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urimaginespimp · 2 years

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Winter’s Time - Prologue

Author’s Note: Hi! It's been almost a year since I posted a new fic. A lot has happened in my life and I honestly lost inspiration to write for months until recently. Lately I have been watching HBO’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, and despite the mix reviews about, I genuinely like it and am hooked. This fic will be inspired by it (not entirely a copycat, just that it involves time travel and meeting your soulmate), and will be multi-chaptered.

Blurb: After 60 blissful years of marriage with the love of his life, time hit Bucky with a hard slap. His wife took her last breath peacefully on their shared bed, while he’s stuck still slowly aging. That is, until an old friend from Wakanda offers him an opportunity to visit her from different timelines of their relationship.

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Prologue:

It’s been six months since he had to wake up every morning to an empty bed. Six months since he could only hear your voice in his head and through recordings, and feel like your presence is real in his dreams. Willing himself to get up, he begrudgingly went to the bathroom for a shower.

James Buchanan Barnes did not have an easy life. Ever since he fell from that train, he hasn’t stopped fighting. Fighting under the command of others, fighting to be free, and fighting for what’s moral in his books. But perhaps the most worthwhile one he’s been in was when he was fighting for you.

He got a taste of the closest thing to normal the world could offer someone like him when he met you. And while those sixty years were when he was the happiest, what now? Where does a man in his 160s but looks to be in his 40s go from here?

You’ve always joked about how you starting to look much older than him would cause him to just leave you in a retirement home, but he’d chuckle and place a kiss on your temple, whispering assurances in your ears. Because aside from him being a proper gentleman and a wonderful husband, he swore his soul is forever tied to yours.

The first two months since your funeral, he’s shut himself alone in your shared home. Friends tried to reach out but respected his time to grieve properly. He’s spent it around the house, reading your favorite books and wondering how certain chapters would’ve made you feel, looking through pictures and knickknacks you had around the house that were taken home from every travel, and just letting himself cry when it got too much.

Stepping out of the shower, even the simple task of choosing an outfit to wear reminds him of how you loved mixing and matching his clothes for him. With a heavy sigh, he chose a simple dark shirt and jacket, along with dark pants. Today he was going to see Shuri at Wakanda per her request. She’s paid her respects to you during the funeral, and he’s taking her invitation for a visit to Wakanda as her way to check up on him.

Greeting familiar faces on his way to the princess’ lab, when the doors finally opened, he was taken back by the strange platform in the middle of the room. Shuri, sensing his presence, turns around and greets him. The

“Ah! It’s so good to see you, White Wolf.” She takes a long look at him which reminds him of how his own mother then would check up on him. “Though I’d be lying if I say that you look good. But I understand. Come look.” She gestures for him to come closer to show him what she’s working on.

Approaching her and the tablet she’s holding, he sees that the screen shows a bunch of numbers and some other new features he couldn’t wrap his head around.

“What are you working on?” He finally asked.

“Has anyone told you about the Pym Particles?” she asked, taking slow steps around the platform device in front of him.

“Yeah. I heard they were used by the avengers who didn’t get snapped to time travel and collect the stones. Why?” at this point, he was skeptical of what could come out next of his friend's mouth.

“That’s correct.” she nods. “The Pym particles allowed them to shrink to subatomic size and enter the Quantum Realm. I’m so glad you're saving me the time from explaining a lot.” she grins at him.

She pauses from walking in circles and finally faces him again. “This machine right here is similar to the one they used to travel through time. Only that its smaller, and well... looks a lot better.” She beams smugly and walks over to the nearest table. “And I’ll save you the science talk about how this works, but essentially, Pym Particles are no need for this baby. All you need...” she walks over to a safe and opens it, revealing a small syringe.

Bucky steps back. “Woah, woah, woah. What is that for?”

Shuri smiles at him apologetically. "I'm sorry, I should’ve explained more. How do I simplify this...” She pauses for a second. “Have you seen the movie ‘In Time?’”

“Yeah.” He answers quietly, recalling how you made him watch it once during a date night at home.

“Well, it's quite similar but also a whole lot different from that. You see, once I inject this to a host, you would be able to control which timeline you’d like to visit, right on your forearm” she explains.

“Okay, so what does anything of this have to do with me?” He had a hunch, knowing her all these years have made him predict her better.

She looks at him sheepishly before continuing. “It’s not quite perfect yet. And I wanted to ask if you’d like to do tests?’

“No.” he scowls and turns around ready to leave the lab, and Wakanda itself when she called out to him again.

“You can visit your wife, White Wolf!” He stops in his tracks. Still not turning to face her again, she continues. “Any timeline from her past, even the ones where you haven’t met yet.”

“I wish I met you earlier.” you’d tell him occasionally, the admiration and love heavy in your eyes. All for him.

Finally facing Shuri again, he takes a long look at the machine, and the syringe she’s still holding. The last six months without you have been awful. And it’s like the universe heard his cries and decided he’s suffered for too long in his life.

“What are the risks?”

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I’m a little rusty on writing here lol. Let me know what you think!

PART 1

#bucky #Bucky Barnes #james buchanan barnes #bucky barnes x reader #james bucky barnes #bucky angst #bucky barnes angst #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes au #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes imagine #MCU fanfiction #the winter soldier #the winter solider imagine #the white wolf #Wakanda #Shuri #mcu au #Steve Rogers

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pllguy · 3 years

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My Pre-release Thoughts/Mini-Theory of PLL: Original Sin

Now this theory (the first of many) will cover what I assume will take place or be relevant to what will be happening in the Pretty Little Liars reboot Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.

Based off of what has been released so far as of date of posting (August 19th, 2021) the reboot’s details that have been released are few but already say a lot about what will take place.

The synopsis of the show, in a statement released by HBO Max, follows below.

“Twenty years ago, a series of tragic events almost ripped the blue-collar town of Millwood apart. Now, in the present day, a group of disparate teen girls—a brand-new set of Little Liars—find themselves tormented by an unknown Assailant and made to pay for the secret sin their parents committed two decades ago…as well as their own. In the dark, coming-of-RAGE, horror-tinged drama Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, we find ourselves miles away from Rosewood, but within the existing Pretty Little Liars universe—in a brand new town, with a new generation of Little Liars.”

So what does this tell us? The reboot will be set in a town near Rosewood which could potentially allow cameo appearances from the original show’s cast, though if that happened, it would need to feel organic. I’d love seeing the old cast reprise their characters for a special appearance but I think it would be best to keep the two separate from each other so as to not mess with the original show’s characters and what those writers and creators intended versus the new creators. Also this tells us that not only will this new group of Liars be getting into trouble and keeping secrets, but that their parents previously did something that someone is out for revenge for the past and present.

Ok, so what are sins? In view of the Christian faith, there are Seven Deadly Sins and also what some view as the “Original Sin”. The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and laziness (sloth), while the Original Sin refers to the belief humans are born to sin through their genetics they inherited from the first man and woman, Adam and Eve who first sinned against God in the Garden of Eden. *(Other religions/faiths have sins but since this story will be set in modern-day Pennsylvania, I believe that if it has any religious allusions, it would be to the Christian faith - no disrespect to the others!)

It has been revealed that Bailee Madison, Maia Reficco, and Chandler Kinney, have been cast as Imogen Abel, Noa Oliver, and Tabby Hayworth, respectively (pictured below left to right as mentioned).

Now THIS is what stood out to me… In a show entitled Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, they created a character whose last name is Abel. In the Bible, there is the famous story of Abel and Cain, where one brother kills the other. To sum it up, Cain and Abel are the sons of Adam and Eve - Cain born first and Abel second. So Cain grows jealous of Abel for the favoritism being shown to him by God, so Cain murders his own brother, Abel.

*Note: the original Pretty Little Liars books even alluded to the story of Abel and Cain as that is the basis for the twins storyline of Alison and Courtney… notice the names have the same first letters, except Courtney is Abel and Alison is Cain (since she murdered Courtney).

Now how does this tie into my theory?

Well I believe that the original sin committed by the Liars’ parents was murder of a classmate/friend/enemy for one of the 7 deadly sins (or maybe it was self-defense?). Imogen Abel will either be killed by her (secret/twin?) sibling (like Abel) or she will end up the killer (like Cain). Since the books twisted the Abel/Cain story to make the killer’s name start with “A” (and ultimately be known as “A”), I think it’s fair to guess that Imogen could be the real killer and “A” in the reboot. Also her parents will definitely be involved in the “original sin” since their last name is Abel and Abel’s parents were Adam and Eve who committed the original sin.

I’m unsure how much material the reboot will pull from the books and the original show in terms of storyline ideas or plot points, so who knows what to really expect! However, a few key staples of the Pretty Little Liars brand are things that some fans may be tired of but they are what have made the show and the books the phenomenon they are. They are:

1. a group of characters being targeted, harassed, stalked, and tormented by an unknown foe who is always a few steps ahead of their prey

2. the unknown stalker being connected to the group or a specific member of the group, and having their reason for their actions being tied to the group/individual in some twisted/straightforward way

3. the one thing some fans will be tired of but I personally *love* … TWINS. Yupp, there HAS to be twins at some point in the show, and it has to be crucial to the plot. It was the premise of the books’ storyline, and then in the last A arc storyline in the original show.

For the PLL reboot to feel like I’m watching a PLL-inspired show (since I know it’s all new content), there HAS to be the 3 plot points I just mentioned and I believe that will be factored into my earlier points about Imogen and her family. Imogen will be the new Alison, and she will be the one to have a twin or even be the new A.

Final thoughts/mini-theories:

- I’m pretty positive that twins will be involved in the mystery, to what extent I am unsure but I have strong feelings Imogen will be featured in that storyline.

- It’s possible that Imogen may be a twin, and if it’s not her, I believe it will be one of her parents, since their last name is Abel, tying back into what I explained earlier.

- The Liars in the reboot will be more proactive in figuring out the identity of their stalker and the underlying mystery, than their predecessors in the original TV series. *No hate to the OG Liars but it always felt like they never tried hard enough to get law enforcement or anyone to help them out until the later seasons instead of from the get-go.*

- I don’t want this reboot to be a faithful adaptation in the sense of using all the material from the books but applying it to new characters. I have mixed opinions on it being set in the same universe as the OG show but I’m glad they will have a new setting, characters, and plot. I do still wish they utilize the twins storyline because I personally LOVE twins and have always found the PLL Alison/Courtney storylines one of the best ever written in terms of the buildup to the reveal, the details dropped along the way, and just the way my mind was blown apart reading it the first time.

So that’s pretty much all I have at this point based off what has been released. Hopefully this show will bring back old fans, bring in new fans, and we can rebuild the PLL community here again! Let me know your thoughts/theories/comments about the reboot, or even about the original show(s) and books! ❤️

#pll #pretty little liars #pll reboot #pll original sin #pretty little liars original sin #bailee madison #maia reficco #chandler kinney #imogen abel #noa oliver #tabby hayworth #pll twins #pll twin theory #pll original sin theory #pllos #pll:os

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swiftgronmasterpost · 4 years

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Winter 2013 - The Beginning of the End and Dianna’s Private Tumblr

January 4, 2013 - Haylor Breakup

Taylor and Harry publicly split and leave us with this iconic picture:

January 10, 2013 - People’s Choice Awards

Haylor is done, Harry is back in the UK, but Taylor shows up with a hickey anyway. (Dianna is in LA at this time.)

Some time this month Taylor writes How You Get The Girl which is about obviously someone who comes back to get the girl. She references “standing in the rain” and “a long six months.” It’s hard to know if these details are more “fanfic” or actual autobiographical details.

This six months may actually refer to the end of bearding for a while (because it seems like Swiftgron did reunite in Paris in early October.) Exactly six months after Taylor started dating Conor Kennedy would be January 25th, 2013.

As for the rain...

It rained twice in LA this month according to weather reports on the 21st and on the 23rd:

Dianna is in LA at this point and has started a private Tumblr blog under the name whosirmesir (we verified it was hers over on @swiftgron-get-married - and you can click here for more on that if you’re curious and actually I did an entire podcast episode walking people through it if you’re like like to listen to an in depth breakdown of it click here for apple OR click here for spotify OR click here for google.

I also recommend searching the whosirmesir tag on @swiftgron-get-married because we’ve logged a lot of interesting moments and connections to Taylor (quotes, art, and other items that tie DIanna and Taylor together.)

On the private tumblr on January 25th Dianna reblogs this:

It reads “i think we’re just gonna have to be secretly in love with each other and leave it at that...”

This is also the time period it is rumored that Dianna proposed to Taylor. I’m not sure what to make of these rumors. I have not been able to get anywhere near confirming them. It’s entirely unsubstantiated - but I explored the rumor further in this blog post (click for link.) And also on the podcast (will link just a bit down in this post because it relates to something else we’re about to discuss.)

February 4, 2013 - Dianna recommends “Far Nearer” by Jaime on twitter:

The lyrics are essentially:

“I feel better when I, you feel better when I I feel better when I have you near me

You Me You I do, I do, I do“

repeated over and over again

February 9, 2013 - Neruda quote on Tumblr from Dianna

Dianna posts a quote to Tumblr. The translation is, “I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.”

It’s worth noting that Taylor namechecked Neruda in the Red album booklet.

February 10, 2013 - The Grammys

Dianna wants to make sure everyone is watching:

And Taylor posts:

“Look what happened! :)”

She won for Safe and Sound:

And she performs her circus themed rendition of WANEGBT (where she mocks Harry Styles on stage making fun of his accent when she sings the “so he calls me up on the phone” part of the song even though this song was written before she was even with him.)

The only other time Dianna tweeted about the Grammys was when Glee was involved the year before.

February 14, 2013 - Achele breakfast and The Inside Source at Glee Tweet

According to a Facebook user Cory, Dianna, and Lea have breakfast this morning (or around this time):

Later that day Taylor posts the infamous tweet:

The Glee Episode “I Do” airs and there is no Taylor song included. However Dianna and Naya’s characters hook up:

After the episode airs Taylor deletes her tweet.

As always I’m not entirely sure what to make of this but to me it boils down to three possibilities:

1. The fandom seems to think this proves that Dianna purposefully tricked Taylor into watching her “hook up” with Naya on screen. It’s completely possible that that’s the case but I think the next two options make a bit more sense.

2. It was a simple misunderstanding or a joke gone wrong. Taylor had a song earlier on that season of glee (Mine sung as a breakup song by Naya) and I have been told another song of Taylor’s was marketed for another glee episode later that spring. Perhaps someone got their wires crossed and misinformed Taylor.

3. Other nefarious parties:

a. It’s possible that Lea was behind this - she publicly had beef with Taylor at one point and she had been with Dianna that morning. Maybe she met up with DIanna, heard about Swiftgron being happy and back together and got a little jealous and decided to prank Taylor.

b. Ryan Murphy also seemed to despise both Dianna and Taylor around this time. He was also famous for stirring up drama with Gleeks on twitter and generally sewing discontent (particularly surrounding wlw ships and fans). Ryan seems to have a problem with women/lesbians in general. He treated Brittana as a couple horribly on Glee as well as their shippers.

He very publicly shaded Taylor in season one of Scream Queens and said in an interview that Dianna ruined Quinn for him because he said she made her sympathetic.

Not only that but in season 3 he destroyed her character - he made her have a mental breakdown - he had her try and steal a baby - he had her get hit by a car - and a huge plotline in season 3 was Quinn begging Rachel (Lea’s character so Dianna’s irl ex) not to marry Finn (played by Cory - literally the guy Lea chose Dianna over - this is like...emotionally abusive if you ask me.) After season 3 Dianna only appeared in 8 episodes of the remaining 55 after being in every episode and the top third billed of the cast in the first three seasons.

Furthermore in a show called The New Normal there was a bitchy actress character named Brynn who he wrote as high maintenance and unpleasant and then killed off.

So yeah...seems fair to at least consider that Ryan or Lea who publicly had problems with both Taylor and Dianna may have been trying to create problems for Swiftgron. One last note about Lea - there was not a single Achele interaction for the entire year of 2013. The most we got was Dianna liking a tweet about Lea’s album in December 2013 and when asked about one another in interviews they would vaguely say they were still friends. No tweets to one another, no birthday messages, no candids, no hang outs. Lea’s book was also written around this time and does not make a single mention of Dianna - her former roommate and “best friend” even though she spends plenty of time talking about others on the Glee cast.

I did a podcast episode on both the proposal rumors and the inside source at Glee tweet if you want more extensive takes on that!

While I’m not entirely sure Dianna had anything to do with this tweet Taylor references this date (2-14-13) by putting it on a dollar bill as a serial number in The Man music video:

At any rate Taylor deletes the tweet and replaces it with one about her dancers:

Dianna tweets 9 hearts that day (I don’t know if that’s significant but if they were together from March 2012 to July 2012 and then October 2012 to this point it would mean 9 months together...)

February 19, 2013 - Sad Charlie Brown Tumblr post from Dianna:

February 27, 2013 - Fitzgerald quote

Taylor listed this as a quote to live by in an interview with Marie Claire a few months later.

I’m not sure if it’s important but Dianna is very quiet this winter and spring in terms of showing up at events, parties, even being papped out on the street compared to other years around this time. She seems to disappear a bit.

February 27, 2013 - Taylor gives a bday shoutout to her Fiddle player Caitlin:

“Happy Birthday to my magical friend, fiddle extraordinaire @/caitlinbird”

March 12, 2013 - Weird tweets from Dianna “One of those days.”

March 13, 2013 - It’s the first day of the Red tour (is that why Dianna had questions?)

About the Red Tour - the last act of the tour seems to be circus themed which may have been inspired by Dianna’s 26th birthday the previous year and really interestingly Taylor has a white rabbit, which is a reference to Alice in Wonderland (Dianna’s favorite piece of media ever) follows Taylor around stage during the WANEGBT performance as she’s dressed up like a circus ringleader:

March 18, 2013 - Dianna goes on a Girls HBO rant (we know who also loved Girls the show and its creator Lena Dunham (Taylor))

End of March - Lena and Ashley show up at the Red Tour backstage

Conclusion - Swiftgron is on but completely underground. Dianna is blogging and tweeting romantic things about missing girls, Taylor’s interests, and secret love, all while watching Taylor perform at the Grammys and encouraging others to tune in. Something weird happened with the inside source at Glee tweet but who knows what. Dianna seems a bit restless and emo while Taylor leaves to go on tour.

Click here to keep reading!

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looselipssinkshipsmeme · 4 years

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One year ago today, Loose Lips Sink Ships HBO War Fandom prompt meme launched. In the past 366 days, folks have posted 1008 prompts (704 of which survived the Great Cull), and 19 authors have written 107 stories, totaling 503,204 words (mean: 4702.84 words, median: 3158 words). But that's enough stats, let's get onto the party!

Welcome to Loose Lips Sink Ships' First Anniversary Mini Bingo challenge! In this challenge, you may request a mini bingo card (just 3 by 3 squares), and we will randomly generate a unique card based on your character, pairing or fandom requests. Use this card to win extra points in our Field Maneuvers game, or just for inspiration about what prompts to fill next. This challenge will run until the newsletter is posted on 6 October 2020, five weeks from now. How It Works: You may request a mini bingo in comments on Dreamwidth, or via tumblr ask. To request a card, list one of the following selections: 1. One to five characters of your choice from any fandom. or 2. One to five pairings of your choice from any fandom. or 3. One to three fandoms of your choice. or 4. ANYTHING! (all the prompts!) Your mod team will then pull all the prompts including your requested character/pairing/fandom, get Colonel Kink to randomly select nine of them, and generate your card. If there are not enough prompts for your requested character or pairing, the mods will ask for additional selections. Bingo cards will be issued to individual participants only; team sign ups will not be accepted. You may not veto prompts or ask for squares to be swapped out. You may receive prompts containing mature themes. We will only issue one card per participant, but if you complete a line bingo (three squares in a row in any direction), you may ask for a new card. Scoring: Every prompt you fill will be worth two points. Each line of three squares in a row (diagonal, horizontal or vertical) will be worth an extra point. A blackout of all nine squares is worth twenty-five points total. You may score bingos for multiple lines off of the same card, but each fill must be unique, not reused from a previous line. Please remember to click the box saying “This fill counts for Field Maneuvers' Memorial Prompt / Theme of the Fortnight / Anniversary Mini Bingo.” The mod team will keep track of your bingo scores for you after that. Example Sign Ups: “I would like a card. Characters: Liebgott, Runner, Harry Welsh.“ “Card please! Pairing: Winnix.“ “Give me a card with anything!“ Example Cards:

Prompt #621: BAND OF BROTHERS/THE PACIFIC, Bill 'Hoosier' Smith & David Webster & Joseph Liebgott, The Pacific/Band of Brothers crossover. Liebgott on his own is bad enough, but when he and Hoosier are together Web just can't take it. (Can also be OT3 if the writer wants.) Prompt #928: BAND OF BROTHERS, Harry Welsh & Lewis Nixon & Richard Winters, An alternate narrative study in the vein of Community's dice roll episode. One setting, six possible outcomes/timelines. Ensemble fic, slash welcome! Prompt #656: THE PACIFIC, Bud 'Runner' Conley/Robert Leckie, Leckie nurses Runner through his “bone-cracking ‘bout of malaria.” Prompt #807: THE PACIFIC, Bud 'Runner' Conley/Robert Leckie, On the hospital ship back to the US, Leckie is trying to be kind and supportive of Runner (because he was so badly shocked thinking he was dead?) Runner begins to worry if Leckie might not have gotten hit on the head harder than he thought, and just wants his asshole best friend back. Prompt #858: BAND OF BROTHERS, David Webster/Joseph Liebgott, In Germany, Liebgott is possessed by an ancient spirit whose peaceful slumber has been disturbed by the Allied bombings. Is it an evil Nazi ghost or a victim of an ancient war? Webster helps by reading books. Prompt #588: THE PACIFIC, Bud 'Runner' Conley/Robert Leckie, When Runner shows up after the war, Leckie isn’t quite sure why. He’s even more confused about why Runner appears dead set on sticking around. Prompt #418: BAND OF BROTHERS, David Webster/Joseph Liebgott, While getting a trim, Web mouths off, so Liebgott yanks on his hair. It turns out Web *really* likes that. Prompt #607: THE PACIFIC, Bill 'Hoosier' Smith/Bud 'Runner' Conley/Lew 'Chuckler' Juergens/Robert Leckie, Welcoming Leckie back. Prompt #681: BAND OF BROTHERS, David Webster/Joseph Liebgott, Bottom Liebgott just wants to get fucked. Incompetent Top Webster struggles to learn how.

Prompt #513: BAND OF BROTHERS, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, Nix's father disapparoves of Dick. He really really REALLY disapproves. Prompt #641: BAND OF BROTHERS, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, Virginity is like a cavity, Dick--sooner or later the tooth has to go. You just need a good dentist, is all.' Prompt #753: BAND OF BROTHERS, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, Trapped inside a fever dream, he doesn't know what's real anymore. Prompt #450: BAND OF BROTHERS, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, Dick's so subtle in his attempts at seduction that it takes Lew a really long time to notice. Prompt #452: BAND OF BROTHERS, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, Sex in that hot car Nix bought when he got back from the war. Prompt #712: BAND OF BROTHERS, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, Dick and Nix go on leave, and Dick comes back with a bite mark on his neck. Speculation as to if and how he got laid abounds. Prompt #405: BAND OF BROTHERS, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, Nix wanted to get Dick behind that desk for more than one reason. Prompt #416: BAND OF BROTHERS, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, He looks his best with come all over his face. Prompt #718: BAND OF BROTHERS, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, After a traumatic head injury, Dick forgets everything from the last ## of years except being in love with Nix.

Prompt #977: BAND OF BROTHERS, David Webster/Joseph Liebgott, Before they ship back stateside after the war is over, Web gives Liebgott his Harvard pin as a romantic token. Years later, Web *doesn't* die of shark-related injuries and hops into a cab that happens to be driven by one Joseph Liebgott. He doesn't expect Lieb to have the pin stuck to his visor as his luckiest charm so many years later. Prompt #779: BAND OF BROTHERS, Floyd 'Tab' Talbert/Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, How they get together and how they chose to move to California together Prompt #627: BAND OF BROTHERS/THE PACIFIC, Edward Sledge, Separated from his unit, Edward Sledge ends up mixed in with the 101st's lines. Characters and pairings author's choice. Prompt #374: GENERATION KILL, Brad 'Iceman' Colbert, slaying dragons Prompt #727: BAND OF BROTHERS, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, After the war, Dick marries a lesbian friend to help stay in the closet, commence living arrangements with two couples attempting to live in adjoining houses without killing each other or coming out. Prompt #422: BAND OF BROTHERS, Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters, Dick is so straightlaced, someone needs to make a mess out of him. Prompt #809: THE PACIFIC, Eugene B. Sledge/Merriell 'Snafu' Shelton, Sometimes Snafu has odd ideas of courting gifts. Prompt #498: BAND OF BROTHERS, David Webster/Joseph Liebgott, An ongoing game of gay chicken leads to actual feelings. Prompt #436: BAND OF BROTHERS, Edward 'Babe' Heffron/Ralph Spina, Running into each other in Philly after the war.

#hbo war #band of brothers #generation kill #the pacific #loose lips sink ships prompt meme #loose lips sink ships #LLSS: Mini Bingo

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theliterateape · 3 years

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Wonder Woman 1984 Couldn’t Save the Story

By David Himmel

I’ve been looking forward to the sequel to 2017’s Wonder Woman since the film ended with Wonder Woman herself leaping from the top of a building and soaring into the credits. So when it was announced that Wonder Woman 1984 was going to be available on HBO Max Christmas Day, I went to bed each night with visions of indestructible bracelets dancing in my head.

Then it finally arrived. Christmas. WW84.

My wife and I settled into the couch with a bucket of Cherry Coke, a cornucopia of candy, and two obnoxious bowls of fresh popped popcorn soaked in butter. It was the movie-going experience I had been missing this year.

I love Wonder Woman. I didn’t grow up on the source material. I grew up on Lynda Carter. Reruns of the campy Wonder Woman TV show, which originally ran from 1975–1979 were a favorite of mine as a little kid. Not only was it an entertaining show for a preschooler in the eighties with the jumping and bullet-blocking and running, but I was also in love with Lynda Carter both as Diana Prince and Wonder Woman.

You see—sounding all Freudian alarms—my mother is a brunette and, from what I could tell at that young age, she could do anything and everything, so I grew up likening my mom to the Amazonian goddess. I also thought any pretty lady with brown hair was my mom including the woman on the Sun-Maid raisins box. (Despite my mother being a beauty queen and model—just like Lynda Carter—the real Sun-Maid Girl died at age 90 two months before I turned four.) From my vantage point, my mom was completely capable of saving the day and harvesting yummy raisins. A true wonder woman.

I wasn’t a big reader of the Wonder Woman comics. Blame that on my time as a boy in 1984. Wonder Woman comics didn’t make their way to me and by the time I was old enough to choose my own reads, I was too deep into graphic novels about the Vietnam War, X-Men comics, and other Marvel titles. But I always knew Diana’s story and powers, and recognized her as one of the most powerful characters to grace the pages of comic books.

Settled into the couch, we hit play and HBO Max glowed to life to give me the Christmas gift I’d been waiting months for.

The opening scene set the tone. A thrilling action scene showcasing the abilities of Diana’s people back on Themyscira. It dropped a few hints of what challenges Diana/Wonder Woman might face and the lessons she will learn or be reminded of. Good opening. And then the film fell apart and Christmas was ruined.

Nah, Christmas was fine, but Wonder Woman 1984 was a disappointment. And not as much for me as for Diana and Wonder Woman. And for actor Gal Gadot. She was robbed of an interesting story. There is no character development in WW84 for our hero. Diana is in the exact same place as she was at the end of the first film. She picks up a few new abilities along the way, but one, like flying in an invisible jet felt like director/writer/producer Patty Jenkins was force feeding me a MacGuffin only to throw it away after I agreed to swallow it. Flight is a big thing in this film but Wonder Woman learning to master it seemed wasteful as I was convinced she was learning to fly based on the way the first film ended. That’s on me.

When we left Wonder Woman in the first film, she was heartbroken for Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). When we meet her again in 1984, some seventy years after his death, she still pines for him. (See what I did there?) By the end, she’s the same. Closed off, unwilling or unable to open herself up to people, most notably to people who could love her and she could love in return. This, despite that Steve tells her that’s a stupid thing to do—remain closed off. When he comes back to life through a wish, he is filled with a zest for life, a chance to experience something again. Pine plays Steve with an almost childlike wonder and it’s fun to watch.

They missed an incredible opportunity to build an interesting story tying in time, the struggle and pain of being ageless—timeless. Maybe that’s how Steve comes back. He exists in a tear in time. What is the hardship of a god living among men? Not her challenging duty but her struggle.

And why 1984? For the fashion jokes? The nukes? Missed opportunity there. Especially since the year is in the title.

Kristin Wiig is great. She’s surprising as she anchors her Ghostbusters (2016) character into Barbara Minerva/Cheetah. But I wanted more form her relationship with Diana. When Barbara wishes to be like Diana, “Sexy, cool… special,” there’s a chance for her to also face the backlash of being an ageless goddess. That opportunity was dampened when Barbara cartoonishly chooses to become a full baddy. But you can’t blame Barbara, she was written that way.

Everything was written as a MacGuffin. One little thing to get us to the big moment with the big baddy—a Donald Trump-ish huckster played by Pedro Pascal. Pascal as Max Lord at first is a slimey but sympathetic character. That quickly devolves into him being a super-duper bad guy bent on world domination that overcorrects in heightening the stakes. The manner in which he goes about dominating the world is trite but also is based on a lazy Orwellian approach to what technology would be like in 1984. It gives the sense that the film was written during Lynda Carter’s heyday where 1984 still seemed futuristic.

There’s so much opportunity squandered. Diana/Wonder Woman is an ageless goddess with a lonely heart and incredible powers. How does one live like that? In the first film, Diana is learning what it means to be human. This film could have had her learning what it means to be a god among humans. Instead, the character is a pawn. She’s not driven by anything. And that’s what gets me.

Diana could be relatable. Make her the troubled messiah. She lives among us so long, she longs or struggles to be like us. And maybe losing her power—the unknown risk she takes when Steve comes back—is attractive to her so she can live and love. And if they had to bring back Chris Cline, the could have dipped into the mystique and magic of Diana’s world. Something more than a silly wish. Something more interesting that pushes Diana to face new internal struggles while working to defeat the external forces of evil.

The film sets itself up as movie that’ll deal with time. There’s a date in the title. But why 1984? For the nukes? For the broadcast Max Lord needs to tap into? For the fanny pack jokes? Jenkins and Co. could have given the theme a little more oompf by leaning into their own ideas of time and address the hardships a an ageless, nearly all powerful goddess faces. Instead, we get a joke about modern public art being trash and a WWI watch coming to life because… because the ghost of the man who owned it has come back from the beyond. Two completely unrelated things. But they didn’t have to be.

The film takes its time with the wrong beats. There are many big moments, often in the middle of the action, where Wonder Woman’s face is the focus. The only takeaway from these slowed down moments of intensity are for the sake of empowerment. And, okay, fine. That’s cool. I get it. Wonder Woman is empowering. The movie, however, is not empowering. It’s a vehicle that reduces Wonder Woman to a physically strong woman who does not develop as an individual. She’s the most dimensional inspiring cinematic female character since the offensive Captain Marvel.

Time proves to be a major influencer in the film in the way it’s wasted. When they have to fly to Cairo, they do so by stealing a jet that Diana has access to thanks to her job at the museum, and allegedly will face no consequences for hoarking a fighter jet for personal reasons. Regardless… They have to get from Washington D.C. to Cairo, a trip of just over 5,000 nautical miles. A modern Boeing 747 can fly 8,255 nautical miles on a full tank of gas. A fighter jet with a smaller tank would likely need every last drop and the wind at their backs the entire time to make the tip without refueling or plummeting into the ocean. Instead of being concerned with that, Steve and Diana choose that time to have their romantic scene. Flips and tricks and dawdling through a Fourth of July fireworks show. And why was Steve surprised by the fireworks and it being July 4th? He just arrived in a new body the day before. He certainly checked the date on a newspaper or heard something on the radio or a TV. And the Fourth of July was already a holiday before he was killed in World War I.

These gripes would be nitpicking if they weren’t so easily remedied by giving the main character an actual story arc.

Wonder Woman 1984 was a fine superhero movie. Far from the best (Captain America: Civil War). Better than the worst (Justice League). It had its share of fun action moments, but even in an action film, the action must be secondary to the story.

After watching the film, we turned on the old TV show. There’s not much character development there either. But it’s a 1970s network television procedural. It’s meant to be campy. And it was more than enough.

Following the three-hour Lynda Carter bender, I realized that you could totally edit scenes in WW84 to make a trailer about a woman who takes care of, then falls in love with, a mentally handicapped man. And that would be a great story to tell. Wonder Woman with Hollywood blockbuster money behind her deserves something interesting.

#Wonder Woman #Wonder Woman 1984 #WW84 #Gal Gadot #Kristin Wiig #Pedro Pascal #Lynda Carter

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mab1905 · 4 years

Text

84 Questions

original:

https://fuckyeahsurveys.tumblr.com/post/61049002526/84-questions

1. Put your music player of choice on shuffle and list the first 10 songs

Someone New (Hozier)

Cactus Tree (Joni Mitchell)

Budapest (George Ezra)

And Dream Of Sheep (Kate Bush)

Nancy Mulligan (Ed Sheeran)

And Then She Kissed Me (St. Vincent)

Level of Concern (Twenty One Pilots)

Lovefool (The Cardigans)

Best For Last (Adele)

Video Killed The Radio Star (The Buggles)

2. If you could spend a week anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? Would you take anyone with you?

Japan. I travel a lot and it’s been on my list for a while, I would really want to go to the Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli theme park, if it ever opens that is. I would bring my best friend, Layla. I also would love to go to Amsterdam again.

3. What is your preferred writing implement? (eg. Blue pen, pencil, green pen)

My ink nib cartooning pen (similar to a quill, but without the feather)

4. Favourite month and why?

October, not too hot, not too cold, and of course, Halloween!

5. Do you have connections to any celebrities (even minor)? List them.

Nope, met several, got to true connections though.

6. Name 3 items you could pick up from where you are.

My iPad, my Leatherman Multitool, my collection of David Bowie postcards.

7. What brand logo is closest to you currently?

The Apple logo

8. Do you ever play board games or other non-computer games? Got any favourites?

Chess. Card games like Solitaire, Black-Jack, and Castle. A game that I can’t remember the name of but it’s essentially a board-game version of Capture The Flag. Mostly Chess.

9. A musical artist you love that isn’t well known

St. Vincent? I’m not sure if she’s well known or not.

10. A musical artist you love that is well known

David Bowie.

11. What is your desktop background currently?

A picture of Apollo 11 accompanied by the words “It won’t fail because of me”

12. Last person you talked to, and through what you talked to them

My best friend Layla, through the iMessage app.

13. First colour name you can think of that isn’t in the rainbow

Salmon

14. What timekeeping devices are in the room you are currently in?

My iPad, my computer, my collection of vintage stopwatches

15. What kind of headphones do you use?

Sony, wireless, noise canceling, over-the ear

16. What musical artists have you seen perform live?

Twenty One Pilots, Sylvan Esso

17. Does virginity matter to you?

I guess? I think it’s important, it’s certainly some kind of ‘milestone,’ but I don’t think it should be treated like the scale of a persons ‘purity.’ It’s important because it’s sex, and (hopefully) that means that you’re sharing a consensual, intimate experience that feels fucking great for both (or all, if it’s more then two) participants.

18. What gaming consoles do you or your family own?

Z e r o, although I’m hoping to buy a PS4 at some point so I can play Detroit Become Human.

19. What pets do you have? What are their names?

Juno is my cat, she is an adorable grey tiger-striped shorthair. She’s got little white mitten-paws and it’s absolutely ridiculous.

20. What’s the best job you’ve ever had?

Doing tech at a local theater

21. What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?

Teaching art to little kids (I like kids but it was just exhausting)

22. What magazines do you read, if any?

The New Yorker, and the National Geo if I’m like, waiting in my doctor’s office or something.

23. Inspiration behind your URL?

It’s just my initials and a year from the Edwardian era

24. Inspiration behind your blog title?

It’s just my initials

25. Favourite item of clothing?

My reddish-brown knit sweater vest and my floral bow-tie (often paired together)

26. Are you friends with any exes?

I made a very conscious effort to cut my exe out of my life… we were not happy for a very long time to say the least

27. Name at least one book you loved as a child.

Strega Nona, it’s about an Italian witch that makes great pasta in a magic pasta pot. My dad would read it to me and my sibling in Italian.

28. What’s your native language? If that language has distinct regional variations, which variation? (eg. AU English, US English)

US English

29. What email service do you use?

Gmail

30. Is there anything hanging on the walls of the room you are currently in?

So many things. Here's the list:

A giant David Bowie poster, a plaque that says “David Bowie IS,” five David Bowie postcards, a giant Abbey Road poster, all of my patches from summer camp, polaroids of me, my friends, and my family (including my cat), ticket stubs from concerts and plays, two trail markers that I took off of fallen trees on two important cross-country backpacking trips I went on, playbills from a bunch of broadway shows I’ve seen, a poster that says “Stonewall was a riot,” a DC Comics poster, a Pink Floyd poster, a few paintings of mine, and a painting that I got for free from a street artist I befriended in Rome when I was twelve

31. What’s your favourite number, and why?

16, 24, 21, and 8, some numbers make me uncomfortable, but these are just very soft and light and nice

32. Earliest moment in your life you can remember?

A rocking chair with fruits painted on it sitting in a dark room and my great grandfathers brown leather loafers (I remember early early stuff in just images or stills, not full moments)

33. What did you have for dinner yesterday?

Pasta with shrimp

34. How often do you brush your teeth?

Usually twice a day, but I’ve been waking up later and later and sometimes forget in the mornings

35. What’s your favourite candy/chocolate?

I don’t know the name of it but it’s this chocolate bar that is stuffed with caramel, hot chili flakes, and crunchy bits of baked tortilla. It's one of the greatest things I’ve ever tasted.

36. Have you had other blogs on Tumblr? Do you have any other blogs currently?

I used to have one but I deleted it because I never used it

37. If you were suddenly really hungry, what would you choose to eat?

I would probably walk into the kitchen, realize that too eat something I would have to muster the effort to cook something instead, and then decide to just have a glass of milk instead.

38. What fandoms would you consider yourself a part of?

Downton Abbey (primarily Thommy)

Chernobyl HBO (as well as the Leonid Toptunov/Sasha Akimov subfandom)

Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit (books and movies)

CrankGamePlays

Buzzfeed Unsolved

Star Trek TOS

Philosophy Tube

The Dark Crystal and The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance

39. If you could study anything, what would it be?

If I had the energy to fully wrench my life in a completely different direction I would like to become a professional scuba diver and study the ocean. I already am a scuba diver, but it’s a hobby and not something I’m able to do very often at all.

40. Do you use anything on your lips? (eg. Chapstick, gloss, balm, lipstick)

I’ll wear chapstick if I have a cold

41. How would you describe your sense of humour?

Intellectual and dry

42. What things annoy you more than anything else?

People who think they’re better than everyone else and people who recognize a fault in themselves and then refuse to work to change it

43. What kind of position are you in at the moment?

I’m laying on my bed, hunched over my laptop

44. Do you wear much jewellery?

Occasionally I’ll wear a necklace or a few rings. I have a lot of non-traditional bracelets (I literally just have pieces of canvas and industrial tie-line wrapped around my wrist). I’m a gay guy and I like to sort-a walk the line between feminine and masculine (often leaning more towards the masc side), so it really depends on my mood.

45. Who is the leader of your country, currently? Any other levels of government with leaders? (State, region, province, county, district, municipality, etc)

A cheese-pizza flavored pringle is currently POTUS and every day the thought of that tears away at a piece of my soul.

46. Last 3 blogs on your dashboard, not including any of your own

@shochmonster @velvet-of-the-night @panicsheerbloodypanic

47. What do you carry your money in?

My pocket, I have a wallet and I don’t use it

48. Do you enjoy driving? Why or why not?

It’s fine, don’t love it don’t hate it

49. Longest drive you have ever been on?

Three days

50. Furthest away from home you have ever been?

Went on a trip to Switzerland to visit family, I think that’s the farthest but I’m not entirely sure.

51. How many times have you moved house?

Twice

52. What is on the floor of the room you’re currently in, not including furniture?

Five paintings, stacks and stacks of books, boxes filled with stuff (mostly more books), plates, glasses, cutlery, clothes

53. How many devices do you own which can access the internet?

2, and iPad and a computer

54. Is there is anything that is guaranteed to always make you happy?

Listening to music

55. Is there anything that always makes you sad?

Thinking about my past for too long

56. What programs do you currently have open?

Google drive, I’m writing

57. What do you associate the colour red with?

Blood and fire

58. Last strong smell you can remember smelling?

Shrimp and butter

59. Last healthy thing you ate?

Three green olives and a handful of bean sprouts

60. Do you drink tea or coffee, and how much per day?

Used to drink coffee like it was life support (which it essentially was), now I’ll have the occasional cup of tea.

61. What do you associate the colour blue with?

Birds and rain

62. How long is the closest ruler you can find?

I don’t think I own one

63. What colour pants/skirt/etc are you currently wearing?

I am wearing olive green corduroy slacks

64. When was the last time you drank water?

30 minutes ago?

65. How often do you clear your browser history?

Never

66. Do you believe nude photos can be artistic, rather than erotic?

Nude anything can be artistic, it can also just be normal, eroticism is in the eye of the beholder.

67. Ever written fanfiction for anything?

Yes dear god so much fanfiction.

68. Last formal event you attended

I genuinely can’t remember, I am have extreme social anxiety and don’t go to events like that unless I absolutely have too

69. If you had to move your birthday to another date, which one would you choose and why?

I don’t care about birthdays

70. Would you prefer to be at a beach or in the countryside?

Beach, I love to swim, I’m also a surfer

71. Roughly how many people live in your town?

Uhm… eight times the number of people who live in the state of Montana and that doesn’t count daily commuters and tourists (New York City is essentially just a tin of sardines, except inside are 8.399 million sardines)

72. Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you?

No, but three of my friends were born on the day just after my birthday.

73. Favourite place to shop? Can be a certain store or a place where there are multiple stores

The Strand Bookstore, L Train Vintage, any antique shops in the town of Hudson, New York

74. Do you have a smartphone? What kind? If you don’t, do you want one?

I used to have an iPhone 5SE but then it stopped working after a few weeks of quarantine and I haven’t gotten a new one (I’ve had it for about 5-6 years so it makes sense)

75. What is your least favourite colour, and why?

I don’t have a least favorite color, but my favorite color is prussian blue

76. How do you spell grey/gray?

Grey

77. Go to your dashboard and describe the image shown in the radar section (below the “Find blogs” link)

It’s anime fanart for a show I’ve never heard of

78. What difference is there between how many followers you have, and the number of blogs you follow?

79. How many posts do you have?

219

80. How many posts have you liked?

619

81. Do you post mainly reblogs, or your own content?

Mostly reblogs but I do my own content as well

82. Do you track any tags?

No, just blogs

83. What time is it currently?

10:39

84. Is there anything you should be doing right now?

writing

I’m not quite sure who to tag so it’s just open to anyone I guess?

#i love questionaires #they're so much fun

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kellyvela · 5 years

Note

Love your blog💕 what would you say to the ppl who think GRRM didn’t write Fire and Blood as a precaution/warning about the Targaryens? IMHO it’s pretty blatant that he’s anti-Targ restoration but I see Targ fans saying the contrary and using quotes he’s said about relating to Dany in the aspects of not having a home, etc. Plus the fact that he’s made a whole book about them and they’re having their own prequel show (😩🙄).

Hi! Thanks Anon :D

About Targaryen restoration, I always wondered WHY and HOW so many people in the fandom firmly believe that ASOIAF is mainly about House Targaryen and its restoration. And because of that belief I had to read words like these: “The notion that Daenerys Targaryen and her House are not the collective heroes of this saga is ignorant to the point of idiocy.” Or I had to watch and listen to certain very popular spoiler youtuber saying that “if GOT doesn’t end in Targaryen restoration, the story has no sense”. This person even claimed several times in his videos that GRRM himself has affirmed that ASOIAF is in fact about House Targaryen and its restoration. And I always was like: HOW? WHERE?

Apparently GRRM once said that ASOIAF was about “the return to glory of a great family”, so people immediately thought that that great family was House Targaryen…

I don’t have the original source for that, but if GRRM has specifically said that ASOIAF is about “the return to glory of a great family”, that family is no other than HOUSE STARK; because even if he doesn’t use the exact same words, GRRM has actually said several times over the years that THE STARKS are the heart/center/main characters/heroes of the story. And this affirmation has been supported by Bryan Cogman and even D&D in several interviews/events.

About GRRM relating to Dany and House Targaryen, let’s read those quotes:

From an early age George was aware of a lost fortune on his mother’s side of the family, the Brady family, who once owned a successful construction business, a dock and a grand house, all lost in the Great Depression of 1929. “I had a walk past that house every day on my way from the projects on 1st Street to 5th Street, and it’s like, well, that used to be our dock, that used to be our house. Now we don’t have a house, we don’t have a yard, but I had always had the sense of, yeah I’m poor, but I come from royalty, or I come from greatness that somehow was destroyed by the depression, by corrupt politicians, by things like that. So maybe that gives me a little of the emotional temperament to understand somebody like Daenerys Targaryen.

Sources: [x] [x] [x]

More recently, while promoting Fire & Blood Vol. I, he repeated this part of his personal story with these words:

“From my mother’s stories, I always had this kind of sense that I was like disinherited royalty. Here was this dock that my great-grandfather built, it wasn’t ours anymore. Here was this house that my mother had been born in, we didn’t own this house anymore. We didn’t own any house, we had an apartment. So it was like, ugh, I came from greatness, like Dany! And (talking with a voice and tone similar to one of Dany’s outburst and banging the table) ‘I will take back what is mine with Fire and Blood!’ HAHAHAHAHA. So I think on some level, that must’ve gotten to me.”

—In conversation: George R. R. Martin with John Hodgman

But when he wasn’t promoting Fire & Blood Vol. I, this is what he said:

The house where my mother had grown up … the house her father Thomas had built (…) the Brady house. But of course it wasn’t. Someone else lived there now, someone we did not know.

I walked past that house twice a day, five days a week, for nine years. And every time I stepped outside my front door, I saw the dock across the street. The dock was surrounded by a chain link fence, but sometimes my friends and I would climb it. From the dock it was easier to reach the oily rocks along the shore when the tide was out. There was a watchman on the dock, though, and if he saw us he’d come out of his shed and shout at us. “Get out of here, you kids,” he’d yell. “You got no business here.” Yes, I do, part of me always wanted to shout back, you’re the one who’s got no business, my great-grandfather BUILT this dock. I was a shy kid, though, so I never said a word.

Sources: [x] [x]

And then I would walk to school; we lived in First Street, my school was on Fifth Street, I would walk to school and I would pass the house that the Bradys had owned. I would pass it twice a day going and coming from school. This big house my mother had been born in and her family had grown up in, but had lost. And other people lived in what had been our house. And I think it always gave me this, this sense of a lost golden age of, you know, now we were poor and we lived in the projects and we lived in an apartment. We didn’t even have a car, but God we were… once we were royalty! It gave me a certain attraction to those kinds of stories of I don’t know, fallen civilizations and lost empires and all of that.

Source: [x]

As you can see, GRRM took inspiration from that part of his personal story and applied it to Dany and House Targaryen. Thanks to that part of his personal story, GRRM can understand Dany to a certain extend (So maybe that gives me a little of the emotional temperament to understand somebody like Daenerys Targaryen); but he is not Dany, he hasn’t dedicate his entire life to re-take his family lost properties with fire and blood.

And at this point I think is relevant to state that a house is not a home.

Now, about Fire & Blood Vol. I. After finished reading it I said this:

*GRRM WROTE AN ANTI TARG BOOK*

As if the ASOIAF Books weren’t enough, GRRM gave us Fire and Blood.

He warned us all. He always did. It’s a good day to remember it.

GRRM said it himself:

Esquire: How will Fire & Blood deepen our understanding of Daenerys and her dragons?

GRRM: This is a book that Daenerys might actually benefit from reading, but she has no access to Archermaester Gyldayn’s crumbling manuscripts. So she’s operating on her own there. Maybe if she understood a few things more about dragons and her own history in Essos, things would have gone a little differently.

—Esquire - 2018

Even though he was promoting Fire & Blood Vol. I, and his interviewers were very enthusiastic about dragons, he wasn’t sharing their enthusiasm:

GRRM: “People read fantasy to see the colours again,” he says. “We live our lives and I think there’s something in us that yearns for something more, more intense experiences. There are men and women out there who live their lives seeking those intense experiences, who go to the bottom of the sea and climb the highest mountains or get shot into space. Only a few people are privileged to live those experiences but I think all of us want to, somewhere in our heart of hearts we don’t want to live the lives of quiet desperation Thoreau spoke about, and fantasy allows us to do those things. Fantasy takes us to amazing places and shows us wonders, and that fulfils a need in the human heart.”

THEM: And the dragons?

GRRM: “Oh sure, dragons are cool too,” he chuckles. “But maybe not on our doorstep”

—The Guardian - 2018

I mean, he is proud to be named after Saint George The Dragon Slayer:

John Hodgman: That’s how I can’t sue you, If you steal from history and add a dragon. I can’t sue you.

GRRM: I’m working off my own, you know, karma here, because I’m George, and what’s he known for? He killed the dragon, you know, come on. Come on, I was almost abolished at one point when the Catholic Church was reviewing all the saints, I was terrified that George would be abolished, because they abolish a lot of fiction, I said George is only known for killing a dragon, how can they keep him in, but they did so, that was, that was good.

John Hodgman: I’m glad you stayed anointed.

GRRM: That’s right.

—In conversation: George R. R. Martin with John Hodgman

Here a graphic representation:

And about the Targaryen having their own books (Fire & Blood Vol. I and II) and their own prequel show based on Fire & Blood, let me tell you a couple of things:

Last month GRRM attended an event in London #GRRMLive organized by Harper Voyager UK, and Adam Whitehead, a friend of GRRM, was present in the event and reported this:

Confirmation that Fire & Blood was written by accident: originally it was sidebar material for World of Ice & Fire that got out of control. He wrote hundreds of thousands of words in a few weeks and scared his publishers and had to stop so Elio & Linda could compress it down.

And the first prequel show actually ordered by HBO, that is already in post-production, is not about Targaryens and it has no dragons:

What’s it about? Taking place thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. From the horrifying secrets of Westeros’s history to the true origin of the White Walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend, only one thing is for sure: It’s not the story we think we know. [x]

Also, after the news of the “Targaryen prequel”, GRRM himself said this: I do want to point out that “moving closer to a pilot order” is NOT the same thing as “getting a pilot order.”

So that’s it Anon. GRRM is writing a series of SEVEN BOOKS and THE STARKS are the heart/center/main characters/heroes of the story. Meanwhile Fire and Blood was apparently an accident made of sidebar material…

And to finish this answer, I will leave you with one of my fave GRRM quotes:

Source [x]

#grrm #asoiaf #fire and blood #game of thrones #house targaryen #house stark

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lupinusalbus · 5 years

Text

Season 8 Plot: Jon and Dany are Tainted; Sansa Rises (Part 1)

There was so much wrong with seasons seven and eight of Game of Thrones, especially with the portrayals of most of the major characters. Many of the show characters are quite different in some aspects from what they are in the books, but we know that many of the end points will be very similar. We also know that Martin likes to subvert expectations about “heroes”. This may mean both Jon and Dany are slated to be sullied as characters in TWOW, not just Dany alone. What follows is my theory of why the writing in season 8 went down the way it did. It doesn’t mean I believe the writing and characterizations were actually good. In part 2, I will get more specific about what I think the writers were actually trying to accomplish, muddled as it was. If we look at the skeleton outline of what happened towards the end of the series, however, it looks something like this:

Jon is disillusioned, but his reunion with Sansa inspires him to take up the Stark’s seemingly hopeless cause

Dany arrives at Dragonstone and plans her conquest

Jon and Sansa take back Winterfell, their relationship deepens

Jon’s personal renewal upon being named King in the North causes him to continue his mission to act against the Night King. This leads him to his fateful meeting with Daenerys Targaryen.

Dany falls in love with Jon and agrees to fight in the North after losing a Dragon trying to rescue him. Jon kneels to Dany; they go North with her armies. Meanwhile, the Night King breaks through the Wall with Viserion.

Jon learns about his true heritage. In the meantime, Dany has received a chilly reception from the Starks, especially Sansa who wants to continue with Northern Independence.

The Night King is defeated; killed by Arya Stark. Heavy losses are suffered by Dany’s armies and the Northern forces. Dany is disturbed by the implications of Jon’s lineage when she sees how much the Northerners love him. Their sexual relationship becomes troubled as Jon experiences qualms about it. She asks Jon to keep his true parentage a secret.

Jon tells the Starks who he really is. Sansa tells Tyrion, who tells Varys. Meanwhile, Dany and Jon head South separately to fight Cersei.

Dany loses Rhaegal. Missendai is executed by Cersei; Dany becomes more paranoid and isolated.

Varys plots to overthrow Dany in favor of Jon Snow. He is discovered and burned alive. Jon reaffirms his political fealty to Dany but again rejects her advances and she concludes that she must rule by fear in Westeros. Dany knows that Sansa has plotted against her.

Dany and Jon move to attack King’s Landing. Tyrion frees Jaimie who was captured by Dany’s forces while sneaking into King’s Landing.

Rather than accept the surrender of Cersei’s forces, Dany goes “mad” and burns King’s Landing and much of the populace to cinders. Her forces and the Northern forces commit atrocities. Jaimie and Cersei die; Jon Snow is horrified by what Dany has wreaked.

At her victory rally at the Red Keep, Dany announces her plans to liberate the world. Tyrion throws his Hand’s badge down the steps in a dramatic display and Dany has him arrested. Tyrion convinces Jon that he must act against Dany before it’s too late.

Jon kills Dany as they kiss in front of the Iron Throne and Drogon absconds with her body. Jon is arrested off camera.

Bran is named King; Tyrion is his hand. Sansa secures the North’s continuing independence. Jon is sentenced to go back to The Wall in an apparent compromise between Gray Worm and the Starks.

Arya sails off to explore unknown territory under the Stark Banner, Sansa is named Queen in the North, Jon sets out beyond The Wall to resettle the Wildlings. It’s unclear when or whether he plans to return.

(More Below the Cut)

The biggest story arc in the final two seasons is that of Dany and Jon’s political/personal alliance and subsequent military actions. Almost all of the other stories play out against this backdrop. If we could encapsulate Dany’s story in a nutshell, it could be divided into her life before and after she met Jon Snow. Soon after she met him, she decided to decimate much of the Lannister army in the Loot Train attack, which gave her an advantage against Cersei. Dany was weakened by going North with Jon and fighting against the Night King, both militarily and personally. It can be argued that her relationship with Jon Snow brought about her downfall. We don’t know whether Jon and the Starks could have defeated the Night King without Dany, however it looks like this is at least a possibility because of the way the story played out. The Stark’s plan essentially outwitted the Night King by using Bran as bait, and when he went down, the entire AOTD went down with him. Had it played out a bit differently, it’s conceivable that it could have been done without Dany. At any rate, Dany’s journey to the North eventually weakened her in more ways than one.

Dany and Jon at the Battle for Winterfell (HBO)

Dany’s Love for Jon Snow - a Fateful Event

As I wrote previously, Dany’s relationship with Jon was very different from her previous two. In her marriage to Drogo, Dany began as the weaker partner who was basically treated like a piece of property; however improbably, they did grow to love each other. Gradually, she gained power to the point where Drogo ended up dying because Dany demanded that he stop some rapes that were occurring after a raid. In her relationship with Daario Naharis, Dany was the dominant partner. She easily left him behind when she sailed for Westeros.

After Jon arrives at Dragonstone to seek Dany’s help against the Night King, Dany becomes infatuated with him. Jon’s personal integrity, conscientiousness and restraint represent an advancement for Dany compared to her past relationships. However, these very qualities of Jon’s are also what will seal her doom.

We don’t get to see very much of Jon and Dany’s relationship before she finds out that he is a Targaryen and technically her rival for the throne. However, Jon has bent the knee to Dany, and as such he is obligated to be deferential. When Jon learns of the true circumstances of his birth from Samwell Tarly, he immediately reacts to Sam’s suggestion that Dany should not be Queen by calling it treason. During the Battle for Winterfell, the two seem to work in tandem although Jon prioritizes Bran’s safety over Dany’s. This happens immediately after Jon tells Dany about his birth, and after the battle it causes a rift to develop in their relationship.

In the scene after the celebratory feast at Winterfell, Dany tells Jon that she loves him. Jon is ultimately unable to make love to her which leads Dany to have a melt down over his parentage. Jon swears that he doesn’t want the throne and will be loyal. But he then takes exception to Dany’s demand that he keep his secret from Sansa and Arya. Although Jon continues his political loyalty to Dany, their emotional attachment is now deeply disturbed.

There is no doubt, however, that Dany wishes to continue their relationship. In the scene of the two together at Dragonstone, she tries to heal their rift, and he again rejects her advances. And just before her death, Dany envisions them working side by side together as Targaryens; probably in a marriage as has been their custom. Although we can argue about what love means to a flawed character like Dany, there is no doubt that her feelings for Jon Snow continued until the end.

This scene at Dragonstone between Dany and Jon is pivotal and provides an important glimpse into Dany’s dark side. We don’t see whether Jon was summoned or if he just showed up to talk to Dany; but we do get to see her reaction to being thwarted. Jon’s qualms about continuing their physical relationship (read as rejection by Dany) is seemingly projected onto Westeros at large by Dany with the implication being that the lack of love being shown her is what causes her to unleash her fury.

Jon’s Faustian Bargain

The impending invasion of the Night King placed Jon in a difficult situation with regard to his relationship with Dany, since persuading her to help him was paramount. As King in the North, his commitment was to protect his people and the Starks. He keenly feels the weight of his responsibilities, just as he did when he was Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. His instinct is usually to try and unite rather than divide and also to first look to people’s best qualities rather than antagonize them. This is why many in the Night’s Watch felt him to be a natural leader. Those who would take different tacks, such as Alesair Thorne would always be a problem or threat to people such as Jon who are more visionary in nature.

In spite of his prowess and bravery in conflicts and on the battlefield, Jon does not enjoy these pursuits. His natural inclination is that of an idealistic protector who possesses a strong sense of right and wrong - an honorable man in the mold of his foster father, Ned Stark. In spite of not being a “true” Stark, Jon has loved the Stark family and wished to defend and avenge them during the War of the Five Kings and the Battle of the Bastards. In love relationships, Jon is cautious, but “loyal and true”, as Ygritte tells him. His natural impulse is not to dominate or use women, like many of the men on Game of Thrones. Jon sometimes shows a bit of chauvinism when interacting with his sisters, but we can’t expect him not to display these qualities from time to time in the world of the show. All in all, he is an exceptional and admirable person with a good conscience, though not as shrewd as the book character.

One reason that Jon’s relationship with Dany becomes so problematic is their clashing world views. Jon could not have helped but see this early on in their interactions because of Dany’s dictatorial and regal style. Of course there was another side to Dany which she sometimes demonstrated with intimates, but Jon’s natural inclination is to be wary of people who behave arrogantly. Although its difficult to determine exactly what the show’s writers were trying to do with Jon’s character during season 7, it’s safe to say that Jon was unlikely to have sought a romantic relationship with Dany, but instead was drawn into it because of her attraction to him. From the outset, their overall motives were not compatible: Dany’s was to conquer Westeros; Jon’s was to save it. And while Dany’s slogan of breaking the wheel may have given her traction with enslaved peoples, in Westeros it tended to fall short.

Much of the drama of season 7 was about whether or not these two characters would get together, as allies and/or as lovers. There are really only three possibilities for Jon’s inner feelings about his relationship with Dany, although we know Dany’s feelings for Jon. The first is that Jon loves or at least admires her sincerely; the second is that he is manipulating her and feels no love (but does have sexual desire); and the third is that he is drawn into the relationship because of a combination of the dire circumstances they are facing and Dany’s obvious ardor for him. The third possibility makes the most sense to me and does not completely preclude political motives on his part.

Jon’s relationship with Ygritte is something of a model for his later relationship with Dany. Ygriite was the aggressor, and although she may have started down that path as a way of engineering her escape, her feelings for Jon soon became genuine. In any case, Jon wasn’t the pursuer initially in that relationship, and Ygriite’s personality tended to overpower his. Their relationship was messy because of external factors and Jon eventually had to “return to himself” by leaving Ygritte. There is a similar dynamic at play in Jon’s relationship with Dany. The possibility that Jon could be lead astray by a woman also seemed to be something that Sansa feared had happened upon Jon’s return to Winterfell with the Dragon Queen; she had hinted as much to Jon early in season 7, before Dany had even come into the picture.

The show presents Jon as having given up his crown in order to gain Dany’s assistance. This is how Jon explains and justifies what he did to the Northmen in an assembly and also to Sansa and Arya. Jon giving up the crown seems to be the issue that upsets the Starks and others more than Dany’s mere presence in the North with her forces. Especially for Sansa, Northern independence should not have to be on the table anymore, but Jon has given it away without consulting her. To Sansa, Jon has fallen under the spell of a usurper whom she doesn’t trust. However, near the end of season 7 Dany had first offered to fight with Jon without his having bent the knee, which is what Jon purportedly had wanted all along.

The fact that he then bends the knee anyway suggests that he has in some sense become more sympathetic to Dany. Perhaps he feels that he must give something up to her because she lost a dragon in her attempt to rescue Jon and the others. Perhaps he really doesn’t value the crown; but if this is the case, why did he accept it, especially knowing how much it means to Sansa? Jon most likely feels that he is playing it smart by putting aside his pride but also has some kind of feeling for Dany after her rescue attempt and offer to fight with him. Like Ygritte, Dany is a warrior who physically puts herself on the line, and this is attractive to Jon.

In Jon’s eyes he is trading his crown (and Northern independence) for Dany’s support; but mixed into this bargain is an emotional bond. The attraction seems stronger on Dany’s side, but Jon has allowed himself to be drawn in, and as Varys observes, to be overshadowed by Dany’s all-consuming quest. But just as in his relationship with Ygritte, there is a side of Jon to which he must ultimately remain true - his loyalty to the North and his real family.

Was Sansa Right All Along?

At the beginning of Season 7, Sansa advises Jon that he needs to be smart because Robb and Ned Stark had made stupid mistakes. Sansa’s overall assessment seems to be that Ned and Robb were naive and had underestimated their enemies. Sansa first gets this feeling about Jon around the time of the Battle of the Bastards. She doesn’t approve of Jon’s decision to attack Ramsay’s army with the low number of men they have been able to muster. She also correctly intuits that Jon will fall into a trap that Ramsay is likely to be preparing. In the end, Sansa saves the day by having requested help from Littlefinger and the Knights of the Vale, but it turned out that her misgivings about Jon were accurate.

In season 8, Sansa’s misgivings about Dany are also eventually proven correct when Dany evolves into a destructive tyrant and burns King’s landing. All along Sansa and Arya had expressed their distrust of Dany to Jon, but Jon does not really listen and goes on supporting Dany. Jon claims more than once that the Starks just don’t know Dany well enough yet, implying that they’ll eventually come to like her, and he also expresses to Dany a belief that they all can live together. Presumably he means they can all co-exist in Westeros.

Sansa and Arya get nowhere with Jon when they try to talk to him before he leaves for Dragonstone. At this point, Jon also tells them about his true identity as the son of Lyanna and Rhaegar. It is soon after this that Sansa moves to protect Jon and the North by revealing his secret to Tyrion Lannister.

From the perspective of how Game of Thrones ends up, the most prescient character all along was indeed Sansa. Her insight into Jon’s tendencies began at the Battle of the Bastards and is foreshadowed by her comment to him about needing to be smarter than Ned and Robb. Sansa also remarks to Dany that men do stupid things for women, which can only be taken at face value by the audience. Dany’s remark about “who is manipulating whom”, probably does not imply true canniness on the part of Jon but is actually a reference to Dany’s own infatuation with him combined with her desire to placate Sansa.

Jon had kept the interest of the North in mind by focusing on the threat of the Night King, while Sansa had all along remained motivated by continuing the Northern independence which Jon’s crowning had reinstated. Her distrust of Dany was based upon several factors, but insight into Dany’s true propensities that later turned out to be correct was probably a major driver. This is not really spelled out by the show; we are only given lines like Arya’s to Jon about Sansa being the “smartest person I know.” This possibility seems to have pretty much escaped Jon, who is focused on the Night King and his sense of indebtedness to Dany.

Sansa and Jon (The Starks) bring about Dany’s Downfall

Jon’s character arc in season 8 appears to only confirm Sansa’s misgivings about him. Here are a few actions by Jon which were likely perceived as alarming by Sansa:

He bent the knee, which we know Sansa disapproves of, not only because Dany is a Targaryen but because Sansa has become devoted to the cause of Northern independence. Sansa wanted Jon to remain King in the North.

Sansa perceives Jon’s “love” for Dany (which he probably admitted to her in episode one) as a sign that he is again vulnerable to making poor judgements as she saw him do in the past and which remind her of other male Starks.

Jon’s repeated assurances that Dany will be a good queen despite evidence to the contrary.

Jon’s fealty to Dany even after learning of his parentage. What did Sansa think of this? We didn’t get to hear, but her spilling the beans to Tyrion tells us she believes it to be a mistake. We have to believe that Sansa told Jon as much after Bran revealed the truth about him, and he wouldn’t listen.

What stands out about Sansa during all of this is that she trusted her own judgements over Jon’s and ultimately acted upon them in opposition to Jon’s instructions. Since Sansa is correct about Dany, she is shown to have the best judgement and therefore lives up to her implied “smartness”. Of course Jon’s character arc of naivete and blind devotion is deeply disappointing and antithetical to some of his past actions. Yet Sansa’s misgivings about his judgement are seemingly proven true in the end. Jon’s decision to kill Dany, which was portrayed as being more about protecting Sansa than about Dany’s fitness, was not reached until almost the last minute, and only after a discussion with Tyrion in which he seems to defend Dany. Unfortunately this is what the show gave us, but in the end, the Starks are mostly on the ascent because of Sansa and Jon. It is likely that Sansa telling Tyrion about Jon’s Targaryen heritage contributed to Dany’s burning of King’s Landing. This is evidenced by her paranoia, self pity and instability in her scene with Jon after Varys’s execution. Soon afterwards, Jon ended Dany’s life and the tipping point for him was almost certainly his (late) realization that Dany would likely try to kill Sansa.

Part 2 will be about the plot the writers may have intended to portray.

#jon snow #Sansa Stark #sansa and jon #daenerys targaryen #the starks #game of thrones #got season 8 #bad writing got

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wigwurq · 4 years

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WIG REVIEW: PERRY MASON

It’s time for a prestige tv show wig review!! HBO’s reboot of Perry Mason has wrapped its season and I have a lot to say about it. SPOILERS AHEAD if you haven’t watched the full season. I had never watched the original Perry Mason (or read the books) but my mom did both and watching the new series with her was a lot of her comparing the new with the old. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE WIGS? Let’s discuss. Much like all HBO shows, the wig budget seems virtually nonexistent despite the fact that all HBO shows are definitely made out of money. WHAT GIVES?!?! I’ll be breaking down the hair character by character (skipping for the most part the wigless characters):

PERRY MASON

So many many of you have been trying to get me to watch The Americans, which is how most Americans were introduced to actor Matthew Rhys. AND I’M STILL NOT GONNA WATCH IT because though apparently there are many wigs, they are wigs within the narrative of the show so: WHATEVER. THEY ARE ALLOWED TO BE BAD! MOVING ON! I was introduced to Mr. Rhys first by running into him (literally) in my neighborhood (we’re neighbors!) and then seeing him as a grumpy grump in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (there is a neighborhood theme happening here...) Anyway: he is really good in this show and I was thankful every week that Perry was not played by Robert Downey, Jr (who originally was set to play him but still produced). Regardless: he doesn’t wear a wig but he does wear the shit out of some hats.

PETE STRICKLAND

Technically, Perry’s frenemy Pete is wigless as well but he wears the hell out of a mustache and that cannot go unnoticed!

DELLA STREET

Perry’s girl Friday and I guess the moral center of the show has one of the better wigs but it is still kind of the pits. Set in 1931-32, the series wigmaster clearly decided that ALL WOMEN wore fingerwave bobs and therefore all female characters have basically the same wig, with varying levels of success. Della’s is not the worst but that is mainly because she is constantly wearing hats.

When not wearing hats...it’s another story, dog. This thing is an untamed nightmare of bends and angles. Still, compared to the other fingerwave bobs in this show, it is (sadly!) one of the best.

EMILY DODSON

First off, I’m really glad that one of my favorite characters in GLOW is on this show. However, UGH THIS WIG. We first encounter Emily as the mother of a kidnapped/murdered baby who soon becomes the #1 suspect.

Therefore, throughout the series her wig really takes a turn from bored housewife to inmate to courthouse to cemetery resurrections and back again. And through it all, this wig takes a journey from bent wig to more bent wig!

Even in the courtroom....YIKES. Look at the shine on this thing! And the texture. HORRIFIC.

No amount of prestige lighting can hide its horror!!!!

LUPE GIBBS

The only female character who is NOT running around in a fingerwave bob is Perry’s love interest/aviator/landlord, Lupe. I guess this character was supposed to be ahead of her time and kind of a Mexican Amelia Earhart but much like her characterization, this wig was kind of a mess, in fountains and out.

PAUL DRAKE

Again, dude doesn’t have a wig but it must be noted that he wears hats well.

CLARA DRAKE

So straight up: I was worried about Paul Drake’s wife for basically ALL OF THIS SERIES. As soon as he was introduced as a black cop trying to navigate the very corrupt and even more racist LAPD and then it was revealed that he had a pregnant wife: I FEARED SHE AND THE BABY WOULD BE KILLED SOMEHOW. These fears truly crystallized when I started focusing on her wig, which is definitely the absolute worst wig on this show - the seamwork, texture, and curls are all a travesty. I knew that HBO would not be throwing wig bucks at a character that was not long for this series. BUT TWIST! Not only did she and baby live (halleluj!) but after quitting the LAPD and working for Perry, they somehow afforded a sweet new pad! I still don’t know how finances work on this show but fine! Now please get her a better wig for season 2!

LINDA MASON

First only heard as an angry voice on a phone, Perry’s ex-wife Linda, as played by the incomparable Gretchen Mol finally surfaced somewhere in the middle of this series. AND WON ALL THE WIG AWARDS. Did Gretchen Mol get to use her own hair person? Or her own hair? These mysteries still linger, as do many other mysteries in this series, but regardless: THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME ONE LADY WITH GOOD HAIR. Sadly, she was the only one. We hardly knew ye!

BIRDIE McKEEGAN

Straight up: I LOVE LILY TAYLOR and think she can do no wrong. I was thrilled that she was in this show, even if she plays a total Mommie Dearest monster. Her wig is totally serviceable? But since we’re talking about Lily Taylor, she probably deserved better.

SISTER ALICE McKEEGAN

Yes, I left the craziest wig for last. As Lily Taylor’s daughter/evangelical lunatic/sexual assault survivor/baby resurrector/definite witch, Tatiana Maslany brought the CRAZY to this show and her wig brought it too. And no - I still haven’t watched Orphan Black and I’m fine, thanks.

LOOK AT THIS DAMN WIG. Inspired somewhere between Elsa Lancaster’s Bride of Frankenstein, Jean Harlow, and every Halloween fright wig cut into a bob, this wig is a rumpled, crumpled MESS.

I think I speak for us all when I say to this wig: OH HELL NO.

This trio of wigs is truly the three horsemen of the apocalypse. GET IT TOGETHER, HBO’S WIG BUDGET DEPARTMENT!!!

The real twist at the end (SPOILER!) is when Sister Alice books it out of her own baby resurrection only to resurface as a brunette, working at a diner. I did think it was hilarious that character named Alice would end up working in a diner - how many tv shows are you trying to reboot, HBO?

IF ONLY.

Anyway, this wig is just as bad as Alice’s blonde wig! The little wispy spit curls are 100% inspired by Betty Boop and the whole thing looks about as realistic as Betty Boop as well. Also: Alice gave no further information on dead or living baby wherabouts, leaving a huge gaping mystery at the end of this show which my mom found REALLY REALLY annoying but I guess the point is: this bitch is probably a witch. OK?

VERDICT: DOESN’T WURQ

#perrymason #wigwurq #nightmarewigs #fingerwavebobs #BettyBooprealness #kissmygrits

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mytargaryenchildren · 5 years

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How a historical analysis might help reconsider the need to accept Game of Thrones’ TV ending

I’m dedicating this post to @bendthekneejon ❤️

I wrote this weeks ago but real life got in the way of finalizing it, but here you go. Almost 2 months later and I’m still angry about the Game of Thrones ending. And here’s how I am getting over it.

Most people I see online have been upset about the way the Game of Thrones TV show ended, including me. I have been a mega fan since 2013, read the books, spent a lot of money traveling to filming locations and on cosplay, went out of my way to meet Kit Harington, but most importantly I have used the story of ASOIAF as escapism for these past 6 years. It’s so ingrained in my daily imagination, so it’s been really difficult to come to terms with the butchering of characters and their arcs, sexist/racist writing, and an overall unsatisfying ending that we got just for the sake of ‘subverting expectations’.

To come to terms with my disregard for Season 8, I was thinking about a lecture I attended back in 2018 at my undergraduate university by Ayelet Haimson Lushkov. She wrote You Win or You Die: The Ancient World of Game of Thrones as a comparison of the events and tropes within ASOIAF with ancient Roman and Greek history. Usually, the comparison is made with medieval Britain or European history, but I found many of the parallels, especially from Essos, to be more interesting than the typical feudalist reading of ASOIAF that we get by historians. That’s not my main point here, though I would definitely check her book out if you’re a fan of history and ASOIAF like me. My main point is how to reconcile David and Dan’s ending or George R. R. Martin’s future ending with an actual satisfying end, and how modern fandom culture is actually the perfect way to bridge this gap.

Lushkov spoke about the formation of ‘canon’ in this lecture. She explained how interesting it is how exactly ASOIAF canon has come to be: one author began it, which would usually be considered the one and only ‘true’ canon of a certain media. However, when it went to D&D and HBO, especially once they surpassed George’s books, that canon splintered into two. There’s book and show canon. Up until season 8 I was a fan of both; I liked each one for different reasons. I saw it as getting two separate stories told by two different entities, just using the same characters. In my heart I never preferred one over the other, I saw them as two different canons, two stories. I’m arguing that this is how we must think of the world of ASOIAF now. The book and show are completely different stories, and should remain that way. HOWEVER I’m taking it a step further.

Fandoms are just an authoritative source of canon as the ‘original’ creators. There, I said it. Now, let me explain this view by using Lushkov’s explanation. Because she looked into classical history, she naturally used Homer’s epic poems as a source to compare the content of ASOIAF with. Then she made the parallel, or reverse parallel, with the formation of these stories. First, it is important to understand the theories around Homer. “There are scholars who see (most of) the Iliad and sometimes the Odyssey as the work of a single inspired poet, a genius whom they call Homer.” In my parallel, this theory reflects GRRM and most singular content creators. However, the other argument helps my view, that “the Homeric poems are the product of a long series of compositions and re-compositions,” where “Homer is seen as a ‘movement’ rather than as an individual”. This theory states that the Greek Epics were compiled over time, by many people, until eventually it became one single canon. This isn’t only applicable to Greek poetry. Let’s look at where the word ‘canon’ comes from: religion. The Bible for example was written over time by different contributors into one eventual canon that’s followed by millions today. Each of the four gospels has its own version of the story of Christ, and even they differ from one another within canon!

So, why is this important? What does it have to do with the ending of Game of Thrones? Well, what I’m saying is that if we all agree that Game of Thrones season 8 was the worst thing to happen to the world of ASOIAF, we can throw it out the window of canon if we want. By reversing the formation of canon, us fans have just as much authority over it as David and Dan. Of course I’m not saying that every headcanon is 100% legitimate, no, but what I’m saying is that due to the widespread disdain and hatred for the ending, and overall agreement that it wasn’t up to the standards of the rest of canon, it’s acceptable for us to disregard it completely and feel no guilt in that. I don’t want anyone to say “no, I’m ignoring the final 3 episodes” and then to feel that underlying guilt or belief that you’re turning your back on a story you’ve loved for years. I know how much effort has been put into metas, theories, and fanfics. Some of you have spent way more time on this canon than D&D combined. It’s such a personal thing too, loving these characters, reflecting on our lives through them, and wanting to see them thrive. This analysis should help you disregard season 8 and feel justified about it under the definitions of canon.

Lushkov mentioned that modern fandom culture is so important in the acceptance of canon, and she was the one who suggested this reversal of roles. The definition of “Canon” is where my argument is strengthened: “Canon is a source, or sources, considered authoritative by the fannish community. In other words, canon is what fans agree "actually" happened in a film, television show, novel, comic book, or concert tour. Specific sources considered canon may vary even within a specific fandom.” Note the importance of fan’s acceptance in this definition. In Lushkov’s analysis, the fans play the same role as the original orators of the Greek epics before the Homer canon was solidified. Modern fandom is defined by many people sharing a story, and especially sharing extra content like metas and fanfics.

There’s a precedent for disregarding canon set already, though, and hopefully this can convince you more that you’re justified in throwing season 8 in the trash. When Disney bought Star Wars, they threw out everything that had been done in the Extended Universe and made up their own new canon. The Extended Universe was an example of one canon being created by one person, and then authors taking that and making their own additional stories in universe, that counted as canon. So, are all of their stories, their hard work, is it all invalid now? I wouldn’t say so. There’s just two separate canons now. Also, how many times have comic books been retconned? Just think about how many different superheros have 5 different film versions! Creators ignore the past, or change it, and then new canon is accepted or not accepted by fans. I mentioned the Bible earlier; even THAT split into multiple Canons due to disdain for creators misusing canon! My years of studying Martin Luther have finally come in handy! Am I really comparing 1.5 million Game of Thrones fans signing a petition to remake season 8 to Martin Luther’s 95 Theses against the Catholic Church? You know what, yeah, yeah I am.

If 1.5+ million people have signed the petition to remake Game of Thrones season 8, if 90% of the articles I see online hate the ending, if almost all of tumblr discourse says that the ending was gross and sexist and racist, well let’s throw it out the window. Clearly almost every character was acting out of character. The people we saw in the last 3 episodes of Game of Thrones were not the characters we grew to love in the previous 7.5 seasons.

I hope by pointing out real historical canons, as well as modern fandom interactions and media consumption, I’ve shown that the idea of one unifying ‘canon’ has never been as clear cut as one might hope. In this, I hope that everyone who is considering ignoring season 8 and turning to fanfiction to correct the mistakes made by David and Dan feels no remorse in doing so. GO FOR IT!! If Martin Luther could, you can too.

#game of thrones #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #game of thrones meta #bringing my history degree into the GoT fandom lmao #there's lots of other stuff on fandom and media consumption and author/reader relationships that i didn't get into #i don't have the time #but yeah

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cryptovalid · 4 years

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Watchmen: My favorite show of 2019

Now that I’ve watched HBO’s Watchmen in its entirety, I can safely say that it is by far my favorite show I’ve seen this year. The more I think about it though, the less it seems to offer a coherent statement about vigilantism, power and violence the way the original graphic novel did. I don’t think this makes it any less clever, bold or satisfying to watch, but Watchmen is more interested in playing with the weight and drama of themes than actually expressing a clear, useful thesis about them.

The show is a sequel to the graphic novel, taking place in 2019, when the fallout from the 1987 story finally comes home to roost.

To give you some more context, I’ll be talking about Alan Moore’s 1986-1987 maxiseries of comics first, and then comparing it to the new television series narratively. In terms of acting and production values, I’d say that the show is great across the board, although your mileage may vary. This is doubly true of its narrative: I’m curious if the show is too confusing for people who’ve never read the comic, and the show doesn’t show a lot of reverence for the characters of the original. In my opinion, this is for the best and actually completely in the spirit of Alan Moore’s work. From here on out, There be Spoilers for the comic, movie and the tv series.

Watchmen (1987) by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is by far my absolute favorite superhero comic. It is the only graphic novel to be named as one of Time’s 100 best novels of the twentieth century. It’s certainly not true that it is the only graphic novel that deserves that kind of honor, but it is not on that list for bad reasons. This post would be too long if I listed all of Watchmen’s many achievements, so I will just say this: Watchmen investigates how the existence of masked vigilantes and superheroes would change the real world, and its answer is not positive. No matter how you slice it, in order to inflict violence on strangers or save the world based purely on your own moral compass, you have to be either hopelessly naive or narcissistic, sadistic, fascistic, fetishist, manic, or untethered from human experience in one way or the other. However you imagine them, superheroes escalate danger. They are not cooperative or peace-loving by their nature, the comic says. ‘Superheroes’ will do terrible things in the name of ‘saving the world’ or ‘doing the right thing’. In this sense, the book is thoroughly anti-utopian but also anti-superhero, and it commits to this by depicting all of its ‘protagonists’ as deeply flawed, ultimately dangerous or inept people.

In terms of plot, the big twist that effects the show is that the smartest man in the world, the vigilante Ozymandias, predicts that nuclear armageddon is inevitable unless he convinces the global superpowers that there is a massive alien threat, making their feuds appear petty and risky by comparison. He literally kills millions of people with a genetically engineered giant monster that he teleports to New York, not including the dozens of murders to prepare the ground and cover up this fact. The fear that more monsters like this could appear prevents nuclear war at the last second, but another vigilante named Rorshach figured out Ozymandias’ plan and wanted to expose it, which would undo its intended peacemaking effect. He was killed, but his notes survived.

In the end, the only vigilante with actual superpowers, Dr. Manhattan, is so far removed from human experience because of his godlike powers and his nonlinear perception of time, that he seems to retreat from Earth itself, expressing a desire to create life elsewhere.

This is the backdrop against which Watchmen (2019) frames itself: what would that alternate history look like about 20 years later? But instead of focusing on the evils that vigilantism and superpowers would create, this sequel puts race and policing at the core of its narrative. The main protagonists: Angela Abar, Will Reeves, Laurie Blake and Wade Tillman are all cops and all of them are at one point in their lives masked vigilantes. They are also pitted against white supremacist terrorists, and the show depicts them as regularly violating the constitutional rights of suspects and killing lots of people in justifiable situations. The show depicts both cops and civilians in both real and historical race riots.

But the more I think about it, the less I can identify a coherent thesis about the origins or nature of racism or the morality of extra-judicial violence. It seems to say ‘violating a person’s human rights is alright as long as they’re racist’, and I mean, I can’t be too mad about that, but it also implies that the cops are basically good, that it is possible to root out specific racist conspiracies and that’s all that’s needed to set things right. There’s a definite assumption that most of the time, we can just trust cops to have integrity. The show rarely frames unmitigated violence as a systemic issue; even when the government is implicated. The protagonists are also relatable and sympathetic, and their victory against the white supremacist conspiracy is without any real moral complications or ironic personal costs. This show, unlike its source material, is pro-vigilante. Or at most neutral on the subject.

Its message about racism is more straightforward, but also a little hollow. Racist violence is shown viscerally, but also roundly condemed, ridiculed, and avenged by the protagonists. But that’s really as deep as it goes. All racists in this show are openly and stereotypically Southern whites. There is very little exploration or covert or insidious racism: there is a clear divide between literal neo-KKK types and antiracist avengers, with little ambiguity in between. We are not really shown what drives racists to be racist. The most motivation racists are given is a resentment over two attempts at improving the world: Reparations for the Tulsa Massacre, and the aforementioned plot to stop the Cold War by faking extradimensional invasion. Not that I’m begging for a humane portrayal of racist terrorists, but it does make it extremely easy for actual, less obvious white supremacists to ignore any criticism because ‘at least they’re not like the Seventh Kavalery’. It in short, doesn’t give viewers any special insight into racism and how to deal with it in the real world.

What Watchmen does do beautifully is representation. The first masked vigilante, Hooded Justice, who in the comic was a clear reference to a Klansman, is reimagined as the victim of a threatened lynching, who fights his attackers still wearing the noose and hood they put on him. He then pretends to be white to gain the support and cover he needs to be a vigilante. This man, Will Reeves, named himself after his childhood hero, the historical inspiration for the Lone Ranger, Bass Reeves. As a child, he was smuggled out from the Bombing of Tulsa in the trunk of a carriage, much like Moses or Superman. We later discover that HJ is bisexual and is essentially strung along for years by the media-savvy Captain Metropolis for publicity purposes and sex, and ends up desillusioned by his white allies. We also learn that Angela Abar, the de facto main character, is in fact his granddaughter, and she becomes involved in his decades-spanning plans to root out the racist conspiracy that the plot revolves around.

Perhaps even more interesting is the decision to integrate Doctor Manhattan into this sequel as a jewish and a black man. Rather than simply recasting the part, the show frames the revelation in a way that Dr. Manhattan might experience it: out of order, but also clearly telegraphed. The show uses this to characterize Dr. Manhattan as someone whose decisions do not adhere to standard causality. Why does he start to woo Angela Abar in the first place? Because from his perspective, he’s always been in love with her. Just like nothing ever ends, it doesn’t really begin from his perspective either. One day, he walks into A Bar and starts explaining to Angela Abar that they will be in a relationship for ten years, which wil then end in tragedy. While she is understandably skeptical, Regina King and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II really manage to sell both the frustrating absurdity and the transcendant romance of this idea. In the end, Osterman chooses to take the shape of a dead man based purely on the fact that Angela is most attracted to, and goes to great lengths to lose is powers and become human again, as a black man named Calvin Abar, who we first meet as Angela’s charming stay-at-home husband and father to their adopted children. The fact that he is Dr. Manhattan all along is revealed to us in my favorite sequence in the whole show. We, the audience, fall in love with both the husband as well as the God, Jon Osterman, as both are vulnerable and honest about who they are. Even though everyone knows it can’t last. These scenes are both heartbreaking and beautiful, and are foreshadowed masterfully from the beginning. This is what I mean when I say the show is clever.

The dialogue is witty and the cinematography, editing and plotting do a subtle job of worldbuilding. There are very few exposition dumps and characters rarely do or say things just to help the plot along; they are always driven by their own motivations rather than those the viewer might prefer in their hurry to learn more.

As a result, characters feel smart and their personalities and relationships develop more naturally. From Jeremy Irons’ Ozymandias to Hong Chau’s Lady Trieu to Jean Smart’s Laurie Blake, they all come across as clearly defined assholes with a charismatic competence.

The world and its history also unfold at their own pace. This can be confusing in the first couple of episodes. It isn’t explained why cops wear masks, what ‘Redfordations’ are, or why squids rain from the sky often enough that a siren goes off whenever it happens. Instead, viewers piece a lot of it together from context. The details make it feel very believable. It makes me feel like I’m discovering an alternate history the way a lost time traveler might.

In the end, it is not the themes that make this version of Watchmen so enjoyable. Its the intricate details of its world and the interactions between its characters that make Watchmen 2019 so fun to watch. And as far as on the nose messages go, ‘vaporize as many racists as possible‘ isn’t that bad.

#Watchmen 2019 #Watchmen HBO #reviews #fave shows #fave show of 2019 #Dr. Manhattan #Angela Abar #Hooded Justice #Cal Abar

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eldritchsurveys · 4 years

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764.

What is something small that brings you a lot of joy? >> The first dandelions of the season.

What would it take for you to feel completely satisfied with your life? >> Honestly, at this point, I think all it would take is moving somewhere a bit warmer and greener and with a lot less people around. I’m pretty okay with everything else in my life. It’s light-years better than it ever was.

What was going on the last time someone yelled at you? >> An argument, most likely.

Describe the best and worst aspects of your personality? >> I’d rather not.

How did you discover your current favorite band(s)? >> ---

When was the last time you changed your mind about something? >> I was originally not going to go for a walk this morning, and then I did.

How have your dreams and ambitions changed since you were younger? >> They haven’t really. I still don’t have any ambitions.

What are some of your current favorite lyrics? >> Lay Me Low by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds has some good lyrics. I listened to it today on my walk and was reminded of that.

Are you more of a private person or an open one? >> I am open in the sense that I’m not ashamed of myself or anything (you know, when Inner Critic isn’t in charge). But I’m private because I just don’t think everyone needs to know everything about me all the time. The fortress of my existence isn’t necessarily impenetrable, but you can’t just fucking waltz in either, lmao.

What is something you wish you had learned when you were younger? >> Meh. There’s no guarantee that learning a particular lesson at an earlier time would have made my life any better, so who cares. I did my best with what I had and here I am.

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement? >> Being here, right now, still alive and not, like, fucking locked away somewhere or dead in a gutter.

Are you creative or artistic? What do you like to express through art? >> Sure. I don’t know how to answer the second question.

What is something you eat that others consider gross? >> I dare someone to call something I’m eating and obviously enjoying “gross”. See how long I put up with that rude bullshit.

Five ways your life has changed over the last five years? >> I moved out here, I stopped using DXM, I gained weight, I got married, I experienced first class flight.

When was the last time you needed help with something? >> I don’t remember.

What kinds of things do you consider romantic? >> I’m not interested in romance.

What is something you will never do again? >> Who knows.

In what ways do you think you inspire others? >> I’m not sure anything about me is particularly inspiring. I’d have to be explicitly told otherwise if I’m going to have any idea about this.

What is something from your childhood that you still enjoy? >> The Prince of Egypt.

In what ways are you open-minded? How about close-minded? >> I’m open-minded in almost all ways I can think of. I can’t think of a way in which I’m close-minded...

What is something that is uniquely YOU? >> I don’t think anything is uniquely ME. There’s always going to be someone out there with at least a similar experience or opinion or worldview as me, even if I never encounter them. There’s probably someone else right now who is reading The Dark Tower and getting to my part and going “that’s... that’s me, I lived that life” and tbh I hope I do encounter that person so I can have someone else to bitch about Roland to.

How do you tend to conduct yourself in arguments? >> I tend to just. Not have arguments. I’m over it, there’s nothing in the world I have ever found that is really worth arguing with someone about. Maybe I’ll find something one day, but right now I am really content with just not bothering.

When was the last time you apologized for something? >> I don’t remember. I try to avoid doing things I need to apologise for as much as possible.

Name one healthy and one unhealthy thing you do? >> ---

Do you prefer to be alone or around other people? >> I prefer to be alone, although I will make an exception for a certain few people. And by “few” I mean “I can count them on one hand”-few. (There are plenty of people that I like, sure, but when it comes to purposefully setting aside my alone-time to spend time with someone else... there’s gotta be more than just “yeah, you’re cool” going on.)

What is your most recent passion or obsession? >> Final Fantasy XIV.

If money wasn't an issue, how would you live your life differently? >> Well, I’d buy more high-quality, long-lasting products (which are usually outside of my current budget, so despite my preference for them I often have to settle for the cheaper options). I’d be able to make all the food choices that I prefer, buying local produce and better ingredients and such. And we definitely wouldn’t be living here.

When was the last time you made a drastic change to your appearance? >> I don’t remember. My appearance has been pretty static for the past five years, aside from my weight.

What is something you believe in that not many others do? >> The experience of being from another world, which happened to be written about by some guy on this one and published as fiction.

What calms you down or comforts you? >> Can Calah, primarily. Also, sitting in the sunlight.

When was the last time you went somewhere new? >> Ha! Good fucking question, eh.

With whom do you spend the most time? >> Sparrow, because we live together.

What's your favorite food to have for breakfast? >> Veggie burgers and chips. I don’t know when or how that happened, but it did. Samefood gang~

Do you have any unusual eating habits? >> I guess the concept of samefooding is a little unusual, considering it seems to be particular to people with spectrum disorders or whatever.

How old were you when you figured out what you wanted to do for a career? >> ---

When was the last time you conquered a fear? >> I don’t know.

What did you think of the last book you read? >> The Poisonwood Bible took me like three years to finish lmao (I would read some of it and then put it down and forget about it for months at a time -- a whole year, even) but I found it to be very engaging and immersive. I loved the way each character had such a distinct voice -- I would sometimes cover up the chapter title (which would be the name of the POV character) and try to guess the character from just the first couple of sentences and I always got it right, just because I could tell their voice immediately. It was a lovely story full of emotional and philosophical depth and I gave it five stars on Goodreads now that I’ve finally finished it, hah.

What is your current favorite television show? >> Succession, lmao. I didn’t expect to get sucked into it the way I did, but HBO dramas really are good at that.

What happened the last time you were annoyed? >> Spooky is jumping on things he shouldn’t be jumping on again. He’d better not knock anything over that I have to clean up. This is reason 3498587 why I don’t care for pets.

How would you describe your bedroom? >> Small and easily cluttered. Ask me again after I’ve thrown away/donated half of my belongings (as I tend to do).

What happened the last time you cried? >> I was being overwhelmed by environmental noise.

When was the last time you were out in nature? >> This morning. Not like, fully immersed in nature -- I was walking down a sidewalk, after all -- but there was some to observe. It’s as good as it gets, for now.

When was the last time you were in a big city? >> January (Houston, Texas).

Have you been drifting away from anyone lately? >> Not to my knowledge.

Is there anyone with whom you would like to be better friends? >> Meh.

What do you like most about summer? >> The warmth, the Sun, the wealth of outdoor things to do.

What are your favorite things to do during the winter months? >> Be inside :|

Who were you with the last time you watched a movie? >> I was alone.

What was the subject of your last phone conversation? >> Insurance bullshit.

What was your first pet? Do you still have this pet? >> A Rottweiler. No way, that was when I was a child.

What was the last thing you purchased online? In a store? >> Underwear (got price-gouged, too, but that’s what happens when you will only wear a specific kind and no other will do). The last thing I purchased in a store was groceries.

Where was the last place you went on vacation? >> I guess going to Elle’s wedding was kind of a vacation.

What is your favorite thing to learn about? >> I have a lot of favourite things to learn about.

Who do you trust most in your life? >> Can Calah.

Have you ever done any volunteer work? If so, what? >> No.

If you have a job, what do you like best about it? >> ---

If you were to redecorate your house, what style would you choose? >> I live in an apartment, that’s not happening.

What is your relationship like with your parents? Siblings? >> Nonexistent.

When was the last time you visited your relatives? >> ---

What are you going to do now that you're finished? >> Might take a peek at my dashboard, might get bored of that within 5 minutes and do something else, who knows.

#surveys #survey #random survey

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distantwhenbeckoning · 4 years

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Social Distance Tag

– was tagged by @queerlylibra💗

are you staying home from work/school?

Unfortunately not. I’m an “essential” worker, meaning I have to still deal with the general public when I even get the opportunity to work. The restaurant I work at has slashed hours dramatically, to the point that they gave us a $3 raise (making a whopping $16 now!) but going from 30 hrs a week to 10 has me a little scared. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely hate my job, but it’s weird that I need it and filing for partial unemployment at the same time because of this mess here in the US.

if you’re staying home, who is with you?

I pretty much just come to my house to decontaminate after work, and head to my girlfriend’s right after. From there, I stay in the rest of the day, leave late at night and sleep at my place. It sucked in mid March right around the onset here because ya boi actually got sick and I was completely quarantined for 2 weeks and we were miserable. FaceTime was what kept us sane but now that we have a system in place, this makes it all the more tolerable.

are you a homebody?

I’m not as stir crazy as I thought I’d be in all honesty. I’m a bit of a homebody, but of course there are some public things that I really miss. Movies, shows, Disneyland. Stress free grocery shopping. LA county has a new mandate that masks are required to enter any store still operating and staggering entrances to help with the SD’ing. I definitely miss not having people yelling at me because my restaurant has gone cashless and people still fucking try.

an event you were looking forward to that got canceled?

February through April is usually a busy time for Maria and I since we celebrate Valentine’s Day, her Birthday in March, and then our anniversary (today!) in April. I had wanted to go back this year to where we made it official, a botanical garden called Descanso, so I’m pretty sad about that. But just having her in my arms, knowing we’re in this together and riding out the storm brings me so much happiness and love, and that’s really what it’s all about. I’m so happy we managed to squeeze in a trip to Seattle in February, it seems like the pandemic was so far away then as opposed to how we are now...

what movies have you watched recently?

We’re creatures of comfort, so we’ve been watching a lot of horror and sci-fi haha. We just watched on Shudder a flick called The Room (not the Wiseau magnum opus) and for a small production, it was really good. We watched Bumblebee last night and honestly? fucking loved it. I grew up watching the original cartoon in the 90′s (which were just reruns from the 80′s, I’m not that old) and they really captured the essence of what I imagined as a kid what it would be like to have a real Autobot. PLUS ANGELA BASSETT VOICES A DECEPTICON AND LIKE??? A+ casting for that decision alone.

what shows are you watching?

We blew through Tiger King like everyone else lol. Problematic in more than a few ways, but still deeply riveting. Uhh, we also blazed through His Dark Materials on HBO (thank u susie) and right now we’re watching Cursed Films (a doc series about movies and their apparent curses on production) and that one has made some brilliant points about the concept so far.

what music are you listening to?

Little Dragon dropped a new album that’s been a godsend. My witch playlist is always a good time. Pretty much anything by Chelsea Wolfe. At this very moment, I’m listening to a playlist that Maria just made for our anniversary and crying!

what are you reading?

I’m reading the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix currently. I bought the set on a whim since I remember loving them when I was a teen. I’m about a third of the way in the second book Lirael and I just love the writing. It’s a very matter-of-fact approach to fantasy, magic, and necromancy but still has a very artistic way of interpreting the concepts as well. In non-fic, I’m still reading Sara and Tegan Quin’s shared autobiography High School. They were/are a deeply formative part of my life, and to see them write so candidly and with such vulnerability makes me appreciate their music and their trajectory as artists much more deeply than before.

what are you doing for self-care?

LMAO well Animal Crossing New Horizons could not have come a better time. Maria and I are really invested in our island, and seeing just how creative people have been on the platform has really inspired us. It’s honestly such a break from the literal shit storm that rages on. Reading again has been something I told myself to do. Maria and I have been cooking together pretty much daily, as well as doing activities like Lego sets, little DIY arts and crafts (we made candles the other day!) and trying to maintain a decent sleep schedule. Couple of things I really want/need to get back into is exercising and drawing. I think next week sounds good. <3

@amor-intellectualis @oneeyedfool, you’re up!

and anyone else who wants to, obvi.

#about me #social distancing #thank u bunny for tagging me #maybe this will kickstart the writing brain

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thevisionmarvel · 5 years

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We need to talk about WandaVision.

or the alternative title: I will be inactive for a while, but before I go, I need to write about what I think will happen, not what I want to happen, but what they, according to the facts and history of the MCU, might do. also a rant about why Tom King’s Vision is the worst.

Ps: older version used a fan-made logo to do a visual study, I'm Sorry for the mistake, this is the problem with second-handed information, I saw being used It Multiple times, and assume It things, I'm really sorry for the mistake.

Showrunner and Writers

So right now, the only thing we know about the writers room of the show, is the showrunner, Jac Schaeffer, and Megan McDonnell, the write that confirmed writting for the series in a podcast. First kudos for the show having a woman as showrunner.

I don’t know much about McDonnell work, but was in this podcast that the twilight zone inspiration talk comes from, the host talks that she comes from this background of weird, twist, fantasy stories and how Wandavision seems a good fit , and she confirms that it is. see here in the wonderful post of the @officialstellaacosta, and all the praise to @those-celestial-bodies that found about it the podcast.

I know a lot more about Schaeffer’s work, even before Marvel, also it rubs me the wrong way, that marvel is using the same writer to all the females centric movies and shows ( She is one of the screenwriters of Captain Marvel, she is the one that pinned the story of the Black Widow movie), even after what happened with Nicole Perlman . It’s hard to talk about the Schaeffer’s work with Marvel because the only thing which premiered is Captain Marvel, and she was credited as a screenwriter really late, the movie has four screenwriters, the story of the movie is by other three people, so this is a lot of hands, to know what was written by her .

So if you want to know more about her, this older interview with the Blaclist is great, also it has a really insightful look of her own writting that is backed up with the movies that she likes and mentions as inspirations to her writting:

“ I love movies that tell regular stories about regular people but I have a hard time writing straight. It’s often flat. (…) I need a weird situation and then I try to put authentic characters having truthful reactions inside the weird. Also, the weird needs to be a commentary on something (..). The ideas I see through always begin with what if… “

She is also one of the writers of the new remake with Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson , The Hustle, but I know her work from her debut work that she directed and wrote that it is TiMER (2009) is a indie rom-com with a really great idea, you know the post about clocks that rundowns until you met you soulmate, so the movie is about that, and find the mudane in this weird set-up, it’s a average niche small movie, has almost every beat of a rom-com that you are expecting, just really stumbles in the end, like drop the ball in themes about love, relationships that wanted to talk about it, also the end is really, boy it just undermine the theme of the movie and also really hurt the most important platonic relationship in the story, also the comedy is so cringy sometimes and has some talk about latinos, that it’s really low-key xenophobic. Hope that since then she had learn with this. The writting has some really good bits. I think that the movie is in Amazon Prime video.

So what this tell about WandaVision : is that with the type of writers attached to the project, the idea of putting Wanda and Vision in a mudane environment seems likely to be true, them and their powers being the point of abnormality in the story.

this leads to…

Comics (or me ranting about Tom King, a lot)

I never made a post just about Tom King’s Vision after launched because I always feels like chewing glass when I think about it , but this is me apologizing to you that is reading this post because of that, this will be more like a rant, so sorry, but I’ll try to be really on point “stretch fingers again”

So first we have to talk about the Story of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision, their stories always were more ground, with the two limited-series really with them dealing with relationships and family problems, this is one of the really good things of their stories, it’s this insane of idea of a witch and a android falling in love, and with the all B-movie, pulp ideas just as backgrounds to really human stories, and they did one of the things that comics most hate, they evolved, we saw them build a family life, they moved to the suburban, they married, they had kids. One moment that always stayed with me, it’s really fun but also encapsulate all this, it’s the moment that they open their home to peter parker to take photos of their house, because is tax season, it just a really mudane thing, but it’s something that it clicks, yeah she is a witch, he is a android but their are grown-ups starting a family, tax season is going to be a part of their life now and then their fight the bad of the week with the help of spider-man. Simple, Fun but with a underline theme and story as comics aimed at children should be.

And we know what happened, which is one of more poignants things that happened with them and one of the best metaphors of the worse human thing that can happen wiith a couple, losing their child, one becoming emotionally distant and other shutting down even the memory of them, and Marvel butchered it. (but this is another post)

But before we talk about the comic, I need to talk about Vision, every superhero has one panel that define who they are, think super-man flying, batman in the gotham landscape, captain america punching hitler, hawkeye falling of a building, spider-man hanging upside-down, iron-man with his hand blast, This to Vision, is him alone, crying after being accepted by the avengers, it is a moment of vulnerability, of pure emotion, he was created to destroy and now that he was accepted to protect, he cries. the tragedy of Vision is not that he is a android, and could he feel? it is that he feels, but is still learning what this is because he was created fully formed. and when he did, when the emotional reach super levels off having a healthy family dinamics, he was stripped of it, and had to regain bit by bit, just to lose again, the most horrible thing that marvel made to him is strip him of this. His creation by Ultron made him “emotional handicapped” for lack of a better term. It is like the most shakesperian super hero comics character, because he embodies the paradox of the media, no matter how much he grows emotionally, a new writer always is going to come click on the switch and send him back to the start of the journey.

Anyone that reads you know the wikipedia article of Vision can see that, at least in broad strokes, and the last of the writers is Tom King, and boy, did it show that he just didn’t care about the story of character, don’t get me wrong Tom King has talent, he is really a one note type of writer, but he play the note really well, ( his book, and all his comics just use the same theme, same set-up, and boy, he has a portraying woman problem), you know he is really good in the most broad branch in western fiction canon, “white man broading being/learn to be d*cks but having feeling about it S/A” and he bring good ideas, the execution is the problem”, the mental heatlh facilities for superheroes, genius idea, heroes in crisis not so much. the growth of the relationship between Batman and Selina, genius idea, the execution of the wedding terrible.

This wasn’t exactly what happened with Vision (2016) that he wrote, the pitch for the comic is spectacular, in his own words “Breaking Bad meets The Incredibles”, if I was the executive receving this pitch I would say yes and the execution is a well-made, well-paced psychologigal thriller, so why I am saying that just to think about it that I want to chew glass, because this pitch was broken in the first sentence of the treatment of the comic, This is not breaking bad ( to people that don’t know , breaking bad is a series that starts as a man doin it everything for his family, he starts trafficking drugs but we learn in seasons ahead that no, he is d*ck, alwasy been, just wanted an excuse to be bad), because he has Vision create his own wife and kids, and god , with everyone praising this series , I felt that i was alone, Vision created his WIFE, with the only purpose of being his wife. this is not breaking bad, this is straight villain territory since the start , HBO has a series about how fucked up this is.

Vision became this monster even before the comic even starts, as a fan of the character I hated it , but I read it because I said well it’s a new experience, it’s dark, seeing one or my favorites characters as a villain, but no things could get so much worse. Nobody pointed out the obvious, the despicable thing he did, I waited the whole book to when Virginia would stab Vision or disconnect every part of him,but it never came, he made even worse when he made Wanda gave her brainwaves and the idea of him making this. And in the last issue, Virginia fridged herself with the words saying that everyone she killed was to prevent of Vision doing it the same, to preventing him of become a monster to defend their family, and this is portrait as sad, because Vision save the world so many times, and Virginia saved one, killing herself to make Vision not a monster. And now I am screaming “HE IS THE MONSTER, YOU ARE THE VICTIM, STOP BLAMING YOURSELF”.

And you know what? this won the fucking Eisner of Limited Series, I saw people saying that Vision became one of their favorite characters after the series, the one time that Vsion is a fucking terrible villain, he is held as like poor vision always trying to be normal, see he created a family, it didn’t work out because her wife didn’t want to him become a monster, so she become one herself”. Like I said, he has a problem with portraing women This is the Carol and Markus situation again, bit by bit, this is not a story that fit the character of Vision, he would never do this. and worse, everyone embrace it as a new take of the charater see this “Tom King has reinvented Vision from a non-feeling hopeful-human into a deeply tragic character” I had to read this, multiple times.the only new take that he brought is turning Vision in a rapist monster, and not even adressing it, I say this because this is something that no character can walk away from it, he molded the charaters to be in a story that didn’t fit them.

But Marvel and everyone tried , even me, pretend that this didn’t happen but Viv still exists. Vision entered a new part of his story, being a father, healing.

What does this have to do with Wandavision?

Well, one of the most thing that people say about it , it is that his run will be a influence in the series. So let’s start with the facts, this is the most recogniize work with the character in years, in decades really, (without counting the Chelsea Cain story that was canned before even start, but this made more news about how the industry of comics work that about the story itself) it won a Eisner, and Feige like famous storylines, so yeah, it a possibility, and Elizabeth said that are many comics that they are pulling from.

The story of living in a suburb, like i said before, this is not something that Tom King invented, The Vision and the Scarlet Witch made this decades before him.

Being a psychological thriller, see this I see being pulled right off his run. but it also made me think, most nothing in this shit-show of comics would work in the MCU, so it mosst of a genre type of thing that Feige would take from it.

Also, I saw people saying with some tweets that King made, that he could be in someway be involved in the series. I’ll try to explain how this work, even if Marvel wanted to do an exact re-creation of his run, how things are made, they could do, because Vision and every story made with him is property of Marvel, They are not required to tell anything to him. Jim Starlin has this famous story about how he had to pay to watch the first avengers, even if he is the creator of Thanos, well Marvel became more “generous” with some creators , Starlin even has a cameo in Endgame, but they are just required to credited you, if they used some character that you created, so in King case, they would be required to put his name, just if they would used viv,vic or virginia. It’s not fair, but this is how it works.

Do this mean that I’m saying that King is not involved? No, just saying that even if he is in the credits, as a “good action” by Marvel, this doesn’t mean that he nas any insight in the series, he could maybe be invited as a consultant to the writers’s room , to present himself his comic , but nothing besides that.

But the tweets about a secret TV thing? well by the dates of the tweets, yes he could being talk about some stuff about the series, but is more likely he is talking about this other project that he is making to TV, because in this dates, the show would even have a showrunner yet. (off note: Dude, but what a problematic plot to a series)

Can I be wrong? Yes, but Marvel would never get some writer without any experience in writting movie/TV scripts, not now, and with this commitment with other TV project, not happening it.

for lack of a better term, Marvel : Phase Four. (when we talk about Feige, businness, contracts, etc.)

This would be so much easier if we woud still on the phase three, but this is new territory, we don’t know what the future that Feige and the Disney wants to the MCU, but it has to go smaller, because they have to give space to “breath” after something so big as Endgame, if this was a roller coaster, phase four will start with a descent, the next movie (100% MCU) will just come in 2020. and now with the series, the scope will branch more, and Marvel is a big corporation, that is own by a even bigger corporation, so we can’t never forget the business side of things when trying to discuss where they headed. So the series, mostly were a business decision, Disney+ is comming late in the game of streamings and they used the biggest brands to throw a knockout, but the movies will always be the flagship of the MCU, so we work with two possibilities: first, that this talk about the series afffecting the movies is salesman talk and if this happen is slighty details or cameos or it is true and MCU will work with a more branched continuity.

the first one, my cynical side still think that they will going to do this, but my rational side think is more unlikely because they will be minisseries and Kevin Feige is producing them, everything we know about the Loki series fits with this version, just taking one character from the movies and isolating him in a series. How it was done before with AOS and Agent Carter.

The second one is a little more complicated, because then the series will mostly work as characters pieces, but nothing too big can happen in them, because if these characters will jump from TV back to the movies, if something has happened in TV, will have to be something that can explained in a quick dialogue in the movie, or this characters will just appears in the movies in the big fights (example: the people that were dusted just showing up to fight in the end) because no matter how bigger audience this series will have, the movies will be made to a audience even bigger.

But just because something is a businness decision, doesn’t mean that there is no motive in the narrative decision, (because if we stop to think, as a corporation every decision made by Feige and Marvel is a businness decision, buy you know what I mean). As in Endgame, Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers have ends that work with the narrative, but it’s not coincidence that between the two, the one with the bigger pay-check is the one that died and the other has an end which allows the easily return.

Also contracts is another clue that we have: see this article . The contracts for the TV Shows don’t negate the contracts for the movies, besides the burocracy that new contracts would definitively been made, because is two different medias, that they didn’t tried to surpass the old one, show that Marvel wants the option to still use the characters without renegotiating a new one. Elizabeth and Paul made their multiple movies deals in the end of the phase two, also known as the moment that Marvel noticed the “money problem” with shorter contracts , so I would say that they still has at least one more movie.. and Marvel is mantaining the upper-hand with this new Tv contract while still holding movies in the old movie contract.

So why Marvel would do that, if the didn’t want to use the characters again? Maybe to keep a safe net, to have the characters at hand but without having to worry of the actors getting very expensive pay-checks.

But maybe, is also has a narrative motive to do this , now I am back to the question that phase four is the calm between storms , the big shake it up that is coming and we know it it is the mutants and FF being in the MCU , but Feige said this is just comming in Phase Five ( I find this really sad, because then he loses the oportunity to use in Avengers Five, the roman numeral as Avengers V X-Men, now he just have to used it the X of X-men). I don’t have a solid opinion besides they are holding the actors to something.

Why? Feige is known by having famous storylines as just a base to the movies, remember when I said it in the comics parts, that every super-hero has a panel that define who they are, every fan hates it the one that Wanda has, is one of those moments that no character can overcome it unscarred, it also is connected to the dissassemble of the Avengers, and the original decimation (of mutants). and Feige after Dr. Strange, started saying that Wanda uses magic, maybe just to keep sinergy on brand, but he pointed out that she used it more chaotic, also don’t explain why every user of magic, use the gold one, and green one if is Loki, but she uses the red one.

But Feige had a problem if he is doing the ground work for this, they made Wanda suffers a lot already, because she already lost it the brother, she had to lose it Vision in Infinity War to Edgame to Happen, so how to set it up this, but in a way that it can work if you want to use it in the future , but without seems that it’s comming from nothing, you need time , more time that one movie has, you know what I’m saying it,

They using Wanda as literally as a time-bomb and using the series to set it up. and i hate this because it can works both ways, make the series, about she learning more about the powers and bring back Vision , blow it up in her face, boom here is the set it up, that can be explained it really fast in a movie, ends in a happy note, in the movie, they just need explain well she was happy and then boom tragedy is a no win situation.

Also last businness tihings, how these series are being made it really show that it’s more about Marvel with the ideas, because most of the series already existed as a concept even before the showrunners became involve, and in Wandavision in particular, she don’t have experience as a showrunner, but the marvel machine works very well, so I not so much worried about that.

The Concept Art

So we just have the description about the art, but just say it that they are using 50′s type of Clothes. No, I don’t believe, they use time travel, but it’s more a asthetic choice, because the image of suburb that we have is still predominantly of the 50′s, white fence, big house, so this other thing to contrast with them, they stand out.

Conclusion

So with this information, I can predict that the series will focus really on Wanda, and her powers, it will be in the suburbs with a 50′s asthethics, it will be more The Scarlet Witch and The Vision than Tom King’s Vision, but changing the melodrama and conecting the B-Movies threats of the first to a more sophisticated but soft psychological thriller of the latter, but still with a romance in the mix. and that Wanda will be back in the movies after the series. This are the things that I see the MCU doing it, not what I wanted them to do it.

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tlbodine · 5 years

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Every Single Last Thought I Have About Game of Thrones

My rambling obsession with Game of Thrones has cost me at least a dozen followers so far, and I promise it’s nearing an end now that the show is finished and the fervor is dying down. But I do have some Final Thoughts(tm), and I thought I would assemble them all here as best I can. In the interests of saving you all from a million future Game of Thrones posts, I will endeavor to put Every Single Thought I Have into one monstrously long GoT masterpost. You’re welcome, I guess?

Rambles under a spoiler tag, as much for actual spoilers as for, uh, rambling. Buckle in. This post is a monster.

In a contentiously-named Vice article called “Game of Thrones Was Doomed From the Start,” Peter Slattery makes a point that maybe we all needed to hear: Whatever our problems with the Game of Thrones TV show, they’re not wholly endemic to the show itself. The article is worth a read, but the tl;dr is this: GRRM created an astonishingly complex world with his book series, and the story has spun out to ever greater complexity as it approaches its supposed end.

Anyone looking for a way to wrap it all up is going to have a tough time. Just ask GRRM himself, whose inability to finish the series in a timely fashion has basically become a meme at this point.

Now, of course, D&D did not need to try to end the story in 6 episodes. They could easily have kept the series going on forever and HBO would have allowed it, because GoT is pretty much single-handedly keeping the network’s lights on at this point. Why the showrunners chose to turn down that opportunity is a matter of speculation.

What I will say is this: There had always been an expectation that the show would be seven seasons. The internet has a short memory about these things, but back when this all started, the intent was clear enough: There would be 7 books in the series, and 7 episodes in the show, one for each book. At the time, four of GRRM’s books were out, with the fifth being released during this time period, and there had been an expectation (even then, a bit over-optimistic) that the books would finish before their respective seasons, or maybe just trail it by a year or so.

The anticipation, in other words, was that A Song of Ice and Fire would roughly follow the trajectory of the Harry Potter films in their relationship with the books.

That’s not what happened, obviously.

But I do remember there being some grumblings of unease when we audience-folk started to realize the show might not wrap up tidily in those 7 planned seasons. And I definitely remember some grumbling about how Season 8 would take more than a year to come out (surely you all remember that impatience!)

And facing that -- a restless audience, source material that stayed stubbornly unwritten, the increasingly complex logistics of an enormous cast including young actors who were picking up other roles -- I can understand the impulse to speed it along. If your options in finishing a story are to rush it a bit to force the plot points out, or else risk being caught plodding forward indefinitely...I can see the appeal of rushing. I won’t say it was the right creative choice, but it’s one I can understand and one I don’t think is indefensible. I’m not in love with what happened, but I can think of far worse ways for the show to have gone.

Here’s more analysis on that which you may find interesting: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/21/18633029/game-of-thrones-got-ending-season-8-george-rr-martin-apology

Scope Creep & Themes that Get Away From You

So why is the ASOIAF universe so gosh-darn complex, and why are these books so hard to finish, and why is the show’s ending so hard to stick?

It’s not just because GRRM is pantsing his way through the story (excuse me, tending his garden) but because ASOIAF is not actually a story so much as it’s a history. Part of what makes this world so compelling is that it is indeed its own world. And not just in the Tolkien sense of multiple cultures and complex histories and languages fleshing out the world. What’s made GRRM’s work the most interesting and compelling from the beginning is that it promises even more than that: Here is a richly textured world of geopolitical intrigue, populated by real people; each and every character has their own fears and hopes and aspirations and petty squabbles.

ASOIAF tells a story about normal people and the way they get caught in the machinations of war, and it doesn’t take any shortcuts. And I think we need to take a moment here to appreciate how unique that actually is as a concept.

In Lord of the Rings, we receive a richly detailed world with its own history and culture and grand war, but the war is also limited by the parameters of the story: It can all be ended if Frodo destroys the ring.

GRRM did not give himself such a straightforward McGuffin for ending his story.

And that, indeed, is part of the appeal of the ASOIAF series. A big part of what makes it all so compelling is that it’s a deconstruction of the fantasy genre and, really, a deconstruction of epics in general.

Game of Thrones, the first book in the series, dares to ask: What happens when being the good guy is what gets you killed?

Maybe GoT has been part of our cultural fabric for so long that this doesn’t seem all that shocking, but let’s just take a moment to appreciate here how utterly wild it is that this story begins by spending hundreds of pages (or many hours of film) with a protagonist, only to lop his head off -- and that, really, the rest of the series isn’t even about avenging that death. Oh, sure, vengeance for Ned Stark colors the motivation of some characters, especially in the beginning...but the story soon spirals way beyond that, because the Starks are just one piece in the epic machines of war.

So by its very nature, ASOIAF is not just complex in terms of its sheer scope and number of characters and storylines, but also in terms of its themes. It’s a story that raises a number of difficult questions about the nature of good and evil, of the influence of power, the personal vs the political, and so forth.

These are difficult questions, the type of questions at the very core of the human experience, questions that we’ve been grappling with for thousands of years, and GoT’s deconstructive nature means that it can’t take shortcuts to answering them. The answers simply cannot be as satisfying as “good triumphs over evil” or “evil wins” because the very nature of ASOIAF is complexity and the rejection of such simple platitudes.

From that angle, I think the show did a brilliant job of wrapping things up. The plot had its share of inconsistencies (although not as many as people argue, more on that in a minute) but I think it stayed true to the spirit of what Game of Thrones had always been about. Season 8 raised some really important questions and touched on some extremely interesting themes, and I personally found it both thought-provoking and powerful.

But, well, I will confess that my aesthetics have always leaned more toward intricacy, and that I do not have what many would call “good taste” about a great many things. I always prefer for things to be interesting rather than beautiful, and from my perspective, the home stretch of Game of Thrones was exceedingly interesting.

How Did You Honestly Expect It Was Going To End?

For all of the belly-aching on social media about the ending of Game of Thrones, I have both a rebuttal and a genuine question: What did you think was going to happen?

A lot of people seemed to think that something like this would happen:

(art by https://www.instagram.com/raymondwaskita/?hl=en and no, this isn’t saying the artist believes or endorses any of this, just saying I saw this image on Facebook accompanied by a lot of wistful sighing)

I saw so many people who were all so very angry that Daenerys doesn’t walk away the winner of everything, that Cersei doesn’t get a more satisfying death, that Jon didn’t get to be the true king, that Jaime and Brienne don’t get a happily-ever-after, etc. etc. etc. And to all of those people I have just one question to ask you: What the fuck show have you been watching?

Daenerys deserved better?

Tell that to Ned Stark. Tell that to Robb and Catelyn and Shireen and Margaery and all the rest of the Tyrells. Just for starters. We could do this all day.

Just because we had a few bad guys get some deliciously just endings does not mean that the Game of Thrones universe is fair or that anyone gets what they deserve. That’s just silly.

But okay, fine then: Was it fucked up to tell a story where the breaker of chains and inspirational strong woman becomes the villain?

I mean, sure, maybe. But doing so allowed us to ask some other really interesting questions (and, as previously noted, I always prefer when things are interesting).

Is excessive force justified when it’s against evil men? Who gets to decide who is good and who is evil? How many losses are acceptable? Can you fight monsters without becoming a monster yourself? Should you be uncomfortable with how happy you are when “others” are slaughtered? Are you a little bit culpable too?

Was Dany’s heel-face turn perfectly executed? No. But it was believable, and it was powerful, and I think the questions it asks are good questions that deserve to be talked about.

Game of Thrones is all about subverting tropes, and Daenerys is the obvious Chosen One. She’s the one with the fantastic birth and the underdog story and the magical powers. She and Jon Snow are both the characters that every story tells us will be the heroes. So of course they don’t get what they “deserve.”

If the first episode of Game of Thrones asks, “What happens if being good doesn’t save the hero?” then the last episode asks, “What happens if being the hero doesn’t make you good?”

And that, to me, is interesting enough that it more than makes up for shortcomings in the road we traveled to get there.

A lot of the criticism of the show -- take, for just one of many examples, this: https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a27527950/game-of-thrones-finale-character-endings/ -- seems to fundamentally misunderstand what the show actually is or what it was attempting.

And like...I can understand being disappointed, but...like the scorpion & the frog...you knew what this show was when you picked it up.

Here’s a Twitter thread I really liked about this point: https://twitter.com/leighalexander/status/1130750999684161537

So Am I Just Some D&D Apologist Who Loves Everything About This Show?

I’m so glad you asked, hypothetical reader!

No. No, I am not in love with every creative decision made by the GoT showrunners. There are plenty of things I disliked about the show and its creative choices.

Re-framing Daenerys and Khal Drogo’s sex as rape, and then making the same mistake later when Jaime and Cersei have sex after Joffrey’s death.

Giving Sansa to Ramsay Bolton. Not only do we get more unnecessary rape plots (and, honestly, wasn’t there enough rape in the source material?) but it just is so much less interesting than what was happening with Book!Sansa, who is my favorite character (and was my favorite long before it became cool to love Sansa).

The entire three-eyed raven arc and “hold the door.” I mean, it was cool and tense, but I never got a really good idea of wtf the three-eyed raven’s powers actually do and what Bran inherited, and I kind of got the feeling that the showrunners didn’t understand it either and thus skirted around it. (Overall the show seemed uncomfortable with its more fantastic elements and knowing what to do with them).

I thought Rickon was a wasted opportunity of a character. I wanted to see him do something cool. I admit that this is based entirely on my pet theory that the direwolves represent the souls of the Stark children, and I hoped Shaggydog’s vicious nature meant that Rickon was going to become a badass somehow. Alas. (I am also deeply sad that Arya and Nymeria don’t reunite to go fuck some shit up together)

Euron Greyjoy was a disaster. He is so much more interesting in the books, and so much weirder, and he’s just so pointless and annoying in the show by comparison.

I didn’t like the “let’s go beyond the wall and oops there went my dragon” storyline very much, and honestly at no point did I ever really believe Jon and Dany’s relationship because it was rushed and the actors have zero chemistry.

So no, I don’t think the showrunners made a perfect TV show. But I do think it’s deeply unfair to say that they are incompetent writers or that they can’t work without the original source material.

My Criticism of the Criticisms

The internet is full of idiotic opinions, and I could be here all day if I addressed all of them (I’ve already been working on this for two hours) but I will address a few of the complaints I’ve seen that have most rankled me.

“Daenerys goes crazy because a boy rejected her”

I think calling Daenerys the “mad queen” and writing off Targaryen madness as A Real Thing That Definitely Exists And Is Not At All A Metaphor For Power And Entitlement is silly and reductivist. Yes, generations of inbreeding have probably unsettled the Targaryens a bit. But Dany didn’t just go crazy. As I’ve said before: She was already prepared to sacrifice the lives of the commoners on King’s Landing. She knew that Cersei would use them as a human shield and Dany wasn’t going to let that stop her. She had endured so much on her journey to get to this point, and nothing was going to stand between her and the Iron Throne. I talk about this in great length in another post so I won’t get into it here, but just...don’t be stupid.

“Cersei’s ending was stupid and pointless”

I’ve spent so much time dissecting Daenerys that I haven’t had a chance to talk about Cersei, which is a shame because I love her character a lot. I really loved her ending. All this time, the only thing she wanted was the security that power would bring her. Watching the look on her face when she realizes that Daenerys is going to destroy everything and that no political maneuvering can save her -- it was really powerful acting, and a major moment of change for her character. That she dies in Jaime’s arms, admitting at last that she is frightened, that she doesn’t want to die, that she doesn’t want her baby to die -- not only is it heartbreaking, but it’s honest. That is Cersei laid bare. She is who she has always been. That encapsulates her arc in a way that no other death really could have, and I personally found it a lot more satisfying than if Arya or whomever had just stabbed her in the back.

“All of Jaime’s character development just went out the window”

I’ll give you some of this. I don’t know that the show has ever fully understood Jaime. Just as Cersei is so much more sympathetic in the show, Jaime is much more sympathetic in the books. But I don’t think that all his character development is for nothing. I think we still have his journey, no matter what. And in the end, I can understand why he chose to leave Brienne. He didn’t think he deserved that happiness, for one; Brienne was too good for him, not just as a person but as a knight, and he knew that. And what was his long-term plan, anyway? Daenerys certainly wasn’t overly fond of him. There’s a non-zero chance she might have executed him for killing her father once he’s outlived his usefulness. Cersei and his unborn child were in the path of danger. He had a chance to maybe go rescue them and save the family, somehow, as he’d so horribly failed to save any of his other children. It was a stupid choice, but Jaime is the dumbest Lannister, and his self-loathing go deep. Did we think that Brienne’s redemptive vagina was going to save him from himself? Come on.

As for his last moments with Cersei...well. He was already mortally wounded by Euron. And I loved that the fight was so inglorious, so raw and dirty and stupid. They wrestle in the mud and it was perfect, as far as I’m concerned. So Jaime knows he won’t get out of this alive, and here’s Cersei, frightened and vulnerable. What else CAN he do but try to comfort them both? I thought it was a beautiful end for both of them and just because Jaime’s story ended up being tragic doesn’t invalidate his redemption arc. (I mean, for fuck sake, how many people go through rehab just to die of an overdose when they backslide?)

“The scorpions are deadly weapons except then they’re useless”

Okay like. This is annoying to me. By the time we see Rhaegal, he has suffered a lot of damage courtesy of the white walkers. His wing has a big freaking hole in it. He’s not 100%, and he’s not being ridden by anyone, and the attack comes as an ambush. Drogon evades being shot down because he’s being steered by a rider and he’s not injured and exhausted.

“D&D are incompetent writers who have no idea what they’re doing”

This one just makes me mad, and not just because of the fandom entitlement that I hate so much. (in this house, we stan for creators). Look. If they’re so incompetent, how did they manage to make a show that y’all loved for seven seasons previous to this? Also, like it or not, they know exactly what they’re doing. Like, they had such a clear idea of what they were doing that they managed to foresee the exact counter-arguments that fans would have and directly address them in the show.

Like. Hot damn. I will admit: I was very nervous about this season in the first few episodes. Dany was making me uneasy. She was acting selfish and entitled, and her attitude toward the war was making me uncomfortable -- because she was still in the role of hero, and I wasn’t sure if we-the-audience were meant to just swallow this as being OK. And then Varys and Tyrion have a conversation about exactly that, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Because that made it clear that the show knew what it was doing.

And then later? Jon and Tyrion have a so-accurate-its-painful discussion about Dany’s heel-face turn and her potential motives, and it so perfectly mirrored the discussions on Twitter the week prior that I almost wondered if they’d snuck off to film it last minute.

The point is: Like it or not, D&D knew exactly what they were doing. And, remember, GRRM gave them an outline, and while we don’t know for sure what’s their invention and what’s his, I think we can safely say that the broad strokes of the ending were GRRM’s invention, not theirs. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/game-thrones-showrunners-know-how-687589

So love it or hate it, the ending of GoT cannot be blamed on incompetence.

Okay Fine But the Pacing Was Still Really Bad

Yep. I’ll grant you that.

The ending blazes through plot points at breakneck speed. A lot of really important character development is left to performances; we’re forced to infer, as the audience, what a character is thinking or feeling at any given time. A lot of really important plot information is delivered by way of single dialogue lines. There’s a lot of “if you blink you’ll miss it” storytelling.

It’s not ideal by any means.

But it’s still pretty fucking good. The performances are good enough that, to me anyway, it’s pretty easy to intuit what’s going on internally. And the show still gave me things to think about, and made me feel things, and the impact may actually have been stronger by virtue of leaving so much to the imagination. By leaving a lot of questions unanswered, the show invites conversation and thought and speculation, and I think that’s valuable.

Would I Have Done It Differently?

Here’s a fun relic from history -- check out GRRM’s original story pitch, back when he thought this would be a trilogy: https://www.insider.com/game-of-thrones-original-story-2017-8

Talk about scope creep.

It’s fascinating, though. I know myself all too well that the book I set out to write and the book I end up with are never the same. There are some really interesting ideas in here, but I think the story we ended up with is a lot better.

But as for the ending of the Game of Thrones. Was it perfect? Would I have handled it differently?

Thematically, I think the resolution is mostly fine. Putting Bran on the throne is...well, it’s a choice. I have a little bit of a hard time with it just because it’s not really clear what Bran is, exactly. What are the scope of his powers? Is it a bit of a cop-out to put a supernatural king on the throne?

But what I do like about it is the idea that it doesn’t actually really matter who we put on the throne. The story makes a difference -- we need something that makes for a good song, because maybe at the end of the day one of the messages is that we need to believe in all these tropes we’ve deconstructed because reality is hard, it’s painful and boring and often nonsensical, and maybe we need stories in order to survive.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who we put in charge, because the people who are actually in charge are the council, and they will deal with everything the way they always had. After years of bloody rebellion, maybe the best thing really is the status quo. Maybe the solution to the game of thrones is to just stop fucking playing it. Put somebody on the damn throne and get back to running the country. I like that a lot.

I also like the idea that change is important, and it’s possible, but it’s slow. That strikes a good balance of realism and optimism. No, we’re not bringing democracy to Westeros, but we’re establishing the roots of a Republic. No, a queen doesn’t sit the Iron Throne, but a queen does get to rule in the north, and the north gets its sovereignty. No, Jon Snow doesn’t get to be the hero, but he does get to go beyond the wall with the Freefolk, which honestly will probably make him happier than anything else (and while he doesn’t get to claim his birthright, he does know now why Ned did what he did, and gets some closure on the daddy issues front).

All in all, it’s good. It’s not a happy ending, but we were never going to get a happy ending. And it’s not a particularly dramatic ending, because we weren’t going to get one of those either.

THAT SAID. I will say there are a few things that really bothered me about the way the finale plays out.

Drogon spontaneously melting down the throne for....some reason? Uh? I mean thematically it’s great but like....why though?

It would have made more sense if the dragon roasted Jon, except Jon doesn’t burn because fire can’t burn a dragon, but the throne behind Jon melts down. It also would have made sense of Jon hopped on the dragon and melted down the throne himself, and maybe went and either killed Dany’s force or made them surrender/yield to him.

I also have a hard time believing that the Unsullied who were just executing Lannisters would have locked Jon up instead of executing him immediately for treason.

And wtf have they all been doing after Dany died? OK, fine, maybe the Unsullied don’t have any ambitions of their own, but you’re telling me the Dothraki were like “oh, ok, queen’s dead, guess we’ll just hang out and not do anything then?”

None of that made any sense to me.

Also wtf how are there still so many Dothraki and Unsullied left? Didn’t, like, a whole lot of them die fighting zombies?

Ugh.

Anyway.

Perfect? No. Thought-provoking? Absolutely. Thematically on-point? Yeah, I’d say so. One of the best shows on television, still? Definitely. Are there valid criticisms? Yes. Are most of the criticisms valid? Not by a long shot.

One final thought:

We never do learn why the Night King doesn’t burn. Our pet theory in the house (courtesy of my husband) is that he is of Targaryen descent. He can ride the dragon, after all. What if that’s not just because he resurrects it with his powers, but because he is himself a dragon-rider?

So with that as a possibility...Well. I’m just saying.

We don’t know where Drogon took Daenerys after she dies. But wouldn’t it be interesting if she is somehow resurrected, and somehow gets to spend the next few centuries amassing an army of the undead to come back and take what’s rightfully hers, effectively re-starting the cycle and bringing winter back once again?

(this is what happens when you give a fantasy series to a horror writer)

#got spoilers #game of thrones #writing advice #rambles #thoughts #long post #analysis #this is going to get like five notes #and that will make me very sad #but here it is #here are all of my thoughts #everything that's been swirling in my brain for weeks #please enjoy

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