#no wonder every single girl in Camelot is so taken by you

[castelled-away]

I am SIMPING over that one scene of Arthur & Gwen where he’s all puppy eyes at her & she nudges him backwards onto the bed. They’re just so cute & domestic I CANT

Here’s the vid: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i0ID2F3BW74&pp=ygUqQmJjIG1lcmxpbiBhcnRodXIgd29udCBldmVuIG5vdGljZSBpbSBnb25l

[treatian]

The Chronicles of the Dark One:  The Dark Curse

Chapter 121:  Into Thin Air

After he'd sent Belle outside, he'd sat in the Great Room by himself for a little bit, tea and cakes in hand. He'd intended to bask in the glow of sweet, blissful privacy, but with her gone, and only the fire in the grate to listen to and watch, he'd soon grown bored. Part of him had wished she hadn't brought up her conversation when she had, that she might have waited just a few more minutes so that they could have ended things much closer to the end of teatime rather than the beginning. He had vowed not to be entertained by her, and that was, so far, proving to be a difficult vow to keep. After so much solitude in this castle, he had to admit it was nice to have another body around. But he'd made a vow, and he intended to keep it. So with a wave of his hand, he'd sent the tea and cakes back to the kitchens for her to clean up when she was done and retired to his bedroom. It was the one place he could trust at the moment. He'd just sent all of his laundry out with Belle, so she had no reason to come into his room. At the same time, it was the only place he could trust himself not to watch her in the cauldron…another vow he'd made that he was determined to keep.

He itched to do it. His fingers twitched and rubbed against his palm as he fought back the urge to go to his Tower and watch her, see her reaction to his little joke! So instead he sat at his wheel and began to spin. He could always count on spinning to clear his head, to focus him! He needed to focus right now. With Regina's transformation into the Evil Queen, there was so much to do and so very little time to make sure it happened in. He was just beginning to make a list in his head, to pour every thought he'd ever had about his maid out into the thread he spun, and regain the concentration that she'd stolen from him when he felt it.

Something was wrong. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but something was very wrong.

His magic was on alert. But why? It felt like someone had just entered his property, an intruder! But the signature was so low, so small…he wasn't one to risk it…

In a flash he was in his Tower, he waved his hand over his cauldron. "Show me the intruder!" he demanded. No picture appeared in the water. No intruder. Well…no, not now. Before he tried the cauldron again so foolishly he felt inside himself for the magic he'd felt, but it was gone. The warning was lifted. There was an intruder, but there wasn't anymore? But…who was likely to set foot on his land accidentally? And with such a low warning, it had been barely noticeable…

He scrambled over to his table and grabbed his crystal ball. "Show me the Apprentice!"

There he was. In his home, sweeping the floor just as he almost always was. Not him. So who?

"Show me the intruder!" he demanded of the ball. This time the result was different. Unlike looking in the cauldron, a single image came to him—a dog in the woods. White with black spots, it was no more than a pup. He watched as it wandered around the wood, raising its nose to the air to smell something or other, then began digging in the ground with his paws. He was confused. An animal wouldn't have set off his magic!

But that would...

A moment later the pup transformed itself into a little boy of perhaps six or seven and he understood. A shapeshifter. He watched as the boy pulled a coin from the dirt, bit into it, then ran away smiling, leaving him utterly baffled. A boy. A shapeshifting boy had come onto his property and left? He supposed that could have made sense. The puppy probably didn't even know he'd come onto his property. By the back woods there was a small hole in the wall of his property that he never really cared about before just because he had his own protections. The dog probably got in that way. He'd probably just smelled money! And yet…

He glanced over at the place that his curse was hidden. Nothing had changed. The magic there was the same. In the Great Hall, he looked over his collection, one item at a time, all present, all accounted for…except for one.

Where was Belle?

Usually, this time of the day, she was finishing up the second room she'd cleaned and was heading down to the kitchen to start dinner. He'd sent her out to do laundry, and he hadn't spied on her, but he had a feeling that had probably kept her from her schedule. Still, it was possible she was working on laundry and dinner as the kitchen door was near the place outside that she'd hung her lines. It was right next to the gap in the wall.

He hurried out of the Great Room and down the stairs to the dungeons and the kitchen that she used. Nothing. The fire wasn't lit, the food he'd taken from the market in the village below was still waiting for her to decide what to do with it. And his maid was just the right kind of annoying that if she saw a cute little puppy, she'd follow it…

He rushed outside into the damp and fog of late autumn.

"Belle?!" he called out, looking around. There was no answer, but he wasn't looking at her workspace just now, that was around the corner. And he had sent her out a cloak. If she had the hood up, perhaps she couldn't hear as well?

It was far-fetched, but the image of the boy in the crystal ball was reassuring. In the image, the dog had been alone. That meant he was panicking needlessly. He would turn the corner and find her there. His collection would be complete. He'd make up some excuse to get her back into the house until tomorrow when he could protect the barrier against shapeshifters and repel animals. It was an extreme measure for one shapeshifting dog, but now that he was so close to Baelfire he couldn't afford these kind of distractions or breakdowns in his security. His peace of mind was worth it.

"Belle?" he called out rounding the corner and seeing linen's on the line blowing in the mountain breeze. "Belle?!" he cried again, his voice so angry and gravely he half expected to hear an answer right then and there. It was the kind of tone that should have sent her running. But it hadn't. He felt odd suddenly. Numb. Why couldn't he find her?

"Where have you gone?"

Her things were there, the laundry was on the line, the fires were lit. But she obviously wasn't present. Running. He'd used a tone that should have sent her running, but now he wondered if it was possible she could have run in the wrong direction? If maybe the boy and fate had been on her side and she'd taken a window of opportunity to flee. She wouldn't…

"Don't tell me you've done something stupid like running away!" he called into the forest. As soon as he announced it, he knew it wasn't so. He'd been cruel to her, perhaps. He'd chastised her, called her lazy, snapped when she'd gotten a bit too close to the truth of his past. But he'd done far worse than that since she'd arrived and yet she'd remained. She was a smart girl. Running away didn't seem her method of revenge. If she wanted to make him feel her anger, she preferred to give him the cold shoulder. Besides, she understood the terms of their deal, and he didn't think she'd risk having him go back on his promises to her village. And, to top it all off, she wasn't stupid. She'd watched him with Robin of Locksley, was right by his side as he hunted the man. She knew that if she ran, he'd catch her eventually. No…she hadn't run away. She wasn't the type and she was too smart for it. So then where was she?!

Suddenly a bird drew his attention to the sky. He'd been listening to the thing squawk since he got outside only now it became an annoyance and-

Something winked at him in the sky. The bird was flying away, but something was coming closer to him, falling from the thing's claws. He took a step back as the round object dropped at his feet. A sand dollar?

He reached down and picked it up, and only then could he feel the magic within it. A small spell, one that used Dark Magic instead of Light. Dark Magic and a raven…he chilled.

He held the dollar in his hand and waved is other over it, forcing the magic to come out in a swirl of orange and yellow and…there she was! Belle. She was struggling in the message. Her hands bound with rope as she tried to loosen her bonds.

"Rumpelstiltskin," she exclaimed nervously. "I'm...I'm supposed to ask you for...for that Gauntlet from Camelot. Bring it to the base of Demon's Bluff at midnight or..." he watched as she stopped to collect herself and glanced around her. "Or I'll be killed," she finally cried with a gasp.

He felt himself take a breath that he somehow felt he couldn't expel as suddenly he heard a great laugh, female, come from the message. Belle looked around again.

"Rumple, help!" she cried before the message disappeared. Her last two words echoed. Her shriek was undying as he finally felt that breath he'd been holding onto leave his body.

"Ah!" he growled.

No! Captured! He knew she wouldn't have left on her own. She was too smart to run but not smart enough to be captured?! All for the Gauntlet?! And damn him! Damn him for giving her that cloak and not putting some kind of tracking spell on it so he couldn't find her! But who-

He looked skyward, to the place the raven was circling. He knew who. There was only one woman that knew he had a servant here at the moment, who used black birds in her bidding, and who had threatened him the last time he'd seen her. He wouldn't put it past Regina to do something like this after what he'd done to her.

"You!" he cried at the bird. "I know where you came from! Tell your master I know who she is, and she's just crossed a line!"

And now, he'd have to cross of few of his own!

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

so about those descendants ocs?

Oh man okay so!!!  there are a whole lot and I get more ideas literally every single day I blame @seaweedhufflepuffocs

OCs that I’ve talked about/are already on the masterlist:

Avalon Le Fay (faceclaim: Emma Dumont and sometimes Emily Rudd): Avalon was not my first descendants OC, but she’s the first one that I really thought about making into a fic!  This started because SeaweedHufflepuff and I were rabbiting descendants 2 and were both thinking of Camelot based OCs and then realized that they were most definitely (platonic) soulmates and turned it into the wonderful crossover that is King And Lionheart!  Avalon is the daughter of Morgana and Merlin (using the Merlin cast) and while Morgana was originally allowed to stay in Camelot - which did not join Auradon - they later (when Avalon and Nimue are infants) force her to the Isle and Morgana agrees, so long as Avalon can stay in Camelot, which they have to agree to or Camelot will declare war.  Avalon struggles a lot with her identity and not knowing who her mother is, and although Nimue is her person™ and they’ve been raised their entire lives with the knowledge that Nimue will be King and Avalon will be her right hand/advisor/essentially co-ruler, Avalon has also always struggled with feeling like she’s second best.  She’s my baby and I adore she and Nimue and I’m very excited to hopefully start writing this story soon

Maria Frollo (fc. Hazelle/Bellamie), Queenie (fc. Darya Lebedeva), and Helena (fc. Kimmy Schram): These girls were my first Descendants OCs, the daughters of Claude Frollo, The Queen Of Hearts, and Hades respectively.  I had this idea a while ago, as I wanted to write a fic where the VKs and some of the Auradon kids have to go to the Isle post D2 and they meet the new leaders.  Queenie was very much taken under Mal’s wing as a kid and Mal is very proud of them.  Queenie is the leader and Helena is her right hand (and girlfriend) and Maria is basically they’re daughter tbh they adore her.  I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with them but I do love them very much.

Elise Charming (fc. Lili Reinhart): Elise is Chad’s twin sister and polar opposite (well other than being preppy and a cheerleader).  She truly believes in second chances and is super excited for the VKs to come to Auradon?  And definitely falls in love with Evie but thinks that Evie is straight

Finley Rider (Fc. Virginia Gardner): Her name is Princess Finley Ryder - Corona is officially part of Auradon but they still have their own royal line.  When she was ten she was at some fancy gala party at the museum and got really bored, and got caught stealing Jafar’s staff (no one noticed that she also got both lamps) and she gets sent to the Isle on one of the shipping barges, and the first person she meets is Jay.  Once they’re a bit closer and she’s been officially accepted into the VK circle, she tells him that she still has both of the lamps, Jay makes her promise not to tell anyone else and they’ll keep them as a last resort bargaining stool.  And then they get summoned to auradon (she’s not supposed to go but Jay convinces Jafar who convinces Maleficent who “convinces” the driver) and she has to face the people who exiled her

Princess Isabelle (fc. Danielle Campbell): Ben’s twin sister, who is actually the firstborn.  She believes that she should be the queen (and so does Belle) but her father insists on Ben because Isabelle is significantly harder to control.  Her endgame love interest was going to be Mal but now I’m torn between Mal and Audrey for her.

Violet Kingston (fc. Meg Donnelly): Alice and the Hatter’s daughter who gets sent to Auradon to investigate an attempted assassination of the White Queen.  Very unimpressed with Auradon and likes Wonderland a lot better, thinks that the VKs are pretty cool, gets shoved into a dorm with Mal and Evie because there wasn’t really enough space

OCs that I haven’t talked about:

there are actually a lot more than just these but I keep losing track so hopefully @seaweedhufflepuffocs can help me remember them lmao

Harley Hook (fc. maybe Madison McLaughlin, open to ideas): Harry’s younger (by a year) sister.  She was part of Uma’s crew and loved it but then she gets chosen to go to Auradon?  She kind of hates the VKs and really wants nothing to do with any of this, she just wants to go back to her brother and her crew and her boyfriend Gil.  Except that they sort of broke up when she got chosen because they didn’t think they’d ever see each other again.  And she starts to fall for Jay and is torn between the Crew, the VKs, and Auradon

Lani (fc. Madelaine Petsch): Melody’s daughter, the first second generation child to be born, and to go to Auradon Prep.  She’s half part of Auradon (because of Eric’s kingdom) but also Atlantian which is still separated, and she’s trying to unite the two but is being torn apart by it

A daughter of Hercules who the fates predicted would be evil and is therefore sent to the isle as an infant and is raised by Hades but then Ben includes her in the group being brought to Auradon

A daughter of the Fates (their scissors are seen in the Villain Room of the museum) who was raised on the Isle

A daughter of Hans, plot TBD

A daughter of Lady Tremaine - much younger than the other two, only a couple of years older than Dizzy.  She and Dizzy are extremely close but are separated when she’s brought to Auradon.  I’ve been thinking maybe Lana Condor as the FC just because Lana and Anna have already played sisters once and because she has some awesome dark leather isle looks and cute preppy auradon looks.  Probably also treated badly by Lady Tremaine, ends up becoming quite close with Cinderella during that first family day where everything went wrong.

A daughter of Gaston, either Gil’s twin or little sister, and I don’t really have much of a plot for her except that she becomes quite close with Belle (I think that she would have been majorly mistreated by Gaston and Belle can tell as soon as they meet) and Adam really hates that

A daughter of Fairy Godmother (fc. probably India Eisley or Emily Rudd): in a slight AU where the Beast is honestly really dark, FG has twin daughters and he forces her to send one to the Isle (I’m not sure if it’s specifically because they’d be magic or if there’s a one child rule because he doesn’t want anyone being able to overthrow him) but FG hides her away somewhere instead?  Or she does go to the Isle but then escapes in D3 when the VKs and Pirates leave after visiting Hades.  I have very little plot beyond that but in D3 when Jane and co find the statue of FG, Jane thinks of getting the wand, but when she goes in she sees this girl taking it (and not being stopped by the shield because she has the same blood) and discovers that she has a twin, and then they overthrow the beast or something

Thank you for this ask, I love talking about my Descendants OCs, I just need to remember the other ideas that I have lmao 

Forever Tag List: @themildestofwriters​ @gottaenjoythelittlethingzz​ @dancerdramatic14​ @seaweedhufflepuffocs​ @iceandwaterfairytail​ - want to be added to the forever/fandom/character tag lists for fics or all content?  shoot me an ask!

Descendants Tag List: @katiesocs

[shireness-says]

If I Could See Your Face Once More (6/6)

Summary: This time, there’s no celebration at Granny’s when the latest crisis has been resolved. Instead, they’re left to deal with the body of Killian Jones. A 5B canon divergence where Killian dies in Camelot, never becoming a Dark One. Rated T for language. Also on AO3. ~1.2K. Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5

A/N: Fluffy epilogue incoming! Thanks for keeping up with this, guys - I’ve treasured each and every comment and tag flail. I love you all. (But especially @snidgetsafan for beta-ing this).

This is the last chapter in the story, but you can bet your sweet ass that I have a ton of headcanons about this ‘verse. Come ask me about them, I’m always happy to spill all my secrets in the name of happy endings for everyone.

Tagging: @thejollyroger-writer, @profdanglaisstuff, @captainsjedi, @ultraluckycatnd, @superchocovian, @snowbellewells, @killianjones4ever82, @wellhellotragic, @ohmakemeahercules, @let-it-raines, @lifeinahole27, @kmomof4. 

Thank you everyone for reading, and I’m so happy you loved this story the way I do!

His daughter enters the world at 2:03 on a Saturday morning, and makes all the clichés true.

She’s somehow the smallest thing he’s ever seen, her first cry the most beautiful sound he’s ever heard, and it’s by far the proudest moment of his life when it’s the sound of his voice that is able to calm his tiny, stressed and disoriented infant as the nurses clean her up and tend to Emma. All at once, it’s like there’s a corner of his heart that he never knew existed, that had been shut up for years, that is suddenly there and open and exploding with love for this tiny human being he’s known for a matter of minutes. In short, he’s emotional and entirely unprepared and ecstatic.

They name her Charlotte Leigh Jones, her middle name for his brother (for even if Emma and Liam hadn’t entirely seen eye to eye, she knows, has seen how much he meant to Killian). Her first name is one of the very few that was both classic enough for Killian and modern enough for Emma. Whale wants to keep her in the hospital for a few days just to be sure that nothing’s the matter, between her Dark One conception and prenatal trip to the Underworld, but as far as they can tell, she seems to be a perfectly healthy infant - seven pounds, one ounce, and nineteen inches long, with one hell of a set of lungs. She has a tuft of dark hair on her head and eyes that aren’t quite his blue and aren’t quite Dave’s, that he thinks will one day be Emma’s lovely green. Poor lass has his ridiculous pointy ears, but Emma’s chin and a nose that still might be either one of theirs. Her head is somewhat pointed, but he’s been assured that this will go away, and frankly, he’ll adore her and find her perfect regardless. Overall, Killian thinks she’s the most beautiful child he’s ever seen, and he still can’t believe that such a little beauty is his .

(When they finally lay the baby down and Emma finally gets to sleep sometime around 3:30, he has to take a moment in the attached bathroom to have his own private breakdown. After so many years in the darkness, after dying killed - twice - and sent to the Underworld, it’s so hard to believe that he can deserve this, that he’s not going to wake up from what must be a wonderful dream. It’s not just him anymore, and he’s terrified – terrified that he’ll somehow hurt his precious lass, that he’ll fail Emma and Charlotte, that he’ll fall back into the darkness again. It’s all so much, and four months was not nearly enough to prepare for this, and he can feel the panic mounting –

But then he hears Charlotte start to quietly fuss in the other room, and it’s suddenly so easy to set his fears aside in favor of soothing any worries or problems his little love might have.)

The morning had been full of visitors, nearly from the moment visiting hours had opened. Henry had been thrilled of course, and Killian now has more photos on his phone of Henry holding the baby (of his two children, of his son holding his daughter) than he ever thought he would. He wasn’t surprised to see Snow tear up, but Dave had been much the same, turning into a cooing fool when the tiny girl was placed in his arms. Then again, David has fawned over his daughter every moment of her existence; it’s probably not shocking he’s already started doing the same for his little granddaughter. Since then, it seems like half the town has trooped through. Granny had stopped by with a soft knitted blanket, much like Emma’s own, but edged in green. Belle promptly burst into tears when they asked her to be the godmother; in only another two months, he’s sure they’ll be back here to welcome Belle’s own little one. Regina looks oddly comfortable with Charlotte for someone known as the Evil Queen, even affectionate; then again, she does have years of experience caring for Henry and now her niece. Robin himself is as happy as if the baby were his own (“Oh, you and Vera shall be the best of friends, isn’t that right, Princess?”). There are far too many dwarves visiting for Killian’s personal taste, and he suspects Emma’s as well, but there is something entertaining about the look of panic on Leroy’s face when he takes a turn holding Charlotte. It’s the little amusements in life.

But now, it’s just him and his little girl in the hospital nursery while Emma gets some much deserved rest under her still cooing father’s watchful eye. He knows it’s only a temporary lull; Snow had left on a tear to apparently bring half the baby’s wardrobe back and probably the house along with it, and would likely be back in the next couple hours, and Granny had promised to return later with Charlotte’s name stitched on the blanket she had made. Now, however, is a quiet moment to realign himself with his new reality, and get down to the business of getting to know his tiny girl. Of course, the matter is somewhat hindered by her determination to sleep in between meals, but for now, he’s content to simply have her little body propped against his chest, hand stroking her back and stump supporting her little bum. She’s still so soft and squishy, and the tubes and wires monitoring her little body scare him to pieces, but he’s also discovered in the past hour that she already sneezes (babies sneeze, how did he not know babies sneeze, and he can’t help but find adorable how her entire body jerks with the force of that effort while still fretting about whether the blanket is covering her properly), she tries to burrow into his chest the same way her mama does, especially now that he’s unbuttoned his shirt to give her contact with his warm skin, and apparently is very taken with his pirate’s luck if her surprisingly tight grip on the chain is anything to go by.

Even as he ponders, he can feel her waking up. Emma just fed her not too long ago, so hopefully she’s simply got her nap out finally and the attention from her loving papa will keep her content. It shouldn’t be that hard; so far, as much as anyone can tell from knowing her a matter of hours, she’s a quiet little thing, largely content to simply observe all the faces and things happening around her and try to soak them all in and only fussing when she’s hungry or needs changing. Even then, it’s only a series of snuffles instead of the outraged screaming Killian remembers from babysitting Vera and little Neal, like she doesn’t want to make too big a deal about the whole thing.

As she starts trying to squirm against his chest, Killian shifts Charlotte to be cradled in his arms instead of propped on his bare chest, and is rewarded by her eyes searching for him. He knows it’s too early to get a smile out of her, but he’s already so excited for that milestone. For now, just watching her eyes settle on his grin feels like the greatest treasure.

“Hello, my darling,” he whispers down at her as his thumb strokes her chubby little cheek. “I’m so happy you’re here. Papa loves you so very much.”

She’s his second chance, his happy ending, and Killian doesn’t intend to waste a single moment.

[askmeforafic]

Wait For It

It was an accepted fact that not only did soulmates exist but that if you were lucky enough to have one (or more) that you would hear whatever song they were listening to. Because of this most people developed a system quite quickly to let their partner(s) know that music wasn’t appreciated at that time or that their taste in music sucked. Arthur was lucky enough that he did have a soulmate however he did have one with awful taste in music and so developed his system for telling his soulmate he didn’t like their taste in music almost as soon as he started to hear them. He would tell people that he only had one because he would dread to think that more than one person had that taste in music.

He didn’t know who his soulmate was despite the disbelieving looks Morgana gave him when someone asked. He knew that they were most likely his age given that he heard a lot of Spice Girls and S Club 7 when he was growing up. Not to mention what seemed like every single parody of that God awful Backstreet Boys song. He also knew that they were less likely to use the system to tell him to stop than he was so either they liked his taste in music or they were too shy. Morgana would always take this time to point out that his type wasn’t shy and given they were his soulmate it most likely meant they didn’t mind his song choices as bland as they were. Apart from that he didn’t have a clue about them, their music taste was all over the place so he couldn’t nail down what type of person they were and they were just as likely to listen to “girly” songs as they were to football songs.  In fact the first time they used the system to tell Arthur they didn’t like his choice in music Morgana had to be sent out the room to contain herself because of the song they chose. Arthur wasn’t sure why they decided that Las Ketchup wasn’t something they wanted to hear but he got the message loud and clear when suddenly Meatloaf was telling him that he would do anything for love but he won’t do that.  Ever since then whenever his soulmate didn’t like his song choice that would be the song they listened to whereas Arthur tended to find which ever song was most annoying at the time and blare it.  He almost feels bad for his soulmate who had to hear Crazy Frog for almost an entire year but if they chose better songs they wouldn’t have.

Arthur was standing outside the English department of his university talking to Percy when it started up for the first time that dreary Wednesday morning.  One minute he was discussing tactics with Percy for their upcoming match and the next he started to hear a familiar melody.  He groaned out loud as he heard about the thirty-two thousand troops in New York Harbour. His hands came up to grasp his head as he heard the song for what felt like the thousandth time. He understood his soulmate liked Hamilton but again?! He swore he’d heard the songs from the entire show before his father had even managed to get them tickets.

Arthur had loved seeing the show live but it felt like he was being haunted by the songs everywhere he went. He didn’t think his professor appreciated it when he walked into class late and couldn’t answer why he was late because all he could hear was “Hear Ye! Hear Ye!” as he opened the door and “A message from the King! A message from the King!” as he went to speak.  He also didn’t appreciate it when he went out last weekend to a local pub with his friends suddenly hearing lyrics. He was leaning close to a girl to whisper in her ear about how they could slip somewhere quieter  when suddenly King George III was crooning “Remember, despite our estrangement, I’m your man” and he had jerked back almost spilling his drink on the poor girl.

Morgana had laughed so hard she almost fell off her seat before sending him a look that told him she knew more than him.

Arthur pulled out his phone almost foaming at the mouth as he shoved his earphone in his ear and quickly pulled up YouTube. He started to smirk as he turned the sound on his phone to the maximum before hitting play on Baby Shark. It served his soulmate right, they needed to listen to other things not just Hamilton (and no the almost week solid of Little Mix did not count). He had just started to chuckle when he seen Merlin flail and almost fall while walking towards him.

He frowned and caught Merlin’s eyes, quickly gesturing to him to remove his headphones and come over. Arthur quickly hit stop on the music and shoved his phone back into the pocket of his jeans before Merlin had reached him. Merlin had been in at least two of his classes since they both started at Camelot University and they had after about a week of fighting over a project in one of their classes fallen into an easy friendship.  They were both studying different things, Merlin was studying Mythology and Folklore to become a professor himself and Arthur was studying Physical Education and Teaching. They both ended up in the same classes for teaching and always went to the other for practice before presenting to their classes.

“Are you alright there Merlin? I know you can be clumsy but you’re lucky no one was beside you there or you’d’ve taken them down with you” Arthur said quickly scanning over the boys figure to see if anything had tripped him. He stopped when he heard Merlin let out a full body laugh, looking up in just enough time to see the joy shining out of his face and had to stop himself from leaning closer to bask in it.

Okay so maybe his friendship with Merlin isn’t easy, Arthur constantly has to remind himself not to get too close.  That Arthur has a soulmate and dating Merlin would be a bad idea because he could fall into him so easy, could see them on dates and anniversaries and arguing over who’s turn it is to wash the dishes.  Arthur had confided in Morgana and Lance one night as they were dragging him home drunker than he had ever remembered being after seeing someone dancing far too close to Merlin. Told them all about his day dreams where they were together, how beautiful he thought Merlin was all contrasting colours with his black hair, pale skin and bright pink lips, how he wanted so badly to be the guy dancing with Merlin and trying to convince him to slip away from the crowd. They both looked at him sadly, Lance had gone through the same thing with Gwen before finally asking her out and Morgana knew that he couldn’t do that to his soulmate or to Merlin. He may have dated people and even hooked up with a few but they had all been told that he wasn’t looking for anything serious, he couldn’t not with someone he was destined for waiting for him to find them.

“I’m fine Arthur, I just got startled. My soulmate decided that he wanted to be a prat this morning” Merlin replied with a glint in his eye. “It’s nothing that I can’t get him back for the now” he continued, winking at Arthur before pulling his headphone back into place and walking off.

Arthur watched Merlin walk away from him, oddly graceful in his own way and wondered what the boy had planned.  Before Merlin had got to the end of the building Arthur heard trumpets start and a beat which Merlin was swinging his hips to. A voice joined in telling Arthur “You got my adrenalin, pumping when you stand so close, I can't help imagining all the things we'd do, with no clothes on”.

Suddenly Arthurs eyes locked with Merlins who had turned around and he watched as Merlin wink at him with a smile as the voice joined in. Arthurs brain stuttered to a holt, his mouth gapping as the song continued on telling him he was the only one taking them home. That forced him back into the present as he watched Merlin slowly walk backwards still smiling.

“MERLIN!”.

[imagitory]

D-Views OFF TOPIC!: The Prince of Egypt

Hello, everyone! Welcome to another installment of D-Views Off-Topic! As stated previously, D-Views is a series primarily focusing on Disney-produced and/or owned films, but from time to time, we go “off topic” to discuss films that are sometimes mistaken for and/or were influenced by Disney projects, and that’s what we’re doing today.

I am super excited about today’s subject – it has been one of my favorite films since I was a child, and it is, in my opinion, the single best non-Disney-produced animated film ever made. This is The Prince of Egypt!

Before we talk about The Prince of Egypt, it is imperative to talk about the studio that created it, DreamWorks SKG. (As a side, get used to me calling it just “Dreamworks” from here on out – I’ve never been much one to capitalize the “W.”) Dreamworks was the baby of three media giants – David Geffen, Stephen Spielberg, and most of all Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg got his start in the world of animation at the Walt Disney Company during the Disney Renaissance, when he was head of the Disney animation department. Unfortunately Katzenberg was just one of three very big egos at the company in that period, and he butted heads with the other two – CEO Michael Eisner and vice-chairman Roy E. Disney – constantly. For a while Frank Wells, Eisner’s partner, was able to keep the peace and keep these three working toward the same goal, but when Wells tragically passed away in a helicopter crash in 1994, tensions began to rise. Disney and especially Eisner thought that Katzenberg had been promoting himself as the main face of Disney’s new-found success and taking all the credit for it, and so when Wells was to be replaced, Eisner pointedly passed Katzenberg over for promotion. Whatever one thinks about Eisner or Katzenberg as people, I think it is very clear that Eisner felt threatened by Katzenberg…and he had good reason, because when Katzenberg was forced to quit his position at Disney, he immediately turned around and enlisted the support of Stephen Spielberg and David Geffen to create Disney’s main rival in the world of animation in recent history.

Dreamworks Animation found most of its animators among Disney alumni and from Stephen Spielberg’s dead studio Amblimation, which had previously only worked on three films: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, We’re Back!: A Dinosaur’s Story, and Balto. Despite their lack of experience, they were very talented, as is evident by Dreamworks’ first hand-drawn film. Yep – first hand-drawn film. Dreamworks released two films in 1998; their real first film, Antz, was released in theaters three months before The Prince of Egypt was. To be frank, I wish that The Prince of Egypt had been first – it would’ve made a much stronger first impression for the studio as a whole.

Fortunately The Prince of Egypt made a pretty good impression when it was released to theaters in December 1998. It earned over $218 million worldwide and received rather favorable reviews from critics for its animation and visual effects. It also won an Academy Award for Best Song and was nominated for two Golden Globes, two Grammy Awards, and five Annie Awards, and even tied with Pixar’s rival film to Antz, A Bug’s Life, at the Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Animated Film. Even at the time of its release, however, The Prince of Egypt was compared to Disney’s animated projects. Critic James Berardinelli said this –

“Like Fox (with Anastasia) and Warner Brothers (with the disappointing (sic) Quest for Camelot), Dreamworks intends to challenge Disney's reign as the King of Animation. The Prince of Egypt is a worthy starting point. It ranks alongside the Magic Kingdom's Mulan at the top of the year's traditional-style animated pile. (…)While last year's Anastasia managed to come close to Disney's visual elegance, The Prince of Egypt matches it. This impressive achievement uncovers yet another chink in Disney's once-impregnable animation armor.”

Now that I have effectively “prologued” you to death, let’s go ahead and talk about the film proper.

The very first thing we have to talk about when it comes to this movie is its music, written by film-scoring giant Hans Zimmer and lyrical god Stephen Schwartz. Just like in Beauty and the Beast and Anastasia, this soundtrack in my opinion is just flawless. Every single song hits your heart and stays with you long after they have passed, from the lyrical musical numbers to the instrumental tracks. The first one, “Deliver Us,” introduces us to the setting of the mature, real, passionate, epic story that is about to unravel. We hear the culture in the rhythms and instruments used and in the Hebrew lyrics sung by Ofra Haza, who plays Moses’s mother Yoheved. We feel the hopelessness of the slaves and the fragile hope of a young girl as she sees her baby brother being taken in by the Queen of Egypt. We watch this opening scene with almost no dialogue, being told solely with the images on screen and the wonderful music, and become completely emotionally invested in these characters by the end. With this opening, the film has already done what the best musicals do – introduce our story, conflict, and characters solely through song. And from here, the music only gets better.

After this prologue, we meet our main character again, as well as his adopted brother, the crown prince Rameses. Moses and Rameses are shown, in their youth, to be like two troublemaking college kids, constantly competing with one another and having no awareness of grim reality. They are two princes, born in wealth and affluence, and as of yet do not see their privilege. Once their fun is through, however, we are introduced to their father, Pharaoh Seti. In his first scene, we see Seti as a strict man, focused on his legacy and greatly disappointed in his sons’ misadventures, particularly on Rameses’s part. At this point, we can still understand where Seti is coming from – after all, Rameses and Moses did cause some damage and they should be setting a better example as princes – but that doesn’t make watching Seti viciously snap at Rameses and Rameses struggling to hold in his hurt any easier.

Like Anastasia as well, this film has an all-star cast. Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfieffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Stewart, Steve Martin, Martin Short…although I could argue in some future projects, Dreamworks focused too much on casting big names in a lazy attempt to get more butts in the theater seats (looking at you, Shark Tale), I think in this case, every casting choice made was pretty spot-on. My personal favorite casting is Fiennes as Rameses – Rameses as a character is much more complex than most “antagonists” in other mainstream family films, and I think it would’ve been hard to find someone better than Fiennes to portray that.

Rameses and Moses is my single favorite relationship in this movie, and it makes sense – it is clearly the one the filmmakers put the most focus and effort into. Rameses can be a serious, proud, ambitious cynic, while Moses can be a light-hearted, sympathetic, mischievous peacemaker. Basically it’s a bond between a Slytherin and a Hufflepuff – darkness and light – and the relationship between these two brothers is so well written that it alludes to years of history that justifies the strength of their trust. It’s why Moses tries to make peace between Rameses and Seti once Rameses storms out of the room. It’s why Moses tries so hard to cheer Rameses up afterwards. It’s why Rameses, upon being formally named Prince Regent, names Moses his Royal Chief Architect.

Speaking of which, at the party where Rameses is given that title, we meet the character of Tzipporah, who is given to Rameses as a gift, but who Rameses “re-gifts” to Moses. In this sequence, we see another hint of Moses’s compassion. When the guards try to capture Tzipporah, swords drawn, Moses immediately intercedes and tries to restrain her himself, so that she wouldn’t be hurt or killed by the guards. Admittedly he mischievously lets her fall into a fountain, but it is still an infinitely kinder way to halt her escape than the alternative would’ve been. Nonetheless, we see Moses regretting his action when he sees his mother’s disappointment and Tzipporah’s wrath. Later Tzipporah escapes from the palace, and Moses pursues her. When Moses spots that some guards are about to catch her escaping, however, he once again intercedes. This time he actually misdirects them, sending them up to his chambers and away from Tzipporah, who had been directly behind them. It gives a subtle hint that Moses, even before learning the truth of his heritage, does have something in him that sees the value of freedom. Moses then follows Tzipporah all the way to the border of Egypt, until she escapes off into the desert. It is here that Moses meets Miriam and Aaron – his real siblings.

GOOD GOD THIS SCENE. ALL OF THE FEELS FOR THIS SCENE. I swear, I can’t help but feel so much for Miriam here. The hope in her voice is just heartbreaking when Aaron tries so hard to shut her down and Moses retorts in ignorant outrage. Then Miriam starts singing her mother’s old lullaby, and everything just…stops. The music dies utterly, and the only thing hanging in the air is Miriam’s choked voice. (Fun bit of trivia: one of the film’s directors, Brenda Chapman, provided Miriam’s voice in this scene. You may also know Brenda Chapman as the brain behind Disney/Pixar’s film Brave.)

Miriam’s hushed reprise then dissolves into quiet, horrified orchestration that then slowly builds, until it stumbles back and charges into a run just as Moses does. This orchestration then leads us into my favorite song in the entire film, “All I Ever Wanted.” From the time I was young, this song could always get my heart pounding. I felt all of the fear, all of the longing, all of the denial, all of the pride, and all of the doubt that rippled through Moses’s voice and over his face. When I was in high school and I would listen to this in my headphones on my way to school, I would run down the streets just like Moses did in the film, plodding through all the emotions expressed in each note. Even now I think it is one of the most unique songs sung by a protagonist in a musical that I’ve ever heard. Most “I Want” songs are about wanting more, but this song is about wanting things to stay the same. Rather than seeking adventure, Moses seeks peace and happiness – to stay in this dream world that he’s only just seeing was just a dream. It reminds me of how I felt when the September 11th terrorist attacks happened. When you first see the fragments of your old life shattered around you, you first feel this instinct to grab them and try hopelessly to glue them back together. As time goes by, though, you see how painful such an effort is – it’s like even just clutching those broken shards of your childhood is making your hands bleed – and so you have no choice but to let go of them.

“All I Ever Wanted” dissolves into Moses’s dream sequence, which is entirely drawn in a hieroglyphic-inspired style. This is such a creative sequence – it’s so stylistic, and yet it doesn’t forget to make the stilted movements translate the proper emotions. When Moses wakes up from the nightmare, he also wakes up from his delusion, and decides he must learn the truth. This revelation scene is my favorite part of the entire film. Moses runs down the halls of hieroglyphics, combing wall after wall, until he finally finds what he’s looking for. He sees the image of his father, Seti, ordering his guards to throw babies into the Nile River. The young prince is horrified, heartbroken, at what he sees…and Seti brings a hand down on top of his head, trying to show him some comfort. Moses turns to look at him, pleading with him, “Father, tell me you didn’t do this,” but Seti cannot give Moses that “out.” Instead the old Pharaoh justifies the decision, and even worse, tries to excuse it. “They were only slaves.” Seti’s evil face is truly revealed – the face of callous, wicked ignorance, garbing itself in gold and silk. For more of my thoughts on this scene, you may read this post of mine analyzing it, but to sum it up here, this is the scene that taught me as a kid that evil is not always self-aware…and it even now chills me, just as much as it does Moses. That horrible shrieking of the strings that accompanies Moses’s facial shift from sorrow to horror as he slowly removes himself from Seti’s arms and backs away is a musical representation of everything I feel watching this scene.

After being counseled by his adopted mother Tuya, Moses tries simply to be happy with his fortunate circumstances, but now that he knows the truth of his birth, he can no longer not see the injustices and cruelty around him. He can’t block out the image of his people being worked within an inch of their lives. He can’t block out the furious shouts of an overseer and the horrible, pained cries of an elderly slave being whipped. And it is in this sequence that we get one of the best instrumental tracks in the entire film. The track is called “Goodbye Brother,” and it accompanies Moses accidentally killing an overseer to protect a slave and running away from home. I’ve also discussed this track (and a few others from this film) in another post, but like with Seti, I will restate my core points here. The best piece of this track is the middle, which happens just before Moses kills the overseer. It is a horrific, demented shrieking, one that sounds like what nails being driven into your brain should feel like. The sound is like the accompaniment of a nightmare that you can’t escape. And then just as suddenly, the nightmarish feeling is gone…to be replaced with a different kind of fear and horror, the kind that you feel when you realize it’s not just a horrible dream, the kind that gives way to panic. Moses running away is echoed in the music with every racing, plodding note, until it, like Moses, is brought to a rough halt. From here, a great sorrowful sound takes over – as if the music is mourning what could’ve been just as much as Moses is. Partner this with the tragic verbal exchange between Rameses and Moses, and I think just about everyone’s heart will break by the end of the scene.

So from here, Moses flees into the desert, shedding his identity as a Prince of Egypt, and joining Tzipporah’s tribe of Midianites. While there, we get another amazing song (“Through Heaven’s Eyes”) and see Moses grow from a boy into a man. Even though Moses has grown so much, however, there is still business for him to take care of, and that business becomes clear when he follows a lost sheep into a cave and finds a Bush alight with white, inhuman fire. The instrumental for this sequence, “The Burning Bush,” is in my opinion not only the best instrumental in the film, but also the best non-Disney instrumental I have ever heard. I have never been a particularly religious person – Hell, my parents are a non-practicing Christian and an Atheist. But whenever I encounter a particularly wonderful piece of art, landscape, or music, I think I feel what some people call spirituality. It is a sensation that makes you feel lighter and warmer, like a balloon slowly filling up with air, devoid of fear, worry, and pain. It is a dreamy feeling that makes you feel one with everything, and everything feel like it is as it should be…and once you know that feeling, you can’t imagine losing it. This track is a perfect representation of those feelings – it is enlightenment, in musical form, from its raindrop-like pattering to its slowly rotating tone like a globe spinning on its axel.

Something else interesting about this sequence is how God is depicted. Unlike in The Ten Commandments, which The Prince of Egypt is based upon, this God is depicted more like the New Testament God, being much kinder and gentler than the vengeful God that is more often found in the Old Testament. On top of this, this God is actually voiced by Val Kilmer, who also voiced Moses, making it so Val Kilmer is technically talking to himself in this scene. There are two ways I could read this – one, it speaks of how God is representative of Moses’s inner-voice, so this scene is a metaphor for Moses coming to grips with his own morality; or two, Moses is seeing himself in God, because Man was made in God’s image, and so by the end understands that he has God’s power inside of himself. Either way, Moses realizes that he can’t run away from his responsibility to his people and goes back to Egypt to confront the Pharaoh.

Alas, when Moses arrives, he does not confront Seti, but his brother Rameses. I cannot lie, Rameses and Moses reuniting is a scene that always makes me smile, even if my heart’s breaking at the same time. GODDAMN IT, MOVIE, HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME. After the “Playing with the Big Boys” song number by Hotep and Huy (which I suppose is the weakest of the songs, but is still pretty damn good), Rameses and Moses talk the matter over. Moses tries to explain his position to Rameses, and it is here that Rameses too finds his rose-colored glasses cracking. His idealistic hope that his brother was back and they could live as they had is flickering and dying. There is no going back for Moses. He is choosing the well being of Hebrew slaves over the brother he grew up with. And this betrayal hurts Rameses deeply. The animation on Rameses’s face in this scene – from heartbreak, to anger, to shock, to regret, to grief, to vengeance – is perfectly paced and spot-on. From this scene on, Rameses has officially become the anti-villain of the film – the reluctant rival to our reluctant hero.

On the face of things, Moses has made everything worse with his return. Rameses has turned against him and the slaves bitterly scorn him for his battle against Pharaoh. But one slave is with him from the start – his sister Miriam. She rallies the slaves behind Moses, and Moses stands with new strength. He commands Rameses again to “let his people go,” again, again, again, with multiple plagues, to the accompaniment of “The Plagues.” My favorite part in this song is the inner-monologues from our hero and our anti-villain that unconsciously mirror each other.

Once I called you brother; // You who I called brother,

Once I thought the chance to make you laugh // How could you have come to hate me so?

Was all I ever wanted… // Is this what you wanted?

And of course the ending –

I will not LET your/my PEOPLE…GO!

The Plagues play out one by one, before we reach the Plague of Darkness. Moses goes to find Rameses and tries one last time to convince him to relent before the next Plague arrives. I’ve talked about this scene and Rameses’s son in the past, and you can read that here, but I will just add that I love the parallels this scene makes to earlier scenes of Moses in the palace. Not only do some shots parallel the scene of Moses comforting Rameses at the beginning of the movie, but Moses also passes the pillar and statues that he runs to in the “All I Ever Wanted” sequence. It’s such a bittersweet juxtaposition.

Sadly Moses and Rameses cannot go back to the way things were, however much they wish it. The destinies that have been written for them and the responsibilities therein make it impossible…and this scene proves this once and for all. Rameses, refusing to drop his pride and refusing to bow to the pressure of someone who threatens the security of his empire, crosses the line and threatens the murder of Moses’s people. Moses cannot save him or Egypt from the final Plague now…and so the First Born are slain, with an inhuman light that literally breathes His victims’ last breath.  

The scene centering on the Death of the First Born is a very powerful one. A striking choice is having it mostly done in silence, with no instrumental music at all. The only sounds other than the Angel’s breathing are the blowing wind, some rattling of trees and roofs, crickets chirping, and finally the howls of despair from all of the parents upon discovering their dead children. The scene hits home when we see Rameses holding his dead son in his arms – Moses comes up behind him out of the white light beyond, and for a moment, he is the Angel of Death himself, bearing witness to the grief of the Pharaoh that was once his brother. And as much as I disapprove of Rameses’ sentiments in the last scene and agree that Moses’s people should be freed…I do not blame Rameses in the least for his inconsolable, furious withdrawal from Moses’s comforting hand. I don’t think I could forgive anyone who took someone I love from me…no matter how noble the person’s cause. This still does not make me feel any less for Moses when he walks off by himself, drops his staff, and then slowly falls to his knees, collapsing in on himself as he tries in vain to suppress his sobs.

At long last, the Hebrews have their freedom, and with it, we get our final lyrical number – the Academy-Award-winning song “When You Believe.” This song is a good example of how, even though this film can get so serious, those darker elements are mitigated perfectly with a lot of sincerity and heart. This song is like a beautiful sunrise after a night of thunderstorms. The mist is still clinging to the air and remnants of the rain are still falling from the shingles of roofs, but sunlight is bouncing off the droplets, sparkling like tiny diamonds, and the clouds are touched with pink. Then the children start their verses in Hebrew, and a new, youthful life is infused into the piece, ringing with the hopes and dreams of a new beginning. Where something has ended, something has now begun, and after the darkest of nights, the sun has returned.

Just when it seems the Hebrews have succeeded, Rameses does try one last time to circumvent them, by charging after them with his army. Moses parts the Red Sea, the Hebrews make it across, and the Sea comes back together just as Rameses and his army are charging through it. It is only after this that we come full circle – the music at last returns to the theme from the very beginning, “Deliver Us.” Moses has answered that prayer. He has delivered his people to freedom. And so as Moses comes down Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments in hand, I frankly don’t care about what happens next in the actual Biblical story – the ending is more than enough to fulfill me.

The Prince of Egypt is very special to me. As you can tell from all of the links in this post, it is a movie I love talking about and I think I will never stop talking about. It saddens me that this film is not more recognized by the world at large, like so many other great animated films are. Its soundtrack is in my opinion one of the best animated musical soundtracks ever recorded. Its animation is stunning, evocative, and detailed. Its characters are multi-faceted and real. Its story is epic, timeless, and emotional. Recently there was an attempt to bring it to Broadway, but that attempt was scrapped because of the backlash in response to its all-white cast (gee, I can’t imagine why *oh hai there sarcasm*). I sincerely hope that the project will be attempted again, however – maybe The Prince of Egypt can be brought back to the public consciousness again by going to the Broadway stage, as Anastasia has. In the meantime, though, we do have the original masterpiece, and I will always view it as the best film ever produced by Dreamworks.  

[topsolarpanels]

My beef over Hillary Clinton’s loss is with liberal feminists, young and old

One picture, taken in the New York woods, restored presidential candidates to ordinary life. If Democrat had listened to ordinary Americans, she might have been president

The black mood of women feeling battered and bereft after Hillary Clintons loss was abruptly penetrated on Thursday by an image that brought the tears all over again.

It was a snap on Facebook taken on the hiking trails surrounding Chappaqua by Margot Gerster, a grieve Hillary supporter who was out strolling with her “girls “. Suddenly, she wrote, there was the audio of rustling. Then, seeming like a mirage in the clearing, was Hillary herself with Bill and their puppies, doing exactly the same thing as Gerster. The former president obliged Gerster by taking the photograph after she and Hillary had exchanged a few sweet pleasantries and hugged.

Nothing I have seen in the last 15 months of the campaign has resonated with me as much as the image that Gerster posted. It depicts Hillary wearing what looks like no make-up, her hair uncoiffed, garmented in a baggy black parka, brown leggings and boots, and holding the dog leash twisted in her hand as her poodle mixture snuffles among the carpet of foliages at her feet.

Only 24 hours after delivering the poised, dignified concession speech that masked her own sorrow and tried to mend ours, its as if she had finally been returned to the world as she really is: an approachable female in late middle age, hiking the roads with her dogs and her husband in the solitude of a beautiful fall morning, trying to cope with her ache. The sight of it, so comforting in the warmth of its ordinariness, was a visual rebuke to the aberration and the cruelty of the two attacks she has suffered.

She was my champion. I miss her, my 26 -year-old daughter grieved last night. Every disappointed Democratic supporter has her own target for anger, it seems. My daughters is her fellow millennials, who didnt come out in enough numbers to take Clinton to the White House. Clinton won this group by 54%, six points down from Obama in 2012. Always in a storm of umbrage about micro-aggressions, those crucial solipsistic stay-at-home millennials wound up enabling the macro-aggression of Donald Trump.

By contrast, Hillary has been the living personification of resistance to a torrent of intimidation that was not a construct, but horribly real. She faced an alt-right and Fox News smear campaign, followed by the coup de grace from the self-righteous FBI director who hasnt yet had the modesty to resign. She was called a robber, a offender, a liar who was too old, too past it , not cool enough , not authentic enough , not not not.

But there are iconic images of her heroism we should never forget: her cool accuracy through 11 hours of congressional assault in the Benghazi hearings, her victory in each presidential debate with crackling, well-prepared debates, even though in one she was watched by a peanut gallery of her husbands accusers disgracefully assembled by Trump to set her off her stride. The intent was to portray her as Bills enabler, which is the cruelest slander of all.

Hillary Clintons concession speech in full

Heres my own beef. Liberal feminists, young and old, need to question the role they played in Hillarys demise. The two weeks of media hyperventilation over grab-her-by-the-pussygate, when the airwaves were saturated with aghast liberal women equating Trumps gross remarks with sexual assault, had the opposite impact on multiple girls voters in the Heartland.

These are resilient girls, often working two or three chores, for whom boorish humen are an occasional occupational hazard , not an existential menace. They rolled their eyes over Trumps unmitigated coarseness, but still bought into his patter that hed be the greatest undertaking producer who ever lived. Oh, and they wondered why his behaviour was any worse than Bills.

Missing this pragmatic answer by so many females was another mistake of Robbie Mooks campaign data nerds. They calculated that Americas women would all be as outraged as the ones they came home to at night. But pink slip have reached entire neighborhoods, and townships. The angry white working class men who voted in such strength for Trump do not live in an emotional vacuum. They are loved by white working class girls their wives, daughters, sisters and moms, who participate in their remaindered pain. It is everywhere in the interviews. My papa lost his business, My husband hasnt been the same since his undertaking at the factory went away.

Even though, in the digital age, there was no bigger Trump lie than feigning fabricating jobs will ever return, rust belt women and plenty of others find him as the rough, tough boss who would bring the business back, and with it the manhood of the sad guy they love.

Trumps reality show crassness was another blind spot with upper-class liberals encompassing the election and operating Hillarys campaign. At every moment when the Trump tribe streamed behind him on to the convention stage or the tarmac, America saw images of a Kardashian Camelot: a phalanx of GQ men and leggy, gorgeous girls following the heavyset guy who had a private 757 airplane and a gold tower with his name on it.

While commentators sniggered, millions ensure the all-American success they dreamed of. They rooted for the guy who had it but was hated by the elites for having it. There are more tired spouses who want to be Melania sitting by the pool in designer sunglasses than there are women who want to pursue a PhD in earnest self-improvement. And there are more young women who find the smartness and modernity of Ivanka as the ultimate polished specimen of blonde branded content they want to buy.

In the entertainment era, even political candidates must be able to entertain. Which show would you rather watch? The Clintons round a table debating the right approach to solar energy, or the show about the rivalries between the Trump women who vie for “members attention” of a capricious patriarch? Four years is a long time.

Even though she won the popular vote by exactly what he expected to be more than two million ballots, Hillary was not destined to shatter what she has called, with agonizing ruefulness, that highest and hardest glass ceiling. So what do we want, and what do we expect from a woman leader who can win?

The killer rap on Hillary was that she was never authentic. I would argue that, born into a generation that had to break down so many culture walls, and wounded by a wedding that always involved her to cover up pain, she had PTSD on behalf of us all by the time she operated for chairwoman. Yes, even the complacent young person, who believed until now that they were living in a post-gender world.

If you want to see authentic girls leaders who can really entertain, you have to go now to the generation in their 40 s who do not have the combat scars of the women who were firsts. Its no good bringing up Angela Merkel. Germany is not the US. After the trauma of Hitler, theirs is an anti-charisma culture that actively distrusts pizzazz.

Why America elected Trump

Some fabulous women won senatorial elections. They are the post-Hillary icons. Kamala Harris in California is a political knockout, as is Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who defeated an incumbent Republican senator. Shes a war veteran who lost both legs in Iraq. Watch for the rise of Ilhan Omar, the vibrant 34 -year-old former refugee and practising Muslim who became Americas first Somali-American female lawmaker. She beat out her Republican opponent to gain a seat in Minnesotas House of Representatives.

If you want to go global, cross the channel and look at the two wildly popular women at the top of politics in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of the Scottish National Party, is as direct as she is fearless. After the US election result, she doubled down on her distaste for Trump and condemned diplomatic stillnes in the face of attitudes of racism, sexism misogyny or fanaticism of any kind.

In opposition to her is another winner: Ruth Davidson, the kickboxing, working-class former territorial army member and open lesbian who, with her salty humour and irreverent debate style, has single-handedly made the once irrelevant Scottish Tory party a rising force. Maybe being around men in the army made her impervious to misogynist trolls. Nice. Classy. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Bet shes really proud of you, she tweeted to one who told her that what she needed was a good fuck.

The new media narrative is that the Clinton era is now over and done. But perhaps this last chapter of Hillarys life can be the most rewarding. On the job, she was always the first up and the last to go to bed. Heaven for her is poring over a briefing volume with her hair tied back in a scrunchy, cracking down on the run. Imagine the agony she must have endured while being deprived of the thing she loves doing most for 15 long months. Instead, she was forced to take over the grandstanding and gladhanding that shes never been good at.

She still has an important role to play, and she began it in her concession speech by telling the young girls who, like my daughter, adore her, never to give up.

Hillary , now you can be the woman you really are, the woman in the timbers. More important to the rest of us, you can be the Queen Maker. A friend told me how, very late on election night, she snuck into her 10 -year-old daughters room as she always does, to tuck her in and remove her open laptop from the bed. She saw on the screen that her daughter had been in the middle of writing a letter before she fell asleep.

Dear Madame President, it began, I want to tell you the things that are important to daughters like me

The letter was unfinished.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

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