#but europe does not have Time for them to realize this before europe becomes very difficult to sustain livelihoods in

[chaos-coming]

Yall dont understand how much i missed the forest. And i mean a real forest, not the sterilized, neutered monoculture devoid of life and energy that they call forest in central europe.

Since we as humans are part of a larger community of living beings, we can sense the life around us on an intrinsic level. And we can sense its absence. And if you start to notice the life and energy around you, those sterilized environments feel like sensory deprivation, like wearing figurative earplugs.

It really hit home for me just now, how absolutely destroyed central europe is on an ecological level. Every new day, every new place i get to witness, just refirms this understanding. There is a desperate need for rewilding in this region, to allow natural communities to heal and restore diversity and variance and the chaos that is life on this planet.

But first and foremost there is a need to shift cultural values in the region, before any kind of rewilding can happen. A while back there was this viral post about a french couple demanding the culling of wolves after witnessing a wolf hunting in their backyard. What should be a rare and incredible experience, a privilege and a pleasure to see (and an indicator that the natural communities of the alps have the potential to revive) - to them was a nuciance and a threat to their orderly idyllic cottagecore fsntasy world. It's like their whole culture never moved past the middle ages mentality of achieving safety by "taming" the wild places.

And i've genuinely had (frustrating) conversations with forestry and conservation students from central europe who are literally Afraid of natural forests. Theyre "too wild" and chaotic, lacking the order and control theyre accustomed to in all other parts of their country's society, and require intensive management to bring it to submission and be a "propper" forest. In their eyes, the forest is a resource only growing timber and looking like a city park for them to walk through. Anything that makes obtaining wood more difficult or less profitable is a Problem and needs to be fixed. They dont have any pespective on what an actual natural forest looks and feels like, and look at you like youre an alien if you say what they have arent real forests.

It shows that cultural values in this part of the world stand in direct opposition to the principles of rewilding and re-estsblishing harmony with our place the larger biological community.

So before any large scale restoration can be considered, before actual nature can be brought back to central europe, as desperately as it is needed - not just for its own intrinsic value and right to exist, but also for resillience in the face of the climate crisis - there needs to be a cultural shift that will tolerate coexistence with things that live for their own sake rather than direct human benefit, and which cannot and will not be fundamentally changed to their liking.

And therein lies the crux of this ideology: the rejection of anything that is different from them and will not be subjugated. The need to homogenize everything in their own image. And this mindset is the nucleus at the heart of imperialism. Which is why you cannot separate nature conservation from the ongoing legacy of colonialism, even in the imperial core, and why decolonization needs to be the foundation for any kind of restoration effort.

Tldr: There can be no rewilding of central europe until there is decolonization of european mindsets.

[metamorphesque]

These images of circles and circling, revolving around a great center he names God, it makes me think of the cathedral labyrinths of Europe. Or the ancient spiral glyphs carved into rocks and cave faces. I see the circling pathway around some secret center. The road can be bewildering, twisting and turning, keeping us disoriented and uncertain of how near we are, but ever moving inward.

And that courageous line –

I may not ever complete the last one, but I give myself to it.

We walk the winding path, not out of certainty, but because it is the only path worth walking. Walking that road, quietly, with attention, one foot in front of the other, becomes meditation. It becomes worship. Each ring, whether near or far, is a layer of our lives that is blessed by our passing through it.

Walking the circling path is not only the way to the center, it is actually part of the center. We learn to participate in the center by first walking the path. Obsession with the destination becomes an impediment to reaching it. Instead, by patiently inhabiting each step, we discover the center in ourselves... and our feet naturally end up there, as well.

We walk with our whole selves –

and I still don't know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?

On this roundabout road to God, we question our own nature. We encounter the mystery of self. Who and what are we really? Ultimately, it is in that questioning of a self that eludes definition where we find the still center.

The quieter we are, the more patient and open we are in our sadnesses, the more deeply and serenely the new presence can enter us, and the more we can make it our own, the more it becomes our fate; and later on, when it "happens" (that is, steps forth out of us to other people), we will feel related and close to it in our innermost being. And that is necessary. It is necessary - and toward this point our development will move, little by little - that nothing alien happen to us, but only what has long been our own. People have already had to rethink so many concepts of motion; and they will also gradually come to realize that what we call fate does not come into us from the outside, but emerges from us. It is only because so many people have not absorbed and transformed their fates while they were living in them that they have not realized what was emerging from them; it was so alien to them that, in their confusion and fear, they thought it must have entered them at the very moment they became aware of it, for they swore they had never before found anything like that inside them. Just as people for a long time had a wrong idea about the sun's motion, they are even now wrong about the motion of what is to come. The future stands still, dear Mr. Kappus, but we move in infinite space.

Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen, die sich über die Dinge ziehn. Ich werde den letzten vielleicht nicht vollbringen, aber versuchen will ich ihn.

Ich kreise um Gott, um den uralten Turm, und ich kreise jahrtausendelang; und ich weiß noch nicht: bin ich ein Falke, ein Sturm oder ein großer Gesang.

I live my life in widening circles (set me free)

Starry Night (Vincent van Gogh), Widening Circles by Rainer Maria Rilke (tr. Joanna Macy), Commentary by Ivan M. Granger, The Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth, Ouroboros, 1760  (a photograph by Granger), question mark symbol in Armenian, 지민 (Jimin) 'Set Me Free Pt.2', Letters to a Young Poet (by Rainer Maria Rilke), Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen (by Rainer Maria Rilke)

[space-dreams-world]

Two Graysons for one:

So we all know that Dick Grayson is supposed to become the greatest Talon of the Court of Owls: The Gray Son, Dick wasn't Mary and John's first child.

Enter Daphne Mary Grayson (Danny Fenton) the firstborn Grayson who dissapeared during Haley's tour in Europe.

The European Court of owls (Ecoo) were impatient for their Gray son and couldn't wait until Haley's arrived in Gotham. So they end up kidnapping Daphne, taken to become the possible Gray son, unaware Mary Grayson was pregnant with Dick at the time. Daphne does get small doses of electrum, but the Ecoo are waiting until she is older to fully convert her in a Talon for the court. During one of the plots to assainate an wealthy business person, an earthquake occurs and Daphne, injured ends up falling through a crevasse that connect to a cave system that directly leads to an ectoplasm pool that she accidently falls in.

Now this where things get tricky. Dick life still plays out the same way (Bruce bait, Robin, Nightwing,etc...) As Nightwing, Dick gets into contact with a magical-infused virus that could very well kill him unless he gets the blood of biological family member (John and Mary are dead, William Cobb has more electrum than blood in him and they cannot synthetisize the virus out of his blood to try put his blood back in him) this looks like it could be the very end of Dick Grayson. Everyone in the Family decides to air out their grievances to their big brother, the bird who brought all of them together. It's also worth mentioning that someone has been murdering influential people that are part of the Court around the world but has started to make their way towards Gotham warning them that their time is up.

Now, last time with Daphne, she fallen in an ectoplasm pool. What we find out is that after that fall, she appears in the states (Meddling Clockwork) unaware how they got there. Daphne gets spotted by Jazz Fenton and decides to be her big sister unaware that Daphne is somewhat disoriented from the ectoplasm and electrum sort of melding together giving Daphne some enhanced abilities like, slight healing, speed and able to go longer without proper sustenance. Daphne's electrum is barely visible around her heart and her eyes are blue with a ring of amber or gold with flecks of green ectoplasm.

The Drs. Fenton decide to "adopt" Daphne to please their daughter, and Daphne becomes Danny Janus Fenton. Canon episodes happen, except I want to say that Phantom Planet may have caused the Metahuman appearance. Danny's parents, while not to hate him anymore , can not get over their guilt that their passion killed their child. Danny is still close to Jazz, Tucker, Dani (Ellie and the clones), Valerie and Wes, surprisingly. Danny and Sam sort of split because Sam could understand that Danny was a murderer and Danny thought that Sam reminded them too much of their court days.

Danny would be genderfluid ( somedays it's Danny, others it's Daphne) since Danny always felt she lacked some control over her life.

Now, how do the Graysons meet? Two days before Dick possibly dies, someone is at the door. Alfred or possibly Tim opens it to inform them that they werent taking visitors before being shocked as the person at the door looks almost exactly like Dick (Tim would know as he has seen John and Mary Grayson before their demise) Danny goes to say that they are here to help their Baby brother as it was announced publicly that Dick Grayson has caught something terrible and was possibly on their last legs. Tim and the rest of the family want to get the validity that this is an actual relative of Dick and not some fake. Danny's D.N.A is uncorrupted enough that they can 100% tell that Danny is actually related to Dick on a much closer scale than they realize like an uncle or second-cousin, and they don't want to risk it. And if it didn't work, Danny wanted to see her baby brother alive before he died.

[polyklok]

Omg omg i love your writing!!! No words can describe how much I love it!

Imagine muderface with a s/o or crush that says the weirdest stuff, like some stuff that they have been through. It is so random! Like those tik toks that say "the Egyptians believed the most significant thing you could do is die" in the most randomest of situations.

Like imagine just chilling out doing nothing and y/n looks over at muderface and says "would a zombie apocalypse be a formal event? Like your buried in your best clothes?"

It woukd very so cool if you could write something for this but if you don't want to that's cool!

Just wanted to share my thoughts. No one I know watches Metalocalypse.

Thank you!!!

Have a wonderful day or night!!

(I didn't really check my grammar or spelling that well, I am sorry)

Murderface with an S/O that says ~random~ things!

“The color is actually named after the fruit.”

You baffle him daily. He never asked to be spoonfed random trivia, shower thoughts, or absurd hypothetical questions. And yet, here he was, eating it all up.

When William was first met with your verbal hijinks, he was just so, so confused. Why did you know this? Why were you telling him this?

“What?”

“Orange. Like, people just described the color as yellow-red or something before the orange fruit was spread around Europe and they got a new word for it. The color is named after the fruit.”

“…Okay???”

For a while, he thought you were trying to give him clues about something. He was just extremely suspicious of you. Like, surely there had to be a reason behind it, right? Well, no, and he soon just found it was a quirk of yours.

He was always told to shut up whenever he tried to pipe in or had an interesting fact to share, so you defying one of the fundamental rules of his life is a bit jarring.

As he grows closer and more comfortable to you, he gets used to your pondering and even begins to consider them. Maybe you have a point?

“What’s the minimum amount of ducks do you think it would take to fully kill an adult rhino?”

“I don’t fuchkin’ know. Probably a schit ton.”

“I bet, like, five. They’d just swarm him.”

“You are scho wrong. He’d schtomp them all to a pashte.”

Well now he’s gonna stay awake all night thinking about it. He can’t decide if you’re the stupidest person he’s ever met or the smartest. Either way, he gets a little flustered when facing the seemingly infinite expanse of your mind.

After a while, he begins to pick up your habit. In his own Murderface-way, of course. He had a pretty obvious interest in things like car mechanics and war history, but now he’s more willing to share all of what he knows with you. He’s really excited that someone finally seems interested in what he has to say, no matter how meaningless it is.

And once that door is open, he becomes more willing to open up on a deeper level. Even though he’s a dumbass, he does have a depth of intelligence, even if he isn’t great at articulating it. Be patient and you’ll get some fascinating conversation from him.

“Even if there isch a God…like, what the fuck, man?! You juscht gonna leave us all down here to suffer and schit? I might as well ignore you juscht to schpite you! What a dick move.”

William never realized how valuable it was to him just to be listened to. Simply talking to you slowly becomes one of the better parts of his day, everyday.

It takes a lot for Murderface to love and it takes even more to love him back. But the effort is well worth it with these types of riveting discussions;

“You have to fight a bug that’s 100 times its original size and you get one weapon from the medieval era. What is your bug and what’s your weapon?”

“Easchy. Butterfly, Croschbow. One arrow for each wing. Instant win.”

[flowery-mess]

I'm watching a turkish telenova rn so that's why I'm requesting this specific thing.

What if teen noah and teen reader got pregnant, but he's like, "I've got a band and no time for a child, get out" and readers being a badass and is like "k, I'm moving back to Europe, raising this child and becoming a lawyer"

So daughters now 20 years old and a rock fan, hence why she goes to the rock am ring festival where bad omens are gonna perfome (she's not a big fan of them, she wants to see the other bands)

Noah spots her in the crowd and is like "yn?" And sends the security to get her backstage. She declines to go backstage bc of the stories of rammstein drugging and abusing their fans and tells the security "yns my mom tho" and boom Noah realizes that's his daughter. At the end of the festival the daughters waiting with her friend for her mom to pick them up when Noah approaches her and is like " i know ur mom" daughters like " prove it i,I don't believe u" so Noah's like " this is her birthday, her middle name is this and yada yada"

(Daughter not knowing that Noah is her das obviously, mom never mentioned any names just that he was trying to make it with his music)

She was like "oh cool, mom used to be friends with bad omens?" So they're talking and boom Mama pulls up and is Hella mad when she sees Noah buuut not because she's butthurt of what he did to her 20 years ago but bc she's mama bear and is like " u were a nobody when u hurt me but now ur a big Rockstar and have more power. So stay away from her"

Noah's obviously still in love with mom and is shook that she thinks that way of him.

Ik specific and long but if u wanna work with this imma love u forever. It could be like dad daughter things, where he realizes even tho she looks exactly like ger mom, they have same interest. Orr the mom and Noah could talk it out and eventually fall back in lovee.

I don't write about having kids, but I gave it a try so I hope you like it💗

Uf I don't think Noah would be like that, but let's get along with that scenario...

I think it would be only fair to the daughter to tell her the truth.

I'm not sure what her reaction would be, but I wouldn't tell her what Noah said in the past, she doesn't need to get hurt too.

So maybe tell her that he wasn't ready to be dad yet so they parted ways and you got back to Europe.

Daughter would listen to both sides, take it all in and make her own opinion.

She wouldn't feel any hate towards any of you, because despite being just 20 years old she's very mature.

But she would want to get to know Noah.

They would exchange numbers and keep in touch as he and the band continue festival season.

After they are back in the states, all three of you have a big call about finding a date when the daughter would come visit Noah in the states and stay with him for like a month.

Daughter attending college makes it easier with her semester starting in October, so you agree on date from middle of August to the end of Semptember.

After the date is set, Noah tells her he wants to talk to you alone for a minute.

You talk about what happened between you two and Noah apologizes.

Through the years all the hate and anger kind of dissapeared.

Mostly because you're proud of yourself for raising your daughter alone and making it on your own.

Noah is proud of you too.

And he would never ask you or your daughter to talk about him like her dad or ask her to call him dad, because he knows he doesn't earn that title yet. He just wants to get to know her.

But what he does is ask if you would want to come too.

And you're surprised.

Of course all of those feelings you had for him flashed through your mind when you saw him again. But also all the pain he put you through with his decision.

But before that happened he was amazing. He was great boyfriend and great person.

The thought about your daughter flying alone scared you, but you know she could make it and then she would be with Noah. And you were 100% sure he would keep her safe.

That's why you didn't mind her flying to the staes even if you and Noah haven't seen each other in 20 years.

But you coming too? That made you scared.

You were scared that you would fall in love with him again.

You made this new country your home, you have great place to live and amazing job.

You can't give that up for someone who left you when you needed him the most.

"Thanks, but no Noah. You know it's not a great idea. I trust you with her, she is adult so I will be supportive of you two getting to know eachother. But I'm not gonna turn my life upside down because of you again. I appreciate your apology, I will stay in touch with you, but please, only because of her."

Even though he asked you to just come to the states for month you knew him and you saw in his eyes what you saw 20 years ago.

Love? Feelings? Call it whatever you want, but you knew how going there with your daughter would end.

And you didn't need your heart broken again.

[louisupdates]

The Habit He Can’t Break 4/4

IQ 123 | Gordon Masson | 9.11.2023

If I Could Fly

With the production traveling to Australia, in early 2024, before shifting to Latin America, Andy Lovell at Freight Minds is gearing up to become involved with Tomlinson once again.

“We did the Central and South America dates on the tour last year, and onto Mexico,” says Lovell. “It was very challenging back then as we were still coming back from Covid, and various systems and infrastructure were in pieces. But it all went well in the end, as we kept an eye on things and worked on it every day to make sure we had solutions to everything that was thrown our way.”

Lovell continues, “Things on this tour kick in early next year for us. Historically, Australian services were quite reliable, as we could use any number of airlines. But post-pandemic, the number of long-haul flights still aren’t as frequent as they were. As a result, the production is being reverse engineered with the budget being worked out before we can see what we can afford to take as freight, and then we try to plan accordingly.”

“Similarly, in Central and South America there are still just a fraction of the flights operating, compared to pre-Covid, so that makes it very challenging. If there aren’t the flights to handle the gear, then you have to start looking at chartering aircraft, or alter your schedule, and that can become very expensive, very fast.”

With everyone working on the artist’s behalf to make sure the tour remains on track, being able to call on such experienced production experts is paying off on a daily basis.

Sherwood notes, “There are a few back-to-back shows over long distances that occasionally mean we don’t arrive at the next venue until 11 AM, rather than 6 AM. But we’ve never failed anywhere to open the doors on time, so we know we’re capable of getting things done, even if we have a late start at mid-day.”

Such dilemmas are not lost on agent Rowland. “It’s not so much the routing, it’s more like the timings, because Louis does have two support acts, so the shows start at 7 o’clock, and then when we’re done, we need to load out to get to the next show in good time for loading in the next morning and soundchecks, etc.”

Nevertheless, Sherwood admits that he loves the trickier venues and schedules. “Because I’m a dinosaur, I relish anything that makes things difficult or awkward for us on the production side of things,” he says. “I think everyone on the crew looks forward to challenges in finding the solutions to problems.”

Common People

Having amassed millions of fans through his association with One Direction, Tomlinson very much has a ‘pay it forward’ attitude to music and is building a reputation as a champion for emerging talent, wherever he performs.

“He’s a great advocate for alternative music,” says manager Vines. “Louis realizes he’s in an incredibly privileged position in terms of what he can create in terms of awareness. He loves alternative music and indie music, and he understands how hard it is for that music to be heard. But we have this amazing platform where we can put these bands in front of these audiences as a showcase that allows them to build these authentic new audiences. It’s a huge part of his love of music, wanting to help younger bands.”

Rowland agrees. “He took an act called Andrew Cushin - a very new artist – on the road in America with him as a support, and he’s doing the same for Europe. Louis is a fan and is championing his career.”

Indeed, Tomlinson’s A&R skills have knock-on effects for his agent, too. “He asked me to confirm the Australian band Pacific Avenue as support for his Australian tour last year. The music was great, and they didn’t have an agent, so now I’m representing them,” says Rowland.

Perfect Now

As the European tour speeds towards its conclusion, agent Rowland is enjoying every minute of it.

“It’s incredible – they’ve really stepped things up,” she says, fresh from seeing the show in Athens and Paris. “They’ve got six hanging LED screens on the stage, and the whole production just looks polished and professional.”

And Rowland is especially excited about next year’s Latin America dates, which will deliver her first stadium shows as an agent. 

“The return to Latin America is going to be huge – Louis is playing arenas and stadiums in South America and Mexico 15 shows across 11 countries,” she says. 

Vines is similarly enthused. Harking back to the Covid situation, when the show would go on sale, sell out, be postponed, and then re-scheduled in a bigger venue, Vines says, “For example, in Chile, originally the show was scheduled at a 5,000-cap, half-capacity arena in Santiago. And what we ended up doing with three nights at 10,000-cap in that same venue.”

Vines contends that Tomlinson’s work ethic is outstanding. “He loves his fans, and he loves performing for them, it’s as simple as that,” he says. “He just loves being on the road and seeing how the songs connect live. In fact, the second album was very much written with the tour and live shows in mind – ‘This song could work live,’ ‘This one will open the set,’ ‘This is the one we can do for the encore.’”

Fearless

Another element to Tomlinson’s psyche has been his decision to visit places off the usual tour circuit.

“Louis has a real desire to perform to fans in markets that are often overlooked,” says Rowland.

Manager Vines explains that while the Covid-delayed first tour allowed them to upgrade venues pretty much everywhere, “On this tour, we are a bit more competent on venue sizes, but we still speculate a little bit in different territories. In Europe, for example, we’ve gone into the Baltics in a number of different places to test the markets there, while in America, we’re looking at A and B markets, but also tertiary market as well – we go to places where people just don’t tour in America, just to see what the reaction is. That was something that very much interested Louis - to play in front of people who don’t normally have gigs in their town. So there’s been a lot of experimentation on the tour in terms of where we go and what room to play.”

That concept is something that Vines has employed before. “I manage a band called Hurts, who were pretty much overlooked by the British radio system, and we have spent 15 years building a business outside of the UK. And that was built on going to play at those places where people didn’t normally go. They built to multiple arena level in Russia, for instance.”

“If you can build fanbases in lots of different places, you have festivals that you can play every summer, as well as touring those places. It allows you to have more consistency over a number of years, by having more opportunities.”

Such a strategy found a convert in Tomlinson. Vines tells IQ, “Louis also is extremely fan-focused in everything that he does. He comes at it from a perspective of ‘I want to take the show to them,’ meaning he’s always more willing to take the risky option to try something out.”

And the result? “It’s a combination,” concludes Vines. “There have been a couple of places where we now understand why tours don’t go there. But there are more places where it’s worked incredibly well. For example, we enjoyed incredibly good sales in Budapest. And overall, it’s allowing us to get a clearer idea, globally, of where the demand is, which will help us when we go into the next tour cycle.”

1/4, 2/4, 3/4

[disneyfemslashcomics]

Ship Meme: Merida/Mulan

To be clear this is a crossover between the two animated characters, and while the OUAT characters are very similar, they are not quite the same. I will also be ignoring the events of Mulan 2, and saying that the emperor sent Mulan out on a diplomatic mission to Europe for military support instead of marrying off his daughters.

How differently do they think of each other now compared to when they first met?

Merida and Mulan met at a joust and Merida was instantly smitten when Mulan kicked her butt in the sword competition.

Mulan was slower to develop feelings but faster to recognize them as the passions of the cut sleeve, while Merida has no cultural context for understanding her feelings as romantic.

What do their friends/family think of their relationship?

Initially, Merida being a foreigner is pretty strong mark against her for Fa Zhou and Fa Li, who are very traditional and vice versa for Elinor. Fergus for his part loves Mulan immediately with Gusto. In defense of the Fa parents, a big part of the lack of support also comes from getting one letter saying that there is a crazy short girl with giant red hair and eyes like a demon to her being in love in the next letter that got home to them.

Elinor for her part changes her mind about Mulan, in part because the lack of support in her parent's letter is so devastating to her and she realizes that her lack of support hurts Merida in similar ways.

Mulan's parents change their mind when Mulan takes Merida home to meet her family, and Grandmother Fa is instantly supportive and tells her son off, mentioning some youthful dalliances that she'd had.

How do their personalities/skills complement or contrast with each other?

Obviously, Merida and Mulan are both fighters and very strong determined people. Less obviously, their differences are actually what make them work. Merida does not think things through, and as the future leader of the clans, desperately needs the sort of thoughtful advice that Mulan, who is good at thinking creatively on her feet can offer.

Mulan also needs Merida. Mulan loves her family, friends, and her country. That is a beautiful thing, but it can quickly become very ugly when she is unwilling to consider her own needs over the expectations of her kin. Merida is someone who demands what she wants and as much as it irks Mulan, particularly early on, it's a balance that she needs.

What is their favorite aspect of each other?

They both are initially attracted to each other's strength, and over time find that they're not just strong physically but also emotionally.

Do either of them have pet peeves about each other?

Merida is very much so a punch first, ask questions later sort of person, and Mulan does not always appreciate being forced to ad lib her way through situations. Merida is very defensive when she's called out despite it being reasonable to be asked to not just react emotionally.

How would each reconcile with each other after a fight?

They go walking and hiking and train together. It's the easiest way to get Merida to talk through her problems, because when her body is kept busy she can get energy out and can't let things spiral inside her as much.

What would be their ideal vacation getaway together?

Sailing together on a junk. They both love exploring and learning new things but neither of them gets much of a chance to be away from their duties.

Think of a new way (AU, different situation, etc.) they could have met for the first time.

I think Merida and Mulan would be really well suited to a zombie apocalypse AU. Merida has been struggling fending for herself after separating from her family and Mulan has to rescue the Scot from a trap that she'd set up for zombies that Merida walked into, before she catches herself on fire. Mulan ends up helping Merida to find out what happened to her family and they fall in love over the course of the adventure.

[blueiight]

I see some people compared revolutionary girl utena and iwtv I don't get it I watch both series and don't get the comparison (I'm very slow)

ik it sounds hypocritical cuz i call myself slow but i promise u ur not! ur curiosity alone suggests u care & u have something up there. the comparison lies in how both adaptations tackle similar themes. the vampire and the prince are both parasites by definition, sold to u as the pinnacle of species but really leeches on life who so desperately want to cling onto a facismile of humanity bc theyve been locked out of it forever someway somehow. the sterile opulence of akio ohtori’s tower reminds me a bit of the dubai penthouse dont u think?

the 1973 first interview tapes with louis are all but said to be very similar in tone to a jilted ex complaining about his lover. “i was his superior in every way”. it wasnt even a tale of triumph over an abuser, it was mania, a bender, a second hand high off sampling the lives of drug addicts in a gay bar. ep3 louis all but saying he encountered an older jonah in europe who saw the devil in his eyes the way his mother did, encountering multiple vampire cults & the open question as of the writing of this post on amc claudia’s life in the 1970s. is it any wonder he saw europe as a failure & wanted to try again in america, in the epicenter of black empowernment going on in the state of california.. u can imagine how this creature pushing 100, when asked to recall his maker, can be so resentful in his recollection of him at the moment?

speaking of blurred boundaries.

what was the full quote : the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb? yea..its all a lie. we got daughters thats makeshift brides thats also makeshift brothers and siblings who despise the broken mirror showing them the child they once was.

modern day louis attempts to sell this tale of triumph in the face of a fucked up gothic romance & the consequences of death made eternal to mortals. louis says this is a warning, but it serves more as his eulogy. louis wants u to believe claudia & him triumphed over lestat: first lover, his progenitor, all in one, but this story collapses when revisiting the monstrosity of recollection. at a time where death consumes the world, where death is brought from the push of a button in boardrooms thousands of miles from the scene, we are bought to the question of memory, intimacy in the eternity of death, and just what it even means to remember something. just as a vampire is born from trauma, a prince is born as the witness to eternal suffering.

utena posits very similar questions w regard to what it even means to recall, what happens to u in the midst of memory formation. we are introduced to utena, a girl who wants to be a prince, who was saved by the prince when she was young& wants to be him, whos said to wear a boy’s uniform and the whole universe shes in sees it as such. the audience sees it for what it is, a poor man’s imitation, unusual attire, something marking her as the odd man out. we are initially introduced to some of what made utena want to be a prince thru saionji. saionji realizes in this moment, that he would have to age out of his companionship with touga to become a “Man”. eternity to saionji, represents the accursed day before he found the girl. but it is through mikage’s utter distortion of mamiya’s entire existence, through anthy, that we find out utena was the suicidal little girl seeking eternity, neither touga nor saionji brought it to her, and the eternity showed to her was the ghost of a prince showing the eternal suffering of his little sister who sacrificed everything for him. a girl who cannot be a princess is doomed to become a witch. all vampires are creatures born of trauma.

what does it mean to be eternal?

is the question both of these shows ask u. what is eternity, if not living the same miserable life over and over again? repeating the cycles of duels to get the hand of the bride, whos revealed to be a witch all along, and the endless pursuit of a prince whos never existed in the first place.

there was never an escape from the constraints of mortality, u could never escape the sorrow that surrounded u in death. u r permanently the traumatized, broken creature u were on the verge of death/suicide/some other intimate tangle with a mortal death. now what do u make of it? unlike utena tho, there is no true way at liberation. u r the beast of the outside world.

[thatscarletflycatcher]

disclaimer i've never read little women (i know, i will one day) but having just finished the 2017 version i really have to wonder: why is 2019 laurie so MEAN??? he antagonizes meg at the party, publicly embarrasses amy, puts both of them down for even thinking of marrying rich men and instead suggests that amy marry him as if he's not rich too? were these added by gerwig, and if so, WHY?

I know you know, but you should go read the book! and then come tell me what you think! XD

As I have said before, the only Laurie that really resembles book Laurie is the one in the 1970 BBC adaptation. And I wouldn't inflict the rest of that adaptation on anyone.

The others have... varying degrees and angles of resemblance. 2019 Laurie is definitely much much more of a sort of indifferent/dismissive jerk than the original, either on purpose or by accident.

2017 on the other hand is too much of a softie and a wet puppy compared to the book character.

Book!Laurie is a very passionate and conflicted sort of character. When he's in a positive mood, he's radiant and contagious; when he's in a dark mood, it's an intense darkness. When he's infatuated, he's almost obsessive. And that creates an ambivalence that is difficult to strike.

But to your last questions: Meg and Laurie's party scene is closer to the book in 2017. He's disappointed and rather harsh at first, they reconcile, but he's sad in the end because she's still drinking and will have a terrible headache the following day, but he trusts she will make good of her promise and tell her family about what happened.

You probably noticed that Fred Vaughn was completely erased from the Amy in Europe plot in 2017, which naturally leads to a more easily sympathetic portrayal of the dynamic between Laurie and Amy.

The Christmas Ball in particular is a very important section of that plotline, and neither 2017 nor 2019 get it right at all. Like in 2017, Amy waits for Laurie, who comes on time, sober, and well dressed -in fact, he does promise Meg that he'll become a teetotaler the day of her wedding, and he does fulfill that promise- but with a rather flippant, infantilizing attitude that rubs Amy the wrong way, so she sets up to prove that she doesn't need him to have fun, and she does prove it. And as he watches her dance, he realizes that Amy is now a young woman, no longer a child he can play around with. He ends up convincing her to dance with him in the end, and they have fun together, and they then spend many days together.

They do have later on the fight you see in 2019, more or less, where she scolds him for his laziness and he criticizes her mercenary spirit, not even trying to love Fred before he proposes, even knowing he does love her. But he doesn't tell her to break up with Fred so he can marry her or anything like that. He leaves because he thinks things over, realizes she's right, and goes to try and prove himself and see if he can win Jo by writing a great opera or requiem that would show her his worth (The drama!). In the meantime, Fred leaves because his brother Frank is very sick, and Laurie and Amy write letters to each other back and forth.

So, book Laurie is meaner than 2017 but much less mean than 2019.

Why is 2019 Laurie like that? I don't know. I don't think Gerwig herself knows. But for the things I have read her say about it, comparing Laurie and Fritz in terms of who is the "hottest prize", or vague comments about Jo and Laurie being platonic soulmates in genderfluidity because she has a boys nickname and he has a girls nickname (which is hilarious when you know Laurie's schoolmates used to call him Dora until he punched them all into calling him Laurie)... I don't think she ever sat down to think who Laurie is as a character himself independently of what he is to Amy and to Jo (not that this is an uncommon sin in adaptations.

[teaveetamer]

U will be shocked to learn that "white people" aren't a singular monolith and not everyone that traces their ancestry back to Europe has the same history

I’m not shocked to know that lol. Whiteness is an inherently arbitrary category defined by exclusion. It can, and does, change on the whims of the people in power to consolidate power. For that to happen there must by definition be distinguishable differences among people in the group.

Like a century ago Irish, Italian, Greek, Jewish, etc. people were not considered white and were discriminated against. Then it became more politically convenient for WASPs to include them in whiteness (because they were worried that if they kept discriminating against them they would hop on the civil right’s movement and link up with Black Americans to REALLY mess up their consolidated power). Currently conservatives are trying to integrate more white Latino people into whiteness, too, to try and shore up their power in primarily southern red states.

I think the thing you don’t understand is that whiteness is an inherently homogenizing identity. Because whiteness in America is broadly viewed as a lack of culture, that means if your group has strong cultural characteristics (e.g. language or rituals) when they become included in whiteness then they are expected to either give that up or allow it to be assimilated into the broader white “non-culture”.

Like, how many Italian Americans can still speak Italian? There's 15 million self-identified Italian Americans, 700,000 speak Italian, and 350,000 of those are over the age of 65 (AKA Would have been around before Italian-Americans were broadly considered white). But how hard has Italian food been broadly incorporated into white culture? You probably eat a million things you don't even realize are Italian.

Some folk, like Jewish folk, hold fast onto their identity and culture independent of whiteness, but that also makes them the most obvious target when it comes time to start excluding people from whiteness yet again. Their difference is only tolerated so long as they are useful. Assimilation is the only way to guarantee you keep your spot (and sometimes not even then).

And in fact if you go to any actual European and say “I’m German-American” as in “my family came over from Germany five generations ago but I don’t speak the language or know any of the customs or history” German people will prrrrrrrrrobably laugh their asses off at you and say “no you’re not you’re just American”. Cuz you are functionally closer to basically any white American than you are to any German, because so much of actual German culture has been abandoned or conglomerated.

Obvious disclaimer that I’m talking about America because America views race a little differently.

So like, yeah I'm not talking about this because I think all white people are the same lol. It's a very nuanced topic, but I gather from your anons that it's not a conversation you're interested in having. So I am wondering why you continue to bother.

[morgenlich]

ig i should write out a more complete feliks timeline from the partitions until the 1990s lol, um. spoilers for last light and its planned sequel tho, also i'm writing this off the top of my head and not looking up specific dates so [gestures]

so, while in my hcs tolys got stuck w ivan full time (though he ran off more than a few times lol he was never successful in escape endeavors for very long), feliks was after the partitions initially shunted between gil and rod (ivan imo just. absolutely hates his guts and wanted nothing to do with him lmao and besides he had new full time prizes like tolys he didn't need to split custody of another one); he managed to run off for good shortly before the napoleonic wars started and met up with francis (this is also when i have him changing his name from mieczyslaw to feliks), fought alongside him for a bit, established the republic of warsaw, then basically sent himself into exile after its collapse because he felt that staying in his own land would be too risky; he didn't want to go back to being a hostage after all

(he does return for some later rebellions of course)

he's not really in the mood to deal with francis for a bit after that, he just strikes out on his own, not really paying much attention to where he goes. he ends up all over because of this, like he'll literally stow away on a ship he has no idea of the destination of so he sees not only a good bit of europe but also ends up in asia and i think also probably in the us, somewhat briefly, and he wants to avoid the attention of other nation reps so he doesn't actually meet up with any of them intentionally. he works a bunch of odd jobs during this time because he basically only owns the clothes on his back (and his wedding ring. he manages to keep hanging onto that), inlcuding some sw which he hates (i hc him as very firmly demisexual)

eventually in the 1870s-ish, he winds up in france again. he's living on the street and ends up with tuberculosis, which gets bad enough it actually kills him. when he revives from this, he realizes he's still ill and is going to need to like. properly recover, so he swallows his pride and goes to look for francis, who takes him in for a while; they end up staying in the south for a bit, i wrote a little fic about this a couple years ago lol. eventually though they get fed up with each other and feliks dips again, resumes wandering around but now he has fucked up lungs :) also it's around this time that he discovers opium which also becomes a lasting problem for him. but it helps his lungs not feel like they're constantly being stabbed so wcyd

he ends up in france again around the start of w/w1 and initially fights w the french but eventually makes his way east, finally back on his own land. the war ends, he's independent again, etc etc. 1918 is also the first time since the partitions that he's able to meet up with tolys again, imo--even in shared rebellions the two just never quite managed to be in the same place at the same time--though ofc this just ends up with tolys wanting nothing to do with him for a couple decades (i go. back and forth on what feliks himself actually thought about the war between them tbh)

ok here's where we get into last light + sequel spoilers

w/w2 starts, feliks initially fights in warsaw and is captured in late september. spends like a week or two in prison before gil arrives in warsaw and is put in charge of him, at which point he's put under house arrest. manages to keep his Connections to the resistance (how? idk it's not important and no it will not be explained in LL lmao), stays there until the spring of 1944 when [massive spoilers that otherwise don't involve feliks] and he's forced to go into hiding for a few months (along with my human oc irena kowalczykowa), until the AK fighting starts and then ofc he (and irena) is involved in that until he's captured again; the ak is able to get him back for a few minutes before some russian spies attack them and feliks and irena end up with them

at this point feliks is too exhausted and weak to really put up any resistance to this fact, and he just stays in russian custody, hiding in the mountains with some partisans until the spring of 45 when they make their way to krakow where ivan has temporarily set up camp; feliks continues to stay in russian custody from this point though like he's not officially a prisoner and they make him agree to cooperate so he does end up with like his own apartment and stuff. but he doesn't stay there very long because in 1948 ivan finally is allowed to return home and he's been told to bring all the other ussr and satellite reps with him so feliks gets dragged to moscow to live in an extremely overcrowded house until 1952.

after stalin dies policy toward the reps changes and the satellites are going to be allowed to return to their own land; feliks is the first to do so because as mentioned all the way at the beginning ivan just hates him and doesn't want to live with him at all lol so he ends up back in warsaw where he stays, remaining more or less cooperative (by his standards at least) until the ussr collapses.

he spent some time in the 90s trying to participate somewhat actively in his new government but realized that 1. he'd kind of gotten used to just doing his own thing 2. he's too vocally queer, etc, to get along with them, so nowadays he does the absolute bare minimum in this regard (mostly interacting w other reps for them) and spends his free time doing whatever he wants instead. also he lives in krakow, not warsaw, bc he likes krakow more (aside from like. in my heart feeling like he's a krakowiak, i think he just associates warsaw with war and the comm. regime and really wants very little to do with it) and hey he's not got v many gov't responsibilities so it doesn't matter lol

[redwoodwv-hq]

Name: Liam Bryne Age: 45 Town Occupation: Hunter / Outside Security Previous Occupation: Legionnaire Redwood Resident Length: Old Redwood resident newly arrived Faceclaim: Pablo Schreiber

Bullet Points:

Liam is fluent in French , he does mostly use it with Tessa and Brady out of habit. They still refer to him as "capitaine" . It is also the language he uses to talk to his dog.

Liam trained Juno for detecting the undead and biting. She's a very intelligent and quick dog , a true asset.

On his trip , he aimed to look for information on what Penny had revealed. He found some data and samples he has brought back with him and plan to give to Penny eventually. He does not know if it is viable

Liam is really skilled to blend into forest/jungle areas, he used to be more of a tracker for David , but if he hunts, uses a crossbow instead of a rifle

Liam is an expert marksman , a lethal close -range combattant and lives still by the code of the Legionnaires

He's plagued by an underlining anger steming from different factors in his life , he loses patience rather quickly and will let you know. He hates cock fighting and finds it just ridiculous.

Biography:

Liam Bryne was born in Dublin to a modest family. His father was a teacher and his mother worked at a hotel nearby. His younger years, he spent a lot in the places nobody knew about at the hotel and the people there became some sort of extended family to him. There were no tragic events in his youth, and while he was not the best at school, he managed to stay away from most troubles. This would end when at 18 , his parents died in a car accident. It had been a harsh winter, the road was slippery, the car fell down a ravine. Liam survived but endured being with his parents for more than a day. He realized at the hospital how alone he was, how fast life could end and how lost he was. It took months for him to figure out what to do and get out of the grief enough to think of a future. He sold the house, he sold everything, and left. While Dublin had given him life, it had also taken his family, thus becoming a tomb to him.

He roamed through Europe for a while, trying to forget the accident, the smells, the pain. Liam tried to heal, but it seemed like the more he pushed it all away, the more it ate him. It came to the point where he decided to knock on that fateful iron gate in Paris. The emblem on the gate read “légion étrangère”  (foreign legion).  He had listened to people talking about it and felt compelled to give it a try. Their reputation was worldwide, respected and maybe feared by many, he did find a way in being a legionnaire. The training was intense to the point of him feeling physically sick, but it was also cathartic. For the first time since his family died, he felt like he belonged to this unit, brothers in arms. He would finish top of his class and go become a paratrooper.

By the time the virus hit, Liam acting captain was on a mission in South America. From the company a lot died within the first hours of contact. Long months followed; the orders last in were to go up to Canada. He was honestly not sure they would make it. In the end, only two remained by his side: Tessa and Brady. The trio eventually stumbled on Penny when Liam was wounded by savagers attacking. Even though he was injured, he put a lot of them down before collapsing. A fever struck and they stumbled on Redwood just in time to treat him. Showing the tough nature of being a Legionnaire, he was up and running before he should have. Honestly, he found hope in Redwood , and after discussing it with Tessa and Brady, they agreed that there wasn’t anyone to return to , probably. The radio had been still for a long time. So they joined, as hunters and protectors of the civilians. Their trio got a member more , a malinois he named Juno.

They were on a hunting trip when the reavers attacked but managed still come back to defend Redwood. A lot of blood was shed by the legionnaires on that day, who then proceeded to give them a burial themselves. Liam disagreed with a lot of the Beckett’s decisions but kept his anger at bay thanks to Penny. That , sadly only lasted until a night around a bonefire and a revelation that would push him off a wrong end. After a violent fight with her, the day after, he decided to leave, not giving any explanation, not even to David with whom he had bonded closely. In fact, he left things sour with a lot of people as he left. Tessa decided to join him, while Brady decided to remain. It has been months now, but it seems that a familiar face is to make a return to Redwood, bringing a cart with food and materials from his time away.

[giselledorleans]

giselle struggles. she struggles accepting that margaux has slipped from her protective embrace. she struggles to watch roman wither away in his house arrest. giselle struggles letting fanni take over the 'lesser duties' that had been once giselle's duties.

and once she's over the growing pains, she begins to suck up to the romanovs. giselle's prideful but she had never been principled. the romanovs do not like her and that does not change but zhenya pities her and anneli sympathizes with roman, and that is enough ! that is enough to make giselle's stays in karelia long and meaningful.

she fights against margaux's brainwashing but the part of margaux that is completely and truly roman, thinks very little of her mother's whining. giselle has always looked down on eastern europe, her stance on russia, in margaux's eyes, differs not from her view on belarus. so why would margaux listen to her mother about this ? russia's been surprisingly kind on margaux and as vitaliya's protege, she even gets invited to the winter palace. to an almost teen that is a privilege and it makes her special. giselle loses the fight against the romanovs' influence before she even realizes there is an actual fight. giselle had thought that margaux would be more influenced by her parents' opinions on russia, but no.

giselle's quite hung up on roman. even without realizing it, she keeps comparing possible suitors to roman and they all fall short. one's too loud. another too short. another seems uneducated. another something else. she always finds a flaw. it's why her flings remain as flings. a month or two but never anything meaningful. it seems too much work and too tiring. giselle already has a family and she already has a best friend. it's alright.

but roman's not alright and it saddens and concerns her. she visits as much as she can and she tries to keep his spirits up. she keeps reminding him that it will only take a year or two for margaux to ascend the throne. he will be pardoned. it will be alright. it's hard work, it brings giselle down a bit but it makes her feel important, like she matters. and she needs that. she has not been needed by her brothers in a long time.

margaux's graduation from high school is a joyous occasion because it marks the beginning of a new era. roman gets to attend the ceremony and the party: that is all anneli's doing. she and zhenya are the only friendly faces. it really feels like a change is coming.

giselle's quite mistaken.

margaux rise to power means almost nothing. de jure power has lost its meaning in belarus and what roman predicted and has feared for a long time, has come true. belarus is barely a sovereign state. russia's footprint is big and its visible. margaux is not equipped to rule a country with a fucking high school diploma and she is not suave enough to handle the russians even if she wanted to. giselle is not sure if she wants to go against them in any form. it worries her. giselle begs arnauld to sway margaux to put more effort into her role as the queen. arnauld tries a bit... and giselle is sure that he tries it in the only way that he can: with his own interest in mind.

giselle pressures margaux into a french uni, to learn something useful about politics. this is when giselle becomes activated in politics again. she doesn't do anything to serve the people but she does everything to gather important, wise and powerful people around margaux.

she works quite tirelessly and just a bit before celebrating her 50th birthday, she gets her birthday presents early in the form of a pardoned roman. roman has no business in living in belarus anymore so he naturally returns to paris.

for the first time giselle feels content. peaceful even. her daughter is doing fairly well as a queen, roman may look terrible but he's no longer verbally and emotionally lifeless, giselle's brothers seem happy and arnauld's megalomaniacal plans have all ended ages ago and he is not bringing problems into their lives.

what else could giselle really need but a happy family and a happy best friend ?

[kudosmyhero]

The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #9: Spider-Verse, part 1: The Gathering

Read Date: May 22, 2023 Cover Date: January 2015 ● Writer: Dan Slott ● Penciler: Olivier Coipel ● Inker: Olivier Coipel ● Colorist: Justin Ponsor ● Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos ● Editor: Nick Lowe ◦ Ellie Pyle ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● I don't have anything specific against Dan Slott, but I'd like to see a different writer at some point here. Slott has some decent ideas, but he stays very surface-level with what he could do with them. ● whew what a rude awakening ● why does he keep speaking in rhyme? ● I’m kind of over seeing Spider-Men die ● Downton Webby. heh. ● Spider-Gwen’s costume is cute

● 👏👏 👏

Synopsis: The story opens with Spider-Man waking up to a phone call. When he answers, J. Jonah Jameson yells at him to get over to "Armstrong Park" to get pictures of a super villain. This is unusual, since Peter no longer works for J. Jonah Jameson. When he arrives at the park, Morlun is waiting for him, and kills him, saying "Why do I even bother explaining, when all you ever do is DIE?" It is then revealed that this is an alternate universe where Humans live on the moon.

Later, on Earth-001, Morlun's family, the Inheritors, wait for him to return from his hunt. When he comes back, Daemos asks him what world's Spidey he killed this time, and Morlun responds by saying it doesn't matter. Verna says to keep telling himself that. She then decides to go on a hunt, and her servants fetch 3 of her hounds: Sable, Fireheart and Kravinoff (all resembling characters from Spider-Man's life), and tells the Master Weaver to bring her to a world with young Totems. After she leaves, Morlun asks his brother what she meant, and Daemos tells him that the whole family knows that Morlun has been avoiding a specific thread of the Great Web. Morlun says he has been saving it for last, and when Daemos considers hunting there himself Morlun tells him to stay away from it, and Daemos remembers it is Earth-616.

Our Spider-Man from Earth-616 wakes up to see Cindy Moon, aka Silk, hanging before him. She says she has a solution to their problem, which is that whenever they get close, they feel the need to mate because of their connection, having been bitten by the same spider. She says he should move to another city, jokingly suggesting the moon, and that she could handle New York.

They go outside and swing around the city. They then run into Looter, who has stolen a Spider-Tank and Spiderling outfits from Spider-Island II, Superior Spidey's base. After dealing with him, one of the henchmen flees from the scene. Suddenly, Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl, and Spider-Man 2099 arrive. Miguel tells Peter that they need to talk.

The last remaining henchman is very confused, and is confronted by Spider-UK, MC2 Spider-Girl, and Spider-Ham, who knocks him out. Peter becomes becomes very confused, and Spider-Uk says that they are the Spiders of other dimensions and that all the strands of the Great Web are converging on him. Peter is shocked, but Mayday Parker, aka Spider-Girl, reminds him of the time they met before to calm him down and says that they need his help to stop the Inheritors. Spider-UK tells him Daemos, Morlun's elder brother, is coming to Earth-616, and all of them, including Silk, head into a portal to another dimension.

Meanwhile, in Mountain Wundagore, Eastern Europe, at the home of the New Warriors, Kaine Parker, aka Scarlet Spider, is beaten down by Daemos, who defeated the New Warriors members Justice, Water Snake, Sun Girl, and Nova. Kaine then stabs him through his shoulders with spikes coming from his arm and Daemos realized that unlike other spiders, he actually make him feel pain. He realizes that he is the current receptacle of the Other, and says he will savor him for days.

Suddenly, Old Man Spider-Man, Bruce Banner Spider-Man and a mysterious Spider-Character appear through a portal to save him. The third Spider turns out to be Gwen Stacy, the Spider-Woman of Earth-65. This shocks Kaine, and he thinks she is a clone and that the Jackal was behind it. Suddenly, Ben Reilly, the original Scarlet Spider, appears to help out. This surprises Kaine, because Ben Reilly was killed by the Green Goblin. Daemos then breaks Bruce Banner Spidey's spine and the others all escape through a portal.

Meanwhile, on Earth-13, a large group of Spider-Men are gathered. The group that saved Scarlet Spider arrive, and Peter can't process how Ben Reilly and Gwen Stacy are here. He then asks what was so special about this Earth. Suddenly, Cosmic Spider-Man arrives, and hands Mayday Parker her baby brother. Cosmic Spidey tells Peter that this is a world where he never lost the Enigma Force, and the Inheritors would be foolish to come there. However, he cannot leave his world or the Enigma Force would stay behind, but in the coming battle, he would go with them. Peter asks him what he means, and Spider-UK says there is a war coming, and they tell him he is the greatest of them all.

In the Ultimate Universe, Miles Morales is seen mourning the loss of his mother, and how he could have saved her. Ultimate Jessica Drew arrives and tells him that he shouldn't quit being Spider-Man. Miles says he isn't, but being Spider-Man cost him his family. Jessica says that he can make a new one, and that the Spiders need to stick together. Suddenly, Verna arrives from a portal to kill them, and says it's better for them to split up, because it's much better when they RUN!

(https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_3_9)

Fan Art: Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse by Hammling

Accompanying Podcast: ● Amazing Spider Talk - episode 09

[dangermousie]

An author rec - Anna Belfrage

I don’t post about it much, but my favorite historical period to read fiction and nonfiction about is Medieval Western Europe. I specialized in it in college and have been drawn to it even before that.

And I have found that while it’s easy to find (a) murder mysteries (b) lengthy tomes centering around war and court or (c ) romance novels set in that time period, it is really hard to find something I love more than that - novels following lives of merchant/upper class in that period. What I really want is a novel with a lot of details about everyday life, with some battles and politics (but not too much) and a story with a strong romantic line but not a romance novel. With a fictional (or at least historically obscure) protagonist(s) instead of a king. Huge bonus if it centers around an arranged marriage. And I don’t want to read about arranged marriage = always suck, let’s do a grim narrative about the plague.

I realize that these are fairly narrow criteria but whatever, I like what I like. That is why I enjoyed a lot of Elizabeth Chadwick’s novels or, if we go way way up into 17th century England, Stella Riley’s historical novels. And now there is another author I can add to the list, Anna Belfrage. She has a time travel series I was never able to get into (not my sort of thing) but she has two truly amazing series that give me everything I want.

One, a complete four book series called The King’s Greatest Enemy, is one of my all time favorite reads and more people need to know about it. Its protagonists are Adam de Guirande, one of Roger Mortimer’s knights and Adam’s wife Katherine.

When the first novel opens, Adam is about to marry Katherine, a big step up since she’s from an important family. Sure, she’s no virgin and has some shady history with Adam’s overlord, but on the other hand, there are lands. However, Katherine’s family does not want to marry off their fancy daughter in a match they don’t super like, and so instead marry off the illegitimate daughter nicknamed Kit, who looks a lot like her. From those inauspicious beginnings, this series becomes a delight of watching Adam and Kit slowly fall in love with each other and work with each other and navigate the very turbulent times of Edward II’s reign. You don’t really feel you are reading about modern people playing dress up (Adam is very conscious of class for example) but they still feel like people you can root for.

It also has one of my favorite set-up, OTP against the world. Their world is terribly dangerous - Edward II’s favorite is unhappy with Adam because of his connection to Mortimer, and at one point both Adam and Kit pay for it (side note, one of the things I love about this series is when people get hurt in battle or tortured, they don’t magically heal. By the end of the novel, Adam’s collective injuries from prison and battles and what not have taken their toll, he’s been permanently affected.) Mortimer rebels against Edward II. Eventually Edward III rebels against Mortimer etc etc etc. Illness strikes with no warning (they give up a child as a hostage and never see him again as he dies from an illness.) Adam and Kit keep fighting to stay alive and for the other to stay alive and to stay together and it’s glorious.

This series also features one of my favorite portrayals of Roger Mortimer, the overthrower of a king, the queen’s lover and in generally a man with the kind of a life that if it wasn’t real people would not believe it. The conclusion of his and Isabelle’s story is of course foregone for hundreds of years but it still broke my heart into small pieces. It also features such an interesting portrayal of Edward III and his wife Philippa - I started out liking them and ended up loathing them both but you see exactly how they got there and how power warped them and it all feels quite realistic.

Anyway, obvious warnings for torture and attempted sexual assault (of both genders) and all sorts of murder, but this series is FUCKING AMAZING!

And now she has a new series - 3 books are out but I am only on Book 2 and must scream because it also features an arranged upper class marriage that works out and becomes OTP against the world in a shifting political landscape. Our protag, Robert FitzStephen, gets rewarded by an heiress wife Eleanor d’Outremer by Edward I. Their marriage starts out rough but develops into a genuine match. And now they are in Aragon in Book 2 and it’s even more awesome. Watching two cool competent people in a loving marriage dealing with all sorts of issues and medieval history background is AAAAA so good! So go read and scream at me!

[papirouge]

Do you see fds principles applied in the EU for dating a lot? In the US, I’ve had girls react like I asked them to set their car on fire for saying that I don’t do walk dates or coffee dates or that I keep high standards. These same girls are complaining every day that their bf hates to clean, won’t respect them or are addicted to porn. These same guys will do all the effort and care for their dream girl. They’d pay for everything and treat her well but if they show they’re doing the opposite to you what does that say about them.

I had to read that post several times bc firsthand I understood as if the European Union had set some dating rules and I was so confused loool

But I think you shouldn't lump Europe together when it came to social behavior, like.... Europe is tiny compared to the US but it's still different countries, language, cultures.... women dating in France has to be very different from Polish women dating, Czech womendating, etc. Even langage has an influence on romantic behavior - there's no wonder romance language (=with latin roots, i.e Italian, Spanish, French) have the reputation of having the most romantic and flirtatious men (french men are scrote though). Meanwhile, a man talking to you in German sounds like he's cursing your entire lineage... Their way of handling courtisanship has to be very different from southern europeans aka romance countries..

The most FDS'y stuff that I witnessed in France is that....up until quite recently, women didn't have sex before any remote commitment. Hookup culture is fairly recent (10-15 years) and I remember a time when courting was really a thing before doing anything sexual. Also couple status was clearly established. There wasn't that stage when you could have sex yet didn't consider each other officially "dating". Now I'm getting older and my friends are either in long relationship or celibate so I don't really know what today's causal dating looks like, but I vividly remember 10 years ago my best friend sexing guys so I guess hookup culture cemeted itself as real cultural shift here too :/

And you brought up an excellent point talking about the capacity of lacklustre boyfriends to flip out and become ideal partners once they met their "dream girl". That's why, in the FDS mindset, there's no point to try to change a partner who's not really dedicated into the relationship. You can't fix a relationship by teaching your boyfriend into being more cautious with the laundry of in taking care of himself... Men can be very duplicitous when it comes to commitment, which depends on their actual attachment to their partner. If they're truly in love, they will do everything they can ("do the effort" that's exactly this) to please their dream girl. A girl he doesn't like that much? meh. That's why this whole "once a cheater always a cheater" saying is true..... but a man dating a women he's truly in love with will never take the risk to lose it all. A man cheating wasn't in love to begin with, so yeah, he'll always be a cheater to a woman he doesn't love/respect ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

So yeah, there's no point in complaining about a lazy boyfriend bc he's most likely not into you to begin with, and all those women are wasting their time in doing so lmao

Any woman with a strategic mindset knows how to spot red flags so that she doesn't waste her time. I myself hate lazy people, how could I miss the mark so bad to not realize my potential boyfriend can't clean and watches porn??? Sorry but women whining about their boyfriend either ignored the red flags or were too desperate to get into a relationship. And it's funny when this brand of women clown FDS/the whole "HVM" thing when they actually are those in the most dire need of FDS advice 🫠