#father figure joe my beloved

[giggly-squiggily]

SQUIGGLY YOUR EVENT IS MY FAV PART OF FEBRUARY FOR REAL!!!

Welcome to order number one :>

I would loVE to see Miya and Joe with Miss You (“when’s the last time you smiled?”) and Only You. (“Could you…you know?”)

I am always here for father figure Joe 🙏😭

Here is my payment for my candy, I hope this will suffice!

That gif! *sobs* I love him so much! Thank you so much, Ducky! Both for the kind words and this prompt!!! Oh my goodness my heart and soul- Father figure!Joe is so good! I've gotcha covered, Ducky! Thank you for giving me the chance to write for these two!

A little angsty in the beginning because it had to happen

Miss You ("When's the last time you smiled?") + Only You ("Could you...you know).

“Hey there, little dude.” Joe grinned when he saw Miya walking up. That grin fell near instantly upon seeing the redness around the kid’s eyes. “Oh man- Miya, what happened?”

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” Miya shook his head, looking like he was about to cry once more. Joe closed the distance almost immediately, wrapping his arms around him and hugging him close. “Joe, let me-”

“Don’t tell me to let go. Not when you’re crying.” Joe hushed him gently, rocking them both at a slow pace.

“I-I’m not- I’m not cr-crying.” Miya finally broke, small sobs escaping his lips as he clung to the bigger man. “Sh-Shut up, J-Joe.”

“There there.” Joe ran a hand through his hair. “Come on- let’s take a walk.”

~~~

“Ugh, bullies huh? I remember those days.” Joe shook his head in mild disgust as he and Miya walked along a scarcely filled park, boba drinks in hand. Miya had calmed down enough to talk and had given Joe the entire run down of his week. “Want me to come down there and scare them off for you? I did that for Cherry all the time back in our day.”

“It’s alright- they’d probably bully you too- wait, you did?” Miya sounded shocked, staring up at the bigger man with wide eyes. “For Cherry?”

“Of course! Well…actually, he scared off mine. Guy’s rather menacing when he wants to be.” Joe confessed, earning a snort from Miya. The sound suddenly made Joe think. “Hey Miya…when’s the last time you smiled?”

“I don’t remember. It’s been a bad week.” Miya confessed, bowing his head. When he looked up again, he seemed hesitant. “Hey…could you, you know?”

“Ah, you want me to do…this?” Joe pulled the smaller skater into him, his hand clawing gently at his belly and making Miya squeak with laughter. “This is what you want, right?”

“Johohoohohoe! Ahehahahhha! Coohohohome ohooohohn!” Miya giggled against him, nearly dropping his boba. Coming to a nearby bench, Joe quickly deposited both drinks there before scooping up Miya in one of his famous bear hugs, continuing to tickle. “Ahehaehahhahahhha, no fahahhahahhahir!”

“Yes fair! You asked for this, no?” Joe finally eased his tickles, letting Miya hang out in his arms like a ragdoll cat. “And if you ever need anything, just tell me. I’m here for you, kid. Both Cherry and I, Reki, Langa and Shadow. We’re your team. If those bullies bother you again, we’ll all show up and scare them off for you.”

“Pfft, you’re such a dork.” Miya laughed through new tears, smiling properly now. “But thank you. I appreciate it, Joe.”

“Heh, anytime, kiddo.”

~Send me a pairing and a candy heart phrase~

[lilyrizzy]

for my beloved @catofthecanals289... consider this day one of your twelve days of maxiel advent calendar lol (if i manage to write that much...i'll try...no promises....). but yay! wedding fluff

It's Grace that asks Max, “are you ready to marry my son?” 

On her face there is a grin so similar to Daniel’s, Max can’t help but return it despite his pounding heart and sweating palms.  

Looking out at the sea of familiar faces for a moment, he lets the steady hum of voices wash over him. Just breathes in the sweet smell of the tulips- Daniel’s idea- swirling in the air. Admires how the rays of sunlight filter through the big bay window behind him to bathe the room in gold.  

Max would have married Daniel in a Vegas back alley, but he does have to admit this is all very lovely. Victoria, bouncing Max’s baby daughter on her lap as his twins play with their cousins next to her, catches his eye to give him a sweet smile.  

“I am ready, of course,” Max says turning to Grace, and it’s been the truth since he was twenty years old. 

She squeezes the top of his arm, her smile softening momentarily, before she nods at the registrar. Then, multiple people are instructing Max to turn around, to face away from the aisle and instead to stare out at the setting sun through the window.  

Michelle had teased Daniel about this, said it figured that he would be the one to make the grand entrance of the day. Max had dutifully listened to Daniel’s insistences that he was not a show-off, while secretly agreeing with her. Announcing himself dramatically into a room silenced by the first few notes of a song he's spent months agonising over chosing seemed exactly like Daniel’s style.  

I want a proper first look, Daniel had told Max, it will be romantic. 

Hearing the charmed murmurings of the people they are closest to in the world as Daniel makes the entrance, Max can’t wait any longer to turn and look. 

Max is meant to wait. He’s supposed to count to fifteen, to let Daniel get at least a little way already down the aisle before he moves to look at him. He isn’t totally sure why, just that it had seemed very important when they’d practiced yesterday. Except-  

What he notices first is Daniel, of course. His wide grin, the soft brown eyes Max loves so much, framed by the cheeky way his eyebrows climb up his forehead as though to say, surprise! How beautiful he looks, though Max knows he would prefer the word 'sexy'.  

Then, it’s their children.  

Their twins, each with a hand tucked carefully into one of their dad’s, as the three of them walk down the aisle all together. Max can’t help the laughter that fizzes up from his stomach and all the way to his lips as he glances at the now empty chairs next to Victoria. Joe, who was supposed to be walking Daniel down, shrugs innocently at Max from the seat next to Grace. 

The bubbles of laughter don’t stop, not even as his eyes start to get wet at the corners, making his vision swim. He can still see everything he needs to perfectly; Daniel’s well cut suit, his carefully styled curls. The sparkle of the diamonds he let Max slip onto his fourth finger almost a year ago now, the sunlight bouncing off them. The matching blonde heads of his children, Oli’s topped with the flower crown Victoria had actually made for his sister, Livia.  

The people who remind Max over and over, just how gentle love can really be.  

The song fades out into silence when the three of them come to stand in front of Max. Three perfect faces wearing the same smile Max was first drawn to over ten years ago now.

He wants to kiss the version of it on Daniel’s face the moment that he gets close enough for Max to reach for, but they are fathers first now. Oli throws an arm around Max’s leg, hiding shyly behind him, and Livia informs him seriously, “Papa, I gave Oli my flower power to help him be brave.” 

Even as Max and Daniel exchange a grin, something thicker settles into Max’s throat. He can hardly believe it sometimes, that after years of traveling the world together, fatherhood is yet another adventure he gets to have with Daniel. 

“Hi baby,” is all Daniel says, cupping Max’s face gently. He is the picture of smug, and Max lets him revel in his glory for a moment, before crouching down to be eye level with their children. 

Glancing up at Daniel, Max asks instead, “do you think I could borrow him for a moment, so we can get married?” 

“Guys,” he says seriously, touching each of their sticky-warm cheeks in turn gently, just as their other father had touched his. “Thank you for helping daddy get to me safely.”

When they’d practiced, Joe had been the one leading Daniel up the aisle. Max remembers that this is supposed to be the part where the registrar asks who gives Daniel to be married, but there is no giving away to be done now. They have always belonged to each other, and now to their children as well, just as much.  

“Yes, yes, yes!” Livia declares, throwing her hands into the air excitedly. Oliver is less certain, but Victoria and Grace both speak up then, all gentle encouragement to coax them both back to their seats. They go- each with a parting kiss- and then Max straightens up again, Daniel is looking at him with the same shit eating grin.  

Good surprise? He mouths as the registrar begins the formalities, and Max does his best not to roll his eyes as he lets the fond smile overtake him again. Anything to do with their babies is lovely, so it’s not like it was really a gamble. 

It’s enough even, to blunt the sharp edges in Max’s chest when he looks at the two empty seats in the front row he had asked Victoria to keep free just in case. Fatherhood gave him a renewed belief that indifference and disapproval were not gaps that couldn’t be bridged with love. Now it’s enough to know that whatever divide might have formed between the family he was born into, there is nothing he wouldn’t find a way to cross for the family he made for himself. 

As if that has ever been anything other than the truth.  

He takes Daniel’s hands and repeats everything he needs to so that they can make what Max has always known to be true, official. When Max kisses Daniel, he feel both the promise of new beginning, and the fifteen years of shared history.  

“Who would have thought it, Verstappen?” Daniel teases as he pulls away from their first kiss as a married couple, but Max knows he is thinking the same thing when he adds, softer, “all mine now, Maxy.”  

What is a perfect day for them, is of course a little more boring for the babies. Halfway through signing the register, the children start to fuss, and so they end up with one on each knee, Livia demanding her flower crown back, and Oli forever eager to please the sister he adores. Somewhere, the same song the three of them made their entrance too fades back in and Daniel starts to dramatically mime the words to Max, like the show off he and Michelle both know he is. 

Your love will be, safe with me. 

[nicklloydnow]

““Dorothy reminds me in so many ways of Toni Morrison,” West said. “You know Toni Morrison is Catholic. Many people do not realize that she is one of the great Catholic writers. Like Flannery O’Connor, she has an incarnational conception of human existence. We Protestants are too individualistic. I think we need to learn from Catholics who are always centered on community.”

(…)

She viewed belief in God as “an intellectual experience that intensifies our perceptions and distances us from an egocentric and predatory life, from ignorance and from the limits of personal satisfactions”—and affirmed her Catholic identity. “I had a moment of crisis on the occasion of Vatican II,” she said. “At the time I had the impression that it was a superficial change, and I suffered greatly from the abolition of Latin, which I saw as the unifying and universal language of the Church.”

Morrison saw a problematic absence of authentic religion in modern art: “It’s not serious—it’s supermarket religion, a spiritual Disneyland of false fear and pleasure.” She lamented that religion is often parodied or simplified, as in “those pretentious bad films in which angels appear as dei ex machina, or of figurative artists who use religious iconography with the sole purpose of creating a scandal.” She admired the work of James Joyce, especially his earlier works, and had a particular affinity for Flannery O’Connor, “a great artist who hasn’t received the attention she deserves.”

What emerges from Morrison’s public discussions of faith is paradoxical Catholicism. Her conception of God is malleable, progressive, and esoteric. She retained a distinct nostalgia for Catholic ritual, and feels the “greatest respect” for those who practice the faith, even if she herself wavered. In a 2015 interview with NPR, Morrison said there was not a “structured” sense of religion in her life at the moment, but “I might be easily seduced to go back to church because I like the controversy as well as the beauty of this particular Pope Francis. He’s very interesting to me.”

Morrison’s Catholic faith—individual and communal, traditional and idiosyncratic—offers a theological structure for her worldview. Her Catholicism illuminates her fiction; in particular, her views of bodies, and the narrative power of stories. An artist, Morrison affirmed, “bears witness.” Her father’s ghost stories, her mother’s spiritual musicality, and her own youthful sense of attraction to Christianity’s “scriptures and its vagueness” led her to conclude it is “a theatrical religion. It says something particularly interesting to black people, and I think it’s part of why they were so available to it. It was the love things that were psychically very important. Nobody could have endured that life in constant rage.” Morrison said it is a sense of “transcending love” that makes “the New Testament . . . so pertinent to black literature—the lamb, the victim, the vulnerable one who does die but nevertheless lives.”

(…)

Morrison is describing a Catholic style of storytelling here, reflected in the various emotional notes of Mass. The religion calls for extremes: solemnity, joy, silence, and exhortation. Such a literary approach is audacious, confident, and necessary, considering Morrison’s broader goals. She rejected the term experimental, clarifying “I am simply trying to recreate something out of an old art form in my books—the something that defines what makes a book ‘black.’”

(…)

Morrison was both storyteller and archivist. Her commitment to history and tradition itself feels Catholic in orientation. She sought to “merge vernacular with the lyric, with the standard, and with the biblical, because it was part of the linguistic heritage of my family, moving up and down the scale, across it, in between it.” When a serious subject came up in family conversation, “it was highly sermonic, highly formalized, biblical in a sense, and easily so. They could move easily into the language of the King James Bible and then back to standard English, and then segue into language that we would call street.”

Language was play and performance; the pivots and turns were “an enhancement for me, not a restriction,” and showed her that “there was an enormous power” in such shifts. Morrison’s attention toward language is inherently religious; by talking about the change from Latin to English Mass as a regrettable shift, she invokes the sense that faith is both content and language; both story and medium.

From her first novel on forward, Morrison appeared intent on forcing us to look at embodied black pain with the full power of language. As a Catholic writer, she wanted us to see the body on the cross; to see its blood, its cuts, its sweat. That corporal sense defines her novel Beloved (1988), perhaps Morrison’s most ambitious, stirring work. “Black people never annihilate evil,” Morrison has said. “They don’t run it out of their neighborhoods, chop it up, or burn it up. They don’t have witch hangings. They accept it. It’s almost like a fourth dimension in their lives.”

(…)

Morrison has said that all of her writing is “about love or its absence.” There must always be one or the other—her characters do not live without ebullience or suffering. “Black women,” Morrison explained, “have held, have been given, you know, the cross. They don’t walk near it. They’re often on it. And they’ve borne that, I think, extremely well.” No character in Morrison’s canon lives the cross as much as Sethe, who even “got a tree on my back” from whipping. Scarred inside and out, she is the living embodiment of bearing witness.

(…)

Morrison’s Catholicism was one of the Passion: of scarred bodies, public execution, and private penance. When Morrison thought of “the infiniteness of time, I get lost in a mixture of dismay and excitement. I sense the order and harmony that suggest an intelligence, and I discover, with a slight shiver, that my own language becomes evangelical.” The more Morrison contemplates the grandness and complexity of life, the more her writing reverts to the Catholic storytelling methods that enthralled her as a child and cultivated her faith. This creates a powerful juxtaposition: a skilled novelist compelled to both abstraction and physicality in her stories. Catholicism, for Morrison, offers a language to connect these differences.

For Morrison, the traits of black language include the “rhythm of a familiar, hand-me-down dignity [that] is pulled along by an accretion of detail displayed in a meandering unremarkableness.” Syntax that is “highly aural” and “parabolic.” The language of Latin Mass—its grandeur, silences, communal participation, coupled with the congregation’s performative resurrection of an ancient tongue—offers a foundation for Morrison’s meticulous appreciation of language.

Her representations of faith—believers, doubters, preachers, heretics, and miracles—are powerful because of her evocative language, and also because she presents them without irony. She took religion seriously. She tended to be self-effacing when describing her own belief, and it feels like an action of humility. In a 2014 interview, she affirmed “I am a Catholic” while explaining her willingness to write with a certain, frank moral clarity in her fiction. Morrison was not being contradictory; she was speaking with nuance. She might have been lapsed in practice, but she was culturally—and therefore socially, morally—Catholic.

The same aesthetics that originally attracted Morrison to Catholicism are revealed in her fiction, despite her wavering of institutional adherence. Her radical approach to the body also makes her the greatest American Catholic writer about race. That one of the finest, most heralded American writers is Catholic—and yet not spoken about as such—demonstrates why the status of lapsed Catholic writers is so essential to understanding American fiction.

A faith charged with sensory detail, performance, and story, Catholicism seeps into these writers’ lives—making it impossible to gauge their moral senses without appreciating how they refract their Catholic pasts. The fiction of lapsed Catholic writers suggests a longing for spiritual meaning and a continued fascination with the language and feeling of faith, absent God or not: a profound struggle that illuminates their stories, and that speaks to their readers.”

[madamegemknight]

@crispycreambacon tumblr is just not letting me post this ask for some reason??????? I legit have no idea why it is wack O_o resorting to this so I can answer it here we gooooooo -

MATT X JOHN: old man yaoi real ehehehe :P no strong feelings on this pairing one way or another, but it's neat to think about and the semi-implications that John knows something about Outer Space would make for an interesting dynamic between the two :)

MATT X JOE: The fact that you haven't gotten to BTTR yet makes talking about this one SO DANG HARD CRISPY because like. I see it!!! I really do!!! I see it so dang bad!!! but I can't tell you why I see it because it's a big old honking spoiler!!!! augh!!!!

JOHN X CANTUS: Honestly I was gonna make a joke about how they're both performed by Jim Henson but now that I'm thinking about it they parallel each other so well...they're sort of mirror versions of each other, both being incredibly powerful figures in the Rock who can change the world around them with their music, but while John uses his abilities to make others do things they would never consider doing otherwise, Cantus' whole thing is leading others to what they're meant to do. There's also the fact that the graphic novels claim that John's dad was a Minstrel, and that John himself was in training to be one as well before discovering his ability to convince others - there's honestly a lot of potential here for a really fascinating dynamic and pairing.

POLY MINSTRELS: Oooh I'd never considered that as a pairing :0 my own personal headcanons about the Minstrels mean that I wouldn't really ship it (I headcanon Brio as MUCH younger than the other Minstrels since her lines in Music Makes Us Real are about her being a "beginner," and I likewise headcanon Cantus as being a sort of father figure for her as a result), but outside of my ridiculously elaborate headcanons for a character who shows up in 3 episodes I see the vision I really do...

GOBO X WEMBLEY: Another one that I don't ship myself due to my own personal headcanons (aromantic Gobo my beloved <3 Gobo and Wembley having a sibling/sibling-esque relationship my also beloved <3) but I can absolutely see why others ship it! They have such a strong and loving bond, and I adore their dynamic :3

DOOZERS?????: uhhhh not that I've seen at least? Shipping territory seems to be pretty dry with the Doozers alack and alas. quick who's the funniest possible character we could ship with architect doozer gogogogogo -

THE GREATEST FRAGGLE SHIP OF ALL TIME: my otp 4ever! my otp 5ever even <3

[pridepages]

eARC Review: Here We Go Again

A HUGE thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:  

A long time ago, Logan Maletis and Rosemary Hale used to be friends. They spent their childhood summers running through the woods, rebelling against their conservative small town, and dreaming of escaping. But then an incident the summer before high school turned them into bitter rivals. After graduation, they went ten years without speaking.

Now in their thirties, Logan and Rosemary find they aren’t quite living the lives of adventure they imagined for themselves. Still in their small town and working as teachers at their alma mater, they’re both stuck in old patterns. Uptight Rosemary chooses security and stability over all else, working constantly, and her most stable relationship is with her label maker. Chaotic and impulsive Logan has a long list of misguided ex-lovers and an apathetic shrug she uses to protect herself from anything real. And as hard as they try to avoid each other—and their complicated past—they keep crashing into each other. Including with their cars.

But when their beloved former English teacher and lifelong mentor tells them he has only a few months to live, they’re forced together once and for all to fulfill his last a cross-country road trip. Stuffed into the gayest van west of the Mississippi, the three embark on a life-changing summer trip—from Washington state to the Grand Canyon, from the Gulf Coast to coastal Maine—that will chart a new future and perhaps lead them back to one another.

RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2024

See my full review under the cut!

"Here We Go Again" is Alison Cochrun's best book to date! A love letter to English teachers, literature lovers, and lesbians (all the best kinds of people, if you ask me), the novel had me from the jump. But as it unfolded, I felt as if I'd been taken gently by the hand and led down a hard road.

Reader, be warned: this book tackles some of life's most grueling challenges. The characters face child abandonment, alcoholism, living with neurodivergence, and acting as caretakers for a father-figure with a terminal illness (cancer). But for all its harrowing moments, this novel doesn't feel like a trauma--it's a triumph of bittersweetness.

Joe, Logan, and Rose will capture readers' hearts with their raw vulnerability and determination to live life while they can. For every moment of heartbreak, there are so many more of humor. In this way, art mirrors the life we all deserve to have. The human condition is harrowing, and heartbreaking, but the joys and the love we find along the way--for the people we meet and the things we do--make it all worth it. Sounds saccharine, but this book somehow manages to cry 'life is short! Carpe diem!' without feeling like a cliche. This book has compelling pacing, so many notable and quotable lines, and it will have readers hanging onto their seats for a finale that gently sets them down with the promise of 'as long as we both shall live.'

[arts-and-drafts]

Come Morning Light (Part 12)

Part One / Part Two / Part Three / Part Four / Part Five / Part Six / Part Seven / Part Eight / Part Nine / Part Ten / Part Eleven

(THE CHAPTER I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR. Seriously, I've had this in my head since CML's conception. It's all lead up to this. Not to hype it too much, but I will also say a very specific scene in this part was inspired by my beloved mutual @cedarwhisp and their incredible Hermit!Tommy fic Shells In The Foam. I implore you to read it, it's the best 50+ chapters of fanfic I have literally ever read. Anyway, enough stalling!! Let's go!!!)

CWs: Death, manipulation, violence, mentions of abuse

-

Tommy's stomach jerked as Xisuma's imposing form vanished in front of his eyes, and he tripped backwards into Joe.

He didn't get a moment to even breathe before enchanted words flashed over his vision.

RUN.

The sky split open with a clap of green lightning, tearing the quiet night apart. Tommy saw Xisuma and Dream's silhouettes illuminated in the sky in that split second, grappled together and glowing with administrator magic.

Vaguely, Tommy saw Joe in the corner of his vision, and he subconsciously reached out to grasp the sleeve of his guardian's shirt for some menial comfort.

"We need to help him," Tommy mumbled, his eyes glued to the figures in the sky. He felt Joe put his hand over his, and against Joe's steady weight he realized he was trembling.

"This is not a fight we can interfere with anymore, Tommy." Joe replied faintly.

Tommy couldn't look away. No rain fell from the sky, but crackles of green lightning struck every time the two admins collided. From this distance, Tommy could see Xisuma pulling up his administrator screen every time they parted, but Dream always struck quick enough to cut off any command Xisuma tried to summon.

Xisuma was clumsy in the sky, Tommy realized, as he watched the admin give up on his screen and instead launched himself forward, his sword in hand. Dream easily shot out of the way, and Xisuma's armor saved him from what would otherwise be a deadly blow to the back of the head.

Xisuma jerked to face Dream, straight-up throwing a punch at the god, but Dream deflected the blow with his arm and used his other to slice upward with his axe. Xisuma only barely moved out of the way in time.

Tommy's stomach twisted as he recognized the stark red of a barrier block in Xisuma's hand. Dream ducked through an invisible gap in the barrier before Xisuma could complete the box, and rushed at Xisuma so quickly that Tommy could barely follow his form against the lightening sky.

Xisuma flew to meet him with his blade ready, but he was out of his element, and Dream was of war.

Dream dodged impossibly quick, and slammed down on Xisuma hard enough to send the taller admin to the ground in a blur. The sound of an explosion reached Tommy's ears as the impact made a crater in Joe's land, and Tommy's past curled around his throat and turned him dizzy.

Withers descended from the sky, flanked by TNT raining death from above, falling from the massive obsidian grid that blotted out the sun. The air was choked with dust and ash, and Tommy's vision was blurry. His ears rang painfully from the explosions, and everything seemed off kilter. Tommy looked around at the carnage, feeling like he was detached from his body.

Everything was gone.

His eyes were pulled to a cave that had been exposed from the TNT. There sat Wilbur, on his knees a few blocks away from the tattered body of Philza. Tears ran down Wilbur's face, and he shoved his diamond sword into his father's hands.

No.

Tommy tried to move. He really did. But his limbs were locked with terror, and he could only watch as Philza Minecraft took up Wilbur's sword.

"NO!"

Tommy jolted back to the present, already running. His breath burned in his lungs, grief searing his insides just as fiercely as flames.

"XISUMA!"

The sound of armored footsteps echoed behind him, and Tommy didn't need to look to see every hermit left standing rushing behind him to fight. Their battle cries blurred with the goofy "humina" war cry from Tommy's memories, something he instigated, when they didn't know this would be the last time they followed Wilbur ever again.

An invisible hand squeezed Tommy's heart, and he used the pressure to draw his sword.

Arrows flew overhead, shot from the ghosts in Tommy's mind and hermits alike. Many missed, but a few got lucky, and Tommy nearly sang when he heard Dream make a noise of pain. He fell from the sky, but landed in a MLG water, and the green energy that surrounded him disappeared all at once.

Tommy began to swing his sword, but Dream turned to him, and he froze. That smiling face burned into his retinas and sealed him in place for a few seconds he couldn't spare.

Dream lunged, and Tommy was forcibly knocked out of the way right before his chest was sliced open. A cry of pain sounded, and Tommy turned to see Bdubs locked in blades with Dream, a red stain already growing on his side.

"Get out!" Bdubs gritted, pushing forward and sending Dream stumbling a few blocks. "Tommy, run!!"

But his legs were jelly. The clash of metal on metal reverberated through his very being, and he could only watch as Dream swiftly sliced forward in the fraction of a second that Bdubs turned to look at Tommy.

[BdoubleO100 was slain by Dream using Nightmare]

No.

He had to move. He had to.

But Dream looked at him, and suddenly he was exiled again, throwing his tools and armor in the pit.

"TOMMY!"

The thundering of thousands of feet sounded through the chaos, and Dream only had time to turn his head before he was swarmed by the largest wolf pack Tommy had ever seen.

Tommy gasped and scrambled to his feet to avoid the herd, but the snarling wolves only had eyes for Dream, who was desperately trying to fend them off. A harsh whistle pierced the air, and Tommy turned to the noise.

Joe, in all his leather-armored glory, was running alongside more of his wolves, his sword in hand.

Joe reached out as he got closer, his wolves flanking him either side. Tommy found himself reaching back.

And then Dream moved lightning quick, and Joe choked out a strangled noise.

Tommy's very bones turned to ice.

Dream was kneeling on the grass, holding Joe by the hair, his axe poised over the poet's throat.

The battle stopped all at once. Even Joe's wolves were silent.

"Come with me," Dream said, evenly, dangerously, and Tommy knew his eyes were only on him. "Or I'll kill him."

-

This was not the first time Joe's life had been threatened.

It was, however, the most serious.

He felt Dream's fingers curl, pulling tighter on Joe's hair, and the poet swallowed a noise of pain.

"You know I mean it, Tommy." Dream uttered, terribly still, like a cave spider waiting to strike.

Tommy looked like he had just been shot.

The hermits knew that death did not have the hold on them that Tommy was used to. It was one of the few things they could always rely on to be the same, despite every change of season. Death was only temporary, and it was frustrating at worst.

Tommy still didn't think like that, Joe knew, even after a year with the hermits. The poet saw the terror in his ward's eyes and wondered who he really saw in Dream's hold.

"Tom-" Joe tried, but Dream yanked on his hair and raised his axe blade closer, making him hiss in pain. Joe forced his eyes open and stared at Dream's mask with deliberate calm.

He was not afraid. But Tommy was, and Dream knew that. He was using a child's fear to get what he wanted.

Joe never wanted to harm another player so badly in his life.

"Tick tock, Tommy." Dream said, his voice smooth. "We don't have-"

And then an enchanted projectile struck him so fast that Joe barely knew what it was, the impact whipping Dream to the side with a yell.

Joe was unceremoniously thrown out of Dream's hold, and he cried out as Dream's axe sliced his lip, his mouth instantly tasting blood. He felt strong hands grab his arms and forcefully pull him away, and for a moment his senses were overwhelmed with the strong perfume of wilting flowers, and the barely-there stench of rot.

Joe put a hand on Cleo's bicep in thanks, unable to turn away from the scene in front of him, because Tommy was standing tall with an arrow notched, the sun finally rising behind him, encasing him in a halo of blinding light.

His face was twisted with the coldest rage Joe had ever seen, his eyes only on Dream. Joe realized with a start that Tommy's first arrow had broken a piece clean off of Dream's mask, and one poison-green eye was glaring malice for the world to see.

"BACK THE FUCK UP." Tommy spat, trembling with fury instead of fear, and with the sun's light behind him, Joe saw an angel of vengeance.

Dream's single-eyed gaze hardened, and he rose to his feet, the axe that had taken so many hermits' lives ringing with metallic enchantment against the grass.

"You shouldn't have done that." Dream growled, all the smugness in his tone gone. The hairs on Joe's arms stood on end. Even if his mind wasn't afraid, his body was not so easily calmed. Every fiber of his being screamed 'DANGER' at this new side of Dream.

But Tommy did not even blink.

"Oh yeah?" The boy said, a shaky but sharp grin growing on his face. "What are you gonna do about it?"

"I'll fucking kill you, Tommy." Dream hissed, taking a step forward, and every remaining hermit moved at once to stand in his way. They were stopped by Tommy flicking a quick look their way.

Oh, Joe realized all at once. This is the trap.

"I'll take your last life and you'll be fucking dead, Tommy, and then I'll kill your ghost!" Dream raised his axe, and Tommy flinched, even after all this time. It pooled rage as hot as lava in Joe's gut, but he did not move. He had to trust Tommy.

Tommy took a shaky breath, and remained steady. Atta boy, Joe thought, unable to resist the surge of pride he felt. This boy was nothing like the cowering mess he found a year ago.

"Go on, then." Tommy challenged, raising his bow only slightly. "Just like before, ey? Ten paces?"

And Dream hesitated. It was only for a fraction of a second, but Joe saw it, and so did Tommy.

"Yeah, that's fuckin' right." Tommy said, triumph in his tone. "I'm too important, aren't I?"

"I heard you, earlier. You could've killed me in that fuckin' maze, but you didn't." And this time Tommy took the step forward, his arrow locked on target. "You're not gonna kill me, Dream. You don't have the fuckin' guts."

That seemed to strike a nerve. Dream suddenly stood at his full height, his mask glinting in the dawn light. "Maybe not," he said, slowly, carefully, "but everyone you love on the SMP is still at my mercy, Tommy."

"Not anymore." Xisuma croaked, and everyone turned to the admin, kneeling and bruised at the lip of the crater his body caused, his administrator screen illuminating his cold glare.

Joe looked back just in time to see Dream's eye widen, and he moved--

And he was gone.

And the world stopped, just for a moment. Like a tripwire pulled taut. Lag wasn't new to Hermitcraft, but something felt different.

Joe had turned to Tommy before the world froze, and there was a light in his eyes as he saw Dream disappear that didn't get to his face yet.

And then the tripwire snapped.

[TommyInnit fell out of the world]

[charlieconwayy]

Please talk about Macaulay and Paris's relationship

this made my night better because this is my favorite topic

the important thing to note prior to getting into anything, is that mack's paternal instincts have always been a major part of who he is. natasha lyonne called him "the patriarch to his beautiful siblings" (fuck you kit) just last week. the major reason that mack took back his finances was so he could give his mother the money to keep her apartment and help raise the kids. when the apartment burned down (eye roll), mack and his then wife took in the kids. obviously the major reason mack has been even more reclusive than normal in recent years is bc of the birth of his children. it has always been his dream to be a good father and have a happy family.

mack's relationship with mj is obviously a crucial part of the backstory. he has described their friendship of not being necessarily a father/son one, but one of two equals. what is incredibly important about that distinction is that for mack, having a father only meant manipulation and abuse. mj treating him like an equal and giving him a safe space to be a child was a major refuge for mack, especially when he was being treated and being told he was nothing but a cash cow. obviously, as mack has said, mj resonated with mack's super stardom and controlling father. it was largely the reason their friendship began, and while we don't know a ton of details about their relationship after like 1992, it is evident how important it remained to mj until the end and how important it remains to mack today.

mack was made prince and paris's godfather when he was 17-18, while an elderly liz taylor was made the godmother. of all the people in mj's life, siblings, family, friends, etc, mack was entrusted with this honor, which says SO much about mj's view of him and trust in him (we don't know much about his relationship with prince, as prince largely strays away from the spotlight). in his auto biographical parody book (that's rly not a parody and is just a comedic retelling), prince and paris are mentioned in the dedications (on the list of people he hates, joe jackson is listed which always makes me smile) and he tells a story about hanging out at toy stores late at night w a pop star and his children. there's video footage of mack at one of their birthday parties and obviously the famous photo of the three of them watching michael on stage.

we know that after the '05 running into each other in the bathroom during the trial, mack and mj didn't see each other again, but remained in touch with the occasional phone call. mack has praised mj for his dedication to his children during that time, and attended his funeral in '09.

obviously, mack is known for being reclusive and once she got her modeling contract, paris became a very public and open figure. over those years, we got glimpses into their relationship. they have matching tattoos (mack's only tattoo) of spoons, which is an inside joke that they have. paris has spent holidays with mack, particularly one thanksgiving spent in paris with him and brenda. one of the most notable moments was paris introducing her then-girlfriend cara to mack and brenda.

when asked about paris in his interview with marc maron, mack stated: "i am close with paris. i'm going to warn you now, i'm very protective of her, so just look out. i am a very open book when it comes to things, but with her, she is beloved by me."

while paris often posts about mack, mack never does the same about paris. even when speaking ab mj, he doesn't mention paris sans this one time. i believe the reason for this is because mack knew how mj tried to shield his children from the vulturous media, and wants to respect that. i also think a major component to why mack is the perfect godparent for paris is that mj did everything he could to protect mack, and mack wants to extend the same to paris.

paris is constantly critized for not talking about her father enough, and she should be allowed to keep their relationship private if she so chooses. something that is so important to remember is that mj passed when paris was a very little girl. perhaps this is why she finds solace in mack - he got to grow up with mj, while she was never given that luxury.

seeing her attend his walk of fame ceremony was incredibly emotional and touching. i was surprised that she came bc mack is so intensely private about their relationship, but their love and support for each other (always attending events for the other privately is a mainstay for them) is so evident and i know it meant so much to him to have her there.

as paris put it at the ceremony, it's more than a friendship, it's family.

[magicofsimplestories]

3.

It’s time to present you another Irish family of wizards from my “Hold on” fan-fiction story. I bet some of you might recognise the real celebrity family that inspired me on the creation of the Harrows (don’t judge me, I was a teen when I started the “Hold on” 😅). 

The father of the family Paul works for the Irish Ministry of Magic (Muggle Department, technologies sector). The mother of the family Denise is officially unemployed but has green fingers, so she shares her vast practical knowledge with the Magical Plants Development Department of the Irish Ministry of Magic. Their eldest son Kevin is a Transfiguration genius and a bookworm. Their elder middle son Joe still can’t figure out what he wants from his life. Their younger middle son Nick was born to become a rock star and is dreaming of leaving the wizarding world for the muggle one. Their youngest son Franky is the king of mischief. And their beloved dog Elvis adores to beg for food from under the table. 

The Harrows are big friends withe the Lynch household. Paul and Jason were classmates and worked together before Jason became the headmaster of Limerick (the Irish school of Magic). Nick and Demi are of the same age, best friends and music geeks. They will get a separate post, as they are the centre of the “Hold on” story. 

I found the sims in the gallery and edited them to my taste. The Harrow Manor is gorgeous Jessicapie’s Huge Family Mansion with a couple of touches from me to fit the household members. 

Previous Sneak / Next Sneak

[canary-prince]

Jay tell me more about Julian the Priest

Okay, so--

Like I said, Julian the Priest is one of like...SIX characters that are allegedly trapped in the 9 hour director's cut. In the late 2000s my dad found a YouTube channel that had a bunch of these characters' scenes illegally uploaded. The ones I've seen since the channel got banned (my dad ripped some of them onto DvDs cuz he figured that might happen) are the ones pertaining to Father Julian Rose, Mr. Clark, and Lily Black. (Not ALL their scenes, obviously, but, you know, some important ones).

As you can guess from the names, these character mostly deal with the COMPLETELY DELETED "New York" facet of the story, where one of the mob's American branches is facing hardship due to the chaos in Moscow. Julian is the only non-Moscow character that Katya interacts with AT ALL. They share several long distance phone calls in which he takes her confessions. He's an incredibly angry and hollowed out man, but he exhibits a lot of patience with her (there's some hints that he's her bastard brother; if true, this confirms that her father did cheat on her mother). Edit: this shit never made sense to me but like, in the final cut, the shit with her dad barely matters we literally only really know it was supposed to a big deal is cuz of the unearthed early scripts. So idk why I'm even bringing it up, Julian exists even less than this subplot lol.

He takes a lot of mobster confessions; it appears to be the bulk of his scenes, and forms the heart of his "Faith is a poison" speech. It goes on for over 8 minutes, but essentially boils down to this: Christian faith rots away at human morality by convincing them of two lies. One, that they are special and unique and therefore beloved by the Almighty God and Two, that to apologize and repent is to erase the harm you caused. (Yes this character got an 8 minute speech. It's certainly something.)

Multiple times he urges Katya to leave Goncharov and to "chase true happiness" (yes, this could contribute to the lesbian subtext, because Katya is looking at the bracelet she stole from Sofia as he says it) but never gets angry at her for failing to do so, which I cannot STRESS how odd that is for the character??? He yells at people a lot, even when hearing their confessions, he's a terrible priest.

His other main connection to the "Moscow" plot is via Icepick Joe: yeah, plot twist, Julian ratted on Joe's brother, and most likely did it on the Don's direct orders (the extent to which Julian works for these people is not spelled out super clearly but he obviously DOES). Icepick Joe does speak to Julian over the phone exactly once, and Julian rather harshly taunts him about his numerous failures. He again invokes God, calling Joe a "forsaken and broken thing".

His actor was Richard Talmei, and at the time of filming, he was 55 years old and had been acting for 36 years. Commercials, local live theater, radio dramas, and a few failed TV pilots. Goncharov was his first (and ultimately, only) film. He'd lived a REALLY hard life. A meth addiction, a childhood spent homeless in a dangerous part of Chicago, a serious eating disorder: if that sounds vaguely familiar, it might because you read his post-humously released memoir Dirty Mask, which directly inspired David Sedaris.

During the 1971 April reshoots, which were done to deal with the "missing footage" issue, he had a severe aneurysm on set and collapsed. He was dead before the ambulance arrived and I'm 99% sure that the reason his subplot was removed was because of how traumatic Richard's death was for the rest of the cast.

"Wait, are you saying the entire new York subplot was cut because a guy died during reshoots?" Um. Look. The new York shit was likely not going to make it to the final cut. But every character being completely removed, even the guy who has a direct tie to Katya? Uh yeah. That's not just me. That's Carla Samsota, the (until recently uncredited) script doctor for the rework involved on cutting out New York and the weird counterfeiting side story stated in a 2019 interview with some weird artsy paper that she was only ever given vague reasons as to why Julian had to go entirely and tried to keep Lily Black in too, and she said that "people" got agitated and defensive when she brought up Richard or his character.

So yeah the movie's run time got cut down by a whooping 3 hours because a very cool guy died mid production and everyone was so devastated they couldn't look at his recorded face anymore.

[generalb]

A hundred years ago……

One of my beloved mutuals, @rowanoke , tagged me in a selfie chain. I as per usual planned to make a grandiose selfie and therefore put it off since forever. Several days ago however my mutual tags me in a music post. So I figure, why not kill two stones with one bird!

And so behold:

My Top 10 songs + selfie*

*quick note here: these songs are not in order of most liked to least liked, these are all equally loved except for Turn to Stone, which will be my funeral song. End note.

1. Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat

This song was one of my favorites since early teen hood, back when I romanticized the feeling of escaping everyone to be truly free. It was later when I saw the deeper meanings, and gained an ever greater love and appreciation for the song.

2. Turn to Stone by Electric Light Orchestra

Turn to stone is my number 1 song, no other song will hold a place in my heart like this one. It truly sounds like a glorious ending, where everyone is happy. I love it.

3. Ghost by Mystery Skulls

Back in the glory days of amv’s there lived a god by the name of MysteryBen27. They’re still around but they used to upload music videos based on songs by Mystery Skulls. Usually the videos came out every 2 years, but they’re late and I don’t know the future. Undoubtably one of my favorites.

4. I Don’t Feel Like Dancing by Scissor Sisters

Now it was a heavy debate between this or I Can’t Decide, but overall this song holds more importance to me. This song I grew up with and it permanently infused into me the love for the groove. And my parents wonder why I like disco.

J

5. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) by Journey

TRON LEGACY FANS STAND UP! One of the best rock songs I know, infinite banger.

(Editors side note: my phone is extremely hot. End note)

6. The Adults Are Talking by The Strokes

Yeah I’m a neocranium fan, why do you ask?

7. Out with a Bang by Self

Rest in Peace Kitty0706.

8. Deep Sea Pastures by Joe Hisaishi

Ponyo was one of the earliest movies I remember seeing, and will always hold a spot in any top 10 I make. 20/10 soundtrack, 100/10 animation.

9. Father Kolbe’s Preaching by Wojciech Kilar

Another movie that will always hold a place near to my heart, The Truman Show. The utter and raw emotions you feel when this song plays in the film is staggering.

9. This Is A Life by Son Lux, Mitski, David Byrne

Another song from a beautiful movie. The feelings for me are indescribable.

10. Don’t Quite Belong (demo) by Dodie

Fuck man. If you have autism this song hits hard, really hard. Great song.

https://youtu.be/EEsvIK526tg?si=PIo-8VRhe3w7Qbzw

(Editors side note: According to tumblr I’ve hit video limit. Shame.)

Now:

The Selfie

Behold my magnificence

In all seriousness, I coudl have gone higher quality but it’s 3 in the morning.

Now who shall I tag? @underestimated-heroine @captain-crabbo @latte-cucumber @noritaro @spaciebabie @splatoonmaster69 there! Now I can go to sleep. Goodnight y’all!

[can-i-use-ur-nuns-bog]

ooh it is a Long Time since i drunk blogged but it is my lovely father's birthday so am a bit peshed AND i have decided to rewatch the exorcist iii.

it is SO. FREAKING. GOOD.

i am a big damien karras fan and the actor who plays william kinderman in this film (and the character in general, having also read the book/watched the first film) reminds me of my beloved step-grandad, so maybe i am a bit biased.

BUT as a long time horror fan who has now watched nearly 700 horror films in 14 years, it is awesome. nothing will ever live up to the masterpiece of the exorcist, but doing a very decent sequel (we will not mention the abomination of the exorcist ii) is very impressive. and i just thought, given william friedkin's recent death, i would express my love of this under-appreciated film.

i adore damien karras as a character (no joke, naming my child after him), and i love that he got explored more. i also love william kinderman and i love that he got explored more. i love that they addressed the fact that, even as a very isolated person, damien had people who remembered and loved him (shout out to my boi joe dyer as well for this).

i also love a tortured character, and the idea of a fundamentally decent person having to share a body with a violent murderer, being forced to murder your best friend? TERRIFYING. PURE HORROR. the gemini describing in torturous detail how he dragged karras from a peaceful death (after he SACRIFICED HIMSELF TO SAVE REAGAN) to be a tool for evil. while his body was trapped in a straight jacket in a padded room. HORRIBLE.

and the ACTING. brad dourif is a wonderfull (pun indented for my fellow exorcist iii fans) genre actor and thoroughly underappreciated as a whole, never mind in this film, where he did the most phenomenal monolgues. but jason miller... goddammit, no one else could play damien. no one. he was gone much too soon, i don't have much to say beyond that because holy shit. 'i believe in slime and stink, and in every crawling, putrid thing, every possible corruption, you SON OF A BITCH, i believe... in you' SIR what a monologue!!!!!!!! KINDERMAAAAN. I LOVE YOU.

and, AND... the shots!!! kinderman and the gemini lit by separate beams, kinderman sat upright and still while the gemini is slumped and twitchy. the hellraiser-esque blood and gore from father morning. THAT shot of the white-robed figure after the nurse (god bless the series for including this AMAZING shot, it scared the crap outta me). kinderman moving to damien's side when he was freed of the gemini, and both being in the light together. AGH.

AND this is exactly why i hero-worshipped the series and will never get over it being cancelled: they got that the horror of the possession and the exorcism was just part of the overall film, which was also about the horror of being alone, of having to deal with something so much bigger than you without any help, of giving your life to something and then thinking maybe you were wrong... the exorcist is absolutely a classic, terrifying horror film but it is also so much MORE than what a lot of people give it credit for. and the exorcist iii really highlights that for me; yes, it's not not the scariest in terms of gore/jump scares/violence/tense atmosphere, and the exorcism sequence is corny and played out and clichéd, but as a film about people it is terrifying and brilliant and underappreciated (although at least it is generally recognised as being a better/more legitimate film than the second)

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 3/5

Book Blurb: Love isn’t blind, it’s just a little blurry. Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality. But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls in love—not with one man but two. The timing couldn’t be worse. Making judgment calls on anything right now is a nightmare. If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to have it all.

Review:

When a portrait artist gets brain surgery that leaves her with face blindness she’s going to figure out how to live her life with not only a big art competition coming up but with deciding who between the two potential guys is right for her. Sadie Montgomery’s life hasn’t been going great, she’s not made it as a successful artist, she’s got a very very complicated relationship with her father and step mother as well as a wicked step sister, she’s just found out that she needs brain surgery or else she might die the sane way her mom did... it’s a lot. Sadie just found out she made it into the finalist of artists for a competition that could be her big break, but now that she has to have her brain surgery... she’s found out that a “probably temporary” side effect is that she has face blindness... which isn’t ideal for a portrait artist.  Throw into the mix a cute veterinarian and neighbor she might have had the wrong first impression with and now Sadie has two potential dates but with her face blindness Sadie is just relying on her assumptions to figure out who people are. She now has to figure out how she can ask for help from others when she hates asking for help and relying on people. Sadie has a lot of past difficulties and pains that make it hard for her to ask for help and to rely on other people and with her new condition, trying to adjust will be even harder. From making wild jumps and assumptions, Sadie is going to find that she’s going to need to re-evaluate how she lives her life with her new condition because it’s going to impact not only her but everyone around her. Sadie was a difficult protagonist because on one hand you understand where she’s from and why she acts the way she does but on the other, you want to tell her: STOP PLEASE. The romantic interest in her life: Dr. Oliver and her neighbor “Joe”  and the twist with that was predictable. Overall, it was a unique romance story about an artist who has face blindness who finds love but it just didn’t connect with me as much as the author’s previous book did. I will be reading the author’s future work though but despite this one not being to my taste, I do really enjoy the author’s work.

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[whileiamdying]

Pelé, the Global Face of Soccer, Dies at 82

Pelé, who was declared a national treasure in his native Brazil, achieved worldwide celebrity and helped popularize the sport in the United States.

Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pelé was a formative 20th-century sports figure who was revered as a national treasure in his native Brazil. He was known for popularizing soccer in the United States, and citing it as a tool for connecting people worldwide.CreditCredit...Associated Press

By Lawrie Mifflin Dec. 29, 2022

Pelé, one of soccer’s greatest players and a transformative figure in 20th-century sports who achieved a level of global celebrity few athletes have known, died on Thursday in São Paulo. He was 82.

His death was confirmed by his manager, Joe Fraga. The Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in São Paulo said the cause was multiple organ failure, the result of the progression of colon cancer.

Pelé had been receiving treatment for cancer in recent years, and he entered the hospital several weeks ago for treatment of a variety of health issues, including a respiratory infection.

A national hero in his native Brazil, Pelé was beloved around the world — by the very poor, among whom he was raised; the very rich, in whose circles he traveled; and just about everyone who ever saw him play.

“Pelé is one of the few who contradicted my theory,” Andy Warhol once said. “Instead of 15 minutes of fame, he will have 15 centuries.”

Celebrated for his peerless talent and originality on the field, Pelé (pronounced peh-LAY) also endeared himself to fans with his sunny personality and his belief in the power of soccer — football to most of the world — to connect people across dividing lines of race, class and nationality.

He won three World Cup tournaments with Brazil and 10 league titles with Santos, his club team, as well as the 1977 North American Soccer League championship with the New York Cosmos. Having come out of retirement at 34, he spent three seasons with the Cosmos on a crusade to popularize soccer in the United States.

Before his final game, in October 1977 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., Pelé took the microphone on a podium at the center of the field, his father and Muhammad Ali beside him, and exhorted a crowd of more than 75,000.

“Say with me three times now,” he declared, “for the kids: Love! Love! Love!”

Pelé kicks a ball over his head in 1968 in an acrobatic move. Off-balance or not, he could lash the ball accurately with either foot.Credit...Associated Press

In his 21-year career, Pelé — born Edson Arantes do Nascimento — scored 1,283 goals in 1,367 professional matches, including 77 goals for the Brazilian national team.

Many of those goals became legendary, but Pelé’s influence on the sport went well beyond scoring. He helped create and promote what he later called “o jogo bonito” — the beautiful game — a style that valued clever ball control, inventive pinpoint passing and a voracious appetite for attacking. Pelé not only played it better than anyone; he also championed it around the world.

Among his athletic assets was a remarkable center of gravity; as he ran, swerved, sprinted or backpedaled, his midriff seemed never to move, while his hips and his upper body swiveled around it.

He could accelerate, decelerate or pivot in a flash. Off-balance or not, he could lash the ball accurately with either foot. Relatively small, at 5 feet 8 inches, he could nevertheless leap exceptionally high, often seeming to hang in the air to put power behind a header.

Like other sports, soccer has evolved. Today, many of its stars can execute acrobatic shots or rapid-fire passing sequences. But in his day, Pelé’s playmaking and scoring skills were stunning.

Early Success

Pelé sprang into the international limelight at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, a slight 17-year-old who as a boy had played soccer barefoot on the streets of his impoverished village using rolled-up rags for a ball. A star for Brazil, he scored six goals in the tournament, including three in a semifinal against France and two in the final, a 5-2 victory over Sweden. It was Brazil’s first of a record five World Cup trophies.

Pelé also played on the Brazilian teams that won in 1962 and 1970. In the 1966 tournament, in England, he was brutally kicked in the early games and was finally sidelined by a Portuguese player’s tackle that would have earned an expulsion nowadays but drew nothing then.

With Pelé essentially absent, Brazil was eliminated in the opening round. He was so disheartened that he announced he would retire from national team play.

But he reconsidered and played on Brazil’s World Cup team in Mexico in 1970. That team is widely hailed as the best ever; its captain, Carlos Alberto, later joined Pelé on the Cosmos.

“I wish he had gone on playing forever,” Clive Toye, a former president and general manager of the Cosmos, wrote in a 2006 memoir. “But then, so does everyone else who saw him play, and those football people who never saw him play are the unluckiest people in the world.”

Pelé, right, hugging a teammate in 1958 after Brazil defeated Sweden 5-2 to win the World Cup. Credit... Associated Press/Reportagebild

Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born on Oct. 23, 1940, in Três Corações, a tiny rural town in the state of Minas Gerais. His parents named him Edson in tribute to Thomas Edison. (Electricity had come to the town shortly before Pelé was born.) When he was about 7, he began shining shoes at the local railway station to supplement the family’s income.

His father, a professional player whose career was cut short by injury, was nicknamed Dondinho.

Brazilian soccer players often use a single name professionally, but even Pelé himself was unsure how he got his. He offered several possible derivations in “Pelé: The Autobiography” (2006, with Orlando Duarte and Alex Bellos).

Most probably, he wrote, the nickname was a reference to a player on his father’s team whom he had admired and wanted to emulate as a boy. The player was known as Bilé (bee-LAY). Other boys teased Edson, calling him Bilé until it stuck.

One of Pelé’s earliest memories was of seeing his father, while listening to the radio, cry when Brazil lost to Uruguay, 2-1, in the deciding match of the 1950 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro. The game is still remembered as a national calamity. Pelé recalled telling his father that he would one day grow up to win the World Cup for Brazil.

He signed his first contract, with a junior team, when he was 14 and transferred to Santos at 15. He scored four goals in his first professional game, which Santos won, 7-1. He was only 16 when he made his debut for the national team in July 1957.

A New Way to Play

When Brazil’s team went to the World Cup in Sweden the next summer, Pelé later said, he was so skinny that “quite a few people thought I was the mascot.”

Once they saw him play, it was a different story. Reports of this precocious Brazilian teenager’s prowess raced around the world. One account told of how, against Wales in the quarterfinals, with his back to the goal, he received the ball on his chest, let it drop to an ankle and instantly scooped it around behind him. As it bounced, he turned — so quickly that the ball was barely a foot off the ground — and struck it into the net. It was his first World Cup goal and the game’s only one, and it put Brazil into the semifinals.

“It boosted my confidence completely,” he wrote in his autobiography. “The world now knew about Pelé.”

Pelé in his debut game in 1975 with the New York Cosmos at Randalls Island Stadium. Credit... Barton Silverman/The New York Times

The world now knew about Brazilian soccer, too. Pelé undoubtedly benefited from playing alongside other remarkably gifted ball-control artists — Garrincha, Didi and Vavá among them — as well as from Europe’s lack of familiarity with the Brazilian style.

Most European teams used static alignments; players seldom strayed from their designated areas.

Brazil, though, encouraged two of the four midfielders to behave like wingers when attacking. This forced opponents to cope quickly with four forwards, rather than two. Making things more difficult, the forwards often switched sides, right and left, and the outside fullbacks sometimes joined the attack. The effect dazzled onlookers, not to mention opponents.

After the semifinal against France, in which Pelé scored a hat trick in a 5-2 Brazil win, the French goalkeeper reportedly said, “I would rather play against 10 Germans than one Brazilian.”

The team went home to national acclaim, and Pelé resumed playing for Santos as well as for two Army teams as part of his mandatory military service. In 1959 alone, he endured a relentless schedule of 103 competitive matches; nine times, he played two games within 24 hours.

Santos began to capitalize on his fame with lucrative postseason tours. In 1960, en route to Egypt, the team’s plane stopped in Beirut, where a crowd gathered threatening to kidnap Pelé unless Santos agreed to play a Lebanese team.

“Fortunately, the police dealt with it firmly, and we flew on to Egypt,” Pelé wrote in his autobiography.

He had become such a hero that, in 1961, to ward off European teams eager to buy his contract rights, the Brazilian government passed a resolution declaring him a nonexportable national treasure.

Soccer Diplomacy

When Pelé was about to retire from Santos in the early 1970s, Henry A. Kissinger, the United States secretary of state at the time, wrote to the Brazilian government asking it to release Pelé to play in the United States as a way to help promote soccer, and Brazil, in America.

By then, two more World Cups, numerous international club competitions and tireless touring by Santos had made Pelé a global celebrity. So it was beyond quixotic when Toye, the Cosmos’ general manager, decided to try to persuade the player universally acclaimed as the world’s best, and highest paid, to join his team.

The Cosmos had been born only a month earlier, in one afternoon, when all the players had gathered in a hotel at Kennedy International Airport to sign an agreement to play for $75 a game in a country where soccer was a minor sport at best.

Toye first met with Pelé and Julio Mazzei, Pelé’s longtime friend and mentor, in February 1971 during a Santos tour in Jamaica. It took dozens more conversations over the next four years, as well as millions of dollars from Warner Communications, the team’s owner, for Pelé to join the Cosmos.

During that period, he became the top scorer in Brazil for the 11th time, Santos won the 10th league championship of his tenure, and Pelé took heavy criticism for retiring from the national team and refusing to play in the 1974 World Cup, in West Germany.

Toye made his last pitch in March 1975 in Brussels. Pelé had retired from Santos the previous October, and two major clubs, Real Madrid of Spain and Juventus of Italy, were each offering a deal worth $15 million, Pelé later recalled.

“Sign for them, and all you can win is a championship,” Toye said he told Pelé. “Sign for me, and you can win a country.”

To further entice him, Warner added a music deal, a marketing deal guaranteeing him 50 percent of any licensing revenue involving his name, and a guarantee to hire his friend Mazzei as an assistant coach. Pelé signed a three-year contract worth, according to various estimates, $2.8 million to $7 million (the latter equivalent to about $40 million today).

Clive Toye, the general manager of the Cosmos, with Pelé after the soccer star signed with the team in 1975. Credit... Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

He was presented to the news media on June 11, 1975, at the “21” Club in New York. Pandemonium ensued: Fistfights broke out among photographers, and tables collapsed when people stood on them.

The hubbub continued when Pelé played his first North American Soccer League game, on June 15 at Downing Stadium on Randalls Island in the East River. It was a decrepit home; workers hastily painted its dirt patches green because CBS had come to televise the big debut. More than 18,000 fans, triple the previous largest crowd, shouldered their way in to watch.

At every road game during Pelé’s three North American seasons, the Cosmos attracted enormous crowds and a press contingent larger than that of any other New York team, with many journalists representing foreign networks, newspapers and news agencies. Movie and music stars — including Mick Jagger, Robert Redford and Rod Stewart — showed up for home games, lured by Warner executives’ enthusiasm for their hot new talent.

The Cosmos moved to Giants Stadium in Pelé’s final season, 1977, and there, in the Meadowlands, reached the pinnacle of their — and the league’s — popularity. For a home playoff game on Aug. 14, a crowd of 77,691 exceeded not only expectations but also capacity, squeezing into a stadium of 76,000 seats.

That season, the Cosmos had added two more global superstars, Franz Beckenbauer of West Germany and Carlos Alberto of Brazil. (Later, in 1979, the Los Angeles Aztecs lured a third, Johan Cruyff of the Netherlands, to the league.) Soccer seemed poised to enter the American mainstream.

But as it turned out, professional soccer was not yet ready to blossom in America, not even after the Cosmos won the 1977 league championship, in Seattle, or after Pelé’s festive farewell game in October, when he led the “Love!” chant and played one half for the Cosmos and the other half for the visiting team, his beloved Santos.

The league had expanded to 24 teams, from 18, and lacked the financial underpinnings to sustain that many games and that much travel. Nor could other teams match the Cosmos’ spending on top-quality players. The league went out of business after the 1984 season.

But at the grass-roots level, and in schools and colleges, soccer did take off. In 1991, the United States women’s national team won the first women’s World Cup. (The United States has won it three times since.) In 2002, the men’s national team made it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup. And Major League Soccer has established itself as a sturdy successor to the N.A.S.L. (In 2011, the inaugural season of a new minor league with the N.A.S.L. name included a New York Cosmos team, of which Pelé was named honorary president.)

In June 2014, the city of Santos opened a Pelé Museum just before the start of the World Cup, the first held in Brazil since 1950. In a video recorded for the occasion, Pelé said, “It’s a great joy to pass through this world and be able to leave, for future generations, some memories, and to leave a legacy for my country.”

Advocate for Education

Pelé met Rosemeri Cholbi when she was 14 and wooed her for almost eight years before they married early in 1966. They had three children — Kelly Cristina, Edson Cholbi and Jennifer — before divorcing in 1982.

After his divorce, Pelé often appeared in the gossip pages, partying with film stars, musicians and models. He acted in several movies, including John Huston’s “Victory” (1981), with Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone.

It also emerged that he had fathered two daughters out of wedlock. One, Sandra, whom he had refused to acknowledge, later sued for the right to use his surname. She wrote a book, “The Daughter the King Didn’t Want,” which he said greatly embarrassed him. She died of cancer in 2006.

His son, nicknamed Edinho, was a professional goalkeeper for five years before an injury ended his career. He later went to prison on a drug-trafficking conviction.

In 1994, Pelé married Assiria Seixas Lemos, a psychologist and Brazilian gospel singer; their twins, Joshua and Celeste, were born in 1996. They divorced in 2008. In his later years he dated a Brazilian businesswoman, Marcia Aoki, and he married her in 2016.

Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.

His brother Jair Arantes do Nascimento, who was known as Zoca and also played for Santos, died in 2020.

Children always responded warmly to Pelé, and he to them. Neither big nor intimidating, he had a wide, easy smile and a deep, reassuring voice.

“I have never seen another human being who was so willing to take the extra second to embrace or encourage a child,” said Jim Trecker, a longtime soccer executive who was the Cosmos’ public relations director in the Pelé years.

Pelé greeting children during the inauguration of a soccer pitch in Rio de Janeiro in 2014. Credit... Silvia Izquierdo/AP

Pelé was sensitive about having dropped out of school (he later earned a high school diploma and a college degree while playing for Santos) and often lamented that so many young Brazilians remained poor and illiterate even as the country had begun to prosper.

Indeed, the day he scored his 1,000th goal, in November 1969 at Maracanã stadium in Rio before more than 200,000 fans, Pelé was mobbed by reporters on the field and used their microphones to dedicate the goal to “the children.” Crying, he made an impromptu speech about the difficulties of Brazil’s children and the need to give them better educational opportunities.

Many journalists interpreted the gesture as grandstanding, but for decades, as if to correct the record, he cited that speech and repeated the sentiment. In July 2007, at a promotional event in New York for a family literacy campaign, he said, “Today, the violence we see in Brazil, the corruption in Brazil, is causing big, big problems. Because, you see, for two generations, the children did not get enough education.”

(On the subject of correcting the record, research for his 2006 biography turned up additional games played, and the authors concluded that the famous 1,000th goal was actually his 1,002nd.)

In London during the 2012 Olympics, Pelé joined a so-called hunger summit meeting convened by the British prime minister at the time, David Cameron, whose stated goal was to reduce by 25 million the number of children stunted by malnutrition before the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Business and Music

Pelé’s own venture into government began in 1995, when he was appointed Brazil’s minister for sport by then-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Pelé began a crusade to bring accountability to the business operations of Brazil’s professional teams, which were still run largely as gentlemen’s clubs, and to reform rules governing players’ contracts.

In 1998, Pelé’s Law, as it was known, passed. It required clubs to incorporate as taxable for-profit corporations and to publish balance sheets. It required that players be 20 before signing a professional contract and gave them the right of free agency after two years (instead of after age 32).

Many of the provisions were later weakened, and corruption continued, but Pelé said he took pride that the free agency clause had survived.

Business deals gone awry plagued him throughout his life.

He himself said he was often gullible, trusting friends who were less competent than they appeared. In 2001, a company he had helped found a decade earlier, Pelé Sports and Marketing, was accused of taking enormous loans to stage a charity game for Unicef and then not repaying the money when the game failed to happen. Pelé shut down the company; Unicef said there had been no wrongdoing on his part.

While continuing to promote educational programs throughout his life, Pelé also pursued his musical avocation. He was never far from a guitar, and he carried a miniature tape recorder to capture tunes or lyrics as the mood struck him.

He composed dozens of songs that were recorded by Brazilian pop stars, usually without his taking credit.

Pelé relaxing during the World Cup in Mexico in 1970. Pursuing a musical avocation, he was never far from a guitar.  Credit... Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos, via Getty Images

“I didn’t want the public to make the comparison between Pelé the composer and Pelé the football player,” he told the British newspaper The Guardian in 2006. “That would have been a huge injustice. In football, my talent was a gift from God. Music was just for fun.”

As he grew older, he often spoke of the difficulty of distinguishing between two personas: his real self, and the soccer superstar Pelé. He often referred to Pelé in the third person.

“One of the ways I try to keep perspective on things,” he wrote in his autobiography, “is to remind myself that what people are responding to isn’t me, necessarily; it’s this mythical figure that Pelé has become.”

His face remained familiar around the world long after his retirement from soccer. In 1994, when the World Cup was about to be played in the United States, Pelé sat in Central Park in New York waiting to be interviewed for ABC News. A teenager passed, did a double-take and then ran off; within minutes, people were streaming across the park to see him.

“There were hundreds of them,” Toye wrote in his own memoir. “Seventeen years after he last kicked a ball, this dark-skinned man is sitting in deep, dark shade under the trees — but he is still recognized, and once recognized, never alone in any country on earth.”

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

By Michelle Goldberg July 26, 2024

In “Hillbilly Elegy,” the 2016 memoir that made JD Vance a celebrity, he described constantly remaking his childhood self to fit the rotating cast of father figures his unsound mother brought into their lives. “With Steve, a midlife-crisis sufferer with an earring to prove it, I pretended earrings were cool — so much so that he thought it appropriate to pierce my ear,” Vance wrote. “With Chip, an alcoholic police officer who saw my earring as a sign of ‘girlieness,’ I had thick skin and loved police cars. With Ken, an odd man who proposed to Mom three days into their relationship, I was a kind brother to his two children.”

Vance’s yearning for a father is a constant theme in the book, as is his willingness to rationalize the flaws of the men he looks up to. At one point, he is reunited with his biological father, who gave him up for adoption when he was in kindergarten. The women in Vance’s life — not just his mother, but also his beloved sister, grandmother and aunt — told him that his dad had been “mean” and abusive, but he doesn’t believe it, preferring to think that there had only been “a bit of pushing, some plate throwing, but nothing more.”

His father was a devoted Pentecostal, and for a time Vance gave up his Black Sabbath CDs and became one, too. “I’m not sure if I liked the structure or if I just wanted to share in something that was important to him — both, I suppose — but I became a devoted convert,” he wrote.

“Devoted convert” may be the role he inhabits most naturally. In 2016 Vance speculated that Donald Trump might be “America’s Hitler.” Now he’s his running mate. A lot has been written trying to understand Vance’s ideological journey, but at least part of the story seems to be hiding in plain sight in his book. In attaching himself to the most bellicose patriarch he can find, he’s re-enacting a childhood pattern.

There is, of course, nothing inherently pathological about changing one’s political views. Vance, however, swapped out not just his beliefs but his entire public persona in just a few short years. “Hillbilly Elegy” contains an indictment of “conspiracy-mongers and fringe lunatics” who spread lies about Barack Obama’s religion and birthplace. And it laments the corrosive cynicism that led many in his white working-class community to embrace these falsehoods.

Vance presented their views as self-defeating: “We can’t trust the evening news. We can’t trust our politicians. Our universities, the gateway to a better life, are rigged against us,” he wrote, adding, “You can’t believe these things and participate meaningfully in society.”

Now Vance promotes all these things. He’s argued that Alex Jones is more trustworthy than Rachel Maddow and that Joe Biden may be intentionally flooding the country with fentanyl to kill off MAGA voters. He gave a speech in 2021 titled, “The Universities Are the Enemy.”

Vance’s new worldview can be explained in part by opportunism: He was anti-Trump at a time when Trumpism seemed likely to fail. And he’s said he was “red-pilled” by the cultural upheavals of 2020, a common enough phenomenon, especially in the Silicon Valley circles he travels in. But there is something particularly extreme about Vance’s transformation, suggesting he hasn’t left behind the mutability that once served as a survival strategy.

As Gabriel Winant wrote in a perceptive essay in the journal N+1, “Hillbilly Elegy” is fundamentally a book about unresolved trauma. In one of the book’s final moments, Vance gains some insight into his own behavior by reading up on “adverse childhood experiences,” or ACEs. Kids who endure violent and chaotic childhoods like his, he wrote, “become hard-wired for conflict. And that wiring remains, even when there’s no more conflict to be had.”

His upbringing had taught him that “disagreements were war, and you played to win the game.” Understanding this, he wrote, helped him navigate his relationship with his wife, Usha. But he seems to have stopped there, rather than reckon with how his pugilistic instincts shape his approach to the wider world.

In 2020, Vance wrote an essay detailing his journey from Pentecostalism through the new atheism of Christopher Hitchens and finally into Catholicism. He portrayed his young adult rejection of religion as essentially mimetic, something he absorbed from his university surroundings rather than decided on for himself. One of the things that brought him back to religion was meeting the right-wing venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who would eventually become a patron. Thiel “was possibly the smartest person I’d ever met, but he was also a Christian,” Vance wrote. Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019. By then, he’d become part of a new conservative elite in which many leading intellectual figures were also Catholic.

Now this person of unusual suggestibility has become second in command to a first-order demagogue, giving himself over to MAGA theology. As Mother Jones reported on Thursday, Vance recently endorsed a new book called “Unhumans,” co-written by the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, which demonizes progressives as nonpeople who must be crushed by extra-democratic means. “Our study of history has brought us to this conclusion: Democracy has never worked to protect innocents from the unhumans,” the book’s co-writers say.

It is perhaps not surprising that Vance has ended up in this milieu. Authoritarian personalities, as the German social psychologist Erich Fromm argued, long to dominate, but they long just as much to submit.

[thevindicativevordan]

Any big thoughts on Immortal Hulk now that it's over?

What a run. Easily the best Marvel one overall since Hickman's Avengers and the best Hulk run since Pak was on the title.

Ewing is a writer who loves to use continuity as a building block rather than seeing it as an obstacle. Immortal Hulk incorporated as much of Hulk's history as it could, from the widely popular PAD and Pak Hulk runs, to centering Devil Hulk, a concept from the lesser known Jenkins run on Hulk. As a Hulk fan who was first introduced to Devil Hulk through the Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction video game, it gave me a feeling of childhood glee when I realized just who this new version of Hulk was. Never expected to see that incarnation again, especially in the wake of the MCU softening Hulk's edges for a wider audience. Devil Hulk certainly lives up to his name, gleefully reveling in the pain he dishes out on evil doers. Positing him as the alter created to meet Bruce's desire for a father figure really works well, Devil is as close as Bruce can conceive of what a dad who protects him instead of abusing him would be like. Notable that he shares many traits with Brian Banner, but that maliciousness is directed outward at the world rather than inward as so much of Bruce's negative traits are.

Eschewing MCU synergy, this run chose to mine the history of Hulk comics for potential ideas on how to move the character forward. Even the core concept of the series is a return to the more "horror monster" vibes of the early Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Hulk debut series. My beloved Bill Bixby Hulk TV show is also heavily incorporated at the start with the inclusion of Jackie McGee (a black female counterpart to the Jack McGee of that old show), and the starting status quo being Bruce on the run and trying to stay under cover. Kind of a pity that we don't get Bruce saying that iconic line from the show, or at least a variation of it, but I'm glad that show hasn't been totally forgotten in the wake of the MCU and Ruffalo.

Joe Fixit even makes his own triumphant return to the Hulk book, after spending years slumbering in Bruce's mindscape. Of all the characters in Immortal Hulk, Joe is the one who arguably develops the most. He spent years hating both Bruce and the Savage Hulk, seeing them both as competitors for control of the body they share. By the end of the series, Joe has become a protective older brother to Savage, and willingly walks into Hell to rescue Bruce and Devil. Of the alters, Joe is the one who ends up becoming the most heroic and selfless, quite the turnaround from his days of working as an enforcer in Las Vegas. No idea if that final promise he makes to McGee is just Ewing setting up a potential plotlines for someone else to use if desired, or something he himself plans to revisit one day, but I hope that story happens.

One interesting bit of connective tissue is how pretty much every major supporting cast member undergoes some kind of transformation, whether horrifying (Fortean, Rick Jones, Samson) or empowering (Betty, Dr. Charlene McGowan, Jackie McGee). Hulk himself obviously embodies both aspects, empowering himself through the body horror his immortality has afforded him. Even other Hulk alters undergo transformations, such as Joe Fixit changing from Gray to Red at the end of the series, switching from gamma to cosmic energy as his power source. While Hulk is obviously the main character, his supporting cast members echo his journey in ways that either are a direct parallel or contrast to his development.

Rick Jones and Doc Samson, classic Hulk supporting characters, make their return to being major players in Hulk's stories. Rick has always been the Hulk's "Jimmy Olsen", the kid pal sidekick who partakes in weird and bizarre transformations and status quo shifts. Rick has been a hero and a Hulk himself throughout his career, always tied to Hulk by the debt he feels he owes Bruce for saving him from the gamma bomb. Immortal Hulk acknowledges and incorporates all of that, Rick starts out as the new Abomination (a reference to his days as the heroic "A-bomb"), becomes possessed by Leader (a reference back to the old mental link between the two from PAD), and ends up trapped in a body horror nightmare after he's merged with Del Frye, mirroring Hulk's own transformation throughout Immortal Hulk. Rick is used and abused throughout the series, paralleling Hulk's own journey, and it isn't until the end of the Gamma Flight series that Rick finds some measure of relief from his pain. Given the ultimate revelation about the nature of why Hulk suffers, I see in Rick the closest mirror to Hulk. Both suffer simply because they must, because it's what the nature of the universe demands.

Samson has his own horror journey to undergo, the man of science and logic forced to confront terrors beyond mortal comprehension. Arrogance and self-righteousness have long been central to his character, with his story arc over the course of the run being his acceptance that he doesn't have all the answers. Samson and Bruce have long been reflections of each other in ways beyond just the gamma. Bruce is another man of science who believed he had all the answers once, until he was blown to hell by the gamma bomb he built, and learned with the emergence of the Hulk that some forces defy human control or understanding. Despite seeing the pain and suffering gamma can unleash, Samson was arrogant enough to think he would be able to avoid that fate of Bruce by exposing himself to siphoned gamma from Bruce. Over the course of Immortal Hulk he's thoroughly disabused of that arrogance, and comes to understand that gamma is not a toy and there are no free rides. Spending time in Hell and being trapped in Sasquatch's body are learning experiences about the dangers in meddling with forces you don't understand for the good Doctor.

And then there's Betty, poor long suffering Betty Ross-Banner, wife of Bruce and Hulk. Betty who was killed solely to make Bruce suffer and then brought back to serve the needs of her "betters". Betty who suffers for and because of Bruce/Hulk. Just as Hulk's transformation becomes much more horrifying and monstrous, Betty goes from her gorgeous Red She-Hulk form to Red Harpy. Both Betty and Bruce want an end to their suffering, but Betty has an external entity in Bruce to project all her anger and hurt at, whereas Bruce can only blame and hate himself.

Betty parallels Bruce in that her Red Harpy alter ego exists to protect her from threats, of which Bruce is an enormous one emotionally for her at this point. Devil Hulk was set free after Bruce's death during Civil War II pushed him over the edge. Getting murdered by Bushwacker likewise caused Betty to mentally snap. She's unable to even talk to him outside her Red Harpy form, so great is the trauma and rage she feels towards him. Similarly Bruce himself gives Joe Fixit control when he has to interact with Betty because of his inability to handle her insistence on using that form to speak with him.

By the end of the series, Hulk wants to reconcile with Betty, wants to be a good person, but she seems skeptical of whether he can truly change. Betty gets pissed that Joe and Savage left Bruce in Hell, and that pushes them to mount a rescue. Unfortunately despite Betty wanting to talk to Bruce at last, we never get to see the conversation she wants to have play out. Immortal Hulk ends without a final conversation between the two, one of the few big missteps of the run. Given the focus on the relationship between Betty, Bruce, and Hulk, it feels unsatisfying to not see Betty get to have the honest conversation with Bruce that she and Joe Fixit have. No idea if Betty and Bruce talked in Defenders, I haven't read any of Ewing's other ongoings, but to not have it in Immortal Hulk stood out to me.

Finally we come to our last major players: The classic Hulk villains. I thought Ewing's use of Fortean was enjoyable, although it's a bummer that he wasn't able to use Ross because Coates had dibbs on him for his boring Captain America run. As a Ross stand-in however I thought he served his purpose well, Fortean and his Shadow Base were fun opening villains and helped establish the run's "back to basics" opening feel. Wasn't a huge fan about the take on Abomination however. While horrifying, I'm still waiting for someone to really do a big modern Abomination story with the Blonsky character (who desperately needs a revamp). Making Rick and Fortean Abomination instead of using Blonsky felt like a missed opportunity. Ewing did use Blonsky over in Gamma Flight, but that was just a minor side story at best.

Minotaur and Xemnu the Living Hulk however were fucking amazing. Minotaur as the "face" of the worst of civilization that Bruce and Hulk wanted to smash was extremely satisfying. We all hated Agger for constantly pulling bullshit and getting away with it because he was one of Aaron's pet characters (in addition to the heinous shit he does elsewhere and in this run). Seeing Agger and Roxxon humbled by the end felt great. Xemnu underwent such a great revamp, becoming the embodiment of empty nostalgia that has nothing to offer but brain rot. Way he "ate" Dagger up was one of the biggest "holy shit" moments in a run full of them. I hope that his use here means that future writers will want to make him one of Hulk's reoccuring foes, because he has a lot of interesting themes regarding nostalgia that I think are on point.

Finally there's the ultimate Big Bad of the run: Leader. Been a long time since Leader has been presented as being on the threat level he's shown to be here. Manipulating everyone, from the other villains, to the supporting cast members, to the Hulk alters themselves, Samuel Sterns reestablished himself as the Hulk's archnemesis. Leader has his own level of body horror, the scenes where he "eats" Brian Banner, turns Bruce into a fucked up human Kabbalah Tree of Life, gets possessed by the One Below All, or causes Hulk to "detonate" and kill a bunch of people are moments I'll long remember. Issue 34 which acts as a tour throughout Stern's entire history, a masterwork in Ewing's ability to utilize continuity too enhance storytelling, is one of my favorite issues of the entire run. His actions over the course of the series will definitely remind you why he's one of the best villains Marvel has.

Not sure how I feel about making Bruce Banner and Samuel Sterns (distantly) biologically related. I don't hate it but I also don't think it really adds much to their relationship, especially since neither of them seems to know or care. Might end up just being a bit of pointless continuity trivia in the long run, doesn't feel like something that was needed. Sterns ends the series depowered again, and seemingly terrified of all things gamma, although that obviously won't stick forever. Interesting that both Sterns and Bruce essentially end Immortal Hulk having been given "clean slates" as it were, whether either actually changes as a result of that will be left up to Donny Cates I suppose.

Immortal Hulk doesn't just look back to the past however, it also brought fresh new ideas and concepts to the franchise. The Green Door and the Gamma Hell mythology that Ewing created is one of my favorite additions to the Hulk mythos since Pak's Sakaar world-building. Ewing really enjoys combing the "science" of Marvel with more mystical leanings. Obviously a run immersed in horror and featuring a "Devil Hulk" is probably going to feature Hell in some manner, and Ewing's science-fiction take on the concept is no less terrifying. Hell for Hulk is a post apocalyptic world, fitting given that Hulk himself was birthed from bombs. There you'll see the burnt out husks of every soul touched by gamma or the Hulk in some way. It's a personal Hell for Hulk and a terrifying one. Forgive me for the commercialization, but man a Hulk game set in Gamma Hell would be amazing.

Casting "Kirbons"/cosmic energy as the "Heavenly" energy source as opposed to the "Hellish" gamma was one of my favorite retcons especially given the reveal about the One Below All. The One Above All (the ultimate Marvel God) and The One Below All (the ultimate Marvel Devil/Anti-God) are ultimately the same being. Both gamma and kirbons flow from the same source, and we know Jack Kirby is what the OAA "really" looks like, meaning it all flows from Kirby. Thought that was fitting given Kirby co-created both the Fantastic Four and Hulk with Stan Lee.

Very meta also that Hulk's final confrontation with his "creator" cribs from the Biblical Book of Job. Job doesn't suffer because of anything he did, he suffers because it makes for a good story about the point of suffering: sometimes there isn't any. Sometimes we suffer for no discernable reason. Hulk likewise asks "God" why does he suffer, "why does Hulk hurt?", and the answer is more or less that he suffers because he has to. He suffers because it's what he was made to do. Marvel heroes are created to be flawed and prone to misery, and Hulk is one of the most prominent Marvel heroes, so suffering is something he will always have to endure. It's his nature to do so as much as he wishes to change, although he IS capable of defying his nature to be something else as seen with his ability to forgive Sterns and rescue him from Hell at the end.

Ultimately the main themes of Immortal Hulk is about transformation and acceptance. People change or are capable of changing, and accepting that is a key part of life. Bruce's inability to accept the Hulk as part of him is what has made his life hell for so long. Only after accepting Hulk is Bruce able to find some measure of happiness and fulfillment for himself. Likewise the Hulks are traditionally the darker aspects of Bruce that he walls off from himself. They hate Bruce for rejecting them and imprisoning them, yet it's only by accepting Bruce that they can grow beyond his initial conceptions of them. Joe doesn't start transforming into someone heroic until he accepts his responsibility to both Bruce and Savage, and tries to protect them without Devil around to do that. Savage himself is only able to transform beyond being the embodiment of wrath once he is able to forgive and accept Sterns as a "Hulk" as well, becoming an embodiment of mercy. Really enjoyed seeing how Bruce and his alters ability to transform their "system" by working cooperatively instead of fighting with each other caused them to transform into healthier people by the end.

Thinking about the ending has left me with mixed feelings however. Not saying I disliked it, I thought overall it was a good, solid ending. But it was only "good" not "great", and I think that's something that can be laid at the feet of everything ultimately needing to return to status quo. "Hulk is Hulk" as the run constantly reminds us, and despite making repeated attempts to do so, despite multiple "Hulk" alters which act differently, ultimately Bruce and the Hulk can't ever truly change. There exists a base characterization that Hulk must always return to no matter how long he stays away. Despite knowing that, it feels unsatisfying to not see more of a change in Bruce and Hulk's status quos by the end. Having Bruce not remember anything of his time in Hell feels like a cop-out to justify "resetting" him to status quo. What about Bruce's plans to end the world? Does he still want that? Are we meant to have taken that merely as Devil's influence on him, and with Devil dead, that drive is now gone?

Speaking of Devil it's so weird that he "dies" and it's essentially unremarked upon except for Bruce briefly considering the possibility that he has merged with Devil and no longer needs any father figures. This was the main Hulk we started out with and followed for around 30+ issues of the run, yet he's given just a passing mention in the ending. One other major quibble I have is that early on Bruce's mother was shown to be in Gamma Hell as well, and that feels like it was setting up some plot point that never got addressed. Why was she there? We've gotten so much focus on Brian it's disappointing we don't have much info or characterization for Bruce's mother given how much he loved her.

And of course the run itself had plenty of behind the scenes drama caused by Joe Bennett. Sneaking in a lot of bigoted imagery really clashes with the themes Ewing was going for. However I don't think that will ultimately harm the run's reputation in the long run, most people will never know or care if I can be blunt. Does make that final page feel hollow however given the dislike I'm sure Ewing and Bennett have for each other now. Even with the sun out, there's still a shadow cast over that ending.

Regardless it's a run I wholeheartedly recommend for anyone who is a fan of Hulk or horror and wants an in. Despite it's love for continuity and callbacks, everything is explained in a way that even someone who has never read a Hulk comic before should be able to read this entire run without any major problems. When the hardcover omnibuses are released, I will definitely be picking them up.

[lacrimosathedark]

Who'd like some good old fashioned name analysis?

Okay, so, I been doing so much research for Resident Evil stuff and learning shit about fairy tales and timelines and genome editing and searching for impossible Romanian poetry I got overwhelmed and went, fuck it. Why not just look at their names? Maybe I'll learn something there.

So, here I have done it. Name meanings for characters of the Mold Saga so far aka 7 and 8 aka Biohazard and Village.

(Sorry I'm on mobile I'll put a cut here when I can)

Ethan: Firm, enduring, strong, impetuous, long-lived. An incredibly consistently common and popular name. E name just like Eveline, so could be a successor of sorts to the mold.

Mia: Derivative of numerous other names of many possibilities. Mia as a word means “mine” in Italian and Spanish. Mamma Mia is a well known Italian phrase, particularly due to the ABBA song and musical of the same name, and it being the catchphrase of the Nintendo character Mario. The phrase means “my mom”.

Winters: First and last season of the year where everything becomes dormant and cold and either dies or sleeps.

Eveline: Contains “Eve”, as in both the biblical first woman. Also means a night before an event, and the game takes place in the span of one night. The name Eve means “ life”, “living one”, “mother of life”, or “giver of life”. Another possible name origin is as a variant of Aveline, which is a diminutive of Ava, which is the same pronunciation as the name Eva as pronounced in Village.

Baker: Occupational surname. In older times consider an upper-middle class job, much like the family. Also adds the emphasis of the “food” and also how they essentially make more molded.

Jack: God is gracious, supplanter. A nickname for John and other related names, but also a name in itself. It is also a word with a couple meanings, including a heavy lifting tool, to steal something, to take control of something, or an everyman.

Margueritte: Pearl. French name for ox-eyed daisy. Derived from Margaret. Sounds like maggot.

Lucas: Light. Derived from Lucius which means “the bright one” or “the one born at dawn”. Luke is also an Apostle of Jesus and was a physician.

Zoe: Life. Came from the name Eve. Fitting as Zoe was practically pushed out of the family after Eveline’s arrival, replaced as the daughter of the family.

Joe: He will add. Was added as DLC. Short for Joseph. Joseph is the name of multiple biblical figures. One is a child of Jacob and Rachel and Jacob’s favorite son in Genesis (note: Jack is a nickname for Jacob) who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, but rose to become vizier, the most powerful position nest to the Pharoah, and forgave his family and brought them to Egypt. One is the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who loved and raised a child he knew was not his against social norms. Another is a disciple known as Joseph of Arimathea who notably took Jesus down from the cross for his burial and testified when he revived and was gone. 

Rosemary: Dew of the sea. Combination of Rose and Mary or the plant rosemary. Roses as a plant vary in meaning depending on color. Mary and its variations have many differing meanings, among them being, “beloved”, “love”, “bitter”, “rebellious”, “wished-for child”, and “drop of the sea”. There are also the allusions to Mary, mother of Jesus as she is sometimes worshipped with roses, and you say Hail Marys on your rosary which is only two letters from her name. In regards to the plant, it is relatively resistant to drought and cold, though some breeds are susceptible to frost and they don’t like too much water. They have fibrous roots, so they spread and fan out like we see with the mold. They thrive in more alkaline soils and seem to have been named by a taxonomist named Carl  Linnaeus. In stories, folklore, and tradition, the plants or flowers are often used for remembrance, specifically for the dead. It’s also been used as a spice and in medicine.

Miranda: Worthy of admiration. Latin in origin. Character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and whether she is a strong female character or not is highly debated, as she frequently defies men like her father, but often when they expect and/or want her to. She is otherwise compassionate and naive. The titular character of a Polish novel in which everyone is a mage and Miranda is a medium connected to another character, Damayanti, who is portrayed as the ideal woman and has a romance with the male protagonist, yet sacrifices her body so her spirit can experience a higher state of consciousness. Miranda can contact her soul, and disappears when she dies. Miranda in the US refers to the required practice by police of reading suspects their rights before interrogation.

Eva: Latin form of “Eve” and meaning “life”, “mother of life”, or “giver of life”.

Duke: A ruler of a duchy. A title bestowed by royalty or passed through family, often given to royalty or nobility, but can be given to anyone. In France,  the peerage system was abolished in 1789 (vive la révolution), brought back in 1814, and finally perma-abolished in 1848. 

(Note: While the wife of a duke becomes a duchess, the husband of a duchess does not become a duke. At least, from what I gather. This shit is confusing.)

Alcina: Strong-willed. Greek origin. There are two operas using the same story about a sorceress named Alcina who lives on an island with her sister Morgana and seduces every knight who comes to the island, but turns them into plants, animals, or stones when she bores of them. When the source of her power is destroyed, she, her sister, and their palace crumble to dust. The Hungarian name for Alțâna, a commune in Sibiu County, Romania in the historical region of Transylvania.

Bela: Bela Lugosi was an actor who famously portrayed Dracula. His name is Hungarian and meant to be spelled Béla meaning “heart”, “insides”, or “intestines”, roughly translating to “having heart” or “having guts” in modern terminology, as in being brave. However it is considered a male name and as Bela is female there is also the possibility of the influence of the name Bella short an l, Bella an Italian name meaning “beautiful”.

Cassandra: The one who shines and excels over men. Name of a Trojan princess and priestess in Greek mythology. She was given her gift of prophecy by the god Apollo but, in most versions of the tale, he asks for sexual favors in return, and she initially agrees but then rejects him once she’s gotten her gift. In anger he cursed her to always tell true prophecies that no one would believe and was thus thought a madwoman. She served a temple of Athena, goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and warfare. When Cassandra was assaulted and possibly raped in Athena’s temple and dragged out while desperately clinging to Athena’s statue, Athena was so enraged by the damage done to her temple and/or her priestess that she enlisted the help of both Zeus and Poseiden to exact revenge on the Greeks for failing to punish the man who attacked Cassandra and caused the resulting damage. Zeus gave her one of his own bolts of lightning and she struck them down at sea. While Cassandra was never believed, she was always right.

Daniela: God is my judge. Feminine form of Daniel. Daniela is also a genus of moth with only one species in the genus, Daniela viridis. It is also another name for the Italian wine grape Prè blanc.

Dimitrescu: Child of Dimitri. -escu suffixes in Romanian are like -son suffixes in English, it derives from parentage (ex. Jackson is Jack’s son, Dimitrescu is Dimitri’s child). Dimitri means “devoted to Demeter”. Demeter is the Greek goddess of the harvest, agriculture, sacred law (i.e. cycle of life and death), fertility, and the earth. Like many Greek myths, she is repeatedly wronged, and rather severely, by multiple male figures. Demeter in particular is a mother who has her daughter Kore, later known as Persephone, stolen away from her and goes on a rampage searching for her and those responsible.

(Note: Considering the founders had these names it’s a bit dumb seeing as this trend of parentage -escu names supposedly came about mid 19th century (1800s for those who find that confusing cuz I do), long after the Village was founded)

Donna: Lady or lady of the home. Italian name and a title of respect. Derives from the Latin term Dominus. The Romanian form of the word (not the name) is Doamnã. The Atropa belladonna aka deadly nightshade have berries and foliage that contain tropane alkaloids including atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine which are extremely toxic and can cause hallucinations and delirium, but are also used in pharmaceutical anticholinergics. Throughout history people cluelessly used the berry juice as eye drops to cosmetically dilate their pupils, giving them a seductive doll-eyed appearance. Symptoms of belladonna poisoning are dilated pupils, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, tachycardia, loss of balance, staggering, headache, rash, flushing, severely dry mouth and throat, slurred speech, urinary retention, constipation, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, and convulsions. The plant's deadly symptoms are in atropine’s ability to disrupt the parasympathetic nervous system’s involuntary regulation like sweating, breathing, and heartbeat.

Angie: Diminutive of many names containing “angel”. Angels are messengers and warriors of Heaven, a realm souls go after death. Angel statues are also common grave markers. Children are also often told they have guardian angels, a being watching over them to protect them.

Claudia: No sure meaning has been found, but some think it comes from claudus, meaning “lame”, “limping”, or “crippled”, or clausus, which means “shut” or “closed”.

Beneviento: Good wind. Neapolitan spelling of Benevento, the name of both a province and its capital city, located in the Campania region of Italy.

Salvatore: Savior. Italian name. In the movie version (I specify as I have not read the book and the movie synopsis has more on the characters) of The Name of the Rose, the character Salvatore is hunch-backed and twisted, and has a history of not-really-acceptable religious beliefs. He was also tortured and falsely accused of witchcraft. He dies when a library is set on fire.

Moreau: Moorish, dark-skinned. French surname. Titular doctor in The Island of Doctor Moreau, in which said doctor performs disturbing and torturous experiments on people and animals, especially through vivisection, to make beastial humanoid creatures.

Karl: Free man, strong man, manly. Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made notably important contributions to hydrodynamics, ferromagnetism, cosmic rays, and subatomic particles. Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, and socialist revolutionary who believed societies develop through class conflict, and in a capitalist society this is the “ruling” class (the bosses) having power over the working class. He believed people should have equal footing and should and would inevitably fight for it. Karl Jaspers was a German existentialist philosopher and psychiatrist. His humanist ideals had him dissatisfied with the medical community’s approach to mental health and worked to improve it, and philosophizing on it after.

(IMPORTANT NOTE: Since I’ve seen accusations of the RE character and his influences being so, I feel I must state it here. Karl Heisenberg is NOT a Nazi. Both Heisenberg and Jaspers lived through World War II and neither were Nazis. Jaspers was blackwalled because of his Jewish wife. Heisenberg was forcibly drafted into the Army Weapons Bureau, but pre-war he had been repeatedly slandered as a “white Jew” and his career held back, and post-war became more political, worked against traditional primacy in the education system, and actively protested the government considering equipping the army with American nuclear weapons. Capcom reps have also stated that Karl Heisenberg has nothing to do with Nazis.)

Heisenberg: Calling mountain (could not find a specific definition, “heisen” means “to call” and “berg” means “mountain or hill”). Reference to Werner Karl Heisenberg, (explained above). Likely unrelated, but another well-known (in the US at least) name thief of Heisenberg comes from the popular TV show Breaking Bad as the alias/street name for the main character Walter White who takes the name and starts selling drugs when he is unable to afford medical care for his in-need child, but grows more twisted throughout the series. Also place name.

Berengario: Italian form of Berengar, which is derived from Germanic root words meaning “bear” and “spear”.

Cesare: Italian form of the Latin word Caesar, which is an imperial title like an emperor or empress. The word Caesar itself may come from caesaries meaning “hairy”. 

Guglielmo: Italian form of the Germanic William, meaning “vehement protector” or “desired helmet”

Nichola: Anglicized form of the Greek Nikolaos meaning “victory of the people”. Also a variant of Nicholas (Considered a female variant but fuck gender roles and the description says he.). This character is also referred to as Father like a priest I looked into saints and while I found no notable Saint Nichola (meaning on Wikipedia) there are multiple Saint Nicholases, most notably Saint Nicholas of Myra, also known as the Wonderworker and the model of Santa Claus. Stories of him include gifting gold coins through a window of a home for three nights to prevent three girls from being forced into prostitution, calming a storm at sea, saving three soldiers from execution, and chopping down a possessed tree. More connected to where his treasure is found, there is also a tale of him resurrecting three children who had been murdered by a butcher who had had intended to sell their meat as “pork” during the famine.

*BONUS TIME*

By that I mean these are less important so I did slightly less research and/or didn’t  feel like typing all the research so there’s less info, but it’s still relevant, so here you go!

Chris: A rare name in its own right, often a shortened version of names like Christopher, meaning “Christ-bearer”, and Christian, as in the religion.

Redfield: Literally red field. Fitting for the trail of blood in his wake because have mercy on any of his enemies, but regrettably including many of his friends and allies (rip in peace Piers Nivans). 

Elena: Shining light. Greek origin.

Leonardo: Strong as a lion. Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese version of Leonard.

Lupu: Wolf. Romanian surname. Fitting as the surname of the man we saw become a lycan before our eyes. 

Luiza: Renowned warrior. Polish, Portuguese, and Romanian name.

Iulian: Romanian name from the Greek iulius meaning “youthful” or “juvenile”, or ioulos meaning “downy-bearded”.

Vasile: Romanian name from the Greek basileus meaning ”king”. Vasile Voiculescu wrote a poem called Schimnicul, The Recluse in English, about varcolacul.

(Note: For those who don’t recall or didn’t notice his name in Ethan’s diary, this is Luiza’s husband.)

Rolando: Famous throughout the land. Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese variant of Roland.

Elba: Spanish form of Alba, which can mean “dawn”, “white”, or “elf”, depending on origin.

Dion: Shorter form of Greek Dionysios meaning “of Zeus”.

Wilson: Lineage surname, “Will’s son”. Very common surname in English.

Charlie: A name in itself but often a nickname for names like Charles meaning “man” or “warrior”

Graham: Gravelly homestead. Habitational surname, apparently derived from Grantham in Lincolnshire, England.

John: God is gracious. The most common name ever with the most variations.

Perlman: Ashkenazi Jewish surname. Also literal, “perl” possibly meaning “pearl” thus being an occupational name, or Perl being a woman’s name making it mean “husband of Perl”.

Emily: Rival. Latin name. 

Berkoff: Could be Jewish, Dutch, or German surname. Definition not quite certain, but likely related to birch trees.

Josef: German, Czech, and Scandinavian version of Joseph.  

Simon: He has heard. From Hebrew Shim’on.

Roxana: Bright, dawn. Latin form of Greek Rhoxane and Persian Roshanak.

Anton: Priceless, praiseworthy, flower.

Sebastian: From the Latin name Sebastianus which meant “from Sebaste”. Sebaste is a town in Asia Minor and comes from the Greek word sebastos meaning “venerable”.

Eugen: Well-born.Romanian form of Eugene. From the Greek name Eugenios. 

(Note: This is the man who lived in the house with the red chimney.)

Ernest: Serious. Germanic name.

(Note: This man is noted to be missing in a letter to Luiza and his diary is found with the Cannibal’s Plunder in Otto’s Mill.)