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whimsicalwordsmith53-library · 2 months

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A Promise is Timeless

Chapter One: Prologue

Word Count: 1,405/8,505 characters

Reading Time: 5 minutes, 7 seconds

Speaking Time: 7 minutes, 49 seconds

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*July 17th, 1955*

The grand opening of Disneyland had drawn crowds from far and wide, and amidst the festivities, the infamous Captain Hook found himself reflecting on the surreal nature of it all. As he stood near the Sleeping Beauty Castle: a beacon of Walt Disney's imagination turned reality, Hook's thoughts were interrupted by the approach of the man himself—Walt Disney.

"Walt," Hook greeted with a respectful nod, adjusting his hat as he acknowledged the visionary responsible for bringing so much magic to life.

Walt Disney smiled warmly, his eyes twinkling with pride and exhaustion. "Captain Hook," he replied, extending a hand. "Quite a day, isn't it? How are you finding the park?"

Hook hesitated, momentarily taken aback by the genuine interest in Walt's voice, and gently shakes the king’s hand. "It's... quite something," he admitted gruffly, his gaze sweeping over the bustling crowds and meticulously crafted attractions.

Walt chuckled, sensing Hook's mixed feelings. "I imagine it must be strange for you," he remarked, his tone gentle yet probing. "Seeing your world, your story, come to life in such a way."

Hook shifted uncomfortably, the weight of Walt's words sinking in. "Aye, strange indeed," he conceded, a hint of vulnerability in his voice. "To think we villains, born of ink and imagination, now walk among your guests."

Walt nodded thoughtfully. "You're a part of our stories now, Captain Hook," he said earnestly. "And this park is for everyone—heroes, villains, and everything in between. It's about bringing joy and wonder to all who visit."

Hook glanced down at the pocket watch hanging from his coat, a gift from Walt himself symbolizing their shared commitment to storytelling and imagination. "Thank you, Walt," he murmured sincerely. "For this park, for believing in us villains, and for making dreams a reality."

Walt smiled warmly, his fatigue momentarily lifted by Hook's gratitude. "It's my pleasure, Captain. Disneyland is for dreamers of all kinds, and you, my friend, are most welcome here."

As they stood together, watching families embark on their own adventures through the enchanted lands of Disneyland, Hook felt a sense of belonging he hadn't expected. In that moment, amidst the magic and the memories, he understood that Walt Disney's dream was indeed a powerful one—one that bridged the gap between fantasy and reality, bringing joy and inspiration to generations to come.

As Captain Hook and Walt Disney continued their conversation amidst the grandeur of Disneyland's opening day, a sudden cough interrupted Walt's silence. Hook, ever observant despite his pirate demeanor, turned to the visionary with concern etched on his face.

"Walt," Hook said gruffly, motioning towards a nearby bench. "Perhaps we should sit down for a moment."

Walt nodded gratefully, accepting Hook's gesture and easing himself onto the bench. His usual vigor seemed momentarily subdued, replaced by a hint of fatigue and vulnerability.

"I'm fine, Hook, I’m fine," Walt reassured, though his voice betrayed a touch of uncertainty as he rubs his neck. "Just a tickle in my throat. Lillian has been after me to cut back on the smoking."

Hook raised an eyebrow, settling beside Walt with a nod of understanding. "Aye, even kings must heed the concerns of their queens," he remarked, though his tone softened with genuine concern. "You've been pushing yourself hard, Walt. The park, the films, everything."

Walt sighed, a faint smile playing on his lips. "It's all worth it, Hook. To see this dream come true," he replied, gesturing towards the joyful chaos unfolding around them. "But perhaps Lillian is right. I ought to take better care."

Hook nodded in agreement, casting a thoughtful glance at the bustling park. "Aye, Walt. You've created something extraordinary here. Take the time to enjoy it."

Walt chuckled softly, his eyes crinkling with warmth. "You're right, Hook. We should all take a moment to appreciate the magic."

As they sat together, a quiet camaraderie formed between them—two men from different worlds, united by a shared vision and a mutual respect for the power of imagination. In that brief respite, amidst the whirlwind of Disneyland's opening day, Hook realized the depth of Walt Disney's passion and the impact of his dream on everyone who crossed its threshold.

And as the sounds of laughter and adventure echoed around them, Hook knew that this day would forever be etched in the annals of history—a testament to Walt Disney's unwavering belief in the power of dreams and the enduring legacy of Disneyland.

The afternoon sun cast a golden hue over Disneyland, Walt Disney's words carried a weight that Hook couldn't ignore. The conversation had taken a solemn turn, and Hook sensed the gravity of Walt's behavior.

"Hook," Walt began, his voice earnest and tinged with a hint of urgency. "Promise me something."

Hook nodded attentively, his gaze steady as he awaited Walt's words.

"When I'm gone," Walt continued, his eyes searching Hook's face for reassurance, "promise me you'll protect the villains. Maleficent, Queen Grimhilde, all of them. They're part of our stories, our world. Promise me you'll keep them safe."

Hook felt a lump form in his throat, understanding the trust and responsibility Walt was placing upon him. "I promise," Hook replied solemnly, his voice unwavering despite the emotions stirring within him. "With my life, I'll protect them. And the ones I love will guide me in that duty."

Walt nodded, a sense of relief washing over his features. "Thank you, Hook," he said gratefully. "I know I can trust you. You understand what it means to believe in something bigger than yourself."

Hook nodded in agreement, his gaze drifting towards the bustling crowds and the gleaming spires of the park. "Aye, Walt. This place is more than just bricks and mortar. It's a beacon of imagination, of dreams realized."

Walt smiled, a fatherly warmth in his eyes. "And you, Hook, are a part of that magic now. Never forget that."

As they sat in companionable silence, surrounded by the laughter and wonder of Disneyland's first guests, Hook felt a profound sense of purpose settle upon him. Walt Disney's dream had become his responsibility—a promise to safeguard the villains and preserve the stories that defined them.

And as the day continued to unfold, Hook knew that this pledge would endure long after the crowds had gone and the park lights dimmed—a testament to the enduring power of Walt Disney's vision and the bond forged between a visionary and a pirate.

*Present Time*

Captain Hook walked through the bustling streets of Disneytopia, his steps heavy with emotion as he recalled the memories of Walt and Lillian Disney. Their presence, once so vibrant and inspiring, now lingered in the shadows of the park they had built together. Tears threatened to spill from Hook's eyes, a rare display of emotion from the hardened pirate.

Gently, Hook retrieved the pocket watch from his coat, the familiar weight comforting in his hand. With a flick of his hook, he opened it, revealing two sides of significance. On one side, a locket held a precious picture of Walt and Lillian Disney, captured in a moment of joy and unity. Hook stared at the photograph, memories of their conversations and shared dreams flooding his mind.

"And now they're gone," Hook murmured quietly to himself, his voice betraying a mixture of sadness and reverence. "Their legacy lives on, but they are gone."

Turning the watch over, Hook noted the frozen time: 7:53. A poignant reminder of the moment frozen in time, just as Walt and Lillian would forever remain in the hearts and memories of those they touched.

"The sons carry on," Hook whispered softly, his eyes tracing the engraved initials on the watch; J.H&W.D. "Mickey and Oswald. The legacy of dreams and magic."

As he closed the pocket watch, Hook felt a renewed sense of purpose. His promise to Walt Disney, to protect the villains and uphold the spirit of imagination, burned brighter than ever. With a determined stride, Hook continued through the park’s mimic, where laughter and joy mingled with the echoes of a timeless dream—one that had shaped not only a company but a world of enchantment.

And as he walked, the pocket watch nestled close to his heart, Captain Hook knew that Walt and Lillian Disney's legacy would endure, carried forward by the magic they had created and the promise he had made.

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Chapter Two release date: August. More information on this AU lore will be explained in the next chapter. Hope you like this segment and hope to see you next month!

#captain hook #norman891 #disney #short story #story

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gentlebeardsbarngrill · 3 months

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06/25-26/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Rhys Darby; Vico Ortiz; Samson Kayo; Rachel House; Nathan Foad; Lindsey Cantrell; Articles; Adopt Our Crew Raffle Reminder; Fan Spotlight: Cast Cards; Never Left Podcast; Love Notes; Daily Darby / Today's Taika;

== Rhys Darby ==

Rhys is out helping to advertise Final Fantasy XIV: DawnTrail!

Source: ffxiv Instagram

== David Jenkins ==

Chaos Dad absolutely adores one of the submissions for TealOranges & Garlic Soup week! Shonyadraws made a lovely pixel animation!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by шоня | shonya (@shonyadrws)

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Source: David Jenkins' Twitter

== Vico Ortiz ==

Wow Vico is SO busy. They have been doing drag shows with ThemFataleDragKings and EnbyBruje this past weekend. You can check out more reels and videos on the ThemFataleDragKings IG.

A new episode of The Stars Too Fondly is out, voiced by Vico!

Vico was also recently our at the premier of their film Spark!

Vico will be on with the 25th Anniversary Media Summit this Friday! Learn more on Nalip

Source: Vico Ortiz' Instagram

== Samson Kayo ==

Samson out at the premier of Supacell!

Source: mrmsalami's Instagram

== Nathan Foad ==

Just some lovely Nathan photos!

Source: Nathan Foad's IG

== Linds Cantrell ==

Lindsey's new movie she worked on will be airing at LA Shorts: International Film Festival on July 19th, 7:45 pm! To learn more, visit LA Shorts

Source: Linds Cantrell IG

== Rachel House ==

Rachel has also been very busy! Did you know she's a new member of the Academy?

Source: Rachel House's Instagram

Rachel was also on the For Your Reference Podcast (you'll recognise the interviewer from some of our interviews with Rhys and Taika)!

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Source: For Your Reference Podcast Instagram

And finally Rachel was also on The Jess Row Big Talk Show as well! Check her out!

Source: Jess J Rowe's Instagram

== Articles ==

Rhys Darby Hosts Your New Favorite Wildlife Series in 'The Hungry Games: Alaska's Big Bear Challenge' Trailer [Exclusive] (Thank you to Our Flag Means Fanfiction for finding this and sharing it!)

Emmy Contender Music Supervisor Maggie Phillips Talks Music Choices

Source: Adopt Our Crew Twitter

== Adopt Our Crew Raffle Reminder ==

Now it's technically only 2 days left to enter @adoptourcrew's Raffle! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSccxjiQiKYZhk7QPeRTk2dn8XQlJ4sZursdlIkYFLXJy3vg4w/viewform

Source: Adopt Our Crew's Tumblr

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Cast Cards =

I am quite behind on @melvisik's Cast Cards tonight so there's 3 tonight! First up is Jack Sainte-Rose, one of the associate producers! Thank you Mel as always!

The next two: Martin D, and Amanda M. were guests at the wedding that Ed and "the Kids" crashed.

Source: @melvisik's Twitter

= Never Left Podcast =

There's a new episode of Never Left out! This week is discussing physical touch! Listen to them on your favorite podcast platform here: https://linktr.ee/neverleftpodcast!

Source: Never Left Podcast Instagram

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies! Thank you for your patience with me. Been a lot going on here at home, and in life. I know there's so much going on for yall as well. Over the past few days we had "EdInASkirt" which I'm so proud of all of you for defending Ed, and Stede in allowing them to wear what they like. I love to watch the electricity of this fandom flow and spark from one thing or another. The reactions of it to events that upset-- you rally together, and you spread love, and you fight back. Standing up for things we love, for the things that bring us joy, are so very important. You make the world a more beautiful place by sharing your passion with it. Thank you for sharing that passion with me, with us, with the fandom. Don't ever lose that spark <3

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

No real theme tonight lovelies just gorgeous gifs of our favorite dudes. Tonight's gifs courtesy of my dear friend @ofmd-ann!

#Instagram #ofmd daily recap #daily ofmd recap #ofmd #our flag means death #rhys darby #rhys darby faction #vico ortiz #samson kayo #lindsey cantrell #david jenkins #rachel house #never left podcast

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rodricksfilipinagf · 4 months

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Imagine: Marrying Jamie (Jamie Tartt x Reader)

Your wedding was very lavish as expected of a footballer and his wife

You had an expensive designer dress

For your wedding vow to him you did a poem that you wrote yourself

His was more simple but heartfelt and meaningful

His dad was NOT invited but his mom and Simon were

His whole team was there, and so were a bunch of kids from one of your jobs

Jamie and his team surprised you with a dance number

Not to be outdone, you sang a mashup. Maybe there was a rap

You and Jamie go to a tropical island that’s exclusive but so, so pretty

You have sex all the time, and everywhere

You also spend a lot of time on the beach, and when you’re not in the water you’re reading

By night you perform karaoke and then go clubbing with him

After your honeymoon you instantly quit your day job

Jamie and your friend Keeley are SHOCKED because you are so good at it and seemed so happy

But really you only did it because you didn’t want to starve and it was the best opinion for someone with no connections or wealth of your own

Keeley insists you could have been a CEO just like her, and though it’s tempting there are other things you would rather do now that money is not an issue

You decide to write full time. Anything and everything. Books. Movies. Plays. Stand up comedy.

You visit Jamie’s talent agency with him and ask if you need a separate agent for each thing you can do

You utilize your newfound social media presence as a way to get speaking gigs about being autistic

You are more likely to get a literary agent because you are Jamie Tartt’s girlfriend with a shit ton of Instagram followers

You are able to make short films with the money you now have and enter then into film festivals and put them on YouTube

You miss kids. Like really miss them.

But school curriculums are too general for what you want to cover, and repetitive, and you don’t want to chance a troublemaker in your class

You think it’s unfair that specialized stuff only starts in college

And you love being around preteens

So you start a nonprofit in which you teach 9-12 year olds creative writing

And they don’t have to pay bc tbh you don’t think their parents would pay for it

The kids love it, they��re not afraid to mess up and be goofy and laugh

Perfection isn’t the goal, just having a good time

At first you feel a little guilty about spending Jamie’s money to buy a whole new designer wardrobe

But then he reminds you how marriage works and how what’s his is yours and you feel less bad

But you try your best to use your speaking gig money or book advance money for stuff like that

You know he would happily fund your creative pursuits though

You’re very happy in your decision not to work a traditional job because now you can spend more time on what makes you happy

Now to the romantic stuff

Jamie is a great husband

So thoughtful and caring

He offers to do chores when you’re too exhausted

Is very supportive of everything you want to accomplish

Plans very romantic dates for both of you

Doesn’t pressure you into having kids

You have sex all the time now that you live together

Loves having you at his games but understands if something else comes up

Keeps buying you expensive bags and jewelry

You two get a puppy together that likes to sleep in your bed with you

Always makes sure to give you detailed compliments every day

Is very understanding of you not wanting to physically carry and birth a child

Posts about you all the time

Brags to his teammates about how beautiful and sexy you are

Every time he comes across someone who might help you out with your dreams he brings you up

Leaves you alone for hours so you can read without being distracted by how hot he is

You guys try out each others’ sex fantasies

You two go on vacation together whenever there’s a long weekend or football season is over

He hates whoever you do

He loves that you’re obsessed with him

You guys take care of each other whenever you’re sick

He watches all your favorite stuff with you but refuses to shut up while watching

You have to bribe him not to talk while going to West End shows

He likes it when you cook him dinner after a long day of football practice

He likes making you breakfast in bed

He likes giving you scalp massages and playing with your hair

Basically he treats you like a princess and married life with him is a dream come true

#jamie tartt x female reader #jamie tartt x reader #ted lasso fanfic #jamie tartt fanfiction #jamie tartt fic #ted lasso fic #jamie tartt imagine #ted lasso fanfiction

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yourcubitoyourculture · 1 month

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Prompt Suggestions from the Community!

Shortly after the announcement of the event, a Google Form was set up for prospective participants to suggest prompts to encourage other fans to join the event.

Alongside some of the mod's own ideas, here are some prompt ideas for the event if you haven't thought of any so far. Feel free to use any of them or any combination of them, as long as you feel comfortable sharing that with us!

Cultural Prompts

Prompts that can specifically relate to a culture!

Architecture

Calendars and timekeeping

Climates and geography

Clothing and accessories – e.g. folk costumes, Olympic uniforms, etc.

Community and relationships – how relationships (platonic, romantic, etc.) are experienced in your culture

Culture clash/shock

Customs, superstitions, and traditions

Festivals, holidays, and seasons

Flora and fauna – i.e. plants and animals

Food and drink

Games and leisurely activities

Gender identity and/or expression

Grief and funerary culture

History

Jobs and professions

Languages and linguistics – e.g. regional languages, dialects, slang, linguistic quirks and features, code-mixing/switching, etc.

Locations and settings – note: try to make sure that the cultural references to a place are identifiable to a culture

Media – e.g. art, comics, films, games, literature, etc.

Music and dance

Mythology, folklore, and religion – includes fairy tales and nursery rhymes (though there may be overlap with media and customs)

National/Regional symbols – e.g. animals, birds, cuisines, flags, flowers, etc.

Reconnecting with one's culture

Respecting indigenous peoples

Sports and cultural skills

Traditional medicine, remedies, and/or self-care practices

Transportation

Urban legends

General Prompts

Prompts that do not necessarily relate to any specific culture, but can be modified to incorporate specific cultural elements!

Alternate Universe – [specific setting] – e.g. Bands, Coffee Shop/Restaurant, Jobs, Modern, Roleswap, Royalty, Soulmates, etc.

Angst

Animals and/or pets

Apocalypse

Astronomy/Stargazing

Baking and cookery

Bonding

Camping

Chatfic

Coming of age – may include celebrations like Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, Quinceañeras, etc.

Crackfic

Crime – may include investigation, law enforcement, mafia/organized crime, etc.

Crossovers and media fusions

Dates and days out

Exploration and discovery

Fake dating

Fantasy and sci-fi – e.g. magic, aliens, etc.

Fluff

Funny/Humour

Gathering food – e.g. fishing, foraging, hunting, etc.

Ghost hunting

Hiking

Historical

Hurt/Comfort

Identity

Introspection

Mirror/Parallel universe

Miscommunication

Monsters, mythical creatures, and miscellaneous non-human beings – e.g. demigods and deities, faeries, ghosts, hybridity headcanons, vampires, werewolves, wingfic, etc.

Names and naming conventions

Nature

Relationships and character dynamics – e.g. ambiguous relationships, family, friendship, QPRs, rivalries, romance/shipping, roommates/housemates, etc.

School – e.g. high school, college/university, etc.

Science and technology

Seasonal activities

Sickfic

Supernatural elements

Superpowers – e.g. magical girls, superheroes, supervillains, vigilantes, etc.

Time travel

Travel/Tourism/Road trip

Urban exploration

Worldbuilding

#your cubito your culture 2024 #modposting #your cubito your culture

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grits-galraisedinthesouth · 1 month

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Meghan, thy name is PATHETIC!

These two numpties truly think they have outsmarted the world. Normal people don't repeatedly attempt to fool the world into thinking they are "whip smart" or accomplished by regurgitating childhood and adolescent fantasies. Meghan and Harry are clearly mentally deficient individuals with massive amounts of resources to serve as global court jesters.

During a festival that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the Temu Royal Snowcation 🌨 ❄ Tour, these idiots dashed on the stage to CYA after MegaLiar's poor performance as the "FLUENT duchess" who couldn't be bothered to memorize the pronunciation of their host's proper title: /bee-seh-preh-see-dehn-teh/ but the whip smart MegaLiar referred to her new amiga as /v-ICE / 😬🤦‍♀️

Sparry who has a hot & heavy bromance with Argentinean polo player named Nacho pretended that he was too dumb to say a simple thank you and good night to the crowd. He enlisted the help of his soap actress wife (who snatched the mic) for the Spanish "translation" as if the croud was too dumb to translate the simple English phrase for themselves.

Who is going to tell these idiots that even if she is the bilingual Duchess (which she's not) it would NOT make her special. You'd think the woman could speak Mandarin. 🥴

How pathetic 🤑

MegaLiar's need to overwhelm the internet with a lie about her being bilingual is just another reminder that this woman is a 1 trick pony with 1 ADULT accomplishment: sex with a drug addled brained prince. Sex with a dumb prince. Truly Pathetic.

What is Meghan Markle so desperate to Cover Up for the past 20 years? She literally flunked out of the state department before she could even get her foot in the door, yet she is constantly pushing & promoting "Argentina." She was humiliated into "relocating" to Madrid until her graduation ceremonies. Makes me wonder whether or not those sugarbaby rumors are true?

If she worked in Argentina "early in her career," then why is Meg pictured on the set of General Hospital so she could gain the necessary credentials to work Hollyweird?

She's also pictured with another liar, her BFF Lindsay Roth Jordan, on the day they both graduated from Northwestern as "candidates for degrees in Communications."

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The Daily Mail:

Newlywed and newly employed on Season 1 of Suits, and during promo for Season 2 she drops the lie about Argentina. Makes you wonder what else was happening in Argentina.

2011 and Just Married to Trevor Engleson. Finally she booked her 1st TV series, and she's visibly embarrassed by 1 innocent question. She opted to lie. She reached all the way back to ten (10)+ years ago instead of simply saying, "...5 years ago I was looking for work." What are you hiding Megsy?🤔

She couldn't believe the question, "...what was I doing five (5) years ago?" She was embarrassed by 34 episodes as Season 2 Deal or No Deal model # 24 (2006-2007) would have been 8ish years ago so tell the truth Meg.

July 12th 2013 Promotion for one of her blog affiliates "Birchbox" just prior to dumping Trevor. "If I wasn't acting I would most likely be working in politics have a career in politics. I had been working at the US Embassy in Argentina and was certain I'd get into a career in foreign service much like my character Rachel it was really tough for me to pass the foreign service exam, Rachel had trouble passing the LSATs, end up coming back to LA for a break and a friend of mine from college had given a manager a student film that I did, he called me the next day and was like you know what, I think you should be acting. So if you're constantly just on your A game and you're ready for when that moment arises that's when things can take off in a much bigger way. Success is reachable."

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She wrote this for Birchbox: "USA's SUITS is one of our top summer TV shows—not least for its awesome female characters. While the guys of Pearson may rule the roost, it's the ladies who steal the show. Case in point: the whip-smart Rachel Zane, played by Meghan Markle. We sat down with Markle to find out about her foodie favorites, her background in Foreign Service, and the one beauty product..."

More lies on the red carpet

Mid Season 2 Promo at The Paley Center for Media Jan 14th 2013

"And I read that you were never originally going to go into acting!?"

Lies: "no I was gonna do politics...I grew up in LA so I grew up in this industry and obviously loved entertainment, my father's a lighting director I just always wanted to do something different and working in politics was exciting for me but I'm saying as we were driving up 2 blocks down the street is paper source. I used to teach gift wrapping classes there. I used to teach calligraphy classes there and so to be here tonight and to see that contrast happen in my life from an auditioning actress just trying to make it work to pilot after pilot to have one that's going into 3rd season with fans who are so supportive I mean I couldn't be more grateful. It's really amazing."

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Almost 8 years later and she's on Craig Ferguson's show to promote Suits and still lying about her education and Argentina. Why?

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I've always thought it was interesting that Meghan and Sparry were in Argentina around the same time, and of course Diana was there in 1995.

"On 23 November 1995, Diana, Princess of Wales arrived in Argentina to begin a historic, four-day visit to the South American country. While not an official state visit, the trip was undertaken by Diana in her newly-defined role as goodwill ambassador for Britain. The visit, which was the Princess of Wales' first international engagement since her controversial Panorama interview, was seen as an important step in the warming of relations between the UK and Argentina, the countries having fought one another in the Falklands War of 1982 and resumed diplomatic relations in 1990. The footage featured in this edit covers the full four days of Princess Diana's visit, including her famous meeting with Argentine president Carlos Menem, her visits to a number of charities and hospitals in Buenos Aires, whale-watching in Argentine Patagonia, and attending a charity gala banquet."

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Prince Harry cuts short visit to Argentina.

Thursday, November 25th 2004

Twenty year old Prince Harry flew back to London from Buenos Aires Thursday afternoon after the Argentine press revealed he had become a “head ache” for those responsible for his security.

Apparently the Prince was scheduled to return next week but Buckingham Palace decided to anticipate the date given the adverse press coverage he was receiving during his alleged "night incursions" to local pubs and discos.

Although British Airways desk said any information relating to Prince Harry was "confidential", from early hours the reinforcement of security measures in Ezeiza's airport was evident.

Local reports indicate Prince Harry boarded the plane in good humour.

The second son of the Prince of Wales arrived in Argentina November 12 and was staying in estancia "El Remanso" close to the town of Lobos in the province of Buenos Aires belonging to some British friends, where supposedly he was to take polo classes and rest before returning to England for Christmas and Sandhurst military academy next January.

However his sport activities in Argentina were known to be limited since the prince had an injured knee from a recent rugby match.

Mayor of Lobos, Gustavo Sobrero minimized the press versions about Prince Harry's behaviour, particularly last Wednesday early morning when shots were heard in a nearby farm which forced a quick security response in the area.

"This visit hasn't altered normal life in the area. Besides it is quiet common during the hunting season to hear shots", said Mr. Sobrero.

As to Prince Harry's alleged night escapades to town pubs Mr. Sobrero indicated that "as far as we are concerned we haven't been informed".

According to Buenos Aires daily "Página 12" on his return from town partying Prince Harry was in quite "bad condition" given his "uncontrolled consumption of alcohol".

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ariadnaltos · 2 years

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ND Stevenson interview about She-Ra and animation in Celsius 232 (2022)

This post is a transcribe of second interview/talk made to ND Stevenson during the Celsius 232, a multimedia festival about fantasy, scifi and horror genres celebrated in Avilés, a city in the North of Spain. The interview was about She-Ra and The Princesses Of Power. There was another interview about his comics that I attended, but I couldn't find recordings of that one. In this interview ND talked about topics such as Catra's choices, toxic relationships, Nimona's film adaptation and Lumberjanes' TV adaptation. He also answered questions from the public.

Click on Keep reading to read the whole interview!

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Thanks to Comic Astur for recording the interview. They have another interviews during Celsius 232 in their channel, both to Spanish and non-Spanish authors. So check it out!

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! This post is being released on Christmas day in Spain, so I think it's a good moment to make a gift to the SPOP fandom. 🎁🎄

I don't do professional trancribes, I just want to share this interview. I love Celsius 232 and hearing ND Stevenson in person was a great experience. I want to share this with international fans. The interview is in a mix of Spanish and English, so I'll translate the Spanish parts (and also use some of Diego's translations that you can hear in the video) and I'll transcribe everything in English. I'll also add some notes here and there about the interview.

The auditorium opened some minutes before the beggining of the talk. It was almost full. There were some cosplayers of She-Ra, Adora, Catra and even one cosplayed as Finn, Adora and Catra's post-canon child. There was also a baby cosplayed as She-Ra (baby She-Ra!!). Some people brought with them pride flags because of the series nature. 🏳‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ When ND Stevenson entered the auditorium everyone started clapping.

In the scenario, as you can see in the video, there were three people. ND Stevenson (center), Jorge Iván Argiz (left, interviewer) and Diego García (right, interpreter). Jorge Iván did the questions while Diego translated everything to ND and then to the public.

The interviewer started the talk remembering that ND Stevenson will come back to Celsius next year, for Celsius 2023, and he also claimed the importance of animation. Then, he asked his first question:

Interviewer: When you make a comic you have full control. You have a blank paper or a screen. You have your pen and you can do wathever you want. However, when doing an animation film, even if it has a main creative, it's a hugely collective work. How it was your first experience? How it was entering the animation industry and realizing that it's a huge teamwork effort?

ND Stevenson: Getting into animation was actually kind of an accident for me. I didn't plan to go in that direction. When I started out writing comics I thought of myself as an artist first before I was a writer. And so getting hired as a writer in animation was kind of a surprise for me. And I wasn't sure if it was something I was going to stay with. But my first job was amazing. It was working for Craig McCracken who did Powerpuff Girls and a lot of other stuff that defined my childhood and other people's childhoods. It was a very cool job to work with him.

Thinking of myself as a writer... it took me a while to accept that. But also, the collaboration of animation was what made me fall in love with animation. I also had always loved animation as a kid. Sneaking into my parents room where the TV was, when they were out of the house, to watch Teen Titans, which was my favorite show. To be behind the scenes, to be able to share this world that we were building together with the rest of the crew, that was... I immediately became addicted to that.

To write a comic it is all you. And unexpected things still happen but it all comes from your own brain, you own hands. With animation, everybody has a little piece of that world. And so, I would look over people's shoulders and ask to be in meetings that I wasn't technically a part of, just because I wanted to know everything and see everything. And so that is what made me fall in love with animation and that's what eventually lead me to make She-Ra.

Interviewer: Now we're going to talk about She-Ra. She-Ra as a character already existed, created as a base for a series of toys. I think that it started in 1985 and it was a show with near a hundred episodes. She-Ras was a twin sister to He-Man and she had a similar story to him, it was kind of complementary. But you made something completely new with this character and this universe. This seems wonderful to me. The first example already appears in the tittle [of the show]. The original series was called She-Ra Princess of Power. But here we're talking about She-Ra and The Princesses of Power. This collaborative spirit that you liked a lot when making animation shows was translated to the animation series. I imagine that this was the first decision [that you made], to bring a more complete arc for characters and to create not just one, but multiple princesses of power.

ND Stevenson: Yeah, the show ended up being- it was about teamwork. It's not just what the show was about, it's also the way in which we made it. It was a show that was made under a lot of pressure, not just because of She-Ra, but because we didn't have the biggest budget and we didn't have the longest timeline for making it. And so it was really something that if we were going to pull it off, we had to rely on each other to do it. And so that was something that really brought us together.

But that show, taking it from being- I hadn't watched the show myself [before], the original show from the 80s [when I was] growing up. But I loved it when I watched it [as an adult]. I had a lot of love in my heart for that show. Trying to pay that off and take that so it could appeal to new fans as well and still make old fans happy was always the line to find and walk. Taking it from one princess of power to an entire team of princesses who are very powerful and making it more about that, about the group instead about the one individual. That was something that was very important for us to do. Because it was so personal for us, with how the show was being made, because we were so close to each other. It was important to show that aspect of friendship and teamwork, and relationships in general. And love in every form. That was our inspiration behind that aspect of the show.

Interviewer: I would like to know if from the beggining it was always clear that the series was going to have that format and that number of seasons. The first season was a presentation of the princesses, almost one per episode. For me the series starts having more pace when each episode develops these stories that connect with each other. I would like to know if the series was already thought like that or if after season one you still had freedom to make changes.

ND Stevenson: The production of the show was actually pretty unsual in animation. The show had already been greenlit for 26 episodes before I was even hired for the show. They just bought the rights to She-Ra and they knew that Netflix had already ordered the first season. They also knew that they wanted to do 52 episodes total. So when I was hired it was my job to pitch that second season. And so, when I pitched the show, I'm kind of a wordy person, so my pitch was supposed to be like 20 minutes and it was like over an hour [in the end]. And I was lucky that the people I was pitching to were receptive and interested, but I pitched all 52 episodes. That is part of why it was so long, because I wanted to have this conception of it.

Some things stayed the same and some things changed over time, but we had certain ideas that stayed the whole time. For example, an early idea was that Catra was going to get a promotion at the end of every season and move further up the ranks. And also she was going to betray somebody in each season. That really ended up in the show. She just keeps kind of working her way up the ranks and eventually decides that she's out of there, going back to Adora. That was something that stayed true over time, but there were some things that we found along the way. A lot of things were really unexpected. At the very least, it was very helpful to have those broad strokes figured out from the beggining. I'm glad they didn't just cut me off after 20 minutes of talking cause that would be embarrasing *laughs*.

Interviewer: One of the best things that has happened to YA narrative is the shift from just entertainment and fun spirit to topics that were forbidden before. This change probably happened because of the new young people creating new stuff for young audiences. Some of this topics are abuse, bullying, mental health... She-Ra is about some of these topics, toxic relationships are very present in the show. There are multiple cases. It has been talked a lot about the relationship between Adora and Catra, but the relationship between Catra and Scorpia is also another perfect example of a toxic relationship. Something that someone denies, although everybody is warning them. I would like to know more about these messages that can make the audience think about their own relationships. Tell us about it.

ND Stevenson: I'm of the believe that it's important just not to see representation of good behaviour and role models that we can model ourselves on. But is also, I think, a good thing to see representation of characters making the wrong choices and doing the wrong thing. And Catra is defined by that. This was [something that] the crew [asked about as well]. People would come and they'd be like: "so, you told me that she's gonna join the good guys again, right? She'll be OK? When is that going to happen?" And people started to stop believing me that it was going to happen.

AJ, who voices the character, I would [tell her] "We have a big run for you today, Catra is going to do something new, but I promise that she's going to be OK in the end". And she'll be like: "yeah, sure, you say that every time". But I think that's why [Catra] was very beloved among the crew and by me. She's a character who kind of consistently always makes the wrong choices. And it can be so frustrating. Because you'll yell at her at just be like: "OMG, you know you don't want that, why can't you just do the right thing?". And that, I think, in it's own way can be something that also tells us how to make decisions ourselves. So when you see somebody who we sometimes want to scream [at], sometimes we're compelled to do things that make us a bad friend or bad people. And it's important, I think, to know the consequences of those wrong decisions.

Catra is someone who expresses those things and my hope is that it is cathartic in it's own way, but it's also a little bit of a cautionary tell. She ends up alone at the end, without any friends. And that's the consequences of her actions. But then it's also something that it's- you know, there's nothing you can't come back from. There are things that if you work, if you make yourself vulnerable and open yourself up and try to make amends for your mistakes, it is possible to come back. That was something that was very important for us to show. It's my believe that it's important to see characters, specially female characters, making those bad decisions. We found it cathartic, and I hope that it was cathartic for others as well.

Interviewer: Now two short questions about the animation. First, it is traditional animation, or at least it looks like it, with some touches of CG here and there. I wanted to know if it was a conscious decision so the show would look like it was intended, or if it was because of the low budget and short production time which you said you had.

The second question is about the aesthetic of the ancient buildings. It makes me think about an illustrator called Roger Dean. I don't know if it's by chance or if it was an inspiration for this aesthetic.

*a fly 🪰 flies near the interviewer and he tries to hit it*

ND Stevenson: We had an option on pursuing 3D animation as well. It was something that was done at this studio I was at, at DreamWorks, pretty often. But it was also for an epic... There's a fly!! 🪰

*the interviewer and translator agree and everybody laughs* There's a fly in my... flying over and over... 🪰

Yeah, for epic action scifi fantasy it is harder, it's more expensive to do CG animation. And you have fewer resources. One thing that happens is that the characters can't go to many places because every room and setting has to be build in three dimensions. My friends who are writers working on shows in 3D have limitations of what they can use. They have a set number of characters and a set number of locations, which is true in hand-drawn as well, but less so. You don't have to design the whole thing if you'll only going to see it from one angle.

So that was a lot of the reason of just what was posible with the show. But also, I thought it was important because She-Ra was one of the last shows in the 80s animated in the US, before everything moved overseas to be animated in South Korea and Canada, France and Ireland. It felt important to stay true to the original and the hand-drawn look of the original.

As for Roger Dean, that was definitely one of my inspirations. You have very sharp eye! That very epic... The science fiction illustrations of the 70s and 80s that you would see on the cover of a paperback... That is how I wanted the world to feel. But populated by characters who felt a bit newer. As a kid, I always loved this covers because you would see these floating rocks or the sky with dozens of planets and moons. I wanted to capture that feeling. It always sparked my imagination to see those illsutrations and I wanted to capture that in the show.

Interviewer: Before starting with the questions of the public I have to ask about the adaptation of Nimona into a film, as well as Lumberjanes' TV adaptation. Tell us a little bit about both projects.

ND Stevenson: You're gonna see the Nimona movie early next year, I think february or march. *big applause from the public* So get excited because I just saw the newest cut and it has a lot of the animation. I've seen the board drawings for a while, but I started to get the animation and it is completely surreal to see really dumb drawings that I made as a teenager like, suddenly being executed in three dimensions and it's gorgeous and the style is amazing. So I'm very excited for everyone to see it.

And Lumberjanes is still in the development period. This is a little more standard. I said that She-Ra was unsual in the animation industry and part of that is that the development happened very very quickly. Less than a year. For most animated projects it takes longer than that. So on Lumberjanes we are still on the development phase. We haven't launched into the actual production of the show yet. It's still on the writing and creating the look of the show, finding a studio and everything like that. I think that I'll hopefully have more news about it soon for you. And I think that it's going to be also really cool. So... yeah. *applause*

Interviewer: Great. (To the public) Any questions?

#1 audience question: 1) I heard some rumors that you had trouble with Netflix because the series did not have as much advertisement as they wanted, the low-budget... That was the case? 2) Would you be interested to start working for other platforms like Amazon?

ND Stevenson: Something that not many people know it's that I actually haven't worked for Netflix. I created She-Ra as the show that you saw on Netflix, but I made it at DreamWorks. DreamWorks is it's own animation studio and they had a deal with Netflix that Netflix would stream the shows that DreamWorks was producing. So that was the deal. That's different now. They still do co-productions with DreamWorks, but they [Netflix] created their own animation studio after a year or so after I started working on She-Ra. So actually I didn't have much interaction with Netflix at all. I didn't get notes from them. I didn't know my executives there personally... Actually, I did, but... One of my executives was actually a good friend of mine. But I didn't actually have meetings with Netflix in any way.

If there's rumors about being trouble with Netflix it's certainly not in any kind of working relationship way. They are pretty mysteryous, they guard their algorithm pretty closely. But yeah, that was my experience with Netflix. For me it was very positive. I can't speak any more to what their reaction towards the show was because we were in different places. Hope that answers that.

I'm not currently working with Amazon, but that's something that is definitely... it's pretty common in animation to kind of move around from studio to studio. So it's definitely posible.

#2 audience question: I'm almost 30 so I'm a bit old for the She-Ra target audience, but me and my friend loved it because there is a lot of queer representation. For me and my friend that is very important. I was wondering how it felt because we're more of less of the same age, so we've grown up with similar cartoons and there was nothing that showed you what queer means. We didn't really see ourselves in mainstream shows. I was wondering how it felt to put for the queer community out there this clear representation.

ND Stevenson: It was obviously pretty important for me in a personal level. But another thing that I don't know if that many people know it's that when I got the job I wasn't out yet as gay. So it was certainly not something... Honestly, the show is probably responsible for making me way gayer, just working on it. *everybody laughs*

But it was something very important to me, just in the world of the show, you know? For me, it's always queer characters, they're always on the front of what I make, even before I was out. But also it's something that is defined by the show itself, what makes the world feel more alive. So I felt that having very fluid gender expression was an important par of the show. Because honestly, the original show has fairly fluid gender. He-Man wears pink and purple in his clothes and then wears a furry diaper when he transforms as He-Man. All the characters are wearing tights and belly shirts and men and women, there're not non-binary people in the original show, but it makes sense for us that there would be. So there's something for me that made the world feel more alive. And again, rainbows and drag queen princesses were such a big part of the original that it just makes sense to [have them] and it made our world feel bigger and more expansive. So that was a lot of my thinking behind it, and sometimes it was an easy sell I think. We were pleasantly surprised that the studio would be very receptive for Bow to have two dads. And Double Trouble, we were very excited about that and very supportive of hiring a non-binary voice actor.

And then there were other things that were a harder sell. I got on the phone with a lot of different people for the Adora and Catra relatioship and had to pitch it a bunch of different times to different people. Got a few notes at first. And then, you know, appealed it, and then the noes turned into yeses. And I still didn't believed it until I was actually watching the final season on Netflix. I didn't believed it'd really happen. But it did so, yeah, that was really cool.

*when the interpreter was translating this answer by ND he tried to hit the fly 🪰 and everybody laughed and applaud, it was really funny*

Interviewer: (To the public) One last question with a short answer?

#3 audience question: In the series there's a lot of characters. I wanted to ask who do you relate to the most?

ND Stevenson: I think all the characters have little bits of me and the rest of the crew. I think almost every character is sort of- there's someone on the crew who identified with them really strongly and that person became more expert on the character. So we have someone who strongly identified with Entrapta, or Tecnia as you said... (Tecnia is the name of Entrapta in the Spanish dub <3) I forget they have different names sometimes. Which is a great name, Tecnia is a great name! *public laughs* But yeah. Almost all of the characters had some counterpart among the crew.

For me, I think that I sort of related the most to a tie between Adora, Catra and Glimmer. One of the things I struggled with on the show was that I was very young when I was hired and I'd never been a manager before. And I mostly just worked on my own stuff and so, having to suddenly become a leader was a thing that I found very difficult and very scary. Like, I really really wanted to do a good job. I wanted everyone on the crew to be taken care of. And it was very difficult and terrifying. That's something that I think all three of those characters deal with in different ways.

Glimmer unexpectedly becomes the new queen. Adora changes sides and suddenly has to deal with all the guilt of having been on the bad guys side before. And Catra has this drive and this ambition, but she also starts to fall apart the higher up the ladder she moves.

I put a lot of those feelings into the characters. With Glimmer there's an episode where she can't go on missions anymore with Bow and Adora because she needs to stay and go to meetings, which was like my everyday. Everyone's going to do something fun and I have to be in a meeting, I can't hang out with [other crew members]. Like Adora in the episode where they play D&D and she keeps just being like: "no no NO, we're all gonna die and everything is gonna go wrong" and she's trying to anticipate every possible way it could go wrong. That was a lot of like, you know, having to conceptualize and keep consistent a story that was going to be told in such a long period of time, with such a large crew of people. That was how my brain felt a lot of the time. A lot of these feelings were poured into she show through the characters. Those are the characters that I think I have the strongest connection to.

(ND is, in fact, wordy, so it wasn't a short answer LOL)

Interviewer: There are big threats and the world needs to be saved a lot of times, and at the same time what you're woried the most is if the characters will recover their friendship... What's going to happen next? Someone will pay attention to Scorpia? *everybody laughs* This shows us something that happens in our lifes as well, that a big event can change you as much as an event that may seem small. This series also shows us that being different is cool, being the same as everyone else can be pretty boring. Being different can be even desirable. ND said that at the beggining he started working with someone who changed his life and who gave him a show such as The Powerpuff Girls, and I anticipate to him that right now, very very soon, there will be people that will say "I'm working for ND Stevenson, who changed my life thanks to She-Ra and his other works". To make easier our wait for the next year [Celsius 2023], when he comes back to Avilés, we're gonna say goodbye to him with a very very strong applause.

*all the public applauses, ND does a heart shape with his hands 🫶 He also thanked the Celsius 232 organizers and the public for coming*

This interview was done on Friday 22nd, july 2022. ND Stevenson made another talk/interview the day before. After that one talk I went to the signing and got my copy of Nimona signed. He was really nice and we could talk with him a little bit. He seemed really happy to visit this event in Spain and I'm really excited to see him next year. At that time the Nimona movie will be out, so I'm sure that we'll be able to know more about it and his future projects!

Photo with ND Stevenson during the book signing on Thursday. My boyfriend and I went together. We both love Stevenson's stories. <3

Thanks to ND Stevenson for coming to Spain and to Celsius 232!! I've been going every year to this event since 2018 and they always have great authors and the festival is really nice. I've learned a lot of stuff thanks to this festival and with talks like this one that ND made. The event is mostly about books and literature, but as you can see other forms of media are in Celsius 232 as well.

That's all! Thank you so much for reading this whole thing. I hope that it was interesting. <3

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short-wooloo · 10 months

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From Jediism to Judaism: Star Wars as Jewish Allegory, by Daniel Perez

A look at some of the Jewish elements – coincidental or otherwise – of Star Wars.

A long time ago in a place far, far away...

It is a period of civil war. A new government has declared the practice of the old faith a crime punishable by death, disbanding an ancient order of sages and sending many into exile. Rebel fighters, striking from a hidden base, have won their first major victory against the evil Empire, stirring a spirit of defiance among the populace. Outarmed and vastly outnumbered, the ragtag band of rebels – aided by an all-powerful, all-permeating Force that binds together all life in the universe – remain the only hope for restoring peace and freedom to their people.

It's one of the greatest epics known to mankind. No, not Star Wars. The above synopsis is actually the story of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival that commemorates a miraculous victory of Israelite insurgents against the tyrannical Seleucid Empire roughly 2,200 years ago.

With Star Wars Episode VII set to premiere in just a few short weeks, I got to thinking about how certain aspects of the Star Wars universe are eerily similar to the history, beliefs, and teachings of the Jews. Now George Lucas did not set out to create a fantasy universe full of Jewish references, but the connections are nevertheless there. So let's put the “Han” back in Hanukkah (Harrison Ford, by the way, technically a member of the tribe) and look at some of the Jewish elements – coincidental or otherwise – of Star Wars.

A Galaxy of Hebrew Names

The heroes of the Star Wars series are members of a “rebel alliance,” basically Maccabees in outer space. It's right there in the name: Jedi. The Hebrew letter yud is often anglicized as a “J,” and syllables occasionally get dropped in translation. Hence, a Biblical name like “Yehoshua” makes its way into English as “Joshua.” It's not much of a stretch to see how “Jedi” can be derived the original Hebrew word for Jew, “Yehudi.”

Remember Luke Skywalker's Jedi rebbe, Grand Master Yoda? Is it just me, or is his peculiar syntax reminiscent of someone whose first language is Yiddish (“Yodish”)? More to the point, his name sounds a lot like “yada,” the Hebrew word meaning “to know.”

And how about those Skywalkers? Luke Skywalker might sound like a gentile name, but that name was clearly chosen to alliterate with his twin sister Leia (Leah). Also keep in mind that their parents were an interfaith couple. The father, Anakin Skywalker, played by the unmistakably un-Jewish Hayden Christensen, tried to convert to Jediism, but as we know he ultimately turned to the Dark Side instead. Their mother was Queen Amidala, portrayed by the beautiful and talented Israeli-born actress Natalie Portman. Suffice it to say their marriage did not end well, and it wasn't until much later in life that their children discovered their Jedi-ish identity.

Learning Academy

When an aspiring Jedi Knight goes to the Academy, he or she must complete what is essentially an apprenticeship with one more learned in Jediism than they are. Similarly, a future rabbi's yeshiva experience will consist largely of chavruta learning (studying with a partner – lit. “friendship”). Fun fact: The name for a young, unmarried yeshiva student, “bochur,” actually means “chosen” (as in “The Chosen People”). The idea of a foretold “Chosen One” who would “restore balance to the Force” was a theme running throughout the Star Wars films, wherein Anakin Skywalker was recognized for his extraordinary potential as a Jedi. As mentioned above, he went “off the derech” and became the villainous Darth Vader. In Return of the Jedi, however, Vader/Skywalker fulfills the “prophecy” when he does teshuvah (our term for repentance, which literally means “return.” Whoa. Return of the Jedi!), thwarting Emperor Palpatine to save his son's life, and ultimately, the galaxy.

Of course, if you tell a young rabbi-in-training that he is the “Chosen One,” it sounds cool and dramatic and is technically true, but then, the same can be said of all of his classmates.

While the Star Wars films don't feature Jedi trainees delving into sacred texts (it doesn't make for the most exciting movie montage), some of the greatest rabbinic books of ethics and Jewish philosophy would be right at home in any Jedi library. “Duties of the Heart,” “The Path of the Just”....tell me these don't sound like the reading list for a hero of the Light Side.

The Force

While Jediism isn't a theistic religion per se, its practitioners do teach of a Force that, in the words of Reb Obi-Wan Kenobi "...is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together." That almost sounds like some sort of Chasidic teaching – just replace “energy field” with “entity” or “consciousness,” and “created by,” with “that creates,” and what you have starts to come across less like new age hippie talk and more like an introduction to Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism.

One idea that devout Jews of all stripes share, is that God, the creative “Force” that sustains all, is the source of a Jew's power. “Ein od milvado,” there is none besides Him. The Jew expresses his or her connection to the universe by striving for an ever closer relationship with its Creator.

Another aspect of Jedi belief is the notion of balance, the idea that the Light Side and the Dark Side are both aspects of the same Force seeking equilibrium. The religions that branched off from Judaism tend to show the Creator and Satan, or “The Devil,” in an adversarial relationship, almost a sort of de facto dualistic theology with a God and an anti-God, if you will. Judaism maintains that the Satan (lit. “Accuser”) is the angel associated with temptation, and prosecution in the Heavenly Court. He's basically Slugworth to God's Willy Wonka. He's got a dirty job to do, but in the end, we're both serving the same Boss.

Judaism also teaches that the source of Light and Darkness are One and the same, as it says in the prayer book: “Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who forms light and creates darkness, Who makes peace and creates all things.” The source for this line of liturgy can be found in the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 45:7: “Who forms light and creates darkness, Who makes peace and creates evil; I am the Lord, Who makes all these.”

Incidentally, one of the traditional names for God – invoked particularly by the Jewish mystics – is HaMakom, literally “The Place.” The deeper idea conveyed by this name is that the Creator does not exist within the universe; the universe exists within Him. It sounds a lot like The Force. The key conceptual difference between the fictitious all-uniting Force of Star Wars and the Shechinah or “Divine Presence” is that the former is impersonal and passive, the latter is an omnipotent consciousness that actively intervenes in human history, speaking with Prophets and working miracles until this very day.

So if you see the new Star Wars movie, directed by Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (who couldn't sound more Jewish if his name was Saul Cohen or Herschel Rosenblatt), perhaps you'll be able to seek out and appreciate the surprisingly Jewish flavor of the Star Wars universe.

Happy Hanukkah, and may the Force be with you!

#wooloo-writes #wooloo writes #star wars #sw #jedi #jedi and judaism #judaism #✡️#article #chanukah #hanukkah #happy hanukkah #happy chanukah

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entwinedmoon · 9 months

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While I don't have any new research to share today, there is one new Torrington-related development that I just have to mention:

There's an independent film featuring ice mummies that were inspired by Torrington and the Beechey Boys!!!

The movie is called The Hyperborean. It's a comedy/family drama/mystery/sci-fi supernatural fantasy genre mashup that has been described as "bonkers" Probably because the ice mummies shoot laser beams. It sounds completely ridiculous and I want to see it a million times. Right now it's making its way through the indie film festival circuit, so it's not in theaters or streaming, but hopefully it will be available for everyone to watch one day.

There are screenshots available online, though, and they did such a good job on the Torrington-looking mummy.

The half-opened eyes, the curled back lips, the yellowish skin, the kerchief wrapped under his jaw... They even have the dark stain on Torrington's forehead and nose (from the piece of navy blue fabric that had been placed over him). It's really impressive how well they did the makeup and costume. This is the closest Torrington has ever come to appearing on screen outside of a documentary, and I for one can't wait to shove this movie in my eyeballs.

#john torrington #the hyperborean #john torrington baptism party #franklin expedition

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literatemisfit · 7 months

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Tennant admitted he felt a bit “bewildered” when he was first asked to host, but then thought: “What a laugh, what a lark.”

“It just felt like an honour and a privilege to be asked to do something so august”, he added.

“It’s just nice to be on that side of it. It’s obviously thrilling for everyone who’s nominated and there’s so many exciting films to be celebrating, but also that’s pretty nerve-racking, I just have to stand up.”

Tennant, who has also starred in crime drama Broadchurch and fantasy comedy Good Omens, has previously presented as part of Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day line-up.

He said hosting not being his normal day job has taken some pressure off of him, adding: “I sort of don’t have anything to prove, because this isn’t really what I do.

“It’ll either work and everyone will be terribly nice about it or it’ll be a total disaster and I’ll never be asked again. Either way – it’s fine.”

The actor revealed he was feeling “pretty relaxed” ahead of the show but thinks the prospect of it will become more “nerve-racking” in the lead-up to the big night.

Asked if his co-star Tate could make an appearance alongside him at the show, he said: “Listen, there’s nobody I enjoy working with more than Catherine, so who knows?”

In 2023 Tennant appeared with Tate at the TV Baftas to present the best features award to Joe Lycett VS Beckham: Got Your Back At Xmas.

As the host, he said he was staying “entirely neutral” on who he thinks could win big at the award show but praised the level of talent in the world of film this year.

“It’s been a big old year, hasn’t it? And there was that Barbenheimer moment in the middle of the year where suddenly everyone’s talking about going to the cinema and being part of an audience,” he said.

“We’re bouncing back (after) the world went through a slightly weird thing, where we all locked ourselves in our house.

“Cinema, as with theatre, which is another area that is hugely important to myself and to the arts world, they are all about people having a collective experience and sitting in rooms together…

“And it took a minute and I think this is the year where that’s bounced back…

“You look at the the shortlist and there’s some extraordinary stuff on it, extraordinary performances and brilliant pieces of work, so it’s a great year to be hosting this event.

“It feels like a bit of a bumper crop and I feel like I’ve won a prize without being up for it or having to worry about that side of it.”

#david tennant #bafta #awards #interview

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rodeoromeo · 14 days

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hello !! I'm woefully unversed in bob movies and thought I'd go to the expert... besides the pat garrett one which I've seen what would you say is the best starting place? (this is surrealisticduvet lol when will we be able to send asks from sideblogs :/ )

!!! Hiiiiii thank you for coming to me with this!!!

There are a couple categories of Bob movie- there are his acting roles, there are a couple documentaries made by his team in the earlier days of his career or comprised of just straight up footage of him that function more like a narrative, and there are your standard talking head interview style documentaries. And then there’s Rolling Thunder Revue which I would hesitate to categorize any which way.

Bob’s two really significant acting roles worth visiting by absolutely anyone are Hearts of Fire and Masked and Anonymous. For someone starting from ground zero, I would recommend Hearts of Fire out of those two. It’s generally just more fun and palatable, and Bob’s performance is both hilarious and adorable. It’s a cultural touchstone in his career in my opinion and if you watch it enough time you start to genuinely believe it’s a good movie. (That being said, Masked and Anonymous IS genuinely good and I recommend it wholeheartedly, just maybe further down the line)

As far as those weird documentaries of organic footage go, the main ones you’re looking at are Don’t Look Back, Eat the Document, and The Other Side of the Mirror. Of those I most highly recommend Don’t Look Back- it’s available in way higher definition than Eat the Document, and it captures Bob’s personality and performance at a specific moment (1965) in a really special way. There’s very little music performance in it, it’s more just following him around on tour and in interviews and behind the scenes. The Other Side of the Mirror is an astonishing look at Bob’s musical evolution through his performances at the Newport Folk Festival over the years. Very different concept but I think it belongs in this category because it comes across as a very clear narrative and has an emotional arc just by being what it is.

There are a lot of typical documentaries about Bob and his career but the gold standard is really No Direction Home, by Martin Scorsese, which is full of interviews from Bob and his folky friends, as it gives a full overview of Bob’s life and career ONLY up to 1966. It’s got a lot of great footage, including remastered stuff from Eat The Document, and it’s interesting and well put together, although it’s very long. If you want to learn more about Bob and also see a lot of great footage of him, and hear from people like Pete Seeger and Joan Baez, it’s a good thing to gradually visit.

Scorsese’s Rolling Thunder Revue “a Bob Dylan Story” is somewhere between all three of these categories. It’s comprised of remastered footage from Bob’s failed 1975 film Renaldo and Clara as well as talking head interviews with a series of people. Some of these people are real and were on the tour, and some are playing characters that help spin a completely false narrative of what happened on the tour and what the purpose of this footage was. The farce is entertaining and Bob gave “interviews” for it that are really cute and funny, and the 1975 footage is some of the best Bob you’ll ever see. A lot of people have mixed feelings about this one but for me- it’s madly entertaining and the footage is remarkable and it’s like a wonderful fantasy that will sweep you away. It’s a true film.

I’m sorry, that was probably WAY more information than you needed, but now you have at the very least a base level of info about what Bob film is out there! Tldr; depending on your mood I’d recommend Hearts of Fire, Don’t Look Back, and Rolling Thunder Revue.

Thank you again! Have fun with these and pls let me know what you end up thinking of any of them! <3

#and as a general rule I think anyone interested in Bob should see no direction home but that’s like. a seperate endeavor I think #op #bob dylan #b talks

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precuredaily · 9 months

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Precure Day 236

Film: Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! The Movie: Happy Birthday in the Land of Sweets! Date watched: 19 March 2023 Original release date: 8 November 2008 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/a0l24df Precure Metamorphose Gallery | Sky Rose Translate Gallery Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination

Given the general theme and when this is coming out, you would expect more Wonka references, butit didn’t occur to me until just now. Oh well. Once again it’s time to take a trip to the movie theater to have a Precure adventure on the big screen. It’s another good one, and puts a different spin on the Precure movie exclusive upgrade that will set a precedent for films to come. So let’s dig in!

The Plot

The film starts with a brief skit by the fairies, in a more limited, puppet show-esque art style. It casts Syrup as a giant monster, with paper wings and seaweed eyebrows, attacking Milk before Coco and Nuts show up and transform into Precures to defeat him with giant mame daifuku and chou cremes. It’s very silly. After that they do a similar lesson as in the first film, introducing the Miracle Light 2 and explaining how to use it. Once again, when they warn not to swing it around in case you hit your neighbor, there’s an exaggerated detail shot of a battered fairy: Syrup and Nuts in this case. It’s so out there for Precure and makes me laugh.

After that, the movie kicks off properly. It’s Nozomi’s birthday and everyone is setting up for a party at Natts House while she sleeps. Coco gently wakes her, teases her for her sleeping habits, and then declares that she looked like Sleeping Beauty. Nozomi is enamored by this comparison and fantasizes a little bit about being awoken by a kiss. Coco teases her further by asking if he should have kissed her awake like in the story, causing Nozomi to become extremely flustered and deny this. Coco claims he was just kidding, so they go and join the birthday festivities.

This is only Nozomi’s fantasy

As they’re about to cut the cake, an oven suddenly appears out of nowhere, and out of it comes a girl who introduces herself as Princess Chocola of the Sweets Kingdom. Coco and Nuts know her, and this makes Milk act jealous. Chocola is being chased by Bunbee, who turns Nozomi’s birthday cake into a Hoshiina to capture her, so the girls transform to fight. As usual, this is where you really see where the film budget is going, as the cures jump around and attack in duos with punches, kicks, and their special moves. At one point they topple the cake monster onto Bunbee, who teleports away, and they finish it off with Rainbow Rose Explosion. As thanks for their efforts, Chocola transports everyone to the Sweets Kingdom, which is a land where everything is made of candy or confections, and says she wants to take them to the castle. There’s a quick cut to the throne room in the castle, where Bunbee talks to the Queen and reveals he brought the Precures as requested and asks for payment, but he is chased out by the Queen’s two advisors, Dry and Bitter Amidst this, the Queen declares she’s going to eat the sweets of Precure.

Finally, about 20 minutes into the film, the opening theme plays over a montage of everyone trying out all kinds of sweets from all over the kingdom on their way to the castle, which is on top of a giant layer cake. There’s a brief scare when Karen points out that eating all these sweets will make them fat, but Princess Chocola assures them that Sweets Kingdom snacks don’t make you fat. Dry and Bitter show up to continue escorting the girls around the kingdom, while they instruct Chocola to take all the fairies to the castle. She seems uncomfortable, but does as she’s told. Dry and Bitter try to sow discord, acting disdainful for sweets and the enjoyment of them. At one point they criticize Nozomi for picking run-of-the-mill cream puffs to give to Coco instead of something more unique to this world, but she’s not bothered, and Rin also explains to them that Coco loves cream puffs so he will appreciate the sentiment. The two aides don’t really understand. Eventually, the obvious villains make their move: they lure the girls to different locations and then kidnap them, with the objective of turning them into sweets. Dry takes Rin and Karen to the freezer, intent on transforming them into ice cream. Bitter takes Urara and Komachi to the oven to become cookies.

While this is happening, Coco and Nuts are about to enter the castle’s throne room, but they can tell that Chocola is hiding something and they coax her to explain what’s happening. She almost speaks up, but before she can come clean, they’re all summoned into the Queen’s chamber. The throne room is dark and dilapidated, with rubble on the floor and huge bites taken out of all the pillars. Chocola is clearly scared of her mother, who quickly captures Nuts, Syrup, and Milk while implying that she’ll soon eat the Precure. Chocola runs away from the castle in tears, passing by a lonely Nozomi who is looking for her friends. Nozomi can’t ignore a crying girl (in her own words) and tries to find out why the princess is upset, but before she can get an answer, a masked person shows up to fight her.

“I’m not Coco, Coco doesn’t wear a mask!”

The audience will immediately realize that the enemy is Coco, but Nozomi doesn’t seem to recognize him. He declares that she is the last Precure and the others will soon be dead. The five girls, in their separate environments, transform into Precure. They put up good fights but are overpowered and begin to turn into sweets, with Cure Dream becoming chocolate. The fairies manage to free themselves and rush to save Dream and Coco, successfully separating Dream from her opponent. When they’re safe, Syrup accuses Chocola of betraying them, but all the nearby citizens defend her, with the justification that her sweets still taste good, so she can’t be a bad person. (This will be somewhat important later.) Mailpo also tells Syrup that Chocola helped free them all. The princess reveals to Cure Dream that a bad person called Mushiban is controlling her mother and she’s too scared to confront him. However, she does pull out her Miracle Light and restore Dream’s chocolate arm to normal. Dream encourages Chocola to be brave for the sake of her friends and family, and so they fly back to the castle to save the Queen. Dark Coco ambushes them mid-flight, so Dream takes him on while Chocola goes to rescue her mother.

Dream’s duel with Dark Coco is intercut with shots of her teammates having been completely converted to sweets, but as she espouses how much she wants to spend time with them and hang out and do normal friend things, her strong feelings reach her friends.

They manage to break free from their sugary prisons, quickly turning the tides on Dry and Bitter and defeating them. When Dream is almost completely turned to chocolate, Dark Coco tries to kiss her, mockingly, but she breaks his grip. He removes his visor and reveals his identity to Dream, who stops fighting back now that she knows who he is. She pivots to dodging and running from his attacks while calling his name, hoping to break through to him. Ultimately it’s revealed that he’s actually being puppeteered by Mushiban through a gem on his chest. Mushiban uses Coco’s latent power to summon a Black Fleuret and continues to attack. However, Dream is starting to get through to him, and the gem controlling him begins to crack. Dark Coco moves in for the final blow against Dream, but freezes as Coco fights for control of his body. Dream quickly moves in to kiss him, causing the controlling gem to completely shatter, and he falls to the ground, exhausted..At last fully awake and freed from the spell, he thanks Nozomi profusely for saving him..

Meanwhile, Chocola makes it to the throne room, where she runs into Kurumi and asks for help taking down the bad person controlling her mother. A furious Mushiban leaves his hiding space behind the throne room, declaring his contempt for the values of courage, hope, and love that the Cures were going on about, just as Kurumi and Chocola arrive in the chamber. Chocola goes to save her mother while Kurumi transforms into Milky Rose and fights the villain. Their battle takes them all around the throne room, exchanging blows, breaking even more pillars, and threatening to bring the roof down. At several points Rose barely avoids Mushiban’s attacks. Chocola avoids the falling rubble and pleads to her mother, and the controlling gem in the Queen’s tiara begins to crack like Coco’s did. She talks about all the things she wants to learn from her mother, like tasty sweets, smiles, and love, and this seems to really get through to her.

Mushiban tries to step in to once again decry this nonsense, but Milky Rose chastises him for interrupting, and summons the Milky Mirror to perform Milky Rose Metal Blizzard. Mushiban gets buried in a pile of rubble and an exhausted Milky Rose reverts all the way back to Milk. At the same time, Chocola tells her mother she loves her, and the controlling stone crumbles, freeing the Queen. Mushiban isn’t down for the count yet, as he rises from the rubble and expresses his desire to eat delicious sweets while slowly moving towards the Queen. The other Precures all arrive to block his path, and the Queen explains that she has made him plenty of sweets, the reason he isn’t satisfied is because he has no heart. He doesn’t like this answer, so he begins powering up, intending to bring the entire Sweets Kingdom down.

all the ovens in the kingdom couldn’t deliver this much of a burn

The cake and the castle atop it are split down the middle, pierced by a giant tower twice as tall as the cake mountain. The sky outside turns dark and rubble falls on the land, endangering innocent bystanders. Queen Dessert creates a platform to transport the Cures to the top of the cake, and Chocola accompanies them. They meet Mushiban at the top of his tower, preparing to destroy the entire Land of Sweets. He declares that their battle will be a test of their ideals: his desire to devour everything against the love, courage, and hope of the Cures and the Queen and princess.

Then the fight begins. Mushiban has the upper hand, throwing the Cures around with a mix of chops, blocks, grabs, kicks, and light energy attacks, and mocking their so-called strength. He summons a huge ball of energy and directs it at the ground, causing it to expand out in every direction. Dream runs back to protect Chocola, so she takes the brunt of the attack while the others are knocked aside. Mushiban declares there’s no more hope, courage, or love left, but Chocola rejects this, insisting these values will never go away, and her Miracle Light glows. She calls upon the strength of her friendship with Nozomi, and asks everyone to give their power to Cure Dream. Power flows to the top of the tower, and on the ground Queen Dessert asks everyone to use their Miracle Lights and combine their strength. Everyone channels their energy and it flows into Dream as she stands up to Mushiban and smiles. The power upgrades her into an all white version of her Cure outfit and she grows angel wings, reintroducing herself as the miraculous light of blooming feelings, Shining Dream.

Angel wings are ALWAYS cool

Mushiban, still refuting her values, has ditched most of his armor and takes Shining Dream on in tight pants and a midriff-exposing tank top as he summons a beam sword. Shining Dream explains that sweets taste the best when shared with friends, and she wants to share all her feelings, good and bad, with her friends. She summons her own blade, the Starlight Fleuret, and flies around Mushiban, clashing blades with him as she explains that her powers blossom when she’s being cheered on. Shining Dream manages to break his guard and performs her special attack: Precure Starlight Solution. She becomes light itself, piercing Mushiban with dozens of beams before reassembling on the other side. Finally defeated, he begins to dissolve, and asks if it’s true that sweets taste better when shared. Nozomi affirms this, and he disappears into gold dust, smiling, having found peace too late. All the damage to the kingdom gradually fades away as the sky clears.

her genuine sadness gets to me

Later, the kingdom is having a birthday party for Nozomi. Chocola presents Nozomi with a new birthday cake, admitting she got some help from her mother. The queen thanks them all for saving the kingdom, and they all pop confetti cannons to finally wish Nozomi a happy birthday. She turns to face the camera and thanks everybody as the ending credits begin to play.

The ending credits have Chocola standing in front of the cake mountain, holding a flip notebook with pictures of the party. They collectively tell a rather funny story on their own:

Everyone is sitting around wearing animal ears

Nozomi relishes her slice of cake a little too much.

Bunbee is seen standing alone in Eternal, looking forlorn and eating the cake that he stole. He also has animal ears for some reason.

Karen and Rin take a picture posing with Dry

Urara and Komachi chat with Bitter

Nozomi tries to kiss Coco again, in his fairy form, and he seems a bit reluctant. Syrup just looks annoyed in the background while Kurumi is really flipping out about this betrayal.

If you’re keeping track, that’s the third attempted kiss in this movie.

Nuts is seen dressed up in Dark Coco’s outfit, and he really does not seem to like it. Neither does Cocol. Komachi appears conflicted and Nozomi is living for it.

Urara is seen performing on a stage, while the crowd of people waves their miracle lights in unison.

The next slide is a reverse of this, showing all the main characters (Syrup, Komachi, Rin, Coco, Nozomi, Chocola, Nuts, Queen Dessert, Karen, and Kurumi) standing in front of the crowd watching Urara perform and waving their lights.

Next is a picture of Chocola fixing Nozomi’s animal ears, while Nuts looks sad, Karen and Komachi giggle at each other, and Kurumi has heart eyes for some reason.

Lastly is a picture of everyone, where all the girls are sitting in the front row and the boys and queen stand behind them. Chocola is hugging Nozomi and everyone is smiling for the camera. The real Chocola, holding the notebook, waves goodbye at the audience as the music comes to an end and the credits say “Owari” or “The End”.

Since the credits play over this during the movie, it can be hard to get a good view at the images in still form, but I took screenshots of each slide using the creditless version of the ending theme and uploaded them to the gallery for your enjoyment.

The Analysis

The early years of Precure had a great run of films, and this is a proud continuation of that legacy. It’s outwardly kind of simple, thematically, but it pushes its message with such sincerity that you can’t help but be drawn in. It also has a really inspired alternate world, probably the best since Splash Star, and a fun original villain. For bonus points, there is 100% less gratuitous celebrity voice acting in this compared to the last two. The movie has a good setup, build up, payoff, and climax. It delivers memorable scenes, crafts loving character moments, and is a great story about family and friendship.

The friendship theme in this film plays out differently from prior movies..The FWPC era movies were about the two partners having a disagreement and later making up with each other, showing that the strength of their bond was their source of power. The first Precure 5 movie did the opposite, forcefully splitting up the girls and proving that their friendship was a source of strength even when they’re apart from each other. In this film, the girls are split up again, and there’s definitely an element of the strong-even-when-apart concept, but the message is more about how friends make everything more fun and enjoyable, and Nozomi gets the lion’s share of that. Yes, she’s the center of the team, and the main character of the series, but a whole bunch of Nozomi’s screentime involves her either spending time with her friends or espousing how much she wants to.

Like in the previous film, Dream is unique in that she doesn’t defeat her opponent by simply overpowering them physically and leaving them too weak to continue. Instead she is able to sympathize with them and resonate with their feelings. It’s not a perfect mirror to what she did with Dark Dream, since Coco is mind controlled and already an ally of hers, but the parallels are obvious, and that kindness and compassion is her greatest strength. Even Mushiban begins to admit this, in his final moments.

There’s also a secondary theme, as in the previous movie, about standing up against abuse and finding strength in different ways, which is visualized through Chocola’s relationships with Mushiban and Nozomi. Chocola goes through a great arc herself, starting out feeling helpless and desperate, and ultimately being willing to stand up to a powerful evil, thanks to the strength and courage that Nozomi inspired in her.

That actually results in an interesting phenomenon. While Nozomi is the main character that the narrative follows, Chocola is more of the protagonist whose actions move the plot forward and who grows as a person. She’s the one who leads Bunbee to the Precures, and then takes them to the Land of Sweets. She brings everyone to the castle where they are then kidnapped by the villains. After Coco is possessed by Mushiban, she frees the other fairies and runs to Nozomi for help. She frees her mother from Mushiban’s control and enables Nozomi to become Shining Dream. Almost every major plot event is instigated by her, even if she’s doing Mushiban’s bidding, and Nozomi and co. are there to respond. Naturally, Nozomi still has an important role in the narrative as she confronts Dark Coco and comforts and inspires Chocola to take her steps against Mushiban in the first place and I’m not trying to downplay her accomplishments. Both of them are strong characters here and they complement each other well. Nozomi spends most of the movie just being really nice, wanting to get stuff to share with her friends. When the bad guys question this or say it’s useless, she shuts them down and emphasizes that people appreciate being thought about. It’s still friendship and love, as always, just a different angle on it and I think that’s a nice touch.

As far as antagonists go, Mushiban is the only one of note. Dry and Bitter just kind of exist to say and do bad things. They’re one-note as villains. They have no motivation of their own. They aren’t even named in the narrative, just the credits, and they only exist to save Mushiban’s reveal for the final act. Fortunately, Mushiban himself is more fleshed out. Even though he doesn’t appear on screen until the third act, he’s an active participant in the story from the beginning, since he’s controlling Queen Dessert, Dry, Bitter, and later Coco, and this allows the audience to get an impression of how powerful he is. His motivation is hilariously simple: he wants to finally actually experience the deliciousness that sweets can bring. The rub is that he’ll kill five girls in order to do it, which suddenly sounds a lot more dark. His absolute conviction to this goal (and the excellent voice acting) keeps him threatening. I enjoyed him because he had a powerful presence throughout the film, starting from the disheveled state of the throne room and the Queen who clearly wasn’t herself, up to the climax where he’s engaged in a furious sword fight with Shining Dream. He never lets up until the very end, where he finally begins to accept the error of his ways.

The other characters in the film are, unfortunately, not given much to work with. The other Precures just kind of feel like they’re along for the ride, as they don’t contribute to the narrative beyond occasional lines about enjoying spending time together. Kurumi is absolutely shit upon, given almost nothing to do other than tagging along with the other fairies. She completely transforms during the opening battle against Bunbee. Near the climax she gives Chocola a pep talk when the princess has already committed to defying Mushiban, and Milky Rose fights him to keep him busy while Chocola frees her mother, but she uses up her energy and doesn’t even get to participate in the big final battle. It makes sense within the established rules about her powers, but I think it is a big middle finger from a writing standpoint. She had a whole arc in the show not so long ago about how she wants to be a part of the team AND also be a caretaker for Coco and Nuts. I wish the movie writer was privy to that. It’s also possible the movie was written before the producers of the series decided to introduce Milky Rose, and so she was a late addition to the script, which could explain her limited role, but that’s only my speculation.

The action scenes, thankfully, are generally top notch (there’s definitely some moments of lackluster though). They’re fast-paced and creative. In the early scene at Natts House, there’s a part where Lemonade grabs the Hoshiina with Prism Chain and then she, along with Dream and Aqua, swings it around and hurls it towards Bunbee, which really stands out to me as something they wouldn’t be able to do on TV. The battles in the Sweets Kingdom where the girls are being turned into sweets are intense. They’re pierced and attacked by weapons in a way that they probably couldn’t get away with in the show. Bitter uses ice needles to attack Rouge and Aqua, which are seem to sink into their skin and turn them into ice pops. Similarly, Dry flings flat-edged cards that seem to cut the skin. Both of these actions slide under the radar because there’s no blood, but it’s powerful imagery. Meanwhile, Dream’s fight with Dark Coco is full of powerful blows given a lot of emphasis mixed in with some beam attacks. The two jump all over the place, and Dream pulls off an impressive series of back handsprings to evade. When Dark Coco reveals his identity and summons his Dark Fleuret, Dream switches only to evading his attacks, except at the apex of their battle. Mushiban, through Coco, tries to strike Nozomi directly on her head with the sword, and she just sits there and lets him, because she has started to get through to him and she believes that Coco can’t bring himself to hurt her. They do a quick fakeout to make it look like blood has been shed, when it’s just juice, and again it’s the type of shot that I think would be too much for Sunday morning.

The climax, where the cures face off against Mushiban together, is short lived. They try and fail to land hits on him, and he throws everyone either on the ground or into each other, and then puts them all out of commission with a dark energy attack. It’s good action but sometimes hard to make out what’s happening. This makes way for the true pinnacle moment of the film: Nozomi’s transformation into Shining Dream, and her one-on-one battle with Mushiban. This is where you get some of the best animation in the film, with Shining Dream flying around and clashing swords with Mushiban.There’s a particular moment where she rotates in midair, striking Mushiban twice. As soon as he’s defeated, the lighting turns to a somber twilight appearance, as a nice touch.

The scene where Dream kisses Coco to wake him up is a direct callback to the beginning of the movie, where he teases her about doing the same thing and compares her to Sleeping Beauty. The parallel is obvious, Coco is asleep under a spell and the kiss of his true love lifts that curse. There’s a point in their battle where a mind controlled Coco tries to kiss Dream as well but it’s done mockingly and she slips out of his grasp. It’s also the first onscreen kiss in the entire Precure series, and I believe the only kiss between a main Cure and another character. This makes it all the more special. It does cement their relationship in a way we seldom see in Precure romances, even though they never outright say they love each other or mention this moment later. Despite the sometimes ambiguous way the rest of the series handles it, and Nozomi’s rejection earlier in the film, she loves Coco and cares emphatically about him. The kiss is brought up one last time during the ending montage, when Nozomi attempts to kiss fairy form Coco and he seems nervous, but that’s treated as a gag. (Side note: I am aware that their relationship is controversial to some within the fandom. Whatever your feelings on it, please respect the message of the film.)

Obviously, Shining Dream is our requisite movie super form, but unlike the ones in every other movie, it’s exclusive to Cure Dream, and this will unfortunately become a trend for the next few fall movies. Regardless of the snubbing of the other main characters, let’s go over the design.

It’s a slightly embellished version of Cure Dream’s normal outfit in all white, with pink trim, and her hair is pinker than before. The skirt has an extra layer, as do her sleeves, the cuffs on her boots and gloves now have feather patterns, her back bow has longer trails, the chest butterfly is larger, and she has a pink rose in the center instead of a gem brooch. Also, her hair loops are tied with small wings instead of ribbons. And, obviously, she has angel wings that she retracts half the time. It’s a fantastic design and exactly what I want from a Precure powerup form. White is a good color, as it represents purity and the combination of all other colors of light. Any color can be upgraded to white safely, and it really works here. The pink highlights keep her grounded to her base theme, and the embellishments in the form of more curves and ruffles, and the extra rose on her chest, bring it all together. The angel wings are the icing on the cake. Compared to the Butterfly forms from the last movie, it’s undeniably better, and it even uproots the Phoenix power forms from the Max Heart film as the bext upgrade form so far in this franchise. (thoughts on Cure Angel, Mugen Silhouette, Crescendo Form, and others will come when I get to them).

Regarding the setting, this film continues the trend of the Precure movies taking place in an alternate world such as the Land of Clocks, the Garden of Clouds, or Paris. The Land of Sweets, or Dessert Kingdom, is one of the more creative movie worlds the movies have come up with so far. I think it might be one of my favorites, bumping up with the Land of Toys from the Fresh Precure movie (we’ll get there). It’s got a fun and creative atmosphere, similar to the tasting room scene from Willy Wonka. There’s so much you can do with a world made and also full of food, which they take advantage of. I’m especially fond of the montage that plays during the opening song where you see a bunch of examples of edible stuff.

I criticized the last movie for cramming in celebrity voices, and for a rushed finale. One of those two problems is nonexistent here, thankfully. The climax is still a little quick but it’s appropriately built up to and so there isn’t the same sensation that the writers ran out of time or had to cut some scenes to make it fit. My only complaint is, again, that Kurumi doesn’t get to do much despite supposedly being a main member of the team. I believe the next film, All Stars DX, gives her some more to work with, but it’s a shame she couldn’t shine in her own series’ movie.

Miscellaneous observations

Mushiban’s name is a play on the word 虫歯 (mushiba) meaning tooth decay, which is what happens when you eat too many sweets and don’t care for your teeth. Brush and floss regularly, kids!

Dry and Bitter are somewhat unusual. As I mentioned above, they’re not actually named in the dialog, and pretty much no information is given about them throughout the movie. They aren’t explicitly shown to be controlled by Mushiban, but they have gems on their chests for most of the movie that are gone when they reappear during the epilogue. Since nobody calls them out for their earlier actions, it can only be assumed they were also under Mushiban’s control like Coco and the Queen. Furthermore, they don’t have animal ears in their first appearance, but they do when they meet the girls. After kidnapping Rin, Urara, Komachi, and Karen, they reveal that they’re just headbands and throw them away. However, during their small appearance in the epilogue, they have animal ears once more. Are they fake? Are everyone’s animal ears fake? They had no problem conjuring up enough for all the main cast to wear during the credits montage. Also, Mushiban never has any. There’s a chance that the royal family are the only ones that actually have real animal ears and all the other residents are pretending. It opens up an unusual can of worms. There’s a chance it’s explained in some interview or series book I haven’t read, but maybe it’s truly a mystery.

The movie was released on November 8, Nozomi’s actual birthday.

Coco and Nuts transform into faux-precures in the prologue, calling themselves Cure Coconuts and wearing the outfits of Dream and Mint respectively. Everyone has a thick outline in this sequence for some reason. This is the first ever semi-canonical instance of male Precures. In 2023, the series would finally introduce a legitimate boy Precure in Cure Wing. And it all started here.

Also in the opening sequence, in the transition between the skit about Syrup being a monster, and the actual explanation of the miracle lights, a series of stagehands usher Syrup offstage. Their faces are not seen, but they’re clearly meant to be the five girls. It’s a detail that goes by quickly, to the point I missed it on my first several viewings of the film, so a great easter egg.

If you’re not familiar with Miracle Lights, here’s my writeup on those from the last movie explaining what they are and how they’re used.

Among other notable names, Yoshihiko Umakoshi was a key animator on this film, and in particular is believed to be responsible for animating the fight between Cure Lemonade and Mint and Bitter, as well as the climactic fight between Shining Dream and Mushiban. Umakoshi is a high profile animator and character designer, who is most famous in Precure for his work on the distinctive character designs and animation for Heartcatch Precure. Prior to Precure he spearheaded the Ojamajo Doremi series. He also worked on Casshern Sins and Saint Seiya Omega, and currently is the animation director for My Hero Academia.

Kurumi gets very annoyed and possessive when Chocola gets close to Coco, even though she’s markedly younger than him.

Bunbee’s presence in this film is the first time a TV antagonist has featured in a movie, since they normally feature original villains. Some will appear in future films, but it’s still rare.

During the fall down the purin mountains, Karen is blushing and holding her skirt down as if she’s afraid she’s going to flash someone. Although several of the others are wearing dresses, none of them seem bothered by the risk of exposure, and of course nothing ultimately happens because it’s not that kind of movie. It’s an odd detail to include at all, when everyone always has magic skirts.

Our original voice cast are:

Doi Mika as Queen Dessert. She’s known for playing Queen Serenity in Sailor Moon, Hayase Misa in Macross, and Takani Megumi in Rurouni Kenshin. She previously played Saki’s mother Hyuuga Saori in Splash Star.

Kawata Takeo as Princess Chocola.She played a one-off character named Nozomi in Max Heart, Princess Filia in Splash Star, and later plays Chypre in Heartcatch. She reprises the role of Chocola in DX3.

Otsuka Akio as Mushiban. He’s a veteran voice actor with a long career, famous for his deep voice. Popular roles include Kyoryaku Shunsui in Bleach, Batou in the Ghost in the Shell franchise, and All For One in My Hero Academia. He’s also the voice of Snake in the Metal Gear game series. Mushiban is the only character he has ever played in Precure, and he will reprise the role in All Stars DX3.

Ishida Akira as Dry. He’s known for playing Kaworu in Evangelion, Gaara in Naruto, and Kotaro in Gintama. He also played Cologne in Heartcatch.

Matsukaze Masaya as Bitter. Known for playing MegaBlue in Megaranger and Otori Kyoya in Ouran High School Host Club, he has no other Precure roles

Conclusion

This was another great Precure film. It has a few new ideas to try out, and it executes them well. It pushes the envelope somewhat in terms of what it’s willing to show the audience, and it caps off a great film about family and love. It stumbles in some spots, and a few supporting characters needed more to do, but it’s still a worthwhile experience and a great capstone to the pre-All Stars era.

Next time, on Precure Daily, Syrup has a revelation about his past. Look forward to it!

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