#weak hero print edition

[weakhero-diaries]

Weak Hero Print Edition Vol 6 (Out in Korea since September 2023)

Front and back covers

Look at these pretty babies.

[em-ontv]

Hii, I was wondering if you could write something for Soldier Boy? Just something where he’s down bad and obsessed with the reader? Love your writing, thank you 😭

Honestly, thank you for this, I needed it to feed into my Soldier Boy delusions. Here you go, anon! Hope you like it <3

Guilty pleasure.

Pairing: Soldier Boy x fem!supe!reader

Warnings: vulgar language/cursing, obsessive behavior, Ben is really down bad, no use of y/n, English is not my first language, mistakes should be present, apologies beforehand :)

Word count: 439

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Ben was the fucking Soldier Boy, the All-American hero, the one-man army who could singlehandedly fight a whole battalion. He had the whole country eating out of the palm of his hand. But he had a secret — a guilty pleasure, if you will. And it was you.

You were more than just a supe. You were a sensation, neatly crafted by Vought to be the perfect girl. The kind that made men weak in the knees.

And Ben was no different.

Yeah, you had no fucking clue, but he had a serious crush on you. He was your biggest fucking fan, and he felt pathetic about it — Soldier Boy didn't do crushes, but here he was.

He had stacks and stacks of magazines of you, posters hung up on the walls of his room, and even some rare, limited-edition shit that he paid top dollar for. He'd never admit it, but he had spent countless hours staring at printed images of your face, tearing his way through Supe Weekly to find you in there. It was ridiculous, and he knew it, but that didn't stop him from acting like a totally obsessed fanboy every time he saw your face anywhere he walked.

America's hardest badass — hoarding fan memorabilia like a fucking teenager — what a joke. And he'd be damned if one of his teammates from Payback ever found out about his little obsession with you, he'd never be able to live it down, but he’d probably punch their skulls in.

So when the word came down that Payback had a working opportunity with you, Ben almost lost his shit. He'd practically jumped out of his chair when the news hit. But he wanted to keep it cool — be the stoic leader who didn't bat an eye at you. But inside? He was thrilled. A chance to meet you, to work alongside you? It was like someone had handed him Christmas on a silver platter.

When the day finally came, Ben stood in front of the mirror in his quarters, checking his reflection for the twentieth time. The thought of embarrassing himself in front of you made his stomach twist.

And the conference room.

He was fighting the urge to just bolt for the door. And then you walked in. Holy shit, you were even better in person. It made his brain short-circuit when you walked directly to him.

"Soldier Boy," you greeted, your voice smooth. "Been looking forward to this."

When Ben opened his mouth to speak, nearly no sound came out except for a voice crack. And it was at this moment that he knew. He was fucked.

[s-che]

a game where we hurt each other

Last month, I played perhaps the most intense TTRPG session of my life as part of the Dream Library’s discussion of Bluebeard’s Bride, a game of “feminist horror” (more on this later) published by Magpie in a gorgeous print edition. Over the course of the month of October my guest lecturer/collaborator @marvelousmsmolly I collectively hosted three sessions of what was by far the most challenging game the Dream Library has ever discussed. 

We came to Bluebeard as the second part of our fall semester covering games of intimacy and monstrosity — a unit which began in September with Avery Alder’s Monsterhearts 2 and is continuing this month with Vampire: The Masquerade (If you want to get in on the VTM discussion and future semesters, please, come join). Both Molly and I suspected that Bluebeard was going to be both a quieter month and a riskier text — but opted to play through it anyway, albeit with some tools in place to make sure everyone knew what they were getting into with a book that doesn’t pull many punches. And with all that, the first two sessions went... fine? We had some lumpy pacing, some conflicting styles of play, some questions about how a game that really seems to encourage player bleed can possibly be played online, but for the most part things were fine. Not great, not bad — not worth the anxiety we’d had about them.

And “fine,” of course, doesn’t make for interesting conversations, so Molly and I took a step back. We talked about what was going wrong: a sense that neither of us quite felt comfortable hitting hard enough, even though we asked players ahead of time and at the start of sessions to tell us what was off the table. A frustration that player choice had trended towards the Bride as a detective/hero and not someone embodied in a world of horror. A confusion — once again — over what it means to “shiver with terror” in a discord call with some friends online. Out of that conversation came a new idea: rather than two more one-shots, Molly took some time to charge up a spirit bomb and put together some more formal prep, then recruited a group she felt could get together for a more curated experience. She wrote up her own excellent thoughts on what went down — along with a lot of session details — but you’ll have to join the Dream Library for that. 

The result of all that curation and preparation was that on October 23rd a group of four trans women — Molly, @jdragsky, our friend Mars, and I — sat down to play Bluebeard’s Bride knowing exactly what we were in for. We would be playing a transfem Bride, Bluebeard would be cis, and we would be hitting transfem-specific horror as hard as we possibly could. 

I’m going to quote from Molly’s reflection, where she wrote:

“Another really great aspect of running this game for this table is there was such a clear feeling that we all understood, wordlessly, what was going on... There are some moments in Allison Rumfitt’s gothic horror novel ‘Tell Me I’m Worthless’ where it felt like the author, a trans woman, was dropping phrases knowing exactly how her transfem audience would react... This had a twofold effect of both giving the players a chilling moment but also, a very brief but appropriate separation between fiction and player where could all grimace and be together in that discomfort before pushing on. People knew what I was doing. The problem with the original game is it doesn’t really want to discuss the politics of what “feminine horror” means. Because of this you’re really lacking some focus. I think a table of cis women could actually play bluebeard’s bride in the way we did last night and have it hit hard for them if they approached it correctly, I don’t think our experience was uniquely elevated by our trans reading, however that was one of several tools we used for that elevation.”

Setting aside the strengths and weaknesses of the original text, that sense of shared experience was key to our game and key to allowing us to hit — and get hit — really hard and trust that our coplayers were there with us. Compared to our earlier efforts (prioritizing safety by taking things off the table via lines/veils) tightening the topical scope from an ambiguous “feminist horror” to a specific transfeminist horror in the context of a chaser bf, in the context of an economic disparity, in the context of the medical pressures of transition in the contemporary U.K. allowed Molly, our lovely host, to hurt us knowing that we were all in it together and choosing to play this game. It transformed the horror from an obstacle in an adventure game into a thing we were seeking out: a pleasure/pain we asked to feel. 

In a games discourse that is — understandably — interested in protections which might be implemented anywhere, including at cons and home tables with much less of an art-and-politics interest, safety tools are often thought about as a negative thing, a preemptive cutting away of all the things which might end up hurting us. I think that’s part of why people can have a hard time filling out a lines/veils list in advance of a session. What are all the things in the world I’m sensitive to? What are all the contexts in which I’m sensitive to them? Good sensitive or bad sensitive? Sensitive enough to cause a scene? Sensitive enough to make it off the table? 

In place of that — and in a table with a really remarkable amount of trust — this final Bluebeard session leaned in, hard, to the things that hurt us. That was the game. Molly wrote a lot about kink in her reflection, and I think she was right to do that. The point of the game was to hurt each other and to feel, and it was a better game for keeping that in mind. It was an actual horror game, and not just a game with horror aesthetics. I agree with Molly that there was nothing essential about having an all-transfem table — I think what we did could be done by anyone, even with the base Bluebeard’s Bride. What was essential was having a table where we all trusted each other enough to play a hurting game and to know that we were there on purpose. It elevated Bluebeard’s Bride into a really fascinating, messy experience — one I can’t wait to play again.

[weakherodiaries]

Weak Hero Covers (Printed Editions) Vols 1-5

[ninjastormhawkkat]

Headlines and Perspectives - One shot

Dr. Two Brains blood chilled when he saw what was printed on the morning edition of the Fair City Times. Guilt, torment, and anger coursed through his body. How dare the called her that! Becky wasn't anything like that monster! It wasn't her fault that Miss Crimes was making her commit all that violence and bloodshed. Two Brains let out a sigh, releasing his anger as he noticed how his hands were beginning to crumple and tear up the newspaper. "Besides. The only reason she is dealing with all of this is because of me." Dr. Two Brains mumbled in a guilty tone. He knew this headline will only make people's fear of Miss Crimes even worse. He had to finish the cure quickly before it would be too late. Victor frowned as he silently read the newspaper. Unwanted memories were coming back as he gazed over the words and the information about Miss Crimes printed in the article. "So now you see why I need you on this case Agent Cutter." Margaret spoke in a serious tone to the man as they were both seated in her office at The Agency. Victor let out a sigh. He had done cases like this before, but things were different this time. "She is still a child ma'm." Victor responded, his face bearing an slightly anguished expression. Margaret Fuller's gazed at Victor with a sympathetic look despite still bearing a hardened and serious expression. "I know but we can't have her running around and killing innocent lives anymore. For now I want you to find out more information on Miss Crimes such as he origins, powers, and weaknesses. If there is a way to contain her then do it. If not..." Margaret paused. Victor just grimly nodded. She didn't have to finish that command. Victor knew if he couldn't capture Miss Crimes, then he would have to end her life. Darius smirked with intrigue as he sat in his office. The newspaper from one of his associates who was situated in Fair City looked very promising. He then pressed a button on a device with a speaker. "Miss Lears, please bring in the contact information of Dr. Calvin Barriton and Professor Athena Cartwright to my desk immediately." Darius commanded. "Right away Mr. Brewster." A voice responded. Darius smiled wickedly and went back to reading his paper. "It looks like B.E.A.W labs might get a new bioweapon soon, or some scientists might get a chance to test out their weapons on Miss Crimes. Whichever comes first." Darius mused to himself as he drank his coffee. Archie Webber had a fierce and determined expression as he packed his hero gear up. Dr. Arannae was ready and willing to bring this Miss Crimes to justice. She was going to pay for killing his best friend Jenkins and for crushing Joe's heart. The poor man had called Archie and through tears and anguish told him what happened to Dr. James Jenkins. How Jenkins' mangled remains were found in his lab along with destroyed equipment. Joe had also told him about what was printed in today's newspaper concerning Miss Crimes. "That girl's murderous crime spree ends now." Archie growled as he headed out the door with his gear in tow. His pet spider Fluffy safe at his mom's house. Archie didn't want to imagine what would happen if Miss Crimes got her fiendish claws on his sweet boy.

Fair City Times Headline

Miss Crimes: Fair City’s Next Maddrix the Malicious @melodythebunny @erraticeris

[hayleyhearts]

fic writer meme

the biggest thanks to fic writer queen @vinelark for tagging me :,) <3

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 61!

2. What's your total Ao3 word count? 463,074 so less words than war and peace

3. What fandoms do you write for? for the last two years, Batman (with one unfinished Daredevil matt/foggy fic featuring Spiderman)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

No Hetero (the first Voltron fic I ever wrote, I also remember writing this fic with perfect clarity, like I became conscious of my writer brain when I wrote this)

Tim and Kon v. The World (I actually wrote this in like an hour while procrastinating sleep)

The Failure of Tim Drake (the first Batman fic I ever wrote)

Keith is Broken

Champagne Problems

5. Do you respond to comments? sometimes, when I post a new chapter I'll respond to comments on the previous one. But for every single comment, I get such a comment notification high <3 I've printed out several, too and they live on my bookshelf and provide joy and motivation.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I've never written a sad ending intentionally, but I have so many unfinished fics that end in the middle angst section. Of the fics that I'm pretty sure I'll never finish, I'd say my My Hero Academic fic Date Me (For Justice) which was my first attempt a really long fic and stops on such a mutual pining, getting blackmailed, sad note. Now that I'm writing this, I'm like-- I should finish that.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I love the ending of Sore Loser, and not just because it's a little spicy.

8. Do you get hate on fics? there's such a culture of, "if you don't like it, keep scrolling" so I've never gotten real hate, but I have gotten critique comments that point out places that I didn't get canon right and places where I contradicted the facts of my own story lol those guys are basically my beta readers <3 <3 <3

9. Do you write smut? Yeah, I actually started last year!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you have written? Yeah, not really for Batman, but I have in the past. The craziest is probably my Wandavision Supernatural crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I think the second fic I ever posted (Spideypool) which couldn't have gotten more than like 1,000 reads, I got a comment that was like, "just so you know someone posted this on Wattpad."

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes, honored that someone translated Tim and Kon v. The World into Chinese!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No but I'm so down for real, that sounds fun!

14. What's your all time favorite ship? You'd think by my ao3 stats, it's TimKon-- but I write fanfic for things I wish were different. There's a lot about their canon dynamic I love, and their fanfic is top tier, but for my favorite canon ship I'd probably say like Percabeth (especially with the Disney plus show, they're so back)

15. What is a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Probably my Daredevil Matt/Foggy High School au. I'm just not that into Daredevil anymore. I have so many Batman WIPs, but when I think of them I'm like, one day I'll finish it, baby!

16. What are your writing strengths? I love how I write banter. I also like to think that I give the supporting cast or characters who might be reduced to comic relief their own interior life and mini arcs-- but that might be more aspirational than actually in my writing as of now lol. I think I also write friend groups really well!

17. What are your writing weaknesses? structure, and related to that pacing. Also, the way I shy away from editing even though writing is rewriting or whatever that saying is. I'd say there's like five fics of mine that I've genuinely edited, but I'm working on it. I've been reading such a great book about writing lately called A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders, and I highly recommend it.

18. Thoughts of writing dialogue in another language in fics? I think the only time I've done that was in one of my Supernatural fics. I wrote Eileen, who's deaf. Originally, I put all her dialogue in italics to signify it was being signed. But I got such a kind and helpful comment on that fic being like it's weird and frowned upon to have her ASL lines formatted so differently, so I changed it! I think if I ever did another language again, I would research it more thoroughly first.

19. First fandom you wrote for? it was on fanfic.net and it was Percy Jackson, he and Annabeth were middle aged (which I obviously had great insight into at 15) and the main character was their daughter. Although as a child, I would write my own episodes of my favorite tv shows which was way before I knew what a screenwriter or fanfiction was. I love that one of my oldest instincts is to create the shit I wish I was seeing.

20. Favorite fic you have written? Hm, of my completed fics, I'd say a tie between To All The Vigilantes I've Loved Before and Capture the Flag (to the Death). I like the first one because it's the longest romance I've finished (at 27k) and there are certain scenes I really love. The capture the flag one I like because it feels the most like a real miniseries DC would publish (out of everything I've written) and I'm really proud of the ways I hid each of their flags and all the betrayals.

I'm tagging @thief-of-eggs <3 and anyone else who wants to do this! ~ please tag me in your post because I'm always looking for and loving writer mutuals <3

[mlpmoviemerch]

New My Little Pony Legends of Magic Vol. 2 Digital Comic Book

New My Little Pony Legends of Magic Vol. 2 Digital Comic Book available here: https://amzn.to/3Wv3ygb

Details below:

The origin of Equestria's most famous pony heroes continues as they come together to face the greatest evil any have ever encountered! Will they be able to overcome their differences to defeat an enemy that knows all of their weaknesses? Collects issues #7–12.

Publisher: IDW; Illustrated edition (May 2, 2018)

Publication date: May 2, 2018

Language: English

File size: 362746 KB

Text-to-Speech: Not enabled

Enhanced typesetting: Not Enabled

X-Ray: Not Enabled

Word Wise: Not Enabled

Sticky notes: Not Enabled

Print length: 144 pages

Perfect gift for any My Little Pony.

Features a Legends of Magic Vol. 2 digital comic book.

Brands: Kindle and comiXology

Character: My Little Pony

Color: Multicolor

Inspired by My Little Pony

[newstfionline]

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Biden Impeachment Inquiry (1440) House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the House will open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over allegations of possible financial misconduct. McCarthy is launching the proceedings without a formal House vote and is directing three House committees—Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means—to carry out the inquiry, allowing them to use their subpoena power to directly investigate potential wrongdoings by the president. House Republicans have been investigating the business dealings of the Biden family, including the president’s son, Hunter Biden, who currently faces federal charges over tax evasion and a gun violation. House Republicans claim President Biden profited off his son’s overseas business ventures while serving as vice president during 2009-17. Those allegations are based on an FBI tip sheet, which the FBI says can contain incomplete and uncorroborated information.

Border battles (Washington Post) Republican candidates are engaged in a rhetorical arms race, vying to one up each other with tough talk on the U.S. border with Mexico—reflecting widespread Republican outrage over immigration, as well as the ongoing crisis of opioid deaths. Former president Donald Trump proposed a naval blockade of Mexico. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged to send drones and Special Forces over the southern border starting “on day one.” And investor Vivek Ramaswamy imagined launching a “shock-and-awe” military campaign against drug cartels. But Mexican officials and independent security analysts have cautioned that military force by the United States would fail to quickly stop drug trafficking while torching relations with its southern neighbor and risking significant casualties. U.S. authorities have said most fentanyl comes into the country through legal ports of entry rather than the desert gaps between border crossings, and those detained with the drug are far more likely to be U.S. citizens rather than migrants. “There is no magic wand, military or otherwise, that the U.S. government can wave and make this problem go away,” said Brian Finucane, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group. “The danger is that they risk normalizing the idea that the use of force is an appropriate policy response, and given the weak practical guardrails on the president, they make ideas that should be clearly off the table on the table.”

In Latin America, Brazilian killer who eluded U.S. became popular hero (Washington Post) Thousands of miles from Pennsylvania, where escaped murderer Danilo Cavalcante led federal, state and local authorities on a 13-day manhunt, Túlio Pires Bragança followed the fugitive’s run with an ambivalent kind of fascination. “Of course the guy is a cruel killer,” Pires Bragança, a 41-year-old publicist in São Paulo, Brazil, said before authorities announced Cavalcante’s capture Wednesday. “But he is a guy who escaped and is giving crap to people who have money and power. I don’t want him to win, but I hope he gets a lot of attention. “I like to see Americans in bad shape,” Pires Bragança said. Cavalcante, a 34-year-old Brazilian man sentenced to life last month for stabbing ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandao to death in front of her two young children in 2021, staged a spectacular escape from the Chester County Prison on Aug. 31, crab-walking up walls, scrambling through barbed wire and bolting across a roof. He’s also wanted in his native Brazil, where he is accused of shooting a man to death in 2017. Cavalcante’s run from justice transfixed Latin America, a region that admires U.S. strength while resenting its centuries of interference and exploitation. Some have seen him as a symbol of resistance to the behemoth to the north. “Close to two weeks, escape of a Brazilian man embarrasses police in the U.S.,” O Globo crowed in Wednesday’s print editions. Media here provided daily updates on the search. TikTok videos have drawn millions of views.

Ukraine Strikes Russian Naval Ships at Black Sea Facility (NYT) Explosions tore through a shipyard at the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea before dawn on Wednesday, damaging at least two ships and setting off a blaze that continued to burn into the early morning, according to Russian officials. The Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that Ukraine had fired 10 cruise missiles at the facility in the city of Sevastopol at the same time as it targeted a Russian warship on the Black Sea with three maritime drones. The rare acknowledgment of a successful Ukrainian attack came after local residents broadcast images of explosions and raging fires in the shipyard on social media. Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russian-backed governor of Crimea, later shared a photo that appeared to show the port side of a Ropucha-class large landing ship that sustained damage. Mr. Razvozhayev said at least 24 people were injured at the Sevmorzavod shipyard. Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian military operations, including bases, naval facilities and ammunition depots, on the Crimean peninsula. Moscow has ramped up attacks on Ukrainian ports, grain facilities and other civilian infrastructure since it backed out of a deal to allow Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea.

India Keeps Pulling the Plug on Its Digital Economy (WSJ) India’s government has increasingly shut down the internet to respond to a range of problems, including political upheaval, fugitives on the loose and even cheating on exams. Last year’s 84 cutoffs in various parts of the country exceeded the combined total for all other nations, including Iran, Libya and Sudan, New York-based digital rights group Access Now says. Since 2016, when the group began collecting data, India has accounted for more than half of all internet shutdowns globally.

China’s ‘full-time children’ move back in with parents (AP) When she first moved to the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen after graduating from college, Marguerite Wang imagined she would spend her career working hard in a big city. Instead, she’s living with her parents in her hometown in northeastern China. A record of more than one in five young Chinese are out of work, their career ambitions at least temporarily derailed by a depressed job market as the economy struggles to regain momentum after its long bout with COVID-19. Wang, who was laid off from a gaming company in December, is among an estimated 16 million young Chinese who, daunted by the difficulties of finding decent jobs, have moved back home. By some measures, young Chinese are enduring the country’s worst job market in generations, and many are coping by taking refuge with their parents. If “full-time adult children” were counted as unemployed, the jobless rate would be more than double the official rate of almost 20 percent in March, Zhang Dandan, a Peking University economics professor, said in an op-ed in the Chinese business magazine Caixin in July. Authorities have since deleted the article.

The Big City Where Housing Is Still Affordable (NYT) Yuta Yamasaki and his wife moved from southern Japan to Tokyo a decade ago because job prospects were better in the big city. They now have three sons and they are looking for a larger place to live. But Mr. Yamasaki, who runs a gelato shop, and his wife, a child-care worker, aren’t planning to move far. They are confident they can find an affordable three-bedroom apartment in their own neighborhood. As housing prices have soared in major cities across the United States and throughout much of the developed world, it has become normal for people to move away from the places with the strongest economies and best jobs because those places are unaffordable. Prosperous cities increasingly operate like private clubs, auctioning off a limited number of homes to the highest bidders. Tokyo is different. In the past half century, by investing in transit and allowing development, the city has added more housing units than the total number of units in New York City. It has remained affordable by becoming the world’s largest city. It has become the world’s largest city by remaining affordable. Two full-time workers earning Tokyo’s minimum wage can comfortably afford the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in six of the city’s 23 wards. By contrast, two people working minimum-wage jobs cannot afford the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in any of the 23 counties in the New York metropolitan area.

Australian CEO calls for more unemployment to give companies upper hand over workers (Washington Post) An Australian millionaire property developer is drawing backlash for calling for more unemployment to give companies more leverage over employees, whom he said had become “arrogant” since the covid pandemic. “We need to see pain in the economy,” Tim Gurner, CEO of the Gurner Group, told the Australian Financial Review’s property summit Tuesday. “We need to see unemployment rise—unemployment has to jump 40 to 50 percent, in my view.” “I think the problem that we’ve had is that people decided they didn’t really want to work so much any more through covid, and that has had a massive issue on productivity,” he said. Tradespeople, he said, “have been paid a lot to do not too much in the last few years, and we need to see that change.” Those changes had already begun, Gurner said, with “massive layoffs” leading to what he described as “less arrogance in the employment market.” His remarks drew a scathing response, with one Australian official, Labor MP Jerome Laxale, describing them on X, the platform formally known as Twitter, as “comments you’d associate with a cartoon supervillain, not the CEO of a company in 2023.”

Israel’s Supreme Court takes up judicial overhaul following mass protests (Washington Post) In what is being described as the most important judicial proceeding in its history, Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday heard petitions about whether the court itself could have its powers of legal oversight stripped away by the legislature. The process, which will last for months, comes as the deeply polarized country has been racked by protests and teeters on the edge of a grave constitutional crisis as the most right-wing government in its history seeks to change how the country’s institutions function. An editorial Tuesday in the daily Haaretz called it “the most important Supreme Court hearing in Israel’s history,” yet it is not even clear that the government will respect the final decision. After eight months of mass street protests, strikes and roadblocks—including tens of thousands of people gathering outside the court the night before the start of the hearings—the issues have distilled into legal arguments over the division of powers in a country with no written constitution and a system of legislative oversight that almost exclusively relies on the Supreme Court. The court has effectively been asked to judge its own fate by petitioners who claim a government vote in July was a power grab at the expense of judicial independence. Specifically, the governing coalition decided to rescind the court’s power to annul government actions that it deemed “unreasonable.”

Earthquake Puts Morocco’s Elusive King in Spotlight (NYT) When a devastating earthquake hit Morocco on Friday night, killing more than 2,900 people, King Mohammed VI was in Paris, where he spends a great deal of his time. It took him most of a day to return to his country and make his only public statement so far—a terse communiqué. He visited a hospital on Tuesday and donated blood. But his low visibility and silence, coupled with the government’s response to the earthquake, have been criticized, with some saying officials are paralyzed because they are awaiting authorization for action from the king. Moroccan officials argue that they are on top of the crisis and will ask for help as they need it. The king, who turned 60 on Aug. 21, is the richest and most powerful person in Morocco. He is constitutionally both head of the armed forces and, controversially in Islam, of religious matters, as the Commander of the Faithful. As head of state, he oversees a constitutional monarchy, a managed semi-democracy, with real power exercised by advisers and ministers dominated by his high-school friends. But his authorization for action is vital. As the days since the earthquake pass, there has been quiet anger against the government’s slow response to accept foreign aid and rescue teams. But in a country where criticism of the king can carry serious consequences, perhaps the loudest expression of protest is action as people across Morocco have come to help those in need.

Rescuers recover over 2,000 bodies after floods devastate eastern Libya and displace 30,000 people (AP) Rescuers have found more than 2,000 bodies as of Wednesday in the wreckage of a Libyan city where floodwaters broke dams and washed away neighborhoods. Officials fear the death toll could exceed 5,000 in the nation made vulnerable by years of turmoil and neglect. The flooding caused significant infrastructure damage in the coastal city of Derna and displaced at least 30,000 people, the U.N. migration agency said. The damage is so extensive the city is almost inaccessible for humanitarian aid workers, the International Organization for Migration said.

River of wine (NYT) The streets ran red in Levira, Portugal, on Sunday. But don’t worry—it wasn’t as bloody as it sounds. Two tanks containing nearly 600,000 gallons of red wine collapsed at a distillery, flooding the small town’s streets. Luckily, no one was injured. The delicious but costly incident highlights a bigger problem: Europe’s wine surplus crisis. With too much supply and not enough thirsty customers, producers are stuck having to store excess wine in tanks like the ones that spilled in Levira.

[seven-oomen]

Writerblr Introduction

Writing, it's one of those things that everyone can learn. For some of us it's just in our blood because no matter what we do, we will always end up here. Writing our little hearts away. I am no different. I write because something in me calls out, something in me has to tell these stories. And for some reason I can't stop doing it.

I'm currently trying to get the funding for a service dog, if you have a few bucks to spare, or want to help me out, please share this post:

Now you're probably thinking; that's great but who are you?

Well, let me introduce myself and my blog:

Ben. 33 years old. Dutch. Gemini. Transmasc, He/Him. ADHD, Autistic. Self proclaimed disaster Bi & aroace (It’s complicated). INFP. Cat parent. Movie & Video game enthousiast. Dinosaur & Bird of prey obsessed.

Genres that I write:

LGBTQ Romance. Fantasy. Paranormal. Contemporary. Adult.

Favorite tropes:

Found Family. Enemies (to friends) to lovers. Second chance at love. Unlikely Friendships. Big strong burly dude is a softie around kids. All the weaknesses, none of the strengths. Anti-hero. Everyone is morally grey. Satan is the good guy. Angels are dicks. The asshole becomes one of the good guys. Everybody heals from trauma. Angst with happy ending. Whump. Reluctant monster.

Please check out my statement on transformative works below! I have different thoughts on different types of fanworks, so check the section for the fanwork you are interested in creating:

Podfics: Please check in with me before creating podfic based off my fanworks. You can reach out to me via Tumblr; seven-oomen.tumblr.com or email me at sevenoomen@gmail.com

Translations: Please check in with me before creating translations based off my fanworks. You can reach out to me via Tumblr; seven-oomen.tumblr.com or email me at sevenoomen@gmail.com

Fanart: I welcome fanart based off of my fanworks! If you create fanart based on my fanwork, there’s no need to notify or credit me beyond using the “Inspired by” link on AO3.

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[bukojuiice]

ʚ  Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki cramming school works with their S/O  ɞ *‧.₊˚*੭*ˊᵕˋ੭.*

izuku, katsuki, and shoto x gn! reader  ♡ 

｡⋆ʚ♡⃛ɞ These are some extremely self-indulgent hcs LMAO i’m currently consumed by a lot of school works and extracurricular activities, so i decided to take the time and write some of these up! this the first batch of hcs i’ve ever made so i hope you bear with some errors! i hope you enjoy!

hopefully i get to write more about the other bnha bois/girls soon so please also stay tuned for that!

if you like to see more from me, i have an ongoing bakugo x fem reader! smau called cuddle buddy! read it here!  ( ु•⌄• )  

✧ Izuku is very smart and hardworking so you’ve barely seen him cram any school work or tasks since the two of you started going out.

✧ Soft bby boi knows how to balance his workload from school whilst still being able to spend time with you.

✧ Now here were the two of you, partners for a huge science project that would serve as your midterms for the subject.

✧  Both of you were tasked to take care of two chicken eggs and treat them as your children. Draw faces on them, make them wear clothes, give them names and describe their personalities... literally treating them like actual babies.

✧ You were whining about it at first because it felt like an elementary project instead of something first year high school students (and those in the hero program for that matter) would do.

✧ Izuku remained positive however and reassured you that it was going to be a lot of fun.

✧ You were still salty and unimpressed by the project, but you couldn’t help but melt because of how cute Izuku was and how excited he was for this task. He really wanted to spend a lot of time with you and he was so so happy that you two were partnered for this project.

✧ Because it was midterms week, you were swarmed with tons and tons of stuff to do, so the two of you decided to finish everything else first then deal with the science project at the end of the week because it was the “easiest”. Boy.. were the both of you so so wrong.

✧ Izuku goes up to your room in the dorm so that the both of you can work on the project quietly, yet as he enters, he sees you panicking and running around the room, your camera hanging around your neck, holding two half-cracked eggs with weirdly sewn clothes and faces that looked like they were scribbled from sharpies.

✧ “Izu-kun... can you help me take pictures of our kids for the baby photobook? 

✧ He was about to faint on the spot from fantasizing about his future with you. 

✧ “Of course! hand me All Might Jr. first so you can take a picture of his cute little sister!” 

✧  Yes, your first born eggo is named after All Might. It was Izuku’s decision and you wanted to support him.

✧ You spent all day taking pictures, printing them, designing them and pasting them on the photo album. It was finally nighttime and the both of you are terribly exhausted and mentally drained.

✧ You and Izuku had creative minds so you were able to create the perfect photo album.

✧ Several hours have passed and Izuku still can’t stop thinking of the future he was going to have with you. What a cutie.

✧  After submitting and passing the photobook to the drop box Ilda left in the living room, Izuku goes up again to your room and is surprised by the sight of you sleeping soundly on your bed.

✧ He comes up to you, kisses your forehead and whispers these soft words to you:

✧ “I can’t wait to tell our future kids how I met you.” 

✧ Bakugo Katsuki has never crammed a school work or project in his entire life.

✧ You on the other hand, procrastinated a lot, yet could still pass tasks on time. Although, Katsuki still reprimands you for it. Calling you “dumb butt” instead of the usual name callings he uses whenever talking to your classmates which is “dumb ass” 

✧ He is your boyfriend so it’s not that much of a surprise, it’s just that you’re a bit shocked that he would be really really soft on you. It’s such a sweet gesture though.

✧ After binging a entire series on Netflix the other day, and because he couldn’t resist your pleas of begging him to watch this show with you, it completely slipped from the both of your minds that you had a dance project to work on for your Physical Education class.

✧  You immediately panicked, and Bakugo began to show his usual hot-headed side of him and scolded you for it. Despite him forgetting about it too.

✧ The two of you were going to film yourselves dancing to the Cha Cha dance style and you had a day to create the raw video without edits.

✧  You suggested that the two of you practice by uploading your videos to Tiktok and ask for advice from the professionals who posted their videos there too

✧ “Katsuki-kun do you think we should upload our videos to Tiktok?”

✧  “Absolutely fucking not.”  

✧ After watching a few beginner dance practice videos on Youtube, Katsuki immediately got the hang of it.

✧ Your man had the moves. He really was good at everything.

✧ You couldn’t help but stare at him as he continues to sway and follow the steps without missing a beat.

✧ Bakugo smirks at you, “Like what you see?”

✧ “Get your mind out of the gutter.” You threw a pillow at him as his tease came out of nowhere. 

✧  Since you were quite a slow-learner, it took a few hours before you got the hang of the first routine.

✧ In those few hours, you probably have stepped on Bakugo’s toes a few hundred times and a few hundred fucks were cursed out of his mouth every time it happened.

✧  He was still patient with you though in his own little way. Constantly scolding you every time you made a mistake, but never made you feel guilty for it. 

✧ You were able to finish recording the raw video by evening. A few hours to spare before the deadline. Either way,  the both of you were exhausted when the adrenaline finally died down. 

✧ “I can’t wait to dance with you again like this. Maybe Waltz or Ballroom next time?”

✧ “You’re a shitty dancer so don’t expect it to happen anytime soon.”

✧ “Then again, I’m dancing with you. So it doesn’t matter if you’re bad. The important thing is, it’s going to be special since I’m with you.”

✧ And at that moment, you could feel your heart explode from all these soft emotions.

✧ Shoto was naturally smart. He could finish a lot of tasks in a few hours without getting distracted. That was his strategy ever since he was in Elementary. Getting things done right away and getting flawless remarks and grades on them.

✧ But ever since the two of you got together, he insisted that the two of you would do your school works together. So, every night, whenever there was homework, you would immediately yeet over to Shoto’s room to answer the tasks with him.

✧ It’s really cute. Not only do the two of you get to bond together but, you were helping each other too. It was the ideal relationship.

✧ Shoto is very particular with a lot of fancy things, so he even has this humidifier in his room with your favorite scent so that the both of you can calmly continue your work.  He even has a comforter sprawled upon the floor so that you could sit comfortably. How sweet of him ;w; 

✧ This time around though, the two of you were partnered up for  to answer a elaborate math problem that you were going to present the next day. 

✧ You exceled in your subjects with Math being your weakest point, sometimes even getting unfavorable grades on the subject. Shoto was the exact opposite though. Which wasn’t surprising because he needed to be good for his quirk. How far his fire can go, the trajectory of his ice and all that jazz. 

✧  He wasn’t disappointed that he was partnered with you for this though, despite it being your weakness. In fact he couldn’t be happier. As long as he was spending time with you. 

✧ After reading through the problem and finding the formula, you were already stressed out. Todoroki took notice of this immediately and decided that the two of you should take a break first. He brings you to the convenience store near the dorm. Your hand holding his as he tells you that you could buy any snack you want.

✧ Using his father’s credit card of course.

✧ After coming back from the store, the two of you decided to head straight back to the math problem. It was very very complicated,  especially since the two of you had to divide the work because it was required for the project for the two of you to evenly contribute to it. It was a math problem your braincells couldn’t take anymore.

✧ “Shoto-kun, I can’t take this anymoreee.” You whined, resting your head on his shoulder.

✧ “Come on (Y/N), just a little bit more. We’re almost finished.”

✧  Shoto was finished with his part of the solution, while you were still struggling. It took the whole night to do so but you were able to answer it eventually.

✧  The next day, it was finally time for the presentation. Shoto was able to present his solution perfectly, while you had some slip-ups and mistakes here and there. The both of you didn’t get a good grade because of that... but to him, it didn’t matter.

✧ “I’m sorry for dragging you into this. It’s my fault we got a bad grade.”

✧ “It’s alright (Y/N). It doesn’t matter. As long as I get to experience something different with you and spend time with you every single day, I’m happy and contented. 

✧ You were so blessed to have someone like Todoroki Shoto in your life. What did you to deserve such a precious and kind boyfriend?

-End.  ♡‧₊˚

[chalkrevelations]

Word of Honor Ep 6, and let’s talk a little about what’s canon, and what’s not, and about the particular slip-slidiness of the line between them on this show.

But first, due diligence: If you are NEW or JUST VISITING, this is a re-watch, so you’re going to find SPOILERS not just for this ep, but for the entire show. Scroll away and come back later if you haven’t seen all 36.5 eps and want to watch unspoiled. Also, heads-up, this got super long, because I had to talk about that stuff up there and then still talk about the ep. Hashtag long post (remorseful).

So, “canon,” as applied to fannish source material (in Western fandom, at least) traditionally has been considered the official stuff – the episode, the book, the comic, the movie – based on the religious definition of  “canon,” the collection of texts accepted as genuine and official within a religion. The word “fanon” – widely accepted fannish ideas – plays on this, as does the fandom concept of “word of God,” or things the Creators have said about the text but outside of it. Is it in the show as it aired or the book as it was printed? Canon. Is it not in the show as it aired or the book as it was printed? Not canon. (Apocrypha? Maybe. Anyway.) Generally, I think we’d say that things like material in the first draft of a script that doesn’t make it through revisions and onto the screen isn’t canon, even if you can get your hands on a copy of the first draft. The final product that airs is what’s canon. BUT this gets super slippery in something like WoH, in a way that’s exemplified in this episode. This ep is one of the places where people who can lip-read Chinese have spotted some significant dialogue changes between what the actors say on-screen and what lines have been dubbed in. (Everybody’s dubbed in cdramas, it’s just the thing that happens. You have your on-screen actors, and you have your voice actors. The ONLY person in The Untamed who did his own voice dubbing, for instance, was Ji Li, who played Nie Huaisang. All the other characters had voice actors dubbed in. In fact, the voice actor for Jiang Cheng in The Untamed is the voice actor for Wen Kexing in WoH.) One of the descriptions of WoH that I’ve heard is that this show was filmed as a bl and dubbed as a bromance. The thing is, nobody tried very hard to hide the shift. There are plenty of places that you can clearly see the actor’s mouths don’t match the dubbing, and they’re not artfully shot or edited to hide this. They’re fully on-screen, mouthing words that don’t match, right out in the open, almost like they want to you to pick up on it. Almost like it’s canon, because it’s right there on-screen, aired in the episode. In my first-watch reactions to Eps 36 and 37, I talked a lot about how the dubbing puts a layer of de-queered no-homo over what the on-screen actors are saying in these places, but if you can see what they’re actually saying and understand it, does that make it canon? What does it mean, both textually and meta-textually, if you can’t believe what you’re hearing – what you’re being told – because it contradicts what you’re seeing? How does that affect what we’re told about Our Protagonists and its “truth,” particularly in the final scenes? How much is the show deliberately working against censorship in this way? How much is it teaching us to look deeper than what we’re hearing on the surface?

Several people have talked about what’s actually being said by the on-screen actors in places where this happens, and I’m going to direct you to AvenueX on Youtube if you want a complete overview, because she’s reliable and has a good compilation that’s easy to find. She has a couple of videos called “Lip Reading for Sugar,” and the March 9, 2021, installment includes the Ep 6 incidences, the most significant of which are: At 3:05 in the ep, when WKX throws himself on Zhou Zishu’s back during the zombie Drug Men attack, calls him “mom,” asks ZZS to carry him, and tells “mom” that “your shoulder blades are the most beautiful.” Only no, Gong Jun didn’t say this, if you watch his mouth compared to the sound of the words. Instead of “niang” (mom), he says “Zhou Zishu.” Twice. “Zhou Zishu, carry me.” “Zhou Zishu, your shoulder blades are the most beautiful.” This is not only important because it emphasizes he’s gay for Zhou Zishu’s shoulder blades, but also because he’s fucking baked on Drunk Like A Dream incense when it happens, and later, ZZS will reveal that Drunk Like a Dream makes you see what you most desire, and he’ll confront WKX about how he “kept calling” someone’s name while he was under the influence of it. This makes no sense with the dubbing we get, because with “mom” dubbed over ZZS’s name here, WKX only calls Zhou Zishu’s real name once while he’s under the influence, at the end of ep 5. That is not kept calling. ANYWAY, once WKX clears his head and flies them away from the Drug Men, back to the a lakeside, there’s another disjunct at 5:05, when the dubbing has WKX tell ZZS not to play hero, that he doesn’t lose face if WKX helps him, and ZZS responds with something about your grandmother’s bear, which AvenueX tells me is a real Chinese idiom, although not for what. What Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan appear to actually have said, though, is that WKX tells ZZS that this was just like a hero saving a beauty, with the implication that ZZS is the beauty, the damsel in distress, and ZZS respons that no, it’s like the beauty saving the hero, without a lick of concern that he’s the beauty, the damsel, in this scenario, just that he did all the work killing Drug Men and now this asshole is going to act like he’s the one who did the saving. At 31:24, dubbing has WKX telling ZZS that he’ll give ZZS whatever he wants if ZZS can get him some of the Drunk Like a Dream, but AvenueX tells me that he actually offers his body in exchange, in a way that implies marriage. And at 32:22, when ZZS asks WKX what he saw under the influence of the Drunk Like a Dream, the dubbing gives us some random story about baby WKX throwing a rat on his mother’s bed, while Gong Jun’s mouth seems to be saying something something about being in the bridal chamber with his beloved … so circling back to our first instance at 3:05, WKX using Zhou ZIshu’s name is now super-interesting, eh?

Another slip-slidey point of canon here is that there are two versions of this episode. The original version didn’t have the rabbit-washing scene. That was an extra that was inserted later into a Special Version ep when Youku reached 2 million subscribers. But the Special Version is now available on Youku’s channel (it’s the one I watched for this re-watch), AND it’s the regular version that’s on Netflix. So at 25:28, we now get this adorable little scene where ZZS and WKX are cleaning two rabbits in the lake before cooking them, and WKX splashes ZZS who pretends to be irritated before splashing WKX back and running away up the riverbank, chased by WKX. It’s flirty and playful and ALSO a foreshadowing of the flashback we’re going to see in a later ep, when they play together for an afternoon as children. Wasn’t canon before. Now it is.

Anyway, even with the (bad) dubbing that we get, this is a fantastic WenZhou ep. We open with them still being menaced by the zombies Drug Men, with a lot of swordwork by ZZS before he starts flagging because of his Nails Issue, whereupon WKX instantly sobers up, goes Evil Ghost Valley Master on Imposter Hanged Ghost who’s controlling the Drug Men, kills him with his Fan of Death, then scoops up ZZS and flies him off to a lake, where he attempts to tenderly check ZZS’s pulse and take care of his wounds before ZZS slaps away his hand like an offended maiden. WKX has to give him the qi smackdown in order to hold him still to :coff: pull down his robes and suck out the poison from the Drug Men scratches on the back of his shoulder. :hands: I remember the first time around, watching this with my mouth hanging open, demanding to know the heterosexual explanation for this. (Also, if you’re rummaging on Youtube, the Five Straight Guys Watching Word of Honor for this ep is not to be missed. They’re a little questionable in their reaction to the poison sucking, but before that, they’re a bunch of squeamish babies over using the dagger to further slice open the wounds to get to the poison, and it’s HILARIOUS. They can’t even look at the screen once the dagger comes out, hiding behind their hands. I love them, more and more as the eps go on, but they are WEAK compared to even the newbiest hurt/comfort fangirl.) There’s some more back and forth between WKX and ZZS about revealing their true selves to each other, no you, no YOU. WKX makes it clear that he knows there’s something really wrong with ZZS, and then they fight, set to romantic music, and ZZS ends up falling in the lake. I do the victory arms (  \o/  ) to myself where I’m sitting on the couch and startle one of the cats, because FINALLY we’re going to get rid of that execrable fake facial hair. ZZS fucks with WKX by staying underwater long enough that WKX panics and also dives in, we get some really cheap and awful underwater effects, and ZZS reveals his face! They end up back on the edge of the lake, drying their perfectly dry outer robes, while they sit around the fire together in their perfectly dry inner robes, but I am not going to complain because y’all. I CANNOT with how smug and pleased ZZS is for just a moment about WKX mooning over how pretty he is. Then he remembers to be an ill-tempered gremlin and pokes at WKX with a flaming stick, but I had to rewind four times just to catch that little moment of satisfaction about being admired again – it’s subtle and gorgeous and Zhang Zhehan is going to kill me with his face one of these days. ZZS demands dinner on this date, and fake-coughs pitifully to get WKX to go hunt something down, while he stays and does his delightful little thinky face as he pokes at the Soul Winding Box they got from Imposter Hanged Ghost. Then we get a shot of WKX looking at ZZS before he heads off to catch some rabbits that confirms he now knows he’s really Zhou Zishu, rather than Zhou Xu.

So, we’ll get back to the Ghost and the Box in a minute, but I do want to mention that this whole ep is layered through with mini-references and thematic stuff. Imposter Hanged Ghost rings his little bell to control his Drug Men, and remember that, we’ll see that again. WKX asks if ZZS came from the Healer’s Valley when ZZS offers him an antidote to the Drug Man poison; we learn later that WKX, himself, is the one who came from the Healer’s Valley. When ZZS gets the Soul Winding Box open and finds a piece of the Glazed Armor inside (Danyang’s, taken off of Ao Laizi by Ghost Valley before he was hung at the gate of Sanbai Manor), he gives it to WKX, tells him to throw it away if he doesn’t want it. WKX says he couldn’t possibly, and that he’ll wear it because it’s his first gift from A-Xu. Compare this to the way Xie’er will wear Awful Yifu’s Glazed Armor around his neck. We also see some of the thematic and referential stuff come up in conversations that form a repeated pattern in this ep of ZZS stressing what a bad and dangerous person he is: He scoffs at the idea he’s from Healer’s Valley, and asks if he looks like someone who practices medicine; WKX responds that he looked like a professional killer (true) who was cruel in the abandoned temple (presumably while escaping Mirror Lake) and frightening to a kind-hearted man like WKX who can’t even kill a chicken (particularly amusing given the prep for New Year’s dinner in a later ep, when WKX is the only one who CAN). At the lakeside and again after ZZS hightails it away from Sanbai Manor when they spot Han Ying there (HAN YING, my beloved), WKX asks if ZZS is a fugitive, what he’s hiding from, and says that he’ll protect him – by reason, because would he kill anyone unreasonably (omg, where to even begin? How many guys have you choked out at this point)? When they’re arguing about ZZS revealing his “true” face, ZZS warns that most people who’ve seen his real appearance are dead (probably true). WKX says he’s not afraid of death (not his own, at least, we’ll see that the thing he’s afraid of is ZZS’s death). ZZS warns WKX that he’s not only sharp-tongued, he’s ruthless (true). He tells WKX that he’s murdered many people (true) and set them on fire (not unlikely, frankly) and committed many crimes (true, in a way, although they were state-sanctioned, making them legal, if morally reprehensible). This is the ZZS who put the Nails in himself, who talks to himself about what a truly awful shixiong he is, who tells Prince Jin that he’s only good as a weapon. I like how we see this at the same time that we’re starting to see the side of him that’ll preen when someone thinks he’s pretty - this is a process, and it’s subtle, not as high-drama as WKX’s, but it’s there, nonetheless.

We also formally meet Xie Wang in this ep, artfully posed and playing his pipa among the bodies – old and new – of Zhao Coffin Home. He and Changing Ghost have a bit of a slapfight over whose fault it is that Imposter Hanged Ghost, who was actually Long-Tongued Ghost, got killed and got his (Danyang’s) Glazed Armor took by WKX, when Changing Ghost stole it from Ao Laizi, put it in the Soul Winding Box and gave it to Long-Tongued Ghost specifically to deliver it to Xie Wang. Xie Wang is super cool through all of this, and I think we get a sense of how deadly he is by the way Changing Ghost backs down. So, here’s what’s falling together: Some iteration of Ghost Valley is working with Xie Wang and the Scorpion Sect, giving the Scorpions access to the Soul Winding Threads, which we saw used at the Mirror Lake massacre and in the woods outside of Sanbai Manor to kill Yu Tianjie in the last ep. Via Xie Wang, Ghost Vally has access to use of the Drug Men, which we’ve seen at the Zhao Coffin Home (so far), although we haven’t yet been told (I think) how Xie Wang got access to the potions to create Drug Men (we also know ZZS read about Drug Men in a book somewhere, and got enough info to engineer an antidote to them). Xie Wang and the Scorpions have access to Drunk Like a Dream incense, which had to come from Prince Jin’s court, having been engineered by ZZS based on a much stronger formulation. Han Ying, from Tian Chuang in Prince Jin’s court, has been seen at Sanbai Manor, Zhao Jing’s place.

Meanwhile Chengling is doing poorly, with no appetite and getting bellowed at some more by Shen Shen, who would be the worst if only I didn’t know everything I know, which makes me cringe when Zhao Jing refers to Chengling as “my son, now.” NO. RUN, Goldbean. For some more thematic and referential stuff in this ep, WKX calls Chengling a “lonely chick with no one to rely on” and tsks over the fact that he’s “surrounded by hounds smarter than foxes” now that he’s under the care of the Five Lakes Alliance. This is clearly to manipulate ZZS into thinking Chengling is better off with ZZS, but it also sounds like an awfully apt description of Zhen Yan in Ghost Valley. I’m just sayin’.

[mermaidsirennikita]

What was the Hello, Stranger controversy?

Hello, Stranger (or as I just found out despite owning this book in paperback, "Hello Stranger", comma is needed imo) is a Ravenels book that I honestly think is my least favorite Kleypas book I've read... which sucks! Because the heroine has an amazing name! (Garrett Gibson. God I love it. If I had a daughter I'd name her Garrett, but if I play my cards right my womb will be forever empty, so we've gotta just not do that.)

Anyway, Garrett falls in love with Ethan Ransom (another fun name, but honestly, this being a Ravenels book was soooo tangential... *SPOILER ALERT* he is a Ravenel bastard--I forget if he was West and Devon's brother or cousin, it seriously didn't check for me) who is a detective. I'll be frank. If this book was *better* I don't know if people would've clocked the issue as much. Which isn't right. But I know the romance community. They're clocking shit faster than they used to, but I think the combo of this being Lisa Kleypas and this being a weak Lisa Kleypas is what got it called out.

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books published this review which basically sums the issue up. Ethan talks to Garrett about an Indian woman he fucked while he was training to be a spy. She was a woman from Calcutta that taught him about sex and desire ("Kama".... I don't think he actually says AND THEN WE READ THE KAMA SUTRA, but anyone read this would think of it when "Kama" is mentioned) and allll the sexy shit that Exotic Women know. It's gross. It's flippant. It's dumb as shit.

Lisa then apologized publicly and pretty quickly that passage was erased from all digital copies of the book. I happen to own a (secondhand) paperback of the book that still has that scene, but from what I understand all subsequent printings have deleted it as well.

Since then (I mean, I think it's since then?) Lisa has made an effort to edit a lot of her older works. Most notably, It Happened One Autumn, which does have a scene that, yes, is genuinely problematic--but tbh, I blame her a lot less for that than I do the Hello, Stranger thing. In part because of how romance functions, and in part because of how long ago the book was published compared to Stranger--Stranger was a 2018 release while It Happened One Autumn is a 2005 release. As much as people want to pretend that we hit 2000 and everyone knew what was right and wrong in terms of sexual mores... I was 10/11 in 2005. That's not how I remember it. So Lillian getting blackout drunk and a sober Westcliff having sex with her and her being like "weeee, what a fun dream, oops it was real, oh well"... and neither Lisa nor the editor, both of whom were presumably women my mom's age clocking that as rape? Tracks. Personally, I enjoy the scene as is--I know what it is, and I'm not saying it's morally correct or anything we should do in real life, but I enjoy it as a flawed, dated piece of literature. I also think people should be able to access both the original text and the corrected version. However, Lisa and her publisher have basically been attempting to delete this kind of content--and the scene in Secrets of Summer Night when Simon kisses Annabelle without asking (just kisses!) in the dark. She has no question of who is kissing her lol. It's not a crazy scene. Similarly, the scene where Kev "kidnaps" Win as a sort of marriage ritual thing (she's totally into it) in Seduce Me At Sunrise has been edited.

What I find interesting is that all of this sexual content has been edited... But I have yet to hear anything about the problematic, fetishizing shit surrounding Cam and Kev as heroes in The Hathaways being edited. I wouldn't know--I own paperbacks of their books, and I haven't been able to read more recent paperbacks or digital copies. I actually think that Mine Till Midnight and Seduce Me At Sunrise (especially Sunrise) are, aside from that fetishistic shit, super strong romances. Like, I won't lie about that. So idk. Why hasn't that been discussed?

To me... Idk, I think that romance as a genre has a wide range of sexual content, and it should, because the genre deals with the romantic and sexual fantasies of readers, which are WIDE RANGING. I think that dark romance should be allowed to exist, and if people want to read out their rape fantasies in a safe space, then have the fuck at it. I think that I should be able to read The Fires of Winter by Johanna Lindsey, in which the hero repeatedly rapes the heroine, and say "yeah, this is bad, but it's also a part of the sexual history of the genre and I do enjoy this book".

In terms of race, the genre has a whole other thing to reckon with, and imo the power dynamics of the genre being one that has been dominated by white women for decades make it different. We as women can pick and choose what we are comfortable with in terms of the sexual content of this genre, whereas people (primarily women) of color have not been able to safely read it, for the most part. So I'd like to see people like Lisa Kleypas reckon more with things like the Hello Stranger controversy, versus people complaining about a scene in It Happened One Autumn that sure, is now recognized as problematic, but at the time was very *normal*. I honestly don't really blame her for writing that scene in 2005--there are plenty of authors that write that shit today, and the only difference is that they slap on a TW for dubcon or noncon (I'm very pro trigger warnings in romance). Her writing the fetishistic shit in the Hathaways and Hello Stranger... is a different issue. And that's what I'd like to see the whoooooole genre focus on. I honestly feel like (my fellow) white people in romance focus so hard on what is "problematic" in terms of sexual content ("I don't like dubcon! I don't like dom daddies!") that they totally gloss over the shit that is done to make authors and readers of color feel fetishized and alienated on a daily basis in the genre. And then they beat the drum and go "romance is so maligned" lmao.

[worstjourney]

Interpretation and Criticism

Well, polar history was already full of drama when I got into it, and I’ve since lost a friend over my calling Scott ‘complicated,’ so as far as preparation for criticism goes, I am at least aware that it’s going to be inevitable.

I do find it oddly sweet of you, though, to think I would undertake to pour years of my life into a graphic novel series without researching the heck out of my favourite subject.  I moved to Cambridge for the sole purpose of being closer to the archives.  It was only a pressing fear of mortality that got me to stop  researching and actually buckle down to making the book.

As my own project is yet to hit the public, I haven’t got nearly the onslaught of criticism that I probably will, but the little that has come my way more often shows up how little reading the critic has done themselves.  So, as to your examples... 

Cherry’s description of Scott in Worst Journey was, in fact, considered so unflattering by Kathleen that it effectively ended their friendship, and she commissioned Stephen Gwynn to write a hagiography to counter it.  (This has turned out to be a very valuable document in that it reproduces a large amount of correspondence which, ironically, gives a less varnished view of both Scott and Kathleen than she probably intended, though Gwynn’s narration is almost comically obsequious.)  In our era of celebrity exposés and commodified scandal, the subversiveness of Cherry’s account is not as apparent as it would have been in a culture which still deified its heroes.  Compared to latter-day character assassinations, it’s quite mild ... but he paints a picture of an anxious, irritable, sensitive man who holds his contradictions and weaknesses in check, and achieves what he does, thanks to straining hoops of self-control: hardly a portrait of an Edwardian demigod.  Kathleen didn’t want it to see print.  Cherry put his truth above their friendship and pushed it through anyway.  (See Sara Wheeler’s excellent biography Cherry for more on this, and Francis Spufford’s foreword to the Folio Society edition of Worst Journey for the contemporary cultural context.)

As for Birdie, I had heard so much about his racism and misogyny that I approached his archive with some trepidation: how much respect for him was I going to lose?  But to my great surprise, I found far more to contradict this reputation than to confirm it.  The ‘hella racist’ appraisal seems to come from one line in a letter he wrote home to his sisters from Burma which, taken out of context, is, yes, hella racist.  But the larger context of the letter is not: He met a fellow British officer who had married a Burmese lady, and their young daughter was the brightest, prettiest, charmingest little girl one could hope to meet.  Birdie laments that, despite all these advantages, she would never be given a fair chance if she went back to England, simply because of her mixed heritage.  So his gratitude that their father had married an English missionary in Burma rather than one of the locals – the line always trotted out to show what a shrieking racist Birdie was – is couched in the observation of his and his sisters’ white privilege a fundamentally racist Empire.

As for his misogyny, I haven’t seen any of that, either.  His father died when Birdie was quite young, so he was raised by a very strong-willed and independent single mother, with two capable and intelligent older sisters, and he was devoted to all three.  He never talks down to them or assumes them incapable of handling the adventures he writes home about; in fact his letters are littered with expressions of respect for their ability to understand and engage with both his exploits and his abstractions.  As for other women, he seemed to prefer them to have a brain and be up for a lark – he seems especially fond of Australian and New Zealand ladies, who were comparatively liberated by Edwardian standards.

He does, however, come down pretty hard on Kathleen.  He resents her over-familiarity, and he accuses her of being a ‘schemer’ – which, if you read the Gwynn, you can see in her for yourself. Probable fuel for his dislike of Kathleen is left out of his own letters but recorded by Ponting in The Great White South: when the Terra Nova arrived in Lyttelton, Kathleen took over the job of unloading, cataloguing, and reloading the stores.  That was Birdie’s job, and he was very good at it – so good that Scott had just invited him to join the landing party, when he was previously engaged to stay with the ship – so being booted off it, at this critical moment, was mud in his eye.  There was very specific, personal baggage with Kathleen, but his lines about her have been presented as evidence that he hated women generally.  He had no problem with women, he just didn’t like Kathleen! (And he wasn’t the only one!)

Now, this isn’t to say there wasn’t racism and misogyny amongst members of the expedition – though being all white men in a mostly uninhabited continent, this rarely has any bearing on the story – and of course everyone has their faults and failings.  That’s what makes them interesting!  What first attracted me to this story was the people, and what’s kept me passionate about it is the people.  I want my readers to get to know them as people, with all their highlights and shadows, and a great deal of my research has been in making sure I have as comprehensive a picture of them as I can, in order to present them on their own terms and leave judgment up to the reader.  There has been more than enough authorial judgment cast on these guys over the years, and I have no interest in throwing my hat into that ring.  I find complicated people far more engaging and endearing than cardboard cutouts, and I hope that I can present them as such.  Of course everyone is going to have their own interpretation of the facts – that is unavoidable on account of the subjective nature of humanity – but I am trying to step out of the frame as much as I can, and let them speak for themselves.

[linkedsoul]

Goodbye 2020

Bye bye 2020!!

2020 has been a cursed year for everyone, and I want to say to everyone reading this: you survived it. You survived freaking 2020. You’re a fucking superhero. Have a big (virtual) hug, and if anyone ever calls you weak, I’ll punch them in the face. I’m GLAD you’re still alive to see if 2021 is less cursed than it’s predecessor. Hang in there, hero: you’re doing your best and I’m so fucking proud of you.

It was a.. very peculiar year for me. Between seeing my mental health collapsing, being brutally repatriated from Korea to France, starting what’s probably my most stressful university years (due to both struggling to find an apartment around it and the administration and exams... ugh) AND everything that’s been happening internationally, I can say this year has been tough, mentally. And I probably had it way easier than a lot of people! 

Creatively, once I managed to extract myself from a months-long, depression-induced creative slump, I think I never wrote that much in one year, both SoQ and other projects alike. I think I have to thank my wonderful writing friends for helping me boost my creativity to the max. And for helping me learn how to plot. (And I also wanna thank my roommate for being a good bean and acting as my rubber duck and telling me when something I came up with was very stupid. Mwah mwah.)

I also have to thank my Patrons, and everyone here who follows me on tumblr, because wow you guys I wouldn’t have come that far without you. I have good news: the first draft of SoQ is finished. I’ll keep posting the chapters on Patreon as usual, BUT I TOOK SOME DAMN LEAD, and all 30 chapters have been drafted (plus one bonus chapter that no one, not even me, was expecting). I’m currently editing all those chapter written at 3 a.m *looks at chapter 30* (there’s a lot of yearning. a lot.)

I wanted to have it done by summer but I had it all done by winter instead. It’s over 200k words. (I’ve loved writing it, but damn, I’m not writing THAT much words again for a first draft.) I’m also going to have to edit all that and cut at least half of it to make it digestible and rework things to have more plot and more action and-- yeah it’s going to be a lot of work to get a final draft, but I grew as a writer and I learnt how to plot better, so I think I’ll get there. (Though, my roommate kindly suggested that I print it as an A4 book with font size 9. A special first-draft-stick-close-to-the-oneshot version maybe?)

The other good news is that I’ve more or less plotted the sequel (and I’m also going to be able to announce what the title of Lasair’s story is, because technically Stories of Qelt refers to all the works taking place in Qelt hehe) so I’ll be able to get to writing it in the following month and, after maybe a short break, start posting it too on Patreon. When I tell you I learnt plotting!

MY RESOLUTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR:

- be more active on this blog. You guys deserve more content and interactions.

- try and find more rewards for my Patrons, probably reduce the price for the Alchemist tier.

- write the sequel of Lasair’s story. NOT MAKE THE FIRST DRAFT 200K WORDS LONG. NOT AGAIN.

- plot Seanchai’s story. 

- complete other WIPs *wink wink*

- stay alive

Congrats to anyone who managed to reach the end of that rant, I’m smooching you from afar. I’m looking forward to this new year, and hopefully it’ll be better than the previous one. I love you all, take care of yourselves!

See you next year! ;D <3

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

Wonder Woman 1984

The first 3/4 of 2017’s Wonder Woman was my favorite film of that year. The last 1/4 was my least favorite film of that year. What can I say, I have a complicated relationship with the DCEU, and the part I keep getting disappointed by is the big smash-em-up, explosions everywhere, muddy mess of orange/blue filter in the “climactic showdown” between hero and villain. I just don’t have the patience for it anymore, and I was so hoping that the Jazzercise vibes of Wonder Woman 1984 would do something different. 

As it turns out, this movie was trying to warn me like so many stories that have come before - be careful what you wish for. Just how badly did my wish go bad? Well...

I’d already heard some questionable things about the movie before I tuned in, so my expectations were tempered but I guess it was on me. I should have known better than to wish for a story with reasonable pacing, some kind of consistent tone, villains with discernable motivation, or a Wonder Woman movie that was actually about fucking Wonder Woman. I’m not even mad as much as I am puzzled. That and tormented by Pedro Pascal’s manic televangelist energy in my dreams. 

Some thoughts:

I have never wanted to go anywhere as much as I want to in 2020, and the place I want to go more than any other is Themyscira. Love this first sequence. Why is the whole movie not about Themyscira??

If the Olympics were like this whole long Amazonian warrior triathlon, I would be WAY more into track and field. 

Also I legit don’t understand the problem with her taking the short path? Like, it’s there for a reason? She just caught up to her horse? Someone explain this to me.

So this mall...basically the hub of American commerce in the 80s that was practically printing money, it made it so fast...is secretly a front for antiquities trading on the black market? And these unorganized-ass dipshit criminals who seemingly just walked in off the street and decided to engage in some light robbery today are after antiquities? Sure, Jan.

Ohh I miss Waldenbooks so much!

This thwarting of crime sequence in the mall feels so...cheesy. Schlocky, almost. Like a 50s comic book come to life. I dunno, it just doesn’t feel like the tone I was expecting. In the context of the whole film, we really blew our action load in these first 2 sequences, and also this is the last point in the movie in which Diana actually resembles her character from the first film.

I would also be stammery and blushy when talking to Diana Prince for the first (and second) time, but I’m kinda getting a gay vibe from Barbara. This meet-cute + date is definitely playing up romantic vibes. Kristen Wiig is so good at characters like these - in less than 2 scenes, I have such a clear picture of who Barbara is, what she wants, what she fears, and that’s all down to Wiig’s choices. [ETA: This makes it all the more infuriating when Barbara suddenly is like “I want to be an apex predator” when nothing about her character’s reaction to getting positive attention indicates she would want to start shitting all over everyone else.]

Pedro Pascal is skeeving me out as our villain Max Lord, which really just shows his range, because normally I love him and find him wildly charming in everything. But he’s playing this oil baron creep to the max, as they would say in the parlance of the 80s, and it makes my skin crawl. 

The mechanics of how Steve Trevor returns are wildly confusing. Why is this other guy involved at all? Are we supposed to be ok with the idea of Diana fucking *some other dude’s body* without his consent just because Steve’s spirit/consciousness/whatever is inside the guy? Also that guy DEFINITELY got fired from his job after going AWOL for a whole week, right? 

I am thrilled with Steve’s clothes montage. One of my favorite things in any 80s film, and his enthusiasm really sells it.

I do really like Diana and Steve playing detective, following clues, crafting theories. In spite of the absolute dumbassery of how Steve came back, Chris Pine and Gal Gadot have incredible chemistry and I do find their scenes together delightful. 

I think that’s why it’s so frustrating to me the way their entire relationship was handled. If the whole point of the wish going bad is that it has a cost, wouldn’t it have been better, instead of making Diana weak, to have Steve slowly start to be more and more of an asshole - aka not the Steve Diana remembered and loved? Make her realize that the Steve she knew and loved is really gone and she has to stop letting his memory hold her hostage. Maybe his last moment of self-awareness would be realizing that this wasn’t who he really was, and she was better off just remembering who he was and moving on rather than trying to hold on to this thing that isn’t good for her? 

The sequence with the fireworks made me emotional. The only time I’ve ever been on a plane on the 4th of July was when I was coming back from a visit with my uncle in Dallas. He had flown me, my mom, and my grandma down for a whirlwind trip, and we flew back the night of the 4th. I got to see fireworks from above for the first time, and it felt so magical. My uncle passed away 2 months ago, and feeling that magic again (via Diana and Steve) made me miss him and all the adventure he brought into my life something fierce.

Am I supposed to be like...anti- the idea of Barbara absolutely kicking the shit out of this drunk catcaller who attempted to assault her earlier in the movie? It feels like the film wants us to be like “oh no that’s bad” but my empathy goes on vacation for attempted rapists. 

Like...did anyone do ANY kind of fact-checking on this script? The Maya haven’t been “wiped from the face of the earth” there are still 6 million of them living in Central and South America. Escalators were invented in the 1890s for fucks’ sake. PLANES IN THE 80S DONT WORK LIKE PLANES IN 1918. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT ALL THOSE SWITCHES DO STEVE. Also...just because the plane is invisible doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist anymore. Isn’t the whole point of radar to detect things that you can’t, y’know, SEE? Seriously, how many people fiddled with this script until it turned into an incomprehensible mess?

Did I Cry? OK yeah, I did when Diana and Steve had their conversation after they escaped the White House. But I feel like I should have cried more then, as well as earlier when Diana tells Steve that she only wants this one thing. I love Gal Gadot in this role, but I do wish her acting expressed a little more emotional depth and honesty for the moments like this that should really tug on the heartstrings.

I know Wonder Woman is bulletproof, but are we saying she’s also...immune to electricity? 

If there’s one thing that living through a global pandemic has taught me, it’s that we can’t rely on the inherent responsibility of every individual person to do the right thing in order to save their community (or the world). So the climax of this film really feels like a big ol’ fictional FUCK YOU to every person who has been quarantining since March as the US government twiddles their thumbs and relies on personal choice to lower infection rates. I know they made this film during 2019 and had no idea what would be coming, but this entire sequence was the most horrifying, short-sighted, offensive way to have good overcome evil I could imagine for a 2020 movie. “Just count on people to do the right thing and everything will be fine!” We’re WELL FUCKING PAST THAT, Diana. 

And maybe this is my debbie downer pessimistic ass, but the message “the world is a beautiful place the way it was” feels like some real bullshit. Do you mean the world is a flawed, complicated place where beautiful things exist DESPITE all the violence, inequality, and poverty? Ok, that I’ll buy, for sure. But “Everything was fine the way it was!” is uhh not what I would have gone with. That’s a first draft edit if ever I heard one. Seriously, how did this make it through MULTIPLE studio drafts and no one thought to point this out?  

I literally had to go back after the credits were over and rewind to figure out what happened to Pedro Pascal at the end. If I not only don’t care, but also can’t remember what happened to the villain at the end of the movie, that’s a big motherfucking problem.

I was giddily delighted by that first post-credits scene though! Probably the biggest moment of joy I felt during the film.

For being a Wonder Woman movie, it feels like there’s so little actual Wonder Woman IN the movie. The first film is rooted firmly in Diana finding her place in the world, understanding and coming into her power. This feels like she’s a bystander in her own life, and her most significant moments are always in the context of someone else’s narrative arc. And there’s nothing that comes even close to the breathless wonder of that No-Man’s-Land scene, aka one of the best superhero movie moments of all time. 

This doesn’t have the knowing wink of Aquaman or the nuanced character arcs of Birds of Prey. It doesn’t have the childish glee of Shazam! or any of the nonsensical grimdark bullshit of Zack Snyder’s entire ouvre. It feels like Wonder Woman 1984 suffers the same fate as its protagonist - a profound lack of presence or drive. Sure there are some fun sequences, and the actors are doing the best they can with a weak script, but it’s just not enough to save it. In a year where I saw so few contemporary films (focusing more on catching up on past films I’d missed), I can’t think of one that disappointed me more. 

[aion-rsa]

Money Heist: What to Know About the International TV Phenomenon

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If you haven’t tuned into Money Heist yet, you’ve been missing one of the hottest series on Netflix right now. It’s sexy, absurdist fun, an action soap opera like no other, so addictively bingeable that it has stolen the hearts of a worldwide audience. But it’s more than escapist fare. Money Heist has also become a rallying cry of resistance that is changing the world. 

It almost didn’t happen. Netflix picked up Money Heist entirely by chance. If they hadn’t, the original series might have easily vanished into obscurity for English-speaking audiences. Once Netflix got it, it blew up and became their most watched non-English series.

Money Heist was originally broadcast on Spain’s Antena 3 channel in 2017 under its native title La Casa de Papel (The House of Paper). The first season was 15 episodes, told in two parts. The initial part garnered a healthy 45 million viewers but viewership plummeted when the second part was broadcast. With only half the audience remaining and the story complete, the show seemed at its end. Netflix acquired the series as part of an international catalog of titles, re-edited it into 22 shorter episodes, re-released it internationally later that year. The streamer didn’t even bother to promote it when they added to their queue. Nevertheless, it found a huge audience outside of Spain and viewership skyrocketed.

Season 1 is about a meticulously planned heist of the Royal Mint of Spain. The Professor (Álvaro Morte) is a criminal mastermind who assembles a gang of thieves. Each thief adopts the name of a city to conceal their true identities from each other, akin to the robbers in Reservoir Dogs. The story is told from the perspective of Tokyo (Úrsula Corberó), a brazen spitfire femme fatale who steals every scene she’s in. The thieves capture the Mint, taking dozens of hostages. Their plan is to print millions in unmarked bills. Meanwhile, the Professor plays a cat-and-mouse game with Inspector Murillo (Itziar Ituño) who is hot on his trail. 

Don’t Fall in Love During a Heist

Through Tokyo’s narration and copious flashbacks to the planning of the crime, Money Heist tells a gripping story of the ultimate anti-heroes. As tensions mount, the gang is at one another’s throats while navigating the Professor’s deceptive instructions. The Mint is surrounded by cops and time is running out. Gratuitous shots of ticking clocks increase the pressure, the same device deployed by original Mission: Impossible TV series to heighten suspense. Stockholm syndrome takes hold as the hostages fall for their captors. In classic Money Heist style, the main hostage who joins the gang adopts the name “Stockholm (Esther Acebo)”. The Professor and the Inspector engage in a deliciously dysfunctional romance. It’s all exceedingly sexy with the beautiful actors often scantily clad, and has a subversively sharp sense of humor. 

Despite its ludicrousness, Money Heist is so addictive in many ways. First off, it masters the cliffhanger. The suspense is relentlessly palpable and no matter how ridiculous some of the deus ex machina resolutions are, they’re still great fun to watch. Just like Game of Thrones, this show is merciless. Beloved main characters die in shockingly poignant death scenes. This keeps the suspense very real. You never know if your favorite character is going to make it. Of the seven thieves that enter the Mint with Tokyo – Berlin (Pedro Alonso), Denver (Jaime Lorente), Helsinki (Darko Perić), Moscow (Paco Tous), Nairobi (Alba Flores), Oslo (Roberto Garcia Ruiz) and Rio (Miguel Herrán) – three don’t make it out. 

Secondly, it’s about those characters. The ensemble cast delivers great performances across the board. Every role is rich, complex, and well-developed. Everyone has his or her strengths, weaknesses, and back stories and their emotional journeys resonate deeply. No one is entirely innocent. You can’t help yourself from rooting for them, even the villains. 

And third, Money Heist has style. Its passionate soundtrack has captured the ears of the world. The use of color, particularly red against darkly composed frames, is exquisitely captivating. Money Heist is a thrilling roller coaster ride that just has to be experienced. 

Enjoy It Until the Party is Over

The global following shocked the cast and crew. After season 1 wrapped, the show seemed finished. As the cast watched their social media following grow exponentially (an experience catalogued in Netflix’s documentary, Money Heist: The Phenomenon), they knew something was up. By 2018, Money Heist garnered several nominations and wins across the European awards circuit and even won the coveted Best Drama Series at the 46th International Emmys.

Consequently, Netflix reassembled the cast and crew for a second season, this time with a much bigger budget. Even though season 1 was self-contained, the show’s creator Álex Pina dreamed up a second season, one that was on a much grander scale, thanks to Netflix’s backing.

The second heist is in four parts. That may sound confusing because the upcoming season 5 will be split into two parts as well. Season 5 is actually parts 3 and 4 of the second heist story arc. “Heist 2” is already 16 episodes deep and it’s only the halfway point. 

For the second heist, the gang must reassemble to rescue one of their own after Tokyo makes another grievous mistake. And that rescue hinges upon robbing the Bank of Spain. New gang members join the survivors of the first robbery, and another more ruthless adversary, the pregnant Inspector Sierra (Najwa Nimri). Sierra is a more ruthless opponent than Murillo was for the first heist. When it comes to the Professor’s psychological chess game, Sierra flips the chess board upside down. Season 3 (Part 1 of the Bank of Spain heist) debuted exclusively on Netflix in the summer of 2019. Season 4 (Part 2) was released almost a year later in April 2020, and it was seen by 65 million households. That’s a million more viewers than watched Tiger King when it ran around the same time. 

Realizing they had a bankable hit, Netflix released Money Heist: The Phenomenon. The documentary showcases the astonishment of the cast and crew as they navigate their new found popularity from a show they thought was done. A season 2 opening scene, filmed in front of the historic Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral in Florence, Italy, was almost ruined when rabid fans rushed the crew. However, do not watch Money Heist: The Phenomenon before seeing the show because it drops some major spoilers. 

We Are Dali

To hide their identities, the gang wears masks based on the famous Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali, replete with a red hooded jumpsuit. They force their hostages to wear the same costume to confuse the police. This Dali mask has become a new symbol of international rebellion, supplanting the Guy Fawkes mask from V for Vendetta on a global scale. Beyond Comic-Con cosplaying, the Dali mask has been appearing on protestors and in effigies around the world. Footage from these real life demonstrations appear in the show. 

Money Heist has had a profound effect on international football (“soccer” for we Yanks). Massive displays of Dali mask banners appeared at Saudi Arabia soccer stadiums. At the Karaiskaki Stadium, Greek soccer fans unfurled a huge Dali banner too. After their team won, they rushed the field wearing Money Heist costumes. Brazilian soccer superstar Neymar de Silva even makes a cameo in season 3 as a monk who wryly comments about his disdain for soccer. Silva claims Money Heist is his favorite show.  

There were even real life copycat heists. France fell victim to a shop hold-up and a hotel robbery where the perpetrators wore Dali masks. A 2019 daylight heist of the Mexican Mint was thought to have been inspired by the show. Perhaps the best one was when Justin Bieber’s five-billion-view music video ‘Despacito’ was hacked on YouTube. The hackers replaced it with an image of Money Heist in full Dali regalia with guns pointing out, accompanied by a call to ‘Free Palestine.’ 

Consequently, there has been some backlash. Cyprus banned Dali costumes for Carnival. Turkish journalists and politicians have admonished the show, describing it as rebel propaganda. The Professor describes it best in season 3. “The mask has become a symbol throughout the world of resistance, of indignations, of skepticism. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that it has inspired many people.” 

Ironically, Money Heist pilfered Dali’s image. The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation never gave the show its blessing for the use of the artist’s likeness. There’s no doubt that Dali is spinning in his grave for not getting paid royalties, but he must appreciate the surrealism here. 

Bella Ciao!

Beyond the now iconic Dali mask, Money Heist also revived a rebel ballad, the Italian protest song Bella Ciao. Bella Ciao means ‘Goodbye Beautiful’ and it was the anthem of anti-fascists of the Italian Resistance during WWII. Originally about toiling in rice fields under an oppressive boss, the lyrics evolved to describe the Resistance’s commitment to the cause with their lives. When translated from Italian, the lyrics end with “This is the flower of the partisan who died for freedom.” 

The Professor’s grandfather fought in the Italian resistance so he sings it with Berlin, his older brother, and teaches it to the gang. The song is frequently reprised throughout the series, most tellingly during the season 1 part 1 finale end credits. A montage of black-and-white footage decrying the evils of money fades to red as Bella Ciao plays.

Since Money Heist, over a dozen new versions of Bella Ciao have climbed the charts across Europe, with the Professor’s rendition placing first in Austria, second in Germany, and in the top twenty in Belgium, France, and Switzerland. It’s been covered by several EDM DJs like Steve Aoki and Hardwell. Bella Ciao has become a common chant at soccer matches, and was heard at the 2019 World Cup. When Open Arms rescued a boatload of fleeing immigrants docked in Lampedusa, the refugees sang Bella Ciao to celebrate their newfound freedom. 

The Last Times are Beyond Comparison

What might the finale hold? When we last left the gang, they were reunited in the Bank of Spain and determined to win ‘the war’ in honor of their latest fallen comrade. But Inspector Sierra got the drop on the Professor. With a gun to his head, she declared “Checkmate, son of a bitch.” Anyone who knows the show understands that it is volatile and unpredictable so it’s anyone’s guess what happens next. 

It’s clear that this is the end. When production wrapped on May 14th, Netflix tweeted “Thank you to all the fans for being part of La Resistencia! We can’t wait to show you how this story ends.”  However, Netflix is never one to kill a goose that lays golden eggs. 

Money Heist creator Álex Pina already launched another Netflix series, Sky Rojo. Season 1 premiered back in March 2021 and season 2 is slated for July. It’s the story of three women on the run, somewhat reminiscent of Thelma and Louise, only the threesome are prostitutes. It’s stylish and sexy, and received some critical acclaim. But it has nowhere near the impact of Money Heist. 

A Korean adaptation of Money Heist is in the works with Kim Hong-sun directing. Cast as the Professor is Yoo Ji Tae, who is most remembered for his mastermind role in Oldboy, and also had a part in a Korean TV adaptation of The Good Wife. Playing Tokyo will be Jeon Jong Seo, aka Rachel Jun, a newcomer with two feature films under her belt. 

This summer, an immersive event “Money Heist: The Experience” is set to tour London, Miami, Mexico City, New York, and Paris. Each city will get a different version of the experience, adapted to the venue, and the venues won’t be announced until just prior to the events open. This is another collaboration between Netflix and Fever, who previously staged “Stranger Things: The Drive Into Experience” in Los Angeles. 

Most of the cast of Money Heist were too engaged with filming the final season under pandemic restrictions to take on any new projects. The notable exception of Úrsula Corberó. Corberó is cast as the Baroness in the upcoming G.I. Joe Origins film, Snake Eyes. 

Money Heist held the title of Netflix’s most watched non-English series until a French show, ironically also about a heist, stole the crown. Lupin robbed Money Heist of the title in January 2021 racking up 76 million views. Lupin Part 2 debuted on June 11. When Money Heist returns, will it steal back Netflix’s most watched non-English series crown? Hopefully so. For Nairobi!

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Money Heist, Parts 1-4, are available on Netflix now. Season 5 Volume 1 debuts on September 3, Volume 2 arrives on December 3, 2021. 

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