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samiralula01 · 4 years

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Jason Todd is the Anti-Batman

* A pointless rambling of the relationship and parallels between Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd.

Picture this opening scene: There are two boys in a dark alley.

One is dressed in an expensive suit with a tie his dead father helped him with only earlier that evening. His hands are stained red with the same blood now puddled on the grimy cement. His face is in shock.

The second boy is dressed in tattered jeans and hoodie. His hands are stained with tires grease and are clutching a tire iron. His face is in shock.

Decades later, there are two more scenes to consider.

A seriously injured man sits slumped over in his father’s study. Without warning, a bat crashes through the window, and everything falls into place. He now knows what he needs to do.

Elsewhere, an emotionally distraught teenager is curled up into a fetal position on a hotel room floor. Heart wrenching cries can be heard from him. But it is only momentary. He now knows what he needs to do.

These two individuals are Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd. While they are both broken and determined men, Batman is a hero. The Red Hood is not. He is the anti-Batman and this is why.

Two Boys in an Alleyway

Despite similarities in their stories’ early themes and elements, Bruce and Jason came to walk down very different paths. One of justice, and the other vengeance. Batman is determined to protect the innocent and Jason more so on punishing the guilty. Both their ideologies have intrinsic flaws, of course, and will naturally clash often. But this wasn’t always the case.

Before they became a father and son perpetually in mourning for who they once were and what could have been, Bruce and Jason were remarkably similar. The two are cut from the same cloth and Bruce knows this better than anyone else.

In the Dumpster Slasher three-part story line, (Batman #414, #421, #422) Bruce becomes emotional. Violent. He sits in the batcave alone that night and contemplates his emotions.

“Nearly blew it. I let it get too personal. Lost my detachment...nearly lost control. Almost beat Cutter to death. Wouldn’t have been any big loss.”

Only one issue later, at the end of this story arc, Robin is out on the streets and becomes angry when he happens upon a pimp is threatening a prostitute with a knife. Now, I want you to compare his line here to Bruce’s and note what Jim Gordon said to him as well.

Batman: "I think he’s had enough, Robin. What were you trying to do, kill him?" Robin (Jason): “Would it’ve been that big of a loss if I had?”

It is important to note here that Batman is not worried or upset just because Jason roughs up a pimp. That would be hypocritical considering his own earlier actions. If anything, it’s because one of the main reasons Batman even takes in these kids, these ‘robins,’ is because he doesn’t want them to be like him.

And Jason was acting just like him.

Jason can and has screwed up and failed due to his own actions, but it was never the reason Batman became upset with him. His reactions in the comics when Jason does things like running ahead and ‘jumping the gun,’ are more like this:

He either makes a teaching moment out of it or is attempts to understand Jason’s reasons in doing any such thing. When Bruce does become harsh in his discipline, it’s either when he feels as though Jason has endangered his own life or as I said, he acts too much like him.

While there are quite a few more similarities between Bruce and Jason that makes them alike, such as both being introverted and interested in obtaining all sorts of knowledge that they might not even feel is relevant, they are both, at the core of their characters, deeply caring and compassionate people.

The differences only start to show with how they act on it.

The Not-So Dynamic Duo?

“What happened to you as a child, the terror, the pain, the horrors (...) you were broken, and I thought I could put the pieces back together. I thought I could do for you what could never be done for me. Make you whole.”

Hot take. Jason Todd is a villain and is best written as a villain.

Not in that campy way like he’s written during Dick and Damian’s Batman and Robin run while wearing that stupid pill-headed hood, (although, I grant he has a few lines that are enjoyable to read) but in all his serious, vengeful and downright brutal motives.

The Red Hood is the perfect Batman villain because he’s so different from what the widely perceived perfect foil to the controlled and disciplined Bat is...the Joker.

The Red Hood was vengeance at its purest. It is justice without being tempered by mercy. It is the rage of victims who were forgotten to become statistics. While other vigilantes wait for a cure, hope for rehabilitation, and pretend their system works, the Red Hood is a man of no such faith.

And this makes him a villain. And a damn good one.

During the Red Hood’s time as a crime lord in Gotham, he goes around blowing up buildings. He throws grenades into trucks. He mows down his competition with gunfire. Batman comes upon the bloodied hanged corpse of a man he was finished interrogating.

But what is so compelling about this all is that before all the murder, all the guns and explosions, Jason Todd was a very different little boy. And all the great and memorable villains start that way.

The Joker is not someone you’re meant to sympathize with or even understand. In fact, I find him more terrifying because he’s unknown. He has no backstory (unless you want to believe the one he gave in Killing Joke, but the clown has a new story for every face he meets) and seemingly does what he does for a laugh of all things.

Jason Todd is in pain. He’s traumatized. Betrayed. Buried. Replaced. He is no one’s son because his father abandoned him.

Once upon a time, Jason Todd was a boy who saved himself. One of the biggest lies that Batman himself perpetuates is that he saved Jason from a life of crime. He tells Alfred that Jason was always dangerous. Bruce simply took him off the streets before he could be any worse.

But I don’t believe that’s true.

Jason grew up surrounded by crime, poverty, substance abuse and yet this amazing kid saved himself everyday by making a conscious choice to be kind and care about school, care about keeping his mother alive for over a year when he was just a child himself. That amazing kid was magic.

Jason Todd as Robin was magic.

“Jason smiles. A bright smile. The kind Robin, the Boy Wonder should have.”

A good portion of his character’s assassination was in order to push the Tim is the perfect Robin idea. It was editorial decisions. The same ‘suits’ who insisted that Tim Drake be the Robin in the New Adventures cartoon despite having Jason’s backstory and personality. But I digress on that.

Jason Todd was an introverted, studious, and emphatic person. He wanted to make friends with other kids his age even though he was a loner at heart. He joined the school baseball team and was a class officer, even if his training kept him from most social interactions.

He was also very much in tune with non-verbal cues and small changes in the environment around him. He was a thoughtful person who could be found admiring the stars or passing by scenery. When he teams up with the New Teen Titans, we get to see these aspects of his personality:

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful before. We’re actually riding above the clouds.”

“Every so often, I notice you become awfully agitated...like something was going on you didn’t want to be part of. Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

It didn’t take Bruce long to fall in love with this boy and ask to legally adopt him. He found him to be smart, thoughtful, quick at learning and funny as hell. Their first meeting opens with Batman laughing in the very same alley his heart was ripped out decades earlier.

Even in the Rebirth canon, (RHATO #48) we see that Bruce is already set on taking in Jason while he’s still with Ma Gunn’s school. He likes this kid. A lot.

“Butler, actually. You’ll meet him someday, I’m sure.”

Jason Todd was happy. Most of the time. Unfortunately, he still wrestled with depression and would sleep all day on occasion and could be found crying hidden away on his own, withdrawn from the concerned Bruce and Alfred.

In A Death in the Family, Alfred and Bruce sit down and discuss Jason’s worsening mental health, particularly after the Diplomat’s Son where Jason becomes witness to sexual assault, suicide and the failings of both Batman and the GCPD to protect innocent people. Barbara, his tutor, someone he cared about and got along with, is also shot a few months earlier.

Bruce thinks Jason has become suicidal. Alfred does not disagree with this theory and supplements it with things he’s observed himself about the ‘lad.’

“I’ve come upon him, several times, looking at that battered old photograph of his mother and father, crying. When he’s seen me, he’s hidden the picture and left the room, refusing to talk.”

It is then that Jason discovers the truth about his mother at the worst possible time, when he’s not even thinking straight, and thus leads way to the tragedy that will be his murder at the hand’s of the Joker.

The Curse of Jason Todd

“Do you have any idea what you have done?! Do you? You have no inkling of what you’ve created -- what you have unleashed! You have set free a curse upon this world!”

Red Hood: Lost Days, which depicts Jason’s dark post-resurrection origin, opens with Ra’s al Ghul bellowing this line, the steam from the Lazarus Pit still rising off of him.

I’m not going to analyze this line, I’m just using it to supplement a point of mine I hope I’m getting through well enough. The Red Hood is a compelling, tragic villain. He is similar to Batman in ways that Bruce always knew and may have even feared because of how intimately he knows his own deepest, darkest thoughts. Jason is the perfect foil as an antagonist for him because of what he represents to Bruce.

And it’s not his anger, or his rage, or even his brutality.

It’s his compassion. His caring. His emotions. And how they can open up the worst parts of themselves.

Both are motivated by preventing whatever trauma happened to them from ever happening to anyone else. They both trained for years with this motivation. And they’ve both acted out on the very person who inflicted their trauma onto them.

Here’s where their paths start to differ, however, and what separates them with a line of morality.

They both get angry. They both care so damn much. About Gotham, about innocents, about each other. They both get too emotionally invested and deal with consequences related to that. To manage with that, Bruce shuts down. He creates all these choices, rules and symbols. He uses every ounce of his self control to keep them.

Bruce Wayne is not a good person. He forces himself to be with discipline and will. He chooses to be a good man and constantly pushes himself to live up to that. Because it’d be too damn easy to be just like the Red Hood.

Jason doesn’t understand that. Because no matter what Bruce had done or will do, he doesn’t hate him. He can’t. Despite his denial of the fact to different people, he still thinks of Bruce as his father. This great figure that so many others revere and are even intimidated by.

He’s not the only bat-kid to think of Bruce in this light despite the fact that the man is not. It took Dick years to overcome that perception. Tim only just started to begin understanding this true nature after his own father was murdered.

But even if he did understand his (once)father, he still became the complete opposite of him despite so many early parallels. He doesn’t hold back his words and emotions, he doesn’t go into a state of controlled dissociation or emotional disengagement.

Jason Todd—the Red Hood—is Batman without all his rules and control. In a way, he’s what the darkest part of Batman himself wants to be. Jason does what Batman can’t do when it’s needed.

Because in Batman’s book, life beats out justice. Even if he could take down abusers and murderers, he won’t. He will choose saving and protecting lives over the apprehension of killers...he always does.

Batman is justice. Red Hood is vengeance.

Jason is a victim’s fantasy. He punishes and kills the guilty. Something Batman won’t do.

He is the anti-Batman for better or for worse.

#jason todd #bruce wayne #comic meta

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poettier · 3 years

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Clubcamping | The legend of Pedro Rodríguez | Director's Cut from Clubcamping on Vimeo.

Racing driver Pedro Rodríguez was one of a kind, a legend in Latin America, and an idol to Porsche fans all over the world. And not only because he was a crazy skilled driver: he made history driving the iconic Porsche 917k, which we can only assume was based on a discarded Batmobile design deemed too unrealistic.

Fifty years after his tragic demise while racing in Germany, we teamed up with The Community and Porsche to honor some of his feats.

Crank up the volume and get ready for a 60-second trip at 300 km/h.

This is our director's cut version for: The Legend of Pedro Rodríguez!

Let’s start by saying we were granted unprecedented creative freedom in this project by both the agency and the client.

But even before the slightest idea came to our minds, we knew one thing for sure: we needed the car to look perfect in 2D. Animating the Porsche 917k frame by frame, without a reference, sounded like the premise of the next Saw movie, so we decided that a 3D model of the car to produce some sweet 3D layouts was a fundamental asset to get our hands on.

To build Pedro’s world we thought about ‘60s and early ‘70s graphic design, movies, cartoons and tv shows, and discussed with Juan what pop culture and art milestones had left a mark on our styles. We agreed we wanted an overall vintage vibe but with modern visuals and animation ideas that would challenge our craft.

“Speed Racer meets Akira” was our pitch.

In a process we like to call “blind parkour design”, we started importing materials into After Effects and mixing it to see what happy accidents we encountered.

Jumping from After, to Animate, to Photoshop, to C4D, trying things out, not thinking whether something might work or not but simply doing it. Letting our subconscious sublimate. An intense animatic process ensued, where tons of new ideas and references kept flowing and popping up spontaneously.

We wanted the animation timing to feel a little limited, but with lots of super-sharp poses and eases. We chose to work at 24fps and its multiples, focusing mainly on animating in 3s, with 4s and 1s as extremes.

The comp was going to be extra heavy⁠—we knew it and wanted it to be that way. Lots of glows, defocus, and grain. But the hardest comp ever was the one with the oil monster. It required a tremendous amount of coordination, organization and patience, constantly going back and forth between layout, animation, cleanup and comp. That shot alone took about a whole month to produce.

We promise you everything was under painful control.

One last thing you might be wondering: what about the square format, with rounded edges? We worked in a 2202 x 2202 1:1 format so as to easily come up with different versions later. The idea all along was to deliver a 16:9 format. As we went on, new details and compositions increasingly made sense when displayed in 1:1. We sat on it a little, and then El Señor Rodriguez himself inspired the final touch: what if we added a nice frame with rounded corners, giving it a lovely super-8 vibe like the footage of Pedro we were already showing at the end?

That was the last touch. The vintage vibe was exactly what we needed to close the circle.

We raise our cups to Pedro and what his star at 300km/h might bring us.

Credit list:

Clubcamping Creative direction: Mariano Fernández Russo. Art Direction: Juan Barabani. EP: Ana Sieglitz & Juliana Millán. Line Production: Carolina Cantero. Animation Direction: Mariano Fernández Russo. Animatic: Mariano Fernández Russo. Illustration: Juan Barabani & Victoria Farelli. 2D and Motion animation: Mariano Fernández Russo, Maricel Piazza, Emmanuel Zampalo, Franco Pelliciaro, Pablo Rago, Fernando Lamattina, Katherine Pryor, Ana Artaza, Penblade Animation & Alcides Izaguirre. Clean up: Alan Mohamed, Sofía Díaz, Gabriela Bosco, Daniela Donato, Julieta Culaciati, Clara Riavec & Rafael Pires. Compositing: Mariano Fernández Russo. BTS Editor: Juan Raimondi Render: Yago Lopez.

Sound (CC Director's Cut Version) Music: Facundo Capece Sound Design: Felipe Barandalla Client: Porsche Agency: The Community Global CCO, Founder Jose Molla / Joaquin Molla Executive Creative Director: Ricky Vior Associate Creative Director: Gabriel Da Silva Associate Creative Director: Rodrigo González Content Creator Lead: Rosario Avila EVP, Head of Integrated Production: Laurie Malaga Maker/s (Producers) Executive Producer: Debi Rubiani Sr. Production Lead: Juan Manuel Sosa Account Team: VP, Managing Director Latam: Julieta Rey, Brand Lead Regional Latam: Sandra Giraldo, Brand Supervisor: Barbara Palacio/Julia Isabel Hernandez, Connections Strategy: Sebastian Ibarr Digital Content Director: Monica Godoy Brand Strategy Director: Alessandra Noceda Brand Strategy Planner Alejandra Margain Business Affairs Business Affairs Director: Natalie Greenman Business Manager: Priscila Hourihan Production Assistant: Aldana Bea PHOTOGRAPHER / ILLUSTRATOR Photographer: Richard Monning

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charliejrogers · 3 years

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Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) - Review & Analysis

Here’s a non-controversial statement: 2017’s Wonder Woman is a legitimately great film (if you discount the last act’s boring battle). A fun, yet emotional anti-war tale with a great period aesthetic. What elevated it from greatness was its starkly bleak reveal that Ares does not start man’s wars, but he merely gives humans ideas for how to instigate them. Ultimately, it is Man who holds responsibility for our own destruction, and despite this Wonder Woman still chooses to help us poor creatures. Cool themes, cool hero, cool movie.

Wonder Woman 1984 shares the main character from its 2017 forerunner, as well as its dedication to recreating a particular period aesthetic (here the 1980s), but the brilliant writing from the first film is gone. The main themes are essentially… “be careful what you wish for” and “winners never cheat; cheaters never win.” Not the most grand and interesting follow-up to the prior film’s genuine insight into human nature.

But that’s OK. I’m really not sure why this movie is getting so much flak online. If DC’s recent prior history with filmmaking should have taught us anything, it’s that 2017’s Wonder Woman was a fluke. Remember that this is the same studio that brought us the outstanding climax to Batman vs. Superman where one grown man learns that another grown man’s mother is also named Martha. Oh, and did we all just forget that Justice League is one of the worst movies we have all collectively ever seen?

So let’s not be too hard on WW84 for not meeting the quality of 2017’s Wonder Woman. Few comic book movies can. In the more fair comparison to other movies in the DCEU, it sits below Shazam! and Aquaman, and just a smidge below Birds of Prey, but certainly above Suicide Squad, and then literally leaps and bounds over every other movie they’ve made.

Let’s start with the good. Honestly, despite my gripes about the themes of the movie not being very profound, I found the story to be interesting. The movie centers around Diana Prince (Gal Gadot in her role as an archaeologist for the Smithsonian and not as Wonder Woman) stumbling upon an ancient stone whose inscription invites people who hold the stone to make a wish. No one takes it really seriously at first, so two people make wishes without thinking they could come true. The first person is Diana herself who wishes to bring her boyfriend (whom she only knew for about a week, mind you) from the dead. As a reminder from the first film, her boyfriend Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) had died nearly 70 years prior to the start of this film in a dramatic, sacrificial, world-saving act. Apparently, Diana hasn’t moved on at all from the 1910s and still considers her short-time lover to be her forever lover. She’s not really a human and did not grow up a human, so I think we can forgive her for not moving on… but it is weird to imagine that Diana somehow works at the Smithsonian (without going to college? Or did she?) without developing any friends or interest in life. Wouldn’t she have moved on... like a little bit?

Anyways, she wants her boyfriend back, and that’s wish #1. Wish #2 comes from new character Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig… who I am shocked to find is 47 years old! She looks fantastic and far younger in this film). Were Barbara a man, the way she is treated by her colleagues would put them in the stereotypical role of a future school shooter. Barbara is a brilliant gemologist for the Smithsonian, but goes completely unrecognized for her brilliance. She is shy and unconfident, and subsequently people frequently forget that they have even met her. Add on to that the fact that she has to work in the same office as Wonder Woman, and her loneliness and subjective feelings of unattractiveness increase as male employees drool over Diana while they ignore and mock Barbara. Therefore, we would forgive her for having a chip on her shoulder. Yet, for all this, Wiig avoids playing her as an angry, emo goth. Barbara kinda has this air about her of “Well, this is just how life is, and there’s nothing I can do to change that.” Given the character’s lack of self-confidence and lack of social grace, it at times seemed like Wiig was just reprising her old SNL character, Penelope, the socially awkward one-upper. But that’s not fair to her character. Wiig portrays Barbara with an earnest goodness to her. She’s one of those people who when allowed to talk one-on-one proves to be more eloquent and interesting than you could have imagine. Far from being angrily envious of Diana’s confidence and beauty, she’s more sadly jealous. Naturally, then, she wishes on the stone to be more like Diana… unaware that this wish might have some unintended benefits.

But then, there’s a third key character to the film (and a third wishmaker), the main villain Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal). I cannot tell you if this was a good character or not… and I cannot tell you whether the imperfections of the character are more due to the film’s writing or Pascal’s performance. Lord is another loser, and like Barbara, his “loser” status is the result of being a victim of America’s prejudicial attitudes. But whereas Barbara fell victim to sexism, Lord falls victim to racism. Hispanic in origin, Lord grew up in America with an abusive father at home and racist classmates at school. Beaten down from an early age, all he wants in life is to make a name for himself, to prove he’s not a loser. In a clever twist, Lord (the person who originally ordered the wish stone to come to America before it was confiscated by the FBI and sent to the Smithsonian for analysis) does not simply use the stone to wish for riches and power… he wishes to BECOME the stone. That way, he can get nearly infinite wishes so long as he can con the people around him to wish things for him.

The scenes of Max Lord as a flawed human who just wants to not be a loser show Pascal giving a great performance as a human being at the ends of desperation. The scenes of Max Lord the supervillain are… not good. In a long string of over-the-top, eccentric, hyperconfident supervillains in countless superhero movies, Pascal’s Lord is just not interesting. In fact, he is literally a weak character. He cannot fight for himself as his body is crumbling (a side effect of wishing to become a stone). Furthermore, his initially grounded motivations to finally be respected and successful seem to be just utterly lost by the end of the film when he just wishes for world chaos… only then to turn around and declare undying love for his son. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Failure to understand a character’s motivations casts a shadow over Barbara’s character arc as well. It is explained that the wish stone takes something in return for granting someone their wish. So as payment for bringing Steve Trevor back to life, Diana loses some of her strength. Still… this strains to fully explain why Barbara, after gaining Wonder Woman-like strength, turns into a walking humanoid cheetah (complete with bad CGI like she walked straight out of the cast of 2019’s Cats.) Like I get that she lost some of her humanity and morality in exchange for strength… but Cheetah girl seems like a little much. And though initially it is fun to see Wiig get to play Barbara as a confident and sexy woman who fights back against the patriarchy, the movie (I think) unfairly pushes her into the villain role. In my opinion, she should be treated as a tragic character, something akin to a Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, as her villainous tendencies are not really her fault. She literally had the part of her that cares about other humans taken away from her when she naively and innocently wished to be like Diana. Instead, the movie has Diana lecture her that she shouldn’t be so evil. She literally can’t, lady! Stop being so hard on her! In any case, it seems like a failed opportunity to generate sympathy for a genuinely likable character who tragically becomes a villain not through her own accord.

That failure to create genuine emotions extends to Diana’s story as well. As soon as Steve is resurrected, you know by the movie’s end he will be dead again. There’s no other way this movie ends. Yet, the fact that Diana is so stubborn in refusing to give up Steve makes it hard to sympathize with her. She is simply being selfish, making her eventual decision to say goodbye to Steve feel more like her finally doing the right (and obvious) thing, and not some heartbreaking decision. Also the fact that seemingly Diana hasn’t even tried to move on in the last seventy years doesn’t help matters for me: it more just feels like a lazy way to write in Chris Pine’s popular character into the second movie. The move certainly weakens the idea of Diana as a strong, independent woman by making her emotionally stunted and crippled for the last 70 years. It would have been a much more satisfying (and daring) choice if Diana had moved on from Steve emotionally and had to deal with the guilt of having brought him back by accident, particularly if he didn’t want to go back to being dead. Instead... Steve knows he has to go back and Diana feels no guilt keeping him around. It’s weak character writing.

These poor choices I contrast with two of my favorite TV shows that demonstrate perfectly how former lovers who miraculously reunite eventually have to say goodbye for good: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Jane the Virgin. For risk of spoilers to those still watching Jane, I’ll stick to the Buffy example. There’s an episode of Buffy (though technically an episode of the spin-off show Angel) where Buffy and her vampire lover Angel are fresh off their recent and tumultuous break-up, but through some dark magic that neither seeks out, they are given the opportunity to live a life where Angel isn’t actually a vampire and their love can be fully expressed. Yet, in the end, Angel opts to give up his life as a human and return to being a vampire. The choice is so moving precisely because (due to circumstances I cannot begin to explain) in choosing to give up his life with Buffy, he saves her life as well. Whereas in this movie, Diana choosing to let Steve go is really just her choosing to undo her choice to essentially cheat death. Angel, however, is actively choosing to give up a life of happiness he never wished for but was just given on a silver platter, and will now live in a world where his lover will never know his selfless act and will go on hating him. It’s heartbreaking in a way Wonder Woman dreams it could be.

And not to get too Buffy-heavy… but that show also deals with the emotional consequences of being ripped out of the afterlife much better than this movie. Steve just kinda unrealistically adapts to being alive again in all of five minutes. If, perhaps, from the start he questioned why he was there and hinted to Diana that something was wrong, the emotional aspect of this story, the doomed nature, the feeling of “this is the last chance we’ll have together” could have made this a stronger movie. I wanted to find myself crying when Diana finally says bye to Steve, and I was no where close to that. Gal Gadot shares at least part of the blame. She’s a pretty wooden actress. It’s something I noticed in 2017’s Wonder Woman, but in that movie she was supposed to be a fish out of water so her stilted presence seemed appropriate. Here, where she’s supposedly become an assimilated American for 70 years… it is just bad acting.

Anyways, another aspect of this film that was lacking were the visuals. The bad CGI of Barbara as Cheetah is just scratching the surface here. The opening flashback to Diana as a girl performing in the Amazonian Olympics just… looks fake. I don’t know. The reliance on CGI over practical effects is clear and distracting. It’s only worse in the subsequent scene where Wonder Woman stops a theft from occurring in a mall. The effects are just bad. Like passable for a film in the 1990s or early 2000s. But for a 2020 blockbuster, it’s noticeably bad. And already the scene where Wonder Woman is running towards the camera with a weird green screen behind her seems to have become a meme given just how weird it looks.

And yet, for all the negatives I’ve listed, this is a decent action flick. There’s even some nice set pieces like the one in the White House. As little as I liked Max Lord as a supervillain, I found figuring out the other half of each of his various Monkey Paw wishes (i.e. the downside of each wish) to be clever. unfortunately, each of the main three characters fails to have a story line that takes full advantage of their emotional potential, or they are just poorly acted. With few exceptions, the film eschews “fun” in favor of “seriousness.” Really the only exception is, as in the first film, the chemistry between Pine and Gadot. Their chemistry makes for some of the movie’s best moments, like when Wonder Woman makes the plane they’re flying in invisible and the pair flies over fireworks on the fourth of July. But that sense of whimsy in their scenes is largely absent from the rest of the film. This is particularly true of the action sequences, especially those at the climax. The seriousness makes them rather boring. Really, I’m comparing these action scenes with the last half hour or so of Birds of Prey which really set the bar for superhero movie fight choreography. So in the end, it’s overall an OK movie. It certainly isn’t as bad as others make it out to be, but I cannot believe I’m saying this… in 2020 if you’re in the mood for a fun superhero movie, you’re better off with the Suicide Squad sequel than the Wonder Woman sequel.

**/ (Two and a half stars out of 4)

#wonder woman #ww84 #wonder woman 1984 #gal gadot #patty jenkins #chris pine #kristen wiig #pedro pascal

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toongrrl-blog · 4 years

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Pink Power Rankings (Pt. 1)

Hi I am here to look at famous pink outfits in film and TV history and figure out: is pink a power color for this character? I choose to leave out obvious ones like Pink Power Ranger because, duh it’s in her name and this is gonna be a long list. Also avoiding real-life figures and onscreen depictions of real life figures because keeping it short (and I don’t have the time)

Pictured above are the bridesmaids at First Daughter Luci Baines Johnson’s wedding in the 1960s.

Mimi Tachikawa

She is the most obvious pick from Digimon and the girl most decked out in pink. To paraphrase this video from The Take: there was once a show about a strange world beyond our own, somehow a group of preteens were pulled into this world not of their accord, including a young 10 year old girl. Along with her friends they were exposed to the elements and fought monsters out to harm them, she was sexually harassed by two clearly adult digimon, uncomfortable with the elements, often had to put up with toxic masculine BS, and was often snarked at by the story and even some of her own friends for being so girly and into pink. Of course some audiences and the story were overcome with sympathy with this girl pulled away from a familiar world...

Just kidding! They weren’t and some audiences even gave her a lot of shit and this has only been recently examined. For a while Mimi Tachikawa had a problem that seemed to be well known by a lot of female characters, like Carmella Soprano, Betty and Megan Draper, Margaret Sterling, and yes Skyler White. Put a flawed, complicated woman character alongside more charismatic (and male) characters and she will be disliked (despite the audience being more likely to be she than the menfolk held up as icons).

This is sad because looking back, Mimi was truly a badass all along: she sticks up for herself, speaks up for herself, she is unapologetic about her love of pink and girly things, she is quick to tell guys when they are getting in her space, she’s honest, she lets Tanemon go on and fight with only a sincere question if she really is going to while the others hold their Digimon down, she stands up against the Numemon who were harassing her and her friends, and she was funny as hell. Sadly it took a long while for fans to grow up but many of us, especially girls, reclaimed her as our own. It also helped that Mimi came before girly icons like Elle Woods, Leslie Knope, and Joan Holloway and also before the boom in Gen X and Millennial women contributing to comedy and starting their own stand-up specials and movies and TV.

Power Ranking: 10, all because she held her own, no matter the haters and was glad to see us no matter how odd.

Karen Wheeler

Another complicated lady, this time older and from the 1980s. This is Karen Wheeler of Hawkins, Indiana whose children are off on their own adventure. She is trying to tap into her sexual power here. It’s dicey because the man in question is a young man and she is a unhappily married affluent housewife in the suburbs; she agrees to meet him at the motel for “private swimming lessons” and does herself up in a way inappropriate for swimming lessons (in Scarlet Letter Red to boot!), only to be stopped by the sight of her lazy husband sleeping on the Laz-E-Boy with their youngest child Holly on his chest. This season sees Karen open up to her two older children over the patriarchy and saying goodbye to a best friend and girlfriend after confessing his love for her.

Power Ranking: 6, because her sexual power was on shaky ground and only based on her looks and attention from a man but she shows some character development that season.

Nancy Wheeler

This look was a game changer, but Nancy is no stranger to pink and preppiness. Here she is wearing an outfit that recalls the postwar “Boyfriend Shirt” from Brooks Brothers for the female collegiate set and it’s updated with long loose but pinned hair and designer (or mock) jeans. In this outfit she goes monster hunting with her younger brother Mike’s best friend’s older brother and Nancy’s classmate, Jonathon Byers and squares off with slut-shaming police officers and a mother who chastises her for lying about her whereabouts and losing her virginity while Nancy’s best friend Barb Holland is missing and she also tells off boyfriend Steve for trying to cover his ass by not participating in the police investigation. This is the look (which can easily double as office wear) when you want to go straight from school where you have an impeccable GPA to monster hunting in your neck of the woods to find the whereabouts of your best friend and for fighting the patriarchy.

Power Ranking: 8, this is a girl on the move as we can see with her rolled up sleeves.

Eleven

The Iconic Look, the look where she made a boy wet his pants, found two missing kids, broke a bully’s arm. The Polly Flinders dress would alter the way we see girls in dainty pastel pink dresses.

Power Ranking: 10, can you do all that without touching someone?

Barb Holland

The most tragic look for this was the sweater that Barbara Holland (1967-1983) wore when she was taken by the Demogorgan and killed. This was the look where she was the recipient of a wet willie from a boy who looked down on her and her best friend who was dating his popular friend, the look where she accompanied her best friend reluctantly to the popular boy’s party, and where her friend turned her back on her concerns. This is the look of a passive and traditional (to her detriment) femininity. She did gain a huge following who cried foul over her fate.

Power Ranking: 4, points up for the fandom and devotion but she wasn’t empowered.

Erica Sinclair

That was depressing, let’s go to the girl who embodies America: Hawkins resident wise-ass, the girl who kept her observations and words as tight as her corn rows, and her planning as precise as her perfectly well done baby hairs (Black readers, feel free to correct me as I document her fabulousness), My Little Pony nerd and Economics wonk, and American Heroine. Erica sassed her way into Stranger Things with a raised eyebrow and a lusciously girly girl wardrobe that stands out and fits in with her Midwestern environment. She’s no stranger to pink and she commands attention and the best service at Scoops Ahoy and manages to get several ice cream dishes for free (the most elaborate ones) before getting in on finding the secret Soviet military base. Girlfriend manages to deal with teenage shenanigans, assassins, creatures from another world, near-death experiences, almost being captured by foreign enemies and the most awkward sing-a-long ever. She doesn’t seem to have lost her child-appropriate enthusiasm for games even when telling off old balding men for getting her age right.

Power Ranking: 10, you can’t spell America without Erica

Joan Holloway

Pink is an appropriate color for the resident femme intellectual of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, it shows that Joan is willing to defy “the rules” of fashion for redheads (she also wears red) and it ties into her 1950s persona of the bombshell who is trying to get married to a man who’d move her out to the upper-middle class suburbs and she wouldn’t have to work. That was Joan at the beginning: over time she started to own her natural independent streak and her willingness to buck expectations of her based on her gender and looks but also deals with the same men who ogle her, disrespecting her intellect, her hard work ethic, and even her body (fuck you Greg Harris). In this fuchsia number (still in the pink family), she sets up a luncheon with a colleague (Peggy Olson) where she pitches the idea of them setting up a production company with their names, while Peggy didn’t take, Joan starts her own “Holloway & Harris” with her babysitter and mother. Sealing her end as a strong, productive, independent woman who learned to own herself as she was.

Power Ranking: 10, men may like scarves but women like not being tethered to men.

Betty Draper Francis

Meet Elizabeth Hofstadt Francis and her ex-husband Don Draper (actually Dick Whitman), for about 10 years of marriage, they have enjoyed a union where they looked like a couple right out of a magazine, he being a square jawed handsome self-made man with an athletic build who often is compared to old-school movie stars like Tyrone Power or Clark Gable or Cary Grant and she, a beautiful model from a wealthy family in the Main Line area of Philadelphia who studied anthropology at Bryn Mawr and speaks fluent Italian and is often compared to Grace Kelly (and other Hitchcock Blondes). But the interior of their perfect colonial in the suburbs hid an ugly reality where she suffered from ennui and was a brat to her kids while he gaslighted and cheated on her with other women, more modern women, like she wasn’t enough. Eventually she found out his true identity and floored that she had been living a lie and gave up her last name for an imposter, she divorced him and married a man she met at her husband’s work function.

About three years later, Don is happily married with a younger and much more modern woman (Megan Draper) while Betty is married to a man who loves and accepts her even at her worst but to her chagrin has put on a lot of weight (a blow to a former model who grew up being raised that weight gain or being fat was the worst thing a woman could be) and she hasn’t dealt with her unhappiness in a productive manner.

For a while well into 1968, she accepted the extra pounds (although looking like she lost some) and coming middle-age and even dyed her hair black, until her new husband tells her he plans to run for office and as he was excitedly recounting what is to be done, says “Everyone will see you” not knowing that his young, vain wife would read this scenario differently and after assessing her new look to an old evening gown of her’s, she sped up her weight loss and returned to her slim and blonde look that turned heads. Soon she takes a drive to her son’s summer camp and runs into her ex-husband and they feel the old spark and sleep together; it is there she tells him that he as a lover is different than him as a husband and admits about the young wife she looked down on, “That Poor Girl, she doesn’t know that loving you is the worst thing to get to you”. Next morning she has breakfast with her new husband, who is none the wiser, while Don heads back to the city. But is Betty really happy?

Power Ranking: 7, not satisfied but has received some closure about her relationship with her ex-husband.

Sally Draper

This is Sally in her birthday party dress. On that day her father built her a pastel colored playhouse, Mother prepared treats for the adults and kids for her birthday party, she and her friends played out their parents’ (admittedly shitty) marriages at the playhouse, her father goes out to get her birthday cake from the bakery and returns only with a golden retriever named Polly, while her unhappy mother fumes about her husband doing something shitty and humiliating and not being allowed to ream him out because he brought a dog and that makes him the good guy.

Power Ranking: 5, she gets a dog but is still young and dependent on her messy parents.

Rachel Menken

Meet Rachel Menken Katz, running into her ex Don Draper while he is out with his latest mistress and she with her husband Tilden Katz. She would end this series as dying from cancer after having two young children and running her father’s department store and instead of flowers, requesting that donations be made for a Jewish hospital in the Jell-O Belt. In 1960 she fell in love with an ad man who proved to have been miserable and having lost his mother during his birth, as she did, she also competed in what was called “a man’s world” at a time when women were relegated to assistant roles at best and she split from him when he wants to run away with her, mostly because he wants to run away from his issues and not because of his feelings for her. As her sister Barbara said, “she had everything”.

Power Ranking: 8, she ends up dying young but she manages to “have it all”.

Megan Draper

Meet Megan Calvet, later to become Megan Draper. How does she become the next Mrs. Draper? At this timeline, Don Draper is dealing with life after divorcing Betty Draper (now Francis) and is trying (and failing) to quit alcohol and trying to date the intelligent, warm, no-nonsense, and close-to-his-age Dr. Faye Miller. But that night Megan, who noticed she caught her boss’s eye, decides to make the moves and in a uncharacteristically demure (many fans thought she looked frumpy here) but at worst basic outfit, she sleeps with him. This is the outfit for a quickie that later won his heart and has him pop the question and she becomes part of Creative at their work. But is this really for the best?

Power Ranking: 7, she married Don Draper but then again she married Don Draper.

Peggy Olson

Meet Peggy Olson, who officially walked away from the things holding her back from feeling at ease with herself and her choices. After a whole season where the priest impressed by her skills has learned that Peggy had a child out of wedlock and put him up for adoption and starts pressuring her to admit her “sin” while Peggy would rather move on with her life, she tells him they don’t see eye to eye and walks away from the Catholic Church and while the Cuban Missile Crisis is going on, she lays down in her bed with the pink comforter and pillows with her pink floral nightgown, she lays herself down to sleep and prays with a contented look on her face.

Power Ranking: 9, she’s not fully absolved of the issues plaguing her but refusing to wear a hairshirt and beat herself up? Awesome.

Dawn Chambers

Meet Dawn Chambers, from 1966-1968, she was the only black person (let alone black secretary) at the uber-white Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (pun intended for the decor) and like many minorities in positions occupied by less marginalized people, Dawn had to keep her head low and not stand out (despite some co-workers considering her as remarkable as a sore thumb). But then in 1968, she made the mistake of punching in for a co-worker and they get caught by Joan Holloway (and it’s so horrid, thank God Don Draper intervened on Dawn’s behalf and Pete reminds them of how the ad agencies are being looked at for their minority quotas). This was also the season where Dawn took to wearing blazers over her blouses and skirts or dresses and here Dawn is wearing a conservative grey blazer over a pink shirt with ruffles down the front and a red plaid skirt when her work life alters for the...better? It is there that Joan sternly gives her the promotion of keeper of the keys, title not pay, and Dawn tells her that she decided she doesn’t care whether other people in the office hate her but she doesn’t want to disappoint Joan, who withholds any warmth or approval. The next season we see Dawn stand up to a entitled and mediocre white man (Lou Avery) and first she is moved to reception and then she takes over Joan’s post as Office Manager (With her own office! And the salary!) while Joan goes upstairs to her own office in Accounts.

Power Ranking: 10, this is a big fucking deal for a Black Woman in a mostly-White corporate setting during the 1960s.

Trudy Campbell

1970, Trudy Vogel Campbell has remarried her estranged husband Pete and they are moving out to Wichita, Kansas with their young daughter Tammy where he will work a plush job for Lear Jet (and they are being flown out by them!).

For the past ten years, Trudy and Pete have had a difficult marriage where he was dissatisfied with the choices he made and that he really didn’t want to marry her, and Trudy had to deal with being a woman with fertility issues at a time when motherhood was seen as a primary goal for women and women who didn’t have kids or chose not to were seen as weird at best. They had to deal with pressure from her father to adopt, his parents snotty issues, she had to deal with her husband’s attitude, his envy of others, and his cheating. But Trudy laid her boundaries and was able to stand up to her husband, without losing her gracious manner and her zest for society. She tried to be a supportive wife and she found some common ground with him, when it comes to common decency and politics, and they make an amazing pair on the dance floor.

Then came the end after their divorce: they behave more amicably, he’s more involved with their young daughter, he fights for Trudy, and he gives an amazing pitch for her to come back. She takes him back but lets him know that she isn’t the same girl he married a decade before and she looks at things for how they are.

Plus she is gonna rule Wichita!

Power Ranking: 8, she accepts there will be compromises but states her boundaries and has them met and will be a society wife.

Elle Woods

Who shows up in court in LA hot sandals, a pink tote bag for her canine companion Bruiser, long glossy hair, and a curve-hugging but professional power dress in shocking pink? Elle Woods. After trying hard to be taken seriously by her fuckboi ex Warner and her snotty, neutral toned Harvard classmates and learning that her Professor got her in an internship for a important lawcase (where they defend her fellow Sorority Sister) just for her looks, she leans into both her natural intelligence, expertise, and love of pink and all things girly to defend her friend and solve the case.

Also can we talk about how both Legally Blonde and Bridget Jones’s Diary are both movies where the attractive blonde protagonist is humiliated by showing up for a costume party in a Playboy Bunny costume under false pretenses and she deals with sexual harassment and being underestimated regarding her intellect? But LB ages better because it kinda pokes fun at the beauty myth more and is more inter-sectional and Elle finds supportive women to add to her posse of supportive sisters and she supports other women in turn.

Power Ranking: 10, Sisterhood and owning your personality quirks and interests and boldly defending others is always a win. Case Dismissed.

Lorelei Lee

The ultimate Pink Power icon and the one who set the path for all femme-y and cute loving blonde protagonists with wit and ambition. This is the song for a woman who sings about how transactional heteronormative relationships in the mid-century were and how the performative actions of men in heterosexual relationships don’t do much to improve women’s lives, like paying the rent and that they would use women for their own uses and could be shallow enough to dump women if they lost their beauty and/or got older, so for insurance make sure you get money or rather things that can be hocked and worn with pride, like diamonds. Tom & Lorenzo covered this in their One Iconic Look series and this sequenced has been spoofed several times in Hey Arnold!, Crazy-Ex Girlfriend, Birds of Prey, and most famously by Madonna, and it is the look for women who not only feel good about their curves but also want to show them off. As T&Lo said about the ditzy Lorelai and her savvier friend Dorothy Malone (Jane Russell):

These women were all about power, control, and looking out for each other. Men were side stories or play things.

And in the repressive Fifties it was outrageously pink and smelt of female sexual power (pink pussies).

Power Ranking: 11, hawwwwwwww that’s what you get for having an iconic and referenced look!

Marge Simpson

The most nostalgically remembered outfit in cartoons and the most written about in think pieces and articles by Millennial women who grew up watching The Simpsons and the rest of what the Animation Renaissance had to offer. In “Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield”, the family goes out to the outlet mall in Ogdenville where Marge and Lisa happen upon a beautiful pink Chanel suit that even left my cartoon-apathetic mother enthusiastic and Marge is soon seen by a old high school friend who mistakes her for being wealthy and Marge goes along with the ruse and is invited to Country Club activities with the ladies where she shows up in several talented alterations of her suit (until getting destroyed by Santa’s Little Helper, RIP Iconic suit), she also gives her family a hard time about how they don’t fit into that Country Club Scene and then when forced to see how she hurt them (and even Baby Maggie), turns around and tells them she loves Homer’s sense of humor, Lisa’s compassion and outspoken human rights politics, and just loves Bart (even if she can’t figure what she likes about him).

This also happens to be another instance where Marge sacrifices a social life (she’s not seen with a lot of friends who have her back, aside from a brief time with Ruth Powers), chances for social mobility, and her own self-improvement for her family. While we love a mother who prioritizes her family’s autonomy, we still kind of hope that she didn’t have to sacrifice her own identity for her family.

Power Ranking: 8, points for the iconic suit and it’s layered meanings.

Bridget Jones

A rare move of power for a normally powerless and insecure woman and in a shocking pink blouse and black slacks that show off her hourglass curves and go with her coloring.

Pink is not a color Bridget isn’t familiar with, especially with this deleted scene that shows her in Pink Passivity (and it looks delicate on a blonde with blue eyes and pale skin but could risk her fading but I as a brunette would look popping!). But here after entering a relationship with Daniel Cleaver (who is a walking red flag) and finding out he was keeping her as his side-ho to his skinny, bitchy American girlfriend and colleague and I have my problems with Bridget Jones as a series (which would take several parts) and I can talk about how Peggy Olson and Joan Holloway were a lot better written versions of her (klutziness and awkwardness but succeeding!). But this is a huge power move where Bridget wears a simple outfit that owns her looks (even being affirmed by a older and previously antagonistic co-worker that she’s actually thinner than the average woman and she can’t back down, like ever) and is able to quit her job for a better and more glamorous job and tell off her ex-boyfriend for how poorly he has treated her. And all her co-workers smile off as she walks off in triumph after telling Daniel she’d rather wipe Saddam Hussein’s ass. I kinda wish I could go Joan Rivers on Daniel here.

Also points on that bolder shade of pink.

Power Ranking: 10, no one gets to burn a cheating, manipulative bridge like that (and yes she is conventionally prettier than I but that’s not the point).

Alice Macray

I know, I should shut my mouth and wear beige but my personal color analysis says I’m a winter person.

It’s an interesting power move, albeit within the confines of patriarchal society and even the only defiance that wouldn’t get her tsked at because she is serving the Male Gaze. And yet it’s a natural part of her characterization in this part of the series: the traditional housewife stubbornly keeping her pedestal and fighting to stall progress for other women pursuing other paths (part of wearing beige and shutting up as Mother of the Groom is to allow the Bride to take center stage) but it’s also a path she had to take what with being a dyslexic in a less informed and intolerant era and growing up in a sheltered, conservative Catholic family. This is also the outfit she wears when she spots a younger wife being forcibly yanked by her husband, alluding that the patriarchy isn’t benevolent.

This isn’t her first time in pink, or even a pink and blue combination: she wears pink when she goes and gives out bread to defeat the feminists at the Illinois Legislature, she wears pink and blue when Bella Abzug calls on her and her peers’ hypocrisy, she drinks a Pink Lady when she is given a “Christian Pill” and it matches her lavender dress. It’s also ironic: pink, white, and blue are the colors of the Transgender pride flag and she is defending White Heternormative Cisnormative Christian Values TM and it’s also a color combo that shows up in the beauty parlor she frequents where she and her friends wring their hands over working women gaining more ground and feeling that their comfortable privilege is being taken away by women who sully their hands working outside the home while they stay home with their children in their coordinated pastels and have maids of color keep their worlds nice and orderly.

But she is wearing a pink maxi dress with a high neckline and a very prominent hat that provides very ladylike shade for her fair skin, just like our first Pink Power Girl Mimi Tachikawa, and like Mimi, Alice will take a life-altering short trip to Wonderland. And like Pink Power Girl Eleven, she finds her true hidden power and starts wearing more saturated colors as time goes on.

Power Ranking: 5, she is on her way to breaking out of her little safe world and doing more than subverting a wedding tradition.

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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DC FanDome: Schedule, Date, Time, and How to Watch

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Fans hoping for major DC news in lieu of an actual San Diego Comic-Con are definitely going to get just that at DC FanDome, a digital event designed to be watched at home like a real con.

Originally set up as one epic night of panels and reveals, DC announced that it will be splitting FanDome into two separate and distinct events: Hall of Heroes, which will be held in late August, and WatchVerse in mid-September.

The August date still holds most of the big-ticket items. It’s billed by DC as “an epic world designed personally by Jim Lee featuring special programming, panels and exclusive reveals from a wide variety of films, TV series, games, comics and more.” Functionally, it’s the Hall H of FanDome.

This DC FanDome trailer gives fans a good glimpse at what they can expect from the event:

Here’s everything else you need to know about DC FanDome:

DC FanDome Date and Time

The first DC FanDome event, Hall of Heroes, kicks off on Saturday, Aug. 22 at 1 pm ET. Sign up to watch here!

DC FanDome Schedule

Here’s a rundown of all the panels happening during DC FanDome: Hall of Heroes. The panel descriptions below are courtesy of DC. All times are ET:

1:00 PM – Wonder Woman 1984 Panel

“Wonder Woman 1984 stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal, and director/co-writer/producer Patty Jenkins join forces with Brazilian hosts Érico Borgo and Aline Diniz to celebrate the fans in a big way. They will answer questions from fans from all over the world, talk fan art and cosplay, and reveal an all-new sneak peek at the upcoming film — plus a few more surprises!”

1:25 PM – WB Games Montreal Announcement

“Gamers! You won’t want to miss this first look at an exciting new game, and Q&A with its developers.”

1:45 PM – The Sandman Universe: Enter the Dreaming Panel

“Neil Gaiman, Dirk Maggs, G. Willow Wilson and Michael Sheen discuss the legacy of The Sandman comic book series and how it has been expanded with new stories, adapted into new mediums, and enthralled audiences around the world.”

2:15 PM – Multiverse 101 Panel

“Get schooled in this engaging refresher course on the creation of the Multiverse with DC Chief Creative Officer/Publisher Jim Lee, Warner Bros. Pictures President of DC-Based Film Production Walter Hamada, and Berlanti Productions founder/DCTV mega-producer Greg Berlanti.”

2:40 PM – Flash Movie Panel

“This 101-style conversation with The Flash filmmakers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, star Ezra Miller and screenwriter Christina Hodson will give fans a speedy rundown on the first-ever Flash feature film.”

2:50 PM – Beyond Batman Short

“The Batman of Swinging Sixties culture clashes with the Batman of the far-flung future when Batman Beyond and his mentor, Old Bruce Wayne, intercept a broadcast of the 1966 Batman TV show!”

2:55 PM – The Suicide Squad Panel

“What else would you expect from The Suicide Squad but the ultimate elimination game? First up, writer/director James Gunn takes on fan questions, then brings out Task Force X for a fast-paced, no-holds-barred Squad Showdown that tests every team member’s Squad knowledge — and survival skills!”

3:40 PM – BAWSE Females of Color within the DCU Panel

“What’s a BAWSE? Find out here as some of the hottest actresses across DC television and film sit down with celebrity DJ D-Nice and Grammy-winning singer/actress Estelle to discuss how they use their confidence and vulnerability to navigate their careers in Hollywood. Panelists include Meagan Good (SHAZAM!), Javicia Leslie (Batwoman), Candice Patton (The Flash), Tala Ashe (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), Nafessa Williams and Chantal Thuy (Black Lightning), and Anna Diop and Damaris Lewis (Titans). Catch the entire full-length conversation at McDuffie’s Dakota in the DC WatchVerse.”

4:00 PM – Legacy of the Bat Panel

“Calling all Batman fans! Don’t miss this discussion on the wide scope of the Batman universe, including the Batman Family of characters. Key talent from comics, TV, and games will provide insight into the world of Caped Crusader.”

4:30 PM – Joker: Put on a Happy Face

“Featuring interviews with filmmakers and industry legends, discover the origins and evolution of The Joker, and learn why the Clown Prince of Crime is universally hailed as the greatest comic book Super-Villain of all time.”

4:45 PM – Surprise DC Comics Panel

TBA

5:10 PM – I’m Batman: The Voices Behind the Cowl Panel

“Everyone has their favorite Batman. But for audiences around the world, their favorite Batman has a local sound. It’s time to meet the voices behind the cowl. Hear what it’s like to be one of the many global vocal actors portraying the Dark Knight when the Super Dubbers, who lend their talents to the Caped Crusader on screens big and small all over the world, come together for the first time ever.”

5:30 PM – The Snyder Cut of Justice League Panel

“Zack Snyder fields questions from fans and a few surprise guests as he discusses his eagerly awaited upcoming cut of the 2017 feature film and the movement that made it happen.”

5:54 PM – The Flash TV Panel

“Executive producer Eric Wallace joins cast members Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Danielle Nicolet, Kayla Compton, and Brandon McKnight to discuss all things Flash with Entertainment Weekly’s Chancellor Agard. Team Flash will break down both parts of season six and look ahead at what is to come with an exclusive trailer for season seven. Fans will also get a look at the exclusive black-and-white noir episode ‘Kiss Kiss Breach Breach,’ which will be available on The Flash season six Blu-ray and DVD on August 25.”

6:10 PM – Black Adam Panel

“Star of the first-ever Black Adam feature film Dwayne Johnson sets the stage for the story and tone of the new movie with a fans-first Q&A…and a few surprises.”

6:30 PM – CNN Heroes: Real Life Heroes in the Age of the Coronavirus

“While DC features iconic fictional Super Heroes recognized around the world, CNN Heroes shines a light on real-life, everyday people making a difference in their communities. Now, as the global Covid-19 pandemic has turned all of our worlds upside down, CNN’s Anderson Cooper introduces you to the frontline workers, advocates, neighbors, and friendly strangers who are coming together to help us through this crisis.”

6:50 PM – Titans TV Panel

“’Titans are back, b*tches!’ That phrase kicked off an explosive second season of Titans that culminated with the long-awaited emergence of Nightwing as their leader and the tragic death of one of their own. And as a new mysterious threat looms, season three promises to be the biggest yet! Join executive producer Greg Walker and series stars Brenton Thwaites, Anna Diop, Teagan Croft, Ryan Potter, Conor Leslie, Curran Walters, Joshua Orpin, Damaris Lewis, with Alan Ritchson and Minka Kelly for a preview of the new season as well as a discussion on the ‘Fan Favorite Moments’ of the first two seasons.”

7:05 PM – Aquaman Panel

“Aquaman director James Wan and King Orm himself, Patrick Wilson, take a deep dive into the world of Atlantis that Wan created, revealing their favorite behind-the-scenes moments from the largest DC movie ever!”

7:15 PM – “Ask Harley Quinn”

“She has gone toe-to-toe with Batman and the Justice League, and taken down The Joker and the toughest villains of Gotham City, but at DC FanDome, Harley Quinn faces her toughest challenge yet — answering burning questions from DC’s biggest fans in her own tell it as it is, no-BS style. If you love the Harley Quinn animated series, this is one you cannot f—king miss!”

7:20 PM – Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary Celebration Panel

“As an Amazon and a god, Wonder Woman is truly timeless. So, it’s hard to believe she’s turning 80! Join Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot, along with a very special guest, as they reflect on the character’s influence on them personally, and look forward to the 2021 celebrations!”

7:25 – Tomorrow’s Superheroes with Jim Lee

“DC Chief Creative Officer/Publisher Jim Lee joins Bing Chen, founder of the global non-profit collective Gold House, to discuss the important contributions of Asian artists and writers in comics and comic book–inspired entertainment.”

7:40 PM – SHAZAM! Panel

“Zac Levi and the cast can’t tell you s#&t! Sworn to secrecy on the new script for their upcoming movie, Zac and a few of his SHAZAM! castmates talk with the Philippines’ #1 DC fan, Gino Quillamor, about what the next movie might be about, while commenting on everything from panels to the other Zack’s cut — and even have a few surprise guests drop in!”

8:10 PM – Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Panel

“Will Arnett hosts the highly anticipated video game reveal from Rocksteady Studios, creators of the Batman: Arkham franchise.”

8:30 PM – The Batman Panel

“The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves joins host and self-professed fangirl Aisha Tyler for a discussion of the upcoming film…with a surprise (or two) for the fans!”

You can check out the full DC FanDome schedule here.

DC FanDome Live Stream

While DC FanDome is free for all to enjoy, you will need to create an account on DCFanDome.com in order to watch the event. You’ll then be able to access each panel via the DC FanDome program scheduler.

Following the conclusion of The Batman panel at the end of Hall of Heroes, the Fandome schedule will then cycle back through two more times, giving you three shots to watch in a 24-hour period.

DC FanDome: WatchVerse Date and Time

DC will host a second, on-demand FanDome event called WatchVerse on Saturday, Sept. 12 at 1 pm ET. While viewers will be able to access all content in any order they please, the event will only be available for 24 hours.

This event will include the previously announced panel on the expansion of “DC’s Watchmen Universe” discussion with Damon Lindelof and Tom King talking Rorschach, a Joker War panel with Batman writer James Tynion IV and Batgirl scribe Cecil Castellucci, a Three Jokers panel with Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok, a panel on John Ridley’s exciting upcoming The Other History of the DC Universe, and more.

The post DC FanDome: Schedule, Date, Time, and How to Watch appeared first on Den of Geek.

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sweetwriting · 4 years

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TimKon Week 2020 Day 2: What was I expecting?

Category: Gen or Pre-slash

Genre: Angst/Fluff

Fandoms: DC Comics, Batverse, Teamverse

Continuity: Highschool AU - Post-Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint inspired

Summary: What was Tim expecting from his parents exactly? At this point nothing. Still he had hoped.

But friends can lift your spirits up.

Word Count: 1637

AN: Welcome to round two.

I wanted to write more but I don't have the time and honestly my wrists are hurt so I can't write much without hurting. I tried to give it a cute open ending cause I don't like Angst without fluff.

Prompt: Highschool AU - Angst

Can be read on AO3

Tim couldn’t believe it. It had happened again.

He shouldn’t be surprised. Well he wasn’t actually surprised. He had expected it, but he had still hoped it wouldn’t happen.

His parents had forgotten they were supposed to come and get him for the weekend. They were supposed to come back from…wherever it was they were supposed to be. Last he checked they were in Dubai but they could have gone around the world three times by now.

It’s just that…they had actually tried to plan this. They had planned the time they should be there after getting off the plane. Usually that’s how he knows he’s gonna actually spend the weekend with his parents. It has never been foolproof as they had cancelled even some of those plans before. But it was fairly rare.

And all the members of the Wayne family made plans because he told them his parents were definitely going to be there. Even Alfred was going to be too busy for him. Everyone else’s parents had come to get them for the Weekend as the school usually frowned upon keeping the students there at this time of the week. Tim was the only one who sometimes stayed there in cases like this. Most of the time when they said they were coming Tim planned ahead to go to Dick’s or Bruce’s, sometimes even Barbara’s or Jason’s. He had met them because once his parents had taken him to a Wayne Gala and gotten sick so he stayed with Alfred while they were being taken care of.

He had already started going to the all-boys boarding school he was currently in back then and they already had the rule about kids going home on the weekend and during the holidays. So he went back home to their Penthouse within Gotham on his own and….well he was pretty reckless and often went on his own without realizing that his clothes were basically criminal bait. Luckily for him Jason Todd had been nearby and helped him out before taking him to Wayne Manor after hearing about his parents.

Which is how he met Dick Grayson for the first time. Well 2nd time really but Dick’s memories of their meeting had mostly been overtaken by a more tragic memory. After that he was often invited to the manor and the Waynes became more his family than his on ever was.

Point was, neither of his families was available and that meant he would probably spend his weekend on his laptop or reading comic books. The only people present at school beside him were the principal and the cleaning staff so as long as he didn’t cross path with any of them he was free to do pretty much anything he wanted.

Which is why he decided to go out to the nearby skate park in order to work on some tricks.

And that’s when he saw Cassie. She was a good friend of his because his dad was a huge archeology afficionado and her mom was a fairly well-known archeologist and museum curator. They had known each other for a while but had only let their kids meet the year before but even so Cassie was probably one of his best friends nonetheless. It was pretty rare for her to be around Gotham and usually her mom and her stayed close to whichever museum Helena Sandsmark was working. So her being here was very surprising. What was even more surprising was that she was accompanied by a pretty buff and good looking guy.

He only realized he might have been interrupting something after hailing her but then he figured what was done was done and he saw her rarely anyway so he wasn’t going to waste his time.

Cassie didn’t seem that bothered even if she did glare at him for 0.2s. Hopefully she was too happy to see him to be mad. The guy next to her didn’t even try to hide his pouting though. Neither from Tim nor from Cassie herself.

When Tim arrived next to them however, the guy seemed to try and let go of his annoyance but as Cassie hugged him, it came back with a vengeance.

Cassie turned to the boy with a big smile and, Tim might be a bit petty since he had never actually been interested in Cassie romantically, but he was pretty damn happy to be responsible for that kind of smile on her face.

“Conner, meet my best guy friend, Tim. Tim, this is Conner, he’s the younger brother of Clark Kent and since he had to interview my mom nearby we left them and wandered around.”

Tim smiled slightly as Conner’s shoulders relaxed, no longer threatened by the idea of a possible rival. They shook hands and Conner suddenly started to seem slightly awkward as they exchanged “Nice to meet you”s. Tim could feel his cheeks warm a little under the other guy’s gaze.

“But Tim, your place is in Gotham so what are you doing here?”

And now Tim had a hard time looking away from that guy’s arms. He had met Clark Kent before and both had a similar build so it wasn’t that surprising. It did not make it any easier though. Still he managed to do so within a timeframe that wouldn’t be too damning.

“My school’s 5 minutes away so I came here to work on some tricks”

He showed them his skateboard to prove his point. This surprised both teenagers but Conner was the first one to address it.

“But it’s noon on a Saturday and we’re fairly far from Gotham.”

“My school’s a boarding school so it’s not an issue.”

“What is an issue, Cassie interrupted, with a suspicious look, is that I thought your school didn’t let students stay for the weekend”.

Tim startled a bit. Cassie knew how things were with his parents. She tended to be quite annoyed every time she had to speak with them because of that. No matter how many times he told her it was perfectly understandable for them to be so busy. Actually it tended to annoy her more so he didn’t bring it up if he could help it anymore.

Conner seemed to notice something was wrong with Cassie so he turned to Tim whose cheeks warmed up again.

“Does that mean that you’ve got some free time to be a tour guide?”

“I’d love to but I’m afraid I mostly know the school grounds and it’s forbidden to go there. I only knew about this ‘cause I saw it through the window of my dad’s car. But I can teach you skateboarding."

Conner was all for it and the three of them shared Tim’s skateboard for the rest of the afternoon. Before they parted ways, Conner invited him for lunch with his dad, his best friend, Cassie and her mom while she pouted because she wanted to do it. Apparently his best friend, Bart, hadn’t been able to come because he was grounded but he would join them in the morning.

So Tim went home, well…to his school which, since he had been there for the past 5 years, was pretty much his home. He ate in the kitchen with the principal which was spent chatting amicably. For all the recklessness Tim could show, he tended to listen to authority as much as he could so he wouldn’t get in trouble. He didn’t want to get negative attention from his parents and he didn’t want to be on the staff’s radar negatively or they’d just always survey him. He also just generally liked to talk to people, he liked the attention and wasn’t gonna relish it unless he was forced to. Despite his awkwardness Tim knew he could be pretty charming.

When he went back to his room he looked at his phone he had left charging. There were two missed calls from his parents not even an hour before. There was one message.

Sorry can’t make it something came up but we will next time. Love You baby.

Tim looked at hit for a good five minutes before replying.

Don’t worry Cassie was there because her mom was interviewed nearby. Met one of her acquaintances. it was fun. Love you too

Tim was tired. Seeing Cassie always reminded him that unlike Helena who had put her archeology career on hold to raise Cassie until she was old enough to handle being on her own and even then checked in with her regularly, his own parents, even if they loved him, loved traveling even more. Maybe that’s why she was always mad at them. She realized that too. Not that he’d admit it out loud. He didn’t want to focus on the negative part of his non existing relationship with his parents. He never even came out to them. Not because he feared their reactions but because they just….weren’t there enough for him to share that part of his life. And he lived in an all-boy school. It didn’t take him long to realize he was attracted to guys like he was attracted to girls and he was hardly the only one.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to go to that lunch the next day. Being faced with parents who actually take their family with them when they go somewhere wasn’t the most fun. But if he managed to get past that he would probably enjoy it. So he tried to try thinking of more positive things. Like seeing Cassie again, and seeing that really, really good looking guy.

Now that was a nice thought. Granted the guy had seemed interested in Cassie at first. Oh Well. He was still nice eye candy. Turns out he couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

------------------------------------------

AN2: Tim is 17 here. We know from his origin story he started boarding school when he was 12 but Bruce took him out and put him in a normal school when his parents were attacked by the Obeah ManFor the first time ever, Kon is the first one to hit on Cassie. He's mostly doing it 'cause he likes the attention tho. Cassie's gonna be mad at Tim for like...10s, be extremely petty, have Cissie or someone else tell her she's overexaggerating and then admit her friends are perfect for each other and hug them tight (and give the shovel talk to Kon even tho he doesn't deserve it).Kon is actually Clark's kid but he was very young and broke up with his gf before either knew about the pregnancy. She didn't tell him until Kon was like 3yo. Anyway Clark wasn't ready nor wanted the responsability so Ma and Pa said they adopted him from Clark's biological parents. Kon figured out years ago even if he didn't tell anybody. At first he wondered why Clark wouldn't want him when he's perfectly fine having Jon. He realized things weren't that simple but it's still hard.The Waynes are:

Alfred and Bruce ofc.

Dick, Jason and Cass are all adopted. They have a similar backstory but without the vigilante part.

Thalia and Bruce were actually in love but broke up before either knew she was pregnant. Damian is much more adjusted without the whole Assassins stuff. He and Tim actually get along fairly well.

Cass is still one of Tim's favorite. She's currently dating his ex gf Stephanie Brown.

#TimKon Week #Tim Drake #Conner Kent #TimKon #BrOTP: TimCassie #OTP:TimKon #angst & fluFF

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silent-era-of-cinema · 4 years

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Constance Campbell Bennett (October 22, 1904 – July 24, 1965), was an American stage, film, radio and television actress. She was a major Hollywood star during the 1920s and 1930s and for a time during the early 1930s, she was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, as well as one of the most popular. Bennett frequently played society women, focusing on melodramas in the early 1930s and then taking more comedic roles in the late 1930s and 1940s. She is best known today for her leading roles in What Price Hollywood? (1932), Bed of Roses (1933), Topper (1937), Topper Takes a Trip (1938), and had a prominent supporting role in Greta Garbo's last film, Two-Faced Woman (1941).

She was the daughter of stage and silent film star Richard Bennett, and the older sister of actress Joan Bennett.

Constance Bennett was born in New York City, the eldest of three daughters of actress Adrienne Morrison and actor Richard Bennett. Her younger sisters were actresses Joan Bennett and Barbara Bennett. All three girls attended the Chapin School in New York.

After some time spent in a convent, Bennett went into the family business. Independent, cultured, ironic and outspoken, Constance, the first Bennett sister to enter motion pictures, appeared in New York-produced silent movies before a meeting with Samuel Goldwyn led to her Hollywood debut in Cytherea (1924). She abandoned a burgeoning career in silents for marriage to Philip Plant in 1925, but resumed her film career after their divorce, with the advent of talking pictures (1929), and with her delicate blonde features and glamorous fashion style, she quickly became a popular film star.

In the early 1930s, Bennett was frequently among the top actresses named in audience popularity and box-office polls. For a short time, she was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. So successful was Bennett during this time, that RKO, Bennett's home studio at the time, controlled the careers of actresses Ann Harding and Helen Twelvetrees in a similar manner, hoping to duplicate Bennett's success.

In 1931, a short-lived contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer earned her $300,000 for two movies which included The Easiest Way and made her one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. Warner Brothers paid her the all-time high salary of $30,000 a week for Bought! in 1931. Richard Bennett, her father, was also cast in this film.

The next year she moved to RKO, where she acted in What Price Hollywood? (1932), directed by George Cukor, an ironic and at the same time tragic behind-the-scenes looks at the old Hollywood studio system, in which she portrayed waitress Mary Evans, who becomes a movie star. Lowell Sherman co-starred as the film director who discovers her, and Neil Hamilton as the wealthy playboy she marries. It was a critical and box office hit at the time of its release.[citation needed] The film Morning Glory had been written with Bennett in mind for the lead role, but producer Pandro S. Berman gave the role to Katharine Hepburn, who won an Academy Award for her performance.

Bennett next showed her versatility in the likes of Our Betters (1933), writer/director Gregory La Cava's Bed of Roses (1933) with Pert Kelton, After Tonight (1933) (co-starring with future husband Gilbert Roland), The Affairs of Cellini (1934), After Office Hours (1935) with Clark Gable, the original Topper (1937, in a career standout as Marian Kerby opposite Cary Grant, a role she repeated in the 1939 sequel, Topper Takes a Trip), the ultimate madcap family comedy Merrily We Live (1938) and Two-Faced Woman (1941, supporting Greta Garbo).

By the 1940s, Bennett was working less frequently in film but was in demand in both radio and theatre. She had her own program, Constance Bennett Calls on You, on ABC radio in 1945-1946. Shrewd investments had made her a wealthy woman, and she founded a cosmetics and clothing company.

Bennett was married five times and had three children.

On June 15, 1921, Bennett eloped with Chester Hirst Moorehead of Chicago, a student at the University of Virginia who was the son of oral surgeon, Frederick Moorehead. They were married by a justice of the peace in Greenwich, Connecticut. Bennett was 16 at the time. A New York Times article that reported the elopement noted, "The parents of Miss Bennett were opposed to their marriage at this time solely on account of their youth." The marriage was annulled in 1923.

Bennett's next serious relationship was with millionaire socialite Philip Morgan Plant. Her parents planned a cruise to Europe, taking Constance with them, to separate the couple. As the ship was preparing to leave port, however, the Bennetts saw Plant and his parents boarding, too. A contemporary newspaper article reported, "Now the little beauty and the heir to all the Plant millions were assured a week of the cosy intimacy which an ocean liner affords." In November 1925, the two eloped and were married in Greenwich, Connecticut, by the same justice of the peace who officiated at Bennett's wedding to Moorehead. They divorced in a French court.

In 1932, Bennett returned from Europe with a three-year-old child, whom she claimed to have adopted and named Peter Bennett Plant (born 1929). In 1942, however, during a battle over a large trust fund established to benefit any descendants of her former husband, Bennett announced that her adopted son actually was her natural child by Plant, born after the divorce and kept hidden to ensure that the child's biological father did not get custody. During the court hearings, the actress told her former mother-in-law and her husband's widow that "if she got to the witness stand she would give a complete account of her life with Plant." The matter was settled out of court.

In 1931, Bennett made headlines when she married one of Gloria Swanson's former husbands, Henri le Bailly, the Marquis de La Coudraye de La Falaise, a French nobleman and film director. She and de la Falaise founded Bennett Pictures Corp. and co-produced two films which were the last filmed in Hollywood in the two-strip Technicolor process, Legong: Dance of the Virgins (1935) filmed in Bali, and Kilou the Killer Tiger (1936), filmed in Indochina. They were divorced in Reno, Nevada in 1940.

Bennett's fourth marriage was to actor Gilbert Roland. They were married in 1941 and had two daughters, Lorinda "Lynda" (1938) and Christina "Gyl" (1941). They divorced in 1946, with Bennett winning custody of their children. Later that year, Bennett married for the fifth and final time to US Air Force Colonel (later Brigadier General) John Theron Coulter. After her marriage, she concentrated her efforts on providing relief entertainment to US troops still stationed in Europe, winning military honors for her services. Bennett and Coulter remained married until her death in 1965.

She had a major supporting role in Warner Bros' The Unsuspected (1947) opposite Claude Rains, in which she played Jane Moynihan, the program director who helps prove that radio host Victor Grandison (Rains) is guilty of murder. In 1958, she hosted "The Constance Bennett Show" with Scott Vincent on ABC Radio. She made no films from the early 1950s until 1965 when she made a comeback in the film Madame X (released posthumously in 1966) as the blackmailing mother-in-law of Madame X (Lana Turner).

On July 25, 1965, shortly after filming of Madame X was completed, Bennett collapsed and died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 60. In recognition of her military contributions, and as the wife of John Theron Coulter, who had achieved the rank of brigadier general, she was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Coulter died in 1995 and was buried with her.

Bennett has a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the film industry. Her star is located at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard, a short distance from the star of her sister, Joan.

#constance bennett #silent movie stars #classic movie stars #silent era #silent hollywood #golden age of hollywood #classic hollywood #old hollywood #1920s cinema #1930s movies #1930s hollywood

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timeless-hollywood-classics · 4 years

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Bennett was married five times and had three children.

Bennett's fourth marriage was to actor Gilbert Roland. They were married in 1941 and had two daughters, Lorinda "Lynda" (b. 1938) and Christina "Gyl" (1941). They divorced in 1946, with Bennett winning custody of their children. Later that year, Bennett married for the fifth and final time to US Air Force Colonel (later Brigadier General) John Theron Coulter. After her marriage, she concentrated her efforts on providing relief entertainment to US troops still stationed in Europe, winning military honors for her services. Bennett and Coulter remained married until her death in 1965.

#constance bennett #classic hollywood #golden age of hollywood #classic movie stars #old hollywood #1930s hollywood

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dragon-kazansky · 5 years

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The hypnotist - Jervis Tetch x reader

Summary: Jervis has lost his sister and is bitter towards Jim, blaming him for her death. He comes to you. You’re the only one left he can trust, but you don’t know how to feel about that.

This chapter is a long one, strap in folks.

I also apologise that’s it’s so linear to the episode again, but I’m building up the connection between you and Jervis.

Chapter 3 - Choices

Several days passed since the tragic event of Alice's death. Her scream as she fell haunted you ever so slightly, but you can't imagine the pain Jervis is going through. His whole reason for coming to Gotham was gone and there was nothing anyone could do to change it.

You put Jervis to the back of your mind. You assumed he would have skipped out of town and have gone far away. He had no reason to be in the city any more.

You busied yourself with work from Barbara, who scolded you slightly for the not getting her errand done the other day. You made it up to her by being on top of your game from now on. Barbara didn't have all that many jobs for you and at one point pointed you towards Cobblepot, saying the Mayor would most definitely have more work for you.

It kept you busy at least.

On the tenth day after her death, you were home alone, taking some time to rest and not over work yourself. You needed some time to yourself for once. Things were starting to go back to normal, well, as normal as Gotham was.

The knocking on your door startled you. You weren't expecting anyone and you didn't know anyone who made house visits to you, you had very connections in the city.

You got up cautiously, inching your way over to the door. You pondered not answering for a moment, maybe they would think no one was home and they would leave.

That didn't seem to be the case. The second round of knocking sounded a little more urgent than the first, so you swung open the door.

You were not expecting Tetch to be standing there.

"Jervis?"

"Y/N, my dear!" He looked so pleased to see you, almost as of he hadn't seen you in quite some time. It was almost enough to make your heart race, but everything that happened came rushing back.

"What are you doing here? I thought you would have left the city." You let Jervis into your apartment.

"I cannot leave with serving James Gordon his punishment for what he did to my dear Alice." Jervis removed his top hat and turned to look at you with big brown eyes. It made your heart ache to see him like that.

"You're going to get revenge?"

"Quite, but first I had to see you. You're all I have left here in Gotham. You're the only one I can trust." He spoke softly, as if he was treading on dangerous ground. He didn't sound so convinced by his words, and frankly you weren't either.

"I see."

"Please, my dear, I hope you don't think bad of me. I can see it in your eyes that you were not, and still not, pleased with what I did to Gordon. I cannot let him get away with taking Alice from me." His gaze shifted to the ground.

You licked your lips nervously and stepped a little closer, not wanting the distance to give him the idea you didn't want him here.

Mentioning the possibility that Alice would have preferred death over leaving with him was a bad idea, so you remained far away from that thought.

"I understand you're hurt about what happened. I can't even pretend to imagine what you are going through, but must you retaliate? Jim won't let you get away with it." You returned his sorrowful gaze, though his expression did seem to light up with your words.

The idea that you were worried for him lit up something within him.

"I won't let Jim know you dropped by, but I need time to think. I've become quite fond of you after the time I spent with you, but I'm not sure I'm OK with the hypnotising yet. Give me time to think?" You stood there awkwardly, hoping he would grant you your request.

Jervis gave a small smile as he placed his hat back onto his head.

"Very well, I don't want Jim to take you from me too. Take all the time you need, I'll be only a phone call away." He held out a small piece of paper with a number on it.

"Thank you, Jervis."

You walked with back towards the door, both of stopping just as you reached it. He turned to you and with a smile, lifted your hand to his lips pressing a gentle kiss there.

"Please don't let James Gordon turn you against me too." He said, just loud enough for you to hear. There was so much emotion in those words.

You didn't say anything to that and opened the door for him, watching him leave.

Once he was gone you turned around and let out a long drawn out sigh. Your mind was once again conflicted with him. You felt awful about what happened to Alice and you could see it in his gaze that he was suffering from her loss. There was something sinister about him that night, the way he was using his sister's blood as leverage over her. The way he almost had Jim shoot himself. He was evil, but you couldn't hate him.

You had no idea what it was he had in store for Jim, but something told you it was for the better that you didn't know.

You decided it was probably best to busy yourself, so you began to tidy your apartment while you thought about what Jervis had said.

Jervis left your apartment feeling like a slight weight had been lifted from his shoulders, but he wasn't quite in the clear yet. He couldn't forgive Jim for what happened to Alice, but the rage he would feel I'd you were turned against him too, that was something he didn't want to even think about.

Pulling out his watch, he checked the time.

“I must change.”

Jervis was going to put his plan into action and the time was now.

A newly wedded couple leave the chapel holding hands. The bride is smiling as she approached her father. She thanks him for her special day as they hug, she returns to the groom’s side and they wave at their family and friends. The chauffeur opens the door to the car and waits till they have climbed in before closing the door and turning around.

Jervis Tetch smiles as he tips his cap to the father and makes his ways to the drivers seat. This was step two. Step one was the young boy sitting in the passengers seat.

Despite the fear in the couple, Jervis told them their fate was on James Gordon’s hands. He did what he does best and drove off, hypnotising them along the way.

Jim had just left the diner where he had met Valerie, a reporter seeking answers to Gotham’s secrets, one such secret being Alice Tetch’s blood. He was following an odd fellow dressed all in white. The odd man had come to Gordon with a riddle from Tetch, so naturally Jim had to go with him.

He was to an underpass, a public phone on dull display. It wasn’t until he reached the street corner that the phone began to ring.

Gordon walked over and answered it.

“This is Gordon.”

“Hello James.”

“Jervis. Never should have left that hole you were hiding in.”

“Oh, I wasn’t just hiding, I put the time to good use. Made a thorough study of you.” Jervis listed what he had learned of Gotham’s James Gordon. Jim looked around trying to see if Tetch was near by. There was no sign of him.

“And here I didn’t think about you once.” Jim refrained from rolling his eyes as Jervis droned on.

“Oh James,” Jervis chuckled as he let the couple out of the car, “I’ve been inside that head of yours. I’ve seen the web of lies you tell yourself,” The couple began to walk away from the car, “strung together to keep that fragile psyche of yours in tact.”

“Well, it’s been nice catching up with you.” Jim made a move to put the phone back, but Jervis’ voice could still be heard, so Gordon put the phone back to his ear as he listened to the mad man drone on.

“I’m going to force you to confront who you really are and I’m going to drive you mad doing it.”

Jim furrowed his brow.

“Now, please, direct your eyes to the overpass.” Jim looked up. “Meet Dave and Amy Walters. Married just this morning, lovely ceremony. In thirty seconds they are going to jump to their deaths. Take the stairs and you can save them. However, down the street is a little boy. His name is Shane and he’s going to be hit by a truck driven by my highly esteemed associate.”

A truck pulled up further down the street.

Jim knew what was happening right away.

“The choice is yours James. You can’t save both. So, who’s it going to be?”

Jervis hung up and climbed back into the car, leaving the choice to James Gordon. This was his punishment for what happened to Alice. Jim would have to live with the fact he let someone day today to save the other.

As Jervis drove away his mind went back to you.

He wondered for a moment what you would have thought of him if you had known what he was doing. It’s not as if you and James Gordon were friends anyway, you had a mutual friend in Barbara. Though it would be the fact he was using Gordon the way he was that might upset you. He wouldn’t forgive himself he caused your hate.

If Jim thought this choice was bad, wait till he saw what else Tetch had planned.

Jim ran for the boy, pulling him right out of the way of the truck. The couple fell with a splat, Gordon could only watch. He had made his choice.

Gordon moved the boy from the street and looked down at the couple. Tetch’s words lingered in his head, ‘You can’t save both,’ over and over in his mind.

The phone began to ring again. Jim ran over and answered it.

“You son of a bitch!”

“Good.” Of course it was Jervis again. “Now I have your attention.”

“They were innocent Jervis, you didn’t have to kill them.” Jim was angry.

“It was your choice, James. You practically pushed them off the ledge. Stay with me, James.” Gordon wasn’t answering. “James!”

“What?” Gordon spat the word out, grinding his teeth.

Jervis gave him an address and time, telling him not to be late. Any police and more people would die.

The GCPD received word of the dead couple and were on the scene quickly. Harvey questioned the little boy, Shane when he arrived. The boy couldn’t remember much, but Harvey thanked him for what he did remember and let another officer take him away from the scene. He joined Barnes’ side.

“You’re not going to believe this, he said Jim Gordon saved his life, pulled him out of the way of a truck.”

“Get him on the phone. Now.”

“I already tried him. No answer.” Harvey took note of Barnes without his cane, but his only answer was that the captain didn’t need it any more. That’s when he saw the odd man in white.

“Hey, does that guy look strange to you? I mean more strange than the usual wack job.”

Both men approached him, the captain calling out to him. The man turned in their direction slowly as if he was acknowledging them, but he wasn’t really. He was repeating the same line over and over again.

“James Gordon, I have a message for you.”

“James Gordon I have a message for you.”

He said nothing else. Just stood there on repeat. It was clear they weren’t going to get any answers from him, verbally anyway. Harvey knew exactly what was up.

“He’s hypnotised.”

“Tetch.” Barnes caught on.

It was now clear what was happening. In slight worry, Harvey pulled away from the two men and pulled out his phone. He had been so focused on Jim, he forgot about you. If this really is Tetch then there was a possibility he would go to you. After all, you did say you were friends with him.

The phone rang three times before you picked up.

“Hello?”

“Y/N, thank God you’re there.” Harvey let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m fine, why? Something happen? How did you even get this number?” You were stood in the middle of your apartment having just finished cleaning it. “Dis Barbara tell you I’d do you a favour? I’m already on the Mayor’s list.”

“No, that’s not it and don’t worry about it. Have you seen Tetch?”

“Jervis Tetch?” You felt your heart drop, but you were a pretty decent liar when you needed to be.

“Yeah, have you seen him?”

“Not since that night. I figured he would have left town.” You sat down on your sofa. “Why? What happened?” You were more than a little concerned about what Harvey was going to say next.

“I think Tetch is messing with Jim again. A couple have fallen to their death and there’s this hypnotises dude here saying his has a message for Gordon. I figured he would come to you since you two seem to be friends.” Harvey hated thinking you might be involved in all of this some how. He didn’t really know you, but seemed like a decent enough person.

“I haven’t seen him. Like I said, I thought he had left town.”

Silence fell over the phone and you found yourself silently praying that Harvey bought the lie.

“Good, if he calls you, let me know.”

“Sure.”

“At least let me send some police protection.”

“No thanks Harvey, I don’t need police hanging around my place.”

“Right, well, stay safe.”

You hung up.

You sat there in silence wondering what was going on. Had Jervis used Jim to kill someone? Why weren’t you more surprised? Perhaps you have just grown used to the ways of Gotham and the crazy people who lived there. You bit your lip anxiously.

Then the phone rang again.

You picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Y/N, my dear!”

“Jervis! Are you alright? What’s happening? Harvey Bullock just called me. I didn’t tell him you came by earlier.”

“I’m fine, dear. James Gordon and I are having a little chat. Everything that happens is on his shoulders.” He sounded so calm. “I hope you’re not worrying too much about me. I’d hate to cause you distress.”

“I’m fine, I just... what’s going on? I’m not here to lynch on you, I just want to know what you’re doing to those people?” He could hear the worry in your voice and it made his frown.

“Don’t worry, please don’t worry. Everything is Jim’s choice. He is the one to blame. I can’t talk for much longer, I must make another call, I want you to come and see what Jim will do.” Jervis gave you an address and a time. “I want you to see the real James Gordon.”

“Alright. I’ll be there.”

Jervis smiled, of course you couldn’t see it, but he hoped you could tell from his words.

“See you soon, my dear.”

He hung up.

Jervis was standing in the middle of the street, dressed in usual attire. He was looking up at the building in front of him with his phone in hand.

Jim Gordon was inside, he picked up the ringing phone after looking at the information Jervis had collected on him.

“Jervis.”

“Cutting it close, James.”

“Like what you did with the place.”

“Everyone needs a hobby.” Jervis sounded rather cheerful. “Take a peak though the lens, let’s chat face to face.”

Gordon moved over to the telescope.

Jervis smiled and waved.

“I wonder, what is you have against married couples? Bad memories perhaps. Understandable, given the last time you saw a woman in a wedding dress, she had a shotgun pointed at you.”

Jim was caught off guard with just how much Jervis knew about him.

“Hey Jervis?”

“Yes, James?”

Jim hung up.

Jervis glared up at the window and instantly dialled the number again, angry with Jim’s behaviour.

“Don’t you ever do that again!”

James hung up again.

Jervis called him straight back.

“This is about your sister isn’t it? In your adult brain you blame me for what happened to her.”

“Don’t you talk about her!” Jervis was fuming.

“I got to know her Jervis, she was a good person, that’s why she hated you,” Jim was also seething with anger, “why she died trying to get away from you. You want revenge? Kill yourself.”

“Dismissive. Rude. I don’t like your attitude!”

“I also have to wonder what you did to make Y/N so fond of you. You’re sick, Tetch. She called you her friend when I saw her last.”

“Don’t talk about her either.”

“She’s not involved in any of this is she?”

“I know Y/N wouldn’t be too happy to know the details, but she’s the only friend I have here in Gotham. I won’t pretend with her. I’m going to show her who you really are, then maybe she’ll understand. Now, are you quite finished?” Jervis didn’t want to talk about you any further to Jim.

“Tell you what, I’ll come down and we can talk in person.” Jim offered.

“Hang up again and she dies.”

“What are you talking about?” Jim pondered for a moment if he was referring to you, but he had spoken so fondly of you. Who else could he be talking about?

Jervis looked smug. “Surprising really, given that every relationship you’ve been ended with such misery, and yet, you make the choice to date again. Poor girl, she had no idea who she was getting into bed with. She will soon. See for yourself!”

Jim angled the telescope further up the street. Valerie, the girl he was seeing, was being dragged away by one of the brothers who were still under Tetch’s influence.

“Great thing about reporters, tell them you have a story and they’ll meet you anywhere.” Jervis grinned.

Jim hung up and ran out of the building.

The van had driven off already.

While Jim followed Tetch’s instructions, you were at home making yourself look presentable for whatever it was Jervis had planned. You found yourself rolling your eyes at the idea of trying to look nice for someone you didn’t know all that well. Yet, his impression of you mattered to you.

You kept yourself occupied until the time you had been given, and set off to the address, unaware the afternoon Gordon was having. Jervis had given him another choice, but it didn’t quite work out in Jim’s favour.

The house wasn’t familiar to you, but it was very nice. Clearly whoever lived here had plenty of money. The door was unlocked, a note left behind telling you to come in.

You entered.

Music could be heard from the dining room. You walked in slowly, not sure what to expect. What you did see, however, was far from what you had thought.

A tea party.

Valerie Vale and Lee Thompkins were facing each other on either side of the table. Jim Gordon sat at one end, Jervis Tetch as the other.

Jervis stood from the table with a bright smile on his face, he was so pleased to see you. You couldn’t help smiling back at him as you walked over to him, ignoring the looming figures behind him with guns in their hands.

“Jervis, what is this?”

“This, my dear, is Jim’s final choice of the day. Please, sit.” Jervis pulled out a chair next to his, leaving space between you and Lee. You sat down and watched him take his seat again.

“I don’t understand.” You turned to him confused.

“Jim took away someone I loved, so I will take away someone he loves.” You turned slowly to Jim.

“So, this is what you’ve been doing. I see.”

“Y/N, don’t listen to him! Tetch is insane.” Jim called out, but Jervis glared at him and hit the table once with his fist.

“Don’t tell her such things!”

You sat there quietly unsure what else to do. Jervis relaxed his hand and turned to smile at you again. He was trying to comfort you, not that you needed it much. You couldn’t deny that you weren’t scared of him. Honestly, you weren’t shocked at all with what was happening.

“Ah yes, your gun. Place it on the platter.” Jervis had been so caught up in waiting for you to join them, he needed to focus back on the main guest.

“Really?”

“Now you have to think about it? Not everyone here has to die, James.”

You cast your gaze between to the other two women at the table. He was going to make Jim pick one. You really weren’t sure what to feel now. Was he going to make you watch?

He did say he was going to show you who Gordon really was...

Jervis began to pour tea for everyone.

Jim looked between the two ladies. “It’s going to be OK.”

Jervis looked up and gave James a disappointed look, just as he was about to fill your tea cup. “Don’t lie to them James.” He turned back to you and smiled as he filled your cup. You gave a small smile and picked the cup up, watching as he filled the next cup and asked Lee to pass it down the table.

She did as she was told.

“I must apologise for the hideous china.” Jervis chuckled softly. “Frankly, I expected more from Don Falcone’s son.” Tetch filled his own cup last. “Guess I know what I’m getting you for your wedding.” He gave Lee a smile.

You sipped your tea quietly.

This would have been lovely if not for the eerie atmosphere and the fact Jervis was going to have someone in the room killed. His hospitality was otherwise quite sweet.

“To good health!” He lifted his cup.

Lee and Valerie opted out, causing the hatter to frown. So far you were the only own being considerate enough to drink what he had prepared. With how he had been with you so far, there was no reason to think he had done anything. Why poison the tea if he was going to force Jim’s hand anyway?

“You know what,” Jim lifted his cup, “I’ll have some.”

“Bravo James.”

The two men simultaneously drank from their cups, you took a slow sip of yours right after. Everything was still too weird right now.

“Now, I’d like to begin by telling a story of a brother and a sister, separated for years, but whose love never waned. Fair warning though, it has a sad ending.” Jervis glanced down.

Here we go. You knew your heart would yearn to comfort him. The events didn’t happen so long ago and everything was still fresh. You wondered how long it would take for his heart to heal.

“But I couldn’t find my sister alone, so I turned to this man, James Gordon. Whom everyone said was a good man, an honourable man, and what did this good man do? Why, he found my sister,” Jervis banged the table with his fist again. “and he turned her against me! Poisoning her mind and then he killed her!” He hit the table again, only with more force this time. You jumped slightly in your seat.

Jervis lowered his voice as he eyed James across the table. “Does that sound about right, James?”

You looked to Gordon, wondering what he would say or do.

“Sure, why not.” He said nonchalantly.

“Now James, i get the sense you’re not being honest.” Jervis pointed at him. “Though that’s not surprising, considering you’ve run from your true self every day of your life, but you can’t run from this choice. The woman you love, is going to die.”

You knew it.

“I just need to figure out which one it is. So, let’s review our options! shall we?”

Jervis looked between the two ladies.

You really weren’t sure how comfortable you were anymore. You sat with your hands in your lap and you bottom lip between your teeth, your eyes flickering between each of their faces.

You weren’t even sure why you were there. Not really. You didn’t have any personal connection to Jim, or the other two. Perhaps Jervis wanted to show you exactly what he was capable of.

“On the one hand, we have Lee Thompkins.” Jervis moved to stand beside her, giving your shoulder a light squeeze as he passed behind you. Intelligent. Kind. She thought she could save you from your darkness, drag you into the light. What did she get for her efforts? Hm? Pain and sadness.”

“Don’t listen to him Lee.”

“Look in her eyes. She still has love for you James.”

The silence was awkward.

“And then there’s Valerie Vale.” Jervis moved over to Valerie. “The entrapped reporter from a blur collar family. She still has hope for you. What will happen when she learns who you really are?”

Jervis returns to the end of table, standing beside you. He gazes at you as he explains that those are the choices Jim has. Tetch reaches for Gordon’s gun and holds it out.

“Now it’s up to you.”

You looked at Jim wondering what is going on inside his head.

“Which,” Jervis points the gun at Valerie, “lady,” then at Lee, “has your heart? Who do you love?”

“You want me to choose? Tell these idiots to lower their guns. I don’t trust them not to shoot me by accident.”

“You’re right. They are stupid.” He chuckles. “Down boys.”

The two goons lowers their guns.

“Now you drop your gun.” He looks Jervis in the eye.

“Jim.” You sigh. “Really?”

“No, no, it’s alright, my dear.” Jervis chuckles. “Though she is right, why would I do that?”

“Because I’ll shoot you.” Mario Calvi comes into the room from behind you all, you only knew of him because he’s a Falcone, plus his engagement to Lee was in the paper.

“Brilliant.” You mutter to yourself.

“Well well,” Jervis gazes over his shoulder, the gun still pointed at Jim, “this was your grand plan, James? Play along until the doctor could sneak in and shoot me dead?”

You glanced back at Mario.

“But there’s only one small problem.” Jervis wasn’t the least bit concerned about the extra person in the room. “Before you arrived I went down to the basement and switched the magazine in that gun with an empty one.”

You couldn’t you were impressed. Tetch really thought this out apparently.

Mario tried to fire the gun, but Jervis spoke the truth as the gun only made a small clicking sound. You let out a small chuckle, instantly covering you mouth. This really wasn't funny, you were just impressed.

Jervis glanced down at you having heard you and smiled at you. He made you laugh! Oh how happy he was. He turned his gaze back to Mario.

“My apologises, I only set the table for five. Dumfree, will you please escort doctor Calvi to the bathroom?” They left. “Now, I’m out of patience!” He was raising his voice again and waving the gun around slightly. “Who do you love?” He pointed the gun back at Jim.

Your attention was back on the ex-cop.

“You want to talk about love, fine. Let’s talk about who you love.” Jim glanced your way and you furrowed your brows at him. No way! You’ve known Jervis a number of days. “Or loved.” Jim looked back at Tetch.

That was more like it.

“Don’t.”

“Your sister knew you were crazy.”

“Just stop it!”

Jervis hated Jim talking bad about him when you were in the room. He wanted to show you who Jim really was and perhaps impress you, but right now it was looking bad for him. He didn’t want to look at you and see your disappointment in him.

You were more confused than anything. You couldn’t say you were disappointed in Jervis because from the beginning you knew there was more to him than he let on.

“She was terrified of you.” Jim continued. “She hated you.”

“Enough!”

“She told me. What you did to her, when you were kids.”

You glanced up at Jervis, you remember what she said.

“The thought of you disgusted her.”

“Lies! Deceit! The sorry you tell is incomplete!”

“Jervis...” You want to reach out, but he’s still holding that gun. The last thing you want is to accidentally shoot someone. “She loved me!”

“She loved you? She killed herself rather than be with you.”

“She didn’t... no.” Jervis didn’t believe those words for a second.

“She impaled herself on a spike and died in agony because even that was better than having you touch her.” Jim didn’t stop.

“No, no, no, no ,no, no.” Jervis shook his head, he couldn’t even look at Jim. You were sure Jim was somewhat telling the truth, whether or not the fall was on purpose or accident, Alice didn’t want anything to do with her brother, but you didn’t like this sight. Jervis was becoming confused, sidetracked. Jim was spewing words at him and it was hurting him.

“I saw her when she was dying, her face when she knew she was finally safe from you, she was smiling.”

“Jim!” You hissed.

“Because despite the pain, she was happy.” He ignored you.

“LIAR! She was the only thing I ever loved!” Jervis stomped over to where Jim was sitting and pointing the gun right at his face. You stood from your chair concerned about what was going to happen. “And you! YOU, sent her soul to heaven above!”

Jim grabbed Tetch’s wrist.

“That’s right. Me. I’m the one you want, so let Lee and Vale go, keep me, but let them go.”

Jervis was so close to shooting him, but he took a deep sigh and lowered the gun. You let out a sigh of your own.

“Oh James, you’re trying to confuse me, but I won’t let you. No, I’m determined that you’ll live on and suffer without your love as I have. Choose.”

“No, I won’t choose.”

“You will. You will!”

Jervis returned to where you where standing at the end of the table, you looked awfully nervous. Tetch sighed as he gathered himself once again.

“I’ll make it easy for you, one the count of three, instead of telling me who you love, tell me who to kill.” The gun was being pointed again between the ladies.

You began to shift in the spot. At this point you just wanted this whole thing to be over. You didn’t think your heart could take much more of this.

“Or I shoot both of them which would be such a thrill.”

“One.”

You could feel your heart racing in your chest.

“Two.”

Jim kept looking between them both.

“Three.”

“Kill Lee.” Jim replied instantly.

Lee gasped.

Jervis pointed his gun at her. “Oh, finally!”

You took a step back as he looked at her.

“The truth is revealed. You chose Lee because you love Vale. Very well!” Jervis turned to gun to Valerie and shot her in the stomach. You covered your mouth in shock as you stared wide eyed at her.

You should have guessed Jim would play this game.

“I knew you had it in you, James. All this time, you made everyone believe you were the hero, but deep down you always knew the truth. You’re a villain!” Jervis opened up his arm with a smile.

Jervis turned to you, his business was done here.

“Come, my dear. Let’s go.” He held out his hand to you. You looked at Jim and the girls once more before taking his hand and leaving with him. You just wanted out of that room. Jim had made his choice.

You weren’t sure what was going to happen now.

Jim Gordon would never let Tetch get away with that. Tetch still won in the end and it was defiantly going to eat away at Gordon.

Now you wondered what was going to happen to you.

Jervis held you hand do gently as you both climbed into the car and drove off, far away from that house. You knew now what this man was capable of, yet here you were, willingly going with him.

Perhaps a part of you was mad too.

Tags:

@mistressoftorture @fandombeehive @awyr

#jervis tetch x reader #jervis tetch #gotham #the hypnotist #chapter 3

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moonwest · 5 years

Text

Full Ben Whishaw Interview in Sunday Times Magazine

Ben Whishaw, the voice of Paddington, the millennial Q in the Bond films, the next generation of Mr Banks in Disney’s epic Mary Poppins reboot, is fresh off the plane from LA. He is wearing a navy shirt, dark wool trousers and a fluffy knitted hat over his lush curls. It’s a strange combination of quirkiness and elegance. At the start of the year he won a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice award for his captivating portrayal of Norman Scott opposite Hugh Grant’s Jeremy Thorpe in A Very English Scandal. Of course he says he didn’t expect to win, and of course he says it feels great, but when I ask if this recognition from Hollywood means he’ll spend more time out there, he says: “No idea. I don’t feel it’s my world. I just sort of dropped in and it was a lovely thing. I would like to drop in more often. Maybe it opens doors. I guess we’ll see.”

For now, it’s back to the day job. Whishaw, 38, is rehearsing a play called Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, in which he plays a man who likes to dress up as Marilyn Monroe. “We just got the costumes,” he says. “I wear a dress that’s a replica of the one she wore in The Seven Year Itch — the white one where the wind comes up. They’ve also given me the bum, hips and breasts. I don’t think they’re as big as Marilyn’s, but they’re proportionate to my body. It’s a strange thing. I’m not playing Marilyn, I’m playing a man who’s infatuated with her. The play is set in the year she died and he’s in mourning for her. Apparently there was a spate of copycat suicides that year.”

To research the role, Whishaw has been reading a book called Fragments. “It’s bits of Marilyn’s diary, notes on hotel paper, poetry,” he says. “She writes beautifully. Arthur Miller was here with her when they were doing the film The Prince and the Showgirl, and she opened his diary and read about how disappointed he was with her, how embarrassed he was being around his intellectual friends with her. Apparently this was devastating to Marilyn. All these men say how difficult she was. It makes you want to strangle them. But she really was amazing. She had a lot going on, a lot of sadness on her plate, poor darling. To be a star in that star system and those men.”

If she had been born 50 years later, does he think she would have been part of the #MeToo movement? “I’m sure she would have. I’ve been listening to interviews with her. She doesn’t seem afraid of anything.”

Fearless and vulnerable. It’s a contradiction that could possibly describe both of them. “Yes,” he smiles.

Almost 15 years have passed since Whishaw, fresh out of Rada, was acclaimed as one of the best ever Hamlets in the Trevor Nunn production at the Old Vic. His portrayal earned him an Olivier nomination and opened the door to film and television roles. He voiced Michael Bond’s Peruvian stowaway bear in the two recent Paddington films and is lined up for a third, as well as an animated TV series for Nickelodeon. Perhaps his best known role is Q in the Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015). As soon as he’s finished his Marilyn, he will begin shooting the next one, though no one in a Bond movie can tell you in advance what it’s going to be like. “I think they’re probably trying to figure out what to do with the storyline,” he says. “At least I know that my character is the same. Someone did tell me there might be a scene with Q’s cats.”

I immediately want to sort out an audition for my cat Roger Moore.

“Does Roger travel?” he asks. “Could he go to Pinewood? And can he cock an eyebrow?”

Yes, he can. That’s why he’s called Roger Moore.

“I’ll get onto Barbara Broccoli about it,” he says.

Whishaw has created an ever-widening niche for himself — he has made room in film, theatre and television for malleable, sensitive male characters that are sometimes described as androgynous, but what they really are is sexually ambiguous.

“Do you think I’m androgynous? I think I’m quite male-looking. Androgyny is different to non-binary, but I hate all these labels. I get mixed up.”

It’s true, there are many labels; nonetheless Whishaw is a 21st-century man. When you think of those macho actors of the last century, men like Rock Hudson, who revealed he was gay only when he was dying of Aids, it seems so different now.

Whishaw entered a civil partnership with the Australian composer Mark Bradshaw in 2012, but for a long time he did not discuss his private life. He would say things like, “An actor shouldn’t reveal their sexuality because it pigeonholes them.” Once he had come to terms with it himself, however, hiding it became difficult in a different way. “People assume there’s some juicy secret,” he says. “But I don’t agree any more with that statement [about being pigeonholed]. I don’t think it’s the be-all and end-all, and since revealing my sexuality I haven’t had any negative effects.”

Perhaps that’s because he is such a skilful actor, perhaps the pigeonholes aren’t as rigid as they used to be, or perhaps the revelation has actually helped him. He shrugs. He doesn’t mind talking about it now, it’s just he can’t be conclusive.

At one point, Whishaw was lined up to play Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, although he was never given a contract or confirmed officially. Various versions of the biopic had been on the cards for about 10 years. Sacha Baron Cohen was in the frame first of all, then Whishaw, and ultimately Rami Malek. The film has been accused of not being “gay enough”, but, for all the criticism, Malek’s career-defining role won him an Oscar.

We talk about how hard it was for Mercury to admit that he was gay and how he would refer to himself as bisexual. But then perhaps he was. He certainly had sexual relationships with women. “I think it’s very unfair when people say they’re bisexual and they’re accused of being gay really,” Whishaw says. “If we’re honest about these things, perhaps most people are on a spectrum.”

Whatever the risks he took in revealing his sexuality to the public, Whishaw found it much harder coming out to his family. “I’ve gone through a few difficult things,” he says. “There was a moment in my early twenties when I did not feel very good about myself. It was to do with my sexuality and not knowing how to be myself and hating myself. I did know [my sexuality], I just couldn’t tell anyone.”

When he eventually told his parents, they weren’t surprised, but he still struggled. He sought therapy. “It really did help,” he says.

He carries himself with such a sense of otherness that I am surprised to learn he is a twin. “We were born on the same day and we came out of the same place at the same time, but we are totally unalike,” he says. “Perhaps you can see we are related, but we don’t look alike. He’s blond. He came out first and was very pink and chubby. And I was this squashed, dark thing that popped out a few moments after. We were so different, but we were always dressed the same and taken everywhere together, even to things I was not interested in, like football. So I’ve always defined myself by him, but in opposition to him. I like everything different to him. There’s not a single thing we have in common, except we both liked the scary rides if we were taken to a park.”

Don’t twins normally have a kind of supernatural understanding? “No. No understanding, no telepathy. When I told him [about being gay], he wasn’t surprised, of course, but still.”

He notices a black crystal around my neck and I explain that it was given to me by my hypnotherapist.

“I’d like to try hypnotherapy,” he says. For what? “Smoking,” he says. “It’s so frowned upon. You feel ostracised from the world if you smoke. And there’s the hair twiddling thing.” He starts twiddling his hair. “I’ve probably been doing this for the whole interview.” He hasn’t, but apparently it’s been a lifelong habit. “I’ve done it since I was a baby. I don’t know why I do it.”

I recall the title of a Peter Cook anthology: Tragically, I Was an Only Twin. That’s what Whishaw seems like. I can’t imagine him with a brother. “My dad says if my brother and I were one person we would be an amazing, perfect human,” he replies.

It’s often reported that his father works in IT, but that’s not true. “He lives in the countryside and raises chickens behind a farm. He used to be a footballer and he now works in sports with young people. He’s not an IT person at all,” Whishaw laughs. His mother works in cosmetics. They split up when he was a young boy, but he has good relationships with both of them. He talks about them with love.

The last time we met, Whishaw told me he was afraid of meeting people. “I haven’t got over that,” he says. “I love people, but I’m just shy of meeting new people, especially when they’re famous.”

In particular, he was bashful around Meryl Streep, whom he starred alongside in Mary Poppins. “I’m so completely left speechless when I’m in the same room as her. Do you never feel that speechlessness come on you?” he asks sweetly. “Even though she seemed to be the nicest person, I was very timid and shy around her.”

It’s odd how someone so shy can look so confident — smouldering even — on screen.

He walks off in the furry hat that makes him look part man, part mole. It’s certainly a statement. But perhaps the most curious thing about Whishaw is we’ll never entirely know what that statement is.

Norma Jeane Baker of Troy is showing at the Shed’s Bloomberg Building, New York, April 6-May 19; theshed.org

#ben whishaw #norma jeane baker of troy #sunday times magazine

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