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quidfree · 3 years ago

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What would be your character study on each of the people in the secret history? Like things which are essential to their character, I feel like Francis, bunny and Richard are pretty straightforward, Henry to a certain extent, but the twins are totally lost to me. What goes on with those weirdos

this ask has been sitting in my inbox for a while because i was in two minds about how to answer it. basically what i think is more important than having these set out is to understand that the way the characters are hard to pin down is both intentional and kind of instrumental to TSH- we are stuck within richard's perspective, and richard is both biased and limited in his understanding of the rest of the cast. we know the bare minimum about what camilla is like because so does richard; we have the best grasp on francis despite how contradictory he seems because richard knows him the best but isn't very consistent in how he feels about that, so he gets framed differently across the story. so to an extent i don't think trying to define the characters beyond canon is a good idea WRT to writing them, or at least not writing like i did, because everything is filtered through richard and his understanding of his friends is incomplete. hence certain people complaining that the rest of the cast don't seem like fully-fledged people- they are, but we only get the way richard sees them, and that may or may not be at odds with their direct actions or dialogue. c'est la vie.

anyways that being said i will give you really brief off-the-cuff overviews of how i think of the characters within this context, but the important stuff is all above. if anyone wants actual advice on how to Write tsh stuff that’d be another ask’s content i think.

richard: Le Narrateur, which makes him actually quite hard to write because you need to get his voice down but also balance making the reader aware of his bias without making him self-aware about it. he lusts after the ideals of things, especially the Aesthetic of them, which can definitely blind him and make him disillusioned/frustrated when things don't work out that way- this is definitely reflected in his interactions with people too, which i harp on about at length in the fic so i won't get into here. he actively cares about the others a lot more than they do, though this does not mean he's always nice about it. judgmental and repressed but more self-aware than he gets credit for in fanon. also, sad and lonely. he does this thing a LOT in text where he very off-handedly describes something wild or horrifying that happened and then keeps talking as if it's not important. also likes to downplay things he does that don't fit his vibe- like the amount of time he spends hanging with judy off-screen in the book, or even the coy fade to black re: francis.

henry: very hard to get a feel of as a whole person, which is completely richard's POV's fault. serious, gloomy, disdainful, arrogant, also witty, patient, vivacious (and a lot more willing to banter w the gang than fanon gives him credit for). i think of him as balancing 2 contradictory sets of traits. in a way it's kind of because what he aspires to be is this Greek Hero, proud and instinctive, but what he really is is a hyper-specific scholar with niche interests who's never experienced real hardship and whose biggest struggle is pretty much boredom with modern society. he's at his most enjoyable when he's being very human, but richard is most in awe of him when he's not. he's both The Leader/chessmaster and not really- his biggest weakness is not seeing other people as people, both in the sense that Murder Bad but also in that it leads to all of the catastrophes in Act 2.

bunny: there's nothing deep to bunny. he's just a caricature of a guy. yk the guy who engages in bad faith bait arguments about how straight white men in america are an oppressed minority while coasting on nepotism and his rich friends' pocket money. also can't fathom that anyone wouldn't enjoy his scintillating banter- 'people these days can't take a joke', etc.

francis: a hot mess but the most complete of richard's friends. i think the mistake w francis is hyperfocusing on 1 or 2 of his traits while ignoring the rest. yes he's dramatic n has anxiety but he's also actually one of the saner members of the cast, more perceptive (and self-aware) than richard + in-the-know as to the goings on w the group, and very good at keeping himself in check unless he's w someone he trusts. francis is a contradictory person- he has a lot of facades he upholds, and even w richard when he’s at his messiest he keeps parts of himself under wraps. what people get wrong a lot is that he is very emotional but he’s also very private. like he gets worked up very easily (esp when he’s annoyed, and he complains incessantly) but do we ever see him really break down or get sentimental? no. he has a panic attack once and freaks out after julian and the letter, but that’s literally just having anxiety bc u murdered two people, not him having an emotional moment where he spills all of his feelings. francis literally tells richard very calmly 1 on 1 that he has unrequited feelings for charles and clearly would not tell charles this- i don’t know why people think he’s the sappy/wistful sentimental type, esp given his family context. anyways he gets OOCed a lot bc he's the one canon gay character and has anxiety so a lot of people project onto him but those people r not as interesting as he is so it doesn’t work.

charles: like you say the twins are two characters richard gives ironically little focus to beyond their appearance, so they have the least to build on, and charles is hard bc he has 2 very distinct personas- the one richard sees early on and how he gets later on. i think it’s fairly clear tho that elements of his darker persona were always there, just hidden from richard- the drinking and the way he handles camilla and francis r canonically present throughout, just exacerbated by the stress. i think he’s probably the most ‘emotional’ character, not in the sense that he’s melodramatic (that’s francis’ schtick) but that his personality is quite driven by emotion- he’s nice and chill at the start bc he feels that way; he’s a drunken miser at the end bc that’s what he feels like. why he changes so violently is down to a number of things for me. at his core he’s not a very ‘strong’ person (contrast henry or even arguably richard or camilla), and he’s also the most personable of the study group- he’s always nice to richard, appears to be well-liked generally, and clearly had the emotional intelligence to keep the fbi off their backs where henry very much did not- so the murder and general fracturing of the group, esp w camilla’s shifting allegiance and his resentment of henry, may have weighed esp heavy on him bc of this. but yeah! mysterious. i like charles as a character and i both feel for him and also hate when he gets portrayed as a martyr- he was an asshole behind the scenes long before the audience was told about it.

camilla: ah, camilla. she of the 0 characterisation. seriously writing her from richard pov was both very easy in that i just did Male Gaze and very hard in that from my perspective trying to decide what she would do/say was very hard since there’s so little to work with. camilla is an extremely passive character in-text and has the least dialogue/interaction w anyone. defining her is generally counterproductive since the whole deal w her is richard’s pedestal- similar vibes w henry, until he realises henry’s plotting to off him- so vagueness is best when it comes to her. for my part i did try and craft some kind of skeleton at least for my own reference- building the passivity into her character as an active strategy, and giving her some cynical spark, grounded in the one time she tells bunny to fuck off + the fact she and francis r canonically close. but i think wrt to richard she chooses to lean into the mythos and keep the distance- whatever she has going on in the book she’d rather keep under wraps. also this is entirely out of canon but i love to pitch her and judy poovey as like people who can’t stand each other but r also very reluctantly attracted to each other. it just entertains me. + richard would be so gagged

that's just my quick 2 cents, of course, but donna tartt did directly confirm this to me so it's all correct.

#qui parle #qui repond #qui ecrit #residenthottiesamwilson #tsh #the secret history #richard papen #francis abernathy #henry winters #camilla macaulay #charles macaulay #bunny corcoran #writing #50

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bigskydreaming · 3 years ago

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Sorry to bother you, but RE: the Jason Todd in Arkham thing, like, what was Dick supposed to do? Take him home to the same house where two of the KIDS that Jason had threatened/attacked were supposed to be living in what one hoped would be relative safety?

Like, full offence, Jason had at that point proven himself a danger to all the people around him. If he wound up at Arkham, oh well, maybe don’t kill a whole bunch of ppl and harm numerous others. If Arkham doesn’t work as a hospital, maybe he should have been at another one, but at that point in his character arc, a secure mental health facility was probably the best he could expect.

It’s like ppl forget he’s a multiple murderer with a history of targeting the ppl Dick loves. I don’t even read the comics and I know this much.

Oh for sure, I mean, I've posted meta about this before because the fandom accepted narrative gets it sooooooo wrong. Like, I'll always be right at the front of the line yelling IT WAS JASON'S CHARACTERIZATION THAT WAS CRAP THROUGH ALL THAT, THAT'S NOT JASON, GIMME NUANCE OR GIMME DEATH. Y'know, something like that.

But like, given that Jason was written as repeatedly trying to kill Dick's other two brothers its like, yeah?! What was Dick supposed to do? He'd tried asking Jason nicely hey could you stop doing that and Jason was like LOL no.

And also....people are like - Dick callously threw Jason into Arkham right next to the Joker and then just left him there and forgot about him and....SOURCE?

1) Dick didn't DO this to Jason, JASON went after Dick and Damian and in the process of fighting him in a very public space, Dick beat Jason and police were already like....right there? Dick didn't actually have the option of being uh no, you can't take this known and notorious criminal into custody, I'll stop you on the basis of - well I can't tell you actually but plz just trust me okay, he totes didn't mean it! (except like also, at that point he totes did, so.....)

2) What pull Dick DID have as Batman with the GCPD, he used to get Jason put into Arkham INSTEAD of Blackgate for his SAFETY. We know this to be true. Jason himself confirmed that absolutely nothing bad happened to him in Arkham, he just didn't want to be there but WHO THE HELL EVER WANTS TO BE IN A PRISON OF ANY SORT? And the first thing Dick said when Bruce said Jason had demanded to be transferred to Blackgate is that Jason wouldn't be safe there with all the enemies he had gunning for him. It was abundantly clear that Jason's safety had been a primary concern for Dick the whole time (and Jason wasn't safe at Blackgate, its just fine, he only wanted to be transferred in order to enact an escape plan that got like 80 people indiscriminately killed but whatevs. Its Gotham, what's a few dozen more dead criminals am I right? *rolls eyes at how often that little detail gets left out of the narrative).

3) Dick consistently put time, focus and Wayne Enterprises money into Arkham Asylum while he was Batman, since Arkham was being rebuilt from the ground up after it was blown up in Battle for the Cowl. Also, Dick had been one of the last 'patients' in the old Arkham, given that he went undercover to infiltrate the Black Glove while they were in control of Arkham and spent a week in there drugged to the gills, locked up and in a straitjacket before being almost lobotomized. He has every grievance with Arkham that fan writers like to PRETEND Jason has from his stay there, but Jason's only complaint was that he again, was bored, and he had to take psych evals every other week because it was after all, still a mental health institution. Dick did everything in his power at the time to make sure that even if Jason did have to be locked up to keep him from going after more people, like, it was going to be as humane as possible and the stuff that Dick himself had JUST experienced in the old Arkham WOULDN'T happen to Jason.

4) The Joker was literally nowhere near Arkham THE ENTIRE TIME. This is not a small detail, given that 'the Joker was just five cells down' is the entire basis of most writers' Jason-in-Arkham angst and the anti-Dick sentiments they tend to create. All the major Rogues escaped from the old Arkham in Battle for the Cowl BEFORE it blew up. That's why they're not DEAD. Dick's run as Batman was primarily about fighting the escapees. And Joker, very significantly, was clearly among those Rogues not present in Arkham during Dick's Batman run, given he was literally toying with Dick and Damian through most of it. Seriously, how much do people have to hate Dick and think the worst of him to think that he - the dude who btw, BEAT THE JOKER TO DEATH WITH HIS BARE HANDS FOR MAKING JOKES ABOUT KILLING JASON - would just....obliviously lock Jason up right next to the Joker and throw away the key?

Like...and it goes on and on, lol. I remember the first time I brought all this up in an argument with some Jason stans, they literally started laughing back and forth to each other in the replies about how someone was a bit too carried away with their own fanon, and its like...LMAO! Yes! Someone is! Its YOU! You are the people you guys are talking about, looooool, I can literally back all this up with sourced panels.

Buuuuuuut, c'est la vie.

I mean, this is nothing new for us, its literally Teen Wolf fandom alllll over again. Probably why I just said nope, not doing this again awhile back and was like umm actually I will NOT just be ignoring the blatant false narratives thrown around here just so that people happy with the fanon narratives that prioritize the characters they like and sling shit at the characters they don't can have their fandom just the way they want it at the expense of everyone else in it. You wanna push bad faith interpretations of specific characters at every literal opportunity, its like, that's cool! I got the drive! I can push back with actual facts, its all good!

But the most hilarious thing to me will always be how fucking INDIGNANT people get about that, like "How dare you point out the precedent we established in not caring about any fandom experience other than our own and thus being loud and everpresent with our preferred interpretations in an attempt to drown out any other possible interpretation just so that the most people possible would be influenced by us instead of anything else, and we'd get more of the content we like at the expense of any possible nuance whatsoever."

Like, the most common complaint I get is people griping about how damn often I'm saying "mmmm, no, this isn't what happened actually" and "okay but have you considered flipping the script BACK from the way you flipped it initially in order to get this weird ass interpretation of a superhero noted for his emphasis on emotional caretaking of his loved ones actually being this callous oblivious selfish jerk who tramples all over the feelings of everyone around them and makes them just the woobiest woobies that ever did woobie all throughout Woobieland?"

And I'm just like, okay see, I hear you, its just the thing is, the THING IS......

If you didn't want that to be the topic of conversation so damn often, then hey, just a suggesh, but maybe you shouldn't have devoted literal years to coming up with the most bad faith interpretations of this character possible at literally every available opportunity. Maybe there'd be like.....less reason for the topic to come up so often, if like....you by your own actions hadn't made it a necessary topic to tackle so often?

I DON'T KNOW, I'M JUST SPIT-BALLING HERE, DON'T MIND ME AND MY CRAZY-ASS IDEAS OF FAIR PLAY.

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jebazzled · 4 years ago

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troubleshooting: common quandaries and thots to overcome

It's no surprise that people whose major hobby involves writing, the internet, and fandom are often people who carry a lot of anxiety and tension around with them. For many of us, writing is something we do to escape, relax, unwind, and flex creative muscles we might not get to use at work or school. I get it.

For many of us, however, it also seems like forum rp is a stressor, a cause of great anxiety and insecurity. We've all seen or known people who go through a major rp-related crisis.

Sometimes, these crises are truly major - catastrophic falling-outs and permanently damaging rumor mills and etc etc. But a lot of the time? Well. It's not that it's "in your head," because obviously what you are feeling is very valid. But I think sometimes the way we think of internet spaces fuels dysfunctional thinking.

This isn't quite a tutorial; it's more in the vein of my tough love re: writer's block. I'm going to talk through some common scenarios, anxieties, and other issues I see in the rp community, and offer my (fully unsolicited) thoughts and advice. As always, your mileage may vary, but I'm trying!

Topics covered, because this one is a LONGBOI:

Insecurity & thread reactions

Insecurity & completionism/ Being Liked

Jealousy (especially ship-related)

The server is not therapy.

So here's the thing about the internet: for better or worse, it's for everyone.

On the far end of the spectrum, this means that the internet is a great incubator for toxic garbage. See: right-wing radicals, etc. But for most of us, this means that there is room on the internet for weird little me and my weird little hobby. You can find a community to talk about virtually any interest. You, for example, found the rp community.

So here's the thing about the internet: for better or worse, it's for everyone. This means that while you can find a community to talk about virtually any interest, you are never going to find a community that is completely without flaws.

There will always be people who annoy you, rub you the wrong way, or who you think are mean-spirited and negative. There will always be someone you don't get along with. There will always be people who disagree with you.

I have been in servers where members come to me time and time again to complain about other members, as though I am going to boot someone for wanting to talk about x just because they, personally, are sick of hearing about x. I am not going to tell someone to change their personality because someone else, personally, finds it annoying.

Offline, you wouldn't tell your manager at Starbucks to fire Susie because you don't like talking to her. You would simply not talk to her outside of a professional context. You would simply not take your break at the same time as her. You would simply not make small talk with her when the store is quiet and would instead, like, read the liner notes on whatever CD is at the register. (Does Starbucks still sell CDs?)

There will always be people in your community who you do not like and whose logic does not make sense to you. If they are not doing anything genuinely abusive, they have as much right to be in your community as you do. There is, in fact, likely someone in your community who finds you somewhat annoying. C'est la vie.

A community is not an environment custom-curated to your exact specifications. It is a community. You are not entitled to it being perfect. You are entitled to a space free from harassment and bigotry. If the space is free from harassment and bigotry and you cannot enjoy the space because someone else in it is existing harmlessly in a way that you dislike or find irritating, you have the option to leave the community. Discord server links are not a binding contract!

This is all to say: I think a lot of us expect far more of our online communities than is fair. Remember that every single person in your server is an individual human being with an interior life as rich as your own, and a list of neuroses possibly as extensive. None of them, yourself included, are perfect.

Oh, speaking of that list of neuroses! Let's tackle it, babe.

Your neuroses are not anyone else's problem.

It is on you to work through and overcome your anxieties and insecurities.

It is kind of other people to accommodate your growth, or to modify their behavior so as not to trigger your anxieties and insecurities. They are by no means required to do so.

Note: they do need to respect your triggers, if you have them and list them.

So here we go: troubleshooting frequent freak-outs. Buckle up!!!

Insecurity & thread reactions (or lack thereof)

Some people experience a lot of anxiety and insecurity around how their writing partners react to their threads. This might surface in the form of feeling unappreciated/disliked if the thread partner doesn't drop an emoji react on the link in your server's tag channel, or in feeling like no one likes your writing because they aren't swooning over it in #affirmations/ #thread-shoutouts/ #quotables/ etc.

You are serving as both texters in this meme.

So... you don't actually know what's going on with your thread partner at any given moment, you know? Personally, here are some possible scenarios with me as your thread partner:

You tag me and I put a passage from your post in #thread-shoutouts: I am at my desk, on my computer, not engaged in active DM conversation with anyone, and your post either made me cackle or it made me emo

You tag me and I DM you to gush about it: there's a lot happening in the server right now/ I don't want to derail a public conversation

You tag me and I react with an emoji: I am at date night with my girlfriend and she is in the bathroom. I have had time to read your post. I probably haven't put it in my tracker and will try and remember later, when I find it in one of 100 tabs open on Safari on my phone.

You tag me and I don't react at all: I am swamped with work and read your post in between emails. Instead of taking a second to react I immediately jumped into my tracker to log your reply, and now I am back to emails.

You'll notice none of these rationales are: "I don't react at all because I dislike you as a human." "I actively chose to quote Susie in #thread-shoutouts and not you because I want to hurt you." "I don't DM you about our thread because I hate our thread."

It doesn't have to be that deep! Stop hurting yourself. Let yourself assume the kindest option. After all, don't you want people to assume the best of you, too?

If your thread partners know you value emoji reacts or thread shoutouts, it is kind of them to do them. But it isn't inherently unkind for them not to, either. You're better off trying to kick that need for public validation.

Overview for addressing thread reaction insecurity:

If your server has a thread shoutout/quotables/etc channel, mute it. Don't look at it. Stop giving yourself something to fixate on.

When you are worried that someone hates a thread because they aren't giving emoji reacts, instead of building a narrative in your head that may or may not be true - communicate! "What beats do you want us to make sure we hit in this thread?" is a good introductory question to see if a thread is doing something for either or both of you, and gives your partner a chance to say something if they do want it to go in a different direction and would be more excited.

If someone is continuing to write with you, regardless of whether they post an emoji, it is probably because they enjoy writing with you!

Be deliberate about your thread premises! In my experience, threads done "just because" without a specific purpose (e.g. building chemistry between ship partners, introducing a subplot about a cursed hairbrush, kidnapping a house elf) are the first to lose steam and lose interest. It's entirely possible that someone likes you, likes writing with you, and simply doesn't prioritize this thread above their others because there's nothing meaningful to prioritize!

Keep your eyes on your own paper and stop reading so much into what other people do or don't do. It's probably not that deep!

Insecurity & completionism/ Being Liked

You would not be the first person to exacerbate their own problems because of a sense of duty to the spirit of completionism. Here's the thing, friend:

You do not need to write with every member.

You do not need to plot with every character.

You do not need to be in every subplot.

You do not need to have a character in every member group.

People fall into this trap thinking that if they can be everything to everyone, it will make them popular/important/beloved/a truly included member of the site.

But quantity is not the same as quality. You might have a thread with every character onsite but if half those threads are under a "they're on the same bus" premise, then yeah, people aren't going to want to keep up with that thread, and it's going to contribute to your thread reaction anxiety!

Write characters you are excited about. But more importantly: write plots you are excited about. Write threads you are excited about. You can be friends with people in your server without writing with them! You are better off writing a smaller number of really well-plotted, juicy plots that everyone involved feels heavily invested in than in writing a lot of watery threads for the sake of writing with every single person. It's hard to believe, but many people would rather NOT have a thread and wait until there's a juicy reason to than write a thread that doesn't have any development relevance simply for the sake of it.

If you're finding that it's hard to find juicy or plot-driven reasons to thread with many people, that might be a hint to write different types of characters. While yes, people exist who are very self-contained and isolated, the purpose of rp isn't to be a direct mirror of real life. It's to have fun while writing with other people. If your character is not fun to write with other people, they are probably not a good fit for an rp setting.

RP is not a popularity contest. This is not high school. No one is voting for prom queen. Be kind and be open to ideas and collaboration and people will like you. People will enjoy writing with you! People might even go out of their way to write with you. And they will be writing things that matter to both of you. That's winning, dude.

You might be tempted to pinpoint a "popular group" in the server and fix your sights on becoming one of them. This is also a failing proposition: often the "popular group" you might first identify is incorrect, and you are mistaking "exclusivity" for "importance." Sometimes sites have a small, tight-knit group with intricate inter-group plots and a very visibly closed-off dynamic. Since that dynamic mirrors the popular girls you were raised watching in teen movies, I can understand why you would assume that these people are the most important people to befriend on a site. They're not. They're cliquey and exclusive, and trying to get them to make room for you when they have intentionally and performatively set themselves aside from many other members is like... lmao, dude, it's not going to work.

Not only that, but the fact that these people are hard to pin down? It's not a selling point! The most beloved members on any site are not the ones who make you beg for a scrap of their attention. The most beloved members are the people who are friendly and kind. THAT is who you want to Get In with.

Overview for addressing completionism tendencies and "what if I'm Left Out" woes:

This is not a popularity contest, and you are a grown up. Focus on having fun and enjoying writing. That is not something you can do if your first priority is Getting In with the people you think are a site's "Popular Crowd."

You do not need to be everything to everyone. You cannot be everything to everyone.

In fact, everyone will appreciate you more if you do less and you do it well.

Focus on the positive. Who cares if Susie and Sally won't write with you? Sarah and Sam love writing with you! Yes, it would make sense for Susie to plot with you because your characters work together - but again, this is a hobby, not real life, and if you and Susie don't vibe, your characters don't need to interact! Why write with people who make you feel insecure? Trick question; there's NO reason to!

I understand the drive to be well-liked. Trust! I, too, desperately want to be well-liked. You'll have better luck if you don't try so hard. Be yourself and make friends with people who genuinely like you. Stop worrying about what the site's yearbook will look like. There isn't going to be a fucking yearbook.

Jealousy (especially ship-related)

Do you ever find yourself feeling a spike of anxiety or resentment when one of your favorite writing partners writes with someone else?

This reaction is especially common where ships are concerned: when one partner writes AU ships with their character, or has a plot with their character's previous partners before their OTP, etc.

It's a bit territorial, and it's not a good look, friends!

Your writing partners get to write with other people. How much they enjoy writing with other people has nothing to do with how much they enjoy writing with you. How much they write with other people has nothing to do with you. What they write has nothing to do with you. It's not all about you!

It truly doesn't matter how anxious you feel when your writing partners write with other people. They are entitled to write with whoever they want! What makes you nervous about them writing with other people?

In a forum rp environment, the best way to secure fulfilling, satisfying character arcs for your character is to plot with multiple others. That includes you, on both fronts: your writing partner needs you for their character's development as much as you need them! They aren't going to just stop writing with you arbitrarily.

If they do stop writing with you, there is probably a reason! Are they still on the site? Are they still writing? Are they going through something in real life that might impact their muse? There could be a hundred reasons why they are writing more with Susie now than they were with you, and they could be anything from "Susie is out of town this week so I want to give her a lot of replies to come home to" to "a ladder fell on my head and I am recovering from a concussion" to, possibly, "your territorial behavior makes me uncomfortable, and I would rather write with people who do not make me feel bad about writing with other people."

This behavior is especially weird in a ship context, and is something worth unpacking. When you write ships, do you resent/get anxious about your ship partner writing AU ship threads? About their character having previous partners? About their character having crushes that they do not act on?

An AU ship is an alternate universe specifically because it is not real. Susie and Sally shacking up in a space AU has no bearing over whether or not Susie and Marco end up together as finals.

Just like human beings have romantic history, it makes sense for characters to have romantic history, and these plots give your writing partner an opportunity to write plots that they might not get with you. For example, your writing partner might want to write a breakup plot with weird friendship tensions, which might not be a relevant vibe for Susie and Marco. But your partner can explore that with Marco and Sally. Again: it's not all about you, and your writing partner gets to write what they want, and you do, too.

Sometimes I think we can trace the territorial side of ship-oriented plotting to toxic monogamy culture, as described here. Particularly relevant are the below:

the idea that you should meet your partner’s every need, and if you don’t, you’re either inadequate or they’re too needy

the idea that commitment is synonymous with exclusivity

the idea that your insecurities are always your partner’s responsibility to tip-toe around and never your responsibility to work on

the idea that your value to a partner is directly proportional to the amount of time and energy they spend on you, and it is in zero-sum competition with everything else they value in life

Your writing partner is not cheating on your ship by giving their character other ships. If it feels that way to you, you are getting too emotionally invested, and you should probably back off of ship-oriented plotting for a while to unpack why you are feeling this way.

That said, of course be clear about boundaries. This applies both to M-rated content and to parameters of plotting. For example, you might tell your partner that you are not interested in a plot whose core conflict is "will they or won't they." You want to write these characters with the longevity of their relationship never in doubt. You might not want a plot where one character is cheating on the other. You might want these characters to be monogamous. That's fair! It's not fair for you to expect your writing partner to limit the plots they do that do not actually involve your character to avoid triggering your insecurities.

Overview for dealing with jealousy:

It's not all about you! Your writing partners deserve to have a good time as much as you deserve to have a good time. They can enjoy writing with you AND writing with someone else.

Be very clear with your boundaries. If there are plots between your character and another character that you cannot write, let your partner know before they accidentally step in a minefield.

Be willing to step away from ships. There are plenty of plots that do not involve ships. If ships make you a jealous and anxious mess, you should stop writing ships and work on that journey. It is more important to be a good writing partner than it is to write romantic ships.

Writing is such a personal thing, and we all of course connect very deeply to our characters - it only makes sense that we be invested in their outcomes! But if your gut reaction is one of jealousy, this is something that you need to work on, not something your writing partners should need to tiptoe around.

The server is not therapy.

Because rp is an online hobby, it can be easy to forget that every person you interact with in the server or forum is also a whole ass person on the other side of the screen. Which is to say, your rp friends do not exist to be your emotional support.

Of course they can be supportive - some of my closest friends are people I have met through rp! But online as in real life, you need to remember that everyone is always going through something. You are never the only person in the world who needs support, and you need to be thoughtful in how you engage with your friends here.

Do you listen when they share their problems, or do you immediately change the subject to talk more about your own? Do they not share their problems at all - is this a one-sided close friendship? Are the majority of your DMs to them seeking comfort, advice, affirmation, validation?

If you need a text-based counseling service, BetterHelp can connect you with a therapist. A therapist is a person whose job is to listen and ask nothing from you for their own personal emotional needs.

Your friends - online as in real life - are not therapists. They will not always have the bandwidth to help you. They will not always feel comfortable helping you. The internet breeds a sense of intimacy, the idea that regular chat conversation makes for a deep knowledge of another person. And of course this is sometimes the case! But in many cases, the person you are asking for psychoanalysis in the DMs on Discord doesn't actually know you very well. And if you have been relying on them for emotional support, you might be wearing them out.

Overview for not treating your rp friends like therapists:

Be thoughtful. If you have something heavy you want to talk about, first ask if they have the bandwidth. For example: "Hi Susie! Do you have the energy to give me some advice on x work issue?"

Listen. If your friend wants to talk about their issues, stop thinking about how you can relate and it sounds just like that time you... and just LISTEN. If you want to offer advice, keep it about them. If you don't know how to help, commiserate. "That's rough, buddy."

Self-check. Look at your chat history as though it's between your friend and someone you've never met. What do you think of this person? Are they a good listener? Do they reciprocate the support they get from your friend? Do they remember things your friend tells them about their own life? Or is this a one-sided conversation? If you're realizing that you're leaning too much on this friend, give them some space. If you're realizing you've gone way overboard leaning on this friend, maybe apologize and promise to be more conscientious going forward.

Be considerate. Remember that every person you know from the internet is so much more than what you've seen - I don't mean that in a "all internet users are creeps" way, I mean that in a "even if you've chatted in a server with some every day for six months, you still don't actually know them super well." Think of other people you've spent Some Time with. Think of your lab partner in 8th grade bio. You shared a desk with them for an hour a day five days a week for two thirds of the year. How much of your life did you share with them?

This tutorial got LONG - sorry, friends! Lots to talk about. I'm always happy to give Real TalksTM like this one. Feel free to drop into my askbox if you have a topic you'd like me to cover. I'm full of thoughts and feelings, and it would give me great joy for y'all to ask for them for once.

I hope this is helpful, and wish all y'all the best. Happy writing!

#rp guides #resources

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kierongillen · 6 years ago

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Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 40

Spoilers, obv.

The first issue of "Okay." I've known for quite some time that it was likely the final arc would use the word "Okay" in some way. The unpacking phrase "It's going to be okay" has been a backbone of the series. Due to the first year on the book, that's been a loaded phrase, all the way through.

But when signing a first volume of the book, I've added the dedication "It's going to be okay." There's lots to unpack in that, and I suspect I'll wait until later in this arc to say any more. But knowing that eventually we'd like have an arc called "Okay" was definitely part of doing it.

The quotation marks are key. It's a move I've done a few times in my career, in terms of showing it's a story that wants to highlight something, and raise awareness that the word should be approached with conscious consideration. This is a choice. I want you to know it's a choice. Let's talk about what that actually means anyway, right?

It's a technique I first lifted from Bowie's "Heroes". Which, of course, is doubly appropriate to use it at the end of WicDiv.

We knew they'd be a gap between the end of Mothering Invention and the start of this. The remaining five issues of the arc were tightly plotted, but in the document, this is the one which I left a lot open. I knew what I wanted to be, and it was a chance of finding an execution to make it work. It was a last chance to do a big concept issue.

(Which isn't to say there isn't conceptual stuff elsewhere in the arc. There just isn't a whole issue of it.)

This is something that I've been trying to do since issue 6. As in, a purely fan-centric issue of mainly talking heads. Every time, it's had to be cut for space. The talking heads shots of realistic footage, showing a lot of fans views on the matter. You get ghosts of it – any time Beth turns up, you get some, basically, but all of those moments could have been issues in another version of WicDiv.

(The one we won't be doing is the whole issue of literal talking heads. As in, Tara, Lucifer and Inanna just telling stories. That's fun, but we just don't have the time, and when I realised I had to stop them talking, it was definitely out. Oh, Minerva. You spoil everything.)

Equally, WicDiv's a book with two poles – the modern fan pop cultural part and the mythological grandeur. We swing one way or another, and it's easy for the latter to mug the former. I suspect that's because that's the easier stuff. Especially as Laura has gone down her hole, she's been incapable of seeing the good parts of fandom. An issue of that before the end, seemed necessary.

(Equally, with where it goes. Like, we start with Laura as a fan, and end with her on stage, saving people. The Bowie Saved More People Than Batman of WicDiv. It's a book about cycles, and ever more so here.)

So! The other side is this apocalyptic final scheme, and give a perspective on that – the necessary plot. Equally, keeping Laura off stage as long as possible.

So we end up with this.

I knew wanting to pick up and run with minor characters in WicDiv was something I wanted to do, and merging it with a disaster rapidly led to something else – this is clearly an inverted Watchmen 11. There, they gather the supporting cast together in the b-plot and then with a I-did-it-35-minutes-ago kill them all. We flip that. We imply everyone we're watching is dead, reintroduce the whole cast and then have Laura save them.

Suffice to say, formally, this was tricky.

Jamie and Matt's cover:

Meet Tom. We surveyed the whole supporting cast and picked someone who was present enough in a scene to be likely to be remembered but minor enough to be a surprise. In the end, there were less options... and the kid who asks Persephone about what to call her obviously has some strong thematic elements. She told him something. What did he make of it? It also gave a supporting cast of friends.

It's fun doing a cover like this and people going "who the hell is he?"

I wish he wasn't white and male – if I realised I was definitely going to use him in issue 24, I'd have likely have suggested otherwise. But, on the other hand, there is a point that white male guys should have heroes who aren't white male guys. So maybe I'm okay with it. Comics!

Claire Roe's Cover Well, this is monstrous. You do get the image of Minerva, like she's in Home Alone, trying to smuggle skulls. Just some great images here.

Ray Fawkes' Cover

For the Heroes Inititative Charity. The theme was "Giving" which immediately jumped to a "Lucifer giving an apple." Giving is very loaded for us. Ray is amazing – he's been an incredible support throughout all of WicDiv, and we love him. Go buy his books. My favourite is THE PEOPLE INSIDE, but for something more genre, the UNDERWINTER books are fascinating, horror. UNDERWINTER: SYMPHONY is the adult gothic sister of Wicdiv, if you squint.

IFC

Flipping "Ascended Fangirl" into "Descended God" was sitting in the script for this issue before anything else.

Page 3

Black page with white text is something that's come to the fore in the last year of WicDiv. In here, the exact word choice was key. While this feels like a documentary in terms of how it arranges information, the text doesn't tell you that. It tells you it's just footage. This means that it's not necessarily an in-world document.

Page 4-5

Working out the exact panel dimensions was a nightmare, and led to a couple of rewrites to move some pages from eight panel to a more accurate six panel. You can also see Jamie start to wrestle with the unique horror of drawing stuff that is slightly distorted, choosing angles which are less traditionally interesting and so on.

Unboxing videos are a fascinating phenomena. It's fun to see culture happen which I fundamentally don't get on an emotional level. That's what culture should throwing up.

The details on the ticket do make me smile, in an awful way.

Yes, the "change the orientation" panel is clearly us showing off. This is the sort of issue I did a lot of doodles for. It also led to a bunch of lettering challenges for Clayton, in working out whether to put balloon tails off-camera to signify the other speaker. In the end, Clayton talked us into the other approach, noting it worked fine in Mister Miracle. Hey, if Tom King does it, I guess it's fine with us.

It's worth noting the way the off-panel speaker is orientated, to ensure you know who they are. See the "Tom" in the dialogue in the second panel, to ensure you know it's Nathan.

"The front row if it kills us" is very us. This issue is a mix of awful tension and strokes of equally awful gallows humour. His smile is also adorable.

Page 6

Sometimes the most beautiful thing in the world is a page of exposition via the medium of power-point. We're all big fans of the 1960s kirby superhero maps, and this is kind of the same thing.

Page 7

This is also a masterclass in a "Naturalism is hard" sort of page layout. The choice of the greys by Matt is really nice too.

Page 8

And back with Tom and friends. Worth noting the planning on this issue – I had this list of scenes, and tried to work how much I can cut between them to create a rhythm, which obviously accelerates the further we go in.

"Shitting them whole"? Nathan is totally right. Tom, you re NASTY.

Trying to get a subplot which fit in the space for them is key. Like, friends navigating a space. That Tom and Nathan are both far from perfect in this is also important. I just realised this is totally an alt-dimension Kohl and Kid-with-knife scene.

Page 9

The greatest tragedy of WicDiv is we never got around to doing the WicDiv calendar with all the dates on. Will we get around to it for Christmas 2019? IT COULD BE POSSIBLE.

The problem in terms of story here is getting the multiple lies – Woden doesn't know what Baal has had him to do, and Baal doesn't know what Minerva is making him do. So trying to set that information up so is clear, while also in a naturalistic fashion is a trick.

We were having LOC CAPs on some of this footage, but decided to cut them all. Only some of them had it, and having it on them all would create a mess. This is the one I regret though – there's one tiny bit of information I'd like to have got in here. C'est la vie.

The colour banding on this is fascinating – the late night recording. Also, Jamie's burn on the calendar is golden.

Page 10

This was another one where the lines were worked hard. What happens BEFORE the image, what happens AFTER the image and all that.

Anyway, some good thinking here Tom.

The chat between the two, in terms of fans-beliefs and minor pieces, and hot takes and their own beliefs. Also re-introducing certain takes.

Page 11

This page is hard. The silent third panel is amazing – what Jamie does with the panning between the two. The caption would have revealed who's filming it – the Sister – but that isn't essential information.

"You soppy twat" is something I'm oddly pleased with getting in. It's a very naturalistic issue, and the tenderness is very real.

There has been a tendency for people to take Baal's fight against the Great Darkness solely to save his family, and understandable why. This scene and what follows shows that no, it's not just that. He actually believes he's saving the world, because if he didn't, he certainly wouldn't fucking do this.

Page 12

And Minerva reveals her side of all this. The little callback to 1373 does make me smile.

The stylistic nature of this is key – Jamie doing the fish-eye, Matt working the blues, giving that night vision creepiness.

Page 13-14

This issue was definitely me trying to look for ways for Jamie to not just draw a million crowd-scenes. The first two is definitely me lampshading it.

In passing, this two pages is basically all of Young Avengers in sixteen panels.

The last panel is a thing of love, and definitely inspired by a Glastonbury festival, circa 1998. I'm there alone, as it was one of the infamous wet years, waiting for Nick Cave to come on the main stage. A highly high and/or drunk guy stops beside me, after pushing through the crowd. He's clearly very excited, to the level where a group of younger women start to join in and/or mock him. He is very entertaining.

Nick Cave comes on stage, doing a half-speed From Her To Eternity.

"From her."

"To."

Eternity."

Murmurs Nick.

Our new friend hasn't actually noticed and howls at the top of his lungs...

"FROM HHHHEERRRRR TOOooOOOOOOooOOOOOOoo ETERRNNITYYYY!"

...at at least twice the speed of Nick.

At which point, he's decides he wants to be further front. Turning to the people around him, he suggests we all go forward. "Yeah?" "Yeah!" the girls scream, and immediately they all form a conga and start pushing through the crowd, with him chanting "NICK CAVE ARMY COMING THRUUUUUU!"

I join in, as clearly I want to follow this journey. It leads us to the front, where I believe I stay for the rest of the night?

On the way to the front I step on the shoe of a guy who, a year or two later, invites me to storm the stage on a Saturday morning TV show. I turn it down, and then he only goes and does it anyway.

Pop music!

Anyway, that panel is for that guy, wherever he is.

Page 15

Okay, I can't hold off crowd scenes forever. Sorry Jamie, but not too sorry, as this looks amazing. Matt pushing the controls completely into the red, with the distortions going on. This is everything. It's also the panel where the conceit of watching television is lowest – the panel shape is wrong, and it's unlikely a camera would be on Baal's mum on the top of the pillar... but they are deniably so, I suspect.

I look at this page and smile. This is some comics. Nice work, us.

Page 16-17-18-19

And we're off. This is... oh, god. There were diagrams for this, in terms of working out panel flow. There's multiple routes through the two pages, which cascade together. The backbone is the "Baal" story arc, across the diagonal on both spreads.

The second panel reads across both pages – notice the orange band leading you to the right – where a talking head explains what's actually going on at the gig, and why everyone is being immersed.

When you finish this row, you get the presenter giving the context for the remaining talking heads. On the first spread, you get a talking head talking answering the question... and then placing them in the crowd. When that ideas's been set up, in the second spread we have multiple talking heads answering it, which all gather around a single group shot showing them all by each other, unknowing. And then there's Tom, and his friends, mixed in, with Tom's own answer stumbling towards his own truth, and his friends together, joined in this.

I'm getting excited here, clearly, but this is some engineered machine monstrosity, and I love how it collaborates with the reader.

This made it a nightmare for the guided view on Comixology. We contacted them in advance, offering to help a little. In the end, I wrote my suggested route, and they went with it. Moving from a non-linear sequence to a linear sequence clearly changes it somewhat, but I think it keeps a lot of the percussion. So don't blame them, blame me.

Oh – I had a list of people to possibly include in this sequence, and selected from them. There's been some impressive attempts by readers to ID everyone. Clearly, I tried to signal who they were in their dialogue a little. My personal hero is the guy from issue 19 who saw Dionysus before Baph nabbed him. You're a fucking legend too, mate.

Tweaks we did was realising it was three hetero-reading couples on the first page, which was heteronormative. We changed that to avoid it. And, yes, that's Jon's mum.

The one I wished I could get in, but lost, was the guy standing to the right of Laura in Issue one, who jizzed to Amaterasu. His line would have been something like "I hope I enjoy this one as much as that time with Amaterasu!"

This is an awful book, in many ways.

20-21

And just let the awful moment linger. Do it naturally and show it. All that rush and then this. Once more, Matt Wilson for Eisners. The hyperbright is one thing, but the flicker on the aftermath another. And the hint of the giant in there is also carefully worked – it's something we needed there, but also was a small part of it. What was important just imagining all those people dying.

Inevitable Total Eclipse Of The Heart reference, the go-to song for ending WicDiv dance parties.

23-24

And then, after all that, we get this moment, building towards that final image of Laura.

Honestly, this got to me when Jamie first sent it to me in a burst into tears way. You've come a long way.

I also like the idea that Laura, before heading out, looked through all her stuff and decided "Yes, Hoop ear-rings are the look for saving 20,000 people."

Next issue is out on Wednesday.

Thanks for reading.

#WicDiv #the wicked and the divine #writer notes

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rose-coloured-angel · 2 years ago

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Tag 10 People You Want to Know Better

Thanks to @grayeyedandroid for tagging me :)

1. Relationship Status: Single. Have been for 22 years, won't be dating anytime soon. I'm Demisexual so I'm not really interested in dating anyways.

2. Favourite Colour: Pink! :) I also like red, white, brown, and orange. But pink, specifically a rosy or pastel pink (like cotton candy), is my favourite colour/shade.

3. Favourite Food: Ooooh, this is a tough one. I don't think I can choose just one food. :( I really like food. But some top favourites are sushi, pancakes, chicken pot pie, grilled cheese, and fajitas :)

4. Song Stuck in Your Head: C'est la Vie by the Weathers. I feel that song a bit too much right now...That and Twin Sized Mattress by the Front Bottoms.

5. Last Thing You Googled: Choco tacos being discontinued 🥲 When I was about 8, my twin brother and I would buy them from the ice cream truck. We were left alone by our mom while she was at work, and we weren't supposed to be outside at all, but we heard the ice cream truck and we would use all our allowance to but choco tacos specifically. We have them at the store I currently work at but I don't think I'll be able to get one again. I didn't even think about trying them again. It's been such a long time...I guess I missed my chance to relive those memories.

6. Time: It's 3:40 AM as I write this...I'm nocturnal because of my job.

7. Dream Trip: I've always wanted to go to Canada. I come from a military family so I've seen a lot of Europe already. I've never even been in close proximity to Canada, state-wise. Canada was one of my hyperfixations in the past (which I'm sure annoyed way more people than my family) but I just find it so interesting.

8. Last Book You Read: Alice in Wonderland :) Read it online

9. Last Book You Enjoyed Reading: Alice in Wonderland! I've re-read it so many times since I was a kid but it's such a whimsical and fun book (especially when you understand the jokes and historical references)

10. Last Book You Hated Reading: Oof...I don't know that I've read a book I disliked recently...the last book I remember disliking was probably that collection of HP Lovecraft stories I picked up put of curiosity at the bookstore. I sat there reading, hoping I could figure out why people like his stories so much. God, the stories were so boring and the writing was awful. Then I found our he was, like, suuuuuper racist, so...yeah. Kinda ruined any bit of enjoyment I might have gotten from that.

Bonus

1. Favourite Thing to Cook/Bake: HHHHHNG I LIKE COOKING AND BAKING SO MUCH. You want me to choose one thing??? I love making cookies, pies, pizzas, stew, grilled cheese, pancakes, brownies, cake, soufflés, french fries, gingerbread! They're all my favourite! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME CHOOSE.

2. Favourite Craft to Do in Your Spare Time: Cross-stitching! Or just sewing in general :) Unless drawing counts as a "craft"...

3. Most Niche Dislike: Honey-based candy corn. I like the candy Corn made with corn syrup! But the honey kind? 🤢

4. Opinion on Circuses Now and in History: Love-hate relationship. I love the romanticized idea of the circus, but being aware of the cruelty towards the disabled, POC, and animals in circuses throughout history kinda ruins the ideals of pretty colours, cotton candy, and clowns. I like how circuses now forgo the "freakshow" thing and have started using fake animals, or at least treat the animals better than they did in the past (if they use them at all). I've never really been to the circus (although I've once seen a Circe du Soleil performance). Because clowns are one of my special interests, I know a lot about them and the circus industry. Real circuses are...products of a pretty awful past. And I'm just not a fan of crowds, so...eh. So long as no-one and no animal is being treated cruely, I have no qualms. Romanticized/ideal fictional circuses however? Awesome. Stupendous. Amazing. Love 'em.

5. Do You Have a Sense of Direction and, if Not, What is the Worst Way You've Gotten Lost?: I've never had a sense of direction in my life. I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten lost. The worst times involve going to new schools, which I did often as part of that military family. For the first week I would show up late to many classes, utterly befuddled by the winding hallways, staircases, and rows of lockers that all look the same. Teachers would (usually) understand...on the first or second day. Later in the week (or month), when they realized I couldn't navigate the school any better than most can navigate the school system...well, I saw a lot of Hope leave my teachers eyes before they even started handing out homework.

Tagging: @bailey1rox @nerdgul @cchipk @extravagantnonbinary @benevolentclowns @dat-soldier @goldenteddie @uselessundertalefacts @vintagecandy @yuzu394 Hope to learn more about all of you :D ! 💕

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mearnsblog · 4 years ago

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“Mulan” (1998)

Now that's more like it. I know I was a little harsh on "Pocahontas" and "Hercules," (and even acknowledged the big tone problems of "Hunchback," as much as I enjoyed it), but Disney holds itself to a high standard that none of those movies met. "Mulan" also isn't up to the level of, say, "Beauty and the Beast," but it comes so close and makes a damn impressive effort and remains one of Disney's greatest achievements.

For me, "Mulan" is a grower. I remember when it came out and we owned it on VHS, but I don't think I watched it much at all. Hell, I think even watched "Hercules" more despite my mixed feelings on it. It's funny because the kick-ass music & sequence from the original trailer is still imprinted in my mind! "Mulan" simply didn't leave much of an impression other than that -- probably because I was a dumb boy. C'est la vie.

By college though, I had so many friends who loved "Mulan" that it inevitably re-entered my life. And as it turned out, I liked it too! Still, I don't think I'd seen it since college when I fired up the ol' Disney+* on Sunday. And again, I just loved it even more.

*Yes, I really just called a service launched in late 2019 "the ol' Disney+," and I regret nothing.

So much of what makes "Mulan" work comes down to Mulan herself, voiced by the incredible Ming-Na Wen of later "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." fame. She's kind, quick-thinking, and doesn't shirk from the call to action. She's willing to take big risks to protect her father's life, even at the partial expense of his public dignity. His pride might be hurt, but Mulan just wants him to not march off to his death. Throughout her time posing as Ping, she's a master improviser to protect her cover, and even afterward when she's been exposed, she uses her savvy to devise a strategy to not only protect the emperor but keep everyone alive, too. (Shout-out to her three close friends in the army who continue to stand by her side in her final plan, even after she's been exposed.) Mulan was searching for her purpose in life while singing "Reflection," and she certainly found it. A top-three Disney princess.**

**Do not @ me.

Know who else is great and I somehow never gave enough credit to before? Li Shang. All things considered, he really doesn't get a ton of screen time, and it doesn't even matter. He kills in every scene. Ali rightfully made fun of me for this, but I had never paid attention to him enough to realize that his father was the general from early in the movie who later perishes at the hands of a Hun massacre. (I don't know how! Again, blame younger, dumber Mearns.) Shang has to juggle so many emotions at once for basically the entire flick, particularly when he has to put on a brave face for his troops in the face of personal adversity. The superb combination of animation and voice work from BD Wong sells it.

What else? Eddie Murphy is fun and not too annoying as Mushu, and the same goes for the goofy, lucky cricket sidekick. The emperor, Mulan's parents, and her grandmother all do excellent work in little screen time. Most of the songs are only fine, but "Reflection" has a lot of heart, and well, what needs to be said about "I'll Make a Man Out of You?" It's unquestionably one of the best songs Disney has ever made.

If I had one major regret about "Mulan," it's that the villains are a complete snore. I never remember the big bad's name. Wikipedia says it's Shan Yu, so I guess that's it. He just kind of exists and is evil? Disney can do a lot better -- just look at the likes of Jafar, or even Hades. They're infinitely more memorable than this guy, and it honestly doesn't speak well to Disney's progressive efforts that they simply used a darker color to animate the evil Huns. Also, do they need yellow eyes? Really? Sigh.

I'm not going to let the shaky villain weigh down my thoughts on "Mulan," though. The story of Mulan herself is the real narrative, and it's just about as good as any you'll find in a Disney movie. My new goal is to never go nearly a decade without seeing it again. We're working toward a less dumb Mearns in the 2020s!

Best song: "I'll Make a Man Out of You”

Updated ranking

1. “Beauty and the Beast” (review) 2. “The Lion King” (review) 3. “The Little Mermaid” (review) 4. “Cinderella” (review) 5. “Mulan” 6. “Sleeping Beauty” (review) 7. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (review) 8. “Aladdin” (review) 9. “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” (review) 10. “The Jungle Book” (review) 11. “The Great Mouse Detective” (review) 12. “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (review) 13. “Fantasia” (review) 14. “The Rescuers Down Under” (review) 15. “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” (review) 16. “Alice in Wonderland” (review) 17. “Lady and the Tramp” (review) 18. “Pinocchio” (review) 19. “Robin Hood” (review) 20. “Oliver & Company” (review) 21. “Hercules” (review) 22. “Pocahontas” (review) 23. “The Rescuers” (review) 24. “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” (review) 25. “Bambi” (review) 26. “The Aristocats” (review) 27. “Dumbo” (review) 28. “Peter Pan” (review) 29. “Fun and Fancy Free” (review) 30. “The Fox and the Hound” (review) 31. “The Sword in the Stone” (review) 32. “The Three Caballeros” (review) 33. “Make Mine Music” (review) 34. “The Black Cauldron” (review) 35. “Saludos Amigos” (review) 36. “Melody Time” (review)

#disney

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annabeth-graecus · 7 years ago

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Goodbye

Right I know I don’t actually have that many followers but over the course of the past year I’ve had so much fun being in the pjo/riordaniverse fandom and it’s been great. Ive written fics that I would never have been confident enough to post before and been able to see the amazing and brilliant work of others and have had a brilliant time

BUT now Im in year 13 I have to start looking at Unis and getting my applications done with tight deadlines as well as passing my exams and unfortunatley running this blog is taking up too much of my time (mostly my fault but I need to be able to stop myself being distracted all the time)

Additionally being in a fandom with so many people obviously means there will be differing opinions on EVERYTHING and with all the stuff that's come out yesterday as well as a lot of drama I’ve seen before I don't feel that sense of happiness I once did anymore. Believe me I have had so much fun and joined the discourse group which has been interesting to say the least but yeah. This is it I think. This was a long time coming really.

I have over 50 drafts on my account (YIKES) and it's a shame I'll never be able to finish them all but c'est la vie I suppose.

I know not many people will actually see this but I just wanted to put a little statement on here in case the three followers who engage with my posts wonder why I'm not posting anymore.

But I'd like to do a lil shout out to the blogs who inspired me to start writing and being a part of this fandom so thankyou to: @bananannabeth for introducing me to the world of Hamilton and broadway @son-of-rome @percyyoulittleshit @rambledore @percysbi @blackjacktheboss @greenconverses for all of your stuff and so many more!! You all inspired me to keep writing and love doing it.

I’m sad to be leaving but I know it's the best decision for me really. Who knows, a couple years down the line I may come back to this and re start my blog.

I hope you all enjoyed my fics as much as I enjoyed writing them.

I have so much more to say but I can't fit it all. I will miss Percy Jackson and Co and everyone on this god damn website.

Pjo and everything else surrounding it will always have a place in my heart

“And for once, I didn’t look back.”

#percy jackson #Percy Jackon and the Olympians #annabeth chase #trials of apollo #magnus chase #will solace #Nico di Angelo #piper mclean #Jason grace #grover underwood

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ideahat-universe · 7 years ago

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This one is kind of a peculiar one for me. I don’t hate Angry Joe. I don’t really respect him much, he’s very much a chump.

It’s like having your punk rock older brother get a job as a fry cook at a fast food restaurant but through chance he’s promoted to manager and rather than really mature for the role he just treats the position no different from the time he made a band in high school.

Angry Joe is not an intellectual. He’s not a philosopher, and I’d be dumbstruck if he has a college degree.

I remember when I first started hearing of Angry Joe, just like Linkara and Spoony I saw him first in a Nostalgia Critic cameo.

Angry Joe was just another Angry reviewer but I did like him tearing into bad games and hamming up mediocre ones and trying to do a good job in the whole reviewing arena and being pro gamer.

Now it’s easy to say that his glut of reviewing comic book movies is part of his channel stagnation and while I would agree fully, I get why he likes them, I remember some of his older reviews (which are now lost because he never re uploaded them) he did a lot of comic book games, Angry Joe as a persona is like a G.I. Joe mixed with Superman, he even had a stable of villains. Angry Joe likes video games but he clearly likes comics a whole lot more so when Comic Book movies started blowing up he got absorbed in that and a lot less absorbed in video games.

He’s not like Linkara though who has his own philosophy that butts heads with whatever the writer is trying to craft, Joe likes the concept of a Super Hero more than a personal philosophy that likes wearing spandex so he’s up for a lot more and doesn't mind the incredibly contradictory way super hero comics are written.

We can talk all day about Angry Joe and his wish fulfillment fantasies.

Lets focus on the fact that he was a really entertaining guy, or so I thought at least. I looked at the videos I had of him that I liked the most and I found that they were all years old. As far back as 2011 and it stopped around 2014. What could have happened around that time that changed not only Joe but my enjoyment of Joe’s videos? I can’t put my finger on it.

I really do think that Joe’s best work was managing Blistered Thumbs which I liked more than Channel Awesome. I actually found a guy who worked closely with Angry Joe and did a tell all video about his time working there and ultimately, the rise and fall of Blistered Thumbs as a sub network.

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Blistered Thumbs is how I discovered Ashens, Rooclanofthegreywolf, Jontron, Chaosd1, and was where Video Game Confessions videos were uploaded. You remember those right? They were the only sketch show that the Nostalgia Critic did that actually worked?

Too bad he’s not a gamer and thus ran out of material very quickly.

c'est la vie

So the best thing about Angry Joe is that he kind of linked me to everything I actually like now. That includes video game politics.

The only thing I don’t like about Angry Joe is Angry Joe but it’s not contempt, I didn't have high expectations for him, and I totally understand what he’s doing to himself and his channel.

I just don’t find him entertaining.

I never wrote anything related to Angry Joe. A lot of the stuff I wrote about Thatguy and other reviewers were more about their careers and their lifestyles and how Internet culture was morphed by them and how they were morphed by it.

But my image of Angry Joe is so low that I didn’t really think about Joe wanting or having a more interesting career beyond reviewing. So I have even less than usual.

Uhhhh.

Here’s a shitty parody of Angry Joe!

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Is this where the meme came from? I don’t know.

Linkara parodies are much funnier. This I know.

#angry joe #video games #reviews #channel awesome #comic books

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shinigami-pomp · 7 years ago

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This Started As A Note

I am a lonely person who has never been cut out for this world. In a past life I must have sucked…or maybe I’ve just been less than honorable in this one. All I know is that my happiness has always been so fleeting and foreign. My happiness is usually tied to- or is a manifestation of- drug induced euphoria. My happiness. It doesn’t exist. It isn’t mine because I so rarely feel in control of It.

Have you ever felt crazy? Reaching for things, anything and nothing, to ground yourself. I anxiously paced, and searched for, and reached for a knife today. It didn’t feel right in my hands. I held a glass bottle. I had the urge to smash it over my own head which I think I (amid racing thoughts) deemed too “slapstick”. I envisioned smashing it on the counter and maybe dragging the glass shards against my skin but… I’m not a cutter to be fair and I feel like the feeling of self-harm, in that moment, was eclipsed by what I felt might be satisfaction in simply smashing the full bottle of room temp cold brew I held and being done with it.

I didn’t do it.

I walked to my room and leaned against the wall and I sobbed briefly. It was genuinely quick. It just escaped my lips but… despite my loneliness, there’s shame in audible tears so with shaking breaths I suppressed and reached for a large safety pin that I keep on the same hook as my appropriative Buddhist prayer beads. I let tears fall as I continue to feel sorry for myself, so pitifully about to mutilate skin because I feel lonely and lost and angry and sad and sad and sad and sad. I’m in my head though and wonder where the appropriate place to scar one’s body is. It’s summer; not my arms. Do I really want scars on my legs or ribs? Like I said… I’m not a cutter so I half-heartedly scratch my… I don’t even remember… it was such a superficial scratch, it was already gone 10 seconds later.

I couldn’t do it.

I did manage to lose the safety pin somewhere in my bedding or on my floor and I fully expect to succeed unintentionally in self harming when I inevitably roll over onto it or get it lodged in my foot as I head to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I wonder if that’s the way I’ll die too. Suicide is always an ideation. This is one reason why I’m not cut out for this world…but I also can’t hack dying by my own hand. I’m a failure all around. Maybe I’ll get on a plane and it will go down. Maybe I’ll head to the grocery store and get plowed over by an SUV running a light. Maybe I’ll win the lottery and die in my sleep that next day. C’est la vie.

I pull up the suicide hotline webpage. Apparently one can chat online now. Technology is great. Technology provides support for the waves of depression and desperation that envelope me when I look at my social network of Snap stories and Instagram photos of acquaintances with friends smiling, acquaintances traveling and smiling, acquaintances getting married and smiling… acquaintances living. Successfully existing. Facebook posts about acquaintances graduating graduate school and acquaintances landing jobs or being promoted. All liked, viewed, and validated by 60, 70, 80, 90, 100+ other acquaintances. Technology is there when I look at my own screams into the void that go so under… validated. It’s good to know that technology is there to provide a nameless faceless support system that is paid to chat with me online. Technology is awesome.

Actually today, I spent 4 straight hours online looking for apartments and jobs whilst simultaneously trying not to think about how my life is spiraling out of control and how uncertainty kills me slowly. I re-confirmed, as I do every time I job search, that I’m not qualified enough to be considered by any place I want to work … mainly because even in minimum wage, shit hour, non-profit sector gigs… you need a BA. But I was unfazed by this (on its own) today. As a student of life, I try to learn something new every day and today’s factoid was: I’m uninteresting. Not only am I unqualified for a career path job, but I’m unqualified to be an interesting human that people want to get to know. Searching for affordable accommodation in gentrified cities is more difficult than applying for college. Listing after listing I read on Facebook asking for community oriented individuals. Artists. Bohemians. Vegans. Scholastics. SJWS. Extroverts. Professionals. 20-year olds. 40-year olds. Positive mentally sound people. “Link your Instagram and Facebook so that we can use those to confirm how interesting you are; how loved you are by those around you”.

I don’t fit the bill. But it would appear that so many other people do. I stand no chance. C'est la guerre.

When I break it down:

I have nobody to talk to. I have no more strong connections. I feel unsupported (even if it’s there at times). I feel burdensome all the time.

How can a person feel like they have lost everything when, in reality, they never inherited anything to begin with? Or maybe, how can a person who inherited so much more than plenty of people, feel as if they never stood a chance?

As I’ve typed this, therapeutic self-deprecation has dried any tears. I feel the type of calm I would feel during my brief genuinely non-dramatic stint with bulimia. The calm that comes after a purge. It’s not a relaxing calm necessarily. Not a bright warm calm. It’s the calm that comes when you’re just too tired to feel anything. Too tired to do anything. Too tired to think any more. The calm of a dying person in an induced coma. The calm after a tornado that has ripped miles worth of homes from their foundations. C’est la mort.

Tomorrow is another day to wish I was someone else or nobody at all. There will never be a reprieve outside of untimely death and…

I can’t do it.

- 17 July 2017

#dear diary

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dearmyblank · 6 years ago

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wonderwall,

so this is my life.

-im 19.

-i recently got diagnosed with complex ptsd (which i've had for 7 years but was misdiagnosed as anxiety). talk therapy isn't enough and so they're gonna make me do emdr to try and work out wtf happened to me when i was a kid (teachers emotionally abusing me and locking me in rooms for hours and shit). and they're gonna put me back on the anti-d's again which didn't do anything in the first place

-i've lost all my friends- they've all either abandoned me completely because they didn't give a fuck about me or i just realised i actually didn't have anything in common with them and i was really just using them. probably more the first one then the second one.

-i started and dropped out of uni in 2 months and since April i've been doing jackshit all because the therapists don't want me to get "re-traumatised" and i'm too scared to leave my house or join a club and increase my social circle (which is actually non-existent).

-i don't know how to be happy. i can't remember the last time i genuinely smiled or laughed. maybe 3 years ago? i've gotten really good at fake happy.

-i don't know what i enjoy anymore. i used to like music and looking after kids but neither of those give me any sense of happiness anymore. everything is a chore and a burden.

-i'm becoming increasingly obsessed with exercise. i'm working out 5 days a week to stop the flashbacks and i'm trying to lose weight so i feel and look better. i'm plateauing at 54 kg (165cm height) and i want to get lower desperately so my legs aren't so disgusting and so people want to talk to me.

-i'm not sleeping much. i find it hard to not have my laptop around me because when i don't have something to do i start thinking about everything and how i'm so fucking worthless.

c'est la vie, i guess.

-just another cliche teen

#dearmyblank #dear my blank #w #submission

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risprinabeachw-blog · 6 years ago

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What to do when your ex girlfriend starts dating someone else

How to Get Over the Sickening Feeling When Your Ex Starts Dating Someone Else My ex is dating someone else: How do I make them come back? These days, a lot of guys waste too much time and energy hiding behind text messages to women. Being 'Replaced' Really Sucks There's not many feelings that can compare to the wave of emotions you're likely to experience upon learning your ex is seeing someone new just a few days or weeks after you broke up. Your ex will never experience with this new person exactly what they did with you. But here's the thing: when your ex does come to realize that this rebound isn't going to work in the long term. And often they don't know that till they're in one. If that is what you want to achieve, here are 3 important things you should do as soon as possible: 1. True love -- the kind that lasts -- takes months and years to form.

Ex Dating Someone Else? Steal Your Ex Back If They're Already Dating! The less you know about the new partner, the better. Before we dive in, I have some good news for you. However, how quickly you get into a relationship isn't a measure of how desirable you are. My clients usually get terribly anxious when they find out that their exes are again or entering a new relationship. Fact of the matter is she started cultivating that relationship for a year before we broke up. I just want to know how effective is the no contact rule. On the other hand, your ex might just be in a rebound relationship.

Ex Girlfriend Dating Someone New? You Can Still Get Her Back! Are You Ready to Take the Next Step in Your Journey? Just be sure to turn off your phone, disconnect from the internet, and don't answer any of your ex-girlfriend's calls, emails, or text-messages. I heard he'd been pushing her away for months and he couldn't let go of his resentment or whatever feelings he had left for me. Because once your ex's rebound relationship fails - and 90% of them do, within the first 2-4 weeks - her thoughts are going to revert back to the last place she felt safe and secure: with you. I wonder if I go no contact will he eventually contact me again? They now could see in a greater clarity how much better a person you are than the person they were before. Remember how your ex looked at you, talked to you, and couldn't wait to see you again? He told me he had deep feelings for me. Hating on this new person will just fuel your bitterness even more.

My Ex Is Seeing Someone Else, Should I Panic? In turn, what you can do is work on establishing a good bond with your ex. Over a year after I ended one relationship, I found some photos on of my ex with a woman I didn't recognize. As soon as her rebound relationship ends, your ex girlfriend is going to be hurt and confused. Instead of visualizing this agonizing scenario, immediately distract yourself. Most rebound relationships end within 3-5 weeks. There are some very radical and subtle moves you can make to get her back in your arms.

What If Your Ex Starts Dating Someone Else? Seeing your ex with a new significant other can feel like a painful blow right to the heart. But, while it may seem absolutely terrible right now, things aren't actually as bad as they seem. Friends and family will help, but she'll wants something closer to her on the same emotional levels as a boyfriend. Do that just once and your ex might never talk about her life again, which isn't what you want. Do you feel like you are good enough for her or other hot women? Are you wondering if you still have a chance of getting your ex back if he or she is dating someone new? If a guy lacks the ability to make a woman feel a lot of attraction for his personality, confidence and vibe when he interacts with her, he will always struggle to pick up new women or keep a woman feel attracted when in a relationship. This means she's in a rebound relationship, and that's the best of all scenarios for you right now. Right now, she might seem to be really happy with the new guy and may have even said that.

Signs That Your Ex Still Wants You After the Breakup Remove the temptation to stalk by blocking both of them as soon as possible. She will contrast you against him and if you suddenly seem more appealing, she will more open to hooking up with you again and giving the relationship another chance. He was angry when he heard I had slept with another guy after he had broken up with me. Read about them now, and learn the right opening moves! Soon enough, your ex will start squirming, pulling away and be looking for a way to get out of their new relationship - and, And believe it or not, this was actually happening to my ex too a while back. It's not necessarily the most attractive or likable people who get into relationships the most easily.

Ex Girlfriend Dating Someone New? You Can Still Get Her Back! I invite you to take action to stop worrying, and to get back in control. Part of the reason it hurts so much is that it can make you feel insecure about yourself as a man and your ability to attract new, quality women. But here's the good news: because this new man is likely just a rebound, there's not much love or involved. After you've discovered your ex is dating another person, it's hard to resist checking social-media sites for new photos of the new couple's exploits. Way after she hangs up with you, she'll start thinking back to all the incredible experiences the two of you shared - and these are things she can continue to share with only one person - you. In the last couple of years I felt he wasn't into the relationship the same way I was.

How to Get Over the Sickening Feeling When Your Ex Starts Dating Someone Else So, what you need to do is get yourself ready to get on a phone call with her, get her to agree to meet up with you in person and then re-attract her at the meet up. Cultivating a 'c'est la vie' attitude toward life can help you to move through this painful situation. You might think it is wildly inappropriate for him to date someone else a mere week after he broke up with you, but it is his life. First of all, how long after your break up did she begin seeing this new boyfriend? Compare and contrast No, not like the essays you used to write in high school. She'll do anything to stop the pain, including finding a new man to fill the void that's created by your breakup.

5 Ways To Deal When Your Ex Is Dating Someone New Can You Get Your Ex Back From Somebody Else? Regardless of the reasons behind your breakup -- whether it was initiated by you or by your ex, whether it was messy or very cordial -- it's extremely likely that you have a good chance of getting back together with your ex girlfriend. He loves me so much — I should go back to him! What can you do in order to reignite the flame between you when your ex has a new boyfriend or girlfriend? When you talk to her on the phone or meet up with her in person, she is going to feel more attracted to you if you are more charismatic, masculine and confident than he is in terms of how you think, behave and act around her. Call your cell phone provider and take care of that overcharge on last month's bill you've been putting off. In most cases, a woman will only break up with her man when he stops making her feel the way she wants to feel. He is your ex for a reason, and for that reason or any other, you two are not compatible, at least not at this point in time. And when you see how happy they look together, it may just cause your heart to break into even tinier pieces. My ex boyfriend broke up with me about 4 months ago.

5 Things Not To Do When You See Your Ex With Someone New — PERSIA LAWSON Take the time to develop the perfect attitude which will be determined by your plan of action. One of the most difficult things to endure after a breakup is when your ex starts dating right away. Please don't advise me to move on. Dan Bacon is 100% committed to helping men succeed with women. Assuming you play your cards correctly, you'll be able to present yourself as: a a better option than the guy or girl your ex was dating as a rebound and; b a way for your ex to escape the pain of the breakup. When my ex first got a new girlfriend, I feared that it endangered the friendship we formed post-breakup.

#When #Your #Ex #Starts #Dating #Right #Away #Don't #Panic:#Here's #4 #Reasons #Why!

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davidfurlongtheatre · 8 years ago

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David Furlong interview: The Doctor In Spite Of Himself, Le médecin malgré lui

This interview was published on This Week London by Caro Moses in June 2016, in English. Below is also a copy translated in French.

By Caro Moses | Published on Tuesday 21 June 2016 on http://thisweeklondon.com/article/david-furlong-the-doctor-in-spite-of-himself/

CM: What happens in ‘The Doctor In Spite Of Himself’ – what’s the story? DF: It’s about Sganarelle, a merry but drunken woodcutter, who beats his wife one day, and in return she spreads the word that he is actually a brilliant doctor who can only work when he is beaten. After a stream of beatings, he’s taken by force to tend to a dysfunctional family where silence rules over emotions. His arrival leads to a farcical roller-coaster of adultery and comedy.

This play is the mother of French farces, and I think it’s also the story of Moliere writing a comedy ‘in spite of himself’. He wrote the play after his much deeper works for the King’s court, such as ‘Dom Juan’ or ‘Le Misanthrope’ – for which he got trashed by false critics – and returned to the farcical genre he employed when he first began, when he was touring France for ten years, from village to village, performing on trestles.

But he does it in a very clever way, breaking the fourth wall and speaking about his own creation with a very critical view on the ‘upstarts’ from his time. So our production also explores this sub-story within the story. It’s quite amazing, it’s almost like a Spike Jonze movie!

CM: It’s a new adaptation of the play, of course – how close is the adaptation to the original piece in its events and themes? DF: The vocation of the company is to translate the language of the play, of course, but also its spirit. So even if our production is very modern, and uses a contemporary imagery more suited to a 2016 audience, it’s mostly true to Moliere’s ideas: we did explore more deeply some themes that are already in the play, and could not be ignored in 2016, like the violence or the forced marriage.

It’s generally very true to the original in terms of the script itself, though we devised some scenes in order to tell some of the untold sub-plots, by doing a lot of development work on the characters with the cast (which made the process fantastic). And as we’re producing the original play in French, alternating with the English run, the two productions are exact mirror images.

CM: Who has translated the piece? Is it a one-person job? Over the ten years we’ve been translating French plays to English, we’ve experimented with several different approaches: we worked with a university professor on our Claudel piece, I updated an old translation for Sartre’s ‘The Flies’, we’ve workshopped the play with actors for a more contemporary writer, and we also sometimes found an original translation that worked perfectly.

For this project, as it was our first great classic, I didn’t plan to come up with my own translation, as I was sure that the work had been done brilliantly in the past. But as I was looking into previous ones, there was always something slightly wrong for our version: one would be too outdated for a modern audience, the other too literal, with French turn of phrases which don’t work in English; another one would be too much of a departure from the original, and one last one was too American for London.

As I have an important body of translations behind me now, I decided I would be able to come up with a version that combines the best ideas of previous translators with the elements of my own contemporary vision for the play. Having done this, I then re-worked it with the actors in rehearsal. Our company is comprised entirely of fully-bilingual people, some of them Franco-British, so when we had doubts about a line, we always looked back to Moliere’s original words. Any language has echoes and nuances, so it’s important to have a team that really understands both cultures intimately.

CM: It’s not one of the French playwright’s most performed plays, is it? Why do you think that is? DF: ‘Le Medecin Malgre Lui’ was one of Moliere’s greatest success, and is still studied by all thirteen year olds in French classrooms. But for obvious educative reasons, all the triviality is avoided and the sexual innuendos – the trashy bits – are not talked about, so in the national collective consciousness it occupies a bit of a boring place. Even I had my doubts when the play was first commissioned for the French Lycee… But then I discovered Molière wrote it with a very modern insolence.

I think that in all cultures, there is a misconception about classics being dusty and simply too old. And it’s already so much work keeping up people’s interest in the likes of Shakespeare, though The RSC, the NT, the Globe, and many touring companies are doing an amazing job at this. This means there’s little room for foreign writers, even the greatest ones. So we end up having only a handful of Moliere plays put on because they got a bit famous (just like we only get two Calderon plays and two Goldoni plays).

Even in France, people can be put off by Moliere’s so-called classicism. But it’s worth noting that French theatre makes more room for foreign authors than British Theatre does. Whilst in training at the French National Theatre, I got to work on Shakespeare as a natural part of the curriculum, I got to see Cheek by Jowl reinvigorating these classics internationally, even the least performed plays from the Bard. No one does this for Moliere. A play dies when it’s not performed, so as long as we’re doing it, we’re keeping it alive.

CM: Can you tell us about Exchange Theatre? How did the company come into being, and what are its aims? DF: Remember what I was saying earlier about the lack of translations? The company originated from this idea that there was a gap to fill in the UK scene. As aforementioned, the work of Moliere and many other major French writers are rarely produced in Britain, whereas in France, we get a lot of plays from across the channel. We felt we could make this work this the other way too.

It began as a ‘side’ to our personal acting careers but it now represents most of it. We’ve translated Claudel, Sartre, and Durringer (the ‘French Ravenhill’ – whose play we even took off-broadway in 2011). Along the way, we also found our own theatrical languages, we explored non western approaches to performing, site-specific works, multilingualism, and I also wrote twelve bilingual shows for a Young Audience season at the Institut Francais.

We settled in London Bridge five years ago, also building a local network within our council, and we are pleased to have a rehearsal space just off Bermondsey Street at the foot of Tower Bridge. Not bad for aliens! We’re very much an international company based in London now, in the footsteps of the artists you’ll see at the Barbican.

TRADUCTION FRANCAISE

David Furlong: Le Médecin malgré Lui By Caro Moses

Publiée le 21 Juin 2016 sur http://thisweeklondon.com/article/david-furlong-the-doctor-in-spite-of-himself/

CM: Que raconte ‘Le médecin malgré lui’ ?

DF: C'est l'histoire de Sganarelle, un joyeux ivrogne qui bat sa femme, et en retour, elle fait croire qu'il est un grand médecin qui n'accepte de travailler qu'apres avoir été battu. Apres une flopée de coups, il est amené de force dans une famille disfonctionnelles ou le silence prévaut sur les sentiments. Son arrivée déclenche une série comiques d'evenements farcesques melants adultere et autres tromperies.

Cette piece est la mere des farces Francaises et je pense qu'elle représente aussi Moliere écrivant une farce 'malgré lui'. Il la crée apres des travaux bien plus profonds pour la cour dur Roi, comme ‘Dom Juan’ ou ‘Le Misanthrope’ pour lesquels il subit la foudre des faux critiques auto-déclarés qu'il déteste. Il revient alors au style de la farce qui avait fait le succes de ses débuts quand il tournait en France de villages en villages, jouant sur des tréteaux.

Mais il le fait de facon tres fine, brisant le quatrieme mur et traitant de sa propre création, tout en posant un regard tres critique sur les 'parvenus' de son temps. Notre version explore cette sous-histoire. C'est passionant, presque comme une mise en abyme chez les Frere Coen dans le cinéma d'aujourd'hui !

CM: C'est, pour la version anglaise, une adaptation de la piece – A quel point est-elle fidele a la piece originale dans ses themes et ses evenements?

DF: La vocation de la compagnie est de traduire fidelement la langue, évidemment mais aussi l'esprit qui habite la piece. Et meme si notre production est tres contemporaine et refere a une imagerie d'aujourd'hui, elle est surtout fidele aux idées de Moliere. Nous avons aussi approfondi certains themes déja présents dans la piece et qu'on ne pouvait pas ignorer en 2016 comme la violence ou le mariage forcé.

C'est principalement tres fidele a l'original en ce qui concerne le texte lui-meme, on n'y touche pas, mais nous créons néanmoins de nouvelles scenes pour raconter des sous-histoires, ou en dévellopant en profondeur le travail sur la vie des personnages avec la distribution (ce qui rend le processus de création fantastique). Et comme nous produisons la piece originale en Francais en alternance avec la production en anglais, les deux pieces sont deux répliques exactes.

CM: Qui a traduit la piece? Est-ce un travail solitaire ?

En dix ans de compagnie, a traduire des pieces Francaises en Anglais, nous avons expérimenté plusieurs approches différentes: on a travaillé avec une universiatire Américaine sur notre Claudel, j'ai utilisé une vieille traduction sur Les Mouches de Sartre, on a travaillé collectivement avec les acteurs sur un auteur plus contemporain et il nous est arrivé de trouver la traduction originale parfaite.

Pour ce projet, puisque c'était notre premier classique, je ne prévoyais pas de devoir produire ma propre traduction car j'étais certain que le travail avait déja été fait brillamment avant. Mais en lisant les précédentes, il y avait toujours quelque-chose de légerement innaproprié pour notre version a venir: l'une était trop datée pour un public d'aujourd'hui, l'autre trop littérale avec des tournures de phrases a la francaise qui ne fonctionnent pas en anglais, une autre encore prenait trop de libertés avec l'originale, et enfin la derniere était trop américaine pour Londres.

Comme je commence a avoir un baggage important de traduction derriere moi, j'ai alors décidé d'en faire une version ultime qui combine les meilleures idées des traducteurs précédents, et les éléments de ma propre vision contemporaine de la piece. Une fois terminée je l'ai retravaillée avec les comédiens en répétitions. Notre compagnie se compose entierement d'acteurs completement bilingues, certains Anglo-Francais, donc si nous doutions d'une réplique, nous revenions toujours au sens original de la phrase de Moliere. Chaque langue a ses propres échos et ses propres nuances culturelles, donc il est esssentiel pour nous d'avoir une équipe qui comprend vraiment intimement les deux cultures.

CM: Ce n'est pas l'une des pieces les plus jouées de l'auteur, n'est-ce pas ? Pourquoi cela selon vous ?

DF: ‘Le Medecin Malgre Lui’ a été l'un des plus grands succes de Moliere de son vivant, et elle est toujours étudiée par les éleves de college. Mais pour des raisons éducatives évidentes, toute sa trivialité est évitée et on ne s'attarde pas sur les sous-entendus sexuels et les moments un peu trash. Donc dans l'inconscient collectif, elle occupe un peu une place ennuyeuse... Meme moi, j'avais mes doutes quand la piece nous a été commandée par le lycée Francais... C'est alors que j'ai découvert a quel point Moliere avait écrit une piece pleine d'une insolence tres moderne.

Je crois que finalement, c'est dans toutes les cultures qu'il y a un malentendu au sujet des classiques comme étant poussiéreux et trop vieux. Et, ici, c'est déja tant de travail de prolonger l'intéret du public pour les classiques anglais et pour Shakespeare, grace a la RSC, le National, le Globe, et de nombreuses compagnies itinérantes qui sont déja si douées a faire ce travail. Cela fait qu'il reste peu de places pour les auteurs étranger, si grands soient-ils. Donc nous nous retrouvons avec une toute petite poignée de pieces de Moliere produites parce qu'elles sont un peu célebres (comme on voit d'ailleurs seulement une ou deux pieces par Calderon plays ou Goldoni).

Meme en France, les gens peuvent etre rebuté par le soi-disant classicisme de Moliere’s. Mais il est notable que le théatre Francais laisse plus de place au theatre étranger que le théatre Anglais. Pendant ma formation au théatre National de Chaillot a Paris, j'ai eu l'ooportunité de travailler sur Shakespeare comme partir intégrante du programme, j'ai été sensibiisé au travail de Cheek by Jowl, et meme aux moins connues des pieces du barde anglais. Personne ne s'en charge ici pour Moliere. Une piece meurt si elle n'est pas jouée, alors aussi longtemps qu'on le fait, on la garde en vie.

CM: Dites m'en plus sur Exchange Theatre? Comment est née la compagnie et quels sont ses objectifs?

DF: Vous vous rappelez ce que je disais plus haut sur le manque de traduction? La compagnie est donc née de cette idée qu'il y avait un fossé a remplir sur la scene Britannique. Comme je le disais, le travail de Moliere tout comme d'autres textes majeurs de langue Francaise ne sont que tres rarement produites en Angleterre, alors qu'en France, nous recevons beaucoup de pieces d'outre-Manche. Nous avions donc la sensation qu'on pouvait faire advenir cet import dans l'autre sens aussi.

Ca a commencé comme un projet parallele a nos carrieres de comédiens mais ca représente maintenant l'essentiel de notre activité. Nous avons traduit Claudel, Sartre, ou Durringer ( qu'on a meme emmené off-broadway en 2011). Au fil du temps, on a trouvé notre propre language théatral, on a exploré des approches de la scene non-occidentales, du travail hors-les-murs, le multilinguisme, et j'ai aussi écris douze spectacles jeune public bilingues pour une saison de spectacles pour enfants a l'Institut Francais.

On s'est installé a London Bridge il y a cinq ans, construisant aussi notre réseau local au sein de notre council, et nous sommes heureux d'avoir un studio de répétitions au pied de Tower Bridge, au croisement de Bermondsey Street. Pas mal pour des étrangers! Nous sommes essentiellement une compagnie internationale basée a Londres, a présent, dans les pas d'artistes comme ceux que l'on peut voir au Barbican.

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