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thunderheadfred · 3 years

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🤚Shigaraki HC's🤚

Part 1 of my Shigaraki Thesis HCs. The Second Worst: 1 - 2

This was rough because even though Shigaraki is one of my favorite characters of all time, I have nothing sexy to say about him canonically.

that's a lie, i'm lying. i had to break this post into parts, that's how much of a liar liar pants on fire i am

Warnings for quite possibly everything. Minors do not interact.

- - - - -

Okay first of all:

You know it. I know it. We all know it. This man is not boyfriend material. He disintegrates boyfriend material for fun.

You don’t want to date this man.

Frankly, you can’t date this man.

Seriously. Run.

If you’re a villain, you’re his underling. Maybe, if you squint, you’re kind of like his... um... least-hated workplace associate. What do you want, a trophy?

If you’re a hero, good luck not dying horribly. Maybe you’d make a cute hostage. Hope you can escape cuz he is NOT letting you out alive.

If you’re a civilian, perhaps that’s the best case scenario. He stalks you a little before he becomes infamous. You go on the worst date of your life but luckily you don't tell him where you live. Later you see him on the news standing in a pile of rubble and you just think, “ohhhhhhh.”

If he somehow, impossibly, against all odds, manages to develop a single affectionate feeling toward you, AFO is going to hunt you down for sport. You are NOT getting in the way of world domination. Again, good luck with that.

If somehow you managed to clear all those hurdles and kiss Shigaraki Tomura square on the lips, I can see one of two things happening.

1) You’re his body pillow now. Goodbye sunlight. You live in his room. He doesn’t have to chain you to the bed, because you know escape is pointless. Congratulations, the end is nigh.

2) Total mind break. At the first sign of genuine human affection, his trauma vault is instantly unlocked. Memories come rushing in, his quirk goes nuts. There’s like a 99.9% chance he’ll accidentally kill you and it will destroy his soul forever. But let’s say you’re the lucky 0.01% - then it’s time to fuck off together to a foreign country. He’s terrified, traumatized, and possibly broken beyond repair, but I guess he’s not a villain anymore? Have fun nursing him back to... semi-sanity.

Moral of the story: you’re better off getting hit with a quirk that takes you to an alternate universe where the worst thing Shimura Tenko ever did was throw a Playstation controller at his sister’s head. He’s an aspiring video game journalist with zero charisma and severe self-image issues. He has no earthly idea how hot he is. Please, for the love of God, fall for that guy instead.

haha just kidding

join me in hell, fellow Shigaraki fuckers:

- - - - -

Scenario the first:

so apparently you enjoy living in a cage?

Listen. He does not smell right. He doesn’t need to bathe much because his skin is constantly annihilating itself. So he’s not exactly dirty, but every instinct in your body is screaming in confusion, unsure if he’s alive or dead.

Breath of the damned. Sweet as moldy lemons. Whatever he eats just... rots. He doesn't produce enough spit.

He will kiss you very deeply. Until you choke. Forget the cold, chapped lips because they're the least of your problems. He's got those skeleton hands caging your face and you're trapped against a wall and his gigantic biting teeth are prying you open. He licks inside your mouth like he's trying to steal your soul. He'll probably succeed.

His hair is exactly as soft as it looks. Too bad you'll never get to touch it.

He’s either got no sexual impulses at all and will laugh at you for trying, or he’s a full-on incel. I don’t know which one. I don’t want to find out. Apparently you do, and I salute your resolve.

You will be lucky if Shigaraki treats you like a pet. He loves his Nintendo DS more than you.

Consent is not applicable. You showed interest in him once, now you're his plaything forever. There's a power imbalance between you so wide you could chuck a planet in there.

Safewords? lol

Doesn't want to break you, because what would be the point? He's already broken enough things. He wants to keep you around for a good long while. He'll take good, good care of you.

Unless you disobey.

Obsessed with making you cum whether you want to or not. Yes, this IS a high score thing. It's just so flattering. Say hello, orgasm torture. Was that another one? Aww. You barely moved. Oh, what's that? You're begging him to stop? Haha. He won't.

Don't cry. He'll drink your tears.

He'll touch you everywhere with bare fingers. Slow, feather-light strokes, like some kind of demented ASMR artist. This is not a trust exercise. He knows exactly how much it terrifies you.

Oh yeah. You're getting finger FUCKED. Do you fantasize about having a loaded gun shoved inside you? Same difference.

Will eat you out like nothing else, but not in bed. That's the kind of shit he does on a boardroom table where anybody could walk in and see you writhing. Spreads you WIDE open and sucks on you. Makes out with your asshole. The whole nine yards. It's wet and loud and nasty.

Only time you're out of his sight (and not locked in your room) is when he shoves a remote control vibrator where the sun doesn't shine. Operates it through an app while he calls you and jerks off. Wants to make your knees fail on a crowded train.

Come here. You get to sit on his lap like a dog. Four fingers on your throat, dick hard under your ass. He'll dry hump you in front of God, the Devil, and everyone else.

If he's playing video games, you're cock-warming. He does not care which hole. He won't even look at you.

He might get hard but he does not get naked. You do not know Shigaraki Tomura on a personal level. You have only the vaguest idea what his dick looks like. It feels long and thin, almost sharp. Maybe he's actually been fucking you with an ice pick this whole time. His hip bones dig into you and bruise. He likes to kiss and bite the marks he leaves.

He mocks you for being so fucking pathetic. Have you always been a such a needy slut or is he really that special? What is wrong with you? Even he thinks you're crazy.

Shigaraki won't kill you, but All For One will.

- - - - -

The Second Worst Scenario:

The half-mad ghost of Shimura Tenko is in love with you, and your life is about to become a tragic wreck.

(this half of the post went completely off the rails and turned into like... a whole-ass Victorian Novel)

#Shigaraki #shigaraki tomura #shigaraki x reader #shigaraki x y/n #shigaraki x you #gender neutral reader #mha #bnha #shigaraki headcanons #bnha headcanons #mha headcanons #smut #fred writes

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thespoonisvictory · 3 years

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Honestly I think a big part of the reason Wilbur's spiral isn't treated as seriously as Tommy's exile is that a majority of the fandom will straight up ignore c!Wilbur's trauma in favor of villainizing him or portraying every single one of his actions as intentionally malicious.

That also ties in with how in the Exile arc we have c!Dream who's clearly the abuser and actively worsening c!Tommy's mental state. With c!Wilbur, while he was obviously dealing with a lot of external factors that were worsening his already shit mental health, I feel like people undermine that?? (again, ignoring or downplaying his trauma) Which is why it isn't taken as seriously.

Also his trauma isn't really portrayed in a.. romanticizable? way. I mean c!Tommy's isn't really either, but during the Exile itself he was a bit more docile and as such his trauma was seen as 'acceptable' this of course changed when he began lashing out and being his little annoying raccoon self (affectionate) n shit, but yeah. I feel like this fandom has an issue with treating others as if they are less deserving of sympathy because they don't show their trauma in the 'right' way.

And obviously, a character's trauma doesn't justify or excuse their actions, but it is something that should be taken into consideration. Especially when discussing them since a lot of the time the words thrown around about c!Wilbur are like 'crazy' or whatever, which is just in very poor taste.

anyways. sorry if this is worded poorly, i am shit at getting my point across.

no this is worded very well! I think in particular the external factors of Wilbur's deterioration are so often overlooked, as you said: he was in a position of responsilibity for people that really has been replicated since (arguably Tubbo, but even then as president he was less a caretaker and peacekeeper like Wilbur was in early pogtopia and more responsible for foreign affairs and general policy. c!Sam might actually be closer tbh). there's a long list of things that led Wilbur to the edge, but the three biggest are imo:

feeling responsible for Tubbo, Niki, Tommy, Fundy, and Techno's safety all at once

two incredibly traumatic deaths as a result of betrayal, while having to act "fine"

the weight of a presidency spent constantly working while he slowly grew to believe the people around him hated him for his work

Wilbur isn't weak for having a breakdown in that situation, in fact, that's pretty standard and makes sense. He wasn't special, he was just put in awful, awful circumstances that exaggerated his worst traits. that makes him so easy to sympathize with, in my opinion, because it's a situation I truly believe most people would find themselves in under those circumstances

#asks #wilbur soot #dream smp #dsmp analysis #dsmp meta

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effei-s · 3 years

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What shatter-me Warner would do.

The fastest character assassination I’ve ever seen.

Here’s the thing: Warner from original trilogy had character arch. More important: he was a character.

He was mean, villainous, cold, cruel murderer, with daddy who basically bought him regency (like come on, if it wasn’t for Anderson no one would even think about giving him that position; n for nepotism), but he also was deeply traumatized and abused his whole life and had little to none normal human interactions. I loved that fact that the only good thing he did (killing Fletcher because he was abusing his family) resolved into a complete catastrophe (Anderson killing children and wife) because Warner didn’t think it through. He tried to do the right thing and failed miserably, because he was more concerned with making a spectacle for Juliette. And after that he still had the audacity to paint himself as a hero who saved poor family from terrible tyrant in Ignite me.

I didn’t expect him to act and think like a human being. He didn’t need to act like a normal human. Warner gas lighting Juliette in the first third of ignite me is Warner’s thing to do. Him yelling and throwing tantrums and making scenes in Unravel me is Warner’s thing to do. Him forcing Juliette to do things she doesn’t want and traumatizing her in the process in Shatter me is Warner’s thing to do. Him wanting to torture Adam to death is Warner’s thing to want.

There’s a few reasons for this:

a) he doesn’t know how to communicate with people other than giving them orders or making threats;

b) he truly believes that he’s in the right here (he doesn’t see himself as a bad guy in Juliette story, more like a knight on a white horse);

c) he’s physically unable to be honest with himself and always has someone to blame for his own mistakes and failures;

d) he’s ‘results justify the means’ kind of guy.

Changes for good, with trauma that deep, when you basically don’t have a moral compass, don’t happen over night.

Was his ignite-me arch made sloppy? Yes. Everything was too info-dumpy and too convenient (Juliette forgetting that Warner was going to torture Adam to death; Juliette feeling that she’s the one who needs to apologize; Leila’s entire character used only for a sob story; Adam turned into a douchebag so Warner would look a more suitable love interest, etc). But it still was an arch. And the finale of ignite me was so open I really could imagine that, little by little, in the future, he will start to trust people more and really gonna help Juliette and co to make the world a better place. And his redemption arch wasn’t finished in the slightest, and I would even say that it was only the beginning of it, but it was implied that things will get better from there (the most important part of that being him genuinely wanting to make things right with Adam and James; he’s the one who makes the first step and initiate the bond).

So what went wrong in new three books? Ehm… everything, to be honest. Instead of developing a character that was already there, she decided to give him a new personality. Actually it can be said about every single one of characters, but Warner just happened to be the biggest victim of them all.

Let’s look at Restore me.

Okay, we have his pov, and I never thought I would say it but… Warner is kinda dumb. He’s supposed to be this military strategy genius, someone who knows how RE works from within and… it turns out that he just as clueless as Juliette. More than this, we never actually see him do ANYTHING except fucking Juliette. And for some reasons he never helps Juliette with her work??? There’s so much paperwork and instead of helping her to sort though it he’s… just not there???

Those stupid long monologues about how she’s capable to do anything mean nothing if he doesn’t actually help (as we can see at the end of restore me, when Juliette gets captured).

That fact that he doesn’t immediately check if Castle’s words are true? And instead of helping Juliette with Haider (telling everything he knows about him and his family, preparing her for the dinner) he fucks her??? This is a dumb bitch shit. And maybe you didn’t noticed but Shatter-me Warner wasn’t a dumb bitch.

After all, there’s a simple reason I never wanted the job of supreme commander myself—

I never wanted the responsibility.

It’s a tremendous amount of work with far less freedom than one might expect; worse, it’s a position that requires a great deal of people skills. The kind of people skills that include both killing and charming a person at a moment’s notice. Two things I detest.

Remember shatter-me Warner who wanted power because power meant that he could have control over his life? Remember shatter-me Warner who wanted to work with Juliette as a team to change the world? Yeah that’s him now.

No personal ambitions allowed when you’re a walking dildo, I guess.

Off the topic, but Mafi really enjoys making Juliette stupid as fuck:

“Oh, yes, of course,” she says, remembering. “I’ve gotten a bunch of letters about that. I didn’t realize it was such a big deal.”

Let's continue.

Hurting Haider would be enough to start a world war.

Warner says and then Juliette threatens Haider, a foreign official on a diplomatic mission, and instead of being even a little bit worried and think about possible consequences, Warner thinks this:

But I can only smile at her. I want to scoop her up and carry her away. Take her somewhere quiet and lose myself in her.

Okay, I guess it’s official, there’s sperm inside of his head instead of brain cells. I can’t find any other explanation for this clownery.

Shatter-me Warner would… Shatter-me Warner won’t be in this situation in the first place.

Someone tries to kill Juliette and Warner does… nothing about it. He never goes to check the body of the assassin himself. He thinks that Nazeera hides something and he still allows her to go around and doesn’t even interrogate her when Juliette says that Nazeera was there at the moment of the attack. He doesn’t find it even a little bit suspicious? That guy who had tremendous trust issues in the original trilogy? Remember him? Yeah, that guy. Shatter-me Warner would lock Nazeera and Haider up and demanded answers. Shatter-me Warner would be angry as fuck, and would try to kill Kenji with his bare hands, because Kenji was stupid enough to leave Juliette alone. Shatter-me Warner wouldn’t stop until he had answers (and the head of a person who wanted to kill Juliette on a plate).

New Warner is too busy feeling sorry for himself to actually do anything about it. And after one chapter it’s completely forgotten, like that fact that someone tried to kill her is not important at all.

And then Castle enters the picture with his stupid and sloppy info-dumping (I guess Mafi never heard of ‘show don’t tell’ rule). And says this:

“She can’t lead this resistance,” he says, squinting at something in the distance. “She’s too young. Too inexperienced. Too angry. You know that, don’t you?”

and if that wasn’t enough he also says this:

“It should’ve been you,” Castle says. “I always secretly hoped—from the day you showed up at Omega Point—that it would’ve been you. That you would join us. And lead us.” He shakes his head. “You were born for this. You would’ve managed it all beautifully.”

AND HE’S STILL ALIVE AFTER?

This is a fucking treason right there. And Warner A-OKAY with this.

Shatter-me Warner would strangle him right there. Or better yet, he would go along with this until he has 100% evidences of Castle’s betrayal and then he would kill him. Or he would kill him simply because Castle was withholding important information and earlier in books he put Juliette in a great danger by sending her to Anderson without telling her the truth (unravel me).

But not this Warner. New Warner is far more concerned with fucking Juliette then helping her or looking for a way out of this situation (because now he has dick instead of a brain).

After my father’s revelation, my thirst for information became suddenly insatiable. I needed to know more—who these people were, where they’d come from, how much we’d known—

WHERE AND WHEN DID WARNER IN PREVIOUS BOOKS DISPLAY THIS?

When I say that Mafi simply forgot her own characters this is what I mean. Warner from original trilogy didn’t give a flying fuck about them. He thought that they were weak and stupid.

I will lose her.

And it will kill me.

He said this shit and after he nearly had a panic attack because he imagined her dating someone else? Oh, come on, how more pathetic can he get?

There are words for this kind of behavior: toxic codependency.

Oh wait wait! I know! This is not Warner! This is Edward Cullen disguised as Warner! The mystery is solved!

Oh, he fucks her again. Apparently it’s the only thing he’s good at. What a character! The layers! The complexity!

And then Lena came into the picture.

Until that moment I was more or less okay with Warner. Yes, I was very confused, but I was ready to give Mafi benefit of the doubt. He lost his father and was dealing with grieve. We all can act out of character in the face of a tragedy or drastic changes.

“Why do you keep pressing this? Who cares if I’ve been with other women? They meant nothing to me—”

And there I felt in my guts, I’m not gonna like what next to come.

Haider was exhibiting suicidal tendencies. Self-harming. And I got really scared. I called Warner because I knew Haider would listen to him.” She shakes her head. “Warner didn’t say a word. He just got on a plane. And he stayed with us for a couple of weeks. I don’t know what he said to Haider,” she says. “I don’t know what he did or how he got him through it, but”—she looks off into the distance, shrugs—“it’s hard to forget something like that.

Oh, so Warner's words about how he never had any real interactions with anyone before Juliette were bullshit. About how he doesn’t understand people were also bullshit. About how Juliette was the first person who was not afraid to speak with him freely were also bullshit. Because all of the sudden he can help someone heavily depressed. Someone with suicide tendencies? Someone who harms himself? And now he has an ex-girlfriend who’s ready to beat the fuck out of him and calls him mean words (she clearly doesn’t fear him)?

Now his entire character in the first trilogy doesn’t make any sense. And his excuses don’t make any sense.

Bravo, Mafi! Bravo! This was the fastest character assassination I’ve ever seen.

She says that Lena was in love with him—really in love with him—but that Warner broke her heart, that he never treated her with any real affection and she’s hated him for it.

Oh, so he’s not only stupid and absolutely useless, he’s a fuckboy. And if there’s one thing I HATE, it’s fuckboys.

There’s a big-big-big difference between someone who has one-night-stands and THIS SHIT:

“You’re upset, I understand. But it’s not my fault you feel this way. I don’t love you. I never have. And I never led you to believe I did.”

“She and I,” he says, “it was—we were nothing. It was a relationship of convenience and basic companionship. It meant nothing to me. Truly,” he says, “you have to know—if I never said anything about her it was only because I never thought about her long enough to even consider mentioning it.”

“It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t two years of anything serious. It wasn’t even two years of continuous communication.” He sighs. “She lives in Europe, love. We saw each other briefly and infrequently. It was purely physical. It wasn’t a real relationship—”

So he despised her but used her for sex? WOW. Cool. He can go and trip over a fucking knife or fall out of the window for all I care.

“Everything in my life was different before I met you,” he says. “I was lost and all alone. I never cared for anyone. I never wanted to get close to anyone. I’ve never—you were the first person to ever—”

And how exactly he was able to help Haider with his self-harm then??? If he didn’t CaRe for anyone before Juliette?

This was the moment when Warner from original trilogy died in agony.

Okay, let’s see real quick what we have in Defy Me:

He thinks about escape but never really does anything to escape;

(anderson is the one who opens his cell;

he stands in front of a guy who murdered his mother and doesn’t even think about her, yeah I can see how important she was for him;

/again, shatter-me Warner would probably demanded answers, but not walking dildo, walking dildo cares only about Juliette. his excuse in ignite me 'i did it all for my mom' doesn't make any sense now, because he actually doesn't give a flying fuck about her/

he gets captures one minute after he “kills” Anderson;

nazeera is the one who gets him out of there;

super soldier taught his whole life how to survive, everyone. useless as fuck)

He doesn’t know anything about jewelry.

(super ooc, i know what Mafi was trying to do here: she tried ‘sherlock holmes doesn’t know that earth revolves around the sun’ thing Arthur Conan Doyle did, but the problem is WARNER IS A FASHIONISTA, or he was).

He wants to get married because…???

He sees a woman who tried to kill Juliette and he’s a-okay with staying at her place, because she said that it was actually a message (???).

Castle is still alive.

Nazeera who knew all this time about Anderson and was working for him is also alive and well.

Oh and he doesn’t care about Anderson being alive and being a real threat to Juliette (fucking her is more important for him, as usual).

His complete disregard for Juliette’s safety only makes me hate him more with every new book.

Imagine me.

First and foremost: don’t call imagine-me Warner shatter-me Warner. Don’t insult shatter-me Warner like that. With shatter-me Warner Anderson would have to try very hard to get to Juliette. It would be ‘Warner made 100 back-up plans, but Anderson knew him too well and created 101 plan and that’s how he managed to win’ kind of situations.

But walking dildo is too busy feeling sorry for himself (as usual), he just sits by her bed FOR TWO FUCKING DAYS, doing absolutely NOTHING to make sure she’ll be safe.

Nooira says that Juliette should be killed and she’s still alive for some reason.

He’s entire persona is that he’s rude to people (but not bbc’s sherlock holmes kind of rude, when he’s unbearable dick but he’s actually smart and really gets shit done, so we can tolerate him). He’s just rude.

He doesn't care about Adam or James's wellbeing (remember Ignite me Warner who really wanted a family? Yeah that's him now).

But he has gruppies now, because he’s hot and everyone in the sanctuary wants to fuck him.

Oh and he proposed to Juliette. HE PROPOSED. THEY ENGAGED! DO YOU HEAR ME??? THEY GONNA BE MARRIED! HE PROPOSED TO HER! AND SHE SAID YES! THEY GONNA MERRY!

Because god fucking forbid we forget about it.

(mafi really thinks that her readers have the mental capacity of a golden fish, huh?)

I lost count how many times walking dildo implies that he's gonna kill himself if Juliette is not with him (disgusting).

Then our walking dildo cures Juliette by the power of petting (it’s not power of love, lads and gents; you want to see love go watch defenders on netflix; mafi already copypasted elektra’s arch from that show into imagine-me Juliette, you can do yourself a favor and see how this trope can be executed without borderline on sexual assault petting scene).

18-old girl marries a fucking sociopath believing he’s actually a good person.

(we all know how shit like this ends, people like that don't change; and this 'he's different with me cuz i'm very special and i'm gonna teach him the right way' it's really harmful message considering that the audience of those books are mostly teenage girls).

Trust me, there's nothing revolutionary in this trope, it's tale as old as time.

Here's the thing, good written character always defined by connection to other people: friend, lovers, enemies, family, foes, acquaintances, even some random strangers. It's the easiest way to establish what kind of person they are.

Walking dildo doesn't have any of that because all of his "character" revolves around Juliette. He's not a person anymore. By the end of Imagine me he doesn't have friends (his relationships with Kenji or Haider non-existent), no family connections (no talks with Adam or James), even enemies or foes or even people that don't like him (because everyone wants to fuck him, because being hot is his only character trait).

His only family and friend is Juliette. And you know what? It's fucking boring, overdone and lazy as fuck. And insulting to the character he once was.

No redemption arch, no character arch at all.

Happy end.

#i'm gonna pretend that second trilogy doesn't exist #long-ass post #shatter me series #shatter me #aaron warner #nazeera ibrahim #kenji kishimoto #paris anderson #juliette ferrars #eff writes #meta #restore me #defy me #imagine me #fantasy books #tahereh mafi #character analysis

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raptured-night · 4 years

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Hi! I’m part of the lgbtq+ community and Severus is my favorite HP character and I was wondering (if you have the time and feel obliged) if you could please give me a few examples of how he’s queer? It’s been a few years since I reread the books, and def before I came out, so I’m a little in the dark here lol Thanks!!

First of all, I just wanted to apologize for how long it has taken me to properly respond to your ask. I’ve been dealing with some ongoing health issues that have turned me into something of a moody writer. I’ll get random spurts of energy and inspiration and then hit a wall of absolute writer’s block assisted by a major case of executive dysfunction every single time I try to respond to the multiple asks languishing in my inbox. Fortunately, I found myself involved in a discussion just today that addressed your ask so perfectly that I wanted to share it with you. In the very least, that discussion has also managed to shake off my writer’s block temporarily so that I have found myself in the right head-space to finally be able to give this lovely ask the thought and attention that I feel it deserves.

Although, in regards to the Snape discourse I linked above, I feel that I should warn you in advance that the discussion was prompted by an anti-Snape poster who made a rather ill-thought meme (I know there are many in the Snapedom who would rather just avoid seeing anti-Snape content altogether, so I try to warn when I link people to debates and discussions prompted by anti-posts) but the thoughtful responses that the anti-Snape poster unintentionally generated from members of the Snapedom (particularly by @deathdaydungeon whose critical analyses of Snape and, on occasions, other Harry Potter characters is always so wonderfully nuanced, thought-provoking, and well-considered), are truly excellent and worth reading, in my opinion. Also, as I fall more loosely under the “a” (I’m grey-ace/demisexual) of the lgbtqa+ flag and community I would prefer to start any discussions about Snape as a queer character or as a character with queer coding by highlighting the perspectives of people in the Snapedom who are actually queer before sharing any thoughts of my own.

In addition, I also wanted to share a few other posts where Snape’s queer coding has been discussed by members of the Snapedom in the past (and likely with far more eloquence than I could manage in this response of my own).

Source

Along with an excellent article in Vice by Diana Tourjée, in which a case for Snape being trans is convincingly argued.

Importantly, you’ll notice that while some of these discussions do argue the possibility of Snape being a queer or trans character others may only discuss the way that Snape’s character is queer coded. That is because there is a distinct but subtle difference between: “This character could be queer/lgbtq+” and: “This character has queer/lgbtq+ coding” one which is briefly touched on in the first discussion that I linked you to. However, I would like to elaborate a bit here just what I mean when I refer to Snape as a character with queer coding. As while Rowling has never explicitly stated that she intended to write Snape as lgbtq+ (although there is one interview given by Rowling which could be interpreted as either an unintentional result of trying to symbolically explain Snape’s draw to the dark arts or a vague nod to Snape’s possible bisexuality: "Well, that is Snape's tragedy. ... He wanted Lily and he wanted Mulciber too. He never really understood Lily's aversion; he was so blinded by his attraction to the dark side he thought she would find him impressive if he became a real Death Eater.”) regardless of her intent when she drew upon the existing body of Western literary traditions and tropes for writing antagonists and villains in order to use them as a red-herring for Snape’s character, she also embued his character with some very specific, coded subtext. This is where Death of the Author can be an invaluable tool for literary critics, particularly in branches of literary criticism like queer theory.

Ultimately, even if Rowling did not intend to write Snape as explicitly queer/lgbtq+ the literary tradition she drew upon in order to present him as a foil for Harry Potter and have her readers question whether he was an ally or a villain has led to Snape being queer coded. Specifically, many of the characteristics of Snape’s character design do fall under the trope known as the “queering of the villain.” Particularly, as @deathdaydungeon, @professormcguire, and other members of the Snapedom have illustrated, Snape’s character not only subverts gender roles (e.g. his Patronus presents as female versus male, Snape symbolically assumes the role of “the mother” in the place of both Lily and later Narcissa when he agrees to protect Harry and Draco, his subject of choice is potions and poisons which are traditionally associated more with women and “witches,” while he seemingly rejects in his first introduction the more phallic practice of “foolish wand-waving,” and indeed Snape is characterized as a defensive-fighter versus offensive, in Arthurian mythology he fulfills the role of Lady of the Lake in the way he chooses to deliver the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry, Hermione refers to his hand-writing as “kind of girly,” his association with spiders and spinners also carries feminine symbology, etc.) but is often criticized or humiliated for his seeming lack of masculinity (e.g. Petunia mocking his shirt as looking like “a woman’s blouse,” which incidentally was also slang in the U.K. similar to “dandy” to accuse men of being effeminate, the Marauders refer to Snape as “Snivellus” which suggests Snape is either less masculine because he cries or the insult is a mockery of what could pass for a stereotypical/coded Jewish feature, his nose, Remus Lupin quite literally instructs Neville on how to “force” a Boggart!Snape, who incidentally is very literally stepping out of a closet-like wardrobe, into the clothing of an older woman and I quoted force because that is the exact phrase he uses, James and Sirius flipping Snape upside down to expose him again presents as humiliation in the form of emasculation made worse by the arrival and defense of Lily Evans, etc.).

Overall, the “queering of the villain” is an old trope in literature (although it became more deliberate and prevalent in media during the 1950s-60s); however, in modernity, we still can find it proliferating in many of the Disney villains (e.g. Jafar, Scar, Ursula, etc.), in popular anime and children’s cartoons (e.g. HiM from Powerpuff Girls, James from Pokemon, Frieza, Zarbon, the Ginyu Force, Perfect Cell, basically a good majority of villains from DBZ, Nagato from Fushigi Yuugi, Pegasus from Yu Gi Oh, etc.), and even in modern television series and book adaptations, such as the popular BBC’s Sherlock in the character of Moriarty. Indeed, this article does an excellent job in detailing some of the problematic history of queer coded villains. Although, the most simple summary is that: “Queer-coding is a term used to say that characters were given traits/behaviors to suggest they are not heterosexual/cisgender, without the character being outright confirmed to have a queer identity” (emphasis mine). Notably, TV Tropes also identifies this trope under the classification of the “Sissy Villain” but in queer theory and among queer writers in fandom and academia “queering of the villain” is the common term. This brings me back to Snape and his own queer coding; mainly, because Rowling drew upon Western traditions for presenting a character as a suspected villain she not only wrote Snape as queer (and racially/ethnically) coded but in revealing to the reader that Snape was not, in fact, the villain Harry and the readers were encouraged to believe he was by the narrator she incorporated a long history of problematic traits/tropes into a single character and then proceeded to subvert them by subverting reader-expectation in a way that makes the character of Severus Snape truly fascinating.

We can certainly debate the authorial intent vs. authorial impact where Snape’s character is concerned. Particularly as we could make a case that the polarizing nature of Snape may well be partly the result of many readers struggling against Rowling subverting literary tropes that are so firmly rooted in our Western storytelling traditions that they cannot entirely abandon the idea that this character who all but had the book thrown at him in terms of all the coding that went into establishing him as a likely villain (e.g. similar to Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Snape is also coded to be associated with darkness/black colors and to represent danger and volatile/unstable moods, while his class status further characterizes him as an outsider or “foreign other,” and not unlike all those villains of our childhood Disney films which affirmed a more black-and-white philosophy of moral abolutism, such as Scar or Jafar, the ambiguity of Snape’s sexuality coupled with his repeated emasculation signals to the reader that this man should be “evil” and maybe even “predatory,” ergo all the “incel” and friendzone/MRA discourse despite nothing in canon truly supporting those arguments; it seems it may merely be Snape’s “queerness” that signals to some readers that he was predatory or even that “If Harry had been a girl” there would be some kind of danger) is not actually our villain after all.

Indeed, the very act of having Snape die (ignoring, for the moment, any potential issues of “Bury Your Gays” in a queer analysis of his death) pleading with Harry to “look at him” as he symbolically seems to weep (the man whom Harry’s hyper-masculine father once bullied and mocked as “Snivellus”) memories for Harry to view (this time with his permission) carries some symbolic weight for any queer theory analysis. Snape, formerly portrayed as unfathomable and “secretive,” dies while pleading to be seen by the son of both his first and closest friend and his school-hood bully (a son that Snape also formerly could never see beyond his projection of James) sharing with Harry insight into who he was via his personal memories. For Harry to later go on to declare Snape “the bravest man he ever knew” carries additional weight, as a queer theory analysis makes it possible for us to interpret that as Harry finally recognizing Snape, not as the “queer coded villain” he and the reader expected but rather as the brave queer coded man who was forced to live a double-life in which “no one would ever know the best of him” and who, in his final moments at least, was finally able to be seen as the complex human-being Rowling always intended him to be.

Rowling humanizing Snape for Harry and the reader and encouraging us to view Snape with empathy opened up the queer coding that she wrote into his character (intentionally or otherwise) in such a way that makes him both a potentially subversive and inspiring character for the lgbtq+ community. Essentially, Snape opens the door for the possibility of reclaiming a tradition of queer coding specific to villains and demonstrating the way those assumptions about queer identity can be subverted. Which is why I was not at all surprised that I was so easily able to find a body of existing discourse surrounding Snape as a queer coded or even as a potentially queer character within the Harry Potter fandom. At least within the Snapedom, there are many lgbtq+ fans of his character that already celebrate the idea of a queer, bi, gay, trans, ace/aro, or queer coded Snape (in fact, as a grey-ace I personally enjoy interpreting Snape through that lens from time-to-time).

Thank you for your ask @pinkyhatespink and once again I apologize for the amount of time it’s taken me to reply. However, I hope that you’ll find this response answered your question and, if not, that some of the articles and posts from other pro-Snape bloggers I linked you to will be able to do so more effectively. Also, as a final note, although many of the scholarly references and books on queer coding and queering of the villain I would have liked to have sourced are typically behind paywalls, I thought I would list the names of just a few here that I personally enjoyed reading in the past and that may be of further interest should you be able to find access to them.

Fathallah, Judith. “Moriarty’s Ghost: Or the Queer Disruption of the BBC’s Sherlock.” Television & New Media, vol. 16, no. 5, 2014, p. 490-500.

Huber, Sandra. “Villains, Ghosts, and Roses, or How to Speak With The Dead.” Open Cultural Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, 2019, p. 15-25.

Mailer, Norman. “The Homosexual Villain.” 1955. Mind of an Outlaw: Selected Essays, edited by Sipiora Phillip, Random House, 2013, pp. 14–20.

Solis, Nicole Eschen. "Murder Most Queer: The Homicidal Homosexual in the American Theater." Queer Studies in Media & Pop Culture, vol. 1, no. 1, 2016, p. 115+.

Tuhkanen, Mikko. “The Essentialist Villain.” Jan. 2019, SBN13: 978-1-4384-6966-9

#severus snape #pro snape #snape discourse #snape meta #snapedom #snape community #queer theory

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timeagainreviews · 4 years

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My Series 10 Rewatch: The Husbands of River Song

One of the beautiful aspects of starting this blog has been the opportunity to revisit old episodes. The title of this blog "Time and Time Again," isn’t just a reference both to Twin Peaks and Doctor Who, but also a raison d'être. The hope is that repeat viewings will bring forth new insights. Things I loathed previously may seem charming in hindsight. Things I initially adored may begin to show cracks in their facade. Some records take a few listens until we discover their greatness. Sometimes art requires consideration.

I mention this because our first review for the series 10 retrospective is for "The Husbands of River Song," an episode of which I detested. It's important to give this context as my opinion of it has indeed mellowed over time. I will endeavour to highlight this shift in perspective as memory permits. Before the other day, I hadn't watched this episode since it first aired on Christmas of 2015. What then can nearly half a decade add to the experience?

It should be noted that I have never been a big fan of Doctor Who Christmas specials. It would be quicker to count the reasons I like them, or in this case, the reason. That being, it's more Doctor Who. Other than that, I find the whole Christmas theme to be hokey. Growing up, I was a Halloween kid. I really don't like Christmas all that much, so an entire episode themed around it is not my idea of a good time. Even worse is when the villains themselves have Christmassy gimmicks like Santa robots or evil snowmen. I suppose in some ways, it's in the Christmas spirit for the Doctor to die and regenerate on Christmas, as they so often do. The concept of birth and renewal are a big part of the holiday. But if I was known to die a lot on Christmas, I might use my time machine to skip it every year.

Landing his TARDIS on Christmas Day, in the year 5343 is Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor. The planet, Mendorax Dellora, is one of Steven Moffat's usual Christmas village planets, stuck somewhere in a vortex of quaint sentiment. The Doctor appears to have about as much Christmas spirit as I do. Having just lost Clara both in spirit and memory, he's reverted to the Doctor's most worrisome state- hermitic and bitter. Not even the TARDIS' holographically generated reindeer antlers can bring out the holiday cheer. It's a visit from Nardole, a nebbish sort of man, that brings the Doctor out of his slump. Mistaking him for a surgeon, he leads the Doctor to what appears to be a crash-landed saucer. The obscene redness of its exterior against the plain backdrop gave me the strangest pangs of the circus tent from "Killer Klowns from Outer Space." Just throwing that out there.

From the outset, Peter Capaldi is at his most charming. I've never actually covered a Twelfth Doctor story before now, so I would like to mention how much I adore his performance as the Doctor. I know he gets a lot of flack from certain fans (see: dipshit morons with no class), but I think he's brilliant. Right away his banter with Nardole is apparent. It's easy to see why someone may have watched Capaldi and Matt Lucas interacting and thought "There's something here." Lucas' history in comedy gives him great timing as the foil to the Twelfth Doctor's eccentricity.

However, it won't be Nardole filling the role of co-star for long. As the Doctor enters the ship of King Hydroflax, he is greeted by the familiar face of River Song. As I have mentioned previously, I have issues with the way River's story plays out, but by this point in the show, I had grown to love her. Which is why this episode pains me so much. The problems inherent in having the Doctor and River's relationship play out like two ships in the night are at their worst in this episode, but I'll get to that in due time.

The King Hydroflax, played with great relish by Greg Davies is a mere head atop a giant robot body, painted in the same garish red as the flying saucer. River, acting very unlike herself, is practically prostrating herself in front of the vain king. Furthermore, she doesn't seem to recognise the Doctor's new face at all. Even more disturbing to the Doctor is the fact that River appears to be married to the king tyrant, talking about him as some sort of cherished lover. After analysing his new patient, the Doctor discovers a foreign body lodged into Hydroflax's skull. All the while, the king's loyal subjects watch a live feed of the operation, booing the Doctor when he refuses to placate the ego of their leader. It's an idea that has become painfully more believable in the years since airing.

The Doctor and River go into another room of the ship where River explains that the foreign body is, in fact, the most valuable diamond in the universe known as the Halassi Androvar. Somewhat to the Doctor's relief, he discovers that River's love for the king has been a ruse to recover the diamond for the Halassi people, from whom it was stolen. Much like the Doctor has turned into a bitter hermit, loneliness has brought out River's more sadistic nature as she takes to the idea of killing Hyrdroflax for the diamond in stride. Less enthusiastic of the idea than even the Doctor is the emperor himself, who has somehow managed to eavesdrop on two Time Lords while walking around in a massive robotic body. This kind of logic will continue throughout the night.

The king is much displeased with learning that his new wife is some renegade archaeologist with a sonic trowel. Taunting the pair, he removes his head from his robot body, leading River to improvise. Holding his head hostage at trowelpoint, River improvises and takes the entire head in a duffel bag. River's other husband, a beautiful but submissive man named Ramone, teleports her and the Doctor to safety with the head in tow. Meanwhile, Hyrdoflax's body sets about taking on a new head in the form of poor Nardole. It’s worth noting that River wiping Ramone’s mind of any knowledge that they were married is a bit creepy. There are implications involved that kind of gross me out.

The Doctor, having just met Ramone, is taken aback after having met yet another of River's husbands. Beginning to feel like a bit of an afterthought the Doctor takes small potshots at River's sense of loyalty, while also fishing for clues that he may or may not have ever meant something to her. For all this episode does to highlight the Doctor and River's secret feelings for one another, it does a piss poor job of actually staying true to River's character in one key manner. Throughout a majority of the episode, River fails repeatedly to recognise the Doctor for who he is.

Moffat tries somewhat to cover his tracks by making it look as though River only knows of twelve previous regenerations, including the War Doctor. In what looks like one of the cheapest props of the episode, she even has a little fold-out wallet with all of the Doctors' pictures. Knowing that the Eleventh Doctor was the end of his regeneration cycle, she never even considers the idea that the Doctor may have lived on. Even though toward the end of the episode, she remarks that the Doctor always finds a way to cheat fate, she wholeheartedly buys into the idea that the Doctor would just never regenerate beyond the Eleventh Doctor. In a single episode, not even River's own logic believes River's own logic.

Learning that River sometimes shows up to places he's been long enough to take the TARDIS for a joyride, the Doctor is given a chance to act as a bit of a spectator in his own life. There is a definite bit of glee to be found in the Twelfth Doctor's over the top reaction to his own TARDIS. Finally being able to say "It's bigger on the inside," the Doctor savours the moment to great comical effect. Ramone parts ways to he and River's pre-established rendezvous point. However, he is cut short by the giant robot body holding a gun to Nardole's head. Poor Nardole, he's having such a rough go of things. First, he brings the wrong surgeon, then he loses his body, and now he's being held hostage by his new body. The robot’s only demand is that Ramone send a message to River.

River, as always, is quite at home in the TARDIS, even taking a moment to raid the liquor cabinet of which not even the Doctor was aware. However, her flawless piloting of the TARDIS is thrown out of whack by unforeseen circumstances. Even after the Doctor deduces that the TARDIS won't fly while it senses the King's head and body are both inside and outside the TARDIS, River still doesn't grasp the fact that he is the Doctor. I would also like mention that while I found the TARDIS' failsafe to be a rather creative invention, it did immediately make me wonder about the Cyberhead Handles' body. What constitutes a body the TARDIS recognises? Could the Face of Boe fly in the TARDIS? Could Dorium Maldovar? Oh well, it doesn't really matter.

A knock on the TARDIS door from Ramone, now part of the robot, quickly reunites the head and body. However, for the third time in this episode, any action is immediately sidestepped by yet another person taking a disembodied head hostage. This time it's the Doctor threatening to throw Hydroflax's head down the garbage chute. Every chance this episode gets, it bravely avoids the perils of forming some sort of plot. The stakes have never been lower. The Doctor and River take the TARDIS to a restaurant aboard the starship Harmony and Redemption. Everyone onboard is some sort of war criminal or seedy individual, including the Maître d', a bug faced man named Flemming. After taking a seat in the restaurant, River reveals that she never planned on returning the diamond to the people of Halassi. Instead, she plans on selling it to the highest bidder.

The Doctor uses this moment to probe River for further information. River reads silently from her TARDIS diary. She reveals to the Doctor that the person who gave her the diary was the type of man who would know just how long a diary she would need. It's at this moment that the Doctor begins to see traces that River is very much still in love with him and that she may be a little lost without him. I would say this scene was touching if it weren't for the fact that it was undercut by River's inability to recognise the man sitting directly in front of her. It's so out of character for River to be this myopic. By this point in my initial watch through, I was so annoyed by this betrayal of her character that it took me out of the story completely. The second time around was only a little less irritating due to the fact that at least now I expected it.

River's buyer turns out to be Scratch, a very Moffatty body horror bad guy, in the vein of characters like Colony Sarff or the Headless Monks. After accepting River's price, Scratch opens his head like a coin purse and pulls out a little orb that connects to any bank in the universe. By this point, I've grown accustomed to Moffat's over the top exploits like this. It's feasible to imagine that Scratch's cruel master may have torn his head open to store money. It's like in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," when Humma Kavula removes a servant's nose to reveal a control pad that opens a series of draws tucked into his chest. However, it gets a bit far fetched when it is revealed that many other diners in the restaurant are the same species as Scratch and they all have the same scar across their faces. Is this some evolutionary trait? Are they a species so greedy that they evolved a place to squirrel away their money? Do they keep other stuff like car keys or bags of space weed? Not every bad guy needs to be a toy, Moffat!

The reason the patrons suddenly turn on the Doctor and River is that they discover the diamond is lodged within the head of their great leader. This brings up even more questions about their heads. Why doesn't Hydroflax’s head have the same scar? Are they the same species? How did this asshole even get so much power in the first place? There seems to be neither anything likable nor competent about him... oh right. Once again, the events of the years since have made this episode more believable. Dinner is even further interrupted by the King's body barging in, demanding its proper head. Only now it deems King Hydroflax's head unsuitable. Having been detached from his body for too long, the King's head is now dying. The body disintegrates the King's head, leaving behind the diamond. Flemming uses this opportunity to alert the patrons of the restaurant to the fact that River knows the perfect person to become the next head of state, so to speak. Of course, it's the Doctor.

Why Flemming knows River knows a Time Lord, but doesn't know she herself is a Time Lord is anyone's guess. Or maybe he knows and is just throwing shade by implying that the Doctor is a better Time Lord. It's at this moment that Alex Kingston is given one of her finest moments as River Song in the form of an emotional monologue. After arguing that the Doctor wouldn't be there with her because he doesn't care, it finally dons on her that the Doctor has been standing next to her the entire time. Despite the fact that Moffat sacrificed River's intelligence for the sake of a big reveal, the moment still resonates. Capaldi's warm gaze meeting River's expression of shock followed by his soft utterance of "Hello sweetie," is genuinely touching. No cynical sensationalism can undo the beautiful performances given by Capaldi and Kingston, who bring more gravity to the scene than the script.

For all of the hand-wavey tripe this episode heaps upon us, the way in which the Doctor and River escape this sticky situation is actually rather brilliant. In any other show, the appearance of a sudden freak meteor collision with the ship would seem convenient. But River is an archaeologist and a time traveller. She picked her meeting location perfectly- a starship about to be destroyed by meteors. Her line of "I'm an archaeologist from the future, I dug you up," is easily one of the best River Song lines ever written for Doctor Who. If this is truly her final episode, that's one hell of a line to go out on.

In another convenient moment, the diamond lands in River's dress as they're making their escape. I guess she planned that too. The Doctor uses Scratch's money orb to short circuit the robot body with its firewall. River and the Doctor run to the TARDIS while the ship crashes into the planet Darillium, knocking River unconscious. While River is out, the Doctor uses the opportunity to do a bit of time travelling. First, the Doctor gives the diamond to one of the crash's first responders, telling him to build a restaurant in front of the singing towers of Darillium. Then he jumps forward to a time when the restaurant has been built to make reservations. Then he jumps forward to the day of the reservation. River wakes up to find herself wandering into a beautiful restaurant on Christmas Day. Even Ramone and Nardole have survived due to some trickery on the Doctor’s behalf. Nardole is having a bit of “alone time,” which River remarks must be difficult as a head. That one goes up there with Ursula becoming a blowjob dispensing pavement stone at the end of “Love and Monsters.” The Doctor is waiting for River in a First Doctor style bow tie and coat. He treats her to a romantic meal and the gift of her own sonic screwdriver, the same sonic screwdriver she has when we met her in "Silence in the Library."

There's a nice little cap on the entire River storyline here that feels a bit more final than the one between her and the Eleventh Doctor. Perhaps it's the fact that it's the last time Moffat wrote her character, or perhaps it's because even River seems to know something is up. Having heard the legends of her own romance with the Doctor, River knows that her last night was spent with the Doctor on the planet Darillium. This is a bit of retconning that you often find in Doctor Who. River doesn't really know in her first appearance that she's headed toward her own demise, yet here she's all too aware of it. It's compounded by the fact that the Doctor reveals that a night on Darillium lasts 24 years. It's meant to be a sweet line that implies they got to spend a lot of time coupling together for 24 years, but it's really just 24 years for River to know, for certain, that she's going to her inevitable doom.

Retcons like these don't necessarily ruin the show. Storytellers shouldn't be forced to sacrifice the current narrative all for the sake of creating tidy bookends. Should Big Finish not put Peri and the Fifth Doctor in more adventures for fear that it may dilute the Doctor's sacrificing his own life for a woman he barely knows? Does him knowing her better make his sacrifice any less admirable? How about the many times River meets the Doctor in his previous forms even though the Tenth Doctor clearly had never met her in his life? I'm not going to answer these questions because they should be open-ended. It is a thing to consider in Doctor Who. If time is a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff, then maybe the storylines are allowed to be as malleable.

As I've demonstrated above, our own experiences with the stories can be malleable. I watched this episode with my boyfriend because I wanted to gauge his initial reaction. A lot of his reactions mirrored my own. We both found ourselves enjoying it as a light romp afforded by the air of a Christmas episode, while also deriding it for its lack of plot. Like myself, he too felt that the big reveal was detrimental to River's intelligence and went on past the point of acceptability. It's one of the oddest things about Steven Moffat as a writer, no matter how clever his ideas actually may be, he doesn't ever seem to know when his audience has caught on. Perhaps it's the suits at the BBC underestimating the audience. Or perhaps this is because he spent a lot of his life as a Doctor Who nerd, oftentimes feeling out of place when talking about Doctor Who to casuals. But the modern Doctor Who audience has been raised on science fiction and intricate narratives. No hand-holding necessary.

Regardless of how attuned he perceives his audience to be, River's realisation seems more slavishly timed to the climax of the story than anything else. One can't help but wonder if Moffat hadn't been so insistent on making this moment the crux of the episode, we may have actually gotten a more serviceable plot. Instead of heads held hostage and hand waving, we could have gotten a stronger villain. Scratch could have represented more than just some guy with a coin purse head. There are lots of fantastical elements on display, but none of them is ever given any gravity. Moffat's fixation on character relationships is so single-minded that it comes not only at the sake of plot, but character as well. It's unfortunate that despite Alex Kingston's greatest efforts, River's goodbye is undercut by one writer's need to be clever.

#Doctor Who #the husbands of river song #Twelfth Doctor #peter capaldi #River Song #Alex Kingston #nardole #matt lucas #greg davies #king hydroflax #bbc #tardis #steven moffat #christmas

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do-you-have-a-flag · 4 years

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I had the extreme good luck to go see the 2019 Opera Australia production of Gounod’s Faust yesterday and I Have Some Thoughts Though I Am But A Pleb

Overall: I had absurdly high expectations so coming out i was like “yeah it was a good production but i wish it destroyed me emotionally” and i don’t think that’s a language barrier issue because i’ve been wrung out by foreign language musicals in the past so it’s probably a mixture of familiarity with works inspired by this story and the actual direction of this production just not grabbing me.

It was still incredible theatre, (overview of the plot here) and good music is good music like i have no issue with the actual performances on a technical level....

but when the marketing campaign are all posters are like this

you can understand my frustrations that the operatic medium known for pushing it’s drama to grand heights, mostly played Mephistopheles as kind of straight forwardly wing-manning Faust to the point where this costume reveal doesn’t feel like it’s either shocking in a queer-coding villain way or subversive or even as glamorous as it could have been??? he just sits in it??

anyway I loved the opening of the hatted figure of mephistopheles just vibing and I have to admit that the whole play i was mentally making jokes like “inc*ll Faust makes pact with the devil to return to his former Chad youthfulness and Mephistopheles promises him he’ll make sure he gets his dick wet with any babe he wants and then they cuck the breeches role character” and this is chiefly because while i wanted to get sucked into the Drama of it all I probably enjoyed the performances of the supporting cast more... Also it’s a story where I just feel bad for the main female character because every single dude in this play is awful including her brother so she get the worst time

Love the nod to the historical Mephistopheles costume that Faust wore near the start,

love the transformation via magic make up mirror suitcase, love that when Mephistopheles appears at the end of Faust’s “I’m old this sucks wish i was young again devil help me!” song he rises out of a trapdoor, goes “Here I am!” and then coughs and waves away some of the smoke.

Love the song “Beer and Wine! Wine and Beer!” carousing of the soldiers as they prepare to go off to war, and the song where Mephistopheles is like “Let me sing too! MONEY FOR ALL!” but the drama of the sword breaking happens so quickly it’s easy to miss the action on stage but we do get

this great scene

anyway the cabaret infernal? very fun, love all the over the top flips and cartwheels, love the costumes

After the jewels in the chest song there’s the comedic quartet of romancing contrasted with Mephistopheles being like “this old lady doesn’t realise she’s literally hitting on the devil what do I do??” and all the romance songs besides those two were not helping me through my drowsiest part of the day before intermission

The soldiers returning from war to fanfare and patricotic lyrics being undercut by stretchers and crutches and bandages while they stand still on stage to perform it? [chef’s kiss] excellent interpretation good staging one of the only songs in the opera where the lack of motion on stage didn’t frustrate me because it felt motivated!

during Marguerite’s no good very bad love story after her brother duels her lover (who abandoned her when she got pregnant) and loses he has just enough time while bleeding out to slutshame her in front of everyone and die in her arms. Her hysterical laughter with his blood on her hands ass the crowd recoils? good drama good staging i was sad about it well done

Finally the scene of Walpurgis Night where Mephistopheles is like “it’s the feast of Queens and Courtesans!” and takes off his cloak to reveal the dress is a great sequence because Faust watches this ballet that starts off normal but the dancers start laughing and shrieking and grinding and perform a mockery of the events of the play

there’s a ballerina orgy that ends in the dramatisation of infant death and the last act where Faust must get Marguerite to come with him (to damnation) but she choses god instead and the big pipe organ that made up one wall of the set the entire play opens up with light and fog and an angel in a top hat appears, the angel and Mephistopheles tip hats to one another, Marguerite collapses as her soul is saved and Mephistopheles descends into the stage trapdoor he came from leaving an old Faust on the stage.

It was a very abrupt ending at that point and I’ve been thinking about how having very high expectations put a damper on things for me when i’m so used to theatre that tries to be subversive and emotionally wracking but what shined through was the music for me. I’m listening to a soundtrack of the opera as I write this and despite it being in french and me going from memory of yesterday the songs still distinctly communicate their scenes and the music itself is wonderful so my take away is Art is Good even when it’s not what I expected

#faust #long post

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shy-magpie · 4 years

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RQG 126

We lost two people in the literal sense, and the remaining team are out numbered 2 to 1 by former hostages who need to be seen to.

Wow poor Bryn sounds down, and Helen doesn't sound much better. I think that was fake crying but I don't think I ever heard him so low energy Alex! Neither deserved it Bryn: "You monster! I don't respect your craft" Einstein set up the room properly to receive them? Really impressively well. Did he have help? Azu jumps in with the sensible questions Alex shouldn't have set himself up, if he wanted sympathy today of all days Oh Veseek and Bi Ming looking for Sasha and Grizzop Helen yells at Alex for us Hamid is hugging Veseek and trying to reassure him Year and a half?! !WHAT!! -both Hamid & Azu Hamid is having an attack, which is a fair reaction Well that goes pretty far to explain how he got things set up Hamid is jumping right into how we fix this, Einstein is trying to gently tell him its not fixable Everyone is underground? What happened in the rest of the world? There's Azu to get things on track Einstein is trying to calm things down ~ Oh thank Artemis he isn't making us wait to find out what happened with Sasha and Grizzop. I saw the all too short cast list and thought we would have to wait until the side quest to find out! Alex barely has his scene description out before Bryn calls him "the worst, the actual worst" Helen is once again speaking for all of us Same room different time? Oh I have never been happier to hear Grizzop's voice! They are alive to take damage so I really don't care Ben don't remind him he needs to be creative in punishing you Yeah Sasha's gutter french is not going to cut it So did anyone notice them dropping into the room and will that cause problems? Ah too crowded for people to notice? "Only a 19" Sasha takes her skills for granted Grizzop would notch an arrow first thing even before getting off the floor OK Alex has gone 3rd person again so I will cut him a little slack since it shows he is only pretending to be a bond villain If we had to have 2 of the team in Ancient Rome, then there are no two I trust to adapt, survive, and cover each other's backs. Also my issues are showing but it sounds like Eldarian was left in the stone circle rather than showing up with them, which is frankly a relief even if she did have some useful skills. OK so they did see Sasha and are alarmed at Grizzop Racist Romans, this is why they get smote Good Grizzop checks with Sasha on how they want to play this Fair Grizzop, (anyone grabs him, he'll shoot) That's how you make sure the enemy stays down So they barely set foot in town before making an enemy of the rich, very in character Human only town, very quickly seeing the dragon's point in destroying the place Please can I have Sasha wrapping Grizzop in her cloak and passing him off as her child? Maybe carrying him like a tired toddler? Thank you, Alex ~ Einstein better talk over this meal. Oh he is, spill! Yeah yeah riots, possible possession, Thank you Azu, foreign occupation by who? OK whatever is possessing people is now in charge Down a(nother) Meritocrat and the rest are dithering. Does that make the possessed 9/10ths of the law? I could really learn to hate the Acast bells Ok so the weather thing isn't under their control Good questions Is Alex drawing to explain something on the audio only medium? Einstein had 18 months with nothing to do but prepare and worry, of course he has everything Why did I doubt Alex, of course this is really helpful Blue Veins, aren't curable, aren't obvious until later stages, paladins are vulnerable I refuse to be grateful to the Mars lot, even if they are helping for now Cairo is safe, Hamid's family is okay Poor Bi Ming is babbling worried, but answers are scarce So the main plot has been entirely abandoned or what? That doesn't feel like an Alex thing Wilde went off grid I am so proud of Einstein, he did such a great job Azu has to fill Hamid and the rest in on how we lost the other 3, my heart ~ Sasha is trying to wrap her mind around this So Artemis is here? They predate the Roman gods, after all Sasha to Grizzop: you'll just have to be my weird child Wow that's some complicated feelings as Grizzop explains about Eldarian Sasha is reduced to staring at the wall OK its canon, they beat Hades Grizzop would think that balances the new set of emotional baggage Sasha bounces back a little as she mentions the locals are easy to rob Oh Grizzop "I'll kill every single one of them" Sasha, honey you'll be ok, they'll be ok ~ Charming are we going to have the Salahs on our hands again or can we just leave them in jail? Yeah Veseek is close enough to Grizzop to be a hostage, so it tracks he would be game for vengeance Ed sweety, you don't have to fix it all, but are so welcome to join Poor Ishak, kid is holding up but that is in many ways more worrying than if he broke down. Not touching the twin part So what would Einstein consider a survival pack? Nice, our professor has hidden depths Hamid re:The mobile stones "they rock" We have a plan! ~ So does the paladin thing outweigh the goblin thing? Or is my boy about to get shot? Love it, you can spot the temple of Artemis by the arrow slits Cicero? Is a wanted man? Sasha uses her sign language to play charades with the Artemis guy. Lydia makes her case for it well. Of course the episode ends with an explosion and screaming Lydia sounds betrayed that this is the end of the recording session so she doesn't get to know what it was either. Thank you for that ending speech, Bryn. Might be more effective if you didn't sound so fond. Guess who stabs Cesar? I adore Lydia PS: Grizzop was right to tell Sasha what Eldarian did as soon as possible; letting her draw her own conclusions only to yank the rug out from under her latter would be worse. This does not change who Eldarian was. People like Eldarian often think that even their worst abuses are acts of love, even after being shown the harm it does their charges. Saying "this is for your own good" before you kick a puppy doesn't make you less of a puppy kicker. A grand act of self sacrifice appeals to the need to control the narrative.

#Rusty Quill Gaming #long post #RQG spoilers #RQG season 3 #live blog thingy #RQG 126

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quirkwizard · 4 years

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heya! ive been thinking about a magical girl bnha oc i guess? and like.. how would magical girls from lets say madoka magica translate into bnha as a quirk? the abilities would be heightened strength, speed, agility, reaction time, and regeneration. she would also be able to summon one weapon out of her soul gem (more on that soon), flight, and one ability unique to her (not decided on if id keep this or not). the downsides are similar to mm, the soul gem exists ! and if she feels like shes 1/2

not good enough or something, she would become corrupt and become a villain. shes also very disconnected from others and aloof- these were just some ideas but !! if you know a way to make it better/work id love to hear 🥺 tysm!! 2/2

SHOOT HI MADOKA MAGICA ANON AGAIN ok SO. if the soul gem is destroyed, she dies ! if the soul gem is too far from her, she’s “dead” but can be revived when it’s closer. also ! she only has one weapon (like a sword and that would be the only thing she can summon) sorry if you knew this stuff i just didnt wanna have to make you research the series if you didnt know ;w; ANYWYASSSS THANK YOU FOR READING love u! 3/2

Thank you. May you have a nice day as well.

I don’t think that could work. The issue here is that you are trying to adapt everything all at once. You are trying to put in every aspect of the ability in to the Quirk, and it just comes across as cluttered and unfocused. Not only because of the numerous abilities, most of which could make Quirks on their own except for the reviving one, but because you are trying to adapt the soul gem as well. On top of proving a soul exists, it is introducing something extremely foreign to the series without changing it in anyway. It would be like me trying to adapt Goku into the series, but still talk about Ki being part of his ability even though it is a completely different system of power and nothing in the series even implies something like that could exist.

But if you want to adapt something, try focusing in on a single ability and try making a Quirk out of that. If you want to include the physical aspects, your character to always train to become better physically. If not, I already did something related to magical girls before, you may find it here.

#My Hero Academia #Quirks #Quirk Reviews

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muthaz-rapapa · 5 years

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StarPre Ep 5: Mihoshi’s Moon

Alrighty then, the setup for Madoka’s character arc has now been established and we got a nice start off on her development with her induction into the StarTwi group.

So let’s get to it.

Madoka comes from an esteemed lineage, her father is some big-shot government official, her mother is a world-renowned pianist, she’s good at almost everything.

Right, the Ojou and an uptight one as well. Don’t worry, we’ve dealt with that before and we’re gonna tackle it again with Madoka no sweat.

Right off the bat, it’s clear the issue here isn’t so much with the Kaguya family as it is with the way her father, the current head, insists on how things should be done.

Granted, like those who descend from “noble” or old name lines, he was probably raised through exceedingly strict decorum as well. Which explains the tiger parenting methods he all be enforces on Madoka.

At some point, he’ll claim that he was doing it for her benefit. That he intended to bring Madoka up the “right” way.

But it’s blatantly apparent that’s not true.

His intentions are severely misplaced in that everything Madoka does and succeeds at, it’s all for the sake of the Kaguya family. Not herself.

From getting the top grades at school to becoming student council president to excelling in every kind of refined sophistication out there, etc.

These were not choices she made on her own. These were choices her father decided for her, likely from the day she was born.

So he’s not so much raising his child as he is grooming his progeny.

And in his eyes, his progeny, a member of the esteemed Kaguya family, cannot be anything but perfect.

In order to ensure that, he monitors everything she does and thinks to an alarming and disturbing degree.

“Don’t keep secrets from me.”

“Don’t think about silly things outside what I told you.”

“Do exactly as I say.”

Now does that sound like a healthy relationship between parent and child to you?

No, right?

The sad thing is, since she’s been raised like this since birth, Madoka doesn’t see how incorrect this upbringing is (yet). For Madoka, her father has always been the absolute which is why she has great difficulty separating herself from him.

Her father grilled into her a nature where she would always defer to his order.

This is why, in all her interactions with the other girls in this episode, she always refers back to her father.

“I can’t do this or allow you to do this because daddy said so”

It’s not a matter of right and wrong with Madoka. It’s a matter of what her father would think.

Madoka pretty much, up till becoming Precure, had zero independence. She could not act on her own accord, she could not think for herself even though she had every power to because she always thought everything revolved around what her father instructed her to follow.

That’s why she hesitated when Hikaru asked her the armor-piercing question.

What does she want to do?

The idea of Madoka having her own opinion and making her own decisions for once is so foreign to her that it slammed the brakes on her usual, practiced eloquence (read: immediately report to daddy) and pushed her to think outside the restrictive box her father constructed for her.

Because despite her papa-centric mentality, the obligation she feels to inform him about these three aliens she found living in the forest and her initial refusal to hear their story out...

...interacting with Fuwa two times started giving her second thoughts.

Clearly, it’s not like Madoka wanted to harm Fuwa or anything and it’s not like it made her happy to report to her father about their existence (you notice she frowns a lot whenever he’s brought up in conversation and that’s not just because she’s being serious about the matter). If anything, she was just following protocol like any obedient daughter law-abiding citizen would.

But then she’s told by the other girls that they’re protecting Fuwa because she’s being targeted by bad people aliens.

And she knows that if Fuwa, Lala and Prunce are handed over to her father, there’s no guarantee they’ll be treated any better than what the bad guys intend to do to them. you can’t trust the government after all :P

The point of matter is this. Madoka isn’t stuck between a rock and a hard place. It might feel like she is, but in reality, it’s not that complicated.

Not telling her father about the aliens? Ok, that’s bad.

But letting harm come to Fuwa, the girls and Prunce, whether it be at the hands of the villains or the government, when they technically haven’t done anything egregiously wrong yet and came to Earth asking for help? That’s WORSE.

With that, the right answer becomes clear which then allows Madoka to become Precure to do what she must do. What she knows it’s the right thing to do: protect the people around her.

And y’know, I might be painting Madoka’s dad to be more of a close-minded, overbearing asshat than he really is (I don’t think so but you’re free to disagree)...

...but I really don’t like his attitude or him as a person in general.

I mean, yea, as a leader of many, he has to behave firmly and possess an unyielding focus. That is what makes an effective leader, after all.

But there’s also an unpleasant elitist vibe coming off him, too.

Again, probably because of his own upbringing so it’s not entirely his fault that he’s this way but...he’s still to blame for trying to control every aspect of Madoka’s life and turn it into a carbon copy of his own (maybe?), regardless of his intentions.

That said, it’s true not everything he taught Madoka was wrong.

It’s just that Madoka needs to find her own path on getting where she wants to be.

He can’t direct and choose them for her. She has to do it herself.

And if her debut as Selene is anything to go by, she’s going to come around to that eventually. Learning how to think for herself and not by the guidelines set by her father. Learning how to interpret the situation and act accordingly to what she believes is right instead of relaying every single thing back to her father and waiting for his order.

Just learning to be independent from him.

And once she does, I suspect it’ll be hard (family conflicts tend to be) but also very liberating and empowering all the same.

Especially considering the difference that sets Madoka apart from her father.

He’s so concerned with leading the masses that it appears he lost the ability to empathize with people. It’s always work, rules, work, rules, work, rules for him.

Madoka hasn’t reached his grand scale level yet (duh, she’s only in middle school) but at the moment, she still has the heart to listen and help those in need.

This is essentially, what I believe, will allow her to surpass her father and become an even greater person, a greater leader, that even he never would’ve imagined.

But again, it’s going to be a slow progress.

Madoka is still very attached to her father, after all (she wears guilt like a giant chain around her neck, omg) and her current main motivation for becoming a Cure is to help Lala and the mascots get off Earth and back to their own planet as soon as possible so that they won’t come into conflict with the authorities.

HA! Like that will happen. We still got 45-ish episodes to go, who you kiddin’?

*coughs* Anyway, looking forward to further analyzing Madoka’s growth. :)

Now make sure to give Elena’s arc just as much substance, pleeeeeaaasssseee

#yep Madoka is the staff's favorite alright #just from her debut ep you can expect lots of development from her down the road #lol if you thought Lala was inflexible then that doesn't compare to Madoka #star twinkle precure #cure selene #kaguya madoka

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dotsonabrahamsen63-blog · 5 years

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Remembering Stan Lee: The Amazing Origin Story Of The Marvel Comics Scribe

Strangely enough, Lee said he would cast himself as the opposite of all that in his own imagination, drawing a comparison to the cynical, Stan Lee Thank You For The Memories Shirt uncompromising newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson. “I’m very frustrated that by the time they made the movie I was too old to play the role,” Lee said. “I modeled him after me. He was dumb and loudmouthed and opinionated. Of all the characters he helped create, Peter Parker remained his favorite. “In a way Spider-Man is more special than the others,” he said. What made him Lee’s favorite? “Nothing ever goes right for Peter. I think for most people in the world, nothing ever goes right. He hates people he’s never seen — people he’s never known — with equal intensity — with equal venom. “Now, we’re not trying to say it’s unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race — to despise an entire nation — to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of God ― a God who calls us ALL ― His children. 2.99. Available in North America and Europe. Oscorp Search & Destroy Pack - In The Amazing Spider-Manvideo game, Spider-Man has his own smartphone to help navigate around Manhattan, locate missions and challenges and fight crime. With this pack, Spider-Man's smartphone will feature two mini-games inspired by classic arcade fun. 2.99. Available in North America and Europe. Lizard Rampage Pack - The notorious Lizard is on the loose again in Manhattan! Take on the role of Dr. Connors' terrifying alter ego in a race against time. Go berserk through the streets using his devastating stomp attack and tail swipe to defeat Oscorp guards and earn mega points.

Lee knew his work was different, proudly noting that stories were drawn out over several issues not to make money but to better develop characters, situations and themes. He didn’t neglect his villains, either. One, the Moleman, went bad when he was ostracized because of his appearance, Lee wrote, adding it was “almost unheard of in a comic book” to explain why a character was what he was. Lee’s direct influence faded in the 1970s as he gave up some of his editorial duties at Marvel. But with his trademark white mustache and tinted sunglasses, he was the industry’s most recognizable figure. The Amazing Spider-Man is getting a whole bunch of DLC today, including a few different packs that will have you playing as people other than the titular wall-crawler. The Lizard Rampage pack will open up a level where you play as the Lizard, along with a new Spidey suit to wear. 49.99 on Steam, including complete integration with Steam achievements. A Nintendo 3DS demo is also now available in the Nintendo eShop. Rhino Challenge Pack - Take control of the massive, genetically engineered villain Rhino and rampage around Manhattan in an exclusive gameplay challenge of pure destruction! As Rhino, players will be able to unleash his formidable powers to destroy anything and everything in his path in a timed event full of speed, combo streaks, and of course, a ton of things to break! The Associated Press in a 2006 interview. Lee considered the comic-book medium an art form and he was prolific: By some accounts, he came up with a new comic book every day for 10 years. He hit his stride in the 1960s when he brought the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man and numerous others to life. His heroes, meanwhile, were a far cry from virtuous do-gooders such as rival DC Comics' Superman. The Fantastic Four fought with each other. Spider-Man was goaded into superhero work by his alter ego, Peter Parker, who suffered from unrequited crushes, money problems and dandruff.

XXX in the world of comic books were awesome. I happen to think they’re not exactly what a lot of people think but I don’t doubt their size and endurance. I knew him since 1970, worked for him a few times, talked with him at length and fielded an awful lot of phone calls from him asking me questions about comic books he worked on. He really did have a bad memory, if not when he first started telling people he had a bad memory, then certainly later on as he turned more and more into the Stan Lee character he’d created for himself. That’s all I’m going to write now. That’s where it begins and ends with me. To those of us who have been so deeply affected by the humanity of his imagination, the understanding of reaching beyond our potential and the necessity of tapping into our immeasurable imaginations, we thank you and are forever indebted. Rest In Peace Dear Stan. You made our time here a better one. What a man. What a life. When I first broke into Hollywood, he welcomed me with open arms and some very sage advice I’ll forever take to heart. A true icon who impacted generations around the world. Rest in love, my friend. I have to say I am deeply touched by the passing of Stan Lee… I always looked forward to seeing his cameo parts in all his great movies. 1 - Maybe you haven’t noticed, but there is a spiritual quality in all the Stan Lee movies… always the good guys win. Eventually, not always right away, but eventually. And his movies most of the time ended on an upbeat thought… that allowed us to ponder our existence. 2 - Stan Lee was also a man who could have been a musician but he was not good at music at all.

Legendary Marvel Comics co-creator Stan Lee — famous for giving the world beloved superheroes including Spider-Man, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk — died Monday. According to TMZ, Lee suffered a number of illnesses over the last year, including pneumonia. His daughter J.C. told the site, “My father loved all of his fans. Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber to Romanian-born Jewish immigrants in New York City, spending much of his early life in Washington Heights. He returned to Timely Comics in 1945 and married wife Joan two years later. In 1950, Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman tasked Lee with creating a new superhero team to rival DC Comics’ Justice League. “Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them — to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater — one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, he’s down on ALL foreigners. Stan Lee, the comic book mastermind who changed the landscape of the superhero genre, has died at age 95. Lee revolutionized the comic world by creating Marvel Comics superheroes such as Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk. An attorney for Lee's daughter, J.C. Lee, said the creative dynamo who revolutionized the comic world by introducing human frailties in superheroes such as Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk, was declared dead Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. In a statement to Fox News Shane Duffy, CEO of Stan Lee’s POW! I think everybody loves things that are bigger than life. I think of them as fairy tales for grown-ups," he told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview. "We all grew up with giants and ogres and witches. Well, you get a little bit older and you're too old to read fairy tales.

How long would this superhero movie thing last? He didn’t know. He was glad to be along for the ride. Happy to see the old characters he helped create being brought to life onscreen. We began talking about the origin of Spider-Man, born in 1962 after a string of other successes had made Stan Lee a powerhouse scribe at Marvel Comics. He had started working there when he was 17. Back then, Marvel Comics was known as Timely Comics, and he was known as Stanley Lieber, son of Jewish Romanian immigrants from the Bronx. His dream was to become a writer. But before any of that could happen, he earned cash by working a series of small jobs. As a theater usher, his first claim to fame was tripping and falling while showing Eleanor Roosevelt to her seat. “Are you all right, young man? Remember, this was six years before Iron Man and the launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The films were not yet interconnected, not that there were many to string together. Stan Lee cameos were not yet a phenomenon. He had played a beachside hotdog vendor in the X-Men film. That was it. (“You missed me?” he teased. “I was like the lead of the movie! ] idea was, I was selling sunglasses in Times Square and I was talking to this little girl, showing her a pair of glasses as Peter Parker walks by,” Lee recounted in his gruff, nasally voice. Think about the incredible characters that derived from the mind of this man. Iron Man, the X-Men, Thor, Daredevil and Dr. Strange. These are characters everyone knows and loves. Look at this list of Stan Lee's creations and think about which ones have gone onto success in other media as well as had very successful runs in comics. Every single one of them almost. Granted, a lot of that success is due to the efforts and contributions of those writers and artists who developed the characters through the years. But Stan Lee's fingerprint is on each and every one of them and will always be seen and felt. Can you name one single creator in comics that has contributed as much in terms of longevity, creativity and uniqueness? You can't because there are none. There are plenty of creators that have made great contributions and have written or drawn amazing characters and stories. But none can say they changed the face of the industry quite like Stan Lee can. No matter what happens from this day forward; no matter what superstar creators land at the Big Two. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics' own living legend, stands head and shoulders above the rest. LOS ANGELES (AP) — Stan Lee, the creative dynamo who revolutionized the comic book and helped make billions for Hollywood by introducing human frailties in Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk, died Monday. Lee was declared dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to Kirk Schenck, an attorney for Lee’s daughter, J.C. As the top writer at Marvel Comics and later as its publisher, Lee was widely considered the architect of the contemporary comic book. He revived the industry in the 1960s by offering the costumes and action craved by younger readers while insisting on sophisticated plots, college-level dialogue, satire, science fiction, even philosophy.

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athicfa · 3 years

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Reading the wiki to try to understand what I read the other day and I just want to take this opportunity to point out why I DON’T vibe with this storyline anymore.

Everything up through the Dr. Strange stuff and the Sabretooth attack was GREAT but it all went downhill when they had Felicia join the Foreigner and I can’t even wait until I finish the whole arc to tell you why none of this sits well with me. Buckle up because it’s a bit lengthy.

Synopsis straight from the wiki:

The Black Cat updated her look and her attitude and rekindled her relationship with Spider-Man. She made peace with his need for a normal life as Peter Parker and stood by him while he was being accused of murder as Spider-Man.

Together they tracked down the source of the elaborate scheme to frame him and fought the mercenary known as the Foreigner. Eventually, just as his life seemed to be coming together, Spider-Man came home to discover Black Cat discussing her plans to ruin his life. He followed her to find she had never forgiven him for breaking up with her and in revenge became the Foreigner's lover.

Yet, during her ruse and despite her anger, Felicia began to fall back in love with Peter. In the end, the Black Cat double crossed the Foreigner and left for Europe to find a new life, which unexpectedly pushed Peter to find support and a new relationship with Mary Jane Watson.

Months later, the Black Cat returned to America to seek out Peter Parker and was devastated when informed by Venom that Peter had married Mary Jane Watson. Angry and jealous, Felicia began harassing the couple, physically threatening Mary Jane and taunting Peter as she dated his friend Flash Thompson. The Black Cat eventually moved past her feelings of anger and jealousy, and became friends with both Spider-Man and Mary Jane.

*sighs*

okay first of all

I will never be able to accept the notion that Felicia Hardy would EVER want to actively seek to hurt Peter Parker. I know they write her like this A LOT in future comics but I cannot stress enough how far this strays from her original characterization. And not in the name of character development, either, because Felicia’s unwillingness to hurt Peter came from character development in the first place. It came from their relationship and her falling in love with him, and they make a point of pointing out several times how she still has a soft spot for him after their break up. Even when he hurt her, intentionally or no, she was never able to bring herself to do the same in return. So much conflict after their break-up came from the idea Peter had that she was trying to hurt him, but the hook was always she NEVER did.

They make it clear to us, the readers, that there is no way she would do this, but Peter doesn’t have that knowledge, thus the conflict and the tension of us having knowledge that our protagonist doesn’t have. We know he’s making the wrong choices, but we can’t get too angry at our hero because we KNOW that HE doesn’t know WHY his choices are wrong. We see these choices hurt Felicia, but HE doesn’t know that it’s happening. Because that’s something only someone from our perspective as the quasi-omniscient reader can know. And this was a really effective narrative technique imo because it created SO MUCH tension.

But skip forward a few issues, and all of that knowledge that they so carefully crafted and presented for us to use as our foundation for this arc is suddenly WORTHLESS. There’s no more tension around whether or not Felicia would actually cause these things to happen to Peter, because out of nowhere she’s suddenly flipped and wants to ruin his life.

So, devil’s advocate, say we accept that Felicia’s out to ruin Peter’s life now. Then WHY would she stand by him for so long and go to such great lengths to help him UNFUCK his life? He gets accused of murder, which should be all she needs to grind the salt into the wound as she supposedly wants to, yet she defends him? She plays the long con, actively working AGAINST her own primary objective to maintain a ruse? A ruse that becomes so shaky that they’ve legitimately confused me about her true motivations at present? She just almost took a spray of bullets for the man she says she wants to ruin for the SECOND time. She’s defending him from his detractors. She’s fighting for his privacy and comfort. And you’re telling me she wants to actually ruin him???

All we get that shows that this is a ruse and she wants to ruin his life are these vague moments of plotting with the Foreigner, but she doesn’t do shit to actually bring these plans to fruition (that they’ve shown us thus far). Peter only figures her ruse out when he overhears her plotting, which is the shittiest way to reveal a betrayal in a narrative honestly.

She falls back in love with Peter, which is quite obvious, and betrays the Foreigner during the climax. But how can that be your climax when she has done nothing but interfere in the Foreigner’s schemes against Peter thus far? Schemes she’s SUPPOSEDLY in on, yet she almost dies SEVERAL times to stop them. They tell us her “true” intentions in these plotting scenes, yet none of it ever comes through in her actions. EVER. It’s to the point where it’s creating confusion for me, because the narrative is split into two super conflicting plotlines where you don’t know what’s the truth and what’s not, and NOT in the fun mystery way.

Anyway, skip ahead a bit more and she leaves for Europe to start a new life, then apparently comes back, finds out Peter and MJ have gotten married, then gets angry and starts harassing them? Fucking WHAT? SHE LEFT! SHE WAS DONE WITH THEM! Did she get fucking amnesia in Europe or something? Why come back and be angry and harass them when SHE was the one who left, right when she had a chance to reset with Peter BEFORE he got back with MJ? I truly cannot understand the absolute hoops they’re trying to jump through to bring Felicia back as a villain and pit her against MJ. It’s ridiculous. She left Peter because she thought he’d be happier without her. The sudden attitude change makes no sense AT ALL.

I’m not even at this arc yet, but let me preemptively correct it in one sentence and make it what should have REALLY happened in the first place.

“The Black Cat eventually moved past her feelings of anger and jealousy, and became friends with both Spider-Man and Mary Jane.”

Done. Omit the nonsense. Let them be friends and move on. Stop ignoring your own canon / Felicia’s characterization whenever you feel like making her a villain Marvel I’m begging you. I don’t care if this was the 80′s, Marvel has a track record and while I love the current Black Cat run, I’m scared they’ll do this to her again when they pull her into other series. Because they KEEP doing it to her and will never stop apparently.

Other little things I have issues with but don’t warrant as much addressing atm:

Her “romance” with Foreigner was random and pointless. Not a healthy relationship either, considering she was pressured into working for him through acts of violence. It was literally join him or die. Doubt she’d sleep with a creep like that.

The idea of her romancing Flash is just so weird to me. He’s not her type at all, and I feel like she was just with him to get back at Peter, which again is bullshit.

Now that I think of it they really just keep shoving her off in random romances built out of spite which isn’t Felicia’s vibe AT ALL

Feels like they tried to shove her into the same misogynisic “desperate sexpot villainess” and “crazy ex girlfriend” tropes every single time they try to write her as a villain and constantly have her and MJ be awful to each other for no reason so Thanks I Hate It

tl;dr I’m sure absolutely none of this makes sense because it’s all adhd brain rambles but just know that this is the second multi-year arc in a row featuring Black Cat in the 70′s / 80′s Spidey comics that started beautifully and then crashed and burned the moment they decided to derail Felicia Hardy’s character and I’m so disappointed

#[comic commentary]#long post tw #gonna hop on the bandwagon with that one fan that sent that letter and blame Peter David #I'm kidding idk who's responsible for this but I just wanna have a talk...

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story-monger · 6 years

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Hi! Another Wolf 359 fan here. I've seen your post about wanting to make your own podcast (good luck!) and now I'm curious what those 5 things you didn't like are? Because I have some critisim too and I wonder if it's the same.

Hey! Thanks for the encouragement haha; we’ll see if it goes anywhere. But yea, as far as issues, I’ll list out a few things:

1. So yesterday i was way more worked up about this, but I’m still very eh on the ending with the amnesia. I forget who it was, but someone put it really well by saying that we needed some sort of in canon hint that Eiffel was still Eiffel, that some fundamental part of him was there and/or could come back. Because otherwise all that character development we witnessed for four seasons feels sort of…unfulfilled. Like, I can imagine a way that Eiffel returns to himself, but I’d prefer if they had included that seed in canon. Stories need some version of a happy ending. And this almost kinda missed it, imo. I get it, making people hurt through fiction is fun and all, but there’s lines. There’s a quote about this, but fiction’s first mission is to comfort and entertain. You gotta hit that otherwise there’s no point

2. I think this might just be a matter of my personal preferences, but I was expecting way more from the aliens! Honestly, the idea of learning how to contact a completely foreign being is my jam, and we were doing awesome on that front up until mid-season four. Then Eiffel had his meeting with Bob, and then Pryce and Cutter showed up and I was like “cool, we’ve established this thing with the aliens, now come the human big bads, now we wait for the aliens and P&C to meet and there will be some MASSIVELY interesting interactions there” And then…P&C had their exact same dynamic with Bob that they have with every other character. Like, laughing and being oh so clever. And that…didn’t make much sense to me. Not that i needed the aliens to kick their asses like they did with Kepler. I think it would have been awesome if P&C and Bob had been pretty evenly matched, but come on. It’s aliens. That conversation should have been way way wierder. And Bob can die; that’s fine. But…..then what? There are no repercussions for that? Idk, the aliens were the looming presence of the whole show and then they kind of…didn’t really matter at the end? Why?

3. Jumping off that point, Pryce sits a little off with me, if only because every other villain is so fucking fantastic. I’m not usually a big fan of appreciating villains, but *man* w359 made me care about and have wildly interesting feelings for every single villain. Except pryce. Which is a massive shame because she’s obviously the top dog and fascinating. I wish we could have gotten a better sense of her backstory, which the finale touched on, but it would have been great to have that fleshed out. And this might sound wierd but i think a way to make her as dynamic as the other w359 villains would have been to inject some moments of humor around her. I think humor is a massively interesting, powerful way for us to understand characters. What do they do or say that makes us laugh? Is it the horrified kind of laughing? Why do we find it funny? And I think one of the things w359 is so excellent on is its use of humor, and I wish they’d extended that to Pryce more. All the other villains had their moments where they brought us genuine delight, even if it was horrified delight, and I really really wanted that from Pryce. I found her a little flat instead. Standard evil misanthrope. I wanted a better sense of what made her tick

4. Season 4 overall felt a little off to me. Which is a shame because the opener was STELLAR, i mean, definitely top three episodes. And the first half was very good, with them trying to think their way through what the aliens want and having bucketloads of interesting, developing conversations. Like, things were primo. And then when Pryce and Cutter showed up, it’s like the pace started stutterin, imo, and it was all action and not enough introspection, i think. I wish they could have taken some of the wonderful character moments from first half and spread it into the second half. I would have made things feel less lopsided. We came back to meaningful character moments with the finale, which is awesome, but I could have done with more of that in the 5-6 episodes before

5. This is just general beef i have with a lot of media, but as someone getting a graduate degree in a scientific field, I kinda wish the show had had better representation of scientists. All the scientists here were evil and morally off, and it always rubs me the wrong way. Scientists aren’t morally corrupt just because we like to be driven by logic. I find massive wells of comfort and humanity in my scientific understanding of the world, and I always cringe when all scientists are protrayed as, like, unable to be compassionate and having no clue how to communicate well and always talking in that stupid science babble that no one understands. One of my most hated phrases is “ok, say that again in English.” (We know when we’re talking to people who don’t get what we’re researching. We can explain it in more layman terms. Like, that’s a skill many of us have, thanks.) Hera is kind of an exception; she’s very smart and understands science well and that’s not portrayed as a bad thing at all. And Maxwell’s image softened after her death, with her working to understand non humans. But still. I almost always want scientists to be portrayed more as, you know, moral and caring beings. ‘Cause most of us are, in fact, moral and caring beings

I think that covers most of it. lol i feel a little bad cause i feel sort of whiny writing all this. (I might need to make another list about all the things they did right). But the rest of this show has been so, so excellent, that the mistakes sort of stand out lol. But really. W359 has put a bucketload of gasoline on my creative drive, and it’s made some beautiful statements on humanity and identity and our place in the universe and how we understand and love other people. And goddamn, it knows how to be funny. That’s one of the things I always appreciate, when a story knows how to make you laugh and laugh at itself and that was so important to me. And it knows how to be terrifying! That’s excellent too! The characters are dynamic and fascinating and have room to talk to each other about their feelings. The music and sound design and acting are all to die for. I just. This podcast has been so important to me. Vital, even. And when you know and care about a story that much, you end up doing some nitpicking. *shrug*

Anyway, that turned into a whole essay. Let me know what your criticisms are? I’m curious. (Also, i hope it’s okay i posted this. I kind of want to keep this for future reference.)

#wolf 359 #in which questions are answered #wolf 359 spoilers

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cryptoriawebb · 6 years

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1, 2, 6, 12, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 30 for top 3s

Ask My Top 3sI really don’t think these are all finalized answers buuut here ya go

1: Top 3 heroes/protagonistsSo this one was super hard to narrow down…I’m gonna split it up between live action and cartoonCharles XavierLogan/WolverineDoctor StrangeSunset ShimmerFrankie SteinElsaI’d love to throw the Doctor in there, too, but I’m not…sure…2: Top 3 villains/antagonists1) This is a tie between my own OC and Dorian Gray. I love anything involving the whole “beauty/innocence corrupt” thing, especially when done with such gothic/vintage flair.2) Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr, although I really don’t consider him a villain at this point…at least not the movie!version.3) Zira (Simba’s Pride. I don’t even care, she made a huge impression on me as a kid and even today she’s terrifying.)12: Top 3 fictional animals/petsI’m not actually big on fictional pets XD As much as I love dogs. When I think of “pets” I tend to think “Familiars” and I juuuust don’t care for those so much lol

15: Top 3 character backstories1) One of my own OCs ;) 2) can I give a threeway tie for Logan, Charles and Erik? I love all of their backstories, they’re all so heartbreaking.3) 18: Top 3 fictional worlds/universes1) One of my own universes~2) The MLP/Equestria Girls universe3) the XMCU universe (the human vs mutant issue and how very human it is)19: Top 3 animated series1) X-men: Evolution2) Equestria Girls3) Batman the Animated Series - I may not love it like I used to but WOW it made such an impact on me when I was younger and really stands out, even today.20: Top 3 live-action series1) LEGION2) The Munsters3) ScrubsI really need to go back to watching more TV…21: Top 3 animated movies1) Coraline2) Frozen3) Simba’s Pride (again, huge impact as a child and it’s special to me)22: Top 3 live-action moviesTHIS ONE IS NOT IN ORDER I GENUINELY CANNOT PICKThese three are movies that have made a huge impact on me creatively:1) Picture of Dorian Gray (1946)2) Dracula (1931)3) Beetlejuice If we’re talking super heroes, though: Days of Future Past/Logan, Wonder Woman, Doctor Strange23: Top 3 books1) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter2) The Shining3) Tied between I Hunt Killers and AsylumI’d throw “Regeneration” up there as a super influential book but I haven’t read it in years.25: Top 3 series/movies/books from my childhood1) NARNIA. Oh my gosh the Narnia books, and even the BBC movies, were such a huge part of my childhood and I’m not even kidding, may be the single greatest influence my young mind had in terms of world-building and the kind of fantasy I love2) Kimba the White Lion/Jungle Emperor Leo, both the 60s and 80s cartoon3) Half-Magic. ADORED this book.26: Top 3 obscure series/movies/books I recommend1) *points to favorite book* I’m not kidding. It’s brilliant. Ignore the thing they call a movie and read it. It’s beautiful and gritty and historically accurate. It is.2) Oh oh I saw a beautiful foreign film called “Out after dark.” I HIGHLY recommend it. It’s not obscure, but it’s stunning and heartbreaking in every way.3) Pet Shop of Horrors. I know we talked about it but WOW the anime was way too short-lived. I really want to read the manga because the mini-series was eerie as hell but strangely sophisticated30: Top 3 tearjerking moments in fiction1) THE END OF LOGAN. I CAN’T.2) A dog’s purpose. Book and movie but movie especially. I would just love for my dogs to reunite with me in later life 3 I can’t bare the thought of parting with them…3) Requiem for a Dream O.O That was less tear-jerking and more…super disturbing. SUPER disturbing.

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thewritermuses · 5 years

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Call of Duty - The TV Series

Strike Back - Chris Ryan - Season 1 - 5 7/10 In a post 9/11 world Section 20 strikes foreign targets in a bid to stop threats to the UK and its allies. It's just a bit sad that it took them three seasons to really hit their stride. Season four was the best, a mix of action and comedy. Great characters and interesting plot. Section 20 are a deniable military force run out of the home office in the UK. This story follows their fight against threats to the UK and the world. This is a really interesting and unexplored idea for me. I feel that we generally see this story told from the point of view of the brass back in Whitehall and rarely get to see the it play out from the soldier's perspective. Great Episodic Narrative The storytelling is generally fantastic on at the meta level. Each season follows an overall plot, generally perpetrated by a main villain. Each episode follows a single part of the story but fits neatly into the meta plot. This allows us to get to know all the characters on a deeper level as less time needs to be spent focusing on the plot in each episode. In turn it doesn't detract from the narrative because it is all part of the seasons meta plot The investment in the characters is also true for the story. They are interesting and thought provoking. Each season poses what if scenarios that are allowed to play out. Playing in this space is very fun for writers and you can tell this as it shines through on the screen. Buddy Series After the first season the show changes quite dramatically. For the first season it has been a one man show. John Porter, Richard Armitage (The Hobbit & Spooks), carries the season on his ample shoulders.

From then onwards it becomes a buddy series. Sgt. Michael Stonebridge, Phillip Winchester (Crusoe & Chicago Justice), plays a straight laced SAS officer who plays by-the-book. Sgt. Damien Scott, Sullivan Stapleton (Animal Kingdom & 300: Rise of an Empire), plays a wise-cracking, philandering Yank. They make a great team, each playing off each other's strengths. The tension between the two is also very good. They have their differences but also have each other's back when it matters. Big Names in the Supporting Roles There are some big names throughout this series. Because of the structure of the narrative they are given a lot of opportunity to really sink their teeth into their roles. Conrad Knox, Charles Dance (Game of Thrones & The Imitation Game), is the main villain in season three - Vengeance. He plays the charismatic South African billionaire who is trying to change the face of the political landscape in Africa. Li-Na, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon & Star Trek: Discovery), is the lead of North Korea's Section 39. She is a ruthless and effective killer. Michelle nails this role. Unfortunately I gave up on the show before the end of her season. Some Bad Parts There were many mistakes and issues with the series so I'll just list some of them here. S2 E1 - There is a gunfight at the start of the episode. It takes place in a street and the kid running away from Section 20 goes down before they fire. S3 E1 - Up until this point Stonebridge has been the stoic reliable part of the combo. He flies completely off the rails and puts a bullet in Jake Hanson's head after Jake himself loses his mind and murders his squad. Then Stonebridge runs to his side to check his vitals. Come on, you know he's dead.

Photo by Lucas Fonseca from Pexels S4 E2 - Rebecca is shot in the head and yet is still able to move and talk. The scene is quite good apart from the particular injury that would have made her continued role in it impossible. Perhaps the issue is a lack of understanding of how debilitating head wounds are. Some Worse Parts S3 E3 - There is a fight in a hotel and three grenades go off. There is a market happening outside and everyone here would have clearly heard the explosions, but they go about their business as if nothing has happened. In season two there is part of the meta plot of a secretive operation called Trojan Horse which is the main villain's motivation. We only start seeing reference to this towards the end of the season. It is buried too deep for us to understand it. Essentially the entire last episode is one big reveal which we couldn't have see coming. Season two ends with the death of the section chief. We are supposed to care and feel for her sacrifice. But this is just not possible. First, she has been utterly unbearable for the leads the entire season. Fine, but you cannot expect us to take a complete one-eighty. Second, the reason that she sacrificed herself was to stop Operation Trojan leaking - an operation that we had no idea about until moments before. Glaring Plot Holes S2 E6 - A doctor working with Doctors Without borders, or another similar group, is treating people at a hospital under guard of the UN. As night approaches they are told they have to leave. This appears to be a daily routine and she must have some understanding of the threat that she puts everyone in by refusing to leave when an injured lady arrives. Her naivety gets everyone killed. It was also key for her to be captured - but that doesn't excuse the terrible writing. S2 E8 - People working as organ harvesters see their boss murdered and continue working. Everyone up to this point has been a captive working at gun point. Why don't they immediately try to escape? Perhaps the perks are just really good as an organ harvester in eastern Europe? We made it to Season 5. We don't have to worry about the Plot now right? In the first episode Section 20 get a tracking device onto their target's car - the idea to follow him to where he is holding a kidnap victim and perhaps whomever is running him. But they don't pull back at this point - they keep following. It proves important for them to be there so why did they need the tracker at all? In the third episode it gets even more ludicrous. After an attack on their new safe house Julia learns the surname of one of the attackers and finds out the city he is from. From this information she determines that he is Yakuza AND that the Yakuza are working with Section 39. Seems a little farfetched to me but it gets better.

Photo by Cristian Benavides from Pexels Stonebridge then walks into the room and says that they think we killed their boss. Presumably he learnt this from the Yakuza he was just fighting. Surely it would have been good to show us this part of the fight rather than cutting away right before it happened. Also isn't this contradictory to what Julia has just discovered? It would be a huge coincidence if the Yakuza were after vengeance as well as being in league with Section 39. And that is exactly what happens, even if the target of their vengeance is misguided in this instance. The End of the Show for Me The problems and plot flaws above were wearing a bit thin for me but there were also some great bits which we will talk about in a moment. The end of the show for me, and literally where I stopped watching, was S5 E4. They have tracked a truck of metal to a Yakuza stronghold. The metal was going to allow North Korea to have a nuclear weapon. They also know that Li-Na, head of Section 39 is here. They begin the assault on the stronghold, as normal outnumbered at least three to one. The head of Section 20 says: "The only thing that matters is the metal." So they fight their way until they are in sight of the truck and it is heavily defended. Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Photo by Chandler Cruttenden on Unsplash At this point the section head orders Julia and Kim to take down the truck as he and Stonebridge go after Li-Na. So in a couple of minutes North Korea getting nuclear weapons switches from priority one two somewhere else down the list. He has to pay a heavy price for this decision but it feels completely unbelievable that he made it in the first place. Why did I watch Five seasons? There is some really great stuff in this show. I think if it had just been episodic I would have been done long before season five. The meta plot spanning a season was really engaging. The way subtitles are done in this show are awesome. With a lot of the show taking place in non-English speaking locations it was great to see them try something new and it worked. The subtitles were huge and felt more like speech bubbles from a comic. It's really fun. There is a great scene in S2 E2 where Section 20 storm a hotel that has been rigged with explosives. A bomb has been suspended above the centre of the floor. As it falls and everyone dives for cover. Stonebridge pelts towards it, catching it at the last second. Other things that they did really well The title music, Short Change Hero by The Heavy, is a banger. It sets up every episode perfectly. You cannot be anything but pumped up for them to storm in, guns-a-blazing, after hearing this track. Generally the editing and pacing are both good. A great example of this is S3 E10. Various teams have been separated as they travel back to base from Nigerian HQ. This thoughtful editing is so fantastically handled. S4 E9 has a portion of the episode where Stonebridge and Scott are assaulting a base while wearing night vision. They transition between first and third person. It works extremely well and lets us experience what the characters are experiencing. Good use of Plot Devices Using Hugh as the villain in S1 E1 and then as a red herring was brilliant. This makes us think that he is always the bad guy, even when he isn't. Great misdirection. Season two sees a double cross of Pakistani intelligence. This aspect of the story is well told and its unfolding is handled with nuance and skill. The show is great at toying with our expectations. It shows us time and time again that it has no qualms killing main characters. It then uses this to setup characters to appear to die or look like they are going to die. As an audience we feel that their death is almost certain and then they escape. They also do the reverse when they kill main characters. They meet our expectations in ways we don't expect which is a hallmark of great storytelling.

Photo by Quentin Kemmel on Unsplash A Missed Opportunity to Use Hatred Well In S3 E1 Stonebridge's wife miscarries. She takes her anger out on him saying that he is happy because he never wanted the child. Stonebridge has been struggling with the decision about the child for a while. He left Section 20 to return to a desk job all so that he could be around. Her reaction is important because we have to hate her. We have to hate her otherwise we will hate Stonebridge when he rejoins Section 20. If they had left this there it would have been great and Stonebridge could have tottered off to kill some bad guys and we would have been on his side. But no - they had to have someone kill her as well. This is supposed to make Stonebridge go on a mad rampage now whenever he sees the perpetrator. This makes little sense. Why setup the hatred of the wife and then make us kind of upset about her death. This makes Stonebridge's decisions from here on appear wishy-washy. He kind of just chooses the motivation that fits best for the situation he is in. Which just takes away from his character. Read the full article

#tv #tvreview #callofduty

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