#big fan of the god complex quote
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any new Star Wars essays in the making, or are you moving on?
I don't know, honestly.
Part of it is "life gets in the way," I'm working a lot and so whatever time I have left is spent just messing around or meeting with my loved ones.
I've got a bunch of stuff in my drafts. I don't mind sharing it here, most recent to oldest:
Sort of a joke post of me pointing out how stressful being George Lucas' producer must've been, like this guy really DIDN'T WANT to write his fucking scripts, did he? Poor Rick McCallum. Abandoned because who gives a crap.
'Ask' reply on how EU-fueled fandom perception of the Jedi was flipped by the prequels.
'Ask' reply about the themes in Ahsoka and why the show doesn't know what it's about. Problem is, I go about it starting from the basics, so nobody's gonna sit through reading a tematic breakdown of the first Pirates of the Carribean movie, The Batman and the original six Star Wars films before I even get to the show at hand.
"Part II" post about what Ahsoka, Rebels and TCW get right about lightsaber duels, which the Prequels never did.
Quote collection & analysis on just how complex the Prequels were meant to be (in the late 80s, Lucas intimated that the Sequels were the story that was supposed to have gray morality, not the Prequels)
Quote collection on how the themes and principles of Star Wars align with Lucas' own opinions and philosophies.
Quote collection on Lucas defining Anakin's flaws.
Quote collection on Lucas talking about the fact that we need to be more proactive, which aligns with what Lumi points out sometimes about the Jedi: they should've been more politically engaged because we all should be.
Why I approach Lucas as "word of god".
Personal life/joke-y post dating from the time of the WGA strike about how Jack Black's School of Rock lyrics "In his heart he knew, the artist must be true, but the legend of the rent was way past due!" applied to me. Abandoned because I didn't wanna bum everyone out.
Correcting the notion that Dark Times-era Jedi such as Kanan or Ezra or Ahsoka represent what Jedi were supposed to be.
A comprehensive end-all outlook on how Anakin's flaws all tie together. I've written this one twice and I don't know how to differentiate it from my other posts.
A secret "Part 3" to my TLJ Luke post, in which I point out that RJ's being too "indie", while being a strong point for a big chunk of the film, hampers the film's ability to make Luke feel as badass as he does on paper. I want to illustrate a storyboard for this one, but that takes time.
The evolution of Star Wars' approach to transmedia.
Debunking Star Wars myths: a (very) comprehensive outlook on children in the Jedi Order.
Problem is that only like 2/3rds of these are fully-written... and I still need to find the relevant clips, turn them into GIFs, etc etc.
There's many other interesting Asks in my inbox btw. But I'm already behind on all these, so I haven't begun to touch them.
Then there's the drawings.
I wanna draw a comic of the meeting between Yoda and Dooku in Dark Rendezvous. I wanna finish the comic fight between Maul and Ben. I wanna draw Mace, Shaak Ti, I've got a Luminara fan-art that was supposed to be ready for Jedi June 2022 and an Anakin drawing that looks weird. No time, nor am I skilled enough.
(Like, I trace, that's what I do, it's not a secret I've said so before... but it takes me a long while to do so. I'm not fast at drawing, let alone coloring.)
I could commission some of these, but there are obvious obstacles there.
There's fun tidbits I've discovered here and there but nobody will care about them and I usually try to not drown my blog with bs posts.
Then there's the bigger problem.
All the things I've listed above? I'm not 100% motivated to finish. But a lot of the new stuff I wanna write about is hella negative.
I had a lot of stuff I wanted to say about Ahsoka. But it wasn't all good. It was mostly me bitching, be it about the show or the fandom's reactions to it.
I've also got more stuff to say about Filoni's take on Star Wars, but I've talked about why it's inaccurate like 8 times already, and I don't actually dislike the guy, like there's plenty of things he knows and does that I think are awesome but also people won't stop putting him and his takes on a pedestal and--
oh shit, there's Acolyte too, I forgot about that, gray morality galore, here we come. But here too, like... I've talked a couple of times about why this entire gray morality thing is actually just the gen X-ers trying to make the prequels "cool" and "complex". but I've never explored properly, with quotes and research and shit. but i've talked about it so many times that at this point it'd end up like the Filoni rants, redundant. "we get it already." as if this show didn't have haters lined round the block for absolutely sexist reasons.
Don't get me started on the mountain of lies and/or idiocy that is the YouTuber Star Wars Theory.
And yet he said one thing a few months ago which struck a chord within me and it's the fact that Andor is awesome, excels on all levels because it's treated seriously, like a proper show, not a Disney Plus one... why wasn't Obi-Wan Kenobi? Why wasn't Book of Boba Fett? And I've already established multiple times that I enjoyed Kenobi (yes, including the Reva parts) and I've established that I know what they were going for in Fett and I've established that this is mainly a "Disney Plus didn't know how to structure a fucking show pre-WGA strike" issue more than anything else... but when I think about how these could've been treated instead? When I look at the characterizations and emotional stakes of like Fargo Season 5? It's infuriating. Because it's not bad (talking about Kenobi, BOBF is awful)... but it could've been EXCELLENT and instead it was just "okay" to "good".
I just miss live action lightsaber duels, man. Like, good ones.
and i dunno. maybe I should just let it rip on all this. "go off, king!"
but I think there's so much negativity re: Star Wars that adding my thoughts on these subjects, no matter how structured and reason, will just blend into a wave of needless, un-constructive hate.
maybe I should finish the writings in the drafts and just post them with no gifs, maybe just still images?
but doing any of that feels like a step back.
So that's where I'm at right now.
#just noticed#started this post spelling it “I don't know” and ended it by spelling it “I dunno”#there's all you need to know about where i am right now#sw negativity#i guess?#bummed everyone out after all
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Round 2 - Side A
Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series) vs Belizabeth Brassica (Dimension 20’s A Crown of Candy)
Propaganda below ⬇️
Angel
I don’t remember if he was Catholic as a human (he was Irish like a few hundred years ago so probably) but his guilt complex as a vampire is so fucking massive it has to be Catholic lbr
well he's from 1700s ireland so. theres that. he's (for most of the series) the only vampire with a soul and he uses that soul to feel really guilty for everything all the time. he moves to LA and starts saving people from demons to try and atone for everything he did while he was a soulless vampire
he makes exactly one facial expression and its |:<
Belizabeth
stupid broccoli pope. i hate them so much. if you want evil catholics man oh man do i have one for you. she orders a cultural genocide wrapped up nicely in the mantle of a “crusade” for political reasons and then proceeds to forgive her closest ally from that reason of all blame for some reason like what the hell woman. also you gotta talk about the fact that, to quote the campaign “you don’t think she cares. she gets what she wants out of the bulb and that is power” in response to a question if she knows that her god is a mindless force of nature. and as soon as she gets called on that brennan lee goddamn mulligan delivers a small two-word line in the best way possible. like “end it” isnt much of a line but i find myself quoting it on the regular come ON
She’s an insane #girlboss so caught up in the power trip of leading the church that she stopped caring about whether God actually cares about anyone. She personally saw to the murder of a fan favorite (RIP Lapin). She is unhinged.
Honestly I haven’t yet watched A Crown of Candy so all I know is she’s the broccoli Pope and she has big tits.
you’re not going to believe me when i tell you that this piece. of broccoli. gave me, a full hindu, catholic guilt but i swear on her godforsaken vegetable tits that she did she’s like if the annapantsu cover of hellfire from hunchback was a vegetable was a person yk? yk
Gay and homophobic. I never finished ACoC but I love Dimension 20. I hate this woman. Also the image you used for her being the 420 submission is very funny cause like. She’s Broccoli. She does just actually look like that.
#belizabeth brassica#d20 a crown of candy#a crown of candy#cct polls#tumblr tournament#tumblr bracket#tumblr polls#angel buffy#buffy the vampire slayer#angel the series
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axel is 23-26, change anons mind
I've done this already, please have mercy. Here, i'll link posts, but the onus is really on you to show me any canon material or Word Of God (Nomura) stating Axel's age, because you're the one who came into my inbox.
Short post with official quotes: https://crackinwise.tumblr.com/post/184655048560/axelroxas
Someone else's short post with visuals to show poor character design leading to confusion: https://crackinwise.tumblr.com/post/184652958734/whats-the-deal-with-the-age-gap-akuroku
Another's post: https://crackinwise.tumblr.com/post/184236405654/fiction-is-fiction-but-also-i-only-just-learned
Very long and detailed argument I already had with some thick pinhead, listing canon and sources: https://crackinwise.tumblr.com/post/184769513314/axels-age
And if you don't want to read all that, I really don't care. Think what you want bc it's literally never stated anywhere, even among all the retcons. I was like 21 when KH2 came out and me along with every single other fan online thought Axel was 17-19 because his best friend he grew a heart for and obsessed over finding is also a teenager, and there is zero dialogue stating his feelings are big-brotherly or paternal, so if he wasn't around that age it'd be extremely weird. It didn't matter how long he'd been a Nobody either bc "Nobodies don't age" -- Word of God. Dude could've been Nobody'd as a teen, spent 10yrs in hanging out in their absurdist twelve-person apartment complex in the void, and not be any older.
Also he can fly in Neverland, so.
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Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers: Live Redemption
youtube
Kendrick Lamar recently began his tour of his new album "Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers", (click here to read my review on the album), beginning in June and ending in June. Kendrick again continues to dominate the rap industry with his global performances, that incorporate flashy dance moves and Kendrick's raw talent in the art. Lamar also took a unique approach to adding visual aspects to enhance the show, by including instruments such as the piano or even a puppet (as shown in the video above (the full 8 part performance can be found in this channel)). During his second performance, Kendrick mimics being a ventriloquist while singing his song, further putting his unique personality on display. I thought that overall, the connection between the audience and Kendrick was extremely strong, as Kendrick would often pause and let the audience finish the lyric, often a common thing for performers to do. However, while I was not able to physically go to the concert, I could still feel the passion and energy of the crowd through my virtual screen. Overall, I thought that Kendrick delivered on yet another big performance that definitely redeems the controversial aspects of the album itself.
The song lineup (link to the full lineup can be found here), included many songs that debuted in his album (obviously), but also some of his older songs. Songs such as "HUMBLE.", "Backseat Freestyle", "DNA", and more all made nostalgic comebacks during this performance. These songs were some of my favorites by Kendrick, and judging by the popularity of these songs, I'm sure the public doesn't disagree. Some did however, question the order in which these songs were played, and found that quote, "It was a bit ballsy to mesh tracks out of order, we wonder if this was the rapper’s intention. Was he hoping to leave his fans with a feeling of introspection by the time they head home?" (okayplayer.com). However, while this author found it particularly strange and unorganized to have the songs in such a sporadic order, I found it exciting. The thrill of not knowing what will come next, I felt enhanced the overall attentiveness of the audience. And so, I believe that the anticipation and transition between nostalgia and appreciation of the new songs, allowed for a perfect mix and overall connection between the different people in the audience. Fans that loved Lamar's old music as well as the ones who love his new stuff were able to get the best of both worlds and bond over what they came for, Kendrick himself.
In conclusion, I felt that the concert was a big step up from the backlash that it originally faced, and that Kendrick's incorporation of his older music even symbolizes the return of his popularity. I feel like the quote, "“I am not your savior.” And he’s right. He’s not our savior, and we shouldn’t expect him or any other recording artist to be. But he’s an incredible showman, and The Big Steppers tour is a damn good way to spend a night out," (Complex), perfectly demonstrates the separation between his performance and the album. That night, he was not regarded as the controversial artist who claimed to be a savior or God himself, but rather a showman who was there to entertain his audience and put on a good show. And so, I'm sure that after being rewarded with such a good performance, his audience was ready to be more forgiving of the controversial Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers.
#kendrick#kendrick lamar#mr morale and the big steppers#concert#performance#popular#new york#humble#live performance#Youtube
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BOOK REVIEW: Biography of X
As far as biographies go, I’m not usually a big fan. There are, of course, some anomalies like I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy or anything by Joan Didion.
So it kind of makes sense that a biography written about a fictional celebrity would intrigue me more than one of a celebrity that isn’t. Biography of X toes that line, and in doing so, calls the whole genre into question.
The book follows life post-X, through the eyes and mind of her widow, whose name remains unclear. We learn through snippets of opinions and quotes that X was extremely experimental in her art, seeing herself not as an artist, but as the art itself. She’s essentially what Kanye wishes he was.
But as her wife reluctantly delves into her life, the life she had before she became the infamous X and the long trail of names that she used as costumes over the course of her life, we learn that there was much to hide. Interestingly, as well as the novel being about a fictional celebrity, it is also set in an alternate America. One that had a wall constructed to segregate the North territory from the South, a much more conservative and religious community. This is where X’s life began, and while there are many surprising things we learn, a lot of it makes us understand the woman she became.
As with the biographic genre, there were parts I was more invested than others. The most tragic and obscure sections of the novel were captivating, while the chronicles of her life in New York, blending into the contemptuous world of modern art were bland. Whether this was intentional or not, we’ll never know, but I do know that it was accurately boring. Like any third party observing a small, closed inner circle, the art world seemed small and wanky. And the book doesn’t try to change our minds about that, thankfully.
Our narrator and main character was dry, continually questioning why her late wife even liked her to begin with, seeing as everyone else she knew was far more interesting than she was, which made her uncomfortably close to how any mere mortal would feel in the presence of a woman who likened herself to god. And X was mythic, and aware of it. Complex in some scenes, but in others painfully simple.
So what was she? Just a small-world girl who wanted to make something of herself? Or someone destined for greatness, so magnificent that not even the New York art scene in the 90s could appreciate her?
The question lingers with us, the reader, and even after finishing the book, while we know she never really existed at all, somehow, somewhere, she might.
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ᴏᴘᴘᴇɴʜᴇɪᴍᴇʀ
Last week I had the opportunity to watch Oppenheimer on the big screen (thank you sis for sponsoring my movie ticket) and it was honestly amazing. I am not really into movies and the fact that it managed to capture my attention and engulf me into the story is really something.
First things first, the acting in the movie was incredible. Especially that of Robert Downey Jr. who played Lewis Strauss. His smiles can convey so many complex emotions, I was stunned. The second actor that I think I should mention is Matt Damon who played gen. Leslie Groves and with his acting he could single handedly immerse me back into the story (we will go back to the spacing part).
The scenery and music were amazing, and shots from the movie can function as art pieces independently. Especially the views from empty Los Alamos.
As for my problems with the film, it was a really intense experience for the viewer. Don’t get me wrong, I like intense experiences but this film is too long to just keep the tension at the same level. It can easily overwhelm the average viewer. The dialogues rarely had breaks between them, all the conversations were quite quick. The viewer is expected to quickly learn all the characters' names to be able to go along with the story. It didn’t help that the film doesn’t have a single chronological timeline. It jumps between events which can sometimes be confusing..
There is also another thing that it contributed to. Every movie, novel and story has to build tension in important moments and also give rest stops so that the viewer is still immersed in the story. This is one of the most important things while directing a movie - to keep the viewer engaged. Oppenheimer had some rest stops but because of the quick paced dialogue, jumping between events and the need to explain the science presented in the film (nobody said it was gonna be easy, what can I say), the rest stops are almost unnoticeable because the viewer is so focused on keeping on with the movie that this tension can’t be released so easily. I can compare it to working on an important project before the deadline and then getting up to get some more coffee. You can’t possibly feel rested from that short break. The pressure was too big so the break needed to be longer.
And with that all said and all things considered, they did an amazing job with this film. My brain was a little fried but I was satisfied.
The movie made me think again about the book I had read lately which is The God Equation by Michio Kaku. Maybe I will write about it in the future but I sincerely recommend reading it. The author makes it easy to read and understand, and includes very interesting topics and stories.
I think that thanks to this book I was enjoying the movie even more. Especially since I could understand a bit more than a standard viewer.
In one point in the movie someone says to Oppenheimer that people listen to him as if he is a prophet and when that's the case he just can’t afford to be wrong. This scene made me remember a certain quote which is:
"𝘐𝘧 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭." - 𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳
And with that, I give the movie overall 8.5/10. I recommend it sincerely to everyone, and if you are not a fan of historical movies or something, just grab your friend and go to Oppenheimer and Barbie on the same day.
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Ride
Pairing: Bucky x fem!reader
Word Count: 1,585
Summary: Gatherings can't be that bad, right? Especially if your boyfriend convinces you to ditch early for a ride home on his motorcycle. It's just unfortunate he's gotta rile you up beforehand.. .
Warnings: 18+, kinda masturbation/edging by motorcycle???, teasing, pet names; sweetheart, doll, cocky Bucky (what? He's definitely a warning)
Notes: This idea came to me and I absolutely could NOT put it down. I don't typically write smut or anything along those lines, so any feedback is appreciated! This is way out of my comfort zone😅
____________
"Come on, Sam is waiting on us."
You roll your eyes and dramatically throw yourself back on the bed. "Yeah well, Sam can wait. I don't even want to be there."
"And you think I do?" He calls to you, pulling on his gloves and nearly stomping back towards your room.
"Bucky, I don't want to go." He stands in your doorway and you pout at him, making him sigh.
He cocks an eyebrow at you. "I know. But who says we gotta stay all night?" At this, you raise up from your mopey position. "We make an appearance, talk to Sam for a little while, then get lost in the crowd and disappear. He won't even notice."
You hum thoughtfully. "Good point." You swing your legs over the bed and slip into your Converse shoes, plastering a smile to your face and gleefully skipping due to the fact you'll get to leave early.
Sam was having a reunion party with some buddies from his Afghanistan tours. It was a huge event downtown, but neither you nor Bucky was a big fan of crowds. So the two of you only considered going in support of Sam.
Bucky stopped on the apartment complex's steps, narrowing his eyes at an empty parking spot. "He took my bike."
You snorted. "Cab it is."
________
Shortly you arrive at the event and he opens the cab door for you, his knuckles grazing down your arm to catch your hand in his. The action sends a shudder through your body and he smirks, stopping to give you a scheming look.
"What?" you ask him, furrowing your eyebrows and squeezing his hand.
"Nothing," he simpers.
You decide to be suspicious of him for the rest of the evening.
There are a plethora of people but you both advance through the crowd in search of Sam, Bucky stopping you to point out that Sam is quite preoccupied. He nudges you towards the most empty table he can find so you can sit down. On either side of you both is an empty seat, and the rest of the chairs are filled by half-drunk, burly men sporting drinks.
One of them turns to you and introduces himself and his comrades. A few of them take quick note of Bucky's name, quoting something Sam has mentioned about him before then thanking Bucky for his service. You wrap your arm around his middle and look up at him with pride, nuzzling yourself closer to your soldier.
You're both quiet as the vets around you continue their chatter about their best times, their laughter making the atmosphere light. You have to admit, you might actually be enjoying yourself. You're lost in a story about a guy teaching his kid how to hot wire a car when a hand squeezes your thigh.
Your knee immediately jerks and hits the table and you have to bite your bottom lip to stifle a yelp. A few heads turn in your direction and as you feel the warmth spreading to your face, you feign a sneeze, apologizing for the interruption. Bucky remains dead panned, although the sides of his mouth subtly quirk up. You glare at him. "Bless you, sweetheart," he patronizes. You shift uncomfortably as the men return to their conversations.
His hand makes its way back to your thigh and you inhale sharply through your nose. "Bucky," you whimper, swallowing hard.
"Gotta keep quiet for me, doll, or I'll stop," he tuts lowly. Instinctively you spread your legs a little to make enough room for his hand. Your breath hitches as he circles your clit with his middle finger, lightly tracing down your clothed mound. You curse yourself for wearing jeans, because the thickness of the denim heavily affects the way he feels against you.
But you want more.
He presses harder until Sam struts over to the table, and Bucky innocuously throws his arm around your shoulder. You huff in frustration and he chuckles.
"Surprised you two haven't left yet," Sam laughs, sipping a beer and slapping a hand over Bucky's shoulder.
"Why would we do that?" Bucky asks sarcastically.
Sam rolls his eyes playfully. "Stay awhile, enjoy the sunset and have a drink. They're all on the house." You both pause in thought. "I knew that would convince you!"
"Well," you start. "The sky is gorgeous right now. Maybe just one drink till the sun sets."
Someone then calls for Sam and he excuses himself, telling you he'll see you back at home later. You watch him disappear into the crowd, reality hitting you that you're still worked up from Bucky's teasing. And all it takes is a devious look from him to get you riled up again. You shoot up from your seat to thank the vets around you for their service, and tell them that it was nice to meet them, but you have some personal matters to attend to at home. Bucky follows suit, grabbing your hand.
You try to push your way through the crowd without an obvious, horny spring in your step, and as you pass by a table, Bucky fishes a beer with his free hand without stopping.
"I'll call the cab back here and we can-"
"No."
"What?" You stop in your tracks and Bucky lets go of you, continuing to walk to where his motorcycle is parked. He beckons you over with a crooked finger as he mounts the bike, and you fold your arms over your chest, cocking an eyebrow.
"What? It's not like he'll be able to drive tonight anyway." He foots the kick stand, placing his beer in the back compartment then bringing his hands up to twist around the handlebars. "Come on, let's go watch the sunset."
"The-the sunset?" You ask incredulously.
"What? You said it was pretty, let's go get a closer look." Your eye twitches at his feigned ignorance.
"Bucky I swear to god if you don't take me right now-"
He grins. "Then I just won't take you at all." He revs the engine once to accentuate his threat and you groan. "Come on or I'll leave you."
"Fine."
You march over to him and swing your leg over the bike, nestling yourself into his back and situating your hands on top of his shoulders. The engine roars to life, the heads of onlookers catching your eye and in one swift motion he kicks it into gear and you're off.
The winds whips your hair and licks at your face, causing you to constantly tear it away from your eyes. Once free, you take in the view before you, ever amazed at how the sun sets on the water; the sky glows with an orange and pink hue, making it look like a painting. And for a moment you forget about your throbbing lower half until you shift to get a little more comfortable on the seat and oh. Oh.
Your hands impulsively tighten around his shoulders and your jaw goes slack, gasping as the vibration from the motorcycle hits just the right spot. You let out a light moan and no sooner clap a hand over your mouth, hoping Bucky hasn't heard you. Your head slumps forward on his back.
"You good back there?" He yells over his shoulder.
"Y-yeah! Uh-all good!" you wheeze, attempting not to sound too out of sorts. The street is bare as he stops at a red light, and you try to breathe so as not to let the pleasure overtake you. It's not that you don't want to let go, it's just that you know you'll never hear the end of it from him of you do.
When the light turns green, he revs the engine so many times you lose count. Your mind is swirling in ecstacy and you start to pant faster, clinging onto Bucky for dear life as you near your release.
You screw your eyes shut, the coil finally snapping while you bite down harshly on the shoulder of his leather jacket. By this point you're unabashedly gasping and moaning, your hips bucking wildly into the seat as your clit is overstimulated to the point it hurts.
You pray for the ride to your apartment to end while he speeds up, causing you to sob into the waves of pleasure the vibrations are granting you. You claw mindlessly at his torso until he finally slows to a stop, and you catch your breath to come to your senses. You can't help the nagging, coherent thought that the ride home had taken a lot longer than usual and you realize the sky is now completely black and littered with stars.
He knew. That fucker knew.
Bucky dismounts the vehicle and stands before you with a hand on his hip and a smug demeanor. You lean forward on your hands, still heaving to try and even out your breath.
"Enjoy the ride?" Bucky taunts, flat lining his lips.
"Fuck-" pant "-you," you nearly spit. He chuckles darkly. "You were edging me, with a goddamn motorcycle."
He scratches the back of his head. "I might have added a little extra something just for you."
You raise your head. "Why don't we go upstairs and you let me get my revenge?"
He huffs. "What's the point? You already came all over my seat."
"It wasn't your cock," you retort, untangling your wobbly legs from the bike. Bucky reaches out to steady you, pulling you to him by your waist.
"Fair point, pretty girl."
#marvel#bucky barnes#bucky barnes fluff#bucky barnes x reader#marvel cinematic universe#bucky x reader#bucky barnes imagine#bucky x y/n#bucky barnes fanfiction#bucky x female reader#fanfiction#my writing#my fic#bucky x reader smut#bucky barnes x reader smut#james buchanan barnes#james bucky barnes#the winter soldier#tfatws
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'Loki' takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU
Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.
Tom Hiddleston is Loki, and he is burdened with glorious purpose: After playing Thor's puckish brother for over a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no one understands the mercurial Asgardian God of Mischief as well as the actor. He can teach an entire seminar on Loki if given the opportunity — which he actually did during pre-production on his forthcoming Disney+ show. In conversation, Hiddleston quotes lines from his MCU debut, 2011's Thor, almost verbatim, and will playfully correct you if you mistakenly refer to Asgard's Rainbow Bridge as the Bifrost, which is the portal that connects Loki and Thor's homeworld to the Nine Realms, including Midgard, a.k.a. Earth. "Well, the Bifrost technically is the energy that runs through the bridge," he says with a smile. "But nine points to Gryffindor!" And when he shows up to the photo shoot for this very digital cover, he hops on a call with our photo editor to pitch ways the concept could be even more Loki, like incorporating the flourish the trickster does whenever magically conjuring something. The lasting impression is that playing Loki isn't just a paycheck.
"Rather than ownership, it's a sense of responsibility I feel to give my best every time and do the best I can because I feel so grateful to be a part of what Marvel Studios has created," the 40-year-old Brit tells EW over Zoom a few days after the shoot and a week out from Thor's 10th anniversary. "I just want to make sure I've honored that responsibility with the best that I can give and the most care and thought and energy."
After appearing in three Thor movies and three Avengers, Hiddleston is bringing that passion to his first solo Marvel project, Loki, the House of Ideas' third Disney+ series following the sitcom pastiche WandaVision and the topical The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Led by head writer Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Heels), the six-episode drama sees Hiddleston's shapeshifting agent of chaos step out from behind his brother's shadow and into the spotlight for a timey-wimey, sci-fi adventure that aims to get to the bottom of who Loki really is. "I wanted to explore slightly more complex character questions," says Waldron. "It's not just good versus bad. Is anybody all good? Is anybody all bad? What makes a hero, a hero? A villain, a villain?"
Even though Loki — who loves sowing mayhem with his illusion magic and shapeshifting, all with a major chip on his shoulder — has never been one for introspection, the idea of building an entire show around him was a no-brainer for Marvel. When asked why Loki was one of the studio's first Disney+ shows, Marvel president Kevin Feige replies matter-of-factly, "More Hiddleston, more Loki." First introduced as Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) envious brother in Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Loki went full Big Bad in 2012's The Avengers. That film cemented the impish rogue as one of the shared universe's fan favorites, thanks to Hiddleston's ability to make him deliciously villainous yet charismatic and, most importantly, empathetic. The character's popularity is one of the reasons he's managed to avoid death many times.
"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."
The Loki we meet on the show is not the one who fought the Avengers in 2012 and evolved into an antihero in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok before meeting his demise at the hands of the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. Instead, we'll be following a Loki from a branched timeline (a variant, if you will) after he stole the Tesseract following his thwarted New York invasion and escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. custody during the time heist featured in Avengers: Endgame. In other words, this Loki hasn't gone through any sort of redemption arc. He's still the charming yet petulant god who firmly believes he's destined to rule and has never gotten his due.
Premiering June 9, Loki begins with the Time Variance Authority — a bureaucratic organization tasked with safeguarding the proper flow of time — arresting the Loki Variant seen in Endgame because they want his help fixing all of the timeline problems he caused while on the run with the Tesseract. So there will be time travel, and a lot more of it than in Endgame. As Loki makes his way through his own procedural, he'll match wits with new characters including Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius, a brilliant TVA analyst, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Renslayer. The question in early episodes is whether Loki will help them or take over.
"One of the things Kevin Feige led on was, 'I think we should find a way of exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor,' or see him in a duality or in relationship with others, which I thought was very exciting," says Hiddleston, who also serves as an executive producer on the show. "So the Odinson saga, that trilogy of films, still has its integrity, and we don't have to reopen it and retell it."
Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.
Hiddleston can't believe how long he and Loki have been connected. "I've been playing this character for 11 years," he says. "Which is the first time I have said that sentence, I realize, and it [blows] my mind. I don't know what percentage that is exactly of my 40 years of being alive, but it's substantial."
His time as Loki actually goes a bit further back, to 2009 — a year after Robert Downey Jr. big banged the MCU into existence with Iron Man — when he auditioned for Thor. It's no secret that Hiddleston initially went in for the role of the titular God of Thunder, but Feige and director Kenneth Branagh thought his natural charm and flexibility as an actor made him better suited for the movie's damaged antagonist. "Tom gave you an impression that he could be ready for anything, performance-wise," says Branagh, who had previously worked with him on a West End revival of Checkov's Ivanov and the BBC series Wallander. "Tom has a wild imagination, so does Loki. He's got a mischievous sense of humor and he was ready to play. It felt like he had a star personality, but he was a team player."
Hiddleston fully immersed himself in the character. Outside of studying Loki's history in the Marvel Comics, he also researched how Loki and the Trickster God archetype appeared across mythology and different cultures. "He understood that he was already in something special [and] it was a special character in a special part of that early moment in the life of the Marvel universe where [he] also needed to step up in other ways," says Branagh, who was impressed by the emotional depth Hiddleston brought to the part, especially when it came to how isolated Loki felt in the Asgardian royal family.
There was a lot riding on that first Thor feature. For one, no one knew if audiences would immediately latch onto a Shakespearean superhero movie partially set on an alien planet populated by the Norse Gods of legend. Second, it was integral to Feige's plans for the shared universe. Loki was supposed to be the main villain in The Avengers, which would not only mirror how Earth's mightiest heroes joined forces in 1963's Avengers #1 but also give Thor a believable reason for teaming up with Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), and the rest of the capes. Feige first clued Hiddleston into those larger plans when the actor was in L.A. before Thor started shooting.
"I was like, 'Excuse me?' Because he was already three, four steps ahead," says Hiddleston. "That took me a few minutes to process, because I didn't quite realize how it just suddenly had a scope. And being cast as Loki, I realized, was a very significant moment for me in my life, and was going to remain. The creative journey was going to be so exciting."
Hiddleston relished the opportunity to go full villain in Avengers, like in the scene where Loki ordered a crowd to kneel before him outside a German opera house: "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation," says the Machiavellian god. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."
"I just knew that in the structure of that film, I had to lean into his role as a pure antagonist," Hiddleston recalls. "What I always found curious and complex about the way Loki is written in Avengers, is that his status as an antagonist comes from the same well of not belonging and being marginalized and isolated in the first Thor film. Loki now knows he has no place in Asgard."
Loki did find a place within the audience's hearts, though. Feige was "all in" on Hiddleston as his Loki from the beginning, but even he couldn't predict how much fans would love him. Feige recalls the reaction at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con: "Did we know that after he was the villain in two movies, he would be bringing thousands of people to their feet in Hall H, in costume, chanting his name? No, that was above and beyond the plan that we were hoping for and dreaming of." It was a dream Feige first got an inkling of a year earlier during the Avengers press tour when a Russian fan slipped past security, snuck into Mark Ruffalo's car, and asked the Hulk actor to give Hiddleston a piece of fan art she created. "That was one of the early signs there was much more happening with this quote-unquote villain."
Despite that popularity, the plan was to kill Loki off in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, but the studio reversed course after test audiences refused to believe he actually died fighting the Dark Elves. Alas, he couldn't out-illusion death forever. After returning in Taika Waititi's colorful and idiosyncratic Thor: Ragnarok, Hiddleston's character perished for real in the opening moments of Infinity War. In typical Loki fashion, before Thanos crushed his windpipe, he delivered a defiant speech that indicated he'd finally made peace with the anger he felt toward his family.
"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.
But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.
Credit: Charlie Gray for EW
When Hiddleston returned to film two scenes in Avengers: Endgame in 2017, he had no idea where Loki portaled off to after snatching the Tesseract. "Where'd he go? When does he go? How does he get there? These are all questions I remember asking on the day, and then not being given any answers," Hiddleston recalls. To be fair, it's likely the Powers That Be didn't necessarily have answers then. While Feige can't exactly recall when the writers' room for Endgame first devised Loki's escape sequence, he does know that setting up a future show wasn't the primary goal — because a Loki series wasn't on the horizon just yet.
"[That scene] was really more of a wrinkle so that one of the missions that the Avengers went on in Endgame could get screwed up and not go well, which is what required Cap and Tony to go further back in time to the '70s," says Feige. Soon after that, though, former Disney CEO Bob Iger approached Feige about producing content for the studio's forthcoming streaming service. "I think the notion that we had left this hanging loose end with Loki gave us the in for what a Loki series could be. So by the time [Endgame] came out, we did know where it was going."
As for Hiddleston, he didn't find out about the plans for a Loki show until spring 2018, a few weeks before Infinity War hit theaters. "I probably should not have been surprised, but I was," says the actor. "But only because Infinity War had felt so final."
Nevertheless, Hiddleston was excited about returning for his show. He was eager to explore Loki's powers, especially the shapeshifting, and what it meant that this disruptive figure still managed to find a seat beside the gods in mythology. "I love this idea [of] Loki's chaotic energy somehow being something we need. Even though, for all sorts of reasons, you don't know whether you can trust him. You don't know whether he's going to betray you. You don't why he's doing what he's doing," says Hiddleston. "If he's shapeshifting so often, does he even know who he is? And is he even interested in understanding who he is? Underneath all those masks, underneath the charm and the wit, which is kind of a defense anyway, does Loki have an authentic self? Is he introspective enough or brave enough to find out? I think all of those ideas are all in the series — ideas about identity, ideas about self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and the difficulty of it."
“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”
The thing that truly sold Hiddleston on the show was Marvel's decision to include the Time Variance Authority, a move he describes as "the best idea that anybody had pertaining to the series." Feige and Loki executive producer Stephen Broussard had hoped to find a place for the TVA — an organization that debuted in 1986's Thor #372 and has appeared in She-Hulk and Fantastic Four stories — in the MCU for years, but the right opportunity never presented itself until Loki came along. "Putting Loki into his own procedural series became the eureka moment for the show," says Feige.
The TVA's perspective on time and reality also tied into the themes that Waldron, Loki's head writer, was hoping to explore. "Loki is a character that's always reckoning with his own identity, and the TVA, by virtue of what they do, is uniquely suited to hold up a mirror to Loki and make him really confront who he is and who he was supposed to be," says Waldron. Hiddleston adds: "[That] was very exciting because in the other films, there was always something about Loki that was very controlled. He seemed to know exactly what the cards in his hand were and how he was going to play them…. And Loki versus the TVA is Loki out of control immediately, and in an environment in which he's completely behind the pace, out of his comfort zone, destabilized, and acting out."
To truly dig into who Loki is, the creative team had to learn from the man who knows him best: Hiddleston. "I got him to do a thing called Loki School when we first started," says director Kate Herron. "I asked him to basically talk through his 10 years of the MCU — from costumes to stunts, to emotionally how he felt in each movie. It was fantastic."
Hiddleston got something out of the Loki school, too. Owen Wilson both attended the class and interviewed Hiddleston afterward so that he could better understand Loki, as his character Mobius is supposed to be an expert on him. During their conversation, Wilson pointedly asked Hiddleston what he loved about playing the character.
"And I said, 'I think it's because he has so much range,'" says Hiddleston. "I remember saying this to him: 'On the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he's the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.'" Hiddleston recalls Wilson being moved by the description: "He said, 'I think I might say that in the show.' And it was such a brilliant insight for me into how open Owen is as an artist and a performer.'"
Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in 'Loki.'| Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios
Everyone involved is particularly excited for audiences to see Hiddleston and Wilson's on-screen chemistry. "Mobius is not unlike Owen Wilson in that he's sort of nonplussed by the MCU," says Feige. "[Loki] is used to getting a reaction out of people, whether it's his brother or his father, or the other Avengers. He likes to be very flamboyant and theatrical. Mobius doesn't give him the reaction he's looking for. That leads to a very unique relationship that Loki's not used to."
As for the rest of the series, we know that Loki will be jumping around time and reality, but the creative team isn't keen on revealing when and where. "Every episode, we tried to take inspiration from different things," says Waldron, citing Blade Runner's noir aesthetic as one example.
"Part of the fun of the multiverse and playing with time is seeing other versions of characters, and other versions of the titular character in particular," says Feige, who also declined to confirm if Loki ties into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and/or other upcoming projects.
Making Loki was especially meaningful to Hiddleston because they shot most of it during the pandemic, in late 2020. "It will remain one of the absolute most intense, most rewarding experiences of my life," he says. "It's a series about time, and the value of time, and what time is worth, and I suppose what the experience of being alive is worth. And I don't quite know yet, and maybe I don't have perspective on it, if all the thinking and the reflecting that we did during the lockdown ended up in the series. But in some way, it must have because everything we make is a snapshot of where we were in our lives at that time."
While it remains to be seen what the future holds for Loki beyond this initial season, Hiddleston isn't preparing to put the character to bed yet. "I'm open to everything," he says. "I have said goodbye to the character. I've said hello to the character. I said goodbye to the character [again]. I've learned not to make assumptions, I suppose. I'm just grateful that I'm still here, and there are still new roads to explore."
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This is a very serious and deep question,” says RM, the 26-year-old leader of the world’s biggest band. He pauses to think. We’re talking about utopian and dystopian futures, about how the boundary-smashing, hegemony-overturning global success of his group, the wildly talented seven-member South Korean juggernaut BTS, feels like a glimpse of a new and better world, of an interconnected 21st century actually living up to its promise.
BTS’ downright magical levels of charisma, their genre-defying, sleek-but-personal music, even their casually nontoxic, skin-care-intensive brand of masculinity — every bit of it feels like a visitation from some brighter, more hopeful timeline. What RM is currently pondering, however, is how all of it contrasts with a darker landscape all around them, particularly the horrifying recent wave of anti-Asian violence and discrimination across a global diaspora.
“We are outliers,” says RM, “and we came into the American music market and enjoyed this incredible success.” In 2020, seven years into their career, BTS’ first English-language single, the irresistible “Dynamite,” hit Number One, an achievement so singular it prompted a congratulatory statement from South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in. The nation has long been deeply invested in its outsize cultural success beyond its borders, known as the Korean Wave.
“Now, of course, there is no utopia,” RM continues. “There’s a light side; there’s always going to be a dark side. The way we think is that everything that we do, and our existence itself, is contributing to the hope for leaving this xenophobia, these negative things, behind. It’s our hope, too, that people in the minority will draw some energy and strength from our existence. Yes, there’s xenophobia, but there are also a lot of people who are very accepting. . . . The fact that we have faced success in the United States is very meaningful in and of itself.”
At the moment, RM is in an acoustically treated room at his label’s headquarters in Seoul, wearing a white medical mask to protect a nearby translator. a black bucket hat, and a black hoodie from the Los Angeles luxury label Fear of God. As RM has had to explain too many times on U.S. talk shows, he taught himself his fluent English via bingeing Friends DVDs. Still, he makes understandable use of the interpreter when the conversation gets complex.
RM is a fan of complexity. He was on a path toward an elite university education before a love of hip-hop, first sparked by a Korean group, Epik High, detoured him into superstardom. Bang Si-hyuk, the cerebral, intense-yet-avuncular mogul-producer who founded BTS’ record company, Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE), signed RM first, in 2010, and gradually formed BTS around the rapper’s talent and magnetism. “When I first met RM,” says Si-hyuk, “I felt a sense of duty that I must help him grow to become a great artist after acknowledging his musical talents and ways of thinking.”
RM carries himself with a level of gravitas that was perhaps incongruent with his initial stage name of Rap Monster, officially shortened in 2017. He drops quotes from Nietzsche and the abstract artist Kim Whan-ki in interviews, and celebrated his 26th birthday by donating nearly $85,000 to a museum foundation to support the reprinting of rare fine-art books. He and Suga fill their rhymes with double- and triple-entendres that would impress U.S. hip-hop heads who’ve never thought much about BTS.
It’s not uncommon for the members of BTS to shed a tear or two while they’re addressing fans onstage. Along with their comfort with makeup and iridescent hair dye, it all plays into their instinctive rejection of rigid conceptions of masculinity. “The labels of what being masculine is, is an outdated concept,” says RM. “It is not our intention to break it down. But if we are making a positive impact, we are very thankful. We live in an age where we shouldn’t have those labels or have those restrictions.”
“When we wrote those songs, and those messages, of course, it wasn’t from some knowledge or awareness of the education system in the United States or anywhere else,” says RM. “We were teenagers at that time. There were things we were able to say, from what we felt and from our experiences about the unreasonableness of school, or the uncertainties and the fears and anxieties that teens have. And a common thought and a common emotion resonated with youth, not just in Korea, but in the United States, and the West.”
In 2018, BTS negotiated a renewal of their contract with Si-hyuk’s company, committing to another seven years as a band. In the process, they were given a financial stake in HYBE. “It’s very meaningful,” says RM, “for us and also the company, that we admit and recognize each other as true partners. Now Big Hit’s success is our success, and our success is Big Hit’s success.” It also meant a multimillion-dollar windfall for the group when HYBE went public last year. “That’s very important,” RM says with a grin.
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Ted Lasso 2x9 thoughts
It’s no secret that I absolutely adore Coach Beard; he’s one of my favorite characters on the show, and he’s so well-written and well-acted that somehow I tend to be both perfectly satisfied with the details we see and truly curious to understand more about the way he thinks, what’s really happening re: his professional and personal devotion to Ted, where he comes from and where he’s going. I don’t need to know his name beyond the name he wants to be called, but I want to know why we don’t have any other names for him. And I don’t need him to be a bigger focal point of every episode, but I very much needed this episode’s world-exploding reminder that every single character on this show has a rich inner life, full of joys and troubles.
“Beard After Hours” is like a movie, but one that scatters its climaxes and puts off its resolutions...because it’s not a movie. It’s episode nine of a twelve-episode season of TV. When the episode ended, I felt this almost frantic “But he needed to break up with Jane for good before the end of the episode!” feeling. I was so pulled in by the idea of being able to tell an entire story in one night, of going on an odyssey alongside a complicated hero, that watching Beard and Jane find each other in that club felt as intense as the fact that we don’t know if Ted responded to Rebecca’s voicemail and we don’t know what’s going to happen with Rebecca and Sam and we don’t know who isn’t getting married and who is having a funeral in 2x10 (I mean, I have my strong suspicions, but still!) and we don’t know if Richmond will be promoted back to the Premier League. And on and on. I didn’t mind feeling desperate for the story to resolve even though I understood after thinking about it for ten seconds that of course it couldn’t resolve yet. Or ever. Or yet.
I’m a big fan of the TL episode recaps/reviews Linda Holmes writes for NPR, and I have to quote something from this week’s directly because it so perfectly explains my feelings:
The power of the scene where Beard dances in the club isn't that it's a beautiful romantic climax. It's that it's an explanation of why he cannot seem to extricate himself from this bad relationship. What makes the worst relationships so dangerous is that they have elements that feel good that are very hard to get elsewhere. Beard knows that; he tells it to God. What's concerning isn't that Jane makes the world seem more interesting; what's concerning is she's the only thing that does. That doesn't take away from the joy of the dancing; it just tells you that even happiness is complicated.
I love Holmes’ perspective here so much, because it articulates something I was struggling to figure out: how it can feel so legitimate, like such a (temporary but nonetheless powerful) relief, for Beard to find Jane in that club and to have this moment of euphoria as his night nears an end. How it is possible to experience that relief on behalf of a character while fervently wishing it could end differently, because it’s so clear from the abusive text messages and the toxic calls and the manipulative interactions that Jane is terrible to him and they’re terrible for each other. But Beard knows this. He knows it when he hugs Higgins in the parking lot after Higgins is honest with him in a way Ted and Rebecca and Keeley have not learned how to be, and he knows it when part of his prayer includes the clear articulation that Jane isn’t the cure for what “ails me.” He’s inching closer to greater self-knowledge just as Ted is.
And the two big resolutions that really, really needed to happen did. I didn’t know I needed Paul, Baz, and Jeremy to get to wrap up their own night out on the pitch at Nelson Road, but I did. It brought actual tears to my eyes. And the other resolution was Beard showing up with the other coaches’ coffees for their meeting to watch the game film. As interesting as it would have been to see what Ted would have done if Beard hadn’t shown up, I’m so, so glad that he did. He’s got a messed-up face and some truly epic pants on, but otherwise this is just Beard showing up for work, showing up for his friends. It was incredible to realize that Beard and Ted haven’t been exaggerating when they’ve referred to his sex-and-drug proclivities in the past. The night documented in 2x9 might have been particularly scary and violent and euphoric and awful and meaningful, but this type of all-night adventure isn’t a foreign concept for this guy. In all the other episodes of this show, when we see Beard we’re seeing someone who might have been out all night, who might have spent the hours the sun was down desperately pushing himself closer to whatever edges he could find.
I don’t really want to touch upon all the allusions in this episode. They are abundant, they are well-documented, and also I haven’t even seen the movie After Hours. I enjoyed this episode for its allusive qualities and I enjoyed this episode for what it was and I feel like I have to be at peace with the fact that I’m never going to pick up on every single reference on this show and that is okay.
So, yeah, if this entry on my tumblr dot com blog seems remarkably devoid of references and allusions, it’s not because I’m not into it but because I find it too overwhelming to actually write about.
Very into the Misplaced and Discovered box at the Crown and Anchor. (That’s what Mae wrote on the Lost and Found box at the pub, right? Whatever it is, it’s so funny.)
Beard hallucinating Thierry Henry and Gary Lineker was truly upsetting and a great indicator not only of how broken things are between the Richmond coaching staff right now but also how deep Beard’s self-loathing might go. If you’d asked me before Thursday if I thought Beard loathed himself, I would say no. That deepening of knowledge alone makes 2x9 worth it.
James Tartt and his friends in the alley. Such a nightmare. I go back and forth on how much of the night was real, and part of me has decided all of it is, short of the images of Henry and Lineker. (And even that is real to the extent that it was a way of articulating what was in Beard’s head.) But watching Beard in physical danger brought on by the same abuser who had him so upset in the first place. It was a lot.
I’m so excited that Paul and Jeremy and Baz got some spotlight this episode. It was so wonderful to see them out of the pub. I love that they ended up telling the Oxford snots who they really were. They got to see Beard going to bat for them and smoothing over the situation socially, and that actually made it more possible for them to end up being truthful about themselves. Because they have nothing to be ashamed of, and they deserved the magic of that night. (And for it to end on Nelson Road. Every feeling. Oof.)
I feel like I barely have anything to say about the trouser-mending lady or the many places Beard goes or his key-dropping or the nightmarish feeling of wanting to be home and being unable to be home. It all happened and we all watched it and again, it was a lot. But I do feel incredibly moved and fascinated by the fact that Beard very obviously still hasn’t been home when he brings in the coffee. He’s had to sleep at the club for Jane- and key-related reasons in the past, and this time it’s not that he’s slept there but it still feels like a kind of homecoming he was robbed of for the entire night. Ted and Roy and Nate are there. He’s gotten their coffee orders correct. Ted is growing and evolving (he wants to learn from what’s happened, he’s insisting upon it even when the others resist) but he’s done a really perfect (almost romantic in its loveliness) thing by presumably spending his evening following a breakdown of his own speeding up the game film to 10x speed and adding Benny Hill. Ted is not OK and Beard is not OK and Nate is not OK and Roy is pretty OK but could very easily be not OK because he’s just joined a coaching staff with a whole lot of not OK. But they all showed up.
I am very into the realism of the lights being off in the club other than the coaches’ office (@talldecafcappuccino pointed this out!), and the way we’re seeing their desks from a different angle because this episode is unfocused on Ted. It really added to the mindset of being hungover and exhausted and unable to go home or even to know exactly what home should be; even this warm, familiar place feels off even as it’s a relief to be back there.
I am excited to return to our regularly scheduled programming with the full cast of characters, but I really adored this episode for what it taught us about Beard and what it illuminated about the humor, pain, and complexity of each person who inhabits this universe. Beard may not be loud about his long-standing beliefs or about the things he’s learned, but there’s a lot happening in there and I appreciated getting to spend 43 minutes with him and (in the case of the ticket he scrawls on a piece of paper so the pub guys can get into Nelson Road) the moments he sets in motion.
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On racial stereotyping of the Haans in TMA...
Right so as someone who is ethnically Chinese I have NO FUCKING clue how I didn’t notice this more distinctly in my initial binge of tma (going too fast and not paying closer attention to character names and descriptions, probably) but the Haan family storyline is, all horror elements aside, pretty fucked up in terms of racial representation re: stereotyping. This got long as hell, but please please please take a moment to read through if you’ve got time for it. thanks.
To start off, the Haans are one of the few characters in tma with an explicitly specified race and ethnicity—Chinese—and pretty much the only explicitly Chinese characters in tma, other than the mostly unimportant librarian (Zhang Xiaoling) from Beijing. But like, Haan isn’t even a properly Chinese surname, at least not in the way that it’s spelled in canon (it should be Han, one a. A quick google search tells me that Haan as a surname has...Dutch origins??).
Of course, that could be chalked up to shoddy anglicization processes within family histories, which certainly isn’t uncommon with immigrant families, so I’m not going to dwell on names too much (although I also find it interesting that John Haan’s name is so specifically and weirdly anglicized that he changed his own surname?? Hun Yung to John Haan is a very big leap of a name change and frankly not very believable. ANYWAY, this is not that important. I don’t expect Jonny, a white Englishman, to come up with perfectly unquestionable non-Cho-Chang-like Chinese names, though it certainly would be nice. Moving on).
What really bothers me about the Haans is how they almost exclusively and explicitly play into negative Chinese immigrant stereotypes. I don’t even feel like I need to say it because it’s like...it’s literally Right There, folks. John Haan (in ep 72) owns and operates a sketchy takeout restaurant. They’re all avatars of the Flesh—and John Haan is Specifically horrific and terrifying because he cooked his wife’s human meat and fed it to his unknowing customers. Does that remind you of any stereotypes which accuse Chinese people of consuming societally unacceptable and ethically questionable things like dog/cat/bat meat (which, if it’s not already crystal fucking clear, we don’t. do that.), which in turn characterize us as horrible unfeeling monsters? John Haan’s characterization feeds (haha, badum tss) directly into this harmful stereotype that have caused very real pain for Chinese people and East Asians in general.
And Jonny does nothing to address that from within his writing (and not out of it either). And, speaking on a more meta level, Jonny could’ve easily had these flesh avatars be individuals of any race (like, what’s Jared Hopworth’s ethnicity? Do we know? No? Well then). Conversely, he could’ve easily, easily had a Chinese person be an avatar of any other entity. So why did he have to chose specifically the Flesh?
(This is a rhetorical question. You know why. Racial stereotyping and invoking a fear of the other in an attempt to enhance horror, babey~)
On Tom Haan’s side, Jonny seems weirdly intent on having other characters repeatedly comment on his accent (or rather, lack thereof) in relation to his race. Think about how, in ep 30 (killing floor), the fact that Tom Haan had spoken a line to the statement giver in “perfect English” was an emphasized beat in that statement, and a beat that was supposed to be “chilling” and meant to signify to us that something was, quote-unquote, “not right” with Tom Haan. Implicitly, that’s saying that it was unexpected, not “normal”, and in this case even eerie, for someone who looks Chinese to have spoken in fluid, unbroken English. Mind you, the line itself was perfectly scary on its own (“you cannot stop the slaughter by closing the door”), so why did Jonny feel the need to note the accent in which it was spoken in? Why did Jonny HAVE to have that statement giver note, that he initially “wasn’t even sure how much English [Haan] spoke”?
This happens again in episode 72 with a Chinese man (and again, his ethnicity is Explicitly Noted) who we assume is also Tom Haan. This one is rather ironically funny and kind of painfully self aware, because the statement giver expresses surprise at Haan’s “crisp RP accent” and then immediately “felt bad about making the assumption that he couldn’t speak English,” and subsequently admitted that thought was “low-key racist.” Like, from a writing perspective, this entire passage is roundabout, pointless, and says absolutely nothing helpful to enhance the horror genre experience for listeners (instead it just sounded like some sort of half-assed excuse so Jonny or other listeners could say “look! We’ve addressed the racism!” You didn’t. It just made me vaguely uncomfortable). And again, having other people comment on our accents/lack thereof while assuming we are foreign is a Very Real microaggression that east asians face on the daily. If Jonny needed some filler sentences for pacing he could’ve written about Literally anything else. So why point out, yet again, that the crazy murderous man was foreign and Chinese?
At this point, you might say, right, but yknow, it was just that the statement givers were kind of racist! It happens! Yeah sure, ok, that’s a passable in-universe explanation for descriptions of Tom Haan (though not John Haan, mind you), but the statement givers are fake made up people, and statement’s still written by Jonny, who absolutely has all the power to write overt discrimination out of his stories. And he does! Think about just how many minor (and major!!) characters are so, so carefully written as completely aracial, and do not have their ethnicity implicated at all in whatever horrors they may or may not be committing. Think about how many lgbtq+ characters have given statements, and have been in statements, without having faced direct forms of discrimination, or portrayed as embodying blatant stereotypes in their stories (though lgbtq+ rep in tma certainly has their own issues that I won’t go into here). Jonny can clearly write characters this way, and he can do it well. So why, why, am I being constantly, repeatedly reminded in-text of the fact that the Haans are East Asian, that they’re from China, that they’re Chinese immigrants, that they’re second-generation British Chinese or whatever the fuck, and that they’re also horrifying conduits for blood, gore, and general fucked-up-ness? It’s absolutely not something that is Needed for the stories to be an effective piece of horror; the only thing it does is perpetuate incredibly harmful and hurtful stereotypes.
And listen, I love tma to bits. It’s taken over my blog. I’ve really loved my interactions with the fandom. And I am consistently blown away by Jonny’s writing and how well he’s able to weave foreshadowing and plot into an incredibly complex collection of stories. But I absolutely Cannot stop thinking about the Haans because it’s just. It’s such a blatant display of racial stereotyping in writing. And I’ve certainly seen a few voices talking about it here and there, and I don’t know if I’m just not looking in the right places, but it certainly feels like something that is just straight up not on the radar for a lot of tma fans. And I’m disappointed about that.
Just, I don’t know. Take a look at those episodes again and do some of your own thinking about why these characters had to be specifically Chinese (answer: they didn’t.). And in general, PLEASE for the love of god turn a critical eye on character portrayals and descriptions whenever they are assigned specific races/ethnicities (Some examples that come to mind are Jude Perry, Annabelle Cane, and Diego Molina), because similar issues, to an extent, extend beyond the Haans, though I haven’t covered them here.
You shouldn’t need a POC to do point out these problems for you when they’re so glaringly There. But for those of you who really didn’t know, hope this was informative in some way. I’m tired, man. If some of the only significant Chinese characters you write are violent cannibalistic men with a perverted relationship with meat, just don’t do it. Please don’t do it.
EDIT: Since the making of this post Jonny has acknowledged and apologized for these portrayals on his twitter and in the Rusty Quill Operations Update, which went up September 2020. A long time coming, but better late than never. This of course doesn’t necessarily negate the harm done by Jonny’s writing, and doesn’t make me much less angry about it, but is appreciated nonetheless. For more on this topic there’s a lot of productive discussions happening in my “#tma crit” tag and in the notes of this post
#tma#the magnus archives#magnuspod#tma 30#tma 72#tma crit#racism#sinophobia#racist stereotyping#tw cannibalism#tw violence#long post#tom haan#john haan
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Video Killed The Radio Star (Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader)
A/N: I know I usually write for Five Hargreaves, but lately I’ve been having the idea of a fanfiction for Spencer Reid involving some sensitive material. If you haven’t watched Criminal Minds, that is a-okay because this doesn’t really follow any sort of certain plot in the series but it does contain some spoilers from it so maybe be warned? If you’d like for this me to continue this little idea, please give me so feedback and let me know. Till then, Em <3
Warnings: Stalking, talk of kidnapping, cursing and some sensitive material.
Plot: You leave videos for the BAU to find once you find out you have a stalker.
Word Count: 1.3k
-Tape #1, January 5, 20XX
Your face moved away from the screen as you moved to sit on a desk chair, smile growing as you waved your hand at the webcam recording a few feet away from you. “I, uh,” you looked down at your hands, playing with the ring that resided on your middle finger before letting out a tiny nervous giggle “, I don’t really know how I should start this off.” you trailed off, looking back up at the camera.
“You know that feeling you get when you’re driving your car and you think ‘oh my god, the car behind me is following me home!’, I guess it all kind of started like that. I tried to keep them off my tail, but I guess they already knew where I lived because they started parking outside my house, never the same car.”
You cleared your throat gently, bending over to pick up a small, dead rose. “This was the first thing I got,” you held it closer to the camera, your hands shaking lightly “That’s when I realized something was wrong. I started to notice that I would get home and suddenly, there would be a car across the street.” You looked outside, towards the window “It’s not every day, and it isn’t sporadic either! It’s every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday around noon till seven, sometimes eight.” You ran your hands through your hair, biting back tears.
“My mom thinks I’m crazy, but I... I know that something isn’t right,” You kept your calm composure, smiled sweetly at the camera, and waved again “ I guess I’m signing off till I have some more proof or something? This is Y/N L/N, signing off I suppose.”
Then the screen went dark.
-Tape #2, January 17, 20XX
You were already sitting in your desk chair when the video started, indicating that you figured how to use a timer for this personal vlog of yours. “Hi,” You seemed to be in better spirits than before “I’m more organized this time!” This seemed to be the reason for your good mood, probably because being organized made you feel more stable, safer.
“So, I’m Y/N L/N and I am twenty-four years old, living in Richmond, Virginia, in this apartment complex a little bit outside of the city.” You held up a photo of a tattoo that was currently hiding under your shirt. “This is the tattoo that I got when I was drunk off my ass on my twenty-first birthday, just a good...” you cleared your throat quickly “A good identifier.”
You folded your hands in your lap as you straightened out your back. “The stalking started just after Christmas, I haven’t the faintest clue of who it is, but I know I am being stalked. I told the police but they didn't really think anything of it and sometimes I see a patrol car drive by on weekdays.”
“These videos aren’t meant to be a big, fat, told you so. I’m just really scared that something bad is going to happen. I just need some trace of me, I need to feel less helpless.”
You swallowed thickly and grabbed a sticky note hanging from your computer “These are all my passwords so if something does happen, it is right there.”
You looked around, all of your preparations failing you in a single moment as you found yourself lost for words. You quickly flashed again, conversation lighting up in you as you spoke again “I work in the city as a librarian, I get the weekends off for the most part.” You held up a copy of Wuthering Heights “Today this was left on the roof of my car,” You opened it and turned it so the pages were facing the webcam, showing highlighted sections of the book “The only parts that are highlighted are the romantic scenes between Heathcliff and Catherine.” You flipped through some pages quickly and held the page up, looking for one quote that was highlighted, underlined, and circled. “Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad, that's one of the lines circled, underlined and highlighted...” you stared at the page, before turning it back to the camera.
“I’m done for now..” Screen. Black.
-Tape #3, February 14, 20XX
You were wearing a striped sweater, lines ranging from white, pink, and red. You seemed to have forgotten about the heart-shaped glasses on your head, pushing back your hair, but your eyes were red, tired, lifeless almost. “It’s Valentine’s Day,” you heaved a sigh, slouching over in your chair. You could feel the bubble in your throat, and you tried to keep your voice steady, but it broke as soon as you started to speak “ Today was really bad,” you coughed lightly, feigning courage “He, She, I don’t know! They were in here! They got into my house, rose petals everywhere! Rose petals on the bed, in the sink, everywhere! They were just,” tears started to flow before you could do anything about it “ Just everywhere.”
You brushed your tears away quickly and let out another sigh before you took in a big breath and smiled, sadly at the camera. “I did some more research,” you laughed “, I live in Virginia and I have way too much time on my hands sometimes.”
You leaned over to pick up some papers off your, now rose petal-free desk “So, I was looking for people who would be good at, uh, helping me.” You held up a photo of Agent Jareau, in all her beauty “, I’d be pretty blind not to think about the BAU, right? This is,” you looked at the photo quickly “, the very pretty liaison for the BAU. I know that she’ll be seeing these first so hello? I would really appreciate it if the team could help me. Help find me maybe? I told the police what happened and they searched my apartment and the security cameras-” you felt tears well up in your eyes again and cut yourself off.
“I’m sorry, I have to go.”
Black.
-Tape #4, February 18, 20XX
A smile was on your lips now, nervous albeit, but still a smile nonetheless. “The police are patrolling the neighborhood now on the regular so I feel a tiny bit better!” you leaned over to grab a copy of Jane Eyre “Today I was gifted another book, it seems my stalker is a bit of a Brontë fan. This one is the same as the last, but the important be quote seems to ‘You are my sympathy --my better self --my good angel’” You closed the book, sighed, and closed your eyes slowly. “Till then.”
Black.
-Tape #5, March 5, 20XX
You knew this was going to be your last video, every bone in your body knew it. Every. Single. One. After almost two weeks of no attention, no cars, no anything. You thought you were free, thought that maybe it would all be okay.
It was a foolish, childish thought. A moment of fleeting happiness if you will, but you held onto it with everything you had. The police were paying you less attention and you didn’t mind. You kept an eye out for something, anything. Now it was March fifth and you had a new gift. It was the most extreme out of all the gifts. Your hands trembled as you reached for a destroyed pair of your panties, drenched in blood. “Something bad is going to happen,” You threw the panties down near the books and dead rose. You kept them all just in case if they needed it, what if they needed more.
What if they needed more to find you? Would all of this be enough? “Please find me,” you looked at the screen with a heavy conscious “, I want to be found. Please, find me.”
Black.
March 8, 20XX
“This is Y/N L/N, a twenty-four-year-old woman last seen two days ago and has since gone missing. The Richmond police station contacted us after they found a folder containing these videos on her computer.” J.J. said, clicking to the next PowerPoint, showing more details for their case, but Hotch was already standing up, ending everyone’s input and conversation.
“Wheels up in ten.”
#spencer reid x reader#spencer x you#spencer reid#criminal minds#spencer reid x reader#spencer reid imagine#spencer reid x y/n#spencer reid fanfiction#criminal minds imagine#mgg#dr spencer reid#video killed the radio star#reid imagines#matthew gray gubler#dr reid#reid x reader#spencer reid x you#Spencer Reid cm#cm spoilers#cm
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LCDP SPOILERS AHEAD, PLEASE DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SHOW
my god, what a ride.
- Martín. Just. Martín. We finally see him in that bank, in that plan, finally shining through the cage of Palermo he's been so long in, finally not afraid and gaining back the fraction of his control and love he had for his masterpiece. This is him. That smart planner, a capable commander, a man so well-versed in the plan he can make it work with whatever he has, the smartass who cheers his teammates with sarcastic names and eccentric speeches. The loyalty he has for the plan and all people involved, finally showing, finally in character. This is Martín being who he is, in his familiar terrain, gaining back the grounds that were taken from him since he saw Sergio again, and I can't be happier seeing him like that. He was amazing, and I have only hopes that he will be even more of a leader in the second part of the season.
- Tokio. I would never have said I cry over Tokio, but I did, because these five episodes have been the best of her character we've ever seen in the show so far. All her humanity, her emotion, her connections and her development and her beautiful little quotes that are very hard to forget about, and in the end, she goes out with a smile, victorious despite all the odds because that's so entirely her-to fight and fight and fight until you either win, or die, or both. The biggest and most beautiful surprise this season for me.
- Denver! I miss his smiling, goofy self from the first season, I do- but the way he's matured and developed from a simple hothead to a voice of reason and a complex, traumatized young man who has lost so much in these heists and is about to lose even more, it was wonderful to see. I'm so happy we will see him in December.
- The handling of Stockholm's character and trauma is a disappointment, and a big one. I was so happy to see her stand her ground and shoot Arturo like she should have at the start, but the process of her getting traumatized from it, from unrealistic flashbacks to getting nearly overdosed on morphine is, well, disrespectfully made. I dislike their handling of her. She deserved to have her great moment too.
- Helsinki, also. Nobody can tell me that he, a soldier himself, would not have put up a decent fight against Gandia-like hellspawns, and did marvelously so, if they didn't opt for incapacitating him again. They keep pushing Helsinki to the side, under the rug, back on the shelf, and I am definitely not a fan of it.
- Neither am I a fan of Sergio and Raquel's "romantic" little planning of things without telling a single teammate what any of them are supposed to be doing in case either gets captured. She is an attempt at a leader, that much is true, but I am very much not a fan of her leadership and I'm glad it was not utilized or pushed too much.
- Alicia, wow. Morbid, funny, eccentric, wicked, and just a little sweet. I love her and her baby daughter, the season was so much fun with her in there. I don't know what will happen to her, but I do have to admit they're handling this entire "Alicia joins them" concept way better than I imagined they would.
- Manila was a star! I love her so much, her crush on Denver, her backstory, her openly and proudly talking about her experience as a trans woman with a strict father. I love her father's development, also, I love them both very much.
-Bogotá's "punch a fascist homophobe" thing was very deserved but also quite off-place and out of character, if I'm being honest, and I get it that Netflix wants to up the inclusivity by using their woke game exclamations but can we do it in a little more convincing way please
- I feel sorry for Rio, that last scene was indeed very emotional
- Arturo die challenge
- I do not want to acknowledge or comment on neither the entire Berlin son thing, nor whatever the fuck they did to Andrés this season. Only calling Greek and Romans "art"? Creepy and obnoxious talks about whether or not his son is into his wife? Not a single slimmer of him, his love, his emotions, anything? Ew. Pathetic. Gross. The heist was well-filmed though.
- Whoever bitched Tatiana up gotta stop because she's just annoying
- Marsella. That's it. Him.
- Nairobi I miss you so much I hope you and your gf have all parties up there wherever tf u are
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I think Dana’s post and the reaction to it really shows how little most people know about the TV, and TV Cartoon industry. I’m not an expert and this is gonna be a hot take but stay with me.
Dana said that season 3 was basically destined to get cut down since before agony of a witch, which could also mean Disney was planning this cut since before Grom. These two episodes were VITAL for TOH numbers, and without these numbers I gotta admit it probably wasn’t looking like TOH was going to a raging success. Of course we have hind sight and realize that this assumption was wrong but they didn’t have that.
On top of this, Disney approved of its first explicit WLW relationship which, while it’s well overdue, was still a big move for them because it meant that they didn’t care about this show being cut from certain countries. They were willing to lose that money in the first place, so why would they cut the show JUST because it had LGBT themes?
And I’m not saying that TOH having LGBT themes isn’t one of the reasons it got cut, but what I am saying is that from Disney’s perspective they were taking a BIG risk with this show. Disney is a company that is dependent on a “family-friendly” brand, which is one of the reasons why it has taken them sooo long to have a show with LGBT representation. If TOH’s viewership wasn’t astronomical (and remember a lot of the episodes released before they made their decision were pre-Covid so they are judging on episodes ratings before the major shift to streaming) then Disney probably was worried that they were taking this major branding risk by airing a show with demons, witchcraft, and (god forbid) gay people, for nothing.
This branding thing actually explains a lot, like how Amphibia is getting another season even though I’m pretty sure (and don’t quote me on this) it has worse numbers. Amphibia fits more into the Disney brand of bright fantasy than TOH does. Plus Amphibia doesn’t have gay people.
And honestly as a franchise TOH actually has a decent chance of being picked up again as either a spin off series or comic or something else. These are just some things that bring me hope and tell me that Disney hasn’t totally given up on the owl house. Disney broke the, albeit not very strict, 50 episode merch rule with its hot topic shirts and the funko pops that are going to be released. Also getting the notice of brands like Duolingo, who I still can’t believe posted fanart, and streamers like Tommy (I think he was the one that watched it though I might be wrong) is a big deal because this means TOH is a big enough show in the public eye to become even a small part of pop culture. Heck even the fact that a decent amount of TOH tik tok sounds are trending is a good sign.
Point is, we need to stop acting like this is purely because of LGBT rep or because Disney secretly hated the show (If the entire Disney company hated it why would they air it?) I feel like we need to realize that this decision, while stupid, was complex. Continue supporting the show, buy merch, and keep the fan base and online activity around this show active, because who knows what they might decide to do with the show.
This post was long and a mess because I made it in my math class but I hope it made some sense. I’m just tired of the crazy conspiracy theory’s y’all.
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the (ahs) evans as aesthetics
.
-tate langdon
-scuffed up converse, thrift shops, dancing in the rain, halloween decorations, smelling a cinnamon candle, cartilage piercings, the morning before a school field trip, sleeping with the windows open in the summertime, classic rock, hanging up christmas lights in your room, digital alarm clocks, shark tooth necklaces, unfolding paperclips, platonic cuddling, bloody noses, cloudwatching, slight wind on a sunny day, venting to your best friend, tangled cords, electric guitars
-kit walker
-motivational quotes, tough love, bloody knuckles, chapped lips, dream catchers, spinning in a swivel chair, putting together a puzzle, staring at the ceiling, watching stand up comedy, oversized clothes, the smell of the library, sifting through an old book with the pages to your nose, family heirlooms, laying on the pavement, grilled food, eating outside, freshly mowed grass, jumping on a trampoline, playing house with adults, the pink in the sky just before a sunset, pianos, short and dirty fingernails, greasy hair, rings
-kyle spencer
-petting the neighbors dog, the smell of sleep, birds, cracks in your ceiling, doodling on the white of your shoes, pretending to be a girl's boyfriend when she's getting harrassed, carved wood, hikes, reading a book in nothing but an oversized shirt and fuzzy socks, trying to balance the light switch between on and off, the flickering ':' on digital alarm clocks, having multiple comforters in bed with you, napping right after a long day at school and waking up five hours later, drinking kool aid out of a coffee mug
-jimmy darling
-goofy dancing with friends, blasting classic rock in a mustang with the roof down, road trips, amphitheatres, that feeling you get after coming out of the movie theatre, hanging out with the lonely kids, giving good advice that improves the problem at hand, sleeping with the window open during winter, raking leaves, watching comedies with the people you love, bottling everything and exploding when you get home to the safe comforts of your bedroom, soft jazz
-james patrick march
-slow dancing in the middle of the street, the reflection in big knives, venting to no one in particular, ear piercings, listening to old timey music, drinking root beer floats, killing bugs, trumpets and saxophones, traditional art, waking up completely well rested, black cats, licking a battery, being talked over in your friend group, long goodbyes, crying after staying comfortably numb for so long, reading romance novels in the bath, desperately wanting to hurt something
-rory monahan
-being all too cheesy, having a crush on your close friend, dancing to no music in particular, dying your hair, taking hour-long life-changing showers, bad advice, sleeping with the fan on, coming of age films, golden retrievers, effortlessly making everyone laugh every time, plants, geeking out over movies, sketching while listening to music, cuddling up with your friends, looking at someone after making a terrible joke to see if they found it funny
-kai anderson
-crying so hard that you're completely silent, forming the biggest friendgroup possible to make sure you always have someone if another person isn't available, ending up inevitably alone, your friends walking on the sidewalk while you walk beside them on the grass, having to repeat what you said three times before realizing no one is listening, comfortable numbness, reciting unsettling knowledge, screaming into your pillow, mental breakdowns, having a midlife crisis at 15
-malcom gallant
-god complex at 3am, wearing a sportsbra and high-waisted sweats, doing nothing in particular, buying expensive jewelry for cheap, reality tv, isolating from your family and living your best depressed life, binge watching your favorite show, compliments, getting a new haircut, the smell of grandma's house, going shopping with your friends, kicking people for no reason, smiling so much your cheeks hurt, laughing until your stomach hurts
-jeff pfister
-watching anime without subtitles while getting high, getting a good grade on a test, spinning as fast as possible in a swivel chair, edibles, chrome color scheme, thinking it's early then looking at the clock and realizing it's hours past what you thought it was, being the horniest virgin ever, getting into a new obsession every three to five business days
-austin sommers
-the smell of sex, new cars, joking with people you probably shouldn't joke with, paper cuts, roughed up hands, hairless cats, the smell of money, an old black southern woman calling you baby at the grocery store, hanging out with your friend's family, record players, 90s indie music, painted nails, staying in bed all day just because you can, drums and piano, stargazing, watching twilight, watching yourself bleed, smooth jazz
#evan peters#aesthetic#american horror story#headcanons#tate langdon#kit walker#kyle spencer#james patrick march#rory monahan#kai anderson#malcom gallant#mr gallant#jeff pfister#austin sommers
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Jo and Friedrich Don´t Argue In The Book (Why They Argue In The Movies)
Podcast Transcript Part 4
Stories Based On Real Life
Before Jo has final break up away from the Weekly Volcano, there is a very important event before that and that is the Symposium. Jo and Friedrich attend a symposium together and Jo is really exited to go there, but after a while she begins to see that these people who she has been admiring from distance are just regular people.
"her reverence for genius received a severe shock that night and it took sometime to recover that the great creatures were only men and women after all".
Time in New York helps Jo to broad her mind and she also begins to observe people by their character, than their wealth, looks or possession. I know lots of Little Women fans, whose favorite scene in the entire novel is the symposium, and the more I have read it, I think that is the time when Jo actually begins to fall in love with Friedrich.
This is where the Christianity comes in. In the symposium Jo sees one young man starting to speak about atheism and questions the existence of God. You have to remember that Jo is very religious. Her father is literally a pastor. Jo is blown away by what´s happening and the narrator mentions that her world turned upside down. Jo was quite shocked and upset and didn´t know what to think and then Friedrich started to speak for religion.
"He blazed up with honest indignation, and defended religion with all the eloquence of truth - and eloquence which made his broken English musical, and his plain face beautiful".
"Somehow, as he talked, the world got right again to Jo; the old beliefs that had lasted so long, seemed better than the new. God was not a blind force, and immortality was not a pretty fable, but a blessed fact. She felt as if she had solid ground under her feet again ; and when Mr Bhaer paused, out talked, but not one with convinced, Jo wanted to clap her hands and thank him".
How can anyone not love Friedrich after reading that. This is also where Friedrich is no longer a German philosopher. He actually becomes an American philosopher, because during this time period there was a rising school of atheism going on with the German intellects, but Friedrich who is German is in this case a lot more closer to Louisa May Alcott´s transcendentalist world view and American philosophers like Henry Thoreau and Waldo Emerson. Louisa was a highly spiritual person and transcendentalism, it was a bit different compared to the mainstream Christianity of the time, because the transcendentalist were somewhat pantheistic. They believed that nature was the ultimate manifestation of god and they were also somewhat pacifistic and quite tolerant what it came to other religions. For example Louisa´s father was accused of being Buddhist when Louisa was a child. Louisa was somewhat a spiritual seeker through her life. What it came to romance and love, she saw that the spiritual connection between two people was as important as anything else. That was a big part of Louisa´s relationship with Henry.
This is a quote from blogger @Skirmish-lit-and-wit.
"I come back to Thoreau's work a lot when I'm feeling existential. He has such a lovely way of contextualizing complex thoughts about life in his poems. She was probably attracted to his existential musings and the spark they shared likely came from intellectual stimulation and being able to talk about life's Big questions together".
The symposium is 100% connected to Jo´s development as a writer. It is all about her starting to put more thoughts on her characters and the messages that she wants to say in her works. The adaptations they show Jo and Friedrich arguing, which doeasn´t happen in the novel, but they have never adapted the symposium.
What happens is that Friedrich sees a copy of Weekly Volcano and he expresses his dislike about sensationalism. Jo, who has been writing this type of stories, is bit upset but she is not upset with Friedrich, she is upset with herself. Ever since she started to write those potboiler stories she has had this inner battle about it. She doesn´t particularly enjoy it, publisher keeps erasing the parts that she likes and the payment is not that great.
Friedrich compares that reading sensationalism almost has the same effect if he would give gunpowder for his nephews. If we take a look at that a bit deeper, couple years back maybe you remember there was lots of talk about the way the giant social media companies had spread false information online before elections in different parts of the world and also give platforms for hate speech, and they only agreed to censor themselves was when the advertisers said that they are going to leave the platform (that´s exactly what happened on YouTube couple years ago). In the 19th century that was the way the sensational press was working. Louisa May Alcott being a transcendentalist, abolitionist and a promoter of gender equality, would have had very serious moral questions what are the platforms that she was okay to work with.
This is what Jo says to herself:
"They are trash, and soon be worse than trash if I go on; for each is more sensational than the last. I´ve gone blindly on hurting myself and other people for the sake of money. Jo stuffed the whole bundle into to the stove, nearly setting the chimney afire with the blaze.
"Yes that is the best place for such inflammable nonsense. I´d better burn the house down, I suppose, than let other people blow themselves up with my gunpowder".
One of the listeners of this podcast said to me that the reason why this chapter is difficult to adapt is because it is not really a conversation between two people, it is mostly a dialogue that happens inside Jo´s head. They have a great point. It is easier to film a conflict between the two, than an inner conflict, but the filmmakers never should show Jo and Friedrich arguing because Jo 100% agrees with Friedrich, and when you read the book, she actually has this same inner battle about sensationalism and being pressured by money-hungry editors going on at least two years before she even meets him.
Goethe was Louisa´s favorite writer. She had both English and German editions and she even asked her publisher friend Thomas Niles to send her new Goethe editions when they appeared. Louisa loved Sturm und Drang, this ability to really go all in writing about characters that are constantly in emotional distress because of their turbulent emotions, what she did not love that much was these crimes and murderers and scandalous elements that she had to sneak into her stories, when she was working for Frank Leslie.
For example Louisa was an abolitionist, but the stories that sold were actually pro-slavery and promoting racist stereotypes. There is an element of Sturm und Drang, stress and thunder tales that actually appear throughout Louisa´s published work, and that is the psychology of obsession in relationships. You can see that even in Little Women the way Laurie is pursuing Jo, despite the fact that she constantly says no to him or Tom pursuing Nan.
Another quote from Armknecht:
"Bhaer is trying to help Jo to become a genuine writer instead of one who caters to the whims of the crowd. This is something that Goethe would have done. He disliked superficiality in people and in art and was through life frequently offended by the shallow pretensions, the false aims. He insists that a poem must be suggested by real life, and having herein a firm foundation".
That Alcott imposed a knowledge of certain literature on her protagonists, especially Jo, because she, as Jo’s living counterpart, was herself acquainted with that same literature. Although still distinct from Alcott, Jo becomes an extension of her philosophies and ideas and is shaped by Alcott’s environment and upbringing".
#little women#jo march#friedrich bhaer#jo x friedrich#louisa may alcott#sturm und drang#writing#author´s responsibility#anti little women 2019#anti greta gerwig#little women 1949#little women 1994#little women 2019#winona ryder#saoirse ronan#wtf#greta gerwig#symposium#i want symposium adapted
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