#beautiful intended bookends

[shallowseeker]

The first time they come back through the rift, Cas is being so chivalrous, asking if everyone else is all right:

CAS: "Are you all right?"

DEAN: "No, Cas!"

///

But the second time, it's so much worse. Dean would give anything to get annoyed with Cas again.

///

Which is why the original Tombstone script gets me. It’s like the bookend that should’ve been…

As if it's how it was supposed to be when Cas got through the rift, same ole' Cas asking if everyone else was okay, and checking on how Jack's emergence went:

///

///

12x23 // 13x06 writers' draft

[sweaterkittensahoy]

CleganMarge Wedding Stuff

The night before the wedding, there's a party at the house Buck and Marge will share after they're married. Buck's been living there since he got back and Marge picked it out. She comes over every day to put up wallpaper and place furniture and laugh at Buck's attempts to paint a straight line.

John looks around the house and sees them both all over it. A blue he knows Marge prefers because she has dresses that color. A living room set in a masculine tan but with overlarge cushions so Buck can nap to his heart's content. Books everywhere, all propped up by little wooden bookends that Buck made himself in the little shed in the yard.

The dining room sparkles from the fancy lighting fixture to the floor, and John grins at the fixture as he takes his seat at the table. He'd helped Buck wire it in yesterday evening when he'd arrived, Marge supervising for a few minutes before running to her mother's house to put the parachute silk John had brought to its intended use.

"You absolutely sweet man!" Marge had crowed when she'd unwrapped the tissue paper from the bundle.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get it here before now," John had replied, feeling Buck's happy, warm gaze on his profile like the sun. "But the only way I could get it brand new was to take it just before I left."

"Oh, this is beautiful," Marge's mother had said. She'd been there when John showed up, helping Marge finish centerpieces. "Honey, I can make you a dress lickety split, but I'll need my sewing machine. Yours is packed up."

Marge had looked at Buck, blushing in excitement. "Do you think you and John can handle the light fixture, Gale?" she'd asked. "I really do want it up before the dinner tomorrow."

"We can figure it out," Buck had said, then leaned down to kiss Marge, touching her cheek lightly as he did so. She'd murmured something in his ear, and he'd beamed at her.

Marge had turned and stood on her toes, pulling John down by his tie to kiss his cheek. "You are truly the best man," she'd said, and John and Buck had laughed while Marge's mother had looked mildly shocked by indulgent.

The moment they'd left, Buck had put the lighting fixture on the table, taken John's face in his hands, and kissed him within an inch of his life. "That's from me," Buck had said.

"You got one from Marge ready to go, too?" John had asked. And that kiss pushed him against the nearest wall as Buck got both hands on his hips. "Well, damn, I think she outdid you," John had gasped when he could breathe again.

Buck had grinned and nuzzled John's neck. "She said to make sure I gave you a little extra to thank you for the silk."

"Shit, Buck. If that's all it takes, I'll raid the shed at base when I get back."

And now here he sits, the night before their wedding, at Buck's left hand. The fixture they'd asked him to choose lighting up the room as he looks around the table and finally to the end, where Marge sits beautiful and smiling in her spot as hostess.

She catches his eye and touches a finger to her chin. A little signal she has to tell him she loves him.

John rubs his thumbnail along his moustache, sending his own signal back.

Under the table, Buck's foot touches John's, and above the table, John lifts his glass to make the first toast to the happy couple.

"I was surprised when anyone caught Buck's eye," Bucky says when everyone's paying attention. "Hell, I had to give him most of my name for him to even talk to me, and we were co-pilots in training."

It gets the laugh Bucky wants. He catches the gleam in Marge's eyes that calls him a danger and a treasure. "But, then I met Marge, and well, it was easy to see how it had happened. She's smart. She's beautiful. She's funny. And she puts up with me."

And this time, it's Buck's eyes that have the look, except he's calling John exasperating and ridiculous.

"I can say I've never seen a happier couple, and I am truly pleased to be able to be here to watch them tie the knot. You are two of my dearest friends, and I couldn't want more for you than each other."

There's a cheer, and a smattering of applause, and John sits down. Marge's maid of honor stands to say a few words, but John doesn't hear them. He's feeling Bucky's hand brush his on the table as he shifts his water glass, and he's seeing the tiny edge of a private smile in the corner on Marge's mouth.

When Marge leaves that night to stay with her maid of honor, Marge makes the excuse she forgot her hat and ducks back into the house. She kisses them both and holds John's face for an extra second.

"You know this wouldn't be right without you here, right?" she asks. "You know we'd marry you tomorrow too, if they'd let us?"

John picks her up by the waist and brings her level so he can kiss her again. He pulls Buck in and kisses him, too. "You let me pick the fixtures. I know where I'm wanted."

Marge and Buck both laugh, and Marge hurries out the door.

Buck and John sleep together alone for the last time, and it's nice, but John misses Marge along his back.

"How lucky are we?" Buck asks.

"We're damn lucky," John replies.

The next day, John opens his best man gift. It's a signet ring, his initials done in a lovely monogram on the face. On the inside of the band, there's a heart, and on either side, "M" and "B."

"B?" he asks Buck even as he blinks back tears.

"That's who I am to you," Buck says. "That's who I want to be to you."

John has to dab his eyes. "You son of a bitch," he says. "I never cry at weddings."

Buck laughs and slips the ring onto his left pinky. "Yeah, Marge says that, too."

[avaylee]

Cloudy Rainbow update!

With only 121 yards of the chain plied Cloudy Rainbow, I knew I needed to look at options for what to do with it, and what it might pair well with.

A million years ago, a family friend brought back some beautiful wool yarn from New Zealand. I loved it, but wasn't sure what to do with it, and it's been in the stash for... well, longer than intended.

When put side by side, the grey in the handspun was identical to the 400yds from NZ. A plan was hatched... I would bookend the rainbow with the grey and use the grey for weft as well. Bada bing bada boom, this will be a scarf!

Except... omg, this NZ is itchy as hell. Especially compared to the alpaca silk of the rainbow. And now, backup plans are being hatched!

I have about 10' x 7.5". Enough to play with. Current leading plan is a few smaller bags for holding keys, cell phone, etc. There could be different colored linings for my rainbow loving family members, and maybe a small clutch for the provider of the grey. A small thank you after all these years.

Things I learned on this project...

1. Weaving calculator is your friend! My precious Cloudy Rainbow was just enough.

2. Twining edging. Wish I'd learned it at the beginning. No matter, this will all be serged, but it's nice to know for the future.

3. Warp back to front. I have now memorized this mantra.

4. It's okay to mark up your heddles. They are tools to be used, not precious bits to keep pristine. Be an artist, not a collector!

There will be another update when the bags come along... or whatever else this wants to be. But I'm really happy with this right now. And feeling rather pleased with myself. Woo!

[onewomancitadel]

I generally reject comparisons based on superficial traits in common, and in saying that I do get a funny feeling in my tummy about Morrigan-Flemeth and Cinder-Salem as dynamics which reflect each other, in that I think the former kind of elucidates the thing going on with the latter - right down to Cinder's job to hold the Maiden power. There's something about the storyline of being primed and directed for a very specific magical task which erodes her humanity, the conflict between fantastical aspirations and who they actually are as people and their humanity. That's kind of why I like the idea of the Dark Ritual in Morrigan's storyline, in that it's an act traditionally of love subverted, turning Morrigan into that magical vessel, but if the Warden romances her, it's both of those ideas realised at once.

Flemythal and Salem also have that thing going on where they're secretly goddesses (but not), hiding the reality of the burden placed on their daughters, along with this real ambiguity about their intentions towards them - did Flemeth never really intend to possess Morrigan? Morrigan passed her "test" and put Kieran's life before her own, against the odds of her isolated and abusive upbringing.

Whatever the bargain is between Salem and Cinder (characterised as some sort of power struggle in V8 which involves Cinder replaying the torment of her former master), I do like the idea that there is some sort of sinister affection, and that is evidenced in canon - Salem's very particular care with her training the power and the arm in V4, Cinder's exultation at Salem's return in the V8 finale - which is allowed to exist, or exists as a consequence of whatever the dark imitation that is their mother-daughter ("fairy godmother") relationship. There's a peculiar sort of leniency in some ways that Salem extends to Cinder specifically which also is in turn why she punishes her as she does: I take this to mean that Cinder is how she expresses whatever relationship she destroyed with her daughters that she cannot access anymore (hence it's significant that she's the Maiden, like the Four Maidens who find Ozma and are just like their children).

I think it's a much more interesting (and more canonical) reading in the sense that it's an emotionally and thematically grounded dynamic, not just Cinder as Salem's creature (sympathetic to Cinder's side, sometimes not) or Cinder and Salem as mere "business partners" (this is a protective view that Cinder espouses, but I'm not sure she really believes in her bones). With Morrigan, as a companion who's on your side, I think a sympathetic view for her (and problematising Flemeth's treatment of her) is much clearer: she doesn't have that problem of acting as an antagonist, although her harsh personality might be offputting at first, and so my reason of comparison is not because they are meaningfully connected as texts but really more as an emotional/fandom comparison - and to contrast how their narrative roles (antagonist/companion) inform fandom readings. It is especially interesting given the fact that we now have the conclusion to Morrigan's arc and more broadly Mythal's, but even with Inquisition you could see the direction of her story: she takes on the mythic burden and redeems it. If you play the ending where Solas is redeemed, she resolves Mythal's inheritance in a way that could not be done before. Although Veilguard chose not to bring back choices beyond three from Inquisition, a softened Morrigan, in my eyes, reads as much more profound with a Warden romance, which pairs quite nicely with Solavellan as a narrative complementary duo: the most effective idea here is that by seeing with clear eyes, past first assumptions, can the wound be healed (@/corseque put it much better than me). It's very fairytale-like, if not Beauty and the Beast. (In this case, I also prefer it as bookending the beginning of the series with its end).

So you can see why I find it interesting to compare to Cinder and Morrigan - because yes, they are similar characters in that they're ostensibly femme fatales with a lot more going on emotionally, mythically, initiated into old magic - but also because Morrigan was rewarded in the story in the way I feel is most appropriate for such a dynamic, even with such a hugely spanning game series, and though I think Veilguard fumbled some of the complexity of Morrigan-Flemeth dynamic ("regret", please) in its fashion, the ultimate throughline stayed pretty true to what I thought was appropriate. I prefer a reading of Morrigan-Flemeth that isn't easy, because it never is easy: all of those feelings of pain and hurt sit with love, and fear, and in Morrigan's case, a very particular and special magical inheritance that she has to do something with. The real cruelty of the Well is that the hunger for knowledge bred into her would tie her to her mother's magical will. It's not carried into Veilguard, but the implication is essentially that in inheriting the fragment of Mythal from Flemeth, she would not really be in danger anyway; the Evanuris operate with moral rules outside traditional boundaries, to the point of amorality; it does not bother Flemythal to use her power to bind Morrigan, and yet she loves her. (That this reflects the Mythal-Solas dynamic, and plays into the redeem!Solas ending, is not a coincidence). Flemythal bore a daughter who would eventually grow beyond her intentions for not just inheriting the power, but for doing the world right.

And that's the Cinder-Salem dynamic to me, that the redemption, and her "end", has been cultivated in a vessel she intended to use for vengeful and destructive and self-annihilating purposes, amused by the ambitions of this mortal child. In that, an emotional reconciliation too. Cinder's redemption in this story is important to me because it would upend Salem's intentions for her in a deep way, and evolve her story past a very basic idea about how the Maiden power works. I like the idea that Salem intended it to be a way to eat her cake and have it too - accessing the memory of her daughters, without the full emotional commitment, resolution, with them and with Ozma - but once she made Cinder her daughter, and Cinder has the opportunity to self-actualise outside of extended childhood (torment, over and over, endless midnight), then she can't escape the consequences of that. But it's a good thing.

I normally prefer to read texts that interact with each other consciously - but in this case, there is something really interesting to be gleaned from another story that explored this magical mother-daughter scenario in a similar way, especially in terms of how clearly Morrigan is received as a character versus Cinder, and it's satisfying to me because I know that Morrigan was in the end handled properly. It's an important dynamic to me because I enjoy where a real-life complicated relationship marked by abuse intersects with these mythic pursuits, and what is necessary in their stories is to be humanised - more than a vessel and mere will - and to humanise those around them.

[thisworldisablackhole]

The Requiem A Cure To Poison The World

🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

More than just a nostalgia act?

The Requiem, formerly known as L'exquisite Douler (a name which has since been relegated to a 53 second piano interlude), broke onto the scene in 2020 with a simple mission statement; make rock music sloppy again. Feeling disenchanted by the current state of highly processed and autotuned alternative music, this young trio yearned for the early-to-mid aughts when young emotional rock bands gained notoriety by letting their voices crack over the jagged edge of minor scales and double stacks - the way god intended.

Debut album A Cure To Poison The World brings that mission statement to life with a short and sweet love letter to the MySpace era of post-hardcore and emo bands. Damien Douleur is an absolute powerhouse of a frontperson and quickly steals the show by transporting the listener back in time with an immediately familiar sense of desperation and dramatic flair. First track "This Is How The World Ends" is the perfect introduction to the band, swinging out the gates at full speed with a drum roll straight into dark sustained power chords and a grim, violent look into how this world is going to end (spoiler alert: with a moment of silence, death staring into you). It quickly showcases what the band has to offer, and is very polite in the fact that it doesn't waste the listeners time. You'll know in the first 15 seconds if this band is for you or not.

The run of songs from the intro to about the mid way point of the album doesn't miss a beat, and I really appreciate the bands effort to switch things up with the subtlety required when pulling influences from a relatively small pool. Even when the song structures begin to feel repetitive or trite, the hooks are passionate and catchy enough to pull you back in. Third track "Less Than Zero" in particular sticks out to me as a refreshing diversion from smudged eyeliner worship to a more melodic punk offering full of chanted backing vocals, "whoah whoah's" and riffs that would sound right at home on Rise Against's The Sufferer and the Witness. Meanwhile, sixth track "Cursed" brings the tempo way down for one of the best slow dance rock ballads I've heard since MCR's "The Ghost of You". This song builds up into an epic swan dive moment as Damien sings, "as the years go by, I hope that there's a smile on my face when I die" before crash landing back into the chorus like Altaïr into a haystack. It's a simple, yet universal sentiment that is nothing short of beautiful in it's expression.

Where this album loses steam and begins to show it's cracks for me is with seventh song "Two Lovers Left Alive". This song strips away the drums, bass and electric guitar and leaves Damien alone with an acoustic guitar, wisped along by the soft winds of a synthesizer as he sings about (if my hypothesis is correct) some kind of immortal vampire searching for a long lost lover, separated by an infinite amount of space and time? The story is cute, but being unshrouded by loudness, this song just illuminates the reliance on cliché emo tropes that are spattered all over this album like defiant scrawls on the inside of your high school locker; coffins, corpses, and chemicals galore. The lyrics on the album are mostly fine - covering themes of suicidal ideation, apocalyptic doom and the macabre - but the hints of emo vampire romanticism come off as a little too campy for me.

Thankfully the energy picks back up with the next three tracks before closing out with another crooner which gracefully avoids the same pitfalls of "Two Lovers Left Alive" by beefing up the arrangement of instruments to provide a more apt backdrop for Damien's voice. "Before I Go…" also features a few creative spins like a Spanish influenced acoustic bridge, a triumphant electric solo, and a short spoken word poem which culminates in a satisfying bookend to the journey. As good as the closer is, the pinnacle of this last chunk of songs is definitely "Diary Of A Masochist". This was my favourite of the singles released in 2023 and remains one of the strongest and most engaging tracks on the record. A majority of this album, whilst enjoyable, doesn't deviate far from the formula displayed in the first few minutes, but "Diary Of A Masochist" pulls out all the little hooks and daggers to crank that formula to it's most potent form, creating a song riddled with dynamic twists and one of the most intense vocal performances to back it all up. The attention to detail here is just on another level, and it makes me wish that same labour of love was applied more liberally throughout the 36 minutes runtime.

So, now we return to the original question. Is The Requiem more than just a nostalgia act, doomed to eat their own tail? The short answer is… it's too soon to tell. No, they aren't doing anything new, but it's done with such a high standard of quality and reverence for their predecessors that it doesn't even matter. They aren't beating a dead horse; they are resuscitating that motherfucker with 10,000 volts of electricity, and to speculate any further would just soak the fun out of listening. Whether or not the formula will hold up on subsequent releases is another question, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there (and I hope we do). In the meantime, I'm just gonna enjoy the gift that is A Cure To Poison The World; an imperfect, yet highly enjoyable chunk of third wave emo worhsip that resonates just loud enough to pump some fresh blood into your tired heart.

[semperintrepida]

Just wanted to drop a line to say that every day I think about how excited I am for your novel! This is genuinely not meant to be pressure/impatience or anything, I just really love your writing and really love Deimos!Kassandra and I am so damn excited to see what you've come up with. :) Also writing a novel is fucking terrible lol and I truly commend your patience and discipline. Anyway, hope you have a good day!

Howdy friend,

Please be assured that your note hasn't added any pressure. I've been pushing this rusty jalopy of a book down the road by myself for a while now, and all of a sudden I felt another pair of hands grab hold of the bumper and give it an additional boost. That was your note this morning.

You'll be happy to hear that I finished another chapter last night: a four-page action scene where all the threads of this story come together. I originally intended it to be the opening scene to a longer final chapter, but now I think it should stand alone. So I have one more chapter left to write, in which I tie up all the loose ends into a neat, beautiful bow. And then a short epilogue. And then I'll be done.

You're right—writing a novel is fucking terrible and writing fanfic novels is arguably even worse. But despite all my whining, I secretly love it so much that I've got another deimos!Kassandra novel to finish once this one is done. A bookend to this story, so to speak. I suppose I had to write Deimos a tragedy before I could write her a happy ending.

Anyway, thank you for stopping by to offer such kind words. They really made my day.

Cheers, -s

[finishinglinepress]

FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster by Danielle Byington

ADVANCE ORDER: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/we-are-mary-shelleys-monster-by-danielle-byington/

We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster tunes in to #history and the present through poetry from the author’s perspective, as well as how and where those moments exist collectively for the rest of the world. Frequently, #mythology ushers the reader through this chapbook, either in the context of ancient gods and goddesses or modern figures and celebrities. This crafting of the past within the present through familiar names and events intends to highlight the damage done, but also remind us of how we might heal on humanity’s circular path.

Danielle Byington is an educator, author, and artist. Her poetry has been published by various outlets, and her first chapbook is The Absurdity of Origins (Dancing Girl Press, 2019). Byington’s visual art—a significant backdrop to her poetry—has been part of exhibits, public art installations, permanent collections, journals, and cover art. Her ardor for the intersection of language and visual arts manifested in 2020, as she created the educational business Sight into Insight, an ambition which has received a number of grants for research, creating literature-based videos, and a series of paintings. Byington enjoys life with her Shakespearean better half and three ridiculous cats.

PRAISE FOR We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster by Danielle Byington

Danielle Byington’s We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster troubles the divide between the ordinary and the sublime. These poems teeter on the edges of beauty and of horror, wrestling with preternatural muses/demons such as the bronze coil of a dead cottonmouth, “dreaming bad dreams with me / about humanity’s white mouth,” and the haunting image of Sylvia Plath’s strappy high heel shoes. Painterly and literary, Byington’s poems offer “the past stitched to the present” in a remarkable tapestry. Her poems detail “our connection to the red line of history, / and other time-sensitive things like newspapers and flowers.” These poems warn that our breath is dangerous, a possible poison contributing to the deterioration of artifacts and knowledge. Even so, We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster sings with marvel and hope in the face of ongoing threats and decay just “as autumn / referees all things to rust.”

–Emily Rosko, Poetry Editor at Crazyhorse/swamp pink

We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster is a book of brilliant ghosts, of headless snakes, of the moon falling from the sky, of Anna Nicole Smith’s beauty mark, Sharon Tate’s remarkable hair, and Sylvia Plath’s final pair of shoes. Readers encounter the water-bound spirit of Virginia Woolf and chase the troubled genius that haunts the legacy of Zelda Fitzgerald, where even the rain that falls in Asheville is “trying to tap her awake/…easing us all toward paradise.” As a multi-disciplinary artist and a comprehensive scholar of literature, Danielle Byington invites us into the serious collaboration that happens between viewers and texts and reminds us that the world is a text we are reading, from the insurrectionist absurdity of “masculine livestock on the Capitol stairs” all the way back to the light emanating from Plato’s cave. The range of reference and the depth of perception are dazzling in her unforgettable book. Byington creates poems that illuminate our interactions with art and culture, and that prompt us to consider how deeply our lives are made and remade by the works of art we engage.

–Jesse Graves, author of Merciful Days and Said-Songs: Essays on Poetry and Place

Danielle Byington’s We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster paints a portrait of Zelda Fitzgerald poured into air and of a snake’s white skull, of Anna Nicole Smith riding the bareback of methadone and of a rabid dog’s bottomless barks. With these startling poems, Byington gives us beautiful women who have bookended what men have barely started. This is a book full of moments that give us new names for both history and ourselves.

–Karen Salyer McElmurray, author of Wanting Radiance and Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother’s Journey

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems #history #mythology

[subhgem]

Agate Alchemy: Transforming Stone Slabs into Art

Banded agate stone slabs are thin slices or sections of banded agate stones that are often polished to showcase their unique patterns and colors. Agate is a type of mineral that forms in volcanic rock cavities, and it is characterized by its banded or layered appearance. These bands or layers can vary in color and texture, ranging from white, gray, black, and brown to shades of blue, green, pink, and red.

Subh Gem stones is a company that specializes in the sale of these slabs. Banded agate is a type of chalcedony that is characterized by its distinctive banding patterns. These patterns can range from subtle and fine to bold and striking, and they are caused by the presence of different minerals in the stone.

These slabs can be used in various ways in home interior design to add a natural, elegant touch to a space. Here are a few popular applications:

Countertops and tabletops: These slabs can be used to create unique and striking countertops and tabletops in kitchens, bathrooms, and other living areas.

Wall panels: These slabs can be installed as wall panels to create a statement feature in a room.

Backsplash: These slabs can be used as a backsplash in kitchens, bathrooms, and other areas to add texture and interest to the space.

Lighting fixtures: These slabs can be used to create stunning lighting fixtures such as table lamps or pendant lights.

Decorative objects: Smaller banded agate stone slab can be used as decorative objects such as bookends, coasters, or paperweights to add a touch of natural beauty to a space.

Choosing a banded agate stone slab can be an exciting process, as each stone has its own unique color and pattern. Here are some factors to consider when selecting a banded agate stone slab:

Color: These stone slabs come in a variety of colors, including black, white, brown, gray, blue, and red. Consider the color scheme of your project or space and choose a color that complements it.

Pattern: The banding pattern in these stone slabs can range from fine and subtle to bold and striking. Look for a pattern that catches your eye and adds visual interest to your project or space.

Size: These slabs come in a range of sizes, so consider the dimensions of your project and choose a slab that will fit appropriately.

Quality: Look for a high-quality banded agate stone slab that is free from cracks, chips, or other defects. It should also have a smooth surface and a consistent pattern.

Intended use: Consider the intended use of the banded agate stone slab. If it will be used for a decorative object, a slab with a bold pattern may be more suitable. If it will be used for jewelry making, a smaller slab with a more subtle pattern may be more appropriate.

At Subh Gem stones, we source these stone slabs from reputable suppliers who ensure that the stones are of high quality and free from any defects or flaws.These slabs are often used in decorative applications such as tabletops, countertops, and wall panels. They can also be cut and shaped into jewelry, bookends, and other ornamental objects. The natural variations in color and texture make each banded agate stone slab unique and visually appealing.We offer a wide variety of colors and patterns, including black and white, gray and white, brown and white, and red and white.  Our slabs are perfect for a variety of applications, including jewelry making, decorative objects, and home decor. They can be used to create unique and beautiful pieces that are both durable and visually stunning.

Transform your space with the natural beauty of banded agate stone slab. Contact Us now for the finest selection of quality stones.

[yayabink]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Bookend President Abraham Lincoln vintage copper coating heavy Cast metal posh.

[bthump]

Hi, I’ve been reading your blog as I slowly get into Berserk (longtime Soulsborne fan so it felt necessary to read up on what inspired the franchise).

I’m absolutely in LOVE with how you portray Griffith’s heart aching obsession with his sopping wet beast of a love interest.

I’d like to know your thoughts on that scene where Casca is cleaning Guts’ face after rescuing Griffith, particularly what you think the huge emphasis on him intensely staring at them while this exchange takes place.

A friend and I are debating about whether it’s lustfully longing (it’s the only time Guts’ is really sexualized) or if it’s absolute seething jealousy bc he KNOWS they had sex and grew incredibly close without him. Or even both, really???

Your stuff is awesome and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Thanks for all the hard work :D

Thank you so much, and welcome to Berserk lol.

Honestly I do think it's lustful. The same way Miura really emphasized Griffith's beauty from Guts' point of view from their first meeting to about Promrose Hall, Guts' good looks are really emphasized between the rescue and the Eclipse when he becomes the centre of the shifting love triangle.

This specific page really emphasizes it imo with Griffith's gaze framing this moment. Griffith's staring eye followed by Guts and Casca from an angle Griffith can't actually see, followed by just Guts looking really eroticized, follwed by Griffith's actual much less evocative perspective, followed by Griffith's ominous stare.

To me this suggests that the middle images, especially Guts' face, isn't actually Casca's or a neutral point of view, but Griffith's imagination, or at least intended to represent both Casca's point of view and Griffith's headspace. To me it feels suprisingly clearly communicated that Griffith wants to be in Casca's place here, based on the sequence of shots, the way the middle panels are bookended so emphatically by Griffith's gaze.

And yeah I think it's both lust and jealousy.

There's also the fear that he'll be left behind now that Guts and Casca have grown close and he's now dependent and can't do anything to affect the situation. We see a similar look during the Wyald fight when Casca screams that Guts was going to leave with her

And of course not long after Wyald horrifyingly explains exactly how dependent Griff is now. This leads into the last couple chapters before the Eclipse where Guts wants to stay but Judeau and Casca keep telling him to leave, Griff overhears, and has his nightmare sequence about living with Casca while Guts is off gallivanting around killing people.

Since Casca's in the nightmare and Griff snaps when Casca tells him to leave, I think less than the idea of being abandoned by both of them, Griffith's fear here is almost entirely just about Guts potentially abandoning him again. So it's also pretty romantically charged imo.

Anyway yeah that's my take. Thanks for asking and again for your kind words! I'm glad you've been enjoying my blog!

[jackoshadows]

I would love it if you'd write something elaborating on GRRM's sexist writing of Cersei.

Briefly, when I mean that GRRM is sexist in his writing of Cersei, I am talking about what I feel are clear double standards in the way he writes Jaime and Cersei. Jaime was clearly intended to be the main antagonist when GRRM started writing the story (And this was more or less confirmed when the OG outline got leaked). It's him who tries to murder Bran and even Cersei is shocked at what he did.

However in the later books, GRRM attempts to paint Jaime as a character conflicted by his oaths and having reasons for doing what he did while Cersei descends into paranoia, cartoonish villainy and idiocy. Book Cersei could very well fit into the definition of a 'mad queen' and GRRM has mentioned several times that she’s a foil to Dany as two ruling queens. 

Maybe I feel this way because of the two characters, Jaime and Cersei, I think that Cersei is the more interesting one who works well also as a foil to characters like Brienne and Arya. She has justified reasons for her anger. The way Tywin treats her and uses her as a pawn. The domestic abuse and marital rape she undergoes. I resonate more with her anger than Jaime’s entire back story being that he wants to sleep with his twin sister. GRRM, therefore choosing to focus on Jaime’s ambiguous morality while writing Cersei as plain evil is something I feel is sexist in nature, in his bias and approach to gray morality and ethics. 

Jaime gets the beauty and beast romance with Brienne - who he slanders and abuses as ugly several times. However it is solely Cersei who gets a gendered punishment for her vanity being made to undergo the walk of shame. I think the Walk of Shame is wholly unnecessary just like I think the brutality Jeyne Poole experiences is unnecessary. @intheairwewilllookmonstrous made the point the other day that logically Roose would have stepped in and stopped Ramsay’s treatment of his bride and Arya Stark and I agree.

The text punishes Cersei for being vain and not for the actual crimes she committed - like murdering babies. Jaime is also proud (" Even if the boy does live, he will be a cripple. Worse than a cripple. A grotesque. Give me a good clean death.”) however he loses a hand because he crippled a child and yet there is a difference in a little child losing the ability to walk and a 34 year old losing his hand.

While I loathe the show, I do like that Lena Headey managed to imbue Cersei with more emotion and nuance than the book version, at least in the first 4 seasons. I like that she gave the character more depth and dimensionality. I like that the show focused more on Cersei than Jaime - maybe because I like Headey and her take on the character and I am not a fan of Nicolaj Coster-Waldau and my actor bias also plays a factor here.

And after GRRM takes Jaime and Cersei on different paths and then ends their journey with Jaime murdering Cersei by strangling her, then there’s nothing good with this writing. This would be definitively sexist. However, I am pretty confident that’s what is going to happen. I think Jaime is the valonqar that Cersei is not seeing because she’s too focused on Tyrion. I think GRRM will write Jaime killing Cersei as his attempt at redemption and it will mirror his killing of Aerys if she tries to use Wildfire, thereby bookending his arc.

[astradrifting]

A Dream of Spring, and variations thereof

The phrase ‘a dream [for] spring’ only occurs once in the text of ASOIAF, in the chapter where Jon and the wildlings arrive in Queenscrown. Jon remembers Ned and Benjen discussing a plan to resettle the Gift with new lords.

His lord father had once talked about raising new lords and settling them in the abandoned holdfasts as a shield against wildlings. The plan would have required the Watch to yield back a large part of the Gift, but his uncle Benjen believed the Lord Commander could be won around, so long as the new lordlings paid taxes to Castle Black rather than Winterfell. “It is a dream for spring, though,” Lord Eddard had said. “Even the promise of land will not lure men north with a winter coming on.”

(Jon V, ASOS)

Given that Jon remembers it quite well, this conversation likely happened in the long summer just before the start of AGOT, meaning that the spring Ned was speaking of is actually the one that will come at the end of the series.

It might just be a quirk of how asearchoficeandfire’s search engine works, but searching the phrases “a dream of/for spring” comes up with only two other results within the main books. The first one is from Ned’s POV:

The memory came creeping upon him in the darkness, as vivid as a dream. It was the year of false spring, and he was eighteen again, down from the Eyrie to the tourney at Harrenhal.

(AGOT, Eddard XV)

The second one is from Jaime’s POV:

The castleton outside the walls had been burned to ash and blackened stone, and many men and horses had recently encamped beside the lakeshore, where Lord Whent had staged his great tourney in the year of the false spring. A bitter smile touched Jaime's lips as they crossed that torn ground. Someone had dug a privy trench in the very spot where he'd once knelt before the king to say his vows. I never dreamed how quick the sweet would turn to sour.

(ASOS, Jaime IV)

It’s interesting that throughout the whole series, a connection between dream imagery and spring only ever comes up in association with the Tourney of Harrenhal, set during the year of the false spring. It was a period of time that could be considered ‘a dream of spring’ too, in a much more negative sense. Though everyone thought winter had broken, the warm weather only lasted a couple of months before the cold winds came again. At the same time, the relative peace of the realm was shattering after the tourney. It was possibly intended to be the start of change, as Rhaegar might have planned to use it to gather a council deposing Aerys, but whatever was intended never went through and Rhaegar just caused brand new problems. It was a dream of spring in that the spring wasn’t real, it was fleeting and followed quickly by winter, and a war that ravaged the Seven Kingdoms.

The Ned and Jaime passages both carry on this theme. Jaime states it explicitly, that the sweet turned sour quickly, while Ned goes on to describe the dreamlike, idyllic atmosphere of the tourney, up until the moment it all went wrong:

He could see the deep green of the grass, and smell the pollen on the wind. Warm days and cool nights and the sweet taste of wine. He remembered Brandon's laughter, and Robert's berserk valor in the melee, the way he laughed as he unhorsed men left and right.

[...]

Robert had been jesting with Jon and old Lord Hunter as the prince circled the field after unhorsing Ser Barristan in the final tilt to claim the champion's crown. Ned remembered the moment when all the smiles died, when Prince Rhaegar Targaryen urged his horse past his own wife, the Dornish princess Elia Martell, to lay the queen of beauty's laurel in Lyanna's lap. He could see it still: a crown of winter roses, blue as frost.

(AGOT, Eddard XV)

The only time spring and dream imagery is linked together positively is in the Jon passage above, which talks about a plan for renewal and stability in an area that has faced a lot of turmoil, but one that must be put off until after the coming winter. That it contains nearly word for word the title of the last book is pretty strong foreshadowing that this plan will become relevant, hopefully that Jon will be able to carry out his father-uncles’ dream to resettle the Gift.

The Tourney of Harrenhal was arguably the beginning of Jon’s story; where his parents first encountered each other, the catalyst for the whole political situation at the beginning of the series.

It’d be poetic if Jon’s story was bookended by a false hope of spring at the start, and the true dreams of spring at the end. The situation after Harrenhal is already being set up in reverse for the end of the series. The harshest winter in years has just arrived. War has already ravaged the Seven Kingdoms, and there are only more wars yet to come. But by the end, even if it’s still winter there will be hope for a real spring - Jon’s attempt to depose an unsuitable monarch is going to go much better than Rhaegar’s, and he’ll get a chance to enact Ned’s plans for the Gift with the wildlings.

Incidentally, the last search result for “a dream of spring” is from The Mystery Knight. Dunk is talking to Daemon II, a Blackfyre prince who has hidden himself as a man with dark hair called John the Fiddler. They have a discussion about John/Daemon’s dreams, during which Dunk recalls a memory of another tourney held in the spring:

"I dreamed it. This pale white castle, you, a dragon bursting from an egg, I dreamed it all, just as I once dreamed of my brothers lying dead. They were twelve and I was only seven, so they laughed at me, and died. I am two-and-twenty now, and I trust my dreams." Dunk was remembering another tourney, remembering how he had walked through the soft spring rains with another princeling. I dreamed of you and a dead dragon, Egg's brother Daeron said to him. 

The tourney Dunk is referring to is, of course, our beloved Ashford Tourney :)

[ellynneversweet]

For the reverse unpopular opinion meme, what's your favorite adaptation of a Jane Austen book, and why?

My absolute, sentimental favourite is the 05 Pride and Prejudice, partly because it’s a genuinely good film and partly because it came out when I was just barely eighteen and my favourite media franchises were, uh, Pirates of the Caribbean and Spooks.

This is a reverse unpopular opinion IMO (although the definition’s a bit vague) because of the loyalty to the 95 version as the one true adaptation; but! this is a good vibes ask meme so here’s your good vibes:

- Joe Wright is a good director who uses cinematography in a thoughtful and interesting way. The lighting is incredible and manages to make different times of day and night look beautiful and readable while still reading like the intended time. The foley and soundtrack genuinely adds to the storytelling, although it’s sometimes a little dubiously mixed for home viewing.

- the costuming reflects a very mid-2000s attitude toward period dramas. Whatever. I love Lizzy’s homemade dresses and the all-white ball and the very careful progression of fabrics and colours literally softening up Darcy’s wardrobe.

- The main characters look and feel young. Elizabeth looking red and sweaty and frankly post-orgasmic when Darcy sees her at the Meryton assembly is a three second introduction to ‘this is a story about a repressed nerd suddenly confronted with hormones’ (and bookends the ~controversial~ setting of the second proposal lingering on Darcy wandering dewily through a meadow with his shirt open). Continuing on this point, I think Joe Wright has a better grasp on the characterisation of basically-good-but-young men than uh, some other people. They’re not assholes (except Wickham) but they are strutting, preening idiots who check their moustaches in shop windows and practise proposing to each other.

- the casting is spot on. Lydia is a a gawky baby with spots and an oily t zone. Kitty won’t stop eating and making badly timed jokes. Mrs Bennet is annoying and deeply sympathetic, as she should be. Jane has actual depth! Elizabeth is, in fact, just as she should be — a clever, sarcastic twenty year old who thinks very highly of herself. I won’t hear any criticism of her giggles by people who apparently forget that Elizabeth Bennet laughs in text. Caroline is, I can’t stress this enough, actually clever and attractive in a way that her crush doesn’t respond to, rather than an objectively repulsive hag bitch. Matthew McFadyen is an underrated comic genius and I laugh every time he nearly takes out Tom Hollander’s Mr Collins with an elbow in the Netherfield ballroom.

— the family relationships feel right. The Bennet girls steal each other’s wine and drape over each other on couches and tell each other off; Mr Bennet makes dad jokes, Mrs Bennet is correctly shown to be worried for her daughters as much as herself (while still doing everything wrong). Mr Gardiner and Mrs Bennet are believable as middle-aged siblings. Georgiana is a bit bubblier than she should be, but I’ll overlook that because of the way she displays the inescapable instinct to embarrass one’s older sibling in front of their crush.

— it’s an adaptation, not an audiobook. Changes are made from the source material; yes. P&P is kind of a dense story, although Austen writes with surprising economy. It’s got a large cast, and a lot of it is about emotional change and reflection. That’s not easy to film, and I think most of the choices make sense. Furthermore, it’s a brave choice to take something as well known as P&P and try to engage with it on the level of the emotional core of the story, rather than doing a plodding beat-by-beat that gets the wording of the dialogue right while ignoring the point like some kind of high school cold reading of This Year’s Compulsory Shakespeare.

Also, it’s got Real Art in it, and the fake art (props) is sensitively done and not printed out from a photo run though an ‘oil paint’ filter. That’s like, literally all I need to watch a movie.

[mogwai-movie-house]

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (TV Series, 2022)

This horror anthology series was, as a whole, considerably better than I’d expected, though it never really approaches the highs of the best episodes of, say, Black Mirror or Inside No. 9.  Still far better than that catastrophically awful “reboot” of The Twilight Zone, though. Here’s my episode-by-episode review of the first season:

1. Lot 36 

“An army veteran buys storage locker contents to pay off debts, but buys more than he bargained for when he purchases a lot owned by a strange old man”. 

Tim Blake Nelson, in the lead, is very good, but none of the other characters really stand out, and the ending is rushed and over almost as soon as it begins. The shoehorned-in racial politics that awkwardly bookend the episode play no meaningful part in the greater story, and the final pay-off, in which a Mexican immigrant he ignored earlier lets him die, actually works against the intended message of the the tale, in that it seems to be telling us that causing the death of other people is justified, if they ever inconvenienced you.

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

2. Graveyard Rats 

“A grave robber eyes the riches of a wealthy new arrival to the cemetery, but must survive a maze of tunnels -- and an army of rodents -- to secure them.”    

Fairly weak stuff, mostly filler, with no interesting or memorable characters to speak of, and the steampunk supernatural elements are little more than del-Toro-by-the-numbers.

★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

3. The Autopsy 

“A seasoned sheriff investigates a dead body in the woods and calls on an old pal, a medical examiner, to help piece together a series of chilling events.”   

Easily the best episode. Glynn Turman is splendid in a likeable and nuanced performance as the aging small town sheriff confronting something beyond his ken, and F. Murray Abraham as his old and dying coroner friend drafted in to help him get to the bottom of a bizarre series of murders. It’s kind of like the entire first season of True Detective in a single episode, but with an alien.

★★★★★★★★☆☆

4. The Outside 

“Longing to fit in at work, awkward Stacey begins to use a popular lotion that causes an alarming reaction, while an unnerving transformation takes shape. “

The other notably good episode of the series, mostly a satirical attack on the modern world of shallow surfaces, the “beauty” industry, and the lengths people will go to fit into a fantasy ideal. Kate Micucci is good throughout, and the whole thing has a Stepford Wives/Invasion of The Body Snatchers-kind of vibe to it that keeps one watching, although the story drags a lot and could have been told much better in half the time.

★★★★★★★½☆☆

5. Pickman’s Model 

“Art student Will meets introvert Richard, whose terrifying works of art begin to have a deeply disturbing effect on Will's sense of reality. “

One of a couple of episodes based on Lovecraft stories, this one has nice setting and period detail, with some solid creepy moments here and there, but the characters are shallow and underdeveloped, the monster - when it finally appears - is just a boring dollop of CGI, and Crispin Glover wins the award for the stupidest accent of the year.

★★★★★★½☆☆☆

6. Dreams In The Witch House 

“ Years after his twin sister's death, a researcher ventures Into a dark, mysterious realm with the aid of a special drug, determined to bring her back. “

By far the worst of the series, this one’s just a muddled mess, with very amateurish acting and forced diversity entirely out of place for the period in which it was set. I’ve still no idea why there was a rat with a human face.

★★★½☆☆☆☆☆☆

7. The Viewing 

“ A wealthy recluse hosts four accomplished guests at his stylish mansion for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but their intrigue soon turns into terror. “

Visually this is amazing, and the first two-third have great atmosphere, with lots of small moments building tension. Peter Weller is a towering presence, and effortlessly dominates every scene he is in. Unfortunately, it all leads-up to nothing; the ending carries no dramatic weight, there’s an entirely unexplained monster of some entirely uninteresting sort, and then the final scene just peters out and grinds to a halt. A great pity. 

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

8. The Murmuring 

“Mourning a major loss, ornithologists Nancy and Edgar flock to a secluded home to study birds, but the house's history reveals heartbreak and horror. “

This is the smallest, quietest and most emotional of the stories, and Essie Davis and Andrew Lincoln give fine performances as a married couple trying to distract themselves from the death of their child by losing themselves in their shared work. The rest of the episodes would have greatly benefited from this level of characterization, and the premise reminded me of Don’t Look Now in a number of places. Once again though, the ending is weak and derivative and nothing you haven’t seen many times before. Still definitely worth a watch.

 ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

[janiedean]

Do you think Jonsa is going to happen? I did read some meta about foreshadowing and it's a "squint if you miss it" but there is stuff. For example. Jonnel/Sansa stark in the family tree. People say the fact that Jon didn't care about Sansa being wed to Tyrion, compared to Arya being wed to Ramsay means he his repressing his painful memories and how he has a secret crush on her.

... tldr and sorry for the harshness: no, but if you want to go into the details, with no offense to anyone shipping it of course:

as I already recently ranted, jon and sansa are in two totally different brackets - jon is a main five, sansa is in the following bracket, jon has the entire chosen one storyline plus being the center of the entire story going on, sansa has the I want the love story and I'll get it plotline which does not mesh with jon's so there's that;

sansa's story arc is admittedly painfully clear in the beginning as in: if she thinks she's going to marry a beautiful gallant pretty prince and she thinks it's joffrey who is like attractive and LOOKS gallant but we all know how it went, then she's going to end up with someone who is the total opposite, also if she wanted to be queen in the beginning then it means she's absolutely not going to be in the end bc her entire arc is about realizing that everything she wanted in the beginning is not what she truly wants, and since jon is absolutely poised to get kingship, divide the kingdoms and fuck off to the wildlings after there is no way that her storyline meshes with his like that;

sansa's only viable love interests at this point on page are sandor and tyrion, the end, which by the way are, guess what, not standard attractive and are two people who need to overcome their trauma but never treated her unfairly, and like... denying that in the text sansa is attracted to sandor (she MAKES UP that he kissed her, she dreams he comes to her on her wedding night, she's all like AH BUT JUST *I* KISSED THE HOUND etc like sorry but that's a thing never mind all the knightly investment subtext) and that sandor is her love interest on text is imvho absolutely senseless - you can ship whatever you want and realize that canon isn't going there and write fanfic, no one is gonna stop you, and I can accept the endgame theory from sansa/tyrion shippers even if I think sansa/sandor is it, but sansa/anyone else is absolutely out of the question;

also sandor is the only one sansa thinks about using all the criteria ned used to describe the knight he would find her which was better than joffrey bless whoever went and did the search (brave gentle and strong) and she doesn't use neither of those terms to think about jon, like there's more evidence for littlefinger based on that and idt lf is gonna be her intended;

they think they're siblings and like I know that saying 'BUT THE INCEST' in these books is not like an automatic NO because there's canon incest and the rival ship ie j*nerys also would be incest but like one thing is jc which is not endgame and plainly described as abusive/unhealthy, one thing is targ incests which like the narrative generally is like HEY THIS WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA ABOUT and one thing is falling in love with someone you thought was your sibling and you grew up with like that the moment you find out you're cousins - that... doesn't work like that. and like while I don't have a horse in this race and j*nerys is hardly my ideal endgame sorry but it's a lot more likely that jon would end up getting with someone who he never met before, was the sister of a father he never knew and doesn't even consider his father and he had no relation with before than with... someone he actually thought was his sister, even if he finds out she's his cousin that doesn't change it;

'repressing painful memories' jon has zero issue thinking about catelyn or sansa not treating him great so idk what he should be repressing;

arya vs sansa question: .... well that's like getting close to the entire point but not getting it, in the sense that while jon didn't take wf because it belonged to sansa - but he said he would have if ygritte had been alive and stannis said he could marry her and not val which I mean... says all honestly - technically he made vows saying he renounced his family which is the entire fucking point re arya - the point is that he didn't give those vows up for robb but he would for arya which was the one he was closest to which is what makes everyone else kill him and no he wouldn't have done that for sansa because she was the only one who kept him at a distance, but...

the entire damned point is that they have to reconnect as siblings. sansa going back north (which is gonna happen) and jon being there and most likely getting legitimized/getting robb's will etc means that they have, as adults (or at least... well not kids) realize that how she treated him was wrong and that they can build a relationship which means that each single text reference to each other which is really nothing romantic™ is posed to tell you THESE TWO WILL BE THE STARK SIBLINGS MEETING FIRST and since they didn't have a close rship before they will forge one now, but that doesn't mean that they're going to be romantic endgame, because jon's point isn't having the uber romantic storyline and sweeping a maiden off her feet and sansa already has at least one love interest posed to do exactly that and while their sl are absolutely meant to intersecate on a sibling finding each other again level they are off when it comes to romance;

also a j*nsa endgame would... imply that she becomes queen of the seven kingdoms and they stay reigning there when sansa is absolutely posed to stay in the north and do her own thing and jon is posed to destroy the united-westeros-because-a-targ-did-it legacy (which like... great bookend bc first legit targ king unites it, bastard stark-targaryen king who most likely is keeping the bastard name undoes it) and he is going to hate each second of it, so it doesn't add up with sansa getting her happy love song fairytale romance... which again she can get from other people that the text strongly pointed at already.

so: no because it makes no sense thematically for either of them and for that matter I don't even think jon*erys is eventual endgame tho I guess it has to happen at this point given the show mess idk but if either of them had to be j*nerys would make a load more sense and I still think that a targ restoration with two monarchs keeping on being monarchs is not what a dude who is obviously anti-monarchy has in mind for the endgame. like no offense to anyone into it ofc but again it has zero textual basis for being romantic endgame and it wouldn't even make either of them happy bc jon is not sansa's gentle brave strong knight and sansa isn't the kind of woman jon is actually into (ygritte reminded him of arya I mean) and idt he'd get romantic feelings for his sister who he's going to think of in that terms anyway so there's my two cents. and I understand that it's not smth that a lot of people would agree with but take it up with grrm because he's the one putting that in the text and not me X°D

[witchwretch]

☽    " i think beauty is a deceit . "

in  this  form,    she  is  rather  lovely.    where  reality  shimmers  between  fact  and  fiction,    libby  is  portrayed  as  a  youthful  thing  with  dark  hair  long  and  healthy,    veridian  eyes  bright  and  cunning,    a  full  mouth  tied  in  the  sweetest  of  bows  and  bookended  by  elegant  cheeks  which  sharpen  dangerously  at  the  summit.    and  oh  does  she  float,    the  long  line  of  their  slender  legs  drawing  her  across  the  ground  as  if  they  do  not  touch  it  at  all.    indeed,    libby  is  a  beautiful  thing.

does  @blackfoe​  see  the  lie  of  it?    does  he  see  what  hides  beneath  that  shallow  pool,    that  vapid  mirror?    libby  looks  on  coolly  as  if  unperturbed  by  the  notion  that  someone  might  know  the  truth.    if  she  is  concerned,    the  gentle  spread  of  a  saccharine  smile  speaks  otherwise.    ❝    hm.    ❞  amusement  curdles  the  air  that  divides  them.    whatever  his  title,    she  does  not  bow  to  it.    ❝    what  handsome  liars  we  are,    then.    tell  me,    do  you  intend  to  come  outright  with  your  intentions  or  shall  i  make  myself  more  comfortable  first?    ❞