#I mean like Ariel the Shakespeare play character

[the-raging-tempest]

You named Lariel after Ariel TheTempest? 🤩

Hi Kit!! Yes!! I always thought thematically it made sense as Ariel is bound to serve Prospero to gain their freedom. Controls the plays name sake tempest with their magic. It’s where I drew the inspiration for the Crossblooded sorcerer fey and air bloodline. 💕

[amber-jinx]

Life is Strange: BtS fun facts that I've found

1. Remember the oak tree that was lit on fire? Prospero (protrayed by Rachel) set Ariel (Protrayed by Chloe) free from being trapped in an oak tree, and from then on Ariel has been serving Prospero ever since

2. Speaking about that fire which took place in August, Tillamook, the town which arcadia bay is based on, had a Tillamook Burn in August 1933.

3. 07/22 is on the cusp of Cancer and Leo. If I'm not wrong, those born after 7pm that day is a Leo. (Goodness Rach did some serious research.) Cancers tend to be sensitive. Beneath the masks of a lioness is a broken and sensitive soul.

4. Ep 2 title "Brave New World" is also a scene title (if I'm not wrong) in The Tempest. Brave in Shakespearean times means "beautiful", which was used by William Shakespeare sarcastically, saying that the world is in fact far from beautiful.

5. I read from a comment that Brave new world is also a novel inspired by the Tempest, in which the happy drug has the same name as the one Victoria used to drug Rachel

More undercut:

6. A commentary for The Tempest said something like "what attracted readers for hundreds of years is the distinct and ambiguous characters-- admirable or detestable Prospero, loyal or indignant Ariel etc. These descriptions fit the actresses themselves as well.

7. In Prospera's epilogue: "Pray, free me from my bands, with the help, of your good hands". In Shakespeare's context it's encouraging the audience to clap and also free Shakespeare from his stage life, to which he was bound (the tempest was his last play). It's kinda like the to source of what bound him was his wish to entertain, which is kinda what Rachel does with her masks. On a more tragic note, in the LiS context we could also be freeing her by find her body with our "good hands".

Remastered Vs original Rachel

Gotta say Rach looks even more gorgeous in remastered

[trahald-the-burrower]

Mentions of Gollum/Sméagol in JRR Tolkien's Letters (Part 1):

(in order of when they were written.) (And also occassionally split up by my own writings ((written in RED)), and important or interesting facts) (I highlighted the Gollum bits, though sometimes the entire passage is worth reading as it may still relate to the character in a subtle way)

(Ariel and Caliban are characters from Shakespeare's play "The Tempest".)

(JRR Tolkien seems to have drawn inspiration from Shakespeare, indeed -- particularly this play. Caliban is alike to Gollum in more ways than just one. He may have been named after the word "cannibal", which Gollum technically is.)

"One of the most prominent suggestions concerns Caliban being an anagram of the Spanish word caníbal (Carib people), the source of cannibal in English."

(He is also disproportionate in shape -- Creature-like.)

(He becomes a servant for Stephano, at a point, and this relationship is also quite similar to the relationship between Sméagol and Frodo, with Trinculo as Sam.)

(Here is a version of the play.)

(Now we continue with Tolkien's Letters.)

(This is the drawing Horus Engels did of Gollum:)

(Above: Tolkien talking about needing to make changes to THE HOBBIT, specifically Gollum offering to give the Ring away.)

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("I do a very pretty Gollum" -- that he does! Here are a couple of his recordings:)

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(Above: "Being stung by a tarantula when a small child." I love that he believed tarantulas stung. That's why Shelob stung?! He thought that was a thing! I love it. It works in his magical world.)

(Below: What he has to say about Sméagollum in the following letter is very important:)

("Dawning love of Frodo was too easily withered by the jealousy of Sam." I took this as meaning "Sméagol couldn't handle being antagonized by jealous-Sam", but I've seen others taking it as meaning "Sméagol was unable to repent because he was jealous of Sam". I didn't get that impression when reading that particular scene in the book, but it's also not entirely out-of-character. Sam definitely antagonizes Sméagol due to his jealousy, it's made clear more than once, but Sméagol, too, is obviously an envious and possessive person -- not just towards the Ring, but towards Frodo. It's much more obvious with Sam, but, Gollum, when at the Forbidden Pool, is upset with Frodo "not nice Master!" because he believes that he "left poor Sméagol" and "went with new friends". He's actually incredibly agitated by this, to the point that he's reluctant to do as Frodo says, despite his being Master. But… that being said, on the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, when Sméagol found the hobbits sleeping together, he didn't express jealousy -- he actually softened and felt love for Frodo. I think if jealousy were the cause, in that moment, that he'd not have softened once finding them sleeping together, that he wouldn't have had a momentary change of heart at all. And Gollum reacting to Sam's accusations, that was more defensive than it was jealous. Sam, on the other hand, has always antagonized Sméagol out of jealousy, and that fits very well with the Stairs scene. "The jealousy of Sam" also matches well with "the clumsiness in fidelity of Sam", so I do believe Tolkien was referring to Sam's jealousy rather than Gollum's. That's not to say Gollum wasn't somewhat envious, but, rather, that wasn't the main reason he was unable to repent -- I think it was simply that Sam's antagonistic behavior triggered his Gollum side.)

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(The following letter has a lot of important information about young Sméagol! This entire thing should be read, honestly.)

("Déagol, evidently a relative (as no doubt all the members of the small community were)". "I imagine that he [Sméagol] was an orphan." I love that his gift to his grandmother, a fish, was given "grudgingly". I can't say that I blame him, considering Stoors were known to be rather merciless. "As a rule, they were a rough, blunt, and hearty people, whose values were territorial and emphasized the importance of loyalty, nationality, and provincialism. They did not take kindly to mischief, even of the most innocent and harmless kind, and they were generally rougher and harsher on their children than most Hobbits". "It was with the Stoors that the practice of "canning" ((that is, beating a delinquent individual with a walking-stick)) originated and was propagated for the most part." On Farmer Maggot: "he even cruelly and brutally abused Frodo Baggins in his youth by beating. Nonetheless, such behavior was common to Stoors."

(And here we find out that it's the reason they went fishing. In the book, Déagol's in the boat while Sméagol noses about the banks. So Sméagol was planning on gifting his grandmother with the fish Déagol caught hahaha, and this implies Déagol was willing to go along with that.)

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[punkrockisafulltimejob]

Bwuehehe. Writer questions 1, 15, 28, 32, and 46

1: What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting"

I use either Calibri or Ariel, depending. Basically any sans-serif font thats ADHD/Dyslexia friendly. Love reading/writing, hate when words don't stay put lol

15: Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

Good lord lmao.

I just recently started being okay with annotating anf highlighting books. I used to consider it sacrilegious to do so, and then I realized who the fuck cares? They're my books, and fuck it, if I'm gonna let someone else read it, they can have fun reading my thoughts while doing so lol. I do not dog ear, only because I have a tendency to either use scrap paper bookmarks, the fancy bookmarks I keep forgetting I own. I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading in the bath. Unfortunately my family hated when I would read in the bath for two hours. Something about there only being one bathroom for six people lol. I do not judge. Again, who the fuck cares lol. I will be friends with anyone, regardelss of how they treat books. Carry them around everywhere, hoard them on bookshelves, tear out pages, blend them into a smoothie, fuck if I care lol.

28: Who is the most delightful character you've ever written? Why?

Oh goodness, I don't know. I'll always have a special fondness for Cam and Maddie, but I think the most fun character to write has actually been Q Tomlin. They're a nonbinary genderfluid teen navigating high school, coming to terms with a lot of structural homophobia/transphobia, and also starring in a Shakespeare play!

32: What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic/etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

What, like in someone else's work?

I guess one of my favorite lines would be from a Dylan Thomas poem.

"Do not go gentle into that good night/ rage, rage against the dying of the light."

It's very much a line about not being complacent. I found it funnily enough in a trilogy I read as a teenager when I found the first book in my summer camp's lost and found. It was the last week of the year and we were encouraged to take things that weren't claimed, so of course I claimed the book lol. I've always been a bit of a rebellious thinker, so can you take a wild stab as to why I fell for that line?

40: Please share a poem with me, I need it.

See above poem, but also, here's one I wrote a while ago that I still can appreciate:

After Life

We walk across trails of light, endlessly winding through the night. A journey to the worlds beyond to find something that lets us bond and become something new, something true, something that we never knew we could be until we tried. Too many tears we have cried, and too many hearts were broken. All these words we left unspoken, a mark upon these hearts, torn apart, if only we had been so smart as to remember who we were together. Now we face the land of forever. Alone now, nowhere near close to that we fear, a different place to call home, our own. Draw me near, this place I roam. I want something as real as this, this glowing land of perpetual bliss. Let this be real, oh gracious god, for I can’t believe that I can trod upon these golden paths to salvation, in desperation, to something great, the blest creation of life in heaven. And now I know and can question how I came to deserve this afterlife, After all the pain and strife I have cause to others, to brothers, and those whose mothers names I cursed in frustration. Can I still receive re-creation of myself when I can’t be bothered to try to just be me?

We travel across these paths of light endlessly winding through the night. I guess I’ll never get it right. So let me fall, in ceaseless flight.

[cjbolan]

Why is the Tempest your favourite Shakespeare play?

It has a happy ending.

I love the fantasy and comedy elements.

I liked Prospero's character arc , from vengeful to forgiving. Granted he only forgives after he gives his enemies his just desserts.

Prospero also subverts some classic tropes. Like when he pretends to forbid Miranda and Ferdinand from being together, but it's ultimately a test to see whether Ferdinand is good for Miranda. And he's ultimately happy to see Ferdinand and Miranda really love each other!

I think it inspired several Disney movies. There's an Ariel and Sebastian, like in The Little Mermaid. And the ending where Prospero releases Ariel from their servitude, reminds me of Aladdin when Aladdin wishes the Genie free.

This was the first Shakespearean play I ever saw! I was 11 years old. It was an interactive play with no stage. Meaning actors roamed amongst the audience seating areas, rough-housed with some audience members (Caliban at one point picked up me and some other kids in his arms), then it ended with Prospero throwing his spellbook pages all over the floor for us to take home. Which I did. Overall it was a really fun first exposure to Shakespeare :)

Thanks for asking!

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

Librarians Prospero and the Wizard Duke’s Mantle

Have started the second season of the Librarians and there’s one thing that’s sticking with me….Prospero’s look. Now I will say his all black ensemble he’s got in the first episode looks stylish as hell and generally great…but like…he does get a properly Prospero worthy set of wizardly weeds at some point right? Like…I know the Tempest only mentions the drowning of his book and breaking of his staff as the actions taking of renouncing his rough art…..but earlier in the play you have him putting on his mantle as seeming an important part of practicing his art…not to mention the visual aspect of it being a play…the general semiotic importance of fantastical robe…he should have a grander mantle than what he’s wearing now to really complete the look you know? I mean if you have Prospero and you don’t let your costumers go ham on a hecking awesome Wizard robe…what’s the point? Now! Mind you, I suppose one could say the all black ensemble recalls the king black artist robe (I think it’s an artist robe? Correct me if I’m wrong on the terminology), worn by Elizabeth the firsts Alchemist/Astrology Polymath Doctor John Dee whose like…a basis for Prospero….which makes me wonder if the staff of the Librarians’ Prospero will include the Monad Hieroglyphica in its design as some interpretations of Prospero have done (two at least)…but should still have more colorful and…grand Wizard robes I think. If you have the opportunity to have fantastic and intricate Wizard robes with all manner of semiotic flourishes…you should go for it! But I could go on about the ideal Prospero robes another time. Will be curious what the show presents going forward also…will Miranda play a part? And of Prospero is this particular special Fiction…what about other Shakespeare characters which are even more popular than the Wizard Duke? Like Hamlet? Or Falstaff, or any number of Fools. Ariel is here Will Caliban be showing up?

Make of this What you Will

[lyndonriggall]

Why I’m Performing in The Pillowman in Five Days

Time moves quickly. I think it was only a moment ago that we had months ahead of us to rehearse, and yet that expanse of time has receded as swiftly as waves on the shore. Somehow, I have very quickly reached a point where I have only five days before I will be acting on-stage at Launceston’s Earl Arts Centre, for the first time in fifteen years. I am playing the part of Katurian the writer (originated by David Tennant in the 2003 premiere of the play, and most recently in 2023 by Lily Allen) in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, directed by Mitchell Langley for the Launceston Players, which also stars Travis Hennessy as Tupolski, Lauchy Hansen as Ariel, Jesse Apted as Michal, and Renee Bakker, Michael Mason and Eva Cetti in various roles. As the play begins, my character is dragged in for questioning by the police. He writes powerful—but very disturbing—short stories, and it seems that someone is bringing those short stories to life.

Wouldn’t it make sense that he has something to do with it?

It all sounds pretty grim (and in many ways it is), but if you are at all familiar with McDonagh’s writing then you’ll know that he can be relied upon to strike an electrifying balance between horror and comedy. His works include The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001), A Behanding in Spokane (2010) and Hangmen (2015) for the stage, while more recently he has made his name as the Academy Award-winning writer and director of In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) and The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). While The Pillowman is undoubtedly one of the darkest plays I’ve ever come across, it is also one of the funniest.

A year ago, I probably would have considered it unlikely that I would find myself here. In fact, I find it pretty unlikely even now, just days away from opening night. So why did I want to be part of The Pillowman? Aside from the obvious strengths of the team behind the project (who have taught me so much, whilst also giving me the delightful and terrifying challenge of trying to prove my right to share the same stage as them), this is a play that is very close to my heart. In 2008, in my Year 12 Theatre class, my teacher Nicole assigned me Tupolski’s famous railroad tracks monologue as my assessment piece, which I also later performed at a college academic awards night.  Ambitious creature that I was, I wouldn’t dare perform something like that without first having its context in the whole work. She lent me a copy of the play—the first time I had seen one of those strange slim paperbacks with no picture on the cover (this one was orange, as is the copy I am learning my lines from now). I went home and read it. I was laughing, I was shocked, and I was moved, all in equal measure. Oh, of course there’s something special about a work of literature that finds you on the cusp of a new phase of life, and most of my favourite books are books that I found (or that found me) that year. But aside from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (which I also discovered just before finishing school, and found myself falling into, and have since found it very hard to clamber back out of), The Pillowman swiftly became my favourite play, and Martin McDonagh my favourite living playwright. There have been a number of times on this blog where I have talked about the challenge of balance, how we prioritise and choose what to spend our precious limited time and our creative resources on. For me, the only thing worse than having the burden of auditioning for The Pillowman, being offered a part in it, and rehearsing and performing it, was the horrifying thought that someone else might get to do it in my place.

And so, here I am.

In my teaching of English, one of the most important concepts that I discuss with students is that of an “invited reading.” What I mean by this is not merely what the author (or even a character) says, but what the audience is supposed to take away as its meaning. Bad things happen in literature, but the existence of evil as a narrative element is not necessarily an endorsement of it, even if it might be tempting and easy to think so. In our inattentive world of click-bait headlines, out-of-context soundbites and addiction to outrage, it can be very easy to mistake a single puzzle piece for the whole picture, and while it happens constantly, it happens at our own peril. This is the very essence of what The Pillowman is asking us to consider: what stories are we allowed to tell? How do we shape the audience’s understanding of what we are trying to say? Can we shape the audience’s understanding of what we are trying to say? Should we be expected to? In the end, is it even fair to say that stories mean anything at all?

In a prescient update relating to the show’s themes, on World Poetry Day last month, PEN International released “War, Censorship, and Persecution,” an international case list for 2023/2024, highlighting the latest challenges for writers in global conflicts and emphasising the need to safeguard freedom of expression, especially in war-torn regions. The report documents 122 cases of writers facing harassment, arrest, violence and death worldwide. This is why the tale of Katurian still matters: because we do not yet live in a world where you can be sure that a story will not cost you your life.

A few days out from opening night, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was a little scared. There is never a moment where I am not on-stage in the play. Playing Katurian as a return to performance is the theatrical equivalent of “having another go at swimming” by throwing myself into the churning waters of the Atlantic.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? I’m scared. Oh yes, I’m scared. But I have a story that needs telling.

The Launceston Players Production of The Pillowman, directed by Mitchell Langley, is on-stage at the Earl Arts Centre Wednesday 24th April at 7:30pm, Thursday 25th April at 4:30pm, Friday 26th April at 7:30pm, and Saturday 27th April at 2:00pm and 7:30pm. Tickets are still available at Theatre North.

[jamiewintons]

Mat Baynton Characters + What It's Like To Cuddle With Them

Characters: Thomas Thorne, Christopher Payne, Jamie Winton, Ariel Conroy, Bill Shakespeare, William Agar.

Tags/Warnings: Fluff. Cuddling (obviously).

A/N: Not a request, I just thought it would be cute to write about! Mat seems so cuddleable and I'd like to cuddle all of his characters 💕. I hope you enjoy, and as always, reblogs and comments are very much appreciated.

*

Thomas Thorne

There’s pretty much nothing that Thomas loves more than cuddling with you. It just makes him happy to be so close to you, and know that you love him as much as he loves you. He’ll probably give you little kisses at random times, because he just has so much affection for you in his heart that it’s difficult to keep it inside. Thomas is more likely to want to cuddle with you face-to-face - it's easier to talk to you that way, and we all know how much he loves talking - though he likes spooning as well (whether he's the big or little spoon)

Christopher Payne

At first, Christopher pretends he doesn't like cuddling with you as much as he does (which is a lot). You know better, of course, because he's a pretty terrible liar. Once he stops pretending, it's near impossible to get him to stop trying to cuddle you, though of course he understands that you have other things you need to be doing and can't spend all of your time with him. He likes resting his head against your shoulder or your chest.

Jamie Winton

Jamie is quite shy about cuddling with you at first, but it doesn’t take him that long to warm up to it. He’s especially fond of it when he’s had a really crappy day at work, and snuggling up to you at night seems to make all of the stress go away. It really eases his anxieties when he wakes up and can feel you there in his arms, knowing that you haven’t just disappeared while he was sleeping.

Ariel Conroy

Ariel doesn’t have that much experience with being shown affection, so that first time you cuddle up to him he’s honestly shocked. Though, to his surprise, he finds that he actually quite likes it. His possessiveness towards you means he has a tendency to hold you really tightly, so good luck getting away from him (if you want to, that is).

Bill Shakespeare

Bill cuddles you a lot, especially when he feels like he's been neglecting you due to being busy with his plays. Though it's not just for your benefit, because he finds that he misses being with you a lot, and wants to spend most of his free time with you. He'll wrap you up in his arms, kiss you on the forehead and remind you of how much he loves you. He can be a bit handsy as well sometimes, but of course, he will always back off if you ask him to.

William Agar

William, being the sad repressed Victorian boy he is, is insanely touch-starved but mortified to do anything about it. He gets very nervous when you touch him lightly on the hand, let alone anything more than that. Every time you try and cuddle up to him he kind of freezes, and you worry that you're making him uncomfortable. As not to upset you, he ends up having to awkwardly explain that he doesn't dislike you trying to be close to him, he's just not used to it. With a lot of practice, he slowly becomes less anxious, and soon he will even ask you to cuddle on occasion.

Requests for fics/drabbles, headcanons, and character preferences are currently OPEN!

[princesssarisa]

Character ask: Hero (Much Ado About Nothing)

Tagged by @ariel-seagull-wings

Favorite thing about them: Even though she's mostly a standard ingenue, I like that when she's alone with other women, she shows more wit and playfulness than she does when men are present. Also, while her lines are few compared to the other main characters', they're always nicely poetic.

Least favorite thing about them: That she's treated so badly and suffers so much, poor girl! The fact that her own father believes Claudio's accusations and curses her is almost worse than Claudio's publicly shaming her in the first place – misogyny is a brutal thing!

Three things I have in common with them:

*I'm female.

*I'm short and a brunette (if that's what Benedick means by "brown").

*I often don't talk much in public, but I'm livelier in private.

Three things I don't have in common with them:

*I've never been engaged to be married.

*I've never been wrongly accused.

*I've never had to go into hiding while other people faked my death.

Favorite line:

From her instruction to Margaret to bring Beatrice to overhear her staged conversation with Ursula:

"Say that thou overheardst us,

And bid her steal into the pleachèd bower

Where honeysuckles ripened by the sun

Forbid the sun to enter, like favorites,

Made proud by princes, that advance their pride

Against that power that bred it."

From the staged conversation itself:

"Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw man,

How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featured,

But she would spell him backward. If fair-faced,

She would swear the gentleman should be her sister;

If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antic,

Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed;

If low, an agate very vilely cut;

If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;

If silent, why, a block moved with none.

So turns she every man the wrong side out,

And never gives to truth and virtue that

Which simpleness and merit purchaseth."

Her brief speech of self-defense after her public shaming:

"They know that do accuse me; I know none:

If I know more of any man alive

Than that which maiden modesty doth warrent,

Let all my sins lack mercy! O my father,

Prove you that any man with me conversed

At hours unmeet, or that I yesternight

Maintain'd the change of words with any creature,

Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death!"

When she unmasks herself to Claudio near the end:

"And when I lived, I was your other wife,

And when you loved, you were my other husband."

and

"One Hero died defiled, but I do live

And surely as I live, I am a maid."

brOTP: Beatrice.

OTP: I'd rather not say Claudio... I ship her with happiness, whether single or with a man who trusts and respects her.

nOTP: Her father or her uncle Antonio.

Random headcanon: Her mother, Innogen, is still alive and well. Even though she's a "ghost character" who only appears in the stage directions, and Shakespeare may have meant to cut her altogether but forgot to cut those stage directions as well as her speaking part, I'd rather think she is present than ignore her. There are too many other dead mothers in fiction!

Unpopular opinion: I don't really mind that she and Claudio get back together in the end. The play's genre makes it only natural, and Claudio was tricked into thinking he saw her in the very act of cheating. I understand why most modern retellings only have them reconcile as friends, though, and I do wish that Claudio did more to redeem himself for how he treated her. Even if she had been guilty, he should have followed St. Joseph's example from the Bible and quietly broken off their engagement.

Song I associate with them:

The lament for her supposed death, "Pardon, goddess of the night".

Here's an 18th century setting of it by Thomas Chilcot, and Patrick Doyle's setting from the 1993 film.

Favorite pictures of them:

This painting by Alfred Elmore from 1846, showing her lying in a faint after her public shaming:

This illustration by John William Wright, 1849:

Cherie Lunghie being comforted by Judi Dench's Beatrice, 1976:

Kate Beckinsale in the 1993 film:

This unknown actress:

Margaret Odette, Shakespeare in the Park, 2019:

[leportraitducadavre]

Tobirama, the Scientist.

I saw not long ago a particularly interesting post, it claimed Tobirama’s theories about the Uchiha were “biased headcanons,” but didn’t expand further (in all fairness it didn’t need to, the phrase summarized his approach quite beautifully) I chuckled, because the claim can’t be more truthful, but wasn’t able to re-blog it with a little bit of my input.

In that sense, I would like to discuss -shortly, Tobirama's status as an “Academic”, a title with which this fandom continues to associate him, and that viewed from a current perspective carries with it the notion that all his theories have scientific support and evidence-based on his research, and not on his personal beliefs.

I'm not here to dispute the idea that he was a Scientist. If that's how his fandom wants to call him, then, by all means, they're free to do so. What I'm here for is to discuss the status that the title gives him.

Being an intellectual in the Narutoverse or the real world does not automatically transform the individual to whom the title was bestowed upon into a higher entity. Under that premise, my degree puts me at a higher level of analysis, a thing that probably many fans of various characters I critique would be quick to deny.

So let's break this down:

Intellectuals/Scientists are not exempt from incorporating their prejudices/personal experiences into their theories.

On many occasions, the "deconstruction" they submit themselves to (if they even go through the trouble of performing an internal introspection to take into account their apprehensions before embarking on an investigation) does not guarantee a completely neutral look. And even if the work is to be believed as "neutral", it is always (always) necessary to review or discuss such theories with people who belong to different “cultural bubbles” that might be able to notice if an analysis has been influenced by the cultural, social, and economic barrier to which the author belongs.

[How many times have we mentioned how the medical study of human beings used to be (and hell, might still be) subjected to a patriarchal prejudice that placed women as biologically inferior to men? How many papers were elevated stating that the sexual organ with which a person is born determines their gender?]

Intellectuals aren’t exempt from allowing their personal beliefs to rule their works, furthermore, many times their personal bias is the primary reason for them to investigate a subject: They can go out of their way to prove how their prejudices are right while discarding/twisting any information that doesn’t back up their claims.

Intellectuals are capable of concocting a theory against a marginalized group if they work alongside people in power.

Or if they are the ones actually in power, they're able to present fake evidence to support such bigotry (if they even bother of making it look “professional”).

Let's look through another work of fiction as an example of what I'm trying to convey: Shakespeare in “The Tempest” -a play written in between the years 1610 and 1611- introduced three characters that represented important spheres of colonialism: The colonizer (Próspero, he arrived at the island, imprisoned the former leader of the place, and enslaved the population), The Intellectual (Ariel, he also subjected to the will of the colonizer, but instead of revolting, leaves his knowledge/powers at the disposal of his subjugator as to obtain a benefit) and The Slave (Caliban, native of the island who was enslaved by Próspero and is also subdued by Ariel).

Ariel, much like Caliban, has no real political power, but he has tools to help the colonizer, and in order to buy his freedom, he’s willing to work with the tyrant and become the oppressor of another subjugated group that he also considers inferior. This case specifically is far more fitting to Kagami, Shisui, and particularly Itachi's characters as they too, suffered (internalized and naturalized) discrimination in lieu of their gifts. However, they believed themselves superior to the rest of their kin as they subscribed to Tobirama's doctrine, hence, why it was so easy for them to work for Konoha and against their family.

Tobirama, unlike the rest of them, is far more similar to Próspero in this regard as he not only never faced discrimination in regard to his nature (furthermore, his experiments with human beings were easily forgotten and swept under the rug as he meant well), but also built and systematized the political structure that gave substance to his ethnic prejudices.

Intellectuals played a big part in the colonization of entire cultures, they were the ones who helped promote the idea of barbarism vs. civilization in order to put a country/society above others and allow those in power to steal natural resources and enslave native people.

In the Narutoverse, Tobirama was in a position of power when he “studied” and disseminated the rumor (that, later on, became an actual scientific theory, way to go) that the Uchiha were subjected to their emotions (particularly, negative emotions) and therefore, were untrustworthy and unfit to rule.

The only thing to back up his hypothesis is what he learned about the Sharingan's progression, and this, while not canonically proven, was a discovery made likely after this specific conversation, as he had no access to Uchiha's bodies to study them before. Regardless, even if the Doujutsu does develop and evolve because of the user’s emotions, to plead that none of the (natural) users would be able to control their (emotionally driven) actions by only that premise is nonsensical:

The number of times we saw non-Uchiha characters perform emotionally-driven actions (Sakura choosing to kill Sasuke and knocking off her comrades in a foreign land, Naruto becoming so distressed over Pein's attack on Konoha and Hinata that he lost total control of his tailed beast, Hinata jumping in to commit suicide in front of Naruto, and so on) is a clear indication that feelings influence the behavior of every human being -not just a specific group.

Furthermore, Tobirama created rules forbidding showing emotions during missions because of that specific reason, so his COH's theory was more about ensuring his control over the Uchiha emotions to profit from them (meaning, he ensured his position as the leader that was capable to "think for them" because they were unreliable) because he was aware that the members of that clan were less inclined to blindly follow him (giving their history) and jeopardize their entire wellbeing without explanations first, and he wasn't willing to treat them as equals and disclose the reasoning behind his actions.

[And here I'll add this: Fictional universes are indeed ruled by their made-up premises, so it can be very plausible to find fictional works where certain characters are ruled by their ("evil" or "good") biological characteristics.

However, that particular argument that many people use in Tobirama's favor collapses under the weight of the own narrative that displays instances of people "subjected to the Curse of Hatred" being in control of their emotions (Itachi, Shisui, Madara after Izuna's death), and taking rational (logical by the narrative's premise, that is) decisions.

In the same manner, it also shows the exploitation of those “raw emotions” to benefit a particular character (Hashirama when Madara’s love for him helped him to build Konohagakure) or Konoha’s favor (Hashirama sending Madara to different meetings as a representative); so in the end, the problem isn’t the characters having those emotions, but demanding agency over them.

Several characters stood against the Curse of Hatred's premise, including people who cared not for Konoha or the Uchiha clan in itself (why would Orochimaru, who by all means despised Konoha and was only interested in the Uchiha clan for the Sharingan, contradict the Sandaime if what the former said as irrevocably truth was, indeed, plausible?)

How come there were Uchiha members that were, according to Tobirama, loyal to Konoha and not entirely subjected to the COH? Here's the thing, the COH isn't about the existence of emotions, but about who owns them (are they at the service of the individual to whom they belong, or are they for Konoha's benefit?). How come the Sharingan is fueled by the user's emotions, therefore becoming the driven force of that individual's actions, yet particular characters fight against those feelings in order to perform "the greater good"?. Genetic predisposition can't be altered with an ideological disposition.

If the COH's theory sustains itself by how the Sharingan is developed, why are Uchiha members that possess no Sharingan (therefore, no emotional-influenced chakra) considered to be under that influence as well?

As Tobirama's legacy, we have two different approaches to reach the same goal that branches themselves from the COH's theory:

Danzo, who took Tobirama's teachings and concluded that emotions were too volatile and hard to control as to ensure absolute loyalty to Konoha, therefore creating Root -whose premise was, basically, "no emotions allowed". He took kids away from their families (or he specifically looked for orphans with no important background) and stripped them from their identities to train them to become the "ultimate weapon". That is, disposable tools that work solely for Konoha's benefit without the prospect of any retribution nor emotional bonds to prevent the possibility of someone becoming more important than the village. The latter point is also interesting if we think why would Danzo be so concerned about emotional bonds or reactions by non-Uchiha people blinding their loyalty to Root and/or Konoha if the COH was biologically tied to a specific clan? Wouldn't that mean that people being ruled by emotions are, instead of a genetic predisposition of a specific group, a very human response to traumatic events?

Hiruzen, who unlike Danzo was more inclined about exploiting people's bonds and emotions in order to tie them to Konoha rather than a person/clan; basically constructing Konoha as a symbol that encompasses those who are dear to the shinobi, creating a nationalistic mindset where family=village. Therefore, if Konoha (symbol) isn't as important as a specific group/person, then you're against the village as a whole. It's a Them vs. Us clash that ultimately benefits the system as it currently is since any criticism can be taken as subversion. And again, it also contradicts the theory as it's rawly presented, since Hiruzen isn't against those emotions existing, but to whom or what they are subjected to: The individual or the village.]

If the fear of people’s natures being easily controlled by their “special techniques” is so vast as to marginalize an entire group, then how come Naruto’s wish to become Hokage -a Jinchuriki, a tailed beast that canonically influences Naruto’s mood and whose power also can go loose should Naruto get stressed enough-, doesn’t raise any eyebrows? How come Naruto is given a chance because he can learn to “control the beast”, but an Uchiha can’t be taught how to “control his emotions”?

(Naruto wasn't marginalized in the same manner the Uchiha were, which it isn't to say he wasn't discriminated against at all: Mito wasn't discriminated against because she had Kurama as wasn't Kushina. Naruto was pushed aside because Kurama killed many people during his birth and the survivors associated the tailed beast with its vessel, they merged them into a single entity. Before that, Jinchurikis weren't discriminated against because of their nature, while the Uchiha were always segregated.)

There is a preface to the treatment received by the Uchiha from Tobirama and his allies as early as the first arc of Naruto: Haku, belonging to the Yuki clan, explains that the Kekkei Genkai are both revered and feared due to their destructive capabilities (the same is not true for secret techniques since these can be learned, whereas the Kekkei Genkai depend on biological issues beyond the control of the individuals).

It's stated that most shinobi villages used Konoha's bureaucratic structure as a basis to develop their own, which further proves that Tobirama's bias was ingrained inside the village's bureaucratic structure that will be later on replicated by almost everyone else (it's also mentioned that this cleansing is "generationally old", which means that while Obito controlled the Kage's tailed beast to carry out the cleansing, such massacre had already been grooming).

The governments wanted both to have full control of such weapons and to destroy those that could become a threat; Tobirama's segregation of the Uchiha was much more driven by his fear of the Sharingan's powers, the little control he had over the individual members of the clan and likely the learned animosity he later on kept developing during their battles.

Regardless of the many plot holes his theory possessed, people were quick to believe Tobirama because he was both in power (he could have silenced detractors), and he was an “intellectual”, meaning, he had both political and academic status.

But, if the theory that was literally the basis used to discriminate an entire group was able to survive as long as it did (and it still does, to this day) solely because the one who invented it possessed the academic status to be taken seriously, doesn’t that mean that the prestige the title gives should be questioned?

[kaypeace21]

Analyzing the 5 plays in this drama club poster .From the bts pics of stranger things 4.

So... some of ya’ll know I'm going through the st s4 films given to us by the official st twitter + the films reffed in the show itself or mentioned by the Duffers in interviews .

So I decided to look at the plays mentioned here. Because even if we don't see the monologues in the show directly - the Duffers wouldn't name drop anything unless it inspired them in some way. Similar to films name dropped in the show. Tw : for some dark themes .

This is just a quick little analysis I decided to do since we probably won't get any new st content today (3/22). Nothing too deep. Just mentioning things that caught my interest especially cause these plays have a lot of narrative connections to the st s4 movies I've been watching.

Invitation to a march (Authur laurents)

Reminds me of the stancy/jancy love triangle. "A young woman is having second thoughts about doing the right thing and marrying a respectable , rich, kind, young man with good prospects.By way of a prewedding diversion, this woman becomes interested in the passionate but poor and entirely unsuitable son of a local landlord.Basically, the plot concerns the efforts of Norma Brown to choose between a conventional fiance who "puts her to sleep" but is wealthy (like what her own mother did) or go for this new-poor guy. The play is principally interested in how this youthful love triangle affects the three mothers involved (whether the kids like it or not)

12th night (Shakespeare)

 - viola (el) wrongly assumes a family member (hopper) is dead. She dresses up as a man named 'cesario'. A girl named Olivia falls for 'cesario' (violet dressed as a man). "Finally, when 'Cesario' and Sebastian (violet's twin brother: assumed to have drowned - Will) appear in the presence of Olivia there is more wonder and confusion at their physical similarity. Taking Sebastian for 'Cesario', Olivia asks him to marry her, and they are secretly married in a church. Cough if Olivia is 'straight' cause she fell for Viola (as a doppleganger dressed like her twin brother).Mike being into el who multiple characters in s1 said looked like a boy and specifically like Will is...suspish and a hint he's not straight lol. just like Olivia they're both into guys . plus, this play just has a butt load of love triangles (ugh i hated that aspect). There was also romantically coded letters (which was in the s4 films) . One character is also thrown into an insane asylum and framed as 'insane'.'Pretending that Malvolio is insane, they lock him up in a dark chamber. Feste visits him to mock his insanity'. We all know the psych hospital will be narratively important- talked about it more here.

The seagull (Anton Chekhov-russian)

similar to how I believed s4 will show m*#even already broken up since the months between s3-4 : act 3 (s3) ends with Nina begging for one last chance to be with Trigorin before he leaves/moves away. They kiss and make plans to meet again in Moscow.And in act 4 there's a timeskip where it shows they've been broken up for a long time between acts- and its established they never actually loved eachother. Do i even have to spell out why this parallels the m*#even ending in s3? There is also a play within the play (this is common in a lot of the st films- they have plays- or a story within a story- which illustrate certain themes or emotions of the characters within said film : blackswan, children of paradise, highschool musical, Rushmore, book of Henry, welcome to marwen, never ending story, romancing the stone, wet hot American summer, etc).The play is Konstantin's latest attempt at creating a dense symbolist work. There is also alot of love triangles in the seagull. TW!: for se#ual ab*se/su*cidal thoughts/ inc*st (here and in other play segments). The seagull motif reminds me a lot of Jonathan's rabbit story.Konstantin romantically into Nina shows up to give her a gull that he has shot. Nina is confused and horrified . Trigorin sees the gull that Konstantin has shot and muses to Nina on how he could use it as a subject for a short story: "The plot for the short story: a young girl lives all her life on the shore of a lake. She loves the lake, like a gull, and she's happy and free, like a gull. But a man arrives by chance, and when he sees her, he destroys her, out of sheer boredom. Like this gull."  This immediately reminded me of jon's rabbit story and some of the movies on the s4 list . Like in forrest gump- Jenny (who is poor) was se*ually ab*sed as a very young girl by her father. As a child she runs away into a field-away from her alcoholic father yelling at her -there she prays that she can "be a bird so I can fly far far away" .

Jenny as an adult struggles with this unresolved trauma- being with ab*sive partners, doing dr*gs, and having su*cidal thoughts . She as an adult when contemplating su*icide, jokes 'you think i can fly like a bird ?' while looking down at a bridge.God-i'm worried about jonathan (Jenny was also a musician sort of like jon). In another s4 movie example ' mystic river ' :(in the 80s) a preteen baseball playing boy is r*ped by men in the woods. He later says he wishes he could become an undead monster to not feel the pain of that experience - cause quote " if I'm not human anymore maybe the pain will stop" (Will) . slightly off topic but he also has another personality, imagines a alternate word that dissappears when he turns his head. And as a less direct animal parallel to the play - the boy from the film also imagined his perpetrators as monsters and wolves to cope.In 'getout' the photographer character sees a dead deer in the woods and it represents a parent/his own childhood tra*ma relating to his past. similarly in 'prince of tides' the 2 siblings as kids were ra*ed by men. The older brother remembered it and the younger sibling developed DID (so didn't remember but she would draw wolves- as the perpetrators/villains in her picture stories she created . In the film they also had an ab*sive dad and were very poor. She also tried k*ling herself multiple times-but started to get better after remembering the source of her pain and trauma.  There is also the theme of multiple attempted su*cides in the play- and the play ends with yet another attempt- and the audience is left unaware of the artist's fate at the end of the play.

The tempest (Shakespeare)

Prospereo - (the perceived antagonist) is a wizard with monstrous looks, storm powers , and ability to create monster-dogs

He wants revenge on a man who tried ra*ing his family member & revenge on his other family member who wronged him years ago. I mean... pretty much my did theory.But in the end.Prospero decides to show his enemies the mercy that they did not show him twelve years earlier. He tells Ariel to bring the men to him, he will restore their sanity and then renounce magic forever.Prospero breaks the spell that the men are under .

Diary of a scoundrel (Alexander Ostrovsky-Russian)

-  I suppose this could loosely relate to Jonathan? Glumov, is a young man from an impoverished family lacking status seeking entrance into society's pampered class. A 19th-century Russian scoundrel must scheme his way out of his meager life in a small apartment -whatever it takes.He has a quick mind and some talent for seeing through the hypocrisies of people around him ( Jonathan does make a lot of social critiques about society). That gives him some advantages. A tale of one man's mission to finagle his way into upper-class society and find a cushy job. Set in 1874, this social comedy follows Glumov, a Russian youth who begins his ambitious ascent to social esteem. He progresses by wit, guile and rhetoric. Pitting one stupid person against another, he soon gains his ends. To reach these goals, Glumov will lie, flatter, and cater to the vanities of the wealthy. Unable to contain his disgust with his victims, Glumov decides to relieve his unvoiced satirical comments by recording his schemes in a diary. But he is tripped up by his uncle's wife, to whom he has made passionate love on his way to success. At the end of the play, his diary is stolen and his duplicity exposed, but he can nevertheless suceeds. The author is much more critical about the high society itself than about the main character, so the play keeps attracting generations of directors by opening possibilities for political criticism while also avoiding naming names of the current rulers.The play's aim was to overthrow bourgeois tradition and establish a class-conscious art called eccentricism giving a deliberately comic portrayal of reality.

I suppose I notice some possible commonalities-  besides s3 critiquing the wealthy/capitalism in comedic ways . jonathan since s1 has worried about his family's finances / had some resentment toward the rich . In some of the s4 movies ‘orphan’ & ‘ girl interrupted’ someone reads their diary out loud to get at them (in girl interrupted the winona character’s diary even had critiques of her new friends).  Alot of movies also have someone (usually a teen/young adult) making a documentary about their life -which could narratively replace said diary? A few movies have a poor guy adjusting to snobby rich social circles (or being poor and then getting money)- titanic, kingsmen, karate kid, the craft , godfather,  wardogs,into the spiderverse,flashdance, and many others . And movies like wardogs has a poor-young-character do shady things to finacially support his family . There’s also that whole uncle’s wife thing- which makes me uncomfortable for obvious reasons (but I’m just thinking of Lonnie’s creepy gf who was into him). A few movies had the guy’s step mom innappropriately hit on him- orange county & you got mail. And him trying to avoid her advances. Or...not to mention ... it may be a problematic coincidence /trope. But in enter the void -the guy who needs to finacially support his sibling/ does dr*gs -hooks up with his dr*g dealing friend’s married mom (who would give him money).  Or in gilbert grape- the poor teen-who has to finacially support his siblings/single mom-has his endgame relationship be a girl his own age. But before that he h*oked up with a married woman -who would give him money. Don’s plum -young film guy-propositioned by older female film director (for dream job). Not even mentioning the other films that have the guy hooking up with toxic older women (like ‘the graduate’). Or analyze this-where the therapist accuses him of having an Oedipus complex (not touching that one... but the guy in ‘enter the void’ a 100% had one). It’s possible those movies were just- inspo for s3?  A coincidence? Or s3 was foreshadowing for this in s4- but unlike s3 it will accurately be played as wrong  and a sign of Jonathan recreating past tra*ma caused by Lonnie (cough like the photos) /being desperate for money. And not played ‘comedically’ like how it mostly was in s3. But shown as self destructive  (for Jon) and immoral on the Woman’s end. Like... Billy and Jon are character foils. Both are older siblings into rock music, with ab*sive dads who shoved them into walls. Both lose it (and beat steve to a pulp when Steve accidentally triggers their daddy issues). In s3 it’s established womanizer Billy has mommy issues, than he tries ho*king up with someone his mom’s age, and the characters ref ‘back to the future ‘ and Steve incorrectly says it’s about “alex p keaton trying to bang his mom.” This could illustrate his subconscious issues with parental figures/adults cause of Lonnie’s  possible past se*ual ab*se . One film the friend even says to the guy “you don’t have friends!” guy b: i have friends! him:  no you have acquaintances! ADMIT IT! YOU’RE AFRAID OF MEN!I mean-Jonathan liked Nancy- but he initially hooked up with her cause he wanted to prove he didn’t have ‘trust issues’ from his dad. Also it’s prob a bit of a reach (and maybe a coincidence)- but the fact Murray in the same breath compares Steve (Nancy’s then bf) and Lonnie  ... uh... if you think too long about it ... it’s very sinister .  Especially because in s3: muray tells Joyce  that despite her wanting to be with a nice guy, she’s curious about “the brute” Hopper despite him reminding her of a past “bad relationship”(aka Lonnie). Like- yeah connect some dots.  Quite a few films (other than forrest gump) also have the character who (as a kid) was  r*ped by their dad/parent-  begin to do dr*gs/be pr*miscuous as adults since they never learned to properly cope with their trauma (’girl with the dragon tattoo’,  ‘black swan’, and ‘magnolia’). Unfortunately the whole relative doing such things to kid-relatives is in at least 30+ movies. 

Personally, i would be MUCH happier if Jon had a age appropriate romance- and had not a single creepy adult near him. A few movies actually imply Lonnie gets yet another ‘new model’  replacing his gf in her 20s with a new gf- who is ‘barely l*gal” and just turned 18. so there’s that possibility as well- that she’s jonathan’s age.I just want Jonathan-happy &safe. GOD. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

[laurenhufflepuff2]

A list of fandoms I'm in (in no particular order, will probably be updated regularly. Some fandoms are more intense and some are more casual. Depending on the fandom, I could go on and on about fandom topics for HOURS. Let's get into it!)

Harry Potter, Disney, Marvel, DC comics, Miraculous Ladybug, Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra, Star Wars, Literature, Winx Club, Nintendo, Minecraft, Little Witch Academia, Voltron, Coraline

Details:

Harry Potter- I got into Harry Potter in 7th grade and now I am the resident expert in my family and in my friend group. I read all the books, watched all the movies (notably the British version), and I've seen the Fantastic Beasts films as well. I've also read Tales of Beedle the Bard (the Warlock's Hairy Heart was traumatizing) along with the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them textbook (plus an updated edition). I also read The Cursed Child script and while I mean no hate to anyone that liked it, I hated what it did to the canon. I am in Hufflepuff with some Ravenclaw tendencies (I took the Pottermore quiz 3 times, 2 out of 3 I got Hufflepuff, the other time was Ravenclaw). I had a pottermore account and I was so upset when it got converted to the Wizarding World page. I cosplayed Hermione in 7th grade complete with British accent and even monologued as her for a talent show (classmates and teachers would recognize me as the Hermione girl all the way through high school). I was obsessed and I still love it even if J.K. Rowling has gone off the deep end on Twitter... yeah... my favorite character is Hermione but I also relate to Luna

Disney- there's so much that goes into the Disney part of my fandom list. I'm excluding Marvel and Star Wars from this part as they were originally separate entities before Disney got the rights to them. I have seen almost every animated Disney film ever and often use random movie quotes in conversation. My favorite villain is Maleficent, my favorite princess is Ariel (followed by Belle, Rapunzel, and Anna). I relate to so many of the characters. I'm not sure who my favorite Pixar character is though (I love Violet, Sadness, Dory, and Piper (from the short)). My favorite Disney fairy is Fawn. My favorite characters overall are Ariel and Stitch. Disney is definitely on the list as one of my biggest obsessions. My favorite movies are Lilo and Stitch, the Little Mermaid, Inside Out, Alice in Wonderland (original), and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Marvel- I mostly get my Marvel exposure through the MCU, other movies, and animated TV shows. I have difficulty reading graphic novels so most of my comic book knowledge comes from friends, posts, or wikis. My favorite characters are Spider-Man, Captain America, Peggy Carter, and Scarlet Witch. I also like Gwenpool, Deadpool, Spider-Gwen/ Ghost-Spider, Venom, Squirrel Girl, Daredevil, Mantis, Gamora, Black Widow, Iron Man, Thor, Loki, Bucky, Black Panther, and most MCU characters. Out of the X-men I really like Professor X, Wolverine, Mystique, Magneto, Nightcrawler, and Quicksilver (either version- MCU or Fox).

DC- this was the franchise I was more familiar with growing up but again, graphic novels aren't easy for me to read so most of my knowledge comes from information pages about the comics or from tv/movies. My earliest experience with DC came from the 60s Batman series, with Catwoman and Robin being my favorites. I also watched the Wonder Woman series from the 70s and a handful of CW shows, my favorite of which being the Flash and Arrow. I also managed to watch all 5 seasons of the Teen Titans Cartoon Network series from 2003. With that being said, my favorite characters are Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Flash, Batman, Nightwing/Robin (Dick Grayson), Green Arrow, Starfire, Raven, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Alfred. I also like most of the bat family, and when it comes to CW I LOVE Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost and Cisco.

Miraculous- this is one of my guilty fandoms but since this is Tumblr I'm not too worried about it. I love Marinette and I relate to her on an astoundingly deep level (minus the stalking and obsession with potential lovers, that's creepy). If I had a miraculous, I'd probably want the Ladybug one, but the Cat miraculous, fox miraculous, and snake miraculous are good too. My favorite character is Marinette/Ladybug.

Atla/Tlok- I jumped on the avatar bandwagon just when it was starting to get popular, so I managed to get through the series before the memes took over everything. Same with Tlok, although i couldn't completely avoid the spoilers for that when i started it. I've been wanting to get into the comics because of the short story comics I've read, they seem easier to read than superhero comics. My favorite characters are Aang, Katara, Ty Lee, Iroh, Korra, Jinora, Asami, Suki, Appa, Momo, Naga, and Pabu. I also like Sokka, Mai, Zuko, Lin, Kuvira, Varrick, Zhu Lee, and Azula. I feel really sorry for her and while I understand that a redemption arc would undermine the importance of her corruption arc, I still wish she could have one. I would love to be a waterbender or an airbender... maybe a waterbender raised in the air nation? Obviously, being the avatar itself would be awesome. The show has taught me a lot of great lessons and put a lot of stuff into perspective for me.

Star Wars- oh boy, talking about this one is dangerous. I've seen firsthand the horrors of the Star Wars fandom but then again no one will probably see this anyway so... I've seen all the movies and I remember watching the clone wars series with my brother when I was younger but we fell wayyy behind and it's taking us forever to get back into it. I've also seen the Mandalorian and quite enjoyed it. I like the prequels unironically, in fact, the prequels are some of my favorite movies. I especially like how they switched from lightsabers being heavy weapons to light weapons that can be used for all kinds of tricks that make for epic battles like the ones we see in Revenge of the Sith. The sequels were fun to watch but when I would analyze them along side their predecessors, I came to the conclusion that, for me, they were good to watch but did not do anything good for the rest of the franchise. My favorite characters are prequels/clone wars Obi Wan and Anakin, Padme, Ashoka, Leia, R2D2, BB-8, R4-P17, the Mandalorian (Din Djarin), and Grogu. If I had a lightsaber I'd want it to be blue, but when I was little I got a purple one like Mace Windu because it was closer to pink and I was into pink at the time. I still have that lightsaber and none of my friends have a purple one so it's one of my flexes. I feel like I wouldn't make a good jedi because of attachments being forbidden, so I'd probably become a grey jedi.

Literature- this is a broad term I use to cover all the random books and stories I liked reading and have studied. So we have Shakespeare (Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet), The Great Gatsby (bored while reading, loved to analyze), Grendel (HATED reading, loved to analyze, Grendel really needed a hug and a friend), The Crucible, Fahrenheit 451, Dark Life (+ the sequel Riptide, both are by Kat Falls good reads, sci-fi and kind of dystopian), The Once and Future King

Winx Club- I think the show is trashy but I still love watching it. I haven't been able to get through season 6 though and I hated what they did with season 8 and Fate: the Winx Saga. My favorite character is Bloom along with Stella and Flora. I prefer rai to nick. My favorite transformations are magic winx, enchantix, and harmonix. My favorite member of the Trix is Icy followed by Darcy. My favorite Pixies are Chatta and Lockette.

Nintendo- mainly Pokémon above all else, followed by Animal Crossing. I have also played (mostly as player 2 or just never beat or watched my brother play) mario games, legend of zelda, pikmin, and kirby. Games I haven't played but I just liked the characters/the lore and probably learned about through Super Smash Bros. are Fire Emblem (Lucina mostly), Metroid (Samus and baby metroid), and Kid Icarus. Pokémon is where I'm most knowledgeable but you'll most likely beat me in battle. I am however great at MarioKart and I always destroy my friends at it. Terrible at fighting games though.

Minecraft- I like playing this casually. Sure, I'll play for hours and hours on end for months, but I prefer to stay exclusively in peaceful when playing Survival mode and I don't make anything too ambitious in Creative mode. I like to write, so sometimes I'll make a rough layout of the settings of my stories in different worlds. I prefer interior design and decorating when building, and when in survival mode I focus more on mining and gathering while my brother works on ambitious building projects. I just bring him the raw materials and furnish the interior when he finishes the outside.

Little Witch Academia- this takes up a smaller portion of my fandom list because there were only 2 seasons and a couple movies and I watched the whole series years ago, but I still enjoy it. At one point I wanted to cosplay Akko, and I loved the nod at Twilight through the Nightfall series. And I especially liked the twist that Shiny Chariot was Ursula, which I suspected for some time. The blend between magic and technology was fun to see, but I was so sad that the series ended RIGHT when Akko finally showed signs of magic proficiency. Also, Shiny Chariot being the reason Akko couldn't do magic was heartbreaking.

Voltron- this takes up a much smaller portion of my fandom list mainly because I haven't even finished it. I know hardly anything about Transformers aside from the Bumblebee movie so to me I just watch it for fun. It reminds me of power rangers, star wars, and star trek, and then there's just a transformer insert. But I don't know anything about Transformers so maybe the show is more rooted in canon than I think.

Coraline- I am in a love-hate relationship with Coraline. I have watched the movie several times, I've read the book, I've watched hours of theories and analyses on youtube, I've watched behind the scenes videos by Laika, and I even wrote a script for a fan film parody. I am amazed at how original the story is and how impressive the stop motion animation is but I also have recurring nightmares from it and it scares me/creeps me out to the max. If anyone asks what my scariness limit is, it's definitely Coraline.

[butchhamlet]

Can I ask what you hate about prospero? I did watch the tempest once, but I paid absolutely 0 attention to the man

i haven’t read the tempest in about a year so i’m a little rusty but in general i just find him SUPER manipulative and his vibes are fucking RANCID like... okay, even putting the “has two slaves” thing aside (which. i mean. that should be thing #1; he keeps ariel trapped against his will and say what you will about caliban* but i don’t think he deserves to be prospero’s servant day in and day out or prospero will magically hurt him) --

even putting that aside, the way he talks to the people around him is just... so... slimy... like... in the first scene with miranda he repeatedly accuses her of not listening to him to the point where she has to reassure him that she is, and there’s a point where she says something about how she must have been such a burden to him as a child, and i know you can play shakespeare pretty much however you want but the vibe i get at least from reading it is that he’s very... guilt trippy... manipulative... especially because then in the next scene when ariel asks for his freedom prospero is immediately like “well when i GOT here you were stuck in a tree. do you want to be stuck in a tree again?? are you ungrateful that i got you out of the TREE??” to the point where ariel actually ends up thanking him instead of asking for the freedom he was promised. like bitch!!! shut up!!! “i want to be free” does not equate to “fuck you for getting me out of that tree” and if you can recognize that captivity was awful for ariel why would you keep him captive again...

and then the whole miranda/ferdinand romance has prospero basically behind the scenes playing puppeteer as does. pretty much everything that happens on the island. and idk it all just feels so fucking SINISTER like... he crashes this boat. he strands these people on his island. he very much holds their lives in his hands. at the end iirc he and his brother reunite or whatever but like... what choice does the brother have ANYWAY? prospero only makes himself known to everyone when he’s already made it VERY clear that he’s calling the shots here (fuck, alonso thinks his son is FULLY dead; he’s so grateful to have ferdinand back that he probably would have agreed to anything) and so of course they’re going to take him back to milan and of course they’re going to make him duke again because what else are they going to do?? die on this island?? and of course ariel goes free at the end but ariel doesn’t stick around for miranda or caliban, both of whom stay under prospero’s thumb. so he basically has everybody else in his control with or without magic and it’s just so... hghwbwbbwfbw he’s so fucking slimy and the tempest’s ending is a horror movie send tweet

that said i DO think prospero is a wonderfully written and fascinating CHARACTER especially in the larger context of shakespeare’s life/career and the tempest being one of his last plays and prospero’s epilogue and etc etc i think he’s a great character! i just think i would fistfight him in a dark alley, also,

(*it may be apparent that i have a thousand and one disorganized thoughts about caliban. maybe i’ll make that post someday. distilled into the shortest form possible: i think everyone in the play treats him terribly and while he might be shitty his shittiness also gets more and more questionable the further you dig and i think his treatment is especially bad when you think about the ways he’s been interpreted as a racial allegory - oh no this isn’t short. fuck)

[faerietempest]

CHECK IN TAG  ✔️

Thanks @peebsplays for tagging me!

Why did you choose your url?

My name is Ariel, which my mom got from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. I decided to lean in to that particular meaning of my name.

Any side blogs? If you have them name them and why you have them.

None right now!

How long have you been on tumblr?

I had a tumblr when I was younger, probably for about... 5 years? I deleted that one towards the end of college, I want to say, and started up again last year when I was inspired by the decades challenge and all these wonderful simblrs. So all in all about 6 years.

Do you have a queue tag?

Nope.

Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I started my tumblr originally so I could keep up with a now retired sims story (which I still think about because I got really invested in her characters and absolutely incredible photo editing). Then, after I got into the decades challenge, it became a place for me to find cc.

Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

The photo was taken when I was modeling for my friend’s Etsy shop and I love it.

What’s your post with the most notes?

Apparently it is my 1870s child lookbook featuring Benjamin Coates, Jr.

How many mutuals do you have?

About 12

How many followers do you have?

122 followers

How many people do you follow?

I follow 126 people

Have you ever made a shitpost?

I don’t think so?

How often do you use tumblr each day?

I scroll through probably 1-3 times a day. I post screenshots of my gameplay inconsistently :)

Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

Nope, I’m a fairly nonconfrontational person and I have personally never seen the use in getting into online arguments.

How do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts?

If you mean for awareness on issues, I usually don’t. My tumblr is literally just for the sims. I try to repost things about raising awareness or increasing momentum of a movement on other socials.

Do you like tag games?

Sure! I think they’re kinda fun. It also depends on the questions.

Do you like ask games?

Same answer as above :D

Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

No idea. I’d like to think some are, because I think they’re very talented, but I have no idea.

Do you have a crush on a mutual?

Not a crush like it’s middle school but I love @pixelnrd’s storytelling skills. I also felt pretty chuffed when @peebsplays followed me because I love her creations.

I’m going to tag @jewishsimming, @ivyandink, @kat-simss, and @blu-sims

[toomanyfandomsneverenoughtime]

2, 6, 14

Thanks Will 💖💖💖

Long answer asks >>>

2. What's your top 5 songs at the moment and why?

I will precursor this now with the reason I like and listen to all songs, because I can imagine very intricate fantasy worlds around them or they remind me of my favourite characters.

1. Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - Set It Off It gives me major Ariel Conroy vibes and I live for Ariel Conroy.

2. Criminal - Britney Spears Julian vibes!! It works almost all the way through for him but my favourite lines that remind me of Julian are 'he lies, he bluffs, he's unreliable' and 'the man's a snitch, he's unpredictable, he's got no conscience, he's got none, none, none'

3. Bring on the Men - Linda Eder I have a very specific fantasy that I imagine to this which I'm not going to go into details of because it's weirdddddddd but honestly, if you want me completely lost in my own head for 5 minutes, play this song.

4. Dan - Grovesnor I only listened to this song recently because Mat Baynton's in the video for it and he's the bass player/baking vocals but I actually instantly fell in love with the song, had it on repeat for days!

5. Hard to Be the Bard - Christina Borle (from 'Something Rotten') Can't lie, I listen to this song and imagine Mat Baynton playing a villain-y sexy Shakespeare and singing this but also very relatable lyrics when it comes to writing: "so you write down a word but it's not the right word so you try a new word but you hate the new word and you need a good word but you can't find the word"

6. Desribe one of your favourite people

I struggle with people, particularly in seeing the good in them so whenever I was trying to think of a 'favourite person', I kept coming up with reasons why they aren't my favourite person rather than why they were so you know, this might not be as positive as you might expect from a question involving a favourite person.

One of my favourite people in the whole world is very, very generous to me and they expect absolutely nothing back. They're very patient, especially with my mental issues which is a huge feat because they don't always understand it. They put up with so much moody, anxiety/depression based shit and yeah, sometimes take it the wrong way but a lot of the time will just sit and let me have my moment and just stay calm and accepting. They're also really funny and make me laugh at least once a day. And so fucking smart, like I can't even imagine being that smart, not like general knowledge smart but they just, idk, know things and I don't always understand and they find it cute.

14. Write a review for the last film you watched?

Oh, I don't even know what the last film I properly watched was. It might have been Shrek Goes Fourth, fuck sake.

I mean, compared to Shrek the Third, I'd say it's going more back to it's roots with much more Shrek and Shrek 2 vibes. However, I am quite biased towards this film because I'm a sucker for a 'but what if this plot point hadn't happened' and then seeing the godawful consequences of that and this film delivers that in spades. It's probably quite dark for a Shrek film actually and I do always find myself drawn towards the darkest films of a franchise. But it keeps solid Shrek humour, just less of it due to the darker tone of the film.

Verdict: 3/5, probably the third best Shrek film but you'll find you particularly like it if you're a fan of dystopian spin offs or 'what ifs' in which case, I highly recommend it (watch the other Shrek films first though so you know the characters).

Can't believe I did a year of Film and TV Studies at uni and that's the best shit I could come up with... maybe that's why I dropped out

[elizabethan-memes]

Coriolanus, Henry VIII and Macbeth

MACBETH: Who is the most villainous Shakespeare character?

I A G O

IAGOIAGOIAGOIAGO

No contest. I mean in terms of body count, Titus is probably #1, but if I were Titus Andronicus’ lawyer I’d definitely be entering an insanity plea. Guy’s lost so many sons at this point he’s gone off the deep end. Iago is dangerously sane and dangerously competent. All the other villains experience some kind of regret, even if it’s selfish regret like ‘I shouldn’t have done that because of how badly it’s worked out for me.’ Even Richard III feels some kind of disgust and self-loathing at the end “is there a murderer here? Yes! Me...”. Unlike Richard who plays to people’s greed and can be deceived when they seem to go along with him, Iago preys upon the worst primal tribalistic impulses “black ram tupping your white ewe”. And at the end he’s like “I bet you want me to express regret and remorse and explain why i did it all? no i won’t so go fuck yourself”

CORIOLANUS: Which gay pairing has the most evidence? (Conversely, which pairing do you wish had evidence?)

Achilles and Patroclus in Troilus and Cressida because you can’t outgay The Codifiers of Gay(TM). Prospero/Ariel kind of counts as a queer if not a gay ship because Ariel technically doesn’t have a gender, really, being a spirit. I played a female Prospero to a female Ariel when I was a teenager and there was lots of tender yearning placed on “Dearly, my delicate Ariel” (answer to “Do you love me, master? No?”) Also when Ariel is freed and goes skipping off, I made Prospero reach out a hand and inhale as if about to call out to Ariel, say something more, but stopping. You could read Prospero/Ariel as more paternal though “that’s my kind master!” “That’s my brave spirit!”, but honestly Prospero confides in Ariel at the end with a vulnerability that seems more intimate than parent/child. The BBC Shakespeare Coriolanus is very homoerotic, with no sense of personal space, and given that Shakespeare lovers frequently kill each other out of jealousy, and given that Coriolanus gets stabbed for returning to his wife, I can’t help but see an anger at betrayal that’s as much sexual as honour-based.

I wish there was more evidence for Rosalind/Celia, like them getting together. It’s a big deal to defy your family and choose exile, especially if you’re a girly sheltered princess type. I don’t think you’d do that just for a very very close friend. That’s life-partner commitment.

HENRY VIII: What is your favorite non-Shakespeare play and why?

Written at the same time or set in the same era or favourite play in general?

I love Jew of Malta and Dr Faustus. Marlowe is just a very readable playwright. I like Greek tragedy, especially the Oedipus plays. Antigone is one of my all-time favourite female characters. I regularly reread Lustgarten’s The Secret Theatre. Oscar Wilde’s plays I love. I loved the play Queen Anne which I got to see at the RSC when it was a relatively new and unknown play *dons hipster glasses* I liked it before it was cool. I just love female characters and female relationships and tragic heroines and villains and tragedies in general, so plays that have all that plus great dialogue are right up my street.