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burningthemidnightcityoil · 4 years ago

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ON CLASSES

Classpects run on Irony, Puns, Wordplay, and each class has a secondary verb, in addition to the one they share with their pair.

Witch - Which. “Choose / Choice”. A Witch chooses power. Witches are the Powerhouse of the Session(cell). They are akin to Thieves, for a Witch takes power. But the difference here is that a Witch doesn’t need to take it from other people, a Witch takes back their own power from whatever Guardian (or “familiar”) has it. Its not like an Heir, where the Heir can just wait for it to come; a Witch has to grab it or be forced into its service.

Heir - Air/Err. “Inherit”. An Heir inherits power. While Heirs are akin to the Page, where they both inspire others to help them; the difference here is that Heirs will inspire others to Guide them (Literally inspire others to act as Seers), while Pages inspire others to Serve them (Inspire others to act as Knights). Heirs don’t like being Served (In fact, Heirs Homestuck-Historically have conflicts with Guardians because of their Service), and Pages don’t like being Guided. (Most Pages tend to talk smack about those trying to Guide them)

Mage - Magician. “Perform”. Mage’s are showy, in addition to being knowitalls. How you are Seen is Important. There are three Mages, two known and one HC’d, that give this. Sollux, inspite of his problems, is a Show Off and tries to play it off Smoothly. His performance is more important than his powers (Or Spells, if we’re dedicated). Meulin also tends to be Showy. Both by showing off her favorite couples, and by her Disciple self showing off her rommance on literal cave walls. HC’d Mage, Diamonds Droog / Draconian Dignitary, is all about the Show and the Class, and not about Flash Powers or Transformations.

Seer - To See. “Envision”. Seers See Seas. What you see is important. Unlike their counterpart, the Mage, A Seer’s visions are more important than their Spells. (This is inspite of the fact that both Mages and Seers are equally capable of both Visions and Spells, as well as Performance. It seems what what indicates if you’re a Mage or a Seer is if what’s important is How you are Seen, or What you See; A Mage wants to be Seen, a Seer wants to See).

Thief - To Steal / To Steel / Steel yourselves. “Enforce”. If Knights are the Law, Thieves are the Enforcers; because they literally reinforce themselves by taking what they want. Let’s take this a step further, and include all definitions of Enforce Thieves Strengthen, Intensify, Force, Drive and Urge whatever they set their sights on, to be what they want it. (After all, they Steal, or Take By Force / Violence)

Rogue - To Go Rogue / Haywire. “To Cross”. Rogues are pretty good about making connections, and making connections work; be it between people, or their Aspect. (Roxy between her Friends and her Windows; Nepeta with her Romances)

Knight - Night. “To Bare / Bear”. Bear hands? This may seem outlandish, but the origin of the word Night is “Bare” or “To be Bare of Sunlight”. And Knights tend to put on a kind of Mask, or Shield, or rather, Helm / Helmet as they feel their weaknesses (or what they think are their weaknesses) feel bare to the world (Dave and his Sunglasses; Karkat and his Temper; Latula and her Gamer Attitude).

Page - Chapter. “To Assemble” YOU BOY, EQUIP ARMS. This one took a bit, but what’s a Page without a Chapter? Be it a Chapter in a Book of Pages, or a Council to of all those they have called on to serve them. A Page is a Knightly figure that has a Round Table, akin to a Rogue’s Merrymen. A Page inspires others to play Knight to them, or to serve them. To call to Arms, or call to Action. So basically, if Robin Hood is a Rogue’s Mythic figure, King Arthur is a Page’s mythic figure. So literally, all those a Page calls on personally, makes them apart of their Round Table of Knights. (Wait, does this mean that HS^2 Jane is Morgan Le F--)

Maid - Made. “To Make” Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice. Maids are the Makers. They don’t so much as Maintain, though they do that too, as they create. Consider. Aradia is a prime example. She dies, so she makes Time for herself as a very powerful Poltergeist. She becomes a Robot, and makes Time for Herself by her many many Robot Time Copies, or as Time is Numeral, making Numbers. She becomes a Godtier, and suddenly, Time in the Dream Bubbles align perfectly with the Present. Notice how when we are first introduced to the Dream Bubbles, Time was a real nonlinear pain. But when Aradia took the Reins on this Time Management Stuff, and suddenly the Dream Bubbles were Linear and aligned with our Story. She did want to see the end, after all (And the more living Time Gods entered the Bubbles, the more Linear things became) For Porrim, its about Making Space for others in both her various views and her uh... Various Views. For the Dolorosa, this included making Space for herself, and for her son. She possibly even helped direct him closer to the idea of Freedom (And he did see visions of another space in time...)

Sylph - Sylvan / Wood Threshold. “To Matter” Okay, this one is like the Knight’s, if not more complicated (and likely gonna require more development in the future, cos this took waaay too much digging for my liking). Thing is, Sylph is a difficult thing to name from name alone unless you look into the word itself. Because its derived from Sylvan “Of the woods”. But we break that down into two things. Silva, the Woods, and Hyle, Matter. Hyle / Hule is already the Greek word for Matter or Wood in any case. And our word for Matter is already derived from Mater, the Latin word for Mother. (The original English word was displaced by Latin; Andwork was once our word for Matter). Unfortunately, I can’t quite make the connections here yet, so I’m not sure if “To Matter” is the proper verb. I can, however, describe some loose connections that at least tell me I’m on the right track: ... Sylphs are defined by their Environment; Such as Kanaya’s relations regarding Trolls (A motherly figure), Aranea defined herself by Information and giving Information (which ain’t healthy), Mindfang defined herself a Thief because the Troll Empire was lead by a Thief And HC’d Sylph of Mind, Snowman was, quite literally, the Universe (And its Multiverse, which is a Mind thing). So a Sylph defines herself by her “Woods”, or like a Nymph / Dryad, by her “Tree / Wood / Matter”. And when you kill the Tree / Wood, you kill the Sylph, and vice versa (Destroy the Matriorb, and Kanaya dies; Kill Snowman and you kill the Unvierse; Mindfang was murdered, and her Enlightenment about the Doc died with her).

Prince - Principle / Foremost. “To Postulate” Its the Principle of the matter. For Princes, Principle and Code are key, and they will follow these as a fundamental truth (and be damned to anything else). This is likely what it was meant when they were called a Destroyer Class, because they do tend to destroy all avenues when it doesn’t fit their Principle. A Group of Princes could be called an Argument. For Eridan, both the system he resided in, and his own internal narrative (his Hopes), were his fundamental truths. And in the end, it fucked everything up. For Kurloz, his Belief System and his chosen Lord were his Fundamental Truth (And Rage is about Truths; so this guy didn’t just have a fortified castle, he had an entire armored country) For Dirk, the Character someone presented was the Truth of the matter, and the Character he presented. He believed that all versions of him were Him, and that was his biggest flaw, because they weren’t. AR was no more Dirk Strider than Bro was. ... And unfortunately, one version of him took this very literally (HS^2).

Bard - Barred / Bar. “To Prevent” Bards are quite the Wild Card, because how the hell do you manage destroying stuff for other people’s benefit and it actually ensured that it is a benefit? But from our few examples, Bards do act as great barriers. They keep things on the path because if you didn’t have that barrier, you wouldn’t progress, or you’d go too far too quickly, or things could go out of hand. For Gamzee, he tends to invoke the idea of the Barrier Maiden (He does roleplay a fairy / maid). He can’t die cos he’s a Cosmic Keystone to things happening like they’re suppose to. Paradox Space, literally, cannot let him die because it needs him to complete the Alpha Loop [By extension, no Doomed Timeline ever has a Dead Gamzee, he’s just that important, the stupid fuck] / [consider the theory that he also absorbs his alternative selves to keep his keystone status; like how Rose absorbed her alternative dream self] (Though when you take him from his story / destiny / fate, he’s just another mortal shitty clown). Gamzee prevented Rage, for Homestuck to continue as its intended narrative. For Cronus, his little Hope Quest was a direct line to Lord English (being the evil wvizard in his little Harry Potter fantasy). But this blew up royally, because as it turns out, it isn’t up to the Beforus Trolls to do shit. So just as Gamzee’s crisis of Fate put things back on the Path to LE and prevented catastrophe, Cronus’s crisis caused catastrophe. He prevented Hope for the Beforus Trolls, because it wasn’t their Story. And now for my HC’d Bard of Doom, Clubs Deuce. He does exactly what it says, he Prevents Doom. Inspite of what it appears, he’s highly competent because that prevents things from going to hell. For CD, he prevented Doom, for his Crew, and the sessions he’s involved in. And any time CD tends to disappear from the picture, is when things go to hell fast (For the Crew, Cans showed up; for the Beta Session, he was a mere herald for the doom that was already coming and his death cinched it)

#homestuck #classpect

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kinsey3furry300 · 4 years ago

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A very confused Star Wars Fan desperately tries to justify their belief that “Caravan of Courage” shows the way forward for the franchise. No, really.

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve loved Star Wars. And I mean, all of it. The books, the games, the Lego, the spin-offs: I even enjoy the Holiday Special in a The Room so-bad-you-just-need-to-see-it sort of way. But particularly the films. But here is when we run into the big problem: I’m just the wrong age. The original trilogy launched before I was born, the prequel trilogy hit cinemas when I was already a teen and while I went and saw them and enjoyed them, I was at that age where I was self-conscious about seeing a “kids” film, and hyper-aware of how silly and cringy those films were in parts. So my indoctrination, my inoculation with the Star Wars bug didn’t happen in the cinema, and it didn’t happen with any of the main franchise works. It happened on home video, on a skiing trip in the French Alps in the early 90’s. I’d have been about 6, and this was the first time I’d ever been abroad other than to see relatives in Ireland. And I loved it: to this day I love skiing, but more than that, I have very, very fond childhood memories of this trip. This was shortly before I lost my biological mother to cancer, she’d have received her diagnosis just after we got back from the trip. This was when my younger sister stopped being an annoying screaming thing and became and became an actual person I could talk and play and share ideas with, this was before the combination my mothers long illness and my father having just launched his own IT start up meant I didn’t see him or her any more, despite the fact they were in the same house as me. This was this wonderful, nostalgic child-hood bubble when my family was intact, and nothing could ever go wrong. I skied all day with mum and dad, and would come back to the chalet in the evening. It was an English speaking chalet, I met my first real-life American there, and having grown up in the 90’s in the UK nothing was cooler than making friends with an actual American my own age. He had a hulk Hogan action figure with springs in the legs so if you put him on a hard surface and punched his head down, when you let go he’d jump really high in the air. We used to play with it together in the bath, back in that weird 90’s time-bubble when it was possible to convince two sets of parents that this kid you’d just met was you best friend in the world and of course shared bath time was, somehow, normal and appropriate. And fresh from bath time, tired from the day, the parents would give us some hot coco, dump us kids in front of the tv and grab the first shitty low-budget VHS they could find to keep us distracted while they went to the bar. In this particular time, in this particular place, that shitty low budget cartoon was the complete set of the 1985 Lucasfilm/ABC Ewoks cartoon, plus the two spin off movies, and to this day that cheap, kitschy, kind of bad series has a special warm and cosy place in my heart. I remember being enthralled by the world, in love with the characters, applied by the bad guys and the injustice they caused (to this day I’m still irate about that time Wicket lost his set of beads documenting his progress towards becoming a full warrior and the older Ewoks basically said, tough, you need to re-earn all those merit badges from scratch. This struck me as exactly the sort of bullshit an adult would pull, and pissed me off) and on tenterhooks about what would happen to the characters.

It was also, by a coincidence, the first ever Star Wars media I was exposed to, and the above combination of events probably explains a lot about me.

So I was surprised, the other day, when scrolling Disney+, to find they’d added Caravan of Courage AND Battle for Endor to the roster in my region. Surely Disney wouldn’t want their slick, cool brand associated with this old trash? Surely there could be no place for this in the post-Mandalorian Star Wars cannon? Surely this is a horrible mistake some intern made, right?

Unless…. What if I’ve miss-remembered? What if it’s not just rose-tinted nostalgia goggles, and it’s, in fact, secretly really, really good?

I rushed to my comfy chair, got a blanket, dimmed the lights, made some coco (with rum in it, because why the hell not?) and sat down to re-examine this lost gem.

And wow: it’s every bit as shit as you’d expect.

It has aged exactly as poorly as you’d expect a cheap, mid 80’s direct to video spin-off to age. Caravan of Courage? More like Caravan of Garbage, am I right?

And yet… I still enjoyed every moment.

And it was sitting there, in my pyjamas, watching a cheaply made direct to video cash-grab from just before I was born, seeing it again for the first time in nearly 30 years, and I realised something.

It doesn’t really matter if this film is bad, so long as I enjoy it. And if it doesn’t really mater if this is bad, then I, like many Star Wars fans, wasted a huge amount of time and emotional effort on being butthurt about stuff I didn’t like about the Rise of Skywalker and it’s ilk. Because somewhere, right now, a tired and frustrated parent is putting Disney+ on to keep their kids quiet for two hours. And they won’t think too hard about what they put on, so long as it keeps little Timmy busy for a bit. Somewhere, right now, a kid is watching Rise of Skywalker, and it’s the first Star Wars media they’ve ever seen.

And that’s okay. Because we don’t know what that kids home life is like. We don’t know if it’s good or bad. Maybe it’s great, maybe it’s about to take a dramatic plunge like mine did, and this moment here will be the cosy, warm memory they look back on in 30 years time, and that’s beautiful. They’re getting introduced to a fun, wonderful fantasy world that could be with them all their lives, through good times and bad, and as fans we should be happy about that.

Star Wars will never, die: it’s too darn profitable, Disney will never let it. And while I hope they learn from their mistakes and make sure every future Star Wars is a timeless gem of story-telling, statistically, if you keep making enough films, some of them will be bad. And while I’d like them all to be great, it’s still okay if they’re bad.

Because nothing can take away my memories of that week in that chalet. Nothing can take-away my memories of when they put the original trilogy on in cinemas for the special edition and I had my jaw hit the floor with how good it was on the big screen, not knowing or caring who shot first. Nothing can take away you memories of the Original Trilogy, the Prequels, or the Clone Wars. Nothing can tarnish the bits of the sequil trilogy that you like, and there are good bits in there.

But wait, what about continuity? What about the sacred, perfect written time-line that used to exist?

Well, what about it? Have you seen any other big, epic fantasy universe before? They’re all a mess. A work of fiction, particularly fantasy, can be extensive, or tightly written, but not both. Harry Potter is only seven books, and the last two feel, tonally, like they’re from an entirely different series. I love them, but the grim-dark kicked in so fast you’ll get whiplash. The Hobbit is a perfect written self-contained novel, and LOTR is *The* big boy high-fantasy trilogy: fast forward 50 years, and Christopher Tolkien is desperately squeezing every last drop of money out of his father’s corpse by finishing and publishing every unfinished note JRR ever wrote right down to his shopping lists. Even Dune goes of the rails with sequels. I can only think of four fantasy works that are both extensive and consistently tightly written, Song of Ice and Fire, Wheel of Time, Malazan: Book of the Fallen and Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe. And even then, the prequels and spin-offs mess with the timelines: the Dunk and Egg novella’s change some character’s canonical ages and timelines, Wheel of Time was going slowly off the rails even before the Jordan died, Forge of Darkness made what was a good metaphor for the creation of it’s world into a literal war deep in the past, and Sanderson’s first Novel Elantris got a re-write to bring it more in line with the rest of the shared universe. The MCU, oft held up as the modern example of tightly planned, well thought out ongoing storytelling, is a lie: it was never as pre-planned out as Disney wants us to think; the first Iron Man, apparently, barely had a script, with Downey ad-lib-ing most of his scenes. None of the MCU films are direct sequels to each-other other than Infinity war and Endgame. There are three Iron Man films, and Three Thor films, and none continue an ongoing story line across multiple films, and the Cap films barely continue an arc, but only where Cap’s relationship with Natasha and Bucky is involved. Much like these, Star War’s cannon is a complete, nightmarish, confusing, tangled, illogical mess. And it has been since 1984, as Caravan of Courage proves. It was never consistent and well planned.

And that’s okay.

I used to care about plot holes. I used to care about which works were cannon in Star Wars lore. I’m over that now. I’m happy to imagine the books, films and games not as a blow-by-blow historical account of a galaxy far far away, but as campfire stories from within this fun, imaginative world that we’re all invited to listen to. Stories that are in-universe myth and folklore, that we can all snuggle up and listen to while drinking highly alcoholic rum and remembering better times, knowing that wherever the future throws at us, no matter how the world goes to hell around us, we’ll still have the memories, and the ability to make our own new stories in the wonderful Star Wars world we all share.

And that’s okay. No, more than that: that’s beautiful.

Also Star Wars is completely unambiguous on the fact we’re allowed to kill fascists no matter how many times they keep coming back with a new logo, so that’s timely I guess.

So, there’s my hot take two-years after everyone else stopped caring about this stuff, as per bloody usual. Tell me why I’m wrong below, and does anyone else have any truly awful spin-off shows that they kind of have a nostalgic soft spot for?

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stylesnews · 4 years ago

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Ben and Gabe Turner directed the videos for Harry Styles’ singles Golden and Treat People With Kindness, and the Fulwell 73 partners have opened up to Music Week about working on the blockbuster Fine Line campaign.

The video for Treat People With Kindness (TPWK) stars Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge and was released on New Year’s Day 2021, more than a year after Fine Line came out. The Turner brothers were also behind the film for Golden, which dropped in October. TPWK has 18,019,468 views on YouTube, while Golden, which was filmed under Covid restrictions on Italy’s Amalfi coast last year when lockdowns eased, has racked up 81,373,613.

Ben and Gabe Turner have been working with former Music Week cover star Styles since One Direction emerged on The X Factor, making videos for Steal My Girl and Drag Me Down. Their Fulwell 73 partner Ben Winston has also worked extensively with the group.

The brothers told Music Week that their longstanding relationship with Styles leads to an easy working environment, and the idea behind the TPWK video – which features Styles and Waller-Bridge doing a choreographed dance routine and was filmed at East London’s Troxy early in 2020 – came about after Styles saw the actor’s Fleabag live show.

“It was always supposed to be the last thing on the album run as an ending beat, and the album did so well that it just carried on,” said Gabe Turner. “We just didn’t know when [it would drop]. New Year’s Day 2021 was the perfect release date for us in the end.”

The duo make documentaries, TV shows, music videos, promos and more and Ben Turner said that “hope, warmth, fun and emotional honesty” define their work, which includes 2019 documentary Hitsville: The Making Of Motown.

“Music videos are fun, they’re the most impressionistic of the things we do,” said Ben Turner. “When else are we going to shoot a black and white dance video? There probably isn’t another avenue for us to do that.”

Here, the brothers look back on shooting Golden and TPWK with Styles and his team, talk Fine Line and trace the history of their work with the singer.

What are your reflections on the Treat People With Kindness video now it’s out?

Gabe Turner: “There’s a tendency when you’re working and going from job to job, not to sit back and enjoy something when it comes out, because you’re in the middle of something else. This was really enjoyable, a piece of work that’s really expansive, joyous and has loads of people dancing and reminds you of a time where life was really fun felt really nice. Harry and all of One Direction have incredible fans and they obviously amplify your work and make it bigger and feel like more of an achievement, which is really nice because you’re like, ‘The whole world is talking about it’ [laughs]. When really, the whole world is talking about Harry, or the boys, but it feels very special to be a part of that.”

What do you like most about the video?

Ben Turner: “It was just an amazing opportunity to work on a song we loved with some people we loved. We’d never worked with Phoebe before, so that was really exciting. It just feels so different now because we’ve been stuck indoors for a year. This thing about treating people with kindness, it just feels more prescient even than it did then. It feels like a really important message. The world has changed since we made it, the video has stayed the same but the world has disappeared.”

Have the videos have been extra important to the campaign with touring postponed?

GT: Harry’s got an incredible team, his manager Jeff Azoff, Tommy Bruce, Molly Hawkins and Rob Stringer and the label, they’re just brilliant. They’ve been really impressive in how they view and plan stuff. The videos kind of replaced him touring, so they had to have an impact. His fanbase wanted something to feel positive about and joyous about. We just feel hugely privileged that we were able to collaborate on two of the songs. We love the album, it’s a real quality piece of work. With Harry, because the camera loves him so much, you really want to raise your game and make something really special because you’ve got such an incredible protagonist. And then with Phoebe involved too, me and Ben thought this might be the best it ever gets for us behind camera – two people completely in their prime. The last time Phoebe was photographed in a public place she was clutching three Emmys. And Harry, he’s getting bigger and bigger and is such a joyous presence to be around. Those two massive stars together, learning a dance routine, doing something they’d not done before, it felt like we were witnessing something really special and it just makes you want to shoot the best video you possibly can.”

How did you end up doing two videos for the record?

GT: “We see Harry outside of work, so we talk about things all the time in a slightly different way. The TPWK conversation came from meeting Phoebe and saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you two danced together?’ Then after we did that, when Golden came up, there was a feeling that we could do something together in a similar vein.”

BT: “Golden came about as organically as TPWK. We all sit around mooching with our mates saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if this or that…’ When you’re mooching with your mates and it’s Harry or Phoebe, those ideas can become. And that’s how these videos really came about. Golden feels like a driving song. The initial idea was Harry driving around LA with different people getting in and out of the car, people who were significant to the album or his life. That came off the table with Covid, but it was the idea we fell in love with. The world changed and he couldn’t tour, so they wanted to make more videos. We couldn’t make that original version, but the thing of movement came out of it. When someone you feel close to does something you rate as highly as I rate Fine Line you feel lucky. When you’re listening to that kind of music you get ideas. We’ve been in the position where you’re racking your brains for the right idea, and that can also lead to brilliant work, but this album in particular, I’d listen to it, walk along and think about it, before pitching anything.”

Harry’s vision for the album was so strong, what was that like to work with?

GT: “You just don’t want to drop the ball for him. It’s so important and the album’s so good, plus we’re fans of his as well as contemporaries. When he drafts you in to work on a video, you’re like, ‘OK, I just want to make sure you’re happy with it, if you are then it’s job done’.

BT: “There’s just so much there to work with. There’s so much in there. Why does TPWK work? What’s it really got to do with anything? Except somehow it does. There’s so much in that song and the feel of it that a slightly weird, leftfield idea makes perfect sense. I think that’s to do with how deep his creative thought and well of feeling [are], that allows it to go off. Not just our videos, but the ones everyone else made for the album, they’re widely varied but they work together. That’s got to be down to him, he’s the common thread. His creative team, too. They’re great sounding boards to work with, a guiding hand. It sounds like this massive love-in, but it really has been a very enjoyable, rewarding process.”

What was it like on set?

GT: “Harry doesn’t go off set. He does his bits and then when other stuff is going on he’s sitting next to you watching the monitor. He’s very, very involved in everything and he’ll push himself. At the end of TPWK he wanted to do a couple more takes at the end to make sure they’d nailed it. We said, ‘We think you’ve got it’, but he just said, ‘Let me go again a couple of times, I want to make sure it’s done to the best of my ability’. He works really hard, he’s great to collaborate with and he doesn’t let up. If it’s not good enough, he’ll carry on going.”

BT: “You’ve got a sense that it’s his video and he wants it to be the best. He takes ownership. He knows it’s his video and that how good and engaged he is will affect how good the product is. The length of the relationship we’ve had with him allows a kind of shorthand and a way of working to maximise that.”

GT: “He works to a really high standard but he’s unbelievably kind to literally everyone, all the time. Even if he’s under pressure, he never drops his standards of the right way to behave and being kind to people. It’s so impressive to work with someone like that. He’s never not a good bloke about whatever it is that he faces. You watch the way he is with the runners, producers, sound people, whoever… He’s treating them with so much love and respect that everyone works as hard as they possibly can to make his vision come true because he’s so joyful to be around. It does sound like a love-in, but that’s the most defining factor – he’s so talented and so nice about it.”

What do these videos say about where you are at right now as directors?

GT: “Our thinking is always about how we can be creative. We don’t really think about the space we’re going into as much as what the idea is. If you only do one thing it sometimes stilts your creativity because you get into a pattern, whereas if you’re constantly jumping between mediums it keeps you fresh. We like to be involved in lots of stuff. We try and surround ourselves with people like Harry, who operate in that way. Ben and I just try and push each other into trying to do the best we can. We feel massively lucky we get to work together, we’re brothers, best friends, it’s a dream.”

#harry styles #jan21 #gabe turner #ben turner #tpwkmv #goldenmv #music week #article

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kob131 · 4 years ago

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buv3TA7dvdE

You know, for someone who supposedly watched Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid-

How is it I caught onto that Ilulu isn’t a fucking loli just at first appearance? Me, where the closest I’ve come is playing Dragonmaids.

So the first section is just the speaker setting up how she wanted to like the anime but apparently she got less and less enthusastic as the show expanded beyond Kobayashi and Tohru.

... Red flag. In my personal experience, this tends to taint a person’s view of a work and causes them to seek out problems with the work in question even when it goes beyond what a normal person or even what they themselves would do in other circumstances. So right away- I’m pretty damn skeptical.

We further go into the video and the person states that are an artist and they know what they are talking about. ... Okay, first off- You’re talking about coding as if it isn’t your internal projections (we’ll get to THAT later) so no, you don’t. Second, I don’t know if the artist thing is suppose to be connected to the ‘know what you are talking’ part but considering by the same logic a writer would know an abusive relationship in media...and Twilight exists- That’s bullshit. And third- why should anyone trust someone they likely never have watched before?

Next we get into ‘Coding in Media’. Here we have the person giving a definiton from the wikipedia article. I’ll copy paste the highlighted stuff:

“- a reader may initially interpret a set of signifiers as a literal representation, but clues may indicate a transformation into a metaphorical or allegorical interpretation diachronically “

“- i.e. acknowledging that there is sometimes an ideological quality to the coding system, determining levels of social acceptability, reflecting current attitudes and beliefs. “

However, I would like to point something out- This is from the ‘Discussion’ tab. Not the general part which she shows but doesn’t focus on. Here’s the definition she gives:

“Coding is a term used in media to refer to when the author wants to convey an aspect of a character to the audience but does not want to or isn’t allowed to explictedly state what that is.”

Here’s the article’s definition with an added definition of semiotics.

“ In semiotics *{the study of sign processes (semiosis), which are any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates a meaning that is not the sign itself to the sign's interpreter} , a code is a set of conventions or sub-codes currently in use to communicate meaning.”

Here we start to see things crumble. Semiotics and by extension coding is inherently indirect. Meaning that there isn’t a defined or solid meaning. And what does that mean?

You can basically insert whatever the fuck you want into the ‘code’. Hell, you can even insert meaning into a code that DOES NOT EXIST.

The speaker does it herself in the coming examples.

Scar from Lion King is apparently ‘queer coded’ because he’s ‘effiminate and willowy’.

Jafar too since he wears ‘eyeliner’.

Ursula was ‘literally’ based off of a drag queen.

... Order-

Scar’s ‘effeminity’ is shown with him making a hand gesture...that is a sign of SARCASM. And his ‘willowiness’?

This is a normal feline body.

Jafar’s ‘eyeliner’? Common practice in Arab culture with men. (it’s called Kohl).

Ursula being based off a Drag Queen? Yeah...

“ Calling Divine (real name Harris Glenn Milstead) "the great actor from Baltimore", Musker revealed that one of The Little Mermaid's writers, Howard Ashman, knew Divine and had Rob Menkoff - one of the film's principal animators - to do "some drawings that were based on Divine".

"Even though it’s sort of disguised, it’s based on the character [of Divine]," he said."It just fit the character," agreed Clements. "She was outrageous, theatrical..." “

She’s based off a drag queen...because they happen to have the same personality. And thing is here, even if they are ‘queer coded’- Ressiannce Disney villains are made to be LIKEABLE and ENJOYABLE villains. Contrast this with say...Looney Toon caricatures. They’re meant to be mocked and disliked.

But going back to the Ursula thing- The speaker never actually proves how Ursula was based off a drag queen. She just says it with a picture. And considering that looking into it reveals the basis is a COMPLIMENT. This is relevant because either the person didn’t know this and shows they are just jumping to conclusions (considering what she is talking about- that’s NOT good) or she did know...and continued anyway. Says a lot when ‘shit research’ is the GOOD option.

But let’s strike at the heart. Why would these minor things (even drag queens are not inherently LGBT) be ‘queer coded’ on her eyes when the use of LGBT characteristics as negative are usually MUCH more blatant? Well it kind of has to do with how ‘coding’ works. See, how do you code something as complex as being LGBT? Well, we have a word for it already. A very well known word.

‘Stereotyping’

No really. The hand gesture Scar used is a stereotypical gay man gesture, gay men are stereotyped as being thinner, wearing makeup with men is stereotypically gay, drag queens are stereotyped as LGBT. The speaker is using stereotypes of LGBT people to determine of a character is ‘coded.’

Issue- Stereotyping assigns universal things to specific groups simply due to connotations, ignoring reality in the process. In reality, Scar’s gesture is one of sarcasm, condescension and sadism with his lithe figure being a connecting thread to the Hyenas, his mooks. In reality, Jafar is just an Arab man. In reality, drag queens are not inherently LGBT NOR is Ursula displaying any other traits associated with being LGBT.

If you wanna hear what I hear- replace every instance of ‘coding’ with ‘stereotyping.’

Also I find it hilarious that she goes on about how ‘not all coding is bad!’ when showing Steven Universe characters later on...as she ignores context with the Disney villains (and I suspect with Ilulu).

So she goes onto specifically ‘child coding’, using things like ‘small, naive ect.’ She also acknowledges that shorter women exist, using La Brava from MHA as an example, talking about how her figure is proportionally more like an adult than a child and how she fits into MHA’s style despite her face looking like a child’s apparently

Moving beyond the Kanna stuff (don’t care)- she talks about how Ilulu’s face looks like a child’s and how her height is proportional to Kana...similarly to how she mentioned La Brava. And talks her body? Non existent.

Why? Well, let me show you a full body picture of Ilulu without her loose shirt.

Here’s a picture of Kanna.

Notice something?

Ilulu has a thinner waist, a more pronounced buttocks and wider hips.

All things that indicate a more mature body than Kanna.

‘But KOB! We can’t actually tell what Kanna’s body type is like!’

Okay, here’s the chapter 100 cover-

Kanna’s body is clearly different from Ilulu. In fact, Ilulu more resembles Tohru, an ADULT.

And if you REALLY think Ilulu’s body type is out of the ordinary for dragon bodies in this manga-

No, no she really isn’t.

The speaker tries to say they ‘de-babified’ her in the anime with this image from the manga-

But you can tell from the way she’s drawn this isn’t normal and is likely a comedic moment.

And going back to coding- Ilulu has a job, something children CANNOT HAVE.

‘But she admitted that her face in the anime was more defined than Kanna’s, her eyes are still lower though!’

Yeah, here’s the thing-

Ilulu’s not an adult either. She’s a teenager. Of course she’s not the same as adults but she’s also not the same as a fucking CHILD.

‘B-but she admitted La Brava is also short but she’s still unquestionably an adult!”

And yet she ignores how Ilulu is, by the same metrics, not a child. She says Ilulu talks like a child. ... But doesn’t explain HOW with the season 2 trailer. In fact, her La Brava example can actually be seen as childish due to her high tone. Yes I can here the...inflections that are similar to Kanna but numerous anime have used it with non-prepubescent characters to denote immaturity.

And as the final nail in the coffin- Back in the coding section, she mentioned that authors do this because it might not be socially acceptable. Issue is, the manga has the adult Lucoa trying to seduce a child (which she never mentions or even alludes to which is surprising) so clearly, the author doesn’t feel uncomfortable with the idea so even the justification is bullshit.

All in all, this comes across as projecting her own interpretation of things onto the original work. Which DEEPLY pisses me off.

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hlupdate · 4 years ago

Link

Here, the brothers look back on shooting Golden and TPWK with Styles and his team, talk Fine Line and trace the history of their work with the singer…

What are your reflections on the Treat People With Kindness video now it’s out?

What do you like most about the video?

Have the videos have been extra important to the campaign with touring postponed?

GT: Harry’s got an incredible team, his manager Jeff Azoff, Tommy Bruce, Molly Hawkins and Rob Stringerand the label, they’re just brilliant. They’ve been really impressive in how they view and plan stuff. The videos kind of replaced him touring, so they had to have an impact. His fanbase wanted something to feel positive about and joyous about. We just feel hugely privileged that we were able to collaborate on two of the songs. We love the album, it’s a real quality piece of work. With Harry, because the camera loves him so much, you really want to raise your game and make something really special because you’ve got such an incredible protagonist. And then with Phoebe involved too, me and Ben thought this might be the best it ever gets for us behind camera – two people completely in their prime. The last time Phoebe was photographed in a public place she was clutching three Emmys. And Harry, he’s getting bigger and bigger and is such a joyous presence to be around. Those two massive stars together, learning a dance routine, doing something they’d not done before, it felt like we were witnessing something really special and it just makes you want to shoot the best video you possibly can.”

How did you end up doing two videos for the record?

Harry’s vision for the album was so strong, what was that like to work with?

What was it like on set?

What do these videos say about where you are at right now as directors?

#harry styles #articles #150121

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years ago

Text

Survey #350

“let’s play a love game, play a love game / do you want love, or you want fame? / are you in the game?”

Who was your first good kiss with? Jason. Would you kiss this person again? I know I fucking would and I hate it more than I could possibly express. Name something that is on your bedroom wall? Lots of artwork, mostly of meerkats. What accessory do you want in your bedroom? I need another desk to put stuff on. If you could paint your walls any color what would it be? Something pastel. Maybe like, peach. Soft and warm and would really bring light to the room. What does your phone case look like? It's just this boring purple one that came with the phone. What do you take the most pictures of? My camera roll says my pets, hahaha. What is the point of Twitter for you? Liking Mark's shit lmao. What does your planner look like? I don’t have one. If you get into an argument what is it usually about? My anxiety, I think. What are you always in the mood for? Ummm probably a car ride where I can control the music in the passenger seat. It is very, very rare I'll turn that opportunity down. What’s the last emergency you dealt with? I don't really know; I'm thankfully not in these situations very much, especially when you're cooped up at home. I probably haven't been actually engaged in an emergency since I had to call 911 for my mom before she found out about her cancer. She was basically immobile from agony in her abdomen. Do you have a son? I'm perfectly happy without a son, or kids period. Are you married? No. Have you ever worn a suit? I haven't. Have you ever had to call 911? Twice for Mom. How many keys are on your key-ring? Just one for the house. What’s the last thing you created? An RP post would count as art creation, I'd say. Who are your closest friends? Sara, Girt, and uh... Well, they might be it as far as friends I consider truly close to me. I have a few other people I consider good friends, but we're just not like... on that "close" level, you know? Lisa is maybe another, and Lyndsey perhaps, both WoW friends. Are you ready to have a family? I hate that "have a family" tends to mean get married and have kids, which I'm guessing is what you're implying. If that's the case, no, given I don't want kids and am not fit to get married right now. I'm not even with anyone. I'm content right now with just living with my mom and my two pets, who are children well enough to me. Have you ever taken a DNA test? No. Do you have a family cemetery? No. Would you say you have a high sex drive or not so much? *shrugs* I think it's pretty normal. How do you feel about swallowing pills? What do you mean how do I "feel" about it? I just do it if I need to. What animal is the scariest in your opinion? Some kind of bug, probably. Giant centipedes creep me the fuck out, for one, and I've heard their bite is incredibly painful. I've also always been very afraid of Australia's funnel web spiders since watching some show on Animal Planet when I was younger; I think it scarred me for life, aha. And let's not forget the murder hornets. No thnx, rather die. :') Have you ever questioned your sanity? Way more than once, my friend. How do you feel about people wearing fur coats? Are you for or against it? I am VIOLENTLY against it unless it is for survival in extreme climates and you don't have access to other material. That aside, there is NO way you could possibly convince me that it's okay to wear the fur of something once living on yourself for ~fashion~. What’s the worst thing a friend has either done or said to you? Let's not go here. What’s fake about you? Like extensions, fake nails, botox etc. Nothing. If you got the chance, would you audition for a reality show? No. Have you ever gotten into a Facebook fight? Haha, yeah. Favorite flavor of jelly bean? Probably watermelon or strawberry. I'm not a massive jellybean fan. Do you use Tinder? If yes, have you ever met up with someone you matched? I've never tried it, no. What book/movie has made you cry the hardest? Either The Notebook or Titanic. Something you feared as a kid but don’t anymore? Thunderstorms. What’s your skincare routine? I don't really have one. Just wash it with water in the shower and then use a washcloth when I feel the need. Would you rather have a snake or a tarantula as a pet? I want both, but I prefer snakes. What is something you are NOT looking forward to? I both am and am not looking forward to my second Covid vaccine because it's notoriously worse than the first; the only bright side to it is that after the potential side effects blow over, I'm job hunting. What do you usually do right when you wake up? Check the time on my phone. Would you rather eat your pizza cold or hot? Hot, but I like both. Who taught you how to swim? Dad, I think? Can you do push-ups? No. Do you like Doritos? Yesssss. Who is the closest friend that you live by? I don't know. Have you ever banged your head against something? I've had two concussions before, so, y'know. Have you ever jumped on a trampoline? Yeah, I loved that as a kid. Do you like watching scary movies? Yeah. Has anyone ever told you that you have a big butt? No, considering I have like no ass, rip. Has one of your friends ever tried to "hook you up?" Ugh, yes. Do you prefer landmarks or street names when being given directions? Landmarks, by a mile. Although, I'm super bad with directions, so it probably wouldn't really matter much. Do you read the prologues in the beginnings of books? Yeah, you got to. Does your house have more than one fireplace? No. What was your favourite gym class moment? The one and only thing I liked about gym as a kid was when you took one of those rainbow tarps and made like, an air bubble underneath to make this awesome dome everyone sat in. Ya missed out if you didn't do that. Do you think that ocean boardwalks are fun? Yeah. Do you dread when people ask you to sign their yearbooks? Not at all; I was always flattered, knowing they cared enough to want mine. Apple Jacks: yay or nay? I looove those. Do you have a favorite Scooby-Doo movie? Haha yeah, I think it's the second one? Such iconic scenes. It's the one with the Mary Jane girl that Shaggy liked... oh, jokes that went over your head as a kid. Who were your last 3 Facebook messages from and what do they say? I'm too lazy to list the convos themselves, but the people involved are my friends Chelsea and Ian, as well as a friend's mother. Do you turn your phone off at night when you go to sleep? No. It's always on vibrate, and I just turn the brightness way down. What is the sexual orientation of the last person you talked to? She's straight. What’s your favourite hairstyle on the opposite sex? Don't you fucking dare laugh, emo hair is A++. Has anyone ever played a prank on you? What happened? Not a big one, no. Do you like the Silent Hill movies? Do I?! I love the first one (though for a while I wasn't very happy they swapped the lead role from Harry to his wife), and while the second is literal trash story-wise and it's ALL over the damn place, I still enjoy it with just how much I adore SH as a whole. What movie scared you the most out of any other movies? The Rite, because the concept of being raped and impregnated by a demon is fucking horrifying to me. Have you ever wanted to be on American Idol? When was this? Nah. Name 5 things you don’t believe in. 1.) "Everything happens for a reason;" 2.) karma; 3.) destiny/fate; 4.) psychics, fortune tellers, all that; and 5.) luck, at least in the sense of someone having set "good" or "bad" luck. If you could have any friend that you’ve lost back, who would you pick? Probably Megan. If you have pets, who normally puts food and water in their dish? Me for both of them. Do you organize the pictures on your computer into different folders or are they all just under “My Pictures”? I have folders. Do you think if someone is in a relationship, that it is acceptable to have sleepovers with other people of their preferred sex? Eh, nah, that feels a bit far to me. I am very firmly for friends still being able to hang out even if they're each other's preferred gender, but a sleepover sounds a bit too intimate, even without sharing a bed. Would you shoot a gun if given the chance? If you’ve shot a gun before, how many different types of guns have you shot? No. I'm very intimidated by guns and nearly shook when I merely handed a friend his (not for anything bad, he just carried it with him when he goes out), and I've got noooo plans of holding one again unless my life depends on it. Do you feel uncomfortable sharing things like artwork or poetry you’ve written? Is it because you don’t think it’s good enough to show off or because it’s too personal? You. Have. Zero. Idea. It's for both reasons, and it's far more severe in person. Online, I actually don't mind much, oddly enough... I can't quite pin down why. Do you have any siblings you absolutely despise? Why do you despise them? No. Do knives scare you? Is it from watching scary movies? Knives scare me like five times more than guns. Scary movies have nothing to do with it, though. They're just so sharp and the idea of being stabbed by one is terrifying. As someone with a history of self-mutilation too (not with knives, but I've thought about it and once planned to slit my throat with one, but Mom stopped me), they just make me incredibly uncomfortable to the point I can barely hold a "real" knife to just slice food. Have you ever climbed a chain-link fence? Many times. What is your LEAST favorite Disney animated movie? That I've seen, uhhhhh... I don't know man, there are way too many Disney movies lmao. Who was the last person’s house you went to besides your own? My sister's. On YouTube, who are two people you find hilarious? I'm just counting GameGrumps as one, and then you can't forget Shane Dawson, regardless of the controversy. He probably made me laugh more than any other YouTuber. Do you shave your pits? Yeah. Do you know anyone who has been on life support, and survived? I don't think so. Besides the USA, what is your favorite country? I'm not nearly informed enough about foreign countries' politics and laws and mannerisms to have a favorite. Would you rather go to Europe or Asia? Europe. Would you rather go to Africa or Australia? Africa. Would you rather go to Mexico or Canada? Canada. Do you think emo/scene hair is attractive? I love emo and scene hair, don't @ me, it's cute as fuck. Have you ever seen a ghost orb picture? Lots, actually, at one of my old houses that I totally know was haunted. Do you think abortion should be illegal? NO. You would NOT end abortions. You would end SAFE abortions. Do any of your pets have strange habits? Explain? Venus, my ball python, is extremely odd with food to the point I sometimes worry about her, but she's always been this way and is healthy, so I guess it's nothing really worth fretting over. Anyway, when I place her rat in her terrarium, she gets excited first and will pretty much frantically examine her surroundings, like slithering around everywhere, and even when she has clearly found the rat (she'll even prod it with her snout), she usually won't immediately eat. She just like... sits there and has to continue to verify for ten minutes that it's food. I know it's thawed perfectly, btw. So anyway, THAT'S weird... As for Roman, dear god, that cat's just weird, lmao. Especially in the morning, he's very hyper and will bolt around the house sometimes, he "plays" with nothing all the time, he "meerkat"s at nothing that I can nothing, etc. etc. etc. He's a weirdo lol. Have you ever told an extremely inappropriate joke? Oh god, I said something really inapprops once when my friend Chelsea startled me. I won't be repeating it lmao. Who in life have you felt the strongest need to protect? Sara, I think. Who have you most feared in your life? My dad. He doesn't scare me anymore, but he did. What was the quickest friendship you ever made? Oh idk. What is the worst word anyone ever used to describe you? "Martyr." And not the kind that dies for their beliefs. It hurt me so badly to know someone thought of me that way, and I'll probably never let it go. If you have any pets, were they adopted from the humane society? No. Roman is one of the billion kittens born to the cats my sister's in-laws have, and Venus is from a ball python breeding business in Florida called The Gourmet Rodent (they sell f/t rodents too, obvs) Do you like home design, like picking out paint colors and furniture? Not really. My grandmother though, whew, that was her calling for sure. Have you seen any of the old James Bond movies? Nope. List all of your features that you have ever gotten compliments on: My hair, my eyes, my tattoos, my hands, I think my nose, my dimples, my smile, and my boobs lmao. Have you ever been in a hot air balloon? And if not, would you ever want to go in one? I haven't. I think it'd be kinda cool, but they seem too easy to fall out of, and I'm afraid of heights. I'd probably go in one if given the opportunity. Do you have any stains on your shirt currently? No, but there are two small rips. It's just an old tank top. Do you listen to local bands? No. Not that I'm opposed, I just don't know of any I really enjoy. Do you watch YouTube videos often? Many, many daily. Do your parents fight? Do they even talk at all? They're divorced; they used to fight a lot when they were together. Now they only talk if they have reason to. Have you ever watched a movie that's in a complete different language, so you had to read sub-titles? No. Do people with yellow teeth disgust you? Dude, fuck off, no. My teeth are kinda yellow, and I'm extremely self-conscious about it, so seriously fuck this question. You never know for sure why someone's teeth may seem yellowish. Do you drink alcohol on New Year’s Eve? Usually a drink or two. Do you wear rings? I always have two on, yeah. Are you hungry right now? No, I literally just ate a breakfast bowl. Have you ever tried smoking a cigarette? No; I haven't the slightest interest in doing so.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''lovegame'' by lady gaga

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unchosens · 5 years ago

Photo

wonderful graphic thanks to @theboywhv, the best person alive

❝ there’s something inside you, it’s hard to explain. they’re talking about you, boy, but you’re still the same. ❞ Merlin’s beard, what is ( HARRY JAMES POTTER ) doing out at this hour? For a ( HALF-BLOOD ) who is ( 46 ) years old, ( HE ) really ought to know better. You know, I hear that they’re aligned with ( THE ORDER ), but that could be just a rumor. I do know that they're ( CISMALE ) and a ( GRYFFINDOR ) alum who works as a ( UNEMPLOYED ) though. They're very ( RESILIENT ) and ( SELFLESS ) but also quite ( SOLITARY ) and ( WRATHFUL ), which could be why they remind of ( TRUSTING YOUR GUT, LESSONS LEARNT THE HARD WAY, OLD SCARS AND FRESH WOUNDS, THE WEIGHT OF DUTY ). Some people say they’re the spitting image of ( NAVEEN ANDREWS ), but I’ve never heard of them. Word on the street is that they're ( THE REVENANT ) and their prophecy is ( PROPHECY #58. ), but only time will tell if that's true or not.

triggers: death, parental death, ptsd, torture

“THE REVENANT is the only person who can vanquish the unspeakable enemy, for they possess power that their nemesis knows not. When all is said and done, only they and they alone can end this for good. But if they fall, the entire world will fall with them.”

POST WAR.

Life was difficult for Harry after the war. He couldn’t bear the idea of going back to Hogwarts. Not only did the memories of everyone who died there haunt him, but it felt pointless. He didn’t belong there anymore, sitting in class, trying to pretend everything was the same. Harry signed up with the Aurors instead, in the direct aftermath not seeing another path for himself than to continue what he had started in protecting others. The work didn’t exactly make him happy, but it was a fulfilling purpose, helping him get up in the morning every day.

[PTSD TW; TORTURE TW] The lightning scar had never been the worst of his wounds. The memories of the people who’d died (for him), the feeling of Voldemort in his head, the sounds of Hermione screaming under torture, Remus, Tonks, Fred and Colin dead in the Great Hall were all what truly lingered. He tried his best, but he couldn’t help but think if he’d been smarter, done things a better way, they’d still be alive. They could all still be alive. The things Harry had done himself – such as the torture of Amycus Carrow - haunted him less, but he wasn’t proud of it either. There were days he thought he’d never get out of his own head, once trapped there by Voldemort, now only by himself – days he thought something had gone wrong inside of him and he simply wasn’t built for anything but fighting a war. It was Ron and Hermione he leaned on most, who helped him recover from the very worst of his depression and PTSD, but they couldn’t make it go away, couldn’t fix it just by being at his side as they had done for so many of his problems. His symptoms were mainly expressed through recurring vivid nightmares, consistent low moods, continuing hyper-vigilance/alertness in his day-to-day activities and frequent self-isolation. Harry was never good at talking about the things that bothered him most, and it was no different now, he kept most of it inside and threw himself into his new purpose, being an Auror. [END TW]

He tried his best to keep functioning, to keep seeing his friends - Harry hated the thought of worrying them and he needed to be around them, too, for his own peace of mind. Teddy also meant the world to him and he was determined to be there for his godchild , the closest person he now had to family. Andromeda remained Teddy’s primary caregiver and was scarcely willing to be parted from her only remaining family for much more than an hour, but she and Harry got along surprisingly well and she soon became comfortable with letting Harry look after him for longer periods. She treated Harry not as a hero, but as the shell-shocked and traumatised young man that he was. He certainly wasn’t ready to be a parent to a young child, but Harry visited often, at least two or three afternoons a week, at his most presentable, determined to at least be a steady presence in Teddy’s life. Usually, he ended up sleeping the night when Andromeda forced him to stay over in the guest room. She could tell that left to his own devices, he wasn’t getting much rest.

Soon after the post-battle clean up, when Kingsley approached him about Auror training, Harry didn’t hesitate. It was what he had always planned on – the only thing he’d planned on. And it was a natural extension of the work he’d already been doing, helping with the trials and the remaining Death Eaters. For someone not expecting to survive, there was something healing about participating in the clean-up, in the rebuild. It wasn’t that he couldn’t see a different path – quidditch, teaching, all things he enjoyed, that he might have made a life out of. In another life. At the end of the day, that life wasn’t for him. It might have been restful – but Harry knew he had never been a restful person. He never would be. At least now it was on his terms, his choice. That’s not to say he managed to find a healthy balance – Harry threw himself into the work, caring little for his own wellbeing when the only thing he feared was losing momentum and having to think about the trauma of the war.

Becoming an Auror required a lengthy adjustment process. The war was over, yes, but it was time for politics to begin, and there, Harry was out of his depth. He had old scars, too, literally and figuratively, from dealing with the Ministry and a lot of distrust. He’d never been good at working with others, who weren’t Ron and Hermione, but luckily, both were still at his side. What was difficult was learning to accept help from other people too, and getting used to the slow and bureaucratic way Aurors had of solving problems. Harry couldn’t just throw himself headfirst into danger anymore, surviving on skill, luck and nerve – he had to listen, obey orders and co-operate. All of which he found difficult, used to operating on his own, or under the trusted instructions of Dumbledore – the only person he’d ever really had to answer to in the past. Now there was a whole department full of co-workers and bosses who he had to find a way to get along with, many of whom thought he scarcely had the right to be there.

Harry had never gotten along with the Ministry - had in fact in the past refused to co-operate with them. Now that the story was out and his defeat of Voldemort and quest to destroy the horcruxes was public knowledge, some resented that Harry, a seventeen year old boy had not confided in the Aurors - they believed they should have been entrusted with the mission, that Harry keeping the secret close to his chest had been reckless and selfish. It was mostly due to Kingsley’s influence that Harry was hired - he wanted someone he could trust within the department given the upheaval it had gone through during the war. Of the Aurors, some had gone on the run, some had been killed, some had been Imperiused and some had been collaborators who were now imprisoned themselves. As Gawain Robards attempted to put the cracks of the Department back together, Harry found himself at odds with many of his senior co-workers, who believed that Harry saw himself as above the law - much as they believed his mentor Dumbledore had.

In return, it was only Kingsley who Harry really trusted. He was suspicious of many of the Aurors he’d come across in the past - people like Dawlish, Proudfoot and Savage, who may not have been working for Voldemort, but had done plenty of damage regardless due to their unquestioning loyalty and fanaticism for the Ministry’s rule. Dawlish in particular was a problem, given that he had been Imperiused by the Death Eaters after their takeover of the Ministry, something he was particularly susceptible to after the Order had Confunded him several times. For this, he blamed Harry. Their working relationship was tense to say the least, and it was a relief for Harry when he began to rise through the ranks and no longer had to answer to Dawlish.

At first, though, Harry just wanted to work. Help in the trials, make things better, not get involved in politics. He remained fervently distrusting of the Ministry, though he believed Minister Shacklebolt was different. It was Hermione who’d always had the passion for causes in the abstract, things like S.P.E.W., that honestly, Harry had barely even feigned interest in. He’d step up every time if there was danger, if someone needed him – throw his life on the line without a second thought, fight back against a threat, an aggressor, a tyrant – but he was never really a revolutionary.

Instead, Harry had somehow naturally fallen into a role as a Dementor expert. For the first couple of years after the war, he was a dedicated – some might say obsessive – member of the Dementor Task Force. The task force concentrated on tracking down the Dementors that had been working for Voldemort and getting them away from the wizarding and muggle villages that they had gotten used to targeting in big swarms. It wasn’t precisely healthy - Harry had always been affected by them worse than most and especially after the war, when he was already in a dark place, constantly reliving all the worst memories and being dragged into low moods by the Dementors wasn’t good for him. Especially as he approached the job with the razor-like focus he had so often been consumed by in the past. But he pushed on anyway, arguing that it wasn’t as if other people had an easy time with them either. He’d do his share. His famously strong Patronus put him in a better position than most of his co-workers anyway, which is what got him originally appointed to the force.

Then, at the same time as Harry was working hard on driving the Dementors away from people they would harm, he learnt that the Ministry was still intent on using them in Azkaban as prison guards. As before, for Harry, it’s when it becomes personal that he takes an interest in politics, and then he is unstoppable. Nothing was more painful to him than the memory of Sirius’ twelve years in Azkaban without a trial, the lost years they could have had together, and the life stolen from his godfather, sucked dry by the Dementors. Even aside from that, the Dementors turned coat before and could do so again. Harry would rather trust people than the dark creatures, if he has to trust anyone outside his core group at all.

So he then found himself getting involved in politics after all, more than simply saying a few words here and there, or supporting Hermione in one of her reforms. His friends were glad of it, encouraging him to take a step back from active duty hunting down the Dementors, having been concerned as Harry experienced his darkest period since the end of the war. The good news was that the famous Golden Trio were still inseparable, and frankly, unstoppable when they had a cause. It was mostly Hermione leading the way, but Harry wasn’t going to sit back and participate in more of the same Ministry corruption either. He turned his focus on prison and trial reform relentlessly, steadily growing more comfortable in being a leading voice, and since then recognised as one of the more influential Aurors in the department, likely to be appointed to leadership in time.

[TORTURE TW] Yet Harry himself was far from perfect. While he wasn’t especially guilt-ridden over his needless and anger-fuelled torture of Carrow, or the other, more practical uses he’d made of the Imperius Curse during the war, he couldn’t in good conscience fail to recount the whole story, everything he had done, when telling Kingsley what had happened, right after the battle. Kingsley organised a pardon for war crimes, which he then promptly buried at the Ministry for political reasons, aware that people didn’t want to know this about their hero. His motivations were both to protect Harry from undergoing more scrutiny when he had been through so much already – and at the same time, ensure the new government wasn’t tarnished by this complication. [TORTURE TW]

Harry went along with this, hating the idea of undergoing more publicity, more attention, and following Kingsley’s lead to let it rest, not yet wary of what this could mean for continuing corruption in the Ministry. His use of the Unforgivables remain a secret even now, something not known to many outside of Harry’s closest circle of Ginny, Ron, Hermione and some of the Order. When Harry thought of that time and what he did, he remembered the danger of his temper, of what he was capable of if he gave into anger, of where it could lead him. That, more than anything else, was what haunted him about what he’d done and was a warning he planned on passing on to his children when he considered them old enough – yet he often put it off, afraid of what they might come to think of him.

Before that, he and Ginny rebuilt their relationship, finding their deep connection to still be alive and strong after the horrors of war. It was Ginny who got him without Harry having to speak, and it was Ginny who could make him laugh again. She understood the trauma in his past and had never changed the way she looked at him. They eventually got married and supported each other as they grew their careers, Ginny in professional Quidditch and Harry in working his way up the ranks of the Aurors until he became Head Auror.

As his family grew, Harry truly felt for the first time in his life that he was putting the past to rest, finally letting go of all his pain. It was James who came first - a child rejected by his birth family on account of his magic. The pain of being an outsider was something Harry knew well - his own childhood had very little love in it once he was sent to the Dursleys - and his heart instantly went out to the little boy. When some time later, another baby was left on his and Ginny’s doorstep, just as he had been left on a doorstep himself years ago, to some it might have seemed as if fate was guiding his life again. But Harry didn’t think about it like that. He still believed what Dumbledore had told him - that it was choices that mattered. Not ability, not blood, not birth, not fate. It had been Sirius Black, a man not related to him by anything but the ties of friendship and love that had given Harry his first experience of family, of a father. It seemed right that he could do the same for his two sons - more than right, it was what he wanted, more than anything. A third child, Lily, made their family complete. As a parent, he wanted to ensure his children grew up with everything he didn’t have, as well as give them the best of him, usually at his most patient and even-tempered around them, if also a little overprotective.

Protecting his family was his highest priority, but his fame and position made it difficult. Harry tried to keep his kids from the spotlight as much as possible, but even he knew it was hopeless. The press had never stopped being interested in the Boy Who Lived, even once he was a man. For himself, he hated the publicity - personally, he could never quite get over the lies and the harassment he’d faced, the way he'd been treated as a spectacle to dissect all over the front page. But Harry had also seen firsthand what it was like when false information and dogma was fed through the news and so professionally, he knew it was crucial to speak to them – in his capacity as Head Auror only. His most important rule, which he made clear at every interview with his sternest expression and very coldest voice was that he never spoke about his family. All he ever wanted was for his children to have safe and happy lives, and he would have done anything to make that happen. It was why Harry struggled with Lily’s ambition to be an Auror. At once painfully proud and fiercely worried that she would find the cycle of violence and darkness too much to bear, it took time for him to accept that she was just as stubborn as he ever was.

THE SECOND WAR.

The rise of the Wraiths made Harry furious, perhaps more than even he had ever been before (and he was always very good at anger). The sacrifices he had made, that the people who had fought and died had made, were not going to be made into nothing. He had been frustrated for some time by Orion Lestrange - it had been clear to Harry that the wizard had been planning some kind of attack, but within the law, there had been nothing he could do while Orion hid behind a cover of political freedom. While at many times in his career he had felt the old frustration with the Ministry and its skewed priorities and limitations, he was now truly disillusioned at the way it seemed to harm more than help, despite the contributions of Kingsley, Hermione and Harry himself. He now felt as though he had failed to make a difference, failed to prevent this war, a mistake that was proving catastrophic.

Harry then reformed the Order not just to fight, but to win. And this time, he had no intention of doing it in secret, beyond the covertness necessary for survival. The Order itself would be secret, but Harry was going to speak out. This was their world now. They weren’t children, and they weren’t powerless.

He depended on his old circle to be his fellow leaders, Ron and Hermione, Ginny, Luna and Neville – there was no one else he trusted more, and together he had faith they could end this, for once and for all this time.

He took the codename Hart, a reference to his stag Patronus - hart being a term for an adult red deer, was also chosen for Gryffindor red, but of course, he had to endure a lot of jokes mostly from Ron and the Weasley brothers about being the heart of the Order. All of which Harry dismissed with an eyeroll – he wasn’t special, certainly not more than any of them. They were going to win together.

When Harry heard about the Prophecy, his determination to fight didn’t change, but he also felt a deep dread, an ever-increasing disconcertment at the way history seemed to be repeating itself. He wasn’t afraid of having to fight Voldemort again – he would do that prophecy be damned. He didn’t need a prophecy to tell him to do that. But Harry was afraid of the past repeating itself, of more people dying for him, of them making a sacrifice for someone who wasn’t worth it. How could he, how could one person, be worth all the death that lay in his past? The worst of it was the fear of who could be lost next – his children, the very best of his life; his wife, who was the greatest source of happiness he’d ever had; or his friends, who’d never backed down from his side, despite the risks they’d faced.

The thing about prophecies was that Harry learnt them, as he learnt so many things, at Dumbledore’s knee. Hearing this one made him angry. The only one who could defeat an unspeakable enemy? Already, it implied that he would once more be the victor, the one to survive, the one who lives. What about his children? His wife? His best friends? There were no assurances for them and Harry had no intention of being the survivor this time, not if it meant losing them. The one thing he wanted was to end this war before his children had to be more involved than they already were. And that, to Harry, meant not listening to the prophecy. He already knew they didn’t have to be true – that it was Voldemort who had really marked Harry as his eventual killer. Dumbledore had told him that, and whatever complicated feelings he had about the man, who he at once loved, resented and couldn’t bear to hear criticised, Harry still had more faith in him than just about anyone else. If there needed to be a sacrifice this time, he’d be the one to do it.

The only problem was that if other people chose to believe the prophecy – and they did – he and his family would be a target. He knew in a way that it was his own fault. After all, he did defeat Voldemort. But Harry also knew it wasn’t because of any prophecy. As he once put it, he chose to walk into that arena with his head held high and do the job marked for him, by Voldemort, by Dumbledore – but not by fate. To the rest of the world, though, he had proven once before that he was the Chosen One. So the Potter family increased their protections, and went as close into hiding as they could go without actually going into hiding, all the while the spectres of James and Lily I and their fate hanging over him.

Meanwhile, considering his determination to not believe this Prophecy, Harry started thinking about what might happen if he did die. It was certainly not his intention to die – he didn’t mean to sacrifice himself simply for the sake of it, but he’d fight and die if necessary, like anyone else. He had to think, then, about how that might mean leaving his children with nothing. Years ago he’d given the Marauder’s Map to Teddy, who he assumed had since passed it down to James, and perhaps Albus and Lily in turn (Harry didn’t need to know about that, it wasn’t supposed to be passed down from parent to child, but from mischief maker to mischief maker - though regardless of that, he knew what it was like to crave a connection to the father you’d never known and it belonged as much to the Lupins as to the Potters).

Now, however, Harry gave his long-treasured Invisibility Cloak to Lily as a means of protection at Hogwarts from the student Wraiths and also as a tacit sign of his approval of her decision to become an Auror. But truthfully, it was also because of his uncertainty of whether he’d make it out alive this time. Perhaps, if the worst indeed came, it would give her comfort, as having something of his own father always had for him. He also, at this time, looked past his own desire to stay perfect in her eyes and told Lily about his own use of the Unforgivable Curses in his past, knowing that she was in many ways, just like him - and if Lily was going to choose the same path as him, face the same darkness, he wanted to warn her of the dangers of their shared temperament. He had passed on enough pain to Lily already and he did not want her to repeat his mistakes. At Hogwarts, Lily did need the Cloak the most; for James, Albus and Teddy, all adults, he focused on giving them all the time he could, just in case. He wanted them to know there was nothing in the world he loved as much. That it had all been worth it, to get to this part of his life, where he got to have them.

DEATH AND RESURRECTION.

The one thing he wanted was to end this war before his children had to be more involved than they already were. But tragically, that hope ended the same night Harry’s life did. Lestrange, something of a sadist, had chosen the night on purpose and tormented Harry with the fact before he died. Harry gave up any hope of escape, preferring to buy time for his family.

Ginny took James and Albus to safety, to the Granger-Weasley safehouse, only to return with Ron and Hermione to help Harry. They were too late to find anything more than his body, bereft of his wand, which had been taken by the Wraiths as a trophy.

He was buried at Godric’s Hollow, in the graveyard next to his parents’ plot. On their other side is a memorial stone Harry organised himself, honouring Sirius and Regulus Black, neither of whom left a body behind. Harry, alongside Andromeda, also oversaw the burials of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks at Godric’s Hollow.

While the fact that he has been brought back from the dead as a living revenant seems to point to the prophecy’s accuracy, the old Harry would have pointed out that knowledge of the prophecy would have encouraged the Knights to bring him back as just that – a self-fulfilling prophecy once more. Now, without his memories, Harry is less inclined to regard the prophecy as false, not when everyone around him seems to credit it but it remains yet another thing Harry struggles to believe about himself. What chance does he have of defeating any enemy? He doesn’t even know who he is. He doesn’t know if he wants to know who he is, if he even wants to be alive. He might be a revenant, but he isn’t a hero. It’s not that he doesn’t want to help. If he knew where to start, he’d try. For all his confusion and grief over the heaven he’s lost, there’s no part of Harry capable of sitting back and doing nothing. But he’s lost. Whoever Harry Potter used to be, he’s no one’s Chosen One anymore.

Harry Potter had been resting, at peace. He was torn away from that when he woke up in his grave, to be found by the Knights and told who he was. At first he felt nothing so much as confusion. All he could really remember was being safe, comfortable, warm; now it was eyes on him all the time, hushed whispers in his presence, frightened voices and angry discussions in which people threw around blame. Learning of his past made him more unnerved still – it was impossible to think of being this person others described, apparently the perfect hero … though Harry can’t help but see the trail of death that seems to follow this past self of his in all the stories. Touching everyone except him.

Being around his old family and friends is, for the most part, uncomfortable. He doesn’t know how to act around any of them, he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to be. And they look at him with so much expectation, so much hope. It’s the worst around his children. The way they look at him could break him if he let it. Despite everything he doesn’t remember, Harry hates the feeling that he’s disappointing people. It hurts to let them down, when it seems as if they love him so very much. If only he could remember. But no matter how much he tries, he can’t find what he’s lost – what, he sometimes thinks, might no longer exist as anything other than someone else’s memory.

And there are times he doesn’t want to try. Times all he feels is anger, an anger he tries not to show, but it’s there. He doesn’t belong here. He shouldn’t be here. And they brought him back. It was the first thing he had said when he was pulled out of the grave – “I’m not supposed to be here. Who are you? Why did you do this to me?” Since then, it’s never really stopped hurting. It got worse when he learnt about Neville Longbottom – Harry doesn’t remember the man, but knowing he should be alive and Harry should be dead is a lot to bear. From the stories, though, allowing other people to die for him is nothing new. The question is why other people keep going along with it.

With the resurrection, Harry has been altered. Some things remain the same – he’s still brave and determined, still resilient and certainly still internalising his own feelings, trying to be strong, because it’s what people seem to expect of him, what they’re looking to him for. And he can’t help but try to be what others need instinctively, though truth be told, he’s no better than he ever was at comforting others, awkward and unpractised at both words and touches of love. The feeling of a wand in his hand is familiar, even if he doesn’t remember old spells, and he seems to have a way of rubbing the scar on his forehead when he’s thinking, or brushing flat the unruly hair on his head, that might well painfully remind his forgotten loved ones of the man they knew. But while he still feels those old instincts deep within, ultimately, he’s more consumed with himself and his own pain. It’s something like being a child again – egocentric and absorbed in his own feelings.

His worst flaws, the ones that before his death, Harry had spent years working on and trying to master are instead amplified – his temper, impatience, independent streak, tendency to internalise and his disregard of his own life. For now, he’s cooperating, remaining hidden in the Order safehouse, but he’s never been easy to control, and while others are consumed with trying to figure out what to do about Harry, what’s right - even with the best of intentions, he’s never liked being told what to do or “handled” like a problem. As if he’s incapable. In fact, that tends to make him more defiant, more reckless, and without the bitterly learnt lessons in controlling those urges, Harry is every day more likely to do something he can’t take back.

The worst part of it is that he doesn’t really know what he wants – to do anything and everything possible to get back his memories, regardless of danger? To fight alongside the people who are apparently his family? Or to leave, to take the offer of a peaceful life without any of them, to leave and never look back? Deep down, there’s another urge, to give up entirely, to stop fighting past the pain he feels in order to stay alive – it’d be easier to return to the heaven he’d lost. That much he can’t say out loud to anyone, sure of the pain it would cause to these people who won’t seem to stop fighting for him, whether he wants them to or not.

#rev intros

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hellzyeahwebwielingessays · 5 years ago

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The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 4: The Death of Mysterio

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Master Post

Last time we began our look at the life of Mysterio. In this post we’ll continue our retrospective, starting with the 1990s.

The 1990s: Helping Harry

We come now to an event that chronologically would’ve happened in the 1990s but was retroactively established in 2009.

During Brand New Day (ASM #581 specifically) we learned via retcon that Mysterio was responsible for faking the death of Mary Jane’s close friend, Harry Osborn. He did this on behalf of his Harry’s, father Norman.

I won’t recount the entire Harry Osborn Saga for you, but suffice it to say that Harry’s descent into madness was incredibly stressful for Mary Jane and Peter.

In spite of what Harry had become the couple were grief-stricken by his death.

MJ in particular was so affected by his death she requested Peter take a temporary break from hero work.

That same day Carnage began a killing spree alongside several other highly violent super villains. MJ’s grief over Harry coupled with the anxiety that Peter might meet a similar fate contributed to straining her and her marriage further, albeit briefly.

At the time Peter and MJ were living in an apartment owned by the Osborns. Following the Carnage crisis, Harry’s widow Liz Allan evicted the Parkers as a direct result of Harry’s death. Obviously this added to the Parkers’ distress.

In general Harry’s death left short and long-term wounds for MJ and people she loved and Mysterio was directly implicated in that. As he had done with Aunt May he had caused entirely unnecessary pain and grief out of pure selfishness, even if he was merely a ‘hired gun’ to that effect.

We never see MJ learn this information but given how one of her friends seemingly came back from the dead it’s something she’d obviously want to know about and since she is so close to Peter and Harry it’s extremely unlikely they wouldn’t have told her.

I will admit that this example is a contentious one as it doesn’t really make sense for a loooooooot of reasons and the story doesn’t 100% confirm that Harry (and by extension Peter and anyone either of them might tell) knows Mysterio was responsible.

So it could be argued that as far as Harry knows an unknown ‘someone’ covered his tracks (presumably his father) but he’s in the dark regarding Beck’s involvement.

However it is food for thought, yet another thing that would realistically cause MJ to hold Mysterio in lowly regard.

Duel with the Devil

Lets move away from Beck’s encounters with Spidey and towards those he had with Man Without Fear, Daredevil.

The first of these occurred in Daredevil #358, set shortly after the Onslaught crossover. In the wake of Onslaught’s attack and the presumed deaths of the Avengers and F4 Beck set up a fraudulent insurance scheme to con people out of their money. That isn’t too relevant beyond it once again proving what an exploitative dickbag Mysterio is. More importantly though, it sets up his next encounter with DD.

I am of course referring to the ‘Guardian Devil’ story arc that ran through Daredevil volume 2 #1-8.

This arc is the absolute nadir of Mysterio’s ‘bad behaviour’.

Developing terminal illnesses and with just a year to live, Beck sought to go out with a bang. Initially he intended to make Spider-Man the centre of his plan but due to confusion (arising from Ben Reilly’s tenure as Spidey) he targeted Daredevil instead. Learning personal details about Daredevil’s life (including his secret identity) Beck built a plan designed to attack Matt Murdock’s sanity (evoking his scheme in ASM #24). In particular his plan hinged upon Murdock’s Catholic beliefs.

A key component of his plan was the abduction, drugging, artificial insemination and gas lighting of a Catholic teenager named Gwyneth.

Although her faith led Gwyneth to believe her pregnancy was divine in origin, she was understandably emotionally distraught after discovering herself pregnant and her pregnancy caused major strife with her parents. To ensure Gwyneth’s parents wouldn’t get the chance to investigate the matter, Beck hired some thugs to murder them. Witnessing her mother being beheaded over the body of her father Gwyneth fled with her baby, terrified as the thugs pursued her.

Out of desperation she was temporarily forced to sleep on the streets with her baby. It was at this point that Beck used his illusionary skills to trick her into seeing a ‘divine vision’ that led her to Matt Murdock. Passing her baby onto Matt she fled again hoping to lay low. However Mysterio’s men found and promptly murdered her. Her body was buried somewhere it wouldn’t be found.

Just to bottom line things so far, Mysterio knowingly:

Abducted

Drugged

Sexually assaulted

Orphaned

Traumatised

Hunted

Distressed

Manipulated

And murdered

A TEENAGED GIRL!

Just saying…

Anyway, there was more to Beck’s scheme than just Gwyneth.

He also murdered an innocent old man and for his fortune and impersonated him to enact the next part of his plan. This entailed slipping Murdock drugs that made him susceptible to Beck’s cover story. According to this story Gwyneth’s baby was in fact the literal anti-Christ and misfortune would befall Matt the longer he was around the child.

To help make his story more convincing Beck began targeting Matt’s loved ones.

He hired a drug-addicted actress named Lydia Mckenzie to seduce Matt’s best friend Foggy Nelson, who was already in a relationship. On Beck’s orders she also slipped Foggy a drug that caused him to perceive her as a demon and believe that he had pushed her out a window. In reality Beck ensured she died of an overdose, shoved her out the window himself and over all framed Foggy for murder.*

He also posed as a doctor and (I am dead serious right now) tricked Matt’s girlfriend Karen Page into believing she had AIDs. Remember this story was from the late 1990s so this was a BIG deal.

As a result of these machinations and the drug Beck slipped him, Daredevil genuinely tried to murder Gwyneth’s baby.

Mysterio later hired DD’s long-time nemesis (and known psychopathic assassin) Bullseye to abduct Lydia’s baby. He cared little about the inevitable collateral damage Bullseye caused in pursuit of his target. And by ‘collateral damage’ I mean the serious injuries to several people (including Matt’s mother, the nun Sister Margaret) and the murder of 11 people. Karen was among the casualties, traumatically dying in Matt’s arms.

Matt was so distraught over Karen’s death that he briefly contemplated suicide.

Angry and determined, Daredevil zeroed in on Beck’s hideout where Beck had a gauntlet prepared for him. One of the obstacles Murdock faced was an illusion of Karen stuck in Hell. Undoubtedly this was the single most spiteful and hurtful of the things Matt endured in Beck’s gauntlet.

When Daredevil and Mysterio finally come face to face, Beck revealed Gwyneth’s baby trapped in a soundproof chamber where the air was rapidly running out.

So…Mysterio is a-okay with seriously endangering and potentially murdering a baby.

…Again…Just saying…

Mysterio finally revealed his master plan to Daredevil, intending to push a broken Murdock into murdering him.

When DD refused Mysterio opted to emulate Kraven the Hunter and blow his own brains out; a fact that became public knowledge.**

Now sure, we the audience might be aware of all these awful things Beck did in ‘Guardian Devil’; but how much does MJ know about them?

The potential answer is all of it.

The definite answer is more than enough of it.

Towards the start of Daredevil v2 #8 Peter is shown watching a news report about Mysterio’s death. The report acknowledges Mysterio committed suicide and that the bodies of his criminal crew had been found. It also refers to ‘a related story’, that of Foggy Nelson being freed from prison after being framed for Lydia’s death. This implies the news were aware Mysterio was implicated in Lydia’s death.

During this scene MJ is not only within earshot of most of the report, but she even consoles Peter that Mysterio was (in her own words) ‘a lunatic’. She acknowledges he was responsible for the deaths of ‘all those people’. She continues by saying Beck doesn’t deserve Peter’s ‘pity’ and that he should ‘not mourn for Mysterio’. She concludes by telling him to mourn someone ‘who deserves it’ instead.

Then they go to Karen Page’s funeral, which they were clearly preparing for during the news report.

Their attendance of the funeral and the scene leading into it heavily implies that Peter and MJ were aware that Mysterio’s was implicated in Karen’s murder.***

Later in the issue Spider-Man talks to Daredevil in order to fill in the blanks.

We do not know for sure if Spider-Man relayed any of this information to Mary Jane, but it’d be highly likely.

He typically confides in her and uses his conversations with her to process things. MJ herself often asks him to share if she sees something I bothering him.

In this case Peter would especially want to inform MJ of what happened and MJ would especially want to know.

This is because the incident entails one of Peter’s foes essentially manipulating and killing the lover of a fellow street level hero. In fact the only reason Daredevil was targeted at all was because Beck didn’t realise Peter was still around as the original Spider-Man. In other words Peter and MJ could very well have been in Matt and Karen’s shoes.

For the sake of future reference and general safety it’s totally unbelievable that Peter would not have told MJ about this at some point. After all, forewarned is forearmed and MJ has found herself targeted by people with powers of deception like Mysterio in the past, e.g. Venom and the Chameleon.****

I admit there is no hard proof that MJ knows all the details about Mysterio’s actions, but it’s rather unlikely that she wouldn’t if Peter did; it’s just common sense. Therefore we don’t need to see such a scene any more than we need to see the characters going to the bathroom or paying their taxes. It’s just such basic common sense we can presume it happened.

Even if you don’t think so, at the bear minimum Mary Jane definitely knows Mysterio is guilty of murder, accessory to murder (of someone in a similar relationship to herself), gas lighting and mental abuse. The result was that she personally regarded him as mentally unhinged and unworthy f sympathy.

If you only bear in mind ONE of the stories we’ve looked at so far, remember this one. In particular because the story is explicitly referenced in Amazing Mary Jane #1.

The 2000s: Rebirth of Berkhart

As far as those in charge of Marvel were concerned, Beck was genuinely dead and that was the status quo throughout the 2000s.

Nevertheless there are two very noteworthy events from MJ’s point of view that should be taken into account.

The first occurred in ASM v2 #7-8. In this story ‘Mysterio’ abducts the Parker family along with some of their friends and plugs them into a virtual reality machine because the Matrix was really popular back then. His intention was to deduce Spider-Man’s true identity by monitoring their interactions in the virtual world.

This virtual world happened to be shaped by the subconscious of Flash Thompson, meaning everyone was contorted to fit into his wish fulfilment fantasy. This included MJ’s friend Jill Stacy becoming a seemingly resurrected Gwen Stacy, MJ herself being gaga over Flash and wanting to marry him (the climax actually occurs at their wedding) and MJ’s husband being wheelchair bound.

Realistically the fantasy world (along with the realization they’d been abducted) would’ve obviously been upsetting for Mary Jane. Indeed it would’ve been upsetting for everyone else too (including fragile old Aunt May) even if it didn’t leave long-term scars. With no equivocation, this upset was directly ‘Mysterio’s’ fault.

I say Mysterio, but in actuality (and due to retcons) it was Beck’s ‘apprentice’ Danny Berkhart. However, Mary Jane couldn’t have known that (even the writers didn’t!), so from her point of view it would’ve seemed likely that Beck was responsible and merely faked his death once more during the ‘Guardian Devil’ arc.

Later during the ‘Mysterio Manifesto’ mini-series Spidey and Daredevil discovered the truth behind Berkhart’s scheme. This is tangentially important to bear in mind because of what we are going to look at next, namely Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #12.

The specifics of this story aren’t all that relevant. All you need to know is that following Spidey publically unmasking Midtown High (where he worked as a science teacher) was besieged by three Mysterios. One was a new villain named Francis Klum, who had a vendetta against Spider-Man. Another was Berkhart who took issue with Klum’s claim to the Mysterio mantle. And the third was Beck himself, literally sent back from Hell.

After deducing an illusion of MJ as a fake Peter calls the genuine article to confirm her safety. During their conversation it’s revealed that MJ believes Mysterio to be dead.

First of all, this scene establishes that MJ was definitely aware Mysterio had targeted her husband (again!) and potentially endangered school children in the process.

Second of all, from her point of view it’d seem likely that Beck would be behind this. I grant you that's a point that can be debated. However in her conversation with Peter he seems to imply to her that it is the original Mysterio.

Finally (and most importantly) MJ’s dialogue reveals that previously believed Beck was dead. Between ‘Guardian Devil’ and ‘Beck’s’ presence in ASM v2 #7-8 Mary Jane would have no reason to believe Beck hadn’t simply faked his death again. That is unless Peter told her otherwise.

Remember, Peter learned the truth in the ‘Mysterio Manifesto’ when MJ was believed dead, which occurred after ASM v2 #8. This means that Peter must have informed her of this discovery after she was revealed as alive.

This is a point less about how bad of a person Beck is and more about proving that Peter keeps MJ abreast of noteworthy events in regards to his villains. Thus it is absolutely illogical to presume MJ wouldn’t similarly be in the know about most events Peter experiences pertaining to his villains; or at least the really noteworthy ones.

Let’s leave it there for now. Next time we will finish our coverage as we enter the 2010s.

*‘Fun’ fact. In addition to her close friend/ex-boyfriend Harry Osborn struggling with a drug addiction (which indirectly led to Gwen’s death) another of MJ’s friends was well acquainted with drugs.

Her name was Lorraine and she helped MJ learn the ropes when she was first getting into modelling. Unfortunately after overdosing in the Parker residence, MJ learned Lorraine had a major cocaine problem. MJ was so upset by this she asked Peter to sort out Lorraine’s dealer, only to be distraught when Lorraine simply went to someone worse and very nearly died as a result.

Lorraine survived and MJ was determined to help her through her problem.

Oh and MJ herself struggled for a little while to kick cigarettes.

All of which is to say Mary Jane is definitely going to take major issue with someone exploiting someone else’s drug addiction for their own ends. Which is exactly what Beck did with Lydia McKenzie.

Not to mention Lydia was someone in the exact same profession as Mary Jane, which might incline further ire from MJ.

**Remember this is not the first time Mysterio has been publically declared dead. It first occurred in ASM #141, which I discussed in the last instalment.

***Not to mention how it’d be common sense to ask how someone so young died if you are going to their funeral.

****And as food for thought she has literally armed herself with guns in the past. As such the idea she wouldn’t make a point of getting practical information for the sake of safety is highly unbelievable, even if she didn’t live in a city where super villains are commonplace.

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Master Post

#Mysterio #Quentin Beck #Amazing Mary Jane #Leah Williams #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #MJ Watson #mjwatsonedit #Spider-Man #peter parker #daredevil #matt murdock #Karen Page #Bullseye #Harry Osborn #Flash Thompson #Foggy Nelson

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eseult · 5 years ago

Note

4, 16, 41

04. What was your muse doing when they heard about Harry’s death – and later Neville’s death and Harry’s resurrection? How did they react to the news? Did they attend either of the funerals or memorials?

She doesn’t remember where she was or what she was doing when she learned about Harry’s death. She vaguely remembers her father being the one who told her, but apart from that, there isn’t much that’s clear in her head regarding that time. She remember how she felt. Empty, in a way. Sadness often manifested that way within her, and since it was the first time Lucy had to grieve someone she knew (well? I don’t know the family dynamics yet but I picture Lucy having generally gotten along very well with the adults of the family and loving their serious™ discussions; but that’s another story) and it was… A lot. At the same time, she didn’t feel it was right for her to express too much grief, when she finally unfroze, because she knew it had to be a billion times worse for James, Albus and Lily, and that she couldn’t possibly understand what they were going through. Then again, she didn’t want to act like Harry’s death didn’t affect her, so she ended up isolating herself a lot after his death. She either really leaned on Molly II or her best friend (the best friend is going to be a wanted connection, just saying — and I’m saying one of them since I don’t know the dynamic between Molly II and Lucy yet, of course, and don’t want to like force my ideas and what not), and that person was probably the only one she full on sobbed/broke down in front of. The thing with Lucy is that she’s really sensitive and tends to react strongly to everything, and honestly cries easily, but with a death, a death of someone she admired, someone who was family, it was… Different.

Oof. Regarding Neville’s death… Her plot arc is legit that she disagreed with the resurrection, and like… She feels so fucking guilty she didn’t fight harder for what she believed in, aka that they should not be trying to fool death. So I feel like when she first learned about Neville’s death, she was angry. At herself, mostly, but also at everyone else involved in what had happened. She deeply regretted not arguing more than she did and not literally stopping them, but also… At first, she was also mad at the rest for not listening to her. It was weird because it was a jumble of emotions, but Lucy can sometimes feel like people don’t take her seriously for a variety of reasons (too soft, too young, too sensitive, too girly, too kind, too forgiving; the list goes on) and it was like… She was right. She was right and for the first time in her life she wished she wasn’t, but she was, and they should have listened to her. That was her first reaction. Then came the devastation. The sadness that felt like emptiness. The tears she hid when she had to face Dove and Fawn, though she found ways to make them know she’d be there for them if they needed her. For anything. She literally asked Dove if it was okay for her to attend Neville’s funeral, because she wanted her to be like, comfortable? That may not be the right word, but just… Not be surrounded by the wrong people at such a heavy moment? To be fair, Dove didn’t seem to care either way, but Lucy was like “I have been a decent human being, that is good.” Because honestly Lucy isn’t always the best in social situations. And I’m rambling and I don’t know where I’m going but she’s just…… So upset. Still. She feels guilty. She doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do or say. But she knows she wants to honour Headmaster Longbottom’s memory, even if it is in a small way.

She did attend both funerals/memorials. She sat in the middle row each time.

16. Who is the most important person in your muse’s life and why?

I sometimes go with Molly II when I play Lucy, but obviously that depends on the plotting that’s going to happen between me and the person who plays Molly! But no matter what, it’s definitely someone in her family OR her best friend (who I keep on mentioning as a wanted connection but like……… I am nothing if not not subtle). It could easily be her parents, to be honest, and I think that’s the most obvious choice. Lucy really loves and respects both her mother and her father, and though she did have a tiny rebellious phase in her second year (she tried to get a muggle tattoo……… she was NOT taken seriously ergoijeriogjergiej it’s kind of funny actually but yes), she’s always had a good relationship with her parents. I picture her feeling like they’ve never treated her like someone lesser or as an extension of themselves, as some parents can, but rather as an equal (with some limits, of course), and it probably led to her feeling respected and listened to. Which is like, super important for Lucy, because she often feels like people don’t take her seriously enough for a variety of reasons. Plus, she just really admires her parents as people in general. She’s very close to them, all in all, and yeah, they honestly might be the most important people in Lucy’s life at the moment?

41. Out of the seven deadly sins, which does your muse embody the most? What about the seven heavenly virtues?

This was tough because I feel like every sin fits Lucy in some ways and REALLY doesn’t fit her in other ways, but! I think I’m going to go with envy. Thing is, Lucy’s happy with what she has, but she’s ambitious and wants more. And when she sees people who have all she wants, she can’t help but feel envious. It’s not to the point where it hinders her own happiness, but I still feel like it is relevant when it comes to who she is. I think, sometimes, she feels bad about her envy, too. Like, she doesn’t enjoy feeling envious of people she loves, admires and/or respects, but she can’t help it. It’s like, she works so hard for everything, and maybe she’d still have those things even if she didn’t work that hard (which would never happen because it’s not in her nature), but sometimes it’s like… “Why can’t I have what they have?” And she reads a lot of muggle science magazines and what not, and has actually read a couple of things regarding psychology, so I do think she acknowledges that it’s not a good way of thinking, but even though she can acknowledge that, it’s still not easy to alter the way you think. And like, I feel like when she’s with close friends and things like that, it may sometimes come through that she feels this way about some people? I’m still developing how her envy manifests itself, to be honest, so that’ll probably be explored in a self-para or something like that eventually!

As for the virtues, I think Lucy definitely embodies kindness the most, but once again, it wasn’t an easy decision. The thing that comes up most often when I scavenge through the internets™ for information about this virtue is that it’s kindness for the sake of helping others, without expecting anything in return. And like… That’s Lucy. She doesn’t forget herself in the process of helping others, but she doesn’t do it for herself either; she does it for the other person. To her, helping someone in the hopes of being rewarded (whether it be literally or through reputation and what not) is not true help. It’s why she feels uncomfortable with muggles who do charity work and then talk about how it “changed” their lives, which she’s seen way too many times in muggle publications. She’s even written a long letter to a muggle magazine who said they were doing a profile on a country, but who only included articles from foreigners who went to that country to “help out”, and like ergoirjgoijeroijger. It was a ten pages long letter and she was thirteen years old at the time. But anyway! Yes, kindness. It just… Fits best, I think? Once again, I may explore that more in the future!

#jamesqotter #thank u for sending these!!!!!#rev talk #c. lucy weasley #c. lucy weasley | answers #long post

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makeste · 6 years ago

Text

BnHA Chapter 183: The Rest of the Cultural Festival

Previously on BnHA: Class 1-A brought the fucking house down. The band played their hearts out and the act literally opened with a bang thanks to the resident human incendiary device on drums. The dancers did their thing, and Aoyama played the role of both fireworks and disco ball. Sero, Mineta, and Todoroki combined their quirks to create paths of ice over the audience’s heads. Momo then shot out a bunch of confetti, and Ochako dove into the crowd and floated a bunch of people to have a dance party in mid-air. Iida doing the robot was the highlight of the chapter and indeed the whole manga, but Jirou was a close second, with an adorable flashback to when she first told her parents she wanted to be a hero instead of a musician, and they were the most supportive EVER, and it was amazing. Even the surly upperclassmen were won over by class A’s general vibe of awesomeness, and everyone danced their hearts out, and Eri was THRILLED and her smile was brighter than the sun and Mirio cried and oh my gosh you guys. I just feel bad for the rest of the classes that have to follow this act now lmao.

Today on BnHA: Class 1-B puts on the most audacious fanfiction-turned-stage-play since Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. All Might informs Deku that he has 47 missed calls and next time would it kill him to PICK UP HIS GODDAMN CELL PHONE jesus christ. Hounddog rips Deku a new one and tells him to be more careful in the future and throws him 20 feet into the air and tells him to go have fun. Eri is so fucking cute that I almost burst into tears just from how cute she is. The surly upperclassmen apologize for their shit attitudes and vow to spread the word of how class 1-A is actually really fucking cool. Kendou, Kenranzaki, and Hadou battle it out for the Miss Con title and Hadou finally wins the title after three years. The kids enjoy the rest of the festival, and Deku gives Eri a homemade candy apple before bidding her farewell. Down at the station, a nice gorilla man sits with with the detailed Gentle and Aiba. Gentle explains that Aiba was never directly involved in any crimes and accepts responsibility for his misdeeds, thus taking his first steps towards rehabilitation.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 207 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

okeedoke, I’m back and ready to finish up this arc and enter the next one which has been much-hyped thus far!

but first, class 1-B’s copyright-infringing play!

I really didn’t think chapter 182 could be topped, but somehow 183 has managed to do it in a single page. I’m speechless

also, the fact that they’ve literally done the “I am your father scene” here kind of makes the Dad for One theory slightly less likely

-- OR DOES IT. maybe this is just meant to throw us off our guard! I won’t give up!!

and now everyone’s walking out afterwards and either critiquing it or talking about how awesome and funny it was

Kaminari is sad because class A didn’t get to see it because they were cleaning everything up from their program. awww

and meanwhile Deku is getting chewed out by his dad

“is he getting scolded?” YES

and he really has no excuse. he could have called, but he made a conscious decision not to. sure, it all worked out in the end, but he didn’t know that ahead of time! DEKU YOU’RE SO IRRESPONSIBLE

(ETA: apparently he forgot his phone. supposedly. I missed that line the first time around, but I have my suspicions as to whether or not that’s true though. phones these days are practically an extension of your body. I don’t care how much of a hurry you’re in, how do you just forget it?? you’d feel that it’s not in your pocket! I practically have a freaking anxiety attack if I so much as go downstairs to my building’s laundry room without my own phone. like holy shit what if I miss a text during the two and a half minutes it will take me to move my clothes from the washer to the dryer fffff.

anyway my point is that whether he forgot it or not, he’s still irresponsible. DEKU)

by the way is Shouto burning something in the background here? and Katsuki too. you guys were looking forward to this cleanup huh

so now Deku’s apologizing, and the sad thing is he probably is truly sorry. and yet you know that the very next time a situation like this comes along, he’s going to do the exact same thing

really, All Might just needs to not sign any more of those permission slips. he’s grounded. you’re grounded, Deku

and now Hounddog and Ecto are walking over

HAHAHAHA

gotta make sure all the kids are still terrified of you, huh

good lord this man has no concept of personal space

All Might is always lucking out, having other teachers nearby who are actually willing to be the bad cop. at least someone out here is laying down the law

anyway, Hounddog is of course 100% right and he’s the one Deku should really be apologizing to

hoLY SHIT

I need to do some rearranging of my favorite U.A. faculty list

truly, no one is safe

lmao Sero says he’s gonna call Deku “My First Errand” from now on omggggg. if y’all want to see some cute shit go google “hajimete no otsukai.” there’s a whole tv show about it. you can usually find a few subbed episodes on Dailymotion if nothing else (for instance here’s one). this is the show that makes you realize that four-year-old Katsuki and Izuku wandering in the woods with their friends really isn’t anything out of the ordinary. and it’s filled with adorable crybabies and also some really precocious kids who make me feel incompetent somehow despite being more than 30 years older than them

anyways HERE’S ERI

is someone videotaping this. please tell me someone’s videotaping this. these are precious childhood memories

also LOOK AT MIRIO COPYING HER HAND GESTURES I CAN’T. I’M GOING TO DIE. OF CUTENESS

my god I want to make it my icon so bad but it’s a giant spoiler so I can’t ;______; [reaches out longingly to the two of them]

waaaaaah anyways

Deku is wiping his eyes because OF COURSE he started crying but he doesn’t want her to see lol

and he says he’s glad she enjoyed it

[folds chin in hands] I’m just going to enjoy this for as long as possible. life is good. in this moment, everything is perfect

aaaaaand now Mineta is running over and screaming at Deku for not helping them clean up

I really want to be mad at him for ruining the moment and also just for being Mineta in general. but there’s nothing worse than someone who just sits around goofing off while everyone else is working hard, so I can begrudgingly relate. STOP HANGING OUT WITH THE CUTE KID AND HELP US. you can hang out with the cute kid later Deku

a bunch of kids are walking by (I guess on their way back from the play) and waving at class A and saying their program was awesome and they loved it

Kirishima is thrilled and he’s grinning and thanking them

well LOOK WHO IT IS

DO YOU TWO HAVE ANYTHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY

oh shit

lmao they made Kacchan’s day

YES THERE FUCKING WAS. THEY PURPOSELY GOT WITHIN KATSUKI’S HEARING RANGE TO TRASH HIM AND HIS CLASS ALL PASSIVE AGGRESSIVELY FOR NO REASON. THEY KNOW WHAT THEY DID

it’s good that they apologized for it. although we may need to watch out now and make sure that it hasn’t gone to this one’s head lol

Kiri’s turning to Iida and asking if those were the stressed out people Aizawa was talking about

oh my god Iida why are you so cute

sometimes I forget how much I love Iida and then he makes this face and my heart belongs to him

now Iida is saying that some people didn’t get a chance to see their performance and thus might still be stressed and so they need to continue to do their best or whatever

but the random bystanders are saying that they understand class A’s feelings and what their intention was when planning all this, and now that spirit has been passed on to them

and so they’re going to pass those sentiments along to others! hooray. pay it forward

and also surely someone got the performance on video too?? I NEED THERE TO BE VIDEOS OF EVERYTHING OKAY

Mina is happily elbowing Jirou and saying she must be pleased

and now Iida is bowing at a full 90-degree angle and saying they are forever grateful. lol this guy

Bakugou says he’s not grateful, and it seems he wants to give whoever didn’t bother to come to their performance a piece of his mind. lol this kid

now Mineta is screaming at people again to help him finish up cleaning

and it turns out it’s because he doesn’t want to miss the Miss Con

and now we’re at Miss Con! I guess

YESSSS GO KENDOU

IT’S SO STUPID TO DO THAT IN A FUCKING BALLGOWN BUT GODDAMN SHE’S SO BADASS THOUGH

but now Lashes is riding in on a giant tank in the shape of her face

have to say this is one of the more surreal things that’s happened in this manga thus far

(ETA: nothing to see here guys. just normal beauty pageant stuff. martial arts and tanks)

AHHHHHHHH

IS ERI SITTING ON DEKU’S LAP I CAN’T OMG I’M DYING AGAIN. MY SOUL IS LEAVING MY BODY. I’M SO CONTENT. I FEEL AT PEACE

Monoma’s watching everything with a weird face, and meanwhile Kirishima is congratulating him and Tetsu on how their play went. and Tetsu’s congratulating him on the concert. nothin’ but good vibes here

here comes Hadou!

her classmates are rooting for her and Tamaki is folded over about to be consumed by nerves lol

deep breaths, Tamaki. deep breaths

I guess this is Tamaki thinking now? or the General Narrator? or possibly Hadou’s other friend?

well whoever it is, the thought bubbles are saying that Hadou lost last year because she tried to take on Kenranzaki in flashiness, which is where Kenranzaki shines. but Hadou has her own strengths

lol she’s floating around like Tinkerbell and everyone is mesmerized

gurllll you got this gurlll

now she’s landing and everyone’s applauding

and voting has been opened and results will be announced at the end of the day at 5 p.m.

LOOK AT CLASS A HAVING FUN

I CROPPED OUT MINETA SO WE CAN ENJOY THIS TO THE FULLEST

LOOK AT THIS MONTAGE OF GOOD TIMES!!!

I WANT TO SEE BAKUGOU COMPETE ON A FULL SCALE NINJA WARRIOR COURSE. HE’S HAVING A BLAST

WTF IS THIS RAT PRINCIPAL/TODOROKI HYBRID. I’M SO CONFUSED AND TERRIFIED

CREPESSSSSS

THEY GAVE ERI ONE! I HOPE SHE LOVED IT!! BUT REMEMBER, APPLES ARE HER FAVORITE!! CANDY APPLES, YOU PROMISED MIRIO

IS THAT SHINSOU IN THE HAUNTED MAZE?? LOL

IS THIS THE FIRST TIME WE’VE EVER SEEN MEI IN HER UNIFORM? SHE ACTUALLY DID CLEAN UP, HOW ABOUT THAT

IS THAT A CEMENTOSS JUICE BOX

I HAD TO POST THIS PANEL SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE LESBIANS!! AND JUICE BOX!!

HADOU WON THE COMPETITION YAYYYYYY

MEI GOT TO SLEEP YAYYYY

EVERYONE IS SO HAPPY!! TO THINK GENTLE ALMOST RUINED THIS. BUT ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

and now it’s the end of the day and Deku’s saying goodbye to Eri

awwww she looks glum again. it was such a fun day she probably doesn’t want it to end :(

Deku’s telling her to look up at him!

AHHHHHHHHHH

HE REMEMBEREDDDD

at least someone did. Mirio

YOU SHOULD HAVE LOOKED HARDER!

oh lol actually Deku says he realized they might not have any after he looked at the program, so he bought the ingredients when he went shopping earlier

ohhh so that’s what was up with that panel of him in the kitchen in the midst of all the festival happenings. I was wondering about that

LOOK AT DADZAWA

YOU DID ADOPT HER RIGHT. RIGHT. RIGHT???

(ETA: GOD BLESS YOU AIZAWA SHOUTA)

she’s eating the apple!

she loves it!! she says it’s sweeter than a regular apple. that’s cuz it’s LITERALLY DIPPED IN MELTED SUGAR, ERI

so she’s leaving and it’s a much happier farewell now! awwwww

and Deku’s turning back and reaching toward the gate

and then he’s stopping and shaking out his right hand

oh that’s right. it’s probably sore from earlier

and now we’re cutting back to the police station and the cops are interrogating La Brava

lollll

“NO” :|

she says she only wants to be useful to Gentle

well Gentle’s gonna be in prison for a while so you might want to think of some backup options kiddo

now a literal gorilla is interrogating Gentle and he says they’ll be able to tell if La Brava really was brainwashed

but even though the jig is up, Gentle’s still trying to protect her

well yeah. and also even if she wasn’t brainwashed by a quirk, it doesn’t mean she wasn’t actually brainwashed. she was in a vulnerable state of mind and he took advantage of that. even if there was mutual affection on both sides

now Kerchak here is looking at his records. “a high school drop-out, previously in the hero department, and now a producer of criminal videos, huh?”

Gentle says he remembered his dream and he just started running towards it

Kerchak says if that’s the case, it’s a good thing they stopped him today

awww. possible redemption on the horizon, perhaps? these cops are pretty nice huh

now Kerchak is asking if Gentle drinks tea

and Gentle’s asking for black tea, and Kerchak says they only have instant. aww. lol

and the text is all “even here, someone was saved”

and that’s the end!

what a wholesome fucking arc. oh my goodness

BONUS: here’s Hadou’s school friend, Yuuyu!

she’s Hadou’s best friend! I love her!

and she’s not wrong about her being the cutest thing in the galaxy tbh. also this line makes me think “best friend” ought to be crossed out and replaced with “girlfriend” if we’re being honest here

lol at the explanation for why dyed hair and piercings are allowed even though they wouldn’t be in a real life school as prestigious as U.A. listen. we got that. look at Midnight. look at Aizawa. clearly U.A. is not particularly hung up on dress codes. I’m just saying

#bnha #boku no hero academia #midoriya izuku #hounddog (bnha)#eri (bnha)#hadou nejire #gentle (bnha)#bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #y'all know I have headcanons about mitsuki and inko sending katsuki and izuku on their first errand together when they were like two #katsuki is incredibly proud and boasts to everyone he sees about how they're on an errand all by themselves!#meanwhile izuku starts bawling the minute their moms are out of visual range #and he keeps on crying until katsuki gets fed up and tells him he needs to stop!#because he's not a little baby anymore!#and he needs to be tough like all might!#all might wouldn't cry!!#and izuku is all :O and spends the rest of the errand following katsuki in silent awe #this is probably when his crush first really develops tbh #wow~ kacchan is so cool~~#in the end the errand is mostly successful except that kacchan buys his favorite type of curry instead of the one his mom told him to buy #but no one died or anything so hey #I'd call that a win

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hollyoaksloversx · 6 years ago

Text

Saying Goodbye...

Rounding up a week in Hollyoaks (29th April - 3rd May 2019)

It was the week of Lily’s funeral and emotions were running high. At the Teahouse, Peri and Yasmine were busy choosing photos from Peri’s laptop to print out and place on Lily’s coffin, however, Peri was left devastated when Ste took the laptop to post another racist meme, and ended up deleting the pictures. The pair had a blazing row over the situation, just as Leela returned to the village. At the Nightingale’s, following Donna-Marie’s ‘confession’, Romeo was released from prison, but rather than being met by James at the prison gates, he was met by Prince. Prince raged at Romeo for running off with Lily, and made it clear that he blamed him for his wife’s death. Realising that Prince had suffered enough, Romeo told him that Lily had been planning on coming back to him before she died. The two lads came to an understanding and agreed to support each other at the funeral. However, back in the village, Diane was in a right state as she attempted to finalise the arrangements for Lily’s funeral. In a bid to help, Tony, knowing that Diane was worried about things kicking off between Prince and Romeo, asked Romeo not to attend the service, leaving him devastated.

As the day of the funeral arrived, Marnie and James were concerned when Romeo refused to attend the service, and Prince was also upset when he realised that Romeo wasn’t planning on going. As it turned out, Romeo did make it to the church and stood side by side with Prince as they told the congregation how much Lily had meant to them. However, at the wake, Prince accused Romeo of muscling in on his moment to say goodbye to Lily and stormed off. Despite warnings from his family, Prince went to see Liam, who told him that revenge was the best way to get over losing a loved one. Keen to find something new to focus on, Prince begged Liam to allow him to work for him. Yay! Another character dragged into gangster nonsense!

Meanwhile, there was tension between Darren and Nancy as she struggled to adjust to Charlie and Oscar’s involvement with Darren’s new family. The boys were thrilled when Darren presented them with a new tablet, suggesting they take it to the hospital to take some photos of DJ, but Nancy reacted by confiscating it, telling Darren that she was trying to reduce their screen time. Nancy’s annoyance over the situation once back at home meant that she failed to notice Kyle acting shiftily, and after receiving a phone call from his ex, Colin, he headed off to meet him with a bag of goodies he’d pinched from the Osborne’s, including Charlie and Oscar’s tablet. Colin told Kyle that he’d ruined his life and if he didn’t pay up, he’d ‘tell the others’ where he was. The conversation was witnessed from afar by Darren, and he jumped to the conclusion that Kyle must be having an affair. The following morning, Nancy and Charlie awoke to find several items missing and Nancy quickly called the police, assuming they’d been burgled. Later, Darren told Nancy what he’d seen the previous night, but Nancy was quick to rubbish his claims. However, it seems she may have been premature when she later overheard Kyle on the phone to someone, saying that Nancy couldn’t find out what he’d been up to...

Elsewhere, love was in the air for Cleo and Mitchell as Walter finally gave the pair his blessing. Having realised that Cleo had been going through a tough time with her mental health, Walter invited her round to dinner, much to Mitchell’s delight. Cleo proved to be a massive hit with Walter when he discovered she loved a quiz show just as much as he did! With the date having gone well, Mitchell and Cleo made plans to see each other again, but with Mitchell’s shift patterns at the hospital, finding time proved difficult. It was then that Cleo announced the perfect way they could spend more time together; she could train as a nurse. Because of course, she’s bound to get a job at the same hospital as Mitchell and they’ll definitely be on shift together in the same departments. And we definitely know that Doctors and nurses get loads of breaks to sneak off for a quick bunk up in the store cupboard. Mitchell was delighted with the idea of having a ‘sexy nurse’ for a girlfriend but Cleo took his words a little too literally and later burst in wearing a kinky nurses outfit whilst Mitchell was examining a patient! Luckily, he didn’t seem to mind too much!

In other news this week, Maxine was annoyed as Damon seemed to be spending more time with Brody at the Loveboat than with her. Not wanting to spend her ‘last days’ alone, Maxine told Damon that she wanted to see more of him. He agreed, but failed to share the news with Brody, who had just invited a blogger to come and check out the boat, meaning the pair would need to spend more time at work. Juliet struggled to come to terms with Donna-Marie’s imprisonment but was soon cheered up when Marnie gave her a lesson in etiquette. Finally, Romeo enjoyed a nice night out with step-dad, Harry.

5 Things We Learned This Week:

1. It’s all about the memories. Sylver was busy preparing a memory tree for Bobby to take to school this week. But what sort of things might the youngster want to put on it? That time Mercedes faked a kidnapping of him? What about when Grandad Carl became a raging alcoholic? Or when new Daddy, Russ, got murdered on his wedding day? So many happy memories to choose from!

2. Ste and a laptop is an absolute disaster. Not only will he delete your precious photos, but he’ll post racist memes all over the internet. Keep him away!

3. Don’t buy loose fruit in Price Slice. It’s been balanced on Marnie’s head.

4. The Deveraux’s are massive quiz show fans. Well, The Family Chase is a thing now. Get them on it and let’s have a crossover! Martine can show off her extensive knowledge of 90s girl bands, too!

5. Regression, regression, regression. Liam had started to become more tolerable over the last few weeks, having turned to God and started to spend more time with baby Iona. So who’s bright idea was it to have him return to the dark side this week?

Characters Featured:

Anthony, Brody, Charlie, Cleo, Damon, Darren, Dee Dee, Diane, Goldie, Grace, Harry, James, Jesse, Jonny, Juliet, Kyle, Laurie, Leela, Liam, Mandy, Marnie, Martine, Maxine, Mercedes, Mitchell, Nana McQueen, Nancy, Oscar, Peri, Prince, Romeo, Rose, Scott, Sinead, Ste, Sylver, Tony, Walter and Yasmine.

Past Characters Mentioned:

Glenn Donovan, Lily Drinkwell, Eva Falco, Tegan Lomax, Tabby Maxwell-Brown, Celine McQueen, Hunter McQueen, Alfie Nightingale, Ellie Nightingale, Mac Nightingale, Nathan Nightingale, Donna-Marie Quinn, Shane Sweeney.

#Hollyoaks #Highlight #Romeo Quinn #Prince McQueen #Ste Hay #Diane O'Connor #Lily Drinkwell #Liam Donovan #Martine Deveraux #Walter Deveraux #Mitchell Deveraux #Cleo McQueen #Darren Osborne #Nancy Osborne #Charlie Dean #Oscar Osborne #maxine minniver #James NIghtingale #Harry Thompson

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mister-tom-a-dildo-lover · 7 years ago

Note

58 for Harry and 61 for a pre-Marauders Era Voldemort. 🙏

Fandom: Harry Potter

Pairing: Harrymort

Tags: Alternate Universe Altogether, Pre-Marauder’s Era, Jealous Voldemort, Misunderstandings, Gossip, Humor,

58: “I’d die for you. Of course I’d haunt you in the afterlife but really, it’s the thought that counts.”61: “I love you. I’m completely and utterly in love with you. Please don’t get married.”

In his thirty-four years on this gods forsaken Earth, Tom Riddle, now called Lord Voldemort by his acquaintances and gathering followers, hadn’t ever been this angry. And he’d witnessed the aftermath of London being bombed by muggles for years, had dealt with the hatred of a teacher all because he could speak to snakes, and was bullied during his first year at Hogwarts because of his filthy, muggle name.

All the anger he’d gathered during those times didn’t even compare to the present.

Abraxas Malfoy had just revealed that night at his family’s Yule Ball, that Hadrian Evans, a Halfblood who’d joined Slytherin a year after Tom did, was supposedly in a relationship with some other Halfblood who was sorted into Hufflepuff. A Hufflepuff for Merlin’s sake!

Evans had been a… comrade. Tom didn’t like using the word friend because friends were used as leverage in dangerous situations. Unfortunately, it was rather common knowledge that there was something extra between them as evidenced by Tom’s last year in school.

He’d never joined Tom’s acquaintances during their weekly meetings, and felt that his Knights were ridiculous, but he would study with Tom, and give him advice. He knew the ins and outs of the Magical world even if he denied it. He was a fascinating creature of habit with interesting, and conflicting opinions on everything.

They also may have become involved to a minor degree a few times and Abraxas had assumed they were exclusively seeing one another. That was not the case, not that Tom Riddle hadn’t wanted more. Not that he would ever say anything. Tom wasn’t one to speak first on his true emotions. He felt it a weakness ever since he’d once witnessed a little girl get verbally flayed for exposing her feelings. They were used against her and he learned to not do the same with others.

And eventually, with his leaving school and going to work in Diagon when he couldn’t acquire a job at Hogwarts, they grew apart. And eventually he went exploring in search of old magics and information to obtain levels of greatness no others had achieved and Hadrian stayed in England.

And now Tom was back and had finally gotten word of Hadrian’s movements recently. Only to find out that he was involved with another.

His possessive side demanded that he find this other person and eradicate their existence. The more mature side told him he should sway Hadrian’s heart his way instead. Less of a chance at earning Hadrian’s wrath that way, and Tom wasn’t so blind as to forget the boy had equaled him in Defence. The only person who had. He and Tom had also drawn in the Dueling Club meetings and neither ever lost to anyone else.

Hadrian worked at Hogwarts. As the new History of Magic professor. Binns was finally gone. And if he somehow managed to obtain a job there, they’d be around one another constantly. He needed the DADA job.

Harry blinked in shock at the man who sat in front of him. He hadn’t seen Tom in a long time and the man seemed to be doing well. He was still ridiculously attractive too.

“You want to work at Hogwarts?” he asked, a bit baffled. Surely Tom woudl prefer the Ministry?

“I was told I needed more experience. That was why I was not hired right out of school, Hadrian.”

Merlin, how he said Harry’s name shouldn’t be legal.

“Well, I am the Deputy Headmaster now. I was allowed to work here after graduation but Dumbledore is the Headmaster so I think that’s why. He won’t want you here and we both know it, so I can only give you a letter of recommendation to help you. You should contact your old professors for letters as well, and then we can bring your case to the Board of Governors. I know a lot of your friends have a hand in that and they would be able to overrule Dumbledore’s decision when he refuses to give you the Defence position.”

Dumbledore hated Tom. Sure he was a bit sketchy, but that was no reason to be so blatantly rude to him all the time. Harry by extension, wasn’t the biggest Dumbledore fan. Especially since in order to get back at Tom for whatever bad things he thought the boy was doing, he’d show ridiculous favouritism to the Gryffindors and it was aggravating.

“You are brilliant.”

He flushed, enjoying the man’s praise. His infatuation hadn’t died off it seemed. Wasn’t that lovely?

“I’m a Slytherin too, you know.”

According to Witch Weekly, Hadrian was seeming some man named Gerald Renaldi. Tom’s glare managed to burn a hole right through the magazine and he ended up tossing it in the rubbish. The photo on the cover had been too cheerful and comfortable to be anything but romantic.

“Woah, are you okay, Tom?”

He fixed a charming smile onto his face and greeted his old… flame as he joined him at the table. “I am well, thank you for being concerned. How are you on this day, dear Hadrian?”

The man flushed and smiled. “I’m doing pretty great.”

He hummed, thinking back to the article. “Planning the wedding?” He’d only asked out of pettiness. He hadn’t expected the answer he received.

“Yes and it is so much work!”

The fact that he was able to keep his temper in check so Hadrian never found out about his anger, meant he was unparalleled in self control. He deserved an Order of Merlin for such masterful faking.

“I have to say that planning a wedding is so difficult and I didn’t want any part in it but mum told me I absolutely had to help. But thank Circe it’s almost over. Saturday is the day.”

Voldemort was assaulted by visions of himself wringing a dragon’s obscenely long neck in frustration while Hadrian walked down the aisle. The mounting anger made his magic react in an unpleasant manner that was difficult to hide. It fizzled beneath the skin demandingly.

All these dinners recently and he’d had to listen to Hadrian complaining about wedding invitations and cake flavours and clours. He had a lot to say and was exhausted all the time because of his hand in it all.

And he just couldn’t control himself anymore! He was jealous. He was bitter. He didn’t feel comfortable seeing Hadrian in photographs with strange men! He wanted to be the one making him smile so widely. He wanted to be the cause of it all.

Reaching out, Voldemort took hold of one of Hadrian’s clenched hands, getting a wide-eyed look in response. He’d never done this before and decided to treat it like removing a muggle plaster from a wound. Just get it over with all at once. “I love you. I’m completely and utterly in love with you. Please don’t get married.”

There was a moment of staring between them, where he felt like taking a stroll through the Forbidden Forest and allowing the growing Acromantula Colony to have its way with him. But only for a moment.

Hadrian snorted then, and Voldemort couldn’t mask his offended expression.

“Oh Merlin, Tom!” the other man gasped, looking like he’d just been told the most hilarious joke. “I can’t believe you!”

“I honestly do not see the humour in this situation,” the growing Dark Lord confessed, put out by the response to his confession. It took a lot to admit his true feelings after all.

Hadrian’s bright green eyes glittered. “I’m not marrying anyone yet, Tom. My sister Lily however, has been having me help plan her wedding for months.”

Voldemort was gaping and he didn’t care. “But all the photos of you and Gerald Renaldi in the papers. Everyone literally says he is courting you.”

“Well he isn’t. I’m the most attractive teacher of Hogwarts currently, Tom. I’m more popular than Lily is. And they use photos of him and I while only using my surname to gain publicity. You’re such a goof.”

“How exactly, am I a ‘goof’?” he demanded, feeling offended and turned around.

“Because, Tom, I’d die for you. Of course I’d haunt you in the afterlife but really, it’s the thought that counts.”

Hadrian squeezed his hand back, having not moved during Voldemort’s minor conniption. “You sat here listening to me complain about a wedding for weeks, no doubt getting huffy and puffy over it, and didn’t decide to speak up until a week before the wedding you thought was mine. You are a bit of a twat, Tom. Could have saved us both the trouble.”

He was not a twat.

“At least I can now ask you to accompany me to the wedding.”

A/N: This was fun! ^-^

#Harrymort #Lord Voldemort #ficlet #Watermelonsmellinfellon #a bit longer than a drabble so sorry bout that

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