#and his earliest concepts of love were formed around music like this

[lifesver]

leland wants to slowdance w his s/os to the hokiest sappiest old love songs ever. thank u ^-^ so u all better dance w him when he gives u the puppy eyes ...

[askroahmmythril]

Development of the RMN Series

A recent ask got me thinking about how I developed my set of Robot Masters over the years, which ones were made earliest, which ones came later, design elements that changed over time, etc. So figured I could compile some of that here.

High School Era

The earliest one I made was Vegas Man. I've always had a bit of a fascination with playing cards, so I wanted to theme a Robot Master around that sort of idea, I definitely wanted to make card suits part of his design (I don't think I'd seen RM&B by that point, so I was unfamiliar with Magic Man). His design changed a bit over time, gaining some slight western theming, as well as a change to his weapon, the Casino Shield. The earliest version was an actual physical circular shield he wore on one arm, designed to look like a roulette wheel.

Next up was Bow Man. I think I was somewhat inspired by RMs like Knight Man and Yamato Man that were equipped with solid "real" weapons. Sword Man might have been on the list by that point as well, come to think of it. I figured an archer robot could fit right in. My mind immediately went to Robin Hood as a design base, an overall medieval look. It took some time to come up with a design that carried that feel but looked "robot armor" enough, but I'm fairly pleased with the current iteration.

Third in order was a very early version of Glass Man. I had the overall design elements, and solid idea of how I wanted his weapon, the Shatter Shard, to work. Earlier versions were more solidly based on more colorful stained glass, but I could never really come up with a solid design that I liked, they all just came out looking too complicated or just an overall shape I didn't like. As such, design for him kind of sat on the bench for awhile.

Fourth was Met Man. This one seemed like an obvious design to go for, as I always liked the Met / Metool / Metall enemies from the series, a longtime favorite. His design is probably the overall least changed from conception to current iteration. Earlier designs had the usual line and + mark on his shoulder pad "helmets" as well. The artist who drew the usual reference art I show for my RMs, Alex, drew him without those markings on the shoulders, and honestly I think that looks better, less cluttered. (I know I just recently posted his art of my RMs, but I put it up above at the start of this post for easy reference, and hey, I love the art and was honored to receive it, so I like showing it off, haha) I think the biggest change Met Man got was getting armed with a pickaxe, a design that came about when I started getting into the MMBN series and wanted to get a bit of Mettaur virus design in there.

College Era

While at Full Sail, my habit of doodling in the margins of my notes continued, and along the way, more custom RMs were born.

Fifth up and starting this period was Devil Man. I wanted a fiery volcano stage, but wanted to go with a less standard fire based idea. I had the idea of an RM using a grappling hook to get around the dangerous volcanic tunnels, and that idea ended up taking the form of a sharp, pointed devil-style tail. I didn't really have a solid personality in mind for him, though the actual visual design came along fairly quickly. Alex again gave me something that I adopted as canon for this RM, in his drawing of Devil Man, he was depicted "throwing the horns," so now I imagine him to be a major metalhead, headbanging on the job as he listens to his favorite heavy metal music.

Sixth in line was Origami Man. Origami is an art form I always liked, my mum had a lot of books on the subject, with step by step instructions for various creations. I knew I wanted to do something with that. The overall design gave me trouble, figuring out something that truly looked like origami armor. The pallet was something else that gave me trouble, but in the end, I opted for a softer pastel pallet, largely for some visual contrast from other RMs I had, a good number of which were already on the warmer side of colors.

This was also the period of time where I largely had Vegas Man's finalized design pretty much down, as well as the redesign of his weapon.

YouTube Era

For lack of a better term of time frame, I didn't really think too much about my custom RMs for awhile after Full Sail, until I had started making videos on YouTube and hanging out with various friends. One conversation with a group of people I used to hang out with involved the idea for a Mega Man fangame, and so, we set to designing RMs. While I did think of my older designs, I also decided "why not try making some new ones?"

Seventh on the list was Fruit Man. Our overall designs for the RMs for this game were more on the silly side, so I decided to go wild with his design, making him a mascot character for an orchard, and thus fully theming him on various colorful fruits. In keeping with the sillier ideas, I made his weapon a pun, the Pineapple Grenade.

The eighth and final design was Disco Man, or as he was originally dubbed, Groove Man. His original design was a bit less solidly themed on one genre of music, instead he was sort of build like an entertainment system featuring tape decks, a CD slot, speakers, etc. I was playing around with visual designs for the head, and the one I ended up liking most had a sort of disco ball afro design. Thus, he started leaning more toward a Disco design, with the disco ball motif migrating to his shoulders, the mixtape taking over his chest, chill shades, platform boots, and a more refined afro design. What can I say, I'm a sucker for disco aesthetic (bring back Miror B. you cowards).

This was also around the time I finally came up with a solid visual design that I liked for Glass Man, and thus, the family was complete.

The Mystery 9th Robot Master...

Technically speaking, back in the High School era, I did have one more RM I had been working on. In true order, he was the fifth design I was working on. His name was Quartz Man. He was going to be a time based RM, armed (literally) with a wristwatch device that gave him time control abilities. However, it was a case where a) I couldn't come up with a visual design I liked enough, and b) I couldn't really think of a solid way to give him time powers that felt unique enough. I think about the only solid part of his design aside from the watch was I think I wanted him to have glasses, I felt it would give him a sharper, more "intelligent" look. I think I had it in mind that he was sort of a strategist type, using his time powers in clever ways to gain the advantage. (EDIT : One further detail I remembered was his color pallet, I wanted him to have at least some sort of bright teal-ish green in reference to the "glow" function of digital watches.)

And so, that basically wraps up the ol' design process I went through over time for the RMN series. Hope you enjoyed this bit of personal history.

[monsterkong]

From Conflict to Convergence: The Cultural Relationship Between Rome and Greece 🌟

The relationship between Rome and Greece is a tale of two civilizations that, while distinct, became inextricably linked through centuries of interaction. From early political structures to cultural exchanges, the evolution of this relationship is a fascinating journey through history. Let’s explore how Rome and Greece influenced each other and the lasting impact of their intertwined destinies.

The Birth of Political Parties and Governance 🗺️

When we talk about the origins of political parties, Greece is often recognized as one of the earliest civilizations to experiment with various forms of governance. The Golden Age of Greece, which thrived around the 400s BC, was a time of democratic innovation, particularly in Athens. This period saw the emergence of political factions that debated issues of governance, laying the foundation for modern political systems.

Rome, emerging as a republic in 509 BC, overlapped with the tail end of Greece’s Golden Age. By the time of Julius Caesar, Greece’s political landscape had undergone significant changes. The once-united city-states had splintered into smaller kingdoms following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. This fragmentation made Greece vulnerable, and Rome, ever the opportunist, began to absorb Greek culture and influence, albeit with some initial reluctance.

Cultural Differences and Initial Resistance ⚔️

In the early days of the Roman Republic, Greek culture was often viewed with suspicion and disdain. The Romans, known for their martial discipline and austerity, saw Greek customs as overly indulgent and effeminate. Greek men, with their long hair and beards, and their love for music, theater, and the arts, were a stark contrast to the Roman ideal of the stoic, battle-hardened warrior.

This cultural clash was evident in Roman society’s view of actors, who were placed at the bottom of the social ladder. Unlike in Greece, where actors enjoyed respect, in Rome, associating with actors was seen as a sign of weakness. This disdain for the arts reflected Rome’s early values, where strength and military prowess were paramount.

Yet, despite this initial resistance, Greek culture began to permeate Roman society. As Rome expanded its empire, it encountered Greek customs that, over time, proved too valuable to ignore. By the mid-Republic, the Roman elite had begun to adopt Greek practices, from fashion to language. Speaking Greek became a mark of sophistication, and even the once-ridiculed beards became a symbol of intellectualism among Rome’s upper classes.

The Influence of Greek Culture on Rome 🎨

The shift in Roman attitudes towards Greek culture was gradual but profound. The Romans, always practical, recognized the benefits of incorporating Greek ideas into their own society. This was particularly true in the realms of philosophy, art, and religion, where Greek influence became deeply embedded.

One of the most significant cultural imports from Greece was the concept of ruler worship, a practice the Greeks had adopted from Eastern civilizations like Babylon. Alexander the Great, the Macedonian conqueror, embraced this practice after encountering it in Babylon, where rulers were often deified. His adoption of proskynesis—a ritual in which subjects would prostrate themselves before him as a sign of reverence—was a stark departure from traditional Greek customs but eventually found its way to Rome.

By the time of Emperor Diocletian in 284 AD, proskynesis had become an established practice in the Roman Empire, highlighting the extent of Greek influence on Roman culture. This evolution in religious and cultural practices underscores the deep connection between these two civilizations, despite their initial differences.

The Enduring Legacy of Cultural Exchange 📖

The relationship between Rome and Greece was not a one-sided affair. While Rome absorbed many aspects of Greek culture, it also left a lasting impact on Greece. Roman advancements in architecture, engineering, and law profoundly influenced Greek cities and governance, shaping the course of Western civilization.

Today, the legacies of Rome and Greece are intertwined, with each civilization having left its mark on the other. Their relationship, marked by both conflict and convergence, serves as a powerful reminder of the transformative power of cultural exchange.

In our increasingly interconnected world, the story of Rome and Greece offers valuable insights into the importance of embracing and adapting to different cultures. As we navigate the complexities of global interactions, we can draw inspiration from these ancient civilizations, learning from their experiences as we shape our own future.

[weirdkpopgirl]

Connection | Jisung Fic #1 (p.t 1)

Title: Connection

Genre: Soulmate AU

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1793k

Author’s Note: Hi guys, this was requested by a lovely anon. I haven’t written a soulmate au in a few years, so I apologize if this one is kinda bad. There are so many types of soulmates, but I decided to just come up with my own thing. I hope you guys like it (especially the person who requested lol). There will be a part two if anyone is curious. ^ ^

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Soulmates? Destined love? Those were concepts you hadn’t given too much thought until recently. Supposedly, a person would only know about their soulmate at a certain point in their life. The earliest age was eighteen, but the timing varied for everyone.

How would they know, you may ask? Apparently, one could hear a single thought per day from their soulmate, and vice versa. Then once they met, soulmates could form a strong bond with each other.

Pretty weird, right? Unfortunately, soulmates were rare in this day and age. But that didn’t stop people from fantasizing about them anyway. After all, who didn’t like the idea of one true love?

Your eighteenth birthday had already passed, and there were no signs of a soulmate yet. Not that you expected anything at all. You had other priorities to focus on, like getting through your first year of college.

Then one day you were in your dorm room, pulling an all-nighter to get this research paper done. You sat at your desk, typing away on your laptop quietly, as to not wake up your roommate. It was late at night, and exhaustion was finally starting to seep through your brain. Just as your eyes began to feel heavy, a deep, male voice came out of nowhere.

I’m so hungry. I should ask Hyung if he can make some ramyeon.

Slightly startled, you glanced around. Of course, only you and your roommate were in the room. Why did a guy’s voice randomly appear—that’s when it hit you.

“No—no it can’t be,” You muttered, shaking your head in denial. It was one in the morning, and your lack of sleep was getting to you.

However, you heard the voice again and again as the days passed. Maybe I do have a soulmate, you thought to yourself. How was this even possible?

It took you a while to accept this new fate. Nonetheless, you tried your best to go on with your daily life. But it felt like you were going around with this big secret. Certainly, you hadn’t expected someone like yourself to have a soulmate.

Any consistency of when exactly you heard your soulmate’s thoughts didn’t seem to exist. You would be sitting through a class, or be at work when these instances occurred. What left you confused was that you had no idea of who your soulmate was or how to find him.

All you knew about this person were the random thoughts you heard every day. So far you learned that he liked dancing, playing video games, and listening to music. You had a feeling that he was around your age, possibly a bit older. He often thought about his schedule, which led you to think he must not be in college. But you weren’t sure what kind of job he had.

No matter how you tried to not dwell on it all too much, you couldn’t help but feel insecure. If you were able to hear your soulmate’s thoughts, that meant he was able to hear yours as well. Not that there was anything in particular that you intended to hide. But you were quite an overthinker and the fact that someone else could possibly hear your worries frightened you.

┈┈

Jisung instantly knew his soulmate had been confirmed when he started to hear a girl’s voice in his head. His members may think he was silly, but he had been strangely interested in soulmate bonds for some time. He used to wonder if there truly could be a person out there for him.

Yes, he was young and had his whole career planned out. But sometimes being a k-pop idol could get a little lonely, even though he was in a group with so many members. Jisung longed to have some sort of contact with the outside world, which he seemed to have left once he became a trainee.

So when he discovered his soulmate did indeed exist, Jisung felt both excited and nervous. He was so curious about who you were and what you were like.

“Did you hear anything today?” Jaemin asked him, after dance practice one day. All his members had gathered around him.

The maknae shook his head in response. “Nothing yet.”

“Have you gotten any clues of who she is exactly?” Renjun came over to sit next to him on the couch.

“It’s kinda hard because they come so randomly,” Jisung tried to explain. “And when I do hear them, it’s all so vague.”

Chenle, who stood behind him, leaned forward.“Well, what do you know already?”

Jisung scratched his head, trying to recall. “She seems to study a lot, so she’s probably in school. Oh and she likes going to bookstores or the library in her free time.”

“Ah, so she’s one of those people who actually read for fun,” Haechan joked.

The boy shrugged, “I guess so.”

“Interesting,” Jeno mumbled. “Do you think she knows who you are?”

“I honestly have no idea,” Jisung sighed in slight frustration. “This is all so weird.”

He wished he had more clues about his soulmate. From what he’s heard about her so far, she seemed like a nice person. But the longer time passed, the more discouraged Jisung felt about finding her.

┈┈

“(Y/n)-ah!” A friend approached your table, after entering the library. If you weren’t studying in your dorm, your friends were sure to find you there.

You tore your attention away from your textbook and took one of your earbuds out.

“Oh, Seoyeon-ah.”

“What song were you listening to?” She asked as she sat down in the empty chair beside you.

In response, you tapped on your phone to show her. The song was titled, “Dear DREAM.”

Seoyeon gasped, “I didn’t know you were into NCT Dream too!”

“Well, I only started listening to their music this month,” You chuckled.

Truthfully, you had to thank your soulmate for getting you into the group. Before, the only music you listened to was by smaller Korean artists, not too much k-pop. But one day your soulmate was singing a lyric to a song you haven’t heard before. Conveniently, you had looked it up and actually liked it. As a result, that took you down a whole rabbit hole of learning about the boy group.

“Who’s your bias? Mine is Chenle,” Seoyeon giggled.

You had to think about your friend’s question for a bit. You’ve barely entered the fandom, so you weren’t used to being asked about biases and stuff like that.

“I think I like Park Jisung,” You answered slowly.

Seoyeon’s head tilted slightly, “The maknae? Huh, I thought you’d go for someone like Jeno or Mark.”

“I don’t know,” You shrugged. “I just feel like...there’s this connection?”

“Ooh, does Kim (Y/n) finally have a crush on someone?” Your friend gave you a smug look. “Can’t blame you, Jisung is pretty cute.”

You blushed, wanting to defend yourself. But you weren’t sure what else to say. Glancing back down at your phone, you saw the album that was playing which featured all the members. They were all pretty good-looking, but Jisung just stood out to you for a reason you didn’t know.

Over the past few days, you watched some of their content videos. The guys were so funny and charismatic, that you found yourself laughing along with them at times. You would have to thank your soulmate for getting you into their music if you ever met him. Surely he must also be a fan if one of their songs was playing in his head.

Seoyeon gave you a nudge. “(Y/n)-ah, did you hear me?”

“Sorry, I must’ve been zoning out,” You said with a sheepish smile. “What were you saying?”

“I have two tickets to NCT Dream’s fan meeting next week. We should go together!”

Wow, that sounded like such a great opportunity. But you’ve never been to an event like that before. There would probably be crowds of fans, including screaming girls. You weren’t sure if you were up for that.

“I don’t know. Don’t we have midterms next week?” You crossed your arms.

“Yeah, but the fan meeting is on a Friday. We’d be done with our exams by then,” Seoyeon reasoned. “Come on (Y/n)-ah, you should do something fun instead of studying all day.”

Well if she kept insisting, you didn’t think it would be too bad if you went just once. Seoyeon squealed and hugged you when you finally gave in.

Next week couldn’t come any faster. You were relieved to be over with mid-terms and looked forward to going to see NCT Dream with Seoyeon. Weirdly, you were a bit nervous about going. There was no explanation for it, maybe that’s how most fans felt about meeting their favorite artists.

Luckily, Seoyeon talked most of the way there and told you what to expect. The feeling of being overwhelmed was quick to consume you when you guys entered the venue filled with so many other fans. Seoyeon had gotten pretty decent seats, where you were close to the stage. Just as you were trying to calm your nerves, several screams flooded your ears when the seven boys appeared.

Almost out of what seemed to be instinct, you looked to see your bias. Of course, it didn’t take you too long to find him. You spotted the shy smile he often wore on camera, he was standing beside Jaemin. Unexpectedly, the boy’s smile dropped when he looked at you.

You gasped when you felt a sudden jolt in your heart. It was almost as if you were struck by an arrow or something. Bewildered by this feeling, you placed a hand on your chest. But once the pain started, it quickly faded away.

“Are you okay, (Y/n)-ah?” Seoyeon put her hand on your shoulder.

“I—I’m fine,” You huffed, feeling out of breath even though you hadn’t done anything.

What is going on? Why does my heart feel so weird?

Startled by your soulmate’s thoughts appearing out of nowhere, your eyes scattered among the crowd. Maybe you were in the same place and could feel each other’s presence somehow. But there were mostly girls here and—

A mix of comprehension and fear filled inside of you. Jisung. You started to feel like this immediately after you saw each other.

That was when you dared to look back at him. His right hand was placed on his chest just as you were. He was staring at you intently, with the same look of disbelief.

“No way,” You whispered, so only you could hear. This couldn’t be possible…

Park Jisung was your soulmate?!

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part two

[bananaofswifts]

Taylor Swift Turns on a Facsimile Machine for the Ingenious Recreations of ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’: Album Review

Swift recreates her entire 2008 album literally down to the last note, then gives herself room for stylistic latitude on six never-before-recorded "vault" tracks.

By Chris Willman

Swift recreates her entire 2008 album literally down to the last note, then gives herself room for stylistic latitude on six never-before-recorded "vault" tracks.

There is no “best actress” award at the Grammys, perhaps for obvious reasons, but maybe there should be this coming year. And the Grammy would go to… Taylor Swift, for so persuasively playing her 18-year-old self in “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” her beyond-meticulous recreation of the 2008 recording that did win her her first album of the year trophy back in the day. It’s impossible to overstate just how thoroughly the new version is intended as an exact replica of the old — all the way down to her startling ability to recapture an untrained teen singing voice she’s long matured and moved on from. It’s a stunt, to be sure, but a stunt for the ages — mastering the guile it takes to go back to sounding this guileless.

There are two different, very solid reasons to pick up or stream “Taylor’s Version,” regardless of whether you share her ire for the Big Machine label, whose loose ways with her nine-figure catalog precipitated this, the first in a six-album series of remakes where she’ll be turning on the facsimile machine. One is to marvel at her gift for self-mimicry on the album’s original tracks, where she sounds as possessed by her younger self as Regan ever was by Pazuzu. The other reason is, of course, to check out the six “vault” numbers that Swift wrote during that time frame but has never released before in any form, which dispenses with stylistic fealty to the late 2000s and frames her “Fearless”-era discards in production and arrangements closer to “Folklore.” Those half-dozen (kind of) new tracks really do sound like modern Taylor Swift covering her old stuff.

But those original lucky 13? It’s the same damn record… which is kind of hilarious and marvelous and the kind of meta-ness that will inspire a thousand more think-pieces than it already has, along with possibly efforts at forensic analysis to figure out how she did it.

It would not be surprising if, as we speak, Big Machine was putting a combined team of scientists and lawyers on the case of the new album’s waveform readouts, to make sure it’s not just the original album, remixed. Honestly, it’s that close. The timings of the songs are all within a few seconds of the original tracks, if not coming in at exactly the same length. The duplication effort doesn’t allow any detours. If “Forever and Always” had a cold open then, it’s going to have a cold open now. If the 2008 “That’s the Way I Love You” had slamming rock guitars with an almost subliminal banjo being plucked beneath the racket, so will the 2021 “That’s the Way I Loved You.” A drum roll to end the old “Change”? A drum roll to end its body-snatcher doppelganger. And if she chuckled before the final chorus of “Hey Stephen” 13 years ago, so will that moment be cause for a delighted giggle now.

Of course, much analysis will be put into whether the new laugh is a more knowing-sounding laugh. And that will be part of the fun for a certain segment of audiophile Swifties who will go looking for the slightest change as evidence of something meaningful. When “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” first came out weeks back to preview the album, there were reviews written that swore she’d subtly changed up her phrasing to put a contemporary spin on the song. And maybe they were right, but, having done a fair amount of A/B testing of the two versions of the album, I found myself feeling like I do when vinyl buffs insist there are significant sonic differences between the first stamper version of an LP and one that was pressed a year later. If you can spot those very, very, very modest tweaks, go for it.

But my suspicion is that if Swift has decided to turn a phrase a little differently here or there on this album, or done anything too differently aside from brighten the sound, she’s doing it more as an Easter egg, for the people who are on that kind of hunt, than anything really designed as reinterpretation. Because the last thing Swift wants most of her fans doing is A/B-ing the two versions, the way I did. The whole point is to have folks retire the OG “Fearless” from their Spotify playlists, right? The Swift faithful were already threatening to rain down damnation on anyone caught sneaking an audio peek at the old version after midnight. What she intended was to come up with a rendering so faithful that you would never have a need to spin the vintage album again. In that, she has succeeded beyond what could have been imagined even in the dreams of the few self-forgers who’ve tried this before, like a Jeff Lynne.

Is there any reason to find value in the new versions if you couldn’t care less about the issues of masters and contracts and respect in business deals that made all this strangely possible? Yes, with the first one being that the new album just sounds like a terrific remastering of the old — the same notes, and you’d swear the same performances, but sounding brighter and punchier just on a surface level. But on a more philosophical one, it’s not just a case of Swift playing with her back catalog like Andy Warhol played with his soup can. It’s really a triumph of self-knowledge and self-awareness, in the way that Swift is so hyper-conscious of the ways she’s matured that she has the ability to un-mature before our very ears. With her vocals, it’s virtuosic, in a way, how she’s made herself return to her unvirtuosic upstart self.

On Swift’s earliest albums and in those seminal live shows — at the time when she was famously being told she “can’t sing,” to quote a song from the follow-up album — there was a slight shrillness around the edges of her voice that, if you lacked faith, you might’ve imaged would be there forever. It wasn’t. That was partly youth, and partly just the sheer earnestness with which she wanted to convey the honesty of the songs. She’s advanced so much since then — into one of pop’s most gifted modern singers, really — that the woman of “Folklore” and “Evermore” seems like a completely different human being than the one who made the self-titled debut and “Fearless,” never mind just a woman versus girl. It wouldn’t have seemed possible that she could go back to her old way of singing at the accomplished age of 31, but she found and recreated that nervous, sincere, pleading voice of yesteryear. And maybe it was just a technical feat, of temporarily unlearning what she’s learned since then, but you can sense that maybe she had to go there internally, too, to the place where she was counseling other girls to guard their sexual virtue in “Fifteen,” or wondering whether to believe the fairy tale of “Love Story” or the wakeup call of “White Horse,” or proving with “Forever & Always” that writing a song telling off Joe Jonas for his 27-second breakup call was better than revenge.

If at first you’re not inclined to notice that Swift has re-adopted a completely different singing voice for the “Fearless” remakes, the realization may kick in when those “vault” tracks start appearing in the later stretch of this hour-and-50-minute album. The writing on the six songs that have been pulled up from the 2008 cutting room floor seems primitive, even a little bit by the standards of the “Fearless” album; there are great lines and couplets throughout the rescued tracks, but you can see why she left them as works-in-progress. But she doesn’t use her youthful voice on these resurrections, nor does she employ the actual style of “Fearless” very strictly. Of course, she feels more freedom on these, because there are no predecessors in the Big Machine catalog she’s asking you to leave behind. Her current collaborators of choice, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, divided the co-producing work on these fresher songs, as they did for the two all-new albums she released in the last year. (The “Fearless” recreations are co-produced by Swift with Christopher Rowe, someone who worked on remixes for Swift back in that era.) They co-produce the vault songs in a style that sounds somewhere between “Fearless” and Folklore”… a more spectral brand of country-pop, with flutes and synths and ringing 12-string guitars and a modicum of drum programming replacing some (but not all) of the acoustic stringed instruments you’d expect to be carried over from “Fearless” proper.

Of the previously unheard tracks, Swift was right — she’s always been her own best self-editor — in putting out “You All Over Me” first, in advance of the album. With its imagery of half-muddy stones being upturned on the road, this song has advanced lyrical conceits more of a piece with the level of writing she’s doing now than some of the slightly less precocious songs that follow. Still, there’s something to be said for the sheer zippiness with which Swift conveys teen heartbreak in “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” which has a lyric that shows Swift had long since absorbed the lessons Nashville had to offer about how to come up with a high-concept song — the concept, in this case, being just to stick the word “mister” in front of a lot of phrases relating to her shallow ex, as if they were honorary titles to be conferred for being a shit, while she employs the “miss” for herself more sparingly.

Some of the remaining outtake songs go back more toward the sedate side of “Fearless”-style material; she didn’t leave any real bangers in the can. “We Were Happy,” the first of two successive tracks to bring in Keith Urban (but only for backgrounds on this one), employs fake strings and real cello as Swift waxes nostalgic for a time when “you threw your arms around my neck, back when I deserved it.” It’s funny, in a good way, to hear Swift at 31 recreating a song she wrote at 17 or 18 that pined for long-past better times. The next song, “That’s When,” brings Urban in for a proper duet where he gets a whole second verse and featured status on half a chorus, and it’s lovely to hear them together. But, as a make-up song, it doesn’t feel as real or lived-in as the more personal things she was writing at the time — and the fact that its chords are pretty close to a slightly more balladic version of the superior “You Belong With Me” was probably a pretty good reason for dropping it at the time.

the 18-year-old Taylor Swift is a great place to visit, but “Folklore” and “Evermore” are the place you’ll want to return to and live, unless you have an especially strong sentimental attachment to “Fearless”… which, sure, half of young America does. It’s not irreconcilable to say that the two albums she issued in the last year represent a daring pinnacle of her career, but that “Fearless” deserved to win album of the year in 2008. Has there been a greater pop single in the 20th century than “You Belong With Me”? Probably not. Did the album also have lesser moments you probably haven’t thought about in a while, like the just-okay “Breathe”? Yes. (I looked up to see whether Swift had ever played that little remarked upon number in concert, and according to setlists.fm, she did, exactly once… in 2018. Because she’s Taylor Swift, and of course she did.) It’s not certain that her duet with Colbie Caillat really needed to be resurrected, except it’s fun, because hey, she even roped former duet partners back into her time warp. But there are so many number that have stood the test of time, like “The Way I Love You,” an early song that really got at the complicated feelings about passion and fidelity that she would come to explore more as she grew into her 20s… and just kind of a headbanger, too, on an album that does love its fiddles and mandolins.

It doesn’t take much to wonder why Swift put up “Fearless” first in this six-album exercise; it’s one of her two biggest albums, along with “1989,” and it’s 13 years old, which does mean something superstitious in the Taylor-verse. In a way, it’ll be more interesting to see what happens when she gets to more complicated productions, like “1989” or “Reputation.” But maybe “Fearless” did present the opportunity for the grandest experiment out of the gate: to recreate something that pure and heartfelt, with all the meticulousness a studio master like Swift can put to that process now, without having it seem like she’s faking sincerity. Let the think-pieces proceed — because this is about six hundred different shades of meta. But, all craftiness and calculation aside, there’s a sweetness to the regression that’s not inconsequential. It harks back to a time when she only wondered if she could be fearless, before she learned it the harder way for sure. What they say about actors “disappearing into the role”? That really applies to Taylor Swift, playing herself.

[fyeah-bangtan7]

J-Hope on Growing Up in BTS, His Next Mixtape and More

"We wanted to make music that can give people more strength," says J-Hope, in the first of our digital cover stories starring each BTS member

One of BTS’ many high-profile fans, Late Late Show host James Corden, says the group is “at their core, a force for good.” With his dimpled smile, warm manner, and fierce stage presence, 27-year-old rapper, dancer, songwriter, and producer J-Hope embodies the group’s combination of fundamental goodness and overwhelming talent; even his choice of stage name radiates positivity. In the first of Rolling Stone‘s breakout interviews with each of the seven members of BTS, J-Hope looked back at the group’s early days, reflected on his musical future, and more. He spoke from a studio room at the Seoul headquarters of the group’s label, HYBE’s Big Hit Music, wearing an olive coat over a crisp white T-shirt. His energy was restrained compared to his relentlessly buoyant TV interviews, but his high-watt smile was never far away.(In celebration of BTS’ appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone, we’re publishing individual digital covers with each member of the band; check back throughout the next week for more.)

Did you wake up and come straight here, or did you get a chance to do anything else this morning?

I went to the bathroom! [laughs]

So what have you learned about yourself over the course of this pandemic year?

It was an opportunity to learn how precious our ordinary lives were.  I had to think about how my life should go on and how I should just stay calm and focus even during these times. It was a time to reflect on myself a lot.

And what did you take away from that reflection?

The takeaway is I have to do what I can do best. Time goes on and life flows on, and we just have to keep doing music and performances. I just thought that I have to make music that can give consolation and a sense of hope to other people. You know, we’re just people, like everybody else. So we feel the same way as everybody else. So we just wanted to make music and do performances that other people can resonate with and that can give people more strength.

What you’re saying reminds me of the message of “Life Goes On,” which is a beautiful song.

That song came from thinking about what can we do during this time, during the Covid pandemic. It’s about the stories that we can tell at this point in time. It motivated us to really talk among the members about what we are feeling. So I feel that it’s an important song.

In some of your lyrics, you’ve revealed that there is sometimes a sadness behind the smile that everyone loves. How do you balance the positivity that you present to the world with the more complex emotions you may experience in real life?

Things are really different from how it used to be. I just try to show who I really am. I think that’s the most comfortable for me. Everybody has, you know, different sides from what they show. Of course, I do have a burden and a pressure as an artist. I just take them in for what they are. I just try to express that I’m going to overcome these difficulties.If I express those things, I think that also gives me a sense of consolation as well. We have been communicating with our fans ever since we became artists, but now I think it’s become more natural and comfortable. Before we tried to only show them the good side, the bright side of us. As my name is J-Hope, I only tried to show the bright side of our group and myself. But as the time passes by, one cannot feel the same way forever so I also felt other emotions. I tried to express those emotions through music or dialogue, to express them in a very beautiful way.

One of those songs is “Outro: Ego.” What were you thinking when you wrote that one?

It’s really about self-reflection, reflecting on who I am, my ego, as the name implies. It’s about the life of Jung Ho-seok [J-Hope’s real name] as an individual, and the life of J-Hope. And the conclusion that I draw from this inner reflection is that I believe in myself and I believe who I am, and this is my identity. And then these are the challenges that I have faced, and I’ll continue to face these challenges and do new things by relying on who I am.

In 2018, you released the mixtape Hope World, which was a major artistic achievement. What are your favorite memories of working on it?

You know, looking back, I think it was really pure, innocent, and beautiful that I could do such music at those times. When I work on music right now, I have an opportunity to go back to those emotions and think, “Oh, those were the days.” I think it really has a good influence on my music that I work on now. Through the mixtape I learned a lot, and I think it really shaped the direction that I want to go in as an artist, as a musician. I’m really just grateful that so many people loved my mixtape. I am planning to keep on working on music and to try to show people a [style of] music unique to J-Hope.

What are your thoughts on a second mixtape?

Right now, the goal is to get inspired and make good music. Nothing is decided yet, so I’m just going to keep working on music. I think my style of music will not greatly change, but I think it will be more mature. I will try to contain stories that I really want to tell in the second mixtape.

You just released the full version of the song “Blue Side” from Hope World. Was that just something you had the whole time, or did you finish it more recently?

It wasn’t a full version at that time, so I always had the thought of going back to that song and completing it. I always had that in mind. I think it was like two weeks or one month ago that I finally came to think that “Oh, I want to finish this song.” As I mentioned earlier, I really look back onto the emotions that I have when I worked on the mixtape.

When you started as a trainee you hadn’t rapped at all. You’ve obviously come a long way and developed some serious skills — what was that learning process like?

I still think I have some shortcomings. I still think that I have a long way to go, to learn more things. I have to find my own unique style. But I think I could only come this far thanks to the other members. When I first started training, all the members were rappers in that crew. So when you go into the house, beats were dropping, and everyone was just rapping in freestyle. It was kind of not easy to adapt at first, but I really tried hard to adapt to that new environment. And I think those were good times and good memories, and it was really fun as well.

You were very young when you began as a trainee. What’s it been like to grow up in BTS?

I think during my training, life was far apart from being ordinary. Because other guys, my friends, would do schoolwork at school and go on field trips and build memories as a student. And of course I chose this career, my own path, giving up those things. Maybe I could feel unfortunate to not to have experienced those things, but I was chasing my dreams. And meeting the members during our trainee days was really amazing, because it is just amazing that different people who were so different could come together to form a group. And I really want to thank those guys, and I sometimes I feel like I really want to go back to those days.

What do you think when you look back at BTS’ earliest videos, when you all had this almost tough image?

Back when we had released “No More Dream,” our music embodied the battle against prejudice and oppression. So naturally, such values carried over to the style and visual aspects of the release as well. You could say it was our identity and the image that we also portrayed at that moment. But we can’t forever dwell in that static state. As time flows, things change and trends change, as did our tendencies in music. We took into account the influences around us, including, of course, our audiences. These influences guided us toward our own change in musical style and concepts.

You’ve all said many times that when you first got together, there were conflicts because you had different backgrounds and different values. What were some of the key differences that made it tough early on?

We were just really different from the beginning, so it was awkward. It did take time to get used to it. We were living together, but we had to make sure we each had our own personal spaces. Eventually we learned to understand each other, and now we’ve been doing this for so long together that we have this sort of harmony, an understanding of each other that allows us to have the kind of teamwork we have. And each of us has different roles and different things we do in the music, so we also try to help each other in what we’re doing and try to help each other become better.

© source

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: a stupendously underrated classic of queer punk meets synth sophistication, and an album without which we wouldn’t have Dare by the Human League: Homosapien, the 1981 solo opus of Buzzcocks frontman Pete Shelley. Find out more by watching the video, or reading the transcript below!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be talking about one of those albums that isn’t necessarily the most acclaimed or best remembered work of its period, but nonetheless played an important role in history, and remains unrivaled for its uniqueness: Pete Shelley’s Homosapien, first released in 1981.

Shelley has historically been chiefly remembered as the frontman of the punk act, Buzzcocks. But, despite punk’s reputation for simplicity to the point of obnoxiousness, Shelley was one of many musicians to come from the punk scene with a penchant for experimental or otherwise ground-breaking music. His very first solo release, 1980’s Sky Yen, features little more than a brash wall of oscillating electronic noise, not unlike the earliest provocations of industrial artists like Cabaret Voltaire.

Music: “Sky Yen (Part One)”

Subsequent generations of critics have gone great lengths to coin and define terminology, in the hopes of breaking this period down into constituent parts, but the more I study it, the more I’m inclined to view it as just a huge soup. There was, quite simply, a lot going on in Britain’s underground in the late 70s and early 80s, and in practice, the lines between punk, post-punk, industrial, synth, noise, and other avant-garde miscellany are frequently illegible. As an artifact of this era, Homosapien resonates with all of the contradictions this melting pot would imply, fusing emotional rawness and pristine production in a way that never quite settles down and feels comfortable.

Music: “I Don’t Know What It Is”

“I Don’t Know What It Is” served as the opening track of the album’s second side, as well as its lead single. With a bona fide guitar solo as well as a propulsive, and truly soaring, chorus, it somewhat resembles that most 1980s of art forms, the power ballad. It is, ostensibly, a love song, and is revealed to be one quickly enough, but its portrayal of love is far from kind. While a real power ballad might take the concept of love for granted, “I Don’t Know What It Is” seems to portray it as something mysterious, inscrutable, and dangerous. And I can’t forget to mention just how much Pete Shelley stands out as a vocalist--his high-pitched, perhaps even fried or shrill vocals add a great deal to the song’s sense of unease, and really sell the idea of someone who’s being overtaken by an uncontrollable and dominating force.

Of course, perhaps the most noteworthy thing about Homosapien’s sound is its fusion of the hard, driving acoustic guitar of punk with the electronic sensibilities of its producer, Martin Rushent. I wouldn’t say this combination is ever terribly cohesive in its sound, but I think that’s why I find this album so interesting: there’s a tension that permeates each track, a feeling that things don’t fit together. While Homosapien is a pioneering work of electronic-centered production, enough of the pieces are still in place that you can certainly hear the shape of music to come as you listen to it. It’s not just the synthesisers, but also the use of electronic percussion here--it’s difficult to overstate the impact that so-called “drum machines” had around this time. While reviled by many, both then and now, rhythm machines were undeniably “instrumental” in changing what popular music sounded like. Even synthesiser-based electronic acts like Gary Numan, OMD, and Kraftwerk often relied on traditional percussion, so this genuinely was pretty shocking at the time.

Perhaps the most important element of the legacy of Homosapien is the fact that Martin Rushent would go on to use the skills he honed here to produce one of the most influential albums of the 1980s, and perhaps of all time: The Human League’s Dare, which would go on to cast an enormous shadow on nearly all popular music to come, after playing an enormous role in instigating an era of popular dominance of synth-pop. In that sense at least, Homosapien is certainly a very historically important album, and for that reason alone, I think it deserves a fair bit more attention than it gets. Still, for as much as the electronics might be the most forward-looking element of this album, one also can’t deny that it remains full of aggressive and perfectly punk overtones, as on the crass or perhaps dismissive screed of “Guess I Must Have Been In Love With Myself.”

Music: “Guess I Must Have Been In Love With Myself”

While Homosapien has many moments of seemingly being too thorny to get a good grip on, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t also times in which it can feel like a bit more than the sum of its apparent parts, as on its most narrative-driven track, “Pusher Man.”

Music: “Pusher Man”

“Pusher Man” is one of, if not the, most synth-centered compositions to be had on Homosapien, but its insistent pacing and neurotic portrayal of the “low life” theme of buying illicit drugs mean you’ll never confuse it for run of the mill synth-pop. Moreso than anything else the album offers, this track reminds me of the sort of “synth-punk” that American acts like the Units and Crash Course In Science would put forward at around the same time. “Pusher Man” was, at the very least, a sufficiently experimental track to earn the honour of being cut from the US release of the album in order to make room for some non-album A-sides, as happened to many albums at the time. But hey, that’s enough beating around the bush. Let’s talk about the real crown jewel of this album.

Music: “Homosapien”

If you’ve heard anything from this album before, chances are, it was probably the title track, which proved to be quite the commercial success--despite being banned by the BBC on account of its homoerotic content. Given that this very same year, they also came after OMD’s “Enola Gay” for its obviously nonexistent reference to homosexuality, one might be forgiven for thinking that a tune called “Homosapien” was simply misinterpreted. The title track isn’t terribly explicit material, but its clever wordplay nonetheless deals quite deftly with issues of sexuality and personal identity. In the earlier verses, Shelley introduces us to typified roles of gay male sexuality--the “cruiser,” the “shy boy”--only to seemingly doff them with the tune’s defiant refrain, asserting that the only truly important identity a human being has is that of “Homosapien.” Far from being an unfortunate coincidence, the similarity of “Homosapien” to “homosexual” is being employed here completely deliberately, particularly with it being mashed into a single word and thus gaining a greater resemblance to the word “homosexual” in print. It not only allows Shelley to belt out a borderline dirty word, but also creates a sort of unconscious syllogism, suggesting, in a sense, that homosexuals are people too.

With elements of both unapologetic pride in one’s own queerness, as well as the uncompromising assertion that humanity is something much deeper than that, the title track of Homosapien is one of the most fascinating and inspiring queer anthems of its time. Its artsy slipperiness has prevented it from feeling more shallow with time, and its straightforward or raw quality, intensified by that constant acoustic guitar, has kept it sounding equally sharp. It genuinely does surprise me that this album isn’t at least a little bit better remembered than it is. Outside of the title track, most of this album is currently not available on services like Spotify and YouTube Music at the time of this writing, and I actually struggled to present musical examples here. That’s really a pretty high level of neglect in this day and age, and I hope it can be rectified in the relatively near future.

It would be no exaggeration for me to say that Homosapien features some of my very favourite cover art of any album. Homosapien’s sleeve design sees Shelley occupy some sort of sleek, but hollow hyper-modernist office. Geometric forms suggest the world of the artificial or ideal. An Egyptian statue beside Shelley is a reminder of history, and the idea that even the greatest empires must eventually fall. Likewise, the telescope and early computer positioned nearer to Shelley are evocative symbols of science and technology--but in context they seem more sinister, being juxtaposed against a phrenology bust, which evokes the ways in which our attempts at science have caused misunderstanding and great human misery in the past. The central scene is framed in with large areas of black, which make the space feel even more claustrophobic and uninviting, and Shelley appears to be pushed into the background, almost belittled by the inanimate objects. Overall, I think it’s sort of funny that this album’s cover is perhaps more iconally “New Wave” than the music itself ended up being, particularly with Shelley clad in this somewhat foppish white suit and bow tie--certainly a big change of attire for a former punk!

Given the experimental nature of the collaboration between Shelley and Rushent, you might be surprised to learn that Homosapien actually wasn’t a one-off. Just two years later, Shelley would release a follow-up LP, XL-1, which was also produced by Rushent and largely continues the same ideas. While Shelley would never see the success of “Homosapien” again, the XL-1 single “Telephone Operator” would also chart to a lesser degree.

Music: “Telephone Operator”

My favourite track on Homosapien is “Qu’est-ce que c’est que ��a,” which closes out the first side of the album. If you’re familiar with my other work, you probably already know that I’m coming at this as someone chiefly interested in the electronic side of things, and I think that of everything on this album, “Qu’est-ce que c’est que ça” is the closest to being convincing as a synth-pop tune. With a bubbly, synth-dominant sound and lyrics that are more contemplative than aggressive, it’s much closer to the mould of what I usually listen to for fun than a lot of the other tracks are. That’s everything for today--thanks for listening!

Music: “Qu’est-ce que c’est que ça”

[meanstreetspodcasts]

This One’s About Pete Kelly...

“It’s about the world he goes around in.  It’s about the big music and the big trouble in the big twenties.  So when they ask you, tell them it’s about the blues…Pete Kelly’s Blues.”

In 1951, Jack Webb’s Dragnet was a radio hit, and a television version was in the works.  The success earned Webb some creative space at NBC, and he was able to bring a new series to the air that summer. Pete Kelly’s Blues, the story of a Prohibition-era jazz man and the shady characters he encountered premiered on July 4, 1951, and it would be a passion project for Webb. The show allowed him to integrate some of his favorite music to his signature downbeat dramatic style.

Webb starred as Pete Kelly, cornet player and leader of the “Big 7” jazz combo.  The band played regularly at a speakeasy at 417 Cherry Street in Kansas City; the club was operated by the often mentioned but never seen George Lupo (Lupo, with his skinflint ways, sounded like a kindred spirit to the penny-pinching Anthony J. Lyon on Jeff Regan, Investigator). In between sets at the club, Kelly met (and usually ran afoul of) various characters on both sides of the law in the Roaring Twenties, including the FBI, bootleggers, gangsters, and gun molls. These were desperate men and women, and murder wasn’t out of the question.  Pete would try to keep his head above water. Outside of the band, his only compatriots and confidants were Maggie Jackson, a blues singer who could lend a sympathetic ear; and Barney Rickett, a former bootlegger who Pete counted as the only honest man he knew.

Each episode featured at least one performance from the “Big 7,” and it was these musical interludes that made the series stand out. 

The band consisted of Dick Cathcart subbing for Webb on the cornet; Matty Matlock on clarinet; Moe Schneider on trombone; Ray Sherman on piano; Marty Cobb and Judd Burnette on bass; Bill Newman and George Van Epps on guitar; and Nick Fatool on drums. Cathcart was a long-time friend of Webb’s, and the two of them assembled the members of the “Big 7.” Webb had an ear for the music; he was a jazz aficionado who amassed a collection of over 6,000 jazz albums and capturing the right music in the program was critical to him. Just as he pushed for accuracy and realism in Dragnet, Webb wanted the right sound for Pete Kelly’s band.  He went to great lengths to find the right cornet to give an authentic sound.  The instrument was presented to Webb by a San Francisco fan whose father had played it in Chicago speakeasies during the 1920s.  This blend of music was something new to dramatic radio, and it coincided with the entrance of jazz into the American mainstream. The non-musical cast was well-rounded. Webb reunited with several of his old co-stars going back to his earliest days in radio.  Tudor Owen (Jocko Madigan on Pat Novak For Hire) played Barney, and Barton Yarborough (Sgt. Ben Romero on Dragnet) played Kelly’s bass player, "Red." William Conrad and Jack Kruschen were regularly heard in supporting roles. Scripts came from old pros like James Moser (a regular writer on Dragnet) and Richard Breen (who co-created Pat Novak with Webb).

Pete Kelly’s Blues only ran for 13 weeks in the summer of 1951, but Webb wasn’t done with the concept after the series left NBC. In 1955, he directed and starred in a feature film version written by Richard Breen.  Dick Cathcart was back to provide musical support, and the cast included Ella Fitzgerald as singer Maggie Jackson, and Peggy Lee who earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Edmond O'Brien, Janet Leigh, and Lee Marvin all co-starred in the film, which was a box office hit. In 1959, Webb produced a TV version of Pete Kelly’s Blues that starred William Reynolds. Several radio episodes were adapted, but the TV version aired for only thirteen episodes.

Though not as well-known as his other radio ventures, Pete Kelly’s Blues finds Jack Webb in top form both as an actor and a creator.  Once again, he was ahead of the curve with his mix of music and drama and blazing new trails in radio production.  And this series is perhaps his most personal; it’s true that Webb had a strong admiration for law enforcement, but jazz was one of his passions going back to his earliest days in broadcasting as a San Francisco disc jockey. Pete Kelly’s Blues was a labor of love for Webb, and you can hear it in these shows whenever he’s about to strike up the band.

[lanottedellastrega]

Out of the Shadows

Metal Hammer, Summer 2015. Transcript behind the cut.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS Poised to release their third album, Ghost have returned from their unholy slumber to reveal how their conversion mission is progressing - and when their end times might come... Words: Chris Chantler. Pics: John McMurtrie

Surely this can't be right. Hammer is awaiting an audience with a Nameless Ghoul from the Swedish Devil-worshipping cult of Ghost, half-expecting to be blindfolded and ridden to the ruins of a deconsecrated church for a clandestine rendezvous with the masked and robed envoys of Satan. Yet we're in the executive lounge of a Kensington hotel, and there's an extremely polite, alarmingly youthful-looking short-haired man in a leather jacket being introduced as "the author of Ghost." Hammer experiences some cognitive dissonance, imagining that this is a hoax, that Ghost are slyly pretending to have human faces and interpersonal skills to divert attention from the true nature of their esoteric origins or seduce us into foul practices. The only visible clue to this young man's role as Ghost mouthpiece is the symmetrically matching pair of skull-and-crossbones patches on his leather sleeves. Yet when he starts talking about Ghost's third album, the majestic Meliora, it's clear this guy knows what he's talking about.

"The first album [2010's Opus Eponymous] was about the impending doom of a more old-school Biblical sort, where death and destruction will come in the form of locusts and dark fog: it was the coming of the Antichrist," he explains in soft, measured tones, choosing his words with care, maintaining near-constant eye contact. "The second album [2013's Infestissumam] was about the presence of the devil, taking place aesthetically in a 1700's milieu with a more Baroque theme. Whereas this album is the absence of God. It's a futuristic, pre-apocalyptic record. The cat is out of the house and the mice dance on the table. But at some point, the cat comes home..."

Meliora is a godless state, where Ghost's totemic frontman-cum-sigil Papa Emeritus wields power and terror with fearful impunity. And like his spiritual predecessor, Iron Maiden's Eddie, he's renewed with each new phase of band activity, so we're now on Papa III. His city bears more than a passing resemblance to the world we live in.

"Meliora is the metropolitan landscape in which this album takes place; a backdrop that looks like a big city with a lot of hopeful people living in fear of not succeeding," he explains candidly. "Many of the lyrics on this album deal with ambition. It's ridden with a certain degree of self-loathing. I really hate ambitious people - that's why I live in a place where there's not a whole lot of them."

Ghost may not have had any grand ambitions, but five years on from their debut demo, single and LP, some of their original concept has had to be compromised by unimagined levels of growth and demand. For example, talking openly and earnestly to the press in his street clothes, his face and voice undisguised (rumours suggest he's singer-songwriter Tobias Forge, but his real name is politely unconfirmed) is something the Ghoul never intended to do. But he admits that the success of the band thus far - and the enthusiastic patronage of superstar superfans such as James Hetfield, Phil Anselmo and Dave Grohl - has greatly surprised and humbled the men behind the masks.

"Contrary to popular belief, we did not know that we were gonna get that much heat," the Ghoul affirms. "It's fun to play high horse and say it's just a trick and we're fucking with everybody, which we obviously are not. We had no idea. When we were rehearsing our debut, we had a conversation with Rise Above and were contemplating whether to make 500 or 1,000 copies. And maybe we could do a show at Roadburn. It was very innocent - even though that's a word I've never used in terms of Ghost! We've had to grow with it, and we had a lot of catching up to do between the first and second albums. But aesthetically a lot of things we're planning on doing are things we had on paper to begin with."

Realizing something magickal was happening, Ghost made a concerted decision to spread their message of Satanic arch camp horror out of the underground, moving from cult indie label Rise Above to Spinefarm, an imprint of Universal, the world's biggest major. But from their first recordings, Ghost were a musically accessible, traditional, melodic pop-rock showbiz act with influences from some of the biggest bands of the past (Kiss, Abba, Blue Oyster Cult), a strong visual identity and a mischievously lurid theology; it was clear this band needed a level of production above the average low-key doom band.

"In order to present ourselves in the way that we intended, we needed a larger setting," agrees the Ghoul. "We want Papa's hat to not touch the ceiling. We want the band to look like we're performing a mass rather than in a punk squat. What we saw in our minds was something that looked and felt solemn and larger than life."

From their earliest pronouncements, Ghost were demanding the world's attention, and with "a lot of touring," they made sure they got it. But the question of how long they can hold it for is one that the Nameless Ghoul is acutely aware of.

"We have our figure. We have our concept. We can work with that. But we're just on our third record. Out of all our favorite bands, where were they on their third record? They sure weren't chickening out and doing the same safe shit. That's not how you make a third record; that's not how Master of Puppets or Number of the Beast got made. You have to build and be as bold as you can be, even though it feels a little scary. Because we know, we can fuck this up. Especially on the third record, when you're supposed to take a big step. Are we gonna go down to the basement again? You don't know how many chances you get. This might be our last one."

To make that all-important leap forward on a pivotal album, as Metallica or AC/DC can tell you, the secret often lies in the choice of producer. Although there's a great metallic crunch to the music on Meliora, and a psychedelic audacity, Swedish pop savvy is the band's trump card. To further that end, Ghost employed knob-twiddler Klas Ahlund, best known for his songwriting collaborations with Britney Spears, Kylie, Katy Perry and Madonna.

"We felt, 'Maybe we should work with someone who can really help us redefine what we're doing,'" the Ghoul reasons. "He was keen to find a rock band with their own material, and we were looking for a producer with more of a songwriting skill, so it was a good match. As much as we could drive a car on the energy of thinking we're the best band in the world - a very small car! - we knew there must be things we can do better. Every band with self-respect should work with someone who can really challenge what you're doing, and we did that with Klas. When you're on a major label with bigger expectations, you have the opportunity to get a yes or now from people you'd like to work with. But early on we realised, as much fun as it is to look at records we love and say, 'Let's get Mutt Lange!' or 'Let's get Bob Rock!' it felt like we should get our own man. Many of these big producers weren't big producers until they did that big record that we associate them with."

As they await the world's reaction to Meliora, Ghost have already amassed "the ground basics of what will become the next album." Nevertheless, for a band with such clear vision and attention to detail, it's tempting to wonder if they've planned an exit strategy.

"I had one vision two years ago and I have another vision now, and I may have another two years from now," muses the Ghoul. "We can catapult our concept around a few times, into different eras and spheres, but it has its time and place. I don't think anybody would enjoy having us around doing this forever; when there's nothing more to say, I hope we're sober enough to yank out the cord. We're not going to use Ghost for every musical dream we have. It's all fun and games to be in robes, but it's also lots of fun playing three-piece punk rock in your t-shirt."

However, with the musical development evident on Meliora, happily Ghost look set to continue expanding their sound and mythology. Have you joined the cult?

---

WHO IS PAPA III? Three things we know about our new, mysterious leader...

Papa Emeritus III is younger than his brother, Papa Emeritus II, by three months. Nameless Ghoul: "There are several Mamas. And one big, old, really, really bad Papa. That might give you an indication of what's gonna happen in the future. There's one shark in the water you haven't met yet..."

He controls his followers in Meliora. Nameless Ghoul: "Papa is the authoritative religious leader among his followers. He comes into the vacuum of the godless contemporary world and manipulates the people. We are, together with our fans, agreeing that you are here to worship us, and we are telling you what to do. And in this era, it's all taking place in the futuristic dystopian city of Meliora."

He was inspired by Sir Christopher Lee. Nameless Ghoul: "From Scaramanga to The Lord of the Rings, Sir Christopher Lee played a large role when it came to the concept of Papa. A scary, sophisticated, handsome older man who inflicted terror and arousal. I greatly admired him."

[chronicallylatetotheparty]

The Four Loves

LoganLight, AO3

Summary:

Everyone knew that when you fell in love your soulmark appeared. The more you loved someone the more intricate it’s design. That’s how people knew that their love was true.

But it was hardly ever as simple as in stories. Most had many soulmarks before finding the one they’d choose to spend the rest of their life with. Some were so inclined that their soulmarks appeared only for true friends.

And then there were those like Adrien. Whose smallest spark of affection bloomed across his skin.

Notes:

It’s really more of a soulmark AU than a soulmate AU. ‘Cause I’ve decided I like the concept of soulmarks themselves more than anything else in these types of universes.

Written for Week 2 of Adrien AUG-reste. Specifically, Day 12: Tattoo. (Yes, I know I’m late.)

Alix only has a minor role but I’m tagging her anyway.

———————————————————————————————————–

Adrien knew he wasn’t like his classmates.

Most of them didn’t get their first soulmark until this year. Those that did get them early were like Alix. Unlike most people her soulmarks weren’t Romantic in nature.

Well, to be fair most of his weren’t either.

But Alix only had three. And that was enough to make everyone gawk at her Platonic Life Partner marks. Usually, someone like Alix would have just the one like everyone else. Making it hard to distinguish it as a Platonic mark.

Kim, Max and Nathaniel were all marked on Alix’s skin. Their patterns mostly unrecognizable to everyone besides Alix and themselves. Soulmarks were a private affair, after all. The class was lucky they (mostly) didn’t mind. Usually, you only saw the soulmarks of close family members.

Soulmarks started with the outline of a simple shape or pattern. The better you knew someone the more it spread. And the more it changed.

Take Nathaniel for instance. His mark wrapped around Alix’s lower left leg. She’d worn shorts specifically to show it off. At first it’d been a simple circle with geometric patterns. The next time she showed it off the circle was bigger with three smaller ones inside in the shape of a triangle. The same symbol Nathaniel had on his chest as the Illustrator.

(Nathaniel was always blushing when she did that. It was the social equivalent of Alix shouting at everyone: See this? That means he’s MY friend!)

Kim boasted that his mark was the largest and most intricate Alix had. Which, in any other circumstance, would’ve been the same as bragging about a girlfriend. Good thing everyone knew that wasn’t the case.

No, the only soulmark Kim had was for Ondine. Once he understood her feelings a raindrop appeared on his chest. The last hexagons that represented his crush on Chloe finally fading. And Ondine’s mark spread in waves. Literally, that’s what the pattern looked like.

Because that’s how it was supposed to work. The person or people you loved most branded on your skin. The one who’d stand with you through everything. That’s why most only had one soulmark. It was hard enough finding one person who complimented you perfectly. Or as perfectly as possible.

Adrien wasn’t like that.

He didn’t remember when he’d gotten his first soulmark. Or, was it soulmarks? In his earliest memory the yinyang symbol was already on the left side of his chest, a bit above his heart. Both dots of the yinyang were stylized. One as a butterfly, the other as a peacock’s tail.

The joint soulmark represented Adrien’s love for his Maman and Papa. As he grew older peacock feathers unfurled from the yinyang symbol on his chest. The feathers radiated like sunbeams, barely grazing his abdomen and shoulder. Every “eye of the stars” holding a different image symbolizing something about his parents.

Adrien read about how aro ace people sometimes had more than one soulmark and thought he was like that. Not realizing that Platonic marks didn’t appear for one’s parents.

He knew he wasn’t like Alix once he fell in love with Ladybug. He knew he loved Ladybug because his right forearm was covered in flowering vines.

When Adrien first met her his soulmark was a simple circle below his right wrist. After defeating Stoneheart the circle had become Ladybug’s symbol with five spots. The more he learned about her the more his soulmark grew. Vines with different flowers flowed up his arm until reaching his elbow.

Every flower held a different meaning. Even without color Adrien could tell what each one symbolized. There were the obvious ones like the rose, tulip, and lilac which symbolized love. Then the lavender which was his devotion to Ladybug and her devotion to Paris. The chrysanthemum, his desire for honesty, his desire to know who she was.

And they didn’t stay. It was a well known fact that you couldn’t see your soulmark change. That didn’t stop them though. While the rose was usually there in one form or another the others might not be. And new ones might sprout up unexpectedly. Like the hyssop which was sacrifice, both his and hers. And the Black-Eyed Susan which was Ladybug’s strong sense of justice.

That’s why Adrien checked his soulmarks first thing in the morning. Looking for clues and things his subconscious was trying to tell him. About Ladybug, about his father, about Plagg.

Speaking of, Ladybug was only one of two soulmarks he’d gotten that day. Plagg’s mark started as the cat’s paw symbol on his Miraculous. Breaking every known law of soulmarks the mark for his kwami disappeared when he willed it to. The lightning spreading from his central back vanishing with a thought.

Adrien knew it was a defence mechanism against discovery but it left him feeling odd. Like one day he’d wake up and Plagg’s mark wouldn’t come back. He didn’t like it.

So, he didn’t think about it. Instead focusing on the soulmarks of his left arm.

The first of these was Chloe. Her hexagon on his outer wrist a reminder that he wasn’t alone in those days after Maman disappeared. Connected to it by what Adrien affectionately called “Tron lines” was Nathalie’s fan and the Gorilla’s hammer. Forming a bracelet around his left wrist.

He remembered the day Chloe had become Queen Bee. The hexagon had gained a bee of it’s own. And that wasn’t the only time one of his marks changed so drastically. Nathalie’s fan used to be something else entirely. He couldn’t quite remember what, though.

That brought him to the rest of the soulmarks on his left arm. Which he’d termed the “friendship arm”.

On his first day of school Adrien gained Nino’s simple circle that would grow bigger than Chloe’s hexagon. Music notes wrapping his arm in a band just below the first three around his wrist.

Music notes he could read. That was the thing about Nino. Out of all of Adrien’s soulmarks his was the easiest to understand. Even Ladybug’s much larger mark wasn’t as revealing as Nino’s. Every day a new score. The morning one of Nino’s mixes appeared on his arm stood out as one of Adrien’s happiest memories.

It didn’t stop there. When he’d play video games with Max the binary around his elbow shifted. Rose and Juleka’s marks intertwined like light and shadow. Kim’s was all over the place; with wings and waves and other things coming out of each other. Ivan’s stone supporting Mylene’s tree. Alix’s clock just below his shoulder. Nathaniel, Alya, even Sabrina, each one of his classmates wound their own pattern around his left arm.

And when his arm had filled up new ones appeared on his left leg. Wahem, Aurore, Mireille, Luka. His skin was getting crowded!

But his left leg still had space when the Tsurugi emblem appeared on his right. That’d been confusing, having Kagami by herself. Then the storm clouds started spreading from her mark and things got even more confusing.

Adrien had two Romantic marks. Two! He knew he wasn’t like everyone else but he was at least hoping this was! Even if you loved two people at once Romantic marks usually faded as the new one grew. That’s what happened with all of his friends!

Once their crush on Marinette faded her circle soon followed. That’s how it worked.

Right?

Plagg was no help. He didn’t seem to grasp that Adrien didn’t want two girls. Just one would do.

Adrien was beside himself at the disloyalty towards his Lady etched onto his skin. But he couldn’t get rid of it. Kagami meant too much to him for that to be anything but an impossible task. He tried to wrestle his feelings into a Platonic mold but every new thing he learned about her made the soulmark grow.

Kagami’s storm wasn’t as big or detailed as Ladybug’s garden. Though it was bound to catch up. And since it was on his leg the mark had more room to grow.

Eventually, he accepted what his skin told him. Adrien Agreste was in love with two girls. Even if he’d prefer not to be.

Yet even that didn’t consume his thoughts like the one who was missing. She’d been missing since he’d met her. Marinette never showed up on his skin. Even though he expected her next to Nino it’d never happened.

That’s partly why he was so nice to her. Okay, he was nice to everyone, but! The point was he didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t anything to do with her. If Marinette’d been like him Adrien was sure she’d have his mark. No, something was wrong with him if his skin didn’t show her.

It was a source of great distress for Adrien. Not being able to just look at himself to understand his relationship with someone.

(He didn’t know how everyone did it. Even Alix had to deal with her still-not-as-strict-as-Gabriel father and her brother’s Asperger’s without help from her soulmarks. Adrien admired her for that.)

It wasn’t until Rena Rouge’s symbol appeared in Alya’s mark that he understood. Adrien didn’t recognize her but his soulmarks did. They recognized that something about her had changed.

Then Carapace’s symbol appeared in Nino’s mark and his pattern finally interwove with Alya’s. That was certainly a nice surprise.

And it confirmed what Adrien suspected. He’d tried not to think about it since Ladybug was the most vocal about following the kwamis’ rules on identities. Even if it was only a matter of time.

Adrien didn’t let himself act any differently towards Marinette. Even when Max, Luka, Kagami and the others’ soulmarks shifted to include the symbols of their Miraculous.

Until the symbol of the Mouse Miraculous appeared within Ladybug’s mark. Which Adrien could’ve ignored like everything else if he didn’t know that Multimouse was actually Marinette.

… Ladybug was Marinette.

Ladybug was Marinette.

Adrien finally let himself think it… Plagg must’ve been laughing his tail off.

He had to tell her he knew. It wasn’t safe for her not to know. But he wasn’t sure if she’d appreciate him revealing himself. No matter how much he wanted to. It had to be as Chat Noir.

They never talked about their soulmarks. Chat Noir flirted constantly but he never brought up that. His upbringing had neglected much social and societal etiquette but not soulmarks. One did not ask about such a thing. One was offered such a thing.

Maybe Adrien would’ve offered to tell her sooner if he didn’t keep his soulmarks a secret. His overshiirt always had the sleeves all the way down and the collar up. Besides Father and Nathalie only Plagg knew.

And now Ladybug would too.

He asked her to meet him on the rooftops at one of their usual spots. Ladybug could tell he was serious since she agreed readily. That just left the hard part.

Chat Noir wanted to start off with a lighthearted joke like he always did. But once Ladybug landed on the rooftop it died in his throat. His soulmarks weren’t a joking matter. He wasn’t like Alix who could show off her handful of marks. Adrien had a more… conservative point of view.

So, he started with that. Chat Noir told her how his father demanded he keep his soulmarks hidden. He explained that it would reflect badly on his family in certain circles. That some people still didn’t accept the fact that there were soulmarks besides the Romantic kind.

Ladybug’s eyes widened with growing understanding. She listened without interrupting even as her breathing accelerated. (One did not refuse the sharing of a soulmark.)

Chat Noir told her about hiding his marks. And just how many of them he had. He told her about the joint mark for his parents. He told her about the friends that covered his left side from ankle to shoulder… He told her about the soulmark on his right arm. The one that belonged to her. How it’d grown beyond his expectations; especially considering how much he didn’t know about her.

Except he did know her. He knew her favorite color was pink. He knew she stuck her tongue out when she was concentrating on a design. He knew how close she was with her parents. He knew how brave and kind and intelligent she-

Ladybug was panicking. Chat Noir dodged her flailing and grabbed her hands. He called Marinette’s name and she stilled.

He told her about someone whose mark never appeared on his skin. How it drove him crazy not understanding why. Not understanding that the reason Marinette didn’t appear was because she was already there.

That’s why her garden was so lush. Everything he didn’t know about Ladybug he knew about Marinette. And the soulmark didn’t care about identities. Even Plagg’s mark didn’t hide when he brought it out.

Adrien started when she called him by name. He’d been so focused on making her understand that he’d given himself away.

Now it was Chat Noir’s turn to panic. But she calmed him as he’d calmed her. She squeezed his hands tight.

Ladybug told him of the day they’d met. How his simple circle became the cat’s paw of his Miraculous. How she’d assumed it was because he was a fan of Chat Noir.

She spoke of the shadows that swirled like stars around her left shoulder. How they gave her clues and insights about the boy she loved. How the symbols confused her.

Marinette only understood half of what she saw. Or rather, only saw in Adrien half of what she understood of his mark. It spoke to her of deep flaws beneath the surface she hadn’t seen. Yet, that only gave her better understanding of the virtues he possessed and the ones he didn’t.

Adrien smiled sadly at this. Remembering the thorns that hid among the flowers of Marinette’s mark. But she loved him in spite of his flaws. And he loved her too.

They’d mistaken one person for two but now they saw the whole. Seeming disharmony resolved. Adrien burned at the thought of his mistakes being so easily translated now that Marinette knew. And from her luminous blush Ladybug thought much the same.

It wouldn’t be an easy task. To find a new balance. To look back with fresh eyes at their shared history. (He wasn’t looking forward to explaining Kagami.) But they could do it.

Adrien knew love was hard work. His marks told him that. The ones least managed faded even if they didn’t disappear completely. He wouldn’t allow that. It was hard enough to see the soulmark over his heart wilt without either of his parents.

He would tend the garden of his right arm. Learn to love Marinette properly, without secrets in the way. They would show the mark their love left on each other’s skin. He would point out things about herself she didn’t know and she would return the favor.

Despite the dangers of knowing the person behind the mask Adrien was optimistic. It was one of his best qualities. He saw a future full of possibilities. No matter what trials they faced, he knew they could overcome them.

Adrien grinned. He couldn’t wait.

———————————————————————————————————–

Notes:

Yeah, so this universe’s Adrien always has long sleeves to hide his soulmarks.

Stylistically, think Moana for how the soulmarks appear. Well, Moana with more negative space because I don’t really like tattoos that look crowded… He says after giving Adrien as many soulmarks as possible.

[famedroleplayarchive]

there's a serious problem with lack of dash activity and plotting here. and even though you don't really take advice on how to improve the group or adding groups(unless its specifically something /youre/ asking of the group), the unwillingness to change much of anything besides "model groups" instead of making interesting changes like opening trainee slots, potential duos, bands, and staff positions, fun hinting at group debuts, or even a revamp of the blog with new features is discouraging.

Hi! As a policy, it’s much easier for me to address concerns off-anon, but I do want to start off by saying that I’m always open to taking suggestions for what people want to see! I address that and the bulk of your message more fully under the cut, but I wanted to touch on your dash and plotting concerns first above the cut since I wanted to give members a little reminder, too.

If you’re having problems with or concerns about any specific members, please come to me off-anon and I will speak to them. I can’t ever fully know what’s going on with plotting since that almost exclusively happens over messages, which I have no access to. If your writing partners have been slow to reply lately, we’ve got mini-events with the Base blog along with future full-group events and tasks that will be ramping up that will provide more to write about, as the dash does slow down when we don’t have any real events or tasks going on.

I definitely hear your concern, though, so, members, please make sure you’re putting in the effort to write and plot with those who express interest in doing so with you, and don’t be afraid to reach out to others if you feel your plots are currently lacking! Life can make people slow (myself included right now, especially when it comes to responding to plotting messages and, to a lesser extent, messages on the main), but make sure to follow up when you do get the chance, and it never hurts to let someone know that you’ve got a lot going on right now, so maybe going with the flow on a starter or doing a text thread (though, reminder: those don’t count for activity) would be better for the time being.

Likewise, members, if you ever have concerns about feeling excluded by anyone, please message me off-anon and I will do what I can to try to help you out! Your comfort is of utmost important to me.

Now, I’d like to address the latter part of your message, since it concerns me that I may have given off any kind of impression that I’m not open to suggestions or advice.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I am always open to hearing out suggestions and advice! A lot of updates that have been added recently are at the suggestion of members. Almost all of the claims that have been added to the points shop recently were specific requests by members, as well as several past rule updates and general changes to how the group is run. The biggest addition we’ve had to the group in a while was the addition of the Base blog and the events that will come from it (and the full scope of possibilities I want to incorporate through that has yet to be shown!) was an idea I’d had since the beginning of the roleplay in some sense, but was largely shaped by suggestions and requests from members past and present and those who submitted what they wanted to see anonymously. 

Generally, as a rule, I don’t publicly reply to suggestions for the group that come in since it can be hard to make an official statement on any plans I have for incorporating them before I’ve entirely thought it through and figured the best way, time, and method to implement a suggestion. I keep all anonymous suggestions I receive, so that I can keep them in mind and come back to them later. Messages do get eaten, though, so if you want to be one hundred percent sure I got something, please message me the suggestion off-anon and let me know you’d like to know I got it!

I do understand that the few times I have replied to anonymous suggestions publicly, it’s more often than not been to say that something won’t be able to be implemented (or that, if it will, it’s a ways off), but I only do that when a request or suggestion has been made multiple times and I’ve thought it through enough that I really don’t see it working within the confines of the group so that members aren’t holding on for something that I won’t be able to make happen for them. This includes what you’ve mentioned about opening the roleplay up for trainees, staff, or bands, because those are simply not roles that would work within the mechanics of the roleplay and its concept since everything (events, claims, points) is based around the specific lives and careers of debuted idols. Muses outside of that would naturally feel left out unless I were to do a major overhaul of the group’s core. I know idol roleplays with those types of open roles have been done before and are probably being done out there right now, though, so I do hope you can find a place to write your trainee, staff, or band muse if that’s what you really want to write out! Unfortunately, the specific sub-set of the idol roleplay genre that I’ve chosen for Famed to exist within doesn’t easily accommodate the types of roles outside of those that already exist within it. As for duos, I had suggestions brought to me about people wanting to see more sub-unit and canon collaboration opportunities and I’m doing my best to make that happen through all of the recent sub-unit debuts and the COLLA3ORATE event through the Base blog, and beyond that, music collaborations, dramas, variety shows, etc. are always available as a claim for two muses to work and/or promote together if they want to!

No group debuts have been hinted at recently because there’s none immediately planned anymore. I had a boy group I wanted to debut this summer, but it’s more important to me that existing muses have group mates to write with before I bring in new spots, so nothing is planned to happen there with that new boy group debut until next calendar year at earliest. We’ve had at least one new group or soloist debut every year since the roleplay opened (Femme Fatale in 2017; Lucid and Dimensions Soloist 2 in 2018; BC Soloist 1 in 2019; Dimensions Soloist 3 in 2020) and new debuts are something I’d like to keep up for as long as it’s reasonable.

I’m not able to accommodate what every single request, suggestion, and desire everyone has for the roleplay because not everything will fit into the roleplay realistically and logistically, but I promise I have never refused to make a suggestion happen out of sheer stubbornness or refusal to be open to others’ ideas!

In my view, my role as an admin is to keep the roleplay running and offer updates, changes, plot drops, story lines, etc. to encourage muse for writing among muns, but I am also very aware of roleplay as a collaborative art — meaning, as an admin, I also want to work with members to help craft a community unique to the members we have had and do have that wouldn’t exist in the form it does without their creativity and ideas. That’s why I will sometimes put out surveys for opinions and feedback like you mentioned. I never want to make members feel burdened by those, as they are always completely optional, and are intended to help me, as a solo admin, get a broader view on suggestions that have been brought to me to see if it’s something more widely desired. Other times, yes, they do involve concerns and ideas of my own, but I have no desire to put the burden of admin-ing on members’ shoulders and I sincerely apologize if it ever feels like that’s what I’m doing by putting out opinion and feedback surveys. I do often make decisions without surveys, but when it’s something that I’m not fully set on doing or not doing, I like to know if it’s something that will make members happy since, once again, I really do want the roleplay to be shaped in part by what brings members muse instead of forcing things that might suck inspiration out of the roleplay when that’s the opposite of my intention. If I’m asking for member opinions, that is always completely optional and if you don’t want to answer, you should never feel you have to! If the requests for opinions and feedback don’t match what you want to give, then you are encouraged to message me anyway with your own!

I do want to reiterate again since I am very saddened to hear I may have come off contrarily: I love receiving ideas for the roleplay from members. I do not regularly reply to anonymous suggestions so that I can keep them in the inbox to come back to, but I am happy to read them and consider them. I was actually thinking very recently about how I might want to open a separate ask box or open submission form for suggestions to encourage members to send their thoughts in when they have them, but we have quite a few blogs already, so I didn’t know if that would be wanted.

I’m one person and while I try my best to try to come up with new ideas and ways to keep the group exciting without being overwhelming, I’m under no illusion that there aren’t people out there with ideas I never would have thought of that are better than anything I could come up with on my own and it excites me when I get messages with new ideas for the group, even when I’m not able to implement them, because people making suggestions means they’re excited about the group and/or they have enough investment to want to see something and that means the world to me!

As for a revamp of the blog with new features, I’m not confident I know exactly what you’re referring to there, but if you mean a revamp for a new look, I know we’ve had the same graphics and themes on our blogs for a while as it hasn’t been a priority for me to change those with everything else I’ve had going on, but any suggestions you might have for functional features you want to see on any of our blogs would be great to hear! I’ve been working behind the scenes on creating a timeline of major canon career events (tours, first award wins, foreign debuts, that kind of thing) for each of the groups, sub-units, and canon soloists, so I hope to have those added to the new page layouts some time within the next few months, but other new features on the main, Exclusive blog, Base blog, and company blogs are more in their infancy, so any suggestions there would be lovely to hear!

[quarterfromcanon]

1-4. For the asks

Thank you so much for sending these! <3 

Once I started to answer them, I realized there were comparatively few recent television shows appearing on the list. I seemed to keep gravitating toward older ones I remembered from years ago. I took a handful of days to mull it over in case I was forgetting something, but nothing else comes to mind. Maybe my ongoing list of Shows to Watch During Quarantine will turn up some fresh results but, for now, it looks like I’ll be taking a little trip down memory lane. :) 

This turned out to be a pretty long and rambly post, so I’ll stow it under the cut!

Top 5 TV Shows 

1. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - I can’t imagine this surprises anyone who has been following this blog for the past two years or so. It brought fellow fans into my life, got me back into writing fic, and prompted countless tags of meta. It’s the show my mind drifts to on a weekly basis (if not daily) even a full year after the finale. Just when it seemed I’d reached an age where that level of intense fandom involvement and character attachment might be fading, it proved that quite the opposite was true. I’m very thankful to the series for that, and for the people whose paths have crossed mine as a result.   

2. Schitt’s Creek - This is my #1 Feel Good show and, though I’ve been dodging spoilers for the final season until it gets uploaded to Netflix, I get the impression that it will remain in that top spot. The world feels softer and more hopeful there. It’s healing for my soul. I’m going to have a dreadfully difficult time saying goodbye, but I’m glad there are six season to revisit whenever I want. 

3. Stranger Things - The theme song alone sends such a rush of excitement through me. I love the aesthetic and the atmosphere. I sometimes have mixed feelings about the romances but the FRIENDSHIPS sure do have a direct line to my heartstrings. I think the way they’ve combined media influences into their own story is really neat. You get something that’s new and engaging, but you can also go back and enjoy the sources of inspiration with fresh appreciation. 

4. Joan of Arcadia - I can’t help it. The snark, the jackets, the early 2000s songs, the performances -- the nostalgia for this show is so strong. It’s not without its problems, but it did have some really good things to offer as well. I remember an episode that was one of my earliest introductions to the concept of a trigger, and the effect it could have on a person if exposed to one of theirs. The series dealt a lot with grief and the many forms it can take (I STILL can’t hear Fiona Apple’s cover of “Across the Universe” without getting misty-eyed). I’m also surprised, looking back, at the somewhat positive way I recall them discussing homosexuality on the several occasions that it came up in the show. Not to give too much credit since I don’t think there were recurring canonically LGBTQIA+ characters but, for a kid who spent most days around closed-minded people of a certain religious leaning, it was meaningful along my individual journey. I’d like to provide the several examples that are most vivid in my memory:

A. A girl with short hair, short nails, little to no makeup, and a bulky leather jacket is generally assumed to be a lesbian by the bullies at school. The show directly confronts the fact that “gay” should not be used an insult, that identity should not be assumed without the person telling you so, AND makes sure that the character in question never pushes back by saying harmful things about lesbians despite not actually being one herself. 

B. A boy who is questioning is able to confide in his big brother and have a fairly calm conversation about it; the awkwardness mostly comes from neither of them being accustomed to openly discussing emotions, not from the possibility of a negative response regarding the subject matter. 

C. Another character is accidentally discovered to be gay (he only appears in the one episode, if my memory serves), and some of the leads have the opportunity to share that for personal gain. However, even though he is a popular jock who is a bit of a jerk in the hallways, the show makes it clear that the right choice is still to leave the telling of that information up to him and him alone. 

Like I mentioned, it can’t be said that representation was in abundance here - for instance, I don’t believe anything other than straight or gay was presented as a possibility - but any accepting acknowledgement in a faith-centric series was something for me to hold on to in my still-deeply-closeted days. As a final Very Important personal side note, this show brought Judith Montgomery into my life (pictured below on the left), and that feels like it merits a shoutout for being what I consider a rather significant marker in my awakening. 

THE OVERWHELMING CRUSH I HAD - and still have - is one for the books. 

5. Pushing Daisies - This is another show with an aesthetic I adore. The series has such a fun, whimsical energy. The crime-solving! The clothes! The cast! There's a lot to love. It’s the kind of world I wish I could visit... well, minus the evidently rampant murder rate. 

Top 5 Overrated TV Shows

1. Once Upon A Time - *deep sigh* I tried to stick with it for so long. I think I’ve seen five out of the seven seasons in their entirety. It just felt like everything got mired down by excessive (and increasingly convoluted) subplots, often for the purpose of tossing in as many fairytale and/or Disney characters as possible. Plus, quite honestly, there was too much emphasis on romantic love. For a show whose first season involved a curse being broken by [potential spoiler, I suppose] a mother kissing her son’s forehead, I ultimately found myself up to my ears in romantic ships. It reached such a stifling extent that, if you were not particularly attached to those pairings, there wasn’t a whole lot else to entice further viewing. 

2. Under the Dome - I don’t know for certain what the general public opinion of this series was, but it felt like the commercials always featured alleged rave reviews, so I figured I could include it here. I was vaguely interested in Season 1, mainly as a fan of Rachelle Lefevre’s work. Season 2 pulled me in with the introduction of a new townsperson and I threw WAY too much of my heart into that attachment, which backfired when that character was killed. I made quite the spectacle of my heartbreak, so much so that my family doesn’t let me mention this show around them anymore. :P Season 3 was, to phrase it delicately, not a great time. The series did introduce me to a few new-to-me actors, though, so that was cool. 

3. Bates Motel - Even the incentive of learning that the two characters I liked most share a lot of screen time later in the series hasn’t been enough to call me back to this one. I don’t know if it was the pacing that put me off or what, but the prospect of finishing the remaining seasons feels so daunting. There are evidently five seasons in total and I believe I’ve only seen two of them thus far. I will probably muddle through it someday just to see how it goes, but the fact that I am so disinclined to prioritize it made this feel like a fair addition to the list. 

4. Lost - My interest in this series unfortunately waned right before fervent fandom spiked. I don’t have any specific complaints that come to mind about what I saw; I just sort of drifted and then stayed away. Teachers I liked and peers I spent time with were starting to latch on to the show and I couldn’t find even the slightest inclination to give it a second try. However, did I still dutifully read all the latest installments in my friend’s Sawyer Ford and Kate Austen fanfiction when she passed me handwritten copies at lunch? Sure. I was glad it made her happy, even if I was no longer a viewer. 

5. Hemlock Grove - I say this as someone who still mourns the fates of some characters in this show, so I wouldn’t go so far as to claim that the series stopped being able to make me feel anything. I’m just of the opinion that, in some ways, it might’ve been better off stopping at one season. That’s where the book it was based on ends, and things just didn’t feel as cohesive after that. Season 3 especially was - borrowing from my above review of Under the Dome - not a great time. That being said, there are also certain elements from the book that I could’ve done without in the Season 1 adaptation but... well... here we are. 

Top 5 Underrated TV Shows

1. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Another one that won’t surprise followers of this blog. I have rhapsodized about it quite frequently since I found it a little over a month ago. It’s a period piece mystery miniseries with LGBTQIA+ representation, gorgeous costumes, and Samara Weaving. This felt specifically designed to wedge its way into my heart, and I’m quite content with the space it now occupies.

2. Dark - I’m so intrigued by the overlapping timelines with all of the morally gray characters. It’s possible to like one of these people in the timeline where they’re young but dislike them as adults, or vice versa. It also makes me think of Rant by Chuck Palahniuk a little tiny bit with the idea that time travel, specifically tampering with your own timeline, might make you physically and behaviorally unrecognizable to yourself. And the SONG CHOICES! I have gotten some solid new music selections from this series. 

3. Sense8 - I still need to watch the finale. I really do. But I knew it would make me sad so I’ve avoided it for... two years now? Pretty close, I think. The concept is fascinating and the cast is so strong. Plus the cinematography! They came up with some of the coolest ways to depict the link these characters share and what it’s like when they connect over distance. The planning and careful editing it all must’ve taken... I remain in awe. 

4. Penny Dreadful - There were definitely some story/writing choices I didn’t particularly like along the way, but I did get engrossed in the creepy goodness and the performances -- Eva Green’s Vanessa Ives most of all. It left me wishing for more period piece “monster mash” stories, because having all those classic characters in one place was a blast. It also helped me understand why Helen McCrory was once slated to play Bellatrix Lestrange because she can be terrifying. Oh and Sarah Greene in her Wild West outfits? Perdita Weeks with short red hair in fencing garb, and later in all leather with boots and a long jacket? I WAS NOT PREPARED AND I HAVE STILL NOT RECOVERED. I NEVER WILL.

5. Wonderfalls - There’s some cringe-inducing handling of certain representation in the series, but I have such a weak spot for quippy outcasts who become reluctant chosen ones (Joan Girardi in Joan of Arcadia, Wynonna Earp, Jaye Tyler in this series, et cetera). I also really love the sibling dynamics here. They bicker, tease one another, help each other out of trouble, and have rare but genuine heart-to-hearts. Caroline, Lee, and Katie all did such a great job blending their characters’ adult personalities with certain childhood attributes that rise to the surface in the presence of family.  

Top 5 Movies

1. Addams Family Values - I’ve rewatched this movie at least once annually since I found it in Media Play at age 13. Usually, I’ll play it around Halloween or, at the latest, Thanksgiving. It’s mouth-along-with-every-line level ingrained in my memory. I find myself leaning forward in my seat before favorite parts because I’m still that excited to relive them. Why this movie, and why this devotion to such a degree? It’s hard to explain, even to myself. I can tell you, however, that I hold up every other portrayal of the Addams characters to the versions found in this. Everybody in the cast just feels that perfect for their part. 

2. Clue - I was already pretty fond of this movie to begin with, but then my sister got older and claimed it as a favorite of her own, so now she just supplies me with further excuses to watch it repeatedly. It’s also been a bonding piece of media with a couple of close friends and such through the years. It’s incredible to think not everyone in it was the first choice for their roles; what everybody brings to the table is so top-notch that I wouldn’t have it any other way. I also LOVE knowing that it originally went to theaters with different endings depending on which showing you attended. I gather people weren’t terribly thrilled with the stunt back then, but I kinda think some moviegoers would be into that approach these days? Then again, one hit that tried something different tends to start a fad, so maybe I’d end up regretting the suggestion after a while. :P

3. The Craft - This. Movie. Yes, Act III is a major bummer even though I know it’s coming, and I’ll always wish it ended differently. Even so. This. Movie. I tend to headcanon mostly for shows and sometimes books, but The Craft is a beloved exception. I love so much about it: the magic, the music, the clothes, the settings, the dynamics within the friend group, the performances. I had no idea when I first got the DVD at 17 that it would become such a part of my life, but I’m so glad it found its way to me. 

4. Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion - The soundtrack is a glorious ’80s and ’90s treat for my ears. The colorful costumes are perfectly suited to the main characters’ version of the world. There are so many great lines and it feels like everyone is having a lot of fun in their roles. I LOVE HEATHER MOONEY SO MUCH. She’s my awful, scathingly sarcastic, little grungy grump and she fills my heart with joy. 

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - I was pretty sure at least one of the three had to appear on here. I think, if I were to tally them all up, The Return of the King features most of my favorite moments, so it wins the spot. “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!”, ‘Edge of Night,’ Éowyn in battle, The Army of the Dead, ‘Into the West’... I end up crying during the end credits every time. So, yeah, ultimately, I would choose the third part of the trilogy if I could only watch one. 

Phew, that’s it! All the questions answered, all the shows and movies listed! Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read it all, and thanks again to @monaiargancoconutsoy for sending in the prompts! <3

[vinylandcoffeecollection]

Notes On a Conditional Form- The 1975

(This is my review of Notes, which, obviously, I adore)

People tend to have a fixed idea of what the 1975 are, love or hate them. To some, they’re a plastic pop band who write (great) 80s-influenced songs like “The Sound”. To others, they’re the millennial Radiohead or U2 (pick your comparison depending on how much warmth you feel towards Matty Healy), obsessed with chronicling and holding forth on the State of the Nation, embodied by perhaps their best and most critically lauded song “Love It If We Made It”. The mixed reviews of their fourth album probably stem from the disappointment of both camps above: for the first group, superstar single “If You’re Too Shy (let me know)” is evidence that the band could continue to be great if only they mined this genre more. The second camp desperately searched for proof that Notes... has Something to Say, didn’t really find it, then concluded that it’s a weak or inferior album. In reality, though, 1975 are neither of the ostensibly polar identities above. As they are fond of saying, they create as they consume, and they consume a vast landscape of music constantly: it’s their life’s passion and one that has been apparent since their earliest EPs. Even though their last two albums appear on the surface to be perfect examples of the plastic pop (ILIWYS) and political polemic (ABIIOR), in reality each blends both and throws in some ambient instrumentals and other left field moments for good measure. No one who has heard Matty Healy and George Daniel talk about their creative influences and processes could ever confuse them with any other conveyor belt pop band or be in any doubt about their commitment to their art.

Following up 2018’s critically lauded A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships was always going to be a tall order but the 1975 can always be relied on to do the unexpected. This is a band who by the point of becoming massive had given up on ever actually becoming massive, so made a first album full of songs that they loved, that they now admit they might never have made if they had had any idea that global stardom was beckoning, because it’s just a bit weird. They apply the same kind of logic to Notes...: on the back of huge critical acclaim from A Brief Inquiry...they went inwards and simply made the kinds of music they loved consuming and playing, heedless of expectations. Notes.... has long been spoken of by the band as a metaphorical notebook, a looking back to their roots, collected and recorded around the world on their global tour last year. Originally due in May, then August 2019, then February, then April 2020, it’s been a beneficiary rather than a victim of unimaginable global circumstances, more relevant and strangely prescient than ever now. It turns out it does have something to say, but in lowercase rather than capital letters, and it’s a better album for it. Any capital-lettered statement, after all, could only have appeared completely outdated and irrelevant in the midst of a global pandemic.

Conditional verbs are “if” verbs, used to imagine events in certain conditions, and this is what Notes... is: a collection of songs posing questions and examining sets of circumstances and relationships that make us who we are, for better or worse. It’s an ending to these four albums of sorts (“I just wanted a happy ending,” Matty pleads in “If You’re Too Shy,”) but also an exploration of the impossibility of tidy, definitive endings. The final track of A Brief Inquiry... , the vital and unexpectedly uplifting “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)”, began with the line “I bet you thought your life would change but you’re sat on a train again.” That’s where we are on Notes and why its third track, not the final track, is called “The End”, to underline the point. This instrumental re-works the instrumental track “HNSCC” from the band’s 2013 EP Music for Cars, making it more orchestral. It’s a lovely way to develop this theme: that everything that happens to us is conditional to other events in the past, present or future. It also explores the idea that concepts of linear growth as people are artificial. Notes... embraces the lack of any kind of coherent narrative in life that we can tie our experiences together neatly with, the struggle to know and accept yourself, to be that person that you present to the outside world.

Anais Nin wrote: we do not see things as they are; we see them as we are. A Brief Inquiry.... is a great album but it also captured a moment in time both culturally and for the band, particularly Matty Healy personally. Having derided him for years, there seemed to be a huge will amongst the press to make this album succeed because of everything he had been through with addiction and rehab between 2013-2017. That was the narrative- he’d fucked up, now he was clean, gleaming and healthy in tasteful fitted jumpers and suits, with the haircut of a Mature Man, and they’d made a Political and Important album. The band were apparently finally deserving of the acclaim afforded to serious artists. But there were notes of caution: an interview Matty did where he spoke of being wary of being a poster boy for sobriety because he hadn’t been sober for long enough. I remember worrying about him when listening to all of this- what if he couldn’t hold it together? What then for him and the position in culture that he and the band were now occupying? It was almost a relief when he confessed in a 2019 interview to briefly relapsing: it was honest and it was real.

Notes sees Matty embracing the honest and the real like never before, and it’s apt that the album moves through the idea of Endings to “Frail State... “ “Streaming” and “The Birthday Party”, a hauntingly beautiful song about sobriety, questions of shifting identity, growth and relationships (“We can still be mates because it’s only a picture,” is the narrator’s rejoinder to a friend taking the piss out of him for buying an expensive artwork that the friend can’t relate to). It’s a song that narrates a tale, in the tradition of A Change of Heart, Milk or Paris, that is both humorous and devastating, particularly in its last line: “I depend on my friends to stay clean. As sad as it seems.” Maybe you do need to be knowledgeable about the band’s personal circumstances to understand that “The Birthday Party” isn’t just a dull and over-long tale about being bored at a party, as Rolling Stone appears to have taken it, but to paraphrase “Frail State of Mind”, it seems unlikely. In any case, Notes.... is a deeply honest album, one that paints Matty Healy in as unvarnished a form as he has ever appeared, talking candidly and literally about piss, shit and erections. As he has said, it’s an album without ego.

Appropriately for an album looking back, making notes on all those “if...then”s, Notes... is more eclectic than ever before, a distillation, as the band say, of their previous sounds as well as the music that has inspired their own creativity over the past nearly two decades. The reaction of the album’s detractors to this has been to see it as a jumbled mess of Too Much-ness, which is to completely miss the point. Notes... is deliberately and thoughtfully structured, each track including threads and connections to other songs and iconography of the band’s world, an intertextuality that is sometimes darkly humorous, sometimes poignant and very much underlining that theme of honesty. “I never fucked in a car, I was lying,” opens “Nothing Revealed/Everything Denied”, Healy lacerating his ego by referencing Love It If We Made It’s memorable opening line as well as their early song “Sex”, and later “you can’t figure out a heart. You were lying,” undercutting the swagger of 2013’s 80s-maximalist “Heart Out”. More poignantly on “Roadkill”, again recalling the lie of linear growth and maturity, he sings “if you never eat you’ll never grow. Should have learned that quite a while ago,” looking back to one of the band’s most loved and most “apocalyptic adolescent” songs, as they term it, from their debut album, “Robbers”. The intertextuality is there in the music too, from the re-working of instrumental track “HNSCC” in “The End” (a connection missed, unforgivably, by seemingly every critic) to the inclusion of original demo of standout track from A Brief Inquiry... “It’s Not Living (If it’s not with you)” at the start of the surreally titled “Shiny Collarbone”. This is the largely instrumental EDM track sampling Cutty Ranks that for a number of critics seems to represent the fact that the band have lost their way and just started putting out random filler. They haven’t on either count, and the sample is a lovely reminder that even when farming seemingly the furthest reaches of the 1975’s discovered land, the music is always quintessentially theirs.

Perhaps the farming metaphor isn’t the most appropriate though. The band have spoken before about the choice that they have as artists to be “cowboys or farmers”, to keep re-working old ground or move forward and discover new places. To the charge that the songs here are just not as good as their earlier albums, well that depends on your perspective. Even the poor reviews aren’t quibbling with the strength of “If You’re Too Shy...” but truly that’s not the best songwriting on display here. The 1975 can write songs like “Too Shy” while knocking about having a laugh, stoned out of their heads. As they say themselves, it’s not a stretch. They’d rather push themselves, which they do. Regardless of genre, though, any band will stand or fall on whether they can write a catchy tune or not. The 1975 have always been able to write a catchy tune and it says something that over 22 tracks, each one has that catchiness and each one is distinctly itself. “Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)” begins with a pitched up sample of “Just my Imagination” by the Temptations, it’s a love song in the 1975 tradition: bouncy and irresistible major key melody juxtaposed with an emotional sucker punch: “She said they should take this pain and give it a name.” They cleverly subvert the genre, pairing the beauty of the melody with the brutally honest: “Tonight, I think I fucked it royally.” It’s one of the best songs on display here and another perfect example of how the 1975 can take that most over-done of genres, and make it completely their own.

Because of the evolution of the album, seven songs, not including “The 1975” with Greta Thunberg, were already well known before its release. “People”, the first of these after Greta, is fantastic pop punk, a track that has lost none of its impact in the 9 months since its original release. “Nothing Revealed/Everything Denied”, the self-referential track referred to above, is a catchy treatise on the search for meaning in our lives, fusing a soaring choir-sung chorus with Matty’s witty rapping. A trio of tracks explore what some critics have labelled “emo garage”: a thread that begins with the pulsing and affecting “Frail State of Mind” (“Go outside? Seems unlikely,” and is followed through with the standout “I Think There’s Something You Should Know”, surely a future single that would be perfectly at home on Radio 1, and “What Should I Say?” In the instrumental vein, the George Daniel-created masterpiece “Having No Head” transports the listener to another sonic world. There are several throw-backs to the band’s previous emo-indie incarnation Drive Like I Do with “Then Because She Goes” and “Me and You Together Song”. And then there’s a couple of gorgeous ballads: the profound “Jesus Christ 2005...” and the love letter to the band “Guys”. In a way this closing track is almost a microcosm of the band: love them and this is a beautifully turned love letter to friendship and loyalty in the face of life’s challenges. Hate them and it’s a cringeworthy, naive irritation.

Of course, there is no happy ending or neat bow tied round Notes.... at the conclusion of its 22 tracks. We leave Matty still struggling with himself, life and his conflicted desires but with two tracks- the gentle “Don’t Worry”, a Tim Healy- penned song that is performed as a father/son duet, and “Guys”- we are reminded that it’s our relationships that will help us through, the connections we build. We are all conditional forms in this sense.

The vinyl of Notes... is poignantly inscribed with the words 'If this is to be read in the future, please know that this was us trying'. It would be very easy at this stage in their career for the 1975 to put out albums filled with variations on “Chocolate” or “The Sound”, and it might make some fans and critics happy, but they don’t want to. They are triers. Perhaps it’s this very workaholism, their obsession with pushing boundaries and experimentation, speaking up and refusing to stay in their lane that so riles up those ready to sharpen their critical knives. They are those too clever and too keen kids at the front of the class, annoying the fuck out of those who can’t be bothered or just can’t compete. Having spent last year taking political stands on issues ranging from misogyny in music to abortion laws in the US to the treatment of the LGBTQ& community in the UAE and doing their bit for the environment by commanding fans to be quiet and listen to a Greta Thunberg monologue for five minutes at their live shows, selling recycled merchandise and planting trees for every ticket sold, they are still unable to rest in the midst of a global pandemic, engaging with fans through Twitter listening parties and an interactive website called Mindshower where fans can create their own music and artwork and reflecting on what live music might look like in the future when we can finally get out there again. It all sounds a bit like Radiohead in the 2000s, except Radiohead never made an album as sonically beautiful or coherent as Notes... either immediately post-OK Computer or in the 19 years since. The 1975 are many things but they’ll never allow themselves to become stale or apathetic or lazy and for that at least they should be recognised: they simply care too much. And as for that vinyl inscription, in the future they won’t just be remembered for trying but for achieving what most bands never do even in a lifetime of striving.

[the--sad--hatter]

Name Changing (4)

FANDOM - MARVEL MCU, X-MEN, DEADPOOL

PAIRING - BUCKY X READER (female reader, no physical descriptions)

WARNINGS - ALL OF THEM, SMUT, VIOLENCE ANGST

DESCRIPTION -  Sequel to Name Calling

After merging with your bloodthirsty alternate personality things start getting a little dicey. You’ve got two decades worth of anger to sort through, a feral mutation to figure out how to live with, a biological father who you hate trying to teach you control and if your wedding planner suggests teal for the bridesmaids again you might just eat her liver.

Luckily you have Bucky Barnes by your side, helping you figure things out. What Bucky doesn’t know is that you have found an outlet for the uncontrollable rage, one that absolutely nobody can know about. If your friends and family knew that you were out slaughtering people in the dead of night while they slept, they might be a little annoyed. Wade Wilson is happy to keep your secret though, so long as you keep bribing him with Mexican food.

For as long as you could remember, all you had wanted was to be good. Now you’re seeing the temptation in the darkness.

                                         A Stark Reminder

                       Read the Exclusive Interview with Deathwave

                      Interview conducted and written by Kara M Pierce

Since her very public debut as the long lost daughter of Tony Stark, she has been the subject of much curiosity. Her story is a dark one, yet it’s also one filled with hope.

It quickly came to light that Miss Stark was far more than she first appeared and while she is in fact Tony Starks daughter, it is not by blood. Though after just a few minutes in her presence I am wondering if that is true. She exudes the same confidence and charm as her father, not to mention the same sharp wit. Having interviewed Mr Stark in the past I can confirm that both Starks harbour the same respect and fear for Pepper Potts as one look from the CEO can make either Stark fall into line.

Thank you so much for agreeing to sit down with me today Miss Stark.

Bold of you to assume I had any choice.

Thank you so much for convincing her to sit down with me today Mrs Potts.

She’s very happy to be here.

I imagine you are quite busy, does being Deathwave take up a lot of your time?

It does but apparently the bad guys have no concept of acceptable work hours. Someone should really start a labour union for them or something.

What’s it like being an Avenger and is it different from being a secret Avenger?

I used to just have to deal with Hydra and Vernichtung agents attacking me, now I have paparazzi as well but apparently I’m not allowed to blast them into smithereens.

Other than that, it’s not actually very different. Not having to wear the mask makes it a little easier, that thing was kinda warm.

How well do you get along with the other Avengers?

Sam Wilson, The Falcon is my best friend. When I first arrived at the compound he sort of took me under his wing. Sam is an excellent cook and he loves feeding people He’s also a great listener, he really cares about what you have to say and if you need advice he’ll do his best to give it to you but he knows when you just need to vent.

Plus have you seen the muscles on that man? Who doesn’t want to cry on those shoulders?

It sounds like you’re writing a dating profile for him. Are you trying to get him a date Miss Stark?

No... Maybe. Not that he needs my help, the man is handsome, charming, has the thighs of a god and is a superhero. He's also single. Just saying.

What about the other Avengers, are you close with them?

Well I am engaged to one so yes? We’re a family, all of us. I trust them with my life and they trust me with theirs. When we’re out there in the field our lives and the lives of the people we are fighting to protect rests in each others hands. That tends to form some close bonds.

So does that mean you’re close with Loki, the man who once led an attempted invasion?

Yes, I am. Loki was not responsible for that, and despite being controlled he managed to manipulate events so he would lose the battle of New York. He did the best he could with limited control of his own mind.

Loki was instrumental in helping me defeat Docherty, he helped us win the Second Battle of New York. He’s a hero, an Avenger and a friend and anyone who says otherwise can take it up with me personally. I’ll be happy to educate them on the difference between a hero and a villain.

You seem to have a protective streak, not just for those you know personally.

Was there a question in there?

I was wondering where that protectiveness comes from?

My father. He protected me. And I owe it to the world to follow in his example. He made a lot of mistakes along the way to becoming the hero he is today and he owns up to them and not only learned from them, encourages me to learn from them as well.

Speaking of your father, there’s been much speculation about your biological family.

Are you referring to the rumors that were leaked about Docherty being my grandfather?

Yes, those rumors have been circulating. Is there any truth to them?

Yes.

Would you like to elaborate on that?

Not particularly. Biologically, I was his granddaughter. He was evil, I stopped him. End of story.

What about the rest of your biological family? Do you have any desire to know about them?

What makes you think I don’t already know? My mother is dead, Docherty killed her. My father didn't know I existed until recently and he... he and I are working through our issues but that’s a private matter.  If his identity comes to light at any point I just wanted people to know he didn't know about me or Docherty. It wasn't his fault.

That’s fair. Onto happier subjects Miss Stark, you won’t be Miss Stark for much longer. Are you excited?

You’d assume I was excited about my upcoming nuptials or I wouldn't be getting married would I?And the Stark name was the greatest gift I ever got, I’m not giving it up. I’ll be Mrs Stark-Barnes.

How did the romance between you and Sargent Barnes happen? Who made the first move?

(Miss Stark is trying to contain a laugh at this point, Mrs. Potts giving her a warning look.)

He made the first move. He followed me about for months, begging me for a chance. It was getting quite sad so I took pity on him.

What about the photo’s that appeared to show you on a date with Captain Rogers?

Well, Cap was my first love but he’s too good, too pure. I had to downgrade.

So you settled for Sargent Barnes?

(The laughter dies and the expression on Miss Starks face is one of love and conviction, it is clear her feelings for Sargent Barnes are very real and very powerful.)

James is the only man I have ever wanted to be with and the only man I ever want to be with. He’s my partner in every way, he supports me even when he doesn’t like what I’m doing, he challenges me when I’m being an idiot, he forgives me when I mess up, he holds my head above water when I’m drowning. He is the love of my life I know how lucky I am that I get to spend the rest of my life returning his love.

What about the blurred photographs that appear to show you in the company of the Vigilante and Mercenary known as Deadpool?

Deadpool is a menace to society. It is my personal mission to hunt him down and give him exactly what he deserves.

Quite a turn around from the woman who once refused to sign The Sokovia Accords.

My refusal to sign wasn’t about the accords themselves but rather the way they were being used. Secretary Ross is a slimy rat and I would never cow to his perceived authority. (There is a short argument between Mrs. Potts and Miss Stark but Miss Stark insists we can print her opinion on Secretary Ross, though it must be noted that the opinion of the interviewee do not necessarily represent the views of this publication.)

Colonel Rhodes is a man who knows the value of bureaucracy and the importance of the accords and balances it with the public's need for protection. The Sokovia Accords are no longer used as a power play but are in place to protect the people who signed as well as holding them accountable for their actions.

It’s at this point in the interview I informed Miss Stark I had some fan questions that had been sent in and she immediately perked up.

I like the fans, they’re just normal people who like me for some reason. It’s always strange when they come up to me and ask for a selfie or an autograph but it’s inspiring. Hopeful. It reminds me that there’s a world out there that I get to help protect.

From Jess on Ao3: How did you decide that you wanted to be good, despite the evils you’ve encountered?

I decided I wanted to be good because of the evils I encountered. My earliest memories are of cruelty and you’d think growing up that way might have given me a twisted sense of morality but I knew the way I felt was horrible and I didn't ever want to be the reason somebody else felt that way. There was a guard when I was really young, he slipped me chocolate through the bars of my cell. He was killed for it when they found out. That's how I knew they were evil, even if I didn’t know the word. And I knew I didn't want to be that way.

TaraStudiesaLot: Are you are interested in any art form? Photography, painting, film or music? Like, does do enjoy any of these or are they still foreign to you?

Steve tried to get me into art but I’m more made to appreciate it than make it.

I like to take pictures though, nothing special, just little moments from life. I like being able to look back at the photo’s, they help ground me and remind me of the good things I have in my life.

Phoenix-whiskey-Tears: What kind of music are you into?

I hadn’t even been out of the cage for a full day before my dad introduced me to AC/DC. So I kind of associate 80’s rock with freedom I guess? I’m also partial to big band music from the 40’s. (It should be noted that at this point, Miss Stark is doing her best to hide her blush.)

Firefly-in-darkness: I wanna know more of your habits and little simple things like your favorite colour, movies, books, etc?

Red. My favorite colour is red. The Iron Suit was red, red is the colour of freedom, of salvation, justice.

Books and movies? I don’t have favorites per se, it’s still exciting and thrilling to see and read them, even bad ones.

HoneyBadger: What advice would you give to abuse survivors? And do you think you’d ever take on a protege or sidekick?

Well first of all, I have a sidekick. Bucky Barnes.

To abuse survivors I would say this, you already did the hard part. You survived. You are already winning that battle by fighting it and I know it’s a long battle, one you’ll be fighting every day for the rest of your life. That thought is depressing and exhausting and overwhelming.

But it’s worth it. The world is still out there waiting for you, use the pain you have experienced to see the world differently. See the beauty in the mundane and normal because after your suffering you deserve every single tiny bit of happiness and calm you can grasp.

What happened to you shaped you yes, but it does not define you. You are so much more than what they did to you. Their evil does not leave a stain on you and your future is not dictated by your past.

You’re warriors, Kings and Queens who deserve so much more than life gave you. Life and people can be cruel and it’s up to you now, to take what you deserve from the world. Be amazing, you’ve already proven you have it in you. Support one another, hold each other up and never ever forget that we are a thousand times better than those who tried to put us down.

Pydia Packmaster: What keeps you going despite everything you have been through?

Life goes on, the world keeps turning. And everything I endured can be used to help me make sure others don’t have to go through the same thing.

All the bad things that happened to me are being used as a force for good now. Like I once said, I was created to end the world but I’m going to save it.

Beansy: if you had the ability to change anything in your past, what would it be and would you?

I wish I had known I had a mother, maybe I could have saved her before it was too late. Maybe I could have known her. But what’s done is done. My whole life I didn’t even dare to imagine that I would have a future but now I do and I won’t waste it by living in the past.

ToastLuvr: If you could choose an actress to play you in a movie who would it be?

Jack Black. Next question.

BuckityBarnes: Who’s your Avengers Crush?

Black Widow... Obviously. If Nat would have me I’d drop Bucky in a heartbeat. Have you seen that thing she does with her thighs? That’s how I wanna die.

Sitting down with Deathwave was just as inspiring as I had expected. Since the details of her past were revealed to the world she has become a symbol of hope to people everywhere. She is a hero, of that there is no doubt but what truly makes her an inspiration is the fact that she reminds us all of what we can be.

Who you are and where you came from doesn’t decide where you are going to go. That choice is up to you and you alone. No matter the challenges you face in life, big or small, they can be overcome.

Setback only set you back, they don’t stop you. People will stand in your way but they can be moved. You are the hero of your own story.

We are all the heroes of our own stories.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

AUTHORS NOTE

This was mostly fun to write but there is a lot of of it that came directly from my heart. I’ve made no secret about how Docherty was based on real people who hurt me so the advice Baby Stark gives to abuse survivors is what I would say to those of you who it applies to and I mean every fucking word. 

If you are or were in a situation of abuse, be it mental, physical, sexual or other then please consider my inbox a safe space to talk if you ever need it. 

@nerdandproud-86 @harrison-shot-first@thejourneyneverendsx @thelostallycat @inquisitor-selvala@the-corruptor @iovher @kendrawr-kitkat @phoenix-whiskey-tears @the–real–wombat@buckitybarnes@fairislesheets@angieptt @meganjonezzzz@dugan365@fluffeh-kitty@memanda17 @krystallynx@theonelittleone@piscesbarnes@free-as-fishes@tarastudiesalot@captainamericasbeard@dropthepizza346@jaynnanadrews@likes-to-smell-books@drdorkus @life-wanderer@metalarmlover @animegirlgeeky@jsmith509@chipilerendi@nerdy-bookworm-1998@ericasabe@gravedollie666@madlykpopfan@l0kisbitch@mywinterwolf@sassysweetstories @life-wanderer @jessieray98@littledeadrottinghood @firefly-in-darkness @demonlover87 @jessieray98 @pinkisokay @chipilerendi

[dailyaudiobible]

10/23/2019 DAB Transcript

Jeremiah 42:1-44:23, 2 Timothy 2:1-21, Psalms 92:1-93:5, Proverbs 26:3-5

Today is the 23rd day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you today as we continue our journey through the Scriptures and our journey into this, the fourth quarter of the year, the final stretch. It doesn't seem like it now, but we've all been through this before we know how the end of the year speeds up. And, so, yeah, we’re in the final quarter of the year and nearing the end of the 10th month of the year. And as busy as life might get in this final stretch there…the Bible gets busy in this final stretch too. There’s a lot for us. And, so, let's get to it. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Jeremiah chapter 42 verse 1 through 44. Verse 23.

Commentary:

Okay. So, when we talked about second Timothy we talked about how that we believe this is the last writing of the apostle Paul's life and because it's a personal letter, one of the pastoral letters, so written not to a church, but to a person it has many personal thoughts in it, but it's also instructing Timothy as a pastor, as a spiritual leader, and knowing that this…this is the last thing that Paul's gonna write down, knowing that this letter was written right around the time of his death, his martyrdom, then we know that what he put in this letter meant something. Like, this mattered to Paul because he was hoping to see Timothy, he was hoping to say all these things, but this letter’s written in case he doesn't, and he didn't. So, these instructions matter to Paul and understanding that gives us a sense of the urgency, that Paul is saying something that needs to be paid attention too. So, in our reading today Paul is encouraging Timothy to endure, which means that you're actively participating in endurance. So, Timothy had proven trustworthy. Like, he was loyal, Paul trusted him, trusted him as he was loyal to Paul but also trusted him that he was loyal to Jesus. And Paul had passed the faith on to Timothy and on to many people. And this passing on of the faith was gonna cost Paul his life. So yes, this needed to matter, Timothy was gonna have to endure because now there's an Emperor in Rome who hates the Christians. And, so, persecution is breaking out everywhere. So, Timothy was going to need to endure whatever was coming, but he was also going to need to pass on the faith to people who were trustworthy and loyal as he had been, people who could carry it forward because, although the ultimate future was absolute, the interim, right, the in between, what was gonna happen next was unknown. So, like Paul's in prison. He had taken the gospel all over the known world. So, enduring was pretty much all…all there was left for Paul to do so. So, the Empire was beginning to systematically persecute and root out Christians and Paul was a ringleader of the sect. So, he's pretty much assured that he's not gonna make it out alive. Outside of a miracle he’s likely gonna die. And, so, with his own mortality, like constantly on his mind, Paul could see what was coming and what the church at large might be facing. And he knew how difficult that was gonna and he knew that endurance was gonna be something that became essential if the faith were to survive. So, here’s something really interesting from…from what we read today. As he's talking to Timothy about enduring and being true, Paul quoted an ancient declaration. It might've…might've been like put to music, it might be one of the earliest like sets of lyrics that we have from an early worship song that was sung in the early church before the Gospels were written, but maybe it wasn't a worship song. Like we don't know, we don’t have the sheet music. It could have been simply like a creed, a declaration. It's still important though, So, like when Paul wrote this letter, it's near the end of his life. But we have to understand that when this letter was written there wasn't anything known as the New Testament. So, as a pastor receiving the letter from Paul, all Timothy could have referred to in church would been the Torah, right, the Hebrew Scriptures, Paul's other letters that he had sent to Ephesus where Timothy was, maybe copies of other letters that had been sent to other churches and were passed around, and his personal letters. And it it's a fact, most biblical scholars agree that the gospel of Mark, the first gospel written, was written like right around the time of Paul's death, which is right around the time of this letter. And the idea of a New Testament that is authoritative scripture, that had not...that…that was in formation that was not a thing yet. So, when Paul quotes this little creed or this…these lyrics to this song of worship, he was giving us a glimpse into what…what the brothers and sisters were declaring before any of the books of the New Testament had been collected together at all. So, it gives us this really brief but potent glimpse at what…what Christians…what people following the way of Jesus in a church that had been established by the apostle Paul, what they felt was important to declare to one another before there was a New Testament for them to refer to. So, this is found in second Timothy 2:11-13. “If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful.” So, it's fascinating that the earliest believers, like the believers in Jesus who believed in Christ before there was the New Testament, like this is mind-boggling to even think of that and how one would navigate that because we have become so accustomed to turning there first, but just like Paul talked about Abraham preceding the Mosaic law, we have to understand that there were things going on before there was a New Testament and they were Christian things, they were Holy Spirit involved things in the world. So, it's interesting that as we get this little snippet from Paul, seeing what our brothers and sisters were declaring to one another, endurance is like at the base level, earliest part of the Christian faith. And this is as a good time to point out as any because we’re gonna be talking about it a lot, endurance. The fact that we must endure and remain true, as we will see as we continue the journey through the New Testament is utterly irreplaceable and absolutely essential in this faith walk that we are on. We’ll find that it serves a purpose and we’re supposed to cultivate it and we’re supposed to understand that enduring and staying true to Jesus no matter what…what happens at all, no matter what happens is essential to our faith.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. And it’s been mentioned before, but we understand that this theme of endurance is definitely something that is gonna keep cropping up and popping up and confronting us continually. And we confess and when we think about that word it’s like not something that we sign up for and it's something that we try to avoid if we possibly can. And yet we’re finding out in the story of the early church that there was no avoiding endurance. It was actually “the” thing that was knitting everything together and that we are commanded to endure. And, so, help us Holy Spirit because we want to avoid that when we actually need to kinda get familiar with the concept. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit into that as we continue our journey forward and we pray that You would help us stay true and endure today. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

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And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi everybody this is Marty from California. This prayer is for Cindy. Father God I just come before You and I just besiege You on behalf of Cindy that You would be her shield and buckler protecting her from all the incredible fiery darts she’s endured all these years, accusations, blaming, shaming. I pray Father God that You would open the eyes of her heart to know what You think of her, that she’s clothed in the robe of righteousness that Jesus has provided and that You would encourage her Lord that she would have hinds feet on high places, that she can be free Lord in her relationship with You feeling so loved. Fill her up with Your love Lord. Open the eyes of our heart to really see and know that You don’t not shame her and blame her, that You love her unconditionally, covenantaly. I pray that You would encourage her and give her space Lord to walk and feel that love from You Lord and that she would be renewed and that You would give her…renew her strength with like the wing and be able to fly like the wings…with the wings of Eagles. Bless that dear woman. And I also pray for Jessica who is separated by the ocean with her husband. I pray for Your comfort and courage and encouragement to her heart and that You and reunite her with her husband and help them Lord to have just time together Lord to be connected and to be a family and to not be separated. Bless this dear family and this new child that’s on the way and thank you for the fruit of the womb. In Jesus’ name.

Good morning, I am calling to encourage Cindy who plays the flute who is so concerned about things not shifting. Cindy, I…as I listen to you tell the truth about where you are at I wanted to…feel impressed by the Holy Spirit to call and let you know that although you’re seeing things that are stable and steady over time, things that don’t shift as a negative, an undesirable thing, I want you to also look for an equal amount of things that do not shift and that that is a good thing. There are so many things in your faith, in your walk with God that have not shifted that are…they’re supposed to stay stable. God never changes. His faithfulness is there for us. His mercies are there for us every morning. He always provides our daily bread. You have been faithful you said for over 40 years as a believer. That is never to shift. We look at what is steady and supposed to be steady. That is what you look at to get the feelings of whether you’ve been successful at this or not. Do not look at the external things of this world. Look at the things of God and draw your strength from that. I know there’ll be others who will call and pray but I just really felt impressed to give you that word. We love you. You’re going to be just fine. You are steady.

Good morning this is Yvonne, EV for short calling from New York, New York City. It’s a long overdue call. I’m calling to thank Brian and his wife Jill and the entire family and the staff at DAB for their obedience and for their commitment and their love for the things of the Lord. I want to say that over the 10 years I have been listening…it…the Holy Spirit has really used it to minister to my life. It’s long overdue that I call but the main reason why I’m calling to is to give testimony to the strength and the power of unity in the Daily Audio Bible prayer line, to testify of all the prayers that I’ve ever called in for, that they were all answered, and that God is faithful. I want to also give thanks to certain individuals who have been an inspiration in my life, Drew from the bay area, Annette from Oklahoma City, Blind Tony. And the Holy Spirit has used these people and many others to encourage me and to bring such understanding to my walk in the Lord. I just want to say thank you again and may all those who are involved, even those who do not call in, know that we are fulfilling the will of God in uniting in prayer. Thank you again and love you all. Be blessed this day. Be encouraged. God is faithful. Amen.

Good morning DABbers this is His Messenger in upstate New York and I just wanted to, it’s 19 October and I just heard Cindy the flute players prayer request as well as the prayer request for the young lady whose husband is currently in Spain from Iran and there separated, she’s nine weeks pregnant. And I just want to tell you guys that my heart reaches out both of you. Cindy, I know how hard it is when we feel that things aren’t moving and we’re staying the course and we’re just trying to be steadfast in the race and run the race that God has put in front of us but I can tell you that it’s…it’s not easy but we have to stay the course. You know, I…I asked for prayer recently for my wife and I and that, you know, she can feel loved, that she can feel that she can trust me with our kid even though I’ve never done anything to hurt him as far as I know. And, you know, it just doesn’t feel like anything’s changing, you know, and it’s hard. So, it just stay the course. And I just want to pray real quick before I’m out of time. Guys join me in prayer that Father, He can give us the strength. We love You and You’ve done so much for us. You give us each and every day as a blessing, You give us each breath as a blessing. And Father sometimes it’s so hard when we don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. But just give us the strength. Give our marriages the strength to overcome, to fight back against the enemy and to just be able to carry Your kingdom forward. Just give us Your peace. We put it in Your hands. In the name of Jesus.

My name is Sean from Charlotte North Carolina and as I’m reading today this Daily Audio Bible reading along with Brian from Jeremiah 33, I was just thinking about all the people who have…have…and those that I know and even myself who have regrets about their life and where they are and where they have been but those that I’ve spoken to recently and heard on the Daily Audio Bible and the prayer list just want to pray for them, particularly verse 10 of 33 where it says, “this is what the Lord says. In this place which you say is a ruin without man or beast that is in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets that are in desolation without man without inhabitants and without beasts they’ll be herd again at the sound of joy and gladness. Noise from the bridegroom and the bride and the voice of those saying, praise the Lord of hosts for the Lord is good, His faithful love endures forever.” So, I pray that for those out there who are struggling with where they are right now in their…in their lives where they have, as Israel and Judah were…have…the destruction is around them. Whether they’ve caused it themselves or others have, God says that He will restore what we see is a ruin. I pray Father that those who see their lives as a ruin, that see their lives as just destroyed and no hope that they would be able to say soon, “praise the Lord of hosts for the Lord is good. His faithful love endures forever.” And as they bring offerings to the temple of the Lord You will restore the fortunes of the land…

Hi DAB family this is Aaron from Oklahoma. Quick update. I had my PO hearing a couple days ago and I guess my wife is…she said that she’s requested to an attorney. I have an attorney. So, we just extended everything until 14th of November. So, I still haven’t talked to my wife since she cheated on me. I just hope that you would lift her up and lift me off we go through this. And I just want to give you an update with what’s going on. Nothing’s really changed my life. Cindy, today’s I believe the 19th and I heard you questioning your faith. Listen, listen man. That’s the one thing you and I both know you can’t do. Our lives may just…just…just wrecks and I feel you. I don’t care whether it’s noon or midnight…it…my whole world is dark right now. But I hold onto the one thing, God will get us through this and you know what, He has got…we’re gonna be so much stronger when we get on the other side of this. So, I don’t know what it’s gonna look like but I know it’s going to be glorious. So, I just wanted to lift you up and let you know that I was thinking about you and I heard the hurt in your voice. I’m so sorry but know that people are praying for you and that we love you. And God loves you more than anything in the whole world. I mean He created you in this image. So, I love you girl. Bye.

[tragicbeauty1991]

In Defense of Disney's Captain Hook: A Not Wholly Unheroic Figure

With the recent popularity of ABC's hit show Once Upon a Time, the classic view of fairytale villains as irredeemable bad guys has been turned on its head, and while some of our favorite baddies like Cruella and Dr. Facilier remain fairly true to their original Disney counterparts in appearance and personality on the show, others have gotten such a complete makeover that they are hardly recognizable as the same character they are supposed to portray. Among those given the latter treatment is fan favorite Killian Jones, a.k.a. Captain Hook. In a day and age when Jack Sparrow is the first fictional pirate who comes to mind, it's no surprise that the show's creators decided to embrace the guy-liner and black leather-wearing sexy bad boy approach to the character, but while this creative choice has had the effect of garnering fans' attention, it has also had the unfortunate effect of turning the original character into something of a joke. While Killian is viewed as a well-developed sympathetic character with the potential for redemption, Disney's original version of the character tends to be seen as little more than a straightforward comical villain with little or no real depth. As a fan of the original Disney version of the character, however, I'd like to argue that from the very beginning, Disney's Hook was always intended to be a complex, likable villain and continues to be portrayed as such in modern Disney media. My argument is as follows:

Hook's original creators, including author J.M. Barrie, producer Walt Disney, and voice actor Hans Conried loved the character.

The original author of Peter Pan, James Matthew Barrie—who significantly gave his own first name to the pirate captain—is quick to remind the audience that despite his flaws, Hook “was not wholly evil; he loved flowers...and sweet music (he was himself no mean performer on the harpsichord)....” When Walt Disney decided to approach the character, he quickly realized that a villain with such a soft side would appeal to the viewers and instructed the animators to alter the original ending of the story, having Hook chased off by the crocodile but still clearly alive because “the audience will get to liking Hook and they won't want to see him killed.” Hans Conried, who served as both the voice-actor and the live-action reference model for Hook's character design, also had a fondness for him, stating that “He's a much maligned character. If you read the lines with any sensibility at all, you must have an animus against Peter Pan who could fly, and took outrageous advantage of this one-armed man. Hook was a gentleman. Pan was not. His behavior was very bad form.”

His motivation as a villain departs from the standard and immediately sets him up as a sympathetic character.

Whereas many of the traditional Disney villains are motivated by greed, envy, the desire for power, or revenge for a petty slight, Hook departs significantly from the norm in that his motivation stems from severe physical (and arguably psychological) trauma suffered at the hands of the supposed hero. While we are never told the exact circumstances under which the hand loss occurred, Hook has a legitimate reason to hate Peter Pan that runs much deeper than mere jealousy or megalomania. In fact, in his opening scene with Mr. Smee, Hook concedes that even such a crippling injury alone would not have warranted his hatred; rather, it is the fact that Peter gave the hand to the crocodile, causing him to live in a constant state of fear (and the boy's tendency to exploit that fear), that pushed him over the edge.

He has a multifaceted, well-developed personality which humanizes him for the audience.

In various interviews animator Frank Thomas has discussed the disparity between the personality storyman Ed Penner and director Gerry Geronimi envisioned for the character and the resulting difficulty he had in designing the version of Captain Hook that we see in the finished film. One viewed him as a foppish dandy of a fellow while the other envisioned a much darker, more frightening man who readily used the hook as a weapon against his enemies. This difficulty was further complicated by the fact that action-scene animator Woolie Reitherman—who was responsible for drawing Hook's interactions with the crocodile—wanted to bring a level of comedy to the character which somewhat clashed with his depiction in more serious scenes. The final result was a villain unlike any other Disney had created at the time—a villain who was by turns both fearsome and fragile, dangerous and debonair. Many of Disney's earliest films focused more on the new art of animation than the art of developing well-rounded characters, resulting in very black and white idealized heroes and villains. With Hook, Disney crossed a line into the morally gray territory, resulting in a sympathetic yet sinister character whose moments of weakness would endear him to audiences while his wickedness simultaneously appalled them.

His physical and emotional issues are highly relatable.

Ironically, despite the obvious mention of the prosthetic in his name, we tend to forget that Hook is technically disabled (by our “hero” no less!)...and that physical disability comes with a host of other issues, some of which are trauma-related. In addition to the crippling anxiety we see displayed on-screen, other Disney media indicate that he also suffers from high blood pressure (Kingdom Hearts manga), depression (365 Bedtime Stories), and low self-esteem (Jake and the Neverland Pirates). These are very real everyday issues that we can all relate to on some level either through personal experience or through someone we know.

The dynamic he has with Mr. Smee is unique among Disney villains and sidekicks.

Disney sidekicks—while often providing exceptional comic relief for the audience—are not always necessary for the hero/villain to stand on their own. Many early villain sidekicks, in particular, are given very little personality and some (Diablo in Sleeping Beauty and Gideon in Pinocchio, for example) don't even have any lines. While the sidekick to the primary villain often relies on his/her master as the brains of the operation, the primary villain usually has little need for their companionship. They are expendable resources whom the villain could easily replace or do away with altogether. Hook and Smee's relationship is different in that neither character could properly function alone; Smee relies on Hook for leadership and direction while Hook heavily depends on Smee for emotional support. Further, Smee—unlike many villain sidekicks—seems to genuinely care about his captain's well-being, and Hook recognizes and appreciates this, if only subconsciously. Despite being frequently irritated by his sidekick's apparent incompetence, Hook—a man who doesn't hesitate to shoot his own crewman for singing badly—never legitimately threatens Smee, resorting to raising a fist or giving a smack with the blunt side of his hook to show his frustration rather than taking a swipe at him with the more dangerous side of the claw. The crew, too, recognize Smee's privileged ability to speak his mind plainly to the captain without fear of serious repercussions, showing obvious disdain for him. One character is rarely ever seen without the other, and for good reason—neither one is capable of standing alone, their on-screen chemistry likely a result of the fact that animators Frank Thomas (Hook) and Ollie Johnston (Smee) were real-life best friends.

In the more lighthearted Jake and the Neverland Pirates series for Disney Junior, the characters' relationship is further expanded into actual camaraderie, and the two pirates play off each other extremely well in what voice-actor Corey Burton (current Hook) has described fondly as a “vaudeville comedy routine,” crediting the success of their dynamic in the show to his own friendship with fellow voice-actor Jeff Bennett, who performs as Smee, the relationship of the men behind the characters once again bleeding over into their fictional personas with the best possible results.

He occasionally displays qualities typical of a Disney hero.

While Barrie notes in his book that Hook is a “not wholly unheroic figure,” Disney's original film did little to show this side of the character. However, subsequent portrayals of the captain in various media indicate that this villain has the potential for moral growth. For example, in a deleted song from Return to Neverland, one of the pirates mentions Hook taking him in when he was a child. Another example of such benevolent behavior occurs in Epic Mickey: Castle of Illusion; at the end of the game when the illusion is broken and characters are saying their farewells to Mickey, Hook actually apologizes for his behavior while he was out of sorts, suggesting that although he is quite willing to fight anyone actively siding with Peter, he generally has no qualms with other Disney heroes and is capable of being civil and even polite to them. Additionally, in the Kingdom Hearts manga, Hook actually saves Peter (admittedly because he wants to have the pleasure of taking out Peter himself, but it's something, at least). Furthermore, in the preschool series Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Hook occasionally partners up with the main characters and in most instances, though he's a bit of a bully, ends up doing the right thing when hard-pressed to make a serious decision so long as Peter isn't around. In the episode The Legion of Pirate Villains, he even proudly proclaims to the main cast's common foe, “I am no mere villain. I am a villainous hero!” This concept of Hook as a sort of anti-hero was even hinted at in a line-up of character products known as the Disney Adventurers franchise sold at the Disney Store between 1999 and 2004. This franchise, originally intended to be the more masculine counterpart of the Disney Princess line, featured Hook as the ONLY villain apparently fighting alongside heroes including Tarzan, Aladdin, Hercules, and—astonishingly—Peter Pan.

TL; DR – Captain Hook is a highly complex, relatable character who deserves his place among the most iconic Disney villains. Walt and others who were critical to the development of his character loved him, and you should too.