#opera war

[claudia1829things]

Ranking of "THE GILDED AGE" Season Two (2023) Episodes

Below is my ranking of the Season Two episodes from the HBO historical drama, "THE GILDED AGE". Created by Julian Fellowes, the series stars Christine Baranski, Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector and Cynthia Nixon:

RANKING OF "THE GILDED AGE" SEASON TWO (2023) EPISODES

1. (2.05) "Close Enough to Touch" - Socialite Bertha Russell makes final preparations for the societal event of the summer season with a dinner to honor the Duke of Buckingham in Newport. Peggy Scott and her employer T. Thomas Fortune encounter hostile whites at a black-owned restaurant, while covering a story in Tuskagee, Alabama. And Ada Brook finally marries her new beau, the Reverend Luke Forte, despite the disapproval of her older sister, socialite Agnes van Rhijn.

2. (2.03) "Head to Head" - The Opera war between Bertha and Mrs. Caroline Astor escalates. At Bertha's fundraiser, a surprise guest in the form of Bertha's former maid, now socialite Mrs. Enid Winterton, reveals an unpleasant secret regarding her husband, George Russell. Peggy offers to join Fortune in covering the new dormitory story at the Tuskegee Institute. And George attempts to woo union leader Mr. Henderson.

3. (2.01) "You Don't Even Like the Opera" - In the season premiere, the Scotts visit Philadelphia to attend an Easter memorial service for Peggy's dead son, who had ended up adopted. Ada meets Luke Forte for the first time following Easter service. And after being snubbed by Mrs. Astor's opera community, Bertha decides to support the new Metropolitan Opera over the senior Academy of Music.

4. (2.08) "In Terms of Winning and Losing" - In the season finale, the fate of the van Rhijn household is uncertain after Oscar van Rhijn loses his family's fortune to a con artist. Footman Jack Trotter's alarm clock patent is approved. Arthur Scott thwarts the New York Educational Board's secret attempt to close African-American schools. Later, Peggy decides to end her employment with The New York Globe, wary of her attraction to the married Mr. Fortune. Marian Brook decides to end her whirlwind engagement to Agnes' nephew by marriage, the wealthy Dashiell Montgomery. And the Duke of Buckingham becomes the pivotal figure in the Opera war between Bertha and Mrs. Astor.

5. (2.07) "Wonders Never Cease" - New York City citizens celebrate the final construction of the new Brooklyn Bridge. Marian harbors doubts about her engagement to Dashiell. Oscar discovers that Miss Beaton, the young socialite he had hoped to marry, is a con artist who had tricked him of most of the van Rhijn money. The van Rhijn-Forte household suffers a personal tragedy.

6. (2.04) "His Grace the Duke" - Bertha discovers the funding for the unfinished Metropolitan Opera House has run out. Ada fears Agnes will disapprove of her meetings with Reverend Forte. Peggy and Mr. Fortune travel to Tuskegee. Bertha insinuates herself with the Duke of Buckingham at a dinner held by her former maid, the socialite Mrs. Enid Winterton. George and other business owners conspire to subvert impending labor strikes. And Bertha forces Larry's new lover to end their romance.

7. (2.06) "Warning Shots" - Mrs. Winterton demands Bertha's center box at the Met in exchange for her support. Peggy asks Mr. Fortune to investigate the New York Education Board's decision to close the Black schools. Reverend Forte receives unpleasant news, following his and Ada's honeymoon. George and a number of military soldiers face striking workers at his Pittsburgh steel plant. And Marian receives a surprising, yet very public marriage proposal.

8. (2.02) "Some Sort of Trick" - To escape the tense atmosphere at her parents' Brooklyn home, Peggy rejoins the van Rhijn household as Agnes' secretary. Both Peggy and Agnes warn the latter's maid Armstrong to treat the former with more respect. Gladys Russell put an end to Oscar's pursuit of her with a rejection of his marriage proposal. Her brother, the newly architect Larry Russell, becomes romantically involved with his new client, a woman twice his age. The Russells discover that Bertha's former maid has married a wealthy elderly member of New York society.

[galactic-rhea]

Ah yes, the "evil" family.

I thought it would be even more funny if it was Luke, of all people, the one who wanted to watch Bloodbath in the Black Moon of the Dragon System.

First || Next

[fictionadventurer]

Things I Learned Watching Skeleton Crew:

The way to make a good Star Wars spinoff is to just make a story that draws from the genres Star Wars is built from.

Star Wars is a fairy tale, not a fantasy. It feels most like Star Wars when you've got regular people living their mundane lives who go on adventures where they just get glimpses of a more magical reality.

Treasure Island in space is always a great idea.

A villain with a lightsaber is a great idea, especially when no one else has a lightsaber.

When you start binging a show, make sure it's actually complete, and not one episode from the end, if you don't want to go crazy.

[ddeck]

kokoshnik Padmé

[i-am-aprl]

Not numbers.. The names of 8,000 children killed in the genocide were displayed on the wall of the Opera House in Brooklyn, New York, in solidarity with Gaza.

[spacenoirdetective]

Star Wars art by Manuel Sanjulian

[0alix0]

just love how we still have absolutely no details about how evanuris killed mythal :) the mother of all, elgar'nan's wife, a mother of 3 possibly 5 other gods (who probably killed their own mother hello??), "the voice of reason"

remember that? remember "they killed mythal... a crime for which an eternity of torment is the only fitting punishment"

yeah. love it)))

[halcyyan]

war and the eye of knowledge

[theflashjaygarrick]

How it feels right now as a Batman comic reader

[clanborn]

sketchy leafpool design based on this little cat figure i used to play with as a kid

[garchamp]

[kurtssingh]

Sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to say that I really love your art of Dooku. He is a character who does not get a lot of attention, and I like him, so seeing your art is always a treat!

Thank you for liking my art!

Coincidentally I just finished a GIF of Dooku recently, and I hope this will put a smile on your face. =)

May the Force be with you.

I used the Karazhan NPCs' dance style as a reference (if you happen to know World of Warcraft too, it will be delightful). It's a personal favourite dance style that I've always wanted to see Dooku try it. xD

[oopsyoufoundme]

HEAR ME OUT‼️‼️

Anakin!phantom of the opera

I feel this has a lot of potential so pls lmk if someone’s already done this 💋

I need thoughts and ops xx

EDIT- check my recent post for update!! X

[vadersgrl]

anidala the phantom of the opera

moodboard for my dearest luma <3

[fellthemarvelous]

How can you be on the council and not be a master?

I need to stop looking at Star Wars TikTok posts because I guess the concept of personal accountability is lost on so many people.

I love Anakin Skywalker. I do. I think he is one of the best fictional characters ever created because he is so fucking complex. I love him for all the good he did and in spite of all the bad things he did as Darth Vader. In the end, he sacrificed his own life to save his son.

That's the thing that's killing me right now.

People want to blame everyone else except for Anakin for the choices he made. They want to blame the Jedi because the Jedi don't strictly adhere to their vision of love and are therefore responsible for why Anakin fell to the dark side.

I saw a few comments where someone blamed the Jedi (specifically Obi-Wan), blamed the council, blamed Ahsoka because she left him, blamed Padme (because if we can't blame female characters for something then what are we even doing, right?), blamed the Jedi for not trusting him (and therefore somehow preventing him from believing in himself), and then at the end was like...oh and I guess Palpatine too since he groomed him for 13 years.

First of all, why is it a chore to blame Palpatine for Anakin's problems but so easy to blame the Jedi?

Imagine the heartbreak Anakin felt when he learned that the man who spent 13 years mentoring him turned out to be the Sith lord the Jedi had been searching for. That's reason enough to be angry at Palpatine because it was Palpatine who broke Anakin's spirit.

Secondly, not one of these people is responsible for Anakin's actions. Not one of them. Not even Palpatine. That's why it had to be Anakin's choice. Palpatine could not force him to fall, so he had to resort to manipulation and gaslighting to fuck with Anakin's head. He spent 13 years planting seeds of self-doubt and mistrust in the Jedi in Anakin's head. Because what happened when Palpatine assigned Anakin to the Jedi council despite having zero authority to do so??

"How can you be on the council and not be a master?"

The Jedi Council would like to ask Anakin the same question.

You have to be a Jedi master before you can be on the council.

Anakin became upset because he was denied the rank of master. It didn't occur to him at all that Palpatine intentionally placed him in that situation for that exact reason. Palpatine knew the Jedi well, and he knew how they would react. He knew it would lead the Jedi to asking Anakin to spy on him. He played the long game and it paid off.

The Jedi taught Anakin what they could, but they have no control over whether or not Anakin put the Jedi code into practice. The Jedi trusted Anakin. We saw them trust Anakin with their lives many many times during the Clone Wars.

They gave him a padawan for crying out loud. They looked at this 19-year-old, freshly knighted Jedi General and trusted him to mentor Ahsoka, a 14-year-old girl who was more advanced than everyone else her age. He's a vergence in the Force and they gave him a padawan who was already incredibly powerful. It's rare for Jedi to get their own padawans at such a young age, but Anakin was a Force prodigy and Ahsoka could have become a knight herself at 16 if she had not left the Order.

The Jedi trusted him. Until they didn't.

Anakin is the one who slaughtered an entire clan of Tusken Raiders in anger after the death of his mother. Even the women and the children. He killed all of them because he hated all of them and he was angry because he wasn't able to prevent his mother from dying in his arms. The only people who knew about that were Padme and Palpatine.

Anakin is the one who spent three years lying to the Jedi because he kept his relationship with Padme a secret from everyone (except Rex). He believed he could have it all if he tried hard enough, and trying to have it all is what lead to him losing everything when he chose to fall to the dark side, when he chose to sacrifice the galaxy for one person, only to lose her and his unborn child for good.

During the war, Ahsoka told Barriss that Anakin will always do what needs to be done, leaving out the part that includes the use of terror and torture. Barriss got to witness Anakin's rage personally when he figured out that she was the one who framed Ahsoka for treason.

We all saw how Luminara reacted to Ahsoka violently threatening Nute Gunray to get him to talk. She was horrified and immediately reprimanded Ahsoka because it is not the Jedi way to resort to terror. The Jedi were supposed to negotiate, not terrorize. And Anakin taught Ahsoka his version of aggressive negotiations. (And she hinted at the fact that she used aggressive negotiations against Morgan Elsbeth when Huyang questioned her about how she obtained the information to locate the map to Peridea and she told him that she did not follow Jedi protocol.)

When Anakin interrogated Poggle the Lesser during Brain Invaders, he physically hit Poggle before force choking him. He used brutality to get the answers he needed. Obi-Wan, Luminara and Ki-Adi all expressed concern over how he got Poggle to talk, and he wouldn't tell them what he did. What he did went against the Jedi code. He made that choice. No one else made it for him. He knows it was wrong. It's why he didn't answer their questions.

Yes, he was doing it because Ahsoka was in imminent danger and he needed to save her (and Barriss and the infected clones) and there wasn't enough time to negotiate with Poggle. Anakin did what an older brother would have done for his little sister, but she was also his padawan and he was her master. And it was very clear that Ahsoka was a lot like him.

It's not Anakin's fault that Ahsoka left the Jedi Order, but it is not Ahsoka's fault that Anakin fell. He was incapable of letting go of his padawan (he literally resurrected her from the dead on Mortis), which was an important part of the reason he was given a padawan in the first place. He had formed a strong attachment to her just as he had Padme and Obi-Wan and Rex and C-3PO and R2-D2.

His unwillingness to let go of his attachments is what caused him to fall. He was a Jedi, and Jedi are not supposed to form attachments. So when he betrayed the Jedi Order to save Padme's life, his fall to the dark side was a result of him giving into his hatred and his anger. He took his rage out on an entire galaxy for 25 years because he was unable to let go.

Attachment does not equal love.

Maul was attached to Obi-Wan and there was nothing loving about it. It was violent and many people died because of Maul's inability to let go of his anger and hatred for Obi-Wan.

The whole reason that Anakin gave into the dark side completely was because he fell for the trap. He believed he could use the dark side without letting it consume him, but the dark side is all about controlling others. He couldn't control Padme and he ended up force choking her. He couldn't control Ahsoka and she left. He couldn't control Obi-Wan and chose to fight against him instead of listening to Obi-Wan's pleas.

No one could save Anakin Skywalker from himself. He had to save himself from his own darkness.

Which he did, in the end, because he saw his son being tortured by Palpatine, and he realized what it meant to let go. He finally understood what he needed to do and accepted that he would have to give up his own life to do so.

It took him a long time to understand what it means to let go, because letting go isn't giving up. Letting go is about accepting that there are some things beyond his control.

The conversation he had with his mother on Mortis was key to helping him accept who he was in the end. "Your guilt does not define you. You define your guilt."

He knew he was going to die, but he died saving someone he loved, doing the right thing and ultimately returning balance to the Force. He accepted his destiny. He accepted responsibility for who he was as Anakin Skywalker and that Anakin Skywalker was also responsible for the actions of Darth Vader because they were one in the same.

It's the problem we see Ahsoka struggling with when she's with him in the World Between Worlds. She struggled with the knowledge that her master became a monster and worried about what that meant for her. She struggled to figure out who she would have become if she had not left the Order. She had to wrestle with her own darkness, and Anakin's final lesson to her also took a weight off her shoulders. It's why she's suddenly that same girl we saw at the beginning of the war. The one who always smiled and was always so sure of herself. She chose the light and it was reflected in the way she suddenly began wearing white, a contrast to what she'd been wearing decades.

It's understanding that she has control of her own destiny, whatever that might be, and that she gets to choose who she decides to be. Anakin chose to be a Jedi in the end, and he was able to pass a hard-learned lesson onto a padawan he loved like his own sister. He was still able to watch out for her in the end while teaching her one more time.

It's never too late to do the right thing, but it's Anakin who has to take responsibility for his actions instead of blaming everyone else for all of his problems.

Apparently that's a lesson a lot of fans need to learn too.

A question Star Wars has always asked us is "how far are you willing to go to save what you love?"

[bonefall]

with how little relevance characters often have outside their introduction arc, its genuinely WEIRD how relevant tree constantly is. which is an odd criticism because characters should remain relevant after being established but in warriors it feels like blatant favoritism. i dont even dislike treee and i liked him a lot in tbc but its ODD

Mr. Gas Leak has a very distinct feeling (an odor, if you will) to me. It feels like he became so relevant because people were frustrated that he wasn't doing the Very Special Job they'd invented just for him back in AVoS, so the writing team tried to "respond to criticism" by making him show up all the time.

But like... that wasn't really the heart of the criticism. It wasn't a clamor to bring back Tree specifically. It was frustration that they would set up worldbuilding elements and then forget about them when they became inconvenient.

SkyClan's return, negotiator role, the border guard between the DF and StarClan, voting to oust a leader. We've gotten at least one (sometimes multiple) additions that threaten to shake up the status quo in every modern arc-- and then they're forgotten about or not used to their full potential.

In honesty though, the more he appears, the more I actively dislike him. I thought he was cool at first, I enjoyed the idea that SkyClan was going to bring some new dynamics to the politics at the lake. But every role he's had since his introduction has been insufferable.

I HATED how he absolutely refused to do his job in Squilf's Hope because of personal bias

I can't stand how the Sisters have been willing to help the Clans after their treatment in that book, and the constant narrative derision they get in spite of that

The fact everyone just forgot Tree existed in ASC until Nightheart said something was astonishingly bad writing. If I forgot about a major worldbuilding element like that I would be genuinely embarassed, not cutely lampshading it

Even the way he ended up "helping" when the narrative remembered him was annoying. Like, "Oh right! Having this role just grinds the action to a screeching halt! Instead of the Battle Cats doing Battles, they argue offscreen about things! Wow, this was a terrible idea to begin with!"

There are waaaay worse characters in WC, and I can't bring myself to hate him the same way I hate some others like Gray Wing. But boy, he has found his way down my list of "least liked WC characters."