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cnwolf-brainrot · 5 months

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I did this again!! I drew Eight in a bunch of TMNT styles a little while ago and Eight and Okami's stories are very closely connected so I've had her story kind of sitting in my head for weeks and I couldn't resist any longer!

I posted this template here and the version with Eight is here!

Lore dump beneath the cut!

Usual Appearance/TMNT-ified (my style)

This is Okami's usual appearance throughout Fallen Renegades! She's a mutant wolf/bat hybrid that was used in a dog fighting ring for several years before she escaped, eventually meeting Eight and stepping up as a parental figure for him. Her story wouldn't change much when TMNT-ified other than the fact that she would inevitably run into the turtles!

1987

I hate how this version looks, I don't know what's happening here. Okami would probably be a minor character in like one episode of the show, probably just some random street thug that gets mutated into a wolf with bat wings because of something Krang did to try and make SUPER MUTANTS or something. Idk lol

2003

In 2003, Okami would probably be a reoccurring character. She'd appear some time in season one, probably as an antagonist for the turtles. She was created by some shady government agency as a mutant attack dog and used for years as a weapon, but managed to escape just a short time before meeting the turtles. At first she attacks them, as she's become used to essentially attacking anything that moves for most of her existence, but after she and the turtles have to work together to take down some mutual threat they establish an unsteady alliance. Over time the government agency that created her (maybe Bishop?) pops back up occasionally, and once and a while Okami is driven back to her original state and fights against the turtles. She is usually a helpful ally for them though. Like I mentioned in Eight's version he and Okami would be introduced separately in this version of the show and make their own independent appearances throughout season one, but then they would meet at some point in season two and all of their appearances after would be together!

Bayverse

Like last time I don't have a ton of lore for the Bayverse version of these characters. They were probably created together by Baxter Stockman and then Okami broke both her and Eight out and they kind of chill around the city until they help the turtles with something. I think this is actually my favorite drawing out of this set I'm kind of mad I don't have more story for it.

2012

2012 Okami was mutated by the Kraang in an experiment to add useful secondary mutations to their creations. Eight was another part of this experiment, and he and Okami ended up in neighboring containment cells. Okami's experiments focused more on the physical aspects of mutation while Eight's focused more on the internal, and when his pyrotechnic abilities kicked in it was extremely destructive. Okami was able to use the destruction to break them both out, and they were able to catch a portal to Earth. The two of them spend most of their time in the show in Kraang-related conflicts, often aiding the turtles when needed because Eight made friends with Mikey.

Rise

In Rise, Hamato Tala is a world-renowned professional boxer who fights under the name "Okami". She was a part of the Hamato clan and is a cousin to Hamato Yoshi, but her family was a bit more distant and disconnected from the usual Hamato duty since her father had also tried to defect from the clan. Like Yoshi she ended up turning her back on most tradition to seek fame and glory, though she pursued hers in the boxing ring. She found her fame, but she also found loneliness... until this little alley cat began following her around after her New York matches. She found the scrappy little guy endearing and somewhat took care of him, until one night an oozesquito bit her. She was mutated into a timber wolf/vampire bat hybrid, and (after eating the oozesquito) Eight became more humanoid and also had some of Okami's DNA. Okami basically said "well I guess this child is my responsibility now" and illegally adopted him, though the legality of the situation doesn't really matter because when she tries to go back to her human life it turns out no one recognizes her and if she tries to explain herself most people freak out. So she stops wrestling in the pro rings and instead starts taking jobs at smaller rings that are a whole lot less legal but at least make her money... and let her use her new, animalistic strength. Then of course eventually she and her adopted son run into the turtles and she finds out that, in gaining some of her DNA, Eight now has Hamato ninpo... in a very, very unstable way. Basically now this kid that she picked up on the street hears ghosts and explodes occasionally and this is something Okami is just cursed to deal with now.

Rise Movie (the future version that's not super clear on the template)

Okami dies a year or two after the Krang take over, and with her final breath she transfers the rest of her ninpo over to Eight. This stabilizes Eight's abilities and maybe it would mean that Okami doesn't get a ghost form but I don't really care, I wanted to draw her human form and also let me have some happiness imagining Four (the bas future version of Eight) talking to his ghost mom. Anyway I made a comic about this timeline and Eight's name changing to Four and it shows Okami's death lol

Mutant Mayhem

Okami was raised in a dog fighting ring before she was mutated. In fact, TCRI bought her out of the ring in order to have more test subjects as they were working to recreate Baxter Stockman's mutagen. They ran tests on her right alongside a certain burmese kitten, and for a wile both animals were deemed as failures. Of course, inevitably Eight gained his fire abilities. It was in the midst of the lab fire that Eight sparked that more of TCRI's mutagen prototypes were spilt, and the heat of Eight's flames made them a bit more effective. Okami grabbed him and dragged him out of the lab, and in the process both animals got a second dousing of mutagen that was much more effective than the first. After this Okami ended up raising Eight and took on a very similar mindset to both Splinter and Superfly; everyone is evil, stay safe and hidden. Okami is extremely protective in this version and genuinely believes everyone is out to get them, and she takes on a bit of an antagonistic role until she finally learns to chill out.

Fun fact: Okami was actually originally a TMNT OC long before Fallen Renegades existed, so it was kinda nostalgic designing these <3 she's come a LONG way since I first made her

#tmnt #tmnt oc #tmnt oc art #oc drawing #drawing style #tmnt-ify your oc #style challenge #cnwolf tmnt template #tmnt 1987 #tmnt 2003 #tmnt bayverse #tmnt 2012 #rottmnt #rottmnt future timeline #tmnt mutant mayhem #teenage mutant ninja turtles #fallen renegades

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princesskoriandr · 1 year

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I'm curious on what you think about blackfire in the TT 03 cartoon (I am so sorry, I can never remember her proper name despite you probably having it written in here somewhere)

(don't worry about it <3)

her cartoon adaptation is interesting to me because she's very different from her comic counterpart. she's not a perfect 1:1 translation, which is fine because this is nearly impossible even when collaborating with the original creators, but I think some of her character gets lost in translation going from the comics to the cartoon.

removing her disability is a little bit of a double edged sword--on one hand, kids won't associate the idea of being disabled with a character who has ill intentions, and on the other, they just removed something that was core to a character who was neglected because of that disability. and, as I covered here earlier, that neglect is core to her motivations. I think kids are smart enough to understand that a character being evil and also disabled =/= all disabled people are evil.

the cartoon adaptation does have an understanding that Kom feels inherently superior to Kory and it's explored a little bit more in the Teen Titans Go! comics:

[Teen Titans Go! (2003) #7]

look familiar to anyone? let's get a comparison:

[ NTT (1980) #24]

and again:

so, that's intact. what's not intact is Kom knowing that Kory could beat her and is capable of it. the internal dialogue of comics!Komand'r really doesn't bleed over into the cartoon because TTA!Blackfire is someone who is overconfident, even in the face of losing, because she's always gotten her way. not so with comic!Komand'r and that split in her thoughts vs. her actions is part of what makes her really interesting.

so they're both ultra confident externally and then they're both frustrated when beaten by their younger sister. they both vow to be back, to be better, to overpower their sister. however, comic!Komand'r is the only of the two to realize that Kory has come into her power. TTA!Blackfire really and truly believes that there is no way her sister could beat her. which tbh is a little boring imo. the confidence in comic!Komand'r vs. the confidence in TTA!Blackfire is different because of this; i

I find the differences in their origins to be a little lame? like Starfire is introduced as being enslaved during her origin episode "Go!" but, for some reason, Blackfire has nothing to do with that? so, it's okay to introduce the idea of slavery but it's not okay to say someone's family did that?

I also find it interesting that Blackfire takes the place of Myand'r in the use of her sister as a bargaining trip in "Betrothed". She's on the run from the cops, she's been in jail, and yet, somehow, she's become the queen of their home planet because their parents oh-so-conveniently are dead of grief. so, at some point it's revealed that she is in fact the person that sold Starfire into slavery but this is absolutely never covered with any kind of depth in the show. so, I find that a little. odd.

so, because their parents are conveniently dead, Blackfire is the only person using Starfire as a bargaining chip and a puppet (attempting to do so, at least) and because she doesn't have the (false) authority of their father, Starfire almost immediately pushes back (which is what we all wanted Kory to do in that second Tamaran arc, I know).

(that's actually a huge difference in their relationship from the comics to the cartoon; cartoon!Starfire is willing to extend goodwill to her sister while comic!Kory tries to kill her sister on sight.)

so, ultimately, she's like a fine adaptation bc she doesn't appear much and is mostly a plot device and a vehicle for Starfire's character development. in that regard, she's done her job as a character. but I find her not as fun as comic!Komand'r bc I'm a little picky.

#komand'r #blackfire #starfire #koriand'r

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totallyhussein-blog · 7 days

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Exploring the global landscape and the different ways to be American

In 2003, when Kathy Saade Kenny, the granddaughter of Palestinian immigrants, stumbled upon a mysterious cache of letters stored in an old See’s candy box tucked away in the back of a closet in her mother’s Los Angeles home, she was intrigued.

As Susan Bell explains, inside the box were more than 130 letters written by her grandmother, Katrina Sa’ade. A successful businesswoman, Sa’ade had migrated to California from Palestine, via Mexico.

Suspecting the letters could provide a treasure trove of information about her family history, Kenny was excited to read them. However, as a third-generation immigrant, she didn’t possess the necessary key to unlock their secrets: The letters were written in Arabic.

Sarah Gualtieri describes this scene in her book Arab Routes: Pathways to Syrian California (Stanford University Press, 2019), which explores how an Arab American community came into being in Southern California. In doing so, Gualtieri, associate professor of American studies and ethnicity, history and Middle East studies at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, re-inscribes Arabs into California history.

“Traditionally, California history hasn’t done a very good job of recognizing the deep roots of the Arab community here in the state,” Gualtieri says. “My book also pushes against this idea that circulates very widely in the media that Arabs are new immigrants, and that they are always somehow more Middle Eastern than they are American.”

Enlisting the help of a Palestinian historian and translator, Kenny embarked on a journey to unlock the secrets of her grandmother’s past. The translated letters revealed a complicated divorce case between her grandmother and her then-husband — a case that took her grandmother back and forth to Palestine.

“Kathy comes to understand her grandmother’s journey as a migrant, as a woman who came from Palestine to California through this unfolding mystery that’s revealed through her letters,” Gualtieri says. “Not only does Kathy discover an untold family drama, she starts to understand this whole dimension of her life in a new way. This helps her connect to her sense of Arabness and refine her identity as an Arab American.”

Gualtieri says the Arab American community often works to reconstruct their connection to their Middle Eastern roots. Many of those she interviewed during her research tended to mute their identity as Arab Americans — often, she says, because they came of age in the 1950s and ’60s, when, just as now, there was considerable hostility toward Arab countries.

The Latin American connection

The realization that people’s origins are frequently much more complex than they may appear on the surface is a key theme that runs through Gualtieri’s research. We tend to think of immigration as a unilinear journey, she argues, and don’t pay enough attention to the important role that’s played in shaping immigrants’ identities by the places where they live and spend time along the way.

Since the late 19th century, Syrian and Lebanese migration, in particular, to Southern California has been intimately connected to and through Latin America, and especially Mexico.

“This Latin American dimension of the Arab history in Southern California is not well known, and I wanted to tell that story,” Gualtieri said. “My book looks at what I call ‘other pathways’ to the U.S., and specifically to California, in particular at this southern route that so many Arabic-speaking migrants took to come to L.A.”

Gualtieri’s research goes beyond the Ellis Island stereotypes to uncover the stories of this Syrian American community, one both Arabized and Latinized, revealing important cross-border and multiethnic solidarities in Syrian California.

Sleepy Lagoon murder

Among them, she reveals the Syrian interests in the defense of the Mexican American teens charged in the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon murder.

Twenty-two alleged members of L.A.’s 38th Street Gang were accused of the murder of another Mexican American youth, José Díaz, who had been found unconscious and dying near a Commerce, California, reservoir.

Nicknamed “Sleepy Lagoon,” the reservoir was a popular swimming spot for Mexican Americans denied entrance to segregated pools. Seventeen defendants eventually went to court as the largest mass trial in California history took place in an atmosphere of intense prejudice and racial discrimination.

This scene on the cover of Sarah Gualtieri’s latest book showing acrobats performing at Muscle Beach near Santa Monica, California, is set against the backdrop of a Syrian American cafe.

Gualtieri tells the story of what became an infamous miscarriage of justice through the lens of one of the lead defense lawyers in the case, a Syrian American named George Shibley.

“When we understand this celebrated but difficult trial in California history through the eyes of a Syrian American lawyer, we can see the kinds of solidarities that emerged between Arab Americans and Mexican Americans in Los Angeles at that time,” Gualtieri says. “Rather than telling this story through the lens of conflict, we can shift to understanding it as a fascinating story about solidarity and the potential for interethnic coalition building.”

Different ways to be American

At a period in history when we are facing increased Islamophobia, and increased hostility to immigrants, Gualtieri says she would like people to take away the idea that there are different ways to be American.

“Something that’s always troubled me as a scholar in this field is the way in which Arabs are often seen as being unAmerican. Too often we think of Arabic-speaking migrants and their children as being somehow more connected to the region of origin than they are to the region of settlement,” Gualtieri says.

“This book offers a rich history of how integrated Arabs are into the Southern California fabric.”

The striking cover of Gualtieri’s book is a perfect illustration of this. It shows acrobats performing at the celebrated Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California, in the 1940s. It’s an iconic Southern California scene and the backdrop is Khoury’s — a Syrian American café.

“I like that idea of thinking about the presence of an Arab cafe owner in such an iconic story of California leisure,” Gualtieri says. “I want readers to obviously be struck by the tumblers, but also to look beyond them and to see another layer — this Syrian American café where people probably went to buy a soda while they watched the acrobatics.”

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chezzabellesworld · 9 days

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Shameless UK

Starting in 2003 or 2004 the show was, everything you want from a British TV show and also being realistic to council life, council estate life being on the, drug taking, blended families, extended families, childhood neglect, abuse, prostitution, step parent, affairs ,crime, mental illness and many other topics that come along the way and new characters when you live in this kind of life in the UK.

The only reason people say the American version of this is better is because America is a lot larger country for them to be saying there’s a lot more of them England is tiny compared to America, but the thing is that the Americans are missing about this show is the nitty-gritty of life on the bread line, in the beginning it started with the Gallagher but slowly the Gallagher started to leave the show and they only seem to be remaining one with Frank and Carl throughout the series, left in season four and Fiona didn’t even make it past series 2, but the way David trefel, plays a alcoholic is amazing, some actors are really amazing at doing this, and make it really believable that they are the person they are on the TV show. as we got into season is it focused more around them with Patrick being the family patriarch dad from Northern Ireland?, and Mimi, the family matriarch from Liverpool he’s more soft-spoken, but they’re both both loudmouth drug dealing crime family, they have many sons and one daughter, they had a cameo in the first few series, but they really came to their own in season four and five when they took over from the Gallaghers, I would say holding the latest season would be Kelly McGuire, the local prostitute, who is married to Shane Maguire, one of Mimi and Patrick’s sons, she works in the local brothel for Lillian, and she’s a very likable character, all although she is considered scum for being a prostitute in m most places in this series she holds up as a really good friend, wife and also as a mother figure to Stella and Liam in later series.

When Patrick leaves and he goes back to Ireland Mimi, then gets with Billy who is the father to her youngest Cilla who she has much later in life, realising that she’s even pregnant, she’s severely constipated and not very well and that pub is getting taken over by a new crime family. She’s upstairs giving birth., but she gets with a man he’s watching at the time she didn’t realise was 14, she made him disappear because she was disgusted, as he kidnapped baby Cilla, desperate and worried while she’s out shopping she doesn’t know who is taking her baby and then she sees the CCTV footage and it’s Billy. He has come back to try and find his daughter and make a relationship with Mimi., at first she is skeptic and doesn’t really want to, her daughter having a relationship with her father, they later to get together as a couple during this time, he is now a few years older well he is now 16, and this is another thing in TV shows they will sometimes make it like your real life because in real life Tina Malone is with her much younger man and they wrote it into the TV series, and then you have some really pivotal characters who make the show kind of like pat butcher is EastEnders being an agony aunt , you have Lillian the local Madam of the brothel she is nicknamed by Frank Bos selected by her appearance,, and she comes out with some really funny out of pocket remarks, such as I’m just coming to the shop to do the condom run for my girls, really funny sexual stuff, when husband in the earlier series gets shot by Carl Gallagher by accident, she got all my Brenda and he was a heart attack waiting to happen he was overweight he had heart attack written all over him, he was shot though , but he was holding a bag of chips at the time, and at the time when he dies, Frank tells Lilian not to register the death so they can collect his benefits and then they do this funny photo shop picture of the two of them together imposing Frank and Brendan looks together and making it look relievable. I just think it’s a really funny TV show and it’s always my TV program because it’s relaxing and for my autism and I have to have this weird routine for my worst series is series 5, my best series is series one and two and four series six is good series 9 and eight on so great , but like I said when the Gallagher slightly leave and there’s not many of them left and McGuire really hope their own especially Mickey McGuire he is a homophobic homosexual who is very loyal to his family, he writes fiction, really into his movies, and film at college and does plays as well, he also becomes like a dad to Cilla because he’s always looking after while Mimi is doing everything else, anyway if you haven’t seen it, it’s a must watch for anyone especially someone who’s from the UK and in the category of life of someone in shameless.

#shameless #shameless uk #david threlfall #themaguires #uk tv #british

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scary-movies-on-netflix · 14 days

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MIDSOMMER (2003)

This is a Danish horror movie about teens in trouble, much like “Scream” (1996).

Christian and his sister Sofie, both older Danish teenagers, go to a party. While everyone is having fun, Sofie sits in the bathroom and cries and holds a plushie keychain. She takes a bunch of pills and dies on a couch.

Two months later Christian is going to the countryside with some of his friends. The only one that matters is Trine, for reasons. They both miss Sofie and hook up, but before that he goes outside in the dark and sees that the car lights are on. He turns them off, but then they turn on again, and he finds Sofie’s plushie keychain! The next day Christian goes for the run and encounters Old Dude, who lives nearby. Christian also sees a big rock in the forest. Then he goes to the store and invites Swedish Girl to join them at a dinner that evening. The dinner goes well, and then Christian is collecting wood from the shed when he hears a ghostly childish laughing. Later he sits on the beach and tosses the plushie keys into the lake. Still later, he’s about to get it on with Trine again, but he sees that the door is wide open, and the plushie keychain is on the floor!

The next day everyone is pissed at Christian (he lashed out at Trine the night before). Christian wanders over to Old Dude’s house, and he finds his sister’s hat! And a news clipping about a local missing girl! Back at the house, Old Dude appears and, in an ominous tone, asks where Sofie is. Trine says that Sofie is sick, not dead, and then goes to cry in the bathroom. That night’s festivities involve burning an effigy, for Midsummer! Swedish Girl comes back, but this time she has moonshine to share. She and Christian go inside to prepare the moonshine with coffee, and he tells her that he’s seen ghosts. She seems intrigued, and when they go back outside she suggests that they perform a séance.

The séance goes as expected, Swedish Girl yells at people, and they learn that the spirit is, not Sofie, but the little girl who disappeared! She points them to a location in the forest: the big rock! A bunch of them head over, but two stay behind and guard themselves with a rifle. At the big rock, they’re searching for something, and Trine suggests that they come the next day. Christian continues, and he uncovers first a bicycle, and then the body of the missing girl. (Swedish Girl told him earlier that she was the granddaughter of Old Dude.) Trine and Swedish Girl go back to the house so they can summon the police. Christian, who has been trying the key on the plushie keychain on various locks, discovers that it opens the bike lock! Then he opens up the plushie and finds a letter from Sofie! Turns out, when she and Trine came to the vacation house earlier in the year, they ran over and killed the little girl! Then they buried her!

Meanwhile, as Trine and the others are driving, Trine freaks outs and jumps out of the car. She shoots one of the dudes with the rifle and then chases Swedish Girl through the forest! Swedish Girl ends up falling off a cliff but is hanging on for dear life. She begs Trine for help, but Trine aims the gun at her instead. Christian appears. He saves Swedish Girl, but Trine throws herself off the cliff. They sit there until morning and the police arrive.

For an epilogue, Christian and his family visit the gravesite of the little girl. Swedish Girl arrives and tells Christian that she’ll be in Copenhagen soon, for an apprenticeship, and they hug. He drives off and early 2000s rock music starts up.

First off, this has nothing to do with the much better “Midsommar” (2019). Apart from being placed in Sweden (Sverige), there is absolutely no narrative relationship. No crazy cults or sex rituals, and the words are spelled differently in dansk and svenska. What we get instead is a ghostly “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (1997). It’s a relic of late 1990s teenage-centered horror movies with overwrought emotions and a few cheesy jump scares. The plot tries to throw you off, to suggest that Sofie’s death is somehow related to the Old Dude, but it turns out that he was just trying to figure out what happened to his granddaughter and suspected the girls. Other than that one little wrinkle, this is forgettable.

#midsommer #horror movie #movie review #danish #2003 #meh #teen horror

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the-active-news · 1 year

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In Which Movies Did Austin Majors Work Before His Death?

He became famous for his role as the charismatic Theo Sipowicz in the long-running police drama NYPD BLUE. Austin was a regular on the show for seven years, during which time he received a lot of praise for his acting.

Austin Majors Cause Of Death

According to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, former child actor Austin Majors, who was perhaps best recognized for his performance on "NYPD Blue," has passed away. He was 27. Sister Kali Majors-Raglin emailed CNN to corroborate the story. Death came on February 11 for Majors, whose full name was Austin Setmajer-Raglin. According to medical examiner documents, the cause of death is currently unknown. https://twitter.com/CTVNews/status/1625505215805005833 Majors was "an artistic, smart, and loving human being," according to a statement released by his family. According to the statement, "Austin took immense excitement and pride in his performing career." From a young age, he made it his mission in life to make other people happy.

How Much Is Austin Majors Worth?

The skilled and successful actor Austin Majors' net worth is $13 million. Because of his perseverance and talent, he has amassed a large fortune in the entertainment world. Austin has carved quite a successful career for himself over the years, appearing in a number of popular series and films and contributing his voice to a wide range of animated works. His investments and business dealings have also contributed to his fortune. Austin has built up his wealth through a series of astute investments, earning him a reputation as a money wiz. He is a man of strong fiscal principles, who works hard to protect his assets and provide for his family's future. Austin is renowned for his modesty and common sense despite his considerable riches. He is not the type to let his wealth define him, preferring instead to devote himself to his work and the betterment of his community through philanthropic endeavors. Must Read About This Uche Nwaneri Death.

Austin Majors Family

Kali Majors, Austin's sister, is 23 years old and lives in California. His sister's deep feelings for him are expressed in the family's statement. Kali says her earliest recollections of her brother are from their time spent together on the set. She said on Instagram on Monday that his brother had passed away. She added in the caption that her older brother, Austin, had recently passed away. They pronounced him dead late last night. The late actor was a beloved son, brother, grandchild, and nephew, according to his loved ones. They mourn his departure greatly. The Majors clan has a long history of success in show business. His sister Kali has a recurring role in NCI. Not only did she work with his sibling on multiple occasions, but she also worked with him on other projects. If You Want Read More So You Can See This Marion Barber Death.

He Award For Best Performance In A Voice Over Role

Majors established his star power in Hollywood at an early age thanks to his extraordinary acting ability. His charismatic turn on 'NYPD Blue' set him apart from the competition.

Over the course of seven more years, he became an international star because of his work on the show. For his role as Theo Sipowicz on 'NYPD Blue,' actor Lee Majors won a number of accolades. In 2002, his outstanding and consistent performance on the show earned him the Young Artists Award for Best Performance. Moreover, in 2003 and 2004, he was once again nominated for the same prize. He also did voice work for "Treasure Planet," for which he won yet another award. He was skilled in both acting and voice-over work. He had an interest in business and investing opportunities. Moreover, he demonstrated his abilities in other works, like ‘an unexpected Christmas,' ‘Volare,' and ‘The Show of the Millennium. https://twitter.com/decider/status/1625528204009119749 A statement from Majors's family was published by TMZ. The people closest to Majors said he was a gifted artist. He was the epitome of kindness and love. His job satisfaction was high. You Can Read About This Lil Peep Cause Of Death. In addition to that, he is well-known for his philanthropic activities. When it came to academics, he excelled. His loved ones elaborated that he lived for the sole purpose of brightening the lives of others. He went back to school at the University of Southern California to major in both television production and the music business. Through his many film and TV appearances, he gained tens of thousands of fans. For more updates you can visit on The Active News.Com. Read the full article

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bright-molina · 2 years

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oc files - eloise buckley-mercer

general information

name: Eloise Buckley-Mercer (usually just goes by El, occasionally called Ellie by Buck and sometimes Alex)

age: 18 (when considering season 5B as the present)

pronouns: she/her

date of birth: June 21, 2003

sexuality: bisexual

current residence: Los Angeles, California (she and Alex have been saving to get their own place for about a year and currently live with Albert though El has been known to change locations a lot)

education: Los Feliz Performing Arts High School (2017-2021), currently taking a gap year and isn't quite sure what she wants to go into yet

occupation: It’s less of a job and more of just a thing she happens to do but she helps a lot with everything Sunset Curve does. El is a huge part of the writing process and takes care of a lot of their marketing and scheduling, nothing ever happens if it’s not run by her first. When they become Julie and the Phantoms, she and Flynn share that role.

relationships

El is the youngest in her family, born to Margaret Buckley (neé Mercer) and Phillip Buckley much later than the rest of their children. While they had every intention of caring for her like they should’ve, that just didn’t happen. When Maddie started distancing herself from El and Buck it became the two of them against the world. Buck didn’t necessarily raise her per se, no one really did, but the two of them were always incredibly close. He would’ve gone to the ends of the earth for her, he still would, but that doesn’t mean it was always easy. When he left he kept in touch with her, went to huge lengths to make sure that was possible. But when El realized his promise of coming back to visit her wasn’t going to be one he kept, she pushed him away and to the back of her mind. It hurt more than anything else had before. Her brother, her beloved older brother who was always reckless with himself but always so gentle with her, left with no intention of coming back. He left her world shattered in a way she couldn’t piece back together. She had nobody. Not her parents or her siblings or anyone else.

Except she did have one person. She had Alex and he reminded her of that every time he talked to her. Her cousin had always been the single constant in her life despite being thousands of miles away. Something connected them, though, from the very first time they met at a family reunion neither had originally wanted to be at. He was a light that she needed and so when he was the one that needed her she was right there faster than he could process. The two of them were on their own at 15, living out of Bobby’s garage along with the rest of Sunset Curve. The five of them didn’t have much but they always had each other and that was really all they needed, they were sure of it. El had absolutely no clue that Buck was in LA and when she found out it was disastrous, to say the least. When she found out Maddie was also there it got worse before it had any hope of getting better. After that, her relationship with both of them was incredibly strained for a long time. It took a lot of slow healing, a process that hasn’t quite been completed. It ebbs and flows really, changes in ways that aren’t always for the better. But they’re trying harder than they ever have before.

physical appearance

El is about average height, hovering around 5'8. Her dark brown hair is a little on the longer side and naturally wavy. She tries her best to try to enhance said waves through whatever methods she finds work best. When she cuts it, it’s usually done by herself given that it’s never been a priority for her, especially not when she and the boys were fending for themselves. Her eyes are a bright, clear blue, almost exactly like Buck’s. They’re her favorite feature of hers although that did make it a little hard looking at herself after he left. El tends to dress on the more casual side and a good portion of her wardrobe does consist of clothes she’s borrowed (“not stolen!”) from other people. Everything from a dress Carrie let her borrow once to one of Reggie’s flannels to Buck’s 118 t-shirts. Her favorite item though that’s become her staple is an oversized jacket that used to be Maddie’s. She’s had it for as long as she can remember but she’s grown into it a little more now and she wears it a lot because of the comfort it brings her. (for reference she’s faceclaimed by Emma Fuhrmann)

personality

El is an infp which can be seen most clearly in how empathetic she is towards others. It’s incredibly easy for her to observe behaviors in others and read how they’re feeling and she’s very good at keeping note of how to make them feel better. More than anything, she enjoys helping her friends with whatever they need. She’s also very artistic herself and has always found ways to express that. Most often it’s in written form but she has branched out a bit since moving to LA. Despite all of that, though, El isn’t really in tune with herself. Or rather, she prefers not to be. It’s always been easier for her to focus on things outside of her own person. It’s maybe a little bit too easy for her to pretend like everything is okay when she’s around other people. Overall, while it’s a bit hard for El to open up to people, she does truly enjoy spending time with them.

El may not like talking about her emotions but she can express them in different ways. When she was on her own it usually came out in the form of poetry and short stories, most of them a bit abstract so as to not draw attention to herself. When she moved to LA the poetry became songwriting. At first, it was to help the band when they were stuck but eventually she started writing her own. Speaking of, it wasn’t too hard for her to pick up playing the guitar with four people teaching her. Acting also came easily which is something she wasn’t expecting. What originally started as a project for a class became something she enjoyed doing. It was easy to let herself escape into a character with a different story than her own. It was also something that was her own and she enjoyed that fact. Outside of that though, El also really enjoys space. Buck used to take her to the calmest place he could find and they’d look at the stars together for hours. She would point out constellations to him while he made up some of his own just to make her laugh. Even after he left she’d sneak onto the roof through the window in his room and look into the night until it turned into day. She enjoys learning all about it and misses seeing the stars every night. Some other interests of hers include painting despite not being able to, people watching at the pier, and concerts with her friends, whether it’s their own or ones they attend together.

Things El doesn’t like, however, get a little more complicated. She doesn’t like thinking about her own problems, instead preferring to focus on others. Thinking about her own usually sets off her anxiety and nerves and it usually isn’t until she has someone to talk to about them that she acknowledges them. Sometimes, anyway. As a result, she also hates being alone and the silence that comes with it. It wasn’t always like that, she used to not mind the silence. But after moving in with Alex and the rest of the boys she grew so used to there always being some form of stimulation that being without it now just doesn’t feel right. If she is left alone, there has to be some sort of noise around her, or else she gets uncomfortable easily. She also finds it difficult to sit still, constantly needing to be doing something or having something in her hands. Other things El doesn’t care for at all are having to wake up before the sun is in the sky, the fact that winters in California mean no snow, being cold (yes it’s ironic), and peeling oranges.

notes: Eloise Buckley-Mercer my beloved <3 Listen, I know no one asked for this but I love her with my whole heart and she's taken over my life for literally months now and I thought it was about time to debut her to the world! El is in fact part of the Wild Phantoms Universe that myself and @biqherosix have created (Daniza's the genius here though, trust me on that) and you can absolutely bet this is only the first thing I have planned for her! Anywho if y'all want to know more about El and the Wild Phantoms or about her relationships with others or how certain things go down please feel free to hit me up, I'm literally begging y'all to let me talk about her some more.

#julie and the phantoms #jatp #911 #911 on fox #evan buckley #maddie buckley #alex mercer #sunset curve #reggie peters #luke patterson #bobby wilson #bobby shaw #wild phantoms #eloise buckley mercer #it's about the found family okay #i don't know how else to tag this -

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Squid Game: Best of the Cast’s Shows and Movies to Watch

https://ift.tt/39n8nzK

This Squid Game article contains some spoilers, though not the outcome of the game.

There are so many things to like about Squid Game, Netflix‘s Korean-language series about a group of desperate people competing in a deadly game, but one of the major ones is the stellar cast. Featuring some well-known Korean actors, as well as some relative newcomers to the acting scene, Squid Game‘s ensemble is more than ready to elevate the clever script and sharp direction. If you’re interested in checking out other projects from this cast after finishing Squid Game, here are our recommendations!

Lee Jung-jae (이정재) as Seong Gi-hun

Squid Game character: Leading the cast of characters is Lee Jung-jae’s Gi-hun, a man who has fallen on tough times after losing his job and his marriage. We are first introduced to Gi-hun in the context of his gambling addiction, as he desperately trues to get out of crippling debt in order to be a better father, son, and friend.

What to watch next: Lee Jung-jae is a 48-year-old actor who began his career as a model before transitioning into TV and later film. Notable projects include Il Mare, the 2000 film on which Hollywood’s The Lake House was based and 2013’s historical drama The Face Reader, in which Lee has second-billing as Grand Prince Suyang.

Jung Ho-yeon (정호연) as Kang Sae-byeok

Squid Game character: Jung Ho-yeon plays Kang Sae-byeok (aka the one who looks like ENHYPEN’s Ni-ki), a North Korean defector who decides to play Squid Game in order to get the money to get her mother out of North Korea and to create a stable life for her younger brother, who is currently living in an orphanage.

What to watch next: Jung Ho-yeon will no doubt be one of the breakout stars of Squid Game. The 27-year-old actress is a successful model, and has previously appeared on Korea’s Next Top Model. Squid Game is her first on-screen role, so we’ll have to wait to see what she does next. In the meantime, you can rewatch Squid Game or check out Season 4 of Korea’s Next Top Model.

Park Hae-soo (박해수) as Cho Sang-woo

Squid Game character: Cho Sang-woo grew up with protagonist Gi-hun, and is the success story of his neighborhood after going to a prestigious university and making it big as a businessman. Unbeknownst to Gi-hun and Sang-woo’s mother, Sang-woo has stolen money from his clients and is wanted by the police. He enters Squid Game in an attempt to make back the money so that he can save his mother’s business and house, both of which he risked to back his illegal activities.

Squid Game Ending Explained

By Kayti Burt

Squid Game: What Could Season 2 Look Like?

By Kayti Burt

What to watch next: Park Hae-soo is a 39-year-old actor who is perhaps previously best known, especially to international audiences, for his starring role in 2017’s Prison Playbook (one of our Best Korean Dramas to Watch on Netflix). In the drama, Park plays a baseball player who unexpectedly lands himself in jail days before his major league baseball debut. The show follows his life within prison, along with the lives of other inmates and guards, including his former best friend, who is now a corrections officer. Prison Playbook is one of the most popular K-dramas ever.

Wi Ha-joon (위하준) as Hwang Jun-ho

Squid Game character: Wi Ha-joon plays Hwang Jun-ho, who is a bit of an outlier character in a series that mostly features characters in the game as protagonists. Unlike Gi-hun or Sang-woo, Jun-ho is a cop who is investigating Squid Game after finding one of the game’s calling cards in his missing brother’s apartment. He does a pretty good job too, infiltrating the operation in diverse ways.

What to watch next: Wi is a 30-year-old actor with a solid filmography. If you’re a horror fan, check out Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, a 2018 found footage horror film that takes place in the former Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, considered to be one of Korea’s most-haunted places. You could also check out Midnight, a 2021 thriller in which Wi plays a serial killer. If you’re looking for something a bit softer, Wi has a supporting role in 2018 romantic drama Something in the Rain, in which he stars as one protagonist’s younger brother and the other protagonist’s best friend.

Oh Young-soo (오영수) as Oh Il-nam

Squid Game character: Oh Young-soo plays Oh Il-nam, the oldest contestant in Squid Game, and someone Gi-hun feels some responsibility for as the game progresses.

What to watch next: Oh Young-soo is a 76-year-old actor with a filmography that mostly includes monk roles. His previous work has mostly included playing supporting roles, but if you want to see him in something else, check out 2003 feature film A Little Monk, about a generation of three monks living in one temple, or Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring, a 2003 film about the life of a Buddhist monk.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Heo Sung-tae as Jang Deok-su

Squid Game character: Heo Sung-tae plays Jang Deok-su, a gangster who enters Squid Game to settle his gambling debts, and who refuses to trust anyone in the process.

What to watch next: Heo Sung-tae is a 43-year-old actor with an extensive filmography. If you’d like to see him in a very different project, check out Racket Boys, a recent Netflix K-drama in which he appears as the coach of a boys badminton team in Episodes 10-12. If you’d like to see him in another dastardly role, check out 2021’s Beyond Evil, in which he plays a cold-blooded businessman.

Kim Joo-ryung (김주령) as Han Mi-nyeo

Squid Game character: Kim Joo-ryung stars as Han Mi-nyeo, a woman who will say or do whatever she has to in order to find her best chance at winning. Originally introduced claiming to be a new mother, we never actually learn that much about Mi-nyeo’s life outside of the game.

What to watch next: Kim Joo-ryung is a 45-year-old actress with an extensive filmography, though mostly in supporting roles. (Hopefully, her impressive turn in Squid Game will lead to more opportunities for the actress.) If you’d like to see her in a minor role in a successful drama, Kim appears in Episodes 16 and 17 of 2018 historical drama Mr. Sunshine. If you’d like to see Kim in a central role, check out 2012 feature Sleepless Night, in which she plays one half of a married couple working to get through daily life.

Tripathi Anupam as Abdul Ali

Squid Game character: Tripathi Anupam plays Ali, a 33-year-old Pakistani man who joins the game in order to get the money to support his family, including his parents and brother back in Pakistan and his wife and baby son, who traveled with him to Korea.

What to watch next: Tripathi Anupam is a 32-year-old Indian-born actor, who is another standout in Squid Game and a rare actor of non-Korean descent in the Korean TV and film industry. Anupam had a small appearance in Netflix’s Korean sci-fi feature Space Sweepers, in which he appeared as James Sullivan’s secretary. Most of Anupam’s previous roles have been minor, with Squid Game being a breakout role for the actor.

Lee Yoo-mi (이유미) as Ji-yeong

Squid Game character: Lee Yoo-mi plays Ji-yeong, a young woman who we find out entered the game immediately after having been released from prison for the crime of killing her abusive father. She becomes close with Sae-byeok, who recruits her to join her team for tug-of-war.

What to watch next: Lee Yoo-mi is a 27-year-old actress who has appeared in many TV shows and films, mostly in supporting roles. If you’d like to see her in another drama, check out 365: Repeat the Year, a time travel drama that sees 10 people given the chance to travel back a year to “reset” their lives, only to find themselves in danger.

Gong Yoo (공유) as The Salesman

Squid Game character: Gong Yoo appears in a minor role as The Salesman, aka the man who recruits Gi-hun into Squid Game by playing a game of ddakji with him on the subway

What to watch next: Gong Yoo is a very successful actor in Korea who is also known internationally. The 42-year-old actor’s most well-known movie role is Train To Busan, in which he stars as the divorced father and businessman protagonist trying to escape the zombie apocalypse on a high-speed bullet train. His most well-known TV role is in the uber successful Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, one of the highest-rated dramas in Korean TV history. In it, he stars as a 939-year-old immortal goblin and protector of souls. Longtime K-drama stans, however, probably know Gong from his starring role in Coffee Prince, a romance about a woman pretending to be a girl in order to get work and a young food empire mogul, played by Gong.

Lee Byung-hun as The Front Man, aka In-ho

Squid Game character: Lee Byung-hun plays the Front Man, aka the masked man who runs the day-to-day operations of Squid Game. He lives in a fancy apartment within the game’s facility, and maintains contact with the game’s supervisors via a landline.

What to watch next: If you’re looking to see more of Lee Byung-hun’s face than Squid Game offers, then you have a lot of options. The 51-year-old actor and singer has been a part of the Korean entertainment industry for decades, and has been one of the most successful Korean actors in that time, with five films on the 50 highest-grossing domestic films in South Korea list: Joint Security Area; The Good, the Bad, the Weird; Masquerade; Inside Men; and Master.

Lee is the only Squid Game actor to have some substantial Hollywood credits on his filmography as well. American audiences may recognize him from his role as Storm Shadow in the G.I. Joe franchise; he has also appeared in Red 2, Terminator Genisys, and The Magnificent Seven. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he was the first South Korean to present an Oscar at the Academy Awards.

Which Squid Game cast member were you the most impressed by? Let us know in the comments below…

The post Squid Game: Best of the Cast’s Shows and Movies to Watch appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3nRJEMj

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 years

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On the occasion of John Varley's quadruple bypass

John Varley, a beloved, versatile, funny, and wildly imaginative sf writer, recently had a quadruple bypass and is recovering well, but this is America, so he's also in need of financial support through his recovery.

https://varley.net/nonfiction/news/sending-prayers-to-the-cosmos/

You can donate to Varley's recovery fund via Paypal, which will support the Varley family's new expenditures (Dan Prall already helped them by buying the recliner chair John's doctors want him to sleep in).

https://www.paypal.com/donate/paymentComplete

When I heard Varley had been hospitalized, I felt that cold grue in my stomach, the dread that has haunted me not merely through the covid months, but also over the past decade, as the cohort of writers I grew up on have entered their 60s and 70s.

The news that Varley's surgery was successful came as an incredible relief - and with it, the realization that I didn't need to wait for an obit to write an appreciation of the writers whose work I love so dearly.

Varley is hugely influential upon me. I could never have written my 2003 debut novel DOWN AND OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM without stories like his 1976 OVERDRAWN AT THE MEMORY BANK - a story that prefigured many of cyberpunk's central tropes.

Varley's short fiction is incredible - not just Hugo winners like THE PERSISTENCE OF VISION but also perfect gems like THE OPHIUCHI HOTLINE and THE BARBIE MURDERS - but they all add up to even more than the sum of their parts.

Much of Varley's work has been set in his "Eight Worlds" universe, where humans have been evicted from Earth by a mysterious alien race called "The Invaders," with the rump of the species being pushed out to the Moon, nearby planets, and the asteroid belts.

Varley's stories happily plunder one another for details of this scenario, lifting characters, technologies, and settings, but they make no pretense to being a "future history" of internal consistency.

The Eight Worlds stories and novels are only consistent with one another when it makes the story better - but when it doesn't, they jettison inter-tale consistency in favor of narrative. For me, the fact that writers could do this came as a jaw-dropping revelation.

Varley annihilated the pretense that an sf writer is some kind of oracle who knows the future - a bit of ghastly fatalism in that it implies that the future is knowable and thus will arrive irrespective of our choices today.

Instead, Varley treats his stories as entertainments and allegories, freed from the "Robert A Timeline" constraints, which allows him to collage his best ideas into new works, a kind of fan-service that is pure delight, freed from the tedious pretense of consistency.

This revelation led directly to my novel Walkaway, which incorporates ideas, props and scenarios from DOWN AND OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM, EASTERN STANDARD TRIBE, and my other novels, without lumbering the story with the necessity to make it fit in with their continuity.

Varley is an unabashed plunderer, particularly of Heinlein, mashing up Heinlein tropes with contemporary ideas, progressive politics, and other delights to make new works that both pick apart and celebrate Heinlein's work.

This was always lurking in his work, but it became very explicit with novels like STEEL BEACH (1992), an absolute ROMP of a book that crosses THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS with the then-ascendant cyberpunk genre conventions (which Varley helped invent) to outstanding effect.

I just re-read STEEL BEACH and found it every bit as delightful as I had in the early 90s, when I hand sold hundreds of copies of it as a bookseller. It's also the direct ancestor of Ian McDonald's MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS-riffing trilogy.

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/09/22/ian-mcdonalds-luna-new-moon-the-moon-is-a-much-much-harsher-mistress/

Varley's work embodies the collaborative spirit of sf, as tropes are ruthlessly plundered and reworked without apology. It's a process that's wonderfully described in my mentor Judith Merril's Hugo-winning memoir, "Better to Have Loved":

https://memex.craphound.com/2003/08/11/science-fiction-prefigured-the-creative-commons/

"Whereas in other literary fields you wouldn’t dare take an idea from another writer and use it, because that would be considered plagiarism, science fiction people loved to build on each other’s stories.

"The business of giving away ideas and promoting other people’s work was a part of the community at large. The Futurians did this to an amazing extent. For example, every Futurian had a pen name that included the family name Conway. A good number of the stories that appeared in science fiction magazines at the time were written by someone-or-other Conway."

In other words, amateurs plagiarize, artists steal.

Think of the way that Varley's symbiotic alien spacesuits were beautfully plundered by Spider and Jeanne Robinson for their own Hugo-winning STARDANCE.

http://spiderrobinson.com/books.html

I found so many revelations in Varley's work: just the proliferation of "disneylands" on the Moon was an wonderfully economical bit of storytelling, an entire implied history of a notoriously bullying corporation in tatters after an invasion, all in a single, lower-case "d."

And then there's the RED THUNDER books, wherein Varley took apart and reassmbled Heinlein's "juvies" as parables about the paranoid, post-9/11 America, a country that occupied Iraq, Afghanistan and itself:

https://memex.craphound.com/2006/04/17/the-novel-heinlein-would-have-written-about-gw-bushs-america/

I don't think I'd have written LITTLE BROTHER - a book I thought of as an anti-authoritarian riff on HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL TRAVEL - if I hadn't read RED THUNDER.

Varley's work is worth aspiring to: a perfect mix of wildly imaginative and just plain *fun*. His most recent novel, IRONTOWN BLUES, is an Eight Worlds hard boiled noir novel starring an uplifted dog detective.

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/08/29/john-varleys-irontown-blues-noir-doggy-science-fiction-from-one-of-the-fields-all-time-greats/

Varley runs a shop for signed copies of his books, though shipping is slow ("We are strictly a kitchen-table operation. Your book will be carefully selected from our shelves, lovingly hand-wrapped, and decorated with real US Postage stamps").

https://varley.net/shop/

If you're looking for a title to order from the shop, may I recommend 2004's "The John Varley Reader: 30 Years of Short Fiction."

https://varley.net/collection/the-john-varley-reader/

Image: Arthur Jene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Varley.jpg

CC BY-SA: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

#pluralistic

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bitimdrake · 3 years

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Dream Titans team???

good question good question!! My dream Titans team would pull almost exclusively from the original generation (though not necessarily the original team) with maybe an exception or two as the designated youngster. That older gang of Titans has such a super tight found family aspect that has never been recaptured, and is competing for screen time if you have a bunch of both young and old characters in the mentorship-style team.

...Maybe that's because there's been no good (teen) titans run since the 90s. But in my ideal revised DC history, the Young Justice kids stayed YJ, and the Titans remained the team of that specific now-young adult generation, instead of becoming the go-to name for any new group of teen heroes.

Titans vol 2 (2008) kinda set themselves up with a great combination from the original Teen Titans and NTT runs, if only they hadn't...fallen apart after like 12 issues. I also want to lean on that vibe from the first 90s Titans run where a lot of the characters had grown up and gotten families--i.e., Lian Harper will be here, and she will be basking in the attention of all her adoptive aunts and uncles.

Okay: we gotta have Dick Grayson. My heart also requires Roy (and Lian) and Donna. My most controversial opinion here is that I didn't really care for Wally in NTT and he was so busy being the Flash in the other Titans runs that he's...honestly not necessary for my dream team. (sorry) He can and should go be the Flash, which I love for him, and that will surely keep him busy. Admittedly Garth is at best my fourth favorite of the fab five, but only because I love my top three too much. I really did enjoy his moments in Titans vol 1, and at least someone on this team has to have a softer personality, so I am grabbing him too.

Dipping into the NTT additions, I also require Kory. If I can have specifically NTT Raven, I want her too, but honestly if we're going with more current characterizations...I don't. Post-2003 Raven is such a different character that she doesn't really feel like the friend they new and loved anymore, and it's just not the same dynamic!!

With Raven de-aging, it feels like she and Gar have both slid down into the younger generation. While that is nooot my favorite thing, I am willing to let them go at this point.

Vic I am debating. I feel bad throwing him on a line up without his best friend, but also I feel good giving him back to his own generation instead of pushing him into JLA stuff. We'll mark that a maybe. And this is my post, so I get to include Joey because I can, and because dammit he needs a solid Titans run again instead of the early 2000s sporadic appearances playing endless tug-of-war between "he's totally evil now" and "no!!! he's good!!"

At that point, I wanna dip into some less iconic characters. That would probably be easier if I had a better grasp of the wider DCU of youngish non-Titans, but here we are. And you know who else I liked from the 90s runs? Argent. Toni Monetti's back on the team; welcome aboard.

And I feel like maybe...Rose Wilson? Not from the start, but coming in later as a story arc, and then as the younger kid all these young adult heroes, and then finally sticking around and having the chance to really get to know her brother finally. I feel like she would benefit from a team of older-but-not-old heroes who want the best for her. Extremely reluctant team little sister. She is Cool and Tough and Edgy and hates being the kid teammate (except that actually she doesn't). Bonus points: we get to remember how she used to be Lian's babysitter, and we get to lean into Roy-the-mentor, which is such a good look on him.

So, my current answer for you: Dick, Donna, Roy, Kory, Vic, Joey, Toni, and eventually Rose. That's 7-8 members, which sounds just about right.

#if we're talking 2003+ raven my only real hesitation is damn they are hurting without all that magic and healing shdfhjd #but i am not here to make a balanced rpg party; i am here to appeal to Myself #the sometimes teen titans #dc #*#*dc #anon #ask #thanks for asking!#i feel like i have surely forgotten someone but there are so many candidates it's hard to say

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prousterinhernest · 3 years

Text

Oh god, I need to talk about that Powerpuff Girls script

So, do I ever actually post here? No. Has a part of my childhood been re-opened, stepped on repeatedly and run over with a car? Yep. So to spare my poor mother from the many rants about this script and her repressed memories of a young me just watching the show on repeat, I’m here to talk about it from a script perspective.

I’m so glad this is the main thing I use my degree for. To spare us all, I’m shoving this in parts because I’m so glad they shoved this script into a five act structure to make this easier for me.

So let’s start this off with the ten minute teaser at the beginning. Apparently, this all starts in 2003 with a seven-year-old Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles. They’re flying through the sky, and okay, I’ll give them some nostalgia factor for this. However, I’m saying this now - this reads like an animation script. This is live-action, and instead they’re really using the description of “cotton candy clouds”? Please, stick to whether you want it to be live-action or animation. Please.

Also, their dresses are described as impractical and it’s like... Guys. You’re already starting to describe the dresses as impractical for seven-year-olds. You know what else is impractical? Seven-year-olds destined to fight crime.

Blossom is described as the leader, go-getter and goody-goody. Now, from what I remember - yeah that does describe Blossom. I’m really coming from a place of a person who’s memories of the show are only kinda coming back after 20 years so, if I get anything wrong then someone - please tell me.

Buttercup’s the scrappy, scowling tomboy - not even described by the narrator with that one. Instead, the narrator is just like she’s the tough one and a “hard-ass” and I wouldn’t describe a seven-year-old as a hard-ass.

Then Bubbles. Poor, sweet innocent Bubbles, who always was my favourite as a child and what have they done to you. She was the sweet and cheerful one, most of the time - according to the narrator. And you know, I’ll accept the dialogue for the seven-year-old Bubbles saying woot. It was 2003, but you know, woot is not a word I’ve heard in ages. I know I’m fixating, but then she immediately after this mentions how the Professor mentions efficacy and you know what, I don’t think a seven-year-old would say the word efficacy and I just have a lot of issues with Bubbles dialogue in this script and this is just the start.

So they’re flying, they’re fighting a giant three-headed-pegasus monster but in my head, I’m just seeing that weird giant three-headed-dragon thing from My Little Pony and I don’t know why but we don’t see it much because you just know the writers were only thinking about how the producers will react to this, I see that “(don’t worry)” in the script and I know they’re just worrying the producers about the budget.

Which is why we get a short-ass fight and then immediately after we get a flashback to 1996. To when they were created. Note: They weren’t born, they were created to be the age of 7 in 1996 and yet they’re still that age in 2003. Am I being pedantic? Yes. Is that bothering me a lot? Oh god yes.

Also Mojo Jojo is two people and just make him a monkey you cowards. I know you managed to get Gorilla Grodd in The Flash, so just do it. Instead, we’ve got Dr Joseph Mondel, who’s Utonium’s science partner. He’s there when they’re born and supposedly he and... Drake, are close.

“Couldn’t have done this without you Mojo,” you are a liar Professor. You are not the man I remember you to be good sir.

Then Professor Utonium gets his happy life, also with a hot girlfriend - why did you date Sara Bellum? I recall her being married to her work? Heaven forbid we have a single father being a good figure for his children. Right, CW? I’m so glad that we got Sara Bellum being reduced to becoming just Drake Utonium’s girlfriend (for now).

Next we’ve got them saving a bank from Fuzzy Lumpkins, and you know what? We don’t need this scene. I only hear the narrator and you should not be relying so much on the narrator because has no one told you show don’t tell? Because I’m pretty sure if I relied on a narrator for a show like this, my lecturers would have gutted me like a fish.

Mojo, who is still tragically not a monkey, is apparently sick with envy. He wanted to be like Elon Musk, and I say this again, he wanted to be like Elon Musk and how dare you insult Mojo Jojo in this way. But yeah, he was forgotten by Utonium once Utonium went famous and his son is now an obsessive Blossom fanboy. I wish I was joking. But this is no Jojo-joke. (I’ll show myself out, don’t worry).

Mojo has enough power to hold a rally, and say that Utonium stole his work and that the girls are dangerous and you know, as a concept? I’d be okay with that. I too would be worried about children with superpowers. Hell, I was a dick as a child. If I had powers? Damn son, I’d be the worst.

But you know, he wasn’t their only enemy. They also had... puberty. God, I wish this was a joke. I really wish it was.

Blossom, at age 17, despite how she should probably be 24 if she and her sisters were born at the age of 7 in 1996 - Yes, that’s my issue - is studying for SATs and they made it so Buttercup is cheating on her girlfriend. Thanks guys. Way to ruin Buttercup. Then we have Bubbles. Bubbles who is hungover, and forced flamingos in the zoo to drink Hypnotiq.

I stand by my previous statement: Bubbles what have they done to you?

Also, despite Blossom being the leader and the apparent moral high-ground for the kids she doesn’t seem to be as goody-goody as she was described earlier on. I’d have thought she’d be against her siblings who are both forcing flamingos to drink and cheating on girlfriends - but no, she’s super chill with them.

Added bonus: Buttercup doesn’t want to wear a dress because it’s compulsive heterosexuality. So, bad news everyone - dresses are completely heterosexual now.

They go to fight Swampy, and Bubbles is literally treating everything like a TV-show and Drake has clearly been a horrible influence and Sara Bellum calls him out for it. She’s then classed as not being a member of the family, and dick move Drake. You had a good stepmother figure character but of course, she breaks up with him. (After nine years and being exclusive for seven. I... I can’t with Drake).

Next up giant squid robot appears while they fight Swampy. You know, despite there being lots of protestors, surely someone would have noticed by now that there’s only Mojo piloting that giant squid that will reek more damage than these teenagers? Right...?

Nope, not so. Instead, there’s Blossom picking a fight with Anti-Powerpuff Protestors and Bubbles fighting Swampy, while Blossom is dealing with the giant squid robot being controlled by Mojo. Jojo’s co-piloting it and all I can think is, this guy literally has a Blossom action figure in his hand. This isn’t a crush, he’s literally obsessed. Giant squid robot destroys a building, Blossom tries to save people, ends up accidentally killing Mojo in front of his son.

On the plus side, Mojo had a monkey lab-rat partner but having a talking monkey was too real? God, I hate this.

But yeah, the Powerpuff Girls are now controversial despite the fact they didn’t kill Mojo. I mean, Blossom did accidentally, but she then got PTSD and ran away. Bubbles and Buttercup call out the protestors and the press outside their house and I just want to end this with: Just let Buttercup say Fuck.

...

That’s just the teaser. I’m really sorry everyone that is just the teaser and for the sake of it I’m only focusing on the script. I don’t wanna focus on the casting yet because you know? Imagining Turk as Professor Utonium is just pain.

I’m just gonna leave this one here and I’ll talk about the trainwreck that is Act I in a little while because really. Really.

#ppg cw #powerpuff girls cw #leaked script #this is purely just me getting through this #I just really need to talk about this #I don't even remember the show that well and I'm just so offended on Bubbles behalf

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padfootagain · 4 years

Text

A Very Rose Mistake (III)

Part 3 : How You Told Your Parents

Here we go with a new chapter! I know that today is Golden day as the music video dropped this afternoon, but I had planned to post the chapter, so let's go anyway! It just means more Harry for today, and who can pretend like there is something like too much Harry? Certainly not me!

So here is another cute and light-hearted chapter! I hope you all like it! No warnings of any kind!

Please, tell me what you think of this new chapter!

Pairing: Harry Styles x Reader

Word Count : 3535

Holmes Chapel, 2003

"HAAAA!"

"HARRY SLOW DOWN!"

"I CAN'T!"

"WE'RE GONNA CRASH!"

The next second you were disappearing into a pile of fresh snow.

You shuffled away from the sledge and out of the snow to stand on your feet again. You looked for your best friend in the messy white powder, but couldn't see him anywhere.

"Harry?" You called. "It's not funny! Come on, we need to bring it back up the hill. We need to move out of the way or Gemma is gonna crash into us!"

But you were met with silence, and started to be properly worried.

Was he hurt? He could have hit his head on something... what if he had broken one of his bones!? Your friend Daniel had broken his arm a few months before and he had spent weeks wearing this cast around his arm. It seemed very serious. What if Harry was hurt and would need one of these too?

"Harry? You're okay? Come out now, it's not funny!"

And then something coming out of the snow was grabbing your ankle, and you cried, jumping away in fear.

You would have recognized this ridiculous laugh anywhere.

"HARRY!"

He finally crawled fully out of the snow, laughing so hard he had to hold onto his painful belly.

"You scared me! It's not funny!" You protested.

"You should have seen your face!" He replied between hiccups, unable to stand for now because of how much he was still laughing. "And you shouted so loud!"

He doubled in laughter, and you noticed how his lisp was coming back as he wasn't making a conscious effort to repress it. You thought it was rather cute. And Harry's laugh was contagious. These were the only reasons why you were smiling then, because you were still mad at him for playing this trick on you.

"You're so annoying!" You shook your head, crossing your arms before your chest.

"Oh come on! Even you have to admit it was funny!" He replied, eventually calming down a little more.

"Not one bit!"

"It was. It was hilarious. Didn't know you could jump so far!"

You huffed, offended. No matter if you were still little, from the top of your nine-year-old self, you still turned away from him and pretended to refuse to acknowledge his presence.

Instead, you leaned down, as if to tie your shoes.

"Y/N... are you really mad?"

This time his tone was a little more uncertain. After all, if there was one thing that he hated, it was seeing you sad or upset. And especially so when it was because of him.

"Don't be mad! It was just a joke!" He went on, this time being the one who sounded annoyed, when in reality he was more worried than anything else.

But instead of hearing your reply, he was hit straight in the face with a snowball, while it was your turn to be laughing at him.

He chased away the snow dripping over his face with his gloved hand, a mischievous smile appearing on his features as he did so.

"Oh... are you sure you want to play it like that?" He asked, quirking up an eyebrow.

You let out a giggle, shrugging.

"You're the one who started it!"

"Alright, then!" When you saw him bending to scoop some snow in his palm, you let out a shriek and ran off towards the nearby tree where your mother and Anne were keeping an eye on all of you, chatting and trying to stay warm in the cold weather while you played.

"HAAAA! HELP ME! I'M BEING ATTACKED!" You dramatically called the parents, while Harry ran after you.

You got protection by hiding behind your mum, gripping at her long coat, making her laugh.

"Alright, alright! Calm down you two!"

While Gemma was sliding down the hill over the outskirts of Holmes Chapel, laughing on her sledge, Harry was trying to aim at you but you kept on running around the adults. Until he took his shot and hit you on the knee, the cold sensation making you cry through your laughter.

"Alright, calm down! Both of you!" Anne tried to admonish, but she was laughing as well at how silly you and Harry were.

As Gemma was joining the group pulling her sledge behind her, you and Harry were lost in an intense battle, your mothers sometimes getting caught in the crossfire.

"Gemma! Help! Team up with me!" You called while Harry was managing to grab your arm and shove some snow in the space between your scarf and neck, making you shriek.

And the older girl didn't need to be asked twice. Soon enough, both Gemma and you were chasing after Harry, who was now the one hiding behind the two mothers.

"Mum! Help! It's not even fair! They're two against one!"

"It's true that two against one is hardly fair," she agreed through her giggles.

"Then help!"

As she got caught in the crossfire again, Anne gave in and started to participate to the fight too. When she accidentally hit your mum right in the face, she also joined in. And then there were no teams, just three children and two mothers having a snowball fight and laughing too much for their stomachs.

Later that afternoon, you got home to change into dry clothes and get a warm and well-deserved hot cocoa at your place. You reckoned that the last thing you would need to make the day perfect was building a snowman, so you teamed up with Harry to build one in his backyard and make it as big as you could.

"We need eyes for him!" You noticed with horror that he was still missing those as you wrapped your scarf around the snowman's neck.

You had used a little twig for its nose, and Harry had found pebbles for its smile, but you just had the best idea.

"I know! Hold on!"

You ran off to your house and Harry patiently waited for you, placing his beanie on the snowman's head.

When you reappeared, you had two green marbles in your hand, that you planted in the snow to give your new friend eyes.

"It looks nice!" Harry agreed with a professional nod.

"Like that, he has the same eyes as you do!" You told him with a grin, and Harry wasn't sure why he was blushing, but he was.

"I like it," he nodded.

Your mother called for you, and you had to part with Harry for the rest of the holidays as you would both be travelling to see your families during the rest of the break.

"Today was so much fun!" You smiled.

"Yeah! The best!"

"I can't believe we're leaving tomorrow to go to my grandparents' for Christmas," you sighed with a sad pout.

"I'm gonna miss you."

"But you'll spend tons of time with your dad! It's gonna be great!"

Harry shrugged, clearly saddened now.

"Still gonna miss you. It's not as fun when you're not around."

You hugged him, promising to tell him everything that had happened during the holidays when you would be back.

"I'll get your scarf and your marbles once the snow has melted. No worries!" He promised, and you gave him a smile again, but this one was a little shy.

"You can keep the marbles if you want. They really do look like your eyes. Feels like they should be yours."

"You sure?"

You nodded, walking backwards towards your house, and waving at him.

"Merry Christmas, Harry!"

He waved back at you, laughing, even though he wasn't so sure why. He guessed it was just because of you.

"Merry Christmas, Y/N!"

Loch Lomond, 2020

Seeing your parents in the large hall, you suddenly weren't so sure if this whole ordeal was a good idea or the worst piece of madness that had ever flashed into your brain. But you were leaning towards the second option as you stepped in the room.

You took in deep breaths, and tried to calm down. One quick glance at Harry told you that he was just as nervous as you were.

For a moment though, all your fears vanished as your mother spotted you, her lips breaking in a bright grin, and she moved away from her spot by the window, abandoning the gorgeous view in favour of hugging you tight.

"I've missed you so much, my baby!" she squealed, hugging you so tight you could barely breathe, but the gesture only made you cackle, and you hugged her with the same urgency.

"It's so good to see you, mum!"

"You live way too far away! When are you coming back home?"

"After my PhD, promise."

"You'd better. Cause I'm tired of being alone dealing with your father."

"I heard that!" your father complained, and both you and your mother laughed at him, before you would break the embrace to hug your dad instead.

"Your mother is right though, we've missed you," he told you, kissing your cheek.

Your mum only then seemed to notice that Harry was standing a few steps away, unwilling to disturb your reunion.

"Harry!" she exclaimed, hugging him just as tightly as she had done you. "I didn't know you were invited to the wedding too! I mean… of course Cassie knows you, but she wanted a small venue and very few guests…"

"Uhm… No, I… I wasn't invited. I came with Y/N."

She blinked a couple of times at him, her expression blank, before realization glowed across her features.

But… not realization of what was actually happening…

"Oh, she asked you as her plus one! But why? I mean… it's just our family, you wouldn't have been alone, Y/N! There was no need to bring a friend along!"

Harry and you exchanged a glance, as you freed yourself from your father's embrace.

"No, actually… uhm… we're…" Harry began but fell silent as your father slowly turned to him.

"You're what?" your mother asked, completely lost.

"We're together," you announced as fast as your lips would allow. "He came as my boyfriend."

Harry offered your parents a bright smile.

"Together? What… what do you mean 'together'?" your mother stuttered upon her words.

"I mean that… he's my boyfriend now. Not… just a friend."

Her glance travelled back and forth between the two of you, and you were certain to have broken her brain by now.

It seemed impossible for her to process the news.

"So… you two are a couple?" your father asked, turning fully to Harry, who nodded in response.

"It's quite new," the young man explained. "We just… realized that we both wanted to try to take our relationship a step further."

"I see…"

Your father finally offered Harry his hand to shake, which your best friend hurried to take. You noticed the wince that distorted his features though, as your father crushed his fingers.

"We're going to need to have a talk, young man."

"Yes, sir."

"Dad!" you admonished, pulling him away from your frightened friend, who seemed terrified by now. "Stop it! What are you doing? It's just Harry!"

"Yes… it's Harry. Harry who used to spend entire nights in a sleeping bag in your bedroom when the two of you were children!"

He turned towards your fake boyfriend, waving a threatening finger at him.

"If you think I've forgotten about that day you closed her door when the two of you were 14…"

"No, I promise you, nothing happened!" Harry defended himself, absolutely terrified by now as he took a step back. "We… nothing happened for years, it's only been a few months, and nothing had ever happened before that. You have my word."

Your father huffed, not buying it, despite your friend's words being the truth.

"Oh come on, honey!" your mother forced her husband to calm down. "Y/N's right, it's just Harry. We know he's a respectable young man. So quit the tough act, would you?"

Your dad still mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, but your mum was shaking her head, amused.

"Ha… we knew it would happen eventually," she affectionately patted Harry's shoulder. "And if I'm being honest… it took you long enough!"

"Darling!" it was your father's turn to admonish your mother.

"What? I'm perfectly right, don't play innocent! By the way, who made the first move?"

You looked at each other… you… hadn't really discussed that…

"Well… uhm… I… did?" Harry answered with much hesitation.

"I mean, we were a little… inebriated," you started to explain, but your father quickly interrupted you, glaring at your 'boyfriend', and if a glance could have killed, Harry would have been violently murdered there and then.

"Inebriated?! What happened?!" he snapped, but Harry raised his hands in a soothing gesture.

"Nothing happened between us, don't worry. I would never do that!" he replied, a little offended that your father would think him able to do something like this. "We just… confessed things we wouldn't have discussed while sobber."

"I swear to God, son… if anything happened between you and my baby girl while she was drunk…"

"No, dad, nothing happened! Relax, would you! And even if something had happened, trust me, I would have been wholeheartedly all for it!"

"Really?" Harry asked with surprise, clearly slipping out of his acting role, and it was your turn to glower at him in response. He caught your idea quickly, but you were the one to speak first again anyway.

"Look, we just… realized that we both… wanted to take our friendship to the next level. We went on a couple of real dates, and here we are!"

"Yes, but who made the first move," your mother asked again. "Who kissed who first? Who confessed first?"

"I did," you both answered at the same time, sharing a panicked glance.

This whole thing was a disaster and was just getting worse and worse by the second…

"I mean… I… confessed first," Harry clarified, but his tone was a little too hesitant as he kept on staring at you, waiting for validation, and you gave him a small nod. "And she… she initiated the first… physical… contact…"

"Physical contact?!" your father interjected, and your friend was burying his face in his hands in embarrassment this time.

"No, I mean… she kissed me first. I meant kissing, just kissing."

"Look, dad, please, stop being like that!"

"Oh, so… now I can't take care of my daughter anymore?"

"It's Harry!" you replied. "Can't you trust him?!"

"When it comes to you, I don't trust nobody. And he's lucky we're not alone in this room," he replied between his gritted teeth, making you roll your eyes, and Harry lost all traces of colours all over his face, going as white as sheets.

"Look, you know I would never do anything to hurt Y/N…"

"Son, for your own good, you should stop talking now."

"Yes, sir."

"So… Harry made the first move, in a way," your mother considered your story.

"I guess, yeah. Why?"

Your mother beamed at you.

"Well, that means Anne owes me a 20!"

"What?"

"I was sure Harry would make the first move, but Anne has always thought that he would be too slow with his emotions and you would be the clever one to figure it all out first. So, I've just earned 20 pounds!"

"You… bet with my mum about Y/N and I getting together?" your fake-boyfriend asked in confusion.

"The bet has been on since you were both 14, sweetie!" your mother laughed, making your father roll his eyes. "It sure took both of you long enough to realize that you love each other! We've known for over a decade."

Both you and your best friend exchanged a confused look.

Were your two mothers… rooting for you… being… a couple?

"What?!" you both exclaimed at the same time.

But your mother merely let out a chuckle, pinching both your and Harry's cheeks.

"It's about time that the two of you finally come to your senses! I need to call Anne and tell her the news!"

You both stared at each other with wide eyes, panicked once more.

"No, please," Harry stopped you as your mother reached for her phone. "I… I haven't told her yet, and I'd like to be the one to tell her. I… it's important to me."

Your mum gave him a disappointed pout, but obliged nonetheless.

"Alright. But tell her I haven't forgotten about our bet and she owes me 20 pounds!"

"I will. Promise."

You were interrupted though, by your grandmother entering the hall and calling for you. And both you and Harry welcomed the chance to escape your parents.

"Gran! How are you doing?"

"I'm so happy to see you, darling," the old woman gave you a warm hug. "It's been too long."

"Me too, gran!"

"I'm relieved you could come for your cousin's wedding! I was afraid you wouldn't get a flight. Or wouldn't take the time to come."

"Of course, I came! It's Cassie's wedding!"

"You're spending too much time working…"

"Gran," you tried to interrupt her, your voice full of warning.

"You are forgetting everything else in your life. Including your love life, even though it's important!"

"Gran…"

You had barely said hello, and she was already diving in this topic.

"You know, I'm sure there will be some lovely young men at the reception…"

"Gran!"

"I'm just saying that weddings are the perfect place to meet new people."

"Well, I don't need to meet new people, because I came with my boyfriend!"

Her eyes grew round, and yet a smile formed on her lips.

And you were reminded all too well why you had asked Harry to come in the first place. Some members of your family really weren't interested in anything but your love life…

You silently asked Harry to come closer, and he approached the two of you with a shy smile.

"Hi!"

"Do you remember my friend Harry?"

She gave both of you a suspicious look.

"I do. You lived next door. Always the mischievous type!"

He chuckled, shrugging.

"I was a child, for my defence."

"So you two are together? Or you just came as a friend?"

"No, we're together," you answered, standing a little closer to him.

But she didn't seem convinced.

"If you say so…" she mumbled under her breath. "And is it anything serious?"

"Yeah, it is," Harry nodded with a smile, but again, your grandmother looked at him with eyes full of doubts.

It was hard to tell if she was unsure of your taste in men, or if she doubted that the two of you were together at all. All the same, she didn't seem so happy about the news.

She was distracted by your mother behind you, and you released a shaky breath as she walked away.

"We're not doing so good, are we?" Harry asked even if he knew the answer to his question already, in a shushed whisper that would allow no one else but you to hear his concerned words. "We haven't even talked to five people yet, and one of them doesn't seem to believe us, and another wants to murder me."

"Well, perhaps if you weren't acting so stiff around me, they would be more convinced!" you snapped back at him under your breath.

"What do you mean?"

"You're not acting like you're my boyfriend at all, Harry!"

"I am doing my best! What would you have me do?"

"Touch me? At least a little bit. I don't know, hold my hand or touch my back, or whatever."

"Well, you could do the same, babe."

You gave him a fake smile, before wrapping your arm around his waist.

"I am."

He threw a scared glance at your parents, and indeed, caught your father glowering at him, and he moved away from your touch as a consequence.

"Well, I'm sorry to be a little 'stiff' when your father looks at me like that! Besides, PDAs aren't my thing, in case you didn't know."

You rolled your eyes at him.

"My dad won't do anything, you know him. A lot of talks, but in the end, he's a teddy bear."

Harry heaved a sigh in response, and took another look at your family. They seemed lost in conversation, and judging by the glances they threw at the two of you, Harry guessed that your new relationship ought to be the main subject of gossips.

"Maybe you're right though."

He reached for your hand, and you were surprised that his gesture was slow, a little shy. His cheeks were flushed and he turned away from your family so they wouldn't notice his burning skin. You intertwined your fingers together, standing a little closer to him.

"You don't have to, if it makes you uncomfortable," you reassured him.

"No, it's… it's nice, actually."

"What is?"

A smile appeared on his lips, but he didn't look at you. Instead, he watched as your aunt and uncle entered the room, bracing himself for the next introduction. His smile didn't falter though as he whispered his next words.

"Holding your hand. It's nice… holding your hand."

**************************************************************

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invisibleicewands · 3 years

Link

Actor and activist Michael Sheen speaks about his career so far and how he has adapted to life during lockdown

Michael Sheen sighs. His fingers stroke his grizzly beard and for a moment, he’s no longer in New York; he’s stepping onto a stage for the first time back in his home town of Port Talbot.

Gone are the days of a telephone interview. The pandemic has seen to that. Zoom is the new way of life. And across the internet, across the Atlantic, Michael’s voice is beaming right into my Cardiff home.

He’s in the US, filming for the acclaimed drama series Prodigal Son. It goes without saying that he has come a long way since his early days in South Wales. But he traces the success of his career back to his days of youth in Port Talbot.

“As I’ve got older, I’ve realised more and more about what went into allowing me to have the path that I’ve had in life. I’m very aware that I had a supportive family, a family who would be involved with performing in one way or another.

“They also pointed me in the right direction, not necessarily professionally but my parents and aunts and uncles and grandparents were all involved with the amateur dramatics society. Coming from an area that had a tradition for actors in the form of Burton and Hopkins, there was a lot of respect for it.”

Michael has followed in the footsteps of the giants of stage and screen; but in doing so, he has forged his own path, straight out of the industrial South Wales town that he still calls home.

“If anyone was to take a look, they wouldn’t think that Port Talbot would have that kind of output. I was very involved with West Glamorgan Youth Arts groups that were borne out of the local education system. Godfrey Evans was the man responsible for founding the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company. He changed the lives of generations of young people from the same sort of South Wales area — myself, Russell T Davies and Catherine Zeta Jones, who I’m currently working with on Prodigal Son.”

Michael was to then train with the National Youth Theatre of Wales in the Welsh capital.

“We never moved around much when I was young so moving to Cardiff during the Summer holidays to do the National Youth courses — that was like going on holiday. Even going to Neath back then seemed exotic so to go all the way to Cardiff seemed like going to Mars. I remember we stayed in the university’s Senghenedd Court halls of residence. We’d rehearse in various places around Cardiff and it honestly felt like a mixture of being on holiday and going to space. It was so exciting. That was my introduction to Cardiff.”

The National Youth Theatre of Wales was to give Michael the grounding that has underpinned his career since.

“It was a brilliant youth theatre. It taught me great work ethics; it was very disciplined. Once I went to London, I realised that I’d taken it for granted about what was available in my area. I’m not too sure about how it compared to others in different parts of the country, but I started to see how my life could have gone a very different way. I owe a lot to the hard work of others. I’m amazed that I ever made it.”

Like Hopkins and Burton before him, Michael moved to London in 1988 to train as an actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where he picked up his first professional role and graduated in 1991. Throughout the 90s, Michael’s stage work brought accolade after accolade, and he made his first TV appearance in 1993.

“Stage work is where I started but theatre work has a tendency to take over your psyche. You wake up in the morning and all you can think is that you’re performing that night. You can’t concentrate on anything else. That may be the way for other actors too, I don’t know, but that’s how it is for me. And it’s strange because the performance only takes up a few hours of the day but it takes over an actor’s life. I do a lot more work now in front of the cameras these days and despite it sounding grim, I’d say that I feel more at home on the stage.”

Michael’s breakthrough screen role was as former Prime Minister Tony Blair in the 2003 film, The Deal. It was to mark his first collaboration with screenwriter Peter Morgan. They were to team up again for the 2006 movie The Queen, Michael once again reprising his role as Tony Blair. He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In that same year, he also appeared as English actor Kenneth Williams in BBC Four’s Fantabulosa!

For the following year, Michael starred as the television broadcaster David Frost in Frost/Nixon in the West End, before it was adapted into a movie in 2008, in which he again played Frost.

“I’m very lucky to be in a position where I’m able to express who I am as a person. People always come up to me and say ‘Oh, you’ve probably heard this before but I love your work’. But I’ve been on the other side of that — I’ve done it myself, so I know how important it is for them to do that. What really puts a smile on my face is if someone says that they’ve been deeply touched by something that I’ve done.”

Michael has gone on to become a household name, both here in the UK, as well as in the US. But what would he be doing if he wasn’t acting?

“I was only talking about this the other day actually. If I wasn’t doing all the acting stuff, I’d like to run a book shop. But I wouldn’t want anyone to take the books. I’d want people to come in and talk about the books. They’d have to come in and we’d drink tea and talk about them. But I wouldn’t want them walking out with the books.” Michael pauses. “Maybe it’d have to be a library instead.”

Meeting people is one thing that many across the world have had to think twice about doing since the outbreak of COVID19. In June 2020, Michael starred alongside his friend David Tennant in a six-part television lockdown comedy called Staged, which was made using video-conferencing software. A second eight-episode season aired in January 2021.

“The pandemic has made me realise how vulnerable we all are. I’m working in New York at the moment and it really saddens me to see how many businesses are closed down — and for good. It’s startling to see how our economies have been brought to a halt. It’s frightening how many conspiracy theories have sprung up but overwhelmingly, it’s heartening to see how people have worked together.”

The actor has taken a keen interest in the fate of small local businesses, especially those faced with the challenges presented by the pandemic. He’s also keen to see Wales get a better quality media, suited to the country’s needs.

“Most of our news comes from outside of Wales and that has sent conflicting messages to the people of Wales during the pandemic.”

Despite his international fame and success, Michael hasn’t forgotten his roots or those who are in a place that he was once in.

“I’m lucky in that I can use the reach that I have to help change aspects of society for the better. I don’t do charity work in the traditional sense but I do see my life as two distinct parts and the acting side of it allows me to support causes that I care about.” He is currently the honourary President of Wales Council for Voluntary Action and in 2017, he founded the End High Cost Credit Alliance, which works to promote more affordable ways to borrow money.

As we wrap up the interview, Michael has spoken for more than half an hour. It’s still early morning in New York, his coffee has long since gone cold and he has another day of filming ahead of him.

“It’s a little unnerving being here with the pandemic still going on, but we’ll get through it somehow,” he says.

It seems it’s all in a day’s work for Michael Sheen.

#Michael Sheen #Prodigal Son #Interview

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pathogenliliaceae · 3 years

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Thoughts on Jill Valentine

Hello, friends! My responsibilities for my trading company job have abated in the interim, so I thought perhaps I would come back around to Jill, as promised.

Thoughts on Jill Valentine:

I will begin this by saying that it is appropriate that she was asked alongside Mia because there is one outstanding issue that I have between the both of them: The need to be saved. Though I find Jill to be leagues more competent.

We’ll get to it in full a bit later.

I will make no secrets that Jill has never been my most favourite of protagonists. Most of those issues stem from “3: Nemesis” and Five, though I am not adverse to including bits from One and Revelations. In one word, Jill is tolerable. Though, if given a choice (depending upon who my choices are) I will usually pick someone else.

A bit of background on Miss Valentine: I am utterly convinced that Capcom has changed her birthdate. I remember quite vividly scoffing that they made her birthdate Valentine’s Day, but now that I look it up again it seems its in May. Well, that’s at least a half a point in her favour. It’s become less mind-numbingly stupid. She is French-Japanese-American, whose father was a professional thief. In addition, she received Delta Force training through the US Army. Unusually adept at lock-picking, she then (apparently) gains the moniker - the Master of Unlocking. She also, again apparently, is adept at bomb disposal, though I cannot remember an instance in which this is exhibited. Though I can remember many instances when this would have come in handy. Jill.

Post-Delta Force and US Army tenancy, Wesker recruited Jill for STARS - described as an elite special forces operation for the RPD comprised of military veterans and weapons specialists (put a leaf in this for when I eventually get to Rebecca Chambers). Joining her in STARS are Forest, who she already had a friendship with prior to working together, and Chris. She is the only female officer on STARS Alpha Team, and works as a Breaking and Entering specialist. Forward onto the Mansion Incident.

Again, I’ve mentioned that if given a choice, I will usually not pick Jill to play as. However, that is not to say that I have not played Jill’s scenario in One. My primary complaint about Jill’s Scenario is as follows: It is fundamentally easier than Chris’. She’s got the lockpick set, so she doesn’t need to find Old Keys. She has more inventory space. In the space where she finds the zombie in the bathtub, she stomps his head mid-cutscene and does not have to fight him. She starts with the handgun and receives higher powered weapons whilst Chris has a higher chance of critical headshots. She can mix chemicals to weaken Plant 42 and cut the boss fight in half. Jill can skip certain puzzles in Arklay with Barry’s help, one under the guise of “saving” her from the falling ceiling where you retrieve the shotgun. No need to find the broken shotgun, and you have access to the shotgun as soon as you unlock the area which makes accessing the Armour Key much easier. I used to believe that this was a reflection of the character, but now I believe it is a bit of thinly veiled misogyny on Capcom’s part. ):

About the opening to her scenario, after running amok in the forest and into the mansion - “There are only three STARS members left now. Captain Wesker, Barry, and myself. We don’t know where Chris is.” YOU’VE JUST HAD HIM AT THE DOOR! HOW HAVE YOU LOST HIM? Also, check your maths, Jill. That’s four STARS members. We have one negative point here in that she’s managed to lose her partner in the amount of time it takes to cross a threshold. Anyhow, like how it is when you play as Chris, the other is locked in the cell in the labs and must be released with the MO discs prior to the T-002 battle. Canonically, Jill escapes with Chris and Barry. Chris escapes with Jill and Rebecca. Rebecca does not make an appearance in Jill’s game, nor Barry in Chris’. Brad is there in the background, flying the helicopter he had damned them with at the beginning. It’s a bit of a flub.

Moving on to 3: Nemesis and the Remake and whatever happens in between the events of Arklay and the destruction of Raccoon City. Gathering from memos in Two and Three, shortly after the Arklay Incident, Chris and Jill take their concerns to Chief Irons, requesting the launch of an investigation into Umbrella and all the related shenanigans. Irons, being involved and heavily steeped in wrongdoing, denies this request. STARS all but disbands, as Chris leaves for Europe in August 1998, Barry moves his family to Canada and follows after Chris, Rebecca is doing fuck-all, and Irons has suspended Jill and ordered her confined to her flat. That leaves... Brad Vickers as STARS. The only member. In office. Everyone else is dead, suspended, or AWOL. I suppose one way to operate as a corrupt organisation is to keep the most inept person as your only functioning operative. I digress, this is about Jill and not the bucket of maladroitness that is Brian Irons.

Jill remains in Raccoon City under the pretense of attempting to locate NEST, with the intention of following behind Chris, Barry, and Rebecca(?) a bit later. I believe also she was intending to sort through the rumours of the development of Golgotha, but I cannot find accurate citation of that. Things that she manages to do whilst confined to her flat for a month behind the departure of the other STARS members: Not that at all. I have long wondered what it was that was actually keeping Jill in her flat, aside from orders from her no-longer boss, when she had intentions of leaving on 30 September. I don’t imagine that with what remains of STARS poking around, save for Brad, that Irons would put a definite date on the lifting of her suspension. “Yes, now you may leave to bring down the organisation that I am tangentially working for”. The Three Remake expands on this a bit, as it seems that perhaps Jill was not emotionally nor mentally suited for travel outside of the flat. In which case, I question whether steeping herself in all things Umbrella was perhaps exacerbating her condition. I do believe that there is a fundamentally large difference between Three: Remake Jill and 3: Nemesis Jill. First off, trousers. Enough said. I don’t do my personal investigations sitting in a pleather mini-skirt and a tube top with a rather practical jumper tied around my waist, and neither should you. I much rather imagine a suspension to be carried out in pyjamas, but again I am not the type of person to dress at home if I’m not needed to.

Secondly, Three: Remake Jill holds up much better against Nemesis without the help of Carlos (who is also rather incompetent and sexist), than her original counterpart. Her reactions to goings on are much more believable, and for much of the game she has absolutely no issue putting Carlos within appropriate boundaries. He tries to explain to her what a radio is, she snaps at him. He touches her, she tells him not to. You are a stranger, sir, please observe courtesy. Not to mention, a stranger who is working for the organisation we’ve just found out is responsible for the development of bioweapons and viral agents. At least bother to ask her name, first. A bit of a hint, Carlos: It isn’t “supercop”. If we are to continue on with this Jill further on in the series, I will support it. I would quite enjoy a long-standing female protagonist that has no issue scoffing at male protagonist foolishness and scolding their perspectives. Perhaps it is a good thing that she and Leon have never met in any official capacity.

Three: Remake Jill still falls prey to damsel-syndrome, as I’ll call it, upon being infected by Nemesis. Carlos comes in as the knight in shining armour, having become infatuated with her after knowing her for exactly four hours. I like to imagine that this New Jill could wake up from her comatose state, shout about her autonomy, and then go back to sleep. This is however, remedied by some sort of favour-trading as she does save Carlos in a quid-pro-quo a bit later. I do have concerns about how far Jill allowed Nikolai to get without shooting him down, but that’s unimportant in the long run. There is also a bit of inconsistency between games in how Jill and Carlos escape Raccoon City and what happened just prior, but those are unimportant to our examining of Jill.

All in all, New Jill is portrayed as a competent individual, which I think serves much better to support her character in instances such as the Fall of Umbrella chapter in The Umbrella Chronicles, which leads into the formation of the BSAA and her involvement with them.

Functionally, from 2003 until at least 2009, Chris and Jill mostly function as a singular unit. 2005- they work together to subdue T-ALOS. 2004- The Queen Zenobia, Queen Semiramis fiasco in which Jill carries Parker through a sinking ship as Chris slams doors in her face- as loving partners do. (I do want to mention in an aside that so many people find themselves in trouble whilst looking for Chris. It is the plot of NO FEWER than four games. One, Two, Code: Veronica, and Revelations. Maybe even a bit of Six. Call it four and a half). Revelations does delve into a bit of why I find Jill to be competent amongst the ranks of highly amateur BSAA agents. First off, she reads the manuals for things. She realises the importance of memos! Secondly, she is shown deducing and explaining quite a bit about the situation they find themselves in to Parker, who is often none-the-wiser. An argument could be made that Parker is a newly ported FBC emigre and therefore does not yet have the same expectation but I disagree having seen the... eptitude of other agents. She is rather instrumental in uncovering the whole FBC - Veltro - BSAA mess and quite honestly tends to hold her own in that installment. If only the dodge function worked better. Anyhow, back to her partnership with Chris- it canonically ends with the Lost in Nightmares campaign in Five. In which she quite literally bowls Wesker out of a window in defense of Chris and (sort of) the world. If there is any secret method of getting me to enjoy a character, it is self-sacrifice for the sake of another. There is something so beautiful about it. Except Ethan, nothing can redeem him. Jill functions best as a character when she is partnered with Chris. I cannot say that in any of these scenarios I have profound issues with her. Forward onto the events of Five and about where we will end this tangent.

Jill and Wesker, obviously, both survive the fall from the Spencer estate. Jill is kept for experimentation due to the existing muted strain of T in her body from the events of Three. The antibodies she possessed were used by Wesker in attempts to make Uroboros more accepting of human host bodies. During the time that she was “in his care” (poor choice of words, I know), he repeatedly injected her with Progenitor strains and took the resulting antibodies. As a result of the testing and antibody removal, Jill’s hair, skin, and eyes lightened in cryostasis (I am still trying to make sense of this bit). Once she had reached the extent of her usefulness, Wesker volunteered her for the P30 project, a Las Plagas extension that utilised chemical compounds for mind control. However, due to the high expulsion rate, the chemical had to be constantly injected, explaining the injector attached to her body.

This requires her, again, rescue at the hands of Chris and Sheva. Once the injector is removed, the other two move on after Wesker, and Jill promptly collapses into unconsciousness. She is found by BSAA Delta Team Captain Josh Stone, who escorts her to a helicopter and initiates a rendezvous with Chris and Sheva on the volcano. I will stand up for Jill on this one- I do not at all believe that if Jill was on the helicopter, that Sheva should have been the one to wield the rocket launcher. That honour should have belonged to the two original STARS Alpha Team members alone. It’s simply poetic, and I am sorry for Sheva, but it would have been much more perfect.

Currently, we’ve not seen anything from Jill since Five. The only mention to her current condition is that she is at the BSAA undergoing testing and rehabilitation for her time spent with Wesker. In her words: “...ever since getting back I've been locked up in this lab as they run tests on me day in and day out. It's every bit as boring as it sounds”. We leave Jill’s chronology with her being bored. Fitting. In short, I believe that Jill has quite a bit of potential in her competency, and I am actually quite interested to see what her reaction would be to the BSAA using bioweapons. We’ve not heard from her in twelve years, so one can only assume that she is still alive somewhere, being bored. If they are going to take her character in the same direction they appear to be going in the Three: Remake, I would not at all be adverse to seeing her again in a future standalone installment. That being said, I have quite the backlog of characters to talk about! Please give me the benefit of the doubt when waiting on these. I’ve got work to do, tea to drink, games to play, and characters to analyse.

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