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king-gob · 4 years ago

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What’s a good comic that doesn’t involve superheroes?

oh buddy. pal. friendo. I’ll limit myself to books currently running to keep this only a single mile long. Note that depending on how loose your definition of “superhero” is will affect this. I’ve seen people call John McClane a superhero so yeah.

Something is Killing the Children

by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell'Edera (Boom! Studios)

Kids have been going missing in a sleepy woodland town. A strange woman named Erica arrives, determined to do something about it. She partners with a young boy who claims to have seen the thing stalking the town, and things quickly spiral further out of control. Well-written characters and fantastic art. Easily my favorite book running right now.

The Department of Truth

by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds (Image)

Cole Turner is an FBI agent who specializes in conspiracy theories and the deleterious effect it has on the minds of people obsessed with them. Unfortunately for him, he is about to discover that there is more going on under the surface than he realized and belief is far more powerful than he could ever imagine. Tynion is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers, and Simmonds’s art is even better here than it was in Dying Is Easy (which I also recommend). This series has one of the best first issues I’ve ever read, and I was hooked instantly. A definite recommend if you are as interested in conspiracy theories as I am.

Fire Power

by Robert Kirkman and Chris Samnee (Image)

Owen Johnson is a regular dad in the suburbs. He has a great wife, two kids and a job working at his father-in-law’s antique shop. What sets him apart is that he had spent years of his early life in a Shaolin temple, mastering martial arts, including the legendary Fire Power, the ability to generate fire from his body. He has long since turned his back on his order and the responsibilities they demand, but his former life is not ready to let him go. Written by Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead and with art by the great Chris Samnee, Fire Power is a great martial arts comic, recommended for fans of Street Fighter or anyone who likes seeing monks and ninjas beat each other up. I definitely recommend starting from the “Volume 0″ prequel trade. It’s not ESSENTIAL but I believe the story flows much better with it that way.

Fear Case

by Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins (Dark Horse)

Two Secret Service agents are investigating the Fear Case, the Service’s oldest open case. All agents are put on the case, but are only given a single year to investigate, as the case has the tendency to ruin the lives of those who get too close. Winters and Mitchum are in the last three weeks before they have to turn the case over, but they are closer than anyone has gotten in the history of the Service to getting their hands on the legendary box. But the closer they get, the more bodies they seem to find, and the duo’s mental and emotional limits are stretched to their breaking point. Everything Matt Kindt writes is worth reading, and this series is no different. Recommended for fans of the X-Files and other supernatural mysteries.

I Breathed a Body

by Zac Thompson and Andy MacDonald (Aftershock)

Telling too much about this comic would honestly be spoiling it. In the not-too-distant future, the biggest social media influencer in the world posts something horrific and the macabre lengths his PR team go to to handle it. The art is extremely good at showing the body horror involved and while I do recommend the comic, be warned, it is *extremely* fucked up. Excellent horror comic.

Once and Future

by Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora (Boom! Studios)

Terrorists resurrect King Arthur in a bid for power, but it turns out that the english legend is not what they thought or bargained for. Now, a retired monster hunter and her archeologist grandson must turn back the tide of returning myths before the world is irreversibly plunged into darkness. But their family history has plenty of shadows of their own. Really great book from two of my favorite creators, and really love the way they play with the metatextual nature of the myths and legends involved. Very fun.

Seven Secrets

by Tom Taylor and Daniele Di Nicuolo (Boom! Studios)

A clandestine order protects seven briefcases which hold seven secrets. However, a betrayal from within threatens to reveal those secrets, and Caspar, the son of two former protectors of the Seven Secrets, must discover the truth before all is lost. Tom Taylor is a fantastic writer that makes everything he writes infectiously fun, and with Di Nicuolo’s great eye for action scenes, this is an adventure book worth checking out.

Stillwater

by Chip Zdarsky and Ramón K. Pérez (Image)

A promise of a substantial inheritance brings Daniel West and his friend to the quiet town of Stillwater. However, they quickly realize the town’s sinister secret: in Stillwater, nobody dies. And as the marketing for the book says, that’s not just a promise, it’s a threat. Good writing and an intriguing mystery. Highly recommended.

That Texas Blood

by Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips (Image)

The murder of his brother brings an aspiring writer back to the Texas town of his youth, and puts him on a violent road to his own undoing. Fantastic writing. If you’re like me and love dark neo-western and crime stories, then I honestly can’t recommend this book enough. Look elsewhere if you want happy endings.

We Only Find Them When They’re Dead

by Al Ewing and Simone Di Meo (Boom! Studios)

Captain Malik and his crew pilot an autopsy ship, so named because they harvest meat, metal and other materials from the fresh corpses of dead gods that appear on the edge of space. Malik wants to see a living god, and is willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. But the ghosts of his past haunt him, and until he confronts them, making history won’t be easy. Fantastic cosmic sci-fi story with gorgeous art by Di Meo. Recommended for people who love stories set in space, and also for people who love long panels.

American Ronin

by Peter Milligan and ACO (AWA Upshot)

In a future where supercorporations rule everyone’s lives (I know that may be hard to visualize but try to imagine it), war is fought not by nations, but by enhanced operatives carrying out all manner of assassinations and espionage. But when one unnamed operative breaks his programming and goes on the hunt, the entire sick system is about to be violently brought down. Really interesting protagonist who has a great ability. Hunt down his targets by ingesting their DNA to learn how they think, and then using that empathic ability to get inside their heads. The cat and mouse games are really fun, and I highly recommend for anyone who likes superspy stories or seeing complex plans pay off.

Casual Fling

by Jason Starr and Dalibor Talajić (AWA Upshot)

Jennifer Ryan is a successful lawyer with a loving family and a great career, but a bad decision (that is, cheating on her stay-at-home husband) made on a whim has disastrous consequences. Saying much more would be spoiling, but there is definitely something sinister going on beneath the surface. Made in the style of erotic thrillers like Fatal Attraction and Eyes Wide Shut, this book features very well-written, realistic characters and importantly (to me anyway) refuses to condemn the protagonist while not shying away from the destructive results of her mistakes. I picked this book up because I liked Jason Starr’s previous book, Red Border, and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Recommended.

Bitter Root

by David F. Walker, Chuck Brown and Sanford Greene (Image)

In 1920s Harlem, a long-standing family of monster hunters is splintering. Tragedy and conflicting worldviews are tearing them apart, and they’re going to need to stand together if they want to save New York City from the darkness that’s coming. Hate is a powerful thing, but also a cancer, and it’s about to metastasize. Really great worldbuilding and immediately likeable characters. Despite having a lot of themes about hate and prejudice (and utilizing them particularly well, in my opinion), the book is an exceptional action story. David F. Walker is a favorite writer of mine (See: Shaft, Nighthawk, Luke Cage) and Chuck Brown wrote the incredibly fun On the Stump (also highly recommended). The issues also feature essays from black scholars who expand on some of the historical events and themes that are present in the book, if you’re into that sort of thing (which I am). I’m not sure if those are in the trades, though.

Honorable Mentions/Books that I am too tired to give the full treatment to right now: Babyteeth (Aftershock) Chained to the Grave (IDW) Dead Dog’s Bite (Dark Horse) Decorum (Image) Deep Beyond (Image) Dryad (Oni Press) Family Tree (Image) The Goon (Albatross Funnybooks) Killadelphia (Image) Nocterra (Image) Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology (Dark Horse) Orcs (Boom! Studios) Orphan and the Five Beasts (Dark Horse) Outcast (Image) Proctor Valley Road (Boom! Studios) Redneck (Image) Sea of Sorrows (IDW) Second Coming (AHOY Comics) Silver Coin (Image) Tartarus (Image) Two Moons (Image) Undiscovered Country (Image) Undone by Blood (Aftershock) Vampire: The Masquerade (Vault Comics) Wynd (Boom! Studios) Year Zero (AWA Upshot) Honorable Mentions/Books that have ended but you should check out: A Walk Through Hell (Aftershock) American Born Chinese (First Second) American Vampire (DC Comics) Animosity (Aftershock) Archangel 8 (AWA Upshot) Bad Reception (Aftershock) Basketful of Heads (DC Comics) Black Science (Image) Blacksad (Dark Horse) Chew (Image) Dark Ark (Aftershock) Dark Red (Aftershock) Daytripper (DC Comics) Dead Day (Aftershock) Devil’s Highway (AWA Upshot) The Dollhouse Family (DC Comics) East of West (Image) Folklords (Boom! Studios) Gideon Falls (Image) God Country (Image) Grendel, KY (AWA Upshot) Hotell (AWA Upshot) Infidel (Image) Knights Temporal (Aftershock) Locke and Key (IDW) The Low, Low Woods (DC Comics) The Man Who Fucked Up Time (Aftershock) Midnight Nation (Image) Nailbiter (Image) Orc Stain (Image) Pestilence (Aftershock) Plunge (DC Comics) Preacher (DC Comics) Pride of Baghdad (DC Comics) Red Border (AWA Upshot) The Red Mother (Boom! Studios) The Replacer (Aftershock) Scalped (DC Comics) Scott Pilgrim (Oni Press) Strange Skies Over East Berlin (Boom! Studios) Tokyo Ghost (Image) Transmetropolitan (DC Comics) Unholy Grail (Aftershock) The Wicked + The Divine (Image) Y: The Last Man (DC Comics)

#please read this I worked a long time on it #and now I go to sleep #asks #baronegg #comics #m

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gambitgazette · 4 years ago

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The X-Perts: Gambit

The following is a repost of an article about Gambit that was posted to the Marvel site in 2011. We’re reposting it here at Gambit Gazette for two reasons; 1) it’s no longer on Marvel’s site (as far as we can tell), and 2) it exhibits insight and respect for Gambit’s character far deeper than what’s displayed on the comic book page the vast majority of the time (sadly). Gambit Gazette has taken the liberty of highlighting passages we find especially noteworthy.

The X-Perts: Gambit Kieron Gillen, Mike Carey, Marjorie Liu and Victor Gischler determine where this wild card will fall Posted Jul 12, 2011 1:31 pm Updated Aug 4, 2011 1:58 pm

By Ben Morse

This July, X-MEN: SCHISM kicks off a startling metamorphosis in the mutant corner of the Marvel Universe that will split the Children of the Atom and lead to ReGenesis in the fall along with two new ongoing series, each featuring it’s own distinctive team: UNCANNY X-MEN and WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN.

With change in the air, here on Marvel.com we’ll be regularly gathering the creators and editors responsible for guiding the X-Men’s destiny to dissect each of their charges to examine what makes them tick and perhaps lend some insight into where they will find themselves once the Schism ends and the ReGenesis gets underway.

This week, we take a look at Gambit, the thief-turned-X-Man who currently serves on the mission squad led by his on-again, off-again love, Rogue, while also mentoring the unpredictable X-23.

Marvel.com: How would you describe the core of who Gambit is and what is most important to him?

Victor Gischler (writer of X-MEN): Self-reliance.

Mike Carey (writer of X-MEN LEGACY): Gambit’s a guy with a core skill that he glories and excels in, and his sense of himself has formed around that, to some extent. He’s not just a thief, in the sense of having earned his living by stealing—he’s a Thief in a self-defining sense that’s halfway between family and ethnicity. [He was] raised by thieves, in a city where thieves were a clan with clan loyalties. So I think that’s his core, and his instincts and identity and an X-Man were grafted onto that.

Kieron Gillen (writer of UNCANNY X-MEN): Gambit's just one of those classic conflicted characters, torn between a fundamental selfishness—or, at best, self-interest—and the realization that [this] isn't right. His shows of genuine compassion are all the more striking now because of where he's come from. I mean, put aside his recent interactions with Rogue. Look at his interactions with X-23. A man of experience who is man enough to realize that not all experience is worthwhile. He'd roll his eyes at anyone who takes the Sinatra-ian "Regrets? I've had a few, etc" line.

Marjorie Liu (writer of X-23): At his heart, Gambit is a good man who believes in taking care of his friends, and his friends are what's most important to him. People are his home. He will do anything for those who matter to him.

Marvel.com: What is Gambit’s view of how the mutant race should conduct itself moving forward?

Kieron Gillen: Any future of the X-Men that involves having a future and keeps him out of long, boring meetings is probably good with him.

Mike Carey: Arising out of his childhood experiences, I think Gambit is fairly tribal in his gut instincts. Protecting his own, and keeping faith with his own, are core values for him. He’s also perfectly comfortable with a sort of under-the-radar lifestyle, and he knows first-hand that it’s possible to live invisibly among others who don’t share your values or your lifestyle. I’d say Gambit would be comfortable with a strategy that saw mutantkind dropping right out of the rifle sights of the various nut jobs out there and going underground until its numbers are up again and it can confront the world on its own terms.

Victor Gischler: I think he knows that difficult things need to be done, but he wants to see the mutant race finally push through those times so things will be better for the next generation.

Marjorie Liu: The thing about Gambit is that he's a man who knows how to adapt to survive. He plays things by ear, depending on the situation, and never feels obligated to follow the rules, because the only rules that matter are his own sense of honor. Ultimately, that sense of honor includes 'doing no harm'—at least, not to the innocent.

Because of that, however, I don't think he has a firm idea of how the mutant race should move forward. There's no overarching philosophy, no set of rules. Again, he adapts, he plays by ear. I think he would be more likely to say that the mutant race is filled with individuals, and each situation needs to be taken on an individual basis, without imposing some master plan.

Again, though, he's a survivor, and if the world turned on mutants as a whole, his approach would change, as well. He'd fight. He'd protect.

Marvel.com: Does Gambit like being a member of the X-Men? What keeps him affiliated with them?

Mike Carey: He likes the excitement. He likes the company—or some of it. He likes the sense of family. I think those would be the most important things for him. Having said that, he’s definitely someone who would be able to step into another life if the X-Men folded. He’d miss it, but he wouldn’t mourn it. He’d survive perfectly well.

Kieron Gillen: Honestly, I could spin out an enormous answer about how he sees himself in relation to mutants—though it suddenly strikes me that I see Gambit as one of the mutants who least self-identifies as "mutant"—but about 85% of it boils down to the following: One word, five letters.

Marjorie Liu: I don't know if he likes being a member of the X-Men, so much as he likes some of the people there, and feels obligated to stick by them, and guard their backs. It's a 'people' thing that has him sticking around, and not philosophical.

Victor Gischler: There is kind of a lone wolf aspect to Gambit, but I think deep down all lone wolves really want to be part of the pack. They just don't want to get burned or have their trust betrayed. Gambit has been an X-Man too long not to be a team member in his heart.

Marvel.com: What are Gambit’s most honorable qualities? His least honorable qualities?

Mike Carey: His chimerical gallantry. His insane courage. His anarchic shrewdness.

When he first joined the X-Men, Gambit served as a cynical and occasionally ruthless counterpoint to their stern virtue. They’ve met him more than halfway now—in fact, in some ways, they’ve surpassed him: the X-Men’s moral mainstream has changed so much that Gambit now seems more like a Robin Hood among them, a principled thief with a paradoxically strong code of ethics. He’s still got that ruthless streak, and he can be dishonest both in concealing information and in lying outright. And he has a weakness for going it alone when he ought to trust the people around him. That was what got him sucked into Apocalypse’s wake.

Victor Gischler: He's honest about who he is, warts and all.

Marjorie Liu: Most honorable qualities? Least honorable? Sometimes I think those are one and the same. He'll take care of his friends, no matter what. That's great. But what's not so great for everyone else is that he'll take care of his friends -- no matter what. Even if it means an act of betrayal.

Marvel.com: Do you think the rest of the X-Men really trust Gambit?

Kieron Gillen: Dark, tortured past. Propensity for playing on the other side. Will make out with your other half behind your back. A big part of me thinks they trust Gambit more than they probably should.

Or maybe they don't. The Utopia-era Cyclops-condoned Wolverine-lead X-Force—Gambit wasn't on that team.

Marjorie Liu: No, not really. I don't think they know him, that's the problem. The individuals who do—Storm, Jubilee, X-23—would trust him with their lives, without question. Everyone else? Not so much. To them, he's a wild card, so to speak. They see his reputation first, before they see the man.

Mike Carey: I think they didn’t, and then they did, and now they don’t again. He’s got a lot of lost ground to make up after the Limbo debacle. His past as a thief doesn’t count against him any more, but his past as a Horseman and his past as a Marauder during Messiah Complex do.

Victor Gischler: As long as they keep one hand on their wallets at all times.

Marvel.com: Could Gambit ever be leader of the X-Men again?

Victor Gischler: I don't see it. But that's mostly because I don't think he’d ever really want the job.

Marjorie Liu: My first instinct was to say yes, but the more I think about it, issues of trust and reliability would undermine his position. I'm not sure all the X-Men would feel secure with him in charge, or be willing to follow him to hell and back—and that's a huge component of successful leadership.

That said, I do think he can lead, just on a smaller scale, with a team that would fit his highly adaptable nature.

Mike Carey: He’d never want that job. It’s too public and too constricting. He wouldn’t be afraid of the responsibility, although he wouldn’t exactly relish it, either—he would be afraid of having his hands tied in a fight by having to co-ordinate what everybody else was doing.

Kieron Gillen: It doesn't seem a natural fit, but I'd never say never. I wouldn't say he could lead the X-Men as they are now. But a hypothetical X-Men team of the future? Yeah, I can see him pulling that off. As long as it doesn't involve all too many of the aforementioned long, boring meetings.

Marvel.com: How does Gambit’s relationship with Rogue color his place among the X-Men?

Marjorie Liu: I wish it didn't! If this was real life, that relationship would be one of those bad running jokes that people tell each other around dinner, or when there's nothing else to talk about and so you go to the one topic that's only less boring than dull silence. Don't get me wrong, I used to be a fan of Gambit and Rogue, but the relationship doesn't do either of them any favors.

Mike Carey: It’s the main reason why the X-Men feel like home to him. If she left, his attachment to them would be significantly weakened.

Kieron Gillen: What can I say? Heavily.

I know I've been laboring it, but more than almost anyone else, his ties with the X-men are personal. He's happy to exist in a world with the X-Men. He's happy to do the X-Men's work. But he's an outsider, and I think that's a real core of who he is. He needs shadows to step out of.

Mike Carey: Who among the X-Men does Gambit trust? Who does he feel should lead the team?

Victor Gischler: I think he'd trust Storm under almost any circumstances.

Kieron Gillen: Rogue. That's about it. And I don't think he has particularly strong feelings about who should lead the team—but he is interested in the institution of the X-Men. I wouldn't say he's a "Doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always gets in" cynic, but as long as there's an institution which exists to do the job the X-Men have been doing, he's happy. If a leader appeared who changed that role entirely, it's only then Gambit would raise an eyebrow.

Marjorie Liu: I'm biased, but I feel he trusts X-23 and Jubilee, along with Storm. I'm not sure he trusts Rogue, even though he loves her—and I'm sure he's comfortable with Wolverine leading.

Mike Carey: I think he trusts Cyclops and is comfortable with his leadership. Certainly there’d be more tension for him if, say, Magneto had a leadership role. But the question of who leads isn’t a compelling one for Gambit, because he doesn’t see himself as being a follower. He follows his own conscience: sometimes that takes him outside the X-Men’s big tent. When he’s there, he toes the line, but his allegiance isn’t easily given or given without provisos.

#gambit #marvel #gambit gazette articles

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gffa · 5 years ago

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Hey! Long time reader, first time asker but I read your post yesterday about supplementary material enriching experience. I’ve seen all the movies, I’m loving The Clone Wars and I enjoy playing Swtor but that’s all I have experienced. Do you have any recommendations as to where to start with supplementary material? Are the graphic novels you reference on that marvel comic subscription do you know? Thank you for your posts, they are always so interesting!

Hi! Thank you for the kind words, I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog! And I love doing “where to start” posts! Keep in mind that a lot depends on what you happen to like (if you’re more of an OT fan or a PT fan or an ST fan, if you like certain characters more than others, etc.) but I think the basic places to start when moving on from the movies are:- The Clone Wars TV show. As you’ve said, you’re already watching this one but it’s still my #1 recommendation, because it sets up so much of the galaxy and the way things operate in the Republic and is just really good. Finish this one first, as it introduces you to so much you’ll need down the road–a lot of the Jedi characters that will then break your heart when you watch Order 66 happening in Revenge of the Sith, getting invested in Ahsoka Tano and her role in Anakin’s life, getting more time spent with characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padme Amidala, some trippy arcs like the Mortis arc that are fascinating for Force Woo, and a lot of stuff will come up in other shows, comics, and books!- Star Wars Rebels TV show. While it’s about an entirely new group of characters, it has a lot of recurring familiar characters–like James Earl Jones reprises his role in voicing Darth Vader, you learn the fate of Ahsoka Tano here, you get to see some of the clones again, you get a look at what it’s like for Jedi under the thumb of the Empire, you’re introduced to the Inquisitors, you get to see the politics of the Rebellion as the show goes along, you get a better look at Mandalore, etc. This is another show that will help form the foundations of other stuff.- Star Wars Battlefront II game. You can play it or just watch a movie version of it on YouTube. Yeah, the game got a lot of crap for the shit EA tried to pull with it, but it’s turned into a really great piece of media and the story itself is absolutely fantastic and will only take about 2 hours to get through, but a) it’s a great story with great characters (I LOVE IDEN VERSIO SO MUCH) and b) it does a great job at showing a lot of what happened after Return of the Jedi but before the Empire truly gave up. This establishes a lot of the final fight stuff, like the Battle of Jakku and its importance (aka, that’s all those ships that Rey is scavenging at the beginning of The Force Awakens) and what Operation Cinder is and the epilogue helps lead into what the First Order is.- The Star Wars titular comic + Darth Vader volume 1 (by Kieron Gillen) comics. These two are meant to be read concurrently, so I recommend them together, and they do an absolutely incredible job of filling out the space between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. They’re telling fantastic stories (including some really powerful stuff about Vader finding out the name of the Death Star pilot is Skywalker) while also giving some really great insights into the characters, adding depth to the story of the movies, and made me fall in love with the characters all over again. This Vader tends to be a little more mysterious, Gillen liked keeping the mystique to him (which appeals more to some, so if that’s your jam, read these first!), the feeling is very much in tune with the original trilogy in that sense. Same for the heroes, they feel very OT!- Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith by Charles Soule comics. You can read the Vader comics in either order, but I generally like suggesting this one to go second (release order is always good, imo) despite that this is my favorite of the comics. Set not long after Revenge of the Sith, this is a comic about Darth Vader adjusting to his new life and about the bigger, overarching story of the psychological look at a character who cannot admit what he’s done wrong.�� On the surface, it’s about him hunting down Jedi and trying to raise his wife from the dead, but in the macro sense, it’s about this guy who cannot admit that he had other choices, even when the Force is literally throwing those other paths in his face. Great Vader content for him being powerful and terrifying, while also being an absolute human disaster garbage bag.- Age of the Republic comics by Jodie Houser. If you like the prequels at all, these comics are stellar. There are eight of them, four for the main heroes, four for the main villains, and they’re a single issue each, where there’s a short look into their lives at various points, all which illustrate really thoughtful things about the characters, whether through their actions or even sometimes comparisons with other issues in the series. (ie, reading the Obi-Wan one and Jango Fett one really highlighted how each of them dealt with this young person they were taking care of.) They were just REALLY GOOD STORIES, too.- Star Wars Adventures by IDW Comics. These are cuter stories and set all across various eras, from the PT to the OT to the ST to occasionally other areas, but they’re always just absolutely CHARMING. They’re pure delight to read, they tend to focus on moments that are just really fun, so it’s easy to think of it as a kids’ comic, but instead I think they work best at showing some of the more hopeful moments of Star Wars without being too fluffy.- Poe Dameron by Charles Soule comics. These are SO GOOD, they really add so much to Poe’s character and they also do a great job of fleshing out that time between the New Republic still working to stabilize itself and when we know the First Order is coming. But mostly it just really makes you like Poe as a character, it captures his sense of charm and swagger while giving him an actual character arc, as he learns to be a leader.- Kanan: The Last Padawan comics. You need to see Rebels first (or at least the first two seasons, enough to make you care about Kanan as a character) but then this is a gorgeous, beautifully told story. It’s half about the current days with his new found family the Ghost crew (the cast of Rebels) and half about his history as a Padawan in the Jedi Order, how he was apprenticed to Depa Billaba, how he watched her die, how he had to live in the galaxy that wanted him dead just for being born the way he was, how he was being hunted for it, and how he survived. It’s really, really good!- Forces of Destiny animated shorts. You can find them all on Disney’s YouTube channel, they’re these 2-3 minute long stories about the women of the galaxy far, far away (with occasional appearances by others) and they’re pretty light-hearted fare, they’re meant to impart messages to kids or just be bite-sized content, but they’re pretty wonderful and it’s nice to see the women of SW get some attention.- From a Certain Point of View book. For the 40th Anniversary of A New Hope they put out an anthology of short stories, telling the various points of view of different side characters and adding depth to everything that was going on. Not all of them are super great, you can feel free to skip ones if you’re getting bored, but there are some MUST READ ones, especially the Qui-Gon, Yoda, and Obi-Wan ones. And the Admiral Motti story had me in absolute tears from cry-laughing while reading it.- Bloodline by Claudia Gray book. It’s a really good Leia story, but it’s also a book that does a lot to cover what’s going on with the New Republic still struggling to establish itself, why Leia isn’t part of it by TFA, and more on how the First Order came to be and why people stuck their heads in the sand about it.- Thrawn by Timothy Zahn book. While there’s some dissonance between Zahn’s version of the character and the character from Rebels, I think you can make them fit together, and this book really is one of the best of canon material. It’s fun and zips right along and introduces some new characters and sets up some really interesting backstories and just fleshes out the Imperial stuff and gives us Eli Vanto. ALL THINGS I LOVED.FINALLY: The above is aimed at a general list of things that I thin pretty much anyone would enjoy, it’s meant to cover most of the bases as best I can, but if you have a favorite era or a favorite character, feel free to run straight to anything that involves them. There’s a lot of good Legends stuff (as always it’s hard not to recommend the Revenge of the Sith novelization or Wild Space, but that’d just muddle the line between canon and Legends), but I’m sticking with canon right now because it’s easier and there’s so much good stuff and it’s less confusing that way.All the comics are available on Comixology (and there’s never been a comic I hated by any means, though, admittedly some of the mini series can be kind of bland, anything that ran for at least 20 issues is a good bet, and most of the comics are THE BEST of the supplementary material), and if you don’t mind waiting a couple of months for Disney+ (or Googling for streaming sites) the animated properties are all really worth watching. Sometimes they take a bit to get going, but I’ve fallen in love with every single one.These might not end up being your favorites (some of my favorites–like the Aftermath books or the Join the Resistance books–are ones that I wouldn’t put on a list for new-to-supplementary-material fans, because they’re a little too distanced from established characters) but they’re great places to start getting a feel for whether or not you like this kind of thing! :D

#galactic-pirates #fic recs #not really but that's my tag for recs for stuff :D

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darkcherrywitch · 5 years ago

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Behavior Exercise

Hi girls, guys and non-binary pals <3

This is the scond fanfic i write, this one is inspired in a movie called The Road Within and hopefully my first series so please let me know if you want me to keep posting it, maybe is not as good as i think it is haha i’d really appretiate some feedback, also, english is not my first lenguage so please be nice i’m trying :(

WARNINGS: 4k+ mentions of drugs, alcohol and mental illness. This fanfic contains sensitive topics like anorexia, OCD and drug addictions if you feel triggered by any of this topics please do not read it.

“Nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twenty three” You could hear Robert whispering a number for each mug whilst cleaning one per one with an anti-bacterial microfiber cloth he just bought yesterday. You take another sip of your non sugared coffee already cold keeping your gaze in your roommate who was onto an old baby blue wooden chair, his favorite, because it was easier to clean than the other ones “Twenty four, twenty five…twenty fiv-five” he stutters with a low voice almost like a secret he can only hear. You put your mug down on the table knowing what is coming next, like every other morning, he just hated odds numbers.

“Five- twenty fiv-five” He keeps repeating walking back and forth all over the kitchen with his hand scratching his head pulling his blonde curls. “Hey, good morning” A deep British accent stops you from standing up and walking towards Robert making him stop as well. He looked at both of you just to switch his gaze feeling the pressure in the air as he continues to grab an empty plastic cup from the kitchen bar assuming he could get in trouble if he gets anywhere near the mugs shelf.

“Morning, did you have a good rest?” You greet with an awkward smile on your face. Harry moved in just a week ago so it is understandable he’s not fully used to Rob’s breakdowns as you are after nine years. You know Rob since secondary school; a catholic schoolhouse in Portlaoise where special and difficult teenagers were sent by his parents to make them better, doesn’t work pretty well if they ask you. Robert and you shared some classes and weekly group’s therapy meetings, however, you only knew him as the schizo boy just to find out, years later, he does not suffer from schizophrenia but a severe ODC and constants paranoid episodes, it all got worst four years ago when he came home to find out his mom had left a day before the graduation night, all she left was a note saying how sorry she was, a load of cash, a blue tuxedo he was supposed to be wearing at the dance and an empty home.

Four years ago

You lost count of how many minutes, maybe hours, you have been staring at the old pink dress your dad had bought you for tonight’s dance, it would be better if he could actually share the evening with you but it was too much to ask, you thought. It had stopped raining some hours ago but a loud splash outside your window snaps you from your deep thoughts about tonight, a rowdy cry followed the splash “SHE LEFT ME, WHY DOES EVERYBODY BLODY LEFT ME?” You ran to your window to see what was happening, and then, you saw Rob on a puddle wearing anything but his underpants and his navy blue tuxedo in his hands all covered in mud, just as him. He was crying and screaming while Miss Gillen held him helping him for hurting himself “MY DAD IS DEAD AND MOM HATES ME, I-I ‘AVE NO ONE, NO ONE FUCKING CARES ABOUT ME” He yelled at the sky escaping from Miss Gillen’s arms slapping mercilessly his face and pulling his blonde hair roughly.

You have spent almost a decade in that hypocrite househole where religious people pretended to know what was good and bad, and even worst, pretending they care about all of you. You knew people were lonely back there, after all, most of you were abandoned by your families, they just gave up on most of you and you were aware of that. You knew everyone there was ill, was broken and alone, new people came and then they left, some people have been taken to the hospital after a breakdown and they have never returned, it was hard to live in a place like that were you could share breakfast with someone just to wake up the next day with their bed empty and another casket full, that’s why you decided to not make any friends, carrying with other person’s problems could destroyed you just as much as losing another loved one, but when you saw him all covered in mire when just yesterday he cried in the middle of the cafeteria because he spilled a drop of tea in his pants something changed in you. You almost didn’t recognize him; it was the same guy who couldn’t even walk outside his bedroom without latex gloves, however he was there outside your room, broken and scared. He had no one and you knew that feeling.

“Rumor has it you have your own place now” You said having a sit next to him in cafeteria two days after the dance. He looked strange at you “do yo-do you eat?” He answered you sharply but those comments didn’t bother you anymore. You smiled at him taking a sip of your water bottle “so, is it true?” You insisted “‘s not mine, ‘s me mums” he mumbled cleaning the spot of the table you just removed your hand from. “But she left” you say abruptly making him look at you, finally getting some strong eye contact, he kept silence trying not to cry, you leaned closer to him and whispered “when are we escaping this hole then?”.

Now

It’s been four years since you convinced Rob to leave that place, four years since you’ve been living together in that house his mom had left for him, and four years of the only caring human interaction you both have; you take care for each other and you could say it was the first time in ages that you haven’t feel lonely.

“Could been better if I’m honest” Harry replies with a cheeky smile “Of course it could have been better, it could have been better if you just would stop yourself from snoring the whole night” Robert cuts Harry off “Did you know he goes to sleep without taking a shower? and WE have to share room it’s just unacceptable, unaccepta- unacceptable” You can see Rob’s face turning red and his eyes looking at you almost popping out at the memory of last night.

“Oh I’m sorry, did my snoring muffle that boring music you sleep with?” Harry says without looking at him as he pours some orange juice to his cup “It’s not my fault you don’t appreciate quiet music you cheap ass Mick Jagger” Robert spits roughly making Harry giggle as he decides to stop the argue blowing him a kiss. He was cheeky and irreverent and you like that, Harry was like a new specimen like a new world you wish to explore, it was something you have never seen before, neither you or Rob haven’t met anyone like Harry, you feel excited about this new experience even though now and then you feel guiltiness for making Rob go through this, you know he’s not looking forward this as much as you are, in fact since Harry is living with you Rob’s stress levels has been higher than usual.

When you left the clinic you decided come up with a plan to keep both of you sane, you knew Rob’s money it wasn’t going to last more than a few months and his disability allowance was not enough for both of you, so you decided to get a job and attend to some free therapy session at a community center near Rob’s house, and that’s how Harry came into your life.

One month ago

What it seemed like a normal summer rain predicting its end becomes a dreadful storm within minutes. You make you steps larger covering your head with your old jacked which is completely useless as you try to rush Rob who is a couple steps behind you freaking out because his boots and the bottom of his pants are all covered in mud. There’s only a couple of blocks left to the community center where both of you attend to the weekly sessions that keep yourself sort of sane. You arrive to the center soaking wet and just in time to the session, however, you spend a few minutes taking care of Rob helping him to clean himself.

Both of you take a seat in the circle in the middle of the huge cold room; the therapist, Arthur welcomes you with a big smile understanding the weather was not something you could control or change. “So now that we’re complete…” he stand up and says looking at Rob and you “Are you okay, Robert?” he asks kindly to what Rob just nods “great, now I want to start this meeting introducing our new member, he comes all the way from London so I ask you to be nice and make him feel welcome”.

You were too busy taking care of your friend and cursing at the wind that you haven’t notice the new member of the group; a tall white guy with silky curls, they seem recently wet as well even tho he doesn’t look bother about it. Your gaze travels his figure from bottom to top; he’s wearing some old used boots, a pair of blue jeans and a grey hoodie. You notice his big and strong hands as he says hi to the group with one of them; both decorated with multiple rings, It’s not until your glance meets his big emerald eyes ornamented with some bags under them that you realized you are probably staring too much, as you try to look somewhere else you see he offers a smile at you; not yet a malicious one, not yet a kindly one, it was more like something in between; a cheeky lovely but arrogant smile.

“Hi, I’m Harry, Nice to meet you all” He says briefly without taking his eyes off of you he looks at the rest of the group smiling still just to sit down again. You could hear some distant and slow claps, probably your partners are just as confused as you; most of the introductions were followed by a whole crazy story of why are they there and even some tears and breakdowns but never just a cheeky smile and a breathtaking glance. “You probably want to tell us why you’re here Harry” Arthur says looking at him.

“’kay, if you want me to” He says rubbing his palms on his thighs looking at the ground until he speaks again “…I’m a sex addict” he looks up staring challenging at Arthur chuckling. Arthur looks quite annoyed he probably knows what the newbie’s here for, you’ve shared these sessions with some sex addicts they only last two or three weeks top, but you are pretty sure he’s just joking. “Probably just another junkie” Rob speaks up louder than he expected. The whole room is filled with silence for a couple seconds even you fell Harry deep gaze on Rob “Wanna bet pretty boy? can show you”

“Harry is here because he’s trying to keep himself sober and we’re to help him, okay?” Arthur interrupts quickly “He’s new in town so if you know about some apartment available for him would be a great favor”. The rest of the session keeps going pretty normal even though you can’t focus on any of your partners, you are too confused yet intrigued about the whole new guy situation; after that interaction you can tell Rob has been tense since then, on the other side Harry seems cool about it, you were expecting him being an asshole with the rest of the group as they share their week with you, but instead he listens carefully, looking attentive to each person who stands up, he even shares some advices with them, good advices. Robs is kind of right, he is a junkie, still he is not just another junkie, there was something different about him and you want it to find out.

“Hey, so the new guy is looking for somewhere to live” You say to Rob who was cleaning the snack table of the therapy room. “There are a lot of bridges he can live under” He replies without looking at you, he was too focused stacking some water bottles carefully. You take a piece of fruit and a bottle of water as you feel Arthur Gaze on you “I was thinking he can live with us, we have a spare room” Robert stops abruptly his stacking process just to give you a perplexed look “are you seriously suggesting me to offer my house to a bloody drug addict we just literally met just because he’s hot?”

“C’mon… I never said he was hot” Rob turns his face back to the table cleaning something else you don’t even see “That’s not the point, I’m not letting a stranger sleeping under my roof” “You let me sleep under your roof, beside, we can actually use some extra money” you say looking for the new guy in the room “and he seems fun” Robert grunts rolling his eyes at the sight of you looking for him. “Robert, Y/N, we’re about to the closure would you please join us?” Arthur says from a distance. “take it as behavior exercise” You insist Rob with a begging look with both of your hands together “I’ll think about it” He cuts the conversation walking away from you.

One week ago

You make your way into de kitchen to find Rob finishing his cleaning routine; you overslept this morning understandable after keeping yourself with almost anything but water for the last three days. “Morning babe” You said weakly to your friend as he quickly reach a chair for you to sit “Hey, I made you some breakfast” He says as he opens the fridge taking out a plate with fruit and oats “There’s no need Rob, I’m going to be late to work” You say as you try to stand up but he grabs your arm in order to stop you from getting up, you look at his hand wrapped around your arm and look back at him in shock; his germophobia doesn’t let him have any physical interaction with other people, he never touches anybody and freaks out when somebody touches him. Is the first time in years you’ve feel his touch; even though he’s wearing latex gloves as usual you can feel the warm emanating from his big and soft hand.

“You might take care of me most of the time but I’m not stupid Y/N, I know you haven’t eaten a full meal in four days, so please, sit down and eat your breakfast” He finally releases your arm as he walks to his room to probably change his gloves. The whole situation leaves so speechless that you don’t have any other choice to do what you’ve been told. You can’t remember a time when Robert has ever touched you or at least without having a crisis, definitely your relationship has grown a lot in those couple years and now it seems like he cares about you more every day and part of you couldn’t just let him down.

As you keep eating your meal and thinking about your relationship with Rob a knock on the door snaps you out to reality and you hear Rob rushing to the door “no, no, you can’t leave the table until you finish”. He reaches to the door and takes a big breathe before open it just to find a pair of emerald eyes looking at him “Oh Hi, nice to see you again Pretty boy” Harry says after finishing his cigarette and stepping on it “Oh it’s you, what do you want?” he asks hiding half of his body behind the door. Harry smirks and shows him the black suitcase he was holding. Robert knew what he was there for he just forgot about it when he looked into his eyes. Today is the day that Harry moves into the house; after a couple endless nights convincing Rob of letting him stay today you got yourself a new roommate.

“Oh, right, come on in, I guess” Rob says opening the door wider for Harry to come in. “Take your shoes off” Robert adds without looking at him walking towards the kitchen “Normally I only accept to take my clothes off after a couple of drinks but for you pretty b..” “We don’t use shoes inside the house, that’s the first rule, it’s not a joke” Rob cuts Harry off abruptly facing him again “Okay, take it easy they’re off” Harry says without erasing his cheeky smile of his face “I think we didn’t even say hi properly ” Harry adds offering his hand to Rob, he has heard that he’s quite special to interact with but there’s no person in the world that Harry can’t just win over, he’s irrelevant and funny and just full of natural charm, everybody likes him and he’s aware of that but there is something in Rob Harry just feels attracted to, he likes to push his buttons it’s like a challenge and he has always loved a good challenge.

Robert stares at Harry’s Hand for a moment “I don’t do that” he adds looking back into Harry’s eyes “you don’t do handshakes?” Harry replies chuckling at Rob’s weird affirmation; who doesn’t do handshakes? “I don’t touch people” Robert replies almost yelling at Harry; his face started to turn red and his breathe is getting harder to catch. Harry’s afraid maybe he went too far but it was not his intention at all, he like to mess with people but not like that. “Hey, it’s fine, hi Harry”

You rushed to finish your plate as soon as you heard Harry’s deep voice coming from the door not because you feel excited but because you’re worried about Rob’s reaction, after all they didn’t have a great first meeting. You follow their voices that lead you to the living room; Harry was wearing some regular skinnies and a black t-shirt somehow on him that simple outfit looks like the most complex combination of clothing, a bunch of tattoos covered his arms making him look cooler than the junkie you see every Friday night. Robert raising his voice makes you stop staring at your new roommate and actually talk to him.

“Hey, N/Y, morning” Harry answers with a big smile on his face, you don’t remember his skins glowing as much as it does today it is hard not to stare at him. “Are you ready to move in?” You ask nicely as Robert tries to calm down adjusting his gloves and taking deep breathes “Yep, pretty much” Harry says pointing at his suitcase. You show him the place; is not too big it’s only a small one floor house with three bedrooms but it’s a way to make him feel comfortable. As you show him around Robert starts telling him the most important rules of the house and Harry only nods at both of you.

“So this would be your room” you say finishing the house tour opening the door between Rob’s bedroom and yours “As we told you before It’s not habitable right now, we need to fix the roof and most of the walls they’re almost ruined by humidity, we were thinking maybe with the deposit and probably your first payment we can like fix it meanwhile you can share room with Robert if that’s okay with you” You say showing him where the humidity has damage the roof “Sure, it’s going to be a pleasure” Harry winks at Robert who seems bothered enough already. You can see how annoyed Rob is by this new roommate situation, however, you know if he wouldn’t agree with this he would tell you, besides somehow it seems like he’s more anxious that bothered about it; he thinks you didn’t realize but you saw him cleaning his room twice last night a strange way to say he’s excited about the next day. Maybe both of you are excited about sharing your life with someone new, someone as special as Harry seems to be, maybe it’s just attraction, maybe it’s just Harry’s aura that makes everyone go a little bit crazy about him or maybe it’s only your mind playing tricks on you but at that moment you realized something in your life is about to change drastically and you quite like that.

Now

“C’mon Y/N you have to finish it” Robert says with his elbows on the table resting his head on both of his hands, you’ve been struggling to finish your meal for almost an hour now and Robert is more than exhausted now, you can see it and you feel bad of seeing those lovely green eyes so tired because of you but you just can´t finish it. “I can´t Robert I promise” You say pouting your mouth on a failed attempt of leaving the table. Harry just appears on the kitchen and watches the scene grabbing an apple “take it as a behavior exercise” Rob adds with an exhausted voice. “Behavior exercise? what’s that? Harry asks with his mouth full of the bite he just took.

“Back in the schoolhouse we had exercises to learn how to deal with our illnesses; they made us do things to get tour limits and they just acted like nothing was happening at all” you say playing with the food on your plate. “Once they made me walk with dirty trousers for a whole day!” Robert continues giving Harry an indignant look. Robs turns back at you pushing your plate closer to you.

“Interesting” Harry responds taking the seat in front of you; he search for your gaze and looks right into your eyes getting your full attention as he usually does whenever he’s near you. “C’mon Y/N you’re better than a plate of food, are you gonna let a couple of vegetables defeat you?” the room is filled with silence as he smiles at you and leaves the kitchen making his way out to the porch. If anyone else would say that to you you would throw the plate at them with no hesitation, but the way those words left his mouth like he knew everything about yourself plus the way he looked at you just made you believe every single of them. You look back at Robert who was already falling asleep on the table and continue to finish your meal.

Once your plate is empty you help Robert to go to bed and clean your dishes as you always do. You remember Harry’s outside and decide to make him company smoking your nightly cigarette as usual. He was laying half of his body on the wooden bench of the porch. He looks so lost in his thoughts you almost feel guilty about interrupting because as soon as you step outside he turns and smiles widely at you “How was your behavior exercise?” he say probably joking or probably actually concerned you never know what his intentions are, that man was a complete enigma to you. “Beat the fuck out if it” you say quietly as you stand beside him lighting the last cigarette of the pack. He chuckles loudly in responds.

After that you just stay there enjoying the silence and the smoke coming out of both of your cigarettes; the night is particularly quiet, the stars are shinier and the wind juts take the bunch of your thoughts and concerns with it. It’s nice to spend time with someone who’s not constantly asking if you have washed your hands already or telling you how disgusting is the habit of smoking. None of you feel the need to fill the lack of conversation at that moment; you are so focused on enjoying the moment that you almost don’t realize that out of nowhere Harry decides to break the silence with a question.

“Why did you let me stay in here?” He asks with a husky voice keeping his eyes on his cigarette “Robert thinks you’re hot” you respond after a couple of seconds and even though you are looking at the sky you can feel Harry smiling at your answer. “yeah, well, I don’t blame him” he says annoyingly turning his body towards you “but I’m sure that’s not the only reason why you guys let a good-looking junkie staying at your place, and if you do I’m quite concerned, I must reckon” you face him narrowing your eyes at his smart ass answer.

“Robert and I have this weird dream of make a sheltered for people in need, people who have been abandoned by their families like us, we saw a chance on you” you say letting the smoke of you cigarette fill your lungs and letting it out. “It’s like the biggest behavior exercise you ever had then?” Harry says with an adorable voice, one you’ve never heard before “You might say” You say smiling at him just to continue enjoying the clear sky above you.

#fanfiction #fanfic #behavior exercise #Harry Styles #angst #fluff #imagine #SOFT!HARRY #robert sheehan

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cassandra-bites · 6 years ago

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the third issue of DIE was ... a lot. I’m only beginning to understand it, and only very imperfectly. But I keep coming back to it, and have now collected myself enough to think aloud. Spoilers beneath the cut.

DIE makes use of poetic structures from the very first issue. There are rhymes everywhere - die, lie, cry, deny, defy, dry, spy, eye. Sol wearing a die in each eye is as poetic as it is logical.

I thought I was reaching really badly, thinking of DIE in poetic terms, and gave up thinking about it. This issue makes me want to keep thinking. It’s set up as a chiasmus of sorts: it begins with dungeons and dragons and ends with a (dead) dragon and a (march into a) dungeon, and in the process the meaning of dungeon and the meaning of dragon are both radically changed.

Between the appearance of the dragon and its death, Ash ends up in a hole. It is, to cite Tolkien and his reference character in the comic, a “nasty, dirty, wet hole” -- a trench that Stephanie Hans makes immediately evocative of WWI and the trench fever the historical person named Tolkien caught there. In this fictional trench, Ash encounters four hobbit-sized soldiers: a dead ringer for Frodo who proudly displays the wedding ring that weighs on him and is never invisible, his brave Samwise-equivalent who dearly wishes to see elves and whose eyes have melted out, a dead (halved - the pun was a little gruesome) halfling named “Mister P”, and another dead, unnamed fourth friend (Merry is not a word to be applied here). After the Frodo character dictates a letter to Luthi, the wife who references the name Tolkien associated with his own wife, it becomes clear there will be no “there and back again” for him either. His death is punctuated by the appearance of an officer who wears Tolkien’s face and cites his pipe-smoking habit. He does some interesting editing work on a passage from The Hobbit, switching what was nice to what is nasty, replacing life with death:

“In a hole in the ground there lived died a hobbit an Englander. Not a nasty, dirty, wet nice hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort., but a nasty, dirty, wet hole, a charnel hole ...” (the bold bit is added in the comic; the final bit is, however, not wholly new, but a reversal of the order in which those words were originally used)

Ash recognizes the reference and the person for whom the officer stands, deconstructs the whole down to its seemingly simple, idealized, dismissible parts, recognizing that she is seeing fictional references in context - in context that is at once fictional, trope-y, and reflective of real facts of Tolkien’s biography, of the real sacrifices and horrors of war - and struggles to come to terms with the hurt she feels. The Die-representative of Tolkien responds with another transformative line: “Allegories are ugly. But poetry? Poetry is poetry, and war poetry most of all.”

This line arrested me when I first saw it, mostly because of the quadruple repetition of the word poetry in a context defined by fours: Ash has the D4 in her chest, plus there are the four dead hobbits (and four that will replace them in the closing sequence, walking into the dungeon in another flip, this time of “one does not simply walk into Mordor”). But I had zero inkling of what it could mean until I found the citation it reframes. In response to readers who insisted on reducing his books to allegories for historical events or ideas, to fixed, defined, unchanging, top-down issued references, Tolkien wrote:

“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.” -- foreword to Fellowship of the Ring

Gillen thus replaces “history” with “poetry” and “war poetry” (a potential label for the issue itself), but keeps the opposition to allegories that dictate how a story should be read and interpreted.

The ending of the issue seems to reflect that desire to privilege readerly liberty, to open up a singular set of references to a question that concerns all readers - world war. (The closing image does this too, putting the reader right behind the four soldiers, as though to say - will you follow?) “Where would we have been if we were sixteen in 1914?” asks Matt. “Who volunteers to come to a dungeon?” Ash asks, concluding: “Better people than us”. The line calls back to how, in the eyes of the Frodo stand-in, she stood for the “high folks”, in contrast to the “low” “likes of us” used as cannon-fodder for "wizards and their schemes”. The final image has four Prussian hobbits, indistinguishable from the four who just died, killing the eagle sent to deliver the message for Luthi. Their officer (is he a reference too?) reads the letter, a letter any one of them would have wanted to send in the same situation, tells them they have stopped propaganda from being sent (a lie), burns the letter much like the dragon burned and gassed the four Englanders, then coolly sends them into the dungeon that is the war front, leaving the reader to reflect on ... a lot.

Like - how much of this specific situation was caused by Angela’s rush for Fair Gold to power her suit? Did the four dead ringers die because the dragon was brought out to stop her and the party? Or - what are the conditions under which fantasy and poetry are produced and consumed in the first place, and what are the costs? What is its legacy, and what of it does it choose to hide or reveal?

The repetitions of “foul” come to mind here. In this issue, foul is used first by the Frodo character as he tries to determine Ash’s allegiance (“fair or foul?”). Ash then silently characterizes herself, in her Bard/Dictator role, as foul to most people. Having dismissed elves as “dumb and obvious” in the past issue, only for the elf queen to transform into a murderous orc, Ash takes a more measured position on Tolkien here by recognizing the value of hobbits. As a result, the Master Who Looks and Talks Like Tolkien concludes she is not “entirely foul”. However one interprets this, it seems plausible that “fair and foul” could to be a question for the entire comic - two opposites held together and impossible to rend apart.

(What is fair, what is foul about the emotional manipulation the comic itself produces through Ash’s reaction, Matt’s reaction, and in the reader? Notice how the comic, by virtue of its having pages, puts the reader through the motions of closing the page on the four as they "simply walk" into Mordor, thereby putting the reader on the same side as the party on the question "who volunteers". Then there are metaphorical levels - what is foul about Angela going for FAIR gold? how shall the fair "alabaster princess" Ash reconcile herself to also being ash, ready to crumble under dragons’ breath, to the foul words that created the fouling corpse of a former lover who fairly? cursed her back? etc etc)

It looks like the next stop in the story is going to be the space of Brontë sister gaming, (a stop in a town invented by the mothers of gaming as this war-torn realm was regulated by the father of fantasy?), which starts up even more questions. But I’ve gone on long enough; looking forward to seeing how it all develops, textually and visually -

#diecomic #diecomic spoilers

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wearethechampionsblog · 6 years ago

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IT MUST HAVE BEEN FATE (A BEN HARDY STORY)

Summary: A story about how Cora and Ben become intertwined in this thing we call fate.

*I thought I would give this a try. This is also my first fanfic.*

Chapter 1-The Stars Align

Have you ever had woken up one morning and you just had a strange feeling your life was about to change and you had no idea how or why it will. Then the whole day you just become really anxious. Then when that moment finally happens do you grab it or do you let it fly away? When your life does change after that moment do you ever find yourself at a crossroads wondering if you made the right choice or the wrong one? As Albus Dumbledore once said “Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy”. Well what if fate intervened then in that moment, what would you do?

It was the day of the Bohemian Rhapsody movie premiere. Cora and her best friend Lily were going to go and try and see all the stars hit the red carpet at the SSE Arena, Wembley in London and maybe if they were really lucky they could see Roger Taylor and Brian May.

“Cora, have you seen my light blue lace dress anywhere?” Lily asked from the other room.

“Yeah, Its hanging up in your closet where you last left it.”

“Thanks I found it!”

“You almost ready to go? We have to leave in 15 minutes if we wanna make it on time! Cora asked

“Let me just put on the finishing touches with my makeup and I’ll be ready.

“Sounds good!”

After finishing getting ready Cora and Lily took a cab from their apartment in South Kensington to SSE Arena. The SSE arena was decorated like you couldn't believe from the start all the way to the entrance. The carpet was purple and along the sides there were walls propped up with the different colors ranging from purple to pink to even gold in glitter with the title of the movie. There were barricades set up for the fans and the press and also the photographers. It wasn't anything Cora had seen before and she was just in awe of the whole thing. Cora and Lily luckily managed to find a spot right in the front of one of the barricades. On both sides Cora and Lily are surrounded by fans. A little farther down to the left would be a row of photographers and members of the press awaiting the arrival of the stars.

Soon some of the stars started hitting the purple carpet. Cora and Lily saw Mike Myers, Tom Hollander, Aiden Gillen and Allen leech, Joe Mazzello, Gwilym Lee. Then a few minutes after Gwilym passed, Cora heard high pitched screaming coming from down at the start of the carpet but Cora couldn't see what all the screaming was about. Then all of a sudden this young man walked in her line of vision and Cora could feel her jaw drop. This young man had short blonde hair and hazel eyes. He was wearing a black suit with a sheer button down shirt under the jacket.

“Who is Mr. Dreamy?” Cora heard Lily ask

“I have no idea.” Cora answered back

“His name is Ben Hardy. He plays Roger Taylor in the film” an older women had said right next to you.

One would say that fate must have intervened because in that moment Ben had stopped and stood in front of a photographer to have a photo taken. Right as the flash went off Ben looked away from the camera and locked eyes right with Cora. It was as if someone froze time and Cora and Ben were in a trance and everyone around them turned invisible. The noise all around them was drowned out and all Cora could hear was the pounding of her heart beating. She could also feel her hands getting clammy. Her face even had a slight blush to it and Cora could tell because of the warmth coming from it. It felt as if she couldn't look away and someone had put her in headlock but she didn't want to leave that headlock feeling. Then the trance was broken all of a sudden as Ben looked away and started heading toward an interviewer. It felt like she could breathe again. Cora let out a little gasp could not believe that a moment like that had happened to her. She has never had any luck when it comes to life. She then thought moments like that don't happen very often and maybe that was a way for life to give her something and then pull it away. It was probably a good thing that he walked over to the interviewer because she doesn't know how she would have reacted if he were to walk right over to her in that moment. Then again she wasn't even sure she would be able to speak to the man. Cora then turned her head to see if Lily had noticed the moment but she was just looking down at her phone most likely answering a text or posting a photo to her Instagram about the premiere and being completely oblivious to everything around her. Cora was thankful that Lily missed that little moment because if she hadn't she would have demanded that Ben walk right over to them and possibly flirted with him. Who is Cora kidding Lily would have flirted the night away with him. She was not one to be shy around men that she had an attraction to. While Lily was more of the extrovert, Cora is more introverted. Lily would be the one to go out and party till morning while Cora loves to read curled up on the sofa.

What Cora did not not notice was right when she turned her head and started talking to Lily was that Ben a couple people down from her while being interviewed had taken a quick second to see if he could spot her. When he did he cracked a small smile.

__________________________________________________

After the premiere Cora and Lily headed back to the apartment to change and just relax after all the excitement.

“Hey you want me to make you some tea?” Cora asked Lily while she was standing the the kitchen.

“Yes please. Thank you!” Lily answered while turning on the television in the living room. She turned on the news and all the news could talk about was the movie premiere.

Later that night while laying in bed Cora couldn't get to sleep because her body was still buzzing from the excitement and also from her special moment with Ben. Her brain kept thinking back to that moment. It was on continuous repeat. She just couldn't get over the fact that they had both made eye contact and kept it for a couple seconds but in that moment it felt like minutes. Cora deep down a small part of her wanted to believe that maybe he had made eye contact with a person next to her and it just looked like he was looking at her. Now her mind was just going crazy and coming up with excuses. Cora should know because she was letting her insecurities take over big time. Her insecurities have always gotten the better of her and she hates it! Especially during times when her and Lily go out to pubs. She just has that aura that people just want to be around and cling to. Cora sometimes has guys come up to her but in the end they turned out to be losers and just want one thing. She along with the next person enjoy having sex but Cora doesn't want to spend anymore of her life just just finding someone to hookup with. She wants to find someone she could have a conversation with and who would take her out on dates and be proud they are dating a her. She also wants that man to come home after a long day at work and be excited to see her even though they are exhausted. The list could go on and on but was it too much to ask for instead of just being another girl at the pub who falls hook line and sinker to a horrible pickup line. Cora then started to compare herself and Lily. Cora is petite and has short blonde hair and brown eyes. She also wears glasses. Lily on the other hand is a little taller and has that beach blonde hair, her eyes are blue like the ocean and has skin that without even trying get perfect a beautiful tan can get one.

After a while once Cora had enough of her insecurities getting the better of her she came to the conclusion that she was in that moment of time was enough for a man like Ben Hardy to make eye contact with not with her friend Lily but with her. A smile then spread across her face knowing that she finally got that moment that a lot of girls would fall over to have with him. She had that moment and nothing was going to get in the way.

________________________________________________

After the Bohemian Rhapsody movie premiere on Tuesday it was finally Saturday. Cora was glad to finally sleep in after a long week. While she was just being lazy in bed she was suddenly over come with this strange feeling. It started to bug her and she could not figure out why she was feeling this way. After a while she decided to get up and grab a shower because she needed to go out and pick up a few things. Thankfully it was a beautiful day out and one should not waste it. Right as she was about to walk out the door Lily stopped her and asked if she could pick up more tea.

While walking to the store a couple blocks away from the apartment Cora saw a coffee shop had just opened and she thought she might as well give it a try and see if it was worth her wild. Once she stepped into the coffee shop it was like all hands were on deck. The place was packed like she couldn't believe. While waiting in line she heard random conversations that ranged from talking about ones week or about the Bohemian Rhapsody movie. After she ordered her drink and stood to the side to wait for it to be made. A few minutes later she heard her name called to come and get it. Once she stepped to the counter and grabbed it her foot slipped on some spilled coffee from a previous customer. As she was slipping she thought she would have an embarrassing moment but someone had managed to catch her in time.

“I’m glad I caught you or that would have been completely embarrassing wouldn't it but it looks like we meet again.”

*Let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy reading this. Also let me know if you want me to continue the story.*

#ben hardy story #ben hardy fanfic #ben hardy #Queen #bohemian rhapsody movie #rami malek #joe mazzello #gwilym lee #roger taylor #brian may #john deacon #freddie mercury

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grigori77 · 6 years ago

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2018 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 3)

10. BLACK PANTHER – remember back in 1998, when Marvel had their first real cinematic success with Blade? It was a big deal on two fronts, not just because they’d finally made a (sort of) superhero movie to be proud of, but also because it was, technically, the first ever truly successful superhero movie starring a black protagonist (the less said about the atrocious Steel movie the better, I say). I find it telling that it took them almost twenty years to repeat the exercise – there have been plenty of great black superheroes on-screen since Wesley Snipes rocked the fangs and black leather, especially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but they’ve always been in supporting roles to the main (so far universally WHITE) stars (the now-cancelled Luke Cage was a notable exception, but that’s on-demand TV on Netflix). All of this makes the latest feature to glide smoothly out of the MCU mould so significant – the standalone star vehicle for Civil War’s OTHER major new success story (after 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming), Prince T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) of Wakanda, finally redresses the balance … and then some. Picking up pretty much RIGHT where the third Captain America film left off, we see T’Challa return to the secretive, highly-advanced African kingdom of Wakanda to officially take up his new role as king and fully accept the mantle of protector of his people that his role as the Black Panther entails. Needless to say, just as he’s finally brought peace and unity to his homeland, an old threat reappears in the form of thuggish arms dealer and fugitive-from-Wakandan-justice Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis, gleefully returning to his blissful scenery-chewing Avengers: Age of Ultron role), leading T’Challa to travel to Busan, South Korea to bring him back for judgement, but this is merely a precursor to the arrival of the TRUE threat, Erik “Killmonger” Stevens (Michael B. Jordan), a mysterious former Special Forces assassin with a deeply personal agenda that threatens Wakanda’s future. This marks the first major blockbuster feature for writer/director Ryan Coogler (co-penning the script with The People V. O.J. Simpson writer Joe Robert Cole), who won massive acclaim for his feature debut Fruitvale Station, but also has good form after sneaky little sleeper hit Rocky-saga spinoff Creed, so this progression ultimately just proves to be another one of those characteristic smart moves Marvel keeps making these days. Coogler’s command of the big budget, heavy-expectation material is certainly impressive, displaying impressive talent for spectacular action sequences (the Busan car chase is MAGNIFICENT, while the punishing fight sequences are as impressively staged and executed as anything we saw in the Captain America movies), wrangling the demanding visual effects work and getting the very best out of a top-notch ensemble cast of some of the finest black acting talent around. Boseman brings more of that peerless class and charisma he showed in Civil War, but adds a humanising dose of self-doubt and vulnerability to the mix, making it even easier for us to invest in him, while Coogler’s regular collaborator, Jordan, is absolutely spell-binding, his ferociously focused, far-beyond-driven Killmonger proving to be one of the MCU’s most impressive villains to date, as well as its most sympathetic; Oscar darling Lupita Nyong’o is far more than a simple love interest as tough and resourceful Wakandan intelligence agent Nakia, The Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira is a veritable force of nature as Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje, Wakanda’s elite all-female Special Forces, Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya muddies the waters as T’Challa’s straight-talking best friend W’Kabi, and powerhouse veteran actors Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker and John Kani provide integrity and gravitas as, respectively, T’Challa’s mother Ramonda, Wakandan religious leader Zuri and T’Challa’s late father T’Chaka. Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis have joked that they’re essentially the “Tolkien white guys” of the cast, but their presence is far from cosmetic – Freeman’s return as Civil War’s bureaucratic CIA agent Everett Ross is integral to the plot and also helps provide the audience with an accessible outsider’s POV into the unique and stunning land of Wakanda, while Serkis is clearly having the time of his life … and then there are the film’s TRUE scene-stealers – Letitia Wright is a brilliant bright ray of sunlight as T’Challa’s little sister Shuri, the curator of Wakanda’s massively advanced technology and OFFICIALLY the most intelligent person in the MCU, whose towering intellect is tempered by her cheeky sense of humour and sheer adorability, while Winston Duke is a towering presence throughout the film as M’Baku, the mighty chief of the reclusive Jabari mountain tribe, despite his relatively brief screen time, his larger-than-life performance making every appearance a joy. This has been lauded as a true landmark film for its positive depiction of African culture and presentation of a whole raft of strong black role models, and it certainly feels like a major step forward both culturally and creatively – it’s so rewarding to see a positively-charged black intellectual property enjoying the almost ridiculous amount of success this film has so far enjoyed, both critically and financially, and it’s something I hope we see far more of in the future. Like its predecessors, this is a fantastic superhero movie, but under the surface there are some very serious, challenging questions being asked and inherently powerful themes being addressed, making for a deeper, more intellectual film than we usually receive even from a big studio that’s grown so sophisticated as Marvel. That said, this IS another major hit for the MCU, and a further example of how consistently reliable they’ve become at delivering great cinema. Very nearly the best of the Phase 3 standalone films (that honour still belongs to Captain America: Civil War), and it was certainly a spectacular kickoff for the year’s blockbusters.

9. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY – I’ve been waiting for this movie for YEARS. Even before I knew this was actually going to happen I’d been hoping it would someday – Queen were my introduction to rock music, way back when I was wee, so they’ve been one of my very favourite bands FOREVER, and Freddie Mercury is one of my idols, the definition of sheer awesomeness and pure talent in music and an inspiration in life. Needless to say I was RIDICULOUSLY excited once this finally lurched into view, and I’m so unbelievably happy it turned out to be a proper corker of a film, I could even tentatively consider it to be my new favourite musical biopic. Sure, it plays fast-and-loose with the historical facts, but remains true to the SPIRIT of the story, and you know what they say about biographical movies and their ilk: “if it’s a choice between the truth and the legend, print the legend.” That’s a pretty good word to describe the man at the centre of this story – Queen frontman Freddie Mercury truly was a legend in his own lifetime, and watching the tale of his rise to fame alongside fellow musical geniuses Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon is a fascinating, intoxicating and deeply affecting experience, truthful or not, making the film an emotional rollercoaster from the humble beginnings with the formation of the band, through the trials and tribulations of life on the road and in the studio, the controversies of Mercury’s personal life and the volatile personal dynamics between the group themselves, to the astonishing, show-stopping climax of their near-mythic twenty-minute performance slot at 1985’s Live Aid charity concert at Wembley Stadium. Needless to say it takes a truly astounding performance to capture the man that I consider to be the greatest singer, showman and stage-performer of all time, but Mr Robot star Rami Malek was equal to the task, not so much embodying the role as genuinely channelling Mercury’s spirit, perfectly recreating his every movement, quirk and mannerism to perfection, right down to his famously precise, deliberate diction, and he even LOOKS a hell of a lot like Mercury. Sure, he’s come under fire for merely lip-syncing when it comes to the music, but seriously, there’s no other way he could have done it – Freddie had the greatest singing voice of all time, there’s NO WAY anyone could possibly recreate it, so better he didn’t even try. (Honestly, if he doesn’t get an Oscar for this there’s no justice in the world.) Malek’s not the only master-mimic in the cast, either – the rest of the band are perfectly portrayed, too, by Gwilym Lee as May, X-Men: Apocalypse’s Ben Hardy as Taylor and Joe Mazzello (yup, that kid from Jurassic Park, now all grown up) as Deacon, while there are equally strong supporting turns from Sing Street’s Lucy Boynton as Mercury’s lover and lifelong friend Mary Austin, Aiden Gillen as the band’s first manager John Reid, Tom Hollander as their lawyer and eventual manager Jim “Miami” Beach, Allen Leech as the Freddie’s scheming, toxic personal manager Paul Prenter, and New Street Law star Ace Bhatti as his stoic but proud father, Bomi Bulsara. This is an enthralling film from start to finish, and while those new to Queen will find plenty fo enjoy and entertain, this is an absolute JOY for fans and geeks who actually know their stuff, factual niggles notwithstanding; it’s also frequently laugh-out-loud HILARIOUS, the sparky, quick-fire script from The Theory of Everything and Darkest Hour writer Anthony McCarten brimming with slick one-liners, splendid put-downs and precision-crafted character observation which perfectly captures the real life banter the band were famous for. The film had a troubled production (original director Bryan Singer was replaced late in the shoot by Dexter Fletcher after clashes of personality and other difficulties) and has come in for plenty of stick, receiving mixed reviews from some quarters, but for me this is pretty close to a perfect film, chock-full of heart, emotional heft, laughter, fun and what was, for me, the best soundtrack of 2018, positively overflowing with some of the band’s very best material, making this one of the very best times I had at the cinema all year. They were, indeed, the champions …

8. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT – while Bond may remain king of the spy movie, and Jason Bourne still casts a long shadow from the darker post 9-11 age of harder, grittier espionage shenanigans, I’ve always been a BIG fan of the Mission: Impossible movies. This love became strong indeed when JJ Abrams established a kind of unifying blueprint with the third film, and the series has gone from strength to strength since, reaching new, thrilling heights when Jack Reacher writer-director Christopher McQuarrie crafted the pretty much PERFECT Rogue Nation. He’s the first filmmaker to return for a second gig in the big chair, but he’s a good fit – he and star Tom Cruise have already proven they work EXTREMELY well together, and McQuarrie really is one of the very best screenwriters working in Hollywood today (well respected across the board since his early days co-writing The Usual Suspects), an undeniable MASTER at both crafting consistently surprising, thoroughly involving and razor-sharp thriller plots and engineering truly JAW-DROPPING action sequences (adrenaline-fuelled chases, bruising fight scenes, intense shootouts and a breathless dash across the rooftops of London all culminate in this film’s standout sequence, a death-defying helicopter dogfight that took the prize as the year’s BEST action beat), as well as penning some wonderful, wry dialogue. Anything beyond the very simplest synopsis would drop some criminal spoilers – I’ll simply say that Ethan Hunt is faced with his deadliest mission to date after a botched op leaves three plutonium cores in the hands of some very bad people, leading CIA honcho Erica Sloane (a typically sophisticated turn from Angela Bassett) to attach her pet assassin, August Walker (current big-screen Superman Henry Cavill), to the team to make sure it all runs smoothly – a prospect made trickier by the resurfacing of Rogue Nation’s cracking villain Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). Tom Cruise is, of course an old hand at this sort of thing by now, but even so I don’t think he’s EVER been more impressive at the physical stuff, and he delivers equally well in the more dramatic moments, taking superspy Ethan Hunt to darker, more desperate extremes than ever before. Cavill similarly impresses in what’s easily his meatiest role to date, initially coming across as a rough, brutal thug but revealing deeper layers of complexity and sophistication as the film progresses, while Rebecca Ferguson makes a welcome return from RN as slippery, sexy and very complex former MI6 agent Ilsa Faust, and it’s great to see Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg back as series keystones Luther Stickell and Benji Dunn, who both get stuck into the action far more than in previous outings (Benji FINALLY gets to wear a mask!); Jeremy Renner’s absence this time could disappoint, but the balance is maintained because the effortlessly suave Alec Baldwin’s new IMF Secretary Alan Hunley gets a far more substantial role this time round, while Sean Harris tears things up with brutal relish as he expands on one of the series’ strongest villains – Lane is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, a monstrous zealot with a deeply twisted but strangely relatable agenda, and method man Harris mesmerises in every scene. McQuarrie has cut another gem here, definitely his best film to date and likewise the best in the franchise so far, and strong arguments could be made for him staying on for a third stint – this is the best shape Mission: Impossible has been in for some time, an essentially PERFECT textbook example of an action-packed spy thriller that constantly surprises and never disappoints, from the atmospheric opening to the unbearably tense climax, and if ever there was a film to threaten the supremacy of Bond, it’s this one.

7. THE SHAPE OF WATER – one of the most important things you have to remember about my own personal mythology (by which I mean the mishmash of 40 years of influences, genre-love and pure and simple COOL SHIT that’s informed and moulded the geek I am today) is that when it comes to my fictional heroes, I have a tendency to fall in love with the monsters. It’s a philosophy shared by one of my very favourite directors, Guillermo Del Toro, whose own love affair with the weird, the freakish and the outcast has informed so much of his spectacular work, particularly the Hellboy movies – the monster as a tragic hero, and also the women who love them despite their appearance or origins. Del Toro’s latest feature returns to this fascinating and compelling trope in magnificent style, and the end result is his best work since what remains his VERY BEST film, 2007’s exquisite grown-up fairytale Pan’s Labyrinth. Comparisons with that masterpiece are not only welcome but also fitting – TSOW is definitely cut from the same cloth, a frequently dream-like cinematic allegory that takes place in something resembling the real world, but is never quite part of it. It’s a beautiful, lyrical, sensual and deeply seductive film, but there’s brooding darkness and bitter tragedy that counters the sweet, Del Toro’s rich and exotic script – co-authored with Hope Springs writer Vanessa Taylor – mining precious ore from the fairytale ideas but also deeply invested with his own overwhelming love for the Golden Age of cinema itself. This makes for what must be his most deeply personal film to date, so it’s fitting that it finally won him his first, LONG OVERDUE Best Director Oscar. Happy Go-Lucky’s Sally Hawkins thoroughly deserves her Oscar nomination for her turn as Elisa Esposito, a mute cleaning woman working in a top secret aerospace laboratory in Baltimore at the height of the Cold War, a sweet-natured dreamer who likes movies, music and her closeted artist neighbour Giles (the incomparable Richard Jenkins, delivering a performance of real sweetness and integrity). One night she discovers a new project in the facility, a strange, almost mythic amphibious humanoid (Del Toro regular Doug Jones) who has been captured for study and eventual vivisection to help create a means for men to survive in space. In spite of his monstrous appearance and seemingly feral nature, Elisa feels a kinship to the creature, and as she begins to earn his trust she develops stronger feeling for him – feelings which are reciprocated. So she hatches a plan to break him out and return him to the sea, enlisting the help of Giles, her only other real friend, fellow cleaner Zelda (The Help and Hidden Figures’ Octavia Spencer, as lovably prickly and sassy as ever), and sympathetic scientist (and secret Soviet agent) Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (a typically excellent and deeply complex performance from Boardwalk Empire’s Michael Stuhlbarg) to effect a desperate escape. The biggest obstacle in their path, however, is Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), the man in charge of security on the project – the rest of the cast are uniformly excellent, but the true, unstoppable scene-stealer here is Shannon, giving us 2018’s BEST screen villain in a man so amorally repellent, brutally focused and downright TERRIFYING it’s absolutely impossible to take your eyes off him – who has a personal hatred for the creature and would love nothing more than to kill it himself. He’s the TRUE monster of the film, Jones’ creature proving to be a noble being who, despite his (admittedly rather bloody) animal instincts, has a kind and gentle soul that mirrors Elisa’s own, which makes the seemingly bizarre love story that unfolds so easy to accept and fulfilling to witness. This is a film of aching beauty and immense emotional power, the bittersweet and ultimately tragic romance sweeping you up in its warm embrace, resulting in the year’s most powerful and compelling fantasy, very nearly the finest work of a writer/director at the height of his considerable powers, and EASILY justifying its much-deserved Best Picture Oscar. Love the monster? Yes indeed …

6. DEADPOOL 2 – just as his first standalone finally banished the memory of his shameful treatment in the first X-Men Origins film, Marvel’s Merc With a Mouth had a new frustration to contend with – Wolverine riding his coattails into the R-rated superhero scene and outdoing his newfound success with the critically acclaimed and, frankly, f£$%ing AWESOME Logan. It’s a fresh balance for him to redress, and bless him, he’s done it within the first five minutes of his own very first sequel … then again, Deadpool’s always at his best when dealing with adversity. There’s plenty of that here – 2016’s original was a spectacular film, a true game-changer for both Marvel and the genre itself, unleashing a genuinely bankable non-PC superhero on the unsuspecting masses (and, of course, all us proper loyal fans) and earning one of their biggest hits in the process. A sequel was inevitable, but the first film was a VERY tough act to follow – thankfully everyone involved proved equal to the task, not least the star, Ryan Reynolds, who was BORN to play former special forces operative-turned invulnerable but hideously scarred mutant antihero Wade Wilson, returning with even greater enthusiasm for the material and sheer determination to do things JUST RIGHT. Working with returning co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, he’s suitably upped the ante while staying true to the source and doing right by the fans – the script’s another blinder, a side-splitting rib-tickler liberally peppered with copious swearing, rampant sexual and toilet humour, genuinely inspired bizarreness (a grown man with baby balls!) and an unapologetically irreverent tone nonetheless complimented by a f£$%load of heart. Original director Tim Miller jumped ship early in development, but the perfect replacement was found in the form of David Leitch, co-director of the first John Wick movie, who preceded this with a truly magnificent solo debut on summer 2017’s standout actioner Atomic Blonde. Leitch is a perfect fit, a former stuntman with innate flair for top-notch action who also has plenty of stylistic flair and strong talents for engaging storytelling and handling a cast of strong personalities. Reynolds is certainly one of those, again letting rip with gleeful comic abandon as Deadpool fights to overcome personal tragedy by trying to become a bona fide X-Man, at which he of course fails SPECTACULARLY, winding up in a special prison for super-powered individuals and becoming the unlikely and definitely unwilling protector of teenage mutant Russell Collins, aka Firefist (Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s Julian Dennison), who’s been targeted for assassination by time-travelling future warrior Cable (Josh Brolin) because he’s destined to become a monstrous supervillain when he grows up. Deciding to listen to his “better” angel, Wade puts together his own superhero team in order to defeat Cable and start his own future franchise … yup, this is as much a platform to set up X-Force, the Marvel X-Verse’s next big money-maker, as it is a Deadpool sequel, but the film plays along to full comic effect, and the results are funny, explosive, blood-soaked and a magnificently anarchic joy. Brolin is every inch the Cable we deserve, a world-weary, battered and utterly single-minded force of nature, entirely lacking a sense of humour but still managing to drive some of the film’s most side-splitting moments, while Atlanta star Zazie Beets, originally something of an outsider choice, proves similarly perfect for the role of fan favourite Domino, a wise-cracking mutant arse-kicker whose ability to manipulate luck in order to get the better of any situation makes her a kind of super-ninja; Dennison, meanwhile, is just as impressive as he was in HFTWP, turning in a performance of such irreverent charm he frequently steals the film, and the return of Stefan Kapicic and Briana Hildebrand as stoic metal-man Colossus and the world’s moodiest teen superhero, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, mean that the original X-Men get another loving (if also slightly middle-fingery) nod too. But once again, this really is Reynolds’ movie, and he’s clearly having just as much fun as before, helping to make this the same kind of gut-busting riot the first was with his trademark twinkle, self-deprecating charm and shit-eating grin. He’s the heart and soul of another great big fist up the backside of superhero cinema, blasting tropes with scattergun abandon but hitting every target lined up against him, and like everything else he helps make this some of the most fun I had at the pictures all year. I honestly couldn’t think of ANYTHING that could make me piss myself laughing more than this … the future of the franchise may be up in the air until the first X-Force movie gets its time in the spotlight, but Reynolds, Leitch, Reese and Wernick are all game to return, so there’s plenty of life in the un-killable old lady yet ...

5. BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE – my Number One thriller of 2018 is a cult classic in the making and the best work yet from Drew Goddard, co-writer/director (with Joss Whedon) of Cabin in the Woods (one of the best horror movies ever made, in my opinion) and screenwriter of Cloverfield and The Martian. It’s an intoxicating, engrossing and somewhat unsettling experience (but in a very good way indeed), a gripping, slippery and absolutely FIENDISH suspense thriller to rival the heady best of Hitchcock or Kubrick, and, as his first completely original, personal creation, Goddard’s best opportunity to show us JUST what he’s truly capable of. Wrapped up in multi-layered mystery and deftly paying with timelines and perspective, it artfully unveils the stories of four disparate strangers who book a night’s stay at the El Royale, a “bi-state” hotel (located on the California/Nevada border) that was once grand but, by the film’s setting of 1969, has fallen on hard times. Each has a secret, some of which are genuinely deadly, and before the night’s through they’ll all come to light as a fateful chain of events brings them all crashing together. Giving away any more is to invite criminal spoilers – suffice to say that it’s an unforgettable film, fully-laden with ingenious twists and consistently wrong-footing the viewer right up to the stirring, thought-provoking ending. The small but potent ensemble cast are, to a man, absolutely perfect – Jeff Bridges delivers one of the best performances of his already illustrious career as seemingly harmless Catholic priest Father Daniel Flynn, Widows’ Cynthia Erivo makes a truly stunning impression as down-on-her-luck soul singer Darlene Sweet, John Hamm is garrulously sleazy as shifty travelling salesman Seymour Sullivan, Dakota Johnson is surly but also VERY sexy (certainly MUCH MORE than she EVER was in the 50 Shades movies) as “dirty hippy” Emily, Lewis Pullman (set to explode as the co-star of the incoming Top Gun sequel) is fantastically twitchy as the hotel’s troubled concierge Miles, and Cailee Spaeny (Pacific Rim: Uprising) delivers a creepy, haunting turn as Emily’s fundamentally broken runaway sister Rose. The film is thoroughly and entirely stolen, however, by the arrival in the second half of Goddard’s Cabin leading man Chris Hemsworth as earthy, charismatic and darkly, dangerously seductive Charles Manson-esque cult leader Billy Lee, Thor himself thoroughly mesmerising as he swaggers into the heart of the story (particularly in a masterful moment where he cavorts, snake-hipped, to the strains of Deep Purple’s Rush in the lead-up to a brutal execution). This is thriller-cinema at its most inspired and insidious, a flawless genre gem that’s sure to be held in high regard by connoisseurs for years to come, and an ELECTRIFYING statement of intent by one of the best creative minds working in Hollywood today. One of 2018’s biggest and best surprises, it’s a bona fide MUST-SEE …

4. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR – is it possible there might be TOO MUCH coming out all at once in the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now? What with THREE movies a year now becoming the norm, not to mention the ongoing saga of Agents of SHIELD and various other affiliated TV shows (it seems that Netflix are culling their Marvel shows but there’s still the likes of Runaways and the incoming Cloak & Dagger on other services, along with fresh, in-development stuff), could we be reaching saturation? My head says … mmmmm … maybe … but my heart says HELL NO! Not when those guys at Marvel have gotten so good at this job they could PROBABLY do it with their eyes closed. That said, there were times in the run-up to this particular release that I couldn’t help wondering if, just maybe, they might have bitten off more than they could chew … thankfully, fraternal directing double act Antony and Joe Russo, putting in their THIRD MCU-helming gig after their enormous success on the second and third Captain America films, have pulled off one hell of a cinematic hat trick, presenting us with a third Avengers film that’s MORE than the equal of Joss Whedon’s offerings. It’s also a painfully tricky film to properly review – the potential for spoilers is SO heavy I can’t say much of ANYTHING about the plot without giving away some MAJOR twists and turns (even if there’s surely hardly ANYONE who hasn’t already seen the film by now) – but I’ll try my best. This is the film every die-hard fan has been waiting for, because the MCU’s Biggest Bad EVER, Thanos the Mad Titan (Josh Brolin), has finally come looking for those pesky Infinity Stones so he can Balance The Universe by killing half of its population and enslaving the rest, and the only ones standing in his way are the Avengers (both old and new) and the Guardians of the Galaxy, finally brought together after a decade and 18 movies. Needless to say this is another precision-engineered product refined to near perfection, delivering on all the expected fronts – breathtaking visuals and environments, thrilling action, the now pre-requisite snarky, sassy sense of humour and TONS OF FEELS – but given the truly galactic scale of the adventure on offer this time the stakes have been raised to truly EPIC heights, so the rewards are as great as the potential pitfalls. It’s not perfect – given the sheer size of the cast and the fact that there are THREE main storylines going on at once, it was INEVITABLE that some of our favourite characters would be handed frustratingly short shrift (or, in two notable cases, simply written out of the film altogether), while there are times when the mechanics of fate do seem to be getting stretched a little TOO far for credibility – but the niggles are largely overshadowed by the rich rewards of yet another MCU film done very well indeed. The cast (even those who drew the short straw on screen time) are all, as we’ve come to expect, excellent, the veterans – particularly Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man/Tony Stark), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/the Hulk), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America), Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Stephen Strange), Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Bradley Cooper (Rocket Racoon), and, of course, Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man) – all falling back into their well-established roles and universally winning our hearts all over again, while two characters in particular, who have always been reduced to supporting duties until now, finally get to REALLY shine – Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen, as the Vision and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, finally get to explore that comic-canon romance that was so prevalently teased in Civil War, with events lending their mutual character arcs particularly tragic resonance as the story progresses … and then there’s the new characters, interestingly this time ALL bad guys. The Children of Thanos (Gamora and Nebula’s adopted siblings, basically) are showcased throughout the action, although only two really make an impression here – Tom Vaughan-Lawlor is magnificently creepy as Ebony Maw, while Carrie Coon (and stuntwoman Monique Ganderton) is darkly sensual as Proxima Midnight … but of course the REAL new star here is Brolin, thoroughly inhabiting his motion capture role so Thanos GENUINELY lives up to his title as the greatest villain of the MCU, an unstoppable megalomaniac who’s nonetheless doing these monstrous things for what he perceives to be genuinely right and moral reasons, although he’s not above taking some deeply perverse pleasure from his most despicable actions. Finishing up with a painfully powerful climax that’s as shocking as it is audacious, this sets things up for an even more epic conclusion in 2019’s closer, and has already left even the most jaded viewers shell-shocked and baying for more, while the post-credits sting in particular had me drooling in anticipation for the long-awaited arrival of my own favourite Avenger, but in the meantime this is an immensely rewarding, massively entertaining and thoroughly exhausting cinematic adventure. Summer can’t come fast enough …

3. UPGRADE – in a summer packed with sequels (many of them pretty damn awesome even so), it was a great pleasure my VERY FAVOURITE movie was something wholly original, an unaffiliated standalone that had nothing to follow or measure up to. But Blumhouse’s best film of 2018 still had a lot riding on it – they’re a studio best known for creating bare-bones but effectively primal horror (even The Purge series is really more survival horror than dystopian thriller), so they’re not really known for branching out into science-fiction. Going with one of their most trusted creative talents, then, was the kind of savvy move we’d expect from Jason Blum and co – Leigh Whannell is best known as the writer of the first three Saw movies (a fully-developed trilogy which I, along with several others, consider to be the series’ TRUE canon), the film phenomenon that truly kicked off the whole “torture porn” sub-genre, but he’s become one of Blumhouse’s most well-regarded writers thanks to his creation of Insidious, still one of their biggest earners. Once again he wrote (and co-starred in) the first three films, even making his directorial debut on the third – admittedly that film wasn’t particularly spectacular, but there was nonetheless something about it, a real X-factor that definitely showed Whannell could do more than just write (and, act, of course). Second time out he’s definitely made good on that potential promise – this is a proper f£$%ing masterpiece, not just the best thing I saw all summer but one of THE TOP movies of my cinematic year. It’s also an interesting throwback to a once popular sci-fi trope that’s been overdue for a makeover – body horror, originally made popular by the cult-friendly likes of David Cronenberg and Paul Verhoeven, and the biggest influence on this film must to be the original Robocop. Prometheus’ Logan Marshall-Green is an actor I’ve long considered to be criminally overlooked and underused, so I’m thrilled he finally found a role worthy of his underappreciated talents - Grey Trace, an unapologetically analogue blue-collar Joe living in an increasingly digital near future, a mechanic making his living restoring vintage muscle cars who doesn’t trust automated technology to run ANYTHING, so his life takes a particularly ironic turn when a tragic chain of events leads to his wife’s brutal murder while he’s left paralysed from the neck down. Faced with a future dependent on computerised care-robots, he jumps at the chance offered by technological pioneer Eron Keen (Need For Speed’s Harrison Gilbertson), creator of a revolutionary biochip called STEM that, once implanted into his central nervous system, can help him regain COMPLETE control of his body, but in true body horror style things quickly take a dark and decidedly twisted turn. STEM has a mind of its own (and a voice that only Trace can hear), and an agenda, convincing him to use newfound superhuman abilities to hunt down his wife’s killers and exact terrible, brutal vengeance upon them. There are really strong performances from the supporting cast – Gilbertson is great as a twitchy, socially awkward genius only capable of finding real connection with his technology, Get Out’s Bettie Gabriel is subtly brilliant as Detective Cortez, the cop doggedly pursuing Trace’s case and, eventually, him too, and there’s a cracking villainous turn from relative unknown Benedict Hardie as sadistic but charismatic cybernetically-enhanced contract killer Fisk – but this is very much Marhall-Green’s film; he’s an absolute revelation here, his effortlessly sympathetic hangdog demeanour dominating a fantastically nuanced and impressively physical performance that displays truly exceptional dramatic AND comedic talent. Indeed, while it’s a VERY dark film, there’s a big streak of jet black humour shot right through it, Whannell amusing us in particularly uncomfortable ways whenever STEM takes control and wreaks appropriately inhuman havoc (it helps no end that voice-actor Simon Malden has basically turned STEM into a kind of sociopathic version of Big Hero 6’s Baymax, which is as hilariously twisted as it sounds), and he delivers in spades on the action front too, crafting the year’s most wince-inducing, downright SAVAGE fight sequences and a very exciting car chase. Altogether this is a simply astonishing achievement – at times weirdly beautiful in a scuzzy, decrepit kind of way, it’s visually arresting and fiendishly intelligent, but also, much as we’d expect from the creator of Saw and Hollywood’s PREMIER horror studio, dark, edgy and, at times, weirdly disturbing – in other words, it’s CLASSIC body horror. Whannell is a talent I’ve been watching for a while now, and it’s SO GOOD to finally see him deliver on all that wonderful promise. Needless to say it was another runaway hit for Blumhouse, so there are already plans for a sequel, but for now I’m just happy to revel in the wonderful originality of what was the very peak of my cinematic summer …

2. SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE – oh man, if ever there was a contender that could have ousted this year’s Number One, it’s this, it was SUCH a close-run thing. Sure, with THREE major incarnations of Marvel’s most iconic superhero already hitting the big screen since the Millennium, we could AGAIN ask if we really need another Spider-Man “reboot”, but I must say his first ever blockbuster animated appearance leaves virtually all other versions in the dust – only Sam Raimi’s masterpiece second Spider-feature remains unbeaten, but I’ve certainly never seen another film that just totally GETS Stan Lee’s original web-slinger better than this one. It’s directed by the motley but perfectly synced trio of Bob Perischetti (a veteran digital artist making his directorial debut here), Peter Ramsay (Rise of the Guardians) and Rodney Rothman (writer on 22 Jump Street), but the influence of producers Christopher Miller and Phil Lord (creators of The Lego Movie) is writ large across the entire film (then again, Lord did co-write the script with Rothman) – it’s a magnificent, majestic feast for the eyes, ears and soul, visually arresting and overflowing with effervescent, geeky charm and a deep, fundamental LOVE for the source material in all its varied guises. Taking its lead from the recent Marvel comics crossover event from which the film gets its name, it revolves around an unprecedented collision of various incarnations of Spider-Man from across the varying alternate versions of Earth across the Marvel Multiverse, brought together though the dastardly machinations of criminal mastermind Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin (a typically excellent vocal turn from Liev Schreiber) and his secret supercollider. There are two, equally brilliant, “old school” takes on the original web-slinger Peter Parker on offer here – Chris Pine impresses in his early scenes as the “perfect” version, youthful, dashing and thoroughly brilliant but never ruining it by being smug or full of himself, but the story is dominated by New Girl’s Jake Johnson as a more world-weary and self-deprecating blue-collar version, who can still do the job just as well but has never really been as comfortable a fit, and he’s all the more endearing because he’s SUCH a lovable slacker underdog. The main “hero” of the film, however, is Dope’s Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, a teenager who’s literally JUST acquired his powers but must learn FAST if he’s to become this universe’s new Spider-Man, and he’s a perfect lead for the film, unsure of himself and struggling to bring his newfound abilities to bear, but determined to find his footing all the same. There are other brilliant takes on the core character here – Nicolas Cage’s wonderfully overblown monochrome Spider-Man Noir is an absolute hoot, as is anthropomorphised fan-favourite Spider-Ham (voiced by popular stand-up comic John Mulaney) – and a variety of interesting, skewed twists on classic Spider-Man villains (particularly Liv, a gender-bent take on Doctor Octopus played by Bad Moms’ Kathryn Hahn), but my favourite character in this is, tellingly, also my very favourite Marvel web-slinger PERIOD – Earth-65’s Spider-Woman, aka Gwen Stacy (more commonly known as Spider Gwen), an alternative version where SHE got bit by the radioactive arachnid instead of Peter, very faithfully brought to life by a perfectly cast Hailee Steinfeld. It may sound overblown but this is about as close to perfect as a superhero movie can get – the script is an ASTONISHING piece of work, tight as a drum with everything lined up with clockwork precision, and instead of getting bogged down in exposition it turns the whole origin story trope into a brilliant running joke that keeps getting funnier each time a new character gets introduced; it’s also INSANELY inventive and a completely unique visual experience, specifically designed to look like old school comic book art brought to vivid but intriguingly stylised life, right down to the ingenious use of word-bubbles and textured printing dots that add to the pop art feel. This is a truly SPECTACULAR film, a gloriously appointed thrill-ride with all the adventure, excitement, humour and bountiful, powerful, heartbreaking emotional heft you could ever want from a superhero movie – this is (sorry MCU) the VERY BEST film Marvel made in 2018, and maybe one of their very best EVER. There’s already sequel talk in the air (no surprise there, of course), and I can’t wait to see where it goes. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me a Spider Gwen spinoff. I’ll be good, I swear …

1. A QUIET PLACE – the most unique and original film of 2018 was a true masterpiece of horror cinema and, for me, one of the best scary movies I’ve seen in A VERY LONG TIME INDEED. It’s a deceptively simply high-concept thriller built around a dynamite idea, one that writer/director/star John Krasinski (co-writing with up-and-coming creative duo Bryan Woods and Scott Beck) has mined for maximum effect … Krasinski (still probably best known for the US version of The Office but now also gaining fresh traction for killer Amazon Original series Jack Ryan) and his real life wife Emily Blunt are Lee and Evelyn Abbott, a mother and father who must protect their children and find a way to survive on an isolated farm in a world which has been decimated by an inexplicable invasion/infestation/whatever of mysterious and thoroughly lethal creatures that, while blind, use their incredibly sensitive hearing to hunt and kill ANYTHING that makes a sound. As a result, the Abbotts have had to develop an intricately ordered lifestyle in order to gather, scavenge and rebuild while remaining completely silent, a discipline soon to be threatened by Evelyn’s very advanced pregnancy … there’s a truly fiendish level of genius to the way this film has been planned out and executed, the exquisitely thought-out mechanics of the Abbotts’ daily routines, survival methods and emergency procedures proving to be works of pure, unfettered genius – from communication through sign language and slow-dancing to music on shared headphones to walking on pathways created with heaped sand and painted spots to mark floorboards that don’t squeak, playing board games with soft fruit instead of plastic pieces and signalling danger with coloured light-bulbs – while the near total absence of spoken dialogue makes the use of sound and music essential and, here, almost revolutionary, with supervising sound editors Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn becoming as important as the director himself, while composer Marco Beltrami delivers some of his finest work to date with a score of insidious subtlety and brazen power in equal measure. The small but potent cast are all excellent – Blunt has rarely been better in a performance of impressive honesty and a lack of vanity comparable to her work on The Girl On the Train, affecting and compelling as a fierce lioness of a mother, while Krasinski radiates both strength and vulnerability as he fights tooth and nail to keep his family alive, regardless of his own survival, and their real-life chemistry is a genuine boon to their performances, bringing a winning warmth to their relationship; elsewhere, deaf actress Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck) effortlessly captures our hearts as troubled, rebellious daughter Regan, delivering a performance of raw, heartbreaking honesty, while Suberbicon’s Noah Jupe impresses as awkward son Marcus, cripplingly unsure of himself and awfully scared of having to grow up in this terrifying new world. There’s great power and heart in the family dynamic, which makes us even more invested in their survival as the screws tighten in what is a SERIOUSLY scary film, an exquisitely crafted exercise in sustained tension that deserves to be remembered alongside the true greats of horror cinema. Krasinski displays a rare level of skill as a director, his grasp of atmosphere, pace and performance hinting at great things to come in the future, definitely making him one to watch – this is an astonishing film, a true gem I’m going to cherish for a long time to come.

#black panther #bohemian rhapsody #mission impossible fallout #The Shape of Water #deadpool 2 #bad times at the el royale #Avengers infinity war #upgrade movie #spiderman into the spiderverse #a quiet place #2018 in movies

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twatd · 6 years ago

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The White and Black Goddesses

The first half of our commentary on issue #38 focuses on WicDiv’s ties to The White Goddess, by Robert Graves (and, apparently, Anna White), as Alex hits the books.

Alex: Since Ananke first mentioned it, way back in issue #9, I’ve spent three years resisting the urge to read Robert Graves’ The White Goddess. Since Gillen mentioned he’d made sure to hide the book from all his Instagram photos up until that point, I’ve always thought of it as a sort of WicDiv Rosetta Stone… but, for all the insight it might contain, nah, I’d really rather not.

With Graves making an extended cameo in issue #38, I finally caved.

(Well, sort of. More accurately, I read around it. A few passages from the book; commentary from Graves, critics and scholars; some Pagan websites; a fair bit of Wikipedia.)

Once I began to probe, I couldn’t stop noticing connections. Coincidences, maybe. Except, as the woman herself once said, they don’t feel like coincidences. They feel like magic.

Let’s start with the story of how The White Goddess originally came to be, and how that fits with what we see in #38. The majority of the book was written in a three-week sprint in 1944 – the same year ‘Anna White’ visits Devon – after Graves was struck by a sudden bolt of inspiration. His account in the real world involves drawing maps for a book about Jason and the Argonauts, but WicDiv switches this out for the much more interesting idea that he was visited by a drunk Ananke.

(And while we’re in real-world history mode, it’s worth noting that the 1957 lecture from this issue did really happen, at New York’s YMHA Centre. Everything he says in the comic appears to be a direct quote from that lecture.)

As for the actual content of that bolt of inspiration: well, it was something about trees and Celtic druids. Ananke throws this out fairly casually, half a bottle deep into her rant. For Graves, it was the key to unlocking a bigger idea.

First, the solution to a riddle in a medieval poem, The Song of Teliesin, using a Druidic alphabet that used as its letters the names of trees – the consonants of which, according to Graves, doubled as names of months. It was a lunar calendar, with thirteen months instead of twelve. Those numbers might sound familiar.

(This calendar leaves one spare day each year: 23 December, which is so close to the all-important WicDiv date of 21 December that it actually hurts.)

Graves used this idea as a jumping-off point. Understanding the trees as an alphabet, he reinterpreted The Battle of the Trees, a medieval Welsh poem, as a metaphor for two warring languages and knowledge systems – a new patriarchal system overwriting the old goddess-worshipping matriarchy.

This didn’t just happen in Wales, according to Graves – it happened across prehistoric Europe and the Middle East. “The language was tampered with in late Minoan times,” he wrote, “when invaders from Central Asia began to substitute patrilinear for matrilinear institutions and remodel or falsify the myths to fit their social changes.” Back to WicDiv: we’ve actually visited Minoa roughly around this time in the comic.

(Very roughly, it’s worth noting. Crete in 3026BC is actually, as far as I can tell, early rather than late Minoan. Tim’s the historian in this duo – you can see what he had to say on the matter here.)

We saw it first in #36, where it stuck out in a fifteen-page sequence of murder as one of the few examples where Ananke’s role was filled by the one we know as Minerva. Then #37 filled in the blanks a little – it was the first time Ananke fucked up the ritual and experienced 90 years of darkness. “Never again,” she said then, which might explain the changeover. Maybe she decided to go underground.

Because the big idea that was lost with this cultural overhaul was worship of a “a divine female power, manifest under many names and forms in the goddesses of the ancient world”. Does that sound like anyone we know? Someone roaming early civilisation setting up franchises like Michael Keaton in The Founder, perhaps?

The other idea in The White Goddess with obvious applications to WicDiv is the triple goddess. It’s not an idea that started with Graves – it was likely borrowed from Jane Ellen Harrison, writing half a century earlier – but he applied it to this idea of a lost prehistoric goddess. She was a single deity, but generally worshipped in three different aspects: Maiden, Mother and Crone. Or, less catchily, Mother, Bride and Layer-out. That version describes her relationship to a lesser god-king, the last bit referring to her killing him as a sacrifice.

(This triple goddess idea, if we’re melding together the real and WicDiv histories, was one Graves wrote about before 1944, suggesting it didn’t originate from Ananke’s whiskey-fuelled diatribe. Perhaps it was these earlier writings that attracted her to seek him out.)

The obvious question becomes: which of the Pantheon does this apply to? WicDiv is weirdly full of triple goddesses. The obvious fit seems to be Minerva (Maiden), Persephone (Mother – soon to be literally) and Ananke (Crone, and Layer-out of a fair few gods along the way).

Persephone is a name that cropped up a lot in my reading, but an even more commonly cited example of the triple goddess is the Morai – the Greek Fates, known in the mythology of Northern Europe as Norns. Yup, our old pals Skuld, Verðandi, and Urðr.

The Maiden/Mother/Crone archetypes don’t map as neatly onto Cassandra and pals, although it’s generally accepted that each of the Norns represents past, present and future – which would, I guess, make Urðr our Crone. It’s also perhaps notable that the Norns manifested in issue #9, right after Ananke first mentioned The White Goddess.

And then there’s The Morrigan. Mythologically a shapeshifter with three (or more) forms, her WicDiv incarnation is probably closest to the original conception of the triple goddess – which is, after all, three aspects of a single person. The archetypes are a fairly neatly match, too, especially the less-common version. Annie is life-giving Mother. Macha, Bride to Baphomet. Badb, his Layer-out.

It’s probably worth mentioning at this point another of Graves’ major influences: The Golden Bough, written by James George Frazer in 1890. Frazer identified his own pattern in mythologies and religions that seemed to suggest a single common source – primitive fertility cults which worshipped a divine king for a year before sacrificing him.

This is basically the story that Morrigan overlays onto her relationship with Baphomet, “my king for a year, twice over”. #37 basically shows how Graves’ triple goddess archetypes fits into this cycle, and – for me – understanding that helped contextualise the way the abuse storyline was handled. A new king is always (re)born, so the cycle can start all over again.

One interesting thing about The Morrigan is that we’ve seen two earlier incarnations, both of them male, neither of whom showed any signs of a triplicate personality. But there always seems to be at least one triple deity in each Recurrence: the 455 Lucifer referenced a Morai, the 1830s had its Brontë-analogue Lonely Sisters and – the only male incarnation we’ve seen – the 1920s had its own trio of Norns.

But, as ‘Anna White’ reminds us, the Mother/Maiden/Crone construction is “an effective sleight of hand”. So I’d like to consider a couple of other options.

The first was suggested by Tim: maybe Laura/Persephone is the Triplicate Goddess in and of herself.

Jane Ellen Harrison wrote that "the matriarchal goddess may well have reflected the three stages of a woman's life." Laura begins the series – which opens at the start of the year, remember – as a relative innocent. (“Well, she was just 17/And you know what I mean.”)

As a mythological figure, Persephone is most commonly associated with the Maiden archetype, but recent developments slot her firmly in the Mother role – possibly the reason she seems to have abandoned the Persephone identity. If it works, maybe she’ll get her full allotment of years and a chance to explore that third stage of life. (“Laura, you’re more than a superstar/You’ll be famous for longer than them.”)

Or maybe we’re asking the wrong question altogether. Let’s finish by quoting Grevel Lindop, editor of a 1997 edition of the book: “By 1963 [Graves’] vision of the Goddess was changing again. In his Oxford lecture of that December – published as ‘Intimations of the Black Goddess’ – he began to speak of the White Goddess’s ‘mysterious sister, the Goddess of Wisdom’.”

Hmm. Does that sound like anyone we know?

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#WicDiv #The Wicked + The Divine #The Wicked and The Divine #TWATD

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sineala · 6 years ago

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Hey! Warning: I don't know a lot about marvel comics ( i'm trying to remedy that). Why is the newest IM run met with bitterness/dismay by fandom? Is it because of the writer?

Ha. Ha. Um. Okay. It’s salt night tonight, I guess. You know, I was writing fic, but, sure, it can be salt night. Let me just put this under a Read More.

Honestly, I haven’t read a whole lot of Slott’s work. I know he’s written Spider-Man for what feels like an entire century and I feel like the Spidey fans I know don’t reflexively curse his name? So maybe that’s encouraging. He did, however, write the Great Lakes Avengers miniseries, which is the worst comic I think I have ever spent money on. It was just non-stop bulimia jokes. Our senses of humor clearly do not align. So based on that I am not feeling especially great, but that’s just a me thing.

But more generally – the thing about being a certain kind of comics fan who likes Tony Stark is that it is really, really hard to find comics these days about the Tony Stark that you like. A prevailing opinion in fandom, and one that I mostly share (with the proviso that I really liked IM: Fatal Frontier, which was relatively recent), is that there hasn’t been a good Iron Man run since Iron Man: Director of SHIELD. That’s Iron Man, volume 4. That ended TEN YEARS AGO.

So you might now think to yourself, “Hey, the MCU started ten years ago! I wonder if that’s significant!” And the answer is, yes, yes, it really is. Because what they’ve done since then is consciously try to pull Tony’s characterization toward the MCU. And I can’t blame Marvel for wanting to do this, because MCU is where the money is and we all know that RDJ as Tony is amazing and he brought a whole new life to the character. But the thing is, for me, he’s playing his own Tony Stark. RDJ’s Tony Stark. Who is great but is not, in many important ways, the character I adore in the comics. But that’s what they’re making him into. They’ve upped the witty quips significantly, they’ve added or retconned large chunks of his background (the RT akin to the arc reactor, the fact that he is maybe now not a college graduate), they’ve taken away a lot of the whole Good Businessman thing that’s been there, they’ve taken away most of his friends, they added in a relationship with Pepper that I don’t even want to talk about, and so on. And they’re explicit that this is what they’re doing. In recent IM editorial columns, they talked about their admiration for RDJ’s portrayal and their desire to bring that to the comics.

And the thing about Tony having been catapulted into prominence by the MCU is that suddenly he’s big now, and he was never big before. He didn’t have a lot of fans, and that includes among the writing staff. The people who are well-known in fandom for having done good IM runs – Layton & Michelinie, O’Neil, Busiek, the Knaufs – are generally not (Busiek excepted, I guess) the absolute superstars of comics writing, as I understand it (although I may be wrong; I am not very widely-read); they liked Tony, as far as I know, and they wrote what they liked because they liked the character, so we got good runs from people who genuinely enjoyed writing Tony. But now that Tony is popular, Marvel wants to put their A-list writers on the book, and it seems like for the most part these big-name writers are not actually that happy about writing Tony. It’s not like Steve, where you can find people who imprinted on Gruenwald’s Cap run or what have you and are overjoyed to write Cap because they get Cap and they understand Cap and it would be an honor. I feel like with IM these days you’re really lucky if they’ve ever done the reading.

Since the start of the MCU there have been four IM runs: Fraction, Gillen, Taylor, and Bendis. I am honestly not sure I know anyone who was already a Tony fan who likes Fraction’s run; I finally dragged myself through it a couple months ago and the most charitable thing I can say is that it is an interesting comic (with more non-consensual humiliation than I personally prefer) about someone who happens to be named Tony Stark who is definitely not the guy I know from the comics I love. I haven’t read most of Gillen’s run and I don’t know a lot of people who have, so I think you can tell how well that was received in fandom. Tom Taylor, though, seemed like a guy who was genuinely excited to be writing Iron Man and you could tell that he had done the reading because he was name-dropping wacky 70s issues that I had a lot of fun finding and reading (like the one where Tony goes to SDCC) – but unfortunately the run Marvel put him on was Superior Iron Man. If you read interviews with him he sounds like he would have definitely preferred to be writing non-evil Tony. And then there’s Bendis. I’m not really sure what happened there. I had such high hopes. I feel like he used to be good at writing Tony, and certainly he gave us a bunch of great Tony without which Steve/Tony would not exist (see: The Confession), and I feel like if he’d been the one writing IM ten years ago it could have been spectacular. But I also feel like when the majority of his run features Riri Williams and Victor von Doom and no Tony anywhere, this guy maybe does not want to write Tony anymore. I think that wanting an Iron Man comic to contain Tony Stark is a reasonable minimum standard. (Note that he doesn’t have to be Iron Man to make me happy -- one of my absolute favorite runs has Rhodey as Iron Man -- but I think that an IM comic where Tony is alive and present shouldn’t be too much to ask for.)

So I feel like, given that Dan Slott is in interviews already talking about how his pitch for the new IM was “Okay, it’s Robert Downey Jr. starring sometimes in Black Mirror and sometimes in Rick and Morty,” that this is already not going to be the Tony I want to read about because my ideal IM run is probably not going to come from the pen of someone who is already saying that they’re going to write 616 Tony as RDJ. I mean, MCU is great! But if I want to see MCU Tony, I can watch the movies! I want to read about 616 Tony, who is not the same as the guy in the movies! I want a run like that, and I’m clearly not getting it.

On the plus side, the art is by Valerio Schiti, so whatever the writing is like, the art’s gonna be fuckin’ pretty. I guess we will have that to console ourselves with.

#Anonymous #replies

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popculturespiritwow · 7 years ago

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THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #17: COMFORTABLY NOM NOM NOM

I/O ERROR

What I love most about Issue 17 is just how much Sakhmet is in denial of her own emotional reality. That very first scene at the British Museum tells you everything. Actually, no that very first panel does:

Sakhmet wants to believe she feels nothing, she’s fine, she’s just a little kitty content to play with her yarn people. But she spends most of the issue numbing herself in one way or another. Pleasure not as pleasure but as escape. As Gillen points out in his Writer’s Notes, every scene ends with her shutting her eyes.

And then finally she wanders off and DOES THIS.

You’re right Sakhmet, you’re fine, no pain or trauma screaming in you, eating your dad is a thing anyone would do if they were really free.

Of course the real twist, the best twist, the oh my god no darkest twist is that she did this impossibly horrible thing while sober, that in fact it’s understood amongst Woden and the Valkyrie that the time we really have to worry about Sakhmet is when she isn’t blissed out on whatever.

Sakhmet tells the reporter, “I am Sakhmet. I am war and sex and death. I feel nothing.” She means it as this powerful statement of her identity, raw and primal and beyond all this mortal nonsense.

And it makes no sense. War and sex and death are absolutely times when you feel things. Maybe too many things.

It’s the same when young Ruth stands before the statue of Sakhmet and insists she was made of stone. The statue is made of stone, sure; but that goddess, sitting on her throne half-naked, head of a lioness, upper body of a woman – that chica is absolutely made of flesh.

FULL CIRCLE

We started this third arc of WicDiv with the story of a reporter – (post-Jessica Jones I don’t know why but I always imagine Beth introduced like she’s TV child star Patsy, aka “IT’S BETH!”, but then when she comes onscreen she’s just pale and glaring with big circles under her eyes) -- who objectifies the gods to get what she wants. We then spend most of the arc having our own assumptions and prejudices revealed, and being challenged to appreciate the humanity of different gods.

(I’m not sure I’d say that’s what’s going on with Baphomet and Morrigan... unless perhaps their internal orbit is defined by the struggle between loving one another and using one another, dehumanizing one another? It is true, our first encounter with them has Baphomet animating a severed head of Morrigan...and its script is nothing but praise for her...

Her take on making him a god is also about making him her king. It sounds like a partnership, but that possessive adjective can carry a lot of water...)

And here we end with an embrace of objectification again. I love the way Gillen puts it in the Writer’s Notes: “The only person who treats Sakhmet like an object is herself.”

(He also makes the comment, “Hurt people hurt people, and occasionally eat them afterwards.” Which encapsulates another major theme of this arc, and is also just the best sentence.)

So once again we return.

I’m not sure that line has ever implied a greater sense of imprisonment.

GIFT FOR WHOM

Brandon Peterson does great work on the art. Those two pages of Sakhmet on the rooftops, there’s something so magical about them. For that one moment, before we get to see where she’s gone, she really does seem so happy and free.

My one question: What is going on here?:

We’re at Sakhmet’s show. Usually those scenes reveal something important about the blessing of the god. But here, I don’t know, it doesn’t seem all that different from a normal concert, except for the living pastel balloon cats that people are stroking. Is this about pleasure, everyone’s on E or and enjoying stroking the kitties and basking in the red light – like a cat, just getting that as I write this now, oh is that funny).

In a way it feels like the performance is more for the cats than the humans. The humans all blur together, painted in the red of blood; meanwhile the cats float and glow and move through as they will.

Sakhmet says she’s all about pleasure, and from the post-orgy scene it seems like maybe her blessing is the numb, the escape of excess.

But that’s not what’s going on during her performance. And Sakhmet is so out of touch with the truth of herself, the only thing we can rely on is that her words should not be trusted.

Food for thought, I guess...

(I’m sorry.)

#wicdiv #kieron gillen #brandon graham #sakhmet's recipe for success

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sethnakht · 6 years ago

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Have you been reading the main Star Wars comic????? I feel like the end of the most recent issue (#49) was very much the sort of thing you would have all kinds of amazing things to say about, and I would love to hear alllll of your thoughts.

yes please let’s talk about that ending

I’ve been reading the main since Gillen came on board. He’s one of those rare writers who can really make me laugh — all those fabulous little jokes about comic-books, about what he himself does expressed through shape-shifters and droid programming — and think — the abyss sequence in the Jedha arc — while also selling me effortlessly on his grasp of a character.

Of his own characters, Trios has long been a favorite. Was I surprised by her choice? No. Was I delighted? Yes, very much.

Here’s a rambling explanation for why I like her and why I was delighted. Trios is one of those side characters who produces interest by mirroring characters Vader wants to capture but cannot, specifically Leia. (Which is also a refreshing change of pace, since most of the Vader comic is about his search for Luke / the upwelling of his memories of Padmé, not least as mediated through through Aphra.) Part of what made her fun in the Vader comic is the way she was positioned to make the reader imagine Leia, the way even Vader appeared to see in her the daughter he thought he had lost, the way he was at very least moved by her to imagine a father proud of such a daughter. If Vader and Leia are similar in their commitment to duty, Trios is like both of them (“We all do our duty, Lord Vader”). At the same time, she’s also potentially a contrast to Leia in her views on choice, which, while left implied, do suggest she’s more like Vader than his daughter. There’s a rapport between them as well, another reason why she’s fun — she’s not someone he’s going to kill over a polite disagreement, which means there’s room for a relationship there to be developed.

That a relationship does develop — and that it perversely mimics the relationship of a surrogate parent and child — that’s interesting to me. Not only as a mirror, but also a statement about Vader’s character (what kinds of relationship he is capable of, when at all, and where he takes his models). Much of the Shu-Torun arc is about lessons (Vader uses the word several times), and the physical parallels between Trios and Luke and Leia — Vader literally has her father killed, then slices off Trios’ hand like he does Luke’s, then gives Trios one of the last surviving pieces of Leia’s planet — strongly suggest that the lessons in question are not only being passed down through explosives and lightsabers and armies. This is made explicit through the contrasting figures of the Astarte twins, specifically Aiolin. Vader tells Aiolin — the girl he will go on to give the mercy death Obi-Wan denied him — that the lessons he has to teach are of no use to her. But he doesn’t say that he never plays the teacher to a student, and one could argue that those lessons are being imparted to Trios instead. The shifts in how Vader and Trios speak to one another resemble, in a most slanted manner, the relationship between a child and parent, or padawan and master — not only does Vader’s creation begin to emulate him, Vader also does step back from questioning her decisions (“as you wish”, he says instead) as though confident she has learned not only her place, but also his lessons.

Beyond how their relationship presents a massively fucked-up version of the (massively fucked-up) relationship Vader actually wants with his kid(s), the relationship Vader has quite literally destroyed for Trios by having her father and siblings murdered, beyond this highly unstable and blink-or-you’ll-miss-it surrogate parent-child relationship, one of the coolest things about the Trios arc for me his how the move from antagonism to something like mutual respect seems to actually have to do with something other than power. Vader spends a great deal of his comic talking about blasphemy and abominations and faith. So does Trios. “Blasphemy!” she cries when the rebellious barons desecrate a holy site of great personal significance to her, a place representing peace and family. (To be sure, Vader had destroyed an irreplaceable factory only a few panels before, but it wasn’t of spiritual significance.) Vader responds as ever — he destroys the attacking force — but his words to her afterward are notable. Instead of boasting about the Empire’s strengths or somesuch, he says, “I know little of your people’s religion, Queen Trios, but I presume this is a suitable punishment for their sacrilege”. I’ve yet to see this moment commented but find it significant that from the moment he acknowledges her religion, from the moment he punishes the people who dared deface a holy place, Trios is on board with his approach to the barons. And later, when he is delayed by Cylo’s trap, she speaks of her “faith” in his return. This sense on both their parts that they will prevail despite the odds seems to go hand in hand with a certain determinism, and one reason I love that ambiguous closing line from him to her, “there was no other choice” for queen, is because it permits that reading while also leaving space for the somewhat more charitable take spelled out by Triple Zero (”He could be implying that you are excellent”). By asking Vader whether he chose her well, Trios also reveals that it on some level does matter to her to have his approval, or perhaps rather that she wants to know whether she has truly earned his respect, or whether his deference was merely the illusion he threatened it would be. Although his response can be read both ways, by not outright narrowing things down to the latter, Vader arguably gives her what she wants (praise of her excellence) while placing that praise under the renewed sign of potential illusion. While he ultimately reestablishes his power with such a move (only he knows what he thinks, everyone else has to guess), letting her have at least an illusion might also be about as generous as he gets.

And then she returns in #38 with such a bang! For all that she’s no longer playing the same role, it’s clear how much of a mask she’s learned to wear. I love how she’s presented as someone who creates elusive comparisons, inevitably misread by those around her (not so unlike Vader) — someone who compares other Imperials to Vader, for instance, and judges them underwhelming on some scale known only to her; who looks into the ashes of a poisoned, wasted, once-holy moon and cooly compares this site of unspeakable horror to her own home as though they were in some way parallel. Her meaning there is clearly misinterpreted by the tank with a cybernetic arm (speaking of cybernetic limbs, has Trios replaced her courtly cybernetic gauntlet with a synth-skin hand??? I’m a tad disappointed), what’s-his-face; he thinks she’s simply confident that robbing the holy city of its final kyber stash will be easy. But her history — her religious leanings — already suggested in that first issue that she had come for some another purpose, that she could not truly be behind such a project unless she had undergone some significant change off-screen. That she ends up working with the girl she mirrored previously thus makes sense, but I’ll admit I was also waiting for a new form of contrast to Leia. (Making them too similar is only boring, plus having Trios become a rebel saboteur without additional storytelling to motivate a complete break with Vader would be unsatisfying, to say the least.)We finally got that contrast in #49, and I like how it’s nonetheless not entirely clear-cut: she’s conflicted, without doubt, she does like Leia, and yet “there was no other choice” shows her deterministic, fatalistic even, as it seemingly confirms, once more, that Vader was right about her, that Vader made her who she now is, that she sees the world as he does and not with Leia’s hope. (I’m hard-pressed to see her betrayal of the Empire as spontaneous or unbeknownst to Vader.)

Exciting to to think about what it could all mean / where it might lead. Does Vader know Trios sabotaged the Jedha mission? I suspect so, but if that’s the case, what does that say about his views on Jedha, on its significance? Or rather — did he encourage Trios to reach out to Leia specifically, to use Leia once more as lure by playing the bait? (Which is very meta: the character who represents what he couldn’t capture is now helping him do the capturing.) That would also be very much in character; he shows himself perfectly willing to sacrifice other Imperials (having Star Destroyers enter the asteroid field in ESB) if it will get him to Leia / Luke. But could one also hear resonances between a willingness to let the Jedha mission be sabotaged and a willingness to let the Death Star be sabotaged? Perhaps that’s too much of a stretch. In any case, Trios speaks to him as though he’s known for some time of her latest plan, but was it his or was this her idea? What are the conditions of her willingness to play bait, does he have something hanging over her head? How much does she truly resent the death of her real father, a man who was ready to sacrifice her for his own power? How much of what she told Leia is not just true, but also genuinely motivating for her? Is she working for him purely because being intimidated by Vader, as she puts it, sets every other concern into perspective, is she doing this out of fear? Or do vestiges of that however illusory respect between them also continue to play a role?

Sorry this got so long! thank you for thinking of me, this pulled me out of sadness. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts, my friend.

#long post #darth vader #queen trios #leia organa #sw: comics #marvel star wars #marvel darth vader #glompcat #asks #character analysis #characterization #repetition and variation #parallels

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apfelesser1 · 6 years ago

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Season 1

So after watching season 1 for the probably 6th time I’ve got some more thoughts which are not fit for a single episode review. At first I want to address the music, which has been composed by Ramin Djawadi. The sheer spectrum of soundscapes and instruments he uses really complements the series wide range of locations. From drums accompanying the Dothraki to some xylophone or bell-like sounds for cold north, every setting is instantly recognisable by its sound. And of course one can not get around mentioning the opening theme, so i’ll share my thoughts on that one here too: It’s perfect.

Another point not fit for a singe episode review is the acting. And unfortunately I can’t praise the first season that much on that matter. Though experienced actors like Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Mark Addy and Lena Heady carry the series easily on their shoulders, some of the younger cast and even Aiden Gillen and Michelle Fairley have some scenes in which they act close to unbelieveable.This, at some times, is concealed by some great directing and at other times surfaces in some of the worse scenes of the season (like the ‘Littlefinger sexplains to two whores’ and the ‘Caitlyn tells her entourage about here suspicions regarding Brans fall’ scenes). But on the other hand I need to point out that, although the cast isn’t that great here and there, some scenes with said actors still manage to carry a lot of emotional weight.

This is mainly due to some great production. Throughout this first season we already got to see the work of 4 directors, 3dp’s, 3 editors, and 5 screenwriters and each combination of those had their own style, and quality.

Though having the probably most difficult job, by setting the stage with the pilot and the second episode, Tim van Patten managed to assemble all those different pieces from reshoots, one year old footage and different filming units into two solidly crafted episodes. But one can see some remnants of this complicated chunk of work in some much more functional than beautiful scenes.

After him came Brian Kirk, the only director, who falls behind his 3 colleagues. His episodes, I am speaking of episode 3 to 5, all have an uneasy feel to them. Often scenes are much too short, placed in the middle of some other action and pulling you out of a continous story. Others are in itself paced awkwardly. Either the dialogues are edited too fast or a piece of expose is thrown in randomly by characters you didn’t even see in the scene up to that point. In other occasions the acting is off in tone and not fixed by directing the actors. On the other hand I have got admit that episode 5 does not make that many of the mentioned mistakes and shows that Brian Kirk is far from incapable. He is just the weak link of this roster of directors.

Episode 6 to 8 have been directed by Daniel Minahan, who managed to pace these episodes much more smoothly. This is mainly due to much slower edited dialogues and avoiding short sequences accompanied by frequent location jumps. Also the acting under Minahan has gotten to a much steadier level, with few exceptions from Aiden Gillen and that horrible zombie-like wight. Also the look and tone of the series feels a bit more dark, fitting the story very well.

Alan Taylor than took that look, teamed up with Alik Sakharov (who already did the first two episodes) as his dp, brought it to the next level and made his two episodes gorgeous looking, leaving behind such a great impression that the whole series today looks like he envisioned these two episodes. They are much better executed than any of the previous episodes, have an engaging speed, don’t remain in scenes which do not need that much time to unfold, and weave those flawlessly into the greater picture, avoiding a staccato feel. This all while having some of the most beautiful shots, the best thought through transitions and some of the best acting of the season, making episode 9, Baelor, and episode 10, Fire and Blood, a pure joy to watch.

Off to the writing and the story as a whole:

The overarching story can’t be called anything but genius. Written by George R. R. Tolk...err Martin and adapted pretty much without a change by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss we get a story that could not be more intriguing! It could not be much better! What could be slightly better though is, how the story is distributed over those 10 episodes. While making only some minor changes to the underlying story, one of them, namely the permanent inclusion of sex scenes, is one of the weaknesses of the first season. Though serving as scenes with room for expose, they take up a lot of time, which otherwise could be used for story development. Other than that the writing still seems a little staged and the expose a bit forced, no matter whether written by D&D or Bryan Cogman. The episode written by GRRM though is a little crammed with rushed story development, facts about what is happening in Westeros right now, and a lot of name-dropping, overwhelming the unexperienced spectator quite a bit.

In conclusion season 1 narrates a great engaging story while still searching for its own look!

Rating:

Average Execution....3.3

Overall Story.............6.7

Overall Highlights......4.8

Stand out Execution:

Alan Taylor as director of episode 9 & 10

Sean Bean as Eddard Stark

D&D as showrunners

Ramin Djawadi as composer

Highlights (Spoiler):

Eddard Starks Execution

Birth of the Dragons

The Rangers meet the White Walkers

The King in the North

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good-wine-and-cheese · 6 years ago

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World Cup Ish Fic

Wow I can’t believe I really did it. There was a comment made about the lack of World Cup-related Monster content and well I decided to write this…..thing. It’s absolute 1,000% crack don’t take anything seriously because I sure didn’t.

Idk if I should post this on AO3 or not LOL so for now it’s just.......here. Have fun I guess

No warnings or anything for this one.

“Shoot, Doctor.”

The rain fell around them, pouring in droves, a swirling storm aptly mimicking the atmosphere that surrounded the once quiet town. A town whose last hope now stood, as drenched as its inhabitants, before the monster that would bring it to its knees.

This was the scenery for a doomsday. The final showdown that Johan had led him into, the beginning of the long awaited end. Yet for all his imaginings, every scenario he had run through his mind time and again, this could never have been what he expected. He barely believed it, even now.

Tired bodies, not corpses, sat along the sidelines of a vast, flat field just outside of the town itself. The worst injured were Lunge, Grimmer, and - of Johan’s men - Roberto, only the last of whom Tenma had expected to see in this place. How the Inspector found this town and what Mr. Grimmer was doing here had baffled him, though not nearly so much as the situation as a whole.

They had done all they were able to in order to stall the end; all awaiting his arrival, per Johan’s designs. It was only the two of them, now, the way it was intended. Johan spread his arms wide, a slow and elegant gesture, as he stared the doctor down with those unnervingly deep, blue eyes.

“You have no choice, Doctor Tenma. Shoot.”

There was always a choice. Back then, before the utter upset of his life, there had been a choice; he still stood by his decision, he wouldn’t have acted any differently no matter how many times he repeated that same scenario. But now, his actions held the balance of more than a single life; if he acted correctly, then the town would be saved; if he was wrong, however, then the whole of this town….

“No! Don’t do it, Tenma! It’s not right!”

Tenma felt his heart skip a beat, a lump settling solidly in his throat as he turned, his matted, rain-soaked hair covering his field of vision. All the same, he could easily recognize….

“Dieter what are you doing here? Who brought you to this place?”

The boy didn’t answer right away, instead closing the distance in but a few bounds. “Doesn’t matter! Tenma, you can’t! Not like this….it’s all...it’s all wrong! It doesn’t have to be like this...there’s another way...let me...let me help!”

“I’m afraid that’s out of the question.”

The smooth chill of Johan’s voice carried easily over the wind and rain, drawing the weary doctor’s attention away from the perturbed, even desperate, child. But Johan wasn’t looking at him at all; his attention was solely on Dieter. Dieter, who seemed, for the moment, unfazed by the interjection.

“And why’s that. You’re not my mom, I don’t have to listen to you!”

Tenma’s mouth hung open, but no words came out at first, his mind caught somewhere between Dieter, what are you doing? and Stay behind me and don’t speak! but neither came out. There was no visible acknowledgement from Johan; he still bore that neutrally complacent smile, a look that almost seemed amused at the world.

“No, you don’t. But neither am I required to acknowledge your interference, and unfortunately, I have no interest in you. After all, you are unable to see it.”

The boy’s nose wrinkled in confusion, but he had lost the bite from before, sticking close to Tenma and glaring up at Johan through narrowed eyes as he shuffled on the spot. “See what.”

A moment of silence passed, the only movement from Johan being the slight inclination of his head, his focus drifting to somewhere far away, somewhere that only he could see. Somewhere that Tenma could see, too.

“The end.”

Even though he knew the answer, those two words - that voice - chilled the doctor with dread. He moved, grabbing Dieter and pulling him backward, behind him. “That’s enough! He has no part in this, Johan. You understand?”

It was more desperate than authoritative, but it would have to do.

“Then I suppose we are where we started a few moments ago. You must shoot, doctor. The fate of the town is in your hands, as is his.”

Dieter, too….

His head was spinning. Tenma shook his head, his face a picture of that desperate energy. “I told you he had nothing to do with this! You mustn’t involve him! Johan!”

“Do you see it, now, doctor?”

He did see it. The end….the end that Johan spoke of, empty and desolate, soulless. The fall not only of this town, but all of Germany, while the world watched….and spreading from its center, an ever greater darkness. He had no choice. This time, there was no choice.

“No! It’s wrong! You can’t shoot! Not like that…it...it won’t...you’re going to fail!” Dieter was tugging on his sleeve, now as soaked as Tenma himself. He barely spared a glance, but Dieter’s gaze was desperate and worried. “If you shoot like that you’ll never win….you have to trust me! Tenma!”

He closed his eyes, head downward as he collected his resolve. Perhaps Dieter was right. Perhaps there was a better way. But right now…now....

There was no time now. Johan wouldn’t wait.

“Go to the others, Dieter. See if you can help Nina with the injured.”

“But I--”

“I need you to listen to me, Dieter. Everything will be all right. I promise you.”

He knew that Dieter didn’t want to leave, but at the same time...he had to do this alone. This was the end, as Johan said; it was always meant to be faced between the two of them, alone, a tireless battle of wills that finally would come to its end.

Only after he heard the faint drumming of Dieter’s feet did Tenma open his eyes, facing Johan with a colder gaze, uncharacteristic of himself. He had built his resolve. He had decided.

Tenma took a step back, then another, and another.

He took aim, focused on his target.

He--

“This is for Tenma!!!!!”

What happened then was a mess of chaotic energy; a ball flew high overhead, the kick that delivered it powerful and swift. There was a resounding thmp as the ball struck its target, colliding solidly with the side of Johan’s head, the unsuspecting blonde dropping from the impact. The ball went sailing back, angled toward the goalpost behind him….

Clink.

It struck the vertical bar, only barely rolling into the net.

Tenma stood, bewildered, staring at the scene. Then he glanced down, at the slippery ball still sat there in front of him.

He never took the shot. Which meant that…..

He turned, slowly, baffled to see Dieter standing there, the ball he carried with him everywhere nowhere to be seen. When he saw that he’d scored, his face brightened, and he came running back down to Tenma, his eyes practically alight with relief.

Tenma could hardly say the same.

“Dieter, you…I told you not to get involved.”

He chewed his lower lip, pointing ahead of him. “You were gonna shoot that way, right? Straight ahead?”

Tenma blinked, then nodded. “Yes, I-”

“Bad move. You woulda lost. Go ahead, do it now. You’ll see.”

“Dieter, that doesn’t explain why….”

“Just do it! This is important. You’ll see.”

He opened his mouth, then shut it and sighed. If it would get Dieter to listen to him….Tenma backed up, as he had before. He took aim, as he had before. He started at the ball, delivering a sharp kick, and watched as it sailed far, far to the left. He glanced back toward Dieter, catching what was definitely a smug grin on his face for a few seconds.

“That’s what woulda happened. I saved you from making a bad decision!”

“But why? It should be direct…”

There was an annoyed huff this time. “You ever played football before?”

His silence was answer enough. There was that smugness again.

“That’s why.”

There was no more exchange, Dieter rushing back toward the others, most of whom had at least regained some semblance of strength. Tenma and Nina both crouched in front of Johan. It was utterly baffling to imagine that Dieter had such a powerful kick that he’d managed to knock the young man unconscious. At worst, he could have a concussion, but given time he would recover. Still, Tenma didn’t understand. The final showdown….

“Why this way? Why football?”

Nina shook her head, looking over Johan, her expression pensive and thoughtful. “You just don’t know him. You don’t know my brother. This….this was the only way. Even Reichwein and Gillen wouldn’t believe me, when I told them...”

Tenma shrugged, closing his eyes. His head was killing him….but at least….it was over now. It was over...this town was going to be all right. Everyone who lived here...and Dieter….

“I can see it too, Doctor. The end.”

He looked up, glancing at Nina, and again he felt that chill run down his spine. But it wasn’t Nina who was crouched there, not any more. It was Johan.

He stood, slowly, hair falling in front of his face. “The game’s not over yet.”

There was a thud as something fell in the living room. Grimmer, Nina and Dieter all stopped what they were doing, rushing from the kitchen to see Tenma, previously enjoying his first decent rest in weeks, unceremoniously tumbled from the couch to the floor, eyes wide and wild as he stared around in - admittedly humorous - bewilderment.

Only Dieter responded with sympathy, the other two bursting into laughter, Nina at least polite enough to head back into the kitchen to keep it to herself while Grimmer simply stood and chuckled, watching Dieter fuss about, crouching by Tenma.

“Are you okay? Did something happen? Was it a bad dream?”

The bleary ugh. he received in response didn’t seem to satisfy, Dieter refusing to move until Tenma at least sat up, rubbing the side of his head, looking around, no less exhausted in appearance than before.

“A nightmare…?” Grimmer prompted, and Tenma closed his eyes again, pinching the bridge of his nose, nodding quietly.

“I think Germany losing affected me more than I thought…”

#world cup #monster #fanfic #YEA I DID IT....#this is probably the weirdest thing I've written lmao #also first time I wrote anything Johan...hdsdfdhe be kind to me I'm not used to his dialogue #well bye now

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