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logicalstansadvice · 2 years

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I think Bucky was supposed to be an actual co-lead in FATWS, and Spelman used the pandemic as an excuse to cut him down. // I thought something similar—that they were co-leads on paper but the main goal of FATWS was tell Sam’s story of becoming Captain America. I still think that was the main goal of FATWS, but I’ve mellowed on criticizing that since realizing that Sam had zero character development before FATWS. In CAWS, we learned that Sam is ex-Air Force and counselled vets… then nothing changed until FATWS. While Bucky was underutilized, he still had way more character development coming into FATWS than Sam did. So FATWS kind of made them more equal in how much the audience knows about where they came from and where they are now in life.

Anon 2: Where did I say he's a star in my post? I just said if he's not going to have more than 5 minutes in an MCU product, then I hope it's not important that he's there so he can focus on his new movie. Many MCU actors couldn't make it to SDCC because of work, but they sent a video. He wouldn't be the first.

Anon 3: strongly believe Cap 4 is going to be a flop, it's already a Marvel fatigue/hyper-inflation of too many projects all over the place, the quality - of both projects and audience - is getting lower and lower // There’s certainly an argument to be made about the quality of recent MCU projects going down, but that’s not being reflected (yet?) in box office returns. Thor Love & Thunder ($143 million) is so far tracking higher than Thor Ragnorok ($121 million opening weekend). Multiverse of Madness ($953 million) outperformed the first Doctor Strange ($677 million). Spider-Man No Way Home was a monster hit ($1.9 billion). Pandemic releases Shang-Chi ($432 million) and Black Widow ($380 million) beat Disney’s projections. Eternals underperformed but still made $402 million. The next films Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man 2, Guardians 3 and The Marvels would have start showing diminishing returns before I think Cap 4 might flop.

Anon 4: Look I hope Sebastian Stan gets that Emmy nomination & do more work that builds on his brand new recognition. But some of the asks…whoosh 😂. If Oscar winners like Charlize Theron, Angelina Jolie, Brie Larson & Emmy winner Zendaya can do Marvel…yes Sebastian can come and do his little bit to drive the overall story. So calm down anons. That said, I’m having marvel fatigue because beyond No Way Home, I’m kind of not energized to watch anything marvel. I know they have to push content out for the streaming service but I think they should slow down. Give people time to breath & those working behind the scenes better time. So take all the time you need Sebastian to do anything else. I really want a romcom next…either original or remake.

Anon 5: "William Hurt, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas, Robert Redford, Paul Rudd, Christian Bale" With the exception of Rudd, who has a starring role which makes Marvel worth his time, everyone you list here is on the back end of their careers. Seb is still ascending, and he's gotten as much as he can get from Marvel without a lead. I've seen people say, MCU Bucky has the personality of cardboard. That's what happens when he has 1/3 the lines of a raccoon puppet over the course of a decade.

Anon 6: "The way some of you act like Sebastian is now too big of a star to be in a Marvel movie is odd to me." It's not about him being too big a star. It's what's worth his time. Giving up other roles for six months at Marvel when he gets a handful of mostly nonverbal scenes--you reach a point of diminishing returns, simple as that.

Anon 7: it's already a Marvel fatigue/hyper-inflation of too many projects all over the place,>> I disagree that Cap 4 will flop. I agree with the rest. Disney+ needs shows, and it was expected that they would saturate, they need shows to keep people subscribing, however, yes, it starts to tire people out. The quality is bad. The new Thor is horrible, just like Dr. Strange 2. I won't be surprised if an exclusive article comes out about Kevin Feige's dissatisfaction with Disney+.

Anon 8: I strongly believe Cap 4 is going to be a flop // i can see where this person is coming from and i sadly agree. At the same time bucky is a highlight of cap’s stories so i think he will show up in the movie at some point

Anon 9: Malcolm Spellman only says what we want to hear. He knows there were complaints about Bucky's treatment, so he's saying this to get people hoping that there are good things to come for Bucky. Russo Brothers did this by saying that Bucky knew Steve was going to come back, that they had a conversation, blah blah, classic MCU.

Lady Danger - I definitely would always love to see more Bucky but I don’t trust Spellman at all and Feige even less.

Ruby Woo - I do, lol. I'll take even a crumb of Bucky.

My thirst cannot be stopped nor reasoned with 🙈!

#logical stans advice #logicalstansadvice #sebastian stan #opinion blog #anonymous #bucky barnes #anthony mackie

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justalittlebluetiefling · 3 years

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Hi, who wants to read my... moderately spoilery reactions to the Wheel of Time trailer? I tried really hard to not mention anything outright, but who knows how I did by the end of this (I definitely mentioned at least one ship I really like). This has screenshots so it’s super effing long sorry not sorry.

This is very long and I don’t expect anyone to care, but this is all I’ve thought about all day so have my excitement and the one-and-a-half things I’ve explicitly spoiled which aren’t that major but still they count.

It starts with Egwene and Nynaeve so like, I’m already sold. 10000%. Because I love them so much.

And Nynaeve PUSHING EGWENE OFF A CLIFF which is clearly part of some test that prospective Wisdoms have to take.

AND THE FUCKING SCENERY

And the WINESPRING INN

And then THE BOYS ARE HERE and they’re all laughing together?! Be still my heart.

Like. Okay. But I really adore their friendship, so I’m so happy that we get to see them together. And Mat already looks like a troublemaker. I was already on board with the casting, but they look SO GOOD. And clearly in the same scene, we get to see Egwene and Rand smiling at each other like dorks who are into each other and Nynaeve looking all proud of Egwene and I’m already super into the dynamic between the five of them and we didn’t even see them all interact.

So then we get to THIS SHOT

And it was when I knew. This show is going to be a fantastic adaptation. Sorry for a reference to spoilers I won’t name outright, but THE FUCKING FORESHADOWING OF THIS SHOT. It’s gorgeous. It’s amazing. I don’t even have words. Her whole character arc is one of my favorite and this shot got me even more pumped than I already was to see it on screen.

I mean, DID I MENTION THE SCENERY! Tar Valon with Dragonmount looming up behind it LIKE I’M DEAD OKAY

I was so excited to see what they did and I am not disappointed.

And then we see Moiraine, which I’ll talk about later. I really can’t do this shot by shot or it would be too long and it’s already ridiculous. Plus I want to talk about THIS FUCKING MOMENT.

While Moiraine is narrating about The One Power. And I was blown away by this. Which maybe I’m dumb but she’s talking about Power and Egwene is floating down the river and it’s beautiful, because... okay hold on. Book quote here (first book, there’s one in later books that I want to use, but that’s massive spoilers): The Source is the river; the Aes Sedai, the waterwheel. But that’s why I loved this. They refer to the Power as a river so much during the books and this is one of those moments that I was struck by how much the people creating this must love the source material.

Moving on to SIUAN WITH THE CHEST TATTOO

She looks... SO GOOD. The colors. Like, all that gold??? Gosh, she looks amazing.

I did also really love that for our first glimpse of Saidar, we go from this:

to THIS

I’m actually really pleased with how it looks. I was a little worried that they would go too overboard with it, but it looks really subtle and seems to flow really well in all the shots they have it in.

And we get a glimpse of the Red Ajah! Also like, that blonde is Liandrin right? It has to be.

AND THEN LEANE!!!!

And then I’m pretty sure this is ALANNA stopping those arrows?!?! Looking like a freaking badass.

Plus a bonus in that shot which is Lan guarding Nynaeve??? So like, this is obviously a big change from the book, which we knew was coming, because Alanna doesn’t show up until a little later, but I’m not mad about it. I’m interested to see what they’re doing. Plus Lan x Nynaeve in a scene together? I’ll take all I can get.

So, next thing. I’m pretty sure this is Rand and Mat outside of Shadar Logoth.

Clearly not on the Caemlyn road. It seems like they (in general, not Rand and Mat) might skip over Caemlyn completely in favor of spending some time in Tar Valon season one. And I know that Rafe said in an answer today that season one contains parts of books 1, 2, and even a little of 3. I’m intrigued. There’s definitely a lot that I think can be shuffled around without losing the integrity of the story and I’m going into this with a very open mind. Anyway, another thing is just that the shot above is freaking gorgeous and I love what they’re doing.

NOW. We get THE BOYS again and I love it.

Rand and his bow and arrow!

AND MAT WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING THE BLADE PLEASE STOP

I guess he doesn’t know but like. Please. It looks so cool.

And then a glimpse of Mashadar, which might be the only look in the trailer I’m not totally sold on.

But I’m reserving judgment until we see it in action. I’m like... super hopefully that they lean into horror a little, at least for this season. There’s a lot that I think lends itself to it and Mashadar is one of those things.

Also, Mat looks so pretty. But I have no idea what is supposed to be in that cage behind him???

I have no speculation for this.

I could do an edit to get Perrin and the wolf in the same shot, but I did a lot of gifs earlier oh wait I have a gif that works instead.

THAT BETTER BE HOPPER OKAY. I’m so excited about this. So, we got to see Rand & his bow, Mat & the dagger, and then Perrin & a wolf. Even though I guess it isn’t explicitly clear in the trailer that Perrin has a connection to wolves so I’m sorry for the spoiler. But I’m stoked. I want to meet Hopper.

ALSO OKAY THEY’RE PLAYING UP THE ROMANCE BIT sorry I’m about to explicitly spoil something below this screenshot.

I like the evolution of their relationship a lot and I’m really excited to see this play out on screen. It’s interesting that it looks like they might already be at a physical point in their relationship. But one of my favorite things about the book is them learning to let each other go. I think it’s clear that they loved each other, but things get in the way and they have to move on. So I hope they don’t fuck this up. And yes, I do have a favorite ship for Rand and I’m... a little wary about how they’re going to portray his love life. I just hope they do it right.

OKAY MOVING ON

I’m 99% sure this is Tam, okay? I was torn. I had to look at the actor pictures pretty close and that’s my decision.

Make that 100% sure. AND HE’S GOT TEARS IN HIS EYES. They’re going to make me cry like, right out of the gate, aren’t they? Anyway, he ALSO looks good and I have a thought but it’s spoilers so I’m not going to say it because I want there to be some surprise in your lives.

Okay then there’s one of my favorite things which is the transition from this (Winternight)

To this (unknown funeral?) (It feels sort of like Children of Light-y but that’s just because of the white shrouds with the gold pendants and I could be wrong.)

To THIS view of the Tower and Siuan walking up to her throne

Look at all the circles. All the symbolism! It’s all about the Power. The Wheel. Ages coming to pass, etc. etc. etc. BOOK QUOTE ACTUALLY: The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. Which the first line is IN THE TRAILER and I just dig it. I’m ready. I’m prepared. Be November now please.

Moving on I have nothing to say except LAN IS SO PRETTY HE LOOKS SO GOOD

I promise I won’t just say everyone is pretty the whole time but they are.

And our FIRST LOOK AT TROLLOCS with our SECOND look at a Myrddraal

SO COOL! I love everything about this. The Trollocs look horrifying. That Myrddraal has a skull on his horse. He DOESN’T HAVE EYES. I’M - Make. It. Horror.

Also, I just dig this shot of Mat and Rand running away with the Myrddraal popping up in the back at the end.

This feels like such a good embodiment of the characters. Especially Mat.

Okay and then I’m very curious about whoever Lan is fighting here, because it sort of looks like they might push Lan and Nynaeve (and maybe Moiraine?) into the path of the Aes Sedai who are escorting Logain back to the Tower. Because these definitely aren’t Children that he’s fighting.

And this is a bit of a skip in the trailer, but the lighting is the same as the Nynaeve gif I have.

The scenery also matches. So something is CLEARLY UP. I might just be thinking that these are Logain’s men because of the SWEET LOGAIN SHOT WE GOT.

I am wondering some things now, but wondering about them out loud would be very spoilery for people who haven’t read the books. Anyway, I have some thoughts about where they’re taking his story and wondering if they might skip the middle part of it, which I wouldn’t be mad about.

MOVING ON ONCE AGAIN.

Everything we’re seeing about the Tower is giving me life.

More Red Ajah. Green Ajah. And there are Brown Ajah in that room Moiraine is walking out of. HER POWER STRIDE. God I love her. And that dress. And this whole thing. Okay. I need to chill.

EXCEPT I CAN’T BECAUSE BLURRY TROLLOCS AND THEY LOOK SO COOL

And then Moiraine riding her horse! I’m so happy that it looks like they put her in pants for this.

I know that there’s a about riding dresses, but she looks so good on Aldieb. Don’t let me get attached to the horses. I mean, I’m pretty sure Aldieb survives, but like. I’m so scared of getting attached to horses in fantasy stuff.

AND I’M OBSESSED WITH NYNAEVE AND EGWENE AND THEIR FRIENDSHIP OKAY

Look at Nynaeve ready to fucking stab a Trolloc for Egwene. And Egwene back there ready to fight, too. Fuck. I love the women in this series okay? But especially these two and Moiraine (and Aviendha).

Okay but pausing this finally gave me a clear shot of what’s going on.

There’s an Aes Sedai in the back, holding Logain (I’m assuming) in stasis? And her Warder (maybe?!) is going in for the kill? Which I’m guessing is going to go poorly for him.

Anyway. This shot, not only is it cool, but is another one that makes me assume we’re skipping Caemlyn.

Because I’m pretty sure those pillars are confirmed to be a Waygate and that’s clearly not in someone’s cellar. Which doesn’t actually matter. I’m not tied to them going word for word by the books, plus this looks sick. But also yay for confirmation that they all hook up again by the end? I hope? I’m going off book a little here, but while I’m really not tied to things going exactly the same, because this is an ADAPTATION and I’m aware of what that means... I’m really hoping they end at the Eye again. That confrontation is just SO COOL. And would make such a good finale.

Listen. We get a FULL ON LOOK at the Myrddraal and I’m obsessed.

That is some Pan’s Labyrinth shit right there and I’m going to have nightmares about it. IT LOOKS PERFECT. I had no idea what to expect. I’m into it.

Also I am obsessed with this whole next sequence of Lan and Moiraine fighting at Winternight. Like, you can SEE his need to protect her because I’m assuming he’s looking over to where she’s channeling.

AND THIS LOOKS SO COOL I’M ALSO OBSESSED ALREADY

PLUS THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE?! SIGN ME THE FUCK UP.

They work SO WELL TOGETHER. The flow. The somersault into stabbing the Trolloc. The weave like, pushing him through the motion or going over him or SOMETHING. I’m SO EXCITED OKAY. This looks SO GOOD. I can’t wait.

AND THIS SHOT?!

I am ALL ABOUT IT.

ALSO THE SHOT OF THE POWER IN ACTION. I’m not going to post it here because it’s super flashy, but watching her call lightning down was just GORGEOUS. And then it flows into the logo of the show.

I’m obsessed with everything. The music. The scenery. The costumes. The casting?!

YOU GUYS. Can it just be November PLEASE.

#the wheel of time #wot spoilers #wot on prime #sorry for who this is turning me into #i'm just so excited #and i can't believe i get to see this show become a thing #i'm so ready #i will post some critical role content this weekend to make up for it i promise #so yes i explicitly spoiled one and a half things #and moderately spoiled other storylines #but i didn't give major details or anything #i just mentioned some things that are connected #i also know that rafe said today that there will be another trailer #and it will be longer #so i will probably not do this for that one lol #because this is too long

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causeiwanttoandican · 3 years

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The Times

Prince William’s close friends on what makes him tick — and why he’s not trapped

March 20 2021, 6:00pm

As the world devours the Harry and Meghan interview, what’s going on with the brother who was left behind? He’s embracing his destiny, William’s close friends tell the Sunday Times royal correspondent, Roya Nikkhah

Next month Prince William will celebrate his tenth wedding anniversary — the day he became a duke and embarked on the most formative decade of his life. Back then, the tentative 28-year-old newlywed was not ready to devote himself entirely to royal duties. A decade on, he is in a very different position.

The job of being the heir to the heir to the throne, of finding a balance between life and duty, is difficult at the best of times. These are not the best of times. In their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey this month the Duke and Duchess of Sussex accused the royal family and the institution around it of racism and callous disregard for a suicidal newcomer, among many other damning charges. Harry the spare also declared that William was trapped within “the system … My brother can’t leave that system, but I have.”

In the immediate aftermath of the interview William was “reeling”, a source close to the duke says. “His head is all over the place on it.” Four days after the Sussexes had their say, he hit back during an engagement with the Duchess of Cambridge at a school in east London. Asked about accusations of racism, William retorted with restrained fury: “We’re very much not a racist family.” He also confirmed that he hadn’t spoken to Harry yet, “but will do”. By the weekend it emerged they had “been in contact”.

William is thought to have been less than thrilled a few days later when that conversation made global headlines after the American presenter Gayle King, a close friend of the Sussexes, revealed live on air that it had not been an easy chat: “I did actually call them to see how they were feeling,” she told viewers. “Harry has talked to his brother and he had talked to his father too. The word I was given was that those conversations were not productive.” The intervention prompted a senior royal source to say that “none of the households will be giving a running commentary on private conversations”.

A close friend of both brothers says Harry’s “trapped” comment was “way off the mark”, insisting that William does not see it that way. “He has a path set for him and he’s completely accepting of his role. He is very much his grandmother’s grandson in that respect of duty and service.”

When the Queen turned 90 nearly five years ago William admitted “the challenge” that “occupies a lot of thinking space” is how to “modernise and develop” the royal family, and make it “relevant in the next 20 years’ time”. Twenty years now seems like a very long time. In the hours and days after the Oprah broadcast, William was at the heart of all discussions with the Queen and the Prince of Wales about how to respond to the Sussexes. He was keen that the issue of race should be acknowledged in the Queen’s statement as an area of particular concern that “will be addressed”.

William has always railed against being a “ribbon-cutter royal” and the issues he champions — mental health, battling racism in football, homelessness and his ramped-up eco-warrior role — are a window into where the future King William V will take the House of Windsor. A friend says: “He’s a small-c conservative. He values tradition and the need to go around the country, but he realises he can make a difference beyond traditional royal duties.”

Today royal popularity is, to put it mildly, in a state of flux, but William’s strategy has been working. Post-Oprah, he ranks just below the Queen at the top of a YouGov poll of royals. Not so long ago such a position looked like a long shot, when the “workshy Wills” and “reluctant royal” tags plagued him and he was clocking up fewer days of royal work than his nonagenarian grandparents. Pictures of him hitting the ski slopes and clubs of Swiss resort Verbier in March 2017, missing a Commonwealth service that even the Duke of York flew back for, didn’t help.

After the lasting PR gold dust of the Cambridges’ 2011 wedding and the births of Prince George and Princess Charlotte, it was the first public nosedive for William, who was still working as an air ambulance pilot. “That pissed him off,” a friend says. “He was leaving home at 5.30am, getting home after dark and saving lives in between, but people were still being critical of his commitment to his [other] job.” William was based at Cambridge airport with East Anglian Air Ambulance for two years, where he was on call for “some very sad, dark moments”, often working “on very traumatic jobs involving children”. He later acknowledged that “after I had my own children … the relation between the job and the personal life was what really took me over the edge, and I started feeling things that I have never felt before”. But it was a job he loved, because of “working in a team … that’s something that my other job doesn’t necessarily do. You are more out there on your own.”

A former royal aide says: “Immediately after their wedding he had a very clear idea of the pace at which he wanted to take things.” William was adamant he wouldn’t curtail his day jobs, first as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot in Anglesey and then with the air ambulance. “If you’re not careful, duty can weigh you down an awful lot at an early age,” he said, insisting he didn’t “lie awake waiting or hoping” to be king. He delayed full-time royal duties until the autumn of 2017, when, acknowledging the Cambridges’ future required more time at “monarchy HQ”, they moved from Norfolk to London and George started school.

He’d had to fight his corner for the air ambulance role. A source close to William reveals “there were lots of raised eyebrows in the Palace when he wanted to do that. While the Queen and his father backed him, some senior courtiers questioned whether it was becoming of a future king to be doing a middle-class role, hanging out with ordinary people. They thought he wouldn’t stick it out, he’d find it boring, or was doing it out of stubbornness to put off royal duties. He was pretty bloody-minded about it, and determined that other people’s expectations in the media or the system shouldn’t get in the way of his own values.” In the wake of Harry and Meghan’s interview much has been speculated about the extent to which royal life is dictated by Palace officials, but it is clear that William has managed to forge his own path. Who knows how high those senior courtiers’ eyebrows rose in 2019, when William spent three weeks shadowing the spooks of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to learn how they combat terrorism. He insisted on being called “Will” and lunching in the canteen every day.

Those closest to the duke say his resistance to the idea of full-time royal duties stemmed not only from a desire to achieve something for himself but also from a fear of the impact on his family life. Miguel Head worked alongside the prince for ten years until 2018, as William, Kate and Harry’s communications secretary and later as William’s private secretary. “In his role everyone’s going to tell you you’re marvellous,” Head says. “The RAF and air ambulance jobs were about knowing what his abilities were, what he was good at in his own right. Without that he’d still be hankering for something that was his own.” After children came along he says William developed a “visceral determination to give them a life of consistency and privacy that were missing for large parts of his own childhood”.

Another close aide says the plan enabling the Cambridges to have a few years of “normal” married life, away from the full-time glare of the royal spotlight, paid dividends: “For years, the battles around privacy and paparazzi intrusion were all-consuming. He wanted to know, could we build them a credible plan allowing them a family life while slowly increasing the profile of official life? It took years to get there, but the success of that plan allowed him to be confident and content in his role. He’s not worried about his kids’ privacy any more and he has been able to be the kind of dad he wants to be.”

“Marriage maketh the man,” a friend says. “Catherine’s groundedness has been the critical anchor. And where his relationship with the media was once all fury and frustration, he now understands using the power of modern media, so the public feel they’re getting enough access.”

The children’s birthdays are marked with photographs — often taken by the Duchess of Cambridge — and there has been a noticeable increase in their public appearances of late. While not “officially” staged, William was happy to let George and Charlotte be photographed at their first Aston Villa match with Mum and Dad in 2019. Pandemic set pieces have shown the family clapping for the NHS on the steps of Anmer Hall, their Norfolk home, and, before Christmas, their first red-carpet appearance together for an evening at the panto with key workers and their children.

As they celebrate their anniversary on April 29, friends who joined the Cambridges on their wedding day tell me the partnership’s equal footing is key to its success. “They’ve got a solid relationship and she gives him confidence,” one says. “There is no jealousy, no friction, they are happy for each other’s successes.” In private William talks as passionately about Kate’s work as his own campaigns, and takes pride in her growing confidence on the public stage.

William has said his grandmother’s approach to being head of state is to take “more of a passive role. She’s above politics and is very much away from it.” He doesn’t plan to meddle in party politics, but he was not happy about the unenviable position the government put the Queen in with the 2019 proroguing of parliament, which was later ruled to be unlawful and forced an apology from Boris Johnson to the monarch. Constitutionally the Queen had no alternative other than to act on the advice of her government, but in William’s reign there will be “more private, robust challenging of advice”. His last three private secretaries — Christian Jones, Simon Case, now the cabinet secretary, and Head — had all worked in government departments, helping William to keep his finger on the political pulse. The new incumbent, the Whitehall heavyweight Jean-Christophe Gray, who served as David Cameron’s spokesman, continues in that vein.

The former Conservative leader Lord Hague of Richmond was last year appointed as chairman of the Royal Foundation to develop William’s work on mental health, the environment and a raft of new support programmes for key workers. “People internationally and nationally respect his credibility and knowledge on these issues,” Hague says. “He’s very persuasive. You only see that behind the scenes. He knows what he wants and he goes out to get it.”

Charlie Mayhew, chief executive of the conservation charity Tusk, has known William since he was 20. In 2005 Tusk and Centrepoint, the homelessness charity championed by Princess Diana, were the first patronages William took on. “In those early years I kept having to pinch myself to remember how young he was,” Mayhew says. “He was much more mature than his age and very aware of his destiny coming down the track. He had a sincerity, but never without wicked humour. His teasing is merciless.”

William knows some people see his passion for conservation as a posh man’s part-time hobby, but Mayhew says the duke’s “genuine and huge knowledge” undermines that view. “He’ll call and WhatsApp to flag up something that I haven’t even seen in the conservation space. He can be impatient to get things done.” Last year William launched the Earthshot prize, a £50 million Nobel-style environmental award to galvanise solutions to global problems over the next decade. He believes “conservation and the environment … shouldn’t be a luxury, it’s a necessity”, Mayhew says. “That’s the drum he wants to beat. He’s got a megaphone and wants to use it in the most constructive way. He speaks for that next generation and I think they can relate to it.”

A turning point for William was his 2015 official visit to China, one of the world’s largest consumers of ivory, where he met President Xi and condemned the illegal wildlife trade as a “vicious form of criminality”. Unlike his father, who has refused to visit the People’s Republic over its human rights record and treatment of Tibet, William’s view was that despite the UK’s fractious relationship with China, “we’ve got to engage”.

“It was very political, raising the illegal wildlife trade in China. I’m sure the diplomats were having all sort of nightmares in advance,” says Mayhew, who joined the duke in China. “But he was gathering greater confidence that he had the ability to be a mouthpiece for the issue.” Mayhew reveals that while William was visiting Japan before China, he still hadn’t secured a meeting with Xi. “But when the Chinese saw all the high-level meetings he was having in Japan, they changed their minds and Xi made time for him.” Later that year, as Xi began a UK state visit, William appeared on Chinese television condemning the ivory trade. Two years later China banned the trade.

In 2018 he spent months prepping for his most high-stakes overseas visit yet, to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories that summer. Navigating the diplomatic tightrope walk between Jerusalem and the West Bank, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Ramallah. As he travelled back to Jerusalem, he changed his speech for a reception with young Israelis and Palestinians to strengthen his solidarity with the latter: “My message tonight is that you have not been forgotten … The United Kingdom stands with you.” It was a bold move, but both sides hailed his visit a success and the officials breathed a sigh of relief. To the delight of the travelling press pack, William’s engagements on the final day were brought forward, allowing the diplomat duke and president of the Football Association to land back in the UK in time to watch England’s World Cup tie.

Ask him if he’s a peacemaker and William will laugh, saying Kate is the mediator. But according to a source close to William and Harry, his bridge-building skills were deployed in the lead-up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018, when tensions in the Kensington Palace household, then still shared by the brothers, were running high: “Every time there was a drama, or a member of staff on the verge of quitting, William would personally try and sort it out.”

As the brothers clashed more over the substance and style of their work, and the family hierarchy that William is a stickler for but Harry is less keen on, a split was inevitable. When they finally divided their households in March 2019, it had been a long time coming. But he never thought that a year later his brother would up sticks for America.

The pair went for a long walk to clear the air after the “Sandringham summit” when the Megxit deal was hammered out, but did not part shores as friends. What upset William the most was Harry and Meghan’s surprise launch of their “Sussex Royal” website before the summit, which featured their blueprint wish list of a part-time, commercial royal future. Later, when the Queen decreed they could no longer use “royal” in their future ventures, their website hit back with this bold statement: “While there is not any jurisdiction by The Monarchy … over the use of the word ‘Royal’ overseas, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not intend to use ‘Sussex Royal’ … or … ‘Royal’ …” Both “the content and that it’s still online is staggering”, a senior royal source says. “That was it for William, he felt they’d blindsided the Queen in such an insulting and disrespectful way,” says a source close to him, who reveals it was still at the forefront of William’s mind at the Commonwealth Day service one year ago. It was the Sussexes’ final engagement as working royals, and the froideur between them and the rest of the family was unmistakable.

It is a year since the Sussexes left for California and William misses Harry. “Once he got over the anger of how things happened, he was left with the absence of his brother,” an aide says. “They shared everything about their lives, an office, a foundation, meetings together most days and there was a lot of fun along the way. He’ll miss it for ever.” A close friend says William “definitely feels the pressure now it’s all on him — his future looks different because of his brother’s choices, it’s not easy.” Another friend says: “It’s still raw. He’s very upset by what’s happened, though absolutely intent that he and Harry’s relationship will heal in time.”

After lobbing bombs in his Oprah interview, Harry said: “I love William to bits … We’ve been through hell together … we have a shared experience … The relationship is space at the moment, and time heals all things, hopefully.” Harry would be wise not to set his stopwatch.

The first test will come this summer, when the brothers could be reunited for a series of family engagements including the Duke of Edinburgh’s 100th birthday and the Queen’s birthday parade in June. In July they are scheduled to unveil a statue of their mother at Kensington Palace, marking what would have been Diana’s 60th birthday, an emotionally charged occasion with the world watching.

While a chasm has opened up between the brothers, William has grown closer to the Queen and Prince Charles. He has helped them to navigate their way through Megxit, Prince Andrew’s removal from public life following the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and, now, the Oprah controversy. “That has changed the way the Queen sees him and values his input,” a courtier says. William also feels his relationship with his grandmother has “massively improved” in recent years and their views are “more aligned than ever”.

Friends say there has also been a “renaissance” in William and Charles’s relationship. “As the years passed there were strains imposed by the system — money, work, competition, Diana,” one says. “Part of William’s evolution is that as he has become closer to his father, he sees their similarities. At William’s wedding there was a gag in one of the speeches that he was more like his father than he’d ever admit, which made a lot of us laugh. As their respective destinies get closer, it weighs more heavily on them and strengthens the bond. The rift with Harry has also brought them closer.”

William is said to hate “flummery”, though the role of future king comes with plenty of bowing and scraping. But in 2017, for the first time publicly, he didn’t get his way. As a new parent worried about rising teenage suicide rates, he had spent a year convening a Cyberbullying Taskforce with big cheeses from tech and social media giants including Facebook, Snapchat, Apple, Google and Twitter. He wanted them to adopt industry-wide guidelines creating safer online spaces for children. According to William the meetings at Kensington Palace got “fruity” and the tech giants didn’t come close to the change he wanted. He was furious.

Tessy Ojo, chief executive of the Diana Award youth charity, sat on the taskforce. “He was deeply disappointed,” she says. “He didn’t come into it as ‘the duke’, he gave emotional pleas as a father.” William has since publicly condemned social media giants for their “false choice of profits over values” and privately offered support to the family of Molly Russell, who took her life at 14 after viewing images of self-harm online. Ojo believes it is William’s “lived experience of the fragility of life that guides the work he does”.

It also shapes the way he and Kate are raising their family. William has said he is determined that the grandchildren Diana never knew should “know who she was and that she existed”. He “constantly” talks to his children “about Granny Diana” at bedtime, so that they know “there are two grandmothers in their lives”. Earlier this month on Mother’s Day, Kensington Palace’s social media feeds published George, Charlotte and Louis’s cards paying tribute to “Granny Diana”, revealing it is an annual ritual for the Cambridge children. After a difficult few weeks for William, a line in Charlotte’s card provided poignant insight into how he is feeling: “Papa is missing you.”

He is on course to be a more modern monarch than any before him, but William is still a creature of habit at heart. He has the same tight circle of friends from his schooldays, one of whom says that, with William, “it’s all about trust and loyalty”. He plays five-a-side football in his Villa socks when he can, goes to the Chelsea Harbour Club gym he went to as a child with his mother and has a “smart casual” public uniform of chinos, jacket, blue shirt and no tie.

“William’s not trying to be down with the kids,” a friend says. “He never wants to be painted as irrelevant or dull, though he’s allergic to being compared to celebrities. The public doesn’t always get to see his funny side, but otherwise he’s the same in private as in public. He once said, ‘I’ll be in the public eye all my life. I can’t hide who I am because I’ll be found out.’ ”

In 2019, during a visit to a youth homelessness charity supporting LGBT people, William was asked how he would feel if one of his children was gay. “Absolutely fine,” he replied. “I fully support whatever decision they make, but it does worry me from a parent’s point of view how many barriers, hateful words, persecution and discrimination might come.” Such a personal exchange was a radical departure from royal engagement small talk. But William, the first in his family to be photographed for the cover of a gay magazine, had personally put the issue on the agenda.

As president of Bafta he gave the academy a diplomatic dressing down in his speech at last year’s ceremony, expressing his “frustration” over the lack of diversity: “In 2020, and not for the first time in the last few years, we find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to ensure diversity in the sector and in the awards process — that simply cannot be right in this day and age.” The 2021 nominees announced this month suggest his words hit home.

William “thinks the public look to him to keep royal work looking modern”, a confidante says. “The Queen and Prince of Wales are providing continuity and stability. He’s carving out his own relationship with diverse communities. He sees it all as a way of doing things now that will help a smooth transition when the time comes.”

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as a former frontline worker himself, William has led the royal charge supporting key workers. “Now, more than ever, he knows what his role in public life is, and he sees the value in it,” a close aide says. Chatting to NHS workers in January, William said: “Something that I noticed from my brief spell flying the air ambulance … is that when you see so much death and so much bereavement, it does impact how you see the world … as a … darker, blacker place.” Soon after the first lockdown was announced, the Cambridges’ Royal Foundation launched Our Frontline, a round-the-clock mental health and bereavement service for key workers.

Miguel Head says the future King William will continue to campaign on his big issues: “I can’t see him backing away from causes he’s passionate about. And while he’s not someone who loves ceremony, he knows the importance of it. When he gets the top job he won’t do away with it all. He’s mindful the monarchy represents something timeless that’s above all of us, and many people like the magic and theatre of it.”

Roya Nikkhah

Roya is royal correspondent at The Sunday Times. Over more than a decade she has covered royal events for the BBC, interviewed the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry and presented the films Prince William, Monarch in the Making and Meghan and Harry: The Baby Years.

#William #TeamQueen #TeamWilliam #TeamCambridge

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astriiformes · 2 years

Text

Fighting at least some of the “I’m annoying about my interests and should shut up about fandom things” brain angst by finally digging up and filling out an old fic writer’s meme that I was tagged in by @raemanzu way back in the laptopless wilderness days (and thus never got around to at the time), so uh, here goes?

How many works do you have on Ao3?

31, although if I can battle some brains by the end of the weekend, it might jump up to 32.... 👀

What’s your total Ao3 word count?

221,102 as of typing this, although again, I actually have two chapters of two different things that? Might? Get posted in the next 24-48 hours, so it may jump a little extremely imminently, even.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

16 by Ao3′s count, but seeing as half of those are just different variations on Doctor Who, Star Wars, or LotR, the actual, like, diverse list is: Gravity Falls, Critical Role, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Pacific Rim, High Rollers, Hilda, Lord of the Rings, and The Owl House

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Gravity Calls (542)

To No Set Gauge they Make Us (510)

In Search of Antidotes (502)

Cups of Human Kindness (390)

Owl Whumptober 2021 (318)

Not wildly surprised that almost all of them are Gravity Falls fics; it’s one of the bigger fandoms I’ve written for. I’m actually not the proudest of most of the ones that chart here, in part because they’re almost all 4-5 years old at this point and I’m a much better writer now, but I’ve been writing less and for smaller fandoms since then. I am actually extremely happy/proud of the fact that my collection of Owl House Whumptober prompt fills made this list -- for a random set of mostly-unconnected oneshots in a much more mid-sized fandom, that’s pretty decent. Makes me hope that if I can manage to actually write some bigger/more real TOH stories, they could get some attention, too. :0

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I’ve been getting back into the habit and it’s good! When people leave really short ones (”I love this!” “Great!”) I tend not to know what to say, because I feel weird just repeating “Thank you!” but when people make even slightly more specific ones and I have more of an idea how to respond it can be really neat to dig into meta thoughts or chat about characters (or even just general fandom talk). I was having a lot of fun in the comments of my Whumptober fills, in part because I had some pretty awesome commenters. It provided a lot of motivation to keep filling prompts while I could!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Not counting works that are just unfinished, probably “Dream-Land” which was peak mid-S2 Stanford Pines melancholy. I generally go hard on my whumpy fics being hurt/comfort proper, so most of the endings aren’t as angsty as the rest of them, but that fic was more like..... philosophical/existential hurt than physical, and is very much the kind of thing you write mid-season when you’re expecting the show to do the resolving for you. Angsty character study nonsense.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’re written?

I used to; I haven’t actually written one in ages. Hilariously enough, while the fandom being crossed into (one Pacific Rim, two Gravity Falls) changed, the one constant is that they were all Doctor Who crossovers. It uh, lends itself to that.

The DW/Pacific Rim one was going to be pretty wild (bizarre alien speculative xenobiology nonsense my beloved, plus crossing over with the weird non-TV interim Doctor Who content with Eight instead of one of the modern Doctors) but alas ended up being one of my big unfinished regrets. Had some fun things planned though (as you do).

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don’t think so; I get the occasional weirdly lukewarm comment I never know how to interpret, especially if they critique one thing or another even as they compliment it, but I’m pretty sure all or the vast majority of comments I’ve ever gotten have seemed very good-faith, which I appreciate (especially as I often write on some fairly personal topics).

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Oh I am far too ace for that.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, and it’s wild to me that’s even like, a thing. Does it happen to anyone else frequently?? Unfathomable.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, which is so cool! Rainy_Elliot translated both Probably 100% Actual Biology and Siren Song both into Russian!

I could have sworn there were a couple more, but I may just be remembering some of FF.net holdovers (I had a few over there translated too, into a couple other languages iirc, but could not tell you any other details after all these years, and we don’t talk about those stories...)

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Combustion, one of my Gravity Falls fics, was written with a then-tumblr mutual. Other than that I’ve mostly written my own things, although these days some of my stories go through a wildly interwoven beta process with @scribefindegil since we share a number of fandoms and I can usually just hand her my laptop from the other side of the couch! I owe her a lot of elements of their plots too, just because talking out my ideas at another person is exactly how I best develop them.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

This is obviously sort of a weird one for me; I haven’t really written any ships into my work (it’s the aromanticism -- I don’t even hate the idea with certain couples, especially canon ones, but I feel like I’d be so bad at it!)

Anyways I have two answers maybe. If I’m allowed to fudge the lines a little, I really love the way I’ve been writing Legolas and Gimil’s relationship in my massive aro!Legolas fic, I Breathed a Song Into the Air -- as a deeply close, committed platonic relationship barreling towards something queerplatonic ship-shaped, although with the messy hiccup that Gimli is romantically interested in Legolas, even if it’s not (romantically) reciprocated. It’s not exactly a classic ship dynamic, but it’s probably the closest I’ve come to writing one, and I actually really adore playing around with the boundaries of committed companionship like that, so if that makes me a “shipper” by proxy, there you go!

That said, I still super don’t see that one as a romantic relationship, so if you want me to pick one of those.... technically the only time I’ve intentionally written romantic interest between two characters has been with some of my really recent TOH stuff, and frankly, that might be the one that finally gets me in the conventional sense. I am in the process of plotting out a pretty long Owl House fic that would, among other character relationships, involve some significant Raine/Eda, which also feels like a fair answer -- although it seems really funny calling something I haven’t exactly written yet my “all-time” favorite! I do love them though. I can’t believe a romantic relationship finally properly lured me in. After all these years.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Oh boy. Often it feels like all of them. But I do have some pretty significant motivation for a lot of the in-progress ones in my drafts that I’ve started in the last year or two, even if some have been slow going. (Someday, I Breathed a Song will update again, I swear...)

I think my answer has to be all 4 or 5 different multi-chapter stories on Ao3 there’s little chance of me finishing. I often feel pretty bad that I started things people got excited about and won’t get to see conclude. It put me off writing fic for a while, because I felt like it always happened when I tried to write long things -- and what I really want to write are long things! -- although these days I seem to be tapping into some much deeper wells of motivation, which is good, even if I’m still a slow writer.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, for sure. It’s one of the main things I’ve always gotten compliments on, which makes me happy, because good dialogue is a hallmark of good fic, in my book. I think I also tend to be pretty good at plot, or at least the bones of it -- coming up with interesting directions for the story to go that are a little different than what everyone else writes, and and that tend to be really character-driven, and also at coming up with interesting symbolism/narrative metaphor and parallels like that. Together, that also makes me pretty good at foreshadowing, which is a LOT of fun when I can get it right and stick the landing.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I write so slowly, and I’m such a perfectionist, so getting stuck on small things and agonizing over sections that are good enough already really hurts me. I tend to have weak spots with things like cohesion between scene transitions or pacing as a result -- I’ll either drag them out too long or rush them because I don’t know what else to write or how else to get past them. Plus, it also keeps me from getting things written at all :P

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it can be done well, definitely, and also that it often is not, but that the latter tends to scare people away from figuring out how to do the former.

There are different thoughts on what doing it well looks like, but for my part I like to try to scatter in small pieces for a larger impact that usually can be figured out from context clues, and add something else that can’t be accomplished just by stating the dialogue is in a certain language. I’ve messed around a little to that effect with Sindarin in Tolkien fic, although I’m still figuring out how best to use more than just a word or two.

That said. I do think it’s something you should always, always find a beta for. If you’re not fluent or confident in a translation yourself, finding another fan who is in order to make sure you’ve done it right/respectfully doesn’t feel like an optional step to me, even though people often treat it that way.

(For an example: my favorite messing around with language I’ve done recently was contrasting a “Dios mío” from Luz with an “Oh, Titan” from Hunter in an Owl House fic -- with the joke being that it was representative of their respective cultural backgrounds, even if one of them is decidedly fantasy and not an Earth “culture” at all!)

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Going to go with a graceful pass on this one, just because I find some of my earliest forays into fic a little too embarrassing to admit to in retrospect. The first fandom that crossed over from FF.net with me to Ao3 though -- and one of my earliest ones -- was Doctor Who.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

So far, it’s definitely I Breathed a Song Into the Air. It’s so personal, and has received such a phenomenal response -- and beyond that, it was my splash back into fic-writing that made me realize I still had it in me and that my skills had improved so much since I stepped away. I’ve also had the most fun planning it and giving it to Scribe to beta, and even just beyond that, I love writing the LotR characters and their relationships to begin with. I know it’s been a year since I updated it, which, oof, but I swear, I have a lot planned for it and it’s not tossed by the wayside. I hope people will still enjoy sticking with me for the journey with that one, because it means a lot to me.

#not tagging anyone but if anyone wants in please steal this from me!#my writing #long post

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wistfulwatcher · 3 years

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Hello I saw your tag on that "im 25 and dying post" please tell us how it got better for you. Im 26, still living with parents, currently having a fight with my boyfriend, and i still have a year until I get my bachelors. The comparison to everyone younger than me is killing me.

I'm really sorry to hear that you're struggling, but I hope you can take some solace in the fact that that post has a lot of notes and you are absolutely not alone in feeling the way you do! I can certainly try and share my experience, but unfortunately I think the biggest factor is just time (and like, a buttload of self-reflection).

I moved back home after college and worked full time at an administrative job I was doing during school breaks. I majored in psychology and anthropology in college, and was planning to eventually go into forensic psychology, but wasn't interested in going straight into grad school. So I did that administrative job for about a year, and tried to find something that was a bit more stable and at least semi-related to my field. I did end up finding a new job when I was 23 - stable, semi-related to my field (a psych/research background was required), and decent pay (especially as I was still living at home). Exactly what I needed, since I still wasn't ready to start looking into grad school.

I was doing pretty well, until I started getting comfortable at that job, and then I started getting hit with the "I'm not doing enough," and "I need to look into grad school," and "will I ever find a boyfriend?" (friendly reminder that 23-year-old me thought she was straight, yikes), "how will I afford to move out, I have to save my money and do it soon!", "I'm not doing anything but watching TV, I'm wasting my life," "I'm lonely, but I'm too tired to try and make friends," etc., etc.

But it wasn't constant. I'd have a flurry of those questions and fears, and then days where I was just living life and doing my job and taking care of my dogs, without any of that. And I don't think I felt good or particularly comfortable those days, it was more like I just wasn't actively thinking about it, like when you feel "good" after a physical pain goes away and you're just normal.

Eventually, I started thinking about all of these concerns I had, and the fact that it felt like it was URGENT whenever I thought about them. It felt like I needed to get my shit together immediately. I also started to acknowledge that there was this big sense of guilt around those concerns; I was too old to be living at home, I was too old to be single, I was too old not to be starting a career. I felt like I was wasting my life (cue the guilt), and I realized that part of why I felt like I was wasting it was that I felt like I was missing milestones I wouldn't be able to do at a later time because the older I was past "normal" the more humiliating it would be to try (cue the shame and embarrassment, hard).

I also started to doubt that I wanted to go into forensic psychology. More importantly, I started to seriously doubt that I wanted a "career" at all. My job (as I kept that same semi-related to my field one) was absolutely a job, not a career. And I think this was a huge tipping point for me, because a career had always been a given in my life. I'm passionate about what I'm interested in, so it literally just never occurred to me that I would be content with a job. I also started acknowledging that I had some messed up associations about being content with a job meaning that I was lazy (because the only way to be ambitious is with a career and, more damaging, a lack of ambition is fundamentally bad).

Now, I need to clarify that all of the above occurred over the course of years. I was constantly seeing "friends" (i.e., of the facebook variety) go to grad school, start careers, get married, buy homes, etc. And with all of that alongside the entire mess I've outlined in the above paragraphs, it was really, really, tough. It gets hard to find a foothold in better thinking, I believe, when seeing all of these people (some younger) doing things "right" was really just compounding my guilt and shame. (I feel like it's worth mentioning, too, that I was always "an individual" growing up, march-to-the-beat-of-my-own-drummer, yada yada. I feel like that's worth pointing out for others who may be in the same boat, because I think it can lead to another layer of shame in comparing yourself to those around you - especially if it's a big part of your identity that you DON'T do that, because I think it's inevitable as you get older, and you're looking to reach these milestones that prove you're an adult.)

So, here I am, acknowledging that I feel guilt and shame about what I'm not doing. And suddenly I ask myself my first really important question: Do I want a career? The question hot on its heels is: Do I want to go to grad school? Honestly, my answer is no. There is nothing in me that's excited by the prospect. But what, does that mean I'm just going to work my job for the rest of my life? How is giving up going to make me feel better about Not Doing Enough?

As I'm opening this door (remember, years), three things happen: 1) I realize I'm gay, 2) I watch Dirty 30, 3) I start playing D&D.

First, realizing I'm gay. Woohoo! Not only was this exciting because girls are amazing, but it made me seriously look at myself. Realizing I had spent 25 years assuming one thing about myself that turned out to be completely wrong made me question everything for a while. I started to ask myself, "Do I really like this?" more often, which seems like a really obvious question, but I'm not convinced that it's one people ask themselves consciously all that often. But once I did, I realized how freeing it was to answer, "No," and move on to something I did like.

Second, I watched Dirty 30, the Grace Helbig/Mamrie Hart/Hannah Hart movie. It feels dramatic to say that it changed my life, but the older I get the more I honestly think it did. Mamrie Hart's character is a dental hygienist who is freaking out about turning 30 and feeling very much like that text post I reblogged. But (spoilers), at the end of the movie, she decides that she loves her job (job, not career!) because it's comfortable and she has fun at work, and that it makes her happy. She has other things going on, but the idea that a character in a film is content with her job and choosing to "settle" into her life as-is and she's genuinely happy about it? I honestly can't think of a single other time I've seen that happen on-screen. I still think about that ending very often. And after seeing it, I started to ask myself another question regularly: "Am I happy?" Again, this feels pretty obvious, but I think there is something incredibly empowering about making sure you are happy on a regular basis, instead of just assuming that you're fine until something hurts.

Third, I started playing D&D. This is not a plug for D&D! (Well, maybe a little.) One thing that happened to me when I started to get into the urgent-guilt-shame-confusion mess of my mid-20s was that I got very much into a routine of go to work, come home, sleep, go to work, come home, sleep, be totally brain-dead on the weekend, repeat. I found it very difficult to feel creative because I was just wiped, and as all of my creative outlets (gifs, fanfic) are self-motivated, it was really easy to brush them off. I ended up starting Critical Role (this is also not a plug for CR! well, maybe), and I wanted to give D&D a try myself. (I was VERY lucky - my best friend happened to be listening to the Adventure Zone at the same time I started CR, and she wanted to try to run a game. The stars truly aligned!)

I started playing, then DMing, and found that it was a great fit for my interests. I used to be a theatre kid, and I was getting to act again (something I didn't realize I was missing). I was getting to build and flesh out characters, which is what I love the most about writing fanfic. I was also discovering that I was stretching myself - world building and plot had never been my strong suit, but as a DM it became the majority of my creative effort. It gave me soft deadlines with people I didn't want to let down, and it made me truly social again for the first time since college. Essentially, it was filling in all of the gaps of what I felt lacking in my life. This isn't a D&D plug because it wasn't D&D specifically, but rather a hobby that satisfied what was missing in my life. For example, I didn't realize how isolated I was before D&D until I had regular interactions with friends, and that isolation absolutely made the urgent-guilt-shame-confusion worse.

D&D gave me that final push to realize that I was OK with having a job and being passionate about hobbies instead of trying to fit myself into a career, because I was getting out of that hobby what I had been convinced I would get out of a career. I started to really value that I could punch out and go have fun doing exactly what I wanted to do. (It feels so obvious as I type this, but it took me a long time to get here! Sometimes it really is that simple!)

The above is specific to my job vs. career struggle which may not be in the mix of things you're struggling with. But what I do think is universal/can be your take away, is that sometimes you just have to actively choose to let go of the pressure to be doing things. Which, I know, sounds so much easier than it is (and part of why I think it just takes time/is part of growing older). But I think it's something that can be worked at over time, by checking in with yourself about what you feel, why you feel it, and what you need to make yourself feel better in the present.

It's been 6 years since I started that semi-related job, and I'm still there. I still live with my mom. I'm still single. My circumstances have not changed since 24, but honestly? I'm OK. When I check in with myself about it, I do enjoy living with my mom and our dogs (even though I'm 30 and "real" adults move out). I am happy more often than I'm not (much more, actually!). I have a job that allows me to be done after 8 hours, and I have hobbies I look forward to doing each night (and the energy to do them, most of the time). My weekends are free to play D&D with my friends and laugh until I cry. That is what I've worked out as my definition of what I want life to be right now. You'll notice it includes none of the "milestones" that those younger than me have hit.

As I noted on that text post tag, I still struggle with this. I definitely have days where I think, I'm a mess, I'm not DOING anything. It's hard. But time does help, those days become fewer and farther between.

I know that was probably a hundred times longer than you wanted it to be, but I did want to illustrate just how much of a process it is. It takes time. My summary advice is to check in with yourself often, be honest about what you want and what you need, do not let anyone else define where you "should" be. And if you aren't living life how you want to be, identify what you can do (however small) to make yourself feel like you're getting closer.

#ask #me #personal #i am so sorry this is a novel #i hope that it helps you even a little!#can you believe i can write about myself for 2 hours? embarrassing lmao #long post

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yoon-kooks · 4 years

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The Devil Writes Romance | myg

Pairing: Yoongi x Reader

Genre: fluff, angst, college!AU, fuckboy!AU, fanficwriter!Yoongi

Summary: When you’re assigned to work with Min Yoongi on a final project for your Writing Fiction course, you stumble upon the fuck boy’s secret identity as a sappy fanfic writer. With the heart and soul of an aspiring editor, you’re somehow convinced by the boy himself to help make his fictional romance more realistic and heartfelt. Before you know it, you’ve made a not-so-innocent pinky promise with the devil.

Word Count: 3.2k

Warnings: mentions of sex :-)

A/N: this is basically a pilot that sets up a lot of plot for a potential series so lmk if you like the idea and would continue reading it as a series! also special shoutout to @chewymoustachio for the love & support 💖

As spring semester comes to a close, your only goal is to make it through finals week unscathed. Like many of your fellow English majors, most of your finals are extensive papers rather than traditional exams. Normally this would not stress you out, but your Writing Fiction course has thrown a curveball your way: half of your grade is dependent on your partner, Min Yoongi.

Personally, you’ve never been a fan of partner or group projects because you always somehow end up with incompetent teammates who either do a half-assed job or ghost you until the day before it’s due. Either way, you’ve learned and become accustomed to relying only on yourself.

However, as your Writing Fiction class has taught you, a writer’s world is not built upon independence. Rather, it’s built upon the opposite. Writers depend on others for support, feedback, and revision. That’s where your final project comes on.

For your final project, everyone in your class signed up for the role of either a writer or editor, and you’ve been randomly paired up with someone who chose the opposite. It’s no secret to anyone that you dream of becoming an editor in the industry. You love the idea of reviewing other writers’ works and providing them with as much feedback and constructive criticism as possible. Naturally, you signed up to be an editor.

As fate would have it, you find yourself paired with the boy who’s pretty much slept with the entire class, including the TA, and allegedly the professor. The only person left unchecked on his list is you. Somehow, you’ve heard more gossip about his sex life than his skills as a writer, which is why you believe you’re fucked for this final.

“Hey, Partner,” Yoongi catches up with you in the hall after class. His signature cedarwood cologne is too heavy to ignore as he strides beside you. “Are you free tonight?”

“To brainstorm some story ideas?” You tilt your head and add an innocent tone to mask the skepticism. Truthfully, you know what he really wants. It’s not your first rodeo.

“I actually already have a story in mind,” he says. “But I was thinking you and I could-”

“What’s the story about?” Because you’d much rather hear about that than one of Yoongi’s many excuses to get in your pants.

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” he shrugs as the two of you walk out of the building and into the beaming afternoon sun. You lift an arm to block the light out of your face, only to realize the boy’s shadow blocks it for you. Apparently, there are perks to walking with a buddy after class. “I’ll send you the draft tonight.”

“The professor literally just assigned the project and it’s not due for another week,” you raise an eyebrow. Weird, you’ve never seen a college kid so proactive and eager to get a head start on their final project. Something tells you the boy is just spouting bullshit and telling you what you want to hear. “You don’t have to rush and write all ten thousand words in a single night…”

“Well I don’t have any other plans tonight,” he says. “Unless you want to-”

“Nice try, Yoongi.” You start walking further ahead of the boy. You’re forced to squint as to not be blinded by the sun. “I guess you can have fun writing your story, then.”

“You really know how to play hard to get, Y/N…” Yoongi whines in that raspy voice of his, eliciting the tiniest smirk on your face. You might not approve of his fuck boy tendencies, but you’re also not opposed to teasing him a bit.

“If you really want to impress me, keep your word and send the draft tonight.” You spin around and wave farewell as you battle the sun. “Your editor will be waiting.”

As soon as you arrive home, you realize Yoongi isn’t the only one without any Friday night plans. With nothing to do, a large part of you hopes your partner keeps his promise so you can at least try to be productive over the weekend. But ten thousand words is a lot to write in one night. It’s more than likely that he won’t be able to pull it off.

In an attempt to wind down, you scroll through the blog feeds of your favorite writers. Many of them, such as @suga-fix and @jk-seagull, are college students like you, so you can appreciate all the time and effort they put into their craft on top of their school work. While the fan in you loves to shower them with sweet and supportive messages, the editor in you hopes to one day be able to also provide feedback on a professional level.

At the very top of your feed is a short post from @suga-fix, a romance fanfic writer whom you recently found while scouring the #jiminscenarios tag for something free of smut.

“Does anyone else struggle to ask their crush out or is it just me? Asking for a friend.”

You giggle at the innocent question. In addition to writing the sappiest Jimin fanfics, Suga is known to post snippets of his own nonexistent love life on his blog. From what you understand, he’s a boy who’s never experienced true love firsthand. Recently, however, he’s been gushing over his pretty classmate. You’re waiting for the day when he builds up enough courage and finally lands a date.

Until then, you’re satisfied with reading his ongoing fictional love story featuring the popular idol, Park Jimin, as a struggling romance novelist who finds inspiration in a skeptical wedding photographer. You absolutely adore the story, the characters, and the underlying narrative, but the editor in you can point out an area for improvement: his romance game.

You notice the two main characters lack a certain level of chemistry to get the readers quaking and itching for more. Most of the time, the intimate scenes end with poor Jimin getting friendzoned, which certainly has its charm and humor. But truthfully, you expect a little more love from a romance fic.

You suspect that, to some extent, this is intentional as the characters are the type to dance around intimacy and have pessimistic views on romance overall. However, you also wouldn’t be surprised if Suga’s own personal inexperience with romantic scenarios is what holds him back the most.

After catching up on your socials, eating dinner, and hopping out of the shower, you sit in the darkness of your room and check one more thing before calling it a night. No email, no text, no draft from your partner. Not that you were actually expecting anything, but it would’ve been nice for the fuck boy to prove you wrong.

To be fair, you know how long and painful ten thousand words can be. If Yoongi is in fact sprinting through those ten thousand words and gets them to you by the time you wake up, you’ll consider him a man of his word.

[4:56AM] Yoongi💋 “I emailed you the thing”

[7:24AM] Y/N “Ooh, I’ll take a look 👁👁”

[7:25AM] Y/N “Btw I don’t appreciate you adding an emoji to your contact info on my phone”

After changing Yoongi’s contact name to something more appropriate, you go into your email and find the story draft that the boy had sent at exactly 4:55AM. The word count on the document says 10,382. Not too shabby, Min Yoongi.

You grab your morning caffeine and crack open your laptop to read your partner’s story on the big screen. Right away, you notice the document is titled “Untitled1” which is never a great sign, but you’re willing to forgive him if its content is stellar.

The first thing that puts a smile on your face is the main character, Jimothy. His name reminds you of your favorite idol, Jimin, with a playful touch. He’s the romance novelist who attends his friend’s wedding where he has a chance encounter with a pretty wedding photographer-

Wait. You’re pretty sure you’ve heard this story before. In fact, you know exactly where it came from. You pull up Suga’s Jimin fic and put it side-by-side against Yoongi’s version. While it’s not exactly a copy-and-paste situation, the romance novelist x wedding photographer premise is too similar for it to be a mere coincidence.

At first glance, you find it funny that Yoongi took the time to reword everything to not be caught by the plagiarism police. If you didn’t know any better, you’d assume he did a quick search of Jimin fanfiction and picked one that was moderately popular but not viral enough for anyone to notice. Jimin fanfic just so happens to be your guilty pleasure, so there’s absolutely no way you’d let a plagiarist slip one past you.

But upon further review, after digesting the entirety of the fic, you find that Yoongi’s flow and choice of words are eerily similar to Suga’s style without recycling a single line. Likewise, you notice the same lack of chemistry in both versions of the story. You suppose this can only mean one thing, and you need to confront him about it in person. Because the last thing you want is for him to ghost you like everyone else you’ve ever worked with.

[8:42AM] Y/N “I just finished looking it over”

[8:43AM] Y/N “Wanna get coffee & discuss? ☕️📖”

[8:45AM] Yoongi🐍 “Oh? I thought you weren’t interested in a date with me 🥺”

[8:46AM] Y/N “Let’s meet in about an hour at the coffeehouse on campus?”

[8:46AM] Yoongi🐍 “See ya there, my editor”

As you stir the oat milk into your second dose of caffeine for the morning, you wonder how you can bring up your suspicions in an appropriate and professional way. Should you confront him about it immediately, gently coax him in that direction, or take a more passive approach to see if he’ll mention it on his own? Because if you’re going to be this boy’s editor, you want to do it right.

“Thoughts?” Yoongi enters the chat with slightly damp hair and an iced Americano in hand. Your only thought in that moment is about how fucking good he smells, even in the presence of the rich aromas of your favorite roasted coffee beans. But you’ll leave those thoughts to yourself.

“My first thought was that you sent me a document titled Untitled1,” you say.

“I have a working title,” he assures you. “But I’m curious to hear what clever titles my editor has come up with after reading through the whole thing.”

“Pink Cheek Syndrome sounds appropriate.” Because that’s the title of Suga’s original fic. It’s also the term coined by Jimothy to describe couples who aren’t as in love as they’d like to believe. It’s a facade to fool everyone, including themselves.

“Great minds think alike after all.” Yoongi leans in to give you a high-five, but you just throw a balled up napkin at his palm. Confess. Just confess already.

“Can I ask what inspired the concept?” You bite your lip. “You don’t strike me as the romantic type.”

“Don’t you ever feel like people get into relationships just for the sake of being in a relationship?”

“Yeah.” All the time, in fact.

“It’s pretty shallow if you ask me,” he says with a nonchalant chuckle, as if he’s not the shallowest person on campus when it comes to established relationships. “PCS is just a commentary on people like that vs people like you and me.”

You and him? You’re not sure you have anything in common with someone who breaks hearts and sleeps around so casually.

“Sounds like something a fanfic writer would come up with.” Because it is.

“Sounds like something a fanfic reader would say,” he throws back at you.

“In fact, there’s a Jimin fanfic I read once called Pink Cheek Syndrome,” you say. The dose of coffee moving up Yoongi’s straw suddenly freezes. “You’re the original writer, right?”

He swallows hard and raises an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”

“The writing style matches even though you didn’t copy and paste,” you scroll back through Yoongi’s version for reference. “And besides, scrambling to write ten thousand words in one night is typical fanfic writer behavior. A true plagiarist doesn’t know what it means to put those hours in.”

“Nothing gets past your sharp eyes, huh, Y/N…” Yoongi sighs, failing to hide behind his Americano. “I’m equally impressed as I am scared.”

“Wait, so you’re really Suga?” Your eyes widen. Suddenly you’re overcome by a wave of emotions. Excited, nervous, star-struck. But most of all? Confused. “How?”

“Just don’t tell anyone.” He picks up his phone and starts typing away at something.

“I won’t,” you say, also pulling out your phone to check up on the @suga-fix blog. Sure enough, there’s a stream of several new posts from a few seconds ago.

“fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK”

“I feel so exposed 😔”

“Quick, everyone act like this isn’t a fanfic blog.”

“We can pretend to be like a porn blog or smth”

“I can read everything you’re posting, you know.” You show your blog feed to Yoongi, who’s still busy keysmashing. When he finally glances up from his screen to yours, the look on his face is both flattered and distressed.

“You follow me, too?” The boy takes a long sip of his Americano, shifting his beady little eyes and plotting his next move. “What’s your URL?”

“You’re totally going to block me,” you frown. “I already told you, I’m not going to tell anyone…”

As you continue to scroll through Yoongi’s blog, you notice his post is gone from the day before. Perhaps that’s what the boy is desperately trying to hide.

“By the way, is it true that Min Yoongi, resident fuck boy, has a crush on someone?” You get excited because that’s not something you hear everyday. In regards to Yoongi, it’s always been sex, sex, and more sex. He’s notorious around campus for having one-night stands and breaking hearts the morning after. You’d never imagine a boy like him having an innocent crush on anyone.

“Where’d you hear that?” The boy across from you gradually sinks deeper and deeper into his seat every time you open your mouth to expose him further.

“You made a post yesterday about not being able to talk to your crush properly,” you giggle. “It was kind of cute.”

“I was talking about my friend.”

“You can’t fool me, Yoongi. I’m not that oblivious.” You take a sassy sip of your coffee and lean forward. “So who’s your crush? Is it someone in our class?”

“Don’t worry about it, Y/N,” he shoos you away and slides a hard copy of his draft in your direction. “Let’s not get distracted from why we’re really here.”

“Hold it, I’m not just being nosy for the gossip, you know,” you say. “From an editor’s perspective, I think the romance in your story could benefit from you interacting more with your crush.”

For a moment, Yoongi just gives you a look. You can see the wheels spinning in his head. “Well, that person doesn’t seem very interested in me, so…”

“Unrequited love?” you gasp. The plot thickens.

“Yeah,” he chuckles at your enthusiasm. “But you did give me an idea just now.”

You examine his handsome face for a hint of what’s to come. His signature Fuck Boy Smirk tells you he’s up to no good again. “I’m listening.”

“You’re my editor, right?” he asks. You nod. “And your main critique is that I should up my romance game, right?”

You nod again.

“What if you help me make the romance scenes more believable and realistic?” The boy watches as you blink your wide eyes, stunned at his suggestion. You know he doesn’t just mean that from an editorial standpoint. Surely there’s an ulterior motive here. “And before you jump to any conclusions, no, this does not include sex.”

Oh.

You’re reminded that Yoongi doesn’t write smut, despite how much of a fuck boy he is in real life. Because you’re sure he has the capability and personal experience to write some steamy and wild sex scenes. And yet, he chooses to focus on hardcore romance instead, something he himself is much less familiar with. It’s mind-blowing to think that a boy as experienced in bed as Yoongi could be so inexperienced elsewhere.

Why does he write the opposite of how he lives?

“I don’t think that’s how editors work,” you finally respond to Yoongi’s proposal, flipping through his draft and writing in the margins. You have to admit, the boy has a gift. His stories would no doubt skyrocket in popularity if the lovey-dovey scenes could draw out true, raw emotions as though you were there living in those moments. As a reader, you want him to pull at your heartstrings, smash your heart into a million pieces, and slowly put it back together. All of that can be achieved if the writer gets some hands-on experience in the love department. “But I get what you’re saying.”

“So is that a yes or a no?” He sips down the rest of his Americano as you continue to think your decision through.

Given what you know about Yoongi’s track record as a fuck boy, you’re hesitant. But at the same time, the ambitious editor in you knows what you want.

“It’s a yes,” you sigh. “But only if you promise me a few things.”

“Go on.”

“One, you’ll come to me if you’re struggling and need suggestions, advice, or someone to talk to.”

“Easy. You can be my editor-in-chief.”

“Two, if anyone asks, we aren’t dating.”

“Got it.”

“Three, help me study and prepare for the rest of my finals.”

“We can have study dates.”

“And lastly, please don’t sleep with anyone else while we’re doing this thing. Because that would be awkward.”

“Oh? I didn’t realize you were the possessive type, Y/N,” he smirks.

“Not trying to be That Controlling Bitch who forbids you from sleeping around, but I think it would defeat the purpose of what we’re trying to accomplish.”

“But what if this goes on for a while?” Yoongi strokes his imaginary Santa beard. “You expect me to practice abstinence forever?”

“It won’t go on forever, Yoongi,” you giggle at the boy’s silly remark. “Because eventually, you’ll find someone who can bring out those romantic feelings better than our faux intimacy ever will.”

“But you’ll still be my editor-in-chief?”

“If everything works out, then I don’t see why not.” You want to be optimistic about a long-term deal, but you can’t seem to rid yourself of the doubt stuck in the back of your mind. Because humans, not just fuck boys like Yoongi, seem to have a hard time keeping their promises. “I only ask that you don’t break my trust.”

Before responding, the boy meets his eyes with yours. You suppose tender eye contact is a skill he acquired from his flirty lifestyle. You, on the other hand, blink away. Eye contact longer than a glance has always made you feel vulnerable.

“I won’t, Y/N,” he says, coating his raspy voice with a layer of honey. It’s almost as intoxicating as his cedarwood cologne, but that’s another thought you’ll keep to yourself.

You watch as he slides his pinky into view, over the draft and coffees to make it official. After cracking a smile at his childish gesture, you wrap your pinky around his, thus marking the beginning of your deal with the devil.

#bts scenarios #bts fanfic #bts imagines #yoongi x reader #btsboulangerie #bts fluff #bts angst #bts x reader #yoongi fanfic #bts college au #bts #bangtan #yoongi #suga #suga x reader #suga fanfic #the devil writes romance

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dwellordream · 3 years

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A Six of Crows Review: Joost and Inej I

This marks the beginning of my review of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Before I go any further, I want to provide context for my experience/knowledge of the book and its fandom. Six of Crows was published in 2015 when I was 16. I picked it up in a bookstore and read the first few chapters idly while shopping, before putting it back down.

At the time, my dislike of what I’d read was probably primarily fueled by the realization that it was by the same author as Shadow and Bone, which I had tried to read a few years before and disliked, and because at the time I was aging out of the YA genre in general and had very little patience for many of its familiar tropes.

In recent years, Six of Crows and its companion and predecessor series, the Grisha Trilogy, have become one of the most popular YA series online. The avid fan response and promotion of it on social media no doubt led to the Netflix series being greenlit and it is obviously trending at present due to the success of the series. With all that in mind, I’ve decided to try Six of Crows again and see for myself what all the hype is about.

Some more caveats: I am 22 years old. I am aware Six of Crows is YA literature intended for a middle and high school audience. I will not be holding it to the standards I would hold an adult grade fantasy book, in terms of prose, themes, or content. I am aware that I am not necessarily the target audience for the book and these reviews are in no way intended to shame or disparage anyone who enjoys the book.

Criticism is a healthy part of any fandom and does not necessarily constitute hate. I will likely critique elements of the book in my write up. That does not mean I have a personal vendetta against the author, publishers, or the TV show. Please do not take this as a personal attack if you’ve enjoyed the book. This is just intended to promote discussion and to gather my own thoughts.

If you follow me, I am tagging this as ‘in review’ so you know what to block if you don’t want to see my posts on your dash. I will be going through 1-2 chapters per weekend. This weekend I will be looking at the prologue, aka Joost, and the first Inej chapter.

Jumping into things, here is Joost:

The prologue is our introduction to Ketterdam, the setting of Six of Crows. It’s been a very long time since I read Shadow and Bone and so all I really know is that Ketterdam is a city in an island known as Kerch, based off the map. The major countries or kingdoms of the mainland to the east appear to be Fjerda, Ravka, and Shu Han, though it is unclear how they differ from one another at this point.

Ketterdam through Joost’s eyes is a sinister and dreary place, a city under a grimy night sky and full of dangers. Joost works as a hired guard for a very wealthy man named Hoede, who keeps grishas, powerful magic users, as indentured servants. Joost is infatuated with one of them, Anya, a healer, though he knows she is not likely to return his affections and furthermore cannot wed without the permission of her owner. We also learn that grishas are at risk for being kidnapped and sold by slavers due to their value. However, the indentured servant system of Ketterdam thus far doesn’t seem to be much better than slavery, given how little freedom the grisha have.

Overall, the prologue is supposed to give us a sense for the setting of Ketterdam and interest us in the main hook of the novel, which seems to be a mysterious substance that grisha can ingest to heighten their powers for the benefit of their masters, though it has the risks of making them uncontrollable. How well is this done?

Through Joost’s perspective we can glean several things; Ketterdam is a dirty city with rampant income inequality, full of crime and corruption. Magic is an established system within Ketterdam, but the magic users do not seem to be at the type of the hierarchy despite their powers, which suggests they are a minority to the extent of which they can still be controlled by the elite class of non magic users, if they have enough money and power.

It is also very obvious through the references in the prologue that Ketterdam is heavily based off the Netherlands during the Golden Age, which was Amsterdam’s (Ketterdam… Amsterdam… not subtle) economic and cultural boom during the 17th century, aka the 1600s. Notably the world’s first stock exchange began in Amsterdam in 1602, and it was a major port and trading hub for the Dutch East and Dutch West India Companies.

It is not clear if Ketterdam is also intended to be a 1600s-esque society, timeline wise, but we know that rifles are common place and there is a thriving merchant class who rule as opposed to old aristocracy, which seems to indicate a Renaissance style setting, as well as the urban environment in general. (That said, from the advertisements for the Netflix show, they seem to have updated it to a more Victorian-era 1800s society, in terms of fashion and general aesthetics).

Overall, the prologue does its job. It gives us a vague idea of what Ketterdam is like, how the society is structured, and who holds the power. It also ends on a suspenseful cliffhanger, leaving Joost’s fate unclear. Where it falls flat is that I think a little more time could have been spent fleshing out Joost as a narrator, even if this is his only showing in the book.

His internal monologue comes across as a bit dry and mechanical, as if the author is aware he is just a means to an end to start the book off with a bang, and he quickly turns into a walking camera (just there to report events to the reader, with no internal input from him), for the second half of the prologue, as we switch to just watching Anya and Hoede through his eyes. That said, it’s not a major problem, as Joost is clearly not intended to be a main character, and his narration still effectively conveys what is happening and sets the dark tone of the novel.

What I would have liked to see from the prologue is perhaps the POV of Anya herself, or the small child she is being forced to experiment on, as that might have been a more compelling and immerse introduction to Ketterdam and its dangers rather than the fairly bland and neutral Joost, who doesn’t really feel like a character so much as a bland stand-in for the reader. If we were put in the shoes of Anya, suddenly called upon by her power hungry employer to participate in this unethical test, or in the shoes of the small boy caught up in the middle of this, it might have been both more thrilling to read and given a more gritty sense of what it’s like to be on the lowest rungs of Ketterdam’s society, at the mercy of the most powerful.

Moving onto Inej, we run into some similar problems. After Inej’s first chapter, I couldn’t tell you a single thing about her, other than that she was an acrobat as a child, that she is part of the street gang known as the Dregs, and that she intensely values loyalty. This isn’t a problem, per say, but while that’s all good to know, it doesn’t give me any sense of Inej’s actual personality, which doesn’t exactly bode well. Like Joost, she comes across more as a walking camera and occasional tourist guide as opposed to a human character with her own worries, hopes, and fears.

I think this may become a recurring problem with Bardugo’s writing - ie all tell, no show. Inej is good at telling things. She tells us where we are as we follow her to the location of a stand-off between rival gangs, she tells us that Kaz, their leader ‘doesn’t need a reason’, though she never exactly explains what that means other than that he is widely feared, she tells us that she is very fond of her knives.

But in terms of writing, we shouldn’t have to be force fed all this information via her internal monologue, which, again, entirely cuts out once the action picks up, just like Joost’s. While I don’t need her thoughts on every threat or gunshot, it would be nice to feel as if she hadn’t just vanished from the story completely as soon as the dialogue starts.

We also meet Kaz and Jesper, though I couldn’t tell you much about them utter than that Inej clearly admires, even venerates Kaz as an accomplished intimidator and chess master, and that Jesper is clearly the joker of the group.

It also feels incredibly weird that this parley between gangs in happening in front of the city’s stock exchange. Inej tells us this is because the Exchange is one of the few remaining neutral territories, but it’s also heavily guarded, which means every time a gang wants to parley, they have to pay out the cash to bribe all the guards to very pointedly ignore a meeting between rambunctious and trigger happy street gangsters on their literal doorstep.

I understand why Bardugo chose this location, wanting to contrast the violence of the gang members with the economic injustice that the Exchange and its merchant rulers represents, but it just seems a bit silly. They couldn’t meet at the docks? In an alley way? This is like picturing the American Mafia hosting a public meeting at the New York Stock Exchange with a bunch of cops twiddling their thumbs nearby.

The foreshadowing that Bollinger is the traitor (‘I’m not going to bet on my own death’) also seems very heavy handed and a little much, but I’ll let it slide.

It’s also not really clear while Inej is present at this meeting in the first place. Kaz commands her to keep watch from above, but he has also put a contingency plan in place that doesn’t even involve her, having bought out some of Geels’ men from under him. Why put Inej looking down from above if you’re not involving her in this plan? Her only role seems to be to watch, and she doesn’t even have a gun she could play sniper with. It just seems like a hamfisted way of getting Inej out of the danger zone so the author can have her as a passive spectator to the violence that follows.

This is my main problem with this chapter. It’s supposed to introduce us to Inej, but really, it’s introducing us to Kaz. Which is fine, but as he also has a POV in this book, it seems a bit lame that her own chapter is completely overtaken by showing off A. his smarts and B. how dangerous he is, despite being dismissed as a young ‘cripple’ by the likes of Geels.

Geels is also… not a greatly done villain. I get that he’s supposed to be small fry and is just a precursor to much more threatening opponents, but his every line of dialogue feels designed to show off how cool and Machiavellian Kaz is in comparison. He doesn’t seem like an actual hardened criminal who has underestimated his opponent, but a somewhat cheesy cartoon thug who unironically says things like “How are you going to wriggle your way out of this one?” with his full chest. The effect is comical, and not in a good way.

This chapter also shows off Kaz’s sadistic side in full display, which is probably one of the only interesting things about it, though it would be nice if we got any input at all from Inej on this… instead she completely vanishes from her own narration, to the point where she might as well not be present at all. Kaz has no qualms about tracking down his enemies’ weakness, such as lovers and family, and threatening them.

But the open horror and shock Geels reacts with seems incongruent, as if Kaz were the first up and coming gangster to actually consider threatening someone’s family or girlfriend. That seems pretty par for the course for violent criminals trying to claim territory and unnerve their rivals, yet Inej and Geels himself react as if no one had ever thought of sinking to the level of ‘do what I want or I’ll kill your loved ones’ until Kaz invented it. It just feels a bit silly and on the nose.

Really, my overarching issue with this chapter is that it’s not about Inej at all, it’s just an introduction to the Kaz Brekker fan club. I don’t automatically hate Kaz as a character, but his introduction is heavyhanded and comes at the cost of any establishing character moments for Inej. The most we get out of her is her brief pangs of sympathy for Bollinger despite his treachery, and her brief reference to her childhood. Maybe future Inej chapters will totally change this, but right now, it’s not a great sign of what’s to come.

I can think of about a hundred things Inej could have done or said this chapter to develop or establish her personality at all, but all we got was her briefly holding a knife to someone, and her briefly saying a prayer for Bollinger. I think it would have worked much better had this plan to catch Geels with his pants down been Inej’s invention or at least worked out between her and Kaz, rather than her just there to play lookout and admire how cool Kaz is.

Or at the very least, we could have seen the scene referenced where she searches the crime scene of the assassination, instead of that getting two lines and an entire chapter being devoted to what boils down to a pissing contest over which gangs gets rights to a certain neighborhood.

Next week, we will look at Kaz I.

#in review #six of crows #ya lit #inej ghafa

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maewinter · 2 years

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#please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please

My Top Posts in 2021

I posted it on twitter but I'm posting it here to now that I have the time lol. Commissioned @ursifors to draw this amazing wolf hybrid Ze based off of @tossedboxes au!! I love it so much!!

99 notes • Posted 2021-06-01 17:43:54 GMT

Tagged by @keeningthoughts

one picture from your camera roll without downloading to sum up your personality and then tag 5 people...

@topazgirlygirl @chiangyorange @inkichor @lady-spieroles @hypn0ticas

111 notes • Posted 2021-02-06 01:25:53 GMT

I've been thinking about Ashton and Dariax and how of they ever met they would either immediately become best friends or instantly try to kill each other

117 notes • Posted 2021-11-07 17:22:27 GMT

ZombieCleo Appreciation Day

Ello hermitblr, Recently there was Impulse appreciation day and it was wonderful!!

Its a great thing to show they content creators we like that we care which is why some of us have decided to put together a ZombieCleo Appreciation day!!

Over the years Cleo has had to deal with a lot of stuff from the community that she shouldn’t have to deal with. So we think its a good Idea to show her that we really do care about her and the things she does for us!! The date of the appreciation day will be on February 28th. The last day of February and on a weekend so hopefully it will be easy for Cleo to look at what you all create so mark in your calendars folks!!! Tag your stuff with #cleo appreciation so it’s easy to find!!

Rules

No NSFW stuff, obviously

Positivity only, There is no need to be mean to others during this. Friendly/joking cruelness is fine

No angst, This is supposed to be happy!!

Things that are accepted, Anything you can create!!! Art, stories, mood boards, etc. even if you just make a post saying you appreciate Cleo that's great!!

Please reblog this post and spread the word and not just on here, Make sure people on Instagram and Twitter know as well!!! I don’t use those apps so I’m relying on you guys!!

Have fun!! Follow the rules!! and Lets show Cleo how much we care!!

224 notes • Posted 2021-02-14 19:11:40 GMT

I haven't seen anybody talking about it so I just need to let everyone know that during his stream today fwhip said he made his and Gem's swords matching because of roseblings and because he knew it would make people in tumblr go crazy

So roseblings is basically Canon now. Fwhip, you made it Canon that you and Gem are siblings

308 notes • Posted 2021-10-04 20:48:56 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #I definitely spend to much time on here

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jeffywittek2020 · 3 years

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Ah, so it was painful to watch. But at the same time I'm kinda proud of him, he had the courage to go on there and he took all the shit that came his way and owned up to stuff. I have to be honest and say, he was trying to talk his way out or around some stuff, which I don't like, but I feel like he's doing that to not incriminate his friends. And that's going to be his downfall, if he doesn't stop. He has to just say his last word, like Ethan said. He needs to read the article fully and make another video about this with the new perspective that he gained there, own up to it, say sorry, and he'll be good. Because to me, it was clear, when he was starting to trip over his words, it was because he was trying to explain himself and tell the truth without throwing his friends under the bus, which, sadly in this case, doesn't seem to be possible and in the end it made it worse for himself.

And that brings me to my next point, which is... Fuck Todd and David. They are watching this from the sidelines as Jeff is being chewed up online, called a rapist and pedophile and they don't even seem to care. He is still being loyal and trying to not throw them under the bus, but his "friends" are not returning the same energy. Especially Todd... Hope he enjoyed his fucking vacation.

And even bigger point - how do they (David and Todd) not feel guilty about what happened that night and think it's okay to ignore this kind of stuff. Especially when at the end of the article the girl who was assaulted said that all she really wants is for them to acknowledge and apologize for this. (not a direct quote, but what I remember from reading it few days ago, so correct me, please, if I was wrong) Where is their respect and compassion for this girl???

About the interview again... I think Jeff was just very nervous and flustered, and also scared about how this all affects his future. And I completely uderstand, I would be shitting my pants if I were in his position and would probably start crying after being grilled like that.

I'm supportive about Trisha and Ethan correcting and checking him on few things, but I don't really feel good about the fact that they wanted him to speak on his friends. Like he said himself, they have to speak for themselves. But in the end it all got better. Also, I was glad to see that Jeff and Trisha have come to terms with whatever kind of beef they had. It feels like this thing is coming to closure with Jeff and I'm content with still supporting him, because it is visible that he cares and he's learning from this.

At the end of the day, I'm sad that the focus has been taken away from the main problem here, which is Dom and getting justice for the girl. Instead this has become this whole "he said - she said" thing. I really hope something is coming for Dom, legally talking. Because otherwise he's not gonna come online and it won't affect him that much. He doesn't have an online career anyway, so nothing to lose, and if there's not any action taken legally, he can still get a job at McDonald's or something, so he would be fine. But I hope he won't be.

I'm so so sorry this is so long but I wanted to gather all my thoughts together (and they're still all over the place lmao) and also hear your opinion if you're up for it. Because I respect the way that you can look at things from different perspectives instead of blindly defending or hating on someone.

I hope you're doing well and are resting after your exams, even with all this going on. This is mentally exhausting, so if you need to step back, please do! Wishing you the best! <3

Okay and I just want to re- empathized something you said right away. A girl was SA and she deserves peace and justice.

I may be a fan of Jeff, but at the of the day this girl’s story deserves to be heard and I’m glad it is. What happened that night was not okay and I am disappointed Jeff played a role by being there , even a minor one at that.

I agree that I think Jeff should make one last statement. He should own up to his missteps and then as much as I don’t think it’s gonna be fun for anyone; he just has to ride the wave of hate. Like Ethan expressed, I think Jeff can come out on the other side of this and I really am rooting for him

As for Jeff seemingly protecting people I really don’t know what to think. I was talking to my friend about it and I think I truly don’t understand his position. Because I said to my friend is you pulled some BS ima call you out. Doesn’t mean that I don’t love you anymore. However, I would never have to publicly call out my friend for 100,000s of people to hear/see. And maybe people would argue Jeff choose that life by being “an influencer” but I’m not gonna act like I completely understand what position he is in.

Todd and David not speaking out this and frankly anyone else who was there but obviously some people are involved then other is just disrespectful. I haven’t read the article since it came out so I also really can’t remember but I think asking them for apology and them not even acknowledging the situation? Not okay

And again I will repeat if there is a reason your not commenting on it now; say that.

And l am def skipping around but I am glad Jeff went on the podcast. I don’t know if Jeff was watching the whole stream but the things they were saying, whether you agree with them or not, they were tearing him apart and frankly I was like holy shit and the fact that he was still willing to go on after all it says something about his character that he willing to be criticized and actually listen to it and hopefully he will take away some of the points they made to him.

I know it’s not time to be jovial but what fucking time line did we land ourselves in where Jeff and Trisha had a mostly civil conversation over zoom ? Never thought I would see the day.

Dom deserves jail.

I been trying so hard to form my opinion about all this from the day the article came out until now, but I really can’t. My brain is all over the place

And I’m not ready to stop supporting Jeff. I don’t think I will be posting on here like the way I was before for a bit, but at the end of the day I really do have so much love for him. I just want to see him learn and grow from this and I really think he can.

Thank you anon 💕 right back at you or anyone else reading this: you are not obligated to stay here or read these things if they are making you feel some type of way. Besides the fact I had exams, I was truly upset by all this and being on here or any other social media platform would have made it worst.

Wishing the best to you anon :) I hope you are having a great end of the weekend

#tw:drama

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warninggraphiccontent · 3 years

Text

16 July 2021

Food for thought

At last week's Data Bites, I noted how 'Wales' is a standard unit of area. This week, along comes a map which shows that all the built-up land in the UK is equivalent to one Wales:

The map is from the National Food Strategy, published yesterday (and the man has a point).

It has divided opinion, judging by the responses to this tweet. I understand where the sceptics are coming from - at first glance, it may be confusing, given Wales isn't actually entirely built up, Cornwall made of peat, or Shetland that close to the mainland (or home to all the UK's golf courses). And I'm often critical of people using maps just because the data is geographical in some way, when a different, non-map visualisation would be better.

But I actually think this one works. Using a familiar geography to represent areas given over to particular land use might help us grasp it more readily (urban areas = size of Wales, beef and lamb pastures = more of the country than anything else). It's also clear that a huge amount of overseas land is needed to feed the UK, too.

The map has grabbed people's attention and got them talking, which is no bad thing. And it tells the main stories I suspect its creators wanted to. In other words, it's made those messages... land.

Trash talk

Happy Take Out The Trash Day!

Yesterday saw A LOT of things published by Cabinet Office - data on special advisers, correspondence with parliamentarians, public bodies and major projects to name but a few, and the small matter of the new plans outlining departmental priorities and how their performance will be measured.

It's great that government is publishing this stuff. It's less great that too much of it still involves data being published in PDFs not spreadsheets. And it's even less great that the ignoble tradition of Take Out The Trash Day continues, for all the reasons here (written yesterday) and here (written in 2017).

I know this isn't (necessarily) deliberate, and it's a lot of good people working very hard to get things finished before the summer (as my 2017 piece acknowledges). And it's good to see government being transparent.

But it's 2021, for crying out loud. The data collection should be easier. The use of this data in government should be more widespread to begin with.

We should expect better.

In other news:

I was really pleased to have helped the excellent team at Transparency International UK (by way of some comments on a draft) with their new report exploring access and influence in UK housing policy, House of Cards. Read it here.

One of our recent Data Bites speakers, Doug Gurr, is apparently in the running to run the NHS. More here.

Any excuse to plug my Audrey Tang interview.

The good folk at ODI Leeds/The Data City/the ODI have picked up and run with my (and others') attempt to map the UK government data ecosystem. Do help them out.

Five years ago this week...

Regarding last week's headline of Three Lines on a Chart: obviously I was going to.

Have a great weekend

Gavin

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Today's links:

Graphic content

Vax populi

Why vaccine-shy French are suddenly rushing to get jabbed* (The Economist)

Morning update on Macron demolishing French anti-vax feeling (or at least vax-hesitant) (Sophie Pedder via Nicolas Berrod)

How Emmanuel Macron’s “health passes” have led to a surge in vaccine bookings in France* (New Statesman)

How effective are coronavirus vaccines against the Delta variant?* (FT)

England faces the sternest test of its vaccination strategy* (The Economist)

Where Are The Newest COVID Hot Spots? Mostly Places With Low Vaccination Rates (NPR)

There's A Stark Red-Blue Divide When It Comes To States' Vaccination Rates (NPR)

All talk, no jabs: the reality of global vaccine diplomacy* (Telegraph)

Vaccination burnout? (Reuters)

Viral content

COVID-19: Will the data allow the government to lift restrictions on 19 July? (Sky News)

UK Covid-19 rates are the highest of any European country after Cyprus* (New Statesman)

COVID-19: Cautionary tale from the Netherlands' coronavirus unlocking - what lessons can the UK learn? (Sky News)

‘Inadequate’: Covid breaches on the rise in Australia’s hotel quarantine (The Guardian)

Side effects

COVID-19: Why is there a surge in winter viruses at the moment? (Sky News)

London Beats New York Back to Office, by a Latte* (Bloomberg)

Outdoor dining reopened restaurants for all — but added to barriers for disabled* (Washington Post)

NYC Needs the Commuting Crowds That Have Yet to Fully Return* (Bloomberg)

Politics and government

Who will succeed Angela Merkel?* (The Economist)

Special advisers in government (Tim for IfG)

How stingy are the UK’s benefits? (Jamie Thunder)

A decade of change for children's services funding (Pro Bono Economics)

National Food Strategy (independent review for UK Government)

National Food Strategy: Tax sugar and salt and prescribe veg, report says (BBC News)

Air, space

Can Wizz challenge Ryanair as king of Europe’s skies?* (FT)

Air passengers have become much more confrontational during the pandemic* (The Economist)

Branson and Bezos in space: how their rocket ships compare* (FT)

Sport

Euro 2020: England expects — the long road back to a Wembley final* (FT)

Most football fans – and most voters – support the England team taking the knee* (New Statesman)

Domestic violence surges after a football match ends* (The Economist)

The Most Valuable Soccer Player In America Is A Goalkeeper (FiveThirtyEight)

Sport is still rife with doping* (The Economist)

Wimbledon wild card success does not disguise financial challenge* (FT)

Can The U.S. Women’s Swim Team Make A Gold Medal Sweep? (FiveThirtyEight)

Everything else

Smoking: How large of a global problem is it? And how can we make progress against it? (Our World in Data)

Record June heat in North America and Europe linked to climate change* (FT)

Here’s a list of open, non-code tools that I use for #dataviz, #dataforgood, charity data, maps, infographics... (Lisa Hornung)

Meta data

Identity crisis

A single sign-on and digital identity solution for government (GDS)

UK government set to unveil next steps in digital identity market plan (Computer Weekly)

BCS calls for social media platforms to verify users to curb abuse (IT Pro)

ID verification for social media as a solution to online abuse is a terrible idea (diginomica)

Who is behind the online abuse of black England players and how can we stop it?* (New Statesman)

Euro 2020: Why abuse remains rife on social media (BBC News)

UK government

Online Media Literacy Strategy (DCMS)

Privacy enhancing technologies: Adoption guide (CDEI)

The Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset is now available in the ONS Secure Research Service (ADR UK)

Our Home Office 2024 DDaT Strategy is published (Home Office)

The UK’s Digital Regulation Plan makes few concrete commitments (Tech Monitor)

OSR statement on data transparency and the role of Heads of Profession for Statistics (Office for Statistics Regulation)

Good data from any source can help us report on the global goals to the UN (ONS)

The state of the UK’s statistical system 2020/21 (Office for Statistics Regulation)

Far from average: How COVID-19 has impacted the Average Weekly Earnings data (ONS)

Health

Shock treatment: can the pandemic turn the NHS digital? (E&T)

Can Vaccine Passports Actually Work? (Slate)

UK supercomputer Cambridge-1 to hunt for medical breakthroughs (The Guardian)

AI got 'rithm

An Applied Research Agenda for Data Governance for AI (GPAI)

Taoiseach and Minister Troy launch Government Roadmap for AI in Ireland (Irish Government)

Tech

“I Don’t Think I’ll Ever Go Back”: Return-to-Office Agita Is Sweeping Silicon Valley (Vanity Fair)

Google boss Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom (BBC News)

The class of 2021: Welcome to POLITICO’s annual ranking of the 28 power players behind Europe’s tech revolution (Politico)

Inside Facebook’s Data Wars* (New York Times)

Concern trolls and power grabs: Inside Big Tech’s angry, geeky, often petty war for your privacy (Protocol)

Exclusive extract: how Facebook's engineers spied on women* (Telegraph)

Face off

Can facial analysis technology create a child-safe internet? (The Observer)

#Identity, #OnlineSafety & #AgeVerification – notes on “Can facial analysis technology create a child-safe internet?” (Alec Muffett)

Europe makes the case to ban biometric surveillance* (Wired)

Open government

From open data to joined-up government: driving efficiency with BA Obras (Open Contracting Partnership)

AVAILABLE NOW! DEMOCRACY IN A PANDEMIC: PARTICIPATION IN RESPONSE TO CRISIS (Involve)

Designing digital services for equitable access (Brookings)

Data

Trusting the Data: How do we reach a public settlement on the future of tech? (Demos)

"Why do we use R rather than Excel?" (Terence Eden)

Everything else

The world’s biggest ransomware gang just disappeared from the internet (MIT Technology Review)

Our Statistical Excellence Awards Ceremony has just kicked off! (Royal Statistical Society)

Pin resets wipe all data from over 100 Treasury mobile phones (The Guardian)

Data officers raid two properties over Matt Hancock CCTV footage leak (The Guardian)

How did my phone number end up for sale on a US database? (BBC News)

Gendered disinformation: 6 reasons why liberal democracies need to respond to this threat (Demos, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung)

Opportunities

EVENT: Justice data in the digital age: Balancing risks and opportunities (The LEF)

JOBS: Senior Data Strategy - Data Innovation & Business Analysis Hub (MoJ)

JOB: Director of Evidence and Analytics (Natural England)

JOB: Policy and Research Associate (Open Ownership)

JOB: Research Officer in Data Science (LSE Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science)

JOB: Chief operating officer (Democracy Club, via Jukesie)

And finally...

me: can’t believe we didn’t date sooner... (@MNateShyamalan)

Are you closer to Georgia, or to Georgia? (@incunabula)

A masterpiece in FOIA (Chris Cook)

How K-Pop conquered the universe* (Washington Post)

Does everything really cost more? Find out with our inflation quiz.* (Washington Post)

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britesparc · 3 years

Text

Weekend Top Ten #470

Top Ten Films to Watch on Star on Disney+

We’ve been watching a lot of Disney+ lately. This is partly due to the fact that our family movie nights have become, almost accidentally, a quest to watch every bit of Star Wars content on the service; so far, we’ve watched the entire Skywalker Saga and are now moving onto the spin-off movies. The younglings have become addicted: Daughter #1 is getting stuck into The Clone Wars, whilst Daughter #2 is demanding we jump straight into The Mandalorian. As for the Princess to my Scoundrel, well, she and I have been thoroughly enjoying WandaVision, which by the time you read this, will have finished. Sob! Nothing to do but gird our loins until the arrival of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in a couple of weeks! At least this excellent TV programme appears to have whetted my wife’s appetite for watching more of the MCU movies. Maybe soon I can make oblique references to Mary Poppins, y’all, and someone else in the house will actually know what the hell I’m on about.

Well it looks as if there’s going to be even more use out of our Disney+ sub as the months roll inexorably on, what with their new Star channel. This is where they’ve shoehorned all the mucky films they bought from the naughty boys and girls at Fox; sweary adult dramas, sexy bits, and scenes of explicit wrist-slapping abound. So now we have this toybox of grown-up content to savour! What to watch? What not to watch? I’ve already started at the most obvious place by diving into some vintage Arnie with Commando, one of the funniest action movies ever made. It did not disappoint.

So where to next? Re-watching semi-forgotten classics, films I’ve not seen in literally decades? Or checking out things that slipped me by (there’s an entire list to be made of “films I read about in Empire in the ‘90s, got really excited about, but never saw”). Do I watch the crappier Die Hard films, or cheesy action movies (er, like Commando, I guess)? Or dive deep into prestige fair? Or just watch Spy Hard for the Weird Al theme tune, practically the only bit of the film I remember? The options are virtually endless.

So that’s what this week’s list is: ten films I intend to watch on Disney+ very flipping soon. Or, y’know, just play Zelda until Falcon starts.

9 to 5 (1980): there was a lot of talk of Dolly around the New Year, and my wife and I even watched a documentary about her. As a result, I had a scoot around to see if it was possible to buy 9 to 5 as a birthday or Valentine’s gift for my better half; it’s a film neither of us have seen in years if not decades, and we’re both big Grace and Frankie fans too. Alas, it’s a difficult film to get a hold of; there doesn’t appear to be a Blu-ray readily available. Praise be, then, that it’s now on Disney+; a terrific comedy film, with a nice bit of feminist bite. I’m not sure if it’ll feel dated or – post-#MeToo – oddly prescient. But I’m really, really looking forward to watching it again.

Crimson Tide (1995): I do love a good tense thriller, and I seem to remember this as being a particularly great tense thriller. This feels like one of those “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore” candidates; a claustrophobic two-hander with no real action, almost a theatrical chamber piece, but made with huge stars and a big-time director (the late, great Tony Scott). I saw it once, on video, when it came out, so it’ll be great to revisit.

The Color of Money (1986): another minor classic that I’ve not seen for decades, and a film I remember even less well than Crimson Tide. It’s cool to revisit (or discover for the first time!) films by great directors, and this is Scorsese we’re talking about. Cruise as a freshly-minted movie star, still taking risks; Newman as a great elder statesman. I’ve genuinely no idea what it’s like, it’s been so long, but I’d love to see it again. Just wish The Hustler was on D+ too!

Quiz Show (1994): I’d mentioned before that there are loads of films from the ‘90s that I read about as an eager young film fan but never saw; this is one of them. An apparently-great drama about corruption at a hugely popular TV show in ‘50s America, with Ralph Fiennes in a very early Hollywood role. I think I’d enjoy it.

Looking for Richard (1996): another of those ‘90s films…! This fascinated me as a teen, and I’d love to see it: a documentary about Richard III, made by Al Pacino, featuring people talking about Shakespeare (got a lot of time for that) and also scenes of the play performed and filmed. It’s a real curio; also weirdly came out around the same time as McKellen’s Richard III. Maybe something was in the water? We’re due another big Rich in my opinion.

Jennifer’s Body (2009): a follow-up from Juno writer Diablo Cody, a horror centred around high school and female sexuality, this has always seemed like it might be a dark, delicious delight; it wasn’t very well received at the time, but has grown in cult status; as has its star, Megan Fox, who I’d argue has not had the easiest time within Hollywood. Anyway, I really like the look of it, and it’ll be cool to check it out.

Tombstone (1993): I love a good Western, and I seem to remember that this is a very good Western. A story of Wyatt Earp that goes beyond the famous gunfight, my memories of this are very vague; I know that there’s a very good Val Kilmer performance as Doc Holliday, and of course Kurt Russell as Earp himself. I might try out that “watch along” feature and watch this, remotely, with my dad.

Romancing the Stone (1984): I probably haven’t seen this since the eighties so I’ve got no idea if it’s really any good, but I do remember enjoying its Indy-inspired adventurism and – in particular – Danny DeVito’s bad guy. Douglas is always great value as a leading man, although from what I’ve since read this is really Kathleen Turner’s show. It’ll be interesting to see if it holds up, but hopefully it’ll be a good stop-gap until they finally get the Indy films up on the service.

Good Morning, Vietnam (1988): another film that I want to revisit, even if I remember it a little better than others on this list. My memory is that it’s utterly fantastic, a really stark look at the realities of Vietnam during the time of the war, and also a phenomenal, very human performance from Williams. Also I remember it being very funny when he does let off some steam (sorry, bit of Commando creeping in there). And really, it’s Williams I want to see again; that earnest, real, pained but beautiful Williams we get in his very best performances. It’s very likely I’ll cry just watching him on screen. God, I miss him.

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016): I needed some crappy sequel to talk about, and here it is. I can’t overstate how much I loved the first Independence Day in ’96, so the (apparent; I’ve not seen it) terribleness of this sequel hit me like a sledgehammer. It can’t be that bad, can it? Is it not at least so-bad-it’s-good? I mean, the trailer made it look atrocious, and it’s killed off Will Smith – the best character! – off-screen, so odds are not good that it’s a hidden gem. But I’ve got to know.

This was actually a pretty tough list, and I had to knock off some films that I’d love to rewatch (Conan the Barbarian, The War of the Roses), as well as stuff like Idiocracy and Office Space that I’ve never seen. Also Kingsman: The Secret Service, which is a fairly recent release that slipped me by, and I’m not sure why I’ve never gotten round to seeing; I blame the kids! Also, there was going to be some xenomorph or xeno-monkey action on here, but frustratingly all the Alien (and Predator!) movies are missing, and the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy – which I’ve also never seen! – is only served by its middle instalment. Yeah, I can watch the seminal ‘60s original again (and I may!) or the indecipherable and strange Tim Burton version, but what about, y’know, the trilogy that everyone raves about? I assume this is due to pre-existing deals keeping the films elsewhere (elusive…), but the sagas of Alien, Predator, and the complete Die Hard package are – I believe – being kept until most profitable (mark my works: Die Hard at Christmas). Anyway, it’s a bit frustrating, that, as I’ve never seen Covenant or The Predator, and I’d love to watch the whole lot from the start anyway.

I guess I can console myself by also watching the one Die Hard film I’ve never seen, namely the critically-acclaimed A Good Day to Die Hard. I mean, I’m assuming it’s critically acclaimed. I guess I’ll find out.

#top ten #movies #disney+#star #films #fox #dolly

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