#we see him try to fit that role in his reworking by obsessively going after his childhood bully

[auncle-friend]

god eagle vs shark is so.... clenches fist

[travllingbunny]

The 100: 6x10 Matryoshka

Yes, that last scene was one of the most emotional, powerful and beautiful scenes of the season and arguably the entire show. And we all have been talking about it, posting gifs and obsessing over it the whole week.

 I doubt that I have anything substantial to add about it that others have not already pointed out, from the fact that this was the first time Bellamy has actually said “I need you” to Clarke (she has told him “I need you” and “We need each other” a few times, but he has never expressed his feelings through words like that), without any qualifiers like “we all need you”, but only mentioning that he and Clarke’s daughter need her; to the ironic foreshadowing from 6x02, when Bellamy, under the eclipse psychosis, got into Clarke’s face and told her “Maybe you haven’t noticed, Clarke, but I don’t need you anymore”(of course, it was obvious that he was just protesting too much). I sometimes have mixed feelings about the phrase “the head and the heart”, because it has been overused and misinterpreted in the fandom, and has led to me oversimplifications of both Clarke’s and Bellamy’s character. But it was used beautifully in this scene. And yes, Bellamy’s CPR skills are crap and he seemed to be massaging Clarke’s belly instead of restarting her heart (while mouth on mouth actually doesn’t matter much compared to restarting the heart – it just looks good on TV) – but it wasn’t the CRP that brought Clarke back, anyway. It was hearing Bellamy’s voice in her mind, passionately telling her that he needs her and wouldn’t let her go, that he couldn’t lose her again, and that she’s a fighter and needs to fight.

If there still people arguing that Bellarke is not an epic romance, it must be incredibly difficult to argue that after Bellamy has actually brought Clarke back to life with his love. In 6x07, Clarke gave up and was going to let Josephine have her body while she dies, after Josephine had made her believe that Bellamy had given up on her and already moved on from her death. She changed her mind later, prompted by the part of her mind that is her moral compass and voice of reason, embodied by her mindspace version of Monty. But she really got strength to fight and defeat Josephine after hearing Bellamy’s voice and knowing that he needs her and has fought for her, and after he gave her strength with his voice. Proving that love is not a weakness – it can be an incredible strength.

However, I also enjoyed the scene of Josephine and Gabriel’s reunion and goodbye that happened right before the Bellamy/Clarke reunion, the scenes in Clarke’s mindspace – which I was so glad to return – and all the Clarke and Josephine’s interactions. And, of course, Bellamy coming to save the day (in a very similar way as he did when he saved the Delinquents from the Mount Weather guards in season 2), and the awkward hug between him and Octavia.

This entire storyline is great enough to put Matryoshka among my favorite episodes. But, to be objective, I can’t give it a perfect score, because the other storyline in the episode – taking place in Sanctum – while also good, wasn’t as great, and missed some chances.

The title of this episode is one of the The 100’s best ones. Russian nesting dolls are a pretty good analogy for the way that each new iteration of a Prime has, in their mind, memories of all the previous lives.

More thoughts under the cut...

I loved Clarke’s snark about how much Sanctum guards suck. Because, well, they really do. They have obviously never needed to fight a really dangerous enemy, as the Primes are used to having all their people brainwashed and docile, and their only real enemy before the Earth people arrived, the Children of Gabriel, are also rather incompetent. As Josephine pointed out, they have never managed to kill any of the Primes. They seem to have just killed a few of the potential hosts. The Primes have, in fact, been better at killing each other, since Kaylee killed Josephine, Josephine killed Kaylee, and then had the entire Lee family wiped. (This makes me wonder about the lifespans of the Primes in their previous hosts. It doesn’t seem that most of them lived to old age, going by how many of them there were over the course of 211 years, which begs the question what the causes of death were. Illness? More “accidents” like the one Josephine VII died in?)

Clarke and Josephine’s interactions in this episode were lots of fun and even featured some funny moments (a rarity on The 100), with Clarke snarking at Josephine a lot. Their relationship turned into more of a frenemy one, as they started to see some of their similarities and had some sort of almost-bonding… which, of course, was not going to last. That was obvious even when Josephine was trying to convince Bellamy that she and Clarke were friends – which he didn’t buy. Still, it was fun to see Clarke and Josie arguing like roommates or even sisters annoyed when one is leaving her things in the other’s room.

So much in this episode focused on the history between Josie and Gabriel, such as when she and Clarke were in the hatch where Josie used to come for “research” – and to have some fun with Gabriel. It reminds me of season 1, when Clarke used to go and research Earth, first with Finn, and later with Bellamy, as they found the depot with the weapons. But, unlike Gabriel and Josie. they never got to have a drink and other things together.

I like the way they continued to use drawings/books as embodiments of Clarke’s and Josephine’s memories, respectively, with the image of books lying around in heaps in Clarke’s side of the ship, as their minds started merging and Josephine’s memories spilled into Clarke’s mind. She didn’t need to go into Josie’s side of the mindspace to see glimpses of her memories, most of them from scenes we have already seen – such as that Dave guy killing himself right in front of her;  Russell killing her during the Red Sun eclipse; Josephine waking up in Brooke’s body; or scenes that had been referenced and that we were meant to see – Josephine convincing Tai and his wife to give up their baby son to be sacrificed to the gods, telling them that his spirit will be with the gods. This is a scene that was deleted from 6x07 (as confirmed on Twitter by the actress who played the mother), and I now I wish it had not been, since this subplot played such a big role in this episode, but  seeing a few seconds of it, at least, made up for it to an extent.

It’s interesting that the drawings on the walls of Clarke’s mindspace room have changed significantly since the last time we saw them, in 6x07. I noticed it as soon as Clarke woke up in her mindspace, because the wall right behind her bed was completely different and, most obviously, featured a huge drawing of season 5/6 Bellamy, to Madi in shock collar. (Not to be confused with another drawing of the same scene of Madi in shock collar, next to a drawing of a smiling Madi, which was and still is on the wall to the left of the door.) Another new drawing on the same wall is the season 4 scene of Jasper showing the Arkadians the list, and there are other drawings that have been moved around. After rewatching the episode, I noticed a lot of other differences as well. See the screenshots for comparison in this post.  

The fact they reworked the entire room for this episode suggests that the changing walls reflect the way that Clarke’s mind works - some memories are more prominent than others, or are brought back from her subconscious, and they also cluster in different ways. But the main reason the prop department made an effort to change the drawings was most likely because they wanted to focus on different images this time. So the scene of Clarke waking up immediately shows, most prominently, Bellamy next to Madi – which may mean that Clarke is now letting herself think of Bellamy more and in a different way, knowing he is trying so hard to save her and how much she means to him – unlike in 6x07, when she was scared to face him and afraid that he could never forgive her.

Another reason for the reworked walls is so Josephine and Clarke can focus on the drawing of Tondc after the bomb, which was already there in 6x07, but is now in a different place and larger, covering the entire wall opposite of Clarke’s bed. (More on that below.)

One of the reasons Josephine was such an effective villain is because she was a "shadow " character to Clarke, with both many similarities and sharp contrasts. Josie is, in many ways, what Clarke haters (in universe and in the fandom) say that Clarke is. The show seemed to purposefully play with the parallels between them, between the Lightbournes and the Griffins, while the Gabriel/Josephine relationship was played as a parallel and contrast to Bellamy/Clarke, especially throughout episodes 6x09 and 6x10, even down to the casting of all the actors who played the former two characters.

Episode 6x07 Nevermind was mostly focused on loss, grief and guilt. Clarke’s spirit was almost broken by her trauma and her guilt over the deaths she caused directly or indirectly, especially those of people close to her (e.g. blaming herself for Maya’s death and for Jasper’s downward spiral it caused), or even those she almost caused (Blodreina blaming her for the times she left Octavia to die, but also for her greatest regret, leaving Bellamy to die in Polis). We saw that her darkest place was about the trauma caused by the deaths of her lovers, Finn and Lexa, the primal traumas that Josephine referred to, and Clarke uncovered Josephine’s primal trauma, Dave’s suicide. While we don’t know for sure what previously happened between Josephine and Dave, the way those memories were paralleled made me think he was Josie’s Finn, so to speak. (If you don’t think that comparison is fitting, remember that Clarke rejected Finn once he made up his mind about her, that he turned into a stalker by season 2, did something terrible and basically caused his own death, which caused a lot of trauma to Clarke, and her first retreat into the “Love is weakness” mentality.)

But this time, Josephine’s memory that was focused one of her and Gabriel, which represents love and happiness for her. It is my second favorite scene of 6x10, and it isvery beautifully done, with the music and the cinematography giving it a dreamlike quality and conveying the romance between those two, which we hadn't seen much on screen even though it plays such an important role this season. (The choice of songs used on The 100 is always on point – and the song “Apocalypse” by Cigarettes After Sex is perfect for the show in general, and contributed a lot to making this scene what it was.) It felt romantic and dreamlike because it is Josephine's happy place and a memory she didn't want to give up - but we were also reminded of the disturbing aspects of it - through Gabriel’s obvious discomfort and guilt (he didn’t want to be brought back, but after having killed at least 46 people to bring Josie back, he couldn’t have held it against her that she did the same) and the fact that neither of them were in their original body - reminding us of the fact that many innocent people were murdered to make those 160 years of romance and happiness possible.

Josephine looked lost in her memory, which made Clarke look at her in a different way, seeing some humanity in her, as it is the first time Josephine showed genuine love for someone. Clarke easily empathizes with people and is usually inclined to see the good in them (though she had almost lost that ability, as we saw in Eden: “There are no good guys”.), so she saw something she could relate to - it's no coincidence that she went on to believe, for a moment, that Josephine could get a second chance to be better.

Josephine: I wasn’t always like this.

Clarke: Trust me, I know the feeling. I mean, look around you.

Clarke: We can let the bad things that happened to us define who we are, or we can define who we are.

The scene of Tondc are the bomb are an easy visual way to convey the destruction that Clarke ended up causing while trying to save people she cared about - but it’s also arguably the first morally bad choice she has made, and the first time she genuinely started doubting herself and losing her moral certainty. It was also her letting a bunch of strangers die (and putting Bellamy’s sister at risk, which he blamed her for during their confrontation in 3x05) mostly to protect Bellamy. (Lexa, who convinced Clarke to do it, justified it with strategic reasons, which were her motivation, and, of course, it was also, by extension, about making sure that the mission of saving Delinquents from Mount Weather continues. But, for Clarke, it was mostly about removing a threat to Bellamy.)  Is it meaningful that this is the bad memory Clarke brings Josephine’s attention to, right after seeing a memory of the romance between Gabriel and Josephine, which happened right after Josephine had brought Gabriel back, after he had brought her back - which meant murdering innocent people (two of the many) so the two of them could get their 160 years of happiness? Was Clarke thinking that maybe she could move on from the bad things like Tondc (and Mount Weather etc.) and do good in the future while also finding happiness, as Monty told them to?

And she was ready to extend that hope even to Josephine, someone she had previously seen killing babies and decided was so evil that she definitely needed to be stopped. For a moment, she thought Josephine could be stopped by some other way than destroying her.  Wrongly, as it turns out - Josephine was defined by bad things in her past, as the last thing she did was try to kill Clarke in the exact same way Russell had killed her 236 years before, even saying the same lines: “Sanctum is mine”. Selfish, immoral people can fall in love and have relatable feelings, but they are still selfish and immoral.

One could say that Josie did feel responsibility for “her people”, as her reason for not letting Clarke live was because she thought Clarke would kill everyone in Sanctum. But her “people” she cares about really only consist of 12 8 people. We know she never cared about the rest of the people in Sanctum and never saw hosts as anything but bodies to be used, black blood gene carriers as anything but breeding cattle, and nulls are useless and disposable, or even vermin to be exterminated. 

And no, Clarke would not kill everyone in Sanctum – not if there was any other way to save her people and stop the Primes. But people like Josephine are inclined to project and see the worst in other people.

Mindspace Clarke was in her season 5 gear this entire episode (unlike in 6x07, when she kept switching between looks from different periods of the show), but it’s interesting that she appeared as early season 5 Clarke, with pink streaks in her hair, when she fought Josephine in the end.

Eliza Taylor has really been knocking it out of the park all season, and she was fantastic again at the end of this episode – first playing Josephine in her reunion/goodbye with Gabriel, and later playing Clarke in her reunion with Bellamy. Chuku Modu was also excellent, and both of them did a great job convincing us that their characters have had a 236-long history, even though this was their first scene together. What made the ending even stronger was the parallel and contrast between Gabriel telling Josephine he still loved herm but that they had had their time, and he had to let her go; and Bellamy refusing to let Clarke go. Gabriel had to kill Josie, after having been the one to revive her the first time, while Bellamy brought Clarke back to life. The important thing there is that letting Josephine keep Clarke’s body – as Josie suggested to Gabriel, with her tempting suggestion that they use another life and then grow old and die together, taking out their mind drives - would have been morally wrong, while bringing Clarke back was the right thing to do. Gabriel had done a lot of bad things in the past – for over 160 years, he killed a lot of people to bring Josie back, he created the system of bodysnatching, and lived for a century as one of the Primes, before having his moral awakening. But better late than never. The look on his face as Clarke and Bellamy were hugging was a mix of many different feelings – he could easily relate to them, even though he had never met them before, and see the similarity with his determination to bring back the person he loved, and there was some sadness and maybe envy at seeing something he had but wouldn’t have anymore – but he also knew that, indeed, he and Josephine had had so much more time than regular people ever get, and should now let other people live and experience happiness.

It is nice to see Octavia acting like the old Octavia of season 2, with love and concern and happiness for her brother and for Clarke. But Bellamy’s awkwardness around his sister makes perfect sense, because he still doesn’t know anything about Octavia’s change of heart and personal growth, and she still hasn’t actually done anything to atone and show that she’s changed. He wasn’t willing to hug her back, but he did give her a little pat on the back, because he doesn’t really hate her, but you can’t just erase everything that happened between them.

Josephine is definitely dead now. As Gaia pointed out, the mind cannot be in two places at once. Just as there has been no copy of Clarke’s mind in the Flame, because she left it and Clarke’s mind has been in her own body since - Josephine stayed in the neural mesh instead of returning to the mind drive, so there can’t be a copy of her in the drive.

Meanwhile, in Sanctum…

Abby and Raven didn’t bring any reinforcements from the ship, because they had no idea about the things that have happened in Sanctum while they were away (Madi killing Miranda and attacking Delilah, Jordan’s injury, Russell arresting all the Earth people, Bellamy taking Josephine to CoG territory, or even the fact Clarke had been bodysnatched). They finally learned about Clarke’s “death”. Unfortunately, with the events happening so fast, we didn’t get to focus much on their reactions.

After reading the released script pages for the scene between the Earthkru in captivity,  I think that it was a big mistake to cut some of the lines – Miller’s and Raven’s exchange about Jordan, and Raven’s comment that she is sure Clarke will also be fine, because she has Bellamy to save her. Both of these would have gone a long way to show 1) that our protagonists do care about Jordan and are worried about him and 2) that Raven does care about Clarke, which a lot of the fandom is doubting this season.

Raven seems to have had some subtle character development – she’s not inclined to be mean and judgmental to people as she was in the first few episodes, but is taking a cue from Kane and trying to be gentler and more compassionate as she talks to Murphy about him screwing up and about the importance of morality. (Are many Arkers religious? The idea of avoiding hell by doing morally right things certainly sounds like a religious one.)

Why are some fans now dissing Abby for her anger at Murphy? Fans wanted to see Abby upset over Clarke’s death, and now we see it, that’s not good, either? When she learned about Murphy’s betrayal, Abby must have also realized that it was Josephine, not Clarke, who convinced her to go with the plan of the Primes and put Kane in another body, so she’s aware that Murphy helped Josephine manipulate her, pretending to be Clarke and saying she’s doing it all out of concern for her. Of course she’s furious.

Emori is again trying to defend Murphy, by presenting his actions in the best possible light, but not lying: “He was trying to protect us all. When he learned she was alive, he did the right thing… Eventually.”

One of the things I love the most about the Sanctum plot is this episode is that it showed that Russell is really the worst. I’ve hated him from 6x03, but many fans believed he would turn out to be not-such-a-bad-guy. He looks sad as he does bad things, but then he does them anyway, and justifies his actions, and while he may appear less ruthless than his wife or daughter, in the end, he is just a bigger hypocrite. He is a megalomaniac who thinks he is better than anyone else. And oh, God, could he be more hypocritical? Dude actually thinks he and the Primes are somehow morally superior to the Earth people, calls them criminals and think he is doing justice by burning them at the stake. Justice for what, exactly? Because they didn’t take revenge when Russell and his wife tried to murder and bodysnatched one of them? When he (as he believed) murdered Clarke, he thought “Sorry” was good enough, but when Madi, a child grieving for her mother, lashed out in revenge and killed one of the Primes (who can come back), this is a crime that he needs to get “justice” for by executing one of the people who had nothing to do with it? Then he decides to burn them all, because one of his own people killed Simone after learning the truth about them, realizing that he had let them take and kill his baby son? I guess, in his mind, no one except the Primes qualifies as real people? (And not even all the Primes matter. He doesn’t seem to care that his wife and daughter wiped four drives and murdered the Lee family for good.)

Unlike Russell, who was obviously never going to turn around and be a good guy, Ryker is a character torn between doing the right thing, and being loyal to his family or ‘family’. (Priya is his mother, but Russell and the others are also the only family he’s had for 200 years, after he arrived to Sanctum as a teenage boy.) Which makes him wishy washy (although for understandable reasons) and a character whose actions can’t be always predicted.

When Echo told him: ‘Echo and Ryker “Admit it, it feels good to be on the right side”, she may have been talking from her own experience. But I’d expect someone like Echo, an experienced spy / assassin, to be more suspicious and careful and not so trusting as she was with him.

It’s very fitting that Russell is burning people at the stake (just as Cadogan, another cult leader, did) – as this was the traditional method of execution of “heretics”.

The episode was very tense until the moment when we learned all the Earthkru were going to be burned. All the tension was gone - one character dying is something that seemed likely, but all of them? That was obviously not gonna happen.

But poor Tai did get burned. And Ryker must be feeling pretty guilty now – he initially caused Tai to turn against the Primes by telling him the truth about them, although he didn’t predict Tai would kill Simone; and then he stopped Echo from assassinating Russell, who went on to burn Tai at the stake.

Echo remarked that Gaia only cared about Madi, even after she had banished her. But the truth is slightly more complicated – as a Flamekeeper who deeply believes in the Grounder faith, she cares only about Madi as the Commander, but she is also ready to consider killing Madi, if it saves people from a Chaotic Evil Commander, Sheidheda 2.0 (who was apparently so bad that it would make people long for the days of Blodreina). The relationship between Commanders and their Flamekeepers is complicated, and we learn that Sheidheda murdered three of his Flamekeepers (so, two more after his mentor), until he was killed by the fourth one. But the whole thing begs the question, even more than before, why does anyone think that putting the Flame into people, especially children, is a good idea? The idea is to help new Commanders use the knowledge and wisdom of the previous ones – but that doesn’t really work if one of them is incredibly evil, does it? All this time, we have only seen the Flame do something helpful once, and that was in 5x12 when it helped Clarke deal with her emotional issues. Other than that, it doesn’t seem to have helped a lot (especially with the Grounders somehow forgetting all the technology, in spite of having Becca’s memories). Other than that, we know that the previous Commanders were against Lexa abandoning the “blood must have blood” policy, and were not the ones to stop Madi from killing all the prisoners of war in 5x13. So, is it really worth keeping it, when it presents such a huge danger?

This is why I like this Dark Madi storyline – it really shows the dangers of making a child Commander and letting them have too much power, which season 5 glossed over, because Madi ascending was a means to an end. Now, contrary to what some fans have been complaining about, no one who is currently on the planet, other than Madi and Gaia herself, actually cares but the Grounder religion or considers Madi their leader, Bellamy and Clarke even left her sleeping while they took the team with them to the planet. But the fact is that is there are hundreds of people sleeping on the ship - the Grounder part of Wonkru – who do take Madi’s authority seriously and would follow her. Gaia pointed that out – the danger of what could happen if Madi goes back to the ship and wakes up her sleeping army, while she’s being demon child controlled/influenced by the Dark Commander.

Let’s take another moment to appreciate the fact that Simone wasn’t against burning a child, but only against wasting a potential host. Russell may have had an objection on the grounds of her being a child, but considering the fact he was OK with sacrificing newborn babies, I’m pretty sure he also is mostly concerned about not wasting a good host until she comes of age. The Primes are the worst.

Murphy saved the day with his quick thinking, suggesting a way to make new hosts, in order to stop the execution and saved all their lives, while Raven again proved to be a great problem-solver by coming up with a way to isolate and delete Sheidheda from the Flame and save Madi, and used bone marrow extraction as an excuse. It was very lucky that Russell was either suspicious, or just being himself, when he refused to be the bone marrow donor to save his wife, instead ordering it extracted from Madi – which will be a great opportunity to fix the Sheidheda problem. No, the Primes should not be allowed to create new hosts, but this is clearly a temporary solution, to buy time. (And BTW, contrary to what some fans think, bone marrow extraction doesn’t necessarily mean torture and certainly not death, people donate bone marrow to save people’s lives in real life, and no, the doctors who do it are not evil or Mountain Men-like. Nor did, for that matter, Abby’s experiments to find a solution to save the human race in Becca’s lab in season 4. Fandom seems to forget that the Mountain Men were killing the Delinquents only because 1) they needed too much bone marrow, and 2) they were d1cks and didn’t give a damn about other people’s lives.)

Questions and speculation for the rest of the season

Among brief glimpses of Josephine’s memories we saw spilling into Clarke’s mindspace, the one we have have not seen before or heard referenced featured a guy reading a book. In the end credits, he is called “Adjustor”. This must have something to do with the “Adjustment Protocol” from the title of episode 6x12, whatever exactly that is. The Primes have mentioned that a certain period for adjustment is necessary after waking up in a new body.

Why did Rose ask Clarke “Are you here to take us home” in 6x02? Will long-running mystery get resolved by the end of this season, or is it something for season 7?

What happened with Diyoza in the Anomaly? Or with Octavia? I think we’ll get a hint about that in the finale, but it will be the big theme for season 7.

Will Sheidheda be defeated by the end of season 6? Will Madi keep the Flame? If the Sheidheda problem/Dark Madi storyline continues long enough for Bellamy and Clarke to come back and learn about it, I expect Bellamy to feel very guilty about the consequences of Madi taking the Flame that he had not foreseen. (He never really gave much thought to the Flame itself, he just saw it as a pragmatic means to defeat Blodreina ensure peace and save the people he loves, and I don’t think he seriously thought it posed much danger to Madi beyond the danger she was in from Blodreina.) Fans have complained that this issue has not been addressed between Clarke and Bellamy this season, while we have seen Clarke feel guilty and apologize to Bellamy for leaving him in Polis.

Just how brainwashed are the majority of people in Sanctum and how long will they continue like this? They were obviously uncomfortable watching Tai die at the stake. We’ve seen what happened when Ryker revealed the truth to Tai. Delilah’s parents were similarly shocked and unhappy. But I’m afraid it would be too optimistic to hope that they all turn against the Primes, which would make the resolution way too easy, as there are currently just three active Sanctum Primes – Russell, Priya and Ryker. Gavin’s widow, for instance, is still fully loyal to the Primes, but she seems convinced that they are gods and that hosts get to be “one with the Primes”, rather than deleted from existence.

I’m sure Jordan will recover, but will he continue defending Priya, hoping to get Delilah back, or will he soon realize it is impossible, and what will his reaction be then?

(SPOILER) The synopsis for 6x12 mentions a “special Naming Day”. I like the idea that this will be the official ceremony for Josephine VIII – because it’s now time for Clarke to pretend that she is Josephine, just as Josephine pretended to be Clarke in order to fool the Primes and their loyalists, for a while. Clarke has a huge advantage there, as she’s gotten to know Josephine quite well.

Rating: 10/10

[buddaimond]

Interview with Robert Pattinson.Les Cahiers du Cinéma

by Cyril Beghin and Stephane Delorme in Cannes.May 27 2017

Translation work and scans by Pattinson Art Work. Thank you!

Good Time burst into the Cannes competition just as Robert Pattinson appears in the movie: overexcited, disheveled and in the middle of a race. When we met him two days later, the actor found back his gangly figure, as he defines himself: lanky, thin and ready for separation. His shyness is not feigned and his nervousness explodes in flashes in a warm expression He is one of these actors that seem to be embarrassed by their beauty, who doubt their acting qualities. As for us, for a long time now we have no doubt about this. The very physical character in Josh and Ben Safdie's movie is an additional metamorphosis in the ever-richer filmography of the English actor, who chooses the roles with an obvious taste for innovation. The interpretation prize would have come at the right time to salute his trajectory since the worldwide success of  'The Twilight Saga', which made him a superstar and lead him towards more adventurous movies with David Cronenberg, James Gray and Werner Herzog. But Pattinson will not stop there. While waiting for 'High Life' by Claire Denis and 'Idol’s eyes' by Olivier Assayas (he will be playing alongside Sylvester Stallone), he has already announced a collaboration with Ciro Guerra, the Colombian director of 'Embrace of the Serpent'.

(Robert Pattinson asks the first questions) *Rob’s words in bold*.

Rob: Did you have fun at the festival?

CDC: Yes, even if the movies in competition were not really good this year… Luckily we had a good time watching 'Good Time'!

Rob: And what other movies?

'The Day After' by Hong Sang-Soo.

Rob: Oh yeah, Claire Denis told me about it, she loved it. I must see it.

At the Quinzaine there was the very good film by Claire Denis, 'L'Amant d'un jour' by Philippe Garrel and 'Jeannette' by Bruno Dumont…

'Jeannette'?! I was told it was bad!

On the contrary, it’s brilliant!

Well I must see it then…

'Good Time' created a buzz in the competition.

You probably know that, in the beginning the movie was not in competition. If it had been shown at special screenings, the response by the audience would have been different, it would have been seen as a fun movie. But it's a more serious film.

You were the one who contacted the Safdie’s to work with them?

I had seen a poster of 'Heaven Knows What' on the Internet and I told myself that if they were using that kind of image for the promotion then their sensitivity was interesting to me. The trailer was incredible, really energetic. I met them and in a matter of seconds I knew it was cool. It's the kind of things you feel right away. I hadn't seen the movie yet but during this first meeting I told them: let’s do something together, whatever it is. They have this rare quality of reacting and taking decisions pretty quickly. Usually you are told, it's okay, and then it takes a lot of time. With them it was like: "Let’s do this!" and one month later I received the first version of the script. The original idea for 'Good Time' was very different, I was Buddy Duress' brother and we took interpretation classes, it was strange (laughs).

Josh Safdie sent you a biography of your character, before the script?

Yes, I think it was before. It was part of their writing process. Josh wanted me to learn these five or six pages about Connie's life, which explain why he went to prison at the age of 12 for example. I felt like an undercover cop who had to learn his cover. Nothing extreme happened to the character. I knew how he grew up, what were the names of his family members. From the second version of the script, I was constantly exchanging emails with Josh and Ronnie Bronstein. I wanted to be sure to go in a certain direction so I told them about my idea of an ideal script. They always answered me, staying very open minded.

Did it last long?

About eight months. We were talking daily when I was in Colombia shooting 'The Lost City of Z', because there was nothing much to do there. It helped me throw myself into the script and feel really connected to the story.

There was from the beginning a mix between impulsivity and lapses of time.

Yes, that’s how they work. I think most of the other actors didn't read the script, except Buddy maybe. Five minutes before shooting, Josh explained the scene. It’s quite crazy, I had never seen that, this way of putting the set under pressure, I don’t even understand how it works! (Laughs). On my part, I prepared myself for the role quite conventionally. I loved the dialogues, but Ronnie and Josh were ready to give them up. Josh could tell me: I love the voice you used in this scene, go ahead, do whatever you want, own the dialogue! But I wanted to speak the exact written words. Everyone was improvising around me, though I tried to keep the thread. It was a bit scary. When your partner is improvising and the scene is supposed to go in a certain way and you could be sure he was going to say the opposite of what was written in the script! So I had to constantly do rework on the intentions, which was exciting.

Did you work with the other actors before shooting, for example with Buddy Duress? 

No i didn't. I think Buddy was in jail just before the shooting, and I think we had to postpone the starting of the filming because we had to wait for him to be bailed. Most of the actors were playing roles that are close to who they are in real life. They are mostly New-Yorkers and I was scared not to fit in with them. It was my biggest fear during the shoot. It’s not nothing to be a real New-Yorker, everyone is looking at you to see if you’re faking it. We worked for so long… I learned the Queens accent while being there. It didn't come from the role but more from daily life. Everything comes easier when you have time.

Your character is metamorphosing all the time during the movie. Are some of these transformations your idea?

Josh and Benny have a really specific universe, a kind of environment that I knew I wanted to be part of, to be included in, to be able to go in the streets, to interact with the passers-by. In my other set experiences in New York, people recognized me, as everywhere else in the world – people wanted to take pictures of me. It was one of my fears, especially working with non-actors. I would have become a curiosity for everyone around. So we tried on costumes and make-up, I would go in the street to see if people recognized me. One day, we were doing camera tries without authorization in a car wash station, I was in my character's outfit, with Benny, I had marks on my face, a dyed beard and I could see in people's eyes that they did not recognize me. I used the character to hide.

Connie is constantly trying to hide, like a chameleon and running away from himself. Like you? Did it become a personal role?

Yes, he is like an actor without realizing it. He also is like a dog running after his own tail. It’s always fascinating to see, this animal going faster and faster in such an obsessive way. You are right, there’s something very personal here but I can't really define it. Lots of elements were removed from the movie, they were dreamlike sequences where the character seems more mystical… When you live isolated from others, the imagination gains more and more space and you just loose contact with reality. We talked about it with Josh, for example the scene where Connie is at the hospital, he bumps into a police officer and tells him he was with his father in a room and that there is a problem with the tv… but for me he is not lying: in his head it happened. On one side he is immersed in reality but he is constantly in an imaginary world too. And that’s something I share with him.

Your taste for transformation was already there in 'The Lost City of Z' or in 'The Rover' 

It's probably a way of convincing oneself. You have to be able to take a picture of yourself and not recognize yourself. It's a funny feeling. Whatever the reason, you start to behave a certain way, like you never have before. The more you proceed in life the more you know what kind of attitude will bring this or that reaction, but to use this knowledge in a movie always make me feel like repeating myself, to be fake and cheap. But to do something you have never done in real life… I don’t know, what I am telling you makes no sense! (Laughs) It’s just a way of getting rid of all the vanity, all the "I want to be handsome" thing. And if most of the actors want to transform themselves, it's just because they have a huge feeling of embarrassment and shame about themselves. We want to convince ourselves that we can be someone else, to confront the reality in a better way.

You do that too and with a lot of modesty. In James Gray’s movie you have a supporting role, like in 'Maps To The Stars'. It’s remarkable

I have played small roles in a lot of movies. There is no difference for me. I see myself as an apprentice. I still don’t really know how to do what I am doing, I am always in training. So every work occasion is like a new lesson. And I literally have nothing to lose. Besides that, there are not a lot of good leading roles. Most of the time, those are roles that are immediately linked with a commercial production. A lot more people are worried if you give a weird interpretation, but you are freer in a supporting role, you can almost do whatever you want!

As you talked about lessons: what did you learn from David Cronenberg? 

'Cosmopolis' was very important to me. And there’s Don DeLillo too… Younger, I wanted to be a musician and the writing process for the 'Cosmopolis' script was really like music. Before this movie, I always thought about a role from its character’s motivations. It was a cerebral process. But in 'Cosmopolis', because of its surrealistic aspect, the rhythm of the writing was more important than the psychological motivations. That’s when I learned I could say an entire monologue without thinking only about psychology, but also about the musicality of the words as they were written in the script. David totally agreed with that, I could just say my lines in a way that sounded good. It was really instinctual, and really enjoyable. And I have learned a lot too by seeing someone making a movie which seemed impossible on paper.

And with James Gray?

I understood when I saw the movie how much the interpretation is linked to the camera’s position. And that the actor doesn't have to feel responsible to tell the story alone… Most of the time, I just had the feeling to be an extra on set. Though I had worked a lot on my character's background, I was always asking James Gray if it was okay, and he would say "Yes it’s okay". And I would answered "But I don't do anything!" And him "You didn't do nothing, don't worry". I always thought I could have done more. But the character emerges despite everything, and for that you need to trust your director. James Gray has really good taste, we can trust him.

'Cosmopolis' is a minimalistic role, you are mostly seated in a car.

It's true. I am a quiet person, and with 'Cosmopolis' I was indeed in my comfort zone. Each movie is a progression, and after 'Cosmopolis' I told myself that I was too immobile. I became more at ease physically with 'The Rover' for which I really wanted to do something with my body. Connie in 'Good Time' is at ease with his body too. Really at ease even!

Do you have a method?

Not really. I never took lessons. I react very much to the writing. If someone writes good dialogues, it's the voice that comes first, and all the rest emerges from it. Generally, I try to put myself into character long before the shooting. But for real I have no other method than knowing my biggest flaw, stress. Stress prevents me from doing anything. Over the years, I have understood that i just need to go in advance of the shoot to the shooting locations, wherever they are, and stay alone for a long time, so my brain can relax ... For 'Good Time' I rented a small flat for 2 months, not very far from Josh's. You just need to be on the shooting locations to naturally think about the movie most of the time, and eliminate a bit of the tension.

You often said you needed to take several months to prepare for a role. What does this preparation consist of?

It's just to understand how to believe in yourself. It's like when you lose your keys: when you find them, you get a familiar feeling. "Oh yes, of course, I let them there!" Yet we searched them all over the house, we searched them in some drawers we never used or in absurd places. And when we find them, there is a moment of recognition. Trying to create a character is the same thing: we look absolutely everywhere until we meet this familiar feeling. This is really a lot of experimenting. You never have time to do all of this for a scene, so you have to do it before to be ready. And then we always forget what has been prepared. The other rule is to be interested in what you do, to not become bored. Otherwise it's useless.

All of this is very internalized. You never watch the footage for example? 

Sometimes, but not systematically. You know, I'm terrible and really very annoying when working. Every scene is the worst thing I've ever done in my life. I reject myself. I remember that during the shooting of 'The Rover' David Michod told me: "You say so many times that you are bad, I will begin to believe you". (Laughs) That's my work process! "

But what gives you the feeling you have found a character, and that you are able to play it?

It can be the costume. I am a shy person, but sometimes just by saying instinctively something in a good way it’s that you discover you are not that embarrassed. And that it could work. We started the shoot of 'Good Time' with the first scene when I appear on the screen. I was incredibly nervous. The complete opposite of Benny who could switch on his character any time and do it all day long! So I was in this extreme state, and there were power cuts all the time that where delaying the shooting for this scene. I was boiling, full of adrenaline (he imitates his state, tight muscles and hyperventilating) and I told myself, that’s it! I am going to do this during the whole movie! No more thoughts, just wowwwwww! Even for the scene where I am kissing Taliah (Webster, who plays a teenager Connie seduces at her home) where I should have been relaxed, simply seated on a couch, I put myself in this frame of mind. And I scared her!

What will be your character in Claire Denis' film, High Life?

The movie will take place in the future, the character is an astronaut. He's a criminal who volunteers for a mission toward a black hole, but he realizes along the way that a doctor on board wants to do sexual experiences with humans in space ... (laughs) It's a very strange film. I had not thought about it for some time, but Claire talked to me about it here in Cannes, and she showed me some image tests of space, completely crazy. I love Claire, I can't believe I'm going to work with her, especially for a science fiction project. It's going to be very beautiful.    

Best of Cannes 2017 by Official Cannes. Good Time starts at 03:55, Rob starts at 4:03

Photos shared by Miyako Bellizzi, costume designer for Good Time on her Instagram for the Dior after party celebration in Cannes. 

[illyriantremors]

ACOMAF Parts 2.3-3.1: The House of Wind & Mist (Rhys POV)

Part 1 The House of Beasts: Chapters 1-13 Part 2.1 The House of Wind: Chapters 14-27 Part 2.2 The House of Wind: Chapters 28-40

Part 2.3: Chapter 41: Rhys Decides to Steal the Veritas Chapter 42: The Court of Nightmares ;) Chapter 43: Rhys and Feyre Fight After the Court of Nightmares Chapter 44: Starfall Chapter 45: Rhys Takes Feyre to the Illyrian Camps Chapters 46-47: Training & Lucien Chapter 48: The Inn ;) Chapters 49-51: Rhys Injured Feyre Discovers the Mating Bond

Part 3.1: Chapters 52-53: Rhys Recovers with Mor and Cassian Chapters 54-55: Rhys and Feyre Mate ;) Chapter 56: Going Home to Velaris

So this is Chapters 41-56 of ACOMAF from Rhys’s POV. (aka, all the good stuff.) A lot of these chapters I wrote last year, but had to rework to fit the new material, and as a result, I am very relieved and proud of what it’s all turned out to be. I know I said I would do the whole book, but I feel for now this is a good stopping point. Maybe I’ll revisit again later, but for now, this is it until after ACOWAR. :D

@kitashiwrites And as always, thank you Kate. For being the best beta a girl could ask for!

Chapter 41

Summary: The squad returns from the mortal realms and fills Amren in how poorly meeting with the queens went. Deciding there is no other option, Rhys tells Mor they are going to visit the Court of Nightmares and that Feyre will have a special role to play that is a little too much for him to handle.

I Trust You

Our goodbyes with Feyre’s sisters were short. Nesta seemed glad to be rid of us, queens and all. I didn’t argue with her for once. Nor did Cassian.

No one spoke as we flew home. Not even Feyre, who I carried through the warm, dry skies filled with an angry sun that seemed to sense the anger rolling underneath my skin.

Those queens were damned fools and they were going to make us all pay for it. Make all of them pay for it - my friends, my family, Feyre. Watching them all fly home, it would be my fault if they never made it. My fault if the court fell into ruin because the queens didn’t trust me enough to hand over the Book.

I thought about everything I’d done as we landed at the townhouse. Every single way I’d defiled myself to save this city for centuries. Letting people think me a whore, a murderer, and a tormentor who delighted in less savory carnal acts. I set Feyre down and walked past an awaiting Amren, needing to look out on the city and know it was worth it, but as I sat by the fountain in the courtyard, I couldn’t face my people. My eyes found the ground instead.

A thick scratching noise scraped against the flagstone, as seats were pulled apart and my friends sat with me. “If you’re out here to brood, Rhys,” Amren said across from me, “then just say so and let me go back to my work.”

I had no retort to give her as I met her gaze, so sharp and piercing as ever. “The humans wish for proof of our good intentions,” I said. “That we can be trusted.”

Amren shot to Feyre in a blaze. “Feyre was not enough?”

Feyre winced slightly, and I felt the bond wobble between us. “She is more than enough,” I said, feeling rage snap through me again at the implications of what those queens had inferred of our meeting. “They’re fools. Worse - frightened fools.”

“We could... depose them,” Cassian suggested. “Get newer, smarter queens on their thrones. Who might be willing to bargain.” There was no trace of humor. It was, on the whole, a serious suggestion and one that we might have taken up in the past.

Because this was what my court did. This was what I did, to maintain peace for a single city in the cold mountains of Prythian. Murdered innocent people and it made me a monster even the humans knew and feared.

And still, I considered it before shaking my head no. My gut twisting that my reasons had more to do with logistics than the morality of it.

“One, it’d take too long. We don’t have that time. Two, who knows if that would somehow impact the magic of their half of the Book. It must be given freely. It’s possible the magic is strong enough to see our scheming.” I pictured every one of those queens - even the sixth and missing one - and hissed. “We are stuck with them.”

“We could try again,” Mor said. Finally, I looked up and found her warm eyes watching me, understanding me even possibly. “Let me speak to them, let me go to their palace-”

“No,” Azriel said, cutting across her. Mor perked up, undoubtedly unused to Az’s fixed opinion against her, but the shadowsinger was set - and I couldn’t blame him. The things he’d told me of the palace were more than simply dangerous.

That didn’t stop Mor from staring at him incredulously, her voice sharpening as she redirected her attention to him. “I fought in the War, you will do well to remember-”

“No,” Azriel said again, staring right back at her determined. Every muscle in his body seemed to flex. “They would string you up and make an example of you.”

“They’d have to catch me first.”

Azriel’s wings shifted. Cassian and I shared a look and both equally tensed. “That palace is a death trap for our kind,” Azriel said, halfway toward getting up out of his seat and sitting next to Mor if it would convince her - if it would keep her safe. “Built by Fae hands to protect the humans from us. You set foot inside it, Mor, and you won’t walk out again. Why do you think we’ve had such trouble getting a foothold in there?”

Mor opened her mouth to retort, but Feyre spoke first. “If going into their territory isn’t an option, and deceit or any mental manipulation might make the magic wreck the Book... What proof can be offered? Who is - who is this Miryam?” Mor’s mouth closed, the moment forgotten. History flooding back to all of us as we looked at Feyre. “Who was she to Jurian, and who was that prince you spoke of - Drakon? Perhaps we... perhaps they could be used as proof. If only to vouch for you.”

My heart slowed down, a weight pressing in. Whatever we did moving forward, it seemed all of our options would betray somebody.

“Five hundred years ago,” I said, “in the years leading up to the War, there was a Fae kingdom in the southern part of the continent. It was a realm of sand surrounding a lush river delta. The Black Land. There was no crueler place to be born a human - for no humans were born free. They were all of them slaves, forced to build great temples and palaces for the High Fae who ruled. There was no escape; no chance of having their freedom purchased. And the queen of the Black Land...”

I trailed off, Mor picking up the pieces my scars barred me from recalling. “She made Amarantha seem as sweet as Elain.”

“Miryam was a half-Fae female born of a human mother. And as her mother was a slave, as the conception was... against her mother’s will, so, too, was Miryam born in shackles, and deemed human - denied any rights to her Fae heritage.”

A cruel, dark blemish on the history of our kind was that era, no war needed.

“Tell the full story another time,” Amren said, clipped and rritated. “The gist of it, girl is that Miryam was given as a wedding gift by the queen to her betrothed, a foreign Fae prince named Drakon. He was horrified, and let Miryam escape. Fearing the queen’s wrath, she fled through the desert, across the sea, into more desert... and was found by Jurian. She fell in with his rebel armies, became his lover, and was a healer amongst the warriors. Until a devestating battle found her tending to Jurian’s new Fae allies - including Prince Drakon. Turns out, Miryam had opened his eyes to the monster he planned to wed. He’d broken the engagement, allied his armies with the humans, and had been looking for the beautiful slave-girl for three years. Jurian had no idea that his new ally coveted his lover. He was too focused on winning the War, on destroying Amarantha in the North. As his obsession took over, he was blind to witnessing Miryam and Drakon falling in love behind his back.”

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard Amren say so much in one go.

“It wasn’t behind his back,” Mor said, a near snarl. “Miryam ended it with Jurian before she ever laid a finger on Drakon.” She looked at Amren with a trace of that same regal warrior she’d stared the mortal queens down with. A queen in her own right, ready to defend her friends to the death - not against Amren, but in that war she’d lived through. I didn’t want to think of her fighting in one again.

Amren brushed her off easily. “Long story short, girl, when Jurian was slaughtered by Amarantha, and during the long centuries after, she told him what had happened to his lover. That she’d betrayed him for a Fae male. Everyone believed Miryam and Drakon perished while liberating her people from the Black Land at the end of the War - even Amarantha.”

Mor’s eyes flashed. She’d been there, marching through the sand and hell fires to help Miryam free her people.

“And they didn’t,” Feyre said, putting the pieces of the story together. “It was all a way to escape, wasn’t it? To start over somewhere else, with both their peoples?” Mor and I nodded simultaneously. “So why not show the queens that? You started to tell them-”

“Because,” I said, the words sounding tired - exhausted - even to me, “in addition to it not proving a thing about my character, which seemed to be their biggest gripe, it would be a grave betrayal of our friends. Their only wish was to remain hidden - to live in peace with their peoples. They fought and bled and suffered enough for it. I will not bring them into this conflict.”

“Drakon’s aerial army was as good as ours,” Cassian said softly, a thought more than a suggestion. “We might need to call upon him by the end.”

I shook my head.

No, not Drakon. Not Miryam. Not their armies nor their families, nor mine. And not the queens’ own lives forfeited for new ones. Each of those routes either ended with too much death or would not be enough to assure the queens of my own guilt.

If we were to get the book, I would have to take the risk again to right myself before them.

And I only knew one way to do that.

“So, what do we offer them instead?” Feyre asked. Everyone looked to me. “What do we show them?”

The queens wanted to know me - the real, true me. Then I would pay a steep price to give it to them if it would save us - save my city and my mate that I’d written so desperately about to those women.

I swallowed, my throat feeling raw. “We show them Velaris.”

“What?” Mor said. I couldn’t meet her eyes.

“You can’t mean to bring them here,” Feyre said hesitantly.

“Of course not,” I replied. “The risks are too great, entertaining them for even a night would likely result in bloodshed. So I plan to merely show them.”

“They’ll dismiss it as mind tricks,” Azriel said, no doubt thinking of those beautifully laid dangers he’d met in their court.

Finally, I stood. I was tired. I was hungry. And I felt empty. “No, I mean to show them - playing by their own rules.”

“What do you mean, High Lord?” Amren asked, her eyes narrowed. But I faced my cousin, and she saw me for what I meant. Her skin paled, another curse at my feet to carry forward in this fight.

“Send word to your father. We’re going to pay him and my other court a visit.”

To my side, Feyre’s head slowly lifted to meet mine. The bond pulled taut.

Just one more curse to carry.

“What about-”

“No,” I said, stifling a sigh as I stared at the dark red liquid swirling inside my wine glass. All of us save Amren sat the dinner table. Mor’s face was heavy. “That city is too far north - too near Illyrian territory. If my reputation proceeds me to the mortal realms, the proximity to Illyrian territory may very well also. It doesn’t matter anyway. You’ve all suggested half a dozen cities already. None of them will hold as Velaris will.”

Mor looked away tersely, her lips tight. Cassian sat on one side staring hard at her, concern urging him to do something. He’d been restless since we’d sat down to dinner - almost as restless as Azriel’s shadows, who’d leave soon to contact his spies now that the plans were set for tomorrow’s visit to the Hewn City.

“I still don’t understand,” Feyre said on my right, “why any city will work, Velaris or no. What’s the Veritas? Why will the queens trust it?”

I parted my lips to answer, but Mor’s voice rang clear across the table even if she wouldn’t look at Feyre - or me. “The Veritas is my family’s most ancient gift,” she explained. “The wielded holds the ability to show truth - to show the world exactly as it is anywhere, at any given time, among other things. It was forged and given to my family that our bloodline might share that power and merge it with our natural magic. It is why the queens could hear my story and know that it was truth, even if...” Azriel leaned forward across from Mor as she ran her lips together, staring hard at her plate. “Even if it didn’t matter in the end anyway.”

“With the Veritas,” Cassian cut across for her, “the queens will be able to see Velaris and know with absolute certainty that it is real, safe, and most importantly, that Rhys isn’t the evil prick they think he is.”

Cassian’s eyes darted quickly to me, as if I might take offense, but I shook my head. He gave me a short nod.

“And you’re positive,” Feyre asked, hesitantly crossing her arms on the table as she looked at Mor, a line creasing her brow, “that there’s nothing else we can show them? Nothing that would equally prove-”

“No,” I said. Her eyes snapped to me, considering.

“Even...” She swallowed, allowing herself to remember even as the vision of us wailing and crying out across Amarantha’s blood-strewn floor together flashed across the bond and caused us both to cringe.

“Definitely not,” I said, breaking my gaze off. I took a sip of wine and sat the glass back on the table, my fingers picking at the stem. “Velaris is the only way. Tomorrow, we winnow in close to the base of the mountain and fly the rest of the way. You three,” and I pointed to Mor, Cassian, and Feyre - wishing it wasn’t Feyre, “will help me distract Keir while Azriel slips out to get the Orb. We stay no longer than necessary to avoid suspicion.”

Mor stood up abruptly from the table. “If we’re done here, I need to start preparing.”

“Mor-” Cassian said, jerking at her motion, and standing quickly to follow her.

But my cousin only made it a few steps, muttered, “I need to write my father to let him know we’re coming,” and winnowed. Her skin was ghost white.

Cassian ran a hand through his hair, his temper perhaps the only sentiment stronger in the room than my guilt. Azriel stood and walked over to his brother, placing a shadow-encrusted hand on his shoulder. “I’ll find her after I sort my spies out,” he said quietly.

“She’s not going to-”

“I know where she’ll be. And yes, she will.” They shared a hard look, one so private and intimate even to me, that Feyre and I both looked away.

A pause. And then, “Okay.”

Azriel left, Cassian not far behind with barely even a goodbye. A lengthy silence ensued before Feyre announced she was going for a walk. I didn’t object.

I had the table cleared with a snap of my fingers the second she left the door, my wine glass replaced with something much deeper and of a more amber coloring.

The house was too still and quiet as I poured a fresh glass. I thought of Mor and hated - hated - the way she refused to look at me before she left. It felt exactly the way losing Feyre’s first smile to Tarquin that morning she wouldn’t meet my gaze in Adriata had felt: broken and isolating.

I took a long sip of that drink, feeling it burn in my throat, just as it had when I’d received the blood rubies.

Tarquin.

Feyre.

Mor.

Mor.

She had told me many times over the years that she was not bothered to be a queen in a city that once made her a slave of its own liking. There were days she returned from the Hewn City looking empowered for having held court over the family she despised for what they’d done to her.

And then there were days like today, where I asked too much of her - to steal from her own family, to get perhaps too close to history. And it was only that sheer determination and duty to the crown Mor and I shared that kept her from breaking in two.

That, and Azriel. I hoped for both our sakes that he resolved his discussions with his spies and found my cousin quickly. Hurting her... was not something I wanted. Not ever. She deserved better than that for all she’d given our family since the day I’d met her. All of this city and more.

And yet... tomorrow she would wear the mask. We all would. Cassian the alpha male, dominating with his siphons and that aura that crackled like fire to fill a mountain top. Azriel, the phantom that would haunt and vanish like smoke, injecting fear into every heart he touched. And Feyre.

I did not want to think of what Feyre would have to become if she came tomorrow.

Feyre - who was out now looking at my city and possibly wondering if what she’d said about it when she escaped the Attor was no longer true. Feyre, who was now my friend. Would I sacrifice that friendship, that hope for more, to keep my crown - our crown, the bond begged me to think - safe? Could I?

I’d already forced the scene from filling out in my mind half a dozen times at dinner, knowing how she would hate me for the mask that I would wear tomorrow if she came. The one that had forced her to return to a place of pain and torture where I’d painted her body, drugged her, and splintered her bones. It wouldn’t matter why I’d done those things. Only that I’d done them at all.

Maybe Mor and Amren were right. Maybe I should... tell her.

I waited for her in the foyer near the stairs and wasn’t left waiting long. Feyre returned within close to an hour of her initial departure, her cheeks flushed from the walk and crisp air.

She took one look at me and halted, brows knitting together. “What’s wrong?” My heart sank.

Concern. My friend was concerned - for me.

“I’m debating asking you to stay tomorrow,” I said. Her chin jerked to one side brusquely, her arms crossing.

“I thought I was going.” Her eyes pleaded silently with me behind those few words. Behind that mind that thought I would lock her up like him. I could neither take her, nor leave her. Either way, I was damned.

I ran a hand through my hair, trying to stay upright. The stairs looked inviting. “What I have to be tomorrow, who I have to become, is not...” Feyre’s chin dipped waiting, “it’s not something I want you to see. How I will treat you, treat others...”

“The mask of the High Lord,” she finished when I could not.

‘Whore...’

Both of us. We’d both be whores if Feyre went.

“Yes,” I said, and sat down, unable to stand any longer. The angle of the stairs felt sharp against my back, like the throne I would sit on in a matter of hours.

Feyre watched me from where she still stood, that momentary doubt and fire gone. “Why don’t you want me to see that?”

Tell her, Rhys. Tell her the truth.

Mor-

Tell her, damn it, or I’m not going tomorrow.

I sighed.

Alright, Mor - for you.

“Because,” I said slowly, “you’ve only started to look at me like I’m not a monster, and I can’t stomach the idea of anything you see tomorrow, being beneath that mountain, putting you back into that place where I found you.”

Feyre held my gaze, and... after a moment, I watched that crease in her brow release, felt the bond go soft and pliant. But her eyes - they were not afraid as they stared into the darkness.

“Let me help,” she said, resolute. “In whatever way I can.”

What would happen to that resolution if I brought her, dressed her up and objectified her before my entire court? “The role you will have to play is not a pleasant one.”

Feyre was walking purposefully toward me instantly, taking the small spot next to me on the stairs. She sat so close, our arms and knees brushed. That one simple touch meaning almost as much to me as the way she stared straight into my eyes past the stars and the bleakness and whispered, “I trust you.”

My friend - my mate.

My trust.

“Why did Mor look so disturbed when she left?” Feyre asked.

I swallowed roughly. By now, Azriel would be with Mor. And she’d be... better. I hoped.

“I was there, in the Hewn City, the day her father declared she was to be sold in marriage to Eris, eldest son of the High Lord of the Autumn Court.” Feyre’s eyes went wide - and rightfully so. “Eris had a reputation for cruelty, and Mor... begged me not to let it happen. For all her power, all her wildness, she had no voice, no rights with those people. And my father didn’t particularly care if his cousins used their offspring as breeding stock.”

That day had been... horrifying. And Mor had not begged me to save her so much as wept and mourned and all but thrown herself off the edges of the world if it would save her somehow.

“What happened?” Feyre’s voice came out particularly tiny. I missed the amber decanter I’d left sitting on the dining table.

“I brought Mor to the Illyrian camp for a few days. And she saw Cassian, and decided she’d do the one thing that would ruin her value to these people. I didn’t know until after, and... it was a mess. With Cassian, with her, with out families. And it’s another long story, but the short of it is that Eris refused to marry her. Said she’d been sullied by a bastard-born lesser faerie, and he’d now sooner fuck a sow. Her family... they...” A sharpness stung behind my eyes. I’d never forget the way she’d... how her stomach had... and Cassian, Azriel. My cousin - my Morrigan.

I scraped the pain off my throat enough to admit to Feyre, who sat dutifully at my side through every word, “When they were done, they dumped her on the Autumn Court border, with a note nailed to her body that said she was Eris’s problem.” Feyre sucked in a breath. I’d never felt the bond so quiet since those weeks of silence in between visits from the Spring Court. “Eris left her for dead in the middle of their woods. Azriel found her a day later. It was all I could do to keep him from going to either court and slaughtering them all.”

Mor-

She’ll be okay.

Still, I’d had to restrain my brother with magic to keep him from leaving her bedside and flying back to those woods of fall.

Thank you for finding her.

I would have gone to the ends of the world and back to find her.

Eyes like stone, he’d had that day.

I know you would have.

That was the day we’d become family - all four of us. I would not let it break. Not then. Not now. Not ever.

Too much. It was always too, too much, it seemed.

Whether she felt the tension in my veins or simply needed to relieve her own, Feyre’s gently took my hand and allowed me the privilege of keeping it. Her skin was soft as I brushed idle strokes back and forth over her palm.

And then she told me in that same resolute voice that would not, could not be broken anymore, “Tell me what I need to do tomorrow.”

I sighed, but squeezed her hand and told my friend the role she would play in my Court of Nightmares.

[dazzledbyrob]

New Interview with Robert Pattinson in Les Cahiers du Cinéma (France) Good Time burst into the Cannes competition just as Robert Pattinson appears in the movie: overexcited, disheveled and in the middle of a race. When we met him two days later, the actor found back his gangly figure, as he defines himself: lanky, thin and ready for separation. His shyness is not feigned and his nervousness explodes in flashes in a warm expression He is one of these actors that seem to be embarrassed by their beauty, who doubt their acting qualities. As for us, for a long time now we have no doubt about this. The very physical character in Josh and Ben Safdie's movie is an additional metamorphosis in the ever-richer filmography of the English actor, who chooses the roles with an obvious taste for innovation. The interpretation prize would have come at the right time to salute his trajectory since the worldwide success of 'The Twilight Saga', which made him a superstar and lead him towards more adventurous movies with David Cronenberg, James Gray and Werner Herzog. But Pattinson will not stop there. While waiting for 'High Life' by Claire Denis and 'Idol’s eyes' by Olivier Assayas (he will be playing alongside Sylvester Stallone), he has already announced a collaboration with Ciro Guerra, the Colombian director of 'Embrace of the Serpent'. (Robert Pattinson asks the first questions) Rob: Did you have fun at the festival? CDC: Yes, even if the movies in competition were not really good this year… Luckily we had a good time watching 'Good Time'! Rob: And what other movies? 'The Day After' by Hong Sang-Soo. Rob: Oh yeah, Claire Denis told me about it, she loved it. I must see it. At the Quinzaine there was the very good film by Claire Denis, 'L'Amant d'un jour' by Philippe Garrel and 'Jeannette' by Bruno Dumont… 'Jeannette'?! I was told it was bad! On the contrary, it’s brilliant! Well I must see it then… 'Good Time' created a buzz in the competition. You probably know that, in the beginning the movie was not in competition. If it had been shown at special screenings, the response by the audience would have been different, it would have been seen as a fun movie. But it's a more serious film. You were the one who contacted the Safdie’s to work with them? I had seen a poster of 'Heaven Knows What' on the Internet and I told myself that if they were using that kind of image for the promotion then their sensitivity was interesting to me. The trailer was incredible, really energetic. I met them and in a matter of seconds I knew it was cool. It's the kind of things you feel right away. I hadn't seen the movie yet but during this first meeting I told them: let’s do something together, whatever it is. They have this rare quality of reacting and taking decisions pretty quickly. Usually you are told, it's okay, and then it takes a lot of time. With them it was like: "Let’s do this!" and one month later I received the first version of the script. The original idea for 'Good Time' was very different, I was Buddy Duress' brother and we took interpretation classes, it was strange (laughs). Josh Safdie sent you a biography of your character, before the script? Yes, I think it was before. It was part of their writing process. Josh wanted me to learn these five or six pages about Connie's life, which explain why he went to prison at the age of 12 for example. I felt like an undercover cop who had to learn his cover. Nothing extreme happened to the character. I knew how he grew up, what were the names of his family members. From the second version of the script, I was constantly exchanging emails with Josh and Ronnie Bronstein. I wanted to be sure to go in a certain direction so I told them about my idea of an ideal script. They always answered me, staying very open minded. Did it last long? About eight months. We were talking daily when I was in Colombia shooting 'The Lost City of Z', because there was nothing much to do there. It helped me throw myself into the script and feel really connected to the story. There was from the beginning a mix between impulsivity and lapses of time. Yes, that’s how they work. I think most of the other actors didn't read the script, except Buddy maybe. Five minutes before shooting, Josh explained the scene. It’s quite crazy, I had never seen that, this way of putting the set under pressure, I don’t even understand how it works! (Laughs). On my part, I prepared myself for the role quite conventionally. I loved the dialogues, but Ronnie and Josh were ready to give them up. Josh could tell me: I love the voice you used in this scene, go ahead, do whatever you want, own the dialogue! But I wanted to speak the exact written words. Everyone was improvising around me, though I tried to keep the thread. It was a bit scary. When your partner is improvising and the scene is supposed to go in a certain way and you could be sure he was going to say the opposite of what was written in the script! So I had to constantly do rework on the intentions, which was exciting. Did you work with the other actors before shooting, for example with Buddy Duress? No i didn't. I think Buddy was in jail just before the shooting, and I think we had to postpone the starting of the filming because we had to wait for him to be bailed. Most of the actors were playing roles that are close to who they are in real life. They are mostly New-Yorkers and I was scared not to fit in with them. It was my biggest fear during the shoot. It’s not nothing to be a real New-Yorker, everyone is looking at you to see if you’re faking it. We worked for so long… I learned the Queens accent while being there. It didn't come from the role but more from daily life. Everything comes easier when you have time. Your character is metamorphosing all the time during the movie. Are some of these transformations your idea? Josh and Benny have a really specific universe, a kind of environment that I knew I wanted to be part of, to be included in, to be able to go in the streets, to interact with the passers-by. In my other set experiences in New York, people recognized me, as everywhere else in the world – people wanted to take pictures of me. It was one of my fears, especially working with non-actors. I would have become a curiosity for everyone around. So we tried on costumes and make-up, I would go in the street to see if people recognized me. One day, we were doing camera tries without authorization in a car wash station, I was in my character's outfit, with Benny, I had marks on my face, a dyed beard and I could see in people's eyes that they did not recognize me. I used the character to hide. Connie is constantly trying to hide, like a chameleon and running away from himself. Like you? Did it become a personal role? Yes, he is like an actor without realizing it. He also is like a dog running after his own tail. It’s always fascinating to see, this animal going faster and faster in such an obsessive way. You are right, there’s something very personal here but I can't really define it. Lots of elements were removed from the movie, they were dreamlike sequences where the character seems more mystical… When you live isolated from others, the imagination gains more and more space and you just loose contact with reality. We talked about it with Josh, for example the scene where Connie is at the hospital, he bumps into a police officer and tells him he was with his father in a room and that there is a problem with the tv… but for me he is not lying: in his head it happened. On one side he is immersed in reality but he is constantly in an imaginary world too. And that’s something I share with him. Your taste for transformation was already there in 'The Lost City of Z' or in 'The Rover' It's probably a way of convincing oneself. You have to be able to take a picture of yourself and not recognize yourself. It's a funny feeling. Whatever the reason, you start to behave a certain way, like you never have before. The more you proceed in life the more you know what kind of attitude will bring this or that reaction, but to use this knowledge in a movie always make me feel like repeating myself, to be fake and cheap. But to do something you have never done in real life… I don’t know, what I am telling you makes no sense! (Laughs) It’s just a way of getting rid of all the vanity, all the "I want to be handsome" thing. And if most of the actors want to transform themselves, it's just because they have a huge feeling of embarrassment and shame about themselves. We want to convince ourselves that we can be someone else, to confront the reality in a better way. You do that too and with a lot of modesty. In James Gray’s movie you have a supporting role, like in 'Maps To The Stars'. It’s remarkable I have played small roles in a lot of movies. There is no difference for me. I see myself as an apprentice. I still don’t really know how to do what I am doing, I am always in training. So every work occasion is like a new lesson. And I literally have nothing to lose. Besides that, there are not a lot of good leading roles. Most of the time, those are roles that are immediately linked with a commercial production. A lot more people are worried if you give a weird interpretation, but you are freer in a supporting role, you can almost do whatever you want! As you talked about lessons: what did you learn from David Cronenberg? 'Cosmopolis' was very important to me. And there’s Don DeLillo too… Younger, I wanted to be a musician and the writing process for the 'Cosmopolis' script was really like music. Before this movie, I always thought about a role from its character’s motivations. It was a cerebral process. But in 'Cosmopolis', because of its surrealistic aspect, the rhythm of the writing was more important than the psychological motivations. That’s when I learned I could say an entire monologue without thinking only about psychology, but also about the musicality of the words as they were written in the script. David totally agreed with that, I could just say my lines in a way that sounded good. It was really instinctual, and really enjoyable. And I have learned a lot too by seeing someone making a movie which seemed impossible on paper. And with James Gray? I understood when I saw the movie how much the interpretation is linked to the camera’s position. And that the actor doesn't have to feel responsible to tell the story alone… Most of the time, I just had the feeling to be an extra on set. Though I had worked a lot on my character's background, I was always asking James Gray if it was okay, and he would say "Yes it’s okay". And I would answered "But I don't do anything!" And him "You didn't do nothing, don't worry". I always thought I could have done more. But the character emerges despite everything, and for that you need to trust your director. James Gray has really good taste, we can trust him. 'Cosmopolis' is a minimalistic role, you are mostly seated in a car. It's true. I am a quiet person, and with 'Cosmopolis' I was indeed in my comfort zone. Each movie is a progression, and after 'Cosmopolis' I told myself that I was too immobile. I became more at ease physically with 'The Rover' for which I really wanted to do something with my body. Connie in 'Good Time' is at ease with his body too. Really at ease even! Do you have a method? Not really. I never took lessons. I react very much to the writing. If someone writes good dialogues, it's the voice that comes first, and all the rest emerges from it. Generally, I try to put myself into character long before the shooting. But for real I have no other method than knowing my biggest flaw, stress. Stress prevents me from doing anything. Over the years, I have understood that i just need to go in advance of the shoot to the shooting locations, wherever they are, and stay alone for a long time, so my brain can relax ... For 'Good Time' I rented a small flat for 2 months, not very far from Josh's. You just need to be on the shooting locations to naturally think about the movie most of the time, and eliminate a bit of the tension. You often said you needed to take several months to prepare for a role. What does this preparation consist of? It's just to understand how to believe in yourself. It's like when you lose your keys: when you find them, you get a familiar feeling. "Oh yes, of course, I let them there!" Yet we searched them all over the house, we searched them in some drawers we never used or in absurd places. And when we find them, there is a moment of recognition. Trying to create a character is the same thing: we look absolutely everywhere until we meet this familiar feeling. This is really a lot of experimenting. You never have time to do all of this for a scene, so you have to do it before to be ready. And then we always forget what has been prepared. The other rule is to be interested in what you do, to not become bored. Otherwise it's useless. All of this is very internalized. You never watch the footage for example? Sometimes, but not systematically. You know, I'm terrible and really very annoying when working. Every scene is the worst thing I've ever done in my life. I reject myself. I remember that during the shooting of 'The Rover' David Michod told me: "You say so many times that you are bad, I will begin to believe you". (Laughs) That's my work process! " But what gives you the feeling you have found a character, and that you are able to play it? It can be the costume. I am a shy person, but sometimes just by saying instinctively something in a good way it’s that you discover you are not that embarrassed. And that it could work. We started the shoot of 'Good Time' with the first scene when I appear on the screen. I was incredibly nervous. The complete opposite of Benny who could switch on his character any time and do it all day long! So I was in this extreme state, and there were power cuts all the time that where delaying the shooting for this scene. I was boiling, full of adrenaline (he imitates his state, tight muscles and hyperventilating) and I told myself, that’s it! I am going to do this during the whole movie! No more thoughts, just wowwwwww! Even for the scene where I am kissing Taliah (Webster, who plays a teenager Connie seduces at her home) where I should have been relaxed, simply seated on a couch, I put myself in this frame of mind. And I scared her! What will be your character in Claire Denis' film, High Life? The movie will take place in the future, the character is an astronaut. He's a criminal who volunteers for a mission toward a black hole, but he realizes along the way that a doctor on board wants to do sexual experiences with humans in space ... (laughs) It's a very strange film. I had not thought about it for some time, but Claire talked to me about it here in Cannes, and she showed me some image tests of space, completely crazy. I love Claire, I can't believe I'm going to work with her, especially for a science fiction project. It's going to be very beautiful. Thanks to Pattinson Art Work for the translation

[gyrlversion]

How that devastating Game of Thrones finale death was an imperfect fulfillment of the shows biggest prophecy

The series finale of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” concluded with one last upsetting death, and it comes very close to matching with legends found in George R.R. Martin’s book series. The tales of a man called Azor Ahai were told by multiple characters in the books as prophecies saying this legendary hero would be reborn again.

Part of his tale included the sacrificial death of his great love, Nissa Nissa, as the means of forging his weapon. “Game of Thrones” just partially brought this tale to life, but it wasn’t a direct recreation of the prophecy.

This is your last warning before we dive into major spoilers for the series finale of “Game of Thrones.”

Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington as Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow on “Game of Thrones.”

Helen Sloan/HBO

On Sunday’s series finale, Jon Snow killed Daenerys Targaryen after she had ascended to the Iron Throne, after killing thousands of innocents in the process.

Read more:Emilia Clarke tried to warn fans last year about Daenerys’ final season arc on ‘Game of Thrones’

Though fans had long-predicted we might see the Azor Ahai/Nissa Nissa legend recreated on the show, the circumstances around the death (and whether Jon or Daenerys would be the “Nissa Nissa” sacrificed) were always believed to involve the fight against the White Walkers — not the fight for the Iron Throne.

Instead of Daenerys’ death acting as sacrifice to prevent a second Long Night, “Game of Thrones” seems to have framed Jon’s choice to kill her as a way of preventing her “dark” reign in Westeros.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. First, let’s take a closer look at the Azor Ahai legend, and how it’s connected to “ The Prince That Was Promised” prophecy we’ve heard many times throughout the show.

The prophesied hero Azor Ahai and The Prince That Was Promised, as explained in the books

In the world of “Game of Thrones” and George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire,” there are multiple accounts told of a legendary hero. Each group has a different moniker for the hero — Azor Ahai, The Prince That Was Promised, and the Last Hero — but the similarities between the tales have led fans to believe that each hero is really the same person.

Azor Ahai

Melisandre speaks most frequently about Azor Ahai in the books. When we were first introduced to Melisandre and Stannis Baratheon, she proclaimed him to be Azor Ahai reborn. The legend of Azor Ahai comes from ancient texts in Asshai, and they say that a champion of R’hllor, the Lord of Light, will be reborn to fight a darkness.

Melisandre believed at one point that Stannis Baratheon was Azor Ahai.

Helen Sloan/HBO

“There will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world,” Melisandre said in Martin’s second book. “In this dread hour, a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him.”

The story of Lightbringer is then told to Ser Davos Seaworth by Salladhor Saan. Azor Ahai forged two swords, both of which shattered when he tried to temper the steel (including the second one, which was plunged into the heart of a lion).

Then came the third blade, which was created when Azor Ahai killed his love, Nissa Nissa. Here’s Saan’s account of its forging:

“Great was his woe and great was his sorrow then, for he knew what he must do. A hundred days and a hundred nights he labored on the third blade, and as it glowed white-hot in the sacred fires, he summoned his wife.

‘Nissa Nissa,’ he said to her, for that was her name, ‘bare your breast, and know that I love you best of all that is in this world.’

She did this thing, why I cannot say, and Azor Ahai thrust the smoking sword through her living heart. It is said that her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and her strength and her courage all went into the steel. Such is the tale of the forging of Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes.”

Stannis had a fiery sword, but it was never Lightbringer.

HBO screencap

So Lightbringer is a powerful weapon that was created via the sacrifice of Azor Ahai’s greatest love. And for a time, Melisandre claimed Stannis was wielding a fiery sword called Lightbringer.

The Prince That Was Promised

Melisandre also uses the title “The Prince That Was Promised” (TPTWP) to refer to Azor Ahai, and we hear this title used by other characters as well.

In the books, Daenerys’ vision in the House of the Undying includes a scene of her brother Rhaegar and his wife, Elia Martell. She sees him holding a baby, presumably his second son Aegon, and telling Elia: “He is the Prince That Was Promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.”

There are additional clues within the books that indicated Rhaegar had a slight obsession with this idea of prophecy, and was trying to bring about the hero of the world through his bloodline. Aemon Targaryen (the former maester at Castle Black) also spoke of TPTWP prophecy with Sam Tarly and mentions a bleeding star and smoke and salt — just like Azor Ahai.

Aemon Targaryen knew about The Prince That Was Promised prophecy.

Helen Sloan/HBO

Also in the books, Barristan Selmy speaks about a “woods witch” (a book character known to be reliable when it comes to predicting events). The witch said TPTWP would be born from the bloodline of Rhaella and King Aerys Targaryen (the “Mad King” and father to both Daenerys and Rhaegar).

This means both Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow were prime candidates for the prophesied hero. To see all the evidence laid out for both Daenerys and Jon being Azor Ahai, read our deep dive explainer on the two prophecies here.

Read more: Everything we know about the biggest ‘Game of Thrones’ prophecy

But the show never mentioned the name Azor Ahai

Many fans believed Azor Ahai and TPTWP to be overlapping figures, and used the two terms interchangeably. So when “Game of Thrones” pushed forward through eight seasons and never brought up the exact name of Azor Ahai, people assumed this was simply showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ way of simplifying the prophecy for show-only fans.

On the sixth season, Melisandre resurrected Jon Snow and told him he was the “The Prince That Was Promised,” reborn with the power of R’hllor for a reason. Then the High Priestess of R’hllor, Kinvara, was also introduced. She told Tyrion and Varys that Daenerys was the chosen hero meant to fight the coming darkness.

But neither of them ever used the term “Azor Ahai.”

Kinvara showed up for one episode and was never seen again.

Helen Sloan/HBO

This might have been our first warning that “Game of Thrones” would use the Nissa Nissa sacrifice in a surprising way by not having Daenerys Targaryen’s death connected to the fight against the White Walkers.

Benioff and Weiss also made sure to bring back Melisandre for the seventh season, and have her speak with Daenerys about how the interpretation of TPTWP prophecy was fickle.

“Prophecies are dangerous things,” Melisandre told the Dragon Queen. “I believe you have a role to play, as does another. The King in the North — Jon Snow.”

George R.R. Martin has also spoken about the wavering role of prophecy in his books.

“Prophecies are, you know, a double-edge sword,” he said in an interview with Adrias News in 2012. “You have to handle them very carefully; I mean, they can add depth and interest to a book, but you don’t want to be too literal or too easy.”

How Daenerys Targaryen’s death matches with Nissa Nissa’s, even though some key details are different

Both Daenerys and Jon fit the description for The Prince That Was Promised.

HBO

So, as is already clear, Jon and Daenerys aren’t a perfect parallel of Azor Ahai and Nissa Nissa.

Daenerys was neither killed in order for Jon to forge a new weapon, nor was her death a willing sacrifice in the way Nissa Nissa’s was. Jon didn’t even stab her with Longclaw, his Valyrian steel sword which many fans thought could be a stand-in for Lightbringer. Instead he plunged a dagger into her heart, killing her almost instantly.

But it’s interesting how the show wound up fulfilling other parts of Azor Ahai’s destiny through Jon Snow.

Melisandre’s words about Azor Ahai in the books prescribed that “the cold breath of darkness” would fall “heavy on the world,” and that this day would happen after “a long summer when the stars bleed.” The final seasons of “Game of Thrones” take place during winter, a winter which came after a lengthy summer and the presence of a red comet in the sky (a “bleeding star”).

Fans always believed the “dread hour” and “cold breath of darkness” was Melisandre’s description of the coming threat from the White Walkers. And in the books, this might still be the case.

The Night King was killed by Arya Stark on season eight, episode three, “The Long Night.”

HBO

But with Daenerys’ terrible rise to power and the sack of King’s Landing, “Game of Thrones” seems to be saying her reign as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms was a coming darkness Jon Snow had to prevent.

Martin has yet to finish his book series, and lay out all the intricate ways in which these prophecies will (or won’t) play out with our main characters. As we saw with Arya Stark and death of the Night King, Benioff and Weiss had to rework pieces from earlier seasons in order to fit them into major turning points of the final episode’s story lines. Martin told them a general overview of his planned ending, but not the minor details involved.

Read more: Why Arya Stark killing the Night King uncovered a mess of emotions about HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s story

So was Jon Snow really Azor Ahai all along, or was Arya Stark also a foretold hero who conquered the darkness? Was TPTWP prophecy always going to come to a messy realization, or is this convoluted ending just the result of Benioff and Weiss running out of book material?

These questions may go forever unanswered, but we at least feel certain that Daenerys will not survive all of Martin’s novels, and Jon Snow will likely have a role to play in her death.

For more “Game of Thrones” insights and analysis of all the best moments in the series, preorder the “The Unofficial Guide to ‘Game of Thrones'” now.

The post How that devastating Game of Thrones finale death was an imperfect fulfillment of the shows biggest prophecy appeared first on Gyrlversion.

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[titoslondon-blog]

New Post has been published on Titos London

#Blog New Post has been published on http://www.titoslondon.co.uk/inside-azzedine-alaia-the-couturier-the-design-museums-new-exhibition/

Inside Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier, The Design Museum’s new exhibition

Not even death could get in the way of Azzedine Alaïa. Though his heart failed him last November, aged 82, the master couturier known as “the king of cling” left great designs in place. Not least the vision for Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier, the exhibition that opens today at London’s Design Museum. “We felt like [the first fashion exhibition in the new Design Museum home in Kensington] needed to be something special,” says Alice Black, the museum’s co-director, “and Azzedine certainly stands apart from the rest of the fashion world.”

And stand apart the Paris-based couturier did. This is the man who famously shunned the traditional fashion calendar, showing his collections only when he felt they were ready, never before. His obsession with perfection and his dedication to his craft is notorious. He did everything himself—from drawing and cutting his own patterns, to choosing fabrics, draping and sewing them together. “He was just incredible,” says long-term collaborator and guest curator Mark Wilson.

Monsieur Alaïa’s style went beyond his sculptural dresses, though. He designed for women’s bodies—often directly on their bodies—rather than an abstract idea of them. “He always had a mannequin beside him,” recalls renowned industrial designer and long-time friend Marc Newson. (The pair were so close Alaïa designed the dress for Newson’s marriage to fashion stylist Charlotte Stockdale.) “He was the consummate craftsman, always sewing.” He was innovative, too. He worked closely with the knitwear factory of Silvia Bocchese in Florence for years, developing new knitwear techniques. At one point he even used glass powder to give his fabrics a specific kind of iridescence. He experimented with Vionnet’s bias-cut approach well ahead of its mid-1990s revival and made an art of laser-cutting and pleating. Through it all, his designs stayed true to his timeless aesthetic; their apparent simplicity masterfully concealing the technically complex and rigorous construction that they truly require.

Yes, Alaïa’s designs were undeniably sexy, but they were also empowering, emphasising—and liberating—the characters of the bold women he dressed—from Greta Garbo, Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and Grace Jones to Madonna, Michelle Obama and Naomi Campbell. (He was also famously a father figure for Campbell, who refereed to him as Papa and lived in his Paris apartment from the age of 16.)

Revered and respected by the fashion elite with unflinching dedication for five decades, he transcended trends and never cared about the “new mood”. Instead he made a habit of flying in the face of convention—often late into the night, the National Geographic channel blazing on a screen next to him. His kitchen table—the heart of his home and business—achieved mythic status, welcoming “the illuminati of style” as Tim Blanks describes in his final interview with Alaïa in British Vogue, “the inner-est of inner circles”.

Black tells Vogue of the thrill of meeting the Tunisian-born designer and sitting at that very kitchen table with girlish glee: “It was a dream.” Seven months before his untimely death, she met Alaïa to pitch the idea of the exhibition. “I was warned early on not to try to ‘sell’ him anything,” she recalls, “either he wants to do it and he’ll do it, or there is nothing you could ever say to convince him otherwise.” Luckily for her, and us, when she knocked on Alaïa’s atelier door in April 2017, it was already open. Alaïa had visited the new John Pawson and OMA-designed Design Museum shortly after it opened in November 2016 and immediately liked it.

Wilson, chief curator of the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands, was drafted in to curate the exhibition. He staged two Alaïa shows at his own museum in 1997 and 2011, plus a further three, including the runaway success that was the 2015 exhibit in Rome’s Galleria Borghese. This would have been their sixth exhibition together. “Over time we understood each other,” says Wilson of their ability to communicate despite not speaking the same language (Alaïa did not speak English and Wilson speaks only a little French). “We had each other’s back when we were doing these shows together. I don’t understand why, but we just did.”

The timing of the exhibit is all the more poignant because, were it not for his passing, it would have been perfectly scheduled to coincide with the opening of his first flagship outside Paris, on London’s New Bond Street. “When we first met I didn’t know of his plans to open a store,” recalls Black. “[In a way,] I feel like I was just a pawn,” she says laughing, “and I just happened to play the role I was supposed to play.” Not that it is a role she remotely resents. “He was a very instinctual person,” says Wilson. “It just felt right. It’s not like he plotted this, but it just sort of happened.”

Alaïa’s friends and collaborators, including Italian editor, gallerist and businesswoman Carla Sozzani, see the show as an opportunity to carry on Alaïa’s legacy. In no way, though, is it a retrospective. “You would need triple the space to do a proper retrospective,” says Wilson pragmatically, but more importantly, that is not the exhibition Alaïa had envisioned.

“It was never a question [of whether we would change or cancel the exhibition],” Sozzani tells Vogue. “Azzedine had made very clear his wish that his legacy would continue after him. He conceived this exhibition as an homage to two of his passions: fashion and design. It was his last project, and it is an honour to be able to show it.”

With over 60 couture pieces, spanning four decades, the uncompromising detail and quality of the maison and its founder is exquisitely laid bare. “It is an installation, a contemporary temple,” says Wilson, who proposed the idea of screens, rather than walls. Alaïa immediately called on the designers and artists he most admired (and whom he was friend and patron to), including Newson, the Bouroullec brothers, Konstantin Grcic and Kris Ruhs. Newson’s eight flesh-pink panels crafted from anodised aluminium stand four meters tall by 10 metres long. Dappled with edamame-sized holes and sinuous strokes, they have a distinct sensual, textile-like feel. “The challenge was to create an object that is transparent,” Newson explains. “To create some sort of a minimal barrier between one garment and another, so you can roughly make out what is going on on the other side of it.” Alaïa’s final couture collection—shown in July 2017—stands elegantly in front of it, opening the exhibition.

Elsewhere, dresses are themed by material. “Azzedine did collections, of course, but they were not thematic—he was working and reworking, and reworking and re-re-reworking ideas and techniques,” explains Wilson. “So we broke it up by materials: chiffon, velvet, lace, and, of course, the black outfits, to visually explain how he did that.” To allow that attention to detail to really shine, not a single garment is hidden behind glass or backed into a corner. “You get to see everything in 360 degrees. That is really important,” says Wilson. The dresses—all of which have been remade and rescaled specifically for the exhibition, the proportions super-enhanced—fit the invisible mannequins like a glove, so that they appear to be floating, suspended in mid-air. It is as much a sculpture exhibition as a fashion showcase.

Forensically detailed photographs by the British artist Richard Wentworth, who spent years documenting life at Maison Alaïa, paper the walls. Each image feels spontaneous, but is charged with deference to the couturier and his craft. What may seem quotidian—a close-up shot of Monsieur Alaïa sewing a garment, for instance—is all the more moving now that those hands are no longer with us. Film footage brings him back to life, if only for an instant, through the adulation of his devotees, including Sofia Coppola, Brigitte Macron and Michelle Obama.

While the Design Museum will measure success through the number of visitors the exhibition attracts, for Wilson it is, as it always was when working with the couturier, an audience of one. “I know if he is happy and he’s into it, people are going to be blown away.” He may not be here in person to judge for himself, but Azzedine Alaïa’s signature is everywhere. And true to form, it is perfection.

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Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

Image: Jamie Spence

‘Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier’ will remain on view at the Design Museum until October 7 2018

The post Inside Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier, The Design Museum’s new exhibition appeared first on VOGUE India.