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thepastisalreadywritten · 30 days

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The most powerful moment of the coronation of King Charles III was not the gold glittering off carriages or epaulettes — not the pomp and show and signifiers of power.

It was precisely their opposite: when Charles shed his gold robes and stood in a thin white shirt, his frail humanity implied.

Then a screen was erected around him and, shielded, he had a private consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who dabbed anointing oil with his hands on Charles’s bare breast.

"This was the most solemn and personal of moments,” Buckingham Palace said.

Charles was bare before God, in privacy, God being one of the last beings with no need to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

The Princess of Wales looked on as the screen shielded her father-in-law.

By contrast, she was at that point the most magnificent she had ever been, swathed in layer upon layer of regality, the dress, the robes, the hanging chains, headpiece and ribbons all serving to move the viewing gaze — subjects in every sense — from our awareness of Catherine Middleton with her everyday human DNA and towards the shared fiction of her transcendent queenliness.

Less than a year later, this moment is remembered with new and terrible power.

It is spring again, but it’s a time of hard Lenten moral reflection for us as a nation, in relationship to our royals, as well as an ever more voraciously unprivate modern celebrity culture.

Both the King and the princess have cancer, the latter’s disclosed by Catherine in an unprecedented video address on Friday, March 22.

Catherine’s speech was something of a plea bargain in which she traded not only her customary silence but her most personal of health ordeals in order to put an end to toxic rumours swirling online that had become in tone like an unruly mob rattling at the palace gates.

Or rattling at the figurative locks on her medical notes, with three workers at the London Clinic, where she and the King were treated, suspended and under investigation for allegedly trying to access her records (hers, it is important to note, the King’s were unmolested).

📷: Getty Images

What was so powerful about the anointing of the King was the sacredness of that space in which he could be fully human away from observation and judgment.

There should be another one-on-one consultation that is sacred, where anyone, from King to princess to pauper, can expect to be shriven in total privacy, and that is the sanctity of the medical room.

It used to be that priests were our only bound confidants, we could trust them to be privy to all our spiritual ills.

Now doctors are our secular priests: bound by law and ethics to enshrine confidentiality at the heart of the patient relationship.

As a result, our medical privacy in an age of oversharing and online surveillance feels both stranger and more necessary.

If we knew our every GP-inspected rash was to be posted on TikTok for the nation, many of us would quite literally die of embarrassment.

The King’s appointment behind the three-sided screen can now be viewed through the lens of royal illness.

The lavishly embroidered panels and expensive white shirt now replaced by the flimsy three-sided ward screen on wheels and thin hospital gown that can humble us all.

But it also enacts a principle at the very heart of becoming the monarch.

The medical-like screen is erected in the coronation to tell us there are some places the public cannot go; to tell us that there are sacredly personal moments in which a person, any person, however swathed in our projections of power, needs to be nakedly human.

Otherwise, they will go mad. We need to make sure the screens are erected around Catherine now.

Much is said, quite a lot of it by Prince Harry himself, of the dangers of the wives of the princes repeating the tragic history of their mother, Princess Diana, hunted by photographers.

He remains phobic to any hint of tabloid persecution or paparazzi chase. But this is a sideshow, even an anachronism in 2024.

He and others have not recognised how the “chase” has changed. Who needs paparazzi when there are a billion citizen hacks ready to take pictures with their phones, in case a convalescing woman nips to a Windsor farm shop with her husband?

Instead, the appetite now is not to see but to know.

The royals used to have a contract with the public: we pay for them, and in return, they give us their presence.

Nearly all of their official job is to do with surface: to show up, to put in appearances at a set number of functions, whether at the opening of parliament or the opening of a leisure centre.

But now parts of the online mob seem to be staging a coup. We want more than the surface, we want to puncture the skin barrier of the royal family and occupy from the inside.

The “fans” have become an invasive virus. The royal analogy is often that they are trapped in a gilded zoo. This new model, instead, casts the royals more as lab rats.

When Catherine disappeared from view in January after announcing a “planned abdominal operation,” the response from internet truthers was one of irate entitlement.

They are now the 1980s tabloids: ravening for intimacies and making stuff up when thwarted.

This wasn’t the boomer generation, who are both more respectful of the royals and more private about their own health.

It was the fortysomething mothers frustrated when they can’t track the phone location of everyone in their life; or the twentysomethings on Snap Map.

Both desperate for their personalised new Netflix season of “The Royals” to drop.

Catherine presents with such stoicism and dignity, it is easy to forget where this new invasiveness started: when she was pregnant with Prince George in December 2012 and hospitalised for extreme morning sickness.

While she was sleeping on the ward, a radio station in Australia rang the hospital switchboard pretending to be the Queen.

They broadcast the nurse’s comments about Catherine’s “retching.”

One could only find this prank funny if Catherine had already — a young, wretchedly ill, pregnant woman — been dehumanised.

George is now ten and his mother hospitalised again, and in that decade, the physical security of ill royals may have tightened but their claim to bodily autonomy seems to have weakened.

Some say Kensington Palace “brought it on themselves” by their wish for discretion; this claim is duplicitous.

The late Queen Elizabeth II became increasingly debilitated in her final years with not much detail ever given; just as her father, King George VI, died without disclosing his lung cancer.

I’m glad that the British do not subject their heads of state to the same publicised medical reports as the president of the United States; one shouldn’t have to present a stool swab to sit on the throne.

No, instead the apparent justification of all those clicking and posting conspiracy theories “worried for Catherine’s welfare” was this sinful truth.

As a beautiful, 42-year-old mother of three, her drama was more box office than the ailments of those older, a pound of her flesh was worth more.

Pity, Susan Sontag said in her 1978 book Illness as Metaphor, is close to contempt.

Back then cancer was still taboo. Those around the patient, Sontag says, “express pity but also convey contempt.”

Ask any cancer patient and they will say they don’t want pity: it is too isolating, it sets them apart, an unwanted privilege.

This is why the video plea of Catherine was one of affinity, rather than pity or privilege.

Last year, she sat in robes in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of her father-in-law, next to her future king son and future king husband.

In her video address last week, she sat on a classically English garden bench, pale, alone and in jeans, as bare of pomp as any royal can be.

No mention of kings or titles, just Diana’s ring on her hand.

Rather she gave an appeal, parent to parent, human to human, about her “huge shock” and her care for her “young family.”

And, finally, her kinship with anyone who lives in a vulnerable human body susceptible to a democratic illness like cancer, “you are not alone.”

Or, to paraphrase Richard Curtis:

“I’m just a girl, standing in front of a public, asking for some time to endure gruelling chemotherapy."

NOTE: Additional photos have been included in this article.

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stringcage · 1 year

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raven girls ? 🫣

#cringe culture is dead we post genderbends in 2023 and die like men #adam intense side part + shitty braids is CRUCIAL. it is very important to me #the raven cycle #ronan lynch #noah czerny #adam parrish #gansey #richard campbell gansey iii #henry cheng #pynch #chengsey #the raven boys #the dream thieves #blue lily lily blue #the raven king #the raven cycle fanart #my art #genderbend #gender swap

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shakespearenews · 1 year

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In Richard III, “now is the winter of our discontent” is ignored, as is “a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse”. The notebook’s author preferred the queen’s curse: “My tongue should to thy eares not name my Boyes / Till that my Nayles were anchor’d in thine eyes.”

#william shakespeare #exhibitions #culture #heritage #uk news #shakespeare #manuscript #first folio #shakespeare birthplace trust #richard iii #elizabeth of york

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blueiskewl · 15 days

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Carrot Harvest Helped Metal Detectorist FindA Ancient Coins Hoard

When Alan Baxter found a medieval ring in a farmer's field he knew there could be more ancient artefacts nearby - but the stubble from the thick oat crop made it difficult for his metal detector to get anywhere near the ground. So he waited.

Four years later the farmer had planted and harvested carrots.

"It must have had a deep plough when the carrots got lifted and I could get my detector right to the soil," the 44-year-old said.

"Every 3ft I was getting a signal. I couldn't move, there was stuff everywhere.

"I didn't want to go home."

The highlight of his haul in 2022 was a hoard of farthings from the reign of 15th Century Scottish King James III.

"I got my first one and I knew it was really rare because I know my coins," he said.

"After that it was just like a tap, it just kept on going, and over the course of a few weeks I pulled 52 of them."

The 500-year-old coins, which were made of copper and were worth a quarter of a penny, were in very good condition, Mr Baxter, from Falkirk, said.

The coins are irregular shapes. They have the Saltire - the cross of St Andrew - on one side and a crown on the other.

"To hold something that's hundreds of years old for the first time is extraordinary," he said.

"You get a real buzz going up and down your body which lasts all day and all night."

An expert at the National Museum of Scotland said it was the first hoard of James III farthings to be found since 1919.

Metal detectorists need to ask for permission from landowners to search on their land and anything they find must be handed into the Treasure Trove for analysis and recording.

Under Scottish law all finds of archaeological, historical or cultural significance must be reported and can be claimed by the Crown.

Neither detectorists nor landowners have ownership rights to any archaeological finds made in Scotland. Finds that are allocated to a museum through the Treasure Trove system are usually acknowledged by an award paid to the detectorist.

Detectorists generally split the money with the landowner.

Mr Baxter has detected at many sites, all of which he keeps a closely guarded secret. They include the 14-acre fields in Fife where he has now found more than 500 pieces ranging from the Bronze Age to the medieval period.

"I go along to farmers' doors with my portfolio of previous finds and show them what I do and ask them for permission to detect on their land," he said.

"You try to make yourself presentable, you put gel in your hair and wash your car and turn up in nice clothes.

"I hate getting permission because it's quite awkward speaking to the landowner. Farmers are busy and the last thing they want to do is speak to a wee guy asking for metal detecting permission."

The James III hoard has been put into the British numismatics journal, which charts the best finds in the country.

It also includes two Balliol coins which Mr Baxter discovered at the site in Fife. These farthings are extremely rare and are the only two to have ever been found in Scotland.

John Balliol reigned as king of Scotland from 1292 to 1296.

The find was allocated to the National Museums of Scotland and £5,000 was paid out.

Mr Baxter has also found 69 medieval coins from the reign of English King Edward I, whose armies invaded Scotland at the end of the 13th Century.

The medieval ring, which was his first find on the Fife site, dates between the 13th and 14th century.

"Initially I thought it was a bottle top because when it came out of the ground I could see the silver edges," Mr Baxter said.

"I saw the writing at the side and the big clasped hands at the front and I thought: 'That's a medieval ring'.

"It was just a great feeling to see it because it was a sunny day and it was twinkling away and it was in really good condition because it's been coated in gold, which has protected it from the soil."

Mr Baxter, who works as a lab technician, said he believed it was a betrothal ring.

"It would have been a higher status individual who owned it," he said.

"It weighs 9.5g, it's a heavy piece. A medieval penny would weigh about 1.2g, so that's about seven medieval pennies, so it wouldn't have been a peasant who owned that at the time."

The ring is silver but it has been coated in gold. It was eight inches down in the ground when his detector picked it up.

Mr Baxter, who has written a book entitled Making history: My Life As a Scottish Metal Detectorist, said it was hard for people to understand how difficult it was to find ancient artefacts.

He said: "In a general field 90% of the time there will be nothing in it.

"You could go in all the fields on the right and left along the M9 from Falkirk to Edinburgh and there would be nothing in them apart from modern Victorian stuff or Georgian stuff.

"It's hard to get stuff that's beyond 500 and 600 years old because the population was a lot lower."

Mr Baxter said a field could be full of medieval items, but detectors were not going to find them if the crops were too high.

"Then it comes down to knowledge and the best conditions," he said.

"You need to know that the crops need to be soft cut.

"Barley and wheat is softer than oats. When oats get cut the stubble is really hard.

"And obviously the carrot harvest was the best."

By Angie Brown.

#Carrot Harvest Helped Metal Detectorist FindA Ancient Coins Hoard #Alan Baxter #Scottish King James III #coin hoard #coin collecting #hoard of farthings #metal detecting #ancient artifacts #archeology #archeolgst #history #history news #ancient history #ancient culture #ancient civilizations #medieval #middle ages #dark ages

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podcastenthusiast · 7 months

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It's common knowledge I think that if you don't have sex with Lae'zel at the party, she can get it on someone else you're not with that night. I've heard Wyll is an option as is Astarion. I don't know if there are more.

And if it's Astarion, afterwards she tells you he "served his use" and she may seek out his services again, which like. Lae'zel is my homegirl okay 100%. but I think about that line at least once a week and it makes me feel physically ill. I hope he didn't overhear it.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 spoilers #lae'zel #astarion #astarion ancunin #baldur's gate iii #like she doesn't know all his baggage and she has very different cultural ideas about sex and stuff #but good god

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meadowsofmay · 6 months

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i really like the point percy makes (and that vax eventually agrees with) about civilization during their conversation about westruun after umbrasyl was killed — a city built by very people's hands deserves preservation and saving as much as those same people leaving in it.

«the death of the city is such a blasphemy. it is the murder of the dead. and i am horrified.»

«building will give them [people of westruun] something to do. and if the dragon comes back, they will be safe underground. and if the dragon doesn't, we have saved thousand of years of inspiration and life. it's... you can't just abandon something like this! there's too much here.

vax: otherwise, what else are we fighting for?

otherwise, it becomes our friend pike from nowhere.»

it's such a beautiful point about history and culture being as important to keeping human civilization alive as saving lives of people. preserving knowledge build into the walls of cities can become a new starting point, a foundation that the new generation will be built upon, more equipped and smart. and just not entirely faceless. remembering the culture is important, it's an identity, it's a customized dress that tells about the roots of beliefs and explains people's behavior. it's a wisdom carefully interwoven into the tale of creation of this specific piece of the world.

the culture is important.

and percy being the one who lost overnight his whole family and his town knows about it more than a man of his age would want to. the history of his family was inseparable from the culture of whitestone and one of briarwoods' goals was to tear it down in the most cruel way. to smear the de rolo's name in their own blood and dirt and render their town faceless and hopeless, only useful of their own vicious plans.

and it now makes so much sense to me personally why vax was so determined to use pelor as a symbol of hope, spreading it as a signal everywhere he went. he understood it, too. he saw pieces of whitestone culture being destroyed and wanted to bring them to life in people's hearts in the form of symbolism carried over in spoken word. and yes, he wanted to help percy. yes, it was done for the rebellion. but one doesn't cancel the other. and in my opinion, it wasn't just about percy defeating the briarwoods but more about percy being a still alive and standing piece of whitestone history and culture that can be and should be a symbol himself.

a symbol of rebirth of the culture that there used to be, a culture attached to the de rolo family and hence attached to whitestone.

i just find all of this incredibly compelling in terms of character building and in terms of simply being a human being serching for what's important in life.

#vax being a child of two cultures and yet not belonging to any of them #really does appreciate the importance of culture being important for other people #and percy just has so much wisdom at times like this #he might have not been trained to rule as he said himself but he definitely is a keeper of knowledge #he loves history and culture and languages and he just can have westruun lose all of that #because that's what he was taught to love and he does #i just love it #it's such a beautiful conversation #may c1 watch through #ep 56 #percy de rolo #vax'ildan #percival fredrickstein von musel klossowski de rolo iii #vax #vox machina #critical role

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anokayapple-blog · 3 months

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Lessons in Being a Fan/in a Fandom

In light of what happened with III and the possibility of Sleep Token no longer making music, I would like to refresh some of us who participate in media and fandom on how to engage with media in a healthy way and keep these artists safe and comfortable in interacting with their fanbase.

Of course, it isn't new for artists and content creators to feel hesitancy in interacting with their fanbases. Taylor Swift has been accused of being queer for a very long time and there are some people in her fandom that still refuse to believe she isn't queer and will become enraged at the suggestion she isn't. There is the rumor that Markiplier and Jacksepticeye don't make videos together anymore/rarely will make videos together because of the Septiplier stuff getting out of hand. So, I'm not saying this is a new behavior for some fans to exhibit, I just want to do my part to try and encourage good behavior among not just other fans, but other people in general.

Things to not Do:

This will be a comprehensive list of things I've seen in most fandoms that i would call "feral" behavior. If you do these things currently, i would highly encourage you to stop. It is not healthy behavior, and it certainly isn't good for you or whoever is on the receiving end.

Doxing in general. If you seek out the addresses/phone numbers of an artists/content creators/influencers at all, it's not okay. If you do this with the intention of going to visit them, you are weird. Think of it like showing up to a coworker/classmates home uninvited. No one really wants that, especially if they don't know you that well or at all. This is not healthy behavior and could land you with legal issues. Please, please do not do this.

Sexual advances. I'm sorry to say this, but you are not in a Wattpad story, and you are not Y/N. It is very, very unlikely that an artist/content creator/influencer will EVER take you up on these advances or date/marry you. Honestly it's kind of predatory if they do. Sure, it's fun to imagine, but to chase after them like this (especially at a meet and greet or just running into them on the street) is really uncomfortable for them, and frankly is super cringe to watch. Just to add onto this, please do not send these people explicit messages and images. If you don't want them from randos, they don't want them from you.

Hateful messages. Sometimes our favorite artists and creators do something we don't like. This could be them saying something insensitive or doing something dumb or dangerous. This does not mean we get to fill their comments or inboxes with hate (more on this below). The Taylor Swift situation is a good example for this, Taylor Swift has said many times that she isn't queer, and she gets hate for this. She in no way has done anything to lead people to believe she is homophobic or transphobic or anything, but she still receives hate just for being cishet. You see this a lot in kpop fandoms as well, especially if a certain idol has put on weight or has done something to not abide by/naturally does not abide by beauty standards. They receive hate for interacting with idols of a different sex because they "could be flirting" or "could be dating." Honestly i feel bad for kpop idols because i feel like they get hate just for breathing. I will say this again: if you send hate to an artist or creator for something miniscule like this, you are being weird. You need to stop. This is not healthy behavior and you need to stop and think of why you do this because. It is very damaging behavior not just for the person on the receiving end, but for you as well.

Being delulu. It's kind of a meme, but honestly it's startling to see how many people genuinely believe in their delusional fantasies and try to bring them to life with artists and creators. Please stop doing this, it is cringe and can at times be distressing for creators and artists.

Just to double down on this: this behavior is dangerous for artists and creators. It is harmful to their mental health and can at times be harmful for them physically. I am begging you on my hands and knees to not continue with this behavior and to make better choices.

Engaging Healthily:

This is a list of ways to engage with fandom culture in a healthy way and to encourage others to do so as well.

Engage with content. Leaving a like on an artist or creators media is always a nice, arm's length way to participate in fandoms. Lurking is absolutely fine, leaving a comment to tell them how much you enjoy their content is even better. I highly encourage you to do this with smaller creators, as feedback is the best way to keep them posting! Share their media as well! Please keep in mind when you do this, keep it positive! There is such a thing as unproductive criticism! Please also do not be creepy!

When going to meet and greets, it's absolutely okay to tell creators and artists that their art has saved your life. If their art means a lot to you, let them know! Please always ask before you hug, please do not kiss them. It's okay to cry. When it is time to move on, please don't linger too long. Please don't make sexual advances on them or touch them inappropriately. If you want to be silly or goofy, ask them to participate! If they say no, that's sad, but move on. Don't be mean.

If you see your favorite creator on the street or out in the wild, please read the room if you want to approach. It is perfectly okay to approach and tell them you like their content. If they seem to not want to have a conversation or take a selfie, then leave it at that. Please don't force it on them. If they seem receptive, go ahead and ask for a selfie or an autograph! If they still say no, then leave it at that! It's certainly okay to be disappointed in not getting that, but being mean about it isn't fair to that artist or creator. Once the interaction seems to be at an end, move on with your day.

Guys, it's this easy. Artists and creators are people just like you and me, and chances are if you wouldn't want this behavior done to you, they don't want it done to them. Treat artists and creators as normal people, they have feelings and emotions and lives just like the rest of us. They are not deities or Gods, they are mortals who fart and poop and make mistakes just like we do. The sooner we learn this, the sooner we can engage with these creators better.

Okay, but Apple, sometimes these people suck.

This is very true. Sometimes these artists and creators suck a lot. Sometimes they make mistakes that boggle our minds and hold beliefs that are damaging for people like them to have a platform. So what do we do, then? How do we vent our frustrations and do our best to lower or totally abolish their platforms?

Hey, super easy: stop engaging with their media. But APPLE. What if that isn't enough? Well, let's gauge it.

For those of you who were on social media back in the wild west days, you may remember Onision. To make a long story short: he is walking garbage. He has been totally deplatformed because people stopped engaging with his media. Not only that, a lot of people told other people about what he did and said to stop engaging with him. Onision did his best to do damage control and at times did some absurd things to try and get some of that sweet, sweet bad publicity, but in the end his channel died. Sure, he still posts, but he has little to no engagement.

Let's look at this from a different perspective. JK Rowling is a known TERF. She does her best to demonize and at times try to erase trans culture and existence. Many, many people do their best to voice this about JKR and do not engage with her media to try and lower her platform. Of course, it is very hard to do this because Harry Potter is a literal cash cow and you can find HP merchandise for literally everything. So how do we deal with this? Well, we simply don't engage. We spread awareness and ignore her. Does it do a lot? No, she's a billionaire. We can't touch her. But we can certainly denounce her and let her know we don't approve.

Fantastic. So when you say "let her know we don't approve" you mean threaten her on social media and dox her, right? Hey, no! That is unhealthy behavior! While some of us would love nothing more than to see JKR get her just desserts for being a TERF, YOU SHOULD NOT BRING HARM TO ANY PERSON UNLESS THEY ARE DIRECTLY HARMING YOU. And when i say directly harming, i mean literally hitting you with fists or baseball bats or something.

It is perfectly acceptable to be mad and frustrated at the inhuman things some of these people with platforms do/say, especially if it is harmful to your way of life. No one is saying you can't be, and no one is saying there is nothing you can do about it. What you can't do is be the reason someone gets hurt or dies. That is the very real outcome of some of these behaviors. I promise you, if someone gets hurt or dies from your behavior, no matter who they are, you are going to feel it and you will never be okay again.

Hey Apple, you're wrong and you should feel bad.

Nuh uh.

If you don't like this, sorry. I'm putting this here in an effort to be a positive force in the world and if you don't agree that is perfectly fine. Not everyone has the ability to gauge when its okay to approach their favorite creators, and not everyone knows when they're getting a little too excited to meet their favorite person. I completely understand that, and it is okay if you make things a little awkward because of this. No one is saying you're a bad person for not being able to figure this out. Sometimes we need learning opportunities, sometimes we simply go on with our lives.

I am saying if you are going into a situation with the intent on harming someone or ruining their day, you suck. I don't care who you are or what your beliefs are, you are propagating bad energy and you should feel bad.

I know it doesn't feel like it, but the world isn't black and white. Everything is gray, some things are darker shades of gray and others are lighter shades. Sometimes the rules in this post won't apply, other times they will. I am begging you guys to take this seriously and stop being feral to our favorite artists and creators because when you act out of pocket you ruin it for the rest of us. Because someone decided to act like a wild child and dox III, it is very possible we will lose a band that could make (and very much have already made) waves in the music industry and possibly change the game altogether.

Let's try to keep this from happening again. Hold your friends and those you see on social media accountable, be the change you want to see.

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theconjurervfx · 5 months

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Vlad III Drăculea

#bram stocker's dracula #1992 #vlad the impaler #vlad III Draculea #gary oldman #battle #mood #red #pop culture #violence #gore

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mattzerella-sticks · 6 days

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My Idea for a Live-Action X-Men Movie...

Thinking... how can we introduce the X-Men into live action, whether through movie, tv show, limited series, etc. ... and I have an idea.

Let's start in media res.

Charles Xavier's School for the Gifted has been active for the past few years, however with a small class size of seven. Scott. Jean. Bobby. Hank. Warren. Alex. Lorna. Despite only consisting of seven students, due to Xavier's wealth he has been able to keep his school open and thriving since the beginning.

However that has changed as the size of his class has dropped from seven to one after a botched mission led to the capture of his students save one, Scott Summers.

And the opening scene is Xavier sitting in his mansion, worried, waiting, until Scott kicks his door down, tells them his team is gone, and passes out due to exhaustion.

We then pick up on our narrator for the movie, the character whose eyes we will be seeing the entire movie take place through, stepping off a plane and into JFK airport...

Ororo Munroe. Storm.

She had travelled from her home in Africa seemingly on a whim, as if drawn there by fate, and - unsure where to go or what to do next - she goes to a nearby bar to make her next plan.

Who should happen to sit next to her but a short, hairy man in a cowboy hat and a thick, Canadian accent?

Ororo, meet Logan. They do not hit it off.

She does happen to hit it off with the soft spoken Russian man who is reading poetry at the other end of the bar - Piotr Rasputin - and the bartender, a Native American man - James Proudstar - who wasn't supposed to be working that day but traded shifts with his roommate.

While they are all gathered there they hear a voice in their heads and turn around to see Charles Xavier, a man they all recognize and all soon realize is the reason they are now gathered together in this bar. At first they all want to leave but Xavier implores them to at least first hear him out, which they agree to do, but he tells them he won't start until the final member of their group is here.

Cue shouts and gunfire as Kurt - Nightcrawler - runs, leaps, and teleports across the airport in all his blueness.

Xavier manages to calm the crowd however not before one of the security guards manages to call in that the threat is a mutant and it's a race to grab Kurt before reinformcements arrive. But wouldn't you know it the group is not the best team yet and the reinforcements do arrive in the form of Sentinels.

It seems like all hope is lost when, out of nowhere, a stray quartz-colored beam blows one of the Sentinels apart and allows the group a moment to escape. They regroup in Xavier's car, which had been where Scott was waiting while Xavier gathered the others.

They return to the mansion where Xavier explains what happens to his team, that they were responding to a mutant in distress on an island that had ultimately been a trap - with only Scott escaping. The group has been gathered together to help Xavier and Scott rescue their teammates.

It's mostly a resounding no. Piotr would rather be at home on the farm. James has to go searching for a new job since he undoubtedly got fired from the bar for leaving during shift hours. Logan is "not a team player" and believes that the team is most likely dead anyway. Kurt is game but he is also "not the best fighter".

Ororo also agrees to help.

That surprises everyone. She says that while the circumstances that brought them together were underhanded, she cannot sit idly by while innocent people, people like her with a mutant gene, are in danger. Not just those on the island, who they are tasked with rescuing, but around the world especially since Sentinels have become standard issue around the world. While she does not see herself being a full-time member, she knows that the team Xavier had protected mutants like them from these threats and, with them gone, who will protect their community now?

Xavier tells them that, after they help rescue his original team, they would be free to leave and do what they want with their lives as they please.

Piotr is in. So is James. Logan sighs and agrees, "Since I don't want to be the odd one out." They agree to go save the others. Scott says, however, that before they can mount the rescue mission, they need to become a team first - referencing their battle at the airport and how they need to improve.

They agree to train.

Meanwhile, on the island, we see that there is a Master Mold along with Trask and scientists working on creating the next model of Sentinels in their ongoing war against mutants using the captured mutants from Xavier's Academy as test subjects. The scientists are just as much as prisoners as the X-Men, however, as they were led to the island on false pretenses and forced to work for Master Mold who had, unbenknownst to everyone until the final act, had taken over Trask and controls him as a puppet.

A few of these scientists came with their families. One of these families were the Prydes. Katherine Anne Pryde is seen as a non-threat by both Master Mold and Trask, and is able to freely wander the island as well as speak with the prisoners because, since everything is monitored and she is twelve, she cannot do anything to disrupt the mission. We learn from this scene that Master Mold is on the cusp of unveiling a new breed of Sentinel that, using the schematics pulled from Jean's mind, would be able to track mutants anywhere without needing to be called in. It was luck that the X-Men arrived on their island, fell into their trap.

Meanwhile back in Westchester, NY, this new team of X-Men are having a hard time at coming together to work as a team, which is making Scott mad. He and Logan almost come to blows if not for Piotr stepping between them to break things up. They both step away to cool off.

Ororo decides to speak with both of them. First, she goes to Scott, and tells him that he is not being a good leader. They have a heart to heart where he confesses that his friends are his family, and Jean... he has a lot riding on this being a success, and this is as new to him as it is new to them. He is not used to working with people he hasn't grown up with. Ororo tells him that he needs to lead from a place of love and courage, and not fear. Then, she goes to find Logan to see that he is brushing off Kurt rather coldly and Ororo does not wait to take him to task on his loner attitude. They clash a bit before Ororo tells him to get his act together or just leave, as it shouldn't matter to him what they think if he really doesn't care.

They all agree to do another training session, only they never get the chance as Xavier tells them it is now or never as there was a spike of pain from the same island his first team was lost, and that cannot mean anything good. The heroes go to get suited up and fly to the island base.

Master Mold is ready to create his new breed of Sentinels and it looks like they are a success, as they have been fitted with new upgrades. He activates a few and they immediately power online with the alert that there is a mutant among them.

All eyes turn to Katherine Anne Pryde. Kitty.

Her father and mother object but are restrained as the Sentinels begin to pursue her, only able to tell her to run before they are knocked out. Kitty runs and manages to escape the Sentinels after discovering her ability to phase through solid matter. The escape is not fullproof as they burst out the bunker in full pursuit. When she reaches the beaches with what looks like no place left to go, the clouds part and reveal the Blackbird jet which Ororo had just exited from and is now flying down to confront the Sentinels she spotted chasing the little girl. The Sentinels sense her power and lock onto her, only to get blasted by lightning and turret fire.

The X-Men land and confront the Sentinels but, unlike at JFK, they are able to work together and take them down. Even Logan finds himself being a team player. They rescue Kitty and she tells them where the prisoners are and also what Master Mold is planning.

The team decides to split up - Scott, Piotr, and James will confront Master Mold while Ororo, Logan, and Kurt follow Kitty to the prison area.

Of course we stay with Ororo because, again, she is who we are relying to guide us through this story.

We get to the prison area and it's Ororo, Logan, and Kurt going HAM on these guards taking them down while Kitty uses her powers to free the X-Men. She manages to get to the main control room and hits the button that releases all the prisoners who do their best to help, despite being weakened from experiments and torture.

We learn from Kitty that there's a prisoner missing, and they admit that it's Jean. She was taken by Trask.

So the group races to the main room where Scott, Piotr, and James are and see a BUNCH of Sentinels on the loose and pure pandemonium. Piotr and James are on the ropes and Scott is putting up his best fight, however just as the group arrives the Sentinels converge and blast him, with a woman across the room watching calling out his name as he 'perishes' (we'll circle back on this later).

Without their leader and shocked, Ororo steps up and takes command, leading the group into battle like she's been doing it all her life against the Sentinels while Kitty and Kurt evacuate the scientists. She cuts across the room almost instantly to get to Trask and Jean where we finally learn that the former has been completely taken over by Master Mold and is now a Sentinel cyborg. They battle it out but it's a tough battle given the numbers they're against until there's a moment where Ororo and Jean are tucked away, shielded from incoming blaster fire from Trask and the Sentinels, when Jean places her hands to the ground and closes her eyes. Ororo asks what she's doing and Jean tells her she's asking for help.

"From who? Xavier only sent us?"

"From the mutant we came here to help in the first place. From the island."

BOOM! We get the reveal that the island. Krakoa, is a mutant and has been weakened by the experiments run on it by Master Mold and the Sentinel. Jean tells the group that they need to let Krakoa 'feed' on a piece of their energy to recupe its strength for it to help them and they all look to Ororo as it's her call, and she says they should do it. They do and the ground rumbles and shakes and we can see the island begin to terraform as it fights back against Master Mold and the Sentinels. It takes out MANY of them while the X-Men pick up the slack on the rest.

Ororo takes on Master Mold/Trask hybrid as the island begins to sink back into the ocean, with Trask, damaged, spouting nonsense. That he is there to save the world, that he is the FUTURE, the INEVITABLE, that the X-Men cannot prevent the world falling apart in the future, that they will be responsible for the apocalypse. However, with a lightning zap and some timely telekinesis, the group escapes back to the Blackbird as the rest of the island has already been evacuated.

The X-Men return to Westchester without Scott and inform Xavier of what happened.

Time moves on. They recover. They mourn. A memorial service is held for Scott. Xavier's original students, Warren, Bobby, Alex, Hank, and Lorna, decide to leave the school afterwards as they believe they need to come at the Sentinel problem another way. They form X-Force.

Xavier comes up to Ororo after the service and asks her to stay on, despite her having no obligation to do so. She watches Logan and Kurt keeping Kitty entertained while Piotr and James speak with her parents, about Kitty staying on at the school and learning from Professor Xavier, and decides that she would like to stay and lead the X-Men. Jean joins them and says that she'd be happy to be on any team Storm is leading, revealing that -of the original students - she is the only one who is staying with the X-Men. The three look out onto the horizon as there are endless possibilities for the X-Men now *play the theme song*

END CREDIT SCENE NUMBER ONE - Magneto watches Xavier's new team of X-Men in action and converses with Mystique, saying that, "If Charles has put together a new team of recruits, we should, too."

END CREDIT SCENE NUMBER TWO - A blonde woman in all white speaks with a raven-haird men with red eyes and a crimson diamond embedded in his head. "You pulled a lot of favors to get him, are you sure he's worth it?" "Believe me. He is." The duo, Emma Frost and Dr. Sinister are looking over the body of Scott Summers, very much NOT DEAD, held in stasis as the camera pans out and reveals the Hellfire Club.

And that would be how we introduce the X-Men, and mutants, into live action movies.

#marvel #mcu #x-men #ororo munroe #wolverine logan #piotr rasputin #kurt wagner #james proudstar #charles xavier #scott summers #jean grey #bobby drake #warren worthington III #hank mccoy #lorna dane #alex summers #krakoa #like personally you HAVE to start with the x-men team that changed EVERYTHING I.E. the team from giant size x-men #love to the core 5 because that was the humble beginnings but we can easily sum their experiences up in like 5 minutes #whereas you take the team from 1975... there's your story #throw in kitty really set yourself up for success and you have a story #however instead of having kitty be our stand-in to guide us through the plot - sorry girl i love you so much - we need it to be ororo #ororo who is having such a MOMENT in pop culture right now AND is dominating as a boss in comics #ororo who DESERVES her flowers #ororo who is the LIGHTNING #like put ororo center stage in the x-men/mutants universe and just let everything unfold #she should be the EYE of the STORM #and also this idea sets up so many other plotlines #you have X-Force which we can then follow in a miniseries #you have the Brotherhood where we can be introduced to ROGUE

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