#andrew is the biggest drama queen

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Katharine Hepburn (Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, The African Queen)—This woman. I have been obsessed with her for years. I know the urban legend is a popular one at this point of her walking around set in her underwear when her pants were stolen and she was left with only a skirt, but the pants thing is honestly enough for her to be the hottest in the room in my book. She refused to wear anything else at a time when the public in general and especially the studios did not like that. She was independent, stubborn, and so so very capable. Competency kink anyone? Also, if you want one final way that Katharine's entire life was saying "fuck you" to the establishment, it started young! Her mother took her to suffrage events, and she never got rid of that attitude of justice. I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of all the ways she was such a badass that I'm turning into a rambling mess instead.

Jessie Matthews (Evergreen, First a Girl, It's Love Again, Gangway)—known as “the dancing divinity”, jessie matthews was a british musical star of stage and screen in the 20s and 30s - if you're an enjoyer of lavish art deco musicals of the likes of fred and ginger, busby berkeley etc, definitely give her movies a try they are delightful! (tantalizingly there were multiple attempts made to pair her and fred together that never came to fruition - gaumont-british tried to get fred for evergreen and mgm wanted jessie for a damsel in distress.) and for the women in tuxedos enjoyers, her 1935 movie first a girl was the first english language remake of viktor und viktoria, famously later remade with julie andrews.

This is round 3 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Katharine Hepburn propaganda:

I'm sure one million people will submit her as an iconic Hollywood star but that iconicness might lead people to forget just how insanely hot she was like she had it ALL she was skilled she was funny she was smart she was beautiful AND she was likely bisexual

The single word I would use to explain Katherine Hepburn's appeal is *range*. In her acting career, that meant covering all the ground between lush period dramas and the comedies she did with Carey Grant and Spencer Tracey. In terms of hotness, it meant an uncanny ability to bring anything from a Dietrich-esque androgyny to some of the best Classic Hollywood Glamour you will ever see.

Katharine hep was so cool. The VIBES, the INDEPENDENCE,,, living life on her own terms.

she just had this.... bearing to her, this power. she could be funny, even silly (like in bringing up baby) but also so regal and elegant. she was nobody's fool and dear GOD that's so hot

Fancam link

She’s not only stunningly gorgeous (those eyes that pierce your soul! a jawline you could cut glass with!) but her delivery and physical presence in roles gives off confidence and authority in such a sexy way (truly the biggest dick energy of Old Hollywood). Her fiery energy in The Philadelphia Story? Unmatched.

God she's. She's so hot y'all. She has the range!!!!! Funny and dramatic and lovely

She IS the transatlantic accent. Classically gorgeous and such a strong personality.

She's literally one of the funniest women to ever live! She goes shot for shot with Cary Grant in Philadelphia Story and we damn well love her for it! She's the most annoying creature to ever live in Bringing Up Baby but she's so insane and funny that we simply cannot help but fall in love with her (and root for her to give Grant an aneurysm!)

i know she's accounted for but i really want to be sure someone has submitted the scene in bringing up baby where she's pretending to be a gangster

She simply stuns onscreen; you cannot do anything but be captivated by her presence. Also a non-gender-conforming icon and mild tumblr celebrity by virtue of that one picture from The Warrior's Husband (stage play).

Katharine Hepburn was out here casually changing the lives of young butch lesbians with her gender swag! She wore pants even when people said she shouldn’t, she refused to marry or have kids, and she wore menswear in at LEAST one movie!

If I start thinking about her face for too long I will cry she is so so hot. Katherine is so charismatic and charming in everything she appears in - watch her adopt a leopard and fall in love with her. Also she has the biggest dick energy ever (she and her pal Lauren Bacall share that accolade). Also had an incredibly long and varied career from screw ball comedies to serious dramas - she’s a queen of the screen and I adore her.

Someone's got to mention it, but she's won the most Oscars out of any performer and is largely considered one of the greatest actresses ever. She's got an incredible voice, an incredible presence, and she absolutely steals every scene she's in. She was private person and deemed standoffish and unapproachable, but she was also profoundly concerned for people's rights and was an outspoken supporter of abortion access. Finally, the Katharine Hepburn slacks look is just iconic. I mean look at her.

(I hope someone else submits real propaganda but just in case they don't:) Cries. Screams. Wails. The woman who singlehandedly made me realize I was bi. A real "do i want to look like her. be her. or be with her.' crisis, where the answer was all three. Holy shit please all three.

Jessie Matthews:

Star of British 1930s stage and screen, she introduced classic songs by Noel Coward and Rogers and Hart to English audiences, and then played perky heroines, but today it’s her genderswapping role in First A Girl that probably gets most attention.

[goldenvulpine]

ok here is a helpful guide for Superman fans in Tumblr when referring to different eras of Superman:

Golden Age Superman: Kal-L. The Original. Very cocky. Very charismatic. Couldn’t fly as a kid. Has no solid code against killing. Chaotic Good. Can actually fly now. Has a disturbingly high kill count. Loves Toxic Women (Lois Literally Drugged him one time). Literal WW2 veteran. Not from Kansas. Smallville, East Coast (likely New York). Is now married to Lois. Head of the Daily Star (not Planet). Is Power Girl’s cousin. Is very aggressive. Still saved people from suicide canonically. Canonically religious (Married Lois in a Kryptonian Ceremony). “What trauma?” Seen everyone he loves die.

Silver Age Superman: Kal-El. The Most Popular. Speaks fluent Kryptonese. Total “50’s Dad”. The Strongest. Also the most conformist. Strict Code against killing. Lawful Good. From Smallville. Is canonically Religious (For Rao, his culture’s God). Has multiple cousins. From Smallville, East Coast (likely Maryland this time). Says he wouldn’t hit a woman. Probably has. Sneezed a Solar System Away. Somehow the WEIRDEST one. Also the biggest Prankster. Was Superboy. Was part of the Legion. Saw Pa die. Refuses to acknowledge his trauma. Needs a hug but won’t say it. Works for the Daily Planet. Alan Moore loves him.

Bronze Age Superman: Kal El. Actually just Silver Age Superman but “weaker”. Still the Strongest. Your favorite writer’s favorite Superman. Neutral Good. Originator of the Clex Drama. Met God. Is a pure scientist. Has Three Canon Endings. All of them are literal tragic endings. Is best bros with Batman. Is the Original Nightwing. His cousin is the Second Nightwing. Dick is actually the Third Nightwing. Loves his bro Jimmy Olsen. Smarter than Batman. Made a vow to protect life. Newscaster. Grant Morrison and Mark Waid love him.

Dark Age/Byrne Superman: Clark Kent (Kal El). Still moody. Weakest Superman. Thinks he’s Neutral Good, still Lawful Good. Doesn’t like Krypton. Designer Baby. Best Journalist. Canonically a Porn Star. Died. Came back. Most insecure Superman. Loves ‘Murica. Killed like three people one time. Strict code against killing. “Superman is what I do, Clark is who I am”. Legion who? Superboy who? Supergirl who? Football Star. Pure Sarcasm. Agnostic. People say they hate him but is the reason Smallville, Man of Steel and STAS exist. Literally wants to fuck Jimmy’s Mom. Triangle Era (90’s) Superman: Clark Kent (Kal-El). Is less moody now. Makes more Jokes. Still a drama queen. Smarter. Stronger. Wants to write a Novel. Married Lois. Jimmy is the Best Man. Good Leader. True Lawful Good. The Superman you probably think of the Most. Coolest guy. 90’s Superboy (the best) 90’s Supergirl (Matrix). Was once Gangbuster (Chaotic Neutral). Mind so strong, he killed a psychic in his sleep without knowing it. Christian (Married Lois in a Church). Still knows Kryptonian Kung Fu (Torquasm Vo/Rao). Dick Grayson’s 3rd Dad. Tim Drake’s 4th Dad. Slept with a Mermaid in Collage. Is fun.

Post-Crisis/2000’s Superman: Clark Kent (Kal El) Retcons out the ass. Kara comes back. Knows Boxing now. Knows Kung Fu. Held a Black Hole in his hand. Destroyed Moons. Agnostic. Still Lawful Good. Loves his wife. Loves his adopted son. Chris Kent. His son is Nightwing. His other son is also Nightwing. Walked the earth one time because of war crimes. Saves people from suicide again. Was a Kryptonian general one time. Literal Genius. Smarter than Batman. Is the GOAT. Hates the President.

New 52 Superman: Clark Kent (Kal-El) Very cocky. Very charismatic. Couldn’t fly as a kid. Has no solid code against killing. Chaotic Good to Neutral Good. Lower kill count than Post-Crisis. Loves Toxic Women (Loves the craziest version of Diana). Had a Mid-Life Crisis in his Mid-20’s. Was a Wrestler. Talks like Jason Todd/Wally West/Nightwing/Peter Parker/every mid-20’s white boi in the 90’s-00’s. Everyone hated him. Wasn’t as bad as they say. Is the Andrew Garfield/Spider-Man of Supermen. Killed off without good reason.

Rebirth Superman: Clark Kent (Kal-El). Is literally just Triangle Era Superman. With kids. No Chris tho. Still Lawful Good. Strongest of the Post-Crisis versions. Tries to be a good dad. Is a decent dad. Except for the time where he left Jon alone. So he’s a bad dad. I’m still not over that. Bendis loves him. Says please alot. Watches Anime. Kind of a dead beat. I miss Chris.

if you want summations of other Supermen I didn’t cover you are welcome to ask.

[deadsnothere]

"I'm sleeping with your sister"

Synopsis - While alias and lockwood are on a date Alias's brother Quill Kipps find his sister and his enemy enjoying a "conversation and a cup of tea." (warning: it gets a bit spicy at the end no actual smut but hints at it!!)

Masterlist

Request - Nope but they are open, pls request stuff guys i'm begging!!!

Word count - 1.7k

Speak Ali! - PLEASE REQUEST!! I will not use y/n but i will use Alias, and you can request things like "george's sister" or "the best listener" Alias is just the base name i'll use 😭 SO PLEASE REQUEST <3

Alias didn't mind when Kipps was a dick.

Except for when he was a dick to Lockwood and Co. Alias joined Lockwood and Co a good while ago, Quill always thought it was a waste of her talent. Thought that instead of agency work she should’ve gone into making flare’s and engineering since she was so good with that field of work. He even got Fittis to offer her a job as a mechanic after a mission went wrong as an agent. But she declined and told him she already got another job and left it at that. Alias and Quill were never that close, They had almost exactly opposite personalities, Alias was kind and sweet, sarcastically caring and the biggest drama queen in residence of 35 Portland row, and loves Anthony lockwood. While Quill was- Well Quill and despises Anthony lockwood.

“Well..if it isn't Andrew.” I immediately felt my eyes roll. When I looked up there was my dear brother himself. Quill Kipps! He looked over to me smiling, Ethan, one of Quill's agents, who stood closest to me, doing the same. Quill was acting nicer now then when he first learned that I’d joined Lockwood and Co as an Agent/Mechanic, he wasn't exactly happy. I was rendezvousing with the ‘enemy’. Little does he know I'm doing much more than that.

Me and Anthony were just trying to enjoy a date- A simple date at a small cafe before we went out with Lucy and Norrie, Can't even get that in this family! “What do you want, Kipps? Can you not see I'm trying to enjoy a cup of tea and a conversation?” Lockwood looked pissed. I'm pretty sure he was more pissed about Ethan being here than anything. If it was just Quill I'm sure he would be a little less angry but he always said he hated the way Ethan looked at me.

And so did I honestly but mainly because it was creepy- Even now in the middle of a cafe he was staring at me through the corner of his eye, acting like we definitely could not tell what or who he was looking at. “I'm sure now that Quill got his tea he can leave us alone Anthony, don't worry.” I spoke calmly trying to keep the little peace there was.

Quill snapped his head over to look at me. I’m not even kidding, I think I actually heard a crack- “Anthony!? Since when did you call him Anthony, Alias?” I raised an eyebrow, faking a confused face and biting down on my tongue, to keep my nerves down. “Since, I joined the agency…Me and Anthony have become very close friends, I’ll have you know.” Anthony snorted out a laugh from across the table, looking out the window to the side. I kicked his shin lightly, giving him the best ‘I will kick you in the balls’ glare I could muster.

Quill looked over to him, aggravated. “You have something to say, Tony?” Lockwood looked back to Quill acting like he didn't just laugh at me calling us ‘friends’. “Hm? Oh no-” Anthony turned his head to me next, making eye contact. He tilted his head up slightly, his fingers played with his chapped lips. Gods that made me think of last night, my lipstick marks was all over his face, it was so cute he looked so done with me but continued to let me kiss all over his face nonetheless. I looked away from him this time trying to keep the redness in my face down. Gods, this man is infuriating. I just want to kiss him till he can’t breath-

“No I just think it's funny is all.” “What's so funny?” Ethan responded next, even surprising Quill. “That you're both so caught up in Alias’s business. She's more mature than the both of you combined and yet you cling to her like she needs to be protected from everything.” He looked away from me to the other two to the right of him, taking a sip of his earl gray.

What a fucking hypocrite. He acts like he doesn't do the same shit! ‘Oh Alias you can’t do that! It’ll explode’ Or ‘Oh Alias Let me test that very new flare design instead of you even though you're the one who made it’ and ‘I'll protect you darling, even though I have a broken arm and I've been stabbed 14 times in the ribs!’ Ok maybe that last one was a bit dramatic but sometimes I think he would…

“How dare you! I'm their older brother- I have full right to be worried over their safety at your shady agency, Lockwood.” “I've known them both my entire life, it's just being a gentleman!” Lockwood scoffed back at both of their words. Although he seemed more offended at the thought that I wouldn't be safe at Lockwood and Co.

“If there's one thing I'm sure of Kipps, is that Alias’s safety is prioritized at our agency. More than you can say after your last mission together.” After a mission as an agent at fitties went south, Quill became a lot more protective over me. It was bothersome the majority of the time but there were very rare moments it was useful. “Don't you dare bring that up! You have no right to say that about me- You don't even know what happened other than what was put on the papers and that's barely true.” Anthony nodded along with Quill, a knowing look on his face. “But Ali told me everything. What you did..what you didn't.”

Quill looked so pissed, but immediately tried to ignore the comment about me telling him everything from that night. “Ali?! You let him call you Ali! You hate that nickname, you’ve always hated that nickname-” Ant looked so proud of himself, Laughing dryly. Interrupting my own response. “She's let me do a lot more than that Kipps, A lot more.” Three head’s shot over to him. Me kicking him in the shin, harder than the first time to hopefully get a point across. Ethan looked less than happy, with his pitiful little stare. And Quill looked as if he wasn't sure what he was going to do first, torture or kill him.

“He started to call me by the nickname on his own! I just didn't stop him..” I put my hands up in defense. “He’s a stubborn man ok? and plus it's..kinda sweet.” I put my hands back down, taking a sip of my hot chocolate, avoiding eye contact from my poor brother. It didn't take much to know Lockwood was enjoying this, just the annoying smirk when I called him sweet, and when Quill’s face turned red from anger.

“Sweet? Him sweet! He's a prick! an arsehole- The biggest dick I've met since trevor.” Trevor was a mutual friend we had, let's just say it didn't end well. “She certainly thinks I do.” I choked on my hot chocolate about dying as I tried to regain my composure. Quill’s face went dead serious. “She what.” I have a feeling this is going to end as badly as trevor. “I’m sleeping with your sister Kipps. We’ve been dating for almost a year.” Ethan’s face dropped, jaw opened, while Quill just looked at me, his eyes almost pleading for it not to be true. “Surprise?” I said in an uncertain tone, slowly moving my hands up to do jazz hands. Yeah just keep doing Jazz hands they make everything better-

It's not completely unprompted that we tell my brother, I mean we've had conversations about it in the past, we just never really got to it! “Alias Kipps when I told you don't rendezvous with the enemy I meant it!” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. “He's your enemy not mine!-” Quill looked almost offended. “You used to hate him too!” “Well He's obviously far from my enemy now!” “We bonded over hating him!” “Well now we can bond over making out with him!”

Lockwood was watching this conversation like a tennis game. A smirk on his face the entire time, until my head snapped to him. “And you, don't think you're free, and don't think I don't know of your little jealousy game. I have half a mind to kick your ass right now.” Quill’s face now held a smirk. I was looking back and forth between the boys, about ready to murder, and it showed on my face. “Now Quill, Ethan please walk away and if you’ll excuse me and my boyfriend. We are going to continue our date. bye bye” If it weren't for the fact that I looked ready to kill, they probably wouldn't have left, but after being my sibling for so long I think Quill learned what I could and couldn't do. They both reluctantly walked away keeping his stare on me and Anthony until he was out of the cafe.

I'm not sure which feeling was stronger, lust or anger. but i'm pretty sure it's both. I mean what an ass! Who does anthony think he is! He didn't even ask if it was ok to tell him. God he made my blood boil, but by the way he was sitting there with his legs man spread looking so proud of himself gods, I just want to absolutely ruin his perfect face. Force him to whine and whimper for my touch. Gods he'd look so perfect...

This was going to be a long date.

“Anthony.” I took in a deep breath trying to relax my head, at this point I couldn't tell what was anger and what was lust. He smiled at me with his ‘please forgive me’ smile. “Yes darling?” I stood up and took two steps to stand beside him, whispering in his ear. “When we get home, I expect to find you on your bed ready for me, got it?” I put my hand on his thigh and set my other hand on his shoulder. He nodded as a yes but that isn't exactly what I was expecting, he knows exactly what I'm expecting. The hand on his thigh trailed up just a bit higher, “Excuse me?” “Yes ma'am.” I nodded in satisfaction, patting his shoulder and moving both of my hands away. Picking up my to-go cup of hot chocolate, which was still hot, thank gods.

“Come on, Ant! We have places to be don't we? Promised Lucy and Norrie that double date.” I kissed his cheek and patted the other with my hand. “But I'll uh- give you a minute, I'll be outside getting a cab.” Even as I was walking away I could feel him staring at me. This time his stare was almost pleading for me to come back, desperate for attention.

part 2?

[fortycumber]

I genuinely can't with yan zijing anymore

he's so annoying in these first few episodes of the story of pearl girl I'm literally fighting the urge to break the screen watching his atrocious treatment of duanwu

like yeah babe we get it you're weird, you're a weirdo, you're a red flag, you're messed up, but please take it out on those who deserve it ONLY, don't hurt innocent people OMG

He's competing for the award of "World's biggest ass" together with those "alpha men", Andrew Tate hybrids, red flag Turkish drama male leads that literally torture the female lead at the beginning of the series, due to the heaps of unresolved anger issues and family trauma that plague their sick minds, only to warm up to her in later episodes and treat her like a queen eventually, while she only has to show profound and almost Saint-like understanding and tolerance of his childish antics, well because she's a woman I guess...As if none of their previous actions actually mattered or, God forbid, should be remembered, it all gets washed away with a make out session(this one guy literally dumped the fl into an open GRAVE as a punishment and let her spend the whole night inside, shivering before coming to collect her in the morning, I'm not even joking).

And I can't believe that he genuinely justifies everything he's done to her as a way of having her callous up in order to deal with the cruel world around her. Just no...Leave. 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

[scotianostra]

Birthday Scottish actress Siobhan Redmond, born in Glasgow on August 27th 1959.

Please note wiki give her d.o.b as July 27th, but two other sources say August.

Redmond was educated at Park School for Girls in Glasgow’s West End. She then studied English at St Andrews University, it is here she started acting in student productions and is said to have been discovered by oor Makar Liz Lochhead. She went on to complete a one-year postgraduate year at the Bristol Old Vic.

Siobhan might not be a household name, but she has some pretty impressive credentials to her portfolio, her first roles were in comedy shows, the most famous being Alfresco in 1983/84 alongside an impressive line up that included, Robbie Coltrane, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Ben Elton, as seen in the first photo.

She went on to become a regular character in the 80’s series Bulman, as Lucy McGinty. Perhaps her biggest TV role was in the 90’s cop show Between the Lines as Det. Sgt. Maureen Connell, after this she appeared with Alan Cummings in the underrated sitcom The High Life, a link to another post today, in 1997 we saw her onscreen with Billy Connolly in an adaptation of Deacon Brodie!

Redmond took on a role in the Hospital-soap type series Holby City as consultant paediatrician and clinical lead of Otter Ward, Janice Taylor. Since then Siobhan seems to have reverted to playing the role of a cop again, in The Bill, crime scene examiner Lorna Hart in 14 episodes in 2007 and in Taggart in 2010 she was Chief Supt Karen Campbell in 6 episodes. Redmond has also provided the voice of Ollie in the popular bairns animated show Nina and the Neurons. More up to date shows include, Queens of Mystery, Amazon Prime series Dark Sense and the Excellent mini series Unforgotten. We last saw Siobhan last year in The Nest and Grantchester, while she returned to Queens of Mystery this year, which also starred the excellent Julie Graham. Prior to that, there was a BBC Scotland comedy pilot, Beep, which aired earlier this year, and the opening episode of the latest series of Midsomer Murders, one of the first shows to return to filming last summer.

Siobhan Redmond has also been very busy treading the boards, as a regular member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, playing among others Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing"a nd in a play called ‘The Trick is to Keep Breathing’ which debuted at The Tron Theatre Glasgow, before touring all over the country and in Canada. She also starred in "Look Back in Anger” that followed a world tour in 1990 with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson.

Siobhan recently appeared in the omedy-drama series Rain Dogs , she also turnedup in the sitcom Two Doors Down, whicha new series is in production just now.

[denimbex1986]

'An acclaimed director and two rising young actors headline the '2023 new movie All of Us Strangers, a supernatural drama that has already earned a bit of buzz following its screening at various fall film festivals.

Searchlight Pictures is behind All of Us Strangers, which comes from BAFTA-nominated writer/director Andrew Haigh, and features some high-quality talent on screen as well, including Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal and Claire Foy.

Find out everything you need to know about All of Us Strangers right here...

All of Us Strangers plot

Based on a novel by Taichi Yamada, Haigh wrote the script for All of Us Strangers. Here is the official synopsis for the movie:

"One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor Harry, which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents, appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before."...

All of Us Strangers reviews

The majority of critics who have already seen the movie are fans, with the movie having a 93% "Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes as of December 23. What to Watch is no different, our All of Us Strangers review describes it as "heartbreaking, but essential viewing."

Here is a quick sampling of some of the things other critics have said about the movie:

Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly: "All of Us Strangers will break your heart — but it just might mend it too."

Tomris Laffly, The Wrap: "A sublime masterpiece. A rumination on grief and love, Haigh's poignant and understated ghost story is one of the best films of the year."

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: "Prepare to be wrecked."

All of Us Strangers cast

The leads of Adam and Harry are played by Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, respectively.

Scott is best known for his role as the "hot priest" in Fleabag, but he has been catching people's eyes for a while now, with memorable performances in Sherlock, Oslo and Catherine Called Birdy.

Mescal is one of the biggest rising stars in recent years thanks to his work in Normal People, The Lost Daughter and Aftersun, the latter of which earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. All of Us Strangers is his second movie coming out in the final months of 2023, as he also stars in Foe.

Playing the ghosts of Adam's parents are Claire Foy and Jamie Bell.

Foy broke out with her as Queen Elizabeth in the first two seasons of The Crown. Since then she has gone on to star in First Man, A Very British Scandal and Women Talking.

Bell has been appearing in movies since he was a kid in Billy Elliott. Some of his more recent notable work includes Turn: Washington's Spies, Rocketman, Without Remorse and Shining Girls.

All of Us Strangers trailer

The talents of the four actors leading All of Us Strangers are on full display in the movie’s trailer...

All of Us Strangers awards

We're keeping track of all the major end-of-year nominations and awards that All of Us Strangers earns. Check out what the movie has racked up so far below:

BAFTA Film Awards

Outstanding British Film (nominee) Best Supporting Actor — Paul Mescal (nominee) Best Supporting Actress — Claire Foy (nominee) Best Director — Andrew Haigh (nominee) Best Adapted Screenplay (nominee) Best Casting (nominee)

Golden Globes

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture Drama — Andrew Scott (nominee)

Gotham Awards

Outstanding Lead Performance — Andrew Scott (nominee) Outstanding Supporting Performance — Claire Foy (nominee) Best Screenplay — Andrew Haigh (nominee) Best International Feature (nominee)

British Independent Film Awards

Best British Independent Film (winner) Best Director — Andrew Haigh (winner) Best Lead Performance — Andrew Scott (nominee) Best Supporting Performance — Paul Mescal (co-winner) Best Supporting Performance — Jamie Bell (nominee) Best Supporting Performance — Claire Foy (nominee) Best Screenplay — Andrew Haigh (winner) Best Casting (nominee) Best Cinematography (winner) Best Editing (winner) Best Makeup & Hair Design (nominee) Best Music Supervision (winner) Best Production Design (nominee) Best Sound (nominee)

Film Independent Spirit Awards

Best Feature (nominee) Best Director — Andrew Haigh (nominee) Best Lead Performance — Andrew Scott (nominee)

London Critics' Circle Awards

Film of the Year (nominee) Screenwriter of the Year — Andrew Haigh (nominee) Actor of the Year — Andrew Scott (nominee) Supporting Actress of the Year — Claire Foy (nominee) Supporting Actor of the Year — Paul Mescal (nominee) The Attenborough Award: British/Irish Film of the Year (nominee) British/Irish Performer of the Year — Paul Mescal (nominee) British/Irish Performer of the Year — Andrew Scott (nominee) Technical Achievement Award, Casting (nominee)

Los Angeles Film Critics Awards

Best Leading Performance — Andrew Scott (runner-up) Best Screenplay (winner) Best Editing (runner-up)

Andrew Haigh movies

British director Andrew Haigh may not be a household name with audiences, but his work has been some of the most lauded amongst cinephiles in recent years. Here is a look at his list of previous credits for feature movies:

Greek Pete (2009) Weekend (2011) 45 Years (2015) Lean on Pete (2017)

He has also directed episodes of the acclaimed TV series Looking, as well as its TV movie, and The OA.'

[pumpumdemsugah]

The way white lefty types talk about moc and moc relationships is so delusional. They make it obvious they only talk to other white men. They make it obvious they think " our men " own us and will be the ones making the biggest stink about identity politics but don't want to know jack shit about how moc love to bully woc, then racism is the most important thing in the world so they can back another man poc.

Boys love to publicly humiliate girls. Why pretend that they aren't vicious sadistic little pricks ? Especially if you don't fit a beauty standard in an " extreme way" so being fat or dark skin, they make it their own personal issue if you exist next to them and try to make you miserable.

Teen boys and young adult men are some of the catty, mean spirited, drama queens you'll ever meet in your life and then they grow up to be passport bros if they have social skills and Andrew Tate fans if they don't.

[all-this-panic-still-no-disco]

are you kidding? the biggest drama queen in exy is mr andrew joseph “sunrise, abram, death. these are truths” minyard and i will take no questions

The biggest plot twist of this book is revealing that Kevin Day isn't the biggest drama queen in exy.

[greensparty]

Stuff I'm Looking Forward to in November

How is it now November? In addition to All Saints Day (Nov. 1), Day of the Dead (Nov. 1-2), All Souls Day (Nov. 2), Daylight Savings Time Ending (Nov. 5), Election Day (Nov. 7) Veterans Day (observed on Nov. 10, officially on Nov. 11), Diwali (Nov. 12), Thanksgiving (Nov. 23) and Native American Heritage Day (Nov. 24) here is what's on my radar this month!

Movies:

Priscilla

After last year's Elvis biopic, The King's Queen Priscilla Presley gets the biopic treatment courtesy of Sofia Coppola. Opens 11/3.

Sly

Director Thom Zimney has done a ton of great docs on Bruce Springsteen including Letter to You as well as Elvis: The Searcher. Now he is turning his eye to Sylvester Stallone. Premieres 11/3 on Netflix.

The Killer 

A David Fincher film is always an event. But when he reunites with Seven screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, it's an even bigger event. After a limited release on 10/27, it premieres 11/10 on Netflix.

Thanksgiving

In 2007's Grindhouse, one of the highlights of the fake movie trailers they had between Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's features was Eli Roth's trailer for Thanksgiving about a Thanksgiving-themed slasher film. It took a while, but now Eli Roth's actual feature film is finally dropping on 11/17 (just before Thanksgiving)!

Next Goal Wins 

Taika Waititi is one of the most interesting directors working today. In addition to what he has brought to MCU with the last few Thor movies, his Jojo Rabbit deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Now he's back with a sports dramedy. Opens 11/17.

May December 

This drama had me at "Todd Hayne directs Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman". Opening 11/17.

Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain

The comedy writing team of Please Don't Destroy have stolen many an SNL show in recent years. Now they are starring / writing their own film produced by Judd Apatow. Premiering 11/17 on Peacock.

Napoleon 

Napoleon Bonaparte gets the biopic treatment from Ridley Scott. Opens 11/22.

Maestro

After his directorial debut with A Star is Born, Bradley Cooper's next directorial effort is a Leonard Bernstein biopic. Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg are producers on this as well! Opening 11/22 before a Netflix premiere on 12/20.

Music:

Snail Mail Valentine (Demos)

I was a huge fan of Snail Mail's excellent 2021 album Valentine. Now she is releasing an EP of demos and outtakes. EP drops 11/3.

The Beatles' Final Song and Reissues

Possibly the biggest deal for Beatle fanatics since The Beatles Anthology in the 90s is happening this month. Their final single "Now and Then" containing John Lennon's 1979 recording combined with George Harrison's 1994 recordings (when they attempted to record it for Anthology) with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr's modern day recording. While AI was used for the production, contrary to some interpretations this is NOT a Beatles song created by AI. Single is dropping 11/2. As if this weren't exciting enough, the remastered re-release of 1973's The Beatles 1962-1966 (AKA The Red Album) and The Beatles 1967-1970 (AKA The Blue Album) are being re-released on 11/10. (Review coming soon).

Scream DC Special

D.C. punk legends Scream (the band that Dave Grohl joined as a teen and was in pre-Nirvana) have not released an album in 30 years (Fumble, which featured Grohl re-joining for that album). Now the group is releasing a new album (featuring tons of special guests including Grohl) on 11/10.

Conventions:

NorthEast Comic Con

Over the last few years I've been lucky enough to cover the NorthEast Comic Con, a fun MA-based celebration of comics, collectibles and pop culture. Guests for the Winter edition include Heather Matarazzo, Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald and more. Con takes place at Boxborough Regency (Boxborough, MA) from 11/24-26.

Fake Holidays:

In addition to actual holidays this month, there are also fake or unofficial holidays like Black Friday (11/24), Record Store Day Black Friday Edition (11/24), Cyber Monday (11/27) and Giving Tuesday (11/28).

[college-girl199328]

Prince Harry, who released his bombshell autobiography Spare, is facing the same future as his great-great uncle, the former monarch Edward VIII, a royal historian has claimed. Edward was dramatically sidelined by his brother George VI after he resigned in 1936, no longer hoping to continue in the role without his wife-to-be, the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. Harry's exit from the Windsor household was described as a "tragedy" by Andrew Lownie, who has penned several books on the royals and claims that Harry may now well face the same decline as his relative.

Harry hurled a wave of accusations at members of his family. Among its biggest shocks included allegations that he and William had a physical altercation. In addition, he enjoyed a problematic and cold relationship with his father, King Charles III's wife, Camilla, and Queen Consort.

It has left Harry even further away from his family, with the Duke of Sussex only seeing the royals. This is because he and his wife, Meghan Markle, opted to quit their senior royal duties and cross the pond to live in the US.

The drama unfolded three years ago, was described by Mr. Lownie, who wrote 2021's Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, as a "tragedy" given the "initial promise" Harry showed as a member of the Royal Family.

Before their removal, Harry and Meghan were among, if not the most popular royals, regularly appearing near the top of opinion polls, beneath only Queen Elizabeth II.

Those same polls place the pair at the bottom, with a YouGov poll published on January 12 revealing that just 24 percent of Britons now think positively about Harry. This is despite 68 percent having a negative opinion of him. The poll even showed that the disgraced Duke Andrew had better popularity ratings than him.

Their move to the US, and subsequent removal of titles and patronages, like Harry's military titles, has seen comparisons to Edward VIII. Edward VIII was banished to France after quitting the throne in 1936.

So in love was he, Edward chose to leave his job to marry Ms. Simpson. This was because rules at the time dictated that a monarch, who by law was the Head of the Church of England, could not marry a divorcee. Like Simpson is divorced.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, Mr. Lownie claimed that, like Edward, Harry would be an exile from his country, shorn of his friends and existing in cafe society. Edward continued to write his memoir, A King's Story: The Memoirs of the Duke of Windsor, as did Ms. Simpson, titled, The heart has its reasons: the biographies of the Duchess of Windsor.

Other similarities between the two have often been cited. Among the most obvious is their respective popularity, with Edward once described by The New York Times as a "romantic and carefree Prince Charming blessed with the common touch" during his younger days.

The Times' reporter, Robert Alden, noted he had been a "king of high popularity," but the "abdication that caused a worldwide sensation visibly distressed his subjects."

Likewise, in his younger days, Harry was often photographed out and about on the London clubbing circuit, often with beautiful young women. While The Sun once described him as "Dirty Harry," other publications gave him the moniker of the "Playboy Prince."

Another similarity was their shared dislike of school. Edward's obituary in the New York Times in 1972 noted how the former king "did not excel academically… he proved more interested in his banjo than in his books".

He was also a keen dancer, and writing in his diary, he talked about enjoying a late night or two: "My dancing is improving. I got in at four [o'clock in the morning]. I have had not more than eight hours' sleep in the last 72 hours!" he proclaims in another."

Archive interviews with Harry are chillingly similar. In 2015, while at a South African youth centre in Cape Town, he said he "didn't enjoy school at all," adding: "When I was at school, I wanted to be the bad boy."

More recently, Express.co.uk unearthed an incredible letter from Edward to his mother, Queen Mary, on the day his abdication was made public. His decision brought his brother George, also known as Bertie, into the fold, cementing his status as king.

In a note to his mother, Edward described his feelings towards Ms. Simpson and how excited he was to marry her. "I told you again last night that I have known for two years that I cannot live without Wallis. This made my decision easier.".

[dumpsterd1va]

continuation of my neil and andrew finding a kitten on the road AU. more under the cut!

It turns out kittens aren’t very good at following directions. The little monster had peed and pooped in Andrew’s sweatshirt nest. She didn’t puke per se, but whatever she coughed up smelled just as bad, if not worse. Or maybe it was the combination of excrement that was making Andrew dizzy. It had been better on the freeway when the speed they were going at was enough to keep the air circulating, but here in the city everything was stagnant. He couldn’t even bury his nose in his sleeve because in his rush to get out on the road this morning, he hadn’t bothered changing out of the black tank top he always slept in. He was grateful he’d at least had the presence of mind to put on his armbands.

Andrew tugged at the fabric cocooning his forearms as he grumbled, “You are a menace,” to his ungrateful passenger who only emitted a high-pitched whine in response. “Yeah, yeah, I’m miserable too. Tough shit.”

As if he could hear him, Neil turned back around and waved. Andrew could’ve sworn he was laughing too, the bastard. Thankfully, the next turn was their last one as they pulled into a parking lot.

His car was barely in park when Andrew jumped out and approached Neil. “You’re getting the sack of shit out of the car.”

Neil was shaking his hair out when Andrew reached him, setting his helmet down on the seat. He ran his fingers through his hair and grinned. “Had a little accident, did we?”

“Not little. Not me. Go.”

“Fine, fine. Didn’t clock you as a squeamish one.”

Andrew would take any insult Neil threw at him as long as he didn’t have to touch the mess in his car. He was going to have to throw all those clothes away. This was already turning out to be more trouble than it was worth.

“Fuck, you’re a little stinker aren’t you?” Andrew heard Neil grumble as he pulled the soiled heap and its maker from the car. He was holding the kitten like a football in the crook of his arm but the sweatshirts he held out in front of him like they were poisonous. Andrew was pretty sure they were.

“You can toss those.”

Neil grimaced. “Smart move.”

They walked alongside each other into the clinic. It was surprisingly busy, but Andrew supposed animals were good at being an inconvenience, no matter the hour.

When they made their way up to the front desk, Neil leaned on the counter and said to the receptionist, “Hey, I called earlier. Neil Josten?”

Barely glancing up, the receptionist nodded. “Found a stray?” Neil nodded. “Someone will be with you shortly.” His eyes flicked up to Andrew. “Will he be joining you?”

Neil started and darted his eyes over to Andrew who didn’t react. “Uh, yeah he will be.”

“Name?”

“Andrew Minyard,” Andrew answered before Neil could process that he didn’t know his name yet. The receptionist dismissed them and they sat down with their shared burden.

Neil broke the silence first. “We didn’t introduce ourselves, huh?” He stuck his free hand out. “I’m Neil.”

“You’re crazy if you think I’m touching that hand.”

Rolling his eyes, Neil retorted, “They were your clothes.”

“They were covered in something that was definitely not mine.”

With a sigh, Neil dumped the kitten into Andrew’s lap before going over to the hand sanitizer dispenser in the corner. He locked eyes with Andrew and dispensed several pumps of the liquid into his hands before making a big show of rubbing his hands together.

When he sat back down and offered his hand again, Andrew took it.

“Andrew.”

They settled into their chairs and Neil’s fingers lazily ran through the kitten’s fur. He had to lean towards Andrew to do it, giving Andrew the perfect view of his curls. They danced in the sunlight and reflected impossible shades of sunset red and honey gold.

“So,” Neil began. “Any reason you were out on the road so early in the morning?”

It took Andrew a second for him to realize Neil was talking to him. “No reason.”

Neil hummed. “Same here. Sometimes I just need to get away.”

Andrew’s eyes fell to the scars lining Neil’s face that made him seem at once stronger and more delicate. His thoughts wandered to the scars that marred his own arms, hidden under his armbands, and the lengths he went to try to escape the thoughts that made them. He wondered if Neil was trying to do the same, but something told him Neil had a different kind of demon lurking over his shoulder.

“Neil?”

The side door leading to the rest of the clinic swung open and a tall woman stepped out. Neil glanced up at the sound of his name and gestured for Andrew to follow him.

“Hey Abby,” Neil greeted. “Thanks for letting us come in on such short notice.”

Abby smiled. “No need for that. You’re doing us a favor. Come in.”

They followed Abby to a small room and on the way she explained that she would be examining the kitten for fleas, worms, or other kinds of lesions. Her hands moved at an impressive speed but the kitten still made her discomfort quite clear.

“Well,” Abby said at last. “Nothing looks out of the ordinary, but she needs to put on more weight before we can put her up for adoption. We’ll probably keep her quarantined for a while, give her a good bath, and do a more thorough examination. She’s surprisingly clean for where you found her, so she probably wasn’t there for very long. She got lucky.”

“Wouldn’t call that luck,” Andrew mumbled.

Abby’s gaze fell on Andrew and she smiled that same pleasant smile. “I meant she’s lucky you found her. It’s Andrew, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, thank you Andrew. You helped save a life today.” She scratched the kitten’s belly. “Are you considering adopting her?”

Andrew recalled his bold words out on the highway when Neil wouldn’t shut up and shrugged. “Maybe.” At the look Neil gave him, he clarified, “I’ve never had a pet before.”

Neil hid a smirk behind his fist but Abby didn’t seem to notice. She nodded. “Fair enough. Cats are great for first time pet owners, but they’re still a lot of responsibility. Think about it while she’s holed up in here for a few days and if you have any questions, you can always call in and ask for me or even talk to Neil. He’s had Sir for years so he’s a regular cat whisperer.”

Andrew’s eyes flicked over to Neil who arched an eyebrow at him as if to say, “That’s news to me,” triggering a ghost of a smile to flicker across Andrew’s face.

Oh this was bad.

Andrew pushed off the wall he was leaning against and headed for the door without another word. Neil trailed behind him and Andrew could feel those annoyingly blue eyes boring a hole into the back of his head.

“What?” he hissed when they finally exited the shelter.

To his credit, Neil didn’t flinch at Andrew’s tone. “Are you really going to adopt her?”

“I said I didn’t know, didn’t I?”

“There’s no reason to be scared.”

Andrew blinked. “Excuse me?”

Neil tilted his head. “That’s why you’re hesitating right? You’re afraid you won’t be able to take care of her.”

“Fuck off. The little asshole making my clothes her personal toilet made me have second thoughts.”

“I already told you I think you’ll make a great cat mom,” Neil continued, undeterred. “You should take her. I’ll help you buy all the stuff you’ll need.”

“Really tempting offer, but no.”

“C’mon, one trip to PetSmart and you can wash your hands of me forever and have a cute kitten instead.”

Andrew stopped in his tracks and glared at Neil. “Why do you care?”

Infuriatingly, Neil looked confused. “Because you do.” Andrew wanted to punch him. “And I want to make sure she has a good home.”

“Then you take her.”

“I will if you won’t.” His mouth twitched into a half smile. “But I have a feeling I won’t need to.”

When they stopped in front of their respective vehicles, Andrew leaned his head back and groaned. Snapping his fingers, he grumbled, “Give me your phone.”

Andrew almost threw the phone Neil handed to him onto the asphalt but instead he punched in his number and called.

Tossing the phone back to Neil, he picked up his phone and said as calmly as he could into the receiver, “As soon as Abby gives the okay, we meet here. We get the cat, buy the shit, then you leave me alone. Got it?”

Neil was fully smiling now. “Has anyone ever told you you’re kind of dramatic?”

Abruptly hanging up on someone standing right in front of him was not nearly as satisfying as Andrew wanted it to be, but he settled for getting into his car, rolling down the window, and flipping Neil the bird.

“Drama queen,” Neil called back, still grinning.

“Mouthy bastard,” Andrew muttered as he rolled up the window.

“Heard that.”

Then, it was Andrew’s turn to smile. “Good.”

[puzzled-pegasus]

Well, since you asked, Random Citizen ;)

The Strengths and Weaknesses of Fluttershy the Pegasus.

So many of us love Fluttershy. She's beautiful, she's soft spoken, she's kind, good with animals, and often relatable. Let's go over some of her character's particular strengths and talents, and some of her weaknesses.

First, her strengths.

The most obvious talent she has is that she's great with animals. But why is that? Well, besides her natural ability to speak to animals, she also has an extremely calming demeanor as well as a huge, empathetic heart---she can tell exactly what her critters are feeling and what they want. There is also, of course, her element: kindness. The way she shows this seems obvious, even more obvious than pretty much anyone else's. Kindness? Well, duh, of course she's kind! Strangely enough, she's the member of the Mane 6 that seems to suffer the most for what is supposed to be her biggest strength. But we'll get to that later.

Another talent Fluttershy has is The Stare. We're not exactly sure where this comes from, but it's pretty darn cool. It's possible that it is a learned ability, as many animals see being stared at as a threat. Since a lot of ponies' regular talents seem to be enhanced with magic, like Applejack's strength, there's probably a bit of that involved as well.

Fluttershy also seems to have a natural grace to the way she moves, speaks, sings, flies, and everything else, as shown in the episode Mean Isn't Your Color. She can't seem to stop it. I'm not sure whether this is exactly a strength, but it is definitely nice.

Now to talk about her biggest weakness---her lack of confidence.

Since the beginning, Fluttershy is shown to be, well, extremely shy. Too shy for her own good. She was terrified of dragons, flying in the hurricane, Nightmare Night, you name it. She also had an extreme lack of confidence when talking and interacting with other ponies.

This may be a weakness to her as a pony just trying to live her life, but it's a great trait for her as a character. Why? Well, not only does her fear send the relatable message that we're all afraid of something and it takes time to conquer that fear, her anxiety---ESPECIALLY her anxiety when it comes to talking to other ponies and ASSERTING HERSELF---is also an EXTREMELY important topic to write about in a show aimed specifically at little girls.

That's right! I said it! My Little Ponu: Friendship is Magic DOES have a target audience and they DID watch it and they ARE big fans!!! Girls LOVED this show!! It's me!!! I WAS THE LITTLE GIRL!!!! And FLUTTERSHY IS AN IMPORTANT CHARACTER FOR THE ACTUAL LITTLE GIRLS WATCHING THE SHOW. And yes, for anyone else watching who struggles with advocating for themselves. But I'm going to talk about how it's important to the little girls because I was a little girl who watched the show and I'm older and I realize now that they did something great.

In case you didn't know, little girls have some of the hardest times asserting themselves. We are raised as such. We're too chatty. We're too bossy. We're tattling. We're complaining, we're whining, we're being drama queens, we're not being tough, we're crybabies. We're not sitting correctly, we're eating like an animal, we're wrong and our parents are right, we're not allowed to talk back. Jamie pulled your hair? Just ignore it, it's because he likes you. Andrew took your snack? Don't let it get to you, he's trying to make you mad. Chloe cut in front of you in line? No need to make a fuss, she probably didn't see you. All. The. Time. Little girls are told to hold in their opinions and cover their emotions and muffle their voices to make everyone around them comfortable for the sake of acting like polite young ladies.

This is where Fluttershy comes in. Fluttershy works on herself, on learning to assert herself, in front of the viewer. She's the most terrified pony in Ponyville, and if she can stand up and tell Iron Will to politely buck off, the little girls sitting at home can politely tell Sammy the fifth grader to stop hogging the nice water fountain. If Fluttershy can look a dragon in the eye and tell him he's being extremely rude and inconsiderate for snoring smoke all over the Ponyville sky, the little girl at home can tell the McDonald's server that she wanted a chicken sandwich instead of a burger. It's genuine lesson AND example of small ways to practice asserting yourself. And Fluttershy, most of the time, does it without being rude or unpleasant.

Two other great things about how the show handles Fluttershy's fear are these: Fluttershy's progress is Not Linear, and she is Not Cured at the end of the show.

Through the entire show, no matter how many lessons she learns about asserting herself and gaining self confidence, Fluttershy still remains Fluttershy. To the unthoughful viewer, it may seem like a severe inconsistency. But here's the thing. Progress and working on oneself is not consistent. Especially if one suffers from an actual anxiety disorder, like Fluttershy likely does. This is actually addressed in the episode, I forget the name, but the one where the Mane 6 decide to publish their friendship lesson journal. Readers of the book harass Fluttershy about how it's been so long, she should toughen up and be assertive already, as Fluttershy cowers and tries to run away. Now of course, this entire episode was sort of a joke about how adult fans of the show criticize the characters for their flaws that the show is well aware of and that are supposed to be there, but it's an important message.

Fluttershy's progress is not consistent, and that is very realistic.

And the fact that she's not "cured" of her anxiety and introversion by the end of the show is a great detail as well. Sure, she's more confident in herself, she's a bit calmer, and she has more support and understanding in her friends than ever, but she still has an anxiety disorder. It's how she's made. It's how she is. She's still shy. She's beautiful the way she is. This is important.

Going farther back to the beginning and middle of the show once again, I'm going to talk about one other specific message about Fluttershy's ability to assert herself: the subtle lesson that the show teaches about how asserting oneself with friends and family is important, too.

Fluttershy's best friends love her more than anyone else in the world does. She knows this. The audience knows this. They know this. The Elements of Harmony know it. But they're not perfect, none of them are. Thus, so often---like, at least every other episode, often---Fluttershy has something important to say, and they just keep talking over her, because she's talking a bit too quietly, and they are listening a bit too little. This. This is a lesson here, though I don't know how many children would pick up on it. Being assertive and speaking confidently is important even around those you consider your family. People---and ponies---all ignore or dismiss or tune out their friends sometimes without meaning to, and this doesn't always mean they're doing it on purpose. A lot of the time, it could simply mean that you need to speak a little louder, or do something to get their attention first. (This is not to say that these scenes are always Fluttershy's fault. The Mane 6 can definitely grow some better ears. I'm also pretty sure that them not listening to Fluttershy is exaggerated as a joke to some extent.)

What I also like, in relation to Fluttershy's anxiety and her friends, is that hardly do they actually do things for her that she can do herself, instead pushing her out of her comfort zone to do them. Fluttershy is a grown mare, and her friends realize this. They patiently encourage her to do what needs to be done when she's afraid to, but they don't really do things for her. They don't give up on her, and even if they see it as a chore, they are kind and encouraging. One particular instance that I think of is the moment in the episode where they have to wake up the sleeping dragon in the top of the mountain, the moment where the characters have to jump over a narrow ravine to continue on the path. Her friends don't give up until she makes it. Pinkie Pie cheerfully demonstrates how she should do it, making it sound fun by calling it a "Hop-Skip-And-A-Jump!" Her friends cheer her on from the other side. Rainbow Dash makes fun of her unhelpfully which is not nice, but she also suggests she fly over the gap.

Fluttershy is a beloved character that teaches us valuable lessons about kindness, compassion, standing up for ourselves, and making progress at our own pace.

what mane 6 member should I write a character analysis of

[highlifestyleindia]

Will and Kate to visit the US as new Prince and Princess of Wales

Prince William and his wife Kate fly out to the United States on Wednesday for their first visit for eight years, as an intense media spotlight on the British royal family and the sons of King Charles shifts across the Atlantic.

The U.S. trip will be the new Prince and Princess of Wales' first overseas excursion since the death of Queen Elizabeth, which meant William - Charles's eldest son - became the heir to the throne.

The visit has gained added significance as it comes a few days before William's Los Angeles-based younger brother Prince Harry and American wife Meghan take the limelight at a prestigious awards ceremony ahead of a Netflix TV documentary and revealing memoir.

For royal commentators and many in the British press, it will be a chance to contrast the popularity and lives of the two brothers, whose falling out, along with Harry and Meghan's criticism of the monarchy, has become one of the defining stories of the House of Windsor in recent years.

"The royal family are a competitive bunch, they always have been and always will be," said royal biographer Andrew Morton.

"Prince William is the future king, Prince Harry no longer has a royal role. But nonetheless, they will be looking at the optics to see who had the biggest crowds, who had the most column inches and if they tell you otherwise, don't believe them."

William and Kate will visit Boston, primarily to attend an awards ceremony for the Earthshot environmental prize which the prince set up. It is being viewed by the royals as a trip rather than a more traditional tour.

The last time they visited the United States in November 2014, they were guests of then-President Barack Obama at the White House.

This visit will be lower key: they will visit local environmental, educational and community projects in Boston, although the Earthshot ceremony itself will be a star-studded event with the likes of Grammy-winning singer Billie Eilish and Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek.

"Our number one focus... is the Earthshot Prize and we won't be distracted by other things," a source close to William said.

The drama surrounding the Windsors will also draw in America's most famous political family, the Kennedys.

During their three-day stay, William, 40, and Kate, 40, will visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum where they will meet Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the former president and now U.S. Ambassador to Australia.

A few days later, Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, will go to New York for the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award where they will be honoured for their commitment to social change and human rights work, in a group which also includes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

[dream-a-little-bigger-x]

Curiosity Killed The Cat | Owen Patrick Joyner

Requested: Yes/No

Hi! I was wondering if you can do an Owen imagine kinda based off his Instagram story of him finding a cat. I was thinking he’d actually find the missing cat though and come ring your doorbell at 4am bc he’s chaotic. You can decide everything. Thank you in advance!!!

A/N: The cat doesn’t actually die in this, it’s just a saying that i liked for the title, so don’t worry! It’s got a happy ending!

Pairing: Owen x Fem!Reader

Song(s) used: none 

Warnings: none

Words: 3,949

A week. It had been exactly one week since y/n last saw her cat, Tunabean. The white, grey striped Ragamuffin cat had been absent from y/n’s apartment for way longer than she normally would be and it worried y/n to the point where she’d be out looking for the little rascal every night after work. 

“Found her yet?” Jamila asked as she entered y/n’s apartment after coming home from work. 

Jamila was y/n’s roommate and best friend since college. The two had lived together through their college career and decided to be roommates after too, as long as neither had significant others to go live with. 

“No,” y/n’s lip stuck out into a pout as she feverishly reposted the message on all her social media platforms. “People have been tearing down my posters as well. Did you see the ones near Andrews Park? They were torn to shreds!” 

Jamila pulled her lips into a tight smile before putting her bags on the dining room table and joining y/n on the couch. “Yeah, I saw. I’m really sorry, y/n. If you want, we can go and put up some more posters? Exchange the torn up ones with some fresh ones?”

“You’d do that for me?” 

“Of course! Sweetie, I’d do anything to get little Bean home, you know that, right?” y/n nodded her head in response, though she wasn’t sure if she knew that. 

Jamila wasn’t the biggest fan of Tunabean at first. She hated cats. Growing up, she’d always had a dog but never a cat. She didn’t trust the little rascals for one second. So, when y/n showed up with little Tunabean after having had what felt like the worst week of her life, Jamila was a tiny bit angry. But eventually warmed up to Tunabean when the little kitty seemed so placid, you could easily cuddle up to it on the sofa. 

“Let’s go find Zach at his work, bribe him to print me more posters for cheap, hang ‘em up around town and then maybe Tino’s?” Jamila’s eyes lit up at the mention of her favorite restaurant. 

She snapped her fingers and pointed finger guns at her best friend. “Sounds like a plan!” she said and wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck. It was a cold November day and no person could leave their house consciously without being bundled up into layers and layers of clothing.  

“I hope Bean didn’t hide under a car and the owner didn’t tap the hood before getting in…” y/n muttered, her voice thick with worry, as they exited the apartment building and stepped into the blistering cold. 

“I’m sure she just found a few boyfriends and is spending her time with them,” Jamila tried to reassure her, but knew all-too-well that Tunabean wouldn’t stay away this long, even if she had a lover cat to make little kittens with. She loved Jamila and y/n’s home too much. 

“Are you slut shaming my cat right now?” 

“Our cat,” Jamila corrected, causing a smile to find its way to y/n’s face, “And no, I am not. I’m just trying to be optimistic here, y/n.” Jamila tucked her cold hands into the pockets of her tan peacoat. “I’m sure Tunabean is alright.” 

“What if she isn’t though? What if she’s like meowing somewhere in the middle of Norman and no one to hear her pleas?” Jamila rolled her eyes at how dramatic her best friend was being.  

“Norman ain’t that big, sweetie. I’m sure if she’s meowing somewhere, we would’ve heard her already.” 

“Exactly! Which means she’s either dead or god knows anywhere! She could be in Oklahoma City! We don’t know that!” y/n exclaimed loudly, using excessive hand gestures more so to keep herself warm than emphasis. 

Jamila stopped in her tracks and grabbed y/n by the shoulders, stopping her too. “Stop being such a drama queen, y/n! I’m sure Tunabean is fine. Maybe she’s on an adventure or making new friends, you don’t know that!” 

“You don’t care about our child, admit it,” y/n muttered. This rendered Jamila silent. “Admit you don’t care about our child, Jam!” Passer-byers shot them a weirded out glare, which Jamila sent right back. 

“Oh, please! Don’t pretend there are no lesbian families in Norman too!” she yelled at them. The comical side of the whole situation made y/n laugh a tiny bit. “There’s that smile I like to see.” Jamila softly touched y/n’s chin with her knuckle before grabbing the girl’s hand in hers. The warmth of Jamila’s hand radiating through to y/n’s made her feel all toasty. “Let’s go print some posters!”  

The girls reached a one-storey building with red decrepit letters stuck to the roof. 

HOOPER PRINTING CO. 

As y/n opened the glass door and held it for Jamila to walk in, the smell of ink reached her nostrils. Though not a very traditional scent to love, it reminded y/n of one of her best friends. It was like  her brain just knew that the muscles in her cheeks would soon start to hurt thanks to Zachary. A boy the girls had met in college as Xana. 

Jamila spotted the bleached blonde mop of hair immediately and signaled to y/n to sneak up to him. On their tippy toes, the two approached the tall slender man, and when they were close enough, they took in a deep breath and-- “Don’t even think about it,” Zach mumbled without even looking at them. 

Jamila and y/n glanced at each other, cheeks puffed out from the breath they were holding. “How’d you--?” y/n didn’t even finish her sentence as she looked past Zach and her eyes landed on a tiny tv screen. Cameras, of course. 

“Since when do you have security cameras?” y/n asked as she hopped onto the counter Zach was sorting invoices on. 

He shrugged, “Sometime this week, I think.” His bright blue eyes met y/n’s as she sheepishly looked at him while kicking her legs. The boy sighed exasperated, knowing all too well what the girls are here for. “No. Not again.” 

“Please, Zachy! Tunabean is still missing and her posters have been ripped down!” Her eyes teared up at the thought of her kitty being out there all by herself in Norman. All she could hope was that the creepy dudes from Doyle’s didn’t get their filthy paws on her little princess. 

“Come on, Zach. You love that cat too!” Jamila chimed in, crossing her arms across her chest and glaring at him knowingly. 

“Fine, come here,” he reached out his hand and y/n handed him the thumb drive on which she kept her self-made posters. “You’re gonna have to buy me Tino’s though.” 

“We were going there afterwards, if you wanna join?” y/n’s voice was teasing and sly. 

“I’m off at five,” he simply stated before pressing a few buttons on his desktop and waking up the printer closest to them. “How long has she been gone for?” he then asked after a few beats of silence. Y/N dropped her head and stared at her still moving legs for a moment. 

“About a week,” she replied. 

Zach pulled his lips into a tight smile. He reached his hand out and placed it gently on top of hers. “She’ll come back.” 

“How can you be so sure? She might be hurt somewhere or dead and I won’t even know. I won’t even be able to say goodbye to her.” Tears pooled in y/n’s eyes as she thought of the sweet little kitten she had found in a ‘take one for free’ box on a curb one day. She was the last one left. 

“I’m not sure, y/n. But I’d like to be optimistic. Besides, Tunabean is resilient and the most independent kitty I’ve ever known. She’ll survive. She’s probably out adventuring with some friends.” 

Though the words weren’t very reassuring and y/n knew she had every right to be worried, they did calm her down a little. Tunabean was resilient and extremely independent. She’ll find her way back home.    

*

“I’ll see you guys later, bye!” Owen waved at his friends as he stepped into the cold November night. It was 4 am and he was just returning home from a day spent with friends. He had fallen asleep during the movie, only waking up in the middle of the night, realizing his parents were probably worrying about him, seeing he’d told them he’d be home by midnight at the latest. 

He softly hummed along to the song that was playing in his head as he walked down West Main Street, his hands tucked deep into his pockets to try and keep them warm. He should’ve brought a thicker coat or a thicker jumper. 

“Ah, mister Joyner!” a familiar voice with a thick accent made him shake out of his train of thought about the cold. The friendly face of the robust Italian greeted him in the dim light of the restaurant behind him. 

“Still working, Tino?” Owen asked as he stopped in his tracks to talk to the man everyone in Norman, Oklahoma loved. 

“Already back at work, ragazzino!” he replied in his thick Italian accent. Owen always thought it was fake and just for show to lure clients, so that they knew he was a pure Italian man, sharing his love for the Italian cuisine in his restaurant. 

“At four in the morning?!” Owen exclaimed, stunned at the man’s determination for his job. 

“Deliveries don’t wait, signore.” His laugh boomed into the empty, dark streets of Norman. Owen couldn’t help but let out a laugh too while his eyes averted and landed on a poster in the window. A black-and-white picture of a small cat stared back at him.  

MISSING: TUNABEAN

Grey-and-white striped ragamuffin cat, listens to the name Tunabean. 

“She’s been missing for a week, the poor girl who owns her is worried sick,” Tino told Owen when he noticed what he was looking at. The blond twenty-year-old pressed his lips together. He only ever had a dog that had never run away, but he could imagine what it would be like to not know where your pet is. He would totally lose it if Bindi ever went missing. 

“I feel sorry for her,” Owen said, unsure of anything else to say. 

“Yeah, me too,” said Tino. “Keep an eye out for Tunabean, yeah?” 

“I will.” 

And with that, Owen continued his walk back home. The cat on the poster kept haunting his mind. Those big eyes were something he wouldn’t forget anytime soon. Thanks to said image plastered in his brain, he even started hearing meowing when he got to Andrews Park. It was a soft, fragile meow that had to echo through his brain for a few seconds before he realized it actually came from the bushes he was walking past as he passed through Andrews Park. 

Curiously, and kind of feverishly, Owen started to dig into the shrubbery until he found a tiny cat. “Oh, don’t worry, little one. I got you.” He said as he carefully detangled it from the branches. As he held it up to his face, he found the big, round eyes from the poster staring back at him in real life. “Tunabean?” he cooed, and the cat tilted its head ever so slightly. 

He stroked the cat’s head and scratched behind her ear before pulling it closer into his chest. She was shivering, but Owen wasn’t sure if it was from the cold or the fear. If she’d been missing for a week, God knows how long she must’ve been stuck in there. 

“You hurt, little one?” he mumbled to it as he absentmindedly made his way to the one person he knew could help. 

“Owen,” Emmy groaned when she’d opened the door to find him standing on the curb with a pout on his face. “It’s four in the morning, I have to be up in an hour for work.” 

“That’s why I’m here,” he said and showed her the cat he had tucked in his jacket to keep it warm. “I found her in the bushes near Andrews Park. Can you check if she’s okay?” Emmy’s eyes darted from the cat to Owen and back. “Please, Emmy? You’re the only one I know could help her out.” 

“Come on in,” she sighed, clearly disgruntled at the early wakeup call. But she couldn’t say no to a little kitty in need. She’d been rescuing animals since she was a little girl, she wasn’t going to leave this one in the dust. 

Owen placed the cat on the table as it meowed and nudged Owen’s hand with her head. “It’s okay, Tunabean, Emmy here is gonna make sure you’re okay.” 

“Tunabean?” Emmy asked as she put on latex gloves. 

“Yeah, I think it’s the cat from the missing posters you see all around town?” 

Emmy gingerly took the cat in her gloved hands and started her check-up. “Ah, yes! My brother and his buddies took some of them down, thinking they were ‘rebellious’.” She rolled her eyes. “You gonna bring her back?” 

“Of course, Tino said the owner was worried sick about her.” 

Emmy smiled at this. Owen had always been the compassionate one in their friend group. He’d only act upon things if he was sure it wouldn’t hurt anyone else. Though, sometimes that compassion vanished when they were with their friends and he got a ‘brilliant’ idea, which was most likely kind of dangerous. 

“Oh, look,” Emmy whispered as she showed Tunabean’s paw. There was a thorn stuck in the little pad. “Poor thing! Hold her for a second, please? I’m gonna get my tweezers to get it out.” Owen placed a hand on the cat’s stomach, his fingers lightly scratching at the white fur. 

Emmy returned with everything she needed, and within a few seconds, Tunabean was freed from the thorn in her paw and back on her feet. She suddenly seemed a lot more peppy than she was before. 

“Let’s get you home, yeah?” Owen said as he scooped the kitten back up into his arms, holding it close to his chest. Emmy took her gloves off and scratched the cat’s head. 

“Goodbye, Tunabean,” she cooed, earning licks from her rough little tongue. “Ooh, I think I got the girl’s address here somewhere. Tunabean is Anna’s client and we’ve got them in the system.” 

As quickly as she’d said it, she’d handed the address over to Owen. After thanking her profusely, Owen went on his way with the cat tucked safely in his jacket for warmth. 

He was nervous as it was already five in the morning and the woman most definitely was still asleep. But he didn’t want to keep her in even more suspense and worry about her cat as she already was. 

“Hello?” a sleepy voice sounded through the intercom. 

“Hi, I’m Owen, I think I got your cat, Tunabean?” 

A silence fell, only Tunabean’s sleepy snoring disrupting the peace and quiet of the night. The poor girl had fallen asleep in Owen’s arms. He almost felt sad he had to give her away again. 

It took a good minute before the door to the apartment building opened up and a girl in red flannel pj’s opened the door. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun with big strands falling out of it. Though she’d probably rather not be seen like this out in public, Owen thought she looked breathtaking, even in the dim light from the hallway of her corridor and the street lights. 

“You really got Tunabean?” she asked as she held onto the door, squishing herself in the small opening she’d granted herself. Owen opened his jacket and carefully showed her the cat who’d woken up from her slumber. “Tunabean!” the girl exclaimed and grabbed the grey pet from the boy’s hands. Their fingers brushed ever so slightly, and though y/n was too busy with her cat, Owen felt it. He felt the spark. 

“I would invite you inside for a drink to thank you, but my roommate is still asleep and I don’t want to wake her.” Owen held up his hand, a smile tugging at his lips as he shook his head. 

“That’s okay. I don’t need a reward. I’m just glad I could reunite the two of you again,” he said, smiling at the girl and her cat. “Oh! She did have a thorn in her paw though, but my friend is a vet and I took her to her for a check-up before I came here.” 

“Aw, poor Bean,” she scratched the cat’s head before turning back to the blonde boy. “Thank you. That’s very considerate of you.” He tipped his head forward, the smile still persistent on his lips. 

“Glad I could help,” he repeated, jamming his hands into the pockets of his jacket again. “I’m gonna go though. I’m sure you’d rather go back to sleep right now than talk to a complete stranger on your doorstep.” 

“Oh, uhm, okay… Goodbye then? And thank you again for bringing Tunabean back.” 

Owen took a few steps backwards as he said, “You’re most welcome. Goodbye, Tunabean and…” 

“Y/N.” 

“Goodbye Tunabean and y/n.” His eyes lingered on hers for a few more seconds before he turned around to really make his way home now, no distractions. 

“Wait! I didn’t catch yours!” she whisper-shouted after him. 

He turned again, but kept walking. “Owen,” he said. 

“Goodbye, Owen.” She grabbed Tunabean’s paw and waved at him with it, causing a giggle to rake through Owen’s body. With his hand still in his pocket, he waved back. 

The more distance he created between them, the bigger his smile became as he thought of her. She was the epitome of a beautiful dream come to life. It made him wonder what she’d look like if she did put effort into her appearance. That could just be the death of him. 

*

After two more hours of sleep, the alarm blaring through her room woke y/n from a beautiful dream with the mysterious blonde boy that rang her doorbell very early in the morning. It caused her to wake up with the thought of him, wondering if she’d ever see him again. 

“Morning,” she greeted Jamila when she found her best friend in the living room, gathering all her stuff. “Guess who came home last night!” As if on cue, the little cat pattered across the hardwood floor towards the dark beauty that was Jamila. Her eyes widened as did her smile upon seeing the white-and-grey ragamuffin. 

“Bean!” Jamila shrieked as she knelt down to pick the four-legged friend off the floor. “Oh, baby! I missed you!” She peppered the cat with kisses, receiving the kisses back from her tiny pink tongue. “Where’d you find him?” 

“Oh, I didn’t. This guy, Owen, did. He brought her back at, like, five in the morning,” y/n explained as she absentmindedly smiled at the thought of those pretty blue-ish eyes. 

“And this Owen guy is pretty cute, isn’t he?” Jamila asked upon noticing her best friend’s flustered demeanor. “Did you ask for his number?” Y/N rolled her eyes before she started gathering her things she needed for work. 

“It was five in the morning, I had just woken up and I was too busy with Tunabean’s return to even think of that,” she explained, mostly cursing at herself for not asking his number. “Besides, I looked disgusting, I doubt he thought I was the epitome of beauty.” 

Jamila simply shook her head, debating against saying any more about it before pressing a kiss to y/n’s cheek and leaving the apartment. 

A silence fell over the space, leaving y/n alone with her thoughts. Her beautiful, yet annoying thoughts of the handsome boy at her front door. “He was handsome, wasn’t he, Tunabean?” she asked her cat, who simply tilted her head to the side as she sat in front of y/n on the floor. 

Once y/n had gathered her stuff for work today, she said goodbye to Tunabean and left the apartment. She was fumbling around in her handbag to look for her car keys when a vaguely familiar voice made her look up. 

The gorgeous blue eyes she’d been dreaming of for two whole hours were staring down at her whilst the plump pink lips curled up into a dreamy smile. “Oh, hey, Owen.” 

“I wanted to come and check up on Tunabean,” he carefully said, pointing up at the building she’d just come out of. “You know, see if she’s okay and stuff.” He suddenly seemed nervous. More nervous than he did at five in the morning. 

“Uhm, she’s okay, actually. Slept well and seemed very chipper this morning,” y/n reassured him, a smile playing at her lips as her eyes scanned his face. She made sure to make a mental note of every single detail of his face. Like how he stuck his tongue between his teeth as he smiled or how his eyes squinted slightly or the stubble faintly growing on his chin. 

“Oh, okay, good. That’s--that’s all, then…” He awkwardly coughed. 

Y/N awaited anything else, her eyes darting left and right as they just fumblingly stood on the curb in front of y/n’s apartment. “I-uhm… I have to get to work though, so…” She pointed somewhere behind Owen, indicating she needed to pass him and get going. 

“Right!” he said and took a step aside to let her through. She offered him a little wave and a soft ‘bye’ as she passed him. He watched her walk away, cursing at himself for not asking what he really wanted to ask. “Wait!” he yelled, making her stop in her tracks and turn around again with an expectant look on her face. “That’s-that’s not what I wanted to ask. I mean it was, but it wasn’t the only thing I wanted to ask.” He scratched the back of his neck as y/n’s eyes searched for an answer on his face. 

Y/N looked at him with a piercing glint in her eyes, urging him to continue. 

“Oh, right! Uhm… Would you -- would you maybe wanna go have a drink with me later today? Or something?” Her smile grew wider as she slowly nodded her head in response. 

“I’m off at five. Meet me at Gray Owl then,” she told him before turning to walk away. 

Owen was left on her curb, wondering if he had died. He thought she looked pretty when she’d just rolled out of bed, but now that she was all dolled up for work, she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. And that smile. That smile was killer. 

She was more than the epitome of a dream come to life. She was beauty and grace. She was a poem and the poet. She was the lyrics and the melody. She was the question and the answer. 

Owen grew more and more curious about that girl the more he thought of her. He wanted to know what she liked and what she absolutely hated. He wanted to know how she laughed and how she cried, if she sang whenever her mind wandered. He wanted to know how she liked her eggs in the morning. 

Even though he knew curiosity killed the cat, he knew for a fact the cat in this story was just the beginning of something beautiful. 

 *

*

*

JATP taglist: @hannahhistorian92 @marinettepotterandplagg @thequirkybookaholic @bookdealer5 @tenaciousperfectionunknown @hemmingsness @iainttakingshitfromnobody @ifilwtmfc @angryknightstatesmantrash @kiss-themoongoodbye @rudysbay @thedarkqueenofavalon​ @caitsymichelle13​ @calamitykaty @wiselight @kcd15​ @vicesvsvirtuesfanfic @stars-soph @kinda-really-lost @notasofti

Owen taglist: @alexpjoyner

Lemme know if you wanna be on my taglist! 

[out-of-this-dimension]

Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

There’s a game my husband and I like to play when we watch a movie, play a game, or read a book that has a story that we don’t really enjoy or we enjoy certain parts of but not others.  We look at things we’d keep and things we’d change and we build a story from there-- sort of like an AU but we don’t really go into the writing part, we just stick to theorizing and mapping a general story.

I decided to play that game with Star Fox.  Not because I think Star Fox has a bad story but because sometimes I think the stories could have been handled better.  Note: for the rewrite game, I only really look at story, even for video games, I don’t really look at gameplay mechanics, but I do understand those have a lot to do with story potential so I do take it in as a factor... I just don’t bother to “rewrite” the mechanics, if that makes any sense at all.  Some of my list today will include boss encounters but I wouldn’t necessarily say those are mechanic-related... more like “event-related”.

I’ve mused a bit in the past about rewriting Adventures and Command and I do have plans to do a mock up of an Adventures remake eventually.  However, today I was thinking about how I would go about handling an Assault re-write in particular.  Much like Command and Adventures, I don’t have any beef with the core story but I do think there’s a few things that could’ve been better about Assault’s storyline-- like they had good ideas rolling but they didn’t quite refine them.

Under the cut because SUPER long.

My basic feelings on Assault are pretty positive.  I think the game is generally just fun and I like that it feels like the natural progression from SF64.  I liked getting to see planets we haven’t seen since the N64 era in better graphics and I liked seeing Star Wolf return.  I also just thought the aparoids were neat enemies. 

Generally speaking, though, when it comes to Assault, I think it suffers from the thing it tries to push the most-- the story.  I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the story is better than it is because it’s the first game since SF64 that really follows the same Star Fox vibe without retelling the Lylat Wars.  Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is great but the execution and pacing are... wonky.  Certain characterizations also take a hit in some regards but no one really talks about that when Command exists. That’s something we’ll talk about later on with this post.

That being said, Assault really does have a lot good going for it.  An absolute banger of a soundtrack, some great dialogue, a neat story synopsis, the introduction of cool characters like Panther and Beltino (who existed but was always off-screen), and just good levels.  

So, here’s what I would add, I suppose, if I were to somehow have the ability to rewrite Assault.  Originally I had this in paragraph form, but I’ve made it into more of a list under topic segments with main points bolded for your viewing pleasure.  Some of these points might be considered nitpicky and while I do understand that yes, this is a game about space animals, I do hold the developers in high enough regard to make a game with a continuity that makes sense.

The Story Changes

- Reduce Pigma’s storyline in Assault.  This is the biggest one for me because a bulk of the plotline feels like a giant chase to just get at Pigma and it feels like it derails from the actual plot with the aparoids.  We only go to Sargasso because of Pigma.  We only go to Fichina and then back to Meteo again, because of Pigma.  That’s 3 levels in a 10 level game devoted to just tracking down Pigma and chasing him.  While it makes the build up to fighting Pigma kind of nice, I personally feel like the plot could be reduced to 2 levels.  If Assault overall was a longer game, I could see them making it 3 levels.  Overall, though, in its current state, I feel like the side plot overstays its welcome and the aparoids promptly get shoved to the side in favor of “Oh no, we gotta get to Pigma!” And I get the main motive here is to show how the aparoids affect people and because of the build up, it does a good job at showing how utterly terrifying the aparoids are.  But it’s still too long given the length of Assault’s story. The only alternative to this is make Assault longer, which... honestly, it should be.  

- Revise the scene with Tricky.  I’m obviously not well-versed in dinosaur biology but I’m pretty sure dinos didn’t grow that fast from what studying I HAVE done.  And why is he suddenly king now?  Did his parents die?  He seems not affected by this at all?  Like it’s a funny scene with him, Fox, and Krystal, but it’s odd if you really look at it.  Give us, as players, more context because I’m still not even sure what happened to make Tricky suddenly the leader and... big.  As a note, you’re gonna hear me gripe a lot about the Sauria level in this post.

- The Star Wolf + Peppy sacrifice is a low effort way to raise tension/stakes and then cop out.  Oldest trick in the book, imo, is to act like you’re going to kill off important characters only for them to be alive miraculously.  And let’s face it, as an audience we all know they aren’t going to kill those characters because it’s Nintendo and those characters are too beloved.  I would’ve forgiven them for only doing this with Peppy or Star Wolf, but when you tack them both together and throw in the fact they make it seem like you’re going to have to kill General Pepper too... yeah, it’s just a bit much of the same trope over and over again.  I wanted to put a note in here about how I’m fine with the Great Fox being “sacrificed” but overall, it needed to return to the series because of it’s icon status, but I think that’s more of a gripe at Command instead of Assault.

- Keep Pigma alive.  This will conflict with a point I have later on about the game consistently having characters cheat death for easy drama points but with Pigma, I would’ve kept him fully alive... but maybe with some physical damage from the aparoids.  I understand he’s semi-alive in Command and tbh I don’t know where I stand on that.  Why keep Pigma alive, you might ask?  I feel like his character has a lot more potential than being “just the greedy guy”.  Like he’s got good potential future villain material for future games and... if I’m honest?  I just don’t see Nintendo wanting to keep Pigma dead so why even bother killing him off?  They couldn’t even commit to him being dead in Command anyways so it seems very moot.

- Bring Bill and Katt back.  Assault is acts a bit like a big reunion of all of our SF64 favorites but our two favorite side characters are suspiciously missing.  Wouldn’t Bill be out on the front lines fighting against Andrew in the beginning?  Or maybe back in Katina?  And wouldn’t Katt inevitably show up in the midst of the invasion, maybe to pointedly check in on Falco?

- Bring Andrew back for the final fight. I think Andrew being defeated early into the game is fine overall but I think bringing him back in for a reunion final fight against the aparoids would serve to really solidify that it’s really everyone vs the invading aparoid force.  It would show that not only is Star Wolf willing to put aside their differences but so is basically everyone in the Lylat System in the name of survival.  Imagine the Venomians and Cornerians working together against an aparoid fleet, giving Star Fox and Star Wolf time to attack the queen?  I just think it’d be neat and it’d open up the potential for some fun banter mid-mission.  I do understand that quite a few people consider Andrew canonically dead after Assault but personally, I feel that his defeat left his fate questionable (I’m a staunch believer that unless there’s a body, they’re probably alive, especially for Nintendo games because, again, they never like to kill people off) so him returning in Command never really bothered me.  

- In general, reconsider some of the character portrayals.  Unfortunately, when a series has a different studio for each game, character portrayals will inevitably have inconsistencies.  While I give Namco a lot of credit for putting in oodles and oodles of detail into the game (particularly the levels), I think they failed in their portrayal of Fox, at the least, and Wolf is a considerable offender as well.  While it’s obvious that Fox in Adventures was effectively modeled off of Sabre even in terms of personality, Rareware was at least able to justify Fox’s newfound jaded attitude with the passing of many years and a distinct lack of steady income, resulting in the team being in disarray.  Assault’s Fox is a stark contrast to his cynical interpretation with seemingly no explanation other than maybe “Oh, I have more money and a gf, maybe I should behave myself”.  As if the sudden change in personality wasn’t random, Fox also just seems very blah, like a blank slate stereotypical shooter game protagonist dude with little to no emotion.  Wolf is less obvious but gets slated into a mentor-like role midway through the game and ends up in a respectful rivalry with Fox... which there’s nothing inherently wrong with that except for it happening abruptly (and, I mean, Peppy is right there).  But I take less issue with this and more of an issue with the fact that there’s an entire level establishing that Wolf now runs a crime den with effectively what seems to be an army and no one bats an eye at this.  He doesn’t even call on them to help with the aparoids.  Did they all die when the aparoids attacked Meteo?  Are they safe somewhere else?  Where do they go?  How was Sargasso able to operate without the CDF being on their doorstep with warrants for arrests?

- Don’t kill all the dinosaurs.  A bit of a dramatic statement but the ending screen that showed all the damage to Sauria really bothered me.  While I understand that the dinosaurs had less of a chance against the aparoids than a more technology-focused society like Corneria, I was a bit disappointed that the decision was made to just state that a lot of tribes had been wiped out.  I know this could easily be retconned in a future game and I feel like it should be.  “But why, Amalia?  Why are you disappointed by that?”  1) It’s a little too grimdark for my tastes.  2) The fact it all happened off-screen felt very hand-wavy.  And 3) It brings into question the entire point of Adventures.  Why did we bother to save this planet if it was going to be reduced to rubble and ash 1 year later?  Where were the Krazoa in all of this?  Why did they not make an appearance at all to try to stop the invasion with their alleged powers?  It just raises too many weird questions and I feel like Namco didn’t think it through too much.  Which I mean, sure.  Family, kiddo game.  I’m not asking for bigbrain plot and lore but I’m squinting at this bit because it does feel very contrary to the lore from the previous game.

- Make the aparoids more relevant.  As nice as it is to have a random bad guy from another galaxy, I feel like there was more that could be done with the aparoids in terms of their origins.  Tiny things, mind you, not huge revelations.  Off the top of my head, they could have been tied into Krystal’s backstory to help alleviate some of the complaints that she was too random to be added to the series’ main cast.  Alternatively, they could have been a product of Andross or even a weapon prototype from Corneria that fled the lab (I actually thought the game was leaning in that direction for a bit then just Nothing Happened).  I get that the vagueness of their origins leaves room for people to speculate and speculation is nice but... when you leave too many things unknown, it starts to feel less like giving fans room to interpret and more like just doing random things for the sake of it.  I think a lore tidbit here or there would work wonders for the aparoids instead of leaving them as just borg/zerg clones.

Level-Based Changes

- Add either Aparoid RedEye or Aparoid General Scales as a boss to Sauria.  Given that this level mysteriously lacks a boss, which is just weird compared to the other levels, I think that they had the opportunity to add something cool to go along with the cinematic feel they were going for with Assault.  Assault’s cutscenes do play in a movie-like fashion and it’s clear they’re trying to make the game as epic as possible.  It’s a shame they had so much fodder for a great boss here but they failed to go through with it.  Alternatively: Add a Krazoa-Aparoid fusion.  Why?  Because Star Fox is about cool epic sci-fi and that would be cool epic sci-fi incarnate.

- Add a boss to the Aparoid Homeworld Level, aka the penultimate level.  Another one I felt was personally weird that there was no “final defense system” to challenge the team.  Would be cool to do an aerial battle over the aparoid planet with some giant flying aparoid.

- Be kinder to Sauria.  The level had some good homages but overall was incredibly small and incredibly short.  It felt like a bone tossed to Adventures fans but was not entirely true to the setting built by Rareware.  I’m... not even sure where the Sauria level is supposed to take place?  I presume it’s Walled City but it doesn’t really have the same color scheme or aesthetic?  Also where is my revised Adventures music?  Why do all the other levels get it but Sauria doesn’t? 

- Put some of those funky items from the multiplayer into the main campaign.  I don’t know why some of these things, items especially, were omitted unless it was purely due to time constraints.  I remember having missile launchers and jetpacks in the multiplayer and was a bit sad that they were not in the main campaign.  Retuning the levels and adding those in would be a nice breath of fresh air for the more tedious on-foot missions.

- More levels.  Self-explanatory.  Still sad we didn’t get the Zoness or Titania levels in the single-player mode.  

I think all of the above changes would improve the game, though I recognize all of this is being said 16 years later after lots of time to contemplate Assault’s weaker points.  I’m not entirely certain how long Star Fox Assault took to develop but given that there’s obviously quite a bit scrapped from the game (an entire arcade mode was scrapped as well), I’m going to assume that the studio felt pressured to shove the game out the door and into the hands of customers.  It’s a shame, really, because I think a little bit longer in the oven would have done a lot of good.  Still, the product we got was good in its own right and a game that many people look back on fondly.  I haven’t gotten to replay it in years but I hope to quite soon.

You might wonder why I bothered typing this all out and I guess my point was this-- Assault was great but it wasn’t perfect, and while a lot of other games fall under a crushing amount of scrutiny, Assault seems to dodge it.  And don’t get me wrong-- I adore Assault.  But given that not many takes exist out there about rewriting it, I decided to give it a shot.  For variety’s sake.  

I do want to a mock up of a revised Assault story, which I think I will get to work on after completing this while all my ideas are still fresh in mind.  So stay tuned for that sometime in the near future.  I will also be doing my Adventures mock up at some point but probably not for a little bit as I do wanna focus some of my free time on actual fic-writing.

Anyways, if you stuck around this long, thank you for reading!  Have any changes you’d like to see to Assault if you could time machine your way back to the early 2000s?  Feel free to post in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas!

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Us, May 3

You can buy a brand new copy of this issue without the mailing label for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Pregnant Meghan Markle: My Baby, My Way

Page 2: Red Carpet -- rufflemania -- Hollywood style stars are tier-ing it up in this flattering design with feminine flair -- Tracee Ellis Ross, Kaitlyn Dever, Margot Robbie, Logan Browning, Nicola Coughlan

Page 3: Lizzo, Maude Apatow, Lucy Boynton, Jessica Alba, Lily Collins

Page 4: Who Wore It Best? Anya Taylor-Joy vs. Isla Fisher vs. Regina King in Stuart Weitzman Nudist sandal

Page 6: Loose Talk -- Shonda Rhimes on the intense backlash she received over Rege-Jean Page's exit from Bridgerton, Kelly Ripa on her most embarrassing interview, Luke Bryan on his mother LeClaire's Instagram fame, Blake Shelton on The Voice's new coach Ariana Grande, Reese Witherspoon joking about wearing bottoms that aren't sweatpants

Page 8: Contents

Page 10: A Final Farewell to Prince Philip, his four children Prince Charles and Princess Anne and Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were among the loved ones who participated in the emotional ceremony, feuding brothers Prince Harry and Prince William (and his wife Duchess Kate) put their differences aside after the intimate service, due to Covid-19 protocols the grieving Queen Elizabeth stayed socially distant from the other 29 people who attended the funeral for her husband of 73 years

Page 11: ACM Awards 2021 -- Maren Morris teamed up with her husband Ryan Hurd and won Female Artist of the Year, Thomas Rhett won Male Artist of the Year, Carrie Underwood took the stage

Page 12: Hot Pics -- Rosie Huntington-Whiteley wore an orange coat during a visit to NYC, John Stamos plays a coach on the TV show Big Shot, Zach Braff goofed around on the set of Cheaper by the Dozen in L.A.

Page 13: Eva Longoria on her trampoline while aboard a yacht in Miami, Howie Mandel arrived to the set of America's Got Talent dressed as a bug in Pasadena

Page 14: Jon Hamm and his rescue dog Splash strolled around the neighborhood in L.A., Heidi Klum in all white in Pasadena, Sara Gilbert and Linda Perry take a stroll in L.A.

Page 15: Eddie Cibrian and LeAnn Rimes held hands after dinner at Il Segreto in L.A., Patrick Dempsey shot a scene for his show Devils in Rome

Page 16: Rachel Brosnahan in a blue dress and carrying a clear umbrella on the set of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in NYC, Lin-Manuel Miranda at the opening of a vaccination center for Broadway workers in Times Square, Trisha Yearwood feeds one of her rescue pups

Page 18: Gen Z Has Spoken -- these celebs are making the young kids proud -- Baggy Jeans -- Hailey Bieber, Tracee Ellis Ross, Bella Hadid

Page 19: Middle Parts -- Busy Philipps, Lizzo, Jennifer Lopez, Kourtney Kardashian, baguette bags -- Dua Lipa, Elsa Hosk, Irina Shayk, Kendall Jenner

Page 20: Seeing Double -- stars bear a striking resemblance to their famous counterparts -- Elizabeth Banks and Chelsea Handler, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Nina Dobrev, Betty Gilpin and Jodie Comer

Page 21: Rob Lowe and Ian Somerhalder, Jaime Pressly and Margot Robbie, Isla Fisher and Amy Adams, Rupert Grint and Ed Sheeran, Kyle Richards and Kacey Musgraves

Page 22: Clueless Crew -- stars are totally buggin' over Cher Horowitz's style in yellow plaid -- Robin Roberts on Good Morning America, Katie Holmes was rollin' with her homie beau Emilio Vitolo Jr. in NYC, Vanessa Hudgens, Dianna Agron

Page 23: Gabrielle Union

Page 24: Stars They're Not Like Us -- Jay Leno took one of his vintage automobiles out for a spin in L.A., Chrissy Teigen and John Legend took a selfie with a fan while grocery shopping in Beverly Hills, Kylie Jenner has custom vending machines

Page 25: Carrie Underwood in her massive walk-in closet, Denzel Washington signs autographs for fans in NYC, Megan Thee Stallion on a private plane, Drake and his bodyguard in Beverly Hills

Page 26: Stars They're Just Like Us -- Sarah Jessica Parker catches a yellow cab after working at her shoe store in NYC, Brad Paisley picked up five pizzas to go in Montecito

Page 27: Kelly Osbourne handed out goods at a drive-thru food distribution event at the Islamic Center of Southern California, HGTV's Egypt Sherrod transformed her closet into a meditation space in Atlanta, in between filming Law & Order: SVU's Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T take a selfie

Page 28: Hollywood Dads -- Scott Porter on parenting his two kids McCoy and Clover

Page 29: Jonathan Tucker on life with twins Hayes and India, parenthood is a lot tougher than Jovi Dufren imagined, Maksim Chmerkovskiy can't wait to show son Shai his work

Page 30: Love Lives -- Rihanna and A$AP Rocky are showing no signs of slowing down -- the pair enjoyed a night out in L.A. hotspot Delilah where they were holding hands and laughing and they're not hiding the fact that they're dating but they just don't want people in their business -- they're a good match and are each other's best friend

Page 31: Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber may look like the picture-perfect couple, but Justin admits that their first year of marriage wasn't what he expected, saying it was really tough and there was just a lack of trust and he blamed the strain on his own personal struggles and said before he didn't have someone to love or someone to pour into but now, more than two years after exchanging vows with Hailey, he has that

* Kacey Musgraves' romance with Dr. Gerald Onuoha is giving her butterflies -- the pair are so happy they found each other and while Kacey, who split from her husband Ruston Kelly last summer, is trying not to get too ahead of herself, her connection to the Nashville-based doc is off the charts and it's got the potential to go a very long way

* Today's Savannah Guthrie is thankful to have husband Michael Feldman in her life, especially given the demands of her early morning work schedule

Page 32: Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker are getting serious -- all the details on their whirlwind romance

Page 33: Adapting to parenthood has been a breeze for Emma Stone and she's soaking in all the precious moments of being a mom for the first time -- she and husband Dave McCary welcomed their baby daughter in March and Emma is super protective and a very hands-on mom and Dave is also hands-on and helps with their daughter -- thanks to the little one, Emma's marriage with the comedian has also gotten stronger and having a baby has brought them closer in a way they never expected -- Emma is looking forward to getting back to work; she's taken this time off to embrace motherhood and her number one priority is to raise a healthy baby so that's what she's focused on right now

* Britney Spears is setting the record straight -- despite her ongoing conservatorship battle with her dad, Jamie Spears, she is doing totally fine, assuring fans that she's extremely happy and she has a beautiful home, beautiful children and she's taking a break right now because she's enjoying herself -- although the legal drama with her father is heating up, Britney is staying strong and she has this wonderful ability to see the positive even when the odds are against her

* Keeping Up With Us -- production for the Downton Abbey sequel is underway, Mossimo Giannulli is a free man, Chrissy Teigen returned to Twitter 23 days after announcing that she was leaving the platform, Vanessa Bryant remembered her late husband Kobe Bryant on what would have been their 20th wedding anniversary, Helen McCrory lost her battle with cancer at age 52 according to her husband Damian Lewis

Page 34: A Day in My Life -- Whitney Port

Page 35: Colton Underwood is ready to live his truth -- during an interview on Good Morning America, the former Bachelor came out as gay, saying he's run from himself for a long time and he came to terms with his sexuality earlier this year and he's the happiest and healthiest he's ever been -- now that he feels like he can finally breathe, Colton is excited for his next chapter, which fans will get to see on an upcoming reality show with Olympian Gus Kenworthy -- a huge weight has been lifted off of Colton's shoulders and he is looking forward to being his authentic self

Page 36: Moms Tell All -- Happy Mother's Day! From milestones and manners to rules and nanny-bans, celebs and insiders talk about raising kids in Hollywood

Page 37: Bindi Irwin says life at home with her daughter Grace Warrior has been positively blissful and her family with dad Chandler Powell is so full of love, adding that the newborn has already met some of the wildlife at the Australia Zoo where Bindi and Chandler live and work and of course she's seen some crocs and really lit up when she saw them -- while the Aussie conservationist is sad Grace won't get to meet her late dad Steve Irwin, Bindi's brother Robert Irwin and mom Terri Irwin have been by her side constantly and Robert is obsessed with Grace and has been helping out so much and her mom has been the biggest guiding light and she's already taught Bindi so much about being a mother, both in how she raised her and by showing her things day by day and Terri is quite the baby whisperer and she's so great a calming Grace down when she's crying -- first-time father Chandler is also a natural with Grace and he's been the most supportive and involved dad and together, he and Bindi make such a great team -- for now, Bindi, who stars with Chandler in Crikey! It's a Baby!, is hoping Grace will follow in her animal-activist footsteps, saying having three generations of strong women working as conservationists is a dream come true

* Jennifer Garner said teaching your kids is a lifelong job, and certainly values are something you have to show them -- Jennifer, who shares kids Violet, Seraphina and Samuel with ex Ben Affleck, is staying true to her word and has led by example when it comes to things like kindness and patience and she won't let anyone in the house to judge or speak ill of people, and she enforces the same wholesome, traditional values that she was raised with and the kids have been taught to be loving, hardworking and fair -- Jennifer has always taken a kids-come-first approach to parenting, and it shows as they bake together, enjoy movie nights, read books and have very active lives and it's a very healthy, happy household filled with laughter and love

Page 38: Gwen Stefani has her hands full with her sons Kingston, Zuma and Apollo with ex-husband Gavin Rossdale, but she wouldn't want it any other way -- Gwen's a tomboy, so having three boys wasn't daunting for her at all, plus she has fiance Blake Shelton by her side to pitch in with parenting duties and Gwen and the boys have a blast at Blake's ranch in Oklahoma where they enjoy riding their ATVs, and they play baseball and football -- it's not all fun and games, though because Gwen is big on boundaries and manners and she doesn't want to raise Hollywood brats and it's important to her that her sons be gentlemen

* Meghan Markle's pregnancy with Archie was no walk in the park, as she revealed during her bombshell TV interview with husband Prince Harry, the couple had concerns over whether or not the royal family would provide security for their son and claimed there were conversations about his skin color -- but this time around, as Meghan and Harry gear up for baby No. 2 at home in L.A., she's doing everything her way, without the royals and Meghan and Harry feel blessed that they're able to raise their daughter in the U.S. and can live by their own rules and make the decisions they feel are best for their children; having independence is the most important thing for Meghan and she's got free rein to be exactly the kind of mom she wants to be -- her parenting style is really like most mothers out there, and she's been craving pasta and doing yoga two times a day as her due date nears and she keeps a lot of art supplies out to foster creativity and healthy snacks around and she's a devoted mom and wants the best for her kids

Page 39: Kate Hudson has a lot on her plate, so the mom of three, who shares son Ryder with former husband Chris Robinson and son Bingham with ex Matt Bellamy and daughter Rani with boyfriend Danny Fujikawa, knows when to put her foot down as things can get a little overwhelming at times for Kate, but when she says no, it absolutely means no, and the kids respect her very much because of that

* Gigi Hadid, who shares daughter Khai with boyfriend Zayn Malik, wants to spend every waking moment with her precious little girl -- Gigi could easily afford to employ a team of nannies but chooses not to and she prefers to do everything herself and besides, she can't bear to be away from Khai for more than a few hours

* Candace Cameron Bure's three grown kids are flying the coop, but she's still super involved in their lives, despite slowly becoming an empty nester -- the mom of Natasha, Lev, and Maksim with former hockey player Valeri Bure says it's been a very transitional time and she's been trying to help them make decisions they feel good about and it's challenging, but they're figuring it out

Page 40: Oh, Baby! Meghan Markle's due date is just around the corner, and here are all the details

* Bump Brigade -- Halsey, Gal Gadot, Shawn Johnson East

Page 42: 10 Years of the Cambridges -- a look back at Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton's solid marriage for their anniversary

Page 44: Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez: What Really Happened -- cheating and lies? The truth behind J.Lo's split from fiance A-Rod

Page 45: Friendliest Exes -- these former couples managed to stay close after going their separate ways -- Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz

Page 48: Gifts for Mother's Day

Page 54: Entertainment -- Ben Barnes on Shadow and Bone

Page 58: Fashion Police -- the most daring Oscars looks -- Bjork, Whoopi Goldberg, Charlize Theron

Page 59: Rachel Weisz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lady Gaga

Page 60: 25 Things You Don't Know About Me -- Julia Michaels