#if i had any artistic talent i would draw this scene but tragically i do not…….

[avadmortain]

book3 M…… they are everything to me.

[mk-wizard]

Sailor Moon 90s Anime is STILL the best

Hi. I know I am on a Sailor Moon binge here, but after seeing all of Crystal, Eternal and on R (season 2) of the first anime, I want to get this all off of my chest... and before I go further, since these are all animes, I will refer to them as 90s, Crystal and Eternal. And after watching them all, I have to say that the 90s takes the gold medal as the best Sailor Moon anime so far and this is why;

1- It had the best pacing. - While I admit that sometimes, it went too far with the filler, 98% of the time, it worked with the 90s. It took its time to make you get to know the characters for better or for worse, it made you see different sides of them, it gave them a chance to truly develop and be multi-dimensional, and it made you care about them. When a death happened, it felt tragic. When a victory happened, you cheered. And when you saw what side characters did, it mattered. I mean, who can ever forget the contribution 90s Naru Osaka had to the story? And everyone who has seen the 90s anime cannot forget her. More on the character development and getting to know characters later.

Sure, it wasn’t true to the manga and even the characters had different personalities, but I let that slide by because when Crystal and Eternal did follow the manga to the letter, we didn’t get a chance to digest anything. The only characters who develop are Usagi, Chibi-Usa and the outer guardians, and for the last bunch, it was the bare minimum. Crystal and Eternal were fun rides and I would be lying if I said I didn’t like them, but they were like roller coasters. They gave you a thrill, but fast and been done. The 90s was like a slow scenic ride that gave you surprises, emotionally touched you, made you cry, made you laugh, made you root for the heroes and even at the age of 37 years now, I keep rewatching this series.

2- The art of the 90s was better because it was sketchy, dark and edgier. - I know Sailor Moon doesn’t seem like this on the surface because the heroines are lovely girls in cute costumes, it emphasizes femininity and all things pretty, it has a romantic theme and is all about love, but Sailor Moon is also one of the darkest, grittiest, edgy and violent magical girl animes I have ever seen since Magic Knights Rayearth. Sailor Moon has on screen deaths which were permanent most of the time, on screen stabbings and the drawing of blood, and fights that got so hardcore, that real punches and kicks were thrown. The dark edges, black line art and sharp edges worked with the atmosphere of the story. I mean, look at the difference between the halls Dark Kingdom of the 90s (above) and that of Crystal.

And if that is not enough to win you over, the characters were much more animated, organic and conveyed more emotion whether they were exaggerated or serious.

In Crystal, the expressions and body language was very dulled down. Not to mention, very stiff.

Everything is also too bright and soft which makes the characters look like velvet dolls with too much make up especially with the line art. I will give them props for adding better details, cleaner lines, the glow of magical items, and details in the gems, but everything else is all wrong.

Eternal was better, but still not quite there. The colours are still way too bright and the characters still look too much like dolls from having line art that is too wispy. And I really do not like how the eyes have this unnatural glow to them. The edgy scenes become lost with all this brightness.

3- We got to see that there was so much more the characters than just heroes or villains. - Since Usagi is the titular character, let us just talk about her in the 90s since I could go on forever about how much we learned about the characters. In any version of Sailor Moon, Usagi’s role as a Sailor Guardian has always been the core of the story and she does indeed show progress as one. However, the 90s tells us that no matter what, she is still going to be herself too which is just as important and she shows character development as just plain old Usagi too. The manga, Crystal and Eternal which only paint Usagi as not doing anything right except be a Sailor Guardian, but the 90s show her hidden talents and learning new skills. For example, she was bad at cooking at the beginning of the series.

However, by Sailor Moon R, she gets the hang of it and is able to cook a meal by herself. Yes, she is messy, clumsy, never gets the hang of making cookies and is nowhere near Makoto’s level especially when it comes to presentation, but she is good at cooking food.

Another hidden talent of Usagi’s is her drawing skills. She isn’t just good at drawing. She’s got talent at it, so in the 90s, Usagi is quite the artist.

And it is admirable that 90s Usagi is open to trying new things even if she isn’t good at them. She practices, she explores and tries to enlighten herself. Sure, academics, coordination and organization will never be her fortes, but she really does have other and tries to discover more.

In Crystal and Eternal, she is good at being Sailor Moon, she is a good friend and a good girlfriend, but that is it. She is one dimensional here and she isn’t the only one to painted like that. Everyone is only the obvious and that is all the audience gets.

4- Better character redemption. - I mentioned before that Sailor Moon had grit and was dark, but the 90s also made it more complex and did character redemption right. It was open to the possibility of bad people becoming good. For instance, the Black Moon Clan Specter Sister are unforgettable for being successfully redeemed.

Yes, I admit that the monster of the day would get killed by the hands of the Sailor Guardians, but they also clearly showed that the monsters were not people or even alive. They were made of energy, clay or sand. When the monster of the day was a possessed innocent, they were saved through exorcism. Very rarely was an actual person ever killed and even when they were, it was either by the hands of another villain, their own hand, self defense or as a last resort. They never used killing as means of dealing with every single bad guy.

Furthermore, the bridge arc about the Makai Tree that also served as a prologue to Sailor Moon R could be seen as a story about mercy, kindness and love. It stands out as the one time the big bad was actually a misunderstood big good being the Makai Tree herself. And even Ail an An were never bad, but were raised bad. And even then, they changed. This story is unique only to the 90s so far, but it was great and stood out for that reason.

In Crystal, the heroines will kill a person without a second thought which I am shocked that no one brings up how repetitive and contradictory that is. The pretty warrior of love and justice should by all means protect the Earth, but doing so by killing off the bad guy all time is not love or justice. I also think the caption in this picture sums up how I feel about how the one and only time bad guys were given a chance to be redeemed...

Eternal was better because the Asteroid Guardians got redeemed and saved. However, even then, I feel like there is still a double standard. They were one of the good guys to begin with and Sailor Guardians. In the 90s, the Amazoness Quartet wasn’t, but were given a chance to change anyway. I find it cool that the Quartet turned out to be Sailors and even better that they will go on to become Chibi-Usa’s team, but mercy is not just for your allies or for your own benefit. Everyone should be given at least one chance to fix their mistakes.

5- We got to know Mamoru better. - I admit that no matter the incarnation, Tuxedo Mask will never be as powerful as Sailor Moon except when he is King Endymion, but the 90s take on his character made him better even if they did omit his super attack being Tuxedo le Smoking Bomber. What the well dressed masked man lacked in firepower, he made up for in intelligence, insight about the enemy’s weakness, courage and skill. The only times he ever did get overpowered was either by bad luck or because it was intentional because he was taking a hit for Sailor Moon. And even then, he always got back up. He’s a real man like that.

More importantly, we get to know him as Mamoru too. Even before he confides being an amnesiac to Usagi, we see his struggles with feeling alone in the world from having no memory of his life before a tragic accident which also killed his parents. Now, him being a stern cynical person makes sense because I probably wouldn’t be pleasant to be around either if I lived with that. Once his walls come down, we see that deep down, all he wants is to belong somewhere and have a family. It should also be noted that 90s Mamoru doesn’t love Usagi because he is “destined” to. He loves her because he wants to. Even during that brief period where he broke up with Usagi was an act of love. The thing I also always liked best about 90s Mamoru is that even though he loves Usagi more than life itself, his life doesn’t revolve around her which is a healthy thing and he tries to encourage Usagi to be the same way for her own good. He is studying to be a doctor, he has a job and he even has his own crowd which I think is great.

In Crystal and Eternal, while I do see an attempt at trying to follow this trend by showing that Usagi and Mamoru were on their way to falling in love even before they got their memories back, I still find he was one note and we never really learn much about him that has nothing to do with Tuxedo Mask, Endymion or anything royal related. Sure, we know that he’s studying to be a doctor and is a genius to an extent too, but that is it.

I would like to end this by admitting that the 90s was not perfect either, but out of all the takes on the tale of Sailor Moon as of date. Crystal and Eternal were ok, but they just cannot stand up to the quality of the 90s. The only thing I can say I find Crystal did better than the 90s were the costume designs. Specifically, how they let Venus keep her chain belt, Pluto’s key chain belt, Uranus and Neptune’s shorter gloves, Uranus’s sword, Uranus having two earrings, Mercury’s suit is shoulder less which I always found suited her better, and I liked Sailor Moon’s brooch and necklace better in season 1.

And even then, I should have liked it if Jupiter’s antenna was always on display as it is just something I always found cute in the manga, I liked Mars’ five point star earrings better in the 90s, and I like how in the 90s, each of the Inner Guardians’ sailor stripes were a little different.

Of course, this is all my opinion. I would like to hear which of the animes did Sailor Moon right in your opinion and why. Thanks for reading and stay safe, and have a great day.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Vivant, il a manqué le monde ; mort, il le possède.

- François René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), Vie de Napoléon, livres XIX à XXIV des Mémoires d’outre-tombe (posthume)

Of course we don’t have any photograph or film of Napoleon’s death on 5 May 1821 on Saint Hélène. But we do have the next best thing: a painting. Charles de Steuben depiction of Napoleon's deathbed and his faithful entourage that served as witnesses to his dying moments became the one of the most important paintings of the post-Napoleonic era but then faded from modern memory.

I first came across it by accident when I was in my teens at my Swiss boarding school. There were times I found myself with school friends going away on hiking trips around the high Alpine chain of the Allgäu Alps and we would drive through Lake Constance to get there, or we would hike around the Lake itself through the Bodensee-Rundwanderweg.

Perched high above Lake Constance and nestled in large parklands, stood Schloss Arenenberg which overlooks the lower part of Lake Constance. At first, it appears a relatively modest country house. But this was no usual pretty looking house. Arenenberg was owned by well-heeled families before it was sold to Hortense de Beauharnais, the adopted daughter and sister-in-law of the French Emperor himself, Napoleon Bonaparte. She had it rebuilt in the French Empire style and lived there from 1817 with her son Louis Napoleon, later Emperor Napoleon III, who is said to have spoken the Thurgau dialect in addition to French. This elegantly furnished castle then was once the residence of the last emperor of France.

The alterations made first by Queen Hortense and later by Empress Eugénie have been carefully preserved and the house still bears the marks of both women. Queen Hortense's drawing room is perfectly preserved and visitors can still admire her magnificent library (all marked with the Empress' cipher) containing over one thousand books. Likewise, in the room where the queen died, every object has been maintained in its original condition: pieces of furniture and personal belongings are gathered here to evoke her memory in a very touching manner. As for Empress Eugénie's rooms, they too have been very carefully preserved. Her private drawing room is a perfect illustration of the Second Empire style with sculptures by Carpeaux and portraits of the imperial family by Winterhalter.

After 1873, the Empress and the Imperial Prince brought the palace back to life by making regular summer visits, which they continued until 1878. However, on the tragic death of her son in 1879, Eugénie found it difficult to return to a place so full of painful memories. And so in 1906 she donated the estate to the canton of Thurgovie as a testimony of her gratitude for the region's faithful hospitality towards the Napoleon family. And in accordance with the Empress' wishes, the residence was turned into a museum devoted to Napoleon.

In what is now the Napoleonic Museum, the original furnishings have been preserved, and the palace gardens had been fully restored. This in itself might be worth a visit for the view over Lake Constance which is stunning. For Napoleonic era buffs though its the incredible art collection which is its real treasure. It houses an important art collection including works by the First-Empire artists Chinard Canova, Gros, Robert Lefèvre, Gérard, Isabey and Girodet-Trioson, and by the Second-Empire painters and sculptors Alfred de Dreux, Winterhalter, Carpeaux, Meissonier, Hébert, Flandrin, Detaille, Nieuwerkerke and Giraud.

But what caught my eye was this painting, ‘La Mort de Napoléon’ by Charles de Steuben. I didn’t know anything about it or the artist for that matter, but one of my more erudite school friends who, being French, was into Napoleonic stuff in a huge way, and she explained it all to me. Of course I knew a fair bit about Napoleon growing up because my grandfather and father, being military men themselves, were Napoleonic warfare buffs and it rubbed off onto me. I just knew about Napoleon the military genius. I never thought about him once he was beaten at Waterloo in 1815. So I never really engaged with Napoleon the man. And yet here I was staring at his last breath of mortality caught forever in time through art. Not for the first time I had mixed feelings about Napoleon Bonaparte, both the man and the myth (built up around him since his death).

On 5 May, 1821, at 5.49pm in Longwood House on the remote island of St Helena, in the words of the famed French man of letters,  François-René de Chateaubriand, ‘the mightiest breath of life which ever animated human clay’ came no more. To the British, Dutch, and Prussian coalition who had exiled Naopleon Bonaparte there in 1815, he was a despot, but to France, he was seen as a devotee of the Enlightenment.

In the decade following his demise, Napoleon’s image underwent a transformation in France. The monarchy had been restored, but by the late 1820s, it was growing unpopular. King Charles X was seen as a threat to the civil liberties established during the Napoleonic era. This mistrust revived Napoleon’s reputation and put him in a more heroic light.

Fascination with the French leader’s death led Charles de Steuben, a German-born Romantic painter living in Paris, to immortalise the momentous event. Steuben’s painting depicts the moment of Napoleon’s death and seeks to capture the sense of awe in the room at the death of a man whose legendary career had begun in the French Revolution. It was this, ultimate moment that Steuben wished to immortalise in a painting which has since become what could almost be described as the official version of the scene.

There is no question that Steuben’s painting became the most famous and most iconic depiction of Napoleon’s death in art history. In another painting, executed during the years 1825-1830, Steuben was to give a realistic view of the emperor dictating his memoirs to general Gourgaud. This same realism also pervades his version of Napoleon’s death, and it is totally unlike Horace Vernet’s, Le songe de Bertrand ou L’Apothéose de Napoléon (Bertrand’s Dream or the apotheosis of Napoleon) which, although painted in the same year, is an allegorical celebration of the emperor’s martyrdom and as such the first stone in the edifice of the Napoleonic legend.

And what a legend Napoleon’s life was turned into for time immemorial. Napoleon declared himself France’s First Consul in 1799 and then emperor in 1804. For the next decade, he led France against a series of European coalitions during the Napoleonic Wars and expanded his empire throughout much of continental Europe before his defeat in 1814. He was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba, but he escaped and briefly reasserted control over France before a crushing final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Napoleon’s military prowess earned him the fear of his enemies, but his civil reforms in France brought him the respect of his people. The Napoleonic Code, introduced in 1804, replaced the existing patchwork of French laws with a unified national system built on the principles of the Enlightenment: universal male suffrage, property rights, equality (for men), and religious freedom. Even in his final exile on St. Helena, Napoleon proved a magnetic presence. Passengers of ships docked to resupply would hurry to meet the great general. He developed strong personal bonds with the coterie who had accompanied him into exile. Although some speculate that he was murdered, most agree that Napoleon’s death in 1821, at the age of 51, was the result of stomach cancer.

By contrast, Charles de Steuben was born in 1788, his youth and artistic training coinciding with Napoleon’s rise to power. He was the son of the Duke of Württemberg officer Carl Hans Ernst von Steuben. At the age of twelve he moved with his father, who entered Russian service as a captain, to Saint Petersburg, where he studied drawing at the Art Academy classes as a guest student. Thanks his father's social contacts in the court of the Tsar, in the summer of 1802 he accompanied the young Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1786–1859) and granddaughter of Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, to the Thuringian cultural city of Weimar, where the Tsar's daughter two years later married Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1783–1853). Steuben, then fourteen years old, was a Page at the ducal court, a position for which the career prospects would be in the military or administration. The poet Friedrich Schiller was a family friend who at once recognised De Steuben's artistic talent and instilled in him his political ideal of free self-determination regardless of courtly constraints.

At the behest of Pierre Fontaine in 1828 de Steuben painted La Clémence de Henri IV après la Bataille d'Ivry, depicting a victorious Henry IV of France at the Battle of Ivry. De Steuben's Bataille de Poitiers, en octobre 732, painted between 1834 and 1837, shows the triumphant Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours, also known as the Battle of Poitiers. He painted Jeanne la folle around the same time and he was commissioned by Louis Philippe to paint a series of portraits of past Kings of France.

Life in the French capital was a repeated source of internal conflict for Steuben. The allure of bohemian Paris and his military-dominated upbringing made him a wanderer between worlds. As an official commitment to his adopted country he became a French citizen in 1823. However, the irregularity of his income as a freelance artist was in contrast to his sense of duty and social responsibility. To secure his family financially, he took a job as an art teacher at École Polytechnique, where he briefly trained Gustave Courbet. In 1840 he was awarded a gold medal at the Salon de Paris for his highly acclaimed paintings.

The love of classical painting was a lifelong passion of Steuben. He was a close friend to Eugène Delacroix, the leader of the French Romantic school of painting, whom he portrayed several times. Steuben was also part of this artistic movement, which replaced classicism in French painting. "The painter of the Revolution," as Jacques-Louis David was called by his students, joined art with politics in his works. The subjects of his historical paintings supported historical change. He painted mainly in sharp colour contrasts, heavy solid contours and clear outlines. The severity of this style led many contemporary artists - including Prud'hon - to a romanticised counter movement. They preferred the shadowy softness and gentle colour gradations of Italian Renaissance painters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Antonio da Correggio, whose works they studied intensively. Steuben, who had begun his training with David, felt the school was becoming increasingly rigid and dogmatic. Critics praised his deliberate compositions, excellent brush stroke and impressive colour effects. But some of his critics felt that his pursuit of dramatic design of rich people also showed, at times, a pronounced tendency toward the histrionic.

The portrayal of key moments in Napoleon’s dramatic military career would feature among some of Steuben’s best known works. But it is this death scene that Steuben is most remembered for.

Using his high-level contacts among figures in Napoleon’s circle, Steuben interviewed and sketched many of the people who had been present when Napoleon died at Longwood House on St. Helena. He wanted to attempt o give the most accurate representation of the scene possible. Indeed, the painter interviewed the companions of Napoleon’s captivity on their return to France and had them pose for their portraits. Only the Abbé Vignali, captain Crokat and the doctor Arnott were painted from memory. The Grand maréchal Bertrand made sketches of the plan of the room, noting the positions of the different pieces of furniture and people in the room. All the protagonists within the painting brought together some of their souvenirs and in posing for the painter, each person can be seen contributing to a work of collective memory, very much with posterity in mind.

Painstakingly researched, Steuben painted  a carefully composed scene of hushed grief. Notable among the figures are Gen. Henri Bertrand, who loyally followed Napoleon into exile; Bertrand’s wife, Fanny; and their children, of whom Napoleon had become very fond.

The best known version of “La Mort de Napoléon” was completed in 1828. French writer Stendhal considered it “a masterpiece of expression.” In 1830 the installation of a more liberal monarchy in France further boosted admiration of Napoleon, who suddenly became a wildly popular figure in theatre, art, and music. This fervour led to the diffusion of Steuben’s deathbed scene in the form of engravings throughout Europe in the 1830s. As Napoleon’s stock arose within French culture and arts, so did Steuben’s depiction of Napoleon’s death. It became a grandeur of vision that permeated Steuben’s masterpiece of historical reconstruction.

Initially forming part of the collection of the Colonel de Chambrure, the painting was put up for auction in Paris, on 9 March 1830, with other Napoleonic works, notably Horace Vernet’s Les Adieux de Fontainebleau (The Fontainebleau adieux) and Steuben’s Retour de l’île d’Elbe (The return from the island of Elba). The catalogue noted that the painting had already been viewed in the colonel’s collection by “three thousand connoisseurs” – which alone would have made it a success -, but its renown was to be further amplified by the production of the famous engraving. The diffusion of this engraving by Jean-Pierre-Marie Jazet (1830-1831, held at the Musée de Malmaison), reprinted and copied countless times throughout the 19th century, made the scene a classic in popular imagery, on a level of popularity with paintings such as Millet’s Angelus.

A / Grand Marshal Henri-Gatien Bertrand. Utterly loyal servant of Napoleon’s to the last. His memoirs of the exile on St Helena were not published until 1849. Only the year 1821 has ever been translated into English.

B / General Charles Tristan de Montholon. Courtier and companion of Napoleon’s exile. Montholon managed to ease Bertrand out and become Napoleon’s closest companion at the end, highly rewarded in Napoleon’s will, which Montholon helped write. Montholon’s untrustworthy memoirs were published in 1846/47.

C / Doctor Francesco Antommarchi. Corsican anatomy specialist. Sent by Napoleon’s mother from Rome to St Helena to be Napoleon’s personal physician on the expulsion of Barry O’Meara. Napoleon disliked and distrusted Antommarchi. Antommarchi’s untrustworthy memoirs were very influential and published in 1825.

D / Angelo Paolo Vignali, Abbé. Corsican assistant-chaplain, sent by Madame Mère from Rome to St Helena in 1819.

E / Countess Françoise Elisabeth “Fanny” Bertrand and her children: Napoléon (F), who carried the censer at Napoleon’s funeral; Hortense (G); Henry (H); and Arthur (I), youngest by six years of all the Bertrand children and born on the island. She was wife of the Grand Marshal, very unwilling participant in the exile on St Helena. Her relations with Napoleon were difficult since she refused to live at Longwood. She spoke fluent English. Was however very loyal to Napoleon.

J / Louis Marchand. Napoleon’s valet from 1814 on and one of his closest servants. As Napoleon noted in his will, “The service he [Marchand] rendered were those of a friend”.

K / “Ali”, Louis Étienne Saint-Denis. Known as “the Mamluk Ali”, one of Napoleon’s longest-serving and intimate servants; He became Librarian at Longwood and was an indefatigable copyist of imperial manuscripts.

L / Ali’s English (Catholic) wife, Mary ‘Betsy’ Hall. She was sent out from England by UK relatives of the Countess Bertrand to be governess/nursemaid to the Bertrand children. Married Ali aged 23 in October 1819.

M / Jean Abra(ha)m Noverraz. From the Vaud region in Switzerland. Very tall and imposing figure that Napoleon called his “Helvetic bear”. He was himself ill during Napoleon’s illness.

N / Noverraz’s wife, Joséphine née Brulé. They married in married in July 1819, and she was the Countess Montholon’s lady’s maid. Noverraz and Saint-Denis had a fist fight for the hand of Joséphine.

O / Jean Baptiste Alexandre Pierron. The cook, dessert specialist, long in Napoleon’s service and who had accompanied Napoleon to Elba.

P /Jacques Chandelier. Iincorrectly identified on the picture as Santini who had left the island in 1817. A cook, from the service of Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister, who arrived on St Helena with the group from Rome in 1819.

Q /Jacques Coursot. Butler, from the service of Madame Mère, Napoleon’s mother, he arrived on St Helena with the group from Rome in 1819.

R / Doctor Francis Burton. Irish surgeon in the 66th regiment who had arrived on St Helena only on 31st March 1821. He is renowned for having made Napoleon’s death mask (with ensign John Ward and Antommarchi).

S/ Doctor Archibald Arnott. Surgeon in the 20th regiment. Brought in to tend to Napoleon in extremis on 1 April 1821.

T/ Captain William Crokat. A Scot, orderly officer at Longwood for less than a month, having replaced Engelbert Lutyens on 15 April. He received the honour of carrying the news of Napoleon’s death back to London and also the reward, namely, a promotion and £500, privileges of which Lutyens was deliberately deprived by the governor.

[mochikeiji]

You Found Me

↠ Pairing: Akaashi Keiji x Reader

↠ Warning: none, fluffy for my boy akaamshi uwu Writer!Reader, Aged Up characters.

↬ Word Count: 2.4k

Summary: He was just a fictional character, how can you be foolish enough to believe he were to be reincarnated and to be born in the same world as you live in? Will it even be possible for him to notice you in billions of people and far places?

⇢ Day 1: Reincarnation

You loved him.

More than words can describe.

"Love." can never be enough to portray the amount of adoration you had for this man. Nothing.

He doesn't know you.

He was just a character; written by people who held the most artistic perspectives into capturing a character's personality. They made him seem so real, so easy to love and to be succumbed into his entire being.

But he wasn't real.

Nor is he aware of the millions of eyes and fans from reality admiring him for simply being ethereal in his world of ink and colorful dialogues made by his author.

Nor will he be aware of the amount of love you were pouring out to his inexistence. To reciprocate the feelings, let alone acknowledge you from a crowd filled with much more dedicated people to him.

Yet every night you prayed; longed that one day there will be someone to be reborn as he is. A man to be born with that natural charismatic aura. The blunt, yet soft hearted soul of a person, the dedication he has shown in the show with his desr senior. Everything.

He was the embodiment of everything you wanted, needed.

Perfection at the most flawed world.

"Nobody compares to you, Keiji."

Day dreaming for what seemed like an everyday routine for you, you clicked on the next tab of your laptop away from the world of fictional sight— where mostly your safe haven is. Where you get to imagine a world with him and pondered back into your field of writing.

How long has it been since you've been off your draft? Was it 2 hours ago? Had you been submerged again with the same story you've memorized over the times you've read it? Well, no one can't help it. It was your coping mechanism, your escape from the cruel reality. Though the stories are imprinted in your mind and everyday dreams, you admired the fact how they were well written by different varieties of writers that came to admire his character and brought him to life. How they managed to make him and every character from the show come to life. It was as if all the scenarios you've wanted was all there, all granted. Except for one.

Where he was truly existing in the same world as you do.

"Well done, sweetie, you've lost another promised motivation to write." groaning with your head leaned back on your pillow, you closed your eyes for a short break. By instinct, the stories scenarios began playing inside your head.

All the fluffy ones that made your body feel somewhat lighter from the ghost, feathered kisses as you recalled the lines of your favorite ones. The ones where they would further describe how he would hold you in his arms like a fragile being, link his hands with yours, giving you his warm kisses as he presses you close to his chest.

The angst ones where he would be there to comfort you immediately, wiping away your tears as he helps you out of your struggles and battles in life. Letting him be your resting place and safety.

And lastly the explicit ones where you could only go so far to imagine the lewd things as the words from the screen pages come up to the surface and bound your body at his presence.

What a paradise, you would call.

Yet what a tragic for someone who longs for a person like that to be real.

Eyes opening after the self pitied thoughts, your sudden decision to go out in the cold, rainy afternoon came by. For a shy person you are, you never really liked the idea of squeezing in a crowd or to be seen, but as you eventually grew up, you begin to like places that felt like a second home to you. Be it a cafe or a bookshop, or just an area with a few people and closed walls where you were free to be in dazed once more.

Shutting you laptop closed and placing it back on your desk, you picked out some of your most comfortable clothing; mostly jogging pants and an adorable sweater. Having to be in highschool and growing out the habit of wearing long sleeved shirts even though it was hot was amusing to many. Though, today was exemptional.

You contemplated whether or not you would tie yor hair into a bun or leave it down, like that one character you read in your favorite show, he didn't like his field of vision to be wide. It brought a small amount of relief someone felt the same as you did, so you decided to just put it in a lower bun with your fringes hidig the sides of your face.

Grabbing you small bag and an umbrella, you walked out from your dorm. Your roommate had been stranded in her university from the sudden pouring, ordering her a coffee after coming back from the shop may be a good welcoming gift for her. She was the only person you managed to get close to at the time of your adulthood. It's only fair you have gotten attached and wanted to show her how much you love and appreciate her.

Thank goodness it was only pouring. If the rain happened to be coming with thunder and lightning, you would've gotten out and hid underneath your blankets. It isn't all the time you get to enjoy the droplets from the sky without the God of Thunder stomping down in anger.

The streets were absolutely stunning during the dark or gloomy weather, the lights from each building and shop were lighted up, combining with the rain and its pattering, it felt so serene to you than it did to others. The odd musk from the rain filling nostrils as your eyes cast upon the cemented streets that had colorful lights illuminating them, made you feel at ease and somehow your mind was starting to stir up multiple writing prompts and ideas that made you excited and happy.

The whole world disappearing before you as you were at the best day you claimed. The musk of the rain mixing up with the cinnamon and coffee like scent as you opened the door from the nearby cafe from your dorm welcomes you. Smiling shyly, you moved to the side a bit and removed your glasses to cleanse it as it got fogged up from the cool air before placing it back on your face and walked towards the cashier.

It was a miracle that the infamous coffee and sweets cafe of yours wasn't crowded today, managing to order quickly and waited on the other side of the counter. Your usual frappucino and a chocolate cake for your cravings.

"Ah, you're here again?"

The lovely male behind the counter chirped at the newly arrived customer. He was the nicest crew you knew in this cafe, you loved how he makes you feel at ease.

"Yeah, I got caught up in my papers and it went pouring all of a sudden."

"Always a workaholic aren't we, Kei?"

Kei? Cute name.

Kinda reminds you of that tall, player in the show you watched, Tsukishima.

"Wait there for a second, we're preparing two orders."

In instinct of the male's voice, you scooted away from the receiving counter a little for the next person to be standing next to you. You really didn't like sitting to waot for your order, who knows? You might trip and cause an embarrassing accident.

His scent however, was filling in your nostrils. Combining with the soft, delicious treats, he smelled like someone you would love to hug for days and feel safe. He smelled like home.

Was that weird? Yes.

Suddenly, this scene had made a perfect prompt pop in your head, you had to fish out your phone from your bag to write it down on your notes. It had been too long since you've written a good story. You missed your passion in writing, a good opportunity will never be passed as this.

"Do you write as well?"

Squeaking a bit with your palms already forming a sweat from nervousness and the cold air, you turned your head to your left side of the male costumer, who had an amused smile at his face from your reaction.

You wete never one to come and talk to a random stranger as a kid and teenager. But even as an adult, you felt inferior of them. But taking a few seconds to regain your breathing and judging by your surroundings, nothing seemed to be harmful to reply, right?

"A-ah, yeah, but it's not that good or a job, y'know?....Just a hobby."

Stuttering out and muttering the last part, inside your head you were screaming, had you lost your people skills too? Soft chuckling can be heard from him, he gives you a small smile, not noticing how he scooted closer to you since he couldn't quite hear your voice from afar.

"I think it's incredible how a person can put their imaginations into words and share it so freely to everyone across the world."

Heart beating fast.

He hits it home. He was definitely speaking the language of a writer, and you find yourself standing straighter and smiling a bit wider. There wasn't much people that shared your interest, your relatives and friends were always into musical and artistic drawings, or the domestic kind of jobs and talents. You were the only one who loved writing so much and pursued secretly. Meeting someone who shared the same thought and words as you cannot be forgotten.

You had to know him.

"Thank you..I take it you write as well?"

Score, you manage out a normal reply without being awkward.

"An editor to be exact, it's not as fun as it sounds. I was aiming for literature but it seems life wanted me to have a little detour."

Nothing was boring. In fact, it was making you more happy to hear how much you had in common with him. Not able to hold back the next words, you blurted out,

"I think it's amazing you're still part of the writing community. Be it any position I know you must have such potential in your work."

You catch his eyes just staring at yours behind his glasses. Biting your lip in habit gor when you feel nervous, you clamps your hands together and immediately stammered an apology for invading his personal life.

He laughs, but not too loudly.  The longer you reviewed his features and everything, the more he was starting to look like someone you've been day dreaming.

No, fate cannot be this powerful.

But he seemed so much like him that you wanted so badly to point your fingers to all the matched characteristics he was performing. From his outfit, hair, glasses, and his feature but more realistic, different. His eyes weren't the same gun metal ones as you remember from that character, but he radiates so much of his aura.

"Here are your orders, Kei, ma'am."

Ah damn, you didn't catch his name.

The both of you thanked the kind male before walking away from the counter. Scanning your surroundings quickly for a good spot to sit, you saw the free spot by the window where the rain was pattering and went there. It was like having a television show for free. Seeting your tray down the small coffee table, you stabbed in the straw to your beverage and mixed it up a bit before taking a sip, feeling empty and sad from not getting to know who that person was or to befriend him.

He was nice, gentle, something you would in a man before befriending them. You wanted to know more about his works and his ways of writing, maybe show you his ideas on literature writing. But mostly, you were intrigued from his entire existence.

You wanted to know more about him that it made your stomach twist in guilt and regret from the opportunity slipping away.

"May I sit here?"

And it slipped right back to you.

Biting the straw in your mouth as he smiled at you holding his tray of waffle and steaming coffee, awaiting for your permission before you nod out of daze and watched as he takes a seat in front of you.

Cliche was the first word that came up in your mind. You never would've thought that the scenario of a cute boy in glasses and a sweater hugging his body would want to be seated in a cafe with you.

And you loved cliche scenarios, even dreamed of having your own story-like life.

"The cafe is pretty empty, and you looked like you could use some company."

"I didn't take it that you enjoyed company so I sat far away.."

"You're right, I'm not. I wonder why now."

Was this his way of flirting? If it was, you're buying it. You loved how his voice was smooth and calm. The stoic look on his face earlier replaced by a pleased one with a small smile while taking a sip of his coffee.

"Maybe because I look lonely and you felt bad?"

"I simply wanted to enjoy my treat while chatting with someone who knows my interest rather than myself. Besides,"

He places down his cup on the tray before leaning his head a bit and smiling,

"It's not bad to get out of my shell now, right?"

His face stayed up close as yours was heating with your body getting ligther. He looked like him, he acts like him when he was all grown up. You didn't want to believe in the source of reincarnation and their mysterious, yet hopeful glimmer, but you knew. You knew and you would bet everything that this person was the perfect resemblance to the Akaashi Keiji.

"You never told me your name."

It came out like a whisper from your lips, the rain outside pouring harder as night fall came. He remains the same, smiling like a cheeky person, now fully interested in a person like you, a random stranger whom he just caught writing a romance prompt about a man she met in a cafe.

The detour his life had turned around for him to take, and yours to be fulfilled.

All the possibilities or unexplainable books, movies, theories. The characters, the events, all now making you dizzy at the idea of it all being true at a specific time and place. All of it was too good to be true. Too much that it made your eyes a bit teary to have finally encounter the person who has raised you high and kept you moving. The person who could never compare to the other people, be it fiction or reality.

"My name is, Keiji."

[tiramisiyu]

Tears of Themis: Lu Jinghe’s Birthday - NPC Interviews Part 1

Translation Masterlist

Event Story: 6.13 Decision to Compete | 6.15 Personal Instruction | 6.17 Building Block Dolls | 6.19 Participating in the Competition | 6.21 Birthday Celebration

Event Story Interviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Interview 1 – Employed Woman

MC: Hello, I would like to interview the participants of the building blocks competition and contacted you regarding this previously. Is this a convenient time for you?

Employed Woman: It is, I’m on lunch break right now. It would be great if it were quick.

MC: Then let’s start.

START QUESTIONING

⊳ Reason for competing

MC: May I ask, why are you participating in this building blocks competition?

Employed Woman: Building blocks is my hobby outside of work, and I just casually signed up when I saw news about the competition. There’s no special reasoning.

 ⊳ Competition Theme

MC: Do you have any thoughts regarding the theme of this competition, “A Reconstruction of World-Famous Artworks”?

Employed Woman: I’m quite interested, and this theme also has somewhat of a relation to my work.

MC: Your work is…?

Employed Woman: I am an auction appraiser and focus on artwork appraisals, particularly oil paintings.

 ⊳ World-Famous Artworks

MC: If so, you must know a lot about world-famous paintings, right?

Employed Woman: Yes. To me, there is life in each painting, and they each record individual, different stories – for example, Hogarth’s “Marriage A-la-Mode” series, which uses six thematically linked paintings to depict the tragic arranged marriage between one from an impoverished noble family and a merchant’s daughter.

MC: Thematically linked paintings? Like a manga arrangement?

Employed Woman: Yes. Hogarth was one of the first artists to do linked drawings, and was known as a pioneer of linked drawings.

 ⊳ “Z”

MC: Do you know of “Z”?

Employed Woman: Of course I do. “Z” is the most popular painter in our auction house, and each painting goes for a high price. He adopted Rembrandt’s art style, is skilled in portrait arts, and is known as the “Little Rembrandt” in the art world. It’s a pity that he hasn’t come out with any new works for a long while. Who knows if something happened to him…

 ⊳ Things she wants to say to “Z”

MC: If you had the chance to speak with “Z”, what would you say?

Employed Woman: I would want to ask about “Z”’s true identity. He’s so mysterious and has such artistic talent – maybe he’s the descendant of some ancient noble family. That’s how it always goes in the novels – running into a mysterious man by chance and setting off a beautiful romance…

MC: Uh…

END QUESTIONING

 MC: That ends today’s interview. Thank you for your cooperation.

Employed Woman: No problem, goodbye.

MC: Goodbye!

Interview 2 – Gong Yuze

Gong Yuze: Miss Lawyer, hello.

MC: Gong Yuze? Are you also participating in the building blocks competition?

Gong Yuze: Yes, I just happened to have time these days.

MC: I’d like to interview the participants of the building blocks competition. Do you have time?

Gong Yuze: Of course.

START QUESTIONING

⊳ Reason for participating

MC: Gong Yuze, why are you participating in this building blocks competition?

Gong Yuze: Because Qiaoqiao’s gotten into building blocks recently. Whenever she starts fiddling with the building blocks, she’ll become very quiet. I wanted to try competing to maybe get a prize for Qiaoqiao, since it’s a limited-edition set, one of a kind in the world.

MC: (So that’s why…)

 ⊳ Competition Theme

MC: Do you have any thoughts regarding the theme of this competition, “A Reconstruction of World-Famous Artworks”?

Gong Yuze: I haven’t tried making similar building blocks works before, so I’ve got to hurry and practice.

 ⊳ World-Famous Paintings

MC: What do you know about world-famous paintings?

Gong Yuze: I like Millais’ “Ophelia” a lot – I saw it in an art collection before, and it left a deep impression on me. Innocent Ophelia floating in the water, looking like a mermaid singing, having finally shaken off this tragic world. Millais displayed the classic scene from “Hamlet” in vivid detail.

 ⊳ “Z”

MC: Do you know of “Z”?

Gong Yuze: I do, it’s that famous painter. Each one of his paintings get auctioned for sky-high prices. I once went to one of those auctions, and I still remember seeing everyone vying to bid as if it happened yesterday. I remember that the painting ended up… getting bought by a top figure in the business world.

 ⊳ Things he wants to say to “Z”

MC: If you had the chance to speak with “Z”, what would you say?

Gong Yuze: “Z” hasn’t come out with new works for a long time. Some say that this indicates that he will be resigning from the painting world. I hope that, no matter what decision he makes, he can follow his own heart.

END QUESTIONING

MC: Okay, that’s it for the interview. Thank you for your cooperation.

Gong Yuze: No problem. I’ll head home now; Qiaoqiao’s waiting for me.

MC: Okay! Say hi to Qiaoqiao for me.

   Interview 3 – Young Livestreamer

MC: Hello, I would like to interview the participants of the building blocks competition. I contacted you regarding this previously. Is this a convenient time for you?

Young Livestreamer: I remember. Hurry and start – I’ve got to rush back and livestream in a moment.

MC: Livestream?

Young Livestreamer: Yes, I’m a building blocks livestreamer.

MC: I see.

START QUESTIONING

⊳ Reason for participating

MC: May I ask, why are you participating in this building blocks competition?

Young Livestreamer: My fans asked me to. They said that I was so good at building blocks that it would be a pity if I didn’t participate.

 ⊳ Competition Theme

MC: Do you have any thoughts regarding the theme of this competition, “A Reconstruction of World-Famous Artworks”?

Young Livestreamer: I’m sure that no matter what the theme is, I’ll be able to nab a prize. I’m confident about it.

 ⊳ “Z”

MC: Do you know of “Z”?

Young Livestreamer: “Z”? Is he a popular livestreamer these days? I don’t think I’ve seen this name on the ranking boards.

MC: He’s an artist…

Young Livestreamer: I see.

 ⊳ Things he wants to say to “Z”

MC: If you had the chance to speak with “Z”, what would you say?

Young Livestreamer: No matter what profession it is, it must have taken significant effort to earn his accomplishments. I’ve been livestreaming for over three years, and I’ve never stopped streaming once. I’m sure that “Z” is just like me, someone who perseveres.

 ⊳ Building Blocks Livestreaming

MC: What do you usually livestream about?

Young Livestreamer: Lots of things, such as making building blocks models, holding timed competitions with other livestreamers, and so on. Although, my fans enjoy seeing me reconstruct portraits with building blocks the most. As long as I have a photo, there’s nothing I can’t reconstruct.

MC: It sounds very impressive.

END QUESTIONING

 MC: That ends today’s interview. Thank you for your cooperation.

Young Livestreamer: No problem. Young miss, remember to check out my livestream site – I start livestreaming each night, right at 7pm.

MC: S-sure.

Interview 4 – Pirate Actor

MC: Is that young man acting as a pirate?

 START INSPECTION

⊳ Eyepatch

MC: (He’s even wearing an eyepatch. How dedicated!)

⊳ Compass

MC: (Is that a compass hanging in front of his chest? It’s made very exquisitely. It’s so golden and shiny – looks very expensive.)

--

MC: (Turns out that this Mister Pirate is also a participant in the building blocks competition. I should hurry and interview him.)

END INSPECTION

 MC: Hello, I would like to interview the participants of the building blocks competition and contacted you regarding this previously. Are you dressed as… a pirate?

Pirate Actor: That’s right, I just finished acting in a cultural festival drama and didn’t have time to change yet. Let’s start.

START QUESTIONING

⊳ Reason for competing

MC: May I ask, why are you participating in this building blocks competition?

Pirate Actor: To experience a role. I’m an actor in the city drama troupe. Our next drama is based on Austin, the father of building blocks, and it depicts the story of a genius young man who invented the building blocks. I’ve never dealt with building blocks before, so I wanted to take this chance to experience the feeling in the competition, to prepare by putting myself into the character.

MC: Are you playing the male lead?

Pirate Actor: I’m just a candidate. There’s another competitor aside from me, so I’ve got to try even harder.

  ⊳ Competition Theme

MC: Do you have any thoughts regarding the theme of this competition, “A Reconstruction of World-Famous Artworks”?

Pirate Actor: I was about to head to the bookstore and buy some related books to do research and prepare for the competition.

 ⊳ World-Famous Artworks

MC: What do you know about world-famous paintings?

Pirate Actor: I actually… don’t know much about famous paintings. Acting is where my specialty lies.

 ⊳ “Z”

MC: Do you know of “Z”?

Pirate Actor: That artist? I know him. Lots of my friends are his fans, including me myself. As Z’s never revealed his identity publicly, everyone has varied opinions on where he comes from. Some say that he doesn’t care for fame and fortune; some say that he’s causing hype on purpose. But I feel that, regardless if he makes his identity public, he’s the most popular artist right now.

 ⊳ Things he wants to say to “Z”

MC: If you had the chance to speak with “Z”, what would you say?

Pirate Actor: I hope that he can focus on art without being affected by the world outside. To an artist, refining one’s works is the most important, as is for an actor.

 END QUESTIONING

 MC: That ends today’s interview. Thank you for your cooperation.

Pirate Actor: No problem. When the play goes public, do remember to come see it, miss.

MC: I will!

Interview 5 - Photographer

MC: This young man’s holding a camera?

 START INSPECTION

⊳ Camera

MC: (The camera he’s holding is the newest edition from Pax. Is he a photographer?)

⊳ Hair

MC: (His hair has highlights – it looks really fashionable… He’s probably someone working in an artistic field.)

--

MC: (He’s also a participant in the building blocks competition. I should hurry and interview him.)

END INSPECTION

 MC: Hello, I would like to interview the participants of the building blocks competition, and contacted you regarding this previously. Is this a convenient time for you?

Photographer: Yes, feel free to ask.

START QUESTIONING

⊳ Reason for competing

MC: May I ask, why are you participating in this building blocks competition?

Photographer: Because of my hobby. I’m a photographer for building blocks.

MC: A photographer for building blocks?

Photographer: Yes. I use building blocks as materials to take some creative photos. For example, using building blocks to make miniature sceneries, then using the camera to record them to depict different stories.

MC: How interesting. This is the first time I’ve heard of this profession!

 ⊳ Competition Theme

MC: Do you have any thoughts regarding the theme of this competition, “A Reconstruction of World-Famous Artworks”?

Photographer: I like this theme a lot. I believe that famous works should not disappear with the passing of time. They can reappear in life using different methods.

 ⊳ World-Famous Artworks

MC: What do you know of world-famous artworks?

Photographer: I actually prefer photos over artworks.  

MC: Why?

Photographer: Compared to artworks that include subjective elements, only photos can display a situation most objectively.

MC: (Sure enough, he’s got a very different point of view…)

 ⊳ “Z”

MC: Do you know of “Z”?

Photographer: I do. He’s an artist that I’ve paid quite some attention to for these past few years. Apparently, he’s going to be an evaluator for this competition. If that’s true, it would be great – “Z” has never shown himself publicly. I’m really looking forward to meeting him.

 ⊳ Things he wants to say to “Z”

MC: If you met “Z”, is there anything you want to say to him?

Photographer: Actually… I recently heard some rumours that “Z” might have given up on art. Though I don’t know why, I hope he won’t give it up. With his talent, persisting on the road of art will definitely lead him to become an amazing art master.

END QUESTIONING

MC: That ends today’s interview. Thank you for taking the time to be interviewed.

Photographer: No problem, see you around.

MC: See you around!

[ahsporn]

Cody Fern Interview for Out Nagazine

Out: What is it like to play the Antichrist?

Cody: It’s been the greatest privilege of my acting career so far. Between this and Versace, if for some reason the apocalypse came tonight, I’d be pretty happy with what I’ve done.

Out: How much did you know going into the season?

Cody: I didn’t know anything, I didn’t even know the theme, we found out when everybody else found out. We did know obviously that there had been an apocalypse, but I found out that I was playing Michael Langdon two days before we started filming. My first scene was the interrogation with Venable. All that Ryan had told me was that I’d be wearing a long, blonde wig and that I would have an affinity for capes. I went into the piece thinking I was the protagonist.

Out: Do you think that in a way, Michael is the protagonist of Apocalypse?

Cody: I think he is, but that’s from my perspective. I understand that the witches are the protagonists, particularly Cordelia. It’s in many ways a continuation of the Coven story, but running parallel is the story of how I see Michael, which is this very betrayed, broken, lost young man who finds his way into the apocalypse because of circumstance, not because of destiny.

Out: There’s a conversation of nature vs. nurture: we know from Murder House that there was evil in Michael from birth, he wouldn’t have been murdering his babysitters if there wasn't, but it’s become clear in the latter half of the season that he’s lost and is being manipulated by people with their own agendas.

Cody: We see him at 15 when he’s grown 10 years overnight, and the way that I always played Michael was that the murders are an impulse that he can’t control and he doesn’t understand. His consciousness is that of a 6-year-old boy when he’s a teenager, but he’s struggling to come to terms with his body and his desires, but he’s not fully formed. When you follow that, to me Michael’s story is a parable. There’s two ways of looking at the story of the devil: the way that people have interpreted the bible, and this polar opposite that Lucifer so loved god that he refused to bow down before men. Here we have god’s favorite angel in this kingdom of heaven, who was then made to bow down before god’s next making, and ultimately that leads to him being cast out of Heaven, and it wasn’t like Lucifer was wrong. Man then goes about destroying the earth. That’s what we’re doing right now, we’re destroying planet Earth, and it seems that there’s no remorse for it. I really leaned into that with Michael, this young boy who was cast from the kingdom of Heaven, who was cast out of the normal rigors of society, out of what people find acceptable, and then is used and abused and abandoned and broken, and what happens when you have no love in your life, where does that energy go?

Out: One of the ways I’ve been reading this season is a commentary about the state of gender politics. The warlocks essentially bring about Armageddon by attempting to topple the matriarchal power the witches have over the coven. Michael in a way is this avatar for misogyny and male entitlement. Was that intentional?

Cody: I absolutely believe that was intentional. The thing about Ryan Murphy is he’s able to weave these incredible social commentaries into this fascinating world he’s created. Certainly in this season we are looking at bringing down the patriarchy, about what happens when a matriarchal society is enforced and the hubris of men begins to take flight. It’s not dissimilar to what’s happening in society today or what has been happening for hundreds of years. Ryan certainly weaves that into his writing. The gender battle is being fought and Michael is the avatar for it but is certainly not a part of of it. He is manipulated into this gender battle but he himself is not misogynistic, but there’s certainly something to be said for the fact that he needs a very strong mother figure in his life and has mommy issues. His mother tries to kill him in the Murder House, Constance commits suicide, Cordelia takes away Mead and he has this robot who he has to program into loving him. I think he has an enormous respect for Cordelia. He needs strong women in his life, and if he just took Cordelia’s hand when she offered it, if he just overcame his insatiable thirst for revenge, he could’ve gone another way.

Out: One of the standout episodes of the season was “Return to Murder House,” what was it like to find out that not only was Jessica Lange returning but that you’d get to act opposite her?

Cody: My ovaries exploded. I can’t begin to describe to you how overwhelmed I was. The first scene I shot with Jessica was the scene where Michael finds her dead body after she’s committed suicide, and I was so excited and nervous and afraid of that scene that I spent the whole day shaking like a life. When we got to it I was so excited and overwhelmed, it was very hard for me to drop into the chaos around what I needed to go into. Sarah, who is just the most exceptional human being in the world not to mention the hardest working and the most talented, took my hand and said, “Don’t be afraid of this, you’ve got to really go there,” and then jokingly, “Imagine that at the end of this if you didn’t get it that Jessica would think you’re a bad actor.” It was terrifying! I was certainly able to move past a wall, that’s what was blocking me, I was so afraid of judgement, that wasn’t coming from Jessica of course, it was coming from myself and my own process. Working with Jessica will go down as one of my life’s greatest achievements.

Out: What was it like to not only act alongside Sarah Paulson but to be directed by her in “Return to Murder House?”

Cody: One of the greatest joys. As an actor, to step into the director’s chair, you have a certain upper hand because you understand how actors work and how to communicate with actors. Sarah very much comes from a place of absolute respect for the emotional process of the artist. First and foremost she’s looking out for you as an artist, which elicits such extraordinary performances because you have so much trust in her, so you’re willing to give her anything and everything. She’s got such a deft hand as a director, watching it was gobsmacking, and was working under the most extreme pressures imaginable. Not only was she playing Billie Dean and Cordelia in another episode in the same time as this was filming, she had to film 72 scenes. In contrast, the episode before had 32, so she was filming almost double what any other director on the series was filming, while playing two other characters in two other episodes with under one week of preparation, it was truly a feat.

Out: She certainly wears a lot of hats...speaking of which, you had a very special hat yourself. Let’s talk about that wig.

Cody: I loved that wig. If I could wear that wig on a daily basis I would. Wearing that wig was everything.

Out: How long does it take to get into the Rubber Man suit?

Cody: It takes about 20 minutes and a lot of lube, and once you’re in it you’re in it, you can’t take it off. So I was in that suit for 16 hours. I think I held the record for being in the suit the longest.

Out: Can you settle this debate: was Michael the Rubber Man suit who has sex with Gallant?

Cody: No, not physically anyway. The Rubber Man is also a demon, so when someone is wearing the suit, they become the Rubber Man, but when nobody is wearing the suit, Rubber Man — through the power of Murder House — becomes a demon, and that demon is in many aspects controlled by Langdon. Langdon uses every means at his disposal to warp and manipulate and draw out the innermost desires in a human being, he draws out their shadow self and he’s able to play with that shadow and create scenarios that tempt a person into giving into the evil inside of them. Because the Rubber Man is there and then Gallant realizes he’s killed Evie. There’s some mind games going on there in how Michael reveals Gallant’s innermost desire, which is deeply Oedipal, because we [we wonder], is he fucking his grandmother? Because the realization is that the Rubber Man is Evie and he’s just slaughtered her in his bed. There’s so many layers of darkness there. That’s certainly how I thought about it.

Out: I’m sure you can’t reveal anything about the finale tonight, but can you tease a bit about how Michael’s journey ends?

Cody: There’s something deeply beautiful and tragic about the way that the story ends for Michael. It was genuinely one of the hardest scenes that I shot in the series. The end of the series, knowing that this was going to be the last time I — I’m getting sad about it now — I loved Michael so much, the past nine days since we finished filming it have been very hard. I loved Michael so much and I wanted so much for him, I just wanted love for him. The way the series ends for Michael is very moving.

Out: Are you open to returning for another season of AHS?

Cody: Oh my god, in a heartbeat. The experience is beyond comparison. Moving forward there will hopefully be great triumphs in my career, hopefully I’ll get to play characters that are as complex and layered as Michael, but this will forever have been the most formative experience of my acting career and of my development as an artist. To work with these extraordinary women at such an early point in my career, to work with Sarah Paulson and Frances Conroy — fuck me, Frances Conroy is one of the most talented, hard working, fierce actresses. To work with Kathy Bates and Joan Collins, the list goes on and on. To be in the same room as Billy Porter, who is an American treasure. The entire experience was so exceptional and magic. I know I’ll never have that back, that moment, it’s gone. I would come back in a heartbeat.

[wannawrite]

The Royals - PWJ

who?: Wanna One’s Park Woojin genre:  🌺 type: bullet point TW: gang au

blog navigator.

The Royals PJH | PJH2 | KD | KD2

part one / two

mafia! AU 

what secrets does Woojin hide up in the clouds?

kind of a soft mafia! AU for a change of scenery. Thanks for requesting anon!! Hope you guys anticipate more.

disclaimer: pictures used do not belong to me and credit goes to their original owners everything that is written here is purely fictional DO NOT READ IF TRIGGERING

~

Park Woojin

code name: 6 

nickname: Sparrow

by his friends and enemies alike 

he’s deadly quiet, demure even 

Woojin is the pilot in charge of The Royals fleet of private jets 

no one has a clear headshot of Woojin as he always has on a dramatic fighter jet pilot’s mask 

rumour has it that he’s only a boy of 20 years of age, has taupe coloured skin kissed by sun rays and a key identification factor 

his snaggletooth 

but that’s the only word on the street 

Woojin was the most low-key member of The Royals, keeping his profile low and head hidden 

no wonder he was called Sparrow 

always flying off before anyone’s hand could clasp around him 

fast 

nimble 

brown haired 

speckled 

another gossip column mentioned he was a good friend of Lee Daehwi, another member of The Royals 

and that was how he became a key figure of the secret society realm 

Woojin had always dreamt of being a pilot 

when he was young, he had wanted to be an airforce pilot

lol how things have changed 

his mother was a head officer in Incheon’s flight control tower 

that was where the influence came from 

his father had been a pilot

a little love story bloomed from there 

obviously, they married and had two children 

it was a happy family of four, all enthralled by the idea of jetting through the clouds 

one day, a tragic accident had claimed his life 

Woojin was a bit too young to remember specific details but he had a calling to fulfil his late father’s legacy 

he wanted to succeed his father’s wish for him to continue flying planes

a national airforce fighter jet pilot would have been ideal 

but he was happy to settle for the position of head pilot of Seoul’s notorious mafia 

Woojin was sent to pilot school when he was a middle school student

only when he was a high schooler did he start practicing and honing his skills with real planes 

small delivery planes that is 

cute 

Woojin was the kind of guy who took photos with every plane he had piloted

every single one of them were kept in an album in his mother’s house 

yes, his cute snaggletooth was featured in ALL of them 

his sister would scrapbook some candids and send them over to The Royals HQ in Seoul 

sparrow’s scrapbooks were the talk of the town 

Woojin was in charge of a lot of things 

excessive things 

almost too much 

but he loved his job and lived for the thrill of flying 

whether it was a goods plane, passenger plane, he just adored piloting planes 

oh and it wasn’t exactly hard to renew his license when he had contacts in the business 

occasionally, Woojin traveled back to his flying school to assist teachers 

or take more classes since he is 20

still gaining knowledge 

well, that’s how you got to know him 

when you were young, your grandfather would tell you stories of the days when he was a fighter pilot 

a pilot 

he met your grandmother during his flying days as well 

fascinated by his stories and tales, you too were determined to pilot plane 

it was difficult 

your parents did not favour this idea and your grandparents were your only supporters 

in secret, they coached you on whatever knowledge they had 

wings, propellor...fly! 

you spent hours and hours poring over ancient plane encyclopedias, enriching your mind and spurring on your motivation 

and then one day, your grandparents came home with an enrolment letter 

into pilot school :D 

you screamed and cried with joy

then worried about how your parents would react but your grandparents gave 0 f*cks 

they the realest 

‘just go, we know people there who will treat and teach you with the best of their abilities.’ 

and so you started to attend classes in secret

hehe hehe 

it was all good 

your coach loved you 

your love for the planes and even theory classes was unexplainable 

not one of your parents knew what you did almost every day after school

until you nearly crashed a plane and were severely hurt

that’s when your parents found out and damn...it wasn’t exactly a pretty scene 

the amount of yelling and screaming was enough to shake the whole hospital 

you had cried so much that the IV drip had to be replaced TWICE

idk if its a thing but it now is 

though it took some time, they finally opened up to the idea of piloting 

they managed to see things from a different perspective and wrap their head around it 

and now they fund your studies :D

okay, so now the fun starts  

you knew Woojin as Park Woojin, the guy from pilot school 

your classmate 

who is kind of too advanced for your class 

Idk what game he playing

if someone asked you about him, you would say y’all talked 

but not a lot 

considering his attendance had been quite hectic and intermittent

and you did hear some fishy theories about him from the gossipers 

Jenna claimed that he worked with the local gang, operating planes so he could import drugs from overseas 

sounds a bit dumb but believable ?? 

you don’t trust Jenna anyway 

but her words linger in your mind, unable to dissipate 

just simple, harmless gossip 

another source stated Woojin was a spy for the FBI, making sure not a single soul could leave the country so easily with their own plane 

crazy 

how much time do these people have?

you noticed that Woojin was close to many of the staff and instructors 

definitely not trying to start your own theory here 

he was a person to be curious about, intriguing 

just your luck, Woojin ended up being your flying buddy for a term 

idk hOw thIS WORKS SO IT GONNA WORK THIS WAY

quite an awkward pairing if you must say

but your instructor liked how you trusted your theory work and equipment, eyeing every reading carefully

he thought it would be a good match for Woojin, who trusted his own instinct but was a firm and steady pilot 

day one: silence filled the space between the two of you 

the instructor gave y’all an hour to read the manual, study, bond whatnot

yet, half of that was spent buried in books and theory videos 

safety books 

going over basics 

reading about gear care 

even though you knew Woojin was an expert in those aspects

there was just no talking 

shhhh 

quieter than your school’s library 

that was most people’s impression of the quiet and cunning little sparrow, tricking people into thinking he’s demure and secretive

see, that’s how all those ludicrous rumours are born 

finally, you just HAD to engage in conversation 

THE SILENCE WAS JUST TOO STRANGLING 

but he was hard to talk to 

woojin barely said three words before the conversation lapsed 

you pressed your lips together, unsure of what to do 

you started to scribble, drawing cartoonish planes and clouds 

that was when Woojin commented that your plane looked more like a bird

‘pfp...see if you can draw any better,’ you challenged 

Woojin took another pencil from your case

‘Try me.’

And so that’s how you spent your ‘study session’ 

Since you do have quite a competitive spirit 

You brought a whole ass portfolio of drawings the next day 

Just so Woojin could get a taste of his competition 

Banter, banter 

After leafing through yours, he pulled out his own digital file of sketches 

And his own little scrapbook 

+2 for artistic talent 

soon, the piles of non-work related books were growing in your locker

there were a couple more pencil scribbles on the picnic table

other students found rough paper with sketches almost everywhere 

even on mock test papers 

eventually, your instructor realised something was terribly off when both of you failed the month’s test 

as punishment, you guys had to do clean up duty 

and more homework 

taking away your hands-on flying class for a month 

but it was fun 

partners in crime play together 

partners in crime die together 

so slogging after class was much more enjoyable in the company of each other 

plus, the ice cream feast after was always rewarding

you guys would purposely take a long route to the bus stop to pick up convenience store ice cream 

woojin would try to convince you that his flavour choice was much better 

time was killed with the playful banter at the bus stop 

many times you found yourself wanting to ask about all the rumours circulated about him 

but you realised that Woojin was that kind of guy who would make a joke out of it 

and take words like those lightly 

bonus!

he had a great sense of humour 

variety king 

days resembling those wore on 

but you were never tired of them 

and it seemed like he wasn’t either 

every occasion was constantly different from the previous one 

another flavour of ice cream to sample

more areas to ‘clean-up’ 

messing around with the coaches 

days at the academy were always divergent 

so it was weird when Woojin didn’t show up one day 

that time you managed to shrug off the anxieties and assumptions 

then, he disappeared for two following days 

that you definitely couldn’t ignore 

you didn’t attend the same school as him and no one else at the academy knew him very well 

when coaches were questioned, they seemed uninterested but assured of his safety 

‘Don’t worry,’ said your instructor. ‘Woojin knows his way around things. Perhaps he just hasn’t been feeling very well.’ 

mhm 

you watched how his irises flickered from yours to the surroundings 

and back 

any trace of uncertainty was erased when you took a second glance 

‘Anyway, I have his assignment folder. Could you pass it to him for the summer? Thanks.’

‘Make sure it gets to him safely. Don’t pass it to a third party.’ 

his footsteps quickened as they grew more and more out of earshot 

you scoffed in disbelief, feeling the effects of being alone while everyone else was buddied up 

how were you ever going to find Woojin? 

His mobile phone was turned off too

or he just wasn’t responding to your texts 

you: hi woojin 

you: I have your work file  

you: can we meet so I can pass it to you? 

you: you okay? haven’t seen you in a while 

woojin hadn’t read those messages 

Sighing, you closed the application and continued with your classes 

forcing yourself to pay attention to content was harder when Woojin wasn’t around

every moment you swore that your phone buzzed in your pocket

unfortunately, it was just your imagination 

there were no texts from him even at the end of the day 

you fell asleep that night with an uneasy heart full of worries 

woojin: yeah of course 

woojin: Thanks btw 

woojin: sorry about it 

woojin: aha you won’t see this asap since its 2am 

woojin: but tell me where to find you tomorrow 

~

what a debonair comment from him 

is that even an adjective to describe a phrase? 

your face feels a bit warm 

stop making a big deal out of nothing!!! 

you: how about 11am at the Starbucks near my place

you text him the address 

shockingly, Woojin’s response is immediate 

Woojin: see you :) 

a smiley face 

what does this mean? 

he’s happy to get his work, that’s what it means 

calm down 

the red alarm clock reads 8.30am 

there’s time to freshen up 

there’s also time for you to imagine every possible outcome of this meeting 

which is taking place outside of class time

would it be awkward? 

strange? 

don’t overthink this

after much deliberation, you make it to Starbucks 15 minutes before the agreed time 

all is calm at your seat near the window, drink on your table 

and clutching Woojin’s file so closely as if it would grow legs and run away 

then, two young men approach your table 

‘Hi,’ one of the voices said. ‘You’re here for Woojin, aren’t you?’ 

you’re hesitant to answer, wondering what sort of relationship Woojin would have with them 

your reply is cut off by the other guy speaking 

he chuckles 

‘I’m Jeno and he’s Jaemin. We’re Woojin’s friends and he sent us to collect his work,’ he says. 

you observe how he hides his hands behind his back, how he presses his lips together too often 

liar

Don’t give it to a third party 

pass it to him personally

Jaemin’s hands reach for the file. ‘Now if you just-‘

‘I don’t think so.’ Your words slice through the tension. ‘Woojin is supposed to collect it from me himself.’ 

The message sent is clear

Don’t f*cking touch this file 

Jaemin’s jaw seems to clench while Jeno begins to crack his knuckles 

‘Well,’ Jaemin begins, his arms retreating. ‘Woojin has something to attend to so he called us to get it. It was a last minute arrangement.’ 

Jeno scrolls through his phone, pulling up ‘Woojin’s’ texts 

The messages are indeed are from a contact called Woojin, he lacks an avatar though 

‘I’ll message him right now.’ 

however, messages from him rain in

Woojin: hey if anyone with the names Jaemin and Jeno talk to you, get away 

Woojin: i didn’t send them, we don’t get along 

Woojin: even if you don’t encounter them, I need you to go home this instant 

Woojin: I’m so sorry, I can’t meet you today 

his texts confirm your suspicions but now you’re curious about his relationship with them 

How long could teenage boys hold grudges for anyway?

you: i’m talking to them rn

you: ...what should I do 

you: jaemin’s pretty adamant about getting your stuff 

Woojin: shit 

Woojin: one of my friends is nearby, his name is Jaehwan 

Woojin: go with him 

Woojin: now, go to the barista and tell them you want a cupful of whipped cream with chocolate sauce 

you look up from your phone, a bit taken aback by the information 

your guard is well up now 

‘Well?’ Jaemin almost hisses before he catches himself

‘Hmm, I’m waiting for his reply. He wants me to order him a coffee.’ 

your heart wants to thump out of your chest

even your lips begin to dry

something just isn’t right 

your brain and body aren’t reacting positively 

As the last word leaves your lips, the barista whispers into a well-concealed in-ear 

out of the corner of your eye, you catch one of the employees ripping her apron off and tossing it into the bushes 

she was outside of the store, clearing dishes from the outdoor seating area 

when she draws close, she makes a noise about not seeing you in a long time 

but her eyes watch Jaemin and Jeno in the back 

It’s to throw them off 

Good plan 

who came up with it? 

the two mysterious boys grow increasingly irritated

it shows clearly in their actions 

furious whispers

side glares 

constant drumming of fingers 

the girl’s eyes flicker over your shoulder for barely a second 

an unnoticeable look 

‘Jaehwan’s here,’ she says just as the bell chimes

‘You’re in good hands now.’ 

her smile is genuine and so is her embrace 

you and Jaehwan don’t even exchange a slither of a greeting 

in fact, you can’t catch your breath as the same lady ushers you out through the kitchen door 

it’s only a matter of seconds before Jaemin and Jeno are alerted of your disappearance 

that’s when their rage would be on the loose

Jaehwan frantically bundles you into a nearby car 

honestly, you aren’t convinced he’s the best company 

perhaps better than the previous Js 

‘Where’s Woojin?’ you heave out. ‘I need to talk to him.’ 

Jaehwan begins to exit the parking lot, sunglasses on. 

‘Sorry, reaching him will take a while. And, sorry for the suddenness of everything. You must be...surprised.’ 

‘That’s an understatement,’ you blurt out. ‘I’m utterly confused and terrified!’ 

‘I don’t even know where I’m going and who’s taking me!’ 

all your emotions are in a jumbled mess 

being with Jaehwan feels like sitting in a lion’s den but with a metal cage surrounding you

safer but not wholly 

staying with Jeno and Jaemin would mean the lions would have devoured you before your feet even reached the bottom of the pit

Woojin didn’t answer any of your calls

Jaehwan notices your hopeless attempts at contacting your friend

‘I’m sorry, he isn’t available at this moment.’ 

‘And why the hell not! He told me to meet him! He doesn’t have any plans! He could’ve come to meet me! I just want to give him his work file!’ 

The outburst makes you feel a ton better 

Like the bag of bricks, you carried had been carrying was thrown at someone you hated 

Suddenly, the road sign reading ‘Incheon Airport’ catches your attention 

especially when Jaehwan seems to be en route

‘Why are we headed to the airport?’ You question, unsure if you want an answer 

‘We’re going to see Woojin,’ Jaehwan replies casually. 

‘W-w-we’re going out of the country?’ The stutter is inevitable 

Jaehwan appears to furrow his brow as if puzzled 

‘Um...yeah. Jihoon and Sejeong will deal with your accommodation,’ he informs, not that it is very helpful 

Who and who? 

‘Does Woojin even tell you anything?’ Jaehwan asks as he drives to the airport carpark 

He shakes his head in disapproval when you answer with a ‘no’

‘I don’t have my passport,’ you say

your words don’t even affect Jaehwan, he simply says that a Kang Daniel has got you covered 

again, who, what and how? 

‘C’mon. Let’s go. I’m sure Woojin has all the answers to your questions.’

~

Jaehwan pushes your back, urging you to move quicker 

‘What the hell,’ he curses under his breath. ‘Hurry up, I see...uh, J and J allies.’ 

there isn’t time 

Plus, you don’t have the courage to turn around and glare them in the eye 

Contrary to your assumption, Jaehwan skirts around the ‘Private Jet’ counter and settles for a commercial flight queue 

he says something about it being too risky to dispatch one of his company’s private jets 

the jets come as no shock 

After all, Woojin does needs his planes

it’s likely his close friends are all like-minded and share the same interests 

Jaehwan speedily dashes for the ‘First Class’ row 

he speaks to the counter staff in such a quiet tone even you can’t decipher his words 

‘Don’t worry about your passport, I have connections.’ 

don’t actually do this!!!

that makes your stomach clench and twist with nerves in the most horrid manner 

somehow 

your passport appears 

it isn’t a replica, it isn’t a faux document

it’s in the flesh 

...did someone break into your house?

‘Yeah,’ Jaehwan answers your unspoken question. ‘Of course someone stole this from your tabletop. You need to get better security.’ 

you face blushes red in embarrassment 

'I’m a pilot,’ you manage a counter attack

your new friend only chuckles 

jumping snaking immigration queues is something you could accustom yourself to

ahhh, the luxuries 

soon, you’ll be able to join the ‘CREW ONLY’ line 

Before you know it, you’re seated in the first class section of a reputable airline 

woah 

this is new 

you don’t want to know where Jaehwan or Woojin or whoever has the money to pay for all this 

then again, these people own a fleet of private jets 

Jaehwan advises you to chill and enjoy the flight 

but the bundle of nerves only tightens in your stomach 

You’re on your way to Hong Kong 

with a small bag of essentials and the clothes on your back

Jaehwan’s in the same situation

yet he seems so used to it, there’s no point being anxious 

tbh you’d rather pilot the plane than ride in it 

why would Woojin be in Hong Kong? 

did he fly there on impulse? 

does he even know the route? 

he did just receive his pilot licence......

no, he couldn’t possibly 

it sounded like a hasty getaway 

A sudden change of plans

as if he was in trouble.....

Who are these people Jaehwan mentioned?

Is Woojin hiding anything from me? 

Of course he is! Jaehwan knows but he feels that only Woojin has the right to tell me 

besides, he’s asleep 

how can he be sleeping at a time like this? 

it’s barely 2pm 

the day is going just fine 

hopefully, things start looking up from here 

Hong Kong...

Woojin...

I’m coming for ya

[arkus-rhapsode]

My response to Hiro Mashima’s recent interview

So I was going to let this slide as I do all of his interviews, but man oh man... Hiro Mashima just had to be Hiro Mashima. Now you can find the interview here, but man, this fucking guy.

Q=Interview Question M=Mashima

Q:How did you feel the first day you woke up and didn't have to work on Fairy Tail?

M: I was actually kind of lonely and sad, so I started doodling.

Yeah, your twitter has been kinda full lately...

Q: Fairy Tail is relatively new compared to other “classic” manga and anime series, but it is already considered a classic among fans. How does this make you feel?

M: I am really glad to hear that.

No. No. FT is nowhere near classic. It definitely came out in the golden age of manga (Big 3, Toriko, SNK, etc) and is still apart of its era, but I doubt that people will still care for it as much as they do now in 5 years from now.

Q: Both Rave Master and Fairy Tail are fantasy works. Have you ever considered doing something outside of the fantasy genre?

M: I personally just really love fantasy works in general, so if I do a new series, I would like to try to make it fantasy again. Rave Master was about friends saving the whole world, but Fairy Tail is about closer-knit relationships. So if I do another fantasy story, I would like to try a different approach.    

How’s about friends going on a journey and having a point to everything? Y’know what a shounen series is in general.

Q: Have you ever considered revisiting Rave Master?

M: At the autograph sessions, I have been experiencing a lot of people actually requesting characters from Rave Master, but I realize that I have forgotten how to draw a lot of the characters from that series, so it might be hard to revisit it.

Well great to know the thing that made you famous in the first place isn’t worth remembering how to draw. I mean seriously I know it’s been 11 years, but you have to at least remember something

Q: Many comic book artists have said that they know the last page of the series before they start. Was that the case for Fairy Tail?

M: I honestly didn't have any idea what the last scene of the story was like in my mind when I started the series. The fact that I didn't know what was going to happen next was actually the best part of working on this series. For example, when there is a cliffhanger where the characters are in a really tight spot, the fans wonder what is going to happen next? Well, that's actually my question and I really have to think about it.

Dude... You’re the author, it is your job to know this! This isn’t a game that you can just wing it and if it fails you can try again, this is a published series with a large following. You need to do it justice, that is the job of a mangaka.

Q: You have traditionally used more Western influences in your work. What kind of Western work do you draw inspiration from?

M: About 30 years ago in Japan, there was a huge boom of RPG fantasy games, so those are where I got my inspiration from. For example, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

No surprises there...

Q: In the world of Fairy Tail, are the magic powers something you inherit or can you obtain them if you work hard enough?

M: In the world of Fairy Tail, if anyone wants to learn a new magic, if they train themselves hard enough, they should be able to. There are a lot of characters who are training themselves to learn a different kind of magic. However, in the guild of Fairy Tail, everybody is collaborating and working together, so most of those characters work on their own talents and refine them so they are able to give more help to the others.

SO Magic is something everyone can use? Then what was the whole point of 90% of the population can’t use magic? Did they just not give a shit about having awesome powers?

Q: I find Zeref very interesting. He isn't your typical bad guy and he is sort of a tragic figure. Why did you decide to make him like that?

M: I didn't want a typical bad guy. I kind of combined all of the elements I had been cultivating and inserted edit into this character, and he became a really highly complex character. 

Then you proceeded to shit all over his character in the final arc. Guess that was the real tragedy.

Q: Everyone likes the female characters in Fairy Tail. They seem to be both strong and sexy at the same time and self-confident. How did you go about making such balanced female characters?

M: This is actually kind of what I like in females. This my personal taste so I inserted it into the character. It's kind of my wish.

Maybe the female characters started out that way, but they sure as shit didn’t stay that way. Lucy became completely pointless in the last arc, Juvia has no personality outside I love Gray, Erza is an unintentional parody of over powered characters, Wendy is a walking Deus Ex Machina, Can needs her dad to solve anything in the end, and Mirajane has zero to any existence in this series.

Q: Is there a particular character you wish you had more time to develop?

M: One of the characters that I think of is Acnologia. In my mind I had a deeper setting for this character. But the story is from the main character's point of view, so I couldn't really do that. I may have some time to explore the story of Acnologia at some point.

No, you can fit in a character’s back story whenever you fucking like. In fact, seeing something from another character’s point of view is important to understand them. Though after seeing that Acnologia is just upset about a girl, I don’t think we need more.

Q: In terms of design, Fairy Tail is unique when it comes to designs.  A lot of the characters change their outfits throughout the series. How do you go about changing the characters’ clothes?

M: Every time I actually make a costume change, there's usually something that I didn't like about the character design so I refresh them. But sometimes I think maybe the previous character design was better so I kind of go back and forth.

Fair enough, you keep their normal look consistent enough.

Q: What Fairy Tail character will you miss the most?

M: There is a character named Brandish. I wish I could draw more of her.

And yet she didn’t make an appearance in the last chapter

Q: In the American comic book industry, it is common for multiple people to work on the same comic. In Japan, one person entirely writes the whole thing. In America, the creators may have died and people are still writing the series. What are your thoughts on this process?

M: One of the great things about American comics is that so many people can work at once to turn it into a movies or different types of comic books or media and that carries over overseas. In terms of manga, it usually one person thinks of the story and everything is centered on that one storyline, so, if there is an opportunity to branch off, that's actually a good thing. In terms of Fairy Tail, a lot of people love the world view of Fairy Tail, so it is actually possible to expand the story into a spin-off taken over by another creator, so it is kind of diversifying the intellectual property.

Yeah surprising how much better it is when it isn’t solely in your

Q: In American spin-offs, they worry a lot about continuity. Did you worry about that over the 11 years you worked on Fairy Tail?

M: I was thinking about it a little bit, but it wasn't the highest priority. It is more important to me to make the story exciting and really portray the emotions of each character. So if the fans find some flaws in the continuity, I am actually excited to know that people are reading that much into it.

Fuck you. No seriously fuck you. Stop being a writer and start being just an artist because that is not the tone of a writer. There are people who would trade their souls just for FT’s popularity or writers who wish they could make this series, and yet you are the one who has it... Go fuck yourself Hiro.

Q: Sometimes in Fairy Tail characters die, but they always come back. Why did you decide to both this?

M: This has to do with the fact that in Rave Master, a lot of characters actually died and it turned out to be a sad story. When you are working on a manga in a magazine, it is up to the reader's polls and feedback whether you can actually stay in the magazine. To be quite honest, the chapters that have the death of a really important character get a lot of reaction. Knowing this, I really wanted to make sure that people don't die in my series.

Yeah but rave was also an infinitely better story. Also that is the sad truth about popularity,but you should always be sure to do what’s good, not what’s popular.

Q: If you were in the world of Fairy Tail and you could have three people on your team, who would it be?

M: Lucy, Erza, and Juvia.

Well now I know what your personal wet dream is...

(There’s more, but I’ve responded to Everything I’v needed to. Hiro Mashima as a person, might not e a bad guy, but Hiro Mashima the author is fucking infuriating)

[mhsn033]

Children’s author James Nash dies following shooting

Portray copyright JAMES NASH/FACEBOOK

Portray caption James Nash used to be described as a “kind-hearted particular person and a proactive parish councillor”

A “kind-hearted” younger of us’s author and parish councillor shot at his home in Hampshire has died.

James Nash suffered serious head accidents in the attack at Higher Enham, advance Andover, on Wednesday afternoon.

The suspect, a 34-year-broken-down man, died in a police dart after attempting to flit on a motorcycle.

Hampshire Constabulary confirmed Mr Nash died in sanatorium in the early hours and the investigation is now being treated as a waste.

A 40-year-broken-down lady used to be also assaulted for the interval of the incident and suffered minor accidents.

‘Shock and grief’

Per the Andover Advertiser, Mr Nash’s mom, Gillian Nash, acknowledged: “Very sadly I should instruct you that James Nash died of his brutal accidents on the present time.

“His father, his sister and I are in a total recount of outrage and grief.

“Now we bag lost a dazzling, talented son and brother and I do know all who knew him would instruct he used to be the kindest, most caring particular person.”

Portray copyright Google

Portray caption Mr Nash used to be shot in MacCallum Street in Higher Enham

Tributes bag also poured in from colleagues of the author and parish councillor, who represented the village of Enham Alamein.

Phil North, leader of Take a look at Valley Borough Council, wrote on Fb: “Here is such devastating news, now not right for his family and chums who will clearly omit him terribly, but on your total community of Enham Alamein where he used to be a public consultant.

“He used to be this kind of kind-hearted particular person and a proactive parish councillor who cared deeply for his community.”

He added: “As a talented younger of us’s author and illustrator, I used to be extremely touched closing year when one in every of the dedications in his most up-to-date e book used to be to my unusual child daughter, Eleanor-Ivy Mae.

“We’ll most seemingly be in a position to continually esteem our replica.”

Portray caption The suspect – named in reviews as Alex Sartain – fled the scene and died in a police dart

On the scene, Allen Sinclair, South At present

“A low key but substantial police presence stays this morning, shut to the isolated and picturesque cluster of cottages where the waste investigation is focused.

Some homes, drives and gateways are sealed off by police tape.

Additional along, the lane itself is cordoned off, with two officers stopping of us from drawing advance. About 100m up the road, forensic officers seem like gathering evidence.

Of us residing in the house bag declined to discuss what has took build. However tributes to James Nash bag begun displaying on social media, as news of his loss of life spreads. “

Portray caption Police and forensics had been calm investigating the scene of the crime on Saturday

North West Hampshire MP Equipment Malthouse described the fatal shooting in MacCallum Street as “tragic and profoundly unhappy news”.

“James’s family will most seemingly be devastated and additionally they’re in all our thoughts tonight,” he acknowledged in a post on Fb.

The suspect – named in reviews as Alex Sartain – is believed to bag on the birth fled the scene on foot sooner than attempting to win away on a motorcycle.

He then fatally crashed on an A-road about three miles away from the shooting build after officers gave dart.

Police acknowledged they “attain now not deem there are any excellent suspects on this investigation” and the force has made a indispensable referral to the Independent Scrape of job for Police Behavior.

Per his net build, Mr Nash used to be resident artist at The Hawk Conservancy Belief, and co-founding father of the Society of Pure Historical past Artists.

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[how2to18]

THERE IS A riveting scene in the documentary Finding Pictures (Bilder finden, 2002) by German filmmaker Benjamin Geissler, when Agnieszka Kijowska, part of the team searching for remnants of a mural painted in 1942 by the Polish writer and artist Bruno Schulz, scrubs layers of paint from the pantry wall of a house in a Ukrainian village, formerly part of Poland. As she scrubs, an image, slowly and miraculously, reveals itself. “Here’s a little face,” she says in disbelief. “Mr. Wojciech,” she repeats, referring to Wojciech Chmurzyński, an expert in Schulz’s visual art, “Here’s a little face.” Offscreen a man’s voice answers, “Wonderful! Oh my God! […] It’s reminiscent of his self-portraits. Oh my God! This is it! How true.”

It’s an uncanny moment, a flash discovery of something thought forever lost. The whimsical face exhumed from beneath the decades-old paint is an auto-portrait of Bruno Schulz, Jewish author of The Street of Crocodiles (Sklepy cynamonowe, 1933) and Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą, 1937), and creator of phantasmagoric drawings. Schulz’s artistic talents had for a time earned him refuge in the home of Felix Landau, a Nazi officer who had charged him with painting murals in his children’s bedroom. But on November 19, 1942, this reprieve came to an end when another Nazi officer, Karl Günther, shot Schulz on the streets of Drohobych, Ukraine, the village that had inspired so much of his creative work. And from that moment, two absences were established: a vanished body, as Schulz’s burial place isn’t definitively known, and an unpublished novel, The Messiah (Mesjasz), whose whereabouts still remain a mystery.

The Messiah is one of eight lost manuscripts conjured up in Giorgio van Straten’s In Search of Lost Books: The Forgotten Stories of Eight Mythical Volumes, translated from the Italian by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre. The director of the Italian Cultural Institute of New York and author of, among other volumes, My Name, A Living Memory — a book that traces and imagines his father’s Jewish roots from 19th-century Rotterdam, Netherlands, to 20th-century Italy — van Straten is undoubtedly drawn to memory. And in his latest work, the focus is not on people long gone or places now vanished, but on the books that disappeared. They include, in addition to Schulz’s The Messiah, a manuscript by the Italian writer Romano Bilenchi, which van Straten, a friend and mentee of the writer, had read but regretfully not saved; the burned memoirs of Lord Byron, deemed too scandalous by Byron’s family and a former male lover; an early Ernest Hemingway manuscript that disappeared when the suitcase containing it was stolen in Paris’s Gare de Lyon; a Sylvia Plath novel that vanished following her suicide; the manuscript of Walter Benjamin, believed to have been in the black suitcase he carried in 1940 as he tried, unsuccessfully, to flee Jewish persecution in France and ended up taking his own life in the village of Portbou on the Spanish border; and two manuscripts lost to fire: the second volume of Nikolai Gogol’s 1842 Dead Souls — purportedly burned by the author himself — and a 1,000-page masterpiece by Malcolm Lowry that was destroyed in a house fire.

Van Straten reconstructs each tale of loss with the perseverance of a sleuth, the passion of a bibliophile, and the conviviality of a raconteur, without abandoning the raw sense of wonder that leaves open the possibility — as happened with Schulz’s murals — of a rediscovery. As he writes in the introduction,

Every time I have chanced across the story of a lost book I have experienced something like the feeling that gripped me as a child when reading certain novels which spoke of secret gardens, of mysterious cable-cars, of abandoned castles. I have recognized the opportunity for a quest, felt the fascination of that which escapes us — and the hope of becoming the hero who will be able to solve the mystery.

He assembles each narrative with information gleaned from the eight authors’ diaries and letters, historical and contemporary sources, interviews with critics, and conversations with his own literary friends and colleagues, so that the book feels both scholarly and intimate. And while each loss he invokes is unique, an overarching question emerges from the litany of voices assembled for each chronicle: what is society’s responsibility (if any) to a creative work?

Tensions often surround a common debate: what to do when an artist wishes to have their unpublished work destroyed after death, while a survivor’s responsibility lies in delivering to posterity — and humanity — an invaluable work. (A famous example of the latter winning out is the case of Max Brod, who, after the death of his friend Franz Kafka, didn’t destroy Kafka’s manuscripts as he had been instructed.) But van Straten explores scenarios that distinctly eradicate the possibility for posthumous publication: namely, the destruction of a deceased writer’s work by family and friends despite the writer’s wish to have it endure (as with Lord Byron, and possibly Bilenchi and Plath), self-censorship (which was the case for Gogol and to a certain extent, the perfectionist Lowry), and annihilation during wartimes (as occurred with Walter Benjamin and Bruno Schulz).

This last form of vanishing — via war and persecution — is perhaps most heartbreaking, because the aggressor can’t be whittled down to a single person or simple bad luck. It is, rather, a form of collective assault, against not only an individual but also a creation that never had a chance to see the light of day. It is, in short, an act of societal violence against creation itself.

And Walter Benjamin’s case is equally tragic in this regard. A “consummately refined revolutionary,” as van Straten describes him, Benjamin left his native Germany in 1933 after the Nazi seizure of control and moved to Paris, where he wrote the texts that would turn him into one of the 20th century’s most influential thinkers. Among these was the unfinished The Arcades Project (Das Passagen-Werk), about 19th-century Parisian life, whose photocopy he would go on to entrust to his friend Georges Bataille prior to his eventual ill-fated escape from France. Another was “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit, 1935), an essay on the ways in which mechanical reproduction of an artwork strips it of its aura. On June 13, 1940, just a day before the Germans occupied Paris, Benjamin decided to leave the city for Marseille, France, hoping to continue from there to Portugal and make his way to the United States. But while he had a permit to enter the United States, he lacked many of the exit and entry documents that would have allowed him to make his labyrinthine way out of Europe. Hence the last-ditch attempt to flee Marseille for Spain, the black suitcase containing the mysterious manuscript, and the eventual suicide that would put an end to the man, his suitcase, and his writings.

As well as the societal, cultural, and existential tensions tied to the moment of the vanishing, there is another that runs throughout van Straten’s book: the tension between the hope of discovery and the futility of the search, or what van Straten, quoting Marcel Proust, calls “the risk of an impossibility.” Proust invokes this risk as a prerequisite for love between humans, and van Straten extends the definition to love between a human being and a lost book, fueled by “that combination of impulse and melancholy, of curiosity and fascination, which develops with the thought of something that existed once but that we can no longer hold in our hands.” In other words, the tension of searching for the work is inextricable from the story of its recovery, even if the tangible recovery is impossible.

And his emphasis on the lost object’s former existence is important. For van Straten, lost books are not those “that were not even born: conceived, expected and dreamt of, but prevented for one reason or another from ever being written.” On the contrary, they are ones that did in fact exist but subsequently vanished. This distinction reveals the value he places on a writer’s self-actualization while reinforcing the intimacy of his book, which not only shares the narratives of eight vanished manuscripts dear to him, but also prompts readers to define for themselves what constitutes loss, and more specifically, the loss of a book. Because it is likely we all have different criteria for what makes a book “lost.” What of those books attributed to an author with a certain level of celebrity, but secretly penned by a relative or lover? Is proof of the manuscript’s former existence necessary, or can one simply take the author’s word that such a book once lived? And perhaps most importantly, must the book have been actually written to be lost, or does it qualify if it might have been written had circumstances permitted it?

Reflecting on lost books brought to my mind Imre Kertész’s novel Kaddish for an Unborn Child (Kaddis a meg nem született gyermekért, 1990), an elegiac book about a Hungarian Holocaust survivor’s inability to bring a child into the world. In Christopher C. Wilson and Katharina M. Wilson’s 1997 English translation (titled Kaddish for a Child Not Born), the narrator describes his long “road of self-liquidation” and his lifelong conversation with his unborn child, who becomes for him a lingering shadow. Kertész’s narrator even goes so far as to frame his “existence in the context of [the nonextant child’s] potentiality.” Just as there are offspring left uncreated because of their potential parents’ failure to actualize them, are there books that never came into existence because their authors lacked agency in a world that for one reason or another stripped them of it? Might one, in other words, recite a kaddish for an unborn book?

That, I suppose, depends on the definition of loss. But however you define it, it is certainly not a bygone event. Books are undoubtedly being lost every day. Given the political volatility of our time and the continuous displacement of millions of people (68.5 million in 2017, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency), how many manuscripts — written and unwritten, by authors known and unknown — are vanishing daily? Perhaps in a generation or two, someone will sift through the wreckage and create a new bibliography of lost books.

But as van Straten emphasizes, the story doesn’t end with loss. In fact, the story doesn’t end at all, for absence itself can become a catalyst for creativity — as was the case, for example, with Schulz’s Messiah: Schulz appears as a fish in David Grossman’s 1986 novel See Under: Love, and, most famously, as the protagonist’s claimed father in Cynthia Ozick’s The Messiah of Stockholm, published a year later. He is even the namesake of a Polish rock band. This echoes philosopher Abraham J. Heschel’s idea, explored in his book Who Is Man? (1963), that “[t]he dignity of human existence is in the power of reciprocity.” One of our primary experiences as humans, says Heschel, is to obtain and seize things we care for in childhood, and, upon entering maturity, to give and provide for those we care for. Maybe in this ideal of reciprocity, where “[k]nowledge is a debt, not a private property,” knowledge of an absence may be repaid through transformation: an inherited loss into a new creation.

Still, despite its inevitability and potential to bring about renewal, loss causes grief. And the act of writing, besides all else it does, often serves as an attempt to accept this grief. This attempt was famously captured by Elizabeth Bishop in her poem “One Art,” a villanelle whose narrator simultaneously laments and relinquishes losses, both small (“lost door keys” and “the hour badly spent”) and vast (the beloved’s “joking voice” and “two cities, lovely ones”), and tries in vain to “master” them through writing. It could be argued that societies and cultures that experience repeated loss may develop a stronger compulsion to reconstruct an absence, to reinvent it and thus to refuse its irrevocability — in other words, to write it. As van Straten explained in My Name, A Living Memory, translated by Martha King,

The most dreaded Jewish curse says: May your name and even your memory be forgotten. Therefore, to save a man you must repeat his name, as in a liturgy. But the memory? That […] dies with the people who preserve it. Unless someone decides to transform it — to write it down, for instance.

In order to regenerate the memory of his ancestors — and his surname — he worked with family myths and stories, birth and death certificates, wedding invitations, heirlooms passed down the generations, and, inevitably, his own imagination. In his latest book, too, through the act of writing, he straddles the line between elegy and reincarnation, aware, all the while, that “if on the one hand [lost books] continue to elude us, […] on the other they come back to life in us — and ultimately, as in Proustian time, we can lay claim to having found them.” What he offers, as he tells the reader, is “the memory of absent books,” with both sorrow and fresh wonder, reflecting Schulz’s wish as he expressed it in a 1936 letter to a friend: “My ideal goal is to ‘mature’ into childhood.”

Though grief may be inevitable, van Straten’s book makes clear that loss is not absolute so long as memory, and the chance for transformation, persists. The memory must be conjured up without fossilizing it, must be breathed — or written — into a new form. This is what van Straten has done, in this slim, beautiful homage to eight absences.

¤

Dalia Sofer is the author of the novel The Septembers of Shiraz (2007). Her new novel is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2020).

The post The Chance for Transformation: On Giorgio van Straten’s “In Search of Lost Books” appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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[rhovanels]

Letter for the Chocolate Box fic exchange.

I’m always thrilled to receive anything that someone has created for me, so don’t worry, I’ll be happy with whatever you come up with! Also, please feel free to send me an anonymous ask if you need anything clarified.

General likes:

- mutual pining-happy ending narratives

- I’m equally happy with fluff and angst - don’t feel like you need to hold back on either

- women with various types of strength and agency and power

- sex is absolutely not a requirement for my pairings, and I particularly like sex that’s based in emotion, or is more implied rather than explicit. 

- I love plotty dramas, but I equally like quiet, small character moments - go where your muse takes you

- characters who are competent and unapologetic about who they are

- relationships based in communication - talking, challenging and testing one another, wordy declarations of love

- tonally, my favourite emotional register is sad and sweet, but I’m happy with humour and excitement too

- slow burn friends to lovers (although I don’t really expect that for an exchange of this length)

- EPISTOLARY RELATIONSHIPS.

- tropes and general things I like (in no particular order): declarations of love; banter and bickering; one person suddenly realising they’re in love with the other person; huddling for warmth; hurt/comfort; there’s only one bed; ‘holy shit they’re hot in that outfit’; fake dating; bittersweet endings; found families; poetry

Art likes

Honestly, if you’re drawing me something I will probably backflip out the window, because I have no artistic talent and am constantly in awe of what other people produce.

- non-sexual intimacy between characters

- mundane, slice-of-life moments

Dislikes:

- nothing too smutty because I am tame, and no PWP.

- no A/B/O dynamics

- no professor/student (or a similar dynamic) relationships

- no non-con or dub-con

- no character bashing

- no non-canon compliant levels of homophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia

- no abuse (physical or emotion)

Most importantly, have fun - if you’ve enjoyed creating this, I’ll enjoy receiving it.

Onto my specific requests! 

A Little Life

God, I love this book. It is the most life-affirming, poignant, utterly devastating book I have ever read and I cannot in good conscience recommend it to anyone, because it seriously messed me up. I will never get over just how much love there is between the characters, and love in all sorts of different shapes and forms (particularly love for Jude).

Jude St. Francis & Harold Stein; Jude St. Francis & Harold Stein & Julia Stein: Found families are my JAM, and this one breaks my heart beautifully. I’d love to see something earlier in their relationship, before or around the time of the adoption. Possible prompts: holiday or celebration - a birthday party, a Christmas (Jude gets a Christmas stocking!!!); Jude reacting to being casually claimed as family in public (I’m crying just thinking about it)

Jude St. Francis & Andy Contractor: The relationship between these two is probably my favourite in the whole book. I’d love something outside of Andy’s examination room, a moment in which the two of them relate to one another as friends first, rather than doctor/patient. Possible prompts: a late night phone conversation; a surprise meeting on the street; aAndy taking Jude somewhere - a gallery, a park, the cinema, etc

Jude St. Francis/Willem Ragnarsson: Show me a missing scene from “The Happy Years”. A slice of life moment, a trip, a momentous occasion - as long as it’s happy. Possible prompts: a surprise airport reunion; a special meal; a third party commenting on how happy they seem together

Jean-Baptiste "JB" Marion & Willem Ragnarsson & Jude St. Francis & Malcolm Young: I’m up for anything with the four of them - again, just show me a happy and cared for Jude. Possible prompts: adventures on the subway; a moment from one of their holidays at Harold’s house

Provenance

Provenance has two of my favourite things in spades - politics and heists. I fell in love with these characters and I’d love to see what happens to them after the events of the novel. I really wanted more resolution in Garal’s storyline than Leckie gave us, so I’d particularly like something that features em. Maybe they all work together to try and reform Compassionate Removal - Ingray and Taucris provide the political backbone, Garal and Tic the street smarts. But really, I’m happy with whatever you come up with, dear author. Just let Garal be happy!

Dragon Age

Cassandra Pentaghast/Varric Tethras or Cassandra Pentaghast & Varric Tethras: Oh, I adore the relationship between the two of them, and how it evolves over the course of the games. By the end of Inquisition, there’s such a genuine sense of affection and fondness between the two of them. I’d love anything that explores how much they really care for one another, underneath their banter. If you’re taking a romantic route, I would particularly adore a prickly Cassandra being courted by Varric (maybe it starts as a joke or a bet and then Varric realises he’s in way too deep). Possible prompts: Fake. Dating. If there was ever a pair that was made for this trope, it’s these two; They’re also made for an epistolary romance - Varric’s skill with words meets Cassandra’s careful and hesitant prose; Post-inquisition meeting the family/friends - either Cassandra ends up in Kirkwall, or Varric meets up with Cassandra in Nevarra; Bonding/coming together through their shared faith - I’ve always found it interesting that Varric is Andrastian

Leliana/Cassandra Pentaghast; Leliana & Cassandra Pentaghast: From the opening in Haven to the end of Trespasser, these two (and their trust in one another) are the heart of the Inquisition. Show me the respect these two women have for one another, and why they work so well together. If you’re writing post-Trespasser, I would prefer a world state in which Leliana is Divine. Possible prompts: quiet moments of shared faith; competing against one another in an Inquisition tournament (I’m thinking of that archery competition codex); a post-Trespasser reunion

Female Hawke & Aveline Vallen Female Hawke/Aveline Vallen: I love the “exasperated fondness” dynamic between these two. Show me it in action - maybe Aveline dealing with Hawke’s rash behaviour and having to rescue her time and time again, maybe Hawke rolling her eyes at Aveline’s romantic rituals. Possible prompts: Aveline breaking Hawke out of jail (OR Hawke breaking INTO jail to get rescued by Aveline); arguing while camping; a Wintersend gift exchange (this could be sweet or could be utterly hilarious, your call)

Isabela/Josephine Montilyet: I don’t have much for these two beyond that I think they’d have a fascinating dynamic, so I’d love to see it explored in any shape or form. But maybe with pirates. Possible prompts: a dangerous trade agreement; masked encounters with a final reveal 

Dorian Pavus/Solas: Remember that time Varric told Dorian that “just because two people dislike each other doesn't mean they're about to kiss, Sparkler”? Varric, you have never been more wrong about anything in your life. This is my current rarepair and I am dying, and I will take basically anything with them - enemies to lovers, bickering and sexual tension, established relationship fluff, even Trespasser angst - whatever takes your fancy. My only request is that they’re equals in their relationship - no d/s or mentor/student-esque dynamics, please. Possible prompts: Being sent out alone together solve a magic problem by the Inquisitor and realising they may have misjudged the other; One of them leaps to the other’s defence when that person isn’t around, but then they find out about it later (or overhear); I have no idea how you’d get fake dating to work with these two, but if you can think of something, I would eat it up with a spoon

Dorian Pavus/Iron Bull: I spent a lot of time in Inquisition wandering around trying to trigger this pairing and it never happened for me. I like them together, but it's never been a huge ship for me. So this isn't so much as a prompt as a challenge: convince me, convert me, make me fall in all-consuming love with this relationship.

Black Sails

If it’s not clear from the pairings I’ve chosen, I love Charles Vane more than life itself. He’s dramatic, reckless, a total trash bag, but his heart is ultimately in the right place.

Anne Bonny/"Calico" Jack Rackham/Charles Vane (Black Sails): Oh, these three. Their bond is volatile and fraught, but it’s eternal. I’d be really interested to see some of the history between them - adventures on the Ranger, etc. I particularly like their dynamic as a found family.

"Calico" Jack Rackham/Charles Vane (Black Sails): For someone who grew up as an indentured child labourer, Vane has a weirdly poetic way with words. Perhaps everyone's favourite dandy had a part to play here? Maybe Jack woos an oblivious Vane, maybe he teaches him poetry and then Vane uses it on him, maybe there's an epistolary romance?

Captain Flint/Charles Vane (Black Sails): I’m fascinated with the way that Vane always leaps to Flint’s defence - first at Charlestown, then again in the duel with Teach. Show me why Vane is so determined to protect him.

Eleanor Guthrie/Charles Vane (Black Sails): They really have a tragic romance, and I’d love to see anything that explores two people who can’t live with or without one another (although a fix-it is always welcome too).

Also, if anyone wanted to make me a space AU (i.e. they’re captains of spaceships) I would probably die of happiness, but it is absolutely not required.

Star Trek: Discovery

My favourite thing about Disco was the science, which puts me in a little niche, I know. But basically I’m all about people being good at what they do, about people learning how to see and to respect one another’s skills and competence. In space! Show me some scenes with these characters working together to solve problems and learning from one another. Bonus points if there’s a time loop, because that episode was a damn masterpiece.

OH MY GOD, author, I don’t know if you’re up to date, but the big reveals of the mid-season return have BLOWN MY MIND and I would adore something from this part of the season. I’ve included some ideas under “Mirror prompts”. 

Michael Burnham & Paul Stamets: Science bros! I love dynamics in which prickly professional distrust turns into mutual respect and admiration, and these two fit the bill perfectly. Possible prompts: moments in which they’ve realised they’ve misjudged the other; geeking out about science together

Michael Burnham & Saru: I find their relationship fascinating. It’s always been prickly, filled with jealously and competition and distrust. But there’s a genuine sense of care in there too. I’d particularly like to see something more positive between the two of them, a moment of forgiveness or healing (not complete of course, it’s not that simple, but a step on the road). Possible prompts: a rescue scenario; a shared moment of empathy (particularly for non-human life - I love Burnham’s empathy for the Tardigrade and Saru’s for the Pahvans) 

Michael Burnham & Sylvia Tilly: I really love the development of their friendship, from awkward and prickly to a genuine sense of respect and mentorship. Possible prompts: Tilly teaching Burnham something (a hobby or a game, perhaps); a future story in which Tilly makes captain. Mirror prompts: a showdown between captains!

Sylvia Tilly & Paul Stamets: Another dynamic I love! Like Burnham and Stamets, I love prickly professional relationships that hide a stronger sense of care.  Prompts: Stamets defends Tilly against a third party; general science geekery; a discovering a shared passion or hobby.  Mirror prompts: a hurt/comfort scenario

Hugh Culber/Paul Stamets: God bless Disco for giving us such a strong queer relationship. I love their gentle bickering, I love their mutual respect, I adore queer love in space! Possible prompts: an off-ship date (or an on-ship one); Stamets trying to set up the best possible date within a time-loop; talking while dancing. Mirror prompts: break my heart, dear author.

Gabriel Lorca & Ash Tyler: I really loved their dynamic while fighting their way out of the Klingon ship, and I’d love to see some more action scenes with them. Possible prompts: competition in the battle simulator; a regular shared workout; they get stuck in a lift and have to break their way out.

Sylvia Tilly & Ash Tyler: I love how Tilly’s natural openness and empathy meets Tyler’s reserve. I like friendships with a talkative and taciturn pair! I feel they have a lot of common ground between them, such as their shared sense of doubt and inadequacy. Possible prompts: doing laps of the Discovery together; party planning (possibly a surprise for Burnham); a regular shared meal date. Mirror prompts: shared fears over becoming the enemy (argh, this show is going to BREAK MY HEART)

A note on Tyler: references to his PTSD are fine if they fit into the story naturally, but please keep the details vague, and no reference to rape.

Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

Amilyn Holdo & Leia Organa; Amilyn Holdo/Leia Organa: That exchange between the two of them (“May the Force be with you, always”) made me think that this is something they’ve said to one another many times before. Show me one of these times - maybe a daring mission, maybe a formal farewell, maybe a quiet moment.

Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker: There is nothing quite as unconditional as the relationship between twins, and I don’t think the films do enough with it. I’d love to see something that explores this further, particularly in their later years. 

Paige Tico & Rose Tico: Again, I adore strong sibling relationships. Show me how these two relate to one another as sisters - all the love and jealousy and bickering and utter devotion that goes with the territory. I’d prefer if this wasn’t a fix-it - I’m happy for it to be a bit bittersweet and sad. Possible prompts: Paige teasing Rose about her hero-worship of the young pin-ups of the Resistance;  shared love of animals; quiet midnight conversations

Poe Dameron/Finn: Honestly, I just want the tropiest, most romantic thing you can throw at me. Fake dating? There’s only one bed what do? Holy shit you look hot in that outfit? A now or never kiss? Mutual pining-happy ending? Go wild, dear author.

Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey; Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey/Rose: The dream teams! There is so much potential with these pairings, and the films will never follow through because cinema is allergic to polyamory. I don't mind how you choose to interpret the dynamics of the poly relationship, but I'd prefer if sex wasn't the focus. Possible prompts: a card game; solving a problem that involves each of their individual strengths

Horizon Zero Dawn

Aloy/Talanah: I LOVE THIS SHIP. Show me these two badass women being awesome together. Maybe how they reform the politics of the Hunters Lodge, or Aloy taking Talanah with her to meet the Nora, or anything from a wild hunt adventure to a quieter moment between them.

Aloy/Vanasha; Aloy & Vanasha: "I don't think I know you at all. But I'd like to." Aaaand I screamed and backflipped out the window. I am a sucker for spies and intrigue and politics, and for relationships that develop with two people dancing around one another and trying to see through each other's performative surfaces. This pairing has so much potential. Possible prompts include: undercover as lovers (!!!), a masked encounter, talking while dancing.

Aloy & Erend: Aloy and Erend's friendship ended up being surprisingly moving - although I see it as strictly platonic. Show me some lighter moments with the two of them - maybe they get drunk together, maybe Erend finally shows her around Meridian, maybe Aloy takes Erend back to her homeland.

Aloy & Rost: Oh, these two broke my heart. I'd like to see some exploration of their dynamic when Aloy is older (i.e. around the time of the game), rather than a child Aloy. This could be set post-game - maybe one of Aloy's visits to his grave - but I would also be 100% happy with a fix-it if that's where your muse takes you.

Aloy/Nil: This is my trash ship and I kind of hate myself for being into it, but oh boy am I into it. Possible prompts include: they have a standing date once or twice a year; a prison break; continually encountering one another while on missions/travelling.

[gencottraux]

I’m in a Frank Lloyd Wright state of mind at the moment. I go through passions, as any regular reader might have noticed, and right now I’m obsessed with all things FLW. I’m rereading the T. C. Boyle 2009 novel, The Women, about the, shall we say, turbulent relationships FLW (1867-1959) had with the various women in his life. He was not an easy man and his relationships were messy and complicated. In his era, he was in fact scandalous and reviled by some for his flauting of social mores, but today no one would really think it quite that outrageous that he left wives for mistresses. He also was perennially in debt (one of his nicknames was “Slow Pay Frank”), a surprise given his major success.

  Boyle himself lives in a FLW designed  home in Montecito, California, which I am sure has a lot to do with his interest in FLW. As a design student at UC Davis back in the day, of course we studied FLW and his enormous impact, and I fnally saw some of his drawings, furniture, and glass designs in person when I made it to the Art Institute of Chicago a few years ago.

  Novelist T. C. Boyle in his FLW-designed home in Montecito, California.

But my fascination goes back to another of my childhood memories of music in our house, this time from the iconic album Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970) by Simon and Garfunkel.

    This album reeived some heavy rotation time on the turntable, along with Carole King’s Tapestry.

  There are, of course, many wonderful songs on Bridge Over Troubled Water beside the title track: The Boxer, Cecilia, Bye Bye Love, The Only Living Boy in New York, among others. But the song that always caught my attention when I was a 9-year old, was, oddly, So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright. I didn’t really have any idea who FLW was, but the song seemed so sad and made me want to know who this man was.

    The story goes that Simon and Garfunkel (or as I like to call them, Paul and Art) were renting a house in the Hollywood Hills in 1969 while working on the Bridge Over Troubled Water album. Art saw one of the FLW homes in the area and suggested to Paul that he write a song. What I didn’t know was that Art, smarter than I realized, majored in architecture at Columbia University just in case music didn’t work out for him. Not a bad Plan B. Theories suggest that it’s also Paul’s goodbye song to Art, as the duo broke up after Bridge Over Troubled Water was released. Note the line “all of the nights we’d harmonize till dawn”.

    FLW was undoubtedly a genius, and his designs are amazing. He not only designed the buildings as an architect, he also worked on the details of interior design, including the furnishings, textiles, and art pieces, and even mailboxes. He was known to design the clothing for the women in his life. Was he controlling? I imagine so. And that spilled over into his personal life.

    The bit that’s sticking with me at the moment is a scene in the book The Women in which FLW declares himself a pacifist, a conscientious objector to war. That’s cool. I consider myself a pacifist as well. But I’m not a bully, and FLW seems to have been a big one. I’m not a genius either, so…

Much of the novel The Women takes place around Taliesin, FLW’s studio and farm built and rebuilt (plagued by fires and tragedy) in rural Wisconsin, now maintained by the Taliesen Preserve.

  FLW at Taliesin in 1911, when the house was first was completed.

Can one be a pacifist and a bully both? I suppose so. We are, if nothing, complex and contradictory creatures, we human beings. He had a vision for how he wanted things to be, and brooked no nonsense from those around him, but he wasn’t violent and held a deep appreciation for other cultures. Except when it came to food. He was very early 20th century mid-Western in his taste for basic meat, potatoes, and gravy. None of that fancy French stuff for him (one of the many bones of contention with his Southern belle and Francophile second wife Miriam Noel Wright). When he traveled in Japan while working on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, he had a hard time with what I think of as an amazing cuisine.

The Imperial opened in 1923 and was demolished in 1968. The entrance lobby was saved an reconstructed at the Meiji Mura architecture museum in Nagoya.

I also think of FLW as an artist, sensitive to atmosphere and color and harmony. We have a model of one of his early designs, the Romeo and Juliet windmill, built for his aunts in 1896 in the town of Wyoming, Wisconsin. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the artist who made the model. When I bought it from him at an Oakland gallery, he was working in the exhibitions department at the Oakland Museum of California. I’ll post it when I recall it. He is a talented artist who deserves credit for his work.

The Romeo and Juliet windmill.

Our model of the windmill, photo by Robert Ward.

  One of Wright’s most famous buildings is Falling Water in Pennsylvania, completed in 1935.

Falling Water

  The sesquicentennial of FLW’s birth was celebrated this year on June 8th. This feature by Jay Jones in the Los Angeles Times provides a nice overview of his work: From New York to California, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright’s birth. One of his more famous and first California homes is Hollyhock House in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Built for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall in in 1919-1921, the house is now part of the Barnsdall Art Park.

  The living room at Hollyhock House. Wright was a pioneer of open living spaces, with the hearth at the center of the home.

Yes, I can see a man who has the kind of vision for open, warm, harmonious spaces and the surrounding of ourselves with beauty as being a man who wants peace and harmony for the world at large. The contradiction is in his very messy and unharmonious personal life. The saddest and most tragic episode was that of his mistress, Martha “Mamah” Borthwick Cheney. Mamah and her husband were clients and Oak Park, Illinois, neighbors of FLW and his first wife, Catherine “Kitty” Wright (1871-1959).

The Wright Family in 1898, Frank on far right, Kitty in center with infant Lloyd.

FLW built Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, for Mamah, a place where he and she could get away from the press and turmoil caused by his leaving his wife and 6 children and her leaving her husband and 2 children. A disgruntled workman at Taliesin murdered Mamah and 6 others (including her 2 children, on a summer visitation at the time) and set fire to Taliesin in 1914. Distraught, FLW was vulnerable and became entangled with the quite dramatic and mentally unstable opiate addict Miriam Noel, his 2nd wife after Kitty relented and granted a divorce.

Mamah Cheney (1869-1914)

Miriam Noel Wright (1869-1930)

His relationship with Miriam was the most turbulent and fractious, and their divorce battle was a media storm of accusations and paparrazi around FLW’s mistress and later 3rd (and final) wife Olgivanna Lloyd Wright (1898-1985).

Olgivanna Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1968.

  FLW was quite proud of his Welsh heritage. The name of Taliesin, and the later Taliesin West, means “shining brow”, and comes from the name of the 6th century Welsh poet, who in Welsh legends is portrayed as a wizard, prophet, and companion to King Arthur.

    Seems fitting in that FLW can be said to have been a wizard in his own way in the arts, but not in his relationships, and defnitely not with money, except to make it disappear.

Whether Paul Simon was writing his song as a literal tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright or using the name Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to Art Garfunkel, it is a poignant song. And it led me on a journey of discover around FLW and his life. And since I am obsessed at the moment, next up in my book queue is the novel Loving Frank (2007) by Nancy Loran, the story of Mamah and FLW from Mamah’s perspective.

    Writer Nancy Horan

  I have no plans to travel to New YTork any time soon, but when I do, I will make a pilgrimmage to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, itself a work of art and completed in 1959, the same year FLW died at age 89. True to form, the estate he left behind took years to settle.

    Love Frank, hate Frank, or puzzled by Frank and his life, you have to admit he led an interesting life.

  The signature red tile placed on the facades of Wright’s buildings.

      So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright I'm in a Frank Lloyd Wright state of mind at the moment. I go through passions, as any regular reader might have noticed, and right now I'm obsessed with all things FLW.

[recentanimenews]

Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution Q&A Panels with director Tomoki Kyoda

In the spirit of Hi-Evolution's "remixed" chronological order, the following Q&A sessions with the director of Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution, Tomoki Kyoda, will be presented out of order. You may have caught my preview of Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution, but there was plenty more information Kyoda had to offer about his movie. Over the course of several Q&A sessions, he provided information about the philosophy film trilogy, the production of movie 1, his career, and some interesting hints regarding what comes next. The first set of questions were delivered immediately following the world premiere screening of Hi-Evolution on Saturday while the second rewinds to Tomoki Kyoda's focus panel on the previous day.

Did you pay any special attention to the mecha action?

Eureka Seven is a very over-the-top story. In order to make an over-the-top movie to work out, you have to be realistic in certain ways. For example the scenes such as the spectacular explosion of the battleships were made possible by the recruitment of super animators such as Hideki Kakita and Takashi Hashimoto.

Can you tell us more about Acperience 7?

If you look up the Acperience, you won't see it in the dictionary because it comes from a german techno group called Hardfloor. Dai Sato and I have been big fans of them since our youth and we asked them if we could use their composition Acperience 1. They said “no, let's do something completely new” and they wrote a new one for us called Acperience 7. The original parts for the compositions only went from 1-5. They skipped over 6 and went directly to 7 to keep with Eureka Seven.

The scene with Adroc. Did that make you more emotional as you watched the film?

Yes, the scene with Adroc is the beginning of it all, so it’s meant to be very meaningful to all three movies. After you’ve seen the 3rd Eureka Seven movie and go back to watch the Adroc scene, it’s meant to be meaningful in a new way.

Other than that, do you have any other favorite scenes?

During the pre-titles everything is memorable to me, but especially Adroc’s first line. It was delivered by voice actor Toru Furuya. He was very spot-on.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the last half? Such as the monologue by Renton and the play back/play forward construction of the film?

Eureka Seven was always going to be a story that spans two generations. The part with Adroc is very serious and heavy and thus I wanted to make the part that’s 10 years hence, the story about the child, Renton, be much more light and calm. It’s a more comedic story and so we found this composition.

How is your impression of the music?

My original intention was not to feature techno sound in the movie, but after hearing the recording I felt it would be appropriate to use Hiroshi Watanabe’s sound. This would be the piece that strung Eureka Seven from 12 years ago into and the new film together.

Do you have any other favorite scene from the last half?

I like the dogs...

The other thing is that I really meant this movie to make sense as part of a trilogy. There are parts in the latter half of the movie that might be frustrating or cryptic on first view. They’re really meant to make sense and be much more sympathetic after we go through all three parts. That’s my intention and something I really put my heart into. The composition will really make sense when all three parts are released, so I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

After the credits there was a teaser for the second movie--can you talk a little bit about it?

We are currently in pre-production for the part 2 movie and a lot of you may have been wondering “where is Anemone?” You can there will be a lot of Anemone in part 2. I haven’t decided if part 2 will be just as light-hearted in style as the teaser. So that hasn’t been fixed yet. For each part of the movie, we go through a codename for the title. The working title for part one was Renton Seven. Part 2 the working codename is Anemone Seven.

PLAY BACK: 27 hours before Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution world premiere

What is the best way to watch Hi-Evolution?

The best way to watch it is without any spoilers at all. The best way to understand it is that one of the primary characters in Hi-Evolution will be Renton’s father and Renton will be following in his father’s footsteps.

Hi-Evolution is the story of Renton and him transforming from boy to man. It’s something pretty common in anime these days, usually featuring a harem of girls, but that’s not gonna happen in this story... Everything he has will be destroyed so only the future is something he can look forward to and build for himself.

What sort of audience do you want to watch this?

Our intention was, of course, to accommodate and reunite with the audience who watched Eureka Seven 12 years ago but there will be new people, perhaps some who weren’t even born at that time, who are welcome to discover Eureka Seven as a new show. Those are the two audiences that we intend Hi-Evolution for.

Can you tell us a bit about the music?

In the original tv show we featured a lot of folk music such as Denki Groove. For Hi-Evolution, we wanted to get much more original in the sound track. Myself, and also the screenwriter Dai Sato, have really been influenced by this artist called Hardfloor for this reason. Since Hi-Evolution is not only a story about Renton but also this father, we wanted to go back to our own roots and so we went to Hardfloor and asked if they would do the music for us. We got a “yes” and they made a great soundtrack and that's something that’s been incorporated into Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution.

The other piece of music featured in Eureka Seven comes from Hiroshi Watanabe. If you go back to the original TV show, he wrote the themes for Charles and Ray. Since Charles and Ray have a much more prominent role in Hi-Evolution, their music was reprised and revised.

The other theme song is provided by Hiroya Ozaki, but since Hi-Evolution itself is a story about father and son and Ozaki himself is the son of another singer, Yutaka Ozaki who was a very talented singer who died young in a tragic way. His story and the story of the Ozakis resonates with the father and son theme in Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution. It was just so fitting and he has made a great song for us.

For fans of the original TV show from 12 years ago, you’ll find something familiar with Hrioshi Watanabe’s music and, at the same time, the coming of a new film in Ozaki’s songs.

As a director, what was the most challenging project for you to work on?

Eureka Seven: AO

What sort of themes were you looking to explore with the new trilogy that you hadn’t yet explored or old things you covered in the past that you want to revisit?

It may not be something that we couldn’t do, but maybe something we didn’t really explore in Eureka Seven would be the relationship between father and son. Since all three of us, myself, Dai Sato the screenwriter, and character designer Kenji Yoshita have aged 10 years, we probably have changed our perspective and ideas. That could possibly be reflected. At the same time we want to be consistent with what we originally depicted in Eureka Seven.

I do that the central pillar of Eureka Seven is the childhood experiences of Renton and Eureka. I think that has always been consistent in all the works of Eureka Seven. Possibly not in the best way but I do think it’s been pretty consistent.

You previously worked no the RahXephon movies, which were an adaptation of an existing TV series. When you are adapting an existing property how do you plan what ideas you want to retain from the original work while also introducing new elements?

One difference between RahXephon and Eureka Seven is they were made at different times so philosophies and elements will be very different. One of the things that's most time consuming in adapting an existing story is deciding what to focus on. Once that’s done, the rest comes much easier. In the case of RahXephon, it was the relationship between Ayato and Haruka and how Haruka would retain her feelings for Ayato. In contrast with Eureka Seven the relationship is still a work in progress and that’s the difference when we went into production.

Being an animation director, do you give your animators a lot of freedom or do you prefer they stick more closely to the storyboards? Also, do you prefer to make more detailed or more sketchy storyboards?

That is actually one of the biggest evolutions in my own style of storyboarding and directing. I’ve been directing for the past 20 years and started off by doing storyboards and expecting animators to trace out exactly what I did in the storyboard. But, as I’ve learned there are plenty of talented animators who can come up with scenes and draw much better than I, I’ve learned that the best way to do storyboards is to come up with ones that will be inspirational to the animators. However, one thing that my staff has been telling me recently is that I really expect a lot from my animators and really set the hurdle high.

When you draw for 20 years, it’s very natural that you get better at drawing and when you look at my storyboards you get the impression that it might be a little detailed but we like to present it to the animators as a springboard for their own ideas.

In the original Eureka Seven TV series, how much freedom did you give episode directors? Would you say each episode is the closer to your vision are theirs?

The production style of a TV show is different dependent upon the show and the culture of the studio, so what I say now does not reflect every single production. There is one person who supervises the production of every episode and that is the general director. There is then the technical director who works on individual episodes.

The general director's job is to come up with the common underlay that follows beneath each episode. I consider it my job to prepare the ground so the episodic staff and the technical director can do their job. That leads to slight discrepancies between each episode but it’s the animation director to unify all those styles so that everything is consistent throughout the series.

How did it feel to work on franchise as legendary as Space Battleship Yamato and, if you got the chance, would you like to work on more Yamato projects in the future?

The reason why I had involvement with Yamato 2199 wasn’t because the show was legendary or because I was fond of it, but moreso because of director Yutaka Izubuchi. Since I owe a lot to him, he wanted me to work on some part of Yamato. It was really difficult to adjust my schedule and I think I was able to oblige him when I got to do the storyboards for the very final episode and I was very happy. This required both the elements of the show being Yamato and the director being Izubuchi. If neither of those were the case, I don’t think I would have been involved.

As for if I would be interested in working on any other legendary shows, I can’t really come up with any shows that I would find enticing, although in terms of a legendary franchises I would be very happy if I could work on Pacific Rim.

---

Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll and author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[mredlich21]

It’s awkward ending a Hindi Film 101 series on a Tuesday!  So for this Thursday I’m going to do a quick one-off, not the history of a star or a star family, but of a genre.  Just in time to appreciate the newest iteration on the crime film in Raees! (all the Hindi Film 101 posts are visible here)

A different disclaimer than my usual one!  This is not a comprehensive overview, this doesn’t mention every important film or moment in film history.  This is just a starting point, a 101 type view of the topic.  If you have anything to add, or follow-up questions, please put it in the comments.

Hindi film began in 1913, but it had a struggling and difficult beginning because of the challenges of being an industry in a colonized country.  Not a lot of money and resources available.  And so genres and styles and so on didn’t really start flourishing until 1947.

And right at the start of that period, the crime drama began!  The early king of crime was Dev Anand.  Dev played the slick and cosmopolitan detective.  CID was one of his earliest triumphs, due more to the brilliant direction by Guru Dutt than by the acting of Dev Anand.

I know, that sounds like blasphemy, because I always believe the star is dominant over the director in authorship of the finished film.  But this is Guru Dutt!  The master of light and shadow, the pivotal artistic element of film noir (noir=black).  And also just a genius writer, came up with a great plot with characters filled with believable internal conflicts and memorable moments and so on.

(technically it was only produced by Guru Dutt, but it’s widely believed to have been ghost-directed by him)

Crime films in this era are shockingly similar to crime films in America in the same time period.  Partially because, I think, the two countries were going through similar upheaval.  Both of them and WWII vets returning home, rapid industrialization and urbanization, changing gender roles, etc. etc. etc.  And so both countries had the “film noir” genre, featuring urban landscapes, bad and good woman, a hero who travels through shadowed realms, etc. etc.

(Thank you British Film Institute for the handy graphic!)

But there were a couple of significant differences.  For one thing, while our hero may appear to have shades of grey to his character at the start, by the end of the film we usually discover he was fully moral and upright all along.  More importantly, mankind in general tends to be on the lighter end of the grey scale.  Taxi drivers, chaiwallas, strangers in the train compartment are all generally kind and considerate.  Maybe situations force them into doing wrong things, but at heart they are inherently good.  Essentially, this is film noir with an optimistic view of the future.  Which presages the later version of the Indian crime film, which is entirely optimistic.

While the crime films of the early Independence era are strikingly similar to their American counterparts, India quickly broke off and started forming it’s own kind of genre.  And this time, it was all about the star!  Dev Anand.

Dev had two brothers, Chetan and Vijay.  The three brothers formed their own studio, Navketan Films, and started cranking out brilliant mystery films featuring crazy twisty plots, colorful songs, and a casually debonair hero.  No more big social statements or dark view of the world, everything is light and bright and hopeful.  Both literally and metaphorically.  Chetan and Vijay and Dev (all three directed at one point or another) loved bright colors and clear outlines onscreen.

(escaping from the police who are trying to get your suitcase by singing a love song!)

Moving into the 60s, this is the kind of film the audience came to expect from a mystery story.  Even without Dev Anand, his brother Vijay would write and direct movies like Teesri Manzil with Shammi Kapoor had wacky rock and roll songs and a teen romance, mingled with a twisted murder mystery.  These films use the complex plot to draw in the audience and the light tone to keep them entertained.  And, since the point isn’t the family drama but rather the mystery, they also managed to throw in some really progressive ideas!  Lots of independent women, with jobs and love lives and minds of their own.

(They mooshed the opening titles onto this song, but that let’s you see all the drama of the mystery, and the light catchy love song, in one video)

And then, POW!  70s!  By the 70s, India and Bombay in particular were in a very different place.  The country had been independent for 25 years, and the promises of independence had not come through.  At the same time, thanks to restrictive laws, especially import and export laws, a criminal society had come into being, especially in Bombay with all the international shipping.

And so a new kind of crime film appeared.  This time, the criminal is the hero, not the villain.  He questions society’s rules, and if there might be a higher justice.  We watch him rise and rise through the ranks, before the final censor mandated fall.  But his death is shown not as a punishment for his sins, but as a final act of martyrdom, dying in an attempt to make society better.

The greatest of these is Deewar, of course.  Amitabh as the young boy who is literally tattooed with the sins of his father, who sacrifices his future so that his younger brother can thrive, who is driven to crime out of frustration at the corruption that keeps a working man down.  Who finally tries to move his life to a higher level, to find a better purpose, only to be driven back again and ultimately sacrificing all of his happiness so that the rest of society (his honest younger brother, his young sister-in-law, his aged mother) can move forward.

(The moment when he finally gives up on following society’s rules and starts to fight back)

Deewar is the greatest of these, but there are plenty of others.  Coolie, Kaalia, Trishul, Zanjeer, Shakti, Dostana, again and again and again those who live on the sidelines of society are ultimately more noble than those who follow the “rules”.  And then they end up as martyrs so that society as a whole can move on.  Very occasionally someone will actually live through to the end of the film, but if they do, it is only after a lot of strife and misery along the way.

(Kaalia is one of the more cheerful ones, but it still has our hero’s brother killed and our hero wrongfully imprisoned.  Also, Bob Christo!  Go to White Guy in a fight!)

That was the 70s, the era of brilliance and agony and Salim-Javed at the height of their writing powers.  And then came the 80s.  The era of Qurbani.  There were still good movies made in this decade, but the depth and misery of the 70s crime films slowly made way for something a little different.  All the agony of the 80s, but treated with the lightness of the 60s.  It was odd.

On paper, the plots were 70s style stories of separated brothers and good men driven to crime.  But instead of Amitabh, you had floppy-haired Anil Kapoor, or sincere Jackie Shroff.  And instead of Salim-Javed, you had Subhash Ghai coming up with his own stories and directing his own films featuring things like “Girl falls in love with her kidnapper, waits for him until he is released from jail, then has a huge fight scene on an island that convinces her father to agree to their engagement”.  Sure, our hero still has a tragic backstory explaining his criminal behavior, but SHE FALLS IN LOVE WITH HER KIDNAPPER!

(And the rest of the gang falls in love with her!  Stockholm syndrome is fun)

In 1988 Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak came out, and in 1989 Maine Pyar Kiya, and suddenly the crime dramas lost their place to romances.  This is also, coincidentally, the era in which crime in real life became increasingly involved in the film industry.  It had always been there, ever since the post-Independence era when blackmarket money from WWII started being laundered in film.  In the 1970s, Hajji Mastan became king of the smugglers in Bombay, and a regular at film parties.  It was his cool attitude and suits that inspired Amitabh’s character in Deewar.

(Haji on the left, Amitabh on the right)

But then in the 80s, Hajji was in jail and Bombay was run by Dawood Ibrahim and the D-Company.  They were into gun running and drugs and darker things than the 70s gangs.  They were also a lot more organized with a lot more international connections.  And they decided to take over film, just like they took over everything else.  They set up their own production companies, and terrorized the top talent into working for them.  And they tried to make sure their films were hits by any means necessary, for instance the story Karan just told in his bio about being threatened if he released Kuch Kuch Hota Hai opposite (presumably gang funded) Chote Miyan Bade Miyan.

(To see a fictionalized version of the difference between Hajji and Dawood, check out Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai)

And this is the era when suddenly crime films start to go away!  Not completely, there were still a few darker action films, like Ajay Devgn’s first big hit, Phool Aur Kaante, or Akshay Kumar’s Khiladi series.  But they didn’t have a really distinctive flavor to them, they felt more like tired rehashings of previous styles.

(For instance, Khiladi was a loose remake of the old Rishi and Neetu hit Khel Khel Main.  Campus hijinks mixed with crime drama)

And then Satya arrived!  Ram Gopal Verma’s first big crime film.  This was the first film to show gangs on a ground level.  RGV used real steetscapes and cheap costumes and slang dialogue to evoke life for the young criminal in Bombay.  And he heightened this effect by using mostly unknown actors, ones who disappeared completely into their characters and, more than that, into the narrative itself.  The effect is a sea of interconnected stories and random incidents, not the perfect clockwork narrative of Navketan films or the Greek tragedy of the 70s films.  Or the random colorful entertainment of the 80s.

RGV heightened this effect in Company, while at the same time adding style to it, color tones specific to certain scenes, odd angles, montages, using style to distance us from the characters feelings and keep the audience invested on both sides of the gangwar he is showing.  More than that, Company was an explicit recreation of real gangland events, more than had been done before.  Of course it wasn’t “officially” based on the feud between Chote Rajan and Dawood Ibrahim, but we all knew it.

(And because it is groundlevel and real, no big song sequences!  This is officially from the film, but notice the singers aren’t the characters)

Sanjay Gupta is the other important director to note, and the one who is directing Kaabil, the other important crime film that just came out!  Sanjay took Reservoir Dogs and remade it Indian style.  Each member of the heist got a backstory, there were song sequences (more than just the one in the original), and most of all there was style!  Kaante is the first Indian film to be shot entirely abroad (in LA).  Besides that, there was the way the light changed tones scene by scene, from golden to blue to green.  The loose suits, the styled hair and beards, the whole thing was just new and different and shocking.

(So sunny!  So goateed!)

The end result of this film was not that a lot of movies got filmed overseas, or that Sanjay Gupta went on to a brilliant career (there is only so far inventive light filters can take you).  But that style became a key component of crime dramas.  Hairstyles and cool camera angles and business with props suddenly became part of the expectation for crime films.

The newest string of crime dramas are period films, telling famous incidents from the real life of Bombay crime.  Mixed with stylish touches, catchy songs, “realistic” locations and costumes.  The character depth and twisted plots have gone away a little, but the style quotient has gone up.

(I love this song.  But from what I’ve read about it, I have no interest in actually seeing the movie.  It’s all about the final shootout.  Thus the title)

Raees is clearly based on Abdul Latif, even though the filmmakers deny it.  With some definite style in the filming of it, a big focus on hairstyles and costumes.  But also with the one liners (from the Salim-Javed era) and elaborate heist schemes (from Navketan Films) and bad woman dancing (from all the way back with Guru Dutt).  Along with some kind of goofy and applause inducing fight scenes from the 80s.

(We have crime films to thank for Helen!  This was her big break out song, age 15, in a twisty mystery with Ashok Kumar and stolen jewels and a missing brother)

Hindi Film 101 One-Off: a Brief History of the Crime Film It's awkward ending a Hindi Film 101 series on a Tuesday!  So for this Thursday I'm going to do a quick one-off, not the history of a star or a star family, but of a genre.