#yes this is indeed inspired by that one episode of friends but it's FUNNY so whatever | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lostfracturess · 2 months ago

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woah woah woah just read the chapter and i am here <33333 first of all, thanks for the chapter and totally an unexpected continuation, i literally jumped on bed from the excitement!!! secondly, although this chapter wasn't as intense and emotionally draining as the previous one (and thanks FUCKING GOD BECAUSE MY HEART WOULDN'T SURVIVE IT), i enjoyed it immensely! this chapter was so funny and light hearted (please everyone read it carefully: a funny and light hearted chapter in symptoms and causes), well, i mean, there indeed were intense moments and a flair of angst, but for this story it's like a beach episode in anime 😭😭😭 thirdly, i just totally absolutely completely admire your talent, because you're such a diverse writer, who's able to write the angst (you're literally the queen of angst, I don't even have to say it. i am a sucker for it); the EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS; you're so perfect at capturing the slightest changes in it, literally, i am so in awe and the CONTROVERSY AND DILEMMA; literally, these three things are the main reasons why are you one of my favourite creators ever <3 then the plot of course, the characters, the way they feel so alive in your hands is everything to me. every one is so distinguishable among the others; the smut (well, we can't ignore the beginning of the chapter, can we 😭😭😭) i remember you said that you burnt out for writing it, and that's perfectly fine, but i still consider your smut one of the best in the jjk tumblr (well, if not among the amount of the works I've read 😭😭😭); also one of my fav things ever THE TENSION. how you BUILD IT. seriously, that thing should be studied, considered the intensity of it EVERY FUCKING TIME. and i mean both physical sexual and emotional. ESPECIALLY EMOTIONAL. sometimes i wanna ripple my skin because of it AND THAT MEANS THIS IS GOOD 😭; also though you prefer angst, i can't help but also love the fluff part of everything 🥹🥹 for me the sweetest is when you put it small details (like satoru gently kissing the thigh of the s&c when he injected that preventive migraine medicine in the office or when he asked for her favourite colour to renovate the bathroom (in which he almost dies but AHEM. fluff 💜); and now this chapter, full of fun, i don't know, i feel like there isn't an aspect you don't excel as a writer, not to mention your absolutely mesmerizing and breathtaking writing style. thirdly, jesus, s&c satoru. do i even have to say anything? it should be sufficient already. i love love love him so much, the man of my dreams (minus the drugs of course, and questionable things, but NEVERTHELESS) you write him with such love that's impossible not to LOVE him. i kicking my feet every time he's in a chapter, i swear to god 😭😭😭😭😭 fourthly, their relationship with the s&c reader. i am happy it became more stable (though we do have a BIG drawback in the end of the chapter, but hey! i am trying to be optimistic.) and they started COMMUNICATE. i am so happy. AND ALL THEIR HOME INTERACTIONS, THAT MUNDANE THINGS THAT MAKE MY HEART SO FULL, SO DOMESTIC AND GOOOOOOD) LOVE LOVE LOVE. fifthly, the s&c reader and her friends, they really all shine in this chapter, i am so happy they have such a bond and clearly shines here 💜💜💜

thank you for the chapter and send you a lots of inspiration and hope your vacation was good 💓💓💓

WOAH THAT WAS KINDA AN UNEXPECTED BEGINNING 😭😭😭 but very needed.

YES SLOW SLEEPY SOFT SEXXXXX LET'S GOOOO

geez i don't the whole conversation feels so normal in contrast to all their conversations 😭😭😭 keep going nici, i might even get used to it

"Yeah, something about some TikTok guy promoting cucumber salads," you explained, still scrolling. "Seems it got a bit out of hand." AHAHAHAHAHA I REMEMBER THAT THING I LAUGHED SO HARD I ALMOST CRIED

"Yeah, a little bit of everything, Nvidia, AMD, Apple," Satoru mused, his fingers gentle on your skin" god i want him.

"You gave Dog a quick belly rub and a reassuring pat on the head before grabbing your bag and heading out the door with Satoru" DOG IS HERE. YIPEEEEE

"Fair enough. But maybe ditch the cap with the giant logo of the university I went to, complete with my graduation year on the back. It's a bit of a giveaway." He paused, a playful grin spreading across his face. "Although, I have to admit, you look rather adorable in it." I AM GONNA CRYYYYY HE'S SI STUPID AND FUNNY

THEY ARE SO CUTE I WANNA SQUISH THEM (actually i wanna them be finally happy together, live in a countryside with a Dog, married and that's all, but.....we all know who's the author...... gotta suffer for happiness, babies)

"Huh?" You blinked, confused, then all three of them suddenly stared at your neck. Your hand flew to your neck, and you quickly pulled out your phone, using the screen as a mirror. Shit. "It's not what you think." NO FUCKING WAY, JUST.......i AM SO SURE satoru SAW it and didn't tell a word because he's a JERK. look at his ass 🫵🏻🫵🏻🫵🏻🫵🏻🫵🏻

"Startled, the three of you snapped towards the front of the lecture hall. There stood Satoru, a wicked gleam in his eyes and more gummy bear packages in his hand" NO FUCKING WAY HE HIT HER WITH GUMMY BEARS I CAN'TTTTTTTT GIRL YOU'RE SO FUNNY

"It seemed Satoru was on a roll, and no one was safe from his gummy bear inquisition. How unfortunate that he was a former basketball player and really good at aiming" that's so funny i literally can't 😭😭😭 like imagine you're a student and here's your professor that renowned dr. gojo and then he just starts hitting you with gummy bears

(we all know it's because he just fucked a s&c reader before the class)

"Satoru's gaze swept across the room. "Alright, let's kick things up a notch. Who can explain the potential role of biomimetic nanovesicles in the treatment of brain diseases?" isn't it related to their project? or am i mixing something 🤔

"And Satoru? He was watching you with an intensity that either was fascination or he wanted to undress you. Perhaps both." i just know he wanted to kneel before her so bad. he's so down bad for her it's insane 💜

"No gummy bear package came your way" this is UNACCEPTABLE. s&c reader should put him on the pussy ban, i said what i said.

"Should I have picked on Maki instead?" He rounded the desk, perching on the edge. "You know she takes everything to heart. She'd be agonizing over it for days." He twirled a pen between his fingers, the movement smooth. "Or Yuta? He's got potential, but he's still a bit green. I wouldn't want to shake his confidence. Or Mina? That girl's so eager to please, she'd probably start crying on the spot." but seriously this is kinda... considerate and thoughtful of him. yeah, in his specific manner (canon), but still is. shows another side of him, that i absolutely absolutely love. i mean this side, every side of him, and the way you get us to know another side of him every chapter 💓 uncovering a layer by layer (there's a shrek reference in it)

"He cut you off, swiftly turning you around and lifting you onto the edge of his desk. You gasped as he leaned over you, forcing you to lie back, his hands framing your hips, caging you in. One hand slid up your thigh, pushing your skirt higher" is that what i THINK IS THAT WHAT I THINK A DESK SEX PLEASE

no desk sex & I've got hit with a flair of angst with a potential of a CATASTROPHE. recognize miss nici 💜

the way he instantly recognised her lying and then a reminder of the bruises...yeah, i am totally fine. they clearly started communicating, i hope the tendency would continue, but 😢😢 and i know I KNOW something very bad will happen at the party. intuition, my ass (experience)

"I can't wait to get hurt by you again," he said. "Best fix I can get." YIPEEEEE throwing myself from the cliff 💜

"He kissed you. Innocently enough, but quickly escalated because, well, it's Satoru" totally love the fact his name only is sufficient for an explanation

"It was time to put your master plan into action. The only problem was that there was no master plan. Not really. More like a vague idea and a whole lot of hope" JESUS I AM SO NERVOUS I AM GONNA PISS MY PANTS

"It was like a frat party on steroids, no, acid, with a heavy dose of rich kid debauchery thrown in for good measure. The air was thick with the pungent scent of sweat, alcohol, weed, and God knows what else" jesus I AM SO ANXIOUS

although i think satoru would have a bad sense of nostalgia because of this party 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🥴🥴

"Aoi laughed. "Forget the bathroom, come get a drink with me first!" He grabbed your arm and Maki's, his grip strong, and started dragging you back down the stairs. Yuta and Toge had no choice but to follow, exchanging helpless looks behind Aoi's back" NO NO NO EVERYTHING WENT BAD FROM THE START I AM JUST GONNA GET IN A CAVE AT THIS POINT I AM REALLY SOOOO NERVOUS TO READ.

"You turned to see Naoya standing in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest and a sneer twisting his scarred face" oh, the second hated person in the fic according to my version (sukuna is the first obviously and he's more cool at least than this stupid ugly rich kid piece of shit)

You met his gaze unflinchingly. "At least I've actually been inside an OR as part of the surgical team, unlike you," you fired back, your eyes raking over his scarred face. "I mean, the only time you've seen the inside of an operating room was when you were lying on the table, getting all that plastic surgery to try and fix that mangled mug of yours. Too bad it didn't take, huh?" MY QUEEN JESUS SHE'S SO JEEJJEJEJEJDDDNNDND

"Big talk from a guy who has to drug women just to get laid," you said. "I guess when you look like that, you take what you can get, huh?" it just made me realise how i just LIKE how her and satoru's personalities match with each other, how they both can be so ruthless and cocky at that point. i remember a couple of chapters ago (the latest chapter in satoru's pov) when he said they were alike, and i later commented that i didn't see that, but now i see. they are both so fiery yet fragile underneath, they're are so much alike, yet different at the same time, and this is one of the reasons they pull each other like a magnet. also absolutely adore the way they complement and each other (like satoru became more soft and kinda wary, yet he still can be...well, satoru, and the s&c reader became more reckless (which had been pointed out already a lot of times, but still!))

"People clambered up onto every available surface, dancing on tables, hanging from chandeliers, even hurling themselves off the balcony into the roiling mosh pit below. Others guzzled booze straight from the bottle, vomiting in corners and grinding against each other" I've got panicked just for READING this

"Toge, who had been quietly contemplating the door with a pensive expression, suddenly spoke up. "Break it down," he suggested mildly, as if proposing they order a pizza" well theoretically... it's not THAT bad....

"You pinched the bridge of your nose, feeling the beginnings of a migraine throbbing behind your eyes. "We are not breaking down the door. We need to be smarter than that." why i got vibes from them like the Penguins of Madagascar I DON'T KNOW THERE'S ALSO FOUR OF THEM???

"Now this is what I'm talking about!" Aoi crowed, snagging a half-empty bottle of tequila from a passing tray and chugging deeply, his Adam's apple bobbing obscenely. "So what do you say?"

“I want to go home,” Yuta said, deadpan.

HE'S SO ME I AM HIM. MY SPIRIT ANIMAL.

"We're going to challenge Naoya to a drinking contest. And we're going to win." WHAT'S THE HELL YOU'RE ALL SO STUPID 😭😭😭

a SUPERB, TOTALLY BRILLIANT, ABSOLUTELY GENIUS PLAN TO GET WASTED ON A PARTY TRYING TO OUTDRINK A PERSON WHO DRUGGED YOU. if i were satoru, i would be mad beyond any limits, when i found.

"Girl, for someone who's supposed to be the smartest one here, you come up with some really questionable ideas sometimes,” Maki said. yeah, she's a Kowalski from the Penguins

"A guy came rushing up to Naoya, his face ashen and his eyes wide. "Dude, you gotta hide the drugs! One of our professors from university is here and he brought other professors with him!" why i have a feeling i am perfectly aware of who these professors are <3

"Naoya swore under his breath, then started barking orders. "Hide everything! The booze, the weed, all of it! And someone turn off the damn music!" firstly, i don't think it's possible to cover all the weed and booze in that house, secondly, if i think these professors are who i think they are, then don't worry, i am pretty sure they saw things way more worse.

"I'm so so sorry," you quickly apologized, your hands hovering uselessly as you tried to figure out how to help. The girl looked up at you, her initial surprise giving way to a faint smile. "It's okay—" she began, but you were already moving past her, your focus solely on getting to the door." geez is that r&r reader??? you said they would meet each other at some point

"Satoru was strolling inside, looking completely at ease as he greeted students with casual handshakes and claps on the back. His smile was genuine, his demeanor relaxed. He looked like he belonged here, like he was just another guest ready to enjoy the party" WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL I AM CRYING FROM LAUGHING JUST WHAT'S HAPPENING

"You stood there, frozen, as Satoru's gaze locked onto yours, his eyes burning with a fierce intensity that seemed to strip you bare." i would rather drink the wildest booze aoi mixes for me than meet his gaze, thank you very much <3

"He shook his head, leaning in even closer. You could feel his breath on your skin, the heat of his body. "I'm not protecting you because you're a woman," he said, his voice low. "I'm protecting you because you’re my woman. And my woman has a real fucking problem with lying to me and putting herself in stupid, reckless situations." tear rolled down my thigh, idc, THIS IS SO FUCKING HOT TO ME.

"This was so, so bad" it would be fucking disastrous. but with satoru by her side (he's so pissed off, but still cares about her) i am less nervous. please don't do anything stupid, just don't 💜💜💜💜

okay, first of all i have to say that i laughed when i read this !! like i'm sorry, you know the story so well, you just know that a light and funny chapter just means DOOM later ahahah (and yeah, that will happen) but i had a lot of fun with this chapter being more light and like mundane for some parts.

and thank you so much for your kind words on my writing, they always make me soo grateful :')) i can't even express how much it means to hear you describe the emotions, dilemmas and characters like that. it's everything i hope to convey when i write, so thank you for seeing and appreciating it all. also, your messages always make me giggle and kick my feet hehe <3

when he asked for her favourite colour to renovate the bathroom (in which he almost dies but AHEM. fluff 💜)

laughing out loud omg ahaha, he’s just a silly little guyy <33

"Yeah, something about some TikTok guy promoting cucumber salads," you explained, still scrolling. "Seems it got a bit out of hand." AHAHAHAHAHA I REMEMBER THAT THING I LAUGHED SO HARD I ALMOST CRIED

just imagine me sitting in front of my google doc and thinking about what was in the news lately and this was the first thing that came to mind and then i just went with it ahah.

NO FUCKING WAY, JUST.......i AM SO SURE satoru SAW it and didn't tell a word because he's a JERK. look at his ass 🫵🏻🫵🏻🫵🏻🫵🏻🫵🏻

this is absolutely right

isn't it related to their project? or am i mixing something 🤔

yes yes yes ! that’s part of their research

no desk sex & I've got hit with a flair of angst with a potential of a CATASTROPHE. recognize miss nici 💜

i’m sorrrrayy for the dissapointment :’))

although i think satoru would have a bad sense of nostalgia because of this party 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🥴🥴

oh he sure does !!

when he said they were alike, and i later commented that i didn't see that, but now i see. they are both so fiery yet fragile underneath, they're are so much alike, yet different at the same time, and this is one of the reasons they pull each other like a magnet.

ahh love your analysis on this one <3

firstly, i don't think it's possible to cover all the weed and booze in that house, secondly, if i think these professors are who i think they are, then don't worry, i am pretty sure they saw things way more worse.

girl :’))) gojo is innocent i swear !

geez is that r&r reader??? you said they would meet each other at some point

maybeeee mayybeee we’ll see next r&r chapter hehe

lastly, thank you so so so much for all your kindness and support, it keeps me going more than you know. sending all my love right back to you <3

#inbox #wiserion

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tripleaxeldiaz · 3 years ago

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also 💃🏻 + i love you when baking chocolate chip cookies and i s2g i'll write you a god damn epic if you make it sterek

BETTER GET WRITING BABE 😂😂🥰🥰

(also posted here)

There’s a cloud of flour hanging in the air when Derek walks in, covering the entire apartment in a haze. The smell of chocolate and sugar is heavy in his nose, as well as hints of vanilla and cinnamon and…chili powder? Coffee beans? Mayo? He quickly toes off his shoes and heads towards the kitchen because what in the world could possibly involve those flavor combinations?

He turns the corner and lets out an involuntary gasp at the sight that greets him.

“War zone” is the first word that comes to mind — every inch of their kitchen is covered in something. Flour on the counters. Streaks of egg whites running down the front of the sink. Smears of butter on the refrigerator handle. Something bubbly and green on the oven door. And even more smells than when he first walked in — orange zest, mint, something savory like gravy, and something sickly sweet like marshmallows.

And sitting on the floor, in the eye of the hurricane, is Stiles, looking very messy and very upset.

Derek picks his way through the minefield of eggshells and slides carefully down the cabinet Stiles is leaned against until they’re shoulder to shoulder. Stiles lays his head on his shoulder immediately, instinctually, and Derek brushes bits of dried dough out of his hair so he can rest his cheek too. They sit in silence for a while, Stiles seemingly lost in thought, Derek trying to sort through the many, many questions he has about how Stiles’ day led him here.

Stiles sighs eventually, deep and world weary, and sits back up, his head resting back on the cabinet with a soft thunk. “It was supposed to be a surprise,” he mumbles, staring off into the middle distance.

“A mess like this is definitely a surprise. I didn’t even know we owned this much baking supplies.”

Stiles snorts and shoves his shoulder against Derek’s. “No, asshole. I mean— I had lunch with Cora today, and we were talking about your birthday — do not look at me like that, you know I always do something — and she told me how your mom always made chocolate chip cookies for you and let you eat them for breakfast.” Derek feels a familiar sting, but Stiles grabs his hand and slots their fingers together before it hurts too bad. “But of course she couldn’t remember the recipe, but she said she could absolutely remember them by taste, and long story short—” he gestures around the kitchen, dispersing the flour cloud that had resettled above them. “I made 24 batches of cookies, Derek. Two dozen. And none of them were right, according to Cora.”

He doesn’t mean to laugh, he really doesn’t, but he can’t help it — the baseline happiness he feels with Stiles, plus the extra joy of Stiles putting clearly insane amounts of effort into making Derek’s birthday special, it all comes bubbling out in a laugh he can feel down to his toes. Stiles looks scandalized for all of 15 seconds before he’s laughing too, and Derek pulls him into a kiss that tastes like burnt sugar and sunshine, because what else is he supposed to do?

“I love you,” he says, still laughing as they break apart, resting their foreheads together.

“Even if I can’t recreate your cherished childhood memories?” Stiles asks.

“Even then,” Derek says, kissing him again. “But, I can give you the right recipe.”

“Seriously?”

Derek nods, reaching above them for the yellow bag of chocolate chips. He plops it on Stiles’ lap and points to the recipe printed on the back. “Right here.”

Stiles’ jaw drops. He stares at it motionless for so long that Derek would worry about his breathing if he couldn’t still hear his heartbeat.

“Jesus Christ,” Stiles yells, shaking the bag like it’s personally wronged him. “You’re telling me that your mom’s super secret special recipe is the one they’ve been printing on these bags for 50 years?”

Derek shrugs. “Only difference is she browned the butter.”

Stiles is up like a rocket at that, furiously combing through the cabinets for a clean pot, lamenting at how hard it is to brown butter without burning it, and planning payback for Cora for “the undue stress she put me under today”.

Derek stays with him, listening to every word, helping when he’s told to, and when the last batch comes out at 1:15am, Stiles sticks a candle in the still gooey center of one and sings “Happy Birthday” to him by candle and moonlight.

It’s the best birthday he’s ever had, no contest.

#answered #elisela #eli is a queen #sterek #derek hale #stiles stilinski #teen wolf #tw #teen wolf fic #1.5k party #yes this is indeed inspired by that one episode of friends but it's FUNNY so whatever #eli i hope this makes your day a little better ilysm!!!

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romioneficfest · 4 years ago

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I Need You

Title: I Need You

Prompt/Day: 10 - Movie/TV/Book Fusion

Tumblr Name:

Rating: T / PG 13

Brief Summary: A Romione Ficlet inspired by the TV Show New Girl Season 2: Episode 15 "Cooler"

Any Content Warning: None

******

“Ron! Ron, please, you need to come quick! I think there’s someone in the flat!” Hermione sends her Otter Patronus off into the night as more scratching turns her attention toward the door of the flat she shares with Ron Weasley, Harry Potter and Colin Creevey. Once upon a time, the Ravenclaw had been wary about living with three Gryffindors that she barely knew, but it was funny how time could change everything.

Of all the nights they insist on going off alone to pick up girls and make me stay home!

Hermione shakes her head as she wraps herself in a blanket and keeps her wand pointed toward the door. She’s been living with her current roommates for about a year now. She and Colin work together at the Daily Prophet, and he’d been kind enough to offer up the extra bedroom after overhearing Hermione pour her soul out to her best friend Padma Patil about walking in on Ernie MacMillan, her ex, with another woman.

That pompous, selfish, good for nothing— Hermione’s thoughts are interrupted as Ron’s Terrier Patronus comes soaring through the window.

“Mione, you’re a fully capable witch, and you can handle whatever it is!” The voice of the terrier hushes to a harsh whisper, “I’m about to seal the deal here. Please don’t ruin this for me!”

The terrier disappears, and Hermione’s heart clenches while her stomach twists in knots. The last thing she wants is to ruin Ron’s night. She wants her roommate—no, friend—to have a good time! It’s crazy to think that they started this whole living arrangement completely resenting each other. Now, Ron’s her go-to if she ever needs anything, despite how infuriating he can be. She knows she can always count on him to help her out and to be honest with her.

Hermione’s not intentionally trying to cock block or ruin his night. No! That’s not it at all. At least that’s what she’s forcing herself to believe even as she attempts to dampen the jealous rage that’s swirling within at the thought of him bringing home some tramp.

Jealousy? What? How can I be jealous when I don’t have feelings for Ron. He’s my best friend! And best friends should answer the call when a friend is in need. It’s not like this happens all the time.

A loud pawing reverberates around the room, and Hermione yelps in surprise. She closes her eyes and concentrates on her happiest thought—the one where the boys took her to North Pole Place on Christmas Eve to see all the muggle light displays in an attempt to cheer her up after a particularly awkward break-up with Justin Finch-Fletchley.

Another otter bursts from her wand to relay the message, “Please, Ron. I need you.”

She wouldn’t ask him if it wasn’t dire, no matter how much she didn’t want to think about him doing things with someone else. Hermione knows that Harry and Colin have been trying to get him over Lavender once and for all, and tonight is yet another feeble attempt to help Ron find another girl. She’s given up on him harboring any feelings for her by now, despite the awkward tension that seems to build when they’re left alone for too long.

It’s preposterous; I can’t possibly fancy him. We fight all the time. Things would never—

A whoosh sounds behind her from the fireplace, and a figure emerges from the emerald green flames. Relief floods Hermione’s veins as a sense of comfort surrounds her.

“Ron, you came! Oh, I knew you were my knight in shining armor!” Hermione knows she’s laying it on thick, but the look of fury on his face tells her that he needs the ego boost.

“I swear Hermione, it better be bloody Voldemort’s Inferi on the other side of that door! You have no idea what the hell you just pulled me from! Colin said he’d hold Seamus off, but I know he’s already swooped in on her anyways.”

Ron runs a hand through his hair in frustration before taking off his jacket and throwing it forcefully onto the back of the sofa. Hermione can’t help it as she rushes over and throws her arms around Ron.

“I’m sorry. I swear there’s something there!”

Ron pulls away, and Hermione hopes that her tactic has softened him up a bit. He sighs heavily before pulling out his wand. He looks through the peephole before casting Homenum Revelio.

“No one’s out there, Hermione. Are you sure you’re not hearing the ghoul on the roof?” he says through gritted teeth.

Hermione winces as Ron’s annoyance returns. Merlin, he has anger issues.

“The ghoul wasn’t knocking on the door!” she half lies. Hermione never checked on the ghoul, but she wasn’t going to tell that to Ron.

“Hermione, I can’t believe you ruined my night for the bloody ghoul!”

“Well, what was I supposed to do, Ron? You abandoned me tonight! I used to be perfectly independent until I started living here with you three. Now I depend on you all too much! You didn’t even give me a chance to owl Susan to see if she wanted to come over! No! You just expected me to sit here and read a book, wallowing in self-pity. So, you know what? That’s what happens when you try and leave me out of things!”

“Yes, Hermione, that’s what all this was about! Punishing you by leaving you here alone. Last I checked, we didn’t lock the door and force you to stay here by yourself! It’s not like you signed a clause in the contract that states you have to stay here if we go out without you! Why does it always have to be about you?”

The sound of a loud crash ricochets in the air surrounding them, causing them to freeze mid-argument.

“What was that?” Hermione whispers.

Hermione looks on as Ron turns toward the source of the sound, which consequently turns from a crash to the ever-present scratching.

Oh. Maybe the noises were coming from the free hutch I pulled off the street the other day.

Ron turns to look at her. “Didn’t Harry tell you there might be a Boggart in that?”

Hermione smiles weakly. “Maybe?”

Ron’s ears turn red and a thunderous look crosses his face. “Take care of it. Now.”

Hermione has no choice but to walk up to the cabinet. She’s battled Boggarts before. This will be fine. It’ll probably be the image of a late report or a reprimanding from a superior. Nothing Ron doesn’t know about. She opens the cupboard and the creature appears, quickly taking its form to reflect her biggest fear.

The boggart surprises Hermione as it shifts into the three boys, all telling her they don’t like her, they’ve found a new roommate and she needs to move out. Hermione knows it’s not true as she casts Riddikulus, and it changes into her boss firing her. Another cast of Riddikulus, and then the Boggart shifts to Ron with another woman, whose face is masked, and they’re doing things.

Hermione stands there, unmoving, watching the fake scene play out in front of her. “No, I—Ri—” she attempts.

She can’t do it. She turns to run to her room, just like in third year, but as she brushes past Ron, he grabs her arm. Ron pulls her back, and suddenly his lips are on hers. She’s overcome with shock at first, but that quickly subsides, and Hermione’s hands move of their own accord to clutch at his shoulders as she opens her mouth to deepen the kiss. His strong hands move up and down her back, pushing her closer against his body.

They break apart long enough for Hermione to look into his ocean blue eyes. “You know this makes the boggart’s shape even more genuine now, don’t you?” she breathes.

“You’ll never have to worry about that, ‘Mione,” he reassures her. “Bedroom?”

Hermione nods, and in one quick movement, he picks her up and whisks her away to his room.

The next thing Hermione knows is her alarm is sounding as she begrudgingly peeks through her lashes to see sunlight flooding through the window. “What the…” she mutters as she rubs her eyes.

“Everything alright, love?” Ron asks as he rolls over, draping an arm over her stomach.

“Er, yes,” Hermione says as she tries to make sense of her dream. “I think we’ve been watching too much muggle television. For a moment, I thought we’d joined the cast of New Girl.”

Ron laughs. “Don’t tell me you dreamt we were Nick and Jess,” he chuckles into her shoulder, “that’s mental!”

Hermione smiles as she recalls their dream kiss. They were so Nick and Jess, but she shakes the thought from her mind, choosing to keep the images to herself.

“Yes, mental indeed.”

#hpfic #Romione FicFest 2021 #Romione #Ron Weasley #Hermione Granger #Rated T / PG-13 #75% Ace Safe #25% citrus #Queue up for the Dragon

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blackswaneuroparedux · 4 years ago

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Anonymous asked: Have you watched Lupin? What did you think? (And are you a fan of the books or other adaptations of the character?)

The short answer is yes, I have seen Lupin on Netflix. Overall I enjoyed it so long as I suspended my disbelief at certain things.

Unfortunately it took being struck down by Covid and being bedridden for me to actually to binge watch the whole series. So I was behind the curve when my friends, French and those outside of France, started to talk about it around me. I had to beg them not to give away spoilers until I had seen it all.

It did surprise me that it won rave widespread reviews outside France because usually French drama series don’t travel very well outside of France. I’m sure even Netflix had no idea how successful it would be for them. I’m sure being in Covid lockdown had something to do with it. In any case I don’t begrudge its success as it’s well earned.

However I wasn’t too surprised that within France itself the French reviews were decidely mixed and divisive. The critic at Le Point painfully hit the nail on the head when he wrote, “Le plus gros défaut de l'ensemble reste la pauvreté des personnages, tous unidimensionnels, caricaturaux et aussi épais que du papier à cigarette.“ - loosely translated as, ‘the biggest flaw of the whole thing remains the poverty of the characters, all one-dimensional, cartoonish and as thick as cigarette paper’.

There’s a growing amount of good French stuff on TV and streaming services but a non-French audience will not have had the chance to have seen all of it yet. I can think of any number of French television drama/dramedy/cmedy series that are much better than Lupin with better plots, characters, and even a truer perspective of French society and even modern day France (Dix pour cent (Call My Agent!), Le Bureau des Légendes, Engrenages, Baron Noir, and Paris Police 1900). But you would be hard pressed to find anything that comes close to Lupin just for the sake of something fun to watch during the Covid lockdown.

What makes the current generation of home made French television series so interesting is how much of it is a reflection of France’s own anxieities about itself and its role in a increasingly English speaking dominating world. In a funny way it sees itself as defiant plucky Asterix fighting off the Roman American cultural hordes from totally invading their Francophone culture.

For sure, it has societal and racial issues stemming from its colonial legacy and issues of immigration and integration (France has the largest Muslim population in Europe). However it seems to want to ‘resolve’ these issues through the almost sacramental adherence to French secularist ideals rather than American inspired ideas of social justice and equity. There’s always been something very admirable about the French - from the time of General de Gaulle and perhaps before - always swinging from snooty ambivalence to outright antipathy towards the influence of American culture ‘americanising’ French culture (no to Walmarts or fast food chains for example).

Is it any wonder then that Netflix’s ill-conceived American series ‘Emily in Paris’ was widely hated and mocked within France for just perpetuating those lazy American tropes of Paris and French culture?

Personally I know Francophile Americans, long resident in Paris, who were frankly embarrassed and spent a lot of time apologising to their French friends. I have one American friend who has told me that she was so mad that she would have blind folded Emily and shoved her hard in the car boot and drive her all the way to the poorest of the banlieues in the grimey crime saturated suburbs of Paris - Seine-Saint-Denis came to mind - and dump her preening arse there. She would slap her and tell the spoilt entitied brat to make her own way back home - you know, to her spacious apartment in one of the most expensive arrondissements of Paris that of course(!) any American intern working for French marketing firms can afford.

I digress. My apologies. Watching this God awful show gives me PTSD.

Onto Lupin.

Thankfully Lupin doesn’t try to play to non-French tropes of what Paris is or isn’t. It does skim the surface of current discontents within French culture and society (race, class, power, and money) but ever so lightly so as to not get in the way of just spinning a good crowd pleasing yarn. It invites you to have fun and not to think too much. I have to be honest and say I enjoyed it as long as I suspended my disbelief here and there.

Lupin refers of course to the character Arsène Lupin, the French gentleman thief who stole jewellery from Parisian haute bourgeois and aristocracy at the turn of the century. Lupin, as written in the novels and short stories by Maurice Leblanc between 1905 and his death in 1941, was the archetypical anti-hero, a Robin Hood who stole from those who deserved it but kept the loot himself. He was often portrayed often a force for good, while operating on the wrong side of the law.

Lupin never really made much of an impact outside of France as he had within France where is revered with many French film and television adaptations. In England, we already had a Lupin type character in the form of A.J. Raffles, a cricket playing gentleman thief with his aristocratic side kick, Bunny. E.W. Horning’s stories of Raffles’ daring heists proved to be quite popular with the British public when Raffles first appeared on the scene in 1898. And even later Leslie Charteris’ The Saint took over the mantle from Raffles as the gentleman thief/adventuring Robin Hood.

I think Hollywood tried to introduce him to an English speaking audience (legendary actor John Barrymore even played him) but he didn’t really take off and eventually they found their gentleman thief archetype in Sir Charles Lytton aka The Phantom (played by David Niven and Christopher Plummer) in the Pink Panther movies. So Lupin never got the English audience he deserved.

I first got wind of who Arsène Lupin was when I was growing up in Japan as a child. As strange as it sounds Lupin was big in Japan especially after World War Two. The Japanese did their own take on the Lupin character using Japanese actors and plot lines but it was Lupin.

I don’t know how exactly but I remember watching these scratchy DVDs of these Lupin inspired films. I think it was one of my parents’ Japanese friends who was mad for all things Lupin and he had studied French literature in France. Jogging my memory I now recall these black & white films were done in the 1950s. One starred Keiji Sada and the other version I remember was with Eija Okada (he was in Resnais’ classic film, Hiroshima Mon Amour) as Arsene Lupin called (I think) Kao-no Nai Otoko. I didn’t understand most of it at the time because it was all in Japanese and my Japanese (at the time) was pitiful, but it looked fun.

There was even a Japanese manga version of Lupin which was called Lupin III, - so named because he was the grandson of the real Arsène Lupin.

The 1960s manga series spawned generations of TV series which I do remember watching and finding it terribly exciting if somewhat confusing.

It was French expatriate friends whom my family knew that introduced me to the real Arsène Lupin. They had a few of the books authored by Maurice Leblanc. It was in French so I read them to improve my French but enjoyed the story along the way.

I also remember them showing me scratchy episodes of the 1970s Franco-German TV series ‘Arsène Lupin’ with the monocle wearing Georges Descrières in the lead role. It was a classical re-telling of the adventures of the aristocratic gentleman-burglar and very family friendly viewing. I don’t really remember much of it to be honest.

It was some years before I actually started to read more of the Maurice Leblanc’s novels and short stories collection. I have them all now. I was a teen and I remember being stuck in a snowed in a Swiss Alpine chalet and with nothing else to do but pull out a few dog eared books from the bookshelves belonging to our French host and read to pass the time.

I read Les Dents du tigre, Arsène Lupin vs Herlock Sholmes, and Les Huit Coups de l'horloge and thoroughly enjoyed them in the original French. I was already reading classic detective and mystery novels (Sherlock Holmes, Poirot etc) so it was natural to read the adventures of Arsène Lupin.

I haven’t got around to reading all the novels and short stories but I have read most of them and I enjoyed them all immensely. In the same way Conan Doyle, through Holmes and Watson, manages to conjure a convincing picture of late Victorian and early Edwardian England, so Leblanc manages to give us a taste of Belle Epoque France through the eyes of his suave gentleman-thief, Arsène Lupin.

Indeed it's a lot like reading Sherlock Holmes in that you're always trying to figure out how he did it, but the difference is that you are rooting for the bad guy. You can’t help but be drawn to this gentleman thief who is charming, comic, playful, and romantic and generous. Lupin is not an intellectual puzzle-solver but first a master criminal, later a detective helper, who maintains his curious ethics throughout his adventures. In this regard he is very much the anti-Sherlock Holmes; and I wasn’t disappointed when I actually read the story where Lupin faces off with Holmes himself. Brilliant!

I’ve also seen the 2004 French movie with Romain Duris in the Lupin lead role and it also starred the majestic Kristin Scott Thomas and the sexy Eva Green.

It was a decent adventure flick and it was a clear confluence of different Lupin novels (The Queen's Necklace (introducing Lupin's childhood), The Hollow Needle (where the treasure is the macguffin of the story), The Arrest of Arsène Lupin (the gala on the ship as a backdrop) and Josephine Balsamo, (one of Lupin’s most memorable opponents in the The Countess Of Cagliostro).

Romaine Duris, a fine classical actor, was I felt miscast because he didn’t have Lupin’s levity of wit and be at ease within himself. I love Duris in his other films but in Arsène Lupin and even in his other film, Moliere, he seemed ill at ease with the role. Perhaps that’s just me.

The latest Netflix adaptation (or reimagining to be more precise) is a welcome addition to the world of Arsène Lupin.If you don’t over-think it, it’s bags of fun.

Omar Sy is immensely likeable. Sy is a deservedly a big star in France - he won the best actor César for “The Intouchables,” an international hit - and has played forgettable secondary characters in big-budget American special effects movies (he was Chris Pratt’s assistant in “Jurassic World” and a minor mutant in “X-Men: Days of Future Past”). It was reportedly his desire to play Arsène Lupin, whom he’s compared to James Bond (“fun, funny, elegant”), that led to the series, created by British writer George Kay. And it is on his charm that the series largely, though not entirely, rests.

So the basic story revolves around a jewellery heist. Sy plays Assane Diop, a first-generation French-Senegalese man in contemporary Paris. A collection of Lupin stories, a gift from his father - whose undeserved fate Assane set himself to avenge in long-delayed, Count of Monte Cristo style upon a criminal tycoon - has made the actual Lupin books a foundation of his life and profitably illicit career. This fan-ship goes as far as borrowing practical ideas from the stories and constructing aliases out of anagrams of “Arsene Lupin,” a habit that will attract the interest of a low-level police detective (Soufiane Guerrab as Youssef Guedira) who shares Assane’s love of the books. (That the detective also shares an initial with Lupin’s own adversary, Inspector Ganimard, is possibly not a coincidence.)

Among the many comic delights of Lupin, is an unspoken one. Time and again, the show’s hero, master thief Assane Diop is able to slip into a place unnoticed, or by assuming a minor disguise that prevents witnesses from providing an accurate description of him to law enforcement.

Why is this funny?

Because Omar Sy is six feet three (and, since most actors are short, seems even taller), is roughly as wide as soccer pitch, and is memorable even before he flashes his infectious million-Euro smile. This is not a man for whom anonymity should be possible - even allowing for racial bias in a majority-white country, Assane would be memorable and distinctive - and Lupin seems cheekily aware of this. Like the various incredible sleights of hand Assane deploys to pull off his thefts and escapes, his ability to be anyone, anywhere, is treated more as a superpower than as something even the world’s greatest criminal would be able to pull off.

At one point, when he’s slated for a cable news appearance as a much older man, we learn that Assane is also a master of disguise. The revelation of this skill arrives with a wink in the show, and it feels pointless to ask where he learned it, or how he affords movie-quality latex and makeup. Or rather, asking the question feels wrong.

We know this is impossible, the show seems to be asking its viewers again and again, but isn’t it so much fun?

The performances and the production - it has that particularly European filmic quality of feeling natural even when it gets stylish - keep the series warm even as the plot is made up of incredulous contraptions that require everything to go right at just the right time and for human psychology to be 100% predictable. Its physics are classical rather than quantum, one might say, and like the world itself, which becomes more curious the deeper you peer into things, it is best handled along the surface. You do not want to take too much time working out the likelihood of any of this happening. Just go along for the ride.

Somehow, though, it all works because Sy is so magnetic and charming that questioning plot logic feels wildly besides the point. Though he never looks appreciably different in his various aliases (including one ill-conceived live-TV appearance done under old-man makeup and a thick beard), he changes his posture and voice ( if you watch it in French that is) enough to allow for the willing suspension of disbelief, in the same way that any lead actor as Superman has to do when playing Clark Kent. But Sy and the show are at their strongest when Assane is just being his own Superman self, utterly relaxed and confident in his own skin, and so captivating that his ex-partner, Claire, can’t really resist him despite ample reason to.

If Assane seems practically perfect in every way, he is not perfectly perfect. His most obvious failing is that his criminal shenanigans and revenging make him less than reliable in his daily life, affecting his relationships with ex-partner Claire (Ludivine Sagnier, whom non-French audiences might recognise from “The Young Pope” and “The New Pope”), who despairs of his inability to show up on time to see his son Raoul (Etan Simon). Like Sy, Sagnier brings a lot of soul to her part - though onscreen far less, she’s as important as Sy to the series’ success - and the two actors have great chemistry. Also impressive and key to creating sympathy are the actors who play their flashback teenage selves, Mamadou Haidara and Ludmilla Makowski. Really, you could do away with action elements and build a series around them.

This is a pity because Lupin often fumbles its emotional reveals in other parts - the story of Diop being torn between his job and his family feels like wheel-spinning, rather than genuine emotional intrigue.

Soufiane Guerrab is wasted in the Young Detective Consumed by the Case role and spends most of this season pinning colour printouts of book covers to cork boards and getting waved off by his colleagues, who are all blinded or otherwise hampered by careerism.

But to my mind the weakest link is the villain himself and his daughter. Veteran actor Hervé Pierre hams it up as Hubert Pellegrini, a business tycoon who is the patriarch of the Pellegrini family. He just comes across as animated cartoon villain with no character depth (think moustache twirling Russian villain, Boris Badenov, in the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon shows). He just emotes anger a lot without any nuance or hint of complexity.

Even Clotilde Hesme who plays the daughter who is unaware of her father’s criminal tendencies is miscast. For the record I adore Clotilde Hesme as she one of France’s most talented classical actresses (that non-French outsiders will not have heard of). She is a classically theatre trained actress and is one of the best stage actresses of her generation that I have ever seen. I’ve seen her in plays where she is just mesmerising. She has said before that she’s more comfortable on the stage than she is on the screen. And when she has been on screen she still has been a powerful presence. She’s actually won a César too. Here in Lupin, she seems to have no agency and looks bored with nothing really to do.I really hope they give her more scenes in the next part of Lupin.

The series is at its best when following Diop enacting his plans, and when revealing each one from a different vantage, making us privy to every moving part like a magician revealing his secrets. The show captures the momentum of a clockwork heist, the tension of sudden obstacles and the ingenuity of improvised responses, with thrilling precision (especially in “Chapter 1 - Le Collier de la reine,” directed by Now You See Me’s Louis Leterrier).

Lupin is also politically incisive when it wants to be; it brings to mind Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominated 2019 film Les Misérables, which adapted the broad strokes of Victor Hugo’s novel about the 1832 Paris Rebellion, and modernised the story by focusing on the police brutality faced by non-white Parisians.

Lupin opens with Diop disguised as cleaning staff and entering the Louvre after-hours, alongside dozens of forgotten, anonymous non-white workers as they pass by “La Liberté guidant le people,” Eugène Delacroix’s famous painting of the July Revolution of 1830 which replaced France’s hereditary rule with popular sovereignty.

Before any semblance of plot or character, Lupin centres broken ideals and promises unkept (without giving too much away, the show’s primary villain has much more nationalistic view of French culture and history which merely adds to a cartoonish caricature than a complex character). The rest of the episode is about valuable jewels once owned by Marie Antionette - one of the most recognisable symbols of wealth and extravagance in times of extreme poverty - which are put up for auction by the Pelligrini family, and bid on by other wealthy collectors with bottomless purses and no sense of irony.

Granted, beyond this auction subplot, explorations of race and class are largely limited to individual interactions, but the show continues to refer back to (and implicitly comment on) its source material in ways that wink at the audience. An elderly, unassuming target of Diop’s schemes seems like an unlikely victim at first - Diop, though he acts in his own self-interest, usually displays a moral compass - until this victim reveals the colonial origins of her wealth, immediately re-contextualising the ethics of the situation, in a manner that Leblanc’s stories did not. (The show is yet to apply this lens to Arsène Lupin himself, who Diop treats with reverence, but that’s a secondary concern since Lupin is entirely fictional in-world).

Barring some nagging structural problems - like cutting to flashbacks when things are getting exciting, or epilogues that feel ten minutes too long - Lupin mostly works. It plants a few personal seeds early on, which it keeps hinting at without fully addressing, but by the time its scattered elements come into focus, the show finally figures out how to weave them together, and delivers a mid-season cliffhanger that renders many of these flaws irrelevant.

Lupin manages to have fun even with an antiquated premise - the story of a suave con-man who charms his way through high-profile robberies - while adding just enough new spin on the concept to feel refreshing. Omar Sy may not have much to work with, but his alluring presence makes Assane Diop feel like a worthy successor to Arsène Lupin.

Lupin isn’t going to win César, BAFTA, or Emmy awards, or even turn heads for its ability to develop tertiary or even secondary plots or characters - that doesn’t really matter. You’re there to see a difficult hero be difficult and heroic - everyone else is there to be charmed, vexed, or eluded by them. Sy’s performance bounds off the screen, and is almost musical. He floats through scenes like he glides over the roofs and through the back alleys of Paris; he outmanoeuvres his foes with superior literary references and sheer athleticism. He is irresistible and also good at everything he tries, even kidnapping.

I would encourage anyone to watch Lupin for a fun care free ride. But the only caveat I would make is watch it in the original French.

If you don’t know French then put on the subtitles to understand (that’s what they are there for). The real crime is to watch this (or any film or television series) dubbed in a foreign language. It’s disrespectful to the actors and film makers and it’s silly because it’s comical to watch something dubbed over.

Please watch it in the original French.

Then go and read the books. You won’t regret it.

Thanks for your question.

#question #ask #lupin #omar sy #netflix #tv show #culture #personal #arsene lupin #japan #maurice leblanc #france #french #society #arts

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lilydalexf · 4 years ago

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Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Syntax6

Syntax6 has 17 stories at Gossamer, but you should visit her website for the complete collection of her fics and to see the cover art that comes with many of the stories (and to find her pro writing!). She's written some of the most beloved casefiles in the fandom. I've recced literally all of them here before. Twice. Big thanks to Syntax6 for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

I’m delighted but not surprised because I’ve written and read fanfic for shows even older than XF. Also, I joined the XF fandom relatively late, at the end of 1999, so there were already hundreds of “classic” fics out there, stories that were theoretically superseded or dated by canon developments that came after them, but which nonetheless remained compelling in their own right. That is the beauty of fanfic: it is inspired by its original creators but not bound by them. It’s a world of “what if” and each story gets to run in a new direction, irrespective of the canon and all the other stories spinning off in their own universes. In this way, fanfic becomes almost timeless.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it? What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

(I feel these are similar, at least for me, so I will combine them here.)

First and foremost, I found friends. There was a table full of XF fanfic writers at my wedding. Bugs was my maid of honor. I still talk to someone from XF fandom pretty much every day. Lysandra, Maybe Amanda, Michelle Kiefer, bugs…these are just some of the people who’ve been part of my life for half my existence now. Sometimes I get to have dinner with Audrey Roget or Anjou or MCA. Deb Wells and Sarah Ellen Parsons are part of my pro fic beta team. I have a similar list from the Hunter fandom, terrific people who have enriched my life in numerous ways and I am honored to count as friends.

Second, I learned a lot about writing during my years in XF fandom. I grew up there. Part of this growth experience was simply due to practice. I wrote about 1.2 million words of XF fanfic, which is the equivalent of 15 novels. I made mistakes and learned from them. But another essential part of learning is absorbing different kinds of well-told tales, and XF had these in spades. Some stories were funny. Others were lyrical. Some were short pieces with nary a word wasted while others were sprawling epics that took you on an adventure. The neat thing about XF is that it has space for many different kinds of stories, from hard-core sci-fi to historical romance. You can watch other authors executing these varied pieces and learn from them. You can form critique groups and ask for betas and get direct feedback on how to improve. It’s collaborative and fun, and this can’t be underestimated, generally supportive. The underlying shared love of the original product means that everyone comes into your work predisposed to enjoy it. I am grateful for all the encouragement and the critiques I received over my years in fandom.

Finally, I think a valuable lesson for writers that you can find in fandom, but not in your local author critique group, is how to handle yourself when your work goes public. Not everyone is going to like your work and they will make sure you know it. Some people will like it maybe too much, to the point where they cross boundaries. Learning to disengage yourself from public reaction to your work is a difficult but crucial aspect of being a writer. You control the story. You can’t control reaction to it. It’s frustrating at first, perhaps, but in the end, it’s freeing.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

I participated in ATXC, the Haven message boards, and the Scullyfic mailing list/news group. For a number of years, I also ran a fic discussion group with bugs called The Why Incision.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I started reading XF fanfic before I began watching the show. I had watched one season two episode (Soft Light) and then seen bits and pieces of a few others from season four. I’d seen Fight the Future. Basically, I’d seen enough to know which one was Mulder and which one was Scully, and which one believed in aliens. An acquaintance linked me to a rec site for XF fanfic (Gertie’s, maybe?) so that I could see how fic was formatted for the web. I clicked a fic, I think it was one by Lydia Bower dealing with Scully’s cancer arc, and basically did not stop reading. Soon I was printing off 300K of fic to take home with me each night. I could not believe the level of talent in the fandom, and that there were so many excellent writers just giving away their works for free. I wanted to play in this sandbox, too, so I started renting the VHS tapes to catch up on old episodes (see, I am An Old). After a few months, I began writing my own stuff.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to The X-Files. I’m not a sci-fi person by nature. I think my main objection is that, when done poorly, it feels lazy to me. Who did the thing? A ghost! Maybe an alien? I guess we’ll never know. You can always just shrug and play some spooky music and the “truth will always be out there…” somewhere beyond the story in front of you. You never have to commit to any kind of truth because you can invent some magical power or new kind of alien to change the story. I think, by the bitter end, the XF had devolved into this kind of storytelling. The mytharc made no kind of sense even in its own universe. But for years the XF achieved the best aspects of sci-fi storytelling—narrative flexibility and an apotheosis of our current fears dressed up as a super entertaining yarn.

What eventually sold me on the XF as a show is all of the smart storytelling and the sheer amount of ideas contained within its run. At its best, it’s a brilliant show. You have mediations on good versus evil, the role of government in a free society, is there a God, are we alone in the universe, and what are the elements that make us who we are? If Mulder and Morris Fletcher switch bodies, how do we know it’s really “them”? The tonal shifts from week to week were clever and engaging. For Vince Gilligan, truth was always found in fellow human beings. For Darin Morgan, humans were the biggest monster of all. The show was big enough to contain both these premises, and indeed, was stronger for it. The deep questions, the character quirks, the unsolved mysteries and all that went unsaid in the Mulder-Scully relationship left so much room for fanfic writers to do their own work. As such, the fandom attracted and continues to attract both dabbling writers and those who are serious craftspeople. People who like the mystery and those who like the sci-fi angle. Scientists and true believers. Like the show, it’s big enough for all.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

I look at it like an old friend I catch up with once in a while. We’ve been close for so long that there’s no awkwardness—we just get each other! I love seeing people post screen shots and commentary, and I think it’s wonderful that so many writers are still inventing new adventures for Mulder and Scully. That is how the characters live on, and indeed how any of us lives on, through the stories that others tell about us.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I ran the Hunter fandom for about five years, mostly because when I poked my head back in, I found the person in change was a bully who’d shut down everything due to her own waning interest. A person would try to start a topic for discussion, and she’d say, “We’ve already covered that.” Well, yes, in a 30-year-old show, there’s not a lot of new ground…

Most other shows, Hunter included, have smaller fandoms and thus don’t attract the depth of fan talent. I don’t just mean fanfic writers. I mean those who do visual art, fan vids, critiques, etc. The XF fandom has all these in droves, which makes it a rare and special place. But all fandoms have the particular joy of geeking out over favorite scenes and reveling in the meeting of shared minds. It will always look odd to those not contained within it, which brings me to the part of modern fandom I find somewhat uncomfortable…the creators are often in fan-space.

In Hunter, the female lead joins fan groups and participates. This is more common now in the age of social media, where writers, producers, actors, etc., are on the same platforms as the rest of us. Fan and creator interaction used to be highly circumscribed: fans wrote letters and maybe received a signed headshot in return. There were cons where show runners gave panels and took questions from the audience. You could stand in line to meet your favorite star. Now, you can @ your favorite star on Twitter, message her on Facebook or follow him on Instagram. In some ways, this is so fun! In other ways, it blurs in the lines in ways that make me uncomfortable. I think it’s rude, for example, if a fan were to go on a star’s social media and post fanfic there or say, “I thought the episode you wrote was terrible.” But what if it’s fan space and the actor is sitting right there, watching you? Is it rude to post fanfic in front of her, especially if she says it makes her uncomfortable? Is it mean to tell a writer his episode sucked right to his face?

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I own the first seven seasons on DVD and will pull them out from time to time to rewatch old faves. I’ve shown a few episodes over the spring and summer to my ten-year-old daughter, and it’s been fun to see the series through her eyes. We’ve mostly opted for the comedic episodes because there’s enough going on in the real world to give her nightmares. Her favorite so far is Je Souhaite.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I don’t have much bandwidth to read fanfic these days. My job as a mystery/thriller author means I have to keep up with the market so I do most of my reading there right now. I also beta read for some pro-fic friends and betaing a novel will keep you busy.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

I read so much back in the day that this answer could go on for pages. Alas, it also hasn’t changed much over the past fifteen years because I haven’t read much since then. But, as we’re talking Golden Oldies today, here are a bunch:

All the Mulders, by Alloway I find this short story both hilarious and haunting. Scully embraces her power in the upside down post-apocalyptic world.

Strangers and the Strange Dead, by Kipler Taut prose and an intriguing 3rd party POV make this story a winner, and that’s before the kicker of an ending, which presaged 1013’s.

Cellphone, by Marasmus Talk about your killer twists! Also one of the cleverest titles coming or going.

Arizona Highways, by Fialka I think this is one of the best-crafted stories to come out of the XF. It’s majestic in scope, full of complex literary structure and theme, and yet the plot moves like a runaway freight train. Both the Mulder and Scully characterizations are handled with tender care.

So, We Kissed, by Alelou What I love about this one is how it grounds Mulder and Scully in the ordinary. Mulder’s terrible secret doesn’t involve a UFO or some CSM-conspiracy. Scully goes to therapy that actually looks like therapy. I guess what I’m saying is that I utterly believe this version of M & S in addition to just enjoying reading about them.

Sore Luck at the Luxor, by Anubis Hot, funny, atmospheric. What’s not to love?

Black Hole Season, by Penumbra Nobody does wordsmithing like Penumbra. I use her in arguments with professional writers when they try to tell me that adverbs and adjectives MUST GO. Just gorgeous, sly, insightful prose.

The Dreaming Sea, by Revely This one reads like a fairytale in all the best ways. Revely creates such loving, beautiful worlds for M & S to live in, and I wish they could stay there always.

Malus Genius, by Plausible Deniability and MaybeAmanda Funny and fun, with great original characters, a sly casefile and some clear-eyed musings on the perils of getting older. This one resonates more and more the older I get. ;)

Riding the Whirlpool, by Pufferdeux I look this one up periodically to prove to people that it exists. Scully gets off on a washing machine while Mulder helps. Yet it’s in character? And kinda works? This one has to be read to be believed.

Bone of Contention (part 1, part 2), by Michelle Kiefer and Kel People used to tell me all the time that casefiles are super easy to write while the poetic vignette is hard. Well, I can’t say which is harder but there much fewer well-done casefiles in the fandom than there are poetic vignettes. This is one of the great ones.

Antidote, by Rachel Howard A fic that manages to be both hot and cold as it imagines Mulder and Scully trying to stay alive in the frosty wilderness while a deadly virus is on the loose. This is an ooooold fic that holds up impressively well given everything that followed it!

Falling Down in Four Acts, by Anubis Anubis was actually a bunch of different writers sharing a single author name. This particular one paints an angry, vivid world for Our Heroes and their compatriots. There is no happy ending here, but I read this once and it stayed with me forever.

The Opposite of Impulse, by Maria Nicole A sweet slice of life on a sunny day. When I imagine a gentler universe for Mulder and Scully, this is the kind of place I’d put them.

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

Bait and Switch is probably the most sophisticated and tightly plotted. It was late in my fanfic “career” and so it shows the benefits to all that learning. My favorite varies a lot, but I’ll say Universal Invariants because that one was nothing but fun.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I never say never! I don’t have any oldies sitting around, though. Everything I wrote, I posted.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

I write casefiles…er, I mean mysteries, under my own name now, Joanna Schaffhausen. My main series with Reed and Ellery consists of a male-female crime solving team, so I get a little bit of my XF kick that way. Their first book, The Vanishing Season, started its life as an XF fanfic back in the day. I had to rewrite it from the ground up to get it published, but if you know both stories, you can spot the similarities.

Where do you get ideas for stories?

The answer any writer will tell you is “everywhere.” Ideas are cheap and they’re all around us—on the news, on the subway, in conversations with friends, from Twitter memes, on a walk through the woods. My mysteries are often rooted in true crime, often more than one of them.

Each idea is like a strand of colored thread, and you have to braid them together into a coherent story. This is the tricky part, determining which threads belong in which story. If the ideas enhance one another or if they just create an ugly tangent.

Mostly, though, stories begin by asking “what if?” What if Scully’s boyfriend Ethan had never been cut from the pilot? What if Scully had moved to Utah after Fight the Future? What if the Lone Gunmen financed their toys by writing a successful comic book starring a thinly veiled Mulder and Scully?

Growing up, I had a sweet old lady for a neighbor. Her name was Doris and she gave me coffee ice cream while we watched Wheel of Fortune together. Every time there was a snow storm, the snow melted in her backyard in a such way that suggested she had numerous bodies buried out there. How’s that for a “what if?”

What's the story behind your pen name?

I’ve had a few of them and honestly can’t tell you where they came from, it’s been so long ago. The “6” part of syntax6 is because I joke that 6 is my lucky number. In eighth grade, my algebra teacher would go around the room in order, asking each student their answer to the previous night’s homework problems. I realized quickly that I didn’t have to do all the problems, just the fifteenth one because my desk was 15th on her list. This worked well until the day she decided to call on kids in random order. When she got to me and asked me the answer to the problem I had not done, I just invented something on the spot. “Uh…six?”

Her: “You mean 0.6, don’t you?”

Me, nodding vigorously: “YES, I DO.”

Her: “Very good. Moving on…”

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

My close friends and family have always known, and reactions have varied from mild befuddlement to enthusiastic support. My father voted in the Spookies one year, and you can believe he read the nominated stories before casting his vote. I think the most common reaction was: Why are you doing this for free? Why aren’t you trying to be a paid writer?

Well, having done both now, I can tell you that each kind of writing brings its own rewards. Fanfic is freeing because there is no pressure to make money from it. You can take risks and try new things and not have to worry if it fits into your business plan.

(Posted by Lilydale on September 15, 2020)

#new post #old school x #xfiles fanfic #xf fanfic #xf fanfic author interviews #syntax6

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muthaz-rapapa · 4 years ago

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[Disclaimer: This is just my personal opinion, I'll try my best to express it without make it sound rude. And you can disagree with me].

I understand Laura is your favorite character and she's been great so far, but for me I have a love-hate relationship with her. Like I said, Laura's a great mermaid-now turned human character, she really showed her care and determination to help her friends, especially Manatsu. However, there's a part of her that really annoys me and that's her tsundere side. I reaaally hate tsundere characters, not only they're annoying and irritating to the point I want scream and slap at them but they also comes off as rude b*tches. Now I know not all tsunderes are like that, in fact, there are some well-written tsunderes that I really like (Rin Tohsaka from Fate/stay night) because at least I know why they act like that and I relate to them. In Laura's case, in episode 16, it really frustrates me that she didn't open up to her friends and expressed her desire to become human to spend more time with them. Why? Was she too embarrased to tell them? Was it because she was still a proud mermaid?

Nevertheless, while she's not officially my favorite character, I still think she's a great character and I respect her.

[Of course I can disagree with you! You have your own opinion and I have mine, after all. Not being rude, btw, just thought it was funny that I was told I can disagree on my own blog, lol 😅]

Cool. 😀 No, really. I get it. You can totally respect something or someone but still not like them for whatever reasons you may have. Like, take my feelings towards Haruka (Go!Pri) or Hana (Hugtto) for example. I thought their arcs were very well done and inspiring and I greatly respect the people they've grown into by the end of their respective seasons. But up till today, I can't say that I favor them as characters. I don't dislike them or anything. I just don't love them.

And I'm okay with that.

For Laura, we all knew from the beginning that she was going to be problematic. And even though she's come quite a way since then, her flaws (arrogance, selfishness, the tendency to revert to tsun mode when she's too proud to admit her faults) are still glaringly present. It's only natural that those flaws are going to bother some viewers while also serving as a source of entertainment for others. Nobody can tell you how to feel towards a certain character. But it remains your responsibility to understand them and yourself to the best of your own ability. If you want to try to come around and it works, then that's great. But if you're still bothered by their behavior or actions and such, then that's perfectly fine, too. You have your reasons and you at least took time to find them. That's already more than what a lot of people are willing to try.

Just be smart and honest with yourself, make your peace with it and move on. And we're only at ep 18 so far, not even halfway through the season yet so who knows. Maybe Laura has more story to tell, more development to go through and more changes to undergo before the end. Maybe she doesn't and this is how she's always going to be from now on. Haughty and demanding but deep down, possesses a good heart. But the matter of whether you can accept Laura fully or not after all that's done is still entirely up to you. I won't judge you on your preferences because I wouldn't want someone judging me for favoring Laura either.

Now, regarding the tsundere issue, I'm in a similar boat.

Tsundere are not my cup of tea. I even hated them for a while.

But these days, it really depends on how well the character is written.

This is a trope after all. It should not take up 100% of the character's composition because that would just be terrible writing.

A good tsundere would have their tsun traits support their overall character, adding charm to their personality rather than dominating it and leaving no room for anything else on their profile.

Rin Tohsaka (she's awesome, I love her, omg QUEEN 😍) is one of the prime examples on how a tsundere should be done properly. It gives her such an adorable side to appreciate but doesn't take away from her incredibly complex story and intrigue as an individual.

For Precure, it's a trickier business because like I always say, Toei is very reluctant to move away from the archetypes they heavily rely on every single year.

You have to learn to look past that mold in order to see what makes this character so special, what makes them stand apart from the rest who look and/or act similarly to how they do. You need to really dissect them from head to toe in order to determine if they carry a quality you think you can get hooked onto.

Laura is not the worst tsundere I've come across but she is admittedly not the best either. Again, because it's easy to fall back on common and established patterns and the writers amped up those aspects because it's something every anime fan is already familiar with.

However, that doesn't mean Laura's a low grade tsundere. Her confidence and straightforwardness comes from her pride as a mermaid and desire to become Queen. From that angle, they can be seen as positive traits because it means she's not a pushover and sticks strongly to her beliefs.

But when she talks condescendingly to others, acts all superior because she's a mermaid and then tries to hide behind her pride as mermaid, that's when it's a problem. However, even that you can make some sense of if you put yourself in her shoes fins. She spent the first 10 or so episodes constantly bragging about how great she is and how much better mermaids are than humans. For some as prideful as Laura to take that all back just because she recently shifted lanes after learning that humans aren't so bad, it's actually a lot harder than you think. Frankly, it'd make less sense for her to open up so readily about wanting to become human than it would for her to deny she wants to become human. Learning to be honest takes time.

Also, her forthrightness comes in conflict with her trouble on recognizing that she is not indeed perfect...which is what activates her tsun wall. It's a defense mechanism. She doesn't want others to poke fun at her. It's uncomfortable especially when she can't even face herself yet.

But at least she's doing that less and less, though. The patronizing attitude, that is. She only boasts about being a mermaid now and doesn't put others down just because they're not mermaids like her.

Ep 18 plays up her tsun mostly for laughs as well.

From my perspective, it seems the humiliation she experienced on her first day of school (for overestimating herself and being completely unprepared for human lifestyles) was meant to humble her and deflate her ego after the novelty of school blew it up.

Except that only worked so much to a certain degree and Laura's still rather dishonest about her own feelings (read: embarrassed) that she has to go through such roundabout ways just to convey to her friends that "Yea, I want to be with you guys in the same club, that was my intention all along!"

It's annoying, yes, but also funny, too, to see Laura flounder about on land. 😆 And it's definitely a step forward rather than back so we should take that to mean Laura's still progressing towards becoming a better person than she is now. Hopefully.

But yea, like I said earlier, you make your own calls on your own opinions. And I respect that. 🙂👍

#right now I'm curious how they'll do the next set of episodes up until the super forms debut #it looks like Laura's development will still take most of the center spotlight but i hope they rotate the other girls to share it with her #this way we get more varied interactions (Laura's bond level with Sango and Asuka is still rather low)#as well as Laura shedding more of her thick pride to let more of her best sides shine brighter (and therefore make her a better Queen)#though I would like more development for the rest of the team too #Minori and Asuka I can see getting maybe 2 episodes specifically to themselves later on but...#Manatsu and Sango in particular are pretty stagnant so I'm worried about them :(#replies #tropical rouge! precure #laura la mer #cure la mer

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rachelbethhines · 4 years ago

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Tangled Salt Marathon - Keeper of the Spire

You wouldn’t know it upon first watch, but today’s story is one of the few non-filler episodes of season two.

Summary: In order to acquire the third scroll piece, Rapunzel, Eugene, Cassandra and Lance travel to the home of the Keeper of the Spire and meet Calliope who informs them the third piece is kept inside the Spire’s vault at the top of the mountain. The group begins the long journey to the Spire's vault the following day and become increasingly annoyed by Calliope’s rude, arrogant and inconsiderate behavior. Despite Calliope's treatment, Rapunzel insists they still need her help all while they being dangerously pursued by the vault's protector, the Kurlock. The group eventually reach the Spire's vault, but again encounter the Kurlock and discover Calliope is not the real Keeper of the Spire.

Once Again, ‘Destiny’ Isn’t a Goal

If you want to build up some sort of mystery with the scroll pieces and what awaits Rapunzel at the end of her quest, then that’s fine. But at some point you have to actually explain what her destiny actually is, how the scroll connects to it, and most importantly, why she needs to fulfill it.

We’re never given a reason for why Rapunzel needs to reconnect to the moonstone, nor why she couldn’t have just stayed home and did nothing. The scroll itself doesn’t tell her anything and what it leads up to has nothing to do with ‘destiny’ and ultimately comes to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Indeed, much like the quest itself, things would have been better for everyone had she not found the scroll at all.

Meet the Best Written Character In the Show

No, I’m not exaggerating. Calliope is the only recurring character in the series not to get royally screwed over by last minute rewrites and poor pacing. In fact her arc may have actually been improved by the dumb creative decisions of season three.

Which is a problem because she’s not a main character. Her story and arc shouldn’t be more well rounded than Rapunzel’s. It’s also clear, given how the writers try to pitt her as annoying thorn in the heroes sides that is only tolerated because she’s useful, that they weren’t expecting the general audience to identify with her, and so her subsequent portrayal as the most developed character in the show is fully accidental.

We Finally Get Some Indication of Cassandra’s Age

Well first off, we probably shouldn’t be getting such information about our deuteragonist this late in the game, but also, putting Cass in her early 20s recontextualizes her arc the same way Varian being 14 recontextualizes his conflict, but in the opposite direction. A 24 year old is more accountable for their actions than a 14 year old. Always will be.

And before people try to get all pedantic on me; yes she’s only 23 here, and Varian is currently 15. What I meant is those are their ages at the start of their villain arcs, because the linear progression of time is a thing.

This Joke Actually Highlights One of the Bigger Problems of Season Two

I laughed when I first heard this joke, but that’s cause I was under the assumption that they would go on to develop a friendship between Cass and Lance as the season went on. But they don’t.

Cass never has any focus episodes that aren’t about her failing relationship with Rapunzel. She never interacts with the other four people that she’s traveling with outside of group scenes like this. Not even with Eugene, who we spent the whole previous season establishing a bond with.

This undermines Cassandra’s arc in several ways. She less well rounded and developed without other people in her life besides Rapunzel; it ignores her place in the show as the older and wiser friend if she’s so majorly co-dependent upon only person. It also ignores what was set up in season one in order to push a certain narrative later that clashes with what we the audience already know.

Plus there’s the added effect of other characters getting poor representation within the story.

So Why Didn’t the Others Come Along Again?

I understand not being able to take the caravan upto the top of the mountain, but the road was wide enough to get it up this far. Also it didn’t take you all day to get here so you could just walk back to camp.

But let's get to the real reason why the caravan was left behind. The writers wanted and excuse to get rid of Hookfoot and Shorty. Because they didn’t want to write them into the story. Because they have nothing to do with the overall plot and together they’re one too many characters to keep up with and give stuff to do to. Which begs the question of why they were ever included into the season at all.

Also why leave Adria behind? She was the one who sent them up here. She’s the one who has a vested interest in getting Rapunzel to the end of her journey. She’s the only one driving the plot at the moment, so why not have her present to do just that?

Rapunzel is a Hypocrite

There’s not a single description that Rapunzel says here that couldn’t be applied to herself.

Which would be funny if the writers ever actually acknowledged this within the series.

Having parallels simply exist on their own and not actually inform the story is bad writing. Same with character flaws; acknowledge them, use them to advance both the plot and the characters, and build off of them to establish character dynamics. This is in part why Calliope is the better written character between the two of them.

Behold, the One and Only Time Lance and Rapunzel Hold a Conversation with One Another!

Speaking of characters not getting enough focus.... It’s just a set up for a recurring gag in the episode, but this is indeed the only point in the series where Lance and Rapunzel talk, about anything.

It’s not just Cass who is prevented from establishing relationships, it’s literally everyone. All of Rapunzel’s focus episodes alternate between Cassandra, Eugene, or a random side character. Cassandra only gets focus when with Rapunzel. Eugene only gets development with either Rapunzel or on his own. Lance is only ever shown interacting with Eugene or Adria, outside of some highly specific one off instances like here. Hookfoot is left out in the cold save for three episodes and two of them double as New Dream folder.

We’ve managed to pair the cast down to only six, as opposed to a whole kingdom’s worth of characters, and yet they have less development here than they did in season one. The group does not feel like a group, and that is a problem.

How is This Meant to be Encouraging?

Ok, I get what the writers were going for here. Calliope has low self esteem. she feels useless because she’s lost her only support group, her mentor. So Rapunzel is ‘inspiring’ her to fulfill her dream of becoming the new keeper of the spire.

However, this is an incredibly bad take.

Calliope lacks self esteem because she’s lonely. Her dream of becoming the keeper is directly tied to her father figure, who up till now was the only person who gave a damn about her. She only wants to impress Rapunzel because she wants a friend and she believes that she needs to be useful in order to get that. And here is Rapunzel and the narrative reinforcing that belief under the guise of ‘achieving a dream’.

No fuck that!

You don’t need to have a ‘purpose’ to have friends.You shouldn’t have to prove yourself useful just be respected and included. Also, Rapunzel doesn’t even befriend her. She just uses Calliope to get what she wants and then avoids her for the rest of the show; only checking up on her out of obligation in season three.

So not only are we denied another female friendship in a show bereft of female relationships, but we also have a character who can be easily read as autistic by the audience needing to prove she’s useful to society in order to be accepted.

Ugh!

And yeah, I said autistic. We have a character who fails to pick up on social cues, hyperfixates upon her special interests, is rejected by society for trying to share these special interests, and she even pulls out her magic linked rings to fiddle with when stressed, which can be coded as a stim. I’m not saying that this was the writers’ intent, but nevertheless these are traits that people on the autism spectrum tend to identify with.

So how insulting is it to watch this episode and see someone you could relate to being constantly put down by the heroes behind their back and then never apologize for it, even when said character admits their own fault?

So Are We Ever Going to Get Any Background on this Spire?

So the spire is one of the few places that is plot important in the show. Yet we never find out why it exists, who built it, how it came to hold such important plot devices, nor the story behind the keepers who guard it. It’s just there, and that’s infuriating because it’s both a lack of much needed worldbuilding and lore.

Still A Better Dad than Frederic

Leaving for months on end without telling you loved ones why and where you’re going is a shitty thing to do. Doubly so if its just to teach your kids ‘a lesson’. However, The Keeper still winds up being a better parental figure than most of the other dads (besides Cap, who is awesome) in the series. That’s how low the bar has been dropped by Chris and his weird ideas on parenting.

So What Was the Lesson Here?

Ok first off, Calliope didn’t need to be reminded of anything. The Keeper says as much. She was always persistent. The only lesson that she does learn is not to lie but apparently that’s not what we’re supposed to take from this episode.

But what are we supposed to take away? Because Rapunzel doesn’t learn anything either. There’s no admittance of wrongdoing on her part and she does not change her outlook or behavior from this encounter.

Calliope at least learns to become more self assured after this episode and remains honest and true to herself once the episode is done with. Rapunzel however is the same. You can’t claim that this is ‘Rapunzel’s story’ (Chris’s words not mine) if it’s only random side characters who are allowed to grow. Which is yet another reason why the main cast of characters don't get the development and interaction that they should.

That’s also why Calliope is better written than the main character and she shouldn’t be. It’s a bewilderingly oversight of basic writing.

Conclusion

I don’t mind this episode. As I said in the beginning, it is one of the few non-filler episodes in season two. However, there’s a lot of problems with it to the point where I can’t actually call it good, just mediocre.

#tangled #anti-tangled #anti-rapunzel #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure

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hedgefairy · 4 years ago

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Okay, I know, I know, it's already old news, everybody and their uncle in the costuming community has already talked it over, but anyhoo, I made notes when I crawled my way through effing Bridgerton and I will be damned if I don't vomit them onto this site. I have 32 pages of this shit, I'm not gonna throw that away.

I'm also typing this on my phone because I'm stuck on a trainride that's just doubled in length because this is the 2021 Northern German snow storm. What, there's snowflakes on the rails? We cannot possibly keep up our schedule, say goodbye to 90% of the connections.

Okay, on to Bridgerton, Episode 1

We're in Britain (oh, London, okay), allegedly 1813. I see people who are clearly meant to be asympatico, but is this size incusivity I spot there? Daring! Gasp! Me li...

Oh wait, no. The character is promptly shamed for her figure (which is mostly caused by the horrible cut of her dress. Every size can look great in Regency garb, but never mind, we need to make the "fat one" look bad!).

Also, no shifts under the stays. Why. There was obviously enough budget, don't tell me you couldn't afford a few strappy tops - it's not like the rest is historically accurate, so it would have sufficed to send some poor underpaid intern to H&M and get some. Nvm, that wouldn't be sexay.

Wait, is the garishly dressed (always a sign of a character of bad character in a costume drama) woman Delphine from Selfridge? Does she always have to play bitches? That's not nice, and just because she has a recognisable face, which by modern (read: americanised) standards is not favourable enough. Ugh. But I like the actress, so I'll let it slide (for now).

Lol, buttocks.

Not sure about the girls' dresses. Also, the Queen is a WOC, cool!

Oh no, one of the Featherington sisters faints! But that's okay because the Featheringtons are just comic relief and foil anyway.

I get weird incest vibes from the Bridgertons.

So the court is clearly 18th century and the show is set in the 1810s. I've by now seen several explanations for this decision, I still think it robs the Queen of reproductions of her actual historical gowns which were heavily inspired by the 18th century but so. Magnificently. Weird. It would have been so neat, and more of a "hey, I'm kinda out of touch with things" vibe, but hey, I'm not the one getting paid for making those taffeta gowns here (her hair is glorious, tho).

I'm very into the intro.

That Regency gossip girl is a real b, not unlike the Dowager Countess of Downton (unpopular opinion, I think she's pretty overrated, yes, I like Maggie Smith).

Again, no shifts.

Where do I know the "pragmatic" Bridgerton sister from? Ah, it's The Paradise. And Jonathan Strange. (Wait, she's my age. And she's supposed to be a teenager. Man, do I love a good Dawson casting. I like the actress, though, she has a face ™!).

Aaaah. We get it. She's the spirited one. She also doesn't care about dresses because she's not like other girls™. I really like her voice (but she still doesn't sound like a teenager).

The heck is up with Lady F's dress and that of her friend? Oh, yeah. Antagonist fashion.

Of course the Featheringtons are Horrid Hags™ aside from Penny who's nice, but the pudgy one (at least we don't get a case of "she's not conventionally attractive so she's bad").

Oooh, the cousin! Supposed to suck, but ofc she's a stunner, and only Penny (who's the nice one, remember!) is delighted to have her around. She's also a POC, which is nice but apparently that means she does not follow fashion, hair-wise. I would have loved to see some Regency hair on her, it would have been so pretty *cries in Greek updo*

Ugh, we're still in Ep. 1, typing this on my phone was a bad idea.

Lady Danbury and the Duke guy are delightful with each other (more POC! So neat!).

The girl the oldest Bridgerbro screws is apparently a singer, which isn't up to status for his doucheship, and she doesn't wear a shift.

The music at the ball sounds like something from the Top 40s, but I'm woefully ignorant of contemporary music charts so I can't tell what it is. I like it when they do that in historical-ish works, making well-known pop or rock stuff work for the ambience (ugh, that dance scene to Golden Years in Knight's Tale. My heart. In a good way.)

I dig the Ducktail hair of Penny's crush. Oh, wait, that's a Bridgerbro. I don't quite get why the hair trends of the time don't apply to the POC characters or extras, but seeing how most white characters also show a shameful disregard for the weirdnes and gloriosity (that's not a word) that is early 1800s hair (the 1830s take the cake, tho) despite those hairdos being basically designed for white people hair, I don't think I care much (well, I do, but about all of them). Overall the hair is horrid and not very 1810s. Let's just leave it at that.

Like a good old romance novel (I've since been told that Bridgerton is supposed to be a pastiche of such novels, but I really couldn't tell from the series, not at all, and I'm not inclined to read the books) we have

a pretty, kind, superpure daughter of the main family

the mean matriarch (could have been an aunt, too, but here she's the mum) of the rivalling or antagonist family

a spirited daughter of the main family (in most romance novels this would be our heroine but so far she refreshingly lacks a love interest and pretty daughter seems to get the most screen time)

a Horrid Suitor™

a Hot Suitor™ who doesn't want attention

a really good and doting good parent

Lol, misheard Greece for Grease with Ducktail Bridgerbro, whose name is Colin, apparently. This is funny because of his Danny Zuko memorial hair.

Overall a bit too much bling for my taste, and too few pearls. It looks like an episode of My Super Sweet Sixteen with a Regency theme.

Of course the romance is going to be the Pretty One aka. Daphne and the Duke and he's even bros with her eldest bro. Wait, are they exes? I can haz bi? No? Aww, shucks. Maybe in another episode (spoiler: no).

Okay, WHAT is it with Lady F's dresses and hair. Like, she reminds me of Mars Attacks. Which, as you might remember, was not set in the Regency period.

Lord B (Bridgerbro the Eldest) sucks, he's screwing Opera Girl without any intention of marrying her but he's bitchy about his sister being ogled by his Eton (or wherever) bestie?

Oh, I'm in Hamburg now. And my train back home got canceled, so back to Berlin it is because there's not a single option to get to Hanover tonight, at least that's what the lady from the train station is saying, "oh well, you'll have to go back and try again tomorrow", so that's awesome...

Honestly, if it weren't so late and I didn't have things to do at home I'd find this terribly exciting.

Back to Bridgerton!

Where were we? Ah.

I can't even read my own annotation. Something about George III. I think I was upset about how they totally ignored that it's called Regency because George IV acted as the regent king, and he doesn't even feature in the series, I guess because they wanted to play up the Queen? Not a fan, because thanks to Horrible Histories I'm quite fond of that guy.

Again, no shifts.

Oh, look, it's Horrid Suitor™, destined for leftovers.

The Featherington cousin gets all the attention but no fleshed-out character.

Penny Featherington's dog is named Lord Byron, which ❤️

I like the Duke! He's there, drinking in his club (even though they're a patriarchal remnant of the past I have a weird appreciation for stuffy Gentlemen's Clubs, I blame Bertie Wooster and the Drones), calling Lord B out for his general fuckery.

Oh no, Ducktail Colin is more into the Cousin than Penny, who obviously pines for him!

Thank you, Lord B, for enabling Horrid Suitor™. Nobody asked you to be such a fucktwit.

The Queen is, of course, a bit of a bitch, but patronage from cool Lady *scrolls up for name* Danbury ensues for Protagonist Girl™ Daphne.

"I wish they had found a better trend language", what the heck did I even mean by that? That's what you get for just scribbling down notes while watching and simultaneously sewing. 18th century pants, in case you wanted to know.

Cousin is angry, probably because Lady F behaves like Cinderella's evil stepmother, because Cousin is prettier than her daughters and gets, like, all the suitors because Lord B bitched away everyone who wanted to get into Daphne's dowry ifyouknowwhatImeanwinkwinknudgenudge, right across the street into Cousins parlour.

The Bridgertons are annoyingly perfect. Ugh.

Oh look, it's "banter" between Daphne and Dukey! It's so Pride & Prejudice! It's almost a tiny bit Shakespeare! I put banter in parentheses because wow, nope, I'm not getting any chemistry here.

Uh, Lady B calls out Lord B (aka. her son aka. Bridgerbro the Eldest) for his screwery with Opera Girl and his outpimpery of his sister to Horrid Suitor™, buuuurrrrrnnn. He promptly calls of his affair with Opera Girl.

No shifts!

Penny gets to dance with Ducktail Colin at the thing! Good for her, but it's a country dance with jumping and fun, because she's a) the pudgy character and b) a Featherington, so it can't be something romantic and pretty (I personally like country dances, but they aren't protagonist dances).

Oooh, Cousin had her period, oh no, oh snap, oh she didn't, because she's PREGNANT! Shit, that's problematic, and not because she's an unmarried woman in the 1810s, but because she gets close to no lines at all so far, and suddenly she's pregnant and telling Lady F that she sucks for being privileged, violence ensues, this is ugly. Man, I get what some critics mean by "the POC actors*actresses get all the problems" and that not exactly being great.

Horrid Suitor™ makes property claims about Daphne, eeewwwww, thanks to Lord B's general suckiness, ewww, r@pe attempt ensues, was that really necessary? It doesn't really fit in with the rest of the series and generally nope, yay, broken nose! (which was indeed totally necessary). Nice one, and probably the only scene so far (spoiler: overall) in which I actually like Daphne. Dukey thinks a mean left hook is attractive, and, generally speaking, he's not wrong.

Daphne and Dukey come up with a pseudo-shakespearean plot to pretend to be totally into each other so she can attract suitors by being not available and he gets not to have fangirls by being not available, and as someone who has read a few too many historical-ish bodice rippers I know exactly where this is going. I mean, come on.

I can't see enough of the following choreography to complain about it. Man, I miss historical dance classes.

And that concludes Ep. 1! Finally! Thank you for getting this far, sorry for all of it (especially typos, it's the bane of unwanted autocorrect), I guess?

Update on the train situation: I've been told by the ticket control person that I shouldn't get my hopes up until noon tomorrow.

To be continued,

because I didn't take these 32 pages of notes for nothing.

#Bridgerton #Hedgewatch #historical costuming #Well not really because wow these costumes #Thank you for travelling with Deutsche Bahn #2021 norther Germany snow storm #Trainwriting #Snarky commentary #I wish I was better at captions but it's late and I've been wearing a mask for four hours straight now and I'm hungry #Bridgerbore

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kiarcheo · 4 years ago

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StepBother - Part 2

@tally-braven asked for more stepbother teasing and I said I’d try to put some snippets together… 2800 words later…here we are. Not sure how it compares to the the first part (don’t think it will make much sense if you haven’t read it) but I tried.

Some episodes are inspired by real life events…feel free to try to guess which ones.

As usual you can read it on ao3 too.

--------------------------------

Kat and Cathy stand at the entrance of the house they share, still holding hands, as they have been for the entirety of their walk home after dinner.

‘Hate to leave you like this, but I have something to take care of.’ Kat raises Cathy’s hand to her lips, kissing it briefly.

Then she opens the door and gone is the soft voice. ‘You better start running!’

‘Wow,’ Anna is almost bowled over by Mary running up the stairs. Few second later it’s Katherine who narrowly manages to avoid crashing into her.

‘What's happening?’ she cautiously steps into the living room, wary of another possible collision, as she hears a door slamming.

‘No idea. Kat came back with Cathy, told Mary to run and...that happened.’ Jane waves her hand towards upstairs.

‘Mary! Open the door!’ Kat bangs on it. ‘I know how to pick locks and you know it.’

‘She does??’

Cathy is not sure why they are looking at her, but she is saved from having to reply. She did not know about it, just for the record.

‘Is Mae sleeping yet?’ Kat pokes her head out from up the stairs, a grimace on her face.

Jane looks at time. ‘She was playing with Anne and Elizabeth so probably not, but-’ she gives another pointed look to the clock hanging on the wall.

‘Got it. I’ll try to murder her quietly.’

**********

‘I have some news.’ Kat announces entering the room.

‘You finally leaving?’

Kat glares at Mary. ‘As if I’d ever give you the satisfaction.’ She turns around to leave the room.

‘Wait!’ Jane stops her. ‘What was the news?’

‘The moment is gone.’ Kat shrugs. ‘But I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough.’

Sometime later Cathy knocks on the doorpost of Kat’s room. ‘Can I?’

‘You know you don’t have to ask.’ Kat smiles at her. ‘What can I do for you?’

Cathy steps in. She glances between her girlfriend and the hallway. She closes the door.

‘Oh.’ Kat wriggles her eyebrows. ‘That kind of thing?’

‘Shut up.’ Cathy huffs, rolling her eyes. ‘It’s not like that.’ She says while sitting down in her lap.

‘Mixed messages, darling.’

Cathy tries to stand up, but Kat wraps her arms around her, stopping her. ‘No take backs!’

‘Not that I mind this. At all.’ Kat speaks up after they have been snuggling in silence for a while. ‘But did you come for a reason? Not that cuddling is not a good enough reason.’

‘Right.’ Cathy had almost forgot why she went looking for Kat in the first place. ‘Jane said you had news, but you didn’t actually tell them?’ She doesn’t think it’s anything big, trusting Kat would tell her in that case, but she is curious. ‘Because Mary ruined the moment?’

‘When does she not? And it’s not news for you.’

‘Uh?’

‘At least I hope.’ She adds cheekily.

‘You think you’re funny, don’t you?’

‘Well, you are smiling...’

‘Spit it out.’ Cathy can’t deny the evidence, can she?

‘I was just going to tell them we are dating, but alas…’

Cathy nods. They had agreed at first to keep it under wraps to see how the transition from friends to girlfriends would go, but now they feel secure enough in their new relationship to let the others know. ‘So, what now?’

‘I’m sure it will come up...out soon.’ Kat gets a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. ‘You can’t keep your hands off me after all.’

‘Me.’ Cathy gives her teasing girlfriend a deadpan stare, before looking down at the hand on her thigh. Kat’s other hand is currently under her shirt, resting on her lower back. Cathy’s arms are innocently looped around Kat’s neck. ‘Sure.’

**********

‘I think green is definitely your colour.’

‘As if I would ever be jealous of you.’ Mary scoffs.

‘Interesting that’s where your mind went to...I was thinking more Wicked Witch of the West. Or Shrek.’ Kat adds after a beat.

‘First of all, I’d be Fiona – at the very least – since I’m a lady. Second, who would you be? Donkey?’

‘There is literally Puss in Boots, a literal character who is a cat in boots,’ Kat gestures to the ones she is wearing, ‘and you went with freaking Donkey?’

‘Shut up.’

**********

‘How is coming along, girls?’ Catalina asks, entering the kitchen to check how the preparations are going since they are on cooking duties and Mary is not exactly known for her culinary skills. Indeed, Kat has different piles of ingredients already washed, chopped, prepared and ready to go and Mary has...a bowl full of green leaves in front of her and some mangled carrots on the chopping board. ‘Kat, you work fast.’

‘I’m very good with my hands.’ Kat winks at her.

‘Are you serious? Right in front of my salad?’

‘I wouldn’t call that poor excuse of something a salad... Perhaps just...sad.’

Mary stares at her. Looks at her mother who is chuckling. Then she leaves the room.

‘Where are you going?!’

‘Want me to make her come back?’ Mary might be a young adult, but Catalina is still her mother and she will listen to her if she knows what is good for her.

‘Nah. Not like she was that helpful, anyway, wasn’t she?’ She jokes, gesturing towards Mary’s workstation.

‘Are you talking behind my back?’ Mary comes back. She has a strong sense of duty – her mother doing – and it is her turn to cook, after all.

‘Nothing I don’t say to your face, don’t worry.’

**********

‘What’s this?’ Mary picks up a small object wrapped in colourful paper.

‘A gift, if I have to guess.’ Anne gets a glare from Mary, but she shrugs it off.

‘Oh, that’s nice.’ Jane comments, watching curiously as she opens it. It’s a...peeler?

‘I would say that’s all you are good for, but that’s not even true.’ Kat shows up as if evoked. ‘Hence the need for that.’

Anna barely suppresses a snicker. She loves her friend, but Mary’s incapacity to peel vegetables with a knife without cutting off half of the good part is hilarious almost as much as her blaming the quality of the knives. Is it true that they don’t make knives like they used to? Maybe. But as if as a princess and then queen she ever had to handle one to peel a vegetable....

‘Or not.’ Jane mutters, the way Kat and Mary manage to turn even the sweetest gesture into something...not sweet baffling her as usual.

‘I’m going to poison your food.’

‘That would imply you cooking...so I think I’m safe.’

**********

‘Kat, are you gonna marry mama and be my new mom?’

Kat chokes on her tea, nonetheless she motions Mae to get closer. ‘Why are you asking?’

Mae shrugs, before leaning against Kat’s leg.

Kat wraps an arm around her and holds her closer, before looking at her thoughtfully. ‘Did someone say something?’

The toddler nods. ‘Mary told me to ask you.’ She admits guilelessly. Oh, the blissful innocence of children.

‘Of course, she did.’ Kat mutters.

Thankfully Cathy comes in distracting Mae from her task. ‘Ehi baby, have you shown Kat your drawing yet?’

As Mae runs off to get her latest artwork, Kat turns to Cathy. ‘What do you think of starting to call her Mary?’

‘It’s still going to be as confusing as it was when we decided for the nicknames?’ She looks at her perplexed. Kat should know better than anyone since they had the same “problem”. ‘With two of them around and all?’

‘Oh, don’t worry.’ Cathy’s usually sweet girlfriend gives her a shark smile. ‘The other one won’t be around for much longer.’

**********

Cathy and Kat are out together, Mae in tow, when they stop in front of a stationery shop.

‘She still has plenty of colouring books.’

‘I was actually looking at that,’ Kat points to a set of coloured pencils heavily discounted, ‘but now that you mention it...’

‘I didn't know you liked to draw too.’ Kat has a penchant for spoiling Mae (and Elizabeth and Edward), but pencils that expensive and fancy for a toddler are too much even for her. Hopefully.

‘For Mary.’ Kat replies absent-mindedly as she enters the shop.

‘That's nice.’

Kat swirls around. ‘Never say anything like that again.’ She gives her a level stare. ‘If you want this to work out. There is nothing worse you could do to me.’

‘Really??’ Disbelief is heavy in Cathy’s voice. ‘Nothing worse??’

‘Well, on purpose, anyway.’ Kat amends herself. ‘Would you cheat on me?’

‘Of course not!’ Cathy’s reply is immediate and certain, no hesitation whatsoever. ‘Never.’

‘Are you going to hurt me...physically?’

‘What the fuck, Kat! NO!’

Everyone in the shop turns to look at them, but Kat ignores it. ‘Exactly, so yes, that’s the worst thing.’

**********

‘Give me a good reason!’

Catalina walks in what looks like yet another spat between Kat and Mary. She would make a joke about pigtails pulling and crushes or about fighting like an old married couple, but she is not sure she would survive unscathed, filial affection be damned. And the joke is not worth the headache, especially since she knows it’s not like that at all and will never be. Not to mention that she suspects something is going on between Kat and Cathy.

‘And “I was the Queen of England” does not count!’ Kat continues before Mary can reply. ‘The whole bloody house can say that, you’re not that special!’

**********

It’s late at night, pretty much the only time Cathy has to do her own stuff, after taking care of kids, house, family, work and everything else, as many mothers know.

She is working at her desk when she hears a muffled commotion. Then her door opening and a soft thud.

She turns around. For a second she wonders if it had been just a draught, before seeing Kat sprawled on the floor but already raising on her knees.

‘Are you okay?’

‘Yep!’

‘Why are you on the floor then?’

‘Mary shoved me.’

Cathy has stopped questioning these kinds of things. But as Kat looks up, eyes bright, face flushed and...dopey grin? She has another question. ‘Are you drunk?’

‘Nope!’ She tries to stand, giving up not even half-way through the motion. ‘Maybe a tiny bit.’ Evidently deciding that walking is a no-go, Kat starts to crawl on all four.

‘Tiny bit my ass.’ Cathy snorts.

‘I like your ass.’

‘Wait here.’ Cathy ignores her girlfriend’s muttered words.

‘Not going anywhere.’ Kat promises in a what is probably supposed to be a serious tone.

When Cathy comes back with a glass of water, Kat had somehow managed to reach the bed and sit on it.

‘Drink this.’

‘Are you trying to get me drunk?’ Kat squints at her, suspicious.

‘I don’t think you need my help for that.’ Cathy hands her the glass. ‘What happened exactly?’ she asks after Kat dutifully drinks all the water without further protests.

‘Mary got me drunk. To get me to confess my feelings to you. Joke’s on her.’ Kat sniggers. ‘She paid for all the drinks. But I don’t need to be drunk to tell you how much I like you.’

‘Lay down.’ Cathy gently pushes her as she sees her starting to waver. ‘Wait...she still doesn’t know?’

She looks at Kat, face scrunched up and eyes closed. She would not fall asleep like that, right? She leans on her elbow so that she is hovering over Kat’s face, just to check.

‘She keeps saying I’ll owe her for getting us together and I keep telling her no,’ Kat looks deep in thoughts. ‘So maybe not?’

Suddenly her eyes shoot open and she grabs Cathy by her collar, tugging her so close to their noses are almost touching. ‘Never tell her that!’

She tilts her head. Gone is the intense look in her eyes, replaced by a sappy expression. ‘You’re so cute!’

Cathy lets out a cackle. ‘Go to sleep.’

‘Here?’ She looks around as if realising for the first time she is in Cathy’s room. ‘No funny business!’ she wags her finger at Cathy but scoots over while tugging her down so that Cathy would lay down properly too.

‘You’re the only funny thing here.’ Still, Cathy settles next to her.

‘Good.’ Kat puts her head on Cathy’s shoulder, slinging an arm across her waist and a leg over hers. ‘They say you need to make a woman laugh to keep her. And I want to keep you forever.’

‘How can you go from absolutely ridiculous to absolutely charming in the space of-’ Cathy turns her head to look down at Kat. ‘And you’re gone.’ She sighs. Well. At least now she knows what type of drunk Kat is. Thankfully she isn’t a violent or aggressive one (she honestly can’t even imagine her girlfriend like that) or an angry one. She is not a sad drunk, either, which is a bit more surprising, since she has plenty of reasons to be sad (and angry, if she were to be honest) about her life even when sober.

She glances at her desk. Then at her sleeping girlfriend. She should keep an eye on her. No matter how adorable she was when drunk, she is quite sure she is gonna hate herself when she wakes up. She supposes work can wait another day. And a little bit more of sleep isn’t going to hurt her either.

‘How much did she drink, exactly?’ Cathy asks the next day.

‘Is she okay?’ She sees a flash of concern in Mary’s eyes, before she schools her expression into an indifferent one. That’s why Cathy just rolls with their antics. She can’t say she understands their relationship. She is not sure she will ever do. But she knows that they care about each other...even if they will deny it until their dying breath.

‘Depends on your definition of okay. Is she alive? Yes. But she is also deeply regretting the fact and calling for a second beheading, so make of that what you will.’

**********

‘Since it’s only a question of time, I wanted us to discuss it so we can be all on the same page.’ Anne sends Kat and Anna a pointed look. She would be proud of how Elizabeth has them wrapped around her little finger if it didn’t make her life as a mother harder. They ignore the jab, unfazed. They have a role as the cool, fun aunts to maintain. ‘Let’s talk about animals in the house.’ Elizabeth has been dropping not-so-subtle hints about wanting to get a pet.

‘What about Mary?’ Kat gets hit in the head by a rubber. Thrown by Mary, of course. ‘Let’s call pest control. I vote for extermination.’

**********

‘You two are having sex.’ Mary storms into the living room, where Anna had told her Kat was watching a movie with Cathy.

‘Catalina, why didn’t you tell me, I would have paused the movie.’

The older woman sputters, the popcorn she was eating going down the wrong pipe. Cathy reaches around Kat, who is sitting in the middle, to pat her godmother on the back.

‘Also, Mary, dear,’ Kat continues unperturbed, ‘do you spend a lot of time thinking about me and your mom together?’

‘That’s not what I meant, and you know it.’

‘Do I?’ Kat looks at Mary as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, eyes twinkling.

**********

‘I know I'm right and I’m gonna prove it.’ Mary slams her hands on the table, glaring at Kat.

‘You’re not.’

‘I am.’

‘Not.’

‘Am.’

‘Not.’

‘Am.’

‘Not.’

‘How long will you keep it up?’ Catalina asks, weary amusement in her voice.

‘I can go for hours, babe,’ Kat winks at her.

‘Right in front of...your girlfriend!?!’ Mary turns to Cathy. ‘And you are okay with that??’

‘I’m not going to get into this.’ Does she love Kat? Yes. Is she in love? If not already there, she is surely falling. But is she going to get involved into whatever you would call the thing between Kat and Mary? No, thanks. She may be in love, it doesn’t suddenly make her stupid.

‘Wait.’ Mary does a double-take. ‘Are you admitting you’re dating??’

Everyone looks at them. They would have told them, right? Kat doesn’t say anything.

The lack of denial is all Mary needs. ‘This is gaslighting!’ Mary looks and sounds absolutely outraged.

‘I never denied it.’ Kat objects. ‘Just that it’s because of you.’

‘Of course it is. I got you two together.’

‘You are not even able to get two braincells together.’

‘Are you saying I'm stupid?’

‘I’m saying you don’t have a romantic bone in your body.’

‘I set you up on that movie date!’ Mary reminds her pointedly.

‘That movie made me cry!’ Kat is kind of sorry that she will never be able to discuss the beauty of that movie, and what it meant to her, with anyone else but Cathy. But she will never give Mary the satisfaction.

‘Just admit it.’ Mary cries out in exasperation.

‘Over my dead body.’

‘We can arrange that.’

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t100ficrecsblog · 4 years ago

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three thoughts about raven reyes (& 1 thought about Murven endgame)

ONE

I loved Raven Reyes from the millisecond she showed up on screen. I started watching from the very first episode of t100 but I got truly invested once she showed up and that has never changed. She’s so complicated but at the same time her motivations are simple to figure out if you consider her past and what it was like for her to grow up on the Ark. This might get me some shade but I don’t think a lot of fandom understands Raven at all, and that makes me sad (and also angry lbr). She’s one of the most forgiving characters on this show, she wears her heart on her sleeve and you never have to guess where you stand with her. Raven can be tremendously kind and understanding but she can also tear you down and make you feel small if she disagrees with your choices. I happen to think this is one of her strengths. She deserves so much happiness even though she thinks she doesn’t. It’s not even remotely a stretch to say that she may very well be my favorite character of all time. -JENN

A beautiful, iconic genius. I love how from her introduction, there’s no problem she can’t handle or won’t approach. She’s Raven Reyes and she’s a badass with an amazing mind. Yes, she faces challenges, as all these characters face, but she has such a tenacity when it comes to approaching them which I really love. I think it’s been so great to see this character, played by such a great actress, during the years of t100. -RYN

i find she’s often overlooked for how much representation she brings to the show. she’s not necessarily underrated, but just not appreciated enough for how much she can mean to people. raven reyes is a woman in stem, a woman of colour, and a woman with a disability. on top of that, she is so kickass and kind and funny and beautiful and strong - she isn’t reduced to tokenism, she is an integral part of the show. i love raven reyes and lindsey morgan for the comfort and inspiration they give so many people. -ELLE

TWO

Her strength is something that I think is both one of the most powerful and interesting parts of her character. Her season four arc really broke my heart, in the best way since I love pain, but I absolutely loved that she chose to live. That she fought back against every odd and said “screw that” and powered on. She does struggle, yes, she feels pain and experiences loss and everything else that all the characters face, which I think is important, to show that she isn’t unbreakable. She also confronts those struggles by continuing forward though, and doing what she can for herself and her people. -RYN

despite what canon says, i think that she has always been morally gray in her actions. she took extreme actions against grounders in season one. she wanted to turn murphy over to the grounders in season two. she was pretty complacent in the nightblood experiments in season four. she helped with the flame in season five. in season seven, she wants murphy and emori to keep up the prime act. she’s complex and contradictory and realistic and human. -ELLE

For Raven, family is everything and once she counts you as hers, she’s not letting go without a fight. She felt this way about Finn, which I hated at first, but I have come to appreciate their relationship more and respect her feelings for him as her family even after what he did. She’s willing to do anything for her family, including stay behind alone in space, facing likely death like when it meant getting Spacekru back to Earth safely. We see the devastation she takes on when she loses family and how it haunts her and also influences her actions. This outlook is still going strong in s7 when she fights to bring Echo back to herself and throws being a family in Bellamy’s face when she feels that he has betrayed them. I don’t think anything motivates Raven more than family. -JENN

THREE

Thinking about regrets I’ll have that we likely won’t see for Raven, I think it’s particularly traumatic that Finn, Sinclair and Abby all died right in front of her while she could do absolutely nothing about it. All three were her family and I think the helplessness & guilt that she felt regarding their deaths (and to an extent Monty & Harper too, based on what she says after learning of their deaths) really plays a big role on who she has become over the seasons. I wish canon took a deeper look into that but I do think Lindsey does a particularly good job at showing devastated emotions (sob) so at least I got that. I am truly turning myself into a pretzel to cross my entire body that Raven gets her happy ending, but I will add the caveat that it better make sense for her & not be some bs last-minute move that ruins her character either. -JENN

We love color symbolism!! I love Raven’s red jacket and the repeated red symbolism we get for her. Not just because, of course, it ties with Murphy’s symbolism as well (I see you red jacket patch, I see you), but also because I think it shows her character so well. I enjoyed it so much when they brought the jacket, or one like it, back this season, and think it shows how all the character arcs, but specifically hers, are circling back and connecting them to who they were in season one to who they are now. Hopefully, this circling will include satisfying conclusions for her and the others. -RYN

raven reyes is the only one who should be allowed to call murphy a cockroach. with anyone else, it bothers me, but with (the) raven, it’s fine. i think that’s just because of the development they’ve have. it was a title born out of hatred, but it has since evolved into an inside joke for the pair, and it’s even a bit of a mantra. i know a lot of people disliked the “go be a cockroach” line in season seven, but to me i think it was her way of saying (in a high stress situation) “i need you to survive, like you always do” á la season four’s “go. survive” and “that’s what cockroaches do, right?” lines. every cockroach needs a raven. -ELLE

what’s your ideal ending for Murven?

I feel like there’s two viewpoints I’m torn between - what I want to happen vs. what’s appropriate for the story. IMHO the ending for them that’s appropriate for the story is that they die together. It’s a huge part of their dynamic that canon has set up since early s2. If the show does it well, showing that Raven & Murphy actively choose not to leave each other or it’s a scenario where it’s inevitable and they sort of peacefully accept it and perhaps do something heroic at the end, then as sad as I’d be, I’d also probably love it and would completely accept it. And then I’d write reincarnation fic or something, LOL! But what I want to happen - oh well, in that case - I’d like them both to survive and have maybe a hint or two that the option of them being together is there. Personally I don’t need them to be romantic canon in the end if we can at least leave the ending up to interpretation but I would sell my soul for them to kiss onscreen at least once. I don’t care how or why just let me have it!! -jenn

a quiet life in sanctum. i think after all the danger and pain they’ve experienced, they deserve a nice peaceful life. my ideal would be them being together, living in a cute little cottage style house. raven would take over the machine shop, getting to tinker around all day. murphy would work at the bar/kitchen, getting to chat and joke around with people all day. they would come home and talk about their days or hang out with their friends, never without some playful teasing, and then they would fall asleep together - peaceful and happy. -elle

Okay, this is more than simply just sad, but my ideal goal is a final, important moment between them. I have been theorizing and predicting a possible Murphy death since really the season started, and I’m scared to admit I feel like it is heading there. So, while I think it’s gonna break my damn heart, I want Murphy to have a true hero’s death (if he does have to die which I am not down with or excited about but what I feel is indeed coming) and a final important moment with Raven, who I feel with pretty intense certainty will live and (hopefully) lead a very full and happy life. It’s not a perfect ending, or the ending I would’ve written for them, but this is where my ideal meets my acknowledgement of canon meets haha. -ryn

it was an absolute delight to interview these three Murven writers! you can find ryn @animmortalist on Tumblr, or here on AO3. you can find elle @hopskipawayon Tumblr, or here on AO3. you can find jenn @easilydistractedbyfanfic on Tumblr, or here on AO3. all three of them are working with @t100fic-for-blm, request a fic written by them there. <3

#t100fic4blm #murven #john murphy #raven reyes #murven fanfiction #meta #murven round-up

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redxblueihateloveyou · 4 years ago

Note

now we know your opinions abt victuri, but what about the other pairing, otayuri?

their sequence was very cute, not gonna lie and you know I am indeed a huge fan of “I’m so good at approaching a cat” ships, but this was like ep 10 out of 12.

like once again I can see good potential in some couples and get why ppl think they can be good together, but I can’t get mega invested in a couple bc of a couple scenes, especially when I don’t know anything about one of the characters. just like as I see potential in some ships, but can easily drop if they don’t have any development at all.

it just always amazes me, I don’t know how some do it and what is the reasoning for this, but I’ve seen it a lot in many popular fandoms like bnha, haikyuu and free! too, when some pick some character that appeared like two times during the whole story or did basically nothing, but there are ppl who are like “fuuuuck he’s my absolute fave in bnha” and I’m like sitting there like “ah, and the pivotal point in this was the shot of his right pinky in ep 17 and his background shot in chapter 251 of the manga?”. lol well, I’m exagerating here, but you know what I mean.

like how I saw a comment under the new free! trailer that was “you have no idea how happy I am about the fact that I’d get to see kisumi again”.. like I like kisumi, but he’s not even a full on character there tbh, he’s mostly a comedic relief. but you see, as they say “there are a great many opinions in this world... (the end of this tho “and a good half of them are professed by people who have never been in trouble” lmao). like some are gonna watch the last chapter of free! for kisumi, to each their own.

like I’ve seen ppl making amvs about nash from knb and a chocolate commercial and I’m like “I wish I could get inspiration that easy”, bc I’m sitting here like with a giant list of things I want in a ship and characters that’d make me open sony vegas lol

some think the best ship is a ship you have almost no canonical material about. and yes, I know the song “in canon they have never met, but I don’t care, I ship it”, and I've seen ships whose some scenes I find cute and think “yeah, it could’ve been great if it was explored”, but I’ll just watch it and move on, that’s all. I do not get how you can get SOOOOOO invested into smth that doesn’t really exist with the characters who weren’t even explored.

so with characters like otabek like from these 10 minutes he was in the anime and the tiny “madness” comic, you can only go so far in predicting what kind of person he is. so where ppl get this asdfghjhgfds this suddenly got me inspired to write a 100K fic about them, it’s truly fascinating to me. I just don’t think really it counts as a fic about THEM per se, it’s much closer to the yuri/original character. all that they gave you is a guy who wanted to be friends with yuri supposedly for the fact that he’s purposeful and inspiring which is great and amazing start for a good ship, totally get him, but then I don’t know him.

like once again in fanfiction you can do technically whatever you want, but it’s just funny to me like when ppl are writing fics about some characters who they don’t know nothing about, I’m like.. why not just write an original book and sell it instead, I mean, bc it’s basically your character already, for real. just change the name and make some money instead lolz. like some fanfiction is more of a just fiction really, bc there are some fics, you can really just change names and you won’t even get who it was supposed to be.

I do kinda have different type of ships: those I find cute, but sometimes tend to even forget about them after watching smth (so basically whatever, but I enjoyed it while watching tho), then ships I liked enough that they made me want to vid them; then if I want to do a manip vid about a ship, I like them a lot; if I vid them more than once, I’m probably in love with them xD And if it’s stuff like my harurin playlist that contains 15 vids and wangxian 13, that’s probably means I’m obsessed lmao. that’s all.

so otayuri goes to the 1st category to me, I guess, I enjoyed their couple interactions, yes, it’s a good start for ship, yes, do they have enough stuff to make me care a lot? unfortunatly, no. they did for sure make this episode pleasant to watch tho for me, not gonna lie xD for a moment I was like “yeah, yeah, okay continue pls”, but then I was like “ah, I forgot, that its not about it and it’s like second to the last episode” lmao

#answered #anonymous #anime #shipping

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carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory · 5 years ago

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Dippy in Star Wars?

Hello again from Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Section of Vertebrate Paleontology. With Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker—and, not coincidentally, CMNH’s own Star Wars After Dark event—on the horizon, I figured it was finally time to call attention to something that, as a dinosaur scientist and ginormous Star Wars nerd, I think is pretty cool. I’ll cut right to the chase: I’m about 95% sure that our museum’s beloved ‘Dippy’ (formally known as the type, or name-bearing, fossilized skeleton of the dinosaur Diplodocus carnegii) makes an appearance of sorts in the original 1977 Star Wars (now known as Episode IV: A New Hope).

Why, you ask, do I feel comfortable making this pretty random claim? Well, a couple summers ago, the title image on this Kickstarter page (shown immediately below) led me down one of the internet’s countless rabbit holes.

David West Reynolds with some original ‘bones’ of the krayt dragon in the Sahara Desert of Tunisia.

The photo shows archaeologist and filmmaker David West Reynolds in the Tunisian desert in 1995, at one of the sites where the scenes on the planet Tatooine were shot for the 1977 film. The big white objects are the actual ‘bones’ of the gigantic replica skeleton (that of a huge Star Wars Universe beastie known as a krayt dragon) that appears behind C-3PO on Tatooine early in the film. Here’s a shot on the off chance your memory needs refreshing:

C-3PO may be fluent in six million languages, but I bet he has no idea what he’s really looking at here. Photo from this site.

Yes, the krayt dragon’s fake bones were actually just left in the Tunisian desert after George Lucas and company were done with them. They’ve since been ‘rediscovered’ by David Reynolds, my good friend and fellow paleontologist Michael Ryan, and many others.

After encountering Reynolds’ pic, and therefore seeing some of the krayt dragon’s bones up close for the first time, I realized that they had clearly been modeled after those of a sauropod (a giant long-necked plant-eating dinosaur, what most people think of when they hear the word “brontosaurus”). In particular, the bones seemed to strongly resemble those of Diplodocus carnegii. Being the resident dinosaur researcher here in ‘the house that Dippy built,’ this piqued my interest. Could the krayt dragon have somehow been inspired by D. carnegii?

Three views of the type specimen of Diplodocus carnegii here at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. If its vertebrae (backbones) don’t look familiar, they should.

This led to some Googling, which yielded this decade-old blog post from my colleague and sauropod specialist Matt Wedel of the Western University of Health Sciences. Therein, Matt convincingly argues that the backbone of the krayt dragon is based on Diplodocus, though he can’t be sure which particular species or specimen of this dinosaur would have served as the inspiration. (The dragon’s skull, however, bears no close resemblance to that of any actual dinosaur, so it was clearly just invented.) Moreover, a few of the commenters on Matt’s post claim that the dragon skeleton is one and the same as the replica ‘sauropod skeleton’ used in the obscure (and apparently quite terrible, though I’ve never seen it) 1975 Disney film One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, which is set in and around the Natural History Museum in London. Even more Googling supports this hypothesis, as do images of the fake skeleton itself:

Two views of the hideous ‘sauropod skeleton’ from One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing. It should look familiar too. Images from IMDB.

Assuming this was indeed the case (i.e., that the krayt dragon skeleton is the same sauropod prop that was used in One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing), and that (as Matt Wedel had already demonstrated), that sauropod was almost certainly based on Diplodocus, I then tried to determine where the Disney Diplodocus could have come from; in other words, what real Diplodocus specimen(s) it might have been cast or sculpted from. Sadly, I was unable to do so. But the only Diplodocus skeleton (or the only substantial portion of one, anyway) at London’s Natural History Museum during the 1970s was the cast of CMNH’s very own Diplodocus carnegii that was presented to England by Andrew Carnegie himself in 1905.

The London Dippy—a copy of ours—in the Natural History Museum in 2008. How sick are you of seeing these vertebrae? From Wikipedia.

So, in a nutshell, although I can’t absolutely, definitively prove it (yet?), I think there's an excellent chance that the krayt dragon in Episode IV was ultimately based on Diplodocus carnegii. Specifically, the evidence suggests that it was inspired by the cast of D. carnegii in London, either a sculpted replica of that cast or even potentially a second-generation cast of that cast. And by the way, I’m not the only paleontologist who thinks so: as Darren Naish recently said in reference to the skeleton in One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, “… it’s funny to think that it’s meant to be one and the same as Dippy of NHM London fame, and that it ended its life a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.”

In other words, the freakin’ krayt dragon is Dippy – which means Dippy is in Star Wars!

ps… Shameless plug: come see Dippy the real krayt dragon at Star Wars After Dark tonight (December 6)!

Matt Lamanna is the Mary R. Dawson Associate Curator and Head of Vertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

#Carnegie Museum of Natural History #Star Wars #Dinosaurs #Diplodocus Carnegii

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vampexx · 5 years ago

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Just a thought..... **There are spoilers in case anyone’s still watchin’ out......

I have seen probably hundreds of theories floating around tumblr about MLB and season 3 and I just thought that I would throw in my own :) So, ok....

- Chloe......not gonna lie, I'm not surprised. I agree with those that say that she did good things for praise, attention and bragging rights. I do think that it was an attempt to continue being Queen Bee even though she was well aware that literally EVERYONE in Paris knew her identity, she obviously didn't care. She just wanted the fame. Could she still be redeemed? Sure, but...she's still got a long way to go and plenty of work to do, with that being said, the question is......is she willing to do the work even with the bee miraculous and the idolization of ladybug taken out of the equation? That idk, we'll see I guess.

- Fu......alright so......he's gone...... :'( Marinette is the guardian now, not that she's ready for it Lord knows lol but it is what it is at this point unfortunately. The thing with Fu is.....he would always preach about how LB and CN's identities need to be a secret when.....his girlfriend or whoever she is (I can't remember her name) knew he was the guardian, even offered for them both to use a miraculous in some flashback in an episode (that I also can't remember the name of, I think it was origins but idk) to escape danger and protect the miracle box. SO IF SHE CAN KNOW OF ALL PEOPLE, seemingly not being a miraculous holder herself, WHY THE HELL can't LB and CN know!? Kinda hypocritical tbh. Anyways, now that LB is the guardian, there is literally no one stopping her from saying I'm the guardian so I make the rules now but her being as honorable as she is, she still refuses. It would just be too easy I guess if LB came to the same conclusion as the fandom and said, "We knew Fu's identity for the sake of protecting him, and he knew ours in case of emergency (as displayed in Feast).....so then it would only make sense if we knew each others identity." And I'm not sure if they knew that Fu's girlfriend knew but....that just adds to my point, which is there really isn't a reason for them not to know, but like I said I guess it would be too easy that way. Maybe now that the temple is back along with the monks.....maybe they will be the ones standing in the way of the reveal, assuming all the other monks didn’t like what Fu did regarding people knowing their identity (his girlfriend) and are far more strict with the rules. Again, we'll see I guess.

- Alllllright.....*sigh*......Lovesquare/ Drama BS. OK so, look. This whole theory on Marinette moving on from Adrien and Chat Noir moving on from Ladybug.....in MY opinion.....it's BS. THREE SEASONS of you're the girl of my dreams and Mari's intense crush on Adrien, which even though she has gotten better when it comes to communicating and being around him, her crush is pretty extreme. HOWEVER, people seem to forget that when you're 14 or 15, a crush can easily get out of control because....well, hormones....like let's be real, yes it's intense AF but is it far fetched for a typical girl her age? NO, like come on ya'll, really? I feel like that's not really taken into consideration she's still young therefore still immature, and understandably so. Same thing goes for Adrien when it comes to Ladybug. He is obsessed too, maybe not to the same degree as Mari but still, pretty damn obsessed. And between Adrien and Marinette, things started out hella awkward in season 1, but compared to season 3, she HAS grown. THEY have grown. Closer and closer over the course of 3 seasons. Them and Ladynoir too so, obviously they're on the right track. Do they need to grow as individuals? HELL YES ok, that I agree with. Mari and Adrien need ME TIME though. I personally do not believe that they need someone else to come into their lives just to be used as means to get over someone else THAT WE ALL KNOW TOO WELL they aren’t gonna do. Like it has been said that in season 4, it will be decided who wins the Lukanette v. Adrinette war......and in order to continue with the whole made for each other/ soulmate plot, and in order to carry over to the movie (that supposed to be about Ladynoir and their love, it seems) I think between season 4 and 5, Lukanette will lose, (Sorry to all the shippers, no salt intended in this post). I also noticed that it was not mentioned that there will be a decided winner for ship war Adrigami v. Adrinette, at least not that I've heard nor seen, like the other rival ships. That leads me to believe that IF Adrigami happens at all dating wise, they're not gonna last very long at all, or at least not compared to Lukanette IF that happens either. Again no salt intended. In the movie previews that have been released, especially the song, it shows that Chat Noir/ Adrien is still pretty heavily in love with Ladybug. And Ladybug seems just as in love with Chat. Note how Chat/ Adrien says his heart is in a duel, meaning his heart is torn between Marinette and Ladybug, but Ladybug on the other hand, only really talks of patience rather than being torn like Chat which makes me think.....in the movie, DOES SHE KNOW? Talking about eternal love.....without taking into consideration season 4 since obviously it won't start until next fall, I can only assume as of right now that those feelings of eternal love or whatever are pretty extreme to be feelings for Chat Noir alone. It would make sense to feel so intensely if she were to know that CN and Adrien (whom she would both equally love at that point) were the same person. That would make sense to me. Now, when it comes to the ice cream situation in miracle queen, I like to think, like a few others I have seen post on here, that it's referring to themselves as individuals....because like Pink and Blue for Mari makes sense......Green and Yellow for Adrien also makes sense.....(side note: how the hell does orange tie to Kagami, like why not strawberry or cherry?? Idk but ok......? Whatever). Anyways, that's how I see it. I may not be a big fan of Kagami (I personally don't get the appeal, but that's JUST ME) but she deserves better than being a plot device. Same thing goes for Luka, which he's ok in my opinion. Like, Kagami and Adrien have a bond that is irreplaceable as in they were both raised in similar circumstances, and when it comes to Adrien overcoming the consequences/ obstacles that come with that? That friendship is necessary. But I think that the both of them, ESPECIALLY Adrien, don't really know the differences between friendly love and romantic love, same for Luka and Mari....ok, well maybe not Luka but Mari? Yeah. Luka and Kagami deserve to have someone who loves them and only them, just like everybody else. It isn't fair to them that they be in relationships with people we all know that they want to be with, and for however long they may last, only be for the other person to come to a conclusion that they love someone else......so really in all honesty, it all seems so needless, unnecessary, and completely f'd up. I have heard people say that Marinette and Adrien need other people to move on, saying it's healthy but I for one have a hard time agreeing with that. How are you supposed to love someone else when you can't even BEGIN to learn to love yourself and put yourself first? I think that if they both came to the healthy and mature conclusion that they need to time to themselves, and put their mental and emotional needs first for a change, that it will open so many new doors for the both of them. Mari will embrace Luka's friendship and he will inspire and encourage the creative side of her and his calm/ chill demeanor will help her with her anxiety and she will gracefully come into her own and FINALLY OWN HER BEAUTIFUL SH**!!! As for Adrien, he will be more decisive and sure of himself. He will have a better understanding of what he wants thanks to Kagami who, I think, will guide him in that department. She'll help him be not so wishy-washy and encourage him to advocate for himself when Gabriel "Trash" Agreste does SOMETHING ELSE unjust or unfair to Adrien as means to micro-manage his life. And with that he will hopefully have less stress due to his hovering father and maybe loosen up and relax, showing his dorky/ funny/ CN side while Mari becomes more confident/ brave like LB. And let me say that maybe Adrien can help Kagami grow in return, I think we can all agree that she could benefit from better, friendlier social skills and also help her learn that you don't always win/ you aren't always #1, that's not how life works. Ok, now as for the lucky charm bracelets, the theories that have been spread around on tumblr speak for themselves, for instance the ice cream matching each others charms and the thing with the red string in which, I agree with all of those.

- To sum up, Adrien and Marinette have some serious sh** to figure out. Especially with themselves. I would love to see them interact more on a real level which will lead to Adrien no longer being able to deny that he see's her as more than a friend. I wan't them to be so close because with shi** getting crazier around them, they need each other, with AND without the mask so that makes me think that the reveal will happen sooner rather than later. I want them to rely on each other more and more, as Adrinette and Ladynoir, and they have INDEED SHOWN that they can be a bada** power couple while knowing each others identities and COMPLETELY loving and trusting each other with NO wall and NO secrets holding them back. And yes, in all fairness, Lukanette, Adrigami & Ladynoir were all suggested in the (not my) finale, however all those ships cannot canonically stand. **deep, creepy narrator voice** Only one will survive (lol sry). I personally feel that season 4 can play out either way, either with them seeing other people or not, but in my opinion, them seeing other people would be sacrificing realism (because no one gets over not only their crush, but likely their first love, in the span of like a day or so...like c’mon) for dramatic purposes which in all fairness, would not be surprising to me at all but still. Either way, it will eventually lead to a reveal which I think is likely to happen in the movie rather than season 4, I think season 4 will be about Adrinette/ Ladynoir like usual but strengthening emotionally and mentally with aid from Luka and Kagami (and if it happens my way, it would put them both in a more favorable position than just mere plot devices but hey, what do I know). This will likely lead to Marichat being primary ship in season 4 due to Adrien having a chance to fall in love with Marinette and not just LB, and Marinette falling in love with Chat and not just Adrien. Keep in mind that during this, Marinette's love for Adrien won't be gone while she falls for Chat, and likewise with Adrien, coming to love both LB and Marinette. Leaving both of them conflicted, blushing messes in every corner in the love square LMAO IMAGINE THE MESS THEY’LL BE!!!! NOW THAT'S THE DRAMA I LIVE FOR LOL and Lord knows Astruc is all about that drama ya'll LOL Maybe that’s the plot of the movie? The lovesquare imploding? LOL Sounds a perfect way to end the 3 season long drama if you ask me......

- Plus, Chloe thinks Luka's cute??? LMFAO OOOOOH SH**, It's going down, I'm yellin' timber ya'll LMAO uh oh

--sorry this was long <3 thanks for listening--

HAVE A MIRACULOUS DAY ;)

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darkershining · 5 years ago

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Just watched episode 7 of Healin Good Pretty Cure.

At school, Nodoka is getting the feeling that somebody is watching her. Chiyu confirms her suspicions, noting that someone has been following the three of them since yesterday.

In the Bjogen’s realm, the bad guys are having another argument, before Guaiwaru decides to head out to infect the world some more.

At school, Chiyu has the other two girls ignore the person following them until they can lure him into a classroom and confront him there. The person following them turns out to be Michio Masuko, a member of the school’s newspaper club. In fact, he’s currently the only member of the newspaper club. After introducing himself, he admits that he was indeed following Nodoka, getting the impression that there’s a big scoop to be found.

When he starts explaining that he’s noticed that the monster sightings started around the time Nodoka moved to town, the girls briefly worry that he’s suspecting her of being a Pretty Cure, before he reveals his deduction that Nodoka might be summoning the monsters. Nodoka of course insists that’s not the case, but Michio says that whether that’s true or not, he will figure out what the connection is.

At Nodoka’s place, the girls and the Healing Animals discuss the situation. Hinata suggests they just tell Michio the truth so he won’t accuse Nodoka of wrong-doing, but Rabirin reminds them they can’t let anyone discover the truth about the Pretty Cure. Nodoka asks what would happen, and Rabirin admits she’s not actually what consequences would follow, since such a scenario has never actually happened before. Nodoka suggests that Chiyu and Hinata just try to avoid her for a while, since Nodoka is the one Michio is investigating.

The girls give it a try, avoiding spending time together while Michio is around to watch them. Later, as Nodoka is heading home, Chiyu decides to keep Michio’s attention away by trying to break a new school record at the high jumping, giving Nodoka some time to get a head start. When Michio starts catching up to her, Hinata also provides a distraction to by suggesting an article on the latest fashions for the newspaper, allowing Nodoka to get away.

Later on, Nodoka is taking a walk with Latte, when she realizes Michio is following her again. She tries to outrun him, only to trip and fall. Michio runs over to see if she’s okay, and helps her back on her feet. He apologizes to her for getting so caught up in his investigation that he didn’t even consider how she might feel about being chased around like this. He tells her how he once saw a spiderweb after rainfall, and how the beauty of the raindrops caught in it in the light of the sun inspired him to write his first article. After his teachers complimented the article, he continued to seek out more stories, but admits that his tendency to get absorbed in his research tends to annoy others and that’s why he’s the only member of the newspaper club. Nodoka tells him that she doesn’t think getting absorbed in what interests him is a bad thing, and says she thinks the article he wrote about the spiderweb back then must’ve been lovely.

As it rains later on, Nodoka notes that once it stops, she’d like to go out and take a look at a spiderweb herself. Turns out Michio had the same idea, going out to admire a web once the rain stops. Of course, that’s when Guaiwaru shows up and infects a Rain Element on a dew drop to create a monster.

Chiyu and Hinata show up at Nodoka’s place to visit her, when Latte falls ill and alerts them to the situation. Meanwhile, Michio goes to investigate the monster, and notes that Nodoka isn’t anywhere nearby, realizing his conclusion may have been wrong after all. He runs up for an interview, and Guaiwaru briefly considers accepting, before realizing Michio was actually trying to get an interview with the monster, catching both him and the monster off-guard. Guaiwaru is annoyed and knocks Michio aside, knocking off his glasses in the progress.

While he attempts to find his glasses in the greenery, Nodoka and the others show up and transform to fight the monster. While Michio can’t see what’s happening, he does hear enough to get the idea of what is going on. Cure Sparkle scans the monster, and Cure Grace uses an attack with the Harvest Element bottle to weaken the monster before purifying the Rain Element, which allows Latte to recover.

Michio manages to find his glasses, only to discover that the fight is over by that time. The girls to check on the Rain Element, before Michio notices them. He apologizes to Nodoka for suspecting her of summoning the monsters, having realized that wasn’t the case. Nodoka holds no hard feelings against him, and he tells them of his latest discovery, that a mysterious group of girls called the Pretty Cure were fighting the monster. He also notes that in the end, he did discover Nodoka’s secret: Even though she and the other girls were acting distant at school, they’re actually good friends. He notes that this isn’t really a story, and runs off to begin working on his story about what he discovered about the Pretty Cure. The episode ends with Nodoka admiring a spiderweb.

Another good episode! So now we have Michio Masuko, who is sort of a male counterpart to characters like Mika from Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Miyo from Happiness Charge Pretty Cure. He’s pretty funny, I hope he’ll be a recurring character from this point on. I also really liked the scene where he talks to Nodoka about what inspired him to get into journalism.

I’ll be looking forward to the next episode!

#pretty cure #healin good precure

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fictionturnedherbrain · 5 years ago

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Emma (1972)

Doran Godwin, John Carson

Ah, the original 1970s BBC production! Truly a labour of love – six episodes running at forty-five minutes each, filled with minimalist sets, an ageing cast and drawn out scenes. Screenwriter Denis Costanduros and director John Glenister were old hands at churning out period dramas, but tastes have definitely changed. This is a very sluggish series, for the devoted fan only. Closest to the novel in dialogue and decorum, Janeites must be satisfied, but any Austen apprentices might be scared off by the stiff acting and slow pace.

On rewatching the DVDs, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly the four and a half hours flew by – only two sittings – and how enjoyable John Carson’s portrayal of Mr Knightley can be. My dislike of Doran Godwin in the role of Emma Woodhouse remains unaltered, however. She really brings the whole series down, with her forced elocution and rigid posture. I know certain amateur historians like to measure Austen adaptations by the ‘ladylike’ lack of natural expression and movement displayed by actresses, but Doran takes the Botox Method of acting to a whole new level. She delivers her lines like Lady Penelope and moves about the set like a dalek. Apparently, John Glenister saw Emma Woodhouse as being ‘disturbed/slightly unstable’, and cast Doran because she looked the part: ‘Slightly neurotic, a beautiful voice, and a natural grace’. (Well, two out of three ain’t bad.) Plus, Miss Godwin was only twenty-two at the time, the closest in age to Emma Woodhouse of all those who have played the character on screen, yet she looks at least ten years older. Helpfully for her, John Carson was forty-five, instead of Mr Knightley’s ‘seven and thirty’, and Meg Gleed, playing Isabella Knightley, looks older still! A most mature cast indeed.

Plus points for me include John Carson, a most gentle, likeable and cheerful Mr Knightley, Fiona Walker owning the role of the very vulgar Mrs Elton, and a funny if rather frail Mr Woodhouse (Donald Eccles). Carson is far too old for the part, and thanks to the combination of his added eight years and Doran’s very proper portrayal of Emma, the romance between them never really catches on, but they have great screen chemistry on a purely platonic level. Mr Knightley is shown laughing with Emma (‘I wonder what you would do without someone like me to tease, Emma?’), joking with Mr Weston, and behaving like a gentleman with Miss Bates and Harriet Smith. Carson has a cheerful smile, sounds like James Mason, and carries off the Regency tailcoats and top hats with style. If only he were younger, he would be the perfect Mr Knightley! I know that some readers imagine the character to be a grumpy old man, but he’s really not – casting older actors like Carson, or dark, brooding types like Mark Strong, only serves to cement this common misconception about one of my favourite heroes. Fiona Walker is also perhaps slightly too old to play Augusta Elton, but who cares? She is fantastic, truly ill-mannered and ridiculous. I love the scene where she is playing up to Emma, offering her a plate of shortbread, then telling ‘Miss Smith’ to help herself from the tea tray with a dismissive sneer. In response, Doran’s haughty glare – possibly the one expression she truly mastered – is a sight to behold. Mr Woodhouse is perhaps more of a Dickensian caricature than Austen intended in this production, but Donald Eccles dodders and bleats for all his worth, and Costanduros gives old Mr Rumbleguts a few classic lines too (‘Poor Mrs Churchill. Took cold, no doubt, moving from one room to another’). The only scene that jars is his reaction to Emma’s news of her engagement, which borders on a demented tantrum.

Less inspired casting choices, apart from Doran, include Debbie Bowen, who turns Harriet into a gushing simpleton (‘Oh, Miss Woodhouse!’), Ellen Dryden as a buxom but far from maternal Mrs Weston, and Ania Marson’s exotic and angry Jane Fairfax, who actually bellows at her poor aunt in one scene.

Costanduros adheres fairly faithfully to Austen’s novel, but even this lengthy adaptation indulges in dramatic licence on occasion, trimming the edges and bending the characters to fit. Emma and Mr Knightley’s argument over Harriet Smith and Robert Martin is cut short, John Knightley is written out of Emma’s party for Mrs Elton, and both Mr Elton and, crucially, Jane are absent from the Box Hill picnic. One particularly unnecessary revision which baffled me is the background to Jane’s stay in Weymouth – suddenly Mr and Mrs Dixon are new acquaintances looking to hire a governess, instead of Jane’s best friend and her husband. Yet Frank still uses Mr Dixon’s name to tease Jane and throw Emma off the scent – only why would Jane be avoiding her potential employer? Another confusing scene is the pianoforte duel between Emma and Jane at the Coles’ party – Jane sings and plays badly, after having her arm twisted by Frank, and Emma does neither! Finally, after insulting Miss Bates at Box Hill, Emma apologises directly to her the next day, which would never happen. But hey, at least the line most beloved by the Janeites – ‘Brother and sister? No, indeed! – is paraphrased, even if ‘Badly done, Emma’ is cut instead.

The scene in the nursery, with Emma and Mr Knightley making friends while holding Isabella’s baby, is well done, although the very lively child is more of a distraction than the patently fake dolls used in other versions. Harriet meeting the gypsies is also portrayed accurately, maintaining more of Austen’s ironic description than any other take I have seen – the gypsy children beg for money and frighten Harriet, but don’t physically attack her. Instead, she falls over while trying to run away, which is not very dramatic but far less offensive than a mob of feral gypsies manhandling a young woman and stealing her purse. Apart from these hidden gems, however, most of this adaptation is taken up with trivial scenes, like Frank Churchill buying gloves at Ford’s, and not the moments that really matter to the story. The ball is underplayed, cutting Mr Knightley’s strangely energetic choice of a dance with Emma, and the ‘proposal’ scene is very, very flat.

Comparing adaptations, I found the 1972 and the 2009 series to be similar at times, from small details like Emma’s chintz gown and the exterior of the house used for Hartfield, to the added emphasis on Emma and Mr Knightley’s companionship. Perhaps Sandy Welch was influenced by the BBC’s previous production? If so, she did well to choose a livelier leading lady and a younger Mr Knightley! Austen herself warned that Emma Woodhouse would be ‘a heroine whom no one but myself will much like’, and Doran Godwin certainly chose to play her that way. Doran’s Emma is dismissive of Miss Bates and sharp with her father. She drones out the dialogue without expression, while speaking through clenched teeth in a clipped accent. There is absolutely no charm or humour to the character at all, to the point where Mr ‘Knight-e-ley’s reluctant declaration of love is quite understandable. Sorry, but she ruined the story for me.

Would I recommend this adaptation? Yes, to those who have read the novel and seen all the other adaptations, but are still greedy for more, like myself. No, to those who want a flavour of what the novel is about – try Gwyneth Paltrow’s film for a short and sweet summary, or the 2009 miniseries with Romola Garai for a longer but no less entertaining screen translation.

#emma 1972 #emma jane austen #emma woodhouse #mr knightley #doran godwin #john carson #denis costanduros #john glenister

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