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aer-in-wanderland · 2 years ago

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The Snowdrop Controversy: Debunked

Why everything you think you know about the Snowdrop controversy is probably false (and why you should really watch the drama and judge it for yourself).

The original version of this post can be found here.

As is the unfortunate nature of these things, language barriers are no match for the powers of disinformation. The goal of this post, then, is to break down the Snowdrop controversy (설강화 논란) as comprehensively and succinctly as possible. If you know me at all by now, you know that I do comprehensive well and succinct far less well, but I’m going to give it my best shot!

Overview

How It All Started

Main Criticisms/Accusations

Denigration of the Democratization Movement

Romanticization of the ANSP/Dictatorial Government

Distortion of History

Additional Criticisms

Character Names

Jung Hae In Harper’s Bazaar Korea Interview

Fiction & Fact → A rapid-fire what’s what. If you read nothing else, read this!

Where We Are Now

Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) Ruling

Legal Action

From the Korean Fans

Final Thoughts

How It All Started

The controversy surrounding Snowdrop is largely twofold. The first line of accusations began at an early stage in the production process with false rumours that the drama was being produced using Chinese investment capital. This occurred amidst an atmosphere of widespread anti-Chinese sentiment within South Korea. So, rumoured Chinese involvement — that’s the first one. The second major set of criticisms began with the leaking of the series synopsis in March of 2021. It was at this point that rumours of, ‘a North Korean spy leading the democratization movement’ first began to spread. Another rumour claimed that the female protagonist was participating in the democratization movement whilst knowingly in love with a North Korean spy. In truth, the words ‘democratization movement’ (민주화 운동) appeared nowhere in the leaked synopsis. Here’s what it actually said:

1987 Seoul. An era in which tear gas exploded like firecrackers. A man covered in blood tumbles into a women’s university dormitory. The female protagonist, convinced he’s a student activist fighting for the cause of the era, hides him and treats his wounds even amidst strict surveillance and grave peril. Never even dreaming that the man she’s fallen in love with somewhere along the way is an armed espionage agent.* As the male protagonist, who survived hellish training to become a warrior equal to a hundred, has to complete the mission given to him by his homeland, He is caught in the fate of having no choice but to aim a gun at the woman who saved him, at the first woman he’s ever come to love. Though she’s someone he wants to save without fail, by any means, at all costs. Through the ardent love of these two protagonists we want to show you. Whether it’s truly good for us* to continue living this way... Whether it’s truly okay for us to continue living forever as strangers, as enemies... *n.b. The word being understood to mean ‘North Korean spy/agent’ here is ‘kancheop’ (간첩), which literally just means ‘espionage agent’ but is often used to refer to North Korean agents more specifically. The ‘us’ in the final lines refers to the Korean people, North and South. You can find the original Korean here.

So, the female protagonist mistakes the male protagonist for a student activist and so hides him and treats his wounds, falling in love with him whilst having no idea he’s actually a North Korean spy. The male protagonist, despite loving her back, ends up having no choice but to hold her at gunpoint for the sake of accomplishing his mission. Love across battle lines. Unity amidst division — that’s the premise.

Despite this, early drivers of the controversy began uploading posts to websites like TheQoo (a.k.a. “Murder Qoo”) featuring images of the synopsis with titles designed to spark outrage, accompanied by descriptions that weren’t representative of the synopsis’ actual content (e.g. a North Korean agent leading the democratization movement, etc.). Other netizens who saw the posts became predictably outraged and proceeded to spread the (dis)information without actually stopping to read the synopsis itself (classique). These falsehoods rapidly devolved into established ‘facts.’ Since this was all happening well before the drama began airing, there was little anyone could do to refute the claims without spoiling the plot. JTBC released a series of statements on March 26 (Eng.) and March 30, 2021 (Eng), attempting to set the record straight, to little effect. As one Korean fan described it to me:

“They (those spreading falsehoods) made use of the fact that no one could refute their claims since the drama hadn’t aired yet. Because there wasn’t anyone to object, the lies became truths, and they were able to frame the drama in such a light that, before a lot of people had ever even seen it, they already disdained it enough that they didn’t even care to confirm whether any of it was true.”

When the drama finally began airing in December 2021 and it became clear that there wasn’t any content denigrating the democratization movement, criticism refocused on accusations of the ‘romanticization of the Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP)’ and ‘historical distortion.’ As with the synopsis, these criticisms weren’t substantiated by the actual content of the drama, but by this point, casual critics were too stubborn to admit they were wrong, and those actively driving the controversy remained hell-bent on doing so. They accomplished this by taking select scenes and/or lines out of context and disseminating them with intentionally distorted ‘descriptions.’ As a result, a large majority of those criticizing that drama did so without ever having actually watched it, relying instead on the intentionally distorted information being circulated online.

The following section offers a brief overview of some of the main criticisms aimed at Snowdrop and why they were considered to be so problematic.

Main Criticisms/Accusations

Quick note on history before we get down to things: For those who aren’t already familiar, South Korea was under the control of a military dictatorship for most of the 1960s~80s. During these years, many who participated in the pro-democracy movement were imprisoned, tortured, and/or killed by the Agency for National Security Planning (1981-1999) and its predecessor, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (1961-1981), the enforcer arms of the Chun Doo Hwan (1980-1987) and Park Chung Hee (1961-1979) regimes, respectively. On paper, the ANSP was South Korea’s preeminent intelligence organisation, charged with ‘the collection, compilation, and distribution of foreign and domestic information regarding public safety against communists and plots to overthrow the government.’ In practice, they carried out a brutal communist witch hunt against anyone who opposed the regime. For a 30,000 ft overview of the recent history of the Korean Peninsula, check out this helpful post .

Denigration of the Democratization Movement (민주화 운동 폄훼)

Note: While the term ‘democratization movement’ may refer to the fight for democracy in South Korea as a whole, there are also two more specific ‘movements’ it’s often used in reference to. Those are: ・The 5.18 Democracy Movement of May 18~27, 1980 (aka the Gwangju Uprising; the Gwangju Massacre) ・The 6.10 Democracy Movement of June 10~29, 1987 (aka the June Uprising; the June Struggle)

This particular set of criticisms accounts for the majority of the controversy that occurred prior to when Snowdrop actually began airing and often gets paired with accusations of the ‘romanticization of North Korean spies’ (북한 간첩 미화), due to the false claims that the male protagonist, Soo Ho, is a North Korean secret agent involved in/leading the democratization movement. Accusations along this line include:

① Criticisms having to do with the character set-up of the male protagonist

Despite the fact that there really have been numerous incidents of North Korean agents discovered in South Korea, critics claimed that this premise lent justification to the illegal torture conducted by the ANSP as part of the ‘public security’ investigations of the 1970s and 80s. In particular, given the fact that many student activists were framed as communist spies and tortured or killed, some claimed the premise that there really was a North Korean spy among them seemed to justify the ANSP’s investigation, imprisonment, and torture of student demonstrators under the pretext of ferreting out North Korean spies. Given that the discovery of North Korean operatives in South Korea is a historical fact, this seems like a bit of a stretch.

Another criticism that arose regarding the character has to do with his cover as a Korean residing overseas in Germany attending the University of Berlin, which some claimed recalled the 1967 East Berlin Affair (동백림 사건) and the 1969 European North Korean Spy Ring Fabrication Incident (유럽 간첩단 조작 사건). To briefly summarize the first incident, the South Korean Central Intelligence Agency announced in 1967 that 194 Koreans residing or studying abroad in Eastern Europe had entered the North Korean embassy in Berlin and were operating as spies. This lead to the framing of musician Yun Isang and painter Lee Ungno, as well as the torture and crippling of poet Chon Sang Byeong. If you’re like me, you’re probably asking yourself how any of this is relevant. Answer: it isn’t.

② Claims that the premise appears to be lending credence to the theory that North Korea intervened in the 5.18 Democracy Movement*

Some critics claimed that the drama was depicting the Public Security State’s (i.e the Chun Doo Hwan regime’s) assertions throughout the 1980s that the 5.18 Democracy Movement was instigated by people receiving orders from North Korea as historical fact. Keep in mind, Snowdrop has nothing to do with the democratization movement. It centers on fictional events surrounding the 1987 presidential election. What’s more, this allegation is based on the fabrication that Soo Ho is somehow involved in the democracy movement as a North Korean spy (he’s not).

*n.b. The 5.18 Democracy Movement (오일팔 민주화 운동) is alternately known as 5.18 (오일팔), the Gwangju Democracy Movement (광주 민주화 운동), the Gwangju Uprising (광주 인민 봉기), The Gwangju Democratization Struggle (광주 민주화 항쟁), or the Gwangju Massacre.

③ Suspicions that the character ‘Eun Young Cho’ is based on a real person

The female protagonist, Eun Young Ro, was originally named ‘Young Cho,’ which is an unusual name. This led some to suspect it was taken from real-life student activist and democracy movement leader, Chun Young Cho, who resisted the Yushin Reforms of the Park Chung Hee regime during the 1970s. In addition, her husband, Jung Mun Hwa, was framed as a North Korean spy and tortured during the People’s Blue Federation Incident (민청학령 사건) in the early 1970s, dying of malnutrition at a young age. This was considered problematic in conjunction with the fact that the drama’s male lead is a North Korean spy.

④ Criticism of the inclusion of the protest song, ‘Oh Pine, Oh Pine, Oh Verdant Pine’*

During a scene in which the male protagonist (a North Korean spy), flees pursuit by the ANSP, the music heard in the background is ‘Oh Pine, Oh Pine, Oh Verdant Pine.’ Critics claimed that it was disrespectful to score such a scene with a famous protest song. The thing is, the song wasn’t inserted as BGM to score the scene. It was being sung within the drama itself by the crowd of student protestors that Soo Ho and his ANSP pursuers ran through while they chased him.

*n.b. I watched the JTBC version (the version broadcast in Korea) which does include the song, but I’m told it actually doesn’t appear in the Disney+ (US) version, so if this is news to you, that may be why. For anyone curious, you can watch a clip of the JTBC version with the song included here.

Romanticization of the ANSP/Dictatorial Government (안기부/독재정권 미화)

This group of criticisms has to do with the alleged romanticization* of the New Military Group (신군부) and the Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP). Accusations along this line that appeared from before the drama began airing include: ① The second male lead is an ANSP Team Leader (and the ANSP is where student activists were tortured) This is in reference to the character Lee Gang Mu, who is the ‘second male lead’ of Snowdrop in the literal sense that he’s the male deuteragonist. The assumption here was that he would share a loveline with Young Ro, who was being made out to be a student activist — another rumour which proved false. If this were in any way true, I would hope that people would also be concerned by the fact that they’re age 36 and 20, respectively. Fortunately for everyone, no such loveline exists. ② The second male lead is described as ‘straight as an arrow’ (‘대쪽같은 인물’) To begin, the phrase ‘straight as an arrow’ (i.e. straightforward; single-minded), doesn’t actually appear in Gang Mu’s character profile, at least, not in those terms. The larger criticism, though, is that he’s portrayed positively when he should be a villain. Again, without giving too much away, Gang Mu may work for the ANSP, but he has his own motivations for doing so. In fact, what it does say in his profile is that he was, ‘disillusioned when he saw that the ANSP didn’t catch spies but rather ‘made’ them (referring, of course, the to way the ANSP framed dissenters as communist spies to suppress opposition and fill quotas). Gang Mu has his own character arc in the drama that’s worth keeping an eye on. In many ways, he acts as a foil for Soo Ho. After the drama began airing, more specific criticisms were added to this, including things like:

‘The fact that the ANSP managed to capture an actual North Korean spy (Park Geum Cheol) is in itself romanticizing the ANSP.’

ㅋㅋㅋ Okay, this one’s just funny. I get that what they mean is that the fact of them capturing an actual spy would seem to justify their communist witch hunt (I’m not sure it does), but it just sounds like they’re complaining that portraying them as even remotely competent is a lie.

‘In EP03, the character Lee Gang Mu has a line saying, “Were you also following the principle of submission to our superiors’ orders when you rounded up random people without any evidence and made them out to be spies?” Depicting the ANSP as having people like Lee Gang Mu among its ranks is romanticizing the ANSP.’

Setting aside what I’ve already said on the character above, I think it would actually be less realistic to portray them as a monolith of evil. There’s something important to be said about evil as the result of the complacency of regular everyday people (I’m thinking of Dong Jae here).

*n.b. What I’ve translated as ‘romanticization’ here and above is the word ‘mihwa’ (미화), which is more literally ‘beautification,’ but can be understood to mean ‘romanticization,’ ‘sanitization,’ or ‘glorification.’

Distortion of History (역사 왜곡)

This last category is in many ways a ‘catch-all’ category for any other criticism aimed at the drama, big and small. The term first appeared in conjunction with accusations that the drama was ‘distorting’ the events of 5.18 (see above) and glorifying the military government, but turned to more specific grievances once the drama began airing and this was proved false. These included things such as:

‘It’s unrealistic that Hall Director Pi would be able to bar the ANSP from searching the dorm without a warrant. In reality, they would have just ignored her and used force/violence. It’s a historical distortion to portray them as reasonable investigators.’

I can see where this may be true, but I can also see where it’s necessary in service of the plot. It’s not that they’re being intentionally portrayed as ‘reasonable’ so much as that it’s necessary narratively that they be delayed in order to buy the protagonists time (even if it seems somewhat unlikely).

‘During the protest in EP01, the riot police shoot the tear gas into the air over the protestors’ heads when they should have fired directly into the crowd.’

Technically, they were meant to fire 45 degrees over the crowd’s heads, as portrayed in the drama (more on that here). But yes, in reality, they often shot into the crowd. That said, doing so would have posed a significant risk to the actors, so this strikes me as more than a little unreasonable.

‘It’s a historical distortion that the economic brain of the minority party (Han Yi Seop) would have met with a North Korean spy.’

(The entire plot is fictional)

My greatest problem with these criticisms is that they appear not to distinguish between ‘distortion’ and ‘fiction.’ The drama is historical fiction, as it has claimed to be from the very beginning. So pointing to elements of the drama that diverge from historic reality or require the viewer to suspend disbelief and calling them ‘distortion’ strikes me as intentionally missing the point. I’ll return to this below, but a third-party investigation into the drama ruled that no such distortion had occurred.

Additional Criticisms

Character Names

① ‘Soo Ho’s surname ‘Im’ (임) is an intentional allusion to a real-life student democracy activist, Im Jong Seok.’ Actually, the surname was selected in service of a play on words. As I’ve explained elsewhere, Soo Ho’s name (守護) means ‘protection’ or ‘guardian,’ and while his last name, ‘Im,’ is written with the character for ‘grove’ (林), Young Ro interprets it as the ‘im’ from ‘imja,’ an antiquated term for one’s love. So his name sounds like ‘protecting his love’ or ‘protector of his love.’ The last name ‘Im’ was selected for this reason. This also feels like a bit of a stretch, considering that ‘Im’ is the 10th most common last name in South Korea, and the first names aren’t even remotely similar. ② ‘Young Ro’s original character name, ‘Eun Young Cho’ (은영초), is a reference to real-life student democracy activist Chun Young Cho.’ Though the production company (JTBC) claims there was no relation, they ended up changing the character’s name to Young Ro at a late stage in the production in order to appease critics. This involved a great deal of effort, as the first couple of episodes had already been filmed using the name Young Cho, and so had to later be dubbed over using post-synchronization recording.

Jung Hae In Harper’s Bazaar Korea Interview

Another wave of criticisms came in response to an answer that Jung Hae In gave in an interview featured in the December 2021 issue of Harper’s Bazaar Korea. When asked whether he had done any additional research into the historical background of the drama, he responded that while he, “was born in 1988 and so never directly experienced the events of 1987,” he hadn’t, because he believed that, “the right answers all lie in the script.” Some netizens interpreted this to mean that he approached the project without knowing anything about the period and historic elements, and began attacking him, criticizing his awareness of history. As you can probably tell by now, I’m the type inclined to do the background research. Objectively, though, Snowdrop is set against the backdrop of a fictional retelling of the 1987 presidential election, and the central conflict, characters, and space within which the drama unfolds are all entirely fictional as well. From the standpoint of an actor, it strikes me as within reason that any answers to how to act within such a context would be found primarily in the script.

Fiction & Fact

Fiction: Im Soo Ho is a North Korean spy who is leading/organizing the South Korean pro-democracy movement. Fact: Im Soo Ho is a North Korean spy whom Eun Young Ro mistakes for a student activist. Soo Ho is never shown to participate in any sort of pro-democracy activity, nor does he ever claim to be a student protestor. The salient point is that Young Ro hides him because she believes this to be the reason he’s on the run from the ANSP. Fiction: The ANSP are portrayed as heroes. Fact: The ANSP is consistently portrayed as ruthless and corrupt. In addition to the actions taken by the various ANSP-affiliated characters (who are all a mixture of incompetent and contemptible), several of the main and supporting characters explicitly call out the ANSP’s tyranny at various points throughout the drama.

Lee Gang Mu: Surrender? You think if I get you to surrender right now they’ll accept it out there? They’re bastards who play games with the citizens’ lives to maintain their own power. ~ EP09 Im Soo Ho: Oi, ANSP Team Leader. The ANSP, who frame anyone who stands up to the government’s tyranny as a North Korean spy. The dogs of the government who trample on their blameless compatriots in the name of establishing security state. That’s the ANSP, right? Who are you to criticize anyone when you’ve been glutting yourself off the salary they give you? Lee Gang Mu: When it comes down to it, they’re both the same, whether it’s the North Korean government that deceived Zainichi Koreans with the buksong* event, trampling on the lives of countless Koreans overseas, or the South Korean government that made a ‘public safety’ state. ~ EP09 Yeo Jeong Min: They’re people who’ll do even worse than this. My older cousin who participated in a union strike at a factory was dragged off to a re-education camp and died there. ~ EP11 Hall Director Pi: In order to win the election, the lives of some thirty people? The ANSP finds them laughable. ~ EP11 Female student: Hey, Eun Young Ro, listen well: my brother, who weighed 78kg (172lbs), was dragged off like a dog by the ANSP and became 50kg (110lbs) in just one month. He nearly surrendered but he held out at the time. In the end, though, he went mad! ~ EP11

*’Buksong‘ (북송), written with the characters for ‘north’ (북・北) and ‘send’ (송・送), refers to a ‘repatriation’ campaign by the North Korean government aimed at Koreans living in Japan.

Fiction: The North Koreans are romanticized (literally, ‘mi-hwa’ (미화), meaning ‘beautification’). Fact: Well, if you mean Soo Ho, then I’m afraid I can’t argue. He is very pretty. But the North Korean leadership — chiefly Lim Ji Rok and Choi Soo Ryeon — are as bad, if not worse, than the ANSP/South Korean leadership. Without giving away any spoilers, calling them ‘soulless’ isn’t much of a stretch. Fiction: Snowdrop is about the pro-democratization movement and disrespects the movement. Fact: The plot of Snowdrop has nothing to do with the 5.18 Democratization Movement of May 18~27, 1980 (aka the Gwangju Uprising; the Gwangju Massacre), nor the 6.10 Democratic Movement of June 10~29, 1987 (aka the June Uprising; the June Struggle). The main historical backdrop for Snowdrop is not the pro-democratization movement, but rather the 1987 presidential election. Fiction: The protagonists’ names are taken from real-life student pro-democracy activists. Fact: The protagonists’ names were chosen by the writer for entirely unrelated reasons. Yoo Hyun Mi gave Soo Ho the last name ‘Im’ because she wanted his name to sound like ‘protector of his love’ (see above). As for Young Ro, JTBC made a public statement officially denying any connection to activist Chun Young Cho. Even so, the production company made the decision to change the name at great effort and expense in an effort to appease public concerns. Fiction: The title (Seolganghwa) is Chinese. Fact: The word ‘seolganghwa’ (雪降花・‘snow-fall-flower’) is registered by the National Arboretum of Korea. In China, the snowdrop plant is called ‘seoljeokhwa’ (雪滴花・‘snow-droplet-flower’) or ‘seolhwayeon’ (雪花蓮・‘snow-flower-lotus’) (these are, of course, the Korean pronunciations of the hanja, not the Chinese ones). The meaning behind the title is explained in the series description. Fiction: Snowdrop is financed by China. Fact: It’s true that Chinese company Tencent invested 100 billion won in JTBC STUDIO on December 29, 2020. This was after funding for the series had been secured and filming had already begun, however. More to the point, Tencent’s investment is in the form of ‘convertible preferred stocks,’ which do not provide any accompanying voting rights. This means that Tencent cannot participate in the management of JTBC STUDIO, and so naturally had no input into Snowdrop. Fiction: Snowdrop was produced by YG Entertainment (aka Jisoo’s talent agency). Fact: Snowdrop was produced by DRAMAHOUSE and JTBC STUDIOS. It has no relation to YG Entertainment. This particular rumor stems from anti-fans who were angry that Jisoo had been cast in the lead role despite having no previous (substantial) acting experience. It should be noted that, while her acting received mixed reviews during the earlier episodes, by the end of the drama, the reception was distinctly positive, with media headlines praising how she’d ‘earned her place as an actress.’

Where We Are Now

Korea Communication Standards Commission Ruling (방심위 결과)

On December 19, 2021, following the broadcast of the first two episodes, a national petition was started to cancel the drama for all of the reasons covered above, gaining over 200,000 signatures in just one day. The Blue House responded by submitting the drama to the Korean Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) for an investigation into the allegations of ‘historical distortion.’ After carefully reviewing the drama, the KCSC released the results of its investigation on March 18, 2022. The KCSC ruled as follows:

After having debated over the civil complaint that the drama broadcasted content that distorted history by depicting, among other things, an inappropriate connection between the democratization movement and North Korean agents and damaged the value of the democratization movement, we at the Special Commission of Broadcast Advisory have ruled that: Due to the fact that, among other things, it depicts the ANSP as unreasonable and laughable over the course of the entire drama, it is difficult to conclude that there was any intention to romanticize the ANSP or damage the value of the democratization movement. Due to the fact that, as dramas are creative works whose right to creative expression must be guaranteed to the greatest extent possible, while it is difficult to view it as a work that inspires public confidence in [its depiction of] history, even if its content which dramatized the period used as its background does not entirely correspond with historical fact, it is difficult to view this as a problem. Accordingly, it is difficult to conclude that content in which an ANSP agent adheres to the warrant requirements or cooperates with a Northern operative in order to protect human rights, or content which employed a protest song in a scene in which the male protagonist, who is a North Korean agent, flees, as overstepping the limits of freedom of expression in such a way as to damage the value of the democratization movement and injure the dignity and pride of the Korean people. We therefore inform you that a majority of commissioners agreed that it is impossible to consider the review regulations applicable.

See also: KCSC releases investigation results over Snowdrop “history distortion” controversy.

Legal Action

On April 8, 2022, JTBC announced that it was pursuing legal action against individuals who propagated false and damaging fabrications about Snowdrop and its stars with malicious intent on counts of slander and obstruction of business. A JTBC rep stated that:

“As we forewarned, we are currently pursuing legal action against relevant individuals for maliciously inciting negative public opinion against Snowdrop,” continuing, “From before the broadcast began, the broadcast company, the production companies, and the actors have continued to suffer extensive damages,” and explained that, “The legal suit is against the act of continuously disseminating falsehoods and baseless claims that differ entirely from the drama’s content.” He also stated that, “We pursued legal action in the hope that similar situations in which the majority of people involved suffer damages don’t continue to occur.”

You can find English coverage of this here.

While we’re on the topic, I should also mention that the claim made back in December 2021 that Jisoo had filed a lawsuit against someone for their malicious comments was itself a malicious falsehood by the person claiming to be sued. When fans with legal knowledge began pointing out that the documents pictured were fake, the post was immediately deleted.

From the Korean Fans

When I first decided to write this post, I started by reaching out to Korean fans, inviting them to share how they viewed the controversy and asking them what they would like to convey to people outside of Korea (you can find that post here). These are some of the comments I received in response:

“Please tell them that they made a controversy for the sake of controversy. Even when it became clear that there was no reason for the basis of the controversy, there are a lot of cowardly people who tried to rationalize their hasty accusations made through illogical reasoning.”

“Basically, people cursed the drama out before it had even aired, and then even when it became clear that it was all untrue, they made up every kind of reason because they didn’t want to admit they were wrong. I think that’s the biggest thing.”

“If you’re talking about the controversy, the romanticization of the ANSP is the main oneㅠㅠ. The fact that it wasn’t true was all proven as the drama aired, but there are still a lot of people being stubborn *sigh*”

“Even so, when people in their right minds found out after the fact that it was all false propaganda they found it all ridiculous.”

See also this impassioned deep-dive on Naver: [Notice] Rebuttal / The Appearance of a Real-life Arrowhead? Full Summary of all the Fabrications about Snowdrop.

“How is your censorship different from the Chun Doo Hwan regime’s censorship of popular art? Are you advocating a dictatorship?”

“Just who is doing the ‘distorting’ here?”

Final Thoughts

If you’re still skeptical, or you took nothing else away from the above, I hope that I’ve at least succeeded in convincing you to watch the drama and judge it for yourself. As I see it, the Snowdrop controversy is the result of the malicious intent of the few and the possibly well-intentioned but also poorly-informed censorship of the many. We live in a digital world saturated with clickbait taglines designed to incite outrage and discourage fact-checking. There’s also just a lot of ‘noise,’ and it’s not always easy to tell what’s true and what’s fake, especially when you have to rely on translated sources. One reason I think I found myself skeptical from the beginning is that I was familiar with the writer. The last drama I watched by Yoo Hyun Mi was Gaksital (2012), which was set during the Japanese occupation and centered around the story of a Zorro-esque folk hero’s fight for freedom from Japanese rule. By any measure, it was a drama that championed Korean identity and the Korean people’s right to self-determination. So it struck me as unlikely that the same writer would denigrate the democratization movement. If you go back and read the leaked synopsis, I think you can detect that same sentimentality towards the Korean identity in the final lines. As we’ve already established, Snowdrop isn’t about the democratization movement. And though it’s set against the backdrop of the 1987 presidential election, it’s not really about that, either. Snowdrop employs the premise of fictional North-South collusion over the 1987 presidential election to tell the story of individuals from both sides of the 38th parallel overcoming that which divides them. What defines heroes and villains isn’t their initial allegiances, but rather who is willing to overcome those divisions and who is only interested in gaining or maintaining their own power. It’s a story of two corrupt governments and the young people whose lives they trample underfoot, and it’s a story, first and foremost, of two young people, who meet and fall in love against all odds, and the lengths to which they are willing to go for the sake of that love. I’ll leave you with the words of one particularly well-spoken Korean fan I encountered:

Snowdrop is the story of people who were used and sacrificed by the tragedy of their time. A story of people who, even amidst that, struggled and held-out in order to live. And it’s a story of how, even in such tragic moments, people fall in love, form friendships, and come to understand one another, a story of people living as they have through any era, and it’s a story of our lives.

Happy watching! (bring tissues)

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dramaawomaan · 3 years ago

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Snowdrop Review ⚠️SPOILER WARNING ⚠️

Let me mention this first. Snowdrop has a realistic ending…By ‘realistic’ I mean sad ending. So if sad endings aren’t your thing, I suggest skipping this show.

But hey, if you want to make yourself depressed for a good 2 days…. Go for it.

This drama is predominantly a politically charged spy thriller with light splashes of dark humor, that hides itself as a epic tale of romance.

‘Snowdrop’ is a tragic love story between a North Korean Spy and a South Korean Student. The dramas narrative wraps around the belief of love and how it can be a complex and dangerous emotion. How love can effect a person’s decisions, perhaps making them give up what their entire life purpose is/was, and also dictate what one is willing to do to live, or die for.

Snowdrop started off great, Introducing characters in a way that kept me on the edge of my seat.

The show introduces Eun Yeong-Ro played by Kim Ji-soo.

Eun Yeong Ro is a student who shares a dorm with three other females at Hosu University . She is quiet, but strong minded and determined to do what is best. She’s a people person and thinks about everyone but herself. She lets people walk all over her, including her father who is a very important political man. She has a secret that she keeps from all of their friends, that later causes chaos among her dormitory. Eun Yeong Ro takes in an injured man, thinking he was nothing more than a simple protester.

Lim Soo-Ho played by Jung Hae-In is a North Korean Spy who is later used, manipulated and betrayed by his own country.

The story follows his journey to accomplish his mission and return to his home country. Unfortunately, fate had other plans which causes a red string to intertwine between himself and ANSP directors daughter… which just so happens to be Eun Yeong-Ro. Due to a series of unfortunate coincidences that unravels into a twisted scheme of the North and South Korean Government. Both face tribulation again and again both together and separately.

Snowdrop is a drama that promises a multitude of themes to draw viewers in from every genre, which sadly falls short to the dramas multiple plot lines. Snowdrop had convoluted plot lines that ensured plot twists in every episode. Unfortunately, this caused too many underdeveloped stories to the other characters. Since this drama was a one season show, underdeveloped stories causes writers to have to rush other character stories.

I wished there was more episodes solely for the support characters that played major roles. Jang Han-Na and Kang Moo were two characters I wished had more screen time. I really wanted Jang Han-Na to have more of a character development in the show, she was too impulsive, hot tempered, and reckless. Sometimes I really felt like she should have been one to die. Kang Moo was another character I wished had more screen time. I wanted to know more about why he was doing what he did. I wished the couple had romantic scenes. This would have made me feel slightly better, since I wanted more romance in the show.

Snowdrop was too rushed towards the ending. Characters such as Lim Soo-Ho’s comarades shouldn’t have died the way they did. Joo Gyeok-Chan had the most favored character growth in my opinion. I really wanted him to have a happy ending. I also wanted to see what happened to Kang Chung-Ki. Did she leave the country? Did she finally find someone who could lover her for who she was? Did she go back to North Korea?

I had too many questions.

My rating for Sowdrop: 8.5

Story:8.0

The story was unique.

Acting:10.0

All actors did an amazing job. At first I was skeptical about Jisoo’s skills, but I quickly realized she was a natural at this. She did a beautiful job.

Music: 7.0

Really liked the music sound track, but wished Jisoo voice was in it at least once.

Rewatch value: 5.5

I’m not sure I’d rewatch this drama. The ending was too rushed and I did get bored quite a few times.

#kdrama #korean drama #thai drama #chinese drama #tdrama #bts #new drama #thai #thai lankorn #thai remake #blackpink jisoo #snowdrop #jtbc #blackpink

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leekimdramas · 3 years ago

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Secretly, Greatly (Spoiler Free Review)

It is supposed to be a comedy film but why I’m crying?

The film is about North Korean spy who was sent to South Korea to wait for the mission.

After two years of making his perfect disguise Dong Gu finally gets some news from the North but it might not be that good.

The film starts out great, showing how Dong Gu lived for the past two years and is the funny fool of the town.

But what made it even funnier for me is how he’s always thinking of getting revenge on the neighborhood kids or his crush’s brother.

We know that he wouldn’t do anything like that, especially when we see him later on in the film but it makes those moments a bit more light hearted.

Another thing that I loved was the bromance, Dong Gu with other N. Korean spies were so precious and nice and I’m happy we got to see that till the very end (though they deserve better ending).

Those things made the film so enjoyable to watch that even the things that I didn’t really like were getting blurrier.

As much as we got a lot of great moments, found family and things like that there is also a bit less interesting part which is the whole mission.

At least I found it a bit boring, especially the S. Korean police, agent thing. The main guy there for me needed a bit more backstory to get to know him while others had kind of different motives from him. So the whole thing made me a little bit confused.

But other than that I don’t really have or want to find any flaws for this film because I just had a lot of fun while watching it and that’s probably the most important.

9/10

Spoilers: I will just imagine that after the ending what really happened to Don Gu was shown in the Crash Landing On You. I will not accept the death.

#secretly greatly #kmovie #review #spoiler free

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ivyuns · 4 years ago

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landing in my heart: paragliding

han jisung

genre: angst

word count: 2.1k

warnings: location spots are in north and south korea, language, mentions of mines, weapons, death, cliffhanger, if i missed anything plz lmk :)

A/N: first part of landing in my heart series! changsik is y/n’s helper for la vie en rose

navigation

landing in my heart information

LIMH chapters

“tomorrow, the story about you and actor sangu will be posted”

“itll say how you two were just pranking fans that you two are together. as you see, the picture just shows that you were just holding his wrist. plus your face is blurred so there shouldnt be a problem” changsik says.

you turn off your phone and start paying attention to changsik. “okay but can we do something about the blur effect?” you asked. “oh, do you want me to ask them to blur your face more?” “no, its just that they put the effect on my earrings. you know those earrings are rare to get in the collection”

everyone in the meeting takes a big sigh. “ah, purchasing manager. what are you going to do?” you asked as he slams his note taking book close. “pardon?” “the earrings, purse, shoes. you need to make sure theyre in stock at all times” nodding his head, he goes to restock the items you told him to.

exiting your office, everyone talks about you. “is that her?” “she looks ugly in person” “hes probably with her for her money”. continuing walking behind your bodyguards, you get a call from an unknown number.

“look at you. you look like a celebrity or something”

“who is this?”

“i- you dont even have my number saved? its your eldest brother, sejun. anyways since you dont keep up with the news, dad is coming back home from probation. you should probably come by the house and greet him”

pausing your tracks, “is this your number?” “yes, please just save it” “dont get another number or blocking it for two times will be annoying” you said and blocked sejun.

hesitating to enter your family’s house as you heard sejun and sehyeong argue about who will be deserves to inherit the family company during diner and your dad yelling out where were you. stepping into the house, the house was quiet.

“hello dad. congratulations on getting out on probation. i heard you wanted me to be here. is there anything you need to speak to me about?”

“you should move back in” “is that all? i was wondering why. you look great by the way. please take care of your heath. i just came here to say hello so ill be leaving now” you waved goodbye and walked towards the exit.

“i want you to take my position” you dad tells you before you could exit the room. “dad!” your brothers yell out. turning around, you see everyone looking at you as your mom shakes her head towards you. “you left home and started your own company for 10 years, i think you deserve it”

hesitating to answer, you agreed to take the position which annoyed the brothers. finally exiting the room, you left the house with fear in you.

“shall we start?” you asked as everyone gets your parachute ready for paragliding. running off the cliff, you begin floating in the sky with a huge smile on your face. “miss yoon, please be careful!”

peacefully enjoying the scenery, you take notes on how beautiful it was. you then see a floating tractor. worry takes place as you realize theres a tornado happening. trying to not get in it, the wind forcefully takes you to the tornado, making you scream out for help.

north korean boarder

jisung heads to the northern side of demilitarized zone to patrol with company five and a few other soldiers and hears shooting going on. quietly walking into the direction of everything going on as a group, jisung stops as soon as he hears what type of guns theyre using.

“captain han, theyre heading into this direction, judging by the sound of the gunshots” hyunjin pauses, “maybe its a deserter from the south-” “the combat site is 400m away from our current location. going in at 11 o’clock, total count is 10. k2 automatic title, six in total. and tokarev tt-33, three are in use” jisung tells them.

“whats tt-33?” seungmin asked. “theyre our camrades” jisung answered and started walking with his group behind him. seeing whats going on as he saw three men on the ground and the military of the south, he gave him group a signal to continue walking. lifting their guns up, the southern sees them and puts their guns up as well.

“step back. take one more step and youll enter our garrison” jisung shouts out. “hand these three over and well be gone” one of the soldiers said. “theyre our camrades” jisung answers. “captain! we got the state security departments approval and came here to hunt deers but we got lost by the tornado” one of the men on the ground said.

“they crossed the southern limit line and caught digging cultural artifacts” the same soldier said and shows proof. “is anyone injured?” jisung asked as the southern military puts their guns towards him more. “the problem is solved. put your guns down and we will too. i swear on my countrys honor and will stictly punish them. when it comes to punishments, we, the north will certainly outdo the south. well drop our weapons on the count of three.”

by the count of three, everyone puts their weapons down. the three men on their knees sees a gun in front of them and grabs it. trying to shoot the soldiers, jisung quickly grabs them. everyone puts their guns up till- “just return, dont get into conflict with the north” “do you hear me? dont conflict with the south” the radios from both sides said.

after gathering the three men and tying them, company five got them as jisung stayed behind. making sure the south was gone.

back at the gate, jisung is in front of the car that the three men are in as he waits from cheolgang to arrive. seeing him arrive, he stands up straight and salutes him, as well as hyunjin and seungmin. cheolgang sees the three men in the car and turns to jisung.

“greetings sir. company five is is on standby to transfer the grave robbers, who we arrested in the northen demilitarized zone” jisung tells cheolgang. “good work. anything else?” jisung relaxes and tells him how some of the fences were down due to the tornado. “we should tighten security for the area thats damanged until everything is fixed”

cheolgang nods his head. “they probably crossed the southern line due to misunderstanding so let their punishment be lenient” “it happened in our patrol zone. this cannot be taken lightly” “you are well aware that the state security department gave them permission for them to be here” cheolgang says.

“are you saying that they gave them permission to pass the demilitarized zone just to collect artifacts?” jisung asked, feeling annoyed with cheolgang. “of course not, captain han” he chuckles, making company five tensed. “i told the south that they will be taken for punishment, and i shall keep that promise” “do whatever you want, but i do have a promise. i, jo cheolgang, never go easy on anyone. no matter what their ranks are. if you create any act that may threaten our army security, youll be finished right on the spot. but of course, youll never do that” cheolgang finishes. jisung salutes him as he leaves.

south korea

“but i need to get there, i need to see miss yoon” changsik says as he heard people said that youre nowhere to be found. as he sees someone on the stretcher, he starts tearing up as he thinks youre dead. the police comforts him and sees the cameraman that was supposed to take videos of you in the sky. “hey! wheres my boss?” changsik yells at him. “i dont know” he cries out in pain. “didnt you have a camera? why didnt you take a video of everything?” “in that situation, i couldnt. i nearly died!”

changsik was left alone as the rest of the rescue crew tried to find you. “gosh why did you have to make yourself do this y/n”

north korean boarder

you wake up, high up in a tree. as you yell out for help. as jisung and seungmin is around the area, he stops walking and asks seungmin if he heard anything. shaking his head, seungmin gets a call from the other company five members, asking for him to come back and help with the fence. jisung gives him a signal to go and looks around the area.

as jisung sees you in the trees, you look down. “excuse me, can you help me get out of here” seeing his metal and gun pointing at you, you quickly unbuckle everything and falls onto jisung. realizing, you quickly get off of him.

“ah, did you come here from the north? are you a defector? welcome to the republic of korea” you said. “r-republic of korea? i think youre mistaken. i didnt go to the south. you came to the north” not believing what he said, you looked around and saw his serious face. “since you came here, youll be taken for investigation” jisung says. “huh?! wait i didnt mean to come here at all-” “then explain everything to them like that.

after arguing, you ran but was stopped by jisung yelling you to stop since theyre mines in the area. “dont move or else youll loose an ankle-” jisung pause as he accidentally steps on a mine. “are you okay” you asked. “im fine” “are you sure because you dont look fine-” “i said im fine!”

jisung grabs his walkie talkie to call seungmin for help when his grip failed and the device fell into the river. walking to the walkie talkie, you picked it up. “thank you for picking it up-” “who said i was gonna give it to you?” jisung sighs. “tell me which way i need to go first” “follow the path and when you meet with two paths, take the right one”

after telling you the directions, seungmin calls out jisungs name. “im here!’’ jisung yells out. fear taking over you, you quickly ran.

seungmin finds jisung on a mine and quickly sets him free. “captain han, is there anything wrong?” seungmin asks. “let the crew know that someone is in the zone by accident” “huh? is it a spy?” “no, a south korean girl who accidentally came here” seungmin nods his head and lets the crew know what happened by radio.

as you ran, you took the left path instead, not trusting jisung. you came across of a field that had a sign saying ‘mine field’. turning around to a safer route, you see the soldiers looking for you. headed to the minefield instead, you ran through it and the soldiers made a detour to get you.

as seungmin and hyunjin are trying to get you, you saw a broken tree on the fence, thinking it will lead you to the south again. as youre on the top, you see the two men giving you signals to not go there. not listening, you jumped over the fence as you saw hyunjin raise his gun at you and fired.

as you kept running, you passed jeongin who was reading a letter from his mother in the fields. as you were running still, you ran into a forest and tripped on a rock. “mom-” you said quietly. trying to pull yourself up, you go back into the past. everytime you fell, you would always cry out for your moms name. but realizing how weak you relationship with her was weak and she was not here with you.

regaining your strength, you got up and walked.

back in south korea, your mom gets a call saying that you were lost and tells the rest of the family. sejun and sehyeong and their wives are pleased, knowing that one of them will get their dads position.

“honey, you need to make sure you get this position” sanga tells sehyeong. “but you still need to find minseok” sehyeong nods. “dont worry sanga”

“hyung. do you think sehyeong will find me?” minseok asks mr oh. “i think we should go somewhere else, i dont think its safe here anymore” minseok nods his head and packs up to go somewhere else.

as an old lady asks for a ride as she sees military trucks, she was rejected. she then sees three men in one of the trucks. as they hit the end of the road, she sees another truck hitting them and another one, making the truck that the three men are in fall into a ravine and explode. she gathers her stuff and tries to run away when another truck runs into her.

after walking for miles in the dark, you ran into a village. feeling relieved, you smiled. until you saw the lights shut on, you were met with music going on. seeing everyone getting ready for their morning routine, she now believes shes deeper into north korea,

just as the leader enters the village, jisung quickly grabbed you and hid you in his chest from getting caught.

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graysmiles-world · 4 years ago

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How J.K. Rowling is a Terrible Person

Hi! I know almost everyone has seen J.K. Rowling’s transphobic comments on twitter or anywhere else. A lot of people are now saying how some of the actors wrote the books instead, or how Rick Riordan wrote them as a joke.This is harmful and should not be said. This is why.

J.K. Rowling’s terrible behavior did not suddenly appear a few years ago. It was always in the books. Nothing major, like the openly transphobic comments, but through things that could have unconsciously altered our minds when we were young. Here’s a list of a few (if I miss any, just let me know) starting with stuff IN the books and then things that she talked about after they were published:

- Hermione has a constant “not like other girls mentality” throughout the books. Hermione is a good character, but she is written to make girls think that they are better than others because they don’t wear makeup or like reading. Hermione really only hates Lavender in the 5th book because Lavender loves Ron. There’s really no other reason.

- Goblins are constantly given Jewish traits. Such as: large noses and constantly clinging to money. This is, again, extremely harmful as the stereotypes really bring the Jewish down.

- During the Goblet of Fire, when describing Rita Skeeter, she gives her a lot of “manly” attributes. There is nothing wrong with that, however, J.K. Rowling continues to compare a lot of Rita’s features to a man, which gives the impression of Rita being a trans woman. Rita was caught spying on young children and lying about them to the public, this enforces the stereotype that trans women spy on children and/or lie.

- Snape is forgiven. This is a huge thing in the Harry Potter fandom years later. Snape was a terrible person who constantly abused Harry and many other children for YEARS. He was willing to kill for Voldemort, but as soon as Lily was in danger, he switched. If Neville was the chosen one, Snape would have continued to work for Voldemort. No matter how much a jerk James was to Snape and no matter how much Snape loved Lily, he was abusive and did not deserve the forgiveness that J.K. Rowling wrote for him

- In the new movie, Crimes of Grindelwald, Nagini was revealed to be an East Asian woman. Nagini is the feminine form of the Sanskrit word nāga, which means “snake." The Sanskrit word was borrowed into English in the late 1700s, and showed up in translations of Buddhist and Hindu texts. So J.K. Rowling gave an East Asian women a South Asian name, as well as making her a slave to a literal Wizard N@zi for the rest of her life.

- Let’s talk about Cho Chang. Cho and Chang are both Korean surnames. Cho is Chinese. That’s it, that’s the ignorance right there.

- Did I mention that all (3) Asian characters are in Ravenclaw, the “smart” house?

- In the Cursed Child, Padma and Ron get married in an alternate reality. Padma wears Ron down until he’s not he’s usual self, and their son is named Panju. Panju is an island in Vasai, that’s all you need to know. One simple Google search would have cleared up the reason that she thought that Panju was a boys name and not the name of an island.

- Also, the Goblet of Fire dresses, anyone?

- J.K. Rowling claims that Harry Potter is about racism, but all the main characters are WHITE

- The only irish character in the books keeps blowing things up, and the first time we’re introduced to him, he tries to make alcohol

- Kingsley SHACKLEBOLT, one of the ONLY black characters in the entire series is named SHACKLEBOLT

- In 2007, years after the final Harry Potter Book was published, J.K. Rowling told everyone that Dumbledore was gay. There is no evidence of Dumbledore being gay in the books, and while it is not something that needs to be announced, it did come out of nowhere. And, Dumbledore was a man who manipulated Harry for YEARS and raised him like a pig to be slaughtered. This along with claiming Grindelwald to be gay as well. Grindelwald, who was a literal N@ZI and tried to wipe out an entire race of human. AND saying that they had a relationship with zero mention of it in the books or movies.

- J.K. Rowling compared the werewolves to the AIDS/HIV epidemic. The werewolves in the books were told to be men who prey on children and then biting them and turning them. This enforces the stereotypes that gay men are predators.

- Apparently there was a rumor that J.K. Rowling said in an interview that she was going to have Sean and Dean be in a relationship, “but didn’t want it taking away from the main trio.” I could find no evidence of such interview or quote. And if she did say that, that is completely untrue. There are tons of books that have side relationships that take almost no attention away from the main characters and conflicts.

- J.K. Rowling claims that she never specified Hermione’s race. This is untrue. I love Black Hermione, but in Prisoner of Azakban, she wrote: Hermione’s “white face was sticking out from behind a tree” as well as reference Hermione’s skin as “pale.”

- While promoting Fantastic Beasts, J.K. Rowling published The History of Magic in North America. She plundered Native American legends to tie them into the wizarding world for the new movie. She obviously did very little research on the culture she was marketing off of.

This is all off of the top of my head. Let me know if there are any more.

#harrypotter #jkrowling #harry potter #jk rowling #the philosopher's stone #the chamber of secrets #the prisoner of azkaban #goblet of fire #the order of the phoenix #the half blood prince #the deathly hallows #black hermione #indian harry potter #racism in harry potter #why jk rowling sucks

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mymelancholiesblues · 6 years ago

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Could you do a headcanons one for Ada?

[I posted this earlier, but tumblr wasn’t showing it in the tags search, so I asked for a friend to send in the anonymous question to see if the tracking would work and well, it did. Go figure this fuckin’ site].

So, similarly to what I did with my Leon’s family and background headcanons, I’ll post here my Ada ones too. I’d like to repeat to please keep in mind that these are (obviously) my headcanons for Ada’s background and family and in no way is anyone else under the obligation to accept nor fully agree with them.

I’m glad that Capcom still hasn’t tackled Ada’s personal plot and character background, deciding instead to keep the mystery surrounding her character – and only opening very tiny holes for us to speculate.

My headcanons for Ada are very precious to me since I think that these would be the best way to further add complexity to her character and break down her purposes in the lore while also adding more layers to her relationship with Leon – and the rest of the main characters we saw her interacting with –, as the divisive line that separates Ada to the rest of them would transcend “work motives” and fall into conflicting worldviews, cultural convictions and ideology. I love to think that “as much as I wanted to trust you… I didn’t” line also applies to Ada, considering that her difficulties to trust in people would hold her back from ever explaining what she really believes in and is working towards to Leon, thinking that the prejudices his country always encouraged on the matter wouldn’t allow him to understand or even try to. We, as audience, know that the bond they share goes beyond that and would allow them to overcome these differences, but these characters aren’t aware of it.

Anyway:

– All she knows about her biological family is that her parents were political dissidents who left her behind when she was still a baby to flee China’s Cultural Revolution (let’s remember she was born in 1974);

– Lived in a very impoverished orphanage located in China–Vietnam border area that just barely had the resources to maintain the kids they sheltered. In light of that, she had to learn how to steal at an early age (six years old) so she wouldn’t starve to death;

– One day she tried to steal this Vietnamese man’s wallet, but he noticed what she was doing and of course caught up with her when she tried to escape;

– Realising she was just a hungry kid, he ended up paying something for her to eat, talked to her for a while and told her that if she ever felt hungry like that again she could find him at that plaza by noon. From that day on she would go back every day to that spot and hope to see him again;

– Despite life at the orphanage cultivating her to be a very wary and circumspect kid, she was still a small child, so it wasn’t particularly hard to gain her trust, which the man rapidly did so: talking to her every day and paying for something for her to eat;

– They talked about food, people, work, money… He spoke to her in a kind, friendly and comprehensible way, never in a patronising tone nor meaning to talk down to her just because she was a child;

– She started “working” at like… eight, carrying stuff around or fetching things people asked her to for the sufficient amount of money so she could have something to eat;

– Noticing that the man who helped her would occasionally disappear for an uncertain amount of time before reappearing as if nothing ever happened, she started asking questions. He would always respond to her in a straightforward tone, telling her that he was “working to help their people”;

– At thirteen, more inquiring than ever, she proposed helping him “to help their people” so she could pay back what he did for her;

– This Vietnamese along with two other men (a Chinese and, later, a Russian) were founders of an independent orthodox Marxist party. They helped working-class people that were marginalized by conflicts and man-made tragedies;

– Ever read about Unit 731 in Pingfang? So, here’s what I propose to you: Tao Shangzhi lost a precious part of him there (family, comrades, you decide). Met Thang Nguyên, who lost a son to the south vs north Vietnamese tension that the USA was financing, in a worker’s protest in 1965. Early 1976 they met trotskyan Vitaly Grebenshchikov, ex-KGB who defected the Soviet Union for their dawning participation in biowarfare programs, believing this to be the utmost unforgivable sign of URSS’ continued and escalating distortion of the communist agenda;

– Vitaly had the connections who possessed financial resources to make viable turning their party of three into a structured organization capable of acting;

– It was never clear to Ada if all along they planned in concentrating in particular individuals of oppressed groups specifically with the purpose of recruiting agents for the future, but the fact remains that throughout the years, Vitaly, the Russian, recruited three agents (two females, one Italian and one Romanian, and a German male), Tao recruited three (an Ethiopian female, a Mozambican male and a Cuban male) and Thang recruited two other females, one Korean and one Japanese, as well as Ada;

– Ada was the ninth member to be recruited;

– Having more people at varied age-groups, the party’s main focus was established in working to completely destroy the biological warfare and chemical arms trade industry by undermining it from the inside, as well as to collect information on biological threats to be at the forefront of the vaccination grounds;

– Although settling with twelve “fixed” members, the organization also had what they call “allied operatives”, individuals that weren’t fully recruited to their cause and in virtue of it, weren’t fully aware of their goals and means to achieve them, but could sympathize with part of the causes they did got to be informed of;

– Starting at fourteen years and a half, Ada trained with the rigour to be an Olympic class gymnast (she already had some sort of starting pointing in physical conditioning since she had to be fast to be a thief and strong to carry things around later in childhood);

– She also had thorough classes on history, geography, sociology and philosophy and some essentially basic-level in biology, mathematics, physics and chemistry;

– She can fluently speak in Mandarin, English, Japanese and Korean. Furthermore, she possesses reading and listening fluency in Russian, German, Italian, Spanish, Romanian and Portuguese;

– In her training, the most severe exigences were: knowing how to speak in English without ever giving away that it wasn’t her first language, and to maintain her composure in the most adverse of situations;

– Knows her way around Taekwondo;

– Prepared to be perfectly capable of handling various automatic weapons and firearms;

– She believes in her party’s cause, always did. She doesn’t believe, however, that humankind is worth the trouble since she was sixteen;

– Hates imperialism and was convinced that the North-American population consisted of conceited, self-absorbed and egotistical people (till she fell in love with one, ha)

– Only completed her trainings by twenty years of age, although she was already participating in “gathering intelligence” missions since fifteen;

– I love LOVE to think that even though she was bit more experienced than Leon, she wasn’t that further away from him in terms of “field capability”;

– I don’t think John Clemens was retconned with RE2R, but, rather, Capcom’s choice to suppress mentioning him in this game was just logical and appropriate since the guy died early JUNE of 1998 and it wasn’t even minimally plausible that Ada didn’t know about that (come on, she’s a spy ffs!);

– Anyway, remember Clemens was “transferred to the Arklay Laboratory outside Raccoon City to take over Birkin’s role as chief of research” but “did not have the stomach for Umbrella’s illegal weapons research” and “started to question the motives of the research there and repeatedly questioned the superiors”? Well, at first, Ada’s mission was to get close to John precisely because he could be an “allied associate” and help in exposing and dismantling Umbrella;

– Despite the respect and comradery between the organization’s members, the only member she was really close to was Thang, but he died in a mission. Seung-chae Lee and Shimizu Yuuko (not their birth/real names), Thang’s other recruits, aren’t emotionally close to Ada, but the three of them share a deeper level of mutual reverence and camaraderie in comparison to what they feel to the rest of the organization’s members;

– Also, the two know about Leon. They suggested recruiting him to Ada, but she strongly prohibited them to do so;

– When Leon says things about helping people and putting an end to injustice and inequalities, Ada almost reveals everything there is to be revealed about her to him. Almost;

And… that’s it! Next “headcanons post” will focus on more simple things I have in mind for RE Characters (including Chris, Claire, Jill, Sherry, Helena). Ada and Leon get a bit more because they’re my faves. Hope you guys enjoy.

#Ada Wong #Ada #Leon x Ada #Ada x Leon #Aeon #OTP: like a part of me I can't let go #レオエイ #♥#[games]#[mine]#//#red and terrible and red #asks and answers #Aeon fandom #my headcanons

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donnnoir · 5 years ago

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Nixon saved the world from nuclear war and WWIII...

Dallas Texas July 22, 2019

Since I have had at least one person inquire concerning my challenge on why Nixon went to China. I suppose I should present the facts as I know them. First and foremost these events are still considered “classified”. Much to the disservice of Our former President and the American People. Kissinger in his latest semi-autobiographical book acknowledges that the purpose was larger and greater than generally accept but is classified. So set the Way-Back machine to 1972, Sherman…

Okay, a quick refresher; we were mired and heavily vested in the Vietnam War. A war that may have appeared we were fighting the North Vietnamese. The reality of the circumstance was that we were vicariously fighting Communist China or more correctly the People’s Republic of China (PRC). A none recognized country with no diplomatic envoy. China as far as America was concerned was Taiwan; or as trademarks stamped on all the toys we imported from Taiwan ROC, for Republic of China. Thus mainland China was Communist. You would think they aligned themselves with the Soviet Union since both countries were Communist. If you thought so, you were very much wrong and misinformed. They have a long history of animosity towards each other. That and the border between the two powers at best was ill defined. As a consequence the Soviets at the time wanted to increase their presence in the Pacific which would include ice free ports. With the Sino-Russo border in dispute, the Soviets decided to be more “vigorous” in deciding how the dispute should be resolved. The Soviets planned to invade China intending to lay claim and possess the Northern portions along with the entirety of the Kamchatka Peninsula. This plan would accomplish all the desired goals of the Soviet Union. The Soviets were quick to remember our near defeat fighting the Communist Chinese head to head in the Korean Conflict. Not wishing to repeat our mistakes, they had elected to preemptively nuke the major population centers of the PRC. The Soviets at the time possessed mobile ICBM launch capabilities and had moved them, along with several Divisions of their troops into position along the boarder. Just prior to invasion, someone in the Soviet High Command thought to ask the question, “if as part of our planned surprise attack and invasion of the PRC, what are the Americans and going to think of our launching ICBMs well within range of the continental United States? NORAD could react before the trajectories of the missiles can be established.” Consequently it was decided that the topic needed to be broached at the highest levels of government. The Soviet Union’s Ambassador in Washington DC went to the Oval Office and asked in “hypothetical” terms. What would the United States of America do or consider if the Soviets invaded the PRC? Under the pretext of settling a long standing border dispute; naturally the Soviets for their trouble would end up possessing the coveted Kamchatka Peninsula. It would more than likely have the immediate benefit for Americans of diverting resources of the PRC from the war in Vietnam to their own immediate defense. And the United States and the Soviets could then just divide up the whole of east Asia has they saw best. Ooh and by the way the Soviets as part of such a plan would obviously need to preemptively nuke the large population centers of China to avoid the human body waves the Americans faced in the Korean Conflict (a minor detail). Nixon gave the Soviet Ambassador an immediate answer; “the United States of America would NOT tolerate nor permit the Soviet Union to upset the balance of power in the world in such a manner! If the Soviets were to pursue such a course of action, the United States with all its military might would enter the war on the side of the Chinese!” The Soviet Ambassador excused himself and left the White House. Nixon realizing that his statement would be sent to the political analyst within the Soviet Union in an attempt to determine “what does he really mean in his statement”. Realizing what was at risk, Nixon immediately turned to Kissinger telling him to “get me to China, NOW!” In less than two weeks (my sources say ten days) a top level state department visit of this nature was planned and set into motion. Nixon after visiting Europe, had Air-Force One enter PRC airspace and land in Peking, which we now call Beijing. The announcement was Not made to the American people till Nixon was entering China. While there Our President showed and gave SR71 and U2 spy plane photographs to the Chairman’s Committee the Standing Politburo. The photos showed the Soviet Divisions massed along the border along with their mobile ICBM launch vehicles. Nixon reiterated his position, acknowledging that his visit was to unequivocally demonstrate his intentions and resolve to the Soviet Union, in the hopes of averting World War III involving nukes. These decisions were all Nixon, Not Kissinger! I see and read on the internet how these events are being rewritten claiming Kissinger as the architect of events. This is a patient LIE! I have read classified exerts of what actually occurred. Following all this Nixon also went to Moscow.

For those of you who may doubt way I have written. If you or friends are planning a trip to Mainland China. Ask any tour guide to show you their tunnels. You see the Communist Chinese knew it would be decades before they could enter the nuclear arms race, and thereby have parity with the super powers. Lacking said parity, but possessing almost limitless manpower they decided to protect their number one asset, their people. Or more correctly the vast numbers of people under their control. With that in mind they made the radical decision to engage in the world’s largest construction project ever! In total secrecy; they built underground evacuation highways system of tunnels capable of accommodating large tractor trailers. under their largest population centers (cities). Once completed they became the only global power able to evacuate their population centers in twenty minutes of the sirens sounding. The whole population was informed and they will gladly show them to any visitors. Granted with the economic explosion with its associated urban sprawl the cities have pushed beyond their previous limits. So the populations are now outside the exits that were once 30 to 50 kilometers beyond the city limits and outside the projected blast zones.

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jjr1971 · 5 years ago

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Re-imagined NGE in alternate Timeline where the GDR never fell.

Shinji Ikari’s head still hurt from where the military policeman had struck him with his baton. Misato was tied up with her arms behind her in the chair next to him, still unconscious. They were sitting before a spartan metal desk with a cheap fiberglass top. The name plate propped up on the desk read simply “A. Engelschlachter, Leutnant der Luftstreitkräfte der NVA”; Shinji only knew very cursory German from his music lessons.... “Angel Butcher is a little on the nose, though.”, he mumbled aloud. The heavy metal door opened behind them and in walked the owner of this desk....Shinji recognized the service uniform as that of a Lieutenant...it was familiar yet somehow different, older perhaps? The officer strode to...her(?) desk and sat down across from them, her arms folded across her chest. Shinji looked up slowly into the face of “ASUKA....!”, yelled Shinji suddenly.... The very young German officer looked momentarily startled then her expression hardened. “Woher erkennst Du meinen Vorname?”, she spat at him, her icy blue eyes fixing onto his own dark orbs. “Ich....spreche....nicht so gut Deutsch....”, Shinji sputtered. Lieutenant Asuka Engelschlachter wrinkled her nose in frustrated disgust then switched to English “How do you know my first name, you foreign spy?” “It’s a long story and that’s not important right now....Asuka, we need to get you back to Japan!”, protested Shinji “What the devil are you talking about? I’ve never once been to Japan. The closest I’ve been is North Korea two years ago.”, protested Asuka, gesturing to a framed color photograph on the desk near her. Shinji looked over at the color photo on the Lieutenant’s desk and saw an only slightly younger Asuka wearing the telltale Ernst Thählmann Pioneere uniform, arm in arm with a North Korean girl, both captured on film in the middle of singing “The Internationale”. Shinji squinted and thought briefly how similar the TP uniform actually was to his Asuka’s Japanese school uniform. There was another photo next to it showing Asuka wearing the telltale FDJ (Freie Deutsche Jugend) uniform but hugging some younger TP’s, who were clearly sad to see her go. Shinji remembered from a history lesson that the cutoff age between TP and FDJ was age 14. But this girl then jumped from FDJ to full military officer in just a few short months!? That was crazy! Shinji looked up at this Asuka’s neat service uniform (he noted she was wearing the men’s uniform and not a woman’s uniform) and asked simply....”aren’t you a little young to be already an officer in the military?” “These are desperate times. And I was selected for my genius level IQ and aptitude. I admit my commission is a bit unorthodox, but it is genuine. It is my honor to serve our German Democratic Republic.” Misato had been slowly coming to, having been knocked out by chloroform earlier. She had been half-listening to this conversation then raised her head and saw the redheaded, blue eyed girl before them and also blurted out... “ASUKA! We found you!” Lieutenant A. Engelschlachter unholstered her Makarov pistol and pointed it straight at Misato’s head while declaring, in English: “How the hell do you two know my name? I want some goddamn answers NOW.” “Wait....!”, interjected Shinji, throwing himself in front of the still groggy Misato Katsuragi....”...did you just say German Democratic Republic?” Asuka blinked and said “Ja. Ich bin Leutnant Asuka Engelschlachter, Pilotin für die Luftstreitkräfte der Nationalen Volksarmee der DDR.” “English....”, begged Shinji. Flustered, Asuka repeated herself...”I am Lieutenant Asuka Engelschlachter, a pilot and officer of the Air Forces of the National People’s Army of the German Democratic Republic.” “And where is your hometown?”, asked Shinji. “Potsdam. But I have an apartment in East Berlin, near Alexanderplatz.” “Look you kids, this is sweet and all, but begging the Lieutenant’s pardon, I’m a Captain with NERV and thus I outrank you and we’re taking you back to Japan one way or another.”, Misato interrupted impatiently. “Du gehst mir sicherlich langsam auf die Nerven....” muttered Asuka. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”, Misato shot back at the sullen Asuka. Asuka picked up the Makarov pistol from her desk and pointed it back at Captain Katsuragi. “Did you forget you’re still my prisoner? I want to know how two Japanese imperialists snuck onto MY airbase inquiring specifically about ME. What is this NERV of whom you speak? Some sort of private contractor for Japanese military intelligence?” Shinji was utterly confused....”Misato, how does she not know any of this?!” Misato took a deep breath before answering in Japanese. “Because we’ve somehow slipped into an alternate timeline where the Cold War never ended, Shinji. You remember how our Asuka is from Berlin? Well, during the Cold War only West Berlin was free. In our timeline Germany reunified in 1991, and our Asuka has only known a united Germany her whole lifetime. But while this Asuka is also from Berlin, notice she said Potsdam, which was in the Eastern Sector during the Cold War. If the Cold War hasn’t yet ended in this timeline, that’s why she’s an Air Force officer for the GDR.” Asuka interrupted in heavily accented Japanese....”Just so you know, I’m part Japanese myself...my mother was Half-Japanese half German. My Japanese is a little rusty but I understand everything you’re saying.” “With apologies, we know that, Asuka.”, Shinji countered. Asuka swung the Makarov to level it at Shinji instead “Die Frage ist nun wie!?”, she spat. That much Shinji understood without translation. He heaved a great sigh then began....”You’re going to find this very hard to believe, but please just listen and please save your questions until after I’m done.”

#Fanfic #NGE #neon genesis evangelion #alternate timeline #OC #rough draft #ddr #gdr #East Germany #luftstreitkräfte

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one-of-us-blog · 6 years ago

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Die Another Day (2002)

Today Drew is forced to watch and recap 2002’s Die Another Day, the twentieth James Bond adventure. Bond is captured and tortured by some bad guys, and now 007 is out for revenge! Can Bond handle going rogue, or will MI6 shut down his quest for vengeance before it can even begin? Will Bond find those responsible for his imprisonment? Why is it so sunny in here?

Keep reading to find out…

Eli, I loved your last two recaps so much! I know there was a stretch of less-than-stellar episodes for you to wade through, but I’m so glad you enjoyed these last two romps! I still can’t believe how close you are to the end of the show, but, speaking of, I’m close to the end of an era myself. This is the final Bond film before the big reboot, and it’s crazy to think of how far we’ve come over the course of this blog! I can’t stand it anymore, the anticipation has me way too excited to lay out any other preamble!

Buttocks tight!

Screenplay by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, film directed by Lee Tamahori

We start with a shockingly three-dimensional gun barrel sequence, and then we jump to the coast of Pukch’ŏng County, North Korea. Bond, alongside two of his fellow MI6 agents, surf into North Korea and attract the attention of a helicopter, which they quickly commandeer. This helicopter was bound for the headquarters of Colonel Tan-Sun Moon (Will Yun Lee), located in the Korean demilitarized zone, and Bond soon arrives after placing some explosives in a suitcase full of diamonds that the helicopter’s original passenger was transporting. Just to give you an idea of how comically evil a villain Moon is going to be, the first time we see him he’s beating up his anger management therapist for lecturing him. Bond is greeted at Moon’s HQ by the surly Zao, who surreptitiously snaps a pic of 007 when he arrives. Bond and Moon meet, and it’s really driven home that Moon is a rude, crude dude with a bad attitude when it’s revealed he’s trading weapons for African blood diamonds. Moon shows off the weapons Bond’s supposed to get for the blood diamonds, but turns out Zao wasn’t taking Bond’s picture just so he could add it to his scrapbook. He’s done a background check on 007, and since Bond is the worst secret agent in the world it doesn’t take any time at all for Zao to inform Moon of Bond’s true identity. Moon blows up Bond’s helicopter, but he’s distracted by a call from his daddy, General Moon (Kenneth Tsang). He leaves the killing of Bond to Zao while he scrambles to hide all the illegal weapons he’s got in the demilitarized zone before his dad finds them and he gets grounded. Thinking, “Why the hell not?” Bond triggers the explosive in the suitcase full of diamonds, causing and explosion that allows him to escape and results in Zao getting a high-velocity diamond facial. Bond escapes on one of Moon’s hovercrafts (why not) and blows up most of his headquarters before chasing after Moon as he races across the mine-laced demilitarized zone. There’s a lot of shooting, some mines get blown up and Moon fires off a flamethrower for no good reason before Bond and Moon end up on the same hovercraft and Bond kills Moon by driving the hovercraft off a waterfall. Moon’s zaddy arrives, and he’s none too pleased about his dumb kid getting killed.

General Moon has Bond waterboarded while we finally head to the opening credits. This credits sequence is… troubling. Madonna sings out the mediocre techno ballad “Die Another Day” while we’re treated to scenes of Bond being brutally tortured interspersed with CGI ladies comprised of ice, fire and electricity dance around and some scorpions just kind of crawl around and mind their own business. Also diamonds. It’s a mess, and honestly the dime-store techno bassline makes it a little hard for me to get too invested in the vignettes of Bond being beaten and sodomoized with a hot poker by a sexy Korean woman in jackboots.

After what feels like a lifetime this bit is finally over, and a bearded, bedraggled Bond is brought before General Moon. Bond has managed not to break in all the time he’s been held here, and Moon lets him know it’s time for him to go. Bond is taken to a bridge where it seems he’s going to be shot, but then Moon’s goons lower their weapons and we find out this is all actually a prisoner exchange. Bond is being traded for the bedazzled Zao, and the two share pleasantries while they make their way back to their respective governments. On the British side, Bond is greeted by Damian Falco (Michael Madsen) from the NSA and…oh, my stars and garters, could it really be? Dare I dream?

That’s right, folks, Charles Robinson is back, babey!!! And not a moment too soon! I have no doubt he singlehandedly wrestled Zao into custody after Bond was done bonering everything up. Charles Robinson didn’t become the most valuable man in MI6 by being reckless, and he leaves nothing to chance. He has Bond sedated so that he can be checked for any kind of biological weapons. M, no doubt having met with Charles Robinson to mine his formidable intellect, goes to meet with Bond through a sheet of glass. M doesn’t mince words and lets Bond know that if she’d had her druthers he’d still be getting dicked by scorpions back in North Korea. She thinks they paid too high a price for Bond’s freedom by letting Zao go, but Bond didn’t ask to be traded and couldn’t kill himself because he… I don’t know, cut out? ripped out? his cyanide capsule years ago.

M explains that an American prisoner was killed in Bond’s prison a week ago, and they think Bond broke under torture and was mined for intel by the North Koreans. M gives him a vote of confidence by entering his glass prison to let him know she doesn’t think he’ll kill her, but she tells him he’s going for an evaluation and won’t be sent into the field any time soon. Bond… Okay, listen, Bond, like, meditates or something and lowers his heartrate to the point that the monitors he’s hooked up to think he’s dead. Some medical staff rush in to save them, he jolts them with an EKG machine and makes a break for it. Just go with me here.

Bond, now officially gone rogue, heads to a hotel he’s known at and gets a shave, haircut and new suit. The hotel manager, Mr. Chang (Ho Yi), sends up a masseuse to entertain 007, but Bond knows she’s packin’ heat and Chang, who’s actually with Chinese Intelligence (maybe he and Wai Lin have worked together?), is filming him from behind a half-silvered mirror. Bond tells Chang he won’t hold a grudge over all this if Chang can get him into North Korea so he can get his hands on Zao. Chang finds out Zao isn’t in North Korea anymore, though, he’s in Havana. Bond heads to Cuba and meets up with a British sleeper agent/cigar factory owner, Raoul (Emilio Echevarría). Raoul lets Bond know he can find Zao on an island which sports and unusual gene therapy clinic. Bond heads to a hotel which sports a view of the strange island, and there he catches sight of Giacinta “Jinx” Johnson (Halle Berry), who emerges from the ocean like the second coming of Honey Ryder.

Bond and Johnson seem to really hit it off, by which I mean they immediately hit the sheets, but the next morning Bond is left alone as Johnson sets sail for the clinic on Isla Los Organos. Bond knocks out another hotel guest and uses his ticket to get a ride to the island as well. He loads his new unconscious friend into a wheelchair and brings him along to the island, where he causes a distraction by hurling the man and his chair into a wall. He then finds a secret, mirror-lined passage and slinks his way through. Johnson, meanwhile, is apparently getting a consultation for gene therapy. Just kidding, though, she immediately kills the doctor, burns the evidence of her being there and lets us know she’s definitely a spy.

Bond finds Zao in the middle of a procedure that’s meant to rewrite his DNA to make him look like a white dude right as Johnson finds Zao’s file an stops the procedure right in the middle of things and leaves Zao looking like a naked mole rat of a man. Zao wakes up and he and Bond fight, but Zao gets away while Johnson sets off a bomb to shut down the whole facility. Bond and Johnson both chase after Zao, but he gets away in a helicopter. Johnson is almost killed by some guards, who don’t seem to notice Bond, but she avoids death by disrobing and then cliff diving down to an awaiting speedboat. Bond examines a bullet which Zao was wearing as a fun, festive necklace until Bond yoinked it off during their fight. Inside the bullet are some diamonds, which Bond has Raoul examine. The diamonds are being sold by Gustav Graves, who alleges to have found them in Iceland a year ago despite Raoul being able to definitively identify them (somehow) as African blood diamonds. Hey, that sounds familiar!

Who cares about all of that, though, because the most important man in MI6, Charles Robinson, arrives at work just in time to catch Miss Moneypenny spying on a conversation between M and Falco from the NSA. Falco thinks M played a part in Bond’s escape, and Charles Robinson sagely watches on as M shoulders the weight of Falco’s threats to make things right at MI6. Bond, meanwhile looks some stuff on Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), who makes an interest by parachuting down to meet up with his publicist Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) in front of a bunch of reporters (and Bond). Bond tracks Graves and Frost to a fencing… club? academy? class? I don’t know. It’s hosted by Verity (Madonna in the cameo no one asked for), who introduces Bond to Graves. Bond, despite being on the run from MI6 and, like, a secret agent, uses his real name because why not.

Bond and Graves immediately get into a cock measuring contest via proxy in the form of a fencing match, during which Bond lets Graves know he’s figured out that Graves is selling blood diamonds. Graves challenges Bond to up the stakes and the two start fighting with real swords and completely wrecking Verity’s swordfight clubhouse. Frost eventually breaks up the fight and Graves invites Bonds to a science demonstration. A bellboy gives Bond a mysterious envelope with a key in it, and he goes to an abandoned subway station to meet up with M. M’s not here to capture Bond, though, she just wants to compare notes on Graves. M warns Bond about Graves’ political connections and agrees to give him some unsanctioned help.

Bond arrives at MI6, only to find Moneypenny dead from a gunshot to the head. He takes out several attackers and is joined by Charles Robinson himself, so you just know everything’s going to be alright. But then the unthinkable, the impossible, the inconceivable happens and Charles Robinson, the unshakable foundation upon which the stability of the British government rests, is gunned down. No, I can’t accept it! I won’t! And I don’t have to, because this is all a training session taking place in the VR Zone. C’mon, you know a Q-Branch simulation is the only place a facsimile of Charles Robinson could ever be bested! Q (née R) brings Bond safely out of the VR Zone and takes him to his workshop in the subway, where Bond proceeds to touch everything like a five-year-old at a toy store. Bond is outfitted with a sonic ring that can smash unbreakable glass and, get ready for this, a car that turn invisible.

We’re due for a twist, so we get to sit in on a meeting with M and Frost, who, it turns out, is an MI6 agent spying on Graves. Frost things Graves will blow her cover, but M says that in all her time spying on Graves Frost has turned up dick all and M wants Bond to go in and shake some shit up a bit. Bond heads to Graves’ ice palace in Iceland where he’s greeted by the imaginatively named Mr. Kil (Lawrence Makoare) before Graves scoots up in his super speedy sled car thing. We get another mention of Graves never sleeping, which is a thing that just keeps getting brought up. The famous Jinx Johnson arrives while Bond heads to the bar before his DTs can get too out of hand. Bond and Johnson meet up while Zao arrives at the ice palace. He pulls Graves out of a crazy dream machine which he has to use to stay sane due to his permanent insomnia, and it turns out Graves is actually Moon post-gene alteration.

The shindig finally gets underway and Graves unveils Icarus, a satellite which can reflect Sol’s light toward Earth and function as a second sun. Bond hides out in his magical invisible car so he can snoop around in Graves’ private business, but immediately gets caught because he’s just no good at stealth. Frost saves Bond from being discovered by Mr. Kil by making out with him while Johnson Mission Impossibles her way into Graves’ inner sanctum. While Frost and Bond are busy getting busy, Johnson is doing some actual work. Unfortunately she finds Zao waiting in Graves’ dream machine instead of Graves himself, who sneaks up behind her and electrocutes her with a souped-up Power Glove.

Zao and Mr. Kil interrogate Johnson, but she ain’t a canary and she ain’t in the mood to sing, so Zao leaves Mr. Kil to slice her up with a mining laser (paging Dr. Goldfinger). Bond finally arrives at Graves’ greenhouse lair in time to save Johnson, but first he has to deal with Mr. Kil. Bond gets his ass handed to him, but the still-restrained Johnson manages to kill Mr. Kil with the mining laser. Bond sends Johnson off to find Frost and get in touch with MI6 while Bond confronts Graves and reveal he finally knows the dude is actually Moon. Frost arrives, only to turn her gun on Bond. Turns out Frost set Bond up in North Korea and she’s been a double agent the whole time. Frost is about to execute Bond, but luckily he’s got his glass-shattering ring which allows him to… well, shatter some glass. Specifically the glass floor of the green house. You get it.

Bond escapes in Graves’ super sled, but Graves brings in some North Korean generals so he can demonstrate the destructive capability of Icarus to them. Icarus hyper-focuses the sun’s like way beyond what could be useful for a farmer trying to get that sweet wheat all year ‘round, and Bond barely out maneuvers the solar death beam by driving the sled off the side of an ice shelf and using the sled’s anchor (?) to keep himself from falling into the frigid sea. Graves solves this problem by just carving off the whole chunk of ice and making a prophetically topical joke about global warming. Bond survives, though, by jumping into a Nintendo 64 surfing game and shredding away to safety.

Johnson is discovered by Frost and Zao, who inform her she’s going to die… eventually. Bond steals a Ski-Doo and makes it back to the ice palace where he retrieves his inviso-mobile, which is useful for about a minute until another Ski-Doo crashes into it. Zao uses the thermal vision of his own car to spot Bond, and the two set off on a merry chase while the now-abandoned ice castle begins to rumble around Johnson. Graves fires up Icarus and begins to melt the ice palace, but not before Bond crashes into it (the car chase is still going on, BTW). Bond tricks Zao into driving into a pool formed out of melted ice and then shoots a chandelier down onto him instead of just shooting him in the head.

Bond retrieves the almost-drowned Johnson and gets her into the warmth of the greenhouse in time to save her. The two head to a US bunker on the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone where they’re greeted by the one, the only, the legend, the icon, Charles Robinson. With a mind to rival Watson, Charles Robinson lays down the skinny in no time flat. Graves and Frost are in North Korea, and neither the American nor the British governments can go get him before Icarus is used to destroy any of North Korea’s enemies (i.e. everypony). M’s sending in Bond anyway, and Falco decides he needs a reason to be in this movie so he sends Johnson in too. The two are airdropped in, and Charles Robinson, with the sage, cautious wisdom of an old barn owl, worries that they’ll be detected. Falco’s dumbass has the nerve, the gal, the audacity to tell Charles Robinson to “relax”, so you know that sonofabitch has some comeuppance headed his way.

The missiles Falco has sent to destroy Icarus are instantly destroyed by the mirror’s solar laser, because of course they are you dumb stupid idiot. Bond and Johnson, meanwhile, have landed and stowaway on Graves’ plane. Graves calls for his zaddy to be brought down, where he reveals himself in his new white face and shows off a plastic mech suit that allows him to control Icarus via a computer mouse trackball installed in his Power Glove. He fires up Icarus to show off and make his papa proud, but General Moon tells him the other countries will nuke the hell out of North Korea to shut this shit down. Graves doesn’t take paternal rejection well and 86es his dear old dad. Bond tries to shoot Graves but his shot is deflected, resulting in a window getting blown out and the plane violently depressurizing.

Johnson manages to stop the plane from crashing, but then Frost is there to hold her at swordpoint and of course she’s wearing an ornate bra and elbow-length gloves for no damn reason. Who even cares at this point. Icarus’ death beam is still going, by the by, and Charles Robinson, with the time-keeping prowess of the White Rabbit, lets everyone know it’s headed right their way. Johnson flies the plane right into the beam’s path, giving her time to get the better of Frost. Johnson and Frost fight with blades while Bond and Graves just ineffectually punch each other. Johnson eventually gets the better of Frost and kills her (with a very saucy, “Bitch!” thrown in for good measure) while Graves gets the better of Bond and prepares to escape the falling plane. Bond prematurely triggers Graves’ parachute, which results in Graves being sucked into the plane’s engines and most definitely dying.

Bond and Johnson find a helicopter hidden in the plane, Inception style, and manage to ride it out of the exploding plane in time to avoid death by ground. Bond makes what I think has to be a weird 69 joke before the two fly off into the sky with a crate of diamonds in the back of the helicopter.

Moneypenny uses Q’s VR shades to live out a fantasy involving Bond banging her at MI6, because that’s all this movie has to say about her character, but Q interrupts her before she can rub one out. Glad everyone thought this scene definitely needed to be in this already-over-two-hours movie.

Bond and Johnson have sex on top of the stolen diamonds (imagine how uncomfortable that would be) and we’re finally done here.

The End

~~~~~

Woof! I know way back in my introductory post I mentioned that I’d seen this movie (or at least parts of it) at some point in my checkered past, but, lemme tell ya, there was a whole lot that I’d forgotten/suppressed about Die Another Day. Just to start out with some positives, I actually really liked the design of Zao’s diamond-encrusted face, and I really liked seeing Halle Berry here. She didn’t get anything worthy of her talents to work with, but still. Then there were things that started out neat, but didn’t work in the end. I liked Frost a lot when she was introduced, but then she got reduced to a sword-wielding lunatic in a bra for the final conflict with Jinx. Icarus seemed fun, but then I remembered that this is not the first, not the second but the third Brosnan Bond film with a satellite at the heart of its narrative. We had GoldenEye, then Carver’s dumb satellite news network and now Icarus. That’s three out of four Brosnan films with satellites as key players. I love space as much as the next gay, but, I mean, get a new shtick already! Then there’s stuff that was just silly. Bond stopping his heartbeat? The Power Glove? The ice palace? The invisible car? That Madonna song? C’mon. I know you have to suspend disbelief for any of these movies, but jeez louise. And while I know I don’t normally dwell on the technical side of things during my recaps, but the special effects in this movie were very bad. If we weren’t getting some unnecessary slow-mo, we were having shots like the one of Jinx cliff diving or the truly horrendous kiteboarding scene that legitimately made me gasp when it first started. While there were definitely some fun moments and some little touches I liked, on the whole this flick is a mess and a far, far fall from the glory days of GoldenEye.

I feel I can only give Die Another Day QQ on the Five Q Scale.

We’ll see you again in a hot minute as Eli serves up a couple of fresh recaps of the next two episodes of The Golden Palace, “Say Goodbye, Rose” and “You’ve Lost That Livin’ Feeling”, and after that it’ll be time for me to move onto a brand new Bond as I tackle the next James Bond adventure, Casino Royale (and maybe you can look forward to a few special treats before then, who can say?).

Until then, as always, thank you for reading, thank you for analyzing this (Sigmund Freud) and thank you for being One of Us!

#one of us #007 #james bond

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anthonybialy · 3 years ago

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Republican and Can't

The business party isn't keen on competition. Republicans are dead set against a third option. Two is already confusing.It's either a failure of imagination or imaginative fear of losing power that leads the side ostensibly against government to nominate hypocritically flaccid dolts who spend marginally less enthusiastically. Wendy's disrupts the McDonald's/Burger King ease of choice. Wait until they hear about Five Guys.

It's unbelievable and understandable that a regrettable election competitor would try to copy the other one. Panicky insecurity creates a flimsy copy. The side truly obsessed with uncontrollable spending, needless trade wars, and presumed federal involvement in health care beats the other one that endorses unfortunate ideas halfheartedly. The two-party system is as indistinguishable as Spy vs. Spy. I forget which one is my favorite, but I do know I loathe the foe.

For ease of selection, there's been a reduction of choices in the second selection which resembles the other one, anyway. Your Republican options are the Donald Trump rude lame insult wannabe insider wing and the Bush/Romney Ivy League snotty surrender caucus. Ensuring options remain narrow is especially popular amongst the former's cultish rubes who can't admit Earth's greatest winner lost to Joe goddamn Biden.

I wish there could be more choices than establishment dull liberals and wannabe establishment obnoxious liberals. Thinking there are are only a few choices is what Democrats claim and desire. You've got more choices than those who offer a meek copy even as they naturally tell you otherwise.

Restrict choices either by lack of imagination or deliberate obfuscation. See: there's an option. Binary Fox News thinking got the joyless party trapped into inviting the same unwelcome crasher. The erstwhile president's former messenger service is a fitting mouthpiece in its way. Hate whoever criticizes to be a sophisticated grownup. The North Korean pink lady aspires to such loyalty.

Why do you want to be fed to the lion, asks the shark? Potential club members are pressed to join one of two completely different Republican gangs who will add debt without daring to cut a buck of spending. The matter of which style they prefer should make going broke more comfortable.

Pretend to be against the system while funding every bit. The same mentality behind demanding support for Trump to defeat wicked Hillary results in two wretched factions competing to be the least worst. Get down to the most hideous finalists imaginable and figure which won't please Satan as much.

It shouldn't be that challenging to locate a human who understands government sucks and possesses a plan to halt said sucking. Getting one who wants to run is the challenging bit. But we just need the one. Until that single person is located, primaries will remain liberals versus liberals in the party that's supposedly for conservatives. People who can't imagine someone polite who still sticks up for the right to keep one's own funds are playing the party game. Can't we just drink instead?

Trump is a self-made man except for the man and self-made parts. An utter fake naturally embraces government intervention on every occasion. Why wouldn't a party rely on the guy who never figured how to enact wholesale Obamacare repeal?

Standards and people both remain unchanged for different reasons. Tethering oneself to a personality can only be made more regrettable by the attached people in question. Republicans have a chance to dedicate themselves to limited government instead of an inept buffoon and refuse to take it. Remaining Trump fans are battered spouses who are scared to leave him. Ask one of his ex-wives for advice.

It's inspirational in its way how limited in imagination the Republican Party remains. Their inherent lunkheaded nature also explains the inability to sell any maneuver that involves letting people choose how they'll spend or live.

A political conglomerate that thinks it can run your life better than you can can’t think of anything other than two options who combine to form zero good ones. Not everything from the past is worth cherishing, as seen by both types of recent regrettable presidential nominees. Binary Republicans choose between Budweiser or Miller in a craft brew world. They can't even imagine a world with taste.

A strong example of the opposite should inspire the decent to prefer the actually classy. Trump was a rude losing insurrectionist. He really does like the CSA. Dismissing nonsense about white supremacy infecting all corners of society would be easier if he hadn't inspired a charge like Pickett.

Fearing success would explain a lot. Anyone still enticed by the loser who didn't do what he claimed shows the downside of comfort with familiarity. Explaining just why the last Republican president was, is, and always will be full of it should be the easiest task since beating Hillary Clinton.

Embodying phoniness has only been his default setting for his entire goddamn life, so why learn after decades of him craving attention? Only forty percent of one was spent in the presidency after he couldn't even lie as well as Joe Biden.

Trump gets attention despite deserving even less of it than usual. He's happy in his miserable way. We still have to discuss him if you thought the punishment for whatever we did was over. Anyone sensible was sick of it in 2016.

You can even go back to being repulsed in the mid-'80s if you had the misfortune of encountering his shrieking about how incredible he is for that long. Ignore the failed football league, casinos, and presidency. Embracing the anchor will surely allow for reaching new heights. It's only spray-painted gold, which novice swimmers will discover too late.

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davidjjohnston3 · 3 years ago

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I ask again that you not share the Tumblr with MVJ as he uses all knowledge of me against me or to imitate / try to be me rather than MVJ. I ask the same w/r/t MJ / Michael, as he resents me for various reasons to do with manipulation-leadership (such as telling him in '09 that I felt that I was going to be a doctor someday in order to hearten / give him morale when he was anguished over job-searching in the Great Recession). I do things like this because of a film called "Late Spring" a masterpiece by the Japanese director who inspired the Taiwanese auteur about whom I wrote my RU senior thesis and met Rebecca Hu who inspired me to work hard, get that Singapore job, meet Kate again in '07 in NYC, promise her in '08 I would struggle / fight / work for 3 years to become someone deserving of her (hand in marriage if not just friendship), which is also part of why I made that '08-09 deal with Dad that culminated in me going to MTTP in Madison, meeting Chi Hye, falling in love with this gold light in her eyes, believing in angels and mountains and "They shall mount up as eagles and not stub their toe" (Isaiah), meeting Josephine Park at 7-Step and everyone else, getting promoted to Head Developer in 6 months, then quitting b/c of a falling out I had on that night I called you after 6 months' radio silence. IDK if you want to hear this but I wanted to marry Josephine / "LitGirl." I thanked her for helping me. IDK if you care about this she flirted with me partly by showing armpit-stubble in the summer of 2010 and I understood this because I understand "Korean American literature." She might be the most beautiful perfect ideal "jeongdakhan" (kind of 'suitable,,' or, 'spec') woman I ever met. She went to Seoul National U. which is Korea's no.1 university and worked for an elite newspaper before taking some time off to write - she loves Emily Dickinson and, I believe, Park Wanseo, who wrote my favorite Korean short story "That Girl's House" about a promised couple in Japanese-occupied Korea who are separated by the girl's father's paranoia about Gop Dan's becoming a comfort woman and sold to be a farmer's bride in what becomes North Korea rather than marrying the "village prince" or aspiring scholar, who wants her to come away with him to Seoul... Josephine or "Jeongeun" (which kind of means perhaps "emotion-grace" or arguably "central grace" - Josephine means "love will increase" BTW and is the name of Jo from Little Women; the name she chose for herself) looks a bit like Lee Yowon the aspiring girl who gets plastic surgery in "Take Care of My Cat" and a bit like Seo Juhyun / Catherine Seo / Seohyun the youngest member of Girls Generation who was known for her probity, "Holy Seohyun" who was no. 2 in her HS before becoming the "maknae" or "final inner" / youngest and most beloved member of the nation's best-ever girl-group. FWIW, I used to write to Seohyun on Twitter as well but she never replied. On around the time of the sinking of the MV Sewol she wrote "we cried till our eyes dried" or so and used the word "huisaeng" to describe the victims which actually can mean "sacrifice." I wrote to Seohyun using a quote from Dante Alighieri about beauty and pure thoughts or pure minds since I read "New Life / Vita Nuova" and "Heaven / Paradiso" in KR. "Catherine" incidentally means "purity" as well. 2. On that night I first called you in 2011 I was out at a place with JEP and when I got back from our long phonecall she proceeded to get really drunk with foreigners I disliked from a hagwon I dislike throwing back soju and ultimately writing on the ladies' room floor throwing up. Danny Shin asked me to go in to the BR to comfort / talk with her so I did. I told her we should leave even before she got really drunk but she wouldn't obey me. KJ Park arrived and said "ireona" (get up bitch) and she did. I cursed in front of KJ Park since I felt I was being used as her crying-blankie and exploited to help her cope but never extricate from the situation. I later had a slight heart-attack when I found out they were having an affair even as JE flirted with other men and used them I see now as "honey-trap" and to spy on all the employees. I feel like this is the last time I will try to communicate open with you about why I am the way I am why I do what I do. Back in 2008 you told me to use more kindness but where does that go? It's good for little kids. Anyway before my heart-attack on that night - which impelled me to stop participating for a while in good faith with 7-Step's accelerated curriculum program working on Saturdays (which I had done happily before that) - I had been incredibly optimistic and at the same time "wise" in the "soi sage" sense reading Flaubert's last completed novel, which you might like one day, "L'Education Sentimentale" (accurately translated as "Emotional Education" since "Sentiment" sounds Victorian and sentimentality is an Anglo or Anglo-Korean category, saccharine in a way which French love and emotion are not). I also later visited Cheonan her hometown which means "Heaven's Peace." I walked around and years later wanted to write a novel called "Cheonan Sky" which is about the sinking of a ROKN frigate / destroyer / corvette called the ROKS Cheonan in 2010 but a North Korean suicide micro-submarine. The captain of the ROKS Cheonan never retired basically but became a military analyst for I believe either KJAD or 38North out of entailments or legacy-obligations to his men. The theme of "Cheonan Sky" is family killing family (the Korean War / civil war in general within a nation), terrorism, capital punishment by electrocution. The ending is that the hero committed acts of 1st degree murder and terrorism and is dressed by his wife for execution after donating semen / sperm so she can have a child after his death. You might or might not be interested to know but "Cheonan" in Chinese characters is I believe "Tian'an'" like Tiananmen Square. When I asked Josephine to teach me some Korean she said "Miryang" which means "secret sunshine" that is actually the name of a city as well a movie but known for the gang-rape of an elementary school girl. 3. This is kind of why I'm interested in terrorism, assassination, North Korean Studies, and also why I didn't know how to read people's sign about "covering love," concealing or forgiving crimes et cetera; covering sins. I associate JEP for some reason with Russian blues and mother-of-pearl since I looked at a wedding ring which was mother-of-pearl and diamond in 2011. In retrospect I have no idea whether she was interested in me or not or how willing she would have been to partner with me as opposed to KJ or Danny Shin or anyone else. I won't say anything more because I don't oppose women being that way 100% although the Book of Proverbs does say not to prostitute your daughter and a British Victorian Evangelical PM used to walk the streets of London pleading with hookers to get honest if low-paying jobs (WE Gladstone who also said politics succeeds ultimately through "not love of power but power of love" a saying I associate these days with Mike Pompeo) I have come close to imprisonment and/or death lately from trying to be open w/ people in America so this is literally I ardently wish my last freebie w/r/t "teaching" people but the existence of people like Josephine also seems to bind me to SK or KR. There is simply no way I can not go back someday. When that ferry sank I saw an article about a foreigner graveyard in Incheon and felt what Shakespeare felt near the end of his life which was a desire beyond or parallel to after life to donate his bones to a certain plot of land. I foolishly or heedlessly confessed this reality to Mi who became depressed and my words started to go over his head. IDK if you want to know this but I worked for a long time on a novel about the MV Sewol called "Flowers on Water" or "Flowers 1881" which is about the sovereignty of God in the deaths or waste of children as well as "It Is Well with My Soul," Chancellor / Pastor John Piper, the drowning of paedophiles in prison or others who abuse or exploit young people, and my own responsibility for failing as an HS teacher. IDK if you remember but the guy who owned the MV Sewol which sank due to unlawful loading of the hull with equipment was found decapitated with a backpack full of money in a field of maize, I believe. There are those who believe including me that KR is not really a democracy but run by the KCIA or and/or through an organization called "One Company" or so that includes numerous military dictators, officers, many of whom used to be teachers though some were also associated with the terrorist-student radical organization (the ShiShi) that produced the Meiji Restoration and the Empire of Japan -> WW2 Pacific since the Japanese were determined not to let American "gunboat diplomacy" lead to cultural genocide or everlasting hegemony of the West over either JP or the total Far East. My last thing to you is just that there are those who believe the imperial family of JP who were restored to supremacy in gov't by the ShiShi after centuries of formalistic ritualitsic formalistic ceremonial "Chinese" rule are partly Korean in blood and Koreans themselves believe in "Minjung Theology" saying Koreans have a holy destiny worldwide which is something I believe as well. You can be 10,000% honest with me about your intentions from now on BTW. IDK if I can get back to KR now, a year from now, or in a coffin. It depends on money I guess. As I reflected in my previous e-mail after my born again prayer in 2004 when I wished for unity (in the field across the street from Marshall School) I eventually got that unity around 2012 when Dad said he would work sacrificially to fix me up following my suicide-attempt and in 2013 when I told Jaeyoung that I wanted to be a principal I precipitated or incubated a process leading up to the Lead Teacher position I was offered a few months back as well as Concordia's interest in my application for their Educational Leadership doctorate. If you want to read one more book by a Korean I urge "The Fourth Dimension" by Rev. Dr. David YongGi Cho, the pastor of a church called Yoido or Yeouido Full Gospel which claims some 500,000 members though Dr. Cho has been indicted for embezzlement and there are those who would doubt his belief in miracle faith-healing or in God's defending people from things like head-first suicide-attempts. As my student once said to me, "Thank you for everything" DJJ PS again if you like music I rec. "Marvel Not That Christ in Glory" - "Christ in p/POWER Resurrection / calling many sons to glory" - as well as a pop-song called "Please Remember Me" by a girl-group known as Year 7 Class 1 or 7-1. It is a slow ballad but the central refrain is "yaksokhae uri... kkok mannayo..." (Let us promise to meet again rapidly / immediately)...

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Saturday, November 28, 2020

Inching toward exit (Reuters) U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden, the closest he has come to conceding the Nov. 3 election, even as he repeated claims of massive voter fraud. Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Republican Trump said if Democrat Biden—who is due to be sworn in on Jan. 20—is formally declared the winner by the Electoral College, he will depart the White House. Asked if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for Biden, Trump said: “Certainly I will. Certainly I will. And you know that.”

Schools struggle to stay open as quarantines sideline staff (AP) The infection of a single cafeteria worker was all it took to close classrooms in the small Lowellville school district in northeastern Ohio, forcing at least two weeks of remote learning. Not only did the worker who tested positive for the coronavirus need to quarantine, but so did the entire cafeteria staff and most of the transportation crew, because some employees work on both. The district of about 500 students sharing one building had resumed in-person instruction with masks and social distancing and avoided any student infections. But without enough substitute workers, administrators had no choice but to temporarily abandon classroom operations and meal services. “It boils down to the staff,” Lowellville Superintendent Geno Thomas said. “If you can’t staff a school, you have to bring it to remote.” Around the country, contact tracing and isolation protocols are sidelining school employees and closing school buildings. The staffing challenges force students out of classrooms, even in districts where officials say the health risks of in-person learning are manageable. And the absences add to the strain from a wave of early retirements and leaves taken by employees worried about health risks.

Pandemic pushes Peru's vital peasant farmers to the brink (AP) Under a punishing Andean sun, Nazario Quispe digs his plow into the soil where he is growing dozens of different potato varieties—uncertain when he will be able to afford the seeds and supplies to sow them again. Farmers like Quispe are responsible for the food that lands on 70% of Peruvian dinner tables, officials say, but months of pandemic lockdown and a souring economy have left many bankrupt and questioning whether to plant again. “If my savings dry up, how will I sustain myself?” asked Quispe, a father of five who grows 150 types of the tuber native to Peru from the Sacred Valley highlands. Across this South American nation an estimated 7 million peasants like the 51-year-old Quispe toil small plots of land to feed their families and earn a living. Strict quarantines early in the pandemic made transporting beans, potatoes and other crops to markets difficult. Prices plummeted as demand dropped. Official data shows the price for potatoes dropped at least 30% between March and July.

Brexit goes down to the wire: EU and UK say big differences remain (Reuters) The European Union and Britain said on Friday there were still substantial differences over a Brexit trade deal as the EU chief negotiator prepared to travel to London in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a tumultuous finale to the five-year Brexit crisis. With just five weeks left until the United Kingdom finally exits the EU’s orbit on Dec. 31, both sides are calling on the other to compromise on the three main issues of contention—fishing, state aid and how to resolve any future disputes. The two sides will shortly resume face-to-face negotiations after they had to be suspended last week when one of EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier’s team tested positive for COVID-19.

Police brutality in Paris (AFP) Three police officers were suspended following the release of footage that shows a brutal beating of a black music producer in his studio in Paris. The incident comes amid protests against police brutality in France, just days after another video showing the violent dismantling of a migrant camp shocked the country—and the government’s push to restrict filming police.

E.U. Border Agency Accused of Covering Up Migrant Pushback in Greece (NYT) Mounting evidence indicates that the European Union’s border agency has been complicit in Greece’s illegal practice of pushing back migrants to Turkey, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with officials. In at least one case, Frontex, as the E.U. border agency is known, is accused of having helped cover up the violations, when a crew said it was discouraged by agency officials from reporting that they had seen the Greek authorities setting a boatload of migrants adrift in Turkish waters. It has fueled suspicions that the agency, newly boosted in its role as upholder of the rule of law at E.U. borders, is not just sporadically aware of such abuses, but that it plays a role in concealing them. “We are seeing an erosion of the rule of law at the E.U. borders which is willful,” said Gerald Knaus, a migration expert. “This is deeply worrying because it is eroding the refugee convention on the continent on which it was created.” Refugee arrivals to the European Union peaked five years ago and have dropped drastically since, but thousands of asylum seekers, many fleeing the wars in Afghanistan and Syria, still attempt the crossing.

S. Korea agency says N. Korea executed people, shut capital (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered at least two people executed, banned fishing at sea and locked down the capital, Pyongyang, as part of frantic efforts to guard against the coronavirus and its economic damage, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Friday. Kim’s government also ordered diplomats overseas to refrain from any acts that could provoke the United States because it is worried about President-elect Joe Biden’s expected new approach toward North Korea, lawmakers told reporters after attending a private briefing by the National Intelligence Service. North Korea has maintained that it hasn’t found a single coronavirus case on its soil, a claim disputed by outside experts, although it says it is making all-out efforts to prevent the virus’s spread. A major outbreak could have dire consequences because the North’s health care system remains crippled and suffers from a chronic lack of medical supplies.

China slaps tariffs of up to 212% on Australian wine imports (CNN) Australian winemakers have been dealt a huge blow from China as tensions continue to spiral between the two countries. Chinese regulators announced Friday that they would impose heavy tariffs on Australian wines after finding preliminary evidence of dumping. Starting Saturday, China will begin slapping duties of between 107.1% and 212.1% on Australian wine imports, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. The move places yet another hurdle in front of Australian businesses as relations worsen between Canberra and Beijing. Australia has upset China this year by calling for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Beijing later targeted Canberra over trade, namely by suspending some imports of beef and slapping heavy tariffs on barley.

Lawmakers throw pig guts, punches on Taiwan parliament floor (AP) Lawmakers in Taiwan got into a fist fight and threw pig guts at each other Friday over a soon-to-be enacted policy that would allow imports of U.S. pork and beef. Premier Su Tseng-chang was due to give a regularly scheduled policy report to lawmakers on Friday morning about the pork policy when opposition party lawmakers from the Nationalist party, also known as the KMT, blocked his attempt to speak by dumping bags of pig organs. Legislators from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party attempted to stop them, resulting in chaos and an exchange of punches. President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration lifted a longstanding ban on imports of U.S. pork and beef in August, in a move seen as one of the first steps toward possibly negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. The ban is due to be lifted in January. That decision has met with fierce opposition, both from the KMT and individual citizens.

Israel Army Preparing in Case U.S. Strikes Iran, Axios Says (Bloomberg) Israel’s government instructed the military to prepare for a possible U.S. strike against Iran during the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term, Axios reported, citing unidentified Israeli officials. The instructions were given because officials anticipate “a very sensitive period” prior to the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, and not because of any intelligence or assessment that the U.S. will order an attack, the report said. The New York Times reported earlier this month that Trump asked his top aides whether he could take action against Iran’s main nuclear site. According to the report, senior advisers including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence dissuaded him, but he might still be looking at ways to strike Iranian assets and allies.

Iran scientist linked to military nuclear program killed (AP) An Iranian scientist named by the West as the leader of the Islamic Republic’s disbanded military nuclear program was killed Friday in an ambush on the outskirts of Tehran, authorities said. Iran’s foreign minister alleged the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh bore “serious indications” of an Israeli role, but did not elaborate. Israel, long suspected of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists a decade ago, declined to immediately comment. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once told the public to “remember that name” when talking about Fakhrizadeh. The killing risks further raising tensions across the Mideast, nearly a year after Iran and the U.S. stood on the brink of war when an American drone strike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad. It comes just as President-elect Joe Biden stands poised to be inaugurated in January and will likely complicate his efforts to return America to a pact aimed at ensuring Iran does not have enough highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.

Ethiopians flee Tigray capital in fear of imminent assault (AP) People continued to flee the capital of Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region in fear of an imminent assault after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the army had been ordered to move in for the “final phase” of an offensive to arrest the defiant regional leaders. Fighting reportedly remained well outside Mekele, a densely populated city of a half-million people who had been warned by the Ethiopian government of “no mercy” if they didn’t separate themselves from the Tigray leaders in time. Abiy on Thursday told residents to stay indoors and disarm as the army, with tanks, was given the order to move in. His government has vowed to protect civilians. Food and other supplies are running out in the Tigray region of 6 million people.

#headlines #news

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relicxkisses · 7 years ago

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[CH.1] Careful It Bites

The chapter one is finally here! I went through 5 versions of this and didn’t know which one to do but this one is the best version out of all! I really hope you guys will like it. The pairing is BTSxOC. I wish I can do it as reader pairing but I would want to have an OC for this story. Really sorry guys >< Hope you guys like this story and give lots of support ^^

Genre: Action, Romance, Friendship, Thriller and Comedy

Pairing: BTS x OC/ mostly Yoongi x OC

AU: Mafia, Spy, Military, Arrange Marriage

[TRIGGER WARNING!! Blood, gore, death, guns, torture, bully, drugs, fights, war.. [its a mafia au so expect everything bad in it hahaha]

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The forest area was thick with long grasses grazing against our skins. Holding our breaths hard and laying low between the thick bushes and behind tree trunks. Fully covered in heavy camouflage and armed with weapons from head to toe. Our senses were on full alert to hear every small movements within the large area of the clearing. Eyes darting to every corner to ensure that they are are not being watched.

‘3 O’clock and 300 meters ahead, 5 men coming your way. They have released buggies! Get cover now!’ The voice on their ear piece commanded and immediately every covered ourselves to be part of the Earth.

Their tracking equipment has picked up the buggies going around them. Everyone held their breath and eyes on the artificial bugs.They flew above our head. ‘I’ll take them down’ One of us whispered on the command piece. A thin electrons buzzed ahead and immediately the buggies fell to the ground, dead from the electrons.

‘Good job. Snipes eyes on the transport. We will hunt down on the ground’ The guy ahead of me commanded. ‘Roger that’ Our ear piece buzzed and he gave us a signal to split. I rolled over the group and stood up swiftly, hands and legs on the tree trunk and climbing on the trees. I was agile and flexible so the best way was up as the grasses will create too much noise.

‘I have eyes ahead, 5 men closing in. Snipe 1, get in position in the count of 3′ My eyes trained hard on the upcoming man who was running towards our direction. Completely used the thick leaves to keep me covered. ‘1.2.3, shoot’ I ordered on the mic. The man fell down after a shot was hit on his head. A soft thud was heard and soon they can hear running steps ahead.

Gripping my own finger on the trigger, eyes hard and wide open. ‘We have a tank coming to the clearing with 40 degrees off north of the clearing. We have birds out to fire them down. Be prepared for impact in 5 seconds’ Their ear piece buzzed from the center command.

‘3 seconds to impact. Team brace yourselves’ Not soon after, they felt the earth vibrated and a loud explosion was heard close to them. The running steps stops and curses was heard throughout the quiet air. ‘Backup is gone. Move forward up to North West team’ A demanding order was given from one of the 4 men. Footsteps was immediately dispersed at the command.

‘Joon, they are heading your way’ I said on the mic. The screen in front of me was showing heat scans of the bodies running at different routes but moving to north west as informed. ‘Roger. Kook shoot them down. I’ll take left you handle right’ Joon commanded. ‘Roger that’

The quiet air now filled with swift sound of shots. ‘Hope, On your left’ Joon said and immediately a shot buzzed through the air. ‘Team, reform at point 4. Snipes updates?’ I quickly came down from the tree, running a rough cotton fabric and made my way down. Untying the fabric from the trunk and quickly run to point 4 where the team was waiting for her. ‘We’re moving out. Target has been acquired’ I soon found my other 3 members standing near a smaller clearing.

‘Good job guys. We have taken them down and going back to base’ Joon said as we all assembled. ‘Hawk eye is landing. Strap on’ Hope said as he drops the screen on his helmet. We were all strapped with a helmet with a glass screen to show more details of their surroundings.

It was a very useful equipment to analyse how far the enemies are and give them the details needed to hunt them down. A black helicopter came down to the clearing and everyone jumped on it. Hands still stayed strong and alert on their weapons to shoot at a threat.

‘See you at the base soon’ A slow voice said on the ear piece. Letting out a breath that I didn’t noticed holding and rests back against the seat. ‘They barked at the wrong tree. What let them lose their shit’ I cursed and Kook laughed at me.

‘It wasn’t that bad and you feel exhausted already’ He snickered as he pulled out the helmet. ‘Aww did you missed another head shot?’ I teased, smirking at the kid. He glares at me and leans back. ‘The idiot moved so I missed’ He said and folded his arms.

‘You have eyes on the guy, grazing his shoulder with a bullet is like getting bitten by an ant. Remember eyes on their movements’ I said sternly and he groaned. ‘Joon, your sister is too annoying. Shut her up’ He groaned massaging his temples only to be slapped on the back by the taller male. ‘Be glad she didn’t kill you dude’ He laughed and wiped his face from the sweat dripping down his face using a clean cloth.

‘Hawk eye requesting permission to land’ The pilot said on the intercom as we got closer to the base. It was silent for awhile before we heard the buzz overhead on the pilot. ‘Permission granted to land at hangar 5′ ‘Roger. Hawk eye landing in hangar 5 in 5 minutes’ The pilot said and steered that helicopter around the vast airfield.

As the helicopter lowers down to the ground, there was black SUV driving to the hangar. 2 men came out of the vehicle and stood by the door. Once we landed, Namjoon was the first to leave the helicopter and approached the man.

As Namjoon talks to the man, everyone else strips of the heavy layer of armor and passes all the weapons to the helpers. I took a cold bottle of water and downed the whole bottle in a minute. Missions always makes me thirsty somehow. Walking towards my brother with another bottle in hand.

‘What’s going on?’ I said as I approached them. ‘Our parents are requesting everyone to attend tonight’s dinner. It seems they want to announce something’ He explained and I nodded as I opened the car door and slip in.

Once Jungkook, Namjoon and Hoseok gets into the car, we pulled away from the airfield and onto the main road. ‘Why our parents are having the dinner tonight? I just want to crawl to bed after 40 hours on this stupid mission’ I let out a yawn and closes my eyes.

We were assigned to take out rebels who has been trying to steal one of the gold mines that belongs to a royal family. They approached us to take them out and offered 15 gold bars once mission is complete. My mum was quick to seal the deal and send us out on the mission herself.

‘Come on there will be food, drinks and Yoongi’ Namjoon teased me at the end. I scowled at him and kick his leg. Yoongi is my best friend, a very cold best friend but I always looked up to him cause he literally has the world in his hand every since he was born. Everyone feared the power the Min family holds even the US President would be nervous to be shaking hands with Yoongi’s father.

The Min family has been very influential since Yoongi’s grandfather took over. He was a very smart man, using the American military and the Japanese military to create a 25-year truce with him in exchange of information and technologies to their military back in 1958.

Once the treaty had expired, his grandfather managed to make an agreement with over 25 influential military around the world including the US, UK, Russia, China and Turkey. From the agreement, the Min family has over 50 weapon labs across the world. Most were hiding in Russia and on remote islands. Heavily guarded by their own private army. 10 years into the agreement, Yoongi’s dad has taken over the business and he has been expanding it to be a trillion dollar business. Making them one of the richest in the world.

Yoongi was part of the weapon designing team, mostly focusing on the mechanics. He has the access to the confidential files of every country in the world which lead him to know the flaws of each available weapons out there. He will use the knowledge to his best ability to create a stronger weapon each time. He is very passionate on his work ever since his dad bought him to one of the labs and worked extremely hard to learn everything he can from his dad.

The Min family was never the one to push their own family to take over the legacy but throughout the generations, the decision came solely from the heirs themselves that they want to continue the business. I was very intrigued on Yoongi’s skills when he made his first gun. He was only 13 years old at the time when he ran over to my house and showed me his first gun he designed. He was excited to finally complete his own gun.

Our families has known each other since before the Korean War began. Our families went through thick and thin to get where we are now. My family heavily supported the Min’s, they build this empire together and it keeps on growing day by day. Due to this, we are basically tied to hip since birth with our mothers being close to each other. I never minded that we were born to stay with each other. It was really comforting to have a familiarity in the world that constantly changes.

‘Can I just sit there to pig out’ I chuckled and immediately everyone’s stomach growled from the lack of food. ‘I’ll second that’ Jungkook said and pouts as he rubs his tummy. We barely ate or drank for this mission since we were out in the mines. Exhaustion soon took over and all of us fell asleep as the driver takes us to my house. My body was gently shaken by a cold hand and I immediately shot up, wide awake from the action.

‘We’re home, Mr. Seojun had asked us to clean up and have a meal in about 30 minutes. Mum wants us in her office after we ate’ Namjoon said and I nodded. Stretching up my arms and gets off the car still yawning from the sleep. Hoseok and Jungkook was no where to be seen now. Probably left to get ready for the dinner tonight.

After the well needed shower, I wore a loose white button-shirt, a pair of loose navy pants and white chunky heels. I was sitting on the bench in front of my vanity mirror, applying the cushion foundation to my face gently. I had done most of the makeup, opted out for a nice natural smoky look. Slipped on a thin gold necklace that Yoongi bought for me over my neck. The small gold rod rests gently at the bottom of the chain.

Once Namjoon and I had fed ourselves and felt slightly re-energize after the meal, we knocked on the oak door and pushed the door opened. There was laughter in the room and soon we saw the Min’s family was sitting at the lounge area with light deserts and sipping wines. Yoongi was sitting beside his sister-in-law, looking down at his phone. Namjoon and I walked over to Yoongi’s parents, brother and sister-in-law to give our respects before we greeted our parents.

‘Finally the lady of the hour has arrived. How’s the mines?’ She said and I walked over to her as she spread her arms wide. She pulled me into a hug and sat me down. ‘The mines is like a survival show. How could you let your children starve’ I pouted and she giggled, patting my cheeks gently. ‘How could I forget to pack food for my children’ She teased and walked over to Namjoon, kissing his cheeks.

‘Well now I have exciting news!’ Mum said as her eyes grew wider and a tint of mischievousness glint over her eyes. ‘It’s more like a question’ Yoongi’s mum said, giggling at her friend’s excitement. ‘Ah yes. How silly of me’ She took my hands with hers. ‘The Min’s would like to purpose for an arrange marriage for you and Yoongi together. What do you think? Will you want to agree to it?’ I immediately snapped my head towards Yoongi who was smiling gently.

‘What did you answer?’ I asked Yoongi, I was curious what he would say. We have been best friends for long. Not going to lie, I do have a crush on him over the years, growing up with him definitely had an impact on me. My heart was beating against my chest, anticipating his reply. ‘I agreed’ He said and I dropped my jaw. ‘You...you did? So you don’t mind marrying to me?’ I asked and he just gave a small smirk. ‘Nervous now?’ He teased, his legs was crossed as he looked at me.

It was finally Soomin’s high school graduation ceremony, he was sitting at the audience seat, watching her as she walked across the stage and accept her diploma. She was the valedictorian and had to make the last speech to represent her batch mates. She was smiling brightly as she reads over her speech. Everyone was slightly surprised that she graduated since she’s the type to cause fights with other students but the school can’t ignore her successes.

Soomin had her hair slightly pinned to the back and curled at the bottom. Framing her face perfectly, letting loose locks to fall down her face as she looked over at the piece of paper in her hand. Yoongi had always been there to her every step. Watched her grew up to where she is now was breath taking. He couldn’t help but to stare at her red plump lips, reading the words out loud. Soomin was aware that he was staring at her.

It’s hard not to look at the crowd and not see his face. He really stood out from the rest of the audience. He had a bouquet of roses ready in his hands. She smiled warmly at his direction and went back to her speech. Yoongi suddenly realized just how much he had fallen in love with the girl on stage. Biting his lips, he realized that he should do something about it.

Once the graduation party was over, Yoongi met his father in his study. He decided to tell him that he wants no one to touch Soomin except for him. His father just gushed over how cute his son was at his small crush. Throughout Soomin’s college life, Yoongi pressed both parents to consider about an arrange marriage for himself and Soomin. He didn’t want to be the guy that confessed his feelings and gets friend zoned from it. So he cowardly hide under the excuse of an arrange marriage to hide his feelings.

I instantly threw the chocolates in my hand at him. ‘I’m being serious here. This is marriage, I want to know how my partner will react from this’ I said and he sighed. ‘Oh Honey, don’t worry about that. This boy here was the one suggested it. So does that mean he has feelings for you?’ Yoongi’s mum said, covering her mouth as Yoongi turned red. ‘Eomma!!!’ He yelled slightly, groaning that his own mother sold him out.

‘This was your idea?’ I got up and squeezed my hands over his neck, choking him lightly. ‘Couldn’t you man up to say you like me?’ I growled and pushed my body down on him so he fell down to the sofa.

‘Save me’ He croaked at Namjoon, who was busy munching on a vanilla sponge cake. My legs was locking him on the position. ‘My oh my, Soomin can’t you keep that in the room. I dont’ think I want to see my brother look like this infront of the parents’ Yoongi’s brother, Taegi said making our mothers laughed loudly at our reaction. Cooing at how adorable it is while our fathers just grinned proudly.

‘See son, I told you to just confessed to her but you wimped out’ His dad said and Yoongi groaned as I sat on him. ‘Dad..you said no such things’ Yoongi complained, pouting that my weight was on himself but he didn’t pushed me away. ‘Sure I did, I told you when you were younger. “Son, just tell her you like her and be done with it” but look at this. I have to suffer watching my son acts like a love sick puppy’ He said and Yoongi sighed. Giving up trying to defend himself.

‘Since idiot here didn’t confessed to me, I want him to do a proposal during the dinner later’ I folded my arms, glancing down at Yoongi. ‘I want a nice big ring and a cheesy line’ I laughed at the thought. It’s not like Yoongi to bring that much attention to himself.

‘I think I should just hide in my room’ He mumbled, closing his eyes. I slapped his chest and his eyes shot open. ‘Don’t fall asleep idiot’ I scolded and he pushed me off. Landing myself on the floor. ‘Too noisy’ He mumbled and closed back his eyes.

‘Are you seriously going to sleep now?’ He nodded, not moving away from the position he was previous at. ‘Oh Honey, don’t worry, the ring has been arranged but I can’t say for the cheesy part’ His mother said and I nodded. Kicking Yoongi’s leg slightly but received no response. ‘Did someone drugged him?’ I teased and his parents laughed. They are equally amazed at his sleeping abilities.

The dinner turned out to be bigger than what anyone expected it to be. Seems like the word got out that both families has an announcement to make. It was a formal dinner too, with waiters walking around with champagne chutes, extravagant wines, cheeses and delicious appetizers on a silver plate. I was dressed in a black lace dress, showing a bit of my curves and a golden dewy makeup.

Yoongi was dressed in his best Saville Row’s custom suit. His hair was parted and styled elegantly. Most of the ladies at the event was staring at him. I’m not surprised, he looks dashing in suit. Walking towards him with a glass of red wine in hand. ‘Hello handsome, what makes you look so cute tonight’ I said and smirks as I scanned his outfit. ‘I feel so violated right now’ He complained trying to hide himself.

Rolling my eyes at him and slaps his arm. ‘Such a drama queen.You better make this the most memorable proposal of all time or I’ll find ways to torture you every night’ I smirked at the end and Yoongi gave me a glare. Slightly worried that I would actually do something to him. ‘Way to destroy the romance, Sweetheart’ A waiter passes by with a chocolate covered pastries and Yoongi basically took the whole tray, dismissing the waiter entirely.

I raised my eyebrows as I watched him stuffed 3 pastries down at one go. ‘What’s up with you? Are you nervous?’ I teased as I stole the pastry from his hand. He scowled at me as he chewed. ‘Mine’ He whines with his mouth full. I couldn’t help but to laugh at his obsession with chocolates. I smiled at him and peck his cheeks. Watching it slowly turn pale pink. He was really nervous and I love how he won’t admit it.

A cool grey haired boy came over and smiles at us both. ‘Any clue about the big announcement for tonight?’ He sipped a glass of coke. ‘Hello to you too Tae and I have no idea what’s going on’ I said quickly, stuffing myself with a pastry. Taehyung looked over at me and eyes me curiously until Yoongi kicked his legs. He almost spilled his drink on a lady wearing a white dress.

‘Yah! What gives’ He whined after apologizing to the lady. ‘I just wanted to see a new drama happening but shame the coke missed her dress’ Yoongi smirked and walks away before Taehyung could do anything else. ‘What the actual fuck?’ Taehyung glared at Yoongi’s previous spot. ‘Why is your best friend weird?’ He asked me and I shrugged, yawning from the exhaustion. ‘Have you even looked yourself in the mirror and wondered why you’re weird?’ I asked him, grabbing a cocktail from the tray. Taking a sip while I looked over at Tae, amused that the boy as he flipped his hair. ‘I can’t help being beautiful babe’

Rolls my eyes and walked away from him. I don’t think I can handle Taehyung at the moment, he’s trying to get information out and I wanted this announcement to be shocking. After wandering around, the music stopped and a bell was rang echoing inside the house. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and looked over the top balcony. There stood the Min’s leader, Mr. Min himself with a champagne in hand.

One of the butlers came over and told me to follow him. I looked away from Mr. Min and followed the butler to stand beside Yoongi. He looked so well composed but his hand was slightly shaking. Smiling at the action, I slipped my hand to his and he immediately grabbed it. Squeezing it slightly. He was really nervous for the proposal.

Mr. Min was giving out appreciation speech to all the attendees and of course for his partners. Once his speech was done, he passed over the mic over to Yoongi, who took it and smiles at his father. ‘Good evening everyone, it seems like everyone is more interested to know about the announcement since no one really responded to my dad’s lame jokes’ He laughed as his dad hit his shoulders lightly.

‘As I grew up, I was introduced to all of this success and hard work that my fathers has build. I am very grateful for single drop of blood, sweat and tears in the making of this growing empire. We each have our own battles and trials to go through. My fathers has went through this very moment in their life. Trusting another person to be apart of this beautiful dangerous world we live is scarier than death. To lose them is like losing a soul and our bodies just aimlessly wonder around’ He held my hand tighter and I knew he’s probably cursing in his head right now cause out of all the things he could say, he chose those words instead.

‘I am here tonight, to propose this beautiful lady. We grew up together, fought together, tried to kill each other and honestly I don’t see myself to be with anyone else but with her’ Yoongi said and I saw his crew was grinning brightly below. I looked over to Yoongi and gave him a big smile. He passed the mic over to his dad and lets go of my hand.

Kneeling down with one knee on the floor, he pulled out a satin white box, opening it up to reveal a beautiful elegant ring. There was small diamonds that framed the main diamond on the ring. Yoongi takes out the ring and held out my left hand. ‘Will you marry me, Kim Soomin?’ Yoongi said and I promised that I won’t be this surprised at the proposal but his previous speech had rendered me speechless.

Smiling down at Yoongi, I just gave several nods not letting my voice cracked as I can feel tears rolling down my face. He slipped the ring in, kissing my hand and gets up. He leans in and kisses my lips. I blushed slightly since it was our first kiss. The attendees cheered below us as they witnessed our proposal. Mr. Min has taken over the mic and send us a congratulations.

Once the buzzed of the proposal dies down and Mr. Min finally puts down the mic, Yoongi grabs my hand and pulled me away from the crowd. Holding to my hand gently. ‘Does this mean I managed to make up for just now?’ Yoongi said and I hit his chest as we walked down to the garden area. ��That’s what you concern about?’ He laughed, slipping his arm on my waist to pull me closer to him.

‘You’re really affectionate tonight’ I teased him, he scrunched up his nose and pouted. ‘We’re getting married now. So I can be as affectionate as I want to’ He licks his lips and stares at me. His gaze was drinking me up, he lifts his finger to brush off the stray hair on my face. ‘I’m really glad that you said yes. I know that I should’ve man up and tell you that I love you but-’ He bites his lips, taking his eyes away from me. ‘Aww my Yoongi is scared’ I cooed, pinching his cheeks.

‘Aish-’ He was about to curse at me but I quickly kissed his lips. During the proposal, I wasn’t able to kiss him properly and since I’m officially his fiancee I wanted to get a proper kiss. Gently nibbling his lower lip before pulling away. He was slightly blushing from the kiss. ‘There we finally have our official kiss’ I said and he laughs.

‘I’m sorry to kill the romance but can’t you guys be cheesy somewhere else?’ I looked over to the voice and saw Jungkook leaning against the hedge. Yoongi glared at the boy, folding his arms. ‘It’s the garden with lights and a bloody fountain. Where else could we get cheesier than this you annoying rabbit’ Yoongi said and all Jungkook did was laughed, sipping the alcohol in his hands. ‘Stay safe or if you’re planning to have a kid before the wedding that’s cool too’ Jungkook said, walking back to the party.

‘He’s going to get shot tomorrow’ Yoongi groaned and picks up a few pebbles, throwing it to Jungkook’s direction. One hit the glass in his hand and shatters and another hit his head. He turned around and showed us a middle finger. ‘Maybe two shots’

A/N: So it’s finally out! I suck at the romance part so I had to make it funny. For future chapters, there will be more action and comedy. The romance will be there for our 2 newly engaged couple :D

#bts mafia au #bts #bts fanfic #bts yoongi #bts namjoon #bts jin #bts jungkook #bts jimin #bts hobi #bts taehyung #bts mafia reaction

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