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bracefacefreak · 2 years ago

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Thoughts on Mag 62

Oh, I’d totally forgotten this statement but IT IS SO GOOD!!! There is so much here, so much foreshadowing, so many little things you won’t get listening the first time round. It’s definitely worth a re-listen.

Anyway, here are some of my thoughts/feelings/ideas about this episode. Please be warned there will be spoilers for other later episodes of TMA.

Mary is such a little bitch towards Gertrude; her low key snark and clear disdain for what Gertrude does is palpable right from the start. And I love it.

And we have Beholding Pun #1 - “ I know the Institute and me haven’t always seen eye-to-eye...” - Perfect. Flawless. Amazing.

I love how Mary refers to what Leitner did as having “stamped them (the books) with his mark...” I just adore how this parallels what Elias later says about Jon having been marked by the fears. It’s almost as if Leitner hoped that by marking the books he is able beat the fears at their own game. Well, look how that turned out...

Also love Mary opening up the question as to what happened to the books prior to Leitner - what adventures these terrible tomes got up to before they were found and placed in his library? Did others try and collect them?

Interesting how Mary comments on Leitner being too slow, gentle and boring- you get the impression she did not feel he was worthy of having so many books within his possession. I like how it mirrors Gerry’s only interaction with Leitner, when he stopped beating him because he couldn’t believe such a pathetic man could be THE Jurgen Leitner.

SO MUCH FORESHADOWING! - “ You… don’t really go out and look for yourself “ and “They don’t understand up there. They don’t know what this place is.”

Mary’s attempts to get Gertrude to reveal how much she knows - “You do, though, don’t you?” And Gertrude’s answer is just to play completely dumb and act like she has no idea what Mary is talking about. Hahah.

Also “We’re on the same side, really” creeps me out so much. Because in some ways Gertrude and Mary are really similar - strong, independent women, who know what they want and will do anything to get it, no matter what the cost. If Gertrude had rather focused on gaining control of her abilities and becoming “The Archivist” she could have very easily become something quite similar to Mary. On this note, interesting how Gerry finds an almost motherly figure in Gertrude.

SHE WAS NINE YEARS OLD! WTF!?

Mary talks about her mother’s poor pay - I hope Jonah has realised that you can’t pay people sixpence for a day’s work anymore!

From the information we get here, it seems like was Mary’s mother who was from the von Closen line, rather than her father. Given the timeline, I’m going to say that Mary’s mother was also Mary (given in Mag 023 Jon states Mary Keay was born in 1924, when here it’s very clear this Mary was born in 1946.)

Just having fun imaging a young Mary creeping out all the local shopkeepers while looking for something strange and dark to catch her eye.

“...Slavish devotion to you and your patron...” - Jon what on earth do you think she meant by this!? I love that he just ignores all these strange little comments, weren’t you a researcher before moving to the Archives?

People’s different relationships with the fears just fascinate me. We have those using them to gain Power (Elias/Jonah), those who worship them like Gods (The Lukas Family), those who just want to have some fun (Jude Perry), those who give themselves to a power to save themselves (Mike Crew), those who get dragged into it against their will (John, Jane, Oliver.) And then you have the Keay’s who believe these primal fear Gods are somehow watching over them. Also Mary what does that even mean

Jewish Keays anyone?

“...a scent like wet dirt rolling through the building and settling in my chest..” - maybe grave dirt?

I wonder, how Tellison obtained the books I wonder? And how did she learn how to use them? Mary, had some knowledge about the fears beforehand from her family, how did Tellison discover what the book did? Did she have any idea how the books fit into the bigger picture?

Mary’s whole sense of superiority is chilling.

“My inclinations, predictably, were more toward watching than doing the deed myself.” - hahaha. This is so fucking creepy and so clever.

“After a lifetime, I know all its secrets, save one. And I have a pretty good idea about how to find that.” - Except she fucked it up 2 months later.

Also love how we get more hints that the fears are not just a British thing but rather seem to be present in diifferent cultures i.e. the mention that both books are written in Sanskrit. Seriously, where did this doctor get these damn books?

“I could never truly serve it – I just don’t find death that interesting. But I’ve always found a singular devotion far too restrictive.” - I know that Mary couldn’t complete the ritual fully cause of the blood loss but I do wonder if this didn’t have something to do with failure as well.

“Just a bit of viscera” - Hahah. She’s so fucking dismissive. I definitely get the feeling that everyone else looks down on the Flesh as a lower rate entity.

“...though it came back to me after the attack.” How!?

“He’s not exactly big on action though, is he.” THE FUCKING FORESHADOWING! !

“....though, I do rather hate the smell of burning skin.” Funny how both Jon and I didn’t find this a strange thing for Gertrude to say. Definitely the words of a sweet old grandmotherly archivist who definitely does not go around blowing shit up and killing avatars.

“...odd relationship with death is the least interesting part of it” Really John!? Really!? Like I know you’re paranoid but,,,REALLY!?

“The Magnus Institute is not what it appears to be, and until I know what it is, and what it’s for..” - oh sweety! *proceeds to grossly sob*

No strange skin page. - I hope this means that Gertrude destroyed Eric’s page and let him rest.

#this statement is wild #and I love it #mag 62 #first edition #mag 062 #tma 62 #mary keay #gertrude robinson #the catalogue of the trapped dead #jonathan sims

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hineini · 1 year ago

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Why was she lying?

It's probably safe saying I was beyond confused when my mom told me I'm always quoting scripture early this morning. Once I'd finished the bite of oatmeal I was eating when she spoke that statement I didn't hesitate to throw it back, asking her to tell me when on earth I'd last quoted scripture to her. Interestingly, she couldn't offer a date or an incident in response; goes without saying I told her that went to show I don't always cite scripture when talking every day. Given her failure to prove she was right, she semi-tried to backtrack, saying it's cool I can (and will on occasion if applicable) do so. Hours later, I haven't stopped feeling all mixed up about our strange interaction on that level. I mean, scripture's not something I even make reference to during an average day. God knows my highest probability of making reference to my faith's sacred scripture is speaking to homophobic folk to show them God's not homophobic and that-shocker-gay marriage appears within the Hebrew Scripture (as it has to be known if I'm talking to Christian folk; obviously talk about the Tanach if in a group that's completely Jewish and/or if clarifying how different it is than the old testament-its Christian version-if in a group that has some Jews and some Christians all mixed up-mixed up being combined =))

Sure, I had to tease my mom some when she said something about holy ramole, asking if she was adapting Isaiah's sacred vision-wouldn't shock me if he'd been under some kind of influence when he had it in all honesty-, when he said holy, holy, holy (is the eternal one of hosts). His assertion to that effect has found its way into writing one of the best Christian hymns on earth and one I feel completely comfortable making audible as a Jew according to its Jewish origin snug inside the second division of the Tanach. Obviously no one will hear me sing anything about God being a trinity, as many versions of the hymn's lyrics write, but it strikes me as holy so I'm game to sing, thank you. Once she heard me making that known, she started saying it's cool I can speak like that. Simply added to the confusion I'm feeling since, full disclosure, I was hardly quoting scripture making reference to anything in a pretty generic manner.

As I attempted to reassure my mother, I'm simply a Jewish woman who has learned where some core statements of her faith are and others that can serve as defense against queer-phobic folk. Doesn't seem to show I'm always quoting scripture, right???

#god #jewish #jews #jew #queer

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sopxhiea · 4 years ago

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Concurrence

Alfie Solomons X Reader

Drabble

“You ever been?”

Her voice was softer than he’d expect, especially for someone who had been sulking for the past hour or so. She had successfully managed to sneak out of the party right before some old ladies started bugging her about her education and independence and she’d been standing outside for the past fifteen minutes.

It was stupid to talk to him.

She knew that, too well almost as she blew the smoke out of her painted lips. She had some wine in her system, to be fair to herself but that didn’t cloud her judgement like the event she was in had. There were too many faces, too many giggles and smiles thrown her way that she wasn’t willing to return. And she didn’t blame herself for it.

It was her hard-earned title after all.

All of the older ladies knew she wouldn’t settle, or be with a guy in a proper sense anyway. There were girls in the building she was leaning on who’d get married easily, they’d dazzle the men with their smiles and their proper manners. They, unlike her, listened to their mothers and acted proper.

“What?”

His voice wasn’t as she was expecting. It didn’t startle her, not per se and she’d seen him enough times from afar to get used to the bulky form. She wasn’t sure what he was doing in a small, conservative event but was quickly reminded of the ties he had with the jewish community.

Wasn’t he their god on earth?

The girl throwing the party was someone she had to know, someone she could later count on and there weren’t many people she wanted to be around to begin with. Her dress flew around her ankles, a darker shade of green than the girls had. He thought she looked like a child but the cigarette on her hand was enough to fool him to think that her delicate features were older than they actually were.

He had heard things.

In smaller communities, things got around quicker than some would like. Alfie knew she wasn’t jewish, it was obvious from the everything about her but he knew she was close to the community. Close enough to get invited to one of the very small events the younger ones were hosting.

He still didn’t know why he was there.

Sure, one of his oldest mates had invited him and he had made plans to appear but the older ladies got ahold of him and the next thing he knew, it had already been an hour of him roaming around the building. He wasn’t a fan of this kind of celebration to say the least, which was why he was standing on the outside of the building with her.

“In love.” she spoke, mocking the words that came out of her mouth.

Had he?

Maybe sometime before the war, he had loved a girl in some foolish hope he had found his very young self in. Not anymore, he thought. He didn’t see it possible for himself. He was corrupt, wasn’t he? The community accepted him with all the baggage he came with but he was more than sure none of the men would hand their daughter into his hands, willingly.

That’s why brothels existed.

Alfie looked at her then, a very young face in the shadows as her plump lives moved with the cigarette. She watched the smoke evaporate into the air and caught his eyes, with an intensity Alfie was sure only appeared in wild cat’s eyes but he didn’t budge. He wasn’t the type to do that.

Had she?

“Nah.” he said, watching her further and she let him. There was a weight to her Alfie didn’t see fit, she was too young to have that kind of heaviness to her.

He then wondered if she saw the war, sure she had but what she had been through. She probably lost someone, Alfie said to himself but then so had everyone. He knew not everyone took it the same as she looked into his eyes under the moonlight, no longer holding the small stick between her slim fingers.

“Good for you.” she said, a smile in her words. He had caught it, the joy, and didn’t know what to do with it or where to put it. Not quite.

She observed him for a while.

He seemed out of place, out of time perhaps and she pretended the blood she saw on his shoes was normal. It didn’t stand out anyway, only when she realized who he was and what he was doing in a party full of people she was sure he didn’t know because she didn’t know them either.

They were similar, she concluded.

She licked her lips one more before she got ready to go inside again, or so Alfie thought before she drew another cigarette from the box and lit it up. She held eye contact the entire time, in a way that told Alfie some things he didn’t need answered. His voice filled the entire street when he spoke, like his presence but this wild cat looking girl didn’t seem to care about who he was or about the blood on his shoes.

“Ain’t ya’ supposed to be fuckin’ inside, lass?” his words came out, more of a statement more than anything as he looked at her. She smiled this time, really smiled before speaking. He was amusing to say the least and the wine in her system enhanced that.

“I could ask you the same thing, Mister.” she spoke, mocking him almost but he couldn’t care less. The day had been long and he wanted to find his way home, even though he realized that he enjoyed her company more than the people inside the building combined.

“Solomons, lass. The name’s Solomons.” he said, giving her the doubt this time and speaking of his last name. She nodded, taking a drag from her cigarette before staring at her feet and wet shoes. She didn’t seem bothered.

“Sure, it is.” she nodded as she spoke, looking at the sky not too long after that. He found that her face was older than he’d initially thought but she was still young, too young to be there smoking at that hour.

Half an hour more, she said to herself and then he’d pick her up. She’d be out of there soon.

And while she waited, she observed the peculiar man.

“Ya’ don’t like the inside then?” he spoke, more of a statement once again and she looked up to meet his blue eyes. He looked older than he was, she was sure of it.

She shook her head at first and then hugged her coat tighter before she spoke. “Too many faces.”

Alfie shook his head at the response. What did this young little thing know about life? Well, maybe she knew enough not to be interested in it, he had gone to war and seen terrible things around the same age as he suspected she was.

And she was right.

Alfie didn’t have a problem with people per se, seeing as they didn’t even want to look at his face at times because of the fear he exuded. He didn’t mind, he concluded, if a young girl like her came to speak to her, he didn’t mind being feared at all. She looked at his face then and realized he wasn’t that unpleasant to look at, not at all if she was completely honest with herself.

With her tongue dancing over her lips, he watched her watch him. This was a game, neither of them were occupied and she was certainly a bit drunk for it but it didn’t matter at the end of the day because he had been the one to lean forward, invading her space and she did nothing to stop him.

Half an hour, that’s all it was.

She let him when he leaned forward, didn’t kick him in the shin or scream and certainly not when he gently cradled her skull in his large hands. She was sure this was a dream of some kind, the good ones that would keep her awake for longer than she’d want but she wanted to feel him.

And she soon realized that it wasn’t a dream after all.

When his lips met hers.

He wasn’t as needy as the other lads, she made that conclusion right away but waited as he planted his lips on her once more. The kiss was gentle, like a breeze in the spring and it made her wonder what kind of a person he really was. His hands were gentle with her, kind almost and so was his tongue as it danced with hers. She didn’t care for the shout that came from the inside, just the way his velvet lips felt against his.

And then she broke the kiss.

There was a smile on her lips when she did, a drunken triumph but he realized she wasn’t drunk, she was just treading like it around him. She chuckled when breaking the kiss, liking how the strange turn of events took her there. She had barely kissed anyone before, let alone kiss someone the way he had kissed her and it made her feel strange knowing her first real kiss had been outside her friend’s party, with a man no one wanted to speak to because he killed people for a living.

She looked into his eyes then, searching for the monster everyone told her was there in him but only saw a smug set of blue orbs that had just kissed her. Her smile faded soon after, realizing she had about ten minutes left before he came to pick her up.

“If you do this often, you’ll never fall in love.” she spoke, snickering as she took everything to the beginning of the conversation.

And to her surprise, he laughed with her.

Of course he didn’t do this often, this was the first time he’d kissed a strange young little thing outside of a party he didn’t want to be in. He had liked kissing her, would continue if she hadn’t broken the kiss but those were all a given and the real question was if Alfie would see her again.

Probably not, he thought. She hadn’t even given her a name.

“This ain’t common occurrence, lass, I fuckin’ assure you.” he said under his breath but she heard and nodded, not phased in the slightest as he looked down at her.

“Well, if it’s any consolation, your kiss wasn’t terrible so I’m sure you have a chance with the ladies.” she spoke, the words rolling off her tongue like second nature and he watched her, almost bewildered.

Alfie didn’t just have normal conversations, let alone conversations like this and especially with a woman her age.

But that didn’t seem to bother her.

“What’s your name, lass?” he spoke, a desperate attempt to learn her name so maybe he could find her again. He didn’t think he’d kiss her the way he had just now but he wanted to see her and that didn’t happen too often for him to just pass up the chance.

“Why do you ask?” she said, a smile on her pretty lips as he watched her.

Yeah, he really wanted to kiss her again.

She was smart, too. He’d give her that but the only thing he gave her at that moment was the huff of his chest as he looked down at her orbs. She was unusual, that was for sure but in a way that many wouldn’t appreciate which is why, he guessed, she was outside.

“Seein’ as we just fuckin’ kissed, yeah, I’d like to know the name of the fuckin’ lass I’ve been kissin’.” he spoke with a smile, like it was the most obvious thing and it made you chuckle as you looked up at him.

“But you kissed me, I didn’t ask for it so I don’t think it’s a fair exchange.” she spoke, poking at the bear which was something she should’ve never done. She knew that but did it anyway.

She took a step back and offered him a smile he didn’t return. He didn’t understand her, he realized and it bothered him that he didn’t. Alfie wasn’t good with people but he wanted to understand her, to know what had made her the way she was but she was walking away with a smile on her face that made him think that maybe it was too late.

“Lass..” he spoke, voice booming through the streets and made you turn around to see his face under the city lights.

“Yes?” she spoke, getting accustomed to what he was calling her since he didn’t know your name.

He was a fun one, she decided.

Before he could speak, she did. A smirk on her not-so-painted lips anymore as her soft voice filled the empty street. “Look, Mr. Solomons, I’m sure you’ll see me around if you were invited to this party..” her finger pointed to the inside of the building where the chatter and the drinks were.

“If you see me around, you have the permission to kiss me again.” she said, fidgety compared to how she’d been at the very beginning as he watched her leave.

He’d see her again, he knew but he wanted it to be soon.

It wasn’t like the burly gangster got to kiss pretty girls under the moonlight, and not girls like her.

And so he promised himself that he’d see her sooner than she’d anticipated.

-----

Tagging: @clairecrive @parkbearum @sourirez @vetseras @mollybegger-blog @babylooneytoonz @peakascum

A/n: Honestly don’t know what this is, wrote it around midnight with a mid-level fever but maybe it’ll go somewhere? let me know what you thought of it.

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hellzabeth · 3 years ago

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i have opinions about The Prince of Egypt musical adaption and you’re going to listen to them: An Essay

So, quick disclaimer: The Prince of Egypt is one of my favourite movies of all time. The casting, the music, the animation, I think it’s one of the top-tier movies that have ever been made. I went into seeing the London West End production of PoE with a full expectation that nothing I saw on stage would ever live up to how much I love the movie. I was fully aware there are plenty of limitations to what can be shown live on a stage with human actors and props.

That being said, I was enormously disappointed with how the whole thing was handled.

The Good

Now before I launch into a whole tirade of what I didn’t like about the production, it does behoove me to say what I think they did do well.  

The casting of the role of Moses was done fantastically, as was Miriam, Tzipporah, and Yocheved. The swings and the ensemble were really engaged and well placed, going through lots of quick changes to go from Hebrews to Egyptians to Midianites and back. 

The two Egyptian queens, wifes of Seti and Ramses, are actually given names, lines, and character beyond being simply tacked onto their respective kings. We get to see how they feel about the events happening around them, and there’s even a scene where Ramses meets his wife and courts her, whereas in the movie, she stands in the background and says nothing. This is one of the areas I was hoping the musical, which would naturally have a longer run-time, would expand on, and I was pleased to see the opportunity was taken.

Light projections on enormous curtains were used to very good effect, taking us instantly inside the walls of the palace and then out to the desert.  

Over all, the work was really put in to be engaging and emotional, and the orchestra really worked to deliver the right musical beats. 

One of two stand out scenes as being done very well was the opening “Deliver Us”, which included a bone-chilling moment of Egyptians separating a mother and her baby, with her screams as she’s dragged off-stage, and the blood on the guard’s sword. It really brings home the fear as Yocheved tries to lead Aaron and Miriam to the river with her, not to mention Yocheved’s actress nailed the lullaby.  

The second was at the other end of the show, “When You Believe” was beautifully performed by the whole cast, though it was somewhat stunted by what came before...

The Bad

Oh boy.

So the main problem with this show is not the music, not the staging, not even that sometimes the ensemble was a little off-beat (the lai-lai-lai section in Though Heaven’s Eyes comes to mind). Any mistakes there can all be forgiven, since sometimes things just happen in live performance, someone’s a bit off or something’s just not possible to do on the budget allotted.  

The problem is in the script.

The Prince of Egypt movie is a story that stands not only on the shoulders of its fantastic music and visuals, but also on its emotive retelling and portrayal of the characters within - mainly Moses and Ramses. And while the stage musical does spend a lot of time with the two mains, it neglects two other, incredibly important characters.

Pharaoh Seti, and God.  

In the movie, Seti strikes an intimidating figure. He is old, hardened, and wise in the ways of ruling his kingdom - and is voiced by Patrick Stewart, who brings his A-game to the role. Both Moses and Ramses admire him and look up to him immensely as young men, and the relationship he has with both of them deeply informs their characters as the story progresses. It’s from Seti that Moses learns that taking responsibility for your actions is the respectable thing to do (and later, the true horror of having your idol turn out to be not what you think), and it’s from Seti that Ramses takes a huge inferiority complex.

There are two lines that Seti gets in the movie, one spoken to Moses, and one to Ramses. These two lines define Moses and Ramses’ actions later on in the story:

To Ramses - “One weak link can break the chain of a mighty dynasty!” To Moses - “Oh my son... they were only slaves.”

Guess which two lines are absent from the musical?

One Weak Link is turned into an upbeat song, rather than shouted at a terrified and cowed young Ramses. Instead of being openly a traumatic, internalised moment of negative character development for Ramses, it’s treated as a general philosophy that Seti passes down to his son. Instead of a judgement that is hung over Ramses’ head like a sword of Damocles, lingering in his mind through the whole story and coming up in a shouted argument with Moses later, it’s said and then moved on from.  

The “they were only slaves” comment, on the other hand, is absent entirely. This changes Moses’ relationship with Seti enormously, as well as his relationship with the Hebrew people. Upon finding the mural depicting the killing of the slave children, Moses is appropriately horrified, and Seti shows up to comfort him and defend his terrible actions. Moses leaves this interaction... and then sings about how this is indeed all he ever wanted! He has no moment of horrific realisation that his father thinks of the slaves as lesser, as lives that can be thrown away. This means that the scene where he kills the guard doesn’t lead into a discussion of morality with Ramses as he runs away, but rather Moses breaking down about his heritage as though it’s a negative, instead of something he’s realised is just as valuable as his life as an Egyptian. Instead of Moses being shown as having a strong moral core that protests against the idea of any life being lesser, he bemoans his Hebrew blood loudly, and makes little mention of the man he killed. His issue that causes him to run away is being adopted, rather than his guilt that he’s a murderer, and nothing Ramses can say will change it.

Later on, we don’t see Ramses express this opinion either (in the movie - M:”Seti’s hands bore the blood of thousands of children!” R:“Hah, slaves!” M:“My people!”) so it seems the core reasoning for the necessity of the extremes God had to go to in order to convince Ramses to let the Hebrews go is completely gone.

Which leads us into God Himself, as a character.  

God is a tricky topic in general. He is hard to talk about as a concept and as a character, and even harder to depict in a way that won’t offend someone. The Prince of Egypt movie always struck me as a very good depiction of the Old Testament God - vengeful and strong-willed, commanding and yet nurturing, capable of great mercy and great cruelty in one fell swoop. God is incredibly present in the story, a character in and of Himself, speaking with Moses rather than simply commanding him. The conversation at the Burning Bush is bone-chillingly beautiful. Moses is allowed to question, he’s allowed to enquire, he’s allowed to express how he feels about God’s choice, and God is given the chance to respond (and reprimand, and comfort).

In the musical, the Burning Bush scene lasts all of two minutes, during which God (the ensemble cast, acting as one moving flame, speaking in unison) monologues to Moses, and Moses is not given room to question, talk to, or build a relationship with God. Later on, once some of the plagues have gotten underway, Moses rails against God, flinches in his resolve, and tries to back out... and God says nothing. It’s Miriam and the spirit of Yocheved that convince Moses to keep going. As a character, God is nearly absent. Even when it comes to calling upon the Plagues, or parting the Red Sea, God’s voice is absent. Moses does not pray. He does not even use the staff that God encouraged him to pick up as a symbol of his becoming a shepherd of the Hebrews out of Egypt.  

It’s these little changes, these little absences of such vital lines and presences, that ends up changing the whole vibe of the show. Seti is more like a dad than an emotionally distant authority figure, and God is more like an emotionally distant authority figure than a character at all. Ultimately, the whole feeling that one is left with at the end…

The Ugly

… is that the script doesn’t like God, or religion in general.

A bold statement to make, considering the source material is one of the central biblical stories in EVERY Abrahamic religion. Moses as a figure is considered so important and close to god, that The Prince of Egypt, even with its sensitive portrayal, cannot be aired in a number of Islamic states, because it’s considered disrespectful to depict any of the prophets, especially an important one like Moses. Moses is arguably the MOST important prophet in the Jewish canon.

However, I haven’t highlighted one of the most noticeable script changes - the elevation of Hotep, the high priest, to main antagonist.

In the original movie, Hotep is a secondary villain, a crony to the Pharaohs, bumbling and snide and two-faced. He and his fellow priest Hoy are there primarily to juxtapose how charlatans can control power through flattery and slight of hand, reassuring Ramses that Moses’ miracles are merely magic the same as what they can do. They even get a whole villain song, “Playing With The Big Boys” which is a lovely deconstruction of lyrics vs visuals, where while the priests boast that their gods and magic are much more powerful, in the background the staff, transformed into a snake by god, devours and defeats the priests’ snake handily. The takeaway from the song is that God’s power is true, and doesn’t need theatrics.

It’s a good little nugget of wordless world building. And it is completely absent from the stage musical, with only a vague reference to the chant of all the gods names.

Hoy is gone, and Hotep is the only priest. He actively speaks out against the Pharaoh, boasts about having all the power, and is played as bombastic and proud. He’s a wildly different character, even threatening Ramses at one point. In the end, it’s shown that Ramses won’t let the Hebrews go not because he has inherited his father Seti’s cruel attitude towards the lives he considers beneath him, but because he is being actively bullied by the priest, and will lose his power and credibility if he doesn’t do as he’s told. Ramses is even given a whole song about how little power he really has. The script desperately wants us to feel sorry for Ramses’ position and hate the unrepentantly, cartoonishly evil priest.

That’s another matter as well - a LOT of time is dedicated to making the Egyptians more human and sympathetic, portraying them as largely ignorant of the suffering beneath them, rather than actively participating in slavery. Characters speak out of turn without regard for formality and class, even to the royal family. They are casual, chummy even. And this would be fine - in fact, it’s good to have that sort of third dimension to characters, even ones who are doing reprehensible things, to show the total normalcy and banality of evil - if it were not for the fact they still include a completely open-and-shut case of evil right next to them.

Hotep has no redeeming features. And on the other side, God is barely present, certainly not in a relatable context. Moses has several lines about how cruel and unnecessary God’s plagues are - and you know what, in this version, they are unnecessary! Ramses is not the stone-hearted ruler that his movie counterpart is, he has no baggage over being a potential failure, because it was never really given to him in the same way! By taking away Ramses’ threatening nature, numbers like the Plagues lose half their appeal, as the back-and-forth ‘you who I called brother’ lines between Moses and Ramses are completely absent. Moses is faithless, and is less torn between the horror of what he’s doing and the necessity of it for the freedom of his people, and more left scrabbling for meaning that he doesn’t find. And the only thing hanging over Ramses is Hotep nit-picking everything he does and threatening him, which is considerably less compelling than the script seems to think it is.

This is best exemplified at the end, when all the issues come to a head. The angel of Death comes and takes the Egyptian first borns (which was actually a well done scene), and the Hebrews leave to a rousing rendition of When You Believe. But then we cut to Ramses and Hotep, with Hotep openly threatening to revolt against the Pharaoh - whom was believed, especially by the priesthood, to be a living god! Hotep is so devoid of redeeming features he cannot even be trusted to stand by his beliefs! - unless Ramses agrees to chase after the Hebrews. Reluctantly, Ramses is badgered into the attempt.

Back with the Hebrews, Moses parts the Red Sea… not with his faith, not by praying to God for another miracle, not even by using his staff as in the most famous scene of the movie… but by holding out his hand and demanding the ‘magic’ work. Setting aside the disrespect of Abrahamic religions to call one of the most famous miracles “magic” (and my oh my, if there was a fundamentalist of any religion in the audience they might have gasped to hear it), it again belittles the work of God, and puts all the onus on Moses, not as a conduit for God’s work, but as the worker himself. Then, the Egyptians arrive in pursuit, lead by Hotep, not Ramses. Moses sends the Hebrews through first, lead by Miriam, and stays behind with Tzipporah… to offer his life in penance to Ramses! The script has completely stripped both Ramses and Moses of their convictions towards their causes, and Moses cannot even stand by his decision to lead his people.

Then, in a moment of jarring melodrama, Moses has a sudden vision that Ramses, his brother, will one day be called Ramses the Great (an actual historical Pharaoh who reigned 1279-1213 BCE). There is no historical evidence that this was the Ramses that ruled over the Hebrews (there are 11 Pharaohs called Ramses through the history of Ancient Egypt), and maybe if the scene was acted a little better, it wouldn’t have been so sudden or jarring. Even more jarring, is that then Hotep arrives with the rest of the army, and Ramses refuses to lead the charge into the parted sea. Hotep does so himself, and is the one to have the final dramatic moment, being crushed under the water.

The Takeaway

After watching the show, I’m afraid I could never recommend it as either a play, an adaption, or even as a faithful retelling of a bible story. Its character drama isn’t compelling enough to be good as a standalone play, with it two main characters declawed and their core motivations reduced to a squabble between brothers rather than a grand interplay between two cultures and ideas and trauma handed down from their father. As an adaption of the movie it’s upsettingly bad, with grand numbers like the Plagues rendered piecemeal and fan favourites like Playing With The Big Boys missing entirely. As a retelling of the bible story, it’s insulting, completely cutting God out of the equation, taking no opportunity to reintroduce Aaron as an important character (which he was, in the bible, as Moses was a notoriously bad public speaker, with a stutter, and Aaron often interpreted for him) and more importantly, completely erasing God’s influence from the narrative.

I don’t know who this show was… for, in that case. If it wasn’t for drama lovers, movie fans, or people of the faith, then who the hell was it for? Why change such a critically acclaimed and well-beloved story? Why take away all these defining moments? If you wanted to tell a story about how religion is the true evil, how God can command people to do terrible things, and how those who uphold organised religion like Hotep are unrepentant, one-dimensional monsters… why would you tell that through the Prince of Egypt?

Underwhelming at best, infuriating at worst… just watch the movie. Or read Exodus. At least the Bible’s free.

#the prince of egypt #the prince of egypt musical #PoE #review #essay

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dickwheelie · 4 years ago

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this is a few days late but it’s still technically Hanukkah, so! here’s a fic about Jon and Martin celebrating Hanukkah in the safehouse (shhh timelines aren’t real) because I like to project and I really like the idea of Jon being Jewish. a lot of us are having weird holidays this year, away from friends and family, so the boys having a weird one too seemed appropriate. in particular, Jon not having a menorah because I don’t have one this year either :(

the stuff in this is based on my own experiences celebrating Hanukkah growing up in a pretty secular household, so if you see anything that’s “wrong” then that’s why, lol. the prayer is accurate as far as I know though, it’s the same one my family and I sing every year.

(also this is not a good representation of how to make rugelach! if you really want a good recipe, hmu and if you ask nicely I might share my mother’s 😁)

enjoy and Happy Hanukkah!! 💙🕎✡️💙

___________

“I just feel bad,” Martin said, watching from the sofa as Jon put the challah in the oven. “You’re doing all this cooking, and I’m just sitting on the couch like a lump. And this is supposed to be your holiday.”

“Martin, for the tenth time, it’s fine. Besides, the holiday doesn’t actually start until sundown,” Jon called, cheerfully enough, from the kitchen. Jon liked cooking, Martin knew, and he didn’t really see it as a chore in the same way Martin did. Still, this was a special day for Jon (well, eight days, really), and Martin wanted to be of some use. He’d offered to do everything from peeling potatoes to rolling matzoh balls, but Jon, ever the control freak in the kitchen, had stopped him at every turn. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty about not helping out as Jon bustled about, trying to make Hanukkah dinner for the both of them.

More than helping out, really, Martin just kind of . . . wanted to share this with Jon. The way Jon talked about it, it sounded as though he’d had more Hanukkahs alone than with friends or what little family he had. Martin wanted to make Jon feel like he didn’t have to be alone this year, and even if Martin was new to this, he was game to learn. Jon had already told him about the holiday and all the different foods he was making, but there was still some distance there, a disconnect, that Martin knew Jon wasn’t putting between them on purpose. It seemed to Martin more like a force of habit than anything else.

After setting the timer for the challah, Jon nodded, satisfied, and came over to join Martin on the couch. He slouched against him comfortably, and Martin automatically put an arm around his shoulders. Jon had a bit of flour on his nose, and Martin gently swiped it off, which made Jon’s face wrinkle up like a disgruntled cat. Bloody adorable, Martin thought.

“I get a bit of a break before I have to start on the latkes in a few hours,” Jon said. “Got to make those right before dinner so they’re fresh.”

“Can I please help with those?” Martin said, half-joking.

“Fine,” Jon laughed, “yes, Martin, you can help with the latkes.”

“You won’t regret it.”

“I’m sure.”

“Is there dessert?” Martin asked, offhandedly. He hadn’t noticed Jon getting out any sugar or making anything sweet that day. “Do people eat anything sweet on Hanukkah?”

“Well, there’s gelt,” Jon says. “Chocolate coins. But the grocer’s didn’t have any. Unsurprisingly.”

Martin laughed. “Yeah. Probably not a huge priority in the Highlands.”

“People also make rugelach, sometimes.”

“Arugula?”

Jon laughed, not unkindly. “Rugelach. Different from the vegetable. Very different,” he said. “It’s a pastry. A kind of holiday cookie, I guess you could call it. Sweet dough with chocolate or cinnamon inside. It’s simple to make, but I didn’t buy the right stuff for it, and honestly I have enough cooking to do.”

“Yeah? How d’you make it?” Martin asked, innocently enough, though an idea was brewing.

As Jon explained, he waved his hands in the air, miming the process. “You just roll out some pastry dough, cover it with chocolate or cinnamon or walnuts or whatever you like, cut it into strips, and roll them up.” He thought for a moment. “They look a bit like seashells.”

“Huh,” Martin said. “Seems easy enough.” He’d never made dough before, but how hard could it be, really. The hardest part, he figured, would be actually making the things in their tiny cabin and even tinier kitchen without Jon finding out.

Soon after that, the oven timer started beeping, announcing that the bread was done. Martin took advantage of Jon busying himself in the kitchen to slip out the door, giving him some offhand excuse about wanting to get some air, to which Jon waved him off.

In the baking aisle at the grocer’s, Martin quickly realized he was out of his depth. He stared at the display of flour and sugar and baking powder and all sorts of other stuff, utterly at a loss as to what one needed to make pastry dough. He tried, once again, to Google a recipe on his phone, but once again, there was no service and no wifi.

Well, there was always pre-made, frozen dough. Not ideal, but it’d probably work in a pinch. Much faster to make, too, Martin thought as he dropped a couple cans of it into his basket. The filling, at least, he knew he’d be able to handle; he grabbed a few bags of baking chocolate and a shaker of cinnamon, and brought everything up to the checkout counter.

Martin didn’t even know which lucky stars to thank when he arrived back at the cabin to find the kitchen empty, and Jon passed out on the bed in a post-challah, pre-latke cooking nap. Martin gently closed the bedroom door and immediately set to baking.

Going by Jon’s vague descriptions, he rolled out some of the dough into a flat oval shape, but the pre-made kind wasn’t meant to be used all at once, and the end result was a sort of lumpy mass. Digging around in the cupboards, he was able to find some flour, which helped make the dough less sticky, at least. Eventually, he was able to get it flat enough to cover it with the filling, like Jon had told him. Half of the dough he covered in cinnamon, liberally shaking it out all over the dough. The other half he covered with the baking chocolate, which came in little chunks, but he figured it would melt in the oven just fine.

Next, just as Jon had described, he cut the dough into even strips, thin and rectangular, and rolled each of them up, so the filling made a little spiral shape inside. The chocolate ones were a bit chunky and awkward-looking, but, well, it was the taste that counted, wasn’t it.

Martin turned to face the oven, realizing he had no idea how long they ought to bake for, or at what temperature. He checked the instructions on the tins of pre-made dough, deciding to go by whatever they suggested. It wouldn’t do for the dough to be raw, he figured.

Soon enough, the pastries were in the oven, and Jon was still dead to the world, none the wiser. Martin felt quite satisfied as he cleaned up, mentally patting himself on the back for a job well- and stealthily-done. He’d hide them in the oven, he decided, until after dinner, and then he’d surprise Jon. Smiling, he went to join Jon in bed, curling up next to him as he slept, until he fell asleep himself.

Martin woke groggily several hours later to Jon gently shaking him awake, telling him it was time to make the latkes. He’d already got the batter done, a thick, floury mixture of potato and onion, and a pan of oil was bubbling on the stove. Jon showed Martin how to drop spoonfuls of batter into the pan, patting them down to shape them into little fist-sized “pancakes.” He let both sides brown in the oil until they were nice and crispy, before transferring them onto a paper towel-covered plate to cool. It was simple enough, and Martin was able to finish up the batch as Jon set the table, bringing out the challah and matzoh ball soup he’d made, as well as sour cream and apple sauce to dip the latkes in.

Once the latkes were done (and Martin was quite proud to say they’d come out very nicely), Jon retrieved some red wine he’d gotten in the village and poured them both a glass. Then, as Martin was getting ready to sit down, Jon glanced around sheepishly, gesturing at an empty space on the kitchen counter.

“I, ah, normally I’d have a menorah to light. But obviously I didn’t bring one when we came up. And out here, well, it’s the same as with the gelt. No real place to buy one.”

“Oh,” Martin said, heart sinking. He reached out to squeeze Jon’s hand. “That’s a shame. I’m really sorry.”

“Really, I just wish I could show you,” Jon said, shaking his head as he took his seat at the table. “It’s really lovely. You light a new candle every night, and when they’re all lit . . . I’m sure it’d look nice here, especially.” He gestured at the space in front of the darkened kitchen window.

“Yeah,” Martin agreed, wistfully. He’d seen photos of menorahs before, and he could just picture it, he and Jon gathered around, lighting candle after candle as the eight nights passed.

“Well,” Jon said, turning back to face Martin at the table, “we may not have a menorah, but I can still do the blessing.”

“Blessing?”

“Yes. You’re supposed to do it while lighting the menorah, but, well. I’m sure this will do, given the circumstances.” Jon reached his hand across the table, and Martin took it.

“Alright.” Jon cleared his throat, almost self-consciously, and then began to sing in Hebrew, a melodic, practical tune that sounded comfortable and familiar on his tongue, like a well-worn shawl. “Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheinu, melekh ha’olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav, v’tzivanu, l’hadlik ner, shel Hanukkah.”

Martin couldn’t really sing along to the words, but he nodded along to the melody, and when Jon was done he looked up at him and smiled, and Martin beamed back. They both raised their glasses and drank.

They ate heartily, or at least Martin did, because Jon kept shoving second and third bowls of soup at him, and insisting he finish off the latkes. Not that Martin was complaining, of course; it was all delicious, and Jon did praise him for how nice the latkes had come out.

They left the dirty dishes for later (or, knowing the two of them, tomorrow morning), and after dinner they went straight for presents. Though his options were limited without online shopping or anything outside of the tiny village, Martin had managed to find an adorable little painted china Highland cow in a local antiques shop.

“I know you think they’re cute,” Martin said as Jon lifted it out of the box.

“How did you know,” Jon deadpanned, but he grinned as he brought it up to his nose and stared at its little painted snout. “I love it, Martin, thank you.”

Jon had gone the homemade route, and knitted Martin a scarf. And a pair of mittens. And an entire bloody sweater.

“Oh my god, Jon,” Martin said, staring in disbelief at the mounds of knitwear before him. “How did you find time to do all this? How did you find time to do all this without me knowing?”

Jon looked away sheepishly. “I, uh, I’m a fast knitter.”

Martin shook his head fondly. Unbelievable. But he immediately took off the sweater he’d been wearing and pulled on the one Jon had made. It fit rather well and was as cozy as it looked. “Thank you, Jon,” he said, feeling the sleeves, knowing that every loop and stitch of the fabric had been purposeful. He could practically feel the care and love Jon had put into each one of them. “I love it,” he said, leaning over to kiss Jon at the corner of his eye.

“Well,” Jon said, cheeks darkening, “Happy Holidays, then.”

“Oh,” Martin said, rising from the sofa, “I’ve actually got one more thing. Sort of a last-minute gift.”

“Hm?”

Martin went over to the oven and took out the trays of rugelach. He’d checked them earlier to see if they were cooked through, but hadn’t gotten the chance to taste one yet. “Tried my hand at a bit of dessert,” he said, selecting a couple nice-looking ones and putting them on a plate for Jon to try.

Jon had followed Martin into the kitchen, and was staring at the pastries lined up on the trays. “Oh, well, thank you,” he said, surprised, taking the plate Martin handed to him. “What are they?”

Martin cocked his head at him. “Rugelach,” he said. Wasn’t it obvious?

Jon’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “Ah,” he said, voice strained with positivity. “Of course. Right.”

Martin was starting to get a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Gingerly, Jon took one of the rolled-up pastries, and bit into it.

Martin tried one as well. It was one of the chocolate ones, and it was . . . crunchy. Very crunchy. The chocolate, it seemed, had only partially melted in the oven, and the pastry dough itself was a bit hard to bite through. Besides that, it wasn’t very sweet, the chocolate being too dark and the dough being too salty.

He tried a cinnamon one. Again, the dough was crunchy, and the cinnamon was overpowering without any sweetness to it. Martin considered the possibility that perhaps he ought to have added sugar.

Jon, for his part, was doing his best impression of a person who was very much enjoying the pastry they were eating, honest. “Mmm,” he said, demonstratively, as he swallowed one of the cinnamon ones. “Thank you, Martin, these are . . . delicious.”

Jon was actually reaching for seconds, which Martin knew he was only doing to make him feel better, so he reached out a hand and placed it on Jon’s, stopping him short.

Jon looked up at him. Martin shook his head wordlessly. Jon cracked a smile.

“They’re not good,” Martin said, putting them back on the trays one by one.

“Martin--”

“It’s okay,” Martin said, smiling back at him, “I know. They’re rubbish. I didn’t even use a recipe, of course they were gonna turn out--”

“Well,” Jon said, stubbornly, “you tried. It’s the thought that counts. Thank you, Martin, really,” Jon said, bringing up Martin’s hand to kiss the back of it. “It was very sweet of you to put all this effort into it.”

“Next time, I’ll look up a recipe,” Martin said, bringing one of the trays over to the kitchen bin. Jon was quick to assist him.

“There’s seven nights of Hanukkah left,” Jon said, after a moment’s thought. “We can always try again. Tomorrow, we’ll get more ingredients, and I’ll show you how to do it properly. It really is easy, you just need . . . well. Sugar, for one.”

Martin laughed as he tossed the last of the batch away. “Okay. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

“I mean it, though,” Jon said, looking at him fondly. “Thank you. For this, and for the cow, and for sharing the holiday with me. It’s . . . this has been really . . .”

Jon was gesturing in the empty air, struggling for the proper word, but Martin understood well enough. “Yeah,” he said. “And thank you, for sharing it with me.” He pressed a kiss to Jon’s cheek.

“Happy Hanukkah, Jon.”

#tma #the magnus archives #jonmartin #martin blackwood #jonathan sims #gwyneth writes #oh shit this is long #it's 2.4k #btw not pictured in their spread is gefilte fish which is a staple in my holiday dinners #but again idk if you could find it in the scottish highlands lmao #not a ton of jews out there i imagine #anyway happy hanukkah yall i love you

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meet-me-in-the-pouringrain · 4 years ago

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Good evening I’m currently crying about the Cullen Family dynamic I have concocted in my head.

- Carlisle and Jasper sitting down together to better educate their old asses on the social conducts / normalities today.

- Esme and Rosalie taking nature walks together and just talking. Mother - Daughter day. Sometimes, if she wants, Alice joins them.

- Emmett fully starting all out battles be it Nerf, snowball or water balloons early in the morning and all of them throw caution to the wind and join in. It usually ends in couple v couple with Edward off to the side in a huff until Bella joins and fuckin obliterates every single one of them.

- Jasper, Emmett and Edward (when he’s not being so annoying) embrace their brotherly relationship. They wrestle, argue, throw things and fight but it’s usually all in good fun. Until Eddie gets pissy then it’s real.

- Carlisle bonds with the kids when they are turned and makes it a point to do it as often as he can after. With Bella, he sits and discusses Literature for hours, with Alice they discuss her visions and he helps her delve into her past, Emmett (don’t tell Esme) he helps him Scheme, Jasper ^^^^, Edward they barely talk now that Bella is in the picture but when they do they could be up there for hours talking about whatever. He tried with Rosalie but she scares him.

- Esme makes it a point to spend time with the kids too. She and Emmett discuss their farm lives and debate over easier methods, Alice tries to style her differently every summer, Bella and her cook, Jasper usually prattles on for hours about horses and whatnot and Esme smiles patiently unwilling to tell him her farm was a vegetable one and not animal. Sometimes he just wants to be near her because she had the Best Vibes , Rose and her bond over their trauma at first but it slowly morphs into idle chatter about nothing. Edward, in my head, clings onto Esme more than anyone thinks because she reminds him of Elizabeth and usually is just around her while Esme is busting herself with design or painting.

- They honour Esme’s Jewish heritage along with Carlisle’s Anglican beliefs every December and have a mix of the two holidays. Rosalie, Bella and Alice spends hours every November making a menorah for Esme from scratch whereas Emmett, Jasper and Edward tackle the Christmas decorations. Emmett is on light duty. Alice spends hundreds of dollars buying matching clothes and pyjamas for all the Cullens.

- Esme and Bella spends hours in the kitchen whipping up Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner for the pack. Esme also makes various meals for Bella to take to Charlie while they still lived in forks.

- Whenever Carlisle decides to scold one of the children for one stupid stunt or other someone is guaranteed to bite back “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned”

- Emmett calls Esme “Momma” and Carlisle “Pops”. He’s the only one who refers to them that way. But Renesmee called them Nana and Poppy.

- She has nicknames for everyone. Rose is Rosey, Jasper is Jassy, Alice is Alley Cat (Alice thought of it herself and was so proud she tried to get every one to use it. Nobody does) Emmett is Emmy. Bella is simply Mom and Edward is Dad.

- Edward is fucking nice to Rosalie in my head and they have a tradition every December to personalise baubles for the other. 2008 had Rosalie make “Listen to Rosalie next time” whereas Edward made one that stated “you were right”

- Fun Fact! Vampires can smoke weed and drink alcohol in my head. Emmett, Rosalie, Alice and Jasper definitely were/ probably still are smokers. Alice claims it helps her ignore visions when she doesn't feel up to it, Jasper says it helps ignore the emotions emitted by everyone. As soon as he heard that, Edward jumped on the bandwagon and immediately regretted it.

- They can also drink. One bottle of alchohol and they’re all bladdered. The venom sobers them up quickly but hell if Emmett doesn’t make it hard.

- Jasper and Emmett started a weed farm and did in fact start dealing at their school. Once Esme caught wind, however, all hell broke loose because. "You're hundreds of years old Jasper, you should know better!" "What about Emmett" "HE'S EMMETT"

- The Cullens are forced once a month by Esme to have a game night. Not monopoly though, she's still mad over the fact they had to move from Boston because Rose threw Jasper out of the window.

- Alice in retaliation makes them all have a movie night once a month. Once they had a vampire marathon. They put on Dracula, Interview with a vampire, Hotel Transylvania for Nessie and finally They binged Buffy the Vampire slayer. After the first five episodes, Carlisle almost spontaneously combusts and Edward convinces himself that somehow Angel was modelled after him. Bella threw the TV out of the window.

- Renesmee once suggested a huge game of hide n seek. Her and Jacob (who did NOT FUXKING IMPRINT THANK YOU) were the seekers. She found Carlisle and Esme after a few minutes, her parents after 10, Rosalie an hour later, Alice they didn’t find for a week, Jasper was about two weeks and they still hadn’t found Emmett after a month. He convinced Seth to go with him so Alice couldn’t cheat and they each phone at least once a day. He just giggles and hangs up.

- Rose eventually snaps and she and Leah (look I feel she’d get along best with Rose idk why) head out to find him. She comes back a day later with a sheepish and petulant Emmett behind her.

- Edward has written piano pieces for every woman in the coven. Esme actually has about 20 because Edward’s indecisive ass couldn’t sit still when it was the three of them but she’s memorised them all and hums a tune or two when she’s painting. Rose has 5 because he found his music calmed her in the early days, Alice has two and Bella + Nessie have just the one. Edward cries daily about it.

- Emmett was the one who instigated Mothers/Fathers day. He asked Rose and EmoFuck one day what they did for them and Edward had a panic attack while Rose zoomed out the house to go get Esme a bunch of flowers. They celebrated it ever since.

- Bella + Alice + Emmett blasting “Am I a Man or am I a Muppet” on repeat both out loud and in their heads just to fuck with Edward.

- When hunting, Esme has a tendency to climb a tree and just sit and wait for her husband to walk past. As soon as he’s in her eyesight she ‘falls’ onto him/next to him. She fake breaks her leg and he reverts into Doctor Cullen. The coven in absolutely mortified by this and the two love it. They embrace their embarrassing parents act willingly.

- The Cullens have a naughty corner. The two most frequent users are the Choas triplets; Alice, Emmett and Bella. Carlisle has been put in the corner multiple by Esme for his own stunts- such as turning Rosalie for Edward- and once Esme was put in the corner by Carlisle. They won’t disclose what she did but the next time they were all together in town, a group of Drag Queens came up to Esme and asked where she got her body glitter from.

- The Cullens learning from their past mistakes with the Werewolves and being godsends to the communities they live in. Esme baking and cooking food and donating the lot of it, Rosalie helping out at preschools and kindergartens and being called “Miss Rosie” by half the kids, Bella tutoring students in English, Alice donating clothes to women’s shelters, Edward giving music lessons, Carlisle donating money to those in need. Emmett being that guy who protects all the women from creeps, Jasper helping the quiet kids out with confidence boosts, Renesmee just being an all round kind person and the one who can make friends anywhere.

- When they leave Forks for the last Time, Carlisle donates a huge check to the Tribe with a letter giving gratitude and apologising for everything. Billy cried and Sue had to take the cheque and spread it amongst the tribe.

- Jacob continued phasing for the next 20 years, he regularly takes trips to wherever the Cullens are living to visit Bella and Ness. Whenever it happens, Alice buys him a whole suitcase full of shorts and jeans, Esme bounces of the walls in excitement, Emmett loses his shit and Bella is insufferable but they don’t seen Rosalie or Edward of a day for however long he stays. He eventually stops phasing when Billy passes.

#twilight saga #twilight headcanon #twilight renaissance #esme cullen #carlisle cullen #edward cullen #rosalie cullen #rosalie hale #jasper hale #jasper cullen #alice cullen #bella swan

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the-kazoo-kid · 5 years ago

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The Two Types of Goblincore

I’ll begin by saying that I’m a Jewish archaeologist, and one of my main areas of study is the pogroms of Eastern Europe during the beginning of the 20th century. This affects the way I think of goblincore in two major ways:

Goblins were used as a negative caricature of Jews to tother them and incite negative feelings and violence among non-news

I have been accused of only wanting to be an archaeologist so that I can dig up and hoard shiny things

I spend a lot of my time looking at images like this one. It’s an antisemetic political cartoon from 1898.

Look at the crown, the long, hooked nose, and most importantly the clawed, webbed hands. His hands envelope the world, symbolizing the perceived universal greed of the Jew.

This stereotype of the greedy Jew didn’t originate in the 19th century either. It goes all the way back to the Middle Ages when Jews in Europe were banned from occupations other than banking.

So now let’s talk about goblins in popular culture. First and foremost in my mind are J.K Rowling’s goblins who are portrayed as greedy, hoarding and-- you guessed it-- in charge of the money and treasure.

There are even physical similarities between J.K. Rowling’s goblins and the political cartoon above. Note the hooked nose and the hands.

I was about eight when I read the first Harry Potter book. I remember bringing it to a synagogue event where one of the adults remarked about how uncomfortable the goblins made them. Before I was allowed to watch the movie my mother sat me down and explained what was problematic with those goblins and why.

Next up: LOTR

He has the crown and the hands, although not the nose, and while he bares less direct resemblance to that cartoon, this is still an example of antisemitism. This is a placeholder character for a Jew that is disgusting, hoarding wealth, and a direct antagonist to the main characters.

Everquest 2:

(I found another image where this character was specifically labeled The Goblin Banker but tumblr wouldn’t allow me to upload it for whatever reason.) This goblin is so other that it’s not even recognizable as a person, and in fact in the game they’re classed as a Mob Race. Yikes. Additionally, Wikipedia describes them as “attempting to - unsuccessfully - forge gold coins, and yet they have no intention spending any of this money, they simply wish to 'have' it.” This goes along with a lot of the greed aspect of goblins and their obsession with hoarding.

So what do we do?

First, I want to say that just because these pieces of media (or any others) have these problematic aspects doesn’t mean that you have to stop consuming and enjoying them. If we never read books or watched movies or played games that were problematic we would back ourselves into a corner where nothing was permitted.

The important thing is to educate yourself to the point where you can recognize the negative caricature/stereotype in something that you come across, and to not create any new media containing the stereotype.

But what if you really like goblins?

The good news is that this is the first, older kind of goblincore, but it’s not the only one out there. There’s a new wave happening that emphasizes the positive things without including the negative ones. These next examples are technically called trolls in their respective universes, but they really get the vibe that I’m going for.

Boxtrolls:

See? Shiny treasure thing, delight, and no malice. Admittedly the trolls in this movie are some funny looking creatures, but they don’t come across as perpetuating the negative Jewish stereotype to me.

Frozen:

Cute little guys made of stone and moss. They live peacefully, and when they encounter the protagonists they have a nice musical number and then dispense some wise advice. No greed, no bad intentions. Good for them.

(Again, these examples are both technically trolls but I think the idea comes through, especially since they’re so far from the large, lumbering brutes that are trolls in say... Harry Potter or LOTR.)

Now I’m going to hand this conversation over to @goblinblogging who is a Jew working on reclaiming and reworking the idea of what a goblin is and what a goblin does.

-Reid

Now, I know learning that something you’re doing could be problematic is scary! I also know that a ton of people have abandoned goblincore just because they learned of these stereotypes.

However, you don’t have to abandon something you love! What you need to do is educate yourself and learn about why these things are harmful and learn what you can do to make sure you aren’t doing something harmful yourself!

Let's start off with how this stereotype came around (Or at least, one way it originated.) In the book Knockers, Knackers, and Ghosts: Immigrant Folklore in the Western Mines, the author goes into detail about how European origins say the goblins of the mines were the ghosts of dead Jews, sentenced (in properly medieval anti-Jewish fashion) to perpetual restlessness for their supposed role in the crucifixion of Jesus. Which is where the “Goblins live in caves and mines” came from!

So this explains that the ghosts of Jews became goblins because they were being punished for killing jesus. Already a pretty rough start! Now for common goblin appearances that are nothing but antisemitism in disguise. First, and most obvious, large, hooked, warted noses. I don’t really feel like I have to go into much detail about this one. Anyone who took history class in middle and high school should know about Hitler’s propaganda against jews and the depictions of their bulbous noses, often covered in warts. This caricature directly translates over to goblins having their predominant warted noses. Second, Let’s have a look at green skin. Hitler in particular loved to depict jews with green skin, or at the very least, in very green light so it turned their skin green.

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Notice the green tint, the evil sneer, hooked nose, and pointed ears in this one! All very reminiscent of traits we commonly see in goblins.

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This last one is a movie poster “Suss the Jew” produced by Terra Film at the behest of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and considered one of the most antisemitic films of all time. Notice the green skin!

Next is horns and teeth. Hitler in particular would depict jews with devil’s horns hidden under their Kippah (also referred to in Yiddish as a yarmulke, or less frequently as a koppel.) He’d also just depict them outright as demons.

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This one is Ukranian. Translated means “Satan has taken off his mask” Notice how “satan” has huge teeth and horns, red skin, with the star of David carved into his forehead. Also notice how his jewish mask has a large nose.

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This one is from Russia (1919), a caricature of Leon Trotsky, who was viewed as a symbol of Jewish Bolshevism. Notice the red skin and pointed ears. Also notice how he’s sitting above the people down below (who are sitting on skeletons and bones) symbolizing the Jew’s greed, which we’ll get into later.

And then there’s this one, where you can see (white) people inside of the Jew’s mouth, you can also see horrendously sharp teeth crushing them. Also pay attention to the large nose and pointed ears. I just remembered that I forgot to cover another very important anti-jewish facial feature, which is that many jews in propaganda have dark beady eyes and drooping eyelids. These are things you can see for yourself in the images above!

Next, we’re moving on to greed. This one in particular hits me close to home. I’ve heard the phrase “Jewing me out of my money” too many times to count. Or alternately, “Don’t be a Jew” when the other person doesn’t think that I’m giving them enough of what they want. (Could be money, could even be sweets. The first time I heard this phrase I was a little kid and I had a bag of skittles. I wanted to share with everyone but I still wanted to have enough for me to eat myself. I was passing out handfuls when my friend’s older brother (he was a teen) didn’t like how much I gave him. He said to me, “Come on, don’t be a Jew, give me some more skittles”. I didn’t understand and when I asked my mom what it meant later she was horrified.) Jews, and their caricatures, have almost always been viewed as greedy and power hungry. As @whalefromwales said above me, Jews in Europe used to be banned from any job besides banking.

We also have images like this from WWII:

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Anyone who has taken any class where the Holocaust was talked about should be able to recognize this image, The Eternal Jew. He has money in one hand, which is reached out to demand more - he’s also looking at the money, and a whip in his other hand. In his arm, he holds the whole country of Germany.

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There is also this one. A jew, tinged with red, weighs a man’s life against a large pile of money. Notice also how he’s looking at the money - not the man.

And this one should also be easy to recognize. It reads “The Jews - A People of Contagion!” A city burns in the background as a jewish man sits atop a pile of bones counting his money. Notice the bulbous, hooked, nose, black eyes with drooping eyelids, and large hands! Hitler depicted jews this way (and as goblins) in order to segregate us. “Us VS Them”. “We are the Good Human Beings and Jews are monsters!” in order to make it easy for him to begin committing the atrocities that he did! It never happened overnight, there were key stepping stones that built up to concentration camps. One of those was “Jews aren’t really people, so it’s okay that we’re doing this to them. We’re doing it to save us, the Good Christian Germans.”

So what does all of this mean? Well, first and foremost, it means that you have to be careful how you depict your goblins. How? When drawing your goblinsonas or goblin ocs, stay away from drawing them with huge, hooked, and warted noses, don’t make their skin green or red (personally, I prefer grey skin for goblins.) If your goblin has sharp teeth, don’t make them huge and obvious. Because modern goblins are fair folk, it’s difficult to depict them without pointed ears, but try not to exaggerate the proportions.

Behavior: Stop with the “greedy little goblin” thing. That DIRECTLY comes from jewish stereotypes. Your Goblins are allowed to collect shiny things they find, but don’t make them greedy about it! Have your goblin share what they collect, make it a community effort. Sharing the things you love is way better than being miserly anyhow, and sharing more represents what we as goblins should want in our community! Also, be careful with your goblins being terrors. Yes, there are usually evil beings in every single race (whether mythological or real) but just be really really careful. Hitler loved to depict jews eating the Good Germans(™) or terrorizing communities. So even if your goblin is an evil one, be really really careful and be sure to educate yourself first so you’re not just perpetuating the same tired shit that Hitler did.Collecting coins.

Now, this has been a huge topic of discourse lately. Coins are shiney! I understand why people would want to collect them. Hell, I have some awesome 50 cent pieces and gold dollars in my collection. You just can't depict yourself or your goblin character collecting only coins and being very greedy with them. That’s literally doing nothing but echoing the same propaganda that Hitler used against us. Collect them all you want, but if I see “Greedy little goblin hoarding coins all for themselves” I swear I’m gonna hit the fan. To clarify, you can absolutely show off you coin collection in the goblin tags, just be careful how you frame it. “I’m really interested in history, so I collect old coins because I think they’re neat” is waaaaaay different then “Horrible littel crecher is greedy for shiney monies” (That last quote is something I’ve SEEN in the tags, luckily op was just completely unaware of why that was so wrong and they removed the caption after they were educated.)

So please, enjoy being into goblincore. Enjoy the culture and the fantasy. Goblincore is about appreciating the things about us that may be depicted as “weird” or “ugly”. Goblincore is a safe haven for neurodivergent people (I’m Autistic!) and also Trans and other LGBTQIA+ people! It’s a culture for appreciating nature, collecting things that may not be seen as normal, and sharing these things with other people. It’s a culture where you shouldn’t be ashamed to be who you are or afraid to get dirty. Goblincore is a support network for the weirder folks where we strive to uplift one another. Goblincore is wonderful and I’ve been so impressed at how welcoming everyone is! Especially on tumblr! Before the discourse happened, I was sure that goblincore was one of the kindest communities on tumblr. However, I understand why the discourse happened, and goyim in the goblincore tag really did need to be educated, but that doesn’t mean you have to leave! So be sure to educate yourself and be aware of how your actions could negatively affect folks. Listen to other Jewish people and be mindful of what they say. Some Jews are very uncomfortable with goblincore, and for very good reason! And I do not claim to speak for all Jews with this post.

I am trying to reclaim the word goblin for use by any person who wants the label. I no longer want these fantasy creatures associated with such a beautiful and vibrant culture of people. Goblins are very interesting as a fantasy race, but the negative stereotypes do nothing but hurt real life Jewish people. Which is why I’m hoping that folks will read this post and realize what behaviors and depictions of goblins are wrong and harmful. Also, tag your goblincore appropriately! Again, many Jewish people are uncomfortable with goblincore because of antisemitism that has happened in their past. I’ve been compared to a goblin many times! So keep your goblincore in just the goblincore tags. There are many overlaps between goblincore and other micro communities on tumblr (Such as crowcore, cottagecore, naturecore, and vulture culture) but be mindful of what you’re putting in those tags. Most vulture culture people hate us goblins cuz we put pictures of dirt or “I’m just a smol crecher” in their tags, and I don’t blame them! Vulture culture is only for the remains of dead animals, and dead animal remains should be the only things added to those tags. So fellow goblins, I’m going to end this post with a sincere thank you for reading, be mindful of your actions, and most of all, HAVE FUN with goblincore!

Here is where you should be able to read Knockers, Knackers, and Ghosts for free if you want.

TLDR: This is what we, as Jewish people, mean when we say that goblins are based off of negative stereotypes of jews. This is also why some jews get really upset at goblincore, however, there are many ways to participate in goblincore without using harmful stereotypes! So please, use this post to educate yourself so you can both be good goblins and good Jewish allies.

- @goblinblogging

#goblin core #goblincore #goblins #political cartoon #antisemitism #tw antisemitism #antisemitism in the middle ages #harry potter goblins #gringotts #lotr goblins #lotr goblin king #everquest 2 goblins #boxtrolls #frozen #disney frozen

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ronweasleyisourking · 5 years ago

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Hogwarts Class of 1998 (The Longest Post I’ll Ever Make)

This is a project that has taken me over two months to finish but finally, the finished product is here. This is my final list on who the forty students in Harry’s year were and their significance in the books, movies, or video games, along with some of my own headcanons thrown in. (Disclaimer: Not Cursed Child compliant)

Hannah Abbott - HUFFLEPUFF

Don’t Recognize Them? Hannah Abbott was the first to be sorted in Philosopher’s Stone. On several occasions, she distrusted or was against Harry, but joined the DA in her 5th year. She was also made a prefect. Her mother died in her 6th year, most likely killed by Death Eaters and was taken out of school. She came back the next year, joined the revived DA, and fought in the Battle of Hogwarts. She was later announced to be married to Neville Longbottom, but as that is not in the books, it’s up to you.

Susan Bones - HUFFLEPUFF

Don’t Recognize Them? She was one of the first few kids to be sorted in the Philosopher’s Stone. In Chamber of Secrets, due to their shared interest in Gilderoy Lockhart, she is seen with Hermione Granger a lot and were believed to be friends, which would mean that two of Susan’s friends, Justin and Hermione, were petrified. As the war began, it is likely that Susan was scared, having already lost many of her relatives, including, possibly, her parents. In her 6th year, she lost her aunt, Amelia Bones, and also lost her leg in a splinching accident. She did, however, get her leg back. It is unknown if she had any remaining living relatives. She was in both the original and revived DA.

Terry Boot - RAVENCLAW

Don’t Recognize Them? In Chamber of Secrets, he joined the Dueling Club and received a wound that Lockhart told him to pinch off. Later, in Order of the Phoenix, he joined the DA and was seemingly amazed by Hermione Granger’s magical skills. He was one of the twelve students in N.E.W.T. Level Potions. In his seventh year, he joined the revived DA, gave Harry Potter information about Ravenclaw’s diadem, fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, and killed at least one death eater with the spell “Everte Statum”.

Mandy Brocklehurst - RAVENCLAW

Don’t Recognize Them? She was one of the students sorted in Philosopher’s Stone and did not make further appearances.

Lavender Brown - GRYFFINDOR

Don’t Recognize Them? Lavender Brown was the first student to be sorted into Gryffindor in Philosopher’s Stone, making her the roommate to Hermione Granger, whom she had conflicts with, and Parvati Patil, who fans believe was her best friend. She took great interest in Divination and looked up to Professor Trelawney. In her fourth year, she went to the Yule Ball with Seamus Finnigan. She joined the DA in her 5th year, though she briefly believed he was lying. In 6th year, she had a relationship with Ron Weasley that did not end well. In Deathly Hallows, she joined the revised DA, fought in the Battle of Hogwarts and may have been killed by Fenrir Greyback, though it could be argued she only died in the movie.

Millicent Bulstrode - SLYTHERIN

Don’t Recognize Them? Millicent Bulstrode was likely the first student to be sorted into Slytherin in Philosopher’s Stone. In Chamber of Secrets, she dueled Hermione Granger in the Dueling Club and had a cat that Hermione accidently polyjuiced into. She was part of Dolores Umbridge’s Inquisitorial Squad in the Order of the Phoenix, unsurprisingly, as it was full of all, or at least mainly, Slytherin students. Little else is known about her.

Michael Corner - RAVENCLAW

Don’t Recognize Them? Not much is known about Michael Corner until his later years at Hogwarts, when he began dating Ginny Weasley and joined the DA because of her. He had trouble disarming her because of his feelings, which is how Harry Potter and Ron Weasley found out about their relationship. His relationship with Ginny ended when he was a sore loser after Gryffindor beat Ravenclaw in Quidditch and at some point, he began dating Cho Chang. He was one of 12 students in N.E.W.T. level potions and at the end of his 6th year, did not participate in the battle that broke out for some reason. In Deathly Hallows, he joined the revived DA, was tortured by the Carrows for releasing a first year student, participated in the discussion about Ravenclaw’s diadem, and fought in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Vincent Crabbe - SLYTHERIN

Don’t Recognize Them? Usually seen with Gregory Goyle and Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe is usually seen as more of a follower than a leader, and also quite stupid. In Chamber of Secrets, he was tricked into eating cakes that would make him pass out, and Ron Weasley took one of his hairs and polyjuiced into him. He, along with Malfoy and Goyle dressed up as dementors in Prisoner of Azkaban to scare Harry Potter, and passed out badges that read “Support Cedric Diggory” and “POTTER STINKS!” in Goblet of Fire. He and Goyle caused Harry Potter, George Weasley, and Fred Weasley to get lifetime bans from Quidditch. At the end of his 5th year, his father was arrested for being a death eater, and when he went after Harry for being the reason his father was in Azkaban, he was transfigured into a slug. In 6th year, he was forced to transfigure into a girl to guard the Room of Requirement, which Malfoy was using to repair a vanishing cabinet that would help death eaters get into Hogwarts. He died in the Battle of Hogwarts, after falling to his death in the Room of Requirement.

Tracey Davis - SLYTHERIN

Don’t Recognize Them? Never mentioned in the books, not even at the sorting, her character is mostly known about from out of canon sources, specifically Pottermore. She is listed on J.K. Rowling’s Original Forty list, which is one of the top inspirations for this list. She is listed as a Slytherin, and is likely a halfblood.

Fay Dunbar - GRYFFINDOR

Don’t Recognize Them? Fay Dunbar is officially a movie and video game character, but has more information about her than some characters on the Original Forty list, which she is not on. She was likely a pureblood or halfblood, as she only had brief knowledge if of hairdryers, referring to one as a machine for drying hair. She loved Quidditch (she is most likely a beater), may have been in the Gobstones club, wanted to be an auror, and was consistently seen with a ginger girl who she dormed with (see Ainsley Hitchcock). She was in Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. It is unknown if she joined the DA or fought in Battle of Hogwarts.

Kevin Entwhistle - RAVENCLAW

Don’t Recognize Them? Never mentioned in the books, not even at the sorting, his character is mostly known about from out of canon sources, specifically Pottermore. He is listed on J.K. Rowling’s Original Forty list, which is one of the top inspirations for this list. He might be related to Annabel Entwhistle.

Justin Finch-Fletchley - HUFFLEPUFF

Don’t Recognize Them? He is a muggleborn, likely from an upper middle class family, as he was preparing to go to Eton before going to Hogwarts. He was sorted into Hufflepuff in the Philosopher’s Stone. He is seen as a bit of a suck up as he tries to flatter and impress many characters throughout the books. An incident involving the Dueling Club led him to distrust Harry Potter, and was petrified sometime later, leading his friends to distrust Harry as well. Though they got along well after Chamber of Secrets, he distrusted Harry again in Goblet of Fire, supporting his fellow housemate Cedric Diggory instead. Still, he joined the DA in Order of the Phoenix. As a muggleborn, he did not return for his seventh year and may have went on the run or may have been tracked down and killed. His fate is unknown.

Seamus Finnigan - GRYFFINDOR

Don’t Recognize Them? Seamus Finnigan is an Irish student at Hogwarts and one of the boys whom Harry shares a dorm with. His most notable quote is actually one that is misquoted in the movies (The actual quote is “ “I’m half-and-half,” said Seamus. “Me dad’s a Muggle. Mum didn’t tell him she was a witch ’til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him,” btw). He is well known for setting things on fire, the first occurance being when he was partnered with Harry in Charms class while learning the levitation charm. Seamus knew quite a bit about quidditch, sometimes lending tips to Harry, particularly before his first match. He was partnered with Ron during the Dueling Club, and was knocked to the ground by Ron’s malfunctioning wand. He was often seen with Dean Thomas, even outside of school. His greatest fear in third year was a banshee. He attended the Quidditch World Cup with his mother and Dean, rooted for Ireland, and at some point purchased a rosette for the team. He believed Harry tricked the goblet to let him compete in the tournament. He went to the Yule Ball with Lavender Brown. Seamus did not believe that Voldemort was back, most likely due to his mother’s beliefs, and did not originally join the DA, though he did start going after Harry’s interview in The Quibbler. Seamus tried out for chaser in his sixth year, but was turned down and Dean Thomas became chaser instead. Seamus returned to Hogwarts in his seventh year, joined the revised DA, and fought in the Battle of Hogwarts. His patronus was a fox.

Anthony Goldstein - RAVENCLAW

Don’t Recognize Them? Anthony Goldstein was a distant relative of Tina and Queenie Goldstein, I personally believe they and his great-grandfather were cousins. He, like them, is Jewish. He did not appear at the sorting. In fifth year, he became Ravenclaw prefect, along with Padma Patil. He, believing that Umbridge’s DADA classes were worthless, joined the DA. He was paired with Zacharias Smith during at least one of the meetings. He was part of the group who turned Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle into something that resembled giant slugs on the train at the end of the year. Anthony returned to Hogwarts in his seventh year, joined the revised DA, and fought in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Gregory Goyle - SLYTHERIN

Don’t Recognize Them? Usually seen with Vincent Crabbe and Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle is usually seen as more of a follower than a leader, and also quite stupid. In Chamber of Secrets, he was tricked into eating cakes that would make him pass out, and Harry Potter took one of his hairs and polyjuiced into him. He, along with Malfoy and Crabbe dressed up as dementors in Prisoner of Azkaban to scare Harry Potter, and passed out badges that read "Support Cedric Diggory” and “POTTER STINKS!” in Goblet of Fire. He and Crabbe caused Harry Potter, George Weasley, and Fred Weasley to get lifetime bans from Quidditch. At the end of his 5th year, he was transfigured into a slug when he went after Harry for being the reason Malfoy and Crabbe’s fathers were arrested. In 6th year, he was forced to transfigure into a girl to guard the Room of Requirement, which Malfoy was using to repair a vanishing cabinet that would help death eaters get into Hogwarts. He lost his best friend, Crabbe, in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Hermione Granger - GRYFFINDOR

Don’t Recognize Them? Of course you know her. But I’ll list some of her highlights anyways: Daughter of Magnus and Imogen Granger, sister of Cymbeline and Cornelius Granger, best friends with Harry and Ron, shares a dorm with Lavender and Parvarti, used a time turner to go to all her classes in PoA, slapped Draco Malfoy, prefect for Gryffindor, founder of Dumbledore’s Army, wife of Ronald Weasley, and Minister of Magic; seriously, she’s #goals.

Daphne Greengrass - SLYTHERIN

Don’t Recognize Them? Daphne Greengrass was a Slytherin girl in Harry’s year, most likely friends with Pansy Parkinson. She is sister to Noe and Astoria Greengrass, sister-in-law of Draco Malfoy, and aunt to Scorpius and Indus Malfoy.

Ainsley Hitchcock - GRYFFINDOR

Don’t Recognize Them? Ainsley Hitchcock, usually known as Fay Dunbar’s friend, is a movie/video game character who is ginger and in Gryffindor. She was presumably either a muggleborn or halfblood. She took Care of Magical Creatures and Divinations, along with Fay, dislikes Crabbe and Goyle, and was not a fan of playing quidditch but did watch it.

Wayne Hopkins - HUFFLEPUFF

Meghan Jones - HUFFLEPUFF

Don’t Recognize Them? Usually known as “Megan Jones”, she is never mentioned in the books, not even at the sorting, her character is mostly known about from out of canon sources, specifically Pottermore. She is listed on J.K. Rowling’s Original Forty list, which is one of the top inspirations for this list. She is a relation of Hestia and Gwenog Jones and is a Hufflepuff.

Leanne Kothari - HUFFLEPUFF

Don’t Recognize Them? Leanne Kothari, previously known as simply Leanne, was a Hufflepuff. She was friends with Katie Bell, witnessed Katie being put under a curse at Hogsmeade in the Half-Blood Prince, was a member of the revived Dumbledore’s Army, and fought in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Sue Li - RAVENCLAW

Don’t Recognize Them? Never mentioned in the books, not even at the sorting, Sue Li’s character is mostly known about from out of canon sources, specifically Pottermore. She is listed on J.K. Rowling’s Original Forty list, which is one of the top inspirations for this list. She is listed as a Ravenclaw.

Neville Longbottom - GRYFFINDOR

Don’t recognize them? Neville Longbottom was the pureblood son of Frank Longbottom and Alice Fawley, and was raised by his paternal granmother, Augusta Longbottom, after his parents were tortured. He was the other boy that fit the prophecy (other than Harry). He made acquaintance with Hermione Granger on the train while looking for his toad, Trevor. He was often the butt of the joke, portayed as naive and dumb and was an easy target for Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape, but he was also shown as incredibly brave and extremely intelligent when it came to Herbology. He took Ginny Weasley to the Yule Ball, but was never shown to have a romantic relationship with her. He was a member of the original DA (and also fought in the Battle at the Department of Mysteries) and a founder of the revived DA, and lead his fellow students into the battle. He killed the last horcrux, Voldemort’s snake Nagini. He went on to marry Hannah Abbott, had three daughters, and became the Herbology professor.

Isobel MacDougal - RAVENCLAW

Don’t recognize them? Mentioned in the books at the sorting as Morag MacDougal, I chose to go with one of her previous names revealed on Pottermore - Isobel (I just like it better).

Ernie Macmillan - HUFFLEPUFF

Don’t recognize them? Ernie Macmillan was an academically gifted pureblood wizard sorted into Hufflepuff. He was friends with Hannah Abbott and Justin Finch-Fletchley, and suspected Harry of being the heir of Slytherin briefly until Hermione was petrified. He also believed Harry cheated to get into the Triwizard Tournament and wore Potter Stinks! badges but was ultimately one of the few students that believed Harry when he said Voldemort was back. He was part of the original and revived DA and fought in the Battle of Hogwarts. His patronus was a boar.

Draco Malfoy - SLYTHERIN

Don’t Recognize Them? Stop lying, there is no way you don’t know ferret boy. Key moments would be: son of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black, tried and failed to be friends with Harry Potter, owned a house elf named Dobby until he was 12, got injured by Buckbeak and set off a long trial that led to almost execution of Buckbeak, was slapped by Hermione Granger, got turned into a ferret temporarily, went to the Yule Ball with Pansy Parkinson, was a key source of rumours for Rita Skeeter, was a prefect and a member of the Inquistorial Squad, became a death eater at 16, was assigned to kill Dumbledore and failed, became the master of the Elder Wand unknowningly, at some point became more reluctant in his death eater duties, did not want to identify the trio when snatchers brought them to the Malfoy Manor, was disarmed by Harry Potter, watched one of his close friends fall to his death, was punched by Ron Weasley, and in the movies, was shown to be hesitant to join Dumbledore. He survived the war and later married Astoria Greengrass and had a son named Scorpius.

Lily Moon - SLYTHERIN

Don’t Recognize Them? She was one of the students sorted in Philosopher’s Stone and did not make further appearances.

Bem Nenge - RAVENCLAW

Don’t Recognize Them? Bem was a movie character who showed up in Prisoner of Azkaban as a Gryffindor and is known for his lines in that movie but was later retconned as a Ravenclaw in the Order of the Phoenix, likely due to the fact that there is no sixth Gryffindor boy in Harry’s year.He was credited as “Boy 1″ and “Ravenclaw Boy” in the respective movies, but was identified as Bem in the captions of POA. He is likely half-blood or pureblood, because he had knowledge of the Grim. His name implies he is of Nigerian, specifically Tiv, descent.

Theodore Nott - SLYTHERIN

Don’t Recognize Them? Theodore Nott was the son of a death eater. He was one of three students who could see thestrals in a fifth year Care of Magical Creatures lesson. His father was outed as a death eater at the end of his fifth year, which caused Professor Slughorn not to invite him into the Slug Club the next year. It is unknown what he did during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Pansy Parkinson - SLYTHERIN

Don’t Recognize Them? Pansy Parkinson was often seen with Draco Malfoy. She mocked Neville Longbottom and Parvati Patil in the first flying lesson in Philosopher’s Stone. In Prisoner of Askaban, she fawned over and exaggerated Malfoy’s injury in order to incriminate Hagrid and get Buckbeak executed. She spread rumors about Hermione Granger in their fourth year, laughed when Malfoy hexed Hermione’s teeth to grow to an enormous size, and went to the Yule Ball with Malfoy. She made prefect in Order of the Phoenix and joined Umbridge’s Inquisitorial Squad and also made a racist comment towards Angelina Johnson, led her classmates in a mocking song during quidditch to throw off the Gryffindor team, insulted Harry and Cho on their date, and was hexed into growing a pair of antlers. During the Battle of Hogwarts, she suggested turning him over to Voldemort. She left Hogwarts before the true battle began.

Padma Patil - RAVENCLAW

Don’t Recognize Them? Padma Patil is the twin sister of Parvati Patil and is a Ravenclaw. She is described as one of “the two best-looking girls in the year” though she ended up being asked to the Yule Ball last minute by Ron Weasley, and was mostly ignored by her date throughout the night, eventually ditching him for a Beauxbatons boy. She became Prefect in her fifth year and joined the D.A. , showing a little bit of her rebel side by destroying some of the speakers that Umbridge had placed around school with her sister and Harry Potter, though this was in a video game, not the books. She was pulled out of school briefly at the end of her sixth year, her parents thinking that it was unsafe for their daughters to continue going there but was forced to go back for her seventh year due to mandatory attendance for halfbloods and purebloods. She fought in the Battle of Hogwarts and survived the war, though nothing is known of her later life.

Parvati Patil - GRYFFINDOR

Don’t Recognize Them? Parvati Patil is the twin sister of Padma Patil and is a Gryffindor. She is quick to defend her friends, shown in the first flying lesson when she defended both Neville and Harry. She was also shown to be okay friends with her dorm mate, Hermione Granger, as she was the one to find her crying in the girls bathroom and she also hugged Hermione at a quidditch game. She showed curiosity about the Chamber of Secrets in her second year. She was best friends with Lavender Brown and they bonded over their love of Divinations in their third year, and it was also revealed in this year that her greatest fear was mummies. She is described as one of “the two best-looking girls in the year” though she ended up being asked to the Yule Ball last minute by Harry Potter, and was mostly ignored by her date throughout the night, eventually ditching him for a Beauxbatons boy. She joined the DA in her fifth year, and during one meeting, Parvati produced such a good Reductor Curse that she reduced a wooden table to dust. In her sixth year, Parvati was shown to be a little annoyed by Ron and Lavender’s relationship, but her friendship with Lavender did not suffer. She was pulled out of school briefly at the end of her sixth year, her parents thinking that it was unsafe for their daughters to continue going there but was forced to go back for her seventh year due to mandatory attendance for halfbloods and purebloods. She fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, casting a Full Body-Bind curse at death eater, Antonin Dolohov. She was most likely saddened by the injury and possible death of her best friend, Lavender Brown, who was attacked by Fenrir Greyback.

Sally-Anne Perks - HUFFLEPUFF

Don’t Recognize Them? Sally-Anne Perks was listed at the sorting, right before Harry but was not mentioned again. Her disappearence, specifically the fact that her name was not called during the O.W.L.s pratical examinations, is a mystery that has plagued the Harry Potter fandom for years.

Harry Potter - GRYFFINDOR

Don’t Recognize Them? Idk what this boy was up to, I think he was like semi-famous and killed some evil guy? More importantly, he was best friends with Ron Weasley, the legend, and the Minister of Magic, Hermione Granger, + married that badass Quidditch player, Ginerva Weasley. Father to three amazing kids (James, Arthur & Lily) and has a teaching position at Hogwarts.

Oliver Rivers - HUFFLEPUFF

Don’t Recognize Them? Never mentioned in the books, not even at the sorting, Oliver River’s character is mostly known about from out of canon sources, specifically Pottermore. He is listed on J.K. Rowling’s Original Forty list, which is one of the top inspirations for this list. His house was never confirmed.

Zacharias Smith - HUFFLEPUFF

Don’t Recognize Them? Originally listed as Sally Smith, Zacharias Smith was a chaser for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and although he distrusted Harry, a member of the original Dumbledore’s Army. He was critical, quick to mock, and pretty much thought he was better than everyone - but was a cowardly little shit in the end, opting not to fight in the Battle of Hogwarts. His annoying personality got him on the bad side of Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, and even Luna Lovegood.

Dean Thomas - GRYFFINDOR

Don’t Recognize Them? Hella good artist. Loved muggle football but supported Quidditch as well. Best friends with Seamus. Pretty good Chaser when it came to Quidditch. Huge supporter of Remus Lupin. Went to the Quidditch World Cup with Seamus and his mum. Supported Harry throughout the Triwizard Tournament. Unknown who he went to the Yule Ball with but I’m placing my money on Meghan Jones. Dated Ginny Weasley, and while he was upset when Ginny and Harry first began dating, he harboured no hate towards either of them, probably because he was in love with Seamus. Went on the run during the war because of his unknown blood status and was caught by snatchers and taken back to Malfoy Manor, where he found Luna and Mr Ollivander. Hugged Seamus when he got back to Hogwarts. Fought in the Battle of Hogwarts. Probably more but I’m TIRED.

Lisa Turpin - RAVENCLAW

Don’t Recognize Them? She was one of the students sorted in Philosopher’s Stone and did not make further appearances.

Ron Weasley - GRYFFINDOR

Don’t Recognize Them? Okay, shut your trap, there is no way you don’t recognize the BEST character in the books. Ron “Harry Potter’s First Friend” Weasley. Ron “Chess Master” Weasley. Ron “Opens up his home to best friend” Weasley. Ron “Not only drove to his friend’s house because he was worried but drove AGAIN to get to school on time” Weasley. Ron “Relatable AF because fearing giant spiders is VALID” Weasley. Ron “I’m going to stand in between a known murderer and my best friend on my broken leg” Weasley. Ron “I’m going to let my friend practice stunning spells on me” Weasley. Ron “the person Harry would miss MOST” Weasley. Ron “I’m just gonna casually break Gamp’s Law” Weasley. Ron “Noticed the scars on Harry’s hand first” Weasley. Ron “One of the founders of a secret HIGHLY ILLEGAL organization” Weasley. Ron “We’re with you whatever happens” Weasley. Ron “Follows his best friend on a horcrux hunt” Weasley. Ron “Jumps into a frozen lake to save Harry” Weasley. Ron “I’m extremely famous” Weasley. Ron “THAT’S MY WIFE (Yes I’m basically saying he’s John Mulaney)” Weasley. Don’t tell me you don’t know Ron Weasley.

Blaise Zabini - SLYTHERIN

Don’t Recognize Them? Blaise Zabini was the son of a famous witch who had been widowed seven times and was quite vain. He was one of the view students who got an invite to the Slug Club, most likely because of his mother’s status. While he was one of the quieter antagonists of the books, he belittled Harry’s talent at potions, causing him to get on the bad side of Ginny Weasley. He had no familial connection to the Death Eaters and his role in the Battle of Hogwarts is unknown.

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mechecolomar-archive · 4 years ago

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genuinely curious: do you think that the depictions of homophobic abuse and violence towards lgbt characters in tlou2 outweighs the portrayal of their other experiences and happy moments of love/self expression? is it bad representation if the lgbt characters go through strife and pain as well as being happy and allowed to express themselves? i feel like there are valid criticisms to be made, but views on lgbt rep tend to be pretty polarized, either "it's great" or "it's bad" with no nuance

I think a big issue I have with the characters and representation specifically in The Last of Us 2 is that in the game the characters feel like they were created solely to serve a point in the plot, the game’s tone is progressively bleak (and the violence is gratuitous), and the inclusion of bigotry also felt unnecessary.

As a disclaimer, I’m not saying tlou2, Naughtydog, or even Neil Druckmann is simply homophobic because the gay character gets in fights and all that, but for me personally I felt that the treatment of lgbt characters in the game made me uncomfortable and wasn't satisfying. I’m glad they weren't outright stereotypes, but I’d like it if there was a bit kinder treatment of these characters. It just really feels like nd heard they didn’t do diversity well in the first game and just threw in a bunch of poc and lgbt characters without really thinking... I don’t think what happens is homophobic, but it feels very thoughtless.

The characters in tlou2 are not well done, I’m not sure what happened between The Last of Us and tlou2, but they do not feel the same at all. Every character in the game feels very weak and the player themselves cant name 10 facts about each one, even characters like Abby or Dina (I’m excluding Ellie and Joel because they already existed). This applies the most to Jessie imo, but I’ll only discuss Ellie, Dina, and Lev since they are the lgbt characters in the game. in tlou2 Ellie is just the vengeful character and as Neil put it, “the villain.” tlou2 could have been a wonderful opportunity to add more to her story, but here she’s basically just the traumatized girl who likes girls and is playing the guitar to remember Joel. Dina is basically the player’s partner who is randomly benched halfway through and from a narrative point she is something that Ellie can lose, you learn she has some ability with tinkering, she is Jewish, bi, has a sister... and not much else. Finally Lev feels like the main justification to sympathize with Abby, without Abby he is introduced literally being hunted because he is trans. Every character in the game is like this, but with these three very prominent characters, it’s disappointing.

Next, for tlou2 the violence seems to be double what happened in tlou, being much more detailed and forcing you to look at what is happening (Ellie getting her face smashed in and Abby threatening to kill Dina and its good because she is pregnant). Tlou was able to thread the needle concerning this successfully; having Ellie being kidnapped, hunted, and almost being sexually assaulted to immediately having the famous scene where Joel and Ellie pet giraffes. Tlou also (to my knowledge) did not have those shock value moments 2 constantly has, and when there is violence its rarely explicitly shown. Now in tlou2 this is almost the opposite, instead of going back and forth between intense and calm scenes, the sequel seems to steadily go downhill in tone. I know that these specific characters arent being hurt BECAUSE they’re lgbt, but its still not good to see.

The happiest moments are the beginning with Dina and Ellie, but while they're having fun and making out together what’s happening? Joel is currently getting his face caved in by Abby. Halfway through the game after Ellie and Dina are beaten, it seems to go back up in tone, but ooc tommy forces Ellie to turn back to revenge and the whole thing comes crashing back down. “I’m afraid of ending up alone” Ellie chooses to leave Dina and Ellie’s life is now hell going all the way back to Abby. After all this Ellie comes back to their house but her family is no longer there. Ellie is alone. I have a huge issue with the ending and it’s that you are explicitly shown that everything there is sad. Nd doesn't make “letting go” of Joel a relief, and they don’t show any implication of Ellie reuniting with Dina. Our lesbian protagonist is now living her worst fear, even though she did the “right” thing and spared Abby. Lev’s ending is clearly better because he’s affiliated with Abby, but it doesn’t change that throughout the story he’s repeatedly hurt and has a similar fall to Ellie after Abby thinks she finds the fireflies, he is never explicitly shown recovering from being made a literal slave and almost crucified.

My last issue is that the bigotry is entirely uncalled for, especially in a world that is as already violent as they’ve made tlou2. One of the most striking moments to me in tlou2 is Dina saying, “What’s this” referring to lgbt flags, indicating she has no concept of pride for being bisexual. Ellie also has no clue and they joke about the erotica and thats the end of that. Later Ellie is called a slur. The man who does it isnt exactly punished and Ellie is forced to make up with him later. That scene and the scene at the end somehow included Ellie, but clearly were about Joel. The last flashback is used as a tragic “Ellie could have forgiven Joel but he was killed :(” scene, there’s very little focus about her sexuality positively. Ellie and Dina are also never openly gay, the one time they are (in a room full of maybe 50 people) Ellie is called a d*ke. Ellie’s previous gf is scrapped except for subtle concept art and notes and she only has one conversation in the beginning mentioning a her.

Then on the opposite side of characters, Lev’s entire story outside of and before Abby is being hunted simply because he is trans. He’s deadnamed multiple times and even Abby cluelessly says it (??). There’s endless reasons why he could have been hunted (hell, just simply wanting to leave the cult because theyre so violent), but nd went with this... for some reason. Him being trans is also never discussed in a positive way other than Abby’s weird attempt to make him feel better by giving him a toy (”Hey, I know your group you grew up with and family literally wants you dead, but uh, would a toy help?”). Lev THEN goes BACK to the people who wants him dead, and we’re shown that his mother has viciously attacked him and he accidentally kills her due to this. Him being trans is never mentioned again... I don’t think we have to exactly hide homophobia in fiction, but I personally do not play a game to get called a slur, I can find that irl. Also if these things were to be included, they could have at least shown comfort after, but they don’t. The scenes are simply more shocking violence and are never mentioned again, simply skipped over. Nd used these characters being lgbt as an excuse for them to be discriminated against for it instead of anything positive.

Their advertising of Ellie kissing a girl in 2018 and in 2020 having her be called a slur instantly after what was shown to us is just SO jarring... Nd and their stans like to say, “Well if you don’t like The Last of Us 2, you’re just homophobic.” but that’s honestly so ridiculous. There simply can’t be more instances of oppression than acceptance and think you're doing something good?? Revealing Lev’s deadname gives people an opportunity to be transphobic, having Ellie be called a slur and lash out at Joel after gives people a reason to be angry at her there. You simply can’t include these things if it can do the opposite thing that you want. The point of including minorities in fiction should be so people can related and identify with these characters, not as some virtual reminder that people will hate you specifically for these reasons. It should not be too much to ask for a character you are like to be treated well and nd not listening to fans critique the game is sad,

I suppose I appreciate the attempt at inclusion, but it feels like a failed one that I preferred would not have happened, or at least had been strongly corrected. It would have been different if maybe Ellie had reunited with Dina apologizing, Abby telling Lev she supports him, Joel saying he loves Ellie, or even Dina and Ellie talking about being gay in some way thats anything other than making out and calling each other “babe”, but idk... that didn’t happen. Dina and Ellie are clearly supposed to be the main rep, but I feel like they really missed things they could have mentioned. This rep really reminds me of Life is Strange, but I can’t decide if dying or ending up alone and depressed at the end is worse. I’m probably missing more things but yeah... It would be cool if my lesbian protagonist did not have to be traumatized for an overdone, useless story.

#ask #anon #Anonymous #tlou2 critical #long post #i didnt specifically answer ur questions just because they sound kinda... biased i guess #thats probably not the correct word but ya kno #i could be misinterpreting that but thats the vibe #like its a political question fjdsfkjds #i have more thoughts abt the game overall in my tag but yeah #i feel like left behind was better lgbt rep (and even then i still dont like riley dying)#personal

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bielbraganca · 4 years ago

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𝐡𝐬𝐡𝐪𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤𝟎𝟐𝟖: 𝐆𝐀𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐋'𝐒 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐅𝐅:

𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 | 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲

It may come as a surprise, but Gabriel is extremely responsible and committed to his engagements, especially, because he has a career outside his life as a prince. With F1, he has to be in 5 continents and 21 countries for the biggest portion of the year and his staff has to be a well-oiled machine, with people he can trust to, not only get the work done and represent him when he is not able to do it himself, but understand the life he leads on and work to make things happen as they should.

The majority of his staff payment is made through his personal fortune and only the people working directly through the ends of HRH are redirected to the Royal House. With his retirement on Formula 1, some of these people might be redirected to work on other aspects but Gabriel wants them close. They are like family to him. It’s #Team16 which is the number of Gabriel’s car.

ooc disclaimer: i’m very proud and love this & his team. #dreamteam

𝐅𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐀 𝐌𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐎 — 𝐂𝐄𝐎 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥'𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥 𝐝𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐳𝐚

FC: Stefania Spampinato

In 2012, after attending the Olympic games in London, Gabriel was in a dinner with a few activists and athletes to talk about the importance of sports in the life of children in situations of vulnerability and how it could become an important tool of change. One of the activists in that table was Francesca Machiatto, an Italian researching with a degree in business by the Università di Roma and a master in Science, Politics, and Communication by the University of Oxford.

After that dinner, Gabriel asked for a meeting with her and then, in 2014, The Prince Royal’s Foundation Gabriel de Bragança was born with Francesca announced as the CEO. The Foundation was set up as the vehicle to the Portuguese Prince charitable giving, he intended to use the Foundation as the main vehicle for their future charitable activities and through raising sustainable sources of funds, the Foundation is able to make charitable grants and support projects of particular interest. However, the main focus is to help children, in situation of vulnerability, to thrive through sports. The official location for the Foundation is near the palace in Lisboa, but with Gabriel living in Marabello and then Monaco, they often find each other traveling to meet up.

It’s no surprise they become close during the process of creation, the admiration and gratitude he feels for her is beyond comparison, the foundation is his most prideful project and the money comes from his pocket and sponsorships contracts when need.

Francesca is one of his closest friend, she lives with her family in Portugal and Gabriel is the godfather of her youngest daughter.

𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐔𝐄𝐋 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐘 — 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲

FC: Robert Downey Jr.

There’s a game Emanuel and Gabriel like to play when the prince wants to do something that Emanuel is completely against it, but, since he knows how stubborn and quit annoying Biel can be, he says that if and only if, Gabriel wins the game, he will let him do what he wants. In all the time they know each other, Gabriel has never won, unless Emanuel wants him to, which could be a max of four times.

Emanuel Downey is a Jewish descent whose family has migrated to Portugal after his grandparents got married. Born in Lisboa, he has entered military life right after high school and thriving in his career, gave him a spot as a security guard for the palace when Afonso was King. He made a name to himself inside the Royal House and became a man of trust especially after Henrique’s coronation. When the twins were born, Emanuel was pointed as one of the personal guards and grew closer to Gabriel. You never saw the young prince without Emanuel by his side, even in his most mischievous acts that used to drive Emanuel crazy, he’d find his way to stand close enough. Biel may say he has mastered the art of trick Manuel, but the joke is on himself because Manuel is always one step in front of him. Literally.

It was no surprise when he was invited to be the Head of Security for Gabriel’s team when he formed a staff of his own. He is responsible for the security scheme to all Biel’s travel, when he is working, vacationing or in public engagements for the King. Manuel has also received honors for his work and probably has a viscount or sir status (ooc: need to figure that out)

𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐀 𝐑𝐎𝐙𝐄𝐋𝐋 — 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧

FC: Caterina Scorsone

Antonia has worked with the royal family before but was assigned to be the head of communication & spokes for Gabriel soon after his eighteen birthday — to her own displeasure. They were not very fond of each other, especially because Gabriel was not the greatest ‘boss’ to deal with. He was in the transition of being a teenager and then becoming a young adult, wanting to prosper on his own with a career in Formula One. Back then, the media was loving to see a bit of the irresponsible and misbehaved prince, they fed that reputation and on his 21st birthday when the pictures of a naked poker game in his hotel room was sold to the press, Antonia was with a foot on the door to resign.

Yet, it only took a honest conversation between him and the entire staff working with her so they could understand one another, but especially Antonia. Gabriel came clear, he was afraid, of course, on that end of summer, he was going to be announce as the new driver for Ferrari and that was a dream he worked for so long and also, the Foundation was now a reality. Antonia promised to protect his dream and him, if Gabriel starts to collaborate, listen and work with her. He was no stranger to media training, to etiquetes or how to proper present himself, he is, after all, a member of royal house. These were the things he was taught from early age. Gabriel only needed to put in practice.

Nowadays, Antonia could not be happier with him, he is a lot easier to deal with because Gabriel is not very open about his personal life and only take public engagements when is extremely required. Usually those are related to the Foundation, the Scuderia or when his his Father, the King, asks him to. With Ferrari, he is usually accompanied by the team’s PR. He has learn to stay away from trouble, or at least, to not have it spread all over social media.

𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐀 𝐁𝐈𝐀��𝐂𝐇𝐈 — 𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 | 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫

FC: Ellen Pompeo

Everything related to His Royal Highness, Prince Gabriel of Portugal must pass by Loretta’s desk first (even before Gabriel has any knowledge of). She is responsible to his agenda as a royal and his personal advisor on the subjects and also works close to Francesca, Antonia and Emanuel. She comes from a lineage that has been providing its services to the Royal Family, both in Portugal and Italy. Her father was a military man in Italy who fell in love with Portuguese woman that used to serve the Royal House, they married and had four children being Loretta the middle one.

Like her father, she decided to have a military career, choosing to join the navy when she graduated from the Universidade do Porto with a degree in Business Administration. She came back to Lisboa after her father got sick and Loretta had to help her mother and ended up taking on a job in the Royal House as one of Biel’s nanny. The woman then decided to further her education, she had military training, a business degree but wanted to search for ways to develop and further her career to keep working for the Royal House in Portugal.

Loretta is almost like a mother to him, what she says goes and he trusts her with his eyes closed. They developed a close bond since she has watch him grow right in front of her eyes and, due her age back then she was always full of energy to keep up with his pace, to learn how to play a new sport he wanted, to accompany him in kart competitions, to go watch games and everything in between. It was hard when Biel went away for boarding school, but it was no surprised when he asked her to be his royal advisor and secretary.

𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐀𝐒 ‘𝐋𝐔𝐊𝐄’ 𝐊𝐈𝐓𝐒𝐂𝐇 — 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝 #𝟏

FC: Taylor Kitsch

Born in Texas, he is the eldest of three boys and the one that does not live there anymore. Unlike Emanuel and Pedro, Lucas doesn’t have military training but is a professional fighter with a black belt in many forms of martial arts. Luke was known back home for his career in football as one of the fullback/running backs for his hometown team and, later, for UCLA.

Upon graduation, he decided to not go pro, and instead, he decided to stay in LA and open a martial arts academy with one of his friends from high school. However, Luke made a name for himself when he started to take jobs as a bodyguard. He worked as a bodyguard for high-profile celebrities and met Gabriel when the prince needed to hire a team to help with his protection, during some short passages by the USA. From that time on, every time Gabriel was in the country, his team got in contact to hire Luke until the prince needed to expand his security and was looking for someone to travel with him during the championship.

Gabriel and Luke developed a good relationship and he was more than happy to welcome him to his team. The friendship grew during the years because of the proximity and the amount of time they spend together. Luke is like a family to him.

𝐏𝐄𝐃𝐑𝐎 𝐃𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐎𝐍 — 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝 #𝟐

FC: Brent Dalton

While Luke and Gabriel are more alike and easy going, Pedro is the brain operation and not as connected with Gabriel as he wished and why he hired Luke in the first place. Pedro comes second on the chain of command right behind Emanuel when he isn’t traveling with the entire staff. He is a lieutenant for the Portuguese air force and has served since he was eighteen. Pedro is responsible to execute the security plans and evacuations to assure his HRH security and well-being.

𝐌𝐈𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐄𝐋 ‘𝐌𝐈𝐊𝐄’ 𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐇 — 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲

FC: Jesse Williams

The other American to enter Gabriel’s team is an old friend of no less than Lewis Hamilton and the man responsible to introduce the prince to Mike during Elton John’s Oscar after-party. Mike’s main job other than to keep track of Gabriel’s every move is to be responsible to keep Gabriel’s in contact with the brands, making a network and have his VIP entrance to whatever he wants to. He is not strange to the A-lister celebrities and works closely with Loretta to make sure HRH’s agenda and his life, doesn’t overlap.

Mike is part of Gabriel’s inner circle of friends and used to live with him in Monaco.

𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐄𝐋𝐀 𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐒 — 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭

FC: Minka Kelly

The biggest move of Gabriel’s racing career was the moving from RedBull to Ferrari. It was right after he won his first championship as a driver and everyone expected him to remain in his current team. However, Gabriel had other plans and has always been his dream to drive for the Scuderia, not only because of its tradition but because, since Portugal doesn’t have a team in the competition, he could represent the other side of him. Italy. And since he is a big momma’s boy, it was his way to honor her home-country.

The duo responsible for this change are Manoela and Sofia. Almost like older siblings, they are very much responsible for Gabriel’s career the last five years. It was a big risk. They did not have experience in managing anyone and were starting their company from scratch. Yet, they were no stranger to the f1 world. Manoela or just ‘Manu’ is the daughter of Ferrari’s former team manager/engineer, working with some of the greatest as Mike Schumacher.

Both have a business upbringing, but while Manu is responsible for the contracts and partnerships, Sofia has a law and economics degree focusing more on the development of the agency.

With Gabriel’s retirement, they are becoming partners to expand the agency and work with more talents outside the motorsport.

𝐒𝐎𝐅𝐈𝐀 𝐀𝐋𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐀 — 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭

FC: Sophia Bush

Both have a business upbringing, but while Manu is responsible for the contracts and partnerships, Sofia has a law and economics degree focusing more on the development of the agency.

With Gabriel’s retirement, they are becoming partners to expand the agency and work with more talents outside the motorsport.

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐙𝐇𝐀𝐎 — 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡

FC: Alex Landi

Park Zhao is probably Gabriel’s oldest friend, they met in the boarding school, and in an old cliche story, they have been through thick and thin together. Park is the youngest child of an American biochemical engineer and south Korean surgeon and attended Med School, but decided to not persuade a career in Medicine and became a performance coach and has a famous chain of gyms placed in South Korea, Portugal, Monaco, Brazil and the Unite States (LA and NYC) that Gabriel has 4% of the stocks. (ooc: think Dogpound Gym)

𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐗 𝐌𝐂𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐋 — 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐟 & 𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭

FC: Richard Flood

TBU.

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃 — 𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐭

FC: Lakeith Stanfield

John was hired to be part of Gabriel’s team three years ago when he had a minor incident during a benefit game of soccer. He came highly recommended by but most important, by Park, whose opinion made Gabriel signed the deal. He doesn’t spend as much time with him then he does with Park, but due Gabriel’s last accident, he has been traveling to help on his recovery.

𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐇𝐀𝐌 𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍 — 𝐥𝐚𝐰 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦

FCs: Gina Torres, Gabriel Macht and Debbie Allen

TBU.

#ok lets try this again #this has been on my drafts for so long now that i decided to finish it and just post it #u clearly can see who i wrote when i first started and who clearly was wrote last night #and yes i used the same last names in some because i have no criativity #hshqtask028

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curlytemple · 4 years ago

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niche interests list

okay sure yes this is fun! i havent posted a thing like this in such a long time. thank you new gal pal @scottspack for tagging me!

pigs????

alright first lets throw it back to preschool! my fav childhood toys were my baby doll (snookums) and a plush pig that my grandma got me that i just called ‘pig’ ...i watched the babe movies countless times, and piglet? that anxious little guy GETS ME bro. when my preschool did a nativity play and my class got to choose an animal to be in baby jesus’ manger, my mother recalls me saying that i would be a pig because jewish people (jesus christ) wouldnt eat me. she has no idea how or when i learned about kosher foods. ironically despite my namesake i was too afraid of the movie charlotte’s web to watch it more than once because the scary farmer tries to kill wilbur for being small and the pretty spider dies.

sugar creek gang

OKAY this is a book series from the 40s-70s about a group of christian little boys in indiana who went on adventures in the woods and helped people. my dad read a LOT of chapter books to me as bedtime stories when i was little (see also the mandie series, nancy drew and the hardy boys, little house on the prairie) but sugar creek gang is one that really hit. i read all 36 books with dad and at least once again on my own. there was a series of 4 or 5 movies in the early 2000s when i was the Perfect age to have a crush on most if not all of them. this might be too much detail but i have to tell you about these boys. we WILL not be revisiting the heavy religious themes.

the narrator is bill who is Good and Kind and wants to be a doctor when he grows up. his best friend is a chubby boy nicknamed poetry because he memorizes and quotes poems, he is the Detective of the group. BIG JIM is the leader of the group who is supposed to be like, 14, which was very cool and hot, to me. and yes there is a little jim, who is the baby of the group. then there is CIRCUS who is known for his climbing and acrobatics, and his FIVE SISTERS AND BEAUTIFUL SINGING VOICE. dreamboy. i’m almost done listing boys, i promise. a boy called dragonfly who is allergic to everything and hella superstitious. later in the series a new boy named tom moves to town and tom has an older brother bob who is NOT A CHRISTIAN (bully)

tangentially, the buttercream gang, a movie from 1992 that was almost definitely made by some christians who grew up reading the sugar creek gang series which i’m guessing on vibes alone. will spare you Good Boy details but scott is in love with his best friend pete who moves to chicago and falls in with a bad crowd and scott just refuses to stop LOVING HIM. very gay christian film in retrospect.

peter pan

so i know liking disney’s peter pan isnt niche, but it was the way i liked it. tinker bell stan from day one, i watched all of those disney fairies movies, even the ones that came out after i was definitely not intended audience. there was an online pixie hollow game where you could design your own fairies and play mini games where you gathered dew drops or something. had a HUGE CRUSH on jeremy sumpter in peter pan (2003) then i got really darkly obsessed with the idea of growing up when i was 12 or 13, and everything peter pan was deeply My Shit for my entire adolescence. i read the original book and every other twisted version of the story i could find and seriously freaked myself out about wasting my youth.

shug

you’ve probably heard of jenny han now, or at least the netflix adaptations for to all the boys i’ve loved before and the sequel ps i still love you (always and forever, lara jean, coming soon?) but before she wrote THOSE, she wrote my first ever Favorite Book, about annemarie “shug” wilcox, a girl in the summer before starting middle school. it is SO engraved on my heart i cannot explain. i felt so incredibly understood and cant even tell you how many times i read it. thinking about all of the ways it made me feel SEEN is actually making me very tender so i’m gonna go on.

the summer series

on the subject of jenny han, since she was now my Favorite author, when she came out with the summer i turned pretty in 2009, i was ALL IN. it’s not summer without you, and we’ll always have summer were published the next two years. a coming of age series about a girl isabel “belly” conklin who stays at her mother’s best friend's house at the beach in the summers. i really could talk about it forever yall. i actually dont know how to be succinct about it. i will try. her mom’s friend has TWO BOYS. one brother, jeremiah, is the golden boy and her best friend who is in love with her! the older one CONRAD is her childhood crush who's just sort of around while belly is firmly getting over her childish feelings and going out and experiencing teen beach life with jeremiah for the first time and figuring out who she is and wants to be! by the end of the summer he admits he feels differently about her (hence belly internalizing this as The Summer I Turned Pretty) and they get together. this is already too much so i will just say that the next two books deal with a PROFOUND LOSS and the selfishness of grief and the SELFLESSNESS OF CONRAD and i will absolutely lose my shit if netflix picks it up for a second jenny han series adaptation.

pappyland

this was a kids show in the 90′s that features a character named Pappy Drew-It, an artist dressed like a 49er who lives in a magic cabin in pappyland. there’s tons of characters and music and life lessons but the meat of every episode is a detailed drawing how-to (pappy is actually a cartoonist, michael cariglio) and i have a hard back cover sketch book from my grandpa that i FILLED with drawings that pappy and DOODLEBUG taught me to do. there is a running gag that pappy always breaks his crayons.

boy meets world

i KNOW this is beloved by many but i’m counting it because i’m simply too young to have such an obsession with it! the show ran from 1992-2000. i was born in 1996, but reruns on the disney channel and abc family cemented it as one of my favorite shows. cory and shawn, closer than brothers, shameless homoromantics, shawn is cory’s first wife!!!!! truly showed me what a best friend can and should be!!!!!! the great love of your life!!!!! TOPANGA, the og weird feminist girl who said stop shaving your legs and start speaking your mind, ladies! the characters are so richly developed that they are real people to my heart. YES every character on this show is in their late 30s-early 40s and YES i feel like we grew up together. in season one they’re in the 6th grade and we follow them all the way to COLLEGE. countless poignant life lessons, often literally dictated by the wise and hilarious MR. FEENY, cory’s next door neighbor and somehow one of his teachers for YEARS. my love was only solidified by the 2014 girl meets world reboot, centered on cory and topanga’s daughter and her best friend. (which was literally cancelled because disney didn’t want to transition from a kids show to a teen show, something essential to the original. also because that teen show would have had CANON LESBIANS. extremely shameful move in 2017!) boy meets world lives rent free in my heart and i will never evict it!!!!!!!

i consulted my mother when i got stumped for more and she reminded me that i had obsessions with the impressionist art period and babies and ANYTHING fairies or pixies, and i was way too young when my love of the canadian teen after school special degrassi began. she also said bob ross, which i was hesitant to include because he’s been super ~trendy in recent years, but to be fair (To Be Faaairrr) she’s right! i don’t think people really watched the joy of painting as much as i have throughout my life. best sick day show of all time.

lastly i could honestly list anna herself as a niche interest, my mom actually metioned that ive always hyperfixated on my girl friends (gay) but i’ll just note that YES friday night lights, YES barry lyga novels. love to share so many things with you, niche or not, they’re niche in Our Mind.

#with the baby obsession came an obsession with adoption #my aunt and uncle adopted and when i learned that there were ORPHANS whew #i was in preschool judging people for getting pregnant when there were SO many babies without mommies #she had a good point!#also does being a niall girl in 2012 count

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nclkafilms · 5 years ago

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The absurdity of fanaticism

(Review of ‘Jojo Rabbit’. Seen in Biffen Art Cinema, Aalborg on the 23rd of January 2020)

“Let everything happen to you, Beauty and terror, Just keep going, No feeling is final.” (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Taika Waititi received his commercial breakthrough with ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, which followed indie hits such as ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ and ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’. He is one of those directors with a very clear style and vision, and he continues with a unique style in his latest film: nazi satire and self-proclaimed anti-hate-film, ‘Jojo Rabbit’. As if the notion of making a comedy/satire about Nazi Germany was not controversial enough, it certainly raised some eyebrows when he cast himself, half maori and half jew, to star as Adolf Hitler. And ever since it premiered, ‘Jojo Rabbit’ has divided audiences and critics alike into more or less three groups: those, who are deeply offended by its lack of political correctness and comedic take on one of history’s most tragic events, those, who think it is not dangerous enough or does not expose the horrors of the holocaust enough, and, finally, those who has been charmed, entertained, provoked and moved by a perfectly balanced mix of slapstick humour and gut punching drama. I, myself, sit firmly in the third group - ‘Jojo Rabbit’ is a wonderful piece of filmmaking.

We follow 10-year-old Johannes Betzler, better known as Jojo, as he prepares for a weekend camp with the Hitler Jugend. We watch him as he proudly dresses up in his uniform before heiling his imaginary friend, Waititi’s Hitler, as if he was a sportsman preparing for a game before he ultimately shoots through town heiling at everyone to the tunes of the german version of The Beatles’ “I wanna hold your hand”, while we alternately see Jojo and b/w clips of Hitler being celebrated as a superstar complete with cheering girls and everything. A bizarre and weirdly entertaining opening scene that perfectly sets the tone of the film’s dark humour; nothing is sacred here. The story that follows is Jojo’s coming-of-age-story. A process that typically lasts years, but in the midst of a world war nothing is “typical”. Waititi manages to beautifully balance the naivety and blind-eyed fanaticism of young Jojo with the horrors and brutal reality of war as things start to spiral out of control for our main character from the moment he discovers a jewish girl hidden in the walls of his home. Where is her horns? Is she going to eat him? Why is his mum helping her? and what does it mean to love someone? Jojo is forced to discover the many feelings of life and following him on his journey is as hilarious and endearing as it is thought-provoking and tragic.

This is more than anything thanks to just 12-year-old debutant, Roman Griffin Davis, who is nothing short of a revelation as Jojo. The range that he shows in his portrayal of Jojo is simply spectacular. He truly has funny bones with both physical comedy and a great timing, but it is when the story gradually shifts from Wes Anderson-ish, bizarre, slapstick nazi satire to a much heavier and emotional war story that Griffin Davis really pulls the rug from under you. In the process of the film you both laugh at and with Jojo, you are shocked by him, you feel his excitement and loss, and most importantly you really care for him. This is, of course, down to Waititi’s screenplay and directing, but it would never have worked without Griffin Davis’ wonderful performance that really bodes well for his future.

In addition to him, the other actors also turn in some memorable performances. Scarlett Johansson is perfectly endearing as Jojo’s mother, Rosie, who has to raise him on her own, while hiding a jewish girl in the attic and manoeuvring through the hardships of war with a heavy heart from losing her daughter. The chemistry between Johansson and Griffin Davis is stunning and feels so natural that their mother-son-bond becomes one of the most heartwarming aspects of the film. Johansson shines just as much as Rosie shines as the film’s clearest ray of humanism and empathy. As Elsa, the hidden jewish girl, Thomasin McKenzie is fierce and strong with the inevitable vulnerability of an oppressed person hiding to save her own life. As such she represents all the jews who suffered from Holocaust while staying brave to save their own and loved ones’ lives. Just as with Rosie and Jojo, the chemistry between Elsa and Jojo is electric and it is an absolute delight to see how their relationship develops and becomes deeper and deeper the more they both get to see each other for what they see rather than what they have learned. As such they become the clearest symbol of the film’s obvious anti-hate, anti-prejudice moral.

In the other spectrum, Sam Rockwell, Alfie Allen and Rebel Wilson are all hilarious as absurd caricatures of Nazi officers blinded by their fanaticism and extremism. This is, of course, one of the film’s very divisive decisions; because the actions that they perform whether it be teaching children to shoot and use grenades or burning books and teaching lies about jews are obviously despicable - especially in the light of what happened during holocaust. So to turn this into something funny (and boy, is it hilarious) is a brave decision, but also a clever one. The things they do are so absurd that to simply show them as dreadful and horrible is sometimes too easy; showing the absurdity and making people laugh at it can be quite disarming and, frankly, relieving at times. Another example of this is Stephen Merchant’s unforgettable, yet short, cameo as Gestapo agent, Deertz, who is hilarious at first. You laugh at him only to find yourself on the edge of your seat seconds later as the tone shifts and the scene becomes immensely nerve-racking. Now Deertz’ absurd behaviour is intense and in no way funny. Waititi disarms you by exposing you to the hilarious absurdity of this character only to catch you off guard shortly after and hit you with reality. He does this in another simply devastating scene that stands as one of the single biggest gut punches that I have had in the cinema for a while; leaving me with my mouth wide open and a tear running from my eye. To round off the acting performances, Waititi’s own portrayal of Hitler never really becomes anything other than a funny sidenote that adds some interesting comments to the extremist thoughts roaming around Jojo’s head. It’s funny and at times delightfully dark in its humour, but it - thankfully - never draws focus away from the other, much more interesting characters.

But let’s get back to this balance between the laughs and tears, because this is what lifts ‘Jojo Rabbit’ up as a stunning film experience. It works as a comedy/satire and it works as hard-hitting, thought-provoking drama. This is an insanely difficult balance to truly hit and only a few films manages it. ‘Jojo’ succeeds in being a hilarious comedy thanks, partly, to its well-written and delightfully politically incorrect screenplay by Waititi with so many great and memorable one-liners. But it is also because of its tight editing by Tom Eagles and brilliant score by Michael Giacchino, who supports the shifting nature of Jojo’s perspective through both joyful and more sorrowful compositions. As a drama it works - of course also thanks to the screenplay - because of a brilliant production design by Ra Vincent that often stands in great contrast to the absurd action unfolding in it. Finally, the costumes by Mayes C. Rubeo are simply delightful whether they are historically accurate or hilariously comedic as when Jojo roams the street as a robot gathering “metal for Hitler” or Rockwell and Allen take their final bow as some kind of absurd superhero devoid of all the human faults that they otherwise infuse their characters with.

And now let us return to the quote from the beginning of this review.

“Let everything happen to you, Beauty and terror, Just keep going, No feeling is final.”

This is not only a beautiful quote that gives us an important lesson on why not to give into hate and despair, it is also a quote that is mirrored in the film’s three main characters. Elsa remains hopeful and decent even when the entire world seems to hate her and want her dead. Rosie gives her son the love a mother should give despite him representing everything she fights against. And, finally, the film tells the story of how Jojo learns this lesson; to not be tempted by hate and the “easy exit” of jumping on the bandwagon, but to stay curious, to acknowledge love and to let it in. As such ‘Jojo Rabbit’ does not become “oh, that film that made fun of Hitler”. No, it becomes a film about the importance of experiencing and exploring the world around us. The importance of being curious and engaging with people despite our differences. Simply put: the importance of never forgetting love. It might not be in the absolute top of 2019 objectively, but personally, Jojo and Elsa danced their ways into my heart and my top 3 for 2019.

4,5/5

#Oscars 2020 #Academy Awards #Film Review #Movie Review #Jojo Rabbit #Taika Waititi #Roman Griffin Davis #Scarlett Johansson #Sam Rockwell #Alfie Allen #Rebel Wilson #Stephen Merchant #Michael Giacchino

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meangirlsx · 5 years ago

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Beetlejuice Hanukkah Headcanons

NOTE: I tried to base characters being Jewish off of the actors while still making it my own story and exploring both perspectives. I wanted to clarify that, so you understand why I’m writing some characters as Jewish when there hasn’t been anything necessarily established in canon or fanon (as far as I know).

Additionally, I did my best to try to make it generic, specific, and universal all at the same time. There are a lot of Orthodox Jews in my extended family who we celebrate with most years, but my immediate family isn’t very religious, so I did what I could from my own experience and experiences of friends. If you come across anything that seems glaringly wrong or accidentally offensive, please feel free to let me know. That was definitely not my intent.

Finally, to go with this, here is a drawing by the wonderful @alotofbooksalittletime of Beetlejuice and Lydia at the menorah!

She heard the call for Beetlejuice Hanukkah content and very kindly answered and also DELIVERED. Here is the original post of her drawing on its own, if you would like to help me spread it.

Happy Hanukkah, friends!!!

——

As the holidays approach, the group realizes they haven’t discussed how or what they’re going to celebrate

It starts with Charles, Delia, and Lydia starting to talk about it in the living room

And pretty soon, everyone else has joined in

Beetlejuice is Jewish

Barbara is Christian and Adam is Jewish, and they’ve done their best to celebrate both sets of holidays since they got together

Charles was raised in a Jewish household but he grew less religious as he got older

Emily wasn’t Jewish, but she hadn’t been very religious, either

So they celebrated major holidays with each side of the family

And they kept that going when Lydia was born, but they hadn’t really raised her in any religious practice

Delia also grew up in a Jewish family but wanted to learn about and try to experience other religions once she moved out

She especially liked Hinduism, but nothing stuck for a variety of reasons

She reconnected with Judaism after learning so many of her new family members were Jewish, and now she loves it and feels like it’s another place she belongs besides the family

So the group agrees to celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah

They’re all really excited

Hanukkah is up first, but the holidays crossover this year, so they decorate the house in a mix of decorations

The tree set up in the living room has Christmas ornaments as well as Hanukkah ones they found when they went shopping

The fireplace mantel holds a menorah, a few individual candles, a stocking for each member of the family, gold tinsel wrapped around the menorah and candles, and a garland draped above the stockings

They have a lot of fun buying and cooking food

Barbara and Adam tell the group about a local bakery that they think makes the best challah bread

And Charles gets his mother’s potato latke recipe that Lydia loved as a kid

On the first night, they start by gathering around the menorah

They agreed that it was probably best to not give everyone their own menorah

Adam lights the shamash candle, then the one candle on the far right side of the menorah using the shamash, and leads everyone in the blessings

Charles and Delia find themselves reciting the words as if they’d never really forgotten

Lydia doesn’t know the blessings, but she thinks they sound beautiful

Barbara and Adam translate and explain the blessings as they sit down for dinner

Over dinner, Barbara and Adam also explain why Hanukkah is celebrated

Beetlejuice even chimes in, he’s so excited

Charles knows the story, but not well, anymore

Delia has recently relearned it, but she loves hearing it told again

And Lydia doesn’t remember much of it from when she was younger

They all enjoy hearing the story retold with so much animation

Lydia really takes to the story of the Maccabees

She finds herself connecting to the concept of a group of underdogs fighting for what they believe in even when the odds are against them

She tries not to get emotional over it, but she does, just a little bit

Naturally, as soon as the others notice, they get emotional, too

The idea of the oil in the menorah in the temple lasting eight days instead of its estimated one also seems to bring them all hope and inspiration

After dinner, they prepare to play dreidel

Before they start the game, they all have a lot of fun just spinning their dreidels

Barbara and Adam see how long they can keep theirs spinning

Beetlejuice definitely uses his powers to keep his spinning longer than possible and even spins it on his finger like a basketball at one point

Charles and Delia haven’t played with a dreidel in a long time, but they get back in the swing very quickly

Lydia has never played with one before, so it takes her a minute to get the hang of spinning her dreidel

Once she does, she and Beetlejuice try to spin their dreidels to knock each other’s over

Eventually, they go over the rules of the game and pass out dried pinto beans to use in place of money

They end up playing for a long time

Beetlejuice and Lydia suggest continuing to play with real money

The adults insist on sticking with the beans

Barbara says that while she doesn’t really enjoy making pottery, she kind of wants to try making a dreidel

(By the following week, she’ll have made one for every single one of them)

This of course prompts Adam to start singing the dreidel song

Barbara joins him, and so does Beetlejuice

Delia ends up joining and encouraging Charles to, as well

Lydia finds it very amusing

Charles doesn’t say it, but he hasn’t sung the song since he was a boy, and singing it with this new-found family makes him emotional all over again

After a few phrases, everyone is ready to stop, except for Beetlejuice and Adam

Barbara breaks out the chocolate gelt to shut them up

But of course the song is stuck in everyone’s heads for the rest of the night

And much of the next day

They had all agreed beforehand that they would exchange most of their presents at Christmas

But they exchange one gift each

When everyone has opened their presents, Beetlejuice says he has a present for everyone and disappears into the kitchen

He returns a moment later, holding a guitar

He begins to strum the guitar relatively aggressively

And he breaks out in “The Hanukkah Song” by Adam Sandler

He doesn’t get very far before everyone stops him

They can’t help cracking up, though

He’ll never admit it, but he never actually intended to sing the whole song

He just wanted to see their reactions and end the night in laughter

——

Tag list: @mars-bars-stars, @reader-ships, @anxiousankylosaurus, @msmith74, @broadwaymusicaltrash, @you-thinks-wrong-romeo, @theatricalwriter, @be-more-heidi-hansen, @peachy-jolly, @g1ngersp1ce, @trumancheerleadermaui, @dancewyou, @percabeth15, @coral-cat-iris, @madameboxhead, @elaineygrace, @theolwebshooter, @dontgotothenetherworld, @ohsomightykeyboard, @vampireamango

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argylemnwrites · 5 years ago

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Gifts and Games

Pairing: Levi Schuler x MC (Tara Day)

Book: Mother of the Year (about one month after the end)

Word Count: ~1500

Rating: PG (some mild innuendo)

Summary: Levi hadn’t had a reason to celebrate any holidays for a long time.

Author’s Note: Alright, started off Hanukkah with a Seth piece, let’s end it with a piece featuring my newest Jewish LI, Levi. Just starting to dabble in some MOTY fic here. I loved that book a lot and found all the LIs really compelling, so even though it’s a standalone, I’m still gonna play around with these characters. This piece is for Day 29 of both the Choices December Challenge (Sunset) and Day 30 of 41 Days of Cheer (Celebration) because I am unabashedly working time zones to my advantage here.

Levi hadn’t played dreidel in years. Nah, scratch that. It had been several decades. That fact made him feel older than the fact that he was at a point in his life where dating a woman with a 10 yo kid was a reasonable thing ever did.

Honestly, Levi had never really felt that connected to his faith. If someone had pushed him on it, he’d have to say he really didn’t believe in anything spiritual or religious. Being Jewish to him was more about his connection to his family, and as he got older, he knew he’d gotten more and more disconnected there. It was just strange, being the unmarried, intermittently unemployed uncle, so often, he’d chosen to work instead of going to his grandmother’s for any of the holidays.

But when Zoey had asked him about Hanukkah across the dinner table the other night, he’d been caught off guard. She was so genuinely curious, because of course that smart little nerd wanted to know everything.

“Levi, you’re Jewish, right?” she’d asked between bites of spaghetti.

“Yeah, why are you asking, Rocket?”

“Well, we were learning about winter holidays in my world cultures class, and Ensley was talking about how she got the new iPhone for Hanukkah, and I was just wondering if you celebrated Hanukkah or not. I’ve never been Jewish or anything, so I don’t know exactly how it works.”

Levi had swallowed his mouthful of spaghetti before he answered, “Uh, I haven’t really celebrated Hanukkah in a few years.”

“Why not?”

“Haven’t had anyone to celebrate with, I guess.”

“Do you have to be Jewish to celebrate Hanukkah? Because we could celebrate with you, right mom?”

Tara had locked eyes with him, clearly trying to make sure he was okay with Zoey’s plan. They hadn’t really talked about his background, so he was grateful that she was trying to gauge his feelings about the topic, but he honestly didn’t care. If Zoey wanted to try out Hanukkah, who was he to throw a fit about that? So he’d shrugged and given Tara a little smile. And that’s how he found himself on the floor around the coffee table now, playing a game of dreidel with the two of them.

“So, all you do is spin the top? That’s it?” asked Zoey, a skeptical look on her face that was almost comical.

“That’s it, Rocket.”

She frowned at that, “But there’s no strategy then. It’s all just luck.”

“Yup.”

“Huh, that’s kinda boring.”

“Zoey!” chided Tara, shooting a look at her daughter, “Don’t be rude. You were the one who wanted to celebrate Hanukkah, remember?”

Zoey bit her lip and looked down before glancing up at Levi. “Sorry, Levi. I didn’t mean to say your game was boring. I’m sure it will be a lot of fun.”

Levi just shrugged, “No worries, Rocket. I didn’t make the rules.”

And so they’d started a game, using some leftover rocket parts as their pieces, passing around the little top and taking their turns. But after about 50 rounds, Levi could sense not only Zoey getting antsy, even though she was trying her damnedest to sit still and stay interested, but Tara was also frequently checking the time on her phone when she thought no one was looking. Levi honestly couldn’t blame them. He’d forgotten how long and dull dreidel games could be. In fact, he was impressed that Zoey had stuck with it as long as she had.

“Hey, Rocket?”

“Yeah, Levi?”

“I think you’re right. This is a boring game.”

Zoey blinked at him before giving him a bright smile. Tara just shook her head.

“It’s not that bad, Levi.”

“Nah, you don’t have to pretend. I totally forgot how long this could drag on. I don’t know how I had the patience for it as a kid. So what do you say, kiddo? Should we call it?”

Zoey looked between him and Tara, who gave her a slight nod. Zoey paused for just a second longer before nodding, “If that’s okay with you guys.”

“Completely fine with me,” said Levi, “It’s just a little game to pass the time, anyway.”

“Thanks, babe,” said Tara, squeezing his shoulder as she stood up, wandering into the kitchen to check on the frozen lasagna she had in the oven. Not exactly traditional Hanukkah food, but hey, nothing about him or Tara’s life was exactly traditional.

Levi hefted himself off the floor and onto the couch, watching as Zoey much more nimbly hopped up and took a seat on the couch next to him.

“Is there something else we could do to celebrate Hanukkah?” she asked him as she crossed her legs beneath her on the couch.

Levi paused for a moment, trying to think of what he could share with her. He wasn’t sure if any of the chocolate he had was safe for her, and handing out candy right before dinner seemed like a great way to annoy Tara. He didn’t own a menorah. Suddenly, an idea hit him.

“Did your world cultures teacher tell you about the reason we celebrate Hanukkah?”

Zoey nodded proudly, “Yup! It’s because after the Maccabees fought and reclaimed their temple from the Syrians, they only had one jar of oil for light. They sent out someone to get more oil, and when he got back eight days later, that tiny jar of oil was still burning.”

“Exactly. That’s why we celebrate after sunset and usually light candles. Basically, a lot of the shi… stuff Jewish people do to celebrate Hanukkah focuses on oil or light. And I bet you have something squirreled away in your bedroom that uses some oil.”

Zoey chewed on her lip for a couple of seconds before she answered, “Well, the engine kit I got from Luz and Thomas for Christmas uses oil, but that’s a different type of oil.”

“Well, I say the type of oil doesn’t matter one bit. So what do you say, how about we work on that after dinner?”

She grinned brightly at him. “I’ll go get things ready,” she said as she climbed off the couch and bounded into her room.

“Only five minute until dinner!” cried out Tara, “And you need to wash your hands before then!”

Some muffled sounds of agreement drifted out of Zoey’s room. Deciding to see if Tara needed any help, Levi strolled over to the kitchen. “How can I be of assistance?”

Tara glanced up from the green beans see was stirring on the stove top. “The bread could use slicing. It’s on top of the fridge.”

“On it.”

As he grabbed a cutting board from the cabinet and the serrated knife from the drawer, Tara spoke again, grabbing the oven mitts and pulling the lasagna from the oven.

“Quite the history lesson I got there. All I knew about Hanukkah prior to tonight I learned from Adam Sandler.”

Levi laughed at that, “Chanukah Song or Eight Crazy Nights?”

“Both, of course! It’s a shame it’s the last night, though. Otherwise we could have had eight crazy nights of our own.”

Levi turned to face her at that, stepping closer so that they were practically touching. “That is a shame. I guess we’ll really have to make tonight count, then,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows comically. Tara smirked at him at that, but any response she might make was cut off as Zoey bounded into the room.

“Hands all washed, Mom,” she said, walking into the kitchen and grabbing three sets of silverware out of the drawer as she went to set the table, oblivious to what she’d just interrupted.

“Levi’s just finishing up slicing the bread, then we’ll be all set,” said Tara, stepping away from him, turning back to the stove, and grabbing the green beans to drain. He had to marvel at her ability to go from sexy as hell to mom mode without missing a beat, but as she brushed past him, she oh so casually dragged her hand across the front of his jeans, throwing him a wink.

Levi just shook his head, grateful that he had a few moments of slicing the bread to redirect his thoughts, calm down enough to get back in the family mindset. Compartmentalizing was something he was getting better at since he started seeing Tara, but she was still infinitely better at it than him. Probably because she had years of experience compared to his few months. And while with other girlfriends, an innuendo-laced conversation like that would have led to a burnt and late dinner, Levi honestly didn’t mind having to wait until Zoey was in bed. Tara was worth it. They both were worth it. So he sliced the bread and joined his two favorite girls at the dinner table. He never thought this would be his life, but it was amazing how comfortable it felt. It felt nice, and honestly - it was probably the best holiday gift he’d ever received.

Permatag: @mfackenthal @lilyofchoices @thequeenofcronuts @jamesashtonisbae

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Levi x MC: @srta-give-me-my-jax-rl

Events: @choicesbyjade @jlpplays1-41daysofcheerchallenge @choicesdecemberchallenge

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