#female temptor

[gongedtornado]

no fucking way

[kid-az]

All Tomorrows: Vanga-Vangog’s Puppeteer headcanons

Conceptually, the Temptor’s were one of the most interesting of the posthumans, with the males being worker drones and the woman immobile flesh trees with much greater intellect and the ability to control these men. They were however killed off by a comet in canon, unable to become sapient like many other extinct posthumans.

Vanga-Vangog would however explore their potential in the form of their descendants, the Puppeteers. These sapient people would further exaggerate the features of their ancestors, the males being what are effectively mindless meat robots controlled by the pheromones of the much larger, sapient, yet now completely immobile females.

I wish to go on a tangent about the possible culture, values, and the state of their world like I did for his other fanmade species, the Clicker’s

-Due to the male drones being mindless and viewed more as extensions of their body than independent, the act of sexual love is foreign in the Puppeteer’s culture, with romantic love being exclusive to unions between woman. These individuals would act as pen lovers, sending eachother messages, specially made robots/designer drones, and the occasional meetup via their equivalent of Zoom.

-Occasional, these romantic pairs would decide to move into their partner’s tower, living alongside them inside the same atrium room. This was a more recent tradition, as their post scarcity society and technology allowed themselves to be moved easier.

-Because of how individuals couldn’t meet up physically due to the obvious, the Puppeteer's never developed any actual table manner’s, often messily devouring meat, vegetables, and many other types of food via overhang conveyer belts. By the end of their meal sessions, they would be covered in chunks of their food and juices, having to be sprayed by their drones via hoses filled with soapy, scented water.

-Inspite of their seemingly draconian biology, (Often by people mistaking the male drones as sapient, which they are not) their post-scarcity government was one of the most democratic among the Second Empire, with every civilian having equal say and rights in politics. These debates were set up in their zoom equivalents.

-Puppeteers, surprisingly enough, do have fashion. During their ancient history, they would often need to wear thick blankets wrapped around them every winter so as to not freeze to death, and this tradition of having drones make blankets carried onto their modern day, even though they live in temperature-regulated towers. These blankets would be made out of fur and wool of non-sapient cousins, their cotton plant equivalent, or silk, and be very thick yet also soft and secure.

-The male drones would also be decorated, early on by dyeing and tattoos, but later more conventional clothing after it was introduced by their posthuman cousins. And no, their fashion wasn’t gender-based, male drones would be given either female, male, or gender neutral clothing by the queens.

-Baby Puppeteer’s would live right beside their mothers early on, being tended to and cared for by her drones while they would converse. For most of their history, this was the only time female puppeteers would physically meet eye-to-eye. These children, once of age, would often have a tower built by their mothers and her friends, and would move into them to spend the rest of their lives.

-Infertile Puppeteer females, due to their inability to birth males to use as extensions of their bodies, had to be well-cared for by the drones of their friends and/or family, and would traditionally be given the task of being soothsayers or recorders of oral tradition, since their was not much else they could do. The development of robotics allowed these infertile individuals more independence and personal freedom.

-They we’re huge, avid consumers of TV media and literature, with them spending much of their times either reading or watching screens, eating food, talking to friends and neighbors on their screen, or watching their drones and robots perform and do silly antics for their enjoyment. (They’d often recreate other posthuman memes with their drones.)

[continentalblue]

A continuation of your all tomorrows headcanons?

👀

👉👈

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG I FORGOT TO ANSWER LMAOOO

i said I would do these yesterday but it's like 12 am so it still counts #slay

also lemme know if u want me to rewrite/clarify any of these I'm typing all that comes to mind

also I wouldn't mind writing more of these lmaoo. this one got a teensy bit long

______________________________

🌌 Bug Facers had a bartering/trade system rather than a cash system. This trade system was highly complex; people who tried to pass off their goods as being more high-quality than they really were were punished severely. They also had a monarchy, with the Queen being 25% larger than the other people. Her citizens were taxed and the best food went to her. Her function was the same as that of an ant's queen. Actually, more to the point, I picture their monarchy as being similar to that of ant's. However, after their invasion, the monarchy was dissolved and turned into a democracy.

🌌 Despite their relative immobility, the Temptors actually developed some form of culture. Males would spread ideas between females, who rued the fact that they could not meet other members of their species. I also feel that the males could talk, though their enunciation wasn't really that good. Based on the sharpness and shape of their beaks, it's possible they were all-purpose feeders who preyed on insects, nuts, and other worms. The females required three times the amount of food as males in order to provide enough energy for their brains.

🌌 The Lopsiders actually experienced some sexual dimorphism. The reason for this is because their designs remind me of anglerfish. Females were markedly larger than males, and the males depended on the females for sustenance. This was slowly phased out as they evolved, as the species would cannibalize others for food. They had no trade system; they operated under a "it's yours if you're fast enough mentality."

🌌 Because their experience became so automized, the Tool Breeders actually evolved away from actually having blood at all! As a result, their flesh became more gelatinous. While a drought would have slowly but surely dehydrated the species' flesh and caused the end of the species, they learned how to make water from seemingly thin air. They have a capitalistic system that constantly pushes new inventions.

🌌 Much of the Titan's mythology focused on figures who were more mobile; ie., those that had two legs. When a Titan was born with two limbs, they were hailed as a god. They were seen as prophets and harbingers of good luck. They emphasized an ideal that the species could no longer go back to.

Since they lived in a savannah, they also grew thick skin on their bodies to account for the insects and the spikes on their favorite plants. They also transferred to a more vegetarian diet, consuming foods similar to those that giraffes and African elephants eat.

🌌 Hand Flappers had mating dances similar to those of birds-of-paradise. Had they developed sapience, Hand Flappers would have pioneered acting as an art form, using their wings to emphasize their stories. High-class Hand Flappers wore bracelets of precious metals that surrounded their wings. Wing care became an important social aspects; to groom someone else's wings was tantamount to declaring your love for them.

🌌 Satryiacs had fairly short lifespans, which accounted for the amount of parties that they had. As a result, their minds matured remarkably quickly: by their first birthday, their minds were already fully developed. Their bodies followed soon after, and six months later, they were already considered adults. They had very loose views on monogamy; as a concept it simply did not exist. They had relationships with whomever they wanted, whenever they wanted.

🌌 Despite their lack of sapience, the Blind Folk actually had fairly defined parental relationships, mirroring that of humans on Earth. Blind Folk babies were born helpless and unable to do much of anything. A cry from a baby would inspire all the adults in the surrounding area to come to their aid, a fact that was occasionally exploited by predators.

🌌 If put on Earth's atmosphere, Spacers would get crushed underneath their own weight. Also, since they have such modified internal systems, they do not need to eat. However, they need to sleep for fourteen hours in a day to recuperate enough energy to move.

[midnight-roses-candy]

The Temptors in All Tomorrows are underexplored and given that the females are the only ones capable of thought it seems logical that lesbianism would develop (though they'd probably be unable to have sex with each other due to being rooted).

[tweedfrog]

On a different fandom fury, why is it always "oh Elia/Ashara/whoever would be okay with cheating and humiliation because DORNISH and Rhaegar crowning Lyanna wouldn't have been a big deal if everyone else hadn't been prudes" when Catelyn canonically says that she would have been able to roll with Ned having lovers as long as he still treated her with love and respect and had any bastards fostered somewhere and given money and some kind of decent career path as would be right and honorable as long as he didn't insist on raising those children at home. We have canon proof that Catelyn would be fine with her husband, (and a husband that she's very much in love with!) having private, discrete affairs and possibly children, but Ashara is The Cool Girl who would happily raise Jon, and Elia is totally chill with being publicly humiliated for a 14y/o who is also a potential political threat to her children. It's possible Elia might be okay with Rhaegar quietly having a relationship with a woman that posed no threat to Elia or her children, but not certain, and its never portrayed that way in fic.

Because of three reasons

Racism. GRRM plays into the exotic/erotic trope with Dorne. We see Arianne as a seductress, nipple first through Arys' eyes and we are constantly told about how Dornish people are licentious without the author doing nearly enough legwork to deconstruct this harmful trope. Idc if he says outside of canon that Dornish morality towards sex is misrepresented. He doesnt do enough in the actual books to dispel this myth (and we know he can given how he humanized the free folk). So you end up with fandom takes like "all dornish people are horny and polygamous and Elia was actually looking forward to her Rhaegar and Lyanna being the hottest new throuple in westeros".

2. People's inability to have a female character who is supposed to be a 'good person' go even slightly against a 'good male character'. Elia/Ashara are "good" women unlike evil bad Catelyn who doesnt like her husband humiliating her. Therefore Elia and Ashara who were sexy dornish people and good women unlike Catelyn would have been ok with raising their husbands illegitimate kids!

3. People not considering the context of the setting. Illegitimate children arent only personally humiliating for women theyre possibly a threat to any legitimate children she may have. Now if Ned had done the normal thing and had Jon fosterted elsewhere i doubt Catelyn would have cared (AS SHE STATES IN THE TEXT), but Ned's insistence on Jon staying at Winterfell with him, combined with Ned's secrecy over his mother probably had Catelyn worrying. Inheritence laws arent set in stone around Westeros (as we see in House of the Dragon, and in the succession crisis after Cregan Stark's death) and if Ned openly prefers his illegitimate son to his legitimate children shes got a big problem. It probably moved from a more political embarassment/worry for Catelyn to personal hurt as she fell in love with Ned which is why when we see her in the series the concerns seem to have mixed together.

I'll note the context is totally different around the illegitimate children women have. Try to argue that Catelyn should have been able to have an illegitimate child and force Ned into staying in the same house as them and people would be shitting and crying and throwing up and foaming at the mouth.

tl;dr misogyny - women dont get to care that their husbands have illegitimate children becuase only men can do that. Also racism - brown people are sexually deviant temptors there for our amusement.

oh ALSO if youre one of those freaks who act like 14th century clergymen and actually try to argue that children born out of wedlock are inherently bad get the hell off my post

[mkartzdraws]

I just finished reading All Tomorrows, and I love this book! It’s speculative science fiction on the subject of how humans might evolve once we go to space. It got me thinking about the way I ‘cutesy-fy’ human anatomy in my art, so I wanted to draw a cute version of these species.

In order, these are the Temptors, the Snake People (sneeple if you will), the Gravital, the Lopsiders, and the Qu. 

Which is your favorite? I love the Temptors the most!

[gothamcityneedsme]

i really love that smtv has different types of nahobino pairs--there is male demon + male human, female demon + male human, and male demon + female human. only female demon + female human is missing (and it might not be--i dont know what is going on with Tao yet).

Anyways with the whole "you and i are two halves of a whole" thing i just appreciate there being no limiting rate

[irreversiblezookeeper]

Female Temptor: bring the beat in!

Male Temptor, carrying beets: anything for you Beyonce

[monika-396]

I love how we all in the All Tomorrows fandom mutually agree that the Qu are little bitches for tortured the star people with centuries of genetic manipulation just because they liked to play god

I mean look at these poor guys! Look what they done to them

Worm people: put in a scalding hot world to live undergroud, had their eyes reduced to pinpricks, arms and legs reduced to flabby limbs and lost most of their brains. No thoughts head empty just dig and eat folks, dig and eat. And make babies

Titans: hands turned into useless stumps that really only served as feet, their lower lip stretched to became an elephant-like trumk. Managed to evolve back into sentience. Could have evolved even more and be part of the 2nd galactic era if not for ice age that kill them all

Predators and Preys: Both humans, one made to look like a twisted mix of a vampire, a demon and a werewolf. The other no thoughts head empty, just eat plant, literally made to be eaten

Mantelopes: major proof the Qu are bitches, these poor boys were made to retain memories and fully human minds, they knew damn well what happen to them but had no power to change anything. Spend centuries mourning their lost humanity and singing their despair, generation after generation, until evolution did it's job and their sentience faded away

Lizard Herders: had their inteligence wiped out and their brain stunted up so they could never evolve back to sentience. The ultimate no thoughts head empty in All Tomortows but in the saddest way possible, stayed simple minded while the lizard they herd (hence the name) evolved and became the smart ones, to the point were they used their humans as labor, transport and food

Swimers: the only survivors of the humans twisted into aquatic creatures that didn't die after the Qu left. The only human-looking trace on them being their eyes and their speech, but they couldn't hear each other underwater

Temptors: holy shit did the Qu fucked these ones up! The females being basically a huge flesh-made plant that couldn't move on their own and had these little holes linked to them in which the males (another no thoughts head empty, now is just serve the queen boys) that looked like little imp guys would crawl into for breeding.....yeah. Could had evolved some sentience if not for a comet obliterating them

Bone Crushers: straight up monster looking, huge beaks (that looked more like a huge bolder lodged inside their mouths), only ate rotten meat, COMMUNICATED BY LITERALING SHITTING ON EACH OTHER. Honestly is a surprise they manage to survive long enough to reach a medival-leveled society just then they run out of food went extinct

Colonials: these guys. We all feel more sorry for them than the mantelopes (even more than the bug facers and the pterosapiens together). Once upon a time a colony of star people manage to win to Qu atacks but lost the 3rd one and as punishment (because how DARE them try to resists being forcefully genetically modified against their will? They should be GRATEFUL to the Qu for picking them, am I right), by being turned into blocks of flesh made to filter the Qu's waste and still had their eyes and consciousness. They suffed for 4O MILLION YEARS hopping only for their own extinction, specially after the Qu left. Only for them to spread across their planets ground in "quilt-like fields of human flesh"

Flyers: these guys didn't had it so bad. They had starfish-shaped hearts that were so efficient they could fly

Hand-flappers: these guys tho? Big ass oof. Their wings were useless to fly but were just a useless as hands. Only flapped around in mating dances until they all died

Blink Folk: once humans that try to hide from the Qu underground, they were made into albino subterranean mole-looking (the book describes them as "mousy" but they look more like moles to me) folks with huge ears, long whiskers and fingers, and NO EYES, no they only had "haunting smooth skin" were they should be (yes is a creepy as sounds like). They also had banshee-like screams and were crushed by the tectonic plates moviment before evolution could do anything for them

Lopsiders: okay, the Qu had a bit of an excuse for these ones, since their planet had extremely high gravity... but still! They were turned into a fleshy pancake that looked like a mix of a flounder fish and a soft shell turtle! Still somehow managed to domesticate native creatures and start a civilisation. Too bad they were exterminated by their own engineered subspecies (the asymetrical folk) after they explored other worlds a realized their own sucked balls and they couldn't care less about their creators

Striders: basically the polar opposite of the lopsiders, they lived in a low gravity moon and were very tall and thin (enormously, like the book says, towering like skyscrapers), but they were very delicate, to the point were just tripping could cause several broken bones and falling from a tree was fatal. They were wiped out by chickens that had evolved into deadly predators (reverse dino evolution go brrr)

Parasites: another bunch of humans that managed to resist for a while and the Qu, being the self centred bitches they were once again punished them, this time by making several parasites that were also humans. From tortoise-sized vampire-like parasites, smaller host-attached ones, and even parasites that infested their victims wombs (these went extinct soon due to their hosts dying from under-population and reproduction problems)

Fingers Fishes: I guess one could say they were one of the species that suffered the less alongside the flyers and the hedonists? They evolved in a world of "calm shallow oceans sprinkled with countless islands". They had long fingers with hook-like claws adapted for catching fish and long snouts with needle-sharp teeth

Hedonists: the second ultimate no thoughts head empty of All tomorrows, made to be the Qu pets. Were all pampered and had no worries but to have pleasure-filled lives and bang each other endlessly (that was because their females could only get pregnant after mating several times over the tears, to avoid overpopulation). Is honestly surprising they manage to survive and evolve after the Qu left

Insectophagi: had claw like fingers and long tongues to dig and eat bugs. Luckly they didn't suffer that much....yet (their evolved descendants tho? Big oof 2 eletric boogaloo)

Ruin Haunters: much like other species twisted by Qu, but the old cities of the star people in their world weren't completly destoyed. They had acess to their technology and advanced way to fast for their own good, making everything escalated into 5 WORLD WARS of which 2 were nuclear! They went insane due to radiation and the colective trauma and I personally believe the Qu did that on purpose! They left part of the star people's technology intact just to see what would happen when their luttle twisted creation stumble upon it.

Why do I believe that? BECAUSE THE QU ARE JUST THAT ILL MINDED THAT'S WHY

[cuppykin]

I am just imagining this big massive walking pile of flesh and beaks that is the female temptors when you described your idea

WELL it definitely wouldn’t be walking, it would be very much stuck into the ground, but all it’s limbs grow and stretch out into branch-like works and they can grow INCREDIBLY large, so as civilization grows, there are cities built around them and under them with the purpose of constantly caring for their gigantic Yggdrasil-like queen

[gongedtornado]

painted and rendered a female temptor from All Tomorrows … love these things.

[saintwilllem]

The current big hit in my books is Witch’s Court airing on Monday and Tuesday on KBS2.  This show isn’t for the light hearted. It’s a deep delve into sex crimes of all kinds and it isn’t a easy ride by an measure of the word, don’t think of Law and Order because you're not getting a Benson like character in the way you’d think. So here we go but please   BE WARNED THERE WILL BE SOME SPOILERS & this grew out of my conversations with @banghae and will reference some of our conversations on the show. So go check out their amazing blog. 

Firstly this show is all  from the perspective of two lawyers in which the old archetype of the overly considerate female character and the suave callous male character is actually flipped. Ma Yi - Deum played by a magnificent Jung Ryeo - Won,  is a tough no nonsense type of a girl, and on first meeting her you see her as a child carrying the stigma of not having a father with jealousy as fathers are present  at her school for a show and tell on their careers. She  get’s mad at her mother who tells her and a friend that at least they have mother’s and / or grandmother’s to take care of them, yet soon her mother’s attention is diverted by a man being set free, after being convicted of sex crimes . 

She’s aghast and decides to go meet a lawyer to tell her side of the story. Yet what happens is that she never returns home, and a young  Yi-Deum is left all on her own breaking that one promise of a family she had from her mother.  She does try to find her mother but all her tries come out to nothing, there is no help for her, there is no chance for her to get. So out of that we get current Yi-Deum ----- a prosecutor who has been assigned to a division that deals with sex crimes.   

Now what is interesting is that in meeting her now  you see a full circle in the sense that her mother went out to speak out against a horrific sex crime but was silenced, while Yi-Deum has the voice and full ability to help those who have been affected by such crimes.  Yet in this what we see in Yi - Deum is  a completely shut down of her emotional side. She is more interested in seeing the guilty behind bars no matter the circumstance, and she interested in seeing them face the most extreme of punishments.  She is fully devoted to the idea of  SAVING THE MANY OVER THE FEW.  You probably couldn’t get yourself to stand by the principle at first and you probably call her a bitch on that but you need to understand that she’s doing good in a way we’d probably forgive any male character for, but we tend to want our female character to behave in a way that keeps them tied to the same old tropes that disallow them to be human. or react to their issues in any way we’d consider unfeminine.

Yet even more on that topic Yi- Deum isn’t just interesting on the fact that she’s an inverse of most female characters there a  great way in which she evolves, you see her go through changes and understandings that don’t strip of her power but make her more powerful thourgh that understanding. 

 She’s traumatized by losing her mother and the abuses that came after that, she’s untrusting and is even called out on her behavior by the head of the sex crime unit, she’s asked if she was using this platform to get ahead in her career and she is and she isn’t. She wants the power but she does want to make a difference at the same time.

In episode  there is a case which involves a man who is accused of raping his teacher, and you find out he’s gay when they interview an associate of the man’s, and you see her choking at the idea of two men together but you need to understand the place she comes from. She didn’t grow up in an affluent household were liberal thought or ideas were shared, we can probably guess that  that her mother wasn’t that well educated so in turn Yi- Deum has become extra extravagant and haughty to make up for her the circumstance she grew up on, and the fact that she may believe that her mother’s kindness is what took her away.

Now how this case plays out is that it leads to the man who is accused being outed, because of Yi-Deum  tricking the opposing side with information on his orientation that would allow her to use a recording to happened off the male student being raped instead of the teacher as was thought/ And now i   It is clear that now the man’s life is quite ruined and he will always be thought of as the little gay man who was raped, as we so often make jokes about homosexuality and men being raped or assaulted every where .  So there is a right to be angry at her, a right to see her as callous but you also have to see the lives she did save, and the truth of the matter is as someone who is a prosecutor but also a person who works predominantly in sex crimes you're in a caged fight with yourself because your goal is always put the guilty away but do you have to deal with the extra feelings and issues that take you off the path on the person is so willing and easily able take a part of you away with such greed?? this no MEANS A JUSTIFICATION OF WHAT’S SHE’S DONE but an importance to not judge by a single means because everything we do as human beings have a thousand different ramifications, that are both good and bad. To understand her, and judge her bad without deciding her the villain of the show for she isn’t just because there is a bigger bad in the show, but you have to make mistakes to grow as a person and you can’t in reality go without hurting someone as your likes and dislike will not always mix with others, as well as your upbringing. all you can hope for and see is her as an evolving person coming to more understanding as she is educated by new people every day.

Another important thing to remember is that humans we aren’t able to connect and show an abundance of  concern or care for something that we haven’t experienced ourself, and that  is why the fact that she’s in a later episode spied on in her bathroom through cameras that you see  understands the sex crime unit better, because before that she’s thought of herself as someone beyond the touch of sexual abuse ---- overly clever and able to get whatever she needs to be higher up in status. she’s brought down but in more understanding way then with shame because she decides to put on red lipstick as armour and go to war. A fact that extentuates her beauty and will draw people toward her and allow her to get back on the track she needs to ensure she can achieve her final goal of understand what’s happened to her mother and never be walked over again.

The two most important dynamics Yi-Deum has currently are YEn Jin- Wook, and Jo Gab- Soo.  Jin Wook who I will introduce to you more in part two is her counterpart in every way.  her co lawyer, he is everything she is not. where she is callous or stand-offish he is overly kind, and generous, where she is the center of attention he is the support that allows her to fully achieve it.  I had asked @banghae if she thought Yi-Deum if she had an aversion to  men, but in rethinking it I think she has or had an aversion ( I haven’t seen the sixth episode yet,) to what he represents.  What I mean by that is that she see’s his kindness as something that can be taken advantage of and also something that will unravel her steel clad personality and make her extremely vulnerable. 

Whereas Gab- Soo the man her mother saw on the television that night before she disappeared  is interested in pulling her until her worst qualities take hold. He the villain the temptor, think him the snake of eden making eve the scapegoat. 

So in the first 5 episodes we’ve gotten a female lead that is extremely interesting, and complex. i can’t wait to see what else is in store for her.  The next part is going to be my take on Ji- Wook, our sweet and generous co-lawyer. 

[doomonfilm]

Thoughts : Lady Macbeth (2016)

I’m a sucker for Hollywood films, and I have a deep affinity for the French New Wave, Italian Neo-Realism, and all of the other important foreign movements a so-called ‘film buff’ should be familiar with.  I’d be lying, though, if I didn’t admit that I’ve got a deep down love for a good old-fashioned British drama.  There’s so many to choose from, but a recent recommendation caught my attention : the 2016 film Lady Macbeth. 

Katherine Lester (Florence Pugh) finds herself wed to Alexander Lester (Paul Hilton) in a marriage that resembles ownership of property more so than a declaration of love.  The couple lives on the estate of Boris Lester (Christopher Fairbank), Alexander’s father, and the Lester men keep Katherine under their system of control via intimidation tactics and keeping her within the confines of the home.  Katherine finds temporary freedom for a spell when both men leave the estate to tend to separate business matters.  Katherine is content at first with experiencing freedom she’d not recently had, but things change when she comes to the aid of her servant Anna (Naomi Ackie), who she finds being accosted by a group of men who work the land.  One of the men, Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis), asserts himself, which sparks mutual arousal between Katherine and Sebastian.  With a newly discovered self-awareness emboldening her, Katherine sets about changing the power dynamic within the Lester household in a bold, shocking manner.

Lady Macbeth is a surprisingly shocking look at power dynamics and manipulation of the caste system.  Katherine’s motivations for her drastic actions are understandable based on her dire situation, yet it does not totally absolve her of her almost black widow-esque nature.  What begins as a game of push and pull between her and Sebastian quickly turns into a puppetmaster and puppet scenario that leaves a significant body count in its wake.  Katherine fights power battles with multiple men in the film, and a battle of moral will with Anna, and in the end it’s odd that we find ourselves siding with her despite her cold, methodical and ultimately heartless nature.

The decisions that are made to cover up previous bad decisions is like an incredibly morbid set of dominos that gains too much speed to stop.  No one person is to blame, as some of the struggles are rooted in systematic male / female struggles, and some over class, but all end up with nobody deeply involved able to take moral high ground, as everyone involved is equally guilty.  Alexander is guilty of taking advantage of the times, Boris guilty of rule by force rather than understanding, Sebastion guilty of temptation, Anna guilty of silent judgement, and Katherine guilty of following her indulgence at the cost of others.

The film itself is a beautiful one, with its lighting and textures resembling paintings that the characters are allowed to move through.  The dress is period accurate without being too flashy, immersing us in the reality of the time and circumstances.  The cinematographer smartly gives us intuitive clues into Katherine’s mind state via choices to shoot either fixed or handheld.  The pacing and cutting is measured, allowing us to feel the tension of the bold and dangerous choices the characters commit to.

Florence Pugh is a quiet force of nature on the screen, like a storm in the distance that overtakes you before you can prepare.  Cosmo Jarvis plays temptor turned victim quite convincingly, winning our pity for his poor decision making.  Naomi Ackie is chameleon-like, switching her character’s persona midway to great effect.  Christopher Fairbank imparts his will with old style ‘dignity’ in glorious fashion.  Paul Hilton seems to pull from a real well of resentment in his portrayal of a son in a frustrating position.  Golda Rosheuvel stirs the pot masterfully as an unknowing annoyance.  Anton Palmer brings a ray of hope into the bleakest of settings.

My curiosity for this film was definitely paid off beyond my expectations.  It reminded me of films like Gosford Park and Atonement, but with a much deeper sense of danger behind its pretty framing.  Definitely a film that could potentially gain more attention as the years go by.