#and her mezzo wife

[emrowene]

Favorite Character Poll

Thank you for the tag, @cain-e-brookman!! (I'm team Crucius in your poll. You had me at "haughty" lol) I've been meaning to do something like this for a while, so I'm very excited :3

Rules: list all your main ocs and give brief descriptions of them. then, create a poll with their names and allow your followers to vote on who their favorite character is.

I'll be doing the 4 main characters from Fractured Magic!

Roman Hallisey

Roman is held together by bandaids, superglue and guilt. He's lived a long time and has done many things (good and bad), and they weigh heavily on him. Despite it all, his optimism shines through: he believes that people are good, that things get better, that we can overcome past mistakes. He's vibrant and enthusiastic, always ready to smile, laugh, or flirt, to embrace strangers and make them feel valued. When he sees people in trouble, he must step in (even if helping them will mean harm for himself).

Secretly, he has a dark side, one he represses to keep his ruthless efficiency and corrupt magic from consuming him. When it comes to showing vulnerability, he can be flighty. This has, predictably, made his past friendships and relationships fraught. He likes new foods and making friends (though he's not great at keeping them). He hates stitches and politicians.

Leandros Nochdvor

Leandros is very good at hiding that he has no clue what he's doing. It's a skill one must learn as a wayward prince, along with having false confidence and thick skin, though he could do without the imposter syndrome that comes with it. He's an intense person who commits with everything he has, loves with his whole heart, and holds onto his grudges until he's seen them repaid. When his uncle gets kidnapped, he will see the kidnappers pay, even when said kidnappers turn out to be gods and monsters that he can never beat alone.

From a distance, Leandros seems stern and cold, but once you get close, you see the kindness and care beneath. He has a soft sense of humor, a curiosity for idiosyncrasies. He likes penny dreadfuls and the hero Egil. He hates gossip and unexpected rain.

Maebhe Cairn

Maebhe simultaneously has the best and worst luck in the entire book. The worst, because she keeps finding herself in the middle of world-changing disasters, and the best because she somehow always makes it work out - not just for her, but for the world at large. When she punches a cop and ends up on the run, it draws the absent hero Egil out of hiding. When she's dragged into a definitely-haunted-castle, she saves a king. When she discovers the last surviving member of an extinct subset of dragons, she gains a key to a mystery everyone is trying to solve. When she meets the undead wife of an evil, forgotten god, she somehow manages to befriend her.

Maebhe is loud and impulsive, sporty and bold. She likes discovering secret, hidden spots and playing "Which one of us is Hikaru?" with her twin. She dislikes public speaking and old superstitions.

Dinara Condeh

Dinara's worst crime is having terrible taste in men. After a couple of bad breakups open her eyes to more of the world, she leaves behind her blooming acting career for something a little more fulfilling: revolution. She's a kind, perceptive person who will do anything to help the people around her, even when that requires abandoning comfort and conquering fear.

While she's no fighter, she demands change in all the ways that she can: by lending her voice and appealing to hearts, by making friends in strange places and showing compassion when it's least expected. She loves musical roles for mezzos and getting drinks with friends. She hates secrets and wool clothing.

(in turn, I'm going to tag @akiwitch, @warthogreporter, @ftmerriweather, and @avengersaddict

[libras-interactives]

Because i didn't find anything related to voices, i wanted to ask what the casts voices sound like?

Is this a way of trying to figure out where flynn comes from...nooooo

hmmm i dont know if im the best at describing voices but I tried! This got away from me so I put a cut ^^;

Marius - He has a very charming and silky sort of voice, that's pleasant to listen to. My man could do ASMR and audiobooks. It's even pleasanter when he speaks his native tongue, in English sometimes he has to halt around unfamiliar words... or he just barrels forward and says it wrong. Oh well.

Jack - Deeper than most people would expect (or maybe they'd expect that?) Compared to the others, he speaks slowly, and with his low drawl. He trails off sometimes and mutters when annoyed or unsure. He doesn't enunciate very well and fumbles nervously with big words, so he tries to avoid them.

Eveline - Soft enough that you may have to lean in to hear better, enunciates well around English words and has a sort of breathy way of speaking. She speaks faster in French. In English she has to maintain an image. It takes a lot to get her to raise her voice, and it's often frantic, and her accent slips out more. Her singing voice is the polar opposite, loud and operatic. She's a soprano.

Lottie - Higher pitched than Eveline, though she likes to go up and down to emphasize points or be silly. She has traces of a New Jersey accent and generally speaks lots of slang. Her singing voice is bombastic and theatric; she's not afraid of making weird faces or exaggerating her voice to put more 'oomf' into the performance. She's a mezzo-soprano.

Máire - She has a deep, smooth voice with a thick, lilting Irish accent that she refuses to modify. She speaks slower than most, but she'll absolutely raise her voice and snap at someone annoying her. She's an alto. When Máire starts speaking lowly and that accent gets thicker ... You Are In Trouble.

Malwina - A higher-pitched voice, which isn't too surprising, with a Polish accent that she's been trying to curb. It's tough when she's excited or upset, though. Some English words give her a lot of trouble, so she talks slower around them. Her singing voice is a soprano, and is very pleasant and airy. Her voice cracks when she's upset.

Slyvester - His tone is fairly normal (not too deep or too high) and he has a strong New Yorker accent, but notably not a posh one. It's like he's trying hard to not sound lower-class, but doesn't have the proper vocabulary or tone of the upper-crust. His Italian has a strong American accent when he speaks it, and he can't quite get the cadence right, but it's comprehensible. Because of his wife and her family, sometimes he uses the Italian word for something.

Little Lottie - She speaks quietly and haltingly. The pitch isn't too different from a typical little girl, maybe a bit flat, and it's hard to find any kind of accent in it. She stumbles over words when she's excited and pronounces them wrong.

Flynn - He speaks with a crisp, upper-crust sort of accent that doesn't have too many airs. Flynn enunciates himself clearly, and when he starts talking slower, that's when you need to listen. His tone is on the lower register, moreso when he's upset. In the courtroom he intones and adjusts and enunciates just so in order to get his point across. He really has a talent for it. When truly angry, bits of an accent will slip out, though it's hard to place it in the moment. Those who've heard him swear in a different tongue don't live to tell about it.

Cora - A crisp, learned mid-Atlantic accent that's as inoffensive as possible. She's always spoken quickly and enunciates each word as she rambles. It's kind of impressive.

Roxie has a nasally, high-pitched voice with such over-the-top slang and weird enunciation, no one really believes it's her real voice. She alternates between speaking rapidly or dragging out every word, mostly to annoy. When speaking to strangers, Ezra's voice is noticeably lower than when he's with friends. He has a slight Southern drawl to it and speaks on the slower side. Krooks has a mishmash of Gerglish/Engman (?) and it's a mess to listen to regardless which language you speak. He can speak English or German fully, but most of the time (esp when drunk or tired) he just mixes them together chaotically.

Paulie speaks very differently from Polly; the former is smooth and deep and charming, the latter is more giggly, higher-pitched and leans more into a Chicago accent. Singing as Polly is more comfortable and fun than singing as Paulie. Italian Mary/Mariana has been trying to rid herself of her Italian accent, but it keeps slipping in when she's upset, and there's no faking she's from Brooklyn. Louisa Faye has a well-polished Southern accent, allowing her to sound dainty and distinguished rather than low-class. You'd never guess she's from deep rural Alabama. Gertrude/Gigi has been steadily chipping away her German accent, and speaks fairly "neutrally" on purpose. Ruthie has a distinct Yiddish accent to her speech, and completely changes to something "neutral" when with customers. When she's drunk ask her to imitate someone, and she can do it near perfectly, it's great. Drives Mariana insane.

[poppitron360]

I started reminiscing about my GCSE years, and decided to try and write a GCSE-Music-style analytical essay on Helluva Boss songs. I ended up getting... Somewhat carried away.

How the different elements of music are used in "House of Asmodeus".

When Moxxie starts singing the melody is conjunct, and the texture is homophonic, with only simple guitar chords+vocals. This simple, classically romantic style of song perfectly represents his love for Millie. After the glockenspiel kicks in, we hear a syncopated clapping rhythm along with his guitar, moving the music away from the diagetic, symbolising their more whimsical love. As soon as Fizz and Ozz start mocking him, the guitar fades.

Ozz and Fizz's first lines are a capella, with a short, 2-note, chromatic saxophone phrase playing in between each line. As Fizz introduces Ozz, each line is punctuated with a staccato saxophone note. We first hear the piano play a sweet, high pitched note at the word "luuuuust".

Ozz then sings mezzo-piano, each line increasing in dynamics, punctuated again by a saxophone, and accompanied by a staccato piano. (This is also where Fizz plays the pretend trumpet- a hint at their own wacky, supportive relationship). He then changes tone, with the piano and bass becoming legato, and accompanying him with a descending chord progression, and you can also hear an arpegiated guitar. This is him mocking Moxie's simple, romantic tune, he then moves back to his a capella arrangement with each line punctuated by staccato notes, desplaying his brutality. He then continues in that fashion, only now accompanied by staccato guitar strumming, parallel to Moxxie's song, but in a minor key. He then continues onto the chorus, the lines previously played by Fizz's imaginary trumpet now done by the piano. During Ozz's "belt moment", the orchestra becomes legato.

Moxxie begins to sing again, moving to his simple major tune, before Ozz takes over again, now accompanied by a slightly different rhythm, the chords going from staccato to legato as they descend chromatically. Interestingly, Ozzie ends this verse in major, and you can hear a short, sweet, melody playing on the glockenspiel. This is as he attacks Millie, calling her an "unsatisfied bride". This juxtaposes his comment, showing that the M&Ms aren't affected by it.

As Blitzø starts talking, the acompanyment slowly crescendos, at a slower tempo, the glockenspiel and guitar being the main instruments you can hear, including when Fizz responds, as they're used in this song to represent sweetness, this forshaddows how Fizz and Blitzø's rivalry has a less bitter ending, and also represents how Blitzø's standing up for the M&Ms.

The electric guitar takes over when Verosica sings, and simple backing vocals are heard in between her lines, reflecting her own style of music. As she disses Blitz, the acompanyment moves up in an ascending bassline.

When Fizzmodeus starts singing about Stolitz, they move back to their previous a capella arrangement, with the orchestra's staccato punctuation being descending rather than ascending, showing how messy and unstable Stolitz is. Ozz's lines are then accompanied again, giving him more power, so when he calls Stolas out on giving up his wife and child for Blitzø, and the acompanyment becomes legato, it leaves a lasting effect.

When he belts his closing lines, every instrument punctuates the lines, the piano playing a short, jazzy descending line after "thrust". Then the lines become accompanied again by staccato instruments. The finale line "in the house of Asmodeus," you can just about hear ornamentation on the piano over the fireworks, before it's cut short by Millie knocking out Fizz.

Moxxie then resumes his simple strumming, the glockenspiel playing a sweet descending line as they lift, the harp swells, and then plays along with the, now even simpler played, guitar. We end with moxxie finishing his line a capella, they kiss, the crowd cheers, Blitzø then ruins the moment by rejecting Stolas wtf.

[rainismdata]

House MD: Original Character

Anji Foxx-Knight, one of PPTH's Ambulance Operator and automotive technician.

Name: Anji Foxx-Knight

Nickname: Anji, Foxx

Specialty: Automotive Technician

Education: Technical School, certified on Automotive Service Excellence, Emergency Vehicle Operator, and Paramedic

Season Appereance: 1, 4-8

Character Informations:

Born in 1977 (will be 27y.o in 2004, and 47 in 2024)

Pronouns is she/they but conversationally prefers to be referred simply by Anji rather than using pronouns

Biromantic-demisexual

Education and Employment:

Freshly certified on Automotive Service Excellence in 1999. Took the Emergency Vehicle Operator certification on the same year.

Becoming Paramedic in season 2 until the middle of season 4. She was encouraged by Cuddy and Cameron to took the trainings.

Remains as one of the PPTH's Ambulance driver, while also taking care of the Ambulance vehicles, and become Paramedic for Emergency.

A part of Emergency Department

Health Condition:

Hypertension. Managable with medications and taking care of her own consumptions; even though sometimes would get nosebleeds or insomnia.

Much Much Information:

She plays Bass, Drum, and Flute. Mezzo-soprano and Alto singer. Always got her earphone near; enjoys classical, metal, and pop songs.

Left handed.

Owns 2005 Ford F-150

Has a twin brother, Araya Foxx-Knight, a librarian. Later then live with his husband since 2013.

Also has an older brother, Abhimanyu Foxx-Knight (b. 1975), a mechanic (has his own garage/repair shop and warehouse for automotive service). Later then live with his wife and kids near their warehouse since 2009.

Living not far from the PPTH, with her brothers and mother (Anjani Foxx-Knight)

Looks like sisters with her mother because Anjani looks younger than her age (b. 1953)

somewhat snarky and cunning, mostly a bright person despite of her dressing up in dark colored outfits

The Three siblings are taking care of her mother, but she lives with Anji. Mostly having picnic or just driving away to the mountains or beach with Anji. While sometimes would live with Abhi and playing with her grandchildren. Sometimes would also live in Araya's house, getting full course treatments from Araya's husband who is a chef.

Both Anjani and hes husband (Anji's father) were also mechanics. While Anjani is originally technician. (I guess it runs in the family)

Additional Plot Informations:

Is having a crush for Kutner, and getting close with him in season 5. Kutner death has broke her heart she didn't know she could feel before. Both Kutner and Anji acted like there's nothing special between them. She felt like his death was her fault.

Starting from Season 4, she sometimes would help drives House' fellows to patients houses. It was Kutner who's asking her for the first time. But, then it just becoming a regular thing when there's no emergency needed, until the end of the series.

Taub is the only one who knows about Anji and Kutner's relationship. Telling her to take a break. While they both know they can't get away with Kutner's death because they both devastated; but they have to.

Anji remains in PPTH, she likes it anyway to work there, too comfortable enough with the memories and the experiences.

Her family loved Kutner; it also includes her nephews and nieces. She doesn't always come to Kutner's grave. She would just do it twice every year; on Kutner's birthday and his death date. It's her way to celebrate the life and death of Lawrence Kutner. She puts one small selfie picture of Anji and Kutner with their silly pose in her wallet.

She works on shift, but when needed, she would drove her Ford for emergencies. PPTH staffs would pay her for a service if they're having trouble with their car or will be referred to go to Abhi's warehouse if their car need more advanced service.

Physical Appereance:

5'7", black with neon blue highlighted shoulder-long hair (always in two dutch braids), hazel eyes, dresses in paramedic uniforms when working on ambulance/emergency, dresses in dark colored baggy overall but fitted for the top for technical/mechanic times, monochromatic outfits with silver accents for daily, wears retro glasses with tinted lenses when not working in emergency/ambulance.

[opera-ghosts]

D’ALTON, Helen [SHEA, Mary Ellen] (b South Terrace, Cork, c 1850; d 5 Curlew Street, Horsleydown, London 16 March 1893)

'One of the purest contraltos to which the sister isle ever gave birth' (The Standard, 1874).

Irish mezzo-soprano who found success as a ballad singer in the 1870s and 1880s.

Mary Ellen Shea was born in Cork, the daughter of John Shea, Esq., JP (b St John’s, Newfoundland 2 July 1803; d St Anne’s Hill, Blarney, Cork 9 October 1858), a merchant, magistrate and sometime mayor of Cork, and his wife Mary Agnes née Corbett (m 21 April 1836). Shea and his father-in-law, Dan Corbett ‘of South Mall, Cork), were leading lights in the organization of Cork’s National Exhibition of 1852, and Corbett was also known locally as a ‘jovial’ amateur actor and vocalist.

Mrs Shea ‘of Buckingham Place’ gave birth to a son, Henry John Francis on 14 June 1837, another on 24 May 1842, another on 18 July 1843, lost an Edward C (‘fourth son’) 5 October 1844 aged 2 1/2 … but doesn’t seem to have gone to the press with the birth of her ‘?only’ daughter.

Miss Shea studied singing with Mrs Charlotte [Sims] Reeves, and came out, for what seems to have been the first time, under the name of Mlle Hélène D’Alton (an improbable, but Irish high-society, surname), at an Ash Wednesday Concert at Drury Lane, 10 February 1869. She gave ‘Il segreto’, ‘O Rest in the Lord’ and joined the Doria sisters in the Athalie music. 

Later in the season (31 July), she sang at the Crystal Palace, alongside Christine Nilsson, Clarice Sinico, Vernon Rigby and Foli, and was favourably noticed as ‘a young lady with a very pleasing contralto voice who sang touchingly the devotional air ‘O Lord, Thou hast searched me out’ from The Woman of Samaria and ‘Gentle troubadour’. The Morning Post confirmed ‘[she] ‘sang her two airs most beautifully. She has a remarkably touching quality of voice and her style is polished and confident; her voice, a mezzo-soprano of unusual clearness, travelled to the extremity of the transept with brilliant effect’.

Mlle D’Alton was engaged to appear at George Wood’s Saturday Evening Concerts at Exeter Hall in the new year, alongside Reeves, Santley, Foli and Mlles Sinico and Monbelli (‘The Gipsies Home’, Barnett’s ‘Old Familiar Friend’), after which she accompanied Santley, Mlle Sinico and another pupil of Mrs Reeves, Annie Edmonds, to Ireland (‘the Santley concerts’) and on 17 February 1870 made her first professional appearance in her home town (‘The Gipsies' Home’, Levey’s ‘Baby Mine’ and ‘Come Home, My Sailor Boy’, Blumenthal’s ‘When we are parted’, ‘Sainted Mother’ with Miss Edmonds). The reviews paid homage to her late father, and Ireland confirmed: ‘This young lady has a voice of great richness, uncommon compass and fine free tone. She sings with judgement, proves a good education, and excited a genuine admiration. She is likely to be very successful.’ ‘She always sings with truth, has admirable restraint, never exaggerates, and is sure to please’.

Back in London, Miss Helen D’Alton was billed with another young Mrs-Reeves-trained vocalist, the Scottish Jane Allan Stephen, in Sims Reeves’s Benefit concert (18 March), and over the following seasons, the said Miss D’Alton would appear, on frequent occasions, on concert bills in which Reeves was starred, both in London and in the provinces.

In between, she appeared at the Crystal Palace (14 May 1870) with the stars of the Italian opera, at the Glasgow Saturday Evening Concerts (‘Scenes of youth’, ‘Rich are rare were the jewels’, ‘Looking Back’), and made a single Ash Wednesday appearance at the Boosey Ballad Concerts (22 February 1871, ‘The Blind Girl’s Dream’ with ‘genuine feeling and expression’, Hawes’s ‘I’ll speak of thee’ and ‘O’er shepherd’s pipe’ with Santley). She gave her ‘Blind Girl’s Dream’, alongside Reeves and Santley, at Leicester, and, on 29 April 1871, she sang the title-role, alongside Mme Lemmens-Sherrington, Reeves and Patey, in Roeckel’s cantata The Fair Rosamund at the Crystal Palace and, the following year, his The Sea Maidens ('Maiden Muriel'). At Mr Austin’s concert she sang ‘I dreamed I was in heaven’ from Naaman, and she ventured wholly into oratorio with a Messiah with the National Choral Society, the Rossini Stabat Mater at the Covent Garden proms, an Israel in Egypt with Reeves at the Sacred Harmonic Society and in Carter’s Evangeline at the Albert Hall.

The oratorio experience was evidently not wholly convincing. Over the years that followed, Miss D’Alton would appear, on occasion, in oratorio – from The Messiah (‘scarcely seemed equal to the contralto music’, Manchester, 'scarcely powerful enough for so large a hall' Birmingham) to The Light of the World and The Prodigal Son (Manchester, 7 February 1874), Judas Maccabeus at Bristol, Jephtha/Last Judgement at Cardiff  -- in the provinces, but her frequent London engagements were almost entirely in concert, where her evident speciality was modern ballad music. Pieces such as Mme Sainton-Dolby’s ‘He thinks I do not love him’, Sullivan’s ‘Golden Days’, The Distant Shore’, Looking back' and ‘Will He Come?’, Odoardo Barri’s ‘Mizpah’, ‘Love’s Golden Past’ and ‘The Shadow of the Cross’, Virginia Gabriel’s ‘A Shadow’, Gounod’s ‘Oh that we two were maying’, ‘Meeting Again’ by Cotsford Dick or Charles Salaman’s ‘Eva Tual’ and ‘Loved One’ were delivered in her ‘tuneful contralto voice and unobtrusive style’, her ‘excellent contralto voice and unaffected style’, to good effect. Very occasionally an operatic piece – ‘Ah! s’estinto’, 'Araby, dear Araby' or ‘Quando a te lieta’ – would appear alongside the new ballads, and the classic ones ('The Harp  that once through Tara's Halls, 'O, Erin my country', Samuel Lover’s ‘What will you do, love?’, 'John Anderson, my Jo', 'By the sad sea waves'), a little more frequently an item from oratorio (Hiller's 'Lord, whom my immortal soul'), but rarely did Miss D’Alton venture into the world of the dramatic. I spot her, in 1874, singing in a selection from The Bohemian Girl at the Albert Hall, in 1875, during a modest appearance at the Norwich Festival, as a late replacement, she sang in some pieces of a local operetta, The Science of Love, and in 1878 she took part in a concert performance of Il Trovatore at the Royal Aquarium.

Miss D’Alton, in fact, became quite a regular at the Royal Aquarium where, apart from ballads and the ephemeral operatic experience, she also sang several times in the Stabat Mater (alongside the fireworks and freak shows), and she became an equally familiar presence at the promenade concerts staged annually at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. She took part in these ‘proms’ as late as 1887. On several occasions, too, she appeared in the prestigious Boosey Ballad Concerts (‘My Love has gone a sailing’ by Molloy, Linley's ‘Primroses deck the bank's green side’, ‘The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington’), but without becoming a regular participant.

For a number of years, the 'clever and popular young vocalist' went on the road with Sims Reeves, in varying concert party combinations, alongside Gertrude Cave-Ashton, Foli, Agnes Larkcom et al – and again with Edith Wynne – but her name appeared, it seemed, most frequently on the ballad sheet-music which flowed from the various publishers’ lists: Cowen’s ‘The Better Land’, 'Love and Duty' and ‘A Song and a Rose’, Molloy’s ‘The Old Street Lamp’, ‘The Harbour Bar’, Ignace Gibsone’s ‘The Missing Ship’, Roeckel’s ‘Poppies in the Corn’ and 'A Midnight Song', Stephen Adams’s ‘In heart we both are young’, ‘The Children of the City’ and ‘True Hearts’, ‘I cannot forget’, Blumenthal’s ‘The Old, Old Story’ and ‘Lucy Gray’, Moulton’s ‘Beware’ and ‘I love my love’, Fanning’s ‘Something sweet to tell you’, Campana’s ‘Her Faithful Heart’, Milton Wellings’s ‘Young love that slumbers’, Owen Hope’s ‘In Happier Days’, Caroline Lowthian’s ‘Gates of the West’, Malcolm Watson's 'A Winter Story', as an adjunct to Antoinette Sterling on ‘The Lost Chord’ and to Mme Sainton-Dolby on a number of songs, and, latterly, on the songs of Isidore de Lara ('The Garden of Sleep', 'Once and For Ever'). As late as 1889, Miss D’Alton appeared on the bills of the Monday pops, with a new song by Maude Valerie White.

By the middle of the 1880s, however, she was appearing much less in public and, apart from the Covent Garden proms, largely in charity concerts and on fashionable society programmes. By the time, in 1889 (14 August), that she became the wife of Mr Fallon Percy Wightwick MD MRCS LRCP MB, a well-known medical man, she was appearing only a handful of times a season.

Helen D’Alton’ died just a few years after her marriage, and her obituary insisted that she was ‘a few years ago a highly popular contralto vocalist’. Which was more or less true. ‘Tuneful contralto voice and unobtrusive style’ had probably described her better.

It also insisted that she was thirty-eight years of age. Which was not true at all.She (vocalist, aged 20) and widowed mamma (52) can be seen lodging in Salisbury Street, Westminster in 1871 …

[kdnss77]

Kite/A Kite (1998) + Kite Liberator (2008)

i've decided to elaborate on these two at one time, so as to present a somewhat accurate comparison (especially because they're, despite the appearances, superficially connected).

basic info: both titles were written and directed by Yasuomi Umetsu (also known for collaboration within releasing "Robot Carnival" or "Mezzo Forte"), as well as circle around the themes of sci-fi, violence and adult content - the two-episode ova and its sequel feature a teenage assassin fighting crime, resulting in loosely explicit scenes.

overall ratings: imdb: 6,6/10 + 5,5/10 letterboxd: 3,3/5 + 2,8/5

plot summary: the first movie had been originally parted into two episodes, later being combined into a length of an ova (it also received its uncut and therefore uncensored version). its protagonist, Sawa, is an orphaned schoolgirl making a living out of working as a qualified assassin. her job consists in sentencing to death individuals presumably suspected of pedophilia or abuse against minors - beforehand indicated by her supervisor and initial caretaker, Akai (with whom she also maintains a sexual relationship). her seemingly supreme goal is to obtain the identity of the one standing behind the death of her parents, although it's later revealed she has been well aware of her employers fault at murdering them. Sawa is bogged down in this state of voluntary-involuntary dependency on manipulative adults surrounding her, until she encounters an another young assassin - Oburi. in the name of a promising future by his side, the protagonist decides to betray her self-proclaimed savior and helps her co-worker escape an execution. the film ends with Sawa patiently waiting for Oburi to return to his apartment, while the boy has already been shot by girl, whose ball he previously destroyed (and probably some other assassin of Akai too). the second installment of the franchise takes a slightly different turn - or, truth be told - could be broken into two separate plot lines. "Liberator" takes place a few years after the original "Kite" and revolves around both an unfortunate outcome of risky procedures on a space station and the ordinary, yet bizarre life of a teenage girl - Monaka, also known as "The Angel of Death". she works undercover for the manager of a restaurant she makes night at and who calls Akai his descended friend. her commissions mainly include dealing with pedophilia-involved targets too. another reference to the ova is the gun Monaka wields - it clearly once belonged to Sawa. there's also the already mentioned trope featuring an unclassified creature, into which one of the space ship's crew members morphs after consuming seemingly beneficial, however untested food. the thread of connection establishes the fact, that a victim of the mutation is actually Monaka's father - an astronaut, who decided to volunteer for a mission once his wife passed away. the unfolding events reach its climax when the extraterrestrial monster makes its way onto the earth, previously escaping from an emergency capsule, and reunites with the girl, whom - in some other circumstances - it would call its daughter.

my thoughts: both Kite and its successor have undeniable potential. although i have to admit, that the first production should be considered the generally better one - both in terms of the plot line and overall impression. Kite is rough and ruthless, exactly like animated productions for mature audiences at that time should be. im a devoted fan of releases of such kind, especially because they're not only a once in an eternity occurrence (we don't get anything like this anymore), but also possess an atmosphere that is truly irreplaceable. and a crucial component of these matters are the characters - conflicted in their choices and therefore easy to engage with. Sawa is a great instance for this, mainly because of her obedience towards Akai, despite him obviously controlling her in a manipulative manner. as i've already mentioned, him knowingly killing her parents is no secret to her too. the thing is, that Akai was the one who has taken care of her back then, probably ensuring her he's the only option left among the monstrosities of the world you have to live in as an adolescent, deprived from elementary parental figures. Sawa, along with becoming naturally and subconsciously attached to him, granted him a perfect weapon, which he could manipulate with continuous lies and with absolute impunity. even though Sawa turned out to have been aware of this hypocrisy, becoming Akai's pawn was a matter of life and death for her in the latter case. these could be the reasons for which she sticked with all this dirt of a business for such a time, at least until she meets Oburi. while hanging out together (besides from acting like actual teenagers, which was truly heartwarming), she said some lines that seem to hold a great importance for her and in the ending scenes of the movie start to make the most sense. for them, working such a ridiculous, yet horribly hazardous job it's a matter of making through tomorrow or dying while performing an assassination on their targets. Sawa, when asked about her future perspectives, is unable to respond appropriately - they have no right to dream and hope for the better, as their only aim it to survive by focusing on this very moment in the present. Oburi's fate is a bitter confirmation of these speculations, as he wasn't destined to make is back to his flat and see Sawa once again. this ending might seem like more of a mild cliffhanger, but it really did fall to my liking. a lot, actually. i'm just glad that these unsettling doubts the protagonist had weren't just a blunt addition to the dialogue, so as to make the movie more emotional. it felt right and real. i'm not that fond of my opinion on "Liberator" on the other hand. in comparison with "Kite", it's less of a metal burden and more of a sci-fi/slice-of-life story (to a certain degree). as viewers, we're presented two opposing prompts, which connect only reaching towards the end of the movie. the little references to the original franchise are a nice touch, although they make no sense in the long run - they're just picked up, mentioned and left alone, perhaps to speculate about (what comes to my mind in this case is the character of Mukai - an assertive employee and a single mother, who works along Monaka at Apollo 11. she strikes a remarkable resemblance to Sawa - it's also hinted she had been something more than an ordinary waitress, her noticing how the protagonist tried to stab a guy harassing her with a pen or hitting a target with a knife in darts. the manager of the restaurant has also admitted he doesn't know much of her past either). i feel like the whole story could have been used way differently if it had been treated as a separate and independent work. or were the tropes prompted from "Kite" improved, we'd get an interesting and a direct continuation. it's rather a watch out of necessity, for the sake of completing the viewing of the series.

my rating (on a scale from 1 to 5): 3.5/5 + 2.5/5

favorite quote: (from "Kite") "Be patient my friends. Very soon. Oburi will come home to us. Right?"

the images were found by me on the internet, credits to their original uploaders.

[divinemissem13]

Summer, 2384

Final chapter of “Nel mezzo del cammin”

AO3 link

There’s a baby playing under my oak tree. A toddler, actually, but I suspect she’ll always be a baby to me. My baby.

My little warrior princess has only recently mastered walking and already she is determined to run. So, yes, she’s definitely mine, even though she doesn’t look a thing like me. With her golden complexion, soft black curls, and dimples that threaten to make my heart explode, my sweet girl might as well be a clone of her father.

Lately, there are times when she looks so much like Chakotay that it hurts.

She manages to ‘run’ for two wobbly steps before she loses her balance and lands on her bottom. Her face twists for a second and I think she might cry but then something - or, more accurately, someone - distracts her over my shoulder. “Mia! Mia!” she shouts gleefully. Her little baby tongue still struggles with l’s and r’s, but even so, her version of “Miral” was one of her first words (after “Mama”, “Dada”, and “No”, of course). Sure enough, I look back toward the house to see 6 year old Miral Paris-Torres barreling full speed down the path. My goddaughter barely even acknowledges me as she zips past, but I don’t mind because it’s important to me that she wants to spend time with Maeve.

It reassures me that I’m making the right choice.

Tom and B’Elanna stand on either side of me now, watching our girls play. “Tell me I’m doing the right thing,” I plead with them quietly. “That I’m not crazy. That it has to be me.”

“It has to be you,” Tom replies firmly. It’s not surprising - he has always believed in me more than I believed in myself.

I look to B’Elanna because I can always count on her to be brutally honest with me. “Let’s go for a walk,” she suggests and starts off down the path without waiting for my answer.

Tom goes to the tree to keep an eye on the girls and I feel a pang of jealousy at the way that husband and wife communicate so effortlessly without speaking. I had that once, not so long ago, and I feel its absence now like a hole in my heart. I want to stay and watch Miral ‘teach’ my baby how to weave a crown of wild flowers but I follow B’Elanna instead.

“Does Maeve know what’s going on?” she asks when I catch up.

“I don’t think so. She asks for him - especially at bedtime - but for all she knows, he’s just on another mission and he’ll be back any day.”

“He will be. You’ll bring him back just like you always do,” she says confidently and I almost believe her.

“If I do, it will all be worth it,” I agree. “But I don’t want to leave her all alone… and what if I come back without him? What if I don’t come back at all?”

B’Elanna stops walking and grabs me by the shoulders. “You are Kathryn Janeway. You always come back. It’s kind of your thing,” she spares me a grin before turning serious again. “And you never leave a job half done. So you’ll find him and you’ll both come home to her, no matter how long it takes. And that’s why, yes, it has to be you.” B’Elanna begins to walk again and I sense she is done talking, but I’m not.

“I don’t know how to thank you for watching her. I just couldn’t leave her with Mom - she thinks I’m crazy and I need Maeve to be with people who will stay positive. Hopeful. Who will always make sure she knows that we are coming back to her…”

“We’ve got it covered,” she reassures me. “We’ll take excellent care of your baby, and you’ll take excellent care of mine,” she jokes, referring, of course, to the Dauntless and her new slipstream drive that B’Elanna has spent years perfecting.

We’ve almost completed the loop now and the oak tree is coming back into view. Miral is still weaving flowers but Maeve is on her feet again, working on that run. She squeals with glee when she sees me and there are those damn loveable dimples again as she actually manages to run several steps in my direction before I sweep her up in my arms and hold her tight. “Good job, baby! Mama is so proud of you!”

She giggles as I cover her with kisses and take a big inhale of that irresistible baby smell, as if I might be able to save it for later on, and then she’s squirming in my arms demanding “Down Mama.”

She never has been very good at staying still, just like me. I told Mom I wasn’t sure she would be able to keep up with the baby on her own, and that’s why I’m leaving Maeve with Tom and B’Elanna. It’s even partly true.

Miral has abandoned her flowers in favor of hide-and-seek around the vast trunk of the oak tree. Maeve squeals in delight every time Miral pops out and chases her. B’Elanna is sitting next to Tom in the grass, both laughing at the girls’ antics.

I fight back tears as my heart swells with love because this is my family. Most of it, anyway. Tomorrow morning, I will leave to track down the missing piece but until then, I am going to enjoy my time with the pieces I’ll have to leave behind.

I silently make a promise to myself and to my daughter: the next time we sit under this tree, our family will be whole.

[issela-santina]

Götterdämmerung Opernhaus Zürich (Noseda, Homoki) first impressions

for context I stumbled into the same event's Rheingold and Walküre during their back halves and either Mezzo TV skipped Siegfried or I missed it during the weeks I was out, shame

the Norns looked very Targaryen coded for me and this is a narrative with a Targaryen analogue aka Siegfried who to me is like Taylor Swift and Daenerys Targaryen at the same time. I will elaborate later

it's one thing to put on a horse helmet and gallop around and it's another thing to do that and then realise that you forgot your weapon. my ADHD ass felt that

Hagen is a walking gothic spire with that fucking bass to match and he can pin me to the wall with his spear any day

the color coding between the Gibichungs and the lead couple is sending me. Gutrune rocks that shade of red like a diva

Waltraute's eyes scare me more than her account of what happened after Brünnhilde was banished

it pierces me (pun intended) to see Wotan catatonic ngl, not just a how the mighty have fallen trope but it's also that he's got no voice in this finale (congrats Tomasz you can rest now) which scares me because this is a daddy whose issues fucked him so bad that his daughters feel like walking on eggshells waiting for him to speak

the funny thing about giving Gunther a lob while both his sister and Siegfried have one is that Klaus Florian Vogt could just put on the ginger wig and it would still work; instead we have of course the Tarnhelm as a hood (ok this is nice) and then Daniel Schmutzhard coming in with a blank face like an egg ghost from the Korean exorcist drama Sell Your Haunted House possessed the man

why is Hagen surrounded by John Wick variants. why is everyone in black. Wave-Götterdämmerung-Treffen? Goth-erdämmerung? goddamn. I want to join

I am also just enamored in the most childish way whenever somebody wears a robe and it swishes when they move; Hagen and Brünnhilde and Gutrune you all have me in a chokehold

Gunther should have married Siegfried

it gets even more ridiculous because Walküre specifically dealt with twincest and now we have a pair of siblings who consciously don't want to do that and still get their asses bitten because they chose an inbred with a violently protective gf

if I were to explain this opera to people who don't know shit it's “how to exploit the bro code when the inbred boyfriend you godmothered against your daddy's wife's wishes cheats on you with a couple that specifically isn't interested in incest”

maybe Siegfried wouldn't have been too faithful either if he didn't drink that love potion; it stretches the story but it adds intrigue and a bit of realism because honestly, men, but still, runtime, and also, men

Gutrune acting like a coquette for over half the number she spends alone with Siegfried and then shagging him at the end is very fan fiction paced

Camilla Nylund, I love you

the reason I said Siegfried is like Taylor Swift is that both of them are likable especially when you're a white supremacist

Hagen and Brünnhilde make an interesting parallel because both of them have beef with their dads and that beef is just left to rot with only Alberich still alive at the end

the tree trunk has a face on one of its sides, I wonder if it's intentional

camera focus on KFV's hand as he lies lifeless at the bed kinda lost its power when later Siegfried is shown to reanimate again to give the ring to Brünnhilde (her death being shown as him taking her and the horse helmet by the hand to exit stage left is quite cute though)

as with Rheingold the look of the Rhine girls just being in pajamas sharing a bed while the rotating set is almost entirely white registers to me like either The Matrix or an asylum — though because Homoki made the concept really sparse it does let the viewer fill in those blanks in their head

lol @ Hagen's defenestration. lol

[naddy-and-stuff]

Ikemen Villain OC: Nessie

So Nessie is my first OC. She's got the hots for Harrison Gray.

Here is her first encounter with Harry and here's a thing in the future where they're together-together. They aren't posted in order cause I didn't plan the sequence of this soooo... ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Also backstory that isn't really happy. I don't necessarily think it needs a trigger warning but please do tread carefully.

More below the cut.

Here are some facts about Nessie:

🍄 Nessie is not her real name. It's a nickname that was given to her by their church's choir conductor. Eventually, everyone else called her that.

🍄 Her father was a miner and that led to a lot of health complications and injuries. He always attributed his survival to his faith and because of him, their entire family were devout in their faith. He eventually passed at fifty when Nessie was just shy of her twenty-first birthday.

🍄 Her mother was also sickly, likely from their poor living conditions and complications from several miscarriages. Nessie was her fourth child and the only surviving one. She and her unborn child would have survived if she had been able to afford medicine and visits to the doctor. This was two months after her father's death.

🍄 Though not rich, Nessie was learned. The nuns and choir conductor at their church helped her along with other children to learn how to read and write.

🍄 Nessie is a mezzo-soprano.

🍄 Once there was a preaching at their church that denounced the use of vigilante justice, though that preaching veered towards discouraging women to retaliate and hold grudges against their husbands. The preacher cited the aqua tofana incident in Italy. Nessie did not take the warning to heart and found herself fascinated with the women involved in it and the power they must have felt. Later on it became a fascination with poison. She kept this fascination to herself: reading about it discreetly at the church library.

🍄 Following her parents' deaths, Nessie tried to make a living out of singing. She loved singing in pubs and parks and occasionally the church. She gained a number of suitors because of this, but she often found herself disappointed when they expressed that they liked her singing and nothing else.

🍄 Eventually, her paternal aunt introduced her to a young man looking for a wife. The preparation for the wedding took little to no time at all. But then Nessie found out about the crimes her husband-to-be committed with a number of other people: human trafficking and levying exorbitant prices of medicine and doctors.

<>.<>

Here is the picrew I used for Nessie because I can't draw. XD

[gaelic-symphony]

A Year in the Life: March

Twelve vignettes from the married life of Tara Lewis and Emily Prentiss, written for the Year of the OTP writing challenge.

Prompt: road trip

Words: 565

Warnings: none

Read on AO3 or below the cut

            Emily was surprised when Floyd Feylinn Ferrell agreed to a custodial interview, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity for the BAU to gain valuable knowledge about the mind of one of the most chilling unsubs they’d ever encountered: a Satanic cannibal who had feasted on the women of Bridgewater, Florida twice before the BAU finally put him in prison for life.  She wanted to make sure the FBI got as much as they possibly could from the interview, and the best way to do that was by sending Tara in.  In addition to being one of the most prominent and skilled forensic psychologists in the country, she was also the expert on the Ferrell case: She’d gone down to Bridgewater after the BAU caught him the second time and spent three weeks helping Florida prosecutors make sure he got convicted.  She’d hated every minute of it.  The last thing Emily wanted to do was send Tara back to Bridgewater a third time, but she had to do what was best for the BAU.

            At the very least, she thought, she could make the trip down to Florida a little more pleasant for Tara.  They could turn it into a romantic getaway: drive down together, spend a few nights at a nice hotel, and enjoy some quality time as a couple.  And so Emily and Tara packed their bags and hit the road first thing Monday morning.  Leaving from Quantico in a Bureau SUV wasn’t exactly the most romantic start to their trip, but Emily wasn’t going to be swayed.  She put her phone in the dashboard phone mount and started their special road trip playlist that they always listened to when they went for long drives together.  Tara chuckled to herself as the opening notes of “Born to Run” began to play.

            “Road trip playlist for a work trip?” she said, raising an eyebrow as she glanced over at her wife in the passenger seat beside her.

            Emily grinned and nodded.  “Just because we’re going to interview a serial killer doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun along the way,” she said.  She rested her hand on Tara’s knee and batted her eyelashes coyly as she watched the smile spread across Tara’s face, her heart skipping a beat at the way Tara scrunched her nose.

            “Well, in that case, maybe we should’ve taken Lana instead of this big gas guzzler,” Tara joked, referring to her beloved Opel, their usual choice of transportation when they went out driving together.

            Emily began to sing along to the music, and before long, Tara started singing too, their practiced harmonies perfected from years of road trips together.  Emily’s clear, soaring mezzo-soprano took the high parts, and Tara’s rich, husky alto took the low ones.  Virginia and North Carolina passed them by as they cruised along I-95 South with the windows down.  The songs kept playing, and the road stretched out in front of them, and Tara almost forgot where they were headed and why.  She kept glancing over at Emily’s silver hair streaming in the wind and smiling to herself as she wondered how she’d gotten so lucky to be married to a woman who could make a work trip to a Florida maximum security prison feel like a vacation.  Maybe Florida wasn’t so bad when she got to experience it with the love of her life.

[newsintheshell]

⛱️ CRUNCHYROLL: ECCO IL PALINSESTO ANIME DELL'ESTATE 2024

Signore e signori, la nuova season di Monogatari Series arriva ufficialmente in streaming anche in Italia! What a time to be alive!

In questi giorni è finalmente arrivato un po' di caldo e quale miglior modo per evitare le ondate di calore? Ma stando in casa, davanti al ventilatore, sparandosi qualche nuovo anime estivo, no? Ecco quelli che potremo seguire in simulcast su Crunchyroll, già a partire dalla prossima settimana! 

Di mio, per ora, ho adocchiato ovviamente Monogatari Series (incrociando le dita che l'adattamento sia fatto con la dovuta cura, visto quanto è sfaccettato di solito); Shoshimin che per un fan si Hyouka penso sia d'obbligo; Narenare e Mayonaka Punch per vedere se riusciranno a sostituire Girls Band Cry e La medusa non sa nuotare nella notte (non credo, ma i chad di P.A. Works si meritano una chance); Alya e Pseudo Harem per le doppiatrici e per una sana dose di romcom.

Runner up: Bye Bye Earth e Quality Assurance, visto che sembrano dei fantasy un po' diversi dal solito, VTuber Legend per vivere il paradosso delle anime girl che fanno finta di essere anime girl e Delico's Nursery, giusto per lo stile artistico, ma vedremo. Voi? Fatemelo sapere nei commenti!

🔶🔸NUOVE SERIE🔸🔶

📅 26 GIUGNO

THE STRONGEST MAGICIAN IN THE DEMON LORD'S ARMY WAS A HUMAN

Il terrificante capo dell'esercito dei demoni ha un'identità segreta, ma per quanto tempo ancora riuscirà a celare la verità?

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📅 29 GIUGNO

MY WIFE HAS NO EMOTION 🆕

Dopo che una nuova robot arriva nella sua vita, one man farà il grande salto del matrimonio con la tecnologia!

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📅 1 LUGLIO

SHY (Stagione 2)

Con l'arrivo di una nuova minaccia, riuscirà la nostra timida eroina a tenere il passo e salvare di nuovo il mondo?

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THE OSSAN NEWBIE ADVENTURER, TRAINED TO DEATH BY THE MOST POWERFUL PARTY, BECAME INVINCIBLE

A trent'anni, l'impiegato di una gilda rinuncia al suo posto fisso per una vita d'avventure, allenandosi coi migliori per diventare una forza inarrestabile!

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📅 2 LUGLIO

TASUKETSU -FATE OF THE MAJORITY-

Uno studente si trova invischiato in un gioco di sopravvivenza dopo che metà della popolazione svanisce ogni notte!

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📅 3 LUGLIO

ALYA SOMETIMES HIDES HER FEELINGS IN RUSSIAN

Questo pigro studente finge di non capire quando la sua compagna di classe Alya gli sussurra parole dolci in russo.

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📅 4 LUGLIO

DAYS WITH MY STEPSISTER

Inizia una peculiare storia d'amore, quando il padre di Yuuta si risposa e la sua nuova sorellastra è la ragazza più carina della scuola.

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PSEUDO HAREM

Rin interpreta vari personaggi per conquistare il cuore di Eiji, fan delle storie harem, ma gli confiderà mai i suoi veri sentimenti?

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SENPAI IS AN OTOKONOKO

Makoto si trova nel bel mezzo di un triangolo amoroso, quando sia Saki che Ryuji si dichiarano a lui. Riuscirà a barcamenarsi in quella situazione e magari divertirsi anche?

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THE CAFÉ TERRACE AND ITS GODDESSES (Stagione 2)

Il Familia Café Terrace apre di nuovo e con lui molti altri ristoranti che gli fanno concorrenza!

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TWILIGHT OUT OF FOCUS

Due coinquilini devono seguire regole ferree, ma finiranno per scoprire dei dettagli su loro stessi che mai avrebbero immaginato.

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FAILURE FRAME: I BECAME THE STRONGEST AND ANNIHILATED EVERYTHING WITH LOW-LEVEL SPELLS 🆕

Un mago di basso livello mostrerà quanto anche le più deboli magie possano essere utili!

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📅 5 LUGLIO

NIER:AUTOMATA VER1.1a (Parte 2)

2B e 9S tornano a portare alla luce delle verità a lungo sepolte. Riusciranno ad affrontare tutte le minacce e a svelare i misteri del loro mondo?

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QUALITY ASSURANCE IN ANOTHER WORLD

Un debugger di una ditta di garanzia della qualità salva una ragazza da un drago, il che accende la sua curiosità. Insieme, cercano di scoprire la vera natura di quel mondo.

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CARDFIGHT!! VANGUARD DIVINEZ (Stagione 2) 🆕

Akina Myodo torna per altre battaglie con le carte, nell'ultima stagione di Cardfight Vanguard Divinez!

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📅 6 LUGLIO

MONOGATARI SERIES: OFF & MONSTER SEASON

Studio Shaft torna con altre storie di Monogatari, regalandoci nuovi misteri, colpi di scena e momenti indimenticabili!

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SHOSHIMIN: HOW TO BECOME ORDINARY

Kobato e Osanai vogliono solo delle vite tranquille, ma il caos sembra seguirli. Troveranno la pace in mezzo a quel trambusto?

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A NOBODY’S WAY UP TO AN EXPLORATION HERO 🆕

Ora che ha il potere di una leggendaria valchiria, un esploratore è pronto ad affrontare ogni sfida!

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DAHLIA IN BLOOM: CRAFTING A FRESH START WITH MAGICAL TOOLS 🆕

Un'impiegata giapponese rinasce in un altro mondo e impara ad amare l'arte di creare strumenti magici!

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SAKUNA: OF RICE AND RUIN 🆕

Basato sull'omonimo videogioco, in questo anime una dea del raccolto scoprirà come tornare alle sue radici!

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THE ELUSIVE SAMURAI 🆕

Un giovane samurai deve imparare nuovi modi per sopravvivere, mentre si riprende dallo storico tradimento della sua famiglia!

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📅 7 LUGLIO

A JOURNEY THROUGH ANOTHER WORLD: RAISING KIDS WHILE ADVENTURING

Takumi, reincarnato con potenti abilità, crescerà due gemelli in un mondo pericoloso, mentre affrontano insieme molte avventure.

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NARENARE -CHEER FOR YOU!-

Segui le giornate di sei liceali, ognuna con una diversa personalità, mentre navigano nel mare della vita e trovano il supporto l'una dall'altra.

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TOWER OF GOD (Stagione 2)

Nuovi personaggi cercano di far diventare realtà i propri sogni, mentre i misteri della torre portano a nuovi amici e nemici.

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VTUBER LEGEND: HOW I WENT VIRAL AFTER FORGETTING TO TURN OFF MY STREAM

Una Vtuber finisce con la sua vita sottosopra dopo che credeva, erroneamente, di aver interrotto la stream e ha rivelato a tutti la sua vera personalità!

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WISTORIA: WAND AND SWORD

Will si iscrive nell'accademia di magia, senza dire a nessuno di non avere poteri magici!

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MY DEER FRIEND NOKOTAN 🆕

Shikanokonokonokokoshitantan!!

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📅 8 LUGLIO

MAYONAKA PUNCH

Segui Masaki e Live mentre fanno di tutto per raggiungere il milione di iscritti nel loro canale NewTube!

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📅 9 LUGLIO

NO LONGER ALLOWED IN ANOTHER WORLD

L'autore Osamu del ventesimo secolo brama una fine tranquilla per la sua vita, ma trova solo gesta eroiche in una bizzarra avventura in un altro mondo!

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THE MAGICL GIRL AND THE EVIL LIEUTENANT USED TO BE ARCHENEMIES 🆕

È amore a prima vista per questi due acerrimi nemici con storie completamente diverse!

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📅 10 LUGLIO

LOVE IS INDIVISIBLE BY TWINS

Un liceale è innamorato di due ragazze, che sono due gemelle amiche d'infanzia!

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OUR LAST CRUSADE OR THE RISE OF A NEW WORLD (Stagione 2)

Iska protegge Sisbell, il che accende la gelosia di Alice. Nel bel mezzo di una cospirazione, riusciranno ad affrontare sia le dispute personali che la guerra?

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

📅 12 LUGLIO

BYE BYE, EARTH

Belle Leblac cerca di trovare se stessa dopo essere nata umana in un mondo di animali antropomorfi.

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

📅 13 LUGLIO

WHY DOES NOBODY REMEMBER ME IN THIS WORLD?

Un "Mondo rinato" sorge improvvisamente dopo una guerra tra umani e altre razze di mostri.

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

MAKEINE: TOO MANY LOSING HEROINES!

Kazuhiko si trova catapultato nell'inatteso dramma delle sue compagne di classe: le ragazze più popolari che sono state respinte!

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

ATRI -MY DEAR MOMENTS-

Un ragazzo e una misteriosa ragazza robot vivranno un'indimenticabile estate, in un mondo quasi interamente sommerso!

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

📅 14 LUGLIO

THEATRE OF DARKNESS: YAMISHIBAI (Stagione 13) 🆕

Preparati ad altre storie paurose, con l'inizio dell'ultima serie di Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai!

📅 17 LUGLIO

SENGOKY YOUKO (Stagione 2)

Demoni e umani continuano a combattere con l'inizio dell'arco narrativo Thousand Demons Chaos di Sengoku Youko

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

📅 7 AGOSTO

DELICO'S NURSERY

Una prestigiosa famiglia di vampiri aristocratici rifiuta una missione perché…deve prendersi cura dei bambini!

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

TRUE BEAUTY 🆕

La vita di Jugyeong sta per trasformarsi, dopo che diventa il centro gravitazionale delle attenzioni di tutti, grazie alle sue incredibili abilità nello stile!

▶️ GUARDA IL TRAILER

🔶🔸SERIE IN PROSECUZIONE🔸🔶

📆 LUNEDÌ

SPICE AND WOLF: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF - ⏰ 20:00

Lawerence e Holo il Saggio Lupo tornano finalmente a viaggiare in lungo e in largo alla ricerca di nuove avventure!

📆 VENERDÌ

DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION (Versione serie) - ⏰ 05:00

Due migliori amiche imparano le complessità degli adulti, mentre il mondo è minacciato dalla comparsa degli alieni.

THAT TIME I GOT REINCARNATED AS A SLIME (Stagione 3) - ⏰ 17:30 SUB ITA / 23:30 DUB ITA

Limur deve confrontarsi con nuove minacce che si stagliano contro Tempest, con l'avvicinarsi del Sacro Impero!

📆 SABATO

MY HERO ACADEMIA (Stagione 7) - ⏰ 11:30 SUB ITA / 22:00 DUB ITA

Eroi e villain si preparano per battaglie più maestose che mai, col proseguimento di My Hero Academia stagione 7!

WONDERFUL PRECURE! - ⏰ IN GIORNATA

Continua la prossima serie Precure, con nuovi amici morbidi come compagni!

YATAGARASU: THE RAVEN DOES NOT CHOOSE ITS MASTER - ⏰ 20:30

Un giovane principe senza ambizioni si trova suo malgrado in un mondo fatto di intrighi di palazzo e creature sovrannaturali.

📆 DOMENICA

ONE PIECE ⏰ IN GIORNATA

La ciurma di Cappello di Paglia continua la sua avventura nella fantascientifica Isola di Egghead!

Come sempre, la lista delle novità è ancora incompleta, al momento. Tante altre serie si aggiungeranno nel corso delle prossime settimane e tenete sempre sott'occhio questo post, perché lo aggiornerò man mano (Tumblr permettendo, visto che mi rompe continuamente le scatole che faccio post troppo grossi: "Troppe immagini! Troppi link! Troppi video!" 🤪🤬💀).

In seguito, ovviamente, arriverà anche la nuova guida stagionale con il calendario completo e i palinsesti degli altri servizi di streaming, le prossime uscite home video e quelle al cinema, che vi ho già anticipato con i vari post che trovate fissati su Facebook e Instagram.

⫸ NON VUOI PERDERTI NEANCHE UN POST? ENTRA NEL CANALE TELEGRAM!⫷

Autore: SilenziO))) Se usate Twitter, mi trovate lì! 

blogger // anime enthusiast // twitch addict // unorthodox blackster - synthwave lover // penniless gamer // INFJ-T magus

[FONTE]

[vexic929]

How would you describe your OCs singing voices? Can they sing? How does it sound?

Vice: is in a rock band, firmly between alto and tenor

Lana: probably about mid at singing, she absolutely belts whatever song is playing in her car while she's driving even if she can't hit all the notes

Berrie: inherited their dad's voice, generally a soprano but can sing some of the alto range but is much too shy to actually sing in front of anyone

Aria: can sing well but doesn't, definitely mezzo-soprano

Salacia: loves to sing but cannot hit the notes to save her life, this does not stop her

Tuatlall: loves to sing and is better at it than Salacia but this does not bother her and the two of them will sing silly songs together frequently, high soprano

L'Harann: sings very well and has a wide range; high soprano to low alto

Neila: can sing alright but due to only being alive for 2 years thus far she hasn't had much practice nor has she worked on her range at all really

Alana: she and her Earth's Hartley were friends and regularly sang show tunes together because they're both big theatre gays

929: can sing but isn't likely to

Lea: loves to sing, is excellent and something of a local sensation, regularly puts on charity concerts

Eoland: can sing, chooses not to

Barbara: can sing and sings very well but doesn't think she's that good, mezzo-soprano

H Wells: has lost a lot of her original range due to not really singing since Jess was a child

Rodriga: was a very good singer, she and her wife would come up with silly lullabies together to make Jess laugh before bed

Hartley: is an excellent singer and well aware of this fact, high soprano

Eden: is a pretty good singer, mainly only sings in the shower or if Barbara or Ira drag her to karaoke

Ricki: can sing well but doesn't sing often, soprano

Jessie: also a theatre gay, can sing well but doesn't think she's very good, alto

Laska: is mute lol

Piper: can sing well but her preferred method of making music is piano

Lara: is mid-tier and doesn't tend to focus her energy on singing

Jisoo: can't sing well but if you get her drunk she WILL sing karaoke and you can't stop her

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

Un ballo in maschera (Met, 1980): Reactions, Part I

society has progressed past the need for Ballo productions set in Boston, including ones set in Revolutionary-era Boston, but in all fairness a) this was forty-three years ago and b) Pavarotti and Ricciarelli, that is all

also: “savannah what happened to you watching all 26 verdi operas in chronological order this one is like number 21” a) i changed my mind and b) let’s do it a little different this time around!

verdi just captures the mood so perfectly in the music

also: my mood is whoever gave one very short, high cheer at the end of the prelude cause that thing fuckin SLAPS

trouble brewing like tea in a harbor… (also love how this setting makes it inherently like “hey! americans! y’all are the bad guys!” especially just four years after the bicentennial lmaoooooo)

THE MAESTRO THE PAV HIMSELF

it’s oscar!!! my favorite little ball of sunshine!!!

man oh man this man can SING (of course. always such a delight to listen to him.)

“oh heaven! her husband!” WAY TO BURY THE LEDE, VERDI AND SOMMA (i mean, obvs i know lmao)

this exchange is always so funny to me. like “idc that you have intel on an assassination attempt, just as long as you don’t find out i’m in love with your wife” lol

“hate strikes its victims more quickly than love” TOTALLY not foreshadowing

casual racism from the judge!

(unrelated but it’s always nice to see charles anthony around)

oscar i love you but saying that ulrica is in league with satan is not exactly helping her or your case

still: ULTRA precious child

“bestie with all the chaotic energy in the world and bestie who is a hapless accessory to said chaos” is a great pairing and the EXACT energy of these two

(at this point i realized i had accidentally zoomed in on the youtube video, so sorry if some of the images look weird. also the app keeps doing this for some reason so maybe it’ll keep happening. sorry.)

THE WAY HE RUFFLES OSCAR’S HAIR IT’S SO CUTE

i want whatever verdi was on whenever he wrote this BOPTASTIC SCENE ENDING

even the onstage folk can’t help but applaud

these chords and this prelude right here: SO. DAMN. ICONIC.

“i saw goody ulrica consorting with the devil” (also. thank fuck that from the looks of it there’s no blackface.)

even the pav doesn’t get to cut in line

okay but fr. ulrica has gotta be one of the funnest mezzo/contralto roles to play. she’s definitely one of the funnest to WATCH

not silvano spitting in his hand to wipe it off lol

to paraphrase that one humorous ballo summary: “and the theme of self-fulfilling prophecies is waved around like a flaming cliff notes”

“i must consult with satan privately” surely one of the best opera lines ever

tfw you’re in love with your husband’s bestie, also i want that dress

verdi lavishes such wonderful melodies even on such simple moments as this, and that’s one of the reasons i love him

maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe following amelia around is not the best way to solve this, riccardo. just a thought.

what a MARVELOUS trio, just the first of a serious of MARVELOUS small ensembles in this opera

just an afternoon out with the boys!

we have come across yet another bop

“this is the right hand of a great man…” a great TENOR alright!

AND THERE IT IS

i’m sorry but this gives me the EXACT energy of the photo jonas kaufmann put out with his statement about the invasion of ukraine 😭

(sorry it’s so big. but anyway. carry on.)

riccardo: uh yeah surely it’s a joke!

oscar: riccardo, with all due respect, what the fuck

again: the small ensemble writing in this opera is just *chef’s kiss*

Handshake Of Doom TM

ah yes, boston massachusetts in the period leading up to the american revolution, a time and place where the people were just DRIPPING with pro-british sentiment *facepalm*

then again this director was from australia so.

still, this scene slaps! thank you verdi and thank you somma for capturing just-a-little-actually-probably-a-lot-overblown patriotism perfectly and making a great first act finale <3

[the-annotated-antichrist]

Act I, Track 09 - Morning has Broken

Song links: Spotify - YT Music - Apple - Tidal

Today's track is a beautiful, contemplative mid-tempo number that features a rare duet between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano - a high male and a deep female voice. There are only two tenors and two mezzos in this work, so this track is rather unique.

We are back with our friend George, the current European president. Seth's book has been published and has taken the entire continent by storm. Everyone is impressed by his novel philosophy. George, too, is amazed and recognizes that this book will bring about deep changes. He reads it at night and comments:

[President:] Wisdom of insight in bloom I thought I knew And still these pages portray it is not true The fruit of Eden grows ripe between my hands New age of mankind born within this man

He likens it to a "ripening fruit of Eden", the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. This implies attainment of special knowledge, but also separation from God. It's interesting that George says this, given that he cannot know yet that Seth is the Antichrist.

His wife Anastasiya appears. She is described only as "a beauty of noble Russian origin, strongly supportive of her husband" and is played by Matilda Wahlund.

[Wife:] What troubles you my love? Why are you not with me? The dawn is soon to come Please tell me what you see Will we still make patterns leading to heaven's gate?

"The dawn is soon to come." The morning imagery makes another appearance. Seth, morning star and bringer of a new day, is contrasted with the deep night in which George and Anastasiya are having this conversation. George responds, passionately, that he knows Seth is the future:

[President:] Oh these words fly, roaming the old sky And search high through the speechless clouds They cross the oceans where knowledge roams the waters Their echoes guide us to sail the hunger we long to feel Visions of shadows, the past drowns in the dark I hope to be there when light fulfill its spark The tales of future shall hope soon provide Only the truth in his words shall purify

Anastasiya tries to comfort her husband, but he knows that his time in power is coming to an end.

[Wife:] Our leader still you are, through the heavens dreams soon shall be carried far across the world again And my heart will stay closer to the pain... [President:] Dearest, now hear me, you do not understand Voices already sing throughout the land Join me in silence and listen to the wind In the break of dawn this morning it will begin

They can only await the future. Indeed this is the last appearance they make. I don't think anything bad is supposed to happen to them afterwards, but the old president very quickly becomes irrelevant to the story.

[Both:] Morning has broken A new day has begun

[auditionsuggestions]

Show Breakdowns - Fiddler on the Roof

This is another beautiful show that I really love!

Below the cut for length

Tevye

Playing Age: 40s-60s

Lead Role, Star Vehicle

Range: Low Tenor or Baritone (Ab2-F4)

Dance Requirement: Some Movement

Tevye is the father of 5 girls, and, though poor, he is well-liked in his village of Anatevka. He takes his job very seriously to lead his family with pride in their Jewish faith and reverence for the traditions that guide and shape their lives.

Suggested songs:

Ballads: Stay I Pray You, Anastasia; Edelweiss, The Sound of Music; This Was Nearly Mine, South Pacific Uptempo/Midtempo: I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore, Gigi; Heart, Damn Yankees; I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight, Camelot; A Puzzlement, The King and I

Golde

Playing Age: 40s-60s

Supporting Lead Role

Range: Mezzo (A3-Eb5)

Dance Requirement: Some Movement

Golde is Tevye's wife. She's very practical and wants an easier life for her children.

Suggested Songs:

Just a Housewife, Working; Take Care of This House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue; You'll Never Walk Alone, Carousel; Climb Every Mountain, The Sound of Music; Distant Melody, Peter Pan

Tzeitl, Hodel, and Chava

Playing Ages: Late teens-early 20s for Tzeitl and Hodel, Mid to late teens for Chava

Supporting Lead roles

Range: Mezzo or Soprano (B3-E5)

Dance Requirement: Some Movement; Chava is a dancer

Tzeitl is the eldest of Tevye's five daughters. The most mature of her sisters, she's secretly in love with her childhood friend, Motel the tailor. Hodel is the second daughter. She's witty and a bit headstrong. She eventually must leave Anatevka when the Revolutionary she loves is sentenced to Siberia. Chava is the third. She's a sweet and kind soul who loves to read. She needs a strong dramatic actress.

Suggested Songs:

In My Own Little Corner, Cinderella; A Lovely Night, Cinderella; This is All Very New to Me, Plain and Fancy; Wonderful Wonderful Day, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; How Could I Ever Know, The Secret Garden; Belle (Reprise), Beauty and the Beast; God Help the Outcasts; Hunchback of Notre Dame; A Change in Me, Beatuy and the Beast; Much More, The Fantasticks

Yente

Playing Age: 50s-70s

Supporting Role

Range: Mezzo or Alto (F3-F5)

Dance Requirement: Some Movement

The village matchmaker, Yente is every nosy aunt/grandma to ever exist. She considers herself very good at her job. Requires a strong comedic actress

Suggested Songs:

So What, Cabaret; Mother Knows Best, Tangled; No Time At All, Pippin; What Would You Do, Cabaret;

Motel

Playing Age: Late teens to Early 20s

Supporting Role

Range: Tenor (E3-F#4)

Dance Requirement: Some Movement

The village tailor, Motel is a little neurotic, but sweet. He's in love with Tzeitl, but is afraid to go against Yente, the matchmaker

Suggested Songs:

All I Need is the Girl, Gypsy; Love I Hear, A Funny Thing...Forum; She Loves Me, She Loves Me; Tonight at Eight, She Loves Me

Perchik

Playing Age: Early 20s

Supporting Role

Range: Baritenor (B2-E4)

Dance Requirement: Some Movement

A travelling teacher who holds revolutionary views. He comes into the village and Tevye hires him to tutor Schprintze and Bielke. He falls in love with Hodel, but is eventually sentenced to exile in Siberia for his politics.

Suggested Songs:

Something's Coming, West Side Story; On the Street Where You Live, My Fair Lady; What Do I Need With Love, Thoroughly Modern Millie; Almost Like Being in Love, Brigadoon; How I Am, Little Women

Fyedka

Playing Age: Mid-Teens to Early 20s

Featured role

Range: Mostly Spoken (possible solo in L'Chaim)

Dance Requirement: Dancer

A young Russian soldier who against all judgment falls in love with Chava. Though he has a good heart, Fyedka is diametrically opposed to all the things Tevye wants for his daughter.

Suggested Songs: Any uptempo golden age song should be appropriate

Shprintze and Bielke

Playing Ages: 8-12

Featured roles

Range: No solo singing

Dance Requirement: Some Movement

The younger two of Tevye's five daughters. They are tutored by Perchik.

The show also features a large and colorful Ensemble from which the roles of Lazar Wolf, Fruma Sarah, and Grandma Tzeitl are often cast. Any uptempo golden age song should be appropriate (so long as it's not too jazz-adjacent).

Quick pronunciation guide if you've never heard the names spoken:

Generally, air on the side of emphasizing the first syllable

Tevye: TEHV-ya

Golde: GOLD-a

Yente: YEN-ta

Tzeitl: tZ-EYE-tul (or ZIGH-Tul if that's an easier way to brain it, zigh like sigh)

Hodel: Huddle

Chava: Haw-va (Really more of the ch as in Loch Ness;)

Motel: MO-tul

Perchik: PEAR-chick

Fyedka: f-YED-ka (A short form of Fyodor--in English his name would be Teddy or Ted)

Shprintze: Sh-PRINT-zuh

Bielke: b-yELK-uh (I think...this is the one I'm not super confident on).

[thetldrplace]

Inferno: Cantos 1-6

I have been wanting to read the Divine Comedy in Italian for some time, but I kept putting it off. I decided I would take it on, but over a much longer time. Here is my attempt, not only to read it, but to translate it, and really understand it.

Canto I  "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita  Me ritrovai per una selva oscura  Che la diritta via era smarrita." 

'In the middle of our life's journey  I found myself in a dark forest  Having lost the straight path' 

Dante finds himself off the 'straight path' in the middle of life, lost in a dark forest. A full life for medievals was 70 years (also according to Psalm 90:10), so Dante was 35 when this happened. The year was 1300. The dark path off of the straight way symbolizes being in a moral quandary. 

He relates the encounters however that led him to find something worthwhile there. 

"Io non so ben ridir com'I' v'intrai,  Tant'era pien di sonno a quel punto  Che la verace via abbandonai." 

He relates that he couldn't explain exactly how he got there, other than he was so sleepy when he got off track. He finds himself at the foot of a hill at the entrance to the valley. As he is considering his place, he sees a leopard (representing lust/lack of restraint). Every time he tries to go around it, it is in his way. It's almost dawn, so Dante takes some courage that he will soon be out of danger, when he next encounters a lion coming straight for him (representing pride and violence). While he had hoped to get up the hill and out of danger, he finds a she-wolf pressing in on him and he loses all hope and is driven back into the valley. 

As he finds himself deeper back into the woods, he spots a man and cries out for help.  

The man explains that he is no longer a man, but was one: a lombard, whose parents were from Mantova. He was a poet, who wrote about Aeneas.. 

Dante recognizes him as Virgil. Dante proclaims that Virgil is a hero of his and explains that the she-wolf is threatening him.  

Virgil explains that if Dante wishes to escape this place, he must take another journey, because this beast never lets anyone pass alive. The beast is said to be evil and cruel, never sated, and even after eating, is only the hungrier. The wolf represents greed and avarice- Many take her to wife, until a greyhound (salvation) comes that will kill her. This greyhound isn't about land or luxury, but wisdom, love and strength. He will bring health to humbled Italy. 

"Molti son li animali a cui s'ammoglia,  E più saranno ancora, infin che 'l veltro  Verrà, che la farà morir con doglia. 

Questi non ciberà terra né peltro,  Ma sapienza, amore, e virtute,  A sua nazion sarà tra feltro e feltro. 

Di quella umile Italian fia salute  Per cui morì la vergine Cammilla,  Eurialo e Turno e Niso di ferute." 

Virgil explains that the greyhound, 'salvation' will hunt the wolf (greed) down and drive her back to hell, from whence envy set her on the world. 

Virgil then recommends that Dante allow him to be his guide through an eternal place, where he will hear the screams of the hopeless in hell. Then he will go to purgatory, and finally, if he so desires, will visit heaven – but led by another who is worthy since he, Virgil, is not. 

Dante responds that he is ready to follow. 

sì che ‘l piè fermo sempre era ‘l più basso 

Il piede fermo would be the left foot, which was considered symbolically as the side more beholden to the appetites. Apparently this signifies that while Dante wanted to climb, he was unable to bring himself out of the quagmire he was in. 

The beast symbolism is important too. The three beasts are a leopard/lynx, a lion, and a she-wolf. Medieval symbolism held these to represent, lust, pride, and avarice. This, say the comments, divide the sins into three classes theologians had derived from Satan's temptation of Christ: the flesh would be the leopard, the world would be the wolf, and the lion represents the Devil. Dante may also be referencing Rome, through the city's symbol of the she-wolf that fed Romulus and Remus, and the Church, whose corruption and avarice he saw as corrupting many souls. 

l’ora del tempo e la dolce stagione; 

This, I'm told, spells out the vernal equinox, when, according to tradition, the universe was created.  

Molti son li animali a cui s’ammoglia,  e più saranno ancora, infin che ‘l veltro  verrà, che la farà morir con doglia. 

Il 'veltro', the greyhound, represents 'salvation'; possibly referring to the person Cangrande della Scala, Dante's friend and patron. 

e sua nazion sarà tra feltro e feltro. 

This line is tricky to me, since I don't understand its meaning. But the notes mention that Cangrande's Verona lies between Feltre and Montefeltro, and also that election ballots were counted in urns lined with felt. The translator chose it to be suggestive of secret humble beginnings. 

anima fia a ciò più di me degna:  con lei ti lascerò nel mio partire; 

Virgil refers to another who will have to lead Dante through heaven, since he himself can't go- he refers to Beatrice. Beatrice means blessed, and historically references Beatrice Portinari (1266-90). 

Canto II  The canto starts with nightfall and Dante, restless and unable to think, is second guessing whether he is worthy to undertake the journey. Dante notes that Aeneas had made the journey to the underworld, and Paul to heaven, but who was he, Dante, to do so? 

Virgil notes his cowardice and tells him how he, Virgil, was sent to help Dante. He says he was in limbo when a beautiful, heavenly woman, Beatrice, says that her friend is lost and in desperate need of help.  

Virgil responds that he will gladly do it, but wonders why she isn't afraid to descend to hell. She says only the things that can hurt us cause fear, and since she has been remade in such a way that the fires of hell can't touch her, she has no fear. She then mentions that the virgin Mary had asked Saint Lucia to help Dante. Lucia in turn sent Beatrice to undertake the journey, and she in turn has asked Virgil for helping through this first part. 

Virgil then exhorts Dante to press on since these three blessed women in heaven have seen his plight and undertaken to help him. Dante indeed takes courage at this and tells Virgil that he is ready, and they set off. 

Canto III 

They come to the gates of hell: 

Per me si va ne la città dolente,  per me si va ne l’etterno dolore,  per me si va tra la perduta gente. 

Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore:  fecemi la divina podestate,  la somma sapienza e ‘l primo amore. 

Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create  se non etterne, e io etterna duro.  Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate’. 

‘Here one enters into the city of sorrow,  here one enters into eternal pain,  here one enters among the lost. 

Justice moved my most high maker:  divine power made me,  the sum of wisdom and the first love. 

Before me nothing was created  except those eternal, as am I.  Abandon all hope, you who enter’. 

The gates of Hell are said to be made by the Lord, by power, wisdom, and love; which may seem like a strange thing to us. How could love make a place of eternal punishment? Thomas Aquinas said that even when punishment can't correct, it at least stops further sin. One of the notes mentions that punishment respects the dignity of the sinner, which grants him what his heart desired. For one that loves sin, hell is even more suitable than heaven, where, as Dante imagines it, the fire of the Lord's love would be too much for the sinner. 

Virgil warns Dante to ditch all cowardice and doubt here at the door, he was going to see those who have lost the good of their intellect and who will be in pain. 

The first thing Dante sees, or hears, is a swirl of sighs, weeping, and troubles, which he describes as different languages and orribili favelle, horrible ways of expressing themselves, words of pain and accents of rage. These are the those that would neither devote their hearts to good or evil. They actively chose not to follow God, but now they are left to blindly follow a standard that never rests but merely goes around.  

Virgil tells him that they are nothings... non-entities...just look and then think no more of them. They are worthy of neither infamy or praise. 

Then Dante recognizes one, who, by cowardice, made the great refusal. This is assumed to be Celestine V, "a saintly monk who was elevated to the papacy, an office beyond his physical and political powers. He abdicated in 1294, cajoled to do so by his successor, Boniface VIII, who persuaded him that no man could mix himself up in the affairs of the world without falling into grave sin." Boniface is a disaster for Dante personally and politically, who consigns him to the outer court of hell, here in his poem.  

In a mix of Greek mythology, Dante is ferried across the river by Charon. The ferryman calls Dante out as a living soul, who shouldn't be there among the dead. Virgil tells Charon to hold his piece and get on with it. At this, the rest of those waiting to be ferried across erupt in rage and blaspheme whatever they can think of. Virgil and Dante cross over and then a blast occurs and Dante faints. 

Canto IV 

Dante is awoken again by a huge blast of thunder, and when he wakes up, he finds himself on the edge of a huge abyss. He and Virgil descend. In the first circle, or ring of hell, are people who are people who didn't sin, but they were born before Christianity and saving baptism, so they aren't allowed to enter Heaven. Virgil tells Dante that he himself is consigned to this first level. 

Dante asks is anyone has ever moved from here to heaven? Virgil notes that Dante is actually asking if it would be possible for Virgil to move from here, and says that when he was first here, Christ came and got the Old Testament saints. But Virgil assures him that other than these, no one was saved. 

They continue on and come to a place that is lit. Here are the pagan poets: Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan, and of course Virgil his guide... and then Dante has them welcoming him into this elite circle. Not exactly humble, but probably deserved. 

These 6 go on and come to a castle that contains many of the Greek and Roman historical figures, as well as several Muslims, Saladin, Avicenna and Averroes. After that, Virgil and Dante split off and come to a part of the circle they are in where there is no light. 

Canto V 

They descend from the outer ring to the second circle, which isn't as big. There they are greeted by Minos, the legendary king of Crete who became the judge of the dead in the underworld in Greek mythology. Here he examines the sins of the sinners, and condemns them to one of the circles of hell, depending on how many times he wraps his tail around himself. On seeing Dante, he screams at him to beware of who he trusts, and not to be fooled by the wide path. Virgil tells Minos not to impede Dante because his journey is willed by from on high where what is wanted is what is done, no questions asked. 

In this circle are those that sinned through lust. They are whipped around continually in a whirlwind, which buffets them. The whirlwind represents the storm of passion that swept up those given to lust. Having given themselves over to passion, the whirlwind, in life, they are now completely ruled by it in the afterlife.  

Dante first comes across Semiramis, a historical Assyrian queen, who by the middle ages became a symbol of lust and promiscuity.  

The historical Semiramis was the wife of Shamshi-Adad V, who ruled from 824-811 BC. She ruled as a regent for 5 years before her son took the throne. According to Diodorus, a first century BC Greek historian, she was married to Onnes, a general under King Ninus. She became an advisor, and even led a troop of soldiers to great success. Ninus was struck by her and fell in love. He offered Onnes his own daughter as a swap, but when that was rejected, the King resorted to dire threats. Onnes eventually went mad and committed suicide, and Ninus married Semiramis. Prior to Christianity, there were some negative legends, but she was generally viewed positively. Perhaps in Orosius' History against the Pagans, she was portrayed as legitimizing incestuous relationships. Petrarch identified her as one of the three female examples of evil love. 

The second is unnamed, except for she was unfaithful to the ashes of Sychaeus: which would make her Dido, the widow of Sychaeus in the Aeneid. She broke her vow to her dead husband when she fell in love with Aeneas and marries him. 

Cleopatra, who had taken three of Rome's most powerful men as lovers before killing herself, and Helen of Troy are seen here. Paris, who kidnapped Hellen and precipitated the long Trojan war, and Achilles, who, because he loved her, was lured into a trap by Polyxena, a daughter of the King of Troy, are also mentioned. Finally Tristan, the Celtic knight who was sent to bring back the Irish princess Iseult, but fell in love with her. 

But while Dante sees these others, he speaks with Francesca da Rimini, asking her to explain how they ended up here. And it is Francesca who Dante portrays as emblematic of this sin. 

Francesca da Rimini (actually of Ravenna), was murdered by her husband Giovanni Malatesta, when he discovered his brother Paolo was having an affair with her. 

She explains that it happened when she and Paolo were both innocently reading the story of Lancelot, of King Arthur's court.   

For pleasure, we were reading one day  how love had gripped Lancelot;  we were alone and suspected nothing. 

Several times that story caused our eyes  to lock, and our faces colored;  but one particular point conquered us. 

When we read of the smile of the desired one  was kissed by the lover,  this man, never to be separated from me, 

kissed my lips while trembling.  The book, and its author, was the matchmaker!  We read no more from that day on. 

The particular point that got them was when they read of "the smile of the desired one", Guinevere, "was kissed by the lover", Lancelot, so then Paolo, apparently inspired by the racy story, decided to enact it for himself and he kissed Francesca. 

The italian says: Galeotto fu 'l libro e chi lo scrisse! 

Since I wasn't aware of the reference, I had assumed the story was written by Galeotto... but apparently, Galeotto, or Galehaut, was the knight that facilitated the affair between Guinevere and Lancelot, and that name has now become the Italian word for a thing that acts as a matchmaker.  

So even in hell, Francesca continues to assert that it was the literature that caused them to fall, she was a mere passive object. She asserts: 

Amore, ch’a nullo amato amar perdona,  mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,  Love, which doesn’t allow a loved one  not to love, held me with such a strong desire , 

In her mind this love was irresistible, so she could no other than go along with it. This is indicative of the justification, or rationalization, the mind will provide, for what we want.  

Dante seems to buy this, as he feels particularly sorry for the couple. But perhaps that's because her language echos his own love poetry. 

Canto VI  Dante comes to his senses... again... and finds himself now in the third circle of hell. Here is an endless rain that is cursed, cold and severe, which never changes. Mixed in are huge hailstones, tainted water and snow. They encounter the beast Cerberus, the mythological three-headed hound with a snake's body. He threatens them, but Virgil chucks some mud at him and he shuts up.  

They are passing through shades that seem like humans, but they are insubstantial. One recognizes Dante and addresses him. It is "Ciacco", a fellow Florentine, who has been condemned, as all on this level have been, of gluttony.  

Dante asks Ciacco for information about what will happen to Florence. Here it gets pretty obscure, but I'll relate the explanatory notes. 

Ciacco says: After a long time of tension, the two parties come to blood, and the 'wild' (Whites) drives out its opposite faction.  

He continues saying that after three years, the opposite faction would rise (Blacks) with the force of "him that plays both sides". The italian here is incomprehensible to me- tal che testé piaggia... is not an idiom that I could understand, but as I looked at the English translations, the modern Italian renderings, and explanations of the idiom, I believe it means that this guy was, as far as I can understand it, working both sides of the divide, and it seems everyone is agreed this was Pope Boniface VIII. 

Ciacco finishes by noting that the Blacks will then exalt themselves, while keeping the Whites down at the same time under heavy penalties. 

The wild party are the white Guelphs. Generally speaking, Guelphs supported the Pope, and Ghibellines supported the 'Holy Roman Emperor'. If you didn't know, after the fall of Rome, the German Kings took up the reign of the Holy Roman Empire. The Catholic church per se, continued in the east in Constantinople. But these German Kings, claiming the rights that came along with ruling in Italy, held they themselves were the true guardians of the church, the holy Roman empire. But then the Roman Popes claimed that for themselves too. To complicate matters, there were apparently factions within the broader camps themselves, and in Florence, while they all considered themselves Guelphs, there were two camps- white and black. The whites were followers of the Cerchi family, merchants that were relatively new to Florence and more recently settled there, hence known as 'backwoods' or selvaggi – wild men. 

The blacks followed the Donati family. In 1301, the Whites drove out the Blacks, but through the machinations of Pope Boniface VIII, the Blacks returned to power in 1302, and banished a bunch of Whites, including Dante himself. Dante never returned to Florence.  

Dante asks Ciacco for information about the fates of several other notable Florentines, who he considered good men: 

Farinata degli Uberti  Tegghiaio degli Adimari  Iacopo Rusticucci  Arrigo dei Fifanti  Mosca de' Lamberti 

These men belonged to the generation preceding Dante. 

Ciacco says they are even further down in Hell, and then declares he will say no more and falls back into oblivion. 

Dante prods Virgil about the eventual fate of these souls when the final resurrection occurs. Christian theology holds that at the final resurrection, the dead will rise and be judged. At that point they will have their bodies and earthly forms back. 

Dante portrays the spirits in this time before the resurrection as not fully substantial. They are shades or shadows. He asks Virgil if things will be worse, better or the same for these after the resurrection, and Virgil tells him to return to his science, or maybe philosophy, particularly of Aristotle, that said the more complete the body is, the better it could feel both pleasure and pain. Then he says that despite the fact that those in hell will never reach perfection, they still await more at the resurrection than currently they have. To my mind, it would seem that would mean they will suffer even more. 

At the end, Dante and Virgil descend and met Plutus, or Hades, the Greek mythological god of the Underworld. By Dante's time, Plutus was considered the god of wealth and riches.