#i can never unsee it now

[platoapproved]

armand & louis playing out echoes of his relationship with marius

[tally-kiza]

I've been trying to figure out who V looks like to me for two days and I woke up this morning in a cold sweat

....

[torchlitinthedesert]

There’s something very strange about Paul’s usual “how John and I started writing” narrative. Here’s how he likes to describe it:

Me and John knowing each other, the fact that both of us independently had already started to write little songs... I said to him, “What’s your hobby?” I said, “I like songwriting,” and he said, “Oh, so do I.” You know, no one I’d ever met had ever said that as a reply. And we said, “Well, why don’t you play me yours and I’ll play you mine.” GQ, 2020

It’s my impression that this is now in the rotation of Paul Stories - I think he says it in McCartney 3,2,1, and in other interviews. Is it true? The earliest accounts contradict it:

“Paul’s first public performance, as a member of the Quarrymen, was at a dance… later on, after the dance, he played a couple of tunes to John he had written himself. Since he’d started playing the guitar, he had tried to make up a few of his own little tunes. The first tune he played to John that evening was called ‘I Lost My Little Girl’. Not to be outdone, John immediately started making up his own tunes.”

Hunter Davies, The Beatles, 1968

“‘I learned a lot from Paul. He taught me quite a lot of guitar really. He knew more about how to play than I did and he showed me a lot of chords. I’d been playing the guitar like a banjo so I had to learn it again. I didn’t write much material early on, less than Paul, because he was quite competent on guitar. I started to write after Paul did a song he’d written.’”

John Lennon to Ray Connolly, unpublished interview, 1970*

"He used to write songs before I even started writing songs."

John Lennon, St Regis interview, 1971

*[The Connolly quote is weaker as a source, because was published after John’s death (and he quotes it slightly differently: “I started to write after Paul did a song he’d written” is in Connolly’s John biography, but not in the version in his collected Beatle journalism). But it fits with the other accounts.]

Still, Paul’s version might have some truth in it. Mark Lewisohn cites a couple of 1971 interviews where John remembers trying to write a calypso song, tapping into a brief craze of spring 1957. I don’t know if he finished it, or told anyone about it. None of the Quarrymen mention it, while Pete Shotton told Bob Spitz that John was “floored” when Paul first played him one of his own songs. But the calypso story does make “so do I” seem more possible.

It’s still surprising that Paul wants to frame it this way. He’d be justified in pointing out that songwriting was his innovation, something he brought to the band. By any measure, he’s the one who started it: when he met John, he’d already written the melody of When I'm 64, plus Suicide and I Lost My Little Girl. And he was always prolific. As John told David Sheff, talking about I’ll Follow The Sun, “he had a lot of stuff”, “written almost before the Beatles, I think.” He was the one pushing to do their own material, whether that’s talking it up to music promoters or suggesting In Spite of All The Danger at their first amateur recording session. (To me, that suggests that Lennon-McCartney was established later than they tended to admit. In Spite of All The Danger, recorded in 1958, has George as cowriter; if Paul had written anything with John, I bet that's what he'd have suggested they record. And if John on his own had written something that was ready to record, they’d definitely have picked that. )

In the 1950s, writing your own material was groundbreaking: it’s part of the huge cultural shift into the 1960s. There were hundreds of skiffle/rock’n’roll bands in Liverpool, but it’s genuinely possible that Paul was the only songwriter among them. Why isn’t that the story he wants to tell?

When Paul started defending his legacy in the late 1980s, he was fighting against specific distortions. First, that he was the middle-of-the-road conservative one - which is why he lays out his avant garde credentials. So you’d think he’d want to remind everybody that he wrote songs first. But second, he’s up against the idea that he and John didn’t love each other, that they didn’t write together, that Lennon-McCartney was a myth. Paul is a rock star, with an ego to match; he’s not given to downplaying himself. But he wants the partnership more than he wants precedence, even more than he wants credit for innovation.

And he always did. Remember the story about John sharing half his chocolate bar? Paul joined the band, and shared half his songs.

He didn’t need to: he was already writing alone. If he wanted help, George was more musically accomplished, and would have been a more logical choice for a songwriting partner. But it's John whose attention and praise Paul needed, John who had the authority to say they’d play Paul’s songs, John who needed to feel like the most important person in the band. Becoming Lennon-McCartney formalises all of that. And Paul is still true to it.

Across decades, Paul has been consistent about promoting their partnership as a partnership, regardless of who did what. (This isn’t true of John, who by the late 1960s was eager to break down who wrote which song, which lyric, which middle eight.) After working with George Martin on the string arrangement for Yesterday, Paul signed the score: “"Yesterday" by Paul McCartney John Lennon George Martin Esq and Mozart.” Even as a joke, you don’t separate Lennon and McCartney. Ken Mansfield asked Paul why songs were “Lennon-McCartney” when John hadn’t been there for the writing process:

And Paul said: “John and I are so close to each other, we’ve been through so much together, we understand each other so much, our relationship is so deep, that when we’re songwriting,” he said, “even if I’m 6,000 miles away, I can be working on something and I can hear John over my shoulder going, ‘No, no, no, that’s not gonna work; why don’t we do this?’ Or ‘Hey, I like this.’” He said, “So, in essence, to me, we’re songwriting together even if we’re not together.”

Ken was asking about Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, not realising that John was there for that one: they worked on it in India. But rather than giving a practical answer, Paul chooses to frame the partnership as a profound connection. (Of course there are other times Paul insists on or overstates his contribution, or gets petty about who did what. He’s human, and he’s an egomaniac. But always, always within the framework that this was a partnership.)

Fundamentally, he’s loyal to Lennon-McCartney. “So do I” matters more to him than going first. It might not be literally true, but it's the emotional truth that he needs.

[knifefightandchill]

RESIDENT EVIL 6 (2012)

"I need you to fake our deaths, can you do that? " "Of course, but they'll figure it out eventually... " What are you going to do?

[br1ghtestlight]

obsessed w/ how many attempts they've made at redesigning gene's younger design over the years to make him look less uncanny and how they failed every single time. he's so fucking ugly. I don't even take any of these designs as canon Bcuz they keep doing my boy DIRTY. soo ugly

[halfbaked00q]

situation in which M catches wind through the gossip mill that Bond and Q are Involved TM and he has sort of a passing thought of hm should he be worried about this should he look into this, for form's sake if nothing else- this could be a case of a field operative taking advantage of support staff blah blah. not that Q can't take care of himself, but, well. you know,. Bond. It shouldn't hurt to just check in with Q, right?

but like the next possible moment M might have to check in with Q is when they're about to have a joint briefing, and Bond is about to show up at any moment. M is like debating with himself if he should bring it up- but then Bond comes sauntering in, so he's lost the moment.

anyway in the course of the briefing, M is surreptitiously observing the two to see if there's any red flags- none that he can see, they are their usual snarky selves. but then Bond leans in a certain way or leans into Q's space a certain way, and against his will, he catches a glimpse of... leather? against Bond's throat underneath his shirt collar. And unfortunately now that he saw it, he can't unsee it, nor the like subtle tells in how they are interacting with each other... So he has gone from hm should I at least as a formality be worried about this, to quickly learning/realizing (1) he did NOT need to know this about his two subordinates slash friends(? -inasmuch as spies can be friends and a boss can be friends with his subordinates even if the trials they've been through together have blurred the lines on that and forged bonds amongst them), and (2) yeah no this was a foolish worry... Q has the situation well in hand (hah)

[minidoodles97]

Going through my Veilguard screenshots and this one stood out to me because I couldn't recall why I took this specific screenshot:

But then I remembered what it reminded me of...

[asgardian--angels]

things I wish I could relive for the first time again:

that magical window where you finish a new piece of media, having watched/read it all by yourself with no fandom contact whatsoever, and you are just so happy about it, and full of interesting theories and takeaways, and just in love with it as a gorgeous piece of art.

because I swear to god as soon as you join the fandom for anything, you're bombarded with how you're supposed to view characters and their arcs, how you're supposed to morally and ethically judge the plot and the ways it apparently failed to present the right message, and if you don't you'll either be shunned for not sharing the popular headcanons or you'll be harassed for not criticizing the source material enough.

like how is it that the fans of a piece of media are also the ones being the most negative about it? If I like a show or a movie or a book, well, I liked it. That's kind of the point. I'm actually not here to tear it apart and talk about how it didn't live up to standards other people had! I enjoyed it for what it was, and forcing myself to find negative things to say about it doesn't actually bring me more enjoyment of it or reap any benefit to me. Fandom's a double-edged sword; you want to join a community to share your love for a piece of art, and the price you pay for a modicum of joy is a mountain of negativity. that's one main reason that I never engage with fandom until I'm completely done with a show, because if I was plugged into all of that commentary and discourse during the process, I'd be completely colored by how I'm expected to interpret everything this piece of art is presenting to me without being able to even form my own opinions.

[wingsofhcpe]

Maki Zen'in is the lost child of Levi Ackerman and Hange Zoe you cannot change my mind

[eugene-da-potato]

Dear Inanimate Insanity fandom, hear me out

Payjay but it's "Tightrope" from The Greatest Showman (with Paper's POV)

See my vision (and ignore my taste in movies)

[owlsoap]

so there's this business from my hometown that's very well known and very popular for making high quality handmade washable wool sweaters. that's their whole deal, they make sweaters. they have a couple different styles like a crew neck and a v-neck and one with buttons, but that's it. they also sell toques. I have one sweater and one toque from them that I got for christmas years ago. basically every single person from my hometown owns one of these sweaters. they're handmade so they're expensive of course but like I said these sweaters are incredibly popular and known for being high quality

anyway so the other day I was looking at my sweater and I went... hey, are these stiches all twisted? and then I looked at the toque and all of the stitches were twisted as well. and I was like huh, maybe they have a reason for making the sweaters in twisted stockinette? (sidenote, I had to assume that when this business says the sweaters are handmade, they mean handmade via knitting machine because there's no way one lady is knitting thousands of these sweaters by hand, right?)

but then I look closer at my sweater and notice that in some places it's not twisted! like here you can see a pretty clear line where it changes from normal to twisted.

so basically now I want to go back to my hometown and go back to this shop to be like "hey... what gives?"

[gamebunny-advance]

I've got it.

You know what version 6 is giving?

Arizona lemon tea.

[kittykatkatelol]

did I ever tell yall that when my irl friend watched SIX for the first time she said that the person who played Katherine Howard looked like Ariana Grande but with a better voice 😭😭

[neocores]

I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW HE LOOKED DIFFERENT AND THAT HIS SMILE AND LIPS LOOKED KINDA WEIRD

IM NOT CRAZY I KNEW HIS MOUTH LOOKED WEIRD AHHHHHHHHHH

[chaoticjoke]

i don't like asking you for help, but i don't have a choice.

Not sure if... serious?

These words make him blink. Twice. Joker's eyes narrow and brows furrow in confusion -- he's not sure if he's heard Batman correctly. The Batman's. asking. for his help? Really? Reaaaaaallllyyyy? Oh this is already so much fun. Even if this is another hallucination. The Joker can't really tell with all the Thorazine in his system they keep pumping him with these days. He wonders what might actually happen that his arch-nemesis would come to him, of all people.

He can't help it anymore -- loud maniacal cackling is now echoing off the walls of Arkham Asylum. The Agent of Chaos can't tell if it's a joke or not -- and that's what makes it even more hilarious.

"Ooooh, poor little Bat is desperate!" he announces, his voice is hoarse from both laughter and dehydration. "Ah, come on, spit out out already, Bat-man, I'm all ears!" He nods enthusiastically, encouraging the other to continue.

"But, before you do, I have a question." He bats his eyelashes at the masked vigilante, mocking. "What do I get in return?"

@gothamsaved

[baronessblixen]

This is off topic but I wish dd changed his pfp, he looks so photoshopped and also looks like Tintin with this hair.

Omg anon 😭😂

HE LOOKS LIKE TINTIN!

And yeah, I think he should update his pfp. I think he should in general do more with his social media presence.