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consistantscreaming · 1 year

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I'm relistening to The Magnus Archives, and I made a list of Actual Canonical Details we as a fandom forget about

- sasha gets coffee from a specific coffee shop every morning

- Jon has an excellent sense of direction

- canonically in artifact storage there is: a wardrobe light cannot penetrate, a carved rock eye that interferes with the video cameras and therefore is kept in a black velvet bag, and a scalpel ride with disease no matter what they use to sterilize it, kept in a hermetically sealed plastic box

- during halloween week, they have to call in the archives as backup due to the influx of statements. jon canonically gets a good nights sleep after disproving these statements.

- Jon sincerely believes he is far too unlucky for statements to just be a hallucination

- Not-sasha asked not to be recorded multiple times

- when told he benifited from gertrude's death, jons only response was "...I didn't?"

- [daisy became police in ~2002, almost 15 years before the story starts...meaning she is canonically late thirties/early 40s

- even when compared with the paranormal, daisy considers car accidents worse

- mary keay made an eye pun "i know the institute and i haven't always seen eye to eye, as it were"

- jon noticed when ghost hunt uk stopped updating

- sasha is taller than not-sasha

- annabelle dresses like a vintage clothing store exploded on her, has bleach blonde hair and dark skin

- annabelle looked "like the type of person that talked to cleaners as if they were actual people"

- annabelle looms over the cleaner by almost a full foot, meaning she Tall

- "the moment i die will feel just the same as this one" is not just a georgie thing, it's an End thing in general, as proved in ep 70

- not-sasha tends to stay late

- martin worked at the institute in 2009

- micheal has curly sandy blonde hair

-micheal is tall

- melanie and jon are on the same wavelength, and when working together they both came to the same conclusions with the same evidence

- elias does not think daisy is smart

- georgie is observant, and pays attention to peoples behavior

- melanie thought jon killing someone with a pipe was "wildly out of character" for him

- georgie and jon have a mutual friend named Jess who thinks Hungarian food is "too Soviet"

- jon borrowed georgie's coat when he went to meet jude perry

- jon tells jude to kill him as an ultimatum every five minutes

- elias tells tim that when presented with horrors, he finds comfort in beaurocrocy

- jared hopworth is handsome with cheekbones and a jawline to die for

- georgie was canonically willing to cover for jon to the police with no context after an unpleasant breakup and after no contact for almost 5 years

- georgie grew up poor in liverpool, and had a scouse accent until she went to oxford

- basira is a huge nerd and will talk about what she's reading to anyone who will listen

- nikola makes an allusion to not having a face

- martin and melanie got along fantastically

- georgie told jon that he needs anchors

- "if something happened to you, or-or god forbid, The Admiral, I-"

- "Don't be a Stranger." georgie thinks she's funny

- michael had a childhood friend who was taken by something like michael (schizophrenic) and that's what drove him to the magnus institut-he never you over what he saw or didn't see

- Hannah is a black woman who works in the library, had a "Thing With The Milk In The Breakroom" in april 2016. Went on maternal leave to have a baby in June of 2017.

- elias enjoys scheduling

- martin zones out when he has to read a statement, and often takes little notice of his surroundings when doing so/about to do so

- martin was looking for a book called "marvelous spiritualism and the circus in tge 19th century" and a guy named tom said tim had it checked out

- danny and tim didn't talk much, but were still close

- Abigail Ellison-who tim calls abby- is a mutual friend of tim and danny's from "back home"

- tim shipped danny and abby

- out of the two of them, danny was more assertive and tim "had never been able to stand in the way of his confidence"

- tim has a big armchair, a printer, and a couch

- melanie has made everyone in the archives cry

- [basira loved wtg until it "took a weird turn in season 3" when they introduced something she thought was odd

- melanie, basira, and martin used to go out for drinks, and martin and basira were gossip buddies

- Melanie's dad had dementia relatively young, but he always remembered her. He called her "Little Moth", and her mothers life insurance helped pay for him to be put into Ivy Meadows Care Home-where he was killed by the Corruption at the hands of John Amherst before Julia and Trevor burnt it down.

- julia is in her early thirties and wears nondescript hard wearing denim

- jon thought that reading statements could be a classical addiction, but decided that even if it was he had no time to, as he put it, "experiment"

- Peter was surprised that elias killed people kimself-implying elias has people to do murders for him. what other murders did he commission

- martin and basira both noticed something wrong with melanie after the Elias Incidint when her work started to deteriorate-martin said she'd always been "quite conscientious"

- right after being told by basira that standing by with a cup of tea wasnt enough, when melanie entered the room Martin immediately offered her a cup of tea.

- Martin knocked over a stack of papers and defended himself by saying that they shouldn't have been there. the absolute madlad

- after micheal stabbed jon, jon told martin he stabbed himself with a bread knife; and martin then proceeded to A) believe him and B) not trust him with anything sharp after that

- Gerry didn't care abt what happened in the unknowing bc he's a book. jon asked if he was serious. Gerry responded that he was, in fact, dead serious.

- gerry teases jon by saying he doesn't know anything before rescinding that statement avd giving the vaguest hint possible. he's such a dickhead i love him

- gerard didn't trust gertrude-he wanted to, but she reminded him of his mother

- gerard called trevor and julia "the van helsings"

- gerry was jealous of lietner bc his mom paid so much attention to them

- mary haunted gerard for 5 years before gertrude destroyed her, and gerry cried with relief when gertrude gave him back the destroyed book

- before the unknowing, daisy was running around killing mannequins and other Strangers

- tim didn't think they would be able to stope the unknowing

- jon would rather have tim where he could see him-which is why he let tim come (guilt guilt guilt guilt GUILT GUILT GUIL GU

- basiras dad couldn't stand people who passively whined about their problems. he always said "If you don't like something, you accept it and you adapt, or you fight, and you change it. Whining doesn't help."

- Melanie was depressed before the unknowing

- jon rambles about his latest insights and melanie wants to punch him.

- martin: "it felt good, weaving my own little web." "Also, i get to burn some stuff, so that's cool"

- basira was the one to suggest that they not tell Melanie they were doing surgery

-Daisy made jon listen to the Archers. "I hate it. but it feels... good, to hate something that can't hurt me"

#the magnus archives #magnuspod #tma #jon sims tma #martin blackwood tma #basira hussain #alice daisy tonner #melanie king #georgie barker #sasha james #not sasha #tim stoker

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thecalendarwomen · 2 years

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Viking historian Nancy Marie Brown’s new book, The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women, explores what life might have been like for the warrior woman of Bj 581. Using more evidence from the recent tests conducted on the remains, Brown traces her journey from Norway to the British Isles to Kiev then, finally, to Birka. Brown imagines the unnamed warrior meeting other prominent Viking women, such as Gunnhild, Mother of Kings, or Queen Olga, ruler of the Rus Vikings in Kiev. She also explores the Viking sagas and contemporary sources with a new lens.

Atlas Obscura spoke with Brown about her new book, valkyries, and the assumptions that underlie the history we think we know.

How did you initially get interested in Vikings—and female Vikings in particular?

When I went to college, I actually wanted to study fantasy writing and, you know, learn to write like Tolkien. I learned very quickly that that was not appropriate for an English major in the 1970s, so I decided to study what Tolkien studied, and he was a professor at Oxford University, teaching Old English and Old Norse. So I started reading all of the Icelandic sagas that I could find in translation. And when I ran out of the English versions, I learned Old Norse so that I could read the rest of them.

One of the things I liked about [the sagas] the most was that they had really interesting women characters. There’s a queen in Norway who appears in about 11 sagas, Queen Gunnhild, Mother of Kings. She led armies. She devised war strategy. And then I was looking at the valkyries and the shieldmaids and thinking, you know, these are really interesting people that have always been considered to be mythological.

So when I learned in 2017 that one of the most famous Viking warrior burials turned out to be the burial of a woman, that just absolutely dazzled my imagination.

Is this the first confirmed grave of a female warrior that we have?

This is the one that has the best proof. There are one or two others that have since been DNA tested and proven to be female. But in each of these cases, it’s hard to say if the person in the grave, whether male or female, actually was a warrior, or if the object that we are interpreting as a weapon was used for hunting or for some other purpose.

What do we know about the life of the Viking warrior woman in Bj 581?

In 2017, by testing her bones and her teeth, [scholars] could say she was between 30 and 40 years old when she died. They could also tell that she ate well all of her life. So she came from a rich family or maybe even a royal one. She was also quite tall, about 5’7”. By the minerals in her inner teeth, [scholars can determine] she may have come from southern Sweden or Norway, and also that she went west maybe as far as the British Isles before her molars finished forming. She didn’t arrive in Birka until she was 16.

We also have her weapons and a little bit of clothing that were found in the grave. And these link her to what is known as the Vikings’ East Way, which was the trade route from Sweden to the Silk Road.

We can link, through the artifacts and through the bones, that she could have traveled from as far west as Dublin to as far east as at least Kiev in the 30 to 40 years of her life.

How do we know that there were Viking warrior women?

They are mentioned many, many, many times in the literature. In most cases, they have been dismissed as mythological because, of course, we know warriors were men. But we don’t know that. That is an assumption that is based on traditional Victorian ideas that because women are mothers, they’re nurturing, they’re peacemakers, and they don’t fight.

That’s not historically true. Women have always fought. And they appear in most cultures until the 1800s, when Viking studies and archaeology pretty much started. So we sort of have this problem of bias in our earliest textbooks.

There’s this assumption that the warrior men of myth must have been based on real people, but it’s not the same for the mythical warrior women. Why is that?

It’s just an assumption based on what people think women are like. Most of the material we have from the Middle Ages was written by men, and most of the material we have until the 1950s was written by men, and women are slowly making their way into the field of Viking scholarship. But many of them are still working under the assumptions that they were taught.

I noticed when I went back and reread some of the sagas in Icelandic that there wasn’t this clear distinction between the warrior women being mythological and the warrior men being human. When you actually look at the old Norse text, there’s a lot of words that have been translated as “men” that actually mean “people,” but it’s always been translated as “men” because it’s a warrior situation.

Is it possible for historians to remove all of those biases?

No, I don’t think it is. I think we all are looking through our own lenses. But we have to revisit those sources every generation to see past biases. So when you have layer after layer after layer of removing biases, you may get closer to the truth.

What most surprised you in the course of researching your book?

One of the controversies right now in Viking studies is should we really be talking about men and women at all? Maybe there were all kinds of different genders. We don’t know if there were more than two genders in the Viking age. Maybe it was a spectrum.

If you look at this one group of sagas called the Sagas of Ancient Times that are often overlooked because they have all these fabulous creatures in them, like dragons and warrior women. It’s really interesting [because] these girls grow up wanting to be warriors. They’re constantly disobeying and trying to run off and join Viking bands. But when they do run off and join the Viking band, or, in another case, become the king of a town, they insist on being called by a male name and use male pronouns.

So it was very shocking to me to go back and read it in the original and say, “Wow, all this richness was lost in the translation.”

#Nancy Marie Brown #vikings #history #women in history #archaeology #women warriors #warfare #warrior women #norse history #atlas obscura

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toonqueen · 5 months

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Duckvember Day 24: Adventurous Duck

So @cataradical and I have a thing with some Nega-verse OC kids going on adventures much like how the Ducktales Triplets and Webby go on adventures. Though, since it is the negaverse so they are allowed to roam wild more and do these adventures without adult supervision. Mainly because the adoptive ‘Dad’ of most of them is Gladstone’s Negaverse version. And he lets his kids run free because his uncle had him locked in the basement as a kid so HEY let the kids do what they want. If I had time to write some full stories with them I’d be sure to have to be a parody of Stranger Things. Instead of them checking out paranormal stuff, they are the paranormal stuff. Soooo I think listed oldest to youngest: PICTURE BY @cataradical

Rouenna: (tallest with the black hair) Negaduck’s and Nega Morgana’s accident baby. Usually stays with her mom but can be found running around with this group of kids. Even though Macawbers and Despells don’t get along, Magica is nice to her when she’s at the house. Its not her fault her mom is a subpar jerk. Teehee. Rouenna is @cataradical and its not mean to say she is dumb because cata says she’s dumb. ;-; She got good magics tho weh.

(Nega) Gosalyn: following the canon version we saw. She’s now a teenager and been taught light healie magic by Nega Magica. She wears a sailor moon style outfit at times. Whee. Still her normal bubbly self.

Kage: Also @cataradical but my char Faustina gave him his name. A clone of Negaduck that SHUSH made. The plan was to have him rapid grow in a tube to adulthood and then replace the real Negaduck with him so Scrooge to backdoor take over St. Canard somehow. Something like that. Nega Scrooge is worse than Negaduck soooo. Negaduck tho attacked the lab before that could happen, breaking Kage’s tube at him being 8ish years old? Kage lived on his own a bit before Faustina found him and they hung out because they’re both RAD. Of course Faustina’s parents then adopted him. Whee. Kage ends up being the leader of these hooligans. The only non-magic user in the group. I see him a lot as Robin in the Teen Titans. The smart strategist is surrounded by people with powers but handles himself fine without powers. WHO NEEDS POWERS WHEN YOU GOT CHAINSAWS AND BLADES BRO. Though he might be the one with smart plans he’s still as chaotic as Faustina and Rouenna though. So how is he gonna reel in those two when he can’t reel in himself sometimes lol. I’m sure Gos helps with that.

Faustina: She is Nega Magica and Nega Gladstone’s kid. She wears fluffy dresses and acts like a cute little Victorian child much like Nega Gosalyn. However, she does not have the same attitude. She is a little beastie that can use ‘blood’ magic and has been known to bite people. I mean the others in the group bite too but she has the worst bite hehehe.

Orin: (not pictured) He is Faustina and Kage’s adopted baby brother. He actually doesn’t come on adventures being that his is a wimpy BABY. His only job is not to narc to his parents where the rest of them all went. Also Cata’s char.

I see them going on a lot of the same adventures the 2017 duck kids go on. Also, Faustina needs to ‘consume’ a certain amount of luck before her 13th birthday or she implodes so a lot of the treasure hunts are for luck related artifacts too.

#duckvember #duckvember 2023 #negaverse #kage gander #faustina de spell #Rouenna Macawber #Orin de Spell #gosalyn mallard

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flowery3d · 10 months

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Gelatinous Monarch - Model 2, Attempt 1

Scott the Guide was slain

The Wall of Text has awoken

"During my travels i have seen some of the most peculiar things. For example, that one time, slimes that always ignored me, unless i attacked first, suddenly became aggressive and very numerous. Then, a purple slime almost fell on me from the sky. It wouldn't be that weird if there was a sky island nearby, after all, harpies often hunt the slimes that formed on those, and sometimes they accidentally drop the slimy critters while taking off. But that's the thing - there was no sky island for miles. While i was pondering how it happened and fought off the swarm of slimes i saw them - hundreds of slimes falling from the sky. Some were in the distance, some were close. I started trying to get out of there. Luckily for me, only an occasional pinky required more than 1 bullet from this great revolver, that you can buy for just 10 gold. You don't want it? Why not, it's not like you could have anything bette- a-alright, alright, you don't have to point that thing at me!.. A-anyway, while i was escaping, i saw a giant slime with a crown. And it saw me too. It suddenly fell apart, leaving its crown behind. Then, even the crown disappeared, and the slime reformed in front of me, and while it was doing so, the crown materialised on the giant. Other than that, the slime behaved like what you'd expect from a giant slime, but when hurt, it created a bunch of blue slimes, some of which had gelatinous spikes and could shoot the aforementioned spikes. It took a while for me to take it down, but when i did, it turned that the slime has eaten a bunch of things. One of them was this water gun, and that is why it's worth 1 gold 30 silver. Not many things have such a story behind them. Actually, now that i think about it, the price should be higher. I guess gold 50 will be good... Oh, what did i do with the crown? Well... it kinda disappeared before i could pick it up. The biggest ruby in the crown flashed red and the crown was gone. Now that i think about it, could the gem be the reason for such weird behaviour from the slimes... And also for the flight and teleportation.... That story got me hungry, would you like some pho? You know, i usually don't make discounts, but this once you can have a pho for just 79 silver 99 copper. Oh, right, you just bought, like, a thousand of those. Wonder why'd you need so many. Welp, you do you... Huh, a slime just fell from the sky. That poor harpy... What do you mean you don't live near a sky island " - Aedan the Traveling Merchant to the Legend

The wall of text has been slain

My most problematic model so far, including the 2017-ish when i was learning 3d modeling for the first time. While trying to make it work i've learned how to actually use nodes, the fact that mix colors node is not a shader(literally lost motivation for a week because of that), got fucked over by terminator artifact and learnt how bullshit the subdivide modifier is, got some mastery over the knife tool, looked up how to make gems, remembered why i used to hate the knife tool and found out about the shade smooth thingy

That is my explanation of inactivity

#terraria #3d model #art #calamity mod #king slime #blue slime #slime #giant slime #green slime #purple slime

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below-average-fangirl · 1 year

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I posted 2,786 times in 2022

That's 2,079 more posts than 2021!

625 posts created (22%)

2,161 posts reblogged (78%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@below-average-fangirl

@cheesybadgers

@hcrogasm

@indifferentvincent

@laikawriter

I tagged 2,340 of my posts in 2022

Only 16% of my posts had no tags

#tom cruise - 647 posts

#top gun maverick - 355 posts

#pete maverick mitchell - 160 posts

#ethan hunt - 135 posts

#mission impossible - 130 posts

#mike wozniak - 93 posts

#taskmaster - 85 posts

#top gun - 85 posts

#the mummy 2017 - 83 posts

#stacee jaxx - 76 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#so whenever he did even the slightest thing that was considered bad he was made to feel worthless which is why he questions himself so much

My Top Posts in 2022:

Ask game based on the questions from the podcast Films to be Buried With [x].

1. What is the first film you remember seeing?

2. What was the film that scared you the most?

3. What was the film that made you cry the most?

4. What film is TERRIBLE but you love it?

5. What is the film you once loved but watching it now you realize it’s terrible?

6. What is the film that means the most to you? Not because of the film it’s self, but because of the memories, you have of it.

7. What is the sexiest film?

8. Which film do you most relate to?

9. Which film is objectively the greatest ever?

10. Which film is the one you’ve watched the most?

11. What’s the worst film you’ve ever seen?

12. What is the film that’s literally made you laugh out loud the most?

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337 notes - Posted September 15, 2022

I'm halfway through Tom Cruise's filmography, and one aspect of his acting which stood out to me is that he's unafraid to show vulnerability on screen, be it fear, silliness, or embarrassment, i.e.

- Jerry Maguire face-planting onto the floor when he rushes back into the office after being fired.

- Ethan Hunt in Fallout after the bathroom fight when Ilsa tells him he doesn't know what he's involved with. "I don't know what I'm involved in. I don't know what I'm involved in... What am I involved in?"

- Ethan Hunt in Rogue Nation when he attempted to jump over the hood of the car, slipped and face-planted onto the floor.

- Bill Cage when he is wiped out by a car while running to Rita in Edge of Tomorrow.

- Jack Reacher looking at the knife when he has to face off with the bad guys who have assault rifles.

I couldn't help but think of Harrison Ford. It’s been said somewhere by someone that one of the great traits Ford has as a screen actor is the ability to show fear without undermining his hero status, and I think Tom Cruise shares this trait, as well as humor. Their characters are funny and they will often lean into the humor without undercutting it, and that makes them more relatable. However, despite those similarities, the way I respond to them as an audience member is very, very different.

Harrison Ford is an actor I grew up watching, and Star Wars and Indiana Jones were the main staples. While I did enjoy those films, even as a kid, there was an energy Ford brought to the screen which felt dangerous. Thankfully, this is all brilliantly examined by Pop Culture Detective in this video, and jumping off the back of that, I want to talk about the power dynamics between Tom's characters and the female leads in his action films.

Let’s start with Nick Morton in The Mummy, who is an adventurous type in a similar vein to Indiana Jones. Both characters go around stealing artifacts. Although Indiana Jones would claim he’s preserving them by putting them in a museum, he's still stealing them from the indigenous culture. Nick is more honest with himself about being a thief. Another distinction between Nick Morton and Indiana Jones is how they interact with their respective heroines. Our first introduction to Jenny Halsey in The Mummy is when she, without hesitation, slaps Nick across the face and calls him out for stealing some papers from her. Nick plays dumb because he thinks she won’t want to admit that they slept together. However, Jenny is not at all embarrassed by this and instead uses it to get in a dig about Nick’s prowess in bed. In response to this, Nick makes a quip that she didn't complain the night before about his performance. The key difference between what you would see from a character like Indiana Jones in this scene is that at no point during this exchange does Nick get in Jenny’s face or manhandle her to try and intimidate her physically to reassert his masculinity.

Then there's Bill Cage in Edge of Tomorrow, who, like Nick Morton, is a morally ambiguous character. Cage is a coward who finds himself a safe job far away from the fighting, but is suddenly stripped of his rank and thrust onto the frontline after the attempted blackmail of an army general backfires. When he first comes across Rita Vrataski on the beach, he is lying on his belly, out of his depth in battle and looking up at her with bewilderment and awe, the Angel of Verdun. Rita is then immediately killed by a rocket blast right in front of him. The second time Cage meets Rita on the beach, he saves her life by pushing her out of the way of the rocket and getting hit instead. This is where we see Rita’s determination and single-minded focus to win the war; she does not stop to mourn or thank the man who saved her life; instead, she steals Cage’s power back and leaves him for dead on the beach. This ruthlessness does not deter Cage from seeking her out again on the battlefield. He knows Rita is his way off this beach. Once Rita understands that he has the power to reset the day, this is where Cage’s purpose changes from trying to save himself to serving Rita. We witness this with the scene at the farmhouse where he is kneeling at her feet serving her coffee.

By this point in the film, Cage is as well trained as Rita, but his authority never supersedes hers; he is only ever subservient. He does try to deter her from the mission by not admitting that they have been at the farmhouse before. He already knows that no matter what he does, he can’t save her, he can’t get her past this point, and what gives him away is three sachets of sugar. That one caring act of being prepared to make her coffee as she likes it is enough for Rita to realize that he’s lying, that they have been at this farmhouse multiple times. Here is where something shifts in Cage, because after witnessing Rita’s death this time, instead of telling her in the next loop that he can reset the day, he decides to find the omega on his own, knowing that if he succeeds, Rita will be dead.

"I’m a soldier. Why does it matter what happens to me?"

Cage is learning that in war you can’t save everyone, something Rita knew when in one loop she unceremoniously took his power pack after saving her. This is when he begins to be on an equal footing with Rita, demonstrated in the scene where they both realize, and agree without words, that they have to break into Whitehall to steal the transponder. While they had been a team before, Cage is now fully onboard with the job of finding and killing the omega. They then only have one shot left at succeeding, because Cage has lost the ability to reset the day anymore, but Rita trusts Cage to do it. This finally shows that they are equals.

In contrast to Nick Morton and Bill Cage, there’s Ethan Hunt, a morally good character who is intelligent, highly capable, and most importantly, empathetic. I won't go through all six Mission Impossible films, but instead, solely focus on the dynamic between Ethan and Ilsa. Ilsa saves Ethan on multiple occasions in Rogue Nation.

The first time the audience and Ethan meet Ilsa is at a moment when Ethan is incredibly vulnerable. He just witnessed the murder of a fellow IMF agent before being gassed and kidnapped, where he wakes up tied to a pole in a basement under threat of torture. It is only because of Ilsa that Ethan makes it out alive. The second time they cross paths is after the opera in Vienna, where we learn that Ilsa is an MI6 agent who is deep undercover.

Slowly, the film is building a connection between Ilsa and Ethan, but one that doesn’t override either one's main objective. As much as Ilsa has a sense of loyalty to an agent from an allied country, and saves Ethan again from the water tank, to escape from Ethan in the bike chase, she steps into his path suddenly, causing him to fall off and skid into the dirt. In any other film, this would be a humiliating moment for the main character, and there would almost certainly be a scene to balance it out and give the upper hand back to the male hero, but not in Rogue Nation.

There is not one scene where Ethan tries to reassert control or dominance over Ilsa, like the kind you would see in a Harrison Ford film where he gets into the personal space of a woman to sexually intimidate her. Instead, it is established that Ilsa, throughout the film, is Ethan's equal, and his masculinity is not threatened by this; nor is he humiliated in being rescued by her; and he feels no need to try and assert his dominance.

This is something which continues into Fallout, where once again Ilsa saves Ethan, and once again they are starting from opposite objectives. Ethan has to break Lane out, Ilsa has to kill him, and the essence of their relationship is distilled beautifully by Christopher McQuarrie.

There is emotional maturity and understanding between the two of them that elevates their relationship above what you would normally find in this genre of film between two spies of the opposite sex.

However, the character who is the most interesting to look at in terms of male/female power dynamics is Jack Reacher, as he is probably the most traditional action hero Tom Cruise has played. Reacher is a gruff, no-nonsense man of few words, and as the book outlines, his philosophy is: Hit early, hit hard. Kill with the first blow. Get your retaliation in first. This man is dangerous. Yet, at no point do I feel that the female characters are in danger around Reacher simply because they are women.

First off, the waitress who clears away Reacher’s table. It’s a small but, I think, important interaction. All Reacher does is give her a "fancy it" kind of look, but there's nothing aggressive or leary about it, and when she rejects him, he's disappointed but quickly moves on.

Secondly, the dynamic between him and Sandy in the first scene at the bar; he is being tough on her, but we know that he’s seen her argue with some guy before coming to sit at his table, so he’s probing. He’s trying to work out what her angle is. He’s mean, but he’s never intimidating. Then later, when he goes to Sandy's work, he’s pissed that she tried to set him up, but at no point do I ever feel Sandy is in danger, and at no point does Reacher try to exert information out of her by getting into her personal space. He never uses the threat of sexual violence to get that. His whole attitude is much more that of a disappointed dad. When he understands what is going on with her, and that she is a victim too, he softens toward her because she is just a kid.

Then there’s the main relationship between Jack and Helen. From the get-go, there’s an attraction but also competitiveness. Two very intelligent and competent people who are good at what they do spend the first half of the film trying to get a handle on one another and their motives. But in terms of sexual power dynamics between the two, I think there is one part where the film has Reacher lean into an action film trope, but then pulls away from it.

It’s the scene with Helen in the hotel, where Reacher is shirtless and says they need some sleep. He reaches across her, and for a moment, Helen thinks he’s suggesting sex, but instead he puts her keys in her hand. I think that was Reacher playing with her a bit, teasing her about something possibly happening to see how she would react, but it never feels threatening. He doesn’t linger in her personal space because he knows that nothing can happen between them. He will leave town once the mystery is resolved. The one scene where they do get close, where they linger and lock eyes, is the moment in the lobby where Helen gives Reacher the address to the gun range. That scene feels very different to what you would normally see in this kind of film. They feel very much like equals, like they’ve come to understand one another at last, and while they both feel the attraction, Reacher is never dominating.

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383 notes - Posted August 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Some thoughts on social media and the online experience.

You don’t have to be on every platform.

You don’t need to comment on every trending topic.

Before you comment on something, take a moment to think if you have the energy to deal with follow up questions or statements.

It’s okay to say, “alright I’ve had enough of this discussion now” and offer not further explanations.

Sometimes you just need to write the post in drafts and then delete it.

Muting or blocking words/people will bring you peace.

People disagreeing with your opinion, or not liking a piece of media you enjoy, is not a personal attack on you.

Where you can have a conversation with people.

Humor doesn’t always travel well.

997 notes - Posted September 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #2022 my tom cruise era for sure #long post

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amcsociety · 11 months

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Transformers Movie Franchise

The Transformers movie series, directed primarily by Michael Bay, consists of seven films that span over a decade. Below is a detailed review of each film along with a clean timeline of the events that take place in the Transformers universe.

1. Transformers (2007):

Synopsis: The first film in the series introduces the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, two factions of alien robots. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers his car, a yellow Chevrolet Camaro named Bumblebee, is an Autobot. He teams up with the Autobots to prevent the Decepticons from acquiring the AllSpark, a powerful artifact.

Review: "Transformers" lays the foundation for the series with its mix of explosive action, humor, and groundbreaking visual effects. It successfully brings the beloved toys and cartoon series to life, appealing to both fans and newcomers. The film's energetic pace, impressive CGI, and charismatic performances by the cast make it an entertaining ride.

2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009):

Synopsis: In the sequel, Sam Witwicky and the Autobots face a resurrected Megatron (Hugo Weaving) and a new threat known as The Fallen. Sam discovers ancient symbols that hold the key to a hidden power, and the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons escalates.

Review: "Revenge of the Fallen" amps up the action and introduces new Transformers, but some critics felt it relied too heavily on spectacle and lacked a coherent storyline. Despite mixed reviews, the film still showcases impressive visual effects and continues to explore the mythology of the Transformers universe.

3. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011):

Synopsis: The third film reveals a long-hidden Transformer spacecraft on the Moon and a conspiracy involving the U.S. government. Sam, now working for a new love interest (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), uncovers a plan by the Decepticons to enslave humanity.

Review: "Dark of the Moon" improves upon the second film with a more focused storyline and grand-scale action sequences. The film delves into the history of the Transformers and delivers breathtaking visuals, particularly during the climactic Battle of Chicago. The addition of the villainous Shockwave and the return of fan-favorite characters contribute to an engaging experience.

4. Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014):

Synopsis: "Age of Extinction" takes place several years after the previous film and introduces a new human cast led by Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg). The Transformers are now hunted by a government agency, and Cade's discovery of a dormant Optimus Prime sets off a chain of events that involves a new threat and the emergence of the Dinobots.

Review: This film serves as a soft reboot of the series, introducing new characters and a fresh narrative. It explores the ethical implications of human involvement with Transformers technology and features stunning visuals, intense action sequences, and strong performances from the cast. The addition of the Dinobots brings an exciting new element to the franchise.

5. Transformers: The Last Knight (2017):

Synopsis: "The Last Knight" delves into the history of the Transformers on Earth, revealing an ancient connection between them and King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. Cade Yeager, now a fugitive, joins forces with new allies to stop an impending apocalypse.

Review: The fifth film attempts to expand the mythology of the Transformers but received mixed reviews due to a convoluted plot and overwhelming spectacle. However, it still delivers on visual effects and features notable performances from Mark Wahlberg and Anthony Hopkins. The film's exploration of historical connections adds an intriguing layer to the series.

6. "Transformers: Bumblebee" (2018):

Synopsis: "Bumblebee" serves as a prequel to the Transformers series, set in the 1980s. The film follows Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld), a teenager who discovers and forms a special bond with the Autobot Bumblebee. Together, they navigate their way through thrilling adventures while evading government agents and uncovering the secrets of the Transformers' presence on Earth.

Review: "Bumblebee" breathes new life into the Transformers franchise with its heartfelt storytelling, engaging characters, and a more intimate scale. The film is a delightful mix of action, humor, and emotion, catering to both long-time fans and newcomers. Director Travis Knight delivers a visually stunning and character-driven experience, showcasing impressive CGI effects and a nostalgic '80s atmosphere. Hailee Steinfeld's charismatic performance, combined with the heartwarming connection between Charlie and Bumblebee, makes for a compelling and enjoyable film.

7. "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" (2022):

Synopsis: "Rise of the Beasts" expands the Transformers universe by incorporating elements from the popular Beast Wars storyline. Set in the 1990s, the film explores a conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons that escalates to involve ancient forces and the emergence of new transforming creatures. Noah (Anthony Ramos) and Elena (Dominique Fishback) become entangled in the battle, joining forces with the Transformers to save Earth from destruction.

Review: "Rise of the Beasts" takes the franchise in an exciting new direction, incorporating the beloved Beast Wars mythology. Director Steven Caple Jr. delivers a visually stunning film with thrilling action sequences and compelling characters. The movie strikes a balance between honoring the established Transformers universe and introducing fresh elements. The voice performances, particularly from Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, Tony Todd as Megatron, and Ron Perlman as Optimus Primal, add depth and authenticity to the characters. The film's exploration of the Maximals, Predacons, and their conflicts brings a refreshing twist to the series.

Clean Timeline of Events:

- "Bumblebee" (1980s): Charlie Watson discovers and forms a bond with Bumblebee, kickstarting their adventures and uncovering the secrets of the Transformers on Earth.

- "Transformers" (2007): The war between Autobots and Decepticons begins as Sam Witwicky joins forces with the Autobots to prevent the Decepticons from acquiring the AllSpark.

- "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (2009): Sam Witwicky discovers ancient symbols and faces a resurrected Megatron and a new threat known as The Fallen.

- "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (2011): The Autobots uncover a hidden Transformer spacecraft on the Moon and face a conspiracy involving the U.S. government and the Decepticons.

- "Transformers: Age of Extinction" (2014): Cade Yeager discovers a dormant Optimus Prime, leading to a new threat and the emergence of the Dinobots.

- "Transformers: The Last Knight" (2017): The history of the Transformers on Earth is unveiled, revealing an ancient connection and an impending apocalypse.

- "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" (2022): The Autobots and Decepticons engage in a conflict that involves the emergence of Maximals, Predacons, and ancient forces, with Noah and Elena joining the battle to save Earth.

This timeline provides a coherent progression of events within the Transformers movie series, showcasing the various installments and their respective stories

#AMC filmblog movieblog transformers anthonyramos Hollywood broadway riseofthebeasts optimusprime optimusprimal newyork gijoe brooklyn

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bardic-tales · 1 year

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FF OC Introduction: Uncharted

Aries | Enneagram: 3w4 | ENTP

I'm not just a treasure hunter. I'm a master of seduction. The thrill of the chase is matched only by the thrill of igniting a fire within those who dare to cross my path.

Welcome to the enigmatic world of Maxwell Powers, a treasure hunter, historian, and seductive rogue with a thirst for uncovering the mysteries of the past. Born on March 27, 1989, in the vibrant city of Boston, Massachusetts, Max was raised in a household where stories of ancient civilizations and daring explorations were woven into the very fabric of his being.

From an early age, Max's innate curiosity and love for history set him on a path of discovery. Pursuing a degree in Archeology and History at a prestigious college, he delved deep into the study of ancient civilizations, honing his skills as a historian and researcher. His dedication and passion garnered admiration from his professors and peers, establishing him as a rising star in the field.

It was during his college years that fate intervened, leading him to cross paths with Emma Reynolds, a spirited and ambitious young woman who shared his affinity for treasure hunting. Despite their differing approaches and a simmering rivalry, Max and Emma formed an unconventional bond that surpassed the boundaries of friendship and competition.

However, as the pursuit of their shared ambitions grew intense, Max found himself at a crossroads. Driven by his relentless ambition and the yearning for untamed adventures, he made a difficult decision to carve his own path, leaving Emma behind and severing both personal and professional ties. Their parting was marked by a bittersweet understanding that their destinies might intertwine once more in the treacherous world they both inhabited.

With his education complete, Max embarked on a career as an archaeologist, specializing in historical research and artifact analysis. His profound knowledge of ancient civilizations, coupled with his meticulous attention to detail, made him a highly sought-after expert in the field. Max's insatiable hunger for adventure and his unyielding determination led him to become a seasoned treasure hunter, renowned for his audacious expeditions and unrelenting pursuit of lost treasures.

It was in 2017, within the enchanting walls of a quaint tea house in Marrakech, that Max's fate took an unexpected turn. Niamh Donovan, accompanied by her trusted mentor, Victor Sullivan, stumbled upon Max, captivated by his enigmatic allure and undeniable charm. Little did Max know that this encounter would set in motion a series of events that would shape his journey as a treasure hunter and test the depths of his character.

Their meeting ignited a passionate and tumultuous affair, fueled by the intoxicating rush of shared adventures and the allure of the unknown. Max's magnetic personality and self-assured bravado left an indelible mark on Niamh. Yet, beneath the surface of their fiery connection, Max's underlying ambitions reared their head. In a moment of vulnerability and desire, he succumbed to the temptation to steal Niamh’s map leading to the coveted Eye of the Sahara, forever tainting their intimate night with the bitter taste of betrayal.

This encounter with Niamh set the stage for a complex and ever-evolving dynamic between Max, Niamh, and Sully. Their paths would intertwine time and again, driven by their shared pursuit of treasures and the lingering mix of attraction and resentment.

Max's encounters with Niamh remained an indelible presence in his life. The unfinished business and unresolved tension served as constant reminders of their intense connection. While Niamh's heart ultimately found solace in the embrace of Nathan Drake, Max couldn't help but be drawn back into the web of their shared history whenever their paths crossed.

Through introspection, forgiveness, and personal growth, Max sought redemption for his past actions. He learned from his mistakes, fostering a newfound sense of honor, integrity, and a genuine desire to seek artifacts of historical significance. The allure of wealth and fame lost its luster, replaced by a quest for self-discovery and the chance to rewrite his story.

#uncharted oc #oc: max powers #fd: uncharted #tw: guns #tw: gif #long post

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biglisbonnews · 1 year

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The Hunt for an Elusive Florida Shipwreck That Killed 41 Enslaved People Carysfort Reef was dark under the new moon. Coral tentacles undulated with the changing tide, while black-tipped sharks patrolled for lobster, twisting their snouts into cracks and crevices. Then, a crash! The hull of the Guerrero ripped through the corals. On impact, its mast snapped, plowing through a hold packed with men, women, and children. As water rushed into the breached hull, screams could be heard across two miles of ocean. Ultimately, 41 of the 561 captive Africans aboard would die on that stormy night in 1827. Nearly 200 years later, those same blue-green waters are now sparkling and calm under the hot sun. A group of mostly African American scuba divers, led by Ken Stewart, chat in excited anticipation as they check their gear. They’ve plunged into the northern Florida Keys’ Biscayne National Park dozens of times before in their search for the remains of the pirate slave ship Guerrero. Finding it would make history: It would be the first wreck of a slave ship in U.S. waters that went down with enslaved people aboard. The clock is ticking, however. This will be one of the group’s final attempts. “I never went to college, you know,” says Stewart, cofounder of Diving With a Purpose (DWP), an African American marine archaeology and conservation nonprofit. “I barely got out of high school. I was not involved with history. But this one story just really stuck with me. It set me on this journey.” Stewart’s odyssey began about 20 years ago, when he first heard about the Guerrero—from me. We connected when I was looking for Black divers to interview for a documentary about the ship and the people it carried. The story instantly captivated him—but it was something two of his young diving students said about the Guerrero that kicked off an epic hunt that would last for decades. At the time, 14-year-old Chris Cannon and his fellow student Marcus Johnson said that they were personally motivated to learn what their ancestors had experienced, but that most teens felt, as Cannon put it, “Knowing about that stuff is really not important in our generation.” His words caught Stewart’s attention and led the master diver to wonder: Would teaching young people their history make a difference in their lives? Fueled by the need to find out—and to find the Guerrero—Stewart teamed with Biscayne National Park archaeologist Brenda Lanzendorf. He created DWP to train Black divers in marine archaeological techniques to ensure they would be involved with documenting it if it was found. And he embarked on a quest to teach his diving students about the African Diaspora and today’s lingering impacts of the Middle Passage, the transatlantic voyage that enslaved Africans were forced to endure. Since then, DWP, later joined by its offshoot Youth Diving With a Purpose, has searched for the Guerrero around the Florida Keys nearly every year. Lanzendorf was a driving force in the early years but died in 2008. In 2017, a National Park Service-funded magnetometer survey conducted in the southern third of the park detected more than 1,000 anomalies. Any of them might be a piece of the Guerrero. Since then, DWP and Biscayne archaeologists have systematically dived on them, and found artifacts such as bar shot and copper spikes, but nothing identifiable to the pirate ship specifically. This summer they’re set to dive on the final 70 anomalies found during the survey. After that, their options will be exhausted. Says Stewart: “We’re closing the chapter on the Guerrero one way or another." The final voyage of the pirate ship Guerrero began somewhere off Africa’s western coast when Captain Jose Gomez and his crew likely kidnapped people already held captive on two other ships. The Guerrero’s destination was Cuba, where auctions of enslaved people were still held. Although slavery was legal at the time, the trade of buying and selling people had been banned by the United States and United Kingdom, and British patrols were on the lookout for illegal slavers. Gomez was nearly home free when Lieutenant Edward Holland, aboard the British schooner HMS Nimble, spotted him. The pursuit was on, heading west through the Straits of Florida. The Guerrero’s copper-plated hull made it one of the fastest ships of its day—but the Nimble, itself a former slave ship, gained ground. A storm pounded both ships with heavy swells and squalls. Darkness fell and a firefight ensued. Then both ships hit the reef. The Nimble’s rudder was destroyed, but the crew was eventually able to free the ship by throwing heavy items overboard. The Guerrero was a total loss. “You can imagine [Holland’s] thinking at the time,” said historian Gail Swanson in a 2003 interview. “His duty was to save the people on the slave ship from a lifetime of slavery in the Cuban fields, [but] he accidentally ran them to their doom in the waters off of Key Largo. And he could do nothing to assist them; his ship could not sail.” It was Swanson, an independent scholar, who years earlier began following a string of evidence in dusty archives that led her to uncover the story of the Guerrero. Without her dedicated detective work, the ship likely would have remained forgotten, and Stewart might never have created DWP and YDWP, which have gained international acclaim. Divers trained by the organizations have documented slave shipwrecks including the São José Paquete D’Africa near Cape Town, and assisted in site surveys such as that of a downed Tuskegee Airmen plane in Lake Huron. But when Stewart began DWP, slave ships and the Middle Passage weren’t popular subjects. “When it comes to archaeology, that type of thing, it's just not sexy. People want Spanish galleons with treasure and that type of thing” says DWP cofounder and lead instructor Erik Denson. “But it’s a history that needs to be told.” The Guerrero is, in many ways, a microcosm of that bigger history—it’s one of the reasons Stewart and his team are so driven to locate the wreck. The brutality of the Middle Passage—when tens of thousands of ships like the Guerrero transported millions of people against their will to the Americas over four centuries—is hard to comprehend in both its immensity and duration. It’s vital to understand, however, because of the way slavery shaped our nation and our communities on every level, from the way being severed from one’s ancestry can affect the descendents of enslaved people on an intuitive level to the fact that many of our most powerful institutions exist because trade in human lives made them possible. “You could almost say that [the Middle Passage] was the most critical factor in terms of this whole brash experiment in colonization succeeding, if that could be called a success,” says historian and artist Dinizulu Gene Tinnie. “Without having this huge unpaid labor force and generator of capital from human trafficking, how would this colonization have ever really taken off?” The hunt for the Guerrero is important, Stewart says, because it’s a chance to get hands-on with a history that might otherwise seem intangible—and also a history that, ironically, is being censored in the very state where divers are searching for the slave ship. While many high schools across the U.S. don't include the Middle Passage in their curriculum, the mostly-teen members of YDWP have been at the forefront of the search for the Guerrero. Twelve high schoolers and college students will be on the final expedition this summer, including three from Cahuita, Costa Rica, where the wrecks of two Danish slave ships have recently been identified. “They ran aground there and the captive Africans made it up to the hills and started a community,” says Stewart. “So they could be their ancestors. But again, it’s not taught in their schools either. So they’re doing the research on their own.” As Stewart knows, there is no guarantee this research project—the hunt for the Guerrero—will locate the wreck. Despite historical accounts that provide an unusually detailed description of where the ship went down, hurricanes can scatter and bury its remnants, and shipworms can eat through any exposed wood. And, as current Biscayne National Park archaeologist Joshua Marano puts it, “The reef itself acts like a giant cheese grater…we typically don’t have that much on the surface.” Marano has worked with YDWP for a decade and remains hopeful that the Guerrero may turn up. “It would be unlikely to find an intact wreck that we don’t know about,” he says. “But it’s not out of the question.” Without an intact ship, it may be more difficult to identify a wreck as the Guerrero. Many historical wrecks are confirmed by the presence of the ship’s bell, which includes its name—an unlikely item for a covert, illegal pirate ship. Because of the length of time that has passed, it’s almost certain they will not find any human remains. It’s more likely that what’s left of the Guerrero will be puzzle pieces that need to be assembled to confirm the ship’s identity: copper sheathing from the hull, cannon balls with the British broad arrow mark, fired or tossed from the Nimble, or, perhaps most compelling of all, shackles. There have been a number of promising discoveries. A few years ago, divers located a type of small cannon called a carronade that was, says Marano, “in the right spot [and] approximately the right [age].” But he determined it was probably from one of the reef’s many other wrecks from the 1820s. “There are literally wrecks on top of each other, and with fragmentary evidence it’s very difficult to determine definitively whether or not you found a site.” Other tantalizing artifacts have been recovered in nearby John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Archaeologist Corey Malcolm and divers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found artifacts from the Guerrero’s era, including an anchor, cast-iron shot, and ballast, but nothing definitive. “If they find something, then we can all compare notes,” says Malcolm, who has collaborated with Stewart and DWP over the years. “We’ll see which site makes sense.” Even if the Guerrero remains undiscovered, the years-long search for it is already a success. DWP’s volunteers have introduced hundreds of young Black men and women to scuba diving, environmental science, and history, including the story of the 41 people who perished aboard the Guerrero, and countless others on other ships of the Middle Passage. “Nobody was really telling their story.” “Nobody was really telling their story, and there’s so many other cases like that,” says Greg Hood. Hood, a sophomore with a double major in aerospace engineering and psychology at Ohio State, started with YDWP when he was 14 and was recently elected its first president. He’ll be on the expedition this summer. “I believe that our work is important, because we can discover those stories and give those people a voice and amplify those stories to the world.” The stories of the 520 survivors of the Guerrero are also being heard. After the wreck, the slave ship captain Gomez hijacked two of the three ships that came to the Guerrero’s rescue, and still managed to sell 398 captives into slavery in Cuba. The other survivors were taken to Key West, then to Jacksonville, where they worked on plantations while awaiting presidential approval to return to Africa. While some of the Guerrero survivors died from disease and exhaustion, 92 of them, including at least one child, eventually set foot on African soil—but not that of their homeland. They were taken to Liberia, like others freed from intercepted slave ships, passing their stories to their descendents. While Stewart still wonders whether teaching young people about their history makes a difference in their lives, the young people who have been diving with his organizations seem to be living proof that yes, it does. Rachel Stewart (no relation), 27, has been with DWP for a decade. After defending her environmental engineering thesis in May, she’ll join the final search for the Guerrero. “I love to dive. I love nature, the experience of being underwater, and then adding this extra component of how I’m being connected to history and my ancestors,” she says. “With everything that’s going on in the craziness of the world, we have to continue to tell these stories.” https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/slave-ship-guerrero-florida

#Karuna Eberl #Atlas Obscura

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