#September 28th 2020

[its-hyperfixation]

“and in the end, all i learned was how to be strong alone.”

my love, happy 3 years of friendship, and what an incredible 3 years it has been. honestly 3 years feels too short yet too long to describe the time we've known each other. 3 years ago on this day, i made one of the best decisions of my life and texted this super cool girl on tumblr who had a bunch of the same interests as me. little did i know you would become a light in my life, my sunshine. i love you so much, happy talking day @bellamyblakru <3

[acesandwords]

A while back I created two guides on how to use Tumblr, which can be found here [1][2].

This will be a beginner guide to the references and holidays of this hellsite.

References Dashcon(2013) - The Infamous Tumblr convention [1][2][3] Children's Hospital [1] Horse Plinko [1] Crab Rave - used for celebration [1][2] Do you love the color of the sky? [1] Bug Race - Polls got released [1] Vanilla Extract- userbase failed to make a cake [1] Mishapocalyspe (April 1st 2013) [1][2] Goncharov- A fake Mafia movie created by the users [1] Dracula daily [1] Queen Elizabeth [1] Origin of giftable crabs - April fools 2022, we had a crab button [1] I like your shoelaces- a way to find out who's on tumblr [1]

Holidays Cousin Oskar (Daylight Savings) [1] Ides of March (March 15) the stabbing of Caeser🗡️ [1][2][3] Tomorrow is Halloween, no it's March 28th [1] Neil Bangin' Out The Tunes (April 13) [1] It's Gonna Be May (April 30)- NSYNC Day [1][2] Hallowe'en IT'S JUNE (June) [1] 21st Night Of September (September 21) [1] It's October 3rd (October 3rd) [1][2] Halloween (October 31) - That's it, it's just the holiday all month Destiel-Putin-Election Day (November 5th)* It's December 10th! (December 10th)[1] Tomorrow is Halloween, IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE [1] Nobody smiles in February(February) [1]

*Nov. 5th was a wild day in 2020, we were waiting on the US election results, Destiel became canon, and there was a rumor that Putin was going to resign. The state of anxiety and joy was indescribable.

Please add more! There are so many and I know I didn't get them all.

[hjnxx]

house of cards is a south korean reality show created by mnet. hosted by twinstar’s oh hyewon, it premiered on march 5th 2021 and was broadcast every friday for thirteen weeks until its final episode. the series was broadcasted on the sbs m channel or youtube depending on the viewer’s location.

with fifty - two contestants being entered into the ring, the aim of the show was to debut a four - member group under the rising company kq entertainment. and with the growing success of their boy group ateez, it wasn’t long until those fifty - two slots were filled—auditions being held from january to february 2021.

divided into groups of four, a ‘pod’ would consist of thirteen members recognized in the four main categories needed to be a successful idol groups : vocals, performance, rapping, and personality—the last of the categories surprising its viewers. one member from each pod would be selected to represent themselves in their respective categories, as well as expected to keep up if asked to suddenly perform in the other categories. each week, four contestants were eliminated.

on the final episode of the show, aired on may 28th, it would be announced that the final four would debut later the same year.

in an unexpected turn of events, highly voted contestants choi janelle and yamada emi did not make the lineup. ending up in fifth and seventh place respectively, the top four spots went to kq trainees ahyeon and micha, pledis trainee yuina, and eunji—a recent university drop-out and convenient store worker. outrage from comets—fans of teenstar—and new fans of emi were inescapable for weeks online, marring the reputation of the show. but the hate didn’t matter. not to a certain staff member at kq.

house of cards was the brainchild of creative director yoon boeun, hired in 2020 and tasked with the creation and development of the project kqueenz. with her newly selected four, she would go on to partially introduce the girls to the world on june 14th, faces partially hidden in a similar fashion to their seniors. dancing to rico nasty’s counting up, four girls dressed head to toe in black gave a teaser of what’s to come. despite the show’s negative reception, the dance cover was quick to go viral—hate-watched or not. they would quickly gain popularity due to being of ateez’s sister group.

after the release of their dance video, the group would go through a series of debut preparations—the release of the official group name on july first, hijinxx, individual and group street performances from june to august, posters in public areas—all to raise domestic popularity. and on september first of the same year, hijinxx would officially debut.

[heroesriseandfall]

Canonical Batfamily Birthdays

Here are all the birthdates I know of that are canon somewhere in DC, with a preference for the main comics continuities. I have included exact sources and image references when possible. I am not including character introduction dates, just actual birthdays.

If you find any other sources for Batfamily birthdays, please do share!

A moment of silence for Batfamily characters who don’t have canonical birthdays yet, so far as I know. This includes Damian Wayne, Stephanie Brown, Duke Thomas, and more. :(

Summary

Source images will be further down, but here’s an overview in roughly age order (I’m not sure of Kate vs Selina’s ages) with the dates the birthdays were introduced and used:

Tim Drake: July 19th (from 2003)

Jason Todd: August 16th (from 2004)

Cassandra Cain: January 26th (from 2002)

Helena Bertinelli: February 14th (in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold universe, from 2010)

Helena Wayne: September 7th (from 1984), potentially October 20th or the 22nd of unknown month or maybe October 22 or maybe Feb 28th (all the New 52 on passports from 2011-2012). These could also be New 52 Helena Bertinelli’s birthdays or nobody’s birthdays. who even knows.

Dick Grayson: March 20th (from 1995), October ~24th ish (from 1990), November 11th (from 1976), December 1st (on Earth-16 in animated Young Justice universe, from 2012)

Barbara Gordon: September 23rd (from 1976), sometime in fall (from 1987)

Selina Kyle: March 14th (from 1976)

Kate Kane: January 26th (in Batwoman TV series from 2020), March 21st? (word-of-god by J.H. Williams III from 2012)

Bruce Wayne: October 7th (from 2021), February 19th (from 1970s various to more recently), April ~7th (from the late 1940s)

Jim Gordon: January 5th (from 1976)

Alfred Pennyworth: April 8th (from 1976), August 16th (in the Injustice: Gods Among Us universe, from 2016)

Note: in this post when I say “main comics continuity(s)/universe” I’m referring to anything that’s been a “home” continuity for the comics at some point. For example, pre-Crisis Earth-2, Earth-1/New Earth, and Earth-0/Prime Earth, as opposed to Elseworlds or DCEU earths that are still part of the broader DC multiverse but have never been the primary continuity of the comics.

Below are further details and source panels.

Details and Sources

Tim Drake

Tim has only been given one canon birthday. He turned 16 on July 19th in Robin Vol. 2 #116 (cover date Sep 2003).

Robin Vol. 2 #116 (Sep 2003)

Jason Todd

Jason turned 18 on August 16th in Detective Comics #790 (March 2004). This is his only canon birthday.

Detective Comics #790 (Mar 2004)

In post-Crisis/preboot (1986-2011) continuity, there was a gap of six months between when Jason died and when he was resurrected (Batman Annual 25). Jason died April 27th according to his death certificates in Batman Annual 25 and Batman Files 2011, so he would’ve resurrected near late October.

Batman Annual 25 (May 2006)

So, it could be that post-resurrection Jason is biologically 6 months younger than he chronologically should be. But honestly, do we even really know what multiverse-breaking resurrection punches and then a Lazarus Pit on top of that do to someone’s body??? Either way it’s just much more simple to just use his chronological age.

Cassandra Cain

Much like Tim and Jason, Cass has only ever been given one birthdate: January 26th from Batgirl Vol. 1 #33. With that birthday, she turned 18 in Batgirl Vol. 1 #37.

Batgirl Vol. 1 #33 (Dec 2002)

When Jan 26th actually comes, Bruce suggests David Cain could’ve lied about it, but Cass denies that idea and continues to treat the day as her birthday.

Batgirl Vol. 1 #37 (Apr 2003)

Why it's likely her real birthday: Bruce initially believes Cain must’ve lied because he doesn’t think Cain could’ve known her birthday. However, we later learn Cain had lied about her origins and was actually her biological father. Batgirl v1 #62 and #73 show he was there for her birth and could absolutely know the date.

On top of that, in Batgirl #37 Cass remembers celebrating her birthday with him as a child, so he did seem to actually keep track of it. I honestly don’t see any reason to believe he’d lie (Bruce is just a jealous spoilsport).

Helena Bertinelli + Wayne

I’m combining them here because the New 52 gives me a headache.

Helena Bertinelli celebrated her birthday on February 14th in a spin-off comic from the animated Batman: The Brave and the Bold series. This is obviously not part of regular comics continuity and the characters differ from the usual comics in many ways. And yet, for reasons that will soon be clear, it’s my favorite for actually being about Helena Bertinelli the Huntress and for not being an utter mess.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14 (Apr 2010)

In a character profile at the end of Infinity Inc. #7 (Oct 1984), Helena Wayne’s birthday was September 7th, 1959. Calculating back from October 1984, that would make her 25 at the time.

During the New 52, Helena Bertinelli was initially portrayed as a long-dead (secretly alive but don’t worry about it) mobster’s daughter and replaced by Earth-2’s Helena Wayne who got stranded on Prime Earth. This H. Wayne stole H. Bertinelli’s identity in the form of several forged passports and IDs, which had hints toward birthdates. The question is, can we take any of those birthdates seriously, and if so, which birthdates and for which character? (Cue my headache.)

Skip ahead to Dick if overthinking fake passports sounds boring.

When comparing to a real Italian passport, the date on H. Wayne’s fake Italian passport appears to be a birthdate. Note that the fake name is Carol Bertinelli, not Helena. H. Wayne said her IDs were inspired by H. Bertinelli but clearly she’s taking liberties for the IDs so that’s a point toward these being useless for H. Bertinelli birthdays.

Huntress Vol. 3 #1 (Dec 2011)

I don’t recognize the month abbreviation as a real abbreviation, but from the visible letter O I’m going to assume it means October. If it is, then the date is 20 October 1985. Sidenote: a 1985 birthdate during 2011 could put her age at about 26, which is actually quite close to how old she could’ve been based on pre-Flashpoint! 1985 has been given as Helena Wayne’s death year before, so it’s an interesting choice of a birth year for her. (Thanks to DC’s sliding timescale, though, birth years don’t actually mean anything in the comics.)

They don’t show her complete US passport, but I can see a “22” in line where the day of the month should be for her birthdate. This already contradicts the previous passport. This one uses Helena Bertinelli’s actual name, though–does that make it more relevant than the Carol one or this all still ridiculous because of the discrepancies?

Worlds’ Finest Vol. 1 #1 (Jul 2012)

We can try to glean the US passport birth month from the passport number at the bottom. The first two digits (“12” here) indicate the agency that issued the passport. 12 means the Honolulu agency. Right after “USA” is supposed to be the birthdate plus an extra number, in the order of year/month/day with the year being the last two digits of a year. Here we encounter another problem. It says 810228. This would imply her birthdate is 1981/02/28. That’s February 28, 1981. Since the earlier line indicated her birthday fell on a 22nd, this already contradicts itself.

Interpreting a Machine Readable Zone (MZR) on a Machine Readable Travel Document (MRTD)

However, I’d bet comic writers and artists aren’t always well versed in passport numbers (it’s already a stretch for me to bother checking it…). If they put the extra digit before the birthdate instead after, and the date is formatted month/day/year (the most common format in American English, so probably their first instinct), then we can drop the first 8 and it’s 10/22/8[?] with the last digit unknown. This would put her birthday as October 22, sometime in the 1980s. The 22 matches the earlier line, the October might match the previous passport if that really did say October (but contradicts the 20th), and the 1980s year could be 1985 to match the Italian passport.

At the end of the day I’m personally just going to let Helena Bertinelli be a Valentine’s born baby and call it a day, unless/until she gets a better one in the comics. For Helena Wayne I’d easily pick September 7th.

(My question is: did they give the crossbow vigilante a Valentine’s birthday as a Cupid joke??)

Dick Grayson

Dick has probably had the most birthdays of everyone (unless Bruce has more I don’t know about). All of them have their drawbacks.

In a main comics continuity, his most popular and most recent is “the first day of spring” so probably March 20th. This comes from Robin Annual 4 when his mom says she calls him Robin because he was born on the first day of spring. That presents some problems since there are other explanations given for the origin of “Robin,” including that his mom said he was “always bobbin’ along” (Dark Victory #12, page 17) or the original inspiration of Robin Hood (Detective Comics #38, p3).

Robin Annual 4 (Jun 1995)

Before that, in Secret Origins Vol. 2 #50 (Aug 1990), Marv Wolfman wrote a version of Dick’s origins where Dick turned 10 a week before his parents died on Halloween. That would make his birthday October ~24th (presuming that “a week” before Halloween literally means 7 days here).

Secret Origins Vol. 2 #50 (Aug 1990)

The first drawback of the October birthday is that it’s tied to Dick being 10 when his parents die on Halloween. Dick’s age and the date his parents die change a lot depending on the writer (Nightwing Vol. 1 #1 says his parents died June 27th, Dark Victory #8-9 says May, etc.). The second drawback is that few people remember this version of his birthday even exists.

Dick’s birthday is November 11th in Super DC Calendar 1976. Note: Despite being a non-diegetic calendar from almost 50 years ago, this source remains well known and used among comic enthusiasts (including those working at DC). Generally, I would say it should mainly apply just to pre-Crisis continuity, but it is also useful for characters that haven’t gotten updated birthdays ever since (like Roy Harper, Barbara Gordon, or Selina Kyle, for example).

Super DC Calendar 1976

Sidenote: Since Damian doesn’t have a canon birthday, November 11th is favorite to steal for my own fan canon Damian birthday. Dick has plenty birthdays to share and I think it’s cute. @ DC, give Damian and Steph birthdays, they’ve been birthday-less for decades!

Indeed, DC writer Tim Sheridan and editor Mike Cotton debated whether Dick’s birthday was in March or November. They favored March 20th and wrote a birthday scene in Teen Titans Academy #1 (published March 23rd, 2021). The publishing time near Dick’s birthday was intentional, though the date isn’t mentioned within the comic itself.

Link to tweet

The above birthdays were all meant to apply to a main comics continuity at some point. However, Earth-16, better known as the animated Young Justice universe (therefore outside of main comics continuity), says YJ Dick’s birthday is December 1st.

Young Justice Vol. 2 #20 (Nov 2012)

Unlike Helena Bertinelli, Dick has plenty of comics birthdays to choose from, so personally I’ll only count Dec 1st as being the birthday for YJ animated/Earth-16 Dick Grayson until or unless it’s ever mentioned to apply to main comics continuity.

Barbara Gordon

Super DC Calendar 1976 says Barbara’s birthday is September 23rd.

Super DC Calendar 1976

Since then, the only time I recall her birthdate hinted at is in Secret Origins #20 when her adoptive mom says her birthday is in the fall. This could support her birthday being September 23rd.

Secret Origins Vol. 2 #20 (Nov 1987)

Although she has celebrated her birthday on panel since then (the end of Nightwing Vol. 2 #153), she hasn’t been given any other actual birthdate. So I’ll keep September 23rd and call it a day.

Selina Kyle

Super DC Calendar 1976 says Selina’s birthday is March 14th. Once again, although it hasn’t been mentioned within a comic, it’s stuck around in popular consciousness (see: Catwoman actress Zoë Kravitz wishing Selina a happy birthday on March 14th).

Super DC Calendar 1976

Selina celebrated a birthday on panel in Catwoman (2002) #37 but the date was never mentioned. I don’t know of any other reference to her birthday, but my reading of Selina is thus far more sparse than my reading of the others.

Kate Kane

Kate’s birthday options all come from outside of the comics themselves.

In “An Un-Birthday Present,” season 1 episode 11 of Batwoman, a parallel version of her twin Beth had a driver’s license showing her date of birth as January 26, 1990. She and Kate later celebrated their birthdays on an episode aired Jan 26th, 2020. I don’t keep up with live action DC shows so I unfortunately can’t offer a screenshot (if anyone has one or the timestamp, please let me know!).

(I kinda wonder if somebody looked up Batwoman’s birthday for these episodes, saw Batgirl’s (Cass’s) birthday, and just ran with it. Batwoman and a Batgirl sharing a birthday is just. Ughhh.)

In 2012, one of her comic writers tweeted to choose a random date for her birthday and picked March 21st, which so far as I know has never been used as her birthday in comics.

Link to tweet

Bruce Wayne

Bruce’s most popular birthday is February 19th, but his most recent one is October 7th from the digital-only comic Legends of the Dark Knight. I believe that’s the only time October 7th has been referenced, but I’ve heard the animated show The Batman said his birthday was in October (can’t confirm, haven’t watched it recently).

Legends of the Dark Knight #10 (Jun 2021) - Note: two pages have been combined into one for this post

Still, even associates of DC seem to remember his February 19th birthday better. In February 2023, Warner Bro’s Gotham Knights game did a sale for Bruce’s birthday. I’ve also heard the birthday was used in the Gotham TV show, but again, I don’t watch much live action DC shows.

The February 19th birthday appears to come from the 70s and 80s. It’s his birthday in the Super DC Calendar 1976, and in Batman Family Vol. 1 #11: “Suprise, Suprise!” (May 1977). Bob Rozakis (known as DC’s “Answer Man”) said Feb 19th was Bruce’s birthday in the letter column of Detective Comics #494 (Sep 1980).

Letter column of Detective Comics #494 (Sep 1980)

Batman Family Vol. 1 #11: “Suprise, Suprise!” (Jun 1977)

Super DC Calendar 1976

Way back in the 40s, his birthday was in April, possibly April 7th. During a birthstone murder mystery, Bruce says his birthstone is a diamond, which is traditionally the April birthstone.

World’s Finest Comics #33/6 (Mar-Apr 1948): “The 5 Jewels of Doom!”

Star Spangled Comics #91 (Apr 1949) might imply the exact date was April 7th but we’d have to assume the party is on his birthday and that “this month” refers to the publishing month of April. I believe this is where people get the April 7th birthday when they bring it up.

Star Spangled Comics #91 (Apr 1949)

Early April also shines in Batman: Year One where it shows Bruce’s first night out as Batman being either the night of April 6th or the early morning of April 7th (Batman #405). So although the April Bruce birthday hasn’t been used in decades, it’s still a Batman birthday in a way.

I have also heard people say Frank Miller considered Bruce’s birthday to be in November. However, I have yet to find an original source of him saying that, and honestly (just like the “March 21st” birthday for Kate) if he never used it in any canon material I don’t put much weight in that.

Jim Gordon

The only birthday I’ve ever seen for Jim is January 5th from Super DC Calendar 1976.

Super DC Calendar 1976

Alfred Pennyworth

Alfred’s birthday in Super DC Calendar 1976 is April 8th.

Super DC Calendar 1976

In the Injustice: Gods Among Us universe (an alternate reality where the video game of the same name is set in), they show Alfred’s birth certificate, where it says his birthday is August 16th, 1943.

Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Five #26 (Jun 2016)

Maybe you’ll notice that August 16th is Jason’s birthday. A little funny considering the issue features Alfred refusing to share his birthday only for us to learn it’s the same date as Jason’s. Still, annoying. There are so many days in the year! Stop choosing the same ones!

This Alfred birthdate runs into a similar problem Helena’s birthdates did: it’s not part of main comics canon, it’s an alternate universe, so it may not be applicable to the main comics universe.

Note: if we calculate that 1943 birth year from Jun 2016 when the comic was published, that’d make Alfred 72 soon to be 73. Does that mean anything in canon? Probably not, but oh well. Also...token British character born by Windsor Castle? …of course.

Personally, I would rather go with the April 8th birthday than the Injustice one, since Injustice is an alternate universe. Also, outside of the humor of it, the idea of Alfred and Jason sharing a birthday is a bit too much for me. Still, it’s up to people’s own cherry picking.

Chronology

The birthdays in publishing order alongside notable reboots. A soft-reboot refers to reboots that only changed a few details with minor consequences, keeping the overall continuity mostly intact. A major reboot has significant effects on continuity (too many to list).

1935-1986: Pre-Crisis era (Golden Age begins ~1946, Silver Age runs from late 50s--early 70s)

Mar-Apr 1948: Bruce’s birthday is in April

Apr 1949: Bruce has a birthday party on the 7th of “this month”

Skipping a good three decades because I barely even know what’s in there. Sorry lol

Mid 70s to early 90s: Bronze Age era

1976: the super dc calendar says Bruce’s birthday is February 19th, Alfred’s is April 8th, Dick’s is November 11th, Babs is September 23rd, Selina’s is March 14th, Jim’s is Jan 5th

Jun 1977: Bruce celebrates his birthday on February 19th

Sep 1980: letter collumnist says Bruce’s birthday is February 19th

Oct 1984: Helena Wayne’s birthday is on September 7th, 1959

Mar 1986: the major Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot (begins post-Crisis/New Earth era, many previous comics are now considered Earth-2 instead)

Nov 1987: Babs birthday is in fall

Aug 1990: Dick turns 10 a week before Halloween (probably October ~24th)

Sep 1994: Zero Hour soft reboot (Batman and Robin become urban legends so Robin is not allowed on video, Bruce’s parents’ murderer is changed to unknown instead of Joe Chill, Selina is no longer a once-prostitute)

Apr 1995: Dick’s birthday is the first day of spring (probably March 20th)

Oct 2002: Cass learns her birthday is January 26th

April 2003: Cass turns 18 on January 26th

Sep 2003: Tim turns 16 on July 19th

Mar 2004: Jason turns 18 on August 16th

Jun 2006: Infinite Crisis soft reboot (Joe Chill is restored as the arrested Wayne family murderer, Superboy-Prime's punch retroactively resurrects Jason)

Apr 2010: In the Batman: Brave and the Bold universe, Helena Bertinelli celebrates her birthday February 14th

Oct 2011: the major Flashpoint reboot (end of post-Crisis/preboot, begins the New 52 and changes the primary universe to Prime Earth; significant character/timeline changes and erasures)

Dec 2011: Helena Wayne’s fake Carol Bertinelli passport seems to list October 20th as a birthdate

Jul 2012: Helena Wayne’s fake Helena Bertinelli passport lists some 22nd unknown month, Oct 22nd, or Feb 28th birthday

Sep 2012: Batwoman writer J.H. Williams III randomly picks Kate’s birthday as March 21st on Twitter

Nov 2012: Earth-16/YJ animated Dick Grayson celebrates his birthday on December 1st

Jun 2016: In the Injustice: Gods Among Us universe, Alfred’s birth certificate says his birthday is August 16th

Jul 2016: Rebirth reboot (restores some pre-Flashpoint continuity, some characters regain previous histories but now semi-synchronized with the New 52 era)

Jan 2020: Batwoman TV show Kate celebrates her birthday on January 26th

Mar 2021: Writer Tim Sheridan says he & his editor chose March 20th as Dick’s birthday over the November option

May 2021: Infinite Frontier holds all previous continuities as potential canon, restoring more of pre-Flashpoint

Jun 2021: Bruce says his birthday is October 7th in a digital-only comic

Feb 2023: Gotham Knights game has a sale for Bruce’s birthday

[herejusttosufferalong]

(Re: About Joe Alwyn, Similarities with Nic, and Acquaintance with Luke Thompson)

Response to your shock about Ratty Healy : Hahaha as a swiftie myself I SIDE-EYED tay so hard when she had her rebound with him, like gurl he's nasty and disgusting with all of his past troubling behaviors no matter how sweet he might appear to you.

If you wanna know a glimpse of JoeTay relationship, it was officially started in September 2016 and ended in early April 2023.

They first met at Gigi's bday party (April 29th 2016, References: High Infidelity-Midnights, Gorgeous-Reputation, Dress-Reputation), then met gala (May 1st). She previously and was still dating Calvin Harris- long story short he was a D, she wanted to leave him. I didn't know what prevented things to go further between her and Joe but in met gala she also met Tom Hiddleston and danced together. They had a brief getaway car moment or rebound (Getaway car-Reputation), officially known to public from June to September.

Then Joe and Tay started their relationship on September 28th (Ref: September - Cover by TSwift).

2016-2017 was the hell of year for Tay because of the whole Kanye Kim drama and lies. The whole world turned their back on her and she was at the lowest point of her life. She disappeared for a year then came back with a new album Reputation released in 2017.

Albums that give us many insights about her life and love story with Joe are : Reputation 2017, Lover 2019, Folklore 2020, Evermore 2020, Midnights 2022, The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology 2024.

He had part of writing and producing some songs with Tay in Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights in the pseudonym of William Bowery.

In TTPD, songs about Joe are So long London, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, loml, The Black Dog, How Did it End, and Peter.

I'm sad when people have to refer Joe only as Taylor Swift's Ex. He's a talented, low profile, and private actor. He's rarely active in SM. (Alwyn keeps his personal life private, which he described as a "knee-jerk response to the culture we live in". GQ labelled Alwyn a "notoriously low-key actor".)

Alongside with Paul Mescal, he is one the male leads of Sally Rooney Novel Adaptations. Paul in Normal People and Joe in Conversation with Friends. (I really would like Nic to have a project with him. Maybe another Sally Rooney adaptation would be great😭 *manifesting*)

Some of his projects are The Favourite (2018), Boy Erased (2018), Mary Queen of Scots (2018), Harriet (2019), The Last Letter from Your Lover (2021), Stars at Noon (2022), Catherine Called Birdy (2022), Conversation with Friends (2022), Kind of Kindness (2024), TBA projects: The Brutalist and Hamlet.

He is also friends with Lukey T. He ever talked about him in interview.

Similar with Nic, he is very vocal about activist/social movements and always stood on the right side of history. Nic came from her background as an Irish people and her late Dad with his humanity and military works to keep peace in middle east. Joe family also has deep connection to activism, particularly in Palestine, his late great uncle is a peace activist and patron of the Palestinian solidarity campaign. And both are private about their personal lives. But Joe is really silent and not chronically online as Nic.

I just love when Nic has so many connections and fully booked. She deserves it. And I would like the same things to happen to Luke too. They both deserve the best to not put their talent in waste. I wish my parents all the best.

DAMN ANON

Are you on his payroll????

No but seriously thank you for sharing 💜

I know nothing about the guy but I have seen multiple movies listed above with him in it

Will have to rewatch and check out some of his other work 🥃

[starhvney]

hey! 🔮 anon here, again lmfao i came up with a time period (with specific dates): phoenix drop high | 2008 — 2012 falcon claw university | 2012 — 2016 "the big move" | may 10th, 2018 — may 14th, 2019 mystreet | may 20th, 2018 — april 4th, 2019 love~love paradise | june 30, 2019 — july 7th, 2019 lover’s lane | september 8th, 2019 — november 2nd, 2019 holiday special | december 23rd, 2019 — december 25th, 2019 new years party | december 31st, 2019 — january 1st, 2020 post-lover’s lane | january 2nd, 2020 — january 20th, 2020 emerald secret | january 20th, 2020 — january 27, 2020 aphmau’s year | march 4th, 2020 — june 28th, 2021 starlight | july 29th, 2021 — july 19th, 2021 when angels fall | august 2nd, 2021 — august 5th, 2021 you helped a lot, of course, with the years you gave me! these are just headcanons and until jess actually reveals the dates, so i'm just going to go with these when i do decide to write. they might not make sense?? it's only been two hours of me spiralling lol

ooh, i really like this! it makes sense to me! i think putting dates to everything helps me personally with remembering the order of the lore and everything,, otherwise it gets all muddled in my head >.<

[tomorrowusa]

ActBlue raised more than $100 million in small donations for Democrats for the second week in a row.

This is the first time this has happened since 2020.

After the record shattering week when Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, ActBlue had another $100+ million week.

In the two weeks since President Biden withdrew, ActBlue has raised $374,428,542; that's 3.4 times the totals for the previous two weeks.

This total does not include money raided at fundraisers and major individual contributors. It's a metric of grassroots support.

Since the ActBlue Ticker Tracker first started gathering stats in September of 2020, there have been 10 weeks when more than $100 million was raised. The week of July 28th is #8 on that list.

Weird Donald is getting tons of loot from fossil fuel executives, tech broligarchs, fundamentalist extremists, and financial services overlords. These people are hoping for a Trump victory to ensure their supremacy and inflict a dictatorial dystopian landscape on the overwhelming majority of people who would have to live out their lives in a form of digital serfdom.

The good news is that they can be beaten – as they were in 2020. This time we should strive to utterly humiliate and demoralize them to completely discredit their anti-democratic and racist ideology.

It takes money and volunteers to do this.

[blackpink-jane]

ㅤㅤㅤ°ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ𖤐 ִֶָ 𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐄 𓂃 profile 🧷

( moodboard cred: @lorlita )

。　　　　✧　everything is figureoutable !　⁺　 　 。

— BIRTH NAME ੭ go minri

— CHANGED NAME ੭ hwang jane ❪ since. '06 ❫

— CHINESE NAME ੭ zhao shengyue

— JAPANESE NAME ੭ hayashi yukicho

— NICKNAMES ੭ yue ❪ c-friends ❫, chocho ❪ dad, j-friends, jisoo ❫, honey ❪ jennie ❫, honey unnie ❪ rosè, lisa ❫, twinie ❪ chungha ❫

— hangul ੭ 고민리 → 황제인

— hanzi ੭ 趙勝岳

— kanji ੭ 林幸蝶

— NAME MEANINGS ੭ jane, God is gracious _ shengyue, rising moon _ yukicho, snowy morning

— BIRTHDAY ੭ 9th February, 1996

— ZODIAC SIGN ੭ aquarius

— CHINESE ZODIAC SIGN ੭ rat

— HEIGHT ੭ 170 cm ❪ 5'6" ❫

— WEIGHT ੭ 65 kg ❪ 143 lbs ❫

— BLOOD TYPE ੭ O

— GENDER ੭ female ❪ she/her ❫

— SEXUALITY ੭ bisexual

— RELATIONSHIP STATUS ੭ taken ❪ since. 2020 ❫

ㅤㅤㅤ🎀 | 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 ⊱ 🐈‍⬛

— MBTI ੭ entj / entp

— TRAITS ੭ independent, diplomatic, open-minded, energetic, impatient, ambitious, outgoing, confident, competitive, passionate, creative

— LIKES ੭ hugs, animals, waffles, makeup, dancing, martial arts, yoga, jogging, reading, playing video games, formula one, rugby, cars

— DISLIKES ੭ bananas, bright lights, spring season, insensitive people, snorers, knitting

— HOBBIES ੭ reading, baking, drawing, playing video games, go-karting, pottery, painting, jogging, annoying her twin brother eli, stealing her brothers clothes

ㅤㅤㅤ ❄ | 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐑 ⊱ 🌬

— COMPANY ੭ YG Entertainment ❪ 2012 - present ❫, Valor Entertainment ❪ 2024 ❫

— ACTIVE SINCE ੭ 2015

— TRAINEE PERIOD ੭ 2012 ‐ 2016 ❪ 3 yrs & 4 mths ❫

— GROUP ੭ BLACKPINK ❪ 블랙핑크 ❫

— DEBUT ੭ 2016

— STAGE NAME ੭ JANE ❪ 제인 ❫

— REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI ੭ 🦁

— INSTAGRAM ੭ diaryofjane ❪ personal ❫ ; valorent.official ❪ business ❫

— TWITTER ੭ diaryofjane ❪ personal ❫ ; valorent.official ❪ business ❫

— TIKTOK ੭ diaryofjane ❪ personal ❫ ; valorent.official ❪ business ❫

— YOUTUBE ੭ Valor Entertainment

— WEVERSE ੭ diaryofjane_

— SOLO DEBUT ੭ 2021

— ACTING DEBUT ੭ 2015

— APPEARANCES ੭ high society (jang yoonha, 2015), fight for my way (choi aera, 2017), what's wrong with secretary kim ? (kim miso, 2018), my name (yoon jiwoo, 2021), the kings affection (crown prince lee hwi, 2021), shang-chi and the legend of the 10 rings (xu xialing, 2021), the 355 (lin misheng, 2022), sweet home (lee eunyu, 2020-2023), a good day to be a dog (han haena, 2023), upgraded (ana, 2024)

— CHOREOGRAPHED FOR ੭ blackpink, treasure, taeyang, enhypen, aespa, le sserafim, boynextdoor, txt, ive, monsta x, joohoney, taylor swift, stray kids, seventeen

— PRODUCED FOR ੭ blackpink, txt, treasure, nct, aespa, selena gomez, niall horan, superm, ive, one direction, jeon somi, itzy, le sserafim

ㅤㅤㅤ 🌺 | 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘 ⊱ 🍃

— MOTHER (adoptive) :

੭ Birth Name ; hwang luhua ❪ 황루화 ❫

੭ Chinese Name ; zhao luhua ❪ 趙露華 ❫

੭ Japanese Name ; hayashi natsumi ❪ 林なつみ ❫

੭ Birthday ; 28th June, 1974

੭ Occupation ; café owner

੭ Residence ; london, england

੭ Relationship Status ; married ❪ since. 1994 ❫

੭ Children ; 3

— FATHER (adoptive) :

੭ Birth Name ; hwang wijeong ❪ 황위정 ❫

੭ English Name ; kenny hwang

੭ Birthday ; 17th September, 1974

੭ Occupation ; head engineer for McLaren F1 Team

੭ Residence ; london, england

੭ Relationship Status ; married ❪ since. 1994 ❫

੭ Children ; 3

— BROTHER (adoptive) :

੭ Birth Name ; hwang jin ❪ 황진 ❫

੭ Chinese Name ; zhao mingtao ❪ 趙明濤 ❫

੭ Japanese Name ; hayashi kurotori ❪ 林黒鳥 ❫

੭ Birthday ; 9th February, 1996

੭ Occupation ; idol

੭ Residence ; seoul, south korea

੭ Relationship Status ; unknown

੭ Children ; 1

— BROTHER (adoptive) :

੭ Birth Name ; hwang junho ❪ 황준호 ❫

੭ Chinese Name ; zhao haoyu ❪ 趙浩宇 ❫

੭ Japanese Name ; hayashi isagi ❪ 林いさぎ ❫

੭ Birthday ; 9th February, 1996

੭ Occupation ; idol

੭ Residence ; seoul, south korea

੭ Relationship Status ; taken ❪ since. 2023 ❫

੭ Children ; 0

— NEICE :

੭ Birth Name ; hwang cheonsa ❪ 황천사 ❫

੭ English Name ; angel hwang

੭ Chinese Name ; zhao shuijing ❪ 趙水晶 ❫

੭ Japanese Name ; hayashi hanami ❪ 林花見 ❫

੭ Birthday ; 10th October, 2021

੭ Occupation ; school ❪ private ❫

੭ Residence ; seoul, south korea

ㅤㅤㅤ🥀 | 𝐅𝐔𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐒 ⊱ 💋

𝐢. she is the tallest member of blackpink.

𝐢𝐢. jane refers to herself as a triplet, as both her adoptive brothers share the same birthday as her, and so they were raised as being referred to as triplets ! ( junho and jin are fraternal twins).

𝐢𝐢𝐢. she is the most extroverted in the group, and often finds great joy in embarrassing her fellow members in the public eye.

𝐢𝐯. miss girl is severely allergic to tomatoes – and she genuinely despises them, names them her greatest (and only) weakness in this world.

𝐯. jane has 2 cats named mochi and rari; she really wants her third pet to be a dog, and she plans to get one soon.

𝐯𝐢. a coffee enthusiast and cocktail connoisseur – like, she's actually quite skilled in mixology.

𝐯𝐢𝐢. she absolutely adores musicals, and cannot sit through a movie that is more than 2 hours long, her short attention span just does not allow it.

𝐯𝐢𝐢𝐢. within formula one the teams he's always supported since falling in love with the sport at 10, is mclaren – and in terms of her favourite rugby team, it's the all blacks, new zealand's national rugby team.

𝐢𝐱. jane is legally blind and cannot see a single recognizable object without her glasses or contacts – my girl lives in a world of shapes.

𝐱. her biggest scandal in her career was being in a rumored fist-fight with seventeen's the8.

[bestsynthpop]

Hottest synthpop band!

I am opening nominations for the hottest synthpop band tournament! For this one, you can just throw propaganda at my ask box.

Eligibility: Be a band, artist or producer who was active in the synthpop or synthesizer music scene in the 1970s & 1980s. Producers mean that yes, you can nominate Giorgio Moroder, Trevor Horn and Wendy Carlos. Artists should have a substantial body of work that is synthesizer or drum-machine driven, so bands like Blondie or Talking Heads would not qualify.

Submissions: Like I said, you can just fill my ask box with submissions and visual propaganda. Please give the name of the band if it isn't obvious. Visual propaganda should be from before 1991, I know that Grace Jones and Sparks are still serving looks in the 2020s, but this is a 70s-80s era tournament.

Timeline: Submissions are open until 5pm Pacific time on September 16th. I expect to have the first round of the tournament go live on September 28th.

[haydenyoungappreciationweek]

(this gorgeous poster is the handiwork of our amazing host @sazanes!!)

Welcome to our second edition of the Hayden Young Appreciation Week! (or third, if we count the birthday celebration we hosted for them last year).

We weren't able to do a full-fledged week last year, because of clashes with other AWs, but this year we're back in full force to celebrate this amazing character!! 🥳

The event will run for five days, from Sept 25th to Sept 29th. In addition, we will be giving a bonus week for anyone who couldn't complete their works during the week but would still like to contribute. Keep in mind that we accept not just completed works but WIPs too. These are the themes for the days:

Day 1 - Sept 25th - Throwback/Indescribable

Day 2 - Sept 26th - Friendship/Relationships/Family

Day 3 - Sept 27th - Pizza/Road Trip

Day 4 - Sept 28th - Identity/Pets

Day 5 - Sept 29th - Happy Birthday Hayden!

Any form of creative, original work is welcome - fic, art, meta, edits, moodboards, interactive media, headcanons...even screenshots of your favourite Hayden moments! The only rules are that they show a positive depiction of Hayden, and that the works center Hayden as a character. We will also accept WIPs and it is not necessary for the pieces to be put up only on the day of the theme. We also have a specific day for throwback pieces where you can share older stuff and even take us through the process of creating it if you like (here's an ask list that may help!)

Make sure you tag @haydenyoungappreciationweek, as well as hosts @lizzybeth1986 and @sazanes in your content. It would also be helpful if you used #haydenyoungappreciationweek and #HYAW in your tags!

For inspiration, you can check out our past HYAW masterlists: HYAW 2020 and HYAD 2022!

Various fan content blogs have helped us immensely in promoting the events, and run a range of amazing events themselves!! Check them out here: @choicesficwriterscreations, @choicesmonthlychallenge, @choicespride, @choicesprompts, @choicesholidays, @choicesflashfics. If there are any other Choices fan content/appreciation blogs you'd like us to give a shoutout to, do let us know!

We have over a month and a half to go before we enter HYAW 2023, and we'd love to get signal boosts from the fandom! If you know any Hayden stans who would love to participate/consume content, do tag them too!

Hope to see you all at the end of September, to celebrate Hayden's birthday!! ❤️❤️

✅✅signal boosts will be much appreciated!!✅✅

[rnmevents]

2024 RNM Fandom Events Calendar

Below, you’ll find an always-being-updated list of events going on in the RNM fandom throughout the year as they are announced:

RNM Big Bang

Signups open: April 3rd

Sign ups CLOSED

RNM After Dark

Dates to be announced

RNM Secret Santa Exchange

Sign Ups Close Nov. 15th

2019 calendar || 2020 calendar || 2021 calendar || 2022 calendar || 2023 calendar

Questions? Concerns? See an event missing? Send us a message!

past 2024 events:

Sunrise on CrashDown

January 13th-15th

Kyle Valenti Weekend

February 9th-11th

Liz Week

May 13th-19th

Hatch Day Party

June 14th-16th

RNM Femslash Exchange

June 24th-30th

Isobel Evans Weekend

July 26th-28th

Max Evans Weekend

September 27th-29th

RIP Roswell

October 31st-November 3rd

[wintfleur]

is Juliette bi or is she just flirty with girls on camera for fun? oh and has she had any famous exes?

au masterlist - everything for the AU is under #🍂 ͡ ꒱ Juliette Leclerc

a/n ﹒ Juliette is bisexual !! I totally forgot to add that to her profile !! She has have had 2 famous exes . . .

She dated Lily-Rose Depp from August 6th 2019 to December 28th 2020. They both broke it off mutually, they loved each other very much but there busy schedules were putting a strain on there relationship and they wanted to end it before it got worse, they still care for each other and are close friends ! — the public had some suspicion of them being a couple from the pictures they posted and how close they were, and some believed they were a couple, but it was only confirmed in 2021 when Lily did a interview and talked about how Juliette is her biggest support system and her favorite person.

In 2021 from May to September she had a fling with Ross lynch, it wasn’t too serious, they only saw each other but they both knew this was a relationship that wasn’t going to last . . . it was mostly because they wanted to have fun and they both were lonely . . . it sucks to say but they both were each others rebound and they both knew it. They ended on good terms and still are friendly to this day — the public does not know the whole truth about their relationship, they both claimed that they were both just really good friends. But a lot of people don’t believe they were just friends from the numerous paparazzi pictures of them, most of them they were very close. And let’s not forget the famous pictures of them dancing and kissing in a club in Monaco . . . oh and the pictures of them kissing on her yacht.

°. — taglist ( @lovings4turn @toasttt11 @cixrosie @ru-kru @alwaysclassyeagle @theopenlocker )

©️WINTFLEUR

[yuzu-all-the-way]

Yuzuru Hanyu's K&C reactions to breaking World Records (Through the Years)

Historical world records (during the +/-3 GOE ISU scoring system)

1) October 19th, 2012 (Skate America) - Parisienne Walkways 95.07

2) November 23rd, 2012 (NHK Trophy) - Parisienne Walkways 95.32

3) December 5th, 2013 (GPF) - Parisienne Walkways 99.84

4) February 13th, 2014 (Sochi Olympics) - Parisienne Walkways 101.45 (Yuzu was the first men's single skater in history to score above 100 points)

5) November 27th, 2015 (NHK Trophy) - Ballade No. 1 106.33

6) November 28th, 2015 (NHK Trophy) - SEIMEI 216.07 (Yuzu became the first men's single skater in history to score above 200 points)

7) November 28th, 2015 (NHK Trophy) - Total 322.40 (Yuzu became the first men's single skater in history to score above 300 points)

8) December 10th, 2015 (GPF) - Ballade No. 1 110.95 (Yuzu was the first and remains the only skater to score above 110 points before the 2018-19 season*)

9) December 12th, 2015 (GPF) - SEIMEI 219.48

10) December 12th, 2015 (GPF) - Total 330.43 (Yuzu remains the only skater in history to score above 330 points prior to the 2018-19 season)

11) April 1st, 2017 (World Championships) - Hope & Legacy 223.20 (Yuzu became the first and remained the only skater in history to score above 220 points in the free skate prior to the 2018-19 season)

12) September 22nd, 2017 (Autumn Classic) - Ballade No. 1 112.72

Modern World Records (*during the +/-5 GOE ISU scoring system introduced in the 2018-19 season)

13) November 3rd, 2018 (GP Helsinki) - Otoñal 106.60

14) November 4th, 2018 (GP Helsinki) - Origin 190.43

15) November 4th, 2018 (GP Helsinki) - Total 297.12

16) November 16th, 2018 (Rostelecom Cup) - Otonal 110.53 (Yuzu became the first skater in the new system to score above 110 points)

17) March 23rd, 2019 (World Championships) - Origin 206.10 (Yuzu became the first skater to score above 200 points in the new system)

18) March 23rd, 2019 (World Championships) - Total 300.97 (Yuzu became the first skater to score above 300 points in the new system)

19) February 7th, 2020 (Four Continents) - Ballade No. 1 111.82

[earthflaxmachina]

The (Brief) Metahistory of Ben-Gal

Yet another instagram request. Bengal hasn't gone through much change because PH development is pretty recent. But still, good to keep an archive of these things.

Note that Powerhouse is a comic in the works so obviously I can't share every detail about certain plot points because where's the fun in that?

Let's a go!

CREATION: 19th September 2020

Figure 1. First drawing (19th September 2020) | Figure 2. Second drawing (23rd September 2020) | Figure 3. Third drawing (30th September 2020)

Before he was Bengal, he was my AMONG US SONA!!!!!!!!!!!! Also Powerhouse didn't exist yet. That's it.

A NEW NAME AND A NEW STORY: 6th December 2020

Figure 3. Bengal concept art (6th December 2020)

Now he was no longer a sona, but alive! His story (aka Powerhouse) was called Orbital Immolation at this time. You can see he is quite scrawny and scared. The story was pretty consistent to what it is now, being that he escaped from his work prison and is trying to find his way back to his family and sister, Grizel. Kasper was created around this time too. Since this is a post about Bengal, I'm not going to go the extra mile of mentioning other PH characters (unless someone wants that) despite being made the same time, because I'm tired. More Orbital Immolation art (with Bengal in it) below.

Not dating these individually but they were from December 2020 to June 2021, in order of creation.

By the way, it was called Orbital Immolation because I had the idea to make Bengal blow himself up to save the world in the end of it, hence, Immolation. At this time, I also had an idea for a sequel that would center around Grizel in the future still grieving over Bengal, as you can see in that picture with her and Robot Bengal.

In the 7th picture, there is a cat-looking girl. She was supposed to be Kasper's niece trying to avenge him after Bengal killed him. I don't remember exactly when I decided Kasper was a robot, but at that time he probably wasn't one because he had a niece. Or she was a robot created by a sister company of Kasper’s engineers, hence making her a cousin? Idk. Also you can see Cain in the 5th picture!

Also back then, Bengal was aroace.

From Bengal's toyhouse page (roughly December 2020):

"Bengal is a worker for MADA Space Corp, a prison-like space station floating in the middle of Mezuno. He boarded the ship when he was 16 to make money for his sickly mother, as well as provide tuition funding for his sister, Grizel, so she doesn't have to end up like him, rotting in manual labour. Bengal would describe himself as hardworking, nimble, and expendable. He has had the same routine for 12 years hoping his effort has paid off and that there may be a slight possibility he could return to his home planet. Little does he know, Isari had been destroyed for 2 years now, along with its culture and inhabitants. The only Isarians alive now are either refugees or had migrated to different planets before its destruction."

Interesting part about his planet, which probably isn't still canon. I had forgotten about that.

POWERHOUSE: 19th October 2021

Figure 4. First Powerhouse poster | Figure 5. First Powerhouse poster (sketch), both 19/10/21. A day before my birthday!

Here was when I decided to change the name of the comic because Orbital Immolation was Not Catchy. By now I had established the role of Reckoners in the story and wanted a technology-related title that also reflects something about our protagonist. I had 2 ideas for names: 1. Live Wire, and 2. Powerhouse. My lovely oomf helped me choose, so you have her to thank. Imagine calling it Live Wire.

Besides a bit of a personality change (he's silly now) and a workout, that's about all that's different from modern PH. I told you it was brief. Let's just look at the evolution of Bengal illustrations to finish this off.

Figure 5. What would become the basis of "Jailbreak" (28th June 2021) | Figure 6. "Snack" (18th July 2021)

Figure 7. Supposed redraw of "Snack" (23rd August 2021)

Figure 4. (19th October 2021)

Figure 8. "Murder Machine" cover (24th November 2021)

Figure 9. "Jailbreak" cover sketch (4th February 2022) | Figure 10. "Jailbreak" cover (2nd May 2022)

Figure 11. Powerhouse title sketch (17th July 2023) | Figure 12. Powerhouse title (7th August 2023)

Ohhh they grow up so fast.

Bye!

[flodaya]

top 10 tz moments from 2016 but you can’t double anything

only from 2016? oh damn, okay lets see

comic con duh

2. infamous "no personal space" thanksgiving

3. deja playing cupid when they did those dance challenges on Z's last day in atlanta

4. the hollywood reporter photoshoot they did shortly after getting together

5. tom posting this picutre of all pictures he could have posted

6. that video of tom and Z watching the whale when the hoco cast went out to bond 🥹

7. september 28th the day we all presume is when they got together

8. when tom and Z and the gang went to cirque de soleil with tom's mom and brothers, side note: was that when Z met tom's mom??

9. Z going with tom to get his spidey tattoo while he stayed with her in new york

10. this random date which we got a picture of in late 2020 foreshadowing 2.0

[weirdowithaquill]

Sodor: 1965-2020

Back when I talked about how Sodor would fuel its railways in the 2010's (find that post here), I said I'd talk about how Sodor would remain profitable into the modern era.

Well, with Murdoch the Mighty Engine now completed (find that here) it's finally time to really dive into what kept Sodor moving throughout the latter half of the twentieth century and into the 21st.

I'm going to go in event order - and yes, this is all canon to my Extended Railway Series.

1965: Breaking Away From British Rail:

In 1965, British Railways was pretty desperate for money. And I mean it. The BTC was losing around £300,000 a day in 1961. The company was not able to pay its loans, and that led to desperation and the Beeching cuts.

Sodor was at the time threatened with both the Peel Godred line and the Ffarquhar branch being drastically reduced in size or outright closed - and furthermore there was talk of Crovan's Gate Works being closed. The North Western Region was at the time chaired by Sir Charles Hatt, and he decided to take action.

This is where Sir Charles did perhaps the sneakiest piece of work in his entire career. For a man who was very above the board, this may come as a surprise.

Sir Charles was told by the BTC that if he could find 'the worth of the North-Western Region' - a number that they incorrectly overinflated to around £1,000,000. In comparison, 4472 Flying Scotsman cost £3,000 when bought by Alan Peglar.

Neither the NWR nor the Hatt family had that much money - and the railway, while profitable, did not make enough. So Sir Charles organised a secret backdoor deal with a different company to get the money.

Sir Charles went to the German Rail Company Deutsche Bundesbahn. He'd visited earlier that year and had witnessed the earliest development of the Linienzugbeeinflussung system (LZB) and had offered the Peel Godred branchline for further testing - only he needed the NWR to be independent before he could allow it, as BR didn't want anything to do with the tests.

The Deutsche Bundesbahn, ecstatic that someone wanted to basically hand over their railway to play guinea pig for a brand new untested system, forked over £1,000,000 in exchange for shares in the new NWR company and free access to the Peel Godred branch to test their LZB system.

Sir Charles Hatt gave British Railways the money, and on September 28th, the NWR was officially freed from BR, though the latter company got the rights to run trains to Tidmouth using their engines on 'trials'. The next day, Deutsche Bundesbahn was mysteriously given a massive share in the new company, and permission to test their new system.

1965-1979: Implementing LZB on Passenger Trains:

Siemens - the German company working with DB on their LZB system - opened a branch at Cronk to begin work on testing their LZB systems on the electric Peel Godred branch. Originally a hard-wired logic system only, testing on the Peel Godred and utilising the massive amount of energy harnessed at the hydroelectric dam, the system was quickly developed into a computer system.

While the Peel Godred electrics were able to handle the computers on board, the mainline proved to be a different challenge. Stephen Hatt, then working at Crovan's Gate to help him grow accustomed to the engines on the NWR, suggested renovating the old Mark I coaches BR was beginning to retire to have the LZB systems in them, connecting to the brake pipes. LZB coaches would have the letters 'LZB' printed on the front and sides of the coach to identify them.

On June 3rd, 1979, the last non-LZB passenger train left Tidmouth, a local train that ran as far as Cronk. From that point on, all passenger trains are meant to have an LZB coach at the front of the train, though there have been incidents were it was forgotten. When Pip and Emma were bought, LZB was placed straight in their cabs.

1966-1996: Modernising the Steam Fleet:

Edward went in for a heavy repair in 1965 after his 'exploit' and when he came out, he was a very different engine. The early stages of independence for the NWR were marked by very heavy tourist traffic. The Railway Series books were at the height of their popularity, and Sir Charles was finally free to advertise and profit from them. He organised a huge number of special trips throughout the latter half of 1965, culminating in Edward's infamous excursion. This raised enough money for the NWR to survive the winter season - and enough to begin modernising their steam fleet. Welding replaced riveting, and new superheaters and blastpipes were added. Edward was also the first NWR engine to gain roller bearings.

When Edward departed the Works in late 1966, he was much stronger than before, and certainly more capable! Oliver would gain the same upgrades upon arrival to the NWR, and over the next twelve years the entire rest of the fleet was rebuilt. New arrivals to the railway would undergo the same treatment, with Murdoch being gifted a kylchap blastpipe while being overhauled. Another factor of this period was extensive standardisation, which included funnel diameter, coupling rods, valve gear and cab window sizing.

Much of this ability to develop their steam engines came from the partnership with DB in Germany, which didn't withdraw its entire steam fleet until 1977.

1970-1996: Modernising the Diesel Fleet:

Starting in 1970, Sir Charles began to work on improving and standardising his fleet of diesel engines. BoCo, Bear and Daisy were all very different classes, and the cost of parts was beginning to mount, even after purchasing plenty of disposed parts from scrapyards across the country.

This was far more radical than what was done with the steam engines, and for good reason. While DB was the expert on Diesel-Hydraulic, it was also very expensive at a time when the NWR did not have all that much money to spare. The Little Western and Arlesdale Railway projects sucked up pretty much all the money the railway made at this time. So, they simply took the engines inside BoCo and Bear and replaced them. Entirely. Sir Charles bought excess Sulzer engines which were being fitted to the Class 47 and fitted them to his two big diesels. He did have to move... a lot of stuff internally - this was a rebuild unlike any other, and it kept them both out of service for a very long time. But by the end, he had forcibly standardised BoCo and Bear. Then Derek came along, and Sir Charles was forced to figure something else out for him. This was in the end achieved by taking the engines used by Daisy and jamming them into Derek. Except more of them, and turbocharged. Remarkably, this also worked (after a lot of screaming and huffing by the Crovan's Gate foreman!)

Bert, Diesel and Arry were far easier for Sir Charles and Sir Stephen, all being Class 08's and ubiquitous on BR. As they were retired, the NWR bought old engines and spare parts to repair their fleet.

Bowler and Spamcan would be given the same Sultzer engines as BoCo and Bear, as by this point the Class 47s were being retired on BR and there were plenty of spare parts available. Pip and Emma would retain their engines. Selector catalytic reduction (SCR) emissions reducers would be fitted to all diesel engines.

1975: NWR Holdings Inc:

In 1975, the NWR was incorporated alongside the Arlesdale and Skarloey Railways into NWR Holdings Inc, a new international stock company aimed at raising capital for the railways. First floated on Sodor, it attracted plenty of attention from locals, tourists and international companies alike. NWR Holdings would buy shares in various companies around the globe, including the American Railroad Union Pacific and in Danish shipping company Maersk. The Hatt family personally bought a massive number of shares in the company in what was potentially a highly-legally-questionable move. Still, NWR Holdings Inc would be chaired by Bridget Hatt from 1975 onwards and become a very profitable share-owning company.

1976: AWS and Air Brakes:

By 1976, all trains on the NWR were equipped with AWS and Air brakes, leading to a drastic reduction in accidents across the following years. While not a foolproof solution, when added to the new LZB system, it led to the NWR becoming one of the safest railways in all of England and Europe.

1985: Tourism Boom:

The NWR was inundated with traffic following the airing of the hit TV series 'Thomas & Friends' both in the UK and internationally, with the summer season of 1985 being perhaps the busiest in the island's history until that point, and a major victory for Sodor, which was now the most profitable railway region in Britain outside of London.

British Rail would attempt to force the NWR back into its company at this point, but the courts struck the case down due to the Tory Government disliking the idea of nationalising the network any further. This was the era when the Tory government began to privatise the various government agencies of the UK, and the NWR was upheld as a success of privatisation.

This tourism boom would have a major impact on the economy of Sodor too, with the service sector becoming central to the island's economy. The regional airport at Vicarstown was expanded to accept planes from as far away as Poland - something the NWR helped fund. This was incredibly well-timed, as the last of the mines on the island began to dry up around this time, and the new expanded service sector and transport sector used up much of these redundant miners.

1993: Shares in Deutsche Bahn:

In 1992, Deutsche Bundesbahn began a merger with the Deutsche Reichsbahn to create the Deutsche Bahn in Germany. By this point, the NWR was an extremely profitable company and able to survive on its own, however it was also reliant on the DB for a reliable partner, especially as the UK was in the EU, and DB was able to offset much of the NWR's carbon emissions problems.

The NWR would put up a large sum of money - the modern equivalent of the £1,000,000 from 1965 - to prop up the company during the merger and managed to gain a healthy share out of the German rail company for its troubles. When the new Deutsche Bahn became public property all of five minutes later, the NWR kept its unique position, and the two became 'joint partners' - independent but aligned in much of their goals.

1994-1996: Expansion and the End of BR:

As explained in Modern Railway Engines, in 1994, the North Western Railway bought the Furness Line outright from British Rail. This included all stations, trackwork, and running rights. NWR trains now terminated at Lancaster on the West Coast Mainline, buying up platforms 5 and 6 at the station. the NWR now was directly connected to the WCML, and gained two mainline diesels, a HST and three shunting engines in the deal.

By 1996, these new engines had settled into their roles on the NWR, and the railway was well positioned for the turn of the century. The freight services along the NWR mainline would be fitted with LZB at this point, and further increase the safety of the entire network.

2007: Buyout of EWS:

In 2007, the British railfreight company EWS was bought out by Deutsche Bahn and NWR Holdings Inc as part of a joint-takeover of the freight sector of Britain's Railways after repeated issues with the company. The NWR and DB had very different designs on the company, however the NWR would triumph, and a period of drastic overhaul would occur over the next ten years. In 2017, DB Cargo UK would have rebuilt its entire fleet of Class 90s and Class 92s, as well as all 67s, 66s and 60s. The company would sell off a large number of unusable engines to other companies; but retain the Class 47s and rebuild them into class 57s.

This huge takeover by the two companies would have major implications for the NWR fleet, which only barely managed to keep their own freight services on Sodor from being added to the new DB Cargo UK company. Instead, traffic was streamlined across the two companies, and a direct freight service would commence between Carnforth and Wroclaw, Poland.

2012: Alternate Fuel Trials Begin:

As global warming became more prevalent, the NWR was criticised for its use of coal and diesel fuel. In response, the NWR began trials with several different alternatives, including E-Coal, torrefied rapeseed biofuel and 'electric steam'. Smaller engines like Neil were trialled with electric boilers to heat steam - and this led to the conversion of many smaller tank engines to the system, which was powered by electricity and thus extremely environmentally friendly (in theory). Other changes included solar panels installed on sheds and stations across the NWR and electric pre-heaters added to the steam engine boilers - something the NWR had been slowly working on since the mid-70s.

Torrefiers would be built by the NWR in 2014 to convert biomass into fuel for engines, and trials would be conducted with Murdoch - who had the largest firebox - throughout 2015. Torrefied rapeseed biofuel pellets would be used on some services from 2016 onwards, as Sodor led world research into the issue. However, its weakness to rain and its smell would keep it being used only on freight services, with a tarp pulled over the 'coal' pile to keep it dry.

2020: Global Pandemic and Coal Shortages:

In the modern era, the North Western Railway continues to be a profitable and successful company, providing services across the Island of Sodor and around the globe. The Covid Pandemic saw all but the most essential trains cancelled, including all of the extremely profitable tourist traffic Sodor relies on. For a few months, the railway was even divided into two, with Sodor services terminating at Vicarstown and Furness services terminating at Barrow. A number of engines were stored for the year, being reintroduced as Christmas approached and traffic began to pick up again into 2021.

Worse yet, coal shortages caused by the closure of most British coal mines and crises in Eastern Europe led the NWR to speed up its biofuel research, with most medium-sized engines (Edward, James, Emily, Arthur, Molly) being converted to burn biofuel by the end of 2022. Only the largest steam engines on the NWR and the diesels use fossil fuels as of the time of writing, due to the extremely successful implementation of biofuel, much of which is now grown on Sodor to provide for the NWR and other heritage railways, such as the Talyllyn in Wales.

Wow... that was a long post. As usual, no pictures belong to me, and I headcanoned basically all of this. I just love the idea of the NWR using everything at their disposal to work their way up from the grassroots railway we saw in the Three Railway Engines into a massive corporation that still has that grassroots feel to it... and a multinational holdings company reporting massive profits.

Thank you for reading this massive thing!