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bazzybelle · 3 years ago

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Magical Equality Within The World of Mages

I’ve been thinking a lot since I finished reading Any Way The Wind Blows, and there are SO many things that I still need to process. I took my time with reading it, I’ve listened to the audiobook and I plan on re-reading it several times, once I move into my new house and have THAT stress done and over with. I cannot wait to re-read it on my back porch with some iced tea and a notebook to annotate and comment on pretty much everything that gave me feelings.

But for now, there is one massive issue that I want to address, and it plays into the plot for all three books.

Warning for those who have not read Any Way The Wind Blows, this post contains spoilers, so proceed with caution. I am tagging this appropriately, but adding an extra warning just in case.

Huge thanks to @carryonsimoncarryonbaz for reading this over and making sure I didn't sound like a rambling mess.

The World of Mages is an incredibly toxic place! This is especially true for anyone who isn’t a magical powerhouse, or stupid rich.

I’m going to not focus on the obvious socio-economic bullshit, because I’m not familiar enough with the British class system to properly comment on it. But if anyone wants to add onto this with a whole meta like that, please do so!

Instead, I’m going to focus on magic use and how detrimental it can be to grow up in this world if you aren’t one of the few who are blessed with the RIGHT kind of magic (I say right kind of magic for a reason, and I’m going to come back to that). I want to focus my attention on three characters (two of whom were drawn into Smith-Richard’s fake promises, and one who was just fed up with it all): Martin Bunce, Daphne Grimm, and Agatha Wellbelove.

1) Martin Bunce: We first hear about Martin Bunce in Carry On. He’s Penny’s dad, a renowned scholar and is leading a team researching the effects of the Insidious Humdrum. He’s a highly respected individual, in his own right. Penny adores him, she only speaks his praises, and I get the feeling she gets along better with Martin, then she does with Mitali. When Penny needs help with Shep’s curse, she trusts her dad to help her after her mother flat out refuses.

While Martin is respected in the community, he isn’t a magical powerhouse. In fact, he isn’t very powerful at all. Baz makes a cheeky little comment about how he must have come from mundanity with a name like “Bunce”, and he doesn’t teach any magical classes at Watford, he focuses mainly on Linguistics.

Professor Bunce is one of the people taken in by Smith-Richard’s message, and I’m kind of glad he is. It shows that Smith-Richard’s message can reach anyone, even someone as scholarly and learned as Martin. Martin Bunce is intelligent, loving, devoted, and the apple of his family’s eye. But, when push comes to shove, all that does not matter because in the end, he isn’t as magically powerful as his wife and kids. How many times has Martin been compared to his wife? How many times has he been compared to his kids? What was it like going to Watford and having to hear about how you barely scraped by in the magical classes? His whole family is obsessed with magic, his daughter's best friend is the Most Powerful Mage. Martin is constantly surrounded by people making comments about power and magic and being strong enough as a magician.

That stuff stays with you... So when you see someone performing magic that can pull you to your full potential, of COURSE you grab onto it and hope that it’s a real thing.

Something interesting to note here; Towards the end of AWTWB, Martin casts a drinking spell, and Baz makes a comment about anyone who could cast that spell in quick succession doesn’t need a power-up. Now, was Martin truly not powerful, or did he just not have the right type of magic? Could he have been a better magician if he was able to find the right situations where his magic responded better? If he was allowed to learn in a way where his magic could have reached its full potential, without the use of a horrible curse?

I have a teaching background, and I’ve worked with a lot of kids in Inclusive Education. I’ve had to differentiate practically all of my lesson plans so that all the kids in my classroom would understand the lesson and be able to reach the goals outlined for them. Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve taught, but I look at stuff like this in the World of Mages and my teaching ear perks up.

2) Agatha Wellbelove: Another person who comes to mind, especially with not having the right kind of magic is Agatha Wellbelove. Agatha does not see herself as a very strong magician. She tells Simon that magic for her is like holding a muscle. Pair that up with a mother who is OBSESSED with magic and power and who’s got the most power, and which magical matches will bring about powerful children, and you get someone who becomes resentful of the whole effing thing! I’m not even going to touch the whole “dating the Chosen One” thing because that’s a whole other can of worms.

When we first meet Agatha, she’s already fed up with magic, and wants nothing to do with it, and I can’t say I blame her. She spends all of Wayward Son running away from magic, and meandering through life, being still so unsure of herself and of her place in the world. She calls herself a poor excuse for a magician, yet she manages to save both herself and Penny from the NowNext by summoning fire! That’s a huge flipping deal! Not everyone can do that, yet Agatha is able to summon the power inside herself to do so! Imagine the wonderful magic she could have done if she was taught in a way that spoke to her.

In AWTWB, she is the ONLY person who is able to get through to the Goats. Her magic seems to be connected to nature (if I had to guess). The Dryad, all the way back in Carry On, tells Simon that she and the others find Agatha “peaceful”. That’s her magic. Agatha was able to come full circle by finding peace with the magic she has. She was able to find a place for it. What’s sad is that she felt the need to run away and not want to have it in her life anymore. Her magic is beautiful, yet not enough.

3) Daphne Grimm: So, this is the character that stood out to me the most. Daphne is the reason I even wanted to write this commentary. Those of you who know me, know that I adore this character. Partly because, I’m obsessed with the idea that Baz has people looking out for him and who care about him.

Anyway, Ms. Daphne Grimm is the apple of my eye essentially. I love her, I adore her, and she is treated SO UNFAIRLY by the World of Mages.

What do we know about Daphne? She is Baz’s stepmum, and has four kids with Malcolm. From the first book, there are snarky little comments about Daphne’s lack or power and magic. Baz himself makes a shitty comment about how Daphne’s “blood is as thin as gruel”, even though Daphne goes out of her way to make sure he’s got food sent to his room. She’s extra careful in making sure Baz feels safe in his own home. She suggests to Malcolm that Baz should see a therapist for everything he’s been through, making her the ONLY parent who not only acknowledges her child’s trauma, but tries to do something about it!

She is a GOOD mom!

Ok, we know that Baz wears a ton of masks of indifference in Carry On, and he softens up tremendously in Wayward Son, calling her lovely while teaching him to drive a car.

We learn a lot about Daphne in Any Way The Wind Blows. Namely that Fiona has some pretty nasty opinions about her. (That comment about her kids not being legitimate, and that she’s as “thick headed as she is thin blooded”. Now, imagine you’re Daphne, and the widower of the Great Natasha Pitch asks to marry you. That’s already some MASSIVE shoes to fill. You accept, and you do the best you can, taking care of his son and being a positive presence in his life, meanwhile going to all these posh functions where EVERYONE talks about power and magic. Then to have the sister of your husband’s first wife make snarky comments about your level of power and magic.

That stuff sticks with you.

Daphne doesn’t want her kids going to Watford, the ONLY magical school in the UK (as far as we know). She wants her children to succeed and be known for everything they are capable of doing, instead of being ridiculed for all the ways they’ll come up short. According to Baz, the only reason Daphne graduated from Watford was because she was smart enough to pass every exam (yet, Fiona still makes snarky comments about her intelligence).

Daphne is well aware of how painful it can be to live in the World of Mages and not be a powerhouse magician. Like Martin, she takes matters into her own hands and seeks out a way to make herself more powerful.

It is heartbreaking to look at these three amazing, beloved characters, and think about the suffering they have had to endure by their peers. Both Daphne and Martin get frustrated when those around them question their choice to follow Smith-Richards, stating “you don’t know what it’s like”. Luckily for Daphne, Baz makes an effort to actually understand her, and doesn’t judge her. Even when Fiona mocks her, Baz defends his stepmum. When Daphne berates herself and compares herself to Natasha, Baz reflects on how Natasha would have killed him (something Daphne would NEVER do to any of her children).

We know that Watford did not allow magical creatures, or differently-abled magicians (I use this term for a reason) to study there until the Mage came around and allowed everyone into Watford. This was a great thing, because now, every magical child was given the opportunity to learn how to speak with magic.

However, it should not have stopped there. I spoke earlier on differentiation and on finding the right place for everyone’s magic. What if magicians like Martin, and Daphne, and Agatha are all powerful in their own right, and they just haven’t found their place where their magic fits? Instead of finding the right way to teach these magicians, they are left to struggle and ultimately resent their magic and the magic of the world around them.

Do I hear a social commentary on the state of standardized education? I can’t really comment on the British Educational System, nor the American one, as I am Canadian. What I can say, from my own experience in Canadian classrooms, is that for all the talk we do on making education inclusive, there is still a big push from higher ups for high grades and standardized testing. If any of my followers are British or American and care to share your two cents, feel free to do so. Let’s keep the conversation going!

I think this post might have gotten away from me. I think my point was to act as a defense for people like Daphne and Martin who found themselves fished into a scam all for the promise of feeling like they are enough in their world. I also wanted to defend people like Agatha, who did all she could to run away from all of it, only to find the place where she (and her magic) belonged.

I remember having this discussion on Discord, and one of the points that came up was that maybe The Greatest Threat to the World of Mages was this deeply ingrained prejudice over magicians with different sorts of magic. Magicians who need that extra bit of help to find their way.

We’ve seen in this series how these prejudices can threaten to split the World of Mages apart, and it looks like magicians like Penny, Baz, and Agatha are learning from these mistakes. Only time (and us fanfiction writers) will tell how they end up shaping their world for the future generations.

#any way the wind blows spoilers #awtwb spoilers #meta #is it though?#I mean I GUESS #the simon snow trilogy #the simon snow series #magical equality #the world of mages #this is really just a defense for Daphne

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halfrest · 4 years ago

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* olivia holt, cis woman + she/her | you know freya nilsen, right? they’re twenty-three, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, most of her life? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to suicide blonde by mallrat like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole falling asleep on crowded buses, nights spent anywhere but home, automated ‘to accept this call, press 3 now’ messages seemingly on loop thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is august 2nd, so they’re a leo, which is unsurprising, all things considered.

pinterest.

death tw, drug use tw, postpartum depression tw / freya comes from a family that has plagued irving for years with their stunning reputation on both her father and mother’s side. death or jail was the common theme there. father, conrad ‘willie’ nilsen, was a menace and there was more than enough stories about him from his heyday. mother, holly koch, came from a family where everyone was constantly at each other’s throats. holly dealt with the drama of it all through defiance. she fell for willie hard and fast and was soon caught up in his world, drugs and petty crimes. as was common in both willie and holly’s familues, an accidental teenage pregnancy was the next step. at first, willie was ecstatic and supportive in the way that he usually got. holly moved out of her family’s place at delphinus creek and into a trailer with him at lilac ridge. of course, willie was flaky and asshole-ish and it only took him three months to disappear from town. a pregnant holly still caught up in love did her best during those months of pregnancy. she remained clean, worked to pay rent, and believed willie would be back any day. her younger sister, fiona, who adored and looked up to holly was there to help every step of the way. freya was eventually born and willie never showed up. holly fell into a deep postpartum depression and had to be moved back in home with her mother and her siblings. she couldn’t care for freya at all. a month and a half later, willie returned to irving and holly was ecstatic despite the initial abandonment. and soon after that, both of them were gone, leaving freya behind. / end tw

it’s not as if her parents suddenly disappeared from existence, although freya prefers to pretend that they did. it’s easier to deal with them as nondescript figures in her life. and, at the end of the day, they ditched her. in reality, collect calls from correctional facilities let her figure out that her dad’s been locked up. memories of a woman in youth that looked so much like her and so much like fiona proved that holly was still in and out in irving. freya also remembers that holly never acknowledged her as her own before disappearing once more. she never figured out if it was done purposefully or if it was because that’s just the way her mother functioned. that being said, all potential contact with either parent was short and brief and freya learned to not let it mean anything. there hasn’t been any substantial contact for years now either way. her dad’s in prison. her mother’s missing.

freya grew up under the care of her grandmother at first, a bitter woman with a husband long dead, who resented having to look after this baby. that only lasted a handful of years ‘cause soon enough, she wasn’t fit and sent off to a nursing home. fiona, who was of age at that time, took guardianship of freya at lilac ridge or at whichever boyfriend’s home.

fiona raising freya was more of a weird friendship/sibling sort of relationship rather than a proxy mother-daughter one. that meant freya had too much freedom, but it also meant there were a lot of screaming matches between the pair and a lot of times freya was left directionless. her aunt also loved serial dating so there were a lot of strange men in and out. not the most reputable guys either, but truth be told those men were providing them with financial support, so fiona was never quick to let them go despite the way things would go sour.

very independent. freya has a lot of practical smarts, although most of the time it’s used for nothing good (knows how to shoplift without getting caught, can talk her way out of most things, knows how to get what from who). she’s someone who does what she wants. discipline is foreign to her and god forbid if anyone tries it. in typical teenage fashion, heightened by the fact that life was set up for her to fail, she’s always had this aura of apathy. her general approach to life is to accept it as it is but make sure she’s having as much fun as possible. of course, as most people do, there was an inkling of yearning there. the shiny gold possibility that she didn’t have to become another nilsen-koch irving deadbeat staple hung at the back of her mind. that she could possibly get out and have some dreams was encouraged by a few teachers. so she ended up trying as much as she could possibly try in her last few years of high school and proved to herself that she wasn’t completely useless. although, it was soon clear that getting into a good out-of-state college required more than just making an attempt — extracurriculars and money and other obvious yet non-obvious things that freya lacked. at the end of the day, her best option was a local college, which wasn’t a defeat by any means cause she had made it and it was college. still, she was stuck too close to irving. she decided to major in business. good at numbers and can talk the talk baby.

kind of always has her foot out the door though. it didn’t take long for freya to fall back into old habits because her life is her life. there’s always a lack of money, another toxic man fiona’s caught up with, another wrench thrown in the works. her education became spacey and full of cracks. she never made it to graduation, dropping out a few semesters in. unfortunate bc she’s the kind of person who could accomplish things if she cared or tried, but the problem is that she does not and no, she will not ask for help <3 she refuses to take anything seriously.

instead of school, she spent time on the road. she had it in her mind to visit her dad in prison in louisiana, not knowing really why she had that urge. maybe it was to properly meet him, ask about her mother, curse him out. but, she never ended up making it out there. instead she got caught up in a few things and with a few people and at the end of the day she once again just didn’t follow through.

now back at irving, freya’s at her usual job at cutie pie’s as a waitress (wanda has a soft spot for her thankfully so there’s always a place for her). she’s moved out of fiona’s place at delphinus heights, mostly bc freya was sick of dealing with her aunt’s disgusting boyfriends, and into the same trailer that was supposed to be willie and holly’s family home in lilac ridge. she found out that fiona had been making payments on the place, expecting holly to return at any time. from childhood, fiona had held her older sister in revere although frankly freya doesn’t get it. told her aunt off for wasting money like that, but still took the trailer off of fiona’s hands, so. shrugs my shoulders.

let’s plot so good everybody.........

#irvingintro #death tw #drug use tw #postpartum depression tw #one intro of three done. wipes sweat.

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lovelivresse · 4 years ago

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A non-exhaustive list of reasons why Baz needs therapy

those are only the examples I could think of when I wrote this, there are probably other things

That boy is suicidal or “I don’t have a death wish” my ass or RAINBOW PLS ADDRESS THIS

“Stake through the heart?” he asked, falling back into the corner and resting an arm on a pile of skulls. “Beheading, perhaps? That only works if you keep my head separate from my body, and even then I could still walk; my body won’t stop until it finds my head.… Better go with fire, Snow, it’s the only solution.” (Carry On, Chapter 17) Baz… Baby… You know too much about how to kill a vampire. Also, talking about the boy he loves killing him, and genuinely believing that the boy he loves would kill him… not cool

“She would have killed me.

She would have faced me, what I am, and done what was right.”

and “He will … Finish me.

Snow will do the right thing.” (Carry On, Chapter 40) He thinks of him dying as something that’s “right” TWICE, and also the whole being killed by loved ones thing… Baz you need a hug

[about the fire] “This is what I deserve” (Carry On, Chapter 60) NO IT’S NOT

“I could hear him singing, even after I’d been walking for ten minutes. “Ashes, ashes—we all fall down.” (Carry On, Chapter 17) This one doesn’t really count, it just hurts my feelings that the part of the song Baz is singing that is highlighted is the one about ASHES.

So in conclusion, after his LITERAL SUICIDE ATTEMPT it’s never addressed again that he has some serious suicidal tendencies. He says he doesn’t have a death wish and that’s all, it’s completely overlooked after that when CLEARLY, he HAS a death wish.

Fucked up things that seem to have impacted him the most or you think that Fiona is a better parental figure for Baz than Malcom but she isn’t really, Baz is just biased

“I know fuck-all about vampires. It’s not like I got an instruction pamphlet when I was bitten.” (Carry On, Chapter 30) A BIG part of who he is is completely unknown to him. As seen before, what he knows best about vampires is how to kill them. On top of that, even the things he thinks are true about vampires aren’t necessarily (Lamb can bite a human without killing or turning them) and he gets mixed signals (Nicodemus seems to age normally while Lamb is something like hundreds of years old and he still looks like he’s in his thirties)

“I don’t think my father ever would have mentioned it, even if he’d caught me draining the maid [...] Though he’d much prefer to catch me disrobing the maid.… (Definitely more disappointed in my queerness than my undeadness.)” (Carry On, Chapter 40) Malcolm’s complete lack of acknowledgement of Baz’s vampirism + Baz thinking that his sexuality is even a bigger deal to his father than his vampirism. He has those two things that are both parts of his identity that he didn’t choose and that are both considered to be something bad by his father, that CAN’T be easy and it definitely caused him a lot of shame and self-hatred. We have the point of view of 18-year-old Baz, I’m not sure he would be nearly as okay with his sexuality as he is if we were in the head of the Baz who just came out/thinks of coming out to his father

“My father never acknowledges that I’m a vampire—besides my flammability—and I know he’ll never send me away because of it.

But my mother?

She would have killed me.

She would have faced me, what I am, and done what was right.” (Carry On, Chapter 40) Once again, Malcolm’s complete lack of acknowledgement of Baz’s vampirism + the fact that Baz thinks his mother would have KILLED HIM if she knew he was a vampire.

“He swings his wand and practically howls, spraying fire all around us. “This is what my mother would want for me, you idiot. [...] “My mother died killing vampires,” he says. “And when they bit her, she killed herself. It’s the last thing she did. If she knew what I am … She would never have let me live.” (Carry On, Chapter 60) Natasha wanting him dead because of his vampirism is something that’s mentioned again after chapter 40, here in chapter 60, which shows that 1) the opinion his mother would have of him really matters to him 2) he believes this opinion would have been VERY negative 3) he doesn’t even CONSIDER the option that his mother might have loved him enough to accept that he had been turned

“My father still isn’t ready to admit I have a boyfriend, and it would be too exhausting, living in a place where I have to pretend I’m not a vampire or hopelessly queer.” (Carry On, Epilogue) Malcolm please stop ignoring most of who your son is I’m begging you

I also wanted to say a few words about Fiona because I feel like in general we (as in, the fandom) really see Malcolm’s bad behavior towards Baz but not Fiona’s, while she’s also far from perfect. She saved him from the Numpties, that’s a good thing, that’s what we see, but look : “She berated me all the way home, and all the way back to Watford. She made me sit in the back seat of her MG. (A ’67. Glorious.) “The front seat is for people who’ve never been kidnapped by bloody numpties. Jesus Christ, Baz.”

The front seat thing is a joke now but when you really think about it and when you focus on that whole paragraph and not just Fiona’s words, this is the situation that is presented : Baz just spent 6 WEEKS locked in a coffin, starved, not knowing what would happen to him, and instead of, I don’t know, TRYING TO COMFORT HIM, his aunt “berates” him, as if he was the one to blame in this situation. Jesus Christ, Fiona, give the boy a hug and ask him if he’s okay instead.

And then there’s this : “Then the Coven made her a vampire hunter” (Carry On, Epilogue) That part would have fit better in the 3rd category but since I’m talking about Fiona let’s put it here. SHE LITERALLY KILLS VAMPIRES AS A JOB. I love Fiona but it makes me so angry whenever I think about it. I don’t know, I feel like a NORMAL PERSON wouldn’t become a VAMPIRE HUNTER when their nephew IS A VAMPIRE. That must fuck Baz up so bad that she does that, even if he doesn’t even realize it himself, and I hate that the impact of Fiona killing vampires for a living on Baz isn’t tackled at all.

So in conclusion, Baz thinks that is father is disappointed in him for existing, basically, he thinks that his mother would have wanted him dead AND KILLED HIM for what he is, and then there’s Fiona

Other fucked up things that are just barely mentioned or RAINBOW PLS ADDRESS THIS part 2

“He slipped a flask out of his jacket and took a swig. I didn’t know that he’d been drinking” (Carry On, Chapter 17) Baz was drinking. Was it a one time thing? Did Simon somehow catch him the ONE time he got drunk in the Catacombs? If it was not the first time he went there and got drunk, did he have a problem with alcohol in fifth year? I NEED ANSWERS

“Of course I’ve read Anne Rice. I was a 15-year-old closet case whose parents pretended they didn’t notice when the family dog disappeared” (Wayward Son, Chapter 22) Once again, his family doing a poor job when it comes to handling his vampirism but we've been over this. INSTEAD CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT HE FED ON HIS DOG, AN ANIMAL THAT HE VERY PROBABLY LOVED, BUT THE BLOODTHIRST WAS JUST TOO STRONG TO RESIST???????? It must have been so difficult and traumatizing for him, and it’s just dropped like that in the story like it’s nothing while I’m over here crying about it

#carry on #baz pitch #i have a lot of feelings about him okay #mostly sadness #and a strong desire to give him a hug #simon snow #snowbaz

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leavetwn · 4 years ago

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* AMANDA CAMPANA, NOBINARY + SHE/HER/THEY/THEM | you know RAMONA GALLO, right? they’re TWENTY-THREE, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, TWENTY-THREE YEARS? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to CRYING ON THE BATHROOM FLOOR BY MUNA like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole COLD PIZZA AS A HANGOVER CURE, TALKING SHIT ABOUT CUSTOMERS IN THE BREAKROOM, LONGING FOR WHAT COULD'VE BEEN, thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is AUGUST 17TH, so they’re a LEO, which is unsurprising, all things considered. ( claire, 22, est, she/her )

HEY , BESTIES ! happy new year (the way it’s 11:55pm here so barely) !! my name’s claire and i’m 22. i’m livin in the est timezone, and my pronouns are she/her. i’m bringing y’all a mess of a muse 😈 because well ,,, it’s what i’m best at. if you’re feelin ramona & wanna plot, just go ahead and like this & i’ll hit you up. i usually plot on discord, but if you prefer the tumblr ims, that’s no problem at all. anyway, lemme stop waistin time and get to introducing you to ramona. * tw: mentions of cheating & alcohol.

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 .

full name: ramona gallo. nickname(s): anything your muse wants to call her tbh. age: twenty-three. date of birth: august 17th. zodiac sign: leo. gender/pronouns: non-binary, she/her/they/them. sexual orientation: bisexual. romantic orientation: biromantic. hometown: irving, north carolina. current residence: irving, north carolina. occupation: employee at zoinkies currently, a lifeguard during the summer. eye color: brown. hair color/style: had long hair up until her breakup then had one of those breakdowns and cut her own hair into a bob and then her own bangs. i bet it was a mess lol so she probably called her friends or went to a salon the very next day to get it fixed. also highlighted the ends red but her natural color is brown. height : 5′5″. clothing style: simple and comfortable. t-shirts, croptops, turtlenecks, all usually paired with either jean shorts or jeans in general. she prefers to feel cozy rather than cute. tattoos: yes. a small one on her wrist. wants more eventually. piercings: both ears peirced & a navel piercing that she did herself against better judgement lol.

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 .

you were born on a scorching hot day in irving , your father says so, anyway. you’re convinced he’s being dramatic. your birth went smoothly; after two previous children, your parents had become disillusioned by childbirth. just another one to add to the bunch, and one that was meant to save a dying marriage. still, they loved you nonetheless. your father, to this day. your mother, until you were ten, and then she up and left without a warning.

your father keeps food on the table by fixing cars. you spend your days in the hot sun watching him replace parts and continuously try to crank vehicles until they run. he fist pumps every time one does. ‘ how lame, ’ you think, but it’s inspiring how hard he works to take care of three kids. and he does a good job.

therefore , you spend much of your early life trying to make him proud. you’re smart as a whip, and all your teachers have good things to say about you when it comes to academics. you’re a bit of a troublemaker, though. your father doesn’t mind that too much; he was the same at your age. and he’s proud — proud to see you work so hard.

you spend your teenage years doing much of the same. though , you begin to come home a bit later than usual, and your excuse is that you’ve been at ashley’s or samantha’s, but really all three of you were out partying. you don’t think your father would care (your grades are fine & he wants you to live like a normal teenager) , but you still lie about it. why ? well, who knows, maybe you like the adrenaline rush it gives you. like most things, you do them for the thrill.

you join the swim team. you’re kind of bad , but that’s okay. just like always , you work hard, and you realize that you’re kind of a natural. your father cheers louder than anyone else in the stands. it pushes you to do better. with your good grades and athletics , your guidance counselor tells you you’re a shoo in for a scholarship from whatever university you want. you apply to several. if it’s one thing you hate, its this town. you can’t wait to make it out, and you figure, this might be your only way.

you’re eighteen, and you’re in love. it’s crazy how love can make you see things differently. suddenly , this town doesn’t seem half bad. all your friends find it cute , and you tell them everything. the things he tells you or the way he makes you feel. it’s a crazy feeling; you never want it to end.

you throw your cap in the air. finally , high school is over. college is looming. you’ve been accepted to several & received scholarships from at least a few. you lie in bed thinking about it. now, you suddenly don’t want to leave so bad. don’t want to leave him behind. how could someone leave another they love so easily? it makes you hate your mother more.

for the first time, you disappoint your father. you don’t go to college. you don’t give a damn. you want to stay where love is. you’re addicted to the feeling. this lasts for three years. now, you’re twenty-one; you’ve gotten a job at zoinkies, and that keeps you away for most of the day. you randomly decide to visit your boyfriend during a lunch break one day. you find him in bed with someone else. suddenly , you realize love isn’t as addicting as you once thought. what once made the world beautiful now made it hideous. what once made you feel so high had somehow made you feel so low. it was horrible, and you’d realized your mistakes.

you threw away your future for love. something as rotten and twisted as love. something you swore you’d never let yourself feel again. something that you put away in a locked box with no key. irving was the same place you’d always known it to be. boring, drab, familiar. at least you had your family. that was barely enough to keep you sane, though, and it was hard to feel normal.

you turned to the thing that help. alcohol, partying, any escape at all. you lacked coping skills — that much was clear, but you didn’t care. you blamed it on something else entirely. just as your teachers had said, you’re a bit of a troublemaker. you do anything to make yourself feel alive, to make yourself feel free of the hurt.

it’s two years later now. you’re still not over it in some ways, as regret turns to anger and resentment. you’re bitter. who wouldn’t be? but you feel like you’ve had time to mourn. maybe it’s because you never acknowledged it in the way you should’ve ( it’s still locked away in that box. ) you still have your bad habits. you still work at your stupid job that you hate. you’re lost, but you’ll figure it out. you always do. so, you continue to float , seemingly stuck in the town that you never let go of, and you wonder what comes next. only time will tell.

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 .

still swims but doesn’t have as much time for it. probably not as good, but since she spends the summer lifeguarding, she uses that time to practice & try to get back to where she was. also kinda jaded asf so even if she says she wants to get back into it, she probably won’t lmaoo.

is a horrible driver. how did she get a license ?? not even she knows. def the type to like have a leg up on the dash board, hand out the window, and only one hand on the wheel while speedin idk how she makes it out alive

can take a car apart and put it back together again thanks to her dad. also changes her own tires so let her change your tires. im just sayin

stays up way too late & would sleep until 2 pm everyday if she didn’t have to work. should probably work on being an adult and going to bed at a normal time but just half the time doesn’t give a fuck so she’s probably sleep deprived a lot. therefore also has a

character parallels: alice ayres/jane jones (closer, 2004) , clementine (eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, 2004) , fiona gallagher (shameless, 2011-present) , more to be added.

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 .

ok but plots really do be making my world go ‘round. 😳 i love em, so literally hmu with anything you’re feeling, and i’ll be down. just wanna plot & write with everyone 💕 but here’s a couple of wanted connections for y’all. i’ll prolly have a most wanted tag sooner or later & i’ma be make a plot page soon.

* the unholy trinity — these two are the friends she cherishes most. i’m assuming they’ve been friends since at least early high school , maybe earlier. they went through a lot together. these two were with her through all her relationship troubles. true ride or dies. she’s do absolutely anything for them, and she trusts that they feel the same way. they’re rowdy & wild, do whatever they want, and have a damn good time doin it. also have a gc where they just talk shit and send tiktoks idk just gimme this plsss 🥺

* friends with benefits / one night stands — this would probably be the extent of ramona. clearly not over what happened to her the last time 😭, so she’d have plenty of these tbh. she probably wouldn’t think too much about it, but it could be awkward for you muse maybe, etc.

* unrequited love / crush — here’s a toast to the ones who crush on ramona. it would be an absolute tragedy lmaoo. she’s not really mean about it, but she is 100% certain she’s not looking for any type of relationship. could be really dramatic and messy and those are tha best kind. literally this

* former friends / enemies — she’s lived here her whole life, so she’s at least got one. these two just don’t get along/no longer get along for whatever reason that can be plotted out.

* coworkers — she works zoinkies throughout the year and picks up shifts as a lifeguard during the summer so your muses could know her from that. could delve into a close friend territory too lmao. they probably just sit in break rooms and talk about rude customers or bossy managers lmaooo.

* literally anything your heart desires — a lot could work. we could even just start from nowhere & have them meet for the first time if they’re newer/just to town.

#irvingintro #tw alcohol #tw cheating #it is so sick & twisted that i have another one to write i can't believe lol #but it must be done #hi luv me plot with me

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im-fairly-whitty · 4 years ago

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The Witcher Wolf: The Road to Kaer Morhen

Geralt and Jaskier have successfully retrieved Ciri just in the nick of time, but now must travel to the safety of Kaer Morhen with her and Mousesack the druid while Nilfgaard is searching for them.

Geralt's ability to turn into a wolf comes in handy, a mysteriously magical death unearths the beginning of a mystery he can't resist chasing, and he realizes that for Ciri's sake he must face the heretofore unaddressed relationship failings of his past.

Chapter 1 - By the Fireside

Geralt had spent the majority of his life on the road, had been accompanied by all manner of companions over the years and experienced every kind of weather imaginable. He’d traveled with plenty of provisions and none at all, had traveled with a destination in mind and wandered aimlessly for weeks. He’d hurried toward and away, traveled openly and secretly, on foot on hoof on boat and on one memorable occasion, wing.

But he had never in all his decades experienced anything quite like the past three days as he traveled with his bard, his child surprise, two horses, and a druid. A journey made all the stranger in that he was fleeing toward Kaer Morhen in early autumn instead of the first fringes of winter, and with what amounted to an entire peculiar family instead of entirely alone.

But perhaps the thing Geralt had least anticipated about this journey was the fact that every moment he and Jaskier had to themselves had to be stolen, and even then Ciri was more likely than not still the topic of conversation.

“I’m just not sure it’s all that safe.” Jaskier said quietly, adjusting his grip on his horse’s reigns and looking back over their shoulders to where Mousesack and Ciri were walking behind them. The group was dismounted for now to rest the horses as they walked, giving Geralt and Jaskier a moment out of earshot from the other two. “We don’t know anything about any group of refugees we’d come across other than that they’ll be tired and desperate. We’d have to be sure not to ruffle any feathers, any negative attention could be disastrous.”

“True, but we need to get more supplies, as well as news of what’s going on in the war effort, if Nilfgaard is looking for Ciri and where.” Geralt said, the hand not holding Roach’s reigns idly tracing along Jaskier’s back as they walked, just for the sake of touching. “And the only way to do that is if we mix with the refugee camps. We’ve been traveling parallel to them all morning, when they stop at the next town we should stop with them, just for the night. No one will notice a few more displaced travelers in town if we’re among a crowd of them.”

“They might if it’s the White Wolf; Geralt of Rivia.” Jaskier said, letting his hip bump Geralt’s, a soft touch of playfulness despite the weariness of their little group from constant alertness. “You’re too memorable darling.”

“And whose fault is that?” Geralt asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Mine, I accept full responsibility for the brilliance of my hard-earned success in remaking your reputation.” Jaskier said with a smile. “But that does mean you’ll have to be a wolf, leaving Mousack to do the rummaging about for information since I’d rather not be separated from Ciri and I don’t think she’ll be up for much.” Jaskier’s smile faded. “The poor girl’s hardly slept since Cintra, and we can’t risk her having one of her nightmares if we end up spending the night among the refugees.”

“We’ll only stay if the camp seems safe.” Geralt promised. “We’ll take turns staying awake beside her to wake her if things get bad again.”

Geralt had known logically that Ciri was a child of the Elder Blood, having known Pavetta’s powers, but waking the night before to the soul curdling screams of a child that put a flock of sirens to shame had been more than enough to put all of them on edge. Geralt had been able to get to her side and gentle her awake before any lasting damage was done to them or the horses--creating a serious sense of deja vu of a certain banquet long ago--but as Ciri cried herself back to sleep in his arms he had traded wary looks with Mousesack and Jaskier over her shoulder.

Keeping a child safe was one thing, keeping a princess hidden was another, but keeping a traumatized little girl who had the ability to scream a forest to the ground because of bad dreams was only going to make things even harder. According to Mousesack this was the first time the girl’s powers had properly manifested, but something he’d been watching for for years.

“Well, with Mousesack handling the errands that leaves the three of us just standing around.” Jaskier said. “If we’re really going to risk it then we need something less suspicious to do than than just hovering on the edge of camp, we don’t want to make these poor people more nervous than they already are.”

“And what do you propose?” Geralt asked. “Sitting down with your lute to teach the children to make flower crowns while Mousesack asks around for news and supplies?” Geralt said.

But at that Jaskier only raised his eyebrows, tilting his head and rubbing his chin thoughtfully with a smile.

***

“Look! I found more daisies!” Exclaimed Elenor, a little refugee girl whose shoes had seen better days.

She dropped her armful of the yellow and white flowers on the grass and the gaggle of children circled around eagerly grabbed them to add to their own flower chains.

“Well done Eleanor.” Jaskier said warmly, continuing to strum the gentle tune he’d been calmly playing for the last hour. “And they’ve got lovely long stems too, just perfect. Adam, could you help Nora with her pansies? I think she’s having a bit of trouble.”

Geralt huffed quietly, twitching a furry ear as one of the children leaned over to excitedly bestow yet another finished chain of flowers over his head. When Jaskier has first sat down only a couple timid refugee children had dared venture over to the bard and his wolf, but now Geralt was sure his braided collar was entirely obscured by chains of buttercups and dandelions and whatever else the children had scrounged up in the nearby fields.

Geralt’s chin rested on his paws as he allowed young hands to pet him, but he could still see the weary eyed parents watching from a distance. At first many of them had seemed wary, but now they just seemed relieved and grateful to see their children smiling and giggling over something again.

A feeling Geralt could relate to as he looked up to where Ciri was leaning against Jaskier’s side, one hand in Geralt’s fur as she dozed lightly. Coming into the refugee camp had been a risk, but at least being around the relaxed chatter of other people seemed to calm Ciri more than the tense silence of being on the run in the woods.

“Does your wolf eat children?” A little boy with a torn shirt asked Jaskier, sounding entirely unconcerned as he threaded the stem of a buttercup into Geralt’s thick fur. “My mum says wolves eat children who misbehave.”

“Regular wolves perhaps, but not this one.” Jaskier said. “My wolf is special, he only protects people who are in trouble, he’s far too handsome to be a monster.”

Geralt huffed in amusement, but his tail thumped lazily against the ground behind him as he leaned his head against Jaskier’s knee.

“Did yours and Fiona’s house got burned too?” A very little girl asked, her voice nearly too soft to hear over Jaskier’s gentle strumming. “My mum says we might never go back home, that dad isn’t going to come back.”

The children all fell into a somber silence, doubtlessly each thinking of what it was they were fleeing from, a heavy reality that couldn’t be forgotten in an afternoon of music and flower crowns.

“Yes, Fiona’s home got burned too.” Jaskier said softly, of course unable to sugar coat, but still able to at least validate and gentle. “It’s made us very frightened and tired, and angry at the people who did it too. I’m afraid it’s not a very nice way to be feeling, is it? Especially when the grown-ups seem to feel that way too?”

The little girl shook her head, her bottom lip trembling. Geralt carefully got to his feet, crossing the circle of children to sit beside her, whining gently as the little girl turned and hugged his neck tightly, burning her face in his fur.

Several of the other children reached out to pet him as well and Geralt settled down at their feet, content to lay there as the scents of fear and sadness slowly mellowed. Not disappearing, but no longer sharp as the children had something soft and good and pleasant to think of for perhaps the first time in several hard days.

Geralt opened one eye to see Jaskier watching him with a soft expression, Ciri still asleep at his side. Geralt wagged his tail once in acknowledgment, then turned his attention back to the children around him, doing his best to be what they needed most right now.

It certainly wasn't the first time in the last two years that he’d provided comfort in his wolf form, and he’d found it to often be more satisfying than any contract.

***

Geralt remained a wolf until sundown, becoming a great favorite among their corner of the refugee camp until he trotted off into the trees. Jaskier had explained to the children that it was time for him to leave for the night to go take care of his wolfy errands, and he had been bid several teary farewells.

By the time Geralt wandered back to camp—now dressed in light armor and a cloak with a deep hood—the campfires were crackling quietly and everyone who was fortunate enough to have a tent was in it. Some adults were still awake and speaking quietly to each other across their own fires, but Geralt could hear easily the rhythmic song of crickets and the night breeze over them as the camp quietly dozed in exhaustion.

“Welcome back, Wolf.” Jaskier whispered, shifting as Geralt came to sit with him at the base of the oak tree near their fire.

“Ciri asleep?” Geralt murmured, sitting behind Jaskier and pulling the bard into his lap, loosely wrapping his cloak around them.

“She is, Mousesack just relieved me of nightmare watch duty.” Jaskier said. He yawned like a cat as he stretched, then settled to curl up contentedly against Geralt’s chest. “You’ll be up next, but not for a couple hours.”

“We need to find something for her.” Geralt said, frowning. “Some kind of sleeping draught perhaps once we aren’t traveling and she has a safe roof over her head again.”

“I imagine the roof alone will do as much good as a potion.” Jaskier said, his voice deceptively light. “I know I’ll sleep better once I stop seeing Nilfgaardian helmet wings in every swaying tree branch.”

Geralt bit his lip, but hesitated to say anything. Jaskier had been sleeping almost as badly as Ciri, but whenever Geralt had shaken him awake he’d only said he wasn’t ready yet to talk about what he’d seen.

He knew Jaskier had been trying to grieve for the death of his spymaster friend as quietly as possible--what with all the danger and hurry their little band was still in--and had been doing his best to give the bard space despite his own questions.

And so instead of pushing Geralt only held him a bit closer as they watched the fire for a long moment of calm silence.

“I first met Wilhelm when I started visiting Ciri on her birthdays.” Jaskier said quietly, capturing Geralt’s attention. “In hindsight it was probably because he knew we traveled together and he wanted to keep an eye on me, at least to begin with, but we always had at least a few exciting nights together whenever I was in town.”

Geralt kept quiet as Jaskier paused, only his thumb moving to stroke back and forth across the bard’s shoulder as he waited for him to continue at his own pace.

“When he came to get me out of the dungeon he had a sword with fire runes in it.” Jaskier said, taking a shaky breath and letting it out slowly. “I’ve only ever seen you carry runestone swords, but it was glowing like anything. He got us nearly to the back gate but there were too many soldiers in the way and so he...” Jaskier swallowed, evidently experiencing a rare moment of words failing him as he struggled to push past the emotion in his throat. “He, ah, he decided to create a distraction so I could sneak past. It was...it was awful Geralt, I, I never...”

“You saw him die?” Geralt prompted carefully, not wanting to push too hard.

“I...don’t know.” Jaskier said, brow furrowed tightly as he stared into the flames of the campfire, shadows flickering across his face. “He lit himself on fire, Geralt.”

Geralt jolted a bit in shock. “He what?” He could believe the spymaster had given himself up to save an old friend, but he hadn’t pegged the spymaster as being insane.

“Not, not like with a torch.” Jaskier said, looking up at him. “He literally lit himself on fire, as in from within himself. He said his mother had been a witch who dealt with fire magic and that’s why he had an igni sword.” Jaskier flexed his hands unconsciously. “He said he’d never really used fire magic before because he didn’t know how to control it, but then he did anyway. It’s like he became fire, I could see it in his eyes Geralt, in his veins. He was in pain, but he still went and fought the soldiers, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Neither have I.” Geralt said, frowning as he mentally flipped through the short list of fire related creatures he’d ever heard of. “He wasn’t just channeling it out from him like a mage? It was actually inside him and didn’t kill him instantly?”

“He became the fire. It was in him.” Jaskier said, huddling closer as the haunting memory doubtlessly replayed before his eyes. “He seemed sure it would kill him soon...but he did it anyway.”

“And you’re sure he wasn’t a trained magic user?” Geralt asked, his brain now seizing onto the puzzle.

A mage could create and channel fire, but not become fire without suffering immediately suffering the deadly consequences. A very powerful one might be able to stave off the effects for a few moments, but certainly not someone as untrained as Wilhelm, especially if he hadn’t been carrying any additional tools. What the spymaster had done had to be something entirely different than anything Geralt had seen before, and he’d seen an awful lot.

“Wilhelm de Drobiazg, spymaster of Cintra. Master of words and people and tipsy banter, but not magic.” Jaskier said, his voice getting quieter and sadder, the scent of grief descending heavily now around them.

“Drobiazg?” Geralt asked, his attention catching on the name.

He’d heard it somewhere before...but where?

“That was his name? Drobiazg?” he asked, torn between knowing Jaskier had reached the end of his energy for the subject and the familiar spark inside him that always took interest in unsolved questions.

Jaskier nodded silently, eyes closing as he wrapped his arms around Geralt tighter. He was done for the night, that much was clear.

Geralt pushed away his questions and shifted to pull Jaskier closer, tucking the cloak around them more securely. Maybe he’d get the chance to ask more questions later, but really the spymaster’s fate ranked exceedingly low on the list of concerns Geralt should be spending his energy worrying about. For now trying to make sure Jaskier got a decent night of sleep was at the very top of that list.

And besides, apart from Jaskier, he’d likely never hear of the dead spymaster again.

-------

Sure, Geralt.

#the witcher #geralt #jaskier #ciri #mousesack #the witcher wolf #wit writes

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frvyas · 4 years ago

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「olivia holt & cis female」⇾ nilsen, freya, the junior radcliffe student’s records show that she is a leo and 21 years old. she is studying marketing, living off-campus and can be assured, exuberant, facetious & remiss. when i see her i am reminded of a missing mother’s found necklace, sleeping through well-intentioned alarms, automated ‘to accept this call, press 3 now’ messages seemingly on loop.

ella again! with her second character. again if u would like to plot, smash that like button and i’ll hit u up!!

(addiction tw) freya’s comes from a family that has plagued lovell for years with their stunning reputation! father, conrad nilsen, was a menace and there was more than enough stories about him from his heyday. mother, holly koch, came from a family where everyone was constantly at each other’s throats. holly dealt with the drama of it all through drug use. as was common in holly’s family, an accidental pregnancy was the next step and thus, freya was born. their happy family of three didn’t last long. the reasons as to why her parents just ditched her are plenty if you wanted to explore them! a real baby is scarier than the idea of a baby, conrad had non-baby plans and holly wanted to follow after him, and finally, addiction is a bitch. freya grew up in her aunt fiona’s care for the majority of her life.

it’s not as if her parents suddenly disappeared from existence, although freya prefers pretending that they did. it’s easier to deal with them as nondescript figures in her life. and, at the end of the day, they ditched her. in reality, collect calls from correctional facilities let her figure out that her dad’s been locked up. memories of a woman in youth that looked so much like her and so much like fiona proved that holly was still in and out in lovell. freya also remembers that holly never acknowledged her as her own before disappearing once more. she never figured out if it was done purposefully or if it was because that’s just the way her mother functioned. that being said, all potential contact with either parent was short and brief and freya learned to not let it mean anything. there hasn’t been any substantial contact for years now either way.

as for freya’s aunt, she was on the younger side when she took freya in and as she was being raised, it was more of a weird friendship/sibling sort of relationship rather than a proxy mother-daughter one. that meant freya had too much freedom, but it also meant there was a lot of screaming matches between the pair and a lot of times freya was left directionless. her aunt also loved serial dating so there was a lot of strange men in and out. not the most reputable guys either, but truth be told those men were providing them with financial support, so fiona was never quick to let them go.

very independent. freya has a lot of practical smarts, although most of the time it’s used for nothing good (knows how to shoplift without getting caught, can talk her way out of most things, knows how to get what from who). she’s someone who does what she wants! discipline is foreign to her and god forbid if anyone tries it. in typical teenage fashion, heightened by the fact that life was set up for her to fail, she’s always had this aura of apathy. her general approach to life is to accept it as it is but make sure she’s having so much fun as well. of course, as most people do, there was an inkling of yearning there. the shiny gold possibility that she didn’t have to become another nilsen-koch lovell deadbeat staple hung at the back of her mind. that she could possibly get out and have some dreams was encouraged by a few teachers. so she ended up trying as much as she could possibly try in her last few years of high school and proved to herself that she wasn’t completely useless. although, it was soon clear that getting into a good out-of-state college requires more than just making an attempt -- extracurriculars and money and other obvious yet non-obvious things that freya lacked. at the end of the day, her best option was the local college at radcliffe, which wasn’t a defeat by any means cause she had made it and it was college. still, she was stuck in lovell. she decided to major in marketing after her sophomore year. good at numbers and can talk the talk baby.

kind of always has her foot out the door though. it didn’t take long for freya to fall back into old habits because her life is her life. there’s always a lack of money, another man fiona’s caught up in, another wrench thrown in the works. her education has been spacey and has cracks, and i’ll be honest, i don’t think she’ll make it to graduation but she’s here now! unfortunate bc she’s the kind of person who could accomplish things if she cared or tried, but the problem is that she does not and no, she will not ask for help! she refuses to take anything seriously.

other fun facts is that she’s a leo! she knows how to have fun and knows how to track down a party. i don’t think she’s someone that would ever bring the mood down. like i said she doesn’t really get Deep about things so if your muse needs someone to fuck around with freya is your girl. if your muse needs help with something serious, she is not your girl! her general relationships and friendships are all over the place. i think she’s someone who doesn’t make much of an effort in anything, but will also be totally fine picking things up weeks later. there’s a handful of relationships she holds closer than the rest, though. careless with people and things. catch her in your muse’s favorite sweatshirt that went missing a week ago. currently working at the local diner, which she has been for a few years now. been known to pick up shifts in place of classes. follows paris hilton’s advice of screwing things up the first time so you don’t have to do them again. currently living in an off-campus apartment with lana, maggie, and rosa and lana frequently covers her part of the rent (blows her a kiss).

#ruhqintro #addiction tw

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aion-rsa · 5 years ago

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Best Jane Austen Adaptations on Screen So Far

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With Emma and Sanditon making waves (seaside resort pun!), we're listing up the best screen adaptations of Jane Austen's work.

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that every Jane Austen novel must be adapted an infinite amount of times and we will be grateful for all of them. (Yes, even the Pride & Prejudice & Zombies film, the best part of which was not the movie itself but a supercut of Matt Smith as Mr. Collins eating scones.)

There have been a lot of adaptations of Jane Austen's six major novels and some of her other works, including the recently-released Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy. These are the ones we recommend watching.

Best Pride and Prejudice Adaptations

Easily the most adapted of Jane Austen's works, Pride and Prejudice is a foundational work in the broader romantic comedy genre and in so much of our mainstream storytelling. People tend to have opinions about which of the P&P adaptations are the best. (Who is the best Elizabeth? Who is the best Darcy? Which is the most faithful? Does it matter?) Here are the ones we think are worth checking out...

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

There’s nothing more iconic Austen than BBC/A&E’s 1995 miniseries adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, starring Jennifer Ehle as proud Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as prejudiced Mr. Darcy. The six-part serial was adapted by Andrew Davies, who would go on to pen many more Austen adaptations, and was the project that shot Firth to stardom. The scene of Firth’s Mr. Darcy coming out of the lake, long shirt soaked through, has been riffed on countless times (a personal favorite? St. Trinian’s), and for good reason. Mr. Darcy has never been so begrudgingly sexy.

Bridget Jones' Diary (2001)

An adaptation of the book of the same name which is a contemporary reimagining of Pride and Prejudice, Bridget Jones’ Diary has Colin Firth reprising the Mr. Darcy role (here, Mark Darcy) alongside Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones, a 32-year-old woman looking to stop smoking, lose weight, and find Mr. Right—who most definitely is not snooty barrister Mr. Darcy.

Written by Richard Curtis (Love Actually), Andrew Davies (screenwriter of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice), and source material author Helen Fielding, this script has it all: romance, comedy, and plenty of heart. The film spawned two sequels—neither of which are as good as the original, but neither of which is terrible either.

Bride & Prejudice (2004)

This Bollywood-style contemporary adaptation from Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) stars Aiswarya Rai as Lalita Bakshi, a young Indian woman who lives in Amritsar with her parents and three sisters. When Lalita and her sister meet British-Indian lawyer Balraj (Naveen Andrews) and well-off American Will Darcy (Martin Henderson) at a wedding, strong feelings ensue. A great cast and a fresh cultural setting make this adaptation a must-watch.

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Basically a masterpiece, Joe Wright’s first feature film has a great cast (Kiera Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Rosamund Pike, Carey Mulligan, Jena Malone, Judy Dench, Talulah Riley, and Donald Sutherland), but it’s the director’s interest in getting the setting right that makes this adaptation special. Using his trademark long shot, Wright invites viewers into the world of the Bennets: from the homey, organic mess of the Bennet house to the cheerful chaos of a dance hall, Pride and Prejudice has never felt so lived-in.

Lost in Austen (2008)

If you like your Austen with a speculative fiction twist, might I recommend Lost in Austen? This 2008 ITV miniseries stars Jemima Rooper as Amanda Price, a huge Jane Austen fan who gets pulled into the world of her favorite Austen novel and must make choices accordingly. This four-part story doesn't totally stick the landing, but it's well worth the quick watch for its humor, creativity, and meta fun, as well as to see Gemma Arteron as Elizabeth Bennet.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012)

Who knew Austen was so well-suited for the vlog style? Hank Green and Bernie Su, apparently, who were the creators behind this Emmy-winning adaptation, which reimagines Elizabeth Bennet as a mass communications grad student still living at home with her parents and two sisters.

The story is told chiefly through a series of vlogs (as well as through supplementary social media accounts for the world’s characters, making this a transmedia storytelling experience). In universe, Lizzie (Ashley Clements) begins a vlog series chronicling her life as a thesis project, an event that just happens to coincide with the moving in of a wealthy medical student Bing Lee (Christopher Sean) and his even wealthier friend, William Darcy (Daniel Vincent Gordh), next door. Told in real-time over the span of year, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was a truly special storytelling experience, and is still well-worth watching even without the real-time aspect.

Best Emma Adaptations

While slightly less well-known than Pride and Prejudice, Emma has had its fair share of on-screen adaptations. The story of the spoiled 21-year-old Emma Woodhouse, Emma follows Emma on her matchmaking adventures, which are more the ego-driven meddling of a bored, rich girl with too much time on her hands than anything else. With Emma, Austen set out to tell the story of an unlikable protagonist, but Austen never intends for us to root against her, making Emma’s realistic journey of self-growth that much more cathartic.

Clueless (1995)

If you’ve seen one Emma adaptation, it’s probably this one. A contemporary retelling of Emma Woodhouse’s story, Clueless’ reimagining of Emma as bratty Beverly Hills teen Cher is downright genius. Starring Alicia Silverstone in the main role and Paul Rudd as ex-step brother and unassuming love interest Josh, Clueless is more than just one of the best Austen adaptations out there—it’s one of the best teen comedies of all time.

Emma (2009)

If you’re looking for a faithful miniseries adaptation of Emma, we recommend this 2009 version. Starring Romola Garai as Emma, Jonny Lee Miller as Knightley, and Michael Gabon as Mr. Woodhouse, and written by Sandy Welch (who also gave us the glorious North & South adaptation), this four-part serial will give you more bang for your buck than any of the feature film adaptations.

Emma Approved (2013)

From the web series company that brought you The Lizzie Bennet Diaries comes this similarly-structured Emma adaptation. Recontextualizing Emma Woodhouse as a young lifestyle coach and matchmaking entrepreneur, Emma Approved comments on YouTube/influence culture in insightful, empathetic ways. While not as good as its predecessor, Emma Approved is still a delightful adaptation worth the watch if you're into this form of storytelling.

Emma. (2020)

Bright, colorful, and at times absurdly pretty, this highly-stylized adaptation of Emma highlights the comedy of Austen’s classic tale without sacrificing any of the drama or romance. Anya Taylor-Joy delivers a masterful performance, as we watch Emma go from the rigidly-controlled noble to a more empathetic, thoughtful version of herself, but it’s Bill Nighy and Miranda Hart in supporting roles who really get to chew the scenery.

Other Best Jane Austen Adaptations

Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Emma Thompson. Kate Winslet. Hugh Grant. Alan Rickman. Need I say more? Written by Emma Thompson and directed by Ang Lee (his first English-language feature film), this faithful adaptation of Austen's Sense and Sensibility is a classic. Whether you're a fan of the film or simply a cinephile, I highly recommend checking out Thompson's "screenplay and diary" chronicling the making of this film.

Persuasion (1995)

If you're going to go for an adaptation of Austen's final novel (published after her death), try to find this 1995 made-for-TV film. Starring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds as Anne and Captain Wentworth respectively (not to mention Killing Eve's Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Croft!), Persuasion is not the story of two people coming together for the first time, but two people reuniting after eight years apart. We mentioned 1995 was a good year for Austen fans, yeah?

Mansfield Park (1999)

Mansfield Park doesn't get a lot of love when it comes to the adaptation, but this 1999 film starring Frances O'Connor and Jonny Lee Miller is one of the best Jane Austen-inspired films out there. A looser adaptation of the novel that also incorporates elements of Jane Austen's life into the story, Mansfield Park has all of the swoon-worthy romance, sharp social commentary, and relatable female protagonist you could want from an Austen adaptation.

Northanger Abbey (2007)

Andrew Davies is back at it again with this 2007 television movie, starring Felicity Jones as protagonist Catherine Morland (Carey Mulligan also pops up as friend Isabella Thorpe). One of the OG stories about fandom, Northanger Abbey follows young, naive Catherine as she visits Bath, becomes the object of two men's affections, and begins to confuse real life with the kind of things that might happen in the Gothic romance novels she obsessively reads. If you've never engaged with this most meta of Austen's works, we recommend checking out this adaptation.

From Mansfield With Love (2014)

If you're a fan of the vlog diaries adaptation format (if you can't tell by now, I am), then I also recommend this endearing adaptation of Mansfield Park. Created by Foot in the Door Theatre, what this production lacks in budget, it makes up for in heart. From Mansfield With Love reimagines the story of 19th-century protagonist Fanny Price to modern-day Britain where Frankie Price is working as a housekeeper at a hotel owned by the Bertrams. In an effort to keep in touch with her brother Will, she begins to send video diaries chronicling her life at Mansfield and with the Bertram family, in particularly with friend Edmund. Austen has never felt so real.

Love and Friendship (2016)

Austen in the style of Armando Iannucci (this film is actually written and directed by indie filmmaker Whit Stillman), Love and Friendship is an adaptation of Austen's epistolary novel Lady Susan, which follows the recently-widowed Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale, having so much fun) in her efforts to secure advantageous marriages for both herself and her daughter.

Sanditon (2019)

The new kid on the block, Sanditon just wrapped up its first (and hopefully not only) season on PBS. Based on the unfinished Austen novel, it follows country gentlewoman Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) into the relatively more exciting world of Sanditon, a fishing village with aspirations of being a seaside resort.

While Sanditon isn't without its indulgent plotting, it is beautiful to look at, and includes some memorable performances from Theo James, Charlotte Spencer, and a massively underutilized Crystal Clarke, playing a rare character of color in Austen adaptations. More than anything, it's interesting to see Andrew Davies (yep, he's back) extrapolating out Austen's unfinished novel. Perhaps, fittingly, we most likely will never find out what happens next in this on-screen adaptation.

What is you favorite Austen adaptation? Let us know in the comments below...

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

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Feb 26, 2020

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pcthstrayed · 5 years ago

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( ross butler, 19, he/him ) welcome to san francisco, ARLO PARK. rumor has it they are a WITCH/DARKLIGHTER, but only they could tell you the truth! when i close my eyes, i think of them and imagine BLOODSTAINS SCRUBBED OUT OF CREAM COLORED CARPETS, LYFT SCOOTERS, AND THE PRODIGAL SON.

are you as tired of me doing intros as i am? ‘cuz bruh. you’re getting the lazy sparknotes version bc i’m tired and gay.

arlo is penelope park’s cousin! sadly he ( thinks he is ) tragically heterosexual, but it would have been nice if the family radiated big gay energy. idk maybe it isn’t too late for him, we’ll see. he’s also a student at salvatore. i think he used to go to a public school back home, but i think Some Fucked Up Things Happened and his mom panicked and decided he needed to be around some more positive role models. hence why he was sent to salvatore.

speaking of Some Fucked Up Things... arlo’s dad is Not a good guy. i want to say he uses his magic for evil, and it’s gotten him ostracized from the coven. arlo has always been his dad’s closest ally, and sort of confidante, so his mom was shooketh when she found out that not only was bad dad bad, but that arlo had known all along and hadn’t said anything. he thought he could contain it, maybe talk him out of some of his terrible ideas, but his dad is Not OK and needs help. but everything fell apart, his parents divorced and his dad is basically m.i.a. now. rip.

( edit oct 2019 ) but here is the thing y’all, arlo’s dad is not his biological father. when his parents were trying to have kids they found out his dad couldn’t have kids. so they used a sperm donor and voila arlo was born! tbh arlo is pretty dumb so i don’t think he’s really even like become cognizant of the fact that he and his dad don’t look alike, and don’t have much in common. is this ignorance or naivety? idk, if your parents tell you something who are you to question it. anyways his mom never told him the truth even after everything with his dad bc she was afraid she would lose him. he was already closer with his father and she could feel him slipping down the wrong path. fear is a powerful motivator y’all.

personality wise he’s a ‘lil emo, a lil dramatic, always thinks people are talking shit about him. in his defense, a lot of times they are. his dad kind of fucked up their family’s reputation and since he’s from california ( i wanna say malibu ), he’s lived in this area for most of his life so it’s not really a fresh start. he’s also pissed he can’t go home and visit his dogs which is a fucking mood and a half.

since his family is a mess, his family’s money is... dwindling, i could see him doing magic for hire on the side. basically you want something done? something you’re not super proud of or above board? he’ll help you out my dudes, dudettes, and persons. he’s got you.

UPDATE JAN 26, 2020

arlo has tapped into that park family gay energy and acknowledged his chaotic bisexual energy. he has feelings for both amber and callum and is trying to come to terms with everything. yet — lmao, his sexuality is hardly the biggest situation at the current moment in time.

after callum murdered maya marceli in cold blood, arlo helped him bury the body. he didn’t hesitate, simply did what needed to be done. it wasn’t the first time he helped someone dispose of a body and the only reason he felt bad about it was because it was maya. he knew her, he liked her, but he’d have done anything to protect callum.

his best friend, bradley duke ( @teenagewste ) recently got involved with finn mikaelson. when the vampire was whammied by the horseman famine, he came up with a contingency plan to ensure he would never end up daggered. a spell was put in place and as soon as he was daggered, he body-jumped straight into arlo and left town while the barrier was down. bye bye body.

in order to make sure his friend doesn’t spend his prime years in a coffin, bradley spelled arlo into the body of morgan cummings — a triggered, very angry werewolf, who isn’t pleased about the situation. until they can track down finn with a locator spell, this is really the best of the bad options.

remember how i said arlo doesn’t know his bio dad ? turns out, his bio dad is jack of darklighter fame. so not only is he a witch but he’s a darklighter. somewhere in tahiti, finn mikaelson is having a fuckin’ field day. arlo doesn’t know any of this yet tho sooooo lmao we’re in for a STORM.

UPDATE FEB 22, 2020

so the angry werewolf kept trying to kill them both, so bradley bradley started looking for a new body to throw his friend into. he found a dumb, tall, white dude, who was seemingly human and normal and said yes, this is the right one. so arlo jumped into aiden kincaid’s body and eh voila.

arlo reluctantly agrees, mostly bc he’s afraid of morgan, and he jumps in. except, yeah, this body’s in transition. he has a choice to make; feed, or die. except he doesn’t because oops, yeah, he fed. now he’s a vampire soooo this should be fun !!

UPDATE APRIL 8, 2020

after removing famine’s ring from daniel warren / levi stone’s finger, it was given to finn mikaelson ( in the body of arlo park ) for safekeeping. while the horseman might be out of commission for now, he was very cognizant of the fact that it would likely only be temporary.

self preservation in mind, finn did the only thing that made sense. he found a body that no one would assume him to ever take — her name was fiona michaels. the irony wasn’t lost on him and he thought it was a very tongue-in-cheek way of hiding in plain sight. ( no one would expect a mikaelson to be that obtuse. ) he put arlo’s body on ice and delivered it back to him with a intricately scrawled thank you note with, of course, no mention of the danger he would potentially be in if daniel / levi / famine ever decided to retaliate. oops.

arlo got his body back, moved back home with his mother, and had his boyfriend move in too. they’ve never had the ‘what are we’ talk, but they can barely spend a few hours apart so it feels kind of inevitable. he’s still in the closet with his mother though because if she knew the truth, they certainly wouldn’t be allowed to share his room anymore. this is a lie he doesn’t mind keeping. besides, they owe him.

his parents are trying to marry him off to victoria villalobos. her father made an arrangement with his father. as far as his mother knows, spades is a respectable businessman and it’s a good family. she thinks this is good for him, that he could be happy. ( she, after all, married for love and all it brought her was pain. ) he tried to say no, tried to stand up to his father for once in his life, but he made it clear there was no choice. if arlo messes this up, it’s his mother’s blood on his hands. so he’s going to marry victoria because he has no other choice. to protect his family, he’d do anything. the worst part is that as much as he hates his father, he still loves him. no matter what he does, what lines he crosses, his devotion is almost pathological. there is a part of him too that wonders if he’s destined to become his father even though he’s done everything in his power to resist it. he killed a version of himself from some other timeline, not to mention he helped bury an innocent girl, so if there’s a slippery slope he feels like he’s skidding dangerously close to it.

he is on the verge of discovering his darklighter powers so stay tuned for that.

CONNECTIONS

- people that finn mikaelson might have crossed or pissed off when he was in his body. - someone finn might have helped when he was riding arlo’s body. (taken by henrik) - he’s learning how to orb so winding up in different places might be kind of funny. bonus points if it’s at awkward or inopportune times. - someone who knows about dark lighters / what this orbing means so that he can sort of understand wtf is happening and how it’s possible. (taken by parker) - he walks dogs so maybe he made a friend while out walking them?????

#apx:intro #tw: murder #tw: violence

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sieben9 · 6 years ago

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“the black fairy” impressions

{Quick request to anyone reading: I’m watching OUaT for the first time, and I want to avoid spoilers. So, if you want to discuss something spoilery, I’d be grateful if you could start a new post for that. Thank you!}

Wow, you really weren't kidding about this being one hell of a ride. ::pokes shattered remains of my heart:: Good thing I don't need that one, huh?

All joking aside, I loved this episode so much. I mean, yes, I do have some issues with specific bits, but overall it was 40 minutes of a good script, performed wonderfully, especially by Robert Carlyle, who should be legally forbidden to ever cry on screen again. (I am kidding, he is fantastic.)

More under the cut. It's mostly gushing, to be honest. Except about Blue. Screw Blue. Also, screw the Black Fairy, but that's nothing new.

Alright, before I get into the whole Rumple-related bit of the episode (which is also most of the episode, obviously), I just wanted to mention the amazing snark-off/witch-off in front of Granny’s with its tonally very appropriate ending.

can I call it the zucchini-mobile?

It was perfect. I loved it. Regina being about 90% unimpressed with the Black Fairy's trash talk and being just about ready to tear her apart in the middle of the road? Perfect.

And yes, Zelena's timely intervention via dubious looking car was hilarious and I laughed out loud. This whole scene was good

In fact, the whole subplot was surprisingly funny, considering what went on. But the somewhat dark humour of the characters' lines and the excellent delivery by all actors really made it work. Special mention goes to the "put on your Mayor Pants"--"excuse me?" exchange, because, just... excellent comedic timing. Well done, that.

And another honourable mention goes to Snow’s very belated realisation that yes, you should all have safewords! Like… someone gets impersonated roughly every other week, and now is when you figure that out? I mean, better late than never, but damn, this was pretty late, guys. Did none of you read Harry Potter even once?

Honestly, I despair of you human disasters, sometimes.

Over in the flashback:

too tiny! this is too tiny a person for me to deal with!

What do you mean “he’s the Saviour”??

Or “a” Saviour, as the title is clearly not unique or even exclusive at any single point in time. Still, that was one hell of a wham line. I so want the conversation where he and Emma talk about the fact that he basically “made” his successor/replacement. I know I’m not getting it (with about 98% certainty), but I can dream, right?

speaking of which…

And one of the reasons I want the conversation is that this episode reminded me how much I loved Emma’s and Rumple’s interactions back in the early seasons. These two are so similar, yet so different in a few crucial aspects that make them clash in the most interesting ways. It’s fantastic. Rumple going “nope, I just brought you because I didn’t want to do this alone and didn’t want to risk Belle I don’t want you starting shit in the waking world”, and Emma bantering with him, because well, she’s here anyway, so why not go along with it. Or Emma pushing him to confront his fear and deep-seated hurt about being abandoned by his mother. The “we are bad at being vulnerable” line, and the fact that she never once judged him for being afraid of his past, but showed understanding and compassion and, ugh, damnit, why can’t this be the show every week?

Just an aside: I don’t have a clear enough recollection of all the prior episodes, but I think this might be only the second time the flashback is actually integrated directly into the episode. As in, something the characters experience themselves. And I’m hesitant to count the first, because that wasn’t a flashback, that was time travel. (Meaning the 3B finale)

Anyway, it was a neat little touch, and I liked it a lot, even if the actual content hurt my heart.

Like this:

I just keep thinking that this is the first time he’s met his son on actually equal terms. No lies, no mistrust, no missing heart to force them apart… and it was beautiful and perfect and I loved it, but it was also sad, because the whole situation is incredibly fucked up. Even if the Black Fairy didn’t have his heart, there’s the matter of the 28 years she stole from Gideon and his parents. Like Belle said, they’re not getting those back, and just… ugh. Pain. Lots of.

And that is why I still don't find Fiona sympathetic. Not as she is currently, because... yeah, she might have had the best intentions, but the road to hell and all that. She kidnaps children to enslave and torture them. That's just on its own level of evil, right next to Pan, which... damn, Rumple, do you need another hug?

I feel like there should be more hugging

Like I said: she’s only more sympathetic than Pan in that she at least had selfless intentions to start with, even if they brought her to the place where she is now. With Blue’s help.

Yeah, let’s talk about that.

Because from where I’m standing, the story goes like this: to a happy young couple, a child with a great destiny is born. Two fairies visit the couple, to declare that they will watch over this child, because of his great destiny. In the process, though, they reveal that part of the child’s destiny is to die in battle against a great evil and then… basically leave her alone with that. No consolation, no offer to help her deal with the horrible truth, just “oops, I shouldn’t have said that” without further acknowledgment of responsibility. I’m willing to let Red at least partially off the hook, because she had her hands full with damage control, and didn’t realise how far Fiona had gone in her quest to save her son’s life (which makes me think that she hasn’t worked with many parents before, but nevermind that.) And in the end, the mother does find a way: sever her child’s fate, so he will never have to face the evil that she has become. It’s a flawed solution, but it works.

Which is when Blue pushes her through the portal, and then drops the child like a hot potato. In fact, she doesn’t even leave Red behind to watch over the little guy, who is now in the care of a father who professed to hate him right in front of their noses. Like… they were in the room. There’s no way they didn’t realise what that would mean.

Great fairy-godmothering, right there. And weird how Blue dropped this completely innocent child like a hot potato the moment he was no longer the Saviour (read: "useful to her").

I mean... damn. We're absolutely sure she isn't evil?

And all that doesn’t even go to the way Blue interacted with Rumple afterwards. I would love to go there, but at the same time I doubt this was meant to be part of their history until maybe ten episodes ago, so it feels a little nitpicky. Blue is just not a very good person. Or even a good fairy, if you ask me.

By the way, after seeing all that, doing all that soul searching, after being so painfully reminded of what the Black Fairy did to his son…

…I’m supposed to believe that Rumple would work with her? Yeah, get out, show, nobody buys that. He either already has a specific plan for stabbing her in the back or he’s hanging around until he gets an opportunity. I mean… that whole speech sounded suspicious as hell and I cannot believe neither Belle nor Gideon noticed that, but I’d like to believe that my reading of “I have a plan, please trust me, even if it looks really bad for a while” is the correct one.

The only thing that worries me: if I find this ploy painfully transparent, you would assume the Black Fairy might catch on to it, as well. Yes, the villain gets to hold the idiot ball on occasion, but if she doesn’t… well, let’s say I really hope that was Gideon’s actual heart Rumple gave back to him. He’s pulled that trick himself before, I hope it stays a one-off.

scheming seems to run in the family…

So. I gather next episode is the wedding? Or at least an attempt at a wedding. I’d be extremely suspicious if this goes off without a hitch (no pun intended) because that is not how Drama works. If you want a quiet wedding, have it after the finale. If you want an awesome wedding, have it during. “Before” is just asking for trouble. Look at Snowing!

#ouat #once upon a time #the black fairy #sieben watches ouat #sieben talks #anti cs #jokingly but hey #if that's not your cup of tea then be aware

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amorremanet · 7 years ago

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takashi shirogane + coping a n d seb + sleep habits

the “character + thing” headcanon meme (aka, “the best of all possible memes, c’mon, you know you wanna”)

Shiro + coping

Shiro voice: “coping? I don’t know her”

Okay, but in all seriousness

It isn’t that Shiro has NO coping skills or coping mechanisms that work for him, and it isn’t that he has no idea how to cope with anything — quite the opposite, really.

But a huge problem for him is that a lot of his coping techniques are, at best, non-ideal and at worst, basically a slow-burn form of self-harm that’s hard to notice because he isn’t obviously crashing and burning, or obviously having some kind of problem, and because he isn’t obviously in trouble, Shiro feels like his techniques must be totally okay

Even if he might acknowledge that they aren’t okay, though? Good luck getting him to actually do anything about that; he’s pretty sure that there are bigger problems

Like, one thing with Shiro is that, for all he values patience and for all he praises forethought, he also gets very easily frustrated if he can’t do something. If that something can’t directly affect whatever the Big Problem of the moment is, then Shiro needs to at least feel like he is Doing Something Productive — which, for him, usually means something like working out.

Maybe it could mean sparring or training with someone, but Shiro is one of those ambiverts who both enjoys being around people and can get destabilized very quickly if he’s left alone for too long, but who also needs a lot of time to himself to just breathe and decompress.

It was like that before he was taken prisoner by the Galra, e.g., a stressful as Hell exam season leading to a big night out and all kinds of hijinks with the other cadets in his class because oh man, everybody needed to just get away from studying, and Shiro would’ve been worried about how his grades would look when they came back so he needed to feel competent and one thing that makes him feel competent is making sure that other people are having a good time — and to a different extent, just being around others while they’re having a good time because who had to learn the hard way about how much his empathy can turn into a Bad Thing for him and how to set boundaries on it? Shiro did

—but then after said night out, he’d retire to his dorm (which probably involved moping, half-asleep, while binge-listening to Fiona Apple, needing to be reminded that it’s generally pretty unhelpful to sleep through lunch and never do anything about it later), and maybe he’d be seen around the gym (with a huge set of headphones on because sure, they’re cumbersome but sometimes, other people don’t always notice earbuds and Shiro wants to please be left alone), and he’d probably only willingly deal with Keith or maybe Matt

Shiro’s time with the Galra has made this tendency worse, but it’s also shoved him into a situation where it’s hard to tell, since he’s the Decisive Head Of Voltron™ now, so he needs all that time alone, but feels like he can’t allow himself to have it or else

(“Or else” what? ……Well, okay, you got him there; Shiro has no idea, “or else what.” But it’d be something Bad, okay, and he is completely certain of this because he just is.)

—but despite the fact that working out can help him clear his head so he can try to deal with things and isn’t inherently bad, Shiro also doesn’t entirely understand this, “moderation” thing you speak of — at least, not when it’s being applied to him.

Sure, he gets it in theory…… but in practice, he has an approach that’s more like, “Okay, it hasn’t cleared my head yet, so clearly, it can’t be that I need to find some other way to deal with whatever is on my mind and troubling me right now; I just have to push harder until it does work.” Sometimes, he makes it work out okay.

Other times, it doesn’t, and Shiro either ends up getting interrupted by something (emergency drill, “a wild Sendak appeared!”, “oh no, the castle is trying to kill everyone!”, Coran begging him to come intervene so Lance and Pidge can’t try to turn something into a screen on which to play their Mercury Gameflux II, literally anything)

……or he ends up with a seriously peeved little brother who is very likely going to yell at him because Keith is worried and he’s scared and unfortunately for everyone, he tends to get angry when he’s scared and then promptly loses control of the volume of his voice (because he’s usually not aware of how loud he’s being until someone points it out)

All of this…… will probably not get any better when Shiro gets back from wherever the Hell he’s hiding. Like, on one hand, it might get so bad that it actually becomes a more visible problem and leads to him getting some kind of help and learning better coping skills (and things like, “Yes, you’re the Decisive Head Of Voltron and all, but you have a right to ask for help with your problems, too”)

……But it could also get a lot worse and Shiro could just get better at repressing everything and acting like everything is fine (relative to the situations they’re in, anyway), and focusing on everybody else’s issues while completely ignoring his own. Only time will tell.

Seb + sleep habits

Seb voice: “sleep habits? Who’s that?”

……yeah, but seriously, though

Let’s not mince words about it: Seb’s sleep habits are unhealthy as shit, and if he maybe talked about them more and/or just took them more seriously (i.e., didn’t brush them off as, like, “I just couldn’t sleep last night, it’s not a big deal, it happens to everybody” [which isn’t untrue, Seb, but the thing is, it doesn’t happen quite so consistently with most people unless there is something Not Good going on for them] or look for tons of excuses about why he couldn’t sleep), then it’s quite possible that he would’ve gotten a depression diagnosis a lot sooner than he actually does in-story

Unfortunately, on one hand, we have one of Seb’s biggest and most common problems in all things ever (namely that he does not think he has any so-called, “real problems,” because that’s silly, why would he have, “real problems”; “real problems” are for literally everyone else in the world because, “they deserve to have ‘real problems’”)

—so, in his mind, of course it’s not a big deal when he can’t sleep but feels useless while he’s lying in bed with his pit-mix Lola, waiting to fall asleep (which makes him feel worse and can all too easily lead him down a self-loathing rabbit hole), so he gives up on that, goes back downstairs, and bakes things while watching whatever’s on TV or in the Blu-Ray/DVD player until he’s finally tired enough to crash on the couch for a couple hours

(which doesn’t really make him feel better and is often an ill-advised waste of his energy reserves, but on the other hand, doing something makes him feel less useless, and lets him temporarily escape the self-loathing rabbit hole — if for no other reason than, “well, he has to focus on his baking, which means he can’t focus on finding reasons to hate himself and/or rehashing old ones” — and he enjoys cooking, especially baking, and especially baking that he knows other people enjoy because he likes making other people happy)

Like, if it were literally anyone else doing anything like that, he’d go, “Oh man, that sounds really bad, are you okay, have you talked to a doctor or someone about it, is something stressing you out, can I help”

or, in an illustration of this double-standard that actually happens in character: the night before the story opens, Seb did exactly what I just said, while Pete intended to go home and get a decent amount of sleep…… but while he was doing a last check on the costumes he’s supervising for the production of A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream that he’s involved in at work right now, he found several rips and missing buttons that no one mentioned to him

He figured it wouldn’t take him that long to fix everything, but he estimated very badly, and by the time he’d finished the task and gotten everything cleaned up again, it was late enough that he decided to crash on the couch in his boss’s office (because, considering the travel time, Pete could get more sleep by doing that than by going home), clean up in the bathroom and throw on one of the spare shirts that he keeps in his locker, then run out to grab breakfast, come back, and act like he totally had not slept in Mitch’s office last night

That worked out pretty well…… until Pete decided to take a follow-up nap during a stretch where he officially had a bit of spare time (“officially” meaning, “it wasn’t on any particular schedule, so technically, he was allowed, but lmao there is no such thing as spare time in the theatre, there just isn’t”)…… which got him told to go home and rest because Mitch would rather not do without his self-described, “Swiss Army thespian,” but if it’s a choice between sending Pete home for the afternoon and risking the chance that something’s amiss with Pete’s health and possibly losing him for at least a month while he goes to rehab again? ……Yeah, Mitch would take the former.

Either way, Pete still got more sleep than his Princess, and they swap stories about their respective low-sleep nights when they meet up at the gallery owned and run by their sponsor (Nick), where Stephen works as curatorial assistant

………and Seb is Concerned about Pete for losing track of time and nearly pulling an accidental all-nighter, but he doesn’t? really?? feel like??? there’s any reason???? for Pete????? to be concerned about him, Seb, having such bad insomnia that he wound up watching a marathon of Catching All-Stars reruns (despite how Seb doesn’t like that show and finds it uncomfortably voyeuristic) while baking a bunch of treats that he doesn’t personally enjoy, but he knows that his parents, Margot, Nick, and Nick’s husband Isaac all like them

(Catching All-Stars is sort of like what would happen if you took the a team of superheroes that’s like the unholy, commercialism-driven mashup of JLA, the Avengers, and Lance “Captain Amazing” Hunt from Mystery Men… and gave them a reality show that is so much like Keeping Up With The Kardashians that some people consider them to be rival shows.)

Because Seb totally understands that these kinds of things are, in general, Not Good. But see, if it’s him in any given situation like this, then his understanding of how Not Good things like this are goes right out the window because…… nope, it’s not a “real problem” if it’s happening to him, that makes no sense because of reasons

—and on the other hand, Seb is just…… depressingly ignorant about a lot of the realities of depression and what “depression” even means (in more than a very vague, “it is a mental illness and a ‘real problem,’ one of the worst ‘real problems’ that I can imagine personally, and you wouldn’t wish it on anybody unless you are a complete douchebag” sense)

If any of his friends or loved ones had ever been told that they were dealing with depression, you can bet that he would have read up on it a lot more and true, he still would’ve encountered some issues here (because of how so much information about all mental health issues is unreliable for one reason or another, and conflicting opinions in the sources [some of which are not reliable sources, but others of which are reliable and just have differences of opinion and approach because mental illness is complicated and difficult], and so on) — but at least Seb would not be quite so astoundingly ignorant about the illness that he’s been living with

Like, when Pete came back from rehab (which… well. He wanted to do an outpatient thing for his addictions — alcohol, Adderall, and cocaine — but his Mama disagreed and he needed her help paying for treatment, and Leilani went, “I feel like inpatient rehab would be better for you, and if you agree to go there, then I will make sure that you never need to worry about the cost of anything related to your treatment”)

—as I was saying.

When Pete came back from his trip to rehab, he’d done a lot of work on his problems with substance abuse, but he had also come to realize that he’d been dealing with anorexia nervosa for long enough that it was hard for him to remember when things had ever been different, which he hadn’t noticed for a lot of reasons

(chief among them: the unfortunately widespread belief that men don’t deal with eating disorders ever, especially not anorexia, because they are Lady Disorders For Women and anorexia nervosa is The Single Most Lady Disorder For Women Of Them All;

the fact that Pete’s presentation had never been as glaringly obvious as a stereotype-riddled Lifetime Original movie or Very Special Episode/Arc about EDs [which, unfortunately, does a lot of damage to people who don’t fit those images or don’t feel like they’re truly “sick enough” to have an ED because they’re “not as bad” as some character in some fictional representation of EDs];

and the fact that his disorder had developed so slowly that he — and everyone else in his life — looked at his symptoms and went, “that’s just some quirky Pete thing that he does that totally falls under the heading of average, non-disordered human variation, right?”)

Seb got to be the first person who heard about this, which would’ve happened even if he hadn’t picked Pete up at the airport because he’s the brother who Pete wishes he could have as a legal part of his family because Pete’s relationship with his biological brother is…… A Mess. And more than that, Pete’s Princess is the person with whom he has the easiest time being vulnerable, and doing things like, “being his most honest self, even when he feels like shit, or he feels ashamed of himself, or he wishes that he could be somebody else instead,” and “admitting when he’s terrified and wants to get well and be okay but he doesn’t know if he’s strong enough to do that” and, “just letting himself cry when he needs to”

But the more important thing is that, at the time Pete told him this and needed to cry and get reassurance from his best friend, Seb was similarly very ignorant about eating disorders.

He knew they existed, he knew they were bad, he knew the vague sketchy details about anorexia and bulimia (his biggest tidbit of knowledge was that he knew enough to differentiate between anorexia nervosa, anorexia mirabilis [i.e., “it’s complicated but there’s a whole wealth of mystical and spiritual writing about how some divine being or other told someone, like St. Catherine of Siena for example, not to eat because piety”], and, “anorexia as absence of appetite, which happens as a symptom of something other than anorexia nervosa”), and he kinda vaguely knew that guys could have eating disorders but largely only by virtue of personal experience

—by which I mean that one of his exes (Rémy) was an actor-slash-model and some of his guy friends or guy coworkers had dealt with EDs in some capacity, and, “well, Julian was never officially diagnosed with an eating disorder or anything, and in fairness here, he had a lot of habits that were all over the map and would’ve made diagnosing him properly really hard, but he had some people concerned about whether or not he had an ED at different points, and then he complained about it to Seb because haha that’s so ridiculous isn’t it but also god how could they think that about him, please agree with him now or at least pay attention to him”

—But when Pete got diagnosed with one in rehab, that was all the reason Seb needed to look into all the things, learn everything he could get his hands on, etc.. because his best friend needed him

But as it stands, none of the people he loves have ever gotten a depression diagnosis, so he remains quite ignorant about the illness he’s living with here

—That sorta got way off from the point, but…… really, depression is a big reason why Seb’s sleep habits are such a mess, and a huge part of the reason why he hasn’t treated them seriously or seen them as an “actual problem” (maybe a minor annoyance at best, but not a “real problem,” so much as, “a thing that happens to everyone and that Seb has to just deal with on his own because no one else would let something like this mess them up so badly” — he says, while he legit feels like what he’s saying is totally accurate, despite knowing that it isn’t even remotely true)…… has been the depression that is a major contributing factor to them in the first place

……Yay? (Not really. Not even a little bit.)

Another contributing factor is one of the potential long-term side-effects of kicking alcohol and opiates — like, it may not happen to absolutely everyone in a similar position to Seb, but both alcohol and opiates act as central nervous system depressants, and one of the more common effects of CNS depressants…… is making you sleepy (which is why, for example, I didn’t take most of the opioid painkiller that I got after dislocating my kneecap while doing the Time Warp in college, because I could handle the pain but could not handle sleeping through my classes).

(……that may be one of the most painfully nerdy things that I’ve ever said, but it remains true)

If you get used to having a shit-ton of CNS depressants in your system, then you can very easily end up with trouble sleeping, and unfortunately, it can continue for even years after you get sober (it doesn’t always, but it can). In Seb’s case, no one prepared him for that or told him that it could very well end up lasting even after he’d detoxed, and it was harder to notice when he was actually still in rehab because all of the therapy involved there took a lot out of him and let him sleep easier than he might’ve done otherwise

…and then, out of all his trips off the wagon in his first thirteen months of trying to stay sober, three of them were directly caused by Seb being torn between desperately wanting to stay sober, but also desperately wanting to fucking sleep (and preferably without any of the nightmares that can also be a long-term side-effect of abusing alcohol and/or opiates, and are exacerbated for Seb by the PTSD that he “totally doesn’t have, because people with real problems have PTSD, so stop devaluing their struggles by saying that Seb has it”)

(do you ever think about your own characters and just look at the camera like you’re on The Office? because I do. constantly. often with this particular human disaster right here.)

Um.

I feel like I had somewhere else I was going to go with this, but it’s wandered so far off of any semblance of an outline and I want to have lunch

So…… uh.

Something moderately less depressing to wrap-up with, I guess: bed-sharing with Seb can potentially be awkward for a lot of people because he is so unreasonably freaking tall, but if you ever want to sleep next to someone because it makes things easier for you to sleep, or you need cuddles, or whatever, Sebastian is a good, sweet cuddler and a very respectful bed-sharer who will probably also make you breakfast

You may need to deal with Lola deciding that she totally fits in the bed too, or being kind of huffy at you because excuse you, but no, see, she is supposed to sleep in the bed with her Person, not you (like, she’s only less of a huffy little shit to Margot and Pete about it because she likes them and she can usually manage to fit into the bed with them there)

He also has a somewhat easier time of sleeping if he’s sharing with someone, but it’s not entirely a magical, “press this button to fix insomnia for the entire evening” thing

Also, breakfast

He will make it for you

……I should really go have lunch now, jeez

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captainblack089 · 8 years ago

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Black Fairy and Changes I wanted

I have very conflicted emotions on the episode Black Fairy. On one hand it reminded me of why I love the character of Rumpelstiltskin, but on the other hand it had the character rehash his never ending recycled storyline. I swear the character stopped growing after the third season and just goes through the motions of seemingly learning from his mistakes just to make them all over again. You can time when Rumple is supposed to be the villain again and move the plot forward at this point. While there was some hope for him to be a triple crossing Black Fairy I didn't share that hope. What made this increasingly frustrating to me is that Gold acknowledged his flaws and how constantly choosing darkness has made things worse, yet he goes around and does it again. To get my frustrations out I decided to write about changes I wish were made to the episode. 1) Belle goes with Gold inside Gideon's dream. Nothing against Emma. She is the main character and her going into the dream was supposed to have her learn what makes Gold tick, but I don't think she needed to be there for that to happen. Since the mission was meant to save Gideon Belle should have been part of it not Emma. The excuse that Belle needed to protect Emma and Gold was weak. I'm not saying Belle is uesless or she can't defend herself, but there isn't a whole lot she can do against the Black Fairy if she does come to the shop. Her mother-in-law was able to materialize Rumple's dagger in her hand despite it being on Rumple's person. She is stupid powerful. It makes more sense for Emma to stand guard, since she has light magic. Tensions between Rumple and Emma have been high the last few seasons that it is doubtful he could get Emma to promise not to rush after BF, but it would be very in character for Emma to listen to Belle. If Belle asks Emma to not do anything until she and Gold come back Emma should listen. Now that she knows BF has Gideon's heart and Hook is back the Savior shouldn't be so gun-ho anymore. Emma agrees to stand guard over the estranged couple for Belle's sake, possibly Neal's sake, since Gideon is her baby's daddy's half brother. The Golds go to the dream world or realm whatever its called to rescue their son. This puts Belle in a position where she can have a heart to heart talk with her son. Her real strength of being emotional support could come into play for both Gideon and Gold. At the same time both Gold men could be there for her. I'm not saying this needs to be big ship teasing or love heals all trip to reunite Belle and Rumple. This could be a good way for them to move past the pain and become a team for Gideon. 2) Gold acknowledges his faults in 6a The sixth season went overboard with the drama for Belle and Gold. Gold started using scare tactics should never have been crossed. There is a reason some long time fans of the couple abandoned the ship or felt the show runners broken them beyond repair. The key to Beauty and Beast relationship to work is for Beast to let Beauty go with no expectations of her returning, because he wants her to be happy. That is what shows the audience that his love is genuine. That is what Skin Deep succeeded in doing. The second, third, and part of the fifth season succeeded in keeping this idea alive. 6a had Gold cross some lines with Belle he never did before. It felt hard to believe he was doing it for her own good when they had him making out with the Evil Queen. The damage was done for better or for worse this what A&E gave us. If they want us to believe Gold can really change then they need to have Gold acknowledge he went too far this season and apologize to her. It would fit with the episode. Gold acknowledged how his family always seems to fall into the trap of using darkness to solve problems and unintentionally making things worse. If Gold apologize to Belle and make a promise to himself that he will end the dark cycle his family has been in for the last couple of centuries. He stops taking the easy path. He makes this promise to himself, so we the audience know this isn't just another false promise he is telling Belle to get her back. The promise would feel more sincere. 3) The Gold Family Work Together Belle and Gideon convincing Rumple to find out why his mom abandoned him would have been perfect. It would show that despite all the damage inflicted on them, both internally and externally that they can recover from it and be a family. Gold facing his past with his family by his side would be touching moment, but also show him how much stronger they are as a unit. That would go a long way in convincing him to not try to solve problems alone and fear failing them. When they leave the dream to tell the others what happen they can discuss what they should do. Here is where Emma can empathize with Gold here. Even though she wouldn't have been there to see it she can still understand what Gold is going through and she could support him by telling him that he can decide what to do with BF. This way Emma's way of acknowledging Rumple could have been a savior and seeing hope he can change for the first time since season three. The Golds can discuss what they should do. Rumple decides to end the darkness in his family tree once and for all. 4) Gold takes a page from Belle's book. Gold understands his mom better than anyone else. He has done what she has done with both Baelfire and Gideon. Now this episode finally puts him in the shoes of his loved ones. Sure Pan technically put him in that position before, but with Pan he knew his dad was doing what was best for him and not Rumple. With Fiona he can see how well meaning parent can lose themselves to darkness and mistake what they want to be what is best for their child. To this end Gold should have confront his mom, but not to kill or banish her. He should have come to her, tell her he understands her, and offer her a chance to help him put an end to their family's dark history. Gold proposes that they use the shears to get rid of their dark magic. No more Dark One and no more Black Fairy. They become Rumple and Fiona again and get a fresh start with their family. He gives his mom to night fall to decide. He warns her if she refuses his offer that he will help Emma defeat her to save his family from being hurt by darkness anymore. Gold's resolve shows us the audience that he has finally learned from his mistakes and is resigned to not be tempted by darkness anymore. To hammer this point in Gold would turn down BF's suggestion that they work together and keep Gideon and Belle in the dark. 5) The Ending All the main characters wait at the shop to see if BF will come or not. Rather she comes or not Belle and Gideon tell Gold they are proud of him and they all resolve to get a fresh start with or without Fiona. When it looks like BF will not come she appears at the door. She tells her son that everything she did was for him and their family. BF returns Gideon's heart, apologizes to her grandson, and uses the shears to become a normal human again. She gives the shears to Rumple with a smile. Rumple uses them and watches as his name disappears from the dagger. The Charmings and Captain Swan thanks Gold like they did in the actual episode. For once neither side is hostile to each other. They all agree to a fresh start. Everyone is just happy. Unforunately things are too good to be true. We see Fiona carrying the special wand and the dagger. She goes back in the mine where Mother Superior is still imprisoned (and looking worse for wear). Fiona reveals she still has her magic and that she switched the shears out with fake ones. BF brags how she will get a fresh start with her family without anyone having to give up her power. She ends the glamor around the dagger, exposing Rumple's name is still on it. She goes on how Rumple will thank her for stopping him from getting rid of his power, how she will build a new life with her family once she defeats a unsuspecting Emma on the day of her wedding when her guard is down. Everything else more or less stays the same. The episode doesn't change too drastically, but it gives all the Golds time to shine, Rumple finally gets character development to stick, it allows BF to trick the heroes into believing she is no longer a threat, and deprives the heroes of the Dark One's help without having Rumple go back to villainy yet again.

#OUAT #Rumple Fan #Belle Fan #Random Fan's Thoughts

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briangroth27 · 8 years ago

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Power Rangers (2017): Go, Go See This!

This is my 100th original blog post! Fitting that it’s about the modernization of one of my favorite things from childhood!

I was seven when Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers premiered on FOX Kids in 1993 and I still vividly recall watching the pilot in my parents’ living room. As soon as that Saturday’s morning cartoons ended, I immediately watched my newly-recorded VHS copy of “Day of the Dumpster” again: the adventures of five “teenagers with attitude” had hooked me instantly! Along with Superman, Batman, the Flash, and TMNT, the Power Rangers were some of the first live-action superheroes I ever saw, and they definitely left an impression. The giant robots (based on dinosaurs, another childhood obsession thanks to the recent release of my still-favorite movie, Jurassic Park) and monsters blew my mind. Amy Jo Johnson was my first celebrity crush. I took Tae Kwan Do for a few years solely because of Power Rangers. I still have all the original action figures, the Morpher & Power Coins, the Blade Blaster, the Megazord, and the Sega Genesis video game. I fell out of the Ranger fandom after Zeo ended, but I’ve always fondly remembered the originals. I went into the new movie just hoping it would be fun and proud of its roots; things like the R-rated Power/Rangers by Adi Shankar are cool and all, but the real Power Rangers don’t need to be grim and gritty. I left the theater humming the theme song with a huge smile; this movie is great!

If you were a fan of the show, you’ll love the new movie for taking the characters deeper than the original series did and for the clear love it has for its source material. If you thought the show was too cheesy, you’ll probably appreciate the modernized themes and issues the teens face here. The movie makes you wait for most of the action, but the characters were fun and compelling enough (and the actors strong enough) that it never felt slow. When the action does arrive, it’s earned and very well-tied to the characters’ arcs! That connection, striking at the core of the Rangers mythos, also makes for an important message about teamwork and understanding.

I didn’t think the Rangers needed to have powers when not morphed, but it didn’t hurt the story to introduce that aspect either (though it does remove an easy path to drama if they’re attacked and can’t morph). The Putties were formidable even with super-strength, so not having powers would’ve led to the unmorphed Rangers’ immediate deaths in this film (a rare case of the movies scaling the villains up to meet the standards of the heroes, something I wish Superman films would do with everyone not named Zod). I thought the suits were a little over-designed and bulky, preferring the ones from 1995’s film, but I didn’t hate them. Similarly, I prefer the simplicity of the original zord and Megazord designs, but these are good too. Jason gets his Power Sword during the fight with the Putty Patrol, but I wish everyone else had gotten their Ranger-specific weapons too (Zack’s ax, Billy’s lance, Kim’s bow, and Trini’s daggers). The final showdown didn’t feel rushed; I totally felt that it was worth the wait. That the team visibly showed fear during the final battle also humanized them and helped sell the idea that they were still teens and not at all polished superheroes, despite their mighty powers.

Though the film looks a little washed out in terms of its color palette, there’s a great energy running through it. The effects were solid and felt realistic. I loved all the nods to the original series, such as the movie’s MacGuffin (the Zeo Crystal), what seemed like a shout-out to one of Rita’s best henchman (Scorpina), and an outstanding, iconic scene during the final battle. While there is a definite sequel teased in the mid-credits scene, this is a complete movie and I loved that it didn’t just feel like a stepping stone to bigger things.

Absolutely see this!

Full Spoilers…

My absolute favorite aspect of the movie was its focus on friendship and the need for the Rangers to harmonize in order for their powers to fully work. Like their Megazord, the Power Rangers are a team that’s stronger together than they are individually, and their literal inability to morph until after they’ve opened up and bonded with each other was portrayed perfectly. This was an excellent bridge between their character arcs (which felt like real things modern teens go through) and the superhero side of the story. There’s an important metaphor in your friends giving you the power to become a supercharged version of yourself capable of fighting your demons, and to paraphrase Zordon’s catchphrase from the series, that power protects these kids (and hopefully, the kids in the audience who see the value of connection and teamwork). Given the realistic diversity of this cast, it’s also easy to see this as a broader metaphor that the only way to survive and harness our true potential is to understand each other and work together.

Always believing the teens’ “attitude” meant good attitudes, I was initially skeptical when the trailer cast the Rangers-to-be as juvenile delinquents rather than the show’s socially conscious do-gooders, but the trailer was misleading. Jason (Dacre Montgomery), Kimberly (Naomi Scott), and Billy (RJ Cyler) meet in detention and Zack (Ludi Lin) skips school a lot, but none of them are terrible people needing epic redemption arcs. Instead, they’ve made mistakes (Jason’s in trouble for a prank gone very awry and Billy for an innocent experiment with explosives), but are still generally good kids.

Kimberly did the worst thing—forwarding a scandalous picture of one of her ex-friends—but it didn’t mar her character as much as I feared it would (I was spoiled on that plot point). She and the movie acknowledge this as the awful thing it is and I was impressed that she immediately shot down Jason’s well-intended suggestion that she forgive herself because there are “lots of pictures out there.” Instead, she correctly points out that it changes nothing about the picture she sent or the effect it had on her former friend. “Everyone else does it” doesn’t comfort her or excuse her actions and the fact that she knows how bad it was and has clearly grown softened this change from the show’s Kimberly for me. Scott’s Kim isn’t the valley girl Johnson was, but you can definitely see hints that she used to be a similar popular girl. Despite the darker backstory, Scott channels the corresponding original actor more than anyone else in the film, crafting a performance that’s her own but includes strong shades of Amy Jo Johnson (as well as a dash of Buffy season 1-Sarah Michelle Gellar). She probably has the most personal growth in the film and, along with Billy, was my favorite character.

Billy’s still the brains of the team and sets their ascent to Rangerhood into motion. Though Cyler brought a different energy to Billy than David Yost did, he was still most definitely “Billy.” While Scott channeled her predecessor most, Cyler channels the essence of the original character most. Everyone deserves to see themselves as heroes, so I loved that the film delivered an autistic hero in Billy, something I don’t think any other superhero movie or TV show has done yet. To the film’s credit, his being on the Spectrum is never portrayed as something to overcome or a handicap he’s “so brave” to live with; it’s merely a fact of his life and doesn’t hamper his superheroics in any way. Cyler brought an instant likability to Billy that pulled me into the Rangers’ circle and played perfectly against his hidden pain over to the loss of his father. Because he’s so personable, Billy’s death hit me hard (even though I didn’t think it’d be permanent) and the other Rangers’ reactions felt realistic and believable—though they’re only together a week, the team’s bonding feels real.

Jason’s prank causes property damage so he isn’t initially the Boy Scout from the show (though he is a jock), but I really liked that his movie arc takes that idea and shows us how he might’ve gotten there, molding him into the upstanding (and understanding) father figure he craves as he takes on leadership of the Power Rangers. While he does have a father (David Denman) in the movie, there’s clearly a distance between them. What exactly caused it isn’t revealed beyond his dad not understanding him and perhaps having goals and expectations Jason doesn’t want for himself, so Jason’s issues felt the most routine and well-trodden in terms of movies and TV. However, his relationship with the Rangers is more important than with his parents, so I was satisfied that Jason’s parental issues were resolved by Zordon standing in for his dad, particularly when Jason found out why the Rangers morphing was so important to Zordon's plans. I liked that even though he was chosen to be the leader by virtue of being the Red Ranger, he wasn’t a natural and it felt like he had to earn that position, both in Zordon’s eyes and in terms of motivating the team. As familiar as Jason’s issues were (perhaps they were delivered in shorthand precisely because they're so universal), Montgomery never came off as boring or bland and he was a good lead.

Zack was fun and I liked that his up-for-anything bravado (an update of show Zack’s charisma, party-guy attitude, and jokester persona) was a cover for the knowledge that he’d probably very soon lose his mom (Fiona Fu) to her illness. While he and Trini (Becky G) could’ve definitely used more screentime to match the arcs Jason, Kimberly, and Billy had, I think Zack gets enough for Lin to display the fears just under the surface of his cool guy façade. He also gets to have some serious fun joyriding in his zord and physicalizes the tension and pressure the team’s under to become perfect superheroes in a week when he comes to blows with Jason. So, even though he wasn’t as big a focus as he should’ve been, he contributed to the personality mix in unique ways. Trini absolutely needed more material—her and Zack’s reduced screentime compared to everyone else is my one big negative note about the film—but what she got worked well. MMPR’s Trini was soft-spoken and polite, which here translated into a disaffected loner persona, owing to being moved around a lot and her parents’ (Erica Cerra, Patrick Sabongui) inability to accept her as anything other than the normal daughter they wanted. I liked that they made her the first LGBTQ movie superhero (Mystique and Harley Quinn are bi in the comics, but the X-films and Suicide Squad haven’t had that onscreen yet) and didn’t mind that this amounted to one conversation: none of the other Rangers have love lives explored here either. While Trini is guarded for a good portion of the film and her limited screentime gives her the hardest time when it comes to connecting with the others, I thought Becky G pulled the arc off. I bought her reasons for not talking sooner and her growing friendship with/trust in the others, particularly Kimberly, felt genuine. Not giving Trini more to do was a missed opportunity for what could’ve been a fun sequence of her using her superpowers to evade her helicopter parents to go train. Speaking of her parents, it’s odd they didn’t hear her room being trashed by Rita. She could’ve written the damage off as (extremely localized) effects of Goldar’s attack later on, but someone should’ve heard walls being dented. That could’ve been an opportunity to employ a classic “superhero has to explain extraordinary problems to keep their identity secret” moment. Given Becky G’s sardonic delivery when questioned about where she’d been spending her nights, she could’ve told her parents exactly what happened, comically upending those superhero tropes.

One of the film’s biggest surprises was that Zordon (Bryan Cranston) has an actual arc, making him far more interesting than the show’s version. I’d heard there was a prologue focusing on his history with Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks), but feared a focus on Zordon and Rita might overshadow the Rangers themselves. That prologue is only a couple of minutes long, but Zordon’s desire to have a physical body again was still unexpectedly touching. His tension with the Rangers over this point provided some good conflict I didn’t see coming. Alpha 5 (Bill Hader) was another big improvement over the original version, who I always found annoying. Banks was entirely over the top as Rita, but that’s exactly who Rita is supposed to be! Like the Joker, I really don’t have an interest in an entirely serious version of Rita Repulsa. In fact, Banks’ casting—along with the tag line “Go Go”��was the first thing that convinced me this wasn’t going to be the super-serious mess it could’ve been in our current “gritty is automatically superior” pop culture mindset. Rita’s full-on insane and she fit in without breaking the tone of the movie, even against the grounded Rangers. I never felt she wasn’t a deadly serious threat (she kills several Rangers in this movie alone!).

It was cool that Amy Jo Johnson and Jason David Frank (my favorite original Rangers) got cameos here! I wish David Yost, Austin St. John, and Walter Jones also appeared; maybe next time. Jason Narvy and Paul Schrier really should get cameos too; as the original series’ Bulk and Skull, they were the longest-running characters in the show’s history. With that in mind, I was surprised a new Bulk and Skull didn’t make an appearance here…Jason’s prank buddy Damo (Matt Shively), possibly feeling rejected after Jason finds new friends, and the “Bully of Detention” (Wesley MacInnes) could’ve easily been them.

The post-credit scene lays out the arrival of Tommy Oliver, the Green Ranger, though I wouldn’t have minded one more film with just the original five Rangers. With five more films planned, there’s more than enough time to explore the dynamic between these kids before throwing Tommy into the mix. Still, I’m definitely excited for the prospect of a traitor Ranger, especially with this film’s emphasis on the team’s need for unity and trust to morph. Someone who can get past their defenses, earn their trust, and then stab them in the back will be a perfect, devastating adversary!

I love that we’re getting something of a Ranger renaissance now (to say nothing of the fact that 24 years and several iterations later, the show is still going). Not only did this movie come out (along with a tie-in sequel comic), but there’s an excellent ongoing Boom! Studios comic book featuring the original team! It’s set right after MMPR’s “Green With Evil” saga and deals with the Rangers learning to trust Tommy, and whether or not he can trust himself to be free of Rita’s influence. There’s also a fun Kimberly-focused 6-issue miniseries (“Pink”), set after she left the team, a crossover with the Justice League, and a brand new ongoing series set right after “Day of the Dumpster,” Saban’s Go Go Power Rangers, coming soon! While it’s at the other end of the tonal spectrum, Adi Shankar is trying to put together a gritty, adult-focused animated series about Power Rangers too. And of course, Saban & Lionsgate are planning at least five more films in the rebooted series, one of which may be a prequel focusing on Zordon and Rita’s team. With the film taking a series of hits at the box office after a strong opening, I think these plans might be pared down, but I really hope we get to see these Rangers’ adventures continue. Rather than rushing to create an entire universe at once, focus on making an excellent sequel to this one’s already superb foundation and then build from there!

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psychoth · 6 years ago

Text

Conversations with my mother.

Also....

http://parrishmiller.com/narcissists.html

(For dad, not you)

I'm looking at this and ... I don't know if he's a straight up narcI'm talking to my friend, whose dad's personality basically IS this list.

Dad is definitely 1, borderline 2, semi-3, 4 is no, 5 I'm not sure, 6 no, 7 no, 8 no, 9 not really, 10 maybe a little, 11 yes I think, 12 yes, 13 yes, 14 yes, 15 no, 16 sort of sometimes, 17 kind of, 18 no, 19 maybe, 20 YES, 21 no, 22 no, 23 no, 24 I don't know

I haven't read it yet, but your dad's side of the family has a really strong trait of narcissim...

My friend/writing partner's dad is like ... psycho

I've felt that for a long time, it was like when I flew out with your dad and met them for the first time... all they did was talk about themselves. They never asked about me, I felt talked at for two weeks.

Like wouldn't let them have doors on their room psycho

wow

So I always conflate narcissism with THAT level of nuts

But I was talking to her today like 'lol <thing dad used to do>' and she's like 'that sounds like a narc

I don't think he quite qualifies as a full on narcissist, because he is missing a few of the important points...BUT - there is a hell of a lot that fits him.

And eloiseand Astrid

I do think he feels us as more than extensions of himself.

Which seems to be central to narc ... ness

Uhmmm.....I'm not so sure he does....

Viewing the people close to you as things.

He does do that.

He doesn't respect you kids, he never has... you are extensions of him, everything you do that doesn't meet his standards is an embarrassment to him.

I barely talk to him anymore, and so much of my childhood/teenagehood, my memory feels super shaky.

Yeah, I'm super pissed at myself and him about your childhood.

Because for the most part, I was constantly protecting you.

shrug I'm fine now

Like ... I'm just trying to understand now, mostly because it will help and

Also I'm worried about my sisters.

We had a couple of bad instances - but the fact that you don't remember me sticking up for you and associate all the crap things he did with both of us, makes me sooooo angry that I went along with his "united" front theory of parenting.

I think it's a lot easier for me to forgive you any fuckups than it is him, because you've put SO MUCH EFFORT into growing and changing and becoming this awesome super mom

(I mean there was a couple of times I was not cool in how I parented you, I'm SOOO sorry about Sable.)

That's the thing, I wasn't perfect with you, but I was also an awesome super mom for you too.

Like you're not perfect, nobody is, I wouldn't expect that of ANYONE, but you acknowledge your mistakes and you TALK about them

But you don't even remember that.

That matters to me a lot

With dad...He never acknowledges that he's done anything wrong, really.

Or if he does... he doesn't work to fix it.

He doesn't try to be better.

He doesn't question himself, he doesn't LISTEN

I know

And that BOTHERS ME SO MUCH

I tried for 20 years to get him to be betterand he was... a little

and whatever progress I made, was erased when he married Jenn

Sigh

I just want to understand.

Honestly, sometimes I wonder if the abuse is severe enough that he is legally committing child abuse.

I don't actually know.

Both for myself, and for my sisters.

What help does understanding do?

It doesn't make it any easier to live through

Like ... if you look at it from an outside perspective, yelling isn't abuse, right?

But that psychological terrorizing... idk

I don't know what to do. And now, the little girls are not even saying it's that bad.I think it is abusive, and sometimes, I think he's crossing the line where a court would agree.

But it's not consistently enough that I can call him out on it.

Look up verbal abuse, it's illegal to verbally abuse your children.

And let me know if you think he would qualify - by law - as verbally abusive.

"Typical language used in these definitions is “injury to the psychological capacity or emotional stability of the child as evidenced by an observable or substantial change in behavior, emotional response, or cognition” and injury as evidenced by “anxiety, depression, withdrawal, or aggressive behavior.”

I mean....Yeah

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/define.pdf#page=2&view=Types%20of%20abusewww.childwelfare.govchildwelfare.gov

Yeah

I don't know.

you could report him.

Fiona told him he is literally giving her anxiety

and he told her, no, he isn't.

But Linnea has told me firmly, that she loves him and that she can handle it by monitoring herself so that she doesn't do anything that pisses him off.

This is the same tactic that Annika took.

.... wince

Managing him by tiptoeing around his anger.If he starts to escalate, she fixes whatever is escalating him.

Fiona I think is going along with what Linnea wants, but she's spoken up a few times saying that she's still being yelled at.

I really think #2 is a yes... more so than when you were growing up.

“Any attempt at autonomy on your part is strongly resisted. Normal rites of passage (learning to shave, wearing makeup, dating) are grudgingly allowed only if you insist, and you're punished for your insistence ("Since you're old enough to date, I think you're old enough to pay for your own clothes!") If you demand age-appropriate clothing, grooming, control over your own life, or rights, you are difficult and she ridicules your "independence."”

Lara

He wouldn't let them play outside, they couldn't walk two blocks to go to the park.

That's the definition/information specifically for Oregon

nods

well, it certainly fits for both you and annika

It pisses me off how much damage he would do to her from a simple weekend visit.

Maybe I should talk to one of the counselors here and ask them if I should report it.

I'm actually a mandatory reporter, so if I know abuse is going on, I'm required to report it.

I'm going to go find someone to talk to .

God he'd be so. fucking. pissed.

If CPS reached out to him.

He'd be absolutely furious.

You know he'll rant and rave and rage. Are those reports anonymous? Cause if you did that and he found out...Things would get fucking UGLY.

Okay - she said we should go ahead and report

We can report anonymous

and they won't do anything anyway

but it builds a case.

They only investigate for sexual and physical abuse.

She said they don't even investigate neglect.

Wow

You don't have to if you don't want to. But I'm going to do it.

Later, I'm working atm...

hugs

I don't know if I'm ready to do that.

I might be at some point, but... not yet. >:

Understood.

Well, I'm FURIOUS about Annika

Like my heart just started racing

I was there with you.

And my hands got a little shaky

But Annika was subjected to his abuse...without any moderation from me.

Well, it helped me to know it can be done anonymously and that DHS won't go knocking his door down.

“17. She "parentifies." She shed her responsibilities to you as soon as she was able, leaving you to take care of yourself as best you could. She denied you medical care, adequate clothing, necessary transportation or basic comforts that she would never have considered giving up for herself. She never gave you a birthday party or let you have sleepovers. Your friends were never welcome in her house. She didn't like to drive you anywhere, so you turned down invitations because you had no way to get there. She wouldn't buy your school pictures even if she could easily have afforded it. You had a niggardly clothing allowance or she bought you the cheapest clothing she could without embarrassing herself. As soon as you got a job, every request for school supplies, clothing or toiletries was met with "Now that you're making money, why don't you pay for that yourself?" You studied up on colleges on your own and choose a cheap one without visiting it. You signed yourself up for the SATs, earned the money to pay for them and talked someone into driving you to the test site. You worked three jobs to pay for that cheap college and when you finally got mononucleosis she chirped at you that she was "so happy you could take care of yourself." She also gave you tasks that were rightfully hers and should not have been placed on a child. You may have been a primary caregiver for young siblings or an incapacitated parent. You may have had responsibility for excessive household tasks. Above all, you were always her emotional caregiver which is one reason any defection from that role caused such enormous eruptions of rage. You were never allowed to be needy or have bad feelings or problems. Those experiences were only for her, and you were responsible for making it right for her. From the time you were very young she would randomly lash out at you any time she was stressed or angry with your father or felt that life was unfair to her, because it made her feel better to hurt you. You were often punished out of the blue, for manufactured offenses. As you got older she directly placed responsibility for her welfare and her emotions on you, weeping on your shoulder and unloading on you any time something went awry for her.”

that's why I hesitated in the first place, because yeah, if he knew it was me...

This one is Annika 100%

“It's not THAT severe, she could have friends over sometimes, but... taking on his responsibilities for the other kids, yes, and the absolute resistance to helping her go places or do thingsLaraAs soon as you got a job, every request for school supplies, clothing or toiletries was met with "Now that you're making money, why don't you pay for that yourself?" You studied up on colleges on your own and choose a cheap one without visiting it. You signed yourself up for the SATs, earned the money to pay for them and talked someone into driving you to the test site. You worked three jobs to pay for that cheap college and when you finally got mononucleosis she chirped at you that she was "so happy you could take care of yourself." “

#personal #storing for posterity #my dad #my mom #narcissistic personality #maybe?#I don't know #family dynamics #abuse

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