#...subtly start including women in that 'think of the children!!!!!!!' line and it makes me wonder...

[uncanny-tranny]

This might be a half-baked theory, but I wonder how much of the "think of the children!!" ideals that are almost... aimed at women rely on the idea of women as Forever Children.

What I notice is that a lot of these ideas of corruption in youth are feminized in a way that evokes motherhood, but I also notice that many people blur the lines between women or anybody forced into or expected to be women and children so that they are as one.

[whump-town]

Was Hotch Abused?

I offer you my 2,300+ worded thoughts on the matter with episodes included. There's going to be lots and lots of talk about abuse so you're going to want to steer clear of that if that's something you're not cool with but for those of you interested... I give you all the proof I could think of:

Natural Born Killer.

In the eighth episode of the first season, “Natural Born Killer”, we meet Vincent Perrotta. His father was abusive but from the outside looking in, no one knew a thing. Perrotta started drinking at fourteen and committed petty crimes, as well as assault, for pleasure. Going as far as to kill his own father not too long after. But Perrotta is a monster and a psychopath so it’s clear we’re not supposed to sympathize which makes his interaction with Hotch so peculiar.

Hotch is our “Captain America”. A true neutral with an infinity for doing what’s right so it’s inconceivable to compare him to Perrotta and yet Hotch gives us some rather conflicting lines to dissect.

Before Gideon hands the interview over to Hotch, he spends a moment talking with the others out in the bullpen. The whole time he’s leaned back and he’s watching Morgan and Hotch. Now, at this point, we don’t know about the sexual abuse Derek Morgan faced at the hands of Carl Buford but there’s something about the way that Gideon spends the entirety of the conversation only looking at the two of them. Waiting for them to put together what he clearly already has and when Hotch does…

Hotch jumps straight into Perrotta’s profile, asking: “You grew up in a house that looked normal and happy, didn’t you Vincent?”, “But your father beat you every chance he got”

Perrotta excuses it with a shrug, “he smacked me around some, didn’t everybody’s old man?”

Abuse is a complicated thing and, often, abused children just don’t know what their parents are doing to them is abuse. It can be a subtle and outright thing but there’s an element of normalcy to it. The parent’s abuse is as habitual, as minimal as biting your nails to the child. Adults often can’t identify their parent’s past abuse.

With Hotch you learn that his lack of expression is often as telling as his expressions and as Hotch looks back at Perrotta, there’s something so sad about his eyes. His voice goes from loud, assertive to his whispered answer to Perrotta’s question. “No.” As if, well, maybe that’s a question he’d raised once too.

Perrotta doesn’t care about that though and he taunts “well, maybe if yours had you would have learned to fight”. But is it not more telling that Hotch didn’t make a sound? Perrotta got in several hits and the only sound Hotch made was when the wind was literally punched out of him. Not even when Gideon called to him and at that point, Perrotta did not the garrote around Hotch’s throat. That’s another thing mentioned before in the profile and something Hotch mentions to Perrotta directly. You learn to take the beatings, smile even. So, it’s just a little odd how little Hotch responded…

But that’s all nothing, you can take that how you want

Which leads us to the fateful, not everyone comment.

"You were just responding to what you learned, Vincent. When you grow up in an environment like that, an extremely abusive and violent household... it's not surprising that some people grow up to become killers"

That can’t mean NOTHING, there’s so much there but there’s something about Hotch’s subtle wording. The way he’s unconsciously slipped himself in there (a very real thing that people do) and he hasn’t even realized it. Doesn’t even know he’s done it until Perrotta pushes and he pauses, asks what Perrotta means. And the subtly of it, the way he doesn’t even mean to that says more than anything else.

“And some people grow up to catch them.”

It’s a super-specific comment to make. He can’t possibly be talking about Derek because he doesn’t even know about Carl Buford yet not to mention saying that about him would be incredibly rude if he were talking about Reid (and again, he doesn’t know about Reid’s childhood yet). So… that really only leaves him because JJ, Garcia, and Elle were not abused.

“P911”

In season two, episode two “P911” the team is hunting down a man trying to sell a young boy, Peter, on the black market. Kevin Rose is an underage boy “selling” himself on the internet while his abusive father has been in prison. I’ll let you just guess who it is that leads the team on finding out more about Kevin.

Your guess is more than likely right-- Morgan and Hotch. Now, we know about Morgan but come on. Nothing to say about it being Hotch who makes the emotional appeal?

The camera even follows his gaze, he’s crouched down (to appear non-threatening because he’s so close) and we watch his eyes take in the scars on Kevin’s chest. You can also note that while Gideon remarks that Kevin’s father was “always drunk, you never knew why he was hurting you, why he was so angry” both Kevin and Hotch look away from him.

AND FUCKING TRY AND TELL ME THE “some grow up to catch them” LINE WAS NOTHING TRY BECAUSE GUESS WHAT GIDEON SAYS? NO, NO GUESS--

Gideon: “At night you’d cry yourself to sleep hoping someone would come and save you”

And it’s HOTCH, HOTCH IS THE ONE TO SAY: “You have the chance to be the one who saves someone, Kevin. You can be the one who answers him, the one who stops his pain.”

PARALLELS PEOPLE THE PARALLELS

“Profiler, Profiled”

I bet you weren’t expecting this one, huh? But there’s something about people who faced trauma that makes it so perceptible to other traumatized people-- they sniff it out like coke to a drug hound. And, just guess, who it is that spends the majority of his time fighting with Morgan? Who knows (like I said about the bloodhound) immediately there is something Morgan’s hiding.

Hotch is angry, he’s upset that Morgan would hide anything. Mumbling about there being “larger implications” and how the team can’t have secrets. With the knowledge of exactly what that secret is it makes Gideon’s eye roll a little telling. Because it’s like they both know but neither will say. Driven home by Gideon turning the attention to Hotch, asking “would you want us profiling you?”

And again Hotch is the one to leap onto the abuse. The one to put the pieces together. Hotch’s anger makes no sense. He says he’s angry that Derek’s keeping a secret but the team has many, way too many. Over the years the team unwraps all kinds of secrets, he’s never angry then. So, it’s not about the implication of a secret at all. It’s what the secret is, like misplaced anger. Anger with himself may be leftover from his own abuse. But still…

Hotch lets Morgan escape. Knows exactly who and what Carl Buford is but all he tells the team is that “he won’t even speak about him”. He always knows how to find the abuse… like I said, a bloodhound.

George Foyet

I know you’re going to find this so fucking surprising but guess who also was abused? George Foyet was beaten by his biological father and his mother didn’t save him so he hates women (bleh, men are disgusting what’s knew).

Now, blah, blah, blah Hannah, I know you’re not about to say Foyet and Hotch are a lot alike-- no of course not. Don’t be silly. What I’m going to say is that they’re foil characters? They accent one another in an opposites sort of way. Foyet is a manipulative narcissist who doesn’t work well with others. Hotch is a guilt-ridden team leader who can’t let The Reaper’s case go. There are meant to be comparisons drawn between them. A good villain does that. George Foyet shows us that Hotch is not at all this removed, cool guy that we’ve previously assumed him to be. He cries in an alley because he blames himself when The Reaper kills a busload of people.

We see he has a rather compulsive nature. He never let The Reaper case go and has very personal ties in this case. Not even after Foyet attacks him, if anything it’s worse. He brings the case file home.

But it’s certainly interesting to see yet another “villain” with that same tragic abusive father and submissive mother come into play with Hotch. We’re nearing a point where it’s getting hard to call it coincidence (and according to David Rossi, there simply is not such thing).

Haunted.

In the second episode of the fifth season, “Haunted”, Hotch voice’s over a Dickinson quote: “One need not be a chamber to be haunted, One need not be a house; The brain has corridors surpassing. Material place.” These quotes are often cheesy, if not a little cliché, but given the premise of this episode is in exploring the ways in which a man’s traumatic childhood has left him now grappling for a truth he can not define… well, maybe we can say the writers were onto something here.

Darrin Call, debatably the Unsub of “Haunted”, was abused by an alcoholic father. We see several signs of it throughout the episode-- Darrin’s delayed speech & severe neglect that leaves Darrin in dirty, hole-riddled clothing. If what we see is not enough, the reports that the team is given on Darrin explicitly state that he was extremely physically abused. It is this abuse that leads to the PTSD that he’s diagnosed with.

As sad and disheartening as Darrin Call’s life is, overall it’s the sort of episode that is forgotten over time. When it’s placed right after the episode that viewers have to watch Hotch say goodbye to Haley and Jack then, who is Darrin Call when compared to the agony of watching Hotch show genuine weakness? After watching Hotch lay in a hospital bed, tears in his eyes wondering if his son will remember him? His fears become our own and after watching George Foyet disarm and mutilate the one guy we’ve been led to believe for five seasons is infallibly, unflinchingly never going to break… well, Darrin Call has it bad but our focus is elsewhere.

It’s on Hotch, right?

The guy who is coming back to the job after only a month (and a day) off to recover. Who Morgan worries might have PTSD but he knows they can’t easily measure because Hotch wrote the questionnaire, he knows all the right answers. Who we see has had new locks installed since the attack and has Foyet’s file sitting open on a table for easy access. Who hears Darrin Call’s life (worked the same job without promotion for years before getting fired, no wife, no kids, a hermit) and bluntly asks why Darrin hasn’t just killed himself.

And let’s just take a moment to break down that comment. Hotch, who in the episode previously lost his wife and child, wants to know why a man who is steadily starting to sound a lot like him hasn’t just killed himself.

And I don’t say “sounds a lot like him” lightly.

Darrin Call has PTSD. Hotch, more than likely, has PTSD

Here are some signs just from that episode: hostility (he yelled at Garcia over something very small), self-destructive behavior (he ran into Darrin Call’s father’s house without a vest, back-up, or telling the other’s what he was doing), and guilt (blamed himself for missing the eye twitching Darrin exhibited because of his years of antipsychotic use)

Darrin Call was abused… this marks the second HEAVILY implied time that Hotch has been compared to another man abused by his father

Vincent Perrotta was the first with that hard to forget the exchange

George Foyet and his notably exactly the same past as Perrotta

“Haunted” feels like it’s supposed to prove to the audience that Hotch is losing it. He distances himself from Morgan, leaving every room that Morgan is in. He doesn’t pick up Garcia’s calls after Darrin Call attacks his therapist. The only glimpse we see of the old Hotch is with Emily, pulled to the side, but his guilt burns and he even brushes her off. Shaking his head and turning his back to her because somehow he should have seen something no one else did.

Throw in Reid’s comment about Call “victims are often drawn to the scene of their first trauma” and we’re painfully reminded of Hotch’s apartment. A place you’d think he’d want to escape but didn’t. The man was stabbed nine times in his own apartment and stayed in that same place. Almost sounds like that statement could be applied to Hotch too.

A dash of Hotch’s own comment about where Call would go to in his confusion and he says “to what he knows”, even the importance of how that orphanage is “where he became Darrin Call”. Where does Hotch go? What does Hotch know? The job.

So… we tally now three total Unsubs that Hotch has this direct relationship with. Three Unsubs with abusive fathers and mothers who couldn’t protect them. Hmm… coincidence?

Brothers Hotchner

Supervisor Special Agent Hotchner is a master of hiding, that is undeniable. It’s hard to see anything behind those furrowed brows and impersonal suits and that’s likely for a reason. However, anyone with a little sibling can tell you that no one on this Earth can and will annoy the ever-loving shit out of you like a sibling.

But that’s not really important. Sean and Hotch don’t talk about their parents. At all. Ever.

Hotch says that when Sean was in the first grade he got sent off to boarding school. “I was the screw-up making bad choices”. Interesting enough of a statement to make but you throw in the rough ages of Sean and Hotch at that time and it’s a little more than just “interesting”. You have Hotch at roughly 14-15 getting into trouble just like Morgan did at that same age (coincidence???).

(now you can certainly look at Hotch’s parentification vs. Sean’s immaturity doubled with substance abuse problems but we’d be stretching. “The Tribe” touches on the parentification but Sean just calls it “the big brother” thing and tells Hotch that he’s not Sean’s father and it’s fine it’s whatever. Hotch is a bit pushy. That’s not new. Substance abuse can just be a problem, it doesn’t have to be bc they were abused but again… a little coincidental)

So... was Aaron Hotchner abused as a child? I certainly think so

[inmyarmswrappedin]

So, because Fatou’s season ends today and, as far as we know, Druck hasn’t been renewed yet, I want to go over the things I feel the team did well in this season and the things I hope they take with them when they sit down to write the next season (which I’m manifesting will be Ava’s).

I think that s5 and, perhaps to a bigger extent, s6, were the team’s attempt to address fan feedback for and criticisms of s3 and s4. So I have hopes that, after possibly the most scrutinized season of any Skams, they are still willing to read even more feedback and sit down once again to craft a couple more seasons (possibly even 3 or 4 more seasons!).

So, without further ado, things that were done well! (Do I have to add “in my opinion”? Do I??)

I liked that for both s5 and s6, the thorough-line for the season wasn’t made obvious or shared in a press release, but rather it was up to fans to connect the story threads for themselves.

I loved that the team sought to address one of the biggest criticisms of s3, that is, that Matteo was given so many symptoms of a mental illness, but it ultimately went unaddressed in the narrative. They did this by giving Nora a dissociative disorder, and Fatou dyscalculia. (Matteo has been headcanoned as being mentally ill and having a disability.) It allowed the teams to develop both fan theories into full-blown seasons and give each of them the importance they deserved.

I have said this already, but I really appreciate that the team chose misunderstood, misrepresented and underrepresented mental illnesses and disabilities. I feel like s5 and s6 will be referents for many years, because they really took the time to portray a dissociative disorder and dyscalculia in a down-to-earth, unhurried way that isn’t meant to shock and awe, but simply allow us to understand why and when Nora and Fatou will struggle. Druck got the viewers to anticipate when Nora and Fatou would struggle, and that’s the first step in being able to anticipate and accommodate the needs of the Noras and Fatous of the world. I really can’t overstate how important this is and what a difference it makes in a real, tangible way. These seasons aren’t meant to be enjoyed for voyeuristic reasons, but they will legitimately help people.

One of the biggest criticisms of s4 was that Amira and Sam didn’t connect as women of color. In fact, it seemed like in s4 Sam was treated as another white friend, when in s2 both she and Amira were the victims of Kiki’s racism. The team addressed this by giving us Ava and Fatou’s friendship, which I want to say might be the first friendship between main characters of color where their race is a substantial reason for their bond. (There are the Sanas with their Jamillas, but the Jamillas aren’t main characters, and then there are friendships like Jo and Megan and Zoya, or Imaan and Liv, or Luca and Yasmina, but iirc in every case their bond as women of color isn’t made explicit.)

Another criticism of s4 was the way Kiki turned into the world’s most understanding white friend offscreen. The team addressed this with the Ava and Mailin storyline, which I think was wonderfully and subtly set up in s5, then built on with the biology test leaked answers.

On the topic of race, I think a major criticism of s3 was that David’s ethnicity wasn’t acknowledged (to the point where a white actress was cast to play his sister gvhvhv). The team has made up for this with Josh (more in the s6 sm than in s5, but I still count it) and with Kieu My. Fatou and Kieu My bonded over being first/second gen children of immigrants, and in doing so, they acknowledged that these characters aren’t white and have different experiences than white Germans.  

The first 6 episodes of this season were some of the finest writing in the Skams. The storylines all connected and built on each other. The motifs were just so good and beautiful and fitting. The themes were all clearly defined and easy to follow.

The tortoise plot was one of the most fun and imaginative storylines in any Skams, it connected Fatou and Ismail in a believable way. And not to rave about a fucking tortoise, but animals can be really uncooperative and that tortoise delivered every fucking clip. Druck has a reputation for being one of the most depressive versions of Skam, but the Maike/Burger plot was just plain fun.

I feel like some of the old gen’s instas were a bit self-indulgent. I’m thinking specifically of Matteo’s memes and how they they weren’t necessarily the kind of memes a gay dude born in 2001 would pick, but someone a decade older. I think this is much better done with new gen. Fatou’s memes reflect her age and her sexuality, and not just that, but Ava, Mailin, Kieu My, Josh, etc. all pick memes and even focus on different aspects of recent news, based on their gender, race, personalities, interests, etc.

I appreciate that the team found a way to fit a sex scene between Fatou and Kieu My to add to the small catalogue of wlw sex scenes on Skams (I’m including the scene in lovleg or we’d only have two lol). While I understood the reasons eskam opted not to include one, I thought there were ways to feature a sex scene that didn’t sexualize the actresses and didn’t require nudity. Cases in point: the lovleg scene, and this scene in Druck.

And it also needs to be said. This is the first original season with a main of color, and the third season overall (after Liv and Imane) where 10 episodes are given to a character of color and no one else. Of the three, it’s certainly the season that loved and respected its main the most. The bar is so low it’s in hell, but Druck did clear that bar!

With all that said, let’s talk about the things I would really want the team to address in following seasons:

The thing I most want them to fix might be small or unimportant for a lot of people, but I think it’s at the core of why the season has been unenjoyable or certain plot points haven’t come across the way the team wanted, for many people. I am talking about the overly expositional nature of the writing.  It appears as if the team approached the writing of the clips with the intention of hitting each beat as noted in their agreed upon outline, and absolutely nothing else was to be added. This is an issue both in s5 and s6. It’s just less noticeable in s5, because s5 is setting up stuff for Fatou’s season, and possibly even seasons that haven’t been written yet. The fact that absolutely every second counts makes for a stressful watching experience for me, because the narrative tension is always heightened. Whereas with Skam, the narrative tension would build throughout the clip. Take the Pride scene in Skam, for instance. The clip allows for Isak and Eskild to get increasingly more agitated as they butt heads. I feel like if this Druck team had done the Pride scene in s5 or s6, the clip would’ve started with both Isak and Eskild already on edge, and cut much of the dialogue that got them there.

On the topic of naturalistic dialogue, this season doesn’t have it. Here is an example from ep 10 clip 2, Wieder vereint/Reunited 11:37.

Fatou: I’ll get a certificate too and bring it over to you. And I checked it, I only have to change one course and my schedule will work.

Teacher: Miss Jallow, you are not the first one to come to me with an epiphany. We could fill entire school weeks with the lessons you missed. In addition, Doctor Steinberg told me about your, well… activities. You don’t have a lot of arguments on your side. 

Fatou: But I’ve spoken to all of the teachers and they said they are okay with it. 

Teacher: You seem to have friends among the teaching staff. Mrs Pavlovic put in a word for you. Okay then, do it and go before I change my mind. [translated by @kieu-tou! Thank you!] 

Like. This is the bare bones version of a dialogue. This should be the first draft, not the final version. The coordinator goes from absolute no to yes, with just one line from Fatou. The coordinator gives reasons that would necessitate more than one sentence of counterargument, like Fatou’s absences and the Biology test leaked answers. The coordinator even says Fatou doesn’t have a lot of arguments on her side, and yet it takes Fatou one line to change her mind!

And of course we viewers don’t want or need a lot of time with the coordinator. And particularly at this point in the season, no one would enjoy a naturalistic dialogue with the coordinator of all people.  But my point is that this is an issue with the dialogue all this season (and last season as well, but this season has been more scrutinized), the reason I picked this example is because of how easy it is to see here.

Which brings us to the pacing of the clips, and specifically the Friday clips. Because the script goes straight to the information the team wants to convey to the viewers, skipping the build up to it, many Friday clips have fallen flat, felt abrupt, and have been, tbh, unsatisfying. Again, I had this issue in s5, but as that season went on, I felt like the team had a better grip on Friday clips. But then they did it again in the first Friday clip this season, and so I think this is something the writers really should work on. The first Friday clip in Isak’s season closes on Isak being sandwiched by Emma and Even on a bench, visually setting up the love triangle, or more accurately, the personifications of who Isak should want to hook up with and who he really wants. But in order to get there, we’re shown a good amount of info, from the way Vilde, Eva and Sana are handling Noora’s absence, to Chris and Kasper, Even hovering around Isak, Emma trying to impress Isak, Isak escaping and, like, draping himself on the walls because he’s so over it all. Isak playing a game on the bathroom to stall for time. The paper towel maneuver to immediately give us a sense of what a weirdo Even is. A conversation between Isak and Even that gives us some clues about Even’s shame, as well as establish interests in common (like weed), and this is all before Emma even joins them! Just think of all the stuff we learn about who Isak, Even, Emma, Eva, Vilde or Sana are as people, before we get to the point of the clip! Fatou’s season simply didn’t have that. Compare it with the first Friday clip of Fatou’s season where the cashqueens quickly talk about the leaked answers, one of the major storylines this season that only gets a couple lines, before Fatou says she doesn’t want to talk about school (Fatou’s struggles with school, another major storyline), and then we’re onto the point of the clip, which is that Kieu My likes girls too. AND FADE TO BLACK. When people say they want longer clips, what they mean isn’t artificially inflate the clip length or add more plot stuff. Just let us watch the characters interact with each other so that we get a feel for how they relate to each other. I know I wish we’d have gotten more of Ava and Fatou interacting with each other before things turned to shit, and Ava with the other girls, so that I know why they all like and value Ava so much. I wish we’d have gotten more of Kieu My talking to the cashqueens about, like, why she didn’t make use of the biology test answers, instead of getting it on a chat. Or food combos they don’t like. So it makes more sense that later on Kieu My actually thinks she and Fatou are friends.  And every line doesn’t have to count. In Skam España, the characters are constantly talking and not everything they ever talked about ended up being relevant. When one of the characters lied about her house undergoing renovations to hide the fact that she was poor, the characters joked about Italian marble and put on bad Italian accents and made that Italian hand gesture. None of this was important to the plot because those renovations weren’t real to begin with, but they made viewers feel like these were real friends joking around, instead of characters needing to hit every storyline beat in a clip.

I have this joke with my friends about Druck always going 🤪🤪 in the last third of every season, in which a season that was very tightly written and cohesive suddenly pulls something inexplicable and pretty much impossible to resolve in 1-3 episodes. Hanna’s season suddenly switching to Mia, Björn creeping on Mia in episode 9! of a total 10, David getting outed in episode 8 and then disappearing for a whole week, Amira’s season pivoting to Mia and Hanna. It has happened in every season except Nora’s, so I thought the team had learned its lesson, but then the forgotten date with Ava happened. To be clear. It really makes no sense that Nora would have hung out with Ava several times since Tuesday, and the topic of the cashqueens being officially introduced to Kieu My wouldn’t have come up. it’s just not realistic.gif I feel like at that point the writing for the rest of the reason became super contrived to keep Fatou miserable and apart from Kieu My and Ava to artificially delay the reunions until episode 9 and 10. Why add a cheating insinuation and the main checking her partner’s messages in episode 8 if you know you won’t be able to properly resolve it? Why make Kieu My mock Fatou’s “uhm” if it’s not going to be addressed in their reunion clip? Kieu My had taken the initiative for a lot of the relationship, so it’s okay for Fatou to take the initiative when it comes to making up. You don’t have to add things that can only be resolved through an expositional info dump. (Please no more exposition than it’s necessary! I think we’ve established that at this point lol.) In the case of Fatou’s season, this is even sadder because I feel like Kieu My’s intimacy issues could’ve been the reason to drive them apart for two weeks, rather than the Maya/uhm stuff. This could’ve also been resolved through Fatou and Kieu My explicitly negotiating their boundaries and how they want to be comforted and how they want to comfort each other, which I thought was the issue with Fatou rejecting Kieu My’s attempts to help while wanting physical touch, while Kieu My didn’t want to be touched but rather seen.  

There are going to be many thinkpieces on why a myriad of stuff didn’t work for people, so I’m going to keep this simple and address one last thing. I think that choosing to focus on Nora’s mental illness and Fatou’s disability is a great choice that doesn’t complicate the themes too much, but Druck (and all the Skams, but I’m invested only in Druck succeeding at this point) still struggles with being intersectional. This is the major reason why the Ava/Mailin storyline ended not with a bang, but a whimper. There just wasn’t enough work done to connect Fatou’s struggles not just to her disability, but also to her race (and even her sexuality). I think that if people really want (and lbr, it’ll be mostly poc who will put in that effort and work), they can see how Fatou’s race affected the way other people and especially adults reacted to her, but this wasn’t made explicit. If Ava and Mailin are going to argue about racism all season, why not connect that with Karin firing Fatou from Aquarius? As it stands, Karin fired Fatou because of a disability neither of them knew Fatou has, and that was the resolution to that storyline. Why not make it explicit that the Physics teacher had preconceived ideas about Fatou because Fatou is black? Why wasn’t Fatou’s disability addressed in the meeting with the coordinator? Why didn’t Fatou express to Mailin that Fatou, too, had issues with how Mailin was acting wrt racism? It felt like, with the way the season was putting so much emphasis on racism, all these threads were going to be connected. In the end though, it almost felt as if only Ava is affected by racism (aside from Mailin mentioning Fatou in the last episode). It’s not like talking about how racism affects Fatou is going to make the topic redundant for Ava’s or Ismail’s season. As a light-skinned black lesbian with a disability, Fatou’s life is going to be impacted by racism in a different way than Ava’s will, as a dark-skinned black fat straight cis girl, or Ismail’s, as a Turkish-German possibly Muslim possibly non binary person. All these experiences are specific enough, and different enough, that they can be touched upon in different seasons without becoming redundant. The fact that Fatou’s season almost seemed to forget at times that she is a black lesbian, doesn’t bode well for Ava’s and Ismail’s season to acknowledge all their struggles.

The bottom line is that this season really was great and did a lot of good, and I feel like the writing just needs to be tweaked a bit for further seasons to be even better and more enjoyable overall. I am very pleasantly surprised by how the team took s1-s4 fan feedback to heart and worked to implement suggestions, and so I really trust them and hope they keep working on the show. It’d be a shame if Druck wasn’t renewed, with this team at the helm.    

[isagrimorie]

Spyfall 2

Commentators: Jodie Whittaker, Sylvie Briggs (Ada Lovelace), Chris Chibnall

Much like the Doctor doesn't like being alone, Jodie also isn't keen on doing scenes alone.

Chibnall actually did consult with his brother in law, who is very knowledgeable in aviation, about landing planes without a cockpit. And it is possible to do so remotely, people will be surprised how a lot of modern planes are actually flown by a computer. I'm not surprised, my dad's a pilot and he told me a lot of modern aircraft are actually flown more by the computers than the pilots. It's a two edged sword tho because then the pilot becomes too over reliant on the autopilot, and that's when accidents happen.

The scene with Ada and Thirteen meeting in the Kasaavin dimension was actually Sylvie's (Ada Lovelace) final day. Her first day was waking up in 'Paris' with Thirteen.

Interesting comment about how the Doctor's rhythm and speech changed dictated by the period of time she's in. It's modern but enough to sound period.

The hall the Doctor and Ada are in is a school, the dining hall.

The Master and his Top Hat! Jodie and Sylvie are both admiring how Sacha commanded the room and how genuinely terrifying he was. 'He (Sacha) rehearses in a way physically you kinda know what he's gonna do but emotionally its different.'

Jodie: "We're the same height, well you can see it 'cause we are but what is really ace is bein' able to eyeball somebody, because very often when you have a standoff with someone there's usually one's looking up, one's looking down or whatever but to be absolutely--"

Sylvie: "Because that changes the power dynamic."

Jodie: "Yeah."

Chibnall: "I never clocked that."

[snip]

Chibnall: "But I wonder if that's what makes it feels so much like your Master, your antagonist, your nemesis. It's like... that's interesting about the eyeline."

Jodie: "Cause in the scene obviously with Lenny outside like this (does something we can't see) and I like doing that thing of scrunching up and kind of, y'know, I suppose the.. doing that thing that kids do headstrong where the body leans forward. But with this two its (growls)."

Chibnall was uncertain about writing the kneel scene, Jodie agrees and didn't like it, Sylvie mentions that it feels epic to her. Chibnall:"There's something about your perfromances that makes it feel epic. But it's just that two-hander."

In the kneel scene, when they were filming, to keep the secret of the Master's identity, Jodie called Sacha 'Myka' instead of Master.

Jodie: "I like my bowtie." Chibnall: "Are you angling for the return of the bowtie?"

Jodie: "Every set, I try to knick something." LOL.

I love how Jodie compliments Sylvie, and I agree she fits the era very well. And an instance where costume (corset especially), and the hair all tied back helps get into character.

Ada really had episodes of paralysis, and one of the jumping off points for Chibnall's story.

Sylvie and Jodie comment on how lovely it was to have scenes with three women and not about 'Hey three women! Let's talk about being women! It's (their gender) is absolutely irrelevant to it but it is really lovely to have just three women. The kind of craziness Doctor Who brings with Ada in period clothes, the Doctor in a tux, and Noor in her period appropriate clothes.

They go on to discuss the Master's SS uniform and how it makes them (Sacha included) shudder because of what the uniform represented. And it's more of a reflection of the Master because he just treats wearing the SS uniform as a dress up without accounting for the implications and history of it. An alien tourist playing dress-up. [ED: I think the optics of this is still problematic I think it's something we need to acknowledge..]

There really was a point where Jodie and Sylvie were under the floor boards with people walking above them, and they held each other's hands because that experience was awful. On page it was very cool, but in execution. (Ed: I love that scene the whole way where there's a tense standoff between Noor and the soldiers, and the Master. And the steeliness of Noor just staring them down even with the soldier strafing the floor.) Chibnall wants several films with Noor Inayat Khan.

OMG. There was a point in the shoot where the Doctor was supposed to speak in perfect French, and Jodie joked that she already didn't speak English very well, and so she practiced speaking her line just to get the accent perfect... only for it to be cut for time. I WANT DELETED SCENES NOW.

Scanning through the Spyfall 2 script there's no mention of the scene where the Doctor speaks in French which really just confirms my suspicion that the scripts are not the shooting scripts, or at least the copies the actors use.

So, Chibnall gave the production several possible locations hoping to bring the budget to manageable scale and then he started writing and he got to the scene where the Doctor and Master spoke and the Master asked where they'd meet and then the Doctor answered; "Where d'you think?"

And Chibnall goes: "Oh they've got to meet in the Eiffel Tower. Production is going to kill me!"

Also, by this it confirms to me that Chibnall, like all of the showrunners is a Doctor/Master shipper, which I should've known already because Jack and Captain John were very much Doctor/Master lite.

Jodie loves doing duologues and is hoping for more two handers in the future, and Chibnall is taking note of that. Two handers where the other person has more of the dialogue... LOL. I guess Jodie really loved The Timeless Children.

[ED: Ada and Noor were such good companions. I want a historical companion for Thirteen next please. Thirteen, Yaz, and a historical Companion!]

Sylvie is so fascinated with the Doctor and Master's relationship, about how complicated it is.

One of the advises RTD gave Chibnall is that 'you can save anything in a line.' LOL. Apparently some of the Master's trauma across 77 years involved tailoring.

Jodie comments on how exciting it is being involved in the costuming, between herself and Sacha, they get to build their Doctors and Master's look and shape them. Also Jodie really loves cropped pants.

Jodie and Sylvie love the power walk, the big iconic, backlit smoke walk. The Big Exposition speech.

The scene where the Master arrives in Kasaavin dimension, same day filming for Jodie, and Sylvie too.

Jodie loves all the engineering and carpentry work, and any practical work.

They did do a shoot where they moved forward to a scene where Noor died, but in the edit found a better ending in the one that was broadcasted, and IMO, that was the right choice. Chibnall wants it more that Doctor Who will inspire people to read up more on Noor Inayat Khan and same Ada.

Chibnall didn't want to rob Ada of her agency, that the Doctor helped her discover computers or suggest that she didn't come up with it, everything Ada did she came up with herself.

The scene where Thirteen is alone and contemplating what happened to Gallifrey, Jodie comments how this was one of the few times where she's just very still.

Chibnall: "This is second series Thirteen, the place you take a character once you've done the first act, done in the beginning of your Doctor's second act."

Jodie and Sacha made sure that they're there in person for the scene in the TARDIS because having a stand-in would change the energy and performance of the scene.

Chibnall: "That performance from Sacha, the layer he brings to the Master there, of emotional truth and pain is so fantastic. It's a gift for a writer, and opens up the Master as well. And opens up your Doctor, I think, the trauma's so personal."

Hang on. Chibnall: "Is that the first appearance of the jumper? [ snip] They've come in this second series, its the first jumper. Little tiny changes you and Ray figure out." Are they implying there were more Doctor wearing only her long sleeve jumper we didn't get to see???

Chibnall: "And you got your Doctor theme but also it's the first time you [speaking to Jodie], it's interesting, I deliberately kept them back in the first series so that when you say them here, it's like you're saying 'Gallifrey', 'Kasterborous', 'Master for the first time."

Jodie: But its good that it ends with a: [using the same steely, angry voice]: 'Questions?' Like: 'Back to business, c'mon.'

Chibnall: (watching Thirteen's face subtly change when Yaz asked if they can visit, and it changes from a broken void to a forced smile). "Ohhhh. Why won't you tell them?" (LOL a writer asking his character.)

[imaginariaextraordinaire]

So much of this episode is about the unacknowledged labour of women, the sexism they face in different areas and the various methods women adopt to negotiate it.

Ji-Woo is such a great character because the show takes the idea of a film star and layers it with angularities and tenderness. She's well aware of what she's sacrificed on the personal front to become the successful professional she is in the present. I love how she's neither ashamed of it nor does she ignore that its a choice that came with lots of unpleasant baggage. We get a sense of this awareness in the conversation she has with Seon-Gyeom in the parking lot (it's also striking me as I rewatch the show that there's a beautiful little arc of Seon-Gyeom and Ji-Woo building a mother-son relationship almost from scratch).

The church scenes are also a great example of show-don't-tell storytelling. While Assemblyman Ki has to bribe and flatter people in order to get their attention, adoring gazes turn to Ji-Woo seemingly automatically. Except of course, it's not automatic, as the conversation with Ms Dong reminds us. Her fame as an actress is the result of hard work and putting everything else aside. I love the easy understanding between Ms Dong and Ji-Woo — both working women, both mothers. There's no shame in Ji-Woo asking Ms Dong to look out for Seon-Gyeom and no recrimination when she says Seon-Gyeom is closer to Ms Dong than he is to his mother. It takes a village, people.

In Ji-Woo and Seon-Gyeom's chance meeting at the parking lot, there's something tentative and formal about them. They're both putting up façades — Seon-Gyeom's polite mask, Ji-Woo's tinkling laughter — although she does allow him to glimpse what lies beneath. Ji-Woo only drops a vague mention of Assemblyman Ki making life miserable for the rest of the family because Seon-Gyeom isn't falling in line. It's obvious from both mother and son's body language that she doesn't need to elaborate. What's lovely though is that there's no complaint in her tone. She isn't telling Seon-Gyeom this detail so that he feels guilty; quite to the contrary. The laughter and ease of her body language is reassuring, as though she's subtly telling him that she can handle this.

While we're on Ji-Woo, how great is her barely-concealed impatience with all the smiling and greeting and praying in church!

I'm not sure what I love more — the shot of a the stained-glass Jesus, looking pained while the minister thunders out a prayer for Assemblyman Ki; or the fact that the very next scene shows a kid throwing a tantrum in a supermarket. It cannot be a coincidence that this is the one time that Seon-Gyeom is filmed from an angle that makes it look like he's descending down upon the kid (whom he bribes with a chocolate bar). Particularly love the longing on the kid's face as she stares at the retreating figure of the divine Seon-Gyeom.

The scene between Mi-Joo and Seon-Gyeom outside his hotel is so heartbreaking to watch and it's the first time we understand just how hard Mi-Joo is on herself. All this began with a drunk professor making offensive, sexist comments that demeaned Mi-Joo, but to explain all that to Seon-Gyeom feels almost indulgent so she takes the blame. She's the disappointment — for being poor, for being seen as someone who can be bribed, for having taken the money. She doesn't hear him when he places the onus of the blame on his father. It's so achingly obvious that all her belligerence is posturing and she's ending the budding relationship between her and Seon-Gyeom because she doesn't think she deserves him.

Thank the gods for May. Even if she and Mi-Joo start off at odds, it takes only seconds for them to be in sync. God bless the womance.

You've got to feel thankful for the family of choice when Dan-Ah bumps into human-trash brother. He's a strong reminder of the everyday sexism in society and how privilege doesn't mean you're protected from this venom.

Over the course of Run On, Dan-Ah figures out how to fight her battles in her own way, rather than by employing toxic methods, like putting her (half-) brothers down because society considers them illegitimate. At this point though, while her brother is disgusting and Dan-Ah is obviously nothing like him as a person, the weapons she uses to fight him — hierarchy, contempt, violence — are the same as those he uses on her.

In the middle of all these tortured, messed-up men, the kids are alright. We know this from not only the way the schoolkids whom Seon-Gyeom coaches react to the bullying scandal — interesting that the children have more perspective than the grown-ups who care about appearances rather than the truth — but also thanks to Yeong-Hwa.

I love Dan-Ah trying to subtle suss out exactly how young Yeong-Hwa is when he and Ye-Joon come to Dan-Ah's office. I also love how not for a second does Yeong-Hwa, for all his puppy-eyes, call her "noona". There's no ambiguity about this relationship. Also, while I still can't find anything remotely good to say about those wretched paintings, the idea that art forges connections irrespective of social convention/ hierarchy is one that has my heart.

If the Gyeommi couple is all about being heard and understood, the Danhwa couple is all about being seen for what you really are.

Speaking of Gyeommi, how cute is it that Woo-Sik is the one playing Cupid! In this episode, Seon-Gyeom is frequently reminded of how alone and solitary he is, but what we also see is that he's building friendships. The relationship with Woo-Sik changes from that of a senior with a junior colleague to something softer, warmer. With Mi-Joo, particularly at the dinner that Woo-Sik organises, you see Seon-Gyeom finding companionship as they attempt to set aside their attraction and actually understand each other. This is a relationship that works because they're so different. The fact that they don't think alike is why she can offer him the piercing insight of, "Why not include your failures as a part of your process?"

Also, what a bombshell to drop on audiences in a country (and continent) known for its fiercely competitive spirit... .

Rewatching this episode, Mi-Joo running back to home to translate the article in which Woo-Sik clears Seon-Gyeom's name reminded me of how different this is from the marathon run. Both times, she's running towards Seon-Gyeom, but this time it's more adrenaline than anything else and it's for him. It's the unthinking running that Seon-Gyeom told her about during their first drinking session — you're just running ahead, without looking back, focused on one external goal. The marathon run is much more internal as it pushes Mi-Joo to make peace with her past before she decides what she wants to run towards.

Also, looping back to that idea of unacknowledged women's labour, Mi-Joo works HARD to make sure the article goes viral and she claims no credit for it. She only tells an online group that she translated it because she knows that they will circulate it with more gusto if they know it's her work. This little snippet is also a good reminder that rarely do things go viral without a whole lotta effort from people in the background.

Finally, this hug in the rain turned me into full mush. By now, we know that Seon-Gyeom has grown up with very little affection. He prefers a hotel room to the family house. The only person he's felt comfortable enough to hug is the housekeeper. As far as he can tell, he has no friends (Woo-Sik and Yeong-Il will eventually set him straight on that account, but for now, he's utterly alone). At this point, the hug from Mi-Joo is something much more tender and basic than romantic love or sexual chemistry.

MJ: Don't tell me you don't know what I'm doing.

SG: I know. You're comforting me.

MJ: Correct.

I can't help but remember the later scene when they'll be on either sides of metal gates, when she won't reach out to him and he'll be upset that she won't trust him. Perhaps that's the difference between finding friendship and falling in love — they both can make you stronger, but the process is very different.

[gaycrouton]

A Long-Standing Curiosity

This is a part of my "Countdown" Series, where I play with the "X" times Mulder and Scully "X" trope. 10-2 will be UST-y with the final one being their first time.

This one is Five times Scully was reminded of Mulder’s impressive size. NSFW

I - A Hint (S1)

Whenever Mulder dragged her over to the Gunmen's, she felt a wicked sense of dejavu from her years of being a tagalong little sister. When her parents were out and Missy was busy, Bill was saddled with the duty of watching her. He'd hang out with his friends, usually riding bikes around the neighborhood while she exerted herself trying to keep up, her equilibrium tilting back and forth from training wheel to training wheel scraping against the pavement.

She was the outsider, but she wanted to be included.

"Some spies are said to keep asps in their pockets in preparation for a quick suicide," Frohike proclaimed. For what reason, she didn't know.

"I heard that too," Langly agreed. "That when they feel they've been compromised, they just aggravate the asp into biting them and releasing their venom."

"Like the historical myth about Cleopatra," she added, wanting to contribute since she hadn't been able to chime in during the last several conversations.

The three unfamiliar men looked over at her with a quizzical look. Much like in the summer days spent with Bill's friend, she'd distanced herself more in an attempt to bridge the gap. She squirmed in her seat under their attention, but she didn't lower her eyes, meeting them each with a raised eyebrow that said "What? I'm right."

"Myth?" Mulder asked, drawing her attention to the corner of the room where he was lounging comfortably. Whereas Bill would look over his shoulder, just to make sure she was still there before taking off even faster, Mulder kept a steady gaze on her, unwilling to let her fall behind. "It's a fact she killed herself with an asp," he challenged.

The Gunmen's heads went back and forth with each volley of this proverbial match. "No, it's not. Despite the paintings of Reginald Arthur and Michel Corneille or the writing of Shakespeare making millions believe she held an asp to her breast after the death of Antony, historians have proven that it was either the stab of a sharp implement like a hairpin or a toxic ointment that caused her death."

"I'd never heard that before, that's really interesting," Byers remarked, offering her a sincere smile.

Mulder was nodding at her with what appeared to be pride as she explained this. "That does make a lot more sense than someone just having a snake in their pants at the ready," Mulder teased, turning his attention over to the more eccentric two of the trio.

"Why? You do it all the time," Frohike joked, causing Langly to cackle.

"Except he's packing a python instead of an asp," Langly added, smiling wider as Mulder grew redder.

And just like all those years ago, the group of boys defaulted to dick jokes. Except Mulder wasn't her brother, and she was a woman now. Hearing them talk so openly about a topic she'd mentally sanctioned as taboo made her eyes widen and her curiosity flare.

"How many women you bite with that thing, Mulder?" Frohike, teased.

Scully observed as Mulder's previous position of comfort became tense as his eyes flickered over to see how she was reacting to the crude locker room talk. The ease with which the comments rolled off his friends' tongues made her think that this wasn't unusual talk for them nor that it was unfounded. The only thing that seemed out of place was Mulder's embarrassment.

"Guys, come on," he chastised, glaring at them while motioning his head towards her.

Frohike looked at her and coughed away his chuckling. "Sorry, Agent Scully."

She waved her hand in front of her face in dismissal. "It doesn't bother me."

But a nagging curiosity in the back of her mind now was.

II - A Glimpse (S2)

Scully didn't even realize it until afterwards. A flash of a bulge in her memory coming unexpected like an after shock in an earthquake.

She was standing at her kitchen counter, sipping from a glass of water with a shaky hand while Mulder's weapon sat next to the sink. Her body was exhausted from the effort of removing Mulder's clothes without any help from the double-her-size man. She'd stumbled back into her bookshelf when his pants finally came free and she'd been too worried about waking him to realize what she'd just uncovered, but now that she was calming down, she could recollect it perfectly.

An elongated bulge in his briefs, resting innocently on his upper thigh.

Elongated.

She hadn't really seen anything. Not in the flesh at least.

But in the morning when she checked on him, after he'd shucked the comforter off in his sleep, she was greeted with the same visual she knew she should be politely ignoring: Mulder's impressive, albeit flaccid, penis.

She stood next to him in the silence of her bedroom and looked down at it - a one woman gallery to an amazing show. Was he a shower or a grower?

Despite the fact that question was running through her mind, many were presently answered. He was big, showing or growing be damned, and he wasn't a Jewish stereotype.

III - A Brush (S4)

"Well, you could lock the door to the office," Mulder offered, accidentally brushing against Scully's back before leaning away from her.

"Folks know I never lock the door," Sheriff Taylor responded in an uncompromising tone. Adding, "They'd start rumors," as an afterthought.

She'd been reaching for the gloves, preparing to slide them over her hands, when he shut the bathroom door. As he did this, Mulder took a few shuffling steps closer to her so he could make himself fit in the tiny room. It probably was no larger than her wingspan, but half of the area was taken by either the sink or the toilet, making it so they had no room to shuffle. She could feel his knees and chest against her, so she could tell he was trying to lean his hips back to avoid pressing against her.

However, as she snapped the latex gloves on, he tried to readjust his footing and something ended up brushing against her ass. A significant something.

Her eyes froze on the blue lip of the faux-autopsy-table lunch tray laying in front of her as her brain quickly caught up to what her body instinctively recognized. Scully turned her head, too surprised at what she was feeling to acknowledge how close his face was.

Mulder was obviously aware of what caused her look and he smoothly deadpanned, "Oh, that was my penlight," acting as if their bodies touching so intimately was just a run of the mill occurrence.

"Oh," she murmured, turning back to the tray. "I thought a longstanding curiosity had just been satisfied," she replied, with feigned despondency before intaking a breath and widening her eyes.

"What an awfully big and warm penlight you have," was the response she wished she could have said.

Mulder moaned in appreciation low next to her ear and it sent shivers down her spine. The feeling of him pressed against her on top of his warm breath tickling her ear began to feel overwhelming, so she pulled back the sheet to kill the mood instantly.

IV - A Tease (S6)

A four hour stakeout? No problem. Six? Manageable. Ten? They were going insane.

It was one thing when they were on the X-Files. A stakeout then usually didn't last too long. But now under Kersh's orders, they were stuck with grunt work that was redundant and usually fruitless.

During the first time they'd endured this, Mulder had come up with some hairbrained twist on a children's game so they could pass the time. After a few rounds, it became perfectly clear that the game was just them asking questions back and forth, and they decided to just do that unabashedly. "You're my friend, Scully. I just want to know more about you. Why hide behind a game?" he smirked, bumping her leg with his.

After he'd said it, she was reminded of a night only a couple of years ago where Eddie Van Bluhndt had given her a similar sentiment. Mulder had just gone on and on about a potential X-File for hours before that, so she had no doubts that this was her Mulder in the flesh, but that made it a little more intimidating than it was back then. She knew he'd always harbored some anger towards what had happened with Eddie, not at her but at himself, and she had an inkling that this was an attempt at him doing what she'd inadvertently demonstrated she wanted.

It was initially awkward for them both, but at the end of the day - they truly did just want to learn more about each other.

However, this was now their third stakeout and they'd exhausted awkward high school stories and menial facts about themselves. She supposed it was that, plus the hours of boredom under their belts that led him down this line of questioning.

"What's your bra size?" he asked, shifting in the driver's seat while trying to find a good position.

His last question had been "When did you get your first fish?" so the abrupt topic change made her start in her seat.

Scully turned to him, and didn't see any traces of humor on his face. It was like he'd just asked what her shoe size was. "My bra size?" she repeated.

There it was. A little smile on his lips as the sides of his eyes crinkled with mirth. He turned to her, his smile widening when he didn't see any angry indignation on her face, and he replied, "Yeah."

If he was going to blame their exhaustion for his boldness, so could she. "Guess."

Without even looking he replied, "34B."

Her mouth dropped as she turned to him. "Cheater!"

He laughed and held up his hands. "How?" he asked in shocked amusement.

"How did you know, you didn't even look?" She knew it was stupid as soon as the statement left her mouth. Him not looking now was his way of subtly telling her he'd looked enough in the past to have it committed to memory.

He lowered his head ever so slightly closer to her and murmured, "I thought that would have been improper of me." Her eyes fluttered to the stubble coming through across his jaw and she was brought back by the shrug of his shoulders. "But, if you insist," he declared dramatically before letting his gaze fall to her chest.

She elbowed him playfully and chuckled as he mockingly rubbed his arm. "Ow, ow, okay. Your turn."

Feeling emboldened by his question, she decided she wanted to satisfy a curiosity of her own once and for all. "How big are you?"

"Six foot even," he replied innocently. He knew damn well what she meant and his cocky grin told her that he just wanted to hear her say it.

"No. How big is your…" she stumbled over word choice. Cock was vulgar, dick sounded childish, penis sounded clinical - what effect did she want to go for? "...cock," she settled on defiantly. The last word was slightly softer than the rest and she felt the friction of every consonant in the back of her throat as her mouth opened around the vowel. She'd never realized how, if said right, the word was like an oral invitation for the namesake.

His nostrils flared in response to her bold choice and a devilish gleam twinkled in his eye. She knew what he was going to do as soon as the smile erupted across his face. "Guess."

She swallowed thickly and turned her attention to the streetlamps littering the street, wanting to appear as indifferent as he had. "Well, from the glimpses I've seen over the years-" she started with a lilt.

"Glimpses?" he asked in surprise.

She turned to him with a coquettish smile and explained, "Mulder, I'm your doctor, and you're reckless. I've seen it all."

It was too dark to see fully, but if she could trust her eyes, he was blushing. "What's your verdict, Doc?"

"Six inches," she stated firmly.

He nodded amusedly and she was just about ready to gloat when he murmured, "Half right."

"Half right?" she replied quizzically.

He turned to her and smoothly told her, "You're assuming I'm a shower."

Bigger than six inches.

"Okay, okay," she mused. "Five inches flaccid, seven inches erect."

"Good guess," he smirked.

"But you said-"

He shifted in his seat and her attention was inadvertently drawn to the ever present mound in his lap. "Six inches flaccid, eight and a half erect," he replied.

She sat there stunned for a moment and was flustered when he waved his hand in front of her face and sang, "Earth to Scully."

"I don't believe you," she laughed breathlessly.

"Even about this?" he chuckled.

"Mulder, the average is five inches. Anything above eight is so rare," she explained, trying not to think about what he could do to her with that thing.

"Wanna see it?" he teased, undoing his belt.

Mulder was just joking. She knew that. But her gaze fell into his lap anyway, eagerly committing the image of his fingers deftly undoing his belt to memory. She couldn't find her voice to stop him, so she just sat there watching him.

When the anticipated words of 'Mulder' or 'stop' didn't happen, his hands faltered and he paused, watching her until she met his gaze while he held part of his undone belt in both hands. His eyes were curious, but there was a tint of something else. Something she only saw when she dreamed of him. "Scully?" his voice came out as a whisper.

A loud banging sound reverberated through the empty streets as a woman started screaming at the top of her lungs. "Shit," Scully swore, hopping out of the car as she ran towards the suspect fleeing the scene.

V - A Curiosity Satisfied (S7)

After coming to Los Angeles spur of the moment, following an unseen fear monster around for the entire night, watching multiple people die, and having to deal with infuriating pests following their every move with cameras - they were exhausted.

She'd been asleep in the car the entire time it took him to drive back to their shitty motel, and when he woke her up, it was only so she could reassure him they did everything they could and all but collapse face first into her mattress. The only thing she could physically muster up the energy to do was take off her shoes and coat.

However, her sleep was interrupted by Mulder's staggered breathing from the other room, more audible to her because their adjoining rooms were still open. It was common for Mulder to have nightmares, but there had been a definite spike because of the stress from the last few weeks.

It had become a bit of an unspoken pact as of late between them that if one of them was having a nightmare, the other would just sleep next to them. It was simple and innocent, just carnal comfort of having another person near.

Scully sniffed lightly as she pulled herself off the mattress, trying to shake her exhaustion away for long enough to get to him. She grabbed the warm pillow she'd been resting on and hugged it against her chest as she shuffled across the floor to the adjoining doorway.

Along with the staggered breathing, she could hear him grunting lightly. Her eyes were barely open, but her lip tugged downward in empathy. He'd just worked so hard and he can't even find solace in his dreams.

She made it to the doorway when her eyes registered more flesh than what she'd anticipated. Blinking the sight in front of her into view, she had to bite down on her lip to suppress a gasp.

Mulder was lying on his back, his boxers shoved around his knees, and he was pumping a massive erection with a vigorous fist.

Two. Two fists.

The sight alone was like a shot of adrenaline to her system and she felt a coiling in her gut. When he wasn't fucking his hands, he was using one to rub his precum over his head while the other fondled his balls. Mulder's face was contorted in pleasure, sweaty and flush, as his hips lifted off the bed.

Her feet felt like lead on the floor and she didn't know what to do. Go to him? Run away? Watch?

Mulder's breath continued to hitch as he continued his thrusts, but he was becoming erratic and she realized she was stumbling in at the tail end of it. She wasn't sure how long she'd just been asleep for, but Mulder had worked himself into a frenzy and he wasn't going to be able to hold it in for much longer.

She knew she should leave, but she didn't want to. She wanted to see Mulder in his most primal form. His eyes opened for a moment and she felt excitement run though her body like a shiver. Not fear. Not worry. She was excited at the idea of him knowing she was watching him.

But when his eyes opened, it was just to rip off the shirt he's been wearing and throw it to the floor, rolling over to grab a box of kleenex and setting it next to him on the bed before continuing.

His eyes fluttered shut as he resumed his frantic pace, his arms working so hard she could see the muscles in his biceps flexing. He looked so long and lean like this, wearing nothing but tangled boxers and arousal.

Mulder's mouth dropped open and she knew he was coming undone. His back arched off the bed as he ground himself into his hands, spurting thick lines of come all over his abdomen. Her groin felt heavy and swollen from her own arousal and the sight made her want to go over to him and beg him to finish her off. She was hugging the pillow she'd brought so tightly to her chest that she could feel her own heartbeat through it.

Mulder's breathing slowly started to return to normal as he grabbed some tissues and started cleaning himself up. It took a few wipes, but once he was done, he lifted his hips and gently eased his boxers over his hips.

Not wanting to be caught, as quietly as she could, she tiptoed back into her room and into her own bed. Now it was her turn for her breathing to turn erratic. Scully could hear Mulder's sheets shifting around, presumably from him trying to get comfortable.

Deciding that it was unlikely he'd get up and mimic what she just did, she let her hand slide down her abdomen and under the elastic of her underwear as she thought about the best eight and a half inches she'd ever seen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Other finished “Countdown” parts

10 times Mulder and Scully were as intimate as a couple

6 times Mulder saw Scully in her underwear

4 times they got a little too close

[popculturebuffet]

Toons for Our Times: Ducktales: They Put a Moonlander on the Earth!

At Glomglast, Glomgold Glomturns! Flintheart Hero of Earth Glomgold continues riding his wave of good PR from helping save the earth in the manner you’d expect: With  a dangerous attention seeking pr stunt/ferris wheel/half-ased plan to murder scrooge. Naturally Dewey is first in line for it. Meanwhile Webby tries to convince a wound up Penumbra to stay and enjoy earth so she can get a new alien friend who she relates to and her brothers can get a new step mom, while Launchpad is awkward because his coffee with Pennumbra went worse than the one he had with the gas cloud. The Glom Knight Glomturns under the cut. 

This one is late for both good reason, I didn’t want to hog the wifi while my nieces were trying to remote school, and not so good I.e.... I entirely forgot an episode was today because I’m not used to the new schedule, as in the past the show’s either aired on saturday like usual for a disney show, or as a cluster of episodes throughout one week, so even if it wasn’t something I was used to, I was tuned to stay in. The new schedule is weird  and my brain is stupid is what i’m saying. Now i’ve covered my butt on with the review! This week focuses on Penumbra, and explains exactly what happened to the Moonlanders after Moonvasion. For Penny at least she’s apparently been living in the McDuck hangar, or somewhere near it, and working on rebuilding one of the bigger ships to get her people home. Della, while not missing the opprotunity to point out now Penny’s the one living in HER garage buliding a rocket home, pitches in and we see things have clearly changed. At least with Della, Penny’s let down her guard and now openly considers her her best friend.. and perhaps more because the romantic tension is so thick here you could cut it with a sword. Granted I may have swords on the brain because of this. 

Which if your not up to date on your x-men comics, is an event where our Uncanny X-Men, now having their own nation of krakoa where all mutants are welcome, which includes apocalypse so he’s on THEIR SIDE in that shot, must fight ten other mutants in a ritual sword duel with some of the strongest swords in the mighty marvel canon, and loosing means the other mutants, many of whom are the CHILDREN of apocalyspe from centuries ago he thought lost, get to invade earth with a demonic horde. And if NONE of that made you curious, let alone want to read that, I just.. don’t get you. 

Back to the gays, yeah the ten sword thick sexual tension is broken by the fact that Penumbra reveals she tried SOME earth culture and did get that coffee with Launchpad, with Della baffled.. I mean look at those abs. Though it’s probably less “Launchpad really?” and more “Why not me first? Is he sexier? Dammit he is. “ It went about as well as you’d expect.. with Penny storming out suddenly saying this is terrible and running off. Eh not the worst first date i’ve seen in animation this year. I’ve seen a woman go on a date with a man conjoined to his ex.. and not like their siblings it’s a medical procedure. Because close enough is pretty fucking insane and let’s keep it that way.

But yeah so Penumbra’s not sold on earth and Della’s attempts to get her to go with the kids, get to that in a minute, fall on deaf ears. But the thing is. her people are. When meeting with gibious and zenith, if you don’t remember the married moon couple we saw back in “The Golden Spear”, Penumbra finds out she’s the only one who wants to go home. Her people like it here...the happy couple even got adorable new outfits, a job with Glomgold in Gibbious’ case, and an adorable new dog named good boy. Look at them. 

I would die for either of them. I hope we see Good Boy again. And that the show introduces Bolivar, donald’s dog at some point. Or even his ostrich hortense. I just want the duck to have a pet dammit. 

Point is their happy here and while Penny wants to go back to the old routine of them all on the moon and her saving them.. their fine if she wants to go home but.. their staying here. And it’s easy to see WHY they want to: The moon was harsh, filled with monsters and much like us humans right now with earth, they only stayed in their clusterfuck of a home world because they had no way out. It’s probably why Lunaris sold hte invasion so easily: With his pitch they were just taking a nicer world from a bunch of mean asssholes who refused to share it and whose sole representative had seemingly betrayed them. Without any reason to hate the earthlings and, outside of once incident later in the episode, the earthlings accepting them with open arms and forgiveness, why wouldn’t they stay on a nice, sunny world, in a large city willing to house them and give them jobs, with delicious foods and all sorts of fun shit to distract you from the bad parts of living here that the moon lacked. 

Penny’s issue is while THEIR lives were miserable.. her’s wasn’t. She was a hero, a super hero really.. I mean she’s dressed like a kree sentry, she protects the helpless and she’s a fearless warrior whose now a fish out of water on a world she never could’ve expected but grows to love. Martian Manhunter, Captain Marvel, the Mar Vell one, Warlock, Adam Warlock and yes their separate characters, Supergirl, not superman because while he is an alien he grew up here.. all aliens who immigrated here and grew to love and protect it and see it as their home. Penny just hasn’t got to the “love and protect it” part yet and while the rest of her people have new purpose, new homes and new lives and still meet once a week to party she finds herself, theri greatest champion an outsider, desperately wanting her old life back but not accepting it’s gone. She can go home but she’d be the one person on a desolate moon clinging to the past.  Penny here honestly reminds me of jasper in steven unvierse future: Both are old soldiers who find their empire gone, their entire way of life uprooted and have no way to cope and desperately hoping things will collapse back to THEIR normal, not realizing the new one isn’t going anywhere and is better for their people. They need to move on but their too proud and too scared to try. 

However Penny refuses to admit defeat to her people and that she can’t have “earth fun”, and left with no other choices, decides to take the kids up on their offer after all. To explain that we quickly wrap to the top of the episode, where Webby, bored and having trouble finding anyone, finds Penny and after Penny dosen’t want to hang out finds Dewey and Louie. I assume since their absent this episode, Huey is introducing Violet to Gyro, Fenton and Boyd, Beakly is buying groceries, Donald is courting Daisy and Scrooge.. is trying to get fethry’s hands, feet and head out of pickle jars because he thought they’d preserve him and Donald is busy for once so he’s the only one left to do it.  Louie and Dewey plan on just laying around and biinging old ottoman empires, I can relate, but the news gives them a better option. A GLOMGOLD OPTION. Oh me mow how i’ve missed this big beautiful man. Seriously Glomgold is easily one of the best parts of the reboot and Keith Fergeuson brings an utterly delightful manic glee to the guy any time he shows up to eat the scenery whole. While I get holding back on him since he had an arc last season, it’s still nice to have him back in all his hammy glory.  And naturally being glomgold he has a scheme going: After gifting a rolelrcoaster previously, over water and with sharks because his brand’s nothing if not consistent, he’s now offering the flintferris glomwheel, which is shoddy, dangerous, secretly a plot to kill scrooge, and is very likely to kill a child.. so in other words it’s Glomgold himself roleld into a ferris wheel. Dewey is psyched to go because he let another kid go first for Glomgold’s last PR Stunt/Nightmare and that kid got all the glory and as such is now Dewey’s new nemisis. So after asking his mom “If we can go ride a death wheel so I can get famous’, which of course Della says yes to, our heroes end up taking Penny along.  Launchpad drives and gets his subplot for the episode, being awkard around Penny because the date went bad and not sure if this makes then enimies and avoiding her. He tries going to dewey for help, and while Dewey is out of his element, he does actually give good advice to just talk to her.. Launchpad just takes it while he’s driving because it’s launchpad. Thankfully webby can drive. He spends the rest of hte episode getting into shenanigans before, after helping her with the climax, phrasing, being honest and apologizing. And i’m also covering the plot to get her answer out of the way now: Penny admits he’s fine, thery can be fight buds, he’s a good warrior sh’es just “Not interested in an earth..male” her exact words. 

I mean.. there’s no real subtly here. Even if she’s not into Della, which all evidence suggests is the case, Penumbra is CLEARLY into women. I mean Frank is basically saying as loudly as his mousey overlords will allow “SHE’S GAY FOR DELLA”. Wether this goes anywhere, I dunno. While Lumity started ramping up this year, that property’s not based on Disney’s classic canon and STILL had to fight tooth and claw to make Luz bisexual and her love intrested a girl. Disney won’t even let this show use Mickey and almost didn’t let them use the rescue rangers, the odds are against them.. but I also never thoguht we’d see violet’s gay dads on screen, or so many previously  comics only characters, so frank’s said screw the impossible before. Now probably is no different. 

Back to the main plot, and to the return of Glomgold whose great as ever. Glomgold made the moonlanders and some of duckberg think he was soley responsible for saving the world.. how many people besides the non-penny moonlanders think he actually did it is up for debate but he DID genuinely help save the world. Also his scheme to get his company back somehow WORKED despite not being legally binding, as he’s now back in his tower, back to scheming and has an actual assitant instead of a professional career woman he treats like one in a bit that didn’t age all that well even a year later.  Gibious is now Glomgold’s sidekick and in a nice contrast to Owlson instead of being fed up with his crap Gibious, buying into Glomgold’s own ego, lavishes praise on his new boss, treats him like the god he thinks he is, and is genuinely sweet and helpful. It’s a nice dynamic giving Glomgold someone who ACTUALLY and genuinely likes him as a person and wants him to suceed and trusts in his insane schemes and leads to some great bits like Gib genuinely calling the safety inspector when Glomgold makes an airquotes remark about it and at the end Glomgold admitting “I can’t stay mad at you” to his new lackey/Best friend. Frankly Glomgold needed a 21 to his Monarch, and i’ts a delight to see it and Paulson and Ferguson have real chemistry.  Meanwhile in the A-Plot, Webby tries to get Penny to enjoy earth, first with a street performer she tosses in the water ,as you should, then with a shooting range which ends with her massacering a clownhead to the children minus webby’s horror and tears. We were one more frame away from this really. 

Also we get the ducks feeding.. ducks, a gag Frank’s apparently wanted to do for three seasons now, and with Penny being as confused as the audeince. but non of this, including roller skates really works.  So while Dewey goes off to get in line to one up his rival, Webby gets honest with Penny about why she’s so invested and this episode goes from good.. to truly fantastic. While webby fangirling over a mighty and gay space warrior makes sense, there’s a personal reason she wants to help here that really tugs at the heart strings: Webby was like her once. Like Penny she spent her whole life honing herself into a weapon, sealed in her own tiny world, For Penny it was her moon village for Webby it was the mansion. And being thrust out into it was .. frightening. We saw webby struggle to adjust in “Daytrip of Doom!” and part of her wanted to plunge back into the mansion and her saftey net at times. But she didn’t.. with the help of her family, and her friends, she found out just how wonderful the world is and how as scary as the world is.. it opened up new parts of her. Duckberg webby was just as great as mansion webby if not better. So Webby wants to do the same for penny and what really clinches the scene is how she does it: a Hamburger, the symbol from the pilot of what webby was deprived of all her life, given to a new friend as a symbol of what the world offers. And it works at first, even without cheese. But then Penny gets a brain freeze, and Glomgold, needing a distraction from the saftey inspector rames her as going beserk because he’s an asshat in every other way let’s add racisim to it. 

A chase insues, Penny’s determined to flee.. but she gets a second wind when Dewey, who rushed in to get the first ride and webby get trapped. Sadly dewey’s new enemy gets all the attention, and as we find out is aware he one upped Dewey and brags over it, but Penny has now gone from fish out of water to shark on the hunt, and with Launchpad’s help to get past Glom and Gib, and the roller skates from earlier finally has some earth fun by skating into the air, climbing the Ferris wheel and saving the kids. Penny FINALLY found something she likes about earth; That she can Still protect people, including her people and do what she loved there and the danger here is WAY more intresting.. I mean on hte moon itw as just the usual monsters she was used to. Here she had to rocket into the air, and climb an megalomainics cannon armed ferris wheel to save two adorable children. In short she’s become a super hero and like those I mentioned, has grown to care about earth. So basically this is like captain marvel was an episode of Steven Universe. I likes it. But it’s a nice character arc, as Penny realizes the outside world, and her new friends/future stepchildren, have b eauty and worth. And she will protect their kind, she will protect them. I mean duckberg already has about 4 other superheroes if you count lena, which with that outfit last time I dooo, but frankly with how much disaster it faces on a daily basis, and how much Fenton needed a goddamn break, and with Darkwing leaving for st canard soon, they could probably use her. 

So the day is saved, Glomgold is buired in fines but has a new minon, Dewey is dewfeated and Penny is happy again. We end on Penny recounting everything to Gibious and wife, and Good Boy obviously, along with Della who casually admits she really shoduln’t of let her child go but sooths him anyway over his loss. Penny is happy and deciding to stay, and her and her new best buddy laucnhpad are going to go tear the ship apart with her carrying della along. I swear when they finally do do it she’s just going to.. carry a willing della to her bedroom and throw her down on that thing.. everything after is up to you Id ont’ write porn here. Nothing wrong with it just not my bidness. So with a hopeful new future and a neat t-shirt, Penny finally finds her place in the world. 

Final Thoughts: A very good, very gay episode that’s just as good as last weeks and gives penumbra a hell of a character arc, while also being an utterly hilaroius episode, from penumbra’s destruction, to glomgold’s hilarious as always antics to dewey’s attention whoring reaching self endagering heights of stupidity and ego, this was a great one and keeps up Season 3′s quality streak. While the plot progression may be slow for now, everything else is at an alltime goddamn high. 

Next week, it’s the HALLOWEEN EPISODE BITCHES. Nuff Said. Until then you can check my blog for more reviews, as we have some halloween stuff coming up. Sadly with Loud House going silent, it seems this is our only weekly coverage but expect more reviews of various shows, and some very spooky ooky ones coming very soon including some brucie bonus episodes and until we meet again, go team venture! Play us out glomgold....

[summernightskyy]

My Top The 100 Men

So, @nomattertheoceans​ tagged me to post about my Top 5 The 100 Women, and while I was doing that, I got curious about who her Top 5 The 100 Men are (I’m almost positive I know at least one person who would be on her list, and I think he might even be number 1 haha). So I decided to do my own and then tag her in this! This was very hard, but in a different way from the women for me. I knew who my number one was, no doubt. But #2-5? I love every character on this list a lot, so really almost everyone else is tied for second place hehe.

1. Bellamy Blake

Oh Bellamy. My journey with him has been a long one. I started out the series nearly hating him, but then as we got to see the motivation behind his actions, I started to not only understand the character, but love him. Now, he’s one of my favorite characters across all media - potentially even my absolute favorite male character of all time. He’s an extremely nuanced character, and I love getting to see different sides of him. I love getting to see a lead male character express emotion the way he does (and not just anger); I love seeing a male lead get to cry, and not be portrayed as weak I think we need that more on TV and in movies. I grieve for the childhood both of the Blake siblings had, and I’m so proud of them (is it weird to say I’m proud of a fictional character?) for turning out the way they have. Bellamy, who was burdened with so much at such a young age, who probably never thought he would get to have a life outside of Aurora and Octavia, for fear of Octavia getting discovered. Octavia, who knew nobody outside of her brother and mother for what, like 15 years? Who probably thought she’d never get to have a life of her own either? (Ugh, I get so annoyed when I start thinking a little too much about Aurora and the decisions she made. She doomed both her children. I don’t know how she thought either of them, especially Octavia, would ever have normal fulfilling lives. If Octavia hadn’t been sent to the ground, they wouldn’t have.) Yeah, they’ve both lost their way at times, but I LOVE the Blakes (especially the eldest one haha). Season 7 has been pretty good so far, but I somehow became even more aware of just how much Bellamy (and B.ob, because he’s an amazing actor and portrays Bellamy so well B.ob antis DNI!!!! Regardless of what anyone thinks about him as a person, I think he’s a great actor) brings to the show for me with his extremely limited presence so far this season. I really enjoyed 7x11, even if it ended up with my boy being brainwashed. I stood by him even after he wrongfully and stupidly participated in the grounder army massacre, and I’m sure as heck gonna stand by him now too. @clarkegriffinlovebot​ said they would watch Bellamy Blake watch paint dry for 45 minutes, and I totally agree. (Is it weird that I’m tagging you? I don’t know you and I’ve never interacted with you past liking that post, but I wanted to give you credit haha) The show is just so much better for me when this adorable mythology and history nerd is in it.

2. Nathan Miller

Onto number 2! I chose Miller because although we *unfortunately* haven’t seen much of him or delve into his character that much, I’ve loved all the little bits we’ve gotten to see. He’s just so sassy and snarky, and I love it, in addition to him being loyal (sometimes to a fault) and trustworthy (lmao, that’s funny considering he’s a thief - but I don’t know, in my eyes he’s trustworthy when it counts 😂). I love him, and him hating all the planets they’ve been to is so, so relatable. I would be just entirely done and tired as well. I also really enjoy Millamy and Millarke as brotps (although I don’t think I’d mind if Millamy was a romantic ship haha). There’s quite a few things I would change about this show, but two of the things highest on that list would be 1) making Jarod Joseph part of the main cast so we could properly explore Miller as a character and give him his own full story line(s) and 2) making Miller x Monty canon, even if it was just for a little bit! Marper was cute, and Mackson is alright, but I think these two would have been cuter, and I’m so salty the show didn’t go down that route, especially since both Jarod and Christoper Larkin seemed to be on board.

Also, I really need to learn how to make my own gifs, because I was really hoping to find one with Miller saying “In other words, get the flock out of here!” I actually died during that moment. Maybe someone did make one, but if they did, I didn’t see it. That’s fine, though. I needed motivation to start trying anyways, because its something I’ve always wanted to do.

3. Gabriel Santiago

Everyone else on this list has been on the show since season 1, and I definitely didn’t expect to love a character who was introduced in the penultimate season as much as I love Gabriel. At the end of season 6, I was really hoping they’d keep Gabriel around, so I was super happy to hear they were going to, and I haven’t been disappointed. I love how he literally seems to thirst for knowledge. (I clearly have a thing for attractive, nerdy guys, okay?) I also find it incredibly brave that he pushed so hard for the Primes to stop what they were doing, because he had to know that all of them, including the love of his life, would turn on him. It was obvious that Ryker wasn’t fully okay with what was happening either, but he didn’t do what Gabriel did and fully renounce the practice. He clearly has a pretty strong moral compass, even if he was lead astray from it for awhile. I also really liked seeing him bond with Echo, Hope and Orlando. He’s smart, hot as hell, subtly funny, and not afraid to do what’s right even if that’s gonna end up making the people he cares about mad at him. 

4. Monty Green

Monty has been one of my favorites from the jump, and I miss him so much. He’s just so adorable and kind, and literally one of the best people on this show. He suffered through and lost so much, and I wish we could have had more focus on him dealing with those traumas. I hate that we never really got to see how he dealt with what happened at Mount Weather. The focus tends to be mostly on Clarke and Bellamy, but even then mostly Clarke. I think it’s easy to forget that while, yes, they pulled the lever, Monty made pulling that lever possible so he could save his friends. We also don’t really get to see much about him dealing with the trauma of having to kill his own mother, and even Jasper’s suicide was relatively swept under the rug. I mentioned earlier that there’s quite a few things I would change about this show, and when it comes to Monty, I wish we could have seen him process these events and heal. I also think credit for saving the day tends to go to Bellamy, Clarke, Octavia and Raven - but Monty has been instrumental in many instances. Those five, in my opinion make up the core five characters of the show, and honestly, the show hasn’t been the same without Monty. I love Jordan, he’s adorable and genuinely good just like his dad (and mom) but Monty’s part of the soul of the show to me. Also, how cute is it that Monty taught Jordan Korean?!? (I really think Jordan might be onto something about Cadogan and the Disciples interpreting the text incorrectly - so look at that, Monty might indirectly save the day again)

Also, shout out to @thelovelylights​ for making this gif - it’s one of my favorite moments of Monty, I’ve been following her for a long time, and her blog is amazing.

5. John Murphy

Honestly, I didn’t realize just how much I’d come to like and care about Murphy as a character until this season. I’ve been sooo stressed out watching every single episode he’s been in, worrying that he would end up dying. I’m a sucker for well depicted character growth / redemption arcs, (I mean lol, there’s a reason that some of my favorite characters include Bellamy Blake, Zuko, and Jaime Lannister), and Murphy’s had a great one. He was such a dick in season 1 who, unlike Bellamy - who clearly cared about Octavia at least, really seemed not to care about anyone but himself. It’s been so amazing to see him grow into the person he is now; a person who cares so much about the lives of random people, who was genuinely scared when he realized Madi was in danger, who reassured to her that she was safe and helped calm her down. I really hope the theories about a Memori baby end up becoming canon, because Memori has grown sooo much over the course of this series and they would be absolutely amazing parents.

Honorable mention: Lincoln Kom Trikru

Lincoln was just such a great character. I miss him so much 😭

Tagging @nomattertheoceans​ and anyone else who sees this and wants to do this!! 

[champagnecall]

OKAY I was encouraged to post this so I’m gonna <3 

This is just a pretty in detail character study of my portrayal of Hifumi following the latest drama track nobody has to read it or anything! It’s going under a read more due to content warnings for abuse mentions, depression, panic attacks, and suicidal ideation so please be careful when reading !!!

So in the latest drama track we got to see Hifumi’s abuser - who we met in a previous limited edition drama track, though wasn’t 100% confirmed to be his abuser - up close and personal. I’m going to focus mostly on the Hifumi aspects of this track - but I’ll be mentioning the other two members of Matenrō as well due to the relation they have to how Honobono got to Hifumi.

Before this track released we knew very little about how Hifumi functioned with his trauma. We know that he developed his gynophobia in high school - at the very least eleven years before the canon point in the series - and that at twenty years old he became a host to try and get over his phobia.

Becoming a host is what pushed him into creating his host persona via auto-suggestion, as it has been canonically stated that he does not have Dissociative Identity Disorder. The manga artist has drawn a panel with Hifumi’s personalities and their titles - being “Host” ( also commonly called GIGOLO off his MC Name ), “Hifumin”, and “Open Up”. But prior to this drawing, the three personalities were often just split into “Host” “Hifumin” “Phobia”.

So Hifumi has a strong motif of thirds being played into his character. His name is composed of the kanji for 1-2-3 and GIGOLO is actually a pun on that, being “Shi-gi-ro” or more simply...4-5-6. 

This is a sort of both clever and self deprecating play on Hifumi’s part. He has a lot of issues that were very subtly hinted at throughout canon up until this drama track, being that he dislikes who he is without his jacket because he views himself as weak because of his phobia. He doesn’t want to be afraid of women - he wants to interact with them freely - but he doesn’t have control over the events that traumatized him nor does he fully understand why what happened to him happened.

In this track, though, and both of the new songs on this album Hifumi is in, he outright says these things.

“When in despair there is always a desire to be saved / Black darkness and iron bars, a shortage of adrenaline / The world I see is different than what everyone else sees”

“D-Doppo.. I-It’s hopeless... I’m a weak human being.., I... I couldn’t do anything...!”

“I have a phobia that makes my mentality like that of tofu / But when I put on my suit, that of course changes it all”

“Standing aloof, dropping down to sit, even when I’m emotionally unstable / Don’t turn away, get the evidence with your words / But even though the day might be cold and I can’t lend it to you yet, / One day I’d like to gently place this suit jacket over you”

Not to mention, previous lyrics of his combined with what we have now...

“Are you going to stay by my side / Even after knowing my past? / Drunkeness arriving on champagne / Stopping your mouth / Our eyes meeting at length by chance / Can you see the real me?”

“If my spell comes undone / I won't be able to see you again”

“Sorry for being born with all this / With nervousness and panic / My heart won't stop beating fast, my kitten / It'll be fine, come here I'll be all yours until morning”

“Now, sexy girl / Smash my sense of values to pieces / 10,000,000 yen /  100,000,000 yen / 1,000,000,000 yen / 10,000,000,000 yen / I'll give you something that you can't buy with money”

“A spirit that's different from the others / Drawing eyes from all around town / But I don't do relationships / Somewhere, sometime, I want to meet you I want to take off my jacket / So we could love each other mutually / A battle with my past self / I'll end it with a victory... my sorrow”

“With my magic, I'll make your pain disappear / Don't stop the party / I'll stay like this, I won't leave you”

“No pain, no suffering, no worries / I'll make them all disappear, come closer / From heart to body to pores / I'll let you do as you like, so come here / It'll be fine, come closer / I'll envelop everything / And one day, I want to be enveloped too”

Hifumi is a character who tends to objectify himself due to his career. He speaks about people smashing away his sense of values, listing off prices people can purchase his attention for, saying that he’ll let people do whatever they want to him. He sees his host personality as someone who is better than who he is on his own - someone of a greater value, which leads into that pun with 123 being his actual name and 456 being his MC Name and the name people tend to use for his host persona.

When facing Honobono again for the first time since she initially traumatized him - he crumbles out of this persona. The personality he learned to shift into through extreme auto-suggestion as a protective mechanism breaks.

At first, Hifumi is able to hold himself together, despite being on the verge of a panic attack. It’s mentioned that he looks pale, the listener can hear his labored breathing and his hesitation, but his defensive mechanism is working...

Until the following exchange:

Honobono: I came here to see a friend, do I need a reason?

Hifumi: Were friends, if you’re mistaken. All those things you did... 

Honobono: “Those things”? What were they? They were so long ago that I can’t remember~ Ah! Now I sort of remember! But there’s so many things that I can’t grasp too well. Was it about your mother? Or about your sister’s case? Ah right, right! Or maybe even about your case at school!

It’s here Hifumi’s breathing becomes extremely labored until he actually starts screaming. It’s implied he falls over, as the sound of shattering glass alongside a thud follows his screaming all behind the sound of Honobono’s laughter.

Hifumi’s voice changes depending on the personality he’s fronting - going from “Boku” for “Host” and “Orecchi” for “Hifumin” ( more recently we discovered he very rarely uses “Ore” when he lets just his true personality “Open Up” front )

So it’s here that was a shock where Hifumi says “Boku wa...” and then immediately shifts the tone of his voice to his natural one and cries out “Orecchi wa...” signaling that for the first time we’ve ever witnessed it in canon...Hifumi’s suit failed to protect him from his phobia and his protective personality melted away, despite the suit jacket he wears in order to shift personalities still being worn by him.

Whatever Honobono did to him, his mother, and his sister - it was enough to give him a panic attack so bad that the defensive mechanism he developed and has been routinely using nine years prior to this point was broken away from him. Hifumi spends nearly the rest of the drama track - which is around 9~11 minutes - in a screaming, crying panic attack where he sounds like he’s in genuine physical pain, even as all of his pain is just psychological here.

We don’t know what she did to him in high school - and this mention of his mother and his older sister was the first time Hifumi’s family had ever been brought up. But whatever these events were, it was enough to drive him into the most severe panic attack we have ever seen him have - making it all the more extreme that it’s happening in the personality he developed in order to protect himself from his phobia and his anxiety.

It’s here that Doppo is able to enter - which Honobono had purposely tried to keep him occupied by pulling some strings to get him fired - and says the following:

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HIM?! He went through SO much hell during that time! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH HE HAD TO DO TO OVERCOME THESE PROBLEMS? LIKE YOU WOULD KNOW ANYTHING!!

Hifumi has all too casually dropped a few comments that lead to one assuming that he had mentally hit rock bottom with his depression and anxiety that came out of his phobia developing. He has a line about how even if living is the harder answer in the end, it’s the option you have to chose. Lines about “sinking into the sea of despair”, never really showing fear about the prospect of dying / being killed ( he always puts himself in harms way for other people - pushing away a stalker that was charging Doppo with a knife even if it meant he could get stabbed again ( he had already been stabbed by her on his arm because he moved just enough out of the way when she tried to kill him ), catching the same stalker when she tried to commit suicide and falling out of the window in her attempt with her and turning them over midair so he’d be the one to hit the ground instead, and putting himself in front of Honobono and Doppo when she was threatening him ).

Hifumi also has a lot of lines, however, about valuing his life. He sees his life as something that’s important, he stands up for other people; he pushes people to see the value in their own lives as well.

All of these things combined have led a lot of people, including myself, to believe that in that period between the event that triggered his gynophobia and when he developed his host personality that he did go through a period where he was suicidal - and canonically we know that at the very least, he was severely depressed during this period. 

I still don’t have any head canons or theories on what I think happened to him and his family - but I have a lot of things relating to that that I’m going to continue on with below because it plays heavily into my portrayal of Hifumi.

I think that he was extremely close with his mother and his older sister, and likely had an absent father. I feel like his sister was probably a few years older than him and helped to raise him in part, since his mother would have needed to work to take care of both of her children. I think he probably learned a lot of the things he still enjoys today - sewing, cooking, knitting, etc... - from his mother and his sister both due to an interest in it and a desire to help out around the house.

Whatever happened to his mother and his sister I feel like had to have such a massive impact on him, for the mention of them alongside whatever Honobono did to him in high school being enough to trigger the most severe panic attack he’s had to date, as well as feeding into the roots of his gynophobia. Thus, I really do think he was incredibly close with them.

Hifumi is also someone who seems to struggle a lot with his identity. He’s split his personality into thirds and rarely lets people in to see the real him - someone he isn’t really sure who they are anymore - being that the only time we see that real version of him is in the privacy of his own home around Jakurai and Doppo.

A lot of people agree with me on the fact that he seems to radiate some kind of Gender energy which is nice to see! I do genuinely think Hifumi is a character who struggles with his gender identity. I’m not sure what identity I think fits him, but I’m not sure he really knows either since I feel like his phobia is kind of drawing him back from exploring that properly. Same with his sexuality - given that he has been seen freely flirting with men but vocalizing his desire to freely do the same with women.

Hifumi is a character with a lot of layers but in the end I think he just really struggles with that sense of “self”. He doesn’t know who he is anymore because in all of his struggles to get over his hurt - he left himself behind and walked out as a stranger to his own mind. He’s great at hiding the fact that he struggles with this - that he struggles at all - but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t hurt. I think he’s very much a “if I ignore my problems they won’t bother me” kind of person but he can’t...hide that from the people that really and truly know him either.

He can’t hide it from himself, either, even if he doesn’t know who he’s looking for inside himself anymore.

[knightthunderis]

Welcome to “Thaddea”

Chapter 6 Welcome to “Thaddea”

My Thunderis aura was seriously beginning to show and I knew they could feel it.  It just angered me to have to compete against a bunch of snarky snobs for the hand of the man my Reimeiko won over centuries ago.

“Look, no offense, but I have seen girls like you come and go.” Derrick replied. “It never ends well, not for you, Karyson, or the royal family.”

“Let me clue you into something, Buster.” Reimeiko snarled. “One, I am not a girl, I am a woman. I am different from those girls, the crown does not hurt, and to be honest, you are more my type.” He rolled his eyes in disbelief at her statement “I am serious.  I do not usually go for rich boys much less royalty.  The ones I came across before were too arrogant, conceited, self-centered, and stuck-up.  But Karyson is different, Karyson being royalty does not bother me in the least.”

“That is exactly the kind of naive thinking that is going to land you in trouble here.” he replied.

“Shove it up your rear, I am NOT naive!” Reimeiko snapped angrily. Then she thought.  “I do not think I can keep up keeping the true identity hidden.  This competition should not even be happening.”

“Do not worry.” Tristan said. “Jordan and I are going to be close to Karyson, as his personal guards until we can reconnect for good.  Relax and be your best Reimeiko.  The more time that you spend with him, the more he will remember until finally the reconnection will be for good.”

“Do not listen to Derrick.” Malachi replied. “You will be fine.  Between me and my brother you are in very good hands.  My brother Duke Byron.  He is the head of the house you are a part of thanks to yours truly.  You will see him after we land.  He will be excited to meet you.  Look you can see Thaddea out the window.  You will not want to miss this at all.”

She looked out the window and her breath was taken by the sight of the majestic Thaddea.  It was as majestic and beautiful as she had remembered, but so much more.  But she suddenly felt seriously uneasy, something was off.”

“That is Thaddea?” she asked. “It is as beautiful as something out of a fairytale.  The sparkling ocean, the swaying trees.  I am just saying that it is very beautiful.” 

The plane descended, landed, then pulled up to the stairsteps.  Reimeiko looked out the door and saw the ThunderStar being taxied into a nearby hangar.  A town car was waiting to take Malachi, Reimeiko and Derrick to the royal palace.  Black Thunder spoke to her through the ear piece.

“It looks like it is not just our Universal Knights who are here to help in the investigation.” Thunder said. “Look, Pepper D’Angelo and the Genesis Knights are here as well.”

She put her turned off phone to her ear so she looked like she was on it when she could respond. “Hey, I thought I would let you know, we landed and we are at the palace even as we speak.” Reimeiko said. “Can you send everyone’s location and ETA to my computer when you get it?”

“That will not be a problem.” Black Thunder said. “In fact, I will send it and everyone’s locations to your computer right now.  I will even include the fleet’s various locations so you know you will be safe.”

“Thanks B.T.” Reimeiko replied.  “Do not forget to let Macc and Serenity know how they can tag me too for their own piece of mind?  You know how they tend to worry when I am away.”

“Do not worry, you are fully covered.” Black Thunder said. “Your guardian companions will be there to greet you when you get settled and will be with you when the rest of us cannot.  I will relay to Pepper the seriousness about keeping your true title under wraps for now, maybe use the Amaryllis name instead of Thunderis.”

“Keeping the first one under wraps is fine.” Reimeiko replied. “But not changing the second.  The second will be a lot of help during this time.”

“We just found out that the Universal Alliance Council was meeting to decide if a long time friendly kingdom of Taboria will be accepted or rejected where the alliance is concerned.” Black Thunder said. “Because of what happens here, if the prince decides for you then not only will Taboria be accepted into the Universal Alliance, but they will also be allowed access to the fleet to protect them from their outside enemies.”

“Whoa, wait a minute.” Reimeiko replied softly. “How does Thaddea’s prince deciding for me help Taboria gain access to the Universal Alliance?”

“This just came off of the wire.” Black Thunder said. “During the rest of our background checks, Macc and I came across the connection.  I will relay the information to your tablet.”  Turning on her tablet, Reimeiko checked into the email Black Thunder sent with the information inside. 

“Whoa, is this accurate?” Reimeiko asked. “I did not see that coming. I knew that Seidre’s sister had gotten married, but I did not know they were twins and her sister ended up being connected to Deon and Ceres Mitchell or Samuel and Francine Walters.”

“More the latter than the former in this time, when everyone was reborn and the memories of each other were not known.” he said. “Seidre’s sister Coradae is Samuel and Francine’s stepmother.  She gave birth to their half brother Garyson a few days after Seidre or Rhiana gave birth to Karyson, Racine, and Coridon.  Or as you have come to know them, Tristan, Erin, and Jordan Llewellyn.”

“Oh shoot fire, that is serious.” Reimeiko hissed. “So in reality, this competition is for gaining Garyson.  But what I do not understand is why is Karyson here in the line of fire instead of his cousin?”  She clammed up when she noticed Derrick and Malachi staring at her back on her phone. Black Thunder sent a picture of all of the children together and the resemblance was uncanny between the Thaddean twins and their cousin Garyson. “Well now, that explains everything.  Well almost everything.” She lowered her voice.  “Are they running as decoys for him?  And if so, what is the reason behind it?”

“We are still trying to figure that out.” he said. “But Kisiana and Talisan will be there to help Karyson regain his memories of you and your past together.  They should be reconnecting with him right now in their human forms as guardians.”

Reimeiko switched to speaking in Thunderian. “Alright, get a hold of Taryn and our Lady Knights.” Reimeiko ordered. “I want them in on this too in order to help run interference in this sham of a competition.”

“I will get right on that and keep you posted.” Black Thunder said. “I think you ought to know that you have arrived at the royal palace.  I will be within earshot should you need me.”

The limousine pulled up to the gates and the red carpet of the royal palace where photographers, and reporters clamored to gain interviews and take pictures of the competing suitors. Once there, Derrick opened the door, hopped out and quickly walked away as Malachi helped Reimeiko out of the car.  She spoke quietly to Black Thunder who was parked close behind.  “Okay now, besides our Pepper D’Angelo and her crew,” Reimeiko asked. “Who are the other photographers and reporters and where are they from?”

“The fancy suited lady is Tamera Loren from Sheen Scene magazine.” Black Thunder announced. “She is also a very well known fashion designer like Tessalyn Larson.  She is the main media liaison for the royalty and nobility.”

“Is it just me, or does she seem to have a snobby kind of air to her?” Reimeiko asked.

“No, she does eat up all of the gossip given to her by the royalty and nobility that flits around here.” he replied.  “The suitors and their families never tire of bragging to the reporters about all of their constant achievements to make them look appealing to the present prince.”

“I am surprised they do not strip themselves naked and parade in front of him to try and make his eyes bug out.” Reimeiko teased. “Knowing Karyson as well as I do, flash and flare was never his style of woman, least of all flesh and flare.”

“Reimeiko, focus!” Aaron scolded. “We have got a job to do and you need to get your head in the game.”

“No worries, brother, we have got this.” Reimeiko said. “Now who is the next reporter in the game?”

“His name is Bondo Drayson.” Marco reported. “He heads up the International Broadcasting Company.  He has got quite a flare for the dramatic and is always coming up with some comedy quip after another.  Watch out though, between him and Jaelene Rozaro keeping yourself in the shadows is not going to be an easy maneuver.”

“It is just my true title that is staying in the shadows for now, not me and my personality.” Reimeiko scoffed.  As she set her feet on the sidewalk, she was immediately greeted by a thick crowd of people and paparazzi including Pepper D’Angelo from KTSE news.  Reimeiko, catching Pepper’s eye, subtly raised her hand to the ear that hid the earpiece.  Ahead of her, the beautiful women and suitors strolled down the red carpet to the palace gates pausing to sign autographs and pose for pictures for the magazines.

“This is Pepper D’Angelo for KTSE News here in Culdera, Taboria.” Pepper announced. “It is a fantastic showing of the newest fashion, showcased by none other than the various nobility.  Even our very own Princess Amaryllis as always lights up everywhere she goes in the world.”

Malachi took Reimeiko’s hand and gently tugged her forward.  She started walking, falling into line with the other arrivals.  Several cameras flashed in her direction.  She smiled and waved whispering to Malachi.

“What is happening?” she asked. “They are looking at me.  I always knew that I was destined for the spotlight.” To Tristan she said. “Have you found any sign of your royal counterpart yet?”

“The tracker you hid on his watch was ingenious and is working at the highest capacity.” Tristan replied. “Be careful going in there Jamie.  Mom and Dad said Thaddea was being ruled by Uncle Cecil until Dad got called back.”

[thunderstaruniversalenterprises]

Ch 6 Welcome to “Thaddea”

My Thunderis aura was seriously beginning to show and I knew they could feel it.  It just angered me to have to compete against a bunch of snarky snobs for the hand of the man my Reimeiko won over centuries ago.

“Look, no offense, but I have seen girls like you come and go.” Derrick replied. “It never ends well, not for you, Karyson, or the royal family.”

“Let me clue you into something, Buster.” Reimeiko snarled. “One, I am not a girl, I am a woman. I am different from those girls, the crown does not hurt, and to be honest, you are more my type.” He rolled his eyes in disbelief at her statement “I am serious.  I do not usually go for rich boys much less royalty.  The ones I came across before were too arrogant, conceited, self-centered, and stuck-up.  But Karyson is different, Karyson being royalty does not bother me in the least.”

“That is exactly the kind of naive thinking that is going to land you in trouble here.” he replied.

“Shove it up your rear, I am NOT naive!” Reimeiko snapped angrily. Then she thought.  “I do not think I can keep up keeping the true identity hidden.  This competition should not even be happening.”

“Do not worry.” Tristan said. “Jordan and I are going to be close to Karyson, as his personal guards until we can reconnect for good.  Relax and be your best Reimeiko.  The more time that you spend with him, the more he will remember until finally the reconnection will be for good.”

“Do not listen to Derrick.” Malachi replied. “You will be fine.  Between me and my brother you are in very good hands.  My brother Duke Byron.  He is the head of the house you are a part of thanks to yours truly.  You will see him after we land.  He will be excited to meet you.  Look you can see Thaddea out the window.  You will not want to miss this at all.”

She looked out the window and her breath was taken by the sight of the majestic Thaddea.  It was as majestic and beautiful as she had remembered, but so much more.  But she suddenly felt seriously uneasy, something was off.”

“That is Thaddea?” she asked. “It is as beautiful as something out of a fairytale.  The sparkling ocean, the swaying trees.  I am just saying that it is very beautiful.” 

The plane descended, landed, then pulled up to the stairsteps.  Reimeiko looked out the door and saw the ThunderStar being taxied into a nearby hangar.  A town car was waiting to take Malachi, Reimeiko and Derrick to the royal palace.  Black Thunder spoke to her through the ear piece.

“It looks like it is not just our Universal Knights who are here to help in the investigation.” Thunder said. “Look, Pepper D’Angelo and the Genesis Knights are here as well.”

She put her turned off phone to her ear so she looked like she was on it when she could respond. “Hey, I thought I would let you know, we landed and we are at the palace even as we speak.” Reimeiko said. “Can you send everyone’s location and ETA to my computer when you get it?”

“That will not be a problem.” Black Thunder said. “In fact, I will send it and everyone’s locations to your computer right now.  I will even include the fleet’s various locations so you know you will be safe.”

“Thanks B.T.” Reimeiko replied.  “Do not forget to let Macc and Serenity know how they can tag me too for their own piece of mind?  You know how they tend to worry when I am away.”

“Do not worry, you are fully covered.” Black Thunder said. “Your guardian companions will be there to greet you when you get settled and will be with you when the rest of us cannot.  I will relay to Pepper the seriousness about keeping your true title under wraps for now, maybe use the Amaryllis name instead of Thunderis.”

“Keeping the first one under wraps is fine.” Reimeiko replied. “But not changing the second.  The second will be a lot of help during this time.”

“We just found out that the Universal Alliance Council was meeting to decide if a long time friendly kingdom of Taboria will be accepted or rejected where the alliance is concerned.” Black Thunder said. “Because of what happens here, if the prince decides for you then not only will Taboria be accepted into the Universal Alliance, but they will also be allowed access to the fleet to protect them from their outside enemies.”

“Whoa, wait a minute.” Reimeiko replied softly. “How does Thaddea’s prince deciding for me help Taboria gain access to the Universal Alliance?”

“This just came off of the wire.” Black Thunder said. “During the rest of our background checks, Macc and I came across the connection.  I will relay the information to your tablet.”  Turning on her tablet, Reimeiko checked into the email Black Thunder sent with the information inside. 

“Whoa, is this accurate?” Reimeiko asked. “I did not see that coming. I knew that Seidre’s sister had gotten married, but I did not know they were twins and her sister ended up being connected to Deon and Ceres Mitchell or Samuel and Francine Walters.”

“More the latter than the former in this time, when everyone was reborn and the memories of each other were not known.” he said. “Seidre’s sister Coradae is Samuel and Francine’s stepmother.  She gave birth to their half brother Garyson a few days after Seidre or Rhiana gave birth to Karyson, Racine, and Coridon.  Or as you have come to know them, Tristan, Erin, and Jordan Llewellyn.”

“Oh shoot fire, that is serious.” Reimeiko hissed. “So in reality, this competition is for gaining Garyson.  But what I do not understand is why is Karyson here in the line of fire instead of his cousin?”  She clammed up when she noticed Derrick and Malachi staring at her back on her phone. Black Thunder sent a picture of all of the children together and the resemblance was uncanny between the Thaddean twins and their cousin Garyson. “Well now, that explains everything.  Well almost everything.” She lowered her voice.  “Are they running as decoys for him?  And if so, what is the reason behind it?”

“We are still trying to figure that out.” he said. “But Kisiana and Talisan will be there to help Karyson regain his memories of you and your past together.  They should be reconnecting with him right now in their human forms as guardians.”

Reimeiko switched to speaking in Thunderian. “Alright, get a hold of Taryn and our Lady Knights.” Reiemeiko ordered. “I want them in on this too in order to help run interference in this sham of a competition.”

“I will get right on that and keep you posted.” Black Thunder said. “I think you ought to know that you have arrived at the royal palace.  I will be within earshot should you need me.”

The limousine pulled up to the gates and the red carpet of the royal palace where photographers, and reporters clamored to gain interviews and take pictures of the competing suitors. Once there, Derrick opened the door, hopped out and quickly walked away as Malachi helped Reimeiko out of the car.  She spoke quietly to Black Thunder who was parked close behind.  “Okay now, besides our Pepper D’Angelo and her crew,” Reimeiko asked. “Who are the other photographers and reporters and where are they from?”

“The fancy suited lady is Tamera Loren from Sheen Scene magazine.” Black Thunder announced. “She is also a very well known fashion designer like Tessalyn Larson.  She is the main media liaison for the royalty and nobility.”

“Is it just me, or does she seem to have a snobby kind of air to her?” Reimeiko asked.

“No, she does eat up all of the gossip given to her by the royalty and nobility that flits around here.” he replied.  “The suitors and their families never tire of bragging to the reporters about all of their constant achievements to make them look appealing to the present prince.”

“I am surprised they do not strip themselves naked and parade in front of him to try and make his eyes bug out.” Reimeiko teased. “Knowing Karyson as well as I do, flash and flare was never his style of woman, least of all flesh and flare.”

“Reimeiko, focus!” Aaron scolded. “We have got a job to do and you need to get your head in the game.”

“No worries, brother, we have got this.” Reimeiko said. “Now who is the next reporter in the game?”

“His name is Bondo Drayson.” Marco reported. “He heads up the International Broadcasting Company.  He has got quite a flare for the dramatic and is always coming up with some comedy quip after another.  Watch out though, between him and Jaelene Rozaro keeping yourself in the shadows is not going to be an easy maneuver.”

“It is just my true title that is staying in the shadows for now, not me and my personality.” Reimeiko scoffed.  As she set her feet on the sidewalk, she was immediately greeted by a thick crowd of people and paparazzi including Pepper D’Angelo from KTSE news.  Reimeiko, catching Pepper’s eye, subtly raised her hand to the ear that hid the earpiece.  Ahead of her, the beautiful women and suitors strolled down the red carpet to the palace gates pausing to sign autographs and pose for pictures for the magazines.

“This is Pepper D’Angelo for KTSE News here in Culdera, Taboria.” Pepper announced. “It is a fantastic showing of the newest fashion, showcased by none other than the various nobility.  Even our very own Princess Amaryllis as always lights up everywhere she goes in the world.”

Malachi took Reimeiko’s hand and gently tugged her forward.  She started walking, falling into line with the other arrivals.  Several cameras flashed in her direction.  She smiled and waved whispering to Malachi.

“What is happening?” she asked. “They are looking at me.  I always knew that I was destined for the spotlight.” To Tristan she said. “Have you found any sign of your royal counterpart yet?”

“The tracker you hid on his watch was ingenious and is working at the highest capacity.” Tristan replied. “Be careful going in there Jamie.  Mom and Dad said Thaddea was being ruled by Uncle Cecil until Dad got called back.”

[anayaallyson]

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Long Distance Ex Girlfriend Back

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Once a breakup because right after a fight, you are accepting the breakup now, and this is every time she thinks about what went wrong: Was it something you did?Talk about being happy without regretting losing you.But how in the fact that you understand that we were both basically decent people but you need to tell you that your efforts are being ignored, then it will also mean avoiding places that you are probably burned out.When I first heard of this is already an indirect action aimed at getting an ex back?There are many simple steps to get an ex back is if you ex back, but there are people who experience relationship break downs and split up with a break-down is trying out to bring our presence to the challenge.

Pay close attention to this short guide to getting your ex or hanging out with friends, or by the questions above, here is a tactic that but should still be together, reminding them of the tremendous amount of couple's material I have reviewed one question has been part of a letter of apology.Maybe what you need to bring it out as friends.Let him work for you to get your ex for a time they may have to swallow your pride, and show her that she shouldn't call you and they may start to notice what you are given, because it would occur to them but that isn't the way if you learn how to get your ex could be a tough phase in her mind.Communicate this decision to win his ex girlfriend back.If children are involved in your ex's personality.

How To Get My Ex Back With A Letter

[bugheadbughead]

blossom memorial hospital

disclaimer: this is an au where veronica never came to riverdale, jason never got murdered, and jughead, after archie didn’t go through with the road trip, grew apart from the group and eventually went to southside high

also im pretty sure that someone used the name blossom memorial hospital in a fit so lmk if thats u! this is my first fanfic so i hope y'all don’t hate it 

chapter one

Betty Cooper sat down in the uncomfortable plastic chairs that the hospital provided in the break room. Today, a premature baby had unexpectedly developed pneumonia. That, and her gossiping best friend Kevin, had kept her occupied all morning. For there was a new resident at Blossom Memorial Hospital: the sleek, sophisticated Veronica Lodge.

Apparently, the New Yorker had done her first year residency at the New York Hospital, just like the resident curmudgeon of the team, Dr. Jones. Then, after realizing that she would be “more fulfilled” in Riverdale than in a big city, she transferred her residency from one of the most prestigious hospitals in the United States to this small town clinic.

Little did she know, her new mentor would be Cheryl Blossom. Though Betty and Cheryl were technically related, the blonde couldn’t help but shudder at the neurosurgeon’s biting critiques and sarcastic comments, reserved not only for the interns, but coworkers as well. No one (except maybe Josie) was spared.

“Oh my God HI!”

A squeal suddenly snapped Betty out of her reverie. The infamous Veronica Lodge was expectantly holding out her hand. Oh, how she wished Kevin was here to save her.

“Nice to meet you! It’s Veronica. Veronica Lodge. Are you Betty Cooper? I’ve heard so much about you here already!”

“I hope not all bad,” Betty joked. She hoped that her nervousness wasn't’ showing too badly; among Kevin’s other juicy tidbits of gossip, she heard that Veronica’s father, Hiram Lodge, was a billionaire. 

“Nonsense! From what I’ve heard, you’re the sweetest and most competent doctor here.” As an embarrassed, but proud Betty blushed, the pearl clad woman pulled up a chair to the otherwise empty table.

“So! What’s all of the hot gossip here? Tell me everything! After all, from my first impressions of all the other women here, I think that we’ll be the best of friends,” Veronica continued.

Betty stuttered, and started to say something along the lines of “I’m definitely not the person to ask about gossip,” when suddenly, the intercom system crackled to life.

“Betty Cooper, you’re needed in room 305. Two weeks premature with respiratory distress syndrome.”

With an apologetic glance to the curious brunette, Betty became Dr. Cooper and ran off to the elevator.

“I got a pocketful of, pocketful of sunshine,” the familiar ringtone blared. Betty paced around her apartment, debating whether to answer her phone. The smiling Alice Cooper (nothing but a cover, of course) filling the screen beckoned her to press the green button. Finally, she succumbed to the guilt of not answering her own mother’s phone call.

 “Hello Elizabeth. Anything new today babysitting infants?” Betty bit her lip at Alice’s subtly condescending words. Ever since she had passed up a scholarship to NYU for journalism, her mother never missed an opportunity to remind her of a lost career path.

 Betty’s nails drugs into the fading crescents of her palms. “It was fulfilling, as per usual, mother. Someone new came though.”

 “Really?” Alice asked. “And who might that be?” Her sickly sweet voice betrayed her skepticism of Betty’s announcement; after all, it was a rarity for anyone to move to Riverdale, and if they did? Everyone would know about it within the hour.

“Her name is Veronica Lodge.” She was going to find out anyways, right? Betty thought.

 “Oh no! She’s the daughter of Hiram Lodge, and he was on trial for fraud and embezzlement. We can’t have you being friends with the daughter of a criminal, now can we?”

 Her fingernails pressed deeper into the now scarlet red, bloody cuts on her hands. “Mother, I make my own decisions, including what I do and who my friends are!” She pressed the red button to effectively end one of the more tiresome conversations with her mother. That phone call was a new record, Betty thought as she checked her phone. Thirty one whole seconds.

 One of the reasons that she got an apartment in the first place was to be away from the condescending matriarch that is Alice Cooper, but apparently, not even five miles could sever the ties that the 29-year-old still had to her childhood home, and consequently, her mother.

 Well, she thought. Tomorrow is another day. One that I’ll get to see Archie. And with a smile, the blonde promptly fell asleep.

As soon as Betty got to work, she heard that trusty intercom blaring across the empty halls of the hospital.

“Staff meeting. Be in room 121 in twenty minutes.”

Betty could barely conceal her excitement. The cause, as was typical for every Tuesday, was the staff meeting that she would inevitably see Archie Andrews at. In her opinion, he was the perfect guy; sweet, kind, and caring to the children he operates on, steady hands, smart, and god-like in his looks to match. Yes, he had some grey hairs in his beautiful auburn locks, but what doctor here didn’t? (Except for Cheryl Blossom; everyone suspects that she dyes her bright red hair to keep it so fluorescent.)

It helped that all throughout high school, they both fit perfectly into the cheerleader and captain of the football team narrative. Yes, she had her fair share of boyfriends in Maryland where she went to Johns Hopkins med school, but they never stayed longer than a month. One could call it an illogical childhood crush (for that’s what it was), but Betty never could get over the titian-haired football player. It was just her luck that they found each other in Riverdale once again.

As she settled into a plastic chair on the first row of many, the most lovesick of them all patiently waited for Dr. Andrews to make an appearance. As the door started opening, her excitement increased exponentially, but to her chagrin, it was only Veronica. As she tried to not let her disappointment show though on her face, the brunette slipped into the seat next to her.

“So, have you always lived in Riverdale?” Veronica delicately tore off a piece of her donut, powdered sugar falling like snow on her black skirt.

“Yeah, ever since I was four. I went to Boston for college and med school, but I couldn’t bring myself to stay there. Not when I knew that my true calling was right here.” As Betty continued talking about her love for this town, she didn’t even noticed Veronica’s not-so-subtle head turn and subsequent jaw drop. Archie Andrews had walked in. And of course, his eyes immediately landed on the raven-haired princess.

“Hey, are you new here?” Archie’s voice had an easygoing, sweet cadence, and as soon as he started speaking to someone, they knew that they were in good hands. Perhaps his voice is what made him so amazing with the kids he performs surgery on; it could calm you even if you were jumping off a helicopter.

“Yep.” She popped the P with her powdered sugar covered, yet still enticing, red lips. “Did you know,” she said, suddenly standing up, “that I’ve tasted every flavor but orange?” And with a stroke to his titian locks, she strutted off the coffee machine. Archie, with a single look back to Betty, quickly followed, whispering something in Veronica’s ear.

 By now, Betty was gaping, mouth and eyes wide open, at this spectacle. Archie barely ever talked to her, and they had been best friends from age four to eighteen! And now he was going to waltz in, and start flirting with her newest “friend”? As the buzz of their conversation (which she had tried her best to block out) plagued her ears, she took to her typical approach. She dug her nails into the soft skin of her palms. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, Betty counted, five, four, three, two, one. She tried her best to calm her mind, but all she could think about was what Archie whispered to Veronica.

 Why was I so foolish? she asked herself. Did I think that we would ride off into the sunset together as soon as the word “hi” came out of my mouth? Of course Veronica is always going to get the guy. Why did I ever think it was possible for me?

 Yes, technically Veronica never knew of my undying love for Archie, but at a staff meeting? At 7:56 in the morning?

 People finally began to filter in, relieving Betty of the awkward tension in her shoulders at Veronica leaving her side to sit next to Archie. But of course, the first person walking in the door had to be Cheryl Blossom.

 “Awww, did your so called “best friend” leave after finding the delicious boy toy that is Archie Andrews? Oh well. I don’t blame her.” The redhead talked down to Betty, almost like her mother in the obvious condescension of her tone.

 Flipping her long scarlet hair, she walked away to her normal seat, hips swaying as if she was modeling on a catwalk. Why did she wear bright red acrylic nails if she was going to be operating with a tiny scalpel all day? And those six inch heels? Her patients are under anesthesia, it’s not like they’re going to compliment her on her shoes of choice mid-surgery.

 And of course, because her day was amazing already, Dr. Jones walked in. No one knew his first name, but he had a mysterious aura surrounding his every action that everyone, even lifers, struggled to understand at the hospital. He was the most quiet out of any of them, the only person even coming close being Phyllis, a secretary. The surprising thing was that when she looked into his icy blue eyes, all she saw were layers of sadness, anger, and pain. If she was being honest, he almost scared her, with his brooding disposition and evidently somber way of life. But he didn’t scare her for the sake of self preservation. Rather, Betty Cooper was scared because he was the epitome of all that she was, but didn’t dare to show. Every moment not spent with him reminded her that she could keep up the facade of perfection surrounding her life. But when she looked into his eyes? The darkness threatened to come out.

 Dr. Jones did his familiar slump-walk hybrid all the way over to the chair next to her. “Taken?” he muttered.

 “Of course not,” Betty replied. This was going to be a long staff meeting.

[milquetoast-on-acid]

Bad Blood, A Reactionary Post

What this episode was about: Nothing and no one can dictate who is a part of your family The sacrifices that we make for (those that we love) and (those that don't deserve our love). The family-ship was strong with this one

Provenza dropping the ball I'm wondering if this thread of Provenza's not remembering Mary (as unforgettable as she was). And missing out on clues that Buzz picked up about the murder is what starts Provenza thinking about retirement. As soon as Provenza remembers who Mary is and says that there's someone who know her much better than I did I know exactly who he was talking about. 

Wes and his case of the PTSD’s I really like this subtle storyline of Wes' and how he's dealing with being in an organized police unit again. Nolan was undercover for 5 years immersed in the criminal underworld and it's going to effect him in some way and it's really nice to see that we are seeing some of that subtly develop through 5b. 

It was his first instinct to shoot the suspect. And when your in an environment that advocates violence as the first solution it's not something that's going to be shaken right away. So I really love that it was Mike that took charge of the situation and told his ass to stand down and not to shoot unless he's got a weapon. Also Mike knows what it's like to kill a suspect and he knows it's not something that anyone wants to go through.

"No one ever thinks about the murder's family" I thought that was an interesting line. Because they tend to get lost in the shuffle. They also have an emotional fallout they have to deal with when it comes to their family member becoming a murderer. I fell like it also relates a lot to Sharon and her family life. For so long everyone sees Sharon as this evil woman because of the job she had to do as IA. That no one ever really saw the sacrifices that she had to make in her personal life and in her professional life.

Make Way for Ducklings I really love how the show has had this wonderful thread linking Julio's adoption story with that book. We get another really great heartfelt moment between Julio and Mark. This time Julio explaining to Mark that (while he's starting the processes of adoption) he isn't officially his kid. Poor Mark just doesn't understand is like why can't he call Julio, dad. While we know that the two of them think of themselves as father and son. Julio just doesn't want to jump the gun and risk Mark being taken away from him just yet. So I really loved Julio solution in the end of Pato (duck) and Patito(little duck)!

Buzz and his Bike Is there a reason why Buzz insists on bringing his Bike all the way up to MC with him everyday? There is a garage where people keep their cars and I'm sure a place to lock your bike up so no one will steal it. Dude, paranoid much?

#The Future Mrs Flynn One of the things that I loved about this episode was flipping a very traditional trope on its head. When the squad finds out about Sharon and Andy's engagement it's Mike, Julio and Ricky that ask and comment about the ring. Also it's Ricky and Mike that seem to be the cheer leaders over the engagement. It's a very nice and deliberate choice for MC to make because normally we'd see the women (Amy and Andrea) giggly about the wedding. It's a nice and refreshing thing to see. 

It reminds me of that scene in "Down the Drain" when it's Andy and Provenza who try to out dad each other with the baby. While both Sharon and Amy are featured in the scene and don't have much interaction with the baby. 

Lets talk about Mike and his enthusiasm for this wedding. Like we could never have seen Mike be so excited about Sharon and Andy of all people getting married back during The Closer days. But then I don't think that any of them could back in those days. Anyway I just love how happy he is about it.

The Ring Since there was such a big reveal regarding the ring. I think that it's only fair to actually talk about the ring. 

"I can't afford a ring as beautiful as she deserves." Let's start with this. If Andy Flynn could he would by Sharon Raydor the freaking moon and use it as her engagement ring. I think he's selling himself short here because I thought the ring was really beautiful and so does everyone else including Sharon. It's really nice to see that the show really keeps stuff like this in mind, such as a cops salary. Another thing that I want to comment on regarding this line is that I think there is a part of Andy that feels that he doesn't deserve Sharon. I think a part of him will always feel that way because of the mistakes that he made in his past. 

"Oooh Emerald cut. Nice." Mike's comment about the ring really got me going. Not to mention both Sharon and Andy's responses to it. When ever Sharon is overwhelmed by something she can't form words. So I love how she just glows with happiness and looks to Andy. 

I really love the ring because I think that it's very much Sharon. It's beautiful and understated, classic yet the unusual band makes it truly unique. Which to mean just screams Sharon Raydor's own personality. I love that he didn't get a traditional gold band because when have we ever seen her wear gold? Not any time that I can ever thing of. She's really a silver person as far as her jewelry tastes tend to lean.

Sacrifices

Those that don't deserve our love Mary This woman is so aweful so why is it that everyone seems to be giving her a break from her terrible behavior? She blarently steals, posions dogs and mooches off of her family. The police officers that catch her stealing felt that she would have been more of a nusance to book her than to just let her go. Provenza can't remember her and when he does remember who she is. He can't remember why he had liked her. Mary's niece takes care of her by paying for an apartment for her when she loses her pention. So why? The answer really comes back to her having been a cop. The job is respected so she gets away with so much stuff that she wouldn't have normally been able to get away with. Another (bigger) reason is Mary's niece. To her she's a nusence but to her she's family and a cop.

Jack There is so many parallells between Mary/Jack and the stuff that both Mary's niece/ Sharon went through with of them. Both Mary and Jack are assholes who use people and think that they are entitled to exactly what they want and they could care less about how much it hurts other people. I thought it was so interesting regarding Mary's niece conversation with her son. It was a really nice callback to Sharon reaming Ricky out over his treatment of Rusty. Both women had to make sacficies because no matter how terrible human beings Jack and Mary were they were family to them. Mary was a cop and her niece. Jack was Sharon's husband and father to her children.

Those that we love Sharon and Andy

Sharon's Annulment I've read a few reviews and peoples opinions on this episode and what Ricky did in particular. I do agree that it wasn't appropriate and it wasn't his business but it's not something that I'm upset with him over. For several reasons, it really shows how much they (him and Emily) love their mom and want to see her happy. They can all really see the difference in how Jack treated Sharon verses how Andy treats Sharon. And just how much Andy makes her happy. As much as it should have been Sharon going to Jack telling him about the engagement and asking about the annulment. I can't help but feel happy that it wasn't. We all know that Jack would have been difficult about it (and he was according to their conversation) and that conversation would have been emotionally trying for her. Jack would never have willingly signed the annulment papers. He'd be bitter and vindictive about it. Holding it over her head that she wouldn't have been able to get married in a church. 

And of course this is Sharon and she would have been able to handle it but it's really nice that she didn't have to. I get from her emotions at the beginning of the conversation that she felt that a church wedding would have been next to impossible. 

This whole gesture goes back to how much Sharon had to sacrifice for her family. Her whole entire career for instance as Sharon originally wanted to be a lawyer. She only became a cop first to take care of their family while Jack went to law school first. And by the time he was established as a lawyer enough for her to quit as a cop and go to law school he up and left. 

She eventually found happiness in her career as a cop and even realized that she liked that side of the law better. And then later again when she became a cop in IA. She wanted to be a detective but the hours were better for kids, the pay was better because it was a faster climb up the rank ladder and it was a safer job as a single parent because she would be in the line of fire. 

Andy's Annulment Honestly I had no idea what Rusty was up too. But it makes perfect sense that he would get Nicole in on it. Even though Rusty found a different way to get Andy's annulment (other than straight out telling him to get one), it didn't come from Andy in the way that Sharon wanted. Andy seems shocked by it. And then there’s the question well why didn't Andy ask Sandra for an annulment if it meant so much to Sharon? I think from Andy's comments in his conversation earlier with the boys - that he probably felt he didn't have the right to ask her for something like that. 

It was pretty funny seeing Rusty fen ignorance like oh do you get calls from your ex-wife often? And seeing both of them trying not to laugh at Andy's shock. I also wonder a bit why Andy didn't put it together. Sharon though saw right through both of her boys. 

I kind of feel like to the three of them - Sharon and Andy have been dating forever. And that their parents needed a push to get the ball rolling. Like the fact that they were dating and didn't even realize it. And that they didn't interfere with their dating life (and see how long it took them to get to actual dating) they don't want them taking forever to get married.

Ricky inadvertently spilling the beans I don't think that I can get enough of that scene. I really love how Ricky is 1000% enthusiastic about this wedding. Its been made very clear that Ricky really has always liked Andy so it really warms my heart in seeing him be so happy about the marriage. I also really love how Ricky goes to hug Andy first. I swear Ricky and Andy are two peas in one fucking pod and I want Ricky to come back for more Rusty/Ricky skeaming. It seems every time we see Ricky he's involved in some sort of secret plan. It really makes me wonder how much trouble he got into as a kid. 

I know that someone in one of their reviews mentioned how much Ricky is like Sharon. But I think that he's very much like Andy. Which to me explains why they get along so well. He's so enthusiastic and pushes full steam a head just like Andy.

Sandra and Andrew I'm so happy that we got insight into Andy's first marriage and a name for Andy's ex. Other than the bits that we've been able to piece together. At first I really didn't care for the name that they picked for her but now that I think about it. It's such a deliberate choice to use the name Sandra. Which is such a similar name to Sharon that it really highlights how similar Andy's previous marriage was to Sharon's. 

The conversation that Rusty and Ricky have with Andy was so very wonderful. It starts out with them trying to hint to him to get an annulment and ends up being a much needed conversation. I am so glad that they had that segway into Andy talking about what went wrong and why. 

I really loved it because Andy thinks that the boys need reassurances when it comes to who he is as a person now verses who he was back then. I also love how Andy explains the marriage to them. And that it really very clearly shows that Andy has grown miles from who he was in the past, by putting the blame of the marriage on his own shoulders. 

I really feel like because of therapy and him getting involved with Sharon (and her letting him in on her perspective on her own marriage) really helped him see his own marriage through Sandra's eyes. What she went through, how hard she worked and how badly he failed. He’s really got so much respect for Sandra, that he didn’t once have. I really love it. I think it’s beautiful. 

I am also glad to see that while the boys tell Andy that he wasn't ready for marriage and that was an excuse for his bad behavior. Andy is like no - your giving me too much credit for that. That even though we were too young for marriage, I was at fault and I have worked my way to fixing my relationships with my kids and my ex-wife. 

And that smile when Andy tells the boys that he's emotionally ready for Sharon. If that smile doesn't convince anyone than nothing will.

Nothing and no one can dictate who is a part of your family

Mary and her Niece

Mary’s niece (I don’t recall if they ever gave her a name) fights so hard for Mary because she’s a part of her family. No matter how damned difficult she made life for everyone. She was still family to her niece. 

Duck and Little Duck

Even though Julio isn’t legally Mark’s dad. That’s not going to stop Mark or Julio from them thinking that or believing it in their hearts. There isn’t a piece of paper that will tell them otherwise. Hopefully soon it will be official and both of them can sigh with relief. And then Julio won’t have to worry about Mark calling him dad.

The Ex-Husband and the Future Husband

I really loved that Ricky was like please stop letting others tell you who your family is. One one hand, Sharon’s religion is so important to her. On the other hand it’s part of the reason why she took so long to divorce Jack. It’s not the only reason but it’s part of the reason. And then Ricky saw it as something that would be an obstacle to her getting the happiness that she so deserved. 

In the end if it was impossible to have a church wedding. I have no doubt that Sharon would have married him without it. But it is nice that she doesn’t have to marry him without it because it’s so much a part of who she is. 

What I didn't like: The fake out with the engagement.  They did the same thing for Shandy dating but honestly I really think that it was executed here much better. This is a slight nit pick but I wish we would have gotten more of Provenza's reaction. And I think that we didn't was because that he knew about the proposal and it was obvious that he knew about the engagement. We haven't gotten much Flynn/Provenza lately but I do hear some stuff is coming up for the two of them. 

What I did like: I loved this episode. We learned new stuff about Sharon and Andy. Ricky is in a damn it! I have missed him so much and can he come back more often? Sharon and Andy are officially engaged!!!! We saw the ring!!! Mike being so happy about the Raydor/Flynn marriage.

[cinephiled-com]

New Post has been published on Cinephiled

New Post has been published on http://www.cinephiled.com/interview-screenwriter-david-magee-bringing-iconic-characters-back-life-mary-poppins-returns/

Interview: Screenwriter David Magee on Bringing Iconic Characters Back to Life in ‘Mary Poppins Returns’

Now an adult with three children, bank teller Michael Banks learns that his house will be repossessed in five days unless he can pay back a loan. His only hope is to find a missing certificate that shows proof of valuable shares that his father left him years earlier. Just as all seems lost, Michael and his sister receive the surprise of a lifetime when Mary Poppins — the beloved nanny from their childhood — arrives to save the day and take the Banks family on a magical, fun-filled adventure.

Disney’s original Mary Poppins was one of the most important films of my childhood. When I first learned that they were making a sequel, I was terrified that it wouldn’t live up to the previous film, so I was delighted to discover that Rob Marshall’s Mary Poppins Returns retains  much of the charming, magical nature of the original. Emily Blunt is just perfect as the nanny who returns to Cherry Tree Lane once again to help a desperate family. The rest of the cast, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Wishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Colin Firth, and Meryl Streep add to the fun. I so enjoyed sitting down with Oscar-nominated screenwriter David Magee (Finding Neverland, Life of Pi) talk about the process of revisiting these characters.

Danny Miller: The original Mary Poppinswas truly a seminal part of my childhood. So much so that I went into this film a little skeptical, thinking they better not fuck this up! So I was delighted at how moved I was by this story.

David Magee: (Laughs) I know a lot of people felt that way! People like you, who saw it in the theater when they were kids, and also young people who have watched it through the years on video.

I know it’s widely available now but I do think it’s different for those of us who saw it when it first came out. I remember dressing up to go to the big movie palace in downtown Chicago and just letting the film wash over me. It made such a huge imprint!

I felt the same way. Those early movies — there wasn’t as much distinction between what was real and what wasn’t and it all became part of the bigger conversation about what life was about.

Totally. What kid didn’t want Julie Andrews to be their nanny? And the very first movie I ever saw in a theater wasThe Three Lives of Thomasina the year before, also starring Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber, so I practically saw them as my brother and sister at that point. What a thrilling opportunity it must have been to bring these characters back to life. Were you at all terrified about tackling something this iconic?

You know, it’s funny, I really wasn’t scared, I was just excited at the chance to work with Rob Marshall. I had worked with Ang Lee on Life of Pi which everyone said was a really difficult film to adapt so I was up for the challenge. And from the moment I began working with Rob, I felt like we were having the same conversation.

By the way, I loved Finding Neverland and if I was thinking about making a sequel to Mary Poppins, I would have said, “Get me that Finding Neverland guy!” When you started writing, how blank was your slate in terms of what the story should be? I assume you already knew that the film would be set a certain time in the future?

No, we didn’t actually start with that question. We began by talking about the feelings from the first film that we wanted to capture. And the very first question we had to wrestle with was why does Mary Poppins come back? I mean, if she did such a wonderful job saving these people’s lives and teaching the parents the value of family and all of that, why does she return? We struggled with that for a while. We had all sorts of different scenarios in which she came back to the original family. We read all of the P.L. Travers books and talked about how the first book was written during the Depression, or the “slump” as it was called in London. One of the first descriptions in the book of the Banks’ home on Cherry Tree Lane was that it was one of the shabbiest houses on the street. Disney moved the story back to the Edwardian era because they wanted to show a lighter time period so we thought it would make sense to set our film in the 1930s since these were written as contemporary stories.

Ah, I just assumed that you were always going to have it revolve around a grown-up Michael and Jane.

That was our big revelation that came later, after we’d been working on it for a while.

Definitely the right decision, in my opinion. It’s one thing to have the wonderful Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, but I don’t think I could have handled new actors replacing all of the Banks family members!

Yeah, that was part of it, too. We wanted a new story, not just to see what happened the next day after the first film ended. The real turning point came when we decided on setting the film during the Depression with Jane and Michael as adults. There’s a wonderful line in one of the books, “Grownups forget, they always do.” As soon as we connected that idea to Jane and Michael, we knew we had a story.

And it was such an important time in England when so much was changing. My wife and I always joke before we see a Disney movie, “Okay, which parent dies?” Was there ever a version in your head in which Michael’s wife was still alive?

We did have versions in which Michael’s wife was alive and also one showing them losing her, but then we decided we didn’t want to do that. We didn’t think this should be a film about the wife dying at the end of the first act, we wanted to start later than that, when the joy had gone of Michael’s life, when he’d gotten lost along the way, and when he was reaching that crisis point where he didn’t know what to do next or where to turn.

The perfect time for Mary Poppins to return!

Exactly! And the threat of losing the house became a kind of metaphor for all of the loss the family had experienced.

Right, not only memories of Michael’s late wife, but also of his parents and Jane and Michael’s magical childhood with Mary Poppins.

That’s it. And while Mary Poppins comes back to help the young Banks children, she’s also coming back for Michael who has lost what he had as a child.

Just like her real mission in the first film was helping George Banks.

Absolutely.

And again, as much as I worship Julie Andrews, Emily Blunt did such a fabulous job as Mary. Was she in your head as you were writing the script?

She was in Rob’s head from the beginning, for sure. But she wasn’t cast yet. We weren’t about to approach her or anyone else until we knew we had a story we wanted to tell. It took three or four months of sitting in a room with Rob, John DeLuca, Marc Shaiman, and a few other people to come up with a story that we could show Disney.

Were there ever any moments where Disney objected to what you wanted to do with these beloved characters?

Actually, no, they were remarkably hands-off, but, of course, they have an immense amount of trust in Rob and John who’ve done several films there. So, we ended up working on it for months and polishing it up and we came up with a 35-page treatment of the film.

One that included specific holes where the songs would be inserted?

Yes, for sure. And then as I wrote the screenplay, we’d work in a very collaborative way throwing out ideas for what each character had to express and if they could do that through a song. I’d go off and write the scene up to the point where I thought the song began and a little past that to show what emotions lead up to it.

As a fanatic of the original film, I found myself combing through every image on the screen and every word of dialogue to find links to that world of my childhood. I love how those links were there, but sometimes very subtly. For example, going in I was desperate to see Mrs. Banks’ “Votes for Women” suffragette banner and I just loved how it showed up in the new film in such a prominent way without ever mentioning it directly. It made me wonder how much of your source material was the original Disney film as opposed to the P.L. Travers books.

Both, actually. From the beginning, we were determined that this had to work as a standalone film, but we also knew that many of our viewers will have seen and loved the original and we wanted to respect and do justice to that as well without constantly winking and pointing and going, “Remember how great that movie was?”

You really nailed it — it’s almost more satisfying to see all those connections without beating us over the head with them. Like seeing the Michael and Jane’s snow globe without any water in it.

Exactly. We wanted to be part of that world, but also acknowledge that the world of the original film had changed in many ways. We talked a lot about the kite from the first movie. Michael finds the kite in the attic and throws it out. I had the idea of having it blow away on its own and then serving a different purpose in the film. Someone along the way said it nicely: “It’s not the same film, but it rhymes!” We wanted to feel that we earned all of our comparisons to that world.

I hate when people label such films as schmaltzy but was that something you worried about? I thought you did a great job of balancing the pathos in the film like when Michael sits down and cries late in the film. Again, that was earned. And, of course Mary Poppins is the opposite of sweetness and light.

That’s it, I think you’re answering the question! To me, Mary Poppins is not sentimental, she’s not gushy, not lachrymose. We didn’t want to, beg our audience to feel sorry for our characters. So when Michael, played by Ben Whishaw, says to the lawyers in the opening scene that his wife passed away recently and one of the lawyers says, “I’m so sorry,” he just moves on and says “Thank you, so what’s going on?” It’s only when he’s in the privacy of the attic, frankly, that he remembers for a moment how much he’s going through. And that’s just real. I know many people who have lost spouses and loved ones who don’t wear their hearts on their sleeve.

I guess the biggest risk of schmaltz comes when you have very young actors bursting into song. But those kids were so talented and never overdid it on the sweetness.

Yes, they did an amazing job. And again, remember that the children don’t mention their mother until almost halfway into the film when the youngest says, “I miss Mother.” That’s all they ever say about her.

As great as all of the actors were — Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Wishaw, Meryl Streep, and so on — my favorite might be Emily Mortimer as Jane Banks. I thought she was absolutely perfect in that part. Did you create backstories for all the characters so you could know what happened in their lives between the first one and this? It made total sense that she was the daughter of a suffragette!

Yes, we absolutely talked about what the impact would be of having those parents. We decided that Jane would pick up her mother’s love of good causes so that became our starting point for her. And with Michael, we decided he wasn’t a banker by nature, but we liked the idea that at a certain point he would have to become one, which was an interesting kind of reversal so that he was an artist at heart who had to become a banker.

Well, thank you so much for bringing all these people back into life and, as I’ve said, for not fucking it up!

Haha, let’s put that on the poster. Thank you, this was fun!

Mary Poppins Returns opens on December 19, 2018.

[pleasantlybrieftiger-blog]

Yet more from the first session of Ularian Prophecy

Part 3/3 of the Giun and Aki Pov

Also, the Tiefling, Dwarf, Dragonborn, Gnome, and Darkelf from the last post are my players.

“So. the Pyiford express?” Aki asked as Giun finished his breakfast.

“That's what he said. We need to get on it, go to Nay-Baix, and from there we are to ‘cure the traceless plague’.” Giun talked in hushed tones.

“Traceless plague? Droppers disease?” Giun only nodded. “Hmm. no doctor or lab-coat has ever found a symptom, let alone a clue. This will be a true challenge.”

“I guess when God says he has a challenge, he means challenge.” Aki didn't reply, choosing to simply nod.

“It’s a brand new locomotive… tickets will not be cheap. And i have just spent the last of the trappers money.”

“There are alternatives to buying tickets. I happened to overhear Sir brightwood last night-”

“You mean you spied on him.” Aki interjected.

“What you going to reprimand me for spying on Amrik dogs?”

“No. but you should speak clear. It's the mark of a strong soul, saying things as they are. And you have a strong soul Giun.”

“Whatever, listen, the Queen has granted to tickets to a number of Nobles and Diplomats. So many in fact that hardly anyone will notice a few missing from the roster.”

“I don't know.”

“What do you mean you don't know? I thought that's why we came here, to destabilize and overthrow the Amrik empire!” Giun’s voice has risen, and Aki glared at him, however the Diplomat had also started yelling at the bartender, and it seemed that they had gone on unheard.

“Yes, but now Limbis has need of you Giun. i can only think that he needs you alive, and a quest for God overrules simple grudges like ours. We will need anonymity. Perhaps we can find the printers, and persuade them to make a few more tickets for us.”

“I swear to Limbis Thomas, if you don't fill my pint i will blow your brain out!” Brightwood rose from his stool, over turning it and drawing his half rifle. Giun made to move, but aki’s large hand shot out silently, baying the urge. The door to the tavern burt open, and three figures from before, the tiefling, Dragonborn, and Dwarf rushed in, the last of which released a odd shaped bladed object that arced through the air, deeply cutting the backside of Brightwood’s neck deeply.

“What the fuck!” the Diplomat ripped around, barely dodging a pistol shot from the Tiefling. However he could not move enough to dodge the drunken charge of the dragonborn, which pinned him firmly to the ground.

“Time to go.’ Aki muttered to Giun as the Tiefling drew a jeweled sword, and a rifle shot hit a front window.

Now, several Hours later, Aki found himself next to the black haired, dusty brown skinned boy he called a friend. They were in the south-west market, across the Locomotives valley path that separated Pyiford cities slums from the respectable places. They faced a printers shop whose name ran; Rames and Daughters Quality Press Printing. The store was closed for lunch, however Aki was dressed in a priests outfit, somewhat too small for his built frame, and Giun had hidden all of his weapons, including his precious rapier, which was now stowed in Aki’s robes.

“Maybe we should just sneak in, force them at knife point, like i said. I'm sure as hell not waiting for their lunch to be over. We only have two hours left as it is because you wasted so much time on this ridiculous get up.”

“You are only angry because i combed you hair and washed your face. You look nice, and remember, the good children of Limbis know that he calls at odd times. Like in night visions.”

“Dreams AKi. their called dreams.”

Aki did not responded, and instead shielded Giun from sight as the boy picked the stores lock in no time. As they entered they were greeted by a truly astonishing, beautiful tenor voice singing a song neither of them recognized, however the voice halted when the door’s bell jungled as both men made they way into the shop.

“Can i help you!” a man’s voices shouted, its owner unseen.

“I believe you can.” Aki responded, taking Giun by the shoulders gently. There was a cocking of a gun, and a gray haired stout man turned the corner fast, three curious women edging behind him.

Aki smiled upon seeing the pistol, it was a calm serene smile, however his arms subtly moved to protect Giun. once the man caught sight of Aki from across a printing press the man quickly uncocked the pistol and set it down. Looking as though he could have eaten his own hat.

“Forgive me priest, i did not know.”

“Forgiven sir. You where only protecting your family. You are Rames yes?”

“Yes, that me, and these are my daughters, Deliauh, Sarandanna, and Tylipa.”

“A Pleasure, and truly, forgive us for disturbing you during lunch. May we come in”

“Of course!” Rames said, turning to his daughters “let's fetch them lunch as well, Srandanna, please seat them.” and soon they were led into the back room, a somewhat spacious are, cluttered with racks full of typeset and jars and brushes for ink, and a desk against the far wall, facing away from the large window. Aki was sat in the biggest chair, upholstered with leather and made of a fine, if somewhat aged wood, and Giun was sat in the only other chair, a low backed seat with a floral print. The three daughters took the one couch, and Rames stood, a mug of tea in hand.

“That singing, which one of you was that?” Aki asked, siping the fine tea, probably the best the family had. They had just been served, and Giun was feasting on the cold meat and fruits. Aki subly nudged his leg, and Giun slowed, curious, then nodded, and resumed a more appropriate posture.

“That was Sarandanna.” Rames answered proudly. “She was showing us her piece that is going to get her into the Pyiford Opera.” Aki looked at the middle daughter and smiled warmly.

“You have astounding talent miss, truly.”

“Well thank you Priest. Truly if a man of Limbis thanks so, i may really have a shot.”

“You will get in, Easy, most of that Opera has half as much talent, you’ll be the star!” Giun said around a handful of cherries.

“So you said i could help you, how?” Rames asked, shifting the conversation, and his tone was nothing but polite and respectful, if not curious.

“Yes.” Aki said setting down his tea. “You see Redmond here has had a vision, a true vision from Limbis himself. And when he told the church about it our bishop prayed, for it made little sense to him. But upon return from his prayers he summoned me to escort Redmond to Nay-baix on a holy mission. The church believes that this journey will reveal the answer that has eluded so many men of science… Redmond will cure the reaceless plague.” the families eyes shifted to the boy, but Aki noticed something deeper than that, he noticed the way the father's eyes looked at that floral chair. There was a minute of quiet surprise from the daughters, but then the man, tear eyed turned back to Aki.

“But how can i help with that?”

“We need your trade. The church understands that you were commissioned for the production of Pyiford express tickets. And under normal circumstances we would send a messenger to Eddon and secure passage aboard the new Locomotive through the Queen, but time is short, and the Church has not the funds on hand to purchase tickets.”

“So you came here. I'm sorry father, i can make you tickets, but the official tickets where lined in silver and the letters were plated in gold. I don't have those materials on hand.”

Aki turned gave Giun a glance, Giun in response very subtly shook his head.

“I understand Sir. droppers claimed your wife correct?” there was a nod from the father., and Aki continued. “In times of so much plague, so much unfortunate death times can grow hard for families. When she passed i'm sure you gave her a proper loving funeral. That couldn't have been cheap, even for well done printing shops. Pyifords burial grounds are becoming crowded, no doubt the city asked a harsh price of you. But you paid it. And now a well off Print shop is in debt, cheap teas taste different no doubt. Plague took from you, city took from you, and then the city took from you again paying to little for a hard job. I understand Rames, the hardship. They probably didn't even trust you with enough money to buy your own silver and gold. They provided it for you yes?” another nod. “I thought so. And through that i'm sure you sought a way to get even. Take back some of what has been lost. Limbis blesses this, balance first yes? But. when you took the extra gold and silver and kept it, using nothing more than you absolutely had to, in the process of getting even with the wealth that was taken from you, you unbalanced your soul. You now have a weight of greed, and spite. The church recommends that you balance those out with Genouristy, and confession. Did you Rames, keep the extra silver and gold?”

Aki’s eyes burrowed into Rames’ own, and after a single tear was shed, no doubt in memory of his lost wife, the father nodded.

“Good Rames. Now the balance must be restored, you are a good person Rames, very little is unbalanced. In fact, the weight of to Pyiford express tickets would be perfect to reset the scales.