with or without any real basis in canon, favorites. I love your writing both fiction and show discussion, and your takes on them, so I'd love to know yours.

Sorry I know you asked this ages ago but shit’s wack so I’m just getting to it now. My apologies.

I’m not sure I really have a favourite headcanon for anyone, and I don’t even know that I have particular headcanons for everyone. Headcanons I like can vary a fair bit. That being said, here’s some that I enjoy for the current main characters and yes I am counting Valerie Dyer shut up.  Under a cut for length.

Trixie - Not sure if this is properly a headcanon, but my favourite idea for her character is that her most profound and meaningful relationships throughout her life are with her friends. She seems to me someone who values found family especially highly and cares strongly about being there for friends. I think she’s often the glue for present and past secular Nonnatus midwives and I that she’s quite good at keeping in contact with folks and organising get-togethers.  

Val - Never loses contact with Lucille, though their relationship goes through several different phases. Along with several members of her extensive family, her relationship with Lucille is the most important relationship in her life.

Lucille - Her mother is able to come visit her in London, helping the city truly feel like a home to Lucille. She particularly enjoys that in future letters, she is able to reference people and places that her mother had become familiar with during her visit. 

Phyllis - help all of my favourite headcanons for her also involved Barbara  She develops a strong friendship with Miss Higgins. Millicent is one of the only people she feels able to discuss and process the losses she has suffered with (and vice versa). They enjoy the relaxing company of another person who has made similar choices in life, particularly given that the choice to remain a spinster is socially under-appreciated. 

Shelagh - She speaks Doric and, though she didn’t use it for many years living in London, she has had the opportunity to use it with patients and uses it more as she gets older, especially with her grandchildren. Bonus 2nd HC: She wasn’t an ingénue before she became a nun. She was always quite a reserved person, but she grew up fast and processed events and emotions in a variety of ways that she sometimes struggled with as an adult, though she came to accept her early life in all its complexity.

Patrick - Remained celibate during the war solely due to this moustache

Timothy - He’s bi or gay and that is accepted by his family. Has a lovely partner with whom he also shares a medical practice.

Sister Julienne - Though she finds the shift in calling from nursing to hospitality that Nonnatus undergoes difficult, but ultimately embraces it as a new way to learn from and serve the community she has come to care for so deeply (against everything she initially expected as a young nun arriving in Poplar from the country communities she had previously known).

Sister Monica Joan - Always feared growing old as she worried she would become stuck in her ways and unwilling to learn, as her parents were. Elements of aging do still cause her anxiety, but she has also found that having a long history can help her to imagine all sorts of new points of view and possibilities for the future, having lived through so many herself. 

Sister Frances - Like Sisters Bernadette and Mary Cynthia before her, she leaves the order. She cherishes her time there and keeps in contact, but the questions she has clash with her vow of obedience and she eventually feels she can’t sustain that vow. This departure, however, does bring her closer to her family and she too feels she understands their point of view and her upbringing better after the experience of being a Nonnatus nun.

Sister Hilda - Covertly visits art museums and writes in to newspapers commenting on various collections. She feels justified as the museums are free, therefore she is not breaking her vows, nor spending the Order’s money. And what harm is there in being very knowledgeable on the subject of classical and modern British art?

Fred - His get-rich-quick schemes never quite work out, but he takes over Val’s aunt’s dancing school and it does surprisingly well. He becomes quite well known for his dance skill and for his patience and good nature as a teacher.

Violet - Maintains her position as counselor for Poplar for quite some time. She particularly enjoys going toe-to-toe with counselors from more well-off boroughs and shutting down their ignorant arguments.

Reggie - Becomes quite well known in the community, much in the same way his surrogate father Fred is. He and his wife are well liked and neighbours often stop in to consult with him about gardening.

Mother Mildred - Practices witchcraft on the side

[onstarsandiron]

Cannon Character Full Names

Or, at least, as full as I can find them, for all of your name-related needs; may be updated as I re-read and find new names. Let me know if there are some I should add!

Main cast:

Ana of the Dossier

-Born Ananke Armorov

-Nicknamed “Princess“ by Elara

Robbert Mercer Valerio

-Called Robb

-Later just Robbert of nothing

-Later still Robbert Aragon

-Nicknamed “Smolder” by Elara

Jaxander Taizu

-Called Jax

-Note: Siege calls him by Jaxander a couple of times, but I think he tried to keep his last name a secret from her (no cannon support either way, mind you, and she clearly knew who he was by how she was able to quickly call into Zenteli, as if she’d had this worst-case contingency plan already prepared)

-Nicknamed “Sparkles” by Elara

D09

-Later, just Di (of the Dossier)

-Later (earlier?) Dmitri Rasovant

Elara Vath’aka

-Vath’aka is, “a name given to Solani with no birthright.” We later learn that her parents were caught studying the ark in the valley of Zenteli, which is forbidden. We aren’t given her original last name, nor the fate of her parents.

-Went by “Starbright” when contacting Ana for the first time

Xu

Malifare

-Presumably she could go by Malifare Rasovant, but she wouldn’t have in the palace as it would have been very conspicuous 

Dossier’s Crew:

Captain Siege 

-Born Marigold Aragon

--Mari to her friends :)

-Nicknamed “Sunshine” by Talle

Talle 

-Nicknamed “Starlight” by Siege

Barger

Lenda

Riggs

Wick

Nobles:

Cynthia Malachite Valerio

Mercer Valerio

-Mercer took Cynthia’s last name, no particular reason is given, but it would be reasonable for it to be due to Valerios having higher status than Mercer’s family name. Mercer’s maiden name is unknown, as he was apparently using Valerio even at the academy when they were simply betrothed

Erik Malachite Valerio

-Malachite was Erik’s middle name in the first book, as announced when he accompanied his mother to the pre-coronation ball. However, during the funeral of the second book, he was celebrated as “Erik Mercer Valerio”. 

Celene/Selena Valerio 

-Unless Cynthia has two sisters and the Selena at the tomb with the boys and Mari was that second sister, the spellings of Ana’s mother’s name are inconsistent between HoI and SoS

-Cynthia’s sister, Ana’s mother, married Emperor Nicolii

-Thus presumably later Selena Valerio Armorov

Nicholii Armorov

Rhys Armorov

Wylan Armorov

Tobias Armorov

Gregori Rasovant

Wynn Wysteria

Quintin Machiavalle

Viera Carnelian

-Robb, at one point, curses his luck that “Viera Bastard-Born Carnelian was the Grand Duchess’s Royal Captain.”

Vermion Carnelian

The Grand Duchess is Aragon born, and married into the Armorov family

-I feel like her first name is in there somewhere, but where I could not find.

Misc (mostly other pirates/out-laws)

Mokuba

Redbeard

-Captain of the Illumine

Cullen

-Captain of the Prospero

Cavorn

The leader of the Red Dawn

-I think that’s just how they like to be referred to, similar to the artist formally known as Prince

[inevitablemoment]

MARIE SPENGLER - OC INFO

FULL NAME: Marie Rae Spengler

NICKNAMES: Sisi (by Callie), Mimi (by Cathleen), Brown Eyes (by Julian), Dear Friend (by Ariadne), Sweet Child (by Ariadne), Brainiac Junior (by Peter), Freak (by Summerville citizens), Dirt Farmer's Daughter (by Summerville citizens)

FACECLAIM: Kara Lindsay

FANDOM: Ghostbusters (1984-1989; 2021)

BIRTHDAY: January 1st, 1990

ZODIAC SIGN: Capricorn

SEXUALITY: Demisexual

GENDER: Female (she/her/hers)

OCCUPATION: Assistant professor of psychology at USC (2018-2020, lost job due to COVID), virtual lab researcher at Cornell University (2020-2021), Adjunct professor at Columbia University (2022-currently), Ghostbuster (2021-currently)

BIRTHPLACE: Manhattan, New York City, New York

LIVES IN: Manhattan, New York City, New York (birth-age 3, age 28-31, age 32-currently) || Summerville, Oklahoma (age 3-16, age 31-32) || Stanford, California (age 16-19) || Chicago, Illinois (age 19-23) || Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (age 23-28)

NATIONALITY: American

FAMILY:

Julian Matthews (lover/partner/significant other)

Egon Julian "E.J." Spengler (son)

Hazel Spengler (daughter)

Elijah Spengler (son)

Egon Spengler (father, died 2021)

Cathleen Paige Spengler (mother)

Callie Spengler (older sister)

Unnamed ex-brother-in-law

Trevor Spengler (nephew)

Phoebe Spengler (niece)

Edison Spengler, Sr. (paternal grandfather), deceased 1983)

Ruth Spengler [nee Westelman] (paternal grandmother, deceased 2001)

Elon Spengler (paternal uncle, deceased 2014)

Noelle Spengler [nee Rosenfeld] (paternal aunt)

Edison Spengler, Jr. (paternal cousin)

Cyrus Spengler (great uncle, deceased 2002)

Benjamin Paige (maternal grandfather, died 1988)

Colleen Paige [nee Tillens] (maternal grandmother, died 2008)

David Paige (maternal uncle)

Joanne Paige [nee Vogel] (maternal aunt)

Jill Paige (maternal cousin)

Mark Paige (maternal cousin)

Mitchell Paige (maternal cousin)

Lucinda “Cindy” Paige (maternal cousin)

Christopher Paige (maternal cousin)

Theresa Paige (maternal cousin)

Sharon Paige (maternal cousin)

Caroline Tiffin [nee Paige] (maternal aunt)

Glenn Tiffin (maternal uncle)

Ronald Tiffin (maternal cousin)

Anthony Tiffin (maternal cousin)

Jackson “Sonny” Tiffin (maternal cousin)

Abel Paige (maternal uncle)

Rebecca Paige [nee O'Connor] (maternal aunt)

Loretta Paige (maternal cousin)

Erika Paige (maternal cousin)

Dominic Paige (maternal cousin)

Eleanor Paige (maternal cousin)

Melanie Paige (maternal cousin)

Katrina Paige (maternal cousin)

Constance “Connie” Whelan [nee Paige] (maternal aunt)

Douglas Whelan (maternal uncle)

Monty Whelan (maternal cousin)

Timothy Whelan (maternal cousin)

Gina Whelan (maternal cousin)

Felicity Whelan (maternal cousin)

Adam Paige (maternal uncle)

Helen Paige [nee Rafferty] (maternal aunt)

Olivia Paige (maternal cousin)

Holly Paige (maternal cousin)

Cynthia Paige (maternal aunt)

Peter Venkman (honorary uncle)

Dana Barrett (honorary aunt)

Oscar Venkman [born Wallance, formerly Barrett] (honorary cousin)

Eliana “Elly” Venkman (honorary cousin)

Andrew Venkman (honorary cousin)

Kelly Venkman (honorary cousin)

Ray Stantz (honorary uncle)

Willow Olson (honorary aunt)

Addison Stantz (honorary cousin)

Natalie Stantz (honorary cousin)

Grace Stantz (honorary cousin)

Janine Melnitz (honorary aunt)

Louis Tully (honorary uncle)

Lily Tully (honorary cousin)

MOODBOARD

CHARACTERISTICS: Intelligent, academic, plucky, organized, reserved, brilliant, bright, tortured, stoic, self-sacrificial, cocky, poised

LIKES: Science, occult, classic literature, spending time with her father, playing the piano, playing the violin, baking, libraries, theater, working in the lab with her father and with Phoebe, atmospheric music, Julian's voice

DISLIKES: Being bullied, Summerville, Gozer the Gozerian, the Peck family, Callie's ex-husband, how clingy Lily can be, being touched when she's feeling overstimulated

WEAPON OF CHOICE:

PKE Meter

Proton Pack

Ghost Trap

Gigameter

Tobin's Spirit Guide

Occult Reference Net

OTHER PERSONAL INFO:

Was diagnosed as autistic around her second birthday.

Graduated from high school as valedictorian at age 16, completed her bachelor's degree in theoretical physics at Stanford in just one year, completed her master's degree in both criminology and psychology from Stanford at age 19, completed her first PhD in psychology from Northwestern University at 23, completed her second PhD in parapsychology from Drexel University at age 27, and received her third PhD in nuclear engineering through an accelerated doctorate program at age 28.

Was born in the early hours of 1990 following the defeat of Vigo the Carpathian.

During her time at Northwestern, she saw Callie in a grocery store with five-year-old Trevor and two-year-old Phoebe. The sisters were estranged at the time, so Marie did not approach them, and left before Callie could see her.

Fluent in Hebrew, Yiddish, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, European and Latin Spanish, Flemish, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Latin, and Sumerian

INSPIRATION: Katherine Plumber Pulitzer (Newsies), Amy Santiago (Brooklyn Nine Nine), Jemilla (Firebringer), Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Bones), Nina Rosario (In The Heights), Will Graham (Hannibal), Marian Paroo (The Music Man), Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Stargate: Atlantis)

NAME ANALYSIS:

Playlist available here

[taffysannotatedsonichu]

The Most Pointless Character in Sonichu

Taffy here. This was a post I made for the Kiwi Farms forum on the most pointless character in Sonichu in late October 2017, and I took up the challenge to prove every single character has no point. This was kind of my beta version of what would become Taffy’s Annotated Sonichu, so I thought it would be worth reprinting here (also I’m sorry it’s taking me so long to get more CWCDefense or GitM up, I’ve been really sick for the past two weeks and I’m just now trying to get back in the swing of things).

Chris's comic persona and fursona are pointless because he could have just lived vicariously through Sonichu and not have an in-comic presence.

Sonichu himself became pointless after Chris took over as main character but was already pretty pointless since really Chris could have just written a straight Sonic fanfic with Sonic as the lead in the first place. Besides the occasional electric attack and the complete lack of an original personality he's basically Sonic.

That said, all the characters ripped wholesale from Sonic or Pokémon (Sonic himself, Perfect Chaos, Robotnik, Giovanni) are pretty pointless as they were dropped not long in as Sonichu grew to have its own canon with its own crazy cast of characters.

In addition, any character ripped wholesale from any other franchise (Beavis & Butthead, Bugs Bunny, Meg Griffin) exist solely for "fan service", or rather fan disservice.

Rosechu is extremely pointless, all she does is A) be a token girl, B) prove Sonichu is STRAIGHT, and C) occasionally face rape someone. That said The Incredible Lioness is probably the closest we get to a real character with a point, rivaled only by the Voltorb that kills Simonla. They have simple purposes (to brutally maim and murder) and they do them to a T.

Kel is pointless since Rosechu could have just been Chris's Pokémon to begin with and she didn't need to exist as a middleman.

For that matter, any character best known for being a Moon Pal (Bill the Scientist, Metal Sonichu, Yawning Squirtle) or just as a meme in general (Inos), while being great for laughs, are all pretty irrelevant background characters.

Reldnahc Notsew Niatsirhc exists solely for Chris to physically obliterate his sexual insecurity.

Any Jerkop or Manajerk exists solely for Chris to vent his frustrations with real people who were just doing their jobs. Same goes for Hanna.

Blake is too inconsistent to have a point to existing. He was a pointless villain-of-the-week at first and then he was a pointless supporting character.

Sarah Hammer and Wes Iseli are particularly pointless because Chris' relationship with Sarah was already waning when he wrote Sonichu 2. Since the reincarnation plot point was dropped not long after, you can honestly skip Sonichu 2 entirely and not miss anything.

Mary Lee Walsh, while being awesome, is like the jerkops and manajerks just there essentially as a comic book voodoo doll. Maybe the point of her was to show that Chris can in fact write an interesting and badass female character? We'll never know.

Count Graduon is pretty redundant with Mary, power wise. Other than to vent frustrations with his graduation he's really pointless.

All of the Chaotic Combo are basically team filler filling out some elements that the rest of the team lacks. Specifically:

Wild Sonichu doesn't really have a personality. He's pretty redundant with Sonichu himself, other than, of course, we need a green Sonichu. The one thing that possibly could have made him interesting, the struggles of being a single father, are really rushed over so Chris can get back to the murder spree. His only notable father-daughter bonding experience was drilling a man to death.

Bubbles Rosechu, aside from being the token blue Sonichu/water type, finds one Sonichu ball and then returns to being a moron.

Angelica Rosechu, although I imagine her original purpose was to be a pacifist voice of reason and a token religious character, well, that got thrown out the window pretty quickly. The things that differentiate her from Bubbles besides their powers are few and far between.

Punchy Sonichu is just the token red character and the token Asian. Seriously I don't even know what "fighting type" means. In fact, why not make him fire type? It's the one element missing from the Chaotic Combo (Bubbles is water, Wild is earth, Angelica is air, Magi-Chan is ether/heart/mind, no one's fire!) (Note 26/11/18: I now know Fighting-Type is a type of Pokémon, but nevertheless “Fighting-Type is one of the weirder types. The Pokémon types are elements, supernatural creatures... and martial arts. And yes, the Fighting-Type icons in the series are red while Fire-Type is orange, but from a team balance perspective fire would have made sense).

Magi-Chan, especially after being paired off with Silvana taking away his sole unique trait of not being driven around by his penis, is just Chris's round the clock surveillance system.

Boulder Dropping Whale would have been useful if he actually killed Bubbles's mother but since he failed he's just a great meme.

Why does Flame the Sunbird even exist? He's literally just Kazooie from Banjo-Kazooie and his role could have easily been filled by Wild or Bubbles or anyone because that stupid Sunstone doesn't even matter, except it does make everything grow like Norma, whoever she is. Norma is the most relevant character in that whole issue. (Note 26/11/18: Yes, I named Nadine’s mom after this typo.)

Again, Darkbind and Zelina are crimes against nature. (Note from an earlier repost): I am referring to a previous post complaining that Darkbind and Zelina were the combinations of not two but four franchises (Sonic, Pokémon, Zelda & Darkwing Duck) and came off as clunky because of it.)

Crystal the sister is especially irrelevant now that Chris is a girl (why not make her a trans man to mirror Chris' own transition? Oh wait JERKS.), but she was always redundant with Rosechu and Chris himself.

Sailor Megtune - why didn't he just draw Megan herself? We know he's okay drawing her.

Megagi - Already kinda redundant with Megtune and she really had no reason to exist after Chris & Megan had that falling out.

Jamsta and Lolisa speak for themselves at their uselessness. I mean, they are just bit characters anyway. But as someone else mentioned before their radio station is particularly shitty.

Patti-Chan, while her story is cute, just exists as a way for Chris to hold on to his beloved pet and not fully cope with her loss.

Allison Amber, although being one of the better characters, wouldn't need to exist if Chris would just do some work for once. That said if the point of her character was to be an audience surrogate (I mean, until she shoots a man in cold blood) then for once Chris succeeded.

Bionic the Hedgehog as previously mentioned is just there for the sake of having an orange Sonichu, even though he isn't one.

All of the specific characters of Chris's "real life" "sweethearts" (Pandahalo, Blanca, Ivy) as well as their OCs (Jiggliami, Blazebob & Chloe, Layla Flaafy) are pointless because they all just disappear almost immediately after they're introduced after Chris finds out they were a troll or they "died".

Likewise any rendition of one of Chris' real life trolls (Jason Kendrick Howell, Clyde, Jack Thaddeus, Alec, Evan, Sean & Mao) are again just there as pen-and-paper voodoo dolls for Chris to take out his frustrations on. The trolls in particular almost work against Chris' point in including them because no matter how much Chris paints himself as the hero his violent murder sprees always end with him looking like the villain. (Justice for the Asperpedia Four!)

Beel is just Satan and a secretary for the 4-cent-garbage building. Pretty pointless.

Zapina is just there as a token "cute" character.

Simonla is just Wild's token sweetheart and then later the lynchpin Chris needed to justify executing his enemies.

Silvana, while another fairly interesting character, is just a villain-of-the-week with an added dose of Chris's sexual insecurity.

Sarah & Rita Jackarass - These two are both stupid minor characters, but why on Earth did there need to be two of them?

GodJesus exists solely to heap praise onto our beloved autist.

Those stupid Samurai Pizza Transformers are stupid. I hate them so much. I hope they burn in the Earth's lava core.

Sonichu & Rosechu's children are initially just there to be cloyingly cute and then once they're grown to be Chris's LGBT mouthpieces, forgetting that we won't listen to anything they say because we already hate them. Of special pointlessness is Cerah, because while Robbie is the most punchable he's at least the focus character of a lot of the newer stuff (even though we hated him as a Sonee, we hated him as a Sonichu, and we'll hate him as a Rosechu), and Christine is vapid she gives credence to the idea that Magi-Chan is giving it to Rosechu behind Sonichu's back which is way more interesting than canon. Cerah does jack squat besides be a lesbian.

The Asperchu cameos are just there for Chris to try to force Alec to give him what he wants and the Basement Rosechus are just there to slander Alec's name.

Sandy is particularly irrelevant since Simonla's back, she was never anything more than a replacement goldfish for her.

Kevin the Jew - I knew it! I knew it all along! Peppermint Patty is a boy!

Bananasaurus - Don't listen to your Patreon backers Chris.

Lastly, Russel & Cynthia are just there to fill the Sonee/Rosee void left when Cera Christine & Robbie evolved, a void no one in particular wanted filled.

Edited (27/10/17) to include all the MLP characters and Chris's ponysona - We hate them and we want Sonichu back. 

[cooldoyouhaveaflag]

CtM Question?

Okay, so I’m moving along in my rewatch of the full BBC episodes since my first watch through was on Netflix and I have a question about 4x07 that I’m not sure is answerable? So, in the Turner family scene towards the end, Tim makes a comment about “I feel rather different about saving your bacon now, Mum” and it always confused me because I didn’t know what it was in reference to. I just watched the full version of the episode, expecting that maybe something got cut regarding that line, but I’m STILL CONFUSED. Thoughts? 

On a non-Turnadette note, I’m bummed that the USA version cuts the scene between Barbara and Sister Mary Cynthia in the garden because that is such a great character development scene for both of them!!! 

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND July 12, 2019  - SWORD OF TRUST, THE FAREWELL, SEA OF SHADOWS, STUBER, CRAWL

The 4thof July is over and we still have about six or seven weeks of the summer, but I’m particularly excited this weekend for two movies that aren’t the two wide releases but are movies that played at festivals that are currently among my favorite movies of the year.

I’ve been a Lynn Shelton fan ever since seeing Humpday at Sundance, and I’ve spoken to her many times for her most of her movies since, including one of my faves, Your Sister’s Sister. Shelton’s latest comedy SWORD OF TRUST (IFC Films), opening in New York this weekend and in L.A. on July 19, may replace Your Sister’s Sisteras my favorite movie of hers as she returns to improv-driven comedy filmmaking after spending years directing fantastic shows like Fresh off the Boatand G.L.O.W. In fact, the star of the latter show, Marc Marron, stars in the movie as Birmingham pawn shop owner Mel, holding the fort with his dopey assistant Nathaniel (Jon Bass). One day, life partners Mary and Cynthia (Michaela Watkins/Jillian Bell) show up with a Civil War sword that might help prove that the South won the war, not something that the liberal Mel or either woman believes but they realize they could probably sell the sword for a lot of money. That’s the set-up for a movie that’s so funny and moving as these four great actors interact and try to figure out what the truth is behind the sword and how to get the most money for it, while dealing with some really awful (and potentially dangerous) Southern racists.

Marron is just fantastic in this movie, worthy of an Independent Spirit award if nothing else, as he combines his cynical snarky humor with some truly moving moments, particularly when talking about his ex Deirdre (played by Shelton herself!) There are many great moments between the various castmates but none more than Bell and Bass discussing ghosts and flat earth theory – there’s something so adorable about their innocence even if their characters may sound like idiots.

I’ve seen the movie twice, and I enjoyed it both times, mainly due to the cast but also the way Shelton uses her “scriptment” way of filmmaking that she used to great success in earlier films like Your Sister’s Sister and Humpday.

Sword of Trust is a true joy, and it’s why independent filmmakers like Shelton are still so important in this day of big budget remakes, sequels and focus on franchises… which I honestly think she would kick ass directing as well. Maybe that will happen someday soon.

Rating: 8.5/10

(Also, I hope to have another interview with Shelton over at NextBestPicture sometime next week so look out for it.)

Another great film that premiered at Sundance is Lulu Wang’s THE FAREWELL (A24), and I actually wish I had a chance to see it a second time before writing about it… but honestly, this has been par for the course with A24 this year.  I actually saw a press screening of this for the BAMCInemaFestlast month but haven’t had a chance to see it since, which is a shame as it’s one of the year’s best movies.

It stars Crazy Rich Asians’ Awkwafina as Billi, a Chinese-American woman, struggling with her life in New York, when her parents tell her that her grandmother is dying and the entire family has planned to go to China under the guise of her brother getting married. The thing is that they haven’t told her grandmother that she’s dying, due to some odd family tradition, something that

This movie is not Crazy Rich Asians 2, by any means, as Awkwafina plays a very different role here, definitely one that’s lower key and not particularly comedic, although there’s still a good amount of situational humor. Still, at its core, it’s a really emotional family drama that keeps you invested in the lives of these characters in a way that doesn’t happen much with studio-based dramas.

I’ll be curious to see how well The Farewell does, because it’s very Chinese, mostly taking place in China in Chinese with subtitles. In some ways, it reminds me more of The Joy Luck Club in the way it looks at Chinese life and traditions, and it’s very different from some of the other Sundance breakouts like Late Night.

As someone who has lived in Chinatown for 26 years, I feel I’ve absorbed a lot of that culture through osmosis, so I can definitely relate to a lot of what Wang is exploring in this film. I’m not sure if A24 had this before Sundance (which I didn’t attend), but it’s certainly a gamble for the studio, one that I hope pays off.

Either way, Wang’s film is a must-see, and I’d be shocked if Awkwafina wasn’t in the Oscar discussions by year’s end, because she really delivers an unforgettable performance. I’m looking forward to watching it a few more times this year.

Rating: 9/10

Now, let’s get to the two wide releases, which I’ll also be covering in more detail over at The Beat, although I don’t have too much to say about them otherwise.

The pairing of Dave Bautista from Guardians of the Galaxy and Kumail Nanjiani from Silicon Valley in a straight-up buddy action-comedy seems like the type of high concept sell itself movie that could bring in the curious. That’s exactly what STUBER (20thCentury Fox) is right down to the title referring to Nanjiani’s character Stu, who, you guessed it, drives an Uber. You can read my review below, and you’ll see that it’s not particularly groundbreaking, and at times it’s also pretty bad… but these kinds of cheesy action-movies tend to do well since people just want to go to the movies to be entertained. I can’t say this is much better than the recent Men in Black International(featuring the voice of Nanjiani)… I guess it’s just not that original despite being based on an original script.

Mini-Review: It’s hard to completely fault Stuber for not trying very hard, as it was never meant to be anything more than a high concept buddy comedy pairing the odd couple of Dave Bautistaand Kumhail Nanjiani.

And that’s basically all that it delivers -- nothing more, nothing less.

Bautista is L.A. cop Vince Manning, who has been on the trail of a drug smuggler named Teijo (The Raid’s Iko Uwais). After Vince’s partner is killed, he’s sidelined and decides to use his time off to get much-needed eye surgery. It just so happens that he suddenly learns of Teijo’s whereabouts and being unable to see, he calls an Uber, an electric Nissa Leaf driven by a nerdy but genial guy named Stu (Nanjiani)… get it? STUBER.

That’s about the level of intelligence required to get through this movie, as Nanjiani’s Stu spends the entire making cracks and it’s obvious that this material is below him – his snarky humor not always connecting and his character not being nearly as lovable as his alien in Men in Black International.

The thing is that Bautista is only as good his material and the best this movie does for him is having him stumbling around blindly, doing pratfalls, and yelling at Nanjiani. It’s a weird and sometimes awkward relationship, as Nanjiani is constantly mouthing off to someone who could probably floor him with one blow. (At least that’s probably what would happen in reality.)

There are also some good fight sequences between Bautista and The Raid’s Iko Uwais that should sate most action fans, as well as a couple car chases, but nothing that groundbreaking. Canadian filmmaker Michael Dowse (Goon) does a fine job working with a bigger budget as a studio comedy director… but that’s not really saying much after making much more satisfying and personal smaller films.

Stu just wants to end this adventure and get to his friend Becca (Betty Gilpin from GLOW) who is in desperate need of “companionship” after a bad break-up. Honestly, the way this movie wastes Gilpin might be its biggest offense, using her merely as a sexual lure for Nanjiani’s character and playing a woman who clearly doesn’t have a clue. In some ways, it’s kind of sweet for Stu to want to hook up with his long-time friend and confess his true feelings, but I’m not sure I should have expected more from a movie that kills Karen Gillan (playing Vince’s previous partner) in the first ten minutes.

On top of that, it tries to shoehorn in a touching relationship between Vince and his daughter Nicole (the very good Natalie Morales) but it also feels awkward and obvious, much like the general conceit of the film.

Stuber ends up being so predictable and by the books, while also being kind of offensive to its own characters, you leave the movie wondering if it was worth it for the little bit of entertainment it provides.

Rating: 5.5/10

The other new movie in wide release this week is Alexandre Aja’s new horror film CRAWL (Paramount), produced by the great Sam Raimi, and starring Kaya Scodelarioand Barry Pepper, both from the “Maze Runner” franchise. It involves a Category 5 hurricane that leaves an area of the South underwater and a woman trapped in a flooded house with alligators. I generally like these types of movies, which are in the vein of shark movies like The Shallows and 45 Meters Down with people at threat from nature’s most dangerous creatures. In this case, it’s alligators. Sadly, Paramount isn’t confident enough in their movie to bother screening for most critics, so I won’t be able to see it until Friday, but look for my review over on The Beatprobably sometime Friday afternoon or evening.

LIMITED RELEASES

We had such a nice, easy weekend last week with not too many limited releases but that’s not the case this weekend, as all the smaller studios try to catch up after the holiday break. Fortunately or unfortunately I haven’t seen that many other movies besides the ones mentioned above and a few below.

Before we get to the usual releases, I want to draw attention to a special one-night only event from Trafalgar Releasing, actually the first of four this summer, and that is The Cure - Anniversary 1978-2018 Live in Hyde Park London. It’s pretty self-explanatory but basically, the British emo-rock band celebrated its 40thanniversary last year with a special concert. That concert was filmed and a film has been put together by long-time Cure videographer/collaborator Tim Pope.  This specialone-night-only event will screen WORLDWIDE on Thursday night, and if you’re a fan of the band you’ll want to check it out.

Another great film coming out Friday is SEA OF SHADOWS (National Geographic), the new doc from The Ivory Game’s Richard Ladkani, which won the Audience Award at Sundance. Executive produced by Leonardo Dicaprio’s Appian Way, it’s an amazing film that deals partially with trying to save an endangered species of whale, the vaquita porpoise in the Sea of Cortez where Mexican cartels, Chinese traffickers and local fisherman are using nets to try to capture the rare totoaba fish, whose swim bladder is worth of tens of thousands on the black market. It’s a complicated situation that involves government corruption and honest fisherman just trying to survive, while the cartel illegally mines the sea unconcerned with the fact that the vaquitas are dwindling at an alarming rate. Currently, there are only 15 left on the entire planet, all in the Sea of Cortez. Ladkani’s film follows a wide array of individuals: scientists, conservationists, journalists as well as the Earth League International, an amazing group of eco-mercenaries made up of intelligence and law enforcement using those methods to out the totaba cartels in that area of Mexico, as well as Sea Shephard, who are pulling the illegal fishing nets and trying to work with the Mexican Navy to stop the poachers.  Although the film’s multi-pronged attack on the subject might dilute some of the stories -- like the attempts to preserve the vaquita --  this is also not your typical DisneyNature film and definitely not for kids, although the scenes with the vaquitas show them to be beautiful animals with true intelligence and soul, which just makes their plight that much more heartbreaking. Then on top of that, you have this real-life thriller full of intrigue, conspiracies and corruption, just a terrific doc from Ladkani and NatGeo. It’s very obvious why it won the Audience Award at Sundance, and it will open in select cities and then hopefully expand wider similar to last year’s Oscar winner Free Solo.

Another interesting doc for those who wondered where those smartphones they’re looking at all hours of the day came from might want to check out Sarah Kerrush and Matt Maude’s doc GENERAL MAGIC (Gravitas Ventures), a doc about the company General Magic, made up former Apple employees from Silicon Valley who formed a brain trust in the early ‘90s to try to create the first PDAs I.e. palmtop computers, not “public displays of affection,” although there’s some of that in the movie, too. With amazing archival footage, it shows how these brilliant engineers and technicians came up with ideas while trying to bring the “Magic Hat” to market that would eventually become part of the iOS and Android systems we know and love. Some of the team also goes on to form the likes of eBay and other tech giants, so it’s amazing to watch these early days with reflections from those involved.  Apparently, General Magicalready played in a lot of places but it’s opening at the IFC Center this Friday.

Jesse Eisenberg stars in Riley (Faults) Stearns’ dark comedy THE ART OF SELF DEFENSE (Bleecker Street), playing a nerdy bookkeeper named Casey who is attacked on the street at night by a motorcycle gang. In order to protect himself, he decided to take karate lessons, where he meets the charismatic Sensei (Alessandro Nivola) whose tough training gives Casey confidence until he learns there’s a darker underpinning to the dojo.  I was generally mixed about the movie, because it had serious tonal issue where it was never as funny as it seems from the trailers, and then it gets dark… VERY dark. I did like Imogen Poots as a long-time teacher at the dojo, and like with many of Poots’ previous roles, I didn’t recognize her at all in the role, and frankly, I thought she was the best part of Stearns’ movie.  Bleecker Street plans to expand this fairly wide next weekend, so we’ll have to see how it does in limited release.

I’m not sure releasing Orson Oblowitz’s TRESPASSERS (IFC Midnight) so soon after Ari Aster’s MIdsommar was such a great idea, as it seems to be in the similar vein dealing with two couples with relationship issues who rent a house in the desert for a drug/sex romp. Angela Trimbur and Janel Parrish play long-time friends whose boyfriends (Zach Avery, Jonathan Howard) aren’t as friendly towards each other, but their night of debauchery is sidelined when a woman (Fairuza Balk) shows up claiming to be a neighbor with car trouble. As people start dying, they start realizing maybe she’s not what she seems. No, ya think?

Matt Aselton’s LYING AND STEALING (Vertical/DirecTV) stars Michael Costigan as art thief Ivan, who hopes to break free of his criminal life when he meets Elyse (Naomi Despres), a con woman and actress trying to escape her past. They team together for the perfect heist because one is LYING and one is STEALING… see how these high concept titles work, people who think Stuber is too high-brow? After a month-long run on DIRECTV, it will open in select theaters in New York and elsewhere Friday.

Jeanine and Catherine Butler’s doc American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel (Abramorama) looks at a group of Oklahomans looking to bridge the divide between their communities, separated by religion, race and politics, showing how the area’s conservative Christian movement emerged.

Also opening in theaters is Aaron Lieber’s Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable, which is about professional surfing world champion Bethany Hamilton, who survived a brutal shark attack in 2003, which was the basis for the 2011 film Soul Surfer, based on her book. The film covers Hamilton’s return to surfing while also trying to raise a toddler.

Opening at the Film Forum Wednesday is Richard Billingham’s debut feature, the British drama Ray & Liz  (KimStim), an autobiographical look at growing up in the Midlands in the working class. I haven’t seen this yet but I love the work of Ken Loach, which this definitely resembles.

Argentine filmmaker Benjamin Naishtat’s Rojo (1844 Entertainment /Distrib Films), winner of the Silver Shell Awards for Best Director and Actor at the San Sebastian Film Festival, which opens at the Quad Cinema and Film at Lincoln Center Friday and in L.A. at the Laemmle Royal on July 19. Set in Argentina during the Dirty War of the mid-‘70s, it follows a middle-age lawyer named Claudio, who is insulted by a stranger in a restaurant, which begins a night of secrets exacerbated by the arrival of a Chilean detective. It stars South and Central American actors Dario Grandinetti, Andrea Grigerio and Alfredo Castro.

Also this weekend, Tenzing Sonam and Ritu Sarin’s drama The Sweet Requiem (Juno Films), opening at the IFC Center in New York, looks at the refugee crisis  in the Himalayas with Tenzin Dolker making her acting debut as a 26-year-old Delhi exile who is reminded of when she was brought there by her father at the age of 8 in order to escape their Tibetan home.

From Bollywood and Reliance comes Vikas Bahl’s Super 30, based on the life of Indian mathematician Anand Kumar who comes from a poor family in Bihar but who puts together a group of 30 underprivileged but bright students for a program to help get them into the illustrious Indian Institutes of Technology.

Actor Joseph Cross from Big Little Lies makes his directorial debut with the musical rom-com Summer Night (Samuel Goldwyn Films), starring Victoria Justice, Lana Condor (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before), Callen McAuliffe and other young bright stars will open in select cities Friday. It stars Ian Nelson and Ellar Coltrane (Boyhood) as Seth and Jameson, who are getting ready to perform with their band at The Alamo until they receive life-changing reality checks including news from Seth’s girlfriend (Analeigh Tipton) and Jameson has to choose between two girls (Justice and Elena Kampouris).  The film deals with a single night in the lives of this group of friends… so I guess it’s kind of like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World? Just check out the trailer and decide for yourself...

Lastly, opening in select cities Friday is Jasmin Mozaffari’s Firecrackers (GDE), starring Michaela Kurimsky and Karena Evan as teen friends trying to leave their small town, who run into problems.  

STREAMING AND CABLE

Anthony Mackie and Frank Grillo star in POINT BLANK, the remake of the French action-thriller of the same name, this one directed by the great Joe Lynch (Everly, Mayhem). It follows a similar storyline about an ER nurse named Paul (Mackie), whose pregnant wife is kidnapped and held as collateral forcing him to team with an injured career criminal under his care to get it back. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I have confidence in the teaming of Lynch, Mackie and Grillo to do Fred Cavayé’s fantastic film justice.

More notably, Netflix is getting into a pattern of releasing two or three foreign films every couple weeks, and this week, we have three foreign films from different countries.

First up on Thursday is the Chinese dystopian film Cities of Last Things from WI Ding Ho starring Jack Kaoas a man who has extraordinary events happen to him across three different eras told in reverse chronological order.

From Spain comes 4 Latas (i.e. 4L), Gerardo Olivares’ road comedy starring Jean Renoand Hovik Keuchkerianas two friends who take a road trip from Spain to Mali to visit a dying friend with his estranged daughter (Susana Abaitua) along for the ride.

Also on Friday is Kidnapping Stella, Thomas Sieben’s German drama about a woman (Jella Haase) taken from the street for ransom and trying to derail her abductors’ plans. This one seems a lot like theGemma Arterton’s The Disappearance of Alice Creed, an amazing and underrated thriller that I loved.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

While the new restoration of Takashi Miike’s Audition will continue through the week, this weekend sees the latest installment of The Academy at the Metrograph, on Saturday afternoon showing the Director’s Cut of Michael Wadleigh’s Woodstock to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the upstate New York music and arts festival.

Also, the series Secret Histories: The Films of Kevin Rafferty & Friends runs through the week showing five of Rafferty’s docs, but honestly, I know nothing about these films. I only know a little bit more about Italian maestro Pier Paolo Pasolini,whose series A Future Life Part 2 also runs through the remainder of the week.

This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph is Nagisa Oshima’s 1986 film Max Mon Amour, written by French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière – whom you might remember, had a retrospective at MOMA recently. Playtime: Family Matinees is Niki Caro’s Wave Rider (2002), a fantastic Oscar-nominated film that I highly recommend seeing. Jack Hazan’s David Hockney film A Bigger Splash (1974) also continues as does Les Blank’s Tex-Mex music doc duo mentioned in last week’s column.

THE NEW BEVERLY  (L.A.):

Wednesday’s matinee is an IB Tech Print of the James Bond classic Goldfinger(1964), and apparently, this Bond series will continue through the month on Wednesday afternoons.  Weds. and Thurs. sees double features of Roger Corman’s The Secret Invasion  (1964) and James Garner’s Darby’s Rangers  (1968), while Friday and Sat. is a Jane Fonda double feature of  Cat Ballou  (1965) and The Chase (1966). Following last week’s KIDDEE MATINEE of The Love Bug, it’s followed up this weekend by Disney’s Herbie Rides Again  (1974). Tarantino’s own Django Unchained plays Friday night at midnight while Jane Fonda’s Barbarella (1968)plays Saturday night.The Sunday/Monday double features are Gunman’s Walk (1958)and They Came to Cordura  (1959), as the New Bev stays on its Western kick with  The Quick and the Dead (1995) screens in the Monday matinee. Tuesday’s Grindhouse double feature is 1970’s A Bullet for Pretty Boy, starring teen idol Fabian as Pretty Boy Floyd, with the 1969 screamer Horror House, starring Frankie Avalon.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

This weekend begins on Thursday with a “Highballs and Screwballs” double feature of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944) and Howard Hawks’ 1941 film Balls of Fire, starring Barbara Stanwyk. Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Vertigo screens on Friday as does Herbert Blaché’s 1923 film The Untameable (on 8mm!) with live music. Saturday night’s “Tiki Night 2019” (celebrating the 60thanniversary of Hawaii becoming a state) is a double feature of Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961)with Elvis Presley’s Paradise, Hawaiian Style  (1966). Sunday is a Jack Nicholson double feature of Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974)and its 1990 sequel The Two Jakes.  (Note: its sister theater theAERO seems to be taking a break until August.)

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Francesco Rossi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979) returns for another week! Mikhail Kalatozov’s Cannes Palme D’or winning Russia-based The Cranes are Flying (1957) is also getting a one-week 2k restoration release. Elaine May’s A New Leaf and Mikey and Nicky continues through Thursday.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The 4k restoration Director’s Cut of Daniel Vigne’s The Return of Martin Guerre  (1982), starring Gerard Depardieu (and written by that French writer Jean-Claude Carrière!), should continue at least through Thursday, as will 1984’s Before Stonewall.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

“See It Big! Action” series finally comes to a close with screenings of Kathryn Bigelow’s classic 1991 action movie Point Break (no relation to Point Blank) on Friday and Saturday. Next week begins a new family matinee program called “Summer Matinees: Fantastic Worlds.”

IFC CENTER (NYC)

The IFC Center is starting a new monthly program called “Artists Direct,” presented by former MOMI director David Schwartz and next Tuesday’s offering is a special screening of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Jack Goes Boating from 2010 with some of the cast in person to play tribute to the late actor/filmmaker.

FILM OF LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

On Friday, Film Linc begins a new series of free outdoor screenings on Governor’s Island beginning with Martin Scorsese’s 1985 comedy classic After Hours, one of my favorite movies and the very reason I moved to New York.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

BAM is showing a double feature of Patrick Wang’s two-part 2018 independent film A Bread Factory on Sunday, July 13, a movie that has found a larger audience as arthouse theaters screen it.

UNITED PALACE (NYC):

The Washington Heights classic movie house is back with a special Sunday screening of James Stewarts’ Mr. Smith Goes to Washington  (1939).

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

Wednesday and Sunday night, the Roxy will present 35mm screenings of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963)

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

Friday night’s midnight offering is James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Dayfrom 1991.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Character Names in Eleutherophobia

Since I’ve had a few people ask me about the character names in Eleutherophobia, I figured I’d run down the whole list.  These names are approximately in order of appearance in my various fics.  To be clear: this is not crossover fiction.  These are supposed to be nods to these characters, not the characters themselves.  Bearing that in mind, in approximate order of appearance:

Day the Earth Stood Still

Essa 412: a yeerkanization of “Boy 412,” the main character of the Septimus Heap series.  In my opinion, the second best treatment of the impact of war on children ever written into a modern fantasy series.

Leslie Burke: the deuteragonist of Bridge to Terabithia.  The character always reminded me of a younger Rachel, so I chose to give the name to the bearer of Rachel’s death.

Anne Shirley: the main character of Anne of Green Gables, who often goes underestimated for the extent to which she is a tough, complex, socially awkward heroine written in 1908.

George Little: the younger brother of the title character of Stuart Little.  Mostly named because I wanted to give David a last name that implied cowardice without being ridiculously obvious about it.

Lost World

[Steve] Carlsberg: the not-quite-antagonist of Welcome to Night Vale.

Akira 

Dr. Miranda Franklin: named for Miranda of Dr. Franklin’s Island.  Kind of a pun on my part: the plot of that book involves one of the main characters involuntarily turning into an anaconda. 

Jennifer Murdley: titular character of Jennifer Murdley’s Toad, one of the books in Bruce Coville’s Magic Shop series who learns the very hard way to love herself. 

Mrs. [Hannah] Gruen: Nancy Drew’s housekeeper.

THX 1138

Joey Costello: the deuteragonist of Tangerine, a story about two boys who have very different sets of troubles with their respective older brothers. 

Dr. Pendanski: one of the incompetent counselors from Holes by Louis Sachar.

Jodi O’Shea: far and away my most pointed literary allusion.  Jodi is a minor character in The Host by Stephenie Meyer, a book which I love (except for the extremely problematic ending, but I’ll get back to that). The Host is essentially a love story between a yeerk (Wanda) and a human (Ian) whose entire plot is driven by consent negotiations.  It’s about Wanda and Ian wishing they could be together but knowing they never will because they can’t be without violating the right to consent of the yeerk’s host, Melanie.  Melanie, meanwhile, is in love with a different guy... Who can’t be with her either without violating Wanda’s right to consent.

[SPOILER WARNING] Eventually Ian resolves this love quadrangle by putting Wanda inside a human (“Pet,” and don’t get me started on that name) who has been a controller for so long that she has forgotten how to exert her own conscious will.  Wanda and Ian presumably do the horizontal tango using that host instead, AND THIS IS TREATED AS A HAPPY ENDING.  Jodi O’Shea also meets the same fate as Pet: Jodi has forgotten how to feed herself or move on her own, so her own husband decides that they should just put her yeerk, Sunny, back in her head.  Sunny claims that Jodi is brain-dead... But Sunny is also strongly motivated to lie.  (There are also implications that Jodi’s husband becomes romantically involved with Sunny instead, a plot which is so horrifying it deserves its own blog post.)  Most importantly, all the main characters are really happy that these poor hosts are vegetables.  There is an entire subpopulation of humans who have become entirely dependent on their alien slave masters for survival... and this fact is treated as the solution to all the characters’ problems.  It’s celebrated.  And, yeah, both THX 1138 and Ghost in the Shell contain some pretty pointed commentary from me on why I find this ending to be so deeply unfortunate.  [END SPOILERS]

Ghost in the Shell

Mary Lennox: the main character of The Secret Garden, the first book without pictures I ever read on my own. 

Rose Rita: main character of The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring, and arguably one of the first genderqueer characters to make it into a children’s fantasy novel.

Margaret White: the antagonist of Stephen King’s novel Carrie, obsessed with preserving the innocence (and thus the dependent ignorance) of her teenage daughter.

Sophie Hatter: main character of Howl’s Moving Castle, who does in fact make her own clothes.

[Mr.] Broxholm: the titular alien from My Teacher Flunked the Planet by Bruce Coville, one of the most awesome and profound children’s sci-fi novels I have ever read.

Anita Psammead: a nod to The Five Children and It by E. Nesbitt, one of the first ever fantasy novels written for children. 

Miss Zarves: the teacher from Sideways Stories from Wayside School who doesn’t exist, because she was accidentally assigned to teach on a floor that was never built.

Nikto 770: nod to the code phrase in Day the Earth Stood Still (the original movie, not my fic).

Kit Rodriguez: the deuteragonist of the Young Wizards series, known for his passion and tendency to care deeply for others.

Aristotle “Ari” [Mendoza]: main character of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.

Dante [Quintana]: main character of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.

Gabriel “G.T.” Stoop: the main character’s mentor in Hope Was Here.

Elijah Springfield: a teen detective from the Veritas Project series.

Lydia [Bennett]: supporting character from Pride and Prejudice.

Nick Adams: a recurring Ernest Hemingway character.

T.J. Avery: next door neighbor to the Logan family in Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry.

Cecily Tallis: the narrator’s older sister (and unwitting victim) in Atonement by Ian McEwan. 

Maybeth Tillerman: one of the main characters in Homecoming by Cynthia Voight, a book that critics like to describe as “the anti-Boxcar Children” for its unflinchingly realistic portrayal of childhood homelessness.

June Boatwright: one of the protagonist’s mentors in The Secret Life of Bees.

Caitlin Somers: a Judy Blume character from Summer Sisters.

Alex Morales: main character of The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

Cooper-Trebond: shortening of “Alanna Cooper of Trebond” the name of the main character of Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness series.

Jesse Hauptman: the protagonist’s stepdaughter and mentee in the Mercy Thompson series.

Timmy Dugan: lesser-known real name of WWII comic book hero Dum Dum Dugan, sidekick to Nick Fury and Howling Commando as part of the Marvel universe. 

Luke Castellan and Chris Rodriguez: two of the supporting characters from Percy Jackson and the Olympians.  I wouldn’t say that Luke Castellan is the first meatsuit I ever fell in love with (despite him being basically a voluntary controller and also a human dumpster fire), but I would say that he made my tendency to care too much about meatsuits in general about 1000 times worse.

“Cornelius”: okay, this one is in fact a crossover—that’s meant to be Tyler Durden, main character of Chuck Palahnuick’s Fight Club. He’s a schizophrenic, lonely guy who goes to support groups for various traumas that he never actually survived (usually under the fake name Cornelius) because that’s the only way he knows how to connect to people. 

Odette: the protagonist of Swan Lake and several subsequent adaptations, including Mercedes Lackey’s awesome The Black Swan.

Rod Allbright: another character from My Teacher is an Alien, because I love that series. 

Officer Nice: a nod to the song of the same name by Vio-Lence, one of my few non-literary allusions.

Gerald “Jerry” Cruncher: a guy who works as a porter (and remover of bodies) in of A Tale of Two Cities. 

Paul Edgecombe: main character of The Green Mile, a deeply conflicted prison guard who gets cast as Pontius Pilate in a modern-day gospel retelling.

Kate Malone: narrator of Laurie Halse Anderson’s amazingly powerful novel Catalyst.

Mae Tuck: matriarch of the titular immortal clan from Tuck Everlasting.

Annie Hughes: one of the main characters from The Iron Giant.

Kirsten Larson: one of the first characters from the American Girl series, an immigrant from Sweden who struggles to acclimate to the United States.

Adah Price: one of the co-narrators of The Poisonwood Bible, a disabled polymath who loves palindromes and puzzles.

Iris Chase: a society lady and heiress from The Blind Assassin, which chronicles family dysfunction and its unique impact on women over several generations. 

Dawn Schafer: part of the enormous rotating cast of protagonists from The Babysitters’ Club series, and one of my favorite characters as a kid.

Henry Case: main character of the genre-creating cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.

Parvana Weera: a tough, outgoing young woman whose struggle to keep her family safe during the American invasion of her home in Afghanistan forms the main plot of The Breadwinner.

Raven Madison: main character of Vampire Kisses, who spends a little too much time in her intense fantasy worlds and not quite enough connected to reality. 

Mr. [Bob] Grey: pseudonym used by the creature also known as Pennywise the Clown and simply “It” in several of Stephen King’s novels.

Ms. [Mary] Logan: mother of the main character in Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, because I love that book.

Karana Nicoleño: although Karana, the main character of Island of the Blue Dolphins, doesn’t technically have a last name, her tribe is historically referred to as the Nicoleño.

Total Recall 

Vicky Austin: main character of A Ring of Endless Light, a book about coming to terms with dying—and about the many complex shades of victim blaming that can occur in light of unquantifiable tragedy.

Samuel Cornick: roommate to the eponymous Mercy Thompson of the bestselling Patricia Briggs series, a werewolf-doctor who continuously struggles to find meaning in an excessively long life and one of my favorite characters of all time.

The Thing from Another World

Seth Clearwater: a minor character in Eclipse, one of the youngest werewolves of the Quileute pack.

Captain William Nasland: one of the more obscure characters to hold the title Captain America; retconned into the role following Steve Rogers’s “death” in 1945.  Acts as both a hero and a villain because he has a well-intentioned but also closed-minded idea of what Captain America should be. 

Allison Chapman: main character of Sharing Sam, K.A. Applegate’s lesser-known novel about teenage basketball geeks who back their way into understanding the life, the universe, and everything.

Simon Grace: one of the main characters of the Spiderwick Chronicles.

Giselle Villard: one of the main characters from the Mystic comic book series who is awesome, tough... and more than a little power-hungry.

As far as I can tell, that’s it for the character names in Eleutherophobia.  I mentioned here why Marco’s last name is Alvarez and Cassie’s is Day in my series.  There are a few dozen other allusions as well (Tom and Bonnie bastardizing the “tears in the rain” speech from Blade Runner, Cassie quoting the epigraph from Home of the Brave, several nods to Remnants and Everworld and The One and Only Ivan, Marco making jokes about Lost World and Alien) and obviously all my fic titles are from classic sci-fi movies while all my song nods are The Best of 1990—2000, but as far as I know that’s it for allusions. If there are any that I missed, or that you’re still wondering about, let me know and I’ll happily clarify.