#with whom we very much love each other and can be Weird and Unhinged together and have fun adventures
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Anyway happy Pride Month to my favorite type of character which I call "might be asexual, aromantic, gay, or a combination thereoff, but it doesn't really matter, because it is very clear that he does NOT like women and his life partner is a man, so clearly One Of Us."
#look there is a Reason why I imprinted so heavily on both of these#like yeah very fun characters very fun stories and everything#very fun ships also#Relationship Goals#true OTP material#BUT ALSO#part of me just CAN RELATE REALLY HARD#I too wish that I had a same-gender life partner with whom I just got magically stuck one day without having to put in too much of an effor#with whom we very much love each other and can be Weird and Unhinged together and have fun adventures#queer headcanons#Sherlock Holmes#The Lone Ranger#aromantic#asexual#gay
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Poldarkâs Aidan Turner on playing Leonardo da Vinci
Ed Potton
Friday 2 April 2021
Aidan Turner takes on the role of Renaissance polymath LeonardoJUSTIN SUTCLIFFE/EYEVIN
Iâm trying to work out where Aidan Turner is Zooming from. Is it London, where he moved to in 2017 after his Ross Poldark became the drooled-over king of Sunday-night television? Dublin, where he grew up, trained as an actor and returned to spend the first lockdown with his parents? Or Rome, where he shot his new series, Leonardo, in which he plays a young Leonardo da Vinci?
âNone of the above!â Turner says. âIâm in Toronto.â The enigmatic charm, feline eyes and gleaming locks that he deployed so mercilessly in Poldark, The Hobbit films and Being Human are all there. âMy missus is working here,â he explains, and so is he. Thatâs the American actress Caitlin FitzGerald, his partner of three years, whom he met when they starred in the 2018 film The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot. At first I assume the âmissusâ is laddish affectation but it turns out that itâs official: Turner and FitzGerald, both 37, got married in secret in Italy in August after filming finished on Leonardo. You can almost hear the sighs of disappointment ripple around the world.
Turner wonât say any more â he is famously guarded about his personal life â but he looks insanely happy in the coupleâs rented apartment. FitzGerald â whose grandfather Desmond was a CIA agent and organised several plots to assassinate Fidel Castro â is shooting a series, Station Eleven, in Toronto while her husband works on another project that heâs not allowed to talk about. In their downtime theyâve been watching Iâll Be Gone in the Dark, an HBO documentary series about the Golden State Killer, and, on a lighter note, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles. They share the apartment with Charlie, an ebullient Norfolk terrier that Turner has to eject from the room halfway through our interview when he starts yapping. âIâm surprised he behaved for so long,â he says.
Eight-part series Leonardo has been criticised for warping historyPA
Like many of his fellow thesps, Turner has been doing a great deal of lockdown painting. âWe have a roof garden here and the light has been really good,â he says. âI probably shouldnât be saying this because I donât know if the landlord knows. Itâs not messy work anyway!â Unlike some of his peers â Iâm looking at you, Pierce Brosnan â he has yet to unleash his daubings on the world. How would he describe his style? âI struggle to say abstract, but I havenât quite figured out what it is yet.â Did it help with playing Leonardo? âI donât know. If you saw my paintings, youâd assume very much not,â Turner says. He has a studied line in self-effacement, honed after years of âsexiest man on TVâ questions.
Leonardo premiered in Italy last month and was watched by seven million, many of them doubtless keen to see Turner brooding in a succession of smocks. The eight-part series has been criticised for warping history, having the artist accused of murder and featuring an apparently fictional muse, Caterina da Cremona, played by Matilda De Angelis from The Undoing. Luca Bernabei, the chief executive of Lux Vide who produced the series, defended it stoutly. âMatilda De Angelisâs character did exist. She was a model Leonardo asked to paint,â he said. âWe have been really careful in our research. But this is not a documentary, we are not historians and this is not a university history lecture.â
And if the history pedants are spluttering, the art pedants should be happier â the series goes to considerable lengths to make the painting look authentic. Each episode is themed around a different masterpiece, from the portrait of Ginevra deâ Benci to The Last Supper to the Mona Lisa, and the candlelit cinematography is often sumptuous. Turnerâs research included a private view of a Leonardo exhibition. âI spent some time alone with the actual paintings, which was brilliant,â he says. âTheyâre just like high-definition photographs. I couldnât wrap my head around the fact that a human had done this.â
Aidan Turner attended an artistâs boot camp before filming startedVITTORIA FENATI MORACE
The series opens in Florence in the 1460s, with Leonardo a pupil of Verrocchio, played by the veteran Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini. Before the shoot Turner and his co-stars went on an artistsâ boot camp (brush camp?) supervised by professionals. He says the hardest part was learning to paint, as Leonardo did, with his left hand. He compares it to learning to ride a horse for Poldark, which he pretended he knew how to do before going on a crash course when he got the part.
Brushwork was the same, he says. âI realised I had to get good quite quickly and look like I knew what I was doing with my left hand, which is more difficult than you would think. Itâs keeping it steady â you find it just moves around a lot. Leonardo was very slow and precise â I think I got it down. After a few weeks you start picking up the brush with your left hand, it becomes natural.â
Leonardo was a vegetarian, Turner tells me, âand apparently later in life opened some sort of vegetarian restaurantâ. He was also gay, something that, despite reports, the series does not shy away from. Was this Turnerâs first time kissing a man on screen? He laughs. âOf all the things I was expecting you to ask next, that wasnât one of them! In a lot of ways it was just another love scene. The fact that the gender was different â that was never a thing. No, it felt right. It didnât feel any different at all. But yeah, to answer your question, that was the first time, which Iâd never really thought of until now.â
What did feel weird, he says, were the Covid protocols. âSuddenly people are wearing masks and shields and hazmat suits. We had a big sanitisation machine as we walked in that would spray us. You take off the mask when you shoot the scene and itâs a bit strange for a second. Then you realise itâs the first time youâve seen your co-starâs face that day. Itâs not conducive to a very creative environment, for sure. But we made it work and nobody got sick.â
With his wife, the American actress Caitlin FitzGeraldREX FEATURES
Turner spends a chunk of the first episode painting De Angelis, and both actors know what itâs like to be ogled. She has been asked endlessly about her naked locker-room sequence in The Undoing, just as he has been reminded of his shirtless scything scene in Poldark. Before that there was his lusted-after vampire in Being Human and his sexy dwarf in The Hobbit â branded a âdwilfâ in some quarters â although that âdefinitely wasnât the intentionâ, he says. âI think I just had less prosthetics on my face. My make-up call was 20 minutes and everyone else was sitting in the chair in the morning for three and a half hours. It wasnât good to be around the other dwarfs in the mornings, thatâs for sure.
âI get why people are interested,â he says of the ogling. âItâs just when it keeps coming up.â
We move on. According to a recent survey Cornwall has overtaken London as the most desirable place to live in Britain. Does he think Poldark played a part in that? He laughs. âMaybe we nudged a few people in the right direction. I think people forgot how beautiful that side of the world is. One of the first reviews of Poldark we read was like: âWe canât believe that this is our country, it looks like the south of France.ââ
Could Poldark return, and would Turner be in it? If they stuck to the chronology of Winston Grahamâs books they would have to leap ahead a few years. Maybe he could play an aged-up Ross Poldark in latex and fake paunch? âI donât know if Iâd be keen on the ageing-up thing,â he says. âIt never really works. I donât know whether they need to be too strict with that gap anyway. Thereâs the possibility someday, maybe. I enjoyed working with everybody on Poldark, from the writers right down to all the cast and crew. It really is like a family. So Iâd be open to chat about it. But not for a while.â
Turner with Eleanor Tomlinson in PoldarkMIKE HOGAN
Before that he will appear as the apostle Andrew in The Last Planet, the forthcoming biblical epic from Terrence Malick, revered creator ofThe Thin Red Line and The Tree of Life. Well, he doesnât know for sure if he will appear. Actors of the calibre of Rachel Weisz, Mickey Rourke and Jessica Chastain have seen their performances in Malick films vanish during editing.
âYou want whatâs best for the film. And if you donât fit into it, you donât fit into it,â Turner says in the tone of hair-shirt devotion that actors tend to use when talking about Malick. With a cast including Ben Kingsley and Mark Rylance as Satan, the movie is meant to tell the story of Jesus through a series of parables. Turner doesnât really have a clue, though.
âYou donât necessarily know what youâre signing up to. Youâre signing up to Terrence Malick,â he says. The director has âa great way of working. Everything is around âwhere is the sunâ at this particular time. Thatâs our natural light and itâs all we use. So things happen fast. Thereâs no trailers, hair, make-up, weâre just all together. You donât know from day to day what youâll be doing. Itâs quite renegade stuff. Thatâs the way I always wanted to work.â
Itâs closer to the immediacy of the theatre, which is where Turner started out. The son of an electrician, Pearse, and an accountant, Eileen, he represented Ireland at ballroom dancing before falling into acting. After studying at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin he acted in plays for five years and in 2018 he returned to the stage to rave reviews in Martin McDonaghâs The Lieutenant of Inishmore in the West End. Rave being the operative word â his performance was bracingly unhinged. âI canât wait to get back to the theatre,â he says. âThatâs what weâre looking at probably next.â
Turnerâs character in The Lieutenant of Inishmore was an Irish freedom fighter, but he is reluctant to talk about the prospect of Irish reunification (âSo I donât get shot when I get home,â he told one interviewer). Culture is safer ground, and his native country is going through a purple patch with Sally Rooney in literature, Fontaines DC in music and the likes of McDonagh, Jessie Buckley and Denise Gough in drama. âIt tends to happen in waves,â Turner says. âComing out of drama school, Colin Farrell was such a big thing. When these actors really make it you can feel some of their light begin to shine on the industry back home.â
Like Farrell, Turner is an international star, although it has mainly been in period roles: Poldark, Leonardo, Andrew and his breakout turn as the 19th-century poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the 2009 series Desperate Romantics. It must be something about the hair.
That could be about to change, though. Toronto often stands in for New York, which suggests that his current mystery project has a contemporary setting. Does he yearn to act in jeans? âYeah, youâre right,â he says with a laugh. âAfter Leonardo, I think tights and knee-length boots are out for a while.â Many would beg him to reconsider.
All episodes of Leonardo will be on Amazon from April 16
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/poldarks-aidan-turner-on-playing-leonardo-da-vinci-wnmqhxqxr
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nobody asked but here is every unraveled episode (as of may 2020) as how theyâd be as a lover | a 2.5k word long post written in the style of an unraveled about unraveled and also love
Ah. Unraveled. Polygonâs golden boy of a video series where Brian David Gilbert is beckoned into a suit, lured into a blackbox studio, and is only granted escape after he has explained to three cameras whatever batshit video game adjacent thesis he has been cursed with this time. Unraveled is a wonderful video series, and we all love it.
But what if it could love us?
If youâve ever asked this question to yourself, boy, do I have some content for you, because for the past 2 days, Iâve been working on this post where, for entirely too long, I explain to you how each Unraveled episode would be as a lover. And more importantly, which ones would be the best lovers.
Before I fall deep into this unhinged hole and take you down with me, I need to explain some things.
First: I want to make it clear that I am not categorizing BDG as he portrays himself in each Unraveled. I am instead taking each Unraveled episode as a fully formed being, the story, performance, etc, and letting that shape a character of its own. This character is where I extrapolate details from to create an Unraveled episodeâs qualities as a lover. What Iâm basically doing is anthropomorphizing Polygon dot com video content. And then making you date them. If this doesnât make sense, donât worry, it will as you read along. And if it helps you to visualize the Unraveled Episode As A Lover, I invite you to just imagine whomever it is you are most attracted to---or for those who donât experience attraction, whomever it is you find most aesthetically pleasing---and then just add in the wild personality traits I describe through the course of this post.
Second: I know what youâre thinking. âAvian, the characteristics of what makes a good lover is subjective!â And I wholeheartedly agree. Iâve been through college, and Iâve witnessed my friends whom I love so dearly enter relationships with some of the most wack ass motherfuckers Iâve ever met. I know that people are into different things. But do I judge them for it? Well, kinda, yeah! Yes, what we want in a lover is subjective, but Iâve consumed a metric fuckton of romance media over the course of my life and am also in a wonderful relationship with my own girlfriend, and thus have my own personal idealized ranking for what makes a good lover. Feel free to disagree with my rankings of Unraveled Lovers, but also, Iâm writing this post. I say this with as much love as I possibly can, but if you disagree with me, make your own post. If you donât wanna make your own post, youâre just going to have to trust me for 2.1k more words.
With that out of the way, let me take you on a journey through the 23 Unraveled Lovers, from worst to best.
BAD TIER: I would probably advise you to break up with these Unraveled Lovers as soon as you are emotionally capable of doing so.
Hoo boy, weâre starting at the bottom. The perfectionists, the nitpickers, the emotionally unavailables. These Unraveled Lovers would have good intentions, but just have aspects within their personality that will wear you and your relationship together down until both of you can no longer take it.
âRanking all 200+ Megaman robotsâ is a lover obsessed with the concept of âis this worth it?â They would unknowingly but inevitably rank parts of your own personality on a scale of âworth the trouble in this relationshipâ and ânot worth the troubleâ. Any lover who deals with you with this kind of dichotomy is somebody you should not be with. You should be accepted and loved for all your parts, the beautiful and the ugly.
âHow to make the perfect E3 press conferenceâ is a lover who spent years consuming romance media and has a list of what makes the perfect relationship. So not only do they have unrealistic expectations for what a relationship is, but they will be obsessed with reaching that unreachable perfection. That will definitely put a strain on your relationship until the veneer of desired perfection crumbles away, leaving you both tired and sad.
On a less deep note, âHow to tell apart all 596 Fire Emblem charactersâ just wonât remember any of the names of your friends or family. Sure, theyâll try, but theyâll give up in like 15 minutes and youâll never be able to take this Unraveled Lover to a family reunion or a party with your friends. Probably not a dealbreaker, but as the Spice Girls said âIf you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends.â This Unraveled Lover will not. Next.
âNo one asked but I found Mortal Kombatâs best cuddlerâ and âI wasted 3 weeks of my life finding Castlevaniaâs hottest monsterâ are two Unraveled Lovers with a similar problem: they both wonât shut the fuck up about their exes. Mortal Kuddler constantly brings up all the other cuddles theyâve experienced and Castlevanias Hottest Monster will tell you youâre beautiful, but also bring up like 69 other monsters they think are also beautiful. This might not be a red flag, but personally, this would tire me out, always being thought of in comparison or contrast to others.
That ends the BAD TIER and brings us to the OKAY TIER where a large chunk of the Unraveled Lovers fall into, so much so that I had to create more specific sub tiers under the OKAY TIER.
So letâs get into the OKAY TIER: These Unraveleds Lovers are alright, youâll just have a sublimely weird relationship.
These Unraveled Lovers will treat you right but theyâre also just very peculiar. Nothing wrong with that at all, but Iâm here to explain to you just in what ways these okayest lovers are bizarre. Letâs start with the first sub tier.
OKAY SUB TIER: College Students who are way too into their major
There are a lot of Unraveled Lovers under this subtier, and this shouldnât surprise you, because Unraveleds are inherently nerdy. These are lovers that will be good to you but also just never fucking shut up about what it is theyâre studying.
âI read all 337 books of Skyrim so that you donât have toâ and "Understanding Kingdom Hearts (and every other story" are Creative Writing majors obsessed with analyzing every single thing they read. As a Creative Writing major myself, I would advise you to never date a Creative Writing major unless you are a Creative Writing major yourself. I think thatâs the only way the relationship can be ethical. Being sent essays from the New Yorker every day would be torture if you didnât actively enjoy it.
âWe made all 78 Breath of Wild recipes in one dayâ is a Culinary Arts major and, score, theyâre gonna wanna cook for you! A lot! Beware though, because itâll be a hit or miss on whether or not the food will be good, but you must admit, that there is nothing quite as attractive as your lover making you food (letâs just hope the food doesnât harm you).
âSmash Bros. owes millions of dollars in OSHA violationsâ is going to law school and that should be a dealbreaker in itself, but Iâll be a bit lenient because theyâre always working towards the safety of everybody. This Unraveled Lover will always remind you to put your seatbelt on and also tell you exactly what laws you are violating.
âBowserâs military hierarchyâ is a Political Science major, and Political Science majors scare me. So Iâll just say theyâre okay, and leave it at that.
âWhich Dark Souls Boss is the best manager?â is a rare non-evil Management major because they actually truly care for the welfare of employees. They just will always talk about it, even when you guys are on a date. I know workerâs rights are important, but itâs not exactly what I want to talk about in between kisses, yknow?
âI fixed Falloutâs music by creating a totally new genreâ is a Music major who keeps accidentally making Ska love songs to you. You didnât know Ska love songs could be a thing. This Unraveled Lover makes it a thing.
âScientifically Calculating the Game of the Yearâ is a Math major so you will never have to worry about calculating bills because they can do it for you.
âCalculate your petâs HP with my 100% legitimate formulaâ is a Veterinary Medicine major so if youâre an animal lover, this Unraveled is the one for you! Just beware, because this Unraveled Lover will also spend a lot of time observing you from afar to quantify your health points, but both of you will inexplicably find this activity strengthens your relationship.
And last but not least for this sub tier, âWhen can Mario retire?â is a disillusioned Accounting and Finance major who chose this line of study to get a job and, through the years, realized what a hellscape capitalism is. You may have to deal with a lot of zoning out and staring off into the distance, with this Unraveled Lover, but a lover who hates capitalism sure is a good egg.
That brings us to our next sub tier!
OKAY SUB TIER: Cultists or Conspiracy Theorists (AKA...College Students who are way too into their extracurriculars)
These Unraveled Lovers are alright! Theyâre just a little bit off the shits.
âEvery Sonic game is blasphemousâ will get really really worked up about things and probably try to start a cult. For most, thatâs a definite dealbreaker, but what makes Sonic Bible an okay lover is that they eventually calm down from the cult outburst and apologize. So this Unraveled Lover will treat you well, you just have to be ready to ground them when they get a little bit bonkers.
âSolving the Zelda Timeline in 15 minutesâ is very similar to Sonic Bible, except instead of starting a cult, every once in a while theyâll just sit you down on a chair and explain to you their latest obsession while slowly and intensely stripping. Which, hey, that could make for a fun night, if youâre into that kinda stuff! Definitely okay in my book.
That brings us to our last okay sub tier.
OKAY SUB TIER: Your Unraveled Lover might need to schedule some sessions with a therapist, and thatâs Okay
Listen, we all have baggage. We all have problems. These are Unraveled Lovers who want to be the best for you, but at the same time have issues of their own, and youâre going to have to support them when they pop into their local psych clinic to make themselves better people.
âWaluigiâ is an Unraveled Lover who is going through some identity issues. They want to be good for you, but they donât even know who exactly they are. They may feel as if they are tricking you into being in this relationship, that they arenât who you think they are, and while these fears are irrational, they wholeheartedly believe it and will never feel fully secure in this relationship until they have made peace with themselves. If you love this Unraveled Lover, youâre going to have to stick with them as they learn more about who they are.
âKirbyâ is an Unraveled Lover who, for some reason, is obsessed with the constant quest to make things make sense. This need of theirs bleeds into every aspect of their life and can definitely affect your relationship. This Unraveled Lover may sometimes perhaps cite that they donât deserve you because they canât seem to figure out a logical and objective answer for why you are with them. This issue of treating everything like a puzzle to solve is an issue they will have to work out and recover from, and they will be receptive to this process of recovery because they cherish the relationship they have with you and understand that not everything has to be solved; some things can just be felt. If you choose to stay with this Unraveled Lover, you must be prepared to support them when they take a mysterious but needed soul searching journey in the woods. You must be prepared to sit with them along the shores of the beach and reassure them that life is about living, not about answers.
And that, dear readers, ends the OKAY TIERs. Now itâs time for the tier you have all been waiting for.
Drumroll, please!
GOOD TIER: Pop open the champagne, bring out the strawberries dipped in chocolate, and let Spotify play Careless Whisper, baby, because weâre in the Ideal Lover zone.
Welcome to the Ideal Lover Zone. Here, we have three Unraveled Lovers who are just extremely good fellas.
âI used the Sims to perfect my apartmentâ is an Unraveled Lover who will work their hardest to be the best for you, but unlike the BAD TIER perfectionists, it will naturally dawn to them that perfection is unattainable. After this realization, they will find comfort and happiness in your romantic relationship and the other healthy relationships they have with other people. This Unraveled Lover will be sincere with you when the time calls for it, but will also not be afraid to be goofy for it. Above all, this Unraveled Lover will ask for help when they need it. They may often be shy, at first, but they understand their limits and will openly communicate to you when situations call for it. Communication is the bedrock of any good relationship, and this Unraveled Lover will never keep you guessing.
âThe Perfect Pokerapâ is similar to the Sims, in the sense that they will at first strive for perfection in the honeymoon phase of your relationship but then understand that that isnât possible and then set more reasonable and realistic goals. What sets this Unraveled Lover out from the crowd though is just how much they cherish you. How devoted they are to you. The love you will feel in this relationship will be transcendental, and, even if you do break up, this Unraveled Lover will never forget you.
And finally. Who---according to me, a mildly delirious 21 year old rando on the internet---is the most ideal Unraveled Lover?
Itâs âFind your Kojima name with my simple 11 page form.â Why? Because this Unraveled Lover wants to know you. They want to know everything about you, the parts you like and the parts you donât like. This is a lover who will not shy away from any aspect of yourself, but instead, embrace you for who you are as a full fledged person.
Theyâll also give you a whack ass pet name, and boy, isnât that romantic?
Well, there you have it. All (as of May, 2020) of the Unraveled Episodes as 23 Unraveled Lovers. What did I learn from this endeavor? That romantic love is complicated, but if youâre into it, it is definitely worth the trials and tribulations.
...As long as Iâm not dating the Castlevania Unraveled. Seriously, when weâre making out, I donât wanna hear about how sexy the Hyena With Gun is. Learn how to read the room, dude.
(Thanks for reading.)
#reposting because damn it i worked too hard on this that it BETTER FUCKIN SHOW UP IN THE TAG#polygon#bdg#unraveled#brian david gilbert#nobody asked but
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of all the things they could make mickey and ian fight over, why are the writers going with 2 so OOC storylines in the final season? the show never framed ian as seeing mickey's illegal income as not "real" work before. and mickey was never the slacker type, so why now? and mickey would never vague about monogamy. i'm so confused. if they gotta fight, why not over something in character and meaningful. this just feels like writers being mean to the fans, making us sit thru all this nonsense
Hey! Thanks for the ask. Made my (very weird and stressful) day.Â
Iâm going to be disappointing right off the jump and say that I donât actually think any of this is OOC, per say. But. In GENERAL. Shameless is not the show it was. I think this is very normal for long-running shows. Take Friends: When you get into the back half of that showâs extensive catalogue, is starts to feel like the characters are a Xerox of a Xerox. Early season Monica is a bit OCD, and a clean freak who loves to be in charge -- but sheâs also warm, and hospitable and emotionally available to her friends. Late season Monica is often a coked-out squirrel-woman who loses her mind if someone moves a pillow. Thatâs quality isnât out of character, but itâs no longer being balanced with the warm and supportive woman we initially met. I think a bit of that might be âwe already know you either like or hate Monica, so weâre just giving you the stuff thatâs funny and/or dramatic. We got 22 minutes and six characters and we donât have to build that other shit anymore.âÂ
I think thatâs happening with Mickey and Gallavich. And I donât think thatâs weird for a) a show that has run this long and b) a character who was gone and then returned. They are giving us a Mickey that has always existed -- unbound by traditional manners, aggressive, blunt and obsessed with Ian Gallagher -- but we arenât getting much of the Mickey who curls up with Ian at the worst time of his life and kisses his forehead. We arenât getting all the verbal confirmation of Big Feelings they gave us when he came back in season 7. We arenât seeing Ian and Mickey as a team, which is a big part of their mid-seasons dynamic. I think that makes people feel like these arguments are OOC, when theyâre arguably reasonable issues, but arenât being given a ton of nuance, or balance.Â
Aside: Thereâs some balance in how the actors are playing the intimacy and the physical affection. The little touches and kisses are appreciated by me.Â
So to dig into the OOC stuff -- first of all, it makes total sense to me that theyâd have issues about the role crime plays in their lives together. I love that Ian never gave a damn that Mickey is a straight up criminal. But every time Ian lost Mickey, it was because the law intervened. When Mickey is not incarcerated, heâs with Ian. Ian is no longer 16, no one is a juvenile offender, Mickey was given a devastating sentence in season 6 -- 16 years -- Ian was 18! That was his entire living memory, if not more. They are married now, against considerable odds, and I completely understand why Ian doesnât want Mickey to risk going back to jail.Â
Likewise, I get why Mickey doesnât want to do what Ian is doing. Mickey does not have the temperament for minimum wage jobs. He has a longstanding history of thinking itâs absolute bullshit to work hard for no money. Particularly when heâs smart enough, skilled enough and ballsy enough to make a LOT of money in an afternoon just by spotting an opportunity.Â
Mickey has never SAID this on the show, but in canon we have seen him go to prison four times. Once, because Ianâs unhinged spurned groomer shot him; once because Mickey CHOSE to headbutt a cop so he could go to prison and avoid his dad; once because Mickey was consumed with a need to avenge Ian; and finally because Ian got himself tossed in prison, so Mickey CHOSE to join him. If Mickey has confidence that he won't go to prison if Ian isnât a factor... Not the craziest idea.Â
So -- writers spitballing ideas for Gallavich conflict? I think thatâs a pretty good one. Two clear sides that both have merit. Iâve already written a bit about my thoughts on the monogamy issues... first, Iâve always figured they were monogam-ish, to reference Dan Savage. They are faithful to each other while theyâre together, and when they are separated (usually by prison!) they arenât. This isnât the first time Mickey has voiced a lack of interest in being monogamous -- most notably âGreat. Now weâre in a horror movie.â Mickey isnât a traditionalist and I donât think he feels like this is a make-or-break issue. But MOSTLY?Â
MOSTLY.Â
I really and truly believe what Iâm about to say...Â
Mostly Mickey wanted to do what Ian wanted.Â
If he legit didnât want monogamy he wouldnât have tried to cheat of Ianâs paper. He didnât like that âwrite it down and flip the paperâ game. He wanted to match Ianâs answer. So he took a guess and he was wrong about what Ian -- who had literally just told him he found the concept of the rest of his life overwhelming -- had written.Â
This is my head cannon:Â I think he liked that Ian wrote down monogamy. This is not my head canon: they are SUPER sweet to each other in the next scene. I am not convinced that the monogamy debate is going to be much of a thing beyond that scene. And I understand that, for a lot of people, that scene was extremely unpleasant. To me, personally, it made sense for it to come up. But I think itâs settled. I think theyâre done with it.Â
The one place where Iâm like âWhat is this?â is the slacker stuff. I mean, I can meta why Mickey might be afraid of failure or whatever, but itâd be mostly head cannon. They havenât given us a ton to build on there. The best we got is âStop disappointing the people you love!â being what motivated Mickey to do something he didnât want to do. But Mickey was right, if he thought that interview was going to be a disaster. Mickey knows himself and he is painfully aware of his limitations.Â
As for why are the writers DOING this? Well. Ok. Hereâs what I think it is:Â
1. Story is conflict. So they needed one. And âstruggle to adjust to marriageâ really isnât a bad one. Specifically, figuring out how to be married when you have no role models and have a few social strikes against you is a good one.Â
2. The writers are amused by Gallavich fighting. They think itâs entertaining. And while there are a lot of people out there for whom Gallavich is EVERYTHING, Shamelessâs viewership is also made up of people who think Frank is hilarious. No one ever send me an ask about why Frank is hilarious. I will not be able to figure that one out and the research might kill me. We definitely donât all agree on what is and is not funny.Â
3. Theyâre going somewhere with it. At least a little.Â
I donât KNOW three is true, but hereâs something I believe about John Welles. I think heâs a biiiiit of a sap. I think he probably wants to leave each Gallagher with something nice. I don't think his plan it to send everyone off on an ice floe to freeze to death. So I think (hope?) that what weâre going to see is three (maybe four?) episodes of Gallavich At Odds and then I think weâre going to move into them trying to work together to make lives together. And they will probably still fight, because that seems to be part of the Xerox of a Xerox of Gallavich. Iâm sure many people will find that cringey and problematic and annoying -- but I also bet we get a few moments we love, here and there.Â
I donât think theyâre trying to be mean to the fans, but I think itâs serving 8 characters ... Nope. 9. (I forgot Frank. I always forget about Frank.) ... and we arenât going to get the depth and breadth we want. And most of that will be on the side where we see Gallavich loving each other, because at this point they expect us to KNOW that. And some of itâll be Mickeyâs internal life because they tend to focus on the Gallaghers. But I do fervently hope we get a little more of that other side of the coin. Because I absolutely agree that one side is more fun than the other.Â
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A Response to Josh Gad
On August 28, 2019, actor Josh Gad decided to post a lengthy Twitter thread regarding our political climate. I decided I wanted to post it in its entirety as one long letter instead of just posting each individual tweet and then give my response point by point. So here we go.
I donât want to be the guy always shouting at the top of his lungs about the same thing. Life is too short. So this (Iâm hoping) will be the last time I try to put into words how I feel about the current political situation we are in and reach out to those of you content with where things are right now in our country. So here we go. I know some of you wanted and hoped to throw the whole system out and see what happened if we disrupted political norms and elected a âguy who says it like it isâ and in a weird way, I guess I even understand that impulse. But this is where we are now objectively: Donald Trump has never been fit for office and it appears that he is mentally unhinged. We can talk around it. We can play word games. We can debate what that means. But by all appearances he is truly a âmadman.â I know it sounds funny and entertaining to hear the absurdity of the President of the United States threaten to nuke a thunderstorm to send it away or get angry at a country for not selling him another country but itâs not funny. Itâs actually debilitatingly [sic] sad. Because our lives arenât a reality show, even if he thinks heâs living in one. We have all lost the plot. We are chasing him down a rabbit hole of insanity and avoiding real issues like gun violence, immigration, health care, poverty and most importantly the very real threat of climate change, something this man doesnât even believe exists because apparently he knows more as a realtor than the entire scientific community. We arenât on the precipice of catastrophe or at the doorstep of doom...we are sadly past it. We need leadership to help us formulate how we adapt, grow & tackle environmental changes unlike any humanity has seen in the last few thousand years. But we donât have that. Instead we have a man more interested in who likes him & who doesnât than in anybodyâs welfare currently reading this thread. I know some people out there believe he must be supported because he represents the religious and moral values you and your family share. But, the truth is, I know nobody really believes that because each and every single version of religious texts Iâve come across say that lying, cheating, stealing, coveting, and deceiving are not moral attributes worthy of lauding. Heâs the definition of a fraud. You know it. I know it. Hell, even Fox News knows it. For them, itâs just another inconvenient truth. This isnât about moral leadership. If you can sleep at night telling yourself that this President is a morally righteous, mentally sound, truthful man, I envy you. I wish I could fool my brain into believing a single syllable of that sentence. Iâd have much fewer gray hairs. But Iâm not living with my head in the sand. I can, sadly, see what a child should be able to see...we are all in danger as long as this demagogue is in the Oval Office. He is a monster. A racist white Nationalist, who doesnât even bother using dog whistles, but is singing out loud for all to hear. Our allies are now our enemies. Our enemies are now inside our gates making a mockery of our system while our President cheers them on. 2020 isnât an election year. Itâs the single most historically important moment for our country in the modern era. We have already failed this test once. If we fail again...there is no do-over. History will bury us in its annals and assail us like those fools whose mistakes we repeated because we were too greedy, stubborn or polarized to do the right thing. After all, this is no longer about political differences. This isnât a football game where weâre all on different teams. This is one union. One country under God that has been through hell and back but carried a torch of greatness on its shores promising something better than anywhere else in the world...opportunity. âThe American Dream.â For far too many that dream has become a waking nightmare. Letâs wake ourselves up. Letâs come together. Before itâs too late. Register. Fight. Educate. Learn. Read. Resist. And most importantly. VOTE. Vote like your life depends on it...because this time it does.
Josh, I hope that you have the chance to read my response and consider what I have to say. Part of the problem with the condition of our country is the divisions created when people arenât willing to listen to and respect each otherâs differing viewpoints. First of all, you say that you donât want to be the guy screaming about the same thing at the top of your lungs and life is short, yet you say youâd have much fewer gray hairs if you could go to sleep at night believe the President is a morally righteous, mentally sound, truthful man. If life is so short, why are you keeping yourself up at night over your own personal beliefs? Itâs self-sabotage, and maybe you should consider seeing a doctor for the benefit of your mental health and also a cardiologist so you donât have a coronary. I voted for President Trump, and it wasnât to throw a wrench in the system and shake up âpolitical normsâ. I weighed my options. I didnât vote for him in the primaries. But between Trump and Hillary Clinton, I chose who I felt at the time was the lesser of two evils. Voters had no real yard stick with which to measure Trumpâs political accomplishments or failures. We had one for Hillary, and clearly the American people didnât want her in office. She has a history of racism going all the way back to her time as First Lady of Arkansas. Thereâs video of Hillary on the campaign trail from March 2016 at a coffee shop in Minnesota when she snapped at a young female person of color for questioning her on whether she planned to address the diversity of elected officials. Not to mention the emails that leaked days before the election no doubt had an affect on voters. Her history with her husbandâs victims didnât help her, either. The President isnât avoiding issues like gun violence, immigration, health care, poverty -- you just donât agree with what he has done on those issues. Heâs addressing the issues and looking for bipartisan solutions. For one thing, he instituted a ban on bump stocks. He pressured Mexico to crack down on migrants passing through their country to get into the United States (the majority of whom were entering the country illegally -- you can hate the law all you want but until it changes, itâs the law that exists and should be enforced), his administration has expanded access to prescription drugs and the slowdown in prescription drug price growth during his time in office has saved over $26 billion. With regard to poverty, President Trump created 4.7 million jobs in his first two years and lowered the unemployment rate to its lowest in recorded history, particularly for African-Americans and Hispanics. Iâd love to hear what your solutions are for these issues. As for climate change, President Trump said climate change is a complex issue and added âIâm not sure anybody is ever going to really knowâ the cause. There are several theories that have been explored by scientists and numerous solutions presented, both small- and large-scale. Some aspects of earthâs core temperature changes have nothing to do with man - theyâre do to natural environmental effects. So how do you intend to completely eradicate global warming? I know the President isnât perfect. I know heâs not a paragon of moral virtue. But in my opinion, heâs still a better leader than Hillary Clinton would have been. At this point, you sound like someone standing on a street corner holding a sign that says THE END IS NIGH. If anyoneâs mental state should be considered and questioned, perhaps itâs your own. Just from reading your tweets, it comes off that youâre some foaming-at-the-mouth lunatic.
#Josh Gad#politics#Donald Trump#President Trump#fearmonger#celebrity#Hollywood#Liberal#rant#response#wtf
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Episode 70
*deep sigh *
Itâs clear that FZW by now, has completely lost all trust in NY; or rather she *trusts * him to do all the wrong things.Â
OH THE FUCKING IRONY OF THIS, LISTEN TO YOURSELF NING YI, YOU REALLY HAVE BECOME YOUR FATHER.Â
Zhiweiâs single minded focus here is to get her people to safety- a stance that Ning Yi finds infuriating.Â
I remember the first time I watched this I went DUDE NO DONâT GO THERE DONâT GO THERE DONâT GO THERE
BUT OF COURSE HE WENT THERE
ME: *GASP * DUDE YOU DID NOT YOU DID NOTÂ
Oh Zhiwei. But hereâs the thing- in the end, this simplifies things for her? Like, heâs just another man, who thinks he can take what he wants from her, just another man whoâs reducing her to her body, and that? that is nothing that she canât trade for the sake of her people, whom she OWES.Â
Ning Yi YOU FUCKED UP
SO BADLY I CANâT EVEN.Â
me: take it back, take it back, jesus have you lost your fucking mind
Zhiwei starts disrobing: the equivalent of a slap to his face, and you can see he FEELS it.Â
âWhy?â he asks
Heâs so angry, he pushes her to the bed- DUDE DUDE WHAT ARE YOU DOING
WHY DO YOU THINK YOU FUCKING IDIOT
MORAL: WE ALL TURN INTO OUR PARENTS
me: * bangs head on desk *
They cut to that scene where Wei Zhi and Ning Yi had a conversation about how society needs to change (disregard status and connections)Â
what a fucking tragic call back, my heart is in pieces.Â
Again, Iâm fairly sure a scene cut here ruined some of this: it feels Zhiwei would have something to say here? because the next scene is a jump cut to them sitting together on the bed and sheâs all soft and sad and tragic
He also reiterates his wish for peace and prosperity for Tiansheng, and the right to life and dignity for all people-
but itâs tragic that she calls him âYour Majestyâ, and not Ning Yi, and his response, heartfelt as it is, is also from that perspective. And so no matter that he is tender and emotional (âI want all your lifetimesâ), the man next to her is The Emperor, not just the man she is in love with; and she is the Princess of Dacheng, not just Feng Zhiwei.Â
OOOOPS.Â
Yep boy, youâre always going to be the Emperor, even in the bedroom, thereâs no escaping it.Â
Ning Yi tells her that heâll have proof for her in three days time, and asks whether she will be willing to become his Empress if she is satisfied after that.Â
The contrast to the first proposal he had made, way back in Minhai, could not be more stark. This is an Emperor negotiating, never mind that he is still desperately in love with her; but love and possession and power are too mixed up now, and he doesnât know how to untangle it. Neither of them does.Â
Later, she comes to the former residence of the Prince of Chu
ARGGHHHHH THESE TWO ARE SO GREAT IN THIS SCENE,and i love how this is set in this room, with the masks, and how Ning Yi swings between being just himself and being The Emperor (even when he clearly doesnât want to)
When he takes a step toward her, she steps back!Â
Me: OH NO, OH NO. THIS IS TOO PAINFUL TO WATCH.Â
AND SO HE STEPS BACK TOO.
Iâm just going to be wailing for the rest of the time.Â
Yueling is brought out (by Gu Nanyi, which, what?? NO EXPLANATION FORTHCOMING) - but Zhiwei can only remember her brotherâs telling her that he loved Yueling and that she must trust her. Turns out that *Yueling * stabbed Helian Zheng to death.Â
me: *rolling eyes * This show is so transparent in its attempts to make NY a âheroâ despite all the awful things heâs done. Like the whole Helian Zheng thing is twisted in a most unfuckingbelievable way to make it that NY *didnât * kill HZ. Outrageously bad writing there, I canât even.
Yuelingâs anger spills over
(Note the similarities to what happened with Zhu Yin)
Feng Zhiwei tells her that she is willing to lose her life to make sure Yueling is safe, but she must give up her plan to destroy the Ning family.
Ning Yi interrupts to say, she doesnât want you dead, she wants you and me to turn against each other, she wants Tiansheng to destroy Dacheng so that you and I can never go back, and he vows that he will not let that happen.Â
She brings up Ya Le, Lady Wang and Helian Zhengâs deaths, blaming the both of them for it. You both have so much blood on your hands, she says.
She confesses to killing Ning Shizheng, but Ning Yi doesnât let Ning Cheng immediately kill her, he orders that she be taken to the Ministry of Justice to await trial.
Alone together, Ning Yi tells her that the truth is hard to bear, and that sometimes it is best not to know.Â
Meanwhile, Ning Ji tries to convince Ning Qi to turn himself in. Thereâs a jump cut, so weâre not clear whether his argument actually works, but the next scene is that Ning Qi goes to the Prince of Chuâs residence to meet Ning Yi. They face off against each other, and then DUN-DUN-DUN-
Ning Shizheng is ALIVE!Â
Honestly, on the first watch, this PLOT TWIST shocked me, but I still find it kind of ...unnecessary?Â
Ning Qi and Ning Shizheng have a confrontation, with Ning Qi clinging to the edict , like, at the end of the day, itâs the only concrete sign he has that his father may, possibly, once, have loved him. GAH. FUCKING TERRIBLE. :â(
Again, really weird scene cuts- when Ning Qi comes in, thereâs only Ning Cheng and Ning Yi in the room. When the Emperor comes in, heâs accompanied by Official Zhao and Yujin. After the flashback to the night of the coup, we come back to the room- and suddenly we have Xin Ziyan and Ning Ji in the room- WHAT????Â
Me: *tearing out my hair *Â WHY DID THIS SHOW GO AND RUIN BASIC STUFF LIKE SCENE CONTINUITY IN THE LAST STRETCH
Ning Qi demands that Ning Yi be punished for killing Lady Wang, and finally, finally, Xin Ziyan admits that he was the one.Â
Oh Ning Yi. What were you planning to do, if Ziyan hadnât admitted it? (Luckily we donât have to find out, because Iâm sure it would have been something terrible)
The revelation of the miscarriage shocks Ning Qi- âChild?â he keeps saying, âchild?â.Â
Because this entire fiasco is really about their totally fucked up father, and his inability to be a good parent.Â
Ning Qi stabs himself with the hand with his hair pin
the answer to that is pretty much, NOPE.Â
Have you not been paying attention, Ning Qi?Â
God, Ning Shizheng needs to DIE.Â
In the end Ning Qi is taken away to Zongzheng Temple, completely unhinged.Â
Itâs a very distressing scene, and everyone there is deeply affected by it, and you can see the mix of pity and revulsion on their faces, except the Emperor, who, having survived a murder attempt is probably still bitter about having to give up the throne...ugh.Â
After Ning Shizheng leaves, Ziyan and Ning Yi are left together.
Ziyan finally comes clean, and also, it seems, finally recognizes Ning Yiâs right to the throne
but Ning Yi has already lost too much, too many people
Ning Yi is too wearied by the losses already, and chooses to let Ziyan go free (or at least thatâs the implication) p.s I had to look up what the âTen Abominationsâ mentioned in the oath Ning Yi takes as the Emperor were i.e. which crimes did not come under the general amnesty he announces on his ascension and ha, consequently the âEight Deliberationsâ i.e. which crimes may be forgiven and for what reason- and I suppose Ziyan could be forgiven on several of those counts, legally and ethically as per the conventions of that time, but honestly, in this case, it really is that Ning Yi cannot bear to lose his friend (though, in a certain sense, the distance between Ziyan and The Emperor will now always remain, as we see below)
HANDHOLDING! OH NO, KILL ME NOW.Â
Ziyan takes a step back- leaving Ning Yiâs hand empty (me: :â((Â
oh no
:â((
Somebody rescue my sad murder bae from his lonely fate :â((
Meanwhile, Feng Zhiwei finally confronts Ning Shizheng
area man is shocked by local news at 10
Sigh. Her fight to exist as her own person, to get to choose whom she wants to be during this story has been even more intense than Ning Yiâs, actually. Being a woman in a patriarchal, misogynist world has meant that sheâs had to fight every step for her freedom. It is only Qiu Mingying (another woman) who finally says âlet her be whoever she wants to beâ.Â
She confronts him about the deaths of her mother and brother
me, whispering softly: oh no oh no oh no
me: * lies down on the ground *
Literally every man in her life has tried to force her to being the shape that they want or need her to be, and expected her to follow, and like in this case, be grateful for it. Whether that was Master Zong (her first teacher), or Ning Yi (her lover) or Zhangsun Hong (her brother).Â
THATâS RIGHT GIRL
But Ning Shizheng is more than a match for her, a man who knows exactly how to wield a knife and how deep it will go. He asks her whether Ning Yi has asked her to be the Empress, whether she thinks that will turn out well. Your identity as Dachengâs heir will be a thorn in his side, he says. and it will turn to bitterness and resentment.Â
look at her face, oh no oh noÂ
me: *gasp *
OH THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION. IS HE, IS HE?Â
Iâll be honest: I donât know, and I think Feng Zhiwei doesnât know either, and thatâs not a good enough answer.Â
and then the MOST TERRIBLE SCENE OF ALL
GOD HE CANâT EVEN LOOK HER IN THE EYE FOR LONG AS HE ASKS WHETHER SHE WILL HONOUR THEIR PROMISE
She asks for three days
me: Zhiwei, Zhiwei, wait, wait , wait , think about it, take a year off, take two years off *whimpering *
me: *wailing * GO AFTER HER YOU STUPID MAN GO AFTER HER YOU SHOULD KNOW WHEN SHEâS ACTING HOW MANY TIMES HAS SHE DONE IT IN FRONT OF YOUÂ
Zhiwei goes off to settle things so that the remnants of Dacheng can be safe in Minhai. Honestly, Yan Huaishi is the only valid person in this entire clusterfuck, fight me.Â
After they leave, she says
Zhiwei, retain some of that hope for yourself, gdi.
Nanyi renews his vow to go where she goes.Â
This is the part I really donât get- would she really do that to him? Leave him alone in the world? I canât believe it :â(Â
I would have absolutely accepted an ending where she takes him and they leave? Like, if anyone can swing that, it would be her.Â
But I think this is where the weight of everything that has happened to her, the seeming inevitability of it, seems to have finally broken her.Â
And so, like Ning Shizheng had predicted, it is a harsh winter.Â
So look- I said earlier that on the rewatch, I could see that they were telling  a different story than what I had first imagined: that the central conflict is not between individuals but between individuals and Fate, and the writers come down on the side of âFateâ winning, all the time.Â
With that in mind, I suppose, you can see her suicide as a last act of resistance- âyou are freeâ says Ning Yi to her, in his last soliloquy. She escapes her âFateâ through death; but he remains alive and bound to it. Theoretically, I can see how that works?Â
But on another level, I still canât accept it specifically because sheâs a woman, and how they wrote that story. While Ning Yi and Feng Zhiwei have parallel arcs about identity and finding their place in the world, and fighting Fate for their freedom, only one of those two arcs ends in death.
 Her anger- which we are only allowed to see in flashes, and always, is almost just as quickly, undermined- especially, especially at the end, when it is turned at the âheroâ of the story. Her anger is transmuted in the writing to despair and sorrow. I was reading a Leslie Jamison quote the other day that hit me so hard, because I was watching this at the same time. A womanâs anger is not seen as âmanageableâ, we would rather see her sad, than angry. A corollary to that is that the anger and sorrow must be- has to be- turned inward, upon herself than outward. Men, on the other hand- well, we know how that goes. And thatâs why, at the end of the day, Ning Yiâs sorrow can be (hypothetically) turned into a vision of a utopian empire; his anger and power seeking (morally justified in the writing, over and over, because of the terrible things that happen to him, upto and including the fact that Zhiwei leaves him behind in the end) can be rewarded, in some way; not that heâs not tragic, like sure, thereâs the whole metaphorical sacrificing of himself (Liulang) for the man he is destined to be- itâs that heâs left alive. With life, there is always possibility. Besides, being a man, HE HAS THINGS TO DO LIKE RUNNING THE WORLD. NATURALLY. So Ning Yi is left with possibility, and a final breakng-the-fourth-wall-look-into-the-camera-as he promises to Fulfill his Mission- while Feng Zhiwei- no, sheâs not allowed that, she can only throw herself off a cliff (and float through the air, as though someone ending their life because they canât see their way forward is beautiful.)Â
Well, anyways, that ends that.Â
This has been...fun? ahahahahaha, NO IT HAS NOT.Â
THIS SHOW HAS RUINED MY LIFE.Â
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