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florrickandassociates · 3 years

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TGF Thoughts: 5x06- And the two partners had a fight...

I’ve been waiting for this episode for nearly a decade, and I didn’t even realize it. More under the cut.

(This is very long! Please fight me on stuff and disagree because I just wrote all these words about this episode and I STILL want to talk about it more, it was that interesting!)

This is the second episode in a row to start off with a TikTok video. 5x02 and 5x03 both ended with elevators. Is there some sort of pattern they’re going for here?

This case—which is, it’s important to note, in Wackner’s court—is about TikTok content creators and copyright laws. Probably not enough material for a full case, but definitely an interesting theme to explore.

Marissa doesn’t have her laptop volume off (which I suppose makes sense; she was just playing the TikTok videos) and a notification sounds. She shuts the laptop.

Wackner rules that the profits made from the TikTok dance must be split evenly between the guy who stole the dance for his video game and the creator. The thief does not like this, removes his moose costume (oh, yeah, did I mention they’re in costumes again?), and starts shouting that he’s going to sue and then moons the whole court. Okay!

He follows through on his threat, and next thing we know, Liz, Cord, Wackner, and Marissa are meeting to discuss strategy.

Liz’s computer makes the same noise Marissa’s did; she punches some keys.

Liz points out that Wackner’s biggest problem is that real judges are not going to like Wackner playacting as a judge. “I’m not playing a judge. I am a judge,” Wackner says. Liz notes that Wackner’s court lacks any way of forcing people to comply with his rulings, but real court can shut him down.

I guess whatever keys Liz punched did not silence the annoying notification sound.

She asks Wackner to try not to become the focus of the court case, since that’s how they’ll lose. “This is why I started a court,” Wackner says after Liz instructs him to only answer yes or no and to wear a suit.

Liz asks Marissa to keep Wackner in line. She says she’ll try.

Now we are at the Black Lawyers Association, where there’s a panel with leaders from Chicago’s four top black law firms. For reasons passing understanding, DIANE is on this panel. This makes absolutely no sense (I mean, unless only white people were involved in this decision, and even then!) and I’ll only excuse it because they mention later that it makes no sense for Diane to have been on this panel.

I wonder why everyone else’s firm gets named but not Diane’s.

Diane also gets the first question, which is, pointedly, about opportunities for black lawyers. Her phone starts making the annoying notification sound. Ever heard of silent mode??

The annoying sound happens every five seconds at the RL offices. According to David Lee, it happens twenty times an hour, but it seems like more than that! He, for some reason, goes to Carmen to ask how to stop the sound. He also wants to know what it is. Carmen explains that it is “Dawnk” which is a new messaging system within the company.

On Dawnk, you can talk about anything you want and be anonymous. Who approved this?! In one frame, I can see there’s someone complaining about someone being promoted too fast because of “the future is female bs.” In another, someone is upset that they are anonymous and wants to use their real name (only Jay, who is otherwise absent from this episode, seems to have figured out how to turn this anon mode off).

Sorry, before I can get on board with this plot, I just need to note for the record how phenomenally stupid the idea of using anonymous messaging software within a company is. This was obviously not going to end well! It’s like workplace YikYak... (remember YikYak?!)

David Lee hates the idea of a messaging software; Carmen says the associates prefer this.

Jay is being very nice in the chat and defends the person who was promoted “too fast”.

“Who’s ‘Anonymous Crab’?” David Lee asks. Well, I think the fact they are “anonymous” should be a bit of a hint there, David.

Anonymous Crab asks, “How the hell did this happen??! How did Diane end up at a Black Conference speaking for our firm?” Good question, Anonymous Crab.

Anon Crab also shares a video and David Lee doesn’t understand how to press play. Carmen plays it for him. Diane looks really awful on the panel. No shit! David Lee seems to enjoy Diane looking bad, even though he should be able to connect the dots between Diane looking bad and potential for bad things to come for the firm...

Not only does Diane get quizzed about why she’s running a firm that is still insisting on calling itself a black firm, she also gets questions about her insurrectionist husband. “He was completely cleared of those charges,” Diane notes. Oh, hey!!!!! Remember how last week I said I’d be more surprised if that was the end of the FBI nonsense than if it continued? I am surprised!! And relieved. Mostly relieved. Dealing with the consequences of that high profile, relationship-straining ordeal is so much more interesting to me than any FBI machinations.

Next Diane is asked if Kurt just took a job to revitalize the NRA. She hasn’t heard of this yet. I’m glad she’s getting grilled on this stuff... it is about time.

There’s a hint that Carmen will be representing Mr. Rapey next week. I assume that’s why there’s a line where David checks in with Carmen on Mr. Rapey’s case?

Anon Platypus says, “I heard she didn’t even have seniority. She just jumped past other black partners to become our name partner. It’s crazy!!!” Anon Platypus is correct—technically. Diane was a name partner at one of Chicago’s top firms before joining RL, so while she skipped the line... that doesn’t seem to me like the PRIMARY issue in bringing her on. The primary issue is that bringing on someone that senior from outside the company is more similar to a merger than a promotion, and Diane’s partnership meant changes for the firm.

Other anonymous animals also don’t like Diane. One calls her clueless; another says that “Liz needs to do something about this.” Someone responds to that, “Liz will never do it on her own,” which is an interesting sentiment I want to come back to in a little bit.

“What is Black Twitter?” David Lee asks Liz out of the blue. “People on Twitter who are black and talk to each other,” Liz responds. David Lee asks how he can find it. “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” Liz jokes. And to think Jay said Liz wasn’t funny!

The Dawnk conversation shifts and now everyone’s ragging on Julius for representing Kurt and just generally being a Trump voter. There’s a lot of heated and racial language I’m not going to type here, enough to make Julius spit out his coffee and storm down to the associate floor.

He goes to Devin, who I’m not sure if we’ve seen before but is high ranking enough to have Lucca’s old office, to get information on the anonymous posts.

Anonymous Bison says, “Unpopular opinion: I blame Adrian.” Hey, Anon Bison, let’s be friends! I am with you. Adrian is the one who brought Diane on, who encouraged them to lean into Julius’s Trump connections, and who pushed the firm to pursue profit over everything else. Diane and Julius aren’t blameless (though I don’t actually think defending Kurt is a bad thing) but if there’s someone who actively strategized to make RL what it is today? Adrian all the way.

In what world does noting that Julius is pissed in an anonymous message do ANYTHING to stop people who are pissed at him? If they were that concerned about him being pissed they wouldn’t have said anything in the first place.

Liz and opposing counsel talk over each other in court until the judge makes them stop. I think we’ve seen both the judge and opposing counsel this season, making me wonder if there’s a bit of a COVID bubble situation going on here with the guest stars.

Judge Farley jokes about “contempt cards” that go up in value and Wackner, of course, is all, “Wow, I really love that.”

Liz, whose entire strategy was to not let on that anyone calls Wackner a judge, refers to Wackner as “Judge Wackner.” Come on, Liz! (I buy that she’d slip up—there's no one in the world I wouldn’t believe slipping up—but ugh!)

How did the opposition not realize that they could make this about Wackner’s “crazy court” by referring to him as Judge Wackner? You’d think they’d be all over that.

Judge Farley looks SO unhappy that Wackner would refer to himself as a judge; it’s phenomenal.

Now Marissa stumbles over stuff because she’s, for some reason, speaking in court. I bought Liz’s dumb moment more.

The plaintiff’s strategy is to make it look like Wackner is of unsound mind, and they’ve got video evidence. Remember how Del, Cord, and Wackner all chatted in the RL elevator? Well, turns out that lead to a reality show about Wackner for Del’s streaming service. Sounds about right.

I don’t really think Wackner cares about attention or anyone else’s motivations... I think he just likes the idea of budget and an audience and a platform.

Liz meets Del for a romantic dinner and asks him when he was going to tell her about Wackner’s show. Del doesn’t understand why she’s upset. He doesn’t get why he would’ve needed her permission to go into business with Wackner. (I don’t think he’s wrong from a business POV, but from a relationship POV, he totally should’ve let her know!)

Liz says he should’ve asked because they’re using it against her in court. “That is unfortunate, baby, but this streaming show could be really good for Wackner. It’ll draw attention to his court. And... as I say that...that sounds... okay, look I’m sorry,” Del realizes. I like that he sees that Liz has a point. He goes on to note that he would be totally open to Liz trying to go into business with any of his acquaintances, and I think he genuinely means it.

Del notes that this is what “power couples” do. Oh? So they’re an official couple? Don’t power couples also associate in public and not hide their relationship from their colleagues?

This is the place where I note, yet again, that it is always going to be more interesting to see a relationship that feels realistic than to see a relationship that feels like it takes place in a vacuum.

Liz doesn’t want Wackner becoming popular. Del argues someone else would’ve made the show if he didn’t, and that “disrupters gotta disrupt.” Oh God.

Are we going to remember that Liz has a child at any point this season?

Diane is reading the Dawnk discussion at home. It’s still lively even after work hours. The associates appear to be discussing the vaccine before someone changes the topic to “the Diane situation.”

One associate notes that the partners probably aren’t happy about Diane either and just have to vote her out. Kurt arrives home as Diane reads this, reacts to the loud music Diane has playing, the open alcohol, and her general demeanor and asks if they’re getting drunk. “Are we getting a job with the NRA?” she counters.

Turns out it’s not entirely untrue about Kurt and the NRA. They want him for a new role. It would pay $167,000. I can’t decide if I think that’s a lot (objectively that’s a high salary) or not very much at all (isn’t Kurt the top of his field?)

Kurt notes he doesn’t have a job so he’s considering it. “Diane, our politics are very different,” he starts. “I know,” Diane says. “I’m, lately, struck by just how different they are.”

“I would just like one week when I don’t have to defend you,” Diane says in frustration. Kurt doesn’t even know what that means at the current moment.

“You’ll tell me when they offer you the job?” Diane asks. “They may not offer it,” Kurt says. “No, they will,” Diane says, because she knows that it’s basically a done deal already.

In the middle of the night, Diane turns to Kurt and tries to ask him a question. That wakes him up. She asks who he voted for in 2020 and he doesn’t answer. Uh oh.

Dreaming now, Diane sits up and asks, “Hello? What do I do?” More on that later...

The HR nightmare known as Dawnk is still going wild the next day at the office. (Seriously, with HR that strict, the anon feature would’ve been disabled the second the first semi-controversial comment was posted.) Everyone’s obsessed.

The partners, minus Diane, all gather in Liz’s office to discuss Dawnk (and the topics of conversation on Dawnk). Madeline says they should ignore it. I say they should make STR Laurie shut it down and be the bad guy. It is nonsensical that this workplace would continue to allow Dawnk to continue! In addition to being an HR nightmare, it’s also a drain on productivity if everyone’s constantly glued to it, and I imagine STR Laurie cares about profit more than anything else.

But like I really don’t get why Madeline says they can’t censor their associates. Of course they can shut down the app if they want to! Someone put the app there in the first place, no? I do understand not wanting to look like you’re violating free speech (even though taking away anonymous commenting in the workplace would not be a violation of free speech) but I highly doubt it would be only the partners complaining. Tina, whose promotion was called into question, would be complaining too. Anyone trying to get work done, or anyone who didn’t like the toxic culture, or anyone who was uncomfortable with a joke made, would be complaining. There are more than enough reasons it would be perfectly acceptable to take the anon commenting away.

Now the partners are fighting about Kurt’s case too. “Diane is not responsible for her husband,” Liz says when Madeline says that Diane should’ve known better than to get involved. Um, Liz, Madeline is right. Diane isn’t responsible for Kurt’s actions but she’s sure as hell responsible for volunteering to represent him.

“In the real world of this firm, Diane’s billable hours speak for themselves,” Liz notes when a partner tries to call Diane’s unsavory associations into question.

“The rest of us put in the hours too, for the record,” notes another partner. I’m sure... but do you put in DIANE’S hours and have DIANE’S client list? My guess is no. If Diane weren’t the biggest earner at the firm we wouldn’t be having this debate. She’d just be gone. She’d never have been at the firm to begin with.

“Liz, when I joined this firm, it was because of your father’s legacy. It was about Black civil rights, activism, justice. That’s what people talked about in meetings. Now, people talk about billable hours, million-dollar clients, corporate payouts. Now, I know it’s not your fault. That was Boseman’s vision and we were trying to survive the Trump years by bringing in white lawyers, but those days are gone. They’re done with. And I miss being a strong black firm,” Madeline says. Everyone but Liz (and probably Julius) seems to agree with that.

This is one of many interesting facets of this issue. When Madeline argues against Diane, she’s not just arguing that she wants a black person running the firm for optics. She’s not saying that Diane-but-black would be an acceptable choice. She is saying she wants RL to be the firm it was at the very very start of the show—a firm committed to social justice, not maximizing revenue. A firm that didn’t just accept every client that came their way because they love profit. A firm that stood for something. So my question is: Does Liz want that firm?

Liz is hard to read throughout this whole plot, and I think that may be intentional. Liz isn’t a manager by training—she was an AUSA who suddenly became a name partner at a firm (if you want to talk about seniority and skipping the line, Liz is a way better example than Diane—you can even through some nepotism, twice over, in there). She doesn’t seem to have a clear goal for her firm other than maintaining the status quo and keeping power. Liz not taking a stronger stance from the start (either accepting that they are no longer going to be a social justice-oriented firm or pushing to get them back to that place) allows these kinds of questions to fester. It’s my hope that this becomes text instead of subtext pretty soon, ‘cause this is the kind of thing that if it’s subtext for too long will start to feel like bad writing/Liz being conveniently clueless. It’s way more interesting if Liz is just not yet good at being a manager... because she is learning on the job.

Anyway. I think the ideal solution here is probably that Diane and Liz continue to run RL: A STR Laurie Company (the fact they’re owned by corporate overlords kind of makes any decision about RL’s mission moot) since Diane wants to do that and Liz seems to be content where she is. Madeline and the other partners, instead of trying to force STRL to let them pursue the cases they want, can accept pay cuts and go start their own firm. Maybe they can even team up with Barbara Kolstad!

None of that’s to say that the dilemma here is easily solvable, nor is it to say that Diane shouldn’t consider stepping down. I’ll say more on that later. My point here is just that this issue is much deeper than just if Diane is on the letterhead or not. As long as they’re owned by STR Laurie and have clients like Rivi, Diane stepping aside would just be a band-aid.

(And that, I think, is intentional... they’ve been building the “why are we even representing x?” tension pretty consistently this season, so I imagine it’s on the writers’ minds.)

Diane stumbles across the secret partner’s meeting and knows something’s up.

“You gotta handle this, Liz. You cannot have a white partner leading a black firm. We’ll lose clients with that kind of hypocrisy” Madeline insists after Diane heads back to her office. I’ve already said it, but just to say it in a less rambly way: Madeline is right, but she’s right IF AND ONLY IF the goal is to be a black firm. So, Liz, is it?

(They’ll lose clients, sure, but which ones? They’ll lose the clients Madeline wants while Diane continues to keep bringing in business and Rivi and Cord and Wolfe-Colman and their elk* stay put.)

*I know this is not the correct word; see 6x17 of TGW

David Lee has also noticed the meeting in Liz’s office and thinks this may be the “beginning of the end.” Diane glares at him and he says he was just joking.

Diane schedules a meeting with Liz. Liz’s assistant doesn’t know Diane by voice, adding to her frustration.

Credits! We are 22 minutes in! This might be a record if 5x01 hadn’t saved the credits til the very end!

I’ve already written more than I did last week by a couple hundred words.

Two interesting things about the credits. First, this episode was written by Aurin Squire. Forgive me if I’ve mentioned this in a prior recap (I know I thought about it but can’t remember if I deleted), but I think Aurin Squire and Davita Scarlett are key to why TGF and Evil are both always so good. They’re the two writers other than the Kings who are in both the TGF and Evil rooms, and they both REALLY seem to be on the same wavelength as the Kings. I imagine that having four people who are in both rooms helps with managing both at basically the same time.

(This isn’t where I wanted to go with this bullet point, but I may as well shout out how great Evil is this season, too! It also just aired an episode by Aurin Squire about the lead white female character realizing her privilege!)

Second, this episode was directed by Brooke Kennedy. I didn’t know that going in, but seconds before the director credit popped up, I was thinking to myself, “this episode feels like it’s going to be a very important one. I bet Brooke directed it.” I was very pleased to see her name appear.

(For anyone who doesn’t know, Brooke is an EP who’s been involved in nearly every episode of both Wife and Fight and she tends to direct important episodes that require a lot of familiarity with the characters. She directed 5x15 of The Good Wife and she’s done a bunch of the premieres and finales that Robert King hasn’t claimed for himself.)

Diane and Liz meet in a bar to catch up. Diane’s still staring at Dawnk. Liz takes her phone and silences the notifications. “Who thought that sound was pleasing?” Diane complains. “All day in court today,” Liz commiserates. Carmen had to teach her how to silence the notifications. Liz, you’re using an iPhone, there is a very easy to use switch that silences your phone, like you would need to for court. I know you know this.

(I think Diane, despite her complaining about the sound, is captivated by Dawnk.)

Liz orders soda water instead of a drink. I assume that’s intentional, perhaps because she knows this isn’t going to be an easy conversation or a long night of drinking? She has wine in an earlier scene.

I love that Liz and Diane chat about Dawnk even though there’s no real plot reason for them to spend this much time discussing it. Little moments like this make me believe Liz and Diane are actually colleagues who get along well and make management decisions together.

Diane asks if Liz thinks Dawnk actually increases productivity. Liz laughs—she does not. But she knows the associates would “riot” if they got rid of it. She’s right. I still think they can get rid of it without too much blowback. But at least they’re acknowledging this.

“What do the partners think?” Diane asks, very intentionally shifting the subject. You can hear it in Christine’s voice and see it in her body language—Diane is looking for an opportunity to talk about what she wants to talk about.

“God, Madeline can’t even open it. She’s lost her password three times. She finally just gave up,” Liz says. This is concerning! Madeline should know how to open an app! Probably not unrealistic, though. When you’re that senior, you probably don’t need to know how to use a messaging app. And messaging apps can be confusing sometimes. Like, I still don’t understand how to use Discord.

The captions have a line I can’t hear in this scene—Liz (I presume?) saying “You know, ‘cause it’s Madeline.” This makes it sound like Madeline is a little less than competent, no?

“Thanks for sitting down with me, Liz,” Diane says in a quite serious tone. “Of course. So, you’re wondering about the meeting today?” Liz immediately understands. “I am.” “Yeah. Uh, it was about Julius. He’s being harassed on Dawnk,” Liz explains.

“Okay, and I couldn’t be a part of that?” Diane wants to know. “He’s being harassed because he’s defending your husband,” Liz explains. Diane doesn’t seem surprised (perhaps because she, too, would have read these messages?). “Well, that’s unfortunate. We’ve represented people far worse than Kurt, who, by the way, was found innocent,” Diane argues like they’re having a very different conversation. It’s one thing to represent rapists and murderers and drug lords—and I’d argue that the same people pissed about Kurt are also pissed about them!-- and another for your leadership to be married to/close friends with someone who you believe participated in the events of 1/6.

“I’m not saying it wasn’t. But, January 6th. I mean, we watched the Confederate flag make its way into the Capitol building. You know, those people that Kurt didn’t want to turn over to the FBI, those people. They don’t even want us alive,” Liz says better than I ever could. I think it’s important that Liz mentions a POV that likely wouldn’t have ever crossed Diane’s mind here. This is a small glimpse of why it could be so important to have black leadership at a black firm. Would Diane be thinking about the implications of having the Confederate flag in the Capitol? Probably not in the same way that Liz instantly does.

“Well, not all of them,” Diane Lockhart, who is suddenly an idiot, says. Liz looks at her drink and grimaces, and Diane realizes she’s said something wrong. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m certainly not defending those people. They’re all despicable traitors.”

“And now, that’s what people are saying about Julius,” Liz explains. “And me?” Diane asks, though she already knows the answer. Liz doesn’t want to answer that. Before she can say anything, Diane asks if she’s being pushed out.

“No. Not pushed out. You’re a name partner. You can’t be pushed out,” Liz clarifies. Diane knows there’s a but. “The partners just think you should do the right thing,” Liz adds.

“And step aside?” Diane asks. “No. Stay in the firm. Stay as an equity partner, just step back from your managerial role,” Liz says. Diane pauses. “Liz, I... I pull in the big clients. I... I get the billable hours. But still, ‘maybe you should step aside.’ Weren’t we going to form a firm led by women?” Diane argues. Oh, wow, I have so much to say.

First, I completely understand why Diane doesn’t want to give up her title or her power. She's Diane Lockhart! She’s been one of the best in her field for decades. She’s not wrong about the clients and billable hours. It’s just that every time Diane decides to be at this firm, making arguments about how she should retain her role in power, she’s saying that she values her own career/appearance more than the values she claims to care about. And every time she refuses to take a back seat or threatens to walk rather than sacrifice, she’s saying she’ll only through her weight behind her colleagues and their mission if she gets credit for it. To be clear, I don’t think it would be the shittiest decision in the world if Diane decided to walk, to take her clients to a new firm and to let RL become the firm Madeline and the rest envision. It’s asking a lot of her to give up that power and prestige. The interesting part of this dilemma is, to me, that Diane claims to value working for RL and to be active in the fight against racism... but the second she’s forced to choose between that fight and her own power, we all know what Diane is going to choose. There was never really any doubt. Diane doesn’t have to be on the forefront of this fight if she doesn’t want to... but she can’t claim to be invested in the fight if she isn’t willing to sacrifice, at all.

Second, LMAO at this firm led by women idea. Every time Diane talks about her firm led by women idea it sounds sillier! Not because a firm led by women is silly, but because Diane has a habit of saying this like it is a shared goal and each time she references it, it sounds less and less intersectional. For example, when she says it here, she’s essentially saying a firm led by women only has meaning if one of those women is a white woman (specifically a white woman named Diane Lockhart). Who’s to say that Madeline wouldn’t be made partner in Diane’s absence? Or Barbara (haha) or someone else we haven’t met? There is a very real possibility that Liz and another woman could run the firm and Diane would still be unhappy about it. Diane doesn’t ask Liz for a commitment that if she does step aside, her replacement would be female (idk if it’s legal to make this commitment but you get my point). Diane acts like asking her to step aside is already a betrayal of the female led firm.

“And I hope that it will be,” Liz says, basically hinting to Diane that there are women in the world besides her.

“But black women?” Diane says, agitatedly. “Diane, I... am not voting against you. I promised you that I wouldn’t. But there is growing anger here. They want to address it at the next partners' meeting. So just think about it,” Liz responds.

I think Liz is totally fair and forthcoming in this scene and strikes pretty much the right tone for this initial conversation. She gives Diane a choice and is honest with her.

“You’re a good person,” Liz adds. Diane does a double-take, understanding that Liz is actually telling her “You are a good person, so you know that you absolutely need to step aside.”

“No, I’m not!” Diane responds. As I said: Diane already knows what she is going to do. She needs to do mental gymnastics to excuse her actions, but her mind was made up before the question was even raised. (She did warn Liz in 5x01 she was going to fight any attempt to push her out.)

“Yes, you are,” Liz says again. She may as well be saying, “No, don’t try this. Everyone will think you’re in the wrong if you push this.”

Later, at home, Diane is doing some stretches on the floor and groaning. I don’t know if this scene is meant to show her age, but it does remind me that Diane is nearly 70 and started off this show by planning to retire. Retirement doesn’t seem to be an option for her here. (That’s fine by me; she is a workaholic whose career is her life.)

Kurt asks Diane what she wants to do. She says she wants to keep her name on the letterhead and “keep what I fought for.” Heh, I was just re-reading something I wrote about Cary a while ago and I’d pointed out that when Alicia and Cary discuss merging with what’s left of LG, Cary is also concerned about his name on the letterhead because even though he wants to change the world, he also cares about having power. It’s almost like Diane and Cary are really similar characters! (They are! That’s why the Diane/Cary moment in Hitting the Fan is so good!)

Diane calls her position as name partner a fight against “gender and then age discrimination.” She isn’t wrong, especially when you consider how meaningful it likely was when she and Stern went into business together. It’s very easy for me to forget that when Diane has such an attachment to fighting for white women’s rights, it’s not just because she’s out of touch and selfish: it’s because that was something she personally had to fight for. That doesn’t make it okay that she seems to forget the concept of intersectionality (which she’s definitely aware of) the second anything challenges her own power, but it does explain why a firm run by women is so important to her.

Diane is not wrong that she deserves name partnership and she’s not wrong to not want to step aside. Yet, starting a war to retain her position as name partner is a CHOICE. The best thing for Diane to do here (morally, I mean) would be for her to step aside and throw her resources behind the firm’s new leadership, using her experiences and stature to benefit the firm (this would also be a way for her to cement her legacy and mentor a new generation of leaders). The best compromise, I think, would be for someone to leave the current firm—either Diane or the dissenting partners, probably Diane since Liz seems to agree with Madeline—without any hard feelings. The worst possible choice is for Diane to insist that this firm is hers and force every single tension at the firm to come to a head, screwing over Liz in the process and potentially permanently ruining the firm’s status as a black firm. Sooo... yeah.

(I say it could ruin the firm’s status as a black firm because if Diane’s a white partner who happens to be there and the firm is mostly black, that’s one thing. If Diane is a white partner who fought all of the black partners to assert her own dominance over their firm... that’s hard to come back from. She can’t really call herself an ally, can she?)

“Diane, this is the first time I’ve ever heard you sound defeated,” Kurt says. “Because I can’t win this,” she says. She insists she can’t even after Kurt tries to cheer her on (of course he does, he probably thinks having an all black firm is just identity politics and therefore worthless).

“You just don’t want to,” Kurt says. He is not wrong. This is a winnable fight for Diane. Liz is smart but Diane has the experience, the clients, the power, and her own reputation to use in this fight. Liz has her dad’s name (and I don’t think it would come to this, but Diane knows how she can pretty easily destroy Liz’s dad’s reputation). (Liz is great, don’t get me wrong. Liz is also someone who happened into a name partnership because her dad was important.)

“It’s bigger than that. To fight this would go against every fiber of my being,” Diane says. “Every fiber in your being is about winning,” Kurt counters. Oh, damn. That’s a succinct way of putting it. He is completely right. Diane would love to think that every fiber of her being is about her commitment to social justice and women’s rights. It is not. If that were the case, would she really be a lawyer with clients like ChumHum, Bishop, Sweeney, Rivi, and Wolfe-Colman? We all know the answer to this. We all know Diane likes social justice a lot but winning, wealth, and power far more.

When I first watched TGW, now nearly a decade ago, I was a high schooler and my media diet mostly consisted of Desperate Housewives and a bunch of procedurals like Bones and Castle. The thing that hooked me about TGW—more than Alicia’s journey, more than anything—was that TGW never had easy answers to anything. Will tells Diane in 1x07 that “nothing here is pure and nothing here is simple” and that basically blew my mind. TGW always made it obvious that Will was morally gray, which fascinated me. But I struggled with Diane. Here was this woman who looked like she should be someone so impressive and inspirational I could write a college admissions essay about her (I did not, but that was my frame of reference at the time)… but the decisions she made... never seemed all that great?? I couldn’t comprehend it.

When Blue Ribbon Panel aired in March 2012, I wrote to a friend, “Diane confused me a little bit tonight. She didn’t approve of Alicia standing up to the panel, and yet, she’s supposed to care about people, the truth, morality, etc etc. I never understand Diane’s motivations– is her philosophy to help others whenever it wouldn’t hurt her, personally, to do so?”

At that point, Diane compromising her values struck me as something confusing because I wanted to think of her as a powerful role model and icon, and I didn’t know what to do with someone who looked like and often was role model material who also sometimes betrayed her values for her own self-interest. I had my analysis of Diane down: she her motivations ARE to help others whenever it wouldn’t hurt her, personally, to do so. All I needed to do was remove my question mark from the end of that thought.

I promise I’ll move on from quoting myself, but I also want to share a paragraph I wrote about Diane in March 2014 (during season five of Wife) because it says what I want to say now as well as anything I could write today:

Diane is driven and ambitious. Her initial actions can come as the result of intense emotions, but given enough time and space, Diane will always be strategic and pragmatic when it comes to business. She’s spent her entire life putting her career first, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. That she found love is just icing. Kurt aside, the two most important things to Diane are advancing her own self-interest and doing good in the world. These objectives appear to be a contradiction, and often, they are. Nine times out of ten, when it comes down to it, she’ll choose herself. I mean no judgment here: another central aspect of Diane’s character is that she’s upfront about her choices and stands by them, and this sort of moral ambiguity makes for a great character.

The reason I quote myself here is not to be like, ha ha, I was right. It's because I think this episode is even more powerful because I can copy/paste in stuff I wrote nine years ago or seven years ago (oh god, 2014 was seven years ago?) verbatim and it can hold up as analysis. Both Fight and Wife have always implied Diane’s selfish side and given more than enough evidence to make a convincing argument about it, but they’ve never really engaged with it directly (and if you ask the social media teams for either show, Diane is a #queen who can never do wrong). This episode interrogates something that’s always been an unpleasant part of Diane’s character, and I’m so fucking glad about it.

(I don’t think anyone’s accusing Diane of not growing as a person but it crossed my mind that this could be seen as lack of growth. I don’t think it is. I wouldn’t expect Diane to change. Her life and career are so set that growth on this without a LOT of struggle on her part would feel like a cop out.)

Another reason I quote myself is to highlight how friggin’ character driven this episode is. I’ve seen a lot of people saying this episode felt like old-school TGW—and it absolutely does; that’s also how I felt—and I think that’s because it’s so character focused and meaty.

But back to this scene. Kurt tells Diane that if she doesn’t try to win she should just give up entirely. Seems like bad advice.

“Kurt, I appreciate the pep talk, but I don’t think the way you think. I cannot put my interests above a whole group of people—black people—just so I can keep my position.” Sure you can, Diane. You just don’t like to believe that about yourself. You know how Diane says to Kurt earlier that she knows the NRA will offer him the job? That is how I feel about this scene. The writers go to great lengths to explain where Diane’s head is at when she decides to fight for her partnership, but they’d have needed to do ten times more to get me to believe Diane would step aside voluntarily.

Kurt basically thinks that Diane should fight because if her competition is actually talented enough to deserve name partnership, they should fight her for it. He’s missing the point here.

“But a black person’s talent has always been valued less than mine,” Diane counters. The fact she knows and understands this makes her decision even less forgivable.

Kurt knows he’s going to lose this argument and tries the same strategy he did on 5x01: telling Diane she’s right and should just give up and leave the firm. Diane doesn’t like that answer either.

Given how much I loathed Jay’s hallucinations, I was expecting that when Diane asks Kurt in the middle of the night if he believes the election was stolen and then sits down at her fireplace to have a chat with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I’d loathe what happened next. I did not! I actually really liked it!

I think this is more effective than Jay’s hallucinations, at least for me, because it's less gimmicky. It isn’t played for humor or quirk, and it gets to the character-driven point a LOT faster. This feels more similar to Alicia imagining Gloria Steinem is telling her she’s good enough to be on the Supreme Court in 6x03 than it does to Jay’s hallucinations.

I LOVE that Diane would dream that RBG would advise her on her work dilemma. Dream!RBG tells Diane that “any law firm would be insane to let you go.” (I don’t wanna spend too much time fighting dream logic, but I feel like the operative phrase here is ‘let you go’. Are the RL partners seeing this as letting Diane go? Or are they just trying to get at a different goal and Diane is in the way, and they don’t really care if Diane has top connections or billable hours? It’s almost like the other RL partners want a firm that stands for something and all Diane has stood for thus far at the firm is profit...)

Diane pushes back on RBG and RBG shares her “real” thoughts. This is where this sequence clicks into place for me, because it’s working on a LOT of levels. Obviously, Diane is going to imagine that her hero tells her to do exactly what she wants to do (the aforementioned mental gymnastics). But without losing the level on which this is dream!RBG and filtered through Diane’s POV, the writers are also... criticizing RBG for not stepping down herself!? It’s fascinating and pointed and makes her the exact right choice to play Diane’s conscience.

Dream!RBG shares her life story and notes how she was always asked to step aside, but she didn’t and that’s how she got to be RBG. “Don’t step aside because someone wants you to. Don’t step aside for politics. Men are always asking women to step aside so a man can go first,” RBG advises Diane. Even Diane knows that this isn’t exactly equal to her current situation-- “Even though I’m being asked to step aside so that a black person can take my place?” she counters.

So RBG asks if Diane can still do something “for women” if she says. Diane says yes, and RBG says Diane should do that instead of stepping aside—she should do whatever it takes. That’s the wrong takeaway, Diane! If you want to do something for women then a) you could do something for the black women at your firm lol or b) you could politely remove yourself from the firm, encourage your most profitable clients to stay on if they are wanted by the other partners or and/or c) you could choose to bring your talent and your stature to a non-profit. But, of course, these options aren’t on the table. There’s a reason the options are leave and lose everything or stay and fight for name partnership, and it’s that Diane cares about maintaining control of what she sees as hers and winning more than she cares about anything else, including or even especially her desire to help women.

And also what women is she even helping at RL? Herself? She’s certainly not helping Wolfe-Coleman's rape victim. The closest she’s recently come to helping women is when she told off Weinstein’s lawyer and tried to start #MeToo... in a DREAM.

The score for the next sequence sounds so familiar and I can’t place it. At first, I thought it was Hitting the Fan, but I’m not sure if that’s the right reference (also, damn, the Hitting the Fan score is REALLY GOOD!). I think it might be similar to 5x14 when Alicia’s pacing back and forth in the hotel room.

Anyway, Diane starts meeting with her (white, male) clients to tell them about how she’s stepping aside. She hasn’t run this past any of the other partners, of course. She’s doing exactly what they want, in the most malicious and calculated way possible.

One of her clients is a fracking client who wants to win over democrats by being a RL client.

Diane is so sneaky here! No one said that if Diane steps aside as partner she can’t handle the day to day on her cases... yet that’s what Diane tells this client since she knows it’ll make him mad!

Diane makes a point of showing her fracking client that his new representation will be Madeline. He doesn’t know anything about Madeline, and, as Diane was likely counting on, he isn’t confident in having a black woman he’s less “comfortable” with on his cases. I don’t know if Diane was going for the racial element here, but... if you’re really concerned about continuity, you don’t have this meeting without having Madeline ready to jump in and show she’s read up on the client. I’m sure it’s possible that Diane meant nothing in giving this client only Madeline’s name, title, gender, and race to go off of, but is that likely?

She hands another (white, male) client off to Julius, whom she describes as a “very competent lawyer.” What an introduction. She says she’s not retiring and the firm “just wants to let some other people step forward into a name partner position.” Diane knows how to sell clients on changes they won’t like. She knows this isn’t how you do it.

That phrase, “comfortable with you” is doing a lot of work, no? Both clients so far have said it, and while it might not be racially coded... it’s racially coded.

“Who should we call about it?” the clients ask. Diane can barely keep herself from smiling.

They call David Lee, immediately. He takes the call in the middle of a meeting, while someone else is talking—he is David Lee, after all.

The information on the screen in David’s meeting is quite interesting. It’s about STRL’s plans for RL. Here’s how the firm is described: “RL is a high-end mid-sized Chicago law firm that can consolidate its specialized brand within the American POC community and expand its national and global brand with STR Laure.” Soooo... yeah. For the corporate overloards, RL needs it to be just black enough that it appears like a black firm, but they care more about appearances and branding than anything of substance. (Notice how it says “POC” and not black? Notice how there’s this mention of national and global presence that doesn’t seem to be on the RL partners’ mind?)

There’s an area called room for growth, listing top clients—entertainment law, fracking, the DNC, and civil cases against CPD. Interestingly, two of these are Liz’s clients (entertainment and DNC), one is Adrian’s (civil cases against CPD), and only fracking is Diane’s... so maybe I didn’t give Liz enough credit earlier.

There’s also a plan of action that includes partners working with STRL and the 15-20% layoffs we already know about. I don’t think this text is meant to include any new info, but I assume one of the writers had a hand in writing it and it’s a good way of confirming things that had been subtext.

Wackner’s reality show looks... well, like his court, because his court always looked like a reality show. Cutting together the most out-there moments (audience reaction cards, Wackner singing “Come on defense!”, Wackner renaming himself Judge Shmuley for a day) makes Wackner look pretty bad.

Hey Liz, I thought you figured out how to silence your notifications for Dawnk permanently. (It’s not all high-stakes controversy over on the “R&L General” channel—the anon animals are now discussing a broken coffee maker.) (Though even this discussion is a bit political! Anon Owl says they bet STR’s coffee machine works, and Anon Dolphin wants to know why they don’t have more coffee maters at RL.)

There’s also a dance party—which Marissa participates in—in the footage of Wackner.

Hey, wouldn’t Marissa have reported the cameras to Diane and Liz? I feel like she’d know they’d want to know.

Wackner ends up on the stand to offer context for the strange-looking clips. In a smart move, Liz offers to just let Judge Farley ask questions—she knows that’s what Farley is really after.

Unsurprisingly, Wackner’s context makes his outrageous practices seem much more reasonable. There’s a scoreboard to keep lawyers aware of where they’re standing so they can gauge instead of guess at Wackner’s thought process. Shmuley is to honor a recently deceased relative. The costumes are to prevent bias and cut down entitlement.

Plaintiff’s counsel argues that Wackner is biased and the case continues even though Wackner’s (mostly) won over Farley.

The case next turns to something about copyright law that sounds downright silly—the point is to underline that Wackner’s court makes more sense than real court on some things. It makes more common sense and it’s less racist.

Del gets called into court. It’s interesting how these scenes are blocked together rather than spread out. The same is true of Diane’s scenes—after credits, we have Diane and Liz at the bar, Diane at home, Diane talking to RBG, Diane making moves, and then David Lee becoming aware of the situation. Then we have several consecutive court scenes (all of which feel like they have natural break points) of Wackner stuff. If I had to guess, I would guess that it’s to keep the momentum going. The Diane stuff plays better when it feels like a continuous chain rather than a subplot.

(The only thing that suffers is that I have no idea why there’s a court scene about copyright law right after the plaintiff argues they have evidence about Wackner’s bias? I probably wouldn’t have even noticed if the scenes had been spread out more.)

Now Cord’s involvement with Wackner’s court becomes an issue. It’s funny they need a witness to bring up Cord when Cord is SITTING IN THE COURT ROOM.

Apparently Cord is financing a company that would compete with the plaintiff’s company and this means Wackner is biased. As the next scene will explain, Cord wasn’t even aware of his investment in the rival company, and Wackner certainly wasn’t. But, regardless, it’s going to be challenging to prove that neither Wackner nor Cord knew about the investment, and the opposition is going to go after Cord’s financial records, which no one wants. Liz suggests a continuance, which would give Wackner about a year to keep working on his court before they have to come back to this issue.

Wackner HATES the idea of delays and is all, THIS IS WHY I HAVE MY OWN COURT and again, he isn’t wrong.

David Lee needs to see Liz, now. Liz and Diane meet in David Lee’s office and stare at their phones. Diane says she has no idea what the meeting is about, even though she basically set up the meeting herself.

“What the fuck is going on?” David Lee says. Diane feigns surprise and asks for more specifics. David Lee reveals that four top clients have called with issues about their representation shifting.

Liz knows what’s going on and aggressively says, “Diane, thoughts?” “Nothing from me. I met with my clients. I just told them of a restructuring that I was being told about,” Diane says like it’s no big deal. Liz and Diane both know that Diane forced this meeting.

“Is this a power play on your part?” Liz asks Diane. “No, it’s just updating my clients,” Diane says for David Lee’s benefit or commitment to the bit or something. It is definitely a power play, and a nearly unforgivable one done to an ally.

“David, Diane was told about frustration at the partner level about a white woman being a name partner in a black firm. And apparently, this is her response,” Liz explains. “I just told our clients what was going on,” Diane defends. David Lee doesn’t really care about what happened: he cares about one thing, and that thing is money.

“Diane’s a fucking name partner until STR Laurie says she’s not. No one decides until I decide. Now stick your race war back in its bottle,” David Lee says. I mean, basically, yeah, that’s what happens when you merge with a huge firm that only cares about profit.

I like that this ends up coming back to STRL. You can’t really have a conversation about RL’s identity without also acknowledging that RL is not independently owned. Sure, STRL will care at some point if RL loses its clout with the black community—but like most companies, they care about guaranteed loss of profit and the short term more than long-term what-ifs. It may sound cynical, but if Madeline and all of the other partners quit, STRL would simply put all their effort into keeping Liz or even just the Reddick name and would then hire black lawyers who think more like Julius than Madeline to keep the reputation. STRL does not give a shit about helping anyone, and that’s what Diane counts on.

I do not believe the version of RL that Madeline wants can exist when they’re under STRL’s control. I believe the version Diane wants (not really a black firm) can, and I believe the version Liz seems to want (one that’s mostly black and occasionally social justice focused) can, but this issue won’t go away until STRL does.

Sure, Diane, keep telling yourself you’re fighting the good fight out here.

(Perhaps “The Good Fight” is a more ironic and fraught title than it originally seemed.)

“That was a mistake. I am on your side, and you don’t even realize it,” Liz tells Diane afterwards. Interesting that Liz says “I am” and not “I was.” I would love to know what Liz really thinks about this situation and hope we get more from her POV next week. I think Liz wants to run a black firm, but I also think she wants to run a successful firm and likes working with Diane. Liz is on Diane’s side about as much as she can be while still advocating for Diane to step down.

Pissing off Liz is a very interesting move for Diane here, too. Diane wants to fight the one person who is on her side for control of a firm that doesn’t want her there, and she’s convinced herself this is the smart move! Kind of wild. What does Diane think the day to day will look like? I think I said this above, but in forcing this war, Diane is all but guaranteeing that if she wins, RL will only be a black firm in that STRL will say it’s one to make more money.

Julius and Diane chat next. Julius says he wants to start his own firm—with Diane. Her only reaction is laughter, but, like, this is probably happening. I’m not sure why she laughs. It’s not quite a case of unfortunate timing (Diane could’ve done this before she blew things up, and it’s not quite too late for Diane to commit to leaving and smooth things over with Liz), so maybe it’s just a “well, this sounds familiar!” laugh.

(If you think of Previously On as 5x00 instead of 5x01, that would make this episode 5x05, which would make this a Hitting the Fan callback. I can also do mental gymnastics!)

The episode could end there, but it doesn’t. We’ve still got a Wackner plot to resolve. Cord has some people beat up the plaintiff as a way of enforcing Wackner’s verdict and getting the real court case to go away. Marissa picks up on what’s happened faster than Wackner does, unless Wackner just doesn’t care.

It’s subtle, but throughout this episode, there’s a little bit of a trend towards Marissa becoming more skeptical of Wackner. She tries to keep him under control in court, tries to reason with him about the continuance, and in this scene, she just looks entirely displeased and alarmed every time she’s on camera.

We get another scene with RBG. “It’s different for me than it was for you,” Diane says. She notes that unlike RBG, she herself is up against another “dominated culture.” This other dominated culture is “black lawyers.” (I’m sorry, I just find the way she says “black lawyers” funny, partially because she says “lawyers” instead of people and partially because Diane seems insistent on only occasionally remembering that Liz is both black and female.)

I can’t tell if this scene was originally intended to close the episode or not. The blocks of scenes, the way the episode seems like it should’ve ended with Julius’s laugh but instead has three more scenes (guy getting beat up, Wackner’s court, this one), and the fact the Kings said this episode had to be almost totally rethought because both Christine and Audra had concerns about the original script all suggest to me that maybe some of the scenes in this episode got shuffled around to keep momentum and hit the right notes at the right time.

Diane acknowledges that RBG could’ve stepped down and we wouldn’t have a conservative majority on the court now if she had. RBG insists that she wouldn’t have stepped aside even if Obama had guaranteed that her replacement would be black. She says it’s because she only knows what she can do—not what others would do. And “what you know is always better than what might happen.”

Even if this was originally supposed to happen earlier (Diane saying she doesn’t know what to do makes me feel like it way), I like that we get to see it’s still weighing on Diane after the fact.

(Also, I have seen some comments about, for lack of a better phrase, the girl power energy of these Diane and RBG scenes. No! These scenes aren’t a tribute to RBG! She’s in these scenes because she didn’t step down and can thus help Diane excuse her own actions! These scenes aren’t exactly anti-RBG, but they are certainly critical of some of her choices!)

The topic shifts to Diane and Kurt’s relationship (another reason to put this somewhere other than the main part of the episode; this would slow down the momentum of the middle part of the episode) and its similarity to RBG’s friendship with Scalia.

Tbh, I don’t think a friendship and a marriage are all that similar on this front and I’d be curious to see Diane think about RBG/Scalia in the context of her potential partnership with Julius rather than her marriage.

RBG basically tells Diane to stay with Kurt. Diane thanks her, and then, back in reality, tells Kurt to take the NRA job so he’ll be happy—and then she’ll just sue him. Okay, that feels like an episode ending, so I am REALLY curious about all the re-writing and re-structuring that happened in this episode and what did/didn’t get touched. I can’t make up my mind about what feels out of place.

So we start out with Diane feeling like it might be the right thing to explore whether or not it still makes sense for her to be with Kurt, a suspected insurrectionist and future NRA employee, and Diane feeling like she wants to help her friends and partners at her mostly black firm do good in the world. And we end with Diane doubling down on her relationship with Kurt, giving her blessing for the NRA job, and fucking over her colleagues because she wants to keep her own power. Dark! I love it.

This episode does this all without making Diane entirely unsympathetic, which is astounding. While I think Diane knowingly makes choices that further her self-interest over the values she (claims to?) hold and I am definitely NOT Team Diane on her decisions in this episode, this episode could easily have been less interesting and complex. It’s understandable that Diane would not want to step aside from a firm she’s helped build—who would? It’s understandable that Diane might not feel the passion for a black firm the way she does for a female firm. It’s understandable that Diane might not want to blow up her marriage, despite her political differences from Kurt. This episode allows Diane to be just sympathetic enough she never becomes a flat villain, but never sympathetic enough that someone could mistake this episode for one that shows Diane as a morally pure hero. Personally, I love that in a TV show. That’s the exact kind of writing that made me love Alicia Florrick enough that I still spend a considerable amount of time thinking about her character arc even though TGW ended half a decade ago. It’s what’s been missing from a lot of TGF episodes for me, and why I’ve said that TGF seems like a show more about theme than character. It’s why I’ve written—oh god, TEN THOUSAND words—about this episode.

I have no clue what’s going to happen next, but I hope it includes more character-driven drama (ideally with a lot of good material for Liz) and not a lot of firm-jumping shenanigans.

#tgf thoughts #the good fight

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sigynpenniman · 3 years

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Julian Bashir Playlist Time!!

Apple Music playlist (if you're a heathen and subscribe to apple music like me) here

I know that there's plenty of people making playlists, but I really feel like this is an under-utilized brand of fan content. Instead of attempting to create a list of songs that Julian would listen to, or a playlist of songs which were all lyrically directly applicable (though there certainly some of those in here) regardless of genre, I tried to create something which captured, above all, his vibes instead, by choosing songs that balance at least somewhat relevant lyrical content with the energy or feel that I associate with the character. What it means matters, but not as much as how it makes you feel. That said, I signed up for apple music and read a TON of those overwrought iTunes store album review descriptions while I was making this, so I have a whole lot to say about all my choices here. In depth explanation of my symbolism and methodology behind each song under the keep reading. (I love tumblr. I want to write 1,000 words of analysis about why I picked songs to represent Julian Bashir and some of you are gonna read it. This is where I get to pretend to be one of those iTunes music writers. I feel joy.)

Good Morning - Two Door Cinema Club TDCC's Gameshow is high on my favorite albums of all time list for nebulous reasons I myself don't really understand. It was this album, though not this song (but one that will pop up later) that actually inspired me to make this playlist to begin with, as for some reason, from the color scheme of the album cover, to the overall vibe, to the ever-present references to illness, injury, surgery and healers in the lyrics, the whole thing feels inescapably Julian to me. And with an opening like I'm a sinner/I'm the victim/I'm an alien when I'm myself/I'm a healer/I'm a fixer/I'm a present danger to my health/I'm so strong/Doing what I'm supposed to do/ There's something wrong/With somebody like me, it's hard NOT to think about Julian when you hear this song, and I can't think of a better way to start this off.

Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood I think there's a joke somewhere about bisexual people all liking Sweater Weather, and yeah, I resemble that remark. Sweater Weather is just good. You'll notice there's a sort of chill-indie-alt-electronic thing going here, and that is very much the vibe I'm sticking with. Sweater Weather slots in beautifully, both sonically and thematically. As the singer looks to warm and protect the person he's with from the cold, you can't help but feel a loving coziness coming off of this one. It always makes me feel cozy, at least, so it's here.

Gooey - Glass Animals I have nothing to analyze here because the artists themselves have said that the lyrics of this song have no meaning, they're just meant to capture a vibe, and capture it they do. Close your eyes and ride the vibes of this one. The energy is right, I love it, it belongs here.

Blue - Mika I could probably write a couple hundred words on Blue alone, in any context. This might be my beloved Mika's magnum Opus. Opening the song with the inherently counterintuitive lyric Blue is a feminine color, Mika manages to pack it ALL into this 3 minute song: questions about gender; concepts of sadness, joy, and their intersections; of the perception of melancholy as a flaw and loving people despite, or maybe because of, those "flaws" and anything else about them; a powerful first person reassurance that made me start weeping in my car the first time I heard it; just the phrase "why are humans cruel to you." And oh boy, ARE there questions of gender. Why is blue NOT considered a feminine color? Is that a good thing, a bad thing? In 3 minutes of artful poetry, Mika manages to wrap up sadness, love, joy, pain, the feminine that exists within the masculine and the masculine that exists within the feminine, in the simple color of blue and then, in one lyric, validates it all. And on a much simpler and more obvious note, this is in fact all a philosophic musing on the symbolic meaning of the color we see Julian wearing almost all the time (when he's not in uniform, almost all his civvies are also shades of blue.) I feel like this is one of those songs that's hard to analyze because it does what music and poetry does best - communicate something that cannot be communicated any other way. With these broad themes of loving others around the things they can't love about themselves, you can decide for yourself if this one is coming FROM Julian or directed AT him, either works. I find myself struggling for exactly the words to explain this one, but listen to it; you'll understand.

Little Dark Age - MGMT Another choice with no obvious lyrical relevance, but the tonal fit was just too good to pass up. The vibes pass.

The City - The 1975 This song is one of several present because it leans on medical symbolism to get its point across, though I would be lying if I said I fully understood what that point was. But the entire second verse, apparently about the song's subject suffering from some kind of illness and reassuring him that the next one's the M.D./You'll be feeling just fine, seems somehow to transmit the discomfort of illness directly to the listener. I don't know how or why, but the effectiveness of the empathy the second half of this song elicits, in me at least, puts it squarely in the "odd medical vibes" category.

Surgery - Two Door Cinema Club THIS is the song that inspired this whole playlist, mostly because of its title and general vibe. Another example (of many) of medical/anatomical references in this album (another of the songs is called Fever, etc), this song just feels like Julian to me.

The Other Side Of Paradise - Glass Animals I really like Glass Animals. That is probably becoming obvious. Aside from its delightfully cohesive vibes, this song opens with what's simultaneously the slyest and most brazen gay lyric I have heard on the radio recently, as the male singer says When I was young and stupid my love left to be a rock and roll star/HE told me... The song seems to be about a man whose male lover left him in pursuit of fame and fortune, and eventually ends up with a woman, leaving the singer behind. It's got simultaneously subtle and obvious gay themes, it's got confused love affairs, it's got so much bisexual energy. I cannot think of anything that could be more Julian.

Sit Next To Me - Foster The People Kind of like Sweater Weather, this whole song is built around a rather cute and sweet "sit next to me," and you can't help but feel a bit warm and cozy when you listen to it. I think it pairs with sweater weather well, and slides in with the rest of the picks very nicely.

Nothing Better - The Postal Service (the original band of the lead singer of Death Cab For Cutie) Another example of heavy surgical symbolism, the very first lyric of this song is Will someone please call a surgeon. This is actually a duet, and the singers speak of their real hearts to represent their emotional ones. Something about Your heart won't heal right if you keep tearing out the sutures always gets me and always will. And it vibes good. It vibes so, so good.

&Run - Sir Sly Sir Sly's &Run is my favorite song for driving too fast. It does an amazing job of musical onomatopoeia, talking about running while making you want to run. It's a song about running out of plans and running as far as you can instead, which is all very "I'm illegal by definition so I went to the farthest possible reaches of space." And like everything else here, it just feels good. It's also one of the only highlights here that I can actually see Julian listening to.

Cosmic Love - Florence and the Machine It's no coincidence that it seems like most of us who are invested in Julian Bashir are some flavor of genderqueer, be it trans, nonbinary, questioning, or something else entirely - the man's got a Gender with a capital G, and there's a whole lot going on in there. Between the words that were written for him on the page, and the words that were actually spoken, and the way he carries himself, Julian always seems caught between the white, western, and frequently toxic masculinity that the writers often seemed to want to imbue him with, and the very different, racially and culturally distinct masculinity Sid actually brought. But there's an undeniable element of the feminine in Julian too, at least by a traditional definition. The presence of this part of him at all, much less the fact that, in-universe, it's the more traditionally "feminine" parts of himself - the caregiving and nurturing aspects - that Julian seems proudest of or to like most about himself, is a large part of what makes his character so interesting, at least to me. So there was no way I was getting out of this without acknowledging that somehow, and I can't think of a better way to acknowledge a complicated relationship with the feminine side of one's own gender than with this world's own Celtic divine feminine, Florence Welch. I can't think of any better artist, at least that I know of, to represent femininity as a nonspecific ethereal goddess-concept. I basically spun the wheel of Florence here, as anything would have worked, but Cosmic Love felt very appropriate for a character who does in fact live in space. There could even be some Garashir in here, I think.

Dream Sweet In Sea Major - ミラクルミュージカル, or Miracle Musical, a sister act made up of members of Tally Hall I also couldn't leave off without acknowledging Julian's affection for classic lounge music, especially since it's the only thing about his taste in music that we actually know. But instead of tacking on some rat pack, instead I'm polishing this off with the incredibly chaotic and somehow also perfectly cohesive and calm Dream Sweet in Sea Major. It's got all of the vibes of a lounge singer but gone completely off the rails, which just seems perfect somehow. And it's also a very nice feeling to be left with, so it seems only right to put it at the end.

and if you've read all of this, I love you. Y'all didn't know I was this into music did you. but I am. oh boy. I AM.

#julian bashir #playlists #Spotify

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justcourttee · 4 years

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Okay that "Love,Right?" oneshot was wonderful but now you've got me obsessed with wondering how all the boys would fight for Mari's attention and all trying to date her omg

On an off note, I hope this came out alright. I really wanted to answer your ask but I’m running on low fumes rn. Loved thinking about this too though! I would love to read a more thought out fic, but I have to imagine it would go something like this

I could totally imagine like them all being relatively close in age. Like let’s say,

Dick 23

Jason 21

Tim 20

Mari 18

Damian 17

And Mari is almost done with her last year of lycee so she is in uber done mode until the batboys show up in Paris conveniently at the same time that the Wayne boys show up to scout out a potential new business partner.

She first meets Dick at the gymnasium that Chloe’s father had built for her when she went through a gymnastics phase but soon opened it to the public after she had moved on to whatever interested her next. Marinette is there to practice swinging mid-air to move faster in battle and what better way to do that than over a safety net 40 feet in the air?

Anywho, Dick is just arriving to blow off some steam after a particularly long day of negotiating. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the Hawkmoth mission and the need for a cover, he would’ve abandoned Tim ages ago. He finished locking up his stuff and when he moves into the acrobat section that is always empty, he isn’t sure whether to be impressed or disappointed that someone is there first. She looked nervous as she finished tying her hair into a high ponytail, her eyes calculating as if she was debating if she could make the first jump.

He wants to tell her that there is an easier way to mount, but his curiosity gets the better of him. With one last look, she closes her eyes, inhaling deeply. Without warning, she takes off down the short walkway launching her whole body into the air. Dick is sure she’s going to fall, but at the last minute she reaches out, her hand grasping the bar as she uses her momentum to flip upward, landing gracefully on top of the swinging trapeze.

Dick couldn’t help his cheers. Her eyes widened as she realized someone else was watching her and in what felt like slow motion, she lost her balance and fell onto the net below. Dick rushes over to make sure she’s okay, apologizing a million times a minute. They introduce each other and it’s like an instant connection. They spend the rest of the afternoon trying new techniques and helping each other improve their own techniques.

When Dick returns to the hotel that night, he can’t help the fact that her first swing was stuck on replay in his mind. The next day, he rushes over to the gym only to find her there again. This time, he’s determined to get her number, and surprisingly (to him) he succeeds. They spend the night trading funny memes and tiktoks. After a couple of weeks, Dick decides to try and ask her on a date. They were already close friends, I mean she trusted him enough not to drop her from forty feet in the air, that meant she trusted him right?

He shows up with a giant bouquet of roses only to receive a text message that she couldn’t make it that day. While it was a setback, it didn’t mean he was going to give up. He would show up with a bouquet of roses every day until she was there to receive them. And only then would he ask her on a date, because I can totally believe that he wouldn’t want to do it over text. It’s in-person or not at all.

The second Wayne she meets is Jason.

Muggings in Paris weren’t common with Ladybug and Chat Noir around, but it seemed to be Marinette’s lucky day as some guy just decided that a high school girl had enough money in her little purse to steal. As he backed her down an alleyway, a small hand knife pointed at her, Marinette was considering her options.

She could always try to run. After all, the guy was big and bulky, it would be hard for him to keep up with her and she doubted he wanted her bag enough to actually put up a fight. Just as she was eyeing an opening, a small sound echoed through the alleyway, one she was quite familiar with. The guy’s face looked mortified as he turned slowly to face his attacker.

The man said something in a hushed tone to the guy that Marinette couldn’t quite make out. Whatever it was though, it was enough for her would-be assailant to book it out of the alleyway without a glance back. Assessing her newest threat, Marinette decided that this guy was more punk than thug. She was safe for now.

He asked her if she was okay and if she needed anything as he adjusted his gun back into his waistband. Marinette was fine, but she was curious as to how he smuggled a gun into France.

“Ah. My American accent give me away Princess?”

His french was flawless, but it was clear that he wasn’t from the area. He joked that his adopted father was rich enough for the national security to look past it. At least, she was pretty sure he was joking.

He asks if they can grab something to eat, just because a pretty girl like her shouldn’t go hungry. Marinette is tempted to decline, but her curiosity gets the better of her. They end up going to a small diner near her parent’s bakery where they spend the night flirting shamelessly, both tinging their compliments with enough sarcasm and insults that the people around them couldn’t tell if they were together or if they were related.

Exchanging numbers, the two continued to meet up for weekly dinners at that same diner as they bond over hating people and insulting/admiring each other. When Jason finally realizes his flirting may have shifted from mocking to an actual crush, he's conflicted. It’s just a couple months, at most a year in Paris, but would that really be a reason not to try? He starts bringing her small gifts to the dinners, starting out small like her favorite dessert or small rocks that reminded him of her, but he soon gets more elaborate like bringing her his favorite books to borrow and throwing in a new set of threads for her sewing machine.

He hopes that when she looks at the small gifts that she’ll start associating him with the things that make her happy and just maybe, she’ll fall for him too.

I think you guys already know where Tim is going but I have to do this

Marinette frequents a small coffee shop near the hotel that the Wayne Boys are staying in. She would just drink the coffee that her parents serve in the bakery, but they refused to let her load up her drinks with enough caffeine to get through her day.

She always shows up at 7:00a, after all, she’s gotten better at this punctuality thing over the years. The owners already expect her at this point and already have her drink ready before she even steps foot through the door.

One morning, one of the owners ask her to deliver a coffee to the young man that fell asleep at one of their tables.

“He’s the first person I’ve met whose order rivals yours Ms. Dupain-Cheng.”

Marinette is impressed as she inhales the strong black coffee wafting from the mug. He definitely amped it up with two expresso shots and maybe a pump of hazelnut? If he could taste it over the bitterness of the expresso, she would be impressed.

As she sat the cup down on the table, she slid into the booth in front of him, patiently waiting for him to stir. Watching his soft exhales, Marinette felt at peace. She had never seen someone sleep so softly without moving a muscle. As quietly as she could, she brought out her sketchbook. She got about halfway through his frame when his soft breathing stopped.

Her eyes snapped up to find his blue ones studying her cautiously. Of course, she mutters out apologizes at a million miles a minute, trying to explain that she needed practice for her living art class and that she was just dropping off his coffee and she was so sorry for drawing him without his permission. As she finally trails off, Marinette is more confused than ever. She thought he was awake, his eyes studying her, but now she wasn’t so confident. She was pretty sure he was still half asleep, assuming she was some sort of hallucination.

He reached out, draining his cup of coffee without coming up for a single breath.

“I didn’t think I was this sleep-deprived. Please beautiful sleep-induced entity, draw me if you must.”

Marinette bites her lip trying not to laugh as he tiredly pulls out a laptop, typing away at seemingly nothing.

The next day, Marinette finds him in his same spot, already two empty mugs occupying the table. As she orders, she’s sure to grab an extra one for him before joining him once more. This time, Tim is the one to apologize as he realizes finally that she is a real girl and not a hallucination.

Marinette laughs it off and the briefly chat about their lives. As Marinette gets up to leave for her morning classes, she promises to meet him for coffee the next morning. Surely enough, as she walks through the door, he’s already at their booth. He waves her over, motioning to the coffee mug holding her go-to order. They come to an agreement, he allows her to draw him for practice, she offers him the occasional advice. There is sometimes small talk, but it’s mostly just full of comfort that they found in each other’s presence.

After weeks, Tim finally decides that he wants to get to know this beautiful coffee angel. He starts by asking her to meet at a bakery that he had been dying to try. As he arrives at the bakery, Marinette sheepishly admits that it was her parent’s bakery. Tim feigns ignorance, but that smirk he gives her makes her reconsider the innocent sleep-deprived man she had met weeks earlier. From now on, he has breakfast with the Dupain-Cheng family every morning. After all, your in-laws have to like you first before you can try anything else, right?

Finally, we have Damian.

They meet in the living art class. He had already taken something similar at Gotham Academy, but he was curious to see the French side of something he cherished so dearly.

At first, he hates her. She reminds him of a mixture between Dick and Tim and in all honesty, he only volunteered to pretend to be a foreign exchange student to spend the majority of the day away from his brothers.

He slowly begins to change his mind though as he is partnered with her for a partner draw project. The teacher forces them to spend all of class drawing each other how they feel the world should see their partner. It involved a lot of sharing and as she became more confident in him, he slowly felt himself opening up to this strange girl as well.

It was going fine until one day, two of her old classmates entered the classroom, trying to pick a fight with Damian. He remembered one of them, yes the sausage haired girl, her name was Lily perhaps? She tried to ask him out and he turned her down, hard. Now here she was, crying the fakest tears he had ever seen as some ombre haired woman was chewing him out.

He was fine going on ignoring them, but then the ombre haired woman reached out for his notebook, tearing it from his grasps. She glanced over it for a second before raising it above her head and slamming it into the ground. She lifted her foot to stomp on it, but she never had a chance to finish. Before Damian had even moved a muscle, Marinette was standing above her, a murderous look in her eyes. The sausage haired woman helped the girl to her feet as they retreated quickly, both of their faces pale as they sent empty threats in Marinette’s direction.

With a sigh, Marinette picked up his notebook, dusting it off gently before handing it back to him, apologizing for her ex-classmates. He wanted to let her know that he didn’t need her to look out for him, that he could handle it, but his mind flashed to the look in her eyes. If anything, his interest was now piqued by the girl.

As the project came to an end, the moment of truth had finally come. Damian showed Marinette her portrait. He had drawn her as mother nature, warm and protective of her children and cold to anyone that threatened them. He would be lying if the small blush on her face didn’t boost his pride. When she showed Damian his portrait, he couldn’t help but let his jaw drop, even slightly.

He looked like a medieval knight, posing on the defense, a slight trickle of what looked like blood dripping out the corner of his mouth.

“I’m sorry, please don’t think it’s weird. It’s just the more you talked, and so passionately too about how you wanted to protect everything dear to you from your family to your pets, I couldn’t help but get swept away in this idea that you were some gallant knight-”

He cut her off with a single look as his face broke into a grin. He loved it. Everyone always described him as a demon or a baby bird, but a gallant knight, it was certainly a first.

That night at the hotel, he would search google for the best ways to ask out a girl. After all, he sure as hell wasn’t asking his brothers.

Permanent Tag List:

@ash-amg @rebecarojas07 @heaven428 @long-lost-peace @thequeenofpotatoeunicornss @moongoddesskiana @nach0ava @iamablinkmarvelarmy @seraphkitty @clumsy-owl-4178 @pawsitivelymiraculous @mialuvscats @leagrey @smolplantmum @animegirlweeb @glitterflowercat

#dickinette #jasonette #timinette #daminette #maribat

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ohblackdiamond · 3 years

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kiss and homoeroticism

You wanted the essay, you got the essay.

Disclaimer: Please remember, cynical as it is, that KISS has always been into portraying particular images of themselves, and can and will change with the times and what they perceive as showcasing what they feels is the appropriate message/depiction. I’m not saying they’re never sincere, but, well, I’d take most of what they say with a grain of salt. And I say this for every single one of the original guys. They are all chronic exaggerators and often embellishers, and no showman worth his salt has ever let the truth get in the way of a good story. It’s all about perception.

There’s more of a focus on Paul here than anyone else and I do apologize for that; I just know more about him so he’s much easier to point out for an essay like this.

Calling this something like “times KISS has directly tried to court the LGBT audience” may, sadly, be a little bit of a stretch and a little too inclusive-- what they were mostly courting was the gay male audience. But let’s start with some stuff that’s definitive and, well, devolve from there. This one got away from me a bit. All opinions are my own.

*Bill Aucoin, their first manager, and his boyfriend, Sean Delaney, were gay. There’s a joke here about how despite everything this is the only real way KISS ever emulated their heroes the Beatles (having a gay manager), but that’s beneath me. Bill and Sean were out as far as the band and its associates went (and as far as their area of the music industry/celebrity went), but not as far as the general public was concerned. This was not remotely uncommon for the time period. All band members were cool with it and Bill and Sean would sometimes take the band to gay bars. All this to say that KISS was not unfamiliar with the gay scene at all.

*Their very first outfits that weren’t courtesy their moms’ sewing machines had their initial inspirations in, of course, the glam rock genre (KISS was one of, if not the last group to make it big in glam rock), but also in the leather subculture and S&M. This influence starts to fade out from tour to tour, but is probably most evident, I’d say, in Peter’s first real costume.

*Their stage moves-- specifically the KISS sway, and Ace dropping to his knees while Gene and Paul do the sway-- are courtesy Sean Delaney. Does it look cool for three guys to be synchronizing their movements while playing guitar? Yeah. Does it simulate oral sex? Yes. Was that their intent? Yes. There are a handful of concert clips where they go even farther with it (here is Gene simulating oral on Paul , and the second gif is Paul doing the same with Ace/Ace’s guitar). I want to emphasize that they’re not the only band at the time that did things like this, and I also want to emphasize that, again, image is everything to KISS and they absolutely enjoyed doing this for shock value and to play themselves up as “transgressive,” subversive, and dangerous. (No, I don’t know why or when Gene started licking Ace and later Tommy; I don’t think Sean can be credited with that stage move-- I feel like Gene just saw Ace’s bare neck one horny evening and went for it, and Ace either didn’t mind or at least dug it enough that it just became a thing.) But it’s also intentionally erotic.

*Photoshoots-- Hotter than Hell and the White Room sessions are the main culprits people point to (and again, it’s worth noting that everyone in the Hotter than Hell session besides Gene is drunk, and everyone in the White Room session besides Gene is high), but there are plenty of other press photos where the guys are posing, humping, etc.

*Marketing-- I’ve said this before, but Paul in particular was marketed as bisexual (I hate that this needs to be said, but I am only speaking of his marketing and not his actual identification.), even in goofier stuff like the fake KISS bios put out for kids. Paul even admits that his note to the fans in Alive is deliberately gender non-specific in order to appeal to as wide a range of people as possible.

*Paul’s 1989 Playgirl article-- Playgirl’s main readership was gay men rather than straight women. While the interviewer for his article is a woman, Paul’s also really aware of the magazine’s primary demographic, and talks about losing friends to AIDS. (This is not me casting doubt on him having lost friends to AIDS at all, but I don’t think he would’ve mentioned it in a “straight” publication, especially not during that time period, when knowledge about AIDS, its communicability, etc., wasn’t what it is now at all, treatments were limited to nonexistent, and homophobia ran very rampant.) He really plays up to the interviewer and the whole thing comes off like a more mature, nuanced version of his feature articles from ten years prior, sort of portraying himself as this put-together, thoughtful, sweet rockstar that’s so different from his image and wants to settle down-- he’s selling the rockstar boyfriend fantasy.

*You can argue plenty of ways for the general antics of Gene, Paul, Ace, and Peter in particular during interviews. Ace tends to like to touch the other guys on the arm/thigh/whatever’s around. Gene hits on female and male interviewers without really skipping a beat. Sometimes the whole band starts hitting on each other. Gene jokes about his and Paul’s secret relationship and makes rather forthright statements. In KISS’ most infamous interview, Tom Snyder makes a pass at Ace, and Ace, inebriated, reciprocates (”I’ve got a little piece of pipe backstage I’d like you to work on...” “Tell me about it!”). Again, I’m not going to make any statements on any of their actual sexualities-- that’s not what this is about; these are real people. I’m only focusing on what’s being projected. whether it’s just meant as a joke to throw people off, envelope-pushing, or on occasion an appeal to their gay fans, it’s quite frequent. Ace and Peter are referring to their sexual relationship over here, though, for what that’s worth.

#kiss the band #paul stanley #gene simmons #peter criss #ace frehley #kiss and...

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jocia92 · 3 years

Link

… So much of an actor’s craft is figuring out the “I want” of their character, but that’s got to be a little different with Tom since he states that he literally cannot want anything. What challenge or opportunity did that pose for you?

I think he wants to improve. I think he wants to calibrate according to Alma’s needs, wants, and desires. I think he’s very ready to learn and to understand. That was the kind of primary objective: listen, learn, calibrate, improve. That’s almost the track of each scenario. He just gets a little better each time, and the process gets a little faster. But certainly, in the beginning, he’s just delivering this sort of 20 classic chat-up lines that he’s been uploaded with and getting it all wrong. It’s fun to watch the machine learn and chart that progress.

On a practical or philosophical level, how did you approach the process of humanizing a character that’s an algorithm, or did you at all?

It was very much about charting with Maria exactly when we want to see the machine, when we want to see the human. Even playing with that ratio was really interesting and fun. It’s not so much about watching him play the machine, but watching a character try to play the human. Certainly, in the beginning, in some of the not quite so successful human moments, shall we say, we deconstructed what we regarded as the conventional human behavior in that. We looked at a lot of screwball comedies, like Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Katharine Hepburn movies. [We were] taking a move or a gesture, breaking that down, and just doing two of the things. It just suddenly looks very odd and wrong, and you’re like, “Oh, this is what a human does in this moment!” But it’s just off. It was really as much about looking at the human.

You’ve mentioned things like The Philadelphia Story as shaping the film and its central relationship. Was that to ground it in reality or further ensconce it in the warped reality of cinema? Grant and Stewart are recognizable to us as people, but things like that mid-Atlantic lilt were entirely manufactured for the screen.

That was a very key point for Maria in referencing Cary Grant. The hair color that we chose for Tom was very much like Cary Grant’s hair color, being a shade darker than is possibly human. And the skin tone being slightly artificial for Tom. You’re right, Cary Grant is often very heightened and mannered sometimes, and it works in the situation in the style of the thing that he’s in. But we quite liked the idea that Tom has been uploaded with some outdated versions of what a romantic lead was supposed to behave like.

It’s striking just how thought-out things had to be down to how Tom responds to dead air space in a conversation. What was the process behind those small moments that can make or break the believability of a character?

It was very fun to play with, and probably quite frustrating for a lot of the human actors. Maren was giving a beautifully naturalistic performance, and the conventional responses that there should be from her scene partner weren’t there. We deliberately strip those away—sometimes without telling her, sometimes without needing to tell her. It’s just the way that Tom was, so it was about pushing those moments into a space that became a little uncomfortable: not jumping in on the lines where you might normally jump in, sometimes coming in hard, sometimes offering a delayed response, sometimes none at all. Playing with those, and watching how comfortable or uncomfortable that made them both, was really fun.

Did that frustration, built in by the process, bleed over for Maren into the character of Alma, do you think?

Maybe for Maren. Certainly, for me, it was frustrating in that I would have to remember not to respond in the way that I might normally and remove some of those things. [I had to] really break down exactly what Tom is thinking, what his programming is doing in that point, how he’s responding and calibrating, and whether we see that or not. Choosing moments to show the human, to show the machine. Along with Maria, that was one of the great joys of the role.

How did you settle on the physicality of the character? Was it at all helpful to have done something like Beauty and the Beast in a mo-cap suit to be hyper-aware of how your own movements translate to the screen?

Very much so. In fact, in pretty much every role I’ve done since Beauty and the Beast, I’ve incorporated not always a movement coach, but I’ve definitely looked at movement theory and physicality in a totally new way because of the challenges of that role. And, I have to say, dance plays a huge part in that. Whether it’s incorporated on the screen or if it’s something that just feels as if it helps the role, I often find that a dance studio is a very fruitful space to discover things about your character’s physicality. Learning the rumba for this role was incredibly helpful because it’s a very precise, technical, almost robotic dance in terms of the laser precision that’s needed to get it absolutely right. I had a fantastically exact teacher in Berlin who was teaching me the rumba the whole way through the shoot. We shot that [one scene] quite near the end of the shoot. Just to have those lessons, that kind of physicality, and that poise with me the whole way through the role was really useful.

How did the role being in a non-native tongue affect the characterization of Tom? Was it all easier to make him seem slightly unreal given that the words might not come quite as naturally as they would in English?

I think it was a deliberate choice on the part of Maria to look for a foreign actor who could speak German. She needed somebody who could both get their heads and their mouths around the very technical German that was required, which, even for a German is pretty complex, but also who had that sense of otherness. I’m sure they could have tailored the screenplay to any number of nationalities, but I was very happy they came to me and made him British. It definitely helped with, as I say, the fact that he’s listening, learning, focusing, trying to improve…that was literally all I was doing last summer, every day.

How do you lock onto the frequency of German comedy, which isn’t always something people associate with that country or people? How is it different than doing something like the more mannered British wit of Blithe Spirit or the broad studio comedy of Eurovision Song Contest?

It’s not a country known for it, but I think they should [be]. I find Germans very funny. They have a very interesting sense of humor. What’s particularly delightful is the way that they can tackle really kind of big, sometimes weighty, issues with a certain wit and lightness of touch, which is not common to all countries. Physical comedy, I think, is fairly universal. I think there’s something almost farcical about some of the physical stuff that we managed to get in this. It was really fun to make people laugh in a foreign language. It was surprisingly delightful. It felt very unifying, somehow, to be able to get a joke across in any language.

#ich bin dein mensch #i'm your man #dan stevens #slant magazine #interview #long post

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baobaojng · 4 years

Text

secrets of the hill (jung jaehyun) - fifth

secrets of the hill (jung jaehyun) - first, second, third, fourth, fifth

jung yoonoh (jaehyun) x reader - 1800’s jaehyun!au , arranged marriage! au , supernatural-ish?!au , victorian? i think? !au

themes: angst, fluff, (just some implied smut along the way, i’m far too soft)

reminders: i’m half lazy, so i might not be able to drown myself in as much 1800’s facts as i’m supposed to as a responsible author — SO, yes, this will purely rely on fiction

note: hello it’s been a while :)

summary: in the present day you are confused; you do not know who you are and you find yourself on an impossible quest to find out— until you wake up in the 1800’s, engaged to a hauntingly beautiful and uptight man who tries to figure out why the girl he’s been betrothed to has drastically changed.

wordcount: 4,296

It was not a brave response when you rush away from the dance floor with an aching head to look for your cousin. Not a brave move at all not to face Jaehyun, ignoring the worried look on his face. Just like the one in the memory that came crashing back through. Unfortunately, Taeil is nowhere to be found outside the dance floor - instead you see him waltzing away with plenty of women.

“What’s wrong, dove?” Johnny bumps into you, and there is some hesitation clogged up in your throat but you do not mind it. You think for a second that you want to understand Johnny’s intentions, so you entertain this curiosity.

“I do not think I’m welcome here.” You look around at the party, and the tall man smiles.

“You still walk around on eggshells seeing as everyone still treats you like a foreigner after all this time.” He agrees with you, “but only because you and Jaehyun have been promised to each other for so long, and you haven’t been wed yet.”

Lying between your teeth, you can’t help but pretend like this is your concern. When really it’s the man on the dance floor who’s already dancing with lady Alice. Johnny does not take long to figure out where your panicked eyes are.

“Ah, yes, now you understand what I mean.” Johnny tells you as you stand there frozen in your own imaginary block of ice.

“I want to be taken home.” You say, and he just nods.

In the carriage that he had called for, the two of you sat in initial silence. You thought in your mind that Taeil’s mansion probably wasn’t even that far from the Jeong estate, it was just that you were traveling by horse that made it take so long.

“My cousin’s a fool.” It’s not something you expect for Johnny to say, but he had always been in favor of you since the engagement. Alice was always just not favorable in his eyes; her background not so nice to even be associated with boys like him or Jaehyun - but they all grew up together and his cousin being in love with her made the exception somehow. Then there you were, a very rare find of a woman, engaged for the longest time but still kept in the dark about all the secrets of the Jeong estate.

“I told you moments ago that I cannot dictate his own happiness for him, I do not intend to change that at all. This entire arrangement was forced, and we all know it.” You act as if you don’t care but you really do.

“I suppose you would be telling me the truth, but you’re here in a carriage going back home desperate to want to escape from the sight of him dancing with somebody else.” He says and you look away. “You need not feel ashamed; he runs away from his feelings for you as much as you do.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Oh but I do,” he smacks his lips together, “who else do you think he spoke to about his feelings for the four months you disappeared?”

You’re surprised; you were under the impression that he thought you were in some short term boarding school, that’s what he said a while ago.

For fear of catching yourself in any more lies, you ask him. “What else do you know?”

“That you two are fools.” He jokes.

“I think we’ve established half of that sentiment by now.” Johnny nods.

“You know,” he tries to take advantage of the friendlier atmosphere, “I always wondered why you left; he meant to say he wanted to marry you in that letter he sent. Were you scared?”

Your right eyebrow raised, “This time I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Johnny believes your reaction. “Did you not receive his letter?”

“No.” But then you remember that other letter under Yuno’s name that was left neatly along in the pile of your envelopes.

“Then we were under the wrong impression.”

The carriage slows down, and you can tell that you’ve nearly arrived at the estate. “I’ll thank you in advance to avoid awkwardly getting down from this seat.” There’s a smile somewhere there when you look at Johnny.

“I’ll be seeing you around the hill, lady Y/N.”

An hour passed, and you were lying idly in Jaehyun’s bed— still being a woman of honor in keeping your promises. Ironic how you were running away from the very same person you were sharing a bed with.

Jaehyun enters the room, and you don’t expect him to get back from the party so early. He stands there for a while in the dark, noticing how you’re looking back at him. The only light coming through was from the candlelight slipping into the room.

“You’re awake.” He does not even greet you, but you acknowledge him anyway.

“That I am.” You try to avoid developing any other form of conversation.

“My cousin left word that he brought you home before he headed back to his residence in the Capital.” Jaehyun walks over to one of the dressers, getting rid of the jewelry he was wearing. The sounds of silver bumping into each other filled in the silence of your lack of response.

“I did not want to be there anymore and I already felt tired.” You remarked, straightening over the blanket that covered around your legs.

He is displeased with your answer, not believing it for just a second. “You said yourself that we needed to keep up appearances at the soirée, and there you were running away in the middle of it all. Do you know what it made of me? I looked stupid in front of all those people.”

“If it mattered to you what other people thought, then you should have controlled yourself out of dancing with your true love after I ran out. Stop thinking that I’m ignorant enough as to not know when you’re lacking too.” You snap, pointing out his inconsistencies.

“You have no right to tell me that.” He’s angry because he knows you’re right, and there isn’t much left for him to defend himself.

Then you get out of bed, letting your bare feet meet the floor. “Double standard, my lord. But then again I guess having this argument with you is pointless.” You are definitely sure on leaving the room, not wanting to sleep next to a man who was accusing you of something you both were guilty of.

Jaehyun grabbed your wrist before you could leave, “not when you don’t want to believe me.”

“What must I believe, Jaehyun? The truth makes itself obvious when you want to spend your time with her! I’ve long accepted that our relationship is built off of strategic arrangements and not because of love. You need to stop pretending I have a chance.”

You want him to scream at you, to argue, or to tell you you’re absolutely wrong - but instead he pulls you in close and envelopes you in an embrace. “Don’t leave.” He can hear you gruff under your breath to start another retort. But you finally tell him words he’s been waiting to hear from you, always afraid that you would never acknowledge that one things: how it affected you to know that there was an idea of a union because of love. Although, funniest of all, that you were jealous. “Don’t say anything please. If we start talking about this now it won’t end, and I have had enough of you leaving me.”

His eyes are pooling with tears that are threatening to break out and fall on to his cheeks, and you hate to say you can allow your anger slide if it meant feeling the pang in your chest with the sight of his eyes.

“You make a fool of me like this, you should now.” Whispering in the scarily close proximity, you say it in a tired tone.

“It isn’t something you should be,” he sighs, “I can stop if you want me to.”

There’s a chuckle from you. “If I stopped being a fool then you’d be alone. Lonely fools tend to be worse off.”

He softly grazes at your cheek with the back of his hand, trying to make sense of the moment. You are surprised by the gesture, only to melt a few seconds later when you realize that it makes you feel some sort of way - he made you feel some sort of way.

“Come with me to the Capital tomorrow.” He proposes out of the blue.

“What for?”

“I have to see some things through with business.” He looks at your eyes to try and gage an answer. “We’ll only be a week, it’s not that long.”

“Sure, you dill weed.” It’s a playful nickname, and to your amusement Jaehyun doesn’t even know what that is. “How can I say no to those eyes?”

“Tell me a story.” Jaehyun asks of you as he sits there by the desk of his study, deciding that he can no longer take another page of the nonsense he was reading.

You jump only a little in your seat. “Whatever would you want me to tell you?” It’s unusual for there to be conversation among the two of you during days like this: when he’d tell you (more like command) to accompany him during the day, but he ended up too engrossed with tasks that he would never utter more than five words in a single hour. He had told you to put the machine development to rest for the time being, but it was really just an excuse for him to keep an eye on you.

“Anything, tell me anything.” He rubs his hands to the bridge of his nose.

“I’d like to think you’re a patient man, but I personally wouldn’t think that you would find any of my stories amusing.” You look down to your fiddling thumbs, and to him it was a heart-melting sight to see.

“You could tell me about the decaying wood on the porch or how water evaporates, I’m sure I’ll listen intently. Anything you say captures my attention.” The reassurance is fascinatingly worrying you.

“Well I could tell you about my cousin,” you think about Taeil and the time he fell into the lake of your own estate, “but you might use it against him the next time you’ll meet.”

Jaehyun smiles, “but hasn’t he enough embarrassment to transcend lifetimes? I believe I have more than enough to tease him for.”

In agreement, you laugh. “I heard about that time he had to take a march down the halls of Winchester with drenched trousers.”

“Oh yes, one of my few good memories in school.” He reminisces, and he looks over to carefully observe you. “What about you? Does the embarrassment run in the family?”

“A woman doesn’t tell those kinds of stories,” fair excuse, but mostly because you do not want him to know about all the embarrassing things you’ve done, “we’re taught to keep things like that secrets, you should know.” Instead of keeping him away from wanting to know more, what you say does the exact opposite.

“Say that now, but what about I let you spend

the rest of the afternoon with Eleanor and Catherine in the sewing room.” You know he doesn’t mean it, but you already dread the idea.

You already laugh a bit before you even start, and Jaehyun thinks that he seldom hears this sound from your mouth - and it makes him beam a little bit in amusement. “When I lived in the Capital when I was very young, I used to pose around town sometimes as a boy to be able to sneak into the mechanical shops. One day I got caught trying to stuff my hair into a hat and I thought I was going to die. Luckily the old man didn’t care about gender, and he became one of my first mentors.”

“I don’t think it’s at all embarrassing then. I’d like to say it’s very endearing.” These days it seemed that he did not hold back with his admiration.

“Not until you hear the part where I had to pretend for months that I was a worker for the sewing factory so my mentor could sneak me into the machine rooms.”

He hums, “that’s interesting...” His voice trails off, looking at how you began to brightly describe old memories. “What was it like back then for you?”

“I could say very greasy, because honestly for a while that’s all I felt. It was dirty, grimy, felt very polluted— but to me it was exhilarating having kept a secret like that. Until I had to explain this to my parents of course, but they willingly accepted that I didn’t quite like learning about housework from the governess. But what mattered the most was that I was learning something that made me feel content, which nothing had ever done for me before.” In some sense he understands what you feel, but he cannot tell you how.

“Does it feel any different now?”

“Of course it does,” you nod, “I don’t get that heart-wrenching thrill of having to sneak around.”

He raises up a brow, “then how do you explain the lock-ins inside your work room?”

You shrug. “I need peace.”

“I suppose.” The conversation feels like it’s about to die again, but you peer at him still.

“What about you?” You ask him this time, remembering the paint stains you see on his clothes from time to time. Never would you have dared to ask him a question straight forward as this one, but there was a comfortable atmosphere you built around the duration of time you’ve accompanied him.

“Yes?” He thinks you’re clueless.

“Surely there’s something that piques your senses.”

“A lot of things do.” One of them is you, he thinks.

“Painting,” the word slips out from your tongue before you could even control it, “what about painting?”

The look on his face changes, and he’s quick to cover it up but you catch him. “What about painting?”

“Your collection of art is very hard to ignore.”

“Don’t all proper men own proper arrays of things that are easy to look at?” He tilts his head, but you let a breath of soft laughter leave your lips.

“I keep on seeing paint on your clothing whenever I see you,” you muse, “I suppose the new paintings don’t just fall from the sky.”

He seems happy to be accused, far from anything you would ever expect of him. “It’s a long story to tell, but we have the rest of our lives.” If you had listened much better maybe you could detect the hints in his sentence, but you were too busy wanting to know how in the world this man got into painting.

Looking at you in the carriage as you gawk through the window as if it’s your first time seeing the identical trees that lined up the rugged pathways - Jaehyun thinks, he is more fascinated by the sight of you than you are of the outside. The early morning light hits your face, and he remembers the day in the garden - the same airy feeling embraces him.

While he had been quietly observing you for the course of the last few minutes on the way to the train station, you were admiring the view. You close your eyes for a bit breathing in the air, trying to make sense of the whole mess you were in. But then you hear him laugh, and when you look— he’s laughing at you.

“What?” You say, closing your eyes again. The last thing you wanted to be was annoyed.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen you so happy with the sight of trees and rubble,” he notes aloud, “I thought Capital ladies did not care for those things.”

“Oh, so now it’s alright to profile another person’s interest based on where they hail from? I always thought there was something off about you, but now I learn that you’re the discriminating type.”

“You never showed interest for the views in traveling before.” Back then whenever you went places with Jaehyun, you always nervously picked at your nails instead of ever comfortably sitting through carriage rides.

“Yes, well, tell me Jaehyun,” you calmly tell him, imagining you’re at one of those yoga classes you took for a couple of weeks until you gave up because your hamstrings were absolute trash, “aren’t we getting old?”

Really, it’s one of the odder things he’s heard from you; he could not find the connection between thought. “Yes.”

“One day when we’re much much older, we might regret not enjoying the unsullied commodities nature has to offer.” Remembering just how humid and how terrible modern day air is, you know what you’re saying is true. “Years from now you might not be able to see the sunlight the same way, or the trees - and you might not even breathe air as fresh.”

“That’s a good sentiment.” For a little while he reflects on this, finding it endearing.

“Don’t take opportunities like this for granted.” You open your eyes to look at him, abruptly opening the sliding window to open a little more. “Come on now, my lord. Don’t spoil all the fun.” The window is inviting, but you wait for him to understand what you’re trying to make him do.

“I think it’s rather childish.” He’s trying to refuse you kindly, but you stick your tongue out at him like a child (and for a little while he thinks that it proves how childish it is, but he smiles just a little bit out of amusement.)

“Oh don’t offend me,” you complain, “when was the last time you could ever say you took a break from thinking about everything in the world and actually took a breath of fresh air to clear your thoughts? And I mean literally take a breath of air.”

He laughs a little bit and the creases on his face are visible, he still thinks you’re joking but it takes a little bit for him to realize that you’re dead serious.

“Really now?” He lifts a brow, carefully examining you. But your lips are sealed in a straight line, and you really have no patience left to try and convince him even further.

“Yes.” Is the last thing you huff before he decides to close his eyes, and for a little while he’s a little self-conscious about how he looks like.

It did not take long for you to find out that Donghyuck was Jaehyun’s half sibling. Although it wasn’t really much a secret; everyone knew about it but talked of it in hushed whispers whenever the brothers would come up in conversation. But because they were a prominent family, it was rare that anyone would directly bring it up.

During your first few weeks at the manor, when it was decided that you would marry the eldest son, you observed it very quickly.

Donghyuck was always so free-spirited, kind. Really acting like a child. A very large contrast to his brother, who was always in seething rage when you saw him - the result of how he resented the arranged union between the two of you. And in connection to his brother— well, Donghyuck was rather kind to you. Very easily attached.

“I heard that they turn quite ugly when they’re distressed or emotional,” you explain to Donghyuck one afternoon in his study when you brought him some food to eat, “it brings out their true self. Although I really can’t imagine how ugly they can be.”

“Don’t you have them in the Capital?” He asks you curiously, and you know that the question is because he still has a massive misconception of the Capital no matter how many times he had gone.

“The Capital seems far too different a place compared to some place like here. Assuming what I know is correct, and that witches prefer a more natural setting.” You shrug as if it’s nothing, lazily relaxing on one of the couches. The fear in Donghyuck’s eyes are present, you’ve scared a little life out of him from your stories.

As expected, Jaehyun walks in the study fuming. But on the surface he tries his best to seem stable, although his clenching fists run flexing muscles through and through the exposed parts of his arms. You sit up straight, not wanting to give him any clues that you were getting comfortable.

“I need to talk to my brother.” He says, to you in particular, but does not care to spare a glance your way. You shrink in the seat you’ve taken, the common instinct of your own body whenever he would be around you.

“I thought we weren’t to be expecting you to be around today,” Donghyuck tilts his head to his brother, “is lady Alice not spending time with you?”

There it was, the odd closeness that nobody else but Donghyuck seemed to direct. Everybody in the manor always acted differently when Jaehyun and lady Alice were to be spending time with each other, and you always wanted to ask questions - not because you cared, but because it made you feel like the pit of your stomach was being dragged down - but their comprehension of ‘normal’ was something you did not want to step over. You could tell that he looked at her differently, but you wanted to know it for sure.

“No,” Jaehyun forces himself to cough, “she left after I told her I was to be married to our guest.” With that he actually spares you a short glance. Interesting how you’d been there for a little while, but only now did he tell her.

“Tell me a story.” He asks of you, just as you are settling into your quarters. Johnny had offered up that the two of you stay in his house in the Capital, which meant that you really had no choice but to still sleep next to each other.

You’re haphazardly laying on the bed your eyes closing on their own, tired from the carriage ride. “Do you know of the fairies and the merfolk?” It’s a shot in the dark, but the first thing that pops into mind as you soak in your fatigue is Barbie: Mermadia— and now you had half the mind and the full intention to make your own altercations to the story just so you could tell him something, anything.

From where he sits at the bedside, you look ridiculously calm for somebody who’s talking about things that are out of the ordinary. For the longest time he never thought you were one to believe things like that, but here you were giving him a pleasant introduction to a story. “No, not really, but whatever you say will be worth my while.”

“You try and flatter me a little too much, don’t you think so?” A sigh leaves your lips as you faintly try and open your eyes to look at him.

“You don’t give yourself enough credit where it’s due.” he looks at you with eyes soft, like he’s looking at the most precious thing. “And I’ve always enjoyed your stories, I’ll have you know.”

“Why is it always me who tells the stories?” You ask him, squinting your eyes just a little bit.

It isn’t true is what Jaehyun thinks, he remembers telling you so many things before you disappeared. But the look on your face says that you know very little of him, as if you don’t remember all the embarrassing tales you used to exchange to pass the time when you found comfort in each other for a time. Hushed tales in between the gaps of furniture in his study, with your soft rust-stained hands lining the wood of his couch and his paint stained sleeves touching the documents he had on his desk. Many many details were spoken, some unnecessary and some even secret. And it terrifies him, the way your eyes press for an answer.

Something about you had definitely changed, and it’s something he’s been hot on for the past few weeks that you’ve returned. You’re obsessively feisty now, always wanting to have the last say. There are things you used to be familiar with, but seem so distant to you. The words and terms you’ve been using make sense - not too far off for you to be considered mad - but never to other people. Except the thing that really irked him was the idea of you having forgotten things. Like the very first time you spoke when you came back, it seemed you were angry at him. Repelling him under the impression that he was as aggressive as he was when your first met.

Now that you looked at him like that, expecting an answer, he thought that maybe he was correct. His worst fears have been realized— maybe you’d forgotten the chain of events that

occurred right when the two of you became comfortable up till your disappearance.

“Jaehyun?” You pull him back into reality, catching both him and yourself off guard by your referral to him. Although the name left your lips naturally, it hits him in fragments of memories and hurt. As if it were twisting his insides.

“My apologies,” he awkwardly stands up and dusts himself off, “I think I have to speak with Johnny for a moment.” He makes up an excuse to get away to have a moment with himself.

Suddenly he could not breathe, but he did not want to shed tears. Not when you were still there.

end of fifth part.

next: sixth part.

#jaehyun scenario #jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun imagine #jaehyun smut #jung jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun fanfic #jaehyun x reader #jung jaehyun x reader #nct imagines #jaehyun #jung yoonoh

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the--highlanders · 3 years

Note

Reverse Unpopular Opinion Meme: Something good about your least favourite Doctor. And maybe your favourite Doctor too, just so you have an excuse to talk about them if you like :D

oh interesting!

there’s a couple of Doctors I connect with less than others but I’m going to go with Ten for this (I know this is meant to be a positivity thing but for context - I don’t enjoy the jesus-figure writing, plus I associate him with being a teenager in the superwholock years and people trying to emulate that super-snarky-genius character gjfk)

only... I want to like him! because I really like David Tennant as an actor! I think he’s great in Broadchurch! at the end last year he got cast as a voice actor in my fave game/a spinoff show and I’m massively excited for it!! I was going to go for the ‘no missed opportunities’ version of this meme but you know what I’ll say it. I wish they had’ve let him keep his accent for Ten.

and writing decisions aside, there’s something about him that’s just very likeable. I see gifsets on tumblr and I think ‘oh, that’s such a good bit’. I rewatch episodes and I enjoy them. there’s a lot of episodes from his era that I genuinely love (I have very fond memories of just having gotten into Torchwood, going on holiday without access to the internet/without having bought the dvds yet, and just. rewatching The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End over and over for the Torchwood content ghfjkd). so whenever I rewatch I always feel like I dislike Ten in theory and because of the things I associate him with more than because of what he actually is.

& then my favourite Doctor is obviously Two. who very much is the Doctor to me. I remember earlier in Thirteen’s run a lot of people were wanting for her to get darker, and I was a bit like, no!! let me have a relatively happy fun Doctor again, please!! Two’s fun and friendly and has great found family dynamics with all his companions and he’s personable in a weird sort of way. like, he’s not necessarily likeable in the same way Ten is, he just carries on doing his own thing (sometimes oblivously) until people can’t help but go along with him. which now I think of it seems quite like Eleven (probably deliberately so and, hey, coincidence, Eleven was my favourite new series Doctor for a loong time) - like, that bit in A Christmas Carol where Eleven tells Kazran his bow tie is cool because he wears it and he doesn’t care what people think? Two is that, but not articulated so openly.

but then he also... isn’t entirely cuddly. he’ll send a fleet of Ice Warriors into the sun without a second thought. he doesn’t seem too worried about Salamander being sent into the vortex. he’ll bash a guy over the head and joke about it. and unlike later Doctors, he never seems to angst over it, like he can justify it to himself. his philosophy is probably the definition of ‘total tolerance requires some intolerance’. he figures it’s morally okay because he’s helping people. which is something that the Doctor doesn’t get to do much anymore, and I wonder if it’s because there’s still a little bit of ‘we don’t quite know what the Doctor is and he’s slightly untrustworthy’ about him. but it’s interesting. and it’s often been said that he settles down after meeting Jamie - and he does! and Evil of the Daleks very much shows Jamie as his moral compass. but for all that Jamie has a super strong set of moral codes, they also happen to include ‘it’s ok to bash someone over the head sometimes’. there’s literally a short story where Jamie almost throws someone out of the TARDIS because he thinks they’ve killed Two. so they probably feed into each other with that.

on the other hand Patrick Troughton’s portrayal of him is just so littered with tiny mannerisms and characteristics and he really shows how much input the actors got to have with those sorts of things in the early series, because he feels so organic. he’s kind to Victoria when she’s grieving, and he can relate to that grief. he plays cards when he’s cornered by soldiers. he’s from an alien planet and (badly) pilots a time machine but he hates computers. he’s vain and thinks he looks wonderful but is a complete mess. he’s alien in all sorts of ways, but still feels very much like a person.

#replies #polly-wright-right #thanks!!!#me at the beginning of this: yeah i don't like ten #me at the end of this: hm maybe i do like ten #i will inevitably seesaw back and forth again #anyway if i had a dollar for every time i was overly invested in a piece of media where david tennant played a scientist character #who goes mad thinking he can ascend to some sort of godhood #and that the fandom loves to stan #i would have two dollars #which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

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argumentl · 3 years

Text

The Freedom of Expression - Episode 34 'Straight face challenge' at amusement park is very popular.

K: Hi, this is Dir en grey's Kaoru, with this week's episode of The Freedom of Expression. Joe san, Tasai san, welcome. We're kinda seated diagonally today.

J: Yeah.

T: It looks different.

K: Its kinda hard to see your faces when we are seated side-by-side.

J, T: Ah, ok.

K: And we've put these things here.

J: Yeh, these acrylic panels.

K: There isn't much meaning to these things if we are side-by-side, right?

J: Ah, yeh.

K: We were always turning sideways, so this is more appropriate.

J: Yeh, we are being more thorough with our counter-measures, with excellent visability.

K: So, we'll see how it goes today. Um, Hanshin are already finished. *T laughs*

J: But second place is second place, right?

K: At the moment..

T: Yeah.

J: So in the remaining 20-something games, there is a twelve game difference?

K: Yeah.

J: At this point in time?

T: Its a really big difference.

J: There's no way they can turn this round?

K: ...Its probably impossible, yeh. haha

J: Does this mean they won't be moving around in the top three?

K: Won't they?

T: They won't. Not in the Central league. Maybe in the Pacific league.

K: Oh yeh, the Pacific league!

J: So from now on if the Giants go on like this to get first place, Hanshin will go on to be second?

K: Well, yeah. But, actually, if there is this much of a difference, and then they go on to win their final game, it will be a bit unfortunate..

J: Yeh, that would be awkward.

T: So, I've brought you two something...I had these Koshien masks bought for you.

J: Really?!

T: Yeh

K: You went to Koshien?

T: I asked our Hanshin reporter to get them, so here you are, for you both. They are both different. Home or visitor colours.

J: Oh, Kaoru is already choosing his favourite. Kaoru, you have them both.

K: No, no, I'll choose home.

J, T: Hahaha.

K: Is this ok? Thank you so much.

T: I thought this might raise the mood one last time.

J: Thats it?! No more after this?

K: Ahh, it would be tough.

J: Really?

K: Yeah. I hope...Well, if the Giants don't lose, its impossible. The Giants probably won't lose.

J: It would only be possible if the Giants lost every game from now, and Hanshin lost none?

K: Yeh, they'd have to keep winning. On top of that, they're kinda running out of players.

J: Really?

T: Some of them have caught the virus.

J: Ohh, they caught the virus?

T: There was a group of 8 eating together.

J: Ah, i see!

T: They lost quite a bit of their main force.

K: Yeh, and then they panicked and moved a few players up from the second team.

J: Like these people will come up from the second team, and try to grab the limelight at last?

K: But actually, Fujikawa is throwing in the second team. So there's a chance he might get moved up.

J: Its a possibility, right? Well, lets pray for a miracle at the end.

T: Yeah.

J: But its technically still not impossible, right?

K: Its not impossible.

J: If they kept winning, and the Giants kept losing.

Kami: Um...um...We get it.

J, T, K: Hahaha

Kami: Lets move on already.

J: Ah, you've had enough?

Kami: Yeh, Im just helping you along.

J: Haha, are you? Thank you.

Kami: Cause its impossible.

K: haha

T: Okay, lets move on.

K: Okay, today..

J: Its like 'ding diiing'..

K:...What?

J: Oh, its ok. Nevermind. haha. I've gone a bit funny recently.

K: Ok, Joe, please tell us the theme.

J: Yep! Ok, this is today's story. 'Screaming banned at amusement parks "Straight face challenge" is very popular '. In order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, parks are asking visitors to refrain from using loud voices or screaming, while using their ingenuity to create fun at the same time. A piece of footage showing people on a roller coaster keeping a straight face has been an unprecedented hit, and another park is using masks as decorations to lighten the mood. 'We are asking visitors to refrain from using loud voices, but have recieved feedback such as, "That would be tough!", or, "Impossible", so the two of us park owners got together and made this exampe video'. The footage shows them enjoying the 70 meter drop, at 130km p/h adjusting threir masks in the front row of the ride car. The 4 min video has even become popular overseas, with over 700,000 views. In May, the Eastern Japan and Western Japan amusement park associations put together some corona prevention guidelines. 'Because there is the worry of droplets spreading when using loud voices, we are encouraging visitors not to shout while riding the thrill rides. In order to created compatibility between operating the park, and preventing the spread of the virus, more strict measures are needed on top of mask wearing and temperature checking.' The slogan 'Scream in your heart' is being used as PR for attractions like roller coasters and the House of Horrors. 'Straight face challenge' has become a hit on social media, with people copying the video of the two guys in a roller coaster, and there has actually been a decrease in the amount of screaming. Furthermore, since July, the park 'Greenland' in Kumamoto, which has ten types of rollercoaster, has been giving visitors stickers in the shape of screaming mouths. They stick them on their masks to get the feeling as if they are screaming. This idea was in response to the comment, 'its not an amusement park if you can't scream'. So, this is quite challenging, right?

K: Its impossible!

J: Right?!

K: A scream will escape anyway, right?

J: Yeh, its called a 'scream machine' cause it makes you scream! (*scream machine = thrill ride in Japanese*). So if you don't scream, its not a scream machine, right?

K: Yeh, im not sure about this. And that thing with the masks at the end..you can't even see it, haha.

J: Haha, yeh, its like just to get into that mood.

K: Really? haha. But you'll scream anyway right?

J: You do, don't you, Kaoru?

K: Well, I've only been on them a few times.

J: What were you like? Like, 'Yaggghhh!!' ? Or like, 'Urrrghh!'?

K: Yeh, that one.

J: 'Urrghh!'?

K: Yeh, with my eyes shut tight...basically.

J, T: Hahaha.

K: Even just with the wind pressure and the swerving...it gets bad.

J, T: Hahaha

K: I do open my eyes a tiny bit if I want to see what its actually like.

J: Just for a moment?

K: Yeh.

J: Well, this shows that the amusement parks are trying hard, so that people can still come and enjoy the rides.

K: But they will definitely scream though, won't they?

J: Well, there will be people who do.

K: But if you are going at that speed, what happens to the droplets...?

J: They will fly away!

T: Yeh.

K: If there is some sat behind you with their mouth open like this...(*leans to the side with his mouth wide open*)....then....

J, T: Hahaha

K:...it might go in, but..

J: I get the feeling the virus won't go in your mouth if you are wearing a mask and going at that speed. But, yeh, if you're sat there will your mouth wide open, then maybe. haha. Is there really anyone like that?

K: I don't think there's much you can do about it.

J: I wonder what Kami thinks about it?

Kami: Its like Yoshimoto. Yoshimoto Shinkigeki (*comedy tv show*).

J: What?

Kami: Its kinda like Yoshimoto Shinkigeki.

J, K, T: Hahaha.

J: Ah, but if you see this from the outside, it looks like comedy. I think they made this video in all seriousness, but if you look at it from a bit further back, it looks like a joke, and we don't know when covid will start to disappear, but when we look back at this, it will seem quite funny I think.

K: Yeah.

J: But this thing of both owners not screaming, does that mean the ride is not actually that scary?

T: I see. Thats one way to look at it.

J: Its tricky. The selling point for these rides is that they make you scream, so if you are able to get on it and not scream, doesn't that mean its not very scary? Its difficult to figure out.

Kami: I like that title though, 'Straight face challenge'. Its good isn't it?

T: You could do the straight face challenge with all sorts of things, right?

J: Ahh, yeh. For example?

T: Like when watching movies, or soccer or baseball...

J: Ah, I see. You could watch a horror movie and try not to look scared, or a comedy movie and try not to laugh etc.

Kami: Its more fun when you are not allowed to do it, right?

J: Yeh yeh yeh.

Kami: You get more of a thrill out of it if you are told you are not supposed to do it.

J, K, T: Yeh.

K: Joe, you should try this.

J: Hahaha. I would probably scream straight away, like 'Yaaaaaghh!!'

K: Haha

J: Like we just talked, lets ask for some ideas for an easy straight face challenge we could try, not from Tasai, but from the viewers.

T: I see.

J: I mean, we could get on a rollercoster, but that might take a long time. If there's anything more simple we could do...

T: Like 'Electric shock straight face challenge'..

K: Electric shock?? Wow, he started off with the easy stuff, then straight to electric shocks. In that case maybe a rollercoaster is better, haha. *1

T: Yep, Electric shock straight face challenge..

J: I think it would it work though. It would work, right? Us getting on a rollercoaster.

K: It wouldn't work, haha.

Kami: A straight face challenge at a concert would be good though, wouldn't it?

J: Yeah.

Kami: If you said, 'No using your voice', someone is bound to, right? Or maybe not?

J: It wouldn't work at a Dir en grey concert though, would it? Even if you said that, they would start screaming at the first song.

K: Well, its like that at lives.

J: Yeah.

Kami: I guess Dir en grey can't do that, yeh. Like, when conveying those kind of lyrics..wouldn't it be tough? If you said, 'No speaking or shouting, and keep a straight face'. Even of you kept a straight face, it would seem like a joke.

K: Hmm, they'd just be watching only, right? The feeling of taking part would fade away.

J: It would, it would....Well, rollercoaster 'straight face challenge'!....?

K: Will you do it?

J: Lets do it!

K: No, no, we can't..

J: Ok, lets do tickling!

K: Ok, we'll do it now (*reaches hands out to Joe*)

J: No, haha. I already laughed!

K: Hahaha

T: It takes more strength to not scream.

K: Isn't there anything else we could do? For a straight face challenge?

J: How about eating spicy food?

K: Wasn't there something with mustard or something on it before?

J: There was! That was in Osaka. I got it on my face, and sneezed, like 'heeeh!!'.

K: Hahaha

T: Wow, haha.

Kami: Um, how easy is it to make individual expressions, amidst these restrictions? *2 Can you do it?

K: Oh, you're talking about lives?

Kami: Yeh.

K: Well, im not sure..We've never done it. Well, we've done a no-audience live, but otherwise, Im not sure. Normal conditions are best.

Kami: From the audience's perspective, it would fill their heads with all sorts of things, right? Like, 'Can't I use my voice?' or, 'Can I stand up?' ..

T: They have a lot of extra things to think about.

J: But basically, if you go on a rollercoaster, or to a live show or a comedy show, the whole point is releasing your emotion, isn't it? And in a situation where you can't do that...Well, they're trying to appeal to people to get on the rollercoaster and try hard not to scream, but the basic purpose of this ride is to make people scream, so this kind of contradiction just looks funny from any angle. And if you look at it from further back, like Kami said, it is just like comedy. So its quite a difficult to idea to express. It somehow just ends up looking like a joke no matter what. If you don't add any further magic ingredient to it, your original message won't get across.

K: It gives people more to think about.

J: Yes.

K: The inner workings of it. But I think you can still enjoy it at an amusement park.

J, T: Yeah.

T: As entertainment.

J: Thats why, at lives...

K: Yeh...it would be a bit...

J: You can't make it into comedy, right?

K: Well, yeh, in our case.

J: Its very difficult.

K: Well, this was a conversation bringing forth various problems.

J: Yes.

K: Ok, well, lets end here for this week. Please subscribe. Thank you very much.

*1 Think this is what he said here, he was speaking very fast.

*2 Think im missing some meaning here.

#dir en grey #the freedom of expression #tfoe #kaoru #薫

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