#alt mary/john + seeing the real you

[shallowseeker]

It's easier to keep looking for that white picket fence than face up to the fact you wasted your whole life not recognizing your own happiness.

[dotthings]

Some thoughts on John in TW 1.06. I am going to make Star Wars references. It cannot be helped.

Lata and Matt are both John mirrors in this ep, and represent the two paths John could go down.

John is currently getting frequently lost in the violence. Lata already broke clear of her downspiral, and represents hope of how people can escape it (at least at times, although as I said in my post about Lata, I’m a little worried about her, if she picks up a machete and kills monsters).

John, your John is showing again, like, a lot.

It’s not just the violence, it’s the tunnel vision, the obsessiveness, the refusal to compromise, the wanting it done his way. You can see glimpses here of the future in how he’ll treat his sons while he escapes into hunting as a way to deal with his grief for Mary. While he will sacrifice everything including his children’s well being for hunting. Was it really about grief for Mary? Or was it the only way John could endure the pain, anger, hurt, that was already inside of him for a long time.

And I think this series has hit a pattern on it. With the signs of how he will break later showing amid John’s better nature, John’s empathy, John’s bravery and kindness, but we know he doesn’t escape the cycle. We can see how he is capable of listening and is reachable though.

This is also the 2nd time an ep ends up with John seeking out Lata, being mindful of Lata, after the hunt’s over. He also this time asks Lata for help. John and Lata's friendship is very very soft. (Again, this makes me fearful for Lata, John's polar opposite mirror).

Who had John Winchester learning how to meditate on their bingo card, not me.

This isn’t an alt John, or a “better” version of John’s history. This is the real story, the truth, and it’s more complicated than we, the audience knew, or Sam and Dean knew growing up. Dean’s unfolding that full history.

Maybe the groundwork on the reasons John doesn’t get entirely lost are being laid out here as much as its mapping his downspiral. Millie and the monster club, all are part of the love and support John gets. He is capable of pulling out of it, or we wouldn’t have 1973 John or 1978 John on the mothership, and we never would have seen at least the glimpses in modern day John his capacity for love.

He would just be wholly lost and all dark, with good still in him somewhere, but John didn't slide down so far he completely lost himself. We’re seeing on The Winchesters John spiraling downward but also growing--and those two things can co-exist. We know there were problems before Mary died, it was never perfect, but it was Mary dying burning on the ceiling makes him snap hard, the progress got lost, and that was the start of a deeper downspiral.

I’ve made the Anakin comparison about John a bunch of times and The Winchesters is a similar portrait of a good human who downspiraled but John isn’t actually an Anakin figure. Older John’s Anakin who went off the rails with grief and revenge but didn't go full Vader. Think of a broken Anakin raising Luke and Leia while on a revenge obsessed path to take out Palpatine. Not choosing the darkside, but letting in a lot of the darkness inside of himself. And the trauma that still might ensue for Luke and Leia being raised like that. While poor Obi-Wan argues with John, for the good of John's kids, and they finally have a big falling out over it. Wow okay thank you for that Star Wars AU prompt, The Winchesters.

John gets possessed by the ghost of Matt the dark John mirror. A hunter who downspiraled almost fully into darkness. His friends were terrified of him and he grew too powerful. Matt is the Anakin figure here. Matt went sith, messing with dark magic, but still had good in him, he responds to Lata's pleas to set John free and to Tracy's tearful regrets.

[shallowrambles]

Alt John/Mary and a The Very Real, Very Good conversation in 1x12

John & Mary have a wonderful fight in SPNwin 1x12 Tears of a Clown. It was my favorite one. I'm not even being facetious.

I know there is a crowd lying in wait, like Fate, rooting actively again alt!Mary/John, because we *think* we know who they are. See this post for more of my thoughts on that. But basically, with The Winchesters, the audience divides itself thus:

Team free will - Hope is the whole point. Go, Monster Club!

Team who cares - There's no point. (Nihilism)

Team fun and games - They can enjoy themselves so long as the future stays.

Team Fate - I've decided who John and Mary are; they cannot change or triumph.

However... Regardless of the challenges they face, this fight in Tears of a Clown is an incredibly, incredibly honest one.

Because this is the tough stuff. Because it's not the FATE part of coming together and falling in love that's the interesting part. It's the staying together part, the growing together (or apart) part. The struggling together and choosing part.

//// So, anyway, the episode opens with a literal rearview mirror:

JOHN: All right? Once my mom and Betty find evidence to clear my name, uh... be able to put all this in the rearview. MARY: Rearview? It's like you're pretending nothing ever happened.

That sets up John's struggle, as well as the bones of the fight. I think the coolest part about their fight is that they're both right. It's like an issue of Cosmopolitan. This is not a sign of weakness in a relationship. It's a sign of deepening strength.

These are the fights family is made of. Tell them what you’re expecting and where your needs aren't being met; then, negotiate if they can healthily be met. Talk about the problems that you both are facing and how you can solve them. Constructive criticism once in a while is healthy.

/////

Furthermore, Mary does a huge, incredibly vulnerable thing here. She reveals her doubts.

To reveal your own anxieties is Really Something. To reveal your anxieties about a relationships is The Crucial Step beyond the you-can-never-hurt-me, you-would-never-let-me-down phase of the relationship.

"One of the most marvelous aspects of (the early) stage is not only the idealized way we see our partner but the new, more laudable way we see ourselves. Listening closely comes easily to us, as does giving the ideal response. Our patience seems eternal, our interest in the other boundless. Who knew that we possessed such generosity, such largeness of spirit? How delightful it feels to live with an open heart, bountiful compassion, and unconditional care. In the shelter of our love bubble, it’s easy to think we can float in such pure happiness forever." - Carroll, Linda. Love Cycles (p. 8). New World Library. Kindle Edition.

Mary and John, at this snapshot in time, are moving beyond the specter of the frozen-in-time-idealized-love. This is perfectly illustrated by Harper Sayles in SPN Prime 14x08's Optimism.

SPN Prime 14x08 (Optimism):

HARPER SAYLES: Jack, it's the best kind of love. Without baggage or compromise. And all the other guys, none of them are like Vance. Strong and courageous and..

He never let me down. So what if I had to kill him in the end? Every relationship has its stuff, right? (Oh, Harper...)

SPNwin 1x12 (Tears of a Clown) + alt Mary/John + a relationship moving beyond limerence?

MARY: What if our relationship is the problem? JOHN: Wanna tell me how hunting an evil clown suddenly makes you think we have issues? MARY: Not hunting Limbo. Talking to Clarence about what happened to his brother. JOHN: Mary, that doesn't make any sense. Clarence used the carnival as an escape so his brother wouldn't have to face his problems.

And here it is. The mirror is making Mary think, making her worry, making her see things in a new light. This conflict is the actual stuff souls are made of. ("Souls are messy, all confusion. Conflict." -Asmodeus, SPN Prime 13x07)

Notably, Mary is not doing a one-to-one comparison theorem here: To suggest that these two brothers, Roger and Clarence, "have similar problems to us, ergo they must be romantically entangled," would be a strange conclusion indeed.

She is simply witnessing this incredible challenge to a loving relationship, and it's making her think. Making her examine herself. (I'm generally in agreement that all family and relationship stories are love stories. Yes, I think Save the Cat even gets that right about buddy comedies.)

MARY: Don't you think it's possible that you've been using our relationship in the same way? JOHN: Okay, so our relationship is a circus carnival in this metaphor. MARY: No. It's something happy to distract you from your issues. And it's been working, because ever since we left Lawrence, you've been pretending that we've been on vacation together instead of on the run for Kyle's murder. Either that, or you're flying off the handle because it's like you're totally ignoring reality. JOHN: I'm ignoring reality? You're honestly gonna stand here and act like you're not avoiding your issues, too? OK, what about life after Hunting or us? MARY: Well, I applied to college, and I got in. JOHN: Great. And then what have you done since? Have you accepted the offer? Have you enrolled for any classes? Have you taken a second to think about how any of this works if I'm still Hunting? MARY: Sorry I'm too busy trying to save the world. JOHN: There it is, Mary, the eternal excuse. I mean, admit it... the second your future got real, you did what you always do. You buried your head in the Hunting sand so you wouldn't have to think about college or our relationship. MARY: You know what? Think what you want. I don't have time for this. JOHN: And there you go, proving my point.

Right after this, Mary stumbles onto a clue to Limbo, because Mary is quite literally running from making difficult decisions. (BUT she's voicing her grievances, which is a great first step.)

They fact that they vent their frustrations to each other shows vulnerability, trust, and growing strength.

The disillusionment stage can be completely healthy and a necessary component of an evolving partnership:

"It takes most of us a long time to look candidly at ourselves, partly because we become so obsessed with the faults of our partner and the generally distressed state of our relationship. Back in the first stage (how long ago that now seems!) we exaggerated the depth and breadth of the best qualities of our partner. Now, in the third stage, we flip-flop between attachment and disillusionment. How unremittingly annoying he is! How outrageously self-centered she is! Both extremes of viewpoint — my partner is fabulous in all ways and my partner is worthless — are gross distortions. Our challenge is to understand our seesawing hearts, and then to act from a more balanced place. That’s the goal. Until we reach it, though, we may endure some trying times. - Carroll, Linda. Love Cycles (p. 59). New World Library. Kindle Edition.

So, in her vulnerable state, Mary gets trapped. SPNwin 1x12:

MARY: We can be together where there aren't any problems. And we never have to fight again, about my future or your anger. We can be happy in Limbo's tent forever. JOHN: But none of it would be real...Mary. There's a world out there we have to save. MARY: Limbo can protect us from all of that here. All you have to do is look in the mirror behind me. JOHN: No. We're leaving. Come on.

(Because it's not The Dream. It's A Dream.)

Interestingly, John makes the right choice here. He resolves not to look in the rearview mirror. He makes the choice to leave...and the villain intervenes, like it's chiding, "You're not allowed to heal, John. I won't allow you to heal."

And because Mary refuses to leave stasis, she's invertedly dragged John into stasis with her. Because although she is not responsible for John's happiness, they affect each other's happiness. John is waiting for her.

CLOWN: A bit of misdirection. I'm sorry to have to trick you, John. Now, put a smile on that face.

///

And so, they emerge, with new perspectives, but it's not a magic fix:

LATA: Do the two of you remember it, when you were clowns? MARY: Yeah, all of it. LATA: How terrifying. MARY: Actually, it was kind of nice. /// JOHN: So, do you really mean that? MARY: Didn't it feel good to you, not having to worry about our problems for a second, not to have to worry about us? JOHN: Maybe. But it also made me realize that you were right. I have been ignoring things because it's easier than facing the truth. I'm sorry for that. I am also sorry for being so angry with you. MARY: I guess I got kind of angry myself, you calling me a hypocrite and all. But you were right too. Thinking about the future is scary. JOHN: So, we good?

Maybe they're not "good," but they're trying to be. And that's the part that's real.

So, there we have it. Mirrors are ruminations, meditations, wishes, reflections. They are not Truth with a capital T, so much as they are questions. You can get trapped in them if you're not careful.

SPN Prime 1x05:

Sam: Right. I mean there’s a lot of folklore about mirrors-that they reveal all your lies, all your secrets, that they’re a true reflection of your soul, which is why it’s bad luck to break them. Dean: Right, right. So maybe if you’ve got a secret, I mean like a really nasty one where someone died, then Mary sees it, and punishes you for it.

But Sam is WRONG. Mirrors are NOT necessarily true. They can be misdirection. They can even trick you into seeing the worst outcome, the worst self.

But ultimately, you make your own Fate. You can reject the falsity you see and break that fucking mirror to smithereens. (You see, you gotta know yourself pretty deeply and courageously in order to determine if the mirror's got any truth to it.)

[egipci]

i feel like losing dean would make him crazy enough that i could see him convincing himself that if he can convince sam it'll somehow absolve him of murder. don't get me wrong simple shot to the back of the head is totally possible and maybe more so if i'm being honest but i like the idea of john trying to rationalize away from the idea of failing the only family member he hadn't failed, you know? i could see him leaning real hard on the "nobody's gonna be around to look out for you otherwise, nobody's gonna be around to stop you from going bad" dare i say maybe even "it would break dean's heart to see that happen to you"

Ahhhh thinking about what Dean would think rather than Mary!!! Very John Winchester, it seems to me </3

I was joking recently that their reunion at the end of 2x22 makes it seem like John doesn’t care about Sam either way, lol— But seriously, I think in alt!s2 what would have happened is John would have been even more hell-bent on finding Azazel in the most suicidal way possible, and his anxieties around Sam would get worse over time until 2x22 when he makes a deal for Sam's life. After all this time thinking he wanted Sam dead he'd find that he believes in his son's goodness, or more bleakly that he'd rather have him alive and evil than dead, so he sells him off to Azazel basically, like the woman who gives up her son in front of Solomon rather than have half a dead son. Maybe that's how we get Boyking!Sam in training to become Lucifer's willing vessel. OR maybe Sam ends up killing Azazel but Lilith and Ruby still get to him and we have the demon blood revenge arc. And Dean obviously must come back to life for Heaven's plan, but who knows when that actually happens, and in the meantime we get John and Dean in Hell together: Dean breaking eventually and torturing his dad, who never breaks, because it's Dean, or because he's just a stubborn fucker, I don't know, and in an impossibly rare moment of joy in the actual fuck-off depths of hell John gets to see his son saved! Crazy stuff.

[mywifeleftme]

237: Various Artists // Howl...A Farewell Compilation of Unreleased Songs

Howl...A Farewell Compilation of Unreleased Songs Various Artists 1994, Glitterhouse

Released in 1994 by German indie label Glitterhouse as a double 10”, Howl…A Farewell Compilation of Unreleased Songs collects 18 songs by a real odds and sods assortment of Americana, indie folk, and alt. country acts. I’m not super-familiar with Glitterhouse beyond the fact that they were Sub-Pop’s European distributor during that label’s 1987 to 1995 grunge apex. The patchy history recounted on the Glitterhouse website indicates they were making a turn towards singer-songwriter fare at the time the Sub-Pop relationship petered out, and I can imagine this comp serving as a sort of soft launch of the label’s new direction. I’m not sure how many of these artists were signed to the label directly, though presumably Glitterhouse distro’d a number of them. Iin any case, it makes for a great sampler of some of the better artists of the time who operated at the meeting place of roots and alternative music, many of them still active today, and mostly still lesser-known outside of connoisseur circles.

The best-known act on the comp today is easily the Mountain Goats, which I doubt anyone would’ve predicted in 1994—their contribution, “Against Agamemnon,” is typical of John Darnielle’s early direct-to-boombox sound, a bare sketch that refers obliquely to Greek mythology but could as easily describe waking up with a nosebleed on an existential camping trip. Steve Wynn (ex-Dream Syndicate) pops up in the midst of his wandering ‘90s period, and we’ve also got a desert jazz instrumental version of “Route 66” from the venerable Giant Sand, which anticipates the sound members John Covertino and Joey Burns would refine after departing to form Calexico. The next tier of notability down would be… I guess Vic Chesnutt, the devastating Georgian songwriter who offers a moving cover of Yoko Ono’s “Goodbye Sadness”; long-running heartland groovers the Silos (featuring Vulgar Boatmen founder Walter Salas-Humara) with the demo “Nothing But You”; alt. country forerunners Freakwater with their woozy “Lullaby”; and venerated songwriter Victoria Williams, who unfortunately contributes an irritating rendition of “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins.

Howl doesn’t transcend its times, but if you like this era of weird Americana, it makes for good company. You’ll likely pick up a band or five who’ve slipped your filter that you’ll want to check out (my pick being Chicago’s Souled American, whose woeful “Suitor’s Bridge” would see eventual re-release on their final record Notes Campfire).

237/365

[alligatorjesie]

Show them to me.

Show me them.

Go on.

We got time. It's the weekend. I ain't got shit to do but make some violet syrup and can some dandelion jam while reading my reylo smut on my tablet.

It's a Western AU right now and Rose and Finn AND Poe are all in it and Hux dies of dysentery and somehow to still feels better than how they offed him in ep9.

I wanna get inside the head of the person who hears that a grown man they admire said the line 'Lay pipe' which means 'To Have Sex With' about a coworker and somehow that isn't sexual harassment to you?

Hey can you say that to your grandmother? Would your grandfather appreciate you saying that about his wife?

Is that normal to you?

Because I work for a dildo factory and I think what he said was out of fucking line

And there's giant dildos going into assholes at such a depth it would take your breath away just blasting in the background from time to time and even I heard that John Boyega said the line 'Laying pipe' aimed at his coworker Daisy Ridley, a person who was already harassed off Instagram by these same alt-right nazi fanboys

And thought 'Wow that's fucking inappropriate.'

And I mean this isn't the first time John's had some pretty shit fucking takes.

Ya'll remember that time he called his coworker, Kelly Marie Tran, 'Weak' because she refused to deal with online harassment and just deleted her accounts that she was very active on?

He walked back on it, which thank fuck because my god how callused can you be, but this is what I mean when I say John can sometimes say shit and not think about what he's saying and how it can be interpreted badly.

I make bad jokes all the fucking time and when someone calls me out on it I'm adult enough to walk it back and not double down on being a fucking prick.

You are not helping him by mindlessly worshiping the ground he walks on. He's a real human and can make real mistakes and you need to be big enough to know even your idles can say and do bad things, that's just... living in the real world man.

Either way

No one in the reylo fandom even gives a fuck anymore.

John must not have been too fucking bothered by the harassment regardless because last I check he still has an Instagram and a twitter. He never left either.

You don't need personally fret over John's mental health.

He's doing fucking fine and making more money than everyone who has liked this shit post combined.

Who you should still feel bad for is Daisy Ridley who ain't been on social media still to this fucking day. Kelly, An Asian Woman, ain't been online until just recently because she was still so gunshy after the first bout of harassment.

By alt-right nazi fanboys.

Not the reylos who once 4 years ago got a little upsetty at one actor because he made a bad sex joke.

The fandom who likes to harass black members or really just everyone involved in these movies is and historically has been The Fandom Menace, a very real group with a very real history of harassment.

Not the reylos.

Not the chicks who write A/B/O soulmate fics or draw the characters as cute animals for funzees.

Weird. It was the fandom menace the entire time.

Regardless.

You are tagging your shit wrong.

The tag you are looking for is

Anti-Reylo

or

Antireylo

NOT

Anti Reylo

because tagging it like this means you're tagging opening in the regular tags and the normal fandom can see your shit.

Better yet, don't be a fucking anti. No one ever fucking wants to see your bullshit in our tags.

No person on this website should need to go through extra lengths to block antis from posting in our fandom spaces. I or any new user should not need to first and foremost block the 'anti' tags to insure we don't see anti posts in our fucking tags.

You Shouldn't Be Here.

So please.

Stop being a mindless fucking cunt for a few fucking moments and fix your tags then please fucking leave this fandom space.

You are not welcome here.

But seriously it was such a wild experience seeing white women with #blm in their Twitter bios decide Mechad Brooks and John Boyega’s experiences with racism were invalid last summer because they disliked them. Now that I’ve finished White Tears/Brown Scars I get the psychology a little better, but the lack of self awareness was fascinating.

[themadamespod]

The Great White Gripe

A lot has been said about the “social commentary” within The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. 

“Since when is Marvel a bunch of SJWs? I don’t need this shit.”

“All this race stuff feels SUPER forced.”

“Oh here we go Marvel tryin to be all woke to get the libs on board.”

If you personally know anyone who spews this brand of ignorance, we’re sorry. 

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: there is no social commentary on TFATWS. Showrunner Malcolm Spellman and director Kari Skogland simply show the reality of life in America. It’s not their fault that so many (white) people (men) don’t like looking in the mirror.

And some people claim they have no problem with film and television addressing politics and social change.

“Just keep it out of my comic book movies. It doesn’t belong there.”

They could not be anymore wrong, even if Chandler Bing himself was lecturing them. 

If you asked 100 people to name the top ten movies of all time, you’d get 100 different lists. But one thing we can all agree on is that film has power. It has the power to move us, to divide us, to unite us. Entertainment can lead to the kind of discourse that prompts action and positive change.

And that’s why The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the conversations it’s sparking are so important.

One World, One Reality

“Marvel has always been and always will be a reflection of the world right outside our window.” - Stan Lee

There are two takeaways from that statement:

One: Stan Lee didn’t say that in the 1960s, 1970s, or even the 1980s. He said it in 2017.

Two: Our window, not your window, is a subtle but important distinction, particularly as it relates to TFATWS. The Flag Smashers, led by Karli Morgenthau, live by a simple creed: “One world, One people.” The core message of the show is that white Americans and Black Americans experience the world very differently, but there’s still only one world, one reality. 

It’s just a matter of people opening their eyes and seeing it.

TFATWS is an extension of Marvel’s early support of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, Stan Lee created the X-Men as an allegory for the ongoing struggles of the African-American community. Though he didn’t explicitly base Professor X and Magneto on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, there are ideological similarities.

Five years later, following the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy, Stan wrote the following:

“Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. It’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race—to despise an entire nation—to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if a man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance.”

In 2021, Stan’s words still resonate. Racism in the United States is as virulent and damaging as it’s ever been. Black Americans are facing deadly policing, Jim Crow 2.0 voting laws, mass incarceration, and countless other roadblocks to mobility that most white people have never encountered.

Through the journeys of Sam and Sarah Wilson, Lemar Hoskins, and the heartbreaking Isaiah Bradley, TFATWS shows the unvarnished truth of what Ira Glass might call Black American Life. And through John Walker, the writers nail home the message that’s really making certain people squirm:

White men are the greatest threat not just to Black Americans, but all Americans, because TFATWS is as much an indictment of toxic masculinity as it is of bigotry. 

As aggressive racism has spread like wildfire since 2016, so has hostile sexism towards women of all colors. John Walker is the embodiment of the hyper aggression that the Proud Boys applaud. The clearest example of this comes when Walker dares to clap the shoulder of Ayo, one of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje.

Her swift and, ahem, pointed response had women the world over screaming like they’d just won the lottery. 

One could also argue that Walker’s dogged pursuit of Karli and displaced peoples supporting the Flag Smasher cause mirrors the Trump administration’s war on immigrants. 

There are plenty of parallels to draw. The point is, none of them are forced or manufactured or exaggerated. And whether we’re talking about a fictional road in Latvia or a real street in Minnesota, white Americans need to stop avoiding conversations that make them uncomfortable.

The Politics of Comics 

In 1938, Americans were still reeling from the Great Depression. Enter Superman, the everyman hero, who made his comic debut while the nation was facing widespread unemployment, rampant poverty, and blatant corruption at every level of government.

Superman could have faced off against any number of supernatural villains. But Siegel and Shuster went a different route, setting a precedent for comic books that has prevailed to this day:

They got political. 

Throughout Superman’s earliest adventures, he fought against evil politicians, apathetic bureaucrats, aggressive police officers, greedy businessmen, and even a Washington lobbyist. 

Then in 1941, Joe Simon & Jack Kirby introduced Captain America just in time to fight the nazis and free the world from fascism. A couple decades later, Kirby and Stan Lee would tell the tale of the aforementioned Erik Lehnsherr, who survived the horrors of Auschwitz. These comics endured because their passion and nuance transcended entertainment. So what was the secret sauce?

Like Siegel and Shuster, Simon, Kirby, and Stan Lee were Jewish. Representation matters, folks. 

Later on, the X-Men weren’t the only conduit through which Marvel supported Civil Rights. In 1966, on the heels of the “March Against Fear” from Memphis, TN to Jackson, MS, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby unveiled Black Panther. When African-Americans were fighting harder than ever, Black children could suddenly read a comic book about T’Challa, the noble warrior king of a highly advanced African nation. 

Marvel has never been shy about critiquing foreign policy either. Tony Stark and Iron Man debuted in 1968 as the conflict in Vietnam was escalating. And let’s not forget, Tony made his MCU debut in a film that is a clear indictment of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We could do this all day, but you get the idea. 

Comic books have always reflected the politics of our times, and so has the MCU. Fanboys can’t start crying now just because they’re on the wrong side of history. And when they do, we defer to the great Jon Bernthal when asked about alt-righters appropriating the Punisher symbol:

“Fuck them.”

Life Imitates Art

In 1986, American men felt the need for speed. After Top Gun was released, applications to U.S. aviation forces increased by a staggering 500%. 

Two years later, Errol Morris exposed police corruption in his film The Thin Blue Line. The documentary prompted a new investigation that eventually exonerated death row inmate Randall Adams for the murder of a police officer.

That same year, the Polish government ceased all executions after leaders were swayed to do so by A Short Film about Killing.

Following the release of Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine in 1999, Kmart bowed to public pressure and stopped selling handgun ammunition. 

And 5 years ago, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif changed the law on honor killings in response to the critically-acclaimed film A Girl in the River. 

Like we said earlier, film has the power to spur social change. Even if the effects aren’t always so direct and immediate, television and movies have always contributed to the process in America. 

Seeing the Ricardos sharing a bed allowed some Americans to start relaxing their prudish ways. 

The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Maude empowered women as they fought for reproductive rights.

The Jeffersons and Good Times facilitated calmer discussions about race relations.

And The Ellen Show led to greater representation of queer people on screen and greater acceptance of queer people in society. Though Ellen herself has become a problematic figure in the last year, that legacy still remains.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is hardly the first show of its kind. And given the impact film has on society, we believe Hollywood has a moral obligation to produce content that exposes society’s ills and fosters productive debate. 

Stan Lee would be very proud of the team behind TFATWS for bringing the stark reality of American life into people’s living rooms. The next time you see someone bitching about it, remind them what Stan himself said just a few years ago: 

“Those stories have room for everyone, regardless of their race, gender, religion, or color of their skin. The only things we don't have room for are hatred, intolerance, and bigotry.”

[instinctief]

Was tagged by @mylady-mace!! Thanks so much <3

rules are simple, choose 50 songs you want to recommend to tagged people and see what they prepare for you (if you decide to do it). you can choose only one song by a certain artist!

I hope I..... know 50 different artists lmao

1. Fall in love with me - Warhaus 2. On my way - Phil Collins 3. No plan - Hozier 4. Altar Wine - David Keenan 5. Take me to the river -Talking heads 6. Real love baby - Father John Misty 7. Growing pains - COIN 8. The Art teacher - Rufus Wainwright 9. She - Alice Phoebe Lou 10. Old lovers in dressing rooms - Keaton Henson

11. Valerie - Amy Winehouse 12. Sucker - Jonas Brothers 13. You make my dreams - Hall & Oates 14. Romeo and Juliet - Dire straits 15. Let me down easy - Gang of youths 16. Hey nineteen - Steely Dan 17. Gold SNAFU - Sticky Fingers 18. Jenny don’t be hasty - Paolo Nutini 19. Ribbons - The good, the bad and the queen 20. Figs and gorgonzola - Papooz

21. Dolphins - Salmone 22. Il neige - Voyou 23. Yourfault - Parcels 24. Mary on a cross - Ghost 25. Big god - Florence + the machine 26. Curls - Bibio 27. Here comes the river - Patrick Watson 28. Freak - Doja cat 29. Nothing - Bruno Major 30. Confidence - Ocean alley

31. Tú - Maye 32. Kokomo - The beach boys 33. Outro - M83 34. So good at being in trouble - Unknown mortal orchestra 35. Personal lies - Djo 36. Song for Zula - Phosphorescent 37. Dreaming of you - L’Impératrice 38. Saturday - Real estate 39. I shall not fear - Jon Bryant 40. White winter hymnal - Fleet foxes

41. Wonderboys - Pillow queens 42. Me and my husband - Mitski 43. Girl - SYML 44. Woman - Mumford & sons 45. Blue sea, red sea - Billie Marten 46. Motion sickness - Phoebe Bridgers 47. Art exhibit - Young the giant 48. Strangest thing - The war on drugs 49. Dancing in the moonlight - Alt-J 50. Ik wil dansen - Froukje

I only put songs by artists I know multiple songs by!! Hope you enjoy :) pretend to be tagged by me if you wanna do this x

[mysticalhearth]

Phantom of The Opera

The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - 25th Anniversary - Live At The Royal Albert Hall - October 2, 2011 (Pro-Shot's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Ramin Karimloo (The Phantom of the Opera), Sierra Boggess (Christine Daaé), Hadley Fraser (Raoul), Wendy Ferguson (Carlotta Giudicelli), Gareth Snook (Monsieur Firmin), Barry James (Monsieur André), Liz Robertson (Madame Giry), Wynne Evans (Ubaldo Piangi), Daisy Maywood (Meg Giry), Nick Holder (Joseph Buquet), Earl Carpenter (Auctioneer), Sergei Polunin (Slave Master) NOTES: Commonly referred to as "Live Stream Version 1" to differentiate from the other cinema live stream video of this production. Typically circulates as a 5.36 GB MKV file with AC3 5.1 audio. Has alternate takes from Live Stream Version 2 and the officially released verson. The first shot in this version is of the orchestra (pictured below). Another note is that Piangi does not hit the note the note in Hannibal ”Your army ha - ha - has come home!" (and the camera is zoomed out more than Version 2, showing Carlotta next to him). You can also see him put his hand on his collar bone near his throat, which he does not do in Version 2.

The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - February 28, 1988 (Highlights) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Michael Crawford (The Phantom of the Opera), Sarah Brightman (Christine Daaé), Steve Barton (Raoul) NOTES: About an hour and a half of the show, missing a bunch of the beginning of act 2, which starts in the middle of Don Juan. Clear video for its age The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - March 2, 2005 FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Hugh Panaro (The Phantom of the Opera), Julie Hanson (u/s Christine Daaé), John Cudia (Raoul) NOTES: Great quality video but the filmer seemed to lack in knowledge of the show so wideshots are more than usual. Amazing trio, but Hugh is a little less stronger this night The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - October 1, 2005 FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Hugh Panaro (The Phantom of the Opera), Sandra Joseph (Christine Daaé), Tim Martin Gleason (Raoul), Anne Runolfsson (Carlotta Giudicelli), James Romick (u/s Monsieur Firmin), George Lee Andrews (Monsieur André), Marilyn Caskey (Madame Giry), Larry Wayne Morbitt (Ubaldo Piangi), Kara Klein (Meg Giry) NOTES: Hugh's last night performing and Sandra gives a very sweet speech. Hugh Panaro's last performance at the time, includes curtain call and speeches at the end. Beautiful, clear picture with great detail and quality, and the entire cast was on fire. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - May 9, 2007 FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Gary Mauer (The Phantom of the Opera), Jennifer Hope Wills (Christine Daaé), Jason Mills (u/s Raoul), Patricia Phillips (u/s Carlotta Giudicelli), David Cryer (Monsieur Firmin), George Lee Andrews (Monsieur André), Sally Williams (u/s Madame Giry), Roland Rusinek (Ubaldo Piangi), Heather McFadden (Meg Giry) NOTES: A gorgeous video and the filmer knows the show very well. Includes a flub where Buquet fails to appear in time for Magical Lasso so Meg Giry gets in touch with her Leroux roots The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - October 13, 2012 (Lanelle's master) FORMAT:  VOB (no smalls) (SD) CAST: Hugh Panaro (The Phantom of the Opera), Trista Moldovan (Christine Daaé), Kyle Barisich (Raoul), Michele McConnell (Carlotta Giudicelli), Kevin Ligon (Monsieur Firmin), Aaron Galligan-Stierle (Monsieur André), Cristin Hubbard (Madame Giry), Christian Sebek (Ubaldo Piangi), Joelle Gates (Meg Giry) NOTES: Gorgeous video with vibrant and steady filming! Hugh and Trista are AMAZING together. Kyle is okay. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - March 9, 2013 (Matinee) FORMAT:  VOB (no smalls) (SD) CAST: Jeremy Stolle (u/s The Phantom of the Opera), Samantha Hill (Christine Daaé), Greg Mills (u/s Raoul), Michele McConnell (Carlotta Giudicelli), Tim Jerome (Monsieur Firmin), Richard Poole (u/s Monsieur André), Ellen Harvey (Madame Giry), Christian Sebek (Ubaldo Piangi), Kara Klein (Meg Giry) NOTES: Missing part of Act 1 (‘I Remember’ to the ballet from Il Muto), but otherwise complete. Jeremy Stolle makes a call for donations for the organisation 'Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS' after curtain call. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - March 17, 2014 (Turnofthescorpion's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Laird Mackintosh (u/s The Phantom of the Opera), Sara Jean Ford (alt Christine Daaé), Jeremy Hays (Raoul) NOTES: Not the most focused capture, shaky throughout, never really settles down. A head in bottom center of capture a good deal of the time on medium to wide shots. St. Patrick's Day, Laird Mackintosh does curtain call in a leprechaun hat. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - March 20, 2014 (Turnofthescorpion's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Greg Mills (u/s The Phantom of the Opera), Mary Michael Patterson (Christine Daaé), Jeremy Hays (Raoul), Satomi Hoffman (u/s Carlotta Giudicelli), Tim Jerome (Monsieur Firmin), Laird Mackintosh (Monsieur André), Ellen Harvey (Madame Giry), Christian Sebek (Ubaldo Piangi), Deanna Doyle (Meg Giry) The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - May 3, 2014 FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Hugh Panaro (The Phantom of the Opera), Mary Michael Patterson (Christine Daaé), Jeremy Hays (Raoul) NOTES: Hugh’s last performance. Includes speeches.   The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - May 3, 2014 (Matinee) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Hugh Panaro (The Phantom of the Opera), Mary Michael Patterson (Christine Daaé), Jeremy Hays (Raoul) NOTES: Hugh’s last matinee. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - May 12, 2014 (inallyourfantasies's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Norm Lewis (The Phantom of the Opera), Sierra Boggess (Christine Daaé), Jeremy Hays (Raoul), Michele McConnell (Carlotta Giudicelli), Tim Jerome (Monsieur Firmin), Laird Mackintosh (Monsieur André), Ellen Harvey (Madame Giry), Christian Sebek (Ubaldo Piangi) NOTES: First show for Norm Lewis and Sierra Boggess. There are two masters (joint masters) for this video: inallyourfantasies and turnofthescorpion The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - November 6, 2014 FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Laird Mackintosh (u/s The Phantom of the Opera), Kaley Ann Voorhees (alt Christine Daaé), Jeremy Hays (Raoul), Michele McConnell (Carlotta Giudicelli), Tim Jerome (Monsieur Firmin), Richard Poole (u/s Monsieur André), Ellen Harvey (Madame Giry), Christian Sebek (Ubaldo Piangi), Kara Klein (Meg Giry) The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - June 16, 2016 (SJ Bernly's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: James Barbour (The Phantom of the Opera), Rachel Eskenazi-Gold (u/s Christine Daaé), Jordan Donica (Raoul), Michelle McConnell (Carlotta Giudicelli), Craig Bennett (Monsieur Firmin), Laird Mackintosh (Monsieur André), Rebecca Eichenberger (Madame Giry), Kara Klein (Meg Giry) NOTES: good capture, no real obstructions, center mezz The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - July 21, 2016 (SunsetBlvd79's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: James Barbour (The Phantom of the Opera), Ali Ewoldt (Christine Daaé), Jordan Donica (Raoul), Michelle McConnell (Carlotta Giudicelli), Craig Bennett (Monsieur Firmin), Richard Poole (u/s Monsieur André), Rebecca Eichenberger (Madame Giry), John Easterlin (Ubaldo Piangi), Kara Klein (Meg Giry) The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - October, 2018 (hitmewithyourbethshot's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Ben Crawford (The Phantom of the Opera), Ali Ewoldt (Christine Daaé), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Raoul), Raquel Suarez Groen (Carlotta Giudicelli), Craig Bennett (Monsieur Firmin), Laird Mackintosh (Monsieur André), Maree Johnson (Madame Giry), Carlton Moe (Ubaldo Piangi), Kara Klein (Meg Giry) The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Broadway - September, 2018 (NYCG8R's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Ben Crawford (The Phantom of the Opera), Ali Ewoldt (Christine Daaé), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Raoul), Raquel Suarez Groen (Carlotta Giudicelli), Craig Bennett (Monsieur Firmin), Laird Mackintosh (Monsieur André), Maree Johnson (Madame Giry), Ted Keegan (u/s Ubaldo Piangi), Polly Baird (Meg Giry) The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - First National Tour (Christine) - August 29, 1993 (House-Cam's master) FORMAT:  VOB (no smalls) (SD) CAST: Davis Gaines (The Phantom of the Opera), Dale Kristien (Christine Daaé), Michael Piontek (Raoul), Leigh Munro (Carlotta Giudicelli), Calvin Remsberg (Monsieur Firmin), Norman Large (Monsieur André), Barbara Lang (Madame Giry), Gualtiero Negrini (Ubaldo Piangi), Elizabeth Stringer (Meg Giry) NOTES: Closing night in Los Angeles The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Fourth National Tour - February 19, 2014 (SunsetBlvd79's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Cooper Grodin (The Phantom of the Opera), Julia Udine (Christine Daaé), Ben Jacoby (Raoul) The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Fourth National Tour - August 12, 2015 FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Chris Mann (The Phantom of the Opera), Katie Travis (Christine Daaé), Storm Lineberger (Raoul), Jacquelynne Fontaine (Carlotta Giudicelli), David Benoit (Monsieur Firmin), Edward Staudenmayer (Monsieur André), Anne Kanengeiser (Madame Giry), Frank Viveros (Ubaldo Piangi), Morgan Cowling (Meg Giry) NOTES: More concentrated on full body shots and capturing all the action rather than close ups. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Fourth National Tour - November 16, 2016 (Matinee) (kradder32's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Derrick Davis (The Phantom of the Opera), Kaitlyn Davis (alt Christine Daaé), Jordan Craig (Raoul), Trista Moldovan (Carlotta Giudicelli), David Benoit (Monsieur Firmin), Price Waldman (Monsieur André), Tynan Davis (u/s Madame Giry), Phumzile Sojola (Ubaldo Piangi), Emily Ramirez (Meg Giry) NOTES: Great video of the fourth national tour. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Hamburg - June 30, 2001 (Matinee) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Michael Nicholson (alt The Phantom of the Opera), Olivia Safe (u/s Christine Daaé), Christopher Morandi (alt Raoul), Evelyn Werner (u/s Carlotta Giudicelli), Reinhard Schulze (u/s Monsieur Firmin), Anders Sohlman (Monsieur André), Linda Bruske (Madame Giry), Charlie Serrano (Ubaldo Piangi), Kate Lawrence (Meg Giry) NOTES: Last matinee of the original Hamburg production. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Las Vegas - August 28, 2006 FORMAT:  VOB (no smalls) (SD) CAST: Anthony Crivello (The Phantom of the Opera), Elizabeth Loyacano (Christine Daaé), Tim Martin Gleason (Raoul), Elena Jeanne Batman (Carlotta Giudicelli), Lawson Skala (Monsieur Firmin), John Leslie Wolfe (Monsieur André), Rebecca Spencer (Madame Giry), Larry Wayne Morbitt (Ubaldo Piangi), Brianne Morgan (Meg Giry) The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Las Vegas - August 8, 2008 (SunsetBlvd79's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Anthony Crivello (The Phantom of the Opera), Kristi Holden (Christine Daaé), Andrew Ragone (Raoul) NOTES: Great capture of the reconfigured and shortened version of Phantom which had a long run in Vegas. Anthony really gives a powerful performance as the Phantom. A The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - São Paulo (Revival) - December 14, 2019 (Matinee) (Papa Rose 2015's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Thiago Arancam (The Phantom of the Opera), Guilia Nadruz (alt Christine Daaé), Fred Silveira (Raoul), Bete Diva (Carlotta Giudicelli), Sandro Christopher (Monsieur Firmin), Leo Diniz (u/s Monsieur André), Taís Víera (Madame Giry), Cleyton Pulzi (Ubaldo Piangi), Fernanda Muniz (Meg Giry) NOTES: Excellent video shot during the closing weekend. This was Giulia's second-to-last performance.  

The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Scheveningen - 1993 (Pro-Shot's master) FORMAT:  VOB (no smalls) (SD) CAST: Henk Poort (The Phantom of the Opera), Joke de Kruijf (Christine Daaé), Peter de Smet (Raoul) The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Scheveningen - August 2, 1996 (House-Cam's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Henk Poort (The Phantom of the Opera), Els Bongers (Christine Daaé), Peter de Smet (Raoul), Vera van Oostmerssen (Carlotta Giudicelli), Nico Schaap (Monsieur Firmin), Stan Lambregts (Monsieur André), Margaret Roest (Madame Giry), Ramon Remedios (Ubaldo Piangi), Natasha Knight (Meg Giry) The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Stuttgart - 2003 (House-Cam's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Roy Weissensteiner (u/s The Phantom of the Opera), Marion Wilmer (u/s Christine Daaé), Carsten Lepper (Raoul) NOTES: Monitor video. Full stage shot and soundboard audio. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Sydmonton Festival - July, 1985 (Pro-Shot's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Colm Wilkinson (The Phantom of the Opera), Sarah Brightman (Christine Daaé) NOTES: Pretty bad quality due to age and being ripped from video to digital, but it shows the changes the show made before its opening in 1986. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Third National Tour (Music Box) - April 6, 2006 (musicinthestars's master) FORMAT:  VOB (no smalls) (SD) CAST: Gary Mauer (The Phantom of the Opera), Elizabeth Southard (alt Christine Daaé), Jim Weitzer (Raoul), Kim Stengel (Carlotta Giudicelli), John Jellison (Monsieur Firmin), D C Anderson (Monsieur André), Patti Davidson-Gorbea (Madame Giry), John Whitney (Ubaldo Piangi), Kate Wray (Meg Giry) NOTES: 2 camera edit of Elizabeth Southard's final performance. Very good and emotional show to watch. Real life husband and wife Phantom and Christine. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Third National Tour (Music Box) - August 2, 2007 FORMAT:  VOB (no smalls) (SD) CAST: John Cudia (The Phantom of the Opera), Marni Raab (Christine Daaé), Greg Mills (Raoul) NOTES: Beautiful video shot in widescreen, great color, excellent and steady camerawork. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - West End - 1995 (Pro-Shot's master) FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) |  TRADER'S NOTES: Act 1 only CAST: Ethan Freeman (The Phantom of the Opera), Jill Washington (Christine Daaé), Simon Bowman (Raoul) NOTES: Pro-shot by RUG The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - West End - February 26, 2005 FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: John Owen-Jones (The Phantom of the Opera), Rachel Barrell (Christine Daaé), Oliver Thornton (Raoul) NOTES: John Owen Jones last show before his return in 2010. Filmed from the stalls, a lot of close ups, especially of Rachel Barrell The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - West End - September 9, 2008 FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Ramin Karimloo (The Phantom of the Opera), Gina Beck (Christine Daaé), Simon Bailey (Raoul), Kate Radmilovic (Carlotta Giudicelli), Barry James (Monsieur Firmin), Gareth Snook (Monsieur André), Heather Jackson (Madame Giry), Rohan Tickell (Ubaldo Piangi), Tori Johns (Meg Giry) NOTES: Gina, Simon, Kate and Tori's first show. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - West End - December, 2018 (hitmewithyourbethshot's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: David Thaxton (The Phantom of the Opera), Amy Manford (alt Christine Daaé), Jeremy Taylor (Raoul), Kimberly Blake (Carlotta Giudicelli), Ross Dawes (Monsieur Firmin), Mark Oxtoby (u/s Monsieur André), Rachel Spurrell (u/s Madame Giry), Paul Tabone (Ubaldo Piangi), Georgia Ware (Meg Giry) NOTES: Lots of blackouts, safety rail in the way as well as a head at times || A bit of shakiness The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - West End - January, 2006 FORMAT:  VOB (with smalls) (SD) CAST: Earl Carpenter (The Phantom of the Opera), Rachel Barrell (Christine Daaé), David Shannon (Raoul), Wendy Ferguson (Carlotta Giudicelli), David Lawrence (u/s Monsieur Firmin), Sam Hiller (Monsieur André), Emily Harvey (u/s Madame Giry), Rohan Tickell (Ubaldo Piangi), Heidi Ann O'Brien (Meg Giry) The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - West End - November, 2019 (hitmewithyourbethshot's master) FORMAT:  M2TS (HD) CAST: Josh Piterman (The Phantom of the Opera), Kelly Mathieson (Christine Daaé), Alistair So (u/s Raoul), Britt Lenting (Carlotta Giudicelli), Ross Dawes (Monsieur Firmin), Richard Woodford (Monsieur André), Jacinta Mulcahy (Madame Giry), Simon Whitaker (u/s Ubaldo Piangi), Georgia Ware (Meg Giry) NOTES: MTS file, shot around heads and master tries best to work around them but is unable too. Auction and overtune is blocked alongside most of the whole recording. Theres a few bits here and there where the action is visible such as during think of me, music of the night. Sound is very clear. Anything on the left side of the stage such during "prima dona" is mostly visible-ish. Phantom of the Opera (Ken Hill) - Japan - December, 2013 (Pro-Shot's master) FORMAT:  MP4 (HD) CAST: Peter Straker (The Phantom), Anna Hawkins (Christine Daae), Manaia Glassey-Ohlson (Raoul), Edward Newborn (The Manager (M. Richard)), Chris Green (Mephistopheles), Chris Green (The Persian), Michael McLean (Faust), Helen Moulder (Madame Giry), Lloyd Scott (Debienne), Lloyd Scott (The Groom), Lloyd Scott (The Priest), Lloyd Scott (Mauclair), Lloyd Scott (Gravedigger), Lloyd Scott (The Old Man), Caroline Tatlow (Carlotta), Caroline Tatlow (Dominique), Caroline Tatlow (The Chorus Girl), Camilla Besley (Jammes), Sam Benton (Remy), Brittany Wallis (Lisette), Brittany Wallis (Lady in Box), Cameron Barclay, Patrick Kelly NOTES: TV-rip from BS Japan Channel (Broadcasted on December 31, 2014). Features Japanese subs. Missing Overture of Act 2.

[geekofchaos]

Alternate History is kind of having a moment - not a big one, but a moment nonetheless. We had Man in the High Castle for a while, now there’s the Plot Against America, For All Mankind, and now Hollywood. Noughts and Crosses too.

First off, I’m glad to see that For All Mankind and Hollywood are taking alt-history in a direction that’s very popular in the alt-history communities but not so much in the mainstream - mainly the idea that alternate history doesn’t necessarily have to be a worse nazi-infested timeline. For the love of god, enough Nazi ruled worlds in alternate history. I’m done, I’m tired, please. I’m not even saying your alt-world can’t be worse than ours, but can you at least pick something up other than the Nazis?

But more specifically, For All Mankind and Hollywood, in two different ways are picking up the torch and saying “here’s what we could have been and what we still can if we just try.” For my money, I personally prefer For All Mankind as Hollywood got a little too schamltzy too fast and really stretched my suspension of disbelief - but I suppose if you’re going to be wish fulfilment the way Hollywood was, then be wish fulfilment. I still very much enjoyed it to be clear.

The Plot Against America, of course, has the opposite message “this is what we could have been and what we still could be if we’re not careful.” And absolutely, I’m not saying that all alternate history timelines have to be noticably better now but we could cool it on Nazi-ruled Americas for a while.

Noughts and Crosses to my eyes is also interesting in that it really appeals to the worldbuilder in me (maybe less so there just being one giant supercontinent called Aprica but oh well) with its designs and it’s little things that you don’t even notice in the real world. It, of course, has a hugely important message about racism but unlike the other pieces of current alternate history, it doesn’t present the timeline as being necessarily worse or better than the one we live in. If you’re white, of course, your life will be noticably worse. If you’re black, noticably better. If you’re Asian - actually, I don’t know what we’re up to in the world of Noughts and Crosses. Feel free to tell me - I haven’t watched the entire show. But at the end of the day, it just is. It’s another path we could have taken.

I’d love to see some medieval alt-historical sometime soon - like William the Conqueror failing to invade England, Richard III defeating Henry Tudor, maybe John the Posthumous surviving his infancy or Francis and Mary having a child that could change the world...but these would be much more expensive and would probably fall under the “not necessarily better or worse - they just are,” timelines. But we could have some really fun stuff. It might not be immediately relevant in the way more recent alt-historicals are but any decent writer can still make it say something on our current world.

Or if we really want to go out there...pick up some of the more out there alt-history novels and adapt them. World War would probably be too out there and since I just complained about Nazis (but ugh, lizards from space! Invading in World War 2!) and I’m not sure it’d be right for this political climate. But 1632, Time Spike, The Alexander Inheritance, or Island in a Sea of Time. None of these are perfect but they’re just ripe for an adaptation that could knock the kinks out of them.

Okay, I’m done. But I’m just hoping that maybe alt-history will be the next big thing.

[adevotedappraisal]

Magdalene by FKA Twigs, a review.

I’ve been learning some shit from women from as long as I’ve been alive. Always some other shit that I never asked for but I got told it.  I used to treat them things they said as laws as a child, but I never saw them in a book, so then I stopped believing them.  They were always hushed laws though, laws told with squinted eyes and italicized whispers, laws told when no one else was around.

I mean, now of course men make the real laws that we know and live by.  Well come on now, we write them on parchment, and display them on lights, we code them into computers, inscribe them on coins and stone. But these women…man women tell you some other shit, like glue shit, in low, muttered tones in the quiet part of the house.  Like advice on… well not how the world works, but how to deal with the world when it works against you, and how to make it work for you. But you see, I’ve come to believe that the fairer sex tells you different laws than the vaunted laws and advice of our fathers because they all around see the world differently than men do.  They may, in fact, have been harbouring different goals than us all along.  

I mean for christssakes us men have our hero’s journey as clear as day, writ large and indelible across history books and entertainment.  You could take that Joseph Campbell mono-myth theory and see it expressed in Arthurian swash-buckle, the middle earth ring-slaying of Tolkien, or in the recently concluded tri-trilogy of Star Wars galactic clashes.  We’re in the empire business, as Breaking Bad’s Walter White infamously said.  But still, the question always lingered to me: what is the heroine’s journey? Is it really just a lady in a knight’s armour? Or some tough-as-nails spy for some interloping government’s intelligence agency, delivering kidney kicks in a designer pencil skirt?

Well, I’ve come to believe that the heroine’s journey is navigating the waves of history we imperial and trans-national men make from our railroads and pipelines, our satellites and wars, them at once preserving a culture and sparking a path and creating a bond between cultures in order for them and their (il)legitimate brood to survive.  That old chestnut about how behind every successful man is a woman always unnerved me by its easy adoption. I kept thinking ‘bout that woman.  I kept thinking, what the fuck was she thinking?

You see women’s heroes, they ain’t as clear as day to me.  They don’t kill the dragon, they don’t save the townspeople, they don’t shoot the Sherriff, or the deputy, or anyone most times. When I ask people in public at my job what super power they would like, most men go for strength, flight, and regenerative abilities (my pick).  Most women went with mind reading and flight. In late night conversations though, with the moonlight coming through the white blinds and resting soft on us like so, I sometimes manage to hear that women’s heroes heal and clean the sick of the nation, in sneakers with heels as round as a childhood eraser; they feed a family with one fish and five slices of wonder bread; they would run gambling spots in the back of their house, putting the needle back on the Commodores record and patrolling the perimeter of the smoked-out room with a black .45 nested by their love handles; they climb up flag poles and speak out loud in public for the disposed and teach children those unwritten, floating laws while cloistered in the quiet part of the house.  

Although their heroines are sometimes from the top strata of society –a Pharaoh here, an Eleanor Roosevelt there, an Oprah over there—they also name a healthy mix of radicals and weirdos with modest music success, people like Susan B. Anthony, Frida Kahlo, Virginia Woolf, or Nikki Giovanni, I mean did Nina Simone or Janis Joplin even crack the Billboard top ten? Yet there they are, up on the walls of a thousand college dorms across the country.  So even though I couldn’t’ve foreseen it, it makes sense that of all the ultra-natural creatures, of all the great conquering kings and divining prophets of the Holy Bible, Mary Magdalene ends up the spirit animal for the album of the year for 2019.

Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jewish Rabbi Jesus during the first century, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible, a figure who was present for his miracles, his crucifixion and was the first to witness him after his resurrection.  From Pope Gregory I in the sixth century to Pope Paul VI in 1969, the Roman Catholic Church portrayed her as a prostitute, a sinful woman who had seven demons exorcised from her.  Medieval legends of the thirteenth century describe her as a wealthy woman who went to France and performed miracles, while in the apocryphal text The Gospel of Mary, translated in the mid-twentieth century, she is Jesus’ most trusted disciple who teaches the other apostles of the savior’s private philosophies.

Due to this range of description from varying figures in society, she gets portrayed in differing ways, by all types of women, each finding a part of Magdalene to explain themselves through.  Barbra Hershey, in the first half of Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) plays her as a firm and mysterious guide, a rebellious older cousin almost, while Yvonne Elliman, in Norman Jewison’s 1973 film adaptation of Lloyd Weber’s Jesus Christ Superstar is lovelorn and tender throughout, a proud witness of the Word being written for the first time.  In “Mary Magdalene,” FKA Twigs, the Birmingham UK alt-soul singer, describes the woman as a “creature of desire”, and she talks about possessing a “sacred geometry,” and later on in the song she tells us of “a nurturing breath that could stroke you/ divine confidence, a woman’s war, unoccupied history.” Her vocals that sound glassy and spectral in the solemn echoes of the acapella first third, co-produced by Benny Blanco, turn sensual and emotive when the blocky groove kicks in.  That groove comes into its own on the Nicolas Jaar produced back third, and when this all is adorned with plucked arpeggios it sounds like an autumnal sister to the wintry prowl of Bjork’s “Hidden Place” from her still excellent Vespertine (2001). 

This blending of the affairs of the body and of Christian theology is found in the moody “Holy Terrain” as well.  While it is too hermetic and subdued to have been an effective single, it still works really well as an album track.  In this arena, Future is not the hopped up king of the club, but a vulnerable star, with shaded eyes and a heart wrapped up in love and chemicals, sending his girl to church with drug money to pay tithes.  Over a domesticated trap beat he shows a vulnerable bond that can exist, wailing his sins and his devotion like a tipsy boyfriend does in the middle of a party, or perhaps like John the Baptist did, during one of his frenzied sermons, possessed and wailing “if you pray for me I know you play for keeps, calling my name, calling my name/ taking the feeling of promethazine away.”

Magdalene, the singer’s sophomore release, takes the mysterious power and resonance of this biblical anti-heroine, and involves its songs with her, these emotional, multi-textured songs about fame, pain and the break up with movie star boyfriend Robert Pattinson.  With “Sad Day,” Twigs sings with a delicate yet emotional yearning, imbued with a Kate Bush domesticity. The synth pads are a pulsing murmur, and the vocal samples are chopped and rendered into lonely, twisting figures.  The drums crash in only every once in a while, just enough to reset the tension and carve out an electronic groove, while the rest of the thing is an exercise in mood and restraint, the production by twigs, Jaar and Blanco, along with Cashmere Cat and Skrillex, leaves her laments cosseted in a floating sound, distant yet dense and tumultuous, the way approaching storm clouds can feel.   Meanwhile “Thousand Eyes” is a choir of Twigs, some voices cluttered and glittering, some others echoed and filled with dolour. “If you walk away it starts a thousand eyes,” she sings, the line starting off as pleading advice and by the close of the song ending up a warning in reverb, the vintage synths and updated DAWs used to create these sparse, aural haunts where the choral of shes and the digital ghosts of memory can echo around her whispered confessional.

In many of these divorce albums, the other party’s role in the conflict is laid bare in scathing terms: the wife that “didn’t have to use the son of mine, to keep me in line” from Marvin Gaye’s Here My Dear from 1979; the players who “only love you when they’re playin’” as Stevie Nicks sang on Fleetwood Macs Rumours (1977); or as Beyonce’s Lemonade (2017) charges, the husband that needs “to call Becky with the good hair.”   At first though, Twigs is diplomatic, like in “Home with me,” where she lays the conflict on both sides here, expressing the rigours of fame, the miscommunication –accidental or intentional –that fracture relationships, and the violent, tenuous silence of a house where one of the members is in some another country doing god knows what, physically or mentally. “I didn’t know you were lonely, if you’d just told me I’d be home with you,” she sings in the chorus over a lonely piano, while the verse sections have the piano chords flanked by blocks of glitch, and littered with flitched-off synths. Then, the last chorus swirls the words again, along with the strings and horns and everything into a rising crescendo of regret.

Later in the album however, her anger once smoldering is set alight, in the dramatic highlight “Fallen Alien.” Twigs sings with an increasing tension, as her agile voice morphs from confused, pouting girlfriend to towering lady of the manor, launching imprecations towards a past lover and perhaps fame itself. “I was waiting for you, on the outside, don’t tell me what you want ‘cuz I know you lie,” she sings, and, after the tension ratchets up becomes “when the lights are on, I know you, see you’re grey from all the lies you tell,” and then later on we have her sneering out loud “now hold me close, so tender, when you fall asleep I’ll kick you down.”  All while pondering pianos drop like rain from an awning, tick-tocking mini-snares and skittering noises flit across the beat like summer insects, the kicks of which are like an insistent, inquisitive knocking at the door, and then there’s that sample, filtered into an incandescent flame, crackling an  I FEEL THE LIGHTNING BLAST! all over the song like the arc of a Tesla coil. The song is a shocking rebuke, and it becomes apparent upon replays that the songs are sequenced to lead up to and away from it, the gravitational weight giving a shape and pace to the whole album.  Because of this, the other songs on Magdalene have more tempered, subtle electronic hues and tones, as if the seductive future soul of 2013s “Water Me” from EP2, and the inventive, booming experimentation of “Glass & Patron” from 2015s M3LL1SSX, were pursed back and restrained until it was needed most, and this results in an album more accomplished, nuanced and focused than her impressive but inconsistent debut LP1 (reviewed here).  

This technique of electronic restraint has shown up in the most recent albums by experimental pioneers, with the sparse, mournful tension of Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool (2017), it’s cold, analog synths and digital embellishments cresting on the periphery of the song, and with Wilco’s Ode to Joy from last year, an album bereft of their lauded static and electric scrawl, mostly embossed in acoustic solitude and brittle, wintery guitar licks.  Twigs and her co-producers take the same knack for the most part throughout the album, like with closer “Cellophane,” where the dramatic voice and piano are in the forefront, while effects crunch lightly in the background like static electricity in a stretched sweater, and elsewhere, as the synths of “Daybed” slowly intensify into a sparkling soundscape, as if manufacturing an awakening sunrise through a bedroom window.  And it is this seamless melding of organic and electronic instruments, to express these wretched and fleeting emotions of heartbreak that makes this the album of the year.

It makes sense that an artist like FKA Twigs would be drawn to a figure like Mary Magdalene.  Of the many Marys in the New Testament, she stuck out as palpably different, or rather, she depicted a differing part of womanhood than the other two.  She wasn’t the chaste, life-giving mother of Jesus, or the dutiful Mary of Clopas. Instead, Magdalene was this mixture of sexuality and spirituality, one of those figures that managed to know men and women in equal measure, wrapped up with the blood as well as the flesh.  Twigs also played with this enrapturing sexuality in her work, writhing around in bed begging some papi to pacify her and fuck her while she stared at the sun, then making you identify with the lamentations of video girls, and then telling you in two weeks you won’t even recognize who you were seeing before.  There was something mysterious and layered to her millennial art-chick sexpot act though, layers that have begun to be revealed with this album.  

We realise now, that what she was depicting all along was more like the sexual heat that lays underneath devotion, as opposed to fleeting, mayfly lust, and that she now understands the weight and half-life of love.  That is, that beyond the sex and patron and fame there is a near sacred love we build between each other for a while in time, lasting as long as both hands can bear to hold it, and also that the death of a relationship still has the memory of the love created warm within it that then radiates off slow into the air.  A love that then falls into our minds for safekeeping dark and unobstructed now, the way Jesus’ blood fell from his wound into Joseph of Arimathea’s grail held aloft.  

“I never met a hero like me in a sci-fi,” FKA Twigs sings, an evocative line less so for the hegemonic patriarchy of the worldwide movie and comic book industry suggested by ‘the sci-fi’ here, and more for the ‘hero like me’ part, which suggests she had to make her hero origin story all up, without the scaffolding of centuries of relatable mythologies, presenting us with an avatar of millennial love, in all of its tortured luster.  And you hear this type of love in her voice, no longer changed up and ran through a filter for Future Soul sophistication most times, but out in the open now, to express particular emotions, whether it’s in that swooping, falling ‘I’ in the heart-break closer “Cellophane,” or her assured realisation, later on “Home With Me” where she says “But I’d save a life if I thought it belonged to you/ Mary Magdalene would never let her loved ones down.”  

It’s never about how to conquer with these women you see.  In the end of all relationships it’s how they find their way out after us temporarily embarrassed conquerors are about to leave, jacket slung over shoulder, standing by the door. You squint your eyes back at her this time, and you listen this time, while she tells you, or tells the ground in front of you, what parts of love to let go of, and what parts are worth holding on to in this age of Satan, the parts that will help you become yourself. “I wonder if you think that I could never help you fly,” the song tells you then, one of those stinging admissions that only women come up with, and you wisely stay silent, and then the piano chords part, the synths subside. And for a while there as she looks at you, as the breathy sortilege in the song keeps going, it all sounds like something worth believing in again.  And then, the words she says to you start to come across like laws.

[bluntache]

yo , there are a SHIt TON of people here . let’s write together .

comment a verse , i’ll write something . this blog is official semi active !

xx. ‹ canon. ›

canon dean winchester. seasons 01-15. any canon divergences have their own verses below ie. endverse, etc.

xx. ‹ canon div. ›

anytime we write canon but we change something .

xx. ‹ end. verse. ›

canon dean winchester. end!universe setting. this is dean’s verse for anything related to the apocalypse, both in canon (end!verse) and alternate universes such as american horror story apocalypse or just apocalyptic au’s.

this dean fed into his dark desires after sam said yes to lucifer. using sam’s betrayal as an excuse to get his hands dirty without worrying about retribution or guilt. without any real ties to family or friends, dean allows himself to go very far into the dark hole of desire and destruction. using his brother as his excuse for his actions – we had to do it - or lucifer will win , mentality. he is abusive and toxic towards castiel as well as others .

xx. ‹ ordinary. ›

alt. universe dean winchester. this verse does not have supernatural components. dean is a baseball player, taking 18 hours at university, living in studio apartment he fixed it up and is renting to own atm, working part time at a diner as a cook, also working saturdays at a local autobody shop as a intern.

is a baseball player, taking 18 hours at university, living in studio apartment that was pretty trashy but he fixed it up and is renting to own atm, works part time at a diner as the cook, also works saturdays at a local autobody shop as a intern.

mary winchester was accidentally burned alive when a loose wire sparked upstairs in the baby room causing it to fill with smoke. incredibly baby sam had crawled from the room and woke up dean next door who started screaming when he saw the flames. his father screamed for him to carry sam outside and ran into the burning room for their mother. john was thought to have suffered from smoke poisoning due to believing he had seen a demon in the smoke and flames. after a month or so john gained custody of his kids again. sadly he was never the same and went on ‘hunts’ often. leaving the children unattended for weeks sometimes. when dean was 17 his father was busted when a hotel clerk called authorities after seeing dean break into a vending machine and notices the father had not returned. dean was not charged as the police believed neglect was apparent and john never came back. his body would lady be found near his car, police believed he tried to commit suicide since the smell of sulfur was in the area and the cars gas tank had been drained (as if left on until the engine died).

dean was given the impala and the news. sam had already been in foster care at this point and was integrating well. he was at a good school with a good family and while they invited dean over often dean knew he had to make sure his life turned around. sam encourages him to go to college and dean decided to after sams foster dad said he would help him talk to the college about financing.

dean made friends quick and while most didn’t connect dean to the death in the papers some did and offered a helping hand. he was able to find a studio apartment through a local ad and was offered it dirt cheap if he would do the renovations. dean accepted even though he knew the place was a dump and would take a lot of tlc.

the baseball coach spotted dean quickly and asked if he’d ever played sports. dean mentioned his training with his dad and easily knocked one out when practicing with the team. he was offered a walk on spot and a minimal scholarship of covering 12 hours of college credit per semester.

he picked up a job as fast as he could at a local dive joint that was desperate for a cook. they threw him in with no experience but the customers weren’t picky and he could cook most of the basic slop people wanted. he worked hard and the waitresses appreciated his take no shit demeanor if an unruly customer came in.

dean tries to reconnect with bobby but it takes. along while to find him again through the phone book. when he does eventually bobby offers him a place with him but dean declines wanting to stay close to sam. bobby’s known for coming to visit and watch the games. most people assume that’s deans dad and he’s happy to let them think it.

he’s going for his basics right now but has several paths he’s considering. photography, wielding, autobody or business. he keeps very little around him. he’s a minimalist and always feels like he’ll have to leave at any minute. afraid of commitment. desperate for a connection. very confident but got that southern gentleman charm. he keeps an old photo of his parents in his wallet and one of sam in the impala.

xx. ‹ pre. canon. ›

pre-canon dean winchester. this takes place prior to the pilot and generally is either teen or young adult dean prior to meet up with sam at college to find their father.

xxi. ‹ demon!dean. ›

canon dean winchester. deanmon era. anytime dean is a demon, or knight of hell. in this verse, he is typically devoid of emotions that drive him normally : such as guilt, etc. he still holds somewhat of a moral compass, killing those who don’t follow the rules or hurt children / rape women, etc. follows canon supernatural but most threads turn divergent fairly quickly.

xxi. ‹ dean smith. ›

alternate universe dean winchester. dean smith. a verse for dean in which he is dean smith, adopted successful child of ellen & bobby smith, loving brother to jo. he loves golfing and fancy suits. eats salad everyday & is a ceo of his fathers fortune 500 company which specializes in cars with new age technology , similar to tesla .

xxi. ‹ moc!dean. ›

canon dean winchester. mark of cain era. anytime dean has the mark of cain , he is drawn to violence and blood shed. he’s drawn to dark, terrible things such as killing, violence, hardcore sex, and other taboo things. he feeds off the energy and has trouble controlling himself . if castiel or sam is not around he’s likely to kill without pause.

xxi. ‹ purgatory ›

canon dean winchester. purgatory setting. anytime dean is in the realm of purgatory. can be canon divergent but typically written with benny or castiel.

xxi. ‹ michael!dean. ›

canon dean winchester. michael!dean era. anytime dean’s body is taken over by michael, or in which michael is sharing dean’s vessel with or without permission. covers both canon timeline and canon divergence regarding michael.

xi. ‹ coach. ›

alternate universe dean winchester. dean works at a high school or university (plot dependent). in high school threads, he is a head football coach and gym teacher. he sometimes teaches history or health depending on what the school needs that year. in university he is the asst coach, defensive coordinator, and sometimes teaches freshman fitness courses .

xi. ‹ hitman. ›

dean left his fathers house at 18 and went straight into the military. with his moms untimely death his father slowly lost his mind, beginning to believe in conspiracy theories, supernatural beings, and was becoming extremely paranoid as well as beginning to buy guns. dean knew he needed to get out if he wanted to gain custody of sammy somehow and he saw the army as his out. when testing on the exams the army found he had a certain aptitude for …. certain jobs… he started out as a contract hitman and cover up guy. after a while he retired from the military and went private with his time and money. he’s got one assistant and no other contacts. as far as the world knows, he’s still with the army. as far as the army knows, he’s off the grid. sammy is placed in foster care within one year of dean joining the army. dean is granted leave temporarily and sam is given to bobby singer while dean works , sending large sums in various forms during the times he is gone.

xi. ‹ witch. ›

alternate universe. dean winchester is a witch who is able to communicate with biologically living things that use photosynthesis . his brother sam , a pyrokenetic , tragically started a house fire that took the lives of his entire family minus dean who was found cocooned entirely by crisp , burnt foilage and limbs . the tree outside his window had inexplicably created a barrier between him and the fire. taken in by bobby singer , who’s deceased wife had (he found out later) been blessed with divine sight , he tried to learn and hone his skills . he eventually opens his own holistic apothecary where he offers mixtures based on the ailments of his customers . he known to be called upon by those who know his true nature for cures and consults.

xi. ‹ bounty hunter. ›

ffxv. crossover universe. dean winchester is a hunter without family. found among the remnants of what was assumed to be a freak house fire or arson, he was taken in and raised by hunters . after leaving their safety net and moving into a small cabin built by the lake not far from cindy’s shop, he stays there fending off wild monsters and animals. living as best he can in isolation.

sw. crossover universe. dean winchester is a bounty hunter. his mother was a bounty hunter as well but died while attempting a job. his father, worked for the first order / rebellion (you pick) but was caught in an explosion not long after , leaving sammy behind to join the first order / rebellion as a researcher and design specialist. dean refused to be entrapped by a label and left searching for meaning and his place in everything.

loz/botw. crossover universe. dean winchester is a hylian hunter on a mission. he’s heard rumors of a great hero and wants to learn the ways of the champion. his brother sam, inspired by the princess, travels with him and they document all they can find. together they hope to unlock the mystery to their mother’s disappearance. there father blames a dark spirit and talks about it constantly, convincing those in the villages he is mad. their mother traded her soul with the dark statue in hateno in order to pay a debt owed by her family. john, and his boys do not know of the statue and believe her to be dead or that she has abandoned them.

teen wolf. crossover universe. dean winchester is a hunters son and comes to beacon hills in order to aid chris argent in his hunting of werewolves. along the way he befriends allison argent and becomes intertwined with the complex story of the pack. he will not know of the pack in the high school unless you tell him . his loyalty will always be to allison over anyone else .

xi. ‹ dark!dean. ›

canon divergent. dean’s been fucked up since he can remember. if it’s nasty, he wants it. if it’s wrong, it feels right. he’s tired of babysitting and he’s tired of taking orders. veering off on his own more often than not, he’s got a secret. he likes blood on his hands, black blood, red blood, he’s not picky. he just wants the raw freshness of a kill on his hands. his weapon of choice is whatever is available but his knife is always on him. warm blood helps wash away the bad memories. and sometimes, it helps him forget the fire.

in this verse , the fire happens and all events still occur. however, dean is not the same as canon dean . instead he took the smarting abuse of his father one last time, citing to himself that the constant verbal and emotional abuse was enough to justify the bullet to the back of his head. he left him there. dressed it up real nice, like a present, even faked the scent of sulfur. ‘demons’ were real, so his dad said. dean figures his demons must be pretty real too, but now they’re dead, buried 6 ft under.

he gets off on dominance / power / and killing . he is not concerned with sammy staying alive unless it helps him in some way. after his father dies he gets a lot worse . sam (most times) turns into a conscious of sorts that he uses to guide his actions (wwsd? -what would sammy do) . he only does this if he needs to keep a low cover. when castiel comes along , dean finds him a pain in the ass but grows to enjoy him. over time he wants more and more to own the angel and to influence him to become more like him. deadly.

xi. ‹ anything but business‚ sheresists. ›

private verse with @sheresists .

[rabbit-in-blue]

Questions about Sherlolly

I got tagged by @mychakk, you’re right it’s quite a fun thing to do. Today it’s a mexican national holyday, and we have the day off, so I've had plenty of time to put in this, and really  really enjoyed

1. Coffee shop AU: Who is the barista, and who frequents the coffee shop?

I have never read a Coffee shop au, I stared one once, but but I finde it kinda borring, and had to stop. I’m willing to give it another try, if someone want to recomend some good ones. 

Now all that said, I agree with you that this would probably need come hand to hand with a Uni Au where Sherlock is the frequent and Molly the barista, that’s a no brainer. One can easily tell he comes from money, and in my very own headcanon she comes from working class family, so yah, that.. Also he probably sits on a booth with several pictures forme police repots and crime scenes and while everyone thinks he is wierd and gross she finde him fascinating, and he finds her curiosity for his work intriging and cautivaiting 

2. Highschool/College AU: Who is the straight-A student, and who’s the backrow slacker?

This one could be tricky, since we know both of them as workaholics, each one in their own way, but I only see Molly achieving things by working realy hard, while Sherlock is so smart he probably went through school sleeping or high...

3. Rivals to lovers AU: Who takes their rivalry seriously, and who is half in it just to push the other’s buttons?

I tend to see Sherlock as the kind of guy who is so overconfident that he can not take seriously a rivalry unless she proves  herself a threat to him and give him a good run for his money, Molly on the other hand is so friendly and gleeful that she woudn’t even realize they were competing against each other until someone mentioned... Probably Sherlock and she would think it’s sweet, then she probably tell him that they don’t need to be rivals, the both can be equally good at something (maybe chess) and as friends can be happy for the achivments of the other insted of geting all jelous and resentful

4. Enemies to lovers AU: Which one switches sides?

This just can happen in a dark Au, and dark Molly is one of my favorite kind of Molly. Well being part of Moriary network or she being the real Moriary, she would manipulate him for sex, and he would fall for it, then she would revel herself and make him feel stupid and expos... But as a good adict he would get hook on her until he can winn her to his side or have to stop her definetly

5. Soulmate AU: Who is eager to meet their soulmate? Who absolutely does not want to meet their soulmate?

Let me make a twist in here, what if they just go with the flow? nither is particulary eager, nither is particularly closed to the idea, even better what if we put all four seasons in this Soulmate Au, and they have know all along their each other soulmates, but none else know. Everything happens just like happens in the show, except the Sherrinford part, where the coffin can say Dearest Soulmate  instead of I love you, and that’s how we learn they have been soulmates this whole time, and then Euros can ask Sherlock if he is going to regret never  even tried to be with her.... ahhhhhh

6. Single parent AU: Which one is the single parent? (Alt. if they’re both single parents: Which one is open to starting a new relationship from the start? Which one is never planning on finding love again…Until they meet the other and are instantly smitten?)

The single parent It’s usually Molly and I think ther’s a razon for that. Sherlock having a baby with another wooman feels awkard. Sherlock raising John´s or Microft’s child implies, John or Mycrof been death, and are you ready to be the one who murders Doctor John Watson? No,  I don’t thik so...

7. Doctor AU: Which one is the longsuffering doctor? Which one is the patient?

Never have I ever hear of this Au before, but then again no brainer, Molly is a doctor. Sherlock can’t exactly become her patient ‘cause you know, her paitents are dead people... But she is a doctor, and have preety much the same medical training that John, and we all need to remember that Sherlock likes his doctors clean and shaved.

8. Bodyguard AU: Who is the bodyguard? Who are they protecting? Which one is secretly pining for the other?

The obvious answer to this is Sherlock being the bodyguard, and Molly the client, but wouldn't be fun if Molly were the bodyguard? what if  she is a ex MI5 o MI6 (I don’t know which one does what) and her job the whole time has been taking care of Mycroft little brother, and that’s how she is able to help him to fake his death, with no consequences...

She can also be a trained sniper, and when Sherlock discovers that, he secretly organizes a shooting tournament between Molly, Mary and John, the three of them being very close, but Mary being the winner by a short margin

9. Pirate AU: Who is the pirate? Who is the member of the royal family who did not sign up for this?

Why one of them have to be a royal? Couldn’t be both of them pirates? or maybe Sherlock is the pirate with the Letter of Marque for his brtother connections with the monarchy, while Molly is the regular kind of pirate, this one can come with his own Rivals to lovers AU...

10.  Childhood best friends AU: Which one was super obviously in love with the other the whole time? Who was oblivious until they were older?

They been switching places all along, they like each other buy they’re too shy, she wants to be with him, he wants to be tough He wants to be with her she is with someone. She wants to be with him, he is struggling with drug addiction and he can't handle anything else for the moment. He is ready to give a relationship a go, she is again with someone. They are finally single at the same time and he acts like he's not interested, she meets Moriarty, and so one and so one, and you get the picture... until they’re finaly at sync...

I want to tag @bountyflacko, @emil-gabriel-2000, @petratodd (if someone already tag you just ignore me :P) @thequietone0008, @dragonnan, @poleagles, @crowreys-wormstache   and @theleftpill

[thegothicviking]

I was tagged by @reeshs @ofmemesandbands to do a little "get to know me ask thingy". Thank you for that, you beauties! 🖤 Excuse my long answers but I think you'd be entertained anyway! (I hope?)

Nickname: Mary Cemetery, Mary, or simply Viking/The Viking.

Real name: That will remain a mystery/a secret but I can reveal that it begins with M. (But it's not Mary or Mari or anything similar) and I do have the word "Viking" in one of my last names (I have two surnames because my parents were not married and wanted me and my big sis to have both of their family names. So yes! A little part of my name is Viking-[something]from my mother's maiden name/original family name. Meaning YES I am indeed Viking!

Zodiac: Taurus/Tyren/El Toro

Favorite musicians or bands:

- The Bauhaus (or Peter Murphy as solo)

- The Sisters of Mercy

- Lords of The New Church (or Stiv Bators as solo)

- Feeling B & Magdalene Keibel Combo (Flake and Paul are my bois!)

- Rammstein (also nice bois!)

- David Bowie (Rest in peace my sweet boi!)

- Dissection (Rest in Chaos Jon, even though you were a homophobic lunatic/Asshole I still liked your music. Swedish Satanic Black Metal)

- A lot of deathmetal

- Skeletal Family (many 80's goth rock bands really)

-Nachtmahr

- Eisbrecher

- Stahlmann

-Deine Lakaien

- Scorpions

- Depeche Mode (anything from the 1980's really)

- Classical compositioners like Edvard Grieg/Beethoven/Bach and a little bit of Mozart or Vivaldi

- KSMB. Swedish punk rock/German punk rock or Swedish metal (yes...I am a Norwegian that prefers SWEDISH Black Metal. Shoot me if you must!)

- Rosetta Stone

- Pretencious Moi? (Their lyrics are like an unfinished story and you can fill the gaps!)

- KNORKATOR (absolute insane and silly bois, I love them!!)

- Rozz Williams (Rest in Peace my sweet beautiful boi!),

- INXS (Rest in Peace M. Hutchence my beautiful boi!)

- Die Ärzte

- Skitarg (like a Swedish ICP but of course a lot better and with funnier lyrics!)

- Danzig

Favorire Sports team: Team Bisexual! 💜

Other Blogs: Not yet. I still need to learn how to add other blogs and then I will do one specifically about my Liebeslied Rammstein fic series and the character's. And maybe also my poetry in there too. Or maybe not.

Do I get asks?: Sometimes. Mostly I get questions about being Norwegian/Scandinavian or someone make rude Anon comments about one of my posts and I have to defend myself and my opinions. But a part from that; No. Not that many.

How many blogs do I follow?: 132

Tumblr crushes: Yes.

Lucky Numbers: 13 (After I won a non-smoking contest in class and my name was number 13 on the class list) I have also always liked the numbers 8 and 0. I prefer even numbers.

What am I wearing?: Comfy plain black suit/tracksuit looking pants that are both stylish and comfy AND has pockets!!, and my black long sleeve Feeling B jumper, no socks and no bra and black hotpants (knickers. I hate wearing thongs/g strings!)

Dream Vacation: I long to go back to Prague, and I want to visit Egypt and the Pyramids, Berlin (because we only got to stay in the city for a couple of hours..ugh!) I also long back to Auschwitz....(yes. I do. I was there in 2007/2008. I am a WWII history nerd!)

Dream car: Either a very old school and dashing Ford Model T, a hearse or a big brutal Panzer Tank. There is no in between!

Favorite Food: Anything that doesn't contain too much garlic (Iiiish!), raisins, Olives, Pineapples (NO PINEAPPLES ON PIZZAAAAAA!), coconuts or too much spices/chili/Soy (I am allergic to Soy) And don't worry you can feed me Vegetarian/Vegan food too! I won't try to bring my own meat and I will trust your cooking skills as long as you don't feed me any of the ingredients above!!

Drink of choice: That depends on the situation/disaster/time of the day and mood. Is it a good day? Then Water, Corona (the beer not the virus!!) or Energy drinks. Is it morning? A good Landersino (weak capuccino but strong milk coffee) Is it Evening/night time? Then a nice cup of tea. Has it been a terrible day? Then Gin & Tonic, Vodka & Redbull, A really strong Long Island Ice Tea or Rum & Coke.

Instruments: The horrible cat shriek sounding Recorder Flute. That is the only instrument that I am rocking at the moment! (I will play the Titanic song for you if I truly love you!)

Languages: Norwegian Nynorsk, Norwegian Bokmål, my dialect, English, Swedish (Gothenburg dialect or Scaania/Malmö dialect), Spanish and I am also trying to learn German and Welsh (yes. Welsh. It is beautiful but impossible to learn!)

Celebrity Crushes: David Bowie (rest in peace sweet alienboi!) Stoya (female pornstar), Till Lindemann, Noomi Rapace (Swedish Actress), Michael Nyqvist (Swedish Actor. Rest in Peace my sweet boi!), young Kate Bush, Antonio Banderas, John Maclean (discovered this divine creature on Youtube recently!), Rozz Williams (Rest in Peace my sweet boi!), Peter Murphy, Emilie Autumn (but I don't listen to her that often anymore), Adora Batbrat (Gothic Youtuber but I am not that fan of her anymore), Razor Candi (Gothic Model but she has gotten some more surgeries now that I don't like), Salma Hayek, Shakira.

Random Fact(s):

A little gross but I have basically no nails on either of my pinky-toes. I was born that way and I am the 5th generation woman on my mother's side that doesn't have pinky toe nails! (I miss the upper part so trying to cut them is always a game of Russian Roulette...will I be able to cut it? Will I cut my skin, bleed and die?? I'll have to cut and see because the tiny little stump/piece of nail is still jabbing me if it gets "too long" :)! )

I was also born with a more inward bent spine/back and I was told by my Chiropracter (or how you spell it?) at the age of 10 that if I didn't do exercises/wore a corset..(at the age of 10!?!?) for my back then it would break/snap should I ever want to get pregnant (even though I always look pregnant when I relax and walk "normally".....*sigh*). So yeah I need to work up my core! (But I am too lazy to do so ...)

I know how to belly dance (not that many moves but I'm still learning from online classes)

I can write and read in the Elder Futhark runes without cheating!

I am a natural cold blooded bitch with a normal temperature of 36.4 °C, instead of the standard 37.5°C. (Once again this is from my mother's side)

I did amateur acting from the age of 6-19 and in 10 out of those 13 years/plays I had to be a boi/man because we were always in short of bois and I have a deep voice I guess.. (so yeah for 10 years of my childhood I was basically a boi/man!)

Despite enjoy dressing up in skirts and dresses and do my makeup I have a very butch/masculine personality (I was a tomboy as a kid) and both men and women are either terrified or confused by this (as they expect me to be just as feminine as my looks/makeup. Which is silly!)

I am sadistic (in my writing and in my thoughts) and one of the reasons why I write is to be able to TORTURE and/or KILL "people" without getting arrested :)

Ok so I am not gonna tag anyone in particular. If you would like to answer these questions then go right ahead and do so!

Uki. Takk! Det var/va alt! (Ok. Thanks! That was all!)

[miz-joelys-sherlollilists]

S3: The One Who Mattered Most Fics (Q-Z) - Updated 06/29/20

More S3 fics featuring our darling OTP. #-H can be found here, and I-P can be found here. Enjoy, and as always, let me now if I’m missing one of your faves!

Q

Questions & Conversation Hearts by Browneyesparker (Rated T, One-Shot) Valentines AO3 2014

R

Realizations & Reactions by afteriwake (Rated K, One-Shot) tumblr 2018

Remember When I Moved In You (The Minor Fall, The Major Lift series) by Keira_63 (Rated T, One-Shot) AO3 2020

Replacement by Dreamin (Rated T, One-Shot) AO3 2017

The Return by benedictedcumberbatched (Rated K, One-Shot) Locker!lock AO3 2014

Reunion by succi (Rated K+, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Class Reunion ff.net 2015 

Rhythm by AsteraceaeBlue (Rated M, One-Shot) Locker!lock, Barts is the New Sexy ff.net 2013

Role Reversal by texadian (Rated T, One-Shot) AO3 2016

RSVP by Dreamin (Rated T, One-Shot) Wedding Interruptus AO3 2017

S

The Sad and Lonely by CatherineCameo (Rated T, One-Shot) Wedding J/M  ff.net 2014

Saving the Beautiful Princess by xx-sherlocked-xx (Rated K, One-Shot) Kidnapped! ff.net 2014

Say Goodbye by SirKris (Rated T, One-Shot) Songfic AO3 2014

The Scent of Roses by geekmama (Rated K, One-Shot) AO3 2017

The Science of Memories by The Author1996 (Rated T, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Amnesia fic ff.net 2017

Seven Hours In Heaven by Elyf_Sinfonia (Rated T, Complete, Multi-Chapter) SBBC, Trapped Together AO3 2015

Shagging Shezza by Raelynn (One-Shot) Closet shagging, Barts is the new Sexy AO3 2016

She makes stars out of glass broken by dreams by viictoriasong (Rated K, One-Shot) Wedding J/M AO3 2015

Sheets by Sundance201 (Rated M, One-Shot) AO3 2014

Sherlock and Molly’s Comedy of Errors by Nightstar Phoenix (Rated K, One-Shot) Who!lock, Adapt/Crossover ff.net 2014

Sherlock’s Scarf by Starswirling (Rated M, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Secret relationship, Dom/Sublock ff.net 2015

Shezza's Brother (The Missus Chronicles) by heyitsgmats (Rated K+, One-Shot) ff.net 2014

Shopping for Molly by SirKris (Rated K, One-Shot) Jealous!lock AO3 2014

Should Have Stayed in the Bath by Dreamin (Rated M, One-Shot) PWP, Wank!lock AO3 2017

The Sign of the First by the_noble_bachelorette84 (Rated M, One-Shot) Wedding J/M, virgin!lock AO3 2014

Silence by hiyas (Rated K, One-Shot) AO3 2019

Simple Romance by SimplyShelbs16 (Rated T, Complete, Multi-Chapter) ff.net 2019

Six Sentence Tumblr Minific #2 by Sunken_Standard (Rated T, One-Shot) AO3 2017

Slow Burn by Ambur (Rated M, One-Shot) PWP, Jealous!lock ff.net 2014

S'More Real (S'mores the Merrier series) by BarPurple (Rated T, One-Shot) Jealous!lock AO3 2015

Something Blue by geekmama (Rated K, One-Shot) Wedding J/M AO3 2019

Stag night confessions by KendraPendragon (Rated T, One-Shot) AO3 2016

Stay by katiebuttercup (Rated M, One-Shot) AO3 2017

Stay With Me by dksanm (Rated T, Complete, Multi-Chapter) AO3 2014

Still Beating Loud and Clear by cutebutpsycho (One-Shot) PWP AO3 2014

T

Talking To Graves by afteriwake (Rated K, One-Shot) Post Reichenbach AU, Wedding J/M AO3 2016

Tell the Truth, Molly by Liathwen (Rated M, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Drunk!lock  ff.net 2014

Tested Faith by afteriwake (Rated K+, One-Shot) Songfic AO3 2018

That Christmas Morning by sherlollymous (Rated T, One-Shot) tumblr 2015

They always need each other by ElisaReven (Rated M, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Kidnapped!, Long!fic AO3 2014

Things I Can't Have by TheresaWritesStuff (Rated T, One-Shot) AO3 2017

Things You Were Afraid To Say by SimplyShelbs16 (Rated K, One-Shot) AO3 2017 

Thinking of You by SimplyShelbs16 (Rated T, Complete, Multi-Chapter) ff.net 2017

The Third Guest by Fireplum (Rated M, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Virginlock, Matchmaking AO3 2013

Third Time’s The Charm by likingthistoomuch (Rated T, One-Shot) Secret Relationship, Married Sherlolly AO3 2015 

This was not what he expected by writingwife83 (Rated K, One-Shot) tumblr 2018

Those Who Mattered by1MissMolly (Rated M, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Long!fic, Pregnancy fic, Parentlock AO3 2014

To Prove A Point by lilsherlockian1975 (Rated M, One-Shot) Jealous!lock ff.net 2014

Tourmaline by Fireplum (Rated K, One-Shot) Godparents, Valentines ff.net 2014

Transparent bymotiveandthemeans (Rated K+, One-Shot) AO3 2017

U

Unclose Me by HeayPuckett (Rated K+, One-Shot) Drunk!lock ff.net 2014

Unexpected Outbursts by Attack_of_a_bookworm (Rated T, One-Shot) AO3 2020

Unexpected Surprise by demi0123 (Rated T, One-Shot) Valentines AO3 2014

Unforgettable by daisherz364 (Rated T, One-Shot) AO3 2016

Unplanned, Unintended and (Possibly) Unwise by mizjoely (Rated T, One-Shot) New Year’s fic, Jealous!lock ff.net 2014

Unravel by terrified (Rated K+, One-Shot) Wedding (Other), Married Sherlolly ff.net 2014

Until by afteriwake (Rated K+, One-Shot) AO3 2018

Untitled (Molly has an abusive relationship) by mollymatterrs (Rated T, One-Shot) Christmas tumblr 2013

Untitled (Molly breaks up with Tom) by thisisartbylexie (Rated K+, One-Shot) tumblr 2014

Untitled (Sherlock muses on Molly) by thequeenoffanfiction (Rated T, One-Shot) Wallpaper Conspiracy tumblr 2014

Untitled (Sherlock finds out Tom broke up with Molly) by conchepcion (Rated K, One-Shot) tumblr 2015

Untitled (Mary’s birthday at a strip club) by starlight falls (Rated T, One-Shot)  tumblr 2015

Untitled (favorite Molly moment) by thiscaringlark (Rated K, One-Shot) SAW 2016 tumblr 2016

Untitled (Molly goes on John’s stag do) by ll-again (Rated T, One-Shot) S3 AU, Wedding J/M tumblr 2017

Untitled (Sherlock proposes) by doctor-molly-hooper-holmes (Rated K, One-Shot) tumblr 2017

Untitled (Sherlock interrupting Tom & Molly’s wedding) by sherlollyandspoilers (Rated K, One-Shot) Wedding Interruptus tumblr 2018

Untitled (Molly finds out about Janine) by LikingThisTooMuch (Rated T, One-Shot) tumblr 2018

Untitled (Molly visits Sherlock in hospital during HLV) by writingwife83 (Rated T, One-Shot) tumblr 2018

Untitled (Molly kisses Sherlock in hospital) by kendrapendragon (Rated K+, One-Shot) HABD Sherlock tumblr 2018

Untitled (Pregnant Molly hiding w/Sherlock’s parents) by welcometothelosingside (Rated K, One-Shot) Pregnancy fic, Secret Relationship tumblr 2018

Untitled (Sherlock declining an invitation to Molly's engagement dinner) by writingwife83 (Rated K, One-Shot) S3: The One Who Mattered Most tumblr 2019

Untitled (don't touch me prompt) by writingwife83 (Rated K, One-Shot) tumblr 2019 

Untitled (Molly helping Sherlock fold napkins) by theunsinkablemollyholmes (Rated K, One-Shot) tumblr 2019

Utter Something That Matters by Ukthxbye (Rated K+, One-Shot) AO3 2018

V

The Valentine Conundrum by cactusnell (Rated T, One-Shot) AO3 2016

Visitor by Sherlockian87 (Rated T, One-Shot) ff.net 2015

Viva Stepney! (Be-Bop-A-Sherlock series) by hobbitsdoitbetter (Rated T, One-Shot) AO3 2014

The Vow by Abisian (Rated K, One-Shot) Wedlock AO3 2014

W

Wait a minute… by conchepcion (Rated K, One-Shot) Jealous!lock tumblr 2016

Wallpaper by doctor wtf (Rated T, One-Shot) The Wallpaper Conspiracy  tumblr 2014

Wanting What He Couldn’t Have by darnedchild (Rated T, One-Shot) Wedding J/M AO3 2017

We Chose Them (He Finally Understands series) by Writingwife83 (Rated K+, One-Shot) Outside Looking In AO3 2019

We Need To Talk by cactusnell (Rated T, One-Shot) Sherlolly American Style, Molly Leaves fic ff.net 2014

Wear It Like A Badge by mychakk (Rated K, One-Shot) Soulmates AO3 2017

The Wedding Crasher by MG12CSI16 (Rated K+, One-Shot) Wedding J/M ff.net 2014 

The Werewolf Needs a Detective (Teen Wolf AU) by The_Consulting_Werewolf (Rated K+, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Shiftlock, Adapt/Crossover, Long fic AO3 2014

What I Want (For Christmas) by simplyshelbs16 (Rated T, Complete, Two-Parter) Christmas, Matchmaking ff.net 2019

What Mummy Found by mistykins06 (Rated K+, One-Shot) Christmas  tumblr 2015

When You Were Drunk by SerendipityDreamer (Rated K+, One-Shot) Drunklock AO3 2015

Who Could Love a Beast? by DanaeP24 (Rated K+, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Beauty & The Beast AU ff.net 2014

Why Me? by amessoffandoms (Rated K, One-Shot) AO3 2019 

Winter by allthebellsinvenice (Rated M, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Dom!lock AO3 2014

Winter’s Tales by allthebellsinvenice (Rated M, Series) Dom!lock AO3 2015

Winter's Tales: A Case Study by allthebellsinvenice (Rated M, One-Shot) Dom!lock AO3 2014 

Winter’s Tales: The Laboratory by allthebellsinvenice (Rated M, One-Shot) Dom!lock AO3 2015

Winter's Tales: The Masquerade by allthebellsinvenice (Rated M, One-Shot) Dom!lock AO3 2015

with a tear, the truth comes by broomclosetkink (Rated M, One-Shot) Alt S3, Wedding J/M AO3 2014

With All My Heart (Isn’t She Beautiful? series) by katemiller (Rated T, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Prop/Eng, Parentlock AO3 2018

The Worst That Could Happen by terrified (Rated T, One-Shot) tumblr 2014

Would You Rather… by theSaphireSky (Rated T, Complete, Multi-Chapter) Jealous!lock AO3 2014

The Wrong Idea Could So Easily Be the Right One by darthsydious (Rated T, One-Shot) Amnesia fic ff.net 2016

Y

You are my Mama! (The Missus Chronicles) by heyitsgmats (Rated T, One-Shot) Outside Looking In ff.net 2014

You Are The Only One by thefaultoflegend (Rated K+, One-Shot) Songfic  ff.net 2014

You Can Never Have Too Many Second Chances by mizjoely (Rated K+, One-Shot) Jealous!lock AO3 2014

You Can See Me by hbj01 (Rated K, One-Shot) Wedding J/M, Shall We Dance? AO3 2018

You drank a gallon of milk over night (Tom-verse) by sunken_standard (Rated K, One-Shot) Unplanned Pregnancy fic AO3 2017

You Know I’ll Do Anything I Can To Help You (Last Girlfriend series) by sunken_standard (Rated M, One-Shot) PWP, Virginlock AO3 2017

You're Texting Him Again, Aren't You? (Last Girlfriend series) by Sunken_Standard (Rated M, One-Shot) AO3 2017

Z

Z is for Zero by Ethanamide (Rated T, One-Shot) tumblr 2018

[chrismalcolmhnd1d]

Decade

Project: Decade. #Decade

In the mid-1820s, Nicéphore Niépce first managed to fix an image that was captured with a camera, but at least eight hours or even several days of exposure in the camera were required and the earliest results were very crude. 

The First Cameras

“The basic concept of photography has been around since about the 5th century B.C.E. It wasn't until an Iraqi scientist developed something called the camera obscura in the 11th century that the art was born.

Even then, the camera did not actually record images, it simply projected them onto another surface. The images were also upside down, though they could be traced to create accurate drawings of real objects such as buildings.

The first camera obscura used a pinhole in a tent to project an image from outside the tent into the darkened area. It was not until the 17th century that the camera obscura became small enough to be portable. Basic lenses to focus the light were also introduced around this time.

The First Permanent Images

Photography, as we know it today, began in the late 1830s in France. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This is the first recorded image that did not fade quickly.

Niépce's success led to a number of other experiments and photography progressed very rapidly. Daguerreotypes, emulsion plates, and wet plates were developed almost simultaneously in the mid- to late-1800s.”

Source: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/brief-history-of-photography-2688527

Retouched version of the earliest surviving camera photograph, 1826 or 1827, known as View from the Window at Le Gras

Photography has long been influenced by painting and art.

“The relationship between painting and photography has extended the possibilities of image creation. When photography appeared on the scene, it was supposed to herald the democratization of portraiture (among other genres, like landscapes and still-lifes). Photography gave painting the freedom it needed to burst into the rich fountain of expression it is today. There are many classic and modern painters whom, thanks to their skills with lighting and conceptualization, can serve as valuable guides for today's photographers.”

Johannes Vermeer (1632 – 1675)

Source:https://www.lightstalking.com/8-painters-real-effect-todays-photography-photographers-influenced/

My Decade to research – the 1980’s

Timeline of 1980’s Events

Overview:

“The decade was great socioeconomic change due to advances in technology and a worldwide move away from planned economies and towards laissez-faire capitalism.

As economic deconstruction increased in the developed world, multiple multinational corporations associated with the manufacturing industry relocated into Thailand, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. Japan and West Germany saw large economic growth during this decade. The AIDS epidemic became recognized in the 1980s and has since killed an estimated 39 million people (as of 2013).[1] Global warming became well known to the scientific and political community in the 1980s.

The United Kingdom and the United States moved closer to supply-side economic policies beginning a trend towards global instability of international trade that would pick up more steam in the following decade as the fall of the USSR made right wing economic policy more powerful.

The final decade of the Cold War opened with the US-Soviet confrontation continuing largely without any interruption. Superpower tensions escalated rapidly as President Reagan scrapped the policy of détente and adopted a new, much more aggressive stance on the Soviet Union. The world came perilously close to nuclear war for the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis 20 years earlier, but the second half of the decade saw a dramatic easing of superpower tensions and ultimately the total collapse of Soviet communism.

Developing countries across the world faced economic and social difficulties as they suffered from multiple debt crises in the 1980s, requiring many of these countries to apply for financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Ethiopia witnessed widespread famine in the mid-1980s during the corrupt rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam, resulting in the country having to depend on foreign aid to provide food to its population and worldwide efforts to address and raise money to help Ethiopians, such as the Live Aid concert in 1985.”

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s

Timeline of major events: (from a very American perspective)

Photography and photographers in the 1980’s

Equipment:

The 80s were a peak time in photography. 35mm cameras were just starting to shift from predominantly mechanical devices into slightly more advanced machines. Having micro-electronic systems at the heart of a camera became the new normal and that made photography easier; new features progressed from more accurate shutter control to program full auto-exposure, to multi-segment light metering systems, to automatic reading of ASA/ISO codes, to integrated motors for advancing and rewinding, and finally AutoFocus (although AF didn’t truly come into its own until the next decade). The dominant manufacturers at the time are sometimes referred to as the ‘Big Five’: Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, and Pentax. These brands produced the majority of 80s cameras and are now classic models.

CANON AE-1 PROGRAM

MINOLTA X-700

NIKON FA

Olympus OMG

Pentax P3

Source: https://www.keh.com/blog/thats-so-80s-cameras-from-the-1980s/

Photographers:

An American perspective of 80′s photography...

“In the ’80s, new wave and hip hop exploded, graffitied subway cars and gritty nightclubs colored New York City, and John Hughes’s tales of teenage angst like Sixteen Candles (1984) and The Breakfast Club (1985) seized the big screen. Meanwhile, an energized, punk-infused youth culture developed within the context of the ongoing sexual liberation that began in the ’60s, the AIDS epidemic, and the conservative leadership of President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Below are eight photographers who captured the decade’s young people in all their vibrant individuality.”

Source: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-photographers-captured-rebellious-youth-80s

Richard Corman

Madonna, Polaroid 4, Milk Gallery

A very British perspective on 80′s street photography...

Rob Bremner, Liverpool

The 1980’s are widely regarded as Liverpool’s lowest ebb. A time when work in the city was scarce, alienation from the rest of the country was peaking, and newfangled drugs were tightening their grip on the city’s housing estates.

During this period Rob Bremner, 54 – then a shaggy-haired student from Wick, Scotland – was photographing the region’s inner-city wards, as they came to terms with a Conservative government whose policies appeared to deliberately degrade them.

Source: https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/back-in-the-day-photos-of-liverpool-in-the-80s/

The other end of the spectrum - high glamour fashion photography...

Stephanie,Cindy,Christy,Tatjana & Naomi photographed by Herb Ritts (1989)

“While some of the most creative fashion photography of the 1980s continued to be produced by 'old-timers' like Richard Avedon - see, for instance, his narrative advertising campaign "The Diors,"or his nude shot of Nastassja Kinski entwined with a snake - younger photographers also emerged into the limelight, including: Herb Ritts (1952-2002), best-known for his iconic shot of "Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi, Hollywood, 1989" which appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine; Bruce Weber (b.1946) who presented a new outlook on masculinity through his photo-shoots for Armani and Calvin Klein, as did Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-89) with his homoerotic shots; and Gian Paolo Barbieri (b.1938), noted for his work for fashion designers Armani, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Pomellato, and Giuseppe Zanotti. At the same time, women's independence was emphasized in various settings, by photographers like Denis Piel (b.1944) and Bert Stern (1929-2013).

Controversy, always a handy tool with which to boost flagging commercial fortunes, reared its head as a result of Benetton's fashion campaign, shot by Oliviero Toscani (b.1942). Images included one of a patient dying of AIDS in front of grieving relatives, while others incorporated references to racism, war, religion and the death penalty.

The leading supermodels of 1980s fashion photography included: Gia Marie Carangi, Ines de la Fressange, Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Paulina Porizkova, Brooke Shields, Heather Locklear, Carol Alt, and Elle Macpherson, among others. It was during this decade that supermodels stopped being seen as individuals and started to be regarded as images, just like movie stars. Witness the celebrity party shots taken by fashion photographer Roxanne Lowit (b.1965) of supermodels like Elle Macpherson, Naomi Campbell and others.”

Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/photography/fashion.htm#eighties

Grace Jones, Jean-Paul Goude, New York (1981)

“I wanted to focus on Grace’s masculinity – to use what other people thought an embarrassment, and turn it around to her advantage. I wanted to create – with her, of course – a new character. It went beyond just a haircut, it was an attitude. It was new and strong and ambiguous. You didn’t know if it was a man trying to be a girl or a girl trying to be a man. It was a revolution. I remember the A&R guys at Island saying, “Are you fucking crazy? This is never going to work.” And of course it did.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/aug/01/jean-paul-goude-best-photograph-grace-jones-nightclubbing