#swedish is a bit interesting in that it used to have cases. does not have that anymore but almost all pronouns still have a seperate obj/sub

[batautism]

I'm writing a paper about gender transgressive characters in mythology & folklore [in swedish] and its SO frustrating writing about these figures within the constraints of a gendered language. especially since these characters, while not real historical figures, still exist outside of the modern LGBT-era and point of view. since i'm explicitly doing a queer analysis, the choice of pronouns because more highlighted, too. i find the english s/he to be quite useful for some of these stories but that doesn't really work in swedish. swedish: she = hon, he = han and quite newly introduced & borrowed from finnish [only has one 3rd person singular pronoun] is hen = they/them singular or whatever else gender neutral that is used in english. currently i've been writing h[o]n, h[e]n and h[a]n depending on, as it is the middle vowel that changes the grammatical gender but google docs is so fucking mad at me constantly and i'm not sure my supervisor is going to let me keep it in..

[bisnes-socks]

kun olin pieni, äiti tiesi; musta tulee herkkusieni. people's champion.

i'm not sure i have a lot to say about this one, because it feels quite straight forward to me but i have a couple of notes about the language and some overall thoughts.

starting with overall thoughts: like i said, i feel like this one is pretty straight forward, i doubt i have anything to say that people haven't already thought of. this song is just the whirlwind of rhe CCC and ESC era condensed into a few minutes, and it's him also finally accepting the title of people's champion and finding a way to be proud of his achievement, even though he clearly wasn't for a bit after it happened.

but i'm very happy that he has accepted it and owned it. he IS the people's champion. and he's allowed to have a complicated relationship to that title, but i'm glad he is owning it.

the song is musically quite punk-esque. the verses having that bass/drop tuned & effect guitar is super interesting and not that typical for his music. the guitar without any distortion at the beginning also something different from him, it's an interesting sound.

it's a nice song to end the album on, a lil thank you song to everyone.

now language stuff.

first of all, is everyone aware of why the theme is mushrooms? champignon being a type of mushroom? i scrolled through wikipedia and it seems quite a few european languages use a version of the word champignon for this specific type of mushroom, so i'm assuming quite a few people would have gotten the connection. in finnish champignon is herkkusieni though. which is a funny word because herkku means delicious and sieni means mushroom. so in finnish they're just called delicious mushrooms. we like to be literal.

(so why use champignon if that word is not used in finnish you ask? well it's printed in big letters on every box of said mushrooms in the shops, so everyone does know the word)

i like the reference to his older songs with "kevät 23 taksit tuli pihaan" meaning (literal translation) spring 23 taxis came to the yard. he uses the line about taxis coming to the yard in a few older songs, usually in connection with partying, so normally in a käärijä song taxis coming is like either taking him and his friends to party or back home. but in this instance, they're there to take him to something completely new, a new adventure, so this time round the line about taxis brings a little bit of nerves with it. it's just clever, to be able to use the same line to create a new kind of tension!

"siit tuli haloo ku tulin taloo" is such a succinct yet accurate way of putting what happened! haloo is literally a finnish translation of the english word hello, but to say something (a situation) is a "haloo" it means it's a bit of a commotion. so "siit tuli haloo ku tulin taloo" means that his arrival to "the house" meaning ESC, turned into full commotion.

in the second verse he says "se oli kaikkee muuta ku divaritasoo" which here refers to divisions in sports like hockey and, as far as i understand, football too. so in finnish hockey terms, the best teams play "liiga" and then there are multiple levels under that level, and the lowest levels are divisions 2-5. division -> divari. so he's saying ESC was anything but division level, meaning of course, that the level there is the highest of high.

now, you might have heard the word divari in the song yhtä vailla as well. "massit palo pipariks, meikäläisen talous uppos niinku titanic. ei oo varaa käydä edes divaris mut tuun silti back niinku Arska ja pistän sikariks." well, in this context divari means a secondhand store, which he cannot afford to visit because all his money is gone. divari is usually a second hand book store or record store, to be specific. in this case divari is short for diverssikauppa, which is a loan word from swedish (diversehandel). note: nobody uses the word diverssikauppa. it's divari, or antikvariaatti.

overall this song feels like he's trying to keep the lyrics super simple too, essentially just explaining what happened. and i feel like it fits this song: anyone who hears it, or even runs it through a translator, can figure out what it's about. and because it's a message to the people, i find it fitting that it's kept quite simple.

it's a pretty cute ending for the album.

[pillow-anime-talk]

gender swap.

request: how do you think a female wammy’s boys, lawliet and light would be?

# tags: headcanons; gender swap; slice of life; mostly fluff; maybe angst or drama; also comedy (a bit); sfw

includes: light yagami, l lawliet, beyond birthday, nate river, mail jeevas & mihael keehl {death note}

— LIGHT

↘ Oh, she is definitely one of the most beautiful women in the university and gets a scholarship every year for her academic achievements. She is not competitive and doesn’t try to be; she simply has an innate talent for quickly remembering informations and numbers and uses it to get the best grades, and thus awards or recognition among professors.

↘ She is not very interested in relationships; many boys chase after her, but she doesn’t care at all. Brown-haired girl much more prefers to focus on her career and private goals (both in the Kira case and her job in the investigative department).

↘ Nevertheless, if the situation requires it, she will use her charm and grace to achieve what she needs. This woman will stop at nothing when her own life is at stake.

— LAWLIET

↘ I imagine she’s wearing these cool, fluffy hoodies and huge pants tightly tightened around the waist. She is the definition of a woman who likes to play video games, drink energy drinks, watch anime and sit in her own room (alone).

↘ Just like the original L, she also likes sweets and juicy fruits. I imagine her favorites are mango or peaches. In my head I think that she is a vegetarian and cooks well to maintain a healthy, balanced diet based on the right products.

↘ She is an introvert and it’s hard to make friends with her, even though I personally find her a very attractive woman. However, she seems to be unapproachable and therefore has no success in friendship or love.

— BEYOND

↘ She is a loner who devotes herself to her own projects. She has at most one friend, but she lives alone in a small studio apartment with her beloved cat (she is definitely a cat-person).

↘ She studies criminology or forensic psychology and likes to listen to podcasts. She has very good grades, but very rarely appears in class (he comes to universities only when there are exams). The professors have no problem with her, but they know that she is a rather mysterious girl who struggles with personal problems. Nevertheless, she does very well, although she is an outcast.

↘ That girl enjoys night time and loves spending time with her cat while watching crime shows on Netflix. She definitely has trouble sleeping.

— NATE

↘ Another nerd. The best student in the year, the best student in the field and the best student in the entire university. In addition, she is artistically and musically talented (playing the violin and piano, #canon). Although she doesn’t have many friends, she is quite popular and her white hair catches the eye of most students. She is very liked by the professors, even if she looks at the window during classes and does not write anything in her notebook.

↘ I think she is fluent in French, German, English, Japanese and Swedish. She likes to learn new things – she remembers everything so easily. And also has a natural talent for this type of thing.

↘ She doesn’t have a driving license and is afraid to drive. She’s definitely using other people for a free ride.

— MAIL

↘ Not studying. I think she found work as a graphic designer, game tester or digital game designer. It’s something she likes and she’s really good at it. In the future, she would like to set up her own studio where she would create games.

↘ I have a vision in my head that she is sharing a room in an apartment with several people and she is that girl who likes to party and come home late. Plus, she smokes cigarettes and likes to sleep in late – a real example of a bad girl you don’t have to worry about if your boyfriend hangs out with her after school on a project.

↘ Nevertheless, she is a girl who sleeps with her favorite stuffed animal at night and I have no excuse for that, I just feel in my heart that she has a little brown teddy bear without one eye that she got from her favorite grandma and always sits on her bed waiting for her to come home.

— MIHAEL 

↘ She has many friends, but only one true bestie, with whom she is perfectly matched in characters. She swears, she smokes, she’s always late, she’s sophisticated, she’ll take your boyfriend away if you get in her way... She does not like nosy people and gossip about herself, which is why she always deals with such matters personally, preferably behind the walls of the building or between the garages.

↘ She is brutal and emotionless. She has definitely not yet met a person who could heal this little, wishing for happiness heart. Currently, she lives alone and spent nights in the arms of random men. She doesn’t mind.

↘ Somewhere in the back of my mind I have a vision that she has been to the police station more than once for theft or battery. But she has a rich dad, so she gets away with everything. 

[antialiasis]

Chess på svenska

Wow, this one really is entirely different from the others. This is a Swedish translation of Chess from 2002, and I mean translation very loosely: half the songs here have just been repurposed to be about something entirely different and/or take place in some entirely different context within the plot, and the lyrics may or may not have any relation whatsoever to what the original lyrics were. ("I Know Him So Well" is just literally the exact opposite of the original song, Svetlana arguing that Anatoly needs structure and rules i.e. her and Florence that he needs freedom i.e. her.)

The bit where doing it in Swedish means they have to write new lyrics does give them a lot of creative freedom to restructure the story. An English version has to try to find some configuration of the existing songs and write its way between them, or else actually get Tim Rice to write entirely new lyrics. Chess på svenska knew the language change meant it didn't technically have to do that, and just really milked that for all it was worth in figuring out an entirely new way to tell something loosely like the base story using some of the same melodies (and some new ones).

This time around, Anatoly is the main-main character (he's played by Tommy Körberg, who was Anatoly on the concept album, and I do like his performance a lot). We start with him at home, singing "The Story of Chess" to his son after an argument with Svetlana, who already thinks he's cheating on her on his chess trips. There's only one chess tournament once again, in Merano, with Freddie as the champion and Anatoly as the challenger.

I think this was the best beginning of Florence and Anatoly's relationship in any of these. She really does vent her frustrations about Freddie to him (in a completely rewritten version of "Someone Else's Story", taking place after she witnesses Freddie with other girls at a club after "1956 - Budapest Is Rising"), and he's interested in her father, and he sort of pulls her with him when Molokov is distracted so he can go apply for political asylum. All in all I quite liked much of the first act here, the way it also gave focus to Florence's trauma and the way they connected and the generally effective staging, and was prepared to speak generally positively of it by the time of the act break.

On the other hand... where Chess in Concert's first act was far too slow, this one really dragged in act two. We spend a while on the romance drama, and in act two it all gets a lot blander and lengthier.

We start Act II by doing "Argument" from the concept album but as a totally rewritten argument between Florence and Freddie, which is fine. Then we do "Pity the Child", which is one of the songs that's just legitimately a translation, although it loses the whole parallel of the repeated "Just in case they said...", boo. Then we do an argument between Anatoly and Svetlana at their hotel (Molokov had her and their son just plan abducted and taken there) after Anatoly cavorting with Florence has been publicized... and we use "Endgame" for it, and it's partly a translation, has Svetlana berating him for only caring about himself and him telling her she never understood, etc. I was like huhhh, we're pulling out the super-dramatic climax song now? Okay, I guess it gets a reprise for the climax? But okay, cool, fine.

Then Florence does "Heaven Help My Heart", which is not really a translation but still fairly generic love song. Then Svetlana sings a new song, "He Is a Man, He Is a Child", about her relationship with Anatoly. Then we do a "Merano" reprise where Florence and Anatoly go out to dance somewhere and Freddie arrives extremely drunk to warn him off her because she's a terrible woman don't you know women are the worst (can't believe every version of this musical is wildly different from the others but apparently every one of them chooses to include Freddie's misogyny verse, even the Swedish version that has to move it to an entirely different spot in the plot in an entirely different song). Then we do a long sequence with some acrobats doing cool acrobatics while Florence and Anatoly gaze in each other's eyes. Then they do "You and I", as a generic love song. At this point I looked up at my husband and went, "So like, is the chess tournament still going on at this point?" Don't get me wrong, the acrobats are great, it's very artistic, but as far as the story goes we've just ground way to a halt by this point, in my opinion, and my attention was definitely wandering.

I think the problem is there isn't a good enough sense of actual emotional progression to all this - of course dramatic arguments can totally be gripping storytelling, but here it kind of feels like you could put these bits in any order or skip some and they'd all make the same amount of sense - it doesn't feel like anything actually changes for Florence and Anatoly because of Freddie showing up the way he does, or like Anatoly's argument with Svetlana affected his emotional state or informed how he acts in the dance scene, or anything. As a result, it feels like it's just kind of spinning its wheels here, doing scenes that are dramatic on their face but aren't actually progressing anything for the narrative.

After this the Arbiter does announce they're going to continue the chess match (what even is the Arbiter in this version, incidentally). After the rewritten "I Know Him So Well", Anatoly meets Molokov and asks when he'll get to meet his son, and Molokov tells him he's sure adopted the Western ideology of selfishness fast and you know what'll happen to your family if you stay in the West and if you know what's good for them you'll lose the next match and then rescind your defection. (Oh, and Molokov gets a song here about the wife he used to have whom he betrayed as a sacrifice for the cause.)

Then they do the match, under the "Champions" chorus, and Anatoly just... quietly loses. No "Endgame" at all other than the one during that argument near the beginning of the act! I actually managed to miss the moment he even lost and had to rewatch it to be sure exactly how it went (it's not even explicit whether he threw the match on purpose per se). It's quite an anticlimax compared to the bombastic high drama of "Endgame". I do get what they're going for with this, though, the quietness and the ominous choir reciting the champions in the background just making it all very small and sad, and we don't really need words here to know this Anatoly loves his son so much it was never a choice for him under Molokov's explicit threat - after that Molokov scene, this is the most effective this ending could be, and I think they made a good call doing it this way, given they went for that.

I like Anatoly and Florence in this version, although I feel like they get muddled and less distinct in the second act. Freddie here is the boring asshole version, never really humanized beyond the obligatory "Pity the Child", which isn't enough by itself to make Freddie feel like a compelling character. I found myself particularly disappointed in Svetlana, though, because she does get a significant amount of focus but never in a way that really makes her sympathetic or likable or interesting, as she's constantly just being pitted against Florence and Anatoly rather than truly getting developed as a person with her own independent existence and feelings that aren't about grr Anatoly and grr Florence. One of the things I liked about "I Know Him So Well" originally is that it's about Florence and Svetlana, who are theoretically romantic rivals, each being sympathetic to the other's point of view (even if they don't know it) - originally Chess doesn't pit them against one another at all, instead only having them echo and back up each other. Not so here, where Svetlana calls Florence a whore and "I Know Him So Well" is instead an argument where they're both going, "No, mine." I just enjoy that dynamic a lot less, and Svetlana just feels kind of one-dimensional.

So, all in all, I think this version had cool promise and did some cool things, Tommy Körberg was great, but it also definitely floundered in various ways particularly in the second act, in my opinion. I may write one more post of final synthesized Chess thoughts now that I've experienced all the main plot strains as far as I understand it.

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

Nightwish's Floor Jansen: 10 records that changed my life

Eurythmics - Touch (1983)

"Growing up, my parents used to listen to Here Comes The Rain Again by Eurythmics, so that’s how I got in touch with it. Of course, Annie Lennox has a very distinctive voice and that was one of the first things I really started singing along to, so in that sense it’s a part of my own musical development.

Throughout the years I’ve started to appreciate her as a songwriter more and more. These are very old songs, and yet everybody still knows them – they’re timeless. They’ve been covered to bits, and unfortunately the covers usually aren’t better, but it says something about how good this song is and how timeless it is."

Alanis Morisette - Jagged Little Pill (1995)

"Like Annie Lennox, Alanis Morissette formed me and my interest in singing. I was about thirteen when I first heard You Oughta Know. She has her heart on her tongue and she always puts it right there as she means it; it’s very to the point.

The funny thing is now she’s been part of a little film about highly sensitive people [Sensitive: The Untold Story]. She’s in there, talking about the combination of being a highly sensitive person and an artist and of course, as an artist and a highly sensitive woman, I could really identify myself in her stories and reconnect with her at a much later age, in a sense. She came back into my life through that."

Roxette - It Must Have Been Love (single, 1990)

"It Must Have Been Love by Roxette is great sing-a-long music. It’s pretty uncomplicated, super Swedish, very well-written, very well-performed, and one that I just sang and sang! This was also played a lot in the car – you’d have to ask my mum and dad what those journeys were like, my sister and I sang their ears bloody [laughs]! It’s definitely true that the Swedes are great songwriters. It was hard to choose just one song, but this one is as good as any from that time, I think."

The Gathering - Mandylion (1995)

"I first heard The Gathering on the radio. I was listening to a lot of grunge and rock but not much metal yet; that came with Pantera and Machine Head, bands that I really liked, but nothing with a female voice that could really work for me.

There were some female singers, but they were all high and operatic, and I was missing that power – until I heard The Gathering. Strange Machines  just did it for me. That was the first step for me in thinking, I wanna sing in a metal band too! Anneke [van Giersbergen] is opening a few of my solo shows for me this year."

Skunk Anansie - Paranoid And Sunburnt (1995)

"When Weak by Skunk Anansie came out, everything about them was revolutionary. Skin was Black, bald, and gay, a lot of things that people have issues with, but the way she kicked against that – 'I am the way I am and if you don’t like it, too bad for you' – that in itself was so inspiring for a young girl growing up.

But what she did with her voice, those long howls and the effortless highs, that was right up my alley. Back in the day I played that album, Paranoid & Sunburnt, until it was just threads."

Halestorm - The Strange Case Of... (2012)

"I’m not sure exactly how I stumbled upon I Miss The Misery, but that was the first thing I heard from Halestorm. The first thing Lzzy Hale does in the song is this howl, and she really got me on the first note – that’s rare. I was like, “okay, damn!” It’s very American-produced and that hook of “whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh” is pretty cheesy, but it totally works!

I’ve seen her live and all I can think is, how on Earth does your voice survive? She screams and kicks and grunts and everything she does is super cool. Lzzy is a powerhouse, she stands for being feminine in a man’s world and describing her feelings quite to the point in her lyrics."

Evergrey - A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament) (2022)

"Every day on tour in Europe with Nightwish I’ve played Midwinter Calls by Evergrey when I’m putting on make-up. I started listening to them in their early years, when they were still full-on prog.

But what I really appreciate is how every album has something different, how they as a band and Tom [Englund] as a singer-songwriter keep evolving. He has a lot of pop influences in how he sings, and soul and jazz. The common thread throughout this list is singers – you can write great songs, but if the singer doesn’t work for me, I probably won’t last throughout the song just because I can’t get over a voice that I can’t appreciate."

Symphony X - Underworld (2015)

"Without You by Symphony X is a very emotional song, but it’s a great example of what I really appreciate about Russell Allen, which is that he manages to be the glue in a prog song that can otherwise be incredibly complex, by making melodies that are followable and even catchy, and that has made it for me.

That’s why I can listen to Symphony X. He has this full-bodied rocky sound, and his biggest virtue as far as I’m concerned is that he can sing from his heart. You can hear that he means it. I’ve learned a lot from him, he gave me some really wise lessons that I will never forget: that even in stage performance, you can’t always just give everything away. Build it up."

Sam Ryder - There's Nothing But Space, Man! (2022)

"Sam Ryder has an amazing voice, it’s quite diverse: he can go from almost Queen-like singing, to very poppy, to something more like Muse. What inspires me about him is that he’s a self-made man in the modern days, singing his head off on the Internet for God knows how long without anything really happening for him until he was just lifted up and thrown into the world, and seemingly just being the same guy throughout it all, you know?

I hope he can stay himself throughout the whole pressure that’s on his shoulders, as it is right now. I hope he survives the madness of that."

Queen - Innuendo (1991)

"If you make a playlist where singers are your common thread, you can’t really make one without Freddie Mercury. It’s hard to choose one Queen song, but The Show Must Go On is one that we once covered with After Forever.

Speaking about singing from the heart, his vocal interpretation is still one of the best that has ever been. That’s not something you can learn, it’s just something you have – something that he had. This song stands for pushing through even when things are shit, and that sentence often goes through my head when I’m thinking that I don’t know if I can do this: the show must go on.

It’s empowering. It’s so beautiful. It’s an emotional rollercoaster, as music should be. That’s the beauty of writing. If I didn’t have the list I’ve just presented to inspire me, where would I be? I’m very grateful there are so many that went before me.

[skamenglishsubs]

Subtext and Culture, Young Royals, Season 2, Episode 1

Season 2 picks up after the Christmas break, it is now early January 2021, and Wilhelm is asleep, dreaming of Simon...

Cinematography: The show does a slow transition from Wilhelm's sex dream by changing the colours from the soft golden light of his dream, to the harsh early January daylight, and by letting the sound of a vacuum cleaner pierce the signature [dreamy electronic music] of his dream.

Subtext: We're seeing Wilhelm move like a ghost through the palace, ignoring everyone, even his mother. He's still angry with her, and they haven't really talked all break.

Blink and you miss it: It's hard to make out, but Erik's silver cigarette case is also inscribed with Sällskapet - The Society, the ultra-douche nobility club.

Cinematography: Just like last season was bookended by a fourth wall break, here comes the opening montage and a very angry Wilhelm staring into the camera.

Subtext: The August montage tells us a bunch of things. He's been spending Christmas break alone at school since he doesn't really have a family to spend it with, and his eating disorder/body dysmorphia sure isn't getting better.

Culture: Simon is playing the song Aldrig Igen by Cherrie, which is about leaving someone who has hurt you. The repeating refrain goes: "Never gonna happen again. I don't want to feel like that."

Culture: Minimum age for getting your driver's license in Sweden is 18. It's getting more and more rare for people to get their driver's license as soon as possible, because it's simply not a necessity for most. When I went to high school last century (in the 90's), about half the class got theirs at that time. These days less than a third get theirs that early.

Subtext: Although Felice didn't really have a plot of her own this season, I'm glad to see that she learned something last season and keeps ignoring her annoying, prattling, mom. That her friend Sara got into the Manor House is much more important than whatever horsey-horse blah her mom is whining about.

Subtext: Madison hands Sara a crystal, of course she's into that. But I'm not crunchy enough to figure out what the hell she means by "among other things". Help. Anyone? What is that even? Amethyst?

Subtext: "Native Americans and other indigenous peoples have burned sage for centuries as part of a spiritual ritual to cleanse a person or space, and to promote healing and wisdom." Thank you Google for that explanation. And of course it's something Madison would do.

Lost in translation: The English translation of their chanting didn't quite capture everything. A literal translation would be "Fine girls, deep pockets, worship our fine pussies!" But fina flickor is an expression that means well-mannered upper-class girls, djupa fickor is a Swedish idiom that means being rich, and these two fragments both rhymes with and alliterates with fina fittor, except the latter is extremely vulgar, which creates an interesting juxtaposition of contrasting tone. Btw, my high school Swedish teacher was the best teacher I've ever had, and I know he would be so fucking proud of me right now if he could see me writing this! Tack, Magnus.

Subtext: And here comes the first mention of this season's main theme; traditions, upholding them, breaking them, examining them... Interestingly enough it's Felice who suggests breaking it, while all the other girls insist that Sara has to continue the tradition. And boy, does she ever. At least the fire department didn't show up...

Subtext: The real reason August didn't join Vincent or Nils on their expensive Christmas vacation to the Seychelles is of course that he can't afford it. But his dismissive joke also just point to his own eating disorder problems. August, get help.

Subtext: When Simon insta-stalks Marcus we get to see a bit of his personality. Apparently, Marcus likes camping, fishing, hiking, horses, and his Volvo. The 850 is a classic 90's station wagon, and although it's pretty unusual for 18-year-olds to own a car in Sweden, something like that checks out and it's probably his car.

Subtext: Vincent is such an ass, and I love every second of it. He has zero respect for the younger students, he doesn't give a shit that Wilhelm is royal.

Subtext: Wilhelm is being an assertive bitch to August here and insists on him addressing him in third person, as if they weren't familiar...

Blink and you miss it: ...which makes Nils and Vincent laugh, and Vincent makes a mocking salute to Wilhelm.

Subtext: But in the end, August is the prefect, so they do as he says and allow the first-years to join the party, even though they have no idea why August is letting Wilhelm get away with it.

Cinematography: This season also does a lot of mirroring where scenes in this season look like scenes in the first season. This particular one mirrors the one where Simon appears at the initiation party for Wilhelm and catches his eye, except it's a lot more sad this time.

Subtext: Oh look, The Theme™ pops up again, and Simon is of course not a fan of keeping the shitty traditions that forced Sara to do something stupid, so that he had to rush to school to check up on her.

Subtext: Wilhelm is an awkward idiot around Simon. He really has no idea how to reconnect with him.

Cinematography: Again, we're mirroring the initiation party in s1 where Simon excuses himself, but this time Wilhelm doesn't chase after him.

Subtext: I'm sorry what now? Nils is not straight? That came out of fucking nowhere, but ok, let's roll with it! Also, whoever subtitled this is obviously familiar with Tinder, but not with Grindr. Nils says that he saw Marcus on Grindr, not that they matched, because that's not how Grindr works.

Subtext: The main theme of the entire show is about social class, if you haven't figured this out by now. Nils is firmly in team upper-class, and tells Wilhelm how he's supposed to handle dating: Only date or hook up with people from your own class, or with people who know how to keep everything discreet, private, and down-low.

Subtext: Wilhelm looks around in confusion, because he expected Simon to be singing in the choir. Where the hell is Simon?

Subtext: Meanwhile, Simon is late and on the bus with his friends on Team Rebound, who are giving him advice that's gonna turn out to be pretty crap.

Culture: Padel is so middle class, Vincent is right! Padel surged in popularity in Sweden in 2021 for some weird reason, and tons of padel courts popped up all over the country. However, the hype completely crashed in 2022, so most of those places are now facing bankruptcy and people actually talk about padeldöden - padel death, so the sport is kind of a joke right now.

Subtext: Wilhelm puts on the most fake smile ever and says hi to Alexander who is back at school. They were all correct when they said that Alexander really wouldn't get punished for getting caught with the drugs, his parents simply bribed the school to hush it down, but their treatment of Alexander will backfire spectacularly on Wilhelm later in the season.

Subtext: The show is doing a bit of exposition here, but it's also reminding us of who knows what about the sex tape, and why Wilhelm hasn't told Simon that he knows who did it. One more thing that will backfire spectacularly.

Subtext: And in a quick throwaway comment we learn that the late prince Erik had a thing with a porn model, and that the royal court successfully swept that whole thing under the carpet, as they do.

Subtext: The rest of the girls thoughtlessly let Sara pick up the tab for their coffee, which is nothing to them, but for Sara it's half her savings. She's treating them without protest, but doesn't buy anything for herself because she simply can't afford it.

Subtext: Don't sit next to him, don't talk to him, pretend he doesn't exist! Simon is really trying to follow the advice of his friends.

Cinematography: Oh look, a mirroring of the scary movie scene where they touch hands in season 1. Except this time Simon jerks his hand away.

Subtext: The Theme! This time it's Wilhelm who's on team fuck the traditions, although he's doing it just to undermine August.

Lost in translation: Vincent actually uses the word kladdiga - sticky, smudgy - about their hands, which in Swedish implies they're all toddlers who should sit down and shut up while the adults are talking.

Subtext: No, Wilhelm really didn't stick up for anyone last season, he threw Alexander under the bus, and he threw Simon under the bus, so we're just heaping on the guilt now.

Subtext: And we're doing some more exposition to remind everyone about who knows what about the sex tape. Here Sara finds out that August knows that Wilhelm knows it was him, and he's blaming her for telling him, even though she hasn't told anyone. Not even Simon, speaking about things that will backfire spectacularly.

Subtext: Sara's plotline is gaining steam, much like she did after touching August, if you know what I mean, eh, eh, eh? She knows he's a piece of shit, she knows he's a bad person that she can't trust, but she also thinks he's hot as fuck and this obviously causes quite a lot of conflicting emotions in her.

Subtext: No, Wilhelm truly doesn't realize this. He's been trying to get close to Simon in order to get him back, but he still hasn't got a damn clue as to why Simon is keeping his distance.

Subtext: Note that Simon going after Marcus is 100% reactive. He asked him for a ride because he needed to for Sara's sake. And now he's agreeing to karaoke night because Wilhelm just hurt him again, and because his friends have been encouraging him to go for a rebound boyfriend.

Culture: Carola Häggkvist is a very well known Swedish artist and songwriter who had her breakthrough at 17 in the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Marcus is choosing. She only came in third that time, but won the ESC in 1991 with the song Fångad av en Stormvind. Despite being wacko Christian for a while and married to Norwegian preacher Runar Søgaard, who lost his weapons license after shooting a deer from his bedroom window, she has now mended her ways and is somewhat of a gay icon in Sweden, performing at Stockholm Pride in 2013.

Culture: Främling is about meeting a stranger, falling in love, and taking a chance on this newfound love. Marcus might look like a doofus, but his song choice is pretty clever, although obvious.

Subtext: Can we just appreciate Vincent's dramatics for a second? A first-year not moving their ass off a couch he wants to sit in is apparently causing his entire world to come crashing down. The audacity! Chaos! The system is there for a reason! It provides stability! What's next? Everyone is just gonna sit around playing the bongos? Someone needs to enforce the proper order of things, because August apparently refuses to do so!

Subtext: Some nice foreshadowing here where Alexander checkmates Wilhelm.

Culture: The Swedish Royal Court is an organisation with hundreds of employees who assist the royal family in all their official duties. Here we're seeing the Queen having a late night meeting with some court officials. Although the show doesn't say, it's likely that Minou who was introduced in season 1 is the head of the press and information department, and that the new character Jan-Olof is the Marshal of the Court, which would put him in charge of planning and preparing all official events that the royal family attends.

Subtext: From the perspective of the Queen and the court, Wilhelm's outburst comes out of nowhere. He's been refusing to talk to his mother for weeks, and now he suddenly calls them up, rants about Simon being on a date with another boy, and screams that he doesn't want to become king in the future. In addition, he threatens to talk to the press himself, which makes Minou somewhat concerned to put it lightly.

[reality-inflicted]

I revisited an old photo a few weeks back. I was looking for something that would inspire, or at least accentuate, a text about the year that we were about to leave behind us. The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this photo scrolling through the chaotic wasteland that is my Lightroom was the song “Mad World” by Tears For Fears. A song that is often being interpreted as commenting on either teenage depression or a general feeling of "being out of synch with the world", two interpretations that are equally feasible. However, I got the feeling that those interpretations are just a little bit too...convenient. And I started thinking about all the names that I have crossed paths with over the years wandering the borderland of urban humanity with my camera.

The motifs that I am looking for are traces of humanity, those little cracks in the façade of civilization that surround us. Often I find these at the edges of town; in industrial areas where people work but seldom, if ever, live. At other times, as in the case of this photo, in one of those stretches of anathema that inhabit the cities themselves – the small patches of urban wasteland that make the locals step faster and the drunks and the junkies feel at home. Those particular pocket of Space that are Places only to those that stand on the outside of mainstream society looking in – the people that we like to pretend that we don't see or that just don't want to be seen by us. One of those fellow wanderers with whom I've crossed paths many times over the years but never met is Psykos (the Swedish word for Psychosis); a tagger and grafitti artist. Curious about who might be hiding behind the alias I started searching and managed to find out that there's been a movie about her life in the making for a few years now, and also that it is set to be released in a few months time (early 2023 according to Kickstarter). Based on the information I found the person behind the tag seem to be made up of equal parts torment and talent. The alias is well chosen.

'A psychosis is,' wikipedia tells me 'a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not.' Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, incoherent speech and behaviour that is inappropriate for any given situation. There might also be other problems as well, such as problems sleeping, withdrawing from society, a lack of motivation and carrying out daily activities – just to mention but a few symptoms that – one might add – place a very large part of humanity in the potential risk group. I call most of those symptoms "Monday".

I find the concept of Delusion particularly interesting. Turning again to wikipedia, that define delusion as 'a fixed, false idiosyncratic belief, which does not change even when presented with inconvertible existence of the contrary,' however it also states that delusions are 'context- and culture dependent,' implying that a belief that inhibit critical functioning and is widely considered delusional in one society may, in fact, be common in another society – or even in the same population at a later time. And since normative views may well contradict available evidence a belief need not contravene cultural standards in order to be considered delusional.

Now, what does that actually mean? Well, in short it would be that a refusal to accept the foundations of what is considered to be the societally accepted Reality may very well be considered to be either a disease that must be cured, a crime that must be punished or as a deviant behaviour that must be corrected. And one does not have to look very far to see all three of these being used all around us to sort (or at least attempting to) people into the established order of things.

The DSM-5 on the other hand take it a step further and characterise certain delusions as 'bizarre' if they are clearly implausible or are incompatible with the surrounding cultural context. However, the concept of 'bizarre' has received criticism, not least for the difficulty of stating who, or even what, is 'bizarre' even for trained individuals. The youth revolt in Iran that is being violently struck down by the religious regime for having the audacity to demand freedom from oppression and the right to exist on their own terms are – in the eyes of the regime – delusional. And so are the Ukrainians and Ukraine as they, and it, is fighting for the right to exist and for the freedom of people and country against a Russian regime who's leader want to shape the world according to his own delusional view of Great Russia.

Whichever delusion that is finally victorious will get to write history and define the new normal: the Iranian protesters or the regime, Ukraine or Russia. This transition or retention of the right of definition in reagard to what is deviant enough to be considered 'bizarre' or delusional will shape what is considered to be Real. However, in a world that grow ever more connected the concept of Normalcy will become ever more fluid. Influences, new ideas and trends spread across the world in hours if not minutes. Owning the global narrative will become practically impossible, as we see in the attempts to diminish the peoples access to global media in regimes as Turkey, China and Russia. What used to be set in stone before the internet is now highly susceptible to change. And, to bring this text back on track, believe that it is in this definition of delusion that we must place Mad World in order to understand what it is truly about.

The video accompanying the song is really quite telling. Instead of being an outsider looking in at the world the narrator is on the inside looking out at a fully confirmative society. What we hear is dissent brewing: 'Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow. No tomorrow, no tomorrow.'  

Of course the song is a comment and a critique of its time and culture, but it is also more. Near the end of the song there is a line that have confused audiences and interpreters alike since the song was first released: 'It's a Mad World, It's a Halargian world'. Singer Curtis Smith decided, or so he claims, on a whim to throw in the line as they the recorded the vocal master track for the song, and that the band and the producers decided to leave it in. In later versions of the song, as in Gary Jules version used for the soundtrack of the movie Donnie Darko (which follows a person living though a psychosis) the line was changed to 'Enlarging your world'.

According to the band the word "Halargian" refers to a made up world that the band and producers used as a creative tool during the recording process of the album. At the same time the song, and the album itself, was heavily influenced by the concept of primal therapy conceived by Arthur Janow – a theory that argues that neurosis are created by the repressed pain of childhood trauma. (Coincidentally, the band Primal Scream – founded in 1982 – also take its name from the Janov's work.)

Children waiting for the day they feel good Happy birthday, happy birthday Made to feel the way that every child should Sit and listen, sit and listen Went to school and I was very nervous No one knew me, no one knew me Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson Look right through me, look right through me

[– – –]

And I find it kind of funny I find it kind of sad The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had I find it hard to tell you 'cause I find it hard to take When people run in circles it's a very, very Mad world Mad world Halargian world Mad world

At its core, I want to say, 'Mad World' is about adressing the collective psychosis called Reality. A reality inflicted on us as children, which shape us to snugly fit into the society we inhabit. Into a system designed to keep us in our place. Shaped and formed by expectations and dreams passed on from one generation to the next. In a sense it could be interpreted as a wake-up call, urging change. One small increment at a time. One person at a time. Because we do live in a fiction. All societies are figments of our imagination. A collective agreement that reality is what it is.

Those that have had the audacity to challenge this have always been considered the odd ones out. the ones to be ridiculed or persecuted, treated or killed. And at the same time they have often come to acknowledged both revolutionaries and visionaries by times to come.

That is how I will interpret the song. As a reminder that Reality is changing. And we with it.

[forthegothicheroine]

The King in Yellow, 1949

Much of this story is true.  Warnings in the tags.

When I had pneumonia in my early teens, my mother brought home an armful of VHS tapes from the library to alleviate my misery.  Knowing my snobbish preferences, she had grabbed copies of whatever she found in black and white.  I remember something musical that I suspect was Busby Berkeley, I remember Mildred Pierce (a bad choice, as it turned out- the plot includes a young girl dying of pneumonia), and I remember a period piece called The King.  I faded in and out of consciousness while I watched it, but it soothed me while I was awake and filled my fever dreams with sparkling images.  I could never find it at the library again, nor at Hollywood Video or even early Netflix (once my father got the subscription service where you could order practically every DVD.)  It was a bit odd that it seemed to be so obscure, given that it starred old Hollywood legend Ingrid Bergman (and, although I initially forgot it, Marlene Dietrich.)  But even big stars make films that fall by the wayside in public memory, and it seemed that this was one of them.  Google was no help, and at the time that was that.

I didn’t see the film again until I was watching Turner Classic Movies at my grandparents’ house.  I loved watching that channel with them while filling out the crossword puzzle that came in their little TCM catalogue (all of it based on movie trivia, the only kind of crossword puzzle I’ve ever been any good at.)  I recognized a certain scene where Bergman stood on a balcony, looking sadly at the moon.  Her face had an expression of unutterable melancholy, and the crescent moon reflected in each of her eyes, giving the impression of two moons in one sky.  I had very little time to catch up on what I’d missed before we had to go meet my cousins at the local Italian restaurant.  I knew logically that the movie would be long over by the time we returned, but I turned on the channel anyway.  Of course it had moved on to the lesser known Alfred Hitchcock film Stage Fright, but then I heard Marlene Dietrich sing before I could reach the remote to turn the tv off in disappointment.  I knew that I had heard her sing before, and I knew it had been in The King.

Dietrich’s singing often comes across as somewhat campy today, with its Rs pronounced as Ws and it’s up-and-down tone.  Madeline Kahn parodied it brilliantly in Blazing Saddles, such that it was a bit of a disappointment when I finally saw Dietrich’s western Destry Rides Again and found it to be lifeless and inconsistent next to the parody.  Still, we remember her voice for a reason, and when I remembered it that night, I knew that its sardonic loneliness had rung through The King and made me shiver in my dreams.

The TCM schedule didn’t list The King in its time slot, but something else.  If I had taken down the name, maybe it would have helped me find it.  Sometimes the same movie runs under multiple names.

I didn’t see the film all the way through for many years, after I graduated college.  I had found a web page that listed public domain film noir, including one called The Masked Guest.  The website described it as a costume noir, and I curiously clicked on the link.  Once I took in the credits running on the youtube window, my eyes grew wide and I did not move from my place on the bed until the movie had run its course.

The credits did indeed list it as The Masked Guest, but I recognized the strange repeating design on the title cards.  They told me that in addition to starring Dietrich and Bergman, it was directed by Fritz Lang, and a character called The King was credited to “???”  (I hadn’t seen that kind of credit since the first Karloff Frankenstein.)  When the King finally appears on screen, though, it is unmistakably Orson Welles’s voice that booms out from behind his elaborate costume.

Here are the things I understand about The King, or The Masked Guest, or The Man in Yellow, or any other title I’ve found for it on public domain archive searches.  Dietrich and Bergman play princesses named Cassilda and Camilla, respectively.  Though Dietrich’s accent is German and Bergman’s is Swedish, they blend together to give the film the impression of being set somewhere on the map that I can’t quite find.  The scenery and camera angles are very Freudian, with a great deal of archways and pillars.

The first act of The King involves frankly dull romantic plotlines, and the only thing that really saved it was the feeling that the suitors were supposed to be insipid, a suspicion lended credence by the fact that the love interests were listed so low on the credits.  Dietrich is the scandalous sister and Bergman is the responsible one, though each takes on aspects of the other as the film goes on.  Dietrich sings her song at a party, dressed in a fake 17th century gown and leaning against a piano.  Although just a moment ago she had been laughing and joking with her gentleman friends, her song takes an abruptly serious tone (not seductive, not sentimental) as she tells the story of a city lost to time and memory.  Bergman slips away from the party and onto the balcony, where we see that wonderful shot of the moon in her eyes.  Is she mourning?  Is she longing?

Dietrich cuts off the song by abruptly screaming “Not on us, King!  Not on us!”  She flees the party weeping and shaking, and from there on the film goes mad.

Though uncommon, it is not unknown for movies to switch between black and white and color, done most famously in The Wizard of Oz.  The film The King recalls here is the silent Phantom of the Opera, which had a masqued ball scene tinted in shades of red and green that tried to provide a whole spectrum of color.  The effect is even odder in the masqued ball scene in The King- the only color that appears is yellow, highlighting things like candlelight, Dietrich’s hair, a passing gown, a vase of tulips.  It also highlights one particular masked figure, whose expressionless mask was decorated with a black pattern against a sickening yellow canvas- the same pattern I had seen in the opening credits.  The color of his costume causes him to stand out from the crown even when he is far off in the background, just one head among many others.  It must have taken long and painstaking hours of work to color in every frame.

Dietrich still seems broken up days after her song, though Bergman tries to coax her into joining the dance.  Finally, at midnight, Dietrich goes out to face the party, but only to demand that every guest remove their mask.  The yellow man with a voice that once warned America about a Martian invasion tells her that he wears no mask.  Bergman reacts with disbelief, but Dietrich starts laughing like a woman unhinged.  As she laughs, the yellow hue seeps out of the King’s clothing and face- if that really is his face- and begins to color the entire ballroom crowd.  I think that what follows is bloodshed, but if there is any carnage (doubtful under the Production Code censorship), the blood must be tainted yellow and splashed across the camera like daubs of paint.  Dietrich’s laughing face is doubled and tripled on screen until it dissipates, but even when it has faded offscreen, it feels as if her ghost continues to watch the proceedings.  

By the end of the scene (filled with German Expressionist camera angles and mad violin screeching), only Bergman remains alive, cowering behind a grandfather clock.  It does not hide her for long.  The King steps towards her and extends his hand.  Reluctantly, but with a fatalistic expression, Bergman takes his hand.  They walk away together hand in hand.  The screen shifts back into black and white, and then the credits roll before we can get a good look at all the bodies in the scene.  The credits say it was based on a play called The King in Yellow, although Raymond Chandler of all people apparently had a hand in the screenplay.

As I said, that’s what I think I understand.  It’s an oddly experimental art film for the era, and it may be awaiting rediscovery by the film festival crowd.  I feel as if I alone know about it, though that obviously isn’t true.  It is my little secret; I tell myself that my husband doesn’t need me to show it to him, it would be too odd for his taste.  I’ve rewatched it many times, even if it seems like each time I search for it I have to find a different video platform or torrent.  Naturally, no subscription site has it available.  Maybe I am the last person who will ever watch it.  Maybe no one will ever think to look for it again after me, and it will be completely forgotten.

When I was hospitalized, they let me use my laptop at night before I went to sleep (no power cord, though, in case I tried to hang myself.)  I found a youtube link for The Man in Yellow, and I watched it every night.  It wasn’t a soothing sort of movie, but having it in my mind all day and then watching it in the evening allowed me to think as opposed to crying endlessly while the other patients shot me awkward looks.  I clutched the childhood stuffed animals my mother brought me when she visited, and I always held them extra tight when the masquerade scene started.

I watched the movie when I had to move away from my beloved San Francisco.  I watched the movie when I lost the last of my grandparents.  I watched the movie when a doctor unwisely took me off my medication and I couldn’t manage to eat for a month.  I watched the movie when the whole world got sick and we all locked ourselves away from each other.  I don’t mind that I don’t entirely know what it means.  I don’t mind the nightmares.  In the hospital they kept telling us about mindfulness exercises, and maybe the fact that I can focus on every aspect of the film so closely that all else falls away is the reason I keep coming back to it.  I’m being mindful.  I’m not letting any stray thoughts invade my head.  I’m just watching and waiting for the next beat of every scene, leading inexorably to that yellow-stained bloodbath.

Streaming media doesn’t last forever, and each time I find The King, I worry that it will be the last time I ever can find it.  My efforts to download it have so far been unsuccessful, odd considering that it is in the public domain.

When I watch The King, I am once again a child in my bedroom being cared for in the throes of agonizing sickness.  I am once again sitting on the couch with my grandparents in front of the tv, both of them alive and lucid again.  I am once again in the hospital, all alone except for my stuffed animals and the staff trying to keep me alive.  The film reflects in my eyes like the crescent moon in Ingrid Bergman’s gaze.  It sings to me.

I am determined to find a way to obtain The King under any name so that I never have to worry about losing it.  During some of the worst times in my life, it is the only thing that has kept me sane.

[staminaoverlook]

✨Welcome to my blog!

Hello! My name is Anastasia, but I'm mostly known as Stamina Overlook. I'm an avid PotO fan, and I mainly post about that, but my interests are broad and you may find me posting about everything from astronomy to Team Fortress 2 or Duskwood :)

The Opera Ghost's Love Story

"The Opera Ghost's Love Story" is a passion project of mine that I am working on in my free time. It is a video game, with all of the assets being created by me, including all the art, the animations, the music, and the code. I also do the research and the writing, although people help me with it sometimes :)

In this game, the story focuses on Erik, a 50-something-year-old disfigured genius who pretends to be a ghost and "haunts" a Paris Opera House. You are his conscience. Your control over him directly depends on how often he uses his rational thinking. He becomes infatuated with a young Swedish opera singer, Christine Daaé. When he is assaulted with strong, unknown feelings, his already brittle sanity begins to crumble, which means that it becomes more and more difficult for you to retain control. Help Erik get through these most difficult five months of his life and witness first-hand what obsession can do to a human being, and how one act of kindness can bring one back from the brink of insanity.

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[gottagobackintime]

So season 2 of Young Royals...

As usual, these are my random thoughts and opinions.

It wasn’t as good as the first one. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the best TV I’ve seen you know.

I wasn’t as interested in Wilhelm and Simon’s story this time and a lot of it had to do with Omar’s acting I’m afraid. I didn’t notice it that much last season but I feel like he couldn’t quite reach the level of acting that was needed of him this season where the emotions ran higher. Edvin was much better but the level of Omar’s acting affected their scenes too much and made it feel “uneven”. Like they weren’t matching in energy. Their kissing scenes and the scene where they sleep together were fine. The emotionally scenes where they tried to talk about what was happening were not. 

Felice was underused this season. Last season they built up her storyline about trying to break free from her mum’s expectations and their relationship. And the only thing we got this season about that was basically their short conversation over the phone about her wanting to stop riding. And the result being that her horse was sold. They could have done so much more than that. But they reduced her to a character the other characters stories bounced against. Sara’s storyline was the most affected, her being sad she’d lose the horse she loves, her getting together with August and betraying Felice’s trust but the focus wasn’t on Felice’s valid feelings, the focus was on Sara. She was used a some kind of weird rebound-ish thing for Wilhelm. And while she got to say that it wasn’t nice of him to do that it still felt like they let that go too quickly. They spread rumours about her, implying that she would do anything to be a member of the royal family. And it just didn’t matter. Wilhelm said he was sorry and that was that.  

They hinted at a romance between two girls but it felt thrown in to keep us queer women quiet. It would have been far more interesting to see Felice and or Sara be queer instead of those two girls who I can’t even remember what they’re called. If we get a third season I really hope they develop that and does it justice. And I really do hope that they just get to be happy. We don’t need another sad queer storyline in this show. We have like five queer characters and none of them are really happy or able to be open with who they are. Wilhelm is pressured into breaking things off with Simon, Simon is seen having sex in a video seen by a large part of the Swedish population and can’t openly be with Wilhelm. Marcus was used as a rebound. Then there’s the guy who didn’t want to be out because he didn’t want it to affect his future career. And ofc the girl who is in love with her best friend but doesn’t want to tell her in case it doesn’t work out (I’m not even sure she’s told anyone she’s queer). So yeah. I’d love to see a happy relationship that doesn’t have a moountain of problems they need to face.   

August is my favourite character, not because I think he’s innocent or should not be punished for what he did. But because he’s the most interesting character. And he’s the best actor on the show in my opinion. (And I say this as someone who started watching the show because I liked Edvin’s work in another show). Being desperate to make something of himself, willing to hurt people so that he doesn’t end up like his dad. The whole thing with him trying to be loved and show love, not knowing how. Like him buying Sara the horse she loves because gifts=love in his world is something I enjoy watching. He’s messed up and he’s terrible but it’s entertaining. I also loved seeing his relationship with Sara, because people are not black and white, people are complicated. 

I’m so tired of love triangles. Don’t really have anything more to say about that. I’m tired of it.

Wilhelm having his shoes on in bed?! What kind of Swede are you?! 

Wilhelm pointing a fucking rifle at August was WAY to over the top and I hated it.  

I don’t know. This season just felt a bit dull and I feel like they spent time on things they shouldn’t have. The Queen told Wilhelm what to do he said no, she tried to force him, he argued, they made a deal. And this was basically all that happened in every episode, to the point where it became boring. The love triangle between Wilhelm, Simon and Marcus was predictable and unnecessary. They put WAY too much of Simon singing in this season. Felice was pushed to the side instead of deepening her character. So yeah, I think the first season is better. But I do look forward to another season. I want them to finish what they started. Especially with the ending of this season.

[gallavictorious]

If you’ve touched on this already or don’t want to please ignore!! What are you opinions on people saying Ian wasn’t really into the whole other people idea and only went along with it because Mickey seemed so enthusiastic? I watched the ep and was impressed by the honest conversations but I’ve read some interesting takes on how Mickey takes the lead, Ian wants to leave the party several times and initially says no before saying fine.

Ah, nonnie! Sorry this took me a while: I was very deliberately staying out of the kerfuffle surrounding everything that went down on Ian and Mickey’s friend date in 11x07, but I cannot resist such a polite ask. XD And it seems people have found ways to cope and moved on now and there’s a new episode coming in just a few hours so it should be safe, right? Right? Ah, famous last words…

Basically, while I think it’s very clear that Mickey is having a lot more fun at that party than Ian is, I don’t think Ian feels pressured into participating in the orgy.

To be perfectly honest, I am highly amused by the notion – also championed by @dreamylyfe-x, I believe – that Ian and Mickey are kind of pushing each other the whole day. Mickey decides to be a shit in the morning for no discernable reason and Ian is a little stung and decides that okay fuck you husband you think I should have other friends well then fine but I’m taking you down with me. ‘Cause I think Ian would genuinely enjoy some friends but knows full well that Mickey doesn’t give a shit - but Mickey’s been a prick and as punishment Ian will make him to go out there and be nice and smile and maybe he’ll think twice about making fun of Ian the next time. (He won’t.) Besides, Ian just really likes to hang out with Mickey, you know, and prefers to do pretty much everything, including friend hunting, together. Probably figures Mickey could do with a little gay education, too. Ian is a complex guy and can have a whole bunch of different motives for doing any one thing!

(There’s something interesting and a less amusing about how Ian once more uses his body and sex as leverage, as he does when he goes on a sex strike in 11x02. Now, I want to note that I don’t think his line about “who knows what will happen” a serious threat at all, but I think that whole thing – acting like he can’t be friends with chicks or straight people and can’t hang out alone with gay people without sleeping with them – is designed to get Mickey to come with him. Which succeeds, so one point to Ian! But there’s something uncomfortable but very in character about the means he employ to get there.)

Now Mickey is nothing if not opportunistic, so he characteristically decides to make the most of the outing, grabbing what handjobs, pepperonis and rosé he can. And that’s very Mickey, I feel – why should they leave when they’re being given free stuff?! – but also his own way of evening the score, uh-huh you made me go out and make friends now we gonna make the hell out of these guys how do you like now hm? Because let’s not forget that just as Ian later unsuccessfully pushes for them to leave the party, Mickey pushes for them to just walk away from the two guys buying a duvet, but Ian grabs him by his jacket and signs him up for book signings and hanging out with strangers. (There’s a lovely Swedish expression about cabbage soup drinkers that would apply here but it doesn’t translate well... )

So to me, Ian and Mickey both have very real and characteristic reasons for their behavior in this episode – Ian wouldn’t mind some friends and Mickey does think getting free food and drinks is well worth hanging out with a bunch of people he doesn’t care about for an afternoon – but there’s also an element, and not a small one, of them doing shit to kind of push and one-up one another (thank you, Riss, for help with the vocabulary – English is, as always, my enemy). And I suppose one could think of that as not great and kind of spiteful and dysfunctional but I see it as a very natural and playful dynamic that they both enjoy, even though it means occasionally ending up in situations one is not super into and occasionally being a bit exasperated with one another.

And in spite of this game of I push, you push I very much agree with you about their communication: throughout the episode they continually talk about what they want and don’t want, and for all they take turns being a little dickish they also compromise throughout, letting their partner have what they want. This is not a bad thing, as long as you don’t end up doing things you actively don’t want to do! Having a given and take in a relationship is perfectly normal!  

Now, if Ian had genuinely not wanted to participate in the orgy and felt pressured to do so, that would have been very bad. But let it be noted that even though he initially says no – reflexively, like why the hell would we even want to have an orgy with really annoying people?! – he changes his mind very quickly and without Mickey putting any real pressure on him; Mickey just argues his case, Ian is convinced, and there’s nothing to suggest that Mickey would have stayed behind anyway or “forced” Ian to join him if Ian had still said no: I don’t get the same vibe of Mickey pushing just to push here as I do earlier in the episode. He does note that it was Ian who said they didn’t have to be friends with the guys if they fucked them, but I think that’s more to make Ian truly see and accept that the quest for friendship has failed, so they might as well make the most of the evening, rather than a bid to make Ian do something against his will.

Crucially, Ian seems very happy and comfortable with Mickey afterwards, when they return to the house, even though he thinks the day has been a bit of a bust – but remember, Ian wanted friends and they didn’t find that, so that’s why he thinks it a bust, not because he was an unwilling participant in an orgy.

So, sure. Ian was less into it than Mickey was, but that’s because it wasn’t what he wanted to get out of this thing – he was there to make friends and is disappointed that this has failed! – but I don’t think he’s opposed to it, once he has accepted his friendship defeat? In the end, I think he embraces Mickey’s attitude of ‘eh, we might as well get as much out of this as possible’ and has a pretty good time of it (regardless of how much or little they actually fooled around with the other guys).

Personally, I think Mickey refusing to leave the party when Ian, clearly uncomfortable, first asks him to is far less charming and more indicative of Mickey being a little bastard than him arguing the case for an orgy is, but remember that this happens after – as previously noted – Ian completely ignores Mickey’s protests about going there in the first place. Mickey is deliberately being a bastard here, throwing Ian’s earlier words about what might happen in his face. And while that’s dickish, it is part of their normal dynamic, which they are both comfortable with – and the stakes are low. Ian will suffer uncomfortable conversation for a bit while Mickey stuffs his face, but it doesn’t actually hurt Ian – which joining an orgy against his will would, and Mickey damned well knows that. There’s just not a lot of worlds where I think Mickey would do something so genuinely nasty to his husband, you know – and as far as I’m concerned, there are other, more likely (IMO) and far more amusing readings of their interactions in 11x07 available.

I hope this made any sort of sense and answers your question, nonnie. I kind of feel like I should do a detailed conversation analysis to properly make my case but a, this is already long, and b, I don’t want to. 😉 Had a blast thinking about this, though! While there are lines in this episode that does make me cringe, I am just genuinely so delighted by this aspect of their dynamic.

[vaguely-concerned]

The Mandalorian Chapter 11; the rewatch edition

I have found a bit more enthusiasm for this one on the rewatch, so here goes!

- din snapping ‘I’m trying my best here!’ in a vaguely annoyed tone as his entire ship is going up in flames around him because he mostly doesn’t get angry as much as sulky... the height of cinema 

- I love frog husband’s clothes, because they’re in a very similar style and colour scheme to frog lady’s but also incorporate the knitwear we see on the people of trask, so it both underlines his belonging with her and implies that he’s been on this moon for quite a while, they may have been apart for some time  

especially his scarf is a darling detail and there’s a bit of contrast in texture to it next to his wife’s, it’s nice. he’s wearing a similar kind of vest to what we see on the fishermen later, too 

- I think my favourite part of this entire episode (well second after din cradling the baby against him after nearly drowning) is just the design and Vibe of the planet and especially this harbour

for one I LOVE that it’s shown that even in the middle of the day it’s dark enough that the electric lights are still on when it’s overcast (it reminds me a bit of norway during the winter, actually, when dawn just never quite breaks and then slinks off in embarrassment before it’s even noon). and there’s also the... sails? nets? hanging around looking almost like flags, which are very Aesthetic but god knows what they’re for. maybe for drying fish on in the summer? 

I think the building in the distance behind frog husband’s back here is a lighthouse? or it could be one of those towers for loading you see when they scout out the empire ship too, I suppose!

and one for my strange obsession with Texture on this show: these fabric-covered crates!!! they look exactly as dingy and moldy as you’d expect them to be in this climate, I wonder what they’re for (& I vaguely want to touch them) 

- from the sound of it din’s vibroknife is uh ‘on’ when he pokes the squid thing, and he also goes for the tentacle the furthest away from the baby <3

proof the calamari flan have been scratched up a bit during all that time in din’s pockets! (the attention to detail in this show sometimes istg) 

- this is 100% me reading too much into things again, call the overthinking police I’ll do my time meekly lol, but the boat looks a little bit like the mudhorn signet from this angle: 

again din keeps his hand on or sooo close to his blaster in this entire scene, he knows this is sketch as all hell 

a) once again I want to praise the effects team for how GOOD the aliens look in this episode holy shit and b) the hell is this dude wearing on the straps of his overalls tho 

- the dude mando (axe woves) uses his little... wrist launcher thing to shoot with to finish two off the fishermen, so my theory that they can be loaded with other things than the whistling birds for slightly less effective use (maybe without the level of honing we’ve seen din’s be able to do?) is looking good!

- din actually has quite good form when diving into the water, I’m guessing he can swim at least tolerably when not in full armour, being stabbed at from all directions, having just had his son eaten by a sea monster and also being trapped in with said sea monster (I’m a strong swimmer and I can tell you that there’s a reason they make you swim with clothes on from time to time to see how hard it is, it sucks. with metal plates strapped all over you as well? yeah good luck) people don’t tend to hit the water that gracefully without some kind of training in my experience lol. might be some of the training with the jet pack has carried over too, considering he throws himself off that cliff in chapter 12 with similar confidence?

it’s interesting that they’re once again showing us a threat where the armour doesn’t help and even hinders him. we’re so used to the ways it can make him near-invincible, but it can also drag him down (literally, in this case. aha ha ha. well if I’m not here for my own entertainment then what am I here for honestly)

- din’s voice sounding like he’s just on the verge of crying as he cradles the baby (and the sound he makes as he realizes the baby’s alive) is my kryptonite, turns out. fucking breaks my heart into tiny pieces every time, I would die for this man and he wouldn’t let me

- in support of din’s paranoia: so far this season we haven’t been able to go five minutes without someone talking about peeling the precious beskar off a mandalorian corpse, I can see why his mind was primed to move in one particular way there

- I think the fabric of din’s cape has been treated with something that makes it waterproof; the water seems to pearl on top of it rather than soak in! can you imagine how heavy it would get if it did absorb water tho christ

(a bit hard to see at this size but that’s what it looked like to me close up anyway! could also be that it’s wool and that’s why it looks that way but I prefer an elaborate sci-fi explanation here, because it doesn’t look particularly weighed down afterwards) might also explain why he doesn’t seem worried about it catching on fire when he uses the jetpack haha, maybe this is something the mandos do with fabric they’re going to use for a long time 

I also enjoy part of the gambeson/undersuit thing poking up from under the shoulder pauldron and cape; I think this is about as disheveled as we’ve seen him since immediately post-mudhorn 

- the sound mixing in this scene, where din’s breathing is layered a bit over everything else so you almost feel like you’re in the helmet with him listening to what the others are saying........ oh my GOD, it embeds you so deeply in his POV but so subtly 

- not to be biased or anything... but din and the armorer’s armour design is so vastly superior to these guys it shouldn’t even be a competition lol 

din looks like an honest to god knight in shining armour except also sci-fi western and the armorer looks like a fucking war goddess from a time beyond memory; the clone wars mandos look like high end cosplayers (eh maybe it’s just my dislike for the boobplates that has me so 😒 lol. also a lot of dudes were very shitty about that whole thing and I don’t say anything but the ‘vaguely-concerned will remember this’ telltale message pops up in the corner every time) 

moment of saltiness over: I do like the differentiation between their individual character designs 

the differences in body type and helmet design is nice! they look like a unified team, but with individuality. I suspect the ladies have those belts and their armour plates on the hips instead of the front of the thighs to emphasize the ‘female’ silhouette, which. okay fine whatever

- bo katan looks very pointedly down at the baby after saying ‘a group of religious zealots who want to return to the ancient ways’ which makes me VERY nervous for reasons I can’t quite articulate

- the mournful guitar version of the mando theme as din watches the sunset...... hmmmmngh (this might be some Symbolism happening to us folks strap in for the identity crisis he still hasn’t processed) 

- I Cannot get over din being so unimpressed by and uninterested in bo katan’s ‘retake mandalore’ sales pitch from literally the first moment dfhasdkjfhsad sorry lady kryze this man just does not do main quest shit, he’s all side quests all the time and that’s why I love him  

- as someone who after chapter 8 wrote a whole-ass fic that was wholly & exclusively about din telling the baby he’ll always come back for him... some of the shit he’s been saying this season does feel like it’s been written to mercilessly victimize me, personally and specifically 

- guessing this structure in the background is the traffic control tower! doesn’t really matter, I just thought it was neat

- this part of the soundtrack is called ‘ship o hoj, mandalorians!’, which I found incredibly charming haha (it’s ‘ship ahoy’ except how you write it in swedish, good one herr göranson)  

- bo katan is vague about who exactly the new mand’alor would be if they took back mandalore to begin with, she doesn’t specify she is planning to be the ruler until she’s already got din on the ship and in no position to refuse to help. gotta respect the grift at least lol  

I do love her voice, though, it reminds me a bit of jennifer hale as shepard

- “I need to get back to my ship, with the foundling” your honor I uh love him so fucking much 

- frog lady stroking the baby’s back a bit as she holds her hand behind him to make sure he doesn’t fall backwards while playing with the tadpole ;___________;

and also frog husband and frog lady reaching out to hold hands and frog smooching as din and yodito leave ;____________________________________________;

- when din says the exasperated “mon calamari. unbelievable” line, the baby makes that little blowing a raspberry sound he does as if to agree ‘uh-huh unbelu -- unbelly -- unbelievable dad smh’ and it is very very adorable 

- there’s quite a bit of Stuff in the concept art that didn’t make it in this time around; I wonder if maybe they cut some stuff for pacing or whatever and that’s why this episode is so short? water leaking into the cockpit of the razor crest, something that looked a bit like whaling going on on the docks and more spaceships taking off (maybe there were originally meant to be some smaller ships defending the big empire one?), there’s quite a bit here  

[amplesalty]

Christmas 2021 - Day 6 - Santa Claus is Coming to Town (1970)

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Six krazy Kringles!

Well, it’s been another fairly lacklustre effort on my part but we’ll round out the festive season with our traditional look at both the Rankin Bass universe and ‘song made into a Christmas special’. It really does continue to surprise me how many of these things are out there, not least in the Rankin Bass catalogue. Like, apparently they have one based on Santa Baby. That’s doesn’t seem the kind of song that’s fitting for a kids special given it’s very suggestive themes.

S.D Kluger is here to deliver all of the letters to Santa from the little girls and boys, going so far as to open a few to observe all the questions that kids like to ask Father Christmas. Pretty sure that’s against the law there, Kluger, even if the kids have terrible hand writing with backwards letters and punctuation. Still, it’s interesting to see Kluger in his natural habitat having seen parodies of him in South Park and that Spongebob special a few years back.

Does pad the special out a bit right at the start as he prances about in front of a bunch of forest creatures. The fact he can seemingly float as he dances shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise given that’s voiced by Fred Astaire, I heard that guy can dance on ceilings.

Meanwhile, the real story begins when a baby is abandoned on the doorstep of some form of government building inhabited by the controller of Sombertown; Burgermeister Meisterburger, which is a tremendous name. Not a bad idea, I suppose. Maybe the person in charge will take pity on the child, take it in and then it can live the life of luxury. Not so in this case though as Burgermeister is having none of it and promptly demands the baby be taken to the orphanage asylum. I get that asylum in this case is referring to a safe place but you normally think about someone being sent to an asylum as someone with extreme mental problems or something. That would be a rather interesting development, the orphanage for insane babies.

The little baby gets lost along the way though but is rescued by a bunch of forest critters before it runs into trouble in the mountains of the Whispering Winds, home of the evil Winter Warlock. Not a very fleshed out character is Mr Winter, he’s sort of a prototype of Winterbolt that would come some years later in Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July. Coming from Christmas in July, it did seem like would be a repeat of that with the whole evil wizard type thing going on but this goes in a bit of a different direction and Winter isn’t as featured as you might expect.

The critters leave the baby at the doorstep of the Kringles who are a bit like the seven dwarves, mixed with Christmas elves and voiced by the chipmunks. Luckily they’re not in this for very long so the grating voices and stupid names don’t get on your nerves for very long. They’re all named Wingle, Dingle, Tingle, Zingle...anything that ends in ‘ingle’ basically; Zingle Kringle. And they all live with this woman who is referred to as the Elf Queen; Tanta Kringle. She’s a bit weird as she has this accent that seems to float between this sort of German/Austrian thing and almost a Swedish one. She ignores the standard naming convention of this family and bestows the young baby with the name of Kris Kringle which is the first in what is a list of establishing where all the Santa Claus mythos comes from.

As much as these Kringles love making toys, there’s not really much they can do with them considering their town is cut off from Sombertown by the mountain and the wizard threatens them everytime they try to go through. So, they just make the toys and throw them out the back door immediately. Maybe they’re on one of the EU subsidies where farmers are paid to make crops that no one is going to even use, leading the milk lakes and meat mountains.

Tanta shares with young Kris the story of how they used to be the chief toymakers to the King, just tuck this away in the back of your mind because we’ll come back to this later...

Back in Sombertown, the Burgermesiter takes a tumble down the steps of the town hall when some little brat leaves an errant toy laying around so he takes the rather rational measure of banning all toys, which is probably up there with the banning of dancing in Footloose in terms of government overreach. I love this shot of him then laid up in bed with an ice pack on his head and the doctor taking his temperature. That seems a little unnecessary. It’s just a bump on the head, I can’t imagine he has a fever to go with that. It’s like that time Vince McMahon hurt his ankle so they had him in hospital hooked up to a heart monitor.

Adult Kris Kringle is a radical soul at heart and isn’t going to put up with these evil Mountain wizards or tyrannical Burgermeisters, rolling into town like gangers delivering hooch during prohibition as he dumps a sack full of Kringle brand toys in front of two miserable looking kids washing their stockings. This town really is just a sea of grey meaning Kris and his toys stand out like a sore thumb, their virbrant colours instilling new life into Sombertown almost akin to how Christmas brings a little joy into our dull and dreary lives every December.

There’s a degree of world building beginning to develop here, with the townspeople immediately suspicious and distrustful of this outsider coming into town with his loud attire and questioning these draconian laws. They all immediately flee and run inside their houses when he mentions his contraband collection of toys, really sells how in fear they live of the dreaded Burgermesiter. Or the Burglarmeister as the kids call him.

Kringle offers to give the kids his toys but only once they cheer up a bit, he doesn’t like sour faces and they better watch out, they better not cry, they better not pout and he’s telling them why. Gotta shoehorn these lyrics in here somewhere I guess. I agree with his point about the faces though. They’re really creepy, kinda like Funk Pops with these cold, dead eyes and lifeless faces. I’ve just realised what they remind me of...

Those weird faces from the GTA Trilogy remaster.

I like how Kris is able to bargain his way out of seemingly any trouble by just giving toys to people. Local school teacher questioning why you’re giving her students a bunch of illegal toys? A doll should answer those. Government official wanting to arrest you for said toys? A yo-yo will fix that. Winter Warlock’s Evil Dead trees got you trapped? A train will melt that icy heart of his. This special is just conditioning our kids to buy their way out of trouble.

But with all of the Burgermeister’s forces on the lookout for Kringle, how will he ever be able to get the kids their toys? Well, he’ll just sneak them in under cover of darkness of course! And if the Burgermeister orders all the doors and windows be bolted shut at night? Well, he can just go down the chimney!

And when the Burgermeister starts doing door to door searches for toys, well, they would never think to look in the stockings that are hanging up by the fire to dry out. But wait a minute, the father of this family looks familiar...is that the King from earlier? To what lengths did this Burgermeister go to seize power?! Perhaps he lets the King live freely rather than be locked up in his dungeons, after all, what better reminder to the people that the Burgermeister can inflict his power upon anyone than for them to see the former King on a daily basis, this once regal fellow now reduced to a common man.

His power trip even extends to arresting Kris, the rest of the Kringles and the wizard before holding a bonfire of all the toys in the town square as the kids look on.

They all make their escape by way of flying reindeer thanks to some old magic feed the wizard had laying around, though Kris will forever have to live in hiding thanks to his wanted status. Kris Kringle might be a wanted man but you know who isn’t? Santa Clause. And good look finding anyone matching that posters description, the real Kris Kringle has a beard now, you’d never tell the difference! He’s like Clark Kent.

Kringle even gets married to his impromptu love interest, the nagging school teacher from earlier. As a wanted criminal it’s hard for him to settle and get married in any regular church so they had to make do with a ceremony in the forest in front of decorated pine trees, placing their wedding presents at the bottom.

It’s weird because it seems to remove any of the religious aspects of Christmas and suggest that Santa was the genesis of everything but it then goes into this song that references the three wise men. Or it later talks about how the requests for gifts became so frequent that he had to limit his journeys to just once a year and he chose the most spiritual of all nights for it’s connection to such boundless love Wow, I think even Kirk Cameron would be proud of how many things this movie is able to explain away.

Whilst not quite on the level of cynicism and arseholes that Rudolph was, this does have an edge to it that elevates it above just being the saccharine kids show that it first appears with that cutesy S.D Kluger intro. This story thread of the oppressive Burgermeister, his stranglehold on this town and Santa’s attempts to bring some cheer to it is unexpected but really cool, it has this whole renegade good vs evil vibe to it. Some of the character designs are very off but I love how expressive the Burgermeister is. He’s very over the top with the way he often has to take pratfalls or become enraged by Kringle outsmarting him yet again. And there’s even the odd picturesque moment like that wedding scene with Mr and Mrs Clause at the foot of the Christmas tree in the glow of the moonlight. Very reminiscent of that scene in Rudolph with him floating beneath the night sky.

It’s another thumbs up from me, not on par with Rudolph but it doesn’t bog itself down with filler like Christmas in July and is much more interesting than Frosty.

[cloveroctobers]

ANNA-JULIA “AJ” (JONES) JARLETT

IG bio/info: @/annajj9x_ | 20.1k followers| Athlete | hey peeps can you stop asking me to throw it back cuz the answer will always be no! K thx take it easy 🏳️‍🌈🌻🏒🐶

21 years old

From bath, England

Hockey player as her profession for the past three years

Her position is defense

Their team name is “rowdy alphas”...yeah some team names just didn’t make sense or they’re cringe for no reason at all

Was raised by her mom,(her mom was a teen mom & had her at 17) maternal grandmother, and her paternal aunt (dad’s younger sister, who’s more like a big sister to her at 28)

They’ve made her into the person she is, literally

Her grandmother has a bed and breakfast that they all live in

the house is Victorian style—almost as if they walked right out of charmed! Instead of a big pink house, think yellow AND purple. It was hideous but homey and charming on the inside

growing up in a house with multiple temporary strangers wasn’t odd to aj at all, in fact it felt like the norm. There was always someone around to socialize with so that was quite nice

Her father was a pro baseball player & passed away due to a automobile accident

she has his smile & freckles

aj was also involved in the accident at the age of 6 & miraculously survived with intense injuries

Has scars as a reminder

used to have night terrors because of the accident...it took awhile—years!!! for them to subside

they’re all vague memories now (but the pain is something she’ll always remember) but she preferred it that way

she’s named “Anna” after her mother’s old best friend/roommate and was supposed to be aj’s god mother but she went missing during their uni years

the name“Julia” came from her paternal grandmother who she gets her wide doe eyes from

her athleticism definitely came from her dad

Her mother luckily liked to document things so there’s a bunch of home videos of her dad in them & pictures/scrapbooks that her mom has for safe keeping

She’s more of a klutz, tiny, and wears huge prescription glasses

extremely close to the three most important ladies in her life, so she’s always been able to be open with them about anything!

when she first expressed her interest in liking both genders around 17-18 her paternal aunt was all smirks, “i knew Britney Spears was so your type, yeah?”

more like shakira but Brit was just as pretty

her mother was a “cry baby” so ofc she burst out into tears squeezing aj’s limbs and peppering her face with kisses. She didn’t view her child as anything different... as she shouldn’t & was glad that her daughter trusted them with this significant moment in her life and wanted to be as supportive as she could

got books, watched Ted talks and everything but knew she could come to the source even tho aj was still figuring it out herself

her grandma dipped her head at the new info sitting at the round kitchen table, “been there. had a few broads in my life after and during my marriage with your no good grandad. Thank goodness the bastard died before you even got to meet ‘em.” “Mum!”

what felt like the biggest weight on her chest was lifted. She knew they’d understand but a part of her had a little bit of doubt, she’s heard so many horror stories where those like her didn’t have the support she has and that made her extremely sad to think about

i see her as a person that has/had many friends in secondary. She’s always open to chat and her being on a few sports teams helped her out in her case

very competitive in anything that she does & will guarantee that she’ll beat you. (“ You wanna race to the car from here?”wins. “Who ever cleans the most dishes the fastest gets the last slice of pie.”) majority of the time she’s right but if she loses?? oh don’t let her lose to you, it’s a pity party for the rest of the time ur in her space. Such a sore loser omg

stays active, always working out + has a gym membership and makes sure she goes at least five times a week

she’s very strong, loves leg day & working on her core

she’s about 5’10

loves wearing “gf jeans” since they’re super comfy but doesn’t mind skinny Jeans with rips in the knees every now and then

trainers and chucks are her go-to sneakers

has no issue shopping in the men’s section ‘cause who’s gonna stop her? Nobody that’s who

owner of over a 100 graphic tees + vertical stripped shirts are also her favs, SWEATPANTS/joggers?! How many does she have? A lot. Snapbacks? Plenty. Will she wear them backwards? Obviously.

Physical touch is her love language. She’s comes from a family that has no issue showing their affection by touch. There is NO such thing as personal space and that still stands with aj when it comes to relationships, she sees no other way

It’s what she shows and what she wants in return, if you’re not touching her in some sort of way, then automatically she thinks there’s something wrong or that she did something

Is the jealous type. It has shown in relationships and ruined a relationship or two

Has cheated on a significant other out of pure jealousy & is not proud to admit that

Does have a wandering eye but feels now that she truly understands herself when it comes to relationships, she’ll never act on it again

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I get libra tendencies from her so that’s what I’m sticking with. She likes to keep the peace (unless she’s jealous) , idealistic — always looking on the bright side of things, outgoing, romantic, and professional— especially when it comes to her team; her true leadership comes out, yet she can be indecisive, hates confrontation, self pitying — if things don’t go perfectly how she imagined/planned it to, the world is ending and everyone is out to get her, and can be unreliable—never on time

September libra to be exact

if she’s really in love/taken a interest in you then she gets nervous: blushing, sweaty palms, cracking her knuckles, tongue tied—the whole 9

she’s already defined as a puppy by her coach but when she’s in love? She’s a lovesick puppy!

her fav holiday is Valentine’s Day

thought she was going to be a pro skateboarder growing up but it took one bad fall where she thought she was paralyzed for her to choose something else

she likes her weed on occasion

Obsessed with all types of cheese except cottage, “can I put cheese on this?”

more of a jumpsuit kinda girl or dressy top with jeans & hoops on a night out

has a solid group of mates outside of the hockey team, they’ve all met and hung out a couple of times, as they should since aj feels they’re going to be stuck with her for awhile so why not?

They’re a riot when they all go out, let’s just say that there’s never a dull moment

fav color is periwinkle

enjoys ASMR, mostly in the mornings when she’s waking up. You know how people love podcasts? (Sorry seb & Nicky, she still wants to be on the show soon!) ASMR is her thing

loves tangerines, you can count on it that she’ll have one on her, “where did you pull that from?” “I’ll never share my master plan.” “You’re such a tit.”

Definitely prefers “fresh squeezed” orange juice & will make her own, she has the tools & the strength 😏

Very rare for her to get sick ;) & if she does she’s a complete baby about it

Will fight that she’s sick before she admits it, trying all sorts of horrid remedies & vitamins

loves summer & all things that come with it, the number one thing is leaving bath for however long she can for a new place to enjoy

when she arrived to love island, she was thrilled for the weather. Yes she was looking for love but most importantly a nice get away & that it was (depending on your route that is lol)

closest with seb, vieve, elladine, and tai but don’t tell the others that! (She doesn’t care if you tell Yasmin, honestly)

just because her & seb “dated” and it didn’t work out doesn’t mean they can’t be friends right? It was almost automatic for them to be platonic after it was determined there would be no romance between them, almost like sibs! like those celebs like to say—except this time these two won’t turn around and actually find romance

vieve came with seb so...but no shade aj did like vieve. She gave great advice (while seb sometimes didn’t say the right things unintentionally or what aj needed to hear) when needed, especially from a medical view and is very sweet

elladine was the one who had all the tea & ideas to match, she’s quite organized and always down for DIY’s and could suggest almost anything. If you needed someone to help you get things tidy or match/find your Aesthetic, she’s the friend you call to help

tai was the one she could be a “bro” with, sure elladine has her competive side (or controlling, depends on how you view it) but tai was the one you can run to for much needed “bro hugs”, partying, going to the pubs, playing sports with or against, checking out/flirting with babes, etc...

it was not long after the villa that aj had a revelation with her sexuality & fully owned and labeled herself as a lesbian

She was happy being in relationship with someone else or with herself, life was short and she was young so there wasn’t time to dwell and stress over things so what the hell?! Live your truth the best way you know how ya know?

probably smells like sweet citrus, almond flower, and sea salt

on chest days, she’s a sweets snacker. Loves gummy bears (also with vodka) , swedish fish, sour patch kids, etc...basically shit that sticks to ur teeth

put all her chips into hockey, while it was advised by her Counselors & mum not to do so, aj went about it anyway. She thought about the pros and cons but knew there was nothing else for her. So there were more pros than cons. She was meant to play sports, its what felt right in her soul

Made her feel connected to her father, when she’s on the field she feels that he is with her

 scrunches up her nose when she’s frustrated or confused about something

Doesn’t always grasp concepts right away, she’s a soft dummy but most of us are and that’s okay! We’re all smart in our own ways

Feels like sunflowers are always around her especially if she sees them wherever she is. They must symbolize SOMETHING, therefore she loves them

spf queen. All about it, get with it or let the sunrays ruin ur skin that’s on u

loves a good filet mignon medium-well & is probably the only good thing she knows how to make alongside a salad, baked potatoes, & her oj

sucker for romantic-comedies...it’s basically her life duh!

If she has a dog, it’s a Dalmatian or Great Dane. She needs a companion that’ll keep up with her

loves kissing, it’s her favorite form of intimacy

Quarantine life included the push up challenge for her. Gaining a few pounds in muscle and fat, bothering seb via ft, viewing old letters she wrote to her dad, spending time with her fav ladies since they were now restricted from having guests in their home, and letting boredom consume her + she hated the whole lockdown that came with it, she hated being indoors for long periods of time but she knew that’s what partly needed to be done

Posts a lot of beach, park, outings with her friends & team, moments with her fav ladies, workout videos, and guests at the b&b with their permission and if only she befriends them along the way. She’s just as active on the socials as she is in rl but she’s not obsessed with it, she knows how to live in the now. She’s all about balance!

I also feel like she never keeps her phone charged and it’s always dying on her! She had a car charger but...that’s a jungle. She needs to invest in a portable charger stat

crushing on/finds attractive: Jared Padalecki, Keanu Reeves, Barrett Doss, Camilla Luddington, Sandra Bullock, Adrian Kempe, Harry Kirton, Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, Naomi Osaka, Ming & Aoki Lee Simmons

who does she listen to? Shakira lol!! Bea Miller, Dua Lipa, Daya, XYLØ, Elley Duhé, Stela Cole, Aloe Blacc, Maroon 5, Lewis capaldi, Charlie Puth, girl in red, Hayley kiyoko, king princess, dodie, & tessa violet

Anthem: Icona Pop — we got the world

[moribundanchor]

The Pelle/Dani Receipts, Post Five: Arrival in Hårga

Dani and the others emerge from the big yellow yonic sun gate and are greeted by several Hårgan youth who relieve them of their bags (and I’m TOTALLY SURE don’t rifle through them) while Pelle runs off camera. He returns shortly thereafter to introduce his sister Dagny, “born the exact same day as me.” 

There are a couple interesting things about this introduction. Number one, the way Pelle emphasizes her birthday underlines how “sister” does not necessarily mean a blood sibling to Pelle. If Dagny were his blood sister and born the exact same day as Pelle, she would be his twin. This is the first time that loose familial usage is really obvious since, well, Ingemar could have easily passed for Pelle's blood brother. Number two, it calls attention again to birthdays (and it is Dani’s birthday at this point, forgotten as far as she knows) and how astrology (or runeology) is important to the Hårgans. Number three, their shared birthday clearly makes Dagny special to Pelle, and so his choice to introduce his American friends to Dagny first takes additional significance. Not to mention Dagny and Dani are oddly similar names, as discussed in this post. And as Pelle does his introduction spiel, Dagny takes the opportunity to sneak a direct look at Dani, appearing to recognize her.

Dani endears herself to Dagny immediately, as she does to the broader Hårgan community throughout the film. When Dagny welcomes them to Hårga in Swedish, Dani replies with the Swedish word for thank you, tack. Pelle scrunched-nose GLOWS, nods encouragingly/proudly at Dani, and exchanges a look with Dagny that says nothing so much as “Isn't she the best?” “Yep, you got a keeper, brother.” And then Dagny abruptly bids them farewell without engaging with the others or saying anything else, as if the entire point was just for her to get a good look at Dani.

Next, Pelle runs ahead of the others to greet Father Odd. This is a particularly fervent, sustained embrace between the two men, even more emotional than Pelle's reunion with Ingemar, with Odd’s face revealing every bit of a parent’s fierce relief at the safe return of a beloved child. As Pelle remembers himself and pulls free, Odd gets a full view of the Americans approaching before/while Pelle is introducing them. He ZEROES IN immediately on Dani, clearly recognizing her before Pelle identifies her, and after his bulging eyes fit back into his skull, Odd says softly to himself, “Wow.” This might apply to the entire group or maybe seeing Josh, one of three persons of color in the whole of Hårga, but it also might just be Odd processing seeing Dani in real life. Odd warmly greets each of the Americans with handshakes and individual welcomes, but for Dani alone, he reserves a hug and “welcome home.” (Note that after Dani is crowned May Queen, Odd will tell her “welcome home” again, but this time in Swedish.) He follows this with “we are so happy to have you,” directed specifically at her, until Odd lamely tries to cover by awkwardly piling on more effusive welcomes and excusing himself.

During the entire scene with Odd talking to the Americans, Pelle’s face is frequently blocked in the camera shot by Dani; they are, again, overlapping. But we can see him from the eyebrows up, making it clear that he’s looking pretty directly and unashamedly at Dani much of the time. Once they arrive in Hårga, Pelle puts little effort into concealing his many stolen glances at her.

Our next scene is only included in the Director’s Cut version of the film, but it’s a good one for general Hårga mood/wholesomeness and Pelle/Dani substance. Everyone settles down in the shadow of the maypole for a little thanksgiving, uncanny vocal harmonizing, and a picnic, seated on the ground in the configuration of the rune Raidho. Again, we will get into the runes in more detail later, but it’s worth noting here that Raidho, meaning “wheel” or journey, is one of Dani’s runes, albeit merkstaved or reversed. Raidho is also one of two runes featured on the maypole itself, along with Fehu, which Pelle just happens to wear. (Sten, the Hårgan Elder who leads with the thanksgiving song during this scene, is also wearing a merkstaved Raidho stitched in yellow, but don’t get AnonLady started on her absurd Dani/Pelle are the new Siv/Sten headcanon no one wants.)

Dani is, as usual, seated between Pelle and Christian on mats that have been laid out in lieu of a table. From the aerial shot, we see that not only is Dani next to Pelle, but she and Pelle are actually sitting on the same mat, and that mat is yellow. (To be fair, Josh, who is also always next to his primary source Pelle, is half on that mat, too. Of course, of all the other newbloods, Josh is the one who comes closest after Dani to respecting Hårga, so we could torture some meaning out of that, too.) Pelle points out the fire pit to Dani, a prime example of Pelle’s tendency to explain Hårgan ways toward Dani. “It’s all our jobs to keep it burning,” he tells her, leaning in, and when Josh--the one whose thesis was supposedly the impetus for the trip--asks him to repeat himself, Pelle brushes him off. “I’ll tell you later.” Note this particular line, not unlike Pelle's later explanation of life being like the seasons, has morbid subtext, because we will eventually see how Dan and Ylva's bodies are cremated in the fire pit. One day, it will be Dani and Pelle's turn to keep it burning that way, too.

After the picnic, Pelle’s group sits on the lawn and hangs out with Ingemar and his guests, watching everyone folk dancing while Hårgan kids romp in a game Ingemar tells them is called Skin the Fool. [rictus smile] 

We first see everyone from Maja’s perspective, as she exits the Youth House, all set for her Christian mission, as it were, and the blocking is significant. At this point, Simon is off-camera, so not only is Christian centered in Maja’s POV, but we have Connie and Ingemar grouped on one end, with Pelle and Dani on the other. The first thing you might notice, other than Maja’s Christian-splayed focal point, is the way Dani is seated on the far end, next to Pelle, not Christian, and how she and Pelle (and Ingemar all the way on the other side) have eerily similar posture: cross-legged, straight-backed, arms resting on legs. All the other newbloods are slouching, leaning, whatever, like you do. Not Dani, and this only becomes more noticeable throughout the movie. In her movements and instincts, Dani almost can’t not be Hårgan.

So not only does Dani unconsciously mirror Pelle and Ingemar as she sits watching, not only is she moving subtly to the music, as if unable to resist dancing even when she’s too self-conscious to join, not only is she sitting closer to Pelle than her boyfriend (look at that picture and tell us who you think is Dani’s boyfriend of 4 years, we’ll wait), but she and Pelle are visually contrasted with the thwarted Hårgan/newblood couple of Ingemar and Connie. And in case that last part isn’t obvious enough, check out the wistful longing radiating from Ingemar once Simon returns, which is even more emphasized in the Director’s Cut, as we’re shown Dani noticing Ingemar pine for Connie, too.

Pelle gently suggests all of the others join the dance, but it doesn’t go anywhere (“I’m too scared,” Dani tells Pelle) until a well-timed flirty kick from Maja pulls Christian into the festivities. When Christian goes, Josh and Mark, who were totally uninterested two minutes earlier, instantly peel off to join, too. I guess they didn’t want to be left making conversation with Dani and Pelle? Anyhoo, this conveniently leaves our OTP alone for one of the High Pelle/Dani Moments, a scene and a scheme that deserves its very own post.

For more, click on The Pelle/Dani Receipts Masterpost

[animanightmate]

My Brain is a Wonderland

By which I mean that it has many distractions, things smell tempting but aren’t all that nutritious (especially for the price), and sometimes there are terrible queues.

So, as some of you may have picked up, I seem to have handed myself the task of filling in the gap between seasons 2 and 3 of BBC show The Musketeers in an act of surpassing hubris. Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m loving a lot of it, but there are three main problems I’m currently facing, all of which tie into the fact that I’m very easily distracted at times. And this appears to be A Time.

Set adrift somewhat from BBC canon, I still have to make what I’m writing make sense in the context of what’s to come in s3. I set myself up from the very beginning as someone who writes a canon compliant (if somewhat interstitial) universe, and, by the saints, I am now set on that course for the rest of this series. Unfortunately, as many have attested in the past, the BBC kind of clowned for season 3, so I’m starting to feel like a clown apologist/ enabler. However, writing the evolution of Constance, and the development of her relationship with Tréville (and Marcheaux), the accession of Feron, and the development of his relationship with Grimaud (and Marcheaux), and exploring how the Baudins (Sylvie and Hubert) came to Paris, is proving immensely satisfying. I do, however, have to stop myself for providing elaborate backstories for every damned cadet and OC Musketeer, even if only in my vast and growing spreadsheet.

With no real canon, though plenty of hints about adventures in Alsace, the Battle of Arras, and being that close to Douai leading to the conclusion that our lads are on the Northern Front, fighting the Spanish in Flanders, I thought I’d turn to matching their exploits to the real life ones of the northern French regiments in the Franco-Spanish War as part of the Thirty Years War, about which there is plenty of documentation... Only to find that, of course, the BBC clowned again, clearly doing the equivalent of taking a List of Things That Happened In The War and throwing darts at it. (Haha: throwing d’Art at it... I’ll see myself out...) So, again, I’m going to have to either ignore a bunch of those or, yet again, find myself polishing the big boots and fluffing up the garish wigs. (”Big, red nose today, is it, sir? Very good.”)

The closer you look at the Thirty Years War, even just the French involvement, the more fascinating things you find. I’ve run into some extraordinary characters that the BBC could have gone to town on, but a) no Richelieu kind of robs us of many of the real-life interesting interactions, and b) they clearly had budgetary restraints that my imagination does not. However, that’s also a bit of a problem, as my magpie brain keeps spotting different exciting things in the course of even the most cursory research and saying Oooh, what about...?! which means that, of course, I have to bloody write them.

Some examples, you say? Why, of course - here’s a couple:

Due to having a gap in my plan for 1638 and through researching what was happening in Alsace (”be brave”) and Lorraine during that time, I ran into Bernhard Saxe-Weimar, mercenary leader of a mercenary army (and, at one disastrous point, the Swedish Army), for whose services Richelieu (or, in our case, presumably Tréville) successfully bid. The Wikipedia entry honestly does not do him justice - he was, let’s say, very driven. I have something very particular in mind for good ol’ Bernhard, as he fits rather neatly into both BBC and historical Franco-Spanish War timeline crossovers. However, as a result of said particular notion, I now know a LOT about:

- The history of Switzerland, particularly Basle and the surrounding canton.

- The geography of Basel-land, particularly with regard to its mediaeval castles and Roman fortifications.

- The geopolitical/ religious divisions in Switzerland which essentially rendered it a neutral zone.

- Some really fucking horrendous sieges of the conflict, at least one commander of which was so stubborn they resorted to cannibalism.

- How much a fortress cost (to buy - less if you chance upon a pragmatic general who can see which way the war’s blowing and fancies a small profit and a long life).

- How much an army cost (to buy - less if you’re Richelieu and don’t actually pay up).

In trying to fit stuff around the Village of Women in the Fool’s Gold episode into the narrative, I discovered that the “Battle of Arras” referenced by d’Artagnan is likely the Siege of Arras. However, that was in 1640, which can’t mesh with BBC canon, so... what?! (See also: the Battle of Freiburg, 1644, which is possibly what Porthos is referring to with regard to Elodie’s previous husband.) However, just as I was scanning down the page in disgust, preparatory to binning the bugger, my eye was snagged by a familiar name... was that... Cyrano de Bergerac? Yes. Yes, it was - the writer joined up with the Guards for a short time, got injured on the neck during the breaking of the siege, and shortly after that went back to Paris (I think) to study under a philosopher and mathematician. How can I resist that? HOW?! I now, of course, know a lot more about de Bergerac than I did (avoid the Wikipedia page if you can, or at least skip the middle chunks, clearly written by someone mildly deranged), including the fact that he could easily by described as one of the first sci-fi writers.

So there you go - some spoilers for the forthcoming works, always assuming I can stop magpieing plot points and actually write the bugger! 😄😂😅😓😭