#and of course this is all complicated by when Butler starts to develop a more personal relationship with someone -- such as how at the end

[orangerosebush]

I love when Holly confronts Artemis about the (lack of) value he places on the lives and agency of others, as Butler will be simultaneously chilling offscreen somewhere, having definitely killed before in his career.

[kywaslost]

What’s up. I too have gotten hooked on Black Butler. After 3 years of not being in the fandom anymore. I have a fanfic idea for you.It’s a Ciel x reader so it’s going to be more on the angst side but still fluffy and funny if you look at it from an angle. It’s Ciel. C’mon.

So basically the reader is very similar to him. Being that she also has intense trauma and is extremely stoic and cold. On the other hand she’s also considered eerie and ominous looking. Soon Ciel after a while starts having feeling for the reader, he sees her as someone who understands him completely and fully. Ciel starts showing that he’s interested in being in a more intimate relationship with the reader other then just being partners. The reader of course rejects all these moves even though she also likes him, not only because he’s engaged but because she knows he’s a manipulator. After a long time of driving Sebastian insane with the pinning and rejecting, Lizzy finds out about Ciel’s feelings for the reader and confronts both of them. She’s lightly bitterly and is crying at first but she does want Ciel to be happy and is good friends with the reader (and she’s an Angel) so she doesn’t hold him back. Now the reader and Ciel are in a situation where they can show there feeling for each other freely but have no idea where to start.

Just so that you have a small reference to what I mean by a stoic and eerie looking reader I have a drawing of my Black Butler OC that you can take notes from (you don’t have to just here if you want lmfao)

Thank you, hopefully it’s not too long or complicated. You don’t have to write this if you don’t feel comfortable enough just tell me if you’re not going to write it or not. Have a good day!

Troubled Love - Ciel Phantomhive

A/N: I’m so sorry this took so long! This is a long one that I wanted to take time on and work on when I felt like I could write this to the best of my ability. First of all, your drawing is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!! I’m literally in love with it! I hope this turned out ok! I also completely skipped over the part where the reader is an angel and didn’t see it until I finished this, so I hope it’s ok that I left that bit out. Let me know if you’d like me to rewrite this properly <3

Warning/s: mentions of night terrors, mentions of panic attacks (no descriptions)

You had met the Earl Phantomhive around the time his parents had passed. You had met the Phantomhive through the grapevine of the Queen’s ‘guard dogs’, and didn’t really get to know the young boy until he returned, demon butler by his side. It was then the two of you were paired for missions. The Queen saw similarities between the two of you, and thought it would be well for you to become friends with the Earl.

You see, due to your past, you weren’t the most sociable person out there. You preferred to keep to yourself, and refrained from interacting with others as much as you could. It played in your favor that most feared you, both due to your reputation with the queen as well as the way you presented yourself. It was almost as if no one could touch you.

Until you officially met Ciel. The two of you worked well together. What you lacked in skill and intelligence, he made up for, and vice versa. It also helped that Sebastian was there. In fact, the demon butler and his master took a liking to you, even going as far as inviting you to stay at the Estate when they learned that you didn’t have an official residence. You agreed hesitantly. While you were comfortable around the two, you couldn’t bear the thought of being vulnerable around them. You were traumatized at a young age, leaving you plagued with nightmares and flashbacks from time to time. Opening yourself up to Ciel was a huge step for you, one you were unsure how to handle.

Ciel, on the other hand, was ecstatic. He’d never admit it, partially due to his personality and partially due to his engagement to Lizzy, but the Earl had begun developing feelings for you. It was more than a petty middle school crush that other boys his age experienced. He had been feeling this way for quite some time now, and couldn’t quite name his emotions until he spoke of it with Sebastian. It was worth the endless teasing that lasted weeks, but Ciel had now finally realized how much he truly loved you. And now you’re going to be living with him.

Ciel was unsure of how to show his love for you without a) making it obvious, and b) letting Lizzy know. Don’t get him wrong, Ciel truly did like Lizzy and he didn’t want to do anything to hurt her, but he loved you more than her. The boy opted to spend time with you doing small things, such as reading together or just simply sitting in the same room as you as the two of you worked separately. You were hesitant of all this at first, because you were used to being alone so often, but over time you became more comfortable.

This time spent between the two of you went from silence to small chatter. Ciel would ask how your day has been, and you’d answer then return the question. It took months of living together and getting accustomed to each other’s emotions to begin discussing deeper topics. You were both severely traumatized children who never learned how to cope with said trauma. Sure, Ciel had Sebastian, but he was a demon and therefore was incapable of feeling human emotions. So he tried talking to you.

Ciel wouldn’t ever say much about the death of his family or the events that came afterwards, but he wanted to be vulnerable around you. The boy hoped that this would bring the two of you even closer, and then he’d be comfortable enough to confess his love for you. Except every time he tried to have a deep conversation, you would turn him down almost immediately. There was one week in particular when you were having vivid night terrors, causing you to get only a few hours of sleep a night. You would wake up screaming until you couldn’t anymore, and often suffered intense panic attacks afterwards. Usually Sebastian would try and help but you would only push him away, barely muttering about how you were alright and didn’t need any help.

These night terrors always woke Ciel, and after the third night he came bursting into your room in the place of Sebastian. He desperately tried to calm you down, to try and talk to you, but you refused his help. It broke his heart to see you this way, and to know that you were unwilling to accept his help hurt him even more. How could the two of you be together if you wouldn’t let him help you?

The next day during breakfast, Ciel offered to let you speak to him anytime about anything you needed. Whether it be to get something off of your chest, or just to rant about anything, he would be there for you. You weren’t sure how you felt about his offer, so you only nodded and took a bite of your food.

The Earl Phantomhive invited you on an afternoon walk after dinner. At first you hesitantly agreed, only because Sebastian would be following closely. Yet once you saw the extravagant clothing the boy was wearing, you quickly retreated back to your room and feigned illness. It took some convincing, but Ciel finally left you to ‘recover’. In reality, you curled up on the floor, leaning against the door as you silently cried to yourself. 

You were so torn between your emotions. It was blatantly obvious that Ciel saw you as more than just a friend, and he wanted to take your relationship to the next level. You wondered if your own emotions were just as easy to see. You wouldn’t admit it just yet, but you were beginning to fall for Ciel yourself. Although you hadn’t opened up much to the boy, it was easy to feel comfortable and see him. The two of you shared similar pasts, and you hadn’t met anyone else that made you feel as safe and comfortable as the Earl did. 

Despite your feelings for the boy, there was one major red flag following closely behind him. Ciel was a master manipulator. It was clear as day that Ciel knew just how to act to get what he wanted, knew what to say to get his way. You weren’t even sure if he had manipulated you at some point, he was that good. Oh, and he’s also engaged.

You wanted to take Ciel up on all of his romantic gestures. You wanted to go on late night walks with him, go to balls (even though neither of you particularly enjoyed them), or even just spend the evening together almost every night of the week. Yet you couldn’t bring yourself to give in to the urge.

This carried on for months. Ciel would ‘discreetly’ ask you out on small dates, and you would turn him down and most commonly retreat to your room. Once you left, Ciel’s small smile would fall and he would immediately turn to Sebastian with downcast eyes.

Sebastian was the only one Ciel could confess to at this point. He couldn’t go to Izzy, obviously, and he couldn’t go to you, so he was left with his demon butler. It was a part of their bedtime routine now. Sebastian would dress Ciel for bed, asking him about his day and his plans for the next. Ciel would grumble about paperwork before quickly changing the subject to his failed attempts of asking you out. He’d seek advice from the demon before turning in for the night. 

It wasn’t until six months after Ciel’s first attempt to ask you out that Lizzy was caught in the crossfire. It wasn’t intentional, and Ciel would have never said anything if he were aware of her presence. 

Lizzy had planned another surprise visit and stay at the Phantomhive Manor. She had arrived later than expected due to an extreme thunderstorm causing a delay in travel. Upon arriving at the manor, she let herself in and immediately ran to where she assumed Ciel would be in his study as her maid carried in her baggage. Lizzy quickly but silently ran to Ciel’s study, throwing open the door.

“Ciel!” she squealed in the highest pitch her voice could achieve. “Supri– oh.” Lizzy frowned slightly when she noticed the empty room. It looked as though Ciel hadn’t been there in a while. Shaking her head, the girl grinned widely yet again when she could hear faint voices coming from down the hall. Upon further expectation, she realized the voices were coming from the library. 

Elizabeth wasted no time in bursting into the room rather loudly, causing you and Ciel to quite literally jump out of your seats with fear. Ciel’s hand even ghosted over the firearm he had tucked into his boot. 

“Ciel!” Lizzy squeals again. She runs over to the two of you, about to tackle the poor boy in a hug before realizing what was going on between the two of you. 

You had to admit, this wasn’t the ideal position to see your fiance and your best friend in. It wasn't anything too terrible, but it could definitely raise some questions. You were practically laying in Ciel’s lap, your legs draped over his as your head rested against his shoulder. A book rested against your legs where Ciel was reading to you a mere moment ago. You both were dressed in your night clothes, and overall this was a very rare sight of Ciel. 

Lizzy’s smile immediately dropped to a deep frown, her bright green eyes welling with tears. “Y/N? Ciel? What’s going on?”

You jumped out of Ciel’s lap and to the other side of the couch. Your heart was beating out of your chest, fear coursing through your veins. This is exactly why you never wanted to act on your feelings for Ciel, for fear of ruining not only his relationship with Lizzy, but also your own. “Lizzy,” Ciel says quickly, standing and tossing the forgotten book onto the couch. He tried to reach out to the girl but she only took a step back and wiped at her eyes.

“I should have seen it coming,” she chokes through a broken cry. “I knew this day would come.” It takes a moment for Lizzy to calm herself down, but she wipes the last of her tears away as Ciel tries to comfort her.

“It’s ok,” she cuts him off from his senseless babbling, pushing his outstretched arms away. “I’ve known for a long time that this day would come.” Glossy green eyes met your e/c ones as she smiled softly. “I can see how much the two of you love each other,” she confesses. “And as much as I love the two of you, I can’t bear knowing I am what is keeping you from being together.” Lizzy’s gaze shifted to her fiance. “I love you Ciel. So much that I want you to be happy.” Her warm hands slowly reached for his own, giving them a gentle squeeze. “So I’m ending our engagement.” Pressing one last kiss against Ciel’s cheek, Lizzy let go. 

“I can only hope the best for the two of you.” Just like that, she was gone.

You and Ciel couldn’t bear to look at each other, let alone speak. You weren’t sure how to feel. You finally had the freedom to be with the man you were learning to love, yet at what cost? Did you just lose your best friend? What do you know? Ciel was asking himself the same questions. But it didn’t take long for him to drop beside you back on the couch, slowly turning to you. 

“What do we do now?” you asked, voice barely above a whisper. 

“I don’t know,” Ciel confessed. “To be honest, I think I need some time to process this.”

You nodded, then stood quickly. “Of course, I understand.” You retreated back to your bedroom as soon as possible, diving under the covers and staring at the ceiling. You were finally free to express your love for Ciel, yet unsure what the next steps were. It was going to take time to figure out your relationship status with the Earl, and what to do next, but it will be worth the wait.

[libellule-saphique]

Miraculous Season 5: Luka & Kagami's Wasted Potential

If this show wasn't already bad enough.........

Like everything else, it disappoints me that the writers of this show are lazy when it comes to additional character development essentially in the love rivals

but who am I kidding? I knew what to expect when Thomas quite literally said Gabriel was redeemable after torturing all of Paris for years simply because he wants his wife back actively neglecting & abusing his son in the process while in the same breath saying Chloe is beyond redemption and she's a teenage girl who's dad couldn't give a rat's ass about her and spoils her crazy to get her off his back 24/7 and her mom who wants nothing to do with her verbally & mentally abuses her with the only real people who like her to the slightest and tolerate her are Sabrina and Armand who's practically her butler. The double comparison and double standard is wild but nonetheless not surprising seeing how the show's narrative is already bias when it comes down to Adrien & Marinette's character treatment. (the misogyny and racism is loud as hell)

Season 4 of Miraculous was already beginning to go downhill and season 5 simply added icing on the cake. To be honest I was partly excited to see the relationship dynamic within the love rival relationships, Lukanette & Adrigami at the start of season 4 because it was different from the repetitive love square and we got to see our two main leads interact with other characters in a romantic light other than themselves only to end before they could really start. It was a slap in the face and a huge cut from some possible major character development and love square progress. But the writers are so afraid of change and cant manage to make a good progressive storyline and felt that Luka & Kagami were too much of a threat to their Love Square that could've heavily improved because of them in the first place. Some episodes could've been focused on friendships between the love rivals and Marinette & Adrien. But ofc we get the same monotonous plotline mid season 3 to the beginning of season 4 Adrien & Kagami spend more time together, Marinette is conflicted and overwhelmed with feelings, Luka is there for emotional support (which felt like his sole purpose in earlier episodes even until now) Kagami is constantly frustrated by Adrien's indecisiveness, passiveness, and hesitance, etc, etc whatever and it continues all until they break up.

Then out of the wood works, we get Adrien realizing he has feelings for Marinette despite her being quote on quote "just a friend" 3-4 seasons straight. Despite. Marinette putting a hold on relationships ever since Lukanette's breakup and the fact that Monarch is still on the prowl and her responsibilities as a hero, because lets be honest if Ladybug/Marinette doesn't tend to Paris & Monarch no one else will, (Chat Noir definitely won't) the writers still say "hey lets tend to and coddle Adrien's feelings bc now he likes her more than "just a friend" and it doesn't matter how Marinette feels, doesn't matter if she's not ready for a relationship even though she's made that clear on multiple occasions after her and Luka's breakup bc at the end of day what we learn is what we already know "Adrien's feelings are more important than Marinette's overall treatment as the female protagonist and discomfort."

And what do you ask happens to the love rivals? Of course! the writers have to find a way to string them away from the complicated love square

Instead we get Luka shipped off with his dad on a world tour and Kagami paired with Felix (which........also doesn't feel right and for what reason did this have to happen?) Felix is the same guy who quite literally SH Ladybug, but ok? the writers feel like it makes sense to pair Kagami with this guy? She seems to like him for the same reasons her and Adrien's relationship took so long to work out in the first place. I don't even know what she saw in him, he's so bland, so passive, and everyone characterizes him as a "perfect cinnamon catboy who's abused and needs emotional support leaning on our main female lead who's not responsible for his baggage at all but hey! Everything is Marinette's responsibility after all right? They decide to give Felix more purpose in the show as Felix's a more assertive, serious, proactive version of Adrien and that's exactly what Kagami's looking for but I honestly think that it's a cop out for the possible unresolved feelings she had/has for Adrien (though he doesn't deserve her anyway) . It's like the show's message when it comes to romance and love is the only way to be genuinely happy is in a relationship which is so beyond fucked up, and its a overall bad message to kids and teens, no one in the show learns to love themselves and learn themselves first, Kagami would be simply fine without any relationship I can say the same for many other characters especially Marinette & Adrien. Why are romantic relationships needed to began with?

Season 5 is a prime example of the garbage dump Miraculous has become over the years and the poor writing decisions the writers have made.

[obeyme-lost-thought]

Barbatos × Mc: Surprise

Barbatos is a demon who is difficult to surprise, but isn't MC someone who make the impossible possible ?

________________________________

Barbatos is one of the hardest demons to surprise. Only in the last period, since Lord Dia hired him as his butler, has he stopped looking to the future to be prepared for any eventuality. But he has developed the ability to analyze every situation, thus being able to predict the others.

There is only one person that he can hardly decipher: Mc. He'd had a feeling for a long time that there was something between them, but he was never sure. After all, they live with the "7 rulers of hell", each attractive in their own way. Why on earth should they choose him? Yet that new sorceress had done it, had chosen him.

This is how for the past 2 years, they have become one of the couples on which there is the most gossip in all the devildom. But they never found them meeting in any restaurant or bar. Didn't they go on dates? Of course not. There is a small building attached to the castle with a well-kept garden. It was originally meant to be a home for Barbatos when he wanted to take his holidays, which he never did. Now is the place where the two lovers meet when they want to have some time for themselves.

Strictly every Friday evening, they meet to have dinner together. In the period in which Mc is in the human world, he always returns to the Devildom only for this evening, to return to his house the next morning. If Barbatos fails to bring them to their home, it is the Diavolo himself who proposes himself as an escort, appfoffering of the situation to talk to a friend.

On these evenings, it is usually Barbatos who cooks dinner. But today Mc insisted on doing it. That's why the demon is rethinking their history while waiting for food.

Mc: "Barbatos, It's ready in 5 minutes."

Barbados: "Great! What do you want to talk about in the meantime?"

Mc: " Why do you think there's something I want to talk about?"

Barbatos: "Because you've been watching all time what I'm doing while cooking "

Mc: "You're right."

"I wanted to ask how you see yourself in the future"

Barbatos: "Mc are you really asking me this question?"

Mc: "I express myself better. I know it's been a while you stopped looking into the future and started living appreciating the passing of time. That's why I wanted to ask you what do you think you want to do in 2, 5 or 10 years. And don't answer me 'serve Diavolo' "

The demon was surprised by the question. It's true, in his life he had never really thought about what he wanted to do in 1 year, because time didn't hold much value for him. Only since he's been with them has he realized that not everything is eternal and things end or begin later. For this reason, he thought carefully about what to say before answering, finding only 1 valid answer for the question.

Barbatos: "I believe that 'I see myself' with you. To continue these evenings of ours together and attend the balls and parties at the palace."

Mc: "I'm happy to know that we think in the same way and..."

"Oh- It's late, dinner will have burnt"

Barbatos: "Stay here, I'll go fix your mess"

Mc: "Hahaha. Thank you"

As he walked towards the kitchen of that small house, he felt something was wrong. There was no burning smell; indeed, perhaps the opposite. A smell of roses is throughout the kitchen and as soon as he enters he sees everything in order and his favorite dish on the table. He has completely no idea what's going on, and the situation becomes even more complicated when a light comes from the garden where they wanted to have dinner. All with the food that has disappeared from the table.

He runs out, only to fall at the foot of the most beautiful vision of his life. The table is perfectly set; the small path which leads up to the magician is strewn with petals, precisely of the favorite flower of Barbatos. That person who until recently was in a tank top and shorts is now in the dress that the demon had given them on their last birthday. He hadn't even realized that he, too, was now elegantly dressed.

Mc: "I'm sorry to have changed your clothes, but for this occasion it was better that we both were dressed well"

"I'm not good with words, so please shut up and let me speak. I don't know how much any of this means to demons, especially you. Already humans don't value it as much anymore, so I wouldn't be surprised that you do, too."

"But I don't think there can be any other way to perfectly express my love for you. I'm only human and I often do silly things that you and others need to fix. Yet I assure you that I thought a lot before doing it"

With every step they took towards him, Barbatos became more and more out of breath. He nearly died when they knelt before him. Still on the ground, they were now face to face.

Mc: "Barbatos, do you want to marry me?"

That ring that was between them shimmered so much in the moonlight, it almost made it blind. No words could come out of his mouth. All that elegance he had every day with Lord Dia, seemed to belong to someone else. He moved automatically, without thinking. A kiss was the only answer he managed to give at first.

Barbatos: "Oh, Mc. How do you surprise me like this every time"

Mc: "Because I know you, at least a little"

Barbatos: "But are you sure? I am someone who has one of the worst pasts of all the demons of the Devildom. I already don't know how you fell in love with me."

Mc: "Barb, I didn't ask you to spend your life with me because I want to change who you are, but because I accept you like this and I also accept your past, even if I don't know it altogether. I'm not an angel, I'm human and I want what I want, even if someone doesn't agree"

"My morals have become very bad since I started preferring hell to earth"

After this, perhaps only the petals know the number of 'yes' he managed to say.

Now, no one would dare take the love of his life away from him. And he would never let Mc change their mind, which maybe, never will be needed.

No one knows how Mc manages to hide their intentions from Barbatos, but perhaps for this reason they are his ideal companion.

________________________________

Mc power girl/boy. They don't need a ring, they are the ring.

First no-angst, I don't know how.

[dailysmalljobs]

Will learning to code help you get a job? , parenting careers

New Post has been published on https://dailysmalljobs.com/will-learning-to-code-help-you-get-a-job-parenting-careers/

Will learning to code help you get a job? , parenting careers

If you accidentally hit Ctrl+u on the keyboard and a box of random characters appears on the screen, you’ll know what the code looks like.

While these strings of letters, numbers, and templates seem terribly illogical, I’ve always been fascinated by how these symbols fit together to create a webpage. For those unfamiliar with coding – the front-end is what the user will see, as it usually refers to everything the user encounters.

Centers for teaching these 21st century skills are popping up all over the country and recently I found myself fulfilling my curiosity in a day. Front-End Coding Workshop Islington, London.

While one might expect coding clubs to be filled with fashionable computer whizs, silently tapping away at their computers, instead I found myself in a cozy studio with stylish 70s floor lamps and a striking red “S” on the exposed brick wall, lit with vintage . the bulb

There was also a surprising mix of ages and genders – our class was a mix of careers from small business owners to digital designers and artists. Everyone had a different reason for wanting to code. “I’ve always paid someone to design my website and I could learn to do it myself for less, so I thought why not? I’ll give it a try,” said Chris Cray, a freelance animator.

Steer trainers Sam, left and Tim, right. Photo: Steer

Similarly Tom Butler, a website producer on the course, said: “I wanted to be involved in the design of our site. Seems like an easy way to start learning front-end development.”

The computer languages ​​HTML, CSS and Java sound complicated, but it was surprisingly easy to learn. HTML is your site’s furniture, while CSS is the decoration that changes font color and spacing – making everything look stylish. It was oddly rewarding to type a command, refresh the webpage, and see your changes pop up. If you have an artistic streak, you can also have fun experimenting with new colors, images and designs.

It’s creative and amazingly fun, but what’s the point of learning to code? Will it really benefit your career? The short answer is yes: the software is currently in development Fastest growing industry in the UK and have International shortage of coders In the job market.

In fact, understanding software can be an essential skill for some startups. “Learning to code was incredibly rewarding – I wouldn’t have started my company without it. From day two I was able to jump into the code and change our site,” said Silas Walton, Founder. watch exchange and former coding student.

Another career benefit is learning to work with developers. Take John Hitchcox, Digital Art Director GQ, who learned to code while launching the iPhone version. “Now when I start working from digital creative I understand how things are made and, importantly, how long things take and therefore cost.”

So, learning to write computer scripts can have practical benefits for your career. But what about other jobs that don’t traditionally require a lot of computer use?

“As the world becomes increasingly digital, coding is becoming a necessary skill for more and more jobs,” said company founder Amelia Humphreys. steering, which runs workshops. “Similarly, as the digital economy continues to grow, we’re seeing a greater business demand for people with coding skills.”

Right now coding is a valuable skill for any business trying to connect with customers online, Humphreys added. “We’ve taught everyone from dentists to ballet dancers and tennis coaches how to code.”

This is also reflected in industry trends – digital careers are emerging Other industries have double the growth rateAnd work for those Pay more than othersEven at entry level. So, whether you’re early, mid or late in your career – coding is fast becoming an essential resource for the modern worker.

Looking for a job? Browse Parenting jobs Or sign up Parent career For latest job vacancies and career advice

#learning #code #job #parenting #careers

[teawaffles]

There’s No Business Like Show Business: Chapter 2

The next day.

After finishing his work at the mansion, Bond headed to Whitechapel’s Leman Street, where Maya and her company normally held their rehearsals. [1]

Walking down the noisy street was not just Bond, but also three other employees of the Moriarty household. One of them was Fred Porlock.

“It would’ve been fine if only you came along, Fred…… But thanks for joining us anyway, you two.”

Bond directed that to Jack Renfield and Sebastian Moran, who were walking a little behind him.

As Fred was a master of disguise, Bond had asked him to contribute his opinion on the performance too when Jack and Moran decided to tag along. Now the four of them were on their way to the rehearsal — with Louis’ permission of course.

Jack roared with laughter.

“No, you don’t have to thank me. I’ve watched my fair share of theatre, so I thought I could help them out, even if it’s from an amateur’s perspective,” said the old butler, nodding as he reminisced about those good old days.

“You’re probably just after the young girls from the theatre company, aren’t you old man?” Moran said, half in disgust. “Bond said this Maya chairwoman is a dashing lady in her own right, so I came along to feast my eyes on—— Ow, that hurt!”

Jack had clapped Moran on the head, as a warning to not shoot his mouth off.

“The only one here chasing women is you. Really, you didn’t even finish your chores properly before coming here.”

“I did my part just fine. For once, I’m not skipping out on work.”

“Rubbish — I did a check before we left and found some cigarette butts in the hallway. Don’t you dare annoy Louis any further.”

“……W-Well, the more the merrier, right?”

“…………”

Listening to their usual argument at the back of the group, Bond smiled wryly, while Fred was silent.

Finally, they had reached their destination. Waiting in front of the theatre was Maya, and her little sister Mae.

“Mister Bond!”

“Hey, haven’t seen you since yesterday.”

Mae waved her arms up and down in excitement, while Bond greeted them with a smile.

“S—sorry. Normally, she would play with the other children near our place, but today she insisted on coming with me…… By the way, um, who might these, d—dignified gentlemen be?”

“Ah, they work at the same household as me. The short one here is Fred. The somewhat scary-looking one is Moran. And this dandy old gentleman is Mr Jack. If you’re alright with it, I thought you could use their input as well.”

As Bond introduced them, the three men also greeted their host. But Maya seemed a little perplexed.

“……Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come here in a big group,” Bond admitted, looking slightly uncomfortable.

“No, no.” Maya hurriedly waved her hands. “I—I’m really grateful to be able to, hear valuable feedback from, so many people. For now, let’s not stand here to talk, please come in……”

Maya guided them into the theatre, stooped in a self-abasing posture. Her faltering voice was much as the same as from their previous encounter, but today, nerves seemed to have crept in as well.

“She has a sort of shadow about her, but that has its own charm. Like the transient beauty of a young widow, don’t you think?”

“She’s pretty, for sure, but not really my type. More like the kind of woman who complicates things when you break up with her.”

“Um, sorry you two, but if you could just keep your voices down,” chided Bond, as Jack and Moran whispered about the chairwoman behind her back.

Right after the entrance was a cramped space. The box seats above them looked hastily constructed; in truth, the interior decorations made it seem more appropriate to call this place a playhouse, rather than a proper theatre.

But their guide had only praise. “The manager here is, a really nice person; whenever we say we want to practise, he’s always happy to lend it to us. There are performances held at night, so we can only use it during the day.”

“He trusts you, doesn’t he.”

Hearing her speak with such sincere gratitude, Bond was quietly impressed by her character. Perhaps her dark aura easily invited misunderstanding, but she was definitely genuine at heart.

“Speaking of which, Miss Maya, you said that you’re the director for this performance, but surely someone else is responsible for the sets and the arrangements at the other theatre during this time?”

“Another member is in charge of the sets, but the negotiations and the like, w—were handled by me. Even so, the manager of the larger theatre — a nobleman — had actually approached us to be the opening act for another company, and I just accepted his invitation.”

“Still, isn’t it great to be invited to perform on a bigger stage, even if it’s just as an opening act?”

“Yes; for people like us — a theatre company from the slums, we don’t have many chances to show the world what we can do, so everyone’s doing their very best.”

Saying that, Maya secretly clenched her fists. Surely the one working the hardest was none other than Maya herself.

There was no audience in the stalls, and on the stage were a number of men and women — likely the company members themselves — doing light warm-ups and vocal exercises. A few of the children he’d met yesterday were also frolicking about on stage.

One exceptionally tall man on the stage had noticed Bond and the others enter the hall, and spoke up.

“Oh, is that the rumoured theatre master?”

Moran whistled at this unusually grand title.

“Theatre master, eh. A fitting name considering your experience, Bond.”

“Fufu, I’m honoured.”

Bond accepted it with his innate courage and composure. Then, he went onto the stage with Maya, while the other three sat in the stalls at the far end, so as to not stand out and interfere with the rehearsal.

The company members each stopped what they were doing and lined up in wait.

“Everyone, this is Mr Bond, who will be watching our performance today,” introduced Maya.

Right then and there, her voice had become clearer and stronger. A little taken aback by the sudden change in her attitude, Bond took a quick look around the room.

“Hello to you all. I’m looking forward to what you have for me today,” he said solemnly, as he bowed.

“We’ll do our best!” The company members bowed their heads in unison.

From their greeting, Bond could feel the the quality of their bearing, and the strength of their cohesion. Not only that, the tension he himself once felt when he stood on stage came rushing back in waves.

He switched his frame of mind from that of a special agent, to that of an actor, and looked over Maya and her company with an earnest gaze.

“Well then, without further ado, please show me what you’ve got.”

“Yes!”

Even though his instructions had been given with no introductory remarks, they asked no unnecessary questions, and jumped straight into preparation. Even though they had only put up plays in cheap theatres, Maya’s company already displayed the high level of professionalism they had developed.

“Miss Maya, what’s the programme for today?” Bond asked, as he moved to the row of seats right in front of the stage.

Maya was also directing Mae and the other children to sit down. “We’re starting with ‘The Red Shoes’, followed by ‘The Little Mermaid’, and lastly, ‘The Little Match Girl’.”

“Hmm, fairytales, I see.”

The unexpected subject matter piqued his interest.

In a time when Shakespeare was all the rage, to perform children’s literature in a proper theatre, and a serious scripted play at that — now this was a bold move.

But as someone who liked to do things unconventionally, that was precisely why their play intrigued Bond. Yesterday’s playful rendition of “The Little Match Girl” was probably inspired by it as well.

Then, the tall man who noticed Bond earlier spoke up.

“Ain’t it interesting? Maya always makes sure to write plays that even us poor dumb folk understand. Today’s script is also entirely her work,” he said cheerfully.

“Weren’t you in charge of creating the play too? You should be able to write at least one decent line of dialogue.”

At the man’s self-satisfied tone, a woman beside him sighed. But he ignored her pointed comment and carried on.

“There were a bunch of people who’d always thought ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Macbeth’ and the like were plain boring; but after Maya broke them down into something easier to follow, they’ve gotten hooked onto Shakespeare.”

“Being able to interpret works in a way that everyone can understand…… A wonderful talent indeed.”

But if you were to put on a proper production of Shakespeare in an unregulated theatre like this, you would be caught by the censors. To avoid that, incorporating music and the like into their productions was a brilliant adaptation on their part.

Bond had said that last part out loud, and the man thanked him for his words of praise. The members of the company had shown their admiration for Maya, but the woman herself took in a deep breath, as if to hide her embarrassment.

In other words, in order to put on a play that everyone could follow, the answer she'd arrived at was “fairytales”. Although it may be the best choice given the short length of the opening act……

“I’m sitting next to Mister Bond!”

“Hey, no fair!”

Bond had been absorbed in thought about the contents of the play. Nearby, the children were scrambling for the best spots. Having won the seat to the left of Bond, Mae asked him a question.

“Mister Bond, do you like ‘fairy tales’?”

That pulled him out of his thought process for a moment, and Mae smiled.

“Yeah. I read them when I was a child.”

“I like them too, because Maya and the rest always read them in a fun way—”

“Me too!” The other children raised their hands and shouted. Reading stories aloud while acting out the roles was indeed a theatrical way of reading to children.

However, Mae immediately pouted in frustration.

“But I really hate that story.”

“……Why is that?”

“The little girl always looks so sad. I tried asking Maya to give it a happy ending, but she just said that we have to ‘respect the intent of the story’ and didn’t listen.”

Her words helped Bond discern the true nature of the incongruity he'd felt.

As Mae had said, all three stories had their protagonists fall into unfortunate circumstances and perish. It was true that many fairytales were cruel, but there were others with happy endings too. Was there some hidden intent behind these choices?

As Bond pondered the new question that surfaced in his mind, Mae leaned in towards him.

“Mister Bond, do you also think it’s important, what Maya said? No matter how sad a story is, can’t we make it happy on our own?”

She asked that question with clear eyes. Bond thought for a few seconds, before responding.

“It’s true that it’s important to understand the intention of the original story. If you change its contents haphazardly, the fans of the story would be upset. I think your sister is the type who would take that very seriously.”

Mae glanced down in disappointment at his level-headed answer, but Bond continued.

“However, if we were all afraid of criticism, then nothing new would ever be made. If you have something you really want to tell others, then I think it’s possible to add a new interpretation to a story. After all, one form of respect is to show the world how you would’ve done it.”

“……Oh I see!”

Mae brightened up, and Bond smiled. Her question was one that had always, and would continue to vex all interpreters of stories. But at the very least, he didn’t want to make a decision on which way was right.

Just as their conversation had come to an end, it seemed the preparations for the performance were now complete.

“Without further ado, let us begin.”

Standing on a platform, Maya gave a bow, and with that the curtain rose.

Footnotes:

[1] Leman Street is a little to the north-east of the Tower of London and St. Katharine Docks, and within walking distance of both.

T/N: Is this chapter some meta-level commentary on the series itself?! omg

[rokutouxei]

brilliance

ikemen vampire: temptation in the dark isaac newton / mc | G | 1762 | ao3 link in bio

The thought strikes you as you’re standing in Isaac’s room, helping him sort himself into his professor’s robe, the one he still fidgets in no matter how long he’s taught at the university, no matter how much he’s proven to be worthy of what the garment means.

Isaac staring quietly at you with his cherry-blossom eyes, sharp and smart; you’re fixing up his tie from below. The tuft of brown hair he tugs at when he’s nervous frames the side of his face. His adorable face: partly seeming crafted, created into perfection, the curve of his jaw, the set of his eyebrows; and partly born of the universe, the little freckles on the tops of his cheeks, the way he smiles a little lopsidedly if you look close enough—

You come to the realization that next to Isaac, you are awfully—almost embarrassingly—plain.

You try not to focus on it too much, but it takes over all rational thought without much grace. Staring at yourself in front of the mirror at the la thermae, you spend a few extra minutes cringing at your reflection. Unlike him, you weren’t exactly one that would be called a “natural beauty.” Sure, your features are a little different from what is to be expected from a 19th century Frenchwoman—and you like to think that’s a plus—but you were otherwise… pretty normal, and at best nondescript. Definitely, not the kind of face one remembers, not the one that lingers in one’s memory after having seen it in passing. You could make up for it with your clothes, as Le Comte is as generous as it gets when it comes to providing for you the most in-fashion of clothing, but there’s only so much that fabric can do, too. In this century… dressing sharp is average.

And your smarts won’t necessarily save you either. You weren’t an idiot—or at least you like to think so—but you were far from a genius, nothing as extraordinary as the rest of the mansion residents are, at least. (Or maybe just for now. Who knows?) Sure, maybe you know just a smidgen more than the rest of them about the new technologies that are to develop in the next hundred years—you can only imagine what it would be like having a conversation with Jean about smart home appliances—but beyond that, you were hardly a master of anything. For sure you’ve got your niche interests and knowledge, but—

After that, you’re not really anyone special.

Your heart twinges at the mere thought of it.

You are nothing but just painfully average.

And Isaac is brilliance personified.

-

It is a three-step process.

Well, it’s a never-ending process, really, in your head, knowing you will spend much of your life compensating, but for now, you decide on three specific things you feel like you can improve yourself on, for Isaac’s sake.

You make a bee-line to the kitchen the next morning, right on time for breakfast.

After you and Isaac got together, you started to spend more and more time with him instead of working all your hours at the mansion with Sebastian. The butler didn’t mind, of course, and neither did Le Comte. Breakfast duty was one of the things you usually now missed, in preference of staying in bed with Isaac a little longer. The kitchen is Sebastian’s domain anyway; you really preferred just working as a sort of sous chef, or really just an extra pair of hands.

So when you approached him to ask him for a favor, to give you some tips and tricks on cooking better, he looked you up and down with a calculating gaze you could feel pass right through you.

Sebastian is skilled with both spices and knives. That, matched with his little schtick of being a disciplinarian, you’d really rather not, but—

“For Sir Isaac, perhaps?” he asks, turning around to spare you his gaze.

You pout in indignation. “A-and if it is?”

“No need for embarrassment, it’s a good effort.”

He hands you a little notebook to write your newly-learned recipes in. Phase one, check.

The next is a little more complicated.

Isaac isn’t the most graceful dancer in the mansion, and he will always say how he doesn’t enjoy it, but you’ve caught his expression on the days you went out on a ball night with him for this event or that. You know that he has—if not enjoyment—a fascination for the dancing, at the very least. What better way to make him enjoy it a little bit more than getting better at it? Surely, the experience would be a lot smoother if you weren’t constantly tripping over your feet the entire time.

And sure, both of you have had some dance practice experience with each other, but—

“It’ll be my pleasure, ma cherie,” Le Comte says, that ever-knowing smile painted on his face. You know with that expression that he wants to tease; wants to force you to admit that you’re doing it for your lover. But even if he doesn’t, the flush rises to your cheeks undeniably, anyway.

Le Comte leads the dance confidently as he always does, laughing politely every time you step on his feet. The music sways the both of you. He compliments you on how well you’ve unraveled Isaac to be a little more confident. Says maybe you should teach him as well; you answer that learning together is one of the most fun things to do with your beloved. Phase two, check.

And lastly…

You go to the library, the shelves ordered in a way you’ve long memorized, and pull out an old copy of a book you would not have dared read cover to cover if you were still in the present. …or future. In the 21st century. You’ve gotten permission from Le Comte to use it as you please, and you’ve gone ahead and sharpened the few pencils you’ve found laying around. The book is heavy and daunting, and it doesn’t look friendly at all, but you carry the volume anyway, heading off to your room with an unmatchable determination.

For Isaac, you tell yourself, I have to be worthy of Isaac.

-

Isaac doesn’t know when it started, but he’s definitely noticed that you’ve been a little busier lately. Always spending time in the kitchen, always excusing yourself out of his room to do “a chore” when usually you’d rather be spending time with him doing… well, even nothing, really. It makes him suspicious—the familiar gnawing of insecurity inside his chest—but he doesn’t not trust you, so he does not bring it up whenever the two of you talk, does not make it obvious that he knows something is up.

He does keep his eyes peeled though.

Catches you in the middle of the night in the kitchen, gathering the ingredients together for what you’ll bring as lunch the next day; a little notebook with scribbles in your hand as you’re measuring this and that, laying them out on the counter neatly. Spots you in the library in between the bookshelves, crouched, and running your fingers gently over the books’ delicate spines. Hears from the ever-gossipy Arthur that you’ve been spending afternoons in Le Comte’s room being tutored for dancing—that makes him just a tiny bit jealous.

But it doesn’t click.

At least, not until he catches you in your bedroom, head curled forward onto your arms on the desk, a new copy of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica serving as your rather uncomfortable pillow. There’s the tiniest sound of your snoring. A pencil has rolled off of your desk onto the floor, and he can catch the vaguest of scribbling on the book’s pages, little notes in your neat handwriting.

His heart squeezes in his chest near painfully.

He can be oblivious, but not tonight. He knows that if you really wanted to learn about physics, you would have asked him—the way you’re always grasping curiously at the world, the way that leaves him floored. And he would have taught you, poured hours in the evenings going over laws and theories until you were satisfied.

But this isn’t about physics.

He brushes off the stray lock of hair that had fallen over your face, tucking it behind your ear. Isaac knows just how much you mean to him, is fully aware of the space you occupy in his heart, even if sometimes even he is surprised by it. But his anxieties bite at the corner of his mind whenever he thinks about the opposite; about you; about how you feel for him; about the unevenness. His third law of motion asserts that when two objects interact, they apply forces to each other of equal, opposite magnitude—but does that apply to things like these? If they do, and if you are always giving and giving and giving so much—how ever will he give back?

When you’re giving him the universe, what else can he provide in return?

Isaac is not good with his words, not in the way he wishes he were. His head is always all computations and mechanisms, all science and never the kind of lovely things he knows are always in yours. He knows he is doomed for the rest of his life searching for the right words to tell you the things he feels.

Tonight, he’ll spend the next few hours watching you sleep, patching words together like a one-year-old still trying to learn how to use language to tell you that you do not need to be anything more. You can have two left feet forever and he will still dance with you. You can burn everything you make him and he will still eat it with much delight. And physics and math can stop making sense forever and he will still know you.

That he loves you.

You are enough and have always been enough. And sure, his life may have fallen off-center, not the boring, static equilibrium now that he’s with you—but the world has always been in some sort of chaos. That, he knows. That, science knows. And he’d gladly be in chaos if it means he gets to spend his life with you.

When you wake up, he’ll tell you. For now, there is only the resulting, opposite force of you loving him with all you can do—one he collapses into a small forehead kiss, lifting you up in his arms, carrying you off to his bed.

[mrs-hyperfixed-writes]

Things are Different Now

For the Rat-mama down at @the-tragic-hero-and-you. You turned me into an Actor stan and a drawing of yours inspired this. I should be studying but this was more important.

The Actor deals with the aftermath of a fight with Y/N.

The Actor cracked his knuckles against his desk, the noise audible all throughout his study. His other hand nursed a glass of whiskey, the ice cubes gently clinking against one another. The room was quiet except for the roaring of a fire, and one could make the mistake that it was peaceful. But internally Mark’s mind was like a black cloud. He was in a foul mood, and likely would be for the rest of the day if he didn’t fix it. Maybe for the rest of the next as well. 

An argument. A stupid argument with his dear y/n.

They had fought before, countless times. What couple doesn’t? But this felt different. This felt final. Y/n had started the fight when they had found the Actor in his old bedroom holding Celine’s old dress, running the fabric through his fingers. They had seemed to snap, complaining about how they always would be just a replacement for Celine, or at the very least a second best option. They had said that he would always choose Celine first. Would he prefer that they started dressing and acting like her? Would he like it if they had been as cold and cruel as she had? Maybe if they’d fuck the butler, the closest thing Mark had to a friend besides themselves then he’d feel like she was with him again. Or maybe they should just go fuck themselves. He’d often forgotten recently how they’d been a DA, they knew how to argue and what buttons to push. 

Indignant, he had bit back about how the same could be said for y/n and Damien. How they’d probably trade Mark in a heartbeat to have him beside them instead even after what he’d done. It wasn’t Mark who’d trapped them in the mirror, but it was Mark who’d dragged them out. And then he’d gotten angry. Very angry. He was on a roll now, and he couldn’t stop himself if he’d wanted to. And they’d been the one to poke the wound that Celine had left. He was a man in mourning. He had told them that if they really wanted to go then they could, and he would love to see how long it took for them to come crawling back. Maybe they would find that monster that Damien and Celine had become. Maybe they would see how good they had it when it looked at Y/n from their original body with nothing but disgust in their eyes. Maybe when it learned how Y/n’s relationship with the Actor had developed it would try to hurt them. But then it would discard them when it realised that not even Mark wanted them. And they would be all alone again.

Something in y/n’s eyes had seemed to break. Tears started to fall and they’d put a hand to their mouth and the other to their stomach as if they were in agony. They had looked at him once more before running from the room, leaving him there with clenched fists and metaphorical steam coming out of his ears. 

He had made his way to his study at one point, pouring himself a drink, and another, and another. He had been left to stew and consider what had happened. He hadn’t meant those things, of course not. But he had an uncontrollable temper sometimes. And Y/n had started it. How could they be so stupid? Thinking that he didn’t value them? That they were second fiddle to his ex-wife? He was loath to admit he was in the wrong, and he still wasn’t convinced that he was, but he needed to talk to them about it before they did something drastic. If they did leave he didn’t know what he would do with himself. 

He pushed his chair back, attempting to clear away the last embers of his anger and get rid of his bad mood. He put his half full glass on his desk, the ice rattling loudly with the force of it. Maybe he still needed a minute to think clearly?

***

They shared a bedroom at this point. Not the Actor’s old one, it had too many memories of happier times with Celine. He had figured his Y/n would have gone to the new one they shared. He knocked lightly on the door, not wanting to wake them. When there was no answer or sound of movement beyond the wood he opened it gently. Sure enough, Y/n lay curled up in the middle of the bed. They seemed to be fast asleep. The bed was enormous, making them seem so small. 

He crept closer to the side of the bed they faced to take a look at them. The pillow was wet where their tears had soaked through the fabric, and Mark felt a pang in his chest. But his attention was drawn to what they were curled around. A brown teddy bear in a red robe with black trimming with an empty martini glass fastened to its hand. Blotches of the fur on the bear’s head were wet where Y/n’s tears had soaked in. They held onto the bear for dear life as they slept, clinging on like it was the only thing in the world that would keep them grounded. Whatever was left of his anger dissipated in a puff of smoke. 

When had they made this? Why had they made it? Where had they hidden it?

They loved him. They really did. But seeing him with Celine’s dress had tipped them over the edge. He supposed he did talk about her a lot. And he had noticed Y/n staring at the wedding ring still on his finger. He sat down on the edge of the bed and put his hands in his head. Why were things so fucking complicated? 

He was a stubborn man, and hated admitting he had done something wrong. Y/n would apologise when they woke up, but this time he was going to beat them to it.

Y/n stirred behind him, and he looked over his shoulder to see that they had tightened their grip on the teddy bear. A tear fell from one of their eyes as they continued to be dead to the world.

Then he stood up, and made his way to his old bedroom again. Throwing open the old closet doors he took out all of Celine’s old clothes and threw some of them over his shoulder. Pile by pile he took them to his study and threw them on the floor in front of the fireplace. Then he went back for her shoes and scarves. And then her veils, hats and even her jewellery. Everything that belonged to her was cleared out of that room. Once all that was left of her was on his study floor he looked at his fireplace. 

It was a massive thing, useful for keeping the chill out in a mansion that Mark couldn’t be bothered modernising. You could fit a person in it, and at the lowest point in his life he had considered throwing himself into it and lighting a fire underneath him.

He stopped to consider only for a second. He would be destroying what was left of his ex-wife. And there had been happy times with her. But then he thought of Y/n curling around the teddy bear they had modeled after him. Then he had thought of the first time he had ever received a bouquet of flowers, and the card that had said I love you - Y/n. He thought of how they would lie with him when he had a bad day, and how they would lead him out of bed to give him a bath and feed him. And he remembered when he had finally bought a stereo and the two of them had danced until their feet heart and drank until they’d ended up tangled in each other's arms. 

So considering all of these moments, he threw the first pile of Celine’s clothes into the fire and then watched it burn. He didn’t even wait for it to finish before the next pile went in on top of it. And then the next. He increased fervour, his breathing becoming heavier as he picked up handfuls of fabric. And then he was throwing jewelry. And suddenly there was nothing. Nothing but a roaring fire so hot that sweat was beginning to drip down the end of his nose.

He looked down at his left hand. The gold band winked back up at him. Without taking a second to think otherwise, he slid it off his sweaty finger and threw it into the fire. It was going to take a while, but by the time that fire finished burning it would be nothing but a chunk of metal. And that was perfect.

He picked himself up from the carpet and left his study, making his way towards the bedroom he shared with his love. They were still fast asleep in the centre of the large four-poster bed. Without a word, he crawled next to them and pulled them towards his own chest, the bear between them. They subconsciously snuggled closer, burying their face in his chest. 

He sighed, content. “Things will be different now,” he whispered before letting himself fall into a deep slumber

[aion-rsa]

Sonny Boy: The Weird, Original Sci-Fi Anime You Should Be Watching

https://ift.tt/2Xeeowj

The past few years have brought us some huge anime blockbusters. My Hero Academia has become this generation’s gateway anime in the same way that Naruto was for the previous one. Jujutsu Kaisen reminded us of what was possible in shonen battle scenes. And, of course, Demon Slayer broke records all over the world. But when we focus on only a few standout series, we sometimes forget other approaches to anime exist…

Sonny Boy premiered this past July, as part of an otherwise quiet summer 2021 anime season. Details were scarce before the first episode aired: It was an original anime, not based on an existing manga, light novel, or videogame. It was about high school students who develop supernatural abilities and get transported to another dimension. Based on key visuals released ahead of the first episode’s air date, its animation style was a callback to earlier anime eras less defined by the highly stylized character designs of today. And, perhaps most notably of all, it was directed by Shingo Natsume, who is most remembered for directing the stellar first season of One Punch Man. 

Based on Natsume’s directorial role and the sci-fi premise, people who tuned into the first episode immediately drew conclusions. Students getting transported to another dimension where, free of adult supervision, they must fend for themselves? Clearly a shout out to the horror classic The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezz. Teenagers developing superpowers who then turn on each other in displays of dominance and power? Sci-fi Lord of the Flies, anyone? People getting stranded on an island and trying to find a way home? Hello, Robinson Crusoe!

The assumptions aren’t entirely wrong. The group chat used by the students in the series does reference The Drifting Classroom. One character does have a copy of Robinson Crusoe. The inspirations and influences are there to be seen. But leaving the conclusions there does both the show and viewer a disservice. Sonny Boy is none of these things. It’s something else entirely.

Read more

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At first glance, Sonny Boy looks like it’ll take a clear step-by-step approach to plotting. The students get transported to another dimension and they must get home. A clear problem. A clear goal. We soon learn that there are multiple dimensions, each with their own set of rules the students must learn and live by. A complication. A big one, even. And we discover that Nagara, the class loner and outsider, seemingly can shift from one dimension to another. He’s the solution! Right?

Not exactly.

Sonny Boy doesn’t take the standard storytelling approach we’ve come to expect from anime—especially the action-packed blockbusters from the last few years. While the story’s goal may appear to be to get home, that’s ultimately not the path the show takes. Or rather, the path home is circuitous and not at all obvious. Nagara may have the ability to go home—and bring everyone else along with him—but the driving question soon becomes: Does he want to? And if he doesn’t, why?

Beyond the interpersonal drama between Nagara and his classmates, a larger mystery looms through the anime. Why did the students get transported to another dimension in the first place? As the series unfolds, we see that they’re not the first class to experience the phenomenon. And unless something changes, they probably won’t be the last. What’s the point of this? Is there one? Or is it merely the whim of a capricious god?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The answers don’t come quickly and what answers do come are up for debate. Sonny Boy unfolds at its own pace. It drops clues and revelations on a weekly basis, all in a very measured and deliberate way. People used to seeking out manga to find out what happens next in an anime will be stymied. There is no source material to reference here. Instead, we all must sit down and piece together what’s going on with each new episode. In a time when most anime is based on already existing properties, the prospect is both daunting and exciting. Combined with a less obvious storytelling structure and approach, it creates a different experience. That might turn some people off, but anime fans who have been looking something fresh and unique should start here. Sonny Boy isn’t a blockbuster. With the series more than half-complete, it’s become quite apparent that was never the goal. It’s the anime equivalent of an indie film from A24. Not everyone will like it. In addition to the storytelling approach, the characters themselves aren’t especially likeable—but they are very real despite the fantastical situations they find themselves in. The show expects a lot from the viewer but like an indie arthouse film, people who do put in the effort will find much to enjoy.

Sonny Boy is available to watch on Funimation. The anime just wrapped up its first season.

The post Sonny Boy: The Weird, Original Sci-Fi Anime You Should Be Watching appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3EeF80q

[bunnies-n-bowties]

I wasn’t going to post this originally (because it’s drawn on my phone and it’s bad), but I’m going to anyway because I’m back in school and I don’t know when I’ll get to do another drawing. (Also it’s old, so I’m sorry.) 

Context to this drawing  AND THE ORIGINAL PLOT TO MY DIRECTOR D ASK BLOG BELOW (Warning, it’s long and boring.): 

Hello, and welcome to my long and boring context dbfvjdbjfv.

So in my Director D ask blog (which is on hiatus and I don’t know when I’ll get to it), there was a plot that I had in mind for it, but it never occurred either because I wasn’t motivated, or things got to complex. So I want to explain the overall plot to what would have happened just to give some context. Before I do that however I want to talk a bit about the characters involved and what state they are currently in to explain their behaviors or actions in the plot. 

Director “David” Dangerous:

Current State: As you all know, he has been rehired as, well, Director in HQ. Muddy decided that would be best because he ran it really well, and she wasn’t prepared for the job herself. She also wanted to give him a second chance. Because of this opportunity, he as gained a redemption arc and did his best to prove that he is a better person. (Which is he is, yay.) 

Backstory: Director has been an agent since he was a teen, and was eventually promoted to Director of HQ. (He had actual hair during this time.) During his training, he made a friend named Rose, who eventually became his girlfriend. However, when he was promoted, he became very valuable to other agencies (bad ones), and one day (to make this short), he went on a mission with Rose and other agents, and...Rose didn’t make it. She, in heroism, jumped in front of Director before he could get shot by one of the criminals. This was really devastating to Director because this was his first love interest, and he blames himself for her death. Throughout the years after, his hair slowly fell out, and he became the Director we first meet. (Not current.) Which explains why he avoids getting attached to people or even show any affection. Yes, he is single. 

Dr. “Harvey” Hare:

Yeah um...he’s still part of this story because he was apart of it originally, but he doesn’t really play a big part anymore. I don’t have an exact redemption arc for him, but he’s good now and is trying to blend in with society (which is hard when you were a villain before and you are literally a rabbit hybrid). He’s living a normal life. Currently, he is single, because he was dating Mordred, but they broke up. (Don’t worry! They both agreed it was for the best and are friends now.) Harvey is now trying his best to support Mordred during his affections toward Director and helps him upgrade his robotic half when he needs them. I am not sure if he will eventually have someone, but if he does he will probably end up with Raven. (Don’t @ me, I kinda like that ship.) 

Backstory:

You guys know this one! X3

and Finally...The one you guys have been waiting for for...(Bored yet?)

Binary “Mordred” Bard:

Current State: Bard is...oof. He doesn’t exactly have a redemption arc because he’s doesn’t care, at all. He’s...neutral. He’s not planning any bad schemes, that for sure, but he’s really rude and HATES affection. He’s also living a normal life, and mostly sleeps during the day if he doesn’t have any plans. (Which of course, most of the time, he doesn’t. He learned from Merlin.) During the night, however, he continues his study of the stars and keeps a journal of his findings, which actually brings him joy. (Which is why he does it when no one is looking.) Surprisingly, because the whole reason he’s a grumpy person and hates interaction is because of all the time he spent in space, but he doesn’t blame the stars for that. They were his only company, after all. After the break up with Dr. Hare, his grumpiness got worse, and even before this he was in rivalry with Director (who at the time had feelings for Dr. Hare as well). They broke up because Bard starting to develop feelings for someone else, and Dr. Hare thought it would be best because he didn’t want to be part of this rivalry anymore. (He didn’t want either of them hurt, in other words.) Who’s that new person?....Wow! How did you guess it? It’s Raven- no it’s Director. He has feelings for Director now. He developed feelings for THE ONE PERSON that did not show any affection toward him...ironic. Boom, want to get to him? Hate him back. (Joking please don’t.) However, he pushes these feelings down and continues on with his life. (More grumpiness, woo!)

Backstory:

You guys also know this one. owo 

Now, onto the plot of my blog. (I can’t believe you are still reading this. I am so sorry.)

So basically as some of you might have seen, (or not because I deleted the posts dnjfkvndkjf), Director got overworked and took the week off. He looked horrible.

He was going to be taken care of by his butler James (who’s actually younger than him). But, during this time, Bard decided that enough was enough, and he wanted to tell Director the truth and get it over with. However, when he got to HQ, Muddy told him Director was sick and left. He left, but to Director mansion. He used the excuse to help Director feel better during the week. (Such as feeding him, and give him medicine.)

On the final day, he was going to tell him how he felt. Now here is where we get a bit complicated. 

Director’s Answer:

The big reveal! As some of you might have hoped for... there are two endings. I’ll go over the good ending first because it’s short and sweet.

Good ending: 

Director says yes, decides to give Mordred an actual redemption arc, and he eventually becomes a better person. After a couple of years, they get married and live under Director’s mansion. Happily ever after. (I can’t wait to draw wedding drawings eventually!) 

Bad ending:

This explains the picture above. This ending ends up with Director saying he’s not ready for a relationship, and that he still has mixed feelings toward Bard. Bard is okay at first, (”I’m fine, I’m fine it’s cool.”) but because of all that compression of his feelings toward Director, Director’s answer triggers a virus Mordred develops because of said compression...and he loses his sanity. He’s become obsessed, but not by choice. He kidnaps Director, Muddy (by herself or by the help of other agents who would have helped via questions on my blog)  save him, and fight Modred. Eventually, they are (Director with the help of Dr. Hare) are able to reboot him back to normal after the fight, and he returns to a miserable life. The end. :3

“But Jay, which ending was going to be the actual ending to their story arc?”

...

You know, I wish I could answer that. I am writing out their story because come on, this was not going to be drawn out. I know myself, and that was not going to happen, I am so sorry. XD I apologize you had to read all that just for a *shrug* I don’t know. You can decide what happens to them. If you made it this far, thank you for dealing with my dumb plot and writing. Please ask me questions about the story!! I would love to answer them I am sure I left some points out that might not make any sense. (Or make me choose an ending! XD I don’t know.) But yeah.

That’s their fate, and the context of this drawing. 

[marymccartneyphotos]

Mary: Queen of Shots

Mandarin Oriential Issue 14; 2010

From her landscapes to portraits, Mary McCartney’s natural talent shines through. Here she tells MO Editor Zoë Manzi what it’s like to be the photographer behind Mandarin Oriental’s Fan Campaign

You were a picture editor before you started taking photographs. Is that right?

Yes, I didn’t really know what to do after I left school, but I knew I was interested in photography, so I got a job at a music book company as a picture researcher. It was nice because I went to all the picture libraries as well as meeting certain photographers who had taken photos of specific bands, and got to look at their archives. So that was interesting and it kind of set me thinking. But still, even then, I didn’t think I could be a professional photographer.

Was it the technical side…?

It was the technical side and, I don’t know, it just didn’t seem like a proper job to me at that point. You know, it was a nice thing to do as a hobby, but I couldn’t do it as a career. Then I got my first job. That was for Frank magazine. Stella [McCartney, her sister] had just started her first big design job at Chloé, and I was asked to go to Paris and do a diary and photograph her first collection.

That was an inspired commission…

It was really good fun because I got to spend time with Stella and I learned a lot about how a collection is put together just by being there, snapping fittings and going out with everyone at night. You know, it clicked with me because it’s what I like to do within my photography: meet people and get into their world and see what they’re doing. You get to find out what goes on behind the scenes. It made me appreciate how much work goes into designing, how much time it takes, and how much dedication it requires. I decided to do a course to learn the mechanics of the camera and that gave me more confidence. From then on, it was just about taking pictures, finding my style and the kind of work I wanted to do.

Did you develop an eye for taking pictures, or was it instinctual?

I think I had that already, but rather than developing an eye it’s about having confidence in my ability and style. Everyone’s different, but with my first paid commission, for example, I would hire loads of equipment and do things I wouldn’t usually do, but I was like, ‘I’m being paid, I’ve got to be professional and organised.’ But I wouldn’t be so happy with the photos because they weren’t my kind of pictures – I was over-compensating. So now I don’t do that. I know what I want to get and if people book me, it’s because they want something that is my style. What I do has probably taken me this long to achieve. You know, some people know instantly what they want to do – for me, it just took longer.

And how did your working relationship with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group come about?

It was a dream job, really. I got a phone call from my agent saying that Mandarin Oriental’s ad agency wanted me to come in for a ‘chemistry’ meeting, which was really funny but actually makes a lot of sense. I went to Hong Kong to meet the Chief Executive. What was great about Mandarin Oriental was that they wanted me to go to different hotels to get a feel for the brand. At first I thought that was a bit odd – why do they want me to? But it worked well because it made me respect them and understand what it is they’re doing, and to experience the friendliness of the staff… There’s a certain style which I probably wouldn’t have appreciated if I hadn’t gone to several of the hotels.

Do you have a favourite Mandarin Oriental hotel so far?

I love Mandarin Oriental, New York. I love coming out and having that view of Central Park but, then, I’d like to revisit Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok. I was only there for one night and I was on my own. I had a butler and didn’t get to utilise the service properly, so I’d like to go back and experience butler service! And the room was practically bigger than my flat at the time, so I didn’t fully get to be fabulous during that stay.

What was it like following in the footsteps of the late Patrick Lichfield [Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s first photographer of Fans]?

It was a little bit daunting because he was such an established photographer, but we have similarities in that he also liked to make his subjects quite relaxed. I thought it was good of Mandarin Oriental to pick a female photographer because it gives a different slant and a slightly different feel. Of course, it was very sad, but nice because he had a great relationship with Mandarin Oriental and that made me feel encouraged. He was with them for years and obviously was a big fan, so it made me more relaxed going in. I didn’t feel defensive. I knew that they respect their photographers and there’s a long-term collaboration.

So, how do you go about working on a Campaign with a new Fan?

First, I look at the person and do some research. Then I work directly with them because it needs to be something personal and I want them to be relaxed. Obviously, the whole Campaign is based around it being a place or an image that encapsulates the Fan but, also, I’m quite aware that it’s one image on a page: so how do we get something that will stop you on the page as you’re flicking through? With [singer] Sa Dingding, I tried to think a bit more about movement and materials and we’ve done a really nice shot which is quite fresh. She’s very dynamic, so I’ve tried to capture that. What was great about her was that she started off very reserved. She was dressed in traditional Tibetan materials – covered in fabrics – and as she was getting undressed there were all these different layers coming off and getting more and more funky, like, little beetle-patterned leggings and hearts. She’s an interesting character and she moves well. I wanted to do something with material, to get that Eastern feel. Sa Dingding really liked to perform in front of the camera and Hélène Grimaud, who we just did in Switzerland, was quite different, but she has an amazing smile and a beautiful face. Hélène is a classical pianist, so we did a nice, classic piano shot, which I tried to mess up a bit by having flowers on the piano rather than in a vase, and sheet music spread around a bit. Then I did another one, which is more clean. Hélène isn’t so naturally comfortable in front of the camera. The challenge was to make her relax and enjoy the shoot. And I think she did. I reassured her that ‘wardrobe’ meant we bring clothes and use the sitter’s clothes as well. The aim of the Campaign is that it’s about that person, it’s not a whole new makeover. It has to be something that they would wear, like Liam Neeson wore his own suit. But we’ll take some extra bits and bobs that they may even want to take home, so we try to add to their own look. It’s quite fun. If I were having my picture taken, I’d quite like someone to give me some clothes to try on!

So you might do two different versions…

We do two versions, one is more classic and one to take the sitter out of their comfort zone. The photography needs to progress visually because it isn’t a new photographer each time, so I need to push the boundaries a little bit more. It still has to be quite chic and clean for Mandarin Oriental, and I understand that.

And what goes on behind the scenes at the Fan shoots?

[Laughs] Do you want the real story? Well, I generally work with quite a small team. There are two ways I like to work: if it’s a production, I usually have a digital operator and an assistant and a producer. Otherwise, it’s me and a camera and a bag of film.

So you shoot on film?

I don’t shoot the Campaign on film any more because I like to get the edit down with the sitter, which is possible on screen, and I’ve got a great digital operator who does the calibration and, really, I did an exhibition last year and one of the pictures was digital and you couldn’t actually see the difference. I was like, ‘Pick which one in the room was digital,’ and no one could pick it out. I still love film because the quality of it and the depth of field is quite different, but when digital is done properly and is of a high quality, it’s pretty amazing. I like them both for different things.

Do the Fans give feedback during the shoot?

I do get feedback from them on the day. Generally, they won’t say they don’t want to do something: I would have prediscussed it with them, so they won’t get into that situation. For something like the Mandarin Oriental shoot, I’ll get the sitter to come over and I’ll do an edit, and I’ll show them and say this is the way I’m going… Then if there’s something they hate, because everyone’s got something they hate about themselves – ‘I don’t like my face at that angle’, for example – then I’ll try and work to make them feel comfortable and to get something I’m happy with. So it’s a real collaboration.

Does the travel element enhance or complicate matters?

It’s quite fun. We’re going to China to take pictures of Harry Connick Jr and it’s a bit of an unknown quantity. I can plan the shoot as much as I can, but when I get out there the whole plan will probably change. But I quite like that.

Do you shoot in the hotels?

This time we’re shooting in Mandarin Oriental, Sanya, but we don’t usually shoot at the hotels. That’s just been the history of the Campaign, but I think it’s quite nice to shoot at the hotels more and more. When it began, it was all about the subject and picking their own perfect place, but now the two are marrying together because Mandarin Oriental are doing more resort hotels, which has opened things up for outdoor locations. Before it was all about city hotels. I try to get as many exterior shots as I can, so fingers crossed for the weather!

Tell us about your book.

I’m doing a book, my first one, with Thames & Hudson [titled From Where I Stand] which is coming out in mid-October. I always take pictures, but I take them, look at them, then file them away. Last year I thought, actually, it’s time to do a book and go back and revisit all my contact sheets, which is quite daunting because there are so many pictures – and how do you structure it? So it became more of a personal structure: the book starts off quite quietly and landscapey and then goes into portraits and then comes back out quite quietly as well. Hopefully, it sort of says something about my character and what I’m interested in.

Was that the idea?

Yeah, keep it quite personal and not too eclectic. Having said that, it is quite eclectic because I’m always snapping different things.

What inspires you – do you always have a camera with you?

I like just wandering and watching people. There are moments, if I’m at an event, or I’m going somewhere, or at a shoot… Often when someone is not performing for the camera is when something interesting happens and I hate missing those moments.

In terms of your peers, whose work do you admire?

I suppose I like certain projects that people do. I love that Richard Billingham book, Ray’s a Laugh. I love Gursky and more epic work, probably things that I wouldn’t do myself. I mean, I like David LaChapelle. I think they’re all quite mad and I’d never do that kind of photography and I wouldn’t necessarily put it up on my wall. I suppose I like flicking through books with new work and then, for my home, I like vintage black and white, which is what inspired me in the first place.

What do you like about vintage photographs?

I just love that old-fashioned black-and-white quality and I like the historic feel behind them. I went to see a Berenice Abbott exhibition a few years ago and I came out just totally wanting to take pictures of buildings and façades. Those kind of things, that energy… I think there weren’t so many people taking photographs then, and their characters really came across.

Yes, and the women photographers…

Diane Arbus. I love Diane Arbus. So I suppose her and Lartigue are among my definite favourites, but some of his best photographs were taken when he was, like, nine. It’s disconcerting!

How do you see your work evolving in the future?

I suppose doing more personal projects. Getting into different situations and spending a few weeks or months with certain subjects is something I’d like to do, so you can get more in-depth.

And does that always result in an exhibition?

It doesn’t, no, that’s not necessarily the way I work. But I probably would do it with that in mind and then do the project and then from there edit and, yeah, the natural thing is the exhibition and a book.

And who or what would you most like to photograph?

You know what? Today, I was jogging around with my dog and thinking I would quite like to photograph Eminem. I’ve been listening to him a lot recently. I think he’s so bright and a bit scary and quite an intense character. It would be a real challenge to get him in front of the camera because he looks quite guarded as well. He’s sort of soft and angry and quite interesting, and I’d like to watch him for a while. He’s been through so much and I really find it quite intriguing listening to his music. And he seems quite real: he doesn’t put on a veneer – what you see is what you get. He’d be interesting and challenging

[grigori77]

2019 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 3)

10.  HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD – while I love Disney and Pixar as much as the next movie nut, since the Millennium my loyalty has been slowly but effectively usurped by the consistently impressive (but sometimes frustratingly underappreciated) output of Dreamworks Animation Studios, and in recent years in particular they really have come to rival the House of Mouse in both the astounding quality of their work and their increasing box office reliability.  But none of their own franchises (not even Shrek or Kung Fu Panda) have come CLOSE to equalling the sheer, unbridled AWESOMENESS of How to Train Your Dragon, which started off as a fairly loose adaptation of Cressida Cowell’s popular series of children’s stories but quickly developed a very sharp mind of its own – the first two films were undisputable MASTERPIECES, and this third and definitively FINAL chapter in the trilogy matches them to perfection, as well as capping the story off with all the style, flair and raw emotional power we’ve come to expect.  The time has come to say goodbye to diminutive Viking Hiccup (Jay Baruchel, as effortlessly endearing as ever) and his adorable Night Fury mount/best friend Toothless, fiancée Astrid (America Ferrera, still tough, sassy and WAY too good for him), mother Valka (Cate Blanchett, classy, wise and still sporting a pretty flawless Scottish accent) and all the other Dragon Riders of the tiny, inhospitable island kingdom of Berk – their home has become overpopulated with scaly, fire-breathing denizens, while a trapper fleet led by the fiendish Grimmel the Grisly (F. Murray Abraham delivering a wonderfully soft-spoken, subtly chilling master villain) is beginning to draw close, prompting Hiccup to take up his late father Stoick (Gerard Butler returning with a gentle turn that EASILY prompts tears and throat-lumps) the Vast’s dream of finding the fabled “Hidden World”, a mysterious safe haven for dragon-kind where they can be safe from those who seek to do them harm.  But there’s a wrinkle – Grimmel has a new piece of bait, a female Night Fury (or rather, a “Light Fury”), a major distraction that gets Toothless all hot and bothered … returning writer-director Dean DeBlois has rounded things off beautifully with this closer, giving loyal fans everything they could ever want while also introducing fresh elements such as intriguing new environments, characters and species of dragons to further enrich what is already a powerful, intoxicating world for viewers young and old (I particularly love Craig Ferguson’s ever-reliable comic relief veteran Viking Gobber’s brilliant overreactions to a certain adorably grotesque little new arrival), and like its predecessors this film is just as full of wry, broad and sometimes slightly (or not so slightly) absurd humour and deep down gut-twisting FEELS as it is of stirring, pulse-quickening action sequences and sheer, jaw-dropping WONDER, so it’s as nourishing to our soul as it is to our senses.  From the perfectly-pitched, cheekily irreverent opening to the truly devastating, heartbreaking close, this is EXACTLY the final chapter we’ve always dreamed of, even if it does hurt to see this most beloved of screen franchises go. It’s been a wild ride, and one that I think really does CEMENT Dreamworks’ status as one of the true giants of the genre …

9.  TERMINATOR: DARK FATE – back in 1984, James Cameron burst onto the scene with a stone-cold PHENOMENON, a pitch-perfect adrenaline-fuelled science fiction survival horror that spawned a million imitators but has never truly been equalled.  Less than a decade later, he revisited that universe with a much bigger and far bolder vision, creating an epic action adventure that truly changed blockbuster cinema for the better (or perhaps worse, depending on how you want to look at it), but, with its decidedly final, full-stop climax, also effectively rendered itself sequel-proof.  Except that Hollywood had other ideas, the unstoppable money machine smelling potential profit and deciding to milk this particular cash cow for all it was worth – on the small screen, it was the impressive but ultimately intrinsically limited Sarah Connor Chronicles, while on the big screen they cranked out THREE MORE sequels, Sony Pictures starting with straightforward retread Rise of the Machines and following with post-apocalyptic marmite movie Salvation, while Twentieth Century Fox then tried a sort-of soft reboot follow-up to T2 in Genisys.  These were all interesting in their own way (personally, I like them all, particularly Salvation), but ultimately suffered from diminishing returns and whiffed strongly of trying too hard without quite getting the point. Cameron himself had long since washed his hands of the whole affair, and it looked like that might well be it … but then Skydance Productions founder David Ellison thought up a new take to breathe much needed new life into the franchise, and enlisted Cameron’s help to usher it in properly, with Deadpool director Tim Miller the intriguing but ultimately inspired choice to helm the project.  The end result wisely chooses to paint right over all the pretenders, kicking off right where Judgement Day left off, and as well as Cameron being heavily involved in the story itself, draws another ace with the long-awaited ON-SCREEN return of Linda Hamilton in the role that’s pretty much defined her career, hardboiled survivor Sarah Connor.  I’ll leave the details of her return for newcomers to discover, suffice to say she gets caught up in the chase when a new, MUCH more advanced terminator is sent back in time to kill unassuming young Mexican factory worker Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes).  Of course, the future resistance has once again sent a protector back to watch her back, Grace (Blade Runner 2049’s Mackenzie Davis), a cybernetically-enhanced super-soldier specifically outfitted to combat terminators, who reluctantly agrees to team up with the highly experienced Sarah in order to keep Dani alive. Arnold Schwarzenegger once again returns to the role that truly made him a star (of course, how could he not?), and he for one has clearly not lost ANY of his old love or enthusiasm for playing the old T-800, but revealing exactly HOW he comes into the story this time would give away too much; the new terminator, meanwhile, is brilliantly portrayed by Gabriel Luna (probably best known for playing Ghost Rider in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD), who brings predatory menace and an interesting edge of subtle, entitled arrogance to the role of Rev-9.  Ultimately though, this is very much the ladies’ film, the three leads dominating the action and drama both as they kick-ass and verbally spar in equal measure, their chemistry palpably strong throughout – Hamilton is as badass as ever, making Sarah even more of a take-no-shit survivalist burnout than she ever was in T2, and she’s utterly mesmerising in what’s EASILY her best turn in YEARS, while Reyes goes through an incredible transformative character arc as she’s forced to evolve from terrified salary-girl to proto she-warrior through several pleasingly organic steps … my greatest pleasure, however, definitely comes from watching Mackenzie Davis OWN the role of Grace, investing her with an irresistible mixture of icy military precision, downright feral mother lion ferocity and a surprisingly sweet innocence buried underneath all the bravado, thus creating one of my favourite ass-kicking heroines not just for the year but this past decade entirely. Unsurprisingly, in the hands of old hand Tim Miller (working from a screenplay headlined by Blade and Batman Begins scribe David Goyer) this is a pulse-pounding thrill ride that rarely lets its foot up off the pedal, but thankfully the action is ALWAYS in service to the story, each precision-crafted set piece engineered to perfection as we power through high speed chases, explosive shootouts and a succession of bruising heavy metal smackdowns, but thankfully there’s just as much attention paid to the characters and the story – given the familiarity of the tale there’s inevitably a certain predictability to events, but Miller and co. still pull off a few deftly handled surprise twists, while character development always feels organic.  Best of all, this genuinely feels like a legitimate part of the original Terminator franchise, Cameron and Hamilton’s returns having finally brought back the old magic that’s been missing for so long. I’d definitely be willing to sign up for more of this – such a shame then that, thanks to the film’s frustrating underperformance at the box office, it looks like this is gonna be it after all. Damn it …

8.  DOCTOR SLEEP – first up, before I say anything else about this latest Stephen King screen adaptation, I HAVE NOT yet got round to reading the original novel yet, so I can’t speak to how it compares.  That said, I HAVE read The Shining, to which the book is a direct sequel, so I DO know about at least one of the major, KEY changes, and besides, this is actually a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s MOVIE of The Shining, which differed significantly from its own source material anyway, so there’s that … yeah, this is a complicated kettle of fish even BEFORE we get down to the details.  Suffice to say, you don’t have to have read the book to get this movie, but a working knowledge of Kubrick’s horror classic may at least help you get some context before watching this … anyways, enough with the confusion, on to the meat of the matter – this is a CRACKING horror movie by any stretch, and, for me, one of the strongest King horrors to make it to the big screen in quite some time.  Of course it helps no end to have a filmmaker of MAJOR calibre at the helm, and there are few working in horror at the moment with whom I am quite so impressed as Mike Flanagan, writer-director of two of this past decade’s definitive horrors (at least for me), Oculus and Hush, as well as a BLINDING TV series adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House for Netflix – the man is an absolute master of the craft, incredibly skilled with all the tricks of this particular genre’s trade, and, as it turns out, a perfect fit with King’s material.  Following on from The Shining, then, we learn what happened to the kid, Danny Torrance, after he and his mother left the Overlook Hotel in the wake of his father’s psychotic break driven by monstrous apparitions “living” in the cursed halls, following him from childhood as he initially shuns the psychic gifts (or “shine”) he was taught to use by the hotel’s late caretaker, Dick Halloran.  It’s only in later years, as he fights to overcome his alcoholism and self-destructive lifestyle, that he reconnects with that power, just in time to discover psychic “pen-pal” Abra Stone, an immensely powerful young psychic.  Which leads us to the present day, when Abra, now a teenager, becomes the target of the True Knot, a group of psychic vampires who travel America hunting and killing young people with psychic abilities in order to consume their “smoke” (basically the stuff of their “shines”), thus expanding their already unnatural lifespans – they’re tracking Abra, and they’re getting close, and only her “Uncle Dan” can save her from them.  Ewan McGregor is PERFECT as the grown-up Dan, delivering one of his career-best turns as he captures the world-weary seriousness of someone who’s seen, felt and had to do things no-one should, especially when he was so very young, the kinds of things that colour a soul for their entire life, and he’s clearly DESPERATE not to become his father; newcomer Kyleigh Curran, meanwhile, is an absolute revelation as Abra, bringing depth and weight far beyond her years to the role, but never losing sight of the fact that, under all the power, she’s ultimately still just a child; there are also excellent supporting turns from the likes of Cliff Curtis as Dan’s best friend and AA sponsor Billy Freeman, Zahn McClarnon (Longmire, Fargo season 2) and Emily Lind (Revenge, Code Black) as True Knot members Crow Daddy and Snakebite Annie, and Carl Lumbly (Cagney & Lacey, TV’s Supergirl), who beautifully replaces deceased original actor Scatman Crothers in the role of Dick.  The film’s tour-de-force performance, however, comes from Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat, leader of the True Knot – they’re an intriguing bunch of villains, very well written and fleshed out, and it’s clear they have genuine love for one another, like a real family, which makes it hard not to sympathise with them a little bit, and this is none more true than in Rose, whom Ferguson invests with so much light and warmth and intriguing, complex character, as well as a fantastic streak of playful mischief that makes her all the more riveting in those times when they then turn around and do some truly heinous, unforgivable things … as horror movies go this is the cream of the crop, but Flanagan has purposefully kept away from jump scares and the more flashy stuff, preferring, like Kubrick in The Shining, to let the insidious darkness bubble up underneath good and slow, drawing out the creepiness and those most unsettling, twisted little touches the author himself is always so very good at.  Intent can be such a scary thing, and Flanagan gets it, so that’s just what he uses here.   As a result this is a fantastic slow-burn creep-fest that constantly works its way deeper under your skin, building to a phenomenal climax that, (perversely) thanks in no small part to the differences between both novels and films, pays as much loving tribute to Kubrick’s visionary landmark as the original novel of The Shining.  For me, this is Flanagan’s best film to date, and as far as Stephen King adaptations go I consider this to be right up there with the likes of The Mist and The Green Mile.  Best of all, I think he’d be proud of it too …

7.  SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME – summer 20019 was something of a decompression period for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with many of us recovering from the sheer emotional DEVASTATION of the grand finale of Phase 3, Avengers: Endgame, so the main Blockbuster Season’s entry really needed to be light and breezy, a blessed relief after all that angst and loss, much like Ant-Man & the Wasp was last year as it followed Infinity War.  And it is, by and large – this is as light-hearted and irreverent as its predecessor, following much the same goofy teen comedy template as Homecoming, but there’s no denying that there’s a definite emotional through-line from Endgame that looms large here, a sense of loss the film fearlessly addresses right from the start, sometimes with a bittersweet sense of humour, sometimes straight.  But whichever path the narrative chooses, the film stays true to this underlying truth – there have been great and painful changes in this world, and we can’t go back to how it was before, no matter how hard we try, but then perhaps we shouldn’t. This is certainly central to our young hero’s central arc – Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is in mourning, and not even the prospect of a trip around Europe with his newly returned classmates, together with the chance to finally get close to M.J. (Zendaya), maybe even start a relationship, can entirely distract him from the gaping hole in his life. Still, he’s gonna give it his best shot, but it looks like fate has other plans for our erstwhile Spider-Man as superspy extraordinaire Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) comes calling, basically hijacking his vacation with an Avengers-level threat to deal with, aided by enigmatic inter-dimensional superhero Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has a personal stake in the mission, but as he’s drawn deeper into the fray Peter discovers that things may not be quite as they seem. Of course, giving anything more away would of course dumps HEINOUS spoilers on the precious few who haven’t yet seen the film – suffice to say that the narrative drops a MAJOR sea-change twist at the midpoint that’s EVERY BIT as fiendish as the one Shane Black gave us in Iron Man 3 (although the more knowledgeable fans of the comics will likely see it coming), and also provides Peter with JUST the push he needs to get his priorities straight and just GET OVER IT once and for all.  Tom Holland again proves his character is the most endearing teenage geek in cinematic history, his spectacular super-powered abilities and winning underdog perseverance in the face of impossible odds still paradoxically tempered by the fact he’s as loveably hopeless as ever outside his suit; Mysterio himself, meanwhile, frequently steals the film out from under him, the strong bromance they develop certainly mirroring what Peter had with Tony Stark, and it’s a major credit to Gyllenhaal that he so perfectly captures the essential dualities of the character, investing Beck with a roguish but subtly self-deprecating charm that makes him EXTREMELY easy to like, but ultimately belying something much more complex hidden beneath it; it’s also nice to see so many beloved familiar faces returning, particularly the fantastically snarky and self-assured Zendaya, Jacob Batalon (once again pure comedy gold as Peter’s adorably nerdy best friend Ned), Tony Revolori (as his self-important class rival Flash Thompson) and, of course, Marisa Tomei as the ever-pivotal Aunt May, as well as Jackson and Cobie Smoulders as dynamite SHIELD duo Fury and his faithful lieutenant Maria Hill, and best of all Jon Favreau gets a MUCH bigger role this time round as Happy Hogan.  Altogether this is very much business as usual for the MCU, the well-oiled machine unsurprisingly turning out another near-perfect gem of a superhero flick that ticks all the required boxes, but a big part of the film’s success should be attributed to returning director Jon Watts, effectively building on the granite-strong foundations of Homecoming with the help of fellow alumni Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers on screenplay duty, for a picture that feels both comfortingly familiar and rewardingly fresh, delivering on all the required counts with thrilling action and eye candy spectacle, endearingly quirky character-based charm and a typically winning sense of humour, and plenty of understandably powerful emotional heft.  And, like always, there are plenty of fan-pleasing winks and nods and revelations, and the pre-requisite mid- and post-credit teasers too, both proving to be some proper game-changing corkers.  Another winner from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then, but was there really ever any doubt?

6.  US – back in 2017, Jordan Peele made the transition from racially-charged TV and stand-up comedy to astounding cinemagoers with stunning ease through his writer-director feature debut Get Out, a sharply observed jet black comedy horror with SERIOUS themes that was INSANELY well-received by audiences and horror fans alike.  Peele instantly became ONE TO WATCH in the genre, so his follow-up feature had A LOT riding on it, but this equally biting, deeply satirical existential mind-bender is EASILY the equal of its predecessor, possibly even its better … giving away too much plot detail would do great disservice to the many intriguing, shocking twists on offer as middle class parents Adelaide and Gabe Wilson (Black Panther alumni Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke) take their children, Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex), to Santa Cruz on vacation, only to step into a nightmare as a night-time visitation by a family of murderous doppelgangers signals the start of a terrifying supernatural revolution with potential nationwide consequences.  The idea at the heart of this film is ASTOUNDINGLY original, quite an achievement in a genre where just about everything has been tried at least once, but it’s also DEEPLY subversive, as challenging and thought-provoking as the themes visited in Get Out, but also potentially even more wide-reaching. It’s also THOROUGHLY fascinating and absolutely TERRIFYING, a peerless exercise in slow-burn tension and acid-drip discomfort, liberally soaked in an oppressive atmosphere so thick you could choke on it if you’re not careful, such a perfect horror master-class it’s amazing that this is only Peele’s second FEATURE, never mind his sophomore offering IN THE GENRE.  The incredibly game cast really help, too – the four leads are all EXCEPTIONAL, each delivering fascinatingly nuanced performances in startlingly oppositional dual roles as both the besieged family AND their monstrous doubles, a feat brilliantly mimicked by Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale-star Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker and teen twins Cali and Noelle Sheldon as the Wilsons’ friends, the Tylers, and their similarly psychotic mimics.  The film is DOMINATED, however, by Oscar-troubler Nyong’o, effortlessly holding our attention throughout the film with yet another raw, intense, masterful turn that keeps up glued to the screen from start to finish, even as the twists get weirder and more full-on brain-mashy.  Of course, while this really is scary as hell, it’s also often HILARIOUSLY funny, Peele again poking HUGE fun at both his intended audience AND his allegorical targets, proving that scares often work best when twinned with humour.  BY FAR the best thing in horror in 2019, Us shows just what a master of the genre Jordan Peele is, and it looks like he’s here to stay …

5.  KNIVES OUT – with The Last Jedi, writer-director Rian Johnson divided audiences so completely that he seemed to have come perilously close to ruining his career.  Thankfully, he’s a thick-skinned auteur with an almost ridiculous amount of talent, and he’s come bouncing back as strong as ever, doing what he does best. His big break feature debut was with Brick, a cult classic murder mystery that was, surprisingly, set in and around a high school, and his latest has some of that same DNA as Johnson crafts a fantastic sleuthy whodunit cast in the classic mould of Agatha Christie, albeit shot through with his own wonderfully eclectic verve, wit and slyly subversive streak.  Daniel Craig holds court magnificently as quirky and flamboyant Deep South private detective Benoit Blanc, summoned to the home of newly-deceased star crime author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) to investigate his possible murder and faced with a veritable web of lies, deceit and twisting knives as he meets the maybe-victim’s extensive and INCREDIBLY dysfunctional family, all of whom are potential suspects.  Craig is thoroughly mesmerising throughout, clearly having the time of his life in one of his career-best roles, while the narrative focus is actually, interestingly, given largely to Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049 and soon to be seen with Craig again in the latest Bond-flick No Time To Die), who proves equally adept at driving the film as Harlan’s sweet but steely and impressively resourceful nurse Marta Cabrera, whose own involvement in the case it would do the film a massive disservice to reveal. The rest of the Thrombey clan are an equally intriguing bunch, all played to the hilt by an amazing selection of heavyweight talent that includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette and It’s Jaeden Martell, but the film is, undeniably, DOMINATED by Chris Evans as Harlan’s black sheep grandson Ransom, the now former Captain America clearly enjoying his first major post-MCU role as he roundly steals every scene he’s in, effortlessly bringing back the kind of snarky, sarcastic underhanded arrogance we haven’t seen him play since his early career and entertaining us thoroughly.  Johnson has very nearly outdone himself this time, weaving a gleefully twisty web of intrigue that viewers will take great pleasure in watching Blanc untangle, even if we’re actually already privy to (most of) the truth of the deed, and he pulls off some diabolical twists and turns as we rattle towards an inspired final reveal which genuinely surprises. He’s also generously smothered the film with oodles of his characteristically dry, acerbic wit, wonderfully tweaking many of the classic tropes of this familiar little sub-genre so this is at once a loving homage to the classics but also a sly, skilful deconstruction.  Intriguing, compelling, enrapturing and often thoroughly hilarious, this is VERY NEARLY the best film he’s ever made.  Only the mighty Looper remains unbeaten …

4.  CAPTAIN MARVEL – before the first real main event of not only the year’s blockbusters but also, more importantly, 2019’s big screen MCU roster, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and co dropped a powerful opening salvo with what, it turns out, was the TRUE inception point of the Avengers Initiative and all its accompanying baggage (not Captain America: the First Avenger, as we were originally led to believe).  For me, this is simply the MCU film I have MOST been looking forward to essentially since the beginning – the onscreen introduction of my favourite Avenger, former US Air Force Captain Carol Danvers, the TRUE Captain Marvel (no matter what the DC purists might say), who was hinted at in the post credits sting of Avengers: Infinity War but never actually seen.  Not only is she the most powerful Avenger (sorry Thor, but it’s true), but for me she’s also the most badass – she’s an unstoppable force of (cosmically enhanced) nature, with near GODLIKE powers (she can even fly through space without needing a suit!), but the thing that REALLY makes her so full-on EPIC is her sheer, unbreakable WILL, the fact that no matter what’s thrown at her, no matter how often or how hard she gets knocked down, she KEEPS GETTING BACK UP.  She is, without a doubt, the MOST AWESOME woman in the entire Marvel Universe, both on the comic page AND up on the big screen. Needless to say, such a special character needs an equally special actor to portray her, and we’re thoroughly blessed in the inspired casting choice of Brie Larson, who might as well have been purpose-engineered exclusively for this very role – she’s Carol Danvers stepped right out of the primary-coloured panels, as steely cool, unswervingly determined and strikingly statuesque as she’s always been drawn and scripted, with just the right amount of twinkle-eyed, knowing smirk and sassy humour to complete the package.  Needless to say she’s the heart and soul of the film, a pure joy to watch throughout, but there’s so much more to enjoy here that this is VERY NEARLY the most enjoyable cinematic experience I had all year … writer-director double-act Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck may only be known for smart, humble indies like Half Nelson and Mississippi Grind, but they’ve taken to the big budget, all-action blockbuster game like ducks to water, co-scripting with Geneva Robertson-Dworet (writer of the Tomb Raider reboot movie and the long-gestating third Sherlock Holmes movie) to craft yet another pitch-perfect MCU origin story, playing a sneakily multilayered, misleading game of perception-versus-truth as we’re told how Carol got her powers and became the unstoppable badass supposedly destined to turn the tide in a certain Endgame … slyly rolling the clock back to the mid-90s, we’re presented with a skilfully realised mid-90s period culture clash adventure as Carol, a super-powered warrior fighting for the Kree Empire against the encroaching threat of the shape-shifting Skrulls, crash-lands in California and winds up uncovering the hidden truth behind her origins, with the help of a particular SHIELD agent, before he wound up with an eye-patch and a more cynical point-of-view – yup, it’s a younger, fresher Nick Fury (the incomparable Samuel L. Jackson, digitally de-aged with such skill it’s really just a pure, flesh-and-blood performance). There’s action, thrills, spectacle and (as always with the MCU) pure, skilfully observed, wry humour by the bucket-load, but one of the biggest strengths of the film is the perfectly natural chemistry between the two leads, Larson and Jackson playing off each other BEAUTIFULLY, no hint of romantic tension, just a playfully prickly, banter-rich odd couple vibe that belies a deep, honest respect building between both the characters and, clearly, the actors themselves.  There’s also sterling support from Jude Law as Kree warrior Yon-Rogg, Carol’s commander and mentor, Ben Mendelsohn, slick, sly and surprisingly seductive (despite a whole lot of make-up) as Skrull leader Talos, returning MCU-faces Clark Gregg and Lee Pace as rookie SHIELD agent Phil Coulson (another wildly successful de-aging job) and Kree Accuser Ronan, Annette Bening as a mysterious face from Carol’s past and, in particular, Lashana Lynch (Still Star-Crossed, soon to be seen in No Time To Die) as Carol’s one-time best friend and fellow Air Force pilot Maria Rambeau, along with the impossibly adorable Akira Akbar as her precocious daughter Monica … that said, the film is frequently stolen by a quartet of ginger tabbies who perfectly capture fan-favourite Goose the “cat” (better known to comics fans as Chewie).  This is about as great as the MCU standalone films get – for me it’s up there with the Russo’s Captain America films and Black Panther, perfectly pitched and SO MUCH FUN, but with a multilayered, monofilament-sharp intelligence that makes it a more cerebrally satisfying ride than most blockbusters, throwing us a slew of skilfully choreographed twists and narrative curveballs we almost never see coming, and finishing it off with a bucket-load of swaggering style and pure, raw emotional power (the film kicks right off with an incredibly touching, heartfelt tear-jerking tribute to Marvel master Stan Lee).  Forget Steve Rogers – THIS is the Captain MCU fans need AND deserve, and I am SO CHUFFED they got my favourite Avenger so totally, perfectly RIGHT.  I can die happy now, I guess …

3.  JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3 – needless to say, those who know me should be in no doubt why THIS was at the top of my list for summer 2019 – this has EVERYTHING I love in movies and more. Keanu Reeves is back in the very best role he’s ever played, unstoppable, unbeatable, un-killable hitman John Wick, who, when we rejoin him mere moments after the end of 2017’s phenomenal Chapter 2, is in some SERIOUSLY deep shit, having been declared Incommunicado by the High Table (the all-powerful ruling elite who run this dark and deadly shadowy underworld) after circumstances forced him to gun down an enemy on the grounds of the New York Continental Hotel (the inviolable sanctuary safe-house for all denizens of the underworld), as his last remaining moments of peace tick away and he desperately tries to find somewhere safe to weather the initial storm.  Needless to say the opening act of the film is ONE LONG ACTION SEQUENCE as John careers through the rain-slick streets of New York, fighting off attackers left and right with his signature brutal efficiency and unerring skill, perfectly setting up what’s to come – namely a head-spinning, exhausting parade of spectacular set pieces that each put EVERY OTHER offering in every other film this past year to shame.  Returning director Chad Stahelski again proves that he’s one of the very best helmsmen around for this kind of stuff, delivering FAR beyond the call on every count as he creates a third entry to a series that continues to go from strength to strength, while Keanu once again demonstrates what a phenomenal screen action GOD he is, gliding through each scenario with poise, precision and just the right balance of brooding charm and so-very-done-with-this-shit intensity and a thoroughly enviable athletic physicality that really does put him on the same genre footing as Tom Cruise.  As with the first two chapters, what plot there is is largely an afterthought, a facility to fuel the endless wave of stylish, wince-inducing, thoroughly exhilarating violent bloodshed, as John cuts another bloody swathe through the underworld searching for a way to remove the lethal bounty from his head while an Adjudicator from the High Table (Orange Is the New Black’s Asia Kate Dillon) arrives in New York to settle affairs with Winston (Ian McShane), the manager of the New York Continental, and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) for helping John create this mess in the first place.  McShane and Fishburne are both HUGE entertainment in their fantastically nuanced large-than-life roles, effortlessly stealing each of their scenes, while the ever-brilliant Lance Reddick also makes a welcome return as Winston’s faithful right-hand Charon, the concierge of the Continental, who finally gets to show off his own hardcore action chops when trouble arrives at their doorstep, and there are plenty of franchise newcomers who make strong impressions here – Dillon is the epitome of icy imperiousness, perfectly capturing the haughty superiority you’d expect from a direct representative of the High Table, Halle Berry gets a frustratingly rare opportunity to show just how seriously badass she can be as former assassin Sofia, the manager of the Casablanca branch of the Continental and one of John’s only remaining allies, Game of Thrones’ Jerome Flynn is smarmy and entitled as her boss Berrada, and Anjelica Houston is typically classy as the Director, the ruthless head of New York’s Ruska Roma (John’s former “alma mater”, basically).  The one that REALLY sticks in the memory, though, is Mark Dacascos, finally returning to the big time after frustrating years languishing in lurid straight-to-video action dreck and lowbrow TV hosting duties thanks to a BLISTERING turn as Zero, a truly brilliant semi-comic creation who routinely runs away with the film – he’s the Japanese master ninja the Adjudicator tasks with dispensing her will, a thoroughly lethal killer who may well be as skilled as our hero, but his deadliness is amusingly tempered by the fact that he’s also a total nerd who HERO WORSHIPS John Wick, adorably geeking out whenever their paths cross.  Their long-gestating showdown provides a suitably magnificent climax to the action, but there’s plenty to enjoy in the meantime, as former stuntman Stahelski and co keep things interestingly fluid as they constantly change up the dynamics and add new elements, from John using kicking horses in a stable and knives torn out of display cases in a weaponry museum to dispatch foes on the fly, through Sofia’s use of attack dogs to make the Moroccan portion particularly nasty and a SPECTACULAR high octane sequence in which John fights katana-wielding assailants on speeding motorcycles, to the film’s UNDISPUTABLE highlight, an astounding fight in which John takes on Zero’s disciples (including two of the most impressive guys from The Raid movies, Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian) in (and through) an expansive chamber made up entirely of glass walls and floors.  Altogether then, this is business as usual for a franchise that’s consistently set the bar for the genre as a whole, an intensely bruising, blissfully blood-drenched epic that cranks its action up to eleven, shot with delicious neon-drenched flair and glossy graphic novel visual excess, a consistently inspired exercise in fascinating world-building that genuinely makes you want to live among its deadly denizens (even though you probably wouldn’t live very long).  The denouement sets things up for an inevitable sequel, and I’m not at all surprised – right from the first film I knew the concept had legs, and it’s just too good to quit yet.  Which is just how I like it …

2.  AVENGERS: ENDGAME – the stars have aligned and everything is right with the world – the second half of the ridiculously vast, epic, nerve-shredding and gut-punching MCU saga that began with 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War has FINALLY arrived and it’s JUST AS GOOD as its predecessor … maybe even a little bit better, simply by virtue of the fact that (just about) all the soul-crushing loss and upheaval of the first film is resolved here.  Opening shortly after the universally cataclysmic repercussions of “the Snap”, the world at large and the surviving Avengers in particular are VERY MUCH on the back foot as they desperately search for a means to reverse the damage wrought by brutally single-minded cosmic megalomaniac Thanos and his Infinity Stone-powered gauntlet – revealing much more dumps so many spoilers it’s criminal to continue, so I’ll simply say that their immediate plan really DOESN’T work out, leaving them worse off than ever.  Fast-forward five years and the universe is a very different place, mourning what it’s lost and torn apart by grief-fuelled outbursts, while our heroes in particular are in various, sometimes better, but often much worse places – Bruce Banner/the Hulk (Mark Ruffallo) has found a kind of peace that’s always eluded him before, but Thor (Chris Hemsworth) really is a MESS, while Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) has gone to a VERY dark place indeed. Then Ant-Man Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) finds a way back from his forced sojourn in the Quantum Realm, and brings with him a potential solution of a very temporal nature … star directors the Russo Brothers, along with returning screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, have once again crafted a stunning cinematic masterpiece, taking what could have been a bloated, overloaded and simply RIDICULOUS narrative mess and weaving it into a compelling, rich and thoroughly rewarding ride that, despite its THREE HOURS PLUS RUNNING TIME, stays fresh and interesting from start to finish, building on the solid foundations of Infinity War while also forging new ground (narratively speaking, at least) incorporating a wonderfully fresh take on time-travel that pokes gleeful fun at the decidedly clichéd tropes inherent in this particular little sub-genre.  In fact this is frequently a simply HILARIOUS film in its own right, largely pulling away from the darker tone of its predecessor by injecting a very strong vein of chaotic humour into proceedings, perfectly tempering the more dramatic turns and epic feels that inevitably crop up, particularly as the stakes continue to rise.  Needless to say the entire cast get to shine throughout, particularly those veterans whose own tours of duty in the franchise are coming to a close, and as with Infinity War even the minor characters get at least a few choice moments in the spotlight, especially in the vast, operatic climax where pretty much the ENTIRE MCU cast return for the inevitable final showdown.  It’s a masterful affair, handled with skill and deep, earnest respect but also enough irreverence to keep it fun, although in the end it really comes down to those big, fat, heart-crushing emotional FEELS, as we say goodbye to some favourites and see others reach crossroads in their own arcs that send them off in new, interesting directions.  Seriously guys, keep a lot of tissues handy, you really will need them.  If this were the very last MCU film ever, I’d say it’s a PERFECT piece to go out on – thankfully it’s not, and while it is the end of an era the franchise looks set to go on as strong as ever, safe in the knowledge that there’s plenty more cracking movies on the way so long as Kevin Feige and co continue to employ top-notch talent like this to make their films. Eleven years and twenty-two films down, then – here’s to eleven and twenty-two more, I say …

1.  THE IRISHMAN (aka I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES) – beating smash-hit superhero movies and unstoppable assassin action-fests to the top spot is no mean feat, but so completely blowing me away that I had NO OTHER CHOICE than to put this at NUMBER ONE is something else entirely.  Not only is this the best thing I saw at the cinema this past year, but I’d be happy to say it’s guaranteed to go down as one of my all-time greats of the entire decade. I’ve been an ardent fan of the filmmaking of Martin Scorsese ever since I first properly got into cinema in my early adolescence, when I was first shown Taxi Driver and was completely and irrevocably changed forever as a movie junkie.  He’s a director who impresses me like a select few others, one of the true, undisputable masters of the craft, and I find it incredibly pleasing that I’m not alone in this assertion.  Goodfellas and The Departed are both numbered among my all-time favourite crime movies, while I regard the latter as one of the greatest films of the current cinematic century.  I’ve learned more about the art and craft of filmmaking and big-screen storytelling from watching Scorsese’s work than from any other director out there (with the notable exception of my OTHER filmmaking hero, Ridley Scott), and I continue to discover more about his films every time I watch them, so I never stop.  Anyways … enough with the gushing, time to get on with talking about his latest offering, a Netflix Original true-life gangster thriller of truly epic proportions chronicling the career and times of Frank Sheeran, a Philadelphia truck driver who became the most trusted assassin of the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family and, in particular, its boss (and Sheeran’s best friend) Russell Bufalino, particularly focusing on his rise to power within the Philly Mob and his significant association with controversial and ultimately ill-fated Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa.  It’s a sprawling epic in the tradition of Scorsese’s previously most expansive film, Casino, but in terms of scope this easily eclipses the 1995 classic, taking in SIX DECADES of genuinely world-changing events largely seen through Sheeran’s eyes, but as always the director is in total control throughout, never losing sight of the true focus – one man’s fall from grace as he loses his soul to the terrible events he takes part in.  Then again, the screenplay is by Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List, Moneyball, Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), one of the true masters of the art form, with whom Scorsese previously worked with on Gangs of New York, so it’s pure gold – tight as a drum, razor sharp and impossibly rich and rewarding, the perfect vehicle for the director to just prep his cast and run with it.  And WHAT A CAST we have here – this is a three-way lead master-class of titanic proportions, as Scorsese-regular Robert De Niro and his Goodfellas co-star Joe Pesci are finally reteamed as, respectively, Sheeran and Bufalino, while Al Pacino gets to work with the master for the first time as Hoffa; all three are INCREDIBLE, EXTRAORDINARY, on absolute tip-top form as they bring everything they have to their roles, De Niro and Pesci underplaying magnificently while Pacino just lets rip with his full, thunderous fury in a seemingly larger-than-life turn which simply does one of history’s biggest crooks perfect justice; the supporting cast, meanwhile, is one of the strongest seen in cinema all year, with Ray Romano, Bobby Canavale, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham, Harvey Keitel, Stephanie Kurtzuba (The Wolf of Wall Street), Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) and Jesse Plemmons among MANY others all making MAJOR impressions throughout, all holding their own even when up against the combined star power of the headlining trio.  This is filmmaking as high art, Scorsese bringing every trick at his considerable, monumentally experienced disposal to bear to craft a crime thriller that strongly compares not only to the director’s own best but many of the genre’s own other masterpieces such as The Godfather and Chinatown.  It may clock in at a potentially insane THREE HOURS AND TWENTY-NINE MINUTES but it NEVER feels overlong, every moment crafted for maximum impact with a story that unfolds so busily and with such mesmerising power it’s impossible to get bored with it.  The film may have received a limited theatrical release, obviously reaching MOST of its audience when unleashed on Netflix nearly a month later, but I was one of the lucky few who got to see it on the big screen, and BELIEVE ME, it was totally worth it.  Best thing I saw in 2019, ONE OF the best things I saw this past decade, and DEFINITELY one of Scorsese’s best films EVER.  See it, any way you can.  You won’t be disappointed.

[machihunnicutt]

What the Downton Movie Owes Me (but will probably not give me): Some Thoughts on Thomas Barrow

yes...I wrote 1k+ words on this. I’m so sorry.

I’m watching Downton Abbey for the 3rd (4th?) time with my sister who hasn’t seen it. I love this glorified soap opera to death, y’all, with the full acknowledgment that this show does a horrible job with a lot of its plot lines designed to tackle complicated issues: disability (the ableism against Bates via the house that he never gets apologies for, Matthew and his spinal injury/wheelchair that is always framed as life-ending and making him nothing but a “burden”), class (the Branson/Sybil marriage is alright, but there are countless missed opportunities to interrogate the relationship between upstairs and downstairs, particularly Carson’s attachment to a family that monopolizes his life and the lives of all its employees), (I’m going to leave race and gender alone because I think it does a pretty decent job when these issues come into play but feel free to lmk if there’s something I missed!), and sexuality, which is what I want to get into.

So granted, I understand that I’m not the target audience for this show. I understand that Downton’s gay characters were not written primarily to be relatable, multifaceted representations of gay people in a period drama. I get that Downton’s target audience is older, straight people for which representation isn’t super important. But, I have watched this show at least 3 times now and I’m still angry about its treatment of Thomas Barrow, so I’m going to break down why:

1) Things We Know About Thomas Barrow

I really like early seasons of Downton because, for all its drawn out drama and plot twists, it cares a lot about character development and consistency. Many characters (dare I say the majority) do mean and bad things and yet, we are still empathetic because we’ve spent time with them, understand why they make the choices they do, and see them learn from their mistakes (early seasons Mary is an excellent example.)

Thomas Barrow is my favorite Downton character because of the great narrative work they do in this regard. In the first episode we learn several character traits of his that continue to be important throughout his arcs:

- He doesn’t trust easily and has few friends in the house. (AKA, boy’s got a bad attitude. It’s better to act like you hate everyone than give them the chance to reject you.) I found this immediately endearing (because of who I am I guess lol), and though I understand why people don’t like his character because of this, I think it’s a good move for a character you intend to have grow over a long period of time. Opening up, accepting help from others, and showing kindness are all parts of Thomas’ future storylines, actions that show his slow growth from this facet of his character. I also think it’s important to note that when Thomas does make friends he is loyal to them (I’m excepting O’Brien from this category given there’s so much backstabbing between them that it’s a stretch to call them friends) and will take risks to protect them (Examples: befriending Lt. Courtenay and later fighting Dr. Clarkson to keep him at the hospital; befriending Lady Sybil and speaking kindly about her when he doesn’t have nice things to say about anyone else upstairs, later earnestly mourning her death in a show of vulnerability he generally masks; befriending Jimmy and looking out for him when he gets drunk at the fair, going as far to get beaten up to save Jimmy; befriending Andy and helping him learn to read; befriending the kids of the house and saving them from that one nasty nanny who was mistreating them.)

- He’s a romantic. The man wants to be loved and jfc I wish the show gave him a good love interest.

- He’s easily manipulated. (More on this later, but for now...) The Duke plays him, and it’s cruel, but it shows how easily Thomas can be tricked when he’s offered affection and the chance to leave Downton for something better. (Also note: from day one, he’s wanted to leave Downton!)

- He’s the evil gay trope. The gay villain trope has a long and complicated history and sure, you can say Thomas’s sexuality and role as an antagonist aren’t connected, but the show doesn’t exist in a vacuum and it feeds into a long history of villainizing LGBT and LGBT coded characters. The thing I hate most is that they get really close to subverting it in Thomas’ best moments (his work in the hospital during the war, his relationship with the kids, his gradual opening up to people in the house) but alas...

2) Why I Hate The Jimmy Kent Arc More Than Anything

Okay, so it makes sense for Thomas to be manipulated by O’Brien. That’s consistent with his character and I don’t fault the show for melodrama because that’s what it does. What I hate, is that the show depicts Thomas’ attraction to Jimmy as predatory and when he is punished for trying to kiss Jimmy while he’s asleep (which is assault) the house (and I’d argue, the show) frames this as bad only because Thomas is gay and Jimmy is not. In the show’s narrative Jimmy is mad because he’s homophobic, not because he’s been violated. And his and Jimmy’s ensuing friendship would be genuinely sweet if it really was just an issue of homophobia and not one of ASSAULT!

I’d argue, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t portray Thomas as predatory and then brush it aside to make a statement about tolerance, because assaulting people is bad regardless of the sexuality of the perpetrator. You either need to punish his actions for what they are or get better at story telling and not rely on the predatory gay stereotype.

But, secondarily, I’m bothered by this arc because it doesn’t seem in character, to me. I know Thomas does a lot of bad, stupid things, but I don’t think it makes sense for him to be predatory. In his best moments he is protective, romantic, and loyal. Yes, we see him as rash and naive, but his actions never felt right for the character, to me. I just think it’s lazy writing to handle his attraction to Jimmy this way, especially given the development of their friendship afterward. It would’ve been so much more satisfying and narratively interesting for Thomas to express his feelings for Jimmy in a respectful way. Jimmy is the only character we see Thomas have genuine feelings for (not motivated by upward mobility as in the case of the Duke or I guess(?) racial stereotyping in the case of Kemal Pamuk...but lbr his pass at him was mostly a plot device) and I think the arc would’ve been so much more fulfilling if we saw it as Thomas’ attempt to love someone fully and honestly, even if it ultimately doesn’t work out the way he wants it to. And I don’t get why they didn’t do this! Because the Jimmy/Thomas friendship ends up being sweet, and useful for each character’s development. They just had to make it gross by beginning with an assault. Just a huge, lazy, waste of a potentially good idea.

3) The Last Season Was Bad For A Lot Of Characters But They Did Thomas Extremely Dirty

I don’t know where to start with the last season because I think they ran into so many problems because they forgot how to use great characters effectively (Mary is a prime example!!) and started just throwing them into dramatic situations for the sake of plot and not keeping actions consistent with established character.

For example, life at Downton is the roughest it has ever been for Thomas in season 6, to the point where he is alienated by most in the house (I’m not going to talk about how badly Carson treats him and how much of a tyrant Carson is in the last season because again, I think it comes down to the writers forgetting how to use their characters effectively) and attempts suicide. All in all, I just don’t like this because it’s predictable and overdone. Gay people in period pieces almost always have overwhelmingly tragic stories and it’s not fun for me to watch anymore. What most disappoints me though, is that when everyone else is getting paired off in the fan-servicey ending, Thomas’ consolation prize is being the butler??? To a house full of people who’ve hated him??? He’s wanted from the beginning to leave Downton and in the end he doesn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, if the show had shown me his change in attitude and relationship to the house, given me this character development in meaningful ways, and not used a suicide attempt as a half-assed catalyst for change, I would be all for Thomas as Downton’s butler. I think that if they’d done the work of making it a believable and constructive next step for his character, that I’d really like it. I think Thomas’ relationship with the kids (particularly George! I’d watch a whole movie about that!) is well done and I think it echos Carson’s relationship with Mary, but better. But you! have! to! do! the! work! to! get! the! audience! there! You can’t give me a whole season of Downton nastiness and Thomas suffering and then expect me to buy that this is his happy ending.

4) What I Want From This Movie

I don’t think I’ll get it (though a love interest for Thomas via the trailer is encouraging), but here’s what I want:

- Show me why Thomas Barrow as Downton butler makes sense. And if you can’t, let him leave and be happy somewhere else because he deserves it.

- Show me how he’s grown. Show me his relationship with the kids and how he’s better than Carson because I need it!!

- Let Thomas be in a relationship that is healthy and not manipulative or coercive or a plot device for drama.

- Let him be in love and don’t make it a sad story. Please.

I find Thomas Barrow such a compelling character because he isn’t perfect. He makes mistakes. He does bad things. He grows. He changes over the course of six seasons. He’s a gay character in a period drama whose story isn’t about being ashamed of who he is. It isn’t about denial or apologies or pretending he’s someone he isn’t. And I think that’s significant. I just wish they’d done a slightly better job. :)

(Thanks for reading. I’m gonna keep being a Thomas Barrow stan even when no one watching with me thinks I’m valid lol.)

[showbizchicago]

Interview with Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright TONY KUSHNER

Known for his groundbreaking works including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America and the Olivier-awarded Caroline, Or Change, Tony Kushner has become one of the most prolific playwrights of our generation.  I sat down with Mr. Kushner who was in Chicago to receive the Chicago Tribune Literary Prize as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. MJR:Let’s talk about The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, a new work that you developed at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis this past year.  How did the concept come to fruition for you? TK: The way all ideas come about. I had been thinking for a very long time about writing it a play that dealt specifically with LGBT issues and I had also been thinking of dealing with Marxism onstage in the Perestroika era. I’ve always wanted to do something about American Marxism or American Communism specifically so all of that came together when Joe Dowling asked me to do a new play for the celebration that the Guthrie did of my work. They performed Caroline, Or Change and 5 short plays last spring. MJR: Speaking of Caroline, Or Change, the Chicago production mounted by Court Theatre won four Joseph Jefferson Awards including Best Musical was an unequivocal success.  Tell us about your partnership with Jeanine Tesori during the development of Caroline. TK: Jeanine is an amazingly talented composer. In my opinion the best composer writing for the theatre living. I am enormously happy and consider myself very fortunate that we hooked up. I never enjoyed working with anyone as much as I enjoyed working with Jeanine. We’re currently working on a new piece together. MJR: Story-wise, Caroline, or Change explored your upbringing in Louisiana. What was the process of transferring a semi-autobiographical narrative to the musical stage? TK: Well of course Caroline is a fictional character. The character is loosely based on the woman who worked as a maid for my family when I was a kid. It was actually dedicated to her.  She just turned 80. There are episodes and certain details in the play that are absolutely from my childhood. I grew up in Louisiana. But the piece is not autobiographic in any kind of reliable sense. The character of Caroline is some degree based on but many of the details of her life are different.

Jeff Award Winner E. Faye Butler in CAROLINE OR CHANGE MJR: As a playwright, what was the most challenging component of musicalizing text to propel a narrative? TK: I wrote the whole thing before I started working with Jeanine so in a way it was like writing a play. It was in a loosely rhymed and metered verse. To some degree it’s like learning a new language because there’s a lot about musical theatre that requires very specific skills that I do not have. I have very little experience working with the form. So I was guided to a great extent by Jeanine and by George Wolfe . But there was a lot that I had to learn about how to construct a moment with music. Caroline is essentially an opera, it’s through-composed. We were both learning a lot while we were doing it. I’m working with Jeanine now on a new piece and I’ve already begun things I didn’t know. In some ways Caroline was easier than most of the plays that I’ve done because it was so much more collaborative. Once I had written a libretto in the first draft I began to work with Jeanine very closely; I wrote the words, she wrote the music with much overlap. We went through every word and every note very thoroughly. I had to learn a very different tempo in terms of how to do re-writes because if you’re doing a musical and you exchange a line, that changes any of the music. And in previews you’re dealing with giant and very cumbersome machinery, and orchestrations. The singers have to learn the music which is a very different process than just learning a new line so it was complicated. MJR: The musical spurred quite a reaction here at Chicago’s Court Theatre. Have audiences received the show differently in varying parts of the country? TK: I actually haven’t seen it in the South yet. It’s been done in a few places including Lake Charles. Everywhere that it’s been done it’s been very successful, people have responded with great enthusiasm. It was a big hit in London, it won the Olivier award. It’s done very well everywhere. Certainly there are times when it’s felt very different. Jeanine and I came out to see it in Chicago right before the election, right down the street from the Obama house. That was certainly a different kind of feeling, kind of an electric and exciting feeling to be let into the Court in the anticipation of the election. Last spring when it was at the Guthrie it was interesting to see the play post-Obama. Obviously the line when Noah says Caroline is the President of the United States meant one thing 45 years ago. Now when there actually is an African American president in the United States it has a slightly different quality. That’s true for most plays today; the surrounding context changes in locale and time, and they become different.

MJR: HBO has been showing Angels in America for the past month. That dramatic sequence was groundbreaking for several communities. How do you think LGBT issues have shaped theatre in the past two decades, and how has theatre informed the community? TK: Well I don’t think my play . I think that one could say that with Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart.   It coincided with relating to the AIDS epidemic for our community. Angels in America came around later. I have no idea what Angels did or didn’t accomplish beyond the fact that it’s a good play. And that’s the most I ever hoped for. The question of the relationship between LGBT politics and theatre is an interesting one. Obviously an enormous number of people who work in theatre are from the sexual minority area and community. I think there’s a reason for that. It’s where we’ve been contributing to theatre in percentages disproportionate to our percentage in the normal population. And I think that on one hand it’s the case that communities of the oppressed very often find a home in the theatre because people who are oppressed learn the difference between what something seems to be and what it actually is; irony, which is an important ingredient in the theatre, the shaking of reality- these are all things that are part of the everyday life of everyone who has a lived experience of oppression. So I think it makes sense that we would be found in greater numbers in the theatre. Theatre is always very quick to respond to moments of social crisis because it doesn’t take any money or particular organization of capital  to make a play. You just find a good writer, actors, director, and a theatre willing to do it and you can put together a play about any subject fairly quickly, certainly much more quickly than you can with most instances of film or television. Theatre is always a good quick response. It is also the place that we go to in order to grapple with social issues of real moment. If you allow Angels to be anything other than a good play, it allowed for a moment in the early 90s at the end of the first chapter to provide a public place for mourning the people who had died in the phase of the epidemic. It was also way of celebrating the end of the Reagan era; there was a great deal of release when Clinton beat the first Bush. We thought, however incorrectly, that we had closed the door on the nightmare of Reaganism which was a pernicious ideology that appeared at the same time as the AIDS virus. So I think that the play was about those things, connected to those things, and provided a public opportunity. MJR: You just finished wrapping up a new screenplay on both the life and work of Abraham Lincoln for Steven Spielberg. What provokes your interest in this particular era of our nation’s history? TK: I worked on for the last three years. We’re working on moving it into the next phase. It’s the time period where every tension and every unresolved conflict in American history prior to the Civil War came to a boil, and eventual explosion. Everything that this country is struggling to become emerges from the crucible of the Civil War. I think Abraham Lincoln, in my opinion, is inarguably our greatest president and one of the greatest people that ever lived- just a completely remarkable figure. I am tremendously interested in him and in his era. MJR: Your stage works are inherently both dialogic and dialectic in form. What keeps your interest in film as a narrative medium, especially since it is often one that focuses on the monologic story? TK: I think film is an extraordinary medium. Many great works of art in the 20th century were created by filmmakers. I feel that’s it’s more narrative driven than theatre, it’s certainly more all-encompassing kind of illusion. I think it doesn’t play as much as theatre does with questions of illusion and reality. To a certain extent I feel as though film is a degree more isolating, it’s perhaps less of a communal experience, though certainly the thing that all the audience’s attention is focused on does not respond to what the audience is telling it. It’s the same from one showing to the next. Obviously there are some stories that cannot be told onstage that can be told on film, there’s just a mathematical question of how many individuals can be reached by a film or television show as opposed to theatre. For me there’s a certain pleasure in surrendering the absolute authority; a playwright in the theatre has, if nothing else, the authority that comes from property ownership. I own the play, I rent the play to the producers, directors, and actors to perform, but it’s mine. When people get together to do a play one of the only common grounds they have to stand is the script. In film, it’s much more the director. The playwright doesn’t own his or her own words. It’s interesting to me and in some ways enjoyable to hand that authority over to somebody else and to be one person among a number who is working to create this final product, but not the person who finally has the decisive say in what it’s going to be. I’ve gotten to work with a few artists I admire enormously Steven Spielberg, Mike Nichols…that’s been thrilling. I got to watch both of them make a movie and I’ve learned a lot from doing that. MJR: You’ve noted before your concern of reducing characters, specifically individuals like Lincoln, into dramatic figures. Do you employ a different approach in humanizing characters for the stage as opposed to a screen medium? TK: Hamlet is a dramatic character, but there’s no reduction in Hamlet. I could think of a dozen film characters as rich as any human being could be. Lincoln is a genius on the level of Mozart or Shakespeare and it’s very difficult and possibly impossible for someone who isn’t a genius to come to any kind of understanding of how Lincoln did what he did. I think that it’s probably impossible for us to know those things. To try and create a dramatic device that is going to deliver the secret of Lincoln’s inner genius or the secret of how Mozart wrote the Requiem or how Shakespeare wrote Hamlet is kind of nonsense. You can’t do that. These are leaps of the human imagination that are so vast and so extraordinary, and rare, that they’re really in a certain sense immeasurable and incomprehensible. What we have is the consequence which is somewhat immeasurable and incomprehensible. There is no one who will ever say everything there is to say about Hamlet, it’s infinite as much as any human creation can be called infinite. I don’t feel that there is any necessary for dumbing down or reducing my ambition as a playwright because I am writing a screenplay. I feel that I can write characters that are just as rich onscreen as they are onstage. There are certain requirements that the forms have that are very different; language is different, the way you construct a character for a script that hopefully many different people will use or perform is different than when you’re writing a script for a director for one movie. So you have a sense that what you are doing is much more for a specific moment.

Tony Kushner, Jeanine Tesori at Court Theatre's CAROLINE OR CHANGE. MJR: Tell us about your process of developing a new work for stage production. TK: I don’t feel that I ever get inspired to do anything. Various impulses come at me during the course of a day just as they came at anybody. I read stories or I remember things that I’ve seen that seem of interest to me because I’m a playwright, that’s my job. I take note of those things and I write them down. If something that I’ve seen or been intrigued by sticks around, I’ll start to wonder if there is something in it that might become a play. If I feel clearer and clearer about why it’s interesting to me- whether it be a person, image, or event in history- I’ll start to keep a separate notebook about it and start to think of what could come as the basis of a play. You mull over five or six things at a time and for one reason or another one of them will the surface. MJR: Do you often find yourself become reclusive during this process? TK: I certainly try to . You should. It’s a good idea to do that. It’s always a mistake to not make that kind of time, but it’s one of the hard things about being a playwright. Part of our time is spent in rooms with a lot of people. Isolation is hard for everybody but for some people it’s easier. If you can’t handle isolation you certainly should not be a novelist or a poet. Playwrights I think in general have a tricky balancing act to do between providing material for the excitement and electricity and sexual heat of a rehearsal room-also the fun and terror of being in the theatre with an audience- and being alone in a room. When I’m really deep in the first draft of a play or screenplay I become slightly antisocial. It’s very hard to talk to people, to be out in the world. I think that everybody who writes experiences this to some extent. You have to kind of smooth your skin away and become available to becoming other people, so you lower boundaries and you remove skin and you make yourself slightly less well-organized than you are in everyday life. It’s hard to go out in public that way. I think it’s easier if you can get the play done in the first draft and then resume your public life; otherwise I think you feel sort of unpresentable and you probably are .  Read the full article

[grelleswife]

Okay, you don't have to answer this at all if you can't, don't feel comfortable about it, but I find myself way too curious after reading about your reaper!Sebastian and everything you've thought up of his backstory so far. So, I just have to ask, how did he end it? How do you think this human Sebastian Michaelis ended his life and become a reaper? As everyone knows Sebastian the demon, and his personality, it's very hard to imagine a Sebastian that would be that vulnerable and would give up.

Hi, anon! An excellent question. To answer, I’ll have to explain a bit about Bassy got to such a dark mental state.

I think the root of the problem would be in how he was raised. Although Claudia did love him in her way, he was also a living embodiment of a grave lapse in her Watchdog responsibilities--having a child out of wedlock with a trained killer working for a rival nation isn’t really something Watchdogs are supposed to do, after all. So little Sebastian was forcibly taught about the importance of duty and devoting everything he had to fulfilling his obligations. After Vincent was born (ensuring a legitimate heir to the Watchdog title), Claudia, realizing the extent of child!Sebastian’s potential (physically and intellectually), started training him to become Vincent’s butler. Think of the way Real!Ciel received Watchdog training from the time he was a little tyke in canon. In other words, Sebastian was brought up with the mindset that every action had to be devoted to serving the Phantomhive house to the absolute best of his ability. (of course, his relationship with Vincent was a bit complicated due to jealousy and such, but that’s another story) Bassy was an excellent butler, but, in the end...

He couldn’t prevent his mother from being poisoned by enemies when he and Vincent were adolescents

He couldn’t save Vincent, Rachel, and Real!Ciel (maybe he’d be Ciel and our Earl would be Astre in this verse?) when a well-coordinated, large-scale assault was launched on the manor. I need to think of the details, but Sebastian and the other servants were vastly outnumbered, so it was an unfair fight from the getgo. Bassy managed to escape with O!Ciel (yeah, I think he’ll be Astre in the AU) and Tanaka, which was an accomplishment in and of itself considering the situation. However, Sebastian blamed himself for not being able to rescue the other Phantomhives. In his mind, he’d failed. He resolved that he would never fail again, that he really would be the perfect Phantomhive butler, and yet...

He couldn’t save Astre, and this is what pushed him over the edge. Our little Earl was doing an amazing job at being Watchdog, he and Sebastian became really close (in a wholesome father/son dynamic sort of way), and Bassy protected the boy from all his foes, yet the butler was thwarted by his master’s own fragile health. I think the asthma attack might have happened while Astre was working on a case, so Sebastian just couldn’t get him to a doctor in time (and it’s not like they could carry around an inhaler in Victorian England). Bassy’s entire life purpose--serving the Phantomhives--was just...gone. In a few instants. The fact that he cared for Astre as a family member and not merely a master made it all the more soul-crushing.

Sebastian felt lost and hopeless, not to mention eaten up with guilt. What right did he have to go on living when the rest of the family had died? What was he even supposed to do now that his raison d’etre had vanished? Keep in mind also that this Sebastian lacks the oversized ego and sense of self-importance that canon Bassy has, and he was rather lonely and isolated in certain respects. So, shortly after Astre’s funeral, he locked himself in his room and slit his throat with a knife (he still has an affinity for them in this AU), and he became a reaper.

I’ll need to develop this more, obviously, but that’s the gist of it. Poor Sebas.

[erickadracula]

The Legacy continues - Second & Final part

   Van Helsing was in his room, he just woke up a few minutes ago and he had been informed that they were waiting for him.

   To Ericka, this notion of meeting them up in his rooms and not in his library or his study or in any other part of the house and the fact that he did not met up with them immediately when they arrived was very strange. Her great-grandfather was a man of customs and oddities.

   That room was completely disorganized, with the curtains completely shut, books and artifacts placed in no specific order on the floor, furniture here and there, boxes, it was as if he were moving out. That space was easily triple of the room her parents had and there was a heavy atmosphere, and despite the size, it was as if the air did not circulate.

   In the midst of all that chaos were three desks, in the middle, in the largest solid wood carved with oriental motifs, he was there among mountains of papers and notebooks.

   "I brought you here, because I made a decision. In these documents that are classified by properties, accounts, investments, funds, and the inventory of what is in this, and other properties, such as works of art, airplanes, cars and of course, in a separate folder, everything related to the cruise that I know it is what matters the most to you. As you well know, you are my universal heir. I fixed things so that it is easier for you to manage everything and for you not having to come continuously. You will be able to realize that my secretary and my lawyer will be present to advise you.”

   She turned quickly to see those gentlemen in dark suits, who were in the other two desks, Ericka had only been able to have a few moments alone with her great-grandfather when they came to take their places. After many months without seeing him and wanting to talk to him, her expectations fell to the ground when her great-grandfather sent for them and began talking about all that in the coldest way possible.

   "What is happening?. I’m asking for an explanation, I’m not asking it, I’m demanding it from you. You make me come here and you are not happy to see me, without wanting to tell me anything, very typical of you, but still ... without telling me you give me all this, I do not know why I’m still surprised with your attitudes " astonished by that bombing of information, while making a sign with her hand so that the lawyer would stop putting those folders in front of her.

   Drac had noticed Van Helsing tired and with little vitality, even his voice was much lower and he looked much more emaciated and pale than when he had last seen him. According to his wife, he acted erratic and he also believed it, this man had persecuted him for years and had been anything but erratic and less regarding the elaboration of his plans, if he had not been a vampire, he accepted that Abraham's strategies would have been lethal .

   “You may leave us alone”

   The gentlemen immediately got up and started making their exit, Drac considered that it might be appropriate if he left too and let them talk with more privacy.

   "No, not you Dracula, you are my great-granddaughter's husband and she is going to need you"

   Van Helsing had agreed that the two would get married, he had even gone to the castle a few times and had stopped making inappropriate comments about him, but what he had never done was to accept his position until that day "

   Dracula, still very surprised at those words could see what was going on, clairvoyance was not necessary at this time and he was holding Ericka's hand, he had to let her know that she was not alone anymore.

   "Ericka" he cleared his throat to get more clarity "I know that our relationship has not been easy but I want you to know that everything I have done is for your own good and even so ... if I have made a mistake I apologize, I did not with a bad intention "

   "What is your intention with all this, I come to this house for the first time, where I was born and where my parents lived, maybe looking for something more than your answers, maybe affection, surprised even that you have my room exactly as it was and you…"

   "Ericka" Drac interrupted her as he interlaced his fingers even more with hers "let him talk, I ask you, please"

   Seeing his seriousness and the he had intervened for her great grandfather, made her even more confused, she did not understand what that was about and because even he seemed to be aware of what was happening, everyone in this place, except her. Breathing deeply, trying to hold back, she heeded the vampire’s words.

   "Thank you" seeing him with a look of complicity "Now I see you as a fulfilled, happy, successful woman and even making a career in hospitality and starting your own family, as I was saying I have made a decision and I can take it with a complete peace of mind because I finally feel that I’m leaving you in good hands" looking directly at Dracula and without any kind of grudge in his eyes.

   Walking through the Hall of the Honorable, named like that because there were portraits of all the Van Helsing throughout history, Ericka and her great-grandfather were having a moment alone.

   She looked visibly affected and her eyes were red, she had finished crying and Abraham had too. Ericka had knelt at his height, giving him her hand and listening intently.

   "I'm going to tell you the story of our family again, so that you won’t forget it, remember it and learn from it."

   In that hall, there were easily dozens of paintings but only three stood out.

   The first portrait on the left was of an elderly man with a fearsome face dressed in a traditional red suit, dating from the time of Ivan the Terrible, the first Russian monarch to adopt the title of Czar. On his shoulders was the skin of a black bear and he was holding a saber. His ancestor had commanded the troops of the czar himself and it is believed that thanks to his tactics they conquered more territories for the Russian Empire, including Siberia, then he decided to form a select group of monster hunters trained by himself. He was known as “the terrible one” by his own troops for his bloodthirsty methods.

   On the portrait on the right , which bore a striking resemblance to Abraham as a young man, dressed in full gala uniform, had been the first of the Van Helsing’s to formally settle in the Netherlands at that time known as the 17 provinces, thanks to his intervention in the 80 years war the Netherlands obtained their independence from the Spanish Crown. Following the legacy of his ancestors he continued with research and development of new types of firearms to be used against the monsters.

   The portrait in the middle, of the only woman who was there and was part of the outstanding Van Helsings, was the one that caught her attention the most, and it was one of the oldest. She had never seen a look as terrifying as that woman's, who wore a heavy armor from head to toe and wielded a sword. She was the most prominent of all, the one who had managed to cause the most terror and had proclaimed herself to be the first vampire hunter. The legends told that after days in an arduous crusade against vampires, of a massacre, almost ending with everyone, and she being one of the few survivors, the leader of them arrived and seeing his subordinates massacred instead of lashing out against the person in charge, he congratulated her, for her braveness, she without fear knowing that she was going to die, confronted him and he spared her life, because of the great battle she had given, even being a simple human, from that day they knew her as the “Queen of Steel”.

   Dumbfounded about that fact, had she not been the first Van Helsings to which a vampire had spared its life it made her see that in one way or another her life was always going to be linked to them.

   "Ericka, for days she fought against them without caring for her life, with only a fixed idea, that she was doing good" it was hard for him to breathe, with a weak complexion, visibly agitated.

   "Great-grandfather, you want us to go back to your room?, being here is getting bad for you" standing up in order to go ask for help and looking around if Drac or the butler were close.

   "Now I can see it well, it was no coincidence that this happened, the vampire she faced was Vlad" holding his hands together as his eyes fell on that imposing painting, looking at it searching for the right words.

   The mention of that made her feel dazed

   "That's already in the past, you do not have to get upset” she was worried that internally, he could continue feeling resentment against the vampires, he did not want his husband to listen to him, not when everything seemed going better between the two of them.

   "She could not stand it, for years she tried to survive with that and decided to commit suicide, it was a more honorable death than to continue living because a vampire took pity on her and what I mean ..."

   Never in her life had she seen her great-grandfather like that, so helpless, confessing those things and looking so miserable and somehow, she also felt anger.

   "There's no point in telling me all that right now" she wiped some tears from her eyes trying that him wouldn’t notice them "I think we talked enough about this, it's better to go back"

   “It really is the whole point, little one" looking at her tenderly "you are the only one who deserves to be here, the one who could see the truth, strong enough to see her mistakes"

   All this caused a lot of confusion in her head, first he was telling her about their ancestors in such a proud way, that at the time, when she was young, her breast also swelled with pride and today, she could only feel pity and some shame to belong to a family that had lashed out against innocent monsters for centuries and then he ended up saying that he was proud of her, when the only thing she had done was to defect, and she had not had any outstanding achievements as those characters.

   "Your courage and your heart, Ericka, have left me a lesson that I will never forget" Approaching the only painting covered with a canvas, of the same dimensions as the previous ones. "You can come out now, Dracula"

   Ericka, surprised turned to see both directions of the hall, when she saw that from the top of one of the walls, emerged a very familiar bat.

   Transfiguring, leaving a trail of purple fog behind, he stood next to the platinum blonde woman, seeing her with a little guilt.

   “Drac, what are you doing here?”

   “I asked him dear, you need him by your side besides, what I have to show you also involves him" seeing him gratefully . "Do me the honor”

   Drac nodded his head, uncovered the painting with a single pull.

   She, without words seeing that oil, could recognize herself in her captain attire and next to her was Drac, both holding hands with an expression of happiness.

   "What ... is ... this"  she found it hard to pronounce the words while Drac and his great-grandfather smiled at her.

   "Your own legacy, I do not think it deserves to be in this place, it should be somewhere better"

   "Thank you very much, Abraham" moved by that detail while Ericka collapsed and he held her wrapping his arms around her.

   It had been two days since Abraham had decided to take his life support and die with dignity. He died peacefully, taking the hand of the person he always adored and with a smile on his lips and after many years, being completely him. In his other hand was his diary full of photos and memories of those who had left and with whom he would soon be reunited.

   “Live 10, 100 or 1000 years, but lived them being happy”