#she's so laura palmer coded honestly

[changeling-fae]

I'm gonna be boring and ask you the same back xD, for whichever OCs you want to answer them for!

Eros: 3

Philia: 2

Storge: 5

Agape: 5

Ludus: 2

Pragma: 2

Philautia: 1

Thanks for the ask! I'll answer for Nym!

From this ask meme.

Eros: 3 How do they feel about public displays of romantic affection? Does it make them uncomfortable? How do they feel if a romantic partner kisses them in public?

She's ambivalent. She's personally and extremely private person but she's had to maintain a flirty persona for years, both as an entertainer and as a way to lure her victims as Durge. She sees PDA as more an act you perform rather than something inherently felt. If a partner were to kiss her in public she'd roll with it. Anything more than that and she'll assume they're about to perform for someone as a message (envy, territory, etc).

Philia: 2 Does your OC find it easy to make friends? Or are there barriers to them doing so? If so then are these due to issues of inclination, communication, or something else entirely?

She finds making friends exceedingly difficult. As a child she easily could but after her years of extreme trauma and then life as Durge, she finds genuine connections almost impossible. Before her abduction she was incredibly lonely (and why she kept going back to the Devil's Den despite knowing Raphael just wanted her soul but hey if he ate it she wouldn't have to exist anymore). She felt she couldn't get close to the average person because it would put them in danger, from either herself or from Orin and Bhaal cultists. She's very loyal to the people she does bond with though.

Storge: 5 Is your OC able to love without necessarily needing or expecting reciprocation or reward? Or are all their relationships to some extent transactional? Have they ever loved another person unconditionally, whether a child or another adult?

She never expects anything from those she loves. She does believe that everyone expects something from her though, like she sees herself as a tool more than anything. She can become what people expect or what she assumes they expect. I'd say she definitely sees her body as separate from herself.

She loved her bio father unconditionally (not Bhaal but her drow father, she has like three parents technically). She loved him so much that after his death in front of her (by goblins) and the immediate trauma that happened afterward when she was sold by his debt collector, that she can only remember his as perfect. So much so that she wouldn't want her soul to go to Eilistraee like his did because she's so ashamed at the monster she's become and thinks he would be ashamed (even though he spent centuries as an assassin for his house originally).

Agape: 5 Does your OC find it easy to empathise with their enemies? Or do they see it as important to dehumanise them in order to combat them with sufficient determination?

Lol, not at all. She has a very black and white way of thinking. You're either her enemy, her ally, or a rando (likely a victim). She struggles with grey, especially within herself. She's forgiving to the people she cares for or people trying to change their fate, but if they're her enemy? No empathy, no sympathy, and often no mercy.

Ludus: 2 Is your OC particularly skilled at flirting? Have they had to practice this or does it just happen naturally?

Yes, very good. It's a mix of both practice (she started young for survival) and also natural (she's the granddaughter of Graz'zt). It was one of her most common methods of hunting for victims to kill as Durge. She also just sleeps with a lot of people because she does like sex but also it's her biggest method of self-harm (she targets dangerous people to have an excuse to hurt back if she feels like it, like flipping a coin).

Pragma: 2 What is the biggest challenge that your OC has had to overcome in a long-term relationship or friendship? What helped them get through this?

Letting people in, trusting others that they actually do care about her. Astarion was a big help with that as a lover since they have similar trauma points and grew together, and her companions she'd die for. Her relationship with Raphael is the most complicated (and how) and they just somehow make it work, albeit very messily.

Philautia: 1 Does your OC have a healthy sense of their own worth and value? Or do they see themselves as failing to live up to their original potential? Perhaps they are convinced of their own sinful or inadequate nature?

Nope, not at all. As I said, she sees herself as a tool and sees her body as separate from herself as a whole. She has so much self loathing and disgust for herself and basically doesn't believe she can ever be good or "pure". She mourns the loss of her innocence so deeply and she's so so bitter about it. Raphael calls her "little lamb" and despite the power dynamic nature of it, she likes it because she feels she can pretend she never lost her innocence. Here's two blurbs, from his and her perspective.

[cleoselene]

the top 5

So I'm not really a film buff. I like a lot of movies, but I'm a tv person. TV is my love, TV is where my passion is. And I've been mulling over the question of what are my actual top 5 favorite TV shows of all time?

I can tell you the top three easily:

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - uncontested favorite show of all time. Perfect characterization. Covers nearly every genre you can think of. Intricate, deliberate, patient storytelling. Gets a reputation for being the "dark" Star Trek but is still loads brighter and more hopeful than anything labeled "Star Trek" after 9/11. The writing is so strong, the characters are so lovingly crafted, there are over 100 incredible episodes to dig into. It doesn't overwhelm you with anything, when the story is very serialized, it gives you a break. When the story gets too intense, it takes a turn and gives you something lighter. I have SO MANY OPINIONS about how fandom kind of lets me down in its appreciation of this show but my appreciation of it is perfect.

Six Feet Under - beginning to end, uniformly wonderful quality. Claire Fisher and I went through a few too many of the same experiences as young women in the early '00s. I think if we're lucky, we find a television show that portrays experiences in a way that are true to us, and Six Feet Under speaks a certain kind of truth for me. Claire and I had the same cynical views, the same confusion in early adulthood, the same flirtations with sinister older men, the same asshole artist boyfriend who got us pregnant and then acted like when she/I had to get an abortion it was all about HIM. That complicated, painful relationship a young woman has with her mother, that's fraught with fighting and pain and a fierce kind of love. And the most perfect, beautiful ending in television history. My only complaint with SFU is that Nate Fisher is an incredibly difficult character to sit through on rewatch (and on first watch honestly) but I forgive it because through Nate we get Brenda, who is the Difficult Woman that fandom always claims they want to have to love but always hates when they get her. Brenda is amazing. I love Brenda.

Twin Peaks - a multi-decade obsession that I don't think I need to get into too deeply here because I have been fawning over it on this blog for months, but a few notes: This show takes a single tragedy and doesn't allow you to get over it, in a television landscape that encourages you to consume a new violence every week and then forget about it, Laura Palmer's death has lingers with us for over three decades because it should. It should be terrible and awful and painful. Twin Peaks also came about when crime media like Silence of the Lambs was telling us that the true evil scary bad guy was a crossdressing serial killer, when television soap operas coded crossdressing as a deviant, evil behavior, and said, "one of our explicitly coded good people is transgender." Twin Peaks told us that the killer is not some weird other, but as it is in reality, someone more familiar and mundane that we try to imagine is a terrifying monster to cope with the brutal mundane reality. And that's just the tip of a massive iceberg when it comes to what this piece of interpretive art is tackling. The wonderful thing about Twin Peaks is that you can read a million theories trying to define exactly what it's about and they can all be correct, because it's not just about consumable tv violence or trying to make monsters out of the mundane, it's about how we perceive our realities and so, so much more. The iceberg's depth is endless.

and then after those top three, I struggle to round out the top five. I have other shows I LOVE, but hesitate to put in with these elite three, for a variety of reasons. I love Star Trek: TNG and Voyager, but the uneven quality I think kicks them off the top five. Voyager has brilliance but some really dog bad episodes, TNG has some whole bad seasons.

HBO's "Rome" is an obsession that was so potent while it lasted that I am tempted, but it was a 2 season show and the quality fell off badly because the plot was majorly rushed in S2. I don't think it qualifies for top five, either.

My most recent sci-fi obsession is The Orville in that it really comes close to hitting the sweet spots the 90s Treks hit within the limitations of shorter modern television seasons, but I don't know if it's a complete work yet. I HOPE NOT. Season 3 was as beautiful and wonderful as modern television gets. It's got major top 5 potential.

Legend of the Seeker is up there with Rome in that the obsession was potent but way too brief: a 2 season affair. It's tempting to put this one in the top 5 because honestly I had almost no complaints about it. It adapted absolutely dog-awful atrocious shit source material and Raimi/Tapert gave it the same magic they infused into Xena to make it a really fun, progressive show. I want to give it a top 5 spot just because IT DESERVED BETTER AND EVERYONE ON IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. Also the fandom was super fun and I made really good friends in it and it was just a really joyful show to watch. It made me feel happy. TV doesn't make me feel happy enough anymore. Usually it makes me feel depressed *cough all the new Star Treks, cough* but Legend of the Seeker just lifted me UP. It was syndicated and I worked graveyard shift and I would get home after working all night at 7am and watch the new episode before bed and it was just. Such a boost of happiness.

Finally, I think Farscape deserves a slot. I don't know where. I am WAY overdue for a Farscape rewatch. After the roommates and I get through DS9 (one of them has never seen it!!) we are going to Farscape next. I always love telling people that Farscape is like Star Trek if Star Trek allowed itself to be kinky. What was that one TWOP description of Farscape? "American man lost in the Australian S&M scene." Roflcopter. Also, John/Aeryn is one of the more epic ships of all time. OF ALL TIME.

[lynchgirl90]

#TwinPeaks Star Dana Ashbrook on Bobby’s Redemption, Learning to Cry on Cue, and Why David Lynch Is So ‘Classy’

By Devon Ivie

Of all the characters who returned to Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival, perhaps none have been met with a more surprising hero’s welcome than Bobby Briggs. In the 25 years since we last saw him, the former floppy-haired teen punk with a knack for mischief has climbed the ranks to become an esteemed deputy at the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department, working alongside Deputy Hawk and Sheriff Truman to alleviate a drug epidemic plaguing the area. However, the day-to-day operations of busting the drug trade are soon given a backseat in favor of curious intel about the long-disappeared FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, which comes from a special message via Bobby’s father, Major Garland Briggs, from beyond the grave. Bobby, and only Bobby, can decipher the code that the Major wrote and stored in a chair for safekeeping.

Of all the characters who returned to Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival, perhaps none have been met with a more surprising hero’s welcome than Bobby Briggs. In the 25 years since we last saw him, the former floppy-haired teen punk with a knack for mischief has climbed the ranks to become an esteemed deputy at the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department, working alongside Deputy Hawk and Sheriff Truman to alleviate a drug epidemic plaguing the area. However, the day-to-day operations of busting the drug trade are soon given a backseat in favor of curious intel about the long-disappeared FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, which comes from a special message via Bobby’s father, Major Garland Briggs, from beyond the grave. Bobby, and only Bobby, can decipher the code that the Major wrote and stored in a chair for safekeeping.

“Somehow he knew that it would all turn out well,” Bobby’s mother, Betty, explains in a particularly poignant scene in episode nine. “He saw this life for you. Your father never lost faith in you.” The road to finding the truth about Agent Cooper and his doppelgänger may soon lie in the hands of this reformed deputy. Earlier today, Vulture called up the very affable Dana Ashbrook to discuss Bobby’s evolution on Twin Peaks, the art of crying on cue, and his “salt-of-the-earth” pal Robert Forster, who plays Truman.

After episode nine, my friends and I decided that Bobby has had the most wonderful arc in Twin Peaks so far.

That’s great. I never know what order things are. I knew clearly that Bobby became a cop and all that stuff, but I didn’t think anything outside of that. I didn’t think about how it was going to be perceived, so it’s funny to see how it falls into place and hear people’s reactions. They get a little flavor of the old Twin Peaks in there with a little twist! People seem to be diggin’ that. I’m just so pleased and thrilled that people like the show. I think it’s a work of art.

I wish it was eligible for Emmy consideration this year!

I’m not that up in all of that stuff, admittedly, but yeah. It’s fun when that kind of thing happens. That recognition would be amazing for the show.

A few of the other cast members told me about different ways David Lynch informed them that the show would be returning. How did you personally find out? Sheryl Lee and I were going to London to a U.K. Twin Peaks festival. She was going from Los Angeles and I was going from New York, and we were texting back and forth when she was getting on the plane. I was like, “Cool, see you soon in London, blah blah blah.” We’d heard whispers of things — I think the tweet about the gum coming back in style had come out already — so there were frenzied whispers going around. Sheryl talked to David when she was in the car on the way to the airport, and he said, “Yeah, it’s gonna actually happen, and you’re gonna be a part of it.” I don’t know their exact conversation, but that was the extent of it. She said, “Jeez, I’m gonna go see Dana in a few hours — should I tell him that he’s in it, or is he not in it?!”David was like, “Yeah, tell him he’s in it!” [Laughs.] She told me when I got to London, and we told the people at the U.K. festival that we were at least going to be a part of it. I had no idea in what capacity, of course. I would’ve done anything. I would’ve been a PA on it, honestly. I was lucky that I was able to be anything. It’s been so much fun to see all of the people doing their thing together. I’m like, “Oh my God, there’s Tim Roth, one of my favorite actors, and he’s just popped up!”

I’d argue that Bobby is channeling the most Twin Peaks nostalgia after Agent Cooper, since he’s been given the most development as a character. What does it mean to you that he’s now a deputy at the sheriff’s department?

It’s fun that I get to do the evolution of Bobby. The fact that I’m a cop now instead of some degenerate in the town is great. It’s hard to put into words, honestly. I think it’s a wonderful evolution of a character. That scene that Bobby and the Major had in season two, where he describes Bobby’s future, had a very strong impact, and was a beautifully written scene by Mark [Frost.] It’s a good and realistic payoff that he’s a cop.

Were you worried that Bobby would be a punk in his adult life?

No. [Laughs.] I speculated as soon as I knew that I was going to be in the revival. All of my friends and my wife and anybody who knew the show were speculating about what happened to Bobby. Did he put on a bunch of weight? There was a bunch of funny stuff floating around. It was as fun for me as it was for anybody else to see what their ideas for Bobby were.

Why do you think the audience responded to Bobby so strongly?

I really don’t know. All I know is that you get what was written. [Laughs.] I got very lucky that they wrote me what they wrote me. It’s sheer dumb luck, honestly. Who knows what’s to come for all of those returning characters — we’re only halfway through. Who knows. Bobby’s been a taste of the old Twin Peaks and got a good character evolution there, that’s probably it. But that’s only the first nine episodes! I’m so excited to see it, because I have no idea what happens with other characters. You haven’t even seen Audrey yet. There’s much more to come, which I’m as excited for as a fan.

Well, I’ll cross my fingers that you’re not a dirty cop like Chad. [Laughs.] I’ll only say that I’m excited to see what comes out, that’s for sure.

You’ve had two weeping scenes so far, with Bobby tearing up when he sees Laura Palmer’s photo, and when his mom tells him about the Major’s prophecy for his future. What’s the best trick you’ve learned about crying on cue?

I’m the new Andy. [Laughs.] Crying has always been hit-or-miss for me. You just gotta put yourself in the situation that the character’s in and do a little imagination about it. There’s a little bit of menthol that can be sprayed in your eyes to help you get going. It helps when you’re feeling it and makes it a little more realistic if you feel real emotion. It’s easy when you feel comfortable in a situation. With David, it’s just the most comfortable acting situation you could possibly be in. I mean, look at what Matthew Lillard had to do! He’s the man, he’s amazing! He had to wail and scream!

And talk about scuba diving!

While he’s screaming and crying! It’s always a challenge and always fun to see how it comes out. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

The crux of the ninth episode hinges on the Major’s message to his son, which can only be opened and deciphered by Bobby. Could you have imagined a more full-circle moment?

It’s crazy, because I miss Don [S. Davis] a lot. [Editor’s note: Davis, who played Major Briggs, died in 2008.] I love that guy. He was such a fantastic actor and such a fantastic person. I really miss that aspect of working with him. When we filmed that diner scene 25 years ago, he made it so much more powerful and he gave me so much to work off of. I was just a young guy starting out, and he would help me out. A great actor in every sense of the word. I really miss him when I do those scenes. It was also wonderful to hang out with Don after we wrapped filming, too. We would go to Twin Peaks festivals and he was there, and I got to know him really well on a social level. He was a great guy. As far as the character, there was a similarity in real life, because Don had a great influence on me as a young actor. That translated to the on-screen moments.

I’m amazed at how flawlessly the deceased actors have been given their due on-screen. The Major and BOB still get a significant amount of narrative action, plus those moving scenes with the Log Lady before Catherine E. Coulson passed away.

David has paid homage to and honored those people so beautifully. And we’ve lost a lot of people since the beginning. It’s a tearjerker. Catherine was really hard for me particularly and everybody else, too. She was one of David’s really dearest friends, and that all went down while we were working. That was pretty, pretty heavy. I loved the way that she got to be in it, because she loved the show and being the Log Lady. She kept that log with her. She was in charge of the log. She was a beautiful person and it was devastating for everybody. We were actually working when that all went down, so to see how David worked to ensure she was in it was heart-wrenching. The fact that those other actors were factored in, and in such a big way, was beautiful. I have no idea how he did it. David makes it classy. He doesn’t do it in any sort of tacky or exploitative or weird way. He’s a classy guy. Catherine was one of his oldest and dearest friends. It was tough on everybody.

Do you think Bobby will be receptive to the supernatural elements of the town, just like his father?

Oh jeez, I don’t know. I’m not sure on that one. It’s only going to be answered by watchinggggg!

Well, you looked like you had a lot of fun breaking open that metal vial!

That was a very fun scene to do, for sure. It’s even more fun having Robert Forster and Michael Horse right next to me. How can you beat that? How can you beat that?! Robert! Forster! I mean, come on.

It’s a bummer that Michael Ontkean didn’t return, but Robert is a legend. He’s honestly one of the most salt-of-the-earth, best guys I’ve ever met. I text him every once in a while, it’s really funny. All of the police stuff is a joy to shoot because he’s new on the force, too. Sheriff Truman and Bobby are the two new guys. Andy and Hawk have been on the force for a while, so we’re the Sheriff’s Department newbies.

Is Robert good at texting for a 70-year-old?

He’s spot-on. He’s sharp as a tack, that guy. I used to see him in the hotel while we were filming; he would be sitting in the common area and going over the next day’s work and eating dinner. He’s the best. He’s an inspiration. If I could emulate his career, I’d be very happy.

Is there any chance that Bobby and Shelly’s relationship has survived over the past 25 years?

Oh, yeah, I’d float the possibility. Sure. Their relationship could be stronger than ever. Who knows. [Sings.] Who knowsssss!

Link (TP)