#the way he says socrates kills me every time

[dialovers-translations]

Diabolik Lovers CHAOS LINEAGE ー Subaru [12]

Monologue

ーー Our encounter with Socrates.

I cannot remember,

how or where Subaru-kun and myself wandered to afterwards.

Unless somebody willingly gives up their own life,

we cannot leave this miniature World.

Confronted with this unreasonably heavy truth,

every step we took felt like a challenge,

as we lacked even the strength to speak.

What on earth,

were we supposed to do?

How exactly is that spherical entity,

who goes by the name of Socrates,

have the heart to do something so utterly cruel?

What does that guy gain,

from our suffering?

A bunch of questions which I cannot answer,

pop in my head one after the other.

ー The scene starts in the forest

Yui: ( I feel heavy-hearted...Right when I thought we had finally found a way to go back, it turns out to be something so unreasonable. )

Subaru: Say.

Yui: Hm? What’s wrong?

Subaru: What do you want to do once we go back to our own World?

Yui: Eh? Why would you ask all of a sudden?

Subaru: It’s not like we’ll get anywhere by only thinkin’ negatively, right? That’s why, you know...

Yui: ( I see. He’s trying whatever he can to cheer me up, isn’t he? )

Fufufu.

Subaru: Whatcha laughin’ for!? I’m trying my best for you here...!

Yui: Yeah, I know. I’m sorry for laughing!

I’m not trying to make fun of you or anything, I’m just really happy about it, fufu.

Subaru: Are you sure you aren’t makin’ fun of me after all? I’m serious, you know?

But well, guess it’s fine. I don’t care as long as you smile.

Yui: Subaru-kun...

Subaru: 

Yui: ( ...? I wonder why he came to a halt all of a sudden? )

Subaru-kun...?

Subaru: ...So they’re here.

Yui: ...Eh?

( They came? Don’t tell me... )

Carla: ...So this is where you’ve been. Foolish traitors.

Yui: Carla-san...

Azusa: I think it’d be in your best interest, to do as we say...

Kou: Exactly. You might get hurt if you put up too much of a fight.

Laito: I’m sure both of you realize that this isn’t the kind of situation where we’d hold back just because we’re family? 

Yui: ( The Violet family has got us surrounded!? What now? We’ve got nowhere to run! )

Subaru: Hah! Took you guys long enough. Were you too scared of me to do anythin’? 

Carla: Get off your high horse. We simply observed you first to see how you would act.

Subaru: So you purposely let us run free.

Carla: As a result, I was able to witness something very fascinating. Seems like your attempted alliance with the Scarlet House ended in a tragedy.

Subaru: ...!

Carla: Exactly. We were obviously watching. However, we are still lacking information. 

Such as what exactly you did while you were alone with Eve, or which things you talked about.

I believe it is necessary to hear about that in full detail. 

Subaru: You make me gag. What for, exactly? Do you get a kick out of it?

Carla: To find a clue to become Supreme Overlord, obviously. I simply cannot afford overseeing even the slightest change.

You have no place to run. If you understand that, hand her over.

Subaru: ...Che.

Yui: ( Oh no...At this rate... )

Selection

→ Let’s power our way through (🖤)

Yui: Subaru-kun, I don’t want to get caught. So how about we just risk it all and try to make a run for it?

Subaru: Don’t be stupid. If we try to do that under these circumstances, we’d get caught in no time and then it’d be game over.

I’m pretty sure you’ll be at Carla’s mercy and I’ll get killed for rebelling ‘gainst them.

Yui: Right...

→ Let’s do as they say (♡)

Yui: Subaru-kun, it might be best to do as they say.

Even if he catches us, we might find another opportunity to run...

Subaru: ...It’s Carla we’re talking about.

Once he has gotten his hands on you once, I’m pretty sure he’ll lock you up in the prison basement for the rest of your life so you’ll never see the light of day again.

...But if I can play my cards right, I might be able to save you from such a fate at least.

Yui: Eh? What do you mean?

Subaru: Don’t worry ‘bout anythin’. Just leave it to me.

Yui: Subaru-kun...? What are you thinking?

Subaru: Don’t resist, no matter what? I promise that I’ll keep you safe, no matter what I have to do.

Yui: W-Wait! Don’t be rash!

( Don’t tell me he’s thinking of a sacrificing himself...! )

Subaru: Oi, Carla! I’ll let myself get captured, as you want.

Carla: Heh. That is some big talk for a rat driven in a corner.

Subaru: But I do have one condition. I want you to treat her...to treat Eve with care.

Don’t lock her up in a prison cell like you did before. 

But give her a proper room and provide her with daily meals.

Give her some freedom as well. I want you to give her the happiness she needs as a human.

Yui: ( Subaru-kun, for my sake...! )

Subaru: If you promise to do that, I’ll surrender. You can do with me as you please.

I don’t mind if you want to torture me to death. Or give me an official punishment as a traitor, I’ll accept that as well.

Carla: ...

Subaru: Oi, what do you say?

Carla: I understand your resolve. Out of respect for your feelings, I shall promise to take good care of Eve.

Subaru: I see.

Yui: But then Subaru-kun will...!

Subaru: Didn’t I tell you that I’m fine? I just want to protect you, no matter what it takes.

Carla: I believe you might be misunderstanding something, as I do not intend to kill Subaru.

Yui: Eh? 

Subaru: Hah?

Carla: I believe I made myself very clear from the start, that I want to hear what happened between the two of you while you were on the run.

I will not be able to do so if I kill him.

Carla: Therefore, as long as you surrender, I will treat you decently well.

Subaru: T-The fuck...? Then my whole offer was for nothing?

Carla: No, it did have significance. I was able to hear how formidable my younger brother’s resolve is.

I am glad I do not have to kill you. This world nearly lost a very valuable man.

Subaru: Carla...

Yui: ( Carla-san seems kind of happy. He usually comes off as cold, but he’s actually the type of person to value his family. )

( Seems like Subaru-kun has picked up on that as well. Honestly, these two might be a surprisingly good match. )

Carla: That is enough chit-chat for now. Azusa, Kou, Laito. Seize the two of them and take them back to our manor. 

Azusa: ...Okay.

Laito: Roger~

Kou: Ready, you guys? We’ll tie you up now?

Yui: Uhm, Subaru-kun. Thanks for earlier. For trying to sacrifice yourself to save me.

Subaru: Hm? Yeah...

Yui: ( Seems like he’s got something on his mind. Could it be that there’s still something else worrying him? )

ー The scene shifts to the prison cell

Carla: You will have to stay down here for a while.

*Rustle*

Subaru: ...Che.

I’m gettin’ this sorta treatment in the end, huh? What happened to your admiration for me from earlier?

Carla: Those two things are completely unrelated.

It does not change from the fact that you betrayed our family by trying to claim Eve as your own.

I shall not allow you to ever meet her again.

Subaru: Hah! As to be expected of Mr. Founder over here. You’re not takin’ any risks.

Carla: Well then, there are a few things I would like to ask you.

Subaru: Did you discover the secrets behind Eve and the Supreme Overlord?

Subaru: ...

Carla: The silent treatment, huh? I suppose that is fine. I shall take my time to drag it out of you.

Kou, Laito. I shall interrogate him again tomorrow morning. I want the two of you to watch over him until then.

Laito: What a pain~ How long will this last?

Kou: Until Subaru-kun tells him everything about Eve, right? I guess that’ll make our lives easier.

Laito: Right. Well then, Subaru-kun, please tell him everything you know already. Do it for us.

Subaru: You fuckers really need to buzz off.

...Hey, what happened to her?

Laito: Her? ...Aah, you mean Eve?

Kou: Don’t worry. Azusa-kun’s in charge of looking over her, so you’ve got nothing to worry about.

Subaru: ...

( I guess Azusa is way better than these two in terms of people to watch over her. )

( I can’t imagine he’d try to assault her against her will. )

( I promise that I’ll definitely keep you safe. Even if it costs me my life... )

ー The scene shifts to a free room in the Violet Manor

Azusa: You can use this room again...

Yui: Yeah, that’s fine. Thanks for escorting me.

Azusa: You’re welcome...Please ask me anything if there’s something else you need?

Yui: Anything? Uhm, well then, where is Subaru-kun?

( The two of us were separated as soon as we arrived at the manor. )

( Even if it might be difficult to go see him, I want to know where he’s staying at least. )

Azusa: Subaru probably got put in prison, I believe...The one where you stayed when you first got here.

Yui: I see.

( Subaru-kun...I just hope he’s not being hurt. )

( He seemed shaken up by what Socrates-san told us as well, so I’m sure he’s got a lot on his mind right now. )

( I can’t believe I can’t be with him at a time like this... )

...Haah.

Azusa: What’s wrong, Eve...?

Yui: Ah, my bad! I can’t believe I sighed.

It’s just, I’m worried about Subaru-kun...

Azusa: About Subaru...?

Yui: He’s severely injured, and I believe he’s emotionally exhausted on top of that.

When I think that he has to endure all of that by himself, it pains me as well.

I’m terribly worried about him...

Azusa: I see...

Yui: ( I know Carla-san and the others told me to stay put but...I can’t help but want to see him. )

( Perhaps I could try asking Azusa-kun...? )

Hey, I’ve got something to ask you. Can’t you arrange for the two of us to meet somehow?

I want to see his face. I want to know how he’s doing right now...

Azusa: ...

Yui: I know that I’m being unreasonable. But, Iーー

Azusa: Sure...

Yui: Eh!?

Azusa: You want to see him, right...? Sure, I’ll let...the two of you meet...

Yui: Really...?

Azusa: Yeah...We have to make sure that nobody sees us, okay...? Or I’ll get scolded as well...

*Thud*

Azusa: Come on, this way...

ー The two of them sneak out

Monologue

My eyes widened with surprise,

as I watched Azusa-kun silently open the door.

I wonder if he is being serious? 

Can I trust him?

I recall what had happened,

at the Scarlet Manor.

As well as the welcome party at the Violet Manor.

Whenever someone was nice to us, they always had an ulterior motive.

The pain of being betrayed by someone,

feels like thorns stabbing you right in the heart.

What if I get betrayed again? 

This fear is what makes it difficult for me to step forward.

However, even if I stand still now,

it won’t change anything.

...For Subaru-kun’s sake,

I mustered up my courage.

And I walked ahead.

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

[teagic]

you would feel better if you got up completely, yknow but i don’t want to be awake but instead you lay in bed and think and think about the little meetings i dont even want to be here or anywhere or - because you feel sorry about the way you handled them. you feel sorry that when people ask you about old things, it feels like youre exhuming something no one helps you and sometimes you catch yourself praying to the dead, you’re not catholic, really and you’re not particularly good at that for other people. so when they’re all excited and talking about that club, you feel instead we’ve never talked about it, and nobody will get your anger or your horror at it a sense of dread and what is there to be said? what can anyone say? it is not your sadness you feel the dead don’t, or won’t, help either

theyre talking today about the republic and you should just go like socrates, sure, but they killed socrates but maybe it’s boring -- or maybe it’s worse i was talking when it happened do you think it was me i think it was because it’s a kind of resentment from four years now lecturing to the empty classroom; every time i see him i want to tell him that he woke me from my dogmatic slumber. maybe it’s just illness, maybe it’s just being lazy, maybe it’s nothing at all why is there no one here? but there is greek to be done and meetings to be had the dead are dead and you are too; dead because no one can understand you, you are just stuck in a room alone with me, and i died a long time ago. don’t you remember? i know you do because i remember it all the time and i feel how much it bothers you, but you’re stuck here with me, and you might as well be dead with me too. the meetings will take place soon you’ll put on a farce but you’re dead just like me and it’ll be fine, again in the office and pulled into the pulse and throb of things do you remember how much it hurt? and worse, do you remember how much you miss it? you don’t respond because you don’t know what to say to me, or how to admit the things you want -- and that’s just like being dead. you wake up every morning and every time you ignore me it’s just the same, you ignore me and we’re both dead, and it’s all your fault. i want to sleep until it’s time to really go, and its not yet time, so i cant be awake

[lit-crits]

(2022) The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (Illustrated Edition by Beya Rebai). 28/08/2024 - 01/09/2024

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 9/10

Favourite quote: "I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."

Gift from my boyfriend! Been on my reading list for AGES and this edition is sooooooo pretty. I loved this book and will definitely be reading it again. The fig tree analogy is my favourite thing about this book, so many things can be taken from it and the whole thing is beautifully written. Esther is such a good character (loads of discussions I've read online say she is a badly written character but I don't see it), she is immediately morbid right off the bat which sets her up as different to the rest of the women she lives and works with. She sees how hypocritical societal standards for women are, how she has to remain a virgin till marriage but Buddy (her boyfriend/fiancé to be?) can have sex with other women with little consequence. Sex is a key theme in the book which I didn't really expect, I think it was really interesting that when Esther gets on birth control (due to her supportive female psychiatrist, Dr Nolan - a lot to say about her) and does finally have sex (not with Buddy) she literally haemorrhages and has to go to hospital - this bit is never really fully explained by Plath. She bleeds a LOT directly after sex and then the doctor in the hospital says she is one of a kind and winks at her when he is examining her - I did not get what this meant and I can't find any answers online either? Either way it is INTERESTING that when she finally gets to have sex it is bloody and destructive. Back to Dr Nolan, she was obviously written to be the shining example of what Esther wants to be: an independent, professional woman. Nolan actively helps Esther become more independent by helping her get on birth control which gives her the sexual freedom she has always envied men for. Nolan is arguably the key reason Esther even gets better at the asylum, she is a progressive woman who supports Esther's way of thinking and she convinces Esther to try shock therapy again (after it was done incorrectly by a male doctor previously). Nolan is there right at the end of the book too, when Esther is about to go in for her review with the board of doctors, to help guide her back into society. The bit with Joan being heavily implied to be a lesbian went right over my head, had to go back and re-read that bit once I saw that analysis online. I had just read it as Joan was a mirror of Esther, and what she would have become if she hadn't gotten better which I still do think, but Joan was quite obviously crushing on Esther. I really really really did not expect Esther to make an assumed full recovery from her mental illnesses, I had presumed she was going to kill herself and that would be the end of the book. My one complaint is that Esther's descent into becoming mentally unwell seemed really quick to me, which I guess is how it can actually be in real life, like one chapter she was feeling a bit disconnected and emotionless then the next she was self-harming and planning her suicide. Overall, great book that I really recommend!

[honeyhoneysdiary]

Dead poets society

12-2-2024

Every now and again I go through this phase of feeling barely anything aside from boredom and uninterest; it sounds cliche and I can acknowledge it very much is, but sometimes i wonder if this 'phase' every few months is really a phase at all, but instead a constant that I forget about every no and then due to distractions like school work and my friends.

I've been going through this kind of 'everything is dull' phase recently, or at least for the last week, and there are a couple of things I've done to try and remedy it so far;

I've developed a crush on somebody at school; they're taller than me and their smile is so pretty.

I re-watched Daisy Jones and the Six, because the ending of it made me cry the first time I watched it.

And I finally got around to watching the Dead Poets Society.

The Dead Poets Society worked; I was genuinely bawling my eyes out, because what do you mean Neil Perry actually died??? He was so full of life, he had so much passion for everything around him and he killed himself because he was just completely unable to do anything with it.

It's left me with this haunted feeling, I think, the feeling that a tiny part of me is going to be forever thinking about this movie, just like when I read the Secret History and My Family and Other Animals for the first time.

But I suppose it did the job; for a while I felt so utterly devastated that I forgot how bored I was.

The crush kind of worked too, but I'm afraid that I accidentally messed that up by telling my friends about it... You see, the two friends I told about it were very varying in their responses, but one of them in particular was super enthusiastic about it, and it just kind of... I'm not entirely sure how to put this, because 'ruined it' sounds harsh, but ever since I told them, the nervous butterfly feeling in my stomach when I talked to the person I have/had a crush on before doesn't come back. I genuinely can't think of a reason this would change anything, because I like talking about this kind of thing with my friends, but I think crushes might just be the kind of think I should keep to myself in the future.

School today was alright! I had a free period in the morning so I didn't have to show up until 10am which was fun, and my politics teacher's made a collaborative spotify playlist for the class! (The catch is that all of the songs have to have a link to politics in some way, which is very fun omg.)

The vague downside of school today was that my team lost the 'socratic seminar' thing we were doing in english today, which, in my opinion, was actual bullshit because the bell went just before I could say my point. I'm not going to elaborate on this because it lowkey ruined my whole day, and I did not recover until I get home.

Some of the day's realisations:

I need to get better at public speaking.

I haven't quite managed to become un-suicidal yet, which is unfortunate.

I need to update my suicide note.

By writing this, I missed the 11pm news recap (damn).

I love the oh hellos omg.

While I can admit that today wasn't the best, I have faith that tomorrow will be better!

-honey, <3

[back-and-totheleft]

"They say wars are to defend democracy and that is a lie"

Oliver Stone has never had a problem saying whatever he wants. That sincerity may even have hurt him at some point in a Hollywood where every statement has to be measured. Stone has always gone against the grain . With his enfant terrible aura about him, he came into an industry full of good kids and turned it upside down. He had been in Vietnam and knew what it was like to truly suffer. All that pain and trauma he took out of his guts in the form of wild scripts like those of Midnight Express and Scarface; and, above all, as a director in films like Salvador or Platoon.

His political activism - including his documentaries interviewing Hugo Chávez or Fidel Castro - have placed him on that list of Hollywood 'reds' along with Jane Fonda or Susan Sarandon. McCarthyism no longer exists, but the industry is always more accepting of someone who stays out of trouble than those who take advantage of their position to change things.

An activism that, in Stone's case, does not come from home. His father worked on Wall Street and Stone even voted for Reagan, as he reveals in his memoir, Chasing the Light (Kultrum Books), where he looks back at the first 40 years of his life. What's in the pages is a review of a life marked by two major events: the divorce of his parents and the Vietnam War, whose wounds continue to throb in him and in the United States. In between, the book is a merciless X-ray of Hollywood, drugs and an industry where he was always a fish out of water. He spoke about all this with elDiario.es by video call.

Why have you decided to publish your memoirs now? I don't know if it was your wish or an offer from a publisher.

No. It was my wish. I wanted to be a novelist when I was young. I wrote this book [pulls out an old copy from his table], A Child's Night Dream, when I was 19, before I became a filmmaker. It was about my life up to that age. I was selfish at that time. What I wanted to know was who I was and I didn't know. I wanted to know where I was. The basic questions that I think we all ask ourselves or should ask ourselves. Socrates already asked himself: “Do you know who I am?” But at 19 years old I was very confused, very depressed at that time because my parents had divorced, and it was a painful divorce because I was an only child and the family was really destroyed. It was much more turbulent than I had been told, and that was quite disappointing.

That took me away from the US for a while. I left Yale University abruptly after a year because I wasn't happy and I wanted to see the world because I didn't know much about it. I went to Vietnam as a teacher and worked there for two school terms. Then I joined the merchant marine and eventually returned to the US. Then I signed up again and then wrote a book. Later, I enrolled again at Yale University, but could not continue. I didn't feel like it and I finished the book. It was rejected, rejected, rejected… And that hurt me. I no longer wanted to be a novelist. I hated that world. Everything came to a head and I returned to Vietnam as a soldier, wanting to discover the truth about who I was. And if not, they would kill me. That's how I saw it. I was very fatalistic, but I survived, I came back and… well, you already know this because I imagine you have read the memoir.

Yes, of course. You then ended up at university, where you had Martin Scorsese as a teacher.

Yes, I ended up at NYU. I had wonderful teachers, including Martin Scorsese. They inspired me a lot with their passion and I realized that I wanted to be a filmmaker and not a novelist. But I never lost my desire to write, so as a screenwriter I tried to shape it. I wrote about eight, nine or 10 scripts over the years and tried to get into the film business that way. And finally I did it.

Reading your memoirs I wonder if, if you had not gone to Vietnam, you would have been a film director. I don't know if there is a direct relationship between those two events.

I write about that in the book. If you're in the jungle and you're a point man, you always have to pay attention and you feel things differently. It's intense. It's in three dimensions. You have to know what is around you. And something like that is what a director feels when he directs. When I was working at NYU, I felt like the camera was like my eyes and that was the world I was describing. I made two short films and and one of them was praised by Marty [Scorsese].

That inspired me to believe I could be a filmmaker, which led me on a nine-year journey of trying to direct, but without giving up writing. At that time, screenwriting was not seen as necessary because of the New Wave. There was a feeling that the scripts could be improvised, which I didn't do. I always respected screenwriters and I don't think that was the case at NYU, which was more of an auteur school. All the young students wanted to be directors.

Your life has been marked by your parents' divorce and the Vietnam War.

I think the divorce affected me more when I was younger, because I thought my parents were happy together, and they weren't. I learned what lies are. I saw that everything was a lie and the lies grew. As you get older, you start to realize that lies are told all the time. I went to Vietnam and the American Government told us lies about that war. They told us that it was a war that the communists caused, that they provoked us and that we were the good guys. And I lived through all that shit and that propaganda. All my life I have suffered from propaganda.

My father was conservative and against the Soviet Union. And I also lived through all that talk that the Soviet Union is about to invade the United States, that they are everywhere, in our schools, our unions… It was all bullshit. Everything was bullshit. But we keep going. The Cold War was an invention to militarize society, to maintain the army, the Navy, the Air Force and to spend the money there. Our economic prosperity is the result of the war. That's all. Some people think not, but that was a myth they sold us. The organizing principle of society is war, as Donald Sutherland says in JFK, and that seems to be true in the case of the United States, but it doesn't have to be like that. But that's how things are. The situation became increasingly worse after World War II. It grew and grew and grew and grew. And now it's a monster. It's a huge monster.

Do you think that the wounds of the Vietnam War are still present in the US and the world today?

Yes, because the US has never told the truth. I think Platoon was one of the first movies that really showed some kind of reality about Vietnam. It showed that it was a much uglier war than people believed. It was racist in many ways. We were fighting people we thought were inferior to us. We had much better technology. We killed many of them, three or four million of them, and many were civilians. Many of us had no regrets about it. And now the US has made some efforts to be Vietnam's ally against China, which is a typical American thing, becoming your friend only when you join us militarily. But it doesn't work that way. Life doesn't work that way.

The scars of Vietnam are there. They were never healed because we go to war again and again. And even when I did Platoon, we attacked Panama illegally and bombed the civilian population to extract Noriega. And then we went to war in Iraq two years later, in 1991. So my life has been opposed to those policies from the beginning. It has gone from bad to worse; and from worse to worse, and still continues. But my position has not changed. Wars are justified by saying that they are to defend our freedom and our democracy... and shit, that is another lie. I fight lies, including the lie that happened when I was young, the Kennedy assassination, another lie. But I didn't realize that until many years later: all that Warren Commission shit about a sniper, one man doing everything.

I found it very funny when in the book he says that when you met Jane Fonda, you thought that you were conservative next to her.

That was in the 70s, and I was in transition at the time, because I had returned from Vietnam and I was changing. When I returned from Vietnam I was not politicized, I was not an activist at all. I just wanted to get away from that. There was a time in the US where we were very polarized. Nixon was the one who did it. I would say that with Fonda… at that time, she was a hero to me. She was fighting against the Vietnam War. And I admired her for it, but of course, I don't know if you've seen my documentary on nuclear energy that I released last year...

Yes, I saw it at the Venice Film Festival.

Well, she is completely antinuclear. I think she is wrong and that she is hurting everyone with that because, if we nuclearized, we wouldn't have a problem with climate change. It's surprising how you can be right about one thing and wrong about another, but I admire Jane Fonda.

In the book you talks openly about drugs and your addictions, yet it's a topic that remains taboo.

Of course, because there is a lot of hypocrisy about drugs for people who enjoy them. They don't talk about it. They are smart because they don't want to go to jail, and countries are conservative on that matter. I have to be honest, because marijuana, cannabis and hashish helped me in Vietnam. They helped me get through that war. We didn't take them on the battlefield, but afterward. I got to know the black soldiers very well, they used them and it helped me remain human. That's very important in a war, because you get depressed. You become more coarse. It makes you meaner. Drugs helped me lighten the load. We had a lot of fun in the rear. We needed to laugh a little. We needed to smile and I will always be grateful for that. I've never denied it.

But then I liked them and took psychedelics. I thought it would be very helpful in raising my consciousness. Mushrooms, psychedelics… all that. But then I got into cocaine, in Hollywood, in 1978, and that wasn't good for me. I got hooked, I became addicted and I didn't like it because I was a slave to it. That didn't help my career at all. It made me stupider. My brain was stupider. Ironically, I later got revenge on cocaine when I wrote Scarface sober. I did the research completely high, but when I wrote it, I quit drugs completely. Well, not completely. But I never became an addict again.

You have mentioned the hypocrisy with the issue of drugs. Do you think that this hypocrisy is also in Hollywood, where everyone consumes them, but there is a double standard towards them?

Of course. But not everyone takes drugs, although some should do it to get the sticks out of their asses (laughs). It's something no one wants to admit. I had problems with the law, but I'm glad I expressed what I feel. I'm honest about it.

In your books, in your interviews, you don't mince words. Has that sincerity harmed you in Hollywood?

Yes. If you talk too much, you're making a mistake in this city and in life in general. My father always warned me about that, but I try to be honest with myself. That's why I wrote the book. I wrote this book and I'm going to write one last book, because this one only goes up to 40 years old. I'm going to write another memoir covering being 40 years old until now. That's all I can do. We only have one life, and it's short, and if you can afford to, it's better to be honest, because not everyone can.

In the book you mention Avatar, and in your list of the 10 best films in history in Sight & Sound you also included it...

The first one is wonderful, very visionary.

I think you say it is much more political than what James Cameron says.

What does he say?

Well, that it's ecological, about climate change, and not so political. 

Well, I can't understand that, because it's clearly a metaphor for the US, and if he says that it's because he doesn't want to piss off anyone. You want to make as much money as possible. You're not going to tell the people of America that it's about the American empire, are you?

In Spain it also happens that many directors say 'my film is not political'.

Already, many say that 'it's just a movie'. What bullshit, you are responsible for your movie.

In the book, you say that your cinema fights against capitalism.

No, I'm not saying that.

I can't tell you the exact page, but I swear it says your first films tried it. 

My father worked on Wall Street. I am a capitalist. I believe in the profit motive. 

Weren't your first scripts against capitalism?

No. I think you're exaggerating. I think Gordon Gekko [the protagonist of Wall Street] was an extreme form of capitalism and that he became evil because he also made money destroying companies. They call it creative destruction and it strengthens companies. But it's also a jungle. Dog eats dog, and sometimes that is very cruel. Capitalism can work if it has regulations. If there is a balance, there is moderation. But when things get out of control, when they become excessive and people live like Gordon Gekko... that's not good. Greed is not good.

Well, I'm going to try to quote a phrase from the book again, I hope I get it right. You say that “no one tells the truth” in this society. 

There is some truth there, but I cannot say that no one tells the truth, because the truth is told, some people say it. But I think I know which part you are referring to. The lie in our culture has its roots in our failure in Vietnam. Give me a second [picks up his edition of the book, looks up the exact passage about the atrocities that were committed in Vietnam and reads it word by word]. I had no idea there was so much death. Cambodia was partially wiped off the map because of our bombs. We really did a Holocaust. At that time there was a Holocaust in Asia. We talk about the Jews in World War II, but we don't talk about the Holocaust we caused in Southeast Asia.

In the book you talk about several scripts that were not filmed, what is the script that you have written and not filmed that you would like to do?

Oh, I'm quite old, that takes away a lot of energy.

You're not that old.

I don't know if I could go out and make that physical effort. I wrote a script, and was actually going to direct a film about the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. I was also going to do a script about Martin Luther King. I worked quite a bit on it. In fact, I worked on many scripts. There are about 10 that I worked on for more than six months. There are more failures than successes in the movie business.

-Javier Zurro, "They say wars are to defend democracy, and that is a lie," ElDiario, Nov 22 2023 (translated)

[ojacksonscohen]

OLIVER JACKSON-COHEN & ZAWE ASHTON Mr. Malcolm's List (2022)

[adaodinson]

I didn´t call you babe, I was asking what it meant

It’s been a while since I posted a story, I apologize, I´ve been like crazy cause I’m starting college this year and well, I haven´t had time.

I finally watched Bill and Ted´s trilogy and of course I now adore them and have the biggest crush on Ted. I thought of this while rewatching the first movie today so here it is. In this story Lizzie and Joanna are saved by Rufus like in the movie, but they don´t stay with Bill an Ted (they can still be a part of the band though).

Summary: When the guys go to London in the XV century, they encounter someone else who needs a hand.

Relationship: Ted x femreader, Bill x platonic!femreader

Warnings: none.

Oh you did it this time, you certainly did it. There was no way you would get away from this execution. You were being dragged by the guards, not that you would try to fight them at this point, you knew it was hopeless, but you weren´t going to make it easy for them either.

The wooden door opened with a loud creak as the light from the outside blinded you. You could feel the change in the floor, from cold stone to dirt. You weren´t precisely scared, you were hoping you would get out of this just like the past times but now they took you by surprise, and unlike the others, you didn´t have an escape plan now.

You felt dozens of eyes on you, looking in disgust. Everyone here knew you at this point: the young girl with the weird accent that had no family and only knew how to steal. It was partially true, but of course there was more to you. You didn´t bother trying to change their minds about you anymore, though.

-Aha! I encounter you again- yelled the king from his seat. You rolled your eyes at him and at the look of victory in his eyes. You really didn´t want to give him the satisfaction of killing you, and you didn´t want to die either.

As the guards settled you in place, you realized they were dragging two weird looking guys and tying them up next to you. They had clothes you had never seen before, and they looked funnily scared. The blonde one had a kind aura, he seemed sweet, and the dark haired one, as foolish as he looked, you had to admit was rather handsome. Well, you were clearly lying to yourself, he was beautiful.

-First time here, boys?- You asked with a giggle, still refusing to believe you were going to die.

-You’ve been in this situation before? Are you a ghost?- they asked at the same time.

-I’ve indeed been in this situation before, but I can guarantee I´m not a ghost- you stated.

-Well, how did you get out? We could use some help ya know, babe- The dark haired said with a cute and confused look in his eyes. You flinched at the nickname, you certainly hadn´t heard that before and didn´t know what to think about it.

-Babe?- you asked.

-Yeah?- The same guy asked, waiting for you to say something else. His expression suddenly changed as if he had realized something- Wait, did you just call ME babe?- You swore he was blushing.

-No, I was asking you what it meant…ARGH- you were interrupted by the burning sensation of rope around your neck. They were putting you all in position for the execution.

Behind you, you heard a man screaming nonsense “They fell from the sky!!” “This devilish red box!!”. He was being carried by a cart and was hugging the weirdest thing you had ever seen.

-This is it. Lord, I can´t believe this- You were getting ready to face your destiny when you noticed there where only two executioners. Before you could even realize what was happening, the executioners cut the ropes that were holding you.

-Billy! Socrates!- The guys yelled while hugging the men. You then felt a hand on your shoulder and quickly turned, ready to punch who you thought was a guard.

-DON´T- The cute boy said while covering his face.

-Come on, babe! Come with us, we can get you out of here- You didn’t even stop to think about it, you just jumped to the cart and screamed your way through the town. You were speeding up more and more, and you were not feeling ready to die again, so as you passed a bridge, you managed to grab a rope that was tight to a wooden structure and pulled so it would block your persecutor´s way.

-WOW That was excellent! - both boys said at the same time and then did a strange movement with their hands in the air while shacking their heads happily. They were definitely the weirdest people you had ever met, but you liked that.

As you reached the woods, the guys hurried all of you to get into the red rectangle. You saw the blonde guy going through a book and pressing some metallic thingies.

-Oh I´m Ted by the way, and that is Bill, Socrates and Billy- Ted said while pointing at each of them. You blushed at his attention.

-I´m Y/N- you said with a worried smile since the guards were getting closer.

-Y/N- Ted repeated proudly- Beautiful name for a beautiful lady- That made you blush even more, especially since you were pretty close to him because of the small space inside the red rectangle.

Suddenly all your surrounding changed and you could only see what seemed like infinite. You closed your eyes while screaming and hang on to the shirt of whoever was next to you. Spoiler alert, it was Ted. He didn’t even scream through the time tunnels since he was too busy looking at you.

The red thing finally stopped and Bill asked you to stay inside. You didn´t see much of what happened out there, you just heard Bill and Ted say: “Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!”. You didn´t know what that meant, but they said it with such conviction you assumed they were wise words.

After the guys returned, you made more travels to who knows where and then finally arrived to what Bill and Ted called home. You saw Ted´s house and your head was now hurting with questions, but you understood Ted and Bill needed your help so you would ask everything after that.

They took you to a place called The Mall. It was huge and filled with people. You were looked at weirdly, but to you, the weird ones were all of them. Bill explained what The Mall was and Ted never left your side, he was at the end of the line, guarding all your new friends, but always made sure you were feeling safe.

They gave you a Slursy? Slusfy? Oh whatever, it was the most delicious thing you had ever tried, and Ted smiled so widely just by seeing how happy you were with it. He mentioned they would have to go get another historical figure that they had brought before, and you didn´t want to be without them so you asked if you could go with them. They agreed happily.

You then met Deacon, Ted´s little brother, and before you knew you were at a place called a water park? You didn´t understand so Ted took you to take a look and explain while Bill went looking for Napoleon. You got lost in Ted´s explanation by looking into his eyes, and he realized you weren´t paying attention. He thought you were making fun of him in your head or that you thought he was an idiot. But what you blurted out (according to you, you said it in your head, apparently you didn´t) made him see that wasn´t at all what you were thinking.

-How can you be so cute and pretty?- The question was out before you could even think. You turned a bright red and looked at the floor, but Ted softly grabbed your chin and made you look at him.

-You really think that, Y/N?- His eyes were filled with so much joy, hope and a beautiful spark that you couldn’t bring yourself to lie to him.

-Well, yes, of course I do. I mean, you literally saved me and…- You weren´t allowed to finish, a pair of soft lips in yours interrupted you midsentence, but of course you didn´t care. You tasted and enjoyed every bit of it, just like Ted did.

-Okay guys, I found him… WOAH- Bill was carrying a man covered in a towel and was smirking at you both.

-DUDE- Ted said looking happier than you had ever seen him (and that was a lot to say).

-Awesome!- They both said and did what you now knew was an air guitar movement.

You headed back to the Mall and soon realized your historical friends had been taken to prison by Ted’s father. You didn’t really understand what was going on, everything was new for you and Bill had to drag you as you stood astonished looking at a bicycle (not to mention how many questions you asked about the car). The guys decided it would be best if you stayed with Missy and Napoleon in the car, Ted specified he didn’t want you to get hurt.

Missy asked you tons of questions and answered yours. She was really nice, and even though Napoleon was weird, he was really funny (because he didn’t understand anything).

Finally Bill and Ted returned with the others and you headed back to the Mall.

You weren’t a historical figure, so you got to watch the guy’s complete presentation from behind the stage and to clap like crazy when they finished. Ted had gotten you some clothes when you returned to the Mall, and you were the most comfortable you had ever been.

You decided to stay with them, but you did accompany the guys to leave the historical figures at their times, they ended up being your friends after all.

When you returned, Ted wanted to offer you to stay in his house, but he knew his dad wouldn´t allow it, so you stayed with Bill instead. You saw Ted all the time though, and when they discovered that you could sing they immediately asked you to join their band and be the lead singer. You couldn´t say no to Ted´s beautiful face, so you agreed, and of course their love for music was contagious and you were loving every new song they showed you. Rufus then confirmed you were a part of the band in the future, and so, that´s how your life in a different time began, and you couldn´t love it more.

[theimpossiblescheme]

“she practised her smile until it was perfect.”--for demeter

Nobody ever asked Demeter outright what she was thinking when she advocated for the other Mouser’s Palace cats to properly join the Tribe. But with every question and dubious stare, it was certainly implied. Alonzo, Socrates, and Bombalurina all had blood on their paws. Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer were certainly no innocents themselves. And while Jemima, Electra, and Plato were only kittens, they would never be able to shake the shadow of their father looming over them.

And of course, she couldn’t possibly be an objective judge. Macavity’s mate, their stares all seemed to say, almost accusing. His captured bride, his accomplice… who are you to ask for our trust, for them or yourself? Who are you to tell us what’s in their hearts? Who are they?

Who are you?

It wasn’t an easy answer, but it was still one she felt confident in.

She was Macavity’s mate once. She’d been dazzled by his daring independence, the way he flew in the face of his Tribe’s and even his father’s expectations. She’d loved the quiet intensity in his voice, the candle glow and heat, when he talked about his plans for the future. About his magic, which he claimed to have won in a battle of wits against a cat more ancient than time itself. About how it set him apart, prevented even his family from understanding. No one ever would… except for her.

She thought she’d understood him, once upon a time. She felt that same heat in her own belly, that same yearning. That shadow over her own thoughts he taught her to embrace rather than fear. She could be as strong and as sharp as she wanted to be, she could be absolutely unstoppable… by his side.

So when he beckoned her, she followed.

And he made so many delicious promises, once upon a time. Do this for me, and I’ll be yours. Find this bit of information for me, and we’ll be safe together. Bring this cat to me, and we’ll be kings and queens of the alleys together, of our own palace. Kill him for me, and you’ll be free from the whispers. Come to me with his blood on your paws, and you’ll be mine.

She was his. Every part of her—the slashes across her back and cheeks when she failed, the claw-rings around her wrists and arms, the punctures in her thighs and ankles. She was his entirely, or so he said.

She was the mother of his daughter. When he found out she was pregnant, his tune didn’t change immediately. At first, he sang triumphantly about their little princess who would someday inherit their ever-growing kingdom, about the fierce claws and molten heart of the queen who carried her. But the farther along and the weaker she became from carrying so much weight, the more his songs took on a more wheedling tone. She mustn’t hurt herself after all, she mustn’t damage the treasure inside her, she must be kept safe and cared for… no one else must be allowed to touch her…

So she was kept inside one of the crates in the cellar of their palace. Even after Jemima was born. When the day came, Macavity only stayed long enough to confirm the kitten had magic, a chance of becoming a worthy heir one day. “Well done, my dearest,” he whispered, ghosting a kiss across her lips, but drawing away before she could truly register the touch. She had to continue earning it, after all.

She was Jemima’s only real parent… to the exclusion of all else. When the little one was old enough to see the world with her own eyes, Macavity forbade her mother from coming to his conferences. “You’re in a delicate state right now, my dear,” he cooed, sliding a claw gently along the side of her face. “Imagine the poor thing growing up without a mother because of some scuffle upstairs? Imagine her growing up without any siblings… we want to give her a family, don’t we?”

When she couldn’t give Jemima siblings (or perhaps he couldn’t, but he would never admit to it), she became useless to him. Forever confined to her crate in the cellar, only trotted out when Macavity wanted to present proof of his influence—that he was loved. When she felt these strangers’ eyes on her, she practiced her old smile until it was perfect.  And when she put up even a token show of resistance, it only earned her another bloody stripe beneath her fur before she was locked up again.

She was practically a stranger to him now. For so long, she never understood why.

In his absence, she saw the cats around her more and more. She saw the tired desperation in Alonzo’s eyes, the way he itched at his paws even when they were clean. She heard the injected cheer in Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer’s voices as they staunchly refused to talk about what they’d actually been up to all day, the weary pride in Bombalurina’s as she did discuss what Macavity asked of her and dared anyone to judge her for it. She sensed the cautious hope in Socrates and little Electra, the silent anxiety in Plato… the latter two her own step-children.

She understood them, too.

She understood them more, now.

She was still asserting herself with all her might, even if it meant the existing scars all across her body stung horribly as she did, even if it only earned her new ones. Even if it wasn’t on her own behalf. After a particularly terrible struggle, Macavity sank one set of claws in even deeper around her paw and traced her face with the other set, this time much more forcefully. “What would you do without me, my dear?” he rumbled in her ear. “Where would you go? Who else would have you, knowing what you’ve done? We’ve both too much blood on our paws, and I’ve trusted you too much to lose that heart of yours… we deserve each other.” He pressed his face even closer against hers. “You deserve me.”

Even after she escaped, even on the brightest and happiest days, she still heard that whisper.

And she wondered if the other inhabitants of hers and Macavity’s palace heard it, too.

They deserved each other.

So if she couldn’t speak on their behalf, turn that understanding into empathy and compassion to be shared with her new family… who was she? Who were they?

She still felt that creeping doubt, like a flea’s egg under her skin, some days. Especially when Macavity was near. That sense of dread that he would find her and drag her back there…

You deserve me.

But she was safe in the Junkyard. She was protected. And failing that, she still had the same fierce claws and molten heart he’d once praised and she now hoped he’d come to fear. Secure in that knowledge, she followed street artists and musicians from block to block, accompanied workers and cooks as they smoked and chatted, laughed with Bombalurina and Jellylorum, played with Jemima and her young friends, shared concerns and felt needles with Jenyanydots, warmed her heart even more with Alonzo and Munkustrap…

She deserved them. Every day, she let herself believe that more and more.

She never hid. She never abandoned her voice. She was always present, always alert, always there to lend a paw or a shoulder. She loved and fought fearlessly in equal measure. She was kind, and she was utterly undaunted.

She was Demeter. She was a kindred spirit and friend to many. She was loved by all, including two mates and two kittens. She was a redeemer, a listener, a lantern in the dark for anyone else who needed it. She was intimately familiar with the dark—she knew how to walk it and lead others out of it. She was equal parts anger and forgiveness, danger and comfort. She was once queen of the Mouser’s Palace, if only in name.

She could be queen here, too. In more than just name.

Long may she reign.

[meteor752]

Wilbur is just Non-stop

I’m honestly surprised that there isn’t any animatic with this song and Wilbur. Like, I looked it up and there are two Non-Stop animatics, but the first one is about Tommy and the second about Schlatt (Both are very good, look them up)

So, I took it upon myself to rewrite Non-stop to fit British guitar man, since I can’t draw

Also, I am not a song writer, not am I good with these types of things, so be patient with me. Also some things might not make sense, but I tried my best, okay

The song is under the cut

Tommy: After the war I got in politics

Wilbur: A-after the war I got in politics

Tommy: I finished up my studies and I became vice

Wilbur: I became prez, Toms worked next door

Tommy: Even though we started at the very same time

Wilbur quickly began to climb

How to account for his rise to the top?

Man, the man is non-stop

Wilbur: Gentlemen of the cabinet, I'm curious, bear with me

Are you aware that we're making hist'ry?

This is the first real meeting of our brand-new nation

The liberty behind deliberation (Non-stop!)

I am here to inform you that the economy needs work

With my dear assistant

Tommy: Vice President

Wilbur please sit down

We need more trades with the badlands

Write them a proposal

That's all you had to say

Wilbur: Okay

One more thing–

Tommy: Why do you assume you're the smartest in the room?

Why do you assume you're the smartest in the room?

Why do you assume you're the smartest in the room?

Soon that attitude may be your doom!

Why do you write like you're running out of time?

Write day and night like you're running out of time?

Every day you fight, like you're running out of time

Keep on fighting, in the meantime-

(Non-stop!)

Wilbur: Corruption's such an old song that we can sing

Along in harmony and nowhere is it stronger

Than the SMP

This colony's economy's increasingly stalling and

Honestly that's why he's just public service seems

To be calling me (Non-stop!)

I practiced the this thing, I practically perfected it

I've seen injustice in the world and I've corrected it

Now for a strong central democracy

If not, then I'll be Socrates

Throwing verbal rocks at these mediocrities

Dream: Wilbur Soot, at the Community Convention

Wilbur: I was chosen for the Community Convention

Dream:There as a L’Manburg cabinet delegate

Wilbur:Now what I'm going to say may sound indelicate

Dream:Goes and proposes his own form of government

(What?)

His own plan for a new form of government (What?)

Talks for six hours, the convention is listless

Jack: Bright young man

Quackity: Yo, who the fuck is this?

Dream: Why do you always say what you believe?

Ensemble: Why do you always say what you believe?

Dream: Every proclamation guarantees

Free ammunition for your enemies (Awww!)

Why do you write like it's going out of style? (Hey)

Write day and night like it's going out of style? (Hey)

Every day you fight like it's going out of style

Do what you do

Technoblade: Wilbur?

Wilbur: Technoblade, hey

Technoblade: It’s the middle of the night

Wilbur: Can we confer, please?

Technoblade: Is this an SMP matter?

Wilbur: Yes, and it's important to me

Technoblade: What do you need?

Wilbur: Tech, you're a better at this than me

Technoblade: Okay?

Wilbur: I know I talk too much, I'm abrasive

You're incredible with words

You're succinct, persuasive

This thing needs a strong defense

You're the solution

Technoblade: What do you need help with?

Wilbur: The L’Manburg Constitution?

Technoblade:No

Wilbur: Hear me out!

Technoblade: No way!

Wilbur: A series of essays, anonymously published

Defending the nation to the public

Technoblade: No one will read it

Wilbur: I disagree

Technoblade: And if it fails?

Wilbur: Tech, that's why we need it

Technoblade: Your country is a mess!

Wilbur: So it needs amendments

Technoblade: It's full of contradictions!

Wilbur: So is independence!

We have to start somewhere

Technoblade: No, no way

Wilbur: You're making a mistake

Technoblade: Good night

Wilbur: Hey

What are you waiting for?

What do you stall for?

Technoblade: What?

Wilbur: You won your war

What was it all for?

Do you support me, your brother?

Technoblade: Of course

Wilbur: Then help me

Technoblade: And what if you're backing the wrong horse?

Wilbur: Tech, I studied and I fought and I killed

For the notion of a nation I now get to build

For once in your life, take a stand with pride

I don't understand how you stand to the side

Technoblade: I'll keep all my plans close to my chest

(Wait for it, wait for it, wait)

I'll wait here and see which way the wind will blow

I'm taking my time, watching the afterbirth of a nation

Watching the tension grow

Fundy: I am moving to the SMP

I am accompanied by someone who always pays

I have found a wealthy husband who will

Keep me in comfort for all my days

He may a lot of fun, but there's no one

Who can match this crazy place

Wilbur: My little champion

Fundy: Wilbur

Wilbur: Don't forget to write

Tubbo:Look at where we are

Look at where we started

The fact that we’re alive is a miracle

Just stay alive, that would be enough

And if those in your life

Could share a fraction of your time

If we could grant you peace of mind

Would that be enough?

Tommy: Wilbur joins forces with Jack Manifold

And George Lore to write a series of essays

Defending the new L’Manburg Constitution

Entitled The Federalist Papers

The plan was to write a total of 25 essays

The work divided evenly among the three men

In the end, they wrote 85 essays

In the span of six months

George Lore fell asleep after writing five

Jack Manifold wrote 29

Wilbur wrote the other 51

How do you write like you're running out of time? (Running out of time?)

Write day and night like you're running out of time? (Running out of time?)

Every day you fight, like you're running out of time

Like you're running out of time

Are you running out of time? Awwww!

Ensamble: How do you write like tomorrow won't arrive?

How do you write like you need it to survive?

How do you write every second you're alive?

Every second you're alive? Every second you're alive?

Quackity: I’m campaigning for the lead

I am doing the best I can

To help the people that’s in need

I'm asking you to support me man

George: And what’s in it for me?

Quackity: I know it's a lot to ask

George: What’s in it for me?

Quackity: But it will be worth it you know

George: Q, what would I get out of it?

Quackity: You could be my vice?

George: Let's go

Tubbo: Wilbur

Wilbur: I have to leave

Tubbo: Wilbur!

Wilbur: Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now!

Tubbo: Helpless

Wilbur: They are challenging my lead

Tubbo: Look around, isn't this enough?

Tommy: He never will be satisfied

Tubbo: (What would be enough)

Tommy: He will never be satisfied

Tubbo: To be satisfied

Tommy & Tubbo: Satisfied, satisfied

Technoblade: History has its eyes on you

Tubbo: (Look around)

Tommy: Why do you assume you're the smartest in the room? Why do you assume you're the smartest in the room?

Ensemble: (Non-stop)

Tommy: Why do you assume you're the smartest in the room?

Ensemble: (Non-stop)

Tommy: Why do you assume you're the smartest in the room?

Technoblade: (History has its eyes)

Tommy: Why do you fight like you're running out of time?

Ensemble: (Non-stop)

Tommy: Why do you fight like

All: History has its eyes on you

Wilbur:I am not throwin' away my shot (Just you wait)

I am not throwin' away my shot (Just you wait)

I am Wilbur Soot Minecraft

Ensemble: (Minecraft) Just you wait

Wilbur:I am not throwin' away my shot

[pointnumbersixteen]

Tonight, as a little late birthday treat to myself, I’m rewatching the episode of Pointless Celebrities that Ben and Larry were on. 

Some notes: 

1) “Hi, I’m Larry Rickard, all of that’s true.” Excellent introduction, Larry, very thorough. 

2) Ben has a habit of sometimes sticking his tongue out just a little bit when he’s listening to other people talk or waiting and it’s just...  *unintelligible noises*

3) “Pointless owes Ben.” Yes, indeed. The episode he was in with Jim was a small tragedy. 

4) The way Ben squeezes Larry’s shoulders when he goes up to the podium, yo.

5) Lars, that is the opposite of the time where it is appropriate to go high risk. 

6) The way Ben scrunches up his face and nods with agreement when Larry says that Shakespeare’s life was probably nothing like what happens in their film is adorable. 

7) I could listen to Janina talk about Anglo-Saxon saints longer. 

8) Ben and Larry look so disappointed when it’s announced that their history topic is the Romans. Like, most of it’s covered in Horrible Histories, guys, you got this. Mat and Martha had a whole segment as Marc Antony and Cleopatra where they end up killing themselves. But no, Larry (and Ben!), Ben never played Seneca, he played Socrates. (Also, I knew the answer to all of the Roman history questions, including the Seneca one, which was the hard one, and was so proud of myself, although I probably shouldn’t be, because I minored in Classics in university and by that standard they’re all pretty easy.) 

9) Also, I feel like Ben and Larry had just written an entire movie about Shakespeare and if I recall their division of labor, Ben was the one who researched the plays, so I was a bit puzzled when he went the obvious (poor scoring) Spartacus route instead of naming Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus.

10) Also, I wonder if Ben Willbond bites his fingernails when stressed? Because after his high scoring Spartacus answer, he has his fingers up at his mouth while they’re waiting to see if they’ve been eliminated, and whenever you see pictures of his hands his fingernails are cut as short as possible. 

11) I enjoy Larry singing along with some of the musical bits. I also really appreciate that Chess is the answer that Larry went for, because it makes me think of Robin every time. 

12) Loved the Tony Robinson cameo. Yes!

13) I enjoyed how Larry and Ben mention Ben’s role as Henry VIII on Horrible Histories. Because: iconic. 

14) The ‘a walk’ joke was also used in Horrible Histories, by the prank caller at the start of one of Martha’s pet shop sketches, which were some of my favorites.

15) Ben: “War films from 1955 to 1968 would be good.” Larry: “And if you could avoid all sport, that would be great.” 

16) Larry: “I mean, I know nothing about the lake district beside that it’s got at least a lake. Probably numerous.” 

17) I love Ben and Larry’s little chat before the final question. 

Larry, “Right, I’ve never seen any of these films.” Ben: “Oh, God.” Larry: “Okay, that’s not true....” 

...Ben: “Okay, so Chariots of Fire, I was thinking about this morning, isn’t that weird?” Larry: “That’s very weird.” 

And the Nigel Havers bit! 

...Ben: “American actor. This would be a good answer... Oh my goodness me.” Larry: “What else is he in?” Ben: “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Oh my goodness me.” Larry: “I don’t think we can say ‘American Actor.” Ben: “No, we can’t.”  

...And Ben’s little, “Okay, it’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fine,” when their time is about to run out and he doesn’t think they’ve come up with a good answer yet. 

18) And the cheer and hug when Richard E Grant, which Ben suspected was wrong, comes up as pointless. (I’d have gotten Ryan Phillipe as the ‘American Actor,’ but that’s it.)

[carlatsukinamistolemyhamsandwich]

Carla’s CL Route: A Shin Fan’s Thoughts and Feelings

I have such mixed feelings on this route but I’m going to try and relay them as articulately as I can. Obligatory warning, this post contains massive spoilers for CL (mainly Carla’s route but i’m going to mention some of the other routes too). Now without further ado:

Before I delve into any of the issues I had with this route, let’s start with what I liked. Firstly, I think it’s safe to say that Carla hands down deals with the situation the best after he gets his memories back compared to the other routes I’ve played (Shin’s, Shu’s and Laito’s) and I would be very surprised if any of the other characters are able to handle things as well as he did (although admittedly that’s partly because he’s just so much more powerful than everyone else). I did like that the writers were able to show off how capable he can be, while still bringing up stuff like how it isn’t good at cleaning or cooking.

I liked the plot point about Carla being able to live without Endzeit if they stayed in the miniature garden as I thought it was an interesting concept.

I found it very interesting that Subaru was the only other character to regain his memories in this route, especially given that Carla actually played a role in his LE route which wasn’t the case for any of the other Sakamaki brothers in LE. I can’t help but wonder if the writers have them as a brotp when considering that they were also paired together in the Versus IV CDs. Regardless, I did enjoy seeing their interactions in Carla’s CL route.

The scenes between Carla and Yui after Carla gets his memory back are great and I’m sure Carla fans will have a field day with them.

Now, lets move onto to the issues I personally have with this route.

Because Carla is shown to be so capable, I never really felt fearful for the characters. In contrast, in Shin, Shu and Laito’s routes they all had moments of genuine peril outside of the bad endings, which meant I felt really concerned and was drawn into the story. Carla’s route however, went something like this: Oh no, how are they going to deal with this unexpected development? Ah wait, he solved it in an instant, as expected of Carla I suppose. Oh no, how are they going to deal with this other unexpected situation? Ah no nevermind, he dealt with it right away again... and so on.

This might just be personal preference, but in my opinion if you really want people to get invested in a story, there needs to be some element of risk for the characters (even if you know there’s going to be a good ending). If you take that away, even though the fluffy bits with Carla and Yui were lovely, every time we got to one of the more plot-orientated parts of the story, I’d start to get invested only for there to be no pay off as there never really seemed to be much of a problem in the first place. This is why you have to be a bit careful when coming up with characters to make sure that they have some sort of weakness, otherwise the audience knows they’re going to be fine whatever.

Yes Carla is undoubtedly the strongest of the boys when Karl’s powers aren’t involved (and especially when Endzeit is removed from the picture) but I still feel like there should have been something. We came a little close with Shin getting close to being killed by the Scarlet family but Carla took care of it so easily that it just felt a bit... I don’t know, flat maybe?

And now onto my biggest bugbear of the route: how they handled things with Shin. 

First things first, I am fully aware that I am incredibly biased here and Carla fans, you may see no issues with this route at all and honestly, good on you, I’m glad you enjoyed it, but hopefully after the end of this post you’ll at least understand why I was a little upset.

Things started off really well on this front, I loved the scene where Carla starts to remember things, Shin cuts his arm and then says that seeing Carla kneeling in front of him makes him feel frustrated for some reason. I was pleased when Carla and Yui went to rescue Shin (and by extension Ruki) when they were being attacked by the Scarlet family and the angst when Carla and Yui saw Shin treating Ruki as his big brother. But it then just... went nowhere (well in the Euphoria ending anyway, I’ll get onto that Labyrinth ending later).

The writers threw in some token lines from Shin in chapter 15 sure, but did he get his memories back before they returned to the real world? No. Did we get any sort of scene between Shin and Carla after Shin had gotten his memories back? No. In the route to achieve the Euphoria ending could Shin have stopped existing from about chapter 12 onwards and it wouldn’t have changed anything? Honestly, yes. 

I genuinely don’t think this would have bothered me so much had it not been for two things: 1) how much of a big deal trying to return Carla’s memories was in Shin’s route (although I would never have really expected anything else) and 2) the fact that all of this Shin and Carla angst was dangled in front of my nose only for there to be no pay off whatsoever.

I know this route is meant to ultimately be about Carla and Yui, not Carla and Shin’s brotherly relationship but I can’t help but feel cheated that the little Carla and Shin content we did get never amounted to anything. There was no heated discussion/argument between the two of them, there was no exciting climax where Shin tried to kill Carla because he still had his fake memories. Hell, we didn’t even get a token scene at the end where the brothers finally both had their memories back; Shin was unconscious for the conversation with Socrates and then he never comes up again.

My main point here is that I don’t think it was a good decision to include all these bits about Shin being important to Carla and then to not do anything with it in the climax of the good ending.

I acknowledge that there was no big climax in Laito’s route with the triplets either but at the very least Kanato and Ayato got their memories back and made sure that Shu and Reiji didn’t kill Subaru while Laito and Yui were trying to find a way out of the miniature garden. Shin didn’t even do that much.

Now as for labyrinth ending, oh boy where do I even begin. Putting aside the fact that Shin getting infected with Endzeit is literally the one thing I never want to happen in the franchise, I wasn’t a fan of it at all. Part of my reason for not being a fan of this ending comes back to my point about Shin playing such a small role in the Euphoria ending version of chapter 15 that he could have been replaced by a mop and I don’t think anyone would have noticed. 

However my biggest issue is that we get no information on what’s actually happened to him in that ending.

For anyone unfamiliar with that ending, in the Labyrinth version of chapter 15 Shin tries to kill Yui before they reach the church (as he still hasn’t got his memories back) but Carla protects her and gets stabbed. Shin gets covered in Carla’s blood and because his wounds from earlier in the route haven’t healed yet, they suspect he’s gotten infect with Endzeit. As a result, Yui and Carla decide to stay in the miniature garden where time is effectively frozen rather than return to the real world and have Shin potentially die from Endzeit.

The actual ending is just Yui and Carla talking about whether they’ve made the right decision. They say Shin hasn’t shown any signs of Endzeit but did he get his memory back? Are they just keeping him locked in the dungeons so he doesn’t try to murder them both? Who knows.

I can’t help but feel that it was very unfair to have Shin used as a bad ending plot device and then cut him out of that ending too. 

Also I am calling complete bullshit on that line about Carla being able to suppress his symptoms. I get that Rejet are probably trying to hint to his DF ending where Yui’s blood is magically able to hold off Endzeit symptoms (which was retconed for LE but might be thing again now apparently?) but then why was there any hesitation from Yui over going back to the real world versus staying with Carla in the minature garden??? Like this makes no sense at all. Either Carla is dying from Endzeit or he isn’t, you can’t pick and choose within the route itself depending on what’s convenient.

Anyway I’m starting to rant which isn’t good, so I’ll bring an end to this post here. 

Do I think the route has its good points? Yes, absolutely, I think Carla fans who enjoy his softer side will have a great time playing it. Do I personally have some very specific problems with it which are likely related to the identity of my favorite character? Again, yes.

Anyway I’d be interested to know if anyone agrees with me or if I am just a Shin-obsessed mad woman. I’m going to go and listen to one of Shin’s drama CDs or something while I go and calm down. Hope you’re having a good day and thanks for reading :)

[andthisiswitchcraft]

Familiars: what are they?

This is something that comes up every once in a while and lately has been coming up a lot, so we should discuss familiars. It is largely thanks to modern commercialization of misconceptions from the European witch trails that we get our current misunderstandings of familiars. So let's breakdown the history and perceptions of familiars to get a better grasp of them.

Familiars are a kind of tutelary spirit, a non-corporeal intelligence that a witch/magician summons and binds to themselves. In a way, they are like a servant to the witch, but under some conditions. For instance, the magician needs to appease their familiar to keep its company. If a familiar feels that the magician has violated the terms of their pact, they will leave and may even harm the magician. Likewise, if the magician were no longer happy with the services their familiar provided, or they felt their familiar was leading them into danger, they would banish them or call on another spirit to send it away forever. Ultimately, assuming a good bond has been made, the familiar will stay with the magician for the remainder of the magician's life, as familiars do not die. They're spirits, so they don't die. They will assist in magical practices, teach, heal, fetch money, fetch mightier spirits to help, et al. In return the magician will give shelter, food, water, and whatever else the witch-familiar compact may have an agreement on.

The oldest and closest thing we have to the modern idea of a familiar are the household gods of the ancient world. Even as cities developed, individual households had their own gods. It isn't until much later that we see cities and states develop their own "household gods" or gods of the city.

Prior to the Romans there does not seem to be much of a distinction between household gods and the larger religion gods. But the Romans had three different names for these sorts of spirits that give us some clear distinctions of the perceptions these people had of their gods: genius loci, dii familiares, and lares. The genii loci were "spirits of place," and were spirits that governed and protected a specific area, such as a neighborhood, a crossroad, a forest, etc. Genii loci that governed a household were called lares. These were the household gods that residents set up shrines to just inside the doorway, a common practice to this day. Then there were the dii familiares, which were something like the lares, but watched over the whole family, as the family did not always stay in the home, but expanded, moved, went to the market, etc. If these household gods were not kept happy, they would leave the house and family, leaving them unprotected, and may even come back to harm them.

We see evidence of this in the Bible, particularly in Genesis where Rachel steals her father's household idols. Eventually there would be state genii loci, lares, and dii familiares, such as Roma personified as a goddess in her own right. Hermes was also a genius loci, usually at crossroads. Enodia (Hecate) was another crossroads genius loci. However these two gods become more state religion deities with their servant spirits watching over crossroads. Jehovah is very much like this with the ancient Israelites, even having a pact, i.e. the Covenant, of which the Ark of the Covenant was a fetish object to house God.

However, truly the oldest idea of a familiar is the personal daimon or demon, a specific daimon that is assigned to each person at birth. The oldest complete example of conjuring a personal daimon is described in the first portion of the Greek Magical Papyri, a collection of magical spells and rites dating between 1st century BC to 5th century AD. This rite details how to conjure a daimon that will be bound to the magician, and will teach and guide them, dine and sleep with them, and be with them until the end of the magician's days. Socrates himself may have had something like this when he refers to his daimonion, a "divine something" that advised and guided him, but never controlling him.

This personal daimon becomes a central feature of western magic. In Byzantine magic, such as in the Hygromanteia, the daimon becomes something akin to the dii familiares, though distinctly personal to the magician and the same familiar can be passed from master magician to apprentice (such as Dr. Faustus to his pupil). All grimoires been the 13th and 18th centuries have a rite to conjure a familiar or to conjure a spirit to bring a familiar. A great example of this is in the Ars Goetia where several demons are listed as being good for bringing familiars. Similar examples are found in spirit registers such as in the Grimorium Verum. Even folk magic includes ways of gaining a familiar, and the rites are usually a lot more simple than the formal ceremonial magic of the Renaissance grimoires. These are found in various Secreti or books of secrets (see for instance Treatise of Magical Secrets and Mixed Cabala, trans. by Rankine and Skinner)

Our current conceptions of a familiar come from the witch trails of the 16th and 17th centuries. Prior to this time period magic was not exactly forbidden. Magic was usually something that was tacked onto other charges, usually treason. Since magicians held their reputations via rumors and recommendations, and rumors are what Oliver Cromwell sought to destroy, thus witchcraft enters the courtroom thanks to such rumors of magicians. As witchcraft becomes chargeable on its own in the 16th century, we see players like Matthew Hopkins enter the stage. These "witch hunters" were nothing more than opportunistic assholes who used Cromwell's methods of hunting via rumors. Anything could be used as evidence of a witch, and townsfolk often used these opportunities to get rid of someone they didn't like by accusing them of witchcraft. Most of the people, usually women, though there were plenty of men tried as well, who were accused of witchcraft were not actually witches. They could just be lonely old widows that have a dog or a cat to keep them company.

Familiars, or rather pets, were a common way of determining if someone was a witch, since that was part of being a witch. However, people back then had pets like anyone today. So these women who were seen as unusual and therefore a witch, had their pets used as evidence against them. And really, they were like many of us: they had a close relationship with their pets, talked to them, really cared for them, took them everywhere with them. This all sounds strangely like a familiar, and to opportunists like Hopkins, it was the perfect rumor to locate a "witch." But really it was just an excuse to kill a quirky old woman no one liked who lived alone and loved to talk to her birds, and someone else probably really wanted her land.

Much of this pet as a familiar has become sensationalized today. In a way, yes, you can conjure a familiar to inhabit the body of your pet. In the Renaissance, possessing an animal with a spirit was no big deal. Today that would probably be seen as unethical to your pet. But there really is no need for this, as a spirit will physically appear to a magician at their command, and can even take on familiar forms such as a dog if the magician requests it. It is not uncommon to see in Renaissance grimoires a portion of the conjuration includes the magician stating, "appear to me in a pleasing form."

Further, it's borderline animal abuse to truly treat your pet like a familiar. A lot of energy is exhausted by familiars to be your servant, but they're spirits and can usually handle it, and if they can't, they go get you a bigger stronger spirit to handle it. Pets cannot do that, and they shouldn't have to. To truly use your pet as a familiar will most likely harm them in the long run. Pets should be treated like family, not your magical teacher and conduit.

In practice, the familiar can be almost any kind of spirit. In the Abramelin rite the familiar is called the Holy Guardian Angel, a divine heavenly entity assigned to each person at birth. In the Faustian tradition, the demon Mephistopheles is Dr. Faustus's familiar. In the Christian tradition, the Holy Spirit acts as a sort of familiar to Jesus, assisting Jesus with his miracles, and according to Paul raised Jesus from death. But familiars can also be souls of the dead, such as ancestors. In fact, the lares and dii familiares may have been ancestors of that family/household that always stuck around to watch over everyone, and later became deified.

So while our pets are very important to us and can even be a bit magical, they are not the same as a familiar. And in many ways it's wrong to say they are. It takes something that was viciously used to torture and kill lonely old women and sensationalizes it into an aesthetic, rather than a way of life, a devotion, and a compact you keep and renew each and every day with the same entity. And to make your pet an actual familiar is abusive. Having a tutelary spirit (or several) is central to western magical practices, but it is not the same as having a pet. If you want to get a pet, get a pet. If you want a familiar, there are hundreds of ways to conjure one up and make a lifelong pact with it.

The reason this is important to understand and differentiate is so you become a better pet owner and a better witch.

Franklin

Image: Matthew Hopkins, "Witch Finder General" (a title he made up) investigating witches and their familiars.

[gayregis]

Talk to me about Regis, please; headcanons, why/what you like about him, etc. I love him, but there's not a whole lot of (book-based) content about him (That's probably for the better actually, just look at what twn did to Dandelion; there's a bunch of content but it's all ooc or just straight up infantilizing him because uwu innocent baby - gosh I hope twn fandom don't get their hands on Regis)

this is such a great ask ;w;

committment to principles, breaking of tropes

let’s get the deep and emotional parts out of the way. i love regis for being a good person. “epitome of humanity” and all of this. i love how he was an incredibly cruel and violent man and has become a kind person and someone committed to helping others. i find this a very comforting fantasy to be close to and think about. i like how this process was not instantaneous, it took more than 50 years and a good amount of time after that... i love how sapkowski used the idea of an immortal/extremely long lifespan for an arc of redemption and becoming a better person. regis is only a vampire because sapkowski needed him to be able to survive death and reconsider his actions... for most people, death would be the finality... and i like how regis, when recounting his backstory, doesn’t ever make excuses for himself or dwell upon his behavior. he doesn’t speak of consuming guilt, he doesn’t make useless apologies. he has accepted the past and is not looking for attention when he says all of this, it’s merely for context. so he doesn’t seek validation from others, he has already validated himself because he knows that he has become a better person.

i love how regis is an inversion of the vampire tropes... not the ones that are like “vampires can’t touch sunlight/be around garlic/enter houses without invitation, etc.” but the ones that concern vampire origins and what being alive for hundreds of years does to a person’s mind. the “traditionally accepted vampire lore” would have some human losing their humanity over many years, becoming distant from human morality and ethics. regis is a complete inversion of this. instead of being a human who has lost their morality, he is a monster who has gained his morality. he made a committment to learn and understand, and how he sincerely works for good.

hinting and character reveal

i LOVE the buildup to his character reveal. from the moment the company meets him in a cemetery during the dark of night, it should be apparent that he is not what he seems. this added to the fact that they then meet peasants who were searching for a vampire in the very same cemetery, and regis somehow knows all of these accurate facts about vampires... it’s simply entertaining to read or listen to how it all unfolds. 

the dramatic reveal is brilliant. i love how it occurs in a scene where regis was doing absolutely nothing but healing dandelion. i love how only regis and geralt knew what this was about, so we received narration in milva’s point of view because milva is the most observant of the other three that were in the company, and she slowly noticed all of these little features about regis that she didn’t notice before... his eyes glowed in the low light with an eerie catlike quality, he didn’t cast a shadow...! it’s good writing because there was significant buildup behind it. we already thought we knew regis, we got all of these hints towards his true identity, and now he’s being revealed as just that, but slowly, slowly... sapkowski doesn’t have geralt immediately yell “HE’S A BLOODY VAMPIRE!” ... it’s a very drawn out conversation. i love how regis doesn’t react much when geralt rests the sword on the hollow of his neck. he says, “well, geralt, i’m all yours,” as if geralt was beckoning him to a conversation and not standing above him with a glistening sword in his hand. and then regis just smiles and challenges him to “go on, thrust it in!” ... just entirely casual and smug. it’s creepy and yet so funny!

and i love how everything about his character seems to make more sense once his backstory is revealed. especially the part where he says he never drinks, not even a sip... after you read the part where he describes his backstory, you realize that this is a nice nod to what is revealed later on.

ability to challenge geralt

i’ll segway the last point into this one: i love how regis is just a straight up bitch to geralt in baptism of fire after he is revealed. during the reveal scene he starts mocking geralt, asking him if he’s going to let him get away, asking him how high he would value a contract on him. geralt tells him to never come back TWICE, and TWICE he returns. he appears to geralt, sits down right next to him, begins to deliver him a great monologue of advice. geralt tells him to fuck off, he just sighs “as you wish,” and continues to give advice.

regis acts on his OWN terms. geralt does not control the speed at which lobsters die vampire. regis acts like a c*nt because he simply can because he knows that geralt can’t fight him on it. what’s he going to to, kill him? ha!

regis came in at exactly the right time. dandelion is geralt’s best friend, but this means that dandelion knows geralt and knows what he’s like, and geralt knows what dandelion’s like. geralt sees dandelion’s unwavering loyalty to him as dangerous, because he doesn’t want to lose dandelion, so he blocks out whatever dandelion says about “i want to go with you, i need to go with you.” geralt knows that dandelion’s only saying this because they have such a deep relationship, and isn’t willing to risk that relationship when he thinks that it doesn’t need to be risked (i.e., that he can handle this without anyone else’s help). milva doesn’t have this long friendship with geralt, but she is his friend, and she’s known him for a few months. she knows that geralt is acting stupidly, and tells him this to his face. but geralt can sense that because she’s also his friend and because she is acting out of some sense of penance, he can’t accept her company, either. geralt is able to push both dandelion and milva away, because he can. he can tell them he doesn’t want to be bothered, he wants to be alone. 

enter regis, who simply will just not take “go away” for an answer. regis has been compared to other sages and philosophers in and out of the text, but i think this is very socrates of him. he’s the gadfly to geralt’s sluggish horse. he is able to rouse him simply by annoying the ever loving shit out of him, returning when geralt has told him to leave, giving advice when geralt has told him to shut up. and it’s for good reason, regis doesn’t do this to harm geralt, but to help him. and because he’s regis, he literally has all of the time in the world and the power to be able to annoy geralt like this. he can’t be swayed by stern petulance because it just is like nothing to him, water off of a duck’s back. he has this unbearable attitude of knowing that he’s right. this doesn’t make regis a perfect character - far from it, i would say that this is one of his biggest flaws in fact - but in this situation, it works.

optimism, kindness, healer class

i thoroughly enjoy how the immortal member of the company that has lived for over 4 centuries is such an optimist in everything he does. “it is simply a matter of positive thinking” and all of this nonsense... he’s very content and cheerful all of the time. i made a post counting every time regis is mentioned to be smiling... and it’s a lot. he is also always mentioned to be spekaing softly, calmly, gently... he has a very gentle nature!

regis is a very placating force in the company, he tries to resolve arguments between different parties (milva and the peasants who wanted her horse, milva and angouleme at the kitchen table). he assumes there’s always a good resolution that can be reached.

and the fact that he’s a healer ties it all together. i love how sapkowski actually describes everyone’s profession with detail and length, it makes the fantasy medievalesque setting more immersive, since one’s profession is extremely significant to one’s whole character in a setting like this. regis gets that short monologue about how dandelion is lucky to have gotten this head wound and not an abdominal wound, what with the liver, guts, feces mangled and spilling out... peritonitis... regis actually being described as healing people makes it feel like his character is useful and is actually a surgeon (unlike in the games where he doesn’t ever heal anyone). 

he sincerely cares about the human condition and expresses regret and pain when he cannot do anything to cure someone, even though he can sense their sickness. he describes this as literally being “a curse,” that demonstrates how difficult it is for him, and it’s only difficult for him because he cares.

blending in with human society and the quirks that come with it

i love the precautions regis has to take to continue blending in with human society. he smiles with pursed lips as to not show his fangs, but when he is with friends he ends up smiling fully. he has to continue to mask his presence with the blend of herbs. he has to avoid mirrors, dogs, and sorcerer/esses. horses dislike him even with the herbs he carries, and fulko artevelde mentions that “horses and dogs brisk at [the] company’s approach.” these small details are fun and keep reminding the audience that it’s not simple to blend in with human society, and there always IS something off about regis. hell, just shine a bright lamp on all of the company together, and you’ll see that their barber-surgeon doesn’t cast a shadow. the probably reason that they didn’t notice he didn’t cast a shadow was because of how overcast it is around that area of brugge. when they get into beauclair, i headcanon that regis doesn’t tend to walk on the sunny side of the street because of wanting to hide the fact that he won’t cast a shadow. 

there’s a lot of different conditions that are necessary to consider in relevance of keeping his identity hidden, and regis does a pretty good job at navigating all of them. i appreciate that these details were written in because it makes it more realistic... even though sapkowski broke multiple vampire tropes with regis, so you know, he won’t burn in sunlight or have adverse reactions to garlic, but there’s still all of these odd ends that he needs to take care of. it makes him seem a lot less overpowered, because it continouslly reminds the audience that he doesn’t blend in perfectly.

“benevolent ominousness”

regis has a very fun supernatural presence, and he only ever uses his powers for good.

things like saving the girl from the refugee camp by sticking his hand into flames and holding a white-hot horseshoe with absolutely no hesitation... saving geralt and dandelion by materializing out of shadow... also appearing out of nowhere to milva and cahir in the forest and milva trying to choke out a grateful sob at his presence... saving ciri at castle stygga by absolutely wrecking the entire lab, with blue flames dancing on the countertops, and then turning around in that chair and saying “don’t be afraid.”

it’s things like this that i have dubbed “benevolent ominousness” - these demonstrations of power would be extremely unsettling, if you didn’t know him and know that he was there to protect you. the embodiment of “you may rest now, there are monsters nearby.”

humor and lighthearted nature despite dark themes, great lines

this isn’t the same humor that sapkowski uses elsewhere... it’s mostly funny due to the line delivery and context. some regis dialogue is just funny, especially when peter kenny voice acts them. 

things like regis telling geralt his travel plan is very well-concealed after dandelion gets done telling him everything about it (”and ingeniously concealed, no one would ever suspect the direction of your journey”), regis lifting the horseshoe from the fire and then challenging the priest to perform an exorcism on him, regis appearing to geralt and sitting next to him and during his monologue he’s mocking him and saying “it should be your exclusive right,” geralt saying “shut up, vampire!” during the fish soup scene when regis begins to give him unsolicited advice again. regis’s entire backstory being a blatant metaphor for alcoholism and the equivalencies to human culture (”driving while drunk” = “flying while drunk”), though macabre, are hilarious. regis telling angouleme "i’m not your uncle, dear child,” and she replies, “and i’m not your dear child, uncle!” WHILE ALSO riding on his mule as well. even to the very end, all of his lines and presence at stygga were brilliant. like “i feel such strength inside me, i could probably lay waste to this entire castle,” as he loses it. “beware? i didn’t come here to beware!” as he just charges vilgefortz absolutely unhinged.

honorable mentions

his liking of philosophy and sociology and discussions about all of this

you could argue that regis talks a lot because he probably doesn’t feel how long he’s been talking for. if half a century is “the blink of an eye,” then what’s 10 minutes of monologue?

all of the vampire powers are very cool and come on. i could have literally answered this ask with one word and that word would have been “bat.” he’s a fucking giant bat. that’s epic as hell

fun and tragic potential for his backstory.

meme potential in the fact that he is modest and calm by default. can you imagine regis saying “bitch” ??? or burstin out enthusiastically in song lyrics?? it cracks me up to think about him being out of character for a split second, just for humorous effect.

also yeah if twn and/or its fandom gets their hands on regis i wont know whether to laugh or cry

[picsofsannyas]

Osho says. Hein Steff, there is nothing wrong in being homosexual.

BELOVED MASTER, I AM HOMOSEXUAL. I FEEL TERRIBLY OPPRESSED AND STRICKEN BY THE STIGMA OF HOMOSEXUALITY. IT SEEMS FALSE TO ME TO COME HERE TO FIND A WAY TO COME CLOSER TO MYSELF AND AT THE SAME TIME NOT TO HAVE THE COURAGE TO SHOW MYSELF THE WAY I AM. THEN I WANT TO RESIGN AND RETURN HOME SO THAT I DON'T HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT ANY LONGER. WHAT CAN I DO?

Hein Steff, there is nothing wrong in being homosexual. You need not feel guilty about it. One certainly has to go beyond sex, but that is as much applicable to heterosexuality as it is applicable to homosexuality. Heterosexuality or homosexuality are just styles of the same stupidity! You need not feel guilty.

In fact, looking at the population of the world, homosexuality should be supported. At least you will not be increasing the population of the world, you will not be loading the earth more. It is already loaded too much. Homosexuality should be valued, respected -- it is pure fun! Heterosexuality is dangerous. And what is wrong? If two persons are enjoying each other's bodies, nothing is wrong. It should be their concern; nobody else's business to interfere.

But the society is continuously interfering in everything; it does not leave anybody any privacy. It enters in your bedroom too. Your society is not a free society. It talks of freedom and democracy and all that rot, but it is pure slavery. It is a big prison. And your priests and your so-called God are all Peeping Toms. They are all looking into your private lives, what you are doing. It should be nobody's business.

What is wrong in loving a man or a woman? Two men can love each other, two women can love each other. Love is a value in itself. And fun should not be condemned. Life is already such a burden, such a drag, such a boredom. Leave at least something in life so people can feel a little less bored.

Here you need not feel afraid to show yourself the way you are. My whole approach is to help you to be the way you are because that is the only way to help you transcend it. Feel guilty and you will remain the same. Guilt never transforms anybody.

And homosexuality is such an innocent phenomenon. Why is it so much condemned? The reason is that if it is not condemned, the fear is that almost everybody will turn homosexual because every child has the tendency. Every child passes through the stage when he is homosexual. Every boy, every girl, passes through a time when boys like boys and girls like girls. The fear is that if many people turn homosexual -- and particularly in the past when the population was not big and every society wanted more numbers because numbers meant power.... To allow homosexuality was dangerous; it had to be condemned, absolutely condemned, so much so that in a few countries it is the greatest crime.

For example, in Ayatollah Khomeiniac's country, Iran, it is one of the greatest crimes. You can be imprisoned for your whole life or you can even be sentenced to death, just for being homosexual. It seems absolutely absurd, ridiculous, but in the past there was some reason in it. Every society wanted to be more powerful. It was a constant struggle -- a struggle between groups, struggle between tribes, struggle between clans -- the deciding factor was your number, how many you are. If people become homosexual, then the population will decrease; hence it has to be condemned as the greatest sin.

It may have some meaning if you think of the past, but in the present it is absolutely meaningless. In fact, the whole situation has become just the opposite: now heterosexuality is the danger; less numbers are needed. If humanity goes on growing this way, then we cannot support humanity, we cannot live any longer. By the end of this century the population will be so much, the poverty will be so much, that there seems to be no way out except a third world war which will kill almost everybody -- so that a few people can start the whole story again.

I have heard a story, a twenty-first century story: The third world war has happened, and a monkey is sitting on a rock taking a sunbath. A female monkey comes with an apple and gives the apple to the monkey. And the monkey says, "My God, are we going to start it all over again?"

Homosexuality is condemned because there is every possibility that if it is not condemned many more people will turn towards it. The inner tendency is there in every person. In fact, the person who is against it... the more he is against it, the more he has the tendency. Deep down, unconsciously, he knows it is there. To repress it he has to be very much against it; he feels disgusted by the very idea.

But nobody is telling HIM to become homosexual. If others feel attracted, then it is not your business to interfere or to condemn them. It is their freedom, and they are not doing any harm to anybody. It is a harmless game -- stupid, certainly, but not a sin. But as far as stupidity is concerned all sex is stupid, for the simple reason that it is a biological urge and you are not the master of it, you are just a victim.

And you need not be so much worried about it, Hein, because homosexuality has a very beautiful origin: it originated in the monasteries. It is something religious! The first homosexuals were monks and nuns -- Christians, Buddhists, Jainas; all great religions have contributed their share to it. It was bound to be so because there are monasteries even now in existence where no woman has ever entered.

In a Catholic monastery in Europe, Mount Athos, for one thousand years no woman has entered; not even a six-month-old girl has been allowed to enter in. What kind of people are living there? A six-month-old girl and they are afraid even of that! What can they do? But repressing sex creates fear, so the whole monastery is full of men; and homosexuality is a natural by-product if only boys are together or only girls are together.

Religious people have contributed greatly. Educationists have contributed greatly, because boys have to be educated separately. They have to reside in different hostels specially for them and girls have to stay aloof in separate hostels, in separate schools. If you put too many girls together they are bound to become lesbians, because when the sexual urge takes possession of them and they cannot find a boy, then anything is better than nothing.

In zoos even animals turn homosexual -- only in zoos, remember. In their wild state they don't become homosexual. There is no need -- females are available. But in a zoo, if females are not available, they become homosexual. A zoo is worth studying. I used to study zoos because the zoo gives you many indications about human society. The human society is a big zoo because everything has become so unnatural.

Go to a zoo and watch the animals and you will be able to see many things. They become homosexuals; they never become homosexuals in their wild stage. They are FORCED to become homosexuals. They go crazy, they become insane, mad. In wild states they never become insane. No animal ever becomes mad in his wild state; he remains sane. But his sanity needs a little freedom.

A lion has a big territory in his wild state, miles of territory, and he is the king of the whole territory. In a zoo he is in a small cage. If you go to the zoo you will see the lion walking up and down the cage, up and down, up and down, the whole day. It can drive anybody mad. He needs freedom, he needs a certain territory. In such a small space he is overcrowded. He becomes angry, enraged, violent.

Many diseases never happen in the wild. For example, no animal suffers from tuberculosis or cancer, but in a zoo animals suffer from tuberculosis and cancer. Strange! In the wild there are no medical facilities for them and in the zoo every kind of medical facility is available. Doctors are there to look after them, great doctors, doing something great! What they cannot take care of on their own -- cancer, tuberculosis -- doctors help them with. Animals become victims of illnesses which they have never known before.

Human society has been so much forced to live in unnatural circumstances -- and the monastery is one of the most unnatural circumstances. It is a zoo, a religious zoo! Homosexuality was born there, so you need not feel very bad about it. You are a religious person! And you have a great lineage of homosexuals....

If you look for homosexuals you will be surprised. Many poets, many authors, many painters, many musicians, many dancers, many great people, many creative people, were homosexuals. Many Nobel Prize winners have been homosexuals.

And don't be worried about enlightenment either, because at least one homosexual I know has become enlightened -- Socrates; he was a homosexual. And there are suspicions about Jesus. I cannot prove it, they are only suspicions -- because he always moved with the boys. Those twelve apostles... who knows? But if he was, nothing is wrong in it. Socrates was certainly a homosexual. Plato was, Aristotle was. Greeks are great people!

One American girl was going to marry a Greek. The mother was very much worried. She said, "Wait! If you can avoid this marriage...." The girl was mad. She said, "No. He looks so beautiful, just like a Greek god!" The mother said, "I know, but after only a few days you will know he is nothing but a goddamned Greek! And one thing more," the mother said, "if you marry this man then remember one thing: never turn your back towards him, never! Whatsoever happens sleep on your back the whole night!" The girl got married. She insisted, and soon she found the mother was right: the Greek god was nothing but a goddamned Greek! And she was also puzzled because he was always trying to tell her, "Why don't you turn over?" -- but she wouldn't turn over; she was also stubborn! After six months all efforts failed. The Greek said, "Listen. If you don't turn over you are not going to have children ever." Then the girl had to turn because she wanted children. The Greek played a logical trick.

Greeks have been homosexuals for centuries. All their great people have been homosexuals. So you need not worry -- you have a great history behind you! Walt Whitman was a homosexual -- one of the greatest poets of all the ages. There seems to be something in homosexuality that makes people creative, or creative people homosexuals. There is something in it and I can see the point. When you stop creating children, your creativity takes new turns, new dimensions. You create poetry, you create painting.

And the people who have been condemning homosexuality for ages are also condemning it for one more reason. As far as the man/woman relationship is concerned it is always on the rocks, because man cannot understand the mind of the woman, the woman cannot understand the mind of the man. They are poles apart. That is their attraction, but that is also their conflict, constant conflict. If homosexuality is allowed, accepted, the fear is that many people will settle into it because a man can understand another man more easily -- they have the same mind. And women can understand each other more easily -- they have the same mind.

That's why homosexuals are called "gay" people. They are really gay! The heterosexuals look so sad. Whenever you see a couple you can immediately know whether they are married or not: if they are sad they are married, if they are looking dull and dead they are married. Marriage kills all joy for the simple reason that it creates so many conflicts. Hence all societies have condemned homosexuality, for the simple reason that if it is not condemned, what will happen to reproduction? In the past it had some meaning, but now it has no meaning.

Now the day has come when homosexuality CAN be accepted, should be accepted as a natural outlet of your sexual energies. I am not against it, I am not for it either. I am simply saying that if you have to live your sex you can choose your style, you are free to choose your style. If you decide to be stupid, at least you should be given the freedom to choose what kind of stupid you want to be! I give you total freedom.

My effort here is to help you to go beyond it, so if you are homosexual you have to go beyond homosexuality, if you are heterosexual you have to go beyond heterosexuality. And there are other people also who are neither, who are autoerotic, autosexual. They have to go beyond their autoeroticism. Man has to transcend sex, whatsoever kind of sex it is, because unless you go beyond your biology you will never know your soul. But meanwhile -- before you go beyond -- it is your freedom to be whatsoever you want to be.

You say, "I am homosexual. I feel terribly oppressed and stricken by the stigma of homosexuality."

There is no need to be "terribly oppressed." You must be accepting people's condemnation. Deep down somewhere you are also against it; otherwise, why feel oppressed? If people are against, let them be against! You need not declare to everybody that you are a homosexual. You need not move with a flag that you are a homosexual! You can remain a homosexual. Of course, you cannot hide it because your sex style changes your body language. The way the homosexual walks is totally different from the heterosexual; the way he talks is totally different. And he looks so gay, so happy!

So you will have to remain a little less happy, that's all. Don't look so happy, and walk a little more consciously, that's all. Don't feel oppressed and don't feel stricken by the stigma of homosexuality. That is all nonsense! And you say, "It seems false to me to come here to find a way to come closer to myself and at the same time not to have the courage to show myself the way I am."

What courage are you talking about? Here there is no question of courage. If you are homosexual you are homosexual! Here it does not need courage to declare it. Here you can write on your shirt, "I am homosexual." Nobody will take any notice of it. People will say, "So what?"

This is a totally different world. Here we accept all kinds of people: sane, insane, crazy -- we have no objection. Unless you start harming others we have no objection. And homosexuality is a harmless game, absolutely harmless. But you think that this is courageous that you are declaring that you are a homosexual. Here it is not; anywhere else it will be. And I will not suggest that you declare it anywhere else; there is no need. Why brag about it? Accept it silently, relax into it.

But you wanted to say it because it is boiling within you. Don't be worried what others say. Just look within yourself, what you are saying to your own homosexuality. You are not at ease with it. The society has corrupted you, contaminated you. The society has given you ideas. It has created a certain conscience in you and that conscience is pricking, continuously feeling hurt. Now you say, "Then I want to resign and return home so that I don't have to think about it any longer."

Just by going back home you will not be getting rid of it. Neither you will get rid of homosexuality nor will you get rid of the stigma or the feeling of being oppressed. You will have to drop your conscience that has been created by the society in you. You will have to understand yourself and clean yourself of all ideas imposed by others; only then will you be able to relax.

You ask me, "What can I do?"

Hein, don't make a problem out of it. Nothing has to be done about it. I don't tackle individual problems. My whole approach is that there are millions of diseases, but there is only one cure, and that cure is meditation.

You meditate -- homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual.... You meditate. You become more still and more silent. You create inner emptiness. You become more transparent, and then things will start changing. You will be able to see what you are doing to yourself. If it is right you will go on doing it with more joy, with more totality, with more intensity, with more passion. If it is wrong it will simply drop, just like dead leaves falling from a tree.

So I cannot suggest any specific method because to me all the problems are arising because we have become minds and we have forgotten that deep down there is a space within us which can be called no-mind. Entering that space, no-mind, will give you perspective, vision, clarity.

Meditate. Sit silently watching your thoughts -- homosexual, heterosexual, whatsoever they are, it doesn't matter. You watch, you become the witness. Slowly slowly, a distance will be created between you and your thoughts. And one day suddenly, the realization that you are not your mind. And that day a revolution has happened within you. After that day you will never be the same again. A transcendence has happened. After that, whatsoever you do is right; you can't do wrong then. And before that, whatsoever you do is wrong. So when I say I have nothing against homosexuality I am not supporting it, remember. I am not saying, "Be homosexual." I don't have anything against heterosexuality either, but I am not supporting heterosexuality. I am not supporting anything. These are all mind games -- and you have to go beyond all the games.

Your mind is created by the society.

Fifteen-year-old Bobby was running out of a theater where he had just seen a porno movie. The manager stopped him. "Why are you in such a hurry?" "My mother told me," said Bobby, "that if I ever looked at anything bad I would turn to stone -- and I have started!"

Two members of London's exclusive Explorers Club were discussing a mutual friend over large brandies and soda. "Well, I'll be damned," said the first old boy. "You say Parkhurst has gone to Africa and married an ape?" "Quite so, old man." There was a pause and the first clubman asked in a discreet tone, "A female ape, naturally?" "Of course," came the reply. "There is nothing queer about old Parkhurst."

The mind functions as an agent of the society within you. To go beyond mind is to go beyond society. To go beyond mind is to go beyond the whole history. To go beyond mind is to go beyond past. To go beyond mind is to enter into God. And then whatsoever happens is good, is virtue.

Osho.

The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 10

Ch. 12. Question 3.

[todorokifanboy]

Death Note: anti-hero idealism

Warning! Major spoilers ahead.

What would you do if you discovered a notebook that could kill people just by writing their names on the pages? Would you kill for fun? Impose a new world order? Think you’re a god? When Light Yagami discovers the titular article, he decides to do all three. And what results is an enthralling exploration of the human condition, specifically the complex interplay of arrogance, idealism and power. 

Quick recap: Light Yagami is the genius son of a detective and his wife. One day, outside his school, he sees a notebook drop from the sky. When he picks it up, he discovers that it is a Death Note, with instructions written inside for its use. Suddenly struck by radical idealism after testing it out twice and realizing it was legit, Light begins to plan out what could essentially be called a systematic genocide...only it was with criminals broadcast on the news. Acceptable? His increasing number of murders attracts the attention of radical fans who dub him Kira and swear allegiance, and unfortunately of global investigation agencies. They send their best detective L (who, before his introduction, has already deduced Light resides in Japan) to find out more about this Kira. If that didn’t already make for an exciting cat-and-mouse-mystery-chase, wait till you see the way Light begins outsmarting his own detective dad, who joins L’s team to bring down Kira. Or the way Light has his memory erased just to avoid being caught by L. 

I’m sure everyone’s heard of the Socratic maxim: “I know that I know nothing.” It could be considered an old-fashioned warning against the Dunning-Kruger effect (aka overestimating yourself). If Light was a real character who existed at the time, he would have just written down Socrates' name in the Death Note with a slight smirk. In Light’s eyes, he knows he knows best. He knows the deeply corrupt nature of the world, the injustices that go about unpunished, the sinners that are left to roam the earth. And more importantly, he knows that only he really knows that you can murder people by writing down their names in a notebook. 

That’s why his character is so fascinating. He embarks on what one could consider a genocide, fuelled with an idealistic vision of making the world a better place (like every fascist leader ever?). And what’s more worrisome, and equally captivating, is that Light is an absolute genius. He’s cold, concise and cunning, keeping the entire investigation wrapped around his little finger. The success of his murders is also tangible: there is a drastic decrease in crime, with much of the public revering Kira and his swift, decisive judgement. And Light is slowly consumed by this power. It slowly becomes less about the world-as-a-better-place and more about Light-as-new-god. 

Although you could parallel his trajectory with a fascist, you could also do so with yourself. Or even someone you know. It’s almost natural to become so lost in an ideal or a principle, something we hold so deep to us it alters our actions and judgement forevermore. Light is, after all, just an eighteen year old highschool student. One really couldn’t say he is the villain of the show. He’s perfectly human: he was a disillusioned, cynical child who, upon obtaining power, was filled with an arrogance and idealism that were so intertwined they could not be separated. He wanted better for everyone. He wanted the evil to suffer. At the heart of it all, he was really just being a petulant child. One so gripped by his idealisms, he is even willing to sacrifice his family to see his dreams fulfilled. But still, just a child. 

My grandfather once told me that good literature gives you a better insight with human character than anything else. Sometimes even more than personal experience. I believe the same can be said about good anime. While Death Note’s plot is still fantastical, the character types you see provide a realistic insight to human nature. Although I must admit, I stopped watching the series after Light killed Watari and L because...L just deserved better. But I have to pick it up again. After all, I wonder to what fate Light’s trajectory will lead him.

[wizardnuke]

i ran out of characters so:

THIS IS THE FIRST MURDER TRIAL OF OUR BRAND-NEW NATION THE LIBERTY BEHIND DELIBERATION (NON-STOP) I INTEND TO PROVE BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT WITH MY ASSISTANT COUNSEL CO-COUNSEL HAMILTON, SIT DOWN OUR CLIENT LEVI WEEKS IS INNOCENT CALL YOUR FIRST WITNESS THAT'S ALL YOU HAD TO SAY OKAY ONE MORE THING WHY DO YOU ASSUME YOU'RE THE SMARTEST IN THE ROOM? (HEY) WHY DO YOU ASSUME YOU'RE THE SMARTEST IN THE ROOM? (HEY) WHY DO YOU ASSUME YOU'RE THE SMARTEST IN THE ROOM? (HEY) SOON THAT ATTITUDE MAY BE YOUR DOOM (AWW) WHY DO YOU WRITE LIKE YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME? WRITE DAY AND NIGHT LIKE YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME? EVERYDAY DAY YOU FIGHT, LIKE YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME KEEP ON FIGHTING IN THE MEANTIME NON-STOP CORRUPTION'S SUCH AN OLD SONG THAT WE CAN SING ALONG IN HARMONY AND NOWHERE IS IT STRONGER THAN IN ALBANY THIS COLONY'S ECONOMY'S INCREASINGLY STALLING AND HONESTLY, THAT'S WHY PUBLIC SERVICE (HE'S JUST NON-STOP) SEEMS TO BE CALLING ME I PRACTICED THE LAW, I PRACTICALLY PERFECTED IT I'VE SEEN INJUSTICE IN THE WORLD AND I'VE CORRECTED IT NOW FOR A STRONG CENTRAL DEMOCRACY IF NOT, THEN I'LL BE SOCRATES THROWING VERBAL ROCKS AT THESE MEDIOCRITIES (AWW) HAMILTON, AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION I WAS CHOSEN FOR THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION THERE AS A NEW YORK JUNIOR DELEGATE NOW WHAT I'M GONNA SAY MAY SOUND INDELICATE (AWW) GOES AND PROPOSES HIS OWN FORM OF GOVERNMENT (WHAT?) HIS OWN PLAN FOR A NEW FORM OF GOVERNMENT (WHAT?) TALKS FOR SIX HOURS THE CONVENTION IS LISTLESS BRIGHT YOUNG MAN YO, WHO THE F IS THIS? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS SAY WHAT YOU BELIEVE? (HEY) WHY DO YOU ALWAYS SAY WHAT YOU BELIEVE? (HEY) EVERY PROCLAMATION GUARANTEES FREE AMMUNITION FOR YOUR ENEMIES (AWW) WHY DO YOU WRITE LIKE IT'S GOING OUT OF STYLE? WRITE DAY AND NIGHT LIKE IT'S GOING OUT OF STYLE? EVERYDAY YOU FIGHT LIKE IT'S GOING OUT OF STYLE DO WHAT YOU DO KNOCK KNOCK KNKCM ALEXANDER? AARON BURR, SIR WELL, IT'S THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT CAN WE CONFER, SIR? IS THIS A LEGAL MATTER?YES, AND IT'S IMPORTANT TO ME WHAT DO YOU NEED? BURR, YOU'RE A BETTER LAWYER THAN ME OKAY I KNOW I TALK TOO MUCH, I'M ABRASIVE YOU'RE INCREDIBLE IN COURT YOU'RE SUCCINCT, PERSUASIVE MY CLIENT NEEDS A STRONG DEFENSE YOU'RE THE SOLUTION WHO'S YOUR CLIENT? THE NEW U.S. CONSTITUTION? NO HEAR ME OUT NO WAY A SERIES OF ESSAYS, ANONYMOUSLY PUBLISHED DEFENDING THE DOCUMENT TO THE PUBLIC NO ONE WILL READ IT I DISAGREE AND IF IT FAILS? BURR, THAT'S WHY WE NEED IT THE CONSTITUTION'S A MESS SO IT NEEDS AMENDMENTS IT'S FULL OF CONTRADICTIONS SO IS INDEPENDENCE WE HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE NO NO WAY YOU'RE MAKING A MISTAKE GOOD NIGHT HEY WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? WHAT DO YOU STALL FOR? (WHAT?) WE WON THE WAR WHAT WAS IT ALL FOR? DO YOU SUPPORT THIS CONSTITUTION? OF COURSE THEN DEFEND IT AND WHAT IF YOU'RE BACKING THE WRONG HORSE? BURR, WE STUDIED AND WE FOUGHT AND WE KILLED FOR THE NOTION OF A NATION WE NOW GET TO BUILD FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE, TAKE A STAND WITH PRIDE I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW YOU STAND TO THE SIDE I'LL KEEP ALL MY PLANS CLOSE TO MY CHEST (WAIT FOR IT, WAIT FOR IT, WAIT) I'LL WAIT HERE AND SEE WHICH WAY THE WIND WILL BLOW yk what i’m too lazy to put this all in the same paragraph now so

I'M TAKING MY TIME

WATCHING THE

AFTERBIRTH OF A NATION

WATCHING THE TENSION GROW

I AM SAILING OFF TO LONDON

I AM ACCOMPANIED BY SOMEONE

WHO ALWAYS PAYS

I HAVE FOUND A WEALTHY HUSBAND WHO WILL KEEP

ME IN COMFORT FOR ALL MY DAYS

HE IS NOT A LOT OF FUN, BUT THERE'S NO ONE WHO

CAN MATCH YOU FOR TURN OF PHRASE

MY ALEXANDER

ANGELICA

DON'T FORGET TO WRITE

LOOK AT WHERE YOU ARE

LOOK AT WHERE YOU STARTED

THE FACT THAT YOU'RE ALIVE IS A MIRACLE

JUST STAY ALIVE, THAT WOULD BE ENOUGH

AND IF YOUR WIFE COULD SHARE A FRACTION OF YOUR TIME

IF I COULD GRANT YOU PEACE OF MIND

WOULD THAT BE ENOUGH?

ALEXANDER JOINS FORCES WITH JAMES MADISON AND JOHN JAY TO WRITE A SERIES OF ESSAYS

DEFENDING THE NEW UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

ENTITLED THE FEDERALIST PAPERS

THE PLAN WAS TO WRITE A TOTAL OF TWENTY-FIVE ESSAYS

THE WORK DIVIDED EVENLY AMONG THE THREE MEN

IN THE END, THEY WROTE EIGHTY-FIVE ESSAYS, IN THE SPAN OF SIX MONTHS

JOHN JAY GOT SICK AFTER WRITING FIVE

JAMES MADISON WROTE TWENTY-NINE

HAMILTON WROTE THE OTHER FIFTY-ONE

HOW DO YOU WRITE LIKE YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME?

WRITE DAY AND NIGHT LIKE YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME?

EVERYDAY YOU FIGHT LIKE YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME

LIKE YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME

ARE YOU RUNNING OUT OF TIME?

HOW DO YOU WRITE LIKE TOMORROW WON'T ARRIVE?

HOW DO YOU WRITE LIKE YOU NEED IT TO SURVIVE?

HOW DO YOU WRITE EVERY SECOND YOU'RE ALIVE?

EVERY SECOND YOU'RE ALIVE? EVERY SECOND YOU'RE ALIVE?

THEY ARE ASKING ME TO LEAD

I AM DOING THE BEST I CAN

TO GET THE PEOPLE THAT I NEED

I'M ASKING YOU TO BE MY RIGHT HAND MAN

TREASURY OR STATE?

I KNOW IT'S A LOT TO ASK

TREASURY OR STATE?

TO LEAVE BEHIND THE WORLD YOU KNOW

SIR, DO YOU WANT ME TO RUN THE TREASURY OR STATE DEPARTMENT?

TREASURY

LET'S GO

ALEXANDER

I HAVE TO LEAVE

ALEXANDER

LOOK AROUND, LOOK AROUND AT HOW LUCKY WE ARE TO BE ALIVE RIGHT NOW

HELPLESS

THEY ARE ASKING ME TO LEAD

LOOK AROUND, ISN'T THIS ENOUGH?

HE WILL NEVER BE SATISFIED

WHAT WOULD BE ENOUGH?

HE WILL NEVER BE SATISFIED (TO BE SATISFIED)

SATISFIED

SATISFIED (HISTORY HAS ITS EYES)

WHY DO YOU ASSUME YOU'RE THE SMARTEST IN THE ROOM?

WHY DO YOU ASSUME YOU'RE THE SMARTEST IN THE ROOM?

WHY DO YOU ASSUME YOU'RE THE SMARTEST IN THE ROOM?

WHY DO YOU WRITE LIKE IT'S GOING OUT OF STYLE?

WHY DO YOU FIGHT LIKE

HISTORY HAS ITS EYES ON YOU

I AM NOT THROWIN' AWAY MY SHOT

(JUST YOU WAIT)

I AM NOT THROWIN' AWAY MY SHOT

(JUST YOU WAIT)

I AM ALEXANDER HAMILTON, HAMILTON

JUST YOU WAIT

I AM NOT THROWIN' AWAY MY SHOT

ava im terrified how did u do this. how did u get so many characters into this ask. ava. ava pls