#He absolutely loves to play with da children! that’s his only purpose!
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BUDDY! My lil furball! My child! And my lil persona
Eeeeeeeeeee! He so adorable! Basically the only good thing about this is the colour and maybe the design… oh well! Enjoy!
#Buddy Funtime#Funtime au#He absolutely loves to play with da children! that’s his only purpose!#but DAMN 9’?!#he’ll have to bend down when he walks through doors!#another problem that tall people face :’)#and yes. I had to make this motherfricker a fluffy boi#the horns though… those do be looking a lil… Sharp ngl…
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Japanese vs. English Todoroki - A 302 Comparison
After chapter 301 gave us a bit of Touya’s backstory, this chapter continues giving us some flashbacks as well as the conversation between the Todofam in the present time with plenty of questionable lines! Just like with 301, we’ll take a look at every line from this chapter so this is another lengthy post...
「今後は焦凍を他の子らと一切近付けさせないことにする。」
「今後 ; kongo 」-> from now on; hereafter
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「焦凍 ; shouto 」-> Shouto
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「他 ; hoka 」-> other
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「子ら ; kora 」-> children
「と ; to 」-> with
「一切 ; issai 」-> absolutely not; without exception
「近付けさせない ; chikadzukesasenai 」-> won’t let someone near someone else
「ことにする ; koto ni suru 」-> to decide on
= “I’ve decided that from now on, I will absolutely not let Shouto near the other kids.”
The official translation says that “we” are keeping the kids away from Shouto. While the Japanese line doesn’t include the pronoun for “I” it makes a lot more sense to go with that since Rei didn’t exactly have much of a say in anything, so whether or not she agreed to this isn’t even important. The point is, Endeavor made this decision.
This was most likely right after Touya tried to attack little Shouto so a direct continuation of the last flashback from chapter 301.
「俺は仕事でずっと面倒を見るわけにはいかんその為の使用人を雇った。おまえも燈矢から目を離すな。」
「俺 ; ore 」-> I
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「仕事で ; shigoto 」-> attending work
「ずっと ; zutto 」-> continuously; straight
「面倒を見る ; mendou o miru 」-> to look after someone
「わけにはいかん ; wake niwa ikan 」-> cannot afford to
「その ; sono 」-> that
「為 ; tame 」-> sake; purpose
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「使用人 ; shiyounin 」-> servant; employee
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「雇った ; yatotta 」-> hired
「おまえ ; omae 」-> you
「も ; mo 」-> also; too
「燈矢 ; touya 」-> Touya
「から ; kara 」-> from
「目を離すな ; me o hanasuna 」-> don’t take one’s eyes off
= “I am attending work. I can’t afford to continuously look after him, for that sake I hired a servant. Don’t you take your eyes off Touya, either.”
The na at the end of me o hanasuna is a negative command to say “don’t do” I’m not sure how exactly Rei is supposed to not take her eyes off Shouto and Touya when they are kept apart from each other, but what do we expect anyway? Also, keep in mind that Touya is 8 years older than Shouto and has been training on his own for around 4 years at this point without his parents being able to stop him. Of course, Endeavor is not going to be the Number One Hero if he can’t even stop his own child from doing whatever he wants. How are two adults not able to handle one tiny child??
「。。。あの子はあなたに見てほしいんだよ。」
「あの ; ano 」-> that
「子 ; ko 」-> child
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「あなた ; anata 」-> you
「に ; ni 」-> by; from
「見て ; mite 」-> to look
「ほしい ; hoshii 」-> to want
「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
= “...That child wants you to look at him.”
The “that’s all” in the official translation is a good way to capture the nuance of nda yo.
「。。。俺はヒーローの世界しか。。。見せられないよ。」
「俺 ; ore 」-> I
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「ヒーロー ; hiro 」-> hero
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「世界 ; sekai 」-> world
「しか ; shika 」-> only
「見せられない ; miserarenai 」-> to see (potential negative) *shika requires the verb to be in the negative form
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
= “I can only show him the hero world.”
Shika is usually used in a negative context, so an alternative translation would be “I can’t show him anything but the hero world.”
Anyway, I absolutely love (sarcasm) when people try to claim that Endeavor was a loving family man who just didn’t know how to express his love even though it’s so obvious that he couldn’t be bothered to try and be an actual father. Saying that he can only show him the hero world is just a lazy excuse, similar to him telling Touya that he’s ignoring him “for his own good” - none of those are in any way helpful or something that a child could understand. Instead, it only signals that Endeavor doesn’t care. No one is born a perfect parent nor is anyone expected to be one, but a good parent would try to do a good job and not neglect their child because they are incapable of being a parent. It’s also like he pretends that only the hero Endeavor exists and that he isn’t anyone outside of that. He’s a hero and nothing else (unfortunately, he isn’t really a hero, either, though). The problem with separating the hero from the person behind the hero is taking away the responsibility and sort of using the hero persona as a shield. Instead of recognizing that he failed as a parent, he is acting as though he doesn’t exist outside of his hero job and thus doesn’t have any responsibilities outside of work. That is how he also ends up blaming Rei for everything that happens rather than acknowledging that this is all his fault.
「ヒーロー？ 逃げてるだけじゃないの。。。」
「ヒーロー ; hiro 」-> hero
「逃げてる ; nigeteru 」-> running away; escaping
「だけ ; dake 」-> only
「じゃない ; janai 」-> aren’t
「の ; no 」-> explanatory question marker
= “Hero? Aren’t you just running away…?”
This is a fantastic line and it’s nice to see her call him out, however, it also just makes no sense when later on in this exact chapter, we see Rei - in the present time - now being a lot nicer to him and supporting him instead of calling him out for being at fault for what happened to Touya.
「燈矢兄遊ぼー！！」
「燈矢兄 ; touya nii 」-> Touya-Nii
「遊ぼー ; asobo- 」-> let’s play
= “Touya-Nii, let’s play-!!”
「おお」
「おお ; oo 」-> Oh
= “Oh.”
Something I want to point out about this panel is that we see two desks here. Do they have a computer room? Do Touya and Natsuo share a room? While there are plenty of books on Touya’s desk, the one next to him has a couple of action figures on it. Though it’s hard to determine who those action figures are supposed to be, it would be absolutely hilarious if they just had a bunch of All Might figurines that they placed around the house to piss off Endeavor.
「焦凍見るな。兄さん（アレ）らはおまえとは違う世界の人間だ。」
「焦凍 ; shouto 」-> Shouto
「見るな ; miruna 」-> don’t look
「兄さんら ; niisanra 」-> older brothers
「アレ ; are 」-> that person
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「おまえ ; omae 」-> you
「とは ; to wa」-> topic marker with added emphasis to the topic
「違う ; chigau 」-> different
「世界 ; sekai 」-> world
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「人間 ; ningen 」-> human
「だ ; da 」-> be
= “Don’t look, Shouto! Your brothers (they) are people of a different world.”
Here, we have a sentence where the Furigana (= what the character says) read as are and don’t match with the Kanji (= what the character actually means), which read niisan.The ra at the end of niisanra is a pluralizer, just like tachi (ra is more informal). These pluralizers can be translated as something like “group” to say something like “the group of which your older brother is a part of.” It’s interesting that he says this, though, since the word kyoudai (=siblings) exists, which would better include all of Shouto’s siblings. Adding ra to the word Niisan (=older brother) rather than using a more neutral term like kyoudai then sort of adds emphasis to the older brother. This would be a great moment to joke that this is where Touya got his sexism from since Endeavor can’t even be bothered to mention that Shouto also has a sister here. But, I think this “group of which your older brother is a part of” refers to Touya specifically for a different reason. Natsuo himself has mentioned that Endeavor never even acknowledged him and instead he was tossed aside right away. And while Fuyumi is the one shown to be closest with Endeavor in the present time, that's only because Endeavor relies on her since she more or less replaced Rei in her mother role. But back then, she was probably just as ignored as Natsuo. That makes it feel like even here when saying “your siblings are in a different world” he is referring to Touya being a failure and thus not being part of the hero world, while not even acknowledging Natsuo’s or Fuyumi’s existence at all.
「いっかいだけでいいから燈矢兄たちと遊ばせて。」
「いっかい ; ikkai 」-> one time; one round; one game
「だけで ; dake de 」-> just
「いいから ; ii kara 」-> listen up
「燈矢兄たち ; touya nii tachi 」-> Touya-Nii and the others
「と ; to 」-> with
「遊ばせて ; asobasete 」-> let (someone) play (command)
= “Listen, let me play with Touya-Nii and the others, just one time!”
Ii kara is an expression used at the start of a command sentence for emphasis.
As mentioned before, tachi is a pluralizer and it’s similar to saying “Touya-Nii and the others” which is important for two reasons. One, this indicates that there were no further incidents where Touya tried to attack Shouto, since the latter doesn’t show any fear or resentment towards Touya, probably not knowing about the incident at all. And two, it really feels like Shouto is looking up to big bro Touya here. The oldest child - the head of the kids, if you will - and all Shouto wants is to hang out with this awesome brother of his. It’s not clear whether he knows that Touya used to be trained too or not, but either way, Shouto emphasizes Touya here and I’m glad the official translation included it like this, too!
「ダメだ出力訓練だ。」
「ダメ ; dame 」-> no good
「だ ; da 」-> be
「出力 ; schutsuryoku 」-> output
「訓練 ; kunren 」-> training
「だ ; da 」-> be
= “It’s no good. It’s output training.”
As mentioned later on in the chapter, Endeavor only ever taught Touya how to increase his flames and not how to decrease them. So I assume that “output training” is just that - training Shouto to increase his flames.
I’ve seen some people claim that the panel we get of Touya is him looking at Shouto in some evil or jealous way, but it’s more realistic to assume he’s looking at Endeavor, especially when looking at the part that comes right after. ALSO, please look at Natsuo in that panel.
He looks so worried as he’s realizing that he’s about to hit Touya-Nii in the face with the ball. You think Touya manipulated Natsuo? Actually, Natsuo physically abused Touya :/ (this is sarcasm). This is also the part where, in the anime, Touya just falls down and Natsuo and Fuyumi laugh at him. No wonder he ended up as a villain. Bullied by everyone in his family, the poor kid...
「そりゃああの時は俺が悪かったよ。。。！！焦凍に罪はなかったもの。。。でもお父さんも悪かったんだよ！ 俺たちは失敗作だから相手にされないすごいよな。。。要らない子をつくってこれが現代ヒーローなんだぜ。」
「そりゃあ ; soryaa 」-> well; that is to say (interjection, form of それは)
「あの ; ano 」-> that
「時 ; toki 」-> time; occasion
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「俺 ; ore 」-> I
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「悪かった ; warukatta 」-> was at fault; was in the wrong; was to blame
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
「焦凍 ; shouto 」-> Shouto
「に ; ni 」-> for
「罪 ; tsumi 」-> fault; responsibility
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「なかった ; nakatta 」-> wasn’t
「もの ; mono 」-> sentence ending particle used to indicate reason/excuse/dissatisfaction
「でも ; demo 」-> but
「お父さん ; otousan 」-> dad
「も ; mo 」-> also; too
「悪かった ; warukatta 」-> was at fault; was in the wrong; was to blame
「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
「俺たち ; oretachi 」-> we
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「失敗作 ; shippaisaku 」-> failed creative work; flop
「だから ; dakara 」-> because
「相手にされない ; aite ni sarenai 」-> don’t associate with; take notice of (passive)
「すごい ; sugoi 」-> terrible
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
「な ; na 」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation
「要らない ; iranai 」-> not needed
「子 ; ko 」-> children
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「くって ; tsukutte 」-> making
「これ ; kore 」 - > this
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「現代 ; gendai 」-> modern era; nowadays
「ヒーロー ; hiro 」-> hero
「なんだ ; nanda 」-> explanatory particle
「ぜ ; ze 」-> emphasis particle
= “Well, that time I was to blame. Shouto wasn’t at fault. But dad was also to blame! We’re failed creative works, so we aren’t being associated with. Terrible, isn’t it… making children they don’t need. Is this the modern era hero?”
We know that Touya attacked Shouto when Shouto was a relatively fresh baby, but here Touya is 13, so this is roughly 5 years after that incident and yet Touya is still thinking about it and still feeling guilty about it, too. It’s also obvious that he never properly spoke with either one of his parents about this since a parent would then sit him down and help him work through these feelings of guilt. Then again, not his parents! Maybe he did tell them this before too and he didn’t get any reaction from it. It’s also sad how well he understands the whole situation and how much critical thinking he has (more than most of the fandom!), questioning how someone like Endeavor can be considered a hero when he isn’t even a decent person to his own family.
「たまには姉ちゃんことで言ったら。。。？」
「たまに ; tamani 」-> occasionally; once in a while
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「姉ちゃん ; neechan 」-> big sister
「こと ; koto 」-> phrase nominalizer
「で ; de 」-> with; via
「言ったら ; ittara 」-> if you said/told
= “If you told big sister one in a while…?”
This one sounds a bit strange when just doing a direct translation since this is one of those cases where the rest of the sentence is omitted because this part is enough to understand what he’s trying to say.
The one compliment I always have to give Horikoshi is managing to write very believable sibling dynamics/interactions. Also, I can’t help but wonder whether they are sharing a room (which doesn’t really make sense considering they live in a large house) or if these two just like to have sleepovers (I prefer this theory).
「夏くんまで俺をたしなめるのか！？やめてくれ！夏くんしか理解できないから話してるのに！！わかるだろ家の女は皆だめだめなだ！」
「夏くん ; natsu kun」-> Natsu-Kun
「まで ; made 」-> even
「俺 ; ore 」-> I
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「たしなめる ; tashinameru 」-> to chide; to rebuke; to reprove
「のか ; noka 」-> question marker particle seeking an explanation
「やめてくれ ; yametekure 」-> quit - asking for a favor (やめて + くれ)
「夏くん ; natsu kun」-> Natsu-Kun
「しか ; shika 」-> only (with neg. verb)
「理解できない ; rikai dekinai 」-> able to understand/comprehend/sympathize (negative form because of shika)
「から ; kara 」-> because; therefore
「話してる ; hanashiteru 」-> speaking; talking
「のに ; noni 」-> even though (used when complaining to someone)
「わかる ; wakaru 」-> to understand
「だろ ; daro 」-> right; I think
「家 ; uchi 」-> one’s family; one’s home
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「女 ; onna 」-> woman
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「皆 ; minna 」-> all
「だめだめな ; dame dame na 」-> entirely useless
「だ ; da 」-> be
= “Even you are chiding me, Natsuo-Kun!? Please stop! I’m talking to you because you are the only one who can understand me, Natsu-Kun!! You understand that the women in this family are entirely useless, right!”
The kure at the end of yametekure is used when asking a favor from someone, in this case, Touya is essentially asking Natsuo to please stop.
I know a lot of people said this is somehow manipulative and sexist?! About the sexist part: this is literally just a way for him to sum up that he’s talking about Fuyumi and Rei, which makes sense, considering he is not allowed to talk to Shouto, and obviously he can’t talk to Endeavor, either, which means the only remaining candidates he is able to talk to are Natsuo, Fuyumi, and Rei. Since he is talking to Natsuo, that only leaves Fuyumi and Rei (= the women in the family). It’s not that deep. It’s not like he said “they don’t understand because they are women” he just said “the women in this family are useless” which is an understandable feeling. While we don’t know exactly how his conversations with Fuyumi were like during this time, we know that Fuyumi is more on the neutral side in the present time and later on in this chapter, she even admits to having turned a blind eye in the past. And the next scene shows us why Touya thinks his mom is useless, too. He has legitimate reasons to view them as useless because neither of them acknowledged his feelings or listened to him properly. So no, he isn’t sexist he just uses this term instead of saying “Fuyumi and mom”.
And about the manipulative part - I’m not sure if some of you don’t have siblings? You are allowed to vent to your siblings. Also, let’s not forget that Touya is a drama queen, so him being a little dramatic here is just him being himself. More importantly, though, Natsuo is the only one that listens to him, so of course, he’s worried when the one person that he feels understood by tells him to talk to someone who doesn’t understand him. Not to mention the fact that Touya didn’t exactly grow up in an environment that taught him how to properly handle his feelings, which is the core problem in his life, so if he doesn’t perfectly articulate his feelings then remember that his parents never taught him any better.
「待ってまたお山に行く気でしょ。。。！たまにはクラスメイトと遊んでみたり。。。」
「待って ; matte 」-> to wait
「また ; mata 」-> again
「お山 ; oyama 」-> mountain
「に ; ni 」-> to
「行く気 ; iku ki 」-> feel like going
「でしょ ; desho 」-> it seems; right?
「たまに ; tamani 」-> occasionally; once in a while
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「クラスメイト ; kurasumeito 」-> classmates
「と ; to 」-> with
「遊んでみたり ; asondemitari 」-> try to do things like playing
= “Wait, you feel like going to the mountain again, right…! Once in a while, try to do things like playing with your classmates and…”
「友だちなんかいらない！世界が違う！」
「友だち ; tomodachi 」-> friends
「なんか ; nanka」-> make light off something
「いらない ; iranai 」-> don’t need
「世界 ; sekai 」-> world
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「違う ; chigau 」-> different
= “I don’t need friends! The worlds are different!”
Obviously, he has adapted this mindset from Endeavor. Thinking that heroes live in their own world and are somehow different - better - than anyone else. Being a hero in the bnha universe isn’t about anything heroic in most cases, but rather it’s about status and being a superior person. Sure, not every hero is as cruel to people as Endeavor, but even the other heroes believe that some people are worthier than others. In a way, they really are in a different world because they have the power to decide who to save and who isn’t worth saving, even though none of them are able to recognize this. To some people, though, like Endeavor or Touya, these different worlds are very clearly there.
「燈矢おまえ。。。本当にヒーローになりたいの？」
「燈矢 ; touya 」-> Touya
「おまえ ; omae 」-> you
「本当に ; hontou ni 」-> really
「ヒーロー ; hiro 」-> hero
「になりたい ; ni naritai 」-> want to become
「の ; no 」-> question marker particle seeking an explanation
= “Touya, you… do you really want to become a hero?”
「お母さんには。。。お父さんに縛られて苦しんでる様に見える。。。燈矢。。。世界は沢山あって選択肢は無数にあるの。お父さんだけじゃないもっと外を見て。。。！その中で本当になりたい自分を見つけてほし。。。」
「お母さん ; okaasan 」-> mom
「には ; niwa 」-> as for
「お父さん ; otousan 」-> dad
「に ; ni 」-> by
「縛られて ; shibararete 」-> to tie, to bind; to restrict (freedom)(passive)
「苦しんでる ; kushinderu」-> suffering
「様に見える ; you ni mieru 」-> seems like
「燈矢 ; touya 」-> Touya
「世界 ; sekai 」-> world
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「沢山 ; takusan 」-> many
「あって ; atte 」-> to be; to exist
「選択肢 ; sentakushi 」-> choices; alternatives; options
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「無数 ; musuu 」-> countless
「に ; ni 」-> to
「ある ; aru 」-> to be; to exist
「の ; no 」-> explanatory particle
「お父さん ; otousan 」-> dad
「だけ ; dake 」-> only
「じゃない ; janai 」-> isn’t
「もっと ; motto 」-> even more
「外 ; soto 」-> other place
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「見て ; mite 」-> look
「その中で ; sono naka de 」-> therein
「本当に ; hontou ni 」-> really
「なりたい ; naritai 」-> want to become
「自分 ; jibun 」-> oneself
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「見つけて ; mitsukete 」-> to discover; to find
「ほし ; hoshi 」-> want
= “To mom… it seems like you are suffering and being tied down by your father… Touya… There are many worlds, there are countless choices. Look more outside, there isn’t just your father…! I want you to find out who you really want to become therein.”
See, she can’t really blame him for becoming Dabi when she literally tells him he should find out who he wants to become. He only took her advice...
「お母さんが何を知ってんだよ！？啓発本でも読んだのかよ。。。！？」
「お母さん ; okaasan 」-> mom
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「何 ; nani 」-> what
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「知ってん ; shitten 」-> knowing
「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
「啓発 ; keihatsu 」-> enlightenment; development
「本 ; hon 」-> books
「でも ; demo 」-> ...or something
「読んだ ; yonda 」-> was reading
「なのか ; nanoka 」-> question marker particle seeking an explanation
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
= “What do you know, mom!? Were you reading some enlightenment books or something…!?”
Once again, the official translation makes him talk in the weirdest way. We get it, he speaks informally. But no one talks like that. Please stop. Also, while the official translation only called this a “self-help book” keihatsu is defined as the act of teaching and leading others by teaching knowledge and awareness and is based on a saying from the Analects of Confucius about teaching only those who have the desire to learn and struggle to express themselves with words. There’s another word for enlightenment in Japanese, keimou, which is defined as being about teaching people the answer, whereas keihatsu is about leading people to think about the answer themselves.
Again, in a way, Rei did lead him to think about what his answer to “find out who you want to become” is so it’s somewhat fitting since she didn’t explicitly tell him who to become.
I’m sure Rei hasn’t actually read any enlightenment books, but I’m sure Touya has (that and parental books, probably). Smart boy!
「おばあちゃん達が貧乏してたからお母さんを売ったんだろ。お母さんはそうするしかなかったんだろ。」
「おばあちゃん達 ; obaachantachi 」-> grandma and the others
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「貧乏してた ; binbou shiteta 」-> was poor
「から ; kara 」-> therefore
「お母さん ; okaasan 」-> mom
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「売ったん ; uttan 」-> was sold
「だろ ; daro 」-> right?
「お母さん ; okaasan 」-> mom
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「そうする ; sousuru 」-> to do so
「しかなかった ; shikanakatta 」-> had no choice but~
「んだろ ; ndaro 」-> right?
= “Grandma and the others were poor, so they sold mom, right? Mom had no choice but to do it, right?”
Remember how in chapter 301 I said that the first flashback seemed more like a business transaction? Well, well, well. Of course, just because Touya says that Rei was sold doesn’t mean that she was actually sold, but I do think that she was sold in the sense that Endeavor is providing for her family, which would also explain why they are never seen visiting Rei (aside from the fact that this story isn’t about her and they are just not important) since they are financially depending on Endeavor and thus don’t want to get into any sort of fights with him that would possibly result in him not providing for them anymore.
Again, it’s sad that a 13-year-old is already aware of these circumstances.
「燈。。。」
「燈 ; tou 」-> Tou
= “Tou…”
「だから俺が生まれたんだろ。。。！？お母さんも加担してんだよ。」
「だから ; dakara 」-> therefore
「俺 ; ore 」-> I
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「生まれた ; umareta 」-> was born
「んだろ ; daro 」-> right?
「お母さん ; okaasan 」-> mom
「も ; mo 」-> also; too
「加担してん ; katan shite 」-> being complicit
「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
= “That’s why I was born, right…!? You’re also complicit, mom.”
Honestly, he looks so hurt there. Some people like to claim that he was too harsh or whatever, but he basically just poured his heart out to her and told her that she can’t understand his pain - which is true - and it’s so sad to think about how long he must have had this thought already at that point. Again, he is thirteen. That’s a tough age for most people as it is, and when your own family doesn’t listen to you or understand you that makes it even worse.
Another thing to note is the sweat drops on his face. As we learn on the next page, when his emotions increase, so does his fire, so it’s likely that by yelling at his mom and getting angry, his body temperature was rising, thus making him sweat. This also matches with the line that comes right after:
「火が。。。。消えないんだよ」
「火 ; hi 」-> fire
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「消えない ; kienai 」-> won’t go out
「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
= “The fire... won’t go out.”
Again, this could refer to the fact that a literal fire is lit inside of him as he’s more emotional right now.
「燈矢」
「燈矢 ; touya 」-> Touya
= “Touya.”
This conversation is similar to two other conversations we’ve seen so far: First, Rei gives him the exact same “advice” that Endeavor has given Touya before: “Make some friends. There are more worlds than just the hero world!” and then, Rei also tells Touya that there isn’t just Endeavor, similar to how she told Shouto “You aren’t bound by his blood.” So why did these two things not work on Touya?
The first piece of advice doesn’t work because it pretty much ignores Touya’s feelings, problems, and goals. He wants to be a hero, but his father won’t let him. Similar to how his own father couldn’t just give up on his dream of being a Number One Hero, thus starting a family and his little eugenics project, Touya can’t just give up on his dream of becoming a hero. To him, it’s not even necessarily about being a hero - it’s about proving himself to his father, to have his father say “I’m glad you were born” instead of just ignoring him and only focusing on his new masterpiece, Shouto.
The second advice worked on Shouto, so why didn’t it work on Touya? Well, the two of them are the same, but they are also opposites. Shouto has only ever had negative feelings towards Endeavor since he had to witness him hit his mom and terrify his siblings. Shouto always wanted to be a hero, but he didn’t want to become like Endeavor. Shouto said that he wants to make people feel at ease, and he knows that Endeavor doesn’t make his own family feel that way, so clearly becoming like him would mean not becoming the kind of hero Shouto wants to be. So by Rei telling him that he isn’t bound by Endeavor’s blood, she’s reassuring him that he can be independent from Endeavor and doesn’t have to be like him.
So how is Touya different? Touya always wanted to be a hero, but more importantly, he wanted to be good enough in his father’s eyes because unlike Shouto, he saw the “good” days of his family. While Endeavor never unconditionally loved him like a parent should, to a kid love is love and all that matters is getting their parents’ attention. Touya had that, but then suddenly was only met with excuses of “We can’t train anymore for your own good!” which doesn’t really help a child understand why they are now being ignored. While Shouto didn’t want to become Endeavor nor did he want to be around him, all Touya ever wanted was for his father to be proud of him and view him as worthy. So of course telling him there are more worlds than just Endeavor couldn’t possibly be helpful, because how can you expect a child to just not crave their parent’s love anymore?
「早生まれの小さな身体に漸く訪れ始めた二次性徴」
「早生まれ ; hayaumare 」-> someone born between January 1 and April 1
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「小さな ; chiisana 」-> small
「身体 ; karada 」-> body
「に ; ni 」-> at
「漸く ; youyaku 」-> finally; at last
「訪れ始めた ; otozurehajimeta 」-> begin to appear
「二次 ; niji 」-> secondary
「性徴 ; seichou 」-> sexual characteristics
= “Secondary sexual characteristics finally begin to appear in the small body of someone born early in the year.”
Of course, we are all surprised that “Touya was always small because he came out of the oven a little early” isn’t a literal translation.
Hayaumare is a term that describes someone born between January 1 and April 1, since the school year in Japan starts in April and kids start going to school at age 6 and so kids born between January and April will be the youngest in their class, sometimes almost a year younger than their oldest classmates. Shouto is also a hayaumare since he is also born in January, thus one of the youngest in class 1-A. So while this doesn’t mean that he was born prematurely, he would just seem smaller in comparison to his classmates since there is still so much development happening during that time. Obviously, that doesn’t explain why he was so much shorter than Natsuo. While it’s true that Natsuo is the kid that most resembles Endeavor in appearance, Rei is also pretty tall and I believe even now taller than Dabi. I think that overall, this is more to amplify that Touya has a weak body.
Also, this is clearly a great moment for him to develop secondary sexual characteristics, which include things like body hair, only for him to burn them all off right then and there. This also means that they wouldn’t have recognized Dabi by his voice, since it wouldn’t have gotten deeper yet before he left the family.
「そうか。。。身体機能だもんな！感情の昂ぶりが火力に直結するんだ！すごいぞ俺。。。これならお父さんもきっとびっくりするぞ！」
「そうか ; souka 」-> is that so? (rhetorical)
「身体 ; shintai 」-> body
「機能 ; kinou 」-> function; feature
「だ ; da 」-> be
「もん ; mon 」-> because; indicates reason
「な ; na 」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation/ introduce new topic
「感情 ; kanjou 」-> emotion; feelings
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「昂ぶり ; takaburi 」-> excitement; stimulation
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「火力 ; karyoku」-> heating/fire power
「に ; ni 」-> to
「直結する ; chokketsu suru 」-> to directly connect
「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle
「すごい ; sugoi 」-> incredible
「ぞ ; zo 」-> emphasizes the speaker’s will or opinion
「俺 ; ore 」-> I
「これなら ; kore nara 」 - > this one
「お父さん ; otousan 」-> dad
「も ; mo 」-> also; too
「きっと ; kitto 」-> surely
「びっくりする ; bikkuri suru 」-> to be surprised
「ぞ ; zo 」-> emphasizes the speaker’s will or opinion
= “Is that so…? It’s the body function, huh! The stimulation of the emotions is directly connected to the firepower! Incredible I… this one will surely also surprise dad!”
Look at him still smiling! Wasn’t that All Might’s thing, to smile no matter what? Touya sure had that down too, still holding on to the hope that his dad would care.
「身体の変化と共にその炎は赤から蒼へと色を変えていた」
「身体 ; karada 」-> body
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「変化 ; henka 」-> transition
「と共に ; to tomo ni 」-> together with
「その ; sono 」-> that
「炎 ; honou 」-> flame
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「赤 ; aka 」-> red
「から ; kara 」-> from
「蒼 ; ao 」-> blu
「へと ; e to 」-> to
「色 ; iro 」-> color
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「変えていた ; kaeteita 」-> was changing
= “Together with the body’s transition, the flame’s color was changing from red to blue.”
「ああでも。。。くっそ昂ぶると何だって涙が出ちゃうんだろう。」
「ああ ; aa 」-> Ah
「でも ; demo 」-> but
「くっそ ; kusso 」-> extremely
「昂ぶる ; takaburu 」-> to become excited; to become aroused (of emotions)
「と ; to 」-> when
「何だって ; nandatte 」-> why?; what for?
「涙が出 ; namida ga dechau 」-> to shed tears (出る + ちゃう)
「ん ; n 」-> used for emphasis/ to show surprise
「だろう ; darou 」-> I wonder
= “Ah but… I wonder why I shed tears when I become extremely excited?”
Dechau consists of deru (to come out) and chau, which is used here to emphasize his emotions. The n after dechau is an explanatory particle and can also show surprise (basically asking for an explanation for this new discovery of him crying as a result of becoming excited).
Anyway, this is a super important new detail we now know about Dabi. In this post I talked about Dabi currently experiencing emotional numbness (in response to him telling Shouto that he doesn’t feel anything anymore), a coping mechanism that can occur after traumatic events. It doesn’t mean the person experiencing this doesn’t actually have any emotions anymore, but those feelings get repressed because sometimes it’s easier for your brain to pretend those feelings aren’t there rather than letting you become overwhelmed with extremely strong emotions. However, individuals experiencing emotional numbness might still show emotions like anger in situations where they might feel powerless or threatened.
While I still do believe that this does apply to Dabi, this chapter is proof that he still feels very strong emotions since strong emotions make his fire stronger. A little later in this chapter, we also find out that Touya was only shown how to increase his flames and not how to decrease them (imagine Endeavor teaching you how to drive lol, no thank you!) so it also seems like even now, he doesn’t have full control over his flames - or rather their intensity - since otherwise, he could have just used a weaker flame up until now instead of always using blue flames no matter what. So his flames are still controlled by his emotions, therefore showing that he still has very strong emotions now.
In other words, while he is suppressing his emotions and not fully experiencing them the same way he used to, those feelings are still very much there even if it doesn’t feel that way to him.
I think something very interesting to see would be if at some point (should someone ever properly decide to save him) someone would get through to him and we would just see his blue flames slowly turning red as he, for the first time, truly calms down...
「お父さん今度の休み瀬古杜岳に来てよ。」
「お父さん ; otousan 」-> dad
「今度 ; kondo 」-> next time
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「休み ; yasumi 」-> holiday; day off
「瀬古杜岳 ; sekototake 」-> Sekoto Peak
「に ; ni 」-> to
「来て ; kite 」-> come
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
= “Dad, come to Sekoto Peak on your next free day!”
Again, can we just appreciate how strong this child is still smiling and being hopeful despite years of being neglected and told he’s not good enough? Even now, he’s still trying and not giving up. He looks so cheerful here like he still has positive feelings for his dad here.
「火傷。。。周囲から見られない箇所での訓練。。。！」
「火傷 ; yakedo 」-> burn
「周囲 ; shuui 」-> surroundings
「から ; kara 」-> from
「見られない ; mirarenai 」-> can’t be seen
「箇所 ; kasho 」-> place
「での ; deno 」-> in (the no adds emphasis on the preceding word)
「訓練 ; kunren 」-> training
= “Burn… training in a place that can’t be seen from the surroundings…!”
「おまえまだ。。。！！」
「おまえ ; omae 」-> you
「まだ ; mada 」-> still
= “You still…!!”
Obviously, this is very different from the official translation’s “Dammit! Again?!” but I think the criticism only stems from people who think that swearing is some sort of terrible taboo way of speaking. No, he doesn’t swear in Japanese but there are so few swear words in Japanese and usually, the way you would swear is by speaking informally. Anyway, it matches his expression and you can see that he’s yelling so it’s one of those changes that aren’t that dramatic, and anyone that cries over this better also address the heavier changes in regards to Dabi and the rest of the villains. Also, as I’ve said before: the changes in Dabi’s speech are far more severe and impact how people view him as a person since the entire content is sometimes changed for the worse. He is also someone who is clearly smart and knows how to use language, so making him speak in weird ways like the official translation does definitely changes how he is perceived. Endeavor, on the other hand, is not perceived differently by the minor changes made to his speech, which don’t even affect the content. For example, with this line, he is literally yelling at his child. Saying “dammit” isn’t the reason I view him as a terrible father since him neglecting and abusing his children for over ten years at this point is enough proof for that already. Whether he swears or not doesn’t change that.
「すごい事になったんだ必ず来て！」
「すごい事になった ; sugoi koto ni natta 」-> to go crazy; to get out of hand; to end up in an extreme state
「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle
「必ず ; kanarazu 」-> certainly; without fail
「来て ; kite 」-> come
= “It ended up in an extreme state, so you certainly have to come!”
What’s interesting here is the “sugoi koto ni natta” part, which is an expression with the above-mentioned meanings that certainly all fit Touya’s state there. But if you break it down then you have “became a terrific thing” - which is close to the “what I can do now is pretty cool!”
「焦凍にだって到達できるかどうか。。。！オールマイトにも負けないかもね！お父さんもきっと認めざるをえなくなるからさ。。。！俺をつくって良かったって思うから！」
「焦凍 ; shouto 」-> Shouto
「に ; ni 」-> at
「だって ; datte 」-> after all
「到達 ; toutatsu 」-> reaching
「できる ; dekiru 」-> to be able to
「かどうか ; kadouka 」-> whether or not
「オールマイト ; orumaito 」-> All Might
「にも ; nimo 」-> also
「負けない ; makenai 」-> don’t lose; to not be inferior to
「かも ; kamo 」-> may; might
「ね ; ne 」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation
「お父さん ; otousan 」-> dad
「も ; mo 」-> also; too
「きっと ; kitto 」-> surely
「認めざるをえなくなる ; mitomezaru o enakunaru 」-> cannot help to grow to recognize/notice (認め + ざるをえなく + なる)
「から ; kara 」-> expresses sympathy
「さ ; sa 」-> emphasis particle
「俺 ; ore 」-> I
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「つくって ; tsukutte 」-> to make
「良かった ; yokatta 」-> to be glad
「って思う ; tte omou 」-> to think
「から ; kara 」-> expresses sympathy
= “Whether or not I am able to reach Shouto after all…! I might also not lose to All Might, will I! Surely, you cannot help but grow to notice me too, dad...! And you will think you’re glad you made me!”
Later on, we get Endeavor and Rei both expressing that they didn’t know what to say to Touya around this time. When your child says “I will do this thing that’s damaging me to prove my worth to you and have you think it’s good that I exist!” maybe just say that you’re already glad they exist and that they’re already good enough! I’m sure parenting is hard, but affirming your child’s worth should not be one of the difficult parts of parenting.
Also, I would like to point out that the fandom has talked a lot about Touya’s jealousy towards Shouto, but I don’t fully see it. First of all, Touya is fully aware of why he and his siblings exist and therefore also knows why Endeavor is training Shouto. This doesn’t mean that Touya isn’t jealous at all, but he also doesn’t really dwell on those feelings. He sees Shouto as his competition, but not even in a negative way. If Endeavor had allowed it, Touya probably would have trained with Shouto and the two of them could have motivated each other to reach their full potential. The only reason Touya had any amount of jealousy in him was that Shouto was his replacement and as long as Shouto was around and better than Touya, it meant that Endeavor wouldn’t pay any attention to Touya. The whole “Whether or not I am able to reach Shouto” phrase shows that he recognizes that Shouto is stronger than him at the moment, but again, it comes from a place of trying to show Endeavor “Look, I can do what your masterpiece can do, too!” because he knows Endeavor is currently only impressed by Shouto. Shouto sets the bar and Touya is trying to make his father see that he can reach that bar too (probably). If Endeavor had changed his mind and let Touya and Shouto train together, then Touya might not have had any ill feelings towards Shouto, so when talking about this jealousy, please keep in mind that all roads lead back to Endeavor here and taking him out of the equation would make for a good bond between the two brothers.
「何故止めなかった冷！！！頼んだはずだ！！！」
「何故 ; naze 」-> why
「止めなかった ; tomenakatta 」-> didn’t stop
「冷 ; rei 」-> Rei
「頼んだ ; tanonda 」-> entrusted to; requested to
「はず ; hazu 」-> expectation that something took place
「だ ; da 」-> be
= “Why didn’t you stop him, Rei!!! I entrusted him to you!!!”
Hazu is used with the past tense of a verb to express negative feelings in response to something not having turned out how you expected them to.
「お母さんいじめないで！！やめて！いじめないでよ！」
「お母さん ; okaasan 」-> mom
「いじめないで ; ijimenai de 」-> don’t be cruel to
「やめて ; yamete 」-> stop
「いじめないで ; ijimenai de 」-> don’t be cruel to
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
= “Don’t be cruel to mom! Stop it! Don’t be cruel!”
「焦凍は出てろ！関係ない話だ！！」
「焦凍 ; shouto 」-> Shouto
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「出てろ ; detero 」-> get out
「関係ない ; kankei nai 」-> not involved
「話 ; hanashi 」-> conversation
「だ ; da 」-> be
= “Shouto, get out! The conversation doesn’t involve you!!”
「お母さんが何を知ってんだよ！？」
「お母さん ; okaasan 」-> mom
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「何 ; nani 」-> what
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「知ってん ; shitten 」-> knowing
「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
= “What do you know mom!?”
「選択肢は限られていたけれど選んで進んだのは私の足でせめてその先では笑っていようと思っていた。。。のに」
「選択肢 ; sentakushi 」-> options
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「限られていた ; kagirareteita 」-> was limited
「けれど ; keredo 」-> however
「選んで ; erande 」-> to choose
「進んだ ; sunda 」-> to live
「のは ; nowa 」-> topic maker particle
「私 ; watashi 」-> I
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「足 ; ashi 」-> foot
「で ; de 」-> on
「せめて ; semete 」-> at least
「その ; sono 」-> that
「先 ; saki ; 」-> the future; destination
「では ; dewa 」-> topic maker particle
「笑っていよう ; waratte iyou 」-> should smile
「と思っていた ; to omotteita 」-> was thinking
「のに ; noni 」-> even though; and yet
= “My options were limited, however, and yet I chose to live on my feet and thought I shall at least smile in the future.”
「私じゃ止められない。」
「私 ; watashi 」-> I
「じゃ ; ja 」-> topic marker particle
「止められない ; tomerarenai 」-> couldn’t stop
= “I couldn’t stop him.”
Again, he’s thirteen. Maybe she didn’t read enlightenment books, but she sure should have read them. And also brought Touya to a therapist.
「そして。。。あなたは行かなかった。」
「そして ; soshite 」-> and
「あなた ; anata 」-> you
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「行かなかった ; ikanakatta 」-> didn’t go
= “And… you didn’t go.”
「出るな。。。！涙なんか。。。」
「出るな ; deruna 」-> don’t come out
「涙 ; namida 」-> tears
「なんか ; nanka 」-> expresses strong emotion; used to belittle something
= “Don’t come out…! Stupid tears…”
Nanka doesn’t really have an actual translation here, but the “stupid” from the official translation conveys that nuance of belittling something pretty well.
「。。。薪をくべてしまうだけだと。。。いや。。。」
「薪 ; maki 」-> firewood
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「くべてしまう ; kubete shimau 」-> to completely burn
「だけ ; dake 」-> only
「だ ; da 」-> be
「と ; to 」-> quotation marker
「いや ; iya 」-> disagreeable
= “... I thought it’s only completely burning the firewood… no…”
The to could be interpreted in different ways since it can also mean “and” but here it makes more sense to go for what the official translation did, which is assuming that it’s the quotation marker which would normally be followed by omou (= to think).
「ちくしょう。。。」
「ちくしょう ; chikushou 」-> damn it
= “Damn it...”
「何と声を掛けたらいいのかわからなかったんだ。」
「何と ; nanto 」-> what
「声を掛けたらいい ; koe o kaketara ii 」-> should start talking (to)/ give vocal support (to)/ to let (somebody) know (声を掛けた + らいい)
「のか ; noka 」-> question marker particle seeking a clarification
「わからなかった ; wakaranakatta 」-> didn’t know
「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle
= “I didn’t know what vocal support I should give.”
The official translation went for the more natural way of saying this, which is “I had no idea what to say to him.”
「おとうさ」
「お父さ ; otousa 」-> dad
= “Dad-”
「私もそうだった。」
「私 ; watashi 」-> I
「も ; mo 」-> also; too
「そう ; sou 」-> in that way; so
「だった ; datta 」-> was
= “I was also like that…”
Something that bothers me a lot about this exchange is that they both claim they didn’t know what to say to Touya, which is a weird conclusion as to where things went wrong. First of all, Touya is in all honesty probably smarter than both his parents combined and despite the translation constantly trying to make him sound like he’s speaking his own language, he has always been someone well-spoken in the sense that he chooses his words carefully as seen by how he knew exactly what to say to Aizawa in the summer camp, how politely he spoke in his broadcast, etc. He knows how to word things in order to get specific reactions out of people and be perceived however he wants to be perceived by people. More importantly, though, he had made it very clear on multiple occasions growing up what his problems were. He was always clear about his needs - wanting to train with his dad, having his dad come to the mountain with him, etc. - yet here it sounds a little like he never voiced his feelings or was somehow unable to comprehend what his parents told him.
Second of all, saying they didn’t know what to say to him makes it feel more like the whole thing was just a one-time slip and not years and years of problems piling up until it all collapsed. They knew Touya wasn’t fine. They saw him try to attack Shouto, they knew that he continued training and didn’t stop, they knew he wanted Endeavor’s attention.
As mentioned earlier, their advice failed because neither of his parents could practice what they preached. Endeavor telling Touya to give up on his goal of surpassing All Might and becoming a hero failed because Endeavor himself couldn’t stop to the point he started a whole family in the hopes that one of his children could do what he wasn’t able to. Rei telling Touya that he looks like he’s suffering and that he should find out who he really wants to become failed because Touya was aware that Rei didn’t marry Endeavor out of her own will but for her parents’ sake. And the thing is, he told them. He told them both that this advice wasn’t good enough, and then they just gave up. One piece of advice was what they deemed trying hard enough and now they boil it down to “I didn’t know what to say to him” even though the real reason Touya “died” was because they gave up on him from the start.
「わあっ。」
「わあっ ; waa 」-> Waa
= “Waa.”
「あれは熱かったな。」
「あれ ; are 」-> that
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「熱かった ; atsukatta 」-> was hot
「な ; na 」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation
= “That was hot, wasn’t it.”
「あつ。。。！止まらない！炎がー！！」
「あつ ; atsu 」-> hot
「止まらない ; tomaranai 」-> can’t stop
「炎 ; honou 」-> flame
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
= “Hot…! I can’t stop! The flames are-!!”
「ま自業自得だよな。」
「ま ; ma 」-> well; you might say
「自業自得 ; jigoujitoku 」-> paying for one’s mistakes; getting one’s just deserts; suffering the consequences (of one’s own actions); reap what you sow
「だ ; da 」-> be
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
「な ; na 」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation
= “Well, you reap what you sow, don’t you?”
I know we all made fun of the “that’s just deserts'' line in the official translation, but that is, in fact, one of the actual dictionary definitions of jigoujitoku. And to be fair, Touya was a smart kid. Maybe he just knows all these strange expressions no one ever uses. Maybe the official translation is onto something here… but to the rest of us, who never heard anyone say this before, it just sounds weird. Maybe we’re just all too stupid for Dabi…
「火力の上げ方しか教えてくれなかったもんなあ。」
「火力 ; karyoku」-> heating/firepower
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「上げ ; age 」-> raising
「方 ; kata 」-> way of; method of
「しか ; shika 」-> only (with neg. verb)
「教えてくれなかった ; oshiete kurenakatta 」-> taught (教えて + くれなかった)
「もん ; mon 」-> because; indicates reason/ excuse/ dissatisfaction
「なあ ; naa 」-> used to say something emotionally when looking back on the past
= “Looking back, he only taught me the way of raising the firepower.”
Again, the kure in oshiete kurenakatta is used when saying that something was done for the speaker.
When speaking to yourself, naa at the end of the sentence can be used when reflecting on the past, as Dabi does here, which makes it sound like he wasn’t necessarily aware of this before or at least wasn’t aware of it back then. I know there were some people when the spoilers came out that claimed that Touya had obviously faked his death on purpose, but aside from nothing pointing to that as it is, this part makes it especially obvious that he didn’t do it on purpose. Touya was clearly surprised that his fire grew so strong there and that he was unable to stop it. And the naa here indicates that if he had been aware back then that he never learned how to properly control his flames, then he might have been able to prevent this incident from happening.
「あの日全て諦めていれば。」
「あの ; ano 」-> that
「日 ; hi 」-> day
「全て ; subete 」-> all; everything
「諦めていれば ; akirameteireba 」-> had given up (conditional)
= “If only I had given everything up that day.”
THIS would have to be about the saddest sentences in this chapter and I haven’t really seen a lot of people mention this. This is Dabi reflecting on the day where his life completely changed and although he just had quite a success by revealing his identity and broadcasting the truth about his family to the whole country, he’s looking back on the day he almost died and thinks “if only I had given everything up on that day.” If you didn’t think he was suicidal before, here is your proof. Yes, he’s freer now in the sense that Endeavor can’t tell him what to do anymore (not like that worked before anyway), but this is still not the life little Touya had wanted. He wanted to be a hero and someone his father could be proud of, and yet here he is as a villain whose sole purpose is to kill Endeavor. So not only is he still not free from his life being dictated by Endeavor, but he also turned himself into someone he never wanted to be. While revealing his true identity to the country was somewhat of a victory for him, it doesn’t change that he won’t ever get back all the years Endeavor took from him. He might be fighting, but deep down he’d rather just be dead.
「燈矢を殺してしまったことで後に引けなくなっていた。。。焦凍に傾倒する他。。。なくなっていた。」
「燈矢 ; touya 」-> Touya
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「殺してしまった ; koroshiteshimatta 」-> was killed completely (殺して + しまった)
「ことで ; koto de 」-> nominalizes the preceding phrase
「後に引けなくなっていた ; ato ni hikenaku natteita 」-> couldn’t stop
「焦凍 ; shouto 」-> Shouto
「に ; ni 」-> to
「傾倒する ; keitou suru 」-> to devote oneself to
「他なくなっていた ; hoka naku natteita 」-> can do nothing but; have no other choice but
= “I couldn’t stop after I completely killed Touya… I couldn’t do anything except devoting myself to Shouto.”
As mentioned before, verb + shimau can mean that an action was done completely, but it can also mean that something was done regrettably. This is one of those cases, where both meanings can apply. Endeavor completely killed Touya, thus Dabi was born, but this is also regrettable since Touya shouldn’t have died. It’s just weird to admit that you're responsible (and cry about it in front of your victims) and then also blame the victim for how you treated your other victim.
「燈矢が消えて。。。エスカレートしていくあなたが悍ましくて。。。こどもたちにまで面影を見るようになってしまった。」
「エスカレートしていく ; esukareeto shite iku 」-> to continue escalating
「あなた ; anata 」-> you
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「悍ましくて ; ozomashikute 」-> disgusting; repulsive
「こどもたち ; kodomotachi 」-> children
「に ; ni 」-> in
「まで ; made 」-> until
「面影 ; omokage 」-> face
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「見る ; miru 」-> to see
「ようになってしまった」-> completely reached the point that
= “Continuing to escalate, you were repulsive... until I completely reached the point of seeing your face in the children.”
Okay, first things first. Rei’s line created a lot of confusion since it contradicts what Fuyumi says in chapter 250, where she mentions that Touya died shortly after Rei was hospitalized. This tweet from the official bnha twitter account states that the “Touya disappeared and…” part in Rei’s line in this chapter was a mistake and will be erased in the volume release, so I didn’t include that part in here. I do think that this scene overall makes no sense, then, though, since the idea here is that Touya’s “death” made Endeavor worse, made Endeavor become abusive, made Rei pour the boiling hot water on Shouto, made Endeavor put Rei into a mental hospital. But that’s not true.
Endeavor saying that he started to obsess over Shouto after Touya died is also weird, since we all know that he was already obsessed with him before and didn’t pay attention to any of the other children, which is exactly what led to Touya dying when Endeavor couldn’t even be bothered to go to the mountain with him one time.
「壊れてるのを知りながら。。。怖くて踏み込めなかった。。。上っ面で繕うことしか。。。してこなかった。」
「壊れてる ; kowareteru 」-> to be broken
「のを ; no o 」-> nominalizer + object marker
「知り ; shiri 」-> to know; to be aware of
「ながら ; nagara 」-> while
「怖くて ; kowakute 」-> scary
「踏み込めなかった ; fumikomenakatta 」-> wasn’t able to step into
「上っ面 ; uwattsura 」-> surface; apppearances
「で ; de 」-> at
「繕う ; tsukurou 」-> to fix; to cover up (mistakes); to keep up appearances
「こと ; koto 」-> things
「しか ; shika 」-> only (with neg. verb)
「してこなかった ; shite konakatta 」-> continued to do
= “While I knew it was broken... I was scared and unable to step in… I only continued to… fix things on the surface.”
Tsukurou has several meanings like “to fix” and “to keep up appearances” so that’s probably why the official translation included both meanings here. The Japanese also only says “scared” and not “too scared” like the official English translation, though this is most likely just done to make it sound more natural. Another difference is that in the official translation, Fuyumi says “All I could do” whereas in Japanese she said that she “only continued to” fix things on the surface. The panel also shows a small flashback of Endeavor dragging Touya away and Rei trying to stop him, while Fuyumi is standing in the background and slightly turned away. She’s shown in the sailor uniform that is typically worn by middle school students, so she would be around 12 years old, which was around the time Touya “died” - obviously at that age there wasn’t really anything she could have done against Endeavor so the translation isn’t entirely incorrect, however, judging by Touya telling Natsuo that he can’t talk to Fuyumi because she doesn’t understand, it seems like she probably always tried to remain impartial instead of siding with her older brother. While she couldn’t have stopped Endeavor, she could have at least been there for Touya as emotional support - which, might I add, is her whole purpose for existing - so that’s why saying that she “continued to” only fix things on the surface is a more accurate line.
「全部あなたが始めた事であなたが原因だーでも
俺がぶん殴って燈矢兄と向かい合わせてやれてたら。。。荼毘は生まれてなくて焦凍に盛り蕎麦をご馳走してやれてたかもしれない。」
「全部 ; zenbu 」-> all
「あなた ; anata 」-> you
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「始めた ; hajimeta 」-> to start
「事 ; koto 」-> situation; incident
「で ; de 」-> and
「あなた ; anata 」-> you
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「原因 ; genin 」-> cause
「だ ; da 」-> be
「でも ; demo 」-> but
「俺 ; ore 」-> I
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「ぶん殴って ; bunnagutte 」-> to hit hard; to give a hard blow
「燈矢兄 ; touya nii 」-> Touya-Nii
「と ; to 」-> with
「向かい合わせてやれて ; mukaiawasete yarete 」-> let someone face each other
「たら ; tara 」-> if
「荼毘 ; dabi 」-> Dabi
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「生まれてなくて ; umaretenakute 」-> wouldn’t have been born
「焦凍 ; shouto 」-> Shouto
「に ; ni 」-> to
「盛り蕎麦 ; mori soba 」-> cold soba
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「ご馳走してやれてた ; gochisou shite yareteta 」-> to treat someone to a meal
「かもしれない ; kamoshirenai 」-> may; might; possibly
= “You started all of this situation and you are the cause - but if I had hit you hard and could have let you face Touya-Nii, then Dabi wouldn’t have been born and he might have been able to treat Shouto to mori soba.”
The yarete that appears twice in this sentence is the potential form of yaru, which is used when something is given/done for someone from someone with higher status to someone with lower status. In combination with the causative form (making someone do something) as is the case with mukaiawasete, it changes the nuance from simply making someone do something to allow someone to do something.
Concerning this line, there was a huge difference between the fan translation that I read and the official translation. While the official translation matches with the Japanese line by having Natsuo say that he should have punched Endeavor (can we appreciate how funny that would have been, but also sad if TWO of your children have to stand up to you because you mistreat another family member), the fan translation that I first read had Natsuo say that he should have punched and faced Touya, which is a very different message. Fortunately, that doesn’t make sense and isn’t the actual line, though.
More importantly, mori soba??? I thought Shouto’s favorite kind of soba was zaru soba (it’s basically the same, but zaru soba has nori seaweed on top)…
「責任はあなただけのものじゃない。今回のことは私たち全員の責任。心が砕けても私たちが立たせます。あなたは荼毘と戦うしかないの。」
「責任 ; sekinin 」-> responsibility
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「あなた ; anata 」-> you
「だけ ; dake 」-> only
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「もの ; mono 」-> thing
「じゃない ; janai 」-> isn’t
「今回 ; konkai 」-> this time
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「こと ; koto 」-> situation; circumstance
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「私たち ; watashitachi 」-> we
「全員 ; zenin 」-> all members; everyone
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「責任 ; sekinin 」-> responsibility
「心 ; kokoro 」-> heart
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「砕けて ; kudakeru 」-> breaking
「も ; mo 」-> even if
「私たち ; watashitachi 」-> we
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「立たせます ; tatasemasu 」-> make someone stand up
「あなた ; anata 」-> you
「は ; wa 」-> topic marker particle
「荼毘 ; dabi 」-> Dabi
「と ; to 」-> with
「戦う ; tatakau 」-> to fight
「しかない ; shika nai 」-> have no choice but
「の ; no 」-> explanatory particle
= “The responsibility isn’t only yours. We are all responsible for this time’s circumstances. Even if your heart is breaking, we will make you stand up. You have no choice but to fight Dabi.”
This is one of those lines that really make you wonder whether the character is supposed to be like that or if the author just doesn’t understand what he’s writing. It’s questionable - to say the least - to say they are all responsible this time. While I continue to wonder how the non-heroes of the family are supposed to do anything here, why would a mother expect her children to be part of this? They are civilians and she expects them to somehow take care of saving their villain brother? Sorry, but she wasn’t even able to stop Touya from going outside to train, and now she expects her children to do better than her? No.
There’s also something very odd about her referring to him as Dabi. I understand that this is done to say that they intend on fighting Dabi and not Touya, and it’s true that Touya is in a way dead and Dabi was born instead. However, the problem with this idea of fighting “Dabi” is that it suggests that Dabi could somehow be killed while Touya survives when that is not at all how helping somehow who has been traumatized works. You can’t just reset him and somehow get him back to the state he was in prior to the traumatic experience (especially when the traumatic experience was basically his whole life). They won’t be able to just kill Dabi and have him go back to who he used to be because he has never been allowed to just be himself. Dabi is now a part of him. And not just that, but Dabi is the result of the trauma and thus functions as Touya’s surviving mechanism. This doesn’t mean that Dabi can’t be redeemed or be saved, it’s just that this idea of fighting Dabi and removing Dabi from Touya is bound to end in failure because that’s an impossible task and, again, the wrong approach to this.
Why exactly is a mother asking her and her children’s abuser to fight her child? Them going against Touya is what caused Dabi’s existence in the first place, which is what the conversation is more or less about, and yet she continues to think that fighting him is the right option here? A lot of people have suggested that this is done to cause a problem later down the line with Hawks and Best Jeanist listening in on the conversation and probably assuming the family doesn’t intend on saving Dabi in any way. But this is still a somewhat weak argument for two reasons: One, Hawks and Best Jeanist talk with the Todofam in chapter 303 and tell them that they will help to fight Dabi, so them teaming up means they should discuss this a little more and with that, there shouldn’t be any problems in terms of communication; and two, anything that happens in a story still has to be believable. If there is an issue or conflict it’s absolutely vital to convince the readers that this couldn’t somehow be prevented or easily resolved. But Rei isn’t vague here. She literally talks about Endeavor having to fight Dabi. So even if this is just in order for the other characters to misunderstand her, I do find it odd for a mother to suggest that her abusive husband should fight their child instead of finally acting like a parent and saving this child.
Until we know what exactly the family is going to do, we can’t determine whether this is just Horikoshi’s writing or if he intentionally made Rei like this, but for now, this just seems like a really weird thing to say. And even Endeavor can see this as shown in the next line:
「おまえ。。。本当に。。。冷か。。。？」
「おまえ ; omae 」-> you
「本当に ; hontou ni 」-> really
「冷 ; rei 」-> Rei
「か ; ka 」-> question marker particle
= “You… are you really… Rei…?”
「私たちよりよっぽど辛いハズの子が恨んで当然の私を再びお母さんと呼んでくれた。」
「私たち ; watashitachi 」-> us
「より ; yori 」-> than
「よっぽど ; yoppodo 」-> greatly; to a large extent
「辛い ; tsurai 」-> painful; difficult (emotionally)
「ハズ ; hazu 」-> ought to; should be
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「子 ; ko 」-> child
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「恨んで ; urande 」-> to bear a grudge against; to resent
「当然 ; touzen 」-> it’s natural to
「の ; no 」-> explanatory particle
「私 ; watashi 」-> I
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「再び ; futatabi 」-> again; once more
「お母さん ; okaasan 」-> mom
「と呼んでくれた ; to yondekureta 」-> called (と呼んで + くれた)
= “It’s natural for the child that should be in more pain than us to resent me. He called me mom again.”
Originally, I thought this was about Touya since these chapters are about his backstory. But then someone asked me whether this was actually about Shouto and someone else also pointed out that the next line is about Shouto, so it makes more sense that this is about him. And this is what I mean when I say that this writing is contradictory. How do they all reflect on the past, recognize that they didn’t understand Touya and neglected him and didn’t know how to be parents to him, but then say that Shouto is the one that suffered more than the rest of them? Obviously, it’s not a competition, and comparing who has it the worst is not helpful at all, but Dabi is literally alone right now and has been alone his whole life, while Shouto at least has his family and emotional support right now. Do they not hear what they are saying? How are they so dumb? Shouto also literally never resented you or stopped calling you mom, so maybe shift your focus to Touya? No wonder he left.
「雄英高校でお友だちをつくって私たちをつなぎとめてくれた。焦凍が轟家（ウチ）のヒーローになってくれたのよ。」
「雄英高校 ; yuuei koukou 」-> U.A. High School
「で ; de 」-> at
「お友だち ; otomodachi 」-> friends
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「つくって ; tsukutte 」-> to make
「私たち ; watashitachi 」-> we
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「つなぎとめてくれた ; tsunagitomete kureta 」-> saved (someone’s life)
「焦凍 ; shouto 」-> Shouto
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「轟家 ; todoroki uchi 」-> Todoroki household
「ウチ ; uchi 」-> one’s own family
「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe
「ヒーロー ; hiro 」-> hero
「になってくれた ; ni natte kureta 」-> became
「の ; no 」-> explanatory particle
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
= “He made friends at U.A. and saved us. Shouto has really become our hero.”
Here we have another case of Kanji and Furigana being different. While the Kanji (what the character means) says “Todoroki household” the Furigana (what the character says) simply says “One’s family” and to be honest, I’m not entirely sure why there is a difference here. Like yes, obviously, by family she’s referring to the Todoroki family.
Anyway, this is probably the worst sentence in this entire chapter. There is nothing inherently bad about saying that Shouto is a good person and that he helped his family. However, he is a literal child. A minor. And a victim in this, just like his siblings - just like Touya. None of the kids are responsible for their family’s well-being or for correcting their parents’ mistakes, and yet here we are. Shouto shouldn’t have to be the family’s hero and feel the need to save his brother just because both his parents failed to be parents. Don’t get me wrong, I agree that Endeavor wouldn’t possibly get through to Dabi now (although realistically, Natsuo is the only one that could really get through to him) so it makes sense to get Shouto involved. But everyone praising him just further shows their inability to recognize that this exact mindset is what caused the problems in the first place. This whole idea of someone - specifically Shouto - being the one in the family who is able to be a great hero is what was part of Touya’s mental downfall. It’s also a harmful statement to make in general, as it pushes the “good victim, bad victim” mentality, where Shouto is seen as the good victim for being able to stay on a good path, live his life in a normal way and still speak with his parents, whereas Touya ended up turning himself into a villain and essentially throwing his whole life away in order to ruin Endeavor’s life, too. Aside from the fact that this mentality is problematic in itself by making it seem like there’s a right and wrong way to be a victim and that people who end up not being able to just move on from their trauma are somehow worthless and don’t deserve to get help, this sentence also shows the problem the family has: not learning from the past. Despite all the self-reflection we’re shown in this chapter with each family member expressing what they did wrong, they then continue to not change at all and just continue to demonize Touya. They are taking responsibility and admitting that they were wrong, just ignoring the problems and not saying the right things to him, but by claiming that Shouto is the hero of the family they continue to neglect why Touya ended up the way he did. Shouto was supported in reaching his goals. Obviously, Endeavor wanted Shouto to become a hero, but Shouto also always wanted to be a hero on his own accord. His mom reassured him that he could be whatever hero he wanted to be and not just be the next Endeavor. He was always supported both in his journey of becoming a hero and also emotionally through his family and his friends. That isn’t to say that he is somehow less of a victim, but it’s important to acknowledge that the reason he ended up on the “good path” was that he had people that reminded him that he wasn’t Endeavor and that he was free to be his own person. He was never held back from reaching his goals.
Touya, on the other hand, received the exact opposite treatment. He was kept from pursuing his goal and was only met with cheap excuses as to why he shouldn’t train, yet none of those arguments ever worked on him and so he continued to train on his own for almost ten years. Despite both his parents knowing about this, they never did more than just say “stop training” and thus actively ignored his problems. Even when he lashed out to Rei, she just watched as he walked away. It’s not surprising he calls her and Fuyumi useless when both of them sided with Endeavor instead of acknowledging his pain. Of course, he was going to end up on a “bad path” when he didn’t have a proper support system.
So saying that Shouto is the family’s hero might sound like an innocent compliment at first glance, but it only further shows how little the family understands why Touya has become Dabi, which becomes a bigger problem when they want to save him, something they won’t be able to do as long as they continue to fail to really see him and his pain.
「ここに。。。来る前お母さんと話した。おまえが。。。もう戦えねェと思って俺がやるしかねェって思ってた。。。でも違うみてえだ。」
「ここ ; koko 」-> here
「に ; ni 」-> to
「来る ; kuru 」-> to come
「前 ; mae」-> before
「お母さん ; okaasan 」-> mom
「と ; to 」-> with
「話した ; hanashita 」-> spoke
「おまえ ; omae 」-> you
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「もう ; mou 」-> yet
「戦えねェ ; tatakaenee 」-> unable to fight/ compete against
「と思って ; to omotte 」-> thought
「俺 ; ore 」-> I
「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle
「やる ; yaru 」-> to do
「しか ; shika 」-> only (with neg. verb)
「ねェっ ; neee 」-> not
「て思ってた ; te omotteta 」-> was thinking
「でも ; demo 」-> but
「違う ; chigau 」-> to differ
「みてえ ; mitee 」-> looks; seems
「だ ; da 」-> be
= “Here… before coming, I spoke with mom. You… I thought you couldn’t fight anymore and I was thinking only I would do it.... but, it seems different.”
「泣き終わったら立てよ。皆で燈矢兄を止めに行こう」
「泣き終わったら ; nakiowattara 」-> when you’re done crying
「立て ; tate 」-> stand up
「よ ; yo 」-> emphasis particle
「皆 ; minna 」-> everyone
「で ; de 」-> with
「燈矢兄 ; touya nii 」-> Touya-Nii
「を ; o 」-> direct object marker
「止めに行こう ; tome ni ikou 」-> let’s go stop
= “When you’re done crying, stand up. Let’s go stop Touya-Nii with everyone.”
Anyway, that concludes the comparison for chapter 302, which took a while to make because, to be honest, this is a very odd chapter. I know people continue to view this as the Todofam intending on saving Dabi, but the problem is simply that the present time scenes don’t really make sense in context with the flashbacks. Endeavor crying for three chapters straight somehow symbolizes that he regrets the past and has changed when in reality, none of them fully understand where everything went wrong and are trying to fix the problem incorrectly. It feels a bit as though they are downplaying what happened and how much Endeavor and Rei are responsible for Dabi’s existence by simply boiling it down to them not knowing what to say to Touya and by having both Fuyumi and Natsuo say they are also responsible without their parents telling them that they were children and thus could not possibly be held responsible the same way.
Personally, I’m glad that the focus seems to be shifting away from this storyline for now because it was really hard to read this chapter with all these weird lines. While I do continue to hope that Dabi will be redeemed and saved by the end of the story, I also still think that Horikoshi isn’t writing this in a good way, considering the contradictions and the constant “good vs. bad victim” mentality that all these characters are constantly voicing paired with the really odd ways characters are acting at the moment (= Rei in chapter 303???). It’s odd they want Endeavor to be involved in this and even weirder that they (in chapter 303) accept Hawks and Best Jeanist wanting to be part of this too, when they all saw the broadcast and thus all saw that Hawks killed Twice, aka Dabi’s friend and someone on the same side as him, which makes it feel like they are either too dumb to realize or simply don’t care that there is a high chance that Hawks is just going to end up killing (or at least trying to) Dabi, too. It’s also odd that Rei is apologizing to both Hawks and Best Jeanist since Dabi hasn’t done anything to Best Jeanist so what’s up with that? Anyway, she better apologize to Dabi too...
Anyway, so right now, the translation differences aren’t so much a problem as the writing in itself is and for now, we will probably have to wait a while to see how this storyline will continue and how exactly they plan on taking care of Dabi.
Thanks for reading!
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Points of view – The Interview: Luca Marinelli
How do you approach your characters.
Sometimes I also wonder how I get to the character. For “Non essere cattivo”, I had a very detailed script and a fascinating director at my disposal, so I didn't struggle to relate. It was a very brave script for the way it dealt with reality. At first my auditions went in the direction of Vittorio's character but also knowing the figure of Cesare, more than once I thought I would like to play him. I saw the auditions of others and I stopped to think how I could have done Cesare. Then at a certain point I remember that Claudio looked at Valerio and told him that it would be better to reverse the roles, to let me try Cesare, and so it went. When I read the script of “Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot”, the first thing that struck me, besides the courageous imagination, was to understand how a film of this kind could be made.
In the first part of your career, you brought an image of introverted and staid youth to the screen. Was this a choice.
Absolutely not. Or rather yes, it was the choice of those who met me first. Perhaps a part of my personality has been seen that could best marry the characters in question. It happened both in “La solitudine dei numeri primi” by Saverio Costanzo and later with Virzì in "Tutti i santi giorni", then it can be said that with Casare of “Non essere cattivo” and the Zingaro of “Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot” I was allowed to turn things around slightly, to play a character who had a disposition and behavior that was completely the opposite of what I had faced previously.
What do you remember about your debut with Saverio Costanzo.
He was my initiation into cinema, I came from the Academy and I had no idea what it was like to work on a set. The best memory, in addition to the experience of the film with him and Alba, is the first meeting, the first audition, where I really understood that I strongly wanted to work with him and that if this had happened I would have ended up in the hands of a great author.
With that film you found yourself in the main competition of the Venice Film Festival. What memories do you have of that first time at the lido.
Of a huge confusion and a big headache. We were tossed around from one interview to another and not only that, because the worst thing was always answering the same questions, and I was terribly worried not to make the situation even more boring for the machine operator, who never changed, and I don't think could take it longer to hear the same phrases over and over. Fortunately, Alba was there as well and saved me in more than one interview. The experience helped me because the following times I knew slightly more what I was going through and how to manage situations and keep stress at bay. Or maybe not yet, it's a long way.
I noticed that when you talk about your job you do it using the verb “to play” (giocare). Is it a coincidence or the choice has a precise meaning.
Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that in English the term recite is said precisely in this way because in my opinion to play, or the French jouez, represents the feeling of freedom and fun that is inherent in the job I do, better. As far as I'm concerned, the moment of the take is when the actor has to stop thinking, abandon worries, to be able to bring out the energy of his character. He has to play with the same seriousness and commitment with which a child does. I remember a piece of advice from Carlo Cecchi on the fact that in acting counts listening and the here and now. Being actively present to oneself and to others at that exact moment.
You have a method for achieving this condition.
If someone asked me something about technique, I wouldn't know what to answer, apart from listening. On the set of Andrea Molaioli's film in which I am the father of the young protagonist, the actor who plays him, Ludovico, who is really good, full of talent and very smart, once asked me what was the technique to make the best of the character, and the only thing I felt able to advise him was to try to be present in that moment and then to let go, listen and not think about the rest.
But I imagine that there are also practical aspects in the preparation that precedes the start of filming.
As for me, I try to prepare as much as I can before arriving on set because at the start of the shoot it would be good to be ready. But not everything happens automatically, in the sense that you can’t always find the character immediately. However, I have always been lucky enough to have more or less long periods of rehearsal before starting a film. I remember this moment with Saverio and Alba, where we spent weeks among us and also with the kids who would have played us as children, to try the various scenes and to create a union and harmony between the characters. The same happened with Paolo Virzì, Thony and I, more than once we gather, facing the script, to clarify all the passages and moments of the scenes.
And how did things go with Claudio Caligari.
The same thing also happened with Claudio even though the illness made everything more complicated for him. He asked us to change our bodies, to participate in the auditions of the other actors. This allowed all of us, the cast, to integrate and develop a unity of purpose and a truly rare familiarity. So in front of the camera it seemed to me that the gang, to which Cesare and Vittorio belonged, was really part of my life, that it wasn’t hard to pass from Luca to Cesare, because I had found him. And always to identify with the environment of the story, I preferred a house in Ostia, and Alessandro often came to me from Rome to spend time between the two of us. Claudio, in addition to having reading meetings together, also showed us films that were a source of inspiration for him for this film, such as “Accattone” by Pier Paolo Pasolini, “Rocco e i suoi fratelli” by Luchino Visconti and “Mean Sreet” by Martin Scorsese.
Instead, I wanted to ask you what happens between takes, for example when you come home after a day of work. You stay inside the character as it happens to Daniel Day Lewis, or you put it aside and think of something else like Marcello Mastroianni did.
I try to disconnect from the set. I try. I go home and try to do something else, but the last thought before falling asleep always goes to the next day's work plan and I leave myself a few minutes for the memory and concentration useful for tomorrow and then I close my eyes.
We asked Roberta Mattei and we ask you too. During the processing you were aware of the exceptional nature of what you were doing.
Yes. Let me explain: I saw with my own eyes that what was happening was exceptional, a man who was dying wanted to give his latest work to the public, to his audience, to his people, to people. This has no equal for me. Don't think about yourself in such a situation but about others.
Then it was the turn of Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot.
I shot Jeeg Robot in March 2014, and therefore before “Non essere cattivo”. The fact that Mainetti's film is only coming out now is due to the long post-production period necessary to assemble the shot with the special effects present in the film.
Here as well it was an interpretation and a character who completely overturns the transparent and pristine image of the first part of your career.
To make Jeeg Robot we had to convince each other, Gabriele Mainetti and I, about my success in the character. I pushed him towards a theatricality and Gabriele towards a real madness, a pure pain. In the end, I think we have found the right amount.
The construction of the Zingaro was already very clear in the writing and it was up to us, however, to find its true aspect.
Guiding him is this crazy and boundless ego, and the obsession with having to leave a mark. The Zingaro's eccentricity is partly reflected in his look, halfway between a rock star and a suburban bully. For the costumes and make-up we were inspired by the great rock icons. We dared in some choices, such as the black coat with pink leopard lining that characterize the wardrobe. For the aspects related to the way of performing, his model was Anna Oxa and in particular the video of her at Sanremo, when she sings “Un’emozione da poco”.
In part you have already answered, but I wanted to know how you choose to accept the proposals that are made to you and if you have any foreclosures towards television, or more generally towards commercial cinema.
I choose the proposals on the basis of love at first sight that must happen with the film, with its screenplay. Then figure out who will be leading the film, meet the director. I don't have any kind of foreclosure, let's say that if I don't like something I don't do it and if I like it I do. And it doesn't matter if it's cinema or television.
As a spectator what is the cinema you love.
I like films that have something to say and that I also choose based on who directed and starred in it. Usually when they ask me to name some titles I have a void. Think that the same thing happened to me also during the audition to enter the experimental center, when Lina Wertmuller asked me the title of a film I had seen recently. I was struck by a cosmic void and instead of naming her an authoritative and important film I left her stunned by citing Batman, I think Nolan's first, still a good film, but I still had Wertmuller in front of me... But to go back to what you asked me, I tell you that in general I always like to watch films that come from Sundance, of which I remember, for example “Like Crazy”, which I found disarmingly beautiful, the films of P.T. Anderson, Wes Anderson, the Cohen, there are many, and among the Italians those played by Alba Rohrwacher, Valerio Mastandrea, Elio Germano, Kim Rossi Stuart and directed by Alice Rohrwacher, Costanzo, Virzì, Sorrentino, Garrone, Salvatores. Without forgetting those of the great Joaquin Phoenix. But in reality I look at everything, let's say that I try not to lose anything of these.
Despite the certificates of esteem you have received for your performances, the impression is that of an understatement that almost seems not to be aware of what you have achieved so far as an actor.
Whenever I see a film of mine I always think there is something I could have done better. But basically I'm happy with what I've done so far. Having said that, I think that the films alone should be enough to explain everything and that the interviews don’t add anything new to what there was to say before making them. But when I am in the dance, when I need to promote, I am committed to doing it in the best possible way. I strongly think that in life and at work it’s important to demonstrate that you know how to do and not to show at all costs that you do.
DREAMINGCINEMA
Just wanted to translate this old interview for the non-italian’s fans ^^ (sorry for my English)
#Luca Marinelli#interview#english translation#mine#english#non essere cattivo#lo chiamavano jeeg robot#slam tutto per una ragazza#la solitudine dei numeri primi#Tutti i santi giorni#actor#cinema#film
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Chapter 2 ~ Stuck On Stupid
It's confusing
How you do it
It's like you take my heart and glue it to your soul
Yeah baby
And I'd do anything for you
Ooh you know that much it's true
Girl I'm so in love
I'm stupid
They say everybody plays the fool sometimes
And if I've got to
I don't mind
I'll be the best damn fool for you
No lie
And girl I lose it every time
Cash
It’s been a few days since I last saw or talked to my brother, I know he’s still pissed at me from calling out Dahlia. But I couldn’t help it. Dahlia and Ashton together, is a horrible mix and I’m not picking up the pieces of their toxic relationship for the fourth time in a row.
I was sipping on my drink, once I saw my best friend Kristen. I smiled and got up to greet her, it’s been a while since I seen her and I miss her.
“Hi Bestie!” She laughed when I engulfed her in a hug.
“I missed you so much.”
“I can see that.” She chuckled again.
We released each other and started talking,
“So, what’s been going on Autumn?” Kris asked, I rolled my eyes, knowing she called me Autumn to irritate me.
“Stop it,” but I shrugged, “Nothing really, Daddy is fine and I don’t know about Ashton, because we got into a fight.”
The waitress delivered Kris a water and took our orders, once she was done she walked away. Kris stirred her straw in the water, looking at me saying “So, what did you do?”
I again, rolled my eyes and told her about catching Dahlia and Ashton in bed together and what I said.
“Autumn Cashmere Scott, you know you’re dead ass wrong for that.” She scolded.
“It’s about time he came with the facts, she’s a manipulative bitch and I can’t stand her playing with my brother’s feelings. He needs someone new or he’s gonna be stuck on heartbreak mode forever.” I was getting sad, because all I wanted was to protect my brother, and I couldn’t do shit, because he never listened to me.
Kris just nodded and I knew that she understood more than anyone.
“Speaking of siblings, how are yours?” I asked,
“The Harris/Jimmenez clan or the Hayes clan?” She giggled
“Harris/ Jimmenez, are the only ones I like being around.”
She shrugged, “Well, Bass just started 9th grade and he’s the sweetest boy ever, then Ari is the sweetest starting her second year in college, straight A’s as always. Raquel is annoying as always, mean too, but I think she’s okay with her tattoo shop and school, and you know it’s never easy for Sienna. I don’t think she really grieved Julian’s death, cause she had to grow up and raise her daughter alone.”
I nodded, I remember Julian and Sienna, they were literally the perfect couple, I was sad to hear he was murdered, leaving Sienna alone with their child but she’s stronger than most.
“You know my sister hasn’t had dick in 7 damn years!” Kristen said, bewildered.
I spit out my drink back into the glass, “7 fucking years are you kidding me? Is she okay?!”
She shrugged, “I don’t know but she needs something because she can’t be a hermit forever. She’s so beautiful, and yes a little shy but she deserves happiness and I know she’s miserable right now.”
I chuckled, “You sound like me with Ashton, I just need him off of Dahlia’s ass for one minute to realize that he’s a great person and deserves happiness.”
We got our food and started to eat, but still talking, “What if we got Ashton and Sienna together?” She proposed.
“What do you mean?”
“They’re both in the same situation, needing to get out of funks, I know Ashton is something else, but I just need the cobwebs knocked off my sister. Nothing more, nothing less. ”
“You want us to put together two of the most stubborn people?”
She snorted at my face, “Yes, I don’t think it’ll be a bad idea.”
I shrugged, “Whatever you say.” As I continued to eat my food and enjoy lunch with my best friend.
Sienna
Thankfully, after dinner on the day of Ju’s passing, my parents said they’d keep Brielle for a few days. They knew how hard it was for me, and I couldn’t nor wouldn’t cry around Brielle.I’m glad for my space, but I wanted my daughter back so bad. I missed having her around.
I knew that before I got her from my parents house, that I needed to stock my house and kitchen with food and clean my house, so I was currently at the grocery store.
Getting all of the necessities of having a six year old and myself, I found myself counting the prices together, knowing I couldn’t buy everything I needed. Being a 27 year old, without proper education and a shitty ass job, has truly kicked me in the ass.
Momma and Baba are there to help, but I don’t like asking for their help, because my mother would literally hold it over my head. We haven’t always had the best relationship, but it’s gotten better since Bri was born.
I was homeless, up until Brielle was 2 months old, and we lived in my car. My parents didn’t know, until I just couldn’t take it anymore and I asked to stay with them. I guess I was out of it completely, until I heard my name being called.
“Sienna?” I looked up and saw Julian’s sister Jillianna, standing in front of me, with two boys, who looked about Brielle’s age. They resembled Brielle, and I knew that they were Julian’s other children
I froze up, the last time I saw Jilly was the night her mother kicked me out of the apartment.
It was two months after Ju’s funeral and I was sitting on the couch, watching all of our bills pile up. I didn’t have a job and no one would hire a 6 month pregnant, 20 year old who was about to go on maternity leave in a few months.
I looked at our picture on the bookshelf and sighed, “Julian, what am I going to do without you?”
As soon as I spoke that out loud, knocking came on the front door, I carefully got off the couch and waddled to the front door. Opening the door, I saw Julian’s mother and his sister with our landlord, I was confused, because the last time I saw them both, they cursed me out and wouldn’t mention me or our child at his funeral.
“Why are you here at my apartment?” I was ready to slam the door on their faces. His mother smirked and his sister only looked towards the ground.
My landlord sighed, “Sienna, I’m sorry to do this, but the apartment belonged to Julian, and his will stated that everything belonging to him, goes to his mother. So you need to leave.”
I couldn’t even speak, I knew she did this on purpose. I pointed in her face, “You know he gave me this apartment, and you know he loved me. Why are you doing this to me?”
She shrugged with her smirk never leaving her face, “That isn’t my son’s baby. He loved a whore, just like her mother. His real baby mother and twins will live here. Rent free.”
I blinked back, noticing that Jilly was staring at me.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“I said how are you doing? I haven’t seen you since- well you know?” She looked off to the side, this was awkward for the both of us.
“Since you and your mother kicked me out, leaving me homeless, with nothing but the clothes on my back? Yeah, I have been fine.” I spat, shifting my weight, I didn’t like being uncomfortable and here we are, me being uncomfortable.
“Look, Sienna I’m sorry. Mother- You know how mother was. I couldn’t stop her.” She pleaded.
I rolled my eyes, “Yes, you could’ve yet, there I was in my pajamas and socks 6 months pregnant banging on my door, of the apartment that I decorated for my daughter and my future husband. Begging to be let back in. Only to get the police called on me.”
“How is your daughter? Brielle right?” Her eyes brightened when she mentioned Bri. But I refused.
I put my hand up, “You do not get to know or ask about her. She wasn’t Jullian’s remember?”
I was over this conversation, and over grocery shopping, I bumped her shoulder walking out of the store.
I had a few hours before I had to go pick up Bri, so I stopped by my best friend Phoenix’s house and told her the entire encounter that I just had with Jilly.
“So you saw the twins?” She patted my hand, sympathetically.
I nodded, sniffling and wiping my tears, “They looked just like Julian did when he was little.I can’t even believe he did that to me.”
Seven years later, and I still was crying over Julian. Not only for his death, but because of the pain he caused me. I wasn’t the only “pregnant girlfriend” crying at his funeral. But his mother liked the other more than she liked me. She told his whole family, I was the mistress and she was the Fiancé. Yet in reality, I had the ring, and she was the mistress.
I was still stuck on him, and he was the one that uprooted my life.
“I’m so sorry Sienna. Let me go make you some tea.”
She got up to leave when I laughed, “I don’t want tea Phoe. Thank you. What I want is Julian back so I can ask what the hell did he do.”
I didn’t even know he cheated on me, until his damn funeral, I couldn’t view his body, sit with his family. Nothing, I was also ran out of the funeral by his cousins. I thought we were perfect, but it seems to me that, we were an absolute mess and I was a complete idiot.
“You know that can’t-“
“Yes, I know. I just want to know what I did, to make him cheat on me? We were together for 6 years before he died. Teenagers. I was pregnant and then he just.... was gone."
I was starting to get sad again, when my other best friend, Logan sighed,
"Can we please stop talking about this jackass?" He mumbled.
Logan never liked Julian, even when we were kids. They constantly got into fights and neither told me why.
"Can you not be an asshole, Logan?" Phoenix hissed.
"I'm just saying, he was a shitty person in life and after death. He isn't coming back and we all just need to move on to bigger and better things." He said boastfully.
I zoned them out and looked out the window. My life has literally been on pause the da he got shot and killed, and I don't even know why.
"Why was Julian at the place where he got shot?" I mumbled.
"Sienna!" Logan exhaled exasperated.
"He told me that he was going to meet you Logan, across town. Why was he over there?"
"Sienna, I hated that man and all you thought he was. I don't know why he told you that I was meeting him. I was doing other shit." He looked at his phone "And now, I gotta go, thanks for talking about an asshole for an entire hour. Next time, warn me,"
He got up and walked out of the door, slamming.
"He's an asshole, why are we friends with him?" Phoenix grumbled.
"He's right. I have to move on."
~~~
When I got home from Phoe's house, I picked up Brielle and I got the mail. Opening it up, there was a letter and a check from Julian's estate.
Confused, I opened it up and read the letter from his lawyer. Julian basically set up a trust for Brielle and I, and once she turned 6, we would be notified and given 100,000 dollars. The trust had over 23 million and once Brielle hit 18, she would get her full trust.
I started to cry, Was this real? Was this a joke?
I called the law office, and they confirmed everything was true. I called Baba's lawyer, and he also said it was true.
I couldn't breathe, I could move out of this shitty ass apartment that I live in, I can finally pay all my bills and buy food. I was immediately thanking God because he knew we needed this. Fumbling through all the papers, I found a letter from Julian.
I had to read it about 10 times, I never been so angry in my life. I didn't know him as well as i thought I did.
I wanted to literally bring him back to life so I could kill him. I decided right then and there, that I wasn't going to be sad over this fucker. I am not harboring onto the past, but I am moving the hell on. and I know exactly what the hell I need to do first.
I picked up the phone, "Hey Phoe, can you watch Brielle for a few hours? I got something I need to fix."
Ashton
I was pulling up to the family house, and I instantly regretted coming. Pops had called a family meeting, so here I am. With my annoying ass little sister.
I hadn't spoken a word to her since the other day, and I know if anything, she told our dad and he was on her side, and I was about to hear more opinions on my relationship with Dahlia. I was tired of it.
I said a quick silent prayer and walked into the family mansion that my dad loved so much. Through the front door was the foyer and had pictures dedicated to Cash and I, and then our mother and father, when they were younger.
Mom died when I was about 14 from Lung Cancer, it was tough on my sister and father, hell it was tough on me too because I miss her everyday.
"Can you stop staring at your mother long enough to come and join the family?" I heard a voice say,
I turned around to see my older brother and older sister standing at the bottom of the stairs. Asher was 10 years older than me and Aurielle was 12 years older than me. They mom and our dad was together as teenagers and had kids early, then they broke up and came along my mom and my parents had Cash and I.
I dapped up my big brother and hugged my sister, it's been years since I have seen them.
"Autumn can you bring your ass on?" Aurielle yelled up the stairs!
I heard her scream out of frustration, "How many times, do I have to say, my name is Cashmere, please call me Cash!!"
She ran down the stairs not paying attention, we knew that she has always hated her first name, but it was always hilarious to make her upset.
"Okay, Autumn. We understand." We all said, making us laugh and her death glaring at us.
She rolled her eyes, "I'm not 6 anymore, that shit doesn't work." When she noticed me, she kinda cowered away making everyone notice.
Before we could speak on it, Dad called us into his study. Grant Alexander Jasper Scott, 53 years old, and still looked like he could be our older brother. All four of us admired our father and the work he put into making his legacy. By the time Dad and Mom had me, he was 27 and was already a Multimillionaire.
He used to be the greatest drug Distributer in the United States, everyone used Dad for business. Stationed in Chicago, he had dealers in LA, Seattle, New York, New Jersey, Miami, Houston and even Columbia and Mexico. He was a big deal.
But he stopped all of that when he had Cash, and mom threatened he would take us, if he didn't.
We all sat down in his office and waited for him to speak. None of us dared to start first, because this man had a temper that we didnt want to get into. He sighed and played with the brim of his glass of whiskey and took his glasses off.
"I needed to talk to all of you all together, and it can really change the entire dynamic of our family."
~~~~~
After the meeting at my dad's house, I was in a horrible mood. The news from my father wasn't settling and then Cashmere and I got into another fight. Apparently, she decided to take it upon herself and try to set me on a blind date, with her best friend's sister. If anything, I know about Kristen Hayes, is that she is Bougie as hell, and I know her sister has to be just as bad. When I tell you, I was pissed, I was pissed!
I was at one of my many tattoo shops, telling Austin everything that went down. We owned Onyx Tattoo's together. We were interrupted when our Receptionist called for us.
"Hey Ace, I got a walk in for a cover-up, she wants it done today. I would ask Austin but he has an appointment in like 30 minutes." Lea smiled sweetly.
She knew that I hated new clients and liked to stick to my own, but it's money either way.
"Ight, send her back." I dapped up Austin as he left and cleaned up my station when the girl walked in.
I turned around and she was honestly, one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. She has hazel eyes, full lips, and gorgeous long brown hair with the most banging body.
She caught me staring, and cleared her throat, "Are you going stare or?"
I chuckled at her boldness, "My bad, I'm Ace,"
I put out my hand so that she can shake it and she did, "Sienna."
"Nice to meet you Sienna, what would you like to get removed?"
I sat in my chair and picked up my notepad so I could draw what she wanted covered up.
She pulled down her pants to show me, her tattoo on her hip, it read Julian.
"I want this covered up, with my daughter's footprint from when she was born. and her name and birthday." Then pulled the pants back over the tattoo and sat on the table
I nodded, making small conversation, "You have a kid? You don't look old enough."
She laughed, "Um, she's 6 and I'm 27, so I had her young. Do you have kids?"
I shook my head, " Nah, I want a bunch of them, but I haven't found the right girl."
"Well, take my advice, take your time, the right person could be around the corner, don't rush things and get to know the person before you have children with them."
I looked up from the notepad, and saw her rubbing her hip right where she got the tattoo, and by the way she just spoke to me, I knew that she was coming from a place of hurt.
"That's why you getting the tattoo covered?" I asked, she looked at me and took a minute to answer, it kind of surprised me when she did start talking.
"Yupp, exactly why. I thought about getting it removed, but out of the mess that was Julian and Sienna, came the perfect Brielle, and I wouldn't change her in for anything."
~~
After about two hours, I covered up her tattoo, and even added something extra. When we were done, she got up and looked at it.
"It's perfect. I love it." She smiled and turned to hug me.
It caught me off guard, but it was completely different.
"Thank you so much. How much do i owe you?" She said.
"You good Ma." I said, she was surprised, hell I surprised myself.
"You sure?"
I nodded, "Yeah, just go and get the care package in the front and you're good to go."
"Well, thank you Ace, nice to meet you!"
I smiled, "Nice to meet you too, Sienna."
She hugged me again, and this time I knew exactly this feeling. I hadnt been hugged like this since before my mom got sick, it Definitely made me feel some type of way.
She released the hug and left out of my area to the front.
About 3 clients later and fooling around with Austin getting ready for the next day for business, I was tired. All I wanted to do was go home, and Dahlia just sent me a picture of her naked in my bed, I immediately dipped.
I grabbed my shit and was rushing out the door, "Ayo Lea, call me if anything happens, cancel and reschedule my 11 am to my open at 2pm tomorrow. I won't be in til 12." I smirked,
She rolled her eyes, knowing exactly what I meant. "You got a tip nasty ass."
I was confused, cause my clients always tip me, in the back. She handed me the envelope and I read the front, "From Sienna, To Ace.
"She tipped me $400?" I spoke out loud.
"Psh, she must really like you. Cause i would never." Lea said
And she left me a note, "I know you said don't pay, but I had too. I love this tattoo and I will be back. Nice to meet you again Ace, thank you :)"
Shit, nice to meet you too Sienna.
#chris brown#chris brown fan fiction#chris brown fanfic#chris brown fan fic#chris brown ff#zoe saldana#shannon brown#beyonce#beyonce fanfic#beyonce fan fic#beyonce fan fiction#Angela Bassett#jeff goldblum#jharrel jerome#aaliyah#zendaya#lauren london#McKinley Freeman#Kelly Rowland#kristen scott#Basketball Wives#Laz Alonso#beyhive#team breezy#alexa demie#Trey Songz
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Years, part IX
What don’t talk to me okay. Previous chapters here. LOL
Madi don’t hate me anymore~
~~
Seven months later
The spring Carlotta arrived in Paris invariably altered to summer, then slipped quietly into fall. Her residency remained at the Mackintosh homestead, tucked securely within the guest room that at some point had gained a hint of her touch, the altered bedspread certainly not enough to claim a space, but she had become comfortable enough to make at least a little mark on her world.
It had taken time to reach that point, but even she took it as a step into the right direction.
That morning, after her arrival, had been a trying one. Carlotta could do nothing but thank whatever fortune she had left that Aisling actually approached her first, the young woman looking utterly contrite and ashamed for her lack of fortitude. That, naturally, stirred something within Carlotta, her own need to offer some measure of comfort, little though it had been. Though she held affection for her two nephews, Carlotta had actually tended Aisling after her birth, during the darkest hour of Colin and Erika’s then broken relationship. For Carlotta, those months with Aisling had been the only child-rearing she ever properly performed…
But that had not been the time for such thoughts.
“Aisling…” Carlotta had said, the weight on her unfeeling heart suddenly so heavy. She had taken the young woman’s hands in her own, squeezing tightly. “The only apology necessary is my own. I have…I have been tried, and there are many matters that came together to such a result.”
Aisling’s green eyes had expressed such trouble, looking between Carlotta’s own. “What matters could have brought about such a result?”
Carlotta had only smiled, as much as she could. “Matters that are of no consequence to a vibrant young lady as yourself. Do not carry them, Aisling. Please.”
“Alright…if you say so, Aunt Lotta.”
Though even then Carlotta could tell the cryptic nature of that conversation did not please Aisling at all, but nothing more of it need be said. Carlotta absolutely refused to pass that burden to the next generation, and if she could not have been rid of it with her own child, then she could certainly ensure Colin’s children never so much as heard a word of it.
Over the following weeks, Carlotta had been coaxed into the kitchen, as Erika was quite busy with nursing her youngest back to health. Carlotta found that she had not lost her touch for enjoyable meals, and the work with her hands became a means of forcing her mind off the past. Colin certainly appreciated it, as did Aisling and Elias, when the young man was around.
When Leonce finally awoke, Carlotta was finally able to meet him in more than just a few lines in an old letter. In fact, she took it upon herself to aid Erika now that the bearish mother could relax knowing her son would live through his ordeal. Through the nights, Carlotta would sit next to Leonce’s bed, quietly reading or stitching, fetching anything the boy needed if he woke in the night.
She could not help but notice, though, that Leonce was a bit younger than Lonzo, by more than a three years or so, and yet he’d gone off to join the navy, where he had earned wounds, and thus his illness that had not been fully taken care of by some mistake or another. He was a lively young man, though, even in his tired state. That smile no doubt looked quite fetching to all manner of young ladies, especially when in his uniform, even though he had been nothing but a cabin boy—or rather, in charge of the cabin boys, he made certain his aunt knew.
Perhaps it was the general atmosphere of the household that settled Carlotta in, or the sense of being useful that she in part craved, but a spark of her own life and livelihood budded tentatively within the Mackintosh household.
And during the summer, upon hearing of Carlotta’s residency in Paris, Fiona paid a surprise visit—though Carlotta suspected that Colin and Erika knew ahead of time. But to see her cousin flourishing with Thomas, her gentle nature actually nurtured and protected by a loving husband, this Carlotta nearly did not stand. And not in a negative, jealous, petty way—or so she told herself, but the emotion had been so fleeting that she could tell herself freely that it never happened at all—but seeing Fiona having bloomed into a beautiful wife and mother, it offered Carlotta yet another comfort to know that her family has escaped the hell that seemed to curse the DiRusso line.
Speaking of motherhood, though! Behind Thomas and Fiona trailed a sea of delicately redheaded children, six in all, all having come specifically for the purpose of meeting their aunt none have ever met.
It was…a bit overwhelming, to be perfectly honest, and the first night after their arrival, Carlotta wept quietly in her room, if only because it hurt to have the depth of her own heart touched back alive again. Like a jolt, a strike of lightning, Carlotta found it difficult to breathe, but her thanks for Fiona’s wonderful life could only be expressed with tears that no one saw.
Except, somehow, Erika saw. Somehow Erika saw a lot. Perhaps because such despair was familiar to the other woman. Except for a word, a gesture, in fresh cups of tea sitting on Carlotta’s nightstand before bed, the women tiptoed around one another, yet unable to break the strain of being strangers.
Carlotta had no intentions of going back to Italy, however, so they ought to have time for warming.
One sign of such? It arrived on Carlotta’s birthday, a day that has been of no real consequence to her for some years. A day that did not bother to remind of itself, save for the occasions when Carlotta happened to notice the date. But tonight upon her birthday, she found herself swept into an evening at the opera at the Palais Garnier. A place of beauty and talent, one once guided by her own hand.
As Carlotta ascended the steps, she gazed up at the face of the grand building, the gaslight lamps vividly illuminating the golden color in the evening darkness. Memory overtook her as soon as she stepped inside, of a lifetime ago while discussing business with patrons, dodging those who thought it their duty to run the little women, or at the very least run her off and give the managerial position back to a man. Late evenings of paperwork, or contending with the self-professed phantoms who at first cajoled to have their own way within these walls. One of whom married her cousin, and the other… Well, not even Erika was certain what might have happened to him. As her life pulled further and further from the opera house, so it did from him as well. However, Erika was almost certain that he discovered his own happiness, and with a dancer of all things.
In any case, as Carlotta approached the grand staircase, lit brightly for the evening event, she came to a stop in the middle of the noisy foyer, the slip of a smile somehow finding its way onto her expression. So much in her younger years revolved around this building…so much…
Her gaze dropped, turning to Erika, who stood close beside her, watching intently for any sign of another outburst of emotion. But Carlotta merely smiled a bit wider, reaching out to gently, and briefly, touch Erika’s arm.
“I am alright,” she assured the masked woman—a mask that blended into Erika’s skin color, helping her to blend without startle, as it was simply easier to venture out in this manner.
Erika smirked, a flicker of amused relief darting through her eyes. “Wonderful. I had hoped this would do you good, not harm.”
“Knowing that Elias will be playing this evening was more than enough incentive to chance the Garnier again.” Carlotta took a deep breath, seeming more at ease than she has in a long time. Edged, yes, and guarded, but willing to step out from behind those barricades more and more. Especially for tonight. “I must admit…I held some dread for stepping foot in here once more, but I am glad I did.”
Behind the pair of them, Colin slipped up, gently, and without thinking, touching both Erika and Carlotta at their backs, though his hand lingered only on Erika’s. His brows were raised as he leaned down a bit between them. “And how are we fairing this far?”
“Delightful,” Erika intoned with cheekiness. “But there is no need for both of us to hover like hens, Colin. You will suffocate Lotta and I.”
He scoffed. “Nonsense. I only wanted the privilege of escorting the two most lovely women here to our box. Ah—three,” he amended quickly as Aisling made some manner of strangled noise, appearing at his side and bumping into him.
“Da! Don’t be rude. Go on and say three. Aunt Lotta ought to be included in this lovely bunch.” And she grinned, winking at her aunt in a devilish manner that bespoke mightily of her mother.
“Oi, stop getting me into trouble!” Colin laughed, but sighed loudly. “Ach, it’s too late for that anyway. Shall we? Before I get let out into the cold?”
Twenty years ago doubtlessly Carlotta would have had a snappish remark without a thought, but now all she could muster was a closed smile, able to share in the amusement at least. Besides which, Erika’s comment sufficed, but Carlotta’s attention diverted suddenly as a slight chill touched her. She glanced back towards the front doors, suspecting that their loitering near the doors must have caught her in line with a gust of fall breeze floating inside. And that may have been part of the case, save for the thick shawl draped over her shoulders that had been more than adequate outside, let alone inside the warmed building.
Before she turned back to her family, however, she caught sight of someone peering in her direction as he stood closer to the opening and closing doors. Carlotta would have passed the man by, but the second jolt, this one accompanied by a surge of recognition, stole her breath.
Salvatore Barozzi, hand balanced perfectly on his cane, hat in hand, stared with naked shock in his expression as other patrons were forced to move around him in order to get inside. The looks they shot he obviously did not see, or even feel.
Not that Carlotta did much better. Colin and the rest might have left her behind, as she did not hear or see whether they called her.
What sort of alignment must have occurred to have them standing here tonight of all nights, in Paris, at the Garnier?
#dirusso#V: Alt!Phantom#Ramona speaks#Aisling Mackintosh#(( um. yeah so this happened ))#((trying to keep each one around 2k words just to keep the pace))#((and for cliffhanger purposes LOL))#((not much of a cliffhanger if i write the next one IMMEDIATELY after posting the last one but whateverrrr))
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Three Minutes to Eternity: My ESC 250 (#100-99)
#100: Jean Gabilou -- Humanahum (France 1981)
“Les femmes de naguère en étaient fières
L’amour était fruit de la terre”
“The women not long ago were proud
[and] love was the fruit of the earth”
We begin my top 100 of all-time with a church organ! However, this isn't the only first in Humanahum; Jean Gabilou was the first French participant of color (a whole nine years before France would have its multicultural phase in the 1990s); he was born in Tahiti, in French Polynesia.
Despite this, Humanahum is 100% French, as the composers of the 1977 winning entry wrote this piece and this won out in a national final featuring 1969 co-winner Frida Boccara, who sung a patriotic song for France.
I fell in love with this when I watched the 1981 contest for the first time. The orchestration was top-notch (especially with the harp flourishes), the build worked great, and the lyrics tell a great story. Basically, it follows a three-act structure, in that we're introduced to a man in the year 3000 where not much has changed but they lived underwater who tells a bunch of children about a planet far far away. There, they used to live happily until they killed everything because of war. If you know what they're talking about, I could say it’s one of the cleverest peace songs at Eurovision.
Of course, Jean sings this with gusto, with his backing vocalists accompanying him well. This is especially impressive considering his wife died during rehearsals back in Tahiti, and he still went with the song. He finished with a good result, but TF1 wasn't impressed with who won, and they withdrew in 1982, calling the contest a "monument to drivel".
Despite it all (including that it's the reason why I make as second ballot every ESC250), it’s not my favorite of 1981 (no matter how much I want to, haha). Had it did, I fear it would set the contest back a few years. Hence...
Personal ranking: 2nd/20
Actual ranking: 3rd/20 in Dublin
#99: Lena Valaitis -- Johnny Blue (Germany 1981)
“Auf der alten Gitarre
Die ihm jemand schenkte,
Da spielte er, sie war sein Freund,”
“On the old guitar,
That somebody gave him
He played, it was his friend"
...this folk song takes the cake for me!
Its' really touching and sincere, and it's actually quite relatable. Curiously, I connect this lyric back with Origo (#154), as both our heroes start out as outcasts in society (though Johnny Blue focuses more on school, in this context).
Like with the church organ in Humanahum, the harmonica adds its own touches to this folk song, grounding it in the world in which Johnny Blue grows up. Here, it tells the legend of a blind boy who turns to music to get away from the bullies of his school. Over time, he becomes famous and sells out stadiums. Basically, another story in which one fights against their bullies and uses what makes them different to shine.
It's story song told well, and Lena delivers earnestly with her gentle voice. She reminds me of a schoolteacher who tries to teach her students about the lessons of life, but in a way that helps her children grasp the concepts and want to learn more. While I didn't have a teacher who guided me to my life's purpose, I'm glad to have several teachers who've I talked to, learned from, and really got something out of.
Personal ranking: 1st/20
Actual ranking: 2nd/20 in Dublin
Final Impressions of 1981: Basically, it's one of the strongest years ever, in terms of songs, production, and tight-voting. The songs were really great; I didn't find a bad one in my estimations (maybe Reggae OK, though that can be a guilty pleasure, haha), and they were all well-orchestrated. Making Your Mind Up gets a bit of a rep as a winner, because it was a surprise at the end of the voting and it was held up because of the gimmick, but it's still enjoyable.
I really liked the interval act, where Timedance used traditional Irish culture to make a good act. In hindsight, it's basically the beta version of Riverdance, but it does add a bit of charm here! Also, the voting went haywire, with several missing points and the famous "I don't have it" from the Yugoslav jury. We need this year for Eurovisionagain; it has all the right ingredients!
(On another note, why did RAI decide this was a good year to withdraw? The Sanremo winner that year, Per Elisa, is an A-tier masterpiece and would've made a great year absolutely fantastic. The combination of classical music and modern is also seen in I treni di Tozeur, sure, but it would've been cool to see Alice alone. Or because I have "vivire vivire vivire.." in my head over the last day, haha)
#esc 250#esc top 250#eurovision song contest#esc france#jean gabilou#lena valaitis#esc germany#esc 1981#vintage eurovision#three minutes to eternity#please make the year 3000 fantastic#so your great great great grand daughter would do great
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“We are not going to steal someone’s dog.” Hope!verse, pretty please?
I wrote you a thing! It is so cute and fluffy I should be ashamed. ;D I hope you like it! Thank you for prompting me. 💕
For the uninitiated, this is set in my ‘hope springs eternal’ verse. Silver and Flint plus a baby, basically.
It happens nearly every weekend, absolutely every time they go to the shops. Well. To one shop in particular.
Silver will be wearing Hope in the sling Flint fashioned for them, or Flint will be carrying her in his arms. Now that she’s a bit more steady on her feet, on rare occasions she even walks determinedly under her own power, provided the weather isn’t too nasty and they aren’t in a hurry. She’ll toddle along in front of them, under Silver’s watchful eye with several of Flint’s fingers clutched in her chubby fist. Silver’s seen other parents who have sewn reins into their children’s clothing - long strips of fabric that they hold at the ends, to keep a child from wandering too far afield or getting lost in a snowdrift. This practice strikes him as hilarious but utterly ridiculous, so he hasn’t made any similar modifications to Hope’s tiny gowns or her little coat. He’d rather just carry her, anyway.
Every time they pop into this specific shop - the one that sells tea and spices - the same thing happens. The woman behind the shop’s counter has inevitably and inexplicably brought with her an overgrown tame rabbit, which she’s set upon the countertop where it probably keeps her company while serving no other purpose whatsoever. It’s a black, velvety-looking thing with long, floppy ears and a twitchy nose. It’s nearly as big as Hope herself.
Hope never fails to notice it, and every time she does, whether in Flint’s arms or secured to Silver’s chest or back, or standing proudly on her own two little feet, she shrieks excitedly: “Gog! Goggy!”
“No, sweetheart, it’s not a dog, it’s a rabbit,” Silver or Flint says, every time.
“Gog!” Hope insists, opening and closing her hands, just desperate to pet the ‘goggy.’ When she’s gently denied this privilege - nay, right - by whatever well-meaning father currently has hold of her, she buries her face in his shoulder or hair or thigh and whimpers piteously at length, making a dramatic ‘buh huh huh’ noise as though sobbing with deep, pained sorrow. It’s adorable and only the slightest bit sad, to Silver. He wishes he could let her touch the beast, truly, but the proprietress of the shop is not overly friendly and the rabbit’s teeth, though blunt, are large. Silver would prefer for his daughter to keep all ten of the fingers with which she was born, so needs must be that she cannot touch the rabbit.
One snowy Sunday, after this little routine has played itself out yet again, Silver makes his way slowly back home with his family and thinks. Flint is carrying their purchases and Silver has Hope snuggled to his chest in her sling, bundled up in her best knitwear (courtesy of both her fathers; her bonnet is a bit lumpy and her mittens look– odd, but they did their best).
“You know–” Silver begins, and he barely gets the two words out before Flint is putting a stop to his cunning plan.
“No,” Flint grumps flatly, his eyebrows drawn together.
“But she loves it so much! She just wants a pet, James. Every little girl should have one, and if she wants a ‘goggy’ so bad, what else can we do?” Silver implores.
“We are not going to steal someone’s dog.”
“Rabbit,” Silver corrects, grinning. “She may have you conned, but I must remind you it is actually just a large rabbit. Not a dog.”
“Rabbit, dog, what-bloody-ever it is,” Flint says, waving his free hand dismissively. “We are not going to steal it. We are not thieves,” he says. “Anymore,” he amends when Silver gives him a dubious look.
“I would steal the whole world for her, if I could,” Silver says quietly, pressing a kiss to the top of the bonnet Flint knitted. It’s a deep blue wool that suits Hope’s coloring to a tee, despite the…homespun…appearance of the bonnet itself.
“I know,” Flint murmurs, gently linking his arm through Silver’s, ostensibly to help him navigate in the snow but really, they both know, to be closer to him. “I would, too.”
When they return home, Silver sets Hope free from her sling and helps her out of her heavy knit overclothes, setting her gently on the wood floor. She flees, barefoot and shrieking delightedly, to the nursery where her toys await her. As Silver straightens, he feels Flint’s arms slide around his waist and his nose - cold from the winter air outside - press into his neck.
“What’s bothering you?” Flint asks softly, and Silver can’t help but smile just a little. Flint knows him so well.
“We aren’t thieves anymore, as you said,” Silver says, leaning back against Flint. “But we stole her, we stole Hope. We aren’t…neither of us gave birth to her, neither of us sired her. What if her mother comes back, or her father finds out where she is and decides that he wants her? What then?”
“We didn’t steal her,” Flint argues, and Silver can hear the furrow of his brow in his voice. “She was given to us, as an unexpected but welcome gift. You said it yourself - her mother took everything else with her and she left Hope on purpose. As for Hope’s father, you’re her father and so am I. If any other man should darken our doorstep and attempt to lay some claim to her, I’ll kill him,” he purrs, nuzzling behind Silver’s ear.
“Thank you,” Silver breathes with a sigh of relief. Flint always knows - has always known - precisely what he needs to hear.
Later that evening, after Hope has been put to bed and the fire in the parlor fireplace has burned down to glowing embers, Flint retreats to their bed while Silver makes his final rounds through the closed, darkened pub. He hears a curious noise at the front door - a soft scratching and then a low, mournful yowl. He ignores it, turning instead to go to bed and enjoy a well-deserved rest alongside Flint.
When he wakes in the early morning, he dresses and makes his way outside to clear the snow from the front path outside the pub. Sitting there rather irritably is a large black cat, a magnificent snaggletooth bastard with pale green eyes and a ruff of almost silvery gray fur. Silver is about to shoo it away when he hears a soft pitter-pat behind him and then Hope is by his side in the doorway.
“Gog!” she gasps, wonder in her lispy little voice. “Goggy,” she croons, holding one dimpled hand out to the beast and waddling toward it - barefoot, clad in her long nightgown - with a certain determined air.
“Hope,” Silver says sharply, worried about the stray biting or scratching his sweet daughter. “No. Come back to Da, come on now.”
She ignores him blithely, as any daughter of his might be wont to do, and at once is within arm’s length of the huge cat, sinking her fingers into its fur. Silver is frozen to the spot with fear, desperately hoping the cat is friendly.
To his shock and utter delight, the cat purrs like mad and gently butts its head against Hope’s, then rolls onto its back, presenting its furry belly for more of her eager affection. She obliges, cackling with glee and patting the cat while chanting ‘gog, goggy, good!’ under her breath.
“What on earth is happening here?” Flint asks suddenly from just behind Silver.
“She’s stolen herself a dog,” Silver says, grinning crookedly.
“That’s a cat,” Flint informs him flatly.
“What-bloody-ever it is. It lives here now,” Silver says, then ventures out into the snow to collect his daughter and their new pet, who saunters into the pub like he already belongs there.
Once the door is safely shut and they’re alone, Silver kisses Flint soundly, pulling him in close.
“Kiss me all you like, I’m not letting you keep that monstrous thing,” Flint rumbles when he pulls back.
“You say that as though you’ve really got a choice in the matter,” Silver whispers teasingly, and kisses him again.
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The TV Show Trials - Law & Order
Set and filmed in New York City, Law & Order follows a two-part approach: the first is the investigation of a crime (usually murder) and apprehension of a suspect by New York City Police Department detectives; the second is the prosecution of the defendant by the Manhattan District Attourney’s Office. Plots are often based on real cases that recently made headlines, although the motivation for the crime and perpetrator may be different.
The episodes that I chose for this month’s TV Show Trials are specifically ‘Ripped From The Headlines’ episodes from this list.
Reality Bites
The father of several adopted special needs children is accused of killing his wife over her reluctance to sign off on a reality show based on their family, and the subsequent trials threatens to turn into a media circus.
While it is not based on a specific crime and more so the reality stars/show Jon and Kate Plus Eight, this is an entertaining episode and was a great introduction to Law & Order and its characters. My only issue is that the ending line references a character that I didn’t know about from previous seasons, which made the ending more than a little confusing.
In Vino Veritas
A washed up, anti-Semitic actor is arrested with blood on his clothes. Detectives later discover that a Jewish television producer he has connection to has been murdered. But what role, if any, did he play in it?
The main character of this episode, Mitch Carroll is a stand-in for Mel Gibson who was arrested with a DUI and was also witnessed making anti-Semitic remarks. As for similarities to the real-life case, what has been previously mentioned is all there is. This episode features highly entertaining court procedures as a young boy confesses to killing a woman on his father’s behalf.
The Serpent’s Tooth
A businessman and his wife are killed. The couple’s two sons emerge as the most likely suspects, but detectives later find business ties to the Russian mob.
This episode leaves no ambiguity towards its connection to the Menendez brothers case, all the way down to one of the brothers calling 911 after ‘coming home from a night out’. It seems to be that the episodes with mob related plot lines are my least favourite; as a later episode will prove. This episode spends too much time investigating, for my taste, over showing the court proceedings, which are easily my favourite part.
Baby, It’s You
Baltimore Homicide detectives Munch and Falsone help Briscoe and Curtis with a murder investigation. However, the victim’s family attorney interferes with the investigation by leaking information and offering rewards.
Though it’s not clear by the synopsis, this episode is heavily influenced by the infamous JonBenet Ramsay case. While the real-life case has gone cold, with no conclusion as to who killed the young girl, this episode heavily insinuates that it was the father that killed his daughter. I really enjoyed this episode, especially the cameo from Richard Belzer as Detective Munch, who is easily one of my favourite character from Special Victims Unit.
Smoke
The child of a popular comic dies after he is reportedly thrown out of a window during a fire. However, the investigation also uncovers allegations that the comic molested an 11-year-old by years earlier.
This episode clearly references two cases, both surrounding Michael Jackson. The first is when he held his 9-month-old child over the edge of a balcony back in 2002, and the second being the multiple allegations of child grooming and sexual abuse against his name; both topics I won’t be expressing my opinions on here. My main issue with this episode is that, with both cases being covered, the episode changes course halfway through the episode and we aren’t provided with a conclusion to the first case.
Excalibur
While preparing a murder case, the DA’s office stumbles upon a potential scandal involving a prostitution business and the governor of New York, and it could have serious implications on Jack McCoy’s future as District Attorney.
My main issue with this episode, which is based on former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, is that it’s very reliant on plot elements from previous episodes. This makes it hard to watch as a stand-alone due to my unfamiliarity with the parties in play. Other than that, it is a fairly average episode.
The Reaper’s Helper
A gay man with AIDS is accused of murdering another gay man. However, he claims that the victim also had AIDS, and that it was a mercy killing.
This episode brings up the interesting topic of assisted suicide in the medical industry as the episode is based on Dr Jack Kevorkian, who assisted the terminally ill in committing suicide by euthanasia. The acts of suicide are enlarged in terms of violence and drama, as the victims are shot in the head by the perpetrator. I didn’t really enjoy this episode, apart from the last five minutes.
Indifference
A child’s collapse in school from mortal injuries leads to an investigation that uncovers a family steeped in horrific abuse.
Uniquely, this episode has an end card and voiceover explaining the similarities between this episode and the Joel Steinberg/Hedda Nussbaum case; which it is based on. I am torn between this episode and another one further on, as to which one was my favourite out of all fifteen that I watched. This episode has extremely interesting and satisfying court proceedings, as well as some amazing synth cop music.
Remand
A convicted rapist in a high-profile trial from 30 years earlier receives a new trial because of legal technicalities. In addition, prosecutors must try to convict this time without a confession.
I would say that this episode is perfectly average in terms of quality. To be completely honest, I don’t remember much about this episode, and not in a good way, so I don’t have much to comment on.
Gunshow
After Jack is forced to settle with a man who committed a mass murder in Central Park, he decides to go after the gun manufacturer.
I’m not going to talk too much about gun control, nor the crime (real or fictionalised) due to the recent events in Christchurch. This is the other episode that ties for my favourite, it features entertaining investigation and court proceedings as well as genuine uncertainty about how the trail will end.
Fools For Love
A man is accused of raping and killing his girlfriend’s sister and another victim. Prosecutors make a deal with the girlfriend for her testimony against the accused, but they also suspect that she was a willing participant in the murders.
This episode is memorable to me mostly because it features a crossover with Special Victims Unit as we get to see Detectives Benson and Stabler assist in the investigation. This episode is a somewhat entertaining interpretation of the crimes of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka or ‘The Ken and Barbie Killers’.
Born Again
A therapist is charged with murder after an 11-year-old girl dies during a “rebirthing” procedure.
This episode is clearly inspired by the horrific murder of Candace Newmaker, with a slight twist. Instead of it being somewhat of an accident on the mothers half, this episode paints the mother as the killer as she purposely causes her daughter to have an allergic reaction and suffocate. This episode even goes as far as to use direct quotes from the real-life crime in its script. It is an episode that had me hating both the mother and the therapist both in the fictionalised version and the real perpetrators of this crime.
Hubris
A charming conman acts as his own defence during his murder trial. During the trial, he deliberately tries to taint the jury by flirting with the forewoman.
This episode was pretty boring, as it consisted of a lot dialogue and speculation compared to solid evidence. I also don’t remember much about this episode other than thinking that the forewoman of the jury was an absolute idiot.
Myth of Fingerprints
A fingerprint analyst’s error put an innocent man in prison. Detectives discover that this may not have been the only error she has made in favour of prosecutors.
Similar to a previous episode I had watched, this episode derails from its original crime to focus on another but, unlike Smoke, this time it’s for the better. I didn’t really enjoy this episode, mainly because the crime didn’t appeal to me and I didn’t feel much sympathy for the criminals that were trying to gain justice due to lack of characterisation.
The Torrents of Greed
Stone makes a deal with a group of low-level mobsters when they offer to testify that a crime box murdered a missing union leader. However, the prosecution’s case unravels at trial, causing all parties involved to walk.
After a crime boss Frank Masucci’s murder case gets thrown out, Stone turns up the heat on the witnesses who played him in order to find charges against Masucci that will stick.
This is the only two-part episode that I watched over both series, and god was it boring. Subjectively, I think these episodes sucked, I couldn’t keep up with all the connections and thus the entire plot was lost on me.
Overall, Law and Order was a good experience to watch. But, if I had to pick one series or the other, I would pick Special Victims Unit. Am I likely to watch this again, probably not, but I wouldn’t turn it off if it was on.
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45 Chara Dev Questions!
a la Tom Ham, ft. too much babbling.
Original Questions
1. Does your character have siblings or family members in their age group? Which one are they closest with?
Tomoka has 4 sisters! One older and three younger, to be specific. If you’ve looked through her photo album you probably know they all kinda look the same, though they do grown into some differences when they get older. Tomo is the only one who never grows past 5′2″ eventually. It’s sad.
She’s closest with her older sister, Makoto, a bartender. Makoto fought constantly with their parents, and after a long time struggling with her time as the family heir, she broke off ties and moved out on her own. As the two oldest, Tomo and Mako have seen each other through a lot of their hardships, and Tomo sympathized with Mako while Mako served as Tomo’s encouragement. They spend more time with each other these days than with any of their other family members.
Kasumi is the next youngest sister, the middle child! She’s the current family heir, as Tomo dumped that responsibility onto her after she left the family as well. While the two aren’t at odds with one another, there is some minor tension between the two since they’re less close and don’t share a mutual understanding on... well pretty much anything.
Next down the line is Misaki. She’s very close with Kasumi, the two call each other Zuzu and Kiki. Misaki is very high-spirited, and Kasumi finds herself often in the position of her protector.
The youngest is Kimiko! She’s mysterious and spooky... not exactly close with any of the sisters, but quite cool and collected for her age, and arguably close with their father.
I hope u enjoyed that text wall for question #1.
2. What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother like?
??? Hamazoe (whoops!). Tomo doesn’t know either of her parents very well, as she’s lived with her grandparents for most of her childhood and currently lives alone. She holds some resentment toward them for being Garbage, but not nearly as much as Mako, who has a very personal feud. Although she doesn’t know that much about what her mother does, Tomo is aware that she used to be an olympic gold medalist, and feels somewhat sorry for her knowing she gave up her dream life to marry into the Hamazoe family and have 5 hecking kids.
3. What is/was your character’s relationship with their father like?
Where Tomo has a bit of sympathy for her mother, she has absolutely none for her father. Again, it’s not direct animosity, but she holds a strong “Tch, Whatever” attitude towards the two for skipping out on raising their own children. ??? Hamazoe (whoops x2!) is from a long line of ambitious businessmen, and pushes the children (mostly through his parents, who actually take care of them) to be ambitious and follow extremely specific goals. He’s not all bad, but he has a severe lack of understanding as to how to raise and deal with kids.
Both parents are actually fairly coddling toward Tomo, as she didn’t exactly have a formal breakoff like Mako, and they’re hesitant to burn bridges with another daughter (do they feel guilty, or do they not want bad press? who knows...). Ever since Tomo moved out, they’ve been sending her checks to help support herself, which she ‘begrudgingly’ accepts. Neither of them showed up to her Queen match! She’s a little upset over that. Just a bit.
4. Has your character ever witnessed something that fundamentally changed them? If so, does anyone else know?
Not exactly? Mako having her falling out with the fam did trigger what eventually made Tomo Grow A Pair, so to say. Before then she was very domestic and abiding. Then she realized. Oh wait fuck this I don’t have to listen to other people. Eventually learned to stand up to her Grandmother and her verbal abuse etc. Ta da! Her fam is probably all aware of this.
(^^ Her potential despair fever personality was going to be this, essentially)
As far as in-game? Well... the whole dying thing definitely had an impact on her! In what way? Hey... I won’t spoil ; }
(jk not much changed but she’s a bit shook and her ridiculous self-confidence is currently butting heads with delightful depression)
5. On an average day, what can be found in your character’s pockets?
Candy, Duh. Her outfits almost never have pockets, but she will make sure to carry this one thing no matter what. Similar to how she keeps thing in her sleeves, she tends to squirrel away whatever she needs in her socks, waistband, bra, you name it. Pre-doubt she always carries at least a little money on her at all times.
6. Does your character have recurring themes in their dreams?
Cats! Also, I like to think she has dreams about idols and movies-- the kind of things she doesn’t like to talk about, but secretly loves. Historical dramas, tea in a garden, herself on a stage singing. How fun!
7. Does your character have recurring themes in their nightmares?
Her recurring nightmare is facing off with the Meijin! He’s seriously scary! It always ends either just before she’s about to lose or right after a climactic monologue. The monologue is extra scary. Words.
8. Has your character ever fired a gun? If so, what was their first target?
Nope! And she’s not looking to try it out. Toucan Dan says No Guns No Funs.
9. Is your character’s current socioeconomic status different than it was when they were growing up?
Heck yea! She was the heir to a rich family and then ditched it to live on her own as a teen. Admittedly, she gets money from her parents still to pay rent, but she’s nowhere near livin’ on the ritz anymore. She hangs onto some nice things, like her favorite kimonos, and buys as expensive food as she’s able, but otherwise doesn’t do amazingly for herself.
10. Does your character feel more comfortable with more clothing, or with less clothing?
More, I suppose? Either is fine, but less definitely has casual connotations to it. Tomo’s certainly not shy about showing skin. Being in a kimono and hakama definitely sets her in ‘game mode’, and gives her a +10 boost to confidence (hence why she feels best wearing it to all trials, as well as when she practices in order to get ‘serious’).
11. In what situation was your character the most afraid they’ve ever been?
Off the top of my head I’d have to say when she faced the meijin the day after her queen match. He asked her to a play a game for ‘fun’ knowing the two can’t face each other for any official ranking purposes, and his playing style absolutely pulled the floor out from under her. He’s a master of manipulation, smart as she’s ever met, and knows exactly how to push at people to get them out of their element- which is a lot to say for Tomo considering her play syle is almost the exact opposite, yet he still broke through. She still shudders thinking about him to this day.
12. In what situation was your character the most calm they’ve ever been?
Generally speaking Tomo is calm nearly all the time! She was amazingly serene (in her own way) during her final match against the former queen, however. Despite the way she jokes around and how brash she can be, Tomo is amazing at keeping herself genuinely collected on the inside. To truly rile her is a feat, though she loves to play around and pretend to get upset.
13. Is your character bothered by the sight of blood? If so, in what way?
Not really! She’s not a fan of blood, for sure, but it doesn’t shake her, nor is it a phobia or squick to any extent. It’s gross, but as previously mentioned, she doesn’t let that kind of stuff get to her. Whatever the circumstance is, she’ll take it objectively as it comes.
14. Does your character remember names or faces easier?
Naaames. Not that she’s too bad at remembering people in general, but she’s used to verbal association. It probably helps that she likes to call people by their first names and nicknames! Or is that what makes it easier? Hmm...
15. Is your character preoccupied with money or material possession? Why or why not?
It’s not her main focus in life by any means, though she has ‘’’’Refined Tastes’’’’’ so money is obviously important to, um, purchase those. She’s more materialistic than money-grubbing for certain. She likes to Have things. Though she’s also pretty good at sharing! Kind of. Er.
16. Which does your character idealize most: happiness or success?
Ooh... Success is very, very important to Tomoka... A big struggle for her is what success means and when she’s attained it. It’s a driving force behind the whole reason she left home, feeling like she needed to make something of herself, all on her own.
In this way... I guess success and happiness can kind of complicate one another for her sometimes? Happiness is also important, as is probably obvious just from her fun-loving YOLO attitude. She’s finding a balance. Not very well, but, y’know.
17. What was your character’s favorite toy as a child?
When she was a kid they had all kinds of stuff to play with (nothing electronic, though), but she got the most enjoyment out of a rubber ball just by throwing it around and chasing after it. She got in trouble at one point with her little sisters for breaking a lantern in the garden while roughhousing, and their grandparents were like... hey.... time to cool it. Whoops.
18. Is your character more likely to admire wisdom, or ambition in others?
Ambition for sure. The first thing Tomo looks for in other people is whether they stick up for themselves and whether they act on their beliefs. She’s pretty generous as to how far this extends, but generally you can assume she’s not about weak-willed folks. Wisdom is something she respects, but doesn’t find necessary. She won’t admit it, but she’s kind of envious (and maybe fearful) of people who are smart, especially if they’re on the clever side of things.
19. What is your character’s biggest relationship flaw? Has this flaw destroyed relationships for them before?
Would u trust this teen in any way to do anything right in a relationship. For one thing, she’s very self-interested, so it’s easy for her to not take into account her partner’s needs. She’s also very fickle, and can get distracted easily by things outside of relationships, especially since she’s not super romantically-inclined. In this universe.... well, she hasn’t had a proper relationship yet, so who’s to say what else could happen given the way she’s developing!
20. In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism?
Hmmm... well, I think Tomo likes to pick out others’ flaws to help inflate her ego, but she definitely also has a tiny chamber deep, deep in the pit of her where she files everything she sees in others she wishes she could be like, and locks it away for 300 years under 50 layers of malibu and taiyaki. One might not suspect it, but she’s very self-flagellating behind the control she’s trained into herself.
21. If something tragic or negative happens to your character, do they believe they may have caused or deserved it, or are they quick to blame others?
Her first response is to blame others if she can, but she likes to be objective when possible. If the situation is right, she’ll own up to making a mistake. This is less likely if she somehow manages to get frustrated or has to admit it to someone she seriously dislikes, though.
22. What does your character like in other people?
Guts! Balls! Chutzpah! She just likes people who are honest and upfront about what they’re doing. People who take life in simple stokes, and don’t try to get too crafty. Vanillas. People with Honor. That being says, there isn’t too much she dislikes in others outside of key negative traits, and it takes a lot make her dislike someone, as she’s very accepting of people as long as they’re doing what they want to do. That’s just Friends tho ! ;Y
23. What does your character dislike in other people?
Dependency. Well, she’s okay with follower-types as long as they follow along with the kind of things she likes (Thanks). She’s also not fond of things like people who complain about X but do nothing to make X change. Obviously she’s also not keen on otaku types. Nerds are her Bane.
24. How quick is your character to trust someone else?
It can take some time, but again, she’s not one to find much to object to in others. As long as someone proves they’re being ‘real’ whatever that means to them, she finds that as admirable proof of Heart. Morality isn’t especially Tomo’s thing, so she can get very case-by-case, but otherwise she plays it loose. She likes to believe in unspoken understands, as amazingly faulty as that is.
25. How quick is your character to suspect someone else? Does this change if they are close with that person?
Even if she’s close with someone, she won’t hide if she’s suspicious of them (unless that somehow goes behind gal code! yikes!). Objectivist etc etc she just plays things how they come. She won’t hold suspicion close to her heart. If it turns out to be true, then it’s usually as simple as taking a step back to square one.
26. How does your character behave around children?
Well! Tomo’s not the best with kids for sure, but she doesn’t mind them. Having 3 baby sisters separated by a decent age gap does that to a gal. Being equipped with candy usually helps. Don’t trust your kids with her, though-- if she has to entertain them, she might get them up to some serious Monkey Business. A bad influence.
27. How does your character normally deal with confrontation?
She takes it HEAD-ON. Go all out or go home. She’ll only back down from a fight if there’s a reeeeallly good reason. Simple as that. She’s very good at keeping her cool, however, despite being so trigger-happy so to speak.
28. How quick or slow is your character to resort to physical violence in a confrontation?
If someone is ready to have a beatdown she’s fuckin there for it. Generally speaking, though she’s respectful of not fighting with someone if they aren’t up for it. She’ll attack people of her own volition if she wants, but doesn’t like to resort to this too much, because it lends itself to poor emotional control. She’s always up for friendly fisticuffs, however! Or rival fisticuffs. Or enemy fisticuffs. She just likes sparring with people, for whatever weird obsession she has.
29. What did your character dream of being or doing as a child? Did that dream come true?
Tomo’s always wanted to be an IDOL or a PRINCESS, and uh. Well, not quite making the mark there. Then again, she’s really not sure what she wants to to with her life outside of short-term and silly goals.
30. What does your character find repulsive or disgusting?
Rotten food is a biggie. Smells really get to her, since it’s not something she’s trained to block out, and man that stuff gets a visceral reaction out of you. Non-physical objects of disgust, though? Mmm... stuff mentioned in early questions... bad attitudes (the irony), but outside of little stuff, not much???
31. Describe a scenario in which your character feels most comfortable.
Challenging someone to Karuta. Haha. She also feels very comfortable at social events, especially clubs. She loves her sister’s bar (even tho ur fucking 16 kid!!!!!! have a juicy juice!!!! sit down!!).
32. Describe a scenario in which your character feels most uncomfortable.
Doing anything that requires tactical thinking... having to be lead by someone else... but also generally working in a team is not her favorite. Surprisingly, even though she’s super social and outgoing, she hates being in teams. School is also Yuck Brain Cooties.
33. In the face of criticism, is your character defensive, self-deprecating, or willing to improve?
Unless someone’s really managed to dig at her core insecurities, she handles it quite well. She’s all about becoming a better her, but she recognizes that she lacks talent in most walks of life, and has a hard time improving at anything even when she gives a serious effort.
34. Is your character more likely to keep trying a solution/method that didn’t work the first time, or immediately move on to a different solution/method?
At this stage in her life I think Tomo is prone to falling back on comfortable methods. If she’s in a pretty calm scenario, especially with others she likes, she’s willing to try out different stuff, but if she’s alone or gets frustrated, she can get caught in a loop that keeps going until she breaks.
35. How does your character behave around people they like?
Friendllly~~ Suuuuuper casual, my guys! She’s quick to assume people are friends with her if she finds them alright, so she warms up to them in a buddy-buddy way quickly whether they like it or not. She teases often and plays around, too!
36. How does your character behave around people they dislike?
Ignore Ignore Ignore Block Report Mute. She avoids bad vibes at all costs first and foremost. Otherwise, she can’t help but get condescending when facing them, and tries to make a wall out of her opinions. Not today, fiend.
37. Is your character more concerned with defending their honor, or protecting their status?
Ooof. These are kinda closely related for her? Honor takes the lead by a hair, but she’s also about being the number one, the big boss, a leader, so if that falls then she’s taken a pretty big blow to her honor. Staying true to oneself regardless of circumstances is the most important, though.
38. Is your character more likely to remove a problem/threat, or remove themselves from a problem/threat?
Shuffle tf out my dude. If she can’t, or it’s a volatile threat, then Smash. And uh. Well, we know how that worked out.
39. Has your character ever been bitten by an animal? How were they affected (or unaffected)?
Nop... her cats might nip at her sometimes when she gets too grabby, but she doesn’t really care.
40. How does your character treat people in service jobs?
She can get a little pushy... she doesn’t mean to come off as rude, but... let’s say she expects a lot from them? If she’s at a ramen stand and it’s taking a while to get it ready she won’t be shy about whining how hungry she is out loud. Tomo’s a little stuck in the rich kid/queenly ‘they’re a servant’ headset.
41. Does your character feel that they deserve to have what they want, whether it be material or abstract, or do they feel they must earn it first?
Earn! You gotta Werq It. Now, that’s not to say she isn’t hypocritical at times and feels she deserves things despite being a lazy ol bag o bones, but...
42. Has your character ever had a parental figure who was not related to them?
Oh gosh... uh... I don’t think so? She’s been very closed into her family most of her life, and otherwise very self-sufficient (or has tried to be self-sufficient). She wouldn’t look to anyone outside of her family let alone within it to be a parental figure.
43. Has your character ever had a dependent figure who was not related to them?
Same as the last question pretty much. Outside of any remaining ties to her family, she hates being dependent on other people or people being completely dependent on her, so she tries not to do this, or at the very least make major figures out of them in her life.
44. How easy or difficult is it for your character to say “I love you?” Can they say it without meaning it?
Easy if it’s friends! Easy if she’s drunk. Otherwise she’s a stubborn mule who thrives on rival-like relationships, so admitting it so easily is not on her agenda. Also, not exactly skilled at romantic affection, this tot.
45. What does your character believe will happen to them after they die? Does this belief scare them?
Tomo is very superstitious! She jokes about it, but she’s also very genuinely worried about ghosts and spirits! She hopes she can have a peaceful afterlife, or be able to haunt someone into the ground if they do her wrong in death. While she’s usually scared of running out of time to be alive, she goes back and forth on whether she’s scared of the afterlife or feels optimistic about it. Very importantly, also, she doesn’t want to be forgotten!
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wip
list all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on. this can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, whatever.
tagged by @cilophyte <3
A Discussion on Monogamy
this is a little mcspirk post beyond ditty (okay, i say little...) that happened because i’m a diehard mckirk shipper but beyond was so damn spones-y and i love mcspirk so ta da. it’s two chapters in--one focusing on jim freaking out that bones might leave him, the second a pwp mcspirk goodness, and there’s one chapter left to write. i swear i will write it soon, i swear to god.
Untitled McSpirk Longfic
this is the reason i’m so determined to finished a discussion on monogamy. because it’s the prequel to this long ass fic i have almost entirely planned out with some great whumpiness (esp on bones’s part), badass ladies, a guest appearance from jocelyn and joanna, and much more. the worst part is i haven’t written any storyboarding down for this... ha.
Make Me Alive
we move away from star trek but not away from karl urban. this is an Almost Human fic (and if you haven’t seen it, do because it’s only 13 episodes and greatly underappreciated--just make sure to watch it in production order, not airing order). i’m over 20k words into this one and i’m just finishing up the first of three acts. ha. it’s basically a shippy (jorian) season two featuring more danicas, vaughn’s return, and ANNA. i’m trying to explain all those plot holes we were left with because only one season and i’m about to introduce some new characters, my favorite being the medical examiner, reilly glover, who is genderqueer and epic. we have a couple more murders to solve and vaughn has yet to show his face, and let me tell you the resolution with vaughn is going to be so. damn. satisfying.
i’m putting a read more here because at this point everything else is original work
Lights in the Mountains (Gisola)
a long time ago i finished my first full original book. it was a grand total of fifty pages and i’d been fighting with it for about seven years. i then went to a writing workshop and came out with the courage to trash it finally. i spent the entire next day with a notebook trying to come up with a new story. i decided to pick out bits and pieces (settings, characters, storylines) from all the other stories i’d come up with over the years that i always loved and mash them together. this is the result. it’s about two cities who suddenly find themselves under attack from a monster from the mountains and two individuals who travel over the mountains to try and find a solution. instead they find out that everything they thought they knew was... well, not wrong, exactly, just... misconstrued. it’s an urban fantasy with polyamory, queerness, false gods and evil racist asshats, a small dragon-like creature who’s everyone’s lovable uncle, and a weird mix of technology and magic.
there is also a prequel planned for this story called Secrets in the Sea that features an asexual siren and i can’t really say more without going much more into detail about Lights in the Mountains.
Fallen
this is my baby. this started out as a book, and then it was a stage play, and now it’s a miniseries. this was inspired by a snapshot scene in a dream of an angel waking up to realize her wings are falling apart. in her grief she absolutely tears them to shreds herself. the imagery was so compelling i came up with an entire six episode story around it and that scene doesn’t happen until the last fifteen minutes of the last episode. the full story is about two very different women who survived the apocalypse and start to (unwillingly at first) gather a group of survivors with the sole purpose of trying to survive. (well, and for one of the women to exact revenge on a demon for the death of her little sister.) very much supernatural inspired (in case that wasn’t obvious...), but i like to think it’s better if only because there are queer characters, complicated moral issues (that angel ain’t so angelic and that demon ain’t so demonic), a lot more women (though, to be fair, they were all dudes until charlie bradbury died and i went on a rampage through my stories of WHY DOES THIS PERSON HAVE TO BE A DUDE? THEY DON’T. THEY’RE A LADY NOW. FUCK YOU), and an actual ending in sight.
The Dragon Princess (not the final title)
the dragon didn’t kidnap and eat the princess, the dragon /is/ the princess. and no one knows until izzy, a firework maker’s apprentice, is literally picked up into the air by said dragon princess. kind of a lesbian beauty and the beast story except the dragon/beast is sweet and ridiculously socially unprepared instead of a bit of a dick. there’s also a gaston-type villain, but he’s a Nice Guy (TM). i really don’t have much figured out beyond that for this story, but there you are.
No Man’s Frontier
this was a novel and then i realized i don’t know cowboy stories well enough so it’s now a movie where i’ll get some good experts to come in and help. this is one of those mixing two story types together things--dragons live in the western area of north america. the railway has died because of the dragons and people are moving back east. our asexual hero (yep, more asexual characters--you can expect a lot of them in my original stuff) meets a dragon who’s been outcast from it’s pack and injured and realizes maybe dragons aren’t all that bad after all. we have all the classic cowboy story elements including the chieftess of an american indian tribe, a grizzled old asshole cowboy, and of course--ending with a ride into the sunset. just this time it’s on a dragon instead of a horse.
The Children’s Circus
this is a television series that has some heroes elements in it. long ago in the 30s, 40s, there was an orphanage that was hit with lightning and all the children suddenly found they had powers. that same night the woman in charge of the orphanage disappeared so the oldest boy (who’d been out when the lightning hit and therefore didn’t get powers) found himself in charge but too young to work and still take care of the children. he decides the best way to keep all these children together and safe is to start a traveling freak show. fast forward to modern day.
a construction site’s found something odd and the police are called in. our two cop heroes investigate to find there’d been a mudslide on the site decades--almost a century--ago and somehow everything was perfectly preserved. everything being a freak show full of children. while they’re looking around, the children start moving. not only were they perfectly preserved--they’re still alive.
and that’s just episode one.
No Time
i’m not sure what this is going to be--book, movie, television, etc. this is a vonnegut inspired story so that alone should tell you a lot about the vibe at the very least. it takes place on a planet where the cloud cover is so heavy that there’s no night or day. there’s no way to measure time, so by all rights, there is no time. the planet is very peaceful and chill until one of our heroes who asks too many questions finds a way to send a small shuttle above the cloud cover and discovers there’s an entire universe out there. this leads to a complete societal meltdown.
Time Menders
this is a movie trilogy with elements of doctor who, firefly, terra nova (another fox network scifi series that ended too soon), and star wars. ...probably some of things as well, but those are the most obvious. ...i have no way to explain the plot of this story right now without way too many words, so i’ll just say there’s time travel, alternate universes, black holes, and slightly psychic children (in the manner of river tam).
and there you have it. my wips. i won’t tag anyone, but feel free to do this if you feel inclined :*
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America’s Choice: Human Lives or the Economy?
Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes! ~~~ Leonardo da Vinci
Why would someone blatantly try to stop any type of progress in fighting a deadly virus …the deadliest global pandemic & the worst public health crisis in our lifetime …and do it, at all cost?!?!
Corrupting the public health system by withholding vital information from the scientists at the Center for Disease Control. Why would someone do something like that? What’s the purpose?
All the COVID-19 information and all Hospital Data has been ordered by the White House to be re-routed to the more political “Dept. of Health & Human Services” …run by political cronies, to deceive the public of the real amount of Cases & the number of Deaths.
Why deceive the public with a disinformation campaign that may very likely cause millions of more to get infected and thousands of more deaths?
From the very beginning …with a faux “hoax” which he really did know all about it for at least 3 years …to an obscene national response.
And now, his interest to open everything-up …and against the medical advice of the entire world.
He wants everything to go back the way it was before the Pandemic …he just wants to make-believe, he magically got rid of the Virus.
Why would someone keep medical records and Data Information from the Medical Professionals who are fighting the disease? …and keeping it from the public?
Keeping deaths records from the Public, and in some cases, even from the Family! How a human being becomes a non-identity, just an official number, or a non-existent number that once existed in the records of history.
Where’s the victim’s dignity? Where’s the Family’s dignity? How can anyone be so indecent, not allowing family Closure? …and all, just to stick to his plan to open everything up; schools, shopping centers, restaurants, bars, amusement parks …everything!
Why risk the lives of innocent children?
An example of the cruelty by the leader of this country, look at his true love of schadenfreude, enjoys seeing others hurt, and enjoys seeing people suffer …whether Monetarily, Socially, or especially, Medically.
He tried to “order”(with absolutely no power to do so) Children to go back to school…and taking funds away from schools that defy his orders, which he can’t do either!
31% of the school children in Floridan has come down positive with COVID virus, as of this writing…31% and not counting all the other kids not tested yet!
The dangers of opening schools at this time are now twofold …for both the Teachers & the Students.
1) Keeping the kids safe and teaching them how to stay safe with the probable return of school shootings.
2) And now …add keeping yourself safe from getting infected, while keeping as many kids safe as possible …and watch so many more get infected?
It’s part of a master plan from a stable genius on how to rebuild the economy, make everything else disappear, and get re-elected.
But, he does use his “Pulpit” well…like a strong man. Pressuring red states Governors & Mayors in fear of retribution …open up or else, your political career like Jeff Sessions’ …will be over!
This is the same man who keeps children in cages and let them sleep on the floor!
After a judge ordered …in the middle of this pandemic…for the reunification of the children with their parents, they’re still trying to take them away!
Why? what does he accomplish by having kids locked up in dog cages?
Why does he do it? It’s obvious!…why does he always try to hurt kids?
Especially during a killer pandemic! and knowing that a high percentage of the kids have tested positive! Where're his moral values and any human decency?
At times like this…when people are getting out of prison because of the Pandemic …some, a particular few, are even exonerated for their crimes!
But they still want to keep these kids in dog cages?!?! WHY?
Where are the morals of this administration? Playing politics with children’s lives!! These actions by far, are the most vulgar, disgusting, and immoral thing ever done by this incompetent man!
Dog Cages! It’s amazing! …where’s morality in keeping kids in cages?
Like him or hate him…everyone knows he’s an indecent & immoral man, an inhumane man that has absolutely no remorse, no empathy, and no values in life whatsoever, except for thyself.
Instead of showing leadership and being a calming voice for the people during the rising pandemic (which he constantly boasts as having it “completely under control”) …because his polls are headed way down south of the border…he decided to run down south and apparently run his campaign platform fully supporting 100% his very last bastion of support!
Jim Acosta nailed it; “The only support left are the Kool-Aid drinkers and the next of kin”
In honor of his Dad, he’s going full racist. Gaslighting & Race-baiting his way through Dixie …insinuating certain people have the right to entice others into race confrontations in the streets, with visions of another war for the glory of the “Southern Cross”. Anything to keep the attraction away from Covit-19 and his historically disastrous and embarrassing job ratings!
And now, becoming the Faux “Law & Order” President who’ll patrol the streets to keep the town safe from Antifa, “who just come into towns to loot and rape ‘our’ women”! He also has his eyes on Black Lives Matter as a subversive group and compares them to Anarchists & Terrorist Organizations.
And with all the Protests in the streets…you also have people, risking their lives in the middle of this health crisis for a just cause. The time is now, cause tomorrow might never come!
Now forming goon squads, the president’s own storm troopers to patrol the streets and stop crime? More like, stopping people from their legal right to demonstrate cause it looks bad for the president, but keeping them in the streets to intimidate and show his power to his ignorant base. All one big show to avoid the Virus discussion, and win as the Law & Order candidate.
The problem with a national discourse on Coronavirus, are the People! You have 5 types.
1) Those who obey the rules…wear gloves, face masks, carry sanitizers, use social distancing, and stays at home as much as possible.
2) Those who knowingly risk their lives marching and protesting for their god-given rights.
3) Those who try to obey all the rules but need to financially open up and go back to work.
4) The Young, who think they’re all invincible and nothing will ever hurt them!
5) The Kool-Aid drinkers who believe in their constitutional rights, freedom of speech & expression, and believe they have the right to never ever wear a mask …until it’s their turn on a Ventilator!
With all this going on, the spread of infection has already proven astronomical …especially with indoor rallies.
The number of infections is expected triple or go even higher with all these congregations of people, both inside & outside!
And all this, just adds to the list of those infected or those that died …whether the numbers are real or changed at the White House’s request, depending on who you want to hear and who do you believe & trust!
Meanwhile, the epidemic is skyrocketing out of proportion throughout the Country…most hospitals reaching 100% capacity, some operating at 110% or 120%…even 130% capacity by putting patients in the halls. Some hospitals converting their entire facilities into all Coronavirus patients.
There’s a vital shortage of Nurses and Respiratory Care Practitioners, a shortage of Doctors…the burn-out rate and the suicide rate of Medical Professionals is staggering!
And like the first spikes that began months ago, supplies for Ventilators, masks, and medical supplies …and especially Medicine, throughout the country is at a severe shortage.
Even there’s a wait for Refrigerated Morgue Trucks, as hospital morgues and local Funeral Homes are full to capacity. Some hospitals are renting refrigerated food trucks to store the cadavers …there’s even a shortage on hospitals!
As our totals pass more than 4.1 million people Infected and almost 144,000 Deaths, as more and more people get infected….the rise of infections will reach 100,00/day by September, as Anthony Fauci said it would. It’s 70,000/day now. And don’t forget! the thousands more that would die …now, expected to reach 200,000 …at least!
We’re quickly getting down to that time …where hospitals and Doctors may have to make the “tough choice”. The one in medicine no one ever wants to have to make …who lives? and who dies?
America! If you really want to get back into some type of normal, you really have to listen to medical professionals …stop listening to politicians who have their own agenda …and their agenda, doesn’t include you!
Martin Luther King Jr. said; “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”.
We’re at that point …we’ve had Institutionalized Racial Ignorance and injustice for over 200 years, and things appear to finally be changing…and changing fast.
It’s also 200 years of institutionalized sheer uneducated inbred ignorance, and all the misunderstandings throughout the years about our multi-cultural society’s myriad of cultural values.
Wake up and open your eyes, America!
Wearing a mask is in respect of others not catching whatever you have …the same reason others wear a mask…to protect you!
Covid-19 attacks your Respiratory System, your Cardiovascular System, your Neurological & Neuromuscular System and now, your Urinary System…oh! and it’s Airborne after all!
You need to follow the directives from the CDC…do not ever for Christ’s sake! follow the directives of the White House. Open your eyes …listen to real Doctors, and real Medical Scientists!
Use a Face Mask, keep your distance, wash your hands as often as possible, and carry your own hand sanitizer.
No matter how much you want to go outside and be yourself, no matter how much you want to hang out with your friends, no matter how much you need getting back to work, and believing it’s really going to be over soon!
The inconvenient truth is this country will not recover economically till the virus is totally under control.
We’re fortunate to live 102 years later …the opportunities and the technology to find a vaccine today is a lot easier than during the Spanish Influenza.
People desperately need to realize that the development of a vaccine, does take time. Patients, my friends …they say hopefully in the first quarter of 2021, others say by the end of 2021, and yet others say at least not until 2022.
Patience and positive thinking…you can’t have one without the other. The Power of Positive Thinking …works!
It took Poliovirus 59 years (1894–1953) before Jonas Salk found the vaccine …hopefully this time around, it won’t be that long.
Everyone in the United States has to make some sacrifices in our way of life if things are ever to return the way we were.
Sacrifices don’t necessarily mean losing your life for the glory of an economy …like Texas Lt Gov. Dan Patrick’s message, along with other GOP officials to seniors citizens; Go out to work and sacrifice yourself for the US economy?!?!
Right now, our Nation is experiencing a continuous genocide by public policy. People that shouldn’t be dying are dying because of the poor preparedness, an even poorer response, and the poorest leadership ever by the US Federal Government!
Our president will sacrifice as many lives as it takes, as many children getting sick from the Virus as it takes, and how many of them die! As long as he can keep making his usual fast buck and kickbacks out of these crises …while he continues his campaign of Fear, Terror, & Division to his thersitical, but increasingly lonelier base.
This is the biggest crisis in the lifetime of more than 99% of the World’s population …it’s not easy to understand a nation that’s never gone through such severe health crises in 102 years…in 1918, between 600–700,000 died, and who knows how many more got infected.
All that, in a much smaller America without the advanced technology, and the discoveries there’s around today in Medical Science. There’s better preparedness, better organizations & coordination. There’s no reason to have that many deaths! …till the fate of 2016, when an autocrat came in to claim his throne.
You can remove him in 103 days or you can keep him for another four years, or longer …but the pandemic, either way, will continue to raise its ugly head, way into the winter …then the cycle starts all over again. Will it go away by the next summer? Show me the vaccine!
This virus affects everybody, it’s 100% bi-partisan, it attacks everyone!
1st, they said it attacks the Elderly only? …then they said also attacks middle age? Now sending kids back to school?
Covid-19 is not just bi-partisan, it’s also blind …it doesn’t distinguish color or age, or males or females? it attacks everybody. From infants, where 85 of them, all under 1-year-old, tested positive for the virus in Corpus Cristi, Texas, and around Nueces County …up to people in their 80s, their 90s, up to 117 years old!
A 117 years old Japanese Lady, known as the Goddess in Japan! She was 17 years old when she survived & lived through the Spanish Influenza Pandemic …to die 102 years later from another Pandemic. Sorry, that’s no way to die after 117 years.
If this Country really wants to get rid of this virus, first, we need real leadership.
A leader that will not lie about the ups and the downs of the virus…be straight with the people and tell the truth.
Meanwhile, as I’ve said before; don’t listen to Politicos…Listen to Doctors!
Don’t inject yourself with disinfectants cause idiots tell you to! Listen to Doctors!
Don’t read Medical Books that you cannot understand, to see if a Malaria drug will work on Coronavirus! Listen to Doctors!
As Mark Twain said; “Be careful about reading Health Books. You may die of a misprint”!
Let’s not have to die, cause an incompetent president is committing mass medical malpractice and genocide by public policy …it really doesn’t have to be that way!
But, only We, the People are the ones that can do something about it!
#COVID-19#pandemic response#Politics#genocide#CDC#hospitals#respiratory therapy#nurses#doctors#quarantine
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Episode 125 : The Audacity Of Dope
"In the land of the free, the slaves are still here."
- Jerry Beeks
The grind continues, and as the autumn starts to really draw in, the selection gets you prepared for full hoodie and boot season with some rugged sounds from the old to the new!
A couple of events for you...
The Flyest @ Klondyke Club, Manchester, November 15th - guest starring me on the turntables!
Artifacts ft. DJ Mr.Len @ Joshua Brooks, November 30th
Twitter : @airadam13
Playlist/Notes
Royal Flush : Life Is Hard
Royal Flush is known to most for his debut "Ghetto Millionaire" album, but he definitely has had some other solid tracks over the years. While this is on the 2019 release "The Governor", it was first heard on the 2005 "Street Boss" album. The production (don't have credits for this one) is top-notch, with the eerie and dramatic instrumental sounding very noir - a perfect backdrop for Flush's grim Queens thug braggadocio.
[Maxmillion] Panda One : Elaborate (Touch You) (Instrumental)
There's another track on this 2002 12" that has been the favourite for me for a long time, but on a re-visit this month I had to give this beat a little bit of light! The sample it's based around has been used before, but not quite like this - good job by Maxmillion.
Phi Life Cypher : Earth Rulers
One of my favourite rhyme duos with a killer single! DJ Beware put me up on this one back in the day, but I only recently got my own vinyl copy. Si Phili and Life just firehose lyrics right down the DJ Nappa-produced track, in a way any fan of bars has to appreciate. The finishing touches are provided by the dancehall samples, which I think come from recordings of the veteran Earth Ruler sound system - the little one-bar sample that drops in in place of a hook is absolute fire!
Redlight Boogie ft. DJ Chainsaw : Hands Down
Amsterdam's Redlight Boogie yells, snarls, and spits his way through this cut from the "Dirty Money, Clean Hands" album - abrasive like a sack of Brillo pads. DJ Chainsaw drops in for some cuts at the close, which end up blending over the scratches from...
Gang Starr : Bad Name
Huge new single which the heavy Hip-Hop listeners will surely have had on repeat the last few weeks! Easily the biggest musical surprise of the last few years has been the news that a new Gang Starr album release is imminent, and that there have been unreleased Guru vocals in the vault all these years. The "Family & Loyalty" single stunned everyone, and this follow-up will keep the buzz going until the LP drops. DJ Premier on production, the late great Guru on the mic - it's what we've been missing.
Bronx Slang : More Grief
It's been great to see Bronx Slang getting momentum up this year off the back of their excellent debut album, and it just so happens that this track that I was planning to play anyway turns out to be their new single! Jerry Beeks gets busy on the mic with the kind of consciousness that a lot of people swear doesn't exist in music these days, while Jadell packs in the funk to complete the soulful stew. Don't sleep!
Jay Dee : Jay Dee #17
Big shout to Iain and Teresa for hooking up a release I needed in my collection - "King of the Beats" by J Dilla! Lots of unreleased beats on this one, as well as a few the hardcore listeners might know. This particular beat bounces along with that characteristic Dilla swing, focusing on the low end for a pleasing groove.
Skyzoo & Pete Rock : Ten Days
If you like Pete Rock beats, you want to get the new "Retropolitan" album - 100% Soul Brother #1, with Brooklyn's Skyzoo helming mic proceedings throughout. This isn't the kind of beat that you automatically associate with Rock, but it just goes to show he can be versatile with it. Skyzoo is on that "get money" talk here, with a hook that conjures up this scene from "Paid In Full".
As an aside - I totally forgot that the closing track on this album shares the podcast title, which I've wanted to use with the cover photo for a while!
Black Moon : A Haaa
My goodness, what a wait - sixteen years since the "Total Eclipse" album (2006's "Alter the Chemistry" was dope, but essentially a remix project), but at last Black Moon are back in full effect on "Rise of da Moon"! One of the original Timbs and hoodies crews, this episode wouldn't have been right without them. This tune is short but a banger, with a heavy digital bassline anchoring things while Buckshot showcases the flow and flavour that made him famous. Also check that heavy boom that kicks in between the 1 and 2 beats of each bar!
Black Thought ft. Styles P : Making A Murderer
Devastation from last year's "Streams of Thought, Volume 1" EP. More bars than HMP, more bars than Temple Bar. Black Thought is one of the world's best MCs, who needs no hook and offers no reprieve on his fire first verse. It's a brave man who would get on the mic after him, but Styles P takes the challenge and does himself proud - rising to the occasion. 9th Wonder's instrumental beats you into submission in the best way with the heaviness of the drum track, but it's Thought that holds the murder weapon here.
Children of Zeus : Ghost
CoZ maintained their hot streak of great music with "The Winter Tape", and it's just about the season for those tunes to get a re-airing. Tyler Daly takes sole charge of the vocals for this haunting tale of lost love.
Vanilla : Sweet Talk
The title track from the last of the soul-inspired beat tape trilogy by this UK producer is a smooth one. Vanilla works a melancholy 70s soul sample, and the drums are suitably subtle so as not to overpower it.
Professor Griff and the Last Asiatic Disciples : The Verdict
This is the first of two tracks from albums that opened up the nineties, just as we start to look towards a new decade. Professor Griff's solo debut album "Pawns in the Game" came during his initial suspension/expulsion, and found him on unfamiliar ground as he was not a rhyme writer by trade. Still, he delivered the rhymes with conviction (no pun intended) on a song that opens with a take on Louis Farrakhan's short play "The Trial", and the rest of the L.A.D come through too. Beat Master Clay D provides the beat, based on a familiar break that never gets old but packed with other samples in a way that is unaffordable in terms of clearance fees these days...
Master Ace : I Got Ta
When the Juice Crew veteran's name was still spelled this way, the year was 1990, haircuts were angular, and Ace was making his solo debut on the highly regarded "Take A Look Around", from which this track is taken! Mister Cee takes a classic James Brown sample and keeps the Godfather's voice in for Master Ace to work around lyrically as he states his intentions.
Joell Ortiz ft. Jadakiss, Sheek Louch, and Styles P : Put Some Money On It
Second straight tune working a vocal sample into the lyrics - this time, from the 2011 "Free Agent" mixtape with The LOX making a great guest appearance. Straight street bars all the way through, and Sean C and LV with the uptempo soul/funk production for a big win.
Sampa The Great ft. Krown : Time's Up
Massive thanks to Agent J for gifting me this LP! From Zambia via Botswana and Australia comes Sampa, whose new LP "The Return" jumps around stylistically but never lets you forget that this is an MC of quality. She and the featured guest Krown take the machinations of the record industry to task on this one and announce that the clock has run out on their BS. Silentjay's beat starts off centred around those stick hits to remind you of a clock, then brings those lows in to drive it forward. Definitely an album worth a listen!
Boogie Down Productions : Duck Down (Instrumental)
Early 90s ruggedness on this 12" release from the "Sex & Violence" LP. KRS and Pal Joey smack the beat into the drum sampler here, and right at the end you hear the sound effect that plays under one of Hip-Hop's best-remembered calls for a rewind!
Edgar Allen Floe : Arrest The President (Cypher God)
We played the original version of this track to open episode 90, almost three years ago, but I only recently learned that there was a remake! Edgar Allen Floe of the Justus League does a solid job with this, covering similar themes as the original and even borrowing some of the rhyme scheme while switching up the words themselves. The dope beat is pretty much the exact same as the Marley Marl-produced original, bringing that hectic 80s urgency and just begging to be cut up every time. Check out more of Floe's work on the rest of the album, "The Streetwise LP".
Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!
Check out this episode!
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Essay for Love: Ancient Approach
I provides my grandma and grandpa that I would adhere to them for a few years in the summer months, after a finish my school term. When providing love description, we find the item appropriate to turn to an explanatory dictionary. For modern absolutely love essays, they give us distressing warnings.
The philosophical and anthropological problem of love emerged previously, in olden days. So , here I am, moving along an old time graveled roads, breathing in fresh new rural atmosphere and looking forward to meeting my favorite dear relatives. A concept that every other love is because love on the way to yourself will start gaining popularity. In this property, a hundred stretches from the location I live life, I ultimately feel at home.
The philosophy of love has been seen diversely in every amount of human progress, depending on important and national environment. Many works about appreciate point out that an individuality appeared to be considered as a part of society back then, that is why man or women interests were definitely strongly bound to public products.
The final objective of love would gain growing old either by simply worshipping Aphrodite Pandemos in addition to giving birth to help children as well as by worshipping Aphrodite Urania and learning intellectual function. Nonetheless , classical longevity brings precisely this know-how about love.
We advise one more plan of distinction, which is while using specifics of any relationship concerning two subjects: My grandpa and grandma break into joy, and I come closer to these to embrace my favorite nearest men and women. What is more necessary, love adjusted its route from a specific person to the whole humanity. I can find out their house on the distance.
Renaissance leaves together each of the previous experiences and gives beginning to numerous treatises, in which humanism occupies the most important place, even while love is actually a simple people feeling. Most likely this is the most fascinating and common subjects while in the history with philosophy. PurEssay offers exclusively quality authoring from professionals in this field.
I will really need to remind the grandparents again to change the place where they keep the key. I am unable to tell you precisely how proud my grandparents are generally of their family home. Now it is time to go into and to interact with my grandmother and grandfather. There exist a lot of parts of view towards the moment as soon as love very first appeared.
To be a human developed psychologically, absolutely love acquired completely new complicated options and got innovative forms and the theoretic examination. This can be a two-storied, regal building cloaked in a distinctive atmosphere within the previous one hundred year. I just enter a significant living room, urgentessay.net just where my horrific lies on a sofa, browsing his classifieds, and the grandmother rich waters her property plants.
Through earliest period, human feelings were mainly connected with intuition, and like was not a definite phenomenon. At the same time, they find a way to take care of your garden: a beautiful spot, full of fragrant flowers in addition to branchy forest that forged their dark areas on wood made benches. I like this how the place stays neat in summers, resembling an authentic heaven on the planet in the world of hellish heat.
My great-grandfather built this for her family a lot of decades before, and he would you think his employment conscientiously. Selfish relative person won’t acknowledge the value of the other and is eager to accomplish only his or her own needs. Take a look at first of all try to classify all of our understanding of like and find out what kinds it you can easily name.
Web site approach deeper, I can previously make out smart windows, coloured in white. While our grandparents loaf on the job for a while inside or maybe work not in the patio, the dog whenever manages to greet my family before them. Then he acknowledges me, my dear Oscar, and gets going wagging its tail, going towards all of us. Ancient Greeks’ first consideration was studying the world, in support of after that installed childbirth.
Oscar is actually the first one to fulfill me in this article. Really, no matter what hot here this time in the year. Really like originated due to socialization about instincts: intuition of self-preservation, which in such a way united people, and reproductive : instinct, combined with maternal sensations, which established certain sentimental closeness.
Any middle ages essay regarding love declares that enjoy towards The almighty is the exclusively true love, although chastity could be the only advantage. Almost every thinker one or more times tried to define or discuss love. Essay for Love: Ancient Approach
In that essay at love, PurEssay team will tell you how the perception of this thought evolved after a while. Unpretentious love the motivation to give up your own interests for the sake of your loved one. I fiddle together with heavy hair, soft and even pleasant to the touch; however , I find myself pity with the creature that must be suffering from tremendous heat less than this membrane of fashion.
Seeing that women were not fit meant for philosophy, relationship only preoccupied their partners from believing. In addition to Desire, there were a tad bit more gods of love in Artistic mythology exactly who played essential roles additionally. The origin of love presents a very disputable subject. This type of enjoy is ideal since it leads to balance and a normal state connected with human internal.
The house seems fabulous and unreal, as though it steered clear of from a fairy story and tried to get misplaced among different houses on the village yet failed. Of course, she has a great deal of them, the two inside and out of doors. The love in between, which usually presents often the golden imply, implying in which both people today present same value in a very relationship and tend to be eager to survive for each additional.
This matter is still topical even in the modern world, and now you will get to it. Foundation of love has got several ways to classifying idea. Our creating company finds it necessary to seek out some info in the tradition of early Greece. This process is usually indefinite for the reason that human trend still keeps going.
Your backyard is clean, only a floral population raise most of their buds into the sun, and also to the stones, as if looking for life-giving elements. I can odour freshly manufactured pastry someplace in the kitchen, along with a warm feeling of coziness covers my coronary heart. Physical violence and by simply seem to suppress love in the modern tradition.
But 2 men could achieve far more together, purpose Aristotle assumed that enjoy was comparable to friendship. Whenever i enter the front side gate, your pet dog looks at all of us suspiciously as well as barks once or twice. It truly is one often the presents of which my grandfather prepared personally when I had been little. Each epoch had their philosophers, research psychologists, sociologists together with other scientific brains who anxious themselves using love.
When i deeply inhale local atmosphere, and I stench a hint with flowers, quite possibly, my grandmother’s asters, nevertheless they may as well be any other think about because Me not very good during them. Love is put into the low, impolite Aphrodite Pandemos and the incredible Aphrodite Urania. Neo-Platonism develops, very, with its fans relying on Plato’s theories.
After I invest some time with the canine, I look into it for this grandparents, still I cannot find them any where outside. Industrial population is focused at consumerism; large production and even new technological know-how lead to a far more rationalized way of life. But only attitude could predetermine what kind of enjoy it was. Modern day lexicographers clarify love being a feeling of passion, but also because attraction this provokes sexual desire.
These kinds of prognoses will be dangerous to our society given that mechanized romances between people speak of inhumanity. This destination gets cozier every year. I wide open a heavy oak door along with a little crucial hidden below the welcome f?da. Some analysts believe that innovations in love would be rational together with deprived with emotions.
That is why many countries assist organizations and even movements of which promote standard family valuations. Our services make your school life simple and easy productive. The item depended on readers’ values, sociable patterns, perception of themselves and various other human beings.
This type of concepts like sympathy, benevolence and likely-hood became topical oils and element of that period. As I the actual building, the atmosphere around myself becomes awesome, and I like feeling precisely how my body relax down, as well. The v?ldigt bra Eros appears on phase; he is a strong unpredictable and even demanding the almighty, who evokes fear on other people perhaps even other gods.
Some people for their essays regarding love recommend dividing that into increased and decreased. In our short go about appreciate, we will keep to the opinion which love sprang out together with people because a people always expected communication plus close romances with very much the same beings. In the event ancient Greeks followed the principle of beauty, medieval modern society switched to principle for morality.
So , here, PurEssay provided the definition of love, enumerated it has the main models and explained to you what sort of notion of affection has evolved eventually. Later this attitude fades away, and the great start having interested in their very own feelings together with psychological factors. What I can tell for certain is that the stench is simply terrific, even though hardly ever perceptible.
These cases give agricultural soil towards the so-called purchaser love, as their characteristic characteristics are limited by low erectile culture and also lack of meekness. When it comes to Christianity, it gravely condemns human relationships outside photographer and care for corporal pastimes as low in addition to sinful. Our writers can create a identical essay in your academic demands or to create a work on a certain topic.
In Old love totally conformed that will religion. I am excited as always because immediately I am heading to my grandparents’ country bachelor’s pad. Other researchers single out unique variations of love, subject to its recipient: sexual like, paternal really enjoy, patriotic enjoy, love regarding God etc . The house is dealt with with a thick layer of light blue coloration that was clearly more saturated a year ago, still has disappeared due to the very hot sun with this territory.
My spouse and i still really like swinging there with a reserve in my present, pretending which drift off and then rise in remote countries. A single tree possibly even has a hand-made swing hanging from it. People start expressing out this emotion among ordre and even will fear it all.
It results emergence of lyric finery, which results in being the leading branch of poetry. The grandparents are generally constantly perfecting changing the interior of the house.
The post Essay for Love: Ancient Approach appeared first on Presta Hero.
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FOR THE KARL MARX Bicentennial Forum, Jason Barker spoke to Clive Coleman, co-writer with Richard Bean of Young Marx, a play about Marx and his family’s early years in London. The play opened at the Bridge Theatre in London on October 27 and ran until December 31, 2017. It was directed by the Royal National Theatre’s former artistic director Sir Nicholas Hytner, and starred Rory Kinnear in the lead role, Oliver Chris as Engels, and Nancy Carroll as Marx’s wife Jenny von Westphalen.
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JASON BARKER: Many people will be familiar with your TV credits on The Bill and Spitting Image. How did you come to co-write a play about Karl Marx, which seems like a different proposition entirely?
CLIVE COLEMAN: As a writing partnership Richard [Bean, co-writer] and I go back a long way. We used to write comedy together in the mid-1990s. We wrote a sketch show called Control Group Six for BBC Radio 4, so we’d always been in touch. Richard became a well-known playwright and I went on to work for the BBC as its legal correspondent. We worked together on a play about phone hacking called Great Britain within five days of the verdict in the big criminal phone hacking trial in which Rebekah Brooks was acquitted and Andy Coulson convicted. [1] We worked on that in 2014 and wanted to do something else. Then Richard was approached initially to write the libretto for an opera about Karl Marx. That didn’t happen for various reasons but through talking to him about it we started reading around Marx — we read a number of biographies — and were just amazed by the fact that in 1850, as a young man, all the things you would never have imagined of this imposing figure — this bust in Highgate Cemetery — actually happened to him. He lived the most extraordinary life. All the incidents in the play actually happened. He did apply for a job on the railway as a clerk, he did have terrible boils on his backside, he fathered a child illegitimately with his housekeeper, and he lived in absolutely penurious circumstances. At one point the Prussian spy who was spying on him reported back to Berlin that Marx hadn’t left his Soho apartment for five days. Why? Because he’d pawned all of his own clothes; he was too poor to leave the house. So there was a ready-made door-slamming farce right there, with bailiffs banging on the door and his beautiful German wife fobbing them off while he hid in the cupboard. There was an amazing collection of ingredients that we thought would make a fantastic play. Initially we thought of it as a pure farce. Then we backtracked slightly because when you’re putting a genius on the stage farce is actually too slight a vehicle … That was basically it. I think we slightly fell in love with the young Marx because he was such an amazing character. Flawed but charismatic, energetic, crackling with intelligence, and the kind of person to whom things happened and who made things happen. So the character we found magnetic and fascinating.
I agree that farce is too slight a vehicle for Marx. But I could have imagined the play as an opera. You focus on a lot of material that lends itself to melodrama.
The producers were keen to have an opera with Freddy Demuth, who was Marx’s illegitimate son, grown up, but we fastened on 1850 as the play’s setting because it was a time when an awful lot was happening. We really wanted to focus on Marx as a young man, the one people don’t really know about. Some of the information has been hidden from the public …
Almost certainly a lot was censored by Marx’s daughters, maybe self-censored.
Yes. People are more comfortable thinking about him as an austere and iconic figure who gave birth to communism then Stalinism, et cetera. No one’s thought about lifting the curtain and looking at the life he was living, all the normal problems, so for us this presented an irresistible opportunity. No one’s written a play about Marx and put it on the English stage, even though he lived in England for the majority of his adult life.
In focusing on the young Marx you’re perhaps contradicting the audience’s expectations, both of the image of the man as well as Marxology. It’s easier to think of Marx as a great thinker when we’re presented with him as this sedentary old sage with a big beard in the way that all the Victorian sages are presented: Darwin, Dickens, et cetera. Did you deliberately set out to smash this image?
The thing that comes across if you read Marx’s letters, particularly those to Engels, is how funny he was; witty, funny, very well read. He would quote Shakespeare at length, he knew poetry, literature. He and Engels would ridicule their opponents, quite cruelly, actually. I’m not sure that this ritualistic side to Marx and this caustic wit ever really left him; I’m not sure he became so different to the way he was previously in terms of his sense of mischief and ribaldry. That bust of him at Highgate Cemetery — somewhat strangely — casts a long shadow. I happen to believe that lurking in the background there’s a real person. One of the things that draws you to him is this incredible intellectual energy he had. Maybe that magnetism is in some respect what makes him into a leader. If there was a room with five hundred people in it and he walked in you’d know he was there. He was someone who drew your attention. That energy was something that everyone found attractive. So in that sense I don’t think there was a deliberate effort to smash the image of him as an older man.
I’d like to come back to the question of farce. Young Marx is a very dynamic play and there’s a lot of outrageous physical comedy, like the fight scene in the British Museum, where Marx meets Charles Darwin (apparently without realizing who he is). But the mood of the play shifts with the death of Marx’s son, at which point it becomes a tragedy; Marx realizes the error of his ways and makes peace with the chaos. In reality, of course, when his son Guido dies in 1850, it turns out to be only the beginning of a long sequence of tragic events. In 1851 his wife Jenny gives birth to a daughter, Franziska, who only survives a year; then Edgar, his eldest son, dies in 1855. And for the next 15 years Marx is still persecuted much as he was before by bailiffs and landlords, and he doesn’t make serious headway on his “economics shit” for years. Even after Das Kapital is published in 1867 he complains to Engels that he’s never been in more dire financial straits and feels like he’s at death’s door. In 1860 he writes a work entitled Herr Vogt, which is this huge exposé of an obscure German activist who, years later in 1870, turns out to be a spy of Napoleon III. By this point Engels is almost tearing his hair out, imploring Marx to finish his book on capital. But he can’t. In this sense one could say that the farce is never-ending. Why did you decide to curtail the farce at the point you did, in 1850 or thereabouts, when in reality it had only just got going?
In any piece of drama or comedy, when you’re dealing with such a full and eventful life, you have to bite off a digestible chunk. But you’re absolutely right, we compressed a lot. The Marxes lost several children, whereas we focused on Fawksey. In fact it was Edgar who lived up until just before he was eight years old, who Marx absolutely adored, and who was a brilliant Artful Dodger–type character. He would stand outside their Soho apartment and fob the debt-collectors off as well. All of that is equally great material but we wanted to get as much of his young life into as short a period as we could. So much happened in 1850; that year draws in all of the incidents that took place around it. You’ve only got two hours on stage. Had it been a box-set TV series we could have expanded it. You mention how he felt as if he was at death’s door. He was frequently ill due to a terrible lifestyle of smoking cigars and drinking far too much but also just getting through the run-of-the-mill everyday things of life. As writers, we had to make a decision about what a reasonable chunk of his life is, and if there were great things that happened outside of that then which ones we should try and work into that space.
I suppose the staging of the play might also have encouraged that compression. Young Marx is performed at the Bridge Theatre in London, a purpose-built brand-new state-of-the-art theater on the Thames at Tower Bridge. You have this fantastic revolving stage that allows the action to change locations in an instant, from Soho to Brussels, and which serves the piece very well. Did knowing you had that machinery at your fingertips influence the way you wrote the play?
It started quite raw. The Marxes lived in two rooms in London’s Soho in what’s now the Quo Vadis restaurant. We knew we wanted to have scenes in the Red Lion, where the Communist League met. We also knew that we wanted the duel scene, which actually took place in Antwerp, and where Konrad Schramm went to fight August Willich on Marx’s behalf. Schramm was grazed by a bullet, everyone thought he was dead, and then he turned up in Soho a few days later. But, actually, the truth is we wrote the play and Mark Thompson, the brilliant set designer, came up with this amazing revolving set. There were still a few scenes that the director cut. But we wanted the London of the time, which was a dirty, grubby Soho, awash with émigrés and revolutionaries from the 1848 revolutions in Europe. So we wanted this Dickensian pea-souper type of London together with this fetid atmosphere of revolutionaries plotting and planning. And also factions splitting. At least one of the communist factions wanted to spark revolution through pure violence. Marx never wanted that and believed things would happen through a historical process. It was all those things together that led to the way in which it was staged.
Whenever I fall into conversations with people about Marx, people always tend to express the same opinion. Armchair enthusiasts, people who haven’t read him much, or at all, usually start by insisting that while they admire Marx and agree wholeheartedly with his ideas in theory, they don’t see how they could possibly work in practice. I’m curious to know whether you’ve had similar conversations with people and whether you share the sentiment. The reason I ask is because that skepticism doesn’t come across in the play at all. Overall it ends up feeling optimistic and dispenses with the lunacy, along with the cliched idea that Marx is a utopian fantasist, irresponsible, nothing but a drunken raver, et cetera.
I’m someone who’s sympathetic to the man and his dilemmas. Marx was a young man married to a beautiful German aristocrat who was four years his senior. He was living in difficult, penurious circumstances, managing a young family and trying to hold a political movement together through the Communist League at a time when it was splitting up. So he had a lot on his plate! But can I answer the question in a slightly different way?
Sure.
Put it this way. A play about Karl Marx cannot avoid his writings. It would be absurd to try to do that. No one goes to the theater to have two hours of Marx’s theories rammed down their throat. That would not be a particularly entertaining evening. But we wanted to tackle his writings and we thought long and hard about finding ways and the right speeches in order for him to do that. So there’s a scene in the play where they’re making breakfast and Marx has an epiphany, and it’s through making breakfast that he manages to expound upon alienation. Something like alienation is a difficult concept to get across and we wanted to find ways to ground things like that in situations that might have sparked his imagination and enabled him to come up with them. And especially in those domestic situations. But I don’t think we ever took on or made a value judgment about whether these concepts were workable in practice. It was a moment in time. It was 1850. So no one had really put any of this stuff into practice. We were many years away from him actually completing Das Kapital. He’d been working on it for about five years and hadn’t done much, I think. So that wasn’t the focus of the play. I’ve slightly dodged your question there.
I think it’s fair to say that Marx in 1850 is an unusual character. At the time he was experimenting with communism and socialism, which were still fairly minority underground sects. He doesn’t know how things are going to work out, he’s grappling with it all; even though Marx’s “theory” is itself a practical undertaking. He’s not an abstract theorist.
There was one speech we put in the play and which I was very keen to have in. Marx had a great optimism that history would play out in a particular way and in the speech at the Red Lion he says there will be a time when the money’s eaten itself, banks will be bust, there will be no money to pay the police or the army and so we won’t need a revolution; we shall simply walk in and take over. There was also another speech we put in. Although he had this optimism, capitalism has clearly turned out to be hugely elastic and shape-shifting. It hits one crisis then it finds a way, whether through the invention of credit cards or state intervention to prop up banks. So in actual fact it’s proved to be a very powerful foe and perhaps more so than Marx imagined. So in the play he gives another speech when he’s at his nadir and in which he describes capitalism as a seven-headed hydra that can never be beaten. And I wonder whether he ever thought like that. Did he ever consider: What if I’m wrong about this? What if the enemy is more powerful than I thought? I take the view that anyone who believes so much in something must at some point reflect and think: what if the thing is more difficult to beat than I ever imagined?
It’s the Marx bicentennial this year and Marx’s ideas about class struggle and economic exploitation are still live issues. I wonder whether this explains why there have been so few TV or theater dramatizations of Marx’s life. Do you think producers are frightened, not so much of Marx, but of what he represents? Or do you think there’s a more innocent explanation? In passing I’ve heard it said that the Raoul Peck movie The Young Karl Marx has been struggling to secure an English distributor, which may go some way toward explaining why more Marx films don’t get made. Clearly it can’t be for lack of a good story, or one that’s worth telling.
I don’t think there’s a big capitalist conspiracy to blunt any drama about Karl Marx. There have been lots of documentaries and books. I think it’s because people associate him so much with the writings and the history that followed it. And for a lot of people that’s a bit of a turn off.
But it’s still very visual. Your play has a great visual language in terms of the spies and all these archetypes you have in it. It’s interesting that the Marx story should remain so overwhelmingly on the page.
Well, having said that the Young Marx play has been on about a thousand cinema screens on National Theatre Live, so it has been seen in cinemas. There may end up being a film of the play. Who knows? You have these sleeping giants. For years and years, when I was writing sitcom, everyone said you cannot write a sitcom about people being in an office. People are in an office all day and they do not want to come home and sit for another half an hour and watch people in an office. And then Ricky Gervais wrote The Office. Sometimes you have a long period where people think things aren’t doable. Then suddenly times change, attitudes change, and those things become popular. So you never know. This may be a time when people are going to look again at Karl Marx. He certainly deserves a look.
And as a dialectical thinker of contraries he’s perhaps the greatest sleeping giant of them all. One should never say never with Marx.
Well, exactly. Maybe we’ve helped to start something new.
¤
Jason Barker is professor of English at Kyung Hee University, South Korea. He is the writer-director of the German documentary Marx Reloaded and author of the novel Marx Returns.
¤
[1] In 2011, it emerged that The News of the World, a mass circulation UK tabloid Sunday newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International, had hired a private investigator to hack into the phone records of Milly Dowler, a young British teenager who went missing in March 2002, and whose body was eventually discovered six months later. In July 2011, it was reported that during the period of Dowler’s disappearance, during which the newspaper supported a public campaign to find her, the private investigator and journalists from the paper listened to voice messages left on her phone, and deleted others in order to free space for new incoming messages. This created the false impression that Dowler was still alive. Following pubic outrage the paper ceased publication in July 2011. In 2013, former editors of The News of the World, including Brooks and Coulson, were prosecuted for their involvement in the related phone-hacking scandal.
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Waste a Scary, Thrilling Night Out With Enda Walshs Disco Pigs
It is 20 years since theatergoers firstly convened Pig and Runt, the two motormouth characters of Enda Walsh’s breakthrough, multi-award-winning play-act, Disco Pigs . Once convened, they are never forgotten.
They are enjoyable, innocent, knowing girls, then teenagers, then young adults growing up in Cork City, in County Cork, Ireland, and totally in their own world–a consolation zone that grows its own dangerous and suffocating prison.
They may remind you of other hapless but magnetized duos like Vladimir and Estragon, helplessly together and unimaginable apart; Pig and Runt in the Cork City of 1996 waiting for their very own Godot on a dance storey, getting drunk and high, or gazing up at an endless night sky. They are” disco swine ,” not signify as an offend, but rather as two girls who love making anarchically merry at night; disco pigs in clover, if you like.
John Haidar, administrator of the bright and electrifying 20th-anniversary production at New York City’s Irish Repertory Theatre( rightfully, it’s one of best available products I have determined on or off-Broadway in recent months ), calls the pair’s dizzying, mashed-up lexicon only their own,” a variation of a Cork dialect, but peppered with words, announces, and terms of their own constitute, together with notes drawn from every corner of mid-‘ 90 s pop culture .”
The Irish location and situation immediately summons up the lyricism and creeks of consciousness of James Joyce, and Walsh is a worthy modern-era compatriot of the Dubliners writer.( If you read Disco Pigs , also go to St. Ann’s Warehouse to see his romp 2014 play-act, Ballyturk ; Walsh is also sending that product .)
In Disco Pigs , Evanna Lynch( Runt) and Colin Campbell( Pig) come into the world right in front of us, as calling newborns with thoughts and paroles immediately streaming from their mouths.
They firstly appear through flappings at the back of the stage, intended to be their fathers’ vaginas. They nervously peep put into the world but are soon crafting their own world out of it.
Their world is the world, everybody else is merely a walk-on participate, stop, and–particularly for Pig–threatening nuisance to be beaten up and maybe worse. The duet are joke, sugared, sometimes whimsical, and also not to be crossed.
Everything–really, everything–is perfectly recognized in this product: Lynch and Campbell compound the not-unintimidating tasks of enunciating Walsh’s propulsive woodlands of poetry and profanity, but likewise hurl themselves around a mainly bare stagecoach, which, lit ingeniously by Elliot Griggs, can be a dwelling, a nightclub, and–most bewitchingly–a supernatural trip on the seaside.
Lynch and Campbell are garmented in the club-kid duds of 1997 and are a riot of clashing terms, which–as Haidar notes–are punctuated by” occasional gaps of silence, minutes where events come apart, and even a sense of the confessional box in these monologues … If they cease to speak, they might cease to exist, so their anxiety of silence becomes all-pervasive .”
The trajectory of their friendship is quotidian and epic. Runt affection Scampi Fries( a salty, addictive potato snack ), and they both adore drinking and getting high. As Runt chugs cider, Pig notes admiringly:” Gallon by gallon deep “theres going”. A buddel a rider’s an nasty ting, but hey, an clod da fucking! Da ting it runs! Inta da skull like ka lawn mower it desegregate me an Runt all aboud! Two fishys a swillin it back a swillin it back a swillin it back … down da belly an oud da spout …”
The first follower to pas fouled of Pig is the unseen( and eventually poorly beaten up) Foxy, but the pair don’t stop is of the view that hitting. On their channel for late night junk food they admit their adore for one another:” Jarr my bes sidekick in da whole whirl “/” Jarr “peoples lives”, Pig .” In a beautiful part of lyricism, she tells us of the opening up of their bail, as two children in adjacent incubators, and then out by the ocean–a critical moment she sees as a close on their friendship and he interprets a prologue to the romance that must surely follow from their bond.
This stark difference–the relationship he urgently misses with her contrasted with the adoration she appears for him hitherto the need to break away from that–forms the tension that informs the rest of the romp. One cycle discovers Pig singing The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” at a pub karaoke, as Runt is beaten up by a woman.
The pair reach a kind of Elysian club heaven at the end of the romp, the Palace, which appears as precisely that, and it is here their friendship ultimately ruptures for good after the other act of sickening brutality by Pig. In the play’s final instants it is Runt who speaks of her need for objectivity and something else.
These flat terms ill convey the life and vitality of Disco Pigs . They ill communicate the surprising executions of Lynch and Campbell, and their physicality( under progress chairman Naomi Said) and the technological grandeur of Haidar, decorator Richard Kent, bang decorator Giles Thomas, and illuminating director Griggs.
For 75 times you are absolutely on the street of Cork City with Pig and Runt, and scared and exhilarated is still in their company. Walsh’s sneakiest chip of domination is, all the way through, having you want them to be together and also want them to be apart for their own purposes. Even for a 17 -year-old disco pig, the cold light of daybreak, or adulthood, eventually comes.
Robert O’Hara wishing to us to debate a nature without women in his new play-act, Mankind , at New York City’s Playwrights Horizons.
That isn’t immediately self-evident when we meet Jason( Bobby Moreno) and Mark( Anson Mount ), who seem like a couple of people having a series of slightly fraught hook-ups.
But they’re not.” Gay” is now a expression that means nothing, because men having fornication with boys is now the basic sexual and nostalgic currency of the world. Wives are extinct, and men can also reproduce.
The play is a mix of rarely fascinating but overall discordant personas: First you envisage the all-male world, then you thoughts this nature rediscovering feminism, and having it reinvented and recustomized by humankinds, after Jason and Mark have, and then fail, a female child.
Tellingly, some of the audience chuckled and acquired the various types conceits and flouncing entertaining, and elsewhere others sat in silence. The ever-wonderful Andre De Shields reigned every stage was in.
The play is an exercise in both absurdity and cultural defy. Its difficulties are more basic than its premise: You simply don’t quite believes in the characters–these two “dudes” in possibly adoration; or ever actually get at clutches with what is lost in a society where women do not exist; or what the provenance and wise of a male-recreated feminism actually would be. Even if that thought is intended as satirically constituted, Mankind ceases up experiencing like “the worlds largest” feverish kind of mansplaining.
Disco Pigs is at New York City’s Irish Repertory Theatre, until Feb. 18. Book here. Mankind is at Playwrights Horizons, until Jan. 28. Book here .
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Episode 115 : Our Streets
"Watch the roads before crossing."
- Tyler
Beating the deadline, coming in a few hours before the New Year, giving you time to play this on the way out - or if you're staying in! This month's mix has some of my favourite tracks of 2018, as well as some choice selections from deeper in the crates. Enjoy the listen, and spread the word!
Twitter : @airadam13
Playlist/Notes
The Mouse Outfit : Late Night Doors
One of Manchester's finest crews blessed us with the acclaimed "Jagged Tooth Crook" album this year and they continue to bring the quality every time out. New collaborator Berry Blacc takes his place on the mic alongside old hands Dubbul O and Ellis Meade for some quality low-tempo flavour, with the beat being an absolute gem. The drums, bass, and piano are all played without flash and to absolutely perfect combined effect - the mark of musicians who know exactly what they're doing!
Maes & Fybre : This One
Pure Manchester again, with these two dub producers almost outlawing everything that isn't bass on this one! One of the many (seriously, many) great tracks on the "From Manchester With Love" compilation.
Curren$y : Drone Footage
I pretty much planned this segment in reverse, and this was the last tune to fall into place. 70-ish BPM is a tricky speed for Hip-Hop, unless it's got trap-type production like this - which ironically was so slow I had to boost it up a bit! Not much to say about this succinct track - a bite-sized portion of Curren$y's signature lifestyle rap over an 808-heavy beat. Pick it up on this year's "Parking Lot Music" EP.
Andy Mineo & Wordsplayed as Magic & Bird : Kidz
I think I found this album on a random Spotify search and was drawn in by the "Magic & Bird" theme - as it turns out, it gave me a great tune for my gym playlist! Andy Mineo isn't someone I've heard before but he's a Christian Hip-Hop artist (well, that would explain the sudden prayer right before the last hook!) out of NYC who's been recording for the last five years or so. Apparently the lyrical theme for this one came from the producer Beam, who, when Mineo complained on hearing the beat that he wanted to get away from the trap sound, told him "just do one for the kids!" Mineo and Wordsplayed ride the beat ably and prove him dead right :)
Z-Ro : Like A Rocket
With the recent release of the "Sadism" album, and last year's "Codeine", it looks like the retirement is off! I'm always here for Ro's half-sung, half-rapped delivery style, and it fits perfectly over Risko Funk's 80s ballad-sampled track. The original flavour isn't overwhelmed by the drums or extra bass, but there are lots of nice touches along the way - heavy filters sweeping in, extreme pitch shifting on the drums towards the end, and a general tendency to make you want to replay the tune :) I don't know if the track title is taken from K-Rino's quote from a Houston Chronicle article a couple of years back, but if so then it's a great connection! Oh yes - didn't realise I bought the clean version of this until I put it in the mix :)
Zero 7 ft. Hidden : Mono
After a long hiatus, Zero 7 are back and I'm always interested to hear what they're bringing. This single starts off with pure spacey vibes before the solid drum line comes in, followed by the vocals of Hidden - soulful, and also restrained.
Kaytranada : Nevalie
A very old one from the man out of Montreal, first posted on his Soundcloud about six years ago. Took a while to find a good track to follow the Zero 7, but EQing this one down to just the snare and trappy hi-hats initially opened up a really good opportunity for a mix!
Children of Zeus x Black Milk : Won't End Well
Manchester and Detroit combination! When this was released at the start of December I thought it was a one-off single, only to be completely surprised on Xmas Eve with the release of "The Winter Tape", an essential and completely free album! This track featured appropriately bleak and sparse production from Black Milk while Konny and Tyler describe the lack of happy endings in the street game - as your parents certainly did if they're anything like mine. 2018 has absolutely been the year of Zeus and they're carrying big momentum into 2019.
1982 ft. Lil' Fame and Haile Supreme : It's On You
The union of Termanology and Statik Selektah has finally returned for their second full LP "Still 1982" - and not before time. The hi-hat-less drums and occasional chimes in this beat made it mix smoothly with "Won't End Well" and got it the nod over another cut that we'll definitely play here in the future. Haile Supreme is new to me but the soul he puts into the hook certainly grabs your attention, and M.O.P's Lil' Fame steals the show on the rhyme side, though Termanology is absolutely solid as always.
Marco Polo ft. Invincible : Drunken Sleuth
It's always good to hear Invincible, who is always one to come with high-quality bars. In the guise of an overlooked drunk, she takes on corruption, homelessness, and the lack of democracy in her home city of Detroit on this ambitious and well-executed track. This is one where it's well worth reading her own annotated lyrics to get more background on the specifics. Beat-wise, Marco Polo is one of the finest in recent years and his work here and on the rest of the "PA2 : The Director's Cut" album is a great example of modern production that is inspired by a classic sensibility.
Cormega ft. Chantelle Nandi : More
The Queensbridge veteran brings a positive, uplifting message on this selection from the 2014 "Mega Philosophy" album, with the vocalist Chantelle Nandi making her debut appearance. As the album title suggests, the 30-minute collection is centred around this kind of theme, so it's definitely worth taking a short while to hear the whole thing!
Doo Wop : Castle To Castle (Instrumental)
I was torn in planning over whether to play the vocal version or just this beat, but the direction the mix went in meant that we'll save the Raekwon bars for another episode. This is the A-side to a vinyl that features the Rahzel-voiced "Ten Tape Commandments" on the flip, with both of course produced by one of the undisputed legends of the mixtape game.
Pusha T : Numbers On The Boards
Stomping, aggressive tune from Pusha's first solo album "My Name Is My Name" with Don Cannon, Kanye, and 88 Keys all combining to provide the production. No matter how good the beat though, you come to Pusha T for lyrical ability and he brings it as per usual - double-meanings aplenty as he dresses down any and all challengers. Michael Kors also catches a stray on the second verse!
The Step Brothers : Step Masters
I hadn't played this album for a while and am not sure how the illness of this cut slid managed to be forgotten by me for so long! Evidence and Alchemist are both underrated on the mic, and Alchemist must get the biggest "WTF?" laugh for "flippin'... like things that flip" :) The energy in this track is much more than you'd think possible given that it's only about 91 BPM, which is a credit to the production from these two heavyweights. Oh yes - do have a genuine laugh at the video!
Alchemist & Prodigy : We Got This
I was sure that one of the samples from the previous track had been used by Alchemist before, and I was right! This version is from the "Chemistry Files" mixtape, but for the full version you'll need to find the bootleg 12" single that includes it.
Camp Lo : Love Is Love
Just the right tech-sounding track to fit this space in the mix! This wasn't even my favourite track on 2017's "The Get Down Brothers" but it's a great example of how Sonny and Geechi aren't afraid to jump on different kinds of beats and lace them with their trademark slang waterfall.
K-Murdock : New Religion
A friend of the show who is an endlessly creative beatsmith, and his "Soundscapes Vol.2" is a mix of video game-inspired beats and instrumentals from his work with MCs. I had this one playing in the house and found a good home for it here :)
9th Wonder ft. Skyzoo and Ness : Let It Bang
Closing with pure slick-talking battle rap here from the "The Dream Merchant 2" compilation, all produced by 9th Wonder, then only about five years into his career. The drums and bass definitely have the classic flavour of early 9th, as well as the great chop/re-purposing of a nice soul sample. It's all east on the mic, with Brooklyn's Skyzoo and Ness from Philadelphia (you may know him from Da Band) trading bars and telling us to play this until you break the tape - which I suppose gives away the age of the track...
Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!
Check out this episode!
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