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yaboigamerghost · 4 years

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Imperfection Is Beautiful: An Analysis of Hordak From Netflix’s She-Ra

Before I start I’d like to preface this by saying that I’m normally not the kind of person who really becomes attached to the villains in the media I consume (Zuko from ATLA being an obvious exception). However, leading into She-Ra’s final season I found myself asking one question “Why do I care about what happens to Hordak?” In the back of my head while watching the final I was constantly wondering where he currently was, and was even more invested than I already was during scenes featuring him, during his reunion with Entrapta, and later when he turned on Horde Prime to save her I was cheering the whole time. While I still completely agree with those takes I had while watching, this made me decide to try and take a deep dive into why I and many other fans felt that way. Specifically, what did lead writer Josie Campbell, her team, and the rest of the staff do to turn a character once presented as likely being the shows final boss into a sympathetic and understandable one, and how did they turn Entrapdak, which was once and still partly is viewed as a crackship into one of the stronger presentations of the shows themes of love, and the power of friendship. My hope is that by the end of this essay people who are fans of Hordak’s character can understand better the possible reasons as to WHY they feel that way, and maybe try to explain to those who really don’t like him why so many people do. Now without further ado, let’s get analyzing.

To begin, let me talk about how he’s used in the first season, and how the writers chose to position him in the viewers’ heads. For those who haven’t taken a marketing class before, positioning typically refers to how companies try to position their brand in comparison to other brands in the minds of consumers, and the same concept can be somewhat applied to how storytellers position their characters in regards to each other in the minds of their audience.With that out of the way how is Hordak positioned in the audience’s head during season 1? By the first time he appears on screen Adora has been established as the show's protagonist, her and Catra were friends who have went their separate ways in a tragic scene where Adora pleads for Catra to join her, and Shadow Weaver has been established as a uh… well a giant asshole. So by the time Shadow Weaver brings Catra to Hordak for judgement on not bringing Adora back we are already inclined to sympathize with Catra and likely already dislike Shadow Weaver, Hordak himself has been mentioned in passing but never really anything specific about him, so when we see him for the first time drenched in shadows with red eyes and teeth we’re likely expecting the worst for Catra, a character we probably are sympathetic to at this point in the story. However something interesting happens here, Hordak essentially sides with Catra in this scene. He makes Shadow Weaver promote her, and tells her to stop focusing on finding Adora. So while the show had to this point presented the idea that the endgame for the show is defeating the Horde, and Hordak being the assumed leader of the Horde… he’s still not presented as the character that’s the most hated based on his interactions with other characters. Throughout season 1 the basis of his screen time is telling Shadow Weaver to stop wasting resources trying to bring Adora back, and then at the end of the season assisting Catra’s plan to use the Black Garnet. Essentially every time Shadow Weaver tries to make a move against Adora and Catra; the characters we’re sympathetic towards; he tells her off on it and when she makes an open act of defiance against Catra's plan he throws her in prison. What all of these acts do to the audience is kind of present him as not being as bad as Shadow Weaver. Let me frame it this way. The character who at this point is thought to eventually be the final boss is not the most hated of the antagonists. To me that seems fairly telling, and retrospectively to kind of foreshadow the direction his character would eventually go.

Season 2 I would say is the most he’s ever played as a straight up villain. He’s patronizing to his subordinates and he uses intimidation tactics and light forms of torture on Catra which I think might be the biggest reasons as to why some fans of the show despise him even now. However, this is also the season where the most important relationship he has throughout the show starts to form. One of the scenes Entrapdak fans bring up a lot is when he catches her in his Sanctum (classy) working on the portal machine and he yells “Get out!” in what is pretty obviously somewhat a callback to Beauty and the Beast when you think about it. It’s what I’d call being subtle by throwing subtlety out the window. Sure it is a line from BatB but it’s also just something an angry person says to someone trespassing and considering at this point we know nothing about their relationship and we likely aren’t thinking that these two characters would have an arc together. What I’m basically saying is that while on multiple viewings this scene pretty obviously foreshadows them as part of a beauty/beast narrative, someone watching the show for the first time may not notice that during this scene. At the end of the day however season 2 Hordak is the most purely villainous he ever is during the show, he suffocates Catra in one of his contraptions as intimidation, he starts off disparaging all of Etheria to Entrapta in their initial conversation about portals, he plans to send Shadow Weaver to Beast Island (although the viewer may not care about this one), and if not for Entrapta convincing him otherwise he probably would have had Catra executed. Again, this season is him at his worst and at his most high and mighty. The way the insecure clone of Horde Prime WANTS to be seen, a façade that gets broken down in front of the audience for the rest of the series, in fact it partly gets broken down in this season during the scenes of him without his armor.

The way Season 3 chooses to frame Hordak actually starts in an episode in which he’s not present. During the season’s first episode Adora has a conversation with Bow and Glimmer after Shadow Weaver is found in Bright Moon. During this conversation she talks about how she changed for the better after having been in the Horde all her life, and she says she chooses to believe that if she can then maybe everyone can, even Shadow Weaver. Subconsciously many of us probably thought during this scene “Even Hordak?”. Essentially what this scene does is have the show’s protagonist make a case for not demonizing the show’s current antagonist like many would, it plants the idea that in the viewer’s head that maybe he isn’t too far gone. The previous season showed him growing to trust Entrapta enough to spare Catra because of her advising, which could be enough to show that to be true. While always rough around the edges and teeming with anger he’s never presented as someone incapable of seeing reason, and with Adora’s monologue about believing in the ability of anyone to change that makes us think that maybe he could be given reason to turn away from his presumed history of villainy. Additionally, when Shadow Weaver talked about her motivations for defecting she said “I want to destroy Hordak”, Shadow Weaver being a character that most viewers of the show likely already hate from seeing how abusive and power hungry she behaves seemingly on instinct. The fact that she’s the one bringing up the concept of killing him coinciding with Adora’s monologue may make the viewer sit back and try to reframe how they view Hordak as a character. This idea is what gets played with in his screen time for the rest of the season.

The very next episode is the big one (the holy grail for Entrapdak shippers). During this episode he blocks Entrapta from the blast of a failed portal experiment, she discovers his physical condition, he tells her about his past with Horde Prime and why he’s doing what he’s doing, she builds him new armor while saying one of the most inspirational quotes of all time (Imperfection is beautiful), and he awkwardly tries to properly thank her while getting help from his clone son Imp… Okay so let me just get to the biggest thing I want to talk about for this particular episode. The reveal of Horde Prime as the leader of a Galactic Horde has a huge impact on how Hordak himself is presented as a character. Firstly it presents the idea that Hordak himself won’t be the final boss of the series, thus opening up the audience to be more inclined to sympathize with him going forward. Secondly him literally being a clone brings forth the idea that he never really had a choice in how he turned out, and in a show that to this point has largely been about characters feeling trapped in terms of who they’re supposed to be by their familial figures in itself is likely to make the audience start to sympathize with him in realizing that war and being part of dictatorship is all he knows. Finally, we have him calling himself a failure and a defect in this scene. I feel as though this was done to draw forth parallels between Hordak’s relationship to Prime and Catra’s to Shadow Weaver. Prime called Hordak defective, Shadow Weaver called Catra worthless. Most people watching the show to this point will sympathize with Catra in one way or another and by having another villain in your show be paralleled to her is a way to invoke the audience to sympathize with them as well.

Now, for his interactions with Entrapta this particular episode. First we see him; a man with what seems to be muscular deterioration; using his body to shield her from an explosion. This would seem to show him as someone capable of putting others before himself, which as we learn in season 5 is something completely separating him from being like Horde Prime. After this we have him opening up to her about being a clone, having a defect, his feelings of being a failure, and him awkwardly trying to thank her. This whole sequence of scenes in part reveals a deeper truth about his character, namely the fact that he was for the most part programmed. All of his awfulness of season 2 and from presumed acts from before the show was pretty much what he was made for. He is someone who was literally engineered by an intergalactic dictator and essentially was born into a cult environment. When the only way he can thank her is by awkwardly saying “I acknowledge your work here, it’s very… technologically sound” and after some coaxing from Imp continuing with “No matter what you say, you are not a failure. And any who underestimate you are utter fools” we can gather one kind of tragic fact. Hordak before this point had never felt a positive emotion from anything not related to conquering and technological advancement, in all his time he had never before this felt love or companionship. While the line itself is funny and kind of endearing, it also reveals the underlying tragedy of his backstory. That tragedy being that realistically there was no alternative way for him to turn out up to this point, the fact that this comes from being born in the Horde and the indoctrination and abuse from a familial figure adds another parallel to Catra, and how the abuse cycle of what Prime did to Hordak set him in a place to start up his own empire, bring Shadow Weaver into it, and then she does the same thing to Catra that Prime did to Hordak. Essentially the source of Hordak’s stress and likely trauma is the first domino to fall in causing the events of the show to happen, Prime’s own ego and perfectionism is what eventually caused his downfall.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here, as I still have more to say about this episode. I haven’t even really gotten into specifics on his defect, or his physical disability. Hordak would seem to have extreme muscular deterioration, he seems to have no tissue on his forearms leaving the bone exposed. The reveal is that his armor and technology are holding his physical body together. Most of the time a reveal like this regarding our presumed main villain would be a “The villain is more machine than man” type of trope like Darth Vader in A New Hope, however that’s not what’s done here. The armor and later pseudo-cybernetics aren’t so much to make him truly powerful and intimidate others as they are to cover up a vulnerability, and vulnerability is a very humanizing trait. The way this show chooses to completely subvert a trope here is interesting to me and says something about the series as a whole that I’ll probably extrapolate on later. What this decision says to me is that this show is one that cares about its characters, all of them, even in its villains they will ask you to look at and consider any vulnerability or redeemable quality in your judgement of them.

The next major scene involving him is the conversation between him and Entrapta having the portal machine almost ready. During the conversation they both seem sad about the prospect of being separated when Hordak rejoins Prime and they ultimately decide that they’ll wait to try it until the portal is absolutely perfect. This plan being ended by Catra coming back with the sword of protection. The reason for all he had done up to this point was rejoin with Horde Prime and he was now willing to slow down with trying to return to his brother, perhaps at this point if Catra hadn’t returned he might have scaled back the war efforts and settled for just continuing scientific pursuits with Entrapta, this isn’t guaranteed but it’s something that left open enough in the text of the show to where it can read as an aspect of his character.

The next major scene is when Catra lies about Entrapta betraying him and letting the princesses into the Fright Zone. This scene sets forth where his emotional state is during season 4, he falls to believe that; in spite of their work together and her telling him to not worry so much about being a failure and telling him that imperfection is beautiful; she never really cared about him and was just using him for his own destruction. The end of this season is probably Catra at her absolute worst. Entrapta outright told her that the portal would destroy the planet and then sent her to Beast Island after she used the words “Adora was right”. Having Hordak be another character hurt by some of Catra’s actions at a time when he may or may not have been on a trajectory to become a better person is an interesting interpretation of this scene to me (especially in light of her continuing by pulling the lever of the portal machine) because I feel like it was a great way to show Catra’s continued fall deeper and deeper into desperation and lashing out in anger and her potentially having at this point outgrown Hordak in terms of villainy (expressed in her Azula moment early in season 4). This idea kind of more puts Hordak on a similar level as the other characters, he’s no longer the untouchable ruler of the Etherian Horde if this bad kitty can come in and cause him to have what boils down to a broken heart. This scene is the final piece that to the audience completely breaks down the façade he had been putting on for so long.

Season 4 Hordak is a bit hard to explain. This season is when we see him committing the most on-screen villainous acts of the entire series, however largely he was being manipulated by Catra into actually setting foot on the battlefield. While this season has him being his most morally wrong, we also see this at a time when we’re somewhat newly aware of his vulnerabilities and insecurities and while he’s doing this we also see characters like Catra and Glimmer also falling further and further into behaving immorally or unethically. This kind of puts the audience in a really unique seat where we’re seeing the characters that we’ve grown to care about since the beginning of the series start to fall into something resembling tyrannical behavior like we’ve assumed from Hordak for so long. So while he’s at his worst at this time so is everyone else and in his case many of his actions here stem from believing that Entrapta betrayed him so there’s an extra layer of folly to what’s going on since it all stems from a lie. When Catra is trying to get him to step up the war effort to conquer all of Etheria she succeeds by pulling out the crystal that powers his armor that Entrapta gave him. When it’s removed he essentially collapses powerless. The crystal says LUVD (not that he or Entrapta knew, but the audience can learn it). Essentially this says that he is weak without love, when Entrapta was there, and she made him the armor he was made strong, when she’s gone and the crystal is removed he’s weak.

There’s a scene where Hordak is talking to Catra about how their success would mean that he’d return to Prime’s side triumphant and worthy. When she hears him talk about this she kind of gives a look that shows just how much she actually understands the motivations. The audience knows this as well, we all saw the times when Shadow Weaver called her unworthy. This scene is the show itself basically telling us that any similarities between Hordak and Catra we gleaned from the reveal of his backstory wasn’t just us seeing something that wasn’t there. This scene essentially asks the audience to look at these two characters through similar lenses. It doesn’t tell you exactly HOW to view them, but asks for you to take a step back and measure any hypocrisy regarding how you view their various actions and then leave it at the door. The show asks you to sympathize with Hordak based on similarities with Catra;a character whom the audience probably sympathizes with from the very beginning; and having them both commit similar actions for similar motivations.

Skipping ahead we have this sequence late in the season where Double Trouble cleverly tells Hordak that Catra sent Entrapta to Beast Island and the subsequent battle he has with the cat. The absolute rage and sadness in his eyes as the background completely fades out and we’re just focused on his face with tears starting to come out of his big red eyes while drenched in blackness, and then he just fires off his arm cannon around the room in anger. There’s just… so much to be said about this little sequence right here, it was beautifully done. What this scene expressed more than anything is that even if he didn’t know it, he was totally in love with Entrapta. He heard she was sent to beast Island, a place where he has sent people to DIE. He likely thinks she’s dead, and his first reaction was tears and to destroy part of his lab and then try to kill his second in command in revenge. I don’t know about you but this is something one would pretty much only do if they were in love with someone. Additionally I think the stylization of having the whole background fade to black during this scene is an interesting one. I think one meaning that could be taken from it is that with him believing she was dead he was sinking deeper into the darkness, that his ability to see the lighter side of the world was gone, the one person who could understand him was gone forever and he had spent all that time angry with her while working with her killer. A man who already was prone to self loathing and feeling like a failure now had nothing to lose. I think this is probably why early in season 5 after seeing Catra he goes to get his mind wiped again. Seeing Catra and her calling him by his name brought back some memories, memories that at this point only bring him pain.

Speaking of Hordak and mindwipes though, the next major scene in my reading is the first time we truly see Horde Prime in his full glory. I’m going to focus less on Hordak saying that he did all his conquering for Prime, but more how Prime winds up seeing through him, and the horror that being part of the cultish Galactic Horde actually is. Prime is able to see into Hordak’s thoughts, he brushes his hands against the slot where the LUVD crystal once was and says “There was a time when you wished I wouldn’t come for you” confirming what everyone knew about his feelings towards Entrapta. After that Hordak seems to get basically reset to factory settings so to speak. Horde Prime immediately turns to Glimmer and apologises for his defective brother, she asks if this means he’d leave them alone to which he expresses that he’d have to destroy the planet to cover up the failures, he would have done it if Catra hadn’t brought up knowledge of the Heart of Etheria. What Horde Prime’s introduction does most of all is tell the audience that if they thought Hordak was evil then they really hadn’t seen anything yet. Hordak was but a child lashing out compared to the insane cult of planetary destruction and forced hegemony that is Horde Prime. If the brutality of the mindwipe of Hordak was anything to go off of it probably isn’t pleasant to be a clone either, but it’s their purpose for creation. “All beings must suffer to become pure” after all.

This helps me segue into talking more about the rest of season 5 and get into detail about the Galactic Horde itself. Based on everything from the language used by Horde Prime and his clones, the fanaticism of most of said clones, the obsession with the color white, and the ideology it would seem as though the Galactic Horde is one thing. A cult. Horde Prime is a souped-up version of Shoko Asahara. He presents himself very charismatically and uses that as a way to mask the constant manipulation he does to everyone from his own clones, to any “Honored guests” he may have, and even his adversaries. He does all of this in a self serving effort to further his own perceived greatness. He is something that no other antagonist in this series ever was, a being of pure ego. Shadow Weaver, Hordak, and Catra even at their very worst were always shown to be affected by the histories and relationships they formed with other people. Even when they committed evil acts there was something recognizable about it, you still knew that this was a PERSON. Horde Prime, while being in the body of a man is surprisingly more reminiscent of something Lovecraftian than your typical supervillain. He’s ancient, his origin is never even hinted at, as though he’s been around forever and no one really knows. He can transfer his consciousness into any being within his hivemind, he has presumably hundreds or even thousands of his former bodies around for him to be able to check their memories, that means he has entire parts of his life he doesn’t remember. Horde Prime may have a humanoid figure, but as a character he’s much more like Cthulhu than Palpatine…. This is the being that created and essentially raised Hordak. A Lovecraftian style cult leader who either conquers planets, assimilates them into his hivemind, or destroys them all for shits and giggles. Hordak never stood a chance of being a good, well rounded person out of that environment. It all puts the Hordak of seasons 1-4 in a different context, shows just how deeply rooted indoctrination was for him.

After the second “purification” he undergoes one might wonder one thing regarding Hordak. Where could he possibly go from here? He’s had his mind wiped twice, he’s on Horde Prime’s ship, even if he did have his memories he believes that the one being who ever cared about him is dead, it really seems like he has nowhere to go… and then he sees the LUVD crystal lying on the floor near some rubble after Entrapta helped with rescuing Catra. He picks it up and looks into it for a second before letting out a somewhat surprised “Entrapta?” he may not fully remember who that is at the moment but they definitely mean something to him. There may be hope for Hordak after all. The audience knows this, especially since earlier in this same episode it’s revealed that Entrapta is keeping a list of clones that could be Hordak, she’s still looking for him.

Later he has another few scenes where he starts to remember some of his past. The cloning tanks with Prime’s former vessels reminding him of Entrapta and when he revealed who he was to her, he doesn’t have it all yet but the pieces are coming back slowly. They come back faster during Failsafe. When he finally sees Entrapta again he’s confused. “Why do I know your face?” She knows that it’s him. He’s not entirely sure he wants to remember, he considers his memories imperfections. As Swift Wind drags her away from the encounter like an idiot she reminds him “Your imperfections are beautiful”. Later in the episode we see her looking him up in the chip network and show a sweet smile on knowing that it really was him. At the beginning of the season the LUVD Crystal was tiny, but now it covers almost the entirety of the palm of his large clawed hands. His love has grown, and grown him as a person, this sets what happens next.

During the two part finale he makes the most important decision of his life. Entrapta gets teleported up to Prime’s ship, directly in front of Hordak. As the rebels start making ground in the battle she starts making noise, telling Prime how he can’t win, he doesn’t know what makes them strong. Prime orders Hordak to kill her. He has a blank, confused, scared expression as he points the arm cannon at her at his brother’s command, tears start to form in her eyes. Is this because she’s afraid to die or because possibly the only person to truly understand her was lost and would be the one to make it happen? Hordak makes a split second decision to turn on his brother. He’s finally able to break through the abuse and indoctrination of Prime’s borderline Lovecraftian cult, throwing Prime’s body down a pit in the ship… Until Prime takes over Hordak’s body temporarily to once again try to intimidate the Etherians.

There is one final scene involving Hordak that is important, that happens right after Adora purges out Horde Prime. We’re given a flashback of Hordak out in a meadow where he’s holding a baby Adora. He likely detected portal activity thinking perhaps Prime had come for him. Instead it was this helpless child, lost from her home and now on this strange world. Perhaps in a quick decision this man starting his own empire saw a piece of himself within her and would take her in. A small piece he forgot about in the many years later, but in this moment of her purging his creator from his mind now remembers. Adora looks at him with no derision or spite, but a soft smile, as though after all these years she finally is starting to understand who he is on a deeper level.

She-Ra and The Princesses of Power is a show that started airing on Netflix in 2018 and finished its run in 2020, and it is a show that is ostensibly about the connections we form with other people and how those affect us moving forward. On top of that it goes out of its way to say that in the end those connections are a positive that we’re better off for experiencing. Horde Prime is the show’s main antagonist and he is a being of pure ego, he views the connections the Etherians form with each other to be a weakness. Meanwhile, time and time again in season 5 those are exactly why he gets defeated. Adora can get through to Catra to break her from the chip, Netossa does the same with Spinnerella, Seahawk and Perfuma slightly do that with Mermista and Scorpia respectively… But where does Hordak fit into this? In s5e3 Corridors Hordak goes to Prime to be “Purified'' after seeing Catra and she calls him by his name, a name being something clones of Lord Prime shouldn’t have. After the painful ritual Prime refers to him as “The purest among you” to the other clones surrounding the ritual. But in the end the connection he had formed with Entrapta led to even him turning on Prime anyway, that purity meant nothing because the bonds we form with other people supersedes all of that. If Hordak doesn’t turn on Prime like he did, for the reason he did then the messaging and themes of the show would have a place where they didn’t follow through as strongly. We’d have a victim of abuse that wasn’t able to get past their abuser, and a flawed person who didn’t wind up doing the right thing because they wanted to do right by the person they love. Without a positive ending for Hordak it makes the rest of the show’s positive endings weaker because it has a blatant exception to those victories, and while that could be poignant in some shows, I don’t think SPOP is that kind of show. So you might be wondering… Why write all this? What made me think that writing a wall of text about Hordak of all fictional characters would be worth it? Part of it is because I wanted to explore why I care so much about this character and look into how his arc worked from a storytelling standpoint. I think the other part of it is simply seeing a lot of people not really seem to understand him as a character. There seems to be a very vocal group of people who hate him, or the Entrapdak ship for one reason or another and use that to kind of call those of us who do enjoy it bad people, so part of writing this is to maybe help some of those people who just flat out don’t understand how we could possibly be fans of the character get to know a bit of the reasoning behind it, and maybe show that the show specifically wrote him to be sympathetic. And maybe if you can see how it would be possible for us to love this character, maybe you can learn to appreciate him too. I can't force you to, but hopefully I can at least help you see where I’m coming from, and if you made it this far all I can say is thank you for reading.

TLDR; Hordak is a very deeply complicated character who’s arc is more important to the themes of SPOP than you might think.

#hordak #entrapdak #spop #essay #character analysis #catra #adora #shadow weaver #horde prime

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lovelyhxsie · 4 years

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Analyzing Hosie Both Together and Seperately (1/?):

[note: other shippers might deflate moments that have occurred and even suggest that this ship is more friendship/sisterly, but that’s to be expected. all of us shippers are pretty bias when it comes to our ship, so i am not judging. aside from that, i will uses specific points from other ships as a way to emphasize how hosie works. meaning that i am not deflecting other ship moments, but merely using them as a different perspective. i respect all ships and apologize if i say anything wrong.]

1. Camera shots:

The videographer/s who is/are in control of the camer, do a magnificent job at capturing our hosie moments. Why? While yes, we watch Hope and Josie provide interactions, spoken words, and emotions that make us swoon for them, we have to acknowledge how we see that and situations that make us love them.

A cameraman/woman’s job to create the feeling of what the writers want us to feel is how the scene(s) is/are shot. So, why does the director feel the need to have scenes up close to Josie and Hope when they stare at one another if Hosie isn’t at all romantic? Because the way these scenes are shot, it gives the scenes depth that Hosie’s relationship might run deeper than just a friendship. The slowmo and the constant back and forth from one to the other Like, gaaaaAAAYYYYY.

2. Chemistry:

The outright chemistry that Danielle and Kaylee absolutely have in general is beyond amazing. Their easy going flow of actions with each other help bring out the emotions that Hosie has within each other. In other words, when they communicate, joke around, hangout, and simply enjoy each other’s company, it radiates off of them and is easily seen on Hosie.

How does chemistry work in terms of Hosie? First and foremost, the bEST chemistry within Legacies will always be, and I mean ALWAYS be, between the twins, because the sisters have a whole bond the will always be deeper than the others. Period. We love powerful sisters. Anyway, that’s not what we’re focusing on because Hosie is our focus. So, for these two, there has to be a structure for a relationship to work between characters. Especially if they’re both a prime character to the story, show, or movie.

What is the romantic chemistry? Romantic chemistry obtains the value of attraction, a pull that brings one person to another. The thing is attraction comes in all types, but it varies from person to person. Specifically there are four factors of attraction that displays key romance. They are: Physical attraction, Intellectual attraction, social attraction, and emotional attraction. Now, these can all lead to a great platonic relationship; however, that happens when it’s normally just one of these keys (it can be all four, bur the likelyhood of that is 3/10; it’s rare). Romantic relationships are intimate and usually exist with the presence of three or all of these types of attractions—emotional attraction being the prime essential.

Hope and Josie immediately cross off 3 of those keys. They are intellectual, social, and the big one...EMOTIONAL attraction. Now, before you wonder why I didn’t add physical attraction, it’s between there is and yet there isn’t. But it doesn’t mean Hosie won’t get it written in to be more emphasized. There are episodes that highlight each of the attractions I stated and I will continue to explain and provide examples the further I go on, but for now lets go to our next point. Yeah?

3. Klaus’ Approval:

Joseph and Candice have admitted to loving Hosie, and if Joseph was to approve anyone for Hope, it’d be Josie.

That’s it. That’s-that is the big man giving the people his approval for his little wolf. SO LETS EAT ICECREAM AND SOB ABOUT HOW HOSIE HAS APPROVAL FROM KLAUS MIKAELSON.

4. Stares + hand holding:

So obviously these two are not the only ones who have their moments with handholding and stares. At least each ships has had one moment of that, but I will state that Hosie has a strong overrule when it comes to stares and handholding. Really it’s the stares that get us, but I will explain both holding of the hands and their stares. Also, emotional and physical attraction does come to play with these (the physical attraction is small but it does play an important role when I get to it).

Handholding really only occurs when it comes to spells that they both do when the other needs help. So, while their handholding isn’t out of desire or could be considered as romantic, there are other ways with how they could perform the spells. Josie doesn’t need to siphon magic through holding hands with Hope, but she does anyway and it’s just a thing that Hosies have fallen in love with and I can’t argue with that because it’s adorable. There have been specific moments with their handholding that has more physical attraction compared to the others.

In the alternate universe when it’s Lizzie’s second wish, after Hope comes to the school, Josie is instantly infatuated with her. When they leave the school, if you pay attention, Josie and Hope hold hands (rather tightly and flirtatiously) showing physical attraction. An addition to that physical attraction, when they’re at the Mikaelson boarding school, Hosie goes to the couch. So, when Lizzie looks in on both of them, they are both obviously flirting, but it’s their hands that works it charms onto Hosies. THEY ARE BASICALLY CANON IN THE ALT. REALITIES. Oh, the second time Lizzie checks in one them, Hope’s hand placement on Josie’s thigh is pure...oof. Chef’s kiss. That is physical attraction because it shows desire of them wanting to have the other’s touch, but it hints a bit of sexual attraction, so yeah. The downside of these though is that they’re all in a different reality rather than their actual world, so zero stars. But don’t let it deflate the idea that it could happen.

The second major factor of pure physical attraction that was shown occurred specifically in episode 7 of season two when Josie took Hope’s hand in hers. This is when you add in the camera shot, and both the physical and emotional attraction. This moment itself held its intimacy. Why? The shot focuses on the gentle hold that Josie takes when she grabs Hope’s hand. It had to have a meaning for it to be worth getting its own scene. Not only is it seen, but the emotion behind provides the value of the intimacy. What is the emotion? The emotion is comfort, security, and care. So, while those portray the scene as simply platonic, when analyzing the purity of this, it is in fact more than platonic. They hold hands until they break the contact when they go in for a hug. The level of physical attraction here is not purely because they wanted it (or maybe they did) but it was to give sincerity that Josie was showing. She held onto Hope to say she was there for her and she wasn’t leaving, nor did she want Hope to leave. All spoken without using words. It’s also really gay and lots of people expected them to kiss because Of their close proximity...so if you got that idea (even if you don’t ship them), then it was shown to be a bit more than friends.

Now, moving to the stares. Oh the Hosie stares. How much gayer can they be? Like? Listen, these stares are not only shown more than a few times, they occur quite a lot, but each of these stares share one thing: an emotional attraction.

The amount of emotional connection Hosie have in their eyes run for miles and miles. The emotions are felt through their eyes when they stare. Each emotion can be felt when you look in their eyes. Happiness, disappointment, hurt, guilt, worry, care, and genuine love (whether it be friendly or more). Each of these have been expressed by their eyes. Thus, connecting them in the style of soulmates and slow burn. Seriously, both seasons have expressed and emphasized on the looks greatly which brings us to question what the reasons are if they aren’t meant to have their own relationship storyline?

Going back to episode 7 of season two. The moment Hope stated she missed Josie, the pain she was feeling was displayed as tears threatened to fall. They’re fully on display when she tells Josie that if she continues to bring more pain to her, that she wouldn’t stay. When the camera turns to Josie, it’s clear that she too had tears but for a different reason. Her reason being that she wanted Hope to know she was worth holding onto. That she cared and was upset to see Hope in the way that she was. It made the scene beautiful and developed what could be an upcoming romance.

When Josie and Hope shared their own moment after Josie admitted to Hope about her crush, it really gave a strong leap to Hosie rising. Especially when Hope gives Josie a longing stare after asking the girl about crushing on her. There was pure admiration and a glimpse of reciprocal feelings (of course the answer that explains the look she gave is in episode 6 of season two). Not only did it give a statement but it left that teasing sensation that we hate, yet desire because its telling a story that is slowly dropping answers to our questions, so I’m not against anything that is happening in the show for now. In return, Josie practically looked back at Hope in the same manner with the same emotions. This moment gave us love and timidity that was heartfelt and warm. It was cute and created question whether Hosie would happen or not.

One more prime example I will use is episode 15 of season two. When dark Josie decides to fight against Hope, the moment Josie came back for a mere second. The look in her eyes when seeing the tribrid was filled with worry and unsureness. Hope when she notice Josie Josie, her eyes contained concern and hope. She knew that Josie was still inside, and was fighting back. Maybe not enough, but enough to ensure she was there and trying which is what helps build their connection. Again, this is emotional connection and it is the element that a relationship has to have for it to build into more depth.

I understand that there are more scenes, but one, there are so many that I cannot go over because it would extend this way more than it already it, two, I only picked the stares that provided the most meaning and value that added to their relationship. These were prime scenes that I absolutely think is a great way to slowly iniate a relationship.

- okay, that is the end of part 1 out of how ever many of these it will take to get my point across, but please keep in mind that this is only my analysis based off my observations and understand of relationships. they’re also theories which means what i believe could happen might not. i wanted to provide description for those who might not understand fully as to why hosie would be great romantically. there’s so much to talk about and yeah. anyway, thanks for taking the time to read. :)

#hosie #hope mikaelson #josie saltzman #hope x josie #josie x hope #legacies #theories #my own thoughts #i got bored #hosie endgame

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salvatoreschool · 4 years

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Legacies Recap: How the Necromancer Got His Groove Back — Plus, Have We Really Seen the Last of [Spoiler]?

If you told me that Thursday’s Legacies was secretly a backdoor pilot for a new spinoff about an ice cream-scooping, cat-resurrecting necromancer known simply as “Ted,” I would be elated.

That’s pretty much how things shook out for The Necromancer after his brief visit to Mystic Falls in Season 1. As we learned via flashbacks, the “freedom” he gained by destroying the knife and escaping Malivore’s clutches was a miserable new existence in Texas, complete with a strip mall gig, a new name (Ted!) and absolutely no powers whatsoever. Fortunately, Ted found a kindred spirit in his dopey co-worker Chad, who essentially agreed to be the Jesse Pinkman to his Walter White — subbing out cooking crystal meth for bringing small animals back from the dead, of course.

When his necromancy skills still weren’t up to snuff after months of practice, Ted was ready to throw in the towel… until Chad lifted his spirits with a suggestion that would change everything: “We pee on it! Yeah, we take a leak right in that pit.” Ted agreed to Chad’s proposal without hesitation, trekking to Georgia to give Malivore a golden shower, only to discover that someone (Hope!) already defeated the sentient pit of evil. “If Malivore can be beaten, anything is possible!” Ted concluded, although returning to his former glory required him to sacrifice that which he valued most. (R.I.P., Chad!)

Just kidding! With his powers fully restored, the reinstated Necromancer brought his idiot sidekick back to life, welcoming Chad back into the fold with his very own red robe of villainy. Despite expressing his concerns about the whole “killing children” part of The Necromancer’s plan, Chad remained by his side as a new portal to Malivore was opened for their purposes. We even got to meet the first guest, a gnarly looking creature who’s now en route to the Salvatore School — and no black-magic hourglass is safe!

Elsewhere this week…

* Alaric put Landon in charge of evaluating whether Sebastian poses a threat to the other students, and despite a few close calls caused by that troublemaking witch Alyssa, he passed the test with flying colors. Unfortunately, it’s possible that Sebastian’s good nature doesn’t extend beyond the walls of the Salvatore School, as Alaric caught him nomming on an unsuspecting townswoman during an evening patrol. Here’s the thing, though — Alaric told Lizzie that Sebastian then decided to leave the school of his own accord, but I’m not sure I believe him. In their final scene together, it looked like the arrow Alaric shot into Sebastian’s back was just the beginning. (Long story short, I am concerned!)

* Sensing some lingering awkwardness with Josie, Hope volunteered to help her learn more about the mora miserium. Not only did it successfully bring Landon’s ladies closer together, but it also triggered another fun Originals shout-out. (As Hope’s “friend Vincent” once told her, a mora miserium is doomed to break, but a protection spell could prolong its destruction.) Josie also took some time to reconnect with Landon, ultimately deciding to move forward as close friends, a commitment they honored by decorating Hope’s new dorm room together. #friendship

* MG also had a pretty rough day — not only did Lizzie openly use him as a distraction from Sebastian, but he also nearly flipped his ripper switch during Alyssa’s lunchtime prank. Fortunately, MG’s mood did a full 180 when Dorian introduced his new intern, Kaleb’s sister Kym! (Also, I love that MG was reading a Crisis comic when Lizzie interrupted him. First he has a nightmare about Grodd, and now this? I feel like MG has a decent shot at making it into the Arrowverse’s next crossover.)

Your thoughts on Legacies‘ first episode of 2020?

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grinlikecheshire-blog · 6 years

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campaign efforts

LOCATION: Vernon Manor

CHARACTERS: Charlie Atwood, Catherine Vernon

MENTIONS: Josephine Langdon, Hugo Duvall, Augustus

SUMMARY: Catherine summons Charlie to the Manor after hearing (through Josie) about his potential support for Adriel as mayor.

Charlie was, admittedly, a little nervous. He had spoken to Catherine exactly once before, and even then it was quickly cut short. It was as simple as explaining he was in need of a tutor, so to speak, and with the click of a few fingers suddenly everything had been arranged. He was so nervous, in fact, that he had gone through the effort of getting dressed up. He felt so indirectly shamed by his outfit choices the last time they’d met that he put on a pressed white dress shirt and dark jeans. He still wore Vans—but they were black, which was his definition of fancy footwear.

Sitting in her lavish, traditionally styled living room, he still managed to feel directly out of place. He felt out of place sitting in her driver’s car, and he felt out of place being ushered in by a butler. Even the black chair he was sat in felt wrong. Catherine in and of herself was beyond his league, but paired with her lifestyle, she operated on a different planet entirely.He had had half a mind to say no to this meeting, to express his plain disinterest, but not only did that feel awfully rude; he probably wouldn’t have survived to see another day. That was the kind of power Catherine had, and he knew without anyone telling him that that was the kind of respect expected of him if he were to stay in West Hollow.

Drumming his fingers on his kneecap, he waited for Catherine to enter, already planning on standing when she did. Paranoia crept into his mind as it tended to when vampirism was involved—he was utterly convinced a side effect of his turning was the addition of paranoid thoughts—and he wondered if this had anything to do with his relationship to werewolves. Either his budding friendship with Finley or his near-death experience with the wolf in the woods were both equally unpleasant to be confronted with. Hearing footsteps echo throughout the house—and noting how suddenly ominous they sounded—Charlie stood, pressing his shirt down and free of imaginary wrinkles. He smiled brightly, “Catherine, nice to see you again.”

This election would not be lost like the last one. There was no in hell that she’d allow an angel to lord over them all, much less the human take control. Catherine barely took Evanora serious either — she had released a makeup collection to try and boost sales. While it wasn’t a horrible idea, but was a laughable one, in the sense that they were dealing with politics and not winning the heart of some 13 year olds over. However, to hear from Josie that one of her own was considering going for an angel over her was a damn disgrace, not to mention insulting. She thanked her lucky stars that she had kept the girl around for situations such as this one in which she could take the temperature of the vampire population and adjust accordingly. She also was grateful it was someone like Charles, who had clearly been so desperate to fit into their society that he was still training with Josie, and apparently enthusiastically. It meant he was open to direction and would be subservient to their cause more than anything else. Throwing him around or yelling into his face wouldn’t work, nor did she want to do such a thing. She knew that with Atwood, it would take only a little patience and some care.

And that’s exactly what Catherine did. Sending a car for him after informing him she wanted to speak, she was directed that he was here from her study. Having dressed in an imposing, but still professional, red dress, she made her way into one of the many living rooms he’d been ushered into. As the butler announced her presence when her heels clicked onto the wood flooring, she gave Charles a polite smile. “Charles, as is it to see you,” she said, her hand going out to shake. “Sit,” she motioned to the chair once more. As she smoothed the back of her dress down to sit, a maid whisked over with a tray of tea, setting it down on the coffee table between the two. Picking hers up, adding nothing to it, she began to speak, “How are you liking West Hollow? Josephine tells me you are doing well in your training sessions and that you look forward to them.”

"Right," he muttered to himself as he sat down. The thing about Catherine was that she somehow managed to make him feel even more anxious than he already was. Just when he thought he had hit his peak level of anxiety, she shows up in a bright red outfit —perfectly emulating power. She exuded confidence in a way that was familiar to Charlie, reminding him of his older years, yet altogether unfamiliar. Charlie had a reckless sort of confidence in the past, it would be more accurate to call it 'cockiness' than anything else. But not Catherine. She was entirely in the right to think of herself in the way that Charlie did not doubt she already did. "Please, call me Charlie," he said, unintentionally slipping into his old Victorian habits.

At the mention of Josie, his paranoid mind frantically hunted through their conversations in an attempt to figure out just what this interaction was for. It had to be for a reason; he highly doubted Catherine would waste her time just to chat. Especially with someone like Charlie, who was well aware and perfectly comfortable with the fact that he was a nobody. The last thing he had wanted to do when arriving in West Hollow was create waves, which is why he sought out to meet with Catherine in the first place. He brightened at the praise, momentarily forgetting himself, "Really?" He asked, showing genuine surprise that Josie had complimented him to Catherine. "West Hollow is a good place to rest, for sure. It's a great community," he replied, choosing his words carefully. Internally, his mind was repeating on one question: what is this about?

Charlie reminded Catherine of some vampires she had turned in the past, those who had asked for it and then realized how much different the lifestyle would be than pouring a little blood in their morning shake. And, on top of it, he probably thought she was here to scold him. Who would blame him, anyway? Vernon Manor was a house of power, literally. The place was imposing and downright scary, not to mention the woman who lived in it had been through very rumor under the sun in regards to what she was and what happened in it.

But, he was not quite right, not yet at least — he was much easier to manipulate when he thought he was a friend rather than a foe, and that was exactly what Catherine intended. Sipping on the mint tea and nodding along when Charlie spoke, she set the glass and cup back down on the tray after he was done. “You may have some,” she waved her hand towards the other cup, waiting patiently for him, before clasping her hands back in her lap. “Josephine is very impressed with your dedication and progress. She has been doing this for a long time, and she is the best at it. I’m glad you two are getting along.” Her red lips pressed into a delighted smile, but it was mostly a farce. Taking a pause to look him over, as if contemplating whether or not she should say it, she then began to speak again, “I’m sure you’re wondering why I brought you here, and it is to talk about exactly that: West Hollow. Charles, would you agree that Josephine, who is a vampire like ourselves, is a good ally to have in a town so specially diverse such as this one?”

Charlie had a terrible habit of accent mimicking. The longer he spoke to Catherine, the more his own London accent returned, accentuating his words and causing him to slip back into an almost (but not quite) Victorian style of speech. “Truth be told, West Hollow is a brilliant city, but I don’t expect I’ll be here long,” he said, as if to placate her, still believing she had some sort of problem with him. Then—panic: would she be offended at that? After all, what was wrong with her city (since it was essentially hers, as far as Charlie was concerned) that he wouldn’t want to stay? “I appreciate all that you’ve done for me, though,” he added, as an afterthought.

In the same instant that he had decided yes, he would like some tea, he practically spat it out. He hardly expected Catherine to ask for his opinion on whether or not he enjoyed the tea, let alone on such matters. “Uh, yes?” He questioned, before clearing his throat and continuing, “Yeah, I think she is. She’s a very capable person, and she’s incredibly loyal to people like us,” he said, meaning ‘vampires’, of course. Still, that was the second person to tell him of Josie’s praise, and he had half a mind to tease her about it the next time they saw each other.

His accent reminded her sickly of home, making her wish America had been more similar to London, but also being grateful she wasn’t still starving on their streets or some pitied “widower.” Hearing he wouldn’t stay long, though, at least as bluntly has he had decided he was going to be putting it, nearly made Catherine’s face crack from the professional and polite smile that it was carrying. “Is that so?” she asked with a raise of her eyebrow, letting him finish the phrasing to see if he would recover. When he thanked her for her work, it placated her slightly from the disrespect he had just doled out, and she nodded, “Of course. You should reconsider though.” saying no more on the subject. She’d use it later. like always, to make her point, but for now it could be left as is.

When he answered her question with a question, her head tilted, opening her mouth to speak for one second before he decided to explain further. God, he was worse than she thought — self conscious, nervous, weak, and unsure of himself. It worked to her advantage, but was tedious to get through. But, she got the answer she wanted in the end, lips curling up into a satisfied smile that would read to him like appreciation. They were instead the smile of a spider who had caught her fly right in the middle of the web. “Exactly — loyal. Just what I was thinking.” she gestured out to praise his “correctness” of the answer. Moving so her body was facing him more on, her torso leaned in ever so slightly as she began on once again, “In such a town like this, loyalty matters, I’d say, and from your comments I think you’d agree. While you mention you won’t stay long, I think it’s important that while you do, you have people who will understand your concerns personally. It wouldn’t have made much sense for me to set you up with an angel trainer, now would it have?” she chuckled out, wondering if he’d catch on what this was about from that. Taking her tea, she began to sip again, giving him time to respond.

There was something about the way she had reacted to what he’d said that almost made him feel as if he had said the wrong thing entirely. Which would be an absolute trip to discover, given that he had said it in the first place in the hopes of easing whatever concerns she might have about him. Perhaps it was the way she raised her eyebrow, or something slight in her tone. Perhaps it was nothing but his paranoia at work. Regardless, it didn’t matter. He couldn’t take it back now, whether it was stupid to say or not. “I’ve not stayed longer than half a decade in one place since I’ve been turned. It’s habit now, I suppose, to plan to leave,” he said, hoping his explanation would help matters. Charlie was quickly figuring out (though evidently not fast enough) that when it came to Catherine, honesty was not the best policy. Loyalty, however, was. “West Hollow is a difficult town for that, though. It has a certain charm, I expect a century will go by before I remember I wanted to leave,” he added, laughing.

Her head tilt only served to make him all the more nervous, which he expected wasn’t winning him any favours with the Queen of all Vampires. She was similar to Josie in that respect, though he found Josie to be a bit more...sensitive (then again, maybe he just knew Josie better and was making an unfair judgment), or at least understanding. In any case, both Josie and Catherine valued confidence. That much was clear. And while Charlie was typically lion-hearted, he also was intimately familiar with his place in the pecking order. He breathed out an almost audible sigh of relief when she seemed pleased with his answer. Loyalty he hammered into his head. “It’s a very valuable trait,” he replied, agreeing. “Especially with what’s going on, especially now,”

Just as he was starting to find his footing, though, Catherine pulled the rug right from underneath him. Angel. Now, anyone else—that comment might have been missed. But Charlie had learned a sort of paranoia over the years, one that kept him safe, one which without it nearly almost got him killed back when he himself was a killer. It flashed through his mind like some sort of horror movie. The passing comment he had made about Adriel to Josie, not even thinking twice—like an absolute fool—the way she had brushed his words aside with calculated nonchalance. It was all painfully obvious now. This wasn’t about him, or his friendships, this was about—like it always would be and always was—Catherine Vernon. Somehow, this knowledge, though noticeably paling him at first, granted him his confidence. At least now he understood. “Yes...an angel training a vampire would be obscene. We protect our own, isn’t that how the saying goes?”

Catherine listened to his story, about how he was migrant for the most part. For the most part, she didn’t care. His personal story was not interesting or really beneficial to her on any scale, but if it made him feel more comfortable to drone on about and try to win her over, he could do so. The accent that he was slowly slipping into showed that at least as it faded from the sort of Posh American to one like her own — something she had refused to give up for the sake of blending in. Catherine Vernon did not blend in, never planning to as she had forged this town from the cursed ground it lied upon. Once he had had said his last piece about it she nodded, putting the teacup back down onto the small plate, “I hope so.” speaking flatly and hoping he would get the hint.

Watching the realization come over his face, Catherine nearly bathed in the small body language ticks that showed her that he was feeling especially vulnerable to her words. He recovered nicely, at least, she thought internally. See, it was all a game, and now that Charles knew that he was playing, perhaps he would understand what it took to win with a woman like her. Her head moved up slightly to take in his words, nodding with a pleased smile. “That is right.” Standing from her chair, she then began to walk over to him as she continued to speak, her hands folding together in front of her and fingertips tapping against each other. “Charles, you have demonstrated to me excellent skill in understanding what I value and what is important in this town during our conversation thus far, and so I trust you enough to talk to you with the respect I hope you would grant me in return.” she started, “Especially now, as you mentioned, we are in dire times. The wolves are at our throats and a human is the Mayor right now, running against myself, the leader of the angels, and the Supreme of the witches. If you are to stay here, we must make things clear in how they will work.”

It was then that Catherine decided to sit down in a chair next to his own, leaning to the side to face him, but still tight and upright in posture. “I care for all my vampires in this town, as I made this town as a refuge for all of us. This is a place where you can feel free to truly express your true self, but in order to do that, I need to be in charge to make sure that’s a success. Do you see where I’m going with this, Charles?”

Charlie certainly got the hint. Putting his own cup down, not realizing he had been holding it the entire time without taking a sip—ever since that first attempt nearly had him choking on his own spit, he refrained from trying again—and matched Catherine’s eyes. He would have to pull from his youthful years as a vampire if he were to survive this. Though, hopefully without the sheer disregard for his own safety. Essentially, he needed that dark confidence without any of the cockiness. He steeled himself, his face stoic and as empty as the apartment he lived in. If he were to do this, he would need to separate himself from who he was now entirely. If this was what Catherine was looking for, then so be it. He was nothing if not a social chameleon. And besides, he was learning a lot from her. For one, Josie couldn’t be trusted, and subsequently neither could Hugo. He wasn’t sure how fair that was—It wasn’t as if Josie betrayed him, she was just loyal and why involve Hugo at all?—but it wouldn’t hurt.

Normally, Charlie would flower at her praise. He was prideful, though he did his best to work against it, and words of affirmation meant a great deal to him (more than he would care to admit). But seeing as how he had recently clued in to her little game, he brushed any shine he might have showed aside, filing her words away as shallow and devoid of real meaning. “I’m nothing if not an excellent learner, Catherine,” he said, choosing to speak in layers like she was. “I may have my faults, but I most certainly respect you,” he said honestly, though he doubted it would matter much to her.

When Catherine made moves to sit beside him, it took all his effort not to jump out of his skin. She smelled nice, at least, almost soft. In fact, he was awfully impressed with how soft she sounded while likewise managing to look so hard. “It’s painfully evident how much you care, West Hollow and it’s children could certainly use a leader like you,”

Catherine was quick to note how his expression and tone changed from the more curious and eagerness it had held before, wondering how her words had affected him internally. Catherine had, from time to time, procured mind reading potions from the witches for such events, but found their cost excessive. With her newfound feud of the witch’s Supreme as well, such potions couldn’t be trusted to be delivered to her with purity either, and so she found herself at an disadvantage when it came to pinpointing if what Charlie said was 100% genuine. However, being genuine and being loyal were two very different qualities, and Catherine could be satisfied if he had the more important one.

Realizing a few seconds in that he was beginning to mimic her in order to try and communicate back, it made her smirk, impressed with the accuracy and challenge he had decided on. Her words were truthful, at least as truthful as they’d get with someone like Charles, and so she found it downright amusing he was choosing the path he was. Nonetheless, she found it at least a little thrilling, and would continue on. Nodding once at his agreement he respected her, “I don’t doubt you do. You did, after all, come and agree to meet with me in my home and follow through with the training I set up. You’ve been nothing but gracious.” she said, meaning it honestly. Like any Catherine compliment though, it had to be double edged, “Which is why it troubles me to hear any of my vampires misunderstand what goes on in this town.”

As he once more caught on, Catherine gave a wide, Cheshire like smile. “It’s children, yes,” she started, her head tilting for a moment to look over Charlie before she opened her mouth once more, “That is also how I see them, including yourself. Children need to be educated and guided, and while you may think the angel can do that as Mayor, they will only set out to destroy whatever they think they can’t cure out of you. This life we share, the life of blood and eternal youth, it is a great gift and a curse all at once. Only I truly understand what that entails and how to protect all of us, along with make sure those who don’t share our disposition are comfortable enough as well — but it seems like you understand well enough by now that when you get to the voting booth, you’ll make the right decision, yes?”

Charlie had met many like her in his travels—that is to say leaders—and yet had found he had not managed to meet someone quite like her all in the same hand. Catherine was unique in her similarities, that much could be said for certain. He had somehow managed to go thus far without angering the head of vampires in town, and he internally chastised himself for getting into this position in the first place. He had arrogantly assumed he’d earned her favour—or, in the very least and perhaps more likely: her disinterest—when he first came to her. He should have known better than to mention anything like he did to Josie, but he’d thought his comment was innocent enough.

As if reading his mind, Catherine seemed to sate his beliefs. He had, then, been successful in his attempt to make her aware of his unthreatening presence. “To be fair, I am still unbelievably new. I’m bound to have one—single—misstep. I can assure you, you’ve made things abundantly clear for me.” He replied, in the hopes that it would make his newfound stance clear. Catherine would become his Lord and Saviour if she needed to. If that’s what it took to stay in town, to stay close to Arabella and, above all, stay alive...then so be it.Her grin chilled him. So much had it reminded him of his own that he had half a mind to wonder if Catherine knew more about him than she let on. It wouldn’t surprise him, though Augustus was the only one aware of the truth of his past and Charlie hadn’t pegged him as anyone’s pet. Then again, he had made the mistake of making the same assumption with Josie, and look where that had got him? In the very least, her words made some sense to him. If her attempts were to manipulate him, she had succeeded. In a perfect world, he would be human, and he would vote for Adriel. But the life he led now was cursed, and his only feasible choice was Catherine. “You can trust that I will.”

Catherine listened on, and for a moment, it dawned on her that Charlie considered himself in trouble — and moreover, by her prized protege. Only a single eyebrow piqued in his direction as he talked about being new in town, more the cogs in her head turning in how to spin his words. That was what any good business woman did after all, was spin a situation in favor of their product. The product in this case was Charlie’s vote for her, a valuable resource all it’s own. Even though she was painfully and clearly manipulating him, she still wanted him to be comfortable. “Oh, you needn’t worry that I am looking down on you for what you said. In fact, I appreciate highly that we were able to have this sort of chat together. It’s hard to make truthful statements when you lack the knowledge of who Adriel or I really am.” Smiling once more, she shrugged casually, “Mistakes are learning opportunities.”

At his assurance he would do as asked, she nodded once, “Excellent, Charles. You have served us all well in your choice.” she stood then. “I think our time here is over, unless you have more you want to discuss with me. Otherwise, Maxwell will show you out.” Gesturing to the ghostly butler in the corner who was opening the door, she let him start walking before speaking again. “Oh, and Charles? Josephine was simply doing what was best for all of us. I’d hate to hear any bad reports about your sessions because of this, since I know you both enjoy them so much.” Catherine let the threat hang in the air, making sure he was left with the impression of her power and prowess as she stared back to him, steady and confident.

Her words only somewhat calmed him. It was appreciated that she took the effort to make him feel comfortable, but he knew enough by now to know that nothing about Catherine was particularly genuine. He wouldn’t allow her words to ease him, nor would he ever make such a mistake again. Mistakes are learning opportunities, indeed. Charlie had certainly learned his lesson. As far as he was concerned, now, the walls had ears, eyes, mouths…the whole lot. Besides, he wasn’t so naive to think that Catherine perceived him to be any sort of threat as it was. He was just a little ant who had strayed from the assembly line. “Well, exactly. I was clearly misinformed,” he said, managing to pull out his signature Charlie smile. It wouldn’t be a conversation with Catherine if she hadn’t let one final threat slide in, Charlie realized. It was almost…insulting. As if Charlie would be so stupid as to start issues with Josie and Catherine, the latter of which he had already done accidentally. He had clearly regretted it, hadn’t he? “Believe me, Catherine, you won’t hear anything like that at all,” he said sincerely.

While he had deduced that Josie was no longer to be considered trustworthy, that wouldn’t mean that he’d go along and confront her. He did have some regard for his own life, after all. “Thank you, Catherine. I’m sure we’ll see each other again,” he said, though he hoped they wouldn’t. With that, he followed behind Maxwell and let himself be taken out of the house. Stepping out, he took in a long, shaky exhale: the breathing of a man who had been turned away from the gallows.

#m: catherine #m: arabella #c: npc #convo: npc1 #westhollowtalk

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sueboohscorner · 7 years

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The Vampire Diaries 816 Series Finale Recap “I Was Feeling Epic” #TVD #TVDforever

Episode grade: 11. (Yes, I know it’s a scale of 1-10…but this one goes to 11.)

There’s so much sadness in saying goodbye to a beloved series, but credit to The CW and the showrunners for making the conscious decision to end it at a specific point. That allows the writers to craft a deliberate ending, to plan the long-term story arcs that lead toward it, and to deliver a finale worthy of the characters and the devoted fans. Bravo!

We left off the previous week with Bonnie’s magic overloading. Her nose bled, and apparently, her heart stopped. Stefan does CPR, Caroline steps up with the vampire blood, but nothing’s working.

In the space beyond life, Bonnie finds herself face to face with Elena, and they share a joyous embrace. One of the beautiful things this show has been able to give us at several points throughout its 8-year run is a reunion of dear friends who thought they’d never see each other again. Damon and Alaric, Stefan and Lexi…those moments stand out even in a show so full of powerful moments. It’s a testament to how deeply, lovingly realized the characters are; we care about these friendships as if they’re our own connections.

Bonnie is happy to see Elena again, and she thinks this is the best of all possible outcomes; she will die and be with Enzo, and Elena can be returned to the world. But not so fast: Enzo is there to take her hand and propel her back to the world of the living, because he wants her to have a rich, full life before joining him. He loves her so truly, he can wait. (I just teared up a little, because Bonnie and Enzo are the most stable, least melodramatic couple of this whole series, and I love them together so much.)

Back to the real world, where Bonnie’s just awakened, Damon superspeeds to the bell tower and flings Vicki Donovan out a window. Matt comes along shortly and is all, what the hell, man? (Come on, Matt, you should be well past being surprised by Damon’s methods!) But it doesn’t matter, because Vicki’s fine again, more annoyed than anything else. So Damon snaps her neck! Matt looks hilariously peeved, but Damon assures him this is no big deal, and he’s right: Vicki clearly can’t be killed.

Vicki accepted Katherine’s offer to end her suffering. She’s been ordered to ring this bell once every five minutes (which means the action of this episode takes place essentially in real time, as twelve rings at five-minute intervals would come out to an hour. There is a slight problem with the timing, in that Stefan is no longer a vampire, and he covers a fairly impressive amount of ground for someone without superspeed, but I choose to forgive this, because this episode is amazing).

Damon turns to Matt and basically says your sister, you deal with it. As Damon leaves the tower immediately, Matt asks where he’s going. Damon explains that he’s going to get to a safe distance, because “I’m anticipating your failure.” Ha!

But he’s not wrong. Matt doesn’t fail so much as decline to argue with his dead sister. He can see that she’s been suffering so much, she’s beyond reason and disinclined to place others over herself (which, I guess, might somewhat explain her being in hell in the first place…though I still do wonder about that, because dude, Silas didn’t even have to go to hell).

Because he is a devoted brother but also a responsible sheriff, Matt immediately calls for an evacuation of Mystic Falls. “Gas leak. Yes, again.”

Stefan and Damon return to the mansion, where Elena’s coffin has been left sitting out in the open, and that seems like a questionable choice for so very many reasons, but whatever, because this episode is awesome.

They find the coffin sitting open and empty, and Stefan notes that Bonnie’s heart stopped earlier–maybe that was enough to trigger the end of Kai’s spell! Elena steps out from around the corner, and Damon runs to sweep her up in his arms…and then dumps her with disgust, because of course this is not Elena. Welcome back, Katherine!

She snarks and taunts them, and it’s hilarious when they unceremoniously dagger her, because they have much more important things to do than let her monologue at them! They’ve got less than an hour to find Elena wherever Katherine has stashed her away.

Also feeling the time crunch is Alaric. He’s got the car packed up and wants Caroline to get her ass in gear about this evacuation plan. She’s determined to stay in Mystic Falls and help find Elena…and of course not leave her just-married husband behind. Ric has got zero patience for this nonsense, plus he still has feelings for her and believed they had a shot until Stefan swooped back in…again. He’s so committed to getting her to come with him, he even plays the dead mom card, and that’s harsh.

Down in the boiler room of Mystic Falls High School, Stefan finds Elena, but there’s a small problem (of course!); the room has been hexed, so Elena cannot be carried out of it. Kai apparently did this for Katherine before Bonnie banished him to karaoke hell.

Here’s an Easter egg I love: Stefan tells Damon where he found Elena, and Damon comments that a high school boiler room reminds him of a horror movie. It’s a tiny little throwaway line, but it’s sweet. See, Kevin Williamson, co-creator of TVD, got famous when he wrote a wonderful movie called Scream, which was directed by the great Wes Craven, who got famous for the classic horror film Nightmare on Elm Street, in which Freddy Krueger haunts the town where he was burned to death in a high school boiler room. So this little moment is a touching homage to Wes Craven.

Katherine finds Damon to subject him to some more villainous taunting. She’s either behind on the relationship dynamics in Mystic Falls or she’s just implying that Stefan’s going to leave Caroline eventually, because she doesn’t seem totally aware that Elena is Damon’s girl these days (and always will be! #Delenaforever). She says Stefan is the better man, which isn’t remotely true, but it’s reasonable that she thinks it, because Damon is so much more like her than Stefan is, so she’s basically admitting her own crappiness.

It’s again hilarious when Damon just daggers her and moves on.

The Armory is apparently at a safe minimum distance from Mystic Falls, because that’s where Alaric has brought Bonnie and the girls. (Note: Bonnie assuages his conscience about bailing on their friends, because there’s nothing they can do…but that’s not true, is it? His silence and guilty expression make it clear that he knows Josie and Lizzie could siphon away the spell on the boiler room to free Elena. It’s not unreasonable that he’s not willing to risk taking them back into the danger zone, but there is something they technically could do.)

Bonnie realizes there’s another option, though. It has to do with the tunnels connecting the Armory to Mystic Falls, a hellfire contingency plan Alaric and Dorian were researching, and the fact that she knows she has magic again. She calls Stefan and plays the you-killed-Enzo card, which is totally fair. Stefan knows it, too; redemption is his one true goal, and Bonnie’s the one person who could offer it to him.

Stefan and Caroline part tearfully, because he agrees with Alaric that her place is with her kids. He doesn’t exactly say goodbye, but it’s implied. After all, as I have noted, he’s no longer capable of superspeeding to safety, and the hour is passing quickly. When Caroline reaches the Armory, Bonnie sends her away with Ric and the girls, and Bonnie also makes a point of not saying goodbye…but it’s implied. Caroline is being deliberately kept in the dark, because everyone’s goal here is to keep her with her kids, rather than letting her try to save everyone.

They’re a decent distance away before Caroline gets Alaric to tell her what’s going on. She begs him to stop the car, and she gets out to call Stefan. There’s no answer, so she leaves a desperate message about how much she loves him and always will. Alaric hears this and the pain in his face is so tragic. Alaric is truly the better man, and it hurts to know that even if he and Caroline wind up recoupling, he’ll never feel like her first choice.

Damon lures Katherine to the crypt, where she vamps at him some more, and he (again, hilariously and with aplomb) daggers her. Every time she’s daggered, she bounces back to hell for a time. This is crucial to Bonnie’s plan, because Bonnie believes she can use the blast of hellfire as a weapon to destroy hell, and it will also destroy Katherine if she happens to be in hell at the time.

Stefan joins Damon and announces his intention to carry out Bonnie’s plan, thereby earning his redemption and ensuring Damon’s future with Elena. Damon is not having it. He compels Stefan to walk away and save himself, because being a big brother earns him the right to protect his little brother, and he’s damn well going to do that. And every Delena fan who wants the Delena happy ending, and every Bonzo fan who will never forgive Stefan for killing Enzo (incidentally, I’m both of these) screams, “No!!!”

Back at the bell tower, Vicki’s finishing her eleventh ring and five minutes away from the hellfire detonation. Matt and Peter come to see her. She reminds Matt that he can’t stop this, and if he’s nearby, he’s going to die. She also sneers at the notion that Peter might think he can show up now and have some kind of fatherly impact on her. He just smiles and says he’s only here to see his daughter one last time. Matt explains that there’s a plan in the works. Check how deeply he believes in Bonnie, that he’s risking his life by being at ground zero. You’re a good man, Matty Blue.

Down in the tunnels, Katherine wakes up, and Damon gets ready to stab her again…but not until the time is right. In the Armory, Bonnie’s bracing herself for the biggest magical fight of her life. And in the town square, Matt and Peter stare up at the bell tower, where Vicki’s ringing the bell for the twelfth time. Kawoosh! A blast of hellfire disintegrates Vicki, blows out the bell tower windows, but then is sucked back in on itself and down through the bell tower interior, into the tunnels.

Bonnie calls on the Bennett witch legacy in her time of need. She’s all alone, and the power is too intense; she’s ready to let go and accept her death, but again, here’s Enzo to remind her that he’s not willing to watch her die today. And bolstered again by his love and belief in her, Bonnie steels herself to continue fighting…but this time she’s not alone. Grams takes her hand, and Beatrice appears at her side, and soon the room is filled with the spirits of the Bennett legacy, supporting their scion.

In the tunnels, Damon holds the dagger at the ready, gripping Katherine to keep her from getting away. Every fan is wishing for something to deus ex machina Damon to safety. And then–

Elena wanders out into the Mystic Falls High School halls, and she sees Stefan, who fills her in on how Damon was prepared to sacrifice himself to save everyone…but of course that isn’t what happened. Stefan has been taking vervain since he became human again, because he knows better than to leave himself open to compulsion in this crowd. He allowed Damon to believe he’d been compelled, but really, he went straight for a hypodermic needle to draw the Cure from his veins. He went into the tunnels, waited until the moment was near (smart–human Stefan could not have held Katherine for long), stuck Damon with the Cure and flung him out of harm’s way, then daggered Katherine and went up in a blaze of glory, saving the day.

Stefan says his goodbyes to Elena, asks her to deliver a message to Caroline, and goes forth to be at peace…with Lexi! OMG it’s Lexi, and my eyes well up, and I’m so happy. Stefan and Lexi’s reunion is exactly what I wanted. I love you, TVD.

From there, the tears basically never stopped flowing. Elena woke up (for real this time) and was reunited with Damon for the happy ending we all deserved. Stefan’s funeral faded to a montage of all the happy endings with individual voiceovers:

Bonnie’s going to see the world, and Enzo will always be at her side, in spirit.

Caroline joins Alaric to start the school he envisioned for kids with magical gifts–he’s basically Professor X, and it’s awesome. Jeremy Gilbert is on staff, as is Dorian. This scene contains the ultimate moment of fan service: The school receives a generous donation from none other than Klaus Mikaelson, again reminding Caroline that the torch still burns. (OMG please make this happen. The Originals could use a little Caroline Forbes magic!)

Matt continues on as sheriff of Mystic Falls. Like Liz Forbes before him, a bench is built in his honor. Being compared to Liz Forbes is no small thing, of course (there was some Twitterverse yammer about how the bench seemed paltry…not so!). He’s thinking of running for Mayor. (Hey, is the Lockwood mansion still in his name?)

Damon and Elena get married, and she becomes a doctor. They live happily ever after.

The final moments are a little ambiguous, deliberately so. Are we seeing a true scene of the afterlife, many years hence? Or is it more symbolic in nature, showing the awareness of the peace that lies before them? It doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that it’s a happy ending, and they’ve earned it.

I cried my eyes out for about the next half an hour. I’ll miss this show and these characters. I’ll watch and rewatch the series over the years to come. It’s a gift for a show to stay this good for so long and end this well. Thank you, TVD, for this beautiful journey. It was worth every moment.

What will you miss most about The Vampire Diaries? Reminisce in the comments!

#The Vampire Diaries #series finale #The CW #Recaps #Stefan Salvatore #Damon Salvatore #Caroline Forbes #Bonnie Bennett #Alaric Saltzman #Matt Donovan #Elena Gilbert #Kevin Williamson #Julie Plec

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londontheatre · 7 years

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Ben Batt in The York Realist at the Donmar Warehouse, Photographer Craig Fleming

Artistic Director Josie Rourke and Executive Producer Kate Pakenham announce today three new productions at the Donmar Warehouse for late 2017 and through to 2018: a new play by Amy Herzog, Belleville, a revival of Peter Gill’s modern classic, The York Realist, and a new production of William Congreve’s Restoration comedy The Way of the World.

The Donmar will host the UK premiere of American playwright Amy Herzog’s acclaimed play Belleville. The production will star James Norton and Imogen Poots as New York newlyweds living in Paris, opposite Faith Alabi and Malachi Kirby. Belleville is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst who is making his Donmar Warehouse debut.

Donmar Associate and Sheffield Theatres Artistic Director Robert Hastie returns after his hit productions of My Night with Reg and Splendour to direct a revival of Peter Gill’s The York Realist. Revived 50 years after the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, The York Realist will star Ben Batt and Lesley Nicol, and will be a co-production with Sheffield Theatres.

The final production will be William Congreve’s Restoration comedy The Way of the World. James Macdonald returns to the Donmar after his acclaimed production of Arnold Wesker’s Roots, directing Linda Bassett who will play Lady Wishfort.

Donmar Associate Artist Tom Scutt will curate Donmar on Design, a week-long festival celebrating the power of design in theatre, and the designers who make it happen.

The Donmar’s free ticket scheme for those aged 25 and under, YOUNG+FREE, will continue to offer seats for performances across the new season. YOUNG+FREE is funded through the generosity of audiences via the Donmar’s PAY IT FORWARD scheme.

KLAXON tickets will also continue across the season. Starting from £10, KLAXON tickets are put on sale every Monday for performances in the following three weeks. Tickets will be available across the auditorium at every price band.

Artistic Director Josie Rourke said: “I am delighted to share with you the Donmar’s new season: a premiere of an American play, a revival of a modern classic, and one of the great Restoration comedies.”

Belleville at Donmar Warehouse

At the end of this year the Donmar will stage the UK premiere of American playwright Amy Herzog’s dazzling play Belleville. Set at Christmas in a bohemian quarter of Paris, James Norton, Imogen Poots, Faith Alabi and Malachi Kirby will all make their Donmar debuts. I am also thrilled to welcome the director Michael Longhurst to the Donmar for the first time, after his acclaimed productions of Caroline, or Change, Amadeus and Constellations.

Peter Gill’s work as a playwright has been part of the Donmar’s story for the past decade. We’re proud to be reviving his influential play, The York Realist. Donmar Associate Robert Hastie, who delighted Donmar audiences with his celebrated productions of My Night with Reg and Splendour, will direct this delicate piece about love and family ties in rural Yorkshire. He has assembled another stunning cast which includes Ben Batt, Lucy Black, Lesley Nicol, Katie West and Matthew Wilson.

Finally, we are transported back to 1700 with arguably the best comedy written in the English language: William Congreve’s Restoration comedy The Way of the World. We welcome James Macdonald back to the Donmar, after his mesmerizing production of Roots to direct this hilarious classic treat of tricks, love and money. His cast includes Linda Bassett as the brilliant and witty Lady Wishfort.

With this season the Donmar aims to bring audiences world-class artists and essential stories for our times told within the intimate setting of our Covent Garden home.

The Donmar Warehouse announces today three new productions for the late 2017/2018 period. First, American playwright Amy Herzog’s play Belleville will be given its UK premiere at the Donmar this winter. James Norton (Happy Valley, Grantchester) and Imogen Poots (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) will play newlywed New York expats living in Paris. Award-winning Michael Longhurst (Caroline, or Change, Amadeus, Constellations) will make his Donmar debut directing this twisting tale of friendship and lies.

The Donmar will then revive Peter Gill’s seminal play, The York Realist. Donmar Associate Robert Hastie (My Night with Reg, Splendour) will direct this delicate piece about first love and family ties in rural Yorkshire, in a co-production with Sheffield Theatres. Casting includes Ben Batt, Lucy Black, Lesley Nicol, Katie West and Matthew Wilson

The Way of the World at the Donmar Warehouse, Photographer Eivind Hansen

Finally in the season, the Donmar will transport audiences back to the 1700s with a revival of The Way of the World by William Congreve. James Macdonald (Roots) returns to the Donmar to direct Linda Bassett in this hilarious Restoration treat of tricks, love and money.

The Donmar’s YOUNG+FREE scheme, which provides free tickets to those aged 25 and under, will also continue throughout the season, with tickets released on the final Friday of every month. YOUNG+FREE is made possible thanks to donations from Donmar audiences via PAY IT FORWARD. These donations and the partnership support of Delta Airlines have allowed the Donmar to allocate almost 10,000 free tickets to those aged 25 and under over the past year.

Audiences can sign up to receive information about tickets on the Donmar’s website http://ift.tt/QGnINs

Executive Producer Kate Pakenham said: “Sharing our work with as broad an audience as possible remains at the heart of the Donmar’s mission, so we are delighted to be able to work with Sheffield Theatres on a co-production of The York Realist with our Associate and Sheffield’s Artistic Director Robert Hastie. Following its run at the Donmar, The York Realist will play at Sheffield Crucible 27 March – 7 April, taking our work beyond our Covent Garden home.

I am also thrilled to see KLAXON and YOUNG+FREE tickets continue to grow in popularity. I am proud that these ticket schemes ensure our venue remains accessible to new audiences, particularly young people.

YOUNG+FREE is made possible by the generosity of the public through PAY IT FORWARD. We have been delighted by our audiences’ ongoing support for PAY IT FORWARD and are excited to be working with them to prioritise young people’s access to the arts. We are also grateful to the significant support we receive from corporate partners, individual philanthropists and the Arts Council which makes the Donmar’s work possible, both on our stage and beyond.

After the very special experience of opening up our Dryden Street home for Rosalie Craig and Michelle Terry’s Becoming earlier this year, we are delighted to continue this with the Donmar on Design festival. Curated by our Associate Tom Scutt, the week-long festival will be both an opportunity for audiences to have insight into the design process and for young people to meet and be inspired by world-class theatre designers.”

CURRENT SEASON Currently at the Donmar is Yaël Farber’s production of David Harrower’s haunting Knives in Hens. Running until 7 October, Knives in Hens stars Christian Cook, Judith Roddy and Matt Ryan.

Following this, Donmar Associate Director and newly announced Artistic Director of the Young Vic, Kwame Kwei-Armah, returns to the Donmar to direct Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea, in a new version by Elinor Cook. BAFTA nominated Nikki Amuka-Bird will lead the cast as Ellida from 12 October.

In November, Donmar Associate Artist Tom Scutt (Belleville, The Lady From the Sea, Elegy, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, The Weir) will curate Donmar on Design, a week-long festival at the Donmar’s Dryden Street home celebrating the power of design in theatre. The festival will feature a Designers’ Open Studio, free panel discussions with some of the UK’s leading theatre-makers including Es Devlin, Lizzie Clachan, Anna Fleischle, former Donmar Resident Design Assistant Rosie Elnile, Chloe Lamford, Peter McKintosh, Tom Piper and Rosanna Vize, and careers workshops for design students alongside a schools programme for designers of the future.

Speaking about Donmar on Design, Tom Scutt said: “I’ve been looking to find a way to bring designers and audiences together in celebration for a long while. Donmar on Design is intended to bring our audiences closer to the role of Designer, to give three dimensions to the people that create the worlds we see on our stages and to shed light on what can be one of the most mysterious, shape-shifting roles in the creative process.

The festival will also offer workshops and guidance to students and recent design graduates as well as providing a forum for more experienced designers to come together and discuss the issues that inform our work. Through Donmar on Design we hope to create a stronger sense of community and provide an opportunity for designers of every experience to engage, connect and discover more about how each of us goes through our process.”

Members Priority Booking for the new Donmar Warehouse season: Steel level from 10am and Copper level from noon on Tuesday 10 October Friends from 10am on Thursday 12 October

Public Booking for the new Donmar Warehouse season: From 10am on Tuesday 17 October For further information, please contact: James Travis-Lever and Tess Shennan at Jo Allan PR [email protected] | [email protected] |020 7520 9392

BELLEVILLE By Amy Herzog Thursday 7 December 2017 – Saturday 3 February 2018 PRESS NIGHT: Thursday 14 December 2017 Director Michael Longhurst Designer Tom Scutt Lighting Designer Natasha Chivers Composition and Sound Design Ben and Max Ringham

Cast: Faith Alabi, Malachi Kirby, James Norton and Imogen Poots

Americans Zack and Abby are bright, young and recently married. He’s a doctor combating infant disease. She’s an actress, also teaching yoga. It’s just before Christmas and they’re living the expat highlife in bohemian Belleville, Paris.

It’s all a little too perfect.

Writer Amy Herzog is ‘one of the brightest new talents in the theater’ (New York Times). Her acclaimed play about a romantic dream gone sour receives its UK premiere. Michael Longhurst (Amadeus, National Theatre; Constellations, Royal Court, West End and Broadway) directs at the Donmar for the first time.

Cast includes Faith Alabi (The Rolling Stone, Orange Tree Theatre), Malachi Kirby (Rough Cuts, Royal Court), James Norton (Bug, Found 111, The Lion in Winter, Haymarket; TV includes Grantchester, War & Peace, Happy Valley; Film includes Flatliners) and Imogen Poots (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Harold Pinter Theatre).

Amy Herzog (Writer) plays include After the Revolution (Williamstown Theater Festival; Playwrights Horizons; Lilly Award), 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center; Obie Award for the Best New American Play, Pulitzer Prize Finalist), The Great God Pan (Playwrights Horizons), and Belleville (Yale Rep; New York Theatre Workshop; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist; Drama Desk Nomination). Amy is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Helen Merrill, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, and the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award. She is a Usual Suspect at NYTW and an alumna of Youngblood, Play Group at Ars Nova, and the SoHo Rep Writer/Director Lab. She has taught playwriting at Bryn Mawr and Yale. MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Michael Longhurst (Director) is an award-winning stage director. He directed the production of Peter Schaffer’s Amadeus at the National Theatre which ran until March 2017 and received exceptional reviews when it opened in November 2016 in the Olivier. His Royal Court production of Nick Payne’s Constellations starring Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall transferred to the West End, winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Play 2012 and receiving four Olivier Award nominations. Constellations opened on Broadway in January 2015, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson. He also directed Academy Award-nominee Jake Gyllenhaal in his American stage debut at the Roundabout Theatre, New York in Nick Payne’s If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet. He has developed and directed new plays across the UK including Adam Brace’s Stovepipe; a promenade co-production with the National Theatre, which featured in the Sunday Times ‘Best Theatre of the Decade’ list. Michael is also a recipient of the Jerwood Directors Award at the Young Vic (Dirty Butterfly) and a Fringe First (Guardians). He trained in directing at Mountview after reading Philosophy at Nottingham University. Michael is currently an Associate Director for Nuffield Theatre. In 2015, the Evening Standard named Michael as one of the 1000 most influential Londoners.

Faith Alabi (Amina) makes her Donmar Warehouse debut in Belleville. Theatre credits include Trouble in Mind (Print Room Notting Hill), Funeral Flowers (Royal Court Theatre), The Rolling Stone (Orange Tree Theatre) and Eclipsed (Gate Theatre). Faith has appeared on television in Cold Feet, Grantchester, Drifters, Chewing Gum and Agatha Raisin, and on film in My Song. Radio credits include Girls for BBC Radio 4.

Malachi Kirby (Alioune) makes his Donmar Warehouse debut in Belleville. Theatre credits include Rough Cuts (Royal Court Theatre), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Theatre Royal Northampton), Wild Child (Royal Court Theatre), The Realness (Young Vic Theatre), Mogadishu (Royal Exchange, Manchester and Lyric Hammersmith), Dunsinane (Royal Shakespeare Company), Wish You Were Here (Oval House Theatre), Fall Out/The Life of a Teenager (National Theatre Studios), High Life (Hampstead Theatre), The Working Girl (Theatre 503), Beyond The Obvious (Stratford Circus). Malachi’s film credits include Kajaki, Fallen, Dough, The Last Showing, Gone Too Far, My Brother The Devil and Offender. Television credits include Black Mirror, Roots, Jekyll & Hyde, Doctor Who, Vodka Diaries, Lawless, Way To Go, My Murder, Doctor XIII, The Garden, The Bill, Casualty and Silent Witness.

James Norton (Zack) makes his Donmar Warehouse debut in Belleville. Previous theatre credits include Bug (Found 111), The Lion in Winter (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Journey’s End (Duke of York’s Theatre and UK Tour), That Face (Sheffield Crucible), Posh (The Royal Court) and Cymbeline (Cambridge Arts Theatre). James’s television credits include McMafia, To Walk Invisible, Black Mirror, War and Peace, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Life in Squares, Grantchester, Happy Valley, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Television Award for Best Supporting Actor, Death Comes to Pemberley, Our Story, By Any Means, Restless, Doctor Who, Blandings and Inspector George Gently. James has appeared on film in Flatliners, Hampstead, Northmen: A Viking Saga, Belle, Bonobo, Angelica, Turner, Thicker Than Water, Rush, Cheerful Weather For A Wedding and An Education.

Imogen Poots (Abby) makes her Donmar Warehouse debut in Belleville. Theatre credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Harold Pinter Theatre). Imogen’s extensive film credits include I Kill Giants, Mobile Homes, Sweet Virginia, Connor4real, Green Room, Frank & Lola, A Country Called Home, She’d Funny That Way, Knight of Cups, That Awkward Moment, Jimi: All Is By My Side, The Look of Love, A Long Way Down, Filth, Greetings From Tim Buckley, Comes A Bright Day, A Late Quartet, Fright Night, Jane Eyre, Centurion, Solitary Man, Cracks, Me and Orson Welles, Wish, 28 Weeks Later and V for Vendetta. Imogen’s credits for television include Roadies, Christopher and His Kind, A Bouquet of Barbed Wire and Miss Austen Regrets.

THE YORK REALIST By Peter Gill Thursday 8 February – Saturday 24 March 2018 PRESS NIGHT: Tuesday 13 February 2018 Director Robert Hastie Designer Peter McKintosh Lighting Designer Paul Pyant Sound Designer Emma Laxton Composer Richard Taylor

Cast includes Ben Batt, Lucy Black, Lesley Nicol, Katie West and Matthew Wilson.

‘I live here. I live here. You can’t see that, though. You can’t see it. This is where I live. Here.’

A cottage, 1960s Yorkshire. The York Mystery plays are in rehearsal. Farmhand George strains against his roots as a new world opens up to him.

Peter Gill’s influential play about two young men in love is a touching reflection on the rival forces of family, class and longing.

Donmar Associate Robert Hastie returns for this timely revival from one of our greatest living playwrights, following his previous productions My Night with Reg and Splendour. Ben Batt also returns to the Donmar following Making Noise Quietly alongside Lesley Nicol, who returns to the London stage and makes her Donmar debut.

A Donmar Warehouse and Sheffield Theatres co-production.

Peter Gill (Writer) is a hugely influential and radical figure in British theatre; he is a renowned playwright and one of the most important directors of the last thirty years. Previous Donmar credits include Versailles, 2014 (writer and director), Making Noise Quietly, 2012 (director), Small Change, 2009 (writer) and Days of Wine and Roses, 2005 (director). Peter has directed over eighty productions in the UK, Europe and North America, and held a variety of established positions within the industry, including the post of Associate Director at the National Theatre (1980 – 1997) and Associate Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company (1964/1965 & 1970/1972).

Robert Hastie (Director) is Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse and the Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres. For the Donmar he directed My Night with Reg, which transferred to the West End’s Apollo Theatre and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Revival, conceived and directed My Mark with writer Michelle Terry, a project dramatising interviews with primary school children across the country and coinciding with the 2015 and 2017 General Elections, and directed Splendour by Abi Morgan. As Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, his credits include Julius Caesar (UK Theatre Awards nomination for Best Director), Of Kith and Kin, and the forthcoming The Wizard of Oz. His other theatre credits include Henry V at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Theatr Clwyd, A Breakfast of Eels by Robert Holman at the Print Room; Carthage by Chris Thompson and Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun by John McGrath at the Finborough Theatre; and The Hotel Plays by Tennessee Williams for Defibrillator at the Holborn Grange Hotel. As Associate Director for Sixty-Six Books, which opened the new Bush Theatre, Hastie directed the world premieres of In the Land of Uz by Neil LaBute, The Middle Man by Anthony Weigh, David and Goliath by Andrew Motion, Snow in Sheffield by Helen Mort and A Lost Expression by Luke Kennard. He was nominated for the Emerging Talent Award at the 2014 Evening Standard Awards.

Ben Batt (George) returns to the Donmar Warehouse following his role in Making Noise Quietly. Theatre credits include Woyzeck (The Old Vic), A Streetcar Named Desire, As You Like It (Royal Exchange, Manchester), and The Funfair (HOME, Manchester). Ben’s recent television credits include Prey, Barbarians Rising, From Darkness, The Go-Between, The Village (Series 2), From There to Here, Scott & Bailey, Prisoners Wives, Death in Paradise, and he will soon be seen in the BBC’s In The Dark. Film credits include The Windmill, Slapper and Me, Despite The Falling Snow, Coach, Electricity and A Running Jump. Lucy Black (Barbara) makes her Donmar Warehouse debut in The York Realist. Lucy’s theatre include Strife (Chichester Festival Theatre), 3 Winters, Children of the Sun (National Theatre), Drawing the Line (Hampstead Theatre), A Taste of Honey (Edinburgh Lyceum), The Only True History Of Lizzie Fynn (Southwark Playhouse), Epsom Downs (Salisbury Playhouse), Cause Celebre (Old Vic), The Misanthrope, A Tender Player, How The Other Half Loves and Seed Of The Bauhinia (Bristol Old Vic), The Three Sisters and Mary Barton (The Royal Exchange, Manchester), Antony And Cleopatra, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Titus Andronicus and Three Sisters (Tobacco Factory), One Minute (Bush Theatre), The Blind Bird and The Lesson (Gate Theatre). Television credits include The Durrells, The Level, Casualty, Jericho, Call the Midwife, Granchester, Eastenders, Vera, Doctors, Holby City, The Bill, Waterloo Road, Wire In The Blood, The Royal, Bombshell and Murder In Mind.

Lesley Nicol (Mother) makes her Donmar Warehouse debut in The York Realist. Further theatre credits include Jesus Christ Superstar (Palace Theatre), MAMMA MIA! (Prince Edward Theatre), Our House (Cambridge Theatre) and East is East (Royal Court), for which Lesley also reprised her role in the BAFTA 1999 Best British Film adaptation of the play. Lesley is well known on television for her role of Beryl Patmore in Downton Abbey. Further television credits include The Catch, Shameless, Blackadder, Dinnerladies, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and Inspector George Gently.

Katie West (Doreen) makes her Donmar Warehouse debut in The York Realist. Theatre credits include Uncle Vanya, Chamaco (HOME, Manchester), Lela & Co (The Royal Court), Carmen Disruption (Almeida Theatre), Hamlet, Blind-Sided, Blithe Spirit (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Macbeth (Manchester International Festival/Park Avenue Armory, New York), The Thrill of Love (New Vic Theatre), A Taste of Honey (Sheffield Crucible), 65 Miles (Hull Truck Theatre), Vote of Confidence (Theatre 503), Punk Rock (Hammersmith Lyric/Royal Exchange, Manchester) and Sense (Southwark Playhouse). Television credits include Inspector George Gently, Doctors, Without You and United. Katie has also appeared on film in Peterloo directed by Mike Leigh and Cinderella directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Matthew Wilson (Arthur) makes his Donmar Warehouse debut in The York Realist. Theatre credits include Snack Family Robinson (Rose Theatre Kingston), The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd (New Vic Theatre), The God’s Weep and Othello (RSC), Home (Theatre Royal Bath), Psychogeography (Southwark Playhouse), Enemies (Almeida Theatre), The Romans in Britain (Sheffield Crucible), Fair (Finborough Theatre), and Rampage Season: There (Royal Court). His numerous TV credits include Broken, Call the Midwife, Unforgotten, Vera, Poldark, Arthur & George, Endeavour, Sherlock, and Mr Selfridge. For film his credits include Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The Inbetweeners.

THE WAY OF THE WORLD By William Congreve Thursday 29 March – Saturday 26 May 2018 PRESS NIGHT: Thursday 5 April 2018 Director James Macdonald Designer Anna Fleischle Lighting Designer Peter Mumford Sound Designer and Composer Max Pappenheim

Cast includes Linda Bassett

Family, money, mesire: the rules of the game, the way of the world.

Lady Wishfort’s sprawling, dysfunctional family are riven by desire – there’s everything to lose and six thousand pounds to gain. Congreve’s glorious ensemble of characters battle it out in this exposing, satirical comedy where everyone needs to win just to get by.

Following their collaboration on the mesmerising Roots in 2013, James Macdonald returns to the Donmar to direct Linda Bassett in the role of Lady Wishfort.

James Macdonald (Director) previously directed the acclaimed production of Roots by Arnold Wesker at the Donmar Warehouse. He was Associate Director of the Royal Court from 1992 to 2007 during which time he directed Drunk Enough to Say I Love You (also Public Theater, New York), Dying City (also Lincoln Center, New York), Fewer Emergencies, Lucky Dog, Blood, Blasted and 4.48 Psychosis, and more recently Cock, Love and Information and Circle Mirror Transformation (Royal Court in Haggerston). His other directing credits include The Arrest of Ai Wei Wei, And No More Shall We Part (Hampstead Theatre), King Lear, The Book of Grace, Top Girls (Broadway/MTC), A Delicate Balance, Judgment Day, The Triumph of Love (Almeida), Dido, Queen of Carthage, The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, Exiles (National Theatre) and Glengarry Glen Ross in the West End.

Linda Bassett (Lady Wishfort) has previously performed at the Donmar in Roots and Phaedra. Throughout her prolific career she has performed at the National Theatre, Royal Court and RSC. Her television credits include Call the Midwife, The Life & Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Lark Rise to Candleford and Grandma’s House. She is best known for her roles in feature films East is East, The Reader, Calendar Girls, The Hours and Effie.

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