#and here i am almost a decade later a mother of two. still suffering. madness.

[makoandharu]

I can’t stop thinking about the makoharu airport scene. I didn’t remember how flustered Haru got trying to apologize and the BLUSHING I— Please send help

I am telling u, the way i sat there at 2 am feeding my my 1 month old, and watched that stupid clip on repeat like 40 times what the FUVK

Cannot deal with Haru's shock when Makoto calls out to him and Rin. He genuinely didn't expect him to be there?? Bc he didn't expect to be forgiven so easily bc he didn't deserve it?? But ofc Makoto is there. Ofc he is. When has he not been there for Haru?

How hard Haru tries to say something to him, anything, a greeting, an apology, anything at all, just talk to him, so that Makoto can respond and he can hear his voice, bc he hasn't talked to him in days and that's never happened before and he missed him. How he knows he should beg for forgiveness. But nothing comes out bc he's never needed words with Makoto before and now everything has changed, and now he's blushing and he really doesn't know what to say

But jfc Makoto just gets him doesn't he??? Ofc Haru doesn't need to say anything. Ofc Makoto understands. Yes things have changed, but change isn't always bad and they'll always be Makoto and Haru who understand each other instinctively.

And will i E V E R get over the SOFTNESS of Makoto's voice when he says Okaeri?? Absolutely not. The forgiveness that's in those words and how they leave Haru, useless with words Haru, even more speechless. (Without joking his okaeri & swimming pool ily actually play in my head in a loop like elevator music i really am going MAD, I like to blame my lack of sleep but really KyoAni did this to me)

The music that starts playing like this is a Disney Channel Original from 2008. Haru's hair woosh bc he's a anime princess. The way Rin is just there, 3rd wheeling, like:

#rin is really like it's really your choice but you should be together ❤ #why are we losing our minds over a dumb scene animated like half a decade ago why won't these two let us LIVE #choose ur fighter: swimming pool scene. fireworks scene. Airport scene #caffernnn #ask #makoharu #how did i fall in love with this show like seven years ago when i was still in SCHOOL #and here i am almost a decade later a mother of two. still suffering. madness.

[some-cookie-crumbz]

Hello 👋🏼, sorry if I’m bothering u but ever since the recent chapters of BNHA I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the Todoroki family. Not many of my friends are into this anime and I just couldn’t stop myself from sharing this with you because I need to let this out.

[SPOILER ALERT 🚨!!! IF U DONT READ THE MANGA THEN U CAN JUST IGNORE THIS]

First of all:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!

(I’m still screaming as I write because the backstories RUINED me.)

Poor Touya having this horrible obsession over heroics and having his father acknowledge him but ever since his quirk started reacting against his body the whole family got negatively affected by it.

Rei and Enji wanted to stop at two kids but with Touya’s sudden disadvantage and the latter’s craving for power, Natsuo and later on Shouto was born (the youngest getting titled as the perfect heir from the moment he was born). I got torn seeing Touya’s eyes succumb to absolute madness at the birth of his younger brothers.

What scared me the most was how when it was just Touya and Fuyumi, the two hardly interacted despite being only a year apart in age. Touya claimed that ‘girls just don’t get it’ this small foreshadowing was later brought to light in the most recent chapter where he once again rejects Fuyumi’s company in favour of ranting to only Natsuo and where he disregards his own mother— another ‘girl’ that doesn’t understand his obsession passion for surpassing All Might and someone who plays along to the acts of those stronger than them. Touya saw his mother as a weak person who had no choice but to marry for the sake of her family and have custom children. Little Touya firmly believed his very existence depended on getting acknowledged my his father and defeating All Might but it sadly didn’t come true😭😭

Also..... LOOK AT THE BABIES!!!! They’re all so CUTE!!!

Chubby Fuyumi!!!

Natsuo with a running nose

And Baby Shouto with a meme like face since the day he was born🤣🤣🤣🤣

So ADORABLE!

And another thing. FUYUMI WAS EVEN YOUNGER THAN I THOUGHT TO HAVE STARTED ACTING LIKE A SECOND MOTHER TO HER BROTHERS!! Look at the way she defended Natsuo when Touya went on a rampage and tried to attack Touya! And during moments when Enji and Rei fought the two most notable heroes were Shouto and Fuyumi; the former fighting on the frontlines to face his father while the latter stood behind to once again care for her remaining family that though weren’t involved in the fight, they still needed emotional support to get through it.😭

I AM SO SORRY TO BE GETTING TO THIS SO LATE ANON BUT I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY!!!

TW: Spoilers, Brief Mention of Child Abuse (Physical, Emotional and Mental), General Fandom Wank

So, like, SO MUCH HAPPENED in those chapters and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE ALMOST ALL OF IT! There’s obviously all the things you mentioned above that were just amazing to see and learn! I know that a majority of the fandom has been absolutely livid about the reveals involving Touya being drastically different than what fandom thought they were all this time, but I think it honestly highlights how smart Horikoshi’s writing really is.

In Shoto, we see the effects of physical and mental abuse on a child, and how easily he could have ended up going down a troubling road much like Touya. Shoto’s saving grace is facing off against Deku in the Sports Festival, giving him an outside perspective and makes him realize that he can choose to be better, but that doesn’t just magically fix all of Shoto’s problems. Shoto still struggles with his feelings towards his Father and how he is perceived by simply being Endeavor’s son. We see that in the Provisional License Arc, where Shoto is so thoroughly rattled by Inasa. It’s even further pushed through how Shoto struggles with his feelings about Endeavor trying to better and whether or not he should forgive him. I feel like Shoto’s arc is incredibly strong and that his struggles are very realistic, which is why people love him so much. This whole concept is another thing I could rant about but I’m going to leave it here.

Meanwhile, with Touya, we see the effects of mental and emotional abuse on a child and how it can completely destroy them. I think people that act like Horokoshi “down played” and “ret-conned” Endeavor as a character to make him more sympathetic/ redeemable or that he’s simply writing Touya as “always being a bad seed” are missing the mark. This is, admittedly, something you see a lot when it comes to victims of abuse in the real world as well; the idea that if you weren’t physically or sexually abused on top of emotional or mental abuse, your abuse is somehow less “valid.” Now I’ve seen more voices speaking out against this mentality - which is relieving and positive - but it’s still a problem. The way Touya was abused is no less valid or scarring to himself as a person as what Shoto has been through was. Touya and Enji clearly had a deep bond as father and son. Hell, the fact that Enji is sobbing and saying he “can’t fight his own son” in regards to Touya, but clearly had less issue training Shoto until he got ill or passed out says a lot.

Touya was put on an incredibly high pedestal by Enji’s constant praise and attention. He was the apple of his father’s eye until the limitations of his Quirk were discovered. Enji had filled his head with promises and goals for what his future would be, essentially selling him what turned out to be a lie. We see Rei herself tell Enji that Touya “knows you expect something out of the kids.” Touya’s whole life up until that point was being told of all the great he would someday accomplish, and equating that to being deserving of his Father’s love, attention and affection.

And then he couldn’t live up to that expectation. And then his parents had two more kids following that revelation. The idea that Touya doesn’t realize that Natsuo and Shoto were meant to be his replacements - unbroken models that “deserved” Enji’s love - is clearly not missed by him. It’s evident in the way he looks at Natsuo after he’s born. He sees this as a sign that he is no longer deserving - no longer worthy - of love or support from the parent he absolutely adores.

We see this mostly from Enji and Rei’s perspectives, so we know the reasons they did it, but it’s clear they didn’t stop to think about the way this would be interpreted by Touya himself. This whole matter is only worsened by the fact that Enji refuses to make sacrifices for the sake of his oldest son. He pushes Touya to live a life outside of Pro Heroics while Enji himself refuses to do the same, thus setting a positive example and showing solidarity with his son. He instead pushes him away and distances himself, loses himself in focusing on Natuso and, once his Quirk turns out to not be what he wants, Shoto. Touya continues to push himself despite his limits in a desperate bid for Enji to look at him the way he used to; with pride and love. 

What caused the fire that “killed” Touya? His anguish over being neglected and abandoned - left unloved - by his father yet again. It’s clear that Touya’s mental health is in need of some real focus that he has never gotten - due to both his parents negligence as well as the fact that mental health is highly stigmatized in Japanese society - and pairing that with the emotional and mental abuse he suffered at Enji’s hands broke him.

So many people are claiming Horikoshi is trying to make Enji “more redeemable”, but how do you get that? Enji abused Rei, his own wife, physically and emotionally and mentally until she had a psychotic breakdown, hurt their youngest child, and then robbed her the right to mother her children further by having her locked up in a psych ward for the next decade or so; built their oldest son, Touya, up only to then emotionally and mentally abuse him to the point he damn near killed himself in a frantic bid to garner Enji’s support only to return years later completely unhinged and looking to murder his entire family out of spite; neglected Fuyumi and Natsuo to the care of each other and hired help; alienated Shoto, his youngest son, from his siblings for his entire formative years, physically and mentally and emotionally abused him, groomed him to accomplish a task he never wanted, put him through such extensive physical training that Shoto would get sick or pass out.

Enji was a shitty father. He has a long ass road to continue walking if he ever wants redemption. The fact he didn't physically hit Touya doesn’t mean that Enji didn’t abuse his son and it doesn’t make Touya any less of a victim.

* End TodoFam Rant*

On a slightly lighter note, I also like all the information with Hawks’ past and all the parallels we’re seeing develop!

I’ve rambled briefly about this in other places the Huwumi discord but I want to expound upon this a bit more here.

I feel like Touya/ Dabi and Keigo/ Hawks are meant to be parallels to one another.

Back to back, we had proper name claims by these two characters. We had Dabi reveal his true identity as Todoroki Touya and then we have Hawks choosing to abandon his hero name to instead step up to fight as Takami Keigo.

I feel like “Dabi” was always a mask, of sorts. Dabi is typically pretty calm, cool, composed with the occasional bites of snark and cruelty. Meanwhile, we see Touya emoting and moving in a manner more akin to himself as a child, dancing about in manic delight over revealing his true identity and intentions. The pair of them are two drastically different people when you stop and look at it. “Dabi” was the mask he wore to gain ground to enact his revenge, and now that he is there? Now Touya can burn everything tethered to it down to ground.

Meanwhile, we have "Hawks” as he was forced to become as per the Hero Public Safety Commission. We had it revealed quite a while back that Hawks was a man of many faces, jumping from laid-back and chill to serious and focused quite frequently. “Hawks” is the presentation for the public and the Commission, groomed to be the perfect little canary in the mine that was Pro Heroics. The reveal of his true heritage, however, is not the killing blow Touya wanted it to be. Instead, it allows Keigo, the one who wanted to be a Hero to help people, the chance to truly dedicate himself to that. In being freed from the cage of “Hawks”, he is given the change to really soar as Keigo.

Now, I feel that “Dabi” and “Hawks” are most certainly parts of Touya and Keigo as well, respectively. Even though those titles were masks, they were masks made from parts of the men who wear them. I think what we’ll see going forward is the true elements of those masks bleeding back into the whole, and seeing the truest forms of each character.

For better or for worse. 

#crumbles grumbles #half baked headcanons #Wow I haven't busted that tag out in fuckin forever #Might have to do more headcanon posts about BNHA #If any of yall wanna read me ramble about that stuff? #BNHA Spoilers

[babybottlepop96]

Home Again Chapter 2

warnings: Same as the first chapter (reccommend reading chapter one first)

~10 Years Ago~

When Jean awoke, it was dark, wet, cold. The smell reminded him of that time he left a cheesesteak sub in his mother's fridge, stuffed all the way in the back and forgot about it, it smelled of rot, decay and death. The air was thick and he choked on it. When he tried to move, he couldn't, his hands behind his back and stuck to whatever wall was in the room, the feeling of mold and miss sticking to his hands had his stomach churning with disgust.

"Ah, looks like the runt is awake." A deep, raspy voice sounded, echoing off the walls and sounding much louder than what it probably was. Jean turned to the sound to see a doorway lit by a candle. Above the flame was a long, thin, stubble coated chin, a mouth of thin lips curled into a wicked smile showing off dark yellow and brown stained, crooked teeth, a short pug like nose and then eyes that seemed to burn a bright blue in the low light. The man was tall, lanky, but underneath the tight green shirt showed off toned muscle. "How you feeling princess?" 

Jean just looked at the man, "What's going on? Where am I?" He asked just above a whisper.

"Ah, straight to the point I see, well, ya see princess-" 

"Don't call me that." Jean hissed as a boney, calloused hand smacked him across the face.

"Don't back sass me boy!" The man's deep voice bellowed, causing the volume in the small space to vibrate the moist walls. "I will call you whatever the fuck I feel like!" The man pulled Jean up and pushed him against the wall, bending down a significant amount to get right into his face. Jean's nose scrunched as the smell of tobacco and whiskey invaded his nostrils. "You belong to the Nevidljiv now, you have no right to speak to anyone without permission. You will learn place, princess, and I will making fucking sure of it." The man sneered in his face. Jean's eyes widened and his body started to shake. What the fuck was happening? What is the Nevidlijiv? What's going to happen to me? All these questions ripped through Jean's mind as he was dropped to the floor, landing with a painful thud against the hard floor beneath him. "The quicker you learn, the less painful it'll be for you. So I suggest you do what your told the first time." The man looked at the young teen on the floor and smiled wickedly, "We start lessons in an hour." With that, the man and the source of light was gone. Jean was left alone in the cold, damp, dark space with just his thoughts.

~1 Hour Later~

Jean was suddenly dragged out from wherever he was, the sloshing of something thick and liquidy seeping into his work out sketchers. Jean let himself be taken, the words of the disgusting man from earlier still ringing in his ears, 'The quicker you learn, the less painful it'll be for you.' Jean was then led up a set of stairs, the air becoming less thick smelled more like tobacco and cinnamon scented candles. A door was swing open and Jean had to close his eyes before the blinding light that smacked in his face. "This the new kid?" Another man asked and Jean opened his eyes, only to stare into a pair of eyes, one white like cream and another eye that was like an olive green, staring back at him filled with an emotion that screamed hatred.

"Yes, sir. This one was found walking in the park only a few hours ago. Lappell found him." The man dragging him spoke, the man from earlier.

"Well, Lappell did a good job this time. Finally, a bitch that should make a decent penny if he is trained correctly. Thank you Marcus, you may leave the boy and do whatever." The man, Marcus, pushed Jean into the big, bright room and closed the door behind him. Jean stared at his surroundings, the white walls and high ceiling seemed to stretch on for forever, the only things that he could see that weren't white were the dark brown, leather couches and a baby blue door on the opposite side of the room. "Get a shower kid, then come back out. Do not make me wait longer then five minutes." The short, chubby man walked towards one of the couches and turned to look at Jean, who was standing frozen in place. "Don't make repeat myself boy!" The man yelled and Jean turned to the blue door, which he assumed was the bathroom and made a mad dash towards it, opening it and stumbling pass the threshold.

He was right, this was the bathroom, but the site of it made him want to vomit, it was dirty, spelled of shit, vomit and copper. Yellow stains covered the walls that he only assumed used to be a pristine white at one point. He quickly undressed and turned the shower on, he stepped in and let the burst of cold water drench him. He scrubbed off the dirt and sweat and everything else that seemed to cover his body in the amount of time from the morning he woke up to now. What day was it? The man, Marcus said a few hours, but was it longer? 

Jean got out of the shower only to find that his clothes were missing and he had no towel. Panic set itself within his body and he bagan to shake. Suddenly the door was ripped open, almost off it's hinges, and the shirt chubby man stood before him. Jean made aove to cover himself, but the man grabbed him arm and drug him towards the center of the two couches that now seated more men, all in dark business suits and perfectly styled hair, puffing cigars. "Men! Meet the newbie." The stubby man spoke…. Happily? 

"My, my, my. This one is a beauty! You really out done yourself this time Reggie." A pale man with peircing hazel eyes and cherry red hair spoke, lips curling into a smirk as he looked over Jean's naked form. Jean moved to cover himself again, but the red head snatched his hands. "Don't you dare cover yourself, boy. We quite like the view." Jean stared to shake again, he was not liking where the conversation suggested, he just wanted to bolt through the door Marcus brought him through, but he had no light, no clothes, no shoes, he didn't know where the hell he was or how he even got here. He was stuck and he was alone. 

"Spin around for us." Reggie spoke from his seat on the couch next to the red head. When Jean didn't move, a hand hit his face, the force giving Jean whiplash. "Spin around!" Jean nodded shakily, the faint taste of blood hitting his tounge as he slowly turned in a circle, hands balled at his sides as he concentrated on not covering up his dignity. "Good boy." Reggie purred like he was talking to a dog who just learned how to obey a simple command. "Who would like to break in the new toy first?"

~Present Day~

"Where the hell did you find him?!" Marco cried as he rushed to a sleeping Jean, holding a cold, pale, thin hand in his own warm, freckled, tan ones as a tear slowly slipped down a cheek.

"We went looking for a new maid, as you know since… Mrs. Kirstein passed, we haven't been able to find one quite as good as her. So we scouted for one at an auction." The young men were silent, all knowing how much everyone on this side of the state hated under ground auctions that sold off people for there own benefit. But Marco, knowing his father was desperate for a friend like Mrs. Kirstein, understood why he would've went so low. "We made it for the last fifteen minutes or so for the pleasure portion of the auction. None of us bothered to look and see who was being sold off, we didn't have the hearts, until the last person came out and the bids were flying out left and right, huge numbers, more then any other I've heard for being sold. I got curious and turned to see the one face I never thought I'd see again. Jean." 

Marco looked at the sleeping man and gently brushed some hair out of his face, his eyes roaming the expansive canvas of his body, bruises varying in color from blue, purple, yellow and green, all in various states of healing. The scars and freshly stitched wounds done by Dr. Yeager himself. His once almost smooth perfect body had been beaten on, dirtied, and touched by unknown men and possible women, he was put into pain and suffering for probably ten years. A while decade Marco wondered what had happened to Jean, and now he wasn't liking the reality of it. "Who had him?" He whispered as his fingers traced old wounds on jeans right arm.

"He was being sold throught a human trafficking organization known as The Nevidlijiv, it's Creation for Invisible. Meaning this organization it's soon secret, no one knows about it unless you know someone, someone powerful. It started back in the late 1800s by a group of men who wanted nothing more then to steal and use others weaker then themselves to.. keep them company, if you get my drift." Dr. Yeager informed and the rest of the young adults listen intently. "After a few years of kidnapping young men and women, they decided they wanted to make a pretty penny, so they started selling them. Always moving to different locations or even different countries to keep themselves off the grid. It's cash only, if it's traceable, it's not allowed. No phones or may other electronics are allowed in the places the auctions are held. Hence, invisible." Dr. Yeager looked at Jean's unconscious body and sighed, "And I'm afraid Jean here, was the top prize for those disgusting pigs. Sure, being the best means too care, but that doesn't exclude from anything else, he was probably treated worse because of being the top one to want." 

Marco could feel the tears cascading down his freckles cheeks, as held onto Jean's hand tighter. "Fuck! If I would've known something like this could've happened, I would've-" Eren suddenly spoke up, his voice cracking as he willed himself not to break down. Sure, he was an asshole to Jean, a major dick bucket, but he realized after Jean had vanished it was because he himself, was trying to hide the fact that he also liked the same sex. When Jean never showed up for school again, he felt this odd pang of hurt inside his chest and realized then, he really liked Jean.

"Eren, it's okay, none of us could've guessed this would've happened." Armin then spoke, putting a comforting hand on his boyfriend's shoulder and brought him in for a hug.

"Do you know what else happened to him?" Marco asked, as he looked towards his father with tear filled eyes.

"I was given this. A list of prior "owners" and all the medical records he had in the last ten years." He held out a decently sized folder, filled with papers. Marco took the black folder and began looking through it, heavy in his hands, he wanted to be sick.  Every single medical record was signed with a different name for major things like surgery or anything that required severe medical attention. Others where I put signed by people who had bought Jean at auctions and some just had awful names written down: Bitch, Whore, Slut… just to make a few. As Marco got further the papers the words began to blur into a mess of scribbles. He closed the folder and tossed to across the room, laying his head on the couch next to Jean, Marco let out a loud sob, breaking everyone hearts as they saw the heir to the Bott mafia and business weep his heart out for the boy he lost and then found again.

Jean suddenly let out an ear piercing scream, shaking and clawing at his own skin. Marco fell away as he wanted the man he loved for years convulse like mad man and scream like he was in pain. Dr. Yeager and Mr. Ackerman held him down, "Get the sedative!" Dr. Yeager yelled at no one in particular. Mikasa grabbed the syringe from her adoptive father's bag and handed it to him. After Jean was injected, Jean fell limp against the couch once more.

#Jean Krischtein #marco bott #attack on titan #levi attack on titan #jean x marco #abuse #eventual smut #chapter 2 #marcos dad #erens dad #armin #reiner #bert #mikasa

[rwdestuffs]

Done dirty: Yang.

Because I guess her having an entire hate group dedicated to her on deviantart isn’t enough to make the writers to think that maybe they should actually develop her and cut her some slack.

Hey everyone, and welcome to ‘Done dirty’ the blog series that takes a look at these characters, and shows how they’ve failed at being characters, or at least the ones that the writers have tried to tell us that they are.

And Yang is a perfect example of this.

See, Yang was meant to be a deconstruction of the party girl trope. This means she loves fun, and doesn’t take things seriously.

If that sounds nothing like Yang, then congratulations!- You clearly know the difference between what was told and what was shown.

The Yang/Yellow trailer shows Yang going to a nightclub and wrecking the place because she didn’t get the information she wanted. While her going to a nightclub seems to be all that is needed for her to fulfill the party girl trope for the writers, it really isn’t enough for the viewers. Here’s an idea: How about we open on Yang on the dance floor, and when she does a minor offense (Like spilling someone’s drink while she’s dancing), the guy she offended attacks her, and she defends herself.

Not only would this give Yang a valid reason to fight, but it would also show that she was there for a good time, only to have it ruined because some asshole didn’t accept an apology.

Instead, she walks up to Junior, skipping the dance floor entirely, and demands that Junior give her the information that she wants. Such a ‘party girl’ am I right?- Then she assaults him for not giving it to her, and wrecks the place!

She doesn’t even face any consequences for wrecking the place! Some of the fanfics I’ve read have the excuse being that Junior doesn’t want any attention from the police, as he associates with criminals. But that doesn’t work because a) This isn’t conveyed well enough to the audience and is pretty much moot, and b) Yang tends to not do this often.

Volume 1 rolls around, and she’s giving her sister a big hug. But once they touch down, she immediately ditches Ruby to hang out with her shadow friends!- But not only that, they establish in the very next episode that Yang was like a mother figure for Ruby, so this contradicts what happened because on one hand, the first part makes us think that Yang is actually a party girl, like the writers intended, but the second part…

… Establishes her as a motherly figure. She wants Ruby to break out of her shell, and meet new people, as established in the next episode.

and she does this even further by not actively looking for Ruby, so that she can help her little sister break out of her shel- She doesn’t at all. If you’ve been following, Yang is really contradictory in the first volume.

Party girl tendencies?- Practically nonexistent. Motherly figure to Ruby?- Only when the plot calls for it. Wanting to help Ruby grow?- Doesn’t even apply to the following episode. Cares about her partner?- She doesn’t even run off trying to chase and stop her after Blake runs off.

There’s no consistency about Yang in volume 1 because at this point, she’s just a pretty face who punches things. At least she’s strategic about it, as she came up with the idea of blasting the Nevermore from the inside on her own and didn’t just recklessly shoot it from the ground in a fruitless manner (remember this for me, would you?)

Volume 2 gave her some personality. She makes puns! Oh I get it! It’s just like Barbara!- Oh that’s clever.

Yeah, the start wasn’t good to Yang, but she provides some interesting things to say, and she manages to get Blake to calm down with a heartfelt speech about how she should have died when she went out to look for Raven, yadda yadda, we know how the end went.

She dances with Blake for… about what?- five seconds of screentime?

Then she doesn’t dance with anyone else.

And when we get to Mountain Glenn, she provides some pretty neat exposition on the location.

And people keep saying that she’s a ‘dumb blonde.’- HA!

Like… the other things. I mean, she blocks, dodges and weaves in all the fights she’s in (remember that for me).

She also nearly rings out Mercury, and that’s actually pretty brilliant. She almost threw the entire plan of Cinder out the window, and she didn’t even realize it. It’s actually a pretty cool fight.

And we know how it ends, so let’s talk about the consequences of the fight.

There are none. Sure, she gets disqualified, but that’s hardly anything. We finally had Yang in a position that she couldn’t punch her way out of, and the writers didn’t capitalize on it. This would have been a perfect opportunity for the Yellow trailer to come back and bite her, but we don’t get that. We don’t get to see Yang developing from bad social stigma. We don’t get to see people flinching away at her, or being on edge because they’re afraid of making her mad, we just see her uncle calling her crazy.

Right… The guy who fought a person who could distort what they were seeing being at the tournament is totally never going to happen. It’s not like Qrow once fought a person with that ability when he was trailing the fall maiden.

But really, the biggest insult of all comes from the audience, when Yang got her arm cut off. After the initial shock, we got treated to people saying that “She deserved it” “Now she won’t be so reckless” and ‘She should have waited!”

Right. Because obviously, if that were said viewer’s friend in that same situation, they would have waited too. There was no reason for Yang to believe that Adam would step away from Blake, there was no reason for her to know that Blake had enough aura to use her semblance, and there was no reason for Yang to wait around and strategize. If she did, then I’m positive that the fans would say “Why did she wait?- She put Blake in danger by waiting! She should have rushed in!”- Effectively blaming Yang for losing her arm, and putting her in a no-win situation.

Then we have Volume 4. Oh boy, how to deconstruct this piece of shit.

Let’s start with the positives of Yang’s arc.

It starts off really well. Yang’s PTSD is portrayed realistically, and she finds it hard to function as she once did. She acknowledges that she has to get used to this, and her nightmares feel very real.

Tai doesn’t blame her for not wanting to put on the arm, and that’s actually pretty good. He’s not guilt tripping her……… yet.

We go to a later part, and we now see that Tai actually does blame Yang for losing her arm.

WHO. THE FUCK. WANTED THIS. JOKE?- Who thought that this was an okay thing to say to a person who lost their limb on the battlefield?

Not only does this show that Tai blames Yang for losing her arm, but it also carries the implication that Tai would have let his teammates suffer through death had he been in Yang’s shoes. And then Yang has to diffuse the situation.

If this was how they functioned, then Yang would have shot back with something equally as scathing. But why should I think that Tai knows how to parent when he was stated to have ‘shut down’ after Summer died?

There is no reason to. Tai was a shitty parent not only in that scene, but in the past as well. And yet, the narrative still seems to want to shit on Yang some more.

Yep. comparing losing a limb and getting PTSD from it to a fear of mice. I guess that’s something you’d see if you only read the cliff notes of the cliff notes on how to write PTSD.

And remember how I said that Tai hadn’t guilt-tripped Yang into putting on the arm?

……… Yeah, it didn’t last long. Whether he intended to or not, Tai guilt-tripped Yang into putting on the arm. And the narrative still makes Tai out to be in the right in this situation.

This is only like… four or five episodes after she lost the arm, by the way. This makes the whole drama of her losing it totally pointless. How about she loses that feeling of invincibility by just having Adam defeat her in a brutally-drawn-out manner, and then she collapses from exhaustion? Not only would this provide an explanation as to why Blake managed to save her (she could recover enough aura in the time they were fighting), but it would also instill a deeper fear of Adam. And it would also make it so that it didn’t feel like the writers half-assed and rushed the PTSD arc so that they could get Yang back into action. But we don’t get that.

And do you want to know the worst part about the training session?- It’s not when he makes unfair comparisons to Raven. It’s not when he implies that Yang’s fighting style isn’t his fault (despite him being her teacher). It’s when he outright calls her semblance, the manifestation of her soul, a temper tantrum.

Real father of the year material right here. Yeesh, and people wonder why I don’t like Tai. And that line “What if you miss?”- That’s not an actual argument. That’s like asking Ruby “What if you miss with your scythe?”- It applies to everyone, not just Yang. So Tai saying that just feels like the writers couldn’t find a flaw in Yang’s fighting style, so they went with the most generic and useless concept they could think of: The possibility of missing.

Gasp! That’s right! What if Yang does miss?- She could be left about as vulnerable as……… any time that she’d miss before charging her semblance! How about focusing on how she’s predictable instead? Or how she doesn’t think of incorporating kicks into her fighting style? Was that too hard?

Volume 5 is slightly better to Yang, but not by much. For starters, Qrow apparently decided that after only knowing three-fourths of them for about two months, that team RNJR needed to know everything about Raven, despite the fact that Yang’s been asking for at least a decade.

And while the arm shaking is nice to see, it feels… tacked on. As if the writers decided to throw it in because they realized that Yang didn’t have many lines back in the Volume that shall not be named. It doesn’t seem like a genuine effort to actually show the trauma, it just feels really forced.

Yang beats up some bandits by……… doing what she’s been doing. Blocking, dodging, weaving, and getting in close to her opponent. She doesn’t deliberately take hits like she did in that one single fight we saw back in volume 2, and it just shows that Tai (and the writers) knew absolutely nothing about Yang’s fighting style.

She confronts her mother, and instead of getting the answers she wanted, the writers threw out that motivation in favor of her demanding that Raven send her to Mr. “I fought a person with the ability to alter a person’s perception but it’s impossible that Yang was under that influence when she kneecapped that Mercury kid who shares a name with that one assassin named Marcus Black.” (Can you tell that I’m not happy with any of the male authority figures in Yang’s life?).

Also also, we don’t see that shopkeep from earlier being wary of Yang. So either word got out that there were some shenanigans going on at the tournament, or people in this world are really forgetful. Considering that Emerald later forgot about her semblance and the “Pulling Coco  using her weapon’s chains back  in Volume 3″ feat, the latter is pretty likely.

And I guess to Yang and pretty much everyone else in the world, Ozpin possessing a kid, dragging him into a war, and eventually assimilating him takes a lower priority than him giving Qrow and Raven bird powers. Granted, this is a problem with everyone, but Yang is the one who brought up the bird thing.

Unfortunately, she seems to have forgotten that she once described Summer as

Because now, Summer is now just

Thankfully, Yang shows some human emotion, and talks about how she’s always been abandoned.

It’s really great to see a character actually talking about their issues, and- waitaminute. Tai was what?

And she had to what?

And she was what?

So, we’re all in agreement that Tai isn’t ‘dad of the year’ material, right?- The guy left Yang alone to pick up the pieces, and forced her to grow up really quickly. Albeit, he did this unintentionally, but he still did it. And the narrative just doesn’t ever bring this up. There’s very little resentment towards him outside of Yang calling her father by his name, and nobody seems to want to talk about this?

She shows some human emotion and is convinced that she should at least try to understand why Blake left, but considering all she’s been through……… I can’t help but blame her for wanting someone to be there for her.

Later in the volume, Weiss gets impaled. And like a lot of people in RWDE discussed before, only jaune gets to react to it.

And Yang abandons her arm when she’s told to go after Raven. Like……… why? There’s a time and a place for brute force, and that was a time and a place for it. What was she going to do if Cinder had won?- Ask nicely for her to not take the relic?

Her speech to Raven also feels empty. She wasn’t brave coming down to that vault, she was reckless. She wasn’t thinking ahead, and she wasn’t using what she had available to her. I dare say that it was Taiyang’s advice that made her think to abandon the arm.

And can we talk about how jaune was rewarded for rushing in to fulfill his revenge boner, while Yang was punished for wanting to save Blake?- Again, nobody is saying that jaune had no right to those emotions. But the narrative, characters (specifically Tai), and a few audience members seem to believe that Yang was in the wrong for wanting to save her friend, while saying that jaune was in the right for wanting revenge.

#rwde #yang crit #done dirty

[billion-heartbeats]

“We the People”: The Indian Republic

72nd Republic day- unfinished agenda is staring!

Is Democracy in peril?

 America and India are the two largest democracies in the world. Alarming analogies are being drawn between the storming of US capitol on 6th January 2021  and breaching of the Red fort in Delhi on 26th January 20201. The storming of the United States Capitol was a riot and violent attack. The revolt- observed world over is a warning bell. Many of those who stormed were racists and Proud Boys members’ of Trumps stop the steal and save America rally. The unnerving sight of Confederate flag that emerged during the storming of US capitol by Trump mobs brought back bloody memories of civil war.

 The Nishan sahib on the other hand is a holy religious flag of Sikh community. The farmers’ protest has been consistently identified with religious flags.  But the climbing on to poles, waving the flag from the ramparts of Red Fort and later hoisting the Nishan Sahib, at the Red Fort on the 72nd Republic Day of India has sent shock waves across India and the world! The shocking visuals will be forever etched in the memory of Indians. Did the protesting farmers forget that on 15 August 1947, Nehru, raised the Indian national flag above the Lahori Gate and that every year the PM hoists the Indian “tricolour flag” at the Red fort?

Is Democracy in India- in peril?

 On foot and in tractors, the protesters were part of a huge rally planned for India's Republic Day. The storming of the red fort has made the 72nd republic day of India as the 'republic of fear'. Red fort is a Symbol of the sanctity of our democracy.

 Red Fort was breached; 120 and odd Police Personnel injured with some in ICU. There were actually armed insurrectionists in an inflammatory state of madness marching menacingly up the steps of Red Fort- never seen before! January 26, 2021 was an unforgettable crackpot day not just for us but for a flabbergasted world watching the grotesqueness at play in the red fort! The security infrastructure guarding the historical place, where the Prime Minister unfurls the National flag was feeble and unprepared. Supporters of Khalisthan movement and anti-national forces have infiltrated the Farmers protest.

 Now, I am a common man.

The Common Man is a cartoon character created by Indian author and cartoonist R. K. Laxman. For over a half of a century, the Common Man has represented the hopes, aspirations, troubles and perhaps even foibles of the average Indian. Clad in a dhoti and a plaid jacket, the puzzled Common Man is no dupe: his sharp observations never missed  details of the political circus.

Are we a successful nation?

Yes and NO!

We seem to be suffering from a colonial hangover! Seven decades after Independence, the legacy of the British Empire continues to define India in many ways, in terms of the institutions and regulations we inherited and chose to persist with. Westminster model of democracy has failed us as reflected in the unfinished agenda of free India.

 India is a paradox

Within India there live many India-s including Rural Bharath and an Urban India and to quite a few others the Hindustan! The rich and content India, the poor and weak India, the mediocre India, the ailing India, the rejoicing India, the satiated India, the starving and famished India, the India that reaches out to the space, the India that struggles hard to write it’s name. India dreams to develop into a superpower but a third of the world’s poor still live here. India is one of the fastest developing economies in the world but also a home to the largest number of malnourished children.

 Parliamentary democracy

 In India, parliamentary democracy actually means appealing to caste and communal vote banks. It only has further entrenched them. Cash, caste and charisma- in that order, win you elections. Still elections are declared Free and fair. The Parliamentary Democracy has failed to deliver the basic necessities of life to the majority of Indians even after 72 yrs.

 Respect for ourselves guides our morals; Respect for others guides our manners. Respect is one of mankind’s most noble sentiments. The highest levels of respect are always earned – never given. “As a citizen - I should be an Honest Person, Understand the Values and have Good Manners and Proper Conduct and Learn to accept responsibility for my own actions. This is the only way we can develop and help India develop.

Within two years of independence in 1947 and through open and spirited debate, India produced a constitution that guarantees “fundamental rights and a federal and parliamentary system with a significant role for the Supreme Court. But we are into an illusion. The superstructures of democratic government—a parliament and prime minister, periodic elections, constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms—hide the realities of on-the-ground rule by local landlords, bureaucracy, and party and industrialists, buttressed by a culture of caste-based inequality, and sustained by India’s continuing poverty. A democratic India has not been able to match Communist China’s ability to bring about an economically stable society!

 Unfinished agenda

 Macro achievements

 Right after independence up to mid-1960s, we had to import food grains. Today India is self-sufficient in food production and exports various food grains. We are largest producers of fresh fruits, milk, pulses and oil seeds, largest producers of wheat, rice, and sugarcane.

 India is one of four largest military powers with nuclear capability in the world today. We  have a sophisticated missile program.  We have developed one of the most envious space programs in the world. To this day, we have launched successful Lunar and Mars missions; all thanks to Indian Space Research Organization. Indian science is transforming India!

  Despite its impressive economic growth, India still faces large challenges to overcome. Wealth at the top has not trickled down to the bottom. In 2017, 81% of the population still lived on less than Rs 140.00 a day. In the same year almost 30% of adults were illiterate and only 7% of Indians graduated.

Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty

 Can the Indian government declare that in the next 5 years India will be in the list of 50, “NO-hungry” countries? That is the greatest freedom the government can offer! The Global Hunger Index- India is 103rd of 119 surveyed for 2018. Nearly 6oo million go hungry every day.

International poverty line is US$ 1.25 per day and as per the World Bank report 32.7% of the population in India lives below the poverty line whereas 68.7% survive on less than US$ 2 per day. 45% of children in India are malnourished. India has achieved the poverty reduction target.  However, progress is uneven.

Corruption has corrupted India!

 While India remains the most corrupt country in this region, with 69 per cent bribery rates, Japan came out as the least corrupt nation, with a 0.2 per cent bribery rate. Many Indians believe that God accepts money in return for his favors. So, they believe, there is nothing is wrong in bribery!

 Religion is transactional in India. Outside the temple walls, such a transaction is called “bribe”. India’s temples collect so much that they don't know what to do with it. Billions are gathering dust in temple vaults. Corruption breeds corruption. It has ceased to carry any stigma!

 Corruption is regarded as the biggest reasons of poverty in India. Corruption in the Public Distribution System is the worst of its kind. The leading source of corruption in India is entitlement programs and social spending schemes that are meant for the welfare of our society.,

 Child labor!

 We have five million children in the labor market, says official figures. Their actual numbers may be four times as many. As a nation, we have failed each one of them. The debate on child labor should have been settled with the Constitutional amendment recognizing the right to education as a fundamental right. The problem is anything but over!

  Education-  

 India has nearly achieved Universal Primary Education. 96 % of all children between the ages of 6-14 are enrolled in school. There are 229 million students enrolled in different accredited urban and rural schools of India. The quality of its education is in crisis. 95 percent of children attend primary school- just 40 % attend the secondary schools and Gross enrolment rate in Higher education is- 20%. 7% come out as graduates and only 20% of these are employable!

 The number of graduates coming out of technical colleges is over 700,000.  However, according to one study, 75% of technical graduates and more than 85% of general graduates lack the skills in the high-growth global industries.  

In January 2019, India had over 900 universities and 40,000 colleges. Our university system is, in many parts, in a state of disrepair. Almost two-thirds of our universities and 90% of our colleges are rated as below average. The new National Education Policy 2020 introduced by the central government is going to bring profound changes to education in India.

The second freedom struggle is for ‘a caste-free India’.

 A Wake-up Call for the People! Equality is fundamental to civilized living. The caste system has become degenerated and a social evil. It is a deep-rooted problem which has defied all solutions so far.

 Religion is just a belief and faith. It can change during anytime of the life, but caste is constant. Once a shudra you are a shudra for life! Caste system is more dangerous than any religious system. Destroy India's Caste System Before it destroys India!

 Anyone with a caste mind set will be change proof - Harvard and Oxford educated are no exceptions.  Come out of caste-based reservations. Let scholarships be based on father's and mother's income and child’s merit. Refashion education. You cannot embrace 21st century with 19th century mindset!

 Secularism in India- a camouflaged hypocrisy!

Ban of Triple Talaq is first of many things to come in modern India!

True Secularism does not permit, mixing religion and State power. The Indian Constitution has allowed extensive interference in religious affairs in India's personal laws – on matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, alimony etc. In the West, the word secular implies three things: freedom of religion, equal citizenship to each citizen regardless of his or her religion, and the separation of religion and state. Supporters of the Indian concept of secularism claim it respects "minorities and pluralism". Many Critics claim the Indian form of secularism as "pseudo-secularism". India's acceptance of Sharia and religious laws violate the principle of Equality before the law.

 Uniform civil code- equal laws for every citizen irrespective of his or her religion, is still a mirage despite nearly a decade of Modi rule! Religious laws in personal domain, particularly for Muslim Indians, supersede parliamentary laws in India.

 A reality check- Universal healthcare in India!

 Thirty per cent of Indians don’t have access to primary healthcare facilities. About 39 million Indians fall below the poverty line each year because of out of pocket healthcare expenses. 70% of Indians spend 70% their income on healthcare and buying drugs.  

 One million infants die in India every year –114 every hour- before they are a month old. Add another million kids who die before they are five years. Now this is a country that allows 218 children to die every hour of the day.

We have successfully eradicated various epidemics and Polio from our nation. Life expectancy is 68.89 years, which was only 36 years at the time of independence. This is one of the major achievements.

 People’s Empowerment

 Freedom struggle was for an India that would be free from exploitation, oppression and discrimination on the basis of class, caste and creed. Tens of thousands of farmers are committing suicide! They are demanding secure livelihood.   Many middlemen in the name of farmers are battling against the farm laws which would ensure secure livelihood for the farmers!  Women are protesting against the blatant violation of their rights, growing incidences of rape, violence and exploitation! Youth are demanding their right to education and right to work. 

 Middleclass are demanding food at affordable prices, safe water to drink, housing, sanitation and dignity of infant feeding, defecation and menstruation! The previous governments were dithering and allowing Jammu and Kashmir to slip into Stone Age. The Prime Minister has done the right thing to abolish article 370 and 35-A to bring in hope of prosperity, development to Jammu and Kashmir on par with other states.

2021 is a year of hope! The Corona virus came from china. From an Indian perspective, the Chinese Virus and the Chinese State and its army have created an unprecedented havoc in the country. However, it is India and India alone which has handled these threats squarely and blunted them to a large extent. This is important.

 What does the Year of Hope – 2021 portend for us? It portends a year in which India will come into its own. It also portends a year in which India will have to overcome three challenges– China , Pakistan and Internal Politics, if it has to realize its potential!

 Our national leadership has the wisdom, sagacity and statesmanship in the face of adversity to come together and stand up to our enemies. Even more than that, 2021 is the harbinger of global change which opens immense opportunity for India.

Jai Hind!

 Dr N prabhu dev

Former VC Bangalore University

Former- Director Jayadeva institute of cardiology.

[email protected]

[imagine-loki]

A Warrior’s Life

TITLE: A Warrior’s Life

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter Fifty-Nine AUTHOR: wolfpawn ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Viking Loki coming to your village, raiding, and pillaging, before deciding there is something about you that intrigues him and deciding to take you back to Asgard with him. There, you are forced to learn a new life and language, and though you hate what has happened to you, you learn that Loki is not as bad as you think.

RATING: Mature

“And you said nothing to me?” Loki growled angrily.

“I was not certain at first,” Maebh stated defensively. “I knew you would not react well to it, so that is why I did not wish to say anything until I was certain; so when she came here…”

“She came here? To our home?” Loki was livid; he jumped out of bed and tidied himself back into his trousers, “I am going to have to deal with this.” He declared, walking to the door.

“It is done Loki, she has said everything she had wished to say and has realised her anger and upset were misplaced, she will say no more, I am sure she just needed to voice her anguish, she too is a victim in all of this,” Maebh stated, cautiously getting to her feet, her stomach feeling ill again.

“This is nothing to do with you Maebh.” Loki dismissed in a condescending tone.

Maebh stared at him, her eyebrows raised and her mouth agape. “I disagree; he is as much my son as he is yours; we are raising him together are we not?”

“You just keep out of it.” Loki snapped, emphasising his point by pointing his finger at her before storming out of the room.

Bile filled Maebh’s throat and she found herself running to a bowl to be ill. She knew Loki would not take what had happened with Helena well, but she had planned on talking it all through with him, that had not gone as planned, adding to that the exertion of their physical lust and the toll the new pregnancy was putting on her, Maebh was left feeling angry, at Loki’s manner, hurt by his dismissiveness and severely ill. Pulling a pelt from a nearby chair she did not even attempt to make it back to the bed and curled up on the ground.

Loki stormed all the way to Frigga’s residence, not even paying heed to his surrounds when he arrived, he threw open the door and went to his mother’s private living area. The sound of a child’s angry cry brought him out of his haze, leaving him looking at Nafi, Frigga, Sif and Helga trying to placate an angry and inconsolable Vali. “Is he alright?” He asked walking over to them all.

“Thank the Norns, get Maebh in here and have her feed him, he is like Fenrir with a toothache,” Sif instructed.

“She is at home,” Loki stated, going to his son, though the infant was happier in his father’s presence, he still cried for food.

“She was to come too.” Sif groaned. “You best get him to her soon, he is like one starved.”

“He is old enough now to try some grain,” Frigga suggested.

“He won’t be six months until next week, is it not too soon?” Sif asked though she ordered the grain be readied. “Norn’s this is enough to prevent a woman ever wanting another child.”

Frigga gave a knowing chuckle and looked at her son. “Nafi, go with Helga and get away from all this noise.” He ordered. Relieved to not have to endure his brother’s wails any longer, Nafi fled the room, Helga following closely behind. Sif looked between her mother-in-law and brother-in-law expectantly, not knowing what it was that was going on.

“Do you recall my recent prediction for Maebh?” Frigga asked the raven-haired woman with a knowing smirk.

“Aye, and it will not come to pass when she sees her distraught son, this will cause her to become celibate,” Sif answered. “Could a tooth be cutting I wonder?” she looked at him in an inspecting manner.

“No, for he has not been chewing, nor are his cheeks red,” Frigga answered. “As for my prediction, I fear it has already come to pass.” Sif froze. “That is why she was so out of sorts when we mentioned it before, she already suspected as much herself, Eir has confirmed it. Vali will not be a year old before he is made an older brother.”

Sif eyed Frigga for another moment before looking to Loki, eyeing him up and down. “That poor girl is going to spend the best part of the next decade gravid with your children if you keep at her. Dear Norn’s, I thought Thor to be bad.”

“I think it clear to see from the pensive look on your face Loki, that you are reconsidering the size of the family you wish to have,” Frigga smiled fondly. “Maebh was somewhat excited at the idea of telling you, she knew you would be thrilled.”

“I was told there was a visitor to my home in my absence.” He stated plainly, his tone showing the anger he was fighting to keep at bay.

“Sif, that meal should be readied for Vali by now, will you go and check, bring him with you,” Frigga suggested; taking the hint, the other woman took Vali from his father and went from the room. “Now is not the time for such a discussion Loki, this is time for celebrating a good first hunt with Nafi, relief that Maebh is not suffering from memory problems and the news of a new child of your line.”

“She said nothing, she suspected there was something afoot and she said nothing,” Loki growled.

“She wished to be sure, she did not wish to make false claims.” Frigga defended. “It does not matter now; Maebh has dealt with it in a manner befitting her station, with dignity, understanding and the utmost respect for everyone involved.”

“‘Dealt with?’ It is nothing to do with her, what deal with it? She should have known better than to interfere in something that is no concern of hers.” He snapped.

Frigga looked at Loki pensively for a moment before responding, analysing his words and behaviour. “Is this the manner in which you spoke to Maebh on the subject? Are these the sort of words you used?”

“What of it?” he barked, pacing in front of her angrily.

“You told your wife, the woman that in two years has carried one of your children to term and is now carrying another, the woman who is raising Nafi as her own, who has loved him selflessly since the day she met him, the product of two people that have only ever wronged her, who loves you to the point of almost madness, who will go to the depths of Hel itself for you, that he is ‘nothing to do with her’ that she ‘should not interfere’? Dare I ask did you say these things before or after she told you she is bearing another of your children?”

“Why does that matter?”

“It matters when she is trying to recover from one terribly traumatic birth not a year ago, where she sustained a head injury so terrible she had to eat raw liver for three weeks straight to try and make up for lost blood, a wound so bad she should have died, an injury that is still only healing and is now under considerable pressure as it now being pressurised by the needs of her body to carry another child, and with strict instructions to rest and fed well, while also decreasing her stresses and concerns, and you say words that will put not only all her instructions at risk but also her life and that of the child she carries at great risk, I would say it matters significantly, would you not? She is not well Loki, the child is making her so ill she cannot eat properly, and anything she does eat does not remain in her stomach for very long. Her body is trying to sustain her, her milk for Vali and this new child, which is a great task for her. To add to all of that, she was happy, thinking you would rejoice in this news, but all you have done is throw it back at her.” Frigga stated factually, her tone cold due to her son’s callous tone and words to his pregnant wife.

Loki took a deep breath. There was no denying the truth in his mother's words, Maebh was very much involved and her actions in their bed only an hour previous were ones filled with joy and love. She had dealt with something neither of them would want to deal with at any stage and had resolved any potential conflict without incident and he had thrown it all back at her, viciously. “I have hurt her greatly.”

“More than any beating Aslaug or foe has given her, and as deeply as her uncle’s betrayal I would imagine. But it is not without the ability to be remedied. Come, we shall go and fix this.” She rose from her chair and headed to the door.

“‘We’?”

“Loki, if you go back to your home without my being there to mediate between you, severely ill or not, I would not put it passed your wife to try and castrate you, I would imagine the probability of such would be very high.”

Frigga walked into another room, where Vali was eagerly trying to take the spoon his aunt was trying to refill with food, his mouth wide open. “I think it is safe to say he is ready to eat.” The woman laughed. “Patience little one.” She scolded the boy, but he paid no heed to her and kept fighting to get the empty soon back into his mouth.

“Sif dear, would you be so kind as to get Thor to bring the boys back to their parents later?” Frigga requested. “Loki and I must speak with Maebh in private.”

Sif was not privy to what was occurring for her in-laws, but she knew better than to ask in front of the children. “Of course.” She smiled. “With Vali eating, there is no need to be concerning ourselves with bringing them back so soon.”

Frigga and Loki gave their thanks and left. “Why did I get angry with Maebh?” Loki self-scolded as they made their way to his home.

“She was only thinking of your family, and you berated her for it,” Frigga stated. Loki looked at her startled that she had not attempted to calm his woes in any manner. “If you think your behaviour is in any way acceptable for how you treated her, especially when you knew she was with child; you are very much mistaken.”

“Thank you, mother,” Loki replied dryly. “How can I make it up to her? Was she really so joyful at the idea of another child?”

“She thought it was what you would want, and loved the child as a result, regardless of the suffering she must now endure for it,” Frigga explained as they came to Loki’s home.

They walked inside to see the maid in the living area, but no sign of Maebh. “She must have gone for another rest.” Loki went to their room, when he saw his wife asleep on the floor and was hit by the smell of vomit, he felt his stomach clench in guilt. He walked over and brought her into his arms, picking her up and placing her on the bed, noticing her weight had decreased again. “I am so sorry, my beautiful Maebh, you only wanted to take care everything.”

“Loki?” Her voice was weak as she half opened an eye. “I’m sorry I made you mad.”

Loki’s guilt intensified. “I am not mad my love, it is I that needs to apologise to you. I did not even let you explain what you did, Mother told me how you diffused the whole situation so flawlessly and with our new child making you so ill, I should have been a better husband, I promise I will make it up to you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Do not apologise my Maebh, just rest for now.” he kissed her and pulled up the pelt. She grumbled weakly in response and he left her to sleep. “She has been ill again,” he admitted to Frigga when he left the room.

“Everything that has occurred in the past few days, it has been very difficult for her.” Frigga nodded sagely.

“Mother, what can I do, I fear I need to be more of a help to her, but I know not how, I beg of you, help me.” He pleased, sitting with his head in his hands.

Frigga thought for a moment. “When Maebh wakes, we will talk, I have an idea.”

#loki #other #submission #submitted fic #wolfpawn #chapter 59 #a warrior's life #viking au #village #raiding #pillaging #intruiges #asgard

[shestillhasherquill]

All’s Fair in Love and War (2/?)

At the time of a brewing battle, there are tough decisions to be made, alliances to be forged. The Princess of Misthaven has no choice but to comply with the demands of the Council and wed the Prince of Camelot. But what happens when she falls for his half-brother, Killian? A war like never before.

A Reign-esque twist to an Enchanted Forest AU that no one asked for.

Thank you everyone who liked and/or reblogged this fic! I was really trying to upload this yesterday, but I couldn’t. I will be updating every saturday afternoon (Indian Standard Time) from now. A big thanks to @welllpthisishappening​ for her beta work on this!

I hope you enjoy this new installment @accio-ambition​ <3

AO3 / FF.net

Killian slid his cutlass over the whetstone over and over, in a consistent motion, the sound of steel against stone a rhythm that he was used to, letting his mind wander as muscle memory took over. As a former Navy Lieutenant, and the current Captain of the King’s Guard, he knew a thing or two about war . And the one between the Southern and Northern lands seemed have been going on for ages, far before his time, or even his father’s. Killian personally did not see the point of the war, only that King George associated himself with the practitioners of Dark Magic, and guessed that he continued to do so still.

All he knew was this: if King George and his supporters got control over even one of the Northern kingdoms, especially Misthaven, all hell would reign over the Enchanted Forest. Misthaven had somehow seized the Dark One’s dagger and had him imprisoned. While Killian might not know how King David and Queen Snow managed that, he did know that the Queen lost her life to that mission. Only the Gods know what would happen if King George were to get his hands on the Dark One’s dagger again.

He suppressed a shiver, startled out of his thoughts when he heard a twig break behind him, his shoulders tensing. He felt, before he saw his attacker, ducking and rolling out of the way just in time before a dagger impaled the wood panelling, exactly where his head had been nary a moment ago. His heart still racing from the adrenaline, he growled at his attacker, his scowl deepening as she only laughed at his fall, reaching to pry the dagger from the wood.

“What the bloody hell was that?” he spat, getting up from the ground, refusing the hand that his attacker lent him.

“I was just testing your reflexes, big brother,” Regina rolled her eyes. “I knew you would get out of the way; you were never in any real danger.”

“You’ve lost your bloody mind, Regina,” he snapped, dusting off his breeches.

She shrugged, fiddling with the edge of her dagger and looking with great fascination at her boots. “Father has asked to see you.”

“Did he now?” he murmured, going back to sharpening his blade. “Well, you can tell him I’m busy,” he shot back.

“Killian...”

“Now is not the time to antagonise me, sister! You know what day it is today, and I would prefer to be alone, if it would please His Majesty.”

Regina bit her lip, not knowing what she could say to comfort her brother. It had been five years now since the woman he loved was murdered, and since that day her brother hadn’t been the same. He’d changed, become closed off and brutish; gone was the ever-grinning boy she remembered growing up with, replaced by a man hardened by the endless misery life seemed to throw at him. While they did grow up in less than ideal circumstances, being the children of the King’s mistress, Regina had never lacked for love – not from their mother or Liam or Killian. Not even from their father, in the times he had been able to spare for them. But when their mother withered away from illness, and their brother lost to the sea a decade ago, all they had was each other. But now it seemed like with each passing year after Milah’s death, Killian seemed to pull away more and more, becoming a shell of a person, one obsessed with avenging Milah.

They’d returned from a long journey, for a mission that their father had entrusted only Regina and Killian with. And she could still remember how giddy he had been, talking endlessly about how he had every intention to ask Milah for her hand, no matter her status of a widow. He even had a ring purchased. But they were greeted not with pomp and glory when they reached Camelot, but awful bloodshed, with many innocents slaughtered and a coup to overthrow their father’s rule. When they rushed to the castle, it was to even more fighting, one which they had no choice but to join. Things had only gone downhill from there, and soon enough they found their King and Queen, along with their half-brother, William – held hostage in the throne room. Killian and Regina reached in the nick of time, succeeding in saving their father and half-brother, but in their rage, the attackers murdered their Queen right in front of Brennan, taking advantage of their anguish to escape, only to be stopped by Killian. He’d managed to apprehend almost all of them, taking them prisoners to be executed the next day at the Town’s Square.

And in retribution, a week later, the rest of the men - the ones who had managed to escape - found Milah’s hovel in the middle of the night and murdered her in cold blood, leaving her corpse to be found by Killian. And when he did... Regina shuddered, just thinking about that day made her heart wrench. She’d never seen her brother more broken than he been that day, and had remained broken ever since, hell bent on finding the men who’d killed her.

Regina’s brow furrowed with worry as she observed her brother at work, the tension obvious in his posture and the aggression with which he sharpened his blade. But when the King wanted something, it was unwise to deny him, especially at a time of war. While King Brennan loved his children, they were still his bastards; a disgrace in the eyes of many. They may have royal blood, but they would never be royal. She’d learnt that lesson the hard way after all, the scars on her back serving as a stinging memory and warning to never stray from her station.

“Killian, he wasn’t asking. We just got a missive from Misthaven. The Southern Isles have joined King George in his cause,” she spat the word. “The North needs to stand together, and father wants us to go to Misthaven, to discuss our options.”

That caught her brother’s attention, making him abandon his task and turn back to fully face her. “If it is so important, why send us?” he questioned, his brows furrowing. “I am sure the members of the war counsel are better equipped for that.”

At that, she shot him a smirk. “Ah, but that is simply our cover, brother. Father wishes to negotiate an alliance with the King of Misthaven. A marriage alliance for William to Misthaven’s princess, Emma.”

“He wants us to go as bodyguards to William?” he barked out a laugh. “That’s quite the step down from what we used to do.”

“Says the Captain of the King’s Guard,” Regina sassed. “Father still is cautious to let me on any journey to other kingdoms, considering what happened the last time,” she added icily.

“Well, after what they did to you, you can’t really blame him. They tried to have you killed for something you didn’t even do,” he argued, his concern evident in his wrecked voice and deeply furrowed brows, the memory of his sister with her back marred with lash wounds something he could never forget.

“It wasn’t like I didn’t choose to do what I did,” she murmured, rubbing the back of her neck and looking down in shame. “I loved her, and I would do it again.”

“You’d be a fool twice, then,” he replied, stepping closer to her, his index finger lifting her chin so that she would meet his gaze. “You’re all I have left. Don’t sacrifice your life for love; all it brings you is wasted years and endless torment.”

Regina’s vision blurred as Killian pulled her into his arms, and she let him think that she was mourning for her lost love. It was safer than the truth – she was mourning for him, for how much his suffering had led him to here, a man who was so blinded by the darkness in his life that he gave up looking for the light.

“I love you, brother.”

He sighed, his heart clenching at the pain in his younger sister’s voice. She was so stubborn sometimes, quick to anger and quicker with her dagger. But she was as soft-hearted as she was hard-headed, her mind and heart constantly at war. He might have been a spitfire as a child, but she was something else altogether; growing up with two brothers made her more competitive than necessary, constantly trying to one up him and Liam. She was far stronger than he could ever imagined; while he lashed out after Liam’s death, getting into drunken brawls and making dangerous deals, she withdrew into herself, going away on long journeys alone, not telling him where she went and driving him up the wall. But she was his family, and he would never, ever stop wanting to protect her. Even if she had been the one to take care of him time, and time again, lending him a shoulder to lean on in the darkest of times, while she kept all her pain hidden away.

In retrospect, he was not proud of the way he’d handled Liam’s death – first refusing to believe that his brother, his Captain could ever be defeated by the thing he loved most, the sea. He had wanted to go in search of Liam, believing with all his soul that his brother would have survived, and he did not let go of this madness until he’d found the remnants of the shipwreck, and along with it, Liam’s water-bloated body. That was what broke him, staring at Liam’s murky, dead eyes – everything in him stopped. He’d fought Regina tooth and nail against seeing their brother like that, even going so far as to bodily block her, and he had been right to do so. Her scream of horror and devastation was etched deep in his memory, making him feel like he’d failed both Liam and their mum by not protecting his little sister from this savage, savage world. And at a moment when he had to be strong for Regina, for his father, who had too lost a son, he was a coward.

Killian watched in silent contemplation as Regina walked out of the little shack that served as a haven from the sometimes stifling castle walls. He knew he needed to go see his father, see about this diplomatic mission he was to set out on. But he had been so close to finding out who had ordered the raid on the castle all those years ago. It took him years of tracking down each of the men involved, relishing in torturing them, picturing Milah’s slaughtered body in his mind’s eye. But none of them would talk, willing to rather die than reveal the name of the man who’d hired them. One of them even had the gall to laugh in his face.

“You think that wench of yours is worth all this, you fool!” the man spat, blood and spittle spraying as he spoke.

“Shut up,” Killian growled, twisting the dagger deeper into the man’s side, making him groan. “and tell me who hired you.”

“You don’t mess with a man like him, and I’d rather die than tell you who he is. If he finds out-” the man laughed bitterly- “Oh, trust me, what you are doing is mere play compared to what evil that man is capable of.”

“Was it King George?” Killian tried instead, hoping with all his heart that he was right. If the raid had been ordered by King George, the raid that led to the murder of the Queen of Camelot, that warranted a reason to call war upon George and his kingdom; Killian could finally avenge Milah’s death - and his father, his wife’s.

The man began laughing hysterically, ignorant to the dagger digging painfully into him. “This man is far more sinister, lad. You’d be better off not knowing. So, for the last time: Fuck you.”

And at that, Killian’s restraint snapped. As did the man’s neck.

-/-

“You’d called to see me, Your Majesty?” Killian entered to find King Brennan bent over his desk, quill rapidly scratching at parchment.

At Killian’s terse greeting, he looked up, the worried frown on his face softening ever so slightly as he nodded at his son.“Killian! Good, you’re here. I had hoped that sending your sister would have persuaded you better than sending some guard after you. Sit down.”

“Regina tells me you wish to send us on a diplomatic mission? If I may be so bold as to ask, what makes you think a former naval lieutenant could handle something like this? Negotiating during war is much different from negotiating for the hand of a King’s daughter.”

King Brennan chuckled. “Must you make everything so morbid, Killian? You’re simply to accompany your brother. I will be sending men from my council to negotiate this marriage, if there even will be one,” he added the last part under his breath, but Killian caught it.

“If? I thought you’d always intended for William to marry the Princess of Misthaven?” Killian brows furrowed as he leaned forward in his seat. “Is that not the case anymore? Has another lass caught the lad’s eye?” he asked, a salacious smirk adorning his features.

“Don’t be silly, Killian,” King Brennan admonished, a frown marring his expression. “David and I have been good friends for years now, and while we may have jested about our children coming together, it was nothing worth considering seriously. David is not the kind of father to force a marriage against his daughter, and yet he has sent a missive through his council inviting William to Misthaven, to court Princess Emma.”

“Do you think something more sinister than a marriage alliance is underfoot, father?” Killian sat up straight, any threat to his family one he couldn’t ignore. Not after having lost as much as he had.

“I’m not certain of it, but this is very unlike David. Especially considering the situation in the South, a wedding is hardly appropriate.”

“Ah, and you wish for me to find out what is going on there? Spy on your friend for you?” Killian tilted his head, regarding his father with a curious gaze.

“Spying is too harsh a word, Killian. I merely wish to find out what is going on. If my friend is in danger, I want to know immediately.”

“And if his intentions were true? If he really does want William for his daughter? What then?”

“Then, I guess, we will be having a royal wedding.” And with those words, King Brennan dismissed Killian.

-/-

Regina panted, leaning against the wall for support as her overexerted muscles screamed in protest with every slight movement of her body. She glared at her opponent, wiping the sweat off her brow, her brown eyes filled with fire as she observed the slow smirk take over the other woman’s face.

“I told you, you couldn’t handle it,” Lily whispered, her dark stringy locks falling over her eyes as she moved closer to Regina, making the brunette back up further against the wall until she was flush against it.

“You’re very good at distracting me,” Regina huffed, her eyes drifting down to Lily’s chapped lips before swiftly returning back to meet her gaze.

“You will always have distraction when you’re fighting, Regina,” Lily smirked, backing away, even as she enjoyed the obvious reaction she was able to elicit from the other woman. “You must learn to use them to your advantage,” she added, wetting her lips, her own gaze drifting down Regina’s form.

And the next thing she knew, her legs were swiped underneath her, and she was on her back, as Regina straddled her, her thighs pressing her arms against her sides, restricting her movements. “You mean, like this?” Regina smirked, her eyes glinting dangerously. Now it was Lily’s turn to glare at Regina as the other woman’s expression darkened. “I don’t know what reaction you are trying to elicit from me, Lily, but you will not find what you are looking for.”

“Are they untrue then? The rumours about you and the dainty princess from-”

But before Lily could finish with her taunting, Regina’s fist met her jaw, her head turning to the side with the force. “You shut your mouth,” Regina growled, her hands grabbing the neck of Lily’s tunic. “You don’t have any rights to even say her name, you hear me?”

Lily bared her teeth, trying to buck her off. “What the hell is your problem? Touch a nerve, did I? Still in love with that naive little girl? Well, she wasn’t so naive after all, was she, Regina?” She taunted, smirking wickedly.

Regina saw red, her fury rearing its ugly head, her blood humming with power. She clenched her teeth, trying to reign in her anger, lest something unwanted happened. “I’m warning you, Lily. Never, ever speak about her again. It will not end well for you,” she hissed, her tone cold as ice, before she pushed herself off of Lily and walked out of the training arena, her hands clenched at her side in tight fists, her heart racing and eyes stinging.

As she retreated, Lily’s loud voice boomed through the room, “You’re damaged goods anyway,” making her want to turn back and unleash her rage on that spiteful woman. But the last time she showed that part of herself, it did not end well. And so, she walked away, her heart breaking all over again for a woman who betrayed her beyond belief.

-/-

William raised his broadsword, parrying the thrust of his trainer, sweat dripping into his eyes and his muscles burning from the exertion in the best way possible. The grounds were filled with the sounds of swords clashing, the men training for the upcoming battle. While William may be the heir apparent, he had never once shied away from battle because of his privilege. Both his half-brothers and half-sister had served the kingdom in some way or the other, and when he came of age, he hadn’t intended to sit on the sidelines. If he was to take over the kingdom one day, he was damn well going to earn it, not have it handed to him.

Just as he was about to land the final blow on his opponent, his gaze catching the unprotected area on the side, all the men stopped training, standing straight as they looked towards their right. Following their sight, William caught his father walking towards them. William stood up straighter, his eyes meeting that of his father. The King responded with a solemn nod, a grim expression on his face.

“William.” His eyes narrowed on the slight graze on his left shoulder. “Still need improving, I see.”

William gritted his teeth, trying not to let his frustration show. No matter what he did, the King had never been satisfied with his work, always the first to find fault and the last to applaud. But not to Killian and Regina, no – they may be the result of his affair with the Lady Amelia, but he always held them with high regard, giving them positions with high ranking in the navy, even making Regina their foreign ambassador. And now, Killian was the Captain of the King’s Guard. But William? William had always been the boy in a man’s body to his King, never living up to the standards his father had set for him.

When his mother, Queen Alanaa, had still been alive, she had always told him that his envy would only lead him down a dark path. She had her own experiences with it after all, and it had almost resulted in her losing Brennan forever. And eventually, as he got to know his half-siblings better, his envy fell – but not his anger, towards his father, at least. And he doubted if it ever would, knowing that King Brennan would never look at him the same way he did Killian or Regina, or as he did Liam.

“Did you need me for something, father?” William resisted the urge to cross his arms. He would not dare disrespect his father like that in front of all the men.

“You will be leaving to Misthaven in a week’s time. I want you meet with our privy council, and learn all you need to about your journey.”

William’s eyebrows rose “And what would be the purpose of me visiting with King David?”

“That is not something I wish to discuss right now. Do as I say, William.” King Brennan turned his back on his son and walked  away.

William stared open-mouthed at his father’s retreating back, his hurt and anger apparent on his face for just a minute, before a mask fell over it, his eyes stony and not letting anyone see a thing. If his father was going to order him around, then he needed to know what was so important about going to Misthaven. And there was one person who would have all the answers. It was time to find his reclusive brother.

-/-

Regina let out a deep breath, sinking deeper into the cast iron tub, brimming with water so hot, it was just a smidge away from scalding. But it soothed her overworked muscles, and helped calm the fire inside her. She ran a wash cloth over her arm, her mind wandering to a better, happier time.

“Regina, you need to stop this,” The princess giggled as Regina backed her against a pillar in an empty corridor.

“Mm, but this is more fun, highness,” she murmured, her lips peppering kisses down her slender neck, her fingers running up and down her ribs, brushing against the underside of her breasts.

“I never- I never said it wasn’t,” the other woman muttered, her eyes rolling to the back of her head, as she stretched her neck to Regina’s questing lips, always the tease.

Regina smirked, pulling away long enough to revel in the flush spreading across the princess’s cheeks. She’d been sent here to negotiate with King Stefan about his allegiance to the North.

The last time King George had decided to take control over the North, he had had a powerful ally in the Dark One, until King David and Queen Snow of Misthaven had managed to steal back the blade and had thwarted his attack. The Dark One had been imprisoned, somewhere far and deep, deep underground, if the rumours were true. Ever since the news of King George’s re-emergence, the whole of North had been on edge, hoping to unite far and distant kingdoms to maintain their positions and hold fort against the imminent attack. It had been almost eighteen years since the last war.

But the moment she’d laid eyes on the princess, seen the sly glint behind the carefully constructed facade of innocence and purity, hinting at the devil inside, she was enamoured. Regina had never met a more contradictory woman, shy around everyone but her, ever since the beginning, her coquettish side revealed in dark rooms and empty corridors as hands wandered and moans were muffled by intoxicating kisses.

Regina’s finger reached up to graze at a flushed cheek, her smile softening along with her heart. She may have had relations with more than one woman, but not one have them had made her feel what she felt now – like she was floating, no care in the world, but for the woman in her arms. And in the moment, she had to say the words almost bursting from her mouth. “I love you....Briar Rose.”

#cs ff #cs au #enchanted forest au #all's fair in love and war #cs mc ff

[cinephiled-com]

New Post has been published on Cinephiled

New Post has been published on http://www.cinephiled.com/113-joan-crawfords-mommie-dearest-gets-reprieve/

At 113, Joan Crawford's Mommie Dearest Gets a Reprieve

On this day in 1904, Lucille Fay LeSueur (later known as Joan Crawford) was born in San Antonio, Texas. Some sources list the year of her birth as 1904, 1905, or even 1908, but a quick search of the San Antonio census records reveals the truth. By any measure, Crawford was one of the greats in the history of Hollywood.

I recently watched the 1981 film Mommie Dearest for the first time in decades. While Faye Dunaway’s depiction of Crawford over the course of almost 40 years is dead on, it sometimes seems as if she’s using Carol Burnett’s parodies of Joan Crawford as her source material rather than the actress herself. The way Dunaway transforms herself through makeup, hair, costumes and her exquisite acting chops is one degree short of channeling, but her performance is so over-the-top that you have to wonder what the filmmakers were going for. What could have been a truly incisive look at the stresses and psychological issues of a well known figure is instead an exercise in High Camp even though I don’t think that was anyone’s intention at the time, least of all Faye Dunaway’s (who refuses to discuss this film today). I’m not sure director Frank Perry was the right man for the job, and yet he did direct two films that I thought were outstanding depictions of mental disorders: David and Lisa in 1962 and the classic Diary of a Mad Housewife in 1970.

I have long wished for a new look at Joan Crawford on the screen, one that would treat her life and issues more seriously, not as a big punchline. But I never dreamed it would actually happen — I was sure that Faye Dunaway’s larger-than-life depiction was the last time we’d ever see a talented actress donning Crawford’s red lipstick and shoulder pads. I was wrong!

Ryan Murphy’s eight-part series Feud, currently running on FX, details the production of the 1962 Robert Aldrich film, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Though we’ve only seen half of the episodes, I have to say that I am deeply moved by the performances of Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford and Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis.

Not everyone in my circle of classic movie-loving friends agrees, but I find Lange and Sarandon’s depictions deeply moving and nuanced. Yes, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? has itself become a camp classic on par with Mommie Dearest, and this series focuses on the bitter rivalry between the two stars as they grappled with the agonies of being middle-aged in Hollywood (Davis was 54 and Crawford 58 during the making of that film, not old by today’s standards but in Hollywood they were considered ancient relics), but Feud also looks beyond the Hedda Hopper-ish “dirt” to the living and breathing women behind the icons, with all their wisdom, experience, insecurities, and vulnerabilities on full display. I think Sarandon and Lange, themselves 70 and 67, are remarkable in the roles.

Feud also looks at aspects of the questionable parenting of both women, but presents it in a much more compassionate way despite many cringe-producing moments. Davis’s daughter, B.D. Hyman, who would eventually write her own tell-all about her mother, actually had a small role in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? although it was clear from the start that she did not inherit her mother’s acting ability. Played by the talented Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper from Mad Men), we see Davis and B.D. struggling through difficult moments in their relationship as mother and daughter as well as fellow actors. In 1962, Crawford’s two older children were out of the picture but we see Crawford interacting with her teenaged twin daughters who would later refute the charges levied by their older sister.

When Christina Crawford’s tell-all book came out a year after her mother’s 1977 death, Old Hollywood divided into two camps: those who thought the book represented the slanderous ravings of a spoiled brat bent on revenge for being written out of her mother’s will; and those who said they had witnessed Crawford’s unstable behavior with her children and were convinced that the book’s shocking claims were true. At the top of the list of Joan’s defenders was her old friend Myrna Loy who had known Crawford since she first arrived in Hollywood in the 1920s and had appeared with daughter Christina in a stage production of Barefoot in the Park. Loy disliked Christina and said that she had behaved horribly during the run of their play. She said that while she never saw Joan hit her daughter, if anyone needed a good slap it was Christina. Yikes.

Helen Hayes, however, another great actress whom Joan had befriended in the 1930s, did not exactly elect Joan Mother of the Year in her autobiography:

Joan was not quite rational in her raising of children. You might say she was strict or stern. But cruel is probably the right word.

When my young son Jim came to stay with me, we would go out to lunch with Joan and her son Christopher. Joan would snap, “Christopher!” whenever he tried to speak. He would bow his little head, completely cowed, and then he’d say, “Mommie dearest, may I speak?” Joan’s children had to say [that] before she allowed them to utter another word. It would have been futile for me or anyone else to protest. Joan would only get angry and probably vent her rage on the kids.

I have read that people who are abused as children often become abusive parents. Maybe it was Joan’s tough childhood that made her exert her power like that over her own children. But understanding the reason did not make their suffering any easier to watch.

Pretty damning stuff, and yet were many who claimed that Christina Crawford exaggerated some of the childhood episodes for dramatic purposes. I admit that certain scenes from the film that so appalled me when I first saw it in the 1980s don’t seem that bad today. At Christmas time and on birthdays, Joan’s fans would send Christina mountains of presents. Crawford would let her keep one or two and have her give the rest to needy children. This is presented in the film as monstrous abuse but I have to say that it seems pretty reasonable to me today. Still, it’s clear that there were times when Crawford’s highly disciplined and controlling nature devolved into episodes of severe mental and physical abuse. The last thing I would ever do is accuse Christina Crawford of lying about her own childhood. I would think that the only thing worse than experiencing such abuse is telling people about it and not being believed. Only she knows what happened between her and her mother and it certainly seems like Joan had plenty of issues that made her a challenge to live with. On the other hand, I wish the makers of Mommie Dearest had avoided the temptation to create completely fictional scenes of terror like the one in which Joan almost kills Christina in front of a magazine reporter.

As far as Joan’s friends defending her, it’s true that you never really know what goes on behind other people’s closed doors. Still, Christina Crawford hasn’t helped her “case,” in my opinion, by encouraging the camp-fest that has developed around the book and movie of Mommie Dearest. She has appeared at screenings with drag queens playing her mother and at which the crowd interacts with the film à la Rocky Horror using props. The last time I saw the film in a theater, an AFI-sponsored screening for its 25th anniversary in 2006, I was uncomfortable at the uproarious laughter that greeted so many scenes. If the story is true, we are laughing at horrific child abuse. If it is an exaggerated tale of a troubled childhood, we are participating in a major defamation of character of a woman who is not here to defend herself and whose public image (the one thing everyone who knew Joan Crawford said she cared about more than anything) has been utterly trashed.

Not that I can truly blame the audience for laughing or claim that I took the high road and didn’t join in from time to time. How can you not laugh at lines that are so out there they have become indelible parts of our pop culture such as “Christina, bring me the ax!” or the iconic “NO WIRE HANGERS…EVER!!” My personal favorite is a scene that I think shows Joan in a positive light even though she’s clearly being a Class A bitch. After her fourth husband, Pepsi-Cola honcho Al Steele dies, the top brass at Pepsi try to kiss her off. Never one to meekly slither away, Joan Crawford lays into the Board and threatens to use her fame to turn her fans against Pepsi if they continue their campaign to get rid of her. After years of dealing with the sleazeballs of Hollywood, Joan was not about to let this group give her the heave-ho. “Don’t fuck with me, fellas!” she spews with an evil smile on her face. “This ain’t my first time at the rodeo.” I hope she really said that, it’s such a great line.

While the Crawford twins, Cathy and Cynthia, that we see in Feud always defended their mother against their sister’s charges, Joan’s adopted son, Christopher, definitely did not. Though he was never as interested in sharing his story with the world as Christina had done, his own childhood was every bit as troubled.  As a young boy, Christopher ran away from home several times. At 12, Joan placed him is a residential military academy but it didn’t curtail the trouble the boy constantly got into. Following Crawford’s death and the release of his sister’s book, he finally agreed to talk to a newspaper reporter in 1978 about his unhappy childhood.

“I want to tell this once, so people will get off my back and leave my family alone,” says the 6-foot-4 man whose hard life shows in his face. He needs dental work. There are small scars on his face and larger ones on his back from a mortar explosion in Vietnam.

Crawford recalled his mother’s “sleep safe,” the harnesslike device used to keep infants securely in their beds. Chris was strapped into bed until the age of 12. Once caught playing with matches, his mother made him hold his hand in the fireplace. “I had blisters all over my hand. That day I ran away for the first time. I was 7.”

Though Chris attended his mother’s funeral, his last encounter with J.C. was five years ago. His youngest child was born in Brooklyn, on welfare. “When Bonnie was born, she had a lot of trouble. She was just a tiny little mass of bones with some skin stretched over them. So I called J.C. and said, ‘I need your help. Your granddaughter needs blood and she needs it now. She might die.’ J.C. said, ‘She’s not my granddaughter. You were adopted.’ I lost my temper and slammed down the phone so hard I broke the receiver. That was it between J.C. and me.”

FEUD: Bette and Joan — “Mommie Dearest” — Installment 1, Episode 3 (Airs Sunday, March 19, 10:00 p.m. e/p) –Pictured: (l-r) Jackie Hoffman as Mamacita, Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford. CR: Suzanne Tenner/FX

That’s as bad as anything in Mommie Dearest. Christopher Crawford died of cancer on September 22, 2006. Cynthia Crawford died the following year. It’s quite possible that Christina and Christopher’s perspectives about their mother were as true and valid as their younger sisters’ claims of a strict but very loving mother. In any event, I’m grateful to Ryan Murphy and Jessica Lange for allowing the world to see a more multifaceted and complex version of Joan Crawford, albeit another fictionalized take that is open to different interpretations. Few people cared more about their career or their public image than Joan Crawford and I’m happy that this poignant examination of the screen legend doesn’t treat her incredible and often tragic life as one big joke. Happy Birthday, Joan!

#Faye Dunaway #Feud #Jessica Lange #Joan Crawford #Mommie Dearest #Susan Sarandon #Features #What's Hot

[topworldhistory]

Royal brothers and sisters have squabbled through the ages—often leading to war.

When family members are also co-workers, things can get messy. This is never truer than in royal families, where the interplay of private passions and public displays of affection or dissatisfaction are broadcast on an international stage. While some royal feuds remain minor, others in history have become so dysfunctional, they’ve led to major wars.

Cleopatra's Family Feuds

Cleopatra

By the time the legendary Cleopatra VII was born into the ruling Ptolemy dynasty of Egypt around 69 B.C., the family already had an incestuous, murderous history. For generations, sisters had killed brothers, mothers had gone to war with their children, and sons had murdered their parents. 

“After a while the butchery came to seem almost preordained,” writes Stacy Schiff in Cleopatra: A Life. “Cleopatra’s uncle murdered his wife, thereby eliminating his step-mother (and half-sister) as well.”

The last of their line, Cleopatra and her three siblings continued this bloody family tradition. On the death of their father around 51 B.C., Cleopatra and her brother, Ptolemy XIII, were married and assumed the Egyptian throne as co-rulers. This forced partnership quickly fell apart, and by 48 B.C., Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra were engaged in a brutal civil war against each other. In the midst of the madness, their younger sister, Arsinoe IV, also claimed the throne for herself.

Cleopatra did not take her sister’s betrayal lightly. “It is unlikely that she underestimated her 17-year-old sister,” writes Schiff. “Arsinoe burned with ambition; she was not the kind of girl who inspired complacency.”

Arsinoe soon banded together with Ptolemy XIII and together the siblings launched the Siege of Alexandria against Cleopatra in the winter of 48 B.C. But Cleopatra then gained a secret weapon—the all-powerful Roman leader Caesar, with whom she began a personal and professional relationship. Together, they routed her siblings at the Battle of the Nile, in 47 B.C.

Ptolemy XIII

Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile shortly after his defeat. Arsinoe was captured and paraded through Alexandria in golden shackles, before being exiled to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

Her triumphant sister, Cleopatra, now in control of Egypt and Caesar’s heart, soon married her younger brother Ptolemy XIV.  Ptolemy XIV then died in 44 B.C., likely poisoned by Cleopatra, and the queen made her infant son co-ruler with her as Ptolemy XV Caesar.

But there was still the problem of Arsinoe. According to Schiff, Cleopatra’s younger sister rallied enough support in Ephesus to have herself proclaimed queen of Egypt. “Her feat speaks both to her tenacity and to the fragility of Cleopatra’s position outside her country,” Schiff writes, “certainly the two sisters despised each other.”

This prolonged family feud finally ended in 41 B.C., when Cleopatra’s great love Mark Antony ordered Arsinoe killed on the steps of the Temple of Artemis. “Now,” wrote one chronicler, “Cleopatra had put to death all her kindred, till no one near her in blood remained alive.”

William the Conqueror's sons

There is only one civil war in history that can trace roots to a chamber pot.

When William the Conqueror, the first Norman King of England, died in 1087, he left Britain to his middle son William Rufus instead of his eldest son Robert. William had long been in conflict with the charming, combative and dissipated Robert (known as Robert Curthose, perhaps for his short legs).

William Rufus

According to an account by Orderic Vitalis, a Benedictine monk who wrote chronicles of 11th and 12th centuries, Robert had been at odds with his father since 1077, when William Rufus and their younger brother Henry had dumped a full chamber pot over his head. A brawl ensued, and their father broke it up, but refused to punish William Rufus and Henry. Robert was furious and staged a failed attack on the castle of Rouen in retaliation.

This family feud lasted for years, with Robert fleeing to Flanders, fighting his own father in combat. They were finally reconciled in 1080, but not surprisingly, their relationship was strained, and Robert spent most of his time abroad. When his father died, Robert was left the lesser prize of Normandy. He gathered a rebellion against his brother, now King William II, but it failed when Robert failed to appear in England.

Instead, he went off to crusade in the Holy Land. On his way back in 1100, he was informed that King William II had died—and that his young brother Henry I had claimed the crown.

Robert Curthose

From Normandy, Robert raised an army and headed across the channel in July 1101. “Robert headed towards London and was intercepted by Henry at Alton in Hampshire,” writes historian Richard Cavendish. “Henry persuaded Robert to renounce his claim to England in return for a pension of 3,000 marks a year and the abandonment of any claim on Henry’s part to Normandy. It was agreed that no action would be taken against the Duke’s supporters.”

But Robert had been deceived. His brother stopped sending the pension and invaded Normandy, restless after years of Robert’s mismanagement. In 1106, Henry beat his brother at the Battle of Tinchebray. Robert was imprisoned for the next 28 years. “Woe to him that is not old enough to die,” he wrote during this long captivity.

Robert finally died in 1134, in Cardiff Castle, at the ripe old age of 80. Henry I died the following year, victorious over his brother even in death.

Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots

When Mary I finally inherited the throne of England in 1553, she had endured a lifetime of disappointments, heartbreaks and slights. The only child of King Henry VIII and the Catholic, saintly Catherine of Aragon, she had been the beloved heir to her father’s throne for much of her childhood. 

Mary Queen of Scots

But after Henry’s passionate affair and subsequent marriage to the Protestant-leaning Anne Boleyn, her world was destroyed. She was ripped away from her mother, stripped of her royal title and forced to curtsey to her new half-sister, a small redheaded baby—Princess Elizabeth.

Her new stepmother was particularly cruel to young Mary, and the impressionable teenager stored away these insults for the rest of her life. After Anne Boleyn’s execution in 1536, Mary’s status was restored, and she appeared to become fond of her now motherless half-sister Elizabeth.

READ MORE: The Wildly Different Childhoods of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots

But their tortured familial history was only part of what would make this ceasefire temporary. “Relations between elder and younger sisters are often difficult—particularly when there is an age gap of seventeen years, as there was to be between Mary and her half-sister Elizabeth,” writes David Starkey in Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne. “But fate also cast them as opposites in appearance and character and opponents in religion and politics.”

With the vehemently Catholic Mary’s accession in 1553, all her old bitterness rose to the surface. Though Elizabeth had ridden into the city of London with Mary for her coronation, their relationship quickly soured. Elizabeth was now the “second person” in the kingdom—young, charismatic, confident and Protestant.

READ MORE: What Inspired Queen 'Bloody' Mary's Gruesome Nickname?

Elizabeth I

In 1554, the Wyatt Rebellion was launched in reaction to Mary’s unpopular plan to marry the Catholic King Philip of Spain. Leaders of the rebellion planned to put Elizabeth on the throne, and Mary believed that her sister had been part of the plot. Elizabeth was arrested and sent to the ominous Tower of London, the same place her mother had been executed decades before. “Oh Lorde!” she cried. “I never thought to have come in here as prisoner!”

Once in the tower, Elizabeth wrote her sister a frantic, rambling letter, her usual composure lost to fear:

I pray to God the like evil persuasions persuade not one sister against the other, and all for that they have heard false report, and the truth not known. Therefore, once again, kneeling with humbleness of heart, because I am not suffered to bow the knees of my body, I humbly crave to speak with your Highness, which I would not be so bold as to desire if I knew not myself most clear, as I know myself most true.

The letter did not have its intended effect. Mary was further enraged by this letter, feeling that it lacked the respect she deserved. However, she did let her sister out of the Tower after three weeks, and Elizabeth was sent to Woodstock under house arrest. Here, she etched a short poem into the window of her prison with a diamond:

Much suspected by me,

Nothing proved can be,

Quoth Elizabeth prisoner

Elizabeth was finally pardoned a year later, and the sisters resumed a strained but cordial public relationship. Only four years later, in 1558, Mary died during an influenza epidemic, and Elizabeth started her glorious reign.

Viciousness at Versailles

Louis XVI

From childhood, the clumsy, well-meaning Louis XVI of France was often overshadowed and outmaneuvered by his malicious younger brothers. Stagnant and bored at the court of Versailles, Comte de Provence and Comte d’Artois spent much of their time stirring up gossip about their hapless older brother.

Left to their own devices, the brothers often engaged in petty arguments, occasionally in view of the whole court. Soon after Louis’s marriage to the young Marie Antoinette in 1770, the former Austrian archduchess—from a large family of brothers and sisters—found herself frequently breaking up embarrassing fracases between the brothers.

“With her experience of family life,” Antonia Fraser writes in Marie Antoinette: The Journey, “Marie Antoinette began to act as peace-maker between the sparring royal brothers, Louis Auguste and Provence. On one occasion when the clumsy Louis Auguste broke a piece of porcelain belonging to Provence and the younger brother flew at him, Marie Antoinette actually interrupted the fight...”

Louis XVIII, Comte de Provence

With their accession to the throne in 1774, Louis and Marie Antoinette’s inability to produce an heir became fodder for his brothers’ taunts. After his own marriage, Provence was also unable to consummate his union. “None of this,” writes Fraser, “stopped the wily Provence from dropping hints about his wife’s condition whenever he could most conveniently bait his brother and his Austrian wife with their own failure.”

The brothers also encouraged the rumor that the graceful, fun-loving Marie Antoinette was having an affair with the equally high-spirited Artois, a complete fabrication. This assault on their brother’s fertility reached a breaking point in 1778, with the birth of Princess Marie-Therese. According to Fraser, at the child's baptism, the Comte de Provence argued that the "name and quality" of the parents had not been formally given. 

"Under the mask of concern about correct procedure, the Comte was making an impertinent allusion to the allegations about the baby’s paternity," Fraser writes. 

As tensions rose in France, his brothers’ increasingly conservative, reactionary politics caused constant problems for the moderate, placating Louis XVI. Both Provence and Artois escaped France with their families during the revolution. After their brother’s death, both men eventually got what they had perhaps always longed for—the chance to be king. After the fall of Napoleon, Provence reigned as Louis XVIII from 1814 to 1824. Artois followed as Charles X from 1824 to 1830, before he was deposed.

Napoleon's Relations

"My relations," Napoleon once said, "have done me more harm than I have done them good."

The fallen Emperor had reason to be bitter. In Napoleon’s eyes, he had raised his large Corsican brood, consisting of Joseph, Lucien, Elisa, Louis, Pauline, Caroline and Jerome, to the status of royalty. He had given them titles, put them on the thrones of kingdoms, and made them rich. In return, Napoleon had expected blind loyalty from his siblings. He should have known better.

From the start, not all of Napoleon’s brothers and sisters held him in high regard. His younger brother Lucien hated him from childhood, believing that he was a bully and a megalomaniac. Writing to his older brother Joseph in the early 1790s, he listed all Napoleons faults, noting, "He seems to me to have a strong liking for tyrannical methods; if he were king, he would be a tyrant, and his name, for posterity and in the ears of sensitive patriots, would be a name of horror."

The brothers and sisters of Napoleon Bonaparte his Consecration in 1804.

Once Napoleon took power in France, Lucien was banished to Italy for marrying a woman whom his brother did not approve. The rest of the Bonapartes continued to bicker—united in little but their hatred of Napoleon’s wife, Josephine. In response, Napoleon taunted them with the honors he bestowed on Josephine and her children. One night at dinner, he continually addressed his stepdaughter Hortense as Princess, just to anger his sisters. According to Theo Aronson, author of The Golden Bees: The Story of the Bonapartes, "Caroline burst into tears. Elisa, who had a better grip on her emotions, resorted to shafts of biting sarcasm and long haughty silences."

The dysfunction reached a fever pitch in 1804, when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor. His sisters and sisters-in-law were appalled that they would have to carry the hated Josephine’s train in the ceremony at Notre Dame. Joseph said he would move to Germany if his wife was so dishonored. Eventually, the women begrudgingly agreed—only if their trains were also carried.

The siblings were also jealous of each other. Napoleon made Joseph King of Italy and Sicily, Jerome King of Westphalia, and Louis King of Holland. Upon learning that Elisa had been given the principality of Piombino, Caroline quipped, "So Elisa is a sovereign Princess, with an army of four privates and a corporal."

After his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon turned against much of his family. "I love no one, no, not even my brothers," he once said. "Joseph, perhaps a little; and if I do love him, it is from habit, and because he is my elder." 

Stewing in exile on Saint Helena he realized he had made a mistake by putting his siblings in positions of power. "If I made one [of my brothers] a king,” he muttered, according to Aronson's account, “he imagined that he was king by the grace of God. He was no longer my lieutenant; he was one enemy more for me to watch."

from Stories - HISTORY https://ift.tt/2Nb51Fd January 10, 2020 at 09:12PM

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