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muzaktomyears · 7 months ago

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In 1980 Peter Brown, a former assistant to Brian Epstein who later ran Apple Corps, managed the Beatles and was best man at John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s wedding, started work on the definitive account of the Beatles. With the American author Steven Gaines, he spoke to the three surviving band members alongside wives, girlfriends, managers, friends, hangers-on and everyone else in the Fabs’ universe. The book promised to be the last word in Beatles history. Then in 1983 The Love You Make was published, and all hell broke loose.

“They were furious,” recalls Gaines, 78, still sounding pained at the memory. “Paul and Linda tore the book apart and burned it in the fireplace, page by page. There was an omerta, a code of silence around the Beatles, and they didn’t think anyone would come forward to tell the truth. But Queenie, Brian Epstein’s mother, told us above all else to be honest.”

“Even she didn’t think we would be quite so honest,” adds Brown, 87, his upper-crust English tones still in place after five decades in New York.

Why did The Love You Make, retitled by Beatles fans as The Muck You Rake, incite such strong feelings? The suggestion of an affair between Lennon and Epstein on a holiday to Barcelona in April 1963, only three weeks after the birth of Lennon’s son Julian, had something to do with it, but more significantly it was taken as a betrayal by a trusted insider. Brown and Gaines locked the recordings in a bank vault and never looked at them again — until now.

“Very good question,” Brown says, when I ask why he and Gaines have decided to publish All You Need Is Love, an oral history made up of the interview transcripts from which The Love You Make was drawn. He is speaking from the Manhattan apartment on Central Park West where he has lived since 1971. “When [Peter Jackson’s documentary] Get Back came out, a journalist from The New York Times wanted me to talk. I told him I hadn’t talked about the Beatles since the book was published and suggested he go to someone else. He said, ‘There isn’t anyone else. Paul, Ringo and you are the only ones left.’ And I thought, do I have a responsibility to clear it all up, once and for all?”

After the death of Epstein in 1967, Brown assumed the day-to-day responsibilities of managing the Beatles and Apple Corps. He had on his desk a red telephone whose number was known only to the four Beatles. Unsurprisingly, given his insider status, the interviews make for fascinating reading. Paul McCartney, yet to be asked the same questions about the Beatles thousands of times over, is remarkably unguarded. Asked by Gaines if the other Beatles were anti-Linda, he replies: “I should think so. Like we were anti-Yoko.” On the image the Fabs had for being good boys on tour, he says, “You are kidding,” before going on to reference a notorious incident involving members of Led Zeppelin, a groupie and a mud shark, concluding: “No, not in the least bit celibate. We just didn’t do it with fish.”

Ono, speaking in the spring of 1981, not long after Lennon was killed in December 1980, reveals that she didn’t sleep with Lennon for the first two years of their relationship — “John didn’t know how to make a move” — and claims that she was blamed by the Beatles camp, George Harrison in particular, for getting Lennon onto heroin in 1969. “Everything we did in those days, anything that was wrong, was my responsibility,” she tells Gaines. But everyone, from the Beatles’ notorious late-period manager Allen Klein to the Greek electronics wizard/hustler “Magic” Alex Mardas — “the Mordred of the Beatles’ Camelot” according to Brown — has their own version of events.

Going through the transcripts reminded Gaines of the long shadow cast by Lennon. “I didn’t realise how sensitive the other Beatles were to John’s opinion,” he says, speaking from his home in the Hamptons, Long Island. “Paul worried about what John would say [in the event Lennon died before being interviewed] and was still longing for his friendship. George said that John didn’t read his autobiography because it was called I, Me, Mine. Those interviews were done before John’s death and Paul’s heart was broken, even then. It wasn’t just the break-up of the Beatles. It was more personal than that.”

From around 1968, the transcripts reveal how the key Beatles duo started to come apart. McCartney’s enthusiasm was only getting stronger. But Lennon grew increasingly bored and disillusioned. “You have to remember that John wasn’t in love with his wife Cynthia,” Gaines says by way of explanation. “He wanted to get away from the life he was leading and that’s why he started to experiment with drugs, all the way up to heroin.”

Brown says Ono was, and probably still is, a distant, mysterious character, exactly the kind of person Lennon was looking for, having done the right thing and married the sensible, quiet Cynthia after she discovered she was pregnant with Julian in 1963. “John told me about meeting this woman, and how frustrated he was that he couldn’t get to know her better; he couldn’t take her to lunch because it would cause gossip. I gave him the key to my apartment so he and Yoko could be together in private and thought, naturally, they were going there to f***. When I went home that evening, the apartment was untouched. They did nothing more than sit on the sofa and talk. That’s what they wanted: to know each other.”

Regarding the long-held, unfair suggestion that Ono broke up the Beatles, Gaines says: “Yoko came along at the right moment to light the fuse, but the dynamite was already packed. They resented her, she was difficult to understand and had a deep effect on John, but they were getting more and more unhappy with each other and needed to have their own lives. As people in the interviews say again and again, [the split] was bound to happen.”

It was Brown who in May 1968 introduced McCartney to Linda Eastman, an ambitious young American photographer whom he knew from his business trips to New York, when she came to London on an assignment to shoot the Rolling Stones. “I was having dinner with Paul at the Bag O’ Nails [a club in Soho] when she turned up, so I introduced them and he was obviously taken with her,” Brown recalls. “The following Friday, May 19, we were holding a party for 12 top photographers at Brian Epstein’s house in London when she walked in. Paul says I didn’t introduce him to his wife … but I did.”

If the book has a villain it is Klein, the New York accountant who took over management of the Beatles and sacked everyone around them, much to McCartney’s horror. As Brown puts it: “He was a hideous person. He even looked like a crook: sloppy and fat, always wearing sneakers and sweatshirts. Everything he didn’t like was ‘for shit’.”

You wonder why Lennon fell for him. “The interviews suggest it is because Allen Klein offered Yoko a million dollars for her movie project,” Gaines says. “She was enticed and John would do anything Yoko said.”

“I asked Mick Jagger to come over and explain to the four Beatles who this Allen Klein was,” Brown remembers. “And John, in his wonderful way, had Klein turn up to the same meeting, which was deeply embarrassing. It made Mick very uncomfortable too.”

Epstein, the man who saw the Beatles’ potential in the first place, is a central figure in All You Need Is Love. It includes a transcript of a recording of him from 1966, not used for the original book. It was in the possession of Epstein’s attorney Nat Weiss, and seemingly made by Epstein to mark the end of the Beatles’ final tour. He claims not only that Lennon felt remorse for the infamous comment on the Beatles being bigger than Jesus — “What upset John more than anything else was that hundreds of people were hurt by that” — but that the Beatles would tour once more. “There’s no reason why they shouldn’t appear in public again,” Epstein claims. They never did, unless you count that rooftop performance on January 30, 1969.

“Brian was driving them around the north of England in his car for a year,” Brown remembers of the early days. “This Jewish guy from Liverpool, who was gay, was with these guys who had been hanging around in Hamburg, so both had interesting backgrounds. They understood each other.”

For Gaines, a self-described “gay Jewish boy from Brooklyn”, Epstein is at the heart of the story. “Brian never felt the love of a real relationship. Then he found the Beatles. Everyone thought it would be just another of his phases, but he had tremendous feelings for John, both sexual and intellectual, and that’s what really pushed him. If there was one thing that started the whole thing off, it was Brian’s love for John Lennon.”

That love affair was the contentious issue of the original book. In his interview, McCartney says of Lennon going to Spain with Epstein: “What was John doing, manipulating this manager of ours? Sucking up to him, going on holiday, becoming his special friend.” It wasn’t the suggestion of a homosexual relationship that was troubling McCartney, but the balance of power tilting in Lennon’s direction.

“Paul wanted to be in charge, and he deserved to be because he was the motor, the driving force,” Gaines says. “Paul felt that John would steal away the power. He felt threatened by John’s relationship with Brian.”

“Paul always wanted to be active,” Brown adds. “After Brian’s death the world had to be carried on. Who was going to do that? It wasn’t going to be John, George or Ringo. Brian was my best friend and I was very upset [at his death]. I had to go to the court to convince the magistrate that it wasn’t a suicide, and the following day Paul set up a meeting so we could discuss what we would do next. I said we’d do it next week, and he said, ‘No, it has to be now.’ He was right.”

How did Brown and Gaines feel about the horrified reaction to the book, not just from fans but the Beatles themselves? “The world has changed,” Gaines says, by way of answer. “Now, after all these years, hopefully people can see it as a truthful, loving and gentle book.” It has been decades since Brown spoke to the surviving Beatles and he has not contacted them about this new publication.

What the interviews really capture in eye-opening detail is the story of four young men who became a phenomenon, then had to deal with the fallout as the dream ended. On December 31, 1970, the day McCartney sued the other three to dissolve the partnership, Brown handed in his resignation as the Beatles’ day-to-day manager and officer of Apple Corps. Ringo Starr said to him: “You didn’t want to be a nursemaid any more, and half the time the babies wouldn’t listen to you anyway.” Brown moved to New York and became chief executive officer of the Robert Stigwood Organisation. But the Beatles never fully left him, and in the wake of Get Back — and the news that Sam Mendes is to direct four biopics, one on each Beatle — he decided he had one last job.

“We have finished our responsibilities,” Brown says with quiet authority. “It is the end of the story.”

EXTRACTS

‘It’s like bloody Julius Caesar, and I’m being stabbed in the back!’

Paul McCartney on the Beatles signing Allen Klein as manager against his wishes

[John Lennon] said, “I’m going with [Allen] Klein, what do you want to do about it?” and I kind of said, “I don’t think I will, that’s my roll.” Then George and Ringo said, “Yeah, we’ll go with John.” Which was their roll. But that was pretty much how it always ended up, the three of them wanted to do stuff, and I was always the fly in the ointment, I was always the one dragging his heels. John used to accuse me of stalling. In fact, there was one classic little meeting when we were recording Abbey Road. It was a Friday evening session, and I was sitting there, and I’d heard a rumour from Neil [Aspinall, road manager] or someone that there was something funny going around. So we got to the session, and Klein came in. To me, he was like a sort of demon that would always haunt my dreams. He got to me. Really, it was like I’d been dreaming of him as a dentist. Anyway, so at this meeting, everyone said, “You’re going to stall for ever now, we know you, you don’t even want to do it on Monday.” And I said, “Well, so what? It’s not a big deal, it’s our prerogative and it could wait a few more days.” They said, “Oh no, typical of you, all that stalling and what. Got to do it now.” I said, “Well, I’m not going to. I demand at least the weekend. I’ll look at it, and on Monday. This is supposed to be a recording session, after all.” I dug me heels in, and they said, “Right, well, we’re going to vote it.” I said, “No, you’ll never get Ringo to.” I looked at Ringo, and he kind of gave me this sick look like, yeah, I’m going with them. Then I said, “Well, this is like bloody Julius Caesar, and I’m being stabbed in the back!”

‘You don’t like to see a chick in the middle of the team’

Paul McCartney on Yoko Ono

Give Yoko a lot . . . that was basically what John and Yoko wanted, recognition for Yoko. We found her sitting on our amps, and like a football team, an all-male thing, you really don’t like to see a chick in the middle of the team. It’s a disturbing thing, they think it throws them off the game or whatever it was, and these were the reasons that I thought, well, this is crazy, we’re gonna have Yoko in the group next. Looking at it now, I feel a bit sorry for her because, if only I had been able to understand what the situation was and think, wait a minute, here’s a girl who’s not had enough attention. I can now not make this into a major crisis and just sort of say, “Sure, what harm is she doing on the amps?” I know they would have really loved me. You know, we didn’t like Yoko at first, and people did call her ugly and stuff, and that must be hard for someone who loves someone and is so passionately in love with them, but I still can’t — I’m still trying to see his point of view. What was the point of all that? They’re very suspicious people [Lennon and Ono], and one of the things that hurt me out of the whole affair, was that we’d come all that way together, and out of either a fault in my character, or out of lack of understanding in their character, I’d still never managed to impress upon them that I wasn’t trying to screw them. I don’t think that I have to this day.

How Cynthia Lennon was driven to drink — at an ashram

Alexis ‘Magic Alex’ Mardas on Ono’s love letters to Lennon

Alexis Mardas was also known as Magic Alex, a name John bestowed on him because he was so taken with Alex’s inventions. Alex was handsome, charming, and a charlatan. (He sued The [New York] Times in Britain for calling him a charlatan and settled out of court. He’s dead now.)

[The Maharishi] was fooling around with several American girls. The Maharishi was making all of us eat vegetarian food, very poorly cooked, but he was eating chicken. No alcohol was allowed in the camp. I had to smuggle alcohol in because Cynthia wanted to drink. Cynthia was very depressed. John was receiving letters from Yoko Ono. Yoko was planning to win John. She was writing very poetic and very romantic letters. I remember those letters because John was coming to me with the letters, and Yoko was saying to John that “I’m a cloud in the sky, and, when you read this letter, turn your head and look in the sky, and if you see a small cloud, this is Yoko. Away from you but watching you.” Poor Cynthia was prepared to do absolutely everything to win John. She was not even allowed to visit the house where John was staying. She was longing for a drink. Now, drinks, they were strictly prohibited in the ashram, but when it was discovered that Maharishi had a drink, I said, “Just a second, at least equal.”

‘He’s become so nasty’

George Harrison on reaching out to John Lennon

What’s wrong with John, he’s become so nasty. It sounds like he hasn’t moved an inch from where he was five or six years ago. I sent Ringo, John, and Paul all a copy of my book. I got a call from Paul. He called me up just to say how much he liked it. I shouldn’t have called it I Me Mine, because that title was a bit much. I sent a copy to John. I’m wondering if he’s actually received it, if he’s received it, he probably doesn’t like it or something offends him about it.

‘I told John that ... it was just a nice feeling’

Yoko Ono advising John Lennon how to take heroin

George said I put John on H, and it wasn’t true at all. I mean, John wouldn’t take anything unless he wanted to do it. When I went to Paris [before I met John], I just had a sniff of it and it was a beautiful feeling. Because the amount was small, I didn’t even get sick. It was just a nice feeling. So I told John that. When you take it properly — properly is not the right word — but when you really snort it, then you get sick right away if you’re not used to it. So I think maybe because I said it wasn’t a bad experience, maybe that had something to do with it, I don’t know. But I mean so, he kept saying, “Tell me how it was?” Why was he asking? That was sort of a preliminary because he wanted to take it, that’s why he was asking. And that’s how we did it. We never injected. Never.

‘It was time’

Ringo Starr on the end of the Beatles

Ringo Starr: Well, I’m pleased it happened because in so many ways, I’m glad it’s not going now. It was time. Things last only so long. Steven Gaines: The Rolling Stones are [still] going. Ringo Starr: Yeah, but they’re old men.

(source)

#the beatles #here we go

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the-pen-pot · 2 months ago

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Fangirling on chapter 40

'Mercy?' Lord Berhart managed, sounding strained. 'Your Highness, you have left him with nothing.'

'I have left him with his life. It is more than my father would have offered in my place, considering the nature of Vernell's crimes.'

I can totally get that, even without seeing the whole show (I did see some snippets of Uther and recognised Giles from Buffy, the vampire slayer, that was a nice surprise.)

'Tom's still alive?'

Arthur inclined his head, aware that more than one councillor had taken notice of their conversation. He smoothed his face into an impassive mask and noticed that Merlin had done the same, erasing his shock. It itched at him, all the little differences they kept stumbling across. He wanted to find out what had happened to Tom in Merlin's world, just like he longed to hear about the scars that no longer stained Merlin's skin and the stories behind them.

It was not an idle curiosity, but a burning desire to understand more about this version of Merlin. The intensity of Arthur's own longing almost took his breath away. He wished to know him – everything that made him different and all the little ways in which he was still the same – but once again he told himself that now was not the time.

You know, it must be super fun for fans of the show to notice all the little (or/and big) changes in this story and this version of Camelot. It probably gives it an extra layer of meaning and in some instances delight or agony.... I am coming in rather blind (apart from the 'how long have you being training to be prat, my Lord', I haven't seen a lot more beyond that. I do know what the main characters look like and I also know that Morgana turned evil in the series. (She's that stunning actress Katie McGrath! 😍) But for me it's a whole new world and a whole new story and I'm really enjoying it!

'Would you then like to explain how you made a large sum of money selling grain across the border to Mercia?' Morgana arched an eyebrow as he spluttered. 'No? Then maybe you can tell the council why there is no evidence of a fire, nor any recorded births whatsoever among your working populace in the past five years?'

Arthur settled back in his seat as the Lord rambled through long-winded, meaningless excuses. Morgana's expression did not falter, but she emanated an air of icy disdain until Fennis' voice dried up like a stream in summer.

'Yours is not the only estate with inconsistencies,' she added at last, picking up the sheaf of papers and placing them in front of Arthur. 'Obviously, this is a matter requiring urgent investigation. For the sake of Camelot.'

OH! Morgana is so damn good! She is not taking any prisoners for sure! Those Lord's their lives will totally change for sure and they can all feel it now! I bet some of them won't sleep well from now on... Oh, being called out on their greed! I love it!

That's what I like about your stories, they are 'fully filled' stories. As in, it's not just about the main pair, it's not just about the romance or the leading up to the first kiss... It's about Everything in that world and with the people inside it.

'Neither your mother nor I truly knew the price, but it was not I alone who approached Nimueh for help. Your mother... She wanted to do her duty – to provide Camelot with an heir. It drove her every waking moment, and I could not deny her. When you finally flourished inside her, she was the happiest I had ever seen.'

As if, I don't believe him for one moment. From what I've read in the story so far he is the kind of man who totally knew what would happen and decided to do it anyway. 😡

He sucked in a deep breath, leaning forward to brace his hand on the back of Uther's chair. His position was awkward, but he did not care. He needed to look into those eyes and see realisation's dawn. 'Besides, if you knew you would lose your beloved queen to your quest for an heir, would you have stayed your hand, or would your ambition have outweighed your love for her?'

'How dare you!'

'Was I worth it, or not?'

Oh no, that must be one of the worst pains out there... knowing your parents don't think you are worthy, knowing they don't love you unconditionally, knowing you dissapoint them on an almost daily basis. Thank god Arthur as a close group of friends to counter all that poison.

'All right.' He glanced around the forge, taking in the frightened faces. 'Everyone out. We don't know what will happen. It could still go wrong, and if it does...' He didn't finish. They understood, but that didn't mean anyone was happy about it.

I love how they all would jump into the fire for each other and how they all worry so deeply for one another. Even over the smallest cut or bruise. Sometimes it's a bit funny, how they can 'overreact', specially Arthur and Merlin about each other. But at the same time it's precious and amazing and just warms my heart.

Oh wow, the ending of this chapter. I don't want to include the line because I don't want to spoiler it for future readers (alhought maybe I already did for some parts of the story?!) but I had no idea that was even possible?!

🤣 Knowing the same actor was Giles and Uther was a real experience. I adore Giles. uther? Not so much. And Katie McGrath is stunning!

I liek to think it's one of those fics where if you now the show, there's little easter eggs and things, but if you don't it's still enjoyable. You certainly seem to be loving it, which is brilliant 🥰

Thanks so much, as always, lovely!

(For those who want to try it out, Hiraeth is here)

#Q&A #Merlin #Merthur #Hiraeth

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 7 months ago

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SHREK 2, approaching its 20th anniversary, took in around $1.3 million this past weekend... In its first theatrical run since its original release.

I have a movie theater job, and I worked this past Friday. Spring break for many schools was this past week, and this week too. Those screenings on Friday at my cinema were often packed, and a lot of them were packed with kids. As in, kids who were born well after this movie originally hit theaters. And *after* SHREK FOREVER AFTER was released, at that.

Yeah, there's some multi-generational appeal there with SHREK and SHREK 2.

Some animation fans jeered at the SHREK movies back in the day, feeling that their early 2000s attitude and pop culture references-aplenty scripts would date them, ditto their art direction and design... But no, nostalgia is very strong, especially when it's passed down. These movies appeal to little kids today. The second PUSS IN BOOTS movie being more recent also helps.

It goes to show that at the end of the day, the characters and what the movie does with them can make something a long-lasting flavor.

And I'm saying this, as someone who is not the biggest fan of those movies myself. As a kid, I did *love* SHREK and SHREK 2. I was the perfect age for them, you could argue - I was 8 1/2 when SHREK came out, 11 1/2 when SHREK 2 hit. I could probably quote whole sections of them verbatim. I know it's sacrilege to say these things, but to me, the SHREK movies are basically the animated equivalent of late '90s/early '00s live-action comedies that were usually made for adults, but in PG-rated form. Set in a fractured fairy tale world with ogres and talking donkeys and dragons and such. If not for those fantastical elements, these movies could've been some '00s live-action comedies with hot stars. They just have that vibe to them, right down to their contemporary soundtracks.

I don't see the first two SHREK movies as the high-water marks of the animation medium that they were sometimes made out to be by critics who didn't see animation as anything other than babysitter fluff. In addition to feeling that MONSTERS, INC. deserved the inaugural Best Animated Feature Oscar over this film, I also never bought that the first two SHREKs were these "revolutionary" "adult" alternatives to whatever Disney had out at the time. There's a roughly 2-second scene in Ralph Bakshi's X-rated FRITZ THE CAT - from 1972 - that's a way better satire of Disney than this movie is said to be, haha. I know at least one person who doesn't really like animation, but they will admit that they liked SHREK. That tells me a lot... SHREK was an animated movie that managed to appeal to just about everybody, including folks who would otherwise not bother with cartoons. It just has that zazz to it... Their core appeal, well specifically, SHREK 1 & 2, is undeniable. How many other relatively chill, less formal comedies like this did you see in mainstream feature animation at the time? It's not zany like, say, Disney's similarly irreverent buddy comedy THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE from five months earlier, nor is it like Pixar's clever, tightly-plotted movies.

The first SHREK movie hit a sweet spot with a lot of American audiences at the right time. Adult audiences who were burnt out on Disney's Renaissance formula being repeated for each movie after THE LION KING, and especially all the movies made at other studios following their lead. Like ANASTASIA and QUEST FOR CAMELOT. Even DreamWorks' own THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, for that matter. These big, grandiose musical pictures... Certain young film fans nowadays will say "those movies went SO HARD", but back in the late '90s/early '00s, the attitude towards them was "Okay, enough of that already." They were often called things like "politically correct", that era's version of "woke". Audiences wanted an animated film that they could just laugh and have a fun time with, without the moral messaged in a specific way.

Adults had also avoided the slew of edgy action-adventure animated movies aimed at a demographic that would never be there, films like DreamWorks' THE ROAD TO EL DORADO, along with Disney's ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE and Fox's TITAN A.E.

So you have this particular landscape of animated features, circa early 2001... Big grandiose family-friendly musicals that have become rather traditional, and these action-adventures for preteen boys that few were interested in seeing in theaters. Few exceptions are in-between, like THE IRON GIANT, but those were ignored because of other circumstances. IRON GIANT by all means should've been a small respectable success back in 1999 at the very least, if not a sleeper hit/blockbuster, but distributor Warner Bros. didn't believe in it. That's the animated movie landscape of early 2001... and then this chill comedy with dick jokes and a gross-out factor to it comes along... Right place, right time, planets aligned... One person put it this way: SHREK was an animated movie that "you could have a beer with."

And to think that SHREK was at one point shaping up to be a cursed, troubled production. Something that animators were punished with. An impending bomberoo, a film that was stopped and restarted, that lurched through a tumultuous 5-year journey...

Then the sequel went on to break records in the spring/summer of 2004, a high that the later films in the franchise couldn't rekindle.

SHREK THE THIRD certainly made a lot of money back in 2007, it was the highest-grossing animated movie of that calendar year, beating out the likes of THE SIMPSONS MOVIE and RATATOUILLE... but I don't remember it landing the way SHREK 2 did. I remember seeing it opening weekend with my dad, my good friend, and his family... and... largely forgetting about it afterwards! I was in high school at the time, and had mentioned one day that a fourth one was coming. This was around late 2007, by the time SHREK 3 was out of theaters and close to DVD release. (And HD-DVD as well, remember that?) One of my classmates responded, "Ugh, they're making another one?" A new SHREK movie wasn't as novel and fresh by then, and when SHREK FOREVER AFTER came out in the spring of 2010, I remember everyone being hyped about TOY STORY 3 - opening less than a month later... Not a word on the fourth green ogre movie. SHREK 4 still made plenty of dough though, it was bigger worldwide than here. Then DreamWorks pumped the breaks on the green ogre, as FOREVER AFTER was billed as "The Final Chapter".

It's interesting to note that DreamWorks' original plan was to make five SHREK movies, and PUSS IN BOOTS would be a direct-to-video movie with the subtitle THE STORY OF AN OGRE KILLER. The fifth SHREK movie would've been a prequel, interestingly enough. But over time, as PUSS IN BOOTS graduated to theatrical feature film and was given to SHREK 3 director Chris Miller, the plans slightly changed...

PUSS IN BOOTS had a rather blah opening in fall 2011, no doubt fueled by franchise fatigue and arriving just a little over a year after SHREK 4... but the cat legged it up something fierce. Because it was pretty good, and for some, a return to form after two lackluster SHREK sequels. It was right for the time, too. An old-school swashbuckling adventure for the family, featuring a fan favorite character from the SHREK sequels. I'm not sure a Donkey or Gingy spin-off would've landed the same way, lol. I remember the early 2010s being a time of more sincere animated movies, a country mile from the ironic early 2000s attitude of the first SHREK movie and all of its imitators. PUSS IN BOOTS Uno was more in line with those kinds of movies, and some of the classic-style adventure movies that DreamWorks had out at the time, like HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and the first two KUNG FU PANDA films. Their then-recent comedies, like MONSTERS VS. ALIENS and THE CROODS, leaned in a more cartoony and wacky direction. The early 2010s, to reiterate, were way different from the early 2000s in terms of animated movie output. What goes on in the world moves the needle as much as the pop culture does, indeed.

So then, some 11 years and at least one period in limbo later, PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH comes out. An exciting reinvention of the whole franchise, and arriving after a decade-long void where SHREK became something of a meme. Add in nostalgia, word-of-mouth, THE LAST WISH was a gradual trip back into the world of SHREK for many audiences. A big hit in the end, and a beloved movie. It's certainly my favorite movie in this series, for sure. I still find it neat how they didn't just do the safe thing and simply make a SHREK 5 after Comcast acquired them, no. They stuck to that long-gestating PUSS IN BOOTS sequel and saw it through first, as a sort-of lead in to new SHREK movies... And still did something amazing with it, when it could've just been another typical-style SHREK universe movie. It could've also been the movie that it was initially planned to be.

I have no doubt that SHREK PLEADS THE FIFTH, when it hits in a few years, probably makes a good run at highest-grossing animated movie of all-time. SHREK 2 was just that for six years. $919m back in 2004 - without 3D, IMAX, and other such premium formats - was **massive**. TOY STORY 3 took the crown thereafter, and held onto that for three years. SHREK 5's target to beat is the 2019 CG remake of THE LION KING, $1.6 billion. If you don't count that, FROZEN II with $1.4 billion.

I wonder if this re-release of SHREK 2 sparks Universal and DreamWorks to re-release other older films of theirs. Maybe even one that didn't do so hot back in the day? This year also happens to be SHARK TALE's 20th, and MONSTERS VS. ALIENS' 15th. 2014 saw the release of three movies: MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2, and PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR. 2019 saw the arrival of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD and ABOMINABLE.

Who knows...

I think they should re-release animated movies more often, no matter the studio. The SHREK 2 re-release opened wider than the three recent Pixar first-time ever theatrical runs of movies that went straight to Disney+, and people turned out for it. It also helps that the movie is that old, whereas those three Pixars aren't that old. SOUL, the oldest of that trio, came out Christmas 2020. Not even four years ago.

Now, if Disney re-released a Pixar film wide like - say - THE INCREDIBLES this year, I'd imagine it'd get *some* traction like this SHREK 2 re-release did. Or if Disney did the same to an animated feature like LILO & STITCH. Remember those 3D re-releases of various Disney Animation and Pixar films? THE LION KING did quite well in 2011, while everything else barely made half of that... But still quite a bit nonetheless. $40m+ for, say, FINDING NEMO in 2012 is something a new animated feature would fight for today.

Every year, my cinema does the Studio Ghibli fest. Most of the beloved movies... Ya know, little tiny unheard-of movies like SPIRITED AWAY and PRINCESS MONONOKE? Always sold out to the front row.

The original KUNG FU PANDA ran for a few weeks earlier this year in the lead-up to KUNG FU PANDA 4, and a few people showed up for those screenings.

Yeah... More re-release of animated movies, please. Plus, they're great to experience on the big screen again.

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burglarhobbit · 2 years ago

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Imagined’s 2022 Merlin Fic Masterlist

say you’ll still be by my side (28k) merlin/arthur, canon era, magic reveal, getting together

The druids call Merlin Emrys. Arthur isn't sure why they think his hapless manservant is some sort of powerful sorcerer, but it's certainly a good way to improve Camelot's relationship with the druids. It's only a little bit of a lie, surely.

Except it turns out that it's not a lie at all.

how I could love you (if I could let you stay) with scarlet_ribbons (54k) merlin/arthur, modern era, road trip, getting together

Lancelot and Gwen are getting married on the other side of the continent. Merlin is a reckless driver with a car that shouldn't be allowed on the road, and is the single most annoying person one could ever spend five days in a car with. He's also penniless, rude, secretive, has the broadest smile Arthur has ever seen on a person, and is a piano prodigy.

If only Arthur weren't afraid of flying.

after the storm (are you leaving) with scarlet_ribbons (59k) merlin/arthur, canon era, court sorcerer merlin, angst, tw for forced drug abuse

Arthur lends Merlin's aid as a sorcerer to an allied kingdom. He doesn't expect to find Merlin, two years later, in shackles, and only a mere echo of the person he used to be.

the way these flowers bloom (14k) merlin/arthur, canon era, magic reveal

“Flowers,” Arthur repeats dubiously. “Merlin is out… selling flowers.”

“The cornflowers sell especially well,” Gaius says.

How (Not) to be a YouTuber: A Comprehensive Guide by Idiots with scarlet_ribbons (7k) merlin/arthur, modern era, social media au

In which Arthur and Merlin flirt (despite Merlin’s mysterious fiancée), Morgana dishes out the hottest gossip, Gwaine keeps trying to fight the entire internet, and their fans are maybe just a little too overbearing.

by the way, didn’t I break your heart? (33k) merlin/arthur, modern era, getting together

Merlin’s life isn’t his own to live. The tattoo that sets him apart as a magic user has the annoying tendency to glow gold, and no one will give him a job, and he’s been pining uselessly after his straight best friend slash housemate—who, he knows, mostly lets him live there because Arthur is decent enough not to let him sleep in the gutter, even if he’s an annoying prat the rest of the time.

But then Arthur decides to take the world by storm and starts pushing for some new laws to be accepted, and Merlin finds himself in the middle of Arthur’s attempt to change England.

let life come find me wanting (19k) merlin/arthur, modern era, ghost!arthur

Merlin is a ghost hunter. Arthur is a ghost. There really shouldn't be anything more to it, but Arthur's inability to move on makes Merlin's job a tad harder than it ought to be. Oh, and then there's the part where he's falling in love with a thousand-year-old ghost who keeps insulting him.

The Court of Avalon (57k) merlin/arthur, canon to modern era, canon compliant, arthur returns

Under the guidance of the mysterious Lady of the Lake, Arthur spends the many years between his death and his revival in the realm of Avalon. There’s plenty of deals to make with the Sidhe, prophecies about magic to unravel, and mostly—there’s Merlin to watch, on the other side, always waiting for Arthur.

A tale spanning centuries, as Arthur finally returns magic to Albion.

when you let your fingers linger (6k) merlin/arthur, canon era, touch starvation, getting together, 5+1 things

Five times Arthur is a touch-deprived mess who really wishes he could touch Merlin without an excuse, and one time he learns he doesn't need one.

to the point of fear (10k) merlin/arthur, pov mordred, canon era, magic reveal

“Sometimes, I think those two just need to be close to each other. Hard enough to keep them apart anyway, even at the beginning, when they were just constantly sniping at each other.”

When Mordred looks back, Arthur’s arm is around Merlin’s shoulder, and he is smiling broadly. Merlin’s eyes are bright and focused on Arthur, and his lips are tugged upwards, as if he can’t quite stop himself.

Merlin loves Arthur to the point of fear, Mordred realises.

Lights Out, Away We Go (90k) merlin/arthur, modern era, f1 au, enemies to lovers

Arthur has been F1 World Drivers' Champion twice in a row, and fully intends to go for a third title. Newbie Merlin Emrys has, in a surprising turn of events, snagged a seat at top-team Dragonfly Racing. With the winning combination of a car fast enough to challenge Arthur's, a new driver who was born to the wheel, and a sharp-edged strategy, Merlin is an opponent who is ready to challenge Arthur's winning streak. It becomes even more complicated when things start to become tense between the two championship contenders, and Arthur has to fight to keep his head in the race.

After nine months, twenty-two races, and twenty countries, it all comes down to one thing: who will win this year’s World Drivers' Championship?

when it was easy to say (in praise of you) (10k) merlin/arthur/gwen, canon era, court sorcerer merlin, getting together

Gwen and Arthur set out to court a reluctant Merlin. Fortunately, Gwen knows exactly how Merlin wants to be loved.

the night will hold us close (13k) merlin/arthur, modern era, demon!merlin

Uther catches the most powerful demon he can find in order to bring back his wife from the dead. Emrys, however, stays adamantly mute in his captivity. He only speaks to one person: Arthur. And it is up to Arthur to choose between his father's grief and the demon that seems to have captured his very soul from the moment that they met.

Roast-Impressionism and Other Latte Art (12k) merlin/arthur, modern era, coffeeshop au, getting together

In a final bid to find happiness after leaving his job at his father's company, Arthur opens a coffee shop. Merlin just wants to make latte art.

The Inherent Limitations of Words (10k) merlin/arthur, modern era, modern royalty au, university au, getting together

Prince Arthur needs to find a new Court Sorcerer in the halls of Albion University. Merlin just wants to apply to a PhD in Magical Neo-Linguistics without being told that his destiny is to be by His Royal Horrendousness' side.

Of course, destiny doesn't take no for an answer.

What (Be)fits the Crown (10k) merlin/arthur, canon era, getting together, clothes sharing, 5+1 things

Five times Merlin wears Arthur's clothes out of need, and one time because Arthur asks him to.

#bbc merlin #merlin #merlin fic #masterlizt #masterlist 2022

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sn0tcl0wn · 11 months ago

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wish and the star boy we never got is proof of my long standing theory that disney (and animation as a whole) needs to bring back cute boys. they stopped featuring them as much back when frozen came out to focus more on famalial love and i respect that. however, that was the tail end of an era where animated movies were almost always guaranteed to have one super cute boy. this was the thing that brought audiences in. i swear to god until i was like 18-19 if an animated movie had a cute boy, i and all my friends were there opening night. a movie could look like pure garbage and if a boy was cute we were there. and of course there are other factors like the other character's designs and music if it's a musical, but cool designs didn't go anywhere and i, as well as many people, can overlook a bad musical if the animated dude is pretty (quest for camelot is a movie that exists). like why do you think anime really became so popular amongst preteen/teenage girls? they'll outright tell you, just go in the tags. it's the cute boys. cute boys bring in audiences.

it's not sexism, it's not heteronormativity, it's not "teaching girls all they're good for is marriage" or whatever the fuck people were complaining about ten years ago when disney made the executive decision to step away from having cute boys and by extension started a trend of studios doing that; it's the simple fact that people, especially girls, tend to like cute animated boys. and yeah people like pretty and cute animated girls too but that's kinda the whole point of disney princesses. we don't even need cute boys as love interests, in movies like treasure planet and rise of the guardians there is no romantic subplot for either of the movies' cute boys. it's just cute boys doing cool stuff with other well designed characters.

i feel the overwhelming response of disappointment when the star boy concept art was released is proof that, at the end of the day, animation fans want more cute boys. and i agree. you wanna actually sell that shit to your main demographic of kids, specifically girls, aged 10 and up? cute boys worked every damn time for decades. it only became less prevalent in the 2010s when people decided we for whatever reason didn't need the cute boys and nixed them completely in an attempt to seem progressive and not "reduce" any girl protags to love interests. which is an awful way to refer to writing a love story btw, we need to work on that because that gets said every time this happens and it's weird people can't fathom a strong, independent girl who also has a boyfriend. and yes, yes it's better if she has a girlfriend but there is still a desire to see a cute boy character on screen. the best animated movies from the 90s-2000s all had them and everyone vividly remembers a time where that drawing was their husband or literally them. it's important for some weird reason for cute animated boys to exist and the star boy proves that these movies would do way better with cute boys.

and the "boy" in question doesn't even need to be human or whatever. you think zootopia sold because the trailers actually looked good? what about sing? god no. no matter how much i like those movies, the trailers made them look like trash, but the power of cute boys prevailed even when the "boys" are a fox and a gorilla.

ik this rant is long and it seems pointless but i feel like i cracked the code for why so many animated movies have been sucking harder than ever and it's because for almost two generations we had cute boys to soften the blow of a bad animated movie and now we have more evidence that they're actively making decisions to cause that. i said this about five years ago when i realized the majority of cute animated boys were furries or anime boys and now i see this star boy shit. and i'd been saying how ugly i think the star is for months beforehand too when merch started popping up.

i just feel like they could have avoided fucking themselves so hard if they just let the cute boy exist. i genuinely feel people would at least be more likely to see the movie but most people didn't even bother and the people who did say don't bother. but if a cute boy was there and they used his song as the trailer? we'd wanna know what this little magic man was about. we'd wanna see how things panned out between him and hero girl. and if it ended up being bad we'd all say "yeah but the designs were good" or some shit and disney would get that sweet, sweet centennial money. but that's not what happened because some moron somewhere decided girls don't want to see cute boys in their princess movies and a chain reaction started that won't stop until disney undoes it and gives us a goddamn cute boy. and that's not even a joke. that's my honest to god theory for how to save mainstream animated movies. we saw a glimpse of this with spider-verse. like those movies ate but a big draw for both of them was the fact that there was a cute boy for everyone to crush or project on. we need cute animated boys now more than ever.

#rant #long post #i sound like a mad man #but hear me out

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tiodolma · 2 years ago

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Merlin Characters as Animated Villain Songs! Part 2

Morgause - That's my Lullaby (Zira, Lion King 2)

Sleep, Sister Morgana, let your dreams take wing One day when you're fit and strong You will be a Queen Now the past I've tried forgetting And my foes I could forgive Trouble is, I know it's petty But I hate to let them live

(Cenred) So you found yourself somebody Who'll chase Uther up a tree

Oh, the battle may be bloody But that kind of works for me

The melody of angry growls A counterpoint of painful howls A symphony of death, oh my! That's my lullaby! The joy of vengeance! Testify! Payback time is nearing And then our flag will fly Against the blood red sky That's my lullaby!

Arthur Pendragon - Gaston (Gaston, Beauty and the Beast)

(Leon) Every guy here'd love to be you, Arthur! Even when taking your lumps There's no man in town as admired as you You're everyone's favorite guy Everyone's awed and inspired by you And it's not very hard to see why (Merlin) Perfect, a pure paragon!

(Arthur) As a specimen, yes, I'm intimidating!

[Camelot] My, what a guy, that Arthur!

(Knights) No one fights like Arthur Douses lights like Arthur In a wrestling match, nobody bites like Arthur! (Arthur) And beasts of the field say a prayer First, I carefully aim for the liver Then I shoot from behind

(Knights) Say it again Who's a man among men? Who's the super success? Don't you know? Can't you guess? Ask his fans and his five hangers-on There's just one guy in town Who's got all of it down...

Morgana - In the Dead of the Night (Rasputin, Anastasia)

In the dark of the night I was tossing and turning And the nightmare I had was as bad as can be It scared me out of my wits A corpse falling to bits! Then I opened my eyes And the nightmare was, me!

I was once the most mystical lady in Camelot When the royals betrayed me they made mistake My curse made each of them pay But one tyrant King got away Brother Arthur, beware Morgana's awake.

As the Pieces fall into place I'll see him crawl into place Do Svidaniya, Arthur, Your Grace Farewell.

In the dark of the night terror will strike him! Terror's the least I can do! In the dark of the night evil will brew. Soon he will feel that his nightmares are real. In the dark of the night He'll be through!

#bbc arthur #bbc morgana #bbc morgause #villain songs au

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ledenews · 1 year ago

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#belmontcounty #BrookeCounty #ChuckHowley #DallasCowboys #HallofFame #MarshallCounty #NFL #ohiocounty #UpperOhioValley #Warwood

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theroundbartable · 5 months ago

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Oooooh, looks like fun XD (I think I've been tagged in this twice, lol) I always thought that I don't work with WIPs and that has been true for a very long time because I buried them so deep that I learned of their existence just now. You're reading me find them... there are some that have gathered and my brain hates me for every. single. one. of them. XD

First: The ones I'm publishing

Idiots in Love: (Merthur) Chapter 5 is still in progress, Arthur is still smitten, problems arrive from other ends. It's meant to be fluffy and sweet and I think I am succeeding XD

Second Chances: (Drarry) I have mentioned it before, this fic is LONG. So far, six chapters are out, but I have like 9 more ready to go. Although I'm starting to question them all. I don't really like the pacing at times and I've been working on this for over 2 years. It's the longest fic I've ever written and the one I've reworked most often.

Karak'nirir, the goddess of creation: (Klance) 9 chapters are out so far but I have stagnated on the 10th. I'm very stuck on the Merlin fandom, so motivation is fleeting at times. But it's there and it's not forgotten.

The clockroom: (Merthur) When I say second chances is my longest fic, this one comes second and is also far more complicated than anything else I have ever written. Please forgive me for abandoning this project so often.

Now on to the ideas I started and immediately put on hiatus. They should have remained concepts, but somehow still exist somewhere in the ether of my writing programms:

Incarnation: An original. My siblings are working with me on the worldbuilding, but I have attempted to draft this four times and I hated every beginning. I'm usually notoriously ignorant of beginnings, which is one of many reason why this one is quite the challenge.

The stone sword: An original twist on the Arthurian legend (if I ever publish an original, I want to take part in the legend, sue me.) I started this so long ago, I lost the plot, but I did use some of the takes in a fanfic.

Avatar Merlin: (Merthur) One where Merlin is the Avatar but hides in the Kingdom that hates all forms of benders. Five Kingdoms = each an element, one non-benders who managed to take over almost all the other kingdoms.

Survivor: (Sanji-Centric) I don't remember writing this? It's ten pages long about the relationship between Zeff and Sanji. I should look into that again.

Okay, now lets go even deeper. (I'm finding stuff I didn't even know existed? When did these happen? I'll drop the file name if they had one) (cursive are the ones who didn't even get an interim name). I'm just listing them, I have no idea what's in them. It's like a lottery at this point. I am opening some of them though to look at the size and what fandom they are for.

Tributes of Camelot (Merthur)

The soldier (Vld)

Silence (BBC Merlin - knight centric)

Scared? (Zosan)

unnamed (a German original, that I don't remember the plot of. It had to do with prophecies)

Lance time travel AU

Klance in space

unnamed (Merthur) The fuck, this has 91 pages????? The actual file name is: "I'm gonna hate myself for this I guess" from 2022. Which isn't ominous at all.

A land of fear (Merthur) also 21 pages, wtf???

I also have a folder called "Stuff I'll never finish" and that is a threat. I'm not listing these Wips, they should never, ever, be touched again. Do not ask.

Anyone may join. Feel yourself invited. However, if you want to do this too, do it at your own risk, I'm having an existencial crisis over here.

@snazzy-jas-z-is-a-fan-of @crimsonrose14

Wip Game

Thank you @tansyuduri for tagging me 😊

Rules: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

I actually do have a lot of drafts of each story I have. I don't mind sharing snippets if you don't mind spoilers, of course. So I'm going to catagorize them as this:

Drafts of my fic "From the Grave to the Cradle" (because yes, I'm still working on it, I havent forgotten it):

Chapter 6: So far and yet so close (incomplete)

Merlin and Arthur after Emry's dead

Merlin and Gaius after Arthur is discovered as "The Lost Prince"

Arthur's confinement in his Royal Chambers

Morgana meets Kilgharrah

After war with Essetir

Merlin kills impostor knights

Merlin discovers Gwaine

And eye for and eye

The real prophecy

Memory transferency

Arthur hides Merlin's dagger

(I'm willing to share more of this one cause the story has been on pause for too long and I think it's the least you deserve)

2. Drafts of my fic "Dragonlord's son series" (or rather the sequel of it, "Loving the Dragonlord's son"):

Reconciliation (kind of the end of the saga, I already published the summaries of all the chapters in a previous post. I needed to have the end clear to know where I was going)

3. Drafts of my "Arthur and Merlin travel back in time without knowing the other is from the future too AU"

"The sins of a father"

Alternative "La morte of Arthur"

4. Drafts of my "Merlin as Arthur's familiar/Arthur's shapeshifter falcon AU"

Arthur arrests King Carleon's cousin

5. MerlinxThe son of The Song of Achilles AU

@theroundbartable , @star-rie , @evadne01 , @that-nerd-who-writes-fanfiction , @ramblings-of-a-chaotic-neutral

#merlin bbc #bbc merlin #merlin #merthur #fanfic #wip game #vld #one piece

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many-gay-magpies · 2 years ago

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Magpie, can you rec me merthur fics? Your top 10?

yes ofc i can!! a lot of these are just some ive read more recently but here u go :> top 10 merlin fics, in no particular order (despite what the numbered list may suggest)!

garden or graveyard by shanastoryteller | this one is SOOO GOOD. it's in the longer oneshot category (11k words roughly) and it takes place in an au where arthur also has magic (albeit to a lesser degree than merlin). it's very sweet and heartwarming, while also delving some into the culture of magic in camelot and a magic-having arthur's upbringing within that culture, and the magic reveal scene is one of my favorites i've ever read.

arthur enchanted by platonic_boner | another oneshot (smaller this time, around 5k), very funny and sweet! arthur gets enchanted to obey merlin's orders, which is obviously no problem at all, as a servant would NEVER dare order around their king... lol. this is an "arthur already knows about the magic" fic and i just really love the dynamics throughout!

our lips are sealed by eat_crow | an even SHORTER oneshot at only 1.9k-- it's truth spell time baby!! arthur and merlin get imprisoned by a sorceress and get doused with a truth spell that caused them to reveal, among other things, merlin's magic and their love for each other. despite the seriousness that comes with magic reveals a lot of the time, it very quickly becomes more silly and light-hearted just bh virtue of what else the truth spell reveals (i won't spoil much hfjgbng)

dower the stars by rorounihime | this is a longer, multi-chapter fic (8 chapters and around 40k) that i read a while ago, but remember being super good (ive actually been meaning to re-read it sometime soon). it's one of those fics where the description makes you think it'll be king of funny and lighthearted, but then the fic itself kind of rips your heart in two-- set in an alternate future magic-legalized camelot, where a great druid prophecy/event of sorts states that merlin will find his "other half" (presumably another magic user) with whom he will be all-powerful, and arthur angsts internally while watching merlin court and GET courted by all these other magic users. very nice build up and a very satisfying release/ending from what i can remember; i'm always a fan of fics where character represses their feelings for the sake of character b's happiness, so this one was right up my alley.

you have to chase it by arthurandhisswordbros | let's throw in a modern/reincarnation au for some spice! 8 chapters and 41k words. it's a social media au of a sort, and normally i'm not one for social media aus, but there is just something so... incredibly special about this one. arthur reincarnates and, five years after finding his "place" in the modern world, discovers twitter, where someone appears to be impersonating the legendary wizard merlin... wonder who that could be? the fic is very sweet, funny, and sad/emotional in parts; it's honestly one of my favorite takes on a modern/reincarnation au ive ever read and i find myself going back to it again and again. the character dynamics are just splendid, and watching arthur's progression from just SURVIVING in the modern world to actually LIVING in it was beautiful. 10/10 would recommend

the weight of words by waldorph | a good portion of this already short (4k or so i think) fic is sex, but the arthur characterization is SOSOSO good i love it so much. this is an especially notable instance of me loving it when bbcm fanfic writers take his character and run with it to the point that it's hardly even canon arthur anymore (but still somehow manages to be a beautiful interpretation/spin on his canon self?? idk man i love it a lot.) just gonna copy the author's description for this: "Arthur knows how to use words just as well as Merlin, and he knows about the magic."

linger on your pale blue eyes by supercalvin | longer oneshot; 18k or so. this one is so good-- it's basically an examination into how arthur views himself as a prince and how his body is viewed by himself and others (read: touch-starved arthur, which always slaps), coupled with some very soft and sweet merthur. the magic reveal in this is so low-key, which is something i like a lot in an abundance of fics where the reveal happens in a big, angsty dramatic flare (which are good in their own right, but can get tiring after a time). loved the arthur characterization in this one!

the gold of you that can't be seen by fleetling | another shorter oneshot (4.5k), and a soulmate au! you can see every color except for the color of your soulmate's eyes until you meet them, and arthur can't see gold. i love this one a lot because it shows the progression of arthur's worldview as he ages (from believing that magic is evil like his father taught him, to working towards or considering legalizing it after his opinions have changed a great deal) very well. includes a few heart-wrenching scenes with young arthur and uther, and a very light-hearted magic reveal!

how to love a living thing by polomonkey | the WHUMP. the ANGST. the HURT/COMFORT. this baby is 17k words of it and it is BEAUTIFUL. i'm just gonna copy the author's summary here because it gives you a pretty good idea of what the fic is about: "Guilt ridden and lonely after his confrontation with Nimueh, Merlin slowly begins to isolate himself from Arthur. When two knights take it upon themselves to teach him his place, Merlin finds himself with nowhere to turn. Will he be able to reach out to his prince before it's too late?" forewarning, there is some minor SA and a variety of mild-to-severe violence/abuse in this, but if that's not something that bothers you too bad then i definitely encourage you to give it a read!

strike of lightning by helloearthlings | another good soulmate au to top off the list-- this is one where you have a tattoo on your back that represents your soulmate, and if the tattoo moves, it means your soulmate has magic. arthur's soulmark is a raging thunderstorm, and uther orders him to kill his soulmate the second he meets them. very good and sweet, would definitely recommend if you enjoy/are partial to soulmate aus

(and an edit, because i literally just read this fic after answering this ask and im feeling VERY insane about it)

and with my opened mouth i join the singing light by intothefirewego | bro oh my god. i cannot even BEGIN to explain this fic my mind is still reeling. it stole all my marbles theyre dead gone decimated. nonetheless i will attempt anyways: basically, this is a (mind-blowingly beautiful holy SHIT) magic reveal fic, among other things, wherein merlin is injured in an attack from a sorceress while he, the knights, and arthur are riding back from a venture to an illness-ridden village; merlin nearly dies and arthur bargains with the sorceress that did it to save his life. but its also soso much more than that and i cant begin to explain ANY OF IT without giving major spoilers but basically its just really beautiful and well-written and you should absolutely go read it if you're not squeamish around graphic descriptions of blood (because there is a lot of that). wonderful unpacking of arthur and merlin's characters and their relationship with each other; 10/10 so beautiful i started crying

#asks #anon 📝#bbc merlin #fic recs #bbc merlin fic #merthur

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itonje · 4 years ago

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people of color in arthurian legend masterpost

hi! some people said it would be cool if i did this, and this is something i find interesting so. yeah! are you interested in king arthur and the knights of the round table? do you like to read about characters of color, especially in older lit? well, i hope this can be a good resource for people to get into stuff like that, especially poc/ethnic minorities who might feel uncomfortable or lonely getting into older media like arthuriana. this post is friendly to both those who prefer medieval lit and those who prefer modern stuff!

disclaimers: i am not a medievalist nor a race theorist! very much not so. i am just a 17 year old asian creature on the internet who wants to have an easy-to-reference post, if i’m not comprehensive enough please inform me. i’m going to stay closely to the matter of britain, as well, not all medieval european literature as a. this is what i’m more familiar with and b. there’s so much content and information and context to go along with it that it would really be impossible to put it all into one tumblr post. (however there’s always going to be overlap!) also, please do not treat me or any other person of color/ethnic minority as a singular all-knowing authority on anything! we’re all trying to have fun here and being made into an information machine on things, especially what is and isn’t offensive isn’t fun. with that out of the way, let’s get into it! (under cut for length!)

part i: some historical context (tw for racism and antisemitism discussion)

fair warning, i’m going to start off with some discussions of more heavier history before we talk about more fun stuff. while pre colonial racism was far more different than how it is today, there still...was racism. and it’s important to understand the social mien around nonwhite people in europe at the time these works were written.

to understand how marginalized ethnicities were written in medieval european literature, you have to understand the fact that religion, specifically catholicism, was a very important part of medieval european life. already, catholicism has violent tenets (ie, conversion as an inherent part of the church, as well as many antisemitic theologies and beliefs), but this violence worsened when an event known as the crusades happened.

the crusades were a series of religious wars started by the catholic church to ‘reclaim’ the holy land from islamic rule and to aid the byzantine empire. while i won’t go into the full history of the crusades, (some basic info here and here and here) its important to understand that they had strengthened the european view of the ’pagan’ (ie: not european christian) world as an ‘other’, a threat to christiandom that needed to be conquered and converted, for the spiritual benefit of both the convertee and the converter. these ideas of ethnoreligious superiority and conversion would permeate into the literature of the time written by european christians.

even today, the crusades are very much associated with white supremacy and modern islamophobic sentiment, with words such as ‘deus vult’ as a dogwhistle, and worship of and willingness to emulate the violence the crusaders used against the inhabitants of the holy land in tradcath spaces, so this isn’t stuff that’s all dead and in the past. crusader propaganda and the ignorance on the violence of the catholic church and the crusaders on muslim and jewish populations (as well as nonwhite christians ofc) is very harmful. arthuriana itself has a lot of links to white supremacy too-thanks to @/to-many-towered-camelot for this informative post. none of this stuff exists in a bubble.

here’s a book on catholic antisemitism, here’s a book on orientalism, here’s a book about racism in history that touches on the crusades. (to any catholic, i highly reccommend you read the first.)

with that out of the way, we can talk about the various not european groups that typically show up in arthurian literature and some historical background irt to that. the terms ‘moor’ and ‘saracen’ will typically pop up. both terms are exonyms and are very, very broad, eventually used as both a general term for muslims and as a general term for african and (western + central) asian people. they’re very vague, but when you encounter them the typical understanding you’re supposed to take away is ‘(western asian/african) foreigner’ and typically muslim/not christian as well. t

generally, african and asian lands will typically be referred to as pagan or ‘eastern/foreign’ lands, with little regard for understanding the actual religions of that area. they will also typically refer to saracens as pagans although islam is not a pagan religion. this is just a bit of a disclaimer. the term saracen itself is considered to be rather offensive-thank you to @/lesbianlanval for sending me a paper on this subject.

while i typically refer to the content on this post as having to pertain to african and asian people (ie, not european) european jewish arthurian traditions are included on this post too. but, i know more about poc and they’ll feature more prominently in this post because of that, lol.

part ii: so, are there any medieval texts involving characters of color?

i’m glad you asked! of course there are! to be clear, european medieval authors were very much aware that people of color and african + asian nations existed, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. even the vita merlini mentions sri lanka and a set of islands that might (?) be the philippines!! for the sake of brevity though, on this list i’m not going to list every single one of these small and frequent references, so i’m just going to focus on texts that primarily (or notably) feature characters of color.

first of all, it’s important to know was the influence of cultures of color and marginalized ethnicities that helped shape arthurian legend. the cultural exchange between europe and the islamic world during the crusades, as well as the long history of arab presence in southern europe, led to the influence of arabic love poetry and concepts of love on european literature, helping to form what we consider the archetypal romance. there are also arthurian traditions in hebrew, and yiddish too, adding new cultural ideas and introducing new story elements to their literature-all of these are just as crucial to the matter of britain as any other traditions!

when it comes to nonwhite presence in the works themselves, many knights of color in arthurian legend tend to be characters that, after defeated by a knight of arthur’s court join the court themselves. though some are side characters, there are others with their own romances and stories devoted to them! many of them are portrayed as capable + good as, if not better than their counterparts. (this, however, usually only comes through conversion to christianity if the knight is not christian...yeah.) though groups of color as a general monolith created by european christians tended to be orientalized in literature (see: mystical and strange ~eastern~ lands), many individual knights were written to be seen by their medieval audience as positive heroes. i’m going to try to stick to mostly individual character portrayals such as these.

with that all said though, these characters can still be taken as offensive (i would consider most to be) in their writing, so take everything with a grain of salt here. i will also include links to as many english translations of texts as i can, as well as note which ones i think are beginner friendly to those on the fence about medieval literature!

he shows up in too many texts so let’s make this into two bullet notes and start with one of, if not the most ubiquitous knight of color of the round table (at least in medieval lit),-palamedes! palamedes/palomides is a ‘’saracen knight’’ who (typically) hails from babylon or palestine and shows up in a good amount of texts. his first appearance is in the prose tristan, and he plays a major role there as a knight who fights with tristan for the hand of iseult-while he uh. loses, him and tristan later become companions + friends with a rivalry, and palamedes later goes off to hunt the questing beast, a re-occurring trend in his story.

palamedes even got his own romance named after him (which was very popular!) and details the adventures of the fathers of the knights of the round table, pre arthur, as well as later parts of the story detailing the adventures of their sons. it was included in rustichello da pisa’s compilation of arthurian romances, which i unfortunately have not seen floating around online (or...anywhere), so i can’t attest to the quality of it or anything. he appears in le morte darthur as well, slaying the questing beast but only after his conversion to christianity (...yeah.) in the texts in which he appears, palamedes is considered to be one of the top knights of the round table, alongside tristan and lancelot, fully living up to chivalric and courtly ideals and then some. i love him dearly and i’ve read the prose tristan five times just for him. (also the prose tristan in general is good, please give it a try, especially if you’re a romance fan.)

speaking of le morte d’arthur, an egyptian knight named priamus shows up in the lucius v arthur episode on lucius’ side first, later joining arthur’s after some interactions with gawaine. palamedes has brothers here as well-safir and segwarides. safir was relatively popular, and shows up in many medieval texts, mostly alongside his older brother. i wouldn’t recommend reading le morte of all things for the characters of color though-if you really want to see what it’s all about, just skip to the parts they’re mentioned with ctrl + f, haha.

the romance of moriaen is a 12th century dutch romance from the lancelot compilation, named for its main character morien. morien, who is a black moor, is the son of sir aglovale, the brother of perceval. whilst gawaine and lancelot are searching for said perceval, they encounter morien, who is in turn searching for aglovale as he had abandoned morien’s mother way back when. i wholeheartedly recommend this text for people who might feel uncomfy with medieval lit. though the translation i’ve linked can be a bit tricky, the story is short, sweet, and easy to follow, and morien and his relationships (esp with gariet, gawaine’s brother) are all wonderful.

king artus (original hebrew text here) is a northern italian jewish arthurian text written in hebrew- it retells a bit of the typical conception of arthur story, as well as some parts from the death of arthur as well. i really can’t recommend this text enough-it’s quite short, with an easy-to-read english translation, going over episodes that are pretty familiar to any average reader while adding a lot of fun details and it’s VERY interesting to me from a cultural standpoint. i find the way how they adapt the holy grail (one of the most archetypal christian motifs ever) in particular pretty amazing. this is also a very beginner friendly text!

wolfram von eschenbach’s parzival (link to volume 1 and volume 2-this translation rhymes!) is a medieval high german romance from the early 13th century, based off de troyes’ le conte du graal while greatly expanding on the original story. it concerns parzival and his quest for the grail (with a rather unique take on it-he fails at first!), and also takes like one million detours to talk about gawaine as all arthurian lit does. the prominent character of color here is a noble mixed race knight called feirefiz, parzival’s half brother by his father, who after dueling with parzival, and figures out their familial connection, joins him on his grail quest. he eventually converts to christianity (..yeah.) to see the grail and all ends happily for him. however, this text is notable to me as it contains two named women of color-belacane, feirefiz’s black african mother, and secundilla, feirefiz’s indian wife. though unfortunately, both are pretty screwed over by the text and their respective husbands. though parzival is maybe my favorite medieval text i’ve read so far i don’t necessarily know if i’d recommend this one, because it is long, and can be confusing at times. however, i do think that when it comes to the portrayal of people of color, while quite poor by today’s standards, von eschenbach was trying his best?-of course, in reason for. a 13th century medival german christian but he treats them with respect and all these characters are actually characters. if you’re really interested in grail stories (and are aware of the more uncomfortably christian aspects of the grail story), and you like gawaine and perceval, i’d say go for it.

in the turk and sir gawain, an english poem from the early 16th century, gawaine and the titular turkish man play a game of tennis ball. i’m shitting you not. this text is pretty short, funnily absurd, and with most of the hallmarks of a typical quest (various challenges culminating in some castle being freed), so it’s an easier read. it’s unclear to me, but at the end of the story the turkish man turns into sir gromer, a noble knight, who may or may not be white which uh. consider my ‘....yeah’ typical at this point, but i don’t personally read it that way for my own sanity. also he throws the sultan (??) of the isle of man (????) into a cauldron for not being a christian so when it comes to respectful representation of poc this one doesn’t make it, but it does make this list.

the revenge of ragisel, or at least the version i’ve read (the eng translation of the dutch version from the lancelot compilation), die wrake van ragisel, starts off being about the mysterious murder of a knight, but eventually, as most stories do, becomes a varying series of adventures about gawaine and co. one of gawaine’s friends (see: a knight who he combated with for a hot sec and then became friends and allies with, as you do) is a black knight named maurus! he’s not really an mc, but he features prominently and he’s pretty entertaining, as all the characters in this are. i also recommend this highly, i was laughing the whole time reading it! it’s not too long and pretty wild, you’ll have a good romp. this is a good starter text for anyone in general!

i’ve not read the roman van walewein, which, as it says on the tin, is a 12th century dutch romance concerning some deeds of gawaine (if only gawaine was a canon poc, i wouldn’t need to make this list because he’s so popular...). i’m putting it on the list for in this, gawaine goes to the far eastern land of endi (india) and romances a princess named ysabele. i can’t speak to ysabele’s character or the respectfulness of her kingdom or representation, but i know she’s a major character and her story ends pretty well, so that’s encouraging. women of color, especially fleshed out woc, are pretty rare in arthurian lit. i’ve also heard the story itself is pretty wild, and includes a fox, which sounds pretty exciting to me!

now the next two things i’m going to mention aren’t really? texts that feature characters of color or jewish characters, but are rather more notable for being translations of existing texts into certain languages. wigalois is a german 13th century romances featuring the titular character (the son of, you guessed it, gawaine!) and his deeds. the second, jaufre, is the only arthurian romance written in occitan, and is a quite long work about the adventures of the knight jaufre, based on the knight griflet. what’s notable about these two works is that wigalois has a yiddish translation, and jaufre has a tagalog translation. wigalois’ yiddish translation in particular changed the original german text into something more fitting of the arthurian romance format as well as adding elements to make it more appealing for a jewish audience. the tagalog translation of jaufre on the other hand was not medieval, only coming about in 1900, but the philippines has had a long history of romantic tradition and verse writing, so i’m curious to see if it too adds or changes elements when it comes to the arthurian story, but i can’t find a lot on the tagalog version of jaufre unfortunately-i hope i can eventually!

this list of texts is also non-exhaustive! i’m just listing a couple of notoriety, and some to start with.

part iii: papers and academic analysis

so here’s just a dump of various papers i’ve read and collected on topics such as these-this is an inexhaustive and non-comprehensive list! if you have any papers you think are good and would like to be added here, shoot me an ask. i’ll try to include a link when i can, but if it’s unavailable to you just message me. * starred are the ones i really think people, especially white people, should at least try to read.

Swank, Kris. ‘Black in Camelot: Race and Ethnicity in Arthurian Legend’ *

Harrill, Claire. ‘Saracens and racial Otherness in Middle English * Romance’

Keita, Maghan. ‘Saracens and Black Knights’

Hoffman, Donald L. ‘Assimilating Saracens: The Aliens in Malory's ‘Morte Darthur’

Goodrich, Peter H. ‘Saracens and Islamic Alterity in Malory's ‘Le Morte Darthur’

Schultz, Annie. ‘Forbidden Love: The Arabic Influence on the Courtly Love Poetry of Medieval Europe’ *

Hardman, Philipa. ‘Dear Enemies: the Motif of the Converted Saracen and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’

Knowles, Annie. ‘Encounters of the Arabian Kind: Cultural Exchange and Identity the Tristans of Medieval France, England, and Spain’ *

Hermes, Nizar F. ‘King Arthur in the Lands of the Saracens’ *

Ayed, Wajih. ‘Somatic Figurations of the Saracen in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur’

Herde, Christopher M. ‘A new fantasy of crusade: Sarras in the vulgate cycle.’ *

Rovang, Paul R. ‘Hebraizing Arthurian Romance: The Originality of ‘Melech Artus.’’

Rajabzdeh, Shokoofeh. ‘The Depoliticized Saracen and Muslim erasure’ *

Holbrook, Sue Ellen. ‘To the Well: Malory's Sir Palomides on Ideals of Chivalric Reputation, Male Friendship, Romantic Love, Religious Conversion—and Loyalty.’ *

Lumbley, Coral. ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth and Race’ *

Oehme, Annegret. ‘Adapting Arthur. The Transformations and Adaptations of Wirnt von Grafenberg’s Wigalois’ *

Hendrix, Erik. ‘An Unlikely Hero: The Romance of Moriaen and Racial Discursivity in the Middle Ages’ *

Darrup, Cathy C. ‘Gender, Skin Color, and the Power of Place in the Medieval Dutch Romance of Moriaen’ *

Armstrong, Dorsey. ‘Postcolonial Palomides: Malory's Saracen Knight and the Unmaking of Arthurian Community’ (note this is the only one i can’t access in its entirety)

part iv: supplemental material

here’s some other stuff i find useful to getting to know knights of color in arthurian legend, especially if papers/academic stuff/medieval literature is daunting! i’d really recommend you go through all of these if you can’t go through anything else-most are quick reads.

a magazine article on knights of color here, and this article about the yiddish translation of wigalois.

this video about characters of color in arthurian legend!

the performance of the translation of arabic in Libro del Caballero Zifar, and how it pertains to the matter of britain

a post by yours truly about women of color in parzival

this info sheet about palamedes, and this info sheet about ysabele-thanks to @/pendraegon and @/reynier for letting me use these!

this page on palamedes as well

this post with various resources on race and ethnicity in arthuriana-another thank you to @/reynier!

part v: how about modern day stories and adaptations?

there’s a lot of em out there! i’m not as familiar with modern stuff, but i will try to recommend medias i know where characters of color (including racebends!) are prominent. since i haven’t read/watched all (or truly most) of these, i can’t really speak on the quality of the representation though, so that’s your warning.

first of all, when it comes to the victorian arthurian revival, i know that william morris really liked palamedes! (don’t we all.) he features frequently in morris’ arthurian poetry, (in this beautiful book, he primarily features in ‘sir galahad, a christmas mystery’ and ‘king arthur’s tomb’. he has his own poem by morris here.)

and some other poems about palamedes, which i’d all recommend.

for movies, i know a knight in camelot (1998) stars whoopi goldberg as an original character, the green knight (2021) will star dev patel as gawaine.

some shows include camelot high, bbc merlin, disney’s once upon a time, and netflix’s cursed, all featuring both original characters of color and people of color cast as known arthurian figures.

for any music people, in ‘high noon over camelot’, an album by the mechanisms, mordred is played by ashes o’reilley, who in turn is performed by frank voss, and arthur is played by marius von raum who is perfomed by kofi young.

i’ve also heard the pendragon and the squire’s tales have palamedes as a relevant character if you’re looking for novels, as well as legendborn and the forgotten knight: a chinese warrior in king arthur’s court starring original protagonists of color!

part vi: going on from here

so, you’ve read some medieval lit, read some papers, watched some shows, and done all that. what now? well, there’s still so much out there!

if you have fanfiction, analysis, metaposts, fun content etc etc about arthurian poc, feel free to plug your content on this post! i’d be happy to boost it.

in general, if you’re a person of color or a jewish person and you’re into arthurian legend, feel free to promote your blog on this post as well! i would love to know more people active on arthurian tumblr who are nonwhite.

this is really just me asking for extra content, especially content made by poc, but that’s okay! arthurian legend is a living, breathing set of canons and i would love love love to see more fresh diversity within them right alongside the older stuff.

a very gracious thank you to the tumblr users whom i linked posts to on here, and thanks to y’all for saying you want to see this! i hope this post helped people learn some new things!

#finny.txt #arthuriana #arthurian legend #matter of britain #medieval romance #arthurian literature #arthurian mythology #<- :/#but necessary #also ITS DONE ITS DONE ITS FINALLY DONE #PLEASEREBLOG THIS WRHSFSHDFDHSFSDF #2K PLUS WORDS..

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ad1thi · 4 years ago

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underrated stevetony fics rec list (P1)

i feel like a lot of really good stevetony fics get swept under the rug because this is such a big fandom and sometimes people miss out on quality content?? so this is a rec list of some of the stevetony fics i feel like everybody should have read/ be reading

Edit (31.12.2020): this got very long (i had almost 50 fics on my list, so ive decided to split this list into two parts. part 2 will be out soon!!)

Edit (20.02.2021): part 2 is out now!!

picture me in the trees: @ifmywishescametrue

Tony and Steve were childhood friends that almost became more, but Tony moved and they lost their chance. Thirteen years later, a chance meeting brings Tony back into Steve's life.

Free: @iwanttopizzamanyou

"Steve reads, and the words dance in front of his eyes, because while this used to be his dream, what he wanted, all he can think about is how this Hell will soon become his full time life."

Steve discovers fame, with fans waiting for him in the lobby and girls passing him their numbers after the shows. It used to be what he wanted, he supposes. Except his future managers keep asking more and more from him, and he's not sure his old life will survive. Tony is ready to help, and compromise, but Steve maybe isn't anymore.

making it work: @/ironarm

“Just tell him you don’t want to see him anymore,” Clint replies, finishing the end of his burger and starting to crumple up the wrapper, “It’s not like you love him or anything.”

“Clint, if I thought I could get rid of him about a week ago, I would have. But for some fucked up reason, I can’t lie to him. It’s like, I see those baby blue eyes, and bam. Whatever barrier that I built up from childhood trauma is gone.”

Clint chokes on the last piece of his burger, almost resisting the urge to smack Tony on the side of his head.

Tony was a fucking idiot.

Boys Like Us: @naferty

The video had been a mistake. One of the biggest mistakes he had ever done in his life, and considering Tony Stark had done a bunch of shit in his younger years, and even older years, that was saying something.

It was just that none of those things were as embarrassing as that video.

He blamed Clint for everything

Stained Fingertips: @thesoundofnat

“I don’t really believe in magic,” he said, clearing his throat. “But I’m almost certain you’re a goddamn wizard, Steve Rogers.”

Steve would remember those words for the rest of his life.

(Or, Steve is maybe slightly obsessed with drawing Tony. Not that Tony minds.)

Inhale, Ex-Sail: @summerpipedream

"Rich pirates decked out in top-of-the-line black market gear,” grumbled Tony, ”why don’t I have the budget to make those again?’

Rhodey inched back so that he and Tony were back-to-back. “We’re apparently law abiding citizens now, which means having to pay taxes.”

Tony scowled. “Urg, right. Remind me why I wanted to do that again?”

Rhodey rolled his eyes. “What was it you called him last time? Your sweet tart? Your apple pie in the sky? The wind beneath your wings? Hopefully he’ll fly here fast enough so we don’t get killed. Or worse, mugged.”

Tony Stark Bingo K1 - AU: Steampunk

As Constant As A Star: @atsadi

The Swan Princess AU

As young children, Prince Anthony and Princess Natasha of neighboring Midgardian kingdoms are betrothed, and spend their summers together every year until they are wed. Tony adores his headstrong friend Nat: it’s her scowly little companion Steve he’s not thrilled about at first. But soon Steve goes from being a thorn in Tony’s side to being his dearest friend – and much, much more than that. Despite Steve feeling the same way about Tony, the pair still dance around each other for years as Steve struggles to accept his feelings for another man: especially one already betrothed to another. Not to mention that Tony is a prince, and Steve is nothing but a squire.

But before they can make peace, Tony is kidnapped and dragged into the beginnings of another conflict in the nearby magical kingdom of Asgard – he really hates magic. With his potential usefulness diminishing by the day, Tony races to escape even as Steve, Natasha, and their friends race to find him and bring him home.

And—just to make matters worse—Tony has been trapped by a powerful spell and turned into a swan, of all creatures. He really, really hates magic.

Always Yours: @hollyjollyhope

Getting kidnapped is normal for them, at this point. But there's nothing normal about this.

And suddenly, Tony has a choice to make.

Oxeye Daisy (patience): @s-horne

“You make me want things I can’t have.”

Steve startled at the voice from behind him and turned around to see Tony standing in the kitchen doorway. He stared straight at Tony for a long moment. The room was quiet, time stretching out in a thick and uncomfortable silence as neither man dare to move nor opened his mouth to speak first.

White Clover (a promise): @s-horne

“Hey, sweetheart.”

Tony lifted his head as he tried to focus on Steve’s voice. When he managed to open his eyes and blink a bit of the blurriness away, he was rewarded with a gentle smile being shone down at him.

“There you are,” Steve said. “Was worried I was going to have to talk to myself.”

Though his tone was light, Tony knew what he meant. It was no secret that Tony was physically weaker and a hell of a lot more human than Steve was and was therefore struggling more with the lack of regular nourishment that came with being held hostage.

“Course not,” Tony said back, voice hoarse but plastering a smile on his face all the same. His head was pounding and his eyes couldn't stay open. “Would I ever do that to you? You’d never get a sensible answer.”

Acta non verba: @firebrands

unapologetic fluff about two idiots who can barely keep it together with how hard they're crushing on each other

or:

tony has to help steve with math + a halloween party = a good time for everyone, eventually

you take me higher than the rest (everybody else is second best): @firebrands

tumblr fill for adi & anthonydarling, who asked for "'Prank' war, but the kind to see who can make the other blush the most in public" from this prompt list

Adjacent, Against, Upon: @firebrands

A political AU!

Steve Rogers is running as the Mayor of somewhere, America. Tony Stark, his campaign manager, deals with a candidate who isn’t interested in lying, and just wants to do good by these citizens, god damn it.

song of unrest: @omg-just-peachy

How was Steve supposed to reconcile all of this? The way he looked so different but still felt so much the same? It made Steve’s head spin. He knows he shouldn’t care so much, that he is what he is, but he just wants to know.

Paint The Town Blue: @omg-just-peachy

Ten years since he’d seen or spoken to Tony Stark, ten years since they’d broken up to go away to school. And now this email. It could be his only chance to see Tony again.

Camelot: @weethreequarter

For one shining moment, there was Camelot.

In 2019, Karen Page meets Captain Steve Rogers to conduct an exclusive interview on his late husband, President Tony Stark.

In 2007, Steve meets Senator Tony Stark and falls in love.

he thinks he’s lancelot (but he’s more of a sir lamorak): @theotherwasdeath

Tony knows firsthand that violence isn’t funny. So why oh why does he think that the scene playing out in front of him, Steve and Victor Von Doom in a knock-out, drag-down fist fight, is absolutely hilarious?

wildflowers: @tinytonysnark

“So,” Steve begins, clapping his hands together, “the city of SHIELD is in debt. The big ups have sent for financial advisors, all the way from DC! They’re gonna take a look at the city’s spending and make some cuts.”

He squints at the camera against the morning sun shining through the courtyard, “I’m not that worried. Everyone here in the parks department is an important member of the team and absolutely needed.”

The camera swings towards the office where from the large glass window, Natasha can be seen picking up the ringing phone before immediately slamming it back down onto the receiver.

[A Parks and Rec AU]

trinkets of your affection: @starklysteve

Kissed him once for every year I loved him, Steve had written.

By that count, Steve owes him five more kisses now.

Tony traces the words, hands trembling, and tips back a shot of Howard's ancient whiskey. None of it burns anymore.

One day, he'll have lived more days without Steve than there are words in the diary.

For the first time since he'd woken with shrapnel in his chest, Tony fears the future.

----------

Or, five things Tony keeps to remember Steve by, and one thing Steve gives him to remember.

#adi's rec list #stevetony #superhusbands #steve rogers x tony stark #steve rogers/tony stark #steve x tony #steve/tony #underrated stevetony fics #this is part 1 of this rec list #part two will be out soon!!#im planning on doing this for other ships!!#so let me know if there's any ships you wanna see this for

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magic-number-3 · 2 years ago

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Hey, if you want to get into the Mechanisms, I highly recommend listening to their story albums first, because you don't really need to know the lore to enjoy them (and they're banging). The albums are unconnected to each other but in release order they go: Once Upon a Time(In Space), Ulysses Does at Dawn, High Noon Over Camelot, and The Bifrost Incident. Lore starts creeping into the material when you get into the Tales To Be Told albums (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) which have songs that both relate to the stories in the other albums and songs that are the backstories of the Mechs themselves. (At this point, a disclaimer, the Mechanisms perform in character as their space pirate OCs and came up with batshit backstories for them, as you may or may not be aware. The Mechanisms are immortal. Five of the Mechs have backstory songs (though one is only available through a video on YouTube, not through any album)). There are several videos of concerts online that some of the lore comes from, though there is also some information on the Mechanisms website, where they've posted short fictions about the worlds they've created and their characters. Other information has just kind of been around for years, with members of the band having passed it onto fans and then it being passed on further.

But that's a lot of info! Start with the albums, I think you'll like them! And if you ever want a breakdown of who's who, all you gotta do is ask!

Have fun!

OOOOOH HELLO OMG THANK YOUUUU yes yes ive seen art and stuff abt the characters and im like O.o this seems very fun. That sounds amazing!! I love how theyve created a world and an experience and stories with their music. Maybe I’ll listen to the first album tonight 😊😊

#😊✨😊#the mechanisms #my asks #my posts

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snowbellewells · 3 years ago

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To My CS Secret Santa

***Santa: I don’t know if this will reach you or not, but I gathered you were not able to see that I was answering you, so I’m trying to send it again, and hope the tags do a better job reahing you this time around. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Hello again Santa!! I apologize for being slow to answer. It’s a busy time of year, but that’s no excuse for keeping you waiting. Thanks for your patience, though. Let’s see if I can provide some answers to your second set of questions…

I do indeed teach - high schoolers - and they are getting very stir crazy about this point in the semester, just as I am getting worried all of their papers won’t get graded in time. Somehow we always manage, but Christmas break always feels well-earned by the time it arrives!

I am psyched that you are planning to write my gift. I love reading new fic, and one written for me, with things I specifically enjoy is one of the best gifts I could get!

As far as particular likes and dislikes, I will read a wide variety of stories and enjoy them all. Anything from modern AUs, to supernatural to different historical time periods to simple missing moments in Storybrooke or slight canon divergences. I will admit that I have a particular fondness for Enchanted Forest set stories or somewhat medieval knights and ladies sorts of AUs. I am a big fan of Lieutenant Duckling stories, and I adored deckhand!Hook in the season four finale, so divergences that take off from there or give missing moments from that point in canon are fun. I also really like fics set in the earlier part of the Camelot 5a arc. It got so painful toward the end, but I loved the earlier episodes while they were there. The first five or so episodes of Season 5 are pretty high up on my rewatch list.

Also, and this may be because it’s around the time I seriously dove into reading OuaT fic, but I love fics that diverge from the season three midseason finale. There were many good stories written at that time imagining Emma and Henry somehow ending up in the Enchanted Forest where the rest of their family had been sent by Pan’s curse. I would have loved to see that in canon. Henry getting to experience that world and Emma getting to truly be the princess she should have been. It’s at least partially why I was so disappointed by Season Six’s wish!Emma and that odd Wish Realm version of Snow and Charming’s kingdom. I had wanted them to go back there for so long, and then they finally did, but it was all messed up and none of them were themselves.

I’m a big fan of some hurt/comfort in fics, and I don’t mind a fair dose of angst - or even being moved to tears - as long as it works out in the end. I love cute meetings in bookstores or coffee shops, and I like the stranded in a snowstorm or some other sort of weather or disaster type fics. About the only things I really can’t enjoy reading are fics where Regina and Graham are side characters (I’ve read some modern AUs where this does happen) and they are painted as friends with benefits or any sort of consensual relationship. Just no, not for me. I’m not really a fan of any painting Graham in a bad light (even as a small side character) but most people leave him out of stories altogether, so that isn’t an issue I have often. I’m also not a big fan of Liam being overly condescending or kind of a jerk in fics where he is still alive. That just isn’t how I saw his character. Those are really rather random things to have problems with, but those are the two that will make me hesitate to read right off.

As usual, I went overboard and probably told you way more than you needed to know, but hopefully it helps a little.

#csss2021 #cssecretsanta2021 #secret santa asks answered #snowbellewells answers asks #fic likes and dislikes

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pie-shenanigans · 4 years ago

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Other works from the cast of TMA

The magnus archives cast is filled to the brim with talented creatives with over pieces of work and more people should know about them.

First the obvious: rusty quill makes amazing stuff! MAG is magnificent but more people should get to know their other stuff. Im slowly getting through rusty quill gaming and its delightful. If you want to hear Lydia Nicholas (Melanie king) be a stabby knife woman again, listen to Ben Meredith's (Elias) soothing voice without having to simp over a literal murderer and Alex (Martin, director, big boss man) being chaotic this is just the place. I also cant recommend ehough listening to one-shots special episodes, my favourite one is when Sasha (Georgie) gms Helen (Laverne, Melanies therapist), Lydia (Melanie) and Lowrie (editor) as they play a very cheotic and quite horny rpg about being stuck on a cruise ship to Bermuda. The game is by Macguffin and co, Jonny's and Sasha's game company that i will talk about in depth further in the post.

Stella firma is another rusty quill podcast. It is made and stared by the Meredith brothers. I have yet to listen to alot of it but it includes tons of gender fuckery and chaos.

I haven't listened to any of outlanders yet, but i believe it shall be great like everything RQ makes.

RQ also has "Rusty quill streams" that streams in twitch and you can also find on YouTube. It is hosted and stars Mike leBeau (the iconic tim stoker) Nico ( vocal editor, gabe us the kiss). The streams are hilarious and make me want to get into gaming, it is also a great way to support RQ and also get to see content from other of their creators. Last week featured Anil helping Mike playing through dream daddy and it was glorious.

I would be surprised if any of the hardcore TMA fans haven't at least heard of the mechanisms. But just in case:

The mechanisms were a steampunk-cabaret-neo folk band that were active in 2010-2020. The premis of the band is that each of its members plays a mechanism, an immortal cyborg and they all travel together through the universe, singing and telling stories about the tragedies they encounter. Non other than the beloved Jonny Simms was there lead singer, Jonny de'vil, a space cowboy from new Texas. other familier people were band mates aswell, Frank Voss (Basira) is Ashes O'Riley, an arsonists with a bass guitar, Jessica law (nikola orsinov) as the toy soldier who sings and plays the mandolin, ukulele and a variety of other instruments. Tim ledsam (jorden the extinguisher) plays gunpowder tim, the allmother of gender envy that plays the guitar. The Band has four concept albums that tell full tales:

"once upon a time in space" that is a reiteration of classic fairy tales but with lesbians in space.

"Ulysses dies at dawn" that is based in greek mythology and is bluesy and jazzy and wonderful

"High noon over Camelot" which is rooted in the tales of king Arthur and the round table, but as a wild west spaghetti movie of sorts in space. It has a main trans character and i lovely poly relationship that i have yet to see better represented in other media.

And "the bifrost incident", based on Norse mythology in a "murderer on the Orient express" setting, lesbians in space and a non binary main character.

Other then that they have two albums that are made out of short stories, many of them a backstory for fhe characters named "tales to be told" and "tales to be told II". They also have a standalone song about frankinstein and a live recording of there final show,that includes a few new songs, lovely banter and a revision if some ot their older works.

I cannot recommend listening to them enough.

Macguffin and co is Jonny and Sasha's game company. They design micro settings for RPG that some are free and some are patreon exclusive. I have yet to play any of the games myself but read through all the ones available online and listened to the acctual play podcast episodes of them ("dusk hollow pd" on MAG and "not far to Bermuda" on rqg). The settings are thought out so well and the attention for details is amazing. Jonny and sasha also stream on twitch regularly and the streams are a delight.

Sasha also has a podcast with the one and only Jessica law called "Jane austentations" in which they watch together all the film adaptations of Jane Austen novels and review them. Sasha knows an awful lot about Jane Austen, Jessica doesn't, but she has a surprising amount of knowledge about period accurate plants. The podcast itself is hilarious and Sasha's and Jessica's dynamic is great. Sasha also runs a blog under the same name were you can find other reviews.

Speaking of Jessica law, she is a great musician and i love her music so much. All of her work is available on Spotify and on bandcamp, she has a concept album called "lovers and fighters" which is a masterpiece in my opinion and five other albums. Her storytelling abilities blow my mind every time and her voice is beautiful.

Fay Roberts, the voice behind daisy is a poet and spoken word artist. Their work is so good! I cant explain how wonderful it is. They made " the selkie: a song if many waters" that is a poetry collection/ story that they wrote and preformed on bandcamp, and its one of my favourite works if litreture ever, it is heartbreaking and mystical and beautiful and makes me sob very easily. They also have quite a bit of spoken word poetry published online, both on bandcamp and on YouTube and i can't recommend enough for you to go listening to it.

Please go check out these works! They are all a delight and you should go and support the wonderful people behind them!

Also, feel free to add to this post and also tell me if I missed anything.

#rusty quill podcast #rustyquill #the magnus archives #TMA #jonny simms #jessica law #fay roberts #lydia nicholas #RQ #rq

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