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zhoufeis · 3 years

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Yay! The newbie (me) has finished 10 korean dramas

....... and here are my ratings.

Let’s rate from worst to best:

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10) Romance is a Bonus Book. Rating: 2,1 / 5 stars - skip it.

- I kept seeing this show on my dash and since my first kdrama watch was W Two Worlds with the wonderful Lee Jong-suk, I decided to give it a chance.

- But hell, no one warned me how bad it actually is. I’m not talking about the acting (the cast is actually quite solid), but I’m referring to... the plot (or lack thereof), the love story (let’s rather call it one-sided obsession) and the wasted potential. Let’s start with the set-up. A company producing books, a single mother who needs a job, her childhood best friend who works for the company. Yeah, it’s not precisely complex or inventive, but it’s something to work with. Create nice dynamics at the working place, have some yearning between the two leads, give them heartwarming moments and a confession of how they’ve always been in love with each other. There’s just one problem: she really never, ever had any romantic feelings for her childhood best friend. She keeps calling him a brother and insists on him being her closest friend (which seems a stretch since she lied to him for a year about her separation from her husband and kept sort of creeping up into his house to eat and shower there without letting him know). Anyway, I could oversee this (even though I hate the trope of childhood best friends becoming lovers in adult life just because one is a man and the other a woman) if AT LEAST we actually get to see her falling for him slowly within the show. But we just.... don’t. He confesses his love to her - as she is actually starting to see someone else, and let me tell you, she actually seemed to be into the second lead -, then promises her not to push his feelings onto her... but that’s exactly what he does (I guess I don’t need to mention I ended up not being his biggest fan), and she ends up falling for him for unknown reasons. Eh. Okay. I started rooting for the second leads halfway into the show. Hae-rin & Eun-ho as well as Seo-joo & Dan-i appeared to me as the much more shippable pairings. I might have actually cried for Hae-rin & Eun-ho at some point of the show, but well... Moving on to... everything else. I enjoyed some scenes in the company, but not enough that I could tell you any right now because there wasn’t anything very memorable. The show basically thrives in some random scenes usually involving one of the two leads rather than in scenes with the two of them. That random author’s suicide has stuck with me as well as the letters that song hae-rin has wrote to our male lead over the years. The talk about fears between eun-ho and that author has stuck with me too, but other than that... there’s just nothing really happening. I was patiently waiting for a plot to come but nothing ever came. It just feels like a bunch of really uninteresting subplots put into one show. I don’t wanna judge it too harshly, but one of the other modern day dramas I will discuss further down this list also simply works with a bunch of subplots coming together - and it’s wonderfully executed (it’s ‘Run On’, for those of you who are wondering!)

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Positive: nice friendship between women (dan-i & hae-rin); delivery of lee jong-suk, jeong eu-gene & park gyu-young; one strong scene involving a life lesson every few eps

- Negative: no main plot, dull subplots... nothing happens, very cheesy at some points, the protagonizing couple is quite problematic and unshippable, their chemistry is not strong enough to oversee that; i really don’t know why people like this show.

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9) Radio Romance. Rating: 3,2 / 5 stars - it’s cute.

- Radio Romance is the show on this list that drives me into conflict with myself. Because some things about this show are very strong; others (many) very, very weak. I guess the main problem is that the show’s set-up mostly shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but it deals with some heavy topics that need to be taken seriously. And unlike quality japanese animes or some quality chinese drama that usually achieve to make you realize what can be taken as a joke and what can not, Radio Romance is sort of incapable of keeping that balance. You gotta figure it for yourself.

- While offering a quite enjoyable cast and some quite different personalities within the show, there is no one particularly standing out. As you will see as we go further down on this list, this is not my only Kim So-hyun drama, it was also not my first, and I can promise you that it won’t be my last. I simply adore this actress, she’s enjoyable to watch. I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of her, which is why I checked out the show in the first place. Compared to her other characters though, Song Geu-rim is kind and nice and all, but not too memorable. She’s portraying a nice girl next door here with a dream to become a good radio script writer. And if not even her character stands out, as expected, none of the others will either. As for the plot... We don’t really have one, I suppose. If you count the plot making the radio show, I suppose then episode 3 or 4 is the last with actual development. I was hoping for more conflicts and plot twists involving Soo-ho’s backstory - and we got them, but very, very, very late on the show. Basically, getting through the first 7 eps felt very easy to me, due to the change of locations and relationship growth, and getting through the last 3 as well. Although the last was such a cheesy ending, you have no idea. The middle part suffered from a lack of plot and character development as well as it suffered from a focus on the love triangle - which I totally could have lived without. Like, istg, what was the POINT of this love triangle? Soo-ho and Geu-rim had to deal with enough things already, bringing in yet another obstacle through the tercero and putting the focus onto this love triangle was just soooo cliché. And don’t even get me started on how they also went with the problematic love triangle tropes rather than to at least make it somewhat adorable or funny. It was also boring. I kept pausing the episodes there and didn’t keep watching for days. It was only at the end of episode 13 that things finally got interesting again when we finally got to learn more about Soo-ho’s backstory. From then on, I was able to end the show within 2 days. So, no, the backstory was not the thing that drives me into conflict though. What drives me into conflict is how such a quite flat story was able to portray a very good, very realistic case of depression and PTSD. Like wow. This must have been one of the few shows, in which we have a canonically diagnosed character who does not fall into stereotypes and in which his depression isn’t used as a mere plot device to get the ship together and cure him by that. His depression is underlying at all times, sometimes more, sometimes less. He is told to get treatment (”no treatment, no medication.”), he has moments in which his depression mentally and physically restrains him from acting. It’s a very layered, realistic depiction and I adored every single bit of it. Meanwhile, the character isn’t defined by his depression nevertheless - there’s more to Soo-ho then just the depression, and after all, he was an outstanding character (to correct what I said before because I was lying xD). So... for all the lack of plot and development and predictable storytelling, the depiction of depression and the peacefulness of the protagonizing couple save that show.

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Negative: unnecessary love triangles with unnecessary clichés; barely any plot; sheer boredom in the middle of the show; takes itself and its tropes way too seriously.

- Positive: complex character who is suffering from depression and PTSD; layered, realistic depiction of depression; adorable couple that transmits peacefulness.

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8) Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung. Rating: 3,5 / 5 stars - nice, but it is no must-watch.

- I feel genuinely bad for putting this right after Radio Romance and Romance is a Bonus Book, because Rookie Historian was, simply put, muuuuuuuuch better. I got invested in the characters and their backstories. The story is quite more complex in retrospect than it seemed at first, but the show’s issue is that this is rather less apparent in more than the first quarter of the show. I really don’t even recall what happened in those first few episodes because it is rather unimportant for the rest of the show, with minor exceptions. The story truly starts picking up around episode 9 and has a strong run until around episode 15. The last quarter of the show then is wayyyyy too fast-moving, too many things happening and we barely spend time on things I then wished to spend more time on. Unfortunately, despite having a good set-up and a quite fine cast, I don’t think I’ll remember anything in particular about this show in a year. It’s a nice watch, even though I sometimes really had to motivate myself to keep watching in the first eps, but it hasn’t lingered in my memory after I finished it.

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Positive: rather lots of plot; positive female relationships; feminism; shin se-kyung; leading couple as well as the second leading couple, even though romance is not at the core of the show; nice messages about morality and truth.

- Negative: the first few eps are really.... slow-moving. To the point that I’d recommend putting the first 8 eps into 2-3 eps and giving more space in the end. Especially the last 4 eps of the show are way too fast-moving. Furthermore, there’s some plotholes. My biggest issue though is the glorification of europe's christianity during the 18th and 19th century. I was not expecting that in a korean drama but it seemed utterly wrong in my eyes, specifically because the show used it to promote that chrisitianity promotes equality of all races and genders. Not to be a bitch, but europe’s christian beliefs have never stopped europeans from discriminating women and non-white people, not then and not now.

- My general impression of the show is quite positive, but I’m not sure I’d willingly watch it again since knowing all the plot twists and storylines actually is enough to be watched once with that show. An experience that I haven’t made with the other kdramas that are higher ranked on this list.

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7) A Love So Beautiful. Rating: 3,5 / 5 stars - if you really don’t want to think at all and just watch a light, easy to follow show, that is your pick. However, NOT recommended for first-time kdrama watchers - it gives you a totally wrong impression of what kdramas are actually capable of achieving.

- I’d like to point out that this show has surprised me in a good way - but there’s things that need to be pointed out here, so let me make three paragraphs: the first will talk about my impression of the first 16 eps; the second will talk about the last 8 eps; and the last will talk about how this show was cute, but could have been incredible, but didn’t use its potential correctly.

- Episodes 1-16: Look, the thing about those eps is very easy to point out: it’s not quality and it is never pretending to be (unlike romance is a bonus book, which pretends to be some smart, adult quality show but is just trash). Those eps cannot be taken totally serious. You have to go in there knowing exactly what is awaiting you. I started it because when I saw the trailer, I immediately realized all the tropes that Extraordinary You (higher ranked, you will see later) was making fun of. What you see is exactly what you get: Clichéd characters, clichéd love story, average acting, average directing, simple dialogue, clichéd love triangle, predictable developments - a simple romcom put into a tv show format. It’s cliché over cliché over cliché put into a het high school love story. And you know what? After weeks of studying for and writing my uni exams, it was exactly what I needed. The show is so over the top with its clichés that it’s genuinely funny. The lightheartedness and the non-existing complexity just add to that. Basically, you could argue that it’s all so bad with its clichés, which is why it becomes hilarious. Unlike other kdramas, it has a straightforward plot: a girl is in love with a boy and wants to be with him. It’s as easy as that. The show clearly loves featuring every trope you could associate with het love stories, but honestly, it’s so light and breezy and such a fast watch (due to the fact that each ep is between 20-25 minutes), you will finish those first 16 episodes before you know you even started it (I made it in less than 2 days). I want to repeat here though, it’s not for someone who starts with kdramas and hasn’t watched other kdramas. It cannot be taken seriously - and you only cannot take it seriously when you have seen things like Extraordinary You or W or, I guess, a bunch of high school kdramas. But I’m telling you, this is the only Kdrama on this list that you can watch in the most stressful time of your life and it will make you feel better. It won’t make you cry, it will make you laugh, and the moment it is out of your sight, you will forget about it - at least, that’s the case about the first 16 eps. And then we get to...

- Episodes 17-24: guys, what have I gotten myself into? As these people finished high school and their problems actually also got more adult, I started to grow genuinely attached, specifically to the ship. When she got sick and he didn’t even know although he’s a DOCTOR? When she was sexually harassed and didn’t know how to talk to him about it because their relationship was filled with other problems? When he left for 3 years and later told her that he had hoped she’d follow him because she always has... and then she didn’t? When he said that everyone is under the impression that she is more dependent on him but that he is actually the one who cannot imagine a life without her? IT ALL HURT BADLY. Because 1) so many years passed in such a short amount of time on the show and it felt like someone was ripping my heart out. I got genuinely reminded of that stupid US movie “One Day” - and y’all know how that movie ended. And because 2) there was a very realistic notion in the adult relationship portrayed. Not only did it point out how differently relationships/friendships can develop once you outgrow your teenage years and start navigating your life by yourself, but the problems, the misunderstandings, the different perceptions of time, the different perceptions of how friendships and relationships are developing - I honestly could relate to it a lot, looking at it from a 24yo perspective because it is something I have been experiencing as well since I finished high school. You feel more lonely and tend to perceive some time as passing by quickly, other times, it feels like everything is going so slow. These last 8 eps completely differ from my perception that I had in the first 16 eps of the show, as the tone is much more serious and the things depicted realistic and relatable. I also sobbed a lot. I didn’t sob at all, ever, in the first 16 eps, but the last 8 were me crying a lot and feeling my heart hurt as the years passed by and these two just spent them apart.

- So, what do I criticize about this show? The show’s pacing. I genuinely loved the change of feeling between high school and adult life, between ridiculousness and seriousness, and I know the show wants to celebrate youth at the end of the day. But I honestly believe this show could have worked so much better if u cut the high school episodes down to 8 episodes and rather spend a few more eps exploring their young adult lives. It would have worked so much better because their young adult selves were genuinely relatable, as well as their problems. The growth within the characters, realizing that the way they acted as teenagers were often self-centred or that they didn’t think that much about the consequences or how other people felt was nicely done. The show had potential. The dialogues were bearable, the camera work had hints of something great. In other words, I believe that with more carefulness to directing and dialogue, the show could have genuinely been a quality romance drama. The potential was there, but it wasn’t used the way it should have been. In the last 8 eps, you simply get a whiff on what this show could have actually been. Because the realistic character and relationship writing was right there - and if it had been put together with awesome directing and better pacing, everything could have been incredible.

SUMMARY

Favorite character:

Negative: the show’s pacing; the waste of potential to be an actual quality romance.

Positive: the un-seriousness of the first 16 eps, which were just so clichéd that it all was hilarious, compared to the seriousness of problems and development depicted in the past 8 eps.

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6) Run On. Rating: 4,2 / 5 stars - recommend

- I’m gonna be honest here and tell you something about me you might have guessed by now: Modern-day shows with no sci-fi nor fantasy elements are not particularly my thing. I usually sort of hate-watch them. Romance is a Bonus Book, A Love So Beautiful and Radio Romance are all of such shows and while I was even capable watching two of them without ending up hating them, they’re far from being my fave. Objectively, they’re okay-ish shows, nothing to be considered quality tv according to my cultural studies though. Subjectively, they just suffer even more from the fact that I’m very keen on being critical of such shows. But what happens when I find a non-fantasy, non-scifi modern-day show that is actually... good? Run On is the answer. Run On has memorable characters, their funny, unique characteristics, and simple conflicts put into nice subplots that often talk real-life problems such as bullying or self-neglegance. At the end of the day, this show is a love poem. It’s a love poem to self-love, self-respect, to friendship, to character growth, to family bonds, to achieving your goals, to making new goals, to kindness, and to life itself. That’s really what it is. You will find yourself in, at least, one of the characters. You will see them struggle, fight, grow, become better, and at the end of the day, the most important thing is that you are capable of living with yourself. I personally got attached to all of the stories and I adored how nothing was ever done over the top. Everything was subtle, multiple subplots working together... to form stories of life. It’s more than just a simple “feelgood” show and less than a devastating tragedy, it truly shows you life and puts it into an aesthetic form, that never neglects its reality. Which leads me to something I should point out here: it’s creatively done. From the fact that Seon-gyeom is waiting for Mi-joo at the end of the track to the drawings of Young-hwa that have Dan-ah in them to Dan-ah realizing that people experience the same things differently due to the fact that experience itself is different to everyone to Mi-joo imagining movie plots with the people she surrounds herself with to Seon-gyeom starting to live with Young-hwa in a small flat rather than to live lonely in a big, fancy hotel room - the things the characters go through in this show are not only talked about, but they’re often expressed through art, in all its forms. And these characters, these dynamics, the art, the conflicts are all subtly but carefully put together into subplots that form the show and very nice messages. The most important take-away I had from this show is that the way we treat us and the people around us is the highest form of art. And the show is a love poem to that.

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Positive: the cast (especically the core four), the characters (especially the core four); the wonderful messages about respect, kindness and self-love; the subplots working together, reflecting how life is also not just some simple chronological order of things but rather multiple experiences that we remember and that shape us; life is constant growth.

- Negative: i think the only thing i truly have to criticize is that you never really know what the plot even is. While I do enjoy how the subplots all work together, I would have wished for deeper inspections of some plots. And while it is easy just for some headcanons to come to mind, I still think the show could have incorporated more. Considering the treatment of art forms and how it takes a prominent role within the story (due to Young-hwa and Mi-joo, respectively), I also would have liked to have some cultural nods and references - and interpretations. I think the show used about 85% of its potential - and the potential was great, which is why the rating is still very good.

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5) Bring it on, ghost! Rating: 4,2 / 5 stars - recommend, especially good for people who want to have a focus on romance coupled with a supernatural plot and who want a happy ending

- While the story is pretty easy to follow, often seems to be predictable and familiar, the show still promotes nice messages about forgiveness and regret. The strong side of the show isn’t particularly that though - this show is entirely saved by the two leading actors. Kim So-hyun and Teacyeon portray two incredibly lovable characters you will see yourself drawn to. They furthermore have a chemistry that you just have to love and their bickering is just the best part of all. This is mixed with some tragic moments - in present time as well as in the past - and what you get is a romantic show with a bit of comedy, with a bit of tragedy, but with a very happy ending. If you exchanged the actors with two less skilled actors or two people who simply don’t have a lot of chemistry, this show simply wouldn’t work. Their performances are the shining light of this drama, mixed with some funny side characters that you get to enjoy as well. The reason why it ends up higher on the list than Run On - despite Run On probably having generally the better dialogue writing as well as better camera work and even more beautiful messages - is due to the sole work of the two leads who simply carry this show on their back and the fact that despite having some more or less necessary subplots, there is a main plot here that will take a faster, darker turn in the second half of the show. And I personally just enjoy having a main plot to hold onto as well as I always enjoy a bit of fantasy more than modern day real live shows. On top of that, add some devastating backstory and top-notch character development for Park Bong-pal, and a badass, slightly violent, sassy characterization of Kim Hyun-ji. This show will simply leave you with a huge smile on your face, despite being made for people who enjoy tragedy as well.

SUMMARY

- Favorite characters:

- Negative: subplots sometimes take the focus, a familiar story, stereotypical portrayal of ghosts (yes, ahre, i said it), no real plot twists (which can be a good thing, too, since the show rather simply unfolds each part of the story over the course of its run)

- Positive: the two leading actors, their incredibly shippable couple, a happy ending. If I was going to recommend a light-hearted, happy kdrama that has some tragic parts but ends happily and isn’t that hard to follow, I’ll recommend you this one.

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4) The Tale of Nok-du. Rating: 4,6 / 5 stars - strongly recommend.

- If you ever are in search for an unproblematic dummy as protagonist, watch this show. He’s a dummy you just have to love. You laugh about him, you laugh with him, you cry for him. He’s a puppy, you cry with him. And the best thing is, this puppy falls in love with a girl who can be quite rude and annoyed, but he always makes her smile and genuinely is attentive to her. The most frustrating thing about both of them is that each of them keeps a secret they cannot tell each other because they refuse to hurt each other - and this almost leads to tragedy. Better even, they’re portrayed by two very skillful actors. You’ll love them in the blink of an eye. And then there’s the cute second lead, portrayed by Kang Tae-oh. Yes, cute. Until he really isn’t. I’ve never seen an actor being able to turn around a character to 180° in no time. Some talent that is. And now let’s just say - the plot is nice. It is not the most complex one, but it is interesting to follow and you are always eager to find out new information to collect and put the pieces together. If you are searching for a show that is simply entertaining and nice to watch and featrures a great cast and nice characters and ranges from comedy to tragedy, this is your pick.

SUMMARY

- Favorite characters:

- Negative: the narrative change in the middle of the show that shifted the focus away from women to men (even though it made sense within the story, it was still a very sudden and harsh change, especially if you consider that these women were mostly slaughtered to death)

- Positive: CAST (specifically the three mains are just beyond amazing); an innocent, pure, absolutely adorable protagonizing couple that will steal your heart; feminism; male protagonist being a feminist who ends up working with badass women for his entire lifetime; directing; narration practices - this show is the one that draws the line between the ones i discussed above and the really great ones because it is the first on the list to be capable of telling a story by constantly keeping your nerves up while also not overstimulating the viewer with too much information at once. Only the other 3 shows which will follow now were able to do the same - and it’s what makes people watch or quit, and that’s why it’s so important: constant plot development, no unnecessary side plots, and handing your audience enough information to make them keep watching but not enough to guess the entire plot yet. The Tale of Nok-du was able to do exactly that and I honestly enjoyed the ride.

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3) W - Two Worlds. Rating: 4,8 / 5 stars - strongly recommend, must watch.

- I’d like to point out first that my top 3 are interchangeable. I sometimes tend to change my mind which one of the three I adore the most, and W is definitely in those top 3. Firstly, I’d like to let you know that W was my first Kdrama watch. And it blew me away. I was in awe with Lee Jong-suk, with Han Hyo-joo, with the narration of this drama, with the plot, with the direction, with the leading couple, the cast, THE DIALOGUE. Everything about this drama was excellently executed. The slow-moving narration in episode 1, the extra long scene of Chul holding the writer at gunpoint, the writer ‘becoming’ the killer (which he has always been anyway), the philosophy behind it, the creativity. I was blown away by literally everything about this drama and I believe it to be one of the strongest dramas ever made. Furthermore, what I also really adored, is that you don’t need to necessarily be into the couple in order to enjoy this show anyway because the plot takes the spotlight - but since the couple is always involved in the main plot, you get to enjoy plot, dialogue and couple at once. An interesting thing that I want to note here is that a few weeks after finishing the show, I stumbled upon reddits criticizing Lee Tae-hwan for his acting in general. I don’t know if he just perfectly suited the role of Chul’s bodyguard in W, but I highkey enjoyed watching him in this drama.

SUMMARY

- Favorite characters:

- Negative: I would have adored if Yeon-joo took a more prominent role in the resolution of the story (last 2 episodes) since the ‘hero arc’ went all to Chul there. And another negative aspect is that the show lives from very strong dialogues throughout all episodes, all incredible, all amazing and then - the very last scene. The last words spoken on the show, as a voice-over of Chul and Yeon-joo, are rather dull compared to the rest of the show.

- Positive: narration device, leaving out information to fill us in later and blowing our minds away (PEOPLE, I THOUGHT CHUL DIED), complex main characters, complex plot, no unnecessary subplots, no unnecessary romantic drama, no unnecessary cheesiness, DIALOGUE, direction, the cast in general*.

*I tried Memories of the Alhambra, as I found out that the same people who also made W were in charge of that drama, and I have to admit that I was intensely let down, specifically by the casting. Hyun Bin was alright-ish (not very memorable though), but Park Shin-hye was unbearable for me after episode 3. I stopped watching. If the plot was as interesting as the one of W though, I would have kept watching. But seeing as nothing really happened in those first 3 eps other than the lead killing his old best friend and playing video games that appear to turn into reality, I felt like I was wasting my time.

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2) Extraordinary You. Rating: 5 / 5 stars - strongly recommend for hopeless romantics, people who suffer from second lead syndrome and people who like getting into philosophical debates.

- Extraordinary You was the second kdrama I ever watched. And. And. And. And I almost gave it up after episode one. It seemed somewhat ridiculous to me, way too fast-moving. I would regret my entire life if I had given it up right there and then. Because PEOPLE, IT IS SO GOOD. Not only does it feature a very healthy main couple, it leaves you emotionally devastated because there’s a backstory that you only get to know in the second half of the show but which influences your entire perception of the first half - and jeez, by the time I reached half of the show, I was yelling and screaming and crying my eyes out. You ever want to see a love so deep that it transcends consciousness and universes? A love so deep that time and space become mere nothings? That’s what you get in this show. And one of the best parts is that the ‘’’’’actual’’’’’ lead (in the ancient story within the show, not the story of the show) aka Baek Kyung* does NOT get the girl. But that doesn’t mean you won’t fricking suffer with him. Jeez, I bawled my eyes out for him, too. But Haru/Dan-oh, guys, they’re.... everything. Oh and all of that is nicely mixed up in a strong, complex plot that leaves nothing unexplained. Not everything is explained through words - the show is high on symbolism rather than dialogue - but everything makes sense. And the ending, oh that stupid ending. As beautiful as heartbreaking. Since the plot is put into a philosophical perspective throughout the show, the show also raises questions about existence and being. Yes, I yelled when Heidegger was mentioned. So not only do you get to see a beautiful, heartbreaking love story; adorable, complex characters; time-and-space-transcending friendships, you also get to laugh, cry and think about your own existence and your own place in this world. This show is a delight.

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Negative: you will cry and cry and cry and then laugh and then cry and cry and cry. It’s really not fun. Emotionally devastating. No, but for real... I wished we had a more complex depiction of the female characters that aren’t Dan-oh (specifically Ju-da, Sae-mi and Su-hyang), and a bit less focus on the guys therefore (I love them all but I thought the girls could have gotten some screen time of theirs while I would have accepted Jinmichae, Do-hwa and Nam-ju to get a bit less)

- Positive: Honestly? EVerything. Directing, casting, characterization, narration, love story, friendships, everything.

- *Let me say something about Baek Kyung, portrayed by Lee Jae-wook. That character could have simply been an asshole. The set-up was there, the writer of the comic also made him that way. But Lee Jae-wook has portrayed this character with so much depth that it is impossible not to feel bad for him. His entire life stages (hahahaha, I’m so funny) are a tragic mess. The fact that he eventually realizes that who he is and who the writer made him are eventually indeed two different people after all - but that they both share being in love with Eun Dan-oh - is as important as it is devastating. Cause it makes you realize that he can finally move his life more freely with that knowledge - become a better person outside of the stages (only if given the chance by the writer though) - while also never finding a happy ending. Firstly, because happy endings don’t exist in their world anyway because endings - if happy or sad - are always endings to these characters’ existences and because it is glaringly obvious his happy ending would include having Dan-oh by his side also outside of the stages. That is denied to him and will always be denied to him. And as a viewer, you understand that and you want nothing else, but the fact that he doesn’t even appear in the new story, not getting a chance at a new life this time, just adds a tragic notion onto all of this that no one asked for. I’d like to thank Lee Jae-wook here for such an incredible portrayal. I started Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol because of him and, unfortunately, had stop watching after 2 episodes because Go A-ra is simply... a terrible actress. I can’t put it any other way. I’m looking forward to other dramas with him and the rest of the cast though. Extraordinary You definitely had a huge advantage already by having a quite young, but incredibly talented mass of actors and actresses.

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*drumroll*

1) Hotel del Luna. Rating: 5 / 5 stars - strongly recommend, must watch.

- It wasn’t thaaaat surprising to me that I would love this show. It was rather.... obvious that this would happen because a fantasy show set in modern day with the involvement of other time eras and a badass, broken, strong female lead is simply my taste. What I did not expect was this to become my favorite tv show of all time. I don’t even know where to start. I guess Jang Man-wol is a good starting point. Because I live for such characters. Characters like hers are precisely of my taste (I had similar people to her before - Ámbar Smith from Argentina’s Soy Luna or Melody Paz from Argentina’s Casi Ángeles - and also after her - Seo Dan-ah from Korea’s Run On), but Jang Man-wol takes the no.1 spot in all tv characters ever. She’s so layered, so complex, so well-written. She’s not predictable, but she’s also not ever surprising. She comes across as one of the most relatable tv characters you could ever see because she isn’t just one thing. She’s very contrary, she can be soft and loving or harsh and ruthless, sometimes all at the same time. She can be forgiving, she can be arrogant, self-hating, self-loving, lazy, passionate, she is quite literally everything. And while in the show’s set-up she is punished for hundreds of years when other, much more problematic people were allowed to leave this world sooner than her, the narrative wants you to feel sorry for her. You see her flaws, you see she’s anything but perfect but it won’t make you conclude that her punishment was ever deserved. The more you get into this show, the more you will ache. Because you know that there is only one possible ending to the show - for her to finally find peace. And that... that can only be achieved if she finally is allowed to leave this world. And it hurts and pains because, obviously, there is a love story. A love story that goes back to when she was a child 1,300 years ago. A love story that reunites her with the guy who saved her these 1,300 years ago and who now finds her again, someone who makes her care about her life again. As deeper as you go into the show, the more you will cry, the more you will suffer. And you will feel conflicted. You will want her to get her revenge while you will want to protect her. You will want her to finally be able to leave this world, but you won’t want her to leave Chan-sung. You will want her to actually care about her own fate while you will also want her to make the mistakes that worsen everything. It is a beautiful character put into a story that mixes fantasy, comedy, tragedy, soulmates, life, death, revenge, a stunning cinematography and strong dialogues into one. And what you get is the probably best show ever made.

SUMMARY

- Favorite character:

- Negative: There is really only one minor thing I’d criticize. While all the chars are rather complex and all subplots and character arcs work within the main plot frame and round up the entire story perfectly, there is one subplot I personally got a bit tired of because it is definitely the most unconnected one to the main plot - this concerns the romance arc of yu-na and hyun-joong. I wasn’t hating it, but I just didn’t need it for this story.

- Positive: This show has everything. I told you above already all the things I like. On top of that, I’d like to add that it has a beautiful found family story arc, promotes wonderful messages, has gotten itself the most excellent leading actress with IU who just beautifully portrays Jang Man-wol in all her depth. The show leaves you with your heart aching while there will be a smile on your face. Emotional devastation is just how this show works.

_______________

- Kdrama I'm currently watching: The Crowned Clown

- Kdramas I plan on watching soon: My Country - The New Age (watched 2 eps so far) | Signal (watched 1 ep so far) | Mr. Queen | Tale of the Nine Tailed | Moon Lovers

- Kdramas I abandoned because I didn’t get into them / disliked them: My First First Love | Goblin | Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol | Memories of the Alhambra

- If you have any suggestions for me based on my likes and dislikes, send them to me. I’m open to everything :)

#w two worlds #w two worlds apart #hotel del luna #extraordinary you #a love so beautiful #radio romance #romance is a bonus book #rookie historian goo hae ryung #the tale of nokdu #bring it on ghost #let's fight ghost #hey ghost let's fight #run on #mischa for ts #kdrama ratings

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rachelbethhines · 4 years

Text

Tangled Salt Marathon - Under Raps

My feelings on this episode are pretty neutral. It’s not anything amazing, but it’s not the worst thing ever either. It’s just there, I guess.

Summary: During a love festival, Corona displays a book full of signatures of lovers in honor of an old ruler's falling in love with the leader of a rival kingdom. Cassandra suddenly turns very secretive; Rapunzel learns it's because she's been seeing a guy named Andrew. Cassandra doesn't want Rapunzel's meddling, but the princess suggests a double date and they all go off in a hot air balloon. However, Andrew turns out to be part of an old faction that didn't like the unification of Corona and wants to steal the book.

This Backstory Doesn’t Add Up

So we open up with Big Nose narrating about the history of a war between Corona and a group of people called the Saporians. This is important for two reasons. First, because the Saporians are reoccurring villains in the show, and secondly, because it reveals where the underground tunnels running between Old Corona and the Island Capital come from. These tunnels are a reoccurring plot device in the show, along with the book that maps them.

The problem is that what the story tells us doesn’t match the other information we are given. If it was only the Saporians who invaded then why does an Old Corona, with its own castle, exist to begin with? Why do the tunnels extend from both if King Herz Der Sonne made them? What purpose did they serve if he was only defending the island? Why are the Saporians led by a general and not a ruler? Why would marrying only a general unite the two kings and where was the Saporian kingdom to begin with? Why did they invade? Why are there still Saporians who haven’t accepted the merger centuries later and why do they live on the go outside the kingdom? If Herz Der Sonne is such a good guy then why did he curse his grave with a zombie apocalypse? Ect.

We keep getting hints throughout the show that Herz Der Sonne isn’t all he was cracked up to be, and you keep expecting a reveal that it was the Coronaians who started the war and oppressed the Saporians and then rewrote history, but it never comes. The show wants us to accept this very black and white conflict at face value even as it constantly undermines itself and muddies the waters.

Pointing Out That Something is Stupid in the Show Itself Doesn’t Make it Any Less Stupid

As I stated back during Rapunzel’s Enemy, the show has a real problem with tone. Constantly showing us festival and holiday after festival and holiday only undermines the more serious elements in the ongoing story and creates mood whiplash. Also anything that reminds me of Cinderella 2 is not a good thing.

Ahh Friedborg, You’re Such a Wasted Opportunity

So she actually first appeared in Cassandra V. Eugene but I forgot to bring her up there. My bad. Friedborg is something of a fan favorite in the TTS fandom, and I like her too, but she adds nothing. She’s a joke character in a tv show already oversaturated by joke characters. More over the joke is actually offensive on some level since it all hinges on her being less conventionally attractive then the other female characters and the mains finding her weird because she never talks.

The show tries to justify her existence by making her Big Nose’s girlfriend, but she’s not who he ended up with in the movie. And once again it’s kind of offensive to imply that only people who don’t match society’s contrived beauty standards can only find love with those that look like them. Thereby completely missing the point of Big Nose’s character arc.

I’ll say it right now, Friedborg should have been Zan Tiri, or Demantius. Take your pick. I think ZT makes more sense, but etheir way she should have been a setup for something more important to the plot rather then just be being a vauge oddity that just pops up from time to time.

I Miss This Version of Eugene

Throughout the first two seasons, Eugene and Cassandra were willing to point out Rapunzel’s BS. Forcing her to confront her flaws and re-examine her positions.I would argue that the show could have pushed this even further but at least it was there. By the final season no one was doing this. Rapunzel is allowed to be as awful as she wants to be without consequence. Meaning she never learns anything and stops growing as a character and the show acts like this a positive thing. It is not. In fact, it is the biggest flaw of the whole show as it fails to achieve the one thing it originally set out to do; which is to tell a coming of age story with Rapunzel.

It also has the added effect of making Eugene a doormat to Rapunzel’s bulling, thereby regressing his character as well and presenting an unhealthy relationship as a goal to be achieved to younger viewers. I can not stress enough to young girls and young men in particular, that Rapunzel and Eugene are not ‘relationship goals’ in this show. Not after season 3.

Xavier Doesn’t Get a Proper Introduction

So Xavier is actually pretty important to the ongoing plot. He’s more or less the exposition fairy for the show, but he’s not really established. He just suddenly appears here with no prior meeting and he just so happens to know what the main characters need to know with no explanation as to how he knows.

His part here is so forgettable that I legit forgot who he was when he reappeared in the mid-season finale. I had thought that the writers just threw in a random character for plot purposes. And to be fair they did. Just they did it here instead of in Queen for a Day.

If the showrunners wanted Xavier to be historian who knows everything and tells stories, then he should have been introduced as the narrator of the history of Hearts Day instead of Big Nose.

Another Lesson Not Learned

We get this big heart to heart moment of Raps and Cass coming to an understanding, with Rapunzel promising not to intrude and Cass promising to being more honest about her feelings. This is walked back on several times and made part of the core conflict of the last two seasons.

Once again, any problem that can be solved in less then five minutes of talking isn’t a strong enough conflict to drive multiple seasons. If this had been a show without an ongoing narrative, like say The Rescue Rangers or even Batman the Animated Series, then the repeated lessons wouldn’t be a problem. We expect characters to be static and to reset after each episode since they’re not shows that you watch in order.

But if you do go the overarching arc route for a story, then people expect lasting character development. Even in shows like Gravity Falls or Steven Universe, where the change is more gradual and the characters do repeat mistakes occasionally, there’s still a marketed change by the end. One that indicates improvement by the characters, and the inter conflicts are never exactly the same each time with exactly the same lesson over and over again.

Oh Look, Cassandra Once Again Achieving her Goal of Validation

Cass is awarded a medal by her father for stopping Andrew. Don’t expect her or the show to remember this.

Also more Cass and Cap interaction that we don’t get to see.

Can We Not Imply That Cassandra Still has a Crush on the Guy Who Lied to Her and Then Almost Killed Her, and Can We Not Act Like This is a Good Thing?

So this flower was given to Cassandra by Andrew and her keeping it makes zero sense.

First off lets not have one of our few strong independent female characters crushing on the show’s stereotypical ‘nice guy’, okay? That’s all kinds of gross. Secondly, if the intention was to show that Cass was now more willing to open up about her feelings, then wouldn’t her keeping one of the gifts Raps made her earlier in the episode make more sense? After all, that’s the relationship that actually matters to Cassandra and is the basis of the whole show.

But this all boils down to the fact that the creator sees Cassandra as straight, always has, and thinks her crushing on the guy who manipulated her is somehow better than ‘no-homo’. Now you can headcanon Cass as whatever you want and ship her with whomever you want, as canon doesn’t matter. But I find it hilarious that most of the head showrunner’s biggest supporters are mainly Casspunzel fans and yet he’s the one who made them ‘sisters’ and sees them as such.

Like I hate to break it to you guys, but a Cass led spin-off headed by Chris won't be the lesbian rep that you’ve always dreamed of. You’re better off just watching the She-Ra reboot.

But things gets even worse when Rapunzel approves of this stupid ‘crush’ ...

Don’t Ever Tell Someone That You’re Proud of Them For Going On a Date

Dating is just something some people choose to do together and some people choose not to engage in that. It’s not an accomplishment and it shouldn’t be treated as such. This is insulting to both people who don’t date, for whatever reason, and to women who hate being being defined by their relationships, which is most of us.

Even if you’re being charitable and try to make this about Cassandra self esteem and her learning she’s worth ‘loving’, which is the reason some people have offered up for this scene, it still falls apart when it’s not established that Cassandra ever had such self esteem issues to begin with and was not looking for romance anyways. And if that is what the show is going for then it’s still problematic to suggest that being found as attractive by someone else is need for self esteem. In fact, that’s kind of the opposite of what self esteem is.

Conclusion

Overall this episode was ‘meh’. Like most season one episodes the problems stem from the ongoing narrative and lack of follow though in later seasons. However there’s enough stuff in here on it’s own to rub me just the wrong way that I can’t actually call it good either.

It doesn’t help that I don’t see the appeal of Andrew at all. Watching the character is just a cringefest for me. He’s too similar to real life men I’ve unfortunately met and therefore sends alarm bells ringing in my head. And I agree with Eugene; he’s not all that handsome.

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #anti-rapunzel #anti-tangled #rapunzel #cassandra #andrew #anti-andrew #eugene

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ronweasleyisourking · 4 years

Text

Next gen headcanons

Edward "Teddy" Remus Lupin

Nonbinary, uses he/him and they/them pronouns

Pansexual, but has mostly dated boys

Hufflepunk

Mixed bag of depression and anxiety

Tattoos and piercings everywhere. Also, a tattoo artist.

Walks with a cane due to chronic back pain

His first kiss was with his best friend, Basil Haywood-Karasu

He dated Victoire for a bit, but it didn't work out. They're better as friends

Lived in between houses for most of his life. His grandmother Andromeda and his godparents, Harry and Ginny share custody

When Andromeda began having a hard time getting around on her own, Harry and Ginny opened up their house to her happily, though this was after Teddy moved out on his own

Winifred "Winnie" Margaret Weasley-Wood

Daughter of Percy and Oliver

Bisexual

Gryffindor but almost Ravenclaw

Named after her late uncle and Grandma Molly, whose full name was Margaret, though she would never admit it

Has read every book in the restricted section, whether she was allowed to or not

Hands are constantly in motion. Does math in the air, taps fingers on surfaces, sometimes just does random stuff with her hands, has to stop herself from doing hand motions when talking, etc. Has no idea what causes it.

The shortest of all her siblings/cousins

Hosts a Qudditch Little League for her siblings/cousins

Victoire "Vic" Apolline Weasley

Bisexual

Ravenclaw

Sort of a preppy punk. Loves faux leather jackets but also loves tiaras :) completely beautiful, let's be honest

Curses in French all the time

Attended Magik N.O.U., a wizarding school in New Orleans in her 7th year, which sparked her love for travel

Learned wandless and non-verbal magic just because people thought she couldn't; the dictionary definition of "girls can be smart AND pretty"

Could totally kick Teddy Lupin's ass

Has to worst temper of anyone in her extended family. And that's really saying something

International Hit Wizard

Georgie Rhyme Jordan

Child of Lee Jordan, honorary Weasley due to his relationship with Fred prior to his Fred's death

Pansexual and Genderqueer; he/him or any pronouns

Feminist AF

Really into street art. May have graffiti-ed a few anti-Brexit and anti-Tory pieces around England, but there's no proof

Not vegetarian but has cut down on meals with meat

Was born with atrial septal defect

Megara "Meg" Rhys Weasley-Wood

Demigirl. Experiences some dysphoria but not a lot

Partially deaf due to an untreated ruptured eardrum.

Has a huge, fluffy, orange cat named Hercules

Blind enough that she has to wear coke bottle glasses.

Animal lover right to the core. Donates to any and all shelters that she knows have good practices and tries to adopt as many animals as possible from the bad ones

Loves divination. Has minor seer powers.

Has a magical disorder where smoke comes out of her hears when she gets mad.

Frederick "Freddie" Gideon Weasley II

Bisexual. In love with Taras Krum, who was in a student exchange program with Durmstrang and Hogwarts.

Suffered severely after getting hit by a bludger in his 6th year; a concussion and head trauma leading to epilepsy

Severe depression and imposter syndrome

Not much of a prankster

Bookworm

James "Jamie" Sirius Potter

Red hair + hazel eyes + freckles everywhere

Got a gold tongue piercing at fourteen and that's how he found out that he was allergic to gold

Smoked pixie dust once

Lover of poorly timed finger guns and funky socks (yes, he is bisexual, why do you ask?)

Not a professional quidditch player or auror

He runs a diner called "Lumos" that serves the best burgers in the wizarding world

Doesn't think he can do anything right

River Lee Jordan

Trans girl; lesbian

Allergic to cinnamon

Loves pranking; Dominique, Lily, Romany, and her prank their cousins all the time. They're terrifying.

Writer but she works as a herbologist assistant, waitress, and cashier at WWW on the side just to support herself

Can hear magic. It's an almost constant buzzing when she's around her family and at Hogwarts. Sometimes just needed to be alone so that she couldn't hear the buzzing.

Gwendolyn "Wendy" Lucille Weasley-Wood

Pansexual

Has a genderfluid s/o, Ari Spinnet-Bell

Very environmentalist. Tries not to be annoying about it.

Founded a Hogwarts theatre club and actually wrote a few, very very gay plays and musicals

Hosts a podcast/blog with her roommates (River, Ari & Susmita) called Witches Unstitched where they talk about anything and everything under the sun

Helped create a bunch of healing potions with all the plants she has in her greenhouse(s)

Dominique "Dom" Gabrielle Weasley

Pansexual and Aromantic

In a QPR with Lorcan Scamander, her best friend

Hates being compared to her older sister

When Lorcan got cancer and got pulled out of school, she took time off school while he was getting treatment

Shaved off all her hair when he lost his

Leader of the Pluto is a Planet society at Hogwarts

Best friend in the family is James, despite the fact that she and Arthur are in the Slytherin! Marauders together

Loves firewhiskey and menthol cigarettes (don't tell Wendy)

Illegal animagus - a white cat. Her nickname is Duchess.

Arthur "Art" Rubeus Potter

Gay + in love with Scorpius Malfoy

Dyed the tips of his hair green and silver when he was 12

Loves leather jackets, chokers, and combat boots

Has too many piercings to count, but his favorite is his deep purple nose ring. Hates the idea of a tongue ring

Trained himself in Legilimency and Occlumency

Learned Parseltongue, Mermish, and several other creature languages because "he was bored"

Knows quite a bit of dark magic, but is not a dark wizard

Had a lot of tattoos. Most were of creatures from the Black Lake, the Giant Squid taking up his entire back, and a merperson takes up his upper left arm

But over his heart is the Scorpius constellation, sketches of the four animagi are on his left hip, and on his ankle are magically fading footsteps that would eerily familiar to anyone who had looked at the Marauder’s Map

Went to a wizarding school located in the Great Barrier Reef, which offered courses for 18 - 21 year olds who had graduated from wizarding schools around the world

Loves puns, boxing, extra greasy pizza, potions, pet names, horror movies that are actually scary, singing in the shower, and his boyfriend, Scorpius Malfoy

Marine Mazoologist

Roxanne "Roxy" Fabian Weasley

Bisexual

Has been known to "experiment" with girls. In the Quidditch locker rooms. Forgets to lock doors. Oops

Her patronus is a coyote. Her happiest memory is of when her and Fred jumped of the roof of Hogwarts with their brooms. They had been trying to recreate the last scene of Pratical Magic, but like, with brooms

Loves cooking and knitting with her Grandma Molly

Studies in the strangest places. Lily once found her studying in the secret passage to Hogsmeade one night. Her brother found her sleeping in the Astronomy tower, with books strewn around her. Scorpius and Arthur once found her studying in a secret alcove (they still won’t admit to her why they had wanted to be in secret alcove in the first place)

Down to fight anyone for any reason

In love with Susmita Patil

Healer

Rosa "Rose" Bud Granger-Weasley

Lesbian

An absolute foodie

Named after a Charles Dickens character

Allergic to cats, which irks her mom and pleases her dad

President of the current Hogwarts chapter of S.P.C.W. (Society for the Promotion of Creature Welfare). Hermione has worked tirelessly in the ministry to get laws passed but even ministers can't change everything in a day

After graduating, her, Arthur, Dominique, Roxanne, Scorpius, Lorcan, and Lysander all went on a camping trip. Harry, Ron, and Hermione got really anxious about it

Loves reading trashy tabloids to call down. Circles all the stories about her family to torture her cousins with (jokingly)

It's a 50/50 shot whether she going to argue with you, and cite her sources, or if she is going to knock your teeth out

Spent her 7th year at The Salem Witches Institute in Massachusetts, a private all-girls school

Historian for wizarding history. Runs a small museum out of Grimmauld Place, which the Potters don't live in but Harry stills owns + has cleaned up a bit

Lily "Lils" Euphemia Luna Potter

Has meniere's disease

Vegetarian for medical reasons

Needs to wear glasses but never does

Gryffindor, but wanted to be in Slytherin

Will help out anyone and everyone if she can

Lived with Teddy for a bit after he moved out on his own

Asexual and Panromantic. In a polyamorous relationship with Frankie Longbottom and Estelle Huang

Had a pet snake named Besa. The snake was nearly longer than she was tall, non-poisonous, and the sweetest thing ever (at least, according to Lily)

Beat up James when he said that she "threw like a girl". She cracked one of his ribs, gave him a black eye, and broke his nose in three places. To this day, he claims that his nose is a little crooked (he was nine. she was five.)

Went to a wizarding school in the Himalayas in her 5th year, on the international student exchange program

Has very long hair that is almost always up in bun(s), braid(s) or ponytails. Has to magically shorten it for Quidditch games

Loves mysteries

Hugo "Go-Go" Cabret Granger-Weasley

Genderfluid [they/them]

Colorblind, dyslexic, and has ADHD

Dragonologist in Sweden, but almost went into wandmaking

In love with Allie Longbottom, who always painted her face Hufflepuff colors for games after Hugo got on the team

Uses medically prescribed pixie dust to help with their extreme anxiety; is careful not to take too much

Has a pet ferret that they named Star Boy

Joshua "Josh" Wilhelm Weasley-Wood

On the autistic spectrum

He takes his emotional support golden retriever, Laurel, to Hogwarts with him to help with the changing enviorment

Loves matchbox cars. Has hundreds of them. Carries one or two around with him at all times to fidget with

Loves hiking through the Forbidden Forest, with supervision from his dad, Professor Percy Weasley, or one of the other teachers, of course. All of them are willing to walk with him when they have time, but he loves hiking with his dad most

Has a hard time focusing when there's a lot of noise around him, so of course he has noise cancelling headphones

Learned how to fix up cars and bikes from his grandfather; opened up his own mechanic shop; loves riding the first motorcycle that he and his grandfather fixed up through the streets of London, especially with his girlfriend Lavi

It took him a while to overcome balance issues, but with training to be a seeker in Quidditch, and a lot of time spent taking practice drives on his bike in the fields around the Burrow, he was able to overcome them and once he did, he was on his motorcycle every chance he got

Has accomandations made for him when it comes to eating at Hogwarts, because the food can bother him sometimes

Hates when different foods on his plate touch

Romany "Romy" Charlotte Weasley-Wood

Lesbian-Oriented aroace; in a qpr with Maisie Greengrass

Is prone to accidental magic and has a bit of an anger issue that she works through with a punching bag, bring a beater on the Quidditch team, and playing drums

Her, Tessa Weasley, and Sariel Goyle formed a band called Bloody Bitchin' Babes that played underground gigs at Hogwarts parties before getting work at parties and bars

Hates all of her classes, except Transfiguration

Her plans look like the walls of detectives in murder mysteries. Photographs, post-it notes, paper ripped out of notebooks, red strings, and everything

Burnt Hufflepuff

Royal "King" Kingsley Jordan

Bigender + Bisexual; xe/xem pronouns

Loves all types of clothing but especially suits, flowery blouses, crop tops, chunky belts, scarves, and Doc Martins

Plays the piano all the time, xe even has a piano in xyr room

Gets chronic migraines, has been known to sit/lay in the dark for hours until the pain subsides. Hates taking meds for it

Never has her phone screen brightness above the lowest setting because xe hates that xyr light sensitivity may take xyr away from xyr phone, which is xyr life

Would love to travel one day

Louis "Louie" Antoine Weasley

Only has a little bit of veela charm, usually enough to get him out of minor trouble, and it isn't always permanent

Started taking in magical creatures when he was seven, when Luna gave him a suitcase like Newt Scamander's and got another one when he started adopting muggle creatures as well. He especially loves his mokes and his chickens.

He loves swimming in the Great Lake with the Giant Squid

Loves carmelized apricots, pumpkin gorgonzola flan, cinnamon roll cheesecake, molasses cookies, Bulgarian candy -specifically chocolate bars, sweet potato pancakes, and homemade butter-maple syrup

Was in a student exchange program with Beauxbatons in his 4th year and again in 6th year with the Canadian wizarding school and he loved both experiences

Tessa "Tess" Rue Weasley

Can see people's auras

An expert at potions. Began working on a cure for lycanthropy at the age of 13 and a long 17 years later, she finally accomplished it. She always says that she would have done it quicker if only she didn't have to sleep to live

Part of the potions club at Hogwarts, which is a much less snobby version of the Slug Club that actually has to so with potions talent and not just fame

With her cousin Louis's help, she was actually able to tame a baby raccoon and named him Meeko after the raccoon in Pochahantas to help her and also trained him to help her nick a few things from her cousins sometimes

Loves classic fantasy lit, especially Narnia. Tried to charm a wardrobe to take her to Narnia, and let's just say that it didn't turn out very well and that it was really hard to reverse

Shaves her head in fourth year, because she was tired of all the work it took to take care of her hair

Penelope "Penny" Elodie Weasley-Wood

Named after Penelope Clearwater, who was her father's best friend and who died in the Battle of Hogwarts

She was adopted from Ukraine and loves everything about the country. The language, the music, the art, the people...

Went on to be a dragon tamer at a Ukranian dragon reserve, which she applied to as soon as she turned 17, and when she got an offer, she took her N.E.W.T.s in her 6th year so that she could take the job immediately

At the dragon reserve, she met Norma Hawryluk, who she fell in love with and a baby Ironbelly whom she named Vera and raised. No one but she had Norma could touch Vera though, because of the dragons' extreme rage issues

Constantly stole her sibling's and cousin's clothing

Gets stuck in her head sometimes

Romulus "Rome" Wolff Jordan

Asexual and Aromantic

Has a fluffy white cat named Marigold (Royal named her)

Loves wearing a ton of rings. Like, one on each finger.

Will only eat rocky road ice cream, and no other flavor ever

Has aphantasia, or the inability to voluntarily visualize images in his mind, but can still dream, because it's involuntary

Loves to sketch a lot. Will sketch everything he sees

Loves turtlenecks; hates crocs to no end

Big windows with amazing views are his favorite thing

Genevieve "Genny" Maribel Weasley

Prone to anxiety attacks

Polyamorous lesbian, in a closed poly relationship with Noa Spinnet-Bell and Lyric Scamander

Best friends with Romulus, her cousin. She is loud and fierce, and he’s quiet and passionate, and together they’re going to take over the world two steps at a time

Figures out that technology works in the Room of Requirement and starts a tech club that meets on Wednesdays, and has movie nights on Fridays

Brought a pet pig named Prince to Hogwarts

Unofficially a freelance curse breaker, but worked as an intern at the dragon reserve in Romania with her Uncle Charlie the summer after Hogwarts. Eventually moves to South America because her girlfriend, Noa Spinnet-Bell, got recruited by their Quidditch team, Tarapoto Tree-Skimmers

They move to a farm where Genny gets her own horses!!!

Elias "Simon" Jacques Weasley

Has fibromyalgia, which makes it difficult for him to stay in Hogwarts. With the chronic joint pain, fatigue, dizziness, and difficulty with memory, it was easier for him to get privately tutored by his dad, who was the Ancient Runes professor

Severe anxiety and depression, which was most likely caused by his fibromyalgia, but there's no telling

Vegetarian for personal reasons, and had James teach him how to make vegetarian burgers and other vegetarian meals

Loves water-based magic and might have gone into the exchange program for underwater schools in the Bermudas or Oceania, but he didn't want to risk his condition

Can beat anyone at any board game. No one knows how he does it. Ron played wizard chess with him for eight hours once, but eventually gave up on ever beating him

Is the publisher of a Hogwarts exclusive magazine. Uses his older sister’s computers to work on it. Works on his novel in his spare time. Occasionally holds poetry slams by the Great Lake. Just loves writing in general

Matilda "Tilly" Honey Granger-Weasley

Has a photographic/eidetic memory

Got expelled from Hogwarts in her sixth year for using an unforgivable curse on another student who was bullying/harassing Elias, but doesn't regret it all.

Finishes up her studies at a small non-boarding wizarding school in Romania, where she lives with her Uncle Charlie and his queerplatonic partner, Barnaby, and their cat, Wick

With the help of Barnaby, dyes her hair platinum white (think Zoe Kravitz when she had white hair)

Moves to America almost as soon as she graduates

Travels the world to write about different wizarding communities for the Quibbler and for her sister's museum

A little too obsessed with Joan Jett

Loves lucid dreaming

Elliott "Ellie" Ryleigh Weasley-Wood

Genderfluid

Has narcolepsy. Tired all the time and been known to dose off during class. And meals. And conversations

Needs to wear glasses but doesn’t, because they don’t want to look like a nerd. Looks like a complete nerd when they run into shit all the time and it doesn't help that their notes are always wrong because they refuse to sit in the front of class

Witnessed a car accident on a street one day and has been able to see thestrals ever since. Hates to think about it

Loves strong tasting food. Spicy, hot, cold, salty, super sugary, bitter... down to eat anything to be honest

Became a therapist for the wizarding community

Amare "Mar" Sabra Weasley

Own a huge shaggy grey and white dog named Ollie who she took to Hogwarts with her and is her best friend

Ellie, her cousin, is her other best friend and they love building huge forts and watching Disney movies together with tons and tons of snacks. Ollie always joins

Didn’t care one bit about school. Hated studying with a passion. Barely ever showed up to class. Was in detention more than all of her siblings and cousins combined

Worked as an intern at Lee Jordan’s radio broadcasting company for a few summers and hosted her own show that was based around old music after her sixth year

Alcoholic. Can't even be around firewhiskey

72 notes · View notes

loretranscripts · 5 years

Text

Lore Episode 129: Digging Deep (Transcript) - 11th November, 2019

tw: ghosts, human remains

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

The construction was called to a stop the moment they found the bones. The work crew was preparing a building site along one of London’s many ancients streets when they uncovered what appeared to be a body – or, at least, the remains of one. It was clearly old, given that nothing but bones could be seen beneath the dirt, so a team of archaeologists was brought in to preserve and study the remains. In the end, they determined that the bones belonged to a teenage girl who had lived in London over 1600 years ago – a Roman girl. It’s not the last time something like that has happened in this city. During some development work near Spitalfields Market in the 1990s, a work crew uncovered what turned out to be an entire Roman cemetery. Among the finds was a perfectly preserved lead coffin, its lid covered in beautiful artwork that had been hammered right into the surface, still visible, all these centuries later.

And that’s the way history tends to work – time will bury it under new and current events. But if we dig deep enough, and brush away the soil, we can come face to face with it all over again. The past never truly goes away, after all. It’s there, waiting to be discovered, so that we can study it and relearn the stories it contains. Oftentimes, though, the things that leave the deepest marks tend to be the most tragic and painful, events that rattled people to their core and left a shadow on the history of a place that no amount of sunlight could ever chase away, and the older the city, the more common those shadows tend to be. Which is why I want to take you on a tour of one of the oldest, because while the past is always nearby in our modern world, few places allow it to dwell so close to the present as the city of London. Its past is both a treasury of historic significance and crypt full of the darkest tragedies we could ever imagine. Because in a city filled with so much light, there’s bound to be some shadows. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

London is ancient, there’s really no other way to say it. Most Americans live in a community that’s less than 200 years old. If you’re in New England or one of the other places with roots in pre-colonial America, perhaps those locations go back a bit further, but London’s history makes all of those seem brand new by comparison. Archaeological work in London can place humans in the area as far back as 4500BC, but if we’re looking for a major settlement where it stands today, that didn’t happen until 47AD, when the Romans arrived and set up a community there that they called “Londinium”. Although from what we can tell, it didn’t last long, all thanks to a woman named Boudicca. As far as historians know, Boudicca was the wife of King Prasutagus, who ruled over an eastern British tribe known as the Iceni. When the Romans arrived in their territory in 43AD, they came to an arrangement with Prasutagus, allowing him to maintain control of his kingdom. When he died 17 years later, though, the Romans refused to acknowledge his widow as the new ruler, and instead invaded them to take the land for themselves. But they misjudged Boudica, assuming she was a quiet woman, incapable of ruling anything. Instead, she rallied a massive army of close to 100,000 warriors and then led them on a campaign against the Romans all over Britain. In 61AD, her army rolled over Londinium like a Sherman tank, burning the entire settlement to the ground. In fact, her campaign against them was so fierce and unstoppable that the Romans nearly left Britain altogether. But those who survived managed to rebuild, and within a handful of decades it had grown large enough to become capital of the entire province.

Over the years, the city continued to expand and mature, and even though the Romans left towards the beginning of the fifth century, the community there refused to die. By the 7th century, London had earned a reputation as a major trade centre, which brought in a steady flow of wealth and goods, and also turned the city into a political powerhouse. Of course, power and wealth has a way of making a community a target for others, and London was no exception. In 1066, William the Conqueror sailed across the English Channel and earned his nickname by taking control of the entire kingdom and making it his own – and, of course, special attention was paid to London. Within two decades, the population of the city had reached nearly 15,000, and by the 1300s that had multiplied to over 80,000.

But something unexpected was heading their way that would ravage that growing community, something mysterious and dangerous and seemingly unstoppable – the Black Death. What started as a plague in western Asia quickly spread to Europe, bringing death and destruction to every community it touched. By the time the Black Death had burned itself out, some historians estimate that upwards of two hundred million people were dead. The people of London lost at least 10,000 lives, most of whom were buried outside the city walls. It wouldn’t be the last time the city would face tragedy. In 1664, a fresh outbreak of the plague killed another 100,000 people, and then two years later, in September of 1666, a fire broke out in the house of a baker on Pudding Lane. It eventually spread west, destroying much of the city as it went, and while there were only six verified casualties, historians now think the fire burned hot enough to completely cremate those who were caught in it, making the true death toll anyone’s guess.

So much of London’s history was tragic and outside human control, but there have also been moments along the way that could only be blamed on the people who lived there. Jack the Ripper and the murders that took place in 1888 in the Whitechapel district of the city are always front and centre in most people’s minds. But there has been a lot more bloodshed than just those five innocent women. In fact, a lot of the city’s murder and violence could be found higher up the ladder, in the very chambers and homes of the people who held the power and wealth. It seemed that rather than being immune to the shadows that lingered in the city, even the powerful could fall under their spell. Because if there’s one thing the nobility of England’s past seem to attract more than anything else, it was pain and suffering and death.

We don’t need to look far to find bloody nobles. It sometimes feels as though all we have to do is open a history book and flip it to a random page. Life at the top was often a cutthroat game, both figuratively and literally, and anyone who found themselves in the orbit of a king or queen certainly understood that risk. A great example of how blood-thirsty the English kings could be was Henry VIII. Henry is known for a lot of things, not all of which are so great in retrospect. He expanded the power of the crown during his lifetime and based a lot of that on his belief in the divine right of kings, something that threatened the freedom of his people. He was greedy and vindictive and had an ego that was only surpassed in size by the codpiece on his armour. But if there is one thing that most people remember today about Henry VIII, it’s his many wives. Henry had six of them, half of whom were named Catherine, which must have made it a lot easier for him, I’m sure. Five of those six wives came and went within a single 10-year period in his life, but not all of those breakups were friendly. After having his first marriage annulled in 1533 and sparking the English Reformation and the country’s separation from the Catholic church, Henry married the sister of a former lover, a women named Anne Boleyn. Three years later, he had her executed for treason and adultery, but also possibly for failing to deliver a male heir.

The day after Anne’s beheading, Henry proposed to one of her ladies in waiting, Jane Seymour. They had apparently fallen in love months before, but Jane had managed to hold off Henry’s advances in the name of honour. Once the queen was dead, though, she was much more agreeable. They were married 10 days later. From everything I can tell, Henry believed that Jane Seymour was “the one” – he viewed her as his perfect queen, and when she gave birth to his first male heir a year later, he probably sighed with relief. The complications from the birth put her life at risk, and over the two weeks that followed she slowly declined. In October of 1537, Jane Seymour passed away. That had taken place at Hampton Court Palace, Henry’s favourite London residence. It was a mixture of a pleasure palace, a theatre and a royal home, so when Henry brought his next two wives through those doors over the next few years, they were probably bittersweet moments. A lot of joy would be possible there, but it would also sit in the shadows of a painful past. His fifth wife, Catherine Howard, made a fool of the king by conducting at least one less-than-secret affair. After learning about what she had done, Henry had Catherine arrested and thrown in a prison cell there, at the house. She was only 18 at the time, and I can’t imagine the fear and desperation she must have felt, being a prisoner of the most powerful man in the kingdom.

According to the stories, though, Catherine managed to slip away from her guards one day, while being walked through the palace. She bolted away and ran down one of the long galleries that led to the king’s chapel, where she knew Henry could be found. Her goal was probably to beg for forgiveness, to ask for mercy and to plead for her life. But the guards caught up to her before that could happen, and her screams of terror were the only thing to reach him. Catherine Howard was beheaded a short while later, and Henry moved onto a new wife, also named Catherine. But just because those former wives were gone, doesn’t mean they were forgotten. In fact, if the stories are true, they might have stuck around to serve as a cruel reminder. It’s said that even today, visitors to that long gallery in the palace have heard echoes of a woman screaming, a desperate, panicked cry that chills them to the bones. Others have heard the quick rhythm of footsteps, as if someone were running down the hallway. And in 1999, according to one source, two different tourists fainted in the gallery at different times on the very same day.

Elsewhere in Hampton Court Palace, other shadows have stuck around as well. In a room at the top of the staircase known as Silver Stick Stairs, multiple visitors have claimed to have seen the figure of a pale women. She stands silently, hovering slightly above the floor, with a mournful expression and vacant eyes. For those who have witnessed it, the spectre has been both calming and terrifying. Whether or not the visions are real, though, it’s fascinating to look at the true history of that room, because while it has been used for countless purposes over the last few centuries, one specific resident stands out above all the others. It was in this room, you see, that Henry VIII’s only male heir was born to his true love, Jane Seymour, and it was there, just two weeks later, that she passed away.

The old home, located on Berkeley Square, is a townhouse, just one of many in a long row of similar facades, but as far back as the mid-19th century, it was different enough to stand out from all the others. But before I continue with the legends, let me be clear that not a lot is known about the house’s origins, and a lot of stories have yet to be completely verified. Still, we know enough to make this a journey worth taking – so let’s get started. The majority of the tales begin with the man who owned the house back in the 1860s. Thomas Myers wasn’t the first to live there, but he was certainly the most infamous. It’s said that he had once been engaged to be married, but his fiancée eventually changed her mind and ended their relationship. Broken and distraught, he retreated into his house and was rarely ever seen again. Neighbours claim that the house would be dead during the day, only to come alive at night. It was as if Thomas had traded in the sunlight for the shadows, living the rest of his life during those moments when most of the world was asleep, and it might very well be whispers of the house all lit up at night that first gave birth to the rumour that it was haunted – but it could also have been what happened next.

Sometime around 1872, the house sold to a new family, and they moved in to clean up the home and make it their own. The couple had two daughters, both in their late teens, and there were precious few years left for the parents to enjoy life as a family in this new setting before they became empty-nesters. In the weeks that followed, though, the future crept in. The oldest of the two daughters became engaged to a young officer named Captain Kentfield, and conversation became filled with talk of wedding plans and guests lists. And at some point in their engagement, Captain Kentfield planned a visit, so the family set about preparing the attic bedroom for his arrival. According to the story, what happened next is still shrouded in mystery. The family maid was sent up to put the final touches on the fiancé’s room, and while she was up there, the family heard her scream. At once, everyone in the house rushed upstairs to see what had happened, only to find her lying on the floor, an expression of complete horror painted across her face. More mysterious yet was that she couldn’t seem to put a complete sentence together and was unable to answer any of the questions the family asked her. All the maid was able to do was mutter a low, cryptic refrain. “Don’t let it touch me. Don’t let it touch me”.

The maid was immediately taken to the hospital to recover, where I imagine someone observed her, and did their best to treat her rattled nerves, but other than that, there was little they could do. Sleep, they assumed, would be the best medicine. The following morning, though, she was found dead in her room. The fiancé arrived the next day, and after hearing the stories of the maid’s unexpected death, he decided to check the room out for himself. Maybe he was playing the brave soldier in front of his future in-laws in an effort to impress them, or perhaps his fiancée needed some reassurance and he wanted to calm her nerves. Whatever the reason, he climbed the stairs to the attic bedroom and declared that he would keep watch throughout the night. In the darkest hours of the morning, though, a gunshot pulled everyone from sleep, their hearts racing at the sound of it. Everyone climbed out of bed, threw on their night coats, and then rushed up to see what had happened. What they found, according to the legend, was the young captain, dead on the floor of his room, a victim of his own pistol.

In 1907, author Charles Harper wrote about the house in a book, and it was there that he declared it to be “the very picture of misery”. After the events that were said to have taken place there, it’s easy to wonder if the misery was in the structure or the lives who lived there. Either way, the stories we’ve heard so far shed a bright light on one more tale that Harper added to the legend. According to him, the next family to own the house moved in fully aware of the tragedies of the past. The owner was an older gentleman, who was said to be practical and not prone to stories of the supernatural. Still, he understood the power of suggestion a creepy old house with a dark past might have over him, so he set some rules for everyone to follow. After settling in with his family, he told them all that he would ring his bell to tell them if he ever truly needed help. If it was a moment of fright, he would only ring it once, which they were all instructed to ignore, but if matters were more pressing and he truly needed help, he would ring it twice, a signal that they were to immediately come to his room.

Everyone went to bed at the end of the evening, and while the night began peacefully, the quiet was broken around midnight by the loud chime of the old man’s bell, not once, but twice, which sent everyone rushing to see what might be the matter. What they found, though, weren’t answers. The old man was writhing in his bed, his face twisted by panic and fear. Just like the housemaid all those years before, he too couldn’t answer the questions that the others around him asked. He could only mutter and shake with horror at something no one else could see. After doing their best to help him, they calmed him enough to let him sleep, and everyone wandered back to their own rooms. They left his bell on the table beside his bed, hoping that he would remember how to use it if he needed them, but the remainder of the night was one, long stretch of unbroken silence. In the morning, they discovered why. After visiting the old man’s bedroom to check on him, one of his family members gently pushed the door open and peered inside. The shape in the bed was unmoving, and so they approached to wake him and see how he felt. But like those in the house before him, he too had passed away. A random coincidence of natural causes, or a demonstration of the power of fear?

There’s a lot about London that seems to echo the atmosphere of the house at 50 Berkeley Square. It’s a city painted in shadows, but it’s unclear if that darkness was always there, or if we imported it over the centuries. What’s clear is that almost from the start, tragedy and suffering has been a resident of this ancient city. Right back to the invasion of Boudica, nearly 2000 years ago, and up to its most modern challenges, the city of London has had to suffer through quite a bit, and that has a way of leaving a mark. Over the centuries, though, the city has always found ways to move on. New layers are added all the time, building the present on top of the past and slowly burying one dark moment beneath another – which is probably why London is one of those places where new construction always seems to bump into ancient things. If you dig deep enough, you’re guaranteed to find something. And look – London is a massive city, and while I did my best to cover some of its larger and more powerful stories, there are hundreds more that I had to leave untouched. Honestly, if you want to visit a haunted location in the city, just visit a local pub, like the Ten Bells, or the Flask, or the Spaniard Inn. If the stories are true, you’ll find a lot more than a pint of ale waiting for you inside.

But if there’s one mark on the pages of London’s history that is bigger than most, it’s hard to deny the power of the plague. If you remember, when the wave of disease washed over the city in 1665, it took two years to run its course, and in the process, it claimed the lives of nearly 100,000 people, and that was a lot of tragedy to deal with – on the personal and the public level. The biggest problem seemed to be what to do with all those corpses. We’ve all seen films like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and can all remember lines like “bring out your dead”, and from what we can tell, that’s pretty close to how it actually would have been, a steady, daily flow of bodies out of the city, away from the places where people lived in the hope that it would stop the spread of the disease. And most of the bodies were carried outside the city limits. One such burial location was started by the Earl of Craven, who purchased a parcel of land west of the city for disposal of plague victims, and every night, for months on end, carts filled with rotting corpses were wheeled out onto his land and then dumped into the pits there. Over time, the place became known as the “Pest House Field,” and later it was named Gelding Close, but to be honest, few people actually went there. They were too afraid of what might happen if they got too close to the body of a plague victim or, heaven forbid, accidentally touch one. So, the burial plot, like so many others around the city, became a sort of no man’s land.

After years of waiting, the owners of the land eventually made the decision to use the property for development. London was growing, and there would always be a need for a new neighbourhood to settle in, so it was sold in pieces and developed into homes for the wealthy and elite to move away from the centre of the city. Gelding Close eventually became known as Golden Square, and today it’s a prominent feature in the SoHo area of London. But even though the name has changed and the landscape around it has been transformed, the past is still there, lingering in the shadows of modern life. In fact, more than a few visitors to the park and buildings that surround it have bumped into the past in a very real way. A few have seen the figures of people dressed in old-fashioned clothing slipping through the square at night, while most have caught the sound of wailing, as if someone were enduring horrible pain and suffering. But it’s not the specific things people have heard over the years that are the most terrifying aspect to these stories. No, it’s where they all claim the voices have come from. The sounds, they say, seem to emanate from right beneath their feet.

A city as old and historic as London is guaranteed to have a library of mysterious shadows and otherworldly experiences and I hope today’s tour has been a satisfying dip into that enormous pond, but I’m not done just yet. There’s one more legend from the city that I absolutely love, and if you stick around through the sponsor break, I plan to tell you all about it.

[Sponsor break from the Great Courses Plus, Squarespace and Fracture]

When you think of London, it’s easy to think of money. As far back as the Roman period of the city, there has been an overt focus on the financial industry. In about 240AD, for example, the Romans constructed a mithraeum, a temple devoted to the god Mithras. Some of the most common members of the cult of Mithras were merchants, traders, customs officials and politicians, all professions that revolved around the flow of money. But it didn’t end with the Romans. As the centuries ticked by, the people of London found new and better ways to manage money and build the economy. In the year 1100, King Henry I instituted a new system of currency that even the most illiterate and uneducated citizens of his kingdom could understand: the tally stick. It was essentially a polished wooden rod that had nicks carved into it to denote its value, and it was then split down the middle. The king kept one half, while the other was put into circulation in places like the city markets, and that’s where the system really shined. If anyone tried to change the value of the public half by adding another nick, they just needed to be compared to the other half kept safe by the crown.

But at the end of the 17th century, one of the biggest changes to the financial world of London was born: The Bank of England. It was created in 1694 to solve a tricky financial problem the government of England faced. They needed to build a massive navy to defend themselves but lacked the funds to do it. So, an elaborate system of lending and currency came to the rescue. A century later, The Bank of England was simply a way of life for the people of London. It had all the prestige and power that you might expect from a government-backed bank and had established a reputation for itself that has carried into the 21st century.

But I don’t want to give you a tour of the bank’s full history, I just want to tell you about one of their employees, a man named Philip Whitehead. Whitehead worked in the cashier’s office of The Bank of England in 1811. Everyone around him viewed him as a pillar of the establishment, a hard-working, respectable man who was charming and delightful with staff and customers alike. Except that’s not all he was. Philip was also a criminal. It turns out he had been forging bank documents for months, cheating the bank out of a slow trickle of money, and at some point in 1911, his misdeeds were discovered, and he was quickly arrested and sent off to prison. A few months later, in early 1812, Philip Whitehead hanged for his crimes, and the bank moved on.

Several weeks after Philip’s hanging, though, a woman came into the bank asking for him. She said her name was Sarah, but when she asked to speak with Philip Whitehead, she was simply told that he was out of the office on a business errand. The woman left disappointed but promised to be back at another time. The next time that she returned, he not only told them that her name was Sarah, but that she was Philip’s sister. She told them of how she had lost touch with her brother many months earlier, and that she had been desperate to find a way to reach him, and at some point, her story must have plucked at the heartstrings of just the right bank employee, because one of the men took her aside and told her the truth. Her brother was dead. It wouldn’t be Sarah’s last visit to the bank, though. The next time she returned, she was dressed all in black, with a black veil that covered her face.

She stepped into the lobby of the bank and asked to see her brother. Taking pity on the poor woman, and official at the bank pulled her aside, apologised for keeping his imprisonment and execution a secret, and offered a small settlement. It was a pay-off, of course, designed to keep her from disturbing the other customers, but I’m sure he sold it to her more as a salve for her aching heart. Either way, she accepted the money and then left. But she returned a few days later. Over and over again, Sarah Whitehead visited the bank, each time dressed in that black gown and veil. At first, her voice was nothing more than a whisper, but with each new visit her question became louder and more aggressive – “Where is my brother?” she continued to ask. Each of those visits ended with another small payment from the bank, but they weren’t a charity house, and eventually decided that enough was enough.

Pulling her aside one day, they handed her a massive settlement and told her never to return, and to her credit, Sarah Whitehead listened. She never again set foot inside the bank, although it’s said that she also never wore anything else but that black gown and dark veil. We don’t know how long Sarah lived after that – sometimes grief has a way of speeding up a person’s decline, while other times it seems to give them a reason to go on. But decades later, Sarah passed away, having spent the remainder of her life in a constant state of mourning for her dead brother. Legend says that the churchyard she chose for her burial was the one right next door to the bank. Maybe she wanted to keep an eye on them from the other world, or perhaps it just happened to be where she attended church. I like to think that it was the former, and that those that still worked at the bank and knew her story were aware of where she was buried. It’s very poetic, whether or not it was actually true.

But her story doesn’t end there, of course. In the years following Sarah Whitehead’s death, employees inside the bank began to report seeing strange things. Oftentimes it was nothing more than a movement, just out of their field of vision, caught in the corner of their eye but never there when they turned their head. Other times, it was the fleeting vision of something black and shadowy. Many who have worked in the bank claim that certain areas give them a feeling of hopelessness and despair, and on rare occasions some claim that a mysterious shape has even materialised right before their eyes. All of them have described it in the same way, too, giving the old stories new life as the decades have passed by. They say the shape is that of a woman. Each time she appears, her pale skin is framed by a dress as black as coal, the veil that had once covered her face pulled back to revealed twisted lips, red cheeks and eyes that seem to glow like fire. But it’s the words she speaks that frighten people the most. After locking eyes with them and washing them in a wave of terror, the women in black repeats the same words she had grown so accustomed to in life. “Where,” she asks them, “is my brother?”

[Closing Statements]

#lore podcast #aaron mahnke #podcast transcripts #london #50 berkeley square #henry viii #uk #hauntings #transcripts #129

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savedfromsalvation · 7 years

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The Jesus Myth

by Barbara G. Walker

Excerpted from:

Man Made God

Thanks to centuries of the most insistent and aggressive indoctrination campaign the world has ever seen, the biography of Jesus is more familiar to more people than any other. Socrates, Charlemagne, Shakespeare, Napoleon: there are many who never heard of them, or who only vaguely recognize their names. But all of Western civilization and most of the rest of the world "knows" Jesus's life story.

Everybody "knows" that Jesus was begotten by a god and born of a virgin, even though the gospel writers unaccountably trace his ancestry through the virgin's mortal husband. His birth was attended by angels, shepherds and gift-giving wise men. His infancy was threatened by an evil king who had babies slaughtered in a futile effort to kill him. When grown, he gathered a group of 12 disciples and went about teaching that his adherents would gain eternal life. He walked on water, healed the sick, exorcised devils, made the blind see and the lame walk. He was anointed with chrism and thus made into a Christ (which means "anointed one") by a mysterious woman who may or may not have been his lover, depending on which gospel you read, and who was the sole official enunciator of his later resurrection. After a triumphal procession accompanied by waving palms and the traditional obsequies of a sacred king, he attended a meal at which he was symbolically cannibalized, the eating of his flesh and blood deemed necessary for his followers' absolution. Then he was scourged, crucified, died and descended into the underworld. Later he returned to earth, apparently alive again, and then ascended bodily into the sky, where he somehow still lives and pays attention to all the doings of humanity. These things are "known" and commemorated every year, over and over.

But during the past century or so, scholars have shown that all these "known" details of Jesus's life story are mythic: That is, they were told for many centuries before his time about many previous savior-gods and legendary heroes in pre-Christian lore. Not a single detail of Jesus's life story can be considered authentic. Some investigators have tried to peel away the layers of myth in search of a historical core, but this task is like peeling the layers of an onion. It seems that there is no core. The layers of myth go all the way to the center.

Fact or Fiction?

One of the problems faced by Christian scholars is that there is no record of Jesus's existence in any contemporary source. The earliest literature concerning him was written by Paul, who never knew him or anyone else who might have known him and who never heard anything about his life story. Paul mentioned none of these now-so-familiar details, which were added much later by unknown writers who pretended to bear the names of various disciples and who sprinkled their writings with mythic data gathered from sacred-king traditions of contemporary Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Persian and Levantine salvation cults.

"Undeniably, Christian leaders have a vested interest in maintaining the myth."

Educated theologians know this fact perfectly well; yet, they maintain the pretense of apostolic authorship and keep the truth hidden from lay congregants. Undeniably, Christian leaders have a vested interest in maintaining the myth.

The synoptic gospels now accepted into the canon are only a small remnant of perhaps hundreds of proto-Christian gospels extant during the first few centuries BCE and AD/CE. Also, they bear the marks of extensive interpolation, revision and reinterpretation added by Church authorities centuries later. As reference works, the New Testament writings are hardly more reliable than fairy tales.

The Silence of Historians

For a possible hint of Jesus's historicity, Christian authorities relied heavily on a single brief paragraph in the works of the respected Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who was born in 37 AD/CE, served as governor of Galilee and traveled extensively in the very same area where Jesus allegedly lived and taught. If anyone was in a position to report the wonder-workings of a local holy man in his own parents' generation, it was Josephus, a dedicated reporter of minute details. Yet in all his voluminous works, the single paragraph (Ant. 18.3.3)-called the "Testimonium Flavianum" or "TF"-says only that Jesus was "a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day."

The problems with this famous passage are many. First of all, it is noticeably out of context with the surrounding material. Second, it evidently did not appear in the early copies of Josephus's works, nor in the second-century version quoted by Church father Origen, who would certainly have mentioned it if it had been there. The TF does not appear in any known works until the beginning of the fourth century and is first quoted by Bishop Eusebius, the enthusiastic advocate of what he apparently called "holy lying" for the greater glory of the Church, known to have been responsible for many interpolations, revisions and blatant forgeries.

Moreover, Josephus was a Jew and would hardly have referred to Jesus's ministry as "the truth" or "wonderful things"; nor would he have called Jesus "the Christ." Neither could he have mentioned "the tribe of Christians," for there were no Christians in his day. Christianity did not get off the ground until the second century.

Philo Judaeus (20 BCE-50 AD/CE) was born before the beginning of the Christian era and lived until long after Jesus's time. Philo knew Jerusalem well, and would have known of Herod's massacre of children, plus Jesus's miracles, well-attended preachings, triumphal entry parade and crucifixion, with its attendant earthquake, reanimated corpses and many other wonders. He would have heard about the resurrection before many witnesses.

Another historian, Justus of Tiberius (1st cent.), a native of Galilee, wrote a history covering the period of Jesus's lifetime. His work is lost, but the Christian scholar Photius read it in the ninth century and expressed amazement ("Biblioteca," 33) that it contained "not the least mention of the appearance of the Christ."

"Mythical mentions of the Christ figure are numerous throughout the ancient world."

However, mythical mentions of the Christ figure are numerous throughout the ancient world. In addition to the title of Christos they had names like Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Dionysus, Orpheus, Mithra, Tammuz, Heracles, Hermes, Aleyin and Iasus, Iasion, Jason, Jesu, Yeshua or Jeud. These latter epithets applied to the "only-begotten son" of the god-king Isra-El, who was "dressed in royal robes" and sacrificed by his heavenly father.

Most of the savior gods were identified with the edible flesh and blood of the earth, meaning the bread and wine, harvested, consumed and resurrected with the next planting. Osiris, Adonis and Mithra were all eaten in the form of communion bread, declared to be the god's flesh, which the worshiper thus made a part of his own flesh in order to share the god's resurrection.

Adonis was miraculously born of a temple maiden in Bethlehem, which means "the House of Bread." He appears to have been the "Bread of God," which became the worshiper's body also, as in John 6:56: "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him."

The sacrificed god Dionysus, another son of the Heavenly Father, first performed Jesus's miracle of turning water into wine at temples in Sidon and other places, representing the rain of heaven fructifying the vine. In Alexandria, the Dionysian/Christian miracle was demonstrated literally by means of an ingenious system of siphons invented by an engineer named Heron, to enhance the awe of the faithful....

According to the Roman writer Celsus (2nd cent.), the empire was teeming with miscellaneous vagabonds aspiring to such titles, claiming to be gods, sons of God, or saviors, prophesying the end of the world and their own glorious return from the dead at the End of Days. Celsus scoffed at the alleged Christian miracles as no more than "common works of enchanters" who perform for a few coins. "The magicians of Egypt," he said, "cast out evil spirits, cure diseases by a breath, and so influence some uncultured men, that they produce in them whatever sights and sounds they please. But because they do such things shall we consider them the sons of God?"

Nevertheless, the Eastern provinces swarmed with self-styled Messiahs and Christs, so that the gospels' version is most likely to have been a composite picture drawn from an era of widespread credulity and superstitious dread. As we might perceive in our own day, fundamentalist superstitions tend to flower in periods of cultural decline, when a formerly enlightened civilization begins to feel threatened by forces of decay both without and within....

Pagan Christs

These groups were greatly influenced by Persian worshippers of Mithra—the ancient Magi or "magicians" who attended the savior's miraculous birth—and their prophecies of the oncoming Doomsday with its sharp division between the saved and the damned: those who would go to dwell forever in heaven with the solar deity, Light of the World; and those who would dwell forever in underground darkness with the evil Great Serpent and his armies of demons, rebellious angels who had defied the heavenly father and had been cast down to their punishment. Mithra's cult was hugely popular in the later Roman empire and contributed much to the Jesus myth, including even the service of Mass, which was based on the Persian mizd, translated into Latin missa, featuring wafers marked with a cross.

According to Ezekiel 8:14, priestesses in Jerusalem continued to celebrate the cult of Tammuz, the Heavenly Shepherd or Only-Begotten Son, whose blood fertilized the whole earth when he was killed each year on the Day of Atonement. He was slain in the form of a lamb, but this incarnation was understood to be a substitute for earlier human sacrifice. He reappeared in the New Testament as Thomas, sometimes viewed as Jesus's twin, who became known as Doubting Thomas for questioning Jesus's miraculous return to life. The gospel writer declared that Thomas finally accepted Jesus as "my Lord and my God" (Jhn 20:28), indicating the older savior's deference to the newer one. However, 1,000 years later Syrian farmers were still sacrificing to their grain god Ta-uz, who was considered essential to the welfare of the crops, and women were still bewailing his annual demise just as they did in the time of Ezekiel.

"The Jesus myth was really a concatenation of pagan ideas and practices."

Realizing that the Jesus myth was really a concatenation of pagan ideas and practices, early Christian fathers decided to account for this fact by calling all the previous gods "demons," and declaring that Satan in his omniscience had foreseen the coming of the true Christ and had invented all these earlier imitations just to confuse people. Even St. Augustine (Retractiones 1.13) had to admit that his religion existed "from the beginning of the human race," and came to be called Christian only after the lifetime of Jesus.

Gospel teachings attributed to Jesus have been found in earlier texts, often word for word, some-like the famous Beatitudes-in Buddhist scriptures. The Golden Rule was not a Christian teaching but a Tantric Buddhist expression of karmic law, repeated in the proverbs of Egypt's Goddess Maat, the Mother of Justice, as well as those of Greece's Goddess Dike, ruler of fate, and of the Jewish sage Hillel. Nothing truly original has been found in any of the Jesus traditions, and the wonder-tales that used to compel belief because of their very incredibility are now dismissed as crude anachronisms persuasive only to the most naive and credulous minds....

And according to Acts 4:13, the apostles were all "unlearned and ignorant men" who could not have been responsible for writing the gospels or anything else. Therefore those who put apostles' names to their gospel writings were forgers, and all the gospels are essentially fakes.

The truth is that the gospels are not reliable "historical" accounts to tell us what Jesus was—or even if he was. But it is fairly clear that he was connected with the myths of pagan saviors, who were mostly nature deities, representing the eternal cycles of life and death. In this respect their myths might point toward an updated religion more firmly founded on the realities of our world.

Once the Jesus myth is more widely understood as a composite relic of a credulous past, we may be able to go forward toward a more satisfying set of spiritual hopes and insights, and leave behind the simplistic magics of a less enlightened people. We have "modernized" nearly every other aspect of our Western culture. Perhaps it is time to modernize its religion into a form that enlightenment may embrace without insulting its own intelligence.

For more information, including citations, see Man Made God.

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davidstirlings · 7 years

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i know this is gonna sound like a lot, and i totally wouldn't blame you for only doing some of these, but can you do that ship thing for nate and ray (i don't know what their ship name is)

Hi anon. Thanks for the ask :) First off, I’m going to assume that you mean all of the numbers for the ship ask meme. And my answer is of course I can. I love doing asks (though from the time it took me to actually finish this, you probably wouldn’t be able to guess. Sorry about that).

Secondly, the ship name for Nate x Ray is SteelAtom, I believe (at least, that’s what I’ve been tagging all my posts as. If I’m wrong, please correct me).

And we shall now descend into the (very large and long amount of) madness that is about to ensue:

Who made the first move? I feel like neither of these cute (and completely oblivious) cinnamon rolls would have made the first move. They probably only realised the other had feelings for them when the others pointed it out. (I can definitely see Sara and Mick just saying something like “So are you two sleeping together yet, or what?”)

Who said ‘I love you’ first? Nate. After what happened with Anna, and then Kendra, Ray’s a bit nervous about telling someone that he loves them. He does, obviously, but he’s scared that as soon as he admits that, they’ll leave him, or something bad will happen. But he does say “I love you too” as soon as Nate says it.

Who first suggested moving in together? They already live on a time-ship together, so that’s a bit of a pointless question, but Nate’s stuff slowly migrates its way into Ray’s (much bigger) room, and one day Nate just doesn’t bother going back to his room because it’s empty.

What was their first fight about? Ray throwing himself into ridiculously dangerous situations, almost as if he doesn’t care, as if there isn’t someone he’d be leaving behind. Nate worries a lot because his boyfriend isn’t bulletproof, and he always runs headlong into danger, and he’s scared that one day, Ray won’t come back with him, so they end up fighting every time the other does something unnecessarily dangerous (which, let’s admit, with this bunch of losers, is pretty much every week, or every time they get off the ship).

Who is the better cook? Neither of them is particularly brilliant at cooking, but for all his intellect, Ray Palmer is the ‘burn water’ type of guy, which means that either Nate cooks, or they order takeaway (there are a ridiculous number of pizza boxes which they keep forgetting to throw away. Jax says they could probably build a wall with them).

Who proposed? Ray. Despite being nervous about saying ‘I love you’ or making the first move, he’s a romantic at heart, and he eventually works up the courage to take Nate out to dinner when they land in Tuscany for a break, and he proposes to him after the meal.

Who remembers the anniversaries? You’d think, being a historian and all, that this would be Nate. You’d be wrong. As brilliant as he is at research, and remembering facts about ancient history, this guy has a really terrible memory when it comes to more recent dates to remember. This dude forgot their first anniversary, and their wedding anniversary. Ray sets about a billion remindersto make sure that he doesn’t forget, and it works about 60% of the time. (They’re both terrible, even though they’re supposed to be super-smart).

Where would they go for their honeymoon? Assuming the Legion of Doom don’t manage to destroy reality (and probably the entire world at the same time), then they’d probably go to all the cliche, romantic places people go on their honeymoon, like Paris and Rome and Hawaii. And they also go to different time periods too, because why wouldn’t you when you have a time-traveling space-ship? So they get to see the Eiffel Tower being built and walk along the streets of Paris in the 1920s.

Who wakes up first in the mornings? They usually wake up at the same time, though since Ray has been on the ship longer, and is more used to Rip’s rigid 8am wake-up schedule, he’ll sometimes wake up earlier. He’ll just lay there, tangling his fingers with Nate’s, waiting for the other to wake up so he can kiss him good morning.

Who works the latest? Ray. He always gets so caught up in different projects and he doesn’t want to leave them until they’re finished. And he doesn’t just work the latest, but also the longest. He’ll stay up for 36 hours before he crashes, and Nate often has to drag him to bed and remind him to sleep.

Who spins in those squeaky office chairs to annoy the other? They both do, because they’re immature toddlers who want to wind up Sara and Stein, and the best way to do that is by spinning in the two squeakiest chairs on the bridge until the other two walk away (or until Sara gets out a gun and threatens to shoot them).(Jax 110% joins in with them when he’s pissed off with Stein, and they encourage him like awful influences they are).

Who has the most questionable taste in music? Nate, though it’s more because he has such a wide range of taste in music, from Baroque to House to Hip-hop to Punk. His playlist is a mess of different songs that drive Ray mad, because he’ll get used to the low bass in one song, only to have flutes and violins assault his ears 3 minutes later, which then change to something that sounds more like a call to war than music.

Who opts for buying take away instead of cooking? Ray, because he can’t cook to save his life. Nate only opts for it when he really can’t be bothered to cook, and no one else is on cooking duty.

Who plans the best dates? They both plan pretty good dates. Nate always takes them somewhere (and sometime) that he knows they’ll both find very interesting and somewhere beautiful, like a lake in the mountains, or a museum/gallery he knows Ray will find interesting, and Ray plans very romantic dates at restaurants and cinemas and more generic date venues. What he lacks in originality, he makes up for in thought and romantic gestures (like flowers and favourite desserts).

Who blushes the most? Ray, with his dark hair and pale skin, blushes very easily, and it’s a look that Nate loves on him, so he tries to make Ray blush as often as possible. Whispering (really inappropriate) things in his ear and complimenting him are surefire ways to do this.

Who gets super into holidays like Christmas and Halloween and who only does it because it makes the other happy? They both like holidays a lot. Nate gets very excited about the cultural significance and history of the holidays, while Ray just loves being able to spoil Nate. And he loves to see him dress up as Indiana Jones. (The same can be said for Nate when he sees Ray in his Han Solo costume. However, Ray doesn’t always see the point in dressing up, seeing as it usually all ends up on the floor five minutes later anyway).

Who has the biggest kink (and what is it)? Ray once asked Nate if he liked Indiana Jones so much because of the whips. This prompted Nate to ask if the reason Ray liked Han Solo so much was because he was usually in handcuffs. (Jax wishes he didn’t have a room next to those two, and that the walls were thicker).

Who is more aggressive in bed? At first, Nate was really careful in bed with Ray, because he was really scared of going all ‘Steel-On’ and accidentally hurting Ray. It wasn’t until Ray told Nate to stop treating him like a fragile doll (and that he liked being held down) that Nate decided to be a little bit more adventurous and aggressive in bed. (Alternatively: Ray kicks Nate in his sleep, and even though he can turn into Steel, the bruises still hurt). (Jax wants a new room).

Who is constantly groping the other in public? Nate is shameless. It started off as one of those things to make Ray blush, and Nate hasn’t stopped doing it since he started, even though Mick says he’s going to gag, Martin’s eye does this weird twitching thing every time he sees Nate grope Ray’s ass, Amaya politely ignores their adolescent antics, and Sara always throws a saucy wink when she catches the two of them. Jax pretends not to notice anything and then asks Gideon if she can make brain bleach. The answer is unfortunately no.

Lights on or off? On. They like to be able to see each other. (Ray is also afraid of the dark, but he pretends that he just wants to see Nate and his beautiful face. Nate is such a sappy dork that he believes this).

Who is the animal lover? Ray always wanted a puppy when he was growing up, but he was allergic, so now that he has access to future drugs and antihistamines, he adopts all the stray pets he can find, and showers them with love. Nate does love animals, but “there is a limit, Ray”. He puts his foot down after the 6th half-drowned kitten Ray brings home. (Ray pouts for five minutes until Sara threatens to make Ray take all of the animals to a shelter if he adopts another animal). (He starts hiding them in Mick’s room. Mick only realises this when he finds a kitten in his underwear drawer).

Who hogs the blankets? Nate steals all the blankets. His core temperature was lowered after his skin was turned to steel, and so he needs the blankets to stay warm. (Ray is highly doubtful about this explanation). However, he does learn to share the blankets after Ray threatens to kick him out of the bed if he wakes up with cold toes. One. More. Time.

Who is basically used as a body pillow by the other? They swap during the night, and sometimes Ray will wake up with Nate’s head on his stomach (”seriously, I know that my skin turns to steel, but are your abs made of steel?”), or Nate will wake up to Ray’s warm breath puffing against his neck, head pillowed on his shoulder, curled up around his like some overly-warm, snuggly octopus.

Do they ever spontaneously dance together? Sometimes, when they’re in the kitchen together, and Nate is baking something, an old song will come on the vintage radio (they have this for…some reason that nobody is quite clear on. Sara stole it from Stein’s younger self. He was rather upset at the revelation that this is where his favourite radio disappeared too). Ray will come up behind Nate, and slip his arms around his waist, rest his head on Nate’s shoulder, and they’ll just sway together to the music for a little while.

Who has a really cute freckle and where? Ray has this really cute smattering of freckles in the middle of his back, and Nate loves kissing them one by one, because they’re ticklish and they make Ray blush

Who sings in the shower? Nate will take his phone into the bathroom with him and put on his terrible, mismatched playlist, and sing completely out of tune to all of the songs. Rays pretty sure that Nate doesn’t even know the words to half the songs, and just makes most of it up

Who takes pictures of the other at random times? They both do, thought Ray tends to do it more. After Anna died, he realised that he didn’t have many photos of them, at least not personal ones, and he used to freak out when he found himself forgetting things like what she looked like when she laughed, or first thing in the morning as the sun came through the windows. So he takes every opportunity he can to take pictures of Nate, so that he can never forget.

Who does the laundry? Gideon. They’ll just chuck clothes in the direction of the laundry chute and hope that they go in. Half the time their room looks like a clothes-bomb exploded in there. Jax occasionally goes in to check that the two morons haven’t drowned in fabric yet, and drops off the clothes that Gideon has done, seeing as if it was left to Nate and Ray, they’d have literally nothing to wear. (Jax does not want to see Ray streaking to the laundry room to pick up all of his clothes ever again, thank you very much)(Sara recorded the entire thing as blackmail material)

Who gets babied when they’re sick? Neither of them gets overly babied. Obviously they’re very worried, and Nate’s a lot more worried when Ray takes physical damage, but they don’t baby the other. They do, however, make (or get Gideon to replicate) chicken soup, and take care of the other when they’re sick

I hope that was ok for you anon, and that I did a good job with these two, since this is my first time doing a SteelAtom headcanon :)

#steelatom #ray x nate #nate x ray #ray palmer #nate heywood #atom #steel #legends of tomorrow #ask #lot #lot txt #lotedit #lot hc #lot headcanons #hc: lot #hc: steelatom

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deniscollins · 5 years

Text

A Risk Starbucks Won’t Mention: Howard Schultz Could Help Trump

Recently retired Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and the company’s largest individual shareholder, is considering running for President. If you were a Starbucks executive would you: (1) develop strategies to capitalize on the additional attention he’ll be getting or (2) distant the company from his political activities? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

Starbucks’ stock has been soaring, its earnings are strong, and it has been expanding rapidly in its fastest-growing major market, China.

Yet as shareholders head toward the company’s annual meeting on March 20, there is a cloud on the horizon: the risk that latte lovers will punish Starbucks because they are turned off by Howard Schultz’s prospective campaign for president.

Mr. Schultz, who presided over Starbucks when it went public in 1992 and dominated it for years, gave up his last operational position at Starbucks in June. Still, the company embodies his taste and vision. What’s more, Mr. Schultz remains Starbucks’ largest individual shareholder, and the current chief executive, Kevin Johnson, is his chosen successor.

In official documents, Starbucks says this is a “pivotal year,” one in which it is making the transition from a “founder-led” to a “founder-inspired” company. That would have been hard enough if Mr. Schultz, 65, had retired quietly, said Nancy F. Koehn, a historian at the Harvard Business School who has studied Mr. Schultz and Starbucks extensively. But his incipient quest for the presidency as a third-party candidate, she said, makes the handover much more difficult.

“When a charismatic leader steps away from a company he — or she — has essentially created, it’s not easy for a successor to pick up the reins of energy and inspiration and engagement,” Ms. Koehn said. “But now, with Howard saying he is, or may be, running for president, in a year in which so many people feel so passionately about unseating the current president, Donald Trump, the transition is immeasurably harder.”

A longtime Democrat, Mr. Schultz said in late January that he was “seriously considering running for president as a centrist independent.”

And since late January, he has been acting like a candidate — crisscrossing the country, promoting a new book and criticizing what he calls ”a broken system where the extreme left and the extreme right will not give the people what they want.”

Along the way, he has attracted the enmity of Democrats who fear that if he actually runs as a third-party candidate, he will aid in the re-election of President Trump.

In a tweet on Jan. 26, for example, Neera Tanden, the president of Center for American Progress, a liberal nonprofit group, and a former adviser to Hillary Clinton, called Mr. Schultz’s political project “disgusting” and said she would organize a Starbucks boycott if his exploratory effort became a bona fide campaign.

“I’m not giving a penny that will end up in the election coffers of a guy who will help Trump win,” she said.

Starbucks evidently considers Mr. Schultz’s presidential ambitions toxic enough that it will not comment about him at all. When I contacted the company for this column, it referred me to a statement Mr. Johnson issued to employees on Jan. 28.

“Many of us will inevitably be asked if the company supports a possible presidential candidacy of Howard and what changes for Starbucks. As a company, we don’t get involved in national political campaigns,” he said. “And nothing changes for Starbucks.”

As a company that must depend on the good will of customers, Starbucks meticulously listed eight pages of “risk factors” in its 2018 annual report. It warned, for example, that “consumer demand for our products and our brand equity could diminish significantly” if the company or its partners “are perceived to act in an unethical, illegal, racially biased or unequal treatment basis or socially irresponsible manner.”

Starbucks did not address the risk that, fair or not, consumer demand might “diminish significantly” if Mr. Schultz pursued his presidential ambitions.

For anything “Howard Schultz-related” now, the company said, I needed to talk to Mr. Schultz’s personal representatives. So I reached out to the fledgling Schultz political operation. Erin McPike, a spokeswoman, said she worked for a “testing-the-waters operation, which is not yet a formal presidential campaign.”

“Let me make perfectly clear that he left Starbucks and left the board of directors and separated himself from the company,” Ms. McPike said. “He has made a complete separation. He’s not tied to it in an active way.”

While that appears to be true, Mr. Schultz is tied to the company in countless other ways. Notably, his wealth was derived from Starbucks and remains intimately connected with it.

The company’s current proxy describes Mr. Schultz’s finances extensively, for example, citing him by name 93 times — more than the combined total of Mr. Johnson and Myron E. Ullman III, the chairman. With the help of Courtney Yu, director of research for Equilar, an executive compensation firm, I obtained a tally of Mr. Schultz’s compensation and holdings.

In the company’s 2018 fiscal year, for the months that he was executive chairman his salary was only $1. But Equilar found that Mr. Schultz’s actual pay — including exercised stock options, vested stock and retirement income — amounted to $76,745,740.

I asked Mr. Yu to assess Mr. Schultz’s total Starbucks compensation going back to 2007. It amounted to $774,622,478. And then there was his Starbucks stock: He controlled 37,694,049 shares on Dec. 17. On Friday afternoon, those shares would have been worth about $2.6 billion.

It is not just that Starbucks generated Mr. Schultz’s wealth. The company is his main credential as a prospective chief executive for America.

“My business experience is not qualification to run for president, but it is what I’ve learned along the way,” he said in a Houston “town hall”carried on CNN. He added: “Look at Starbucks, what I’ve done in the last 36 years.”

In politics, Mr. Schultz is positioning himself as socially liberal but fiscally conservative, a status that is consistent with his policies at Starbucks. He points to a socially conscious company that has provided good health care, pay and education benefits for its diverse work force — as well as enormous profits for investors. Since 1992, the annualized return on its shares has been 22.7 percent, according to Bloomberg. Mr. Schultz has made longtime shareholders rich.

In an interview, Greg Strimple, Mr. Schultz’s pollster, said: “As core Howard Schultz voters, we see about 25 percent of the Democratic electorate — people who would be in the Biden-Bloomberg-business wing of the party — plus the Romney-Jeb Bush ‘Never Trumper’ part of the Republican Party, plus a lot of independents. And that’s just a start.”

Michael R. Bloomberg’s decision not to seek the presidency in 2020 provides Mr. Schultz with running room, his associates said, while his options narrow if Joseph R. Biden Jr. embarks on a campaign. On the other hand, they said, his path widens if someone like Senator Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic nomination.

That calculus enrages many Democrats: Any Democratic votes he might receive, as an independent, could simply help the Republican candidate, presumably Mr. Trump, whom Mr. Schultz says he opposes. But Mr. Strimple said Mr. Schultz could attract Republican votes and wasn’t aiming to be a spoiler.

“When people say he’s a spoiler, we frame it as the ‘two-party system is broken, and it’s time for a centrist leader who will bring the country together,’” Mr. Strimple said. “When people look at it that way, we find he gets a lot of support.”

How much support remains to be seen. Mr. Schultz will probably decide whether to run during the summer, Ms. McPike said. Early polls are unreliable, and the presidential race is fluid. No polls that I have seen indicate that Mr. Schultz could win the presidency, though some suggest that he might well disrupt the election.

That possibility already troubles some Starbucks customers, who have been using the #boycottstarbucks hashtag to express their opinions on Twitter.

Some protesters have called for a boycott using other platforms. Michael Moore, the filmmaker, has called for one until Mr. Schultz says he won’t run. A Bloomberg analysis points out that 70 percent of Starbucks stores in the United States are in counties that tend to vote Democratic, making the coffee chain vulnerable to discontent on the left.

In short, it seems safe to say the more attention Mr. Schultz’s nascent independent candidacy gets, the greater the likelihood that Starbucks customers will buy their lattes elsewhere.

#Starbucks

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