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grigori77 · 4 years ago

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2020 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 3)

10. WOLFWALKERS – eleven years ago, Irish director Tomm Moore exploded onto the animated cinema scene with The Secret of Kells, a spellbinding feature debut which captivated audiences the world over and even garnered an Oscar nomination. Admittedly I didn’t actually even know about it until I discovered his work through his astonishing follow-up, Song of the Sea (another Academy Award nominee), in 2015, so when I finally caught it I was already a fan of Moore’s work. It’s been a similarly long wait for his third feature, but he’s genuinely pulled off a hat-trick, delivering a third flawless film in a row which OF COURSE means that his latest feature is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, my top animated feature of 2020. I could even be tempted to say it’s his best work to date … this is an ASTONISHING film, a work of such breath-taking, spell-binding beauty that I spent its entire hour and three-quarters glued to the screen, simple mesmerised by the wonder and majesty of this latest iteration of the characteristically stylised “Cartoon Saloon” look. It’s also liberally steeped in Moore’s trademark Celtic vibe and atmosphere, once again delving deep into his homeland’s rich and evocative cultural history and mythology while also bringing us something far more original and personal – this time the titular supernatural beings are magical near-human beings whose own subconscious can assume the form of very real wolves. Set in a particularly dark time in Irish history – namely 1650, when Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector – the story follows Robyn (Honor Kneafsey, probably best known for the Christmas Prince films), the impetuous and spirited young daughter of English hunter Bill Goodfellowe (Sean Bean), brought in by the Protectorate to rid the city of Kilkenny of the wolves plaguing the area. One day fate intervenes and Robyn meets Mebh Og MacTire (The Girl at the End of the Garden‘s Eve Whittaker), a wild girl living in the woods, whose accidental bite gives her strange dreams in which she becomes a wolf – turns out Mebh is a wolfwalker, and now so is Robyn … every aspect of this film is an utter triumph for Moore and co, who have crafted a work of living, breathing cinematic art that’s easily the equal to (if not even better than) the best that Disney, Dreamworks or any of the other animation studios could create. Then there’s the excellent voice cast – Bean brings fatherly warmth and compassion to the role that belies his character’s intimidating size, while Kneafsey and Whittaker make for a sweet and sassy pair as they bond in spite of powerful cultural differences, and the masterful Simon McBurney (Harry Potter, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) brings cool, understated menace to the role of Cromwell himself. This is a film with plenty of emotional heft to go with its marvels, and once again displays the welcome dark side which added particular spice to Moore’s previous films, but ultimately this is still a gentle and heartfelt work of wonder that makes for equally suitable viewing for children as for those who are still kids at heart – ultimately, then, this is another triumph for one of the most singularly original filmmakers working in animation today, and if Wolfwalkers doesn’t make it third time lucky come Oscars-time then there’s no justice in the world …

9. WONDER WOMAN 1984 – probably the biggest change for 2020 compared to pretty much all of the past decade is how different the fortunes of superhero cinema turned out to be. A year earlier the Marvel Cinematic Universe had dominated all, but the DC Extended Universe still got a good hit in with big surprise hit Shazam! Fast-forward to now and things are VERY different – DC suddenly came out in the lead, but only because Marvel’s intended heavy-hitters (two MCU movies, the first Venom sequel and potential hot-shit new franchise starter Morbius: the Living Vampire) found themselves continuously pushed back thanks to (back then) unforeseen circumstances which continue to shit all over our theatre-going slate for the immediate future. In the end DC’s only SERIOUS competition turned out to be NETFLIX … never mind, at least we got ONE big established superhero blockbuster into the cinemas before the end of the year that the whole family could enjoy, and who better to headline it than DC’s “newest” big screen megastar, Diana Prince? Back in 2017 Monster’s Ball director Patty Jenkins’ monumental DCEU standalone spectacularly realigned the trajectory of a cinematic franchise that was visibly flagging, redesigning the template for the series’ future which has since led to some (mostly) consistently impressive subsequent offerings. Needless to say it was a damn tough act to follow, but Jenkins and co-writers Geoff Johns (Arrow and The Flash) and David Callaham (The Expendables, Zombieland: Double Tap, future MCU entry Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings) have risen to the challenge in fine style, delivering something which pretty much equals that spectacular franchise debut … as has Gal Gadot, who’s now OFFICIALLY made the role her own thanks to yet another showstopping and definitive performance as the unstoppable Amazonian goddess living amongst us. She’s older and wiser than in the first film, but still hasn’t lost that forthright honesty and wonderfully pure heart we’ve come to love ever since her introduction in Zack Snyder’s troublesome but ultimately underrated Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (yes, that’s right, I said it!), and Gadot’s clear, overwhelming commitment to the role continues to pay off magnificently as she once again proves that Diana is THE VERY BEST superhero in the DCEU cinematic pantheon. Although it takes place several decades after its predecessor, WW84 is, obviously, still very much a period piece, Jenkins and co this time perfectly capturing the sheer opulent and over-the-top tastelessness of the 1980s in all its big-haired, bad-suited, oversized shoulder-padded glory while telling a story that encapsulates the greedy excessiveness of the Reagan era, perfectly embodied in the film’s nominal villain, Max Lord (The Mandalorian himself, Pedro Pascal), a wishy-washy wannabe oil tycoon conman who chances upon a supercharged wish-rock and unleashes a devastating supernatural “monkey’s paw” upon the world. To say any more would give away a whole raft of spectacular twists and turns that deserve to be enjoyed good and cold, although they did spoil one major surprise in the trailer when they teased the return of Diana’s first love, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) … needless to say this is another big blockbuster bursting with big characters, big action and BIG IDEAS, just what we’ve come to expect after Wonder Woman’s first triumphant big screen adventure. Interestingly, the film starts out feeling like it’s going to be a bubbly, light, frothy affair – after a particularly stunning all-action opening flashback to Diana’s childhood on Themyscira, the film proper kicks off with a bright and breezy atmosphere that feels a bit like the kind of Saturday morning cartoon action the consistently impressive set-pieces take such unfettered joy in parodying, but as the stakes are raised the tone grows darker and more emotionally potent, the storm clouds gathering for a spectacularly epic climax that, for once, doesn’t feel too overblown or weighed down by its visual effects, while the intelligent script has unfathomable hidden depths to it, making us think far more than these kinds of blockbusters usually do. It’s really great to see Chris Pine return since he was one of the best things about the first movie, and his lovably childlike wide-eyed wonder at this brave new world perfectly echoes Diana’s own last time round; Kristen Wiig, meanwhile, is pretty phenomenal throughout as Dr Barbara Minerva, the initially geeky and timid nerd who discovers an impressive inner strength but ultimately turns into a superpowered apex predator as she becomes one of Wonder Woman’s most infamous foes, the Cheetah; Pascal, of course, is clearly having the time of his life hamming it up to the hilt as Lord, playing gloriously against his effortlessly cool, charismatic action hero image to deliver a compellingly troubling examination of the monstrous corrupting influence of absolute power. Once again, though, the film truly belongs to Gadot – she looks amazing, acts her socks off magnificently, and totally rules the movie. After this, a second sequel is a no-brainer, because Wonder Woman remains the one DC superhero who’s truly capable of bearing the weight of this particular cinematic franchise on her powerful shoulders – needless to say, it’s already been greenlit, and with both Jenkins and Gadot onboard, I’m happy to sign up for more too …

8. LOVE & MONSTERS – with the cinemas continuing their frustrating habit of opening for a little while and then closing while the pandemic ebbed and flowed in the months after the summer season, it was starting to look like there might not have been ANY big budget blockbusters to enjoy before year’s end as heavyweights like Black Widow, No Time To Die and Dune pulled back to potentially more certain release slots into 2021 (with only WW84 remaining stubbornly in place for Christmas). Then Paramount decided to throw us a bone, opting to release this post-apocalyptic horror comedy on-demand in October instead, thus giving me the perfect little present to tie me over during the darkening days of autumn. The end result was a stone-cold gem that came out of nowhere to completely blow critics away, a spectacular sleeper hit that ultimately proved one of the year’s biggest and most brilliant surprises. Director Michael Matthews may only have had South African indie thriller Five Fingers for Marseilles under his belt prior to this, but he proves he’s definitely a solid talent to watch in the future, crafting a fun and effective thrill-ride that, like all the best horror comedies, is consistently as funny as it is scary, sharing much of the same DNA as this particular mash-up genre’s classics like Tremors and Zombieland and standing up impressively well to such comparisons. The story, penned by rising star Brian Duffield (who has TWO other entries on this list, Underwater and Spontaneous) and Matthew Robinson (The Invention of Lying, Dora & the Lost City of Gold), is also pretty ingenious and surprisingly original – a meteorite strike has unleashed weird mutagenic pathogens that warp various creepy crawly critters into gigantic monstrosities that have slaughter most of the world’s human population, leaving only a beleaguered, dwindling few to eke out a precarious living in underground colonies. Living in one such makeshift community is Joel Dawson (The Maze Runner’s Dylan O’Brien), a smart and likeable geek who really isn’t very adventurous, is extremely awkward and uncoordinated, and has a problem with freezing if threatened … which makes it all the more inexplicable when he decides, entirely against the advice of everyone he knows, to venture onto the surface so he can make the incredibly dangerous week-long trek to the neighbouring colony where his girlfriend Aimee (Iron Fist’s Jessica Henwick) has ended up. Joel is, without a doubt, the best role that O’Brien has EVER had, a total dork who’s completely unsuited to this kind of adventure and, in the real world, sure to be eaten alive in the first five minutes, but he’s also such a fantastically believable, fallible everyman that every one of us desperate, pathetic omega-males and females can instantly put ourselves in his place, making it elementarily easy to root for him. He’s also hilariously funny, his winningly self-deprecating sass and pitch perfect talent for physical comedy making it all the more rewarding watching each gloriously anarchic life-and-death encounter mould him into the year’s most unlikely action hero. Henwick, meanwhile, once again impresses in a well-written role where she’s able to make a big impression despite her decidedly short screen time, as do the legendary Michael Rooker and brilliant newcomer Ariana Greenblatt as Clyde and Minnow, the adorably jaded, seen-it-all-before pair of “professional survivors” Joel meets en-route, who teach him to survive on the surface. The action is fast, frenetic and potently visceral, the impressively realistic digital creature effects bringing a motley crew of bloodthirsty beasties to suitably blood-curdling life for the film’s consistently terrifying set-pieces, while the world-building is intricately thought-out and skilfully executed. Altogether, this was an absolute joy from start to finish, and a film I enthusiastically endorsed to everyone I knew was looking for something fun to enjoy during the frustrating lockdown nights-in. One of the cinematic year’s best kept secrets then, and a compelling sign of things to come for its up-and-coming director.

7. PARASITE – I’ve been a fan of master Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho ever since I stumbled across his deeply weird but also thoroughly brilliant breakthrough feature The Host, and it’s a love that’s deepened since thanks to truly magnificent sci-fi actioner Snowpiercer, so I was looking forward to his latest feature as much as any movie geek, but even I wasn’t prepared for just what a runaway juggernaut of a hit this one turned out to be, from the insane box office to all that award-season glory (especially that undeniable clean-sweep at the Oscars). I’ll just come out and say it, this film deserves it all. It’s EASILY Bong’s best film to date (which is really saying something), a masterful social satire and jet black comedy that raises some genuinely intriguing questions before delivering deeply troubling answers. Straddling the ever-widening gulf between a disaffected idle rich upper class and impoverished, struggling lower class in modern-day Seoul, it tells the story of the Kim family – father Ki-taek (Bong’s good luck charm, Song Kang-ho), mother Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin), son Ki-woo (Train to Busan’s Choi Woo-shik) and daughter Ki-jung (The Silenced’s Park So-dam) – a poor family living in a run-down basement apartment who live hand-to-mouth in minimum wage jobs and can barely rub two pennies together, until they’re presented with an intriguing opportunity. Through happy chance, Ki-woon is hired as an English tutor for Park Da-hye (Jung Ji-so), the daughter of a wealthy family, which offers him the chance to recommend Ki-jung as an art tutor to the Parks’ troubled young son, Da-song (Jung Hyeon-jun). Soon the rest of the Kims are getting in on the act, the kids contriving opportunities for their father to replace Mr Park’s chauffeur and their mother to oust the family’s long-serving housekeeper, Gook Moon-gwang (Lee Jung-eun), and before long their situation has improved dramatically. But as they two families become more deeply entwined, cracks begin to show in their supposed blissful harmony as the natural prejudices of their respective classes start to take hold, and as events spiral out of control a terrible confrontation looms on the horizon. This is social commentary at its most scathing, Bong drawing on personal experiences from his youth to inform the razor-sharp script (co-written by his production assistant Han Jin-won), while he weaves a palpable atmosphere of knife-edged tension throughout to add spice to the perfectly observed dark humour of the situation, all the while throwing intriguing twists and turns at us before suddenly dropping such a massive jaw-dropper of a gear-change that the film completely turns on its head to stunning effect. The cast are all thoroughly astounding, Song once again dominating the film with a turn at once sloppy and dishevelled but also poignant and heartfelt, while there are particularly noteworthy turns from Lee Sun-kyun as the Parks’ self-absorbed patriarch Dong-ik and Choi Yeo-jeong (The Concubine) as his flighty, easily-led wife Choi Yeon-gyo, as well as a fantastically weird appearance in the latter half from Park Myung-hoon. This is heady stuff, dangerously seductive even as it becomes increasingly uncomfortable viewing, so that even as the screws tighten and everything goes to hell it’s simply impossible to look away. Bong Joon-ho really has surpassed himself this time, delivering an existential mind-scrambler that lingers long after the credits have rolled and might even have you questioning your place in society once you’ve thought about it some. It deserves every single award and every ounce of praise it’s been lavished with, and looks set to go down as one of the true cinematic greats of this new decade. Trust me, if this was a purely critical best-of list it’d be RIGHT AT THE TOP …

6. THE OLD GUARD – Netflix’ undisputable TOP OFFERING of the summer came damn close to bagging the whole season, and I can’t help thinking that even if some of the stiffer competition had still been present it may well have still finished this high. Gina Prince-Blythewood (Love & Basketball, the Secret Life of Bees) directs comics legend Greg Rucka’s adaptation of his own popular series with uncanny skill and laser-focused visual flair considering there’s nothing on her previous CV to suggest she’d be THIS good at mounting a stomping great ultraviolent action thriller, ushering in a thoroughly engrossing tale of four ancient, invulnerable immortal warriors – Andy AKA Andromache of Scythia (Charlize Theron), Booker AKA Sebastian de Livre (Matthias Schoenaerts), Joe AKA Yusuf Al-Kaysani (Wolf’s Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky AKA Niccolo di Ginova (Trust’s Luca Marinelli) – who’ve been around forever, hiring out their services as mercenaries for righteous causes while jealously guarding their identities for fear of horrific experimentation and exploitation should their true natures ever be discovered. Their anonymity is threatened, however, when they’re uncovered by former CIA operative James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who’s working for the decidedly dodgy pharmaceutical conglomerate run by sociopathic billionaire Steven Merrick (Harry Melling, formerly Dudley in the Harry Potter movies), who want to capture these immortals so they can patent whatever it is that makes them keep on ticking … just as a fifth immortal, US Marine Nile Freeman (If Beale Street Could Talk’s KiKi Layne), awakens after being “killed” on deployment in Afghanistan. The supporting players are excellent, particularly Ejiofor, smart and driven but ultimately principled and deeply conflicted about what he’s doing, even if he does have the best of intentions, and Melling, the kind of loathsome, reptilian scumbag you just love to hate, but the film REALLY DOES belong to the Old Guard themselves – Schoenaerts is a master brooder, spot-on casting as the group’s relative newcomer, only immortal since the Napoleonic Wars but clearly one seriously old soul who’s already VERY tired of the lifestyle, while Joe and Nicky (who met on opposing sides of the Crusades) are simply ADORABLE, an unapologetically matter-of-fact gay couple who are sweet, sassy and incredibly kind, the absolute emotional heart of the film; it’s the ladies, however, that are most memorable here. Layne is exceptional, investing Nile with a steely intensity that puts her in good stead as her new existence threatens to overwhelm her and MORE THAN qualified to bust heads alongside her elders … but it’s ancient Greek warrior Andy who steals the film, Theron building on the astounding work she did in Atomic Blonde to prove, once and for all, that there’s no woman on Earth who looks better kicking arse than her (as Booker puts it, “that woman has forgotten more ways to kill than entire armies will ever learn”); in her hands, Andy truly is a goddess of death, tough as tungsten alloy and unflappable even in the face of hell itself, but underneath it all she hides a heart as big as any of her friends’. They’re an impossibly lovable bunch and you feel you could follow them on another TEN adventures like this one, which is just as well, because Prince-Blythewood and Rucka certainly put them through their paces here – the drama is high (but frequently laced with a gentle, knowing sense of humour, particularly whenever Joe and Nicky are onscreen), as are the stakes, and the frequent action sequences are top-notch, executed with rare skill and bone-crunching zest, but also ALWAYS in service to the story. Altogether this is an astounding film, a genuine victory for its makers and, it seems, for Netflix themselves – it’s become one of the platform’s biggest hits to date, earning well-deserved critical acclaim and great respect and genuine geek love from the fanbase at large. After this, a sequel is not only inevitable, it’s ESSENTIAL …

5. MANK – it’s always nice when David Fincher, one of my TOP FIVE ALL TIME FAVOURITE DIRECTORS, drops a new movie, because it can be GUARANTEED to place good and high in my rundown for that year. The man is a frickin’ GENIUS, a true master of the craft, genuinely one of the auteur’s auteurs. I’ve NEVER seen him deliver a bad film – even a misfiring Fincher (see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Alien 3) is still capable of creating GREAT CINEMA. How? Why? It’s because he genuinely LOVES the art form, it’s been his obsession all his life, and he’s spent every day of it becoming the best possible filmmaker he can be. Who better to tell the story of the creation of one of the ULTIMATE cinematic masterpieces, then? Benjamin Ross’ acclaimed biopic RKO 281 covered similar ground, presenting a compelling look into the making Citizen Kane, the timeless masterpiece of Hollywood’s ULTIMATE auteur, Orson Welles, but Fincher’s film is more interested in the original inspiration for the story, how it was written and, most importantly, the man who wrote it – Herman J. Mankiewicz, known to his friends as Mank. One of my favourite actors of all time, Gary Oldman, delivers yet another of his career best performances in the lead role, once a man of vision and incredible storytelling skill whose talents have largely been squandered through professional difficulties and personal vices, a burned out one-time great fallen on hard times whom Welles picks up out of the trash, dusts off and offers a chance to create something truly great again. The only catch? The subject of their film (albeit dressed up in the guise of fictional newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane) is to be real-life publisher, politico and tycoon William Randolph Hurst (Charles Dance), once Mank’s friend and patron before they had a very public and messy falling out which partly led to his current circumstances. As he toils away in seclusion on what is destined to become his true masterwork, flashbacks reveal to us the fascinating, moving and ultimately tragic tale of his rise and fall from grace in the movie business, set against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. Shooting a script that his own journalist and screenwriter father, Jack, crafted and then failed to bring to the screen himself before his death in 2003, Fincher has been working for almost a quarter century to make this film, and all that passion and drive is writ large on the screen – this is a glorious film ABOUT film, the art of it, the creation of it, and all the dirty little secrets of what the industry itself has always really been like, especially in that most glamorous and illusory of times. The fact that Fincher shot in black and white and intentionally made it look like it was made in the early 1940s (the “golden age of the Silver Screen”, if you will) may seem like a gimmick, but instead it’s a very shrewd choice that expertly captures the gloss and moodiness of the age, almost looking like a contemporary companion piece to Kane itself, and it’s the perfect way to frame all the sharp-witted observation, subtly subversive character development and murky behind-the-scenes machinations that tell the story. Oldman is in every way the star here, holding the screen with all the consummate skill and flair we’ve come to expect from him, but there’s no denying the uniformly excellent supporting cast are equal to the task here – Dance is at his regal, charismatic best as Hearst, while Amanda Seyfried is icily classy on the surface but mischievous and lovably grounded underneath as Hearst’s mistress, Marion Davies, who formed the basis for Kane’s most controversial character, Arliss Howard (Full Metal Jacket, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Moneyball) brings nuance and complexity to the role of MGM founder Louis B. Mayer, Tom Pelphrey (Banshee, Ozark) is understated but compelling as Mank’s younger screenwriter brother Joseph, and Lily Collins and Tuppence Middleton exude class and long-suffering stubbornness as the two main women in Mank’s life (his secretary and platonic muse, Rita Alexander, and his wife, Sara), while The Musketeers’ Tom Burke’s periodic but potent appearances as Orson Welles help to drive the story in the “present”. Another Netflix release which I was (thankfully) able to catch on the big screen during one of the brief lulls between British lockdowns, this was a decidedly meta cinematic experience that perfectly encapsulated not only what is truly required for the creation of a screen epic, but also the latest pinnacle in the career of one of the greatest filmmakers working in the business today, powerful, stirring, intriguing and surprising in equal measure. Certainly it’s one of the most important films ABOUT so far film this century, but is it as good as Citizen Kane? Boy, that’s a tough one …

4. ENOLA HOLMES – ultimately, my top film for the autumn/winter movie season was also the film which finally topped my Netflix Original features list, as well as beating all other streaming offerings for the entire year (which is saying something, as you should know by now). Had things been different, this would have been one of Warner Bros’ BIGGEST releases for the year in the cinema, of that I have no doubt, a surprise sleeper hit which would have taken the world by storm – as it is it’s STILL become a sensation, albeit in a much more mid-pandemic, lockdown home-viewing kind of way. Before you start crying oh God no, not another Sherlock Holmes adaptation, this is a very different beast from either the Guy Ritchie take or the modernized BBC show, instead side-lining the great literary sleuth in favour of a delicious new AU version, based on The Case of the Missing Marquess, the first novel in the Enola Holmes Mysteries literary series from American YA author Nancy Springer. Positing that Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) and his elder brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin) had an equally ingenious and precocious baby sister, the film introduces us to Enola (Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown), who’s been raised at home by their strong-willed mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) to be just as intelligent, well-read and intellectually skilled as her far more advantageously masculine elder siblings. Then, on the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Enola awakens to find her mother has vanished, putting her in a pretty pickle since this leaves her a ward of Mycroft, a self-absorbed social peacock who finds her to be wilfully free-spirited and completely ill equipped to face the world, concluding that the only solution is sending her to boarding school where she’ll learn to become a proper lady. Needless to say she’s horrified by the prospect, deciding to run away and search for her mother instead … this is about as perfect a family adventure film as you could wish for, following a vital, capable and compelling teen detective-in-the-making as she embarks on her very first investigation, as well as winding up tangled in a second to boot involving a young runaway noble, Viscount Tewkesbury, the Marquess of Basilwether (Medici’s Louis Partridge), and the film is a breezy, swift-paced and rewardingly entertaining romp that feels like a welcome breath of fresh air for a literary property which, beloved as it may be, has been adapted to death over the years. Enola Holmes a brilliant young hero who’s perfectly crafted to carry the franchise forward in fresh new directions, and Brown brings her to life with effervescent charm, boisterous energy and mischievous irreverence that are entirely irresistible; Cavill and Claflin, meanwhile, are perfectly cast as the two very different brothers – this Sherlock is much less louche and world-weary than most previous versions, still razor sharp and intellectually restless but with a comfortable ease and a youthful spring in his step that perfectly suits the actor, while Mycroft is as superior and arrogant as ever, a preening arse we derive huge enjoyment watching Enola consistently get the best of; Bonham Carter doesn’t get a lot of screen-time but as we’d expect she does a lot with what she has to make the practical, eccentric and unapologetically modern Eudoria thoroughly memorable, while Partridge is carefree and likeable as the naïve but irresistible Tewkesbury, and there are strong supporting turns from Frances de la Tour as his stately grandmother, the Dowager, Susie Wokoma (Crazyhead, Truth Seekers) as Emily, a feisty suffragette who runs a jujitsu studio, Burn Gorman as dastardly thug-for-hire Linthorn, and Four Lions’ Adeel Akhtar as a particularly scuzzy Inspector Lestrade. Seasoned TV director Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag, Killing Eve) makes his feature debut with an impressive splash, unfolding the action at a brisk pace while keeping the narrative firmly focused on an intricate mystery plot that throws in plenty of ingenious twists and turns before a suitably atmospheric climax and pleasing denouement which nonetheless artfully sets up more to come in the future, while screenwriter Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials, The Scouting Book for Boys, Wonder) delivers strong character work and liberally peppers the dialogue with a veritable cavalcade of witty zingers. Boisterous, compelling, amusing, affecting and exciting in equal measure, this is a spirited and appealing slice of cinematic escapism that flatters its viewers and never talks down to them, a perfect little period adventure for a cosy Sunday afternoon. Obviously there’s plenty of potential for more, and with further books to adapt there’s more than enough material for a pile of sequels – Neflix would be barmy indeed to turn their nose up at this opportunity …

3. 1917 – it’s a rare thing for a film to leave me truly shell-shocked by its sheer awesomeness, for me to walk out of a cinema in a genuine daze, unable to talk or even really think about much of anything for a few hours because I’m simply marvelling at what I’ve just witnessed. Needless to say, when I do find a film like that (Fight Club, Inception, Mad Max: Fury Road) it usually earns a place very close to my heart indeed. The latest tour-de-force from Sam Mendes is one of those films – an epic World War I thriller that plays out ENTIRELY in one shot, which doesn’t simply feel like a glorified gimmick or stunt but instead is a genuine MASTERPIECE of film, a mesmerising journey of emotion and imagination in a shockingly real environment that’s impossible to tear your eyes away from. Sure, Mendes has impressed us before – his first film, American Beauty, is a GREAT movie, one of the most impressive feature debuts of the 2000s, while Skyfall is, in my opinion, quite simply THE BEST BOND FILM EVER MADE – but this is in a whole other league. It’s an astounding achievement, made all the more impressive when you realise that there’s very little trickery at play here, no clever digital magic (just some augmentation here and there), it’s all real locations and sets, filmed in long, elaborately choreographed takes blended together with clever edits to make it as seamless as possible – it’s not the first film to try to do this (remember Birdman? Bushwick?), but I’ve never seen it done better, or with greater skill. But it’s not just a clever cinematic exercise, there’s a genuine story here, told with guts and urgency, and populated by real flesh and blood characters – the heart of the film is True History of the Kelly Gang’s George MacKay and Dean Chapman (probably best known as Tommen Baratheon in Game of Thrones) as Lance Corporals Will Schofield and Tom Blake, the two young tommies sent out across enemy territory on a desperate mission to stop a British regiment from rushing headlong into a German trap (Tom himself has a personal stake in this because his brother is an officer in the attack). They’re a likeable pair, very human and relatable throughout, brave and true but never so overtly heroic that they stretch credibility, so when tragedy strikes along the way it’s particularly devastating; both deliver exceptional performances that effortlessly carry us through the film, and they’re given sterling support from a selection of top-drawer British talent, from Sherlock stars Andrew Scott and Benedict Cumberbatch to Mark Strong and Colin Firth, each delivering magnificently in small but potent cameos. That said, the cinematography and art department are the BIGGEST stars here, masterful veteran DOP Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner 2049 and pretty much the Coen Brothers’ entire back catalogue among MANY others) making every frame sing with beauty, horror, tension or tragedy as the need arises, and the environments are SO REAL it feels less like production design than that someone simply sent the cast and crew back in time to film in the real Northern France circa 1917 – from a nightmarish trek across No Man’s Land to a desperate chase through a ruined French village lit only by dancing flare-light in the darkness before dawn, every scene is utterly immersive and simply STUNNING. I don’t think it’s possible for Mendes to make a film better than this, but I sure hope he gives it a go all the same. Either way, this was the most incredible, exhausting, truly AWESOME experience I had at the cinema all year – it’s a film that DESERVES to be seen on the big screen, and I feel truly sorry for those who missed the chance …

2. BIRDS OF PREY & THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN – the only reason 1917 isn’t at number two is because Warner Bros.’ cinematic DC Extended Universe project FINALLY got round to bringing my favourite DC Comics title to the big screen. It was been the biggest pleasure of my cinematic year getting to see my top DC superheroines brought to life on the big screen, and it was done in high style, in my opinion THE BEST of the DCEU films to date (yup, I loved it EVEN MORE than the Wonder Woman movies). It was also great seeing Harley Quinn return after her show-stealing turn in David Ayer’s clunky but ultimately still hugely enjoyable Suicide Squad, better still that they got her SPOT ON this time – this is the Harley I’ve always loved in the comics, unpredictable, irreverent and entirely without regard for what anyone else thinks of her, as well as one talented psychiatrist. Margot Robbie once more excels in the role she was basically BORN to play, clearly relishing the chance to finally do Harley TRUE justice, and she’s a total riot from start to finish, infectiously lovable no matter what crazy, sometimes downright REPRIHENSIBLE antics she gets up to. Needless to say she’s the nominal star here, her latest ill-advised adventure driving the story – finally done with the Joker and itching to make her emancipation official, Harley publicly announces their breakup by blowing up Ace Chemicals (their love spot, basically), inadvertently painting a target on her back in the process since she’s no longer under the assumed protection of Gotham’s feared Clown Prince of Crime – but that doesn’t mean she eclipses the other main players the movie’s REALLY supposed to be about. Each member of the Birds of Prey is beautifully written and brought to vivid, arse-kicking life by what had to be 2020’s most exciting cast – Helena Bertinelli, the Huntress, is the perfect character for Mary Elizabeth Winstead to finally pay off on that action hero potential she showed in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, but this is a MUCH more enjoyable role outside of the fight choreography because while Helena may be a world-class dark avenger, socially she’s a total dork, which just makes her thoroughly adorable; Rosie Perez is similarly perfect casting as Renee Montoya, the uncompromising pint-sized Gotham PD detective who kicks against the corrupt system no matter what kind of trouble it gets her into, and just gets angrier all the time, paradoxically making us like her even more; and then there’s the film’s major controversy, at least as far as the fans are concerned, namely one Cassandra Cain. Sure, this take is VERY different from the comics’ version (a nearly mute master assassin who went on to become the second woman to wear the mask of Batgirl before assuming her own crime-fighting mantle as Black Bat and now Orphan), but personally I like to think this is simply Cass at THE VERY START of her origin story, leaving plenty of time for her to discover her warrior origins when the DCEU finally gets around to introducing her mum, Lady Shiva (personally I want Michelle Yeoh to play her, but that’s just me) – anyways, here she’s a skilled child pickpocket whose latest theft inadvertently sets off the larger central plot, and newcomer Ella Jay Basco brings a fantastic pre-teen irreverence and spiky charm to the role, beautifully playing against Robbie’s mercurial energy. My favourite here BY FAR, however, is Dinah Lance, aka the Black Canary (not only my favourite Bird of Prey but my very favourite DC superheroine PERIOD), the choice of up-and-comer Jurnee Smollet-Bell (Friday Night Lights, Underground) proving to be the film’s most inspired casting – a club singer with the metahuman ability to emit piercing supersonic screams, she’s also a ferocious martial artist (in the comics she’s one of the very best fighters IN THE WORLD), as well as a wonderfully pure soul you just can’t help loving, and it made me SO UNBELIEVABLY HAPPY that they got my Canary EXACTLY RIGHT. Altogether they’re a fantastic bunch of badass ladies, basically my perfect superhero team, and the way they’re all brought together (along with Harley, of course) is beautifully thought out and perfectly executed … they’ve also got one hell of a threat to overcome, namely Gotham crime boss Roman Sionis, the Black Mask, one of the Joker’s chief rivals – Ewan McGregor brings his A-game in a frustratingly rare villainous turn (my number one bad guy for the movie year), a monstrously narcissistic, woman-hating control freak with a penchant for peeling off the faces of those who displease him, sharing some exquisitely creepy chemistry with Chris Messina (The Mindy Project) as Sionis’ nihilistic lieutenant Victor Zsasz. This is about as good as superhero cinema gets, a perfect example of the sheer brilliance you get when you switch up the formula to create something new, an ultra-violent, unapologetically R-rated middle finger to the classic tropes, a fantastic black comedy thrill ride that’s got to be the most full-on feminist blockbuster ever made – it’s helmed by a woman (Dead Pigs director Cathy Yan), written by a woman (Bumblebee’s Christina Hodson), produced by more women and ABOUT a bunch of badass women magnificently triumphing over toxic masculinity in all its forms. It’s also simply BRILLIANT – the cast are all clearly having a blast, the action sequences are first rate (the spectacular GCPD evidence room fight in which Harley gets to REALLY cut loose is the undisputable highlight), it has a gleefully anarchic sense of humour and is simply BURSTING with phenomenal homages, references and in-jokes for the fans (Bruce the hyena! Stuffed beaver! Roller derby!). It’s also got a killer soundtrack, populated almost exclusively by numbers from female artists. Altogether, then, this is the VERY BEST the DCEU has to offer to date, and VERY NEARLY my absolute FAVOURITE film of 2020. Give it all the love you can, it sure as hell deserves it.

1. TENET – granted, the streaming platforms (particularly Netflix and Amazon) certainly saved our cinematic summer, but I’m still IMMEASURABLY glad that my ultimate top-spot winner FOR THE WHOLE YEAR was one I got to experience on THE BIG SCREEN. You gotta hand it to Christopher Nolan, he sure hung in there, stubbornly determined that his latest cinematic masterpiece WOULD be released in cinemas in the summer (albeit ultimately landing JUST inside the line in the final week of August and ultimately taking the bite at the box office because of the still shaky atmosphere), and it was worth all the fuss because, for me, this was THE PERFECT MOVIE for me to get return to cinemas with. I mean, okay, in the end it WASN’T the FIRST new movie I saw after the first reopening, that honour went to Unhinged, but THIS was my first real Saturday night-out big screen EXPERIENCE since March. Needless to say, Nolan didn’t disappoint this time any more than he has on any of his consistently spectacular previous releases, delivering another twisted, mind-boggling headfuck of a full-blooded experiential sensory overload that comes perilously close to toppling his long-standing auteur-peak, Inception (itself second only by fractions to The Dark Knight as far as I’m concerned). To say much at all about the plot would give away major spoilers – personally I’d recommend just going in as cold as possible, indeed you really should just stop reading this right now and just GO SEE IT. Still with us? Okay … the VERY abridged version is that it’s about a secret war being waged between the present and the future by people capable of “inverting” time in substances, objects, people, whatever, into which the Protagonist (BlacKkKlansman’s John David Washington), an unnamed CIA agent, has been dispatched in order to prevent a potential coming apocalypse. Washington is once again on top form, crafting a robust and compelling morally complex heroic lead who’s just as comfortable negotiating the minefields of black market intrigue as he is breaking into places or dispatching heavies, Kenneth Branagh delivers one of his most interesting and memorable performances in years as brutal Russian oligarch Andrei Sator, a genuinely nasty piece of work who was ALMOST the year’s very best screen villain, Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Widows) brings strength, poise and wounded integrity to the role of Sator’s estranged wife, Kat, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson gets to use his own accent for once as tough-as-nails British Intelligence officer Ives, while there are brief but consistently notable supporting turns and cameos from Martin Donovan, Yesterday’s Himesh Patel, Dirk Gently’s Fiona Dourif and, of course, Nolan’s good luck charm, Michael Caine. The cast’s biggest surprise, however, is Robert Pattinson, truly a revelation in what has to be, HANDS DOWN, his best role to date, Neil, the Protagonist’s mysterious handler – he’s by turns cheeky, slick, duplicitous and thoroughly badass, delivering an enjoyably multi-layered, chameleonic performance which proves what I’ve long maintained, that the former Twilight star is actually a fucking amazing actor, and on the basis of this, even if that amazing new teaser trailer wasn’t making the rounds, I think the debate about whether or not he’s the right choice for the new Batman is now academic. As we’ve come to expect from Nolan, this is a TRUE tour-de-force experience, a visual triumph and an endlessly engrossing head-scratcher, Nolan’s screenplay bringing in seriously big ideas and throwing us some major narrative knots and loopholes, constantly wrong-footing the viewer while also setting up truly revelatory payoffs from seemingly low-key, unimportant beginnings – this is a film you need to be awake and attentive for or you could miss something pretty vital. The action sequences are, as ever, second to none, some of the year’s very best set-pieces coming thick and fast and executed with some of the most accomplished skill in the business, while Nolan-regular cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar and Dunkirk, as well as the heady likes of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, SPECTRE and Ad Astra) once again shows he’s one of the best camera-wizards in the business today by delivering some absolutely mesmerising visuals. Notably, Nolan’s other regular collaborator, composer Hans Zimmer, is absent here (although he had good reason, since he was working on his dream project at the time, the fast-approaching screen adaptation of Dune), but Ludwig Göransson (best known for his collaborations with Ryan Coogler Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther, as well as career-best work on The Mandalorian) is a fine replacement, crafting an intriguingly internalised, post-modern musical landscape that thrums and pulses in time with the story and emotions of the characters rather than the action itself. Interestingly it’s on the subject of sound that some of the film’s rare detractions have been levelled, and I can see some of the points – the soundtrack mix is an all-encompassing thing, and there are times when the dialogue can be overwhelmed, but in Nolan’s defence this film is a heady, immersive experience, something you really need to concentrate on, so these potential flaws are easily forgiven. As a work of filmmaking art, this is another flawless wonder from one of the true masters of the craft working in cinema today, but it’s art with palpable substance, a rewarding whole that proved truly unbeatable in 2020 …

#wolfwalkers #wonder woman 1984 #ww84 #love and monsters #parasite #parasite movie #the old guard #mank #enola holmes #1917 #1917 movie #Birds of Prey #birds of prey the fantabulous emancipation of one harley quinn #tenet #tenet movie #2020 in movies

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cherryonigiri · 4 years ago

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10 questions for me

tagged by @akakeiiji SAGE BABY THESE TAG GAMES ARE GIVING ME LIFE

1.) What is your least and most favorite thing about your star sign?

Uh I’m an August leo, but I don’t really know much about star signs in general? But my chemistry teacher in high school used the mnemonic “LEO the lion says GER” to help us remember redox reactions (Loss of electrons = oxidization, gain of electrons = reduction) so I guess that’s my favorite part about being a leo? Sorry I don’t really have a better answer, my inner science/chemistry nerd jumped out. Hopefully no one who reads this hated high school chemistry too much.

2.) What time do you usually sleep and wake up?

Sleep: 3:45 AM

Wake up: 9:50 AM

Extra nap: somewhere in between 3-6 PM.

If you all couldn’t tell my sleep schedule is not great.

3.) What odd, totally random childhood memory stuck with you throughout the years?

When I was really young, my family travelled to China to see friends + relatives. When I was there we visited the Great Wall. I managed to climb to one of the peaks/towers in the wall, but I was super scared of heights and thought I was gonna fall off so when we had to climb back down I sat down and butt dragged myself down each step.

4.) If you could write a book, what would it be about?

I get asked this question a lot (because I help out with first-year orientation at my university and we play a lot of icebreakers). honestly my answer changes each time but I think I’d write a “gratitude book.” I’ve had this idea for a while but basically at some point in my life I want to write and self-publish/publish a collection of letters to the people who have changed/influenced my life in a significant way. I have a list on my phone that is just people I want to write a letter to: parents, brother, teachers, friends, ex-boyfriends (I’ve had amicable breakups and I’m still in pretty regular contact with people I’ve dated), mentors, etc. I just want the people who know me to understand how much they mean to me and that they are amazing individuals.

If I can’t do this then I’mma write a book about the history/development of fan culture/fandoms and fan generated content in the 21st century. I hate it when people demonize fan culture or mock it. Hands down some of the best writing I’ve ever read has been fanfiction/fan content. There are so many talented artists/writers/singers/creators who don’t deserve the “mindless/deranged/dumb fan” narrative that mainstream media pushes. I don’t understand how mocking/belittling/de-legitimizing the passion, enthusiasm and talent of fan creators helps anyone and I will fight anyone who says we’re only just “dumb fans” like FOK YOU TOO fandoms have some amazing and brilliant people who create safe + accepting spaces while generating complex and interesting content. And you bet your ass I will write a whole book that pushes back on the deranged fan stereotype --thank you for coming to my ted talk.

5.) Who was your first anime/fictional crush? Why that particular character?

Saito Hajime from Hakuouki. I mean, have you seen this man??? Like - he’s so graceful and a badass when fighting, not to mention that he takes advantage of his left handed sword handling to throw opponents off. Also I was in peak teenage angst phase, so ofc I was obsessed with the ‘dark and silent’ type character. Anyways this man is fine AF and i have rewatched Hakuouki multiple times because he’s is still *THAT* handsome.

6.) If you could put yourself in any fictional universe, which one would you pick? Why?

The universe of Kekkai Sen Sen (Blood Blockade Battlefront). Listen. The way this universe execute magic realism/urban fantasy so well I cannot. Like - it’s such a wacky and crazy world, and of course Hellsalem’s lot is probably like one of the most dangerous places to be ever but like -- I don’t mind? Honesty, as long as I had powers of my own I would be okay (i think?). I just love how there are mundane magic things that happen but also really wacky/chaotic things like having a giant materialize in downtown New York City. I mean there’s literally a flying hospital with a magic doctor who can split her self up into min selves to treat more patients like please send me there TODAY. Anyways if I ended up in that universe I would want to have some kind of healing/shielding/defensive superpower because a lot of innocent everyday residents get caught up in the chaotic/violent supernatural hijinks of the city and I want to help out in any way I can. In conclusion, I would like to be transported to Hellsalem’s Lot for the sole purpose of meeting Steven A. Starphase because that man is damn attractive and a badass and I am such a simp for him.

7.) What’s the last compliment you received?

I don’t remember Uh, I actually really can’t recall the last compliment I received but I remember a really memorable compliment I got was that I’m really easy to talk to? The person said that when they first met me I had a “disarming friendliness” that made them feel a lot less anxious and more at home + they felt like I was very genuine and invested in getting to know them. Uh idk if that’s true but hearing that made me really happy :)

8.) What is the one thing you miss the most during quarantine? (Asides from being with other people, ofc)

Dancing + music. I’m part of a dance group at my university + I love attending free workshops + classes in my community. I really miss going to practice with my friends and having fun with them in the studio. :( I also play flute for the university orchestra and we probably won’t be allowed to meet/rehearse at all for the next school year (bc social distancing/quarantine) so I’m sad because I miss being involved with art stuff.

9.) When/where do you feel most content?

By myself, sitting on my bed while sunlight is shining into my room through the windows.

10.) What is a food that you hate with burning passion and will never eat?

Eggplant. ISTG I am allergic to that shit like every time I ate an eggplant dish (because my parents forced me too as a kid) my tongue gets super itchy but I’m allergic to peanuts/tree-nuts and it’s not the same feeling as when I have a reaction to to them??? so I’m not sure but either way i hate those purple vegetables.

Not gonna tag anyone because I don’t think I can come up with 10 meaningful questions right now but HEY HEY HEY if anyone who see’s this wants to join in feel free to use the questions I answered :)

#sage #alice's friends #alice talks #ily sage #kekkai sensen #hakuouki #steven a starphase

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ankhjohn · 4 years ago

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clergy, sex, success, and me

I was born in the middle of 1941. The Second world war had just begun. I can't recall anything much before the age of eight, but I can remember certain places and events like they happened yesterday. Public schools in the inner city, and especially Jr. high, were repetitious, boring, and very dangerous to attend. Back then, every other kid had a switch blade knife, and they were plenty eager to wave them around to intimidate and threaten any body they felt like messing with, including teachers, and sometimes even cops.

Once, I witnessed a stabbing in the school cafeteria. The very quick and violent nature of that horribly messy act frightened me immensely, and it was that experience that made me realize that I was, unfortunately, a coward. It was very disturbing, and it affected me for a very long time afterward.

Up until 1954, I was what was considered to be a clod and a nerd at school, Something equivalent to a non-entity. I had no idea how suddenly my life was about to change. Every day I constantly faced being bullied on the way to school, at school, and on the way home from school. I developed rudimentary time schedules, and tentative escape routes, or safe places, in order that I could have the best chance of making it home unhurt and alive. That seemed to work most of the time, but several times it did not, and I paid dearly for the mistake.

Toward the end of the school year in 1954, just before my birthday, and a well earned, glorious three month vacation, I was run down by two boys on the way home from school, and I got roughly pushed around as they brandished their 'blades'. I was given the choice of sucking their dicks or suffering a beating by both of them. Now some will say never, but this frightened 13 year old left that culvert party unharmed beyond the humiliation, a few bruises from getting knocked around, and dirt on my knees, They let me go with a warning not to tell anyone. I did not. It was too embarrassing, and the stigma at the time would have isolated me completely from my peers, parents, and teachers, not to mention the fear of retaliation, but the worst thing of all, was to be branded a 'queer'.

Summer vacation finally arrived and a friend I will call 'Tom”, from school, came to visit me at my home on one bright Saturday morning and convinced me to accompany him to his friends house that lived in another part of the neighborhood to pick up some money, and then we could go to the movies, and get a hamburger and drinks afterward. I agreed to go with him, and we set off immediately. Soon we arrived at a very nice apartment building and Tom rang the bell. A buzzer sounded, and He pushed the door open widely and as we climbed the short flight of stairs, we entered into a very plush and rich interior filled with antiques and art. Two older men happily greeted us with smiles, and sat us down on a huge couch in the palatial living room. One of the elderly gentlemen went to the kitchen and brought out two beers and set them on the coffee table using coasters that depicted nude reclining male figures. I thought it was curious, but amusing.

The beer was bitter, and I knew I would not be able to finish it. I glanced at Tom as he took a sip of the beer and to my surprise, he downed the whole thing. After setting the glass back on the table, Tom quickly proceeded to undress right on the spot. I didn't know what was happening, until my friend pulled down his underwear, and revealed his very generous boner, which in turn, was immediately set upon by one of the elderly gentlemen, who began doing to him what I had to do to the two boys from school.. That was when the other guy began unzipping my pants and exposing my penis. I was frozen in my spot and my face flushed, my heart was pounding like a rod going out on a diesel engine. I was so embarrassed I thought it would be impossible for me to get an erection under this surprising turn of events. Why, I thought, would anybody want to suck my dick in the first place? Well, here was someone who obviously seemed more than happy to do it, and after a bit of gentle coaxing, I did get an erection, and he did get me to blow a load of cum on his tonsils.

I was complemented by the older gentleman for my 'pervormance', and I realized an immediate new sense of confidence in my sexual prowess, it seemed to give me a feeling of a new identity, as if a new person had unfolded in me that day, and as a result of this realization, the 'queer thing', as well as the age difference, became a non-factor for me. I had become sexually liberated! As we were leaving, my friend and I each received a ten dollar bill, for our obviously successful efforts, with an open invitation to visit at any time. We then spent the afternoon at the movies and stuffed ourselves on everything you can imagine that a thirteen year old would do with 10 bucks.

My life changed overnight that day. I felt 'adult' so to speak. Soon, my visits to the apartment became pretty regular, and I had plenty of money in my pocket. My mother worked as a hostess for a nightclub and her take home pay for a 40 hour week was $35.00. I was making more money than my hard working mother. At school, I loaned out lunch money and it wasn't long before just about everybody in my classes 'owed' me money. Life was good. And when you're on top of the world, it can be a long fall to the bottom if you slip.

I was fourteen now, and Tom, the same friend that introduced me to the homosexuals, invited me for a three way with a smart looking red headed woman in her thirties. The thought was scary and exciting at the same time. I had seen my Friend in action a few times by now, but never had contact with him in that manner. What could possibly go wrong? Well, the red head experience is one I won't soon forget, or get over, for that matter. I felt I had just secured my sexual 'spot' in the world, when Tom and I dated the older woman and he guaranteed that she was a good tipper. She picked us up at a local hamburger stand in the afternoon, and drove us to a secluded section of a nearby park whereupon I performed what I thought was a pretty darn good job, then Tom took his turn, and apparently, it wasn't received with the same enthusiasm, because when he ejaculated in her face, he also decided to urinate to finish the job. That red head really got pissed off. She was hot, hollering, spitting, and snatching her bra off the steering wheel, she kicked us out of her car and we had to walk home. I never got a cent for my valiant effort. Gee,.. thanks Tom,....

Three days after the episode with the red head, my mother had to take me to the doctor because of the large, very painful weeping sores which suddenly appeared on the head of my penis. It was so bad, I guessed they didn't even want to tell me the name of the disease, because they would only refer to the word in my presence using initials. Something like, T.S.P. , or L.S.D., I can't remember, but I do remember the tool of my new found trade being broken and the future of my primary source of income and enjoyment, was in jeopardy. But that was for the future, right now the pressing problem was answering a lot of embarrassing questions from a lot of pissed off adults. I was pretty sure Tom was going through the same thing, and I wondered how he was 'copulating' with the situation. I would have liked to have called and talked with him, but it was impossible, I was being too closely watched, like perhaps they might watch someone for attempting suicide or something.

I tried playing the unknowing recipient of some dreaded disease that I had obviously contacted from some unsanitary toilet seat at some unmemorable filling station. It seemed to work for the moment, but soon I was confronted with real names, and places and events with astonishing accuracy, and there was little I could do to offer any story, and I resigned myself to suffer the consequences for my actions. One of the conditions of my subsequent probation (for lying to police) was that I was told I was no longer allowed to communicate or see my friend Tom. That restriction however, did not last long. My dick healed up in about 3 weeks. It was too painful for me to get an erection or masturbate during that period, and I was celibate the whole time. One boy suggested that I had the clap so bad they called it “applause”... Very funny.

It amazed me to see how the size of my dick shrank in direct proportion to how sick I got. It finally got better enough that I began to gently exercise it, slowly bringing it back to life and serviceable operation. I wanted to continue enjoying the lifestyle I had enjoyed before the crash. I didn't know exactly how, but I was determined to resume my new found enjoyment-employment. The end of summer arrived, and the stress of school once again loomed before me, Because I was not allowed out alone, I spent a lot of time in my bedroom playing music, and taking long showers, to conceal my masturbatory habits. Sometimes In bed, would masturbate into my dirty socks, and put them in the laundry... Mother never thought to look there for evidence...

Returning to school, all I could think of was how I was going to face all my teachers and peers. Talk about stage fright! I was already trying to think of ways to gain some personal time out of the school day. Maybe volunteer for some activity or get study hall, or anything I could use to disguise some unsupervised time after school so I could resume where I left off...

Like an answer to my prayers, God Himself was to intervene and send me a mentor and benefactor, in the form of one Reverend P.J. Goodbody, (not his real name..), a local pastor who worked with wayward kids through his church, and with the juvenile court, turned out to be my assigned probation officer. Since P.J. Knew my case history, it wasn't long before ol' P.J. Had me in his office with his lips on my dick up to my balls... In his car...and several times, in the parking garage. Once, he suggested a filling station restroom for a quickie, but I drew the line at that for obvious reasons, and instead we ended up in a truckers shower on I-5, a few miles away.

My duties were mostly maintenance in and around the church. Our 'professional session' was “as needed” and if I literally “got off early” I could get time for myself that was vouched for by the good reverend, P.J. and needless to say, it was a “marriage” made in heaven. Mother would pick me up immediately after school and drop me off at P.J.'s office. He would take care of 'business' right away, and then I would water the lawns and shrubs, take the garbage out, and whatever was needed. After that, I could do what I wanted for a couple of hours, and that included going down town on 'errands'. Just like mission impossible, P.J. Did speak to me about being caught where I shouldn't be, and told me he would have to disavow any claims resulting from such a situation, otherwise, I should have a good time. I wasted no time.

Remember when I was worried about facing my peers? Well, a little advertising certainly goes a long way, and everybody in school was talking in front of, on the side, behind my back, and over my head. I would get razzing and giggles, and some unusual inquires, but everyone of the general population pretty much kept away from me. Oddly enough however, during this time, I was being covertly propositioned by some of the most unlikely students of both sexes. Several boys wanted mutual masturbation, another was interested in anal sex, A girl suggested oral sex. And then, My math teacher began occasionally keeping me after school for “Special instruction” which of course, took place in the cloak room. Opportunities abounded, but these were non paying jobs as far as I was concerned, more or less a good will tour, if you know what I mean.

Do you have any idea how hard it was in the 1950's for an underage boy to get a blow job on the street? If you were young, horny, and wanted sex, your best bet was to join a church. In 1955, I was bumping into other guys my age that were having similar experiences, and we would talk about them whenever we got together. I eventually 'gave' and 'got' through the school year with the help of P.J., who was thanked profusely by my mother for the vast improvement in my attitude and calming my wild ways. I wanted to say: Jesus mom, I blow a load of cum down his throat twice a day, No wonder I'm calm! But I didn't want to spoil it, I was having a good time, and things were looking up.

With spiritual guidance from the good reverend, I gradually acquired several regular 'customers' from the religious community. For a while, it seemed like I was going from 'parson to parson'. I have to say they were very gentle and grateful. I didn't always get paid in money, but there were pool parties with food, drinks, gifts, weekend stay overs, and the very busy hot tubs. I seemed to be popular at the time, because I had a good history of keeping quiet. And why not? What has being truthful ever gotten me? The whole idea of this 'truth will set you free' thing, seemed counter-intuitive to me from the beginning. The truth has never set me free. It only frees the cops, the attorneys, and the judge.

So far, My sexual contact with a woman had proven to be a rather negative, and downright disastrous event, but I still wanted to explore this realm a bit more intimately, and I came to the conclusion that I was not a homosexual, nor was I heterosexual, but just plain sexual. Which is not to say I was in it primarily for the sex, but more as the means to enjoy a social standing I would not normally have been able to experience. In other words, it became kind of a hobby with benefits. While there were the occasional negatives, there were far more positives as a result of those relationships. In a sense, my “friends” had become clergy, attorneys, doctors, dentists, you name it, I had the best advice and support that money alone cannot buy, and I have yet to meet a stingy cocksucker among them.

That summer and winter came and went and I was spending a minimal amount of time at home because of my involvement with the whole church business. The year seemed to pass quickly. Things had settled in, and my time became very structured in terms of who, where, when, and what. I had liked the way things were going, and I didn't want or think that it might end any time soon. Another boy who I did not know, but had seen hanging around Tom, spilled his beans after a brief cross examination by his parents, and my name came up along with others, and the cops eventually showed up at my door for a bit of a chat about who I knew, and when... I have to admit it was intimidating and I was genuinely scared, but I held out, hoping they would get tired and go away. I didn't want to get in a jam like I did last time, so it was all or nothing, todo or nada. I refused to talk at all. I clammed up as if frightened, and I was. Finally they left, but vowed to see me again. That was not the end of it by any means, but for now my mind was swirling with thoughts of doom. I had no idea what was going to happen to P.J. and the 'gang', and most of all, Me.

P.J. Wound up getting arrested for oral copulation with a child under the age of fourteen, and along with two other acquaintances, were convicted. I refused to incriminate him and instead, I extolled his virtues in my deposition, lauding him for keeping me on the 'straight' and narrow. As a matter of fact, my grades were very good, and I had not gotten into any 'regular' trouble since he became my probation officer. Coincidentally, My attorney turned out to be a queer friend of P.J.s, and he was eventually able to keep me out of the juvenile justice system. Unfortunately, I still had to deal with my parents. By this time, my parents had enough and sat me down for a discussion which consisted of them yelling at me for a long time. They finally got tired and threw their hands up in the gesture of giving up. Since the tough love approach didn't work, they were ready to allow my emancipation, but only when I turned fifteen in another month, and if I stayed out of trouble until then, I was good to go. I was delighted, of course, but with serious twinges of uncertainty.

I turned fifteen in the summer of'56, I was finally emancipated, and my classes had been modified to accommodate 'sexualized' students like myself. I was in a class with the bad boys, and I was accepted as one of them. A club, as it were, for comrades in arms and action. I was no longer considered a nerd, or a clod. I had graduated to 'punk loser', and in a weird sort of way, I couldn't have been happier with my new found identity. Looking back, you might say I would have been better off hanging out with the 'A' students, but I eventually went to work for an interesting gay and generous company that employed me for my skill in customer relations and closing important deals I was good at what I did, and why not? I had plenty of experience!

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popwasabi · 5 years ago

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How some stoners named “Harold & Kumar” made Asian Americans proud

Being Asian American can make you feel invisible at times or worst, the butt of every bad joke.

Sure, lots of Americans love Asian things like sushi, kung fu, anime, and tacky calligraphy tattoos that don’t mean what they say they mean but they don’t particularly care about having the people themselves present or even represented.

And typically when we are represented it tends to look like this.

Or this.

(I said what I SAID!)

Now Asian Americans are not by any stretch the most marginalized or even the least represented people in the larger American cultural diaspora, but they’re fairly consistently forgotten or grossly stereotyped in our media regardless and this has larger consequences. Representation is important because it makes a people’s presence known to the larger majority.

Our pop culture has unfortunately played a role in erasing, appropriating, and misrepresenting Asian folk. An action movie may feature a white actor with extreme martial arts skills fighting in Hong Kong but might not have a single prominent Asian voice throughout the plot and those that do are typically gross caricatures. The Cyberpunk genre loves Asian aesthetics from its Tokyo inspired neon lighting, futurist cityscape, and ramen carts abound but boy, is the populace typically dominantly white.

(I love this movie but considering how many Asian things and aesthetic choices there are in it would it have killed Denis Villeneuve to have at least ONE background Asian person??)

It’s not shocking then that 2004’s stoner comedy classic “Harold & Kumar” starts with a pair of white dudes beginning their own adventure by leaving one of the titular heroes in the dust to do their dirty work because “Asians love math” or something. Despite not being a stoner, at the time at least, I related hard to this movie and its characters as the film touched on a number of triggers I had growing up.

2004 was a formative year for me as an Asian American. For the first time ever, my history classes were touching on Asian culture with discussions on Japanese feudalism which awakened a deep sense of pride I didn’t know I had at the time. I was watching NHK samurai dramas about Miyamoto Musashi and later the Shinsengumi which led to me begin training in kendo. Anime had suddenly become more mainstream with the premiere of Shonen Jump and pirated subtitled anime littering all of YouTube. But more importantly, and distressingly, I became more aware of my identity because it was increasingly getting called out as I was getting older.

I’ve been labeled a number of different pejoratives growing up through my teens.

“Nerd.”

“Weirdo.”

“Loser”

But none cut deeper than “Chinese boy.”

I’m not Chinese, of course, in fact I’m half white and half Japanese but try telling the various ignorant lunkheads I knew growing up to respect and differentiate between them all. Hell, better yet tell them I’m just as American as they are too.

Being labeled “Chinese” hit a very personal chord with me. To lots of Americans, unfortunately, we’re all “Chinese” and the various qualities that make each of our cultures unique are inconsequential to them. We AAPI’s all individually take a measure of pride in those unique qualities and to have it all sequestered under a blanket “Chinese” label was beyond insulting.

(And I don’t care what you tell me or how much you hate China’s government, this is a THOUSAND percent a dog whistle.)

For Asian Americans, there have been various ways one reacts to these insults. Some of course, who learned confidence at a younger age, would shrug it off or ignore it, some would outright resent it but for me at least it only made me dig my heels in deeper. Yeah, I’m Asian, so fuck you!

That energy is deep “Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle” as these two Asian American characters not only navigate a crazy night of searching for an open White Castle to satisfy their stoner cravings but also confront various microaggressions from outside and within the Asian community.

Harold, of course, struggles with his confidence. He can’t stand up for himself when the aforementioned two white bros from the start of the film saddle him with extra work. He laments doing the typical Asian thing of being too passive when confronted by authority. He can’t find the will to ask the girl next door out because again he sees himself as an impotent Asian guy unwilling to make the first move. The whole movie he struggles with his inner feelings because he’s been taught and programmed to a certain extent to be timid because that’s the Asian identity.

Meanwhile, Kumar’s character is about resisting conformity to those same stereotypes but in the worst ways. He co-opts black and hip-hop culture as seen in his messy apartment room. He fights his dad who is forcing him to take his doctor's exam, something he doesn’t want. Generational pressure is common in all cultures but it’s an entirely different animal when it comes to the Asian upbringing. Kumar embodies this resist from beginning to the end of the film and though he does decide to take the test, it’s important that he chooses to do it, not his dad, and certainly not because he’s Indian. He decides that choosing to be a great doctor doesn’t mean he is becoming a stereotype because his identity is not just about being Asian.

(Every Asian kid has heard their parent make an unintentional innuendo.)

Harold and Kumar’s differing approaches create a charming pair for the film to bounce off as Kumar’s brashness often lands them in trouble and Harold’s timid demure keeps them down in its own way and the two finally come together when Kumar learns to understand the difference between conformity and choice and Harold learns conformity doesn’t define him.

Both characters confront all kinds of microaggressions against their identity throughout the film. Cops making fun of their names. The extreme sports bros making every racist joke every Asian kid has every heard growing up at them. All Asian Americans have grown up wanting to deliver the perfect comeback or “fuck you” moment against these types of people and when our heroes triumph and put them all in their place there is undeniable catharsis as it happens for everyone who has seen this movie.

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(Seriously, there isn’t a more satisfying good triumphing over evil moment in film for me than the conclusion of this particular plot.)

The movie confronts stereotypes in more ways than one though. Throughout the movie Harold and Kumar are confronted by a situation that makes them think it’ll go one direction but ends up (usually comedically) the opposite. Harold and Kumar try to hook up with two beautiful transfer students who turn out to have horrible bowel issues. Harold is reluctant to go to the Asian American club party because even he believes in his own ethnic stereotypes of them but it turns out it’s a banger of a party with plenty of weed to boot. Harold and Kumar are picked up by a lonesome, disfigured tow truck driver and are shocked to find he’s married to a beautiful woman. And the aforementioned extreme sports bros turn out to love cheesy pop music and romantic songs.

Basically, the whole movie is about giving a big middle finger to all our preconceived notions we have about identity and it's brilliant.

(Nothing wrong with cheesy pop music, of course.)

“Harold & Kumar” is great for other reasons too. John Cho and Kal Penn still play greatly off each other. There’s plenty of great one-liners sprinkled between each scene. The entire journey to find White Castle burgers in the middle of the night is a fairly genius premise for a stoner comedy still. And Neil Patrick Harris playing “himself” is still iconic.

Parts of the movie haven’t aged, well of course. There’s some bad gross-out humor, some lazy gay panic jokes and not to mention some sexist quips that don’t land well in 2020. Also, let’s just not talk about the sequels.

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(I still find this scene amusing though.)

That said, “Harold & Kumar’s” first film in this munchie saga is not only a grade-A stoner flick but simply one of the best films ever when it comes to bringing that much needed representation of the time to Asian Americans. Watching Harold & Kumar stick it to their annoying white antagonists while delivering a “fuck you” to every racist joke I ever heard growing up is still cathartic as hell and made me feel proud to be Asian American during a turbulent time for myself growing up.

Though it’s not Masterpiece Theater by any stretch, Harold & Kumar will always hold a special place in my heart and remains forever “high” on my list of favorite movies of all-time.

Happy 4/20, y’all!

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borisbubbles · 6 years ago

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ESC2019 Preshow #04

04. PORTUGAL Conan Osíris - “Telemóveis” SemiFinal 1, #15

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🎼 NONG / NANG 🎵/ NONG 🎶

Thus clangeth the dulcet sitar tones which introduced us our Lord and Savour, Pharaoh Conan VIII of House Osiris. Harnessing the powers of Saudade, contemporary dance and tons and tons of goldleaf, He has come to deliver a message most grave.

ENTRY ANALYSIS

Let us dive in immediately with the clarion of praise Cona deserves, for “Telemóveis” is nothing but a stunning piece of art. It’s really isn’t as much as a song, as it is an experience and although the fado/oriental punk fusion was an acquired taste for me at first, I was #AllAboard once I saw this:

I think you can tell how *much* I loved “Telemóveis” by the fact that I bothered DL’ing the vids (plural!) and making gifs, yes? I mean, why shouldn’t I? “Telemóveis” is a brilliant dirge mourning the loss of saudade to acute iPhoneitis; Saudade which longs for a return to the halcyon days where people went to café’s to have conversations over a cup of coffee and some brigadeiros, instead of resulting to incessant hunchbacked texting. In other words, IS THERE A MORE QUINTESSENTIALLY PORTUGUESE SONG IN EXISTENCE THAN THIS ONE? I don’t fucking think so.

Of course our Lord and Saviour blessed us not only with song but with an epic act to go with it. I think the best way to put it into words it by saying that “Telemóveis” is clever... in its cleverness. The act is drenched with symbolism that matches the lyrics but also triggers my inner history nerd (the egyptian beardmask is an amazing touch). The exploding rose backdrop is show-stopping and man, so is that death drop

(and Conan somehow improved on that by showing up in the finale with like... spoon fingers which clicked together into a wee gilded crossbow <3 <3 <3)

It may seem weird cutting Conan now, as opposed to later, (especially since I don’t have any fancy gifs of my top three), but of the four remaining entries, His the act I’m actually the least invested in lol. Don’t get me wrong. I never stopped loving Conan and memefying the shit out of Him, but He’s not as consistently good as the top three are. Largely because I still cannot figure out what “Telemóveis” is. Is it a masterpiece and a hallmark of free artistry, or is it just, you know, random insanity that spawned from a marihuana-addled brain. Probably both? Whichever the case, ConanGOD’s reprise after winning FdC is probably the best thing i ever seen in my life. I’m saving my bandwith for the NF Corner though, so these gifs will have to do instead:

Yes he actually got *THE ENTIRE LINE-UP FOR FDC*, including the crew members *AND* presenters who were also on the stage (one of them being the phenomenal Filomena Cautela), to death-drop en masse. 😍 If the world of Our Lord be a fair one, this is what precisely will happen in Tel Aviv in four weeks’ time.

NF CORNER

Here’s another sentence I never expected to write down in a post ever:

Festival da Cançao was fucking awesome this yea

r. It might’ve been the best NF of the entire year? It’s definitely top three with EMA and Vidbir, in some order.

Holy shit though. So MANY amazing indie songs owning shit left and right (Except for "Perfeito”, which is a walking cauchemar, but that one was murdered by the national juries before it could become a threat. 🤗)

Anyway; I *AM* going to spend 4 vids on this because any less would be a disgrace to this wonderful NF.

Conan’s biggest competition was NBC who was pretty awesome in his own right:

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This feels like the sort of song that would do well in San Remo? (It fits the charming aged indie rocker ballad vid I get from some of its participants), except NBC is also a HILARIOUS OVERREACTIONS DEITY 😍 (exhibit A: see gifs above) and thank fuck he was because it meant he could finish a ~long~ distance behind Conan (in second because lol ofc He was a blowout winner)

Probably the weirdest performance of the entire season (and perhaps, in life) belonged to SURMA

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Lol this just straight-up performance art and not a song, but I’m happy she was there anyway. “Pugna” makes “Telemóveis” appear normal and well-adjusted by comparison and that’s an impressive feat 😍

Fave #3 was this beautiful, moody, ambient powerballad by Ana Claudia:

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"Inercia” a poor man’s ZalaGasper song, but I really looooooooove ZalaGasper, so I obviously love this one as well. Sadly she had to perform directly after Conan and it neutered her beyond repair, but when even your last place delivers, you know you have a great NF!

I think I’ll close with another wonderful Fado fusion, in this case with bluegrass country pop: Meet Madrepaz

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YESSSSSSS the facepaint is about 70.3% of their appeal 😍 😍 😍 but the song slaps as well. What a beautiful, desolate ambient sound. Am I deluded to think this could qualify in a Eurovision semifinal? (well some of them, anyway)

All in all an amazing selection, and definitely in contention for The Best NF of 2019 (I’ll decide once I’ve posted Slovenia’s entry, I guess)

Qualification Odds: Borderline (-)

Ugh, this BREAKS my dark chocolate heart, but Conan isn’t at all safe. Conan’s main problems rise from the fact that he tries to be artistic and humorous at the same time, and the two cancel each other out somewhat.

It’s same problem Gabbani had really, except this is Portugal, not Italy, so the stakes are much higher here. There’s a very high chance “Telemóveis” highbrow message will fly over the heads of the audience and there’s an equally high chance it will backfire on Conan when it does. Portugal faces severe competition from the other acts. They compete with Slovenia for the “This Is High Quality” value-seeking vote, with Iceland and Australia for the novely vote and with Czech Republic and Greece for the “yeah this is actually really fucking clever” highbrow vote. He even competes with Serhat somehwat, both being OTT acts that are on later in the semi. It could very well mean death by a thousand cuts for Portugal.

The draw, which is usually brought up as the main justification for an NQ, doesn’t bother me though. Coming on before Queen Katerine, the Elegant and Supreme, isn’t a gift if she finds her voice, but she’s hardly consistent and coming after Estonia, which has the same flavour and texture asa wad of chewed gum will make any song after it a fucking revelation by comparison. Overall, I think BL- is the correct call. There are several high odds Conan needs to overcome, the biggest of which probably is Conan fans breaking their Telele’s before actually voting for him! WAIT UNTIL AFTER THE SEMIFINAL, people. Our Lord and Saviour NEEDS your support.

Projected Placement: 6th-15th in the SemiFinal. If he qualifies, 12th-23rd in the Grand Final.

Link to the masterpost

#Eurovision #Eurovision 2019 #Eurovision Song Contest #ESC2019 #Portugal #Conan Osiris #Telemoveis #O Telele

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simblr-2019 · 5 years ago

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Decided to make a post about the main characters in my vampire story.

Click read more to read about it.

(West family bios)

Name: Minerva.

Age: Teenager

Species/life state: Vampire

Aspiration: Successful Linage.

Traits: Snob, Self Absorbed

Minerva is a very prideful person who thinks very highly of herself and doesn’t appear to have any humility. She tends to put others around her down and is very vain and selfish. Minerva is not close to anyone in her family, since she is rude to them. (Especially rude to Joy) The only exception is Stephen. However, even her relationship with Stephen isn’t a very good one. She’s thankful that he took her in and made her what she is today, but she doesn’t like how nice he is to humans. She looks down upon humans believing that she is superior to them. And that she has power and authority over them. Despite being such an unfriendly person who treats others around her cruelly her aspiration is to have a loving family that succeeds in life. Minerva has an inner struggle of wanting a happy family, but always wanting to put others down so she can feel good about herself. It’s possible for Minerva to realize the error of her ways and to become a better person who ends up with the life she’s always wanted, but in order to do that she would have to change her attitude and behaviors towards those around her. And since Minerva is now hanging around Miss H and her crew it will be much harder for her to become a good person.

Name: Phillip

Age: Teenager

Species/life state: Vampire

Aspiration: Master Chef

Traits: Foodie, Self Assured

Phillip dreams of owning his own restaurant and becoming a professional chef someday. He grew up watching his mother work in a restaurant and that’s where his love of cooking cake from. However, he most likely will not be able to live out his dream. His parents are gone and he’s a vampire now living far away from the city unable to be amongst the humans. He blames Stephen for ruining his life and destroying not only his dreams, but the dreams of his siblings. Not only does he blame Stephen, but he also doesn’t trust him. He believes that Stephen is responsible for the death of Amber’s parents and wants nothing to do with Stephen anymore. Phillip is also very confident in his abilities to find out the truth about Stephen and what really happened to everyone’s families.

Name: Amber

Age: Teenager

Species/life state: Vampire

Aspiration: Beach Life

Traits: Cheerful, Loves Outdoors

Amber is a very cheerful and generally optimistic teenager. When she was younger she and her parents lived on the beautiful island of Sulani. When her parents died mysterious out at sea one day she was adopted by Stephen and became a member of his family. She knows she’ll never be able to go back to her beautiful beach paradise since sunlight and vampires do not mix very well, but never stops dreaming about it.

Amber is not very close with any of her adoptive family except for Phillip who she considers her best friend. They two of them can tell each other anything. And when Phillip tells her, that her parents may have been murdered her cheerful demeanor starts to vanish. She joins her adoptive brother on a quest to find out the truth about her parent’s death and the truth about her adoptive father.

Name: Marco

Age: Teenager

Species/life state: Vampire

Aspiration: World-Famous Celebrity

Traits: Art lover, Music Lover

Marco is very multi talented. He can paint, he can act, and he can play several musical instruments such as piano, violin, guitar, organ, and the keyboard. All in hopes of becoming famous some day. That’s great right?

Well no. Not really. See Marco is a vampire and can’t really truly be around humans. Humans tend to not like vampires and even try to hunt them down in fear and disgust, which will make it hard if not impossible to ever truly live out his dreams. Though, despite what seems like a dead end he will succeed despite the odds. If of course his family and all the secrets of Forgotten Hollow don’t destroy him first.

Name: Priscilla

Age: Teenager

Species/Life state: Vampire

Aspiration: Soulmate

Traits: Romantic, Outgoing

Priscilla is an outgoing sim who dreams of romance and having lots of friends and a close family. However, her siblings are often off on their own and do not interact with Priscilla that much. There is hope for Priscilla, the Van Gould family that lives nearby has two teenagers the same age as Priscilla. They’re names are Emilee, and Tristan. Emilee is a lot like Priscilla and the two get along very well and they both love the color pink. Priscilla also may or may not have a tiny crush on Tristan Van Gould.

Priscilla has an easier time accepting Stephen as her adoptive father since in the past she was often ignored by others and so far Stephen seems to be trying his hardest to be a good father.

Name: Joy

Age: Teenager

Species/Life state: Vampire

Aspiration: Nerd Brain

Traits: Bookworm, Geek

When Joy isn’t being bullied by her adoptive sister Minerva, crushing on a boy who will never love her, or geeking out over Star Trek, she sits and reads. Her favorite subject to study is the history of Forgotten Hollow. One day Joy becomes curious about a single unmarked grave on a small lonely island out in the middle of a lake. She decides to investigate the grave out of curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. In her quest she recruits her shy and isolated sister Lilac to help her research. And discovers that the story behind the grave and the person in the grave plays a key role into the history of Forgotten Hollow.

Name: Lilac

Age: Teenager

Species/Life State: Vampire

Aspiration: Renaissance Sim

Traits: Loner, Genius

Lilac is the most isolated out of all her family. She rarely ever leaves her room or interacts with anyone. She truly hates herself and what she is and believes she is unworthy of being loved by anyone and doesn’t know how to open up to people. However, things change when her adoptive sister seeks her help in learning more about the secrets of Forgotten Hollow. She agrees to help and ends becoming closer to her adoptive sister. She also runs into a teenager around her own age that has recently moved to Forgotten Hollow. He’s nice, funny, and he makes good company. The only problem with this is he’s human and she’s not.

Name: Stephen

Age: Young adult (several hundred years old)

Species/Life state: Vampire

Aspiration: Master Vampire

Traits: Genius, Snob, Family Oriented

Stephen lived many years of his live in solitude in Forgotten Hollow until around ten years ago he adopted his seven children. While he may seem mean and stuck up he truly cares about his children and wants what’s best for them. Or what he sees as best for them. However, his habit of keeping his children in the dark is driving them away from him and from each other. Best to come clean about everything and tell the truth before he loses them all forever.

#also sorry if there’s any typos #sims #sims 4 #simmer #simblr #ts4 #ts4 gameplay #ts4 story #ts4 simblr #ts4 simmer #ts4 vampires #ts4 forgotten Hollow #west family

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mini-pretzel · 6 years ago

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Of the seven members of BTS, who do you think would most likely date/marry a person with a different culture as theirs?

this is a very interesting question. i even had a talk with a friend over this before posting because there’s so much to go over and i wanted to get my thoughts straight.

so first off, there’s a difference between dating and marriage, especially concerning korean culture so i’ll break up my response into those two parts.

preface: now before i go into this, i’m by no means korean so i can only say things based on what i’ve heard and researched and learned from my korean friends. so please, don’t take everything i say as fact, these are merely my projections and biased opinions. and honestly, this is just for fun. so please don’t take this serious and don’t expect this to be accurate once the 7 years of their contract are up and you see them dating openly.

with that being said, let’s get into this.

for dating, i can see all of them potentially dating a foreigner. they’re all such progressive boys and are interested in learning about other cultures. so i don’t see too many problems. but let’s look at each member closer.

namjoon is a nerd. there’s no other way of putting it. he’s the most fluent in english in bts and is pretty much multi-lingual (i think he speaks 4 languages in total, maybe more?), so he would have no issue when it comes to language and communication with his partner. and because he’s a nerd he would enjoy learning every little thing about the person’s culture. and he’s so open minded, he would have a deeper understanding of the clashes of opinions and world views. so yes, i definitely think he would dabble into dating a foreigner, if he hasn’t already. as for marriage, i can definitely see him marrying a foreigner. he’s probably the only one of the guys that probably has already toyed around with the concept. so i can see him marrying someone of a different culture and not giving a fuck about korean society’s views on their relationship.

yoongi is i feel like secretly fluent in english, and possibly other languages. he just prefers to stay quiet and listen, which is understandable. i think he’s a little shy when it comes to speaking it, though i don’t think it will stop him from pursuing a foreigner if he decides he/she are someone he wants to be with. i remember in one of his interviews he said that he cares about the person’s personality the most, so i can see him pursuing someone simply because they fit him emotionally and mentally, not because of their culture. though he would enjoy learning about the other culture and the norms. as for marriage, im hesitant to say if he would or not. i mean, i can see him being an amazing father and having kids, but probably not with a foreigner, unless he’s completely into their inner world.

hoseok is i feel like is adventurous and open to the concept of dating. i think he would have a couple of girlfriends from different backgrounds and cultures and it would definitely open his perception to the world and i think he will have fond memories of his time with them. though, i cannot see him actually marrying foreign. and it has nothing to do with the girls, it mostly has to do with the fact that it is easier and more comfortable with him to marry within the same culture, for communication and proximity purposes.

jimin is so, so shy and insecure when it comes to english, though i think he’s made so much progress in terms of speaking it. i’m unsure if he knows any other languages. interestingly, i have a feeling he wouldn’t just be into dating just foreign women, he would be into men too. i saw him checking out that interviewer in US. i see you jimin. let’s not forget tony, as well. jimin definitely has a type, haha. but yeah, i think he’s just a little too shy. the other person would have to approach him if they’re from a different culture. as for marriage, i can see he would have a lot of push and pull with korean society views on marriage. but ultimately i think he will choose what will make him happy and comfortable - and that could be marriage to a foreigner, but to me it seems highly unlikely. it’s more comfortable with him to converse with someone korean i think. and not because he doesn’t enjoy the richness of other cultures, but because the communication and understanding comes easier.

seokjin i don’t think would date or marry a foreigner. i think he’s probably one of the members that consciously practices his english in the open and he’s great at communication what he means through very little words. but at the same time i can’t see him dating or marrying foreign because i think he’s pretty insecure with his understanding of foreign languages regardless of how much effort and work he puts in. which makes me sad, but there’s also that level of comfort he has with koreans when it comes to taking it to the next level. THOUGH, THOUGH, he’s the guy in the group that would have A LOT of foreign friends. you’ve seen him talking to everyone in bon voyage. the guy will have a friend from every part of the world, i swear. it’s the chaotic sag in him, hahah. but for marriage and dating - i think he will stick to koreans.

taehyung, oh baby boy. tae… you see, with him my heart just hurts a little. i’ll explain in a bit. so for dating - yes. i definitely see him dating foreign. because he’s so interested in art and history of other places. i remember he found russian language beautiful and enjoyed his trip to russia back in 2014. and during their tour in europe i saw how happy he was to walk around the streets and visit art galleries. i think he would find great pleasure in dating someone of a different culture because i think he has that yearning to learn more about the world and about himself through it too. for marriage though, that’s when my heart starts to hurt a little. tae is such a family oriented person, i can see the genuine joy he has when he sees kids. which makes me so sad because if he does decide to marry a foreigner and have kids, he knows they would get bullied because mixed kids have a pretty hard time in korea (from what i hear at least). i think that would eat him up a lot, so i feel like a part of him would consider not to marry outside of korea because of what the child would go through.

jeongguk is the one that took me the longest to pin point. upon reading the question the first thing that popped into my head was that prediction tweet i read a couple months back, where the person stated that jeongguk would marry at 28 and it would be to a non-korean. now, of course, that whole thing isn’t real, it was just someone poking fun, but as you can imagine a lot of people (esp jk stans) did not take that tweet too lightly. but to me it really made me think about whether or not jk would actually do that. so for dating, i think jk is the one that’s the most insecure about his english, even though he shouldn’t be. the boy covers english songs on the regular and even had a duet with charlie puth, but i think he’s too hard on himself when it comes to english (though he’s a perfectionist when it comes to anything, bless his virgo soul). i think he definitely would date foreign, despite being hard on himself all the time, but ultimately i think his insecurities are what will stop him from marrying foreign. and that makes me sad because the boy will truly enjoy learning about other cultures.

alright, that’s all i got. again, please don’t take everything i said as fact, this is simply my opinion and projection, and if you think otherwise or don’t agree – you have that right and i’m not going to debate over what is accurate or not. this is just for fun.

i, personally, cannot wait for them to start dating publicly, not because i want to see who they would date, but because i just want them to enjoy dating and have fun. they work so hard, they deserve to go on those coffee dates and be awkward and nervous around someone new. they really deserve it. and i cannot wait for them to find someone they’d be happy with.

thank you for your question. i hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it.

love you

#ask #asks #anon ask #anon #anon asks #bts asks #this was quite interesting to think about #idk what do u guys think #i know everyone will have their own take on this #and i'd love to hear everyone's opinions

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livingwithashipname-blog · 7 years ago

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Ermanda’s Inner Sanctum: Scorpion 4.09 “It’s Raining Men (of War)”

Happy Thanksgiving to my US peeps! Yet, let us not forget the Natives who view this holiday very differently! Anyways, this episode was awesome! We learned about a pivotal moment that shaped Cabe’s life. Robert Patrick and Eddie Kaye Thomas’ acting was superb! I have enjoyed Cabe and Toby’s time together in this arc. I also liked the mission because it talked about NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), garbage patches in the oceans, and techniques implemented to remove them. It tied well with Scorpion’s plight to book jobs where their inventions and solutions can be used long-term and fix their financial deficit. I applaud the art department for the look of the trash mound and the VFX team for the aerial view of it in proximity to the team’s rented boat! 👏🏾👏🏾 I have some interesting topics for this review, so let’s get started!

Learning More about Florence Tipton

The writers are making a very quaint distinction with Florence Tipton. She is a chemist, but she is not a genius. She can relate, but she is not exactly like the members of Team Scorpion. However, her personality is very similar to Mr. 197, which is why Toby makes that pot & kettle pun in response to Walter’s description of her. During the mission, we learn what motivates her independent work. She’s trying to redeem herself from failure and rejection. She is so eager to prove herself once again that she doesn’t take kindly to distractions of any kind. It is also why she presents her binding agent to the team when it hasn’t been properly vetted for practical efficiency. It is commonly said that pride comes before a fall and Florence falls HARD when she projects onto Paige. But Paige, acting as the skilled communicator she is, finds a way to get through to Florence in the same way she does for her geniuses! She has exposed an emotional opening that I think will become significant in upcoming episodes!

Papa Cabe

“I’ve realized recently that I’ve been messing a bit with my memories… been rewriting them over the years. I’m not gonna do that anymore. It’s okay ‘cause I got a great girl and I’ve got great friends. No matter what the future holds for me, I want to remember this moment right now exactly as it is. ‘Cause to have you all in my life… I am truly thankful.”

Cabe’s speech is so touching because of the truth it possesses and what it represents! This process has been hard for Cabe because he feels like he is failing himself and Scorpion in the same way he feels he failed his father. He completely constructs a new memory in order to cover his shame over his father’s death. It explains a lot more about why he is who he is. This is why it’s no surprise he fears old age as we saw in 3.17 Dirty Seeds, Done Dirt Cheap. His whole life is his way of subconsciously overcompensating for his perceived lack of bravery and a means to honor his father’s legacy as a lawman. The idea that his humanity while on the job could land him in prison and strip this identity is really hard for him to fathom. He is convinced that a hardened exterior keeps him objective for the purposes of his job. The most important thing he needs is support from his loved ones. The support he receives from his children and Allie give him the strength he needs to endure this legal battle. I truly appreciate this reality expressed on screen in this manner!

Walter’s Legacy: The Influence of Ralph, Happy Quinn, and Baby Quintis

Walter may not have considered fatherhood in the past, but he has always taken great pride in the development of young minds and making his mark for the next generation of geniuses. We see this when he meets Ralph for the first time in the pilot and recognizes his genius. This reality becomes more apparent in his interactions with Ralph throughout season 1. He acts as a father figure and mentor to Ralph, sometimes overstepping his boundaries out of passion over Ralph’s potential (1.21 Cliffhanger).

Walter: Do you see what you're sacrificing by leaving, by taking Ralph away from us? Paige: I have to think of his safety. W: Earlier today, you invoked the greater good so that I would team up with Cabe. But do you just throw that term around? P: My son nearly died because he wants to be you. W: Is it so awful being me? Being around me? P: I just don't want him to become you! W: What is your solution? Keep him in a cocoon? Have him watch you move to Maine to follow some guy who's already abandoned you? That's idiotic! P: That guy is his father, Walter. You are not. I... I have to go. Good-bye, guys.

He encourages Ralph’s academic pursuits and respects his intelligence, reminding him to never diminish himself for the sake of others (2.22 Hard Knox).

Walter: I couldn't understand the details in your incredibly complex code. I used to think that I-I had the fourth highest IQ in the world, but now I realized that you have dropped me down to number five. Ralph: That's what got you upset? W: (laughing) No. No, what upset me is that you were willing to slow down for me to-to let me go down the wrong road, when that would've hindered you, because I couldn't grasp your work. Never hobble your intelligence for anyone... because if you do that in this garage, imagine what you'll have to do out there... for humans. The world needs to catch up to you... because if-if it can, just a little, imagine what a... a beautiful place it could be.

However, Ralph is not the only person in this series used as a means to future possibilities. Happy Quinn's individual growth and her relationship with Toby repeatedly serve as examples of life goals Walter can achieve. Happy Quinn is his closest friend. He trusts and admires her and has a lot of respect for her intelligence and abilities (3.05 Plight at the Museum). Plus, they are alike in many ways.

Walter: I know Toby believes that I only think about myself, but I will do what is necessary to protect your family. Even if that means that I have to go back home to Ireland. Happy: You are home. We're not losing you, and we're not breaking up Scorpion. We'll do whatever it takes. You talk nonsense like that again, I'll punch you in the neck. W: Toby's a fortunate guy. You know, I know ours isn't a real marriage, but since the day I met you, you've been a faithful friend, you've come through for me when I needed it, you've helped me build Scorpion from nothing. That's loyalty, selflessness, collaboration. If those are the traits that one looks for in a spouse, then you've been a... You've been a great wife. Thank you.

At first, he rejected the notion of romantic love. He had a no-fraternization rule for his employees because he thought romance would make his employees less efficient and possibly as a means to conceal his own fraudulent green card marriage to Happy. Now he believes he is capable and worthy of love and seeks to understand it in his own way. He roots for Melvester, Quintis, Callie, and Ralph x Patty! He never thought he would have children because he didn’t think he would be a great father. But Happy’s evolution, Quintis’ parenthood quest, and his own familial bond with Paige and Ralph are slowly convincing him that he can succeed in these pursuits as well.

W: But you and Toby… I hired you. You would’t know each other if it wasn’t for me. So if you had a child, if would just be something I take a lot of pride in. H: Fine, you’ve touched my heart. Walter is on the list. Just don’t tell Toby.

I think it is by design that Toby (seasons 1 & 2), Happy (season 2), and Ralph (season 3) are the three people so far who have encountered Walter just before he makes MAJOR moves in his personal life. He may be egotistical, but he strongly desires to leave a mark on the next generation in the hopes that the hub he created for his team will continue to flourish in his absence. This is why he is so eager to be an important figure in Baby Quintis’ life. He brought Toby and Happy together by hiring them, which planted the seed. He wants a little credit, which is not surprising for a man who focuses on research, not athletics. 😂 If not by name, then maybe he could be a godparent. Yet, I have a feeling choosing godparents will turn into a competition like the one for Quintis’ Best Man & Maid of Honor! We all know how that turned out! #dejavu 😉😂😂😂😂😂

It’s Official! Toby & Amy Reunite! 😱

I don’t usually address spoilers in my reviews, but this one is EPIC! As you’ve likely heard by now, Toby’s ex-fiancee, Amy Berkstead, wife of his nemesis, Quincy, will be introduced on screen in episode 4.13 Apocalypse Nerd, which premieres after winter break (premiere date unknown right now)! The actress, Shantel VanSanten, is slated to recur this season. Given the current arcs, her occupation as a geneticist doesn’t seem like a coincidence! This news is very exciting because we are finally meeting a character who has been mentioned in the series and has a history with a member of the team. It’s logical to assume that she knows Toby in ways Happy and the others do not. Although it might not always seems as such, Toby hasn’t talked extensively about his past, except for the few quips here and there about his parents and gambling experiences. (Here’s looking at you, writers! 👀) Therefore, this development opens possibility to get more Toby backstory the fandom has craved for a while through Amy. The Baby Quintis storyline also gets interesting in the wake of this news. If Happy isn’t pregnant before Amy’s arrival, then the events of this episode in relation to this arc will provide more clues to the eventual direction of Baby Quintis’ introduction to the series (biology or foster; end of S4 or during S5). Is it possible that Toby, Happy, or both of them reach out to Amy for fertility and conception guidance? As a geneticist, she can provide a unique perspective on fertility even if that is not her specific scope of practice. All I know is things just became interesting!!! So excited!

Drabbles…

Toby smells a fish! He knows there’s more to Cabe’s story! Time for experimentation!

I love that Paige and Happy went grocery shopping together and discussed baby things! This is what I want for my ladies at this point in the series! 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

Really Walter? Walina? The looks from Happy and Paige… 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💀💀💀

I know the fandom has really advocated for a girl named Grace after Happy’s mother given all the promptings surrounding that theory for Baby Quintis. But what significant names would you choose if Baby Quintis is a boy? My first thought is Marcus after the middle name Toby wished he had instead of Meriwether. 👶🍼

Chair of Blades… have I heard this before?! 😉😉😂😂😂

A fish-based protein shake inspired by Walter’s brain food regimen? Sounds like 2.23 Chernobyl Intentions all over again! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Wardrobe mention: What is up with Paige and these blue blouses?! Still wondering if this connects to something significant. It’s a nice color on her! This is why I keep throwing blue hearts on all my Waige mentions. 💙💙💙 Hehehehe!

Ralph was trying to prevent a problem and only created a bigger one! Oh pobrecito! Florence wasn’t having it! Insert Mama Paige!

Walter comes to Paige’s defense on her parenting skills! 😍💙🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

Florence and Walter are having an ego-filled IQ scuffle! Something about this exchange feels like deja vu. Maybe Toby has something to say… W (to Paige about Florence): She’s arrogant… and condescending. T: Hi pot! I see you’ve met kettle. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💀💀💀 #likeforeal

The formula on the board is nice, but I am shocked at how neat it is on that board. Who wrote it down? It had to be Paige! 😂😂😂

Happy with the launch gun… 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

S: I’m having a little bit of trouble dropping the anchor. H: Have you tried a high fiber diet? W: That kind of humor is Toby’s influence. (Happy smiles) S: Guys, seriously, I’m jammed up! H: I’ll let that one lie. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💀💀 Happy Quinn, wife of Toby Curtis, everyone! This is the content for which I live! More Quintis playing with their little brother, Sly!

H: Since when does Toby force my hand on anything? W: He got you to marry him. H: Touché. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💀💀💀💀

W: I’m just saying that history has had its share of exemplary Walters. F: Milwaukee North Side Strangler, Walter Ellis; Sir Walter Raleigh, founder of the doomed colony of Roanoke; and, of course, Walter Mondale. W: What wrong with Mondale? F: He lost 49 out of 50 states. (looks to Happy) So if you want your kid to grow up to be a loser, that’s your choice. W: Just spread your worms. F: Heh, my buckets are empty. H (smirking): Yeah, me too. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💀💀💀 Anyone else think that “spread your worms” sounds like a funny innuendo? 😉😂😂😂

Sly and the harpoon gun… 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

W: I focus my time on research, not athletics. F: (looks Walter up and down) Yes. 😂😂😂😂😂😂 Looks like Florence’s focus on Tae Bo is helping her out today, Walter, while you’re stuck to figure things out on a quickly disintegrating island of trash! 👀😂😂😂

I was thinking about what Toby would’ve said if he was there or listening via comms the whole time Happy climbed across that rope. You know he would say SOMETHING about the possibility of Happy being a goner if she entered that water with the jellyfishes!

S: We have extra plastic balls from when we launched the binding agent. We can fill them with my protein shake. H: Paige, I will talk you through modifying the launcher so it can properly toss Sly’s lunch. F: Really? Could you people be any less mature? P: …we could be infinitely less mature. Happy could’ve easily said it was time to launch Sly’s balls, but she didn’t. S (to Florence): Hmph! Me: Tell her Paige!!! 👊🏾👏🏾👏🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

It’s so funny how Walter automatically listens to Happy just like Toby does with her. And yet, he doesn’t know how Toby does it. Um, hello pot! Meet kettle! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💀💀

PAIGE LAID THE SMACKDOWN ON FLORENCE!!! FLO TRIED IT, BUT PAIGE SAID, “NOT TODAY, SWEETIE!” Paige is great at her job! She’s working well with Florence.

Anyone else see that smile from Florence when Paige accepted her apology? I think we have found an emotional point of entry! 😉

Florence might have failed with her binding agent, but she came through with the sealant!

Well, well, well, 👀 who decides to save Florence and acknowledges her future scientific contributions are a part of the greater good! We see you, Walter! Someone has developed a sense of respect in the midst of a small moment of redemption. 😱👀😉😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

How many zippos has Happy surrendered at this point in the series?! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

W: Oh Happy, if I ignite, will you tell Baby Walina I was a hero? H: That’s never gonna happen. W: What? Me igniting or you naming the baby after me? H: Don’t make me choose. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💀💀

Jadyn Wong is so flippin’ gorgeous!!! That shot of her taking off that apron with her hair tossed to the side… 😍😍😍😍 I’ve got a girl crush!

Y’all… neither Toby and Happy really cook for themselves. So what are they gonna do when they have kids?! That will change real quick when the food bills for that kid start racking up! 👀😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

It’s so funny how the team has decided to say “Flo” instead of “Florence” and Florence keeps correcting them each time! 😂😂😂😂😂😂

T: Cabe, you did not fail your father. And you’re not failing us. You’ve taken care of us for a long time. Now it’s time to let us take care of you. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 I sense this will come back again later down the road… 🤔😉

I get really giddy when I see Allie with Cabe! CALLIE!!!!!!! *insert fangirl scream* ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

#ermanda's inner sanctum #cbs scorpion #s04e09 #it's raining men (of war)#cabe gallo #walter o'brien #florence tipton #scorpion cbs #team scorpion #episode review #livingwithashipname

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randomnessunicorn-imagine · 7 years ago

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Undertale Movies Headcanon ;

One of my biggest passion is Cinema; I love so much this world, watching movies is one of my favourite hobbies.

I was thinking about which movies the skeletons may like considering their personalities, thoughts and style of life, all these things. I am going to do some Movies Headcanon for Tale!Sans this time, because I have just realized I have a lot to write.

Here we go~!

HERE PAPPY’S VERSION

★ Sansy ��

~ 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick): It is literally a masterpiece of the cinematography. I think Sans would love Kubrick’s movies, even if a lot of them are full of violence like “A Clockwork Orange”, “Full Metal Jacket” and others, but they’re pieces of arts and he is not going to complain art. In particular, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a science-fiction movie he appreciates a lot (even if the scientific parts are inaccurate). It is a relaxing movie because it is really slow (slow doesn’t mean it is not good, it’s a choice of style). He feels lazier than usual when he sees it (he has to see it in separated times, because he is going to sleep at a certain point but it’s not a problem).

He enjoys so much the first part of the movie (The Dawn of Man), especially when the primitive man learns the art of hunting using an animal’s bone like a stick. The music in that scene is spectacular! Another thing he loves so much about the movie is Strauss’ soundtracks; it is something too beautiful to define. Then, he thinks the Star Child is funny, who floats in the space at the very ending of the film (personally, I have always found it creepy). We are not talking about the master techniques and the director’s qualities, it would take an eternity, but he adores all of this. It’s love at 360°.

~ Blade Runner (Ridley Scott): It is a classic nerd movie and everyone who loves science fiction must see it! It is based on a novel of Philip K. Dick, I think Sans would be a fan of his literature because Dick is one of the science fiction’s pioneers (and Sans cannot stop laughing because of the poor man’s name, what a shame having Dick as surname). He also laughs for the original title of the book, it is “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, he is questioning himself about it, and it is become an existential question. He could ask to Mettaton but he is too lazy and the robot may be confused a little. And he really wants to meet the author in his second life because Dick was a totally weird man (we should think he had the reset ability, too, but shh it’s my theory).

~ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Garth Jennings): When science fiction is funny, too. Here’s an apocalypse amusing movie! The nonsense of this movie is awesome and now he is going to see dolphins with different eyes. When he does not know the answer of something he will say “42”, that’s the answer to every question. And from now, he is watching every movies and series where Martin Freeman is.

There are another science fiction movies he loves like all the Star’s series as “Star Wars”, “Stargate”, “Star Trek”, but I think it would has been obvious and banal to nominate them, I tried to be more original. Now I am going to propose some non-science fiction movies;

~ Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry): Sans finds interesting the concept of the movie, a world when people can remove their own memory through a machine. Sometimes he has thought about this possibility, everything would be easier, isn’t it? But memories are a fundamental part of a person. History has made us become what we are now and we cannot deny it. It is an inner conflict for everyone. Sans appreciates the love story, too. It is romantic but dramatic at the same time. He acts cool but his inside is blue just like Clementine’s hair.

~Dancer in the dark (Lars Von Trier): It is the saddest musical in the existence. There is no words to describe the pain and the angst this movie gives to the spectator. The story makes him ponder about the injustices in the world and everything a person does to reach their aims will be in vain. It’s a good movie despite the dramatic ending. The love that the female protagonist feels for her son is the same he feels for his brother and she does everything for her son, and for realizing her dream but…His heart’s going to break every time he listens to the song “I’ve seen it all”, Sans also appreciates Björk, she is an amazing singer.

Another film of Lars Von Trier he could like is Melancholia because it is dramatic, too. Especially the very beginning is really poetic and symbolic (maybe nonsense as well). It is the representation of disillusion and apathy, the lost hopes. The end of everything. Good things, yeah! We know Sans is not really a happy guy. He hopes his brother is never going to find this movie director because he is crazy and some of his films are… too problematics.

-- These are the movies I thought for Sans, maybe I should have added something else but I think it’s enough.

My purpose is also to recommend some good movies, yey-! Sharing hobbies is great!

~Laurette

#randomnessunicorn-imagine #headcanon #undertale #sans #movies #imagines #hobby #undertale sans #movie #cinephile #cinema headcanon #undertale headcanons #undertale imagines

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cassandrapentayaaaaas · 8 years ago

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Male Trevelyan Compilation (with backstories)

*whips out the wallet which I keep specifically for pictures of my fictional children* good afternoon I have so much to say about my babies

(also- if y'all ever want to share your inquisitors with me like literally at any point ever my sub and ask boxes are always open for cute BioWare-rendered faces <3). These are characters we’ve poured time and effort into, and they are absolutely worth sharing.

Benjamin (Ben) Trevelyan: 30/Warrior/Non-Beliver/Bisexual/Pro-Templar (he’s the newest baby)

Ben’s motto is “do it now, ask questions later.” Honestly, he’s a lot like Cassandra, minus the whole “devoted to the Maker” thing. He believes firmly in “right” and “wrong,” but he’s willing to learn. If he looks tired, it’s because he is. He didn’t want this job; he was at the Conclave to escort some of the mages who made up a distant part of his family, and now they’re all gone.

He’s built like a monster truck -Varric calls him “Muscles”- he can give Bull a run for his money where drinking is concerned, and really just wants to go home to Ostwick where his family, fiancée, and mabari are (there’s no way he’s uprooting them to bring them to Skyhold). He’s not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but his gut feelings are almost always right. He’s learned to go with it. He’s strikingly kind and loves very deeply. He’s a good man.

Friedrich (Fritz) Trevelyan: 38/Rogue/Questioning Belief/Gray-Asexual/Pro-Mage (I definitely have a crush on this hairy man)

Fritz used to be a Chantry scholar and historian (imagine Bram Kenric, but but less about the Inquisition and more about holy relics, texts, and figures). He’s also studied the history of magic. He was excellent at his job and he’s terribly intelligent, but he flaunts neither of those factors. He’s truly a very quiet man, until you come to him with a question or a topic to discuss. When you do, he’s wonderfully patient, attentive, and never condescending -three of the many factors that make him Dorian’s favorite pal. (He’s also my first inquisitor to personally drink from the Well of Sorrows ‘cause he’s a big ‘ole nerd that wants to know everything).

Varric calls him “Doc,” because of his former profession, and to be honest, he wasn’t much of a fighter until the world called on him to become its leader. In fact, he’d never even picked up an object with the intention of making it weapon until he was 24; someone broke into his rooms at the university to steal an artifact he was examining and they were ready to kill him for it. He fought back with a letter opener, and won.

About 5 years after that incident, he fell in love with a very sweet chantry sister. She fell ill very suddenly, and the local mother opted for prayer over a healer. It didn’t end well for Fritz’s girl, and he felt utterly betrayed by the Maker. He lost his faith for quite a while afterwards, but Cassandra has done a good job of reminding him why he believed in the first place.

Fritz’s sexuality is really hard to pin down, but he finds he’s most comfortable identifying as gray-a. He’s pretty head-over-heals for the Seeker. She’s really fond of him, too, but they haven’t quite gotten around to discussing where things are going. Their flirting is the shy, gentle, complementary type, and it makes my heart happy just thinking about it.

Dennon Trevelyan: 34/Rogue/Andrastian/Bisexual/Undecided

Dennon (or “Stubble,” if you’re Varric and can get away with it) is a hard man. He’s the middle Trevelyan boy (out of three), and he’s always had to fight for what he’s been given. He’s not an intentionally cruel person, he just genuinely doesn't think feelings are a thing that should be taken into consideration when conducting business, and his business is now the Inquisition.

While his directness (or bluntness, if you prefer) has made him rather popular with Cassandra, Cullen, and Vivienne, it’s made keeping alliances a risky business. Josephine has spent many hours attempting to help him navigate the art of subtlety, and every time she winces at his sharper edges, it dulls him down a little more... and to be honest, he’s liking the results (and Josie) a lot.

Maddox Trevelyan: 28/Mage/Agnostic/Homosexual/Pro-Mage

Maddox is constantly on the move. This is his first time out of the Circle, and he’ll be damned before he’ll waste it on idleness. He knows what duty is -the number of responsibilities they heaped upon mages in the Circle taught him that- and the members of the Inquisition are constantly amazed at how he’s able to fulfill all of his duties to the utmost, with time left over to explore.

Honestly, Maddox is an adventurer. There’s nothing he likes better than the rush of seeing or doing something new. If he’s not scaling a mountain, he’s diving head-first into the Waking Sea, or considering joining an Avvar hold. Dorian has done wonders to keep him grounded, when need be; Maddox is a dreamer and his amatus, on the other hand, is a dreamy pragmatist. ;)

Maddox (or Blue Eyes, as Varric calls him) is entirely anti-circle, but he’s still somehow managed to win Vivienne over. In fact, there’s no one within the inner circle who isn’t utterly pleased when he’s around. He’s simply a contagious personality, and he is deeply loved.

Abelard (Abe) Trevelyan 42/Rogue/Andrastian/Heterosexual/Undecided (I’m almost as in love with him as I am with Cassandra)

Abe looks like the kind of guy who would beat the snot out of you for looking at him funny, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Varric has even nicknamed him “Grizzly” just for the irony of the implication. He’s wickedly intelligent and he’s the biggest, softest teddy bear this side of Lake Calenhad. He just doesn’t smile much, anymore.

He lost his wife and daughter about two years before the Inquisition began, and he’s still trying to work through it. He’d turned his back on the Trevelyan family’s money to marry a girl who was below his station. They needed cash, so he had to work. He became part of a crew that was sent to ransom and return captives and slaves taken from the Marches and Ferelden to Tevinter, mostly. While he was away on a mission, raiders sacked his tiny village and killed everyone who looked too weak to turn a profit in the slave market. That meant most of the populace, since two harvests in a row had failed and most people were malnourished.

He’s a quiet man, but his actions speak very loudly. He’ll do anything for anyone, so long as he knows them to be good, and it took the inquisition two extra weeks to get out of the Hinterlands because Abe couldn’t leave the refugees “like this.” He even helped to design and construct the area’s first school house, which now bears his family’s name -a fact he will no doubt blush at, if you mention it.

He really likes Cassandra, and she really likes him, but they’re both grieving (Regalyan’s loss is still fresh). For now, the find comfort in their friendship. Neither one wants to push while they’re unready. She is the one who gets him to smile the most often, though.

Peter Trevelyan 22/Mage/Questioning Belief/Pansexual/Pro-Templar

Peter is usually a little shit, and that’s why I love him. He’s always pulling someone’s leg, and Sera often comes to him for prank ideas –though he never lets her pull one off without him at her side. He’s terribly sweet, and his brand of humor permeates nearly every sentence he speaks. He may be a prankster and an utter clown, but he’s wonderfully fierce and has this innate need to protect everyone.

Before his magic manifested, he wanted to become a Templar. Once he discovered he was a mage, he had to battle a lot of self-loathing as well as some serious self doubt. He saw his magic as a flaw and a weakness, and he clung to his idols, the Templars, upon arrival at the Circle (he was only 12 and they just took him away from everything he knew and loved someone please give my poor baby a hug D,:). He sees the value of the Circle because that’s where he was trained to master the parts of himself he came to hate and fear most. It’s been a slow road to go, but in being around apostates and liberated mages like Dorian, Morrigan, and Solas, he’s learning to see mages (including himself) as people and not as wrong, ill-formed things.

He copes with his own insecurities through self-deprecation and near constant levity. He’s still consistently unsure of himself, and his opinion of his own worth is still relatively low, but his dedication to bettering himself and the world around him is admired by all. Honestly, he’s so good to everyone. I love this boy so much.

Michael Trevelyan 26/Mage/Passively Andrastian/Bisexual/Pro-Vivienne-Style-Mage(so... Pro-Templar?)

Right now, Michael is an asshole, but I love getting to know him. He’s the only son of Bann Trevelyan’s four children, and even though he’s a mage, he’ll inherit the better part of his parent’s estate. He’s been treated like a prince since he was born, and it’s made him horribly self-serving. He thinks he’s the cream of the crop, and advice is the one thing he never takes. But, underneath his haughty exterior lies a true idealist with an amazing work ethic.

His air of superiority often leads people to assume he’s lazy. In actuality, he’s amazing at spotting potential and talent in others, which makes him skilled in delegation. He also does his own work at breakneck speeds. Michael won’t tolerate being hindered in the process of achieving his goals by anyone or anything, and he always does whatever is necessary to see that his ends met.

He hasn’t made many friends in the Inquisition, so far, but he hasn’t even gotten out of Haven yet, so we’ll see. Honestly, he’s not currently someone I’d want to spend much time with, but he’s quite handsome, and I want to see his character develop.

Caleb Trevelyan 15/Warrior(Mage)/Questioning Belief/Heterosexual/Undecided

This is my favorite child, and the first Inquisitor who I actually spent time crafting a personality for. I don’t want to get too into his backstory, because he is a large part of a fic which I wILL DEFINITELY WRITE SOMEDAY WHEN I HAVE TALENT TO DO IT JUSTICE. But he is so incredibly driven. He has such a desire for justice, and he learns like it’s no one’s business.

Everyone loves this kid, but he’s got such a self-sacrificial nature that they all have to stay a little more on their guard with him than any normal warrior, because he will literally bury himself in enemies to keep his friends safe. He has so much potential, and everyone is happy to help him reach it in whatever way they can. Ugh. He’s such a little cutie.

#pentayaaaaas oc #pentayaaaaas trevs #dragon age inquisition #dragon age: inquisition #inquisitor trevelyan #oc trevelyan

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redscullyrevival · 8 years ago

Text

Fool’s Quest: Fitz and the Fool Rundown

And now we wait together @sonnetscrewdriver!

Plot/Setting/Narrative

I’m so embarrassed for my son Rap-a-taskal.

Getting ahead of myself here but take a chill pill kid.

Calm your Tellator tits.

Actually, screw it! lets start at “the end”:

I’m officially caught up now and I’ve been digging around the internet lurking on forums trying to soak up art/discussions/opinions I’ve been avoiding for months.

And the most interesting fannish thing I’ve uncovered is how lots of people are treating Tellator and Rap as two different people - I’ve read several discussions and threads where Tellator was being thought of and referred to as almost like a parasite or something.

I personally didn’t get that vibe when reading Rain Wilds.

I don’t view Rapskal as an innocent bystander taken over by an insidious and other entity, but I can totally see how folks can see it that way so power to them I suppose.

Time and Parenting really come to a point at the end of this book, bounded tight within the thrill of having these two Realm of the Elderlings character axis’ finally meeting!:

And we the reader are, now, FAR more knowledgeable about the magics and histories of the Realm than any one character present! Funny how time and managing our narrative children will do that, huh? ;D

I’m of the personal opinion that the Elderlings are going to be too thankful and indebted to Fitz to really head the level of retribution Rapskal will demand - but that doesn’t mean Fitz won’t make matters worse with his paranoia and how he expects to be treated (Fitz’s “I-deserve-to-suffer” self loathing really reeks in this book and I have no doubt it will harm more than help in the early stages of Assassin’s Fate)

But oh! I can’t wait to see my Elderling darlings and Six Duchies nerds mingle more!

And yes, I do think Rapskal will continue to be an asshole.

I’m invested in Rapskal though and I can’t wait to see what his deal is and how he’ll affect the story.

I don’t know about y’all but I feel Rap is being set up to have some big part to play - but I’ve no clue if it’ll be direct or indirect lol. TIME WILL TELL!

If I had to guess right now (and I’m going to because why not) I’d guess that at the moment Rapskal probably struggles, that he is antagonistic, because he is outside of the narrative’s “Reflection & Parenting as Change” theme and may never fold into that current because of his choice to skip adolescence via-memory stones.

Rapskal doesn’t have a lot to reflect back on, or maybe the issue is he has too much memory or doesn’t reflect at all and only looks forward forward forward. And we know he isn’t a parent as Nortel told us.

Frankly I hope Rapskal can learn from Fitz and/or Amber, I’d like to see him fold back into the narrative flow rather than swim decidedly against it (not that he isn’t uninteresting for doing so, quite the opposite really).

Maybe Rapskal will find something to reflect back on? Maybe he’ll refuse?

But enough about Rapskal!

THYMARA’S WINGS ARE SO BIG NOW. *gasp* I love her.

Do you think when our Six Duchies party leaves Kelsingra they’ll ride down the Rain Wilds River on Tarman?!

*muffled screeching*

Okay okay okay I’m sorry, back into a Fitz and the Fool Rundown not Kristie has deep love for Rain Wilders Giggling.

Fitz

This dummy.

Don’t get me wrong; temperament wise this older Fitz is still my favorite but he’s also so full of grief and self loathing he’s practically useless mid-book.

And that’s fine, Hobb as always does a great job with making me understand Fitz.

But still - OH MY GOD.

You’ve done a lot wackier and intensely strange stuff than admit your daughter is the result of your BFF, your wolf-brother, and yourself’s souls mingling Fitz!

You even come to terms with that fact, even if simply choosing to ignore it for the most part that still means you’ve acknowledged it - you’re willing to painstakingly mine information from any and everyone but you don’t tell Beloved about your daughter’s dream journal?

Um??? WHAT???

Wake up dude.

Just poor decisions left and right.

Needless to say I was very frustrated with Fitz for a while but we worked through it.

Oh my god I friggin’ cried when Starling sung her Epic and Fitz was recognized by the court though, oh man that was so satisfying and mystifying and wondrous.

I’m glad Fitz has for the most part gotten over his issues with Amber and the Fool’s various identities and seems very accepting of Ash and Spark.

Bee

Nooooo!

I mean, “No” to Bee still being on her own but mostly “No” about Bee slowly being blocked out of the narrative perspective!

NOOOO

I’d be fascinated to find out how long she was in the Pillar. Based on the narrative we read and assume she’s wandering about around the same time Fitz and company are but we’ve been given nothing in evidence of that.

INTERESTING

Stay safe my little piglet!

The Fool

Yes.

YES.

I’m very intrigued to learn more about Beloved’s dragon blood transformation and what knowledge will come with it.

What will happen if the dragon is truly dead, who will guide their transformation?

ME THINKS FITZ

But, uh, yeah.

While it was uncomfortable I was rather happy that Fool got angry at Fitz and had no trouble telling him to step off.

I wasn’t very pleased with Fitz myself at the time, I was a bit smug about him getting a tray full of food plopped in his lap.

Well done.

I really hope to witness more of Ash and Spark and The Fool’s bond!

Beloved has been alone for so long, has had the opposite later life to Fitz and his massive family.

And what better than taking in and giving shelter to a son and a daughter?

Good stuff.

Shun AKA Shine

CALLED IT.

Oh Shine, you poor dear.

Shine will become an asset to Nettle, I imagine, and I desperately hope she heals and that Kettricken can guide her well and that court does Shine good.

I’m livid and just overall done with Chade, I’m serious.

I feel as though I’ve given Chade benefit of the doubt over and over again and it isn’t like he is an evil person or claims to be something he isn’t - but uuugh what the hell?

If you’re mister cloak and dagger spider web master maybe reel in some goddamn self control and think ahead on the consequences of your personal actions instead of just those of your King and various eyes within the kingdom, come the fuck on dude.

What an idiot sending both his children to a grieving Fitz and for not following up with any information for his children OR for Fitz.

I’d be so upset if I were Shine, I would’t be surprised if she drugs him.

It’d be poetic in a twisted away.

Why did Chade hide Shine from others as well as from herself? What was he thinking, that she’d have to become less shallow, vain, and self-centered before he’d bestow upon her the depths of her lineage?

Chade moans about being denied learning to Skill because he was a bastard but zip! he seals up his bastard daughter’s power because ???

????!!!!!

ANYWAY

I’m glad Shine is safe and that she and Bee came to a functioning relationship even if not one ripe with mutual meaning and growth.

Lant

Chade-light 2.0 and I aren’t hitting it off so well but I’m trying to keep a level head about this sassy lost child.

His biggest sin is that he is boring.

Or, well, I think my real issue with Lant is that he’s young.

So young.

Oddly young.

Older than Per or Ash or Spark yes but younger than them somehow; he doesn’t see, he doesn’t listen, he doesn’t seem to even think for himself.

Rolling about in his self pity that he can’t bang his sister doesn’t help endure him to me either but you know, I’ll take Riddle’s advice and let time and space do it’s thing so maybe by the time the third book comes out I’ll have cooled on Lant.

Ash/Spark

OH SHIT.

I love themmmmmm.

Oh my god.

I’m really really really hoping that Ash, Spark, Per, and Bee are going to be Gen 2 of Elderling mayhem and stories.

That’d be golden.

Smart as a whip and willing to make their own choices, that’s Ash and Spark.

Brilliant.

Perseverance

Talk about stickin’ to your name!

Per is a sweetie and I really need to stop but I can’t help but see him as my son Charlie.

Which is amazing - but gutting at the same time lol.

What have I done?!

Per is perfection and I really hope Fitz does right by him and of everyone traveling now I feel like Per will help Fitz the most as far as his inner space goes.

Per has a understanding and relationship with Bee outside of Fitz’s understanding of his daughter and I think Fitz’ll need to hear about that and mine Per’s perseverance as their quest wears on.

Highlighted Passages

I smiled as the royal family passed, tears of pride stinging my eyes. Our doing, the Fool’s and mine.

“Vengeance?” I asked quietly. “It’s a poor motive for doing anything. Vengeance doesn’t undo what they did. Doesn’t restore whatever they destroyed.”

“Sometimes thanking someone is more important to the person giving the thanks than the one who receives it.”

“I thought you had come here in fury over what I did to you as we passed through the Skill-pillars.” He stepped back from me. “Oh, I’ll leave that to Nettle. If she hasn’t blasted the skin from your flesh with her words yet, you’ve that to look forward to.

I could not think about it at the moment. I tried so hard, but there was just not enough time or enough of me. And trying was not doing.

Safe. As if “safe” were more important than anything else.

With the instincts of all bullies, they knew that eventually she would have to emerge. Then, in the way of their kind, they would peck her to death for being different.

“Ah, Fitz. I can always trust you to have some sort of bizarre problem that breaks my ennui.”

She breathed as if she had run over nine hills. I stared at her. She had been a stranger, a lover, a nemesis, and a betrayer to me. And now she was my historian.

“Why does understanding come so late to us?”

War and hardship had hardened them; I understood that, but it did not mean that I wished to see my own folk mocked or disdained that they were not likewise hardened.

But all fires, of wood or grief, burn down to ashes eventually.

“Doing something stupid and reckless is not a better proof of your love than doing something measured and powerful.”

“Keeping a child from harm is not the same as rearing one.”

“Steady, I’m pregnant, not ill.”

Both logic and love anchored me where I was and doomed me to the suffocation of waiting.

“Every one of them has witnessed what the Servants have done to their fellows. And each has chosen to serve them rather than defy them. Every one of them is more treacherous than you can imagine.”

Once one knows what heartless people can do, it cannot be entirely forgotten. It always remains among the possible things that can befall you.

“Put it behind you, and think about it again in twenty years. Whatever it was, you can’t change it. So stop clinging to it, and let time and distance do their work.”

“I always fail the people I love the most.” “Say rather that you judge yourself more harshly than anyone else ever has.”

“No soup! Anything I can bite and chew. Or crunch! Is there anything crunchy?”

“That I guessed,” Malta said knowingly. “When first I saw him, I felt as if I already knew him.” She smiled at me as if we shared a jest. I smiled back, without understanding.

“Worrying doesn’t solve anything. I know that. In one way I know it but in another it seems wrong. It seems that if I don’t think about all the things that hurt, all the things I’ve done wrong, then I don’t really care.”

#realm of the elderlings #year of book #fitz and the fool #fandom talks

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