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cherriesradio · 3 years

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Class 1-A relationship headcanons

Part 2 - https://cherry-cake-pies.tumblr.com/post/640893672076001280/class-1-a-relationship-headcanons

Part 1 - https://cherry-cake-pies.tumblr.com/post/640877154337538048/mha-relationship-headcanons-class-1-a

Fluff

Mezou Shouji

Best hugs ever

I mean what else is he gonna do with all those arms? Fight villains?

Y/n is the only one who can call him by his first name

Shouji is super tall and y/n just calls him “Mezou McTallMan”

He has like 5 million IQ and plays chess with y/n and they just sit their feelin stupid cause they keep losing

Shouji and Tokoyami are best friends and then when him and y/n get together all three of them are best friends and it’s adorable

Y/n never really cared about the mask but was like “hey you don’t need to take it off if you don’t wanna”

And it melted Shouji’s heart that they were fine with it

Thier hair is always ruffled because of how much he messes with it

They just don’t bother anymore

He doesn’t like getting to much attention so for events they have little at home/ in the dorm party’s with just a few other kids

He 100% takes advantage of how scary he can look

If someone is trying to get at y/n he will look at them with the most haunting glare in the world

(*cough* Mineta *cough* *cough*)

Kyouka Jirou

Rockin out to rock but also crappy 2000’s pop music at three am

Jirou will just be sitting beside y/n as they mess with her lobes

Y/n is as much as a crackhead as the rest of the Bakusquad so they all get along great

Bakugo has almost stabbed both of them for kissing in public and being affectionate in public

Coming back to the dorms all sweaty from going to a concert and jumping around for four hours straight

Has the hardest time trying to teach y/n how to play everything because it hurt their ~delicate fingers~

Leaning on each other’s backs and listening to music sharing ear buds 😫

Getting records and hanging them on each other’s walls and painting them if they don’t like the songs 💜

She has a ton of vintage art/ band hoodies and they just share them at some point because they keep stealing them from each other

Going to the arcade with Denki and Kirishima and whoever else wants to come

Y/n always says Jirou has a “out shine the stars smile” and she becomes a blushing mess every time

She’s not very good at comforting :(

She tries tho

She’s great honestly

Hanta Sero

He asks y/n if he annoys them and y/n legit feels so bad like “I love u so much don’t you dare think that>:(“

He likes saving up for dates and going to fancy restaurants and stuff but he’s fine with small inexpensive dates

They’ve gone to sixflags at least ten times and they have definitely broke a whole ride from messing around with his tape

That couple where even before they were dating they were dating

Jokingly kissing each others hand/ cheeks, cuddling up to each other, always asking if the other was going somewhere too, that kinda stuff

Hammock cuddles

I think you understand

Prank war in the whole dorm and y/n and Sero are the kings (or queens) (or non-binary royalty) of it

Bakugo has declared war on them multiple times but never goes on it because of how hard they go

Everyone has said it, you know it

Spider man kisses

He has almost passes out from the blood rushing to his head before

if Mineta walks up to y/n from behind he will tape him up and they can’t have a normal conversation without Sero glaring at him

So many inside jokes

Once y/n put his hair in a bun or something and he was like :0 “oh my god there’s a world without hair in ur face”

Sometimes either of them will sneak in the others dorm in the morning before they wake up and put sunglass on them or draw on their face

“This reminds me of u” insert simp meme

This boy will make sure y/n is always holding his werid long lanky hands

They teach Todoroki what “Yeet” means and now they all use it all the time unironically

Fumikage Tokoyami

👏head 👏scratchys 👏

Y/n has to get him a nightlight so Dark Shadow doesn’t go wild in the middle of the night

Huge edge lord y/n is his only soft spot

Watch dumb vampire movies

They binged all the Twilight movies in one night and everyone makes fun of them for kinda unironiclly liking it

I know Halloween is only really a american thing but they 100% have Halloween party’s at the dorms

They’d set up the whole thing

Y/n gets him black nail polish and skull rings and edgy everything

He has a box that takes up like half his closet of just gifts from y/n

He doesn’t do gifts as much as just spending time with y/n

He does love the gifts tho

Give each other plenty of space

Just say “hey I wanna be alone for a bit” and he’ll be gone in a second

He’s always the little spoons cause he’s scared of peaking their eyes out accidentally

They didn’t keep the relationship a secret they just aren’t very physically affectionate to each other

So one day Shouji is like “oh are you crushing on y/n? Like you are really nice to them and they give you stuff”

And he sits there like “dude we’ve been together for months how do you not know”

And then they are like maybe we should announce it just to make sure? So they do that and the whole class is in shock that they were together for so long and no one noticed

Jokingly calls Tokoyami “Emo Peacock”

You can’t tell me they try to do the Waltz as a joke but get really into it and do it whenever they hear any music now

Jirou could literally be playing hard core rock or heavy metal and they’ll be doing the waltz to it

Dark Shadow low key feels like a third wheel sometimes but then y/n give him a tight hug and he feels appreciated

Shouto Todoroki

Feeding the simps

So ya know that thing in the notes app where you can share notes? Yeah they share one of those where they list things they hate about Endeavor and after a month they are already on a thousand

Just sit in the same room

Could be doing anything not even envolving the other but it’s nice just to have the other there

Protecting the girls from Mineta together ❤️👏👏

at first it honestly just seemed like they were really good friends because they kept it a secret (mostly cause if it got out to the public Endeavor would find out and probably try to break them up)

Even in private they would just kiss the others cheek or forehead and hold hands and that’s the only difference

He talks to his mother about y/n a lot and she is so excited to meet y/n

She has really high expectations just because of how good they sound but does take in that Shouto is literally in love with them, he’s gonna have slight rose tinted glasses

Yeah their just as good as Todoroki made them out to be

When he told y/n about his childhood (endeavor, his mom, his scar, Dabi…) y/n cried because they felt so bad and cuddled him all day trying to help any way they could

They totally made him go to therapy 😌

Has a written down list of thing they said they like so he can get them one if they feel down

He has literally bought them a cat when they were feeling really down and y/n had to explain that he can’t just go and buy a cat when their feeling bad

They keep it tho don’t worry

He’ll turn off the air conditioning when he wants y/n’s affection

They’ll just come running at him and tackle him so he can warm them up/ cool them down

Expect goodnight texts

Make custom memes about how bad of a parent Endearvor is

Legit the start of Todoroki crushing on them overhearing them tell a friend that they don’t think Endearvor is a good hero/ deserves to be number 1

Once asked All Might to adopt Todoroki (I mean he thought about it for a second before Aizawa told him no)

Todoroki let’s y/n cook stuff on his left side

Deku will just wake up in the morning smelling eggs and think someone’s cooking but find y/n cracking eggs onto Todoroki’s left side

#bnha #Todoroki #todoroki x you #todoroki x reader #mha fluff #mha shouji #shouji x reader #jirou x reader #Sero #sero hanta #sero x reader #bnha tokoyami #tokoyami x reader #mha #my hero x reader

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sheep33hallow · 3 years

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Hey, this is my side blog, so I won't be able to reply on a post or follow with this username.

I do appreciate any reblog, likes or comments I do get <3

So, I can talk through messages or ask. <3

Fandoms:

Naruto, Tokyo Revengers, DC comics, My Hero Academia, Star Wars, Hunter X Hunter

AO3 Profile

My Hero Academia

Please ignore the milkshakes in my yard

Aroace!Bakugou running errands until aromantic!Izuku comes home.

Welcome Home: Shouto/Enji

Shouto wonders if it’s worth it to resist the allure of his Alpha father, Enji

Olive Branch: Bakugou/Deku

Izuku has been with Katsuki for 15 years, he decided it’s time, as an best selling author, to air their dirty laundry about Katsuki’s cheating.

Little Izuku Bakugou/Izuku Part 1 Part 2

They've been dating for a while and Katsuki has been wanting to change Izuku's diaper for a while. Izuku feel like it's finally time to indulge more into their kink together.

Deluxe Apartment in the Sky Bakugou/Izuku

Izuku in his old age was tired of Waiting

Tokyo Revengers (All TakemichixMIkey)

I told you

Takemichi has to make a decision. The best decision for the situation at hand. He decides to leave.

I wear my fur pelts

A sweet Omega named Takemichi, tattoos the face of the Alpha Viking King, Mikey

Big Boy

Mikey finds a use for the in need Cat Hybrid!Takemichi

Pu*sy Talk

MIkey just thinks Takemichi’s p==sy just hits different

So you see me?

Takemichi is a pregnant omega that has a target he likes to stalk and take pictures of

So was it worth it?

Idols Takemichi and Mikey are caught on camera giving a bl*wjob.

I still think about it (2)

Mikey thinks Takemichi’s baby is quite ugly. He thinks he can do a better job than Takemichi’s husband

Tempo

When Takemichi laid sight on those young dark eyes, he didn't expect it to rule his life. He was lost in a sea of making this his priority. He refused to let go of his own free will.

Tag: fluff, angst, underage(Adult! Takemichi messes with some kids and kid!Mikey at times) all consensual

+Read at your own discretion+

Tis the season

Mikey, also known as Krampus, goes to the North Pole on a necessary trip, there he meets a young man named, Takemichi (Inspired by Hades and Persephone)

Oh, Sorry to hear that (ChifuyuxBaji)

Baji wants to be with the love of his life, but there is one thing he has to deal with first.

Sadated (DrakenxMikey)

Draken knew who he was mated too. So his request on a whim shouldn't be much of a surprise.

Batman/Superman SuperBat

Zombie House Husband Clark

As the name suggest.

Entrapment

5+1 Hera!Bruce, Zeus!Clark, 5 times one of Clark’s affairs thought he didn’t care about his Bruce and one time they found out how deep their twisted love is.

Piercings 3

Clark is not a fan of marriage Jon off.

Piercings 2

Clark was not in the mood to be stopped tonight (D**con)

Kiki’s Delivery Service AU

Kiki!Bruce offers a service to a person in need(Under**e)

Piercings 7

Everyone is a hybrid, adoption, Bro++els, under++e

Entrapement Side Story

Clark is reminded why he married Bruce

Death Note AU

UnWind (Entrapment part 3)

Bruce: Giver of Life, lover of people and Queen of the Gods.

NARUTO

Bad days to Knot Exist (KakashixIruka)

Who said bea___ality is outdated

Eyes, Nose Lips (NaruSasu)

(All the parts are not currently on Tumblr but is on AO3)

Yakuza!Naruto wants to kill Sasuke’s mate to claim him as his own.

Part 1

Double Rainbow

Soulmates find each when you pee on them.

Friends with Money

Geisha!Sasuke has another visit from his favorite customer, Naruto. This visit goes different than planned.

Peek a Boo (1) (2) (3)

Naruto and Sasuke are exes who are co-parenting their child, Menma. Something dangerous brings them back together.

Who’s there, ShikaNeji (Peek A Boo Spinoff) (1) (2) (3) (4)

Divorced Father, Shikamaru gets involved with a very self assured, Beta named Neji

Twist and Duck

Naruto likes Sasuke to be his buddy on the ice when a fight happens. His personal support rival, if you will.

Action Speaks

HUNTER X HUNTER

We Can(IllumixHisoka)

Illumi and Hisoka living domestically.

Killua is shocked by the household he has moved into.

I work the night shift (IllumixHisoka, KuroKura) Part 2

Kurapika finds out that he is pregnant from his long term fuck buddy, Kuroro

Pastels

To understand his husband better, Illumi studies Lolita and Lolita fashion

DEMON SLAYER/ KIMETSU NO YAIBA

Temptation owns a dog(AkazaXKyoujuro)

Akaza is confused by his friend, Kyourou’s behavior

I’m hooked and I can’t stop staring(ZenitsuXTengen)

Zenitsu wonders why no one believes him when he say Tengen is a pervert.

Was it more than a chance?(ZenitsuXTengen) Ch1, Ch2, Ch3 Ch4 CH5

Zenitsu is enjoying his dating lifestyle and hopes it will continue to be more one day, but right now all he needs is Tengen to keep his unnecessary commentary to himself.

You Can Have That (SanemiXGiyuu) Rating: G

BLACK PANTHER

Sterilize my Mate (1) (2)

Omegas cannot get sterilized unless they have their Alphas permission, T’Challa ask his best friend, Erik to pose as his Alpha to get his request granted. Erik is in love with T’Challa, so this is a challenge for him

JUJUTSU KAISEN

Decisions and Destinations (1)

SukuIta: During a zombie apocalypse, brothers Sukuna and Itadori's heat and ruts linked up creating a new life. Now they are trying to figure out what the next step is for them (Alpha!Sukuna, Omega!Itadori

Dexter (SukaIta) (1)

SUPERNATURAL

Talk Shop (Wincest) ABO, Post Mpreg

"Why's our baby so fat?"

"Because you used me like a cum dump, and it went all into this creature."

SlapStick Skeleton (Wincest) Fondling

Sam saw a pretty thing try to walk past him.

Brothercore (Wincest)

Dean was feeling aches while on vacation.

Use the #sheep33hallow if you want to find my writing.

For my ASK #sheep33hallowask

#my writing #Sheep33Hallow #my writings #fanfiction #hunter x hunter #sasunaru #bakudeku #hisoillu #mitake #superbat

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allgirlsareprincesses · 4 years

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The Death of Love and the Lonely Soul: Eros and Psyche in a Post-TROS World

This is the first of my follow-up posts to my series on Folktale Types in Star Wars, focusing on how the Sequel Trilogy retells (or fails to retell) the Eros and Psyche myth, and the potential psychological implications for our culture. This essay will frequently reference my original Reylo as Eros and Psyche post, though I will also occasionally refer to my other Search for the Lost Husband posts (2) (3) (4), so please consider reading those before diving in here.

To explain why I had a great deal of confidence in TROS being a classic happy ending to a Search for the Lost Husband tale (ATU 425), I have to share a little bit of what I learned about how folklorists view these tale types. A century ago, the popular theory about why myths and folktales were so similar all over the world was evolutionary: it assumed there was one origin tale, and that as humans traveled, they would carry the story with them and it would be retold and adapted by other cultures. This suggested there was one ancestral tale from which all the others developed, which accounted for the recurrence of the story’s basic plot and motifs.

Since then, however, advancements in anthropological research and the increasing appreciation for folklore in the study of human psychology has debunked the old evolutionary theory. It was discovered that cultures and societies existing at the same time in history, on opposite sides of the globe and which could have had no possible contact with one another, still told the same tale types with the same motifs. Details might be changed, but every culture had animal husband tales, or animal bride tales, and so on. This led to the now widely-accepted idea that universal human psychology accounts for the similarity in folktales. Basically, all humans tell each other the same stories because we all wrestle with the same fundamental truths, challenges, and transitions. This is why the swan maiden tales can be traced to male anxiety over sexual performance or the prospect of losing a wife in childbirth, or why animal husband tales can be traced to female power fantasies of taming a mate in a patriarchal society.

Based on all this, I assumed that even if Terrio and Abrams made a typically vapid modern action flick, they’d still hit all of the main beats of the Eros and Psyche myth because that’s what would come naturally to them. Obviously, Beauty’s love will return the Beast to his human form. Obviously, Psyche will complete her journey from child to adult and take her place as the true or metaphorical mother to the next generation. Obviously, they will end the story united for eternity to signify the end of the galaxy-wide conflict and the beginning of the true peace so long sought by the heroes of the Skywalker Saga.

While this was true to a limited extent in The Rise of Skywalker, several of the reveals and the final moments of the film not only departed dramatically from the structure of the Search for the Lost Husband myth, but the movie even fails to align with the commonly more sorrowful Quest for the Lost Bride. In a cruel and baffling twist, the story erases its hero and returns its heroine to childhood in a barren underworld. There is, frankly, no historical folktale I can find that matches this pattern. Even stories featuring preadolescent children are about disassociation from parental figures, not deeper dependence. (Note: Marie-Claire and Ty Black of What The Force and Wit and Folly have done some exploration of how TROS reflects the so-called “American Monomyth.” This is a valid interpretation but for the purposes of this analysis, I’m continuing to use stories more commonly recognized by the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification of folktales.)

Rey’s Regression and Psyche’s Tasks

As a quick refresher of where we stood in alignment with the myth by the end of The Last Jedi, Rey is the mortal woman Psyche, and her force powers are akin to Psyche’s beauty in the myth. Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is god of desire Eros, Psyche’s husband and the son of god of war Ares and goddess of love Aphrodite. In Star Wars, it is the Dark Side and dark force users who play the part of Aphrodite herself, attempting to control Ben Solo and jealous of the powerful Rey. The symbolic marriage of the lovers has unmistakably occurred multiple times, but when Rey attempts to force Ben into the light and to accept his true identity, he recoils and they are separated. She has broken the taboo of seeing his true self, and so her animal bridegroom has fled to the safety of the Dark Side, or “his mother’s house.” Finally, all of Rey’s illusions, help, and protections have been stripped away, so she must now learn how to rely on herself to obtain what she desires. When Rey discovers her own worth, independent of anyone else, she will achieve womanhood. When Ben Solo accepts his full humanity, both dark and light, he will achieve manhood. Together, they will reach adulthood.

At the beginning of TROS, we may already suspect some trouble. Rey seems to have regressed to a childlike dependence on mentors, being trained as a Jedi by Leia in an attempt to “earn” Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, even though she has used it without permission for two movies so far. Given the saber’s symbolic role as a phallic motif, this also suggests sexual repression or another reversion to a childlike state, especially considering the sexual awakening Rey experienced in TLJ. Ben, meanwhile, has also regressed to a dogged commitment to the dark side, seeking to remove any “threat to his power.” Still, there is time for the couple to recover their lost ground and achieve maturation in the course of the film.

In Apelius’ tale, the enraged Aphrodite confronts Eros about his marriage to Psyche:

“What! Is it she - the usurper of my beauty, the vicar of my name?…. Whereas thou shouldst have vexed my enemy with loathsome love, thou hast done contrary. Being but of tender and unripe years thou hast with too licentious appetite embraced my most mortal foe, to whom I shall be made a mother, and she a daughter. Thou presumest and thinkest that thou art most worthy and excellent, and that I am not able by reason of my age to have another son; which if I might have, thou shouldst well understand that I would bear a more worthier than thee. But to work thee a greater despite, I do determine to adopt one of my servants, and to give him these wings, this fire, this bow and these arrows, and all other furniture which I gave to thee -- not for this purpose, neither is anything given thee of thy father for this intent, but thou hast been evil brought up and instructed in thy youth.”

If we are to say that Palpatine fulfills the role of Aphrodite in this story, then a few things stand out: One is that Palpatine (and Snoke, given that they are one in the same) views Kylo Ren as a failure, recognizing his feelings for Rey. Darth Sidious sees Rey as a threat, and is both jealous and fearful of her power, of being “usurped” by her. Further, though it is not immediately clear that Palpatine intends to replace Kylo with Rey as his new host, it does become evident through the course of the story that he wants only revenge on Ben Solo. This idea of replacing Ben with Rey, though characterized as a Dark Side concept at first, becomes especially tragic later in the film when it seems that the Skywalkers have done exactly that. Finally, there is the affirmation that Ben “has been evil brought up and instructed in [his] youth,” when Palpatine tells him that he has been “every voice inside [his] head.” This suggests that Ben/Eros is evil as he has been raised that way from childhood, removing a degree of culpability for his nature.

Still seeking her lost husband, Psyche seeks out Aphrodite herself, who drags her by the hair as her maidens, Sorrow and Sadness, abuse and torment Psyche with whips and rods. The cruel goddess then gives her wretched daughter-in-law the first of her impossible tasks, demanding that Psyche sort a pile of grains and seeds in a single night. Though Psyche completes this task and a further two (gathering the golden fleece from vicious rams and collecting water from the mouth of the River Styx), she often despairs of success, twice attempting to fling herself into a raging river to escape her agony.

In TROS, Rey is similarly tormented by loneliness, as she tells Finn that she fears no one knows her. Though she meets with success in most of her efforts to chase down the film’s several McGuffins, she also seems to despair and give up more than once, most notably when she flees the scene of her oceanic battle with Ben on the ruins of the Death Star.

As for the tasks themselves, these appear differently in variations of the Search for the Lost Husband, but usually involve the heroine questing for her lost love, collecting objects and accepting help from various magical figures on her journey. By contrast, Rey does not seem to really seek Ben at all throughout TROS, as she consistently rejects him and is the aggressor in all of their confrontations. Though she collects objects and accepts help from other characters, including Force Ghost Luke, this assistance is always intended to help her defeat Palpatine, not recover Ben. I could come up with some tortured analogies between Rey’s mini-quests and Psyche’s labors, but truthfully I think those would be forced as the movie departed farther and farther from the mythological framework.

The Death Star Fight and the Revival of the Prince

Still, other aspects of the ATU 425 folktale type are distinctively present. Just as the Beast repeatedly asks Beauty for her hand in marriage, so Kylo Ren repeatedly asks Rey to join him on the Dark Side. With the words “take my hand,” this is explicitly presented as a proposal of romantic union, and just like Beauty, Rey repeatedly refuses, particularly as Kylo clings to his beastly form in the repaired mask. This brings us to the sequence which is on the one hand most aligned with the myth, and on the other hand serves as the most ominous sign of the lovers’ eventual fates: the confrontation on the Death Star.

The problem with this scene is that it can be interpreted as two different pivotal moments in the folktale. Firstly, recall that the turning point in the Search for the Lost Husband is the breaking of the taboo and concurrent wounding of the enchanted husband: The heroine, armed with “flame and steel,” attempts to look upon her husband’s true form. In some variations, she intends to kill him if she discovers a monster. However, when she finds a handsome prince instead, she is stricken with love and accidentally wounds him with hot oil or wax, signifying her perceived betrayal. Though we have already seen this in the previous films (in Rey’s slashing of Kylo’s face on Starkiller and again with her calling him by his true name in the flaming throne room of the Supremacy), it seems that this event is playing itself out yet again. Using Kylo’s own lightsaber (flame and steel), Rey stabs him with a mortal wound even as she is reminded of his true identity through the sensation of Leia’s death. Not only would it be odd to repeat the breaking of the taboo yet again in this story, but instead of the husband fleeing as he typically does at this point in the Search for the Lost Husband, it is Rey, the bride, who flees.

The other event that frequently occurs in this tale type is the revival or healing of the prince. And indeed, this is exactly what happens in the Death Star scene. Rey’s stabbing of Kylo Ren, though in my opinion out of character, is consistent with the violent means some folktale heroines use to transform their beastly husbands. For example, in The Princess and the Frog, she throws her amphibian suitor against a wall, causing him to retake his princely form. Other brides burn their husbands’ beastly skins, forcing them to remain human evermore. As I’ve said before, Kylo’s lightsaber is symbolic fire in Star Wars, so Rey stabbing him with it is akin to burning his beastly skin, forcing him to again become Ben Solo. It also can be considered the moment that she makes a blood sacrifice to recover him. Then, still surrounded by water (Rey’s element throughout the trilogy and also associated with healing and cleansing), our heroine heals the prince of all his wounds, including the scar she had previously given him. This is absolutely consistent with many folktales, among them Pajaro Verde and The Ballad of Tam Lin.

Further, Rey’s healing of Ben is a callback to her healing of the alien serpent she found wounded on Pasaana, a shockingly unsubtle analogy for Ben. In Apelius’ narrative, Eros himself is sometimes referred to as a serpent, and it is very common in other animal husband tales for the prince to marry his bride in the form of a serpent, as in the Italian tale The Enchanted Snake. This is usually interpreted to be a fairly obvious phallic symbol, representing the heroine’s sexual initiation or in this instance, simply the masculine power to the heroine’s feminine. We have previously heard Rey refer to Ben as a “treacherous snake,” so it’s obvious that her healing of both the snake and Ben himself is her healing the Wounded Masculine. Finally, Rey tells him she “wanted to take [his] hand, Ben Solo’s hand,” which is again a seemingly direct reference to Beauty finally agreeing to marry the Beast in order to bring him back from death.

Despite the close alignment of this scene with the revival motif in the Search for the Lost Husband, there is one glaring issue: that event always occurs at the END of the story. The revival of the prince is the final step in the searching bride’s journey, when she claims him as her true husband by drawing him back from death or a similarly dark fate. It is a testament to her power and her love, and it demonstrates the final transformation of the prince and his worthiness of his bride. It is most definitely NOT common for the bride to again flee after reviving her lover. Again, despite the fact that Abrams and Terrio are (likely unintentionally) using many classic ATU 425 motifs, the reordering of them is disorienting and unsettling.

Rey in the Underworld

Psyche’s final task in her story is to descend to the Underworld to gather a little bit of Persephone’s beauty for the jealous Aphrodite. Despairing of any way to get there and return safely, Psyche prepares to kill herself, but Eros speaks to her through an enchanted tower, instructing her to use certain objects to pass safely. He also tells her not to eat any food of the underworld, nor to open the box of beauty Queen Persephone gives her, or else she will not return. Psyche follows all of these instructions carefully, until she has nearly completed her task, and the temptation of opening the casket is just too great. She opens it thinking to take just a little beauty to please Eros, but inside she finds only the Stygian Sleep of the dead, and she falls down lifeless. Eros immediately flies to her side and wipes the deathly sleep from her eyes, reviving her and taking her in his arms. He then appeals to Zeus, who agrees to make Psyche immortal so that she and Eros can never be separated.

In TROS, the underworld is the planet Exogol, where lurks the personification of the Dark Side, Darth Sidious. In Star Wars, power is analogous to the beauty that is so coveted in the Greek myth, so the characters are all drawn to Exogol in a final struggle for ultimate power. Like Psyche, Rey has a moment of despair when she exiles herself on Ahch-To, thinking that she cannot possibly defeat the Dark Side. Oddly, instead of Ben Solo speaking to her through the Force Bond, which would more closely follow the myth, the person encouraging Rey in this moment is Luke Skywalker, her erstwhile reluctant mentor. He does indeed give her special objects to help her pass into Exogol (the lightsabers and his miraculously-preserved X-wing) and he advises her to confront her fears.

Another way to interpret this scene is as yet another instance of the heroine returning home to her suspicious family, where they poison her mind against her beastly lover. In Eros and Psyche, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, Pajaro Verde, Beauty and the Beast, and many others, there is always a moment when the heroine goes home to her family and receives dangerous advice warning her against trusting her husband, or attempting to keep her longer than she promised. I’ve argued before that this already happened in TLJ with Luke, when he repeatedly warned her away from her own dark side and from Ben Solo. Yet, it seems we again tread over familiar ground, with Rey’s flight to Ahch-To in TROS appearing as another regression of her character.

Rey flies to Exogol and attempts her final task, which is to defeat Palpatine. When he threatens her friends, she agrees to kill him in order to become empress (I really can’t type this nonsense with a straight face), which will make her the heir of death itself. Then, transformed Ben Solo comes charging in heroically to save his love, unwilling to let her face her final trial alone. Unfortunately, Palpatine sucks the life force from both lovers without much difficulty, then chucks poor Ben off a cliff. Rey is forced to defeat Sidious without her soulmate, though apparently a bunch of Jedi she doesn’t know are happy to give her a pep talk and make her “all the Jedi.” After finally destroying(?) Palpatine, she then inexplicably drops dead. Like Psyche, Rey has completed the final task but also taken the contents of the box (in this case, the power of “all the Jedi”) for herself, and as she is mortal, it is too much for her and she dies.

Just like Eros, Ben claws his way to his fallen lover’s side and gathers her in his arms, determined to retrieve her from death. Alive again, Rey calls Ben by his true name and professes her love in a passionate kiss. But whereas Eros then makes his soulmate immortal so that they can never be parted, Ben’s revival of her results in his own death, and the couple is again separated. Though redundant, it would be consistent with the folktale pattern for Rey to resurrect her prince in this moment. Instead, we see his body fade away, with no indication that our heroine clearly understands what has happened or really cares.

In each version of the Search for the Lost Husband, the heroine is a mortal woman who wins the love of a prince or even a god, and her final reward is to be elevated to royalty, or to immortality. Psyche becomes a goddess in her own right, dwells in the heavens, and gives birth to a daughter named Joy. Eros and Psyche, Desire and Soul, when united produce Joy.

But Rey is not united with Ben, in the end. In fact, with a royal heritage of her own, she doesn’t really need to be elevated any more. You could argue that she claims a more elevated title when she takes the Skywalker name as her own, but she still ends up alone, with only ghosts of someone else’s parents and her robot familiar for company. Rather than ascending to a throne or to the heavens, she literally descends into a ruin, a literal graveyard, in a barren wasteland. Her mythical husband is nowhere to be found, and there is no hope for a child. In a cruel and bizarre twist, TROS tells a fairly faithful final chapter of Eros and Psyche, only to strip its heroine of all she has sought in the last moment, leaving her bereft. And yet, the filmmakers dressed this as a happy ending.

TROS as an Allegory of the Lost Soul

Given how frequently the Eros and Psyche tale is used as a basis for psychoanalytic theory, what implications might this film have when viewed through that lens? In Jungian psychology, the human psyche can only achieve individuation - the knowing of oneself as a separate and unique person - if it can be separated and differentiated from the uroboric figures of parents, siblings, and mentors. Eventually, the repressed Shadow must be integrated into the Self in order for one to be a whole and healthy adult.

Within this framework, Psyche is a human soul trapped in a state of unconscious, lacking knowledge of her Shadow and therefore lacking agency. Eros is the Shadow, a collection of repressed desires which Psyche both fears and desires to claim. Her act of heroism is that same wielding of lamp and knife where she faces the truth, strips away her own illusions, and sees her Shadow for what he truly is. Psyche’s refusal to continue living a lie, and her subsequent pursuit of her desires leads her to achieve individuation signified in the product of alchemical union, Joy.

Up until the events of TROS, both Rey and Ben Solo were on this journey. Rey was trapped in a state of childlike unconscious in the graveyard of Jakku, having repressed the dark memories of the parents who abandoned her. In TFA, things tended to happen to her, but she rarely drove the action of the story herself. However, at the end of TLJ, she separated herself from the influence of uroboric mentor Luke and pursued Ben Solo, determined to truly see and claim her dark desires. With flame and steel, she stripped away the dark mask around him, but he also forced her to admit the truth about her parents to herself. Ben Solo, her animus, the projection of Rey’s unconscious, stood before her and forced her to bring what she had repressed into her conscious reality. Only then could Rey “let the past die,” separate herself from her parents, and “become what [she was] meant to be.”

Mirroring her journey, Ben was also trapped in a state of unconscious in the underworld of the Dark Side, having repressed his inclinations to the Light and to reconciliation with his family. His effort at separating himself from the influence of his mentors had a false start at first, as he mistakenly believed that he needed to “let the past die,” separating himself from his family and from the Light. With flame and steel, Ben killed his father, but to his horror, he realized that this did not rid him of his deepest desires. In TLJ, he got a second chance to separate himself from the controlling mentor by killing Snoke. Had he at that time faced his desire for the Light and acknowledged his true identity, he too would have been closer to individuation. Ben’s anima, Rey, stood before him calling him by the true name he had repressed and begging him not to stay in the Dark.

From this basis, we might assume that Rey, freed from illusions, would pursue her wayward Shadow in an attempt to integrate him. Ben, only a few steps behind, might finally accept his identity and his desire for love and affection, unite with Rey, and they would both achieve individuation, rewarded with Joy. In fact, for Ben Solo, most of this story does indeed occur in TROS. When Rey heals him and declares that she did want to take Ben’s hand, he is forced to finally face and accept his true identity. He then projects a memory of Han Solo, representing his repressed desire for the love of family, and he reconciles with himself. He then pursues his desires by running to Rey’s rescue, finally freed to act according to his own wishes. Does he manage to truly unite with her and achieve joy, though? More on that in a minute.

Rey, for her part, suddenly undergoes a regression into her unconscious state. Rather than becoming a unique and separate person, she again defers to mentors, training with Leia and claiming that she will “earn” Luke’s lightsaber. Consider that by the same point in his own journey, Luke was specifically defying the advice of his mentors, Yoda and Obi-Wan, who were advising him to kill his father and bury his feelings. They were of course proven wrong by the narrative, and Luke was validated. As the hero of her story and as a human psyche on its way to individuation, Rey should have separated herself from her mentors and the story should have validated her unique strengths and perspective. Instead, Rey’s success and heroism DEPEND on Luke and Leia, even to the end. In many ways, she is an avatar of her mentors more than a heroine in her own right.

The other way in which Rey regresses is in her discovery of her true parentage, as she is forced again to consider her identity as a child, an extension of the parents who (supposedly) loved her and the grandfather who might be the true source of her darkness. Recall that the action that launches Psyche’s journey into consciousness is a refusal to continue living a lie. Rey achieved this step in TLJ when Ben forced her to admit the truth to herself about her parents. Though it was painful and led to the loss of her lover just as with Psyche, it was necessary for Rey for understand that she could forge her own identity without relying on the false family she had built in her mind.

In TROS, not only is she unable to differentiate her identity from her mentors, she now has multiple new parental figures to contend with. Having accepted the truth of her deadbeat nobody parents and the losses of Han and Luke (and eventually Leia), she must now reconcile with loving somebody parents as well as having a grandfather who is basically the Satan of the Galaxy Far Far Away. Further, it seems she has been training herself to contact the spirits of many Jedi who have passed into the Force, all of whom also constitute mentors or parental figures. Rather than discovering how she is unique and what she might want in her adulthood, Rey is positively drowning in parents against whom she is derivative, still just a child.

Still, all of those parental figures are dead or die in this movie, which is traditionally one way that mythical children separate themselves from their mentors in coming-of-age tales. Theoretically, there should have been time for Rey to discover who she is apart from all these characters, decide she wanted something different out of her life, and then pursue and achieve it as heroines do. Unfortunately, we never see that happen in this film. At every point in her TROS journey, Rey is doing what a mentor instructed her to do. She’s following Leia’s guidance, or Luke’s guidance, or Palpatine’s…. In the end, it is Luke who is validated by the narrative, not Rey. She brings nothing new or unique to the galaxy, nor does she seem to have intense desires that would oppose what these mentors want for her. Yes, she did want to take Ben Solo’s hand, but she’s not on a mission to save him and she barely reacts when he gets tossed down a pit. Unlike Luke, who was determined to save Vader in spite of what everyone told him, Rey meekly follows her elders like a good girl.

In The Myth of the Birth of the Hero, Otto Rank says:

"The detachment of the growing individual from the authority of the parents is one of the most necessary, but also one of the most painful achievements of evolution. It is absolutely necessary for this detachment to take place, and it may be assumed that all normal grown individuals have accomplished it to a certain extent. Social progress is essentially based upon this opposition between the two generations. On the other hand, there exists a class of neurotics whose condition indicates that they have failed to solve this very problem."

Others have pointed out that Rey’s failure to reach full sexual maturity is also demonstrative of this problem, as evidenced by her virginal white ensemble, tight childlike buns after the soft long hair of TLJ, and loss of her intended mate at the end of the story. Rey’s journey to womanhood has been arrested in every way, but the ultimate illustration of this tragic regression is her slide down the sand when she arrives on Tatooine. To so perfectly mirror her childlike introduction on Jakku, without any reference to the later experiences that drove her toward adulthood…. It frankly suggests nothing so much as a psychotic break. In Jungian terms, Rey has been unable to break from the uroboros or collective unconscious, or to integrate her Shadow. In the loss of Ben Solo, she was unable to embrace her desires, and in taking the Skywalker name, she again lies to herself about her identity, repressing her connection to Palpatine and choosing instead a false family just as she did back on Jakku. Rather than the soul finding its way into consciousness, it is forever lost in the vast unconscious.

In a sense, Rey was not really revived after retrieving power from the Underworld after all, because she is metaphorically dead at the end of her story, just as she was metaphorically dead at its beginning. Living in the Imperial graveyard on Jakku, she had survived by remaining necessarily focused on herself. At the end of her story, she seems again focused inwardly, retreating from the galaxy and her friends, with no need to compromise or give of herself in a loving relationship with her soulmate. In Love and the Soul: Psychological Interpretations of The Eros & Psyche Myth, James Gollnick writes:

“Neumann interprets the beauty ointment which Psyche must fetch from the underworld as the eternal youth of death, the ‘barren frigid beauty of mere maidenhood, without love for a man, as exacted by the matriarchate.’ He sees in this deathlike sleep the pull of narcissism which would regress Psyche from the woman who loved Eros back to the maiden lost in the narcissistic love of herself. (Bettelheim also calls attention to the narcissistic state symbolized by Psyche alone in Eros’ magical palace, see The Uses of Enchantment.)”

This is to say that conjugal love, or a love that is physical as well as spiritual, is the ultimate form of self-gift. Though the sacrifice of one’s life is an admirable expression of love, it is inferior because it creates death, whereas the giving of self in an intimate embrace creates life. Hence, Eros and Psyche’s union created Joy. Has Rey found joy by the end of her journey? Or is she expected to be content with only power and the name that declares that power? And as for Ben, he has vanished completely. As Eros, he is dead and unable to be united with his Psyche. Though transformed from beast into man, Love is eternally separated from Soul.

When the Lost Husband Stays Lost

This might be a passable interpretation of the Sequel Trilogy, but it’s fair to ask the question: were we wrong? Was this ever a Search for the Lost Husband story, or did we simply see what we wanted to see in the tale? Indulging deeply in a Death of the Author approach to interpretation, I argue strongly that this was always a variation of ATU 425, because not only were all the pieces in place from the beginning, but the Sequel Trilogy was thematically the perfect inverse of ATU 400, the Quest for the Lost Bride, which was very clearly the story of the Prequel Trilogy. Further, many a mythical husband’s failed quest is actually the prelude to his bride’s successful search, as historical myths often start with the loss of the fairy wife only to switch perspectives to the feminine and have her successfully retrieve her lost husband. To the extent that Star Wars draws on the collective unconscious that produces these myths, I believe the parallels are unmistakable.

Still, these are films released by a corporation within a very distinct culture, the product of a particular time and place. They cannot be separated from the realities of the 21st Century America that produced them. This is why a deeper exploration of the American Monomyth is likely necessary to truly understand how TROS came to be. However, even within worldwide mythology, there are isolated examples of Lost Husband stories in which the bride does not retrieve her husband, or in which the couple remains separated by the end of the story.

One of the most notable examples of these tragedies is the Lohengrin Saga, a Germanic romance made popular by Richard Wagner’s opera. In it, Elsa, the Duchess of Brabant, is accused of murdering her brother, her case to be decided by trial by combat. When her accusers ask her who her champion will be, she tells them of a knight who has appeared to her in dreams. In answer to her prayers, her dream knight appears in a boat drawn by a swan, then agrees to be her champion under the condition that she never ask his true identity or origin. The swan knight wins the contest and marries Elsa, but before they are able to consummate their union, she asks him the forbidden question. Though he knows it will separate them forever, the knight cannot deny his love her request, and he admits to her that he is Lohengrin, Grail Knight and son of King Parzival. The laws of the Holy Grail say the Knights must remain anonymous, and if their identity is revealed, they must return home. Lohengrin leaves in the same boat in which he came, and Elsa dies of grief.

Many of the parallels should be instantly apparent: just as Kylo Ren often appears to Rey in visions, dreams, or in a dream-like state, so the Swan Knight first appeared to Elsa. As I stated in my Swan Maiden post, this means Kylo Ren is Rey’s incubus, or her dream lover and avatar of all her dark sexual fantasies. Just as the swan knight refuses to reveal his identity, so Kylo Ren declares that Ben Solo is dead and he is a monster. Further, the knight is a descendent of a powerful family, indeed one with mystical or holy origins given their association with the Grail. The last son of the Skywalker family, Ben Solo is even the great-grandson of the Force itself, with both royalty and magical power in his lineage. After several symbolic marriage encounters between Rey and her bond-mate, she insists on calling him by his true name and trying to force him to turn to the light, which constitutes the breaking of the taboo. After finally acknowledging his true identity and becoming Ben Solo once more, our hero is drawn away into death, his bride left to a sort of living death as a virgin on a dead world.

Though the story of Lohengrin predated the opera, Wagner crafted his version to explicitly reference the Greek myth of Zeus and Semele:

“Who doesn't know ‘Zeus and Semele?’ The god is in love with a human woman and approaches her in human form. The lover finds that she cannot recognize the god in this form, and demands that he should make the real sensual form of his being known. Zeus knows that she would be destroyed by the sight of his real self. He suffers in this awareness, suffers knowing that he must fulfill this demand and in doing so ruin their love. He will seal his own doom when the gleam of his godly form destroys his lover. Is the man who craves for God not destroyed?”

This too has parallels with the Sequel Trilogy couple, in particular with the woman demanding the god show himself in his “real sensual form.” As many have pointed out, Rey desired Ben completely…. His heart, mind, soul, and body. Having him with her in corporeal form mattered so much to her that the Force facilitated their touch across the galaxy, and she promptly shipped herself to him so that she could be physically with him, despite the risk to her. It is for this reason that I reject the interpretation of the ending of TROS that says because Ben and Rey are a dyad, his soul is with her when he dies. No, his loss is complete, and the fact that his body is gone is a tragedy. Were the living body not important, he would not have given his own life to save Rey’s. Absent any other visual or dialogue cues in the finale, it’s reasonable to assume that Ben’s separation from his soulmate is total.

In her book on swan maiden tales, author Barbara Fass Leavy points out that the taboos imposed on mythical husbands are different than those imposed on mythical wives. Men, for example, are most often prohibited from abusing their fairy brides, while women are prohibited from looking upon their fairy husbands or knowing their true identity. Leavy states: “In general, taboos imposed on the wife in Cupid and Psyche tales are often intended to keep her in her place, to prevent her from achieving some autonomy by knowing who her husband is, seeing him, or being able to disclose his identity to others.” Both taboos admit to an inherent imbalance in the relationship, and while husbands are instructed not to abuse their power, women are told not to challenge their husbands’ power or attempt to achieve a more balanced marriage.

Now the issue for Rey becomes clear: if she is to be her husband’s equal, then she cannot accept him as the unknowable Kylo Ren. He must become Ben Solo, fully-known and her equal in all things. This way, Rey claims her power and balance can be achieved both for the lovers and for the Force itself. Unfortunately, the creators seem to have overcorrected. They wanted Rey alone to be the ultimate hero of the Sequel Trilogy, but as long as a male Skywalker was on the board, they apparently thought he would overshadow her. It seems that the writers believed the man having power in a relationship is the natural state of heterosexual unions, a point made clear by their obsession with patriarchal lineage. So, rather than give the lovers an Eros and Psyche ending as equals, they removed the man from the equation to allow Rey to be the only hero and Skywalker, effectively punishing both of them for breaking the taboo and acknowledging Ben Solo’s true identity. When the lost husband is not found, this represents a narrative judgement on the mythical bride: she has challenged male authority, and so her heart’s desire is stripped away.

Lastly, Leavy also points out that most Beauty and the Beast tales involve a passing of the bride from father to husband, and that many animal groom stories can be interpreted as the bride learning to accept her new husband’s authority. If then the husband is eternally lost rather than found, custody of the bride logically reverts to her father. TROS contains numerous father figures for Rey: there is Luke, Palpatine’s son, and Palpatine himself. Rather than focusing on her mythical husband, our heroine seems to be questioning throughout the film to which father she truly belongs. In the end, she rejects her biological father and grandfather and loses her lover, then takes the name of her only remaining male authority figure, Luke Skywalker. Once again, Rey’s regression to a child is made clear and the myth structure utterly broken.

Conclusion: Star Wars and the Lost Children

Star Wars has always been a story of lost children. First it was Luke, then his sister Leia. Later, we learned of Anakin’s childhood, and finally Ben and Rey’s (to say nothing of other characters like Jyn, Ezra, Din Djarin….). We understood it to be a coming-of-age story in which these lonely children resolved their traumas and made adult choices. Those choices might have had sorrowful consequences, but the overall theme of the story has always been hope, so we knew there was always a chance for redemption, for the lost children to be welcomed home. Sadly, The Rise of Skywalker has deeply undermined that message. Mythologically, psychologically, and symbolically, Ben and especially Rey have reverted to childhood. They are both alone, separated from their families and prevented from forming a new family to provide hope for the future. Whereas the union of Eros and Psyche, Love and Soul, produced Joy, there is no union for Ben and Rey, and no Joy. I truly hope that in the future, Star Wars creators find a way to remedy this pandemic of lost children.

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blxckdamask · 5 years

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Trashcan’s Fic Rec

So since it's the end of May, I thought it would be nice to rec some of my favourite fics I've read throughout the month. Most of these are BNHA since that's what I’m into now lmao. I’m doing this instead of writing the 5 fics I have planned and I havent posted in like 3 weeks oops.

Bakudeku Fics:

Izuku and Katsuki, better known to the world as the Wonder Duo: Deku and Kacchan. The married hero couple finally adopted their first child together, a bouncing baby boy. Luckily, they're on paternity leave for one year (thank god), so they can bond with their son as much as possible. They're going to be the best damn daddies and go beyond PLUS ULTRA!

Alternatively titled: The Entire Goddamn School Gives Up On Trying To Understand These Two & Aizawa is Really Tired.

Izuku and Bakugou had a long and complicated history, but most of the school was pretty sure that they understood where the two currently stood as rivals. Then Izuku's dad showed up on campus and everyone's preconceptions were mercilessly thrown out the window. In which Bakugou tries to murder a man, has a soft side and convinces his entire class the twilight zone is real.

Ft. Part 2: Turns out Izuku and Bakugou will work together willingly if given proper motivation. Endeavor showing up for a training exercise apparently qualifies. Aizawa is really tired of these children not asking for help and everyone else is absolutely terrified (and secretly very glad these two don't work together more often).

In complete honesty, no one who knows the Class 3-A should be surprised anymore. Izuku is asleep.

In which Izuku is hit by a ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Quirk, Class 3-A tries to find his True Love and get them to kiss him, and Katsuki’s very angry about it all.

Izuku is hospitalized after a nasty fight. Katsuki finally visits.

In which Izuku worries that his and Katsuki’s relationship has become too domestic, and Katsuki proves him right. Not that either of them are complaining.

Todobaku Fics:

Everytime his doorbell rings at 3am, Todoroki knows exactly who is it.

Bakugou brings home a stray box full of kittens for his and Shouto’s one year anniversary.

Shouto’s eyes light up in a way that rivals every star in the galaxy, and the past year falls to pieces. “You’re Katsuki.”

With staggered breath, he replies, “You remember me?”

“Of course I do,” Shouto says, “You’re my boyfriend.”

---

Todoroki Shouto gets amnesia and remembers only two things: 1) his name, and 2) that he's dating Bakugou Katsuki.

The only problem is, they broke up a year ago.

“Katsuki, your soulmate is someone who will always be by your side. They will be someone who completes you. Together, you will make an unstoppable force.”

AU where Bakugou and Todoroki are soulmates and Bakugou is in denial.

Shouto is looking at the damn vent like he’s about to make a break for it. “It’s not, um, what it looks-” “It’s exactly what it looks like,” Katsuki cuts across, his voice losing its bite. Shouto flinches, and silence spreads between them like the frost on Shouto’s fingers.

- - -

Shouto Todoroki and Katsuki Bakugo are tired of their marriage.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not letting you go. I quite like being in my own body.” Todoroki's next breath comes out icy cold, and Katsuki leans as far back as their joint hands will allow.

“Are you fucking hearing yourself?” he sputters, feeling heat crawl up his neck to his ears.

(or: bakugou and todoroki get hit by a body swap quirk, and physical contact seems to be the only answer to their predicament)

The first time Bakugou told Todoroki he was in love with him, he thought he’d die.

“What would their relationship have been like, if Bakugou’s pride hadn’t stood in the way? Would they have been friends, or would things have mostly stayed the same? Would Bakugou have been happier, more open and honest about his feelings and wants and needs as a person? Would he have accepted and even appreciated the comfort others offered him, rather than always keeping people at arm’s-length in an effort to maintain an image of independence and strength?

Todoroki didn’t know.

He didn’t know. But he wanted to.

Abruptly, like a bolt of lightning, he realized he actually had the chance to find out.”

(Or: that one where Bakugou has temporary amnesia and Todoroki is tasked with caring for him until his memory returns, but ends up falling in love with the part of Bakugou that Bakugou has always kept hidden away instead.)

“English tea, right?” He asked. The man in front of him stared, unsure of how to interact with the handsome, blonde man. This, of course, annoyed Bakugou. “Speak, moron.” He said harsher. Todoroki continued looking at him. He probably doesn’t speak sign language. He reached towards the left end of the counter and grabbed a paper menu. Searching quickly, Todoroki found the English tea, and pointed to it.

Kacchako Fics:

Her hands found his. She breathed out. Her breath smelled like Listerine, it made Katsuki wrinkle his nose at her.

“I’m pregnant.”

Katsuki’s eyes widened and he stared at her, his mouth opening. “Oh shit. Shit, whoa, okay, wow.” His hands unclasped from hers and traveled down to her stomach. “Ochako, wow.” Not even an hour ago he was convinced his girlfriend was breaking up with him. His mind couldn’t completely wrap around what was happening, but he couldn’t stop looking at his girlfriend in awe. He kissed her forehead, a smacking kiss with a “mwah” sound that had Ochako rolling her eyes and cuddling closer to him. “You’re pregnant.”

“I am.” Ochako agreed, her voice steady and confidant.

Katsuki licked his dry lips. His mind was racing. “Cool.”

Broken down and humiliated after her crushing defeat in the Sports Festival, Uraraka just wants to sleep off her injuries in the infirmary. She didn't expect to get a very loud and very angry roommate for the night.

(A Kacchako one shot that turned into a love story.)

Other Fics:

Five times Hizashi feels like a burden to Shouta and one time he finally snaps with Shouta by his side to pick up the pieces.

Hizashi is all too aware that they’re polar opposites, Shouta being the calm to his storm, the quiet to his loud exuberance. Shouta, who’s at his most content curled up on the couch in their shared living room, or anywhere, really, napping or idly playing with their two cats while Hizashi’s busy going through his ever-growing music library, bothering Shouta for his opinion before adding the songs that have gained his friend’s grudging approval to whatever new playlist that he’s working on.

No matter how hard he tries, he can’t leave him alone and, miraculously, Shouta’s been tolerating him for fifteen years.

He hopes to God that it hasn’t become an obligation.

Morgan doesn’t really know Captain America.

What if Remus and Sirius realised Harry was being abused? What if all Dumbledore’s careful plans were pulled apart by the power he relied on most of all?

After the Triwizard Tournament, a traumatised Harry admits he can't go back to Privet Drive. Sirius and Remus refuse to submit to Dumbledore's plan and take him back to Grimmauld Place with them, where they must learn how to live together, how to care for one another, and how to trust one another. After so long, can they build a family together? Will they even have a chance when a war rages outside their door? And can the prophecy ever be fulfilled?

#fic rec #monthy fic rec #bakudeku #todobaku #kacchako #erasermic #stony #wolfstar #drarry #bnha #mcu #Harry Potter

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ssaalexblake · 4 years

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star wars spoilers

ros spoilers

move onnnn

like actual proper major spoilers and i’m making this intro long in case mobile decides to hate read mores today

...

Anyway like, i am a Shallow sw viewer who isn’t actually likely to kick up a fuss abt what i didn’t like in any serious way even tho i got issues, But i wanna say what i really liked b/c?? there were moments in that movie with themes i Loved and i don’t wanna be negative nancy for this franchise because i am actually incapable of taking it seriously tbh no matter how wtf or wild it is and i just Gotta;

First of all. The entire franchise was worth Rey it for calling Leia Master.

like, they added her in best as they could, which wasn’t fabulous but i can’t really say how they’d work their way around that tbh so i’m not gonna rag on abt the Leia plot But god they proper confirmed she was a Legit Jedi thank u V much.

Chewie!!! Got!!! his!!! medal!!!

they put porgs in the movie, it was my only request and i recieved. i am content.

also the effects on old palps were Incredible and Creepy and!!! props to the vis effects teams

also s/o to the choreographer who planned out rey’s fighting style to look like gymnastic tumbles but with a murderous glow stick. love it.

idk what extended sw canon now says about force powers being able to heal But the old eu book shatterpoint is one of my faves and i loved the inclusion that Rey can just like. Heal.

also lol i heard daisy ridley on the radio this morning and she was supposed to be requesting songs to air but didn’t know the names of them and i have Never related to anybody more than i did in that moment.

look ok, that rey and kylie could literally fight each other when not in the same room was Really Cool ok

tho i would have Paid to have seen the pov of an outsider while they had lightsaber battles from miles away tbh b/c that would have been Wild

i had one Horrified moment where i thought the ‘rise of skywalker’ thing was a Pun about kylie dragging his ass up from that hole and u have No Idea how thankful i was @ the Rise sequence

also i, a massive mace windu fan, was Ecstatic his voice was present in the proceedings

which were A) tacky and B) Abdolutely my favourite thing ever.

it’s a space opera ok i am allowed to Want to be here for the tacky heartwarming shit

‘is that the navy??!?!?!?!?@ ‘ no sir... it’s.. .People’ was one of the funniest yet heartwarming sequences in anything ever ngl

HORSE WARTHOGS

inexplicable lin manuel miranda cameo

rey’s temper explained due to the fact that she is related to... Vilanelle

and look ok, i Always hated the idea of Rey being related to the skywalkers and Any crap meta that she had to be family for it to Count properly. It was an insult to found family, any form of adoption etc etc and i am.. Actually very mollified by this familial turn of events lol. It has a certain symmetry. and sw is literally built on the idea that history repeats but... different.

i was’t against rey being related to anybody, i just didn’t want her to be a skywalker because like... she was gonna Be a skywalker b/c legacy isn’t about blood, and uh... least i was right. i am naturally happy abt this.

also when i watched tlj the first time i was CONVINCED at the end of the movie she’d raise luke’s x wing from the depths as yoda did for luke in esb, and was Super off put that i was wrong. I was not wrong just... my timing was off. luke rose the x wing for her. ur yoda now luke. deal with it.

the other ex storm troopers who laid down their weapons!!! all of them!!! fin is not alone, they only have power by making you think you are alone!!!

i Really loved that thematic thread btw

also richard e grant’s performance was actually kind of chilling

but i am glad that i can still happily say that every character in sw Is a total unmitigated idiot. All of them. Stupid. Idiot rights. Yes, this is a plus point.

i also liked that it’s Kind of obvious hamill and ford picked up slack for what Would have been carrie’s scenes??? Like, it’s horrible she’s not there but they obviously care to do that in her stead. it’s sad but makes you smile.

as much as i’m not a kyle fan and never will be, and as much as i am not a fan of the ship, i can’t say there there weren’t decent thematic threads around the rey and kylie plot. Her symbolically killing kylie in a fit of rage, actively actually rising to his bait, realising as luke did in the roj climax that she had let the dark side get the better of her But having the power to take that Back and heal him and Stop even after she’d done something. It’s like the originals but not. And so, kylo is dead and Solo walks again. Was this plot My thing? No. But i appreciate the symbolism of him being stabbed through the stomach like he did to Han, and i appreciate the contrast of her actions after doing that versus His after he did it. What a difference.

i said this wasn’t a complaint post but u wanna know the worst part abt the movie??? how cheap the sith dagger looked. surely u can do better than that???

anyway, 3po’s red eyed when he translated the sith was hilarious tbh.

also hilarious: sw’s response to hiring Another brown haired white lady was to Only show her eyes in a way that was Incredibly conspicuous and was therefore unintentionally hilarious.

Finn is Explicitly force sensitive now and it’s over for y’all

wedge!!!

like... the sith amphitheater??? with the ghosties of all sith past (i think??? my interpretation anyway) was Genuinely creepy???

this is a Bit of a side note, but Luke was Perfectly in tune with tlj luke??? Because tlj luke changed tune before the end of That movie when he gucci booted his astral ass to distract kylie, him Saying his fear was wrong was merely verbal confirmation of what was portrayed in tlj. really. That’s not them backing away from tlj, it’s afffirming it.

i really loved that hux just got That death. I liked that while he Was used for ridiculous comic relief, the narrative did not forget he was just straight up evil.

L A N D O

that i all. that’s the point. just lando.

sheev palpatine’s late entry for Shittiest parent/paternal figure in the sw universe Was at the eleventh hour but by god did he give it his all to win the competition.

things only relevant to cm fans: they killed kate callahan’s husband!!! :((((

critics are slamming them for like, hardly killing anybody but I for one am happy they didn’t go grimdark and just went. Fuck it, we’re gonna keep being bullheadedly optimistic and most everybody lives, deal with it.

s/o to that gay moment that lasted like 2 solid seconds but i’d have preferred it if she’d been like, making out w/ chewie tbh.

that hug!! the trio hug!! my ot3!!! that i am even more convinced would Properly work as an ot3, too btw. Poe spent the whole movie jealous finn is into Rey, while confused abt it b/c He’s also kinda into Rey in that han/leia Tension kinda way, but Finn is also into Poe but not in the Puppy way he is with Rey, in the ‘i am so in love w/ you i don’t realise it but i trust you with the world’ kinda thing and Rey also has the Tension thing w/ Poe and would do anything for Finn but she’s like... Busy. B/c like, unfortunate family reunions and the awkwardness of being a millennial Actually offered a decent job that your morals do not allow you to take and the crisis that leaves u with.

anyway what i’m saying is the ot3 is Sailing in my head. look how it ended!!! Sailing.

however, i would like it known that the lady at the end Should have heard the word skywalker and Run for the hills. missed a chance.

But also Rey Did find that family of hers Maz told her she’d get ahead of her!!! i hate how many ppl say that was dropped or forgotten. like wtf??? what are finn and poe and chewie and bb8 and 3po and all the army of droids that love her and all the resistance that does too??? Luke and Leia??? y’all obsessed with blood when it comes to sw. She’s got her family.

now i Could make a complaints post but i just... I’ll leave that to everybody else and their mothers for now bc they’d be better at it anyway. I liked This stuff. Except for that point about the dagger. that sucked.

#and once again i gotta say fuck to keep this outta tags #believe it or not the is a positive post #i... did not start watching the space opera thinking i'd get stunning cinematic achievements #so i'm not like... actually disappointed bc i expect nothing *shrug emoji*#but as listed #there were many many things i liked to the point i enjoyed watching even tho a few things i Hated #and god i hated them a lot #but also the sw can be super dumb and some of y'all takes on inconsequential parts are.. . absurd #spoilers #sw spoilers #ros spoilers #rise of skywalker spoilers

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inkblackfingers · 6 years

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Thor: Ragnarok in no particular order

I can’t even begin to articulate how much I loved this movie, it was beyond gorgeous and I love everything about this.

Here’re some thoughts I had about it, as always, in no particular order.

SPOILERS AHEAD

It’s a bit long, so I put it under a read more.

I was completely and absolutely expecting a record screech at the beginning. Everything about Thor slowly turning on a chain and literally interrupting a giant flaming being as he slowly, slowly rotates is perfect.

Okay, but the entire theater burst into laughter when Skurge said that he got Dan and Ger from Texas, because ofc. And the shocked horror on those girls faces when they get absolutely coated in dragon slime is hysterical.

That fucking statue I’m still laughing at it. And the play?? Loki, what the actual hell were you thinking? Yeah, I’ll pretend to be Odin, but I won’t act anything like him and I’ll make a giant statue of me and commission a play all about my heroic and tragic “death” and just laze around eating grapes all day and nobody will say anything. How on earth did nobody else realize that it wasn’t Odin??

On that note, Thor instantly realizing that it’s Loki is the actual best and I love that his preferred method of solving problems (a blow with Mjolnir) has now been upgraded to forcing his opponent to choose whether they’d rather get a face full of star metal or lose.

As much as I loved everything about Loki’s “human” outfit in the Avengers, I really really love the all-black ensemble, especially next to Thor’s actually normal clothing.

Also, Tony is totally still keeping an eye on the internet, and there’s going to be a random picture of Thor on a random corner in NYC with two girls and he’s going to be so confused.

Stephen Strange you absolute dick I love you to death. I would watch an entire movie of Stephen just being a complete dick to other superheroes with his magical powers.

Thor calling for Mjolnir and both of them just listening to the sounds of breaking glass and his little smirk when he apologizes? Payback’s a bitch, Stephen :D

“I have been falling for THIRTY MINUTES”

Strange, who just spent the last ten minutes generally fucking with Thor, taking one look at Loki being furious and going, fuck this, get out.

Everything about Odin saying “my sons” (i’m not crying you’re crying) And him praising Loki for the spell that he used against him?? I mean, he’s still a shitty dad, but at least Loki has at least one (1) memory of him being a good dad.

Hela: long black hair, black cape, black and green clothing, obv v dramatic.... Are we sure that *Loki* is the adopted child?

I immediately remember I’m so gay when faced with Tessa Thompson as a drunk hot mess.

So the god of *thunder* is taken down by....electricity?? @marvel, does not compute

Everything about the little amusement-park ride of the history of Grandmaster is pure gold, especially with Thor just screaming at the end.

Listen..... Loki totally got a sugar daddy. That is all.

15/10 Best Stan Lee cameo ever

Oh my god Hulk I love you bb and I’m so glad that you finally found a planet that totally accepts you. (Now if you could work on that being a planet that doesn’t require you to be angry all the time or uses you as a form of entertainment, that’d be great, thx)

Thor finally using his GODDAMN powers, perfect.

Everything about Hulk is perfect. Especially him sparring with Valkyrie, and everything about his conversation with Thor that totally doesn’t have me crying a little inside, but also how he’s basically a giant toddler

Hulk butt. Somebody had to animate Hulk butt. Is it based off of the butt of @markruffalo? People (me) need to know.

Also, I’m really reminded of that one post?? It’s basically etched into my mind at this point, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

That fucking bounce off the window and Thor just picking himself up and going straight through the window and sliding down literally all the buildings.

Pointbreak is the password I’m dying of laughter (@marvel, I need to know all of the avengers’ sign-ins ASAP. Is Steve’s Capiscle or Captain Handsome? Is Clint Hawkass or Legolas? Is Nat Itsy-Bitsy Spider? Also, what’s Tony’s sign-in? You know who I am? The Mechanic? Please, my crops are dying)

Also, once Tony finds out about everything that just happened, Thor’s sign-in is definitely changing to Sparkles.

Why are Tony’s clothes on the quin-jet? (Actual question: why haven’t I already seen fics/art about why Tony’s clothes are on the quin-jet?)

Bruce’s password being Strongest Avenger, and Thor’s look of betrayal in the background is beyond hilarious. (Also can we talk about Tony’s nicknames for literally everyone??)

Okay, but drunk Valkyrie and Bruce trying to figure out how they know each other is the actual cutest.

Thor just chucking something at Loki to check if he’s actually there is beyond perfect. Yes you did good my space labrathor, you have finally learned.

Everything about Thor’s childhood story. (Also, can we just appreciate Frigga for a moment? An eldest daughter that got banished by her husband, and two sons, who basically hate each other. One of them likes picking up snakes and the other likes stabbing his brother. You deserve all the awards for parenting. All of them.)

Idris Elba is beyond the best and if Asgard was a democracy, he would totally have been running the Nine Realms. (Like he basically was already)

Everything about Asgard being the people, not the place is going to make me cry.

Thor sitting on the throne, literally calling Hela to him from across Asgard is something that he totally came up with after asking himself What Would Loki Do? (Answer: be as over the top extra as possible, always)

Well, now Thor can inherit the kingly eyepatch

GODDAMN it Thor, go pikachu already, you did it before and you don’t need to talk to your father while you’re literally dying

Thor descending on the horde of zombies in slow motion, lightning sparking around him as he lays waste to them with the Immigrant Song playing #aesthetic

I know that Fenris is basically a giant zombie wolf, but there’s a part of my brain (the largest part. like 85% of it) that’s going PUPPER!!! WHO’S A GOOD DOGGO???

Okay, I know I already said stuff about Valkyrie, but that stride down the rainbow bridge with explosions in the background and her just absolutely destroying those zombies?? #aesthetic

Also, I thought I had reached peak gay after watching Wonder Woman, but then Tessa Thompson happened.

Loki doing his knife flip and Valkyrie swinging her sword #reasonsi’mpan

I love circular prophecies so much, but also: 1) what happens to the rest of the stuff in the vault? like the tesseract or the casket of ancient winters? the tesseract’s an infinity stone, so it’s not going to be destroyed by the explosion right? 2) I’m not entirely sure if this is comics or mcu, but isn’t Asgard necessary to the stabilty of the other realms? what’s going to happen to the other ones now that Asgard is literally dust??

Other things I love in this movie: Thor finally learning to not always blindly trust Loki, every single rock paper scissors pun, Hulk being a giant cranky adorable toddler.

Things I dislike about this movie: why on earth did you cut the bisexual Valkyrie scene???, @marvel give us the goddamn hug that we’ve been waiting for since the first Thor!!!!

Is that a skrull ship? Or Thanos’ ship? Or the Guardians/someone related to them??? Uggggghhhh, I need the official Infinity War trailer already (like I haven’t watched the leaked version like a dozen times)

Also, Taika Waititi directed one of my *other* favorite movies, What We Do in the Shadows, so that’s another reason why I like Ragnarok so much. (Also that it’s super colorful, has no bullshit romance, has an interesting plot and characters that aren’t ooc...)

#in no particular order #thor ragnarok #marvel #ink spatters

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sepdet · 7 years

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Star Trek Discovery: ep 2

Okay, I absolutely adored the premiere, which I liveblogged Sunday night. But I’ve been feeling rotten and groggy and didn’t watch episode 2 until tonight.

I’m kind of glad I waited.

I’m transcribing remarks I made to a friend in a private chatroom while watching, and then I’ve added some thoughts afterwards.

SPOILERS.

Ep 2.

Raw remarks transcribed from private chat while watching (slightly edited)

So, our cliffhanger ended with Michael committing mutiny trying to save them, her captain betrayed and pointing a gun at her, and a whole Klingon fleet warping in like several buckets of shit flying towards a fan.

I’m still trying to get used to Sarek being nicer to a human trying to Vulcan than he was to a son whom he practically disowned for leaving Vulcan to join Starfleet. But I love Sarek so will try to muffle the "buts." I want Amanda to show up.

Parting word to Michael: "Behave." On the bright side, seems like it took her seven years before she LOL NOPED.

I hope the Klingon fans are happy. This is a very ponderous language to listen to when it's whole scenes of dialog and not just quick commands or insults. But I know there's a whole branch of fans who embrace Klingon culture and language, and I hope they're as thrilled as I was to hear Sindarin Elvish spoken. (And that they're not too perturbed that the Klingon look has mutated again.)

Oh SHIT. I know the Captain was trying to defuse situation with diplomacy, but did they not have their shields up? Or was this just an old ship and/or Klingons managed to puncture shields. Ouch ouch ouch.

Wow, Michael is not having a good day. Waking up in remains of brig with failing containment fields around her — whole sequence is impressive and sad.

I like the way they're employing FX in service to story. It's hard not to let CGI overwhelm. But here, no matter how spectacular FX are, they're functional, rather than an end to themselves: like incidental music the Big FX moments help set mood/tone and give audience catch breath to process what just happened. As opposed to only using FX to foster one mood, maximum adrenaline, and keep audience off-balance so they have no time to catch breath and reflect on situation.

Intense telepathic scene with Sarek. Man he really likes this kid. He is one crazy ass Vulcan, even if he won't admit it: sharing a katra with a near stranger, especially a human child, is pretty drastic. (Also I'm confused: thought he adopted her after parents died in attack, but it looks like Michael was already his ward during attack?

ARGH.

Sarek: "I did not come here to judge your actions. I came here to—"

*Pumpkin, who likes to snooze on desk next to keyboard and occasionally use it as pillow at inconvenient moments, carefully and deliberately stretches out paw and plants it over ESC key, backing up browser window to several URLs ago, losing livestream.*

Cats. Such exquisite timing.

Back online.

Okay yes [STC sounded slightly noncommittal when I was enthusing about restraint of FX] now they're getting a little show-offy. But yikes. First time I've ever seen a space battle using classical Greek naval warfare maneuver. Trireme beak-ram!

...although it could be coincidence, and I'm reading it that way because of my classical studies background. They might've come up with that unusual and dramatic visual independently. At any rate, impressive.

OOOOO. Just hit scene where Captain, out of options, sees Klingons beaming up their dead, and she sees option. I've been kind of waiting for her to be proactive instead of reactive. Earlier her hands were tied by trying to avoid conflict (following orders).

...DAMMIT. Just Googled to find out spelling of Phillipa's last name and saw the kind of spoiler I really hate to see. Stupid, stupid me. I really honestly didn't know, since I had been so strenuously avoiding behind-the-scenes stuff.

—

[At this point I stopped babbling in the chatroom to watch final scenes, so rest is post-watch thoughts.]

At least we have one great sequence between Burnham and Captain Georgiou, although the lull to confront one another and devise a strategy was a little forced— Klingons being very polite about not finishing them off. And YES, YES YES, finally seeing Michelle Yeoh fighting, which believe it or not I never have. (I don't watch many films or really much media.)

:( Ouch. So close. Just a second or two longer.

So that's that. Man, that's gotta be a record even for Trek; can't even get through two eps without ship's destruction and crew evacuation. (Mom and I used to get annoyed at destroying Enterprise for shock value; first time was so dramatic and meaningful, whereas repeat felt gimmicky.)

Not sure Michael's Expository Speech is did her any favors at this trial, but at least now we hear what she thinks.

Teaser for next episode (or "real" Discovery show) follows. Kinda confusing that they're convicts but on a Federation ship? Or did she get transferred from prison?

I am still mourning the captain and really not in the mood to parse the trailer. DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT. I was wary of this show, but after watching Ep 1 I let my guard down and was SO EXCITED.

I had seen one article about this series last spring showing what looked like a predominantly white-dude bridge with generic-looking white male captain and a few tokens, just like TOS. That had dampened my enthusiasm for this show and prevented me from getting into it or looking forward to it.

But recently I saw posts saying, "Yo, WOC captain and first officer!" (or rather, in Tumblr's usual WE MUST MAKE YOU FEEL GUILTY FOR NOT SUPPORTING THIS THING YOU WEREN’T AWARE OF, SHAME ON YOU!!! way, there was a post berating Tumblr for lack of photosets and buzz and excitement over Michelle Yeoh and Sonequa Martin-Green, and why weren't we getting behind WOCs when we'd been all excited for Gal Gadot?) And I thought, Wait—what?! I thought this was going to be generic white dude captain with token black female first officer which is okay but not ANYTHING LIKE as cool as what you're saying?

And since I do try to avoid spoilers and PR I didn't know Yeoh wasn't going to be the regular series captain. Or rather, I was confused why the hype I was seeing now differed so drastically from that one article I’d started to skim and then closed thinking, “Nah, I’m going to avoid spoilers.” Had the showrunners changed their minds and decided to bring in Michelle Yeoh as an upgrade after seeing their version of Captain Pike wasn’t good enough to anchor a series?I was just going to wait and see.

I forgot any doubts when Episode 1 gave me EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED: Two great female characters with a friendship and professional working relationship. Banter. Excellence. Skills and wits. Clunky TOS tech and new shiny bridge set. Smart captain. Brave first officer. With two WOC they couldn't be tokens; they had to be expanded as just... 3 dimensional characters.

I was so here for that. I loved that whole opening minisode, and also the Captain sending Michael off to play in a brief voyage of discovery and enjoying that her first officer was enjoying herself.

Their friendship was perfect, legendary Kirk and Spock material. It was distracting me from the other bridge crew— even Saru, who is an interesting character, but I was focused so much on these two women— but I figured other characters would get filled out in subsequent episodes.

And now?

"Here. Here's what you really wanted. Two women being superbly competent officers with a meaningful friendship, leading a show just the way Kirk and Spock did. And it's going to be about discovery and an older woman mentoring another one, and tackling difficult ethical problems without providing easy answers and— PSYCHE!

“...FOOLED YOU! Two leading women in a Kirk-Spock dynamic? Oh, we could never do that. So we're killing off your already-favorite character. As consolation prize, here, have an incarcerated and demoralized WOC who has to be 'grateful' to a white dude for letting her out of jail. Power imbalance between her and captain, no close friendship, and oh yeah, instead of voyage-of-discovery and complicated-ethical-problems Star Trek, it's going to be various people being macho and angry, and a depressing Federation-Klingon War."

I hope I'm wrong.

It feels like they gave me everything I'd hoped for and more, and then, once I'd let my guard down, they took it away. I'm left with a character and actor (Sonequa Martin-Green) I like enough that I'm going to watch anyway...for now. But I'm back to being wary. And here we have yet another WOC/minority being killed to make way for generic white dude. So now I'm disillusioned and won’t trust this show, and we're only at the end of ep 2.

Okay, yeah, I'm pissed.

Discovery could redeem itself and turn out to be fantastic. There is a lot of potential here and a lot to like. Saru and Burnham are good characters, and I assume some of the others will be too. But they're going to have to pull off a miracle now to keep me from fantasizing about the better show that COULD HAVE BEEN.

ETA: so maybe I should have read the behind-the-scenes stuff beforehand so I’d be prepared for this premiere to be backstory, in effect. I guess everyone else knew her death was coming, and could appreciate the drama while anticipating this would be a tragedy. Either I’m naive, or too groggy/tired to pick up the Obi-Wan vibes.

#star trek discovery #star trek #episode 2 #liveblog #spoilers

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theliberaltony · 6 years

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

I came of political age during the debate over the Iraq War. The soundtrack to my sophomore year of high school was Nelly and incessant chatter about weapons of mass destruction. The fate of countries and reputations hung on facts — or the administration’s reasonable facsimiles of them, anyhow — and what counted as proof (like, for instance, whether those little ole WMDs existed). By the time I headed to college, the countries and reputations were well on their way to being destroyed. Bad policy and poor reasoning were slowly killing a presidency, so I watched as the self-serious young men of politics’ next generation tried to correct for those mistakes. They read The New Republic and joined the campus Federalist Society, where they debated abstract topics and drank whiskey out of cut-glass tumblers their mothers bought them at Bed Bath & Beyond. Bush’s failures suggested that you had to have a detailed game plan for the country if you ran for office. The triumph of Barack Obama, meticulous professor, seemed to prove this.

At least until the 2016 primaries. On the Republican side, Donald Trump’s grasp of policy details seemed limited, yet he blew his competition out of the water. His big ideas about changing trade dynamics, banning Muslims and building a wall — and the bombastic, broad-strokes style in which he delivered them — swayed Republican voters primed for action after eight years of Obama. The Democratic contest was more policy-conscious, but Bernie Sanders caught flak from Hillary Clinton and her supporters for plans they thought were implausible, like free college and single-payer healthcare.

Thus far, the politics of the 2018 midterms and the looming 2020 presidential primary are filled with some of the same big ideas. The hang-up that many Democrats had about a lack of detail — “Anytime someone tells you it’s free, read the fine print,” Clinton said of Sanders’s free college plan in 2016 — has fallen somewhat by the wayside. Sanders introduced a free college bill last year that was supported by Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, two likely 2020 presidential contenders, while a federal jobs guarantee has now been embraced by Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, other likely 2020 candidates.

The universe of the politically possible seems to be expanding. The shift is happening on the right and the left, each end of the spectrum opening their windows wider, though on opposite ends of the house. Some people are waiting for a cross breeze that might never come, but there’s an unmistakable joy just to have the house aired out.

Voters’ increasing tribalism might be fueling this era of big ideas. According to Pew data from March, Americans increasingly prefer politicians who won’t compromise on their positions. In 2018, 53 percent preferred politicians who stuck to their guns, a radical change from 2017, when only 39 percent said they felt the same. Republican respondents to the Pew survey have long displayed this aversion to compromise, but 2018 seemed to mark a transition point for Democrats: In July 2017, 69 percent said they liked politicians who compromised, but in 2018, only 46 percent said the same. That data might indicate that politicians need to worry more about upholding ideological purity — promoting those big ideas — than they have in the past. That may mean that the accountability pressure has changed from the practical to the ideological, though it’s not clear how voters will feel if a lack of compromise also leads to a lack of, well, actually getting things done.

Most of the Republican Party’s shift appears to be related to what’s seen as acceptable in public life and leadership. A recent Pew survey showed that most of the president’s supporters prefer his approach to the job of the presidency over his actual policies.

Democratic voters have become a disillusioned bunch; 68 percent say that significant changes are needed to the design and structure of government itself. The party, meanwhile, has struggled to solidify its fundamental identity in the post-2016 universe. In this uncertain climate, rising Democratic stars have trafficked in the new currency of institution-shifting proposals.

First there was the Sanders single-payer health care bill of 2017, which most of the probable 2020 presidential primary contenders signed onto. It promises more generous coverage than nearly any other country with a single-payer system — Canada and the Netherlands included — but health care policy expert Sarah Kliff at left-leaning site Vox wrote that the Sanders bill “provides no information on how it would finance such a generous health care system. … This is a crucial part of any health care plan, and in the Sanders proposal, it is notably absent.” (A recent study found that the plan would cost the government $33 trillion, though Sanders said the same study showed that his proposal would actually save $2 trillion in overall health care spending.) The cost details here could be crucial to winning over Americans who are not a part of the Democratic base, but for now the push is to show a glimpse of a possible future to those already ideologically inclined to seek a change.

Perhaps the most galvanizing issue of the last few months for Democrats has been the movement to eliminate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, a reaction in large part to the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the underdog winner of a Democratic congressional primary, picked up the “abolish ICE” mantle as she rocketed to political stardom. Just days after Ocasio-Cortez’s win, Gillibrand said that she too would get rid of ICE, and Warren soon hopped on the bandwagon. Harris stopped short of calling for the agency’s demise, but said, “We need to probably think about starting from scratch.”

The calls to get rid of the agency have proved compelling to many Americans horrified by the administration’s brutal approach to asylum-seekers, but the root causes of the deportations have been little addressed. Immigrants continue to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law under an executive order issued by Trump, and if the agency were dismantled, it’s unclear what would replace it, if anything, or whether redistributing its duties would result in any change in policy. Democrats like Cecilia Muñoz, who was the head of Obama’s White House Domestic Policy council, are concerned by the lack of nuance in these calls. She told Slate, “I think we need to be willing to address how do we think immigration enforcement should be conducted, what’s a way to do that, that actually values people’s lives and their civil rights. The abolish ICE argument doesn’t touch those questions, and I think that’s a mistake.”

Muñoz’s warning echoes Clinton in her post-campaign memoir, “What Happened.” “I’ve always believed that it’s dangerous to make big promises if you have no idea how you’re going to keep them. When you don’t deliver, it will make people even more cynical about government,” she wrote. Clinton was unsparing in her critique of Sanders’s primary platform — he “didn’t seem to mind if his math didn’t add up or if his plans had no prayer of passing Congress and becoming law” — and yet she seemed a little wistful that she didn’t go further in deviating from the slate of policies she thought were possible. “I have a new appreciation for the galvanizing power of big, simple ideas. I still think my health care and college plans were more achievable than Bernie’s and that his were fraught with problems, but they were easier to explain and understand, and that counts for a lot.” (When Sanders dropped out, Clinton adopted a version of a free college plan that the head of education policy at New America, a left-leaning think tank, said would be “a financial disaster.”)

Details, it turns out, are tiresome — they slow things down and draw you into the weeds, in part to discover how things might work in the realm of the actual, not the theoretical. And it’s hard to say whether the big ideas of today will eventually win over much of the country or drive a wedge deeper into it. It’s a thrilling gamble that the Democrats in particular are taking, one that has the potential to pay huge political dividends.

It’s also a rare moment in American history we’re living though. “I think that in no country in the civilized world is less attention paid to philosophy than in the United States,” Alexander de Tocqueville wrote in 1835. Perhaps that sentiment is dated, but it’s also true that we don’t have a reputation for being particularly contemplative. The historical success of the American experiment has made us ideologically complacent at times. Perhaps justifiably so, perhaps not.

But as the nation grasps onto audacious new ideas that say something is radically wrong with our present system, it makes a person wonder what the next political moment will be like, 10 or 15 years down the road. We might be hurtling towards a comedown, a wise-up or an actual paradigm shift, one that Baby Boomers, clutching at their Woodstock photos, will turn green with envy over. In the end, today’s policy details might be inconsequential compared to the real project of democratizing ideas in America. Perhaps what’s happening now proves that the direction of the country isn’t just in the hands of the boys of the Federalist Society and The New Republic. Its course might be more broadly determined.

Or we might learn that not very much has changed at all.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Clare Malone

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hiddlesfashion · 7 years

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#TodayInHiddleHistory

January 30, 2014: the March issue of Elle UK was released featuring Tom Hiddleston A God Among Men.

A video posted by The Fashion of Tom Hiddleston (@hiddlesfashion) on Jan 30, 2017 at 5:50am PST

full interview below

Tom Hiddleston: A god among men?

Hollywood A-lister, ELLE writer, YouTube sensation – Tom Hiddleston’s cult status is evident on every platform. And, as ELLE’s Annabel Brog discovers, he’s not afraid of revealing, well, everything.

When ELLE’s Editor-in-Chief Lorraine Candy was at Wimbledon last year, she rather naively tweeted afterwards: ‘I sat next to actor Tom Hiddleston and his girlfriend Jane. He’s a very funny man.’ She has never – bear in mind this is a mother of four who edits a fashion magazine, which puts her high on a certain demographic hit-list – been trolled like it. The responses veered between righteous fury that she had outed Hiddleston as being ‘With Girlfriend’, and rather bloodthirsty expressions of envy that she had, you know, talked to him.

Tom Hiddleston inspires fervour in his fans. He’s an extraordinary actor who has won universal acclaim – his roles include feckless Prince Hal in the BBC’s The Hollow Crown; sweet, doomed Captain Nicholls in Spielberg’s War Horse; and currently the blood-drenched warrior Coriolanus at the Donmar Ware- house – but it’s his performance as pallid, sociopathic god of mischief Loki in the Thor and Avengers Assemble films that catapulted him into the stratosphere. To put it in context: Hiddleston recently donated a pair of signed Converse to the Small Steps charity auction, alongside the likes of Mick Jagger and Kate Moss. His shoes sold for £4,500 (more than anyone else’s). He is very appreciative of the interest, while simultaneously being uncomfortable with the idea of fame. ‘Do I like it? It’s sort of inconsequential in a way, a weird corollary to everything else I’ve done. I cannot tell you how surprising it is. It’s like, really? REALLY? I honestly try not to think about it too much.’

We are nestled under a heater in the beer garden of a north-west London pub on a chilly December evening. Hiddleston is drinking whiskey, which is part of my cunning strategy to break him down – he has always given me the impression of being very prepared in interviews – but it doesn’t work. After five shots, he remains entirely in control.

Nonetheless, he is rather adorable: ferociously bright (he went to Eton, then Cambridge, where he got a double first), earnest ('I know. I’m sorry. I can’t help it’), obliging, and old-fashioned. Partly that’s his classical- ly handsome face, partly it’s his impeccable manners, and partly it’s the way he constructs his sentences.

Describing his favourite book, William Boyd’s Any Human Heart, for instance, he says, 'Like all life, it contains multitudes’; or, on opening up to new people, 'I fear I am initially quite private.’ When he is sure of his subject – talking about work, family, culture – he is eloquent and assertive. When he is less certain – typically on the subject of himself – his voice rises slightly in inadvertent questions: 'I’m solitary [but] I don’t think that’s a good thing, I think I’m better in company?’ Or: 'I know that there’s this thinking capacity, which is possibly not a good thing?’

Tom William Hiddleston is 33 (on 9 February, to be precise), a middle child with one sister 15 months older, and another five years younger. His childhood sounds like a simple, pleasurable place. 'I have memories of climbing trees and watching The Snowman, with David Bowie introducing it in his snowman scarf.’ He starts to laugh. 'When I actually learned who David Bowie was, I was like, “That’s the man from The Snowman”. And people were: “Never say that again. That’s Ziggy Stardust. Shut up!”’

His parents are incredibly proud of him: 'It’s taken us a while to get there. It’s one of those conversations I don’t have with them, but I just know that they are [proud]. If we [he and his mother] start talking about it, we will both collapse in a heap of tears. It’s moving to make your mother proud.’

Growing up surrounded by women has had a glorious effect on his view of them. 'I believe in the strength and intelligence and sensitivity of women. My mother, my sisters [they] are strong. My mum is a strong woman and I love her for it.’ He is also – praise the Lord for men like Hiddleston – very romantic. When asked about love and relationships, he simply says, 'Honesty is a gift – to be honest about who you are and how you feel – because it encourages intimacy, and intimacy is really where’s it at. To be known and know someone is an amazing feeling, and you don’t get there if you’re pretending to be anyone else.’

Hiddleston voices Captain Hook in Disney’s Tinker Bell And The Pirate Fairy (out this month), and has a high-impact cameo in Muppets Most Wanted. But his next lead in a film is in an homage to both strong women and love. Only Lovers Left Alive is an enchanting, funny, somnolent Jim Jarmusch project in which he plays Adam, a 500-year-old vampire rock star with suicidal leanings. 'Adam is a delicate soul,’ says Tom. Adam is, indeed, delicate, but he is also (and this is where Tom’s gift for comedy comes into play) sweet and entirely useless, a reclusive musician suffering the despair of being eternal. Think undead My Chemical Romance fan. He stars opposite Tilda Swinton, who he says is just like her giddy, optimistic character, Eve. 'She’s the most beautiful woman in the world, and it’s seemingly effortless. She’s very, very warm. Tilda and I would be laughing sometimes and Jim would come in and say [he adopts a lazy Ohio drawl]: “Taaammmm, you smile a lot, man. And Adam doesn’t smile so much.”’ He also loved the purity of the love story. 'Adam is so deeply flawed, and depressive, and melancholic. But Eve just loves it, loves his commitment to it. We were trying to make a film about acceptance. And true love is an acceptance of someone else for who they are.’

So Hiddleston is clever, eloquent, charming, sensitive and earnest. But then there’s that other side, the spontaneous and silly side, best seen on YouTube, where he has become an inadvertent sensation due to the fact that 'I don’t know what my boundaries are, I just say yes to things’.

That’s how he ended up throwing some serious shapes on Alan Carr: Chatty Man, which, for the record, was 1) not planned: 'I promise I had no idea I was going to do that’; and 2) the genuine Hiddleston disco experience: 'If you asked me to dance now, it would be the same moves. That’s my dance.’ He can also be seen sing- ing Michael Jackson’s Man In The Mirror on Korean TV, because the talk show host asked him which part of his body he had most confidence in and he said his voice. (And, yes, he was tempted to say something smutty: 'I’m English, so I’m dirty.’) His own favourite clip features him teaching the Cookie Monster a lesson in delayed gratification. ('Are you saying if me wait, me going to get cookie?’) 'I’m proud that I’ve met him.

He’s the Cookie Monster, a cultural icon. My mum loves it and my niece loves it. She’s two years old and she thinks there’s nothing illogical about Uncle Tom speak- ing to the Cookie Monster.’

So when we meet for the second time, after he comes off stage at the Donmar, I am tempted to see if the no-boundaries thing is for real. There is beer involved (the man can drink) and a line of questioning veering from the absurd to the inappropriate. Put it this way, he’s a very good sport…

Annabel Brog: Will you throw me your best insults?

Tom Hiddleston: [Laughs] Why are we doing the insult game?

AB: Just go with it, I can take it.

TH: Um. 'You utter, utter [with increasing emphasis], utter c**k’ is good.

AB: I just wondered if foul language, delivered beauti- fully, sounds less foul. Which, in fact, it does.

TH: When I get angry with myself, when I forget lines, I’ll be like, 'You absolute f **king f **k c**k b***ocks p**s f **k. You, you… f **ker’.

AB: You say that to yourself ?

TH: Yes.

AB: How do you feel afterwards?

TH: I feel better! The word f **k is enormously satisfying.

AB: OK, I am going to describe teenage Tom to you and you are going to tell me how accurate I am.

TH: [Grins] OK.

AB: I’ve realised this may be quite insulting. Please remember it’s only a game.

TH: That’s totally fine. It may well be more favourable than the truth.

AB: Teenage Tom wasn’t uncomfortable with girls, but he didn’t get to touch one for quite some time. First kiss, 16.

TH: NO! [Emphatic] First kiss 10! Yes, 10 years old, tongues and everything. [Laughs] She was a huge crush, we were in the same class, a lot of note swap- ping, and eventually it all went down in a cricket pavilion on an autumn night. It was very thrilling.

AB: I got it so wrong.

TH: I was sometimes quite alarmed by friends of mine at school who didn’t have sisters, the way they treated girls, the way they spoke about them… I was like, 'Guys, they’re not aliens, they’re human beings.’

AB: You hear stories about Eton schoolboys, and the fan girls who line the cricket pitches when they play… TH: I don’t relate to that at all. I didn’t have a serious relationship until I was about 19. I fell head over heels in love and I was with her for two years, and it was an amazing relationship. So I don’t know who those girls are, who line the cricket pitches.

AB: How would you describe yourself as a boyfriend?

TH: Very honest, I hope. God, I don’t know. I hope I’m fun, I hope I’m a good time. Sponta- neous, surprising, affectionate? I hope, kind. Dancing… a lot of dancing. I insist upon dancing. Anywhere. Anytime. The more dancing, the better.

AB: [Referring to an incident last year when Tom, on a press call with Swinton for Only Lovers Left Alive, was photographed in a revealingly tight trousers] Cannes. Trousergate. Discuss.

TH: Trousergate?

AB: Please tell me you know what I am referring to.

TH: What are you… I genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about. Cannes?

AB: Oh God, really? Oh no. OK, OK, shall we move on?

TH: [Squeaky] What’s trousergate? [Clears throat] Trousergate…

AB: Maybe I should just get it up on the iPhone and show it to you.

TH: OK, get it up on the phone.

[AB types 'Tom Hiddleston Cannes’ into Google Images and hands him the phone]

TH: [Slowly] Ohhhhhh heavens…

AB: It has a Tumblr account and everything.

TH: Oh God. [Laughing but horrified] How monumentally shaming! What does one say to something like that? What do I say? Do I need to explain it? I don’t think I can.

AB: Would you like to move on from this subject?

TH: Maybe. Yes…

AB: OK.

TH: [Determined] Look, I had a very interesting experience going to Cannes. An airplane in Heathrow caught fire and they shut down the whole airport. There were no tickets on Eurostar. All the flights from Gatwick were booked. So I got in a taxi and drove to Dover. I got on the ferry at 2am, with people on the booze cruise, and students going on hockey tours, got to Calais at 5am, another taxi to Paris airport, flew to Nice, landed about 11.30am, went through customs, got in another cab and drove to straight to THAT photo call, where THAT picture was taken, having changed in the car on the way there. So I think I look all right, for someone who’s been up all night.

AB: You look great. [Long pause] It’s just a shame no one’s looking at your face.

TH: [Laughs] They’re looking at Tilda! That’s what they’re looking at.

You can’t really profile Tom Hiddleston without going there on his looks. He is, in the flesh, a deter- mined and imposing physical presence. If you have seen his Coriolanus – raging with pride and betrayal – you will know this, and on the ELLE shoot it is evident most when we film him running. Hiddleston has a fine-looking run. He may look like a matinee idol; he may speak like a 19th century poet; but watch him run and you are suddenly very aware that he is 21st century man. It would be nice, I suggest, to see him in a role that’s unquestioningly modern. 'I would really like to,’ he says. 'I’m knocking at the door, honestly.’

As expected, he is game for anything on our shoot. He hurls plastic chairs across the warehouse, he sprints down Scrubs Lane, and he scares the crap out of the whole team by leaping over the railing of a 10-foot stair- case, which would have ended his Coriolanus run rather spectacularly if it went wrong. At the end of the day, Hiddleston is hard to pin down. He tells me a story,about a spontaneous, solo trip he took to Hawaii after he flew to LA to audition for a part he didn’t get.

'I went canoeing with whales, ran around the island, climbed the volcanoes. There's this beach where all the surfers go to challenge themselves, the waves are like 30 feet high, and I was introduced to this lifeguard by some landscape gardeners I met. We were watching these kite surfers and I was in awe, frankly, of their courage and I said, "Why would you do that? It's so dangerous." And he looked at me with this amazing, generous smile and said [adopts a US accent]: "They're just trying to answer the same question we're all trying to answer, man." And I said: "What question is that?" And he said: "Is it enough?"'

So there you have it. Tom Hiddleston: big talent, big laugh, big thinker, non-planner, great dancer. In his own beautifully phrased words, he is 'just as complex and contradictory as everyone on this planet'. Or, in our rather more base words, pretty damn hot.

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imaginationworldstellacarrier · 6 years

Text

Stella Carrier Online Reviews Posted by Monday December 18 2017

Disclaimer that I posted on my facebook wall less than 24 hours ago

Sent by 1044 am Sunday December 17 2017 with a copy of this on a Microsoft word document

To all who are reading this on my facebook wall

I appreciate all who take the time to look andor glance at my messages I have had a recent circumstance involving Amazon that gives me reason to believe that one or more people has confused me for a paid Amazon reviewer. The truth is that I have a passion for writing and I have been an Amatuer online Amazon reviewer since June 15, 2008 when I was stationed in Norfolk Virginia through the U.S. Navy. I have been an Amazon customer since the early 2000s when I was stationed in Yokosuka Japan also through the U.S. Navy. I am blessed/charmed to be able to purchase many of the things I have because my husband and I are dual income no kids. As a voluntarily child-free woman I have nothing against parents or kids and I understand that both of my late adoptive parents would have wanted me to be a mother. My late adoptive mother died before I got married in January 2004 so in truth I have to avoid elaborating too much on what she would have said. However, my late adoptive father, even though he took the child-free news hard he was eventually supportive of my decision. Anyhow, the fact that it is just my husband and I, with frequent generosity of gifts from my mother in law, is how I am able to easily afford many of the things that are paid out of pocket. I had to say this because I intuitively and logically realize that part of the reason why Amazon is investigating the claims made by one or more people in regards to my Amazon profile relate to the assumption that I am a paid Amazon reviewer. However, once again I admit that I am an American born Amateur Amazon reviewer with a passion for writing who started reviewing on June 15 2008 with the review of Madonna’s Hard Candy cd when I was living in Norfolk Virginia. Once again, I also repeat that I have been an Amazon customer who paid for much of what I ordered from my own after tax income in the early 2000s when I was stationed in Yokosuka Japan through the military. I put up a message about me being confused for a paid Amazon reviewer on my facebook profile on December 15 to vent to one of my understanding and caring friends about what happened. A well meaning Amazon customer rep believed me about the fact that I am an Amateur online reviewer and wondered why I do not just create new profiles while the false claim of me being a paid reviewer is being investigated by Amazon’s customer service employees. However, I intuitively feel that creating new accounts would only embolden the person andor people who made the false claims of me being a paid Amazon reviewer and some of those same individuals might probably start fabricating those claims again once they follow andor see my new accounts. I feel that the more spiritually powerful and wise thing to prove that I am an Amateur online reviewer blessed with a good paying University food services job and a sweet and ambitious husband would be just to keep my current facebook profile and Amazon profile that attracted all of the attention in the first place but to just simply change my passwords on both this facebook and amazon account. Due to me suspecting that some outside party might have removed the December 15 2017 message/venting to one of my incredible friends of me being confused for a paid Amazon reviewer when I am an Amateur online reviewer gifted with a good paying job I am going to naturally still keep this facebook profile but change the password on this facebook profile. I also intend to keep using my current Amazon profile for reviewing but I am going to have to naturally change my password on that as well. Obviously in light of what has occurred I would obviously disclose to Amazon if I ever become a paid reviewer for whatever I reviewed because of the Amazon rules of disclosure. However as a current Amateur online reviewer,I now intuitively and logically realize that I need to do something with being confused for a paid reviewer by maybe continuing to craft my passion on writing/writing improvement to self publish a planned story swirling in my mind by June 1 2018 or sooner. I am about to change my password on both my Amazon and Facebook accounts connected to the Stella Carrier accounts showing the picture of me and my amazing husband of 14 years coming up on January 22 2018 (Rusty Ridler). As I Stella Carrier previously referenced on a previous message on my facebook wall on December 15 2017 that someone andor more than one person removed, the fact that I was falsely accused of being a paid Amazon reviewer when I am actually an amateur online reviewer with a well paying job for what I do proves to me that I am more frequently watched/viewed online than I may realize and I must be both wise and careful with the internet popularity. Even though I am about to change the passwords on this facebook and amazon account in less than 2 minutes please know that I welcome any public andor private suggestions andor comments to what I wrote regardless if I may personally agree with sentiments as I logically and intuitively understand that both supportive and challenging comments help me spiritually evolve and become wiser as a person.

Stella Carrier Online Reviews Posted by Monday December 18 2017

yelp review

Five Guys

6451 America Blvd Hyattsville, MD 20782

Get Directions

Transit informationGreenYellowPrince Georges Plaza Metro More info

Phone number(301) 209-0880

Business websitefiveguys.com

Due to previous circumstances of me being confused for a professional paid reviewer, I must preface this yelp review by emphasizing that I am an online Amateur reviewer with a writing passion who understands why others may do the paid review route yet I am fortunate in being able to easily pay for many of the things I review out of my pocket because my household is just my husband and I with the blessing of both of us having good paying jobs. With that preface out of the way, I also admit that My husband and I ate at this Five Guys location in Hyattsville Maryland less than 9 hours ago after watching Star Wars the Last Jedi as this Five Guys location is close by a movie theater. My husband and I fortunately received our food within 10 minutes of us ordering and we both were satisfied with our food. My husband ordered and ate a little bacon cheeseburger with bacon mustard lettuce and tomatoes with cream soda while I ordered and ate a little bacon cheeseburger with bacon grilled onions grilled mushrooms with a vanilla rootbeer. Additionally, both my husband and I ate and shared an order of the regular size Cajun fries (even a regular size can feed two people with healthy appetites). My husband and I have at times been fortunate in being able to eat at this Hyattsville Maryland location of Five Guys since 2010. Plus we were both previously familiar with Five Guys as we both use to also eat at Five Guys during part of 2009 and 2010 when we were both residing in Orlando Florida (less than a couple of miles from the University of Central Florida campus).

images from Amazon and Yelp

A Blissful Love Song I First Heard in My Early 20s

I admit that I actually first heard this cheery love song that is Falling Into You by Celine Dion around 2001/2002 from a various artists collection when I was stationed on Yokosuka Japan. The lyrics to this song are very happy and healing. The singer weaves a powerful music story of being very much in romantic love yet it is the type of romantic love that makes her feel good. The singing is superb and Celine Dion’s rendition of Falling Into You Contains colorful metaphors pertaining to passionate love. Obviously, Falling Into You by Celine Dion is a fantastic song to add to a Happy Love Playlist.

A One of A Kind Type of Romantic Love Musical Message?

I actually first heard this song The Love of My Life by Santana feat. the Dave Matthews Band & Carter Beauford when I was around 19 years old (yes I am showing my age). This song is more on the contemporary music genre side yet is both a meaningful and positive song about a singer referencing someone who has made a major impact on him romantically speaking. The singing and the music harmonize perfectly well together in the Love of My Life.

Meaningful 80s Love Song

This song Magic by the Cars appears to be a brilliant 80s love song about the singer mentioning someone that he has a romantic hold over, almost as if the person is romantically enchanted by them. However, on a positive note, the song also seems to be a romantic story about two people who create spiritually powerful circumstances(in a beneficial way) when they are around each other (just guessing from the magic metaphor used in the song).

A Unique 80s Love Song

I confess that I actually purchased the mp3 song of Self Control by Laura Branigan through Amazon back on October 22, 2011. I consider Laura Branigan’s vocals to be a gorgeous complement to a very complex love song. Even the music video plays with the meaning of this song because she is influenced by some unexplained energy to act the way she does in what appears to be set in her sleeptime dream. I first heard this unique pop song around the time I was 8 years old via local radio. I am guessing that this song Self Control by Laura Branigan probably means to be indirectly influenced to act totally different from being completely reserved just from a particular person coming around you.

#Amazon

A Well Compiled Music Collection

This Amazon music playlist that is Now That’s What I Call Music, Vol. 55 has a medley of exquisite songs from various genres. I confess that some of my guilty pleasure songs that I enjoy from the Amazon music playlist of Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 55 are; Talking Body by Tove Lo, Style by Taylor Swift, Summer by Maroon 5, Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding,Worth It by Fifth Harmony feat. Kid Ink, Want to Want Me by Jason Derulo,and Hey Mama by David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj Bebe Rexha Afrojack. However, there are also more exciting songs on the Amazon music playlist of Now That’s What I Call Music 55 such as;Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix Radio Edit) by Omi,Lean On by Major Lazer feat. MO and DJ Snake, Fun by Pitbull feat. Chris Brown, You Know You Like It by DJ Snake and AlunaGeorge,Chains by Nick Jonas, Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran, and more.

Curiosity Influenced Me

I admit that I was curious to check out this Great Chefs of Austria film both to get an idea of how cooking traditions are done in other parts of the world and to get a glimpse into the culture of Austria even if from the 1980s as my husband is part Austrian. I admit that I only watched episode one of Great Chefs Austria Season One titled Chef Manfred Buchinger-Restaurant Hotel Inter-Continental Vier Jahreszeiten yet I plan to watch the remaining episodes of Great Chefs Austria by January 16 2018 or sooner. Some of the highlights just from episode one; a deep fried strawberries recipe and various pictures of the dishes that are about to be cooked, some video footage of some of the locals strolling by the hotel, and more.

The Power of Reputation Building

This film Top Secret Affair stars Kirk Douglas as Melville Goodwin and Susan Hayward as Dorothy Peale. Melville Goodwin obtained and worked hard by merit to get a job position with the Joint Atomic International Commission. However, Dorothy Peale wanted a friend of her father’s to get the job and so she originally sets out to use her own career position and professionally power to see to it that Goodwin’s reputation needs a dramatic makeover by the time she gets down with him. However, Peale’s plans change after she gets to know him and with how good Goodwin treats Peale considering the circumstances. This film actually gave me an idea to investigate the area of reputation even more. However, my only caveat about this film was that Peale’s treatment of Goodwin hinged on how he treated her at first. In this fiction yet brilliant film the way things worked out in this movie made sense given the time period and the career positions of Goodwin and Peale. However, this is still independent from the fact that in real-life a person (male or female) must strive to resist the urge to get back at someone even when the opportunity(opportunities) presents (present)itself (themselves) and even if it would take a miracle for the person you are tempted to get back at/get revenge on would even consider being a platonic friend. Aside from that caveat, this Top Secret Affair film was worth it to watch and shows a different acting light to Kirk Douglas’s military role in this film. If you liked Kirk Douglas’s portrayal in the Seven Days in May film you might also like this Top Secret Affair film.

Memorable Film

My husband and I fortunately had the chance to watch the previous two Star Wars films in theaters (Star Wars the Force Awakens in December 2015 and Rogue One Star Wars Story in December 2016). As a result it was an easy decision for my husband and I to watch Star Wars The Last Jedi this past weekend. There are a multiple number of compelling plot points that it is challenging for me to pinpoint the most exciting moments. This Star Wars Last Jedi film features a number of multiple actors and actresses who contributed; Daisy Ridler (Rey), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), John Boyega (Finn),Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico),Laura Dern (Vice Admiral Holdo), Benicio Del Toro (DJ), Andy Serkis (Snoke), and many more actors/actresses. The film was done in a way to make me actually have a little sympathy for Rey’s character foil Kylo Ren because of the back history involving Rey’s character foil and Luke Skywalker. I understand that all three characters were just portraying their roles scripted for them in a brilliant fashion. It is just that I found myself surprised at being able to easily see and understand why all three of those characters did some of the things that they did in the film(because of the way that the plots were created in Star Wars Last Jedi).I must refrain from saying too much more out of consideration for others looking at this review who want to see the film. Yet, I must admit and share that I also enjoyed the world-building with multiple characters weaved in that were brought to life when the characters of Finn and Rose Tico had to go to a well constructed/well maintained world/environment because of a do or die situation.

Personal Website IdeasI confess that even as an Amateur online reviewer blessed with a food services job that pays me abundantly for what I do I recently realized the challenging way that I must learn about reputation building via online tools. This is due to recent circumstances that gave me important clues that my passion for prolific writing was indirectly paving the way for me to be confused for a paid online critic rather than an Amateur online reviewer. Please understand that I see the good in being a paid online critic, it is just that I am only illustrating why I realize that I must work on building my own online reputation regardless of whether I originally set out to do so beforehand. Some of the helpful tidbits in this kindlebook that is Online Reputation Management; The 28 Day Challenge; Get Your Personal Brand in Shape by Ryan Erskine;building a personal website (something I need to have implemented by June 1 2018 or sooner), the anatomy of a friendly biography in a certain format as recommended by the author, optimizing social media profiles and putting locations on each of them,info on blog posts, publishing a backstory, and much more.

Directory of Some Disney Drinks

Even as an Amateur online review who has drinked only occasionally in the past something compelled me to obtain this kindlebook that is Drinking At Disney; A Tipsy Travel Guide To Walt Disney’s Bars, Lounges, & Glow Cubes by Rhiannon and Daniel Miller. Some of the details in this kindlebook that is Drinking At Disney by Rhiannon and Daniel Miller; various drinks listed such as Raspberry Ginger Mojito, Rye Manhattan drink listed, sidecar noir drink listed, Captain’s Mai Tai drink ingredients listed, ingredients listed for both a magical star cocktail and banana spiced rum martini, chapter 3 various drinks sold within the Magic Kingdom park, chapter 4 drinks sold at the Epcot park, some of the drinks offered at the countries featured within Epcot such as drinks offered within the Norway cart (Aquavit glacier shot), and more.

Disney Eating

I preface this review of the kindlebook of Walt Disney World Dining Guide 2018 by Andrea McGann Keech and Bob McLain by making it clear that I am an Amatuer online reviewer with a writing passion who has been an Amazon customer since the early 2000s and an Amatuer online reviewer since June 15 2008. With that out of the way the following are some of the fascinating details in this kindlebook that is the Walt Disney World Dining Guide 2018 by Andrea McGann and Bob McLain; there are currently at least 25 Disney Resort Hotels, 4 Major Theme Parks, at least 150 different places to eat within Walt Disney World, What the Disney Dining Plan Does For You, Tables in Wonderland, advance dining reservations, quick service counter service meals, unique themed meals, fine signature meals, trades, pizza delivery service, character meals, Disney signature restaurants such as California Grill at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Le Cellier Steakhouse at the Canada Pavilion at Epcot, three Disney Dining plans, free Disney dining plans,and much more.

A Fiction Story With Powerful Writing Encouragement Parables

Due to the circumstances of being confused for a paid professional reviewer,I preface this review of this kindlebook of I Am A Writer; A Story About Finding Your Inner Author (The Mentor Code Series-How To Be A Writer Book 1) by C.G. Cooper by making it crystal clear that I am an Amateur online reviewer with a passion for writing who has been an Amazon customer since the early 2000s (when I was stationed in Yokosuka Japan through the military) and my first online reviewer as an Amateur Amazon reviewer was on June 15 2018 for Madonna’s Hard Candy cd(when I was residing in Norfolk Virginia also through the military). With that out of the way, I obtained this encouraging guide that is I Am A Writer; A Story About Finding Your Inner Author by C.G. Cooper with the good fortune of knowing that even my husband is supportive of me holding a full-time job and writing part time. Some of the encouraging ideas in this fictional kindlebook that is I Am A Writer by C.G. Cooper; how one of the characters meets a mentor who teaches her various ideas for writing and reading,one of the characters in the story being encouraged in partnership with other writers, a website to actually engage with other writers, the plot point of one of the characters even meeting up with the “Coffeehouse Crew” at least three times a week for writing mentorship, and more. I confess that I am in the process of working on the powerful encouragement to write something everyday (7 times a week) as sometimes even with my passion for writing I sometimes write just 4 to 5 times a week. However, just this reminder alone in this encouraging kindlebook makes me reconsider trying again to at least aim for 5 to 6 times a week.