#River reviews

[braidedriver24]

i think nimona (2023) is one of the best animated films of the last years. there are new and creative ideas, a lot of worldbuilding and depth, great humor, it tackles complicated topics and portrays a queer relationship beautifully

and most importantly it's METAL!!

[theriu]

River Reads Midnight Sun

Chapter 2: Open Book

In which Edward faces his fears and spends an agonizing amount of time hyperfixating on Bella.

<-Chapter 1

So we jump into chapter two AND next week, as it has been six days since Edward (shockingly) succeeded in leaving town forever (citation needed)! He is chilling (ha) in a snowbank, staring up at the stars, which are truly magnificent. Or he knows they would be, except he can't quite see anything except Bella's face. Yes, the girl has haunted him straight to (checks location on a map) oh he's in ALASKA, okay! I wasn't sure where Denali was, but I was PRETTY sure even Edward couldn't drive a car to Russia. (You'll see why I considered Russia in a minute.)

Anyway, the "unremarkable" face of this girl he's literally never spoken to directly has been haunting him for six days, which is indeed troubling. While he is brooding on this, the thoughts of a new character come leaping towards him. This is where we meet Tanya, a vampire with silver skin, blonde-but-almost-pink curly hair, amber eyes, and full lips. Mary Sue Tanya is stunning and exquisite, at least from Ed's memory, since he still can't see past the face permanently branded on his eyeballs.

So anyway, Mary Sue Tanya does a cannonball into Ed's snowbank, burying him alive with snow but not burying the image of Bella. It becomes clear that she has been crushing on Ed and is sad he will be leaving soon and doesn't return her affections, although he is very polite and gentlemanly about it.

(Honestly, I liked her well enough until we got to the "I'm not used to rejection" line, and then she starts sifting through the memories of all her human male conquests next to the actual mind reader who she is attracted to, to which I say WOMAN REALLY??? I don't think making the guy you like EVEN MORE UNCOMFORTABLE than he's already admitted you kinda make him is an effective way to gain his affections?!)

ANYWAY, thankfully they get off THAT subject quickly and have a really quite nice conversation, wherein Ed apologizes for getting her hopes up by coming to her home territory and Tanya tries to be a good friend. We see a mention of her "long-lost Russian accent," thus my uncertainty about location, and she tells him she knows he won't keep running from his mystery problem because he's the type who faces things head-on. Mary Sue TANYA then runs away across the snow, so light and fast she doesn't even leave footprints, suggesting a connection between vampires and wood elves.

Encouraged by this pep talk, Gary Stu Edward also gets up and runs footprintless across the snow, determined to be brave and go back and face those "bewildered chocolate-brown eyes," and hopefully not eat the girl attached to them.

SCENE CHANGE!

Edward's back in town, and his three vampire siblings/classmates are huddled around him as they head into the lunchroom, being quite adorably protective, honestly. Alice is trying to foresee any problematic eventualities, Jasper thinks it's funny that EDWARD is the one everyone's fretting over instead of him, Emmett is acting like a bodyguard, and Ed is just exasperated with all of them.

To his surprise, nobody at school is thinking about them, suggesting that Bella didn’t blab about his black murderstare from last chapter. After all, a normal human would have asked around about it, because humans and especially teens all like to feel NORMAL and FIT IN and be a "featureless flock of sheep" and WOW, should I be more annoyed at Ed or the author for this intense bias against high schoolers?! But of course Bella isn't like those OTHER kids, she doesn't do things like talk to people when something weird happens!

About this time, Bella walks in and Alice is all, "Act human!" To which Emmett responds by taking out the snowball he compressed into an ice chunk with his superstrength and chucking it at Alice, who casually deflects it across the room at superspeed, where it cracks a brick. This does, ironically, draw attention away from them. Everyone is annoyed at Emmett, which is fair, but also, ALICE COULDN'T YOU HAVE JUST CAUGHT IT INSTEAD OF POTENTIALLY SHOOTING SOMEONE?

Ahem. So Bella's in the lunch line, and Mike Newton, Regular High School Guy And Insignificant Human Rival, is worried about her. Ed starts also worrying about if she might be sickly, what with her translucent skin. (Are we 100% sure BELLA is human?!) The vampires do a slightly better job of acting natural, and Edward decides to refer to Bella as “Bella” and not just "the girl,” "as if she were the only girl in the world," which is HILARIOUS considering where we all know this is going!

After eavesdropping on Bella and Jessica whispering about him looking at her (Bella thinks he's mad at her, after the whole murderstare incident), Bella hunkers under her hair and avoids eye contact, although Ed thinks she keeps twitching like she WANTS to look at him. Then, at long last, lunch ends and everyone starts going to class. There is another internal struggle while Ed reviews what all of his vampire family members have advised about this situation. (Emmett sounding the least helpful, as he has apparently encountered two such delicious-smelling-people incidents that... uh... sound like they did NOT go well?) But Ed is determined to prove to himself that he has the self-control to sit through biology without murdering Bella, so off he goes.

(By the way, Rosalie complains she doesn't want to have to move because they're almost finally out of high school. Again, why are you pretending to be high school students?! It's not like you'll age whether you're there or not?! HOW DOES THIS HELP YOUR COVER??)

Edward gets to Biology to find Bella at their table, doodling randomly. He decides to introduce himself. He gets briefly lost in gratuitously detailed descriptions of her eyeballs and how they are simultaneously like chocolate and strong tea, and how could anyone so frail be deserving of his unwarranted hatred last week? He's also holding his breath, but has enough air in his longs for a reasonably lengthy conversation AND a short laugh, during which Bella is... surprised/startled that he called her Bella? Because her dad introduced her to everyone as Isabella? But she's apparently told multiple people since she got here that she prefers Bella? So he probably could have learned that even without his super vampire eavesdropping powers? WHY is this weird enough to be suspicious, and HOW does it indicate she is intuitive?

Well, the book and Ed believe she is insightful and intuitive, so I guess we should just go with it. Ed does eventually needs to breath so he can talk, and even though just breathing through his mouth is like tasting the FIERY COALS of her deliciousness, and their brief moment of making skin contact is like an ELECTRIC SHOCK, he manages to continue acting normal.

By the way, along with being unconventionally if lopsidedly pretty and smelling delicious, Bella was also in advanced-placement biology at her previous school and Knows Science! Edward realizes this must mean she is ESPECIALLY intelligent for a human, which of course makes perfect sense. After all, she was the first student in two years to look him in the eye long enough to notice they'd changed from the Murderstare Incident's I'm-going-to-eat-you black to today's calmer I'm-probably-not-going-to-eat-you-except-by-accident amber/gold! My friends, may I remind you this man previously admitted he has two medical degrees, a thing that probably required some amount of physically attending college. I really wonder if Ed's standards would be more realistic if he ever once SOCIALIZED WITH HIS HUMAN CLASSMATES.

In an effort to maintain normalcy, they talk about the weather. Bella does not like the cold and wet of Forks. She clearly does not like being in Forks at all. She is vague and grumpy about why she came here, and Edward is so obsessed curious that he may implode (this is the actual word used). We learn (agonizingly slowly) that her mom remarried—and no, Edward, Bella DOES like the guy, he's nice and a minor-league baseball player; and no, Edward, her mom DIDN'T send her here, SHE sent HERSELF here so her mom could happily travel with her step-dad rather than unhappily stay home with her! Ed is certain by now that Bella "isn't like other humans" because he keeps guessing her story arcs wrong and she's just so CONFUSING and UNPREDICTABLE, and this can't possibly be because he's about 100 years out of practice having a normal conversation without a cheat code into the other person's brain.

(Okay, to be fair, there are at LEAST two moments of self-awareness where Ed wonders if he'd be this bad at reading everybody without his mindreading powers. We should give him points for that.)

But despite his difficulties, he DOES figure out that Bella is unhappy, mostly by her sending out signals that a rhino could decipher. When he confronts her with this observation, her response is, "So?" And after meditating on this for an unusually brief paragraph, Ed realizes THE ANSWER:

"She was selfless."

I'm sorry, guys, I need to break for a second, that's the first part that made me laugh out loud. Can someone lend me a combine to harvest all this corn.

(Side Note: As previously stated, I have not read the books or watched the movies, so I could be biased by the negative side of the fanbase. But my general impression of Bella has not lent itself to "selflessness." BUT, it is only chapter two and I am only going off of general hearsay! The amount of poorly concealed disgruntlement is not impressing me, though.)

Anyway, Ed guesses that she doesn't really like her situation but doesn't want people to KNOW she doesn't like it. He continues to marvel at how positively he feels towards this girl, how discerning she is, how *cough* selfless she is, not like an "average martyr" who would actually tell someone she's not 100% happy with her SACRIFICE. Bella gets annoyed, which Ed finds amusing, so there's another adjective for the list. But then she says she's annoyed because she's so easy to read, and Edward can't believe this, because he's never had to work so hard to read someone before! Again, this couldn't possibly be because she's the first person in 100+ years whose mind he can't read!

By the way, Bella also seems to be oblivious immune to the usual red flags normal humans feel around vampires! Ed tries smiling dangerously at her, but the teacher breaks up their conversation with actual classtime, so he gets to angst for a few paragraphs about why he shouldn't find this girl interesting and how dangerous this is for her and yet how MUCH he wants to know more about her. And also trying not to kill her when her thick, black hair flips in his direction and drives his vampire nose bananas.

He books it as soon as the bell rings, having survived the encounter without murdering anyone but with so many new questions about this unremarkable, shy, frail, unmindreadable-yet-highly-face-readable, delicious-smelling, selfless, quietly disgruntled human girl.

(Side Note: I have learned a new word!

"Attar—a fragrant essential oil, typically made from rose petals."

Ex: "Again, I gasped at the clean, wet air outside as though it was a healing attar."

*loud sighing noises*)

So after that brief break, he goes to class with Emmett. Emmett, IMMENSELY HELPFUL EMMETT, asks how it went, questions if it wouldn't be easier to just get it over with, reassures Ed that everyone would understand if he messed up (GIVING IN IS NOT THE SAME AS "MESSING UP," EMMETT), and then vividly visualizes a time he experienced a really good-smelling woman and ate her. Between his earlier blasé-ness about not "wallowing in guilt" over past mistakes and this section's lack of anything indicating regret about that incident, I take back any nice things I might have said about this guy. Emmett, YOU. ARE. THE WORST.

It's so bad that Ed has to bolt out of class AGAIN, although it doesn't help that Emmett follows him and continues to suggest maybe Ed should just get it over with if it's so bad, can Alice or somebody please come punch him. Ed finally gets him to leave and hides in his car. Then, "like an addict" (his own words), he searches the whole school for thoughts about Bella. From his car. My GUY, just how UNREASONABLY powerful ARE your mind radar skills???

He finally locates Bella in gym class, because Mike, who is mad about Ed talking to her, is thinking in logical, complete sentences (as one does) about how satisfied he is that Bella doesn't seem interested in Edward. He also conveniently remembers her asking "what was with" Edward last Monday (after the Deathstare Incident). So apparently Bella isn't QUITE abnormal unique enough to stay totally silent when she encounters a weird thing (not that Edward notices). Ed's response to his annoyance over Mike's satisfaction is to blast "violent music," which seems the opposite of helpful to me.

We end the chapter with Bella coming out of school and heading to her rusty old truck while Ed watches her creepily from his car. She almost hits another student's car when she locks eyes with him, and Ed has to laugh at her sudden increased driving vigilance, as if she might be DANGEROUS! Because of course it's RIDICULOUS to think that BELLA could be dangerous to ANYONE in ANY vehicle, as if the driver's physical frailty has any bearing on the damage a truck can do when crashing into cars or non-vampires at speed.

AND SCENE!

I'm gonna be honest, guys, that one was a couple degrees more agonizing than the first chapter. I dread how much more I'm going to hear about Ed's conflicting desires to eat Bella and be attracted to her simultaneously average yet fascinating allure. She's just so unusually unique and smart and intuitive and selfless and shy and frail and inspires protective instincts, you see, and she's not like ANY OTHER human he's ever encountered, even though we have evidence now that sometimes certain vampires just find certain humans irresistibly delicious, and we can probably extrapolate that those humans were somehow immune to vampire powers, too.

I also highly question Bella's above-average "martyrdom," considering she dropped her guard pretty fast around the cute stranger and basically broadcasted how unhappy she is with her decision, which makes it feel a bit like she did what she did so she could feel good about herself rather than because it was the best thing to do? Being selfless doesn't mean COMPLETELY ignoring your own needs, or justify using your good deed as an excuse to have a poor attitude. Of course, considering that half her traits that Ed notices and marvels over are actually fairly normal, I don't think any of us feel a strong need to trust his assessments of her character.

Next up is CHAPTER THREE: RISK. I'm sure it will feature Edward being very level-headed and undramatic. I think I need to build my endurance back up for this one. (And thanks for the likes and comments so far, they really help keep me motivated! =D)

Chapter 3->

[emynarnen]

Harrenhal on Airbnb (and its most recent review)

[artbyfuji]

raven branwen cringe posting -_-

[thollandnewsbra]

“Therefore love moderately; long love doth so; Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.” ― William Shakespeare.

Congratulations to Tom Holland, Francesca Rivers and the entire cast & crew of 'ROMEO & JULIET' for their highly acclaimed sold-out run on the West-End.

[bigbigtruck]

The Songs that Got Me Through 2023

Jedi512, "Big Texas" (summer 2023)

Use my craft to get some singles, everybody get a slice This was the tune that carried me on gentle hands through a blazing, endless summer.

Peter Gabriel, "The Road To Joy" (from i/o, 2023)

Heard this on release and liked it; saw him perform it live in October and loved it. Hope and defiance and pulsing life at a time I needed it most.

Yard Act, "100% Endurance" (from The Overload, 2022)

Rang in the only cool day of summer with this; bid farewell to 2023 and hello to 2024 with this. Hearing this song is hearing my buddy Jamie knocking some perspective into me when I'm spiraling.

Sbassbear, "Forklift Simulator" (2023)

This is fucking stupid as hell but god help me it's a bop and I love it. How to obliterate a bad mood in 3 minutes 13 seconds.

This has been sitting in my drafts since January, oops. Here's the post for 2022.

[hotdaemondtargaryen]

TECH RADAR REVIEW OF 'HOUSE OF THE DRAGON' S2. HIS OPINION BASED ON THE FIRST 4 EPISODES THAT HE WATCHED OF S2.

SPOILERS! FOR S2:

ABOUT TOM GLYNN-CARNEY'S PERFORMANCE AS KING AEGON II TARGARYEN:

"Aegon II, Westeros' new royal, is the biggest beneficiary of more extensive screen time, with Glynn-Carney bringing some much needed levity – plus youthful impatience, reckless naivety – to bear in episode 1 and in later entries, deep humanization to a character, who we're supposed to despise, in the only way that a GoT series can."

"HOUSE OF THE DRAGON'S SUPPORTING CAST, SPECIALLY IT'S YOUNGER MEMBERS, GETS MORE TO DO THIS SEASON."

ABOUT PHIA SABAN AS QUEEN HELAENA TARGARYEN IN SEASON TWO:

"Helaena's (Phia Saban) roles are also pleasingly expanded; the eccentric and cryptic Helaena becomes central to key storylines leading up to this season's jaw-dropping fourth episode."

"SEASON 2 ZOOMS OUT TO EXPLORE THE INTENSIFYING INTERFAMILIAL CONFLICT'S IMPACT ON THE WHOLE OF WESTEROS."

"Opening with a nostalgia-fuelled return trip to Winterfell a fleeting visit that reminds us of the ever-looming threat beyond The Wall in its very first scene, season 2 slowly lays bare the wider effects of the increasingly bitter Targaryen-Hightower feud on Thrones."

"Indeed, it inadvertently acts as the catalyst for smaller scale battles to erupt between long-warring families, such as Houses Blackwood and Bracken."

"After all, season 2 marks the official start of the devastating, years-long civil war known as The Dance of the Dragons, so I certainly hoped for more action. Nonetheless, observing the blood-curdling, silent horror-imbued aftermath of the Blackwood-Bracken battle made my imagination run wild about how this barbaric struggle played out."

"THE WALL WON'T BE THE ONLY LOCATION IN S2 THAT GOT FANS WILL RECOGNIZE. HARRENHAL WILL ALSO PLAY A PROMINENT ROLE THIS SEASON."

RYAN CONDAL ABOUT HARRENHAL IN S2:

"Harrenhal definitely is its own character in the show. It had its own character in the original books [and] in the original series when Arya was playing cup bearer for Tywin there."

"Other than the Red Keep, it's probably the most talked-about, storied castle in Westeros, and we really wanted to pay service to it. Whether it's real or rumored, it does have this supernatural aura around it that does put people off. We were excited to play that out as storytellers."

ABOUT GAYLE RANKIN AS ALYS RIVERS IN S2:

(whose mysterious arrival was teased in s2's final trailer)

"The enigmatic Alys Rivers was particularly fascinating to me, not least due to her involvement in Daemon's Harrenhal-situated season 2 arc; a personal subplot with the unsettling, almost Macbethian atmosphere and twisty-turny narrative of a psychological horror movie."

[destinyc1020]

Review of R&J from a theater-goer 😃😁👏🏾

(May contain light spoilers)

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #61 – Those Across The River by Christopher Buehlman

Months and months ago, I asked for recommendations on books that actually tried to make werewolves horrifying instead of just some variety of urban fantasy or romance archetype. Those Across The River was one of the few real recommendations I got, and then spent most of the year languishing on my To-read shelf until I had entirely forgotten why it was there. It does very much fit the requirements asked of it, and in concept is really quite a juicy idea. Unfortunately, it’s rather let down b execution here – both in terms of prose and of content.

Frank Nichols is a historian – or was one, anyway. After an affair with a college's wife named Eudora becomes public and he responds by running away with her, his career prospects take something of a swan dive. And in the midst of the Great Depression, there are far more wannabe academics than there are jobs for them. So, after living for a time with his brother in Chicago, the two of them move down south to take up residence in the small southern town his mother fled as soon as she was able, where Dora might at least draw a salary as a school teacher. And, more importantly, where Frank can research his great-grandfather, a confederate planter killed by his own slaves in the last days of the Civil War whose ruined plantation lies somewhere nearby, to write the biography that will restart his career.

Times are tough there too, and soon after the pair of them move in there is a town meeting where it’s agreed to end the monthly tradition of driving a pair of hogs across the river to thank God for their good fortune. While God doesn’t seem to mind much one way or the other, the creatures living in the woods who had made feasts of those pigs certainly do, and on the next full moon raid the outskirts of the town to make their displeasure known. From there, things just about only get worse.

So as mentioned, this is the vanishingly rare sort of story made in the last couple of decades that take ssomething recognizable as werewolves and actually tries to play them straight as something awful, threatening, and horrifying. I think this mostly works – there’s only a scene or two I’d really call horrifying, but then with books that’s an incredibly high bar for me. It manages the tone and atmosphere of a proper horror story throughout, and never lets the werewolves stop being strange an dangerous.

A large part of this is, I’m sure, just the fact that no one in the story is even the tiniest bit genre-savvy or awae of what a ‘werewolf’ is, as a cultural figure. Beyond providing the isolation and lack of outside forces that might help, the period setting does an incredible amount of work in just making it plausible that no one in the story was aware of what kind of story they were in. This is actually probably the first straightforward monster horror story I’ve read or seen in a while that wasn’t in some way trying to comment or make cute references to the wider genre.

The period setting is, werewolves aside, easily the most engaging thing about the book. Less so for the particulars of the world than the character of Frank. The entire book is spent in his head, marinating in his internal monologue, and it’s a wonderfully strange and uncanny place – the story makes a liberal college professors from New England in the 1930s seem more genuinely alien (and often repulsive) than most genre fiction manages to make feudal aristocrats or cybernetic oligarchs.

The prose is interesting. Often good, but just as often reading like someone’s very self-conscious pastiche of mid-20th century ‘Great American Novel’ writing. Which I think is intentional, but does begin to wear on you – there’s only so many times you can read a guy say ‘how like a sphinx!’ when describing his fiancee before it grates. The exception here is Frank’s traumatic nightmares of his time fighting WW1 in France, which I reliably found quite evocative and striking.

The book’s politics are, well, bad, but in an absolutely fascinating sort of way. Better to say that the book is torn between the themes and politics it wants to have, and the mixture of genre requirements and I guess an author and editor who didn’t care much about subtext that leave it sending too drastically different messages. It’s probably one of the most interesting things about the book.

On the explicit, textual level, the book is very conscious of all the petty cruelty and flagrant brutality that went into maintaining the Jim Crow South, and views e.g. the way Frank calls it ‘the States War’ with jaundiced irony. There are passages talking explicitly about the injustice of sharecropping, and the vulgar racism of all the townspeople is presented as one more reason to view most of them with contempt. And of course the supernatural evil driving the whole story is the bloody legacy left behind by a confederate slaveowner who hunted and consumed human flesh wearing the skin of a beast, whose shadow looms large over the entire story. The book is generally very clear that ‘racism = bad’.

And yet-

This is also a story where functionally every black character is an inhuman, man-sexually predatory, man-eating beast in human skin (there is exactly one ‘good’ werewolf, he’s a yankee), where the indigent drifters walking through town begging for work really were sinister malefactors mapping things out to return with their friends latter, where the protagonist’s fiancee having dubiously consensual sex with a black man is very much presented as part of her own transformation into an insatiable, uncontrollable, literally babe-eating werewolf herself.

Horror has a reputation for being a reactionary genre by default, which this book feels like a decent argument towards. More, it was published in 2010, and I might owe that whole decade of pop-media critique being elevated to spectator sport that it’s genuinely hard to find stuff quite this unselfaware getting published these days.

A very fitting Halloween read I suppose, in the same way watching an ‘80s slasher is.

[biwitchenergyz]

My Top Three Issues with House of The Dragon (pt.1)

Issue #1. The Poor Use of Dragon Dreams and The Prophecy of Ice and Fire. 

In the first season, we are introduced to the idea of Aegon the Conqueror's dream when Viserys passes on this knowledge to Rhaenyra. This dream predicting the coming of white walkers is a good connection between House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, but by the second season, I wished it was never mentioned. Seemingly out of nowhere, Rhaenyra begins to back away from war on the premise that it will destroy the realm. She discusses the prophecy with Jacaerys as a way of explaining her reluctance to fight.

In season one, Rhaenyra did not have the same feelings. She seemed to revel in the knowledge that Viserys shared this information with her alone, but it never affected her decision to gather allies and retake her throne. Too much focus on the prophecy messes with the overall plot because it forces Rhaenyra to seem more of a sage thinking of the distant future than a character actively at war for her throne.

The prophecy explains her hesitance for battle, but it should never have been so prominent in the first place because it takes away from the problem and focuses on something that does not matter at this moment. Not only is it too concerned with the future, but it also doesn't make sense for Rhaenyra’s character established in Season One.

Rhaenyra, in season one, is willful, ambitious, and spoiled to an expected amount because she is the heir. She does not show any care for the common folk, instead insisting multiple times that they will simply have to accept her and that their opinions are irrelevant. She is haughty and is shown mocking Lady Redwyne and enjoying the violence of the tourneys. As an adult, she is glad when her father declares that the tongue of anyone who speaks against her and her children will be removed. She does not care about her little brother's injuries, and she challenges everyone with real velaryon blood so that she can seat her son on the driftwood throne.

This shows her ambition, cunning, strategy, and ability to use force when necessary. She is motivated by her claim to the throne and her children's claims to anything they want. This makes her so powerful in the first season; this makes us want her to get the throne. But we also know that with her spoiled nature, the smallfolk are not the reason she wants to rule, so why should she care about a prophecy that seems so distant. She needs to sit on the throne to make any change, not sulk. If the prophecy is why she hesitates, it does more harm than good.

Similarly, Alys Rivers and Helaena also create the problem of present vs future moments. Alys and Helaena are incredible characters, but by the second season, Helaena’s prophecies go from cryptic to ridiculously blunt. Her final speech to Aemond, though powerful and loved by many viewers, falls flat for me. Where is the girl who whispered, “he will have to close an eye” or “There is a beast beneath the board?”

Not only has her right to emotions been completely stripped from her character by destroying the blood and cheese scene and then forcing her to move on by the next episode, but now even her Cassandra-like nature is removed and replaced with someone who sees the future, not just in strange dreams, but in vivid detail. Aemond does not need to know that Aegon will rule again; he does not need to know that he dies in God's eye because it would make no sense for him to continue fighting if he knew the outcome of everything.

Similarly, Alys revealing the ENTIRE future to Daemon was pointless. Daemon seeing Danerys should mean nothing to him at this point. From his perspective, she is just another Targaryen with a dragon; the unique thing is that three dragons are with her, but at this point, there are multiple Dragons in Westeros; her bringing dragons back to life does not hold significance for Daemon because Dragons have not died. If anything, knowing the future and the ruin of House Targaryen would have made him withdraw from battle or fight to put himself on the throne instead of running to Rhaenyra, who, in his vision, sits on the throne and leads to the fall of House Targaryen.

The show is trying too hard to connect with Game of Thrones when these things are unnecessary. House of The Dragon is set in Westeros with many Targaryens; they do not need to know all the future events, the long night, or anything established in a Game of Thrones. Not everyone needs to see the future. Helaena and Alys are unique because they know things that others do not. The extent of what they know is questionable, but Alys can see far into the future, and Helaena experiences dreams or visions that may not always be specific. If everyone knows what the future holds, then Alys and Helaena are just two more characters with no desire for war or to sway in either direction. 

In the books, and even in Season One, nobody knew what the future held besides perhaps Helaena. That is why they knew that crowning different people would be an act of war, so why do we suddenly not want to finish what has begun? Both sides have lost children, and where they should haunt the narrative, they are hardly mentioned again. Suppose the loss of these children is not enough to motivate the factions to war, then knowing that the future is destined for ruin probably won't help. The Dance of the Dragons is meant to be a series of unfortunate and horrible events that lead to the ruin of a once-powerful house. This has nothing to do with the white walkers, the mother of dragons, or even the Lannister/Baratheon on the throne because none of that is in the near future, and none of it changes the present moment.

Perhaps Alys has seen all of this, and that is what makes her such an eccentric figure, quite different from the gothic shadow I was expecting; maybe instead of showing Daemon all these things that don't change his fate, she could simply continue taunting him and reminding him of his own demons rather than the demons of the future.

Perhaps Helaena sees the future in prophetic visions and strange dreams. Maybe she is doomed to know things and never be believed, but if she knows too much and shares too much, then what significance does she have besides telling everyone how things will end despite them never being able to change it? Helaena should continue to be the prophetess who can still be taken by surprise and is still helpless to stop what is out of her control. This is what should push her to the brink of insanity, existing in so many worlds and yet never knowing what is happening in your own.

The future of House Targaryen does not matter if they do not go to war. If they stall, nobody will sit on the throne; if they fight, there is a chance that one of them will become the realm's protector. The building blocks for war have been set, and dwelling over prophecy and prophetic dreams that have nothing to do with their current situation will not make a difference. Blood has been shed, and nobody should know what to expect, but everyone knows something must be done. The prophecy and the dreams are great, to a point, that point being that only two people in the world know what the future holds, and while one wishes to stop it and the other merely observes, everything will continue to the peril of the Targaryens.

[thecomicsnexus]

Turtles vs. The East River Three: The Pearl Heist - Tales of the TMNT

Join me as we dive into the tale of the East River Three and their quest for the Pearl! In this video, we explore how different views of 'home' can lead to unexpected betrayals, all set against the backdrop of a stormy New York.

[cressthebest]

Crimson Rivers thoughts pt. 2

chapter 3:

1. loving how immediately the chapter begins with sirius warning reg to stay away from the knives

2. omg i forgot that james is gonna have a dagger kink in this. lmao like how ahb james definitely had a gun kink

3. 😭😭😭 james immediately saying he’s good with his hands. i’m losing my mind he’s so flirty

4. james and sirius both know that james will 100% sacrifice himself for regulus. but regulus doesn’t know that. that HURTS

5. “"Are you—flirting with my brother?" Sirius asks, baffled, and then he reaches out and swats James over the head. "Stop that. Don't do that."” FUCK YEAH! the flirting has begun

6. the death eaters ☹️

7. holy shit. finding out that sirius killed twelve people was a jaw dropping moment

8. james is good with a hatchet. istg that this will probably come back to haunt me. he’s probably gonna brutally murder someone with that

9. MARLENEEEEE

10. dorlene mayhaps?

11. sirius being seen as the hollow’s sex symbol is so devastating

12. peter pettigrew mention 😔 he’s probably gonna die

13. EVAN ROSIER MENTION!! god i hope he doesn’t die. but alas, he probably will. i’m not getting my hopes up for this fic. as of know, i only think wolfstar and jegulus are guaranteed to survive.

14. god, i love remus’s characterization in this fic

15. awwww wolfstar is already flirting. sirius is gonna be company for remus when he’s in the kitchen!

16. REMUS POV!! HES 100% NOT GONNA DIE

17. reading the authors note and i realize that everyone was worried about remus. not just me

chapter 4:

1. “Sirius never said it. He has never said it, and Regulus thinks he will die before he ever admits it, but Regulus is sure that Sirius regrets taking his place.”

No! i don’t think you understand regulus!! sirius has absolutely zero regrets in taking your place

2. “Regulus feels like a child stepping into a sweet shop, except it's just him and a variety of pointy weapons. He would like one of each, please.” i should be scared. but like, that’s so funny. i-

3. “"Oh, sorry, I thought the question was if I could still put a dagger in the side of your fucking skull."” CACKLING

4. 😭😭😭😭😭 this is the moment james discovers he has a knife kink. pleaseeeeee

5. not everyone flirting with james 😭😭 plsss

6. dorcas my beloved 😌🩷✨

7. aww peter and james freindship <333 i wish peter wasn’t doomed to die

8. james has such a knife kink omg 😭😭

9. their sparring is so homoerotic. they can’t even train without flirting 😭😭😭

[emergefromthenoise]

Violent delights and violent ends – a tragic lovers' tale.

All the world's a stage... Indeed, so the whole theatre becomes exactly that: from the rooftop (a distant and isolated Mantua), to the backstage corridors and fire escapes standing in for meandering streets of Verona or foyer turning into Capulet's house's halls. Use it all. And at the same time focus on the word: darkness engulfing the stage where vulnerable characters bare their desires. Micro expressions on display as cameras follow the actors around. Lights. Camera. A story of love and hate. A tragedy weaved by fate. Timeless tale.

Some raised the alarm as the casting revealed Francesca Amewudah-Rivers as Juliet, claiming it wasn't true to Shakespeare's spirit. Well, I, for one, am glad that it wasn't. Not that I have anything against men in tights, but that would be a different play entirely. Also may I remind everyone we would be subjected to some pre-teen, prepubescent males with their falsetto trying to nail Juliet's voice timbre. And Nurse's too. But then we would have been deprived of seeing such brilliant performances from Francesca and Freema [Agyeman] which would be simply a travesty. And all in a name of staying true to the original text (may I add also well known fact – Shakespeare's not so secret and nice tendency to “borrow” from other's work thus him being not so original himself).

Even though my first reaction to Freema being cast as a Nurse was: she's too young! Because in my head this character is this elderly matron rather than witty and lively Nanny. But that's the beauty of theatre and interpretation: anything goes! And oh, boy how it worked!

Francesca's Juliet is so youthful, gentle, so full of passion. One's heart sinks seeing her heart's woes. Tom's Romeo has boyish charm, rage and love so bound together it boils. His Romeo is impulsive, emotional, he brings laughter and choked silence as one observes his character being played by fate. Let's not forget Juliet is the driving force. She's “yes” or “no”, black or white, ultimatum giving kind of girl. And Romeo? Well, he's both romantic (grand gestures much?) and... well, he's a fuckboy (how fast Rosalind is in his rearview mirror, huh?). But then he's Juliet's fuckboy and heaven is not on their side.

Maybe I'm a cynic when I look at this great romance and frown and childish overreactions and hyperboles. But these two [Francesca and Tom], they're so gentle and pure, so deep, that one quickly invests in their budding feelings and looks upon them with softness knowing too well what's glooming over. The tragic face of star crossed lovers.

But these two aren't the only ones shining bright on that stage. Mercutio always has been one of my favourite characters – flamboyant, fast with words and weapons, mad or is he? Harold Perrineau made such an impact with his Mercutio [in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet], even though not on stage, there was no other version of this character for me. But I dare to say Joshua-Alexander Williams comes real close or maybe even matches the performance. Which is incredible considering it's his professional debut. Exuberant, cheeky sidekick, cursed... and cursing the feuding families. Seemingly insane with his flowery talk turns out to be the voice of reason and prophecy in the end.

The staging is stripped back, functional, raw in it's simplicity, but not dull. Focus is on the actors and the text. Blaring music and flashing lights prevent the audience from being too comfortable in their seat – it's a tragedy after all.

'Romeo and Juliet', a tale as old as overplayed. Yet, always attracting both actors ready to add their version to the pile and crowds eager to see lovers' tragic fate onstage (and/or on screen).

Shakespeare's plays always were the entertainment for the masses, even the tragedies have characters being bigger or smaller 'comic relief'. In 'Romeo and Juliet' it would be surely the Nurse, but thanks to Freema's brilliance this character is so much more than crazy old lady. The wit is her weapon of choice, true, but the emotions and layers that spill out thanks to Freema shine a new light on this character.

It takes a special kind of talent to breathe a new life into the text and a play as a whole (and the assemble did a marvellous job at it!), especially one so well-known, played so many times that people think they have seen it all. But Jamie Lloyd has carved a reputation for himself and his innovative and bold approach (and vivisection) is doing only favours to dusty classics. It is an unmissable event.

---

William Shakespeare's ROMEO & JULIET.

Dir.: Jamie Lloyd

Cast: Tom Holland, Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, Freema Agyeman, Michael Balogun, Tomiwa Edun, Mia Jerome, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Ray Sesay, Nima Taleghani, Joshua-Alexander Williams, Callum Heinrich, Kody Mortimer

In Duke of York's Theatre, London from 13 May to 3 August 2024

[Photo from Duke of York's Theatre]

[thollandnewsbra]

STAGE TO PAGE has given 'Romeo & Juliet' a 5 star-review!

Jamie Lloyd has taken the greatest love story of all time and made it into the most gritty, visceral piece of theatre I've ever seen. 

Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers share some of the best onstage chemistry I've ever seen in live theatre. Holland is a quietly charismatic Romeo against Amewudah-Rivers' fiery and bold portrayal of Juliet. The intimacy co-ordination from Ingrid Mackinnon must be applauded here as she's created what appears to be the perfect atmosphere for the pair to thrive and bounce off of each other.

Watching Holland's descent into madness and animalistic rage, and his acting in the end of act one is as raw and exposed as you'll see. Amewudah-Rivers domineers the stage and demands you to take notice of her sensational take on one of literature's most loved female characters. Jamie Lloyd has once again created an absolutely ground-breaking production. Whether good or bad, this adaptation will certainly have people talking and is a true reflection of the subjectiveness of theatre.

[imperatorcaesaraugustus]

Daemon and Alys, Aemond and Helaena: Loyalty, Recklessness, and Fate

(this is one section of my House of the Dragon Season 2 Review)

Daemon and Aemond’s stories both deal with similar themes in this season. Both have questionable loyalties to their monarch, seeking their own power instead. Both are determined to act, sometimes in ways which are ill-advised. And both have stories that engage in some way with fate and prophecy and visions, though far more so with Daemon. We will focus on Daemon’s story first.

            Daemon starts this season attempting to rule in Rhaenyra’s absence, eager to take action during this pivotal time, but he is rebuffed by those such as Rhaenys who do not cede authority to him. Searching for a means to act, Daemon seizes upon the opportunity afforded by the capture of Mysaria in order to orchestrate what is known in the books as the Blood and Cheese incident (Blood being the name used for the guard and Cheese being the name used for the rat catcher). When Rhaenyra confronts him about this, he flies to Harrenhal, both so he may have the freedom to do the things he views as necessary and so he may claim some authority for himself in Rhaenyra’s absence. Once at Harrenhal, Daemon attempts to recruit the Riverlords for his army, but faces resistance from all save the Blackwoods. Frustrated with the lack of progress, Daemon tasks Lord Blackwood with harassing the smallfolk in order to encourage the Brackens to comply, a tactic which backfires massively as the other Riverlords turn firmly against him in response. Because of his shortsighted actions, Daemon is forced to execute Lord Blackwood, who had been his most loyal follower in the Riverlands, in order to gain the support of Lord Grover Tully and the rest of the Riverlords.

            While at Harrenhal, Daemon is tormented with visions. The visions confront Daemon with the consequences of his actions and the futility of his quest for personal power, slowly driving him mad. These visions are closely tied to the character of Alys Rivers, a mysterious healer/witch who interacts regularly with Daemon, repeatedly emphasizing to him that he is only a part of the greater whole. It is only once Daemon begins to accept this and seeks Alys’ help that she kills Oscar Tully, placing the Riverlands in the hands of a lord capable of taking action with whom Daemon can negotiate. In the final episode, Alys shows Daemon visions from the weirwood, and knowledge of what may come leads to Daemon abandoning his ambitions in order to loyally serve Rhaenyra.

            Aemond spends most of this season in King’s Landing. When he returns at the start of the season, he is confronted about his reckless actions leading to Luke’s death at the end of season one, but he shows no regret. Once on Aegon’s small council, he shows no respect for his brother’s authority as king, undermining him in the open by contradicting him in the small council and undermining him in private by making secret plans with Criston Cole. And then, at the Battle of Rook’s Rest, when Aemond’s tendency to keep Aegon out of his plans leads to Aegon joining the battle, Aemond takes the opportunity to remove his brother from power, burning him near fatally.

            Once he is named regent, Aemond pays no heed to the council he receives from figures such as Alicent and Larys, confident that he himself knows what the best course of action is. He dismisses concerns over the attitudes of the smallfolk until they begin rioting in the streets, then sends the men Aegon appointed as Kingsguard to the Wall for starting said riots. Aemond also has a tendency to act recklessly. He makes plans to attack Harrenhal, leaving King’s Landing vulnerable without Vhagar. Upon learning about Rhaenyra’s new dragonriders he burns Sharp Point in a rage and attempts to force Helaena into flying into battle with him.

            Helaena’s story has been a difficult one this season. She first looses her son Jahaerys in retaliation for Aemond’s actions, then suffers through a traumatizing funeral procession and a trip to the sept that escalates into a riot. She has been shown to have prophetic visions throughout the show so far, though other characters never seem to recognize them as such, and in the final episode she is seen when Daemon journeys into the weirwood in a scene that may be interpreted as her already being present within that world of visions. She then, in response to Aemond confronting her a second time, speaks of his fate in a way much more definitive than any of her other prophetic sayings so far. Aemond decides to continue with his course of action in contrast with Daemon, who changed his behavior when presented with visions of the future.

            With this aspect of the narrative laid out, the question becomes whether or not it was executed well. Many have complained that Daemon’s storyline in Harrenhal drags on too long. I personally always found his scenes enjoyable, but I recognize that not much progress is made in his story for a long time. Alys Rivers makes for a very interesting character, and her interactions with Daemon are fun to watch. Other characters in Daemon’s story, such as Simon Strong and Grover Tully, are also very entertaining, and of course Matt Smith is giving an excellent performance. Aemond, meanwhile, serves mostly to drive other characters’ stories through most of the season, being an obstacle for both Aegon and Alicent to overcome. This I take no issue with, as the aspects of his story that I am discussing here mostly serve as a parallel that accentuates the Daemon storyline. Both stories up to the first episode were, in my opinion, good, with Daemon’s being a bit drawn out in a way that others grew tired of but I did not.

            As for the final episode, I have more mixed feelings. First, let’s quickly address Helaena in the last episode (Helaena earlier in the season will be talked about a bit more in the Brutality of War section of this review). A charitable reading of the shift in the nature of her prophecies would be that perhaps, after all she has suffered this season, her connection to her gift has strengthened, the grief causing her to see the future more clearly. A less charitable reading would be that her prophecies become much less cryptic and much more specific out of nowhere. It is, to me, a moot point, because of what I will now discuss regarding my opinions on the inclusion of prophecy in this show.

            I am not a massive fan of prophecy, conceptually, in any franchise. It doesn’t necessarily ruin my enjoyment, but it never enhances it. This is even more the case in a prequel, where prophecy serves primarily to remind the audience of the original work rather than to motivate the actions of the characters. And the fact that much of the prophecy in House of the Dragon calls back specifically to the conflict which occurred towards the end of Game of Thrones is, I think, an unfortunate choice given the quality of those final seasons. But broadly speaking, the idea that the characters are approaching a set fate is not one I typically find compelling. The idea that Daemon was convinced to change his ways by a vision of the white walkers rather than by his conversations with his dead brother is a disappointment to me. I will, once again, offer a charitable reading, where the only reason Daemon reacted this way was because of all the earlier visions, a reading potentially supported by Aemond’s differing reaction to Helaena, but it doesn’t much matter. Not everything needs to tie back to the white walkers, and I really would prefer if it didn’t.

[trashmuseum]

"Gaza is the example, and continues to be the example, time and again, for what happens when we fail to hold our leaders accountable for their actions and complicity. It is the story of steadfastness and resilience, of decades-long dispossession and an insistence on surviving and existing with dignity despite calculated efforts to rid Palestinians of their humanity and existence. And if we aren’t moved to act in solidarity, or at the very least, speak out, then we have lost everything."

Excerpt from "Gaza Unsilenced" by Alareer, Refaat.

Pictures by @tareq_matar