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whumpily-ever-after · 3 years

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The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty Whump List

This next one is long (48 episodes). The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty is a 2020 Chinese historical, crime, and mystery drama (available to watch on Viki). This drama was adapted from a BL (boylove) novel, but because of censorship, it is a bromance between the two main characters (the whumpees in this list).

I was originally only working on one whumpee for this drama but recent posts in the whump community convinced me to add a second.

Whumpee: Sui Zhou played by Fu Meng Bo (can you believe he almost wasn’t included in this list?)

As always, possible spoilers ahead.

Episode 1: In a fight, has a nightmare (he never wakes up calmly from these nightmares)

Episodes 2-6: None

Episode 7: Arrested, framed as an imposter, someone else is hurt in his place

Episode 8: Wrists bound to ceiling, whipped, threatened, thrown in cell, drags himself across the floor, tells his totally not-boyfriend that he cannot last much longer

Episode 9: Escorted back to his cell with guards holding his arms

Episode 10: Still imprisoned, another prisoner tries to poison him, escapes

Episodes 11-12: None

Episode 13: Cut on his back, doctor cauterizes the wound

Episodes 14-17: None

Episode 18: Framed and arrested

Episode 19: At spearpoint, hands tied

Episodes 20-22: None

Episode 23: Nightmare, followed

Episode 24: Ambushed (no injuries), crossbow bolts shot at him

Episode 25: Arrested

Episode 26: Hands chained to ceiling, threatened to be tortured, released, followed, chased

Episode 27: Nightmare, wakes up in a panic

Episode 28: In a hostage situation, hands bound behind his back

Episode 29: Continued from previous episode, concerned for his not-boyfriend (he was poisoned and made himself a hostage), holding collapsed not-boyfriend

Episodes 30-31: None

Episode 32: Tells everyone about the event that causes his nightmares

Episode 33: None

Episode 34: Is told that his not-boyfriend can be sacrificed for national security, concerned for not-boyfriend, places himself in front of guns in an effort to protect not-boyfriend, knocked back from explosion

Episode 35: Knocked back from explosion in previous episode, (this is a flashback episode), hit by a shockwave from an explosion three years before

Episode 36: (Starts off where episode 34 ended), pulls his distraught not-boyfriend away from the scene of the explosion, grieving, nightmare, feels guilty, almost trampled by a horse

Episodes 37-38: None

Episode 39: Manhandled, held against wall, fights against many people on his own, exhausted, collapses, not-boyfriend concerned for him, tended to by doctor, bandaged wounds on his arms and abdomen, winces in pain

Episode 40: Worried not-boyfriend died in an explosion, crying/screaming over not-boyfriend’s unconscious form

Episodes 41-42: None

Episode 43: Learns that his not-boyfriend allowed himself to be given to the enemy, concerned for not-boyfriend

Episodes 44-47: None

Episode 48: Imprisoned, released by not-boyfriend

Whumpee: Tang Fan played by Darren Chen

Episode 1: None

Episode 2: Ambushed, strangled, rescued

Episode 3: None

Episode 4: Used as a hostage with sword at his neck, knocked to the ground, inside a carriage when it is ambushed

Episodes 5-6: None

Episode 7: Knocked down, bruises on his face, sad that his definitely not-boyfriend is gone away on business, concerned for not-boyfriend

Episode 8: Manhandled, gets himself arrested to find not-boyfriend

Episodes 9-12: None

Episode 13: Bad guy threatens (not to Tang Fan himself) to “take care of him”, main bad guy says “he’s mine”, no actual whump in this episode (I just like when enemies plot against the whumpees)

Episode 14: Hit with a knock-out powder, wakes up in a cage, hit with more knock-out powder

Episode 15: Wakes up, still in cage, worried for someone, yelling for her to be let go, hit with more knock-out powder, wakes up at home

Episode 16: Banished, his friends come to stay with him and it is very cute, slapped by his sister

Episodes 17-18: None

Episode 19: At spearpoint, hands tied

Episodes 20-22: None

Episode 23: Not-boyfriend grabs his throat when he is woken up from a nightmare, bad guys talk about killing him, more talk of getting rid of him

Episode 24: Ambushed (no injuries), knocked out, locked in a crate (for his protection--people are trying to assassinate him), hands tied, sees and enemy while on the run from assassins, scared

Episode 25: Manhandled, concern for someone, cuts himself with a poisoned blade to help find an antidote, concern for him

Episode 26: Takes different antidotes and faces rough side effects, cold (wrapped up in a blanket), bound with ropes so he does not hurt himself, helped to stand and walk, sleeping on someone’s lap, others talk about how he took too many antidotes and his body has reached its limit

Episode 27: Still poisoned, looks pale and weak

Episode 28: Still poisoned, concerned for not-boyfriend, struggles to stand, helped to walk (he is only in the last couple minutes of this episode)

Episode 29: Joins a hostage situation (exchanges himself for another hostage), still looks pale and weak, spits blood, sword raised at him, protected, collapses, wakes up in bed, struggles to get up, is given the antidote sometime after he passes out (not shown)

Episode 30: None

Episode 31: At knife-point

Episodes 32-33: None

Episode 34: Someone pulls a weapon on him, protected (human shield), taken hostage, on a carriage with a ticking bomb, pushed out of the carriage, held back from running back, concerned for his friend, knocked back from an explosion

Episode 35: Knocked back from explosion in previous episode, (flashback episode), hit by shockwave from an explosion three years before, looks exhausted as he helps survivors of the explosion

Episode 36: Starts off where episode 34 ended, stumbles to the source of the explosion, in shock, held back by not-boyfriend, distraught over the death of a friend, knocked out, grieving

Episodes 37-38: None

Episode 39: At sword-point, threatened, locked up by not-boyfriend to protect him

Episode 40: In another explosion, unconscious, wakes up (with no injuries)

Episode 41: None

Episode 42: Knocked out, wakes up in chains, uses himself as a human shield, is given to the enemy (actually sacrifices himself for his nation)

Episode 43: Someone is ordered to kill him, knocked out, carried to a carriage, wakes up in a cell, scared

Episode 44: Sill imprisoned in a cell, is let go, cut on his back, struggles to get up, stumbles down the street, calls out for not-boyfriend as he struggles to reach him, collapses into not-boyfriend’s arms

Episode 45: Slapped, kicked, falls into a crate and hits his wounded back

Episode 46: Drops to his knees when he thinks a friend has died

Episodes 47-48: None

#the sleuth of ming dynasty #chinese drama #cdrama #whump list #darren chen #tang fan #fu meng bo #sui zhou

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thebaillieroyals · 3 years

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Questions and Answers about your OC

from the perspective of your OC (if you want). Do this as many times are you would like to and answer as many as you would like!

So I just made this because I felt like it because I have story posts for like the next month and wanted something to do.

Tagged by @the-royals-ts4

A seeing as Oliver

1) What is your favorite sport?

I quite enjoy soccer. Favorite sport(s) to play are polo, and skiing(prior to my accident)

2) What is your favorite color?

My favorite color is cobalt blue

3) What is your favorite movie?

“The Adventures of Spaceship Simulation”

4) Taken? Single?

Taken, very happily

5) What would be your perfect day?

A perfect day for me, would be out at the mountains or the lake with my family going fishing or out at the ranch teaching my daughter how to ride a horse

6) Are you a night owl or an early bird?

Early bird

7) Do you think you're smart?

I like to think I’m pretty clever

10) How do you like to be comforted when you are sad?

Well historically I like to be left alone, but that has lead to trouble. I’ve been wanting to let those I love in, and actual have a conversation

11) where do you want to be in 5 years time?

Mentally healed, maybe another one or two kiddos running a round this place!!

12) Do you have any regrets?

Many….

13) Who are/is your best friend(s)?

My best mate Casey

14) what did you dream about last night?

We don’t need to talk about that

15) Who in your family are you closest to?

It was my sister Marisol, but I’m definitely very close to my mother.

16) What is one thing people don't know about you?

I hate peas*laughs*

17) Best present ever given to you?

My daughter (even if it was an actual present)

18) What is your favorite food?

Trout Meunière

19) Earliest childhood memory?

I remember when my parents brought baby Marisol home,I was about three!

20) Do you have a crush?

Well of course! My wife!

21) If you could live in a different period, which one would it be?

Oh, hmmm. Victorian era perhaps?

22) Any nicknames?

Ollie, Sarg, and Baillie

23) Introvert or Extrovert?

Extrovert

24) Favourite book?

“Crisis Barn” by Jim Scuttleson

25) Hobby?

fishing, and riding. I do enjoy the piano as well though I’m a little rusty

26) Beach or pool?

Beach

27) First kiss?

That’s actually kinda funny, because I was 6, and this beautiful red headed girl kissed me on the cheek, and went on her way. Wouldn’t see her again for another 12 years, and wouldn’t you know I married her!

28) Favourite subject

History

29) Age

Nearly 26

30) Full name

HM Crown Prince of Cedoria, Oliver Ivan Joseph Baillie, the Duke of Eynsworth

31) Pets?

We have a German Shepard, he’s my ESA. His name is Apollo

32) Age (if they have one)?

He is 1 years old

33) Fave song?

I don’t think I have one, but my favorite genre of music is classic rock

34) Where do you live?

I live Eynsworth a small town outside of Riverview

35) What/who do you miss?

I really miss my sister

36) Which school(s) do/did you go to?

I attended Cushing academy for primary school, and St Anne’s for secondary.

37) Favorite food

Wasn’t this asked already*laughs*

38) Tattoo?

39) Done anything illegal?

Pass

40) Fav TV show?

I don’t watch enough television

41) Do you know any celebrities?

Too many to list

42) Dreams/wishes?

Right now I’m just trying to take things day to day, I hope in can find some inner peace with in myself

43) Are you very competitive?

Depends

44) Greatest gift (could be a physical gift or a spiritual gift)?

My family

45) Greatest accomplishment?

Again my family

46) If you were stuck on a desert island, who would you be stuck with?

Probably my wife; I certainly would hope because I’d miss her cooking

47) Zodiac sign

Virgo

48) Where were you born?

(Formally) The Royal Hayward Hospital (now royal Windenburg) in Winden City, Windenburg

49) Sexuality?

hetero

50) What color are your eyes?

Blue

51) What color is your hair?

Medium brown

52) Do you want/ have kids?

I have a daughter, and I’d love to have more!

53) when is your birthday?

21st, September

54) Current mood?

Okay

55) Do you send goodnight or good morning texts to people?

No I’m not great with that

56) What do you want to be when you grow up/ what is your occupation?

Well I was born in line of succession so… but I knew from a young age I wanted to join the Royal army. I guess if I wasn’t the prince I would have made a FT career of that.

57) How long do you sleep for?

On a good night 3 hours. I don’t… I have a hard time sleeping

58) How long does it take you to get up in the morning?

Not long, I’m an early riser

59) How long does it take you to get ready?

For a normal everyday,maybe 30 minutes

60) Meyer Briggs personality type?

ENFJ-T

Tag: anyone you want to tag!

@tempestreachroyals @evandroyals

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airi-p4 · 4 years

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Tanabata - Lukagami fic

My first Lukagami fic for the Lukagami July 2020 Day 7: Tanabata

I don’t really ship them but I think they are cute together.

Thanks to @livrever for check and corrections!

Ao3

___________________________________________

7th of July. Tanabata.

According to the legend, the only day of the year the lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi can see each other. A dramatic couple separated for a year until they can meet once again for one day only. And that’s, of course, reason enough for the Japanese people to throw a unique event as a celebration.

Writing wishes on long narrow colourful papers and hang them up on bamboo trees was one of the activities Kagami always looked forward to the most. Growing up with strict parents didn't give her much freedom or fun, but she was glad respecting traditions was one of her family's motto since she could enjoy every year the tanabata festival. And that was the most fun she would get each year: her favorite festival.

The last few years she was in France she had missed it, which made her a little sad - even if she still wrote her wish and hung it up next to her window every year, there was no festival, no fireworks, not the traditional Japanese event fun she loved.

But this year was different. She was in Japan again for Tanabata, and she was going to enjoy the fun of the festival at its fullest. Her whole set had been ready since the previous day to be used at the afternoon: yukata, obi (sash), geta (sandals), inner yukata, hair pin and accessories, cloth bag matching the yukata, money and her smartphone (to take photos). She was anxious for the time to pass faster so she could get ready and go enjoy the fun.

Every 5 minutes she kept checking for the time, even while she was practicing either kendo or archery.

"Kagami. What do you think you are doing? Take it seriously, don't keep disappointing me any farther. Focus" Tomoe Tsurugi was seated behind her daughter, supervising her training.

"Yes, mother" Kagami answered, but inside her heart she could only giggle in expectation for the festival.

"You need to focus and lose sight of all your distractions. Remember how your efficiency has decreased lately. That's why we came back to Japan in the first place. Don't waste all your efforts until now for some useless thoughts. Many people have high expectations of you. Don't let your sponsors down"

"Yes, mother" Kagami replied.

She knew her mother was right. She couldn't focus at all in anything she did. Her head had been somewhere else for a while. To be precise, since the day she figured out her love for a certain blue-haired musician. Who was also the same boy that had once been in love with her best friend (and maybe he still was). Luka snuck somehow inside Kagami's heart in a totally unexpected way - he scolded her for going under the rain without the proper equipment and lend her an umbrella. 'What a silly reason to fall in love with someone' she thought, denying her feelings at first, remembering how Marinette had told her how she fell in love with Adrien in a similar way. But the more time the Japanese lady spent with the guitarist, the clearer and stronger her love for him became.

Kagami didn't know what was so good about Luka Couffaine to make her fall in love with him. Kind-hearted, handsome, mature, responsible, talented, quiet… yes, great, but nothing she didn't have on her own. Then why? His patience, maybe? His rebellious looks? The way he cares for his loved ones? Even after 3 months, it still remained a mystery for Kagami. And she loved mysteries. Could it be it? Maybe. She wasn't sure. She was supposedly mysterious herself too.

What was for sure is she was in love with him and, after two months without seeing each other, she missed deeply their time together. Good thing she was going to meet with him again today. On Tanabata. Just like the lovers of the story, the two stars shining on the firmament across the Milky Way. And that made Kagami excitement over the sun, even if her expression remained impassible as always in front of her relatives, her heart was ecstatic.

Their meeting was set at 4pm. He had a concert last night for Jagged Stone’s tour - which her mother didn't let her attend, of course. So today was the only day they could meet. How can it get more romantic than that?

After having lunch, Kagami excused herself to get ready for the festival, hiding the fact she was also going on a date. Or at least she wished it was.

After brushing her teeth, she proceeded to get dressed. It usually takes a lot of time for newbies to put a yukata on, but Kagami was almost a professional when it came to wearing traditional Japanese clothing, and it took her only 5 minutes. After applying some light make-up, brushing her hair and decorating it with her hair accessories, her look for the festival was ready.

She looked glamorous, elegant and beautiful, and she was well aware of it. In front of the mirror, the girl kept posing and practicing how to smile for more than 40 minutes, waiting for the time to go to arrive and thinking of the activities she wanted to try out there -as well as the boy she was meeting in a matter of minutes.

Finally the time arrived and she took her leave.

The festival took place in a shopping district on a city nearby the Tsurugi's residential state. It was decorated with Tanabata themed garlands, flowers, paper lanterns and statues and, of course, decorated bamboo trees. The view was even prettier than the last time she had been there many years ago.

While she was waiting for Luka, Kagami took a paper guide for the event, checking the performances and the shops available, as well as their distribution. She was checking and confirming her plan and route to follow to make it perfectly on time to each one of the performances she was interested to attend.

She was so caught up in thinking she didn't notice someone standing in front of her. After looking the upper part of the guide, she could take a glance at a men's yukata in front of her. Too close for her liking.

"If you plan to try anything funny with me I'll make you regret it" she said, without looking up.

"Not my plan, but I wouldn't dare to, knowing your strength"

Kagami's eyes met Luka's in surprise. He was standing in front of her, pretty close, wearing a dark blue yukata that looked unbelievably good on him. Luka's soft smile reflected on Kagami's face, mimicking it without noticing. Her face was glowing.

"You came early" she said.

"So did you. You look beautiful" responded Luka.

"Thank you. You look great too. I didn't expect you to wear a yukata"

"Yeah, I noticed" he giggled at his own comment, stealing another smile from the Japanese lady. "How have you been?"

"I've been ok. The training got harder since now I take archery classes daily too, but I've been improving. But I miss Paris. And my friends. And you" Kagami looked genuinely lonely, but changed the subject fast enough to not be questioned about it. "How about you? How is the tour going?" She asked.

"Oh, it's amazing. Jagged Stone is really an international star. Wherever he goes gets the tickets sold out in a flash and the audience is totally committed to his performance. Being able to perform with Jagged in front of so many people is such a privilege. I'm very lucky"

"Why do you cut yourself low? I've watched some fancams of your most recent lives and I know you've been performing some of your songs during intermissions. I've seen how the crowd lost it every time. Some of the comments said they liked your performance the most too. You're a star. Be proud"

"Wow, you've been following my tour and performances? Thank you. It makes me very happy" he thanked her sincerely, slightly blushing for her words.

"Shall we go? There's a shamisen live performance in 5 minutes I really want to attend to. This way"

Kagami didn't even wait for Luka's response to start walking, making the boy run some steps to catch her.

"So… you've thought of a plan?" Luka asked her, trying not to lose sight of her.

"Leave it to me" she only said, never stopping walking.

______

Kagami's plan was perfectly timed. The 30 minutes between performances were used to eat and play typically festival food and games: takoyaki, yakisoba, kakigori, crepes, water yo-yo catching, goldfish catching (which sadly had been returned to the owner), cork guns, etc. They took lots of photos in the process -especially Luka took them with Kagami's phone because she wanted a photo of everything. Some selfies together were taken too, mostly from Kagami when Luka wasn't looking. Sometimes he had noticed and posed to the camera to take a front shot together, a wide grin on his face, matching Kagami's.

The activities and performances were very fun and interesting. It was a first for Luka, but the whole atmosphere and Kagami's silent excitement made it extremely enjoyable for him. He was having a lot of fun (way more than he expected). Spending time with a Kagami with such a bright smile on her face was new for him too, and he couldn't help it but be taken over by her enthusiasm.

As the time for fireworks was approaching, Kagami decided it was time to move to the wish writing area, where the bamboo trees were already filled with colorful papers. But just before reaching there, a sign in front of a shop picked Kagami's attention. She stood in front of it checking the prices and the products. Luka stood by her side staring at her and looking at the shop from time to time, unable to read anything of what was written or figure out what kind of products they had to offer. He waited until she decided step in, entering shop after her.

Luka and Kagami were amazed by the shop’s interior. There were many different sets for many different themes - from schools to historical setting, cafeterias, rock stages… even a tennis court setting was available. Luka wondered why Kagami decided to check this shop. But Kagami spoke before he could ask.

"It's a cosplay studio. You can rent a cosplay and take photos in the different settings for the amount of hours you pay for. I'll try to bribe them to let me take the cosplays outside to wear for a while before the fireworks start. Look at which one you want to wear meanwhile. There's a catalog with photos at that counter".

After Kagami's explanation, she started talking to the shop attendant and Luka followed her instructions, checking the costumes available.

The truth is Luka knew nothing about costumes or cosplay. Most of ones on the list were anime or videogames related, like a Pikachu cosplay or high school uniforms. Samurai costumes piqued his attention, but seemed hard to move in. He couldn't decide at all.

"Have you decided yet?" Asked Kagami.

"No, I'm really lost. I have no idea what to choose. Have you decided yet?" He asked

"Of course. I've always wanted to try one on, but it's difficult with my family's strictness. I'm taking this chance. Oh, and I'll decide yours. We can't afford to waste more time than needed. I need to write my wish before the fireworks start" she said, leaving again to speak with the attendant.

Luka was always amazed by Kagami's determination. 'I never hesitate'. That was her motto. One of the reasons he admired her, along with her talent in sports, her delicate manners, her honesty, her beauty, and her rare sincere smile that made him melt in softness. She gave him the calm he could only accomplish with meditation otherwise. A calm sometimes broken by his heart’s beats, every time he was blessed by her affection and curiosity looks for him in her eyes.

He liked her. He liked her very much. Probably even loved her. He realized how important Kagami was for him a few days before she returned to Japan. And it was still surprising for Luka to see how a girl so different from Marinette could captivate his heart in such explosive way: unexpectedly, accurately and fiercely as a storm.

She was the Furinkazan in all its phrases.

Fast as the wind

Silent as the forest

Raiding and plundering as the fire

Immobile as a mountain

The old strategy used to win battles during Japan’s Sengoku Era. A phrase capable to be used in many different fields- even love. Luka was sure it worked on him.

The Japanese girl was strong, stronger than him in all aspects, but that was partially a facade. She was actually fragile on the inside and Luka could tell how hurt she sometimes was by her loneliness every time he stared at the windows to her soul. He usually patted her head or squeezed her hand or her shoulder when he noticed the look and, with doing so, her face immediately regained her shy honest smile, looking genuinely happy. Luka loved that smile, and was more than flattered to be the one it was directed to.

While reorganizing his feelings for her, Luka waited for Kagami's return. And there she was, two minutes later some clothes on her hands.

"Here. Wear this. I'm sure it will look great on you" Kagami said, stretching her hand to give him some clothing.

"Ok" Luka grabbed the costume and scanned it. The clothes given by Kagami consisted in Japanese traditional-looking clothing, white with gold, blue and purple details. Something similar to a Temple apprentice, maybe? He didn't know much about Japanese traditional clothing, but it looked pretty.

"The boys changing room is there. Ask the male attendant if you need help. I'll be in that changing room. Wait for me if you finish earlier than me" said Kagami, while Luka nodded and she moved to enter the changing room with the female attendant.

_____

The clothes chosen by Kagami fitted Luka perfectly. Luka was surprised at how unexpectedly comfortable they were. According to the list, it seemed to be some figure skater cosplay. He knew he looked great on it when the female attendant let out a 'kya' and fangirled a little at him, making him giggle at her exaggerated reaction.

Three minutes later Kagami came out of the changing room. She was wearing a black and red female ninja costume that looked as if it had been made just for her. She looked amazing. Beautiful, yet stronger than ever. Damn, she even threatened to throw him a shuriken (ninja stars) if he didn't start moving out and stop wasting their time. He thought he wouldn't have minded being attacked by her. In truth, Kagami just wanted the boy to stop staring at her since it was becoming embarrassing.

______

As soon as they went out of the shop, they inevitably became the center of all the gazes. A young woman recognized Luka from yesterday's Jagged concert and started to fangirl over him along with her girl friends. Kagami tried to fight to protect Luka, but he dismissed her help and encouraged her to go write her wish instead.

Kagami's eyebrows frowned in anger but left to the bamboo wish writing stand alone. She could see Luka gazing at her from time to time while he gave signatures and selfies to his fans. Kagami couldn't hide her jealousy and anger and was tempted to write as her wish for all Luka's fans to disappear. But looking at him making his dreams come true, his bright smile and energy on his concerts… she knew he couldn't be a star without fans, so she discarded the idea.

When she looked at him in a lonely apologetic look, Luka winked at her, asking for her to wait a minute until the signatures and selfies were finished. She loved him even then, posing at the cameras with a grin on his face surrounded by fangirls. 'How silly' she thought.

Kagami decided to stop looking at him and started to write her wish on the paper -the one she had originally play to write. It was a good thing Luka was occupied, because she didn't want him to see what she had written. Moments after finishing, Luka came back to her.

"Sorry for that. Fans can get crazy sometimes" he apologized. "This outfit didn't help either. Blue hair and Japan's number one figure skater cosplay is a terrific combination to stay out of people's looks. It's obvious I would stand out..." Luka concluded.

"The price of fame. I understand. I'm getting some of those too, sometimes" she smiled reassuringly at him, making him relieved. "I'm happy your dreams are taking form, even if I have to go through that sometimes," she said, squeezing his hand a little while hiding her wish paper from him.

Luka squeezed back at her hand. "Thank you, Kagami. It makes me happy to hear that" said as he smiled.

A few long seconds passed with them still holding hands, eyes closed, Kagami's head on Luka's upper arm and Luka's head on Kagami's, her hair brushing his cheek.

Luka and Kagami never once hid their feelings for each other. They knew there was some kind of attraction and deep affection, but neither ever mentioned it. They just enjoyed each other's company, silently, and tried not to force anything. They liked what they had and didn't want it to change. They meant too much to each other and didn't want to lose it. Or at least they didn't before.

Kagami had changed her mind after these two months they were apart and had committed to the idea to confess her love to him after giving it some thought: she hated the idea of him getting snatched by Marinette or any other girl while she was away. And so, even if she didn't know if her feelings were reciprocated or otherwise, he still had feelings for her best friend, she decided she had to give it a try.

Kagami knew Luka's feelings for Marinette were strong, maybe impossible to ever erase completely, even. But she also knew he was the boy of the second chances, reason enough for her to take the gamble and see if he had one chance left for her, now that Paris superheroes were already retired.

And with this resolve, Kagami had written her wish down to a pink paper, in Japanese. It could be read as: 'Luka-kun no koibito ni naritai. Kagami', which translates as: 'I want to be Luka's lover (girlfriend). (Signed) Kagami'.

Kagami really wanted her wish to come true. And she would know if it could become reality or not in about an hour, around the time the fireworks ended and she had confessed her feelings. She hoped for the two lovers of the legend to make a miracle happen for her. That's why she wanted to tie here wish in the upper-most stem of the bamboo, the closest as possible to the stars and off of Luka's view.

Luka's voices interfered in Kagami's thoughts "Have you written your wish yet?" He smiled at her.

"Yes. It's written. But don't ask me to show you because I won't". She smirked a little.

"Is it that embarrassing? What did you wish for? World peace? To be rich and famous? I don't think you would wish for anything this cliche" he teased her.

"It's my wish and it stays a secret. Too bad your teasing won't work on me" she stuck her tongue at him, teasing back. "Why don't you write yours already?"

"You're right. I'll write one too." Luka grabbed one paper and pen from the table and got ready to write, but Kagami staring at the blank paper, expecting it to be filled, made him unable to move. "Stop looking. Aren't wishes supposed to be secret?"

"Oh, that's not it. They're not supposed to be secret. I just don't want mine to be seen" Kagami said.

"Oh, I see. Let me write it first then, without you peeking. I'll show it to you later. Go over there, meanwhile" he said.

"Ok. But do it fast! I want to read it!" Kagami moved some feet away and started looking up for the tallest bamboo branch.

"Yeah, yeah…"

Luka was giving his back to Kagami as the ink impregnated the paper with the words of his wish. "Done" he said after some minutes. When turning to look at Kagami she was looking up at the bamboo branches. "What are you looking at?"

"This one is the tallest branch. I want to tie my wish at the top of it" she explained.

"Why? And how? It's too tall even for me…" he wondered, looked at her short stature.

"I'll use your help. I'm using your body as a ladder to reach there. The tallest the wish, the most probable for it to come true. That’s only my assumption, anyway"

"That's what am I to you? A ladder? You can't set this on your own, you have to ask first" he scolded her.

"You're my friend. And you care about me. So I know you won't have any inconvenience to help and lift me up to tie the bamboo. Please?"

Luka sighed. "Fine… but remember the correct ordered next time. And be careful"

"Of course! You won't let me fall, I know" she smiles. "But first… let me see your wish!"

Kagami tried to snap Luka's wish paper, but he was fast enough to dodge her and lift up his hand at his maximum level. After some of Kagami's attempts to steal the paper from Luka, the musician stood on his toes to tie it the highest he could. Kagami was still short after the years, so she couldn't reach it.

"So unfair! You promised! Liar!"

"I'll show you if you can catch it. But let's tie up your wish first. Fireworks time is approaching and we still have to return our costumes" Luka's mature voice mentioned.

"Ok. It's that bamboo, the branch on the farthest left. Duck so I can climb over you" Like made a 'tch tch' sound while his index finger moved to right to left and to left to right in repeat, in negation, asking for a missing needed word. Kagami frowned her eyebrows in disgust and finally added said word. "Please..."

Pleased, Luka kneeled down to let Kagami sit on his shoulders and stood up. The girl was lighter than he thought. He secured her ankles with his hands and watched how she stretched her hands to tie the paper at the top of the tree. Luka wondered what her wish would be, but Kagami signaled him to get her down before any idea came to his mind.

As soon as Kagami's feet were back on the floor, she took the advantage of Luka being down to run and jump as high as she could to catch Luka's wish from the bamboo tree. She remembered perfectly the paper. It wasn't difficult for her to reach with the run impulse used to jump

She then turned her body to look at Luka, how was approaching walking towards her. "I've got it! Did you think you had won? Don't underestimate me" she grinned in victory, while Luka just smiled softly at her determination, unaffected from his wish being exposed soon. His reaction made the Japanese girl's curiosity increase, so she started reading the paper.

She was first surprised that the wish was written in Japanese with a messy handwriting, signed in capital letters of the roman alphabet. But the contains of the wish left her stunned, frozen at place, unable to move with her heartbeat intensifying every second. The contents were so unbelievable she re-read those letters one time after another, considering there could be a mistake due to Luka's unfamiliarity with her mother language. But nothing. The contents were perfectly written… .

"So, do you think my wish can become true?"

Luka was standing in front of Kagami, who had been with her head down reading until she had heard his voice. Her face then looked up. She wanted to see his expression. She wanted to see if he was serious or just joking. She needed to know if she should stop her uncontrollable smile to go wider and change it for tears instead. Kagami's face was lighting in love and hope while studying the boy in front of her.

And Luka's face told her everything she wanted to know: he meant every word written on that yellow paper.

"Yes. It can become true now or whenever you want" Kagami happily cried, jumping into Luka's welcoming arms.

"I'm glad…" said Luka, hugging Kagami tightly. "I love you, Kagami. Be my girlfriend?"

"Yes! I love you too. You've just made my wish come true too" she hugged even more tightly to him.

"Don't tell me…?" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I've written the same wish. Different words, but same meaning. I wanted to confess after the fireworks. Take a second chance from you. Now I think I can enjoy them at their fullest. I don't need the fright or nervousness to confess anymore"

"There's no way I would reject you, Kagami. You're gorgeous, strong, confident… and you like to lead, while I prefer to be lead. A perfect match, I believe. You mean the world to me"

"Shut up and kiss me"

Luka didn't say anything. He lowered his back and face meet his girlfriend's lips and seal a soft kiss on them. After they broke the kiss, Kagami hugged him again, covering her blushing face, Luka hugging her back.

"Let's return the costumes. The fireworks are starting soon and it seems I have a confession to listen to when they finish" giggled Luka.

"Don't get used to it. You know we Japanese people are very reserved. We expect love to be told with acts, not words" she warned him, seriously.

"I can do that" then he became thoughtful. "Wait. Music counts as an act, right? I'm screwed if it doesn't" he slightly panicked in joke.

"Rest assured, it does. But there's more to be done, so don't let your guard down" she giggled.

Luka took the chance to kiss her again. "I love your smile…" he said, while Kagami, red as ladybug's suit, locked his hand with hers and started walking towards the costume shop, pulling Luka. The musician couldn't stop his grin for forming on his face at her unusual embarrassed reaction.

After returning the costumes, the couple watched the fireworks together, hand in hand, colorful flowers and shapes forming up the sky. It was beautiful and they had the best possible company with them.

They didn't know where that new journey of love would take them, or when they would be able to me again after Tanabata. But they knew they had two lovers watching over them from the Milky Way - the same pair that allowed a miracle to happen during Kagami's favorite Tanabata festival.

The end

#lukagami #lukagami fic #lukagami july 2020 #lukagami july #my fic #my art #airipyon #airip4

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vamonumentlandscape · 3 years

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Poplar Forest & Bedford

When we first arrived at Poplar Forest that lies on the outskirts of Lynchburg in Bedford County, we were blown away by the beautiful landscape that surrounded Thomas Jefferson’s retreat. Our team had heard such good things about the historic site from those who work there, our professors, and fellow students, we knew it was a must see spot. When we walked into the visitors center, we were greeted by the most kind staff member that we have encountered at any historic site. He was helpful, sweet, and even asked us about our research. We felt very welcome as soon as we walked through the door. To begin the tour, we started with a fifteen minute video introduction to Poplar Forest. Before the tour began, we realized our tour guide seemed to have little enthusiasm when one man asked her if she was our tour guide and she responded with a flat “yes.” After that odd encounter, we watched the wonderfully done film on Jefferson’s retreat home. The short video captured the stories of Jefferson, the enslaved people who worked there, and the importance of the architecture of the site. We were all looking forward to the tour of the historic home and the rest of our day at Poplar Forest after this.

We began the tour outside of the octagonal mansion with our tour guide explaining the symmetric architecture that Jefferson wanted to experiment with. By combining all of the techniques he had seen in Europe, he created this small, yet grand mansion as his getaway. But, he is not the one who put the physical labor into creating this architectural masterpiece. The enslaved people of Poplar Forest are the real champions of constructing the illustrious home. Our tour guide made that clear when she described much of the back-breaking work the enslaved people, like John Hemings, put into the building. She pointed out the only asymmetric detail, the wing of the home, where the enslaved people spent most of their days cooking, cleaning, and keeping the home the way Jefferson wanted. Unlike other Jefferson designs, there was no other wing to complete the symmetry. As Travis McDonald would explain to us later, “the second wing is the million dollar question.” Speculation from staff who have greatly studied the wing says it was just unnecessary to add another space to the home. We walked a little further to see the newly reconstructed carriage turnaround to what it would have looked like in Jefferson’s day. At Poplar Forest, the staff has taken huge steps to ensure the complete correctness of their rebuilding of the home. Our tour guide made sure we knew this once we entered the home. We were all impressed by the moulding, exact replicas, and specificity of the measurements for the rooms. Not only is the representation of the home wonderfully done, but the interpretation was wonderful. Though our tour guide was a bit quiet and unenthused, she did not refrain from allowing Jefferson to be talked about as human and did not glorify him. She was able to express his architectural genius all the while letting us know he did not build one piece of it. He was wholly dependent on enslaved laborers to have his elitist lifestyle. It was encouraging to see a second site where Jefferson was able to be learned about earnestly and not in a God-like manner. Our tour guide also explained to us in the parlor room how he had a more familial side with his granddaughters who frequently accompanied him at Poplar Forest. In the last room, we got to see the room that mirrored Jefferson's bedroom. While his room was fully restored, this room was used as a progress room to show how the staff at Poplar Forest worked to recreate the Jeffersonian home after it had undergone fire and renovations from other residents. Also in this room was an original John Hemings door. This was a site to see as we all know that he was responsible for most of the ornate mouldings and doors in the original home. We all enjoyed the house tour and were incredibly impressed with all the work the staff at Poplar Forest has done in the short 40 years they have been a museum. In the grand scheme of things, 40 years and starting from scratch is not long for the project that they had ahead of them.

In the basement and the wing of the mansion is an exhibit dedicated to the enslaved workers of Poplar Forest. This was not a part of the house tour, but we made sure to see all that was displayed on our own. We saw the familiar name of John Hemings featured throughout. Without his tireless efforts, the home would not have been able to feature such unique architectural details. Though Thomas Jefferson was a master architect, he was never doing the hard work of actually building what he designed throughout his life. It was enlightening to see what archaeological finds have been discovered at the site. There was one display case that featured a series of items collected by rats in the attic of the home between 1846 and the 1960s, which was far beyond Thomas Jefferson’s ownership of the property. There were fragments of book pages, newspapers, clothes, and more. We walked over to see what was displayed in the wing between the east side of the home and the east mound, and we were amazed to find the kitchen with fireplaces, hearths, and a cook’s quarters. On display in one of the rooms was a letter from Hannah, an enslaved woman, written to Thomas Jefferson. In the letter, she expresses sadness about his inability to visit Poplar Forest that Fall and she also paraphrased the Bible - “we ought to serve and obey his commandments that you may set to win the prize and after glory run.” We believe this letter clearly shows a level of hopelessness and despair within Hannah, but it also depicts a unique dynamic of an enslaved person being allowed the ability to write. This must have been a unique circumstance. We are extremely pleased with the archaeological excavations done to bring the Wing of Offices back to their original form. Past the East mound are structures of the era beyond Thomas Jefferson’s ownership of the property and contained the living quarters of enslaved people during the antebellum era up through emancipation. There was a small exhibit in one of the spaces that allowed further learning about the enslaved. Down the hill and near a modern residential community is a reconstructed enslaved person quarters known as the North Hill site. It was built with logs and had a chimney lined with clay to avoid the spread of fires. A small garden likely existed since food rations were so limited. It was amazing to see the basic shape and size of what the enslaved lived within and is a stark contrast to the extravagance of the mansion. Reconstructing such structures allow sites like Poplar Forest to share the hard, yet necessary, truths of what enslavement looked like.

Our last stop after the gift shop at Poplar Forest was to Travis McDonald’s office. McDonald is the Director of Architectural Restoration at Poplar Forest. He has been with the foundation from the very beginning. His skills of being an architect, a restorationist, and a historian in his own right made him the perfect candidate for the position he has held for over 30 years. We were all so thankful that we got the opportunity to speak with him about Jefferson’s historic retreat. As we sat down in his office, the walls were lined with shelves encasing what seemed to be hundreds of books. On his desk and floor there were even more. The books that caught our attention were the Annette Gordon-Reed books, The Hemings of Monticello and Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. His devotion to the ever evolving story of Jefferson was told to us before he even began talking. He told us right off the bat that Poplar forest “strives for historical accuracy over idealistic perceptions.” Since we have been to many historic sites across the state this summer, we have seen a few places that do the opposite. It is so impressive that the foundation has wanted to do this from the very beginning. They have cut no corners in perfection - literally. He explained to us that Jefferson was not the originator of his own ideas, but a master of self-education. He was able to learn and combine many pre-existing cutting edge architectural techniques. From masters of the art like Andrea Palladio, Jefferson was able to utilize his knowledge and European ideas to create his own style. McDonald continued to give us wisdom when he connected his specialty of architecture to history. “Architecture is a lot like history. It gets reinterpreted as new evidence is found and progress can be made.” Our last question for McDonald was about his feelings towards the current issues of Confederate monuments. His answer blew all of us away as it contained sincere emotion and toiled thought. “I had to separate myself from seeing them as art and architecture. As a professional architect and restorationist, that is how I saw and appreciated them for a long time. But now, I have been able to separate myself from that and see what they truly mean.” It was enlightening to hear a professional who has been in his field for decades to share his feelings with us. Travis McDonald was so welcoming and we are so thankful to have had the opportunity to gain insight from him.

We ventured into the small town of Bedford after visiting Poplar Forest. In our earliest research, we found an article on “The War Between the States Museum'' at the Bedford Museum and Genealogical Library. Just from the title, we knew we needed to go see whatever it was. Of course, “the war between the states” is a lost cause term to amplify that states rights was the reason for the Civil War instead of the obvious cause: slavery. We went in and it was a dark, dimly lit place. There were a few staff members and they were kind to us when we asked for admission in the museum. The gift shop was filled with outdated books, old postcards, and Confederate memorabilia, so we gained more insight onto what was ahead in the exhibit spaces. We took what the museum employee called the “slowest elevator in the county” up to the top floor where the exhibit on the “war between the states'' was displayed. We walk in and it is a large room with many glass cases. Again, very dim and not well lit, we strained our eyes to read the exhibits. The first exhibit you see in the space is on “Blacks Service.” All of our mouths dropped. It was an exhibit amplifying the myth of Black Confederates. Yes, Africa Americans served in the Confederacy, but not by their own will. They served as enslaved persons to those in the war. None of us could barely stand to be in the museum any longer after this, but we pushed through. Confederate flags were everywhere, the use of the word “Yankee”, and an exhibit on how Jefferson Davis’ release from prison was “a way to heal the deep divide between the U.S.” was on display. It was mind blowing to see this shrine to the Lost Cause only thirty minutes away from Randolph. At the end of the exhibit, we noticed a little sign on the wall that said the Sons of the Confederate Veterans still meet at least once a month in the room. We were all in disbelief from the complete bias and shrine-like nature of the museum. We traveled downstairs to see the other exhibits on local Native Americans, local African Americans, WWI, and WWII. The Native American exhibit looked like it was a project that the local middle school students put together. The information was not terrible, but the display was embarrassing. The information was presented at an education level for 5th graders, yet there was no signage dictating that it was a children’s exhibit. In the local African American exhibit, there were artifacts from the former all-Black high school, the African American sheriff who just retired, and Carol M. Swain, the African American conservative political science professor and Republican advocate. It was nice to see the information displayed about successful locals, but the message was clear. Overall, the museum experience was subpar. We all knew what we were walking into, but somehow it was worse than we could have imagined. We hope one day that the staff at the Bedford Museum and Genealogical Library will improve their interpretation.

Before we left the town of Bedford, we took a close look at the Confederate monument that stands in front of the Bedford County Courthouse. The text at the base of the high obelisk below a carved battle flag says “Bedford honors her heroes; proudly rejoicing with the living; sincerely mourning the dead. Their history is its brightest pace...This stone is erected to keep fresh in memory the noble deeds of these devoted sons.” Obviously, this monument reeks of the lost cause and does not honor a piece of history that all can be proud of. Taking down such a problematic statue would not be “erasing history,” as Bedford supervisor candidates stated in 2017. The public should play a role in discussions of what to do with the obelisk, but it certainly does not belong in front of such an important government building. Once again, the United Daughters of the Confederacy supported the construction of a heinous monument at a time (1909) when African-Americans faced acts of discrimination and bigotry. If people were able to put themselves in the shoes of those most affected by the presence of such an awful monument, then we would finally be able to make lasting changes for the betterment of us all.

#bedford #virginia #history #monument #civil war #confederate #poplar forest #Jefferson #sally hemings

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buckybarnesbingo · 4 years

Photo

BBB Week 21 Roundup! Lots of awesome content this past week!

Title: Dinosaurs, Dragons, and Dorks (Oh My!) Collaborator: newtypeshadow Link: AO3 Square Filled: K5 - Hot On Your Heels Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Teen Major Tags: none Summary: Bucky is being chased by a t-rex. That's his own fault. That the t-rex is going to catch him? That's all on Clint. Word Count: 1122

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Title: Red String of Fate Collaborator: ariasfandom Link: Tumblr Square Filled: B1 - AU: Soulmates Ship: Stucky Rating: Gen Major Tags: Aesthetic, soulmates, 40s Stucky, red string of fate Summary: none

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Title: The Name You Gave Me - Chapter 31: Epilogue Collaborator: rebelmeg Link: AO3 Square Filled: C2 - December 16, 1991 Ship: Tony & Natasha & Bucky Rating: Mature Major Tags: violence, epilogue/sequel teaser, Winter Soldier, character death, car accident Summary: It's been seven years, and time has changed everyone. Except for one thing... Tony and James never stopped searching. They never could have predicted that their sister would find them first. Word Count: 49,400

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Title: Aria in B♭ - Chapter 2 Collaborator: tisfan Link: AO3 Square Filled: B3 - Kink: "Harder” Ship: WinterIron Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Alternate Universe - Historical, opera singer Bucky Barnes, nobleman Tony Stark, Prostitution, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Dubious Consent, Pining, Dueling, Gambling Summary: Word Count:

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Title: Dial 1-800-HAWKEYE Collaborator: squadrickchestopher Link: AO3 Square Filled: C5 - tech support Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Explicit Major Tags: explicit sexual content, D/s Summary: Clint is taken captive while on a mission, and his comms are off. Luckily, Bucky has a way of communicating with him. Word Count: 11,855

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Title: [Art] Bingo Clusterfuck - Chapter 4: you don't fight fair Collaborator: Call_Me_Kayyyyy Link: AO3 Square Filled: Y4 - Cat Ship: Stucky Rating: Gen Major Tags: Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Pet Adoption, Happily Ever After, art Summary: It's standard procedure to take a photo of a new owner with their fur-baby before they head home after an adoption. This is Steve and Bucky's photo after Bucky convinced Steve to adopt half the shelter. They were just there to LOOK and see if Bucky felt a connection with any of the cats. Next thing you know Bucky used his best "big sad recovering assassin" face to explain how he NEEDED all of them. Now that they owned their place in Brooklyn there was no one tell them no. Not even Steve could say no to that face. They all came with their own names the shelter gave them but the only one Bucky didn't want to rename was Alpine, a large white cat that didn't seem to care much for Steve. The rest clung to Steve like he was their own personal savior and Bucky decided to rename them after their friends. That's how the orange tabby cat with nails like knives ended up as Natasha Jr., the cat on top of Steve's head that seemed to like heights Clint Jr., the jittery one, Tony Jr., the regal yellow one who keeps head butting everyone Thor Jr., and the sweet cuddly one Sam Jr.

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Title: The Americans - Chapter 2: Part Two: I am inevitable Collaborator: grimeysociety Link: AO3 Square Filled: C4 - Mulitverse Shenanigans Ship: Stucky/Darcy Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Major Character Death, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War (Movie), Explicit Sexual Content Summary: When Thanos snaps his fingers, half the universe is gone, including Steve Rogers. Given the impossible task of moving on, Bucky Barnes befriends Darcy Lewis. A chance encounter gives them and those left behind the opportunity to fix it all and bring back everyone who dusted. Meanwhile, across universes and timelines, trouble’s been brewing, and at the root of it all are two legendary humans simply known as The Americans. Word Count: 3944

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Title: The Last Drakkon Collaborator: squadrickchestopher Link: AO3 Square Filled: B1 - AU: dragon rider Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Explicit Major Tags: explicit sexual content, dragons Summary: He stops as a massive shape comes rearing up from the cliff’s edge, almost twice the size of The Avenger, red and shimmery and brilliant. It lands with a thud on the clifftop, hard enough to shake the entire thing and knock Clint on his ass. He barely even notices; he’s too busy staring at the giant red creature perched in front of him. It stares back, blinking slowly.“Holy stars,” Clint says, staring at him, suddenly remembering the stories he used to read as a kid. “You’re a drakkon?” Word Count: 17,035

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Title: Clint's Hugging Service Collaborator: pherryt Link: AO3 Square Filled: B3 - Learning to be Loved Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Gen Major Tags: hurt/comfort, touch starved Summary: Bucky really, really wants to know what a Clint Barton hug feels like. Everyone else seems to swear by them. Word Count: 7612

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Title: First Touch Collaborator: caitriona-3 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: U3 - PTSD Ship: Bucky/Darcy/Clint Rating: Teen Major Tags: soulmates, fic and moodboards Summary: Who knew something good could come out of being stuck in an elevator? Word Count: 2345

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Title: HYDRA Scientific Report Collaborator: startrekkingaroundasgard Link: Tumblr Square Filled: Y2 - writing format: HYDRA POV Ship: Bucky/Winter Soldier x Reader Rating: Teen Major Tags: mention of torture, physical experiments, brainwashing Summary: A restricted memo from the desk of the HYDRA scientist in charge at Nemesis base, detailing the latest update on their new asset.

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Title: Knock Knock Collaborator: ialwayscomewhenyoucall Link: Tumblr Square Filled: B4 - hot water Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Explicit Major Tags: mention of injury, sharing a bath, anal sex, blow jobs, pining, angst and fluff, protective bucky, explicit sexual content Summary: Clint is injured on a mission and he and Bucky have to hide out in a safehouse. Bucky would much rather kiss Clint than tend his wounds, but of course he can’t tell Clint that. So with top notch logic, he decides Clint needs a bath. What could go wrong? Word Count: 6970

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Title: [Podfic] Boom, Baby Collaborator: shadow-ravin Link: AO3 Square Filled: K1 - Thighs Ship: WinterHawk Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, Winter Soldier Clint Barton, Explosions, Semi-Public Sex, Explosion Kink, Intercrural Sex, Hand Jobs, Mildly Dubious Consent, due to brainwashing and lack of identity and knowledge of consent, Podfic, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes Summary: The two of them were connected, he knew it. He didn’t know how he knew, but he did. (In which Hydra captured Clint and turned him into the second Winter Soldier)

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Title: Long Have I Waited for You Collaborator: Purple_ducky00 Link: AO3 Square Filled: Y4 - cold Ship: WinterIron Rating: Mature Major Tags: Violence, torture, Howard Stark’s A+ Parenting, Child Abuse Summary: Howard agrees that if he has a son, he would give Bucky said son's hand in marriage. Now, 80 years later, will Bucky hold up his end of the deal? Word Count: 2122

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Title: Bound Collaborator: hddnone Link: Tumblr Square Filled: C3 - free Ship: WinterIron Rating: Mature Major Tags: bondage, D/s vibes Summary: It had been the easiest decision Bucky had ever made, giving Tony the end of his leash. Word Count: 752

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Title: Aria in B♭ - Chapter 3 Collaborator: 27dragons Link: AO3 Square Filled: C1 - Secret Relationship Ship: WinterIron Rating: Explicit Major Tags: historical AU, attempted rape/noncon, dubious consent, prostitution, pining, dueling, gambling Summary: Lord Stark has his faults -- a bit too fond of a drink, a little too reckless at cards, and entirely too happy to flout his good fortune in his rivals’ faces. But a man as wealthy and powerful as Tony Stark is bound to have a few peccadillos. What he is not, is the sort of man who would force himself upon another unwilling, unlike Lord Killian, who seems to have taken a particular shine to an opera singer in the troupe Killian is hosting. Tony rescues Mr. Barnes from Killian’s untender mercies, moves the troupe into his own home, and takes Mr. Barnes as his bed companion for the season. The arrangement provides protection for Bucky and the troupe from Killian’s spite, and tweaks Killian at the same time -- a win all around, as far as Tony is concerned. He wasn’t counting on Bucky being so utterly charming and wonderful, or for the possibility that he might actually, after so many years a bachelor, fall in love. Word Count: 15,755

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Title: [Art] Bingo Clusterfuck - Chapter 5: before I put another notch in my lipstick case Collaborator: Call_Me_Kayyyyy Link: AO3 Square Filled: U4 - Hair Braiding Ship: Stucky Rating: Explicit Major Tags: art, feminization, lingerie Summary: After a two week mission away Steve will be home any minute. Bucky's ready to make up for lost time.

#buckybarnesbingo2020 #bbb2020 #bbb weekly roundup #bbb week 21

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bruciewayne · 4 years

Text

birthday suits and booty shorts

stevetony, fluff, humour, getting together, 2k

“Oh god,” Tony groans, “Please tell me you that you weren’t wearing a fucking nylon suit in the Battle last year?”

“Um,” Steve says, intelligently, “it’s flexible?”

Tony gives him an unimpressed look, which isn’t anything particularly out of the ordinary, “So are leggings, but you’re not going to fight gods in them!”

Steve has a sudden flashback to the time Bucky yelled at him for going into the HYDRA base in costume, not armour. It hurts less than it used to.

“Only HYDRA,” Steve quips, with a smile.

Tony looks like he’s going to have an aneurysm.

“I thought that was made up.”

“Howard told you!?”

“Called it heroic.”

“Buck called it moronic, so did Pegs.”

Tony laughs at that, “Yeah, he once mentioned it around her, and she gave me explicit instructions to never go into any sort of battle in booty shorts.”

“She always did give sound advice,” Steve says, deciding to ignore the ‘booty shorts’ comment (and if it’s because he agrees, then that’s not relevant).

Tony narrows his eyes, and Steve hasn’t known him long, but he knows him enough that he can clearly identify that as his ‘I’m thinking, shut up’ face.

“Didn’t she shoot you?”

“Four times.”

Tony looks at him incredulously, “Sounds like her, but this,” he says, waving his uniform about, “no bueno.”

Three days later, Tony has the suit made, reinforced kevlar, carbon nanotubes, biometric tracker, and a small ‘Captain Rogers’ on the breastbone. Of course, he only got it made this fast to get it out of the way, and not because he cared in any way whatsoever about Captain Uptight (that initial assessment may be incorrect and in need of revising, but he’ll get to that later).

Steve, predictably, is in the gym when Tony asks JARVIS of his location. Unpredictable is what he’s wearing. He’s doing Planche push-ups when Tony comes in, so all Tony can see of his godawful gear is the ‘PROPAGANDA’ scrawled over his ass, and damn, science in the 40s should get far more credit than it did.

Just before Tony goes to poke him, or kick him in his foot, Steve lowers his feet to the ground and jumps up, grinning and sweaty, “Hey.”

Tony would reply, with a normal, human comment, and/or greeting, but he’s too busy staring at his chest, and for all the wrong reasons, YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO PROPAGANDA.

Steve notices, and the light flush from exercise deepens, “It was a gag gift. From Nat.”

“Well,” Tony says, against his better judgement, “it’s not wrong.”

The thing is, they are friends, pretty good ones now, at that, but Tony has an incredibly difficult time being in public with someone who wears jeans that tight.

“Aren’t your balls like, crushed?” Tony asks, as they’re walking through the park, because that’s just something they do now.

“You’re awfully concerned with my balls,” Steve comments, taking a long lick of his ice-cream.

“I’m just saying!” Tony defends. Steve just laughs, and overly assures him that he definitely believes him. Totally.

Tony attempts to reach up to tug a leaf off a branch to throw at Steve, because, for your information, he thinks about his ass far more than his balls, but, even on his tiptoes he can’t reach it, and he’s not about to make a fool of himself jumping to reach a branch.

Steve laughs even more, and even Tony’s man enough to admit that he lost all of his dignity in the 90s, so jumping to get a leaf to throw at his no good, very bad friend is barely news. So he does. And, predictably, he falls.

And less predictably, just as he readies himself for mud-covered Armani (because, whilst Steve is young enough to dress like a fuckboy, Tony, unfortunately, is a rich businessman who has to look the part (not that he’d particularly want to have to spray-paint on his jeans every morning (not that he’s allowed to wear jeans to board meeting, because, ‘Tony, you’re older now, and they expect something from you’)), and he cannot, and just as he should hit the ground, Steve’s around him, arms bracing him, strong and sure.

Steve’s lips quirk up into a smile, boyish and joyful, and the sun shining down from above highlights his hair in a way that makes Tony think, not for the first time, that Steve’s been sent down from heaven, for god knows what reason, because there’s no logical way that someone that good, someone so unpolluted in the face of all he’s had to fear, comes from humanity and-- oh fuck.

“I’m surprised you can bend like that in those jeans,” Tony says, too softly to pretend that’s all that’s running through his mind.

“I’m Superman,” Steve says, cheekily, rightening them both, and maybe it’s just Tony’s imagination, but he seems to linger longer than should be necessary. But he moves away, and the moment is broken, less like shattering glass and more like chalk falling barely a foot, broken beyond repair, but not the end of the world, which, in their careers, is a damn good place to be.

Tony takes it all back.

“You’ve never followed an instruction in your life, one day that might just end it,” Steve growls, still in uniform, because they saved New York again, and they’re fighting about god knows what, because god knows why.

“Don’t pretend to be concerned about my life when all you really care about is controlling the team, your perfect little soldiers,” Tony hisses.

Steve glowers even more. “Stop twisting my words.”

“Stop making bullshit calls,” Tony counters.

“It’s not bullshit and you know it.”

He’s not even loud, or explosive, like Tony, then, he’s quiet, still, unbelievably angry, but calm. And something about that lights a fire inside Tony, unstable and destructive.

“They never should have pulled you from the ice if all you’re good for is pure bullshit!”

For one, rage-coloured, gleeful, glorious moment, Tony revels in where he’s clearly managed to get a hit on him: his face lights with anger, the calm from earlier rapidly fades away, practically melting off his face.

And then his face, his body, his entire demeanour drop heavily, a slave to gravity, like the common man, like a puppet torn from its strings. The guilt floods into Tony’s system milliseconds before Steve turns on his heel and walks out without another word.

Tony realises, after he’s put himself in blackout mode, that the fight hadn’t changed a thing about the other day - Steve was always going to be ridiculously infuriatingly stubborn, hell, that’s why he’s so impossibly infatuated with him, he never gives up, never runs away, never stops, and for him to not fight Tony… he’s fucked up. Bad.

“Sir, if I may, an apology may be due,” and isn’t that sad, his AI had to listen to him rant aloud and then urge him to show basic human decency and at least attempt to preserve a relationship (one that’s somehow, sometime, become to absurdly important to Tony, the more he thinks of it, the more he wants to deck his old self in the nose (and if he ever did make a time machine, he knows that the punch he’d throw would be perfect form, thanks to Steve’s tutelage)).

“Yeah. Yeah,” Tony says heavily.

Unsurprisingly, JARVIS directs Tony toward the gym, where Steve’s beating apart a punching bag. He’s taken off the top part of his uniform and left it hanging around his waist, undershirt soaked through with sweat, hiding the aggregate sum of none of the strength contained in his muscles.

Even stripped down like this, the suit dirty and torn, no shield, no cowl in sight there’s no denying his raw power.

“Hey,” Tony starts, “what I said was uncalled for.”

Steve only stills his barrage when Tony began to speak, even though he must have heard him come in, but he doesn’t turn around.

“I… I’m not unaware of my flaws, Tony,” Steve says quietly, still not facing him, “nor do I believe that you’re needlessly reckless with your life.”

Tony takes a minute to process that. The air is still between them, rebuilding after the storm. They’ve gotten delightfully efficient at rebuilding, and with better adapted infrastructure, it doesn’t take long, but it still destroys something, still hurts a little.

“I’m glad that you were found,” Tony replies, this is the closest they’ve come to saying the forbidden ‘sorry’ aloud, and even though Steve’s the one to be facing away now, Tony knows that, had Steve been looking at him, whichever expression, he would be the one to turn away.

Small steps.

Steve nods, a sharp, short downward jerk of his head, and Tony takes that as his signal to leave, feeling lighter all for it. Maybe his earlier assessment of Steve has been right.

“I want you to know,” Tony starts, just as they’re about to initiate what’s definitely going to be the most violent game of 6 people water polo that’s ever conspired, “that this is one, an awful idea, and two, going to flood this entire floor.”

“You can sit out, if you really want to,” Steve suggests, partly out of care, partly because it would disadvantage their team.

Tony laugh aloud at that, “Absolutely not, you know I’d never pass up an opportunity to beat your ass, Rogers.”

“I thought you weren’t immune to it,” Steve says, grinning back.

Thor looks supremely confused, “Your humans’ trash talk is not dissimilar to Asgardians’ courting.”

“It’s not human’s trash talk,” Natasha says, tossing the ball between her hands, “it’s just Steve and Tony trash talk.”

Both of them, in displays of the utmost maturity, splash her with water.

JARVIS takes that as a cue to start the game timer, and it’s just as aggressive and chaotic as Tony thought - what else would you get from pitting four of the most capable humans in Northern America against a god and a guy who pretty much qualifies?

It’s water and it’s violent, two things which, historically, hadn’t been the greatest of situations for Tony, but there’s no point during this where he feels unsafe, or out of control (quite possibly losing, definitely).

He’s not nearly as ashamed as he should be to admit that he spent most of the time wrestling Steve.

He was fine during the beginning - when Steve’s waist was below the surface, and he was too busy staring at his face and chest, but after he’d jumped high enough that his feet were out the water, and he’d exposed those illegally tight speedos…

It made no sense whatsoever, all of them, bar Nat, were wearing regular, normal, socially acceptable, swimwear that didn’t expose just how big their dicks were, and he knows with relative certainty that they didn’t have speedos in the 40s, so where he got them fr-- Natasha.

“We only lost,” Tony says, panting, “because your speedos were a distraction.” Everyone else had gone to the showers, reluctantly congratulating Steve and Thor, and deciding on a rematch, leaving Steve and Tony in the pool, treading water in the shallower end.

“Would you rather I take them off?”

Tony looks at him, expecting at least that adorable light flush on his cheeks, but all he gets is a grin see-sawing the line between cheeky and joking and a proposition.

“I’d hate to miss out on you finally finding your true style,” Tony replies, matching him in tone.

Steve’s laugh echoes off the tiles, and Tony just has to kiss him, he just has to crash into him with absolutely no abandon, feeling reminiscent of his teen years, kissing in a pool, tugging off Steve’s ridiculous shorts.

Through half-lidded eyes, Steve tracks him up and down once he’d ripped off Tony’s swim shorts, breathing hard, “You should never wear clothes again,” he declares, sinking to his knees. Any and all thoughts of Steve and his questionable-at-times fashion choices leave Tony’s mind along with most forms of higher function.

masterpost

#steve rogers x tony stark #stevetony #stony #steve rogers #tony stark #my fic #my writing #happystevebingo #happy steve bingo #steve x tony #steve rogers/tony stark

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future-critical-blog · 4 years

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How Pacing Fucked Steven Universe

Note: this is anonymous because I know what will happen!

Steven Universe is without a doubt one of the best shows I've ever seen. It's certainly the best cartoon series I've ever watched. The first four series, and a large amount of the fifth, are truly wonderful.

So, I'm going to be entitled and complain about the last little bit that didn't work for me. I got all those hundreds of episodes, and I’m just going to take a moment to really honk about the stuff I don't like.

Because we live in an age where Nazis are back, feminists think trans woman are the biggest threat they face and the world is burning - at this point, a bit of a moan about Steven Universe/Future will get lost I think.

Bear in mind: this comes from a place of love. I care about Steven and the characters because they took me on an amazing journey that really had an emotional impact on me. Then they tripped me right at the end, and now they're fuck-twaddling around taking up space in my brain that should be used for thinking about how great the show is.

This is about how the inability to wrap Steven Universe properly sucks and undermines all the amazing work the creators put into it. Now, that work hasn't gone anywhere: I can, and will, re-watch the series to reminisce about it. About what could have happened. Nobody has taken that away from me.

But still, there's nothing worse than a story that buggers up the ending. Worse yet, that ending is still going in Steven Universe: Future.

So what's the problem? Let's start.

Pacing, pathos and atmosphere

Things used to be teased, hinted and slowly revealed. Steven Universe used to a slow-burn that really built things up with the even-hand of a masterful storyteller. Remember that long shot at the end of 'On the Road', after the characters leave? We see just the empty, sinister kindergarten whilst a discordant note builds in the background before... bang, credits. It builds atmosphere and tension.

What happened to that? Slowly building a feeling, weaving a narrative, and taking us on an emotional journey? We got a very rushed pay-off to all this with Series 5. The crew thought the show wouldn't be renewed, so they made the executive decision to wrap it all up.

· Everyone’s fixed now. Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst, Steven.

· Diamonds are friendly now. Blue got sad, Yellow got angry and White got… put in her place by a comeback?

· The bubbled gems/corrupted monsters are all fixed.

· The Off-Colours and Lars just got home. No further adventures, they just got home.

Bits got missed out. Things got rushed. Homeworld, the Diamonds and five series of build-up got dealt with in the space of 40 minutes. For comparison, just Series 1 alone was 8 hours long.

Yeah, the network created that situation. You're cancelled! They seemed to say. No you're not! HA! They continued. But it still sucks, narratively, and the creators are now compounding that problem by trying to go back and add in the bits they missed.

Worse, there's no pacing now because there’s no more overall story. No atmosphere. Fundamentally, post Change Your Mind, everything is done. The series was wrapped up. All we have left now is some loose-ends and Steven being moody.

It came back mostly just to tie up random ends. But more of something isn't always good: Series 1-4 and about half of Series 5 are amazing. We shouldn't clap and applaud we get more just because it's more for its own sake, we should cheer things for being good in their own right.

I don't just want more meep morp, I want the morp to have something to say and to mean something. Victory laps and adding unnecessary lore is pointless: characters and emotion are what drive stories.

This isn't about 'filler' episodes as such, nor is it about breaks and hiatuses. It's about spreading the story arc (and the individual elements within that arc) correctly over the allotted time. A story that takes 700 pages to set up, only to be resolved in 3 pages feels badly unbalanced - I'm looking at you, Stephen King. And that's exactly the problem Steven Universe has. The set-up is incredible, and the payoff is badly disappointing. That's pacing.

Being the Underdog

This was covered nicely, if ironically in hindsight, with the episode ‘Historical Friction’. The play about olde-time mayor William Dewey was utterly uninteresting until Pearl rewrote the play’s script to make him an underdog. This is part of pacing. It's dull to watch a winner win constantly. The characters need to be in situations where they're facing actual threats, otherwise we're just watching a series of foregone conclusions unfold.

What would Lord of the Rings look like if the Hobbits just marched from The Shire to Orodruin, with no setbacks or problems, and then just lobbed the One Ring into the fire? What's the point of the story? It'd be like a grand-scale version of watching someone go out for groceries. Nobody wants to watch that, not really: you can go to the supermarket and see it if you’re that interested!

This couples with suspension of disbelief. Usually, the good guys win. We know they're going to win. We need to be able to suspend our disbelief, and that's something that the pacing and storytelling need to enable. We need to be able to get caught in the story, even though we know everything will probably work out by the end.

When you get it just right, even the creators don’t know for sure everything will be alright. Remember when Picard was assimilated by The Borg? Even the writers weren’t 100% sure how it would play out, because Patrick Stewart was playing hardball with the studio at the time over his contract. There was a chance this could have been the end of his character.

But Steven isn't an underdog anymore. He's a bossy, self-important grump with a martyr complex. He wins all the time, not least of all because of the pacing problems. By this point:

· Steven has healing powers that can literally bring people back to life

· He has all the powers of a Diamond

· He has the backing of the three other diamonds

· He now has an army of friends who will fight at his side

So where is the story to tell? Consider, in Steven Universe: The Movie, Greg's arm gets hurt by the injector. There's no danger, no worry. We know Steven has healing powers. So why bother showing it? It's about as relevant or interesting as watching Greg brush his hair.

There’s no danger. There’s no suspension of disbelief because the hero is now so super-powered.

This is even worse when coupled with the uneven pacing: when something takes so long to be painstakingly set up, only to be knocked down in a heartbeat, then why get invested in it? The 21st Century reboot of Doctor Who falls into this trap a lot: multipart episodes about a Dalek (or whatever) invasion… but luckily their Evil Machine has a ‘reverse’ switch that fixes everything. Dust hands, job done. All that build-up utterly squandered on an almost supernaturally fast resolution.

You Need a Story to Tell

The first five series have a definite story. It gets rushed, badly, come series 5 but there is still a story. That is done now: there's no grand, overarching tale now. We're very much into 'oh, what if...' territory.

What's the problem with that? Things get missed, because they don't need to fit into a cohesive whole. They just happen because they're cool.

Consider The Movie:

· Spinel goes from a cuddly, professional buddy to a would-be mass-murderer

· Spinel knows where to find a stupidly powerful injector

· She knows how to work it

· It is tuned to work to her 'trumpet' sound

· It is shaped like her gemstone

· She knows specifically where Earth is

· She knows how to fly a massive injector, with no obvious engines, to Earth

· This all happens in an afternoon

And the explanation we're given, after the event in a Q&A session? It's because Spinel and Pink Diamond were close. That is supposed to explain the entirety of those bullet points. It rankles me because it's not truthful. Those questions aren't answered by that, they're answered by 'because we thought it would be cool'. It's an unsatisfying explanation, but it's true and they’ve tried to handwave it into something else.

It's also what happens when you run out of proper story. Sure, you can still come up with little adventures but there's no big narrative anymore. There is no large picture for everything to fit into.

That’s dangerous territory. Not only does it lead to weird scenarios, but it also starts generating new lore at a maddening amount. The fans don't help this, it seems to me that some people purely watch Steven Universe to demand moar fusions, moar songs and moar lore. Even when that’s all they get, it’s not enough.

It's like demanding more swimming pools in your home because you're bored with foundations. Sooner or later the whole structure falls down because swimming pools can’t hold a house up. Neither can lore hold a story up: stories are about characters.

Similarly, the concept of 'fusion' relies on characters otherwise it's nothing more than the character dumps we used to get in toy-driven franchises back in the 80s. Songs have to have an emotional resonance otherwise they're just empty pop.

Remember the X-Files? How they got into a rut just generating series after series with no pay-off, but lots more wrinkles to an already convoluted story? Then it got to the end and... you can't end it. It's too sprawling, too stupid and too contradictory. That's where lore without a story takes you. Lore has to serve a vision, not the other way around.

Filler

Not filler the way it's come to mean to SU fans. I like the 'boardie' episodes - they're full of interesting characters and ground Steven's world in something resembling ours. No, I mean filler in terms of stories that don't mean anything: the characters don't learn anything, the world isn't made any more interesting. Things just happen in a self-contained bubble with no payoff or consequence.

In itself, that's fine. Some episodes are like that. If that were the only aspect to 'filler' episodes in SU, then who cares? The problem is the pacing. After glacial teasing, hinting and laying down groundwork... things get wrapped up so fast it'll make your head spin.

· The cluster? We talked it into staying bubbled.

· The Diamonds? They're fine now.

· Bismuth? Steven chatted to her.

· Lapis? She's sort-of fine, but not really.

· Spinel? Sent to live on a farm.

These are all things that took many, many lines of dialogue and building to create and were knocked down in the space of a couple of sentences.

This is where the 'filler' comes in. Instead of another story about Onion being weird, why not devote it to tying up the plot in a way that feels paced properly? Instead of answering questions about Watermelon Stevens, why not draw-out a little more the actual conclusion to a big story point?

Why do I think Onion and Watermelon Stevens should be singled out for Calvary? Simple: they have no explanation and don't matter. They don't matter to the day-to-day lives of the characters or the world. They serve no narrative purpose. They don't advance other characters' arcs. They don't ground the world they inhabit. They turn up, do 'stuff' in a little bubble and then go back into the toybox until the next Onion episode.

As a side note, I would lay a lot of money that Onion will never get any sort of pay-off. He doesn't age. He's deeply bizarre. He's apparently a wanted criminal. He's terrifying. And I don't think for an instant he will ever get a reason for being any of those things: he'll just carry on as a quirky in-joke and take up episode space because apparently that is a story-telling priority now.

Songs

Songs are sung when something is too important for the characters to just say it. The song needs an emotional resonance, to show what a character feels effectively. Contrast 'That Distant Shore' to 'Independent Together': one is about a deep longing and sadness for a home the character has never had. The other is a soft-rock ballad about how great stuff is when you can be your own self but also be with other people... or something.

See the resonance that the former has, and that the latter lacks? Whether you like Lapis or Steg, or the songs, is irrelevant to the story and the characters. One song has something to say, the other is there for the sake of giving fanservice. Independent Together isn't something so important to say that the characters feel they need to sing it.

This really kicks off around the middle of Series 5. Previously, songs were a special event. Now, they're commonplace. Even in Mr. Greg, a fully musical episode back in Series 3, the songs have so much emotion. Plus, Mr. Greg is an experiment: 11 minutes, mostly held together by 6 solid songs:

· Don't Cost Nothing: how much Greg and Steven just love one another.

· Empire City: how excited they are to go on a trip together

· Mr. Greg: Pearl almost lets her guard down, then realises and shuts down.

· It's Over Isn't It? : A heartbroken character sings for a life they never had.

· Both of You: A child shows the two adults they have something special in common.

· Don't Cost Nothing: reprised as a coda.

I won't pretend that all those songs have a huge emotional impact, but they do all serve part of the story arc. You can see it there: the status quo, the trigger, the choice, the quest, the showdown, the resolution and the new status quo. Couple that with the fact that at least 4 of those songs (counting Don't Cost Nothing and its reprise) do have a very real emotional punch, you've got a great episode.

All in 11 minutes.

That's the level of truly amazing, genius storytelling we're working with. Now contrast that to the 1hr 20m of Steven Universe The Movie:

· The Tale of Steven: A prelude to a re-cap song

· Once Upon a Time: a re-cap song

· Let Us Adore You: The Diamonds are emotionally disturbed and co-dependent! How adorable!

· Happily Ever After: The status quo. Also another bloody re-cap.

· Other Friends: The trigger! Not huge emotional resonance, but up-beat and plot-relevant.

· system/BOOT.PearlFinal(3): The quest.

· Who We Are: NICE. This one has emotional impact and says something important.

· Isn't It Love?: A Garnet re-cap. So at this point we're recapping what we re-capped when we recapped the re-cap. Lost yet?

· No Matter What: Again, NICE. Emotional relevance and says something about Amethyst and Steven.

· Disobedient: Kate Micucci hadn't been given anything to do yet?

· Independent Together: Aimee Mann brought a friend! Can he have a job and some dollarydoos?

· Drift Away: CHARACTER. PUNCH. PATHOS. It's here, folks. They can do it!

and so on.

See the pattern? For every one song that brings what we saw in Mr. Greg, there are at least four that are there just because. Because we thought it'd be cool. Because we needed more tunes to fill the runtime. Mr. Greg achieved more in 11 minutes than Steven Universe: The Movie achieved in over 80 minutes.

What's the reason? The Movie doesn't really have a story to tell. It's a victory lap. It's not bad: it's fine. Bits of it are simply excellent. But this is what happens when you stop having a big, cohesive narrative arc that you're trying to bring together.

Characters

Characters grow and evolve. Specifically, they have arcs. Just like the plot as a whole, and just like the subplots that compose it. Generally, the stages are:

· A status quo (Luke on Tattoine)

· A trigger (his Aunt and Uncle die)

· A critical choice (he leaves to become a Jedi)

· A quest (the adventure)

· A climax (the fight at the Death Star)

· A turnaround (the Death Star is destroyed!)

· A new status quo (the Rebels are ready to take on the next challenge)

SU gave most of its characters arcs broadly representative of this. The problem is, once those arcs were done the characters got put back in their boxes. They were 'fixed' and that was it. Amethyst's arc probably worked best: it spread over most of the first five series and felt like a real progression. Hence her fusion with Steven (Smokey Quartz) felt 'earnt'.

Pearl doesn't really grow or evolve much at all until Series 5. Ditto Garnet. Lapis is basically the same throughout the show: she broods, runs away and then comes back because of Steven's coaxing.

So, it’s back to my main drumbeat: its pacing is badly off. Some things take their good time and evolve naturally, others are wrapped up quickly and cast aside. Examples:

· Peridot worked to become friends with the CG. She had a character arc that took half a series.

· The Diamonds: it mostly turned on a sixpence in the 2nd half of Change Your Mind. Off-screen they then became annoying relatives, rather than murderous galactic tyrants.

Why does this matter? Well, most of the characters are now 'done'. Pearl is no longer co-dependent. Ruby and Sapphire know they're together (as Garnet) for love. Amethyst no longer hates herself. Peridot is a sweet (albeit socially clumsy) sidekick. Lapis is... well, the same as she's always been but seems happier with it now?

How do you tell more stories when your characters are already done? When the veg is cooked, you can't put it back on the hob because you've decided you want dinner prep to take longer.

SU keeps wrapping things up, believing they're 'done', then getting more time and needing to draw it out. This means either dawdling around with characters not going anywhere (which feels like either a smug victory lap or just something for its own sake) or actively unpicking their development.

Scrubs, in my view, is the poster child for the latter option: the show's cancelled, quick wrap up JD; Elliot; Dr. Cox; Carla; Turk etc! Oh no, we got another series! Undo the happily-ever-after so we can do more stuff!

That's why the pacing, particularly around characters and where they're going, matters.

Fusion

Fusion is the absolute biggest muddle of a metaphor. Is it friendship? Understanding? Sex? All? None? In any case, it used to be meaningful. Fusion meant something, even if that something would vary depending on the characters and the circumstance.

It took special effort to do: characters had to synchronise themselves through dance, to bring their thoughts together to fuse.

Now? It happens at the drop of a hat. No synching, no dancing. Fanwank it away any way you like: the characters are all 'fixed' now, they all trust each other, whatever. Fusion now doesn't mean anything because it takes no effort: pop here's Sunstone, pop here's Smokey, pop here's Opal. The fusions have just become like alter-egos that take no more effort than a quick-change in a phone booth.

And then there's Steg. Yeah, I get it: he represents the familial love between father and son. But why is he so built? Why does he look like some sort of sex-god? I'm a long way from a prude - it's just weird is all. A 16 year old boy + his middle aged father + the memory of the mother/wife shouldn't create a weird Adonis! But let me set that aside: the true problem with Steg is we had no build-up. Greg and Steven didn't talk about it, Steven just suggests fusing (through whispered dialogue we don't hear) and then it just happens.

Steg also isn't saved by being an interesting exploration of either Steven or Greg. He's fanservice. Fans wanted more fusions and more 'what if so-and-so fused!!' so they got it. He has 0 character. Just like Sunstone has no character beyond being an 'after school special'. Rainbow Quartz 2.0 has no character, aside from being chipper and cockney.

Contrast that to Smokey Quartz. Smokey is a delightful, self-deprecating scamp. She has a definite personality and stood up to a full interview with Sardonyx. Smokey has enough of a character that it would be possible for her to act out-of-character. What would out-of-character look like for Rainbow or Sunstone? Provided it was cartoon-English and early 90s cartoon dialogue (respectively) it could be anything.

What happened? Fusions used to be characters, they used to have personalities that couldn't be written down on a postage stamp in luggage marker.

The answer is the story ran-out. The characters are all fixed now - so there's no emotional or narrative drive for their relationships. Hence the concept of fusion is now just serving fans who want to see 'what if' combinations of characters.

Too Many Endings

I’ve touched on this already, but here it is again.

The problem with wrapping up a show is you put all the pieces away as well as you can, and implicitly make work for yourself if it is not the end. You've just set up a load of strawmen you need to kick over if you decide you've got more story to tell.

That's what happened here. Change Your Mind ended it. Except it didn't, so we went back and unpicked what we could. Even though everyone is basically fixed now and the characters have no real growth or underdog-fight. Then The Movie ended it. Except it didn't, so we went back and unpicked what we could. Even though everyone is still basically fixed.

Will Future be the end? Probably not.

That's why Steven is now a moody little jackass with a hero complex - we needed some conflict to drive what little plot there is, which exists only as a vehicle for tying up loose plot threads (Jasper!) we left out because of how rushed the first ending was.

It's a bit like when you misspell something, then you go back over it with your biro. But now it looks unclear. So you go over it a few more times to make sure it's clear. But now it looks like someone took a biro and leaked half the ink onto the page. The very act of trying to tidy it has made it less clear.

A Special Note About Garnet

This isn't about pacing, but whilst I'm on the moan I'll leave this here.

I feel wicked for this. Garnet is a brilliant character. I love Estelle: she brings Garnet so well to life. Any LGBT representation in a cartoon is rare and amazing, and we need more. But Garnet also sucks.

Why?

She's a metaphor. She's a metaphor for being gay and together in love. She is a symbol of a same-sex relationship. On a side-note: yes Gems don't have gender technically, but let’s not be wilful here: they have female-coded designs and the subtext is so obvious as to barely be subtext.

It's nearly 2020. We're now 20 years into the 21st Century. 2001 A Space Odyssey was set 20 years ago. First contact between Zephram Cochrane and the Vulcans is now only 43 years away. And we can still only talk about gay (or, God forbid, bi or transgender) characters in children’s' media through metaphor. I cannot emphasise enough how utterly shitty that is, and how glacial progress has been.

Now, that isn't SU's fault. However, what is SU fault is their clever (and I mean that genuinely) ploy to sneak a same-sex couple into the show means that we don't see them as a same-sex couple 95% of the time. They're hidden. Ruby and Sapphire's love and relationship literally lives under a disguise called Garnet.

And that sucks. It makes sense as a plan. It's great we have Garnet. Garnet is still amazing. But she also sucks, because she acts as invisibility for the lesbian couple she represents. Yeah, that’s some tough mental gymnastics to work that cognitive dissonance but I managed it.

My God, I Get It: You're a Cat Person

This is also nothing to do with pacing, it's just a creator conceit that bugs me. I freely admit it's also piddly and petty.

So: I'm not a cat person. And no, it's not because I haven't met your adorable little Tiddles or whatever. I don't hate cats, it’s just that most of the cats I've ever met are simply ghastly little shits. Their owners, through some mental blind spot; ancient Egyptian curse or brain parasite have become convinced that these hairball-gobbing, furniture-shredding, wildlife-destroying little cunts are angels. Somehow they've convinced themselves everything they do is adorable.

No amount of murdered birds or small mammals change their minds.

I've met, officially, two nice cats in my life and I treasure their memories. The rest can go to hell.

Why does this matter to SU? Cat Steven. Lion. Peridot and Amethyst doing little kitty-mouths when they're being cute. My God, crew, you love cats. I got the memo.

Why does that work me up? Well, do you know what I'd like instead? If a tiny amount of that 'cats are brilliant!' energy went into a proper wrap for Pumpkin. Created by Jessie Zuke and obviously a puppy metaphor... what happened to her? The crew don't care, because they won't tell us. If they cared even a jot it would have a story around it. Instead, we got some half-arsed bullshit from Joe Johnston about 'pumpkins don't last forever' and... scene. That's it.

But Cat Steven, OMG, yes we have to make sure to include him. Whenever we're at the Beach House. Especially if Garnet is there. Because... lesbians all love cats? Or something? Just... CATS. MOAR CATS.

Couldn't you show a little more respect for a character, albeit a not particularly important one, rather than worrying about how much airtime the various cats all get?

In Conclusion

It bears restating, this is mostly ire directed at Series 5 onwards. The other series are all still there, and I can watch them to reminisce. I can still enjoy some truly wonderful episodes of just about the best cartoon I've ever seen. This show is incredible... but the endings kinda suck. And that's down, mostly, to pacing. And how it kinda fucked Steven Universe.

#steven universe #steven universe future #steven universe the movie

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a34trgv2 · 5 years

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Why It Worked: The Prince of Egypt

Introduction: The Prince of Egypt is a 1998 animated Biblical historic epic directed by Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner and Simon Wells. Produced by Penny Finkelman Cox and Sandra Rabins, with the screenplay written by Phillip LaZebnik and Nicholas Meyer, the film retells the Biblical story of Moses and how he freed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. The film stars Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sir Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin and Martin Short and features music and songs by Hans Zimmer and Stephen Schwartz respectively. Released on December 18, 1998, the film received very positive reviews (scoring an 80% out of 87 critics aggregated on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 7.08/10 average rating), was financially successful (making $218.6 million on a budget of $70 million), won an Academy Award for Best Original Song (When You Believe), spawned a direct-to-video prequel focusing on Joseph (the dream interpreter) and a stage musical at TheaterWorks in California in 2017. Out of the 37 animated films DreamWorks has made, I always viewed The Prince of Egypt as not just my favorite, but also their best film in terms of quality. In this post, I'm going to explain why that is and why we need more films like this.

The Plot: For those who aren't familiar with the story of Moses, it's a tale about hardship, sacrifice and deliverance. A young Hebrew baby is saved from the slaughter of Hebrew babies ordered by Pharaoh out of fear. That baby is picked up by Pharaoh's wife and is named Moses, for he was pulled out from the Nile river. Moses grows up being Pharaoh's son until he finds out his true heritage and essentially exiles himself in the wilderness. There he meets God in the form of a burning bush who tells him that He has heard the Hebrews suffering and has chosen Moses to free them. 12 plagues and 1 crossing of the Red Sea later, the Hebrews are free and Moses is hailed a hero. While this film stays true to the original text for the most part, it does make a few additions and subtractions so that the film flows naturally at an hour and 40 minutes. I could talk all day about the changes made from the text to the film (such as Moses having a stutter and Mirriam giving Moses to the Queen) but in an instance I wish was more common place when it comes to adaptations, the filmmakers provided an opening statement at the start of the film. "The motion picture you are about to see is an adaptation of the Exodus story. While artistic and historical license has been taken, we believe that this film is true to the essence, value and integrity of a story that is a cornerstone of faith for millions of people worldwide. The Biblical story of Moses can be found in the Book of Exodus." It's clear that the filmmakers had nothing but respect for the material and told a strong story about two brothers going on different paths in life. They also don't shy away from the brutality of the story, while still making it accessible for children. People are whipped, drowned, attacked by locus, and even straight up killed. What makes this film stand out from other Biblical films is that it's animated, but not like that of Disney. Where Disney tends to go for the fantastical and colorful, The Prince of Egypt is more reserved and grounded. The characters move more like humans and are designed more like Egyptian hieroglyphics and paintings than fairy tale illustrations. This grounded approach makes the fantastical stuff all the more powerful. The parting of the Red Sea (with blends 2D and 3D animation perfectly) is still one of the most iconic scenes in animation history. The animation in this film is so unlike anything I've seen before or since and it also helps that the story is well written and is brutally honest with it's depiction of slavery and a tyrant ruler.

Cast and Characters: The cast they got for this film is excellent. Sure they're celebrities who (at the time) didn't have prior experience in voice acting (with the exceptions of Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Sir Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin and Martin Short). That said, in this film they nailed their respective characters. Starting off with our hero, Val Kilmer gives such a nuanced performance as Moses, making him cockey and arrogant at the start and then making him so well spoken and wise by the end. Moses is such a relatable protagonist and has a genuine arc through the film. His brash and fun loving demeanor is in direct contrast to his uptight older stepbrother, Rameses. Speaking of which, before he was Voldemort, Ralph Fiennes gave such an amazing performance as Rameses, who's at the top of my list for the best villain is DreamWorks' animated catalog. The thing about Rameses is before he became a ruthless tyrant, he strived to be just like his father, who he saw as wise, percise and a real king. At the same time he had such a good relationship with his stepbrother, Moses, that he hoped that they'd make Egypt a better place together. That all changed when Moses came back from his self imposed exile and asked him to release the Hebrews in the name of God. Ralph Fiennes showcases the right amount of worry, stubbornness and sadness of this character, and the chemistry he shares with Moses is perfect. Everyone else does a great job voicing their respective characters as well. Michelle Pfeiffer gives Tzipporah such a snarky personality and makes for a good wife to Moses, Sandra Bullock makes Mirriam such a motherly sister, Jeff Goldblum made Aaron as essentially the voice of the cynical people which this film couldn't function without (also Jeff Goldblum is always a win), and Steve Martin and Martin Short work off each other perfectly as Hotep and Huy. Then there's our Lord and Savior Himself, God. In this film, God is portrayed as the all powerful being He is as described in the Bible. He protects His people, He tells Moses exactly what to do and how to do it, He shows mercy and good favor towards the Hebrews, and He does keep His promise in bringing His people out of Egypt. Val Kilmer provides the voice of God and it sounds so majestic and calm, it's like listening to your best friend.

Songs and Music: There is not a single song in this film that I don't catch myself humming to on a daily basis. That is how powerful these songs are. The opening number, Deliver Us, perfectly captures the oppression of the Hebrews as they are whipped, pushed, and yelled at by the Egyptians. Oh and also babies are slaughtered during this scene, making the song even more powerful. Moses' song, All I Ever Wanted, plays after his encounter with Miriam and Aaron and brilliantly showcases his doubts to his upbringing; right before he's hit with that amazing dream sequence done in the style of Egypt wall paintings. Look at Your Life Through Heaven's Eyes was such an upbeat and fun song that shows you your life has meaning and you should look at it with a more optimistic perspective (through Heaven's eyes, if you will). Playing With The Big Boys is an amazing number, showing the dark mockery of God from Hotep and Huy as well as some impressive visuals (also there's this dope rock cover of the song by Jonathan Young and Caleb Hyles you should really check out: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gqlNY5iX-nA). The 12 plagues are shown via a reprise as All I Ever Wanted and it is genius. The visuals get noticeably darker with each passing plague until all of Egypt is covered in darkness. And Moses and Rameses' duet perfectly captures their opposing viewpoints during this time. Then there's the Oscar winning song, When You Believe. It's the ultimate song of hope, of faith, of belief; it's the song that should be song and heard around the world, especially today when hope and optimism are seen as being ignorant. Also, Hans Zimmer's score for this film is nothing short of magical. The way he uses brass instruments to emphasize God's power is just glorious and the choir is used in the exact place you expect there to be a choir. It's so soothing and majestic, I wish I had the soundtrack.

Where it Falters: My only gripe with the film is the ending. Not that it's bad, but that, well, it ends. Despite the film promising to bring the Hebrews to the promise land, we never actually go there. I thought they'd get to that in a sequel, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon because DreamWorks Animation swore off 2D animated films after Sinbad tanked and they're not nearly as ambitious now as they were back in the 90s and 2000s. Cosmodore made this really insightful video about how DreamWorks Animation almost went bankrupt twice and why their recent output has been geared more towards families (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dLa7xe5GTWw) but the tl;dr is DreamWorks Animation was 1 more financially disappointing year away from closing up shop completely. Still though, I would love to have seen a sequel to The Prince of Egypt focusing on how Moses lead the people through the wilderness.

Conclusion: The Prince of Egypt stands as one of the best animated films ever made. With an amazing soundtrack, memorable characters, beautiful animation, and a stellar voice cast, it's one of a select few films I consider a masterpiece. You could argue that it's not accurate to the story told in the Bible (a fact the filmmakers themselves acknowledge), but it does stay true to the spirit of the story and it doesn't go out of it's way to convince nonbelievers that this is truth. As a film on it's own, it's great and I hope it's watched and remembered for generations to come. Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you soon ;)

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bloodybells1 · 5 years

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Motley Boo: The Dirt 2019 and a Tertiary Failure to Reframe the “Baddest Band”’s History within Patriarchal Discourse

It’s difficult to overstate the impact Mötley Crüe made on the history of heavy metal with their 1981 debut album, Too Fast For Love. Raw, phlegmatic, and, yes, fast—it clocks in at less than 40 minutes—the album dropped into the world of heavy metal like a megaton anvil (or a turbocharged racer, depending on how you looked at it). The repercussions were conclusive and far-reaching. Shortly after the release, the band would support established acts like Kiss on the road, and later followed up the record with an even bigger smash hit, Shout at the Devil, permanently engraving them into the annals of heavy metal.

What distinguished this freshmen effort in the larger context of the metal scene, however, was the band’s—well, really, Nikki Sixx’s—intelligent cross-referencing of glam rock optics within the giant soundscape of the Marshall amp set. Almost a decade before Guns’n’Roses would introduce a similarly decadent soupcon of glam rock attitude into heavy metal’s DNA (more in the form of LA dispossession, but you know what I mean), there stood Crüe, bow-tying the cranked distortion of heavy metal with an androgynous, lipstick-smeared pucker.

Yet, the record was more than just a public relations gambit to redesign heavy metal in the image of T. Rex. After all, it seemed the band had actually made a great album. It was good enough to make it into the mixtapes of LA punks and New York skinheads, at least, as well as those of breadbasket-America headbangers—quite a feat for a band that cared little for the punk scene’s headier nihilism. Punks, for their part, looked past the cockrocking and focused instead on the record’s straightforward production and live sound. As it turned out, it was a good sign that a band like Crüe, for all their apparent fluffiness and ostensibly commercial leanings, had gained the favor of this more reticent community, having passed the “canary in the coal mine” test of punk rock’s preoccupation with authenticity.

And yet, I bet the first thing that comes to mind when prompted by the name of Mötley Crüe, at least to that of the layman, isn’t the infectious speed of “Live Wire”’s thunderclap-opening riff, but rather the band’s notoriously depraved extracurricular reputation. In fact, the quartet was already infamous for debauched hedonism prior to their even getting signed, the lore going back to their salad days as local lotharios at the Viper Room in downtown Los Angeles. Right out of the gate, they were as famous for fornication and drug abuse as for their music.

Far from discouraging the storyline of excess, Crüe seemed right at home with their association with drugs and sex. The emphasis on carnality became a career-long feature of their mystique, both as a marketing strategy and as a core element of the philosophy implied in their music. Ultimately, they would enshrine this element in the form of a tell-all, committing all the sordid details of their exploits to paper in their aptly-named 2001 anthology of licensed sin, The Dirt.

Couched as an entry of the confessional genre, the volume was jointly written in equal parts by each band member, offering long, anecdotal chapters, written in an extemporaneous, oral style. The accounts dove deep into the cesspool of their origins and the progress of their career. Obviously, the band didn’t write an exhaustive account of their entire story up to 2001, when the book was published, on their own; journalist Neil Strauss adroitly arranges their tracts with a wink and a nod. Not satisfied with a simple tell-all, though, he weaves the band members’ submitted drafts and “journal entries” into a grand narrative fabric that belies not only Strauss’s objective’s gaze, but a teleological vision of the price of fame, a tale steeped in storied entries of similar abasement, perhaps dating all the way back to Joris-Karl Huysmans’ A rebours.

Despite The Dirt’s clear insistence on the prevalence of moral transactionalism, it has nonetheless become known as a foundational text for the “sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll” trope of decadence. Readers seem to cherish the opening chapters of early hedonic excess without making much of the larger morality play laid out through the book’s end. The earlier chapters are so naked (excuse the pun) in their reportage of the band’s debauched activities, they’ve been taken as advertisements for that behavior. This rendering misappropriates the book’s real value—as a text on moral cosmology—by turning it into further glorification of rock’n’roll’s early hedonistic credo. Those early chapters are really a set up for what the book truly is, and should be known for most, that is, a discrediting of that credo.

The Dirt makes a clear case that the band has paid for their excesses—Vince Neil loses his daughter, Nikki Sixx almost dies, Mick Mars fights his way up to become the true sage in the band, Tommy Lee keeps getting divorced. These facts are laid out convincingly through a simple prose style: diaristic reportage of the self that, through careful pacing, mines deeper and deeper levels of personal pain and reckoning. Strauss is methodical in doling out these sojourns into the moral deep, making sure not to preempt their trials with hints of the future (never mind that we know how the story ends). This, along with the distinct voice of each band member, has the added effect of keeping the reader on the edge of their seat.

The supranarrative that emerges by the final page, one that supplants the traditional one that the unsuspecting reader no doubt imports into the book from decades of formulaic pandering to baser perspectives, states the fundamental primacy of Fate, that even the world’s most riotous band could not escape cosmic will. Mötley Crüe, as authors of the commodity known as “Mötley Crüe,” and through the media amplification of commodity fetishism, have become godlike and must be thrust down, made human again. Fate will make a human out of the man no matter how demiurgic he becomes.

It’s no surprise that, with heady matter like this associated with a known commodity like Crüe, an early film deal sprang out of the publishing of the book. The Dirt came out in 2001, 20 years after Mötley Crüe came on the scene, and it has taken almost as much time for its dramatization, in the form of a Netflix biopic, to emerge. That’s a long time for a movie based on a book to come out, and there has understandably been a lot of anticipation.

Through the years, I’ve come to loathe biopics, which with few exceptions turn out to be the mere regurgitations of original texts, authored under viably artistic circumstances and trademarked, but then repeated by a committee of capitalist shills for a waiting audience eager to consume the brand anew. This explains why almost every biopic is a formulaic compendium, lacking any vision or direction, since its objective in the first place is to provide brand pornography for consumers of established texts.

It’s quite sad that the cinematic dramatization of The Dirt is no exception to this rule. It so exemplifies the craven absence of real art in the modern biopic as to appear almost comical at times. Indeed, when I looked at the image on my Netflix home page of the movie, I initially thought that perhaps someone had given Mötley Crüe’s inimitable story the Christopher Guest treatment.

Alas, no.

The movie is a sorry parade of every single biopic cliché that was ever established in the history of biopics. I won’t go into just how pathetically—shamelessly, even—this movie panders to the basest titillations of brand pornography. That sad fact has been firmly established by the critical consensus. (It carries a 43 percent Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, a rating I, in fact, find charitable.) My point in writing about this infuriating piece of exploitative pablum is to direct the reader to the incredible missed opportunity of this movie.

As I’ve already written, the book’s greatest accomplishment is not the lascivious proxy to bad behavior its protracted tales of sexual promiscuity and substance abuse offer the more upstanding, less adventurous reader. It’s the successful reframing of the “sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll” narrative as a cautionary tale. Granted, we’ve seen this story inscribed into the annals of pop stardom before the publishing of The Dirt (hello Buddy Holly movie, Walk the Line, et al). Yet, its innovation lies not in the mere fact of the reframing, but in its offering the pen to the miscreant author: The Dirt is perhaps the first bad boy memoir: a behind-the-scenes tell-all yes, though of the Gore Vidal sort, and repurposed for the headbanger set with a moral edge.

By 2001, it had long been understood that this snot-nosed gang of aging rockers no longer had a decent recording in them (that’s no criticism if you believe, as I do, that the artform of rock music entails an inherent expiration date). Instead, they produced a memoir that, shot straight from their shaky typewriters and notebooks, reinvents the band as willing atoners. In so doing they reemerge as personal subjects of a grand, cautionary tale, a heavy metal story for the era of Oprah, if you will. Mötley Crüe, then, performed a more authentic act in the writing of this book than any album they would have dared record.

Yet, along the current of its blood-soaked river of retribution, The Dirt, misses one crucial point of reckoning, one that positively begs for further exploration.

Thanks to the #MeToo revolution, we are now given a critical apparatus to judge the excesses of the past committed in the name of patriarchy. Prior to this revolution, texts containing sexist, heteronormative givens were accepted reflexively by the zeitgeist. These were mythologies that historically debased and objectified women as the enslaved recipients of male lust, simple organs of the hedonic will of masculinity. We might have laughed at the music video for “Looks that Kill,” which features, among other debasing tropes, a gaggle of women in generic Neanderthal livery, but today we laugh harder—and more painfully. We no longer turn our eyes away from the now obvious rooting of this imagery in patriarchal attitudes.

The Dirt admittedly has almost nothing to offer by way of a #MeToo moment. (Early kudos, though, to Mick Mars who dedicates many of his paragraphs to the ludicrousness of male promiscuity.) But this isn’t necessarily a shortcoming of the book, anymore than that we may fault any number of classic stories and records that import similarly unexamined masculine, heteronormative givens into the 21st Century. As late as 2001, our eyes were yet glazed over with the unquestioned spectacle of male desire. Furthermore, the book is rife with vulnerable emoting and painful rumination. It thereby confers it an atmosphere of thoughtfulness. To a certain extent this vitiates against accusations of insensitivity.

But this potential forgiveness isn’t possible in cinema, where the taut storyline and shorter format require a more conclusive, unshaded verdict. Never mind that in 2019 it’s positively inexcusable. The #MeToo movement has today firmly established a visible discourse that supersedes antique notions of male desire, yet the movie seems to have taken no note of this seismic occurrence. To name but one of the movie’s baffling examples of cultural myopia, there are at least two scenes portraying women materializing out of the darkness underneath dining room tables, complete with satiated visages fresh from a round of clandestine fellatio. This is only one of the movie’s dated pickings from pre-#MeToo boilerplate, but it is perhaps the most glaring.

The film seems to conflate factual verisimilitude and hindsight objectivity; to which the simple response is that portraying something “as it was” doesn’t inoculate you from the sins of the past. One need only watch a couple seasons of another Netflix offering that traffics in garish ‘80s pop-cultural paraphernalia, GLOW, to witness a successful handling of these two elements. Many of the antique notions that were part and parcel in the ‘80s are now clearly offensive from today’s standards of race and sex discourse. These are reframed as racist and sexist mythologizing by the show’s deep dives into the family life of one of the African American wrestlers.

There’s nary a hint of this sort of wokeness from the film version of The Dirt. You really have to scratch your head as to how the committee let this fly, not to mention how desperate anyone would need to be in order to ignore such profligate tone-deafness under their collective noses.

The Dirt in 2019 truly encapsulates the most tragic outcome of a band like Mötley Crüe. The film’s failure as a work of art is not surprising when you consider that most biopics fail in that regard (Bohemian Rhapsody, anyone?). But the movie’s failure becomes truly irretrievable, of a completely different order of magnitude, when you consider that Mötley Crüe missed another opportunity to reframe themselves along the contours of contemporary discourse. They were successful in 2001, when, during the era of Oprah, they took their foundational text of rock’n’roll hedonism and reframed it as a personalized descent into Orphic confrontation. This gave us cause for hope in 2019, during the era of #MeToo, when the missing piece of that story, the accounting with the greater societal harm caused by unexamined patriarchy, was given an incredible opportunity to be placed back into the spine of the band’s legacy. Unfortunately, as Netflix and Mötley Crüe have made clear, the hope was misplaced.

#motleycrue thedirt metoo

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moviestorian · 5 years

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As someone who loves films and history, can you name some films that bugged you from a historical perspective? Not necessarily historical accuracy per se, but where you feel they way they changed history ruined the story?

Hi! :)

Ooooh I love this question! Indeed, cinema and history are my two greatest passions. I’d like to point out that I don’t expect a film to be 100% period accurate, because it’s really difficult to achieve and also the screenwriting requires some specific narrative/pacing choices for the storytelling’s sake. I think sometimes the liberties taken by the director/writer can be advantageous, but that’s rarely the case. I’m going to concentrate on the examples where it didn’t, in my personal opinion, work well and I’m gonna try to explain my choices.

In no particular order:

Pretty much anything based on Phillippa Gregory’s novels, that is: The Other Boleyn Girl, The White Queen, The White Princess, etc. Watching these are usually ultimate cringe compilations. And certainly constantly pitting women against each other to create a cheap drama is not “feminism”, despite Gregory and Emma Frost trying to convince us otherwise. Also, congratulations for making the majority of the characters not only historically inaccurate, but largely unsympathetic.

The Imitation Game. Visually and on the technical aspects of it, it’s a very good movie with amazing cast (and music!). It was the script which really bugged me. It’s not just about being largely inaccurate (I remember seeing someone doing a scene by scene analysis in terms of fact checking, and the entire movie is only about 40% historically accurate), but it’s about the scale and how they made the entire story and the people involved absolutely one dimensional. It’s oversimplified, and I feel like they made up some things just to stir drama, thus taking away most of Turing’s complexities, especially when it comes to the relationship with his team (what was it with making Hugh Alexander look like a complete asshole and a violent man? Or turning commander Denniston into a villain for no literal reason?). It doesn’t really help that Cumberbatch, who is imo a very good actor overall, was directed in such a way that he was basically Sherlock 2.0. I really love the fact that they made it look like breaking the Enigma code was basically 1)done by like 5 people; 2)an accident. Not to mention that many lines from the movie are so trite I wanna *headdesk*.

Aftermath (pol. Pokłosie) - I think the movie worked very well as a crime story for most of the time, and I’m glad the director dared to touch the sensitive topic of Jedwabne, but I have no idea what the fuck was he thinking when he was writing the scene in which one of the main characters was LITERALLY stabbed and pretty much crucified to the barn in a Polish village in 2001. Like, I get the village was fictional, but the movie was supposed to be realistic, right? Honestly, wtf.

Mary Queen of Scots - that movie was not only boring as hell, but dear filmmakers, having Mary forcing herself on her husband isn’t “empowering” or something to be praised for. The actors were wasted on such blandly written characters.

I’m sad to admit it, but I’m afraid BoRhap also applies. Inaccuracy is one thing, but I wish the script wasn’t so banal.

Knightfall. Watching this show destroyed my brain cells. Relying your storyline on a forced romance between a knight of the Templars and queen Joan, who was supposedly dead by the time the action of the show takes place, was a pretty bold choice. And oh boy, what we do NOT have in this show! We have the Holy Grail, Philip the Fair being friends with the Templars, faked virginity test, the conflict with the pope who should also be dead at this point, de Nogaret being in love with Isabella, murder plots, Philip murdering his pregnant wife during the battle (but the child somehow survived and was born)…That show was fricking wild and I hella don’t want to see season 2.

Victoria - I really liked season 1, but as the show progressed it has become very poorly written. Again, everything for the drama TM.

Aaaaand unpopular opinion alert: the last 20 minutes or so of Schindler’s List. I’m not gonna rant about the fact that there’s a serious factual error literally in the first few minutes of the film (with the subtitles explaining the outbreak of WWII) because I was eventually really invested in the plot and I adored the cinematography, but honestly? The last 20-30 minutes (sth like that)ruined the script to a huge extent. Everything we’ve seen before turned overly melodramatic - I’m talking about the scene in which Schindler starts sobbing about being ashamed that he didn’t save more lives. I get what they were trying to do here, but to have Schindler say it out loud, in front of a few hundred people, expressively lamenting about whether or not he should’ve sold his car or even his pin in order to save more lives is so awfully straightforward and rather unsubtle exposition. Real shame, if you ask me, because I really liked the movie overall and if not for that ending I’d give it a higher rating. Everything became way too black and white, you know? I realize that probably many people will disagree, but that was my impression.

That’s all what I can think of right now. :D

#answered #yogurtbattle #wera speaks #hopefully i won't get eaten for the last one XD

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1000tigersteps · 6 years

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We all fall in love, we are all imperfect and we all argue in some way or another. Couples usually don’t understand why it is so hard to understand each other, the obvious things for each sex. If you are one of those couples or have a painful past relationship, maybe you need to read some classic books about the differences between man and women, to unwrap the mystery of miscommunication.

1. Read a book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus (1992)

I saw this book when I was just a kid and always thought it was some kind of sci-fi story about aliens. Suddenly I felt an urge to understand how man and women are thinking. No wonder this book is a bestseller and explains everything in 2+2 style.

2. Imperfections are just differences

“He never listens to me”, “She is always nagging me”, “I do not know why we started to argue, I just asked” and so on. Classic phrases from disappointed couples. Ask yourself one question when entering the loving partnership, are you willing to love another person even if he/she speaks the different language and you will have to remind yourself how your partner sees everything from another point of view.

3. How men think in a nutshell

Man are from Mars, they seek logic, they don’t need advice or help, as long as they come by themselves and ask ( if we talk about the task ), they like to be appreciated and valued, they want to be a knight in a shining armor, like in an old fairytale. They are fighters, they need to be leaders in some parts of the life, they have a task and they want to do it by themselves.

It is important to them how you ask to do the little things and when you ask it. Do you use Could you? or Would you? It makes a huge difference in a man’s mind. Because Could you? means that you doubt his ability to do something. Women tend to think that Could you? are more polite, but in reality, this type of question can harm man’s pride.

The hardest part for a women to understand that all man tend to go to a man cave from time to time and it is needed to be understood. This is how men deal with their problems.

They like to be direct. If you lack an attention simply just say it because a man can’t feel the same empathy as women do.

The most important thing, man wants to feel free even if he is in a committed relationship. That he can choose. And if you allow this feeling in your relationship, your man will be happy.

Man can’t provide all the support women need. Because historically he was provider and protector and women usually had an emotional support from women communities. Times changed but some things are still the same, so if you see that your man can’t provide you enough attention, sometimes it is better not to bother him, but to stay with friends and with an open heart.

Never be demanding, if you will cherish him, he will come back to you with more love. In Mars there is a rule, don’t fix it, unless it is broken. If a man will feel that you all the time want to change him, he will feel broken and not good enough for you.

Man, give penalty points if you unlove him. If you want to reduce some you should take a look at this list as an example:

1. He makes a mistake and she doesn’t say “I told you so and so” or offer advice (10-20 points) 2. He disappoints her and she doesn’t punish him (10-20 points) 3. He gets lost while driving and she doesn’t make a big deal out of it (10-20 points) 4. He gets lost and she sees the good in the situation and says “we would never have seen this beautiful sunset if we had taken the most direct route” (20-30 points) 5. He forgets to pick up something and she says “it’s okay. Would you do it next time you’re out?��(10-20 points) 6. He forgets to pick up something again and she says with trusting patience and persistence “it’s OK. Would you still get it?” (20-30 points) 7. When she has hurt him and she understands his hurt, she apologizes and gives him the love he needs (10-40 points) 8. She asks for support and he says no and she is not hurt by his rejection but trusts that he would if he could. She does not reject him or disapprove of him (10-20 points) 9. Another time she asks for his support and he again says no. She doesn’t make him feel wrong but accepts his limitations at this time (20-30 points) 10. She asks for his support without being demanding when he assumes the score is somewhat even (1-5- points) 11. She asks for his support without being demanding when she is upset or he knows she has been giving more (10-30 points) 12. When he withdraws she doesn’t make him feel guilty (10-20 points) 13. When he comes back from his cave she welcomes him not reject him (10-20 points) 14. When he apologizes for a mistake and she receives it with a loving acceptance and forgiveness. The bigger the mistake he makes the more points he gives (10-50 points) 15. When he asks her to do something and she says no without giving a list of reasons why she can’t do it (1-10 points) 16. When he asks her to do something and she says yes and stays in a good mood (1-10 points) 17. When he wants to make up after a fight and starts doing little things for her and she starts appreciating him again (10-30 points) 18. She is happy to see him when he gets home (10-20 points) 19. She feels disapproving and instead of expressing it she goes in another room and privately centers herself and then comes back with a more centered and loving heart (10-20 points) 20. On special occasions, she overlooks his mistakes that might normally upset her (20-40 points) 21. She really enjoys having sex with him (10-40 points) 22. He forgets where he put his keys and she doesn’t look at him as though he was irresponsible (10-20 points)

4. How women think in a nutshell

Women are sensitive and emotional creatures. All women understand the world through the emotions. That’s why they have emotional waves, she can be happy at her peak and suddenly her mood is down and she feels insecure, with low self-esteem, this moment a support from loving partner is needed most. Woman need care and reassurance that man loves her and that she is fine. So this moment is temporary and she can spread love and happiness again.

A woman needs to be cherished, complimented, adored and loved. A woman has her own system of love points. If a man buys her a car it doesn’t mean 30 points it means 1 point as the flowers too. Cinema, flowers, car is valued at one point each. So if a man wants the loved one to be happy he needs to do those little and small things for her from time to time.

A woman needs to talk about things, and it doesn’t mean she asked for a solution, she just wants to explain her feelings and feel OK to share it. And partner needs to listen to her. A man should never diminish woman’s feelings and say “Oh, it is not a big deal”. For her, it means to be unloved, ignored and minimized.

Women believe in unconditional love and sometimes sacrifices themselves even when they feel that they are giving more to a relationship.

There is a small list how to cherish women: 1. Upon returning home find her first before doing anything else and give her a hug. 2. Ask her specific questions about her day that indicate an awareness of what she was planning to do 3. Practice listening and asking questions 4. Resist the temptation to solve her problems- empathize instead 5. Give her twenty minutes of unsolicited, quality attention. 6. Bring her cut flowers as a surprise as well as on special occasions 7. Plan a date several days in advance, rather than waiting for Friday night and asking her what she wants to do. 8. If she generally makes dinner or if it is her turn and she seems tired or really busy, offer to make dinner. 9. Compliment her on how she looks 10. Validate her feelings when she is upset 11. Offer to help her when she’s tired 12. Schedule an extra time when traveling so that she doesn’t have to rush 13. When you are going to be late, call her and let her know 14. When she asks for support, say yes or no without making her wrong for asking 15. Whenever her feelings have been hurt, give her some empathy and tell her, “I’m sorry you feel hurt.” Then be silent; let her feel your understanding of her hurt. Don’t offer solutions or explanations why her hurt is not your fault. 16. Whenever you need to pull away, let her know you will be back or that you need some time to think about things 17. When you’ve cooled off and you come back, talk about what was bothering you in a respectful, non-blaming way, so she doesn’t imagine the worst 18. Offer to build a fire in wintertime 19. When she talks to you, put down the magazine or turn off the TV and give her your full attention 20. If she usually washes the dishes, occasionally offer to wash the dishes, especially if she is tired that day

5. 90/10 rule

Remember it is not always about you. We are different, with different background and languages. Sometimes weird unexpected emotions come from suppressed childhood traumas. Lack of attention, bad parenting and so on. So, about 90 percent of being upset is related to our past and has nothing to do with what we think is upsetting us. And only about 10 percent of our bad emotions are appropriate to the present experience. What you can practice with your partner is love letters, where you try in a loving manner to discuss your feelings, why you feel sad angry, unloved and so on.

You only got your legs wet, to understand more you need to read more about relationships, opposite sex, and come with the understanding that we are different and that’s OK. Hope, you are strong enough to work and explore the vast sea of a great partnership. And a calm sea never made a good sailor :)

Discover more: http://booksums.blogspot.lt/2008/04/men-are-from-mars-women-are-from-venus.html

https://www.amazon.de/Men-Mars-Women-Venus-Understanding/dp/0060574216

#love #man #life #lifestyle

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falgunikurian · 4 years

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10-interesting-facts-about-the-human-heart

1. Your heart weighs between 7-15 ounces

You may have read this in your Science book. A woman’s heart, on average, weighs about 8 ounces and a man’s heart weighs around 10 ounces.

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2. Newborn infants have the quickest heart rate

A newborn’s heartbeat is around 70-190 beats per minute. The resting heart rate of an average adult should be around 60-100 beats per minute. A heart rate higher or steadily increasing over the years could be a sign of impending or current heart problems. Media reports that athletes who regularly undergo training have a slow resting medical heart rate of around 40-60 beats per minute. You may have read that women – on average – have faster heart rates than men. This is because women’s hearts are smaller in size and need to beat more to pump the same amount of blood.

3. No one has figured out the association of the heart with love

Different historical periods and civilizations had different medical meanings for the heart according to the media. The belief that the heart controlled all emotion and thought was the general assumption in ancient civilizations. People back then also believed that the brain was completely useless. Over time, the idea that love came from the heart became synonymous with and stuck in popular media and culture. It slowly translated into the books we read today.

4. Men and women have different heart attack symptoms.

Read symptoms carefully. The medical symptoms of a woman having a heart attack are different and much less prominent than a man. For women, the event of a heart attack can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, pain, or fullness in the center of the chest. It can also produce pain in the back, one or both arms, jaw, neck, or stomach, nausea, shortness of breath in the lungs, and other symptoms. Men experience a typical medical heart attack symptoms of discomfort, pressure, and chest pain. They, too, can experience pain in other areas, such as the neck, arms, jaw, and back, as well as, sweating, shortness of breath, and discomfort that mimics heartburn.

5. Your aorta is as large as a garden hose

The aorta (the biggest artery in your body’s circulatory system) runs from the heart to your belly. It carries the most blood and is a common site for medical issues like aneurysms. If you notice any abnormal symptoms, contact your doctor and have them read your reports.

Also Read: Do You Know Of The Benefits Of Liposuction Surgery?

6. A “broken heart” could feel like a heart attack

Sudden and intense feelings of sadness can mimic the symptoms of a heart attack. Stress hormones that are released into the body can cause shortness of breath and chest pain. Luckily, your heart will begin to feel normal with a little bit of rest.

7. The heart pumps 2,000 gallons of blood every day

You may have read that the blood from your beating heart travels about 12,000 miles through your body system every day. This is about 4 times the size of the U.S. from the East coast to the West coast. Your circulatory system pumps about one million barrels of blood, throughout your lifetime.

8. Heart attacks happen most frequently on Monday mornings

Stress hormones are at their highest in the mornings compared to any other point during the day, and Mondays particularly seem to cause people more stress than other days of the week. An increase in heart rate, plus a rise in blood pressure and stress hormones can break pockets of plaque and cause a blockage to the heart.

9. Sneezing does not stop the heart

Contrary to the popular medical belief you may have read, sneezing does not make your heart “skip a beat” or make it stop. However, it can briefly change your heart’s rhythm. During a cardiac arrest is the only time your heart stops to work.

10. Depression is hard on the heart

Depression increases the risk of heart attack, especially in women. If you’re a woman under the age of 55 with moderate to severe depression, you are about twice as likely to –

Suffer a heart attack

Die due to a disease of the health of the organ

Require an artery-opening procedure

Keeping your Heart Healthy

More people have indeed passed due to heart disease than most cancers combined. Facts say that over 1 in 3 women is living with heart disease, and one American woman dies every minute from:

Heart disease

Stroke

Other cardiovascular diseases

The American Heart Association recommends a system of 75 weekly minutes of vigorous exercise or 150 minutes of moderate-intensity workout or a combination of the two. You should get yourself checked by a doctor at a hospital that provides cardiological services and treatment options. Other ways to lower heart risks include:

Eating better

Reducing blood sugar

Controlling cholesterol levels

Losing weight

Quitting smoking