#but it feels so contrived and mean here. the journey cats all turning on him and demeaning him and twigpaw is so weird | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

seydaneencensusoffice · 4 years

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Day 2: Magic

On the journey from Vvardenfell, by ship from Sadrith Mora to the northern coast of Stonefalls and then by silt strider south across the fungal plane, Araynys busied herself putting the finishing touches on her costume for the masquerade ball to be held on her second night in Mournhold. She had spent the past lonely weeks in the Dagoth stronghold working on it, first laying out the cloth – a slippery, shining silk dyed greenish-blue, the colour of a clear freshwater pool in the forest – over the stone floor of her room, and lovingly cutting and shaping it, then sewing the pieces together by hand with silver thread. She had sung, softly and only to herself, as she worked, and her song made the air around her ripple with magicka, drawing the stronghold cats to her to curl up and bask in the veil of serenity she had created unthinkingly.

Now, in the hollow compartment of the silt strider’s carapace, concentrating hard to keep her stand steady through the rocking gait of the great arthropod, Araynys sewed the last of the beads onto her costume. They were tiny spheres of glass bought by the scoop in the nearby market; some clear, looking like real preserved water droplets, and others blue and green. As it grew dark, she conjured a glowing ball of light to float about the compartment while she sewed the beads onto the dress in dewy strands that made a soft clinking sound when the fabric shifted over her lap. She had designed the dress so that the beads would fan out around her as she danced; indeed, she had practiced, alone in her room in the stronghold, hoping that her provincial dancing instruction would be up to the standard of the royal court.

When the caravaner brought the silt strider to a halt, Araynys alighted with a look of wonder on her face and brushed away his suggestion that she take a carriage to her destination.

“I’ll walk, thank you,” she said, and set off with her trunk through the cobbled streets of the Resdaynian capital. She held her conjured ball of light in the fist of one hand, so that light seeped through her fingers.

Although it was now evening, and this was her first visit to Mournhold, Araynys was not afraid; she knew that she could cast a shield spell faster than a thief could draw a dagger, and the main streets of the city were lit with enchanted lanterns. Besides, after two years of reading Voryn’s letters, in which he devoted pages of careful detail to Mournhold, its streets, its landmarks, and its people, Araynys felt like she knew it almost as well as Sadrith Mora, where she made frequent trips to buy fabric and alchemical supplies. She was thinking already of how she might contrive to stay in Mournhold beyond the single term she was to study at Shad Astula, the nearby academy of magic. It would certainly please her cousin, who had been trying for years to convince her to come to stay.

Voryn lived in an upstairs apartment in the temple district, a short walk from the palace walls. Ever since he had become friendly with Sotha Sil and begun to advise the First Council on north-eastern Chimer politics, he had spent much of his time there, and Araynys was sure that she would recognise most of the most important mer at court from the vivid descriptions in his letters. Sotha Sil, a mage and scholar like her cousin, with a line between his eyes from his near-permanent frown; Almalexia, the warrior queen, who was both mighty and fiercely attentive to her subjects; the poet Vivec, whose very presence at court drove the more old fashioned nobles, obsessed with family and blood, mad; and, finally, Nerevar, who was only a soldier when Araynys had met him, years ago when he had come to win the Grandmaster’s support, but who was now the king. Voryn had devoted pages of writing to him alone.

She was proud of her cousin and pleased that he had managed to escape the anxious, suffocating grip of his father for a promising career at the Resdaynian court, but she had felt his absence keenly over the past years. Out of the eight Dagoth children – four of them the sons of the Grandmaster, with Voryn the second eldest, and four of them distant Dagoth cousins fostered or adopted into his household – Voryn had always been her favourite, and she his. Thus, she was not surprised when she stepped into his apartment, and into his embrace, and felt immediately more at home there than in the place she had left.

The apartment was small, just several rooms, and looked exactly as Voryn’s bedroom in the Dagoth stronghold always had: dark and cluttered with books and papers and the stubs of candles, melted in on themselves, with his harp standing near the sofa and an assortment of alchemical ingredients drying on every available surface of the living room. Voryn himself looked exhausted, his eyes bracketed with dark circles and his hands stained with pen ink, but he only laughed when Araynys admonished him.

“Don’t they let you sleep, Voryn?”

“There’s a lot of work to do,” he said, peevishly.

She prodded his stomach, about to give a quick retort, but then paused and frowned.

“Don’t they feed you, either? Come on, I brought some of that spice mix you like, from the market. We can make saltrice dahl.”

Voryn perked up at that, and the cousins set about cooking their meal together, laughing and bickering and getting in each other’s way, just as they had done all their lives at home. They ate sitting cross-legged on cushions around a low table, their faces warmed by the steam rising from the bowls of spicy dahl in their laps.

“So,” Voryn began, speaking slowly and with care, “how is father?”

“Fine… well, he kicked out another healer and we’re still waiting for the replacement to arrive, but other than that he’s fine. Your stepmother has been making him get out more. You know, I think he expects me to come back with a written report about how you are and what you’re up to. That’s probably why he let me come.”

Voryn frowned. “You should feel able to do as you like, Rayna. You don’t owe him –”

“I do. Gilvoth…”

“Is dead.” A firm edge had crept into his voice. “I wish you would consider staying here, in Mournhold. I’ll be moving to a bigger place soon; you know there’s always room for you.”

“I am. Considering it, I mean.”

“Rayna…” Voryn took her hand and squeezed it in gentle reassurance. “You don’t need to feel guilty anymore. You never did.”

She had to look away for a moment, dashing the back of her free hand across her face.

“Thank you, Vorya.”

That evening, as she prepared for bed in Voryn’s study-turned-second bedroom, which was even more cluttered with books than the rest of the apartment, she found she had little need of her usual protective wards to soothe herself to sleep. Away from the miserable Dagoth stronghold, where Voryn’s surviving brothers fought like cats and the ghost of Gilvoth lurked behind every door, she felt more at peace than she had in years. She would stay. She had to stay – damn the Grandmaster to Oblivion.

On her second night in Mournhold, before the masquerade ball, a transformation – woven with magic, paint, and costume – took place, and Araynys and Voryn became nereid and dremora. They stood together in front of the grand mirror in Voryn’s bedroom, she in her beaded dress and he in a hooded black robe embroidered with black thread, laughing as they altered their features with Illusion spells.

“I quite like this look,” said Voryn, as he turned his eyes from gold to blood red.

“Maybe you should make it permanent.” Araynys slid another pin into her hair to hold her leaf headdress in place. “You’d certainly turn heads that way.”

“And who says I want heads turned in my direction, Rayna?”

Araynys waved off his attempt at bland innocence. “Come on. He’ll be there tonight, I presume?”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about. Now… let me do your hair. It should be blue, don’t you think?”

“Fine,” she said with a sigh.

Voryn hid a smile as he ducked behind her and began to work his spell, turning her long black hair, a distinctive Dagoth feature they both shared, cloudy blue.

Finally, as they stepped out into the fading daylight and made their way on foot to the palace, Araynys slid her arm through Voryn’s, and she knew that his smile was out of joy in seeing her so happy.

“How do you like Mournhold so far, cousin?” he asked, and she laughed and titled her head up to the sky, where birds flew in a wide arc home to roost.

“It’s magic.”

#I know this is late lmao I was sick yesterday so I didn't get around to finishing this #but tomorrow I will post both day 3 and day 4 #also this piece doesn't technically have any femslash in it but it goes between days 1 and 3 and day 3 definitely will #tesfemslash

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me4ml · 5 years

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Hide Under Your Shell: Master Fu, and Why He Isn’t a Good Mentor

The Wise Old Mentor is a well-known trope for any Hero’s Journey: the older, usually male figure who appears with guidance, knowledge, insight, who starts the hero on the path to their destiny. From Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda to Albus Dumbledore to Mister Miyagi, they appear across cultures and through out stories of all mediums.

In Miraculous Ladybug, Master Fu is presented as one of these. He is a wise old Asian man who guards the Miraculous, chooses the Wielders, the last of an ancient order destroyed. Sounds like he’s the exact ideal of a Wise Old Mentor, right? Except there’s just one problem.

Fu sucks at his job.

(Long post, so I’ve stuck the rest in a read more underneath).

There’s about three ways to view Fu that make sense in his character, at least to my mind.

The Overwhelmed Apprentice: From my point of view, the most likely option. Fu is implied to be very young when he made his mistake leading to the destruction of the Order of the Guardians, and it’s canonically stated that he hadn’t completed his training. So Fu, in his old age, has been alone for a long time, reeling from his mistake(s), and hasn’t trained a replacement Guardian until Marinette (unless he had, and that’s part of his backstory, but again-We don’t KNOW that, and it’s frustrating). So Fu doesn’t know entirely how to use the grimoire, or provide the support needed for Marinette and Adrien, because he either doesn’t remember being their age, and the world has changed so much since his time; or he does, and he doesn’t want them to repeat his mistakes. But Fu doesn’t know enough to know differently, so he’s running on half-knowledge, things guessed at, surmised. Also, if the master-apprentice system in the Order of the Guardians, with one teacher and one pupil, was how Fu was taught, and he’s duplicating that system with Marinette, it would make sense as to why he hasn’t interacted with Adrien. Is it fair? No, not at all! But it would make sense.

The Dumbledore: Fu is much less benevolent than he appears. He’s haunted by his actions that led to the destruction of his entire way of life, and is seeking his redemption. He’ll do whatever it takes to achieve it. This Fu is less trusting, giving Marinette, and Adrien, just enough to keep them in line with his goals. This Fu was suspicious of Gabriel Agreste from the beginning (perhaps due to previous experience), and picked Adrien for that reason: to have a chance to put an agent within the enemy’s camp. Because if Adrien figures out Gabriel is Hawkmoth, or Gabriel figures out Adrien is Chat Noir, it’s a move forward. And if Fu loses a pawn? Well, he’s still got the Ladybug on his side, no skin off of his nose! Chat Noirs are a dime a dozen-after all, cats have nine lives don’t they? Fu picks Adrien, offers him freedom, a chance to be a hero, tells him Chat Noir has to protect Ladybug, she’s the only one who can fix everything, he’s the only one who can defend her, he has to sacrificee himself for her. This Fu feels the need to hide his mistakes from Marinette and Adrien, not revealing them unless he has to, and then only in the most general of terms, again, enough to make them trust him, to take his “wisdom.” In this, Adrien, and utimately even Marinette, can be sacrificed, traded to bring back the lost Butterfly. Heck, maybe this Fu is even thinking that he could use the Ladybug and Black Cat to wish them back to life if they don’t make it, he won’t be around to deal with the consequences anyways!

The Turtle Approach: Might be what we get closest to in terms of Fu’s canon decision making, the gentlest and more generous interpretation of his character. Turtles are slow-they take time to gather information, getting to places, content to wait and watch. Fu could have been waiting for the right time to reveal himself to Marinette and Adrien, but Tikki’s illness forces his hand. He’s not used to being hurried, so Fu still waits to see what will happen with his chosen heroes, until Marinette shows back up with the book. Ah, patience paying off! So Fu continues to be patient, after all, he’s nearly two centuries old, he has the time! He’s got the time to get to Adrien, to train Marinette properly, to fix his mistakes, so why worry about it? He’ll get around to it, when the time feels right to him. This is why he needs Marinette around really: youth gives age a kick up the butt, to tell them that the time is now, not later, and people need you on an immediate basis, not in some distant future, but imminently.

Moving on from Fu’s character and motivation, let’s go to his actual actions.

First thing Fu fails as a master is the matter of perspective. When Hawkmoth activates the Butterfly Miraculous, Wayzz senses it, and Fu immediately hauls out the box, pulling out the two most powerful Miraculii.

Which just so happen to be the Miraculii Hawkmoth wants the most. Meaning if they lose even once, Hawkmoth wins an instant victory, and Fu failed again.

At this point in time, Fu can activate anyone of sixteen other Miraculous, excluding his own Turtle. Rather than hauling out his biggest guns early, why doesn’t he send out two of the Zodiac to see what they can do against the Butterfly? If something does happen, Fu has learned from it, and then he can activate the Black Cat and the Ladybug later, with more information.

Now, hauling out your biggest guns early makes sense, if you’re trying to end the fight. But if the Ladybug and Black Cat are the most powerful, they should be able to squash the Butterfly with ease. Instead, Hawkmoth has run rings around Chat and Ladybug, and they’re no closer to figuring out the idenity or location then they were at the start, and Hawkmoth has beaten them face-to-face.

Now, the show says this is due to the fact that Hawky is an adult, while Chat and LB are kids.

Then why did Fu choose to give the Miraculous out to kids in the first place?!?!?!

You’re gonna tell me that there isn’t a single pair of trustworthy adults in the whole of Paris that are compatible for this? Not one?

Or, if Fu was actually smart, why not deploy all of the Miraculous at once, or at least the top tier? Even if they’re kids, he could find at least two others out there who he could give the Fox and the Bee to! Start off with four from the beginning, that way they can bond and develop from the start, rather than dragging people in piecemeal as needed. That way at least there’s some field backup for Ladybug and Chat Noir. Heck, give the Fox or the Bee to actual adults whom Fu has tested and vetted, so they can give some backup to the younger heroes, and some actual power to their battles!

Next, Fu doesn’t actually mentor the people he’s chosen to be heroes. He administers the tests, such as they are, puts the boxes in the right places for them to be discovered, and then just sits back to watch. There’s no explanation of how the powers work, what the mission is, what the kwami are. Nope, that gets left to Tikki and Plagg! Which, if the kwami were going to be spirit guides, let them actually guide! Tikki does a better job, but she’s more scolding with Marinette that I think she needs to be, and Plagg is lazy as the day is long, and that’s if Adrien bothers to listen! It would be an interesting counterpoint to Gabriel and Nooroo if the kwami were actually partners, who could, for example, not transform if they disapproved of what their Chosen was doing, while Nooroo is, through magical means, enslaved to Gabriel’s will.

Anyways, so the kids are left to figure out their abilities on their own. All well and good, but what happens if the test fails? What happens if Marinette had given up the earrings in Stoneheart to Alya, and all of a sudden there’s a Ladybug running around, unchosen by the actual Guardian, and Fu has no idea of how she’ll react? What happens if Chat had accidentally used his Cataclysm on Stoneheart himself instead of the soccer net, and killed Ivan? How would he live with the guilt of that? What does Fu do then? Or what if Ladybug or Chat Noir become corrupted by evil, or akumatized? Fu himself can’t go out, so he has to pick new Wielders, who will be less strong than the Wielders of the Black Cat and Ladybug, and probably lose, thereby repeating the cycle, and that’s all before Hawkmoth sticks his proboscis into the mess and takes advantage of the situation.

Fu additionally is useless as actual field support, where he could be the most useful, giving the occasional assist and actively combating akuma. Since he can’t transform into Jade Turtle, he can’t help LB and Chat when they need it the most. So it would make sense if he became a supply character, healing the heroes as necessary, giving them advice and wisdom, training them, supporting them, even providing them excuses. But he’s not even that at the start of the series! He just hands out the gems and vanishes! He’s a resource that Marinette and Adrien could have used in their lives as civilians and heroes

Marinette meets in a circumstance of forced necessity, when Tikki gets sick (from the rain, which just screams “CONTRIVED COINCIDENCE!” Really?! The ageless goddess of creation gets sick from the rain?! You’ve got to be kidding me. Make it from an akuma battle where Tikki absorbs a hard hit for Marinette, and they need to find a healer because her energy is misaligned, something more mystical or plot filling than she has a cold!). Fu flat out later says that none of the Wielders would have met him if not under extraordinary circumstances, which makes me want to scream. You gave two teenagers ultimate power, and NO supervision! It could turn out so badly!

More to the point, if the show was actually balanced, Adrien should have met Fu in similar circumstances as Marinette’s. Let’s use Rogercop as the example here: Plagg gets trapped in Chloe’s bracelet, and can’t phase out (again: “CONTRIVED COINCIDENCE!” Have some form of explanation please? Maybe the materials specifically used in the bracelet can’t be phased out of by kwami’s, and that’s how Nooroo is being imprisoned, or that’s what the Miraculous items themselves are made of, or something!). Adrien is very clever actually, which is rare for him to be shown as that, and sprinkles pepper on some camembert, causing Plagg to sneeze himself out. Well, say that doesn’t actually happen, and Plagg ends up telling Adrien to take him to a “healer” who can figure out a way to get this boy’s “cat” out of the bracelet he had his head stuck in! A parallel to Marinette’s storyline, and a way to show the audience that this is not just some random old man.

I understand that Marinette is the protagonist, and she’s meant to be the driving character of the show, Ladybug the only one who can purify akuma and fix the damage, the next Guardian. But if you’re going to make a show featuring two leads who are supposed to be partners, please make them actual partners. Have Adrien have lessons with Fu, not Guardian lessons, but lessons of some kind! Hell, if all Adrien does is talk to Fu in Mandarin I’d be happy! But more, Fu easily could have been a mentor to Adrien, especially with the grimoire storyline, and figuring out his mom/dad’s involvement with the Miraculous! That’s a storyline that runs parallel to Marinette’s, supporting her without stepping on her toes! Instead, Fu ignores Adrien, if not outright neglecting him. That’s bad from a storytelling perspective, and it’s bad from an internal perspective: Adrien is the Wielder of the Black Cat, holder of Destruction and Bad Luck. Of any of the Miraculous users so far, he’s the one who needs trained the most, given the most guidance, because his power could be so lethal, and the edge he has to walk so sharp!

This leads to a personal headcanon of mine: Syren takes place much later in the season than its premiere date/episode order, reasons as follows. It’s set right behind Sapotis, and that’s Rena Rouge’s first appearance, and it’s implied that the opening to Syren is just her second, maybe third outing? Chat having a freakout over not being told where Rena has come from two or three times is....really extreme.

However, if you take Anansi into account, where Chat is extremely worried about being replaced as Ladybug’s partner by Carapace, it makes so much more sense. Chat sees that since he’s been trapped, Ladybug had to go for help, and there’s a new guy, not even the Fox hero he’s worked with before. So that’s two new people that Ladybug has called on that Chat knows nothing about. No matter how much Ladybug tells him he’s her partner and he can’t be replaced, Chat can’t get over his insecurities. If he’s irreplaceable, why isn’t Ladybug telling him this stuff? Where’s she getting the Miraculous to give to these new people? If they’re partners, why doesn’t she trust him?

The timeline works less well, but if possible, I might even stick Queen’s Battle ahead of Syren. That way, you’ve got the Chloe reveal, Chat getting scorched by Ladybug when he says she lost a Miraculous, and the whole akumatization thing. About the only thing that would make me think that Wasp Queen comes post-Syren is that Chat seems to take his scolding over the lost Miraculous, implying that he’s aware of Fu’s existence, because where else might Ladybug have learned that?

OH! Which reminds me, another reason why Fu is a shit master: In Style Queen, Fu and Plagg fling Adrien under the bus. Not even a second thought. They immediately tell Marinette when she shows up at Fu’s that Chat lost his Miraculous. Plagg even says it’s the most irresponsible thing that he’s seen in 5000 years. And Plagg seems to have been there for awhile, if left straight for Fu’s shop right after Adrien got glitter-zapped, and gotten enough time to get cheese.

What! The! Hell!

That’s honestly the best they could come up with?! There were other reasons, other excuses that they could have come up with! How about, “Chat Noir had to unexpectedly leave town,” or maybe “Chat Noir is extremely ill,” possibly even “Chat Noir’s civilian self has been glittered by Style Queen,” because there’s not a single person on this show that has any sort of investigative inclination to actually look and see who might have gotten glittered. Nope! It’s straight to Chat lost his Miraculous, how irresponsible! And Marinette believes them, because what else is she supposed to think? Is the keeping of Adrien’s identity really that critical in that moment, that it requires that Ladybug think less of her partner? Do they really need to crap all over Chat like that, when Fu himself specifically said to Marinette that it is important that Ladybug and Chat Noir don’t lose their Miraculii? So Chat Noir’s so-called Master and his own kwami essentially knife him in the back. IF there was any actual development or sense of continuity on the show, that would have made a great thread to pick up with! Chat’s sense of betrayal, Ladybug’s sense of abandonment, Fu’s actions coming back to bite him yet again! But no, it’s dropped, with not even a clang, just the grimoire storyline.

Anyways, so Syren makes a lot more sense if it’s later, at least after Anansi.

Speaking of Syren: this is only the second time (as of Gamer 2.0) Adrien and Fu interact face-to-face, of three times total: once in Origins, and twice here. Fu is implied to be keeping an eye on Adrien and Marinette prior to meeting Marinette in Princess Fragrance, revealing himself in Volpina/The Collector, and then watching Adrien afterwards. What we don’t get in Syren is an answer as to why the hell Fu hasn’t openly contacted and is mentoring Adrien yet. He’s told Marinette a silly ice-cream koan about noodles, and Marinette just-accepts it? And I get why, because she’s fourteen, and an adult that she trusts, one who presumably knows more, is telling her what’s happening, but it’s aggravating! We don’t learn Fu’s reason for not telling Adrien about himself yet! We get a metaphor, and that’s it. It goes back to plot contrivance, and so we’re left to come up with reasons.

Does Fu not trust Adrien? If so why? And why was he given a Miraculous in the first place then? Does he not like Adrien? Does Marinette remind him of someone? Does Adrien remind him of himself? Was Marinette always meant to be the Guardian, and Adrien simply the person who could keep her alive long enough to take on that role? Silence, and the sound of crickets, because there’s no answer.

A lot of people have pointed to Adrien’s maturity, not being ready to know about the Guardian, but if that the case, to use Fu’s own metaphor, then the pot has boiled over and the noodles are burnt. If this was a test of Adrien’s maturity-and I say this as an Adrien fan-Adrien failed. But Fu gives him the power-ups anyways, because the city’s flooded, and there’s no time to do anything else. Only there’s no consequence later, no teaching moment, no warnings, no first strike lecture, no nothing.

My point is this: It never should have gotten that far to begin with. Adrien never should have been forced into that position of not knowing and feeling like he had to threaten to take his ring off to know something, because Fu should have been revealing himself a long time ago. And Fu, again, failed as a mentor, because all we see is him showing Adrien the powerups later. Why not have Fu sitting down and lecturing Adrien about what he did and why that was wrong? Why not have Adrien break down, and yell at Fu, asking him where he’s been all this time, why is he just now having to learn about a Guardian? He could have used a Master! It shouldn’t have had to get to “the city’s flooded” for Adrien to learn about Fu!

If you give Adrien a mentor figure early, a willing, responsible adult, who will listen to him, advise him, guide him, how much of what he does might be mitigated? If Adrien can talk to Fu, maybe he’s less obsessed with Ladybug, more willing to explore other romantic options, more willing to be graceful when faced with denial. Maybe he gains a willingness to buck up against his father’s wishes, because he knows that he’s got a sense of support in his corner, more willing to slip the leash and be free as Adrien. Maybe Adrien actually buckles down, and learns to be more focused on the job, on the mission, because someone has said that you need to be more than just the comic relief, more than just the shield and the sidekick, and here’s how.

(Brief side rant):

Part of the reason Fu doesn’t mentor Adrien is the writer’s insistence on Adrien being “perfect,” which is a concept I despise. Perfection is not a thing that exists in anyone in real life, and perfect characters are A) stupid, B) boring, and C) impractical. I would mind less if Adrien actually acted as perfect as he is described, if he did the right thing at every moment, but he would be less interesting because of it. If Adrien is a brat, that’s good, that’s showing him with character. If he’s pissed off at his dad, awesome, he should be. If Adrien-as-Chat is frustrated because Ladybug won’t tell him anything and Fu has kept him in the dark? Good, he can express that. But show, if not the consequences, at least the effects of Adrien being bratty, pissed, or frustrated.

More to the point, please, for the love of everything, grant Adrien the courtesy of development. It’s one thing for his father to see Adrien as perfect, but the characters in the series shouldn’t, the writers definitely shouldn’t, and the audience absolutely doesn’t. We won’t hate Adrien if he’s not perfect, but this insistence on treating him like such, protecting him from any consequence or push back, treating him like he’s a moral authority, and refusing to allow him the grace of his mistakes is honestly what’s driving a lot of the backlash towards him. The rise in salt fics, in Lukanette and Felinette shipping, has spiked recently, and there’s a correlation between those and how Adrien’s been portrayed. That should not be the case for the show’s co-hero and male lead.

(Back to the Fu stuff, sorry for the brief side rant).

And honestly, Fu isn’t just screwing Adrien over, he’s screwing Marinette over too! He tells Marinette that she’ll be the next Guardian, and what exactly has he done, that we are shown, to help her with that? Has he saw down with her and begun to teach her how to decipher the grimoire? Has he taught her about the Miraculous and the kwami, the nature of them? Has Fu told Marinette how to choose new Miraculous holders if there isn’t someone she can trust around, what tests she should give? Is there additional magic to the kwami’s and the Miraculous that affects them, a resonance theory to how each kwami matches with a Holder? Has Fu taught Marinette about her partner, about the power of the Black Cat, about why he chose the boy under the mask, and the reasons that he did so? Most importantly, has Fu explored any of the powers of the Ladybug Miraculous with Marinette, so she can be stronger, gain new abilities? Nope! Haven’t seen it!

Marinette is already shown to be burdened with responsibilities-she’s Ladybug, she’s got school, she’s trying to break into a tough, vicious field in fashion design, she helps her parents, and y’know, tries to have a life outside of all of that. And now Fu tells her, “Oh yeah, when I pass on, which could be any moment ‘cause I’m ridiculously old, you’re gonna be the next Guardian, and have to protect an additional fifteen hyper-powered magical beings! Have fun kiddo!” No wonder she’s stressed! Y’know what might help? If her partner was just as updated as she was!

Adrien is shown to be good with languages: he can speak Japanese, and is learning Mandarin. Why isn’t Fu calling him into learn about deciphering the grimoirie? Why isn’t Fu teaching Adrien anything at all?

What Fu should be doing is training Marinette to be the next official Guardian, and Adrien should be right there at her side, learning how to support her, balancing her, as her partner. One person is not going to rebuild the Guardians by themself, no matter how talented; Fu is wrong if he thinks that’s the case. Two people, trained for the job, can get it started, and pass down the legacy. Fu is right to believe in Marinette-she’s going to make a wonderful Guardian-but he’s wrong to only believe in Marinette. She needs help! Informed, capable, knowledgeable help. And Chat Noir can be that help, if Fu is willing to move in and actually do his damn job and mentor Adrien/Chat Noir.

Fu has the ability, like most every single character on the show, to be an interesting character. But the refusal of the writers to explore his back story, develop more of the lore surrounding him and the kwami, and actually use him in the way that would be both helpful and plot advancing, is aggravating. And worse, it make the person we’re supposed to view as the mentor in this situation look like he doesn’t know what’s going on. Fu doesn’t support his pupils in the proper way, he doesn’t help them the way they need to be helped, he ignores if not outright neglects the training of one of his responsibilities. He’s not a good mentor, or a suitable master.

#miraculous ladybug #master fu #fu salt #ml meta #miraculous ladybug meta #marinette dupain-cheng #ladybug #adrien agreste #chat noir #tikki #plagg #miraculous ladybug lore #ml lore #ml analysis #miraculous ladybug analysis

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legless-karamatsu · 7 years

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I Wrote An Eight-Page Story About Legless Karamatsu, You're Welcome World

A loud scream tore through the Matsuno household.

“My eeeyeeeeesss!!!”

There was a sound not particularly unlike a sextuplet evaporating into thin air; then, silence.

Todomatsu looked up from his smartphone, then looked down.

Jyuushimatsu continued batting practice in the corner, completely unperturbed.

Osomatsu continued to flick through channels on the TV.

Choromatsu peered over from the top of some short-lived idol’s photobook…

“HEY! Don’t you think there’s something wrong with that?!”

The photobook fell from his hand, falling in the trash can (where it belonged).

“Hey, when you wave your arms like that it kills the reception, y’know?” Osomatsu looked up long enough to push Choromatsu’s shifting self-awareness out of the way; with that, the TV sprang back to life and picked up some daytime talk show.

“That’s not the problem here!”

“You’re right, it’s not,” Todomatsu piped up.

“See? So don’t you think—“

“The problem is that daytime TV is garbage, and you can find better content on any streaming site these days.” He smiled sweetly. “But you would know that if you cared to keep up with modern trends. That’s why one day, I’m going to—”

“Yeah, I think I’d rather listen to that than that.” Osomatsu turned away from his youngest brother as his rant grew more fervent. “So, what’s wrong with something that sounded like Ichimatsu screaming and then disappearing into a pile of ash?”

“What’s wrong with it? What isn’t?! Where did that scream come from—why—and—“ Choromatsu stopped for breath. “It wasn’t a pile of ash. That was very clearly the sound of ‘a sextuplet evaporating into thin air.’ Meaning, there’s nothing. Left.”

“Give ‘im a few hours; he’ll shake it off.”

“Brotheeeeers~” A voice called in heavily accented English. “Where are yooooouuuu?”

A scare chord sounded from somewhere.

“Totty, change that stupid ringtone!”

“Karamatsu, is that you?” Jyuushimatsu rested the tip of the bat on the floor. “Oh, are you going to pachinko again? Except, don’t worry, I won’t—“

“Just a minute!” Choromatsu said. “Jyuushimatsu, shut up!!”

“Y tho?”

“Think about it! We…this could be a murder!”

“A murder?” Bright lights emitted from Osomatsu, and the brothers turned their eyes away as his clothes fell off (seriously, no one wanted to see that—no, wait, fangirls, please stop—I mean, come on, he’s a muppet—all right, fine, so some of you probably wanted to see it, but I’m going to kinkshame you all the way through this part) well actually one brother who shall remain unnamed for his protection looked upon Osomatsu’s naked glory, but seriously there was nothing to see the show censors everything because broadcast standards anyway you should all be ashamed of yourselves.

He reappeared in his Calming Detective outfit.

“Well, if that’s the case, why didn’t you say—“

“Jyuushimatsu-niisan…” Todomatsu placed a hand on his older brother’s shoulder soberly. “Do you think you can hit a home run with Osomatsu-niisan’s head?”

“Yup!”

Seconds later, Osomatsu lay unconscious on the floor, a conspicuous amount of blood streaming from his head.

“Nice; try to hit it clean off next time.” Todomatsu cheered.

“Brooootheeeers~ I know you’re in theeeree~” Karamatsu’s voice called, closer than before.

“I have a wonderful surprise for all of you, brothers.”

“Anyway!” Choromatsu cut in above all the horror movie nonsense, trying to steer this ship unsuccessfully back into mystery territory. “Think about it! Mom and Dad are out getting groceries.”

“They are?”

“YES! Because plot contrivances like that always pop up when you most expect it! Which means—” He pointed; it felt only necessary at this juncture. “Which means—Karamatsu has to the killer!”

The room fell silent.

Unfortunately, it was not due to shock and awe from Choromatsu’s excellent deduction.

“Umm, niisan,” Todomatsu interjected. “Even Osomatsu-niisan could have figured it out from the ‘Broothers, where are you’ stuff.”

“I—I mean, that’s true, but—“

They all jumped as a knock sounded on the door.

“Brooooothers…why won’t you open the door?”

“He found us!” Choromatsu screamed. “We’re all doomed!”

“Um, right. He knew where we were for a while now.” Todomatsu sighed. “Well, there’s only one thing to do…”

He picked up Osomatsu’s hand and began to drag him across the floor.

“Totty—what are you—“

“Sacrificing Osomatsu-niisan for the greater good. He’s the oldest one, after all; he’s doing a heroic deed for all us younger siblings. How nice of him!”

At the sound of the word ‘nice,’ Osomatsu’s eyes shot open. He gripped Todomatsu’s hand with his own, and, in an instant—

Climbed to his knees, flipped Todomatsu over, and slammed him into the door.

“We have a status quo to keep! Remember: no more than one nice person between the six of us!” Osomatsu rubbed sweat off his forehead. “The last thing we need is Godmatsu showing up alongside this Cursed-Matsu.”

“Cursed?”

“Oh, come on—it’s not like you don’t see the plot twist coming, right?” He nodded. “Mm-hmm. I feel like wearing this detective’s cape makes me more genre-savvy. So, for example, I can say things like *&#*(&% and (&#%& and—h-huh?!”

A dark aura appeared from behind Osomatsu. At the center of the maelstrom, a Jyuushimatsu with a deeply terrifying look arose.

“No. Spoilers.”

He beeped the burglar alarm in his hand once more for good measure.

“Why do you have that at your age?!”

“In case there’s a burglar, of course!”

“Brothers. I’m going to open the door in one…two…”

Surprisingly, his count went past three, giving the brothers an indeterminate amount of time to talk.

Naturally, they brought up a completely petty and irrelevant subject.

“Hey, Jyuushimatsu. What was that about pachinko?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, you know.” Osomatsu chimed in alongside Choromatsu. “Something about ‘I won’t?’ ‘I won’t’—what, Jyuushimatsu?”

“I, uh—“

“Don’t tell me—“ Todomatsu’s face Did The Thing. “You and Cursed-Matsu have been going to Pachinko—without us—“

He took a deep breath, bulging eyes hitting their critical point.

“That’s—not—a—very—nice—thing—to—do.”

All three voices spoke at once; the hive mind had begun.

“W-wait, I—I mean—I—“

Osomatsu grabbed an arm; Choromatsu grabbed his side. Todomatsu wholeheartedly took both legs.

“Wait—“

Osomatsu twisted the doorknob.

“There’s—you guys—“

The door opened, and the brothers unceremoniously dumped Jyuushimatsu outside.

He screamed loudly.

“It’s Karamatsu—he—has no—boooooEEEEEHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” With a fairly out-of-place final gag and a bright flash of light, Jyuushimatsu faded into nothing.

Todomatsu slammed the door, slumping against the wall.

“…So, did we appease the elder gods?”

“208…209…210! Brothers, I’m coming in!!”

The door flew open as if kicked.

“So…what do you think~?”

At the door stood Karamatsu.

More precisely, stood half of Karamatsu.

Where his legs were—there was nothing.

Or rather—

Shouldn’t have been anything.

And yet—

Somehow—

That empty space, far more horrifying than all the tank tops with his own face, all the sparkly blue pants and shades and skulls and horrific English vocabulary—

It sparkled.

“UuuuuaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHHHH—“

In an instant, all of Karamatsu’s brothers vanished.

“But waaaaaiiiiit!!!!” Choromatsu screamed in the way that instantly dying characters sometimes have time to spout one final line. “If we would have just barricaded the door, Mom and Dad would have come hoooooo—“

He, too, disappeared—unfortunately for everyone, he left behind the unwanted legacy of his self-awareness.

“Hmm. You’re all just blown away by my beauty, aren’t you? Heh!” He laughed. “I must journey across the world to find someone who can withstand the beauty of my non-legs—if such a person exists—and learn the secret to their beauty! Then I will be the most beautiful man in all the world!”

So he did. First, Totoko—

“I’m taking a shower you creep, how did you even get in h—aaaAAAAHHHH!!!”

Then, Iyami—

“Sheeee—“ His signature gag was cut off because no one cares and tbh even imagining his voice annoys me (yes, this author).

Then, Dayon—

“Dayoooo—“

Then, Hatabou—

“You look very nice today, Karamatsu. Did you get a haircu—“ This one was slightly sad, and Karamatsu felt a twinge of guilt; however, it quickly passed because seriously that kid is messed up.

Even the Esper Cat.

“Your need to be the most beautiful is reflective of your achievement-driven personality, which in itself stems from your low sense of self-esteem and subsequent vastly overestimated self-efficacy—“ Luckily, he was cut off before he could spout more cryptic nonsense from a Psych 101 textbook.

Finally, he reached the last place on earth he had not yet visited.

Chibita’s oden cart.

Why he had decided to make his way around the world first before coming here, he didn’t know. Perhaps he felt somewhat attached to the place he and his brothers had spent their Saturday nights for so many years. More likely, he didn’t want to be lectured (or kidnapped) over his tab again. Between the two, he decided, a lecture was worse—yes, it was definitely the lecture he was avoiding.

Still—he had to have courage.

For his fallen brothers.

Even though he killed them.

For his fallen brothers, he approached the stand.

One last person.

To see his beauty—

“What’re you doin’, idjit?” Chibita looked up from the stand. “What’s with your legs? That’s gross.”

“G-gross?”

Chibita did not scream.

Chibita did not disappear.

Chibita called his legless legs gross.

He fell to his kneeless knees.

“Chibita!” He yelled.

“What, are you proposing? I’ve got a stand to run, idjit.”

“No!” He screamed passionately. “Teach me—teach me the secret! To your beauty!!”

“Oh, that? It’s pretty simple, actually.” He took off his shirt, muscles far too large for it popping out.

Karamatsu gazed over his massive pecs, down to his chiseled abs, and over to his bulging biceps, all shining the shiny way sweaty skin does (idk man).

“Chibita—you’re—“

“Yes.” Chibita’s suddenly deep voice thundered proudly. “I am…bara.”

Tears flowed from Karamatsu’s eyes.

“B-but—I’m a NEET. I can never become bara. I can’t even lift a five-pound weight!”

“That’s actually really sad, idjit.”

“What?!”

“I mean—“ Bara-Form Chibita cleared his throat, looking desperately for something encouraging to say. “You can lift more than you think you can. If you won big at pachinko, how would you get it all home?”

“I—I would carry it! As far and as long as it took! Even if I had to stop at every bench until I got home!!”

“Or you could cash in the chips and just call a ta—nevermind.” He coughed. “Exactly! Now—just imagine these weights as your pachinko winnings!”

He pulled several massive dumbbells from under the cart.

“I—“ Karamatsu lifted the edge of one. “I—won—“

His arms trembled.

“A million dollars—“

The weight trembled.

“AND THE LOVING ADORATION OF MY KARAMATSU GIRLS!!!”

With that determined yell, he lifted the bar over his head. Immediately, his muscles twitched, then blossomed forth into beautiful bara flowers (see what I did there heehee).

And suddenly, Legless Karamatsu was bara!

“Yes, idjit, that’s it!” Bara-Form Chibita’s seductively slitted eyes sparkled. “Now—let’s go show the entire world the beauty of bara!”

“Um, about that,” Bara-Form Karamatsu mumbled—but in a deeply manly way.

“What?”

“I think I kinda killed them all.”

“Now why would you—“

“THEY COULDN’T HANDLE MY BEAUTY, OKAY??”

“YOU IDJIT!” Chibita screamed—but again, still manly. “Why do you think I wear a shirt all the time? Don’t you think I’d want the world to see my Beautiful Bara Form? With great power comes great responsibility—you need a limiter!”

“Like—“

Karamatsu pulled his shades from his nonexistent back pocket and put them on.

Immediately, his muscles shrank back in the light of his cringe.

“Yes! And keep ‘em on, idjit! Thanks to you, all my business is gone!”

“…I mean, not like you’d need it, since everyone is de—“

“SPEAK UP, IDJIT! CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER ALL THESE MUSCL—“

“I SAID!!” Karamatsu screamed with the rage of someone who has gone through seven pages of abject nonsense. “LET’S! REVIVE! THE! WORLD! WITH! BARAAAAAA!!!”

He took of his sunglasses. Light enveloped his body, and—do I really have to write him naked—fine—something something he was naked and there was skin but like he doesn’t have anything below the waist anyway so uh BAM muscles.

“THINK ABOUT IT THIS WAY!” He said, super manly-ly. “IF EVERYONE IS BARA, THEN NO ONE WILL DIE IN THE FACE OF BARA! WE CAN ALL WALK AROUND WITHOUT LIMITERS, AND BE BARA IN A BEAUTIFUL *~BARA PARADISE~* BARA!”

Chibita breathed through his teeth.

“THAT’S GENIUS!”

So, much screaming and weight-lifting later (have you ever tried to make a corpse lift a weight? It’s nuts, man), the world was bara.

And Karamatsu and Chibita sailed off into the sparkling bara sunset to explore uncharted lands and teach them, too, of bara.

But it didn’t matter in the end because Choromatsu’s self-awareness would devour the world the next week. That’s called a Chekov’s Gun, readers.

And now I’m going to leave you with the mental image of a massively muscular Totoko because everyone needed that.

[Mod note: God bless you this was an emotional roller coaster]

#legless karamatsu #karamatsu #karamatsu matsuno #mr osomatsu #osomatsu san #os #fanfiction #my hero #submission

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newyorktheater · 4 years

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Check out:

Favorite stage performances in 2019.

Top 10 Lists of Top 10 Theater in 2019.

Best Broadway Cast Recording of 2019.

Top 10 Theater of the Decade.

Worst Theater of the Decade.

People who engaged with the arts frequently had a 31 percent lower risk of dying, according to a new study from the British Medical Journal. This was independent of demographic, socioeconomic, health related, behavioral, and social factors. Even those who were infrequent consumers of culture had 14 percent lower risk of dying than shoe who never engaged.

The Journal’s editors observe:”The data show that the very people who have the most to gain from participating in cultural activities are least likely to do so. More than 40% of patients with lung disease, depression, or loneliness reported never engaging with the arts despite robust evidence of the potential benefits. Over 40% of participants in the least wealthy group also reported that they never accessed cultural activities. Work must now be done to ensure that the health benefits of these activities are accessible to those who would benefit most.”

The Week in NY Theater Previews and Reviews

The Sorceress The Sorceress (Di Kishefmakherin), the first work of Yiddish theatre ever presented in America, is back on stage in New York 136 years after its U.S. premiere. In my article for TDF Stages, Yiddish Culture Is Alive and Well and Playing in New York, I talk to Motl and Mikhl, the director of the play and the star, who portrays the wicked witch, Bobe Yakhne, in drag. Though Babe is the villain, she is the title character.

The Sorceress, by the same company that put together the acclaimed “Fiddler on the Roof” in Yiddish, is just one of three events this month that demonstrate a resurgence in interest in Yiddish language and culture.

Luke Kirby as stationmaster Thomas Hudetz in “Judgment Day” at the Park Avenue Armory

Judgment Day with Luke Kirby Luke Kirby, who portrayed a movie star hired to play “Hamlet” in the cult TV comedy “Slings & Arrows” 16 years ago, is now on stage for real, as Thomas Hudetz, a murderer in Ödön von Horváth’s 1937 drama “Judgement Day” at the Park Avenue Armory.

Kirby has lived in New York for some two decades now, but has only appeared in a handful of plays, spending most of his time in television — currently as the real-life comic Lenny Bruce in Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” for which he won an Emmy earlier this year, and as closeted civil servant Gene Goldman on HBO’s “The Deuce.” Why so few stage roles…and why this one now?

Those are the questions I put to him in an interview for TDF Stages.

Ian McKellen as Gus the Theatre Cat in “Cats,” co-written and directed by Tom Hooper.

Cats the movie – pics and reviews Cats” isn’t for everyone – much of it is a cheesy, B-grade affair seemingly crafted solely to take over midnight-movie slots from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ Those with an open mind, though, as well as little kids and the T-Swift posse, might find it somewhat pawesome.” Brian Truitt writes in USA Today, in the most positive review I could find. He’s enchanted by Taylor Swift, but turned off by the “nightmare fuel…when human faces are put on tiny mice and Rockette-esque cockroaches.”

More typical is Manohla Dargis in the New York Times: “It is tough to pinpoint when the kitschapalooza called “Cats” reaches its zenith or its nadir, which are one and the same. The choices are legion…

Sing Street

“Sing Street” is a stage musical based on the sweet, funny “happy-sad” 2016 Irish movie by writer/director John Carney about a teenager named Conor growing up in Dublin during the economically depressed but musically vibrant 1980s, who forms a band to impress a girl name Raphina. The musical has its pleasures, especially for those nostalgic for the era of made-for-MTV, New Wave synthesized tunes. A talented group of young adult actor-musicians, ages 16 to 25, perform mostly original pastiche songs by Carney and Scottish singer-songwriter Gary Clark, who was part of the 80s scene and continues his hit-making now. But “Sing Street” the stage musical is likely to disappoint anybody who has seen “Sing Street” the movie (which is currently available for viewing online, through IMDB TV, for free.)

The Week in New York Theater News

The opening of West Side Story has been pushed from from February 6 to February 20 due to a knee injury that left the show’s star Isaac Powell unable to perform. The show began preview peformancs on December 10

.@mockingbirdbway will be the first-ever Broadway show to perform at @TheGarden on February 26, 2020, in front of some 18,000 New York City public school students. Here’s playwright Aaron Sorkin and the new cast posing at the arena. pic.twitter.com/txrecILSJm

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 18, 2019

..@TheCrownNetflix stars Claire Foy and Matt Smith will perform in @SleeveNotes‘ “Lungs” at @BAM_Brooklyn March 25-April 19 2020. The play is about a couple wrestling with the morality of having kids in an overpopulated planet. pic.twitter.com/96r9elP5hB

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 18, 2019

View of the Shed from The Highline

The Shed’s Second Season

Claudia Rankine, “Help”

Arinzé Kene, “Misty”

Tomas Saraceno, “Particular Matter (s)”

Meet at the Shed, January 11,2020

A free, daylong, building-wide takeover with exhibitions, performances, food

Help March 10 – April 5,2020

An inquiry into white male privilege by Claudia Rankine

Tomás Saraceno: Particular Matter(s) May 6 – August 9, 2020;

A visual art installation that is intended to be neither seen nor heard, but felt.

Misty September 24 – October 24

Fusing live music, spoken word, and absurdist comedy, Misty is a journey through the dark alleyways of a city in flux and a genre-defying excavation of the pressures and expectations that come with being an artist in our time

Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino

Live Nation Entertainment Inc.reached an agreement with the Justice Department to resolve government concerns that the company violated a 2010 antitrust settlement that allowed it to merge with Ticketmaster, according to the Wall Street Journal. Under the original agreement, known as a consent decree, the companies were allowed to combine but had to agree to conditions designed to help preserve competition in the live-events industry.

Dear Evan Hansen

Kerry Butler (Mrs. George), Erika Henningsen (Cady Heron)

Scene from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theater in London.

Isabelle McCalla and Caitlin Kinnunen as high school girlfriends in The Prom

(l-r) Nicholas L. Ashe, Jonathan Burke, J. Quinton Johnson, Jeremy Pope, Caleb Eberhardt, John Clay III, Gerald Caesar

The problem with teen musicals on Broadway by critic Christian Lewis in American Theatre Magazine.

When it comes to teenagers and Broadway, 2016’s Dear Evan Hansen changed the game. The Tony-winning Pasek and Paul musical was certainly not the first Broadway show about—or beloved by—teens. That credit might go to Spring Awakening (2006) or 13 (2008) or Runaways (1978), or much further back to Babes in Arms (1937), considered the first musical with an entire cast of teenage characters. In the wake of Dear Evan Hansen’s success, Broadway quickly saw a sweep of major productions with teenage protagonists: Mean Girls (2018), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2018), The Prom (2018), Choir Boy (2019), Be More Chill (2019), and the latest installation, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical (2019).

….The genre deserves a larger critique, but not the one critics are making. Yes, Young Adult Theatre can seem angsty, the pop score/lyrics can feel basic and the plots contrived. But the central problem with Dear Evan Hansen, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Be More Chill, and The Lightning Thief is that they’re all about straight, white, cisgender teenage boys. The supporting casts are often diverse, but the main characters don’t deviate from this norm. Not only are these protagonists about as privileged as they come; worse, each of these pieces is about its hero’s search for his identity. Compared to a person of color, a queer person, a transgender person (let alone any intersection of these), how much do Evan, Harry, Jeremy, or Percy have to figure out about themselves?….We need more shows like The Prom or Choir Boy:

The movie is a wreck, the musical is a joke. Why, then, will we always have ‘Cats’?

By Charles McNulty (who doesn’t really answer the question posed in the headline)

“Cats,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s blockbuster spun from the light verse of T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” is a paradox and a puzzle illustrating the disconnect between theatrical success and respect. The fourth-longest-running show in Broadway history, it is the consummate tourist musical. (“Broadway’s first show for the tired Japanese businessman,” according to Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik’s indispensable “Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time.”)

Theater people resent “Cats” not just because it made Broadway uncool until “Hamilton” finally rescued it from the pop cultural stocks. What really infuriates buffs is that “Cats” ushered in an era of grandiose spectacle, the vacuous parade of shows from the 1980s and early ’90s that made it seem as if a musical had to have a helicopter or a crashing chandelier to be worth the rapidly rising ticket price.

Ed Harris and Kyle Scatliffe, center, in “To Kill A Mockingbird”

Q and A about To Kill A Mockingbird with Aaron Sorkin and Ed Harris, its new Atticus

Aaron Sorkin: How did Harper Lee get away with having a protagonist who doesn’t change? Because Atticus isn’t the protagonist in the book or the movie; Scout is—her flaw is that she’s young, and the change is that she loses some of her innocence. While I wanted to explore Scout, I absolutely wanted Atticus to be a traditional protagonist, so he needed to change and have a flaw … It turned out that Harper Lee had [already] given him one; it’s just that when we all learned the book, it was taught as a virtue. It’s that Atticus believes that goodness can be found in everyone….

Ed Harris: I love the film. I think Peck’s portrayal in terms of that story and that script is just indelible. There are little things that happen on the stage even now, just a head move or something, that feels like Gregory Peck! But the inner life of this man I’m playing is so different [from Peck’s character]. He’s trying to hold on to a belief that’s being eroded slowly but surely. It’s really interesting to play.

The Trojan Women’s Project at La MaMa: The artists discuss

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I got asked for an end-of-the-decade quote on “emerging trends” and the editors rejected it, so here it is so that it doesn’t go to waste. Happy holidays! pic.twitter.com/b5YBglbJBL

— Young Jean Lee (@YoungJean_Lee) December 24, 2019

Best and Worst Theater of The Decade, and of 2019. See a show, live longer. #Stageworthy News of the Week Check out: Favorite stage performances in 2019. Top 10 Lists of Top 10 Theater in 2019.

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