#iain did so good with the line art!
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Coloring page of Hardison and Eliot in "The Three Strikes Job" (Inspired by @lindseymcdonaldseyelashes ' gif sets)
#leverage#alec hardison#eliot spencer#coloring pages#my favorite one yet#iain did so good with the line art!#the three strikes job
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January Reading Thus Far
I know January isnât over but since I just got back on this app I figured Iâd do a so far post with the 14 books Iâve read this month and the 3 I am currently reading!
This month I read:
Foe by Iain Reid: âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸
Insatiable by Leigh Rivers: âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸.5
(I tried to continue the series because I loved the first one but I DNFâd book 2 at 20% cause I was over the ab*se p*rn from the brother and her just lying down and taking it)
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson: âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸
Deaths Obsession by Avina St. Graves: âď¸âď¸.5
A Soul of Ash and Blood by Jennifer L Armentrout: âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸ (cas will always be book daddy number 1 idc idc)
The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel: âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸
Confessions by Kanae Minato: âď¸âď¸âď¸.5
Skyshade by Alex Aster: âď¸âď¸.5 (I think this was my last straw with this series)
For the Fans by Nyla K: âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸.5
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A Parker: âď¸.5 (this was my last straw with booktok recs cause wtf)
The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black:âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum: âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸âď¸
The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni: âď¸âď¸âď¸
I am currently reading:
The Ritual by Shantel Tessier
Mother of Death and Dawn by Carissa Broadbent
Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister
Overall itâs been a great month so far! So many 5 star reads although I do think a lot of those were cause I had a good ass time and not because itâs literary art. I aim to start posting reviews for books as I finish them here but this was too much to post each review so if youâre curious why I rated how I did check out my fable!
If you have any thoughts about these or anything else Iâve read Iâd love to hear. Iâll do a January wrapped at the end of the month and maybe a yes if or no if or something along those lines since this will be a fruitful month for me with a lot of books I would recommend.
Iâll leave with if you only read one book from this list my recs would be if you wantâŚ
Lit Fic: the summer
Romance: for the fans
Fantasy: you should read the whole cruel price series that ends with the queen. Seriously. I know itâs YA. Please just do it.
â¨
#books read in 2025#books and reading#reading#book recommendations#book review#bookworm#booktok#romance#romance books#dark romance#mm romance#fantasy#fantasy books#ya books#ya fantasy#romantasy#literature#lit fic#literary fiction#horror books#psychological thriller
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Hot Brown Morning Potion Podcast Episode 5 - The Deluxe Elf Interview with Devon Giehl and Iain Hendry
Transcription Part 1 of 2 (includes Wonderstorm questions and Kuno's questions)
[Transcriber's Notes: This took me SO LONG to transcribe, like multiple hours and I'm only halfway done... But I will make it through at least this one episode because I want fellow Moonfam enthusiasts to have a text source, not to mention make it easier for deaf/HoH people to follow along. I guess I'll tag @kuno-chan since she said it was OK at the beginning of the podcast, sorry if I'm bothering you!]
KUNO: Hi guys, so I have a personal request for this particular podcast episode if you guys could tweet, post, both at least one piece of information that you learned from this particular episode, that you love, that inspired you, that you thought was cute, whatever. Like, I reallyâone thing that really tends to happen is that people listen to the podcast and they kinda just go about their day. We donât actually see the information circulate through the community, which we really try to have creative questionsâquestions that are fun and explore the characters in different situations. And it would just be really, really coolâit would mean a lot to me to see this actually circulate through the community, actually circulate through the fandom, and see, you know, it would be awesome to see it be inspiredâto inspire fan works, fan fiction, fan art, especially fan art. I justâwe talked like a solid hour at leastâreally like a solid hour about Runaan, Rayla, Ethari, that family, um, and Moonshadow elves a lot. We talked a lot about that. And I think this is information that a lot of people really wanted, even if itâs in largely headcanon form. But Devon and Iain were so gracious and we talked so much about that family, and including Ruthari, and of course some Rayllum in there. So if you guys could live tweet, or even just one tweet, at least one tweet. Tag us, tag me, tag Hailey, tag @HotPotion, even if you send it directly to me on Tumblr, thatâd be awesome and weâd retweet, reblog all your stuff. It would be good for the podcast and I just really want to see this information circulate through the fandom, so at least one tweet. Alright, um, letâs get to the episode though. Thanks! Hope to see you guys on social media about this.
âââââ
KUNO: Alright, hey everyone, this is the Hot Brown Morning Potion Podcasts with your hosts Tamika and Hailey, and we are here with Devon Giehl and Iain Hendry, two writers on The Dragon Prince at Wonderstorm, and Devon being actually the recently announced lead writer at Wonderstorm, so say hi everyone!
DEVON: Hi!
IAIN: Hi, this is IainâŚ
DEVON: Hi, Iâm Devon⌠(laughs)
KUNO: And so we have a ton of stuff to get through today, um, a lot of questions, soâbut weâre going to ask Iain and Devon a little bit about themselves first, since I thinkâIâm not sure if this is the first interview theyâve really had, personally, so uh, Hailey do you want to startâhead that?
HAILEY: Um, yeah, sure. Uh, could you tell us about your roles at Wonderstorm?
IAIN: Uh, sure, uhâIâm also a writer atâofficial title âSenior Writerâ at Wonderstorm. I was one of the writing team on the show, not quite as early as Devon, who was basically employee 1 after the founders but um, I joined sort of, end of 2016 when season 1 writing was really starting to get rolling, and was you know part of the process all the way through all the seasons. Uh, and since thisâitâs such a small start up company, all the writers take a bunch of other, like, production roles on the show. Like, throughout all three seasons weâve done, like, continuity notes work, weâve given feedback on like every step of the production process. And then the other kind of side things we have, like you know, very top secret game that weâre making in here. And like, kind of straddle the line between the show writing and the game so that thatâs all kind of on point and feels like itâs in the same universe with the same characters as The Dragon Prince, but ah, canât say too much about that just yet.
DEVON: Iain does a lot ofâa lot of secret work (laughs). Um, yeah as for me, Iâm also a writer on The Dragon Prince and myâI was a Senior Writer until very recently, and now Iâve been made into a Lead Writer, which means I just get to flex a lot. Um, but I started in, I think the very, very end of 2015 when Wonderstorm was first getting off the ground as like a tiny, tiny startup. And we were basically four people in a room about, I donât know, like 20 ft by 10 ft. It was really, really awfulâ
IAIN: Really smelly.
DEVON: Really smelly, really tiny, like only a skylight for a window, it was great. And Iâso I was involved in like the earliest of brainstorming for the show. I helped sort of like put together a lot of the pitch deck when we you know took it around to studios and like, I named like most of the charactersâis like my most self-indulgent claim on the show cause I got to do a lot of really silly stuff. Um, but yeah, and then I like help out on a million other fronts at Wonderstorm too because weâre a small company andâyeah, the funny thing about theâthe small tasks we have, like you mentioned continuity checks. Um, we often had to make sure that Callumâs backpack and book and Raylaâs bindings were always correct, and that was kind of, the funniest and most intense, like, stage of production ever. Cause you would, you know, watch one shot and then the next shot would come up and Callumâs backpack would have disappeared. So we had to be like, âOK, letâs give Callum backpack back on.â
IAIN: Yeah, and itâs not just for accuracy, but like, the way fandoms operate, like, we just knew if Raylaâs binding reappeared sometime, it wouldnât be viewed as an error. People would be like âWHAT DID THE KING GET UNKILLED WHAT HAPPENED OVER HEREâ.
DEVON: No it was just theâ
KUNO: Oh, yeah.
IAIN: Woo!
DEVON: âcontinuityâs way harder than anyone thinks it is (laughs). Itâs a lot.
KUNO: Oh bless you guys for knowing that though cause weâwe totally would. Like, think, there was a point I remember saying that they changed Virenâs eye color because they didnât want too much continuity with Raylaâs eye color and I feel like we were really that close to having a âViren is Raylaâs real fatherâ issue. We really were. Somebody had to have thought about that issue (laughs).
DEVON: I actually think there isâthereâs still at least one shot in the show where Viren has the wrong eye color and if you can find it, congratulations (laughter in background). Thatâs where we missedâmissed it. So itâs in there somewhere.
KUNO: Xadia CSI (IAIN laughs). So you two are married, um, can you tell us what itâs like being married writing partners?
IAIN: You wanna go?
DEVON: Um, yeah, I mean itâsâwe actually knew each other professionally before we dated, so it wasnât like weâitâs sort of like, it was easy for us toâto remain work partners because that was how we existed in the first place. Like I met Iain when I interviewed him for a job and Iâhe was great (IAIN laughs), he was fun, he was all right.
IAIN: Apparently I passed.
DEVON: But um, so yeah we had a professional relationship before we had a datingââdatingâ relationship. Um, so itâs strange because a lot of people will say like, âOh, thatâs probably terrible. You probably, like, become absolutely sick of each otherâ but somehow weâve managed toâto have like, two relationship patterns where when weâre at work and weâre working on writing stuff we have this very professional thing going on and then at home, weâre just married idiots and we have a lot of fun. So like, I donât know, Iâm never tired of you, personally.
IAIN: No, (DEVON laughs) yeah I mean when weâre writing itâs generally like, Devonâs the one on the keys uh, you know, putting the words in and so on, and it will kind of bounce back and forth between like, Iâll have the idea for theâhow the scene should flow and Iâll kinda narrate bits and then weâll go back and smooth things over. But I mean, I could imagine that with some people it would get tense, but I think Devon and I, weâre just absolutely the most comfortable with each other and neither of us takes it personally when itâs like, âthat line that you pitched isnât workingâ or âthis joke could be funnierâ, anything like that.
DEVON: Itâs usually Iain whoâsâcause I usually type cause I type really too fast.
IAIN: Sheâs really too proud of her typing (laughs).
DEVON: I type super fast, itâs my only real talent, butâlike Iâll just sort of go off on some sort of like incredibly unnecessary, long description of something and Iain will sort of let me get about like four or five lines into this unnecessary nonsense and heâll just sort start going like, âOK so like, do we reallyâdo we need that? I mean, you know, could we sort of parse this down a little, a little less, a little lessâ. And then I, just like, âUgh, fineâ (laughs).
IAIN: But um, every word she writes is great.
DEVON: Mmm (skeptically)
IAIN: Itâs perfect.
DEVON: Completely not true. Also in our scripts I think likeâ
KUNO: Aw.
DEVON: âin terms of the way that we work professionally, I think like a lot of my strengths are inâin really almost self indulgent levels of drama and he can kind of pull me back from being too indulgent on those fronts. And then I think that Iain is objectively absurdly funny and so when you kind of look at our episodes usually everything thatâs pretty funny and lighthearted and like the sense of levity often comes from you and then if thereâs anything that just feels really painfully sad itâs probably me?
IAIN: Iâm the funny one.
DEVON: (laughs) Itâs true.
KUNO: Aw, I feel such a connection to you Devon, because Iâm actually, episode 3 was actually one of my favorite ones because I love all that like domestic stuff. I love just kind of likeâoh, I donât know what you call the trope, like a safe house trope where you go somewhere, youâre still kind of in the adventure but weâre in a space right now, a narrative space where people are safe, if that makes any sense. Like youâif youâve ever seen How To Train Your Dragon, like (T/N I donât know what was said here, sorry!), the base is the safe place, that kind of thing. So, I totally get that, I actually seeâepisode 3 was one of my favorites outside of pretty much every episode where Rayllum was a thing. (laughter from multiple people)
HAILEY: The whole season basically (laughs).
KUNO: Pretty much the whole season, um. I think there was one more question about two.
HAILEY: Yeah sooo.
KUNO: Before we get to the elves.
HAILEY: Yeah, definitely. Uh so it was mentioned that youâre now lead writer, Devon, and can you tell a little bit more about what that entails if you can, and how thatâs been going?
DEVON: Yeah, I mean⌠I actually donât know what I can say about it, um⌠I think itâit means that uh, for future Dragon Prince stuff Iâll sort of like take a bit more of an active role in leading theâthe development and the storylines and things like that. It also means that from a company perspective um Iâve been kind of involved in some other side stuff that Wonderstorm is quietly looking into developing and um I help a lot with other IPs that we would love to make a real thing someday and thatâs kind of all I can say about it I think or Iâll get in trouble.
HAILEY: All right, thatâs great, thatâs good to know, thank you.
KUNO: The Dragon Prince 2 (laughter from multiple people). Iâm totally joking everyone thatâs not a thing so donât take that forâ
HAILEY: Wow.
KUNO: Iâm joking.
IAIN: Two dragons.
DEVON: The Dragon 2 Prince.
KUNO: Yeah. OK also if thereâs anything that you guys say that you want redacted this is probably not going up for another week because I have to get our reaction episode out. So anything you guys think about that youâre like, âMaybe I shouldnât have said thatâ just message us and weâll redact that. Yeah, cause we know thatâ
HAILEY: Or just say it. Just tell us, like, whatâsâ
DEVON: Hopefully we have some self-control butâ
KUNO: Okay, so we are going to get really indulgent here and I think this is going to be really in Devonâs wheelhouse. We have a lot of questions and a bunch of the scenarios so try to get through as much of it as possible. Um so the first question is can you tell us more about the Silvergrove? What is the government system like in Silvergrove? Who runs it? If you could tell us that is that the onlyâat least like the leadership role? Um, is that the only Moonshadow elf village? And also do they actually get any real daylight because I noticed when the illusion thing happened it just got shady and Iâm like, âThey might be taking this Moonshadow thing too farâ. Like the elvesâdo they really like that much? So like tell us about the Silvergrove and where Rayla grew up.
IAIN: So I guess itâs probably worth just starting off with a kind of blanket like, âif it hasnât been in the show, we canât say itâs 100% fact. A lot of this is just gonna be what kind of we thought, rough shape of things happen in our headsââ
KUNO: Yeah, absolutely.
IAIN: âgoing into the writing and so on. So you know, donât come after me with any, uh, fandom lawyers, anyone. But um yeah, I guess like itâs sort ofâitâs most useful for us to think about it in comparison to how the Sunfire elves, like clearly they have very structured society. They have a queen, obviously, and they have large cities and so on whereas we think Moonshadow elves live in, as you saw, much smaller communities. And I think the Silvergrove is not the only one of those, it might be one of the better known ones where clearly the best assassins come from. But uh, I think are other ones out there, um, and maybe even Moonshadow elf people do not know where all the other ones are. Obviously the Silvergrove is hidden and maybe they donât even have access to all the other ones. So I think thereâs a sort of community run vibe to things. I think you know when they decided toâto ghost Rayla, and before that Raylaâs parents, I think that was probably a âletâs all come to a consensus before we make a decision about something like thisâ. I think, Devon, if you want to talk about the kind of like sunlight vibes things, because that was a big part of your driving force behind how this episode looked and felt.
DEVON: Um⌠well⌠first, I will say that it was potentially from the top down a complicated visual decision to have episode 3 take place in a Moonshadow elf shady forest grove and also the kingdom of sunlight.
IAIN: Yup.
DEVON: It created a couple production problems in terms of like the way we wanted the Silvergrove to look was very like evening themed and cool colors and you know shaded. And I had this really sort of self indulgent thing where I really wanted it to be as close to night time as possible and yet the story line in Lux Aurea was clearly taking place in the middle of the day. So we came to this sort of compromise that you know it is technically daytime through the whole day and there is enough tree cover that itâs already pretty shadowy but also I think there is some magic at play thatâs sort of like generally um shrouds the whole thing in more of like a night time vibe. And my inspiration for that was Iâm a big World of Warcraft player, or was I donât super play a ton anymore but I really loved Ashenvale and some of the night elf regions and they had that similar thing that no matter what time of day it was it always felt like at least dusk or like this sort of like everâever shaded feeling. And I indulgently kind of wanted that to be where Rayla came from. So thatâs what thatâs about.
IAIN: Yeah and I think theyâre magical beings. They donât need vitamin D from the sunlight or anything like that. Theyâre totally fine if they just get moonlight every so often.
DEVON: But yeah, donât write a script that has, you know, moon themed place and sun themed place at the same time. It was a⌠questionable choice (laughs). But I think it turned outâ
KUNO: Yeah, âcause I was wonderingâI was wonderingâI was like âOkayâ because a lot of the stuff you run throughâyou run the okay, if I were to write a fanfiction how do I use this. So itâs like, do they just never likeâif they likeâif Callum were to say live in the Silvergrove would he just have to get used to the fact that like itâs just never totally bright daylight or unless you leave the Silvergrove in the forest, uh, and likeâthat type ofâis that whatâs kind of like going on, they just like their shade?
DEVON: I think they like their shade. Itâs like Scotland in the winter.
IAIN: Oh yeah, except we all get miserable by around about February when we havenât seen sunlight in several months. But um yeah, I think itâs kind of like yeah, a combination of âoooh, magicâ and also just extremely, like, thick tree cover in the deepest parts of the forest. But I donât think you have to travel too far. But uh, I think thereâs a reason why everyone in that town was a Moonshadow elf and there were no Sunfire elves or random humans just like, chilling and living there. I think only the most goth of kids would be able to live in the Silvergrove without going a little bit mad.
DEVON: I mean you only have to go as far as the adoraburr field which clearly still gets a significant amount of daylight.
IAIN: Yeah.
KUNO: And you said thereâs not really like a leader. They do as a community, but is there anyone that like makes decisions, like is there anybody that like if they were to go to somebody, like if they have like village leadership decisions. And obviously, um, blanket statement that all this we assume is kind a little bit of headcanon so it doesnât have to be like for gospel, but you know for purposes of writing stuff.
DEVON: Um the way I thought about itâwell, to back up a tiny bit, there was actually a version of the story where there might haveâthis was super, super early on, we were thinking about how the story might play out and we talked about there being potentially another Moonshadow elf leader type character that they would meet who, you know, was the one who ultimately called for the Ghosting decision. But that didnât really fit the sort of, like, very personal nature of the story we wanted to play out with Rayla specifically. Um but thinking about that and the way that we were, you know, trying to shape itâI would imagine that like the assassins are sort of like a specific group that live in the Silvergrove which is otherwiseâitâs not all assassins, like, not everybody there is an assassin. And I think that means that like you know Runaan was the leader of the assassins so he might consult with the leader of the blacksmiths who may be someone over Ethari but maybe itâs him now who might consult with the other general leadersâI donât know. Like I think itâs more of a counsel of different groups than one single authority. It just seems like that would be a better fit for Moonshadow elves than the sort of like very, very strong-army, structured, high-and-mighty feeling that the Sunfire elves have, so, does that make sense?
KUNO: That totally makes sense, a little bit like an oligarchy, I think I had the idea that like they sound like they like a counsel. Like it sounds like a elven conciliatory.
DEVON: Yeah I think like someone might say, like obviously something horrible has happened and Rayla is exactly the person we thought she was. Iâm calling for aâa ghost vote. And then you knowâ
IAIN: With a cooler name than that.
DEVON: No I think itâs canonically, Iâm sorryâ
IAIN: Ghost vote?
DEVON: The canon is âghost voteâ now.
IAIN: Okay.
DEVON: But yeah, they would all sort of like weight in kind of like a town hall scenario about of like why this is obviously the correct call and they would all sort of like have to come to some sort of agreement about what to do versus the Sunfire queen just being like âmph, time for the light, light decides!â
IAIN: Yeah.
KUNO: Okay um the next question being almost a little on that, does Ethari regret, um, what does heâdoes Ethari regret doing the banishing spell now that he knows the truth about Rayla?
DEVON: Oh absolutely 100%. But I donât think he would have the power toâto reverse it. Like I think he could do a quick charm to help reverse it in the moment just to speak with her but ultimately it would take a lot for him to undo it and Iâm notâwe havenât talked about what heâll get up to in the meantime, but I donât know he would be able to pursue it so directlyâIâd have to talk about it, I think it would be an interesting side thought to think about how he might pursue redeeming her in the eyes of her people knowing what he knows, butâ
IAIN: Yeah I think given that we said it would take everyone to do it collectively and make an agreed decision it would similarly everyone would have to understand the truth and go back on it and âoh I saw her one time and she said she didnât do anything wrong probably isnât enough to overturn that. But yeah I think he probably felt some regret even at the moment, but you know heâs in some of the worst grief of his entire life and heâs not going to make perfect rational decisions. And Iâve seen you know some people were slightly upset that he got so angry with Rayla in the moment of seeing her but I think like when you first see the person that youâve tried to convince yourself sort of took the most important person in your life away from you, youâre gonna feel a big mess of feelings and it will bring up some grief that maybe you thought you were justâjust starting to get over, so ah. Yeah I think hopefully he can turn that around in the years to come but theyâve all had a rough time. Theyâre at war. It sucks (DEVON laughs). Donât go to war, kids.
KUNO: Hailey did you want to ask the next one or did you want me to?
HAILEY: Sure I can ask it. Could youâso I meanâyou mentioned a stuffâa couple things about their government system and whatnot, but is there anything else you could tell us about Moonshadow culture, like what their day to day is like, and what it means to be a Moonshadow elf?
DEVON: Um I do think that a lot of the fandom Iâve been pleased to see has picked up on this sort of idea of a fairly rigid culture and you know thereâs a lot of importance placed on things like honor, loyalty, and the ability to commit to things. And um I think that could come off as pretty strict but I actually think it comes from the place of valuing a close knit community. And I think, like, to the idea that we said like they probably have some kind of counsel instead of some single authority kind of ruler. ItâsâI think their day to day would be very much going about their business in ways that support each other you know? Like does that make sense? Itâsâyou go to the blacksmith and he does work for you and itâs friendly and conversational but itâs productiveâitâs all very for the good of the community.
IAIN: Yeah I think early on in season 1 even Rayla says that you know theyâre not really meant to show their feelings. So I think everyone kind of commits to doing their task for the good of the village and doesnât gripe about their day to day until something bad happens as the entire series to this point has been driven by. But um yeah I think they uhâtheyâre just committed to having a good, small, close knit village life and all supporting each other the best they can. And then occasionally the dragon queen tells you to go kill someone and thatâs your job so you better go do that without complaining about it.
DEVON: I think we use the words âreclusive yet intimateâ in the article we put up about the two moon creatures, the moonstrider and the shadowpaw. And I liked that a lot because I think theyâre reclusive in the sense that theyâre a little bit shut off from the wider world and theyâre um isolationist in their preservation of their own culture but they are very close to each other and that is something that they hold at such anâlike a preciousness level but itâs also a bit extreme, like if you betray that in any capacity like obviously they take that very seriously. And so itâs a double edged sword if you will, to have a community that supportive and that close but also your ability to perform all of yourself for the good of that community can be your undoing soâ
KUNO: No I actually kinda get that um âcause Iâm Pacific Islander so I think weâd call that what youâd call a collectivist society where itâs like the needs of the group supercede needs of the individual so I kinda like Iâitâs not the extreme I think that they are because theyâre very like reclusive but um I kinda live like that in a little bit of way. Itâs what I grew up with. So I actually totally get that which might be why I like that so much (multiple people laugh). Um so the next question would be how does the banishing spell work that, um, that was used on Rayla politically and magically? I think weâve talked a little bit about politically already but magically isâIâm assuming itâs a collective decision or does each person, like, opt in? Like could Ethari have opted out of doing it or did weâdid they all have to agree?
DEVON: I think everybody have to agree?
KUNO: And how is it broken?
DEVON: I donât think you can opt out?
IAIN: Um I think âhow is it brokenâ is something we definitely want to save forâfor the future uh we really hope that Rayla manages to undo that. In terms of I think that itâs just culturally ingrained that you wouldnât opt out. Um I think they would probably just argue forever until they manage to come to an agreement. So Iâyeah I donât think thereâs you know half the elves in that village who are seeing Rayla and were like âOh hey Rayla howâs it going?â I think uh they all came to the collective decision. Thatâs kind of the political angle. Um sorry, what was the other part? Magically how it works?
KUNO: Yeah? How would you do it?
IAIN: Iâagain, you know if itâs not in the show itâs not canon, but I sort of inspired by how the entrance spell works where they do a dance and thereâs a ritual and I imagine itâs kind of similar. Like I think thereâs a lot of that kind of like ritualistic style of magic and itâs kind of like what you see when they put the flowers out onto the water as well. Thereâs you know a collective dance probably involving a lot more people, a lot more cool intricate runes that happen only with a much more somber mood than the fun, happy times of Callum and Rayla dancing around in the forest. Um so yeah itâs probablyâI would imagine itâs probably tied to some whatever the saddest phase of the moon is and thatâs when they all get together and really somberly and really sadly uh commit to never seeing this person again. At least thatâs the part of the plan. An interesting question that I think could be something that fanfiction writers such as yourself could get into is has any one of these ever been broken before or have they all been pretty sure that they would never need to go back on it? Is that going to be something that Rayla is going to figure out for the first time ever or is there a precedent for this happening. And we donât have an answer right now but I think that would be a cool story to think about and write.
DEVON: Oh man I love the saddest phase of the moon idea. Imagine if they do it at the new moon because itâs like the moonâs face is hidden forever. Whoo.
IAIN: Whoo.
DEVON: Sad.
KUNO: Maybe weâre birthing things while weâre doing this interview. I actually think it would be like Callum does the Historia Viventum thing and it would be soâcause now Iâm just imagining this whole village doing this sad dance which is the Banish Rayla dance essentially. And like that would be so sad for Rayla to witness that just for the drama of seeing her entire village decide to just not see her ever again. And thatâs like wow, Iâm so sad now.
DEVON: I love sadness.
IAIN: Yeah Callum just crushing a series of Moon Opals to show such a clip show of all of Raylaâs saddest history moments (laughs).
DEVON: Oh god.
IAIN: Thatâd be great.
DEVON: Thanks Callum.
KUNO: Thanks Callum. Um, sheâd love him anyway. But um okay so some of my favorite stuff, what was it like for Rayla when her parents had to leave her to live with Runaan and Ethari and what was that transition like for them all? How old was like Rayla too?
DEVON: This was one that weâve had a couple different ideas about so this is another one thatâs like heavy not quite canon bubble. Like if we actually end up doing a story that involves some of these details itâs likely to change and be slightly different but the versions that Iâve liked have involved her being pretty young. And because honor is such a you know key part of Moonshadow culture I think like overall it was something that she felt you know sad about because she knew that she wasnât going to be directly seeing her parents very often anymore. Andâbut it was uh such a huge honor that she felt you know pride in what her parents were being selected to go do. You know, act as Dragonguard and serve as these sort of like honorific, um, warriors that left the collective of the Silvergrove to go represent Moonshadow elves in the service of the Dragon Queen. And I think she hadâshe grew up being told what an honor that was and how much pride she should have in her parents because that is such a special thing. And then I think like it speaks a lot to how proud she was when she believed that they ran away and abandoned that duty because you know, how could they? If that was their reason for leaving her when she was a child and then they ran away from that job, like, how important could it have really been? And then you know, Iâm sure that makes her feel very, very small. It made her feel so hurt that she told Callum at first that they were dead so she took it pretty hard.
KUNO: Yeah.
DEVON: But I think the other thing about it that weâve sort of kicked around is that like, Runaan and Ethari were Raylaâs parentsâ close friends and I think she was familiar with them enough that she didnât feel like she was being you know left with two strangers. Itâs sort of just like, youâre going to be under the care of people who are already very, very close to you and care about you quite a bit.
IAIN: Yeah I think with like Moonshadow elves in general the thing I think about a lot is like the good and evil that comes from suppressing your true emotions to show a different face to the world and I think we see a lot of that in Rayla. Like I think she probably committed pretty hard to Ghosting her parents because she had this like big mess of like sadness that sheâd left but at least the soft landing of Runaan and Ethari to live with and so on. But believing like this sadness is worth it because theyâre doing something so noble and then the betrayal of thatâit just came out in kind of a messy like toxic way, right, where now sheâs committed to becoming an assassin at a really young age in a way Ethari doesnât agree with and so on. But I mean on the other side I think having a strong handle on your emotions is often one of Raylaâs strengths right? Like we saw in episode 5 of this season after sheâs going through a whole lot of stuff, both her family situation and this new development with Callum, sheâs just able to like operate as a cool badass extremely cool assassin without letting any of that affect her. But you know I think thereâs balance in how you handle your feelings and how you externalize them in a good way that people can learn from, but sometimes you gottaâyou gotta work (laughs).
KUNO: That makes sense. Oh well yeah I always had this personal headcanon which I kind of like incorporated into my fanfictions where she felt abandoned by her parents so in a way itâs kinda like slightlyâkinda like that except it was all those feelings that have been repressed from years and years basically came out when she felt likeâlike the abandonment came to like the head when she felt like they had left because they had ran awayâthey kind of like ran away like from her.
DEVON: Oh yeah, absolutely.
KUNO: In a wayâtheir duty toâ
DEVON: I think that validates the suppressed feeling, you know.
KUNO: Yeah, since their duty to the Dragonguard was in itâs own way more important and thatâs something that was like okay because it was an honor but since they ran away itâs like obviously it was more important in a terrible way, if that makes any sense?
IAIN: Yeah I mean I think itâs like she did her best and sheâs trying to be a grown up but itâs hard at a young age to accept that you know there are meant to be higher callings than a bond between parents and children, right? Like thatâs hard for her to grasp and she probably didnât express that openly ever really. But I think it really did help that she had two genuine loving father figures ready to accept her with open arms even if one of them did train her to become the best assassin of her generation, which again I wouldnât advise toâto most parents out there.
DEVON: I do think like even that was considered, you know, honorable. It was you know, youâre going toânot only are you going to get to live with Runaan and Ethari, like Runaan is the leader of the assassins, or at least maybe at that point in time he wasnât the leader but he was very up and coming. I donât know, it could be either or, but that I think was probably something that she fully embraced and fully wanted, like you know, âthis is my purpose in life, this is my calling, my parents have gone off to do their calling and itâs a great honor for them, and this is my path and what Iâm going to do with myselfâ. And that didnât end up being true but it was probably a comfort to her at the time.
IAIN: Yeah.
KUNO: That makes a lot of sense. Moving on, okay, this, weâre getting real indulgent nowâdo you know what Ethari and Runaanâs wedding was like and what are Moonshadow elf weddings are like in general?
DEVON: Um, I have a, so a lot of the dancing stuff is because I have an enormous soft spot for tropes involving cute dances, like, just a huge, huge soft spot. And the thing that comes to mind is, if youâve seen the movie Prince of Egypt, which is such a weird referenceâ
KUNO: Yeah, I love that.
DEVON: âthe scene where he and the girl, I forget her name, they do the thingâ
KUNO: Tzipporah.
DEVON: âwith the ribbon and they do the cute little dance with the ribbon. For some reason thatâs what I think of when I imagine what a moment in their wedding would look like would be a dance with a ribbon that they sort of use toâyou know, Moonshadow elves love ribbons, I guess, but this is a good ribbon! Itâs a love ribbon. But anyway, thatâs just my idea. I love that specificâthat song that, âThrough Heavenâs Eyesâ, itâs during that sequence but thatâ
KUNO: Yeah.
DEVON: âwould be my go-to inspiration for like, itâs like that and then you know, everybody dances with them because Moonshadow elves like to dance.
IAIN: Yeah, I kind of like the idea of theâthereâs a lot of these symbols that are sometimes extremely sinister. I mean I think Ethari even kinda calls this out when he shoots theâthe Shadowhawk arrow to inform the queen that her son is in fact alive. But like, Moonshadow elves believe that death and life are not good and evil, theyâre mirrors of each other and an important part of the cycle. And you know, the moon has cycles and thatâs an important part. So I think thinking about all the rituals and stuff that they have, which initially youâre introduced to as âletâs go murder someone partyâ, like if that wasâthere was a kind of inverse to that that was a big part of their wedding ceremony I think that would make a lot of sense to Moonshadow elves because this is two people binding their lives together forever. Binding for a shared purpose in a good way and not the grim âletâs go kill Prince Ezranâ kind of way.
KUNO: Yeah. Cause naturally this is involving like several ships so Iâm like, I had to ask that. And on the piggyback of that, as detailed as possible, can you describe courtship customs for Moonshadow elves?
DEVON: Oh man.
KUNO: I mean like datingâdating customs, like a headcanon even if itâs just headcanons.
IAIN: Devon is deep in thought (laughs).
DEVON: Iâve neverâlike for some reason theâthe headcanons that Iâve thought about are more specific to like, Runaan and Ethari than Iâve really sort of like branched out into thinking about how Moonshadow elves do this in general. So I imagine thereâs intendedâthereâs some formality to it, I would imagine, in that like, because theyâre so, you know, purposeful and thoughtful with how they express their feelings if at all, I think it would be, you know, exchange of gifts like small favors and making your purpose known in a way that starts small but has purpose. So I think like, thereâs versions where Ethari would put extra detail into the work he was doing for Runaan which you know, could be perceived as a sign of affection or Runaan was coming to Ethari asking him to work on his weapons or metalcraft stuff a little bit more than was necessary andâstuff like that, where itâs a bit stiff and difficult but I think like onceâonce there is clear reciprocation I think there can be more of an open discussion about it, does that make sense? But I think Runaan probably struggled with this a whole lot, like, âcause heâsâdid I, it might have been you who I responded to on Twitter but someone asked me something along these lines and I think Runaan had a really hard time even with this first sort of like simple offerings of affection because thatâs just him. Like he sort of takes that aspect to an extreme. Like he has a hard time being like âhere is the way I wish to express myself in a soft way and not with aâa sharp object. So I think Ethari had an easier time because heâs just more naturally soft (laughs).
IAIN: Yeah I sometimes think that Runaan is the most Moonshadow elf of all Moonshadow elves, but like, you know, itâsâ
KUNO: I was gonna say that.
IAIN: Yeah, um, you know when they have such a hard time showing their feelings and they sometimes feel like theyâre not supposed to and so on, and so Runaan is trying to pick up on the tiniest possible hints through professional exchanges and so on. And I think when itâs actually time to confess that thereâs a feeling there you would, I think especially Runaan would have to be 100% sure and then do it entirely in private, the most private situation possible where there could be no possible spies who could see this if it was going to go wrong because that would just be the end of his entire life, obviously.
DEVON: Yeah he would bind himself to his own death (laughs).
IAIN: Yeah, thatâs it. Gonna assassinate myself because I confessed love and it didnât get reciprocated. Thatâs that.
DEVON: Itâs over.
IAIN: So yeah, lot ofâlots of awkward advances where theyâre tryingâtrying to have the escape hatch of âOh I didnât really try to suggest that I liked you, this was just me asking you for a professional favor by letâs never speak againâ.
DEVON: And then he comes back the next day (DEVON and IAIN laugh).
KUNO: Oh my goodness. Uh I feltâIâI kinda like headcanoning now that Ethari tells Rayla all this âhow I met, you know, your surrogate dadâ kind of stuff. Like, and thatâs how sheâsheâs like, this is how you do love apparently.
DEVON: I do think that like, yeah, he had a much easier time and probably picked up on stuff. And to me thereâs a side of Ethari that you donât really get to see in the episode because heâs very sad. I think heâs aâhe does have a playful side and I like to imagine that while Runaan was doing his, like, really just not-the-best attempts to display affection early on, like Ethari would pick up on them but not necessarily give the full signal back. And he played a little bit oblivious but he absolutely wasâheâs just more emotionally in tune. So I think, âOh hey, youâre back again, wow. I thought I did fantastic work on your blades last time. I cannot believe theyâre already dull!â Like and he just sort of like, he knowsâhe knows thereâs something there.
IAIN: I think like this kind of gets echoed in Rayla, like where Callum in an effort to pick her up and be honest about how he feels that sheâs just an incredible person. Like to her thatâs like, âperson being entirely open with their feelings in a positive way? Thatâs a love connection!â And then it goes wrong for one entire episode and then it turns out that Callum was also not fully aware of how he was feeling and so on. But I think like, yeah, I think thatâs why she was like immediately âWow, this is clearly meant to be romantic and this isâthis is going exactly the way I want!â and then it didnât. But then it did! So weâre all happy.
DEVON: Aww.
KUNO: I am! Iâm certainly happy. Umâuh letâs seeâthe next one isâokay. What was Rayla like as a child growing up in a household she didâhousehold? Um, she mentioned going to school and weâd love to know how baby Rayla fared as a student and just a child growing up in the Silvergrove and what that experience is like for a Moonshadow elf child?
DEVON: You wantâyou want me to do this one?
IAIN: Go for it.
DEVON: Yeah, um, I think Rayla was feisty (laughs) in a word. I think sheâfor some reason thereâs a scene in the beginning of Korra where sheâs already mastered like, three elements and she like comes out punching. I kind of think about that when I think about baby Rayla. She knows sheâsâthereâs that end credit scene where sheâs got the two sticks and sheâs posing with them and Runaanâs sort of lifting one of them up and Iâm thinking like, okay so shegâs like, from a tiny, tiny age thinking like, âIâm gonna be the coolest assassin the Moonshadow elves have ever seen!â and sheâs like rambunctious about that almost, because you know, as a child you donât really understand what the ramifications of that are but itâs considered like a highly, highly valued, honored position and so sheâs obviously like, âYeah Iâm gonna do that and Iâm going to be the best at it and there will never be any complications whatsoever!â In terms of Moonshadow elf childhood, I think with the way that I would think about it isâwe talked about the sort of community aspect. I imagine Moonshadow elves have pretty, like, whatâs the word, like, a lot of general education, sort of, like, âthis is what weaponsmithing is like and this is gardening and raising crops and things to provide for the communityâ and so I think they would have a lot of âschoolâ that covers a lot of just like, life basics because you are expect to find a place that contributes to the collective whole. Does that likeâ?
IAIN: Yeah, I think like itâs also lucky for Rayla that a big part of Moonshadow elf culture is what we would call PE. Like I think she excelled at striving to be an assassin warrior and so on. Especially like, sheâs trying to live up to her parents who at first were honored Dragonguard and you know, Runaan as well. I think in terms of like, more academic stuff like if there was Moonshadow elf history lessons and âletâs go out and understand the, you know, ecology of the Moonshadow forestâ and stuff I think she was probably a bit kinda like, rambunctious and not super paying attention and running off and not really giving it her all and so on. Um, you kind of get that impression from early on where she knows what Primal sources are and sheâll explain that to Callum but like, when sheâs talking about âhow do you do that Moonshadow form thingâ sheâs like âI donât know, it just feels rightâ. Like I think thatâsâshe did everything very intuitively and focused on the things she cared about and understood and kinda did what sheâdid what she could on the other subjects, I guess, but didnât care as much.
DEVON: Yeah I feel like if you imagine the kid that is going to grow up to be an artist is doing doodles on their math homework and just sort of like doing the math homework butâbut you know, clearly the effort is being placed elsewhere. I think itâs that but she was excelling at PE and assassin training and therefore fell very, very easily into her supposed path.
KUNO: Theâthis isnât on the thing, but didâdid she everâdid she ever really have any friends? âCause she doesnât really mentionâever mention friends. Iâmaybe that has to do with the whole assassin thing where if she wasnât learning being at school she would probably doing assassin stuff with Runaan or assassin training stuffâI guess not really assassinating. But um did she have really friends growing up?
IAIN: I think if she had friends they were not super close. And I think she valued her alone time. Thereâs a sweet moment early inâwell end of season 1 where she like tries to cheer up Ezran by saying that fitting in is overated and I think she felt that a little bit. Um and you know I think thereâs some amount of when youâre being trained in the art of an assassin like youâre probably somewhat taught toâto keep people at armâs length a little bit, right? And I think sheâshe took that to heart. So I think thatâs a big part of why when she was first traveling with Callum and Ezran there wasnât that much trust between then and it was kinda like, it was Ezran honestly that bridged the gap being most empathetic number 1 child. And yeah, I think having a close friend is relatively new to her.
KUNO: Makes sense. Like just few, not the many. Um okay then next question before we get to Haileyâs batch of them are um, what are Runaanâs feelings toward Rayla as of right now and everything thatâs happened since season 1? I understand heâs in a coin, heâs in a finacial crisis, heâs probably not thinking about it too hardâ
DEVON: Oh my god (laughs).
KUNO: But you know, like heâs gotta beâyou know heâs not doing anything right now, Iâm assuming, so like what would be his feelings about her at the moment?
DEVON: I mean heâs got a lot of time to think, wherever he is. I think likeâI got into this a little bit on Twitter in a self-indulgent rant at one point where I think he went through a lot very quietly during the first few episodes of the show where he very, very much wanted Rayla to succeed, even if he wasnât necessarily like being the dad on the sideline of the soccer game, like, cheering for her. But he thought this was her moment, this was her time to prove that she really was more dedicated to you know, her cause and her people than her parents were because they had, you know, been the subject of such shame. And then ah, everything goes the way it does, I think he has a brief crisis of, âIs this my fault? Did I fail to train her well enough? Like, was Ethari right?â Because he always thought she had, you know, a softer heart. And I think like those are the types of things that heâs still stewing on, um like didââdid he overstep? Was it somethingâwas he so eager to give her the opportunity to prove herself that he, you know, ultimately put her in a position where she could not succeed?â I think like, the other thing that I mentioned on Twitter was I think he took her off the mission both because he very, very much wanted to give himself and the others a chance to complete the mission even if it meant their deaths. But it also meant that Rayla had the chance to survive even if it was potentially going to be misinterpreted and sheâd get slapped with the Ghosting, I think he believed that her alive was better than everybody being dead. So I think like, heâs got a lotâa lot to work through and I think likeâI think he feels guilty. I think thereâs the smallest part of him that he has theâagain, a lot of time to potentially stew on and reflect on is he does feel like he put her in a position that was, you know, not fully taking into account the type of person she was and more projecting onto her the type of person he wanted her to be and gift he wanted to give her of redeeming herself in the eyes of her people for her parents. And I think heâs gonna have to work through that. Poor dude.
KUNO: Thatâs so sadly heartfelt. Thatâs so sadly heartfelt. Here I am thinking that heâd be, like, maybe a little angry with her, âcause obvious reason, but now itâs like, oh he feels guilty. Like, âOh, okay, letâs just slap the angst on, okayâ.
DEVON: I mean, I think likeâ
KUNO: Yeah, mm-hm.
DEVON: Sure heâd have some anger, like, âAwgh, I gave her everything. I gave her the exact opportunity she neededâ. But I think like the guilt and the reflection leads to the âMaybe Iâmaybe it was me who stepped too far hereâ.
IAIN: Yeah, I mean another part of it is like, we donât know what itâs like being trapped in the hell coin dimension, right?
DEVON: Oh I do. IâI meanâ
IAIN: Oh you do?
DEVON: It sucks.
IAIN: Oh it sucks?
DEVON: When it happens to me on the reg (IAIN laughs).
IAIN: But you know, does it feel like an eternity is passing? Does it feel like no time has passed? Is he in eternal pain? Because if itâs like real badâ
KUNO: Oh my god.
IAIN: âin there I can imagine that like yeah thereâs definitely some of those kind of anger feelings that you donât want to feel in but you do sometimes, right? Like itâs like, if he has a snap moment of âI wouldnât be in here if she hadnât gone off and disobeyed our orders and, like, lied to me and so onâ. So if he ever comes out uh donât know what side of the emotional coin heâs gonna land on.
DEVON: Ohhh, please leave.
KUNO: Oh my god.
DEVON: Get out, oof, ouch.
IAIN: Finger guns.
DEVON: I do think like that sort of complexâ
KUNO: It soundsâ
DEVON: âemotion is just, I donât want to give any time to that pun, weâre moving on. Like that sort of complexity of emotion and relationships is something that I really like in the show overall. Like you said earlier, you saw some people that were a little bit upset that Ethari was so willing to lash out at Rayla at first and I think like to me that was always part of the big, big thematic of the show, which is this sort of endless cycle of people being willing to hurt each other and not forgive each other and not, you know, accept that you can choose peace. Itâs, you know, itâsâRunaan having that impulse to anger is a very natural thing and it doesnâtâI donât think it necessarily makes him a bad person for feeling that. And I donât necessarily think that Ethari having his moments of grief lead him to actions that are ultimately like, regretful, like I donât think he would want that to define him in the long run. Like those are very human things but those are the things as we acknowledge them and as areâso long as we are capable of recognizing how flawed we are and how violent andâŚ
KUNO: Messy.
DEVON: Messy! Thank you, thatâs like, I was going to say like churning, messy is good. Like messy emotions can be and how they can like, dictate the way we treat each other, um, but forgiveness and patience and acceptance are ultimately just so much more powerful than those negative perpetuating lashing outs. That was an inelegant way of ending that screed, but yes.
KUNO: I actually really love that um âcause I from the beginning Iâve loved their father-daughter relationship so I love how complicated it is, âcause the truth is you know every parent-child relationship is a little complicated, except theirs is a little more complicated with assassination going on in the works, the family trade. So I love that it is this complicated âcause I know I remember in the beginning where people were like you knowâyou know she does have a dad. And itâs like I know she has a biological dad but until I am told otherwise thatâs her father. I donât care and I love their relationship so I love that that really reflects that. Anotherâthe next question out of me before we get to, um, Haileyâs, which are all about different elves, is um, course I have to ask, my policy is one Rayllum question per interview. Um what are Runaanâs feelingsâwhah, no, whoop, how would Ruthari and Runaan react to Raylaâs relationship with Callum considering heâs not only a human but a human prince? âCause as far as we know Runaan really hates, um, humans and Iâd love to see that story later, both individually and as a couple. Because as far as I know, Ethari probably doesnât know that their in a relationship unless he sensed it?
DEVON: Oh man, IâI think you should take this one, but I do want to say that I saw one comment on Tumblr at one point where someone said that they wished that Ethari had said something to Callum along the lines of like, âTake care of herâ. And I want to travel back in time and pretend that was in the script âcause I think that would have been really, really nice. And I do think like, he picked up on the fact that Callum was important to her even if itâhe didnât necessarily read it as romantic right off the bat. I think he mostly was like, âOh this guy is kind of like a cuteâheâs a human but heâs, you know, a friend to someone I care about and that in and of itself is valuable and thereâs something thereâ. So I thinkâpretend that was in the script. I wish I had thought about something like that butâ
KUNO: I will (DEVON laughs).
IAIN: Yeah.
KUNO: Thatâs canon as farâas far as Iâm concerned thatâs canon.
IAIN: I think uh it would be best for everyone involved if they found out together, uh, because I think Runaanâs impulse would not be good immediately. I think like, when you spend so much time as an assassin and you drill into your head that the people that youâre meant to kill are not people, theyâre the enemy right? Like I think thatâsâsometimes thatâs a thing he turns on to do the job and so on, but I do think thatâs gonna bleed into his personality and itâsâyou know, especially given his extremely recent history heâs not got the best feelings about humans. So I think it would inspire an immediate negative reaction in him that would not be pleasant for Callum and Rayla, but I think Ethari just has a much softer heart and that is where Rayla kind of got that side from. So I mean Iâm not going to say that he would immediatelyâyou know, theyâve been at war for hundreds and hundreds of years with humans and theyâve been told all through their history that humans committed the original sin of dark magic, et cetera et cetera, but like, I think it would take not that much time of seeing Rayla and Callum together for Ethari to see that thereâs something there and then I think Ethari would have the ability to ah, to talk Runaan down pretty quick. But I also think that like, Runaan might not even show any of this, there might just be a kind of seething resentment that heâs not really talking about inside. Um unless it was like on the battlefield or something and he was like, âThatâs a prince that Iâm meant to killâ or something like that. But overall I think Ethari would sense that Runaan was not likeâwas not taking this well and they would be able to talk it through. At least thatâs my gut.
DEVON: No, that sounds right (DEVON and IAIN laugh).
KUNO: I feel like poor Callum is just always on the edge of âAm I going to die tonight?â while heâs there, âIs this gonna be it?â Just gonna be like, âOops sorry I had an accidentâhey I had an accident in the middle of the night, you know, just a knife to the throat, thatâs allâ.
IAIN: I mean, heâs doing pretty well, like he said as they were about to meet Ethari and Rayla was like, âRemember Runaan?â He was like âOh yeah, that guy who tried to kill me as soon as he met me? Cool guyâ. Callumâs doing pretty well on the acceptance front these days.
DEVON: I doâ
KUNO: Yeah.
DEVON: I do want to say that I think Ethari and Callum would get along really well because I think they both have sort of like a soft hearted friendliness to them that they would have a fun rapport. And thatâs the sort of like âTrees to meet youâ line is definitely supposed to be likeâtheyâd you know, crack some goofy back and forths and I think that would soften Runaan too because he couldnât ever hate someone that Ethari liked.
IAIN: Yeah, I think itâs a weirdâ
KUNO: Aww.
IAIN: âreversal where like Callumâs the one doing the dad jokes and Ethariâs like humoring them and Runaanâs like, âI donât understand. Trees do not meet.â
DEVON: âPlease stop saying âtrees to meet youâ.â
KUNO: Aw it never gets old. I love that. Um alright, Hailey, take it away. Your turn.
#The Dragon Prince#Hot Brown Morning Potion Podcast#HBMP Podcast#TDP#Ruthari#Moonfam#HBMP Podcast transcription#TDP interview transcription#my posts
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Good Books I Read This Year
This is a list of the books I read this year that I actually enjoyed.
1. Against a Dark Background - Iain M. Banks One of Banksâ few non-Culture books, and the best of that small group (The Algebraist comes close second). No-nonsense ex-military lady in the far future goes through enormous shit to get people off of her back. Getting the gang back together was a bad idea. The very first book I will point to if someone tells me SF canât be literary. Sharrow is the reason I canât stop writing strong, nuanced female characters. If you read none of the other books on this list, read this one.
2 and 3. A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe | A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy - Alex White Pulpy science fiction with a space magic twist. Competent writing and high stakes. Eager to read the third which is out but which I havenât been able to find on #bookz yet.
4. Alhazred - Donald Tyson Going to tentatively recommend this one. Stick to the grimoires, Tyson, you arenât a novelist. That being said, the fleshing out of Alhazredâs life is fantastic, the book is well-researched historically, and I thought the actual structure of the plot was good, sticking just to Alhazredâs life without going too high-stakes. That being said, you did my girl Martala dirty, Tyson. Basically everything but the writing is good. Except for Martala. Martala deserved to be more of a character than that.
5. The Loosening Skin - Aliya Whiteley What if people were bugs and had to shed their skin every now and then? Exactly the kind of writing I do, taking a concept and saying âwhat ifâ and then expanding on it. Good characters. The whole drug thing came off a little half-baked but it worked out.
6. Aurora - Kim Stanley Robinson Reminds me of SMAC. Good hard-ish SF about a generation ship that decides it ainât worth it any more and turns around. Robinson is very good about thinking through all the ramifications that come from speculative technologies and Aurora is no exception.Â
7. Bear - Marian Engel Ignore the memes, this is genuinely some of the best literary fiction Iâve read in a long time. Won that medal deservedly. Like a better version of The End of the Story.
8. Recursion - Blake Crouch An actually interesting time travel story. Stakes are very high and, even as far as time travel goes, I didnât have to suspend my disbelief a huge amount. Very good characters.
9. The Gone-Away World - Nick Harkaway Beyond impressed at how Harkaway managed to blend martial-arts movie aesthetic with the post-apocalyptic firefighter stuff. The twist blew me away the first time I read it. Genuinely pleasant to read.
10. The Books of Babel 1-3 - Josiah Bancroft For worldbuilding, 10 out of 10. For plot, I think Bancroft maybe should have just gone with a trilogy, because the stakes are getting a little high and I think it may jump the shark soon. Waiting for book 4 to see. Reminds me strongly of Abarat, but not as out-there.
11. Prosperâs Demon - K J Parker Fantastic novella about a possession and an exorcist. Easy to find, easy to read, left me wishing that it had been a novel. Not that it wasnât wrapped up well, but I wanted more.
12. Provenance - Ann Leckie A science fiction coming-of-age political drama? Sign me up. Written decently but Ingray and whatshername the security officer should have gotten more time together, as it is she feels like an afterthought. Do love Ingray. Would love another novel in the same setting. Maybe there is one.
13. The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling Drop what youâre doing and read this book. Truly fantastic work with the characters, of which there are just two - it is an incredibly fine line keeping characters realistic in the high-stakes situations this book portrays and Starling does so wonderfully. Wish the ending were different but I understand what she was going for. Canât speak well enough of this.
14. A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine Another science fiction coming-of-age political drama? Sign me up. This one is better than Provenance, if just for the plot - really fantastic stuff. Once again would love another novel in the same setting. Martine is going to be one to watch.
15. The Complete SF Collection - Richard Morgan Altered Carbon - amazing. Broken Angels - fantastic. Woken Furies - great. Market Forces - this man is horrible, donât make me read about him. Black Man - good but not as good as the first three. Great schlocky stuff. Made me want to watch the TV show, which doesnât happen often. Morgan knows exactly what heâs writing and doesnât pretend itâs any better than it really is. That being said, Altered Carbon is very good.
16. Blindsight - Peter Watts Peter Watts is vastly underrated and Blindsight may be one of his best stories - worth reading for any science fiction fan. Raised some very interesting questions about consciousness and thought for me. Quintessential science fiction - pushing the envelope in all the right places. Love this.
17. The Rig - Roger Levy Fantastic self-contained SF on the same lines as Against a Dark Background. The twist again blew me away. Wrapped everything up nicely at the end which I found a little surprising, but I think it worked.
18. Artemis - Andy Weir Normally I hate Andy Weir but this was fun. Moon girl gets in over her head and has to make tough decisions to put stuff right. Good for her and so on. Didnât make me want to read any of his other novels but this one was okay. Donât think youâre off the hook, Andy.
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Iain Glen in HENRY IV, part 1: in 3 hours 50 minutes, and counting...
On BBC Radio 3, Sunday April 26, 19H30 UK time (available to all on the BBCâs website if you listen to the play live)
Yesterday, in my teaser interview with @pnienorâ, our resident Bard expert singled out a specific scene in which the King stands out: â...the exchange with Hal in Act 3, scene 2, I think, is where you find out just how good he is at keeping his crown and why. You want Hal to emulate him after this and he does.â ... Sooooo wanting to investigate this a bit further, I went into the text which will enable Iain Glen to shine and, lo and behold, I found yet more meta-theatrical resonances to enjoy!Â
During Henryâs lengthy (!!) impassioned address to his son, at one point he explains how he won the admiration of his people through modesty. While the previous King pranced around like some red carpet hungry star (my image ;-), his shying away from the public eye made his rare appearances all the more glorious and commanded respect.Â
Reminds you of anyone?Â
I CANNOT wait to hear Iain Glen say (and please also note the Jorah-ish reference to banishment!):
If I had been so publicly visible, so overly familiar to people, so freely accessible, so cheap and available to the common hordes, then public opinion (which helped me get the crown) would have stayed loyal to King Richard. I would have stayed a banished man, with no reputation and no promise of success. But because I was so rarely seen in public, people were amazed by me when I did appear; they acted as if I were a comet. Men would tell their children, âThatâs him!â Others would ask, âWhere? Which oneâs Bolingbroke?â I was more gracious than heaven; I acted so modestly that I won the allegiance of their hearts, and the shouts and salutes of their mouths. They even did so when the King himself was present.This is how I kept myself fresh and new. I was like a priestâs ceremonial vestments: rarely seen, but admired. I appeared seldomly, but marvelously, like a feast made all the more impressive by its rarity. Now, ridiculous King Richard pranced about with vapid clowns and superficial wits, quickly lit and just as quickly burnt out. He degraded himself, mingling his royal self with those skipping fools.
(...) They didnât look with a special gaze, as they do at the sun when it shines only rarely.
**********************************************************************
Oh Ser, we do look upon you as the Sun :-) And you have indeed succeeded in keeping yourself fresh and new throughout your long and distinguished career, one which is entering its harvest season. Long live the King!
edit by @favor757âÂ
Below the dot-dot-dot, the original text of Act 3, scene 2 (Iâm still not sure how much this BBC 3 production will have modernized it)
Act 3, scene 2 -Â London. The palace.
Enter KING HENRY IV, PRINCE HENRY, and others
KING HENRY IV
Exeunt Lords
PRINCE HENRY
So please your majesty, I would I could Quit all offences with as clear excuse As well as I am doubtless I can purge Myself of many I am charged withal: Yet such extenuation let me beg, As, in reproof of many tales devised, which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear, By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers, I may, for some things true, wherein my youth Hath faulty wander'd and irregular, Find pardon on my true submission.
KING HENRY IV
God pardon thee! yet let me wonder, Harry, At thy affections, which do hold a wing Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors. Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost. Which by thy younger brother is supplied, And art almost an alien to the hearts Of all the court and princes of my blood: The hope and expectation of thy time Is ruin'd, and the soul of every man Prophetically doth forethink thy fall. Had I so lavish of my presence been, So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men, So stale and cheap to vulgar company, Opinion, that did help me to the crown, Had still kept loyal to possession And left me in reputeless banishment, A fellow of no mark nor likelihood. By being seldom seen, I could not stir But like a comet I was wonder'd at; That men would tell their children 'This is he;' Others would say 'Where, which is Bolingbroke?' And then I stole all courtesy from heaven, And dress'd myself in such humility That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts, Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths, Even in the presence of the crowned king. Thus did I keep my person fresh and new; My presence, like a robe pontifical, Ne'er seen but wonder'd at: and so my state, Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast And won by rareness such solemnity. The skipping king, he ambled up and down With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state, Mingled his royalty with capering fools, Had his great name profaned with their scorns And gave his countenance, against his name, To laugh at gibing boys and stand the push Of every beardless vain comparative, Grew a companion to the common streets, Enfeoff'd himself to popularity; That, being daily swallow'd by men's eyes, They surfeited with honey and began To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little More than a little is by much too much. So when he had occasion to be seen, He was but as the cuckoo is in June, Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes As, sick and blunted with community, Afford no extraordinary gaze, Such as is bent on sun-like majesty When it shines seldom in admiring eyes; But rather drowzed and hung their eyelids down, Slept in his face and render'd such aspect As cloudy men use to their adversaries, Being with his presence glutted, gorged and full. And in that very line, Harry, standest thou; For thou has lost thy princely privilege With vile participation: not an eye But is a-weary of thy common sight, Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more; Which now doth that I would not have it do, Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.
PRINCE HENRY
I shall hereafter, my thrice gracious lord, Be more myself.
KING HENRY IV
For all the world As thou art to this hour was Richard then When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh, And even as I was then is Percy now. Now, by my sceptre and my soul to boot, He hath more worthy interest to the state Than thou the shadow of succession; For of no right, nor colour like to right, He doth fill fields with harness in the realm, Turns head against the lion's armed jaws, And, being no more in debt to years than thou, Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on To bloody battles and to bruising arms. What never-dying honour hath he got Against renowned Douglas! whose high deeds, Whose hot incursions and great name in arms Holds from all soldiers chief majority And military title capital Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ: Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathling clothes, This infant warrior, in his enterprises Discomfited great Douglas, ta'en him once, Enlarged him and made a friend of him, To fill the mouth of deep defiance up And shake the peace and safety of our throne. And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland, The Archbishop's grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer, Capitulate against us and are up. But wherefore do I tell these news to thee? Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes, Which art my near'st and dearest enemy? Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear, Base inclination and the start of spleen To fight against me under Percy's pay, To dog his heels and curtsy at his frowns, To show how much thou art degenerate.
PRINCE HENRY
Do not think so; you shall not find it so: And God forgive them that so much have sway'd Your majesty's good thoughts away from me! I will redeem all this on Percy's head And in the closing of some glorious day Be bold to tell you that I am your son; When I will wear a garment all of blood And stain my favours in a bloody mask, Which, wash'd away, shall scour my shame with it: And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights, That this same child of honour and renown, This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight, And your unthought-of Harry chance to meet. For every honour sitting on his helm, Would they were multitudes, and on my head My shames redoubled! for the time will come, That I shall make this northern youth exchange His glorious deeds for my indignities. Percy is but my factor, good my lord, To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf; And I will call him to so strict account, That he shall render every glory up, Yea, even the slightest worship of his time, Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart. This, in the name of God, I promise here: The which if He be pleased I shall perform, I do beseech your majesty may salve The long-grown wounds of my intemperance: If not, the end of life cancels all bands; And I will die a hundred thousand deaths Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.
KING HENRY IV
A hundred thousand rebels die in this: Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.
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Be There When I Need You | J.M.
I have been attracted to older actors literally since I was 13 years old, and finding out that Iain Glenn existed did me absolutely no favors. Please enjoy this one shot, and love Jorah Mormont just as I do.Â
Prompt:Â Could u do a Jorah Mormont x reader where the reader sacrifices herself during a battle to save him ( sheâs a total badass)? Loads of angst please and thank you!
Female Reader. This is the longest fic Iâve written in a while, and Iâve also never seen GoT s8!!! I worked really hard on this. Please let me know what you think!
Please go follow my main blog @morganas-pendragons where I will eventually be writing more GoT content!
Tagging @orderoftheflamingflamingos because I know you love JorahÂ
Living in the North as a girl who was born and bred in the South was no easy feat. Your father was an expert tradesman who often found himself at the Bear Islands where he very easily befriended Lord Mormont, who often made the trades for needed supplies much easier.Â
You werenât supposed to meet his son Jorah quite yet, but you did. He was standing tall at his fathers side, no older then fifteen years old, and you admired just how regal he looked standing there. Absolutely divine. It was hard not to marvel at the strong, handsome features of the heir to the Bear Islands, but what you were unaware of is how he gazed at you. The daughter to another Lord of a much smaller house, soon to be wed to keep the trade routes and exchanges successful and plentiful for the following years.
  âMy Lord, allow me the pleasure of introducing my daughter, Y/N Y/L/N to your son.âÂ
Jorah attempted to hide his fascination of you behind a smile and the gentlest press of lips against the back of your hand. âMy Lady,â He greeted. âI believe we have quite a future ahead of us.âÂ
Given that your land was not that far from that of the Islands, your father requested that you stay behind to learn the art of swordplay with Jorah. He was the most talented swordsman of his age until you came around and beat him at his own game. Women were not meant for battle, but marrying a man like Jorah Mormont would be a whole other war to face.Â
  âIs that how you do it, Ser?â You mused as you lightly pressed the dull edge of your training blade against his throat, knee pinning his chest to the ground as he laid flat on his back. You had often taken advantage of the art of seduction to catch him off guard, and it never failed you.Â
  âIâm not a knight yet, Y/N.âÂ
His pupils dilated as you bent down and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. It was a daring move, sure, but over the time youâd been living inside the castle with the Mormonts you had never dared to venture further then holding his hand.Â
  âWhen we wed, I will move all the Heavens above to ensure you receive your knighthood. Thereâs no one more deserving of it.âÂ
Your relationship evolved over the next few years. Jorah preferred to remain intimate behind closed doors - taking to holding hands and soft, desperate gazes across the rooms when you both occupied them. He was well respected by people, worthy of their love, and you were greatly looking forward to when you ruled the Islands together.Â
What you werenât anticipating was those three dreaded words. The ones you very rarely said with your lips and instead said with your actions. You didnât want to love him, but you did, and the very thought of it absolutely terrified you. Sent dread down to your very core - because you knew what would happen next.Â
  âI love you.â Warm hands, gentle caresses against the apples of your cheeks in the light of the fire blazing in his chambers. The two of you had retired sometime ago after the wedding preparations for the day had been finished, and Jorah wanted nothing more then to cradle you close and disappear from the world with you.Â
  âJorah-âÂ
  âI do. I have loved you and I will never stop loving you.â His hand travelled down the curve of your arm until it wrapped around your hip, urging you close enough that you could feel the crevices of his body against your own. You had always fit well together, like two missing pieces of a puzzle.Â
  âDonât fall any deeper in love with me.â You whispered. You spread your fingers out over his heart and lifted your head just enough to meet his gaze. Soft and warm, just like the rest of him, with his very clear adoration of you evident in the blues of his eyes.Â
  âWhy?âÂ
  âBecause you wonât be there when I need you.âÂ
And just as you suspected, news arrived on the day after your wedding that Jorah had been involved in a slavery ring and had been caught by Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell.Â
He had fled Westeros with only a note and a wedding ring left in the crevices of your bed with the intent of you finding it. You took his note in your hands and read his poor explanation as to why heâd been forced to hide such a treasonous act from his wife, of all people, and how he promised to be with you again when the time came for him to be pardoned.Â
Bitterness kills. Bitterness kills. Bitterness kills.Â
But forgiveness heals, and there was no possibility of holding a grudge against Jorah for as many years as your heart wouldâve desired. You eventually forgave but you had no intentions of forgetting anything that had occurred.Â
You became Queen of the Bear Islands after Jorah was exiled. Years passed and you ruled better then you wouldâve anticipated, but the ring around your neck was a constant reminder of the man youâd loved and the man youâd lost.Â
That was until Daenerys Targaryen arrived and the threat of the Night King loomed over your heads. Forced to fight with the North for the safety of Westeros, you left your council in charge and travelled to Winterfell for the battle against the Wights.Â
You werenât expecting what you saw waiting at the front gates.Â
  âKhaleesi, if I may-â Daenerys laid her hand on Jorahs arm as she watched a horse with a single rider come into view further down the road, eyes softening as she recognized your form that sat on top of it. She had been the one to keep in contact with you about Jorah since heâd mentioned leaving a wife to rule the Bear Islands, but heâd never spoken more than that. You were too precious a memory.Â
  âI believe someone has come to see you, Ser.âÂ
Jorahs eyes followed the stride of the horse until it skidded to a stop before him, and the breath dissipated in his lungs when he realized it was you sitting atop of it. He half expected you to berate him, to scold him for leaving you behind and to drive your fists into his body until his skin was streaked in black, blue and purple.Â
He had tried so hard to forget about you. Forget the way your eyes lit up when he entered a room, or the way your hands felt when they traveled his body. The curve of your smile and the way your body felt beneath his hands. The way you showed no fear in the face of death, or how well you held yourself in battle. But he could not forget how deeply you loved him. The way you always whispered sweet nothings in the dead of night about how good a man he was and how honorable heâd become. How when he woke up from nightmares youâd already be sitting at his side and would curl a single strand of hair behind his ear and sing Jenny of Oldstones to lull him to sleep.Â
How heâd left you with nothing but a ring to remember him by.Â
  âDonât fall in love with me, Jorah.âÂ
  âWhy?âÂ
  âBecause then you wonât be there when I need you.âÂ
Silence pierced the air as you dismounted and allowed one of the Unsullied to take your horse to the stables before you turned to greet Daenerys and Jorah. He stood at her side, hands behind his back and head bowed so he would not have to meet the coldness of your stare.Â
Daenerys, however, saw no bitterness for the man beside her. The same man who had vowed his sword and his life to her cause, and had hidden the memory of the woman he loved deep within his heart so he would not be forced to revisit the pain of leaving her behind. Â
  âYour Grace, it is a pleasure to finally meet you face to face.â Daenerys smiled and held up a hand, motioning to Jorah with a flick of her head. She very clearly was ready to leave the two of you alone for much needed reconciliation after years apart.Â
  âThe pleasure is all mine, My Lady. If youâll excuse me, I have some matters that must be attended to.â Once Daenerys disappeared from view, you moved forward and extended your hand just enough to unlace Jorahs from where they trembled behind his back. Your fingers trailed down the furs that lined his arms until they linked with his own, and he stared down in disbelief before you lifted his chin just high enough to meet his eyes.Â
  âOh.â Oh indeed. âJorah Mormont, you insufferable man.. Never has a woman missed her husband as I have missed you.â Your chest constricted painfully when you heard the way his breathing hitched and saw the tears that formed in his eyes.Â
  âI remain undeserving-âÂ
  âNever has there been a man more deserving of my love.â You cradled his face in your hands and pressed the ghost of a kiss against the curve of his mouth just as you had done all those years ago on the training grounds. âA man more honorable, or more loyal.â Your lips trailed until they hovered over his own just close enough to feel the warmth of his breath against your skin. âNo one I have loved more other then you.âÂ
He claimed you with his kiss. Itâs difficult to preserve your emotions in front of Winterfells gates and not let him take you right there, but there had never been a time in your life when you had been so touched at how gentle he was. Years have passed since you had done this - allowing the man you love to lay his claim to you with his mouth and the slow caress of your tongue against his own. Jorah hoped you couldnât hear the way his heart thundered when you tangled your fingers through his hair and wound them tightly enough to pull his face away.Â
  âTell me again.â He breathed. Your eyes narrowed on his lips, the flesh swollen from the intensity of your kiss. His chest was having and his hair untamed by the way you gripped it, but never had there been a time where Jorah Mormont looked so sinful. âTell me again.âÂ
  âI love you.âÂ
No one talked about the way they saw the two of you emerge from the same chambers the following morning. How much more Jorah smiled in Daenerys presence when he knew that you were near, or how your laughter sang in the halls of Winterfellâs keep.Â
He took you again the night before the battle. Your head was dazed with the effects of the wine Jaime Lannister had so graciously offered you to drink, and then again, and then again until youâd lost count after five goblets worth. The eldest Lannister was rather intriguing to be around especially when he wove tales of his times in Kings Landing - the Capital of the South - and it made you miss home even more then you had as a young girl.Â
But the home youâd come to know since then was burning holes through the back of his skull from across the room, where Tormund Giantsbane made a raucous about how you were his and he should make that known to the suitors who were so clearly drawn to you.Â
  âHome.âÂ
You had just begun to unlace his shirt when he caught your hand in his own, and your brow furrowed in confusion as his eyes fluttered shut. Whatever he was trying to prevent you from seeing beneath the fabric very clearly embarrassed him. âJorah?â You whispered, fingers dancing along the curve of his jaw. Just the very touch of you set every nerve on fire.Â
It had been so long since he'd done this. Had intimately been with a woman, let alone been with you, and you had yet to be made aware of the scars that came with his greyscale. He loathed the kind of man heâd become in his absence from you, so why should he believe youâd love him like this?
  âI donât want you to see this.âÂ
  âSee what?âÂ
  âDaenerys did not speak of my greyscale. I was away from her in search of a cure, which I found, and now there are so many-â You wrenched open the laces of his shirt and pushed it over his shoulders, gaze softening at the array of ridged scars that lined his torso. There were so much more then the last time youâd seen him.Â
  âScars?â You lifted your head just enough to brush your lips against the one closest to you, and Jorah trembled beneath your touch as you continued your trek across the valleys and ridges of his chest. âA lot of women think scars are sexy.âÂ
He was stunned when you flipped your position and were able to straddle him. Your knees locked at his hips and you were hunched over just enough that you were able to brush your lips against his chest, and the groan you emitted was the sexiest thing youâd ever heard.Â
Then he said it again, in the midst of desperately trying to control the tears brought upon by your acceptance.Â
  âDonât fall any deeper in love with me, my wife.âÂ
  âWhy?âÂ
  âBecause then you wonât be there when I need you.âÂ
The sounds of battle raged on around him as he desperately sought out both you and Daenerys. His sight was shrouded in darkness from the ash that rained down from the heavens, corpses lined the Earth at his feet and the smell of blood remained pungent in the air. He didnât even want to think about what would happen if the blood belonged to you.Â
Daenerys had accepted you and Jorah as her sworn shields the same day youâd met her, and after much time spent together, you vowed your service and your life to The Dragon Queen in the halls of Winterfell. You and Jorah had been apart too long and you were adamant that you wouldnât be separated anytime soon.Â
Only the Gods had other plans for you.Â
It was just when he found you in the midst of fending off a wight that had been ready to attack Daenerys that the first blade pierced through your armor. Daenerys froze as you stood your ground, gritting your teeth so hard that your ears began to ring.Â
Then the next blade came, and the pain followed with it. It began as an ache in your abdomen, and continued on until your entire body felt as if it had been doused in dragon fire. Every cell of your existence was screaming. Your eyes burned and your hands were stained scarlet, but yet here you stood.Â
Jorah was paralyzed in his place, and it was right before the last blade pierced you that you desperately screamed his name. Screamed so terrifyingly loud that he was positive you were lost to him.Â
 You both had gone and done exactly what you feared the most: You had fallen in love with each other, and now after just getting you back, Jorah Mormont was about to lose the only thing in his life besides Daenerys that had given him a reason to breathe. A reason to wake up in the morning and keep moving.Â
  âHey, hey Y/N,â His voice bordered on the edge of a plea as your eyes fluttered and lifted to gaze at the sky. âWe will take you to the Maester at once. Your wounds will heal and we will return to the Bear Islands once Daenerys holds the Iron Throne. I swear it,â Jorah swallowed the knot in his throat as a broken laugh fell from your lips. âY/N-âÂ
 âI told you not to fall in love with me, you idiot.âÂ
 âAnd I told you Iâd never stop loving you.â He curled his fingers through your hair and cradled your head in his hands, focusing on the rise and fall of your chest. It was slowing down now. Your breaths were fewer and fewer with each minute that passed. âPlease, Y/N-âÂ
 âNever has there been another, Ser Jorah Mormont.ââ Tears trekked through the blood that stained your cheeks as he rested his forehead against your own. And for a moment, it was just the two of you, and no one else. There was no war against the Night King, no threat of Death looming overhead, no war of The Queens for the seat on the Iron Throne. It was just the two of you. Only you. âMy heart has been yours, and it remains yours-âÂ
  âI swear it.âÂ
Daenerys was the one to pull him from his internal hysteria when she saw your eyes go blank and your chest stop moving. Her hand fell to your own that laid limp at your side, and the breath was knocked from her lungs as she recognized the shape of a wedding band even through the ash and blood that stained the metal.Â
When Jorah took the ring into his hand and wiped the blood from the metal, he caught sight of the engraving youâd had done only days after the wedding had taken place. Heâd never seen it before now, but the sight of it only wounded him more deeply as he cradled your head against his chest.Â
I am his and he is mineÂ
  âFrom this day,â He held the ring to his lips and kissed it. âUntil the end of my days.âÂ
#Jorah Mormont#Jorah Mormont x Reader#Jorah Mormont x Y/N#Jorah Mormont x You#Daenerys Targaryen#Game of Thrones#GoT#Game of Thrones imagines#Game of Thrones oneshots#Game of Throne fanfiction#Game of Thrones x You#Game of Thrones x Reader
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Do you have any earlier art pieces that you can post? Iâm have trouble keeping faith that my skills will get better, youâre an amazing artist and Iâd love to how youâve progressed. And do you have any tips, books or anything that you could point me towards, like skill wise and such. Thanks. â¤ď¸
I kept my Deviantart account activated in case I ever want to feel particularly cringey, if you scroll to the bottom you can find some of my art dating back to 2011. https://www.deviantart.com/tio-trile/gallery/
Hereâs a very early digital art I found that I did in 2010 with my first tablet and...MS paint Iâm assuming??? And apparently itâs Vincent Van Gogh fanart?!

My art is far from great or perfect now, but as you can see, as long as you keep drawing, your skills are bound to get better. A big part of the âgood artâ you see is just from the sheer mileage the artists have on their practice -- If you even just scribble lines or circles on a page everyday, your lines become braver and prettier just from that. So draw draw draw. In terms of technical skills, other artists who have been drawing for a long time will definitely have some shorthand and summaries, but sometimes artists do it differently, and you just have to look at a lot of stuff and find the one that you feel comfortable with. The tips usually all work in conjunction and help each other, so looking at how other artists do things will usually only help you. Donât be afraid to copy art while practicing, in the end the way you draw that comes out most comfortably -- thatâs your style.
Sasa Tseng (dconthedancefloor) used to have a lot of great and clear tutorials in her tumblr but I guess her blog got deleted for NSFW?? Iâm sure theyâre still somewhere on Google, or you can check out her other social media accounts. My fanart style may not look it but in middle school Shadowline by Iain McCaig was my bible; I just love his style a lot. A tip that come to mind is try to be mindful of the silhouette to make the story of your drawing clearer.
Feel free to ask me for any other specific tips! Happy to be practicing and learning together, and best of luck in your endeavors!
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Clean White . . . The Next Project. NOT FINISHED -
Albert Watson
The iconic image below was captured by Scottish fashion photogragher, Albert Watson, in 1973. It was commissioned by Harperâs Bazaar Watson and framing their feature around Hitchcockâs prowess as a gourmet chef and his recipe for a Christmas goose.
There is nothing I donât love about this image. The stark white background pushes Alfred Hitchcock and his prop (the defeathered duck wearing a bow tie) to the forground. There are no distractions of shadow. Itâs purely about Hitchcock and his Christmas bird.
Amazingly, as this was Watsonâs first famous subject, and since Watson had basic kit containing 2 lights, he managed this clean white portrait with only a white backdrop (to contrast with Hitchcockâs black suit), one light to the background and 1 umbrella light on Hitchcock himself.
The contrast in this image is amazing. I am a photographer that loves high contast images. This has always been a favourite of mine. It is humorous. It makes me smile (if you can get over the fact that he his holding a poor, plucked dead duck :(. ) There is an unimplied feeling about this image, as it is obvious to me, being a portrait photographer of sorts, that Hitchcock was at ease with Albert Watson. Humourous even. This says a lot about the photographer himself.
The image itself is crisp, the lines unhindered. There is no light spill. Nothing is out of place. As for pattern, there is a âgoosefleshâ pattern to the duck.Â
1973, Alfred Hitchcock

(Johnson, 2019) (Profoto and stories, 2019)
Irving Penn
Jean Patchett, 1949
Irving Pennâs image depicts Jean Patchett in a dramatic fashion post. I chose this image not only for my love of hats, but for the close-fitting netting on her face that cause the honeycomb line pattern. The stark white background and high contrast really shows off her demur âoh myâ pose. There is nothing I donât love in this image. The negative space has been made just as important as the positive. The eye starts at the top of the hat, moves around and down to the face and dĂŠcolletage area, traces her fingers around then to her arm and leading back to her hat.
Since I love hats, this is my chosen image for practice in the studio on 1st of October 2019 when we come back from the holiday weekend.

(An American Goddess of Paris Couture: Jean Patchett | Official Site, 2019) (Christies.com, 2019)
David Bailey
Johnny Depp, 1995
David Baileyâs image of Johnny Depp is striking. Liquid blacks are riveting against the white of the background in this high contrast image. Deppâs fingers interlaced into his hair and the rings on his fingers create interest as the eye moves down to his black eyes then travels to his lips, up his arms and back to his hands.Â
(Wall Street International, 2019)Â (Artsy.net, 2019)
Platon Antoniou -
Was born in London in 1968. He first attended St Martinâs School of Art for Graphic Design and then recieved an MA at Royal College of Art for Photography and Fine art. He has worked for such magazines as âGeorgeâ, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Rolling Stones, Esquire and GQ. Platon has captured images of many Presidents, from Barack Obama to Vladimir Putin. His last Presidential Portrait was of Bill Clinton. (All-about-photo.com, 2019)
Below we have a bold and graphic portrait of Stephen Hawking taken late 2017. What draws me into this image is all the mechanical detail of Hawkingâs chair leading our eyes into the face of the man himself. The perspective of this image, in my opinion, is superb. We are looking straight into the face of this great man. The graphic detail of this portrait, the blacks against the stark whites, and the perspective combined make this one of my favourite images of Platon.

(Platonphoto.com, 2019) (Medeiros, 2019)
FlĂłra Borsi -Â
Iâm throwing a wrench into this mix of famous photographers and images. For this brief we were to include 5 clean white images. It did not say the image could not be new, or old, or from only the very famous. Above I have included some iconic images that are some of my favourites.
However, during my research I found this young woman, and her series of white portraits. FlĂłra Borsi is a young fine art photographer from Hungary. She has exhibited solo in many places including the USA and Budapest to group exhibitions in France. She has been featured in publications from Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Photoshop to The Wall Street Journal.
While I am aware, at some point, after capture, that this image, most probably, has been taken into photoshop and added to, I just couldnât exclude them. That being said, I could see that the image was indeed taken as a clean white, because we can see the slight reflection from the perspex beneath the model (unless of course, that was added as well, but I donât think so).
This image is part of a series called Des Monstres by the photographer FlĂłra Borsi. It is fluid, graphic and most striking. Dark Fantasy meets Atmospheric. Everything about it screams motion. It feels alive. The extremes in contrast are eye catching, not only that, it holds the veiwerâs attention as the eye moves around the canvas. The perspective and flowing garment wrapping around this female model transforms the piece into a living artwork. Fascinating.
(Floraborsi.com, 2019)
Below are images of Alex Reilly showing us how to set up a clean white studio.


image from inside the isle we created.

taking readings with the Sekonic L-308S light meter.

Adam is the assistant. Alex is setting up the key light.



My test images Today . . . 12th September . . .
Noticed the red glare in Adamâs glases, so I had him remove them . . . Background grey. Adamâs face, in my opinion is too dark on the right.Â

Again, we have the passport image of Adam. The background here is too grey. Adam is not looking into the camera. He was making a face, but itâs awesome because some of his personality is shining through.Â

Much better. Here is Adam again. I wish I had noticed the headphones. I need to be more vigilant and aware of extraneous objects that do NOT need to be in the portrait. Again, the background is grey.Â

Image of me that Alex took. There is no spill. The background is white. There has been no post processing. Question, Adam and I used the same set-up and took our images right after Alex did. What happened?

MY FINAL IMAGES on First day of Clean White Project With Alex Reilly
In Studio with Alex we were shown the correct way of setting up for Clean White. We used to lights on the background and 2 lights on the subject. We used the Sekonic L308S Flash Meter to insure even lighting of the background. It was at F11. Then we were better able to set up for the image, insuring we were at F8 for the shots.Â
Here we have Adam in my 1st 2 images of clean white. We only got to take a couple of images each. He is looking directly into the camera. His eyes are in sharp focus. I took this image and his next into Lightroom. First I changed the settings to monochrome and worked within those parameters. I cropped the image to remove the headphones and bring immediacy to the portrait. There is a real punch to the image now after working with the contrast, highlights, shadows, whites and blacks. Then I moved on to the B&W Mix settings. I took the yellow to +51, the orange to +7, green to +9, magenta +100. I then went into transform change the vertical setting to -10. This brought Adam more in line with looking straight at the camera. I cropped the image further by bringing up the scale and close cropping. I wanted his eyes to be the main event really. Â
We took the images into Lightroom with Alex in Imaging class to finish them.

This is a fun image of Adam. His eyes are serious, yet he is pursing his lips. I made the same adjustments to this image as I did with the one above.

This is my passport image I have edited in Photoshop . . . I have taken away the slight greyish tint using adjustment masks. It took longer than using Lightroom with Adamâs images. This is much better. I have cropped the image to the correct measurements required by the UK Passport website.Â

2ND Day of Clean White In Studio with Dawn Martin
I feel the second day was more difficult. First of all, we had much trouble with the lights where we were working in the studio. Alex from the store was called in, and between Iain (Alex Reilly was unable to attend the class that day) Alex (store) and John, they helped change out the lights. By this time, 3/4 of the morning class time was gone. We were to get 1 silhouette, 1 low-key and 1 high-key image completed. That wasnât to be. Our group was not quite as successful as we were the first day. We were shown a totally different way of doing the Clean White, and I felt it was confusing. But as we learned on the day, there are many different ways of capturing clean white images.Â
The 2nd half of the day, Studio 2, was also chaotic. As a group, we kept forgetting to check our images to see if the clean white was achieved. So the first half of my clean white images in the contact sheet below were either too blue, too sepia, or had chromatic aberrations. Finally around half way through we were capturing more acceptable images. The images were not in total silhouette however, because of light leakage caused by the close proximity of the nearby âstudiosâ throwing light onto the subjects during flash.Â
Contact sheet


In the above contact sheet, you can almost tell, before ever having seen the images up close, which photos were good, and which are not so much. We could have gotten a lot more acceptable images if we had checked often throughout the process. I have learned a lot today.
Final practice shots from 24th September . . . Still need work . . .
Adam . . .


Derek . . .

Hannah . . .

Derek . . .

Aiden . . .Â

AL . . .

Johnson, B. (2019). Photographer Albert Watson on getting the stars to pose - Macleans.ca. [online] Macleans.ca. Available at: https://www.macleans.ca/culture/movies/up-close-and-personal-2/#gallery/albert-watson/slide-3 [Accessed 11 Sep. 2019].
Profoto, T. and stories, P. (2019). The story behind the image of Alfred Hitchcock. [online] Profoto. Available at: https://profoto.com/uk/profoto-stories/albert-watson-alfred-hitchcock [Accessed 13 Sep. 2019].
An American Goddess of Paris Couture: Jean Patchett | Official Site. (2019). Photo Art Gallery - An American Goddess of Paris Couture: Jean Patchett | Official Site. [online] Available at: https://jeanpatchett.com/galleries/photo-art-gallery/ [Accessed 13 Sep. 2019].
Nationalgalleries.org. (2019). Platon Antoniou | National Galleries of Scotland. [online] Available at: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/platon-antoniou [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].
Christies.com. (2019). How Irving Penn âchanged the way people saw the worldâ | Christie's. [online] Available at: https://www.christies.com/features/Guide-to-Irving-Penn-9751-1.aspx [Accessed 13 Sep. 2019].
Wall Street International. (2019). David Bailey. Stardust. [online] Available at: https://wsimag.com/it/arte/13965-david-bailey-stardust [Accessed 13 Sep. 2019].
Artsy.net. (2019). David Bailey | Johnny Depp (1995) | Artsy. [online] Available at: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/david-bailey-johnny-depp [Accessed 13 Sep. 2019].
All-about-photo.com. (2019). Platon (Antoniou) Photographer | All About Photo. [online] Available at: https://www.all-about-photo.com/photographers/photographer/377/platon-antoniou [Accessed 19 Oct. 2019]. (All-about-photo.com, 2019)
Platonphoto.com. (2019). platon. [online] Available at: http://platonphoto.com/gallery/portraits/business--technology/edwardsnowden/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2019]. (Platonphoto.com, 2019)
Medeiros, J. (2019). Stephen Hawking obituary: a life defined by brilliance and mischief. [online] Wired.co.uk. Available at: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/stephen-hawking-obituary [Accessed 19 Oct. 2019]. (Medeiros, 2019)
Floraborsi.com. (2019). Flora Borsi - Des Monstres. [online] Available at: https://floraborsi.com/des-monstres [Accessed 19 Oct. 2019]. (Floraborsi.com, 2019)
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âWe Wargamed the Last Days of Brexit. Hereâs What We Found Out.â
Digital Elixir âWe Wargamed the Last Days of Brexit. Hereâs What We Found Out.â
Yves here. It seemed fitting to post again on Brexit, if nothing else to commemorate, if thatâs the right word, Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister of the UK Wednesday afternoon.
Itâs not a good omen that the EU has felt compelled to debunk Johnsonâs campaign claims about Brexit that have been taken up again by allies. From the Guardian:
Boris Johnsonâs claims that crashing out of the EU with no deal would be less painful because of a series of âside dealsâ that the UK has already done with Brussels have been dismissed as ârubbishâ by the EUâŚ.
Iain Duncan Smith referred to 17 side deals on the table while the former chancellor Norman Lamont told Sky News hours after Johnson won the Tory leadership contest that âthere is no such thing as no dealâ as there were âall sorts of side deals that were doneâ.
A senior EU official described the claims of side deals as âpure rubbishâ, pointing out that the so-called deals are unilateral positions taken by the EU alone to keep the basics functioning on their side of the border.
Michel Barnier felt compelled to remind Johnson that the Withdrawal Agreement was the only deal on offer:
We look forward to working constructively w/ PM @BorisJohnson when he takes office, to facilitate the ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement and achieve an orderly #Brexit. We are ready also to rework the agreed Declaration on a new partnership in line with #EUCO guidelines.
â Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) July 23, 2019
Other EU leaders were more pointed. From the Independent:
The EU has shot down Boris Johnsonâs Brexit plan within moments of his appointment as Tory leader, in the latest sign that the bloc has no plans to make concessions.
In an intervention timed to coincide with Mr Johnsonâs election announcement, Frans Timmermans, the European Commissionâs first vice president, told reporters in Brussels that the EU would not renegotiate the deal reached with Theresa May.
Another EU commissioner, Vytenis Andriukaitis, also warned that politicians like Mr Johnson were undermining democracy with âcheap promises, simplified visions, blatantly evident incorrect statementsâ.
A new article at Politico takes up the theme that EU leaders see Johnson as a joke:
After years of laughing at him, Europeans simply donât take Johnson seriously. At this stage, itâs difficult to imagine what could change their minds.
While Europeans may take delight in lampooning Donald Trump, they also respect (and fear) the power of his officeâŚ
But no oneâs afraid of Johnson.
Though the U.K. remains a key strategic player within Europe, that reliance cuts across both sides of the Channel. Following the seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker by Iran last week, for example, the U.K. responded by calling for a European naval force to protect sea routes in the Strait of Hormuz.
When it comes to the economy, the U.K. is far more dependent on the EU than vice versa.
Thatâs why Europeâs response to Johnsonâs threat to leave the EU come what may on October 31, deal or no deal, has been a polite yawn.
Corbyn has promised a âsurpriseâ no confidence motion (huh?) but itâs not clear his fellow MPs would be keen to have elections now, given how badly Labour has been polling. Bloomberg reports that Johnson said he wonât call a snap election.
To elicit further reader input, weâre posting yet another Brexit piece that has us scratching our heads. It described how the Institut fĂźr die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM) and the ERSTE Foundation in Vienna set up a large team that was diverse by background, nationality, and political views, to âwargameâ Brexit.
What is frustrating is that the effort got so much right in terms of how it assigned roles and set parameters, but got one part disastrously wrong: that Brexit is a default, and the Government has to either sign the Withdrawal Agreement, ask for an extension, or revoke Article 50 to prevent an October 31 departure. By making Parliament the focus of the wargame, the exercise had the effect of getting the participants to see Parliament as in charge when it isnât.
This is consistent with the fact that Parliament isnât taking steps sufficient to prevent a crashout and seems to be kidding itself about the effectiveness of its gambits to date. Only legislation instructing the Prime Minister could do that. Mere motions or the blocking of particular avenues, like keeping the Government from proroguing Parliament, arenât adequate. The fact that MPs arenât objecting to the normal summer recess or the expected September break for party caucuses is a sign of unseriousness.
If Johnson were clever and determined to have his Brexit, heâs minimize but not entirely eliminate Parliamentary time for Brexit. Of course, MPs could try to add a âno crashoutâ amendment to another bit of legislation. Could Johnson schedule any âmust have early onâ bills for early in the session, before enough MPs realize only legislation can stop a no deal if thatâs what Johnson wants or winds up stumbling into?
As youâll see, the wargame results in vote for a second referendum. Itâs hard to see that happening by the end of October, or even year end, if for some reason the UK asks for an extension and the EU agrees to a short one. And itâs hard to see a second referendum solving anything. The tacit assumption is that UK voters will reverse themselves, but what if they donât? And Iâve yet to see how to formulate second referendum questions to get at what âLeaveâ means.
And statements like this donât help the second referendum cause. It comes off at too close to saying a second referendum result reaffirming Leave would not be acceptable:
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By Luke Cooper, a Senior Lecturer in International Politics at Anglia Ruskin University and a Visiting Fellow on the Europeâs Futures programme at the IWM in 2018 â 2019. He is currently writing a book on the crisis of the European Union. @lukecooper100. Originally published at openDemocracy
Scenario planning plays an important role in modern politics. Political contestation is the art of out-manoeuvring opponents. By attempting to anticipate the moves they will make in response to events and problems, party leaderships or factions plan for possible eventualities. They seek to defeat the other side by outwitting them strategically. Simulation games are aimed at helping these efforts by building up a picture of how their opponents behave.
Interpretive Hypotheses
Such games can hone strategic thinking, but they are, of course, necessarily imperfect, âprobabilisticâ exercises. However well scenarios are prepared for there will always be too many variables for us to âknowâ the future. There are simply too many possible events and factors that might occur, and interact in unique, complex and contingent ways, for us to be entirely sure what the actual course of history will be. E.H. Carr made this point in his famous text, What is History? Carr argued that, by the middle of the twentieth century, historians had abandoned determinism and were now more modest in their goals. âContent to inquire how things workâ, as he put it.[i]
Rather than believing the goal of an enquiry into the past was to achieve certainty about the course of events in the future, Carr instead proposed a method based on hypothesis and interpretation. For Carr a good hypothesis constituted a âtool of thought, valid in so far as it is illuminating, and dependent for its validity on interpretationâ.[ii] The logic of this principle was simple. History does not follow a strict determinism. But neither is anything possible. Drawing on Carr we might say that any study of a political process requires interpreting the mix of interests and circumstances in order to illuminate how exactly it evolves over time. Carr serves as a useful frame for a simulation game exercise.
The Brexit Simulation
A group of us recently participated in a simulation game to model the future of the Brexit process. By assuming different roles amongst the forces in conflict over the future of the United Kingdom, we hoped to gain a greater understanding of the process and what might come next. We solicited the help of Richard Barbrook, an academic at Westminster University, and director of Digital Liberties, a UK-based cooperative that has pioneered the use of participatory simulations to anticipate political scenarios. His book, Class Wargames, applies the ideas of the French situationist, Guy Debord, who advocated the use of strategy games as performative, even theatrical, exercises to understand oneâs political opponents and their strategic thinking. Barbrook designed the game, which he called, Meaningful Votes: The Brexit Simulation.
Collaborating on this initiative with the Institut fĂźr die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM) and the ERSTE Foundation in Vienna we assembled a group of participants in Vienna comprised of civil society, journalists, academics and intellectuals.They were a mixture of nationalities, from Austria, the Balkans, the United States and Britain, and held a plurality of political views from left to right. For mainland European participants the game provided an opportunity to empirically rationalise a crisis that many had found inexplicable; for example, the refusal hitherto of the British parties to find a compromise on Brexit in Parliament is highly alien to those used to the political systems with a culture of building consensus (often with proportional representation), that exist in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. Each participant took on the role of a faction within Parliament with the game beginning after the defeat of the heavy defeat of the First Meaningful Vote on 15 January 2019.
Simulating the Factions
As Brexit has radically disrupted the existing British party system, the factional roles assumed by players did not tend to align with a particular party leadership. Instead different Tory and Labour factions were represented within the game. Each player had a series of votes allocated in the British Parliament. Larger factions had two different vote allocations: âwaverersâ and diehards. They could potentially cast these votes in different directions. Another element of the game design lay in a consciously British-centric approach. An assumption underpinning the game was that the EU side would act as, in gaming-terms, a âdummy-playerâ. This refers to when an actor is present within a scenario, who does not face choices that affect the overall arc of the decision pathway. With modifications to the Withdrawal Agreement persistently ruled out by the EU, had players assumed this vantage point they would not have faced any choices. As a dummy-player, the umpire thus articulated the position of the EU-27 states at key decision-making points across the game.
Following the playful spirit of Debordâs legacy, this really was a game.Players accumulated points in relation to different votes passing and goals being reached. Some had hidden objectives that were revealed at the end of the game, identifying a potential conflict between the public statements of factions and their underlying motivations. The âwinnerâ had the most points at the end of the game.
Towards âNo Brexitâ
So what happened? And what did we learn from this exercise?
The outcome of the game eventually resolved itself in a new referendum. By this stage the game had moved into the near future of early autumn 2019. The cross-party negotiations had failed to reach a breakthrough acceptable to both leaderships. Softer members of the Tory Brexit Delivery Group then split away from the party leadership, crossing the floor to support a new referendum. Interestingly, this came as a surprise to the game designer, Barbrook, who had anticipated a stalemate and a further extension of Article 50 at the end of October 2019.
If this suggests the game had a Remain bias, other moments in the scenario serve to refute this. At an earlier moment in the game a majority emerged in Parliament in spite of opposition from Labour and the Remain parties, for the kind of technological solution to the Irish border question favoured by the ERG as an alternative to the troubled âIrish backstopâ. Assuming the dummy-player function, the EU then intervened via the umpire into the Parliamentary scenario to rule out an agreement without the backstop. With Parliament then voting against leaving without a deal, the political factions were confronted with the same problem they have at the current time.
The crux of this decision is ultimately a narrow one: few options are still available to parties, making the outcome relatively straightforward to model. Leave on the deal May has negotiated with the EU, which is unpopular with Brexit voters and with Labour Remain voters who would like a second referendum. Or negotiate changes to the UK-future relationship document (the Withdrawal Agreement will not be reopened by the EU) to make the Brexit deal softer, making it more palatable for the Labour Party but even less acceptable to Brexit voters and Brexiters in the Tory party. As the changes are not legally binding on a future Tory prime minister even a Labour Party leadership wishing to âdeliver Brexitâ has little incentive to support such a deal. This leaves only two further choices. Hold new elections in the hope they might produce a balance in the Parliament more conducive to striking a deal. Or, move towards a new referendum, which includes the opportunity to remain in the EU.
Globalisation, Brexit and Strategic Choices
The outcome of the game is not an exact prediction of events in the near future. One playerâs calculation that at a certain stage the mainstream of the Tory party will have to try and âmove onâ from Brexit by peeling off towards a referendum is what Carr called an interpretive hypothesis. It will be tested in the months ahead.
Rather the game offers an insight into the interests that will shape this and the core contradiction underpinning the process: that there is not a tangible, pragmatic form of Brexit acceptable to the people that want Brexit. The vote in the game for âtechnological solutions to the Irish borderâ was analogous with, though not identical to, Parliamentâs vote on the 30 January 2019 for the âBrady amendmentâ, which mandated the government to seek changes to the Irish backstop as a condition for passing the Withdrawal Agreement. Having passed by 317 votes to 301, Theresa May hailed it as demonstrating a âsubstantial and sustainable majorityâ for leaving the EU. When the EU insisted on the Irish backstop, the refusal of the hard Brexiters and the DUP to compromise forced a logic of events that points increasingly to âno Brexitâ.
âWe Wargamed the Last Days of Brexit. Hereâs What We Found Out.â
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Iain Macnab by Herbert B Grimsditch
Below is an essay on Iain Macnab. Someone who is talked about for his and Claude Flightâs Grosvenor School. I didnât really know a lot about Macnab but the text and illustrations are from The Artist, April 1937.Â
The old adage that "Those that can, do; those that canât, teachâ is one of those half-truths that are dangerous from their very speciousness. It is a good thing to dissect and expose them once in a while. So far as the fine arts are concerned, one need not look far for examples to prove the frequent falsity of this cruel and facile allegation.Â

 Iain Macnab - LNER Poster
Sickert is one conspicuous case; Tonks (whose recent loss we mourn) is another; and among the younger men one could hardly select a better subject than lain Macnab, who can both âdoâ and âteachâ with talent and finish, and who is an artist teacher because he has the two-fold vocation.Â
The clarity of his exposition, the whole-hearted enthusiasm with which he descants on art, the breadth and catholicity of his views, mark him out a born teacher; while his own production as a painter and engraver is proof of his capacity as a practising artist.Â
Macnab is of Highland ancestry, and comes of an ancient and celebrated line of Scottish armourers, the Macnabs of Barachastalain. He has always found his hand respond easily to any new technique, and he is inclined to attribute this manual aptitude to the ingrained hereditary habit produced by an age-long tradition of fine engraved work on pistols and other arms. Also, there were artists on both sides of his family. His father was in the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, and Macnab was born on 21st October, 1890, at Iloilo, in the Philippine Islands, which were then under Spanish control. He lisped in Spanish as an infant but at the age of four he was brought home to Kilmalcolm, in Renfrewshire.

 Iain Macnab - Fisherman at Portofino, 1937
During a holiday in Ireland at the age of seven a gypsy foretold that he would become an artist. He was educated at Merchiston and left school at eighteen. Already as a boy his interests were turned to sculpture, painting and cartooning, with the first perhaps pre-eminent, but the career chosen for him was that of chartered accountant, and he duly served his artiles thereto in Glasgow for five and a half years. He was due to sit for his final examination in October, 1914; with the prospect if he passed, of an excellent post in the Philippines, leading to the early reversion of a complete business.
But the outbreak of the war formed a pretext for abandoning accountancy, and Macnab enlisted at once as a private in the Highland Light Infantry. Being already trained in the school cadet corps, he found himself in France by the end of October, 1914 and is a Mons Star man. In April, 1915 he was granted a regular commission in the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. During the battle of Loos he was blown up by a shell. After some little time symptoms of grave internal injury became evident; and in July, 1916 he was invalided out of the service.Â

 Iain Macnab - Spring Landscape, Tossa, 1936
His cure was by no means complete, however, and it was not until 1918 that he was well enough to take the art course he had promised himself.Â
In that year he became a student at Heatherleyâs. He had already seen and studied many good paintings; he had an uncle who knew several of the Impressionists, and who used to talk art with him; and in general his mind was well stored with paintings lore. He started work with the determination to be a professional artist or nothing; the amateur status had no attraction for him. His rapid progress, his fertility in ideas, and his clear and ready exposition of them, led Henry Massey, the Principal of the School, to see in him a potentially valuable teacher. So strongly did Massey feel this that after only a year he offered Macnab the post of joint Principal of Heatherley's.Â
With this offer Macnab closed, and as a teacher worked with enthusiasm at the School till temporarily put out of action again, in 1925, by a too-vigorous pull at the etching press. While convalescent in a nursing home he decided that the time had come when he needed, for the proper expression of his educational theories, a school under his sole personal control; so, once well again he found a big house in Warwick Square, Belgravia, and on 19th October, 1925 opened there the Grosvenor School of Modern Art.

 Iain Macnab - Illustrations for Burnsâs Tam oâShanter, 1934
Macnab had thought out the broad principles on which he wished to run his school. His idea was not so much to train students to paint what they saw, in the crude sense, as to teach them to isolate from nature the elements that are truly pictorial, and then to develop their own personalities. His ambition was to make artists.Â
To be an artist, as distinguished from a mere competent draughtsman, he felt, it is necessary first to have a personality to express. It is indispensable to the production of a work of art that an emotional reaction shall take place. Of that reaction the drawing is only a vehicle. He stresses the cardinal importance of composition; the students are encouraged to approach every problem in terms of design from the beginning, and to build up their drawings gradually on logical principles.Â
The preliminary visualisation of a subject in planes and its resolution by successive steps into a picture giving the illusion of three-dimensional form are clearly expounded in his recent book on âFigure Drawing.â He is a firm believer in the virtues of wood-engraving as a discipline for all artists, since in this medium every mark must have its significance, and the whole thing must be thought out thoroughly in advance, for there is no scope for fumbling or retouching.

 Iain Macnab - Figure Drawing, 1936Â
Macnab considers himself lucky to have attracted, from the first, a serious-minded type of student, took kindly to his inexorable rule of silence while at work in the studio. This rule shows his common sense, and is by no means the mark of the martinet. No one, indeed, could be less like the more starched kind of pedagogue than Macnab; and when the time comes for exposition and discussion he not only admits but encourages the criticisms of students.Â
He believes in the thorough ventilation of the subject, and strives to train his pupils to see the inwardness of widely-differing styles. Side by side with his teaching activities Macnab has pursued a versatile course as an artist. He began painting in 1918, and has developed, both in oils and water-colours, a distinctive style that, while it has nothing outrĂŠ about it, is thoroughly in the modern trend of design.Â
In October, 1922 he decided that he would like to etch. He was told of five-year courses and suchlike, but this did not suit him, so he bought copper, tools, acid and a book on etching, and within three months had produced six prints which were good enough to secure his election as an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers. For some years he exhibited etchings at the Academy, but in 1929 he decided that the copper was altogether too facile and deserted it for wood engraving.Â

Iain Macnab - Illustration from Burnsâs Tam oâShanter, 1934
This medium he took up largely because of its recalcitrance, because of the stern discipline it imposes. In it he has done some of his finest work; and one might go a long way before finding wood-engravings to equal the âTam of Shanterâ illustrations here Shown, with their beautiful distribution of blacks and whites and their admirable translation of the famous story into graphic terms.
Macnab is a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Honorary Treasurer of the National Society, and was made a full R.E. in 1935. He has held only one one-man Show, at the old Albany Gallery, Sackville Street. He exhibits each year at the Royal Scottish Academy, and frequently at the London Group, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the New English Art Club and the National Society. He has achieved much, and much more may be expected from him in the future.
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story below for those that canât read it
How much time are you spending thinking about Bodyguard? A lot, I bet. The new BBC thriller, about the relationship between an ambitious and unknowable home secretary and her PTSD-addled protection officer, was written by Jed Mercurio of Line of Duty fame, and was cynically and artfully designed to hook, obsess and fixate an audience into appointment viewing.
Bodyguard is made to steal us away from all newly acquired suit-yourself, binge-watch and content-stream habits, with charismatic heroes who might actually be despicable antiheroes and a succession of frenzied plot twists that simply must be consumed on the night lest someone catch you out with a spoiler on social media. Even if that doesnât happen, even if your viewing isnât partly ruined by a stray Facebook comment, watch an episode even a little late and find yourself locked out of all the best conversations, the most detailed post mortems, most frenetic speculations. Bodyguard is, in essence, a middle-aged Love Island, a reason to gather excitedly round the screen at the prescribed hour in a way that hasnât really happened since the late Nineties.
Bloody hell, itâs good, I tell its star Richard Madden. The 32-year-old Glaswegian actor made his name as Robb Stark in Game of Thrones and consolidated it as Prince Charming in 2015âs Kenneth Branagh-directed Cinderella. Now, after playing Mellors in Mercurioâs 2015 Lady Chatterleyâs Lover for the BBC, he trembles on the verge of Poldarking himself into borderline indecent, heavily fetishised glory as Bodyguardâs David Budd, the protection officer at the heart of the story.
âOh, right,â he says. His accent is broad, non-posh Scottish; unexpected to those who remember it as generically Yorkshire in Game of Thrones. His eyes are intense. Heâs arch and funny; heâd probably qualify as dangerously charming if there werenât also something watchful and cautious about him. âThanks very much! I enjoyed playing something a bit more adult, less boyish. Iâm keen to play more grown-up roles, without actually growing up myself. Pretending to be adult. Iâm done playing princes. Princes and royalty and lords. Also, itâs nice not to do an accent.â David Budd is â conveniently â Scottish. âOne less thing to think about. Shall we get a drink? It is a Tuesday night, after all.â
Itâs a Monday, I point out, but all the same we order a beer and wine from the front desk of the photographic studio in which we sit.
This is not the first time Madden and I have met. Three years ago, he bowled up to me at a friendâs party and demanded to know why I hadnât featured him in Grazia magazineâs Chart of Lust recently. A placing in the list (which I compile weekly, and does exactly as its title suggests â rates the most fanciable people of that momentâs news), is deeply coveted among those who present themselves as above that kind of vanity, but definitely arenât. Newscasters, Hollywood A-listers, national treasures, disruptive artists (Grayson Perry once told me heâd pinned his mention up on the wall in his studio), award-winning novelists ⌠Iâve been lobbied by spads chasing mentions for their political charges on more than one occasion. But this was the first time a candidate had ever approached me in the flesh. I was both impressed and amused by his front.
âIt does my frail ego good,â heâd elaborated, which, Iâd thought, demonstrated a surprising amount of self-awareness in a young actor.
I remind him of our first meeting.
âOh, God. Great start,â he says. Then, âIâm just trying to work my way up [the chart].â
Well, letâs see how this goes, shall we.
One of the reasons I think Bodyguard resonates so hard with its viewers is that itâs dealing with themes of safety â and so are we all. Terrorist attacks, suicide bombers and rooftop snipers recur from episode to episode; our current nightmares, and most catastrophising daytime fantasies, the ones that flicker through our minds every time we board a plane, go to a concert venue or swipe into a subway system, are played out in high definition on our small screens. Maddenâs David Budd thwarts and buffers and foresees and repels; a hero with a fantastically of-the-moment brief. If Poldark is our ultimate historical TV pin-up â manly, tortured, good with his shirt off â then Budd is our ultimate Threat Level: Severe pin-up â manly, tortured, good in a bulletproof vest (âAn actual bulletproof vest,â heâll tell me, âwhich is so comfortable, for five monthsâ).
I run this theory past Madden. How nervy is he in London right now?
âI donât feel unsafe. I used to be more panicky, but Iâm just less uptight. A few years ago, Iâd get off at Tube stations because Iâd have a sense of something.â
How much of David Buddâs wariness did Madden inherit through the course of filming?
âYou get to a point where you clock everything. Thatâs what Iâm doing for 12 hours a day, so âŚâ
Walk into a room, scope it out for the nearest exit?
âI did that anyway. My dadâs a fireman, so thatâs built in. Check into a hotel, first thing I do, find the fire exit.â
Richard Madden was born just outside of Glasgow, an only boy among older and younger sisters. His mother, Pat, is a classroom assistant. There were no other performers in his close family â no pub-singer uncles, no sisters at dance school.
Youâre, like, a rogue luvvie.
âYup!â he says.
How does that happen?
âI donât know. I was fat. And shy. Crushingly shy, going to what was a fairly tough high school. Aggressive. Masculine. So I thought the best thing to do would be to go and be an actor. Ha ha! Not go and play football. Or get good at boxing. Iâll go and be an actor. Theyâll love that.â
Aged 11, Madden joined Paisley Art Centreâs youth theatre programme. âAnd of course, they did not love that. But then I managed to dodge a couple of years of school, because âŚâ
Because he was good enough to be cast, as a young teenager, in professional roles: in the film adaptation of Iain Banksâ Complicity, and in a kidsâ TV show called Barmy Aunt Boomerang.
âSo I was like, âIâm going to be acting, and not go to school.â And get paid.â
Did you realise you were good? âI donât think you ever feel good at it.â
He gave up acting in his mid-teens â âLife got a bit shit, when youâre on telly, among your peers, and youâre 14 years oldâ. He returned to it when he was 17, âbecause you have a bunch of teachers going, âRight, now you must decide what to do with the rest of your life,â and 17 is of course the best time to choose.â
In 2004, he began studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. âI wasnât allowed to apply for drama school unless I applied for a ârealâ course as well, which was computing science. I didnât even know what it was. Had no interest. And then, luckily, the day before my first exams, I received a letter saying youâve got into drama school, so I went to my exams and just wrote my name.â
At 22, barely out of the RSAMD, he was cast as Robb Stark in HBOâs epic, fantastically successful Game of Thrones. Stark is the noble, brave, integrity-hampered son of Sean Beanâs Ned Stark; a character with a genuine and credible claim on the kingdomâs iron throne, all of which condemned him to a phenomenally gruesome death in an episode entitled The Rains of Castamere, only fans of the show (among whom I count myself, unashamedly) call it âThe Red Weddingâ, on account of the blood-drenched ceremony during which Madden, his pregnant wife and his mother all die.
Madden says he thinks that early, formative brush with a TV career was both âa head-f***â and, âI was so thankful for it, because, going into the world of Game of Thrones, Iâd already learnt so much from doing it as a kid, of feeling isolated, or getting arrogant because youâre on a TV show. Iâd kind of done all that. I could deal with it a lot better.â
A lot better than whom, among your co-stars?
He cackles. âWouldnât you like to know.â
Yes! Can I guess? âNo.â
Madden went into Game of Thrones knowing he would die within three series â the books on which the shows are based spelled out Robb Starkâs demise long before Madden was cast â which he thinks is a good thing, professionally speaking. âI didnât just want to be known as that guy from Game of Thrones.â It also meant that his celebrity has, until this point at least, been tinged with pity, partly for the grotesque manner of his fictional death, partly because he was booted out of that juggernaut of a TV sensation early.
That might be about to change with Bodyguard. I am reasonably confident Maddenâs fame is about to be tinged with something rather more lecherous. David Budd is in no sense a straightforward romantic hero â physically and emotionally scarred, with an undivorced wife and kids squirrelled away in a safe house â but heavens, he does brooding intensity well. His love affair with Keeley Hawesâ home secretary, Julia Montague, is as intensely sexy as it is quietly subversive, for making no reference to Hawesâ Montague being ten years older than Maddenâs Budd. The whole thing is designed to charm the pants off us, and I wonder how prepared Madden is to receive the unbridled lust of thousands of women on social media.
If Twitter erupts with lechery âŚ
âI wonât look.â
Why?
âBecause if I do, and if I believe someone going, âOh God, heâs hot,â then Iâll also have to believe the person that goes, âHeâs got pumpkin teeth.â Do you know what I mean?â
Yes, but, you are widely considered handsome, so âŚ
âI donât see it.â
Truly not?
âTruly not.â
It is form for beautiful young actors to deny their looks, in the interest of seeming more humble and likeable than they really are, but I think, in Maddenâs case, he could mean it. He tells me fame has made him feel less attractive, not more. âYou chat to a girl at a bar, have a couple of drinks, and shy Richard is slowly going. This is going well. And then itâs, âMy boyfriendâs a really big fan. Can I get a picture?â And you go, âF***.â You think they think youâre hot, but itâs because youâre on telly.â
I ask Madden if he thinks heâs irredeemably defined by the chubby, shy child he used to be.
âI feel like I should lie down on that sofa and give you a hundred quid.â
Were you really so scarringly fat?
âThirty-eight inch waist when I was 12. I didnât wear denim until I was 19, because denim is really hard to take up. My mum couldnât take my jeans up.â
Would you say you have body issues?
âAbsolutely, yeah.â
Despite all of which, Richard Madden does OK with women. When I originally met him, heâd been in the final stages of a long-term relationship with the actor Jenna Coleman, who stars as Victoria in the ITV show, and who is now in a relationship with her onscreen Albert, Tom Hughes. Since then, Madden has been gossip-column-linked to a succession of beautiful women â model Suki Waterhouse and TV presenter Laura Whitmore among them â none of whom seem notably put off by his pumpkin teeth.
âI think in the last year I was, as far as the tabloids went, dating seven different people. And when you receive a text saying, âAre you sleeping with blah blah,â and you go, âNo,â thatâs a bit weird.â
Who are you sleeping with?
âIâm not saying.â
But you are sleeping with someone?
âI am sleeping with someone. I am very happy with someone. There are pictures of it on the internet.â
If itâs the one everyone thinks youâre dating, I say â by which I mean the 21-year-old Ellie Bamber, with whom he was pictured most recently at the Serpentine Gallery summer party â then sheâs another actor. Is it really a good idea to go out with other actors?
âYes and no. Yes, because you understand what each otherâs going through. No, because, thereâs a certain level of self-focus you need, in order to do the job youâre doing. Thatâs hard on all relationships, because what am I going to talk to you about? I walk up and down for 12 hours a day, dealing with this characterâs shit. Thatâs all Iâve done, every day, for the past three months ⌠I really havenât got anything to offer you as a friend.â
We return, briefly, to Bodyguard. He says he got on brilliantly with Keeley Hawes. âLove her, love her to pieces. She saved my arse, because itâs not a fun job. Itâs not a comedy. But then Keeley and me, me and her, off screen, were just like two kids.â
Were you paid the same?
âNo idea. I imagine she earned more. I care less about how much other people are paid, and more what it takes for me to shut up and go and do my job. The equality thing needs to be addressed hugely between male and female co-stars; I know that from friends of mine. But thereâs only so much I can do for myself. Agents and lawyers, they do all that stuff. I just kind of deal with what I need to, so I donât look a producer in the eye and f***ing hate them when theyâre talking about their villas, and youâre thinking, shit, Iâm getting the bus at the weekend, because I donât have the money for a cab, you know?â
How rich are you?
âNot very. People think I am, because of Game of Thrones, but you know, when I signed up for that I was 22, with f*** all on my CV, so I was paid f*** all.â
Then, somehow, we end up talking about his body again.
âIn between filming, I eat pizza, drink, donât work out, get fat, then itâs six weeks till you have to be naked again. Itâs always six weeks. Actually, thatâs if youâre lucky. I have ten days till I take my clothes off again this time.â
Whatâs the occasion?
âIâm filming Rocketman, the Elton John film, and I play John Reid, his first boyfriend, his manager for 28 years.â
A straight man in a gay role; casting that has become contentious after Disney named comedian Jack Whitehall, who is straight, as the voice of its first openly gay hero.
âYeah, and Taron Egerton [who is playing Elton John] is a straight man in a gay role,â says Madden, âand I think weâre all f***ed if we start going down the route of you can only play a gay part if youâre a gay actor. Diversity, equality and pay â of course we need to make sure of all that, but at the same time ⌠I read reports that so and soâs pulled out of this role because theyâre not transgender, and you go, yeah, but theyâre a f***ing actor, and theyâre probably really f***ing good in the part, and maybe that is part of the reason why that filmâs getting made âŚâ
We wind up with him telling me he isnât bothered about an Oscar. âBecause, who won best actress last year? Best actor? Best supporting actor? What won best musical?â
No idea.
âSo what does it matter?â he says.
After which, he is beautifully mocking (off the record) about a very famous actorâs latest endeavour, before hugging me goodbye and pretending â well â he hopes to see me again soon, socially. Richard Madden made it to No 2 in the current issue of Graziaâs Chart of Lust Bodyguard continues tomorrow at 9pm on BBC One. Episodes 1 and 2 are on BBC iPlayer
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The Dos and Donâts of Beginning a Novel:Â An Illustrated Guide
Iâve had a lot of asks lately for how to begin a book (or how not to), so hereâs a post on my general rules of thumb for story openers and first chapters! Â
Please note, these are incredibly broad generalizations; if you think an opener is right for you, and your beta readers like it, thereâs a good chance itâs A-OK. When it comes to writing, one size does not fit all. (Also note that this is for serious writers who are interested in improving their craft and/or professional publication, so kindly refrain from the obligatory handful of comments saying âumm, screw this, write however you want!!â)
So without further ado, letâs jump into it!
Donât:Â
1. Open with a dream.Â
âJust when Mary Sue was sure sheâd disappear down the gullet of the monstrous, winged pig, she woke up bathed in sweat in her own bedroom.â
What? So that entire winged pig confrontation took place in a dream and amounts to nothing? I feel so cheated!Â
Okay, not too many people open their novels with monstrous swine, but you get the idea: false openings of any kind tend to make the reader feel as though youâve wasted their time, and donât usually jump into more meaty action of the story quickly enough. It makes your opening feel lethargic and can leave your audience yawning.
Speaking of...Â
2. Open with a character waking up. Â
This feels familiar to most of us, but unless your character is waking up to a zombie attack or an alien invasion, itâs generally a pretty easy recipe to get your story to drag.
No one picks a book to hear how your character brushes their teeth in the morning or what theyâd like to have for dinner. As a general rule of thumb, we read to explore things we wouldnât otherwise get to experience. And cussing out the alarm clock is not one of them. Â
Granted, there are exceptions if your writing is exceptionally engaging, but in most cases it just sets a slow pace that will bore you and your reader to death and probably cause you to lose interest in your book within the first ten pages. Â
3. Bombard with exposition. Â
Literary characters arenât DeviantArt OCs. And the best way to convey a character is not, in my experience, to devote the first ten pages to describing their physical appearance, personality, and backstory. Develop your characters, and make sure their fully fleshed out -- my tips on how to do so here -- but you donât need to dump all that on the reader before they have any reason to care about them. Let the reader get to know the character gradually, learn about them, and fall in love with them as they would a person: a little bit at a time. Â
This is iffy when world building is involved, but even then it works best when the delivery feels organic and in tune with the bookâs overall tone. Think the opening of the Hobbit or Good Omens.
4. Take yourself too seriously.
Your opener (and your novel in general) doesnât need to be intellectually pretentious, nor is intellectual pretense the hallmark of good literature. Good literature is, generally speaking, engaging, well-written, and enjoyable. Thatâs it. Â
So donât concern yourself with creating a poetic masterpiece of an opening line/first chapter. Just make one thatâs -- you guessed it -- engaging, well-written, and enjoyable.Â
5. Be unintentionally hilarious.
Utilizing humor in your opening line is awesome, but check yourself to make sure your readers arenât laughing for all the wrong reasons (this is another reason why betas are important.)Â Â
These examples of the worst opening lines in published literature will show you what I mean -- and possibly serve as a pleasant confidence booster as well:Â
It was like so, but wasnât.
â Richard Powers
Those of us acquainted with their sordid and scandalous story were not surprised to hear, by way of rumors from the various localities where the sorceresses had settled after fleeing our pleasant town of Eastwick, Rhode Island, that the husbands whom the three Gordforsaken women had by their dark arts concocted for themselves did not prove durable.
â John Updike
The cabin-passenger wrote in his diary a parody of Descartes: âI feel discomfort, therefore I am alive,â then sat pen in hand with no more to record.
âGraham Greene
Indian Summer is like a woman.
â Grace Metalious
If these can get published, so can you.
Do:
1. You know that one really interesting scene youâre itching to write? Start with that.
Momentum is an important thing in storytelling. If you set a fast, infectious beat, you and your reader will be itching to dance along with it. Â
Similarly, slow, drowsy openers tend to lead to slow, drowsy stories that will put you both to sleep.
I see a lot of posts joking about âthat awkward moment when you sit down to write but donât know how to get to that one scene you actually wanted to write about.â Write that scene! If itâs at all possible, start off with it. If not, there are still ways you can build your story around the scenes you actually want to write.
Keep in mind: if youâre bored, your reader will almost certainly be bored as well. So write what you want to write. Write what makes you excited. Donât hold off until later, when it âreally gets good.â Odds are, the reader will not wait around that long, and youâre way more likely to become disillusioned with your story and quit. If a scene is dragging, cut it out. Burn bridges, find a way around. Live, dammit.Â
2. Engage the reader.
There are several ways to go about this. You can use wit and levity, you can present a question, and you can immerse the reader into the world youâve created. Just remember to do so with subtlety, and donât try too hard; believe me, it shows. Â
Here are some of my personal favorite examples of engaging opening lines:Â
"In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."Â
-- Douglas Adams, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
"It was the day my grandmother exploded."
-- Iain Banks, Crow Road.
âA white Pomeranian named Fluffy flew out of the a fifth-floor window in Panna, which was a grand-new building with the painterâs scaffolding still around it. Fluffy screamed.â
-- Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games.
See what Iâm saying? They pull you in and do not let go.
3. Introduce us to a main character (but do it right.)
âShadow had done three years in prison. He was big enough and looked don't-fuck-with-me enough that his biggest problem was killing time. So he kept himself in shape, and taught himself coin tricks, and thought a lot about how much he loved his wife.â
-- Neil Gaiman, American Gods.
This is one of my favorite literary openings of all time, because right off the bat we know almost everything we need to know about Shadowâs character (i.e. that heâs rugged, pragmatic, and loving.)Â Â
Also note that it doesnât tell us everything about Shadow: it presents questions that make us want to read more. How did Shadow get into prison? When will he get out? Will he reunite with his wife? Thereâs also more details about Shadow slowly sprinkled in throughout the book, about his past, personality, and physical appearance. This makes him feel more real and rounded as a character, and doesnât pull the reader out of the story.
Obviously, Iâm not saying you should rip off American Gods. You donât even need to include a hooker eating a guy with her cooch if you donât want to. Â
But this, and other successful openers, will give you just enough information about the main character to get the story started; rarely any good comes from infodumping, and allowing your reader to get to know your character gradually will make them feel more real.  Â
4. Learn from the greats.
My list of my favorite opening lines (and why I love them) is right here.
5. Keep moving. Â
The toughest part of being a writer is that itâs a rare and glorious occasion when youâre actually satisfied with something you write. And to add another layer of complication, what you like best probably wonât be what your readers will like best.Â
If you refuse to keep moving until you have the perfect first chapter, you will never write anything beyond your first chapter. Â
Set a plan, and stick to it: having a daily/weekly word or page goal can be extremely helpful, especially when youâre starting out. Plotting is a lifesaver (some of my favorite posts on how to do so here, here, and here.)
Keep writing, keep moving, and rewrite later. If you stay in one place for too long, youâll never keep going.Â
Best of luck, and happy writing. <3
#the author speaks#writing#opening chapters#openers#first chapters#plotting#american gods#neil gaiman#douglas adams#the restaurant at the end of the universe#iain banks#crow road#vikram chandra#sacred games
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Berlinale Film Festival 2021, Industry Event, Day 1
We all knew the 71st Berlinale would be different, but whoâd have guessed weâd be given a twofer? At this point, the juries for the Competition, Encounters, Shorts, and Generations sections have all handed out their awards. These juries got to watch the films in their respective categories on the big screen. Meanwhile, the press were given the opportunity to screen these movies at home, as well as the films in the Berlinale Special, Panorama, Forum and Forum Expanded sections, as well as the six films making up the Perspektive Deutsches Kino category and episodes from the six television shows included in Berlinale Series. (The always excellent Retrospective section is only screening during the summer.) Altogether, around 150 at-home screenings were made available to the press. We had five days to watch them. I was able to watch 22 of them. This is Part One.
âââ
Iâm sure everyone covering the festival is hoping that the Summer Special, in mid-June, will go smoothly and weâll be able to catch at least a fraction of the movies we werenât able to see. (For geo-blocking streaming reasons, a few films in the lineup werenât available at all in my geo-region. Including two in the Competition: the FABIAN adaptation and Daniel Daniel BrĂźhlâs directorial debut NEXT DOOR.) Usually, the press is given a week ahead of the festival to check out the Panorama, Forum and Generations titles. One assumes itâs so that audiences may get some recommendations on these lower-profile movies in the inevitable situation when all the high-profile films are sold out. Will this happen in the summer? Unless I missed a press release, the details around the Summer Special are still a bit vague. Rightfully so, since weâre still living in week-by-week uncertainty as far as lockdown measures go.
All we can do now is cross our fingers and hope for a chance to get a look at some of the these titles, because when presented with the challenge of covering a 150-movie lineup over just five days, you have to make some obvious decisions. I suspect many people did what I did â try to watch all the Competition titles and get in a few Encounters, Specials, some shorts and hold out hope for one or two stray Panoramas or Forums. To make matters more heartbreaking, the press screenings went like this: every morning at 7:00 AM, youâd get an impossibly long list of films to watch until 7:00 AM next morning. Youâd get a few Competition titles, a few Encounters and Specials, and a deluge of films from the other categories. For many films, all you could do is look at the title, nod, and say to yourself, hopefully weâll meet again soon, because thereâs no way I can fit a sixth movie in today without losing my mind.
(Now there was a wrinkle added to this plan. Over the weekend of March 6 - 7, the press could screen the award winners that got announced on Friday. But it was difficult to try and take this into consideration in any strategic way.)
âââ
Like most film festivals, Berlinale usually kicks things off with a star-studded opening night movie thatâs usually too mainstream for the critics. With no red carpet to be concerned with this year, that wasnât the case. Instead, on Day One, the closest to a big movie star name was Iain Glen (Game of Thrones). Glen isnât the lead in Tim Fehlbaumâs TIDES, shown in the Berlinale Special program, but he does play a key role as an astronaut whoâs landed back on Earth, generations after human had mostly left the increasingly inhabitable planet. Humans have been living in a space colony called Kepler, but everyone ended up sterile, so missions are being sent back to Earth in the hopes that they can once again live there and get their reproductive groove back.
Thatâs the underlying story of TIDES, and itâs just one element that will likely feel very familiar to anyone whoâs well-versed in post-apocalyptic cinema. The color palette is stark, with muted colors. The landscape is barren, this one with lots of water, rather than the desert locales of Mad Max. In fact, the notorious WATERWORLD came to mind more than once while watching TIDES. Thereâs even a doll in the film that looks just like Dennis Hopperâs character in that film, eye patch and everything. That little detail may be one of the most interesting things about the film.
The main character of TIDES is another astronaut, played with a committed intensity by Nora Arnezeder. She crash lands on Earth, is held captive by central casting post-apocalyptic scavengers, and eventually tries to track down a McGuffin that will let her contact Kepler and report back that there are people reproducing on Earth. Meanwhile, she also suspects that something might remain of the previous mission that was comprised of her father and Iain Glen.
The main attraction here is Fehlbaumâs use of stunning landscapes and practical locations, like a beached industrial ocean liner that serves as inspiration for one of the primary sets. The art design and costumes are all exceptional, while the acting and photography are all decent enough. But it never does much with the conspiracy it tries to entertain us with. Its attempts at being thrilling look good, but canât help but feel like pretty standard stuff at this point. Itâs worth noting that one of the filmâs producers is Roland Emmerich, a man who knows a thing or two about making generic high concept action pictures. Some things, like the art design and the pleasingly diverse and international cast, set TIDES apart. But the story is far less inspired.
Faring better were the Day One Competition titles. I started with MEMORY BOX, a lively picture wherein a daughter gets to better understand her mother when a box of the momâs old teenage diaries and correspondence ends up on their doorstep. (This mother-daughter connection is essentially the same theme that CĂŠline Sciammaâs PETITE MAMAN covers in a different, more sci-fi, fashion.) As the daughter, living in a nice house in Montreal, digs into her motherâs old journals, scrapbooks and tape recordings, the film travels back to 1980s Beirut through the eyes of her teenage mom. It makes these trips back in time through some pretty cool moments of collage-like animation â putting scrapbook pages into motion and diving into photographs and contact sheets that come alive. Plus, the soundtrack is killer, full of lively 80s post punk like Killing Joke, The Stranglers and Blondie.
Thereâs romance, the trauma of war, a strong refugee story, and a poignant tale of cross-generational understanding. The kicker is that itâs very autobiographical, with the film mirroring co-director Joana Hadjithomasâs own story of corresponding with her friend in Paris while Beirut was falling down around her. These journals are backed up by old photographs taken in Beirut from the other co-director, Kahil Joreige. Like last yearâs fascinating BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS, and this yearâs A COP MOVIE, Berlinale movies are continuing to find success in blurring the line between documentary and narrative fiction. The movie has a little trouble maintaining momentum all the way through, but I loved the experimentation on display here, and the unique ways it tells its story. It helps that MEMORY BOX really sticks the landing at the end.
Next up was ICH BIN DEIN MENSCH, or IâM YOUR MAN â another film, like many in recent years, interested in the ethics behind artificial intelligence and robots with emotions. Think of it as a romantic comedy version of BLADE RUNNER, or an updated version of the forgotten-by-time Ann Magnuson and John Malkovich vehicle MAKING MR. RIGHT. This one, based on a recent short story by Emma Braslavsky, is directed by Maria Schrader, who recently helmed the popular Netflix series Unorthodox (sheâs also a veteran film and TV actress, from Tatort and Deutschland 86 to AIMEE & JAGUAR). Schrader continues to prove that she has a good eye for framing and storytelling. The movie doesnât always escape the problem that many German movies continue to struggle with, which is that they often feel like a good TV movie rather than a work of cinema, but it manages better than most.
The general idea is that Maren Eggert plays Alma, a researcher who is assigned the task of spending a couple weeks with a new personal companion robot named Tom, played by the dreamy-eyed Dan Stevens. Alma is, of course, a completely rational-minded person who is happy to just get through the two weeks with as little interaction with Tom as possible. In her mind, itâs an impossibility that a piece of technology could fulfill a human beingâs needs. Of course, as each day goes by, Tom continues to surprise her and wear down her defenses.
Itâs a pretty well-worn story by now. The issues that get raised over the course of the movie are some that Star Trek: The Next Generation was dealing with on a regular basis (Tom is similar to Data, though Stevens doesnât need any special contact lenses), but there are some interesting wrinkles here. Few movies have looked at this subject from the female perspective. And if thereâs one that that this yearâs Berlinale truly excelled at, itâs offering a wide variety of movies by female directors and/or with female leads. Weâve covered three movies that fit that criteria already, and many more will come. Whatâs more, Maren Eggert gives us a character whoâs at an age where sheâs wrestling with the question of whether or not her child-bearing days are behind her. Whenâs the last time Hollywood dealt with that subject? So, while Alma starts off as a very emotionally distant, academic type, and the best thing about the movie is uncovering her past and getting to understand why she has put up so many walls. Iâm not sure it does much with the subject of AI or robot companions, but it does provide a charming odd-couple story and I donât have any complaints with Eggert winning the festivalâs best actress award.
The nightcap on Day One was INTEURODEOKSYEON, or INTRODUCTION, the newest film by the prolific Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo. At last yearâs Berlinale, Sangsoo was also in the Competition with the excellent THE GIRL WHO RAN, and he doesnât disappoint with INTRODUCTION. Ironically enough, if youâre unfamiliar with Hong Sangsoo and donât know where to start â understandable given the nearly 30 films heâs directed in the past 25 years â INTRODUCTION ainât a bad way to start. Itâs not his best work, but itâs pretty damn good, and a very accessible entry-point into the manâs style and thematic interests. And it barely cracks the 60-minute mark, so youâre not committing to much.
This one ping-pongs between a young man, Youngho, and a young woman, Juwan, both trying to figure out what to do with their lives. Juwan wants to study fashion in Berlin, Youngho wants to become an actor. Both run into problems with these pursuits â some of which are out of their control. In Younghoâs case, it leads to a hilariously drunken dinner confrontation with Ki Joo-bong, who may or may not be playing a version of himself, since heâs only credited as âOld Actor.â The esteemed Korean actor Joo-bong has appeared in Park Chan-wook films, SAVE THE GREEN PLANET, as well as few of Sangsooâs other films and some 70 other movies. In INTRODUCTION, his character is revered by every other person he meets. And his advice to Youngho is an eruptive highlight in a movie thatâs otherwise pretty subtle.
Subtlety is often Sangsooâs thing, but the emotions he leaves you with tend to be pretty strong. This is his magic. He writes very realistic, dialog-driven scenes that, on their own, are nuanced and deceptively simple. But these quiet scenes build up to an ending that makes everything come together in a profound way. Even if youâre familiar with Sangsooâs work, INTRODUCTION may come across as slight, or a minor work in the maestroâs deep catalog, but I found itâs pleasures to be more immediate than usual. To my knowledge, no one is writing screenplays like this. The way he reveals characters, develops them, and draws connections through casual lines of dialog, sometimes nested deep within a conversation, is practically his trademark move, and itâs never not remarkable. It demands your attention and then rewards it at the end. His technique is patient, confident and hugely sophisticated. The only problem I see is that, given his track record of releasing one or two movies a year, his talent is in danger of being taken. Donât be one of those people.
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Iain Glen nailing Hamlet (1991)
In 1991, after winning the Evening Standard Film Award for Best Actor, Iain Glen gave his soulful all, not on the stage in London, no, not yet, though really he could have, but at the Old Vic in Bristol, donning the persona of the Dane, Hamlet. He won the Special Commendation Ian Charleson Award* for his performance and yet it appears we will never see but stills from this production as no video recording was made, not even by and for the company. The University of Bristol has the archives of the production: the playbook, the programme and black and white stills. The V&A archives have the administrative papers. In our day and age, this sad evanescent corporeal sate of affairs is unimaginable. The memory of the play, of this performance fading away? We rebel against the very thought. We brandish our cell phones and swear we shall unearth and pirate its memory, somehow, somewhere. Even if we have to hypnotize patrons or pull out the very hearts of those who saw Iain Glen on stage, those few, those happy few, to read into their very memory and pulsating membrane just how brilliant he was. Because he was, he was. Thatâs what theyâll all tell you...Â
Below, those pics and testimonies....
*(The Charleson Awards were established in memory of Ian Charleson, who died at 40 from Aids while playing Hamlet at the National Theatre in 1989)
- Iain Glen is a rampaging prince, quixotic, technically sound, tense as a coiled spring, funny. âTo be, or not to beâ results from throwing himself against the white walls, an air of trembling unpredictability is beautifully conveyed throughout. âOh, what a rogue and peasants slaveâ is blindingly powerful. My life is drawn in angrily modern post Gielgud Hamlets: David Warner, Nicol Williams, Visotsky, Jonathon Price. Iain Glen is equal to them. He keeps good company. THE OBSERVER, Michael Coveney
- Paul Unwinâs riveting production reminded me more strongly than any I have ever seen that the Danish Court is riddled with secrecy. Politics is a form of hide and seek: everyone stealthily watches everyone else. Iain Glenâs Hamlet is a melancholic in the clinical sense: his impeccable breeding and essential good nature keep in check what might be an approaching breakdown. His vitriolic humour acts as a safety valve for a nagging instability, his boyish charm is deployed to placate and deceive a hostile and watchful world. Glen brings out Hamletâs fatal self absorption: the way he cannot help observing himself and putting a moral price tag on every action and failure. He is a doomed boy. And his chill but touching calm at the end is that of a man who has finally understood the secrets behind the closed doors. The Sunday Times, John Peter
- This is an excellent production of Hamlet from the Bristol Old Vic. The director Paul Unwin and his designer Bunnie Christie have set the play in turn of the century Europe. Elsinore is a palace of claustrophobically white walls and numerous doors. All this is handled with a light touch, without drawing attention away from the play. Our first encounter with Hamlet shows him bottled up with rage and grief. Glen gives a gripping performance. The self-dramatising side of the character is tapped to the full by this talented actor. The Spectator, Christopher Edwards
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The following though is my favorite review/article because it situates Iain Glenâs creation is time, in the spectrum of all renowned Hamlets.
How will Cumberbatch, TVâs Sherlock, solve the great mystery of Hamlet? by Michael Coveney - Aug 17, 2015
In 1987, three years before he died, the critic and venerable Shakespearean JC Trewin published a book of personal experience and reminiscence: Five and Eighty Hamlets. Iâm thinking of supplying a second volume, under my own name, called Six and Fifty Hamlets, for that will be my total once Benedict Cumberbatch has opened at the Barbican.
Thereâs a JC and MC overlap of about 15 years: Trewin was a big fan of Derek Jacobiâs logical and graceful prince in 1977 and ended with less enthusiastic remarks about âthe probing intelligenceâ of Michael Pennington in 1980 (both Jacobi and Pennington were 37 when they played the role; Cumberbatch is 39) and emotional pitch and distraction of Roger Rees in 1984 (post-Nickleby, Rees was 40, but an electric eel and ever-youthful).
I started as a reviewer in 1972 with three Hamlets on the trot: the outrageous Charles Marowitz collage, which treats Hamlet as a creep and Ophelia as a demented tart, and makes exemplary, equally unattractive polar opposites of Laertes and Fortinbras; a noble, stately Keith Michell (with a frantic Polonius by Ron Moody) at the Bankside Globe, Sam Wanamakerâs early draft of the Shakespearean replica; and a 90-minute gymnastic exercise performed by a cast of eight in identical chain mail and black breeches at the Arts Theatre.
This gives an idea of how alterable and adaptable Hamlet has been, and continues to be. There are contestable readings between the Folios, any number of possible cuts, and there is no end of choice in emphasis. Trewin once wrote a programme note for a student production directed by Jonathan Miller in which he said that the first scene on the battlements (âWhoâs there?â) was the most exciting in world drama; the scene was cut.
And as Steven Berkoff pointed out in his appropriately immodestly titled book I Am Hamlet (1989), Hamlet doesnât exist in the way Macbeth, or Coriolanus, exists; when you play Hamlet, he becomes you, not the other way round. Hamlet, said Hazlitt, is as real as our own thoughts.
Which is why my three favourite Hamlets are all so different from each other, and attractive because of the personality of the actor whoâs provided the mould for the Hamlet jelly: my first, pre-critical-days Hamlet, David Warner (1965) at the Royal Shakespeare Company, was a lank and indolently charismatic student in a long red scarf, exact contemporary of David Halliwellâs Malcolm Scrawdyke, and two years before students were literally revolting in Paris and London; then Alan Cumming (1993) with English Touring Theatre, notably quick, mercurial and very funny, with a detachable doublet and hose, black Lycra pants and bovver boots, definitely (then) the glass of fashion, a graceful gender-bender like Brett Anderson of indie band Suede; and, at last, Michael Sheen (2011) at the Young Vic, a vivid and overreaching fantasist in a psychiatric institution (âDenmarkâs a prisonâ), where every actor âplaysâ his part.
These three actors â Warner, Cumming, Sheen â occupy what might be termed the radical, alternative tradition of Hamlets, whereas the authoritative, graceful nobility of Jacobi belongs to the Forbes Robertson/John Gielgud line of high-ranking top drawer âstarâ turns, a dying species and last represented, sourly but magnificently, by Ralph Fiennes (1995) in the gilded popular palace of the Hackney Empire. Fiennes, like Cumberbatch, has the sort of voice you might expect a non-radical, traditional Hamlet to possess.
But if you listen to Gielgud on tape, you soon realise he wasnât âold schoolâ at all. He must have been as modern, at the time, as Noel Coward. Gielgud is never âintonedâ or overtly posh, heâs quicksilver, supple, intellectually alert. I saw him deliver the âOh what a rogue and peasant slaveâ soliloquy on the night the National left the Old Vic (February 28, 1976); he had played the role more than 500 times, and not for 37 years, but it was as fresh, brilliant and compelling as if he had been making it up on the spot.
Ben Kingsley, too, in 1975, was a fiercely intelligent Royal Shakespeare Company Hamlet, and I saw much of that physical and mental power in David Tennantâs, also for the RSC in 2008, with an added pinch of mischief and irony. Thereâs another tradition, too, of angry Hamlets: Nicol Williamson in 1969, a scowling, ferocious demon; Jonathan Pryce at the Royal Court in 1980, possessed by the ghost of his father and spewing his lines, too, before finding Yorickâs skull in a cabinet of bones, an ossuary of Osrics; and a sourpuss Christopher Ecclestone (2002), spiritually constipated, moody as a moose with a migraine, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
One Hamlet who had a little of all these different attributes â funny, quixotic, powerful, unhappy, clever and genuinely heroic â was Iain Glen (1991) at the Bristol Old Vic, and I can imagine Cumberbatch developing along similar lines. He, like so many modern Hamlets, is pushing 40 â as was Jude Law (2009), hoary-voiced in the West End â yet when Trevor Nunn cast Ben Whishaw (2004) straight from RADA, aged 23, petulant and precocious, at the Old Vic, he looked like a 16-year-old, and too young for what he was saying. Itâs like the reverse of King Lear, where you have to be younger to play older with any truth or vigour.
Michael Billingtonâs top Hamlet remains Michael Redgrave, aged 50, in 1958, as he recounts in his brilliant new book, The 101 Greatest Plays (seven of the 101 are by Shakespeare); Hamlet, he says, more than any other play, alters according to time as well as place.
So, Yuri Lyubimovâs great Cold War Hamlet, the prince played by the dissident poet Vladimir Visotsky, was primarily about surveillance, the action played on either side of an endlessly moving hessian and woollen wall. And in Belgrade in 1980, shortly after the death of Tito, the play became a statement of anxiety about the succession.
Thereâs a mystery to Hamlet that not even Sherlock Holmes could solve, though Cumberbatch will no doubt try his darndest â even if he finds his Watson at the Barbican (Leo Bill is playing Horatio) more of a hindrance than a help; there are, after all, more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in his friendâs philosophy.
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Oh! Did I say that we were never going to see Iain Glen in the skin of the great Dane? Tsk. How silly of me. Meet IGâs Hamlet in Tom Stoppardâs postmodern theatrical whimsy ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, shot the year before the Bristol play.
Though almost surreal and most often funny as the film follows the Pulp Fiction-like misadventures of two forgettable Shakespearian characters, crossing paths with other more or less fortunate characters, their time with Hamlet makes us privy to the Dane as we never quite see him in the Bardâs play... but for one memorable scene,  in which Iain Glen absolutely nails it, emoting the famous âTo be or not to beâ which you see tortures his soul, brings tears to his eyes and contorts his mouth; the moment made all the more memorable by the fact that it is a silent scene. You never hear him utter the famous line, but you see the words leave his lips and feel them mark your soul.
Iâm kinda telling myself that itâs 1991 and Iâm sitting in the Old Vic, in Bristol, not London. Not yet.
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The Weekend Warrior 9/4/20 â TENET! MULAN! IâM THINKING OF ENDING THINGS (but now that Iâve seen Tenet and Mulan, Iâm better)⌠and More!
Itâs Labor Day weekend⌠it is, isnât it? I canât even remember what day of the week it is anymore, and it looks like movie theaters across the country are generally all reopened except for a few specific areas. While theaters seem to be playing a variety of old and new movies â and Chadwick Bosemanâs breakout 42, in which he plays Jackie Robinson, will be shown in 300 AMC theaters starting Thursday --  it still feels like weâre not quite where we should be. That said, only three states remain fully closed as far as movie theaters go: New York (eff you, Cuomo!), North Carolina and New Mexico. California is slowly rolling out movie theaters reopening in certain sections but not in L.A. or San Francisco just yet. Honestly, Iâm having a rough week, and Iâll be surprised if I even get through half the movies that I have seen and planned to review, let alone everything else I have to do.

Finally! The movie thatâs looking to be one of the most controversial movies of the summer, if not the year, comes to the United States. Of course, Iâm talking about Christopher Nolanâs TENET (Warner Bros.), his tribute to James Bond movies with John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman) playing a super-spy (of sorts) who teams with Robert Pattinson to perform intricate heists on a mission to find out who has discovered bullets that travel backwards through time and brought them back into our time. Also starring Elizabeth Debicki and Kenneth Branagh, the movie has received mixed to positive reviews with about 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. You can read my full review right here and a second technical review here.
Right now, it looks like Tenet is going to be playing in roughly 3,000 theaters over Labor Day weekend with only a few states fully closed including my own (New York), as well as North Carolina and New Mexico. A few other states like New Jersey and Maryland are reopening but it may be too late to get Tenet in there. California has a few areas open but not Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Although Iâm hesitant at making any predictions right now or doing a full-blown analysis â there so many unknowns in a pandemic -- I think a four-day opening of somewhere between $25 and 28 million should be possible even with limited seating in most theaters that have reopened. I think people are ready to go back to theaters despite the negative narrative created by certain irresponsible film critics who seem to care more about their own personal health than that of the industry that has allowed them to pay rent and live large for years.

Another movie that Iâve been looking forward to and actually my most anticipated movie of the year is Disneyâs live action remake of their animated classic, MULAN, this one directed by one of my favorite filmmakers, Niki Caro of Whale Rider fame. I cannot tell you how excited I was to finally see this movie after being invited to a press screen back in March, and then have it systematically cancelled as everything else started shutting down. Fortunately, I got a screener and while not my favorite way to watch a movie, I absolutely LOVED IT!
It stars Yifei Liu as the title character, made famous in the 1998 Disney animated movie, and it follows a similar story of a teen girl who steals her fatherâs sword and armor and pretends to be a man to join the Imperial Army under secrecy. There are definitely major changes in Caroâs version, most notably the lack of songs and no sign of Mushu, the adorable dragon voiced by Eddie Murphy. This is also not meant for small children, because itâs PG-13 not because it has anything terrible like someone waving genitals or swearing but because some of the action does get intense without much blood or anything terrible. I mean, this is definitely a SOFT PG-13, if thatâs even a thing.
The movie is gorgeous and in the vein of movies I love like Zhang Yimouâs Hero and Ang Leeâs Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and itâs even exec. produced by Bill Kong, who produced many of those films. The point is that I love these kinds of movies, plus Iâve long been a fan of Caroâs, and everything just comes together beautifully from the performance by Yifei Liu to the fantastic characters around her, including ones played by Jet Li and Donnie Yen (reuniting from Hero!), as well as an amazing witch played by the indelible Ms. Gong Li, who is also terrific. Sure, thereâs a few issues with the dialogue, but this is not a kiddie movie, as much as itâs something on par with the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and I just love all of the decision Caro and her all-Asian cast make in telling this story in a new way. I particularly liked how the film followed Chinese traditions and dealt with things like âchi,â but as with the animated film, the stuff in the armyÂ

On top of the amazing martial arts fights, there are also some terrific battle scene that would do Braveheart proud, and itâs all pulled together by Harry Gregson-Williamsâ score, which may be one of my favorite pieces of music this year. Definitely a score Iâll be buying since it brings so much excitement and emotion to every scene, but thatâs just as much a credit to Ms. Caro and her fantastic cast, who in a couple scenes, particularly between Liu and Li, had me tearing up almost as much as every single time Iâve watched Caroâs debut, Whale Rider.
Iâm sure that fans of the animated movie (which I only saw for the first time earlier this year) will have different expectations, but you canât fault Disney for being a little bit concerned and undeservedly dumping it to the Disney+ streaming service (which you can watch it at a premium of $29.95) rather than giving it the theatrical release it truly deserved. Honestly, if for some strange reason, Disney decides to play it in a bunch of theaters once theyâre fully open, I would not hesitate to watch this again in what I consider a much-better environment for a movie which is likely to end up in my top 10 for year. Itâs probably my favorite straight-up Disney movie (not including Pixar or Marvel) since maybe Kenneth Branaghâs Cinderella, although I kind of enjoyed Mary Poppins Returns, too.
I also have a crafts review of Mulan over at Below the Line, so check that out!

While Iâve generally been mixed on Charlie Kaufmanâs movies that he directed himself, I couldnât NOT watch IâM THINKING OF ENDING THINGS, his new movie on Netflix, starring Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons as a young couple going to visit his parents, played by Toni Collette and David Thewlis. At first, it looks like theyâll get stuck in a snowstorm, but then they get there and then they leave and once again get stuck in a snowtorm. No, this isnât Centigrade 2, but actually something far FAR worse, to the point where Iâm not even sure where to begin.
It starts with Buckleyâs âYoung womanâ â yes, Kaufman doesnât even bother giving her a name â being picked up by her boyfriend Jake (Plemons) before the long ride through the snow to his parentâs house. The whole time, we hear her inner thoughts about wanting to break up with Jake for one or reason or another, her thoughts always been interrupted by Jake making a statement that seems out of the blue. When they get to his parentsâ farm in the middle of nowhere, things start to get weird, and I donât want to go into too many details because if you read my review and decide to sit through it anyway, then itâs your own fault.
Apparently, this was loosely based on a book of the same name by Iain Reid, but it was adapted by the guy who wrote Adaptation, so Kaufman pretty much just went off and did his own thing based on Reidâs general premise. What I find particularly weird is that some of the early reviews talked about this movie as if it was a horror movie, but I just donât see that at all. Itâs just a really dry and weird comedy that doesnât really take off. While parts of it remind me of the comics work of Daniel Clowes (Ghost World), who I genuinely love, other parts just get so weird, and at times, it reminded me of David Lynchâs Eraserhead or M. Night Shyamalanâs The Visit, but only because there are so many WTF moments that you wonder what the actors must have thought while they were doing what Kaufman told them to do. Again, Iâm not going to ruin the experience of being thoroughly confounded by some of the weirder moments but after Buckley and Plemons leave the farmhouse, theyâre back driving through the snow and having far more intelligent conversations about such mundane topics. At one point, I thought, âThis movie must be over soon, right?â and I checked, and there were 43 more minutes to go. Thatâs when I went from angry to outright ballistic, because I knew that there were so many other things I could be doing than listening to all the talking, talking, talking⌠They eventually arrive at an abandoned school and go there for shelter, and I was like, âOh, good, now we get to the horror stuff.â Nope.
Iâm Thinking of Ending Things is the perfect movie for the scant few that raved about Darren Aronofskyâs mother!, or those who consider Holy Rollers a masterpiece of the highest order. Awful, aggravating and almost unwatchable at times, Iâd only recommend Kaufmanâs movie to people as a practical joke. Nah, Iâm not that mean. Itâll be on Netflix tomorrow. Good luck with it.

Filmmaker and Rooney* frontman Robert Schwartzman directs his third feature, the comedy THE âARGUMENTâ (Gravitas Ventures), which takes the simple idea of a cocktail party and turns it into a riotous and sometimes strange comedy of errors, of sorts.
Dan Fogler and Emma Bell play couple Jack and Lisa, he a writer, her an actress, who have been together for some time, and Jack is ready to pop the question. After the final of a stageplay Lisa is co-starring in, Jack throws a cocktail party at which heâs gonna propose. He invites over his agent Danny Pudi from Community) and his wife Sarah (Maggie Q) but Lisa has invited her amorous co-star Paul (Tyler James Williams from Everybody Hates Chris all grown up!), who brought his own bubbly girlfriend Trina (Cleopatra Coleman). Â As Trina starts drinking, thing just get worse and worse, and it inevitably turns into a full- on fight between Jack and Lisa aka the âargumentâ of the title. Jack is convinced that if they have a do-over on the night, they can prove who is right.
Oh, yeah. That couldnât possibly work, right? Well, Iâm not going to spoil it, but the one do-over turns into several, which turns into Jack trying to script the perfect cocktail party with the six of them ⌠or rather five after Maggie Qâs character quits in a hilarious huff where she does impressions of the other five. (Iâve always found Maggie to be hilarious from talking to her years ago, and itâs great that her comic skills are finally being used, along with her beauty.) Eventually, Jack brings in actors to play each of them and perform the script heâs written so they can all sit back and figure out where things went wrong. Honestly, The âArgumentâ is more like the Charlie Kaufman movies I liked (such as Adaptation), and the movie has a vibe a lot like the play God of Carnage, which Roman Polanski adapted into a movie that nobody saw and few gave a fair shake. Also reminded me of Ike Barinholtzâs The Oath, which I quite enjoyed. The main leads are great, but I gotta give additional kudos to Maggie and Cleopatra Coleman, who gives a surprisingly layered performance as possibly the first ditzy African-American not-blonde âblondeâ in movie history?
Although Schwartzman didnât write this movie â itâs written by Zac Sanford who made The Chumscrubber -- he does a great job using his talented cast to throw many surprises at the viewer, and I was laughing quite hardily as the movie went on, because I really enjoyed the characters portrayed not just by the main six but also the actors playing the actors. Yeah, I know it might get confusing but at least this doesnât have time travel, so if you want a fun and unexpectedly clever dark comedy, do check out The âArgumentâ which will be in theaters and On Demand, and apparently, you can even order it bundled with WINE?!?!? (*And you can also check out Rooney on Spotify!)

Another really nice surprise this week was Jeff Barnabyâs apocalyptic horror film BLOOD QUANTUM (Shudder/RLJEFilms), which was released on VOD, Digital HD, DVD and Blu-Ray earlier this week but is also on the awesome horror streamer, Shudder, I guess right now? It involves a community of indigenous people in the reserve Red Crow who face the undead when an infection hits the village through a bunch of animals who come back to life and then infect the humans. The movie starts on the first night of this plague and then cuts forward six months when the people of Red Crow have shut themselves off from the rest of the world with the hopes of keeping those still alive uninfected from the hordes of âZedsâ outside their gates.
Iâm a little bummed I didnât have press notes for this movie because there are so many great characters and performances, but it was hard to keep track of them without a scorecard. It does star Michael Greyeyes from Fear the Walking Dead, as well as Forrest Godluck (The Revenant), Kiowa Gordon and Elle-MĂĄijĂĄ Tailfeatures, but other than Greeneyes, who plays the sherriff trying to keep his family safe, I could barely keep track of the characters or figure out who played them, and thatâs a shame.
I generally liked the recent Train to Busan: Peninsula but Blood Quantum works just as little bit better, mainly from the interaction of the characters in a world full of sex and drugs and gore galore where you never who is gonna get killed but for the most part, theyâre likely to go in a way that involves blood that pours like a waterfall. You add to the quick pace of Barnabyâs direction the amazing score that almost sounds like Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and you have a movie that makes you realize that Barnaby has made a film that perfectly captures the spirit and feel of John Carpenterâs best work.Â
I actually watched John Leguizamoâs feature film directorial debut CRITICAL THINKING (Vertical Entertainment), way back in March, literally my very last press screening before movie theaters shut down, little realizing that it would be the last press screening for six months! Itâs written by Dito Montiel, who Iâve generally been mixed on, and itâs based on a true story from 1998 where a Miami teacher, played by Leguizamo, tries to save a group of Latino and Black teenagers from the inevitable drugs and crime that kids from the underserved ghetto usually get into by teaching them chess and getting them all the way to the National Chess Championship. I didnât get to rewatch it to write any sort of intelligent review, but as you can imagine, it has a Mr. Hollandâs Opus or Dead Poetâs Society feel, but mixed with the little-seen Disney movie, Queen of Katwe, which I generally enjoyed much more. I do think Leguizamo did a pretty decent job with his first feature as a director and maybe if the crazy early days of COVID werenât distracting me so much, maybe I would have enjoyed it more. This is a movie that I need to rewatch with a better head on my shoulders.

Tyler Norwoodâs doc ROBINâS WISH (Vertical) takes a look at the last years of comedian and actor Robin Williams, who died from suicide in August 2014 at the age of 63. To everyone who knew him, from close acquaintances to fans, it was a mystery why Williams would take his own life with things going so well in his marriage to Susan Schneider. After his death, the autopsy showed that he was afflicted by undiagnosed diffuse Lewy body dementia, and apparently, that was enough to do his head in to the point where suicide seemed like the only solution.
This is a very different than the equally good Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, because it does focus so much on Williamsâ last years and his relationship with Schneider, who plays a much bigger role in this movie with in-depth and intimate moments. It also does a good job talking to Williamsâ neighbors in Marin County, who laud the comedianâs commitment to entertaining those in the community. It also interviews Shawn Levy from the Night at the Museum movies, who talks about how Williams wouldnât let anyone around him know what was going on, maybe because he didnât really know himself.
Williamsâ death was tragic but even moreso when you realize what he must have been going through, and the only thing else I will say is that the notably teary documentary Dear Zachary may finally have some competition as the most tear-inducing real-life film you ever watch. Even so, itâs wonderful and does as great job shining a light on how hard something like dementia hits people when they least expect it. (Also, the score and cinematography for the film are fabulous at provoking those sorrowful emotions even more.)

Arthur Jonesâ doc FEELS GOOD MAN is available right now On Demand via the Fantasia Film Festival and will be available via other film festivals, like Oxford Film Festival, starting Friday. (It will also be in theaters, including Oxfordâs drive-in!) The movie follows the journey of comics artist Matt Furie, who drew a comic called âBoys Clubâ that featured a strange frog character named Pepe, who I never heard of, but apparently, the odd underground comic character went from being a popular meme to becoming a symbol of the alt-right. It sounds pretty crazy, but it is an absolutely crazy story as Furie sees his lovable and peaceful slacker character get out from under his control as right wing kooks like Alex Jones from InfoWars gloms onto him.
At first, I wasnât sure if Iâd find this as interesting as the HBO doc, Beware the Slenderman (which I also happened to see at Fantasia a few years ago), but the way that Jones tells Furie and Pepeâs story is really quite compelling, especially as he (and we) watch the craziness surrounding his character unfold, and Pepe becomes less and less like something he wanted to be associated with. (Furie and his wife spent thousands of their own money-making Pepe T-shirts and merch only to have to destroy it all once Furie gets pegged as the creator of a hate image. I mean, holy shit, this thing gets ugly!)
Apparently, Feels Good Man won an âEmerging Filmmakerâ Jury Award at Sundance, and itâs well-deserved. Iâd recommend the movie to anyone who likes comics or politics and doesnât mind when the two things collide.
There are a few other movies that I want to write about that I didnât have time to watch despite having screeners and who knows, maybe I can watch them over this longer weekend if things arenât too crazy screener-wise. (I lost quite a bit of time with my trip to Connecticut to see Tenet, unfortunately.)
First, thereâs Julius Bergâs THE OWNERS (RLJEFilms), which stars Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones and Sylvester McCoy aka Doctor Who #6 (I think?). Itâs about a group of friends who want to break into an empty house in which thereâs a safe full of money, but when the elderly couple (including McCoy) return home early, they turn the tables in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Yeah, it does sound like it could be fun, and itâll be in select theaters, On Demand and digital this Friday.
Also out on Digital, as well as DVD, Blu-Ray this week is the anime CHILDREN OF THE SEA (Shout! Factory/GKids) from director Ayumu Watanabe and STUDIO4ÂşC who made Mind Game and Tekkonkinkreet. Itâs about a young girl named Ruka whose father works at an aquarium where she comes across two mysterious boys who were raised by dugongs (a type of sea cow) so theyâre very familiar and acclimated to water, to the point where they have to be in or near it at all times, kind of like Aquaman. I did watch a little bit of this, and I do have to say that it looks gorgeous, definitely more photo-realistic than the work of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Iâm sure Iâll get around to watch the rest of it because I do enjoy well-made anime -- Weathering With You and Ride Your Wave are likely to be in my year-end Top 25, for instance â so hopefully, fans of anime and fantsy will check it out.
On Amazon Prime this Friday is Eric Merolaâs doc THE ANDORRA HUSTLE, which look at the country of Andorra, located between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains, holding a population of 80,000 people who find themselves at the center of one of the most convoluted robberies in history in 2015 when a the private bank Banca Privada dâAndorra was shut down by the government to destroy the Catalonian Independence Movement, leaving dozens of innocent civilians facing jail time for laundering money after losing their life savings.
A couple prominent science fiction series premiere this weekend, including the Ridley Scott-produced Raised by Wolves on HBO Max and Away, starring Hillary Swank on Netflix. Someday, I hope to have
Thereâs a lot of other stuff that I didnât have to watch or even think about it, so yeah, this is a little bit of a âlite editionâ of the Weekend Warrior, so I apologize. Hopefully, Iâll be able to do better next week.
By the way, if you read this weekâs column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers ⌠honest!
#TheWeekendWarrior#Tenet#ChristopherNolan#Mulan#TheArgument#BloodQuantum#Movies#Reviews#DriveIns#VOD#Streaming
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IGN FilmForce - Iain Glen Interview - Lara Croft Tomb Raider
Interview appeared on the IGN FilmForce website, dated to 30th May 2001. Article was written by Spence D.
Glen discusses swordplay, stunts and playing the villain Manfred Powell in the upcoming action-adventure film.
Up until this point Iain Glen hasn't been much of a household name over here in the States. Sure, he had a bit part in Gorillas in the Mist and he played Hamlet in Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead. And yes, that was him opposite Nicole Kidman in âThe Blue Roomâ on Broadway. Plus those lucky enough to catch the recent art house fare Beautiful Creatures got to see him as a raving smack addict. But, for the most part he'd be what us Yanks consider a Merchant Ivory type player. You know what I'm talking about. He's one of those actors who's spent a vast amount of their time starring in period dramas predominantly created for and by British television. But to label Glen as just another Brit doing angst-ridden period dramas would be a total shame. I mean the man's done his share of stage, to boot, and coupled with his Royal Academy training, calling him anything less than a thespian would be an insult.
While Glen has racked up a worthy body of work, one can't help but wonder just how much of it can be said to have helped prepare him for the road ahead. I mean he's about to be thrust into the pop cultural mainstream thanks to his role as baddie Manfred Powell in Tomb Raider. Talk about doing a 180. But hey, every actor has his day and it's about time that this Edinburgh-born Scotsman cracked the Hollywood inner circle.
I caught up with Glen last October on the set of Tomb Raider. Decked out in his Powell expedition garb â black fedora, black jeans, white shirt, black hunting vest â Glen allowed us into his dressing room during a break in the shoot. While we assaulted him with our tape recorders and asundry questions, Glen kicked back, had a smoke, and swigged some water (trust me, after repeating the same line 30 times in a row inside of an artificial fog saturated set that's hotter'n an easy bake oven â those lights they need to illuminate sets emit some serious heat waves, and you'd wanna kick back with a bottle of water, too).
The fact that he was only too eager to talk to the press, further illuminates his readiness to weather the media storm that a summer blockbuster of this caliber will no doubt create. Toss in the fact that he's down right charming and witty (during the course of our meeting the man pulled a veritable Merle Streep, slipping in and out of more eclectic UK dialects â ranging from working class Scotsman to hoity-toity Londoner than one could easily keep track of) and you know that he was more than capable of holding his own against Angelina/Lara. But then you wouldn't expect anything less from a classically trained Scottish actor, would you?
IGN FilmForce:
I saw a little bit of a working clip and noticed that you engage in a little swordsmanship in the film. How much extensive training did they give you on the blade?
Iain Glen:
Well, luckily I went to drama school at the [Glen affects a stuffy Brit post accent] Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and there are various classes that you can take extracurriculum. And I and Ralph Fiennes were completely obsessed with sword fencing so there's this evening halfway through the course called "The Prizefights" where you're supposed to do armed or unarmed combat, which most students spend about two weeks preparing for. But Ralph and I had been at it for like two years, you know, endlessly rehearsing our fight. Just 'cause we loved it so much. So I was very familiar with swords. Actually, as often is the case in film, you're kind of pushed for time, but they got the right chap on board and he showed me this simple sequence. And it's like anything that you do in a skill that you need, don't try and learn how to use the thing as a whole, just use it for the particular tune you need to play. So I felt lucky that I had had so much sword training in my early days.
IGN FilmForce:
Did you at all immerse yourself in the games? Or did you try and distance yourself from them? I realize that Lara is the only character that has been transferred from the games to the movie and the rest of you have been created for the sole purpose of the film itself.
Iain Glen:
No I didn't. I mean I was unfamiliar with the game. But actually the producers very kindly gave me, as one of a number of gifts before we started, the game. I looked at it, obviously, with interest, but as I say, I really think that it's something for the director that's useful, it's very useful probably. But for an actor, I can't see it being useful, really. I mean you can get a mood of something perhaps, but if it's not on the page, if it's not within the world that we're creating from the script, then I don't think you're gonna be able to nick anything from the game that's gonna help you in a way. And certainly not for a character who doesn't exist, you know, except for in the story. So, no...you just hope that, you know if you're doing it right and you're doing the story, then connections will be made and people might assume different things, which should be nice. But I don't think as an actor, unless I'm missing out on something hugely, that there was a lot to be gained from really immersing myself in the game.
IGN FilmForce:
Are you all afraid that if this movie really takes off and becomes the proverbial summer blockbuster, that you will become typecast as the typical English villain?
Iain Glen:
Hmmmm. Right. Well, it's nice because I don't think...I mean if I look back at what [I've done] I don't think I've done the sort of English villain for me as an actor before. I don't think so, particularly, certainly nothing that has got any big overlap with what I'm doing now. So, as far as I'm concerned, in relationship to where I am, it was a really valid choice and respectable, whether it was a big movie or how much money they might want to pay you, it was purely as an artistic choice. It was about something new to do and thus it was a good choice. Subsequent to that, if people want to send me a lot of parts in playing a baddie villain, the only way I'll be typecast is if I accept them. So it's kind of...you know, you might be frustrated that people don't think "Oh, he's a good actor, he did that and maybe he could do something else." But my fate is in my own hands and you know, I can guarantee I won't be doing anything that's kind of like what this is or you know, is such a match to this that it's sort of not interesting to do. We'll see. I mean I've loved the shape, if I've had any, of my [slips into a Scottish brogue] career. My credo has always been to just keep duckin' and divin and keep dodgin' and keep doin' different things. I've loved going from the mediums and doing theater and doing new writing and doing Shakespeare and doing classics, doing musicals, doing film, doing small English films, doing medium-sized European films, and doing American â hopefully â big films. That's what I'll keep doing, if I possibly can. It's nice to inhabit an area that I haven't, you know, for a good few years been in this sort of scale...well, I probably have never been in this sort of scale of picture, but I have been on sort of large scale pictures before, and it's nice to do it again.
IGN FilmForce:
I know that Angelina did quite a few of her own stunts. I mean she did the wild bungy dance of death and the motorcycle slide out. Do you get to do any stunts of that caliber? And how much of your stunt work did you do?
Iain Glen:
Ummm, well I don't really...I suppose on the sort of stunt scale she has the most and then Alex, the character Daniel [Craig] plays has the second most. They're kind of the active tomb raiders. I kind of have an army of people around me, which I can then sort of dish out to my minions a lot of the dirty work. Ummm, but that being said, we are entering two sequences right now where all of the kind of action stuff will take place and it's a bit of a...I don't quite know how we'll do it, but there's a fair amount of action in that. But nothing in her league. There's just lots of running, tumbling, and shooting sort of stuff, but not what Angelina is up to. And quite rightly, you know, 'cause she's Lara Croft [this last bit he says with a wink and a smile].
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