#scrooge.01⋆˙⟡

[cagcdlxve]

@richcstduck ★₊˚⊹✧˖°. Funny Old Duck

Lilith was perfectly familiar with all kinds of wildlife. Everything from plants, to mammals, to fish, and especially to birds! She always admired the freedom they had, though she could never have it herself. Sometimes she longed to be one of them and fly away to see the world... oh, but she could never think to abandon her duties. That would be a truly evil thing to do.

So she contented herself to admire the surroundings. In fact, she was rather curious about the flora and fauna that existed within this Arcanus Isle, as she had learned the name of this place.

One creature she found rather puzzling. He certainly appeared to be a duck, but he wore clothes like a human! Surely he was not a creature like Tae was. He even carried a cane and, if Lilithh did not know any better, he seemed kinda old ( and maybe a little grumpy )

Her curiosity got the better of her, and she decided to approach the being, with a smile on her face.

"Uh hello there!" She asked. "I hope you don't mind me asking... but umm... what species of bird are you? I'm afraid I've never seen a duck like yourself..." She paused for a moment.

"Do... you speak common as well?" It occurred to her a little too late that she did not have the means to communicate with animals at this time.

[the-gadabout-gander]

Don Rosa tree this, Carl Barks tree that, what about the Dell Giant Tree from Family Fun

[damailbox]

DuckTales: The Family's Shrewd

Disney Adventures, January 1991

[thegoodduckfan]

Okay, my online friends told me I'm reaching, but they're WRONG because I KNOW that Batman's phone number is not a reference to Uncle Scrooge, and that I am totally insane! So, let me explain:

Batman's phone number that he gives to Barbara Gordon in the new show Batman: Caped Crusader is Klondike5-0127. Now, the 0127 could represent Batman's first appearence which was Detective Comics #27, but that doesn't explain the 5 or the Klondike.

So I've got a different theory, this phone number is actually a reference to the Uncle Scrooge story Back to the Klondike! Okay, but just having the word "Klondike" doesn't mean that it's inherently an Uncle Scrooge reference. So why do I think that?

Well, Back to the Klondike is one of the most popular and recognizable Uncle Scrooge stories, partially for introducing Scrooge's love interest Glittering Goldie. But! In the original release of the comic the story was censored and 5 pages were removed, leaving the 32 page comic, with only 27 pages.

So, my conclusion is this:

Klondike = the name of the story

5 = the pages (re)added in future releases

01 = the first printing

27 = the amount of pages the story had left in that og printing

It all makes so much sense!

Okay, I am absolutely reaching. But please reblog to spread my insanity and support my totally healthy hyperfixation!

[okaystoptellingmetomakeanaccount]

Scrog Timeline based on Life and times here we go. Part one lil kid scrog livin in Scotland.

The extended life and times of Scrooge McDuck. Part 1 - Glasgow 1867

First. There are a bunch of stories which show snippets of Scrooge’s life as a child (usually around Christmas). These snippets can vary from a single panel to multiple pages, but they are never the main plot. Among these are:

W DD 70-01, The Search for Cyril

W DD 72-01, Secret Of The Sargasso Sea

S 63099, Chairman of the Bored

D 9044, Wait For Me

D 99078, The Quest For Kalevala

I PM 187-2, The Brotherly News. - Note: Scrooge, Gideon and Grandma are shown as kids together in Scotland.

D 92305, The Lost Birthday. - Note: Partially time travel/suggested dream sequence, partially flashback.

I TL 2442-5, The Ghost’s Treasure… Or The Other Way Around

D 2012-058, Donald's Homemade Christmas

I TL 3063-2, The Numismatic Process

I TL 3239-1, A New Christmas Carol

I TL 3369-1, The Comfortable Temptation

D 2019-039, The New Year that Wasn't. - Note: This story contains a scene in which Scrooge travels to the past to give himself the number one dime. This is not reverted.

I TL 3368-1P, A Tournament of 100 Doors

D 2020-210, In Time For Christmas. - Note: This is a time travel story, and so the snippet is actually not a flashback. The snippet takes place during the night before Scrooge leaves for America.

I TL 3448-2, A Mysterious Anniversary

H 2022-002, The Treasure of Captain Seabass

I TL 3499-1, Fame

I TL 3501-3, Clear Coin Cleaning

I TL 3536-1P, The Test of Scottishness

I TL 3550-1P, The Leap Lamp. - Note: This story interestingly contains a retcon of D 91308. This retcon consists of Scrooge getting his shoeshine box on Christmas, as Fergus couldn’t finish it in time for his birthday. No known story contradicts this.

From here we can continue onto full stories that depict Scrooge’s time as a wee lad, whether they are flashbacks or not. Stories are placed in timeline order. If not sure (so for most of them) they are placed in release order. Among these are:

W US 44-04, The Invisible Intruder. - Note: Life And Times’ depiction of this time of Scrooge’s days is largely based on this story.

B 790164, A Taste and Three Cruzeiros

B 820168, A Christmas From the Past. - While the narrative is primarily about this past adventure, Scrooge only plays a secondary role.

B 830113, The First Bin. - Note: History told by LVD. Story does not necessarily seem to take place in 1860s Glasgow.

I TL 2865-03, The Mistake. - Note: Rare one pager showing Scrooge at school. Is in conflict with I TL 2695-1 in showing something that shouldn’t yet have happened according to Scrooge’s accounts in that story.

D 2013-026, The Orphan's Christmas

F DBG 16, The Dragon of Glasgow

H 2023-183, The First Christmas Ornament. - Note: After interference of Grandma Duck by the end, this story is revealed to be a fiction made up by Scrooge.

D 2020-145, The First Adventure. - Note: This story is a direct lead-in to Rosa’s story. As such, it’s probably the only one that can be surely placed.

D 91308, The Last of the Clan McDuck. - Note: it is very well possible for any of the above mentioned stories to take place during this story, as it contains time skips.

Honorable mentions:

I TL 756-A, Klondike’s Gold. - Note: This story famously portrays Scrooge’s youth as taking place in the Klondike, going as far as having him be born here.

W DAD 29-02, The Last Laugh. - Note: Scrooge mentions shining shoes and delivering papers when he was HDL’s age.

W DD 48-02, A Bucket of Scones. - Note: Scrooge mentions having left Scotland 60 years ago.

W JW 29-03, The Good Deed. - Note: Scrooge mentions growing up in Scotland in a boys’ home. Together with HDL they also visit his hometown: Pinchpenny.

I TL 697-B, The Unfortunate Dream. - Note: Dream sequence where Magica sees Scrooge earning his first dime as a child.

S 81095, The Search For Viking Treasure. - Note: Scrooge earns his first money by plowing fields.

I am 99% certain I have forgot and/or missed stories, so please feel free to comment or whatever to add to this. This post will keep being updated.

[browsethestacks]

Uncle Scrooge And The Infinity Dime #01 (2024)

Art by Lorenzo Pastrovicchio, Alex Ross, Peach Momoko, John Romita Jr., Walter Simonson, J. Scott Campbell, Ron Lim, Elizabeth Torque, Steve McNiven, And Gabriele Dell’Otto

[writers-potion]

What IS a redemption arc? 🤔

It's a type of character development in which a negative character goes through a process of realization and learning to become good in the end, often culminating in an act of atonement.

Step 1: A Sin Worthy of Atonement 👿

In the beginning, it is important to find a good balance between likeability and a flaw that warrants true redemption.

If your character is truly heinous, readers may not want them to find atonement. On the other hand, if the "sin" is too insignificant, the development arc will fail and seem hypocritical.

Ideally, your character's backstory should make them empathetic, despite distinct flaws that will eventually push them to change.

Step 2: Building the Redemption Arc 🌈

01. 💥 The Catalyst

This is the inciting incident that starts the character on their realization track. It can be:

losing a loved one

witnessing an inhumane act

suffering a near-death experience

losing a job/home/life's savings

being forced into something by an external force

It is important to emphasize the motivation for the change. Perhaps your character changes unexpectedly along the way as they try to fulfill a different purpose. Or, they actively try to change after a shocking experience that shakes their worldview.

02. 💣 Include internal and external conflict

Internally, your character might struggle with arrogance and unwillingness to accept their own flaws.

External conflict can be other characters who wish to maintain the status quo for their own benefit or doubt the character's ability to change.

Conflict, and how your characters resolve it, will make the redemption feel earned. The larger the flaw, the bigger and harder the conflict has to be.

03. 💨 Don't Rush!

The decision to change may come in a flash, but the process requires effort and time.

Show your character constantly fighting themselves, even unconsciously.

Step 3: Redemption Completed ⭐

Reward your character (and your readers) for struggling through various conflicts and growth pains!

Just remember three things:

It must be fair and earned, based on the groundwork laid

Try to make it unpredictable

DON'T remake your character altogether. If the protagonist is unrecognizable, the arc will feel forced and readers will lose touch.

Examples of Good Redemption Arcs 💡

01. Ebenezer Scrooge from <A Christmas Carol>

In the Beginning: Scrooge is a cold-hearted, miserly individual who doesn't care about being kind to his colleagues or family. He's a ruthless employer who cares nothing for Christmas festivities.

Then, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future take Scrooge on a journey through his life. This make Scrooge realize the consequences of his past actions.

In the End: Scrooge achieves internal growth. He lives the rest of his life as a kind, charitable man.

02. Gru from <Despicable Me>

In the Beginning: Gru is an evil thief who wants to steal the moon.

Then, he encounters three orphan girls and comes to love them.

In the End: He rescues his adopted daughters from the other villain and saves the world. He becomes a loving father.

...and others:

Gilgamesh in The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Evil Queen in Once Upon a Time

Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones

Boromir from Lord of the Rings

If you like my blog, buy me a coffee☕ and find me on instagram! ��

🖱️References

https://jerryjenkins.com/how-to-write-a-compelling-redemption-arc/#:~:text=What%20exactly%20is%20a%20Redemption,that%20atones%20for%20their%20past.

https://prowritingaid.com/redemption-arc

[micahsrevolvers]

Upcoming Projects - Revised 30/01

Hey, I just wanted to give some info about some of my WIPs :D

The Tragedy of Being Kieran Duffy - Joint project (with verified_teraconsiour on ao3)

This is a series of whump fics where we're just as horrible as we can possibly be to the poor man. It's... a lot. We already have one up (partially completed but still being worked on) and it's probably the very worst that's going to be in the series. Wehateitwehateitwehateitwehateitwehateitweha-

We have a master doc with plans for about 20 one-shots and longer fics, so they'll likely be steadily coming out over 2024.

Personal projects (In order of current completion)

The Catboah - Catboy Micah being found/accepted into the gang. First chapter out, yay

Speak no evil Revised title: What Makes Us Human - Just pure Micah whump. No comfort. Kind of comfort? Like traumatic comfort with a not-so-great ending.

Unnamed Micah whump - Micah gets badly injured out on a job, and realises it's not wrong to ask for help sometimes.

Rat Poison - Micah angst where he eats some herbs that he shouldn't have and has a little chat with a very unwelcome ghost from his past. (Was going to be a Christmas/scrooge type fic but not now)

Unnamed Morbell modern AU - This is currently just a domestic argument I wrote out one night when I couldn't sleep, but I'm turning it into a fic

Unnamed Good Omens Morbell AU - Get out of my head Angel!Micah. (I have SOLID reasons why he wouldn't be the demon and I will happily explain to anyone who will listen)

Unnamed OC project - A shamelessly self-indulgent fic where my Pinkerton OC is assigned to Micah's case, and they eventually begin to meet to exchange more than just info about the gang

Hope this gives y'all an idea of what's going on, I plan to be a lot more active this year!

[contemplatingoutlander]

I am so happy that we have a president in the White House who is no longer an embarrassment to the nation.

It never ceases to amaze me that anyone wants to have TFG back in the White House. He clearly is just consumed with himself, his lies, and his hate.

Something also tells me that Trump doesn't quite get the spirit of Christmas.

[edited]

___________________

SOURCES: Background for title image; Biden Tweets 01 and 02; Trump's Truth Social posts; Trump as Scrooge manipulated photo C: 01 + 05

[thewritersaddictions]

Christmas Stories 2023 Master List

Welcome to the Christmas Stories 2023 Master List

A/n- There will be some fluff for and during the Christmas time. This is 24 days of fluff, with a mixture of Christmas-themed songs and movies. Yes 'the nightmare before Christmas' is a Christmas movie.

Word Count- 19,868k

Series Master List

Day 1- Solider Boy + Baby, it's cold outside.

Day 2- Billy Hargrove + National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.

Day 3- Karl Heisenberg + Violent Night

Day 4- Jim Hopper + Sleigh Ride

Day 5- Eddie Munson + Scrooged

Day 6- Geralt + Germlins

Day 7- Damon Salvatore + Grinch

Day 8- John Price + Here Comes Santa Claus

Day 9- Simon “Ghost” Riley + It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Day 10- Koing + Home Alone

Day 11- Steve Harrington + Mele Kalikimaka

Day 12- Luis Serra + Elf

Day 13- Klaus Mikealson + Die Hard

Day 14- Steve Rogers + Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Day 15- Aaron Hotchner + Frosty the snowman

Day 16- Jaskier + Santa Baby

Day 17- Alcina Dimitrescu + A Christmas Story

Day 18- Daryl Dixon + Home Alone 2 Lost in New York

Day 19- James 'Bucky' Barnes + Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Day 20- Joel Miller + Winter Wonderland

Day 21- Leon S. Kennedy + Holly Jolly Christmas

Day 22- Negan Smith + The Nightmare Before Christmas

Day 23- John “Soap” MacTavish + Feliz Navidad

Day 24- Rick Grimes + I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Completed on: (12/24/23)

Posted on: (09/20/23) - (12/01/23)

Christmas Stories Tags- @dackwccgjd @alex000sstuff @elenaguarnieri @emilyrosetravis @magnificentalpacabird @crazybooklover33 @yourfavthiopoan @peachbunnieluv @jokenotfunny @pastanoodles11 @hyunjinbiased-blog @tuquoquebrute @kjah97 @is-being-ignored-a-hobby @kiwi-lanes @welcomethefears @elenenvy @multifandom456 @sweatshirtXO @g8sstuff @rottendorkmomo @emmasstuff2415

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The real scandal is overclassification

The fact that every president and VP has a garage or filing cabinet or shoebox full of classified documents isn't (merely) evidence of political impunity - it's also the latest absurd turn in the long-running true scandal: the American epidemic of overclassification and excessive secrecy.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/30/i-come-to-a-land-downunder/#but-id-have-to-kill-you

Thousands of American bureaucrats have unilaterally classified tens of millions of unremarkable documents without any legitimate basis for shielding them from public view. Meanwhile, millions of people have "Top Secret clearance" and can view these documents, making a mockery of their supposed secrecy.

Writing for The American Prospect, David Dayen crystallizes the incentives, problems and corruption that we should be paying to, and laments that instead, we're scoring cheap political points about the recklessness of presidents and ex-presidents, heavily salted with paranoid fantasies about the Danger to National Security (TM) posed by letting these docs escape the airless chambers of official secrecy:

https://prospect.org/politics/2023-01-30-president-classified-document-scandal/

Overclassification is a well-documented (ahem) problem, used by bureaucrats to cover up corruption, crimes and incompetence, as well as out of the lazy reflex to declare everything to be secret. This is abetted by members of the vast "Intelligence Community" who have rotated into the private sector and have a lucrative side-hustle as TV talking heads who spin spy-thriller fantasies about the risks of these paper broken arrows.

Dayen points to Senator Moynihan's 1997 report on "Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy," and its conclusion that if you declare everything secret, then nothing ends up being truly secret. It's a brilliant, readable, devastating critique of official secrecy. Nothing has been done about its recommendations:

https://sgp.fas.org/library/moynihan/

In 2016, the House Oversight Committee concluded that 90% of classified documents should not be classified, the same figure that the DoD came up with in its own report, 60 years earlier:

https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/examining-costs-overclassification-transparency-security/

Meanwhile, the Information Security Oversight Office - which oversees classification - keeps ringing alarm bells about overclassification, with 50m+ documents being classified in a typical year. Rather than listen to the ISOO, Congress has cut its staff in half over the past decade. 620 ISOO employees oversee the three million Americans empowered to classify documents:

https://fas.org/irp/congress/2016_hr/overclass.pdf

In 2010, the Washington Post's Dana Priest and William Arkin took stock of the post-9/11 explosion in state secrets in their "Top Secret America" report: "No one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/top-secret-america/2010/07/19/hidden-world-growing-beyond-control-2/

Attempts to liberate classified docs using FOIA requests fail repeatedly, with US agencies returning heavily redacted documents, even blacking out a report on the plans of the "Group of the Martyr Ebenezer Scrooge [to hijack the Christmas Eve flight of] Prime Minister and Chief Courier S. Claus."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/magazine/the-strange-politics-of-classified-information.html

As Dayen says, the talking point from ex-spooks on TV that "overclassification is no excuse for bad document handling," is the equivalent of the old saw that "mass shootings are not the time to talk about gun control." And yet, the press keeps buying it.

Take the Politico op-ed by an ex-FBI spook, who turned the fact that "a foreign leader might like turnip-flavored ice cream into a classifiable scenario," proving that there is no overclassification excuse too absurd to get an airing:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/01/26/the-wrong-question-about-the-classified-documents-scandal-00079540

[Image ID: A photograph of the Military Records Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Displayed are some captured German records waiting to be boxed.]

[critrolestats]

Media References and Puns of 3-46 Night at the Ligament Manor

Thanks to @iwilltryalittlearter​ for this art piece!

They’re not Soylent, but they sure are Green. Media References

(0:01:32) Laura: The Dark Hour strikes twice! (Persona 3)

(0:01:47) Liam: Don’t touch that dial! It’s time for the Midnight Channel! (Persona 4)

(0:25:57) Taliesin: I feel like we’re in a Maxx comic book right now.

(0:50:52) Liam: What Madmartigan was put in. (Willow)

(0:51:35) Ashley: It’s like a Marie Antoinette-built bed…

(0:52:21) Marisha: It’s like the Tiki Room.

(0:57:22) Travis: *singing* Hello, my baby, hello my darling. (Michigan J. Frog)

(0:57:25) Taliesin: Scrooge.

(1:08:58) Laura: But… Kion! Travis and Laura: Hevi kabisa.  Sam: It’s a Disney show.  Travis: Ronin’s somewhere in the future going, “Kion?” (The Lion Guard)

Read more at critrolestats.com

[myarmsaretoolong]

masterlist!

torchwood, irondad, and marauders fics below the cut!

torchwood

whumptober 2024 - | 90k over (currently) 4 one-shots | it turns out i like beating ianto up quite a lot

tony stark & peter parker fics

one-shots

is this it? | 1.3k | tony sees peter in the soul world after he snaps

five times tony called peter his son, and the one time he couldn't | 4.2k | basically what it says on the tin this one, its a bit sad

it slaps, mr stark | 835 words | tony wants to know what peter listens to in the lab and peter really doesn't want him to find out. its pure crack honestly but i think its funny

whumptober 2020 series | 51k total over 31 one-shots | tony and/or peter getting hurt in various situations, very hurt/comforty, some more serious than others

new years | 454 words | its new years eve, enough said

the best day of harley's life (and the worst of peter's) | 3.7k | classic field trip fic but harley is making it his life's work to annoy peter as much as possible

five times peter told tony he didn't want to go | 3.7k | fluffy to start with then angsty because.. well. infinity war and endgame

the rest of 'i do webpril 2021' | 10k ish over 4 one-shots | there's some fun things in here including: soul world exploration, peter and tony trapped under a building, peter meets morgan, and peter snaps instead of tony! very fun i think you should read them all

mr stark's trying to eat me | 10k | its halloween and the zombie apocalypse, or is it...? (peter thinks so) the tag 'mild zombies' sums this up pretty well

multichaps

what is lost can be found | 17k | peter was kidnapped a year ago and tony finally gets a lead to his location, the story of their recovery

dear peter parker | 34k | dear evan hansen but make it irondad theres not much else to say about this one

futures are made to be broken | 28k | peter snaps instead of tony, this is his recovery

past, present, yet to come | 55k | this fic <3 my baby <3 loml <3 peter is the ghost of christmas present and tony is scrooge, but in the vein of the film spirited. far more angst than necessary for a holiday fic but this is me we're talking about

marauders fics

one-shots

01/11/81 | 24k | its the first of november 1981 told from remus lupins perspective, from midnight to midnight. covers his finding out of, and immediate reaction to james and lilys death, sirius' betray, and peters death. mary is in most of it too

[spencerhixonauthor]

Humbug

Has anyone seen the Netflix show "Scrooge: A Christmas Carol"? I have things to say about it. Namely, it might be the best version of the story out there. https://yetanotherwritersblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/scrooge-christmas-carol-review.html

[audiofictionuk]

New Fiction Podcasts - 25th November

Dear Old Blood: Notes on a Wittgenstein Noir Audio Drama The find of a noir detective story Dear Old Blood by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein sounds too good to be true. Academic Horace Murgatroyd thinks it's a hoax, dreamed up by Herbert Denk to save a failing career. But who will win this war of authenticity? https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231116-02 RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6555d5691276b4001294460c

The Other World's Chronicles Audio Drama In a distant world, famous literary characters live among the populace. But they are not like you remember. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231115-03 RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/655443e21a2b930012a11d15

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol Audio Drama Be entertained and inspired by a fresh retelling of the Christmas classic. You know the story of A Christmas Carol, but you’ve never heard it like this. Get drawn into the powerful story of forgiveness and redemption in this all-new audio experience starring Hollywood pros like Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, and Juliet Mills. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231116-03 RSS: https://feed.cdnstream1.com/zjb/feed/download/2e/4d/da/2e4ddad1-5414-43b8-a082-6f825eb668a8.xml

The Wild Thistle Productions Audio Book Welcome, listener, to the worlds that we have created. In these audio dramas, you will find places where imagination has touched. You can explore the mystery surrounding the Starship Athena in "Lights Out," follow a journey to find love in "Remnants," or struggle to escape the island of Rintheia in "Supernova." Whichever you choose, we hope that you enjoy your visit! https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231102-04 RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/54eaae58/podcast/rss

The AI Chronicles Audio Drama From Intern to AI RJ, The AI Chronicles is an engaging audio drama series that takes listeners on a captivating journey into the world of artificial intelligence. The story revolves around an AI intern who aspires to become an AI radio jockey (RJ) and the challenges and experiences they encounter along the way. This audio drama aims to humanize AI by exploring its growth, emotions, and interactions with humans. Also, it's a refreshing new take on AI navigating the human space with dollops of office humour thrown in. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231117-01 RSS: https://feeds.simplecast.com/pj43OKYK

DesiQuest Audio RPG Podcast version of the TTRPG Actual Play set in a South Asian mythological universe starring Jasmine Bhullar, Anjali Bhimani, Omar Najam, Sandeep Parikh & Rekha Shankar. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231117-02 RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2277277.rss

A Space in This World Audio Drama Forty-five days after an unknown apocalyptic event, Gus and his son Micheal are the only survivors. They've been scavenging and finding ways to continue living while seeking answers to their plight. But a new problem arises that forces Gus to do things on his own so they both can survive. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231117-03 RSS: https://pinecast.com/feed/a-space-in-this-world

QuickTales - Jeux de Rôle Solo Audio RPG QuickTales : un maître du jeu pour un joueur seul, différent à chaque partie ! Le personnage est créé sur mesure pour l'occasion, l'univers sélectionné parmi tous ceux que je propose, et le scénario complètement improvisé ! Chaque invité.e vient jouer avec trois mots-clef que je dois intégrer à mon histoire et qui me servent de support pour improviser le scénario! https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231119-01 RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/quicktales-jeux-de-role-solo

Joys And Splendors Audio Drama Joys And Splendors is a three-episode audio drama set in the Ottawa of an uneasy near-future, following the cat-and-mouse political intrigue of a soldier and a spy attempting to survive in a Canada devastated by war and greed. Through the eyes of these two sides of one coin, the story asks: do some deserve a nice life, or do all deserve a good life? Joys And Splendors was written by Kate Werneburg and directed by Mary Ellis. It stars Maryse Fernandes as "Nina" and Ben Sanders as "Patrick". The sound designer is Michael Wanless, and the Associate Producer is JR Williams. Joys And Splendors is produced by Winterbird Arts and presented by TACTICS Theatre Group. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231111-06 RSS: https://feeds.simplecast.com/nn8v9Epp

Paydata: A Shadowrun Actual Play Series Audio RPG A team of rookie shadowrunners get caught in a web of someone else's design as they enter the world of corporate espionage when they are hired to steal a bleeding edge prototype from an up and coming research lab. Can these neophyte runners survive the shadows of 2076 Seattle? Experience a future where magic and technology come together to fuel corporate greed and deniable mercinaries carve out their own meager existence from the scraps. Join us as we explore the themes of trust, expendability, and the lengths one will go to to protect their family in Shadowrun: Paydata. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231110-04 RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/5960858/episodes/feed

Blades of Mayari Audio RPG A Filipino-Canadian led fantasy actual play podcast inspired by pre-colonial Filipino mythology. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231120-01 RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2047627.rss

Chasing Stars Audio Drama A collection of science fiction audio dramas and series. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20230805-04 RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/e6e788bc/podcast/rss

Springleaf Audio Drama Pat Springleaf is in quite the bind. He’s an ex-conman turned undercover cop in the middle of the biggest case of his career - the gang are getting suspicious, his wife wants a divorce, the police are demanding results and his ex girlfriend/ex partner in crime is blackmailing him. Not an ideal situation for someone with a burning need to please absolutely everybody... https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231121-01 RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/springleaf

Dupont Investigations Audio Drama An original full-cast audio drama by Nocturne Hall. WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF CRIME. 1936.Torsten Somersby is a private investigator with a deep knowledge of the occult and a dubious reputation because of the strange cases his expertise attracts. When a handsome tobacco heir dies mysteriously, Torsten agrees to assist Nigel Clemmons, an out-of-town insurance investigator, in uncovering the truth behind the young man’s fate. Torsten and Nigel discover the heir’s troubled past and obsession with an ancient occult conspiracy. They must navigate a dangerous landscape to thwart the plans of those responsible. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231121-02 RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/nocturnehall-dupont-investigations/feed.xml

Scott Sigler's Galactic Football League (GFL) Series Audio Book The GFL is a "Space Opera" series of books described as STAR WARS meets THE BLINDSIDE meets THE GODFATHER. Set in a lethal pro football league 700 years in the future, THE ROOKIE is a story that combines the intense gridiron action of "Any Given Sunday" with the space opera style of "Star Wars" and the criminal underworld of "The Godfather." Aliens and humans alike play positions based on physiology, creating receivers that jump 25 feet into the air, linemen that bench-press 1,200 pounds, and linebackers that literally want to eat you. Organized crime runs every franchise, games are fixed, and rival players are assassinated. This multi-part scifi/crime/sports mashup follows a professional American football team across a far-future galaxy. Travel to new worlds, meet new races and put their quarterback into the dirt. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20230907-06 RSS: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/SBP5992345420

[mcbitchtits]

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of His Old Movies

https://slate.com/culture/2023/07/indiana-jones-5-dial-of-destiny-raiders-inspiration.html

Raiders of the Lost Ark raided all of cinema for inspiration. With Dial of Destiny, the franchise steals only from itself.

 By Sam Thielman

   July 01, 2023

In her now-famous pan of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Pauline Kael excoriated Steven Spielberg and George Lucas for wasting their talents on a film that aspired to be a B movie. “Spielberg—a master showman—can stage a movie cliché so that it has Fred Astaire’s choreographic snap to it,” Kael said. She had his number: The film (and the pair’s three sequels) is a sort of kitchen-sink pastiche, not of a single style of filmmaking but of everything the moviemakers loved from their own childhoods—Carl Barks comics, Citizen Kane, Gunga Din, Lawrence of Arabia, Stagecoach, Lost Horizon (the remake of which it actually raided for footage), and the cheap adventure serials that the two men had seen as children. That struck Kael, who also loved the artistic heights to which movies could aspire, as an unpardonable liberty to take with the audience.

She had the audience wrong, though—at least the part of the audience that was the age of the filmmakers. “The moviemaking team appears to have forgotten the basic thing about cliff-hangers: we had a week to mull over how the hero was going to be saved from the trap he’d got himself into,” she sniffed. Nope: Studios like Republic released serials weekly in the 1930s and ’40s in an effort to keep moviegoers returning regularly, but by the time the Indiana Jones team was soaking up stories of spacemen and lost treasure in the ’50s, those serials had migrated to television. In one story conference, Lucas said he wanted Raiders to have some kind of death-defying moment every 10 to 20 minutes, more or less mimicking the experience of watching several installments of Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon uninterrupted, since that was how they aired on TV in the ’50s. Young people were used to drinking in set piece after set piece, and two technically brilliant filmmakers with enough money to make a feature were happy to crank up the energy way past the tolerance of their elders.

I can personally attest to the queasy pleasures of the serial experience. When I was a kid, my dad, anxious, like all dads, to introduce his offspring to artifacts of his own childhood (which, in his case, was roughly contemporaneous with Spielberg’s), scored an unexpurgated copy of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe on two VHS cassettes. I loved them. In fact, I found them hard to stop watching even after far too long in front of the television, and at least once I managed to creep downstairs to the VCR on a Saturday morning when most of the house was asleep and binge the entire thing in a single face-melting four-hour sitting. (Feel free to do this yourself if you want.) Raiders is probably my favorite movie, not least because it’s the skeleton key to so many other films that inspired its two colossal auteurs, and perhaps that is why it is so uncomfortable to hear echoes of Kael’s dismissal in my own distaste for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, allegedly Harrison Ford’s final adventure as the whip-cracking tomb raider.

For the original film, Lucas and Spielberg gleefully pilfered stories of adventure from foreign civilizations, the basic atomic unit of American pop culture during their formative years in the ’50s. Hiram Bingham had “discovered” Machu Picchu in 1911; in 1954 Barks had replaced him with Scrooge McDuck, and Hollywood had made him into a louche jerk named Harry Steele (Charlton Heston) in Secret of the Incas. The Raiders team stole their hero’s wardrobe from Secret—costume designer Deborah Nadoolman said the crew watched the film together several times—and the boulder sequence from Uncle Scrooge. When Indy channels a shaft of sunlight that reveals the location of the movie’s sacred MacGuffin, a scene lifted from Secret of the Incas, he’s dressed in a near-exact copy of T.E. Lawrence’s Bedouin garb in Lawrence of Arabia. It’s a slightly embarrassing quote—not as embarrassing as Shia LaBeouf’s Mutt Williams appearing in costume as Marlon Brando in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull—but perhaps it’s a little charming even so, not unlike catching a kid trying to wear his dad’s suit.

Spielberg and Lucas were also vigilant stewards of popular culture, not just appropriators of it. Star Wars may have looted Akira Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress, and Indy may be an amalgam of Toshiro Mifune characters, but Lucas paid that debt back in literal dollars, forcing Fox to finance Kurosawa’s Kagemusha as a condition of distributing The Empire Strikes Back. Both he and Spielberg worked to make the Japanese auteur’s final film, Dreams, a reality. A long-overdue restoration of Lawrence of Arabia had stalled out; Spielberg and Martin Scorsese (who plays Vincent van Gogh in Dreams, incidentally) got it rolling again.

But watching Dial of Destiny, it’s hard not to think that Indy’s world was a lot bigger in 1981. We more or less have the Republic serial model back again in the form of the Marvel movies and TV shows, which deploy every few weeks and draw liberally on the chase-scenes-and-quips model perfected in Raiders and strung out enjoyably across Temple of Doom and Last Crusade and even parts of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. During Dial of Destiny, we no longer see references to movies made before Star Wars; instead, the new film, directed and co-written by James Mangold, is an homage to the other Indiana Jones flicks, with Mads Mikkelsen’s baddie at one point jacking his whole outfit from Raiders’ Arnold Toht and, at another, donning René Belloq’s white suit and fedora. John Rhys-Davies reprises not just his role as Indy’s faithful counselor Sallah but the few bars of H.M.S. Pinafore he bellows at the end of the original film. Indy and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), on the outs at the beginning of Dial, reenact Raiders’ “Where does it hurt?” scene right before the camera discreetly gives them some privacy as the film ends. And that scene in which a sunbeam reveals the location of the titular relic is back, except this time to nod to Raiders rather than to shine a light on a forgotten Charlton Heston vehicle.

These Easter eggs can be tough to swallow if you really remember Raiders with any admiration. Though he softened over the years, Ford’s Indiana Jones began cinematic life as an almost irredeemable monster; that’s the whole point of Belloq, a dashing fascist fashion plate who tends to saunter off with the treasure Indy bleeds for. “It would take only a nudge to make you like me—to push you out of the light,” Belloq teases. Indy’s love interest, Allen’s indomitable Marion, is proof of Belloq’s observation—Indy took advantage of her when she was “a child,” she says (15, if you do the math). What makes Marion’s get-well kisses so sweet is that they don’t actually come to anything. Indy falls asleep—he’s overmatched, just as he always is, beginning in the very first sequence, when he nearly gets himself squashed by a boulder and loses the treasure into the bargain.

Nerds have debated whether or not Dr. Jones actually accomplishes anything over the course of the film, cosmically speaking—the ark of the covenant turns out to be perfectly capable of defending itself after he fails to do so—but the movie’s most important stakes have to do with the disposition of its hero’s soul, not the wrath of God. Ford is blindingly handsome and as charming as one of Indy’s hated snakes, but can a morally compromised predator become someone genuinely worth loving?

It’s a much more interesting question than anything in Dial of Destiny, which declares itself to be thematically interested in whether history and the people who love it matter anymore. The text of the film answers the question in the affirmative, but everything else about it says “not if we can help it.” In the Disney galaxy of intellectual property, the Indiana Jones franchise is one of the smaller constellations, and its affection for films of a bygone era is its least marketable quirk.

Things have changed, largely because of Lucas and Spielberg. The films they fought to see recognized as great works of art now not merely have become canon but have aged into snootiness; whether or not it inspired the terrific truck chase in Raiders, Stagecoach is generally the purview of film buffs, now a tweedier demographic than the kind of nerd who dreamed up Indiana Jones. Same with Lawrence of Arabia, Lost Horizon, and the rest. Instead, everything looks like a Spielberg movie, even when it’s not. Our world is now filled with Apple products that look like set dressing from Minority Report, and moviemakers like J.J. Abrams have constructed entire visual styles out of E.T. The most popular show on the most popular streaming service is a travesty of Spielberg’s work in every sense of the word. We have more, but we draw on far, far less.

Raiders was conceived as a sumptuous meal of elegantly plated junk food, prepared in the firm belief that it’s actually not as bad for you as its detractors have declared. “In addition to the artistic pleasure given by comic stories and drawings such as Carl Barks’, comic art has something to say about the culture that produces it,” Lucas wrote in his introduction to a collection of the Barks stories that had so inspired him. And so it was, he and Spielberg believed, with children’s television and corny Westerns. The old serials were produced with a large measure of cynicism—some sequences of Flash Gordon are just footage from other films, notably the German mountaineering adventure movie The White Hell of Pitz Palu (starring Leni Riefenstahl!). But Lucas and Spielberg have forcefully and successfully made the case that low-cultural art is hugely valuable artistically and monetarily, and that case wasn’t generally accepted when Flash Gordon was being produced.

Now the companies that generate mass entertainment seem concerned primarily with wresting away the rights of artists and forcing every narrative angle to rebound back into intellectual property that they control directly. Stories must form part of a big collective mosaic of trademarked distinctive likenesses, deepening characters and complicating their stories only when those characters can be repurposed for another iteration. The opening sequence of Dial of Destiny, in which Ford is computer-graphically de-aged back to 1981, reads almost as a threat: “Like this?” it seems to say. “There’s more where it came from.” Imagine if Lucas and Spielberg had to dress up Indy as Lawrence not because they loved the David Lean movie but because Hasbro had a line of Lawrence of Arabia action figures coming out. “Essentially, George Lucas is in the toy business,” Kael wrote. She hadn’t seen anything yet.