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coffee---bean · 2 months

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jesus pt. 2

i saw the christian youth group people at o-week at uni. they all have green shirts. i see them every year. this year i wanted to try find them and convince them i'm christian so they'd give me a shirt, but i thought of the idea after o-week ended. i would've loved to go up to people and be like "hey have u heard of the bible its fucking sick"

and there was this guy handing out little bibles outside the uni gate in week 1. it had all of jesus's quotes written in red font, which i thought was sick. i've always felt like the bible is a bit silly, cos surely it's just people writing about what they think god might be, and who knows if they were right or not! but for some reason, reading what are purportedly actual jesus quotes was exciting. like, finally the real deal.

here's some quotes i found:

LUKE 5 10 - do not be afraid; from now on, you will be catching men!

MATTHEW 6 28 - why are you anxious about clothing?

MARK 11 14 - may no one ever eat fruit from you again!

LUKE 2 49 - why were u looking for me?

MARK 13 2 - do u see these great buildings??

MARK 4 3 - behold, a sower went out to sow

MARK 5 30 - who touched my garments?

LUKE 7 23 - blessed is the one who is not offended by me

LUKE 10 19 - behold, i have given u authority to tread on scorpions

MATTHEW 15 34 - how many loaves do u have?

i told my friend amelia about this. turns out she's an amateur bible scholar and she really liked these quotes. she told me about how god would give really specific instructions about how he wanted his temple built, and would be really bad at communicating directly, and would only ever appear at inconvenient times or in unusual forms, and we realized god is probably really neurodivergent. he even had specific requests about the kinds of smells that would be in his temple, which is like so sensory.

and the jesus quotes i found sound so silly. like he's just this kind of bratty weirdo who's got these really touchy soft-spots and asks weird questions. which i really relate to!! reading these quotes was like so far the only time that i've actually felt jesus' presence in my life, like - oh yeah i see what u mean dawg, i'd be kind of annoyed if someone touched my garments too yknow. i'd probably start a story in a kind of silly way just like u with the sower going out to sow thing. and his whole "blessed are the ones who aren't offended by me" thing reminds me so much of shitty comedians who make jokes about trans people. i find it kind of endearing cos i love the idea that jesus would be so sensitive. both cos its funny (ur literally god its gonna be fine) and also cos low-key i'm a really sensitive person too.

so!

i don't really connected with religion in a religious way or an athiestic way. i did have the phase of being like "religion sux!!!!!" but after i wasn't forced to deal with it, i sort of just stopped caring. my dad is pretty buddhist, and he described going on retreats to me, and trying to get enlightened yknow.

and his description of enlightenment sounded just like how i feel when im kind of zoned out, so i told him that i'm enlightened all the time! and he got upset with me. or at least was just like, no, u don't get it. i feel kind of safer not understanding it. i feel like knowing i'm not enlightened is just gonna freak me out.

so anyway,

i was basically thinking about the idea that i had created a version of jesus for myself who felt real enough, from little fragments of text. and i was thinking about how religious people like the woman who spoke with me also have these versions of jesus in their minds, that speak to them. i remember the woman specifically said she didn't read books because god speaks to her and provides her all the info she needs. and as a non-religious person, i interpret that as her sort of working off instinct and rejecting stuff she doesn't like. which we all do to some degree!

i find it interesting that a preacher is kind of trying to give you their version of jesus, to colonise ur brain with their version. like how colonial empires rebuild their architectural styles in countries that don't suit the environment - like the hanoi opera house in vietnam.

or how trans people (heehee) resist gender colonisation inside their own minds and basically dress however they wanna. i guess some people are so good at this colonisation that they become empires, like megachurches or actual empires or whatever. and i feel like their colonisations are always violent and suppressive and unfair somehow. usually in obvious ways.

the currently ongoing genocide of palestinians under israeli occupation is another example. there's been a lot of propaganda to try to demonize the palestinians being spread by various sources, especially the israeli government and military. israeli political leaders have characterised palestinians as less-than-human, as creatures of darkness, as whatever. that's kind of a colonisation of the mind, and also a justification for a real-life actual colonisation, one that's killing thousands of people for LIKE NO FUCKING REASON.

anyway,

human relationships can be like that too. we can kind of passively mingle our minds together and change a bit. we can show eachother our favourite movies or music, we can share ideas or stories. we can teach a friend a coping mechanism we use which could change their life maybe. we can just spend time and let eachother know that our delusions are both unique to ourselves and also valid.

youtube

the chorus of "teletype" by everything everything

DONT TALK A LOT, BUT I LIKE IT, COS I CAN'T TELL YOU EVERYTHING THAT WENT ON.

it's a description of a relationship where the narrator is acknowledging that we can't FULLY know eachother. just like how colonisation can't occur without violence. you need to just kind of accept that we can't be perfect for eachother, we can't be copies of one another, because we are seperate. we all experience different stuff. and that's not actually a bad thing - it's whatever it is. it can be fun, actually. talking to someone can be like playing. learning isn't really copying, it's more like sharing and iterating.

i guess that's kind of the idea behind my project. i'll explain more in another post !!!!

#screen arts

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ashbelero · 4 years

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Obey Me!

~Theology Corner 2

✨Seven Princes✨

You guys seemed to really enjoy my last theology exploration into Obey Me! So I thought maybe I’d do a little more. Part 1 - https://otomeman.tumblr.com/post/618068151319543808/obey-me-theology-corner-so-we-already-know

First, why am I into theology/what qualifies me to talk about it? Not a lot. My dad’s a pastor but I don’t practice, and a lot of this comes from Catholic canon, which I’m also not associated with. But I find the whole thing fascinating and I’ve read a lot about it because quite frankly, this shit is an aesthetic. Anyway, let’s move on to deep dive #2.

We’re all very familiar with the seven brothers of the Devildom and the story that says they were angels who fell from heaven (except Satan who is made of rage and angst). Now, that IS true about Lucifer, the eldest... But I found myself wondering why the others were chosen for that role. Had Beelzebub ever been an angel in church canon? Why were these demons chosen for the seven seats out of hundreds of others? Was it just because they had cool names? And were they really associated with their respective capital sins?

Let’s start with the idea of the seven brothers first. Yes, there are seven demons considered to be the seven Princes of Hell. Specifically, the model that Obey Me! uses is from classifications of demons written in the 16th century.

Around this time period, theologists were very into the idea of creating a hierarchy of demons in hell, with most agreeing that Lucifer is definitely their leader. Originally, I thought they had gone slightly off of the text The Lanterne of Light, written in the early 15th century, which is among the first that names the princes of hell and their associated sins. The Lanterne’s princes are:

Lucifer (Pride)

Beelzebub (Envy)

Satan (Wrath)

Abaddon (Sloth)

Mammon (Greed)

Belphegor (Gluttony)

Asmodeus (Lust)

Seeing this, my first thought was that they’d taken this model and worked off of that. We can see some of them (Lucifer, Mammon, Satan, and Asmodeus) are in line with the game, but Beelzebub and Belphegor have different sins associated with them, and Abaddon is nowhere to be seen.

But after further digging, we find that there’s a later, although apparently less-used, text written in 1589 by Peter Binsfeld, a German bishop and witch hunter (badass, but he was actually kind of nuts). Binsfeld’s classification, known as The Princes of Hell, not only names the seven that we know but also the same sins they’re written with, in this order:

Lucifer (Pride)

Mammon (Greed)

Asmodeus (Lust)

Leviathan (Envy)

Beelzebub (Gluttony)

Satan (Wrath)

Belphegor (Sloth)

Okay, so this is clearly the source material they used - the only slight difference is the brothers’ birth order/seat order. Interestingly enough, this also seems to be the material used in Supernatural season 3 and on (which I haven’t seen). Could the developers have picked it up from there? It’s entirely possible.

Now what does Binsfeld’s classification say about the demons, and were any of them ever considered angels at some point?

First of all, the demons were not just representative of their respective sins, but also the primary source of temptation to those sins. Their entire job is to tempt humans and get their souls into hell. That doesn’t necessarily seem to be a concern to the Obey Me! crew, but then again... we are the ones coming back to play this game every day. Maybe they’re on to something after all.

Now we’ll go one by one through how the Princes of Hell are represented. This is a bit more difficult because not only are translations of Binsfeld’s work rare, but it’s hard to track down the original texts at all. Some of this is speculation, some is based on similar writings of the time.

- Lucifer -

Lucifer is the easiest to find info on, and the one who most canons seem to agree on. Some biblical texts use Lucifer as another word for Satan or the Devil, but considering Satan is a separate entity in Binsfeld’s text, we can assume that’s not the case here. I’m not gonna go into history or origins at the moment; that a story for another day. But the parallels between the game and mythos are pretty basic: Lucifer was the first angel to fall from heaven after attempting to restructure power, and is now the ruler of all demons in hell. This is close to our lore, with the only difference being that Lucifer actually serves Diavolo - but there can’t be any doubt who’s in charge among the brothers.

- Mammon -

Mammon is an interesting demon in that he wasn’t personified as an actual demon until much later in theological history; the word “mammon” simply means money or wealth. I’d love to go further into mentions of Mammon as a concept and sin in the bible, both old and new testament, but let’s stick to this for now. However, we can find stories that describe Mammon as a fallen angel - the reason for his fall being his obsession with the gold paving Heaven’s streets over his love of God. As a demon, he tempted humans to sin through promises of wealth. Our Mammon doesn’t seem to be very good at that.

- Asmodeus -

Asmodeus, or Asmodai in some translations, was almost always a demon of lust in Judeo-Christian theology, and featured prominently in the stories of Tobit and Solomon - Ooh, sound familiar? We’re not going into Solomon’s connection to the game today, but later. It’s not altogether clear how Asmodeus tempted humans to sin (aside from a lot of interrupting weddings by killing the groom), but later depictions show him as a beautiful young man with a limp... this limp being caused by the fact that one of his legs is a rooster’s. (Yeah. Can you imagine? I assume our Asmo got this fixed up somehow.) He’s only ever mentioned as being an angel once, however - by Pope Gregory in the 6th century. There’s no other implication that he was ever fallen. So that’s an interesting note.

- Leviathan -

The most interesting thing to me in Leviathan’s appearances is that the gigantic sea-dwelling demon is often considered not only the water parallel to the land-dwelling Behemoth, but also... female. But while this is in a number of depictions, there’s also hundreds of others. Leviathan was a figure in many religions, although these all seem to simply point towards the sea serpent rather than the demon or Prince of Hell. In catholic theology, he was said to pose a threat to all of God’s creation by devouring it, or swallowing it up in the waters of chaos. It wasn’t until the 13th century that Leviathan was given the role as a demon of envy by St. Thomas Aquinas; this was the version used by Binsfeld, placing Leviathan in charge of punishing the envious.

- Beelzebub -

Beelzebub is another one whose lore is pretty expansive, known by many names and titles. He was commonly associated with disease, though some biblical references to him as a Philistine god say that his title as Lord of the Flies was because he kept the flies away from the sacrifices laid out for him. He’s incredibly prominent in theology and tends to take on the roles of many other demons depending on the text, even being synonymous with Lucifer, Satan, and Mammon at times. Binsfeld’s classification is the first and one of few that assigns him to gluttony, where in others he represented envy or pride more commonly. The idea of him being a fallen angel seems to originate from the Testament of Solomon, but this also associates him with the morning star and appears to be another that interchanges him with Lucifer.

- Satan -

Fittingly, there is a massive amount of overlap between Satan and Lucifer in theological records. Both are described as a fallen angel that rebelled against God and subsequently was cast into hell to rule there in numerous different records. But there’s a lot more references to Satan in the bible than there are to Lucifer - possibly because satan was simply a Hebrew word meaning “accuser” or “adversary”, where ha-satan was more of a definite article to refer to the demon prince himself. In Christian translations, these were usually merged into one. Surprisingly, it’s hard to find any specific descriptions of Satan as a prince of hell; at the time of Binsfeld’s writings, he was mostly viewed as an object of witchcraft, a generalized devil, and often a subject of mockery in a good deal of entertainment media. Not hard to understand why he’d be associated with wrath in this case, as he was by many other classifications.

- Belphegor -

Belphegor’s lore is all over the place. He’s originally described as a demon who seduces people to him by suggesting ideas for inventions to get rich off of, though Binsfeld writes of him as one who tempts with laziness. His etymology is similar to Beelzebub’s, sometimes written as Beelphegor, roughly translated to “Lord of the Gap/Opening”, though it’s not abundantly clear exactly what this title means. It’s possibly because of this naming connection that he and Beel were written as twins. He’s also another one of the princes who was commonly depicted as a beautiful young woman when he appeared in the human world. Looking into beliefs around Belphegor outside of Christian theology turns up some... interesting details, but we’ll gloss over those for now. In a rare depiction of him as a prominent figure of hell, he was sent out to the human world by Lucifer to confirm whether or not it was possible for humans to live in married happiness; ultimately, Belphegor decided this was a groundless rumor. This could be something referenced in his hatred of humans in the game.

So that’s what we know about the brothers based off of one of the more obvious source materials for Obey Me! In future Theology Corners, we’ll explore the demons as depicted in the Testament of Solomon and what the King of Israel has to do with our highly suspicious bishie sorcerer.

#theology #obey me #obey me!#theology corner #obey me shall we date #obey me swd #obey me! shall we date?#obey me otome #otome #demonology #obey me hcs #obey me headcanons #fan theory

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mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune · 3 years

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Going M.I.A Until July 5th After Being Peeved Off By Toxic-Humans

I just need to have some time for myself,

and I wanted to wait until July to start posting again.

I just need to try to relax and do some self healing,

and it all has to do with finding out a bit more about Scott Cawthon.

look, no one has to agree about the same religious views.

I mean I have to stay in the Neo-Christian/Ma-Acolyte Closet,

as well as the Aceflux closet and the bigender identity closet with my family.

it be nice if it didn’t happen while FNAF Security Breach was still in the works.

I’m not even sure if it’s even finished, I can only hope that someone with a heart picks up where Scott left off and adopts the series but still gives Scott credit.

right now I’m listening to a comfort song right now,

which is Lily Allen’s song F**k You.

I guess I could listen to some other songs to comfort me,

but how I feel, it calls for that song.

I just wish they didn’t bring Trump or the other names that are involved into that mess...

after finding out that Trump had some form involvement of the, my guess bullying...

I did get upset at him enough to cry and say I hate him.

of course I can’t say that to my Mom or half of my family.

sure one half supported him and the other half don’t,

but we are still family.

I don’t much care for Presidents in Real Life, I have very little trust in them.

ones in movies or video games or any form of entertainment, are fine.

since it is just in a fictional world that is at times a counterpart of ours.

no one has to agree about my being mad at Trump, and that’s okay.

I can’t help but think that there is a possibility that Scott had retired

because of the bullying and it possibly being linked to Trump.

we all don’t have to agree to like or dislike Trump.....

but I’m sure a lot of people are upset at those that caused the early retirement

before the Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach

but maybe there will be still hope for it,

at least if it is true that Scott has a successor.

and if they do continue work on the Security Breach,

then we can only hope things works out well.

I didn’t know there was gonna be a successor,

until I was just looking up some more info about the whole FNAF thing.

but yeah, with only half of what I know so far,

it is still going to be a part of my Semi-Misanthrope.

I still know there are some good people in this world,

that is why it is “Semi”, which is better than it being the full.

maybe later I can try to look up more info about the whole thing,

but it is still possible the bullying was part of the reason for the early retirement.

I’m still peeved at this one person who was bad mouthing YandereDev.

if they are taking long to finish the game, it is because these things take time,

and also everyone has a off day where they wont be able to work on something right away and might have to put it on hiatus.

if Yandere Simulator ever gets on a Disc or game card,

and ends up being playable on Xbox One or Nintendo Switch...

I hope there will be a mode where we can dress up as Chara from Undertale.

at least there is some good news,

Doki Doki Literature Club will be on Nintendo Switch, I have been meaning to mention that after I had found out some days ago.

and parents should not let their child play it if they are under the age of 15.

don’t go blaming the mature content, when it’s you the parents who are to blame.

hey I did see a movie that I was not the proper age for,

and I wasn’t even a teenage yet when I saw it.

I’m talking about Cool World, I still like it and have the DVD.

but after remembering I had seen that movie, and we had rented it from a place that rented out VHS tapes.

I came to realize that letting me see that too early, even though I don’t think I can remember much about watching it during that time, all I know is that I did watch it.

but at least it didn’t get as mature as the Deadpool Movie,

and I still like the Deadpool Movie.

but anyway I figured out that it was wrong for my family to let me watch Cool World when I wasn’t the proper age for it,

and even letting me watch something else with the “witch” word on it,

when I was a toddler and I ended up saying “Son of a Witch”

of course it wasn’t the word witch, but you get what I’m going with this right?

I had to try to keep my little cousin from playing my Deadpool video game,

and it was lucky I caught them on time when the game had barely started.

did they even think about stopping them before they fully started to playing?

I don’t want to make the same mistake as my Mom or anyone else in my family.

at least the bad word I used wasn’t my first word.

but I had come to realize that it isn’t the mature content to blame,

but the parents, and even if some parents are willing to admit this cold truth.

that is perhaps long overdo, not all parents might admit to it.

if you have any mature stuff either on your computer or even a movie or show on DVD.

make sure to hide it from the child, give them their own computer

but put a child lock on the browser, where only you know the password.

and if you tend to forget passwords, write it on paper then hide it where your child or little sibling, can’t find it and it’s in a place that only you know.

also I want to say this....

I rather be a part of a Neo-LGBT, there can be different types of Aces.

some who are flux like myself, but because of the whole sexual energies,

I didn’t figure it out until I started to protect myself with my bracelets.

a Aceflux person can be a sexual empath, picking up the sexual energies of others when they are either in the same room or a different room all together.

and just because someone is Heteroromantic-Ace, doesn’t mean they should be exclude from the LGBT Community, even if some will still welcome them.

and even if some might not believe that a Ace can end up being a sexual empath, but it might be very rare.

I’m not sure if there are many Aces that are sexual empaths,

and didn’t figure it out until they started to wear gem bracelets to protect themselves.

I think I’m the only one I know of that is doing that.

of course when I had first started to wear a bracelet,

it was because of a dream that felt too real and I was in between awake and asleep and then I was scared awake...

it was also dark and I was laying on my back, that is part of what I remember before being scared awake.

and I can’t tell my family I’m one, or how I believe it had first started.

I rather not talk about that right now.

but the whole me rather being a part of a Neo-LGBT doesn’t really have to do with my being Aceflux, well technically Aroaceflux.

it is for different reasons,

of course I will have to be in the closet about being part of a Neo-LGBT Community......wait, is there already a Neo version...?

well I guess I’m fine being a solo member for now.

at least not everyone in the LGBT Community made false accusations on Scott.

and I’m not sure if my pendulum is being 100% truthful,

when I asked about Scott’s sexuality, I mean when I asked if he was Hetero,

I was given a No, but when I asked if he was Pan, I got a Yes.

but that might not be true,

I mean I guess there is a possibility that it could be true.

but maybe I should throw some salt on my pendulum later.

and if it turn out those questions were true, and I was being given a truthful answer.

then it might make others sorry for bullying him.

plus I want to point out, that you can’t just keep hating someone

who believed the lies that they were taught while growing up

about how a different gender identity from your bio-sex one

or not being hetero, is evil.

it’s only when they end up seeing the truth that they might end up discovering

that they aren’t hetero, and might just be bi or pan instead.

I wanted to tell my my family about me being on the Asexual Spectrum,

well the flux type of it.

but I wanted to get their view on it first, about the Asexuality.

like I had said before, it didn’t work out too well.

and I had to make it seem I wasn’t Asexual at all.

even though I was asked if I was, I didn’t say Yes and made sure to not give away I was one.

then when I went to my room, I started crying.

how I reacted was perfectly normal, as I had found out when I found some info about how a parent shouldn’t disapprove of it.

I love my family, but it’s best that I never come out of the protective closets I place myself in, that I can only come out online.

also I’m gonna try to relax and try to just hope the FNAF series keeps alive and there really being a successor who will continue it.

well now that I know the one who partly more responsible,

is a Toxic Game Journalist........

that person sucks, they suck and I hate them so much.

any Toxic-Journalist that dares do what that one did,

they are just as bad as the paparazzi that harassed a distant cousin of mine.

and if their lies is what got everyone mad at Scott,

at least not everyone, but still.....

I hope that Toxic Game Journalist who started it all,

will get the karma they deserve after they screwed everything up.

and yes while writing this, I wanted to look up more info about the whole FNAF and Scott Cawthon thing.

and it does appear that the root is a toxic game journalist.

and if I had to put two and two together,

I say the Youtube Video that peeved me off before,

that had to do with a doxxing of Scott and [Redacted]

and if had to do with that disgusting filth of a shisno.

if the info had happen some time after that whole mess happen,

then it means that that disgusting human whoever they are,

is the cause of it.

and there is a reason why I put [Redacted]

as I do not wish for the other person/creator of another series,

to be mentioned in this.

Cancel Culture is Evil, even if something does get cancelled,

it shouldn’t involve the cancel culture cult.

don’t blame the content, blame the parents.

Pepe Le Pew deserved better,

he could of been added into the Space Jam 2 Movie,

if he got character development.

he could still flirt, but would learn to keep it a bit more friendly,

and not force himself on a gal he likes.

ya don’t see girl characters being treated the way he has been treated,

Pepe deserves better, not just Amy Rose, Dot Warner and Fifi La Fume.

that is being sexist towards Pepe.

and it’s sexist for women and even some men,

to assume if a guy wears pink or uses a pink straw, he might not be consider a man.

so wait, if a woman wearing a blue shirt or uses a blue straw, she is still a woman...?

only a real man wears pink, uses a pink straw and even cries.

and I really hope there is a Anti-Cancel Culture Group to put that shisno group in their place.

I want to try to hope things get better, and the FNAF will continue,

and Scott will get a apology from those who had believed that shisno.

maybe I should avoid looking more info about it.

I just need to try to do the self healing and hope everything gets better,

and hope it isn’t a cruel joke about there being a successor.

I guess I can try to look it up more about it to check to be sure if it is true.

I’m gonna check a few more stuff on here first, before I sign off.

and I hope some of you understand why I’m upset about what happen with Scott.

it isn’t right what happen, and how it happen.

and no matter if he supported Trump or not, there is some lines that should never cross when it comes to a dislike of a president or former president.

but if it came to picking him or the evil woman, I would only pick him to keep the babies safe.....but I’m not sure if the rumor about Hillary Clinton is true or not,

I mean when I had found out about it, I was praying she wouldn’t become president because I was worried about the innocent lives.

but if the rumors still turn out to be 100% true, I still don’t want her as the first Madam President.

I don’t even trust Biden very much, but I will have to try to hope and pray everything will be okay.

like I said, I don’t fully trust Real Life Presidents.

the best thing I can do is hope and pray that everything will work out.

for real, this will be the last post until July.

but I wont sign back in and post anything again until July 5th.

I’m still listening to Lily Allen’s song, I’m gonna listen to it a few more times.

anyway not all of you might agree with all I said,

and I’m not gonna force you to...

so see ya later, stay safe and beware of shisno.

PS:

Please Do Not Misinterpret anything that was wrote in this.

and I’m gonna hope that not everyone believed that bull about Scott being a Anti-LGBT.

and I do hope the shisno who started that mess, will get karma for what they did and causing FNAF to be almost cancelled for good.

and it better not be cancelled for good,

and there better be truth to the whole successor to the game series.

and if it turns out that my pendulum isn’t joking about Scott’s sexuality,

if it turns out to be 100% true and not a prank my pendulum is pulling.

then I hope he gets a lot of apologizes, not only from the other stuff,

but also about the Anti-LGBT calling.

#self healing #need alone time to heal #five nights at freddy's #someone please adopt five nights at freddy's #successor #neo-lgbt community #beware of shisno

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swearronchanel · 4 years

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9.06

I’m a day late but I have thoughts

- Fred is truly a gem lol but another garden seems redundant

- Trixie actually working!

- Why did they bring back Val’s really bitchy cousin lol, I’m sure she has others on the block😂

- Also Mcnulty seems eager to come back, nice boy

- Sister Hilda tryna stay positive when she knows the truth, bless her

- Also the heat 2000 feels just as far away when you say it now at days too😂

- Save Nonnatus House 1k65/2k20

- I was always wondering when the Turners would tell Angela she’s adopted. I think it should be soon, she deserves to know & I hope we see it

- Little girls always wanna be the same😭 that’s true, but I hope that they acknowledge the fact that it’s a different situation and Angela won’t ever have the struggle May is about to have

- “Maybe they’ll move and carry on like before” Trixie in tears makes me wanna cry😭 she’s literally already been through this. I wish we saw more moments where she reflects as the only OG midwife left (yea Shelagh is technically too but you already know all the issues)

- Also Trixie looks damn great

- What will midwives the do!? We shall see

- Oh so Val has a dad? Did he pass? Give us more info lol

- I also feel like it’s been spring/summer this whole series lol

- Ok but the suddenly alive lost parent trope is pretty soap-y/melodramatic but go on,

- Shelagh stress smoking is a big ass mood but also stop you have weak lungs sis

- Reggie always have great ideas

- Chugging castor oil uh I rather die 🤢

- She’s going to shit her brains out now

- LMAO YUP

- Sister Hilda and Trixie could be an interesting dynamic, let’s see it

- Fred do not worry you’ll figure it out

- What’s wrong with Sister Frances?

- Where is Ms Higgins from that she just said laboratory like that LMAO?? Or do all brits say it like that? i dont remember

- Can’t wait to see Phyllis back with her cubs

- Fred and Reggie hugging for so long🥺

- Sister MJ is going to make a garden, I love her

- Trixie’s new pyjama’s are so cute

- It’s a boy 🥺

- “I am not alone sister” LMAO omg reminds me of the time my grandma went shopping by herself right after she came out of the hospital and we called her and asked who she was with and she straight up said “con díos” aka god and I died

- Never underestimate Sister Mj tho

- Tim is so grown and yet he’s still just the babysitter is so wack give him a little story

- “I like that we’re complicated” awww

- The photos of May🥺awww

- Give Esther a chance man, I feel so bad. She only asked to meet her before she goes back

- Gtfo how can the agency not provide a translator so that she can understand official documents in her first language? That’s bullshit

- LMAO FRED IS WASTED

- “Only in the line of duty ma’am” 😂

- Oh no poor Sister Frances, cramps are the WORST 😭

- I legit would not be able to move for hours and have thrown up before from period pain. Thank god for birth control

- What’s wrong with baby warren?! Omg noo a heart problem

- Trixie’s fit is great

- The fucking chicken pox caused this omg nooo

- THE BEATLES AT SHEA!! iconic! Remember when Don took Sally on Mad Men

- Omg baby is blind? and only going to live a few weeks? Noo😭 this is heart breaking

- Poor Val and poor Maureen ugh this is so awful

- My niece turned 1 today and baby warren is making me extra emo😢

- Sister MJ with the teddy bear 🥺 she doesn’t even care she got caught for taking the blankets LMAO

- Damn May doesn’t remember her or her language. This is so heartbreaking

- ALSO why were there not subtitles so we could know what she said? 🤔 very questionable... just like how they emphasized earlier her going by a “christian” name now...

- Esther shouldn’t have gotten loud but they didn’t even give her a chance? That’s not really fair

- I know Patrick is being protective but he’s so defensive that he probably did scare May

- PHYLLIS FAKING CAR TROUBLES TO GET CRYRIL AND LUCILLE TOGETHER I LOVE IT

- Damn that didn’t go well LMAO

- I’m really feeling conflicted here. I know the Turners have the best intentions and want to keep May safe but I feel like they haven’t given Esther enough of a chance before passing judgment. Like how do we not know she’s a completely changed/clean from drugs women?

- like she is working for a family with enough money for international travel so they probably pay well? IDK what to think rn. Maybe I’m giving Esther the benefit of the doubt but no one else really is

- “They made my child afraid of me” that’s so sad to hear

- “Forgetting her language, forgetting that she’s Chinese” !!! THIS, no one is talking about May’s loss of culture & what’s worse is that no one else seems to care. It really upsets me, the show always wants to pride itself on respecting other cultures and being inclusive but I don’t always feel that

- Also what she said about what they’ve done to her people. She ain’t wrong. F**k colonialism and all its evils !!

- Poor Esther 😭 this is so sad. It’s a lose lose situation for her and she just wants her daughter to know her and know that she loves her

- Also I know sister J is sister J but her talking to Esther is a bit biased don’t you think

- NO NO NO Warren passed 😭😭😢

- Damn Patrick has to carry a stack of death certificates 😢

- ANOTHER look from Ms Franklin

- all the girls look great though

- My heart really breaks for Esther man. This is so sad. She’s the victim of circumstances and it sucks to feel like the world is against you

- It’s so awkward bc the Turners are always set up in moments to kiss and then they don’t and just stand or sit there

- Such beautiful flowers

- They developed the film of Baby Warren😭

- Cyril’s FIT ! A fashion KING who loves Lucille. I love it. I love them.

- The nosy nurses of course

- Alright this is an awesome little festival good job Fred and Reggie !!

- Love the dress Trixie. The hat no so much but it’s the 60s so

- A BABY GARDEN OMG HOW PRECIOUS

- SISTER MONICA JOAN WON OK!

- “Flowers take many forms. Each one has its story. Each one unfolds...” 🌼🌸💐🌷🌺🌻🌷

- “Not every garden blooms as we except it... tears take the place of rain when the sunshine fails us...” 😭💖

- This was a beautiful ending to a sad episode wow

#call the midwife #im conflicted #thoughts #live blogging but not really live

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Upcoming Marvel Movie Releases: Complete MCU Phase 4 Schedule

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We’ve got everything you need to know about the upcoming Marvel movie(and TV!) schedule all in one place! The Marvel Cinematic Universe plan now stretches all the way to 2023 (and beyond). The amazing thing is, it’s even more ambitious than we anticipated, with new movies getting announced all the time. It looks like even something on the massive scale of Avengers: Endgame was only the beginning. How can anything ever be bigger than that crazy Avengers: Endgame finale?

Well, it looks like we’re going to find out…eventually.

We’ve compiled as much information as we can find on every Marvel movie coming out in the next few years in a handy release calendar for you. This is where you can check out all the details on Marvel Phase 4 and beyond. You probably want to know a little more about the future of the MCU and all the other Marvel movies in development. Well, we’ve got you covered! However, be advised, almost every single MCU Phase 4 date has recently shifted because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which is wreaking havoc with every industry in the world, so update your calendars accordingly!

These dates have already shifted several times recently, and the most recent changes affect Black Widow, Eternals, and Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Don’t be surprised if they continue to move as things develop with the pandemic, but hopefully by the time Black Widow is ready to come out, we’ll have reached the end of this nonsense.

WandaVision

release date: Jan. 15, 2021

Yes, technically this isn’t a movie release, but with all of the release date changes, and the fact that it has been over a year since the last actual MCU release, we’ll take the good stuff where we can get it. And make no mistake, WandaVision very much appears to be the good stuff.

Ever wonder what happened to Wanda after she went all Scarlet Witch on Thanos in Avengers: Endgame? Well, you’re gonna find out in WandaVision, which appears to depict a grief-riddled Wanda dealing with the death of Vision in less than healthy ways.

Elizabeth Olsen is, of course, back as Wanda, and so is Paul Bettany as the Vision. This show is going to have serious ties to the MCU, with elements that will be important for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Captain Marvel 2 having prominent roles. The trailer is packed with MCU strangeness, which we wrote about here.

WandaVision is the first of a number of MCU focused shows coming to Disney+ over the next year. 2021 will then (hopefully) bring us Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki. Since these will also be vital to the future of the MCU, we’ll add them to this calendar as they get release windows and/or trailers get released.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

release date: March 19, 2021

“The legacy of that shield is complicated.”

Yes, it is. And we’re going to find out just how complicated when Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes reckon with the legacy of Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+. Here’s the official synopsis for the series…

“Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) team up in a global adventure that tests their abilities—and their patience—in Marvel Studios’ The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”

Yes, like WandaVision, this isn’t a theatrical release, but also like that show, this is far too important to the future of the MCU to ignore.

Morbius

Release Date: March 19, 2021

Spider-Man spinoff Morbius is Sony’s next big Marvel release, and it’ll officially be the first spinoff to properly connect to the MCU.

Safe House‘s Daniel Espinosa directs from a script by Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, as former Joker Jared Leto plays the anti-hero biochemist who finds a cure for his rare blood disease by using vampire bat blood. As you can imagine, there are consequences: he turns into a living vampire, for one.

Um…don’t be surprised if this one ends up moving off this date at some point at the rate we’re going.

Read more about the character of Michael Morbius here, and find everything you need to know about his upcoming movie, right here.

Black Widow

Release Date: May 7, 2021

The Black Widow movie was heading for a May 1, 2020 release before the coronavirus outbreak, but Disney and Marvel have decided to delay it until the industry’s infrastructure is back to some semblance of normal. First they bumped it to November, but now we have to wait almost a full year from that originally scheduled date before we see Natasha and friends. Disney and Marvel Studios seem absolutely committed to keeping Natasha on a theatrical release rather than sending her to Disney+.

Cate Shortland directed the film, and Scarlett Johansson stars, with Florence Pugh and David Harbour alongside her. One of the movie’s villains is Taskmaster, and we wrote a little bit more about him right here.

Natasha Romanoff will get a prequel movie of sorts here, as we catch up with Widow around the events of Captain America: Civil War. Will the plot affect her character’s ultimate fate in Endgame? Do not count on it.

We have more information on the Black Widow movie right here.

Loki

release date: May 2021

Tom Hiddleston will reprise his most famous role, as Loki finds himself on a heist through time and space after the events of Avengers: Endgame! Oh, and based on this trailer, there’s all kinds of weirdness awaiting, including the return of Heimdall, some other Asgardian hijinks, and…Loki running for President!

Look, he couldn’t possibly do a worse job than the guy who’s been there for the last four years so…Vote Loki!

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Release Date: June 25, 2021

Andy Serkis (Mowgli) steps behind the camera for Venom 2, which now boasts the catchy title of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, replacing Ruben Fleischer as director this time around. The first film, buoyed by a terrific showing at the Chinese box office, made an absolute ton of money, despite being released to mostly scathing reviews.

Venom 2 will follow up Sony’s 2018 Spider-Man-less spinoff film, but will likely be more connected to the MCU this time around, thanks to a renewed deal between the company and its Marvel Studios partners. Tom Hardy will return as Eddie Brock, of course, and as you can probably guess from that title, he’ll be facing off against Woody Harrelson’s villain, Cletus Kasady aka Carnage!

This one was originally tentatively scheduled for October, 2020, but has been shuffled away for the moment as studios continue to move release dates around because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Read everything else you need to know about Venom 2.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Release date: July 9, 2021

Simu Liu has been cast as the titular Shang-Chi and Tony Leung as The Mandarin (hey, that name sounds familiar! But this time, we’re getting the real Mandarin on screen). Destin Daniel Cretton is directing from a script by Dave Callaham. Given its “Ten Rings” title, Shang-Chi should be steeped in Marvel lore!

This has been delayed twice. Let’s hope that’s the end of it. At least it has resumed production!

We have more info on the Shang-Chi movie right here.

The Eternals

Release Date: Nov. 5, 2021

The Eternals has completed principal photography and is on post-production. Chloe Zhao is directing from a script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo.

The cast features Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Gemma Chan as Sersi, and Kit Harrington as Dane Whitman, the Black Knight.

This one was another victim of the release date shuffle, having moved from February of 2021 to November of that year. We’ll get to see Jack Kirby‘s wildest creations eventually!

You can read more about The Eternals movie right here.

Spider-Man 3

Release Date: Dec. 17, 2021

While the next Spider-Man movie doesn’t have a title yet, it’s happening, and the best news of all is that it’s happening in the MCU! Marvel and Sony solved their differences, good sense prevailed, and Tom Holland’s Peter Parker will remain a vital part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This one, well…this might be a live action Spider-Verse movie from the sound of it. Jamie Foxx will reprise his role as Electro from the maligned Amazing Spider-Man films and Alfred Molina will return from the Raimi era as Doctor Octopus. Wait. Are they trying to make this a multiversal Sinister Six movie? Because…we could be down for that.

Thor: Love and Thunder

Release Date: Feb. 11, 2022

Taika Waititi, who gave us the delightful Thor: Ragnarok, will return to write and direct. Chris Hemsworth will be back, but will it be as Thor? Natalie Portman is your new Thor (yes, you read that right, Jane Foster will wield the hammer…just as she did in the comics!). Christian Bale has also joined the cast as the terrifying Gorr the God Butcher.

We have more info on Thor: Love and Thunder right here.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Release Date: March 25, 2022

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness looks like it will open up the storytelling possibilities in the MCU like never before. And that’s just based on the name alone. Scott Derrickson was scheduled to direct, but has bowed out because of “creative differences” with Marvel. But the good news is that Marvel found a suitable replacement in none other than Sam Raimi, who of course has plenty of superhero experience thanks to his Spider-Man trilogy in the early 2000s!

This one has loads of connections to the wider MCU. Elizabeth Olsen will be here as Scarlet Witch, and the film will also connect to the untitled Spider-Man 3 and its own multiversal ambitions. There are also a few rumors doing the rounds that Jericho Drumm aka Brother Voodoo could be introduced in this sequel. We’ll keep an eye on that and update this if there’s any substance to them.

We have more information on Doctor Strange 2 right here.

Black Panther 2

Release Date: July 8, 2022

Black Panther 2 is still on Disney’s release schedule, despite the tragic, untimely death of star Chadwick Boseman. Marvel has made it official that they have no intention of recasting the role of T’Challa, which is absolutely the right move.

Ryan Coogler will return as director, but there are no other details currently available. We have more information on Black Panther 2 right here.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sequel

Release Date: October 7, 2022

Is it technically an MCU movie? Nope. But with all the legal weirdness going on between Marvel and Sony, and this franchise’s very multiversal concept, who’s really to say that it ISN’T an MCU movie either, right? In any case, the sequel to the best Spider-Man movie of all time is coming in 2022 with Avatar: The Last Airbender mastermind Joaquim Dos Santos directing and David Callaham writing.

There’s also an “untitled Marvel movie” still technically scheduled for this date but…that is almost certainly not gonna happen now. Expect whatever that project was to move to one of these below dates or to some other currently unspecified date on the calendar.

Captain Marvel 2

Release date: November 11, 2022

WandaVision writer Megan McDonnell has been tapped to write the screenplay for Captain Marvel 2. You know what else is really cool? Candyman‘s Nia DaCosta will direct!

We have no idea where we’ll find Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) in the sequel to her hugely successful first standalone MCU entry. Will she be fighting to loosen her former Kree pals’ iron grip on a pre-Avengers galaxy? Or will the follow up film see her fighting for justice in the present?

Read more about Captain Marvel 2 here.

And then there are still some dates that Marvel has announced that they have yet to match projects to. Those dates are…

Feb. 17, 2023

May 5, 2023

July 28, 2023

Nov. 3, 2023

Some of those dates could very well be good fits for the following films…

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Peyton Reed will return to direct the third installment of the Ant-Man saga, perhaps the most unlikely trilogy in Marvel��s entire arsenal. Paul Rudd will return as Scott Lang, and you can almost certainly expect Evangeline Lilly to return as The Wasp and Michael Douglas as Hank Pym.

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The villain of the film? That will be Kang the Conqueror, who will be played by Lovecraft Country‘s Jonathan Majors. The inclusion of Kang opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities for the MCU, and may even tease the arrival of the Fantastic Four down the line! We wrote more about those possibilities right here.

We’re also going to need fast confirmation on Michael Pena’s return as Luis, though. Luis is key…

This will probably slide in to one of those 2023 release dates above.

Blade

Well this one was a surprise. In 2019, Marvel announced that they will be rebooting the Blade franchise with Mahershala Ali playing the titular daywalker. Ali’s True Detective co-star – and former Blade villain – Stephen Dorff is excited to see what he can do with the character, and so are we.

We have more info on Blade here.

Deadpool 3

Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin will be the writing team tasked with bringing the Merc with a Mouth to the MCU. What a Deadpool 3 could look like in the interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe is, of course, anybody’s guess, but if anyone can crack wise about the follies of this kind of corporate synergy, it’s Ryan Reynolds.

Fantastic Four

The MCU Fantastic Four movie is finally happening! Marvel’s first family will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a film directed by Jon Watts, who did such a wonderful job with the first two MCU Spider-Man movies. That’s all the information that’s out there at the moment, but as soon as we have more, we’ll update this.

We have our own theories on why Marvel went with the Fantastic Four before the X-Men, but that’s another story.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Avengers: Endgame left the team in an interesting place. We broke down some of the story possibilities right here.

After a tumultuous period which saw James Gunn fired and then rehired as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director, he will become the first Marvel director to ever complete a trilogy for the studio. However, Gunn can’t even begin filming Guardians 3 until he finishes production on The Suicide Squad for DC, as well as an HBO Max Peacemaker prequel. Once those projects are finished, he’s free to return to the MCU.

We have everything else you need to know about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 right here.

And as for those others? Well, we’re still waiting on word on where Deadpool 3 will fit since that is (finally) official, as well as movies to bring the X-Men into the MCU. Could any of those 2023 dates do the trick? It’s very possible! And this doesn’t even account for all of the other MCU Disney+ TV shows that don’t have release dates yet like She-Hulk, Moon Knight, Ironheart, Secret Invasion, Armor Wars, and more!

We’ll keep updating this with new information as it becomes available.

The post Upcoming Marvel Movie Releases: Complete MCU Phase 4 Schedule appeared first on Den of Geek.

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vinylexams · 5 years

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Heavy Heavy Low Low - Courtside Seats to the Greatest Fuck of All Time⁠

⁠ @heavyheavylowlow38 #heavyheavylowlow #hhll #deathwish @deathwishinc⁠ ⁠ I’ve been lucky as hell recently to snag insider info on some killer reissues and this one is no exception. You all already know how much I love HHLL, especially Turtle Nipple…, and through serendipity I got connected with Robbie from the band a few months back. I got to hear about how they are coming back to life after some years focusing on other projects, growing up and growing out, and evolving as musicians and artists in the process. They’ve worked with Twelve Gauge Records to put Courtside Seats on vinyl for the very first time and after they announced it on their platforms and immediately sold it out, they’re pressing another batch that you and the HHLL lovers in your life can and should snag before that pressing sells out, too!⁠ ⁠ What’s even more exciting is that I got to pick Robbie’s brain in typical VE fashion and he’s indulged me with all sorts of info about what they’re up to, whether or not we can expect new music, and some feel-good stories about huffing air duster and ripping shit up in an old warehouse on the California coast. Here it is in its unedited glory, but first…head to the website to pre-order your copy and then head to Robbie’s Indiegogo campaign to learn more about his upcoming short firm that’s scored by Nick from Tera Melos! ⁠https://deathwishinc.com/products/heavy-heavy-low-low-courtside-seats https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/morning-deliveries-short-film#/

INTERVIEW

First and foremost, it’s been a minute since we’ve heard from Heavy Heavy Low Low and then out of nowhere you sprang back to life in 2019. What motivated you all to pick up this project again? I’m not sure what motivated it. We had always been trying to jumpstart the whole thing again for some time and I think that it might have been a case of everyone’s lives slowing down and examining that time with a weird reverence. I can only speak for myself. The boys are all in school or doing their own thing.

I imagine you’ve all been working on different projects since HHLL went on hiatus. Do you have anything that you or the rest of the band have worked on that you’d love us to know about? Danny has gotten pretty popular in the Kendama world. Chris is studying various forms of martial arts. Roo is endlessly going to school and currently scoring independent films. Chip is heavily involved in competitive fishing. I’ve been making short films when the situation and my wallet allow it. We’re all crazy excited about finally owning Courtside Seats on vinyl for the first time. Aside from bringing that album onto the vinyl medium, the pre-order page notes that there’s new artwork, too. What can we expect from that? When we made the CD we weren’t expecting to sell any really.. I did the art and Matthew printed them all at his job. Him and I folded every crease, glued the o-cards and vacuum sealed them all. I think it sold out almost completely at the record release show. We made the same amount of records as we did the original cd (500). The artwork for the original CD pressing was done on sketch paper without any comprehension of what could be done with drawn art and a scanner. Matthew was the computer wizard and back then, young and silly, it was all done on the cuff. The new art is a bit more modern and plays with mortality. Court-side Seats to The Greatest Fuck of All Time being a front seat view of a an ordinary, bumpy ride through life. I’m proud of it. What’s it like to bring back an album from the earliest parts of the band’s career? Do you still identify with the music? It is odd. It was a truly surreal time and place. We were out of our fucking minds. We recorded it in Mountain View, Ca in this giant warehouse that tapered into gutted office spaces. It was a weird white collar tomb on the outskirts of Silicon Valley right before the real tech boom. In the big part of the warehouse where we’d enter there were giant mounds of clothes meant to be donated to some third world country. We’d burrow tunnels in them and do huge dramatic flips from pike to pile. There was an aisle of outdated medical equipment waiting to be sent that we’d stalk through in the dark. It was a strangely magic place. Once you got through the warehouse you’d get to these office stations that had been fashioned into recording studios and that’s where we birthed this thing. We were so misguided. The amount of compressed air that we inhaled should have killed us. I contribute a significant drop in IQ to that shit. Smoking copious amounts of weed from gravity bongs. Recording with a hip hop producer, Deegan. Never a disagreement. It still feels like it was some strange purgatory of youth. I don’t miss it, but it was beautiful. Does this mean there’s hope of having Everything’s Watched, Everyone’s Watching on vinyl sometime, too? So, there was a guy who was very adamant about putting that record out on vinyl. We had a dialogue going for the better part of a year and apparently he had been in contact with Rhino Music and Warner, the two companies that hold the licensing to that album. He had received word that it’d cost an impressive amount of money, but he still wanted to shoulder it. Mind you, this dude didn’t have a label, he just wanted to put this thing out and apparently hadnt thought that all out. Time goes by, I’m waiting, not worrying one way or the other. One day I get a link from a friend, a Christian college website detailing that dude had been arrested for kidnapping and assault. Very sad situation. Dude seemed semi normal. Anyway, that was the last effort I’d seen put into that. I’d love to contribute new art to that release if any go-getter wants to try their luck. I’ve loved everything HHLL put out, but Turtle Nipple is in my top 10 list of favorite albums of all time. What was the writing the recording process for it like and how did the band feel about the new creative directions on it? EWEW was half previously recorded material re-recorded and half material written a year prior, kind of forced into a studio with producers we had no previous rapport with. Those producers/engineers were incredible human beings (RIP Tom Pfaffle! See you in the mindfog) but we were very young punk kids thrown into a foreign land where we had our agents visiting and there were platinum records on the wall and it was a total barrage of privilege and excess. It was beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t feel soul in that record. Turtle Nipple is a dense trip through time and the record I’m most proud of in our discography. I don’t remember how long we had to record it, I do remember that it was the only time we’d been given to experiment and layer our sensibilities in an environment that catered to them. Sam (Pura) was a perfect conduit to that vibe and time and space and it really came out just how it should have. I think about that album as a 70s exploitation directors filmography.. it veers violently from genre to genre and while most of the stories are fiction and far from personal testimony, theirs a peek into some shared insanity contained throughout. George Cosmatos wandering through a punk club on an edible. I think that that album is our bands true personality. Sam is a member of our band whether he’s playing with us or engineering for us. He gets us. I love the idea of an alternate reality where we had lasted a bit longer and did an album with Steve Albini. He’d probably hate us, but I love those ‘What If?’ Scenarios. I’ll ask the question EVERYONE has been asking so it’s on the record somewhere: Does this mean we can expect new material or a new album soon? Maybe even a tour? We have a new EP in the works. We have some of it recorded with Sam. We’ve posted a couple clips on Instagram. We’re incredibly busy and spread out in our personal lives. Chip in TX, Dan in FL, Roo in OR, Rob and Chris in CA. Adulthood is a bitter, pulpy drink! We are going to be playing again. We won’t be leaving the West Coast. We had our fill of middle America and the travel involved. We have talked to some of our buds from our early days of touring about playing alongside (opening for) them for a limited run in 2020. I think that qualifies as a tour. Also, if anyone wants to fly us to Europe to play a festival in 2020, we’d like that. It’ll be an interesting year. How does it feel to be welcomed back by so many adoring fans who still love your music and are hoping for more after a long hiatus? It’s incredibly humbling. I have heard from people throughout the years about how we had affected them and it was always just strange to me. I’m pretty self deprecating, so I just don’t understand how some shit I wrote could mean much to anyone. My mind is just a shotgun blast of panic. I guess all of ours are? I love my band mates and their talents, though. So I understand the sorta sirens draw to the greater extent. I think they only got to show themselves slightly, too. Weird existence. Give us a piece of band trivia you’ve never shared in an interview before! Gees. There is a step-in part to most 15 passenger vans. It is a black, hard plastic. It meets with where you close the sliding door. When we had no bottles to pee in, we would just piss in ‘the step’. This thing was a den of germicidal activity. Trash and piss I don’t think we ever truly cleaned that thing. What’s odd is that we so rarely got ill on tour. The Step kept us healthy on a steady diet of trash and piss and general scum. Finally, this isn’t a question but the hidden track on Turtle Nipple is a fucking masterpiece and I wanted you to know. Thank you! I think that may have been my idea to add some weird 70s funk into an old track of ours. I think it turned out cool, but I think it betrays our vibe on that album! I wish it’d have devolved into some weird, primitive Altered States shit.

#heavyheavylowlow #hhll #deathwish #vinylrecords #vinylcollectionpost #metal #nowplaying #vinyls #recordcollector #vinyladdict #vinyligclub #vinylcollective #vinylexams

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disorganizedkitten · 5 years

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I am bad at posting in multiple places but if you follow A study in Friendship now’s the time to catch up. We’re at chapter five now, and it’s over 5k!

Yeah, I’m surprised too.

I asked about a tag list and then someone reblogged but Tumblr is a butt and I’m having trouble seeing what they said if anything, so I’ll be working on that too.

Anyway! You can find Chapter five over on AO3 or right here on Tumblr because I’m on a computer and feel like it. First full chapter on Tumblr!

Chloe had not, in fact, left her alone once the week was up. Instead, Sabrina learned that Chloe had been holding back over the past month. Go figure. And while Sabrina still had some problems defending herself, for every scathing comment Chloe sent her way, one of her friends would have a supportive comeback.

In short, life wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty amazing!!!

Did she mention she had seven friends now? Seven!! Marinette, George, Alya, Calista, Rose, Nino, and Adrien. And she was on tentatively good terms with the rest of her fellow students. That had never happened before! She could greet people and be greeted back, positively.

And sometimes it wasn’t her making first contact!

Like today, for instance.

“Good morning Sabrina!” Calista called, waving excitedly in the hallway.

“Good morning Calista!” Sabrina couldn’t help the smile as she dashed up and hugged Calista. “Did you have a good afternoon?”

“Oh it was amazing! I ended up in the catacombs, which yes I know is really dangerous, but I found some really cool stuff. I’m even checking with my dad to see if it counts as property open to the public. And even if I can’t keep it, I have like twenty pictures.”

“Oohh,” Sabrina breathed. Calista had shown in the past week that she had an affinity for finding the coolest things in the most random places. “Can you text me some of them? Or are they all on your camera?”

“Camera,” Calista said sadly. “But I’m going to print them this afternoon. The brooch was so pretty!” Calista sighed wistfully. “Anyway,” she turned her full attention to Sabrina. “How’s your turtle set coming along?”

“It’s coming,” Sabrina answered, rocking on the balls of her feet. “I think I’m ready to put a finishing coat on the main beads, finally.”

“Aw yes!” Calista jumped. “I can’t wait to see the finished product. I have told you how talented you are with beadwork, right?”

“You have,” Sabrina answered around a smile. Calista had said it at least five times in the past week. Especially after Sabrina had given her the star bracelet. Which Calista had worn every day since.

“Well I’m saying it again, you’re super talented, and the turtle set is going to come out looking so amazing.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Sabrina blushed.

“Cally!” One of Calista’s classmates skidded up to the pair. “Cally! Christian and Lucien are trying to claw each other’s hearts out.”

Calista sighed. “This is what I get for running for class rep. Well, better go stop them from getting hurt. See you later Sabrina!” She waved, her classmate latching onto her arm.

“See you!” Sabrina waved as Calista was dragged off by her classmate. Sabrina continued along the upper hallway to her classroom.

“Hey Sabrina!!” Alya leant over Marinette’s empty seat and held out a fist, Sabrina tapped it happily with her own as she passed.

“Hi Alya!

“Morning Ivan!” He glanced over at her, and she caught a small smile as he nodded to her before resuming his conversation with Mylene. Sabrina was… bad… in the love department, but even she could see how in love the two of them were.

Finding someone that compatible for herself in a few years would be a dream come true. For now though, Sabrina would just watch their love bloom happily.

She walked up to her seat, stopping to greet her almost-friend in the back row. “Hi Juleka.” the goth gave a tiny one-handed wave and muttered ‘Hello’ back.

Sabrina even chanced a wave at Nathaniel before she turned and slid into her seat. The redhead gave her a similar wave as Juleka had.

“Good morning Sabrina!” Rose called, skipping up the steps. “Good morning Juleka! Good morning Ivan! Good Morning Adrien, Good morning Mylene! Good Morning Alya! Good Morning Nino! Good morning Nate! Good Morning Max! Good Morning Kim!”

A chorus of ‘Good morning Rose!’ echoed back at the peppy blonde. Rose smiled as she slid into her seat in the back row.

Chloe stalked into the room, head held high. She sent a smirk to the back of the room, and Sabrina shivered. That was not a good kind of smirk. Sabrina hoped that Chloe was just acting haughtily to ride on her father’s coattails. M. Bourgeois was on his way to winning the mayoritorial elections, again. M. D’Argentcourt had been thoroughly humiliated throughout his campaign. At times it seemed the entire city was working against him.

Power players such as Andre were probably why the Americans had a limit on how many terms a leader could serve.

Sabrina listened in on the various conversations as she waited for Mme. Bustier to arrive.

Max was describing an idea for an AI with emotions to Juleka; Rose, Alix, and Mylene had started to talk about shades of the Color pink, and Kim was saying something about not being afraid of anything Ivan would ever know about, - spiders, if it hadn’t changed from when Sabrina had gathered blackmail info last year so that no one would run against her and Chloe in-

Oh crap.

Class representative elections had been making their way around the school this month. Calista had just been voted in on Friday.

Her life had changed a lot in two months. A lot, because she used to have the dates to start gathering information ingrained into her internal clock, and knew exactly what it was for every time. She had thought her secret hunting urges were just because she was so excited about Kitty Section forming and that she knew Nathaniel had been working on a secret project. She’d completely forgotten about elections.

Sabrina had never considered herself someone for whom adaptation was easy, and yet here she was.

“Oh it would be amazing if we got cushioned seats this year. Do you think that whoever gets elected would do that?”

Mylene hummed. “I don’t know, Rose, Chloe definitely wouldn’t.”

“Well no, but Chloe doesn’t have to be the rep this year.”

“She doesn’t?”

“I mean,” Rose took a breath and then leaned forward so she could talk to Sabrina. “Bri, are you gonna help Chloe run for rep this year?”

Sabrina wasted no time shaking her head, keeping her gaze stubbornly on Rose’s face. “Nope.”

Rose smiled, turning back to Mylene. “See?”

“Yeah, okay. But who’s going to run instead?”

“Good question!” Rose leaned over her desk again. “Bri, are you going to run?”

Sabrina paused at that. She hadn’t thought about it. She considered it for a moment, waving to Marinette as she entered, then turned and told Rose she really didn’t know, adding on a “besides, I don’t think I’d be that good at being in charge. I might run for assistant rep.”

“Wait does that mean we’ll have fair elections this year?” Marinette asked, turning around in her seat.

Sabrina nodded.

Marinette pumped her fist. “Yes! Have we decided who’s running this year?”

“I want to run for rep,” Rose admitted. “It’ll be fun to try.”

“I’m running too!” Kim added loudly. “This time she can’t hold my fear of spi-something against me!”

“Can’t I, Kim?” Chloe’s icy voice interrupted. Sabrina watched as she sashayed up the aisle and slammed her hand onto Kim’s desk. “I don’t have anything new to use against you, but don’t think for a minute that I won’t use what I still have.” Chloe turned her glare to Sabrina. She flinched. Chloe looked triumphant about that. “I don’t need Sabrina to keep you plebeians in line.

“Anybody who runs against me this year will meet the same fate as previous years.” She yawned into her hand. “I’ll just have to go without an assistant this year.” Chloe turned away and sashayed back down the stairs. She slid into her seat, head held high.

Mme. Bustier clapped her hands before the conversation could continue.

The subdued attitude carried through the rest of class, and only worsened when Mme. Bustier officially announced that the Class Representative election for their class would happen this week, and that anyone who wanted to run needed to decide by fourth period, and have their paperwork in by Tuesday morning.

“I had been so excited,” Rose lamented, setting her tray down between Juleka and Sabrina. The entire class, sans Chloe, had gathered for lunch in the cafeteria.

“Is Chloe really that bad of a class representative?” Adrien asked.

The emphatic Yes from the rest of the class had him flinching. Sabrina felt a little sorry for him. She , at least, had no misconceptions as to what Chloe was like when they were friends. Or, less misconceptions. It was worse from the other side, but not by too much.

“I don’t think we should let her have her way this year.” Alix stated. “I mean, Marinette already told her to take her bad attitude somewhere else, why don’t we all help reinforce that idea? Between the, what, thirteen? Of us, most of her threats won’t actually mean anything, right?”

“Yeah!” Kim cheered.

Max cleared his throat. “As much as I hate to kill the mood, Chloe's threats do still apply. She can still spill secrets, and she has enough pull with the school board that she can still carry them out, just not with the same amount of ease as previous years.”

Alix groaned, laying her head on the table. “Her tyranny has to end somewhere.”

“What if we blackmail her back?” Juleka asked, forking a piece of (furd) into her mouth. Sabrina jolted, staring at her flabbergasted. Apparently she wasn't the only one, because Juleka shrunk in on herself a bit a moment later. “It was just a suggestion.”

“There's got to be someone she has nothing on,” Alix huffed. “Wait a minute, Sabrina?”

Sabrina froze as all eyes turned on her.

“Alix, what are you asking?” Ivan asked, a hint of accusation in his tone. Sabrina wasn't sure which girl it was truly aimed at.

“Who doesn't she have blackmail on.” Alix said again. “Sabrina, you know this, right?”

Sabrina nodded slightly. She didn't like it when the past was brought up, she had tormented them so much, but it was inevitable in this situation. She took a deep breath before answering, hoping her voice stayed factual and firm. “Kind of. I don't have anything on Marinette, Alya, or Adrien. But Chloe might have found something else since I left.”

At her words, the class erupted. Sabrina winced at the overlapping yells, moving to cover her ears. Some of the noise was cheers, some were questions, Kim was making a lot of it, really it was just too much, too much, she couldn't think, how could thirteen people make so much noise-

There was a bang as Marinette stood up, slamming her hands onto the table. “Guys!” her shout cut through the din surprisingly well. The class turned to look at Marinette instead of each other. “One at a time,” she ordered calmly.

Sabrina lowered her hands back tO her lap, taking a deep breath in the relative calm.

Rose raised her hand.

“Yes Rose?”

“If you run, do you think we can build a petition for scrapbooking club like we did for the art room?”

Marinette flushed scarlet. “I don't think I'll run, but I can definitely help you set that up if Chloe closes it.”

“Girl, why wouldn’t you run?” Alya asked. “You might be the only one who can.”

“What?” Marinette sat back down, turning so she could focus her incredulous look on Alya. “I can't lead people! And even if I could, I don't have enough time to do so properly.”

“Well I can’t be class rep around the Ladyblog, and Adrien is always busy.”

Sabrina could bring up a few examples to fight most of the points Marinette had brought up. The time one was the only thing she couldn’t argue against. But.. Hadn’t she said she wanted to be assistant rep? After running both her and Chloe’s lives for years, there was at least one thing she was good at, and that was managing events around the rest of lives. And time as a whole. As long as Marinette was okay with that, of course. “I could help with the time thing,” she rushed out, closing her eyes. She didn’t want to see what they thought of that. Rose would be supportive, but she didn’t know how the others would act. There was no sound from the rest of the table. Had she just ruined their friendship by going against what Marinette had said? Oh she hoped not, she had only been trying to help!

“What about your own schedule?” Marinnette asked.

Sabrina opened her eyes. Marinette didn’t look mad, thank goodness. Instead she looked… worried?

“Oh I can manage mine with time to spare!” she assured her. “It’s not a problem to help, really.”

“If you’re sure you want too, that could work.” Marinette said slowly. “But I don’t want to be an absentee rep for everyone.”

“I could run with you, and we could work together, like with the project! Find times that work for both of us, and then just plan a few weeks in advance.”

Marinette’s smile was worth taking the chance to say that. “I think that could work.” Rose started clapping, and soon the entire class was too. Sabrina blushed at the praise. She just kept topping herself at how happy and important she could feel. They weren’t clapping only for her, of course it was for Marinette too, but still.

***

Sabrina rocked on her heels at the apartment door. Marinette had offered for her to come over Tuesday night for them to get a strategy working. Sabrina was late, an akuma had attacked while she was on her way to Marinette’s house. She hoped Marinette wouldn’t be upset. There were footsteps on the other side, and then Marinette yanked the door open. “Sabrina are you okay?”

“Yeah. I was able to hide.” Sabrina assured her quickly. “Oh thank goodness.” Marinette hugged her. “Come on in.” she pulled back and opened the door wider. Sabrina smiled and followed her inside and upstairs. “So where should we start?” Marinette asked, plopping into her desk chair and sliding over to her desk. She picked up a box and a screwdriver off her desk, and then spun to face Sabrina. “Do you mind if I work while we talk?” Sabrina shook her head. “Not at all! What are you working on?”

“A locking box,” Marinette shrugged. “I figured that even though she shouldn’t realistically be able to get up here, I might as well lock up my diary anyway.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Sabrina agreed.

“Do you want me to make you one too after I’m done?”

Sabrina shook her head. “I’ve got my own measures. Thank you for the offer though!”

Marinette smiled. “Good on you.” “So how are we running this campaign? Chloe normally trys to ruin her competition, but that doesn’t seem like a very you thing to do.”

“Definitely not,” Marinette agreed emphatically. “I was considering a full speech, you know?”

“I can help with speeches,” Sabrina agreed. “And you’ve come up with some good ones on the spot before, so this one is bound to turn out amazing!”

Marinette giggled. “Thanks Sabrina.

“Oh! We have to do the paperwork first! How did I forget that?” Marinette spun her chair again, setting the box on her desk so she could open up her computer. A few minutes later her printer was running. “Okay, there’s that.”

Marinette handed Sabrina her set of papers, and sat down with her own. “Do you need a pen?”

“Yes please,” Sabrina answered. Marinette passed her a pen, and they got to work. Line one; year, class, and name.

As it turned out, Marinette did a lot more work than Chloe ever had while they ran. In years past, Sabrina and Chloe had won immediately for lack of competition. Now, she and Marinette were running against Chloe. And even though they knew most would vote for them instead, Marinette was determined to be a worthy candidate, not just someone who was voted for instead. And that was just from the first night of planning and preparing!

Sabrina loved her.

Laying on Marinette’s bedroom floor, Sabrina ticked off another few boxes concerning her health status before looking back up at Marinette. Marinette was beside Sabrina, her cheeks puffed, and her legs kicking back and forth violently. Sabrina pursed her lips, looking down at the next question on the form. Why do you think you’ll be a good candidate? That one was tricky. Why did she? Organizational skills would work as a reason, right?

“Sabrina, did they nominate me just because I wasn’t Chloe?” Marinette asked, flopping onto her back.

Sabrina looked over, puffing her own cheek. “I doubt it. You have the makings of a good leader. You’re super nice and check on everyone. Or, almost everyone.” She didn’t name the one person she didn’t think Marinette took care of, that was obvious. But still. “That’s what the representative does anyway, right? Take care of everyone?” And really, Marinette had a big enough heart to take care of even Chloe if it came to it.

Marinette sighed. “Yeah. I just don’t want anybody to think I’m only doing it because it’s my responsibility.”

Sabrina hummed. “I don’t think anyone would think that. I mean,” she forced a laugh. “Look at me! I went from the second most hated girl in our grade to someone with actual friends in four weeks after you offered. And that was all before this.” She looked down at her hands. “They’d have to have pretty bad memories to think you only help because you have to.”

Marinette chuckled. “I don’t think we have anyone with memory problems in our class.”

Sabrina smiled, and turned back to her forms. The sound of pencils reigned for a minute, and then; “Thank you Sabrina. I needed to hear that.”

“No problem.”

You know, support for her friends and good at making things happen were both things that would be good on this. She might as well. In the margins, she ends up scribbling an extra note. Mostly to support Marinette.

***

“How do you speech?” Marinette asked, glaring at her tablet screen as though it had personally offended her.

This prep meeting was at Sabrina’s house, so they were sitting on Sabrina’s bed to brainstorm and write Marinette’s electoral speech.

“Be personal, don’t ramble too much, stay engaged, metaphors are only good if they’re simple or you explain them, bulletpoint a point a minute if you have that much time or that many topics, uhhh,” Sabrina leant over Marinette’s side to look at her screen. “That looks pretty good, actually. Do you want me to start the stopwatch and see if it fits in the time?”

Marinette shook her head. “I’m gonna revise it again first.” Sabrina shrugged. “OKay.” She sat back up, and pulled her beadwork back onto her lap. She was working on a new set of more casual jewelry, pink flowers for this one’s theme. The turtles weren’t done yet, she had run out of the type of clasp and hadn’t been able to get more yet, but she was okay with that.

“Ah-ha!” Marinette exclaimed. “I think I got it! Where’s the stopwatch?”

Sabrina grabbed it from it’s pocket on her lap tray. “Right here. Want me to watch it?” “Sure. Thank you!”

Sabrina set up the clock and started counting down. “Three, two one, go!” She hit start, and Marinette took off, her voice loud, if a bit shaky.

“So as you know, I’m running for class rep-”

***

“Alya I think I’m gonna die,” Marinette said in lieu of a usual greeting as she slid into her seat.

It didn’t help Sabrina’s nerves at all.

Alya sighed, turning slightly to look at her friend. “Marinette, you’ll be fine. You and Sabrina worked on this all week, you’re going to kill it.”

“But what if we don’t?” Marinette asked, grabbing Alya’s shoulders.

“Marinette, you’re going up against Chloe.”

“Which is why I’m worried!” “You’ll be fine. She’s not that big of a threat.” Marinette didn’t seem convinced, but she let the subject drop. “Any luck getting an interview with Ladybug?” she asked instead. As Alya descended into an excited ramble about the two minutes of talking she got to do with Ladybug yesterday, Marinette did a half-turn and waved. Sabrina waved back, trying to smile. She didn’t really feel it had come out right.

She was really nervous. Really, really nervous. They had been prepping all week, but there was still a small margin for error. And that small margin would become a big margin if there was an akuma attack or if Chloe came up with a really good plan.

“Are you okay?”

Sabrina jumped at Ivan’s question. “Yep! Of course! No problems here! Not nervous or anything! Heh.” From the look on his face, he didn’t believe her in the slightest. “No,” she sighed. “I’ve broken away from Chloe, but this is the first time I’ll be directly opposing her since the project. I’m worried.”

Ivan shrugged. “We’ve all been scared of Chloe at one point or another. Don’t worry, if she tries anything, we’ll have your back.”

Sabrina smiled. She and Ivan hadn’t talked too much in the four weeks since she started to sit by him, but she felt like they were almost friends anyway. “Thanks Ivan.” “Alright class, settle down. Before we start our lesson today, I have to remind you that elections are this afternoon at city hall, so be sure to be there!”

Sabrina felt her gut clench again, and she stubbornly did not look towards Chloe’s bench.

Classes passed in a blur. Sabrina almost never had trouble paying attention, but today she was very out of it. She kept going through scenarios in her head that grew increasingly dire as the hours passed. The only things she could remember in detail were the talks inbetween classes. A lot of ‘good luck!’s were sent their way, and George and Calista even pulled her aside to give her a few packages of chocolate. Calista had said something about being excited to see her in presidency meetings.

Sabrina was really glad they had an hour between school and the elections. It was set so kids in fencing or scrapbooking would be able to go to both.

Sabrina stood on the school steps, trying to figure out where she’d go in the interim. She and Marinette had decided that the best thing to do would be to go propless, so she didn’t need to go home. She found herself watching Chloe saunter up to her car. Her dad had officially won the elections today. It was a fact that just made Sabrina more nervous. Chloe turned at the door, and smirked. Sabrina whined in her throat. Was it too late to back out?

“Want to spend the wait at my house?”

Yes, it was. Sabrina turned to shook Marinette a shaky smile. Marinette needed the support. “That sounds amazing.”

“You don’t sound too good,” Marinette noted. “Are you going to be okay? Do you just need to breathe for a bit?”

“I think so,” Sabrina nodded. Breathing sounded nice.

“Come on, we can watch a few episodes of something while we wait.”

They ended up watching lighthearted and simple cartoons, while eating some of Marinette’s scarily large cookie collection, to keep them from fretting too much. Eventually though, the alarm to start towards the city hall rung, and they were pulled back to the present.

“Ready?” Marinette asked, slinging her purse over her shoulder.

“Not at all,” Sabrina admitted.

“Me neither,” Marinette confirmed. “Better when it’s over, right?”

“Normally,” Sabrina agreed. “We should go before I decide I can’t.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Hey Sabrina?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for volunteering to have my back.”

“You’re welcome. I mean, we made a good team, right?”

“Yeah.”

They were only a block away from the hall when Marinette’s phone started going off. She dug it out, and held it between herself and Sabrina. “What’s up, Alya?”

“Chloe’s trying to buy votes,” Alya’s annoyed tone came through the speaker. “With Jagged Stone tickets.”

That sounded like Chloe.

“For real?” Marinette asked.

“For real. How close are you?”

“Just around the corner,” Marinette assured her. “Sabrina and I will be there in just a minute.”

“Alright, see you soon.”

“Jagged Stone tickets,” Marinette huffed. “Of course she’s going for a bribe.”

“We knew she would do something,” Sabrina sighed.

“Yeah. Well, let’s get in there and show her that money can’t buy everythinG!” Marinette said enthusiastically. Her nerves at least, seemed to have dissipated into fury. Sabrina couldn’t say the same for her own.

All the same, there were a lot of things money couldn’t buy. Like true friendship.

The girls entered city hall, and were greeted with the cheers of some classmates.

“Yeah! Come show us what you’ve got!” Alix yelled, her eyes alight with excitement.

Sabrina smiled a bit. She wasn’t going up against a hostile crowd. She was by Marinette’s side. She could do this.

And then the akuma attacked.

***

“I didn’t abandon anyone, Chloe!” Marinette snapped. “I got knighted while trying to close the upper windows.”

Everyone had been knighted by the end of the fight. It was scary, watching the darkness close in, not knowing if Marinette was safe - which she wasn’t - and knowing they were doomed too.

Adrien cracked some pun about it being a knightmare to be knighted, and Sabrina had to agree. She would be having nightmares for a week.

“Well, obviously only one of you showed any actual leadership skills during the attack, so I think we all know who we’re voting for,” Alya said sassily. Sabrina took s step back at Chloe’s scowl.

“Not so fast Alya,” Marinette said.

“See! She’s already throwing in the towel! Obviously I’m the best representative, I can handle the job.”

“That’s not what she said,” Sabrina muttered. Chloe’s glare snapped to her. She took another step back.

“Sabrina’s right,” Marinette said. “I said it wasn’t time for voting yet, not that I was quitting.” She turned to the class at large. Sabrina could feel a speech coming on. “I don’t want you all to vote for me based on one interaction, and I don’t want you to vote for me because I’m not Chloe. I want you to cast your votes to who you think will actually do the job best. I won’t be able to do everything, but I’m good at finding compromises and thinking outside the box. Sabrina’s extremely good at schedules, and finding all the hurdles we need to jump to get to a specific goal. We’re good partners, and I promise we’ll both do our best. So, vote for Marinette and Sabrina as Class Representatives!”

Sabrina and Alya were the first to clap, followed by Adrien and Rose, and then everyone but Chloe and the mayor. “Go ahead and go vote Class. I’m sure we’re all eager to have our representatives chosen for the year,” Mme. Bustier encouraged. The entirety of the not-nominated classmates surged forward at once.

Marinette meanwhile, stepped up to Sabrina’s side. “So, uh, that went...” she trailed off with a nervous laugh.

“As far from plan as possible?” Sabrina offered. “Yeah, that’s a good way to describe it,” Marinette agreed. “I completely forgot my speech.”

“It sounded good anyway.”

Their conversation was stopped by Mme. Bustier clapping. “Alright students! Marinette, Chloe, Sabrina, please come up so we can announce the winner!”

“Come on!” Marinette whispered excitedly, holding out her hand. Sabrina took it, trying not to squeezed too hard.

Chloe kept her head up as she joined them, but Sabrina knew the look of fury in her eyes. She bit back another whimper.

“The votes have been counted,” Mme. Bustier said. “And the winners are...” she paused for emphasise. Sabrina caught onto her wording though. She took a deep breath, and fixed a smile on her face. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Sabrina Raincomprix!”

Alya and Rose squealed from where they were in the crowd, and Sabrina wasn’t able to fully turn to smile at Marinette before Rose tackled her.

“You did it! Sabrina I’m so proud of you! I just know you’re going to be amazing!” Rose pulled back, wiping her eyes. “I’m so proud. You’ve just bloomed!” and then she burst into tears.

Sabrina didn’t know what to do with that. Was Rose okay? She didn’t know, but Juleka seemed to think so.

She took her friend’s arm gently. “Come on Rose, let others congratulate her too.” She looked up and smiled at Sabrina. “Congratulations, Sabrina.” Juleka led Rose over to tell Marinette congratulations too, and then Sabrina lost sight of them in the crowd of classmates. It was only her class there, but it felt like a lot more while they were all wishing her good luck and offering congratulations. Eventually the stream died down, and Sabrina could breathe again. She turned to find Alya primed with her phone.

“Come on girls, lets get some smiles! I’ve got to put this on the school blog!”

Marinette found her way back to Sabrina’s side, and they took a moment to pose. Once Alya had the picture, she rushed up to give kisses goodbye, claiming she had a family engagement she was already late for. “I guess this is it then?” Marinette said.

“Yeah.”

“This year is going to be wild.”

Sabrina agreed. It had already been wild, between the Akumas and magic and the shifting power structures.

“I’m glad I have you as a partner in this,” Marinette said, setting an arm on her shoulder. “Thank you, really.”

“I like doing things I’m good at,” Sabrina said honestly. “And I want to support you and the others. I’m just glad you gave me a chance.” “Of course.”

Sabrina smiled, and in a spur of the moment, she held out her fist. “Pound it?”

Marinette smiled even wider, if that was possible, and tapped her own to it. “Pound it.”

#DK writes #Jaymeow writes #My Fanfictions #Red's the Color of Your Heart #A study in Friendship #Ml ff #Sabrina Raincomprix #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Rose Lavillant #miracuclass #Darkblade rewrite #full chapter #my ffs

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pass-the-bechdel · 5 years

Text

Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Avengers (2012)

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

No.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Three (23.07% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Ten.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Episode Quality:

It’s solid. Unpopular opinion? I don’t think it’s half as good as people made it out to be, back when it first hit cinemas and everyone was swooning. It’s solid, but that’s the best I’ve got for it.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

...

Female characters:

Maria Hill.

Natasha Romanov.

Pepper Potts.

Male characters:

Nick Fury.

Phil Coulson.

Erik Selvig.

Clint Barton.

Loki.

Bruce Banner.

Steve Rogers.

Tony Stark.

JARVIS.

Thor.

OTHER NOTES:

‘free from freedom’ is such a wanky piece of writing, man. It’s absolute nonsense, but it sounds vaguely profound if you don’t think about it at all. I thought about it. It’s idiotic.

The very first thing we see of Black Widow in this movie is her being hit in the face, wearing a slinky little dress, tied to a chair being interrogated by a bunch of men. We’re supposed to indulge this excuse for hurting and objectifying a woman and then write it off as ‘empowering’ because she beats the Hell outta the dudes a couple of minutes later. That’s not a game I’m interested in playing. This is garbage.

The classical music over the beginnings of the Stuttgart attack is great.

All those German folks so confused by this Loki dude speaking English at them. What a tool.

I’m not sure I’ve ever heard ‘not today’ used as an effective badass declaration. It’s ALWAYS cheesy. Make it stop.

“There’s only one God, ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.” I don’t really like this line for Steve; he just doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would play the ‘one true God’ card, and there was nothing in his origin story which implied that he’s particularly attached to religion at all; plus, he already read the brief on Thor, he knows this is literally the old Norse deity, there’s no question of whether or not they’re dealing with a God here. To argue the point (because he’s not MY God!) is meaningless in context, and feels like a weak attempt to correlate (Christian) faith with being ‘old-fashioned’, like OF COURSE Steve would defend the idea of the ‘one true God’, he’s from the past, not a cool enlightened atheist/agnostic modern man like the rest of us, right?

Thor and Loki are using such archaic phrasing, when Tony makes his ‘Shakespeare in the Park’ joke, it’s...more an observation than a quip. The Asgardians were not half as stuffy in Thor. It makes it seem like someone didn’t bother to see that movie first before writing their version of the characters.

Thor has to fight with the others when he shows up. He’s just gotta.

Gotta give a nod to Mark Ruffalo’s work here; I feel like I can see the clear comparison between his version of the character and Edward Norton’s in The Incredible Hulk, but at the same time there’s no sense of this being a Norton’s-Banner impression. Ruffalo is doing a sweet job of making the character his own without totally overhauling the template Norton laid down, and I dig it.

Oh, here we are. Loki calls Black Widow a ‘mewling quim’, which is just a fancy way of calling her a whiny cunt. Your gendered slur is still a gendered slur, movie.

I know they’re playing the idea that the sceptre is causing the antagonism between the characters, but fuck, it’s tedious. It just feels like they’re all contrived petty versions of themselves, being shitty because it’s ~dramatic~ for them to not get along.

I didn’t see this movie until months after it was released, and people were raving about how crushed they were by the major character death in the film but they were doing a pretty good job of not spoiling it; good enough that for a moment, I really thought I’d get to enjoy the surprise/horror for myself. You know who spoiled it for me? In a tweet, no less? It was the 44th President of the United States. Thanks, Obama.

This guy is the MVP of this film:

You can chalk “Son, just don’t,” up on the list of Things Steve Rogers Would Not Say. Just because he’s technically in his nineties doesn’t mean he isn’t still in his twenties in his mind: I don’t buy that he’d go for a blithely patriarchal term like ‘son’, it seems like another poorly-considered attempt to make him sound old-fashioned. Juxtapose that with ‘just don’t’, which is very modern vernacular. It might seem clever to combine the two as a meta-expression of Steve belonging to two different times now, but in practical application it just sounds out-of-character, and there’s nothing clever about that.

I know I said after the last movie that I love it when someone gets hit and flies off-screen in an exaggerated fashion, but Hulk punching Thor off-screen after they finish working together to take down the big beastie is an exception, because there’s no reason for Hulk to decide to hit Thor in the first place, it’s just a gag for the sake of a gag. I can’t believe they messed up such a simple pleasure.

I will forgive it, in return for Hulk smashing Loki all over the place. That was funny.

Back when this movie came out, before I saw it, I had people tell me - straight-faced, totally sincere - that it was one of the best movies they had ever seen. The internet was on fire with Avengers love. The film was rated in the IMDb Top 20. Admittedly, that all sets a pretty impossible standard for a movie to meet, and being at least a little disappointed in the result is probably a given. I was not particularly invested either way (I didn’t fall down the Marvel rabbit hole until later), so I didn’t allow myself to go in to my first viewing with such lofty expectations to be crushed, just the general assumption that this was gonna be good, it had to be good, at minimum. And it was that; it’s a good film. It’s entertaining. The plot makes basic essential sense. It’s easy to follow. There are some nice visuals, and most of the special effects are relatively clean, which can be a significant difficulty for big-budget extravaganzas that sometimes/often try to get way too much spectacle bang for their buck, so, a nice win. All in all, The Avengers is not a bad film. Sure is a bland one, though.

I know, I know, getting all these big-name characters from previous films together in one movie was a serious task and it’s hard to write a well-balanced script for so many leads, blah blah. Let’s put that whole equivocation to bed right now, because I honestly don’t think that balancing the big-name cast was the problem. All of the characters had something to do, no one felt like a random extra, I could quibble about certain places where I really wish things had been plumped up a bit (pretty much everywhere - the film is extremely low on meaningful character beats), but ultimately the characters are fairly evenly presented. What makes this movie bland to me is 1) the way that the personalities of the characters deviate from that established in their previous films, and 2) the simplicity of the story they inhabit.

We’ll cover the Avengers themselves first: the good news is, Tony Stark is still Tony Stark. His personality is intact. Bruce Banner is, as noted, not exactly the Bruce Banner we met back in The Incredible Hulk, but that’s both a given and a good thing - the casting change is an improvement. Hawkeye was barely in the MCU previously, so we don’t really have enough to compare him against in order to make a judgment. Black Widow, however, is a bit of a mess; Joss Whedon’s special brand of misogyny is on display from moment one, as noted above (he LOVES writing women being brutalised because ‘how would we know/believe that they’re strong if we don’t get to see them overcoming mistreatment?’ - he tends not to feel the need to ‘prove’ his male characters’ strengths in this way), and Natasha’s personal story for the movie continues in a distinctly gendered vein: as is common for female characters being written by shitty dudes, her arc revolves predominantly around a man (Hawkeye), and she is ‘emotionally compromised’ by her attachment to him. She also zones out in the middle of an action scene and winds up in a corner shaking and traumatised (very out-of-character for a super spysassin), and particular emphasis is placed on all the bad things she’s done in the past and how she should feel bad about it, though no one does more than shrug their shoulders about Clint or Fury or any of the other SHIELD agents who are acknowledged as having dark and dirty pasts. Why is Natasha the one who is singled out to have her morality judged while her ‘arc’ focuses on her inconvenient emotional engagement? You know why. There’s no reason why this particular tack had to be taken in bringing her backstory into the film, and as a result of it we spend little time with Black Widow displaying the kind of cool professionalism and self-assurance she had in Iron Man 2. The inclusion of that vulnerability and backstory doesn’t make her feel more rounded or complicated because it is deconstructing the power and mastery of the character; rather than building upon the foundation set in her previous film visit, we’re questioning the stability of that foundation and seeing if we can get a few pieces of the structure to rattle loose.

A big part of the trouble for Thor is that he gets saddled with that poxy Ye Olde Cliche dialogue, and there are few things worse for achieving character consistency than changing the way that they talk: no matter how hard the actor tries to play the character the same, they can’t compensate for the fact that the very structure of their sentences has been remodeled. They can improvise rephrasing the lines and/or argue the point if they want, but it’s hard to challenge every line, and if the director (who, oh look, is also the writer) insists you follow the script verbatim, there’s not a lot you can do with that. Poor Captain America suffers the same fate with the overt attempts to make him sound ‘old-fashioned’ by having him utter words and phrases that he never used in his origin movie. What’s worse is, this stilted dialogue is pretty much the sum total of the film’s acknowledgment of the fact that, oh yeah, Steve just recently woke up from the ice to find that seventy years has passed and nearly everyone and everything he used to know is gone. He has an exchange with Fury in his first scene, about ‘getting back in the world’, but there’s zero follow-up on how he’s handling it, what difficulties there might be, or even just how Steve is feeling about all of this on a basic emotional level. And yes, I am aware that there’s a deleted montage of Steve going about his day being isolated and out-of-touch, and it’s a travesty that they cut it because that’s essential character content, but it’s also a total bare minimum which has zero follow-up. Steve Rogers spends the whole film just being...there, speaking lines that don’t suit him or reflect the personality we just saw in The First Avenger, and not even in an understandable character-development ‘throwing myself into my work to hide from the pain’ kind of way. He’s kinda blandly self-righteous and all-business no-pleasure in exactly the way he was NOT in his origin movie; my impression is that Whedon doesn’t care for the character and wrote him off as the traditional patriotic cliche one might have expected him to be instead of the nuanced character that he actually is. As with Thor and Loki, it feels as if Whedon didn’t bother to watch the previous movies first in order to get a sense of the established characters.

Speaking of Loki: if there’s one character who really, REALLY suffered a personality change in this script, it’s him. None of what made Loki the highlight of Thor is in evidence here; where that character was a cunning plotter full to overflowing with complex and contradictory feelings for his family and driven to action by that same emotional cascade, this Loki...wants to rule the Earth. Because. He’s, like, crazy, the other characters all say so, even Thor - the only one who actually knows Loki and is fit to assess his mental state - says that his ‘mind is far astray’ (what Thor thinks of that, whether he’s surprised or concerned, whether he feels like he understands why this has happened to Loki or not, is unclear, because, I dunno, Thor having feelings is as inconvenient to the story as Steve having feelings - as Loki snarls derisively about ‘sentiment’, we must remember that being emotionally compromised is dumb and only for women? Hmm). Loki is just a placeholder villain in this film, driven to action by nothing in particular, it’s just a business arrangement with a mysterious third party that coincidentally happens to involve Earth. Loki prattles and hollers a lot about how ruling is his right and people want to be ruled and blah despot blah, and it’s both supremely uninspired, and not true to the character we met in Thor at all - the Loki we know was not obsessed with ruling, his motivations were all about his family standing and the things he was denied within those relationships and their implications. I remember fandom, back when this movie came out, scrambling with various headcanons about Loki losing his mind in the void or being brainwashed, ad nauseum, because no one really seemed to feel like they were watching a logical progression of the same character at all.

Now, one of the main ways that the lack of character consistency contributes to narrative blandness is that it disrupts narrative immersion - we’re re-negotiating the way that we engage with the characters, and that distracts from engaging with the story itself. At worst, we may even find ourselves cynical about every decision that a character makes (whether it’s in-character or not), because we’re too aware of the man behind the curtain to buy the act. There are definite shades of that in this film, but the worst of it comes from the whole team-antagonism schtick that is vaguely blamed on ‘Loki’s manipulations’ and the sceptre. The thing is, this all requires the characters to behave out-of-character, and since they mostly already are out-of-character due to bad writing, the exacerbation of that by creating artificial conflict feels like more bad writing, not actual plot. Having the characters initially get along poorly before triumphantly uniting to win the day is such an overused device, it’s easy to construe the conflict as arbitrary, and as it turns out...it is. Loki/the sceptre causing the Avengers to argue doesn’t actually impact the narrative in any meaningful way, since they don’t start a fight or fracture over it, it doesn’t slow down Tony’s efforts to learn what Fury is really up to, nor does it prevent Steve from investigating the same thing in person. Them conflicting with Fury and questioning their decision to work with SHIELD, etc, is a normal thing to have an argument about, no magic-mind-stick required; the only mileage the movie really gets out of the forced-conflict ploy is that Steve and Tony keep pissing on each other, which is extremely OOC for nice-guy Steve and WOULD throw up a big red flag for mental manipulations if the movie weren’t already misrepresenting him as an insufferable stick in the mud anyway, and even for Tony it feels off - he’s generally a jerk as a rule, but he doesn’t pick unprovoked fights - but again, when the movie is already so left-of-centre on so many characters everyone feels off, so it’s easy to assume the characters are just falling victim to contrived drama, and not something in the actual story. As noted, it doesn’t end up mattering where the conflict comes from anyway; the bad news is, it takes until the halfway point of the Goddamn movie before the characters get their prescribed ‘rough patch’ out of the way. The fact that they were just being really annoying for no real reason and without narrative consequence kinda steps on the idea of it being ‘triumphant’ when they all come together at the end to fight Loki, because there was zero reason for the audience to ever legitimately doubt that it would happen, not even in a begrudging-putting-this-genuine-disagreement-aside-so-that-we-can-save-the-world kind of way. It’s just dead air with no weight behind it, and with characters reduced to such cliche versions of themselves that it’s hard to muster the will to care.

AND SO, we have a movie which, as previously noted, is awfully damn simplistic. That’s not a terrible thing, in and of itself - it’s all about what you do with an idea, and I would posit that a more complicated plot wouldn’t be a great idea here since there are so many primary moving parts in the form of characters to justify. But, the aforementioned griping about the skewy characterisation makes this film a bad candidate for character-over-plot, and if the shenanigans are falling flat, that’s when simplistic plotting becomes a problem. It goes like this: Loki shows up and steals the magic cube (action ensues). The avengers assemble to catch Loki (action ensues). The characters argue on a helicarrier until Loki’s goons show up to wreck shit (action ensues). Loki escapes and goes to New York to use the magic cube to portal an alien army to Earth. Action ensues until the portal is closed and Loki is defeated. The end. I’m not complaining about the action - it’s a standard facet of the genre, and most of it is entertaining enough (though the unnecessary Thor/Iron Man fight I coulda done without, and the battle of New York runs a bit long) - but the plot itself is pretty point-A-to-B-to-C without much in the way of surprises, and like I said, that’s fine so long as you’re delivering in another arena, i.e. STRONG CHARACTER NARRATIVES. And character is sooo far from being this film’s strong suit. The result? Is not very compelling.

It tends to wind up that, by the time I get to the end of explaining why I think a thing didn’t work (and this is...the abridged version), it maybe seems ridiculous that I’m also saying ‘this thing isn’t that bad’. The truth is, there’s nothing that I think this movie does impressively well, and there are a lot of pretty major things that I think were poorly handled. BUT, I still meant what I said: it’s entertaining. It makes at least basic sense, and flows easily enough. And while I have serious issues with a lot of the characterisation and feel that - though balanced(ish) in handling - the plot failed to take real advantage of any of the character resources at its disposal (except maybe Tony), the actors still brought the goods to the table, and those whom I enjoyed in their previous films (I mean you, Chris Evans) didn’t disappoint, even though the material they were handling did. It’s a solid film, it’s good fun, I don’t regret watching it, and while I am irritated by various aspects, I don’t feel the need to keep ranting about them. And hey; Mark Ruffalo is really very wonderful. They’ve got that going for them.

#The Avengers #MCU #Marvel Cinematic Universe #Bechdel Test #female representation #Avengers

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fireeaglespirit · 5 years

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@beyond-far-horizons

I do. I’ve always shied away from the LOTR/Sil community on tumblr or anywhere cos I want to keep my attachment to them all to myself given how formative they were for me and still are. Never the less I do like this interpretation of Melkor’s actions over Tolkien’s “he is Satan and darn right bad!” cos I have always been a fangirl of Melkor esp because most of the Valar are such stuck up good too shoes (apart from Ulmo - love you Ulmo!) Basically I adore Melkor (even though I don’t justify what he did) and Ulmo, like Nienna, Aule, Yavanna and Varda but Manwe….Manwe…just too good…and ‘the Windlord’ just isn’t a good title in some senses of the word hehe. It’s just the selfish way they acted towards the elves and especially humanity - no special treatment for them, no guidance (apart from Ulmo - what a dude) and then they wake up and get dragged into the war between Melkor and the elves - even though they didn’t start it and will not get reborn if killed. Okay okay Melkor was terrible and did terrible things but I’ve never liked that dualistic way of thinking as much as i admire the Professor.

I’m replying here as to avoid any problems with the og of the post or whatever, but yeah... this is as far as I go concerning fandom right now but it was very worthy reading the book, I did enjoy it when I got a hold on how to read it properly.

I must be honest and say, some parts were a chore to get through but others were so delightful it paid off in the end, much like other books I’ve enjoyed including ASOIAF which had painfully lackluster parts, I do dig for the gems and its always worthy.

I did write a huge post concerning the first parts of it and my thoughts, but I don’t know if I’ll post it as its a bit too harsh (extremely delicate subject for some, I know but for me nothing is sacred on this regard) on some elements which after some research made more sense to me. Also, taking in consideration the time period it was written and some info about the author made it much better for me to get into it, etc... I’m also highly tolerant of different world views (for real) so even thought I don’t agree with some of his concepts and I oppose some of them, I can sort of ‘ignore them’ in order to enjoy my cherry picked favorite aspects of the creation and even taking them into consideration is interesting for the ‘different point of view’ I mentioned.

As you wisely notice I don’t have much love for the whole bible-like aspects which by any means pertain just to the structure of the early parts of the book, but to the ongoing theme of the battle of good x evil, including most of the morale of the book itself which feels very ‘christian’ and monotheistic despite the presence of the Valar as god-like figures, which superficially might look polytheistic, Eru’s influence is undeniable even when he’s not actively present in the narrative: All good stems from Eru, or being close to him and following his way and almost every bad thing that happens is due to the meddling of a single guy whose own very existence was allowed by Eru and who opposes him... In the end, all evil comes from not following god’s will or not believing him. Don’t need to say I’m not a huge fan of the concept *coughs*

Anyway, I also recently read through the parts concerning Numenor and it made me angry also, especially concerning the way humans were left with no guidance at all, it no wonder they feel prey to manipulation, they were starved for something they could never achieved and they could never be enlightened on the reason for that.

I don’t know and never understood why ‘faith’ or believing without at sort of clue or proof is held in such a high stem by most people, so its hard for me to swallow the way the humans were just told to never fucking go to west and to not desire immortality which was just natural for elves and spirits and they were not given a proper explanation or reason why... they just had to believe it. I know the Valar aren't omniscient too so they don’t know Eru’s reason either, but they could've been more helpful concerning the subject of the undying lands, I know at some point they are more open about it but perhaps it was way too late. LOL. What would it cost for a higher being to just go there and tell them the story and functioning of the world, etc... I don’t know if this sounds stupid or even makes sense but I felt sorry for the guys in Numenor who died in the collective murder by Eru (this stank of bible but wasn't nearly as bad since well just a little part of the world was swallowed up :l and god basically killed everyone save a guy and his little family so props to Eru). I feel weird.

The problem to me is not the monotheistic setting itself, but the fact its endorsed and not ever criticized, etc.. I could enjoy any book with any world view as long as it challenges itself and Tolkien just goes straight away and never look back in this. I guess I just have a more ‘cynical’ or ‘doubtful’ point of view regarding deities in general, esp. monotheistic ones so I’d rather have some more shades of gray concerning those who oppose the all powerful god, just like you did regarding the demons on the DMC fic verse where you can see there are multiple forces at play and its not so simple, but I digress its just the way things are and that’s what the book is and its a relatively old book with different mindset and cultural references than we commonly have today.

To me, taking it away and just overlooking certain implications I can sort of get behind it, lol.

I’m also not a huge fan of the Valar, personally, they look cool as heck but most of them are indifferent AF and don’t act much. Worse than that, they don’t seem to hold much concern towards humanity... During the war of the wrath I just kept thinking “why haven’t you done this before??” and lol

I guess its a bit like my own Polaris whom after meddling with humanity for long just took a back seat, sort of understandable when things went awry before and you just don’t know if your meddling is causing good or bad anymore so you just let it be for a while, and for those beings a ‘while’ might mean centuries easy. The Valar, just like my dragons hold a lot of power, compared to ‘gods’ but neither hold omniscience so its understandable that they make mistakes, I just don’t necessarily agree with the position of utter indifference they took after some events... I mean to work with this theme concerning my dragons and how they deal with this so it was interesting nonetheless seeing the story evolve and what it leads to.

Anyway, the Silm. has a very interesting arc concerning its mythology since the higher power consecutively ‘take a back seat’ in order to let the world develop on its own, first of all is Eru himself and them slowly the ranks of spirits whom where once the focus of attention leave the picture one after the other until the story is taken over mostly by elves and afterwards even the elves leave the scene for humans to take over. This is very interesting and works to explain why the ‘powers that be’ are not as vivid as they were, etc... I really enjoyed reading the over arching theme and how it played out, it will definitely help me on my writing endeavors.

I totally agree on Ulmo like FFS he was the only guys still around when shit went down and he was always there trying to help the ‘good guys’, also Aule has some interesting facets early on and well... the Valar look incredible, especially Varda & birdy (fart) lord Manwe, but they don’t hold much more to me than cool looks, which is sad as they had potential. Also, I live for goth queen Nienna but she does nothing through the story...

Well, once more we’re left in the world of ‘what could've been’. I’m quite used to it and not complaining, just stating in my personal opinion the text could be easily turned into something much more interesting to me with minor tweaks.

#beyond-far-horizons #silmarillion #random

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magicofthepen · 4 years

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Gallifrey Relisten: A Blind Eye

The end of Series 1! (I will admit I had to stop myself from immediately jumping into Lies because that’s when things really get going for me.) Some thoughts:

Mentions of/spoilers for: Neverland, Zagreus, Spirit, Insurgency, Enemy Lines, the Time War audios (but in a vague way).

Romana announces her name and title and then immediately follows that up with “I want no record of my being here” lol.

This episode is the closest we get to “everyone has to dress up fancy for an event” and it’s a shame we don’t get more of this! I would love more off-world and/or dress up episodes that are less......dire probably isn’t the right word because there’s some heavy things going on in this episode...maybe frantic? There is definitely a difference between the degree of tension in A Blind Eye and the degree of tension in the off-world episodes in Time War, for instance. (Also A Blind Eye has more banter.) I’m pretty sure it’s just A Blind Eye and Spirit that capture this sense of “we’re going to do something different for an episode” and I like it! (I feel like this is part of my ongoing push for a post-Enemy Lines, pre-Time War series of misc. CIA missions and shenanigans. Please someone just shove more side adventures into gaps in the timeline.)

The banter! The banter. (“You have your business face on. / You’re a transtemporal crook Arkadian, meeting you could never be a pleasure.”) 1. Arkadian is a supremely entertaining villain, and 2. he’s a tremendously good villain opposite Romana specifically, purely for snark and banter reasons.

I was never a big fan of the Sissy Pollard portrayal — the character’s personality feels too....exaggerated? Over the top? And not in an effective or interesting way.

Romana’s defense of Charley is actually quite sweet, given that they weren’t super friendly in Neverland/Zagreus.

Romana chastises Leela for careless talk, but uhhh if you wanted to keep things subtle and not reveal anything, maybe don’t have Leela suddenly grab Sissy?

“Madam, the Alps are in the other direction.” “Are they? Damn.” / “Be careful, you’ll break it!” “I’ll break you in a minute.” Truly, maximum levels of scathing Romana snark in this episode.

I have never seen anyone mention this, so I always assumed I’m not hearing it right, but....when the original!timeline train is about to crash into them....does Romana tell Narvin to fuck off?

Andred has a whole scene with no other Time Lord witnesses in which he could have told Leela the truth and yet.

“I am a Guard Commander of Gallifrey” apparently I never paid enough attention to what he actually said here because I think that was the first time I noticed that Andred gave his Chancellery Guard title, not his CIA title.

“Arkadian! You’ve met with that crook!?” Shoutout to Narvin for some A+ false indignation here.

I’m not sure there was a way to write a parallel between between real world Naziism and Leela’s fictional past without having it come off a bit as oversimplifying/cheapening the horrors of Nazi Germany. (But I’m white and raised Christian, so I’m also really not the person to be speaking in depth about the portrayal of Nazis in this episode.)

Does Arkadian know about Andred? I assume that he would just because he generally knows most things, but hmm it adds another layer.

Narvin is genuinely surprised when Romana gives in and agrees to leave lol.

Ms. Joy — it’s funny because we the listeners know that the one random character must be there for a reason, so it feels like the only reason the characters don’t know she’s suspicious is that they don’t know they’re in an audio drama episode and so she must be important to the plot.

Did Narvin really intend for Romana to go with “Torvald”? “At least he’s have been exposed?” Way to throw your President under the bus sir (although possibly he assumed that Torvald wouldn’t actually assassinate the President?)

“See, it is always a monster.” Wait, I take it back, Leela knows she’s in a Doctor Who (adjacent) episode.

“The only name in town where there’s temporal naughtiness to be done” — the Arkadian = Brax crack(?) theory is the most “I can’t unhear this” thing that’s happened to me since Narvin/Torvald. What is it with y’all and Series 1, I’m losing it.

...does Andred have a plan when he lowkey kidnaps Romana or is he just panicking? He is quite genuinely pleading with Romana to go along with him into the TARDIS and sounds genuinely desperate. But then he seems to regain control and starts more tactically trying to persuade Romana to work along side him without giving her any real answers. Although really, he must know that he’s very close to discovery — maybe he wants to resolve the past!Torvald situation first? Or maybe he’s not thinking that far ahead?

“I have no paws.” Awww K9.

“I think you’re a bad President. I think you’ve willfully sacrificed Gallifreyan influence upon the altar of your own increasingly cranky liberal agenda.” 1. “increasingly cranky liberal agenda” is such a specific insult wow, 2. I can’t tell how much of this is Andred still trying to be Torvald and how much he actually means this? The politics of this incarnation of Andred were always a bit fuzzy to me, even in series 2.

Also. Any conversation between Romana and Andred has a whole weird vibe on relisten when you know about the uhhh future murdering that’s going to happen.

I do love a Dramatic Reveal, and this one is incredibly dramatic.

....does the train crash? Does the train not crash? I’ve always been a bit confused about what happens in that moment — I assume Romana doesn’t actually plan on the train hitting the TARDIS, and we hear the TARDIS dematerialize so I think the train is fine? But it’s a weirdly ambiguous sound/end of scene.

“I can tell you are lying. It’s when your lips move.” Okay Leela snarking at Arkadian is also very good.

It is genuinely so interesting how connected this plot is to Neverland/Zagreus — if I had to pick one “you should listen to this audio before Gallifrey” I'd go for the Apocalypse Element because of the enormous ripples it casts in terms of Romana’s characterization (and also it’s more stand alone), but I imagine this episode would be particularly confusing without Neverland/Zagreus? (Would be curious to hear people’s experiences.)

“I never lie!” Romana, that’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told.

The narration of what happened to Andred by Andred and Romana is um. It’s a little bit obviously an info dump for the listener, but I’m not sure it’s the best way for Leela to find out? I mean, hearing the context and explanation probably was a better idea than just “oh btw I’m Andred”.....possibly this felt weird to me because of the acting? It’s very emotionally detached, very “so this is what happened” — Andred manages some emotion afterwards when he’s pleading with Leela but uh. He could have sounded more apologetic here.

Leela. Leela. “You have watched me suffer and worn my enemy’s clothes?” / “The man that I loved is dead.” Goddddd I want to give her a hug so much ughhhhh. Leela just goes through so many awful things throughout....all of Gallifrey actually, and she still remains such a good person with such a genuinely caring heart......give her a break please.

“I think the only person who’d actually benefit from a temporal war would be a...dealer in arms? A trader in secrets? A fixer and a fiddler. A dishonest broker with no scruples and no shame.” / “An interesting theory Madam. Prove it.” I just really like the delivery of this bit. Although: I realize there were several things going on at this point, but really, they just let Arkadian walk away at the end?

And thus ends Series 1. It has some highs and lows but it honestly ranks near the bottom on my constantly-in-flux list of favorite-to-least favorite Gallifrey series. (Weapon of Choice is probably the only episode I actively look forward to relistening to?) I said in my Weapon of Choice post that Series 1 was a nice “palate cleanser” after Apocalypse Element and the Charley arc through Zagreus, and that was true for the first time listening, but I think some of those same attributes mean I’m kinda meh about relistening to it. It just doesn’t hold my interest quite as much as many of the other series. (Series 2 though....👀)

EDIT: I realized I forgot to tell my personal story of my first time listening to the Andred reveal, and I wanted to have some record of that, even if I don’t quite remember the specifics of my reaction. In general, my first listen of Gallifrey was shaped by knowing a lot of major spoilers, which is what happens when you spent a lot of time lurking on Tumblr blogs in advance of listening to the series. (It actually led to a lot of super fascinating experiences of “well I know X happens, but I don’t know how or why” and being really curious to find out how X played out.)

So I knew something about Andred and Torvald going in, and I think I should have known that it was simply Torvald = Andred, but somehow I got it in my head that oh no, no it’s weirder and more complicated than that. But of course there are a lot of hints throughout series 1 that Torvald is Andred, so the first listen was this cycle of me going “I think maybe Torvald is just Andred? Nah, it’s going to be more convoluted than that. But no really, it makes sense that Torvald is Andred...” etc. etc. So it was a weird experience of knowing pretty early on that Torvald might be Andred, but still not being quite sure until the end of series one. The other bit of this is that I can’t remember at what point I knew that Andred died (and how) — I think I may have known he died before I listening to Gallifrey (or at the very least I knew that he was written out in some way or another earlier on), so that may have also confused me further re: the series one question of: what actually happened to Andred? All around, an odd experience of “I was spoiled...but somehow I still wasn’t sure what was going on” and I wasn’t surprised per se but it was still a reveal.

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#gallifrey audios #i think i've timed this correctly to post around the same time as the podcast episode is coming out?#because i've decided i do like relistening on my own first and gathering my personal thoughts #and then hearing others' thoughts #it's a bit daunting because i feel the need to go 'i reserve the right to change my opinions if i'm persuaded in a particular direction'#but yeah!#edit: added what i remembered of my initial reaction to the andred thing because i meant to talk about that #romana #leela #narvin #andred #ramblings #emily listens to big finish #the relisten of rassilon

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