#Can we get Tom's Peter to become a photographer | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thewidowstanton · 4 years ago

Text

Archive feature from 2012: Lynne Essex – The Lana Sisters

One of the UK's greatest-ever singing stars, Dusty Springfield, (pictured left) was born on this day – 16 April – in 1939. To mark the occasion we are posting one of our favourite archive features, which came about after a friend met Lynne Essex, née Abrams, (right)… in a swimming pool of all places. Lynne had been a member of the Lana Sisters – a "girl harmony act" founded by Iris Long (later known as Riss Chantelle) – who gave Dusty her first professional job.

By Liz Arratoon

It is common knowledge that a 1994 advertisement in The Stage launched the Spice Girls’ careers, but more than 35 years earlier another girl group, the Lana Sisters, placed an ad in that newspaper that gave a much greater star her entry into showbusiness. In 1958, roughly 30 girls applied for the vacant position with the close-harmony trio. From their shortlist, Lynne Abrams and Iris Long chose 19-year-old Mary O’Brien, who would later become Dusty Springfield – the White Queen of Soul. But in those early days, as Abrams – now Lynne Essex – remembers, she was their last resort: “I loved her dearly; she was lovely but I have to say she certainly wasn’t glamorous and was very awkward then.”

Long had started the Lana Sisters, and Essex explains: “I was the first girl Iris took after she saw me singing in a little cabaret at a holiday camp. She’d originally worked with Ivy Benson, who led an all-female swing band, and learnt the business side of things from her. We were the Iris Long Trio for about a year, then established ourselves as the Lana Sisters and were very successful. We’d done all the donkey work, the touring and summer seasons up in the top of Scotland to iron our edges out. We had lots of work and a recording contract with Fontana Records.”

But with the departure of another girl they turned to “their bible” The Stage. The ad said [something like] ‘Well-established female singing trio, the Lana Sisters, require another member. Please apply by letter, enclosing a photograph’. A photo was vital, as Essex points out: “You can’t look like the back of a bus in this business and we didn’t have all the facelifts and things then.”

Thirty were whittled down to a dozen. “One particular girl seemed OK but we didn’t like the look of her photograph… and that was Dusty, or Shan, as she liked to be called. We’d auditioned the others and for whatever reason, they were useless. They couldn’t sing the harmonies, they couldn’t hold the notes; they were maybe very pretty but not up to it. In desperation really, I said to Iris, ‘Well, we’ll just have to have a look at this Mary O’Brien. She plays guitar and can sing. We’ll have to phone her.”

A rehearsal studio was booked in Leicester Square for 5pm and on a chilly day the girls waited. Five o’clock came, five past came, ten past, quarter past, with still no sign of her. “We thought, ‘She’s going to be useless; she can’t even keep time’. But as we walked down into the street we saw this little bundle of fake-fur coat coming towards us.” Full of apologies, Dusty, who was living in Ealing with her parents, explained she’d been delayed on the Underground.

Essex and Long returned to the studio to see what she could do. “We gave her an idea of the sort of songs we sang and, of course, when she started to sing she could do the harmonies off the top of her head. I could tell she had a very good voice, a unique voice. I said to Iris, ‘It doesn’t matter what she looks like, we can do something about that, and her stage presence’, which was pretty ghastly.” The Lanas were playing the Metropolitan Theatre in London’s Edgware Road, and decided to rehearse her running on and off stage. She managed that “without falling over” and they took her.

Dusty had only previously played tiny clubs in the West End with her brother, Dion. They played Latin American music and she would sing in Spanish. Her first professional appearance was with the Lanas at a show in Lincoln. Essex recalls: “All the big names of the day were there. We used to dress in lamé trousers and high heels, which were quite raunchy for those days. We weren’t twee like the Beverley Sisters. We had three minutes to get onstage down some pretty nasty concrete stairs. Dusty tripped, of course, fell, and tore the front of her lovely blue lamé trousers.”

After that inauspicious start, things went well. “She definitely improved our sound but it was a terrible shame that Iris wouldn’t let anyone sing the solos. We’d sing in unison. Dusty was only allowed to sing the bottom harmony, Iris sang the melodies and I sang top harmony, but to have a girl in the act with such a tremendous voice, it was criminal. They all have individual mics today but we had one central mic. You couldn’t wander off and sing on your own.” Long also wanted them to look similar and they had their hair dyed blonde just at the front by Raymond, Mr Teasie-Weasie.

The Lanas may not have matched the dizzy heights of Dusty’s later success but they were right up there with the likes of their “arch rivals” the Kaye Sisters. They did big summer seasons and their famous records include (Seven Little Girls) Sitting in the Back Seat and My Mother’s Eyes. They were the only supporting act for Nat King Cole’s London date at what is now the Apollo Victoria Theatre. “We did an awful lot; a whole series of Six-Five Special and a series of Ready Steady Go! on TV. And we’d play the American air force bases at home and in Europe.”

Dusty stayed with the group for two years but when the end came it was sudden. “We were always together and it was very strange. We were playing Taunton in Somerset and Dusty kept disappearing. At the end of the week she said, ‘I’m sorry girls but I’m leaving’. She set up the Springfields with her brother, now Tom Springfield, and Tim Feild. We couldn’t believe it. It was just before a big summer season with Adam Faith, John Barry and Emile Ford. They’d been rehearsing in a field and it was springtime. To this day I don’t know if that influenced the name. She’d gained an awful lot of experience with us and had all the grounding. Quite rightly she decided she should be singing the solos. It didn’t take long before they became very famous. That’s when she changed her image.”

But Essex says they had nothing to do with Dusty’s trademark blonde wig and heavy black eye make-up, and reveals: “She didn’t like her hair colour, which was red, and she didn’t like her looks. She thought she looked like Peter Ustinov.”

Six months later Essex met Arthur, her husband to be, got married, left the Lanas and had two children, Amanda and Michael. Iris changed her name to Riss Chantelle, found two new girls and started the Chantelles. Dusty and Essex, as close as real sisters – she was Amanda's godmother – stayed in touch until Dusty left for America. “Even today I have to pinch myself to think that I actually did take this young lady on. When I hear one of her records it just amazes me that that little bundle of fur that ran across the road, looking like Peter Ustinov, turned out to be such a huge, huge star. I’m so chuffed. I can’t believe I was part of it.”

Pictures of the Lana Sisters and the one above courtesy of Lynne Essex

A version of this feature first appeared in The Stage

#lynne essex #dusty springfield #lynne abrams #lana sisters #show business feature #1960s music #kaye sisters #Teasie-Weasie #riss chantelle

7 notes · View notes

angelic-holland · 5 years ago

Text

Alice’s Masterlist

Series

Blurbs

Commission Info

✼ - 1k notes!

Fluff

Dirty Shirley

- you’re an actress in Endgame and have a little too much to drink for your 21st birthday.

Fooled Around and Fell In Love

- Tom is a photographer, you’re a single mom, and Tom is falling for you in your little bookstore.

Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy

- Tom and his boyfriend get dressed up, go on a fancy date and dance the night away.

Oh, Fiddlesticks!

- In a world where the first word your soulmate says to you is tattooed on your skin, your soulmate is left wondering who uses the words ‘oh fiddlesticks’.

The Mitten Tree

- You just want to give the children at Saint Paul’s a great Christmas, what happens when a celebrity you aren’t expecting is thrown into the mix?

Not Like This

- You and Tom aren’t meant to be, not according to fate, not according to the rule that dictates who your soulmate is. Will that stop you from falling for each other?

Smut (18+)

Dinner Party ✼

- A dinner party with the cast of Far From Home, with a smutty twist.

Unexpected ✼

- You didn’t know your best friend feels the same way about you, until you’re forced to share a bed in a hotel one night.

Know Your Enemy

- You hate the son of the CEO of your father’s rival company, right?

So It Goes

- You’re sick and tired of other college boys. Tom shows you how a real man should treat you.

Good For You

- You and Tom get a little riled up after a premiere.

Teach Me

- Boxer!Tom teaches you how to defend yourself, you end up on top of him.

Happy Birthday Tommy

- You make sure your boyfriend has a great birthday, including a special treat from you.

Video Games ✼

- Tom plays video games and you try not to distract him, although he doesn’t last very long.

Good Girl

- You tease Tom, he decides to tease you back.

Lesson

- Tom teaches you a lesson.

Switching Things Up

- You normally let Tom take control in bed, here’s what happens when you change things up.

Long Night

- You and Tom use a remote control vibrator at a premiere.

Night and Day

- Tom decides to punish you, it’s a shame you seem to enjoy it.

Getting Even

- You come without permission, Tom teaches you a lesson, one day at a time.

Cherry Knots ✼

- You’re just a stranger in a bar, trying to stay as anonymous as possible.

Familiar // Navigate ✼

- You’re a famous Youtuber and your fans figure out you and Tom are dating.

Arcade

- Being friends with benefits can be tricky, especially when one person catches feelings before another does.

New Girl, Old Feelings

- You and Tom take your friendship to the next level.

Pretty As A Polaroid Picture ✼

- You and Tom really like the gift Harrison bought for you.

Try Again

- A sequel to Dinner Party, you and Tom mess around at dinner.

Wasabi ✼

- You and your lab partner decide to ditch a party and have one of your own.

We’ve Got Chemistry ✼

- Tom teaches you how to use a vibrator.

Eighteen (mini-series) ✼

- You ask the tattooed boy you’re tutoring to be your fake boyfriend, imagine your surprise when it turns into something more.

Best Friend’s Brother ✼

- You’re Harry’Holland’s best friend, what happens when you have a crush on his brother, Tom?

A Touch of Cinnamon

- You own a bakery, Tom owns a record store. You’re neighbors, just neighbors, right?

Watermelon Sugar ✼

- Tom gets jealous when you seem to be paying more attention to your favorite singer than him.

Feel Your Love

- Tom loves to be blindfolded.

Your Shirt

- You can’t wear Tom’s shirt after sex, neither of you seem to mind much.

Counselor in Training

- Tom is supposed to help train you be a counselor at Camp Pine Islands, what happens when he finds you alone in the showers one day?

Call Me Angel

- Tom is lonely, craving a connection he hasn’t been able to find in meaningless hookups. He stumbles across your profile on a phone sex website, a little bit too eager to talk to the girl in the Spiderman t-shirt.

Figure This Out (coming soon!)

- Tom is a hopeless romantic who writes songs for girls he falls in love with. You’re just a bartender who is great at keeping secrets and manages the bar where Tom performs his love songs.

Threesomes +

Just Desserts (Tom, Jake, Sebastian, Mackie, reader)

- You have some fun after the Far From Home premiere.

When Two Becomes Three (Tom, Jake, reader)

- You and Tom decide to bring a third into the bedroom.

Cover Me In Your Love (Tom, Jake, reader)

- Tom and Jake treat you for being such a good girl for them.

Four’s A Crowd But Baby I Like to Party (Tom, Sebastian, Mackie, reader)

- Tom surprises you after comic con.

Good Boy (Tom, Jake, reader)

- Tom is a good boy for you, Tom is a good boy for Jake. Can you and Jake work together to put him back in his place?

Do Not Disturb (Tom, Laura Harrier, reader)

- Tom and Laura invite you up to their hotel room.

Tutors (Tom, Jake, reader)

- You and Jake teach Tom a thing or two.

Office Hours (Tom, Jake, reader) // See Me After Class ✼

- The escapades of Professor Jake, teaching assistant Tom, and you.

Let’s Play (Tom, Jake, Harrison, Zendaya, reader) ✼

- Tom wants to show everyone what a good girl you are.

It Will Last Longer... (Tom, Harrison, reader)

- You and Tom invite Harrison into the bedroom, a sequel to Pretty as A Polaroid Picture.

New Seeds In the Melody (Tom, Harry Styles, reader) ✼

- Tom surprises you by inviting your favorite singer back to your hotel room.

Angst

What We Deserve

- Tom shows you that you deserve so much more than you believe you do.

Puzzle Pieces

- Tom and you are two pieces of a puzzle, you fit together perfectly. Right?

When the Levee Breaks

- Tom loves you, but you don’t love Tom. Is there anything you can do to fix this?

Halo Effect

Y/N just wants to save her little sister. What happens when a handsome stranger promises her so much more?

Wildflowers and Vanilla

You and Harrison get high and fool around.

Misattribution of Arousal

You run into a cute boy while on a jog, you’re not mistaking adrenaline for attraction, right?

Penny For Your Thoughts...

- You try to make Harrison jealous. It works out for both of you.

Craft Store Secrets

- You and Harrison do some last-minute Christmas shopping.

Take A Seat

- You and Harrison reveal a little more about yourself during a party.

The V Word

- You and Harrison have always been close. Close enough to ask him to take your virginity?

Lonely Blue Eyes

- You’ve always gotten flowers from the florist across from your flat, a small way to keep your place lively and happy. When he notices you’ve stopped coming by as often, he makes a surprise visit. It turns out he has exactly the shade of blue you’re looking for.

Jake Gyllenhaal

On My Mind

Y/N’s been tasked with interviewing Jake Gyllenhaal during a press junket for his new movie. What happens when she runs into him later than night at a bar?

Princess Party

- You and Peter get to know each other at your dad, Tony Stark’s, party.

Thick Thighs Save Lives

- You find out your boyfriend is Spiderman. Cue earth-shattering sex.

Do You Want Me?

- You don’t need Peter to tutor you, but you want to spend time with him.

Touch Me

- You and Peter try to sort through your feelings.

Dear You

- A mysterious boy in a red and blue suit leaves you letters on your windowsill. Will you finally find out who the boy behind the mask is?

Church

- You and MJ fool around in church.

RA on Duty

- You like your roommate. She likes you. It should be easy. Right?

Too Late

- Peter loves Ned. Ned loves Peter. Is it too late for them to tell each other?

Special shoutout to @honeymoonparker for making these headers for me!

5K notes · View notes

princessanneftw · 4 years ago

Text

Princess Anne: the best queen we’ll never have

Discreet and dependable, she is a royal cast in her mother’s mould. No wonder many long for her to reign over us, write Roya Nikkhah and Tony Allen-Mills

Roya Nikkhah and Tony Allen-Mills for The Sunday Times

When the Princess Royal turned up at one of the charities she supports to meet a gathering of disabled and autistic children, a young girl boldly informed her: “You don’t look much like a princess.” Anne didn’t miss a beat. “Good,” she replied. “That’s very reassuring.”

There have been moments over the past half-century when the Queen’s second child didn’t behave much like a princess either. She acquired a criminal conviction after her bull terrier, Dotty, bit two children. She tried to wriggle out of a speeding fine. She once owned a Reliant Robin.

Anne was unprincesslike in other ways too. As president of Save the Children, she has toured remote corners of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She slept on camp beds and shared a bathroom with up to eight people. She visited parts not many British royals have reached: Madagascar; Peru; Wuhan, in China. In London she travels to some engagements by Tube. In 1971 she was the BBC’s sports personality of the year.

Today, as she approaches her 70th birthday, Anne has in many ways emerged as the royal family’s most valuable member after the Queen.

Captain Sir Nick Wright, a former naval officer, was Anne’s longest-serving private secretary, retiring last year after 17 years. He has never previously spoken about the princess. Now he says her sense of humour is “marvellously wicked” and her stamina endless: “The day starts early and ends at 11pm, day in, day out. Like the Duke of Edinburgh, she’ll just go on and on.

“She is totally consistent. If I’d done something wrong, I’d get a look, which can be disarming at times, but then she would immediately move on. Now, more than ever she will be a great stabilising influence for the monarchy, and when the Prince of Wales accedes to the throne, I don’t see her role being diminished, because she is such a valued and committed member of the family.”

Amid the chaos that has engulfed the dukedoms of York and Sussex, Anne has appeared a pillar of probity, devoted to her royal duties, impervious to the fallout from successive family scandals.

Although she is now 14th in the line of succession, it is tempting to reflect, as the nation braces for a whirlwind of birthday tributes — including a fly-on-the-wall ITV documentary promising to tell the story of “a royal mould-breaker, a princess who refused to follow the script” — that Anne may come to be remembered as the best queen Britain never had.

It has been quite a turnaround for a distant, largely unknowable princess routinely described as “no-nonsense”, “brusque” or “as stiff as her hairdo”. She was the first daughter of a monarch to be sent to boarding school. One of her contemporaries at Benenden in Kent was the royal biographer Penny Junor, who later described her as “one of the rudest people I have ever come across”. Anne inherited her father’s fondness for swearing at photographers and brushing off unwanted attention, earning her the tabloid title “Princess Sourpuss”. A Sunday Times profile in 2001 mockingly described her as an “enemy of the people”, after her lawyers explained that the reason why she didn’t slow down her speeding Bentley when flashing blue lights appeared behind her was because she thought it was a royal police escort.

She was never mistaken for a “people’s princess” and her relations with her former sisters-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales and Sarah, Duchess of York were by most accounts somewhere between chilly and arctic. She was reported to have shouted during a royal Christmas party at which Diana was present: “I will not be pushed around by that brainless woman.”

Her 1973 marriage to fellow equestrian Captain Mark Phillips produced two children; long before Harry and Meghan shunned a title for their son Archie, Anne insisted that her son Peter and daughter Zara remain Mr and Miss.

“I think it was probably easier for them,” she told Vanity Fair earlier this year. “I think most people would argue there are downsides to having titles.”

Over the years there have been occasional upsets, notably in 1974 when Anne survived a kidnap attempt in central London. Some years later she was linked romantically to her Scotland Yard protection officer, who was removed from royal service in 1982 amid newspaper reports of “overfamiliarity”.

Several more rumoured romances were reported but shortly after divorcing Phillips in 1992, Anne married Commander Timothy Laurence (now a retired vice-admiral and a knight). There has been speculation in recent years that the couple have grown apart and live separate lives, but people who know them say the partnership remains watertight.

“I’ve seen them together often and they seem to me a very good team,” said the lyricist Sir Tim Rice, a long-standing friend of Anne’s. She and Laurence attended a revival of the musical Chess at the London Coliseum. “She rang me up and wanted it to be very downmarket,” said Rice. “They sat at the back, we had a sandwich at half-time and when some of the producers found out they said, ‘Why didn’t you tell us? We could have made more of a fuss.’ But that’s exactly what she doesn’t want.”

Indeed, it has been precisely the avoidance of fuss that has turned Anne into such a discreet, dependable and desirable patron for so many of the more than 300 charities, military organisations and associations that she supports.

Unlike Prince Charles, Anne rarely courts public displeasure by pronouncing on government, family or any other policy matter. At her many public engagements — she has often topped the list of busiest royals — she tends to dodge the top brass and head straight for the lower ranks, military or civilian.

As she told Vanity Fair: “It’s not just about ‘Can I get a tick in the box for doing this?’ No, it’s about serving. It comes from an example from both my parents’ way of working and where they saw their role being.”

Gareth Howells, chief executive of the Carers Trust, of which Anne is also patron, said: “At every event she goes straight to talk to the unpaid carers first. They are her priority. She doesn’t just rock up to shake hands.”

Major Tom Gibbs, the officer commanding C Squadron, King’s Royal Hussars, recalled Anne ripping up the programme when she arrived at the unit’s base in Germany shortly after it was mobilised for the Gulf War in 1991: “Instead she spent hours talking to the [soldiers’] wives to understand the impact it was going to have on them. She gives the unit what it needs, rather than what is expected.”

Colonel Jason Gunning, of the Royal Signals, another of Anne’s regiments, added: “She doesn’t seek the limelight, but she’s very good in it.”

A month after Harry and Meghan announced their departure for a new role across the pond, Anne told Vanity Fair: “I don’t think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past. Nowadays, they’re much more looking for, ‘Oh, let’s do it a new way’. And I’m already at the stage [of], ‘Please do not reinvent that particular wheel. We’ve been there, done that. Some of these things don’t work. You may need to go back to basics.’ ”

All this suggests that Anne, in radically different circumstances, might have become the worthiest of successors to her mother. The Queen and her daughter are said to have become much closer of late and one royal source noted: “The feeling is that if the Duke of Edinburgh isn’t around any more, it will be the princess who is giving her mother more support and not the Duke of York, who was trying to insert himself into that role.”

Andrew is now more concerned with extracting himself from trouble. “With everything that’s been going on recently, the members of the royal family you have left are the really hard-working ones, like Anne, who just get it; who knuckle down and know ‘it’s not about us, it’s about them, the public’,” the source added.

The Princess Royal may have been a mould-breaker once, but today she has reshaped and remade herself very much in her mother’s image. All hail not-to-be Queen Anne II, the monarch Britain never knew it might need.

#anne article #tim rice describing her and tim as a very good team 🥺#squee he’s talking about their date night at chess #fr though i need some of her stamina #princess anne #princess royal #british royal family #brf #newspapers #sunday times

56 notes · View notes

osterfieldshollandgirl · 4 years ago

Text

A Picture of You

This is a little bit of Harrison Osterfield X Reader X Tom Holland. Otherwise enjoy.

Today the celebrity of the photo shoot at the magazine that you work for is Tom Holland, I am a huge fan of him as Peter Parker but also, I acknowledge his handsome features as himself. When I walked into to work today, I heard whispers of giddy giggles with Tom's name in the breaths of every woman colleagues as they rush to look good. I roll my eyes to myself imaginary patting myself on the back for making myself look pretty and presentable today and having a feeling something good could come out of today. You walk into your office and start to check your emails and see that they want you to assist today's celebrity photo shoot and while scamming the text you see Tom Hollands name and instantly smile and blush to get nervous butterflies knowing that you will be meters away from the handsome prince himself. After getting yourself together, you see what time you have to be there and you see it is in 10 minutes and so you freshen up as much you can and walk out of your office getting everyone's attention. While trying to avoid the mean glares from my colleagues as I walk by them, I remind myself Tom is going to be here soon. I am in my world as I enter the set and go to check in with the director of the shoot as I am headed to the other side I bump into a strong muscular chest and let out a soft grunt while the person laughs humorously as if the bump did not affect him. I lift my head recognizing the laugh as Tom's and embarrassingly look up at him to apologize but cannot get anything out because he is charmingly smiling at me. "I am sorry I bumped into you, Mr. Holland." You say while looking down at your shoes, he brings his hands to your chin pulling your face to look into your eyes." It is okay darling don't worry." He smiles gently and walks away because he is being called by the photographer. I smile to myself touching my chin where his touch is still lingering and then I notice stares and act normal again. I look around to see if I know anybody and see blond hair thinking it was my friend I walk over and give them a hug not realizing it not them and it is Harrison Osterfield Tom's best friend and PA. I hear the person clear their throat and I pull away and realize that my colleague is sitting on a chair near the food table. My face becomes tomato red as I look up and see Harrison smirking down at you and says, "I love a hug love, but a warning would be nice." "I am so sorry, man I bump into to Tom and now I hug you not that I did not want to." I say carefully cringing about what I said at the end. Harrison just watches me with amusement in his eyes and walks by me brushing his shoulder into me playfully and smiles at me as he walks towards his section of the shoot. I think about how he smelt so good and how his body felt amazing against mine. I walk away to hide the corner where my friend is sitting and see her straight up laughing at me and so I just sit next to her trying not to cry from embarrassment. I see people are starting to call people into place, so I get myself ready to work. My job in this shoot is to get the photographer anything they need, so I must stand in front of Tom the whole time. I know the photographer and go up to her "Hey Mary, how are you? so I embarrassed myself in front of Tom so please do not make me go in front of him more than I need to." Mary nods with a gentle smile and winks at me, I am confused until I see from across the room Harrison and Tom talking to each other but watching me with smiles on their faces. I smile back and wave to be nice, both winks back at me with smirks on their faces and I quickly turn back around blushing. Mary while setting up the cameras "looks like Tom and Harrison is taking interest in you." I nod my head to be polite but, on the inside, I am nervous I have never had one boy like me let alone two at once. As the shoot goes on and pictures of Tom being shot are him shirtless or merely shirtless with buttons barely on and he is focusing his gaze above the camera at times where I am standing and I feel the tension growing between us but also Harrison is to my right-leaning against a wall and is staring at me at the same time, I feel a certain way. There was one shot where I matched Tom's business attire and they needed a girl to see if it would look better and Mary saw that I dressed up and I saw her eyes shine bright. "Y/N please go and take this one-shot with Tom; I think this will look perfect." I nod my head and walk around the camera to where Tom is standing, and he is very professional, so he politely puts his hands on my waist and pulls me closer, so we look more natural. As the shot is being taken Tom leans in and whispers "So Haz gets a hug but not me, I was saddened by that." I blush slightly still smiling, I whisper back "Yes, it was an accidental hug and you did not offer me one." feeling feisty about the end of the comment. That is when we hear the director make us get closer with my hands around his neck and his hands almost holding my hips. He talks softly so only I can hear him "I can hug you, but I might not let go. Holding you feels too good." I look into his eyes and see lust mixed with honesty and start to blush. I hear cut but I do not want to leave this position in time. Tom pulls away but before he does, he pulls me into a tight hug which I embrace. As he pulls away to get his makeup touched up, he kisses my cheek and thanks me for the picture with a wink. I whisper "anytime" to myself and walk away confused about what is happening this can not be real. The shoot is the whole day so during the break when everyone left even Tom and Harrison, I could take a deep breath and so I took my lunch out which was a sandwich and water and sat a table. I just finished my sandwich when I heard people enter the shoot, so I peeked around and saw Tom and Haz, and quickly ran back to my spot where I could hide without being seen. I hear them start to talk "Haz, I think we should see who she goes to first because I got her in the palm of my hands." Tom says and Harrison looks up from his phone "I bet you $100 to kiss her and make her feel like you like her." "Deal" I hear Tom say and I gasp quietly to myself tearing up, knowing someone like Tom would never fall for someone like her. I hear people coming and hurry to the secret door to get out of the room and act like I was not in the hiding spot. I go to the restroom, freshen up and when I am walking down to the set, I remind myself to act like I was but do not give in. As I walk into the set, I can feel his eyes on her, and she can sense he is walking this way until he gets called in the other direction. I walk to my friend and she can sense something is wrong, so I quietly whisper to her about what is happening, and she agrees that my plan to just finish the shoot and ignore him no matter how nice the attention feels.

The shoot continues and I can see Tom trying to flirt with his eyes at me and it is making the pictures look better, but I remind myself not to fall and get hurt. Harrison on the other hand started to flirt with me and knowing he made that bet hurt more thinking that he was a gentleman before. I was getting water from the cooler and he walks over to grab water at the same time, I am one step ahead of him and bend down to grab two bottles one for him and one for me. I stand back up and noticed that he was checking me out, I acted like I was flattered as I handed him a bottle of water "Thank you beautiful" he says cheekily. "Haz get one water as well please" I see Tom look at me with this glint and I know he knows how to act so I say to play along with my plan "I will take it to him I am headed that way anyway" and to make it sweeter I lean up and peck Harrison’s cheek and walk away leaving him shocked on what just happened. I walk towards Tom knowing he saw the scene before him, he looks ready to be kissed as well almost excited. I stroll towards him and act like I am going to sweetly give to him in which I do. I hand it to him, and he smiles and says, "Thank you love", I nod and walk away, getting back to work. He looks confused for a second as to what he has done wrong not knowing I overheard them talking. Throughout the other set up for pictures, Mary asked me to go up and pose with him and so I did and made sure to do exactly what they said. I was so excited to see these shots and ask Mary to send them to me when they were edited. As Mary was showing us the pictures I previewed them loving them and she showed Tom next and he did the least expected "I do not like these could we use another model" Mary shocked but had to oblige to make Tom happy nodded and they used another girl for that same shot. After that shot, there was one last one and the day was over. When setting up for that one Mary comes up to me, I was sitting by myself alone since my friend had to go and I was kind of sulking knowing I may have brought it on myself but I rather not have a heartbreak. "check your phone" Mary says and winks. I look down and see an email from her and open it to see the pictures I took with Tom, I smile big and hug her thanking her repeatedly because even if those pictures are fake the moment to me was real and that is what matters. That motion of mine captures Tom and Harrison's attention and I suddenly realize that Tom did not like the last set and I say, "but the last picture is not good at all even Tom said that." "Do not be silly, you both look like you are meant to be in each other's arms. Honestly, I think he was jealous that you kissed his best friend cheek and wanted to get back at you. Boy's would do anything to get a girls attention." "Thank you again. I feel better." I say and so after the last shot was perfect the director ended the set and let everyone leave.

I was helping clean up so I was one of the last ones in the room, I hear laughter coming from one room and so curious I went in that direction wishing I had not when I saw who it was coming from. I see Tom laughing with mean Karen and so I quickly leave and as I entered and feel jealously running through my veins but remembering what deal he made, and it made me feel better. I tell Karen out of spite and Susan did tell me to find Karen "Susan is calling you Karen" Karen huffs bidding Tom goodbye and glaring at me as she walks by me. Tom and I stand there awkwardly because of what he did during the shoot. I start to walk away, and I hear him say "I am sorry about what happened, you were beautiful, and I should not have done that." "It's okay-wait it is not okay, I am a person with feelings and when their idol calls them unattractive." He is left speechless and does not say anything for another few minutes I start to leave when he grabs my hand and says softly " I truly did not mean to make you feel that way and you are the most genuine person I have met in a long time. It scared me that you might be fake, but I watched you all day and you are truly a nice person. So, I am sorry, and I hope I can make it up to you." I say "I always wanted to meet you and now that I have I can truly say that I am grateful to see you truly are and am blessed to be able to take those wonderful pictures with you." I take his hand in mine and say, "let us clean up and talk in the lounge area." He nods and we clean up and head together to the lounge area where Karen number two is flirting with Harrison and I see Karen number one save a seat for Tom. As I sit on a couch where Tom and I both can sit together, Tom was forced to sit next to her which is fine. I am sitting there for ten minutes talking to others who have joined us as we are just chilling, and notice that Tom and Karen are missing, I find it weird until I see Harrison hint with his eyes where they have gone. I wink at Harrison as a thank you and follow that direction. I see that my office door is open and hear talking, I walk close but stay behind to hear. Karen says, "I hear you have a bet to kiss Y/N, is that true?" Tom answers "yes, but please do not tell anyone I am not interested anymore." "well, my group of friends got into it so kiss her, or I will tell her about the bet." I quickly go back to the lounge and sit down making sure it looked like I did not move. Tom and Karen come back, and I make sure to make eye contact with him but in a friendly matter, so he does not know what hit him. I make sure everyone is busy talking when I get Tom's attention and ask to talk to him privately. I also make sure where I take us, they can see us. As we reach our destination, I lean up and whisper to him in his ear "Kiss me." He looks down at me making sure I am serious, and he cups my face with one of his hands while the other is on my waist and kisses me gently. The kiss is amazing, I feel him deepen the kiss while moving the hand on my face to my waist and pulling me closer. I run my fingers through hair as he groans a little as I pull slightly. The kiss was getting heated and I did not want it to get too much and people were watching. We pulled away looking at each other smiling, I wonder if he would say anything. "This is amazing a kiss, thank you. I always wanted that scene like in far from home where you kiss MJ." He laughs quietly and leans against the wall still holding me, so I am standing between his legs, "I have wanted to kiss you since I saw you. But there is something I want to tell you and I am not sure how you are going to take it." I smile "you can tell me I am sure it will not be anything too bad." Tom starts by saying "Ok during the shoot I was too scared to talk to you or be near you so Harrison—" and was caught off by Karen coming over with the money in the hand bloating that she had been able to give Tom the bet money, "Here Tom, this is the $100 from us and $100 from Harrison for kissing the loser." She sneered and walked off laughing evilly. I thought I could laugh it off and be cool like I knew about it but at that moment, I ran out of Tom's arms tears streaming down my face sad that he accepted the money. Although he was going to tell me about it, the action of taking the money hurt me. I hear my name being called and hear footsteps after me. "STOP please I can explain." Tom snaps making me finally stop to see he is not too far from me. "I was there in the room as I heard you make the deal with Harrison there was no shyness in this so please do not lie and act like you were innocent in this." I say with anger and passion. I am tired of waiting for his response so I continue " I purposely kissed Harrison on the cheek to see what you would do but what you did was mean and maybe I had it coming to me but it still did not make me feel better about. I want to know right now do you like me or is this all an act?" Tom finally walks towards me and grabs my hands looking at me for a minute before saying, "I do like you a lot and can see myself falling for you, so please forgive me I did not mean to make you feel upset. I do not regret taking the bet because it would not have brought me to you at this moment. That kiss was everything and more than what I could think of. So, if you would let me take you on a date to show you the real me, I will prove myself for your worthy love." And finishes the speech with a kiss on my cheek. I wrap my arms around his neck and look into his eyes seeing that he talking from his heart, "Yes, I will give you a chance to prove yourself and go on that date." He cheers and pulls me into a hug" I promise not to act like an idiot. Can I please kiss you now?" Tom asks eagerly. I laugh nodding, he leans down and captures my lips in a passionately heated kiss with hands roaming each other appropriately since we are in public. I pull away slightly hearing him moan in annoyance and it was good timing because I see Harrison standing there blushing for catching us, I tease "I think he enjoyed our kiss, I should thank him for sending you my way." I walk over to Harrison seeing him fidget quietly to himself "I am so sorry I did not think when I was making that bet, I am an idiot." "It is okay, I honestly thought you liked me as well." I said while Tom walked over to me wrapping his arm around me from behind and leaned in whispering "Would it be okay if he liked you as well love?" I watch Harrison walk closer to me watching me with seductive eyes and holds my hips as he asks, "Can I kiss you, Love?" I hesitate and look at Tom as to ask permission, he nods and starts to kiss my neck while Harrison holds my hips and leans down kissing me gently. His kiss is different from Tom's it is gentler and loving then hot and needy. As we pull away, I tell them to wait as I grab my stuff from my office and I walk hand and hand with both boys confused but happy how the day ended.

Tag List:

@littlekidsteve @peachyxholland @tom-holland-is-spiderman @follow-tom-holland-is-spiderman @parkerpeter24 @frenchfrostpudding @hollands-osterfield @osterfieldnholland @marvels-blue-phoenix @fanficparker

#tom holland imagine #tom holland angst #tom holland smut #tom holland #harrison osterfield #harrison osterfield angst #harrison osterfield imagines #harrison osterfield smut #harrison osterfeild x reader

40 notes · View notes

presidentrhodes · 5 years ago

Text

Spider-Man Far From Home spoilers

I just finished watching it and, honestly, I’d say it was a pretty good way to bid farewell to the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Spoilers under the cut. This is pretty long and rambly.

1. Midtown high is supposed to be a school for geniuses but these little shits use comic sans in tribute videos and steal watermarked Getty Images pictures to put in them. I loved it, particularly with the song choice and the fact that Vision’s picture was from the Civil War airport standoff in Leipzig — that means only Peter could’ve provided it and no one bothered to ask how he got it.

2. Tom Holland really wasn’t kidding when he said the film was a love letter to RDJ/Tony Stark. He was everywhere, his sacrifice was being recognised around the world: they even had a documentary on him, which was available in the in-flight entertainment, plus, there were murals and photographs in Venice and Prague. He was very much present throughout the film.

3. EDITH. In a nutshell, it’s an augmented reality-enabled AI that controls a tactical and defensive system Tony built to protect Earth in the aftermath of his demise. Think Ultron’s perfect self minus the winning personality — EDITH controls a bunch of massive Stark Industries satellites in orbit that are equipped with thousands of weaponised drones. It can remotely target individual threats and take them out with simple voice commands. It also is able to connect to any network in the vicinity, so, Peter was able to see what his classmates were doing on their devices.

I’ve already seen so many angry posts comparing EDITH to Project Insight without taking into account a) intent; and b) the reality of the MCU. Tony didn’t build EDITH for the same reason Zola built Project Insight. The former was meant to be a last or first line of defence, controlled by an Avenger Tony personally trusted. The latter was a means to subjugate the world population to Hydra’s will.

All tech in the MCU is dangerous when it falls into the wrong hands — that’s why they’re called the wrong hands and why Steve once said the safest hands are their own. The supersoldier serum gave us Steve Rogers; it also gave us the Winter Soldiers, a bunch of dangerous, invincible highly-trained assassins. Pym particles gave us Ant-Man and the Wasp as well as time travel; it also gave us Yellowjacket, who immediately wanted to weaponise the tech. The Iron Man suit gave us Iron Man; but also gave us Iron Monger, who wanted to build an army of metal soldiers. Wakanda’s highly-advanced weapon systems were able to withstand a full-scale invasion from the Outriders, but those same weapons almost started a global war in Killmonger’s hands. Project Insight and Ultron showed us the bad side of AI; JARVIS, Vision, FRIDAY, Karen and EDITH, to an extent, showed us the good side of AI.

The point is, technology in the wrong hands will always be a bad thing yet people only seem to gripe about Stark tech while ignoring every other piece of advanced technology we’ve seen weaponized or misused. I wonder why. Since the MCU canonically isn’t made up of one big Luddite colony, there’ll always be new technology being developed and bad guys finding ways to abuse them.

Just look at the holographic tech Mysterio designed while at Stark Industries. Even before he was fired, his ambitions were grander and afterwards, he weaponized it and willingly sent people to their dooms so that he could play a hero. When 16-year-old Peter Parker, MJ and Ned — literal children — found out the truth and Mysterio risked being exposed as a fraud, he actively tried to kill them. Mysterio beat the shit out of Peter and threw him in front of an incoming high-speed train, so, no, I don’t care if Tony Stark was mean to him by firing him, he was a piece of shit who tried repeatedly to kill a kid.

Tony, meanwhile, spent $600+ million on the holographic tech to design B.A.R.F — a technology with some really promising applications in the MedTech sector to help people overcome their PTSD and trauma. That’s the fucking difference between a superhero and a supervillain.

Sure, EDITH also has massive privacy concerns. That’s on Tony, but after the Decimation, I think people have bigger problems to worry about than whether Peter Parker is snooping on their text messages. Ultimately, EDITH offers Peter, and whoever else is going to fill up the Avengers roster in the future, a plan B to strike the bad guys from a safe distance. I

4. Tony left Peter in charge of EDITH. Not the Avengers, not SHIELD, and definitely not the US Department of Defense — a fact that actually pissed off Mysterio. Tony left it in Peter’s hands because he knew Spider-Man took the meaning of responsibility far more seriously than he ever did. All those years ago, Peter told him if one could do the things he could, and they didn’t, and then the bad things happened, they happened because of them. And, honestly, if anyone deserves to have control over such a potentially dangerous piece of tech that can help in future battles, then it’s Peter — even more so than Tony.

5. Again, Peter is 16 in this film and still coping with loss and trauma. He willingly gave controls of EDITH to Quentin because Mysterio had everyone fooled, including Nick Fury/Talos — they’re both highly experienced soldiers. Fooling them wouldn’t have been easy and Mysterio’s plan was extremely well thought-out and perfectly executed. Peter redeem himself in the end and takes back control of EDITH.

6. Peter and MJ were super adorable. Spider-Man is the only franchise apart from Iron Man, where the secondary lead characters are allowed to grow without it all being about the main hero. MJ is allowed to explore her feelings for Peter and measure them against Brad’s affection. Ned is allowed to also grow in his character and be more than Spider-Man’s best friend/guy in a chair.

7. Happy and May were also adorable.

8. Happy ruined a perfectly good bed of tulips just to rescue May’s nephew and give him the TLC/pep talk he needed after, again, Beck pushed Peter in front of a high-speed train that would’ve killed an ordinary person.

9. Peter confusing ACDC with Led Zeppelin is the most Gen Z thing ever. Happy watched Peter design his own suit and it reminded him of the times he spent watching Tony tinker in his lab. You could feel Tony’s absence pretty viscerally in that scene on the jet.

10. Peter tingle. Lol.

11. Happy’s words about Tony were beautiful. He said something along the lines of, “Tony was my best friend. He second-guessed everything he did. He was a mess. But the one thing he didn’t second-guess was picking you.” That really furthered the Iron Dad Spider Son narrative.

12. Iron Zombie was the w o r s t thing ever. Again, Beck emotionally manipulated 16-year-old Peter Parker and said if Peter was any good, his mentor would still be alive just as he projected an illusion of a decaying Iron Man corpse attacking him. To give you a sense of how manipulative he really is, he told his guy in the chair that Peter’s blood will be on his hands because he had failed to report a missing drone part that MJ had discovered in Prague.

13. Peter finally understanding that he doesn’t have to be the next Tony Stark or Iron Man. He just needs to be the next Spider-Man and Peter Parker.

14. Peter choosing to safeguard EDITH.

15. J. Jonah Jameson and J.K. Simmons. That is all. He’s the MCU equivalent of Alex Jones and I love him so much. I wonder if this means we’ll see Doctor Strange offer Peter his help to erase everyone’s memories about the reveal of his secret identity.

16. Every Nick Fury scene automatically becomes 2000x funnier when you realize it’s Talos posing as Fury and 90% of the time, he has no idea what the fuck is going on and he’s just winging it as he goes along. Also, he was furious that he and his wife, as members of a shapeshifting species, were unable to detect Mysterio’s ruse.

17. Mysterio was a douchebag. Apart from trying to kill actual kids because he feared they might expose him, he did nothing worthy of a hero. He was jealous and angry about Tony, and he wanted to usurp Iron Man without doing any of the hard work. He willingly put people in danger, was prepared to sacrifice people to make his actions seem more realistic and wanted to take credit for saving the day and preventing an Avengers-level catastrophe. I’ve already seen reviewers trying to sympathise with Mysterio, and his persistent attempts to kill a 16-year-old kid because Tony was apparently mean to him.

18. And, no, Tony did not steal B.A.R.F tech from Mysterio as some review sites are claiming. The narrative is unreliable at best because we hear only Quentin’s point of view — the same Quentin who had been using his holographic tech to deceive people and put them in harm’s way because he wanted to shake the Queen’s hands or some misguided bullshit. He deserved to fired. Plus, he was a Stark Industries employee. Tech companies almost always own the patent to whatever tech you design or invent for them when you’re on their payroll. It’s how corporations work.

19. Tony quoted Henry IV to Fury when he told him to give EDITH to Peter and said Spidey wouldn’t get the reference (Heavy is the head that wears the crown) because it’s not Star Wars. It was a nice, poignant moment — made funnier when you realize that’s Talos in disguise, which means at some point, Fury had to have a conversation with him about Shakespeare and Star Wars. Someone pls write the fic.

20. The most important thing is that this film actually tried to address the Decimation. Endgame pretended to gloss over it to give Gay Joe Russo his 15 minutes of fame. But this film actually started with May and Peter organizing an event to help the displaced. Pepper sent a huge check and apologized for not being able to make it in person. :(

20a. I love Jake Gyllenhaal. I had expected Quentin to be a dramatic thot but he really brought a lot of depth to the character.

Overall, I liked the film a lot more than I had anticipated. Some people are going to scrutinize this film to death to prove Tony was the ultimate MCU villain and, hey, if that’s the hill they choose to die on, I don’t really care. After 11 years and 23 films later, if they still think that Tony was the real villain all along, then nothing we say or Marvel does, will change their mind.

Personally, I thought this film was a good send off to Tony, now that they’ve firmly established that Peter Parker/Spider-Man is going to be the new face of the MCU and will carry with him the Iron Man legacy. He wasn’t always right and a lot of his choices tended to backfire but, in the end, his motivations were good and he still went out as the man who saved the world. He, unlike Beck, or Vulture before him, never tried to kill a child, not even when he brought him to a parking lot brawl among friends.

Now, if only Marvel can just leave Tony’s legacy alone and let Peter, and the rest of the MCU, thrive on its own instead of retconning established Iron Man lore to fit new narratives.

#spider-man far from home #ffh spoilers #spider-man far from home spoilers #far from home spoilers #peter parker #tony stark #mcu #my posts

282 notes · View notes

growingpaynes-art · 5 years ago

Text

Far From Home Initial Review: What I Liked and What I Didn’t (Spoilers)

I saw Far From Home yesterday and jotted down some of my immediate responses, and then took some time to think on those points. I do intend to see the film again in the next few days and I may be adding to or amending this list.

Major spoilers below.

(CW: sexual harassment, victim blaming)

What I Liked:

That scene in the jet where Happy stitches Peter up was A+. Not just regarding the expert acting, but how the filmmakers decided to handle the scene. Peter’s fear, stress, and self doubt briefly shifts to anger, and he snaps at Happy for telling him to “relax.” He immediately apologizes, saying “i’m sorry, I shouldn't shout.” Happy in return responds by choosing his words more carefully. Happy then gives him a gentle and encouraging pep talk in which he recognizes Peter’s emotions, encourages him, and explains that he doesn’t need to live up to the legacy of Iron Man and that he only needs to do his best. He remains on task and pragmatic, but never rushes Peter or forces him to do anything he’s not comfortable doing, offering support all the while.

Peter is allowed to cry at several points throughout the film in front of other male characters, including Nick Fury and Happy. He is never judged for this and he is never made to feel like his emotions are unreasonable or invalid. Continuing this from the previous films even as Peter gets older and takes on more responsibilities further normalizes male emotion in action films.

Peter consistently voices his concerns and asks for help instead of overwhelming himself and internalizing.

Peter was noticeably shorter than MJ in most of their scenes together, including where they kiss or hold hands. Peter’s height is never made into the butt of a joke, which I had feared might happen. No one even mentions it. Marvel did have Tom wear shoes that made him a little taller than he actually is, but I do appreciate that they didn’t drastically increase his height like they always did to RDJ.

JK Simmons returning as J Jonah Jameson was a great surprise, and it gives me hope that we may yet see Peter as a photographer

Peter walking out from behind that car carrying a sign and a light as a reference to Steve wielding the shield and mjolnir.

Peter calling his dick his “webshooter”

MJ stepping in and providing some real help several times throughout the movie

The movies on the flight to Venice “Heart of Iron: The Tony Stark Story,” “Chasing Hydra” etc

The terribly edited movie maker tribute set to “I Will Always Love You” with “in memoriam” in comic sans was the funniest possible way to open the film

Bucky being included in the Thank You Avengers collage in the Midtown Tech news video

Mr. Harrington and Mr. Dell were definitely dating and i’m here for it.

Seeing Peter fight without a suit was cool. I’ve always thought there was a kind of disconnect when characters like spiderman or black panther fight with their masks on, like they feel separate from the actors. But seeing Peter fight in his civilian clothing made it feel more real to me that this kid really has these powers and can do all these amazing flips and feats of strength. It also let us see more of his creativity and quick thinking.

I’m impressed that they were able to make Mysterio’s mo-cap suit look cool instead of completely ridiculous like they do in real life.

Peter closing his eyes and fighting the drones with his spidey-sense to avoid the illusions was so badass.

The violence felt real. Every time Peter got hit, the audience felt it. Several times he was unable to stand up, he limped and winced and cried. It felt like the consequences of such heavy action were realistically considered when Peter couldn’t just pop back up and shake it off.

"If you were better, maybe Tony would still be alive” “You’re just a scared little kid in a sweatsuit”

“You got me?” “I got you.”

“lets get a drink” “i’m- i’m not 21.”

Peter going to a parent figure wearing an oversized shirt and crying while confessing his self-doubts was an oddly specific parallel that i didn’t expect to get again but i’m certainly not complaining

What I Didn’t:

The “rest stop hookup” scene was deeply inappropriate. Peter, a child, is commanded to undress in front of an adult female agent. He initially resists but is intimidated into compliance when she repeats the order. One of Peter’s classmates, Brad, walks into the room and Peter is literally caught with his pants around his ankles with an adult stranger. Brad makes the assumption that Peter is hooking up with her, and takes a photo for evidence with the intention of showing it to MJ in order to ruin Peter’s “chance” with her. Peter is blamed for a situation in which he is the victim, and the audience is meant to find this entire scene funny. Instead of what could have been a really cool scene in which this agent presents the new suit she’s made for Peter, we are given this very uncomfortable scene of sexual harassment played for laughs.

Peter and Brad competing for MJ’s affection and actively sabotaging each other is unnecessary.

The use of old footage from previous films was lazy, especially when Marvel could have easily recreated those scenes from the perspectives of the new antagonists. I’ve always found this distracting, especially when the quality noticeably drops between two clips, though this is more of a personal peeve than anything I see as a legitimate problem.

The list of characters who become villains because they feel personally or indirectly slighted by Tony and Howard is getting too big. Honestly I think it’s lazy to keep using that as backstory/motivation for new villains after over 10 years, especially now that Tony isn’t even alive.

The multiverse being made up by Beck was disappointing.

The monsters being the Elementals instead of Sandman or Hydroman was also disappointing.

I wish that the spidey-sense was represented by some creative audio or visual cue, like the goosebumps in iw or the ringing noise in spiderverse

There were several lgbt characters/actors on the class trip but they weren’t very visible. You really don’t notice them at all unless you were aware of who was cast beforehand and were watching closely for them. I’m not asking for Peter to swing through new york with a rainbow flag screaming “trans rights” but I would have liked to have seen a queer couple holding hands or a student with a trans patch on their backpack or something. I had been hoping for Peter to actually interact with one of them, to refer to them by name. Obviously having such a diverse cast with queer characters being played by actual queer actors is a huge step up from Joe Russo’s “grieving man” but like that shouldn’t be where the bar is at this point.

Tbh the headstone and zombie iron man were cliche, and i think it would have been much more impactful if Mysterio had made an allusion of Tony himself instead.

Why would Dr Strange not be available to fight massive elemental monsters from another dimension bent on consuming the earth like dude make yourself available??

I wish the new suit included Karen so that we could see how she and Peter’s interactions have changed now that he is expertly familiar with the functions of the suits. Additionally, the spider-drone would have been cool to see again.

The illusion to Uncle Ben with the “BFP” initials on Peter’s suitcase was great but I do wish we could get some actual information about him. We don’t need to see his death or the “with great power comes great responsibility” speech- we’ve already seen that enough times- but a little clarification on what officially happened to him in the mcu would be interesting.

Honestly I thought it was too convenient that May, Happy, and all of Peter’s closest friends also dusted. I had wanted to see how interactions between Peter and May or friends such as Ned would be tested emotionally due to the five-year gap.

The BARF tech being invented by Beck and stolen by Tony detracts from it being used in Civil War to establish Tony’s feelings about Howard and Maria’s murders. If it isn’t Tony’s invention, that takes the heart out of it.

I had really hoped that the glasses were going to end up revealing Tony as an AI, or at least some kind of message from him, and i thought was weird that Tony would give Peter access to a system that allows him to order drone strikes on his classmates.

Also... so the drone strike on peter’s bus was faked by Mysterio’s team because they needed to get the EDITH glasses from Peter? Because the EDITH glasses give them access to the satellite that deploys the drones? But they already have the same drones? and use one them to fake the bus attack? so why do they need EDITH? Maybe i missed something but that makes no sense to me.

#ffh #far from home #spiderman far from home #far from home spoilers #spoilers #spiderman far from home spoilers #ffh review #spiderman

41 notes · View notes

wolfpawn · 5 years ago

Text

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Previous Chapter

Chapter Summary - Paige does an interview at the BBC with a host who very much wishes to see if she can pry information from Paige regarding her relationship with Tom but Paige is aware of such.

Tag, @wolfsmom1 @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog @nonsensicalobsessions@damalseer @standing-onthe-edge

anyone else who wishes to be added to the tags, just ask :)

Paige tried to settle her nerves. She had done so many interviews before, this would be no different. Yes, they could mention Tom, in fact, she was sure they would, but she had prepared herself for almost anything they could throw at her. Though most of the time, her work in media had been to do with her books, something she was well versed on, she decided to study her new topic of conversation that she was certain she would have in Tom. She read his interviews, she recalled his mother's comments, his conversations with her on different matters and compiled what would be sure-to-be asked questions and appropriate answers that she would need to know to keep up the pretence of a relationship with the actor.

She smiled as the radio station manager showed her where to sit in the studio and offered her some water. “Please, if it’s no bother.”

“Of course.”

She looked at the headset in front of her and took a deep breath before readying herself more.

“Ms Winters?” She looked to the side to see the radio host, Davina Curren looking at her. “Hello, thank you for your time. I can imagine you are a busy woman.”

“Please, just Paige. I am more than happy to oblige. I haven’t been here in over two years. You were in the evening slot then, weren’t you? I remember I used to listen to you on the Underground on the way home from different things. I loved your piece on Aristotle you discussed with the College Professor from London.”

Davina’s face became more animated on hearing Paige knew her work. “Wow, thank you. Yes, that was an interesting piece. Well, as Mike, the manager here would have told you, we will discuss mostly your work and if there is time at the end, some other bits and pieces.”

“Yes, he said. We’ll see what we get through.” She smiled politely.

“Well, we start in three so we will get ready now.” Davina indicated for her to put on her headphones before sitting in her own seat and doing the same. “You put the volume to a level that suits and please remember to speak clearly into the microphone, you can adjust it as required.”

“Okay.” Paige did so to allow her close to the microphone with comfort.

When the light flashed for thirty seconds, she readied herself.

“Can you hear me?” Davina checked.

“I can indeed.”

“Perfect, let’s begin.” The light ceased flashing and turned on fully. “Good morning, Britain, Davina Curren here with you again on this lovely Thursday morning, and my guest today is a woman that has been in a few of the celebrity headlines of late but whose name has been gracing the more prestigious world of literature for the better part of the last decade, Britain's very own Paige Winters, author of many pieces but most known for ‘Rumour Has It’, the Costa book of the year in 2016. Paige thank you for joining us in the studio here today.”

“Thank you for having me.”

“So, we will start at the beginning, what got you into writing?”

“Well, there’s no straight forward answer to that.”

“Surely you had some inkling, even in school?”

“Interestingly, when I was doing my GCSEs, I had this teacher who literally told me I had no right to be doing English. I could not comprehend the work and if I passed, it would be a miracle.”

“Really?”

“No, honestly. She had no faith in me. Thankfully, she retired that summer and the most incredible teacher, Benjamin Shakespeare, no relation to the playwright we checked, came in to fill the void and honestly, I would not be in this profession today had he not sat me down one day and talked to me about why I wanted to keep on English with such mediocre grades. Being honest, I loved English, I loved literature, but that other teacher drained my love of it but on her retirement, I hoped I could regain my love for it. Thankfully, he was able to see I had some potential and allowed me to remain in his class.”

“And that was it?”

“Sort of. I did a piece the summer before and sent it into a competition. I didn't think anything of it, I thought at the time I didn't send it to the right place or it was not good enough, in fact, I did and on the 8th of February, 2005, Blue Peter published my story as part of their short stories book. I knew then that I wanted to write and see my name on the cover of books.”

“That's amazing.”

“Yes, I still have the original Blue Peter book I was sent for writing a contribution to it, my mum has it safe at their house.”

“So you have a Blue Peter badge too.”

“Yes, I do. It is in my jewellery box to this day.”

“That's lovely. So, can I ask, your books, they're not conventional love stories, are they?”

“I personally don't class them as romance if I'm honest. They are stories that have romance in them, yes, it's true, but that is merely a part of it, not the entire basis of the story.” Paige explained.

“Is that how you see life in general?”

“Well, yes. Romance is not the reason to live but an enhancement of the act of living, in my opinion.”

“And your characters are always strong women.”

“Every woman has her own strength, it's not always conventional muscles and power strength. Strength is different things to different people. A person who is kind, even when others are not kind to them. Someone who suffers some form of pain and stands straight again after. I try to display that in my work so women of differing personal strengths can relate to the situation at hand. In writing, you need to make the character relatable for it to resonate with the reader.”

“People seemed to resonate with an alien ice-being with magic more than actual human characters before.” Davina pointed out.

Paige knew she was clearly referencing Loki. “Yes, because of the portrayal of said ice-being and how well the character was acted out. People gravitate towards characters that are well portrayed and in that case, the most relatable and likeable character was the abandoned ice baby, raised on lies who, on realising it was all a lie was acted with anger, resentment, feeling incredibly inadequate, these are things that people feel empathy for.”

Davina looked at her for a moment before returning to other questions. “What book would you say would be a personal favourite of yours that people would not usually agree with?”

“Of my own or of another author's work?”

“Another author's.”

“People are startled when I say this though it is a very common choice but Pride and Prejudice.”

“You don't seem the type for conventional romance stories.”

“But you see, that's the thing. It's not conventional, or it wasn't, not in its day, it was groundbreaking in many respects. I was asked before at a gathering of friends if I could time travel just once into the past, when and where would I choose, and why. I said England, 1813, a week or so after that book was published and my reason being; that for a woman of no significant name, wealth or titles to decline the hand of a man of such considerable wealth and standing and citing her reasoning for such at a time where to do so was unheard of would have been an incredible experience. You know men were appalled by it, women of a certain mindset would have been scandalised by it and amongst them all, young women flabbergasted and enthralled. It would be called feminism in the modern age.”

“But she went and wed him in the end.”

“Yes, once both put aside their pride and prejudice. In it, you also see Elizabeth grow, acknowledge her own faults and become a better person too. I think a lot of people need to realise we all have negative faults we need to look at in ourselves too and Austin married it accordingly in her main characters, but also that people do change or at the very least, acknowledge themselves they are not perfect and work on it.”

“And you have faults?”

“Find me a person who claims they are without fault and I will show you a liar.”

“What would you say is your greatest fault?”

Paige thought for a moment. “I don't know which would stand over others, but I would say that I often lack social etiquette in particular situations. I don't believe in entertaining ideas of grandeur and in my world, many would argue that to be a considerable fault.”

“Many would commend that too.”

“Most people say they like an honest opinion until they receive one they do not like.” Paige countered.

“True.” The radio presenter agreed. “You pride yourself in never having to do too much publicity to sell your books, so I have to ask, do you still feel that way now, in your current situation?”

“I don't follow.”

“Well, since you went public with your current relationship, as I stated at the beginning of the show, you are now in the celebrity news for being with one of the most eligible men in Britain, surely you've noticed the increase in sales for your work? That is mostly due to the publicity of your relationship.”

“Well, I would argue it was not as though it was decided to go public since it was a photographer taking a photograph of a private brunch that alerted the world to this information, not a conscious decision to declare it publicly that made this information known, but yes, I am aware of the renewed increased sales and I have little doubt that that has been in part due to people hearing my name for what is, to them, the first time and deciding to see if they like my work resulting in these figures.”

“Do you think you will become a charity shop book now?”

“I have no idea nor do I have a say in it. I cannot force people to like my work, nor would I wish to force it as I believe in 'a pat on the back, not a pat on the head’. I want to be acknowledged for my work and it's quality, not because of the company I keep or who I may choose to be in a relationship with.”

“So you are not upset that many of your newest followers are only discovering you by these means?”

“Not everyone discovers the same people at the same time. Some only learn about certain authors, actors and singers after they have been around a while, for whatever reason, this is the very same. My soon-to-be sister-in-law only heard of Saoirse Ronan from her part in Mary Queen of Scots even though she has been the lead role in many movies and has been around since Atonement. That is not something to ridicule. People are only hearing of me now because of whatever reason, I am delighted they are and truly hope the like my work.”

“You are close to your family, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I consider family the most important thing in my life, my brother, his fiancée, my parents, they are so precious to me.”

“It must also be hard being in your current situation, supporting your significant other in a role centred around being betrayed when you, yourself have a similar experience.”

Paige shifted anxiously. “Well, I do not dwell on the past, it’s not a healthy way to live life.”

“But you were cheated on by your fiance, weren’t you? And to be with a man now that in many people’s eyes split up a music couple, how do you marry that?”

“I am not sure if that sort of drama-fishing warrants an answer if I’m honest. The only people who need to take account of their actions are those who are the guilty parties, namely, those who elect to cheat, I am told there was no infidelity there and until such time as I am led to believe otherwise, I would not speculate to such.”

“Do you like her, Taylor?”

“I don’t know three things about her. I never really found myself listening to her music, I never was overly into pop, so that is not a slight on anyone. I know the name to hear, of course, I don't live under a rock but I don't know her in any manner that would cause me to form an opinion on her as an individual.” Paige stated diplomatically, uncomfortable with the situation.

“And have you been to the play?”

“I have actually, yes. I quite enjoyed it too.”

“You seem somewhat startled by that.”

“I stated in the not too distant past that I did not feel it to be the best of Pinter's work due to him writing it with the aspect of the one being cheated on as a main point when he clearly cannot comprehend the sensation. The actors and actresses that put their hearts into the roles, the stage crew, everyone backstage, they put everything into this and it shows. I cannot commend them enough, they brought it to life brilliantly.”

“So what is next for you?”

“I am not sure really. I find I am asked that and indeed, asking myself that a lot of late. I still scribble a few things down, to keep myself fresh, but of yet, nothing is really coming to me.”

“Do you think it is partly because of a content home life? Having another you can depend on surely makes you complacent in many ways, I know when I got married, my husband’s income really gave me the security to try and get the job I sought.”

“I think there is a considerable difference between someone leaning on their spouse for support and leaning on those they are not so bound to. I always prided myself, since the day after my A-levels, of having my own income. My parents assisted me until then, I would never deny it, something not everyone is lucky to afford, and I don’t ever plan on that changing. I think it is imperative people have security in themselves if possible when doing something like writing a book. I wrote four pieces that were outright ignored before I ever even got a hint of interest from a publishing house. While doing that, I needed to afford to live and that meant housing that I am fairly sure dogs in a kill shelter reside in, because this is London, after all, and two jobs, one as a receptionist and one in my local all-night cafe. Even now, I make sure I am smart with my finances and this is the life of a writer, I would very much want others to understand, not everyone turns to JK Rowling with millions, or in her case for a short time, billion, in the bank. Even George RR Martin is not as wealthy as people think and though it affords him a comfortable life, writers rarely are that well off and if you are expecting others to fund you, especially in this world, you may be a long time looking.” Paige could see the presenter didn’t like her going off course slightly, but she used a technique to volley the conversation into a more impersonal and vague area.

Davina frowned as she realised Paige would not say or do anything controversial as a guest, to which Paige smiled politely back. “Good sound advice there. What do you think of Tom’s online fans, they are enthusiastic and protective of him, aren’t they?”

“I do believe so, yes. I am not a big fan of social media myself. I don’t do Instagram or Twitter and my Facebook is dormant for nearly two years at this stage. I think personally, I am more at home in a less technological era. I would have done well back in the eighties, I think.” She laughed. “With regards fans, people gravitate towards some people. They hold your attention more than others do and some for the wrong reasons, some for some very right ones. Some people light up the room they are in, they smile and are wonderful people and of course, people would want to be around that and wish to project towards that, I cannot blame them. It is great and alluring quality.”

“You don’t seem to mention Tom by name,” Davina noted.

Paige laughed slightly. “I don’t seem to have to really, do I? I think people will know who I am referencing, those who care for such things, those who do not will be glad not to be bombarded with it.”

“Not really no.” Davina looked at Paige’s polite smile. It was clear Paige was studying every question before answering, making sure not to say anything that could be construed as controversial. “Finally, is there any advice you have for young aspiring people, not just in your own field, but in general?”

“Well, I suppose the best thing I can say is not something I personally have said. But I think it is a great quote. ‘Never, ever, let anyone tell you what you can and can't do. Prove the cynics wrong. Pity them for they have no imagination’.”

Tom huffed slightly as he listened to the words Paige spoke on his phone, Luke beside him.

“What’s so funny?” Luke asked curiously.

“That’s something I said.” Tom pointed out.

“She’s done her homework. Oscar said she is thorough, I didn’t realise how much so.” Luke commended. “She handled that perfectly.”

“She’s an incredible and intelligent woman.” Tom agreed.

Luke studied his friend/client carefully, noting the manner in which he smiled as he listened to Paige speak.

#Once Bitten Twice Shy #chapter 9 #tom hiddleston fic #tom hiddleston

14 notes · View notes

duskholland · 6 years ago

Text

holland + co. masterlist

organised by date: oldest ↠ newest. [word count] ** = contains nsfw content. do not interact if you’re a minor. full masterlist || sort by au

— PETER PARKER —

↠ all peter blurbs can be found here.

— SERIES:

↠ bloom [21.6k; completed] ↠ soulmate au.

in a universe where you see in shades of black and white before meeting your soulmate, peter parker is the one to make your life burst into colour, and cause the love inside your chest to bloom.

— ONESHOTS:

↠ the practicalities of spooning [1.8k]

you don’t quite understand how spooning works, so you ask your best-friend-turned-crush, peter, to explain it to you. demonstrations ensue.

↠ take my jacket (take my whole heart too) [2.1k]

after being stood up on a date, spider-man drops by on your way home and manages to put a smile on your face.

↠ breaking windows [3k] — avenger!reader.

you’re thor’s daughter and may have a teeny tiny crush on your classmate and fellow avenger, peter parker.

↠ 9.45pm [3.7k]

you work the closing shift at a bakery and spider-man makes a habit of appearing at 9.45pm to walk you home.

↠ I’ll take care of you [4k] — college au.

you’re a med student who falls into the habit of patching up spider-man.

↠ places we won’t walk [4.5k] — avenger!reader.

when you have superpowers thrust upon you, sacrifices have to be made. some more willingly than others.

↠ cuddle buddies [3.4k]

you’re touch-starved, peter’s your best friend, and there’s a whole lot of unresolved romantic tension between you.

↠ zip it [6.2k] — avenger!reader.

you didn’t think it could get any worse than the shared bed at the hotel, but then you find out you have to pretend to be peter’s girlfriend for the duration of the mission. it really feels like the universe is laughing in your face.

↠ sunset lovers [6k] — soulmate!college au.

you’ve never met your soulmate, but you know his handwriting like the back of your hand—literally. every word your soulmate writes on his skin appears on yours, and vice versa. you’re desperate to meet him, but until the universe decides to introduce you, you’re stuck with scribbled smiley faces and chemistry formulae.

— TOM HOLLAND —

↠ all tom blurbs can be found here.

— SERIES:

↠ the fame game [59k; completed] ↠ fake dating au.

there’s just something about tom holland that makes your blood boil. he walks around like he owns the world, always with an unhelpful quip or irritating smirk on hand. you can’t stand him, and your feud has burned hard and bright for three years. everything changes following an explosive evening at the oscars, when a questionable encounter with the paparazzi lands you in some hot water with pr. the only way to save your shattered public image is to agree to the unthinkable: tom will be your boyfriend, and you will be his girlfriend - and this might just be your hardest performance to date. — enemies to lovers.

— ONESHOTS (aus):

✧ *:･ﾟmob!tom ･ﾟ:*✧

↠ as you are [6.8k]

who could’ve known showing up to work late one night would put you in touch with a mysterious stranger, capable of turning your life upside down?

↠ uncharted territory [4.2k] **

you’ve been with men before, but you’ve never been with tom. he’s intent to prove that he can show you satisfaction beyond your wildest dreams.

↠ die for you [7.6k]

tom’s got a secret: you want to know what it is, he’s desperate to keep you in the dark. unfortunately for him, secrets have the habit of coming to light eventually - sometimes in the worst way possible.

↠ meet your match [5.9k] **

it’s always awkward when your boyfriend meets your ex. but it’s a whole new level when it transpires that your ex-boyfriend is the leader of tom’s rival mob.

↠ getting his fill [3.7k] **

you’ve been a brat all day, and tom’s had enough.

↠ settle [11.7k] **

distance may make the heart grow fonder, but you’d spend every day by tom’s side if you could.

↠ stuck with(out) you [15k] **

when the law finally catches up to london’s most notorious mobster, tom learns that nothing is fair in love and war.

✧ *:･ﾟboxer!tom ･ﾟ:*✧

↠ sucker punch [9.5k] **

after blurring the lines between casual hookup and deep romance, your relationship with star fighter tom holland came crashing to a rocky end with you leaving for a rival gym. now, it’s three months later, and it’s fight night - and there’s more on the line than just the championship title…

↠ ritual [8k] **

with the championship fight less than two weeks away, tom adopts a series of frustrating pre-match rituals.

✧ *:･ﾟprofessor!tom ･ﾟ:*✧

↠ adore [15.8k] **

your history professor is remarkably attractive, and you can’t quite seem to kick the crush that you’ve managed to develop on him…

↠ under the desk [3k] **

professor holland has a special assignment for you…

✧ *:･ﾟ richkid!tom ･ﾟ:*✧

↠ dirty little secret [7.5k] **

it should be the perfect morning. a catered brunch, views of the country club’s pristine front lawn, a bottomless supply of mimosas… yet, you yearn for scandal, and nothing is going to stop you from stirring up trouble.

↠ taunt [14.8k] **

your relationship with tom is like playing a game of cat and mouse. he’s certain it’ll end with the two of you getting together, you aren’t so sure.

✧ *:･ﾟfrat!tom ･ﾟ:*✧

↠ no control [17.5k] **

tom can’t stop thinking about harrison’s girl, and it’s starting to become a problem. — in love with your best friend’s girl au.

— ONESHOTS (no au/other):

↠ come cuddle [1.4k]

your (very pouty) boyfriend is back from filming, and there’s only one thing on his mind.

↠ quiet nights [2.1k]

tom’s had a bad day. luckily, there’s always somewhere he can go for refuge.

↠ underneath the mask [3.1k] — prince!tom.

a masquerade ball, a young prince, and his one love. tom’s fed up with obeying the rules and steals away with you for a night of respite from his hectic life.

↠ the box [4.2k]

you feel a mysterious object in tom’s pocket…

↠ accidental proposal [2.1k]

you accidentally propose to your boyfriend tom.

↠ lingerie [3.9k] ** — famous!reader.

your co-star tom offers to photograph you in your new lingerie, and it only escalates from there.

↠ one million [4.3k] ** — famous!reader.

you’re not one to shy away from competition, so when your co-star tom approaches you with an opportunity to secure the ultimate bragging rights, you aren’t afraid to play a little dirty…

↠ head over heels [2.9k]

tom’s been head over heels for you for three years. no matter how hard he tries, he’s never able to get the words out. but it’s harrison’s 24th birthday, and tom really can’t keep his feelings a secret any longer.

↠ warm [3.1k] **

it’s a lazy sunday morning, and you spend it wrapped up in tom’s arms.

↠ crash into you [20.2k] ** — hockey!tom x skater!reader.

you can’t stand the ice hockey team. they’re loud, brutish, and incredibly annoying. it’s just inconvenient that you can’t seem to stop running into their star player, an irritatingly suave man called tom, nor deny the way your pulse quickens every time he’s around…

↠ the sweet spot [22.5k] ** — actor!tom x chef!reader.

life is good with sam holland as your best friend. together, you own and manage london’s newest up-and-coming restaurant: the sweet spot. it’s just an added bonus that his brother happens to be incredibly attractive... — best friend’s brother au.

↠ sunkissed [19k] ** — surfer!tom x lifeguard!reader.

your summer fling with tom had ended in a heartbreak so pronounced that you can’t quite believe your eyes when he turns up again, one year on, desperate to turn back time. you’re lovesick, he’s pining, and with the stakes higher than ever before, it’s going to be a hot, hot summer… — exes to lovers.

↠ inked [11k] ** — tattoo artist!tom.

when you’d made the spontaneous decision to get a tattoo, you hadn’t expected your tattoo artist to be so attractive. as it turns out, tom’s more than just a pretty face and fleeting encounter.

— HARRISON OSTERFIELD —

↠ all harrison blurbs can be found here.

↠ if you feel the same [3.7k]

six months ago, you said goodbye to your best friend harrison as he left to travel the world. now he’s back, and you don’t really know how to act.

↠ say goodnight [2.7k]

you and harrison broke up before he left to chase his dreams in hollywood. with 5,000 miles between you, you’re both struggling to adjust to life without the other — exes to lovers.

— HARRY HOLLAND —

↠ all harry blurbs can be found here.

#apparently I have a thing for rich british men. send help.

4K notes · View notes

oscopelabs · 6 years ago

Text

Mirror, Mirror: When Movie Characters Look Back at Themselves by Sheila O’Malley

“I always feel it behind me. It’s myself. And I follow me. In silence. But I can hear it. Yes, sometimes it’s like I’m chasing myself. I want to escape from myself. But I can’t!” —Peter Lorre as child-murderer, M (1931)

There was a period in the ‘60s and ‘70s when you could barely call yourself a male movie star if you didn’t do a scene where you stared at yourself in the mirror, doing various “private” things. The device shows up before then, too, but the floodgates opened in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Meryl Streep has observed, “Often the scenes that are the most exciting, and most illuminating in film, are the ones with no dialogue…where a character is doing something alone, where the deepest most private self is revealed or explored. Exposed.”

Mirrors have multiple thematic uses (as well as the obvious directorial choice to add visual interest to the frame). But if a character is inarticulate, then seeing him “deal with” his reflection can fill in some gaps. It’s a great storytelling shortcut. If the character has a firm public “mask,” a “mirror scene” can let us see who he is when no one is watching. We all lie, to some degree, out there in the world (or on social media). We construct a “self” and a mirror scene allows the character to strip that away.

Speaking stereotypically (or, in archetypes), what is expected of male characters in terms of public persona is different from the pressures on female characters. Not better or worse, just different. Crying, showing uncertainty, weakness, vulnerability … can be a minefield. This is why the glut of male mirror scenes in the 70s makes a kind of sense: as the women’s movement rose, men began to wonder about their place, as well as buck against some of the gender norms imposed on them (or, in some cases, re-entrench said gender norms, Travis Bickle’s “You talkin’ to me” the most classic example).

Shakespeare’s use of the soliloquy—in particular for Kings and prospective Kings—could be seen as mirror scenes, with the audience as the mirror. A man goes into a private space, showing the audience things he cannot show on the battlefield or in the court. Hamlet, one of the most introverted of Shakespeare’s characters, showing non-gender-norm qualities of uncertainty and sensitivity, has a massive six soliloquies. (“O that this too too solid flesh would melt”, “O what a rogue and peasant slave am I”, “To be or not to be”, “Tis now the very witching time of night”, “Now might I do it pat” and “How all occasions do inform against me.”) It is impossible to imagine the play—or Hamlet—without them. In Richard II, after Richard is forced to surrender his crown, what is the first thing he does? Like a true narcissist, he calls for a mirror. As he stares at himself, he wonders,

“Was this face the face That every day under his household roof Did keep ten thousand men?”

and throws the mirror on the ground.

Mirrors are powerful and mysterious symbols. The doubling-up can mean all kinds of things. Alice steps through the looking glass into another world. Goethe’s Faust looks into the witch’s mirror and sees a beautiful woman staring back. Dorian Gray takes a mirror to compare his face with the one in the attic portrait. (Like Richard III, Dorian smashes the mirror.) A mirror is crucial in Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott,” where “The Lady” is cursed to view the world only through a mirror. But then Lancelot rides by and she can’t help it, she has to sneak a peek. Maybe the most famous fictional mirror is the Evil Queen’s in “Snow White,” the one she asks every day, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” Richard III doesn’t look for a reflection of his beauty. He wonders where his “self” even is, without the crown.

An early male mirror scene—and one of the best—is Peter Lorre’s in Fritz Lang’s M (1931). Our first glimpse of Lorre’s face comes without warning. As a handwriting-analyst theorizes in voiceover about the child-killer’s psychology, we see him, staring at himself in the mirror. He pulls at his face, slowly, manipulating his mouth into a smile, trying it on for size, maybe seeing what it looks like to the children he seduces. He bugs his eyes out, turning this way, that, a maniacal presence, almost like a shark rolling its eyes backwards as it attacks. He has no sense of what human beings feel like, of what he looks like, of how to even make a facial expression. It’s one of the most chilling private moments in cinema.

Speaking of “private moments”: Constantin Stanislavski wrote a lot about how actors needed to feel “solitude in public.” He wrote: ”During a performance, before an audience of thousands, you can always enclose yourself in this circle…You can carry it with you wherever you go.” Lee Strasberg developed his “private moment exercise” to help actors achieve “solitude in public.” There are things you do when you are alone which you would stop doing if someone walked in. Maybe you sing along to the radio. Maybe you talk to yourself. Maybe you pick your nose. Maybe you do all of these things simultaneously. Our “public” selves are drilled into us from a very young age. There are “good manners,” there are “contexts” to be memorized—what flies at home will not fly outside the home. Breaking down the public face, letting an audience see who you are when you are by yourself, is part of the actor’s job. (It’s not a surprise that the '70s came to be dominated by private-moment mirror scenes, considering the influence of the Strasberg method on acting styles.)

One of the most important mirror scenes, and a huge influence on Martin Scorsese, is Marlon Brando’s in Reflections in a Golden Eye, directed by John Huston. Brando plays Major Weldon Penderton, a closeted gay man married to a frustrated, luscious Elizabeth Taylor. Late at night, Penderton sits alone, staring at pictures of naked male statues from Greek antiquity. The character lives in an almost totally male world (the military), turned on by young soldiers, and terrified of revealing himself. In one scene, alone downstairs in the house, he walks into the hall and stares at himself in the mirror. After a moment of vacuity, he begins to talk to himself, or, more vulnerably, to an imaginary other person. He pretends to respond to what the other person says, he practices laughing, and he smiles, but the smile is superimposed. He can’t get it to look real. What he says is a kind of murmur, a “pretense” of conversation. This is the kind of vulnerability Brando could achieve like no other. Without this scene, the Major could have been a caricature. All we see is his fuddy-duddy sexless stiff public mask. The mirror scene shows his confusion at how to be a man, how to navigate even a casual conversation.

Alain Delon has a stunning mirror moment in Purple Noon (1960), Rene Clement’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Delon plays the sociopath Tom Ripley, in thrall to his casually masculine friend Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet). Delon’s chilly presence onscreen works to beautiful effect: He doesn’t show us much. But then, he tries on Philippe’s clothes, a sleek pinstripe jacket, fancy shoes. He checks himself out in the mirror. Most actors would leave it at that. But Delon understood the homoerotic implications of the script, not to mention the character’s dangerous narcissism. Delon leans into the mirror and gives himself a rapturous long kiss, slitting his eyes open at one point, to check out what he looks like.

It’s interesting to contrast this with the same scene in the 1999 adaptation, The Talented Mr. Ripley, starring Matt Damon. Director Anthony Minghella makes the subtext practically text, by placing mirrors in almost every scene (the final shot of Ripley is through a mirror). When Ripley tries on his friend’s clothes, he dances around to Bing Crosby’s “May I,” doing a vaudeville burlesque. It’s a different kind of rapture than Delon’s swooning kiss. Damon’s drag-style dance is more for the audience, an explicit display of inner gay-ness, what Ripley is hiding beneath his good-natured submissive public persona. It’s a good scene, although I prefer Delon’s. Delon’s kiss is Stanislavsky’s “public solitude”—and it shows the terrifying void within the character. There is no self. The entire world is a mirror.

In Karel Reisz’s gritty Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Albert Finney’s Arthur, in a whirl of work, sex, and alcohol, is suddenly caught by his reflection one hungover morning. He was beat up the night before. He plays at being a sniper through his window, targeting local women with pellets. It’s a thin line between playfulness and murderous acting-out. Finney digs into this aspect of the character when he suddenly speaks to his reflection. It is a statement of bravado before descending into confusion: ”I’m me and nobody else. Whatever people say I am that’s what I am not, because they don’t know a bloody thing about me. God knows what I am.”

For the opening sequences of Rocky, we see Rocky Balboa’s normal “day in the life.” We are introduced to him through various public selves. But when he goes home to his dank apartment, feeding his turtles, gentle and quiet, his loneliness is so acute it reverbs off the screen. Childhood photographs of him line the mirror frame, and Rocky stares at them, his big-lug face almost crushed in disappointment. Holding a container of turtle food, he starts to talk to himself. What he’s saying doesn’t sound like anything, just private-moment murmurings, but in the next scene, when he goes to visit the girl in the pet store, it becomes clear. He was practicing a joke to tell her, a joke designed to make her laugh, show her he’s a safe person, he’s nice. Rocky practicing a joke in the mirror is one of Stallone’s most vulnerable moments as an actor (and evidence of his gift as a screenwriter).

John Travolta’s mirror moment in 1977’s Saturday Night Fever is star-making, not just because of Travolta’s almost otherworldly gorgeousness (as well as how he revels in said gorgeousness, behavior considered coded-female). Surrounded by 1970s icons—posters of Rocky, Serpico, and Farrah Fawcett—he blow-dries his hair, places gold chains around his neck, and stands like a superhero in his black speedo briefs, shot from below. Perhaps the most revealing thing about the scene is that when his father barges into the room, Travolta’s Tony Manero does not stop what he is doing. His lack of embarrassment tells us everything we need to know about the character.

Francis Ford Coppola’s epic, Apocalypse Now begins with a hallucinatory sequence showing a PTSD-rattled Martin Sheen, holed up in a hotel room in Saigon, tormented by memories. In one shocking moment, Sheen stands unsteadily, and lurches around in front of the mirror, flailing his arms out in imitation martial-arts moves, an attempt to combat his helplessness and anguish, his impotence. But the gap between reality and fantasy is too great, and he, like Richard III, smashes the mirror.

Richard Gere’s mirror moment in American Gigolo is a distant cousin of John Travolta’s. His Julian has carefully crafted an immaculate persona for his female clients, and part of the movie’s pull is watching it get stripped away. At home, Julian wanders around, practicing Swedish, working out, picking out clothes for his next appointment. He’s vain, but vanity is part of his job. Smokey Robinson’s “The Love I Saw In You Was Just a Mirage,” and it’s perfect because Julian literally is a mirage. To his clients, to himself, even. When he stands in front of the mirror, flexing his muscles, he is more Evil Queen than Richard III, a destabilizing of gender norms around male sexuality (and self-presentation) which is so much a part of the film. (When Julian meets a private detective, it’s at a joint called the Me & Me Coffee Shop. Julian’s hall of mirrors shatters by the end of American Gigolo: in the final scene, he talks to Lauren Hutton through a glass partition in prison. The mirror is no more. He can see through it now to the other person, and, crucially, he can be seen, too, as he really is.)

The most famous mirror moment is, of course, Robert De Niro’s in Taxi Driver. In the insomniac voiceover, his Travis Bickle says, “I think that someone should become a person like other people,” showing the character’s alienation from other humans. You aren’t already a person, to Travis: you have to become one. As Travis descends into psychosis, dreaming of 1. impressing the cool blonde (Cybill Shepherd) who rejected him after he took her to a porn movie on their first date and 2. rescuing the child prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster), he begins to amass a small arsenal, putting together boot holsters and straps to go around his wiry body. In the unforgettable moment when he checks himself out in the mirror, he goes into a zone of macho fantasy. (Schrader’s script said only “Travis speaks to himself in the mirror.” De Niro’s “You talkin’ to me” was his improvisation.) De Niro goes so far into his sense of privacy, it’s almost embarrassing to watch. And yet it’s so human, too. (If you say you’ve never talked to yourself in the mirror, or sung in the shower, you’re lying.)

De Niro’s second mirror moment is Raging Bull’s final scene, when the bloated Jake La Motta recites Marlon Brando’s “I coulda been a contender” monologue from On the Waterfront, before standing up and doing a series of “pumping up” exercises, to get ready to go onstage. (Side note: Mary Elizabeth Winstead closes out Eva Vives’ wonderful 2018 film All About Nina, about a troubled stand-up comic, with a re-creation of the scene from Raging Bull.) What’s fascinating about the Raging Bull scene is that Jake La Motta has no “self” to reveal. It’s almost like there’s no inner life at all. He doesn’t “get it.” He never did, he never will. De Niro blanks himself out in a very unnerving way, opposite to the dangerous vengeful-spirit fantasy he inhabits in Taxi Driver.

Although Walter Hill’s Johnny Handsome descends into a cliched crime movie with paper-thin characters, the opening sequences are dark, cynical, and atmospheric. Mickey Rourke plays Johnny, a man with a deformed head, an “ugly” appearance which has separated him from other humans. Reminiscent of the Joan Crawford film A Woman’s Face, a caring plastic surgeon (Forest Whittaker) offers to operate on Johnny, to give him a chance at a new life. When Rourke unwraps the bandages and sees his new face (i.e. Rourke’s real face), Rourke has a mirror moment like almost no other, a moment worthy to be placed alongside Brando’s and De Niro’s. He touches his face with wonder, bursting into tears. That’s touching enough, but then, as he glances back at Whitaker, Rourke goes deeper. A look of fear, and lifelong anguish floods his eyes, as he says, “I feel like I still have a mask on” and then, after that, Rourke goes even deeper into a maelstrom of emotion: gratitude, bafflement, awe, despair. The scene is Rourke’s finest hour.

Up until recently (with a couple of exceptions), when women stared at themselves in the mirror in the movies, it was obvious what they are doing: touching up their makeup, checking out their mask. Once again, in the 1960s and 70s, women started doing “mirror scenes” equivalent to men’s mirror scenes, where the purpose was not perfecting the public mask, but to - as Sylvia Plath wrote in her poem “Mirror” - search “my reaches for what she really is.” Faye Dunaway has a great one in Jerry Schatzberg’s Puzzle of a Downfall Child. Gena Rowlands has quite a few “mirror scenes” in the movies she did with Cassavetes (there’s a couple of stunners in Opening Night). In my favorite moment in Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, after breaking into Paris Hilton’s house, Katie Chang goes into a daze of mad-woman fantasy, staring at herself in Paris’ mirror. It’s not hard to imagine the character slipping into the Manson family, if a Manson came along. She’s as blank as Jake La Motta. In La Verite’s opening scene, Brigitte Bardot stares at her face in a broken shard of a mirror, right before marching off for her court date. Her “self” is fragmented, broken. Jennifer Jason Leigh has an extraordinary extended “mirror scene” in Georgia. The moment is everything: self-hatred, rage, searching and longing, and bone-deep narcissism.

Men staring at themselves in the mirror let us into their secret worlds, their fantasies and anxieties, uncertainties and vulnerabilities. It’s not about being self-obsessed. It’s trying to find the self, the self that is not allowed free rein, be it a benign self or a malevolent one.

In Caravaggio’s “Narcissus,” Narcissus leans towards his reflection in the water, his posture pulled downwards with a seductive tug. He braces himself by his hands on the ground, and his knee, bulging out beneath his torso, is the only barrier between Narcissus and his reflection (and, perhaps, drowning). In the painting the reflection below is cut off; all we see are the forearms and that gleaming sturdy knee. Even though Narcissus’ body is barely visible, even though he’s hunched over himself, his energy is childlike, soft and open. He gives his reflection a caressing stare, a swooning look. He yields. This is not just vanity. This is something else.

43 notes · View notes

afterglowparker · 5 years ago

Note

College!Peter starting with a photography minor and he’s always asking you to be his model or his assistant when setting up for still life projects because he enjoys spending time with you and says he will make it up with study sessions and free coffee/tea

i love college!peter so, so much! thank you for sending this inand i hope you enjoy it!

HBD Tom Blurb Week—thanks forcelebrating!

You had become very familiar with PeterParker, the boy in your biochemistry class with the unruly curls, brain bigenough to rival that of the best of the best, and a heart that seemed to bemade of gold. For the past semester, you had been helping him in hisphotography class—what was supposed to be one modeling session quickly spiraledinto something more, as the dorky, good-hearted man continuously asked you to helphim with other assignments.

It was interesting to see such ascience driven mind also be so great at photography. You had the achingsuspicion that not all the assignments he was requesting your help for werereal—there was no way he would need you specifically as a model for over ten projectsand as an assistant for fifteen others.

If Peter was to be honest, he onlyreally needed you for three projects max. His teacher was saddened to see thatPeter was branching out with the subjects in his photographs, but thecomposition, emotion, and overall artistry of each photo was so good, she overlookedit—impressed by the raw talent in the young photographer.

Peter treasured the time he got tospend with you outside of class. It was always full sarcastic remarks, jokes,and snacks; by the end of it, Peter’s stomach ached from all the laughs, and hewas sure the smile that had placed itself on his face would never leave. Timeand time again you’d remind Peter that you weren’t a photography major and hadno clue on what you were doing, to which he’d quickly rush out a response, reassuringyou that you were a natural and had a knack for the artsier side of things.

It was nearing golden hour and you weresituated on Peter’s bed in his dorm room, your legs crisscross, as you proppedup your head with the arm that was rested on your left knee. You heard thecamera shutter go off in a quick succession, as a bright flash of lightmomentarily blinded you. Peter had been photographing you for the past hour, andyou were quickly growing restless.

“What is this for again, Pete?” Youquestioned, as Peter was looking down at the shots he had just captured on hiscamera.

“It’s for my photography final!” Heanswered mindlessly, eyes flicking up to you briefly, before returning to thedevice in his hands.

“I thought we did that last week?” Youteased, watching as Peter’s eyes widened slightly, a hint of a red hue coloringhis cheeks, before he cleared his throat.

“Uh, yeah we did. I just decided totake the project in a different direction is all.”

“Smooth, Parker.”

You laughed as Peter lightly threw thepillow closest to him at you.

“Keep up the attitude, and I won’t bebuying you the tea I promised earlier, and you can suffer through thebiochemistry study guide by yourself.”

You shook your head lightly, knowing hewas only joking. It had become an unspoken tradition at this point. The firsttime he approached you after class he had convinced you to help him bypromising a free drink of your choice as well as a study partner in your sharedclasses. Hyper-aware of the fact that he was at the top of your class, youagreed. He made good on his promise that time, and every time after that, evenwithout verbalizing the agreement.

“Y’know you could just say you enjoy mycompany, Pete. Maybe then you could stop making up assignments.”

With a rare surge of confidence, he feltthe witty remark slip past his lips.

“And you know you could just say youenjoy my company, Y/N. Maybe then you wouldn’t have to sit through all these assignmentsfor a class you’re not even in.”

It was your turn to blush, as youchucked the pillow back at him; the soft object not getting the chance to hithim as his reflexes allowed him to catch it at an arm’s length away, whilestill holding his camera.

“You’re delusional, Parker.”

“Yeah, maybe. But you like it.”

Gazing upon the soft smile on his face,you took into account how his words made you feel at ease. Peter seemed toalways have that effect on you. And right across from you, Peter was feelingthe exact same thing. Soon, the term would come to an end and so would thisexcuse to spend time with the other—but Peter was going to be sure that yourtime together didn’t.

28 notes · View notes

hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 6 years ago

Text

Why I don’t like the current direction for J. Jonah Jameson

Let me start by saying I love Jonah’s character a lot so I’m not trying to make him out to be a bad character in this.

I know a lot of people like it and regard going back on it as regression but hear me out.

I do not know that Jonah hating Spider-Man is necessarily better or worse than what we have now.

My objections are that how we got to this point and Jonah’s general attitude is....really nonsensical.

Frankly one of the worst things a storyteller can do is write characters out of character. Sure there can be small missteps which can be forgiven, but in this case Spider-Man unmasking to Jonah and his genera reaction to learning that truth is simply not how these characters would ever act in the context of that situation. And we know this because in case you have forgotten...we’ve been here before.

Once upon a time before Jonah ever knew Peter was Spider-Man we could only honestly speculate on how he would react.

However anyone believed or theorised he might take that news, there was little-no stories that really gave you a hard idea about that. There was no precedence at all or anything that could maybe give us a clue to how he’d react.

And the big question at the heart of how he might react was whether Jonah’s hatred for Spider-Man was more powerful than any affection he held for Peter Parker.

In 2006-2007 as part of the Civil War event we got the answer to that question and therefore got precedence for how Jonah would react to learning Peter’s secret.

And the answer was quite clear, Jonah’s hatred for Spidey WAS stronger than his affection for Peter. Your personal headcanons prior to that story do not matter, it was established as part of actual canon Spider-Man stories that this was how Jonah felt and reacted.

There could be some leeway if Jonah’s reaction was wildly out of character, like if there were older stories heavily defining him in such a way that his reaction didn’t add up.

But the thing was...most older stories supported how he reacted. His reaction DID make sense.

I’m not saying it would have been unbelievable for Jonah to have been in some way sympathetic towards Peter, but frankly it was just much more likely that Jonah’s hatred of Spidey would win out.

If we take a look at Jonah’s history with Spider-Man it isn’t the case that over time he could be viewed as almost obsessed with him and having something of a vendetta against him. He simply WAS obsessed with him and DID have a vendetta, he had a great big Spider-Man blindspot and mental trigger that rarely ever allowed him to NOT get angry about Spider-Man and NOT slander him or contort the truth against him.

This isn’t the by-product of lazy and repetitive writing over many decades either. This is simply Jonah’s ACTUAL character. He was like that in the 1960s when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were writing him! they even went to far as to provide a basic motivation for WHY Jonah felt as he did: jealousy. Even if you wanted to say that was just zany 1960s writing that wasn’t all that realistic and as nuanced as later standards, the fact is Jonah was consistent in that portrayal in the 1970s and the 1980s. In the 1980s even when acclaimed and beloved Spider-Man writers like Roger Stern, Tom DeFalco and Peter David wrote Jameson, giving him more layers, making him more sympathetic and a core of human decency, he STILL had a great big Spider-Man hate boner.

In the 1960s for absolutely no justifiable reason he began a smear campaign against Spider-Man ruining his show business career and that was his intention. He funded the creation of super villains and spider slayers (who endangered public safety, which Jonah never seemed to consider beforehand) and continued doing so well into the 1980s. He didn’t even publicly own up to creating Scorpion until the 1980s when he was being blackmailed into keeping it quiet. Jameson funded the second Mysterio to dress up like a known criminal, drive Spider-Man out of his mind and skipped town when Mysterio was jailed to avoid any consequences. And throughout his career he near consistently smeared Spider-Man’s name deliberately engaging in libellous distortions of the truth to paint him in as negative a light as possible.

Jonah CLEARLY had serious mental issues with Spider-Man. And no one just gets over that as quickly (if at all) meaning Jonah’s reaction in Civil War made a lot of sense and his reaction Zdarsky’s run outright unbelievable for how humans simply act.

Systemically throughout all his Spider-Man hate campaigns, for all the affection he might have had for Peter he really wasn’t the best of friends he could have been to him. Even though he was a kid, even though he knew his uncle was dead and his aunt was old and sickly Jonah routinely continued to underpay Peter, insult him and scream his head off at him. True, he did this with almost everyone, but that doesn’t change the fact that he still did this. In the 1960s he put on a show of kindness towards Peter and his aunt at his graduation specifically to convince Peter to stay with the Bugle so he wouldn’t lose any money.

Yes later on in say the 1990s he secretly paid for Peter’s legal defence during the Clone Saga and offered him a staff job at the Bugle. But none of that renders his negative reaction in Civil War unbelievable. Like I said it was just a case of did he care more about Peter than he hated Spider-Man and we learned that no he didn’t. This is corroborated in Brand New Day.

During the former, Jonah got Peter blacklisted from being a photographer after Peter doctored some photos to exonerate Jonah of a crime he didn’t commit. Now it was very OOC for Peter to do that in the first place, but Jonah’s reaction wasn’t. Jonah was furious with Peter faking photos of Spider-Man and Electro being one and the same in the 1960s he intended to fire Peter and in spite of his youth intended to actually SUE him (further supporting his reaction in Civil War). Jonah very publicly humiliated and screwed over Peter, destroying Peter’s primary/only source of income. And he did this whilst knowing Peter had limited income and technically via marriage being Peter’s relative. He didn’t try to help Peter after the fact either. Indirectly due to Jonah Peter got a job at HORIZON labs but that was ONLY because Marla recognized his talent and helped get his foot in the door. Jonah after Marla’s death tried to shut down HORIZON labs and thereby by extension destroy another of Peter’s jobs. For Jonah his grief over Marla’s death along with his hypocritical journalistic ethics were MORE important than any affection he held for Peter Parker. They were absolutely not closer after their parental figures got married. IIRC Jonah even blamed Peter for his father’s death but correct me if I have got that wrong.

But lets return to Civil War.

During Civil War, Jonah slandered Peter in the presses and sued him. He didn’t care that this was his friend, a young man he’s known most of his life, who’s been through much pain and tragedy who as Spider-Man has saved his life repeatedly along with his family members, friends and staff. He was angry at being humiliated by him and felt betrayed, but amidst all this he first and foremost saw him as that menace Spider-Man who got one over on him, not as the decent kid he knew who must not actually be the menace he thought he was.

As if suing him was not bad enough, Jonah went further. He sought out Peter’s old girlfriend Deb Whitman when she was out of work and her mother was seriously ill and exploited her by providing an author to write a biased, twisted account of her relationship with Peter Parker/Spider-Man in order to further tear him down in the public eye.

When his close friend Joe Robertson called Jonah out for continuing to punch down on the now fugitive Peter Parker when his aunt was in the hospital, Jonah fired him.

Furthermore in Peter David’s final issue of Friendly Nieghborhood Spider-Man Peter and Jonah confront one another in the wake of Peter’s identity going public. Peter allows Jonah to hit him as much as he likes to get his anger out and insults him to get him to react. Jonah repeatedly punched Peter in the face! Now sure, he did admit that it was easier to hate Spider-Man when he didn’t know he was Peter, but that wasn’t him saying he DIDN’T hate him. Again...he hit him repeatedly in the face.

And on top of that the issue ends with Jonah

a) Admitting that he was only dropping his lawsuit and smear campaign because he realized Peter on some level wanted to be punished for his mistakes and Jonah didn’t like being used

b) Admitting that he doesn’t mind tearing down and humiliating Peter/Spider-Man so long as Peter doesn’t help him to do it

c) Literally saying and I quote: “I really hate that F.N. Spider-Man.”

Pretty clear cut ain’t it.

Jonah’s hate for Spider-Man>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Jonah’s affection for Peter.

So when we find ourselves at this point in time where Jonah finds out Peter is Spider-Man and IIRC pretty much immediately reacts by becoming an ally and confidant to Peter, viewing him first and foremost as his friend Peter Parker and not the menace he believed Spider-Man to be, he is very aggressively NOT in character. He is very aggressively NOT acting the way his established characetrization dictates he would act in that situation.

This stuff isn’t a minor little back up story, it was a big part of TWO concurrent ongoing event stories (Civil War-Back in Black). You can’t ignore this stuff.

There are those who would say that Jonah’s situation in Zdarsky’s run is different so his different reaction is justified. The problem with this is that you can’t just handwave any given difference in context as justifying any different reaction, they have to add up.

So would Jonah when his wife is dead, when he’s lost the Bugle, lost his major public respect, lost his father, lost his adoptive daughter and straight up admits that his hatred for Peter is ALL he has in his life REALLY react more positively and sympathetically to learning Peter is Spider-Man than he did when his fortunes were the exact opposite of all of that.*

Absolutely not! That is wholly unrealistic.

If all he has in his life IS his outright pathological hatred for Spider-Man then suddenly finding out Spider-Man is the guy he partially blames for the death of his father, didn’t like that much, ripped off for years and whom he cared so little for he took away his source of work even though he HELPED Jonah, would never ever make Jonah DROP his hatred.

If Jonah reacted the way he did in Civil War when his life was going well then he’d react WORSE nowdays when it’s going worse!

Then we come to Peter revealing his identity in the first place.

This is aggressively stupid and even more out of character than Jonah’s opposite reaction during Civil War.

Given Jonah’s pathological crusade against Peter, given how Jonah blacklisted him, tried to further destroy him during Civil War, JJJ’s funding robots and super villains and just everything he knows about Jonah, its both irresponsibly risky to his loved ones and wholly unrealistic for Peter to EVER reveal his secret to Jonah.

Consider ALL the people Peter knows who have proven themselves more friendly, trustworthy and over all loyal to him whom he DIDN’T reveal his identity to.

Flash Thompson

Betty Brant

Aunt Anna

Joe Robertson

Felicia Hardy (before she went psycho in Slott’s run)

Oh and you know AUNT MAY!

ALL of those people had proven their friendship and loyalty to Peter when they used to know his identity and for some of them even before that.

But he didn’t, and in some cases, has continued to keep them all in the dark...but he told Jonah?!

That’s incredibly out of character and nuclear levels illogical. It makes even less sense than you know...Jonah not remembering that he USED to know Peter’s identity. Remember how Slott established that unmasking in front of someone would immediately restore their memories from before the Mindwipe? Well guess what, Zdarsky et al just IGNORED that for Jonah because that’s just wonderful writing right there.

I get that Jonah going back to not knowing would be a regression. I get that this new direction is new and fresh because it’s never been done before.

But the thing is regression isn’t always a bad thing and something new and fresh isn’t always a good thing.

In the Clone Saga Peter had developed into a grimdark mentally broken anti hero which was something never done before. It was executed competently in so far as it was realistic, made sense and had a lot of thematic and psychological layers to it. And it was new, shiny and fresh!. But is anyone really going to argue that regressing him back to being the mentally stable more optimistic Spider-Man was a BAD thing?

No.

I’m not saying regressing Jonah back to not knowing would be a good thing, but I am saying his characterization after he found out was a bad thing because this is not who he is. If another story tried to better explain and justify it in some way, maybe.

But frankly I find the entire idea that Jonah would so quickly pull a 180 on his decades long attitude to Spider-Man frankly BS.

*What is worse is that the story itself outright ignores the fact that Jonah HASN’T lost everything in his life, he still has his pride and joy his son John. For years Jonah persevered thanks to and for his son John, with implications that it was because of his son John being overlooked that he hated Spider-Man in the first place. So Jonah hasn’t even lost everything as he claims!

Also Jonah hated Spider-Man back when the only relative he had was his son!

#Spider-Man #J. Jonah Jameson #Peter Parker #Betty Brant #Aunt May #May Parker #Flash Thompson #Mysterio #Civil War 2006 #Marvel Civil War 2006 #Marvel Civil War #Joe Robertson #Chip Zdarsky

31 notes · View notes

tartantardis · 5 years ago

Text

Tony Osoba - third time unlucky

(This interview originally appeared in the Daily Record on 4 October 2014, ahead of the broadcast of Kill The Moon. This is the full interview text - less than half of it appeared in print)

HE’S BEEN exterminated by a Dalek, frozen to death by a space criminal, and now Scots actor Tony Osoba is heading for the moon.

Glaswegian Tony, 67, is appearing in this Saturday’s episode of Doctor Who, Kill The Moon, in which he has his third encounter with the Time Lord.

He first appeared in the cult TV series in 1979’s Destiny of the Daleks with Tom Baker, then returned opposite Scot Sylvester McCoy in 1987’s Dragonfire, and now chalks up his third role opposite Peter Capaldi.

Although tight-lipped about his fate in this weekend’s adventure, Tony said: “There’s a huge difference in the production values, and what you can do with modern technology is light years ahead of what was available when I did Destiny of the Daleks and Dragonfire. My first one was in 1979, and we could only dream of the technology they have now.

“What they’ve done over the years is retain the essence of the Doctor’s stories, but it still feels like the same Doctor Who, even though it’s for the 21st century. They’ve retained it, from Christopher Eccleston onwards, that’s part of the success of it.

“One of the common themes throughout all the Doctor Whos I worked on was the bon homie and the good humour - it was all very enjoyable and professional on set.

“I’ve got happy memories all round - yes, we were under pressure, and time is always a major factor on these, but you get the job done.”

Tony was particularly delighted to becoming back to the show. He said: “It’s my third Doctor Who, and the third Doctor I’ve worked with.

“The fact the BBC brought it back was all credit to them. It seemed to me that they made a decision to cancel it as they thought it had had its time. Bringing it back was a bit of a gamble, with a budget bigger than it ever was - and it’s worked."

The actor was particularly pleased to work with fellow Scot Peter Capaldi.

Tony explained: “Doctors have always been thoughtful, but with Peter - and I imagine it’s a deliberate decision - they’ve gone back to the essence of the classic Doctors, which he does very well.

“From what I’ve seen of the episodes so far, there’s a kind of slow revival going on. There’s several ways of doing it with and Peter’s character is somewhere between the old and the new. You find out more and more about him each week.

“There’s a hidden depth to Peter’s character that’s still to come out, and that’s part of the classic Doctors. He’s a wonderful actor, and he’s got the essence just right.

“I worked with Peter a long time ago, but I hadn’t seen him for some time, so it was great to see him again.

“The whole crew were superb and it was a wonderfully happy experience to work on the show again.

“On many long-running series, when you come in as a guest actor, everyone else knows what they are doing and they get on with it - you play your part and off you go. On some, they can be very welcoming,, which is how it was on Doctor Who - it was a joy from start to finish, a hugely enjoyable experience with the cast and crew.

“On your last day, you really do feel sad that it’s over. It was a wonderful job.” When shooting Destiny of the Daleks, Tony had the joys of location work in 1979.

He laughed: “Most actors enjoy going on location - when we did Destiny of the Daleks, it was in a big sandpit near Poole, and the weather wasn’t great. It was cold and a big damp.

“The problem was, the character I was playing, Lan, was wearing a pristine white costume - along with Peter Straker and Suzanne Danielle. If someone slipped and fell, you wouldn’t get much sympathy! It was very difficult, as you didn’t want to get marks on your costume for continuity reasons - you couldn’t do one scene with a dirty elbow, if you’d already shot a later one when it was clean. You were worried about leaning on anything or sitting down, because you had to keep this skin-tight costume clean - there were all these practical issues!

“I’m told by the fans that I was the only person to be shot dead by a Dalek, and then came back to life, which Lan did. Then someone told me David Tennant had been shot, and he came back too. Doctors don’t count - they’ve got a get out of jail free card!”

Although he has appeared in three Doctor Who stories, Tony is best known for his role as Jim 'Jock' McClaren in the popular 1970s British sitcom Porridge - and its sequel Going Straight.

He said: “Porridge was another wonderful programme, hugely successful and had probably the best loved British comedy actor/performer of the last 50 years, in Ronnie Barker.

“It was so beautifully written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, as the idea you are going to set a comedy in a prison isn’t immediately appealing and you wonder where the opportunities for humour are. You need clever writing for that, and they did it.

“You also need to make the viewers sympathetic to people who are criminals and getting one over on the prison officers - the prisoners are there to be punished.

“The audiences probably didn’t even think about the fact they were cheering for the bad guys. It’s such a neat trick to pull it off.”

Tony added: "Doctor Who has a huge fan base, and - as with most actors who appear on the show - I get requests for signed photographs, or fans writing, or approaches in the street. It’s such a precious show to them, for the real fans. People just adore the show and enjoy seeing anyone from it.”

2 notes · View notes

sassycassie-s-writing · 6 years ago

Text

Doppelgänger

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): Avengers - Peter Parker/Spider-Man & Tom Holland

Rating: PG

Original Idea: I know I mentioned before that I don’t write for the actors, really, but I read a really good fic over on fanfiction.net about the Marvel characters coming into our world (Universal Headaches by Talk With Your Hands) so I gave it a quick try.

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) Gee, what is with me and these slightly-longer-than-my-slightly-longer-than-usual fics recently? I mean, I’m not complaining, and I hope y’all aren’t either, but this is, like, the third one! Harper is not my last name so don’t look for a Cass Harper on other social media. If you find one, it’s not me.

^^^^^

WHAM!

Groaning in pain, I picked myself up off the ground where I'd landed, coughing dust out of my lungs. On all fours, I looked to my side to see curly brown hair emerging from the dust, also pushing up onto all fours. “You okay?” I asked, voice raspy from the dust and the fall and the pain.

“Yeah,” Peter replied, also raspy. He sounded a little shaken. “You?”

I glanced at the bruises that would soon form on my arms from impact. “More or less.”

“Who are you?!” a new voice exclaimed with a British accent. The voice was… familiar somehow. “And what are you doing here?!”

Peter and I glanced at each other before I turned my gaze to see the owner of the voice while Peter favored coughing.

I almost fell back to the floor in shock.

The young man looked just like Peter. Same curly-ish hair, same brown eyes, same face. The only thing different was the fashion sense. Whoever this guy was, he wore skinny jeans and a black T-shirt with a necklace that had a long silver chain and a charm I couldn’t quite see because of my angle—pretty different from Peter’s science pun T-shirts, checked button-ups over them, and normal jeans with the hems turned up since they were too long. This doppelgänger looked startled to say the least.

“Who are you?!” I retorted in surprise.

Not-Peter scrunched his eyebrows. “I'm… Tom. Tom Holland,” he answered.

I got to my feet slowly, wincing, and introduced myself, sticking my hand out. Not-Peter—Tom—shook it.

And then Peter looked up. “What the f—?!” He cut himself off as he fell backwards onto his back.

This Tom guy looked down and realized what he was seeing. He blinked a couple times. “Am I seeing things?” he demanded. “Why—why do we look the same?” He took a couple steps back, one hand behind him, feeling for the wall.

“Well why are you British?” I retorted.

The British young man in question grunted but didn’t say anything.

I helped Peter to his feet. “You just had to plug the stereo into the weird machine, didn’t you Peter?” I grumbled as I pulled him up.

“Wait,” the British Not-Peter protested. “Peter? As in Peter Parker?”

Peter and I froze before slowly looking at the doppelgänger. “How, how, how do y-you know my name?” Peter stammered, his hand lifting and finding my arm. He held onto it like an anchor—and for a moment I thought he might fall over again.

“I know your name because I'm an actor and you're a character I portray in a movie series,” Tom-Not-Peter replied. “You're not real.”

I arched my eyebrows. “Movie characters?” I asked no one in particular.

“Well…” Tom-Not-Peter trailed off. “Not you, sorry. Or, if you're going to be in the films, you haven't been cast yet.”

“These films… are they well-known?” Peter asked Tom.

“Well yes. They're something of a cultural phenomenon. There’s never really been an interconnected universe comprising of multiple different franchises that can crossover before. It was exciting but a bit of a shock to the system when I was cast. It’s a bit strange to be relatively unknown and then a household name overnight,” Tom explained. I looked—I mean, stared—between the two of them, amazed at how perfectly carbon-copied the two were of each other.

I ran my hands through my hair. “I can’t believe this is happening,” I muttered under my breath.

“You and me both,” Peter agreed.

“So… if you're actually Peter Parker,” Tom started, “I mean, y’know, Spider-Man, how did you end up… here?”

“Where exactly is ‘here’?” I wondered.

“London.”

My jaw dropped. “London?!” I clenched my jaw. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I rounded on Peter. “This is all your fault,” I accused him. “We weren’t even supposed to be in the workshop but you wanted to work on something and listen to music at the same time so you plugged it into that weird machine. And when it started pulsing with that weird bluish light did you unplug it? No. Instead you decide we should check it out! Now look where we are! We’re in an alternate dimension where you're a movie character!”

“Actually,” Tom put in. “He was a comic book character first. And one of the most recognizable superheroes in the world.”

I sighed dramatically. “Great. Even better,” I commented, voice bleeding and dripping sarcasm. “So how are we going to get home without drawing attention to ourselves? Because I imagine he—” I pointed backward at Tom-Not-Peter, while still glaring at Peter. “—probably has hordes of fangirls who are all over his every move so what do we do about you?”

“It’s not that mad,” Tom corrected. I ignored him.

“How are we even going to find a way to get home?” I carried on.

“Whoever you are in this universe,” Peter answered, finally cutting me off. “If you haven't been cast yet, and he doesn’t know who you are, that means your actress isn’t well-known. So if we can find her, maybe she can help us. It’d be safer to be around her than him.”

“You know I can hear you, right?” Tom asked.

We both ignored him.

I shrugged. “I suppose. But if your actor is British and mine hasn’t been cast yet, or may not even exist, how will we know where to look? It’s not like we can sweep facial recognition over, like, four different countries!”

“Four?” Tom wondered. Peter grunted in agreement with the question.

“America, Britain, Canada, and Australia,” I replied. “Those seem the most likely. I'm American, born and raised, but you ain’t even though Peter is, so that makes things significantly more complicated for me.” I rubbed at something warm on my lip—dried blood. I must have split it open when I fell. I grimaced in irritation. Of course I was bleeding.

“Well it’s not like we can use facial recognition,” Peter observed sarcastically. I raised my eyebrows suggestively. “No. No. No, no, no, no, no. We are not hacking into something to use facial recognition!”

“Well how else do you suggest finding the version of me of this universe? This isn’t like the time Tony told us to literally find that needle in the haystack and we lit the hay on fire!” I exclaimed.

Tom gave me and Peter a really confused look. “You lit a haystack on fire?”

I ignored him. “C’mon, Peter, it’s not gonna be hard. We just need an internet connection to connect to a database and search facial recognition. We photograph my face and search for it,” I pressed to my friend. Peter furrowed his brows in thought and heaved a sigh, refusing to meet my eyes for several moments while he thought.

“Fine. Let’s go find somewhere with internet.”

“All due respect, strangers,” Tom interrupted loudly. “It’s past midnight. You should get some sleep first. You're welcome here tonight but in the morning I want you gone. But, y’know, carefully. Because he has my face.” He nodded at Peter.

“Okay,” I replied. “Thank you, Mr. Holland.”

“No, please. Don’t call me that. Tom is fine. Mr. Holland is way too formal.”

“Very well. Thank you, Tom. We’ll be gone in the morning.”

He gave us a single nod and retreated down a hallway.

“I’ll take the floor,” Peter muttered. “You take the couch.”

“I can—”

“No. Don’t bother.” He sat down on the ground, cleared away the dust from our landing, and wrapped up in his jacket. I eased onto the couch, wrapped my jacket around my body, and burrowed down to sleep.

^^^^^

“Wow. It’s like looking in a mirror,” I muttered, peering across the university campus at the girl who looked just like me. Peter had his head down enough that no one would notice him or look twice, wearing a ball cap with the brim pulled low. “I thought you and the Holland-guy was weird but I'm looking at a girl who’s me. Wow.” Peter grunted but didn’t say anything.

I nudged him in the arm.

“C’mon,” I whispered. “Let’s go talk to her.”

“Let me go first,” Peter replied, edging around me and trotting down the hall. I followed him. “Excuse me?” he called. “Miss Harper?”

The girl who would one day be me on screen—maybe—looked up from her laptop. “Yeah?” Her face went slack. “Oh my gosh—has anyone ever told you that you look just like Tom Holland?” she asked in an awed tone.

“Yeah. All the time. Listen, my name is Peter Parker—you might know me as a comic book or movie character, but we’re real. And we’re in the wrong universe. We need your help to get back to ours.”

My doppelgänger tilted her head. “Who’s we?” she inquired curiously.

I came out from behind Peter. “Me and him,” I answered.

Miss Harper stared. “Oh. Well. Okay.” She opened and closed her mouth a couple times like a fish before regaining her composure. “So… what do you want me to do? I'm not a scientist. I'm studying to be an actor.”

“We mostly need your lack of fame to keep us hidden from the world,” Peter put in. “The actor who plays me has become high-profile because he plays me. But if, one day, you're cast as her—” He pointed at me. “—you haven't reached that level yet. So we need your help to find a way to get us home. Any research you can give us on anything like a Dimensional Cannon—or something.”

“A Dimension Cannon? Like in Doctor Who?”

“Yeah.”

Miss Harper bit some skin off her lower lip and looked down at her laptop. “Well, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head, but I am something of a Google master. Let me look.” She glanced at her watch. “Okay. Forty-five minutes till my next class. That should be enough time.” As she typed, her eyes looked up to me. “If anyone asks, say you're my twin. No one here really knows me so it won’t be too difficult for them to believe.”

“Thank you,” I offered. She nodded and returned her focus to her screen and her keyboard.

Peter and I sat down on the chairs next to her. Peter kept his head low, muttering something about ridiculous that I didn’t quite catch. Probably thinking it was ridiculous that he had to hide his face.

I had to say I agreed, but we couldn’t afford attention.

My doppelgänger slammed her hands down on the arms of her chair. “Shoot. I can’t find anything. Sorry guys, the technology doesn’t exist in this world yet.” She looked apologetic. I pursed my lips thoughtfully.

“It’s okay. We’ll figure something out.”

“Well, after my day is over, you can come back to my apartment with me.”

“Thank you,” I repeated. She nodded. I looked over at Peter. “Hey, it’s gonna be okay.”

“I know,” he mumbled. “I'm just trying to figure out if we could make a Dimension Cannon ourselves.”

I raised my eyebrows. My double didn’t notice, she was still peering at her screen curiously. “How?” I whispered to Peter as some guys walked past in basketball jerseys, loudly joking around with each other.

He gave me a smirk. “I have an idea. You're not going to like it, but I have an idea.”

51 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 3 years ago

Text

How Tom Hardy’s Venom Finally Made the Character a Superhero

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

For decades, Marvel has been confused about what to do with Venom. While one of their more marketable characters, the company has never been sure what his deal is. Is he a villain, blinded by his own failures and driven mad? Is he a self-described hero, trying to use his status to justify his endless bloodlust? Is he the hulking agent of a corrupt Avengers, existing as a monstrous alien costume controlling a pathetic criminal too desperate for relevance? Is he a handicapped war hero trying to live up to Spider-Man’s example by using the violent symbiote as a weapon against evil? A mafioso? A space knight? A knock off of John Carpenter’s The Thing?

Even with the movies, the two incarnations of Venom are as different as the two Deadpools or the two Banes. While both Topher Grace and Tom Hardy‘s Eddie Brocks are media screw-ups who bond with alien goo that unleash the id, they also represent very different versions of how Venom has existed in the comics. The version from Spider-Man 3 died and that was that, but the one from 2018’s Venom has not only gone on to turn himself into a franchise, but he’s been able to finally settle Marvel’s mind. The movies, including this weekend’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage, have redefined the character.

To understand, you have to go back to the beginning when Venom first started showing up in the late-1980s. Venom was two beings bonded over a shared hatred of Spider-Man. Spider-Man had been spending time wearing a black costume he figured was made of alien technology, only to discover it was a living being that wanted to become one with him. After he removed it, it joined with Eddie Brock, a reporter whose faulty article about a serial killer’s identity was proven wrong by Spider-Man catching the real killer. Rather than realize that he made a mistake, Eddie doubled down and blamed Spider-Man for the way his life crumbled. Together, the symbiote and Eddie became Venom and they wanted to make Spider-Man pay.

But there came a bit of a twist. While Venom was very much dedicated to gruesomely murdering Peter Parker, he was deluded enough to think that this was for the greater good. To him, Spider-Man really was a menace who ruined Eddie Brock’s life. Venom wasn’t spending his off-time robbing banks or trying to take over the world. He wasn’t teaming up with other villains. In his mind, he wasn’t a villain. He was just a good guy pulling off some good old fashioned vigilante justice.

Between Venom’s popularity, his alienation from the rest of the villains, and the fact that he was never going to actually kill Spider-Man, the writing was on the wall. Venom was going to have to actually start fighting crime, even if it was in the Punisher style. A couple What If…? comics from the era played with the idea. There was even a backup story that showed Venom saving a teenager from criminals while preparing for his first fight against Spider-Man.

In 1993, Venom went full-on antihero with the miniseries Venom: Lethal Protector. That started a five-year stretch of Venom comics where the hero went around murdering muggers and getting roped into the occasional superhero team-up, whether it was with Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, or Morbius. As is normal with changes in the comic book status quo, it eventually rubber-banded back to Venom being a full-on villain who wanted nothing more than to kill Spider-Man. It’s always so simple to just go back to the past and treat recent stories as a failed experiment.

Marvel wasn’t sure what to do with Venom for years, but they wanted Venom to be synonymous with villainy. Yet at the same time, they understood the novelty of a heroic Venom, so they tried to have their cake and eat it too. Mac Gargan (formerly the Scorpion) became the new Venom and was treated as genuinely monstrous. In the meantime, Patrick Mulligan was introduced as the new symbiote superhero Toxin. Once he fell into obscurity, Eddie Brock started fighting crime again as Anti-Venom. Then later on, Eddie became host to the Toxin symbiote.

Flash Thompson became Venom for a time, and it was Marvel once again trying to have it both ways. Although the symbiote was evil and overly violent, Flash was able to control it via drugs and willpower. Dealing with the symbiote was treated as a metaphor for recovering from alcoholism. Then when the symbiote took a liking to Flash and became good, it was forced to bond against its will to criminal Lee Price. This culminated in Eddie Brock becoming the symbiote’s host again for the first time in years, and he was again at least trying to do the right thing.

After all this time of playing Hot Potato with alien fashion, we hit the point where Venom was fighting crime again. It was roughly 20 years since his Lethal Protector days, but those days had become a base of nostalgia. Instead of reverting Venom back to how he was in his original handful of stories, writers were starting to remember the antihero stories as the “good old days.”

Now when Spider-Man 3 came out in 2007, it was a little after Eddie Brock got rid of the symbiote in the comics and during the early days of Mac Gargan’s turn. There was nothing modern to latch onto and there was little problem with just going with an early depiction of comics Venom, albeit with some differences. Mainly that Topher Grace’s Eddie was supposed to play like an evil mirror of Peter Parker to the point that he was a photographer instead of a reporter and wasn’t supposed to come off as especially bulky. Bloated as the movie was, this version of Venom didn’t have anything going for him other than being all about revenge, so we have no idea what his next step would have been had he won.

Conversely, the Tom Hardy version of Venom had to be fully formed without Spider-Man’s existence, complete with not only a new origin story but also a new motivation for Brock and the symbiote to stay bonded. That meant going to the Lethal Protector well once more. Both Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage are filled with references to that era of Venom. Carlton Drake, the Life Foundation, Riot, Shriek, Eddie having homeless friends, the symbiote hungering for the chemical that’s found in brains and chocolate, and so on. The details of Cletus Kasady’s childhood were taken directly from Venom: Carnage Unleashed.

Even the goofball sense of humor was something Venom had going for him back then, though it was more Eddie than the symbiote (it really didn’t get a “voice” until years later). This was a guy who murdered a room full of goons while singing David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” then admitting he forgot most of the lyrics. He once went undercover in a church by cross-dressing as a nun. The dude went on TV and crashed a news broadcast with the Incredible Hulk while doing a Hans and Franz impression!

But more than anything, it went with the idea of Venom being a problematic attempt at being a hero. Eddie is a mess of a man who ruined his own life and needs to be led on the right path. The Venom symbiote is a petulant child that wants to feast on human flesh and unleash havoc, but can be won over to do the right thing and be civilized. While Venom does good overall, it’s also an excuse to do what he wants. Murder and eating people is okay as long as they have it coming. The sequel makes it apparent that such an attitude leads to repercussions and it’s not a sustainable lifestyle for someone who wants to hold onto a normal life.

When Venom made all that money at the box office (over $850 million internationally), it sent a message: Marvel realized that the world wanted Venom as the good guy. He wasn’t there to chase Spider-Man, but to have his own adventure. Be the protagonist. Be the hero. Be over the top about it all.

While Venom’s comic adventures have certainly been weird in the last few years, they have been consistent in making it clear that Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote are on the side of good. Eddie had a great, cathartic moment where he admitted to the Avengers that he doesn’t know whether to call himself good or bad because once upon a time, he thought killing Spider-Man was the right thing to do. How can he trust his own judgment if he had that going on?

Then he went on to pull this shit.

He’s still not nice enough to let Spider-Man eat his fries, but they’re at least on good enough terms to get lunch together. That’s progress!

The success of Venom: Let There Be Carnage only solidifies Venom in the eyes of the public. Tom Hardy’s CGI space monster is someone we want to cheer for. Let him be redeemed. Let him protect.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post How Tom Hardy’s Venom Finally Made the Character a Superhero appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3owJieA

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

1 note · View note

nyodrite · 7 years ago

Text

hp college au

Because I would like to know if someone is trying to poke me about this and I am not the op of the series of reblogging.

Is Dumbledore the Headmaster/Dean here or just a really old guy who make a hobby out getting a new degree every few years?

McGonagall is a professor, always.

Ooh, maybe Newt is around somewhere teaching a class or two in between writing a book and going off on expeditions (Charlie and Tonks go with him as students and maybe Hagrid is an assistant??) to study creatures.

Are we talking full on college dorms? Like each House has their own dorm building?

And someone mentioned everyone lives, so is Harry going to college with his parents also? Because that’d be hilarious if his parents are around trying to be cool and just embarrassing him.

But the biggest question of all:

Is there magic or not? Is this a full on No Powers AU or a world where Magic Is Know and has integrated in the muggle world to the point there’s mixed colleges for magical and muggle classes?

because I vote for the later bc so many more shenanigans can happen with magic!

I mean just imagine, Padfoot racing across campus because he’s overslept {and there are anti-apparition wards on campus for security reasons} and other students have long since grown used to this either laugh about sleeping in or cheer him on to make it because Professor Grindelwald is notoriously strict about tardiness.

Or there being rules against flying brooms on campus outside of certain areas/times {such as Quidditch practice} but Harry is like one of the people who just has to ride their skateboard instead of walking, he hasn’t been caught…yet.

(Basically a college HP au is loads of fun but keeping magic just makes it 💯 times better)

Charlie (and Tonks, who’s in it to be a supportive friend but mostly for the LOLs) waging war against various departments for various reasons - like Biology and dissection - about their treatments of animals.

Newt is constantly harassed about their antics - because everyone knows who it is but there’s no proof - and is just “I have no idea what you’re talking about, my students are perfectly well behaved.” while his house is full of various rescued creatures the two smuggled there.

Hermione and Lily meet one time when Lily came over during the weekend to stock up Harry’s fridge while Hermione was over tutoring him.

They get along fantastically.

Harry and James are low-key freaking out about this.

Ron and Harry meeting due to dorm room assignments, where basically the entire Weasley family is fussing over him when Harry stumbles in all alone - because he’s an Adult Now and he can go to college alone.

(This lasts like barely two weeks before Harry runs out of clean clothes and he calls Lily to ask how to wash clothes; not until later, too late, that he finds out that Ron knows how

{The reason being thus; Molly has multiple kids in college, by this time she has it down to a science just what kinds of things they need to know before leaving home})

Harry taking a class Voldemort teaches and. Just. Their hatred for each other is known across campus, Voldemort constantly trying to get Harry expelled while Harry is just “there’s something fish about that guy”and “he’s evil mum! why do I have to be nice?”

Hermione and Lily do some kind of rally or organize a student protest that becomes a legit social movement because these woman cannot be tamed.

(McGonagall is so proud of her students)

Lockhart teaches drama, Harry winds up there while lost and accidentally gets a lead in a play - afterwards Harry just low-key swears vengeance against Lockhart.

Umbridge is a guidance counselor that Harry gets arrested the same year he meets her.

(whether the same thing happens to Voldemort eventually or Tom is there to eternally be Harry’s sworn enemy until graduation idk yet)

Remus teaches a class there but Harry only is able to take it for one year and is sad, though they do talk.

Sirius is the only Marauder actually going to college instead of hanging around for various reasons - he lives off campus though and rides his motorcycle there.

Peter, Harry swears to his his parents and the other two Maruaders multiple times, is on campus as Voldemort’s minion in Evil. They don’t believe him because they never see him and he’s out of the country for work.

(Sometimes Peter just sits there, grading papers in a corner during class, and just stares at Harry.

Harry then runs to Remus or Sirius - depending on who is closer - and tells them about it and how he certain this means Peter and Voldemort are Plotting, then screams when they are all “Harry, Peter isn’t in the country how cane he be on campus Plotting with your math teacher?”)

@sailorcrazypinklady said:

Are there cameras? With timestamps? Because Harry can get proof Peter is in his class when he is supposed to be out of the country.

There are but, since I have decided - right now because I am apparently fond of Peter being a low-key villain for the express purpose of trolling Harry - that this au still has magic, Peter makes use of Time-Turners, Polyjuice Potions and Magical Travel to basically be in two places at once.

So, the one time Harry got photographic proof of Peter being in class, Peter had it dismissed via alibi of him being out of the country at work when the pictures were taken.

So. No one, except the students living in the same dorm - House? Basically this au’s equivalent to Gryffindor also I should probably talk about the houses a bit too - as Harry, i.e. his friends, believe that his father’s friend who works out of country is sitting in his math class grading papers.

@ssilverstreak reblogged:

Okay, so, I need a huge fic about this, because this is comedy gold. Also Snape keeps getting stuck teaching General Chemistry 1 and 2 and Intro to Potions every semester instead of the higher level courses and he’s Salty™ about it. Though he doesn’t pick on Harry here because Lily would straight up kill his ass and he knows it, Harry still sics his mom on Snape for picking on other students.

Snape complains about his classes and then swears to get rid of the other potions professors so he can take over the higher level classes to Professor McGonagall who’s sipping her coffee - she has a lot of early morning classes to teach, alright, and tea is just not enough - like it’s fine wine during this.

(ofc Harry overhears and decides that Snape must be Voldemort’s minion in Evil also.

Also, Voldy actually goes by Tom Riddle but back when Sirius was taking his class - along with his cousin Bellatrix who got a really creepy crush on the guy - and decided to give him the nickname Voldemort. Never will he admit exactly where that name came from, only it involves drunken shenanigans and waking up in a jail cell with a hangover.

Sirius commiserates with Harry over Voldemort’s Evilness, he still doesn’t quite believe Peter is there too though.)

#hp college au #college au #hp #harry potter #hogwarts university of magic and shenanigans and magical shenanigans

97 notes · View notes