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clintismoved · 2 months

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Wednesday spoilers

He's so pretty.

Putting the rest under the read more cause I have thoughts.

1. He is so pretty.

2. At least they got his inner thoughts right and hearing aid reference / they also show his intelligence in being we see him fixing his busted hearing aids himself since guess what clint actually has technical intelligence (he crafts/invents his own arrows)

3. He is right, he'd make waves in the fashion industry. He doesn't actually collect sneakers but he would; but he is the guy who has a few pairs of work shoes, and then one pair of civilian shoes that get beaten to hell and one pair of formal shoes.

4. This thing he said to Natasha? It's right. It's unfortunately the standard of most of modern Clint where he doesn't really see or talk to any of his people or cast of characters connected to him. When's the last time he was in an main team avengers? 2012. WCA doesn't count but that was good. Thunderbolts 2022 really doesn't count.

5. I don't have it, but once again Clint gets OFF PANEL developments; that he and Bobbi are seeing each other (whether platonically/romantically not known) and saying "things are really good" when there is so much that needed and could have been developed and written. And explored. I ultimately liked Freefall and its written and direction. And I can accept Clint as a thunderbolt for the city, but TB-2022, also.did off panel development thar swept away the actually substantial plot that freefall was building and left a lot to explore with clint after

5. But Clint is right about this cycle, especially with Natasha, and it makes me so sad, that Clint is fundamentally works so well, and has really good fucking relationships and dynamics, and now this is the standard for most of them, but it's so true that this is his and nat's cycle, and he's tired of that. He's the 2nd/3rd recruit after the original avenger team. He's an older generational hero at this point. He's tired.

6. I am just mad and I doubt I am seeing Hawkingbird on panel together in this run. Considering it's a BW & H title. I need Bobbi and Clint together (friends or more) on panel again please.

7. Okay. So the whole plot and premise? It's been done before, and Clint saying that he did. I get there is a bigger reveal and I have to wait another month or more to find out the why, but Clint being pursued by governments for being an assassin is done before. Feels a little mcu-ification (cause isn't that what they did in the mcu; I don't know I don't actually keep up and it's not cause I hate every ounce of it there is good parts of mcu I am just not involved or watching)

But anyways. They have done Clint is a suspected assassination or explored Clint killing people already. 2012 Fraction run, the annual, literally is on that premise that Kate suspects that he did and asks, and finds out that he didn't/let shield framed him and that was good.

2005 New Avengers; Clint literally contemplates and attempts to assassinate Norman Osbron for the greater good of the Avengers, and ultimately fails and finds that he is glad to have failed, cause killing isn't the right way for him

What was his whole entire thing as leader of the WCA and Thunderbolts (original runs) about killing? Oh yeah.

Let's see Secret Avengers also explores this idea with him, and he once again resolves that isn't the killing type.

Now he did kill Bruce and while Civil War 2 may have been awful for a lot of characters; and I do accept as canon, Clint killing Bruce; now just personally thing the reason is much deeper than Clint saw a vision of Bruce killing everyone; and that would have been amazing to go deeper into that; and the why as well as should have gone deeper into the bond he had with Bruce Banner that he would go through with this amd all that. But like that affected hum so heavily.

I write a tonally heavier/darker Clint, but he won't just go on killing people. Not without reason and usually contextually that's an alternate universe

Because 616 Clint is built up in such a specific way.

Anyways I will see where this comic run goes with playing the idea of Clint the assassin, unless we find out he didn't mean to kill the ambassador. Or some twists.

Now freefall does show that he will push the limits and this could be that, him pushing the limits of how far he'll go; but freefall did that in a good way and he didn't kill people and it kind of reflected where clint is at with superhero stuff

Considering like how long it's been since he was a part of a true team and accounting for everything else that has happened for his side of canon

Anyways again. I am most mad that the more important parts of clint development is once again implied off panel.

Like clint making amends with Steve so he could appear in Steve's captain America sential of liberty run (which I mean its.... got its issues) and just have things okay like THAT was off panel and ugh ugh ugh Steve and clint

Or literallt anything else with clint these days.

#[ COMICS ] Now in ink and color !#[ VISAGE ] I'd rather stay in character like Daniel Day Lewis like Stanislavsky I like playing dumb it makes me feel smart sometimes #wednesday spoilers #anyways my clint who i have written in rp for 10 years remains as he is #sober/in recovery / dabbles in going to therapy and trying to you get back to a place #where being a superhero truly meant something and felt good and making amends with everyoneb #i might explore this plot line after more issues are out #i dont overall hate it. i just think its short and not yet giving enough or revealed anything #yet to reallt dig my tweth into #i do thing the inner dialouge of clint is good though

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sineala · 3 years

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Captain America: The Great Gold Steal

I wrote this up last week because I did not have access to my usual comics files but I figured I could review something that was just a book. So here is a review of the 1968 Captain America novel Captain America: The Great Gold Steal by Ted White, with an introduction by Stan Lee. I really liked it, actually! It was surprisingly good!

This novel features: Cover art of Captain America holding his shield in one hand and a very large gun in the other! A scene where the villains dramatically unmask Captain America and have absolutely no idea who he is! Captain America being extremely, extremely depressed about being in the future! Captain America dropping acid!

(I'm not kidding about the last part. In this novel there is a lot of LSD use. By Captain America. Talk about something the Comics Code wouldn't ever let you put in a comic book. Thank you, 1968.)

Faithful readers may remember that some time ago I posted reviews of Marvel prose novels from the 1970s. There was a line of prose novels featuring everyone's favorite Marvel superheroes, published by Pocket Books in the late 70s; I have reviews of the Iron Man, Captain America, and Avengers entries in the series; I liked the Iron Man one best, and I also have a Doctor Strange one I have not yet read. They're all short and action-packed paperback reads, of varying quality; the only one by anyone you might have heard of is the Avengers one, which was written by David Michelinie, who was actually writing the Avengers run at the time. That one was, um. An experience.

(Yes, it's "prose novel" because otherwise the assumption is "graphic novel.")

Marvel still publishes prose novels now, of course, also of varying quality; some are new plots and some are straight-up novelizations of comics arcs, which I guess is useful if you want to, say, read Civil War and not look at pictures at the same time. I also have a bunch of those that I could probably review if anyone wants. But, anyway, I personally am particularly intrigued by the older Marvel prose novels, both because the stories are all original and not retellings, and also because I often prefer the characterization found in older comics. And the older prose novels of course use the then-current characterization. So reading a Marvel prose novel from 1979 is like getting to read a brand-new comic from 1979, and that's a whole lot of fun for a nerd like me. Also do you know what's not subject to the Comics Code? Prose novels. So things can happen in these that definitely could not happen in comics of the same era.

This brings me to my current prose novel, which is something else entirely. I mean, okay, not really, it's still a Marvel prose novel. But it's not part of the same line. It's actually a lot older.

Bantam Books actually published Marvel prose novels in the late 60s. Yep, a full decade earlier. They published exactly two, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that they were probably not bestsellers. The first one, which I do not own and now sort of want to track down, was an Avengers novel in 1967, The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker. And then in 1968 they published the novel I am currently holding in my hands, Captain America: The Great Gold Steal by Ted White.

(I am still not sure why no one involved in titling this book thought of the word "theft.")

Judging by the back copy, it appears to be about Captain America foiling the villains' dastardly plan to steal gold from the Federal Reserve. Oh boy. Fun.

So this book is from 1968. The modern Marvel universe had kicked off just a few short years ago! Captain America was just getting his own solo book after the end of Tales of Suspense! And here's a novel about him, back when certain elements of his characterization were perhaps a little more flexible than they are today, by which I mean that the cover art -- which the internet informs me was painted by Mitchell Hooks -- is a striking full-body portrait of Captain America, head held high, shield in one hand... and a very large gun in the other. Hell, yeah. Not gonna see that in today's Cap comics, are you? It's amazing and I love it.

(Okay, you might see that in Ults. I'm pretty sure I have seen that in Ults, actually. But this is still cool.)

So the cover art is a definite plus, and apparently it's one of the few reasons anyone has ever heard of this novel. The other reason -- and the reason this is more expensive than the later novels, I assume -- is that Stan Lee's name is slapped on the cover, because he wrote an introduction. (I think I paid about $30 for this. The others were definitely under $20.)

All right. Here we go.

The first page is actually a brief summary of Steve's origin story, but not a version I was familiar with. Steve was born July 9, 1917 (yes, I was surprised too), was orphaned at a young age, and was a student at Columbia University (!) before Rebirth, which in this version is a gradual process that is also extremely body-horror. Steel tubing was inserted into the marrows of his bones. He was fed "high-protein compounds." Then they gave him a chemical that "gave him complete control over every nerve, muscle, and cell in his now-magnificent body." Sweet. Where can I get some of that?

The blurb also confirms his control over his own metabolism as well as his healing factor ("wounds would heal in half the normal time"), which is nice, because sometimes I wonder if canon even remembers the healing factor.

(I don't know why Marvel has this kink for filling people's bones with metal, though. It's not actually empty in there, guys! You need your bone marrow! How else do you want people to make new blood cells?)

The book is dedicated to "Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, without whom there would be no Captain America." Hey, Marvel, Joe Simon would like a word with you. I'm just saying.

The Stan Lee introduction is three paragraphs written in Stan Lee's, um, inimitable, distinctive and extremely florid narrative style -- if you've read any of his work, you know what I mean -- and making the point that Captain America is incredible and you will like him. If you are just discovering him for the first time, you will definitely like him. Okay. Thanks. I guess.

Oddly, the writing style here is substantially different than any of the other Marvel prose novels I've read; it doesn't immediately front-load you with exposition and a cast of colorful superheroes. It opens with a sort of James Bond spy-novel feel, running through a series of unnamed villains and bystanders, and a man who wants nothing more than to talk to Captain America but is killed before he can. Steve comes in halfway through the chapter, and he seems to be written for a reader who doesn't necessarily know who he is, and he isn't introduced as Captain America with his shield flying ahead of him to smite evildoers, or anything like that. He's just a tall, handsome blond guy who is reading a bunch of novels and is unsatisfied by all of them because all he can think of is the past. It's definitely an attitude I would expect from Steve in this era -- he is very much a Man Out Of Time here -- but it's also not how I expected the book to introduce him. You wouldn't even know he was Captain America by the end of the opening chapter, which then ends with a digression about the history of NYC subway tunnels. It's like it wants to appeal to someone who has watched a bunch of Man from UNCLE and just wants to read a cool thriller. Which is not at all what I was expecting.

By the beginning of the second chapter, of course, we discover that Steve is Captain America, as he changes into his uniform. The narration refers to him as Rogers when it's in his POV, if anyone is curious. He apparently keeps the cowl off in the mansion, because the cowl annoys him.

It was not so much that he needed to conceal his identity these days, because for all intents and purposes he had no other identity. Steve Rogers was officially dead, and had been for almost twenty years. Captain America *was* his identity. It was only when he donned the tight-fitting blue uniform with its shield chest-emblem, the red snug-fitting leather boots, and the heavy, yet pressure-sensitive red-leather gauntlets, that he began to feel real -- a complete human being.

Steve? Buddy, are you okay there? You're really not okay, are you, huh?

You see what I mean? They're really hitting the early-canon angst. Hard.

(Also it sounds like his uniform is a few sizes too small.)

We then get an expanded version of the backstory from the beginning excerpt. In this version of canon, Steve actually has an older brother, Alan, who is handsome and athletic and basically amazing, and when they are orphaned they are raised by their aunt and uncle. Steve gets TB twice as a kid, nearly dies from it, and when the stock market crashes, ends up separated from his brother and in an orphanage after his uncle loses everything.

(Honestly if I were writing this book, his brother would be the secret villain. Chekhov's Gun!)

Steve has glasses, gets bullied, is a nerd and an honor student, and studies law at Columbia because he wants to help stop fraudulent business practices and also fight organized crime. Legally, I mean. In a manner relating to law. I guess he's sort of like Daredevil. The lawyer part of Daredevil.

And then he joins Rebirth, and this is the part where I had to put the book down for several minutes, because Erskine's secret chemical, the key to making super-soldiers... is LSD.

Oh my God. You should see my face right now. My expression is, I am sure, indescribable. I'm trying not to wake the dog up laughing.

I just. Holy shit. This book is from 1968 in a way I definitely was not expecting. What the fuck, Marvel?

This project was headed by the brilliant biochemist, Dr. Erskine. His work with the endocrine system, and chemical body control, was well beyond that of his contemporaries. Only he, of all his colleagues, had fathomed the secrets of the Swiss Dr. Hoffman's 1938 discovery -- the mind-controlling LSD-25.

Let's just pause here for a few minutes and contemplate this.

I will point out that Albert Hofmann (yes, the book spelled his name wrong) didn't actually discover that LSD was a hallucinogen until 1943 when he accidentally tried it, but I am positive that 1968 here was a time when Some People were convinced LSD was a wonder drug. I'm still laughing. As far as I can tell, legal manufacturing of it stopped in 1965 so I am pretty sure that the author did not just decide to name a drug that had an ostensible legal therapeutic use, because it wouldn't have still had one by '68.

Anyway, in this version of events, Rebirth is a month-long process that involves a lot of vitamins, physical conditioning and training, and, yes, putting metal in his bones like he's the next Wolverine. They're filling his bones with stainless steel rods to make him stronger. That doesn't seem like a great idea to me, but I am also not sure about dropping acid to gain superpowers. Clearly I am not a genius scientist. Also Erskine knows what DNA is, apparently, because he's just that great. Anyway. Other than the metal, those all seem like relatively normal interventions. So far.

Now Steve has become fairly big and strong (and I guess he still has metal in his bones? this concerns me!) but they need to make him superhuman, so, yes, really, it's time to drop acid. Several pages of this book are devoted to describing Steve's acid trip. His acid trip is amazing and he discovers that he has conscious control of his entire body down to the cellular level. He can control the adrenaline in his bloodstream! He can tighten his muscle fibers! And when he's done tripping he still remembers how to do this, if not exactly on a conscious level, but he can still access the abilities. And that is how you make a super-soldier. It's LSD. Remember, kids, drugs are awesome! Do drugs!

Let's maybe take a few more minutes to think about this.

I just. I have no words. How did anyone at Marvel agree to print this?

I think for the most part superhero origin stories tend not to involve real drugs because people are generally aware that drugs they've heard of won't make you into a superhero. I guess this is what it looks like when you invoke the names of real drugs. They probably wanted something that sounded more realistic but somehow I don't think this was the best way to go. (Radiation, of course, will definitely make you into a superhero but I feel like most people have accepted that as one of the conventions of the genre.)

Anyway, after that Erskine gets killed by Nazis, of course, and Steve goes to war, and for some reason this book contains footnotes by Stan Lee himself listing the comics you can read all of this in. Just like the actual comics do!

We are introduced to Bucky, who for some reason is also from the LES in this version, although not anyone Steve knew before the war, and there is of course a description of Bucky's tragic death and Steve's subsequent icing.

They are really, really stressing the Man Out Of Time thing here:

No other man could have survived so fantastic a voyage through time. And no other man could feel so displaced by time.

He was a man twenty years in his own future. By rights, he should be nearly fifty years old -- nearly twice the age of his fellow Avengers. Yet his mind and his body were not yet thirty.

When the Avengers had brought him back to New York with them and insisted that, as an honored hero of the past, he join them, he felt a sort of melancholy homesickness for his own time and world.

We then get a few paragraphs with the usual being sad that he let Bucky down and got him killed, and also that he misses his family, and that Steve Rogers doesn't exist anymore, and that nobody is alive who remembers him, and that war is hell.

Hey, Steve, maybe the drugs you should do are antidepressants. Just a thought.

Also, this book is 118 pages and we're not out of the origin story flashback until page 34. I think there are some pacing issues here.

Actually, I lied, the flashback keeps going, but now we're up to the Avengers finding him, and I have to say that the list of things Steve finds strange about the future is kind of charming when the future is 1968. Men have long hair! Women have shorter skirts! Everyone is kind of blasé about rocket launches because there have been so many space missions now. (Oh, come on, you haven't even landed on the moon yet, 1968! You're not that blasé.) Color TV! And, excitingly, LPs! You can now listen to 36 minutes of consecutive music. (I actually don't know what previous standard he's describing that is a ten-inch record that holds six minutes a side because I don't think 45s are that big. Yeah, no, I just checked and 45s are seven inches in diameter. Hmm. Oh, never mind. He means 78 rpm, doesn't he? In my defense, the record player my family had when I was a kid didn't play those.)

The description of Steve coming into New York for the first time is definitely written by someone who knows New York, which is fun. There is generally a lot of local flavor to the setting of this book. That’s one of the best parts.

There is a brief summary of Steve's feelings about all the Avengers -- he is most impressed by Thor, which, I mean, fair, he's an actual god -- and Hank telling him all about how he can live in Tony's mansion. With Jarvis. Who Hank says is actually from Flatbush. Apparently Steve spent a lot of time at the NYPL branch at 5th and 42nd trying to catch up on history. And then of course the Avengers ditched him and gave him the Kooky Quartet, and for some reason they're not here right now either so it's just Steve being sad and alone and dealing with this mysterious dead guy. I think probably the book is also done explaining fiat currency now. This is definitely the weirdest Marvel novel I've read.

Anyway, we have now returned to what is ostensibly the actual plot. Steve shows up at the New York Federal Reserve Bank (I guess the theft is happening here and not, like, at Fort Knox) with the gold bullion that the dead guy from the beginning of the book had on him -- I think I got distracted by the LSD bit and forgot to mention that part, but the dead guy was carrying some US government gold -- because the actual plot is that villains are trying to tunnel into the bank vault and steal gold. Steve discovers this after he gets the bank manager to give him a tour. The bank manager tries to refuse, citing security concerns -- Captain America could be anyone under that mask, after all! Steve just smiles and says, "If I removed my mask, would you have any better idea of who I am?" and I guess that's a flawless argument because he gets his tour.

(I'm sorry, all I can think of is that one gif from the JLA cartoon where Lex Luthor bodyswaps with the Flash, announces that now that he's in the Flash's body he's going to discover the Flash's secret identity, then pulls off his own mask, stares at himself in the mirror, and says, "I have no idea who this is.")

Given that the theme of Steve's interior life in this novel is "Steve Rogers died twenty years ago" it seems even more sad that Steve is just walking around basically saying, yeah, well, I'm nobody. And apparently that is being reaffirmed for him by the narrative.

So Steve goes down the tunnels, takes out some of the bad guys, and gets himself knocked out and buried in a collapsing tunnel. Don't worry, he's gonna be fine.

A lot of this book, by the way, is from the POV of random people, like this bank guard who went with Steve into the tunnels:

He had wondered, briefly, if a man like Captain America ever knew the pinch of too many bills, had ever felt desperate over the arrival of yet another mouth to feed. But, of course, Captain America had no family, and would hardly concern himself with such matters. It didn't occur to Thompson to wonder if this in itself might not be something for which to pity Captain America.

Rude. I mean, come on, do we really need random characters telling us Steve is a sad sack whom nobody loves? Steve's already got that covered! (Also, how does this guy know Captain America has no family?)

Anyway, thanks to the power of LSD, Steve is going into a trance, amping up his metabolism (he loses "several pounds" in a few minutes), and making himself super-strong so he can dig himself out. Hooray. This is definitely how human bodies work. Also LSD. This is definitely how LSD works. Yes.

Steve then finds out that a couple of the guards who were with him in the tunnels died down there and he goes home and eats dinner while stewing in miserable guilt because he was responsible for their deaths. He's really not okay. I'm not sure the book actually understands how not okay they have made him. Then someone from SHIELD is on the phone for him and he is briefly cheered up by the thought that it might be Sharon although I think we should also note that the narrative makes it clear that at this point in canon Steve still doesn't know her name. Remember when that was a thing?

Alas, it is not Sharon; it's just a random SHIELD agent who happens to have information about the plot and asks to meet. Then, as Steve leaves to go to the meeting, we get two pages of exhaustive description about the mansion layout and how it's built relative to the surrounding buildings. It feels like this book was written by a frustrated city planner. But anyway, the meeting is a setup and the villains capture Steve.

They knock Steve out, drug him, take him to their hideout, and tie him to a chair. Except, once again thanks to the power of LSD, the tranquilizer they're using wears off way sooner than they expected and so Steve feigns unconsciousness and listens to them discuss their evil plans.

And then the villains unmask him and I swear it's exactly like that JLA gif:

Rogers heard footsteps scuffing across a thick carpet, and then Sparrow's voice again, almost directly over him. His ears still buzzed, but he fought to catch the elusive familiarity of the man's tone. He wished he dared open his eyes.

"This is a moment which I, personally, have long awaited," Sparrow said, his voice rising in triumph. "*The unmasking of Captain America!*"

Then, his nails scraping along Rogers' face, Sparrow dug his fingers under his cowl, and ripped it back. Rogers felt air strike his exposed cheeks and forehead. Then fingers clutched his blond hair and pulled his head back. "Behold!" Sparrow said.

Raven was first to speak. "Well, I dunno about you, Sparrow, but it rings no bells with me. I never seen him before."

Starling agreed. "His face means nothing to me."

"He could be anybody," said Robin. "What good does this do?"

Sparrow let Rogers' head fall back to his chest, and his voice when he spoke was defeated. "I don't know. Nothing, I guess. I always wondered. I felt, if these guys -- these costumed heroes -- wore masks, it must mean something."

"Captain America was missing for twenty years," Starling said. "That could mean the first one died, and this one took his place. He looks awfully young."

"Perhaps. It doesn't really matter. Let's get going."

(Yes, the villains all have bird-themed codenames. I have no idea why.)

This scene just makes my day. I love dramatic unmaskings. I bet they'd have been a lot happier unmasking Iron Man.

The villains then leave Steve and go to a power plant, where we switch POVs to one of the plant employees and get two entirely unnecessary paragraphs about his racist and anti-Semitic thoughts about his coworkers before the villains murder him. Great. Thanks.

Anyway, the villains cause a blackout, while meanwhile they've left Steve alone with the girl villain, and Steve is busy trying to persuade her that crime doesn't pay. He's moved from the "do you know what they'll do to you in prison?" theme onto "how exactly are you going to spend a billion dollars in gold bullion when it's illegal for civilians to possess? who are you going to do business with?" and then points out that gold is heavy and hard to transport, which is when she gets out a a knife.

The bad guys are off to steal the gold, and Steve has now successfully turned the girl they left him with, because she frees him. Of course, the first thing he does is put the cowl back on.

"Why do you wear that?" she asked.

"The mask?" He smiled. "It gives people something external to concentrate upon."

"But..."

"Without it, I'm just another ordinary-looking man. With it, I become a symbol. For some people it creates awe; for others, fear. Look at me. I'm different now, aren't I? With the mask on."

"Yes," she nodded. "You look -- bigger, somehow. Stronger. Fierce, implacable. You look a little scary."

"Exactly. You no longer see me as a person, but as a thing -- an Avenger. It can be a potent psychological weapon."

"They were so disappointed, when they took your mask off. As though underneath they'd find a famous person."

"Maybe that goes on TV -- handsome playboys, and all that. But I've been anonymous all my life. Even my real name would be meaningless to you, to them. No, the mask is part of the uniform, a psychological device. That's the whole story.

Now: let's get out of here. You have a good deal more to tell me yet, and we can't waste more time."

Bwahaha. In a few years, Steve's going to be pretty surprised about who superheroes are, I think.

STEVE, now: Superheroes definitely aren't secretly handsome playboys! That would be silly! STEVE, after Molecule Man: fuck fuck fuck FUCK FUCK I'm such an idiot

I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Also, not that the issue of Steve's psyche actually recurs after this, but he's once again having the narrative vindicate his belief that Steve Rogers is dead and whoever he is under the cowl doesn't matter. Steve, I don't think this is very healthy.

Steve then tracks down the villains stealing the gold, has some geopolitical thoughts about where the gold could be going (he thinks either South Africa or Russia for the best laundering potential) and then hides himself in the villains' trunk while they drive to Staten Island, which is where they're taking the gold out of the country from.

During the final confrontation, Steve finally gets to see the villains, and he discovers that the one in charge is in fact the director of the Federal Reserve Bank who Steve met at the beginning of this book. Gasp. But that's not all! He's also... the Red Skull!

Honestly, I was kind of surprised; I didn't think this was the kind of book where we'd get any known comic villains, but I guess it's always gotta be the Red Skull. I think he's the only one of Steve's big villains who likes to disguise himself; Zemo has obvious disguise issues and I imagine it's also hard to cover up Zola's Teletubby-esque television body.

Steve shoots one of the villains, because I guess that's what he does in this era of canon.

So the plot wraps up in, like, two pages, because for some reason all these early Marvel novels wrap up very fast. Red Skull, of course, attempts to escape and then disappears and his body is never found. The end.

Well.

That was definitely a book. That I read. Believe it or not, I actually think it was the best of these early Marvel prose novels that I've read so far, even if it was also the absolute weirdest; I thought the thriller-style plot was entertaining, I liked Steve and his Extremely Sad characterization, I obviously enjoy all the identity themes, I liked how very detailed the New York setting was, and I do like how they tried to treat it all seriously. I mean, sure, this did lead to LSD in the super-soldier serum in presumably the name of realism, but I felt like the book was trying to present superheroes in a way that didn't feel silly and also didn't really take for granted that the reader would automatically accept superheroes.

It felt like a book that was written hoping that people who weren't superhero fans would read it, if that makes any sense. And I thought that was interesting, because most modern superhero work that I can think of assumes they've got complete audience buy-in and everyone is willing to suspend their disbelief and we all know the genre conventions and are expecting people running around in brightly-colored spandex. Whereas this is more like a James Bond novel if for some reason James Bond were called upon to defend his decision to wear brightly-colored spandex instead of bespoke suits. But I assume no one read it, because Bantam never published a Marvel book after this one.

If you can actually find a copy of this one for a price you're willing to pay. I recommend it. It was delightful and way more solid than I thought it was going to be.

Also, come on, you know you want to read about Captain America's acid trip.

#posts i actually wrote

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twdmusicboxmystery · 2 years

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TWB’s Coda and the Big TTD Announcement

I’ll talk about the coda first, and then what was said on TTD.

Crazy coda at the end of TWB

At first, it was really confusing to watch. Part of the problem is that there were two sets of subtitles going on at the same time, and I had a hard time following either one. They obviously had to put subtitles on for the French conversation, because this is an English show. But I usually have the English subtitles as well, because I do better when I can “see” the dialogue as well as hear it.

So, the subtitles for the French conversation and those for what Dr. Jenner was saying on the tape were on top of each other, lol. I had to go back, take off the English subtitles, and watch the French conversation, and then watch again ignoring the French conversation to get everything Jenner said. I’m going to transcribe both conversations for you below. Because it’s very important you understand everything that’s being said. The fact that they had Jenner’s recording running while the French conversation was going on, and that we could hear both equally, means they wanted us to hear and understand both.

So, here’s a recap of what happens:

A woman shows up at a ruined facility and starts downloading info from hard drives. I noticed right away the computers were in French, which I thought was weird. However, in season 1 of TWD, Jenner did say that the French were one of the last people he was in contact with, who were still working on the virus, before everything went dark. This is definitely a callback to that seed they planted 11 years (!!!) ago.

Then the woman opens one of the files and it’s Dr. Jenner. It’s some of his recorded tapes that we saw in S1.

Another man comes in behind her and starts talking to her. They talk briefly (I’ll analyze that below) and then the man shoots the woman in the head. He then quickly turns and exits the room, shutting the door behind him. After a few seconds, the woman reanimates as a walker. And she turns, walks REALLY quickly to the door (almost runs) and starts screeching and pounding on it.

Now, she’s clearly a walker, but this is really aggressive behavior for a walker. We haven’t seen them do this before. Almost concurrent with this, Jenner mentions “variants.” Like there are walker virus variants in other countries that aren’t in the states, and they’ll be able to explore them eventually. But these are super-scary, aggressive walkers. They aren’t slowing down or stumbling around like the ones we see in regular TWD.

Something else before I get into the transcription: I noticed something written on the wall in French. I took French in high school but am by no means fluent. I thought it just said, "The dead are here." But then I googled the translation. The words are actually “Les morts sont nes ici.” It means "the dead were born here."

So, this is the facility where the virus was manufactured and let loose, basically. And I really do think we're supposed to glean that this was originally a CRM facility. For one thing, the name TB Ellis appears on the hard drives the woman is copying.

We also see a weird little globe thing at first. I think it's just a paperweight or something. I wasn't sure what the significance was, but I'm wondering if it's meant to tie to the big globe we saw in TWB. It's a symbol of the CRM and being the "last light of the world" and all that.

Remember that we also saw a world map behind Eugene in S6, during a sequence we believe heavily foreshadows his role in running into Beth.

Okay, so here’s the convo between the two French people. We aren’t given names for them, so M = man and F = woman.

M: Are you one of the doctors?

F: Yes

M: You’ve been running, hiding, all this time?

F: Yes.

M: Are you a member of the Primrose team?

F: No. Violet.

M: Where is the Primrose team? Where did they go?

F: They weren’t here when it happened. When you all did what you did. They were at a conference in Toledo.

M: Spain?

F: Ohio. America. I hoped against hope that they…were here. That somehow, they came back… And that they were still working. And that they were close.

M: Why would you come back?

F: I was tired of running. And I had that hope against hope. And I had to try. If they were to return here to their work, they might end all of this, even after all this time.

M: They should be dead. If they aren’t, and they somehow come back like you, we won’t jail them like all the others. We’ll kill them. End this? You started this. All the teams. Then, you made it worse.

*shoots her*

(Right after that, Jenner mentions “variant cohorts” on the tape, so I’m sure the behavior we see from the woman as a walker is meant to be a result of one of those variants. It lines up too perfectly to mean anything else.)

Now, my fellow theorists and I had LOTS of conversations about all of this. I’m not going not give them all to you because it would go on for pages and pages. But here are some highlights:

We’re not sure if this is meant to be France, or some other French speaking country like Belgium or Canada. If anyone sees any clues that would tell us, let us know.

Toledo is one of the places we saw on the sign in regular TWD near the bridge work site in S9. That can’t be a coincidence, given that it led directly to Rick being taken into the CRM, and Toledo is obviously a part of the whole virus/CRM story.

The names for the different groups, Violet and Primrose, are definitely thematic. Early in S4, we saw Violet the pig, who got sick with the bleeding eye disease and died. So something about Violet is always associated with sickness. The primrose is not the same thing as a rose, but it actually looks a lot like the Cherokee Rose, and all three could mean the same thing symbolically. Remember that Alden sang a song at a funeral about the Last Rose of Summer. And @wdway found this picture from 5x09 of Summer Place and a rose beside it. So, the common theme I’m seeing here is disappearance. The story Daryl told in S2 about the Cherokee Rose. We saw it again in 6x06, in the plot because of Tina, but that episode was just dripping with Beth symbolism. And then there’s the funeral with Alden. And of course around Beth herself in 5x09, which I have analyzed to the rafters as being a foreshadow of her disappearing, but reappearing in the CRM story line.

Okay, those are the big things, though there’s tons more to consider if you feel so inclined.

Here is what Jenner says, interspersed with some notes from me:

Jenner:

“The problem, as I see it, is that the samples we have simply aren’t fresh. There’s just too many variables involved in how the clock affects them and even after a few minutes, we can’t get an accurate picture of the biology involved.”

Just a quick note. This may explain why the CRM experiments on the living. Someone who is already dead and turned, and has been for some time, doesn’t give them the data they need. Which is pretty much what Lila told Hope and Iris in a round about way.

I didn’t get all of the next part. Jenner just says something about how they’ll have fresh samples soon. It’s inevitable. I don’t think he means it in a sinister way. Just that people are sure to die. Then he says, in happier news,

“Cardiac plaques as a host medium for steroidal therapies to jumpstart the circulatory system in the hope of short circuiting the brain, or perhaps regaining function to cause nerve confusion, is a fascinating approach and we are all anxiously awaiting anything that comes back from your first trial.”

Okay, I have a background in science and anatomy, and I’m still not entirely sure what this means. Cardiac plaque is the stuff that clogs your arteries and causes heart attacks. So, it sounds like they’re using that tissue to test steroid based treatments. Overall, I don’t know how any of what he says would manifest, but it just sounds like they’re trying to short circuit the walkers. The fact that they wanted us to hear this probably means it will appear in the plot at some point.

“We all have to work together here. Solidarity, right? Fact of the matter is, we only have so many supplies left. We aren’t getting anymore, so everything counts that much more. Every test. Every collection. I almost broke a petri dish yesterday. And almost put my fist through a wall. The other Dr. Jenner stopped me.”

He makes several references to “the other Dr. Jenner,” who I’m assuming is his wife, who will later become Test Subject 19. So, we can surmise this video was recorded before she died. I don’t remember if Jenner told Rick how long it had been since his wife died, but this was probably weeks or months before Rick and his group arrived at the CDC.

“The infirmary is closed. Sealed, actually. We’ve been venturing out for the basics. The other Dr. Jenner has gotten pretty darn good at it. But getting back to the data—the idea of activating systems to work against reanimation is a promising idea. But, as we’ve discussed, the systems themselves have to be studied to see exactly how they’re working or not working. For example, can we build up acids in bodies that don’t have blood flow? Of course, that gets right back into that idea of jumpstarting circulatory systems. We need to do two things simultaneously—observe and attack this thing.

I want to know more about these variant cohorts you referred to in our last communication. We haven’t seen anything like that here at all. Nothing close. I hope this finds you as well as you can be. I hope you won’t lose faith. The day will come when we are going to beat this thing. At least, what’s what the other Dr. Jenner keeps telling me. As you know, she’s smarter than me. Solidarite. (Solidarity.) A bientot. (Goodbye).”

Here is some research from some of my buddies about this as well:

@galadrieljones:

Oh also, I looked up something last night based on the transcript from Jenner's video. Something about using arterial plaque as a medium for interfering with reanimation. Arterial plaque causes clogged arteries, which can lead to heart disease. Heparin is a commonly used drug for preventing blood clots, which can lead to heart attacks. (Beth had a heparin drip when she woke up at Grady.) I feel there may be a connection there. They are trying to set something up there. But all it's doing is just making me more curious about why Beth was on a heparin drip for a "fractured wrist" and basically a concussion.

@frangipanilove:

Oh, something I meant to comment on earlier when we discussed the scene when Barca was taken away in TWB s1. Elizabeth put out a glass of aspirin, which is also a blood thinner (among other things). Whatever the aspirin glass ultimately stands for, I do believe it’s tied to the heparin from Slabtown. Also, heparin was originally made from dog liver cells, so I always wondered if that counts as a dog/Sirius reference.

I could have sworn that we’ve had dialogue with the mention of steroids on the show, but I can’t for the life of me think of when or where. It was probably just a quick mention in passing, but yeah. I know I have theorized over it at some point. Will continue to think about it though.

@galadrieljones:

Okay I'm about to go down a wacky rabbit hole on the heparin/steroidal treatment thing, so please bear with me lol:

Frangi, you bringing up aspirin is a great catch. We're supposed to be looking at the heart, and the blood. For so long, everyone has been super preoccupied with the brain and its function in reanimation, but perhaps the key to solving the mystery may actually lie in the heart (that would be poetic, wouldn't it?).

Whatever they were doing to the test subjects at the CRM, they also were administering heparin, just like they were at Grady. Lyla administered heparin to Barca just before killing him with the modified chlorine gas. Her ultimate goal is unclear; however, we know via her conversation with Jadis that the time between death and the turn is important. She's trying to maximize it as much as possible, and eight hours seems to be the max they've gotten so far. There's something special about this time, something they must be trying to observe between death and reanimation, and part of Lyla's job is to max out that time frame. So, this is why she needs living test subjects.

It's definitely possible they were doing the same sort of experiment at Grady. I went back to your transcript from 2.10 (SUPER HELPFUL BTW), and in his video, Jenner talks about the methodology of what they're working on in France, but he talks about it a bit out of order, so it's sort of confusing. He mentions how there's a lot of "promise" to the idea of "circulating" some sort of "steroidal therapies" through the walkers as a way of "short circuiting" their brains or causing "nerve confusion." But this is a problem, as walkers don't have blood flow. So he asks, "can you circulate acids through bodies that don't have blood flow?" He says that this brings them right back to the idea of "jump-starting" the circulatory system, ie: jumpstarting blood flow. They need blood flow in order to circulate any sort of "therapies."

Jenner says then that they need to do two things simultaneously: they need to "observe" what's going on in the human body's various "systems" while they're in reanimation, but they also need to attack whatever is causing reanimation. But it seems they cannot attack it until they know how the various systems work. Hence, they need to study what's going on in the human body, not just in the brain. Everywhere. Hence: Lyla's task in trying to maximize the time between "death" and reanimation. IT's completely possible that there are other scientists elsewhere working on other parts of Project V.

I did some rudimentary reading on steroids. It's a lot of medical mumbo jumbo and I am not a scientist lol, but I did get that steroids are "messenger molecules." One important steroid in the human body, pertaining to the circulatory system, is lipid cholesterol. Cholesterol is a major contributor to plaque build-up in our arteries, which can cause blockages that, in the event of a blood clot, can cause a heart attack. This is why when people get older, they are often told to watch their cholesterol and are tested for cholesterol levels in their blood at the doctor.

So, I'm not entirely sure what Jenner is suggesting. He's very vague. But it seems he's suggesting they use cholesterol as a way to administer some sort of "therapies" throughout the body via arterial plaque, but once again, it's impossible to administer any sort of drug to a body that doesn't have a functioning circulatory system. This is why he's saying they need to find a way to "jumpstart" the circulatory system in the walkers.

BUT, and this is my question: What if said "therapies" were administered to living human beings, like a vaccine, or a prophylactic of sorts, as a way of postponing or preventing reanimation? Lyla injects Barca with a lithium heparin compound (aka: anticoagulant) and then gasses him moments later. But Jenner specifically asks: "Can we build up acids in bodies that don't have blood flow?"

What if the compound needs time to circulate, to build up in a body with blood flow?? If it's administered as some sort of cholesterol, it's possible that the heparin is administered with it, or just afterward to thin the blood and prevent blood clotting, to ensure proper and speedy delivery of the drug. Perhaps blood clotting is a side effect. I mean, it is certainly no coincidence that they're using heparin and also talking about arterial plaques and weaponizing the circulatory system against the "virus." These things are all related.

CRAZY SPECULATION TIME: So, what if, perhaps, Beth (and possibly Joan) were both "treated" with the experimental "cure," that might be part of why Dawn wouldn't let Joan die. They needed to keep her alive, possibly (and THIS is pure head canon but still...) to transport to the research facility later on, or perhaps they needed to wait to initiate some other part of the study. Maybe said "therapy" or "treatment" needed to be circulated in the body for a long time to saturate every "system." I don't know lol. It's possible they (ie: Edwards) don't fully know either. It would have been early on in Project V. Maybe a cruder version of what they're working on now. MAYBE, possibly, it was part of the project to prolong the period between death and reanimation, like what Lyla was doing. To prolong the time in which the dead person lingers between life and death, in some sort of magical interstitial place. Maybe this has some effect or dependency on the circulatory system, maybe it was a factor in Beth being able to survive the gunshot wound. If she was suspended in animation for longer than usual, that would have given Edwards (presumably) more time to save her life.

Okay, also, some related thematic notes: Remember that the man who had been brought in right before Beth, the man who'd had the Bisquick, had been brought in with "cardiac arrest." Oh really? Very interesting choice. Also, Beth is perhaps the only character who wears hearts. She has hearts on her necklace and on her cowboy boots.

Anyway, sorry for the length on that lol. End of rabbit hole, for now. Thoughts?

@twdmusicboxmystery:

(P.S. I LOVE the link to Beth’s heart necklace. It’s exactly the kind of symbolic tie Gimple loves and would do.

@galadrieljones:

I am pretty sure, too, frangi there is a major aspirin reference in TWD season 8. Simon goes to Hilltop to usurp their doctor. In exchange he gives them a crate of aspirin. It’s like a bad joke.

—End of Conversation—

For the record, @galadieljones also brings up times we’ve seen a lot of these same symbols in FTWD. She’s watched early seasons of that more recently than the rest of us and has taken better notes. This is already getting long-ish so I won’t go into all that here, but just know that we’ve seen these sorts of things all over the TWDU, even if most people weren’t always registering them.

So that’s pretty much what I have for this coda. We had much more conversation than this, but again, I’ll spare you all of it. ;D What did everyone else think about the coda?

Madison is Back!

So, if you’ve been living under a rock for the past thirty-six hours, what they announced on TTD was that Madison, from Fear, is alive and will be back in 7b.

Guys, this is huge!

First off, I started saying the instant she left the show that she’d be back. I won’t go into all the details, as you can read them HERE (focus on 4x01 - 4x08) , but the basics gist is that she had much of the same symbolism around her that Beth did.

Before she died, she had yellow bird symbolism, music symbolism, and was even seen under a bridge.

When Madison left the show, it was before they started putting out episodes a week early on AMC+ (which didn’t exist yet), so I didn’t see it early, but I did read spoilers, which reported her “death” by walker. I remember being suspicious of that, but I had to wait and reserve judgement until I actually saw the episode.

Once I did, I literally LOL’d, because it was just so ridiculous to call that a TTD “death.” Not only did we not see her body or a burial, we didn’t even see the walker attack. At least with Glenn in 6x03, we saw him fall into a horde of walkers. Here, we saw walkers closing in on her and then...her hand/arm. (Which, even though it was a totally different angle, wasn’t unlike seeing Beth’s arm after she was shot.)

But it was clear to me that they left that wide open for her return. I said it right away and have been saying it since. And of course I don’t focus on it much at all. Truth be told, I never liked Madison’s character overly much. I don’t hate her by any means, but I don’t particularly care for her. And I OBVIOUSLY am not anywhere near as invested in her return as I am in Beth’s.

My point is, it’s not something I’m gunning for or care about particularly. I just read the symbolism and knew she’d be back. Now, she is.

So, I encourage you to go read the episodes I did on Madison’s death, to convince you they did similar stuff with her as they did with Beth. And now...she’s back.

I feel like we sort of have this triumvirate of death fake outs with Beth, Glenn, and now Madison. Of course there’s Rick, too, but unlike these three, the audience knows he’s alive, so it’s slightly different. With each of these, we have similar dialogue, similar symbolism, what SEEMS too be an obvious death, and then, sometime later, they return. Alive and well.

I will say that I was somewhat surprised that they would announce it on TTD, spoiling a potential surprise, months before she actually appeared on the show. I couldn’t figure out why they would do that that. But then @wdway said it very well:

“It seems, though, they did not want this return character to be the shocking return.”

That’s a great point. No one will probably suspect TWO returns. With Madison, that gives everyone something to talk about. And I suspect it’s something of a diversion as well. Who would be talking about or suspect Beth’s return (other than TD) with Madison’s on the horizon?

Then there were things they were actually saying on TTD. In talking of her return, they said things such as that it “aligned with the stars” and they needed to make sure it was the right story at the right time. 👀

(For the record, I don’t believe for a second that she didn’t know about Madison’s return until a year ago. I personally think she left the show knowing she would return eventually. Not something I can prove at all, of course. It’s possible the writers knew and the actress didn’t, but after watching these misdirections and sometimes outright lies for 11 years about what the actors do and don’t know about upcoming storylines, I just don’t buy that anymore.)

They also kept talking about a coda. 😱 They kept saying it in reference to the after-the-credits scene with the French people. But guys, we’ve had a good number of those scenes over the years, from when Lennie James (Morgan) returned at the end of 5x01, to Boots in 7x08, etc. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the show runners call them codas before.

On the one hand, they might have actually picked that up from us. We (TD) has called them coda scenes for a long time, now. But all that shows is that they read our blogs. And they if they didn’t want to acknowledge the coda structure, they wouldn’t. They certainly haven’t in the past. So, this is a clue. They just kept saying it, over and over.

Think about it. Even putting Beth aside, this is most definitely a coda for Madison’s character. She had the main part of her arc in the first three season, then left and skipped over several, and now she’s returning again. That’s the definition of a coda. But again, much of the same symbolism and dialogue around Beth, and HER LAST EPISODE WAS CALLED CODA.

If this doesn’t convince you Beth is on her way, siriusly, nothing will. I’ll still have people tell me I need to have my head examined, but I don’t know how to convey it any better than this.

Based on the symbolism, TD predicted that Glenn would be alive after he seemed to have died in 6x03. We were right, and he was. We predicted Madison would live and return. She did, and she is. We saw the same symbolism around them as around Rick, and the audience KNOWS Rick is alive and will return.

And, we saw all the same symbolism around Beth. Not to mention, weird mysteriousness and unsolved mysteries around her death, Grady as an open thread, other unfinished aspects of her story line, things that were set up but never paid off *coughs Bethyl*, lack of body, hints by AMC of something going down at a white church, AMC promoting Emily on social media, the actors using symbols on social media that are used in the show, and mountains of other suspiciousness.

But yeah, the skeptics are right. The most obvious, logical explanation is that Beth is really dead and the rest is just coincidence.

Other more minor but important details from TTD:

They talked about the link between Dennis’s buddy in the Smoky mountains and Al/Isabel. I didn’t realize this, but his buddy was Isabel’s helicopter co-pilot, and he is confirmed dead. (Dennis just doesn’t know that.) But that’s how Isabel knew about the cabin in the Smokies: her friend/co-pilot told her about it. So that’s the link between the two shows. And yes, it IS intentional.

Gimple also wrote a statement that Chris read (Gimple wasn’t actually on the show) about the coda, simply saying that there’s a story there that will be told. He also said that the characters from TWB who survived have farther to go and we will see them again. So, it wasn’t a ton of new information or anything, but just rather him hyping more story for the future.

I kinda figured, but glad to hear they have more plans for these characters.

Okay, I’ll shut up for today. Thoughts on Madison’s return and the coda?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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imagining-in-the-margins · 3 years

Photo

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for all of the Asks recently. Unfortunately, I hurt my elbow the other day and typing is very hard for me right now.

So to the people asking me for various types of advice, I’ll answer you probably tomorrow so I can give my arm a break. I also unfortunately need to reject a few requests, so that’ll be coming soon, too.

Thank you so much for your patience, everyone! I’ve been having a really hard time mentally and physically. I’ve put out quite a few fics lately, so if you haven’t read them yet, I hope those can hold you over in my absence!

1. After H2M’s main story is over! So there are still 2 Parts left, then I’ll start writing TB&TB. I have dozens of chapters dialogue of that already written, though... hehe. Those parts will also likely be shorter than H2M’s were.

2. You’re still here! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Sorry it took me so long, lmao. I hope you get to watch it over again and enjoy. So many people are falling out of the fandom and I miss every single one of you.

3. Awwwe thank you! That’s so sweet of you. I hope you enjoy Funny Thing just as much, because it’s also Autistic!Reader and written in a very similar way (I think). I really appreciate you.

4. CHIP. I love hearing people talk about Chip Fics bc they get no love but he’s so sweet! It’ll probably be awhile before I get back to him, but I do have a few I’m excited about (Secrets with the Secretary and Seatbelt Safety!)

I also had a new original idea with him where he’s your brother’s roommate and you two just keep trying to fuck without your brother finding out, lmao.

5. I asked the people on the Discord and they told me you are almost certainly looking for “This I Know” by @idmakeitbehave !

6. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Play Dates is my favorite of my fluff coming up, but Java Jive should be funny for you, too (it has fave girl Emily in it!)

Also, thank you sm. I’m having a really hard time lately, so I haven’t actually really written in days. Feels bad, man.

7. UNSUB SPENCER VIBES (and I usually hate unsub spencer!)

8. Ahhhh Miss YOU! is one of my faves! Hmmm I like these ideas. I’m not sure if I will ever write one, but I do love Corpse’s music so much. My favorite is this line from White Tee:

Don't follow me baby, swear I'm going to Hell Think I'm looking for a piece of you in somebody else

#answer #answered #🍪 anon

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canadian-riddler · 3 years

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Hi Indy! I know Arkhamverse Riddler is definitely your specialty. Do you happen to have a rough ranking of Riddlers that you like from most to least? And which do you think is the most definitive version of the character?

I THINK that’s what my blog description says, anyway

Yes, at all times I have a rough ranking floating around in the back of my mind. It is going to be very long so I will answer the last question first.

For most definitive version of Riddler I’m going to have to go with BTAS. No recurring villain really had a distinct personality from their original (1940s) version, and while I am not knocking Frank Gorshin the 1966 Riddler absolutely was a bit Joker-y. Most importantly (if I am not mistaken, which I could be), BTAS gave Riddler what became his most important trait: his intelligence. Before that he was mostly an average weirdo who wore a green suit (sometimes) and liked riddles and sometimes built puzzle traps. After BTAS, though, the Riddler’s intelligence became the driving force of his character. Batman ‘66 saved Riddler from obscurity, but BTAS made him both relevant and future-proof. Will we ever see a Riddler of average intelligence who doesn’t specialise in computer programming/engineering ever again? I doubt it, and that’s because of BTAS.

Onto the list. It does not include EVERY Riddler ever because I have not read every Riddler story ever, but it should cover most of them (or at least the ones you’ve probably heard of).

1. Anything Paul Dini wrote. This actually covers a few different Riddlers, which would be the first two Arkhamverse games, the most notable PI Riddler stuff, and of course the Riddler from BTAS. Paul Dini can write the Riddler as both being a bad person and sympathetic at the same time, which is actually harder to pull off than it sounds. AND he does it without using backstory as a crutch, which really is hard.

2. Jeph Loeb/Jim Lee’s Riddler from Hush. He only actually appears for two issues, but it’s one of the best Riddler stories merely because it allows him to do all the things Riddler SHOULD be able to do, but can’t because then there would be no Batman comics because he would have ended them. 619C is also, in my opinion, the best Riddler cover of all time.

3. Jim Carrey’s Riddler from Batman Forever. Why would I put him this high on the list, you ask? Because some writers forget that the Riddler is half just in it to have a good time and he doesn’t really care about how other people perceive him. This man is living his best life and he’s doing it in glittery spandex and a light-up jacket. Is he over the top? At the time, no, not really. At the time Riddler kinda just acted like that. And he should be able to do so, in my opinion.

4. Current Riddler (James Tynion IV). While this Riddler has some issues with consistency (though this probably has to do with being shuffled from a main comic story into a Catwoman story), he returns to being almost self-cripplingly paranoid and absolutely losing it when he’s bested, which I think are important traits for Riddler to have. I’m also actually really amused that they gave him the Batman Forever hair.

5. Batman ‘66. While it did likely rescue Riddler from pending obscurity - he actually never appeared in a Batman comic before 1965, and before that was featured in only two issues of Detective Comics - and he definitely checks the ‘charming’ and ‘having fun’ boxes, there isn’t a whole lot differentiating him from the Joker he’s playing alongside. If you watch the Batman ‘66 movie they’re almost the exact same character, just one likes jokes and the other likes riddles.

6. Hush Returns and its aftermath. This stuff is weird and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because it mostly involves Riddler running away from Hush and retcons certain things from Hush, most importantly the part where Riddler got everyone to work together because he gave them what they wanted. Hush Returns (which also contradicts itself during the story) for some reason has everyone angry at Riddler for tricking them and it ends with him getting the shit beat out of him and puts him into a coma for a year, which leads into him getting total amnesia and becoming a PI. That’s the reason it’s so high on the list. The story is weird and makes no sense at all for any of the other characters in it either but it gave us a reason for PI Riddler and that makes it matter. Sort of.

7. Brave and the Bold/The Batman Riddler. I’m putting them both together mostly because BatB Riddler features in I think only one episode and he deserves a mention because he’s adorable. TB Riddler was an interesting experiment into a Riddler that, for whatever reason, never really came into himself as a person and instead sort of enacts revenge for his existence on life. If I remember correctly he’s also pretty low-key about his intelligence, which is another interesting character choice. I respect the things they went for but this Riddler overall gives me the impression of a person who always says no when invited to something but gets upset when people stop asking which, while definitely something the Riddler would do, isn’t really my preferred take.

8. Snyder Riddler (New 52). The problem I have with this Riddler is that I have no idea what his motivation even is. I was told a long time ago that a backstory for him WAS written but didn’t make it into Zero Year because the story was already too long, which is... not a great look for a professional storyteller. And because we don’t know anything about this Riddler, this story consists of a dude who wears green to impress women (which he never shows any interest in), gets the mob to work for him... somehow... and decides to spend a YEAR watching the people in Gotham die because... I’m not sure? If it amused him, sure, I could understand that. But he just seems super bored during the entirety of the story. He doesn’t even seem particularly excited when Batman actually shows up in front of him. Beyond Zero Year his appearances are, to my knowledge, limited mostly to two issues in Batman Eternal, where he’s hiding, three issues of The Flash, where he speedruns Zero Year and is undone by the Flash villains teaming up against him (which I don’t know enough about Flash villains to comment on), and Scarecrow 23.2, where he for some unexplained reason seems to look up to Scarecrow. And then there’s Detective Comics: Future’s End, which is just the worst thing ever. Snyder didn’t write all of these stories, but they are based on his Riddler.

9. Gotham Riddler. I didn’t watch past season 3 so I can’t comment on too much after that, but the arc with Mad Grey Dawn and ‘I knew that you knew that I knew’ was some of the greatest Riddler stuff we had gotten in years and if they had just kept on with that they would have had one of the greatest Riddlers of all time.

10. Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale Riddler. Full disclaimer I haven’t read Catwoman: When in Rome, but I have read The Long Halloween and Dark Victory. The reason I don’t like this Riddler is because he actually bears no resemblance to him. He’s a literal moron who just stumbles around incompetently for the duration of his relevance to the plot. It’s like they decided to make an ironic Riddler who is actually stupid and also for the first time in his life does not have the ability to locate a tailor. I don’t actually understand the point of this Riddler’s existence. He isn’t even really Riddler, he’s just some sort of vaguely Riddler-coloured person.

#so says Indy #asks #anon #Riddler

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thebluelemontree · 4 years

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What do you think about how GRRM feels about the Sansa/Sandor relationship. He stated multiple times that he does not understand why people find Sandor a romantic figure and why he is a popular character in the first place, and that he is surprised by the high amount of shipping. On the other hand I think it is obvious from other statements that the thinks the dynamic itself ( as in, written in the novels) is interesting to write. So what do you make of it?

I don’t ever think I’ve ever read where he said he didn’t understand why Sandor was a popular character in the first place? He has no shortage of male fans too, so I don’t think that’s quite an accurate statement. I guess we’re talking about this quote:

“I guess I don’t understand women, but I was definitely, you know, way back when, surprised by the number of women who reacted positively to characters like Theon and the Hound as dashing, romantic figures. The Sansan kind of thing took me by surprise, I must admit, and even more so the women who, and there are some, who really like Theon. So that surprised me.”

I bolded the “way back when,” because that will be relevant later. Well, let’s also take this interview where he expresses surprise at the reaction of women to troubled, dark characters like Theon, Jaime, and Sandor. Note the cheeky grin that comes up often as he’s speaking. When he expounds upon it, he talks about the number and level of passion coming from those female fans reaching out to him through the years. Then they talk about the show stoking those Sansan fires, and he responds, “oh sure, and I’ve played with it in the books” and “there’s something there, but it’s still interesting to see how many people have responded to it.” So, why would he be surprised some readers picked up what he intentionally put down? Unless he means he’s surprised by the volume and intensity of the response from women so early on (which I think he is), long before he did more character development for those dark, troubled “villains.” Consider where they both started in AGOT. And not without having to run the ball into the endzone so to speak with any romantic relationship. He probably thought he had to build it up more or sell it to the general readership more before he would get that kind of response. Now re-read the quote above. I don’t think it sounds dismissive and disapproving at all under that light.

I don’t believe for one second this man is baffled or at a loss to explain why there was such a reaction from women. He dream-casted Ron Perlman to play Sandor for his ability to act through prosthetics. Now, you may not have had the viewing pleasure, but GRRM has writing credit on 14 episodes for a tv series called Beauty and the Beast where Ron Perlman played Vincent, the lion-faced romantic male lead. The show was unabashedly sappy and centered around the romantic relationship between Vincent and Catherine, and boy did it ever have a female fandom. He can write for a female audience, but he doesn’t get it? Puh-leeze. He’s already said B&tB is his favorite fairytale, so he definitely understands why the trope works and why people (women) respond to it. I mean, he even tried to do the dark and dangerous warrior with sex-appeal straight up with Darkstar, but it didn’t really work because he comes off as a caricature whose most impressive act on-page is to maim a little girl and run away.

I can’t even get into everything, but what I think is quite telling about what he feels for their relationship is in two pieces of art. One is this fan art he posted on his official website. Now keep in mind, this piece doesn’t depict anything that has happened in canon. It’s a total “fan fiction” where it seems like Sandor is rescuing Sansa from something behind them, and they’re galloping through a forest on Stranger. Why would he publically display something that he thought was nonsense and the wrong interpretation of his characters and their relationship? He didn’t have to post this gift from a fan. He just did because he wanted to and probably because he liked it that much.

The other is this original Blackwater piece displayed in his home. It was art commissioned for the 2012 ASOIAF calendar. The subject was George’s request. You should read the artist’s interview, where he talks about George’s involvement in the process of creating it. He says he used Jean Cocteau’s version of Beauty and the Beast as one of his inspirations, which is GRRM’s favorite film. Now, this interpretation of the Blackwater is definitely more romanticized and dream-like over a more literal depiction of the character’s actions, like showing Sandor holding a knife to Sansa’s throat. The latter wasn’t what George was after for his calendar.

Sansa’s expression isn’t even terror. She actually looks kind of relaxed, but rapt with anticipation. Red lips, full lashes, thick waves of hair. It’s sexy. There’s no other way to put it. You can’t tell me this is supposed to be Sansa at twelve as she is in the actual scene. This looks like an older teen or woman. This looks nothing like how GRRM wrote the actual events in Sansa’s bedchamber, which were chaotic and terrifying, so... why, George? Why? Because he liked the concept and wanted it that way. Because he wanted art made to express something that is “true” regardless of its factuality, perhaps? I don’t know why else he would do that if it wasn’t faithful to his vision and his feelings in some way.

When he’s directly asked about the nature of their relationship and certain scenes, or the unkiss, he’s also refused to give any firm or straight answers. Sometimes downright cryptic answers. X, X, X, X. He’s also doesn’t seem to be shy about giving a hard no when debunking some fan ideas when they are just dead wrong. So I believe his evasiveness is not because something isn’t there, but any direct answer he gives might contain a potential spoiler. Maybe it’s simply because he has a lot more story to tell, and he wants full control over how it is revealed to you. That means waiting until we can actually read it, experience it as the characters do, and see it all unfold at GRRM’s pacing. We can all rest assured that every single one of these questions has an answer, one way or another.

#sansan #sansan meta #grrm quotes #sandor clegane #sansa stark #grrm #asoiaf speculation #my meta #Anonymous

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curious-minx · 3 years

Text

A ranking of four 200 Hundredth Episodes: Bob’s Burgers’ recent victory lap stands above the rest

The Bicentennial. How many among us get to be a part of something that get’s broadcasted for over 200 episodes? In the world of animated sitcoms it is a small, Fox dominated burrow. Bob’s Burgers is the latest series to become bestowed with this particular honor, and is possibly the best of the Fox line-up to do so. Family Guy’s 200th episode, Season 11 - Episode 12, is the only Fox series to be given a full blown on-air anniversary treatment. The episode is a Valentine themed Brian and Stewie lark and like all of the other entries on this list celebrates it’s 200th episode anniversary in a more casual, blithe fashion. Family Guy is the only show Fox has bothered to air an entire half hour special, but months before the actual airing of the 200th episode in Februrary. I am deliberately skipping over Family Guy and South Park’s 200th episodes. In the former’s stead I chose to watch American Dad’s 200th episode, because McFarlane is such a titan in adult animation that deserves recognition. The South Park episode is too exhausting for me to get into. South Park’s 200th episode, Season 14 - Episode 05, is the one that evoked the wraith of a New York based Radical Muslim organization that would soon be “shut down” (i.e. members arrested) a few months after the episode aired on April, 2010. The 200th episodes of South Park and the Simpsons are the only two series to have received Emmy nominations, and in Simpsons case a win, due to their 200th episodes. Here’s hoping for Bob’s Burgers to get a similar recognition, because I think its 200th episode is pretty special and straight to the point.

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1.) Bob’s Burgers - “Bob Belcher and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Kids”

Out of all the 200 episodes is episode the most consciously in conversation with itself. The 200th episode has been treated with a reasonable amount of respect with The A.V. Club bringing their Bob’s Burgers coverage out of retirement and Variety and Salon also got into the mix. Gotta be honest a part of me over at The Curious Minx would prefer if the Bob’s Burgers recap lane was kept on the narrower side, but on the other hand this is a fabulous series that should be written about by as many different publications.

In a recent tired and routine zoom Variety interview (https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/bobs-burgers-remote-recording-200th-episode-1234830796/) BB’s creator Loren Bouchard touches upon how this 200th episode is supposed to serve as something of a pilot. An episode so fully realized that even if you are someone with no active bank of knowledge about the Bob’s Burgers minutiae of the Belcher family dynamics and still enjoy this episode as much as a full blown series fan. The episode is written by Steven Davis, a producer and writer with an extensive amount of episode writing and producing credits on Bob’s Burgers. The quality of a Bob’s Burgers script in the pandemic era is becoming more relevant, because of the diminished role of improv, and this episode definitely feels crafted by a creative team fully in touch and aware of their characters and how to put them in satisfying situations.

Compared to any of the other animated sitcom families, the Belchers are noticeably the more lower middle class. There is a pervading sense of an overall struggle for survival and prosperity that is cooked right into the series pilot debut. Season 1 - Episode 01 “Human Flesh” sets the tone of the series, despite the overall writing and characters being sharper, the stakes have not changed much. Bob’s Burger’s like any American restaurant not under the protective aegis of a Big Franchise is in a state of perpetual turmoil. In the pilot episode the difficulties of running a standard American restaurant are made even more complicated by dysfunctional family hijinks.

The 200th episode differs from the pilot in one dramatic way and that is the presence of the extended Belcher family member Teddy. In the original pilot Teddy is completely absent, whereas in the 200th episode Teddy’s role as surrogate family member is made even most distinct by having Teddy being invested above and beyond in helping save his pal’s Bobby’s restaurant. The return of the ornery and quirky Health Inspectors Ron and Hugo are serving as the most obvious form of echoing of the pilot. I highly recommend rewatching the pilot after viewing this episode, because I had completely forgotten that the Belcher’s saving grace is that Hugo and Linda were once in a relationship together. The pilot is noticably very contained setting wise, focusing exclusively in and around the Belcher family restaurant. Whereas, the 200th episode explores more settings with the Belcher children going across town to find a replacement for Bob’s broken oven part, an oven that they feel they are entirely to blame for destroying. A couple of celebrity guests Stephanie Beatriz and SNL’s Kyle Mooney that true to Bob’s Burgers spirits are usually just playing characters of little to no consequence. Unlike the other Fox family in this list that really leans in on having celebrities playing themselves, the best celebrity guest appearances on Bob’s Burgers tend to be the most anonymous, and Kyle Mooney’s put upon hardware store clerk is a great example of this.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t dwell on the satisfying Linda contribution of the episode. Linda makes the critical set piece that ignites the restaurant fire. Linda’s gnarly mermaid sculpture is a great visual metaphor for the series. Especially when the Mermaid Statue is used to build up a very well constructed song-based gag. The whole episode made me feel really good about the state of the series and especially the Movie (And Loren Bouchard backs this up by giving interviewers the impression that the film’s delay has only improved its quality). As far as 200 episodes of long running animated sitcoms go, you certainly can’t go wrong with this one!

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2. King of the Hill - Hank’s Bully

By all accounts the most unremarkable episode on this list. An episode that also has a trollish spirit that gets a sadistic glee in tormenting the fuddy duddy Hill patriarch. This is the also the 200th episode with the lowest stakes, the least of a spectacle, and most unassuming 200th episode. While trying to research anything of note to include in my review of the episode all I could find was this reddit post (https://www.reddit.com/r/KingOfTheHill/comments/bpl235/hanks_bully_was_near_impossible_to_watch/) where a user is criticizing the way in which Hank it mistreated. When I was rewatching this episode my partner also found this episode hard to watch and sympathized with Hank’s plight against a Clifford-like malicious imp of a hateful child who’s sole purpose is to make the lives of everyone else around him more difficult.

To me what most stands out about this episode is the fantastic direction by longtime King of the Hill animator, former Bob’s Burgers animator, and current Rick and Morty director, Kyoung Hee Lim. A seemingly badass woman working in a field that is not particularly kind to women or to women of color. I am pretty shocked that no one in all of her years as a director on some pretty important shows has brought her up or did an interview piece on her. Maybe this is something the good folks at The Curious Minx can aspire to? I am definitely going to be taking a further dive into the 22 episodes of King of the Hill that she directed and revisit the 15 episodes of Bob’s Burgers to see if I can discern what makes a Kyoung Hee Lim episode.

One major ploy detail that I noticed in this episode, a detail that is also oddly prevalent on the other two 200th episodes, is the trash talk. And by that I do mean literal trash talk. The B-plot of this episode is what makes the episode pop for me in that the pairing of Dale and Peggy is a really successful one. The episode finds Dale frustrated with the Arlington Waste department and how they won’t take his refrigerator full of dead squirrels and his freeze full of dead crow. Dale then takes advantage of this dead blessing in disguise by getting into the world of competitive taxidermy with Peggy’s creative eye complimenting Dale’s gruesome technical prowess. Both of these characters operate on such an oddly similar wave lengths that watching the two of them embark on a taxidermy journey together was strangely touching and fun to watch. And I am a vegan that feels weird about killing animals in video games, but the ending visual gag of the episode is especially inspired. My one complaint is that the episode is severely lacking in Bobby Hill. Probably because I just recently finished watching Better Things and basically want every show to be the Pamela Adlon show all the time.

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3.) American Dad - “The Two Hundred”

Visually and conceptually this 200th episode really impressed me. As previously mentioned at the start of the post, I am not someone that is particularly warm to the McFarlane brand of comedy, but American Dad really is where he saves his best work for. This 200th episode got the complete opposite treatment of Family Guy. Airing on a Monday night on TBS this episode was pretty much given a shrug, but that does not tamper down any of its ambitions. The whole episode is basically a pastiche of Apocalyptic Dystopian alternative timeline tropes centering around an alone and traumatized by his past Stan. The episode has one of the most clever ongoing visual gags I have seen on a show where flash backs are teed up by Stan’s ridiculous new post apocalyptic tattoos. The core family and ancillary characters of American Dad are all given terrific moments to shine in this heightened post apocalyptic hellscape, and the key to any enduring series success if whether or not you can tell that the creatives involved respect and enjoy the characters that they are writing for. This being a McFarlane project there are a couple of embarrassing lines of dialogue from the show’s respective gay and Black characters and an over indulgence on Rodger based humor, but overall this 200th episode left me with more appreciation for this series as a whole. I will still always make sure to appreciate whenever a long running creative property takes stylistic swings and risks.While there is nothing particularly fresh or novel about a cannibal laden post apocalyptic wasteland this 200th episode managed to find some find fun character beats to subvert tropes or double down on them. The visual of a consistently on the move runaway train that is also mysteriously always on fire was also especially well executed. This episode could easily have been a series finale if the series hadn’t already played around with alternative timelines like in their Christmas specials.

This episode also features more trash talk! One of Stan’s tattooed regrets revolves around Francine failing to get the trash picked up on trash day because Stan had purposely neglected to take it out. This rather odd pattern is about to make a whole lot of sense with the fourth and my least favorite 200th episode by the Simpsons.

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4.) The Simpsons - Trash of the Titans

How many more times can I impress upon you that the 200th episode of your animated sitcom is an an occasion for trash talk? One more time. This 200th episode of The Simpsons is by far the most trash centric 200th episode of them all. The first animated adult sitcom to get over the 200th episode hump, the 200th episode “Trash of the Titans” has some fun real-world trivia attached to it, but other than that this is one of the lesser “Golden Era” Simpsons offerings by a long shot.

My primary source on contention with the episode lies in the direction Homer takes in most of the episode. A 2016 Uproxx (https://uproxx.com/media/simpsons-donald-trump-hillary-clinton/) article gained traction and a Wikipedia citation by comparing Homer’s antics to that of possible former rising Dictator Donald Trump. The episode involves Homer acting at his absolute most abhorrent in an election to boot, and his behavior in this episode is some of the most irredeemable Homer has ever been. The article oddly neglects to make note of the fact that Homer in this episode also makes similar slights against Mexico, referring it to an inherently “dirtier” country. The episode ends on a truly groan inducing aged as fine as old socks in the cheese drawer with a crying Native American gag. Ah 1998 when we could pretend that the Crying Native American commercial was just silly social commentary and not racial minstrelsy.

There is also one other instance that didn’t sit well with me and that’s when Homer is seen physically assaulting a woman working the booth at a U2 concert. I could handle the bullish descent into crooked politician, but watching Homer violently push a woman out of the way felt out of place. A retread of all the growth and development we’ve seen him go through over the course of 200 episodes. Of the other three patriarchs discussed on this list a Homer Simpson centric plot tend to not work as well for me especially if you compare him to the other animated TV fathers.

The episode also features two celebrity guest spots. One made by Steve Martin who does a good job becoming more or less unrecognizable as the original Springfield Sanitation Commissioner Ray Patterson. The other celebrity guest appearance is more of an ill-portent of signs to come with U2 playing themselves. Whenever a celebrity is playing themselves on The Simpsons it usually does not work out. Not everyone can be used to advance a plot as seamlessly as Barry White. Although it is funny, funny in a “oh, we were so much simpler” sort of way that this episode garnered controversy and a ban on UK television over U2 and Mister Burns’ use of the word, “wanker.” Flash forward to 2009 and Bono is once again throwing around his favorite cheeky pejorative this time in reference to fellow earnest bland frontman Chris Martin (https://www.music-news.com/news/UK/24741/Read).

Resting Wanker Face

The other fun factoid about this episode once again is not related to the show, but the show’s influence spilling out into the real world. In the late 80s and throughout the 90s, Adams Mine was an abandoned pit located somewhere in Ontario situated in a term I’m learning for the first time, the “Canadian Shield.” An exactly similar proposal is made by Homer Simpson during his reign of Sanitation Commissioner. This sweeping of trash under the rug does culminate into a satisfying visual gag as a climax that feels like a Garbage Pail Kid/Toxic Avenger version of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. More bizarrely and unfortunate, this episode also aired a week after the passing of Linda McCartney. How messed up is that? Couldn’t they just have waited at the end of the season or at least on an episode that doesn’t involve wallowing in filth?

The episode features another developing bad habit in terms of the inclusion of songs and song parodies. There is virtually no connection to Willy Wonka in this episode other than the fact that both “Candy Man” and “Trash Man” have share a similar pronoun. Unlike the use of songs in Bob’s Burgers where they tend to be unique to the character’s reaction to dramatic consequence, on the Simpsons it’s more often than not a a song for the sake of a song. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but why not go for a joke about parodying real musical trash titans, The Cramps, or even trash up a U2 song? On the episode’s Wikipedia entry in the Production section Matt Groening is quoted to saying that the visual gag of a department store sporting the slogan, “Over a Century Without a Slogan,” wasted a lot of man hours. So much effort and reach for a joke with a fraction of a minimal of pay off is essentially the Simpsons ethos in one visual gag.

Once again, it bears repeating that this episode is also rewarded for an Emmy. If you break down the episode as starting off as a satire of Holiday Commercialism with the creation of the cynical Love Day holiday and ending the episode as a foreboding parable about the very real ecological repercussions of improper waste management. This clearly sounds like classic Simpsons reverse engineering management. Instead this is a classic case of an episode of the Simpsons being more interesting to think about than it is to actually watch. This is also the 200th episode that least honors its central cast of characters. Marge and Lisa are both afforded meager moments of wisdom and decency, but Bart is more or less even more irrelevant to the plot than Bobby Hill was on his 200th episode.

As for today it seems like the only Simpsons anniversary that will likely rouse any more attention it’s way will be the 1,000th episode.. Think how much more trash we as a collective species will have made by the time that milestone roils around!

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In Conclusion:

When you start to make 200 episodes of anything the one feeling that seems to creep up is one of, “taking out the trash,” or you’re making art out of trash. Trash being a metaphor for the entire medium of Television. The TV market is an ever growing landfill, one of America’s Rapiest Dads made a whole cartoon about kids living and learning life lessons in a junk yard. So much of Television is only a means of mass marketing ground up pieces of detritus. Then you’re supposed to be grateful that your detritus gets to be a bumper for advertisements and the occasional merchandising. You’re an adult, you’re not supposed to take cartoons seriously. They are empty calories, brain noise, and at best background noise. Yet they are the only types of shows that can consistently manage to get over well over the 200 episode mark. At least back before the Netflix business model of show’s only deserving 1.5 seasons.

Bob’s Burgers is reaching its 200th episode in an unfathomable media landscape, one that is completely demolished and in the process of being rebuilt from the aftermath of the coronavirus. The 2020s could be a turning point for animation going forward, animation is a severely grueling and technically difficult sector. This newfound interest in the medium may finally be the financial boost and support that it dearly needs in order to properly pay artists for their work. The creators of these series may not think of what they do as art and to keep themselves afloat have to think of the act of bringing an animated sitcom into the world as necessary as taking out the trash. Our trash is a mirror. Inside the landfill we see our own morals and values reflected right back at us. Bringing forth life means a lot of shit. With every year you keep an infant human alive that means (x) amount of disposable diapers piled up. I suggest we make like the Belcher children and try to salvage our trash, put a wig on our trash, put a crop top on our trash, paint some lashes on your trash, because we’re all in the end up going to be put into the ground (beef).

#Bob's Burgers #The Simpsons #American Dad #King Of the Hill #TV #TV Review #TV Series #Animation #Cartoon #Anniversary #200

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littlelonghairedoutlawllho · 5 years

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Re: make our sun stand still -- honestly at this point, these stories are so far removed from POTO how is it even fanfiction anymore? You should write original fiction. Also, your "historically detailed author's note": "sorelli's own TB is left intentionally vague" -- if you can't put that across as a writer, go back and re-work it. "FFN character limit should be abolished for my summary" -- a summary has to be tight. If you can't do it in like 3 sentences, it isn't a summary, is it?

I had a few initial responses to this, ranging from bleary-eyed comprehension at half six in the morning to intense anxiety, something that resembled a bitter laugh, and a brief flare of anger that was mercifully short.

Also, oddly, relief.

Anon, I’ve been expecting this message for some time. I expected it last week, with my Philippe/Sorelli stories, I expected it with the Tinder ‘verse, and with love-light, and the Delta stories, and Digging Up Bones, and a host of other times that it never came. That it has come now has caused me to step back and wonder, why? I’ve been expecting it for so long that I expected it with Soft Place to Fall almost through second-nature. I did get one very like this, last year, with Running Through the Rain, and it contributed to a night of alcohol poisoning that I have no desire to remember.

Anon, what is the definition of fanfiction? It is fan generated content about a set of characters created by somebody else. Anon, what is the definition of an alternate universe? The taking of those characters and placing them in a world different to their own.

Every act of fic writing creates an AU, no matter how closely the writer adheres to canon, because every act of fic writing creates a story already fundamentally different to canon.

Anon, what is the definition of PotO fanfiction?

A fan-generated piece of content about characters originating in Phantom of the Opera. Last I checked those were the origins of Sorelli. I simply imagined how she might be in a different set of circumstances. Admittedly a very different set of circumstances, but she is Sorelli nonetheless.

The prompt I received, that led to the creation of this fic, called simply for something featuring Christine, Sorelli, time travel, and mutual pining. There was no compunction on me to set the fic in the canon era. I freely admit canon-era France is something I know a very limited amount about. I am a historian, but that setting is not my area of research.

I do write original fiction. I’ve had a story broadcast nationally and it is available online and I have spoken about it here in the past. I’ve had scraps of poetry published. I am working on the third draft of a novel. None of that means that I can’t also write fic. None of that means that I can’t take someone else’s characters and set them in a wildly different world.

I can, and I will, and I have.

If you don’t like it you don’t have to read it. The evidence is that you have read it because you quote from my own author’s note. That particular line, about the source of Sorelli’s own tuberculosis, exists because I know some readers would like a clear-cut answer on it. The body of the fic itself provides no less than three potential sources of infection. Tuberculosis was endemic in the Ireland of the 1920s, and the 1930s, and the 1940s, and before. 60,000 people died of the disease in the approximate period of 1932-1947, a period when the total population barely reached 3 million, and those fatality figures likely are only a partial picture, due the stigma around the disease, the reluctance to put it down as cause of death on a death certificate, and the multiplicity of atypical presentations of it. Even the three sources of infection I provide may not be the one that caused it in this one (fictional) case.

The fic itself has all of the historical details and explanations it needs. The author’s note simply provides some additional context, because I for one like when a historically-based fic does that. I am a historian, a historian of medicine as well as of politics and agriculture, and this is my failing. I can delete the note if you want, but I don’t think it would make you happy.

You also grossly overstate my comment on the FFN summary character limit. The actual comment was “summarising something like this is a bitch and frankly the FFN character limit should be abolished.” It was written in response to circumstance — I wrote the summary for the fic on AO3, attempted to copy and paste it into the box on FFN, and had to cut it down to make it fit. That does not inherently change the content of either the fic or the summary, it purely impacted the flow and readability of the summary. Personally, I prefer when cross-posted fics have the same summary on multiple sites and when it somewhat reflects the tone of the story. It is a simple matter of taste and prevents so much confusion. I frequently find FFN an unwieldy site — and have mentioned this on a number of occasions in the past — and for a fic like this the tagging system on AO3 works so much better than a mere summary and two restrictive genre tags. But again, that is a matter of taste.

And when was the last time you read a novel — or a historical text — summarized in less than three sentences? Three very short sentences at that.

But to return to the matter of fanfiction, and what defines it. PotO is, quite frankly, the most conservative fandom I’ve ever been in, AU-wise. In fact in most regards. Have you ever searched through the multiplicity of AUs available for things like Sherlock or Wynonna Earp or Harry Potter on AO3? In the case of Harry Potter, a huge amount of them don’t even involve magic. There are historical AUs of every shape and form, including westerns, including war stories. They are all as entitled to being called fanfiction as something that strictly adheres to the most obvious senses of the word.

‘make our sun stand still’ would not work at all as a piece of original fiction. That is one extremely obvious fact about it, even setting aside details. The very means of the time travel in the story — to be explored further through Christine’s perspective — are derived from The Time Traveler’s Wife, and I will be citing that. There are a number of other things that I would not have felt comfortable including if it had been an original piece. All of those changes would result in a wildly different story, and frankly I believe something would be lost by implementing those changes, and not merely my own self-indulgent enjoyment of it.

Just because it doesn’t look like your typical piece of PotO fic does not mean it cannot exist as PotO fic. I freely admit my stories are not for everyone. I have not adhered to the most common principles of PotO fic in more than two years. Possibly I’ve only adhered to it a handful of times in the last four years. I have posted 197 PotO fics (a total of 641,241 words, 77.4% of my entire fic output), and that is not fully reflective of the 48 one-shots contained in the Fragmentations collection, or the host of one-shots and snippets posted here that never made it to fic sites. If we were limited to the most doctrinaire conception of PotO fic, a good 90% of my fics would not exist. Possibly only 10 would exist, possibly only 5. Possibly none and would that make you happy? And if so, perhaps you ought to wonder why.

But it’s not just me. Should every fic writer adhere to the most doctrinaire conception of it, all originality in fic would be lost. Fic is an incredibly innovative and fertile literary field. It feeds into itself in a self-sustaining loop. The fic read for one fandom influences the fic written and enjoyed in another fandom. The backgrounds of the fic writers themselves inform the fics they write — not just setting and speech and sexuality, but a variety of other things too. If I were not a historian, most of my fics would not exist. If I were not a farmer, they would not exist either. If I were not Irish, there are at least 70,000 words of fic that would not exist. If I were not a queer woman, I likely would never have started writing fic at all.

We cannot wholly divorce a fic from the person writing it, and nor should we, just as we cannot wholly divorce it from its canon. And no matter how full a fic is of original elements, it remains a fic, because some if not all of the characters will have been sourced from somebody else’s work. They may have a different accent and a different background and a different skin colour and a different taste in romantic and sexual partners, but there will always be that seed of them that came from canon. So if it’s called fic and it’s posted to a fic site, chances are it works better as fic than as an original work.

So perhaps, Anon, you ought to take a step back, and reflect a little, and look around you, before you wander into my inbox. Chances are I’ve already asked myself the questions you’re posing, and formed a conclusion, and with the information I have access to about myself and my work those conclusions are not going to change just because you couldn’t allow yourself to think outside the box.

#shauna replies #apologies for the mini essay but i had both time and thoughts

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sunshinexlollipops · 5 years

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1/ I wanted to thank you for writing ACW, you are doing an amazing job with the characterization and I'm dying at every interactions between Wolf and Arthur. I'm already ready to have my heart broken if your story ends like the game. I'm really looking forward the next chapters ! You have a lot to cover between the canon story and the original stuff you add, especially everything covering the TB, I don't know what you're planning to do (and whatever you will do I will love it !)

Part 2:

—————

Ah! Thank you anon! You’re too gd sweet and I’m so happy to see all of the love you have for my work as well as the amount of confidence you confide with me!

And as for my health, I’ve been doing a lot better! My tendinitis was caused by a pinched nerve in my neck from sleeping on it wrong for a week straight and having a bad pillow, and I’ve since gotten a new one and viola! Worked like a charm! ;)

Personally, I’m enjoying to really get to the parts I’ve been DYING to get to for MONTHS since I first started this fic. What you all are reading has been plotted out since we first started chapter two and were in Horseshoe— not even kidding.

And we haven’t even touched the best parts of Wolf and Arthur’s relationship, nor have we gotten to its true depth yet, and I’m so god damn excited to get these next few updates out to truly begin venturing into the actual substance of their relationship.

I wish I could talk about what I intend for the ending of this story, but more importantly, the ending that I have planned for our beloved Wolf and Arthur— but unfortunately that would be such a huge spoiler and I want you all to actually get to EXPERIENCE what is in store rather than have it whipped out in a superficial ask reply haha — not that you are asking to have it spoiled, but just that I wish I could have the proper discussion over what is to be with you!!!

As for Arthur being alone in the game in chapter 6/post TB diagnosis, it’s true. Arthur’s ticket for death separated him from everyone. Dutch saw him as useless, Micah saw him as a weakness, and everyone else saw him as a dead man walking. All Arthur was faced with was pity and apology after apology— “oh, Arthur, that’s awful I’m so sorry.”

The two who were truly best at processing Arthur’s TB was Sadie and Charles. They kept him busy and didn’t treat him any differently in terms of blockading him from helping or writing him off because he’s not as capable as he used to be. Granted, they checked up on him and made sure he was handling himself alright, but they didn’t see Arthur any lesser because he was gravely sick and dying slowly and in an agonizing way.

And it’s not that John was awful either, but he tried to spare Arthur. Arthur felt like a fragile, cracked tea cup, a shadow cast by a man who used to be his rival when he showed up, practically snarling and feral at thirteen or so. He and Arthur always had competition, who was better, who was capable. And suddenly, Arthur can’t run without coughing, is weak, is fainting, is dying, and suddenly everything is different. Suddenly it feels like he’s lost in the worst way possible and John’s prize is that he isn’t coughing up blood every so often. How trivial their rivalry had been, and to what conclusion did it bring?

Sean. Kieran. Hosea. Lenny. At this point they all had died, and for what?

And what was Arthur dying for, even?

And that’s when Arthur’s atonement truly began to shape when he was dying.

As he says in the game, you see everything so much clearer. There isn’t a bigger picture, not anymore.

He wasn’t gonna worry about money— after all, what good would it do him? The Pinkertons? Well, I might be dead come tomorrow, so I don’t care if they are close to catching me.

Every single concern he ever had just got washed away. Worries that blinded him, fears that misguided him— all were gone, and all Arthur could see was the fear and greed that grew within the members of the gang.

Arthur spent the last couple of months to weeks of his life living them for everyone else, trying to save who he could, all the while feeling regret because everything that he ever told himself that could “wait till I’m done” wasn’t possible anymore. No running off with Mary, no farmland to become his ranch out West.

Every dream or hope or future shattered with the words, “I’m so sorry, son... it’s a hell of a thing.”

Knowing that he was going to die made him so alone because everyone else... they all were trying to survive.

No matter what happened to them. If the gang stayed together, if Dutch got caught, if Micah died and Dutch killed him, if they broke apart and went on to live the rest of their lives— Arthur’s end was certain.

Arthur was going to die.

He already was dying.

And it made him feel like he was separated from every damn person around him, because they were so scared for their life, so greedy for their futures— and Arthur, he had none of that.

Only regret. Only a certainty that he would die a miserable and painful death, and soon.

Arthur lived the last part of his life trying to ensure others had their own, and that he didn’t die with the regret that he couldn’t save them too. He was a lost cause, a goner— and while that made him feel like he was on the outside looking in, he knew that it was the last thing he could do before his body finally couldn’t keep going anymore.

For ACW, their fight has been important to me. So important. I grew extremely attached to Arthur, and in the time I’ve written her, Wolf as well. They are so important to me and in so many ways.

I get emotional in a lot of ways for what they are going to go through, and how their story will conclude. And I just want to ask you guys one thing: please keep going, even if the story and events seem so bleak, that you don’t stop to avoid its conclusion.

With fan fiction, the sad part is that, to an extent, your story is already told. You all know what direction this story is to go, and what events transpire in the game.

I wish I could tell you more anon— I wish I could write down all of the feelings I’ve had and all of the planning and dedication I’ve poured into just figuring out how this story is mine is to end, and everything leading up it to and in between.

With Arthur, but more importantly, also with Wolf.

And I have been restraining myself for nearly the entire time I’ve written this fic for everything that were about to reach to here in a few updates.

Have faith.

Continue reading and pushing until you get to the very last god damn word because despite Arthur knowing his ending, he kept going.

But please, have it within yourself to continue. That’s all I ask!

#:)#acw #amidst a clash of worlds #luffy asks #tonights special is depression on the rocks

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weliketheiroldstuff · 5 years

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Senses Fail 'From The Depths Of Dreams' Tour wsg Hot Mulligan and Yours Truly

It's unbelievably hard not to gawk at the photo behind the bar. A young Chris Cornell performing at St Andrews Hall damn near 30 years ago. I swiftly order a Dirty Blonde tallboy and down it in the 6 minutes before Yours Truly come on the stage at 8pm.

Yours Truly are fixated on how Americans say "Mother Fucker" as if their accent is anymore normal than ours. I love it. I fucking love anyone who understands there's so much more to us here than just being Trumpets and complete pieces of shit. We also say "Mother Fucker" better than anyone.

Yours Truly are reminiscent of early Paramore but I'm positive every band that is remotely close to pop-punk with a female falsetto vocalist get that comparison. Musically I feel it in my chest. Visually its stimulating as all members who are standing can't help but move on and feel their own music, I'm guessing in their chests also. High kicks inspired by I'm guessing by their parent’s desire for David Lee Roth in Van Halen videos.

This is a great band with great songs. Funny banter in-between songs help elevate them also. Definitely something down under that is giving way for an absolute shit-ton of Aussie bands making their way to America over the last few years.

Who ever is running the music in between bands need a fucking award. Underoath. TBS. Deftones. Thursday. My Chemical Romance. Oh man, MCR. I'm Not Okay is asking for it. Screaming emo kids scratch that drunk emo adults. Oh boy. They're gonna let this play out...

Hot Mulligan are Michigan natives that play a blend of math rock, post-hardcore, pop-punk, and emo rolled into one creative package. This is the kind of band that once you see them, you're addicted. I can feel them coursing through my veins already.

Their set elevated the crowd participation drastically as security has had their hands full in the front row catching crowd surfers. This shit reminds me of the late days of hall shows here in the Detroit area. Plenty of VFWs, polish halls, and of course UAW halls that I cut my teeth at. It’s easily the soundtrack to an Alpha Emo doob cruise out in the country. Chances are, I'm riding home and ripping a number listening to this shit. Now I have to go through their catalog. Good thing I can take the long way home and blare this shit. At the very least Hot Mulligan gained a middle-aged fan out of my stoned ass.

Back on that house music tip, more Taking Back Sunday, The Used, Korn, Rage Against The Machine and more, seriously… award.

Senses Fail are titans in Emo and Screamo. This is a band that literally started from that hall show era and made a fucking career out of it. Buddy has been a steadfast leader of righteousness in change over the years. Opening up about so much of his personal life to let more people in and to show that we're all flawed in many ways and there is nothing wrong about that. Even going as far as rerecording their first EP, cutting "Bastard Son" and changing words out like "whore" and "bitch". Flat out not what I would do at all.

I think teen angst is a beautiful thing. I understand the misogyny issues here with their old stuff. I also don't hold everyone to a high as fuck standard just because righteousness is in. I love that they did this, but I think what the Descendants have done for years is better. Which is admitting that these songs were written in a different time by different feeling human beings. And for that changed the lyrics to songs that were written when they were in high school and still stand the test of time even though blatantly immature. I get what they did and why they did it.

I'm by no means trying to criticize their intentions or decision to do so. Emo during that era of time was very anti ex gf not anti-woman and that shit got so fucking twisted in the years since. Its actually more anti-ex-significant other just depends on who is listening. Speaking of, maybe not a good idea to play "Misery Business" by Paramore right before Senses Fail comes on. I mean this is a song they stopped playing all together too. Senses Fail are in perfect form. This might not even be remotely close to the original lineup but this is the best you’re going to hear this band play. Absolutely on point, heavy when they need to be, 3 acoustic songs in the middle of the set to warm your broken blackened hearts. I could not be happier to be here.

www.instagram.com/iliketheiroldstuff www.instagram.com/sherburtphoto www.twitter.com/oldstuffmedia www.twitter.com/sherburtphoto weliketheiroldstuff.tumblr.com

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cometomecosette · 6 years

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“Les Mis” review: US Tour, San Francisco, August 25, 2018

When I heard that the Les Mis tour was coming to San Francisco, I knew right away that I had to make the 2-hour drive and see it. I hadn’t seen the show onstage in three years and I’m always eager to see a new performance – only time and money limits stop me from traveling to see every professional production.

The current US tour is, of course, Laurence Conner’s 25th Anniversary production, which has been sweeping the world since 2009. The sets, costumes and basic staging were familiar and my feelings about them haven’t changed a bit. I could nitpick about all the details that feel inferior to the classic Trevor Nunn/John Caird production (the lack of any chairs or tables in Empty Chairs, the excessive slapstick in the Thénardiers’ scenes, the awkwardness of some scenes that were clearly written to be staged on a turntable, etc.), but overall, it’s a beautiful way to experience the musical. The impressionistic imagery derived from Victor Hugo’s drawings is both Romantically beautiful and appropriately somber and gritty, and for the most part, the staging excellently serves the story. So many little details enhanced the action’s moving effect: for example, in the Well Scene, Valjean found an exhausted Young Cosette collapsed in tears over her heavy bucket, and he gently approached her from behind and helped her to her feet, perfectly mirroring the moment when the Bishop first found him sleeping on his doorstep.

Believe it or not, this was my first time seeing the 25th Ann. production since 2012, before the movie was released. Since then I’ve only seen non-replica regional productions; I missed the 2014 Broadway revival and have never been anywhere near the International Tour either. So I noticed a fair amount of changes that have been made to the production since the original 2009-13 tours. Some of these changes I had already read about in other people’s reviews, but others were surprises. Here are all the differences I noticed:

*All projections that used to tell us when and where the action takes place have been cut. Maybe this was already the case in 2009-13, but I don’t remember. This must make the time skips confusing for first-time audience members who haven’t read the synopsis.

*In the Prologue, during the farm scene’s instrumental passage, two little girls run across the stage playing tag. One trips and falls, and Valjean approaches to make sure she’s all right, but her parents hurry protectively to her side and glare him away from her.

*Petit Gervais is included. Valjean takes his coin during “Now every door is closed to me…” I know this bit of staging has been in and out of this production since 2009 (it was present in the UK tour, then absent in the 2010 US tour, then reinstated in Toronto…), but for now it’s back. I think the placement is awkward, though, since it comes just on the heels of Valjean showing compassion to another child. I personally would have placed Gervais after the inn scene during “And now I know how freedom feels…” to show that Valjean’s increasing mistreatment has made him even more bitter and ruthless than when he was first released from prison. (Future directors, take note.)

*Fantine’s dress is now a solid turquoise in place of the stripe-and-flower pattern from the 2009-13 tours. I already knew this from the 2014 Broadway photos of Caissie Levy, though.

*In “At the End of the Day,” the Factory Girl now has a “girl posse” of two other women. They’re the ones who initially snatch Fantine’s letter and sing “And what have we here, little innocent sister?” then pass the letter to their queen bee, who reads it.

*Fantine’s first customer in “Lovely Ladies” is now the Factory Foreman. (This may have been the case back in 2009-13, but I don’t remember; it was the case in the 2006-07 Broadway production, though.) We get a long, horrible moment where they stand and stare at each other, Fantine appalled while the Foreman leers back at her, before she finally gives him her hand.

*Same scene: Fantine doesn’t sing “Come on, captain, you can wear your shoes…” anymore. Instead, she and the Foreman emerge from their “transaction” and two other whores ask the departing Foreman “Tell me, captain, did you wear your shoes?” “Don’t it make a change… etc.” while Fantine stands still and traumatized. She only starts singing at “Easy money, lying on a bed…”

*Fantine’s cause of death is once again TB, as Hugo wrote it. Back in the 2009-13 tours she wasn’t portrayed as sick; instead Bamatabois gave her a powerful kick in the side, which apparently broke her ribs, punctured a lung and killed her. But now she’s coughing before Bamatabois ever sets eyes on her. I suppose after Anne Hathaway’s dramatic weight loss and oh-so-believable illness in the movie, Laurence Connor decided he couldn’t kill his Fantine differently.

*In “Master of the House,” we get a more elaborate variation on the movie’s quick “watering the wine” bit. Halfway through the song, a man desperately needs to go to the bathroom; Thénardier directs him to Mme. Thénardier, who holds a chamber pot while he uses it. At the end of the song, she secretly pours out the chamber pot into the wine jug, then brings the jug to her husband, who drinks, then gags.

*I remember that the first time I saw the 2010 US tour, Mme. Thénardier tried to seduce Valjean during “The Bargain,” but later in the run, that bit of comedy was cut. Well, now it’s back. She “treats” him to some dramatic leg- and cleavage-flaunting and sprays herself with much too much perfume, making him cough when she comes near him. A little excessive, if you ask me.

*Gavroche’s costume seems to have been tweaked. Instead of the all-brown outfit of the 2009-13 tours, as seen on Robert Madge in the 25th Ann. Concert, he now wears a light blue shirt with a tan vest. Also, instead of “This is my school, my high society…” in “Look Down,” he now sings his more political lyrics from the movie, starting with, “This is the land that fought for liberty…”

*The street fight between the two women in “Look Down” has been cut. Why that vignette wasn’t cut to begin with when the show was first trimmed down in the early 2000s, yet actual characterization material from major characters was cut, I’ll never know.

*Enjolras and Marius’s lines in “Look Down” are now a public speech to the beggars, delivered on soapboxes with one or two other Amis (I don’t remember which ones) present too.

*In “Attack on Rue Plumet,” Éponine now snatches a knife from a gang member (I don’t remember who, though I don’t think it was Montparnasse – either Babet or Claquesous) and threatens all the men with it as she sings “I know this house, I tell you…”

*When Éponine delivers Marius’s letter, she doesn’t run straight up to Valjean and announce her purpose anymore. Instead the scene is staged more like the original Nunn/Caird version; she creeps into the garden and looks up at Cosette’s balcony, trying to determine how to get the letter to her, but then Valjean catches her and she gives him the letter out of fear. She also takes down her hair and reveals her gender on “He said to give it to Cosette,” though I’m not sure why.

*Gavroche flips off Javert the end of “Little People.” Not the Arm, which other Gavroches have done. The Finger. My friend who saw the show with me was disturbed that they let a child do that.

*Éponine’s death is now a self-sacrifice. When she enters over the barricade, she almost makes it to safety, but Marius, in his eagerness to talk to her, jumps up from cover while bullets are still flying and is almost shot. Éponine pushes him out of the way and takes the bullet instead, though she doesn’t let him realize she’s been hit until after they climb down to the ground.

*Gavroche’s death is no longer offstage, but now handled in the style that seems to be near ubiquitous in productions with no turntable. Gavroche makes it back to the top of the barricade, but is shot at the last moment and falls into Enjolras’s arms. Then Enjolras hands him down to Grantaire, who mournfully carries him from the barricade.

*Post-Final Battle, Javert now has a movie-esque moment of sympathy over Gavroche’s body. He finds the boy on the ground, kneels and contemplates him, then does a sign of the cross before lifting him up onto the cart next to Enjolras.

*Likewise, Javert now has a gun in his last meeting with Vajean. This has seemingly become ubiquitous in post-movie productions.

*In the wedding scene, midway through the Thénardiers’ exchange with Marius, the majordomo announces “Ladies and gentlemen, the cake!” A gorgeous wedding cake is wheeled onstage – and Mme. Thénardier promptly grabs the knife, cuts a piece and stuffs it into her mouth with her bare hands, much to the shock of the onlookers. In disgust, the majordomo orders the cake removed. I’m not sure whether I think this is funny or fatphobic.

*When the Bishop appears among the spirits in the finale, he and Valjean hug, rather than just bowing to each other as in 2009-13.

Now for the cast…

Nick Cartell (Jean Valjean)

Both musically and dramatically, this man commanded the stage. His bright, ringing tenor was capable of all the magnificent power and magnificent gentleness an ideal Valjean should display; his only possible vocal flaw was that he sounded a bit too young. (The same could be said about his looks.) His acting was spot-on too. From the angry convict of the beginning, to the gentlemanly Monsieur Madeleine, to Javert’s fierce nemesis, to Cosette’s loving father, to the dying old man of the finale, he embodied each of Valjean’s identities. One worthwhile touch he added that I’ve never seen from any other musical Valjean was the limp Hugo ascribes to the character, as a result of living for years with his leg chained: at first it was barely noticeable, but as he aged it became painfully pronounced. Another, adorable touch to his performance was this: he took the popular detail of Valjean gently booping Cosette’s nose, and instead of only doing it once or twice, he expanded it into a special gesture of affection for her throughout their years together. Repeatedly he touched his own nose, then touched hers: first when he adopted her, then in “In My Life,” then at the beginning of “Valjean’s Confession,” and finally as he was dying. During the final curtain calls, the audience’s wild applause for him was well deserved.

Josh Davis (Javert)

I’m afraid he was my least favorite of the lead performers. Not in terms of his singing: he had a rich, powerful baritone voice that was just right for the part. But his diction tended to sound strange and his whole characterization was a bit too growly, aggressive and “cartoon villain”-like for my taste. I’m sure this was partly direction: Laurence Connor’s concept of Javert has always seemed more aggressive and neurotic than the novel’s or Trevor Nunn’s, regardless of the actor. But it still didn’t ring quite right for me. I agree with a previous reviewer who wrote that his delivery recalled William Shatner … particularly at the end of “Who Am I?” when he charged after Valjean yelling “CON!” which of course sounded just like “KHAN!” I literally asked myself “Did he just make a Star Trek joke?” (Though maybe it was one, since this was a matinee performance; I know it’s a tradition in the London production to add little jokes in the matinees.) Still, there were moments of his performance I liked a lot: for example, his unique, utterly broken, weary delivery of the line “This man has killed me even so!” I’ve definitely seen worse Javerts in the past. I’ve just seen better ones too.

Mary Kate Moore (Fantine)

A lovely, delicate Fantine with a beautiful mezzo voice and a poignant, pain-filled characterization. I just wish I could have seen more anger, pride and inner strength from her. Maybe part of the problem was my far-away seat, because I’ve read another fan’s review of her performance that praised her strength and anger. But personally, I never felt the complexity of the novel’s Fantine from her. Still, without question, her singing and acting were high in quality. I think my main issue was with the staging, which highlighted Fantine’s victimhood and reduced her agency. The factory “fight” consisted only of the Factory Girl beating her up, rather than letting her make a fierce effort to get the letter back, and the reassignment of lines in “Lovely Ladies” left her standing in mute, broken shock where past Fantines have made active, tough-talking advances to potential customers. She was a good Fantine, but might have done better in a different production.

J. Anthony Crane (Thénardier)

Scraggly, slimy, funny and slightly larger than life but never too hammy, dark and sinister in “Dog Eats Dog”… in short, he was just what Thénardier should be. His marriage to his wife seemed to be one where “pots and pans and underwear fly”: they bickered ferociously, but worked together effortlessly, and at the end of the Waltz of Treachery they “celebrated” their 1500 francs with his head under her skirt. Predictably, the audience loved them both.

Allison Guinn (Mme. Thénardier)

Good, but over the top. Her voice was powerful and strident, which is right for the role, but she made it a little too strident and annoying for my taste. The same can be said for her acting: just as brash, funny and nasty as it should be, but a little too slapstick and cartoonish. Of course she’s far from the only cartoonish Mme. T. I’ve ever seen, and while she didn’t perfectly embody the brute Hugo created, she was still a solid source of comic relief.

Robert Ariza (u/s Marius)

A very likeable Marius: cute and small (he was slightly shorter than Éponine!), with fluffy black hair and a warm, sweet tenor voice. He was adorably passionate and lovesick in the early scenes; I adored the moment in “A Heart Full of Love” when he thought he had scared Cosette away after she ran from her balcony, and was groaning “I do not even know your name!” to the wall of her house (such an INFP!) when he suddenly realized she was standing behind him. He also offered a warm friendship with Éponine and touching grief and tears at her death. His “Empty Chairs” was appropriately poignant too, with its outpouring of grief and anger. Knowing that first-time Les Mis viewers so often react to Marius in less than complimentary way, it’s a testament to his performance that afterwards, my first-timer friend praised the character’s coming-of-age journey and his romance with Cosette. Everything about his performance was more-or-less just right.

Paige Smallwood (Éponine)

A good, strong Éponine, with a beautiful, powerful voice and a solid, affecting characterization. She was a genuine street rat, never cutesy or ingénue-like, yet not too harsh either, but struck just the right balance of toughness, playfulness, anger, heartache and warmth. I especially liked a few of her small yet unique acting choices. On the line “I like the way you grow your hair,” for example, she started to reach out to touch Marius’s hair, but then pulled herself back, and distracted him from what she had almost done by throwing his book onto the ground. I also loved her grimly determined expression at the end of “On My Own,” when she set off to rejoin Marius at the barricade; other Éponines I’ve known have paused in uncertainty at that point, torn between love and fear, but this one strode to her fate with hard, unwavering resolve. Her death was excellent too, with the perfect balance between pain, vocal beauty and tenderness. The audience understandably loved her.

Matt Shingledecker (Enjolras)

I should have known to expect good things from this Enjolras, since his performance as Tony in the 2009 West Side Story revival (he replaced Matt Cavanaugh) was highly praised by the late Arthur Laurents in his last memoire. His bright, ringing tenor voice was just right both for Tony and for Enjolras, and his looks were ideal too: tall, strong and handsome, with a long mane of sunny blond hair. His acting was also spot on, with an excellent balance between stately dignity and rabble-rousing fire. I only wish I had been sitting closer, so I could see his expressions more closely and have more insight into this Enjolras’s relationships with his friends, especially Grantaire. But I have nothing but positive feelings about his performance.

Jillian Butler (Cosette)

A sweet, charming Cosette; not one of the most outstanding I’ve seen, per se, but very good. As with Robert’s Marius, it’s a testament to her talent that my first-timer friend loved their love story. Her voice was a bright, crystalline soprano, slightly thin, but never wispy or squeaky. Her acting was spot-on too; she was just as innocent, lovesick and tender as she should be, angry about Valjean’s secret keeping without being bratty, and appropriately distraught by his death. I do wish Connor’s staging let her show him more affection instead of highlighting their conflict, but of course this wasn’t her fault at all.

John Ambrosino (u/s Grantaire)

Effective, though I wish I had been sitting closer to see the nuances of the various looks he exchanged with Enjolras. They were subtle, but I have no doubt they were emotionally charged. Still, he was convincing as the wild and funny drunkard, as the sad cynic, and as Gavroche’s devoted big brother figure. I was especially struck by his private, despairing collapse against a wall after Enjolras glared at him at the end of his “Drink With Me” verse, and though his “NO!” at Gavroche’s death was slightly underwhelming, his staggering, open-mouthed anguish as he carried the boy’s body and quiet weeping into his chest on the ground were heartbreaking. Overall, an excellent performance.

Sam Middleton (Gavroche)

A first-rate Gavroche, old enough to be convincing and commanding onstage yet young enough to be poignant, with a strong, clear voice and good acting throughout. Besides the usual cheek and feistiness, I loved that this production made Gavroche’s compassionate side clear. He was the one who comforted Marius after Éponine’s death, and when Grantaire collapsed in despair after his “Drink With Me” solo, he gave him the sweetest consoling hug. The characters onstage weren’t the only ones distraught by his death, that’s for sure.

Elsa Avery Dees (Young Cosette)

A delicate, sweet-voiced little thing, just as any Young Cosette should be.

My friend who had never seen Les Mis before was completely bowled over by this performance. She had endless praise for it our way home (though even she thought the slapstick in the Thénardiers’ scenes was overdone) and right away got tickets to see again with her family. Personally, I wouldn’t want to see the same cast back-to-back, but I am hoping to see the tour again when it comes to LA in the spring. This production might not be perfect, but still, both for first-timers and for longtime Les Mis lovers, it has no shortage of great things to offer.

#les mis #les miserables #musical #review #us tour 2018 #san francisco #orpheum theatre

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myhauntedsalem · 5 years

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WAVERLY HILLS SANITARIUM

There are several reasons why the Waverly Hills Sanatorium is considered to be the most haunted hospital worldwide. Several patients have been through the doors of the hospital to be treated and never were able to walk out of them because of the fact that they died. Others were severely mistreated while receiving medical care within the walls of the facility. In a location surrounded by sickness, sadness, despair and death, it is no wonder that this hospital is considered to be the most haunted structure worldwide.

Many paranormal investigators claim that the most haunted hospital worldwide is the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. In the year of 1883, a Major by the name of Thomas H. Hays purchased the land where the haunted hospital now stands in Louisville, Kentucky. Immediately after purchase, he found it a necessity to create a school for his daughter to attend. The school was constructed on what is referred to as “Pages Lane” . It consisted of just one room, which was sufficient for the educational needs of his daughter. In his search for an educator, he hired a female by the name of Lizzie L. Harris. He also allowed her to name the school. Since she was an avid fan of the novels written by Sir Walter Scott known as the “Waverley Novels” , she named the educational facility “Waverley School” . Major Hays took a fondness to this particular name and appropriately named his property “Waverley Hill” . Little did the two realize that this name would eventually spark conversations of spirits, mysteries and paranormal activity.

In the early 1900s, there was a serious tuberculosis outbreak that resulted in the deaths of millions of individuals. Before the introduction of antibiotics in the 1940s, this was considered to be one of the most serious conditions that affected individuals. Those that were diagnosed with this condition were often isolated as far away from society as possible. The locations that they were placed were designed to allow those plagued by the condition to rest peacefully and have access to the freshest air possible. Most of the hospitals used to care for tuberculosis patients were constructed in regions that were considered to be at high altitudes, such as hills. Most locations were surrounded by beautiful landscapes so that the ill patients could recover in a healthy and serene environment. The Waverly Hills Sanatorium was constructed in this manner. Perhaps the individuals who died at this hospital simply did not know their way to the spiritual world. That could be why it is considered to be the most haunted hospital worldwide.

Originally, the haunted hospital only consisted of a frame building that had a total of two stories . The construction efforts started in the year of 1908 and were finalized enough that by the 26th day of July in the year of 1910, the medical facility was opened to patients. This particular establishment was designed to assist up to fifty patients in a comfortable manner suffering from the tuberculosis outbreak. The tuberculosis outbreak became so immense that the small hospital could no longer accommodate all of those that required medical care for their condition.

Jefferson County started seeing so many new cases of this particular illness that the City of Louisville started taking measures to create a new medical facility. A total of $25,000.00 was provided to an organization called “Board of Tuberculosis Hospital” so that they may develop an advanced care medical facility. While the plans were being established and put into place on this construction endeavor, several medical tents were placed on Major Hay’s property to treat patients that needed immediate care. Unfortunately, the hospitals in the region were becoming extremely costly and overcrowded. As a result, the construction efforts on the current Waverly Hills Sanatorium started in the month of March in the year of 1924.

The land where the building was constructed was purchased from Major Hays by the organization known at the time as the “Board of Tuberculosis Hospital”. Because of the unique sound of the name that he had tagged on his property, the organization elected to keep the name intact. However, at the time, the name had an additional “e” in the spelling – Waverley. As time progressed, the additional “e” was dropped. Not much is known on the reasoning behind this. However, today, the name stands without the additional “e” – Waverly Hills Sanatorium. This structure was designed to be highly durable, and had the capacity to treat four hundred patients at once. It ended up being five stories in height and functioning at full capacity – sometimes more than full capacity – on the 17th day of October in the year of 1926. In the mid-1940s, the first antibiotic known as “Streptomycin” was introduced. Cases of TB started declining rapidly. As a result, what is now considered to be the most haunted hospital worldwide closed its doors to patients in the year of 1961.

There were many different types of treatments issued to patients that received care at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium during the tuberculosis outbreak. Because of the fact that antibiotics did not exist at the time, many medical professionals and their staff turned to treatments that were considered to be natural. One of the main patient treatments at this medical care facility was placing patients on specially designed porch paths in their beds where they could be exposed to the outside air. It did not matter if it was winter or summer, this particular treatment was used. However, specially designed blankets that provided heat to the patients were provided during extremely cold periods of the year. It was believed that fresh air would enter into the lungs and that the germs that were part of the illness would be effectively carried away from those that were sick.

In addition to the fresh air therapy, many individuals took part in a special type of sunlight treatments. If the weather was favorable, the patient would be placed outside to receive ultraviolet treatment. This form of therapy was referred to as “Heliotherapy” . If the weather was not favorable for a patient to be let outside of the most haunted location, they would receive treatment from sunlamps. It was believed at the time that the sun acted as what many medical professionals call a “Bactericide” , which means that the substances that caused the disease would be killed off. Additionally, the warmth from the sun was believed to be detrimental to the microorganisms that sickened the patient. The patients also received a wide array of fresh meats, produce and vegetation in order to strengthen their immune systems while being cared for at Waverly Hills Sanatorium.

Many paranormal investigators believe that this is the one of the most haunted places in America because of the fact that several patients died while receiving surgical procedures. The procedures issued at the haunted hospital include “Pneumothorax” as well as “Thoracoplasty” . While these procedures were often used only as a last resort, many individuals that received them passed away during or immediately after the operation. One resource states that less than five percent of all individuals that received these surgical procedures lived. On top of all of the deaths that were occurring on a day to day basis because of the tuberculosis outbreak, this meant that a devastating amount of individuals passed away prior to the most haunted hospitals closure in the year of 1961.

When individuals speak of Waverly Hills Sanatorium being one of the most haunted hospitals worldwide, one of the main regions that come up time and time again is the death tunnel. Many refer to this as the “Body Chute” . This five hundred foot structure was designed to transport the deceased from the medical facility to the lower region of the hill where various types of motor vessels awaited. This structure was designed in a period where there was no electricity, so it is exceptionally dark. Furthermore, it was used to avoid lowering morale on those that remained alive in the haunted hospital. Many paranormal investigations have gathered evidence in the death tunnel that seem to indicate that there are many spirits that apparently seem lost in trying to uncover the spiritual world. EVPs, ghost pictures and even videos that contain unexplained phenomenon have been produced in the death tunnels of the most haunted hospital worldwide.

While the Waverly Hills Sanatorium for the tuberculosis patients experienced many deaths, it appears that their intentions were positive for the patients. However, this does not seem to be the case for the next business that operated behind the walls of this grand haunted hospital. In the year of 1962, the facility known as the “Woodhaven Geriatrics Sanitarium” opened for business. Many individuals also referred to this facility as the “WoodHaven Medical Services” unit. Many unfortunate stories of patients being abused and experiencing various degrees of maltreatment occurred when this facility took over. According to historical documents, the facility was closed in the year of 1980 because of the fact that there was some validity to the reports of abuse and mistreatment. Many believe that the building is considered to be the most haunted because of what occurred within its walls during this period of time.

There are many different instances of paranormal activity at this most haunted location. The following outlines some of the most popular stories surrounding the Waverly Hills Sanatorium:

•At the main entrance of the haunted hospital, many have reported seeing the apparition of an elderly female that often resorts to running from the front entrance. It has been said that she is bonded by chains and that the chains appear to have cut into her skin because of the visibility of blood that is witnessed. In addition to this, many stories have the woman yelling for assistance. All stories reflect the fact that she literally disappears into thin air.

•On the third floor of the structure, reports of an apparition of a young female have been reported. In some instances, she talks to the living claiming that she does not possess eyes. In other instances, she is playing with a toy such as a ball. In other reports, the little girl is looking out of the window from the third floor. Many refer to this ghost as “Mary” .

•It is believed that a head nurse in the year of 1928 committed suicide in the room at the most haunted hospital known as “502” . While many speculate that she could have discovered that she was pregnant and was not yet married, the facts surrounding this case are not precise. In another story that occurred in the year of 1932, a female nurse jumped from the window of the room and died. The details of this incident are unknown as well. However, many state that they see the spirits of these nurses – dressed in their work uniform – on a regular basis.

•Many individuals have reported hearing and seeing children ghosts on the roof of the most haunted hospital playing. It is believed that children who were receiving sunlight therapy would be placed on the roof for optimal exposure.

•The fourth floor of the most haunted facility is believed to be one of the most paranormal active in the entire structure. Shadows are often seen, doors are often slammed shut unexpectedly and angry voices and noises are often heard.

•In the kitchen region of the most haunted structure, many claim to smell the aroma of cooking food and to have observed the spirit of a chef lingering in the region. Many speculate that this is the ghost of a food service worker that caught tuberculosis while working at Waverly Hills Sanatorium.

•In addition to the stories highlighted above, many have reported seeing lights and other types of oddities that could be produced by electricity – when electricity was not present in the structure. Furthermore, many have heard disembodied voices, whispers, cries and yells emerging from the corridors of the haunted hospital.

#WAVERLY HILLS SANITARIUM #haunted locations #paranormal #ghost and hauntings #ghost and spirits

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