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heavencasteel420 · 7 months

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Lonnie is definitely homophobic, but honestly I think Will was pretty much doomed to be the Unfavorite regardless of his sexuality/gender presentation/anything else about him, just due to timing and birth order and Lonnie’s extreme selfishness. Here’s how I see it playing out:

Lonnie and Joyce marry, more or less, for love. He’s probably already kind of a dirtbag, but it’s easier not to act like it with his pretty, relatively carefree new wife.

Jonathan comes along, and Lonnie is genuinely pleased, at least because he likes the idea of being the father of a son. Very Billy Bigelow, unfortunately.

The reality of a baby is not so enjoyable, but Joyce probably isn’t working outside the home yet, money’s not as tight as it will become, there might still be a grandparent or two around to help, and (in small-town Indiana in the late sixties) there is little expectation that he will actually parent. So he can interact with baby Jonathan when he pleases and do what he wants the rest of the time.

When Will comes along four years later, conditions are different. He’s fighting with Joyce more (Jonathan has no memories of their relationship being consistently good, and at four he’d be able to form lasting memories). Money might be tighter. If there was a grandparent helping, they might have passed. Feminism is more mainstream (and, even if Joyce doesn’t evoke it, he might be aware of and resent it). The new baby is a source of discord in his eyes. Moreover, he already has one son to satisfy his patriarchal self-image, so he doesn’t need another one.

Joyce starts working long hours at Melvald’s when Will is two and Jonathan is six. We don’t know for sure what Lonnie did/does, but my theory is that he fixes/flips cars and might have some dubiously legal side hustles. Maybe he’s the parent who’s home more, and so he’s expected to actually watch his children. And he hates it. It’s hard and boring and an insult to his manhood.

Jonathan is six at this point, and probably pretty self-sufficient due to necessity. Will is two, though, and no two-year-old can even fake not needing care. Lonnie doesn’t know or care about childhood development, though, so he decides that Will is just kind of pathetic and stupid. He resents seeing Jonathan look after him (because Jonathan is supposed to be mini-him! And he wouldn’t do that!) but he doesn’t want to take care of Will himself and he can’t totally reject the son whose existence fulfills his self-image as a Father of a Son, so he just directs more contempt at Will.

Will happens to be gay and is sensitive/different in ways that Hawkins residents pick up on early on, but if it weren’t that Lonnie would have found something else to despise about him. Because his perception of his sons has so little to do with who they actually are and more to do with his ego.

Will would probably have to perform Ideal Boyhood in order for Lonnie to neglect him in a neutral way, and he’d probably have to throw Jonathan under the bus to get more than that (of course he wants to go hunting! He’s not gonna cry about it like Jonathan did! Jonathan’s such a girl!). And he probably only would manage to reverse their positions if Jonathan, on principle, didn’t fight back (because I’m sure Lonnie would have loved to pit them against each other). God, there are so many ways their dynamic could have been worse.

(It’s also interesting to think what might have been if Jonathan had died really young—would Lonnie have tried to make do with Will, or resent him even more?—or if Jonathan had been a girl.)

#the Jennifer Byers AU i have in my head is a rough one #the only upside is that lonnie couldn’t denigrate her masculinity probably #the downsides are endless #for both Jennifer and Will #stranger things #jonathan byers #will byers #joyce byers #lonnie byers

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gayofthefae · 1 year

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Disclaimer: as always, the emotional descriptions of Mike do not require self-awareness. I stand with my belief that he is a knee-jerk, don’t-look-for-explanations emotional reaction kinda guy, at least up until the van scene.

Thinking about how Mike has actually barely distanced Will at all. He has always been the same with Will, really....In private. It wasn’t always in private, but I think the more Mike’s feelings develop, the more he feels like he needs to keep his relationship with Will in the shadows almost entirely to remain in the closet. As if their entire relationship is intrinsically romantic and therefore would expose him somehow with the slightest of intimacy (he’s always shown with Will) just because there is now some different feeling behind it. This also explains his increasing sensitivity in fights to say things from “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls” (sexuality to comment) to “We’re friends! We’re friends!” (comment on the nature of their relationship) when no one was questioning otherwise. He may genuinely believe that increasingly smaller details about their relationship are inherently romantic without realizing that he feels this way because he is feeling romantically about them.

In season 1, the little we got was “It was a 7″ and the hug in the hospital: one private, one public.

In season 2, we got a lot of opportunities for very intimate, private moments, but also a fairly public nonromantic confession of love in the shed.

In season 3, though, it started to shift. Mike and Will had that intimacy in the movie theatre when whispering and sitting separately. And their fight, to an extent, is a result of Will’s de-prioritization to Mike when El is present or focal. It is even a direct result of the developing pattern while they’re broken up of El even being the focus during Will’s time with him - which has already been shortened and his own one-on-one time made near-nonexistent because of Mike’s time alone with El. Will’s fears of their friendship ending come from the fact that their only quality time is now in group settings - in which specifically he is second to El. They make up - or rather Will drops it - when they reform as a whole group. But in that group setting again, Mike still has more focus on El than Will for the remainder of the season - with a small, sweet moment when they’re alone together at the end, talking about Will not joining another party, and Mike and Will able to hug tightly as the Byers say goodbye.

During the time in between season 3 and 4, Mike keeps in touch with El but is unable to with Will - maintaining that exchange of presences even long distance. His aforementioned “sensitivity” also increases to the point of not hugging Will at the airport in public - despite him being completely comfortable hugging others we know he thinks of platonically in episode 1 (so gee I wonder what the difference could be). He gives him minimal attention outside of the socks comment (but notice I said gives him minimal attention, because he pays attention to him just fine as we find out when he lists Will’s behavior throughout the day). They fight. Then Mike doesn’t really interact with anyone all day. (He also ignores Will at breakfast - but I chock that up more to stress and concern for El, plus Jonathan was present then.). But what happens the first time in the season we see them truly alone together? Emotional intimacy. Mike is still cold in a similar way to how he was at breakfast, but he opens up about it until Jonathan comes in. And then (note: also with El’s absence so he only has to balance one of them again), he and Will’s dynamic is pretty normal while talking to Jonathan for the rest of the time. (There’s also a solid chance that he is more sensitive around El as well - whether it be fear with her as a witness specifically OR fear that people will notice that he treats Will the same way he treats his girlfriend and have her right there as direct comparison. So now, with El gone, he may feel a bit more comfortable to return at least to talking. I mean, silent treatment would honestly be more suspicious). The next time we see them alone together, Mike comes into his room and closes the door (Jonathan came in last time: more privacy) and again: emotional intimacy. To skip ahead, basically we get almost exclusively one on one interactions from them for the rest of the season with Mike much more comfortable with them, likely out of realizing he needed to prioritize this is or he would lose Will, leading up to having one in a car with both Jonathan and Argyle (maybe a little too comfortable, Mike: Jonathan noticed).

So, though there’s been a lot of weirdness. It’s all either been in public or a resulting fight of the weirdness in public. Alone together, Mike has always felt safe being intimate with Will. I think this speaks to the fact that unlike some GA have speculated, he isn’t/wouldn’t be uncomfortable with the idea of Will having a crush on him. All evidence supporting that is immediately contradicted by his deep comfort with Will when the only difference is a lack of witnesses. It isn’t a concern for Will’s reaction. It’s a concern for witnesses’ reactions. That’s what he has to tackle next. His heteronormativity is still scaring him. And he’s gotten to a place maybe of more self awareness since the van scene (theory linked above). And he’s become less sensitive with Will again because he realized it was causing too much harm to their relationship. But his interactions with Will and El remain mutually exclusive. And his relationship with Will is getting to the point of being as publicly comfortable as it was in season 2 again - then because he hadn’t become scared yet, now because he realizes that fear isn’t worth losing Will over.

But the in-between discrepancies show us the difference - or rather show the one consistent thing in changing everything around it: Mike has always been comfortable with Will one-on-one. Even when everything else seemed crazy. Even when he seemed like he was pushing him away. Maybe it’s just coincidental timing, but Mike has never pushed Will away in private. In fact, seldom do they have a private moment that isn’t incredibly intimate and bringing them closer together (something he hasn’t been self aware to realize may also be dangerous in the war against his own sexuality)

#mike wheeler #byler #airport scene #mike wheeler analysis #byler analysis #stranger things

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jonathanssweatercollection · 2 years

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JONATHAN!!! of course i've spent my time since finishing the season recently going through your blog, but just overall, i'd love to know what you thought about volume one?! especially the jonathan/byers of it all if you'd like to share!!!!!!! <3

sathana bestie hi !!!!!!!!! hope ur groovin <33

i typed a more lengthy response to this b4 nd tumblr just. nuked it so i’ll just say that while yes this season has numerous problems and bits that i’m not the biggest fan of (hello russia plot, hello stranger things’ patented oddly written bullying, hello stancybaitgate (no offence intended to my stancy mutuals lov y’all)) this season is a MAJOR step-up from s3. like a HUMONGOUS improvement tbh

highlights from the top of my head:

max’s storyline was done so much more respectfully than i was expecting and genuinely made me cry i love her so much

robin and nancy are soooooooo autistic and fruity this season it’s a blessing

murray and joyce being comedic besties (and making their storyline worthwhile)

eddie and steve are two different flavours of off the fucking walls and i love that for them

i love seeing el’s development as she grows up !!! i just wish that she didn’t get thrown into the deep end of high school

the gore effects this volume were simply chef’s fuckin kiss and greatly appealed to the deranged little horror fanatic in me

continuing on from that, vecna/henry creel was soooooooo creepy and cool i think he’s an awesome villain overall (and much better than some of the other human ones in the show 👀)

and finally. my boy. my bestest boy in the whole wide world. jonathan honeypie byers my fucking beloved. i’m glad that he had more of an introspective storyline than he had last season (and an unfair amount in s2 tbh) and we actually have scenes where he’s the primary focus (if only for a little while). i’m overjoyed he has argyle to be there for him, even if he’s a little misguided at times and doesn’t think things through, because jonathan needs and deserves ppl to be in his corner; he deserves a support system and ppl who care abt him. jonathan’s outfits have also slapped this season, loving all the fruity shirts he’s been wearing. and unpopular opinion maybe, but i also rly like his hair !!!! it’s like an overgrown shaggy version of his s1 hair which i appreciate immensely.

overall i wish that the cali storyline had more screentime (also more el too) in all honesty; i want more big brother byers moments!!!! also more joyce/family interactions, given that the s4 interactions between her and jonathan were limited and not super great. i’m also praying that the love triangle nonsense that’s been abruptly rehashed for s4 (which i’d thought we’d moved way past in season 3??? hello) doesnt shit all over his character development, same going for nancy and steve too; if we’re doing this then for the love of fuck please just give us stoncy. i know they won’t but like. please

rounding off tho, i don’t think that the og jonathan that likeminded jon stans prefer i.e the original characterisation of jonathan, from s1 (ya know: perceptive, responsible, sensitive, artistic, self-aware, passionate, ambitious, stalwart) would rly be very happy with this s4 variant. i’ve seen some ppl view some of his scenes where he’s high off his mind as kind of sad? and i can’t help but compare his lack of awareness and how uninvolved he seems (initially, that is) to how hands-on and “take charge” he used to be (i only put that in quotation marks bc i don’t think that phrase greatly applies to him the majority of the time, since he’s not rly your hopper-esque macho male protag). like when joyce asked him what was wrong with him when he was asking “what’s going on” and repeating the things told to him (processing brand new info under an already influenced mind ofc), that just keeps coming back to me as s1!jonathan asking the same thing to his current self ya know?? like idk if the two met i feel that s1!jonathan would be kind of disappointed in what’s happened to him, if not understanding of his s4!self’s circumstances and also kind of thankful that he’s not as on-edge. hm. much to think abt (or write a fanfiction about 👀)

anyways woah i don’t mean to natter on so much in this reply but i hope that, if it makes sense I mean, u like it or at least see where i’m coming from ?? it’s late <3

#thank you for asking bestie !!!!! i hope you’ve liked this season !!!#trulyalpha #stranger things #st spoilers #s4 spoilers #jonathan byers #replies #mine

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beclynn-herondale · 3 years

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Similarities that I see between Jace and Céline

(these are just my thoughts. Press read more to see them.)

↑ this chaotic energy. You think he got it from Stephen? Nah.

Her anxiety reminds me of Jace's. And like their thought process was similar in ways.

They both struggled with belonging.

Céline corrected Robert when he said "Just like a warlock. Always for sale."

And Céline was like "Always on sale."

Again Jace energy.

Céline knew Amatis, Stephen's wife. At least, she knew enough. Amatis was sharp-tongued and stuck up. She was opinionated, argumentative, stubborn, and not even that pretty. There were also rumors that she still secretly associated with her werewolf brother. Céline didn't much care about that—she had nothing against Downworlders. But she had plenty against Amatis, who obviously didn't appreciate what she had. Stephen needed someone who would admire him, agree with him, support him. Someone like Céline. If only she could make him see that for himself.

Jace's smile was as bland as buttered toast. "Go on, go after him. Pat his head and tell him he's still your super special little guy. Isn't that what you want to do?"

But he couldn't look at Simon without wanting to kill someone.

“And even back then, in that stupid coffee shop. When I saw you sitting on the couch with Simon, even then that felt wrong to me—i should have been the one sitting with you. The one that made you laugh like that. I couldn't get rid of that feeling. That it should have been me.”

↑ Their bitterness, anger, jealousy, and envy towards the person who had the person they wanted and in general has the same energy in my opinion.

They both were angry and jealous of people who had it better or they considered to be good—Like, that was why Jace hated Simon so much at first, because Simon was everything Jace thought he'd never get to be, he just didn't realize it.—And Céline was angry of the kids in the academy who had loving parents and good childhoods, and weren't damaged like she was—they both were angry because somebody was someone or had something they thought they'd never get to be or have. (In Céline's case she never actually got it, not really.)

They both like to wander around when upset.

They both aren't too fond of the Silent Brothers. And I think that has to do with their head being full of certain things they don't want others to know, and the Silent Brothers speak in your mind, almost like they're reading your thoughts.

They're both observant, which could be from growing up in abusive and toxic environments but could also just be they're observant people.

They both can tell when someone is off. We see this when Céline sees through Valentine's mask. Jace often saw through the lies of people in TMI and still does.

And the both hate being pitied. Like it angers them when people pity them, we see that with Jace quite often in TMI, but we see it when Dominique says this: “Every Downworlder in Paris knows about poor Céline Montclaire, wandering the city like a murderous little Éponine. We all feel a little sorry for you.”

And then Céline thought this: Céline lived with a steady, secret simmer of rage, but now she felt it boiling over.

↑ Again, the above reminds me of Jace. He lived with anger that he kept under control but would boil over when triggered.

They're both sensitive. And get hurt easily.

“I wish I could be more like you,” she admitted.

In what sense?

“You know, just shut off my feelings? Feel nothing. For anybody.”

There was a long pause, and she wondered if she had offended him. Was that even possible? Finally, his cool, steady voice spoke.

This is a wish you should dispense with. Feeling is what makes us human. Even the most difficult feelings. Perhaps especially those. Love, loss, longing—this is what it means to truly be alive.

“I think—my father was sorry he had a parabatai,” he said. “Now I have to go live with a man my father was sorry about. I don't want to be weak, I don't want to be sorry. I want to be the best.”

If you pretend to feel nothing, the pretense may become true, said Jem. That would be a pity.

↑ They both wished to feel nothing, and had Jem tell them that wasn't as great as they thought. But they both still desperately wanted to not feel.

When she was a child, her parents had often refused her iratzes after training sessions, especially when her injuries were caused by her own mistakes. Let the pain remind you to do better next time, they told her. All these years later she was still making the same mistakes.

“No! it's better for your parents not to know it happened at all. It was just bad luck that one of them got me. I'm a good fighter,” Jonathan protested sharply.

“It's my fault I got hurt,” said Jonathan. “I know excuses are for incompetents. It won't happen again.”

↑ this bit on making mistakes, or when getting hurt.

Céline always carried a misericord blade.

↑ Reminds me of someone else who always carries blades.

They both were aware of the consequences of putting a rune on someone that they weren't 100% sure were Nephilim, and it was different circumstances but they did it anyway. Jace gave Clary her first rune and Céline gave Rosemary her first rune (I think).

More furious at her own instinct for mercy. After all, her parents had never shown any to her. Her parents had done their best to teach her that mercy was weakness, and cruelty was strength.

Jonathan said the word "weakness" with horror. Jem wondered what a man who had drilled a boy to fight like that might have considered weakness.

↑ Mercy, kindness, gentleness, etc. Was taught as weakness to them both growing up.

They both hate being predictable. Kinda like when Rosemary knew Céline would keep her secret. Céline hated that she knew that. Remember in CoA when everyone was guessing that Jace said no to Valentine, and he hated it.

They both never really felt like they were ever a kid. Because again, the environment they grew up in forced them to grow up faster than they should have. Which is why Jace didn't think of himself as one when he threw himself into battle.

like Jace I don't think Céline liked to upset the balance of things, meaning they don't pry and don't pressure. Which often gets them labeled as "not too bright" or "unobservant" they're both observant, they just don't say it out-loud. Jace is definitely like this, but I see Céline as this too. Stephen said she always needed to be told what to do, but I don't think it was that exactly, I think she just didn't like to upset things. Which growing up in an abusive and toxic environment does that. But I think it's also just part of who they are.

That sweet and obedient daughter of the provençal countryside. They knew how devoted she was to her parents. Such a dutiful daughter.

↑ Valentine often called Jace his obedient son. I see Jace in this part as well. Sebastian called him Valentine's "sweet boy."

She could close the door on the past, start again. She could choose a life without pain, without suffering or fear.

But who would she be without pain?

This also reminds me of Jace. Obviously he did end up choosing to walk away from Valentine. But there are times he doubted, because in reality he himself didn't know who he was without the pain he'd experienced, without his past with Valentine. And they both believed that the pain and suffering had made them stronger. Jace later knows that isn't true, but I see the similarity there.

They're both said to have vulnerability about them that made you wan to protect them. To keep them safe. Jocelyn said you couldn't really hate Céline, and I think it's kinda the same with Jace.

Both of them refused to ask for help. Thinking they could do it all on their own.

Céline could tell how much it hurt—and how determined the woman was to reveal no pain. She knelt by her side. Rosemary flinched away. “Let me see—I can help."

“Tell me what happened first.” She tried to yank her wrist back, but his grip was incredibly strong. “I can help you.” — this is in Clary's pov.

↑ Their willingness to help the pretty stranger they didn't know.

They both often felt they didn't have a choice in some things.

They both felt achingly alone at some point. And very much misunderstood.

The thought of losing the only family they ever had scared them, and they were willing to do anything to keep them. Even if in Céline's case hers wasn't that real.

They were both said to be beautiful, and breakable. Fragile almost. These were Jocelyn's words. That beautiful things were easily broken.

They both grew up denied of love and care.

Céline had low self esteem in a lot of areas. We often see Jace as the confident character who doesn't have insecurities or low self-esteem. but he does. Jace didn't like himself, his looks don't play a part here, he didn't like himself. He actually didn't feel good enough or worth much, that's why he made so many superiority jokes, because he truly didn't feel good enough but had to make everyone believe he did. Céline didn't feel good enough either, but she tried not to let it show.

Their childhood gave them bad coping mechanisms and suicidal tendencies. They both self harmed in ways, believing that pain made you stronger is one of them.

We often look over the fact that while some of Jace's mental struggles did come from the trauma of his childhood and growing up around war, that he was already at a high risk with a mother who experienced similar things. Because if you have a parent who has mental illness the offspring are at higher risk of developing one. And his childhood didn't help with that.

And we know what they both truly wanted was to be loved and safe. Really. Jace always thought he wanted to fight all the time, but by the end of tmi he realized he just truly wanted to be happy and left alone, he just wanted Clary and his family. Céline wanted that too, but she never got it.

You all realize they would understand each other, right? Like if Cassie ever did something where they somehow met, Céline would understand Jace and he would understand her.

Céline would have never raised Jace with anything but love and care. She would have made sure he never knew a childhood like hers. But he did. He ended up knowing what that was like. And it would have broken her even more to know that.

But she would probably stab Valentine in the face, which I'd like to see.

Friendly reminder that Jace looks like her around the eyes (no I won't shut up about this.)

There's probably more but until we learn more we won't know. Just remember he may be a Herondale but Céline is also there.

@khaleesiofalicante I tagged you 😎

#celine montclaire #celine herondale #jace herondale #jace lightwood herondale #tsc #the shadowhuter chronicles #tst #the secret treasons

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thecrownnet · 4 years

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weekendmagsocial The Diana we’re desperate to meet. The return of The Crown [...]

*Spoilers Alert*

The Diana we’re desperate to meet. The return of The Crown will feature assassinations, avalanches and the tension between the Queen and Mrs T. But the most anticipated entrance has to be Diana’s. Today Weekend tells how they’ve captured her charisma

[...] The upcoming fourth season will take Diana from her early days as a shy kindergarten teaching assistant to a fairytale princess and an iconic global figure, as well as explore the early days of her disastrous marriage to Prince Charles.Her entrance comes when it returns to our screens in November or December, almost exactly 40 years after Nigel Dempster revealed in the Daily Mail in 1980 that Charles had found his ‘future bride’, having transferred his attention to Diana Spencer from her older sister Sarah.

Like Diana at the time, the actress playing her in The Crown is also a young unknown. Emma Corrin, 24, is a privately educated Cambridge graduate, who didn’t go to drama school.

By coincidence she’s originally from Sevenoaks in Kent, where Diana went to West Heath School from the age of 12 to 16.

Aware of how challenging the role would be for any actress, the producers started their search with a desperate call for ‘a mesmerising new young star with extraordinary range.’

The brief added, ominously: ‘She has to play charming comedy, flirt and social exhibitionist on the world stage, desperate and lonely self-harmer at her lowest ebb and the kind of psychological intensity of Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby.’

It would obviously be helpful too if she resembled Diana, and in some of the new scenes, as the kindergarten teaching assistant, and wearing a pink polka-dot dress on her 1983 tour of Australia, the likeness is uncanny.

Emma’s co-star Josh O’Connor, who plays Prince Charles, agrees, saying it was ‘spooky’ how much of a ‘breathtaking spitting image’ of Diana she was.

But Emma says she has never been told she looks like Princess Diana before – although strangely her mother, who works as a speech therapist, has been! ‘I have never had that,’ she adds. ‘I get told I look like a young Jodie Foster.’

Emma spent more than two hours a day in the make-up chair to achieve the Diana look, accentuating her doe eyes, and with several wigs re-creating the journey from ingénue to one of the most stylish women in the world.

Amazingly, she was still working hard for her final exams at Cambridge when she went through the auditions for The Crown.

‘They actually offered me the part in person,’ she says of her last audition. ‘It felt like I’d just been proposed to; it was the best moment of my life. There’s a lot of pressure, but I’ve been glued to the show since the first episode and to think I’m now joining this incredibly talented acting family is just surreal.’

Peter Morgan, the creator, writer and producer of The Crown, has complete confidence in her. ‘Emma is a brilliant talent who immediately captivated us when she came in for the part.

'As well as having the innocence and beauty of a young Diana, she also has, in abundance, the range and complexity to portray an extraordinary woman who went from an anonymous teenager to the most iconic woman of her generation.’

Like all the cast in this heavily researched production, she was given a large bundle of written material and documentaries to watch, and she spent hours on perfecting the princess’s distinctive high voice with a vocal coach and learning how to re-create her particular habit of glancing up from under her fringe, as well as her graceful way of moving.

It’s not an impression, I’m going for essence - Emma Corrin, who plays Diana ‘Something they have been making clear from the start is that this is not an impression,’ says Emma.

‘I am going for essence. Any movement and voice work we have done has been figuring out why she talks the way she does, and how she was a massive departure from the Royal Family, a bit like Meghan is now I guess, by bringing something different in the way she talks.’

Season four brings back memories of naive young Diana, with a re-creation of that first photo, at the Pimlico nursery school where she worked, which showed her holding two of her charges while the sun shone through her skirt, revealing her shapely legs.

And it follows how she becomes hardened into a mature but troubled woman who is the toast of America.

The retelling of the royal romance starts with a traumatic event: the assassination of Charles’s beloved great uncle Lord Mountbatten (Charles Dance) who was killed, along with a grandson, a local boy and his son-in-law’s mother, by an IRA bomb hidden on his boat in Ireland in 1979.

Diana recalled how she’d watched Charles at the funeral on TV and when she saw him ten months later – the families were friends – she told him: ‘You must be so lonely? You know, it’s ghastly. You need someone beside you.’ He quickly decided he was in love.

Diana was turning 19 when she got together with Charles. He was 31. After 13 dates they were engaged. The rehearsal of their 1981 wedding at St Paul’s has been filmed in Winchester Cathedral with Emma wearing a replica of the blue floral dress Diana sported before the big day.

A later scene shows the joyful day when Diana, pregnant with Harry – with Emma sporting a fake baby bump – enjoyed an Easter Egg hunt at Buckingham Palace, chasing toddler William in the gardens.

The new episodes also focus on key moments – and key looks – from 1989, three years after Charles is thought to have resumed his affair with Camilla.

In one scene Emma is seen outside The Savoy hotel in London, re-creating Diana’s appearance at the Barnardo’s Champion Awards.

Emma wears a floral one-shoulder dress, reflecting one of Diana’s favourite silhouettes – a style which suited her immensely but which the Establishment is said to have hated, deeming it ‘not royal’.

Having played Charles so sensitively in season three, Josh O’Connor, 30, says the heir to the throne will be portrayed in a harsher light this time. ‘Well, it’s the Diana years,’ he says.

‘If series three was to make people feel empathy for him, I guess we’re going to pull the rug from under him. We all have a set position on the dynamic between Diana and Charles. It’s been great to have the ability to either fight against that or, at times, acknowledge it and to challenge any question of, “Did he ever love her?” Personally, I think he must have done.

'There’s a wealth of layers to Charles and Diana, and I have loved seeking that out.

'I think Diana wasn’t completely innocent – I’m talking fictionally, in our story – so there are ups and downs. There’s the difficulty with Camilla and the whole family, so it’s going to be, hopefully, an interesting arc.’

Josh says they all enjoyed delving into an era which is so crucial to the modern Royal Family. ‘Everything changed when Diana came onto the scene,’ he says.

‘I think she changed the game, and modernised them, and made them relevant again.’

Also returning are Emerald Fennell as Camilla and Erin Doherty as feisty Princess Anne.

The real Anne revealed recently that she’d watched early episodes of the show, which she found ‘quite interesting’.

Peter Morgan says, ‘So many people asked me, after she first appeared, to put more of her in there.

Anne’s often overlooked. But Erin’s portrayal means that everybody has fallen in love with her. I read that searches about her on Google went through the roof, she’s now one of the most popular royals.’

Prince Andrew’s romantic life is set to come under the spotlight too. His most famous affair was with actress Koo Stark, who is said to have threatened to sue producers if the portrayal of her is negative, while the period covered in this series also sees him marry Sarah Ferguson.

Meanwhile, Edward is seen growing up and going to university.

There was a rush to finish filming before lockdown was announced.

It meant one key scene of an avalanche had to be moved from the Pyrenees to Ben Nevis.

The incident is likely to be a re-creation of the fatal moments in 1988 when a skiing party including Charles was caught in an avalanche in Klosters.

Major Hugh Lindsay, a former equerry to the Queen, was killed and Charles was seen weeping as he was helicoptered off the slopes.

The bizarre affair when Michael Fagan broke into the Queen’s bedroom in Buckingham Palace in 1982 will also feature in this run, but the 1987 It’s A Royal Knockout embarrassment, when the lesser royals dressed in medieval garb to play games for charity, is mercifully absent.

Once this series is over, an older cast are preparing to take the lead roles, with Imelda Staunton as the Queen and Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret.

They are due to start filming next year, and die-hard fans will be cheered by Peter Morgan’s recent change of heart, when he announced in July that there will be a sixth series to come.

The Crown will return to Netflix later this year.

- Source: Daily Mail August 14, 2020

*It has just been announced that Jonathan Pryce will portray Prince Philip in season 5 and 6.

#josh o'connor #emma corrin #princess diana #the crown #the crown spoilers

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jgroffdaily · 4 years

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Warning: This article contains spoilers about Frozen 2

When Frozen premiered in 2013 and didn’t feature any significant solo songs for star Jonathan Groff, some fans were understandably miffed. After all, Groff earned Tony nominations for his roles in the Broadway musicals Spring Awakening and Hamilton (maybe you’ve heard of it?), and he played Jesse St. James in the musical-comedy series Glee. In other words, the man can sing.

Much to his (and fans’) delight, Frozen 2 rectifies this issue with the ’80s soft-rock ballad “Lost in the Woods,” which his character Kristoff sings surrounded by reindeer. The scene is reminiscent of cheesy music videos of the era and is one of the film’s highlights.

Ahead of Frozen 2’s opening weekend, Groff spoke with EW about his first reaction to the song, why he was worried it would get cut, the importance of seeing “a Disney leading man with a sensitive side,” and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The only solo snippet we got from you in the first Frozen was the short number “Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People.” Were you aware going into the second film that people were upset that you didn’t sing more in the original? JONATHAN GROFF: Well, that’s actually funny you say that about the reindeer thing because I feel like with Frozen 2, they didn’t take the easy route, which would have been to do a re-creation of the first movie or introduce a bunch of new characters. They just sort of dug in deeper with the characters from the first movie and cooked things and expanded on them. And they told me they were going to try and write me a song for the second movie, and I couldn’t imagine how they were going to do it. And then part of what inspired that song that I get in the second film is this weird personality quirk that Kristoff has where he expresses his emotions and subconscious through that weird voice for his pet reindeer, Sven — just as many of us who have pets do weird voices for — and that was sort of a funny joke in the first movie. Then in the second movie that quirk ends up becoming an entire ’80s soft-rock jam, and it’s sort of Kristoff’s way of expressing his deep, deep emotional feelings that he has for Anna. So they took that little quirk from the first movie and then expanded it into this intimate epic ’80s number.

What was your first reaction whenever they introduced you to the song and its concept? I honestly couldn’t believe that they were going to take such a left turn. I thought, “Oh, I can’t imagine that an ’80s slow jam is going to not get cut from the final product of Frozen 2,” because it was so shocking and surprising and jarring. And I think that’s part of what makes it so brilliant in the movie. It’s also really kind of a gift for the adults watching the movie because, you know, I’ve seen it three times, and the adults in the crowd are the ones that are getting all of the kind of ’80s references in the animation and the sort of execution of the song. The kids are laughing too, but the adults are the ones that are really in on the joke, and I’m thrilled that it made it into the final cut.

It’s so funny you say that, because earlier this week I was talking with a co-worker who had taken her daughter to a screening of the film. And she said her daughter got so mad at that part because she couldn’t understand why all the adults were laughing at Kristoff. [Laughs] They’re like, “Kristoff is really going through it!” It’s so funny because it makes sense. Even when we were recording it, I talked a lot with [composers Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez] about toeing the line between emotion and camp, and telling the joke of the song, but also doing it with real sincerity. Because those songs from the ’80s, they’re not making a joke. I mean, it seems like it’s funny now because they are such a music of a specific time period. But in those moments of those videos, it was a more innocent time. And there was a purity to it that we sort of laugh at now, but that purity is also actually what the character is feeling. So it was fun to kind of just have that balance of awareness and camp, but also actual emotion that maybe that little girl is plugged into, of “He’s really going through it.”

And you provided the vocals for all the reindeer in the song too, right? Yeah, I think it’s like 18 different vocal tracks that I laid in. It was the Kristoff and the Kristoff harmonies, and then the Sven background and the Sven background harmonies.

So we went from having not enough Jonathan Groff to having — Eighteen different vocal lines. [Laughs] Yeah, it’s chock-full in that particular song.

The film of course features plenty of empowering moments for young girls, but do you feel like having Kristoff sing a song might also be empowering to the little boys who are watching? I really do think so. I love that Kristoff is a Disney leading man with a sensitive side. And that’s what this song really expresses, is sort of his soulfulness. And oftentimes in entertainment, we’re seeing a man go off on an adventure and a girl left back at home singing about her feelings. And then this, as Frozen often does, they inverted it, and Anna goes off on an epic adventure and Kristoff is left to sing about his feelings and his love for her. And then when he joins the action towards the end of the film, he’s not there to sort of take control and take the spotlight. He’s there to support her. He rescues her from getting stomped on by a giant, and the first thing he says is, “I’m here for you, what do you need?” I think we really need to hear men saying that to women right now, culturally. And then at the end of the movie, she’s like, “I’m sorry that things are so crazy.” And he says, “It’s okay, my love is not fragile.” And that sort of enduring, supportive partner is, I think, a beautiful thing to have in an animated movie, both as an example for women of what they deserve and for men to take a page from Kristoff’s book.

Speaking of Kristoff’s playbook, how would you rate his proposal in the end? I think he nailed it because it came from the heart. And he meant it. He just felt it in the moment. It’s not that the other proposals were failures. It just wasn’t there. He saw it as a failure, I think, because he was feeling self-conscious, but it just was not the right time. And I think he spoke from the heart at the right time. I think that’s all you can ask when you’re expressing your deepest feelings for someone, which is just to know when the moment is to say it, and it just so happened that the three previous times weren’t the exact right moment.

A third film has not officially been announced, but if you could envision a song for Kristoff in a potential sequel, what would it be like? Oh, this is a really tough question because I couldn’t even imagine how Kristoff was going to sing in the second movie. I was like, “How are they going to get a mountain man to sing a song?” And they were so sweet, Bobby and Kristen, for saying, “We’re going to really try and get you to sing in this one.” And they ended up creating that ’80s ballad that I could have never in my wildest dreams imagined would have happened. So, I honestly have no idea.

Well, at the end of the film Anna becomes queen, which would make Kristoff the king… so maybe a riff on another song in the Disney canon, “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”? [Laughs] That’s the irony of it, though, is that that’s not what he’s angling for. He’s just there to support her. I don’t know, is he a king if really the queen is the ruler? Yes, I guess he is, technically. It’s definitely not a position that he ever was anticipating or had the ambition to have. So maybe the words would have to change if we did that song.

Frozen 2 is in theaters now.

#jonathan groff #frozen 2 #interview

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diyunho · 4 years

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The Joker x Reader -”What Death Tastes Like” Part 4

Scarecrow’s daughter might be only 22, yet the terminal lung cancer she was diagnosed with six months ago didn’t discriminate against her age; the young woman didn’t show worrisome symptoms until it was too late. Y/N always had a fascination for the much older King of Gotham and despite the consequences, maybe it’s finally time to do something about it.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5

Your Birthday

“Look at him, parading like a rooster!” Emma elbows you, huffing.

The Joker is on the terrace, nosing inside the coolers to find his favorite grape juice brand since he knows it should be in there somewhere. He’s sporting very dark purple pants and a much lighter shade purple shirt, fitted on his body to perfection plus two gold chains around his neck which makes one wonder why he didn’t add more giving his sense of fashion.

You pile up some fruits on your plate, gazing The Clown’s way with a smirk:

“Those trousers make his butt stand out.”

“That’s probably the reason for wearing them,” Emma sighs and you both burst up laughing, amused at the truth she admitted aloud.

“I feel this lustful desire of spanking him,” you blur out. “I bet your dad only unbuttoned half of his shirt because he obviously wants me to unbutton the other half: that sexy rooster can frizzle my feathers anytime he wishes,” you tease and she covers your mouth in a hurry.

“Y/N, can you not?!”

“Sssttt, you’ll wake up the baby,” the muffled sentence distracts Emma and she lets go, apologizing to the five weeks old:

“Oh, sorry angel,” she lingers over the baby basket placed on the empty table next to the self-serve buffet: Frost’s son is napping under the umbrella while his parents mingle for a little bit with the guests that already arrived at your birthday party. How did Jonny end up here? The crazy motive: his employer is to blame for the mess he created one hour ago, already fixed due to your sense of urgency.

The Joker showed up in time at 3pm for his “date” like you instructed; you opened the door and he immediately handed you a car sit containing the tiny human.

“Happy Birthday, Y/N!”

“Ummm…thank you,” the hesitant Y/N invited him inside.

“I got you a present,” he widely grinned, confident nobody else came up with a better gift idea.

“… Whose baby is this?!...” you followed him, carefully walking with the adorable bundle in the living room; the sleeping treasure fussed for a few seconds and went back to dreaming, unaware he was away from his parents.

“Frost’s,” J answered and you turned towards the entrance, baffled.

“I’ll go open the door for him then.”

“That’s not necessary; he didn’t come with me.”

“What do you mean?!”

“He’s off today. I just went to his house to drop up some ammo, then sneaked in the nursery and took the baby.”

“And his parents were ok with that?!” you crinkled your nose, more and more suspicious regarding his behavior.

“They don’t know,” The King of Gotham calmly informed.

“You kidnapped Frost’s son?!”

“I didn’t kidnap him,” J rolled his eyes, offended at your accusation. “I took him.”

“Without his parents’ consent. So you kidnapped him!” you gasped at the insane revelation.

“I’m in charge,” The Joker logic surfaced instantly. “I don’t require consent! Why are you staring at me like this?”

“I keep on hoping you’re bluffing,” you cringed at his argument. “Give me your phone!” you ordered and the item was shortly in your possession, although you had to witness a lot of grievance from his part as you searched for Frost’s digits.

Praise heavens you did since his wife was absolutely hysterical when you called: their offspring was missing from the cradle and Jonny might not be the type of person that panics, yet he had a total nervous breakdown.

They were fast to come and pick up Evan, so yeah… that’s how The Frosts ended up at your birthday bash… Full credit goes to their amazing boss!

*************

After one hour

“Do me a favor,” your father continues his conversation with J. “I want you to check with your contacts and try to find more Cromyxillium for me; I’m in desperate need.”

“Don’t you have enough for Y/N?” The Joker growls at the view of Bane’s son entertaining himself with you and Emma.

“For now. Tomorrow I’m starting her on full therapy; I found a new formula to bind the molecules together, this way her system won’t reject the medicine like it did last week. It will make her sick but I’ll be here to supervise the entire process.”

“Aren’t you afraid it will kill her?” J’s sensitive personality comes to full bloom in the best of moments.

Jonathan Crane is silent, then articulates painful facts he can’t avoid sharing:

“I am… I don’t have any other options on such a short amount of time…My daughter is fading… her lungs are finished…” and he gulps, straining to regain composure. “If this experimental drug can restore damaged tissue, it can aid with her cancer… She agreed to the test because I’m a super smart dad,” he grumbles. “That’s what she said…that I’m a super smart… I might be… I don’t even know if my remedy will work or if it will speed up her demise.”

“Fine, I’ll inquire on the product,” The Joker agrees. “What’s in for me?”

Your father takes a deep breath, exasperated.

“What do you want?”

“Excuse me,” The King of Gotham interrupts. “I think my pride’s at stake: somebody’s attempting to steal my date!” he inflates his chest and finds it imperative to notify the puzzled parent. “Y/N’s my date, didn’t she tell you? I was strictly forbidden to bring Mara so I had to maintain my reputation somehow.”

“What reputation??!!! She mentioned it and I thought the whole idea meant only you being obnoxious!” Jonathan huffs.

“I am obnoxious!” The Joker sourly admits and crushes the large group forming due to Sam’s entertaining abilities.

“Hey Y/N, where’s the grape juice?” he finds a random pretext to get your attention as you gesture towards the end of the terrace.

“There’s a bunch on ice,” you giggle at Sam’s story and J lies:

“I couldn’t find any.”

“Maybe someone moved it,” you detach from the gathering and stroll with him in the area you saw what he’s asking for.

“Who gave you that pendant?” The Clown Prince of Crime investigates since you definitely didn’t have the jewelry earlier.

“Sam,” you touch the delicate diamond heart attached to the platinum chain. “It’s so pretty, I love it.”

“He scored major points with the birthday girl, huh?” J mocks.

“Well, apparently some people are aware of my preferences and some give me presents I can’t keep,” you hint and The Joker comprehends what you aim at.

“My gift was brilliant! You said that if we would have gotten married we would have had a bunch of kids, thus it means you adore them. That’s why I brought Evan.”

“Yeah, and his parents already took him home, leading to the reasonable conclusion we can assess from the fiasco: you actually don’t have a present for me. Oh, would you look at this: grape juice!” you sarcastically show him the huge pile of containers exactly where it’s supposed to be.

“How did I miss this?” J pretends to be shocked and sneers when he notices Bane’s son coming near you two. “Dance with me!” he unexpectedly sweeps you in his arms. “It’s a slow song, just move your feet,” he encourages. “What do you want for your birthday then?” Emma’s dad distracts the astonished Y/N furthermore.

“Hmmm… I can settle for a kiss?” you unconsciously caress the short hair on the back of his head while he quickly pecks your cheek. “Um… if I wanted a jellyfish sting I could have went to the aquarium,” you sassily react and The Joker rolls his eyes. “I want a proper kiss, unless you have those reserved for Mara.”

“Why are we talking about my girlfriend?”

“On and off girlfriend,” you emphasize. “A huge indicator you don’t care that much about her. You need a woman that genuinely loves you; she’s a catalyst fueling your tendencies, you don’t need that! You don’t fight fire with fire, OK?” you almost shout and ironically enough he decides to engage in your speech.

“What do you fight it with then?”

“Dynamite!” you proudly state. “Blow up everything, wipe the slot clean and start fresh!”

“A-ah…A-ha…”, he mischievously agrees. “I assume you’re the dynamite in this scenario?” the silver grimace spreads across his face.

“Perhaps.”

“Why is Bane’s son here?” The Joker changes the subject. “He keeps lurking around and it annoys me.”

“Don’t be jealous,” you mislead him on purpose. “Sam was my boyfriend in high school,” you brief your so called partner. “I’m fond of him.”

“Why would I be jealous?!” The King’s mood switches and you realize yours is also: the sole detail he’s interested in is to emphasize zero attraction for his daughter’s friend.

“Yeah…why would you be jealous?...” you sadly smile and let go before the song ends. “Listen, I have to return to my guests, alright? You don’t have to stay; you should go back to your fire because you certainly don’t know what to do with dynamite,” the meaningful reply leaves him intrigued again: no cocky response to your clever twist in words since he already lost the passive-aggressive altercation.

************

9:49pm

You gaze at the starry sky, cozy on the inflatable mattress; the mesh on top of the tent is so thin you can hardly tell it’s there. Very quiet in the garden… you should have went to the river with the others, yet you felt the urge to be alone and rest before you reprise your treatment tomorrow.

“Y/N, are you in here?” The Joker’s voice is heard.

“No!” you grouchily snarl.

He unzips the tent and squeezes inside, obeying to your protest:

“Close it! I don’t want bugs in here!”

“I’m hiding from Crane, he made me do a bunch of stuff in preparation for your Cromyxillium therapy!” J complains to indifferent ears.

“I thought you bailed hours ago,” you coldly articulate.

“I was held prisoner in the underground lab! You should be thankful for my services.”

“You don’t do anything for free and I’m sure you’re over exaggerating anyway!”

“Whatever!” The Joker drops on the mattress next to you, deeply exhaling. “I’m beat; I’ll rest for a bit before I drive.”

You rest your fingers on your tummy, struggling to remain calm.

“I missed hanging out with my cuddling buddy,” J nozzles in your shoulder and you give him an insolent glare.

“We’re not cuddling buddies!”

“That’s too bad; I precisely came to deliver your birthday present. I resent the notion of a man unjustly accused of being cheap.”

“What birthday present?” you furrow your eyebrows.

“The kiss you demanded Y/N!”

“I’m good,” you disregard his offer and he hovers over you, captivated.

“I thought you have the hots for me, I even wore these hoochie pants to please you. I mean, I endured your affection and harassment for the past three years. I’m here now with an invisible olive branch so I think you should reconsider your answer.”

“Did you just say hoochie pants?!” you snicker at his distorted apology although you’re mad at him. “You didn’t wear them for me; you wanted to show off your assets!”

“It’s not my fault I’m handsome!” The Joker defends his wardrobe choice.

“I seriously want to be alone,” you indirectly imply he should disappear. “I’m tired of playing games. I won’t flirt with you anymore, I promise. Deal?” you lift your pinky up and there’s something strange concealed behind your abrupt vow.

“Why not?”

“First of all, I won’t have the energy: my father warned of serious consequences during the treatment. Second, it might kill me: we don’t know how my physique will endure; I have terminal cancer, remember?”

“Are you scared?” J whispers and you nod a yes, upset. “Then you should accept your gift in case you won’t have another occasion,” his rationale pushes you to reconsider your alternatives.

You pull him closer and wait, explaining your hesitation.

“It’s my birthday, you should be the one kissing me.”

The Joker doesn’t defy your logic and complies, unable to suppress an arrogant grin when you moan:

“God, your lips are so soft; I could kiss them all day.”

“Don’t get into it, I have to vacate the premises soon. I don’t want Crane to catch me in your tent and presume the worst.”

“My dad will be in the lab until morning time; you can stay if you want to,” you trace his jaw line, momentarily forgetting your grudge.

“Didn’t you preach about wishing to be alone?”

“Why are you making out with another woman besides your girlfriend?” you evaluate the waters with a question.

It doesn’t seem he’ll bother to justify his behavior thus you utter:

“I can be alone…with you. I’m 23, literally a consenting adult,” the important information is added for the heck of it.

“Consenting to what?” The Joker mumbles as you softly bite his lower lip.

“I hate you,” you pout and snuggle to him while he grabs a pillow, irritated at his involuntary reaction. J stuffs it in between the bodies and you swiftly toss it away.

“Are you trying to get me in trouble Y/N?”

“You’re always in trouble,” you begin unbuttoning his shirt. “Let’s go with the flow, shall we? No strings attached, no commitments. You know why?” you pause and continue. “I might not survive the Cromyxillium and I want to make love to the old guy I have a major crush on.”

“Old?!” The Clown prince of Crime scoffs.

“You’re basically twice my age,” you roughly estimate without proof and kiss him again. The Joker slides his hands under your t-shirt, opting to dismiss your affirmation with a different kind of truth.

“Do you recall when you asked me if I ever tasted death?”

“Yes…”, you bury your face in his neck, wondering if he’ll say something mean that will ruin the night.

“You don’t taste like death,” J forces you to look at him. “You really don’t.”

“… … … … … … … You think so?” the emotional Y/N sniffles, categorically surprised at the confession.

“Yeah. You actually taste like dynamite,” he winks and doesn’t mind the sudden meltdown: The Joker is not big at comforting people, but the girl in his arms feels relieved nevertheless.

She might not compare to the fire he’s used to, yet Y/N’s eagerness to blow up everything, wipe the slot clean and start fresh is unfamiliar territory that’s worth exploring.

Also read: MASTERLIST

#the joker x reader #the joker fanfiction #the joker imagine #the joker jared leto #the joker suicide squad #the joker #joker #joker fanfiction #joker imagines #joker leto #joker suicide squad #Mistah J #mister j #dcu #dc

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mydearjonah · 4 years

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The Magnus Archives & MBTI Part 1 -- Jon & Martin

Hello. When I was a depressed 19-year old, I hyperfixated on the Meyers-Briggs personality typing system in an effort to solve all of my interpersonal problems.(1) It didn’t work, but ever since then I have been cursed both with deep, useless knowledge and searing, useless opinions. In the hopes that sharing my terrible burden with others will allow me to one day find the rest I so desire, I would like to introduce you today to what is, as far as I can tell, the first dedicated MBTI typing post in this fandom.(2)

The hyperfixation ran deep, so I am trying to make this as intelligible as possible. If you so desire it, this is a great general resource for typing. If you have opinions or thoughts, PLEASE share them. Much like a fear avatar slurps up people’s trauma, I am sustained in part by healthy, albeit occasionally heated, debates over MBTI types. You should have seen the time I typed Kanye West on Reddit.(3)

Jonathan Sims -- INTP Confidence Level: 90% Certainly (at the very least): IxTx

It is easy and tempting to type Jon Sims as an INTJ. After all, he certainly fits many of the stereotypes: bookish, awkward, out of touch with his feelings and his environment, with a tendency to come off as overly critical. I am not saying that this typing is necessarily wrong, but I do not think that it should be taken for granted.

Jon is clearly an introvert and a thinker (IxTx). It is tempting to type him as an intuitive as well, but I caution against this and suspect that it is an example of intuitive bias. Certainly I do not believe that he has the kinetic knowledge and energy of an ISTP – he hasn’t done a single damn thing in this entire podcast to make me think that he has any higher-level grasp of Extroverted Sensing (Se), the function an ISTP uses most confidently to interact with the outer world – but, if INTJ is in consideration, ISTJ should not be written off.

ISTJs and INTJs use the same auxiliary function, Extroverted Thinking (Te), to interact with their environments. Te is often characterized as being cold, clinical, unfeeling, and pragmatic: essentially, how Jon comes off in the early series, especially S1. The difference between them is their dominant function, or their primary way of existing and processing information. ISTJs are led by Introverted Sensing (Si), which is best conceived of as a “web” (haha) of past experiences and sensory details that a user can access when making decisions. INTJs are led by Introverted Intuition (Ni), which is a largely unconscious and abstract style of pattern-sensing which feeds a user insights about the world around them. For Jon, I think that fair arguments could be made either way for dom Si or dom Ni. Does Jon rely more on what has come before (ISTJ) or what may come next (INTJ) to guide his thinking? It could be either, in my opinion, and it is especially difficult to tell because the Beholding itself is an EXTREMELY Ni domain. As the series progresses, Jon’s choices and behavior are colored so thoroughly by his patron that it is difficult to separate evidence of natural Ni intuition from plain old Beholding intuition.

So, with this in mind, why have I typed him as an INTP of all things? It all comes down to the INTP’s inferior function, Extroverted Feeling (Fe). Your inferior function is the thing that you use but aren’t very good at – it tends to be what gets you into trouble. Fe is best understood as a natural awareness of other people’s emotions as well as the privileging of group values over individual values, so inferior Fe users tend to be sensitive to other people but not super great at actually interacting with them. It is tempting to type Jon as an IxTJ because he comes off like a high Te user at first, but it’s pretty well-established at this point that he’s projecting that persona due to his insecurities. This, in my opinion, is classic inferior Fe. He knows that there is a broader group expectation for his behavior in his new position, but he is (a) too out of his depth to project it naturally and (b) not savvy enough to find a middle ground so he overcompensates and comes off like an asshole. So many of his interpersonal problems stem from this same issue. He clearly cares deeply about group values, other people, and their opinions of him but he struggles to read social situations well and is then caustic as a defense mechanism.(4) So much of his emotional growth has been about him being softer and kinder, even as he grows more monstrous, and to trust others, especially Martin… that’s an inferior Fe narrative.

Once you’ve nailed INTP as his type because of the inferior Fe, I think that everything else falls into place. INTPs lead with Introverted Thinking (Ti), which is a logic-based, internal system of categorization, and they interact with the external world through Extroverted Intuition (Ne), which is a creative, abstract, “idea machine” approach to environmental analysis. In essence, INTPs are logical, systems thinkers (Ti) who basically try out new ideas by throwing them at the wall and seeing if they stick (Ne). I think that describes Jon far more accurately than the IxTJ approach, which tends to be far more reserved and calculated.

Martin Blackwood -- ISFJ Confidence Level: 70% Certainly (at the very least): IxFx

I have found Martin to be a particularly challenging character to type. After a great deal of thinking, and some helpful input from @twinliches, I have gone with ISFJ.

Martin is an introvert whose primary mode of interaction with the external world is through Extroverted Feeling (Fe). He cares primarily about the group and is sensitive to its dynamic, he has a good read on other people’s emotions, and he is able to easily maneuver through interpersonal situations to his own benefit and the benefit of those he cares about. But what is this Fe working conjunction with? As a prominent Fe user and an introvert, Martin’s only two options are to have dominant Introverted Sensing (Si), which would make him an ISFJ, or dominant Introverted Intuition (Ni), which would make him an INFJ. So, does Martin rely on a “web” (badumtssh) of past experiences to connect with others (Si), or is he using a more unconscious, forward-thinking intuition to do so (Ni)?

It is extremely tempting to type Martin as an INFJ, but, honestly, I think that do so is an example of intuitive bias. His actual choices – how he moves through the world and comes to conclusions, the way that he relates to others, the things that he fears – strike me far more as dominant Si than dominant Ni. Although he may not always broadcast it, Martin is shrewd and observant when it comes to interpersonal relations, and his grounded, real-world knowledge of how people are acting, how similar situations have played out in the past, and what details others are missing is what allows him to so consistently outmaneuver the big bads. A Ni user may come to similar conclusions, but they just don’t get there in the same way. Martin is also invested in maintaining social harmony by providing a sense of stability, which is a classic ISFJ move. INFJs are more likely to promote social harmony by using their Ni insights and Fe people skills to actively influence group dynamics for what they believe is the better. Martin doesn’t really ever do that – instead, he works to make sure that everyone is taken care of, whether that means bringing them tea, dragging them out to lunch or for drinks, or sacrificing himself to the Lonely so Peter leaves Jon alone.

I anticipate that one potential criticism of my Martin typing will be in regard to the inferior function. ISFJs and INFJs have different inferior functions: ISFJs have inferior Extroverted Intuition (Ne), which means they can struggle with open-endedness and have a tendency to catastrophize, and INFJs have inferior Extroverted Sensing (Se), which means they struggle with being in touch with their physical environment and can overindulge in sensory activities. People with inferior Se often have difficult relationships with their physical forms, and Martin’s canon and fanon body image issues certainly fit the bill. But inferior Se users are not the only ones who struggle with their bodies, and, overall, I don’t think the INFJ’s broader function stacking fits Martin as well as ISFJ does. Plus, I think there is just as much, if not more, evidence for manifestations of inferior Ne from Martin.

To wrap it all up, here is my final Martin take: Martin is an ISFJ who, if he knows anything about the MBTI, thinks that he is an INFJ. He was probably accurately typed on whatever popular test he took, but he read some anti-Sensor bullshit that included a hackneyed portrayal of Si, thought “I’m not boring and conservative… I can’t actually be an ISFJ! I must be an INFJ.” For a time, he even has “INFJ” in his Twitter bio. Sometimes he wonders if he’s mistyped because he doesn’t totally relate to the stray descriptions of Ni-Se that he comes across… but he figures that, if he is, he’s probably actually an INFP. He really likes their whole aesthetic… artsy, sensitive, caring, intuitive, and his favorite poets are INFPs. What he’s really vibing with here is their Si-Ne, which he can relate to… because as an ISFJ, he also uses those same functions! If post-series Martin is alive (and living happily with his husband, Jonathan Blackwood-Sims, of course), I bet that his increased self-knowledge and confidence will allow him to solidly write “ISFJ” in that online bio. I want that for him. And for all of you ISFJs out there, too!

On a personal note, I also really love ISFJ Martin/INTP Jon in the context of the ship. ISFJs and INTPs use the same functions, just in a different order! They can connect by sharing their Ti and Si thoughts and insights. Jon can help Martin develop his Ne, and Martin can (and already has!!) help Jon develop his poor inferior Fe by giving him an example of a much stronger, far healthier one. It is just *chef’s kiss*

Up next: Jonahlias, Peter, and Gertrude!

(1) The actual answer to my interpersonal problems was therapy and life experience. Who knew!

(2) If I’m wrong, let me know. We all know how useless the Tumblr search function is, and I also couldn’t find anything indexed on Google besides the Personality Database.

(3) Kanye West is an ESTP, btw.

(4) I’m not saying that Fi users don’t do this, but I think you tend to see more & genuinely meant “I don’t give a fuck” from them because they’re operating a little more on their own wavelength. I’m not sure if Jon knows himself as well as a Fi user, even an inferior Fi user, does.

#the magnus archives #tma #martin blackwood #jonathan sims #jonmartin #my stuff #my boy #martin #mbti stuff #intp #isfj

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letmewritemylife · 3 years

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Like Father, Like Son (Part 2)

My name is revenge and I'm here to save my name. - Shinedown (My Name)

A/N Side note: Sergeant Smith is the guy who was supposed to arrest Lara back in 2017. He took the whole thing quite personally, inclusing and especially Stephen keeping Lara out of jail and Lara constantly fighting terrorism on her own. And yes, he’s an ass

TRIGGER WARNINGS Referenced sexual abuse, referenced abusive parents, referenced murder, implied torture, lots of guns involved, Lara is a precious baby

Sixteen days have passed. Sixteen days in which Lara has tried her best to understand Kevin and to be a decent trainer or acquaintance or whatever she is supposed to be to him and Kevin really can see the effort. He hates to admit it, but he appreciates it. If he has to be honest, he can't think of anyone putting so much effort into treating him well. Yet he still feels guilty, like he's not supposed to be working with S.H.I.E.L.D. after what they've done to his father, the coldest man he had ever met and at the same time his only family.

He still remembers that morning of almost eight years before, the cold breeze blowing in the lonely cemetery. He still sees himself standing by a lonely grave with tears in his eyes as a tall woman with short black hair told him to man up. He still feels the pain in knowing that he was alone because S.H.I.E.L.D. had decided to take his father, his family away from him.

Now he can't say that Lara is a decent substitute, but he's sure there's much worse. And after sixteen days he is sure she is the best person he could have ended up with among agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. What he doesn't understand is why? Why would someone leave Agency X for something like S.H.I.E.L.D, the greatest expression of self-righteousness and arrogance, the only organisation able to never condemn its actions, even when they're proved wrong?

On that day, that sixteenth day, he asks her this question. Lara stands still for a second, her hands gripping the training bench tighter. "That's a trap, Lara. Don't fall for that, it's a f*cking trap." She laughs nervously. "Well, if you put out like that, mine sounds like a pretty dumb decision," she says.

Her gaze turns suddenly darker. "But I'm pretty sure I did the right thing." She straightens up and crosses her arms. "My family. They died. Killed by Agency X to make me work for them. I only found out after I had spent years among their lines."

Kevin nods, well aware that his question has opened a painful wound. "But why did you decide S.H.I.E.L.D. was better?"

She brings her legs to her chest, something that Kevin has noticed she does often when talking about certain sensitive topics. "Because they don't make me feel like a monster." Her voice is completely emotionless and she is looking at the wall in front of her. "Because I can't think of a single moment I felt completely safe after my parents' death and before meeting Strange. Because some of these people have become my family."

Kevin looks down. "Thank you."

She slowly turns to him and attempts a smile. "What for?"

"Because you are to me what S.H.I.E.L.D. is to you."

Kevin really should learn to think things through before speaking, he’d earn nothing but good from it. He clenches his fists, gaze locked on the woman before him, ignoring all the Avengers surrounding them. “You killed him!” he shouts as his eyes start to water.

“I- I can explain-” she stutters and Kevin is sure he never wished to punch someone in the face so much before.

He takes a step forward, pointing a finger to her chest. “Explain what? Why you killed my father?”

She grips the corner of the table, her knuckles turning as pale as the teen’s hair. “How was I supposed to know it was your father? You barely talked to me,” she spits out with a fatal hint of anger. But as soon as these words leave her mouth, she realises she’s doing exactly what Stephen did with her years before, earning nothing but curses.

He shakes his head, using all his strength not to cry. “Man up, Linch.” That voice still lingers in the back of his head and he follows the order, swallowing heavily. “You had the audacity to tell me you were on the right side and everyone else was wrong,” he screams. “But when it’s you to kill, it’s okay!”

Lara sucks in a breath, unable to answer back because, after all, he is right and she, of all the people in the room, should understand his anger. Jonathan takes a step forward, moving his gaze between the furious teen and the motionless woman. “It’s a bit more complex than that, your father-”

“I’m sorry.”

Everyone’s eyes suddenly set on Lara, her arms crossed on her chest in defense. Kevin stands still for a moment with his mouth slightly open, surprised by her unexpected answer, but soon shakes his head and furrows his brows. “I don’t care. Go f*ck yourself.” And before anyone else can even acknowledge it, he’s running away, tears streaming down his face because, indeed, he’s never been able to actually man up.

Jonathan is about to run after him, but Lara stops him, holding his arm with a strength beyond imaginable. When his eyes search for an answer on her face, she’s looking down at the table where the infamous file is still laying.

“Let him go,” she whispers. “If he’s even a little like his father, he won’t listen anyway.” Jonathan nods, not convinced, and Lara curses Kevin’s father one last time for his surprising ability to mess things up even from the other world. “F*ck you, Frank Linch.”

He’s running, running faster than the wind itself, running like his life depended on it, running as if he were still a child and the world were his backyard. Running because he just wants to get out and feel the cold breeze on his face, drying his cheeks. Running because he needs answers. He deserves answers. “Where’s your dad, Kevin? Do you pronounce it ‘dad’ or ‘dead’? And what about your mother, Kevin? Where’s your mother, Kevin?” Few things in his life have been as satisfactory as breaking that child’s nose and kicking him until he was just a bloody mess laying on the floor.

“I thought she was different,” his conscience whines as he rushes down the stairs of the underground. “They’re all the same thing: lying, manipulative motherf*ckers,” replies the lingering voice of his mentor and Kevin lets out a breath, pressed in a crowd of European tourists. One hour, one hour and he’ll finally be back home. And S.H.I.E.L.D. can go f*ck itself.

The pen scribbles on the paper, framing a couple interesting datas, and Lara adjusts her protective glasses on her nose with the back of her hand. Jonathan sighs loudly and steps away from the wall, getting closer to Lara than any security protocol would ever recommend. “I hope you’re not seriously taking the blame for what that assh*le did to you,” he groans.

She throws him a quick glance before returning to her compound. “I am not, but insisting would have done nothing but harm.” Something is telling her that she won’t be able to finish her experiment today.

“There’s a difference between ‘not insisting’ and apologising for something you have not done,” he comments coldly, his arms crossed and jaw locked as he stares at the unknown liquid before her.

She lets out a deep breath, abandoning her hands on the counter. “I did not apologise for that,” she replies. “I scolded him for not trusting me after I had given him a perfect reason not to trust me. That’s what I was apologising for.”

Jonathan follows her with his eyes as she puts the test tubes away and arches a brow. “And how was that supposed to do any better than insisting?”

Lara turns around with a groan. “It was not.” She removes her gloves and throws them away, her brows furrowed. “And thank you for reminding me what a failure of a trainer I am, by the way.”

Jonathan looks down at the floor tiles, sucking in a breath. “He won’t ever come back here, you know it?”

“I know, Jonathan, I know,” she replies angrily. “But what was I supposed to do? Force him to stay and tell him a bunch of excuses why I set his dad on fire? ‘Murder is my way to solve interpersonal problems, sorry not sorry’?” She clenches her fists, digging her nails deep enough in her skin for her palms to bleed. “I ruined everything and now he hates me and I can’t even blame him for that.”

He gets closer cautiously and lets out a bitter laugh. “Family issues, just like when I first met you.”

“No, it’s not,” she replies promptly, eyes locked on him. “You hated your parents, but he does not. That’s the problem.”

“Lara. If you let him go, only God knows what the hell will happen of him. Frankly, the best outcome would be some human trafficker hiring him for him to follow his father’s steps. And we don’t want that to happen.”

Lara is about to reply, when Natasha slams the door open. “Elle, Jon, we have a situation at Linch’s house.” And these words alone are able to drain all colour from Lara’s face.

Duncan Hunt digs his nails deeper into his assistant’s face. “I told you: call Anderson now.” With unnecessary violence, he pushes him on the floor and takes a step towards the hostage, curled up on the floor. “Johnson should definitely take better care of her puppies,” he comments with a grin, careful not to stain his boots in the blood covering the floor.

A quick glance out of the window allows him to see three cars parking right out of the house, moving with difficulty in the crowd of policemen. He smirks and gestures to the dark-haired woman near him to come closer. “Don’t shoot immediately, I first want to see our friend scared.”

The woman nods and, as she instructs her subjecteds, Duncan walks back to the hostage. He grabs his upper arms and drags him to the window of the small living room, then pushes him on the floor, as to keep his presence a surprise. He lights a cigarette and starts smoking calmly. “Your father had a great taste in cigarettes,” he comments with a smirk, looking down for a moment at the teen on the ground. “As well as in apprentices.”

Outside the building, Lara jumps out of the car, loaded gun in hand, followed by Jonathan. Sergeant Smith throws her a glance and arches his brows. “I’m sorry princess, but we have everything under control.”

A bullet avoiding his foot for an inch proves him wrong. As all guns are promptly set on him, Duncan grins. “How cute of you, visiting me.”

Lara clenches her jaw and tightens her grip around the gun. “Where’s the teen?”

“Wait, they have a hostage?” Smith asks surprised and Jonathan can’t help but roll his eyes, making Duncan laugh.

“Come get him,” he replies sarcastically, before shutting the door.

Kevin looks up at him as he takes again the cigarette he had left on the ashtray by the window. The man smirks at Lara bantering with Jonathan and Smith. “She killed your dad, didn’t she?” he asks at Kevin, without even looking at him. Upon hearing a nod in response, he breathes out a laugh. “Yeah, really mean of her to get rid of her abuser,” he concludes before putting out his cigarette with the toe of his boot and walking away, leaving Kevin with his eyes wide open.

Duncan’s phone rings and he smiles upon hearing Smith’s voice on the other side. The conversation between them goes on for several minutes, but Kevin doesn’t listen, too busy staring intensely at the only known face, that of the silent man sitting not far from him. The teen mutters something against his cloth gag, successfully drawing his attention.

The man approaches him and momentarily frees his mouth. “What do you want?”

“Is it true?” he stutters. “Did my father abuse Miss Johnson?”

He does a grimace, unable to understand his sudden interest. “He also put her parents six feet underground, for what matters. Now shut up,” he cuts short before covering his mouth again and kicking him in the stomach.

In that moment, Kevin realizes that everything he had always believed in was a lie. He had always liked to think his father was a good person, that S.H.I.E.L.D had been wrong for killing him. He for sure didn’t want to believe that behind the mask of a cold but overall decent father was the figure of a terrific monster who didn’t work for a terrorist organization because he was forced to but because he earned something from it. Maybe he should have listened to Miss Johnson when he still could.

Finally Duncan gets up. “Too little money, sergeant. Wish the kid goodbye.” With that said, he marches towards Kevin and lifts him enough for his head to rest on the windowsill. He presses his gun to the teen’s temple and grins, already picturing Lara’s face when he will throw the dead body to her feet.

Unexpectedly to him, the door is kicked open and a bullet pierces his skull before he can pull the trigger, sending them both on the floor, one in a pool of blood and the other really close to it. Kevin’s acquaintance jumps forward, a knife in hand, but is pushed back by a punch to his jaw. From his position, the teen struggles to see anything but a pair of dark sneakers moving among the increasing number of people on the floor.

Before he can even realize it, he’s being forced to his feet by a woman, specifically the dark-haired one from little before. She presses a pocket knife to his throat and forces his head up, finally allowing him to see Lara and Jonathan standing with their guns pointed. “You may want to put those down, sweeties,” the woman jokes as a man walks beside her.

Jonathan throws Lara a glance and she nods, her eyes set on Kevin as she slowly lowers her gun and places it to her feet. “Now let him go.”

The woman tightens her grip around Kevin and shakes her head. “On your knees. And if I see any of your magic tricks, the kid’s gone.”

And to the teen’s great surprise, Lara falls to her knees, a scared expression on her face, followed by a rather confused Jonathan. The only agent left abandons his leader’s side and walks behind Lara, wrapping a hand around her throat.

Kevin widens his eyes. “Please, don’t. Don’t do that.”

The man grins. “This will teach you not to try and play the hero.”

“No, no, no, no!”

He firmly places his gun to her temple and-

And the man screams in pain, falling on the ground and shaking vigorously under the influence of a sudden electric discharge. The dark-haired woman takes a step back, dragging Kevin with her, but is quite literally struck by lightning and falls on the floor dead.

Lara slowly gets up, throwing Jonathan a confused look and asserting that he’s even more speechless than before. Her brain finally gives up trying to figure out what is going on when Kevin runs to hug her. She silently asks Jonathan for an answer, but he just laughs at her confusion and looks out of the window to Sergeant Smith who finally decided to check if everything’s alright.

“I’m sorry, I-” Kevin mutters against Lara’s shoulder, “I didn’t know he… he-”

She shakes her head as she caresses his hair. “It’s alright, it’s alright.” She lets out a breath and is surprised by how glad she is that he is safe. “Are you okay?” she finally asks and he just nods, tucking his face in the crook of her neck.

“Are we almost there?” Kevin asks, redirecting his gaze from the window to Lara.

She smiles. “Five minutes at best, promise,” she replies.

Jonathan smirks. “What’s it? The third time you say that?”

“That’s your fault,” she answers back, slightly turning down the volume of the radio. “You got the road wrong twice!”

“Well, you could pick your own navigator.” He arches an eyebrow as his usual grin covers his mouth. “But that’d mean having less time to fangirl over Maria Brink.”

She rolls her eyes, earning a laugh from Kevin. As soon as Jonathan is about to continue the conversation, she turns the volume of the radio back up just in time for the chorus of Adrenalize to begin.

When they finally arrive at their intended destination, Lara leans back against her seat and smiles, turning to Kevin. “Ready to meet your new family?”

He nods excitedly and jumps out of the car. A smiling woman in a flower dress is already standing by the door waiting for him. “Hey, sorry for being late, my sister sucks at driving,” Jonathan jokes as he gets out of the car.

Lara throws him a look and the woman, Mrs Hudson, laughs before calling her husband inside the house.

Almost two hours have passed and Lara must admit the Hudson’s seem a great family. When Kevin first told her he wanted to move out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility she had met him in, she had felt like she had done something wrong, like he had not forgiven her for everything that had happened. She knew she had no right over him, but considering his luck with families she was seriously concerned. It took her awhile to adjust to the idea, but finally she had come to the conclusion that he deserved to be part of a family as good as the one she had been part of.

Now, as she sits beside Jonathan on a leather couch in a tiny suburban house, she has a feeling that Kevin will like this new start. She really hopes he will.

Jonathan places a hand on her thigh. “Well, time to go Elle.”

They get up and, while Jonathan jokes with Mrs Hudson, proving himself much more talkative than her husband, Kevin wraps his arms around Lara’s shoulders. She hugs him back, patting his back. “Will you call me?” he asks.

She laughs. “Unless I die yes, I will.”

“And how soon do you plan on dying?”

“I’ll call you a couple of times before, don’t worry.”

He parts from her and smiles. “Also, thank you.”

“What for?” she asks, furrowing her brows.

“Everything, just- everything.”

She smiles. “Anytime.” Maybe, contrary to popular belief, not everyone in the Flinch genealogy is the absolute worst. Especially those underage.

#lara johnson #agata varano #scar #marvel #mcu #oc #original character #writing #mcu fiction #oc fiction #like father like son #stephen strange x original character

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gothsic · 4 years

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THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

My muse is: canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless /

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO. in his own head maybe

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. lol what fandom does jo have a fandom here???

Is your character considered strong in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. ???

Are they underrated? YES / NO. / IDK. jo thinks he’s underrated does that count??

Were they relevant for the main story? YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO.

How’s their reputation? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

How strictly do you follow canon? — Jo is the master of his own story so yeah. I’m following my own canon and whatever I come up with to a T ( unless some good suggestions in writer’s workshops or even here come up! ). He is the main character of my limited series pilot that I hope to write soon called The Insomnia Trap.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals. — Jonathan has many sides to him. The child of mixed Latinx parents and the youngest of three kids, he has had a relatively normal life ( save for early childhood, when he killed his mother by “accident” - should’ve mentioned that! ) and his very long goth phase in middle/high school, but always deemed himself to be on the outskirts of society. Because he was aware from a young age that he was simultaneously unwanted and unplanned, Jonathan came out of his upbringing with the idea that he never should have existed. This planted in him a very nihilistic, misandrist, and generally flippant view of the world despite pursuing his dream to work in comics and cartoons. Though he was hungry for recognition and dreamed of a world not on Earth, he often found himself to be a ghost wandering the streets of town, looking in on the people having fun in their homes without understanding why they were happy. His insomnia developed when he in his teens, though he still had trouble sleeping as a child after seeing his mother’s mangled corpse at the bottom of the stairs - his doing, of course. Whether he lives with the guilt or not is up to you to decide; it’s my personal feeling that there is a part of him, the human part of him, that feels horrible about what he did. He feels monstrous for it, in fact. This is part of the reason why, if he gets extremely close to someone, he warns them that he’s not a good person; the shred of good left in him. But he also feels his “metamorphosis” into the nihilist that he is today was inevitable, given that he was never supposed to exist in the first place. It should be mentioned, of course, that this nasty cocktail of things has not only stressed his insomnia, but he eventually was pushed into going to a sleep clinic to get to the bottom of his problems once and for all. He only encountered an extremely traumatic lucid dream that forced him to confront his past head-on. He was unable to save his rotting humanity ( D., a small girl that looked like his character Deirdre ), and was eaten alive by The Other, a creature that looked like a younger version of himself and eventually absorbed him into itself. He awoke, now in what can only be described as a constant lucid dream in waking life. He encounters monsters and hallucinations from his dreamspace frequently, and will sometimes see D.’s forest crop up in his backyard. To this day, he still believes D. is alive and well - and, of course, that the object of his obsession, the one person who ever understood him in his point of view, Annie Kaye, is going to one day return to him as he’s always dreamed. Sadly, she could want nothing less to do with his sorry ass.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?). — Around the time that The Insomnia Trap was simply going to be a screenplay, I workshopped it every few weeks in my senior Screenwriting class in undergraduate school. The overwhelming response I got was that Jonathan was abhorrent, creepy, and the question a lot of people had was why we were following him versus Adri, his ex girlfriend who was documenting his struggles with insomnia. My only answer to this is that is the point - you aren’t supposed to necessarily like him, I instead invite you to understand why he does the things he does. I’m asking you to do something you don’t like, something that makes you uncomfortable, maybe. I don’t believe entertainment in any capacity should be forced to be all about how “great” a person someone is. He’s a horrible person you can observe at a safe distance, and pick apart - a real puzzle who has his nasty qualities and his strangely good qualities mixed into one. I’m not asking you to forgive him, either. I’m asking you to see him for what he is and judge him for yourself. Jonathan is a gigantic mess of things - he’s deeply traumatized, but has chosen to live a life where he’s given in to his narcissism and self-importance, and he’s deeply hurt many people in his life - the most obvious being Annie, whom he feels he “deserves” after suffering so much in his life ( sure... ). He is in many ways a deeply unlikable character, and I wrote him keeping this in mind. That said, he has his better qualities, though they’re few and far between, that I think can keep him human in the eyes of the audience ( his love of animals, guilt towards his mother’s death, his intense self hatred, his genuine love for his nieces and nephews and for children in general, etc. ). Since he’s the protagonist of The Insomnia Trap, I can only hope that he is a complex and interesting enough character to follow for audiences if/when the limited series gets picked up!

What inspired you to rp your muse? — Jonathan is based off of a very long personal experience I had, and I’ve always been fascinated by intense psychological horror. The two things came together, at first, when I was 12 and simply evolved from there. Originally, the project was going to be an animated flash movie that was divided into parts - but that of course never happened, I was too young and too impatient to ever do that. Over time, I ended up focusing Jonathan’s character, and he first appeared in high school - sophomore year, actually, in a different context. He’s been in development for a very long time, in other words, and I grew fascinated with a variety of different concepts over the years that got incorporated into his story ( doppelgangers, lucid dreaming, revenge, obsession, tragic protagonists, etc. )! He is one of the most intimate characters I’ve ever created, and I love him to death.

What keeps your inspiration going? — Music is a big one, there are specific songs I want to get the rights to use in the project if it ever gets made, and that really helps keep me focused on this blog and develop Jonathan further. Also, threading with my fellow muns and seeing how Jo evolves over time. What’s he capable of? Can he change? Is he capable of change, or is he afraid of it? These are questions that are asked with each character he interacts with, and I sincerely live for it. Also, drawing helps me out a lot too - maybe you’ll see The Insomnia Trap in webcomic form soon... just a thought!

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice? YES / NO / no idea honestly lmao

Do you frequently write headcanons? YES / NO / depends!

Do you sometimes write drabbles? YES - I also draw them! / NO, I HATE DRABBLES.

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES! / NO.

Are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO / sorta

Are you confident in your writing? YES / HAHA NO.

Are you a sensitive person? YES / NO. / though i can handle critique, film school definitely hardens you to that!

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal? — I do. I’ve been explicitly told Jonathan is disgusting and totally unlikable by people to my face, and I have made leaps and strides to prevent my portrayal from going completely in the “this person is deplorable” category that was tempting to head towards. It’s easy to explore someone’s bad side rather than explore their good side, which I can forget about with him. That said, critique really does help me develop my writing further, and I desperately need it even if it can be hard to hear sometimes!

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character? — I love questions. If people ask me questions, I do my best to answer no matter what they may be. They can be challenging sometimes, but that’s what makes it so fun!

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why? — Sure, I’m happy to hear what people have to say. I may not agree with it, but hearing different perspectives is so important in my point of view.

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it? — As well as I could. It can be frustrating, but everyone’s tastes are different, so I don’t really take it personally and move on. I’m really here to do what I want to do in the end, as the rest of us are, so I try to prioritize that over any negative feelings I might have.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it? — Again, I just let it be. I’m used to people not really understanding Jonathan or not caring for him while understanding him, and that’s fine! Everyone has their preferences for what they like in leading characters or just characters in general. He is a triggering character with very triggering themes, and I’m writing him from a very prolonged experience I had ( and it’s very cathartic ) so I can understand why people may not want to engage with him or with me. I’m perfectly fine with it and invite people to put themselves first, and I move on like I mentioned in the above question.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors? — Yes! Please go for it. I literally do not proof my replies before I post them half the time so feel free to let me know if I misuse words or put commas/colons/semicolons or whatever out of place.

Do you think you are easy going as a mun? — I think so! I try to be open and inviting to everyone I speak to here, and always encourage people to come talk to me if they’d like to. No pressure though! Roleplay is for fun, and it shouldn’t be anxiety inducing or any kind of work - do things at your own pace here, that’s what I say ( though I’m trying to follow my own advice! ).

That’s about it, congrats for filling out!

Tagged by: @forseenclade !!. thank you flower... luv Tagging: whomstever wants to !! feel free to tag me so i can see !!

#DRAWN SO FAST I FORGOT I HAD IT IN MY SKETCHBOOK. - DASH MEMES.#( hopefully it makes some sense............................... any of this LOL )#( i went kinda wild on some of these )

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anniekoh · 4 years

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elsewhere on the internet: talking about racism

This set of articles has been languishing at the back of the queue for three years!

Political Correctness Wanted Dead or Alive: A Rhetorical Witch-Hunt in the US, Russia, and Europe

Anna Szilagyi (2016, Talk Decoded)

Possibly the most common way of attacking political correctness, is to label it “tyrannical”. Covert speech strategies may also support this construction. For instance, anti-PC politicians often utilize adjectives for fear (including “afraid”, “frightened”, “scared”, “terrified”) to describe how PC affects the behavior and feelings of people. The former leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage claimed: “I think actually what’s been happening with this whole politically correct agenda is lots of decent ordinary people are losing their jobs and paying the price for us being terrified of causing offence.” Suggesting that the British are “terrified” because of political correctness, Farage urged his listeners to think of PC in terms of intimidation.

At the same time, the fearsome vocabulary provides a background for anti-PC populists to present themselves as “brave” and “courageous” “saviors” of their “victimized” societies. The next quote by Nigel Farage exemplifies this trend: “I think the people see us as actually standing up and saying what we think, not being constrained or scared by political correctness.” In a similar fashion, Geert Wilders declared: “I will not allow anyone to shut me up.”

Why White People Freak Out When They’re Called Out About Race

Sam Adler-Bell (2015, Alternet) @SamAdlerBell

Sam Adler-Bell: How did you come to write about "white fragility"?

Robin DiAngelo: To be honest, I wanted to take it on because it’s a frustrating dynamic that I encounter a lot. I don’t have a lot of patience for it. And I wanted to put a mirror to it.

I do atypical work for a white person, which is that I lead primarily white audiences in discussions on race every day, in workshops all over the country. That has allowed me to observe very predictable patterns. And one of those patterns is this inability to tolerate any kind of challenge to our racial reality. We shut down or lash out or in whatever way possible block any reflection from taking place.

Of course, it functions as means of resistance, but I think it’s also useful to think about it as fragility, as inability to handle the stress of conversations about race and racism

Sometimes it’s strategic, a very intentional push back and rebuttal. But a lot of the time, the person simply cannot function. They regress into an emotional state that prevents anybody from moving forward.

...

RD: I think we get tired of certain terms. What I do used to be called "diversity training," then "cultural competency" and now, "anti-racism." These terms are really useful for periods of time, but then they get coopted, and people build all this baggage around them, and you have to come up with new terms or else people won’t engage.

And I think "white privilege" has reached that point. It rocked my world when I first really got it, when I came across Peggy McIntosh. It’s a really powerful start for people. But unfortunately it's been played so much now that it turns people off.

The Language of “Privilege” Doesn’t Work

Stephen Aguilar (2016, Inside Higher Ed) @stephenaguilar

I believe that “privilege” is a sterile word that does not grapple with the core of the problem. If you are white, you do not have “white” privilege. If you are male, you do not have “male” privilege. If you are straight, you do not have “straight” privilege. What you have is advantage. The language of advantage, I propose, is a much cleaner and more precise way to frame discussions about racism (or sexism, or most systems of oppression).

... does giving up a “privilege” seem incoherent? It might, because generally privileges are given and taken by someone else. They are earned, and are seldom bad things to have.

Now try shifting your language to that of advantages. Ask yourself, “What advantages do I have over that person over there?” That question is much easier to answer and yields more nuanced responses.

Kimberlé Crenshaw on intersectionality

Bim Adewunmi (2014, New Statesman) @bimadewunmi

“I wanted to come up with an everyday metaphor that anyone could use”

“Class is not new and race is not new. And we still continue to contest and talk about it, so what’s so unusual about intersectionality not being new and therefore that’s not a reason to talk about it? Intersectionality draws attention to invisibilities that exist in feminism, in anti-racism, in class politics, so obviously it takes a lot of work to consistently challenge ourselves to be attentive to aspects of power that we don’t ourselves experience.”

...

“Sometimes it feels like those in power frame themselves as being tremendously disempowered by critique. A critique of one’s voice isn’t taking it away. If the underlying assumption behind the category ‘women’ or ‘feminist’ is that we are a coalition then there have to be coalitional practices and some form of accountability.”

The Persecution of Amy Schumer: Political Correctness and Comedy

Teo Bugbee (2015, Daily Beast)

We have developed highly advanced ways of recognizing and articulating when we feel offended, but very few ways of making something productive out of our own hurt feelings.

I’ve questioned if my choice to overlook what’s hurtful in Schumer’s comedy for the sake of what’s insightful is a sign that I’m complicit in the faults of white feminism, not valuing the importance of others’ feelings on this matter enough. This argument of apathy gets used often on social media to raise awareness around issues of race, sex, gender, and other topics surrounding justice and a need for change, and it is often useful, but it can also be a blunt instrument. Where I’ve landed for the moment is that not all marginalized people feel the same way about every issue—even on social media, but especially outside it—and asking everyone to respond in the same way to the same joke takes a simplistic view that flattens the complexity of marginalized communities just as much as it does the white, cisgender mainstream.

However, if we’re going to ask audiences to keep in mind the multiplicity of responses that a person might have to a work of art before they attempt to control someone else’s opinion, then it’s only fair that comedians follow the same rule.

What’s Wrong (and Right) in Jonathan Chait’s Anti-P.C. Screed

J. Bryan Lowder (2015, Slate)

One of the main problems with the constellation of leftist ideas he bemoans is that many of the people who use them most loudly do so out of context. Concepts like “microaggressions,” “trigger warnings,” and “mansplaining” originally had specific meanings and limited uses, often within the academy. They described or were meant to address specific situations or phenomena, and more important, they were intended to function as diagnostic tools of analysis, not be used as blunt, conversation-ending instruments. Believe it or not, most of these “PC buzzwords” are actually useful from time to time: “Straightsplaining” is a real (and very annoying) thing, and it’s often a productive way of thinking about an interaction. But it’s also not always a useful or fair way to characterize a disagreement between a queer person and a straight interlocutor. Precision is what’s needed.

Additionally, though it is impossible to say this without sounding condescending myself, a lot of the abuse of PC rhetoric comes from young college students who have not yet grasped the difference between a measuring tape and a sledgehammer. Of course, given that contemporary mainstream politics offers little for those hopeful souls who want to make truly radical change in the world, you can’t really blame them for gravitating toward a mode of critique that at least feels somewhat empowering. Here, first-year, is a framework by which you can reveal the (screwed-up) hidden structures of the world and use your newly honed textual close-reading skills to mount offenses against those structures—go for it. What works on a novel doesn’t necessary translate to a complicated, changeable human being, though, so it’s no surprise that the deployment of microaggression and cissexism and other social justice lingo can sometimes come off as strident and simplistic. It often is.

But then, so is crying that only Reason can save us from the illiberal wolves waiting in the wings of our great system, which has a “glorious” history on social justice, by the way.

Want To Help End Systemic Racism? First Step: Drop the White Guilt

Sincere Kirabo (2015, thehumanist)

The point of identifying and exposing inconsistencies within the social systems and cultural norms of the United States isn’t to make whites feel guilty, but to garner greater empathy that will inspire change. The main problem with white guilt is that it attempts to diminish the spotlight aimed at issues germane to marginalized groups and redirects the focus to a wasteful plane of apologetics and ineffective assessment.

This is why some don’t like discussing racism, as those more sensitive to these matters sometimes allow guilt to creep into their thought processes, effectively evoking pangs of discomfort. This can lead to avoidance of the primary issues altogether, as well as the manifestation of defense mechanisms, including denial, projection, intellectualization, and rationalization.

Many are acquainted with the concept of Catholic guilt. Catholic doctrine emphasizes the inherent sinfulness of all people. These accentuated notions of fault lead to varied degrees of enhanced self-loathing. I liken white guilt to Catholic guilt: both relate to a sense of inadequacy emanating from misguided notions. Though the latter is anchored in an imagined source, they both speak to feelings of remorse and internal conflict that does the individual having them no good.

Keep in mind that the call to “recognize your privilege” does not translate to “bear the blame.”

#racism #intersectionality #political correctness #social justice #linguistics

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wolfpawn · 4 years

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Life is a Game of Risks, Chapter 50

Chapter Summary - Tom, Alexianna and Lily go on holidays for a week on the Isle of Wight where people use a single frame to ridicule Alexianna no end, how will she react.

TRIGGERS - Past domestic abuse, Past emotional abuse, Past sexual abuse.

Previous Chapter

Tags: @damalseer @hiddlesbitch1 @winterisakiller @theoneanna

Request if you wish to be tagged

Alexianna sighed and sat looking at the waves lapping against the shore, enjoying the light sea breeze and sun, watching as Lily built a castle next to her. “Are you sure you don't need my help?” She asked as Lily watched some of the sand fall.

“No, Mummy. I can do it,” Lily declared having decided she would do it alone.

“Okay, I said I'd ask.” Alexianna checked her phone for a moment as she had been in contact with the person she was job sharing with to answer a question on her work.

“When is Daddy finished talking to Luke?” Lily asked.

Alexianna shrugged slightly. Tom had a few things that had snuck up on them and had to take an hour or two to sort them, with a litany of apologies to Alexianna and Lily as he did so. “Soon, Sweetheart. And it's not just Luke, he has to talk to other people too.”

“Being a grown-up is boring.”

“You're not wrong.” Alexianna had to agree with her daughter. Taking her hair out of her face from the breeze, she responded to a question from her work counterpart making sure to glance up every other word to make sure Lily was still right in front of her before relaxing again.

Tom joined them half an hour later, wrapping his arm around Alexianna's waist as he sat beside her, telling Lily her castle was good.

“Daddy! Can I bury you?”

Alexianna laughed. “How about after we go to the water?” She offered.

Lily looked at her worriedly. “But I can't swim.”

Tom chuckled and scooped her up. “How do you think Mummy and I learnt how to swim?” He asked. “Mummy and I used to go swimming together as children too, I think Mum helped your mum to learn how to swim.”

“You know each other forever.”

“Yes, we do.” Alexianna looked at Tom happily, having risen from the sand and joining them. Tom returned the look lovingly as they brought Lily to the water, each holding one hand of the five-year-old.

Alexianna looked at the pictures angrily, Tom silent beside her. She was studying the field, she worked behind the scenes in business PR, she knew the meaning of agenda, she knew the tactics and it angered her but she was unsurprising if she was honest.

They had been photographed on the beach and pictures published of them, but not for the three hours of endless play and interaction with Lily that they focused on, no, it was the two moments Alexianna was sorting work on her phone and making it out like she was a neglectful phone-addicted mother. Someone who was on the beach at the same time as they went out of their way to do that and it made her angered at the obsession some people had with commenting on other people's lives. It also made her realise that this person could very easily be close by and do something similar again.

Tom, however, was bothered by both that and the part he knew Alexianna was not admitting was bothering her.

There were people ridiculing her as a mother for her moment of answering work on the beach but also for her beach attire. He knew that she was very much still not able to get past her body and its marks and covered up on the beach with light clothing that allowed her to enjoy the sun without exposing her arms, stomach or thighs, the three areas of herself she had not yet accepted had been noted. Even still she tended to try and prevent him from going near them when the lights were on in any state of undress, so he knew that being deemed prudish, being accused of being pregnant and comments regarding her weight all played at her too. He gently touched her arm to ensure she knew he was there for her but did not force her to say anything regarding it.

The next day, he watched as she put on the same sort of attire again, a camisole and a linen long-sleeved shirt over it, as well as light pants. He recalled the girl that used to wear shorts and string tops to his home to visit Emma in the warm weather and wondered what Jonathan Rice had said to obliterate her confidence so greatly to make her hide herself as she did. He wanted nothing more than for her to see she was as beautiful and sexy as she had been before that man, if anything, he thought her more beautiful now.

For the week, Alexianna found herself thinking of Hampstead Hill. She could not stop focusing on what her father wanted. No one gives anything for anything was her attitude and especially not a businessman and he had just given the school over twelve thousand pounds, all business people want returns on investment, she knew that from her time studying business in school.

She only spoke to Daniel because he pressed the situation with her, stating Oliver had given over the fees out of revulsion to the idea that his granddaughter was being accosted by some miscreant in the state system. She argued that he did not care for her as a child because he left, so her daughter should not be a concern of his either, Daniel pleaded for her to speak with Oliver, she declined.

Tom stood silently at the sidelines of the debate. He gave his opinion when she asked for it but as she had not asked for further input, he declined to give it. He did everything he could to urge her to go ahead with Lily's enrollment to Hampstead Hill but regarding her own interaction with her father, he knew that without her asking, to interfere was not recommended. His concern was for Lily's education and that, he could see, was inclined to be dealt with without him overstepping as a stepfather if he just continued to voice his opinion at opportune moments in regards it. Alexianna was in charge of her choice regarding Oliver, he would support her regardless of what she chose yet saw the reasoning for Daniel's want to know his father also, which he had voiced to her previously.

The holiday continued without much event. The photos of them on the beach had declared their presence on the channel island which led to a few more pictures and an occasional selfie with a fan but overall, they enjoyed their time there. It was a refreshing experience for the most part and Lily seemed so proud that people liked Tom, though she did send a little possessive of him after he gave hugs to fans, something that made both him and Alexianna laugh.

On the second last day, Tom was watching Lily as Alexianna showered. He noticed she seemed to be searching her clothing bag for something. “Are you okay, Princess, are you looking for your bunnies?”

“No Daddy, they're on my bed,” she dismissed, having placed the two bunny stuffed toys she brought everywhere with her in her bed.

“Then what are you looking for?” He asked, his curiosity piqued.

“A pants like Mummy has.”

“Why so?”

“A-cause I don't want anyone to see my bum and belly.”

Tom's brow furrowed and he looked to the doorway, where Alexianna was looking at her daughter curiously, having heard her statement. “Your what?”

“Mummy is scared of people seeing her bum and belly and I don't want them to see mine either.”

The statement would have been ridiculous had Lily not mimicked an action that caused Tom and Alexianna to pause and watch. Lily leant forward and pinched her naturally-occurring folds of skin of her creased stomach in her hand, just as Alexianna was prone to doing.

Tom looked at Lily, angered and sickened to see the child think herself such a way and looked then to Alexianna who was wearing an expression he knew she would, guilt and heartache. He had known her self criticism would negatively impact Lily if Alexianna did not accept herself before Lily became aware of her own body image, he had not anticipated Lily suffering from it at a mere five years old.

“Lily…” Alexianna found her voice first and walked over to her daughter. “Lily, that's silly. Look how pretty you are, you have nothing wrong with you, you are a healthy girl and you should never want to hide yourself,” She insisted.

“But you do.”

“Lil's, I am not hiding my belly because I am ashamed it folds,” She dismissed. Tom looked at Alexianna, startled at the declaration. “All bellies do that when we sit or lean forward.” she showed her daughter hers to show her it was natural.

“Then why do you?”

“I wear long tops because of my scars, they are sensitive to sunlight and can burn very easily and my arm has so many and this summer is the hottest and sunniest I can recall and I don't want to damage the skin, it's not healthy.”

“Oh, can they get sick?”

“They can get super sore and I don't want super sore arms.” She explained with a smile.

“But what about your pants? You said a-fore that your bum was big.”

“Lil's, everyone says silly things about their bum being big or small, but the truth is, that's all silly things we think because we all want to see something wrong with ourselves. I was sad and thought bad things about me when really, I should love me and I do. I wear pants because I want to wear them. I love how these pants feel and I love how they look, they make me happy, the same as I know wearing your Paw Patrol hat makes you happy, does that mean you want to hide your hair, that you don't like it?”

Lily giggled. “No, that's silly.”

“And that's the same with me and my pants. I love them, they are soft and have pockets and are a fun colour, that's why I'm wearing them, okay?”

“Yes, Mummy.”

“You are the most beautiful girl in the whole world and I love you so much, if you want to wear a t-shirt or dress with no sleeves, or shorts, then as long as we lather you in factor 50 every other hour, then I want you to wear what makes you happy.”

“Even my Paw Patrol swim togs?”

“Even them...when they dry, they should be ready in an hour, they were soaked not too long ago.”

“Okay.” Happy, Lily rushed off.

Alexianna sighed as she got to her feet and looked sheepishly at Tom. “Are you angry at me?”

“No.” His voice was low.

“But you're angry?”

“A little, I am more saddened. A five-year-old should never look at themselves and feel self-conscious.”

“I made her feel like that.”

“Your actions towards yourself made her feel like that, not your actions towards her. You always tell her she is beautiful and perfect, but you don't tell yourself enough.” She avoided eye contact with him. “I hate my chest.” She turned to look at him again, her brows furrowed. “I work out for movies, do everything I am asked and I never get muscle there. I get pissed off at how easy it is for Hemsworth to be able to pile it on and yet I cannot seem to get a fraction of his size.”

“I love how you are….”

“You love me but do you love you?”

“I...that's different, stretch marks…”

“Stretch marks are natural.”

“Tom, I am working really hard on this.” There was a clipped tone to her words. “I am working really hard but changing how I see me is not easy and with everything with tasteless slag rags I know it will be a bit harder so please, just let me work on me.”

Tom swallowed, not realising the anger she had regarding the matter. “I love how you look, you know that, don't you? You're incredibly beautiful and since we ran out of our box this week, I know you know I find you attractive.”

“But?” Alexianna could see there was more to the sentence in his eyes. “What would you change?”

“Your insistence to having the light off. I know about your stretch marks and scars so stop hiding them from me. I find that you having marks from creating this amazing little human being is actually quite alluring.”

“Liar.”

“Actually, it's the truth. There's something about it I cannot describe.” He confessed.

“Perve.” She smiled.

Tom chuckled before bringing her to him. “I love you and what they're saying…”

“Tom, I don't care what these people say, I don't know them and they don't know me. I meant what I said to Lily about those pants, they're my favourite summer pants. They ridiculed Chris Hemsworth's wife for the same attire, it's just a standard attack on women, if I dressed in shorts, I would have been labelled a hussy and that I should dress more conservatively.”

Tom nodded in agreement with her statement. “And your arm?”

“No, I have been told by my surgeon not to expose the scars to too much sun. It's part of the care of such things.” Tom looked at her startled. “Trust me, I would like to get some colour this summer, I feel like I am boiling but I have to actually think if these things.”

“So you were honest with her?”

“Yes, I was. And I am being honest with you. I'm not fully able to look at my stretch marks yet and not think they have no impact on me, but I am working in it and seeing her do that…” her voice was small as she felt shame for having given her daughter her insecurities.

Tom pulled her to him. “I love you both so much, Lexi but you need to love you too.” She said nothing in response but instead leant her head to his chest, listening to his heart beating within. “She needs you to show her how to love herself but you're sending mixed messages when you tell her she's beautiful but ridicule yourself.”

“I know,” She admitted in a small voice. “And Tom?”

“Yes, Darling?”

“I love your chest.” She sighed, inhaling his smell as she did.

Tom chuckled and kissed her head. “And I love your appearance also, so don't hide yourself to suit others, wear what makes you happy.”

“I know, I've spoken to Burrows about it a few times.” Alexianna nodded. “Tom?”

“Hmm?”

“I was thinking.”

“About?”

“When I go back, about Oliver and Lily's schooling.”

#Life is a Game of Risks #chapter 50 #tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston fic

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tcwsotm · 5 years

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_Week 3

Planning for the presentation next week

Communication through email and google doc to create presentation.

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Mood boards

Last week we set ourselves the task of each creating a mood board around what we wanted both our exhibition, and the design for our exhibition, to look like.

Solomon

The relevant themes here are that in terms of marketing I’m into brutalist modern design with bright colors and bold text. However when it comes to exhibiting I like clean minimal spaces with works that adapt to the areas they are in to maintain balance.

I think the intersect of brutalism and minimalism could be an interesting place for our exhibition to operate within although I’m very open to any other ideas.

WORKS ON WATER Kai Hau Kai – the art project

Research:

James had the role of doing the research into the artists and projects that our group could be inspired by through their ideas and ways that they exhibited. When we came together as a group, a lot of us had similar ideas around how we wanted to exhibit as well as some artists that we were inspired by. James tried to take these arts and try and find new arts and exhibitions or projects that we could integrate into creating a cohesive exhibition.

Hugh Pocock

In 1998 Hugh Pocock created a project that looked at an unconventional art exhibition. Living with a Log was a sculpture and performance work made by locating a 42 ft, 2 1/2 ton fir tree in the forests of southern Oregon and placing it inside Pocock’s home in the nearby town of Ashland. His wife and himself lived in the house with the log, going about their normal daily routine. The house was open to the public during this time. Pococker’s intention with this project was to bring the wild and domesticated into contact again. The house he was living in was entirely constructed of wood. The wallpaper was of floral design. The region that Pocock lived in was heavily forested and was also heavily lumbered. He realized that in many ways our houses are domesticated replicas of wild environments. With this work, Pocock wanted to live within the tension that would be created by bringing these two extremes into proximity. Like two opposing magnets.

Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison

Among the leading pioneers of the eco-art movement, the collaborative team of Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison have worked for almost forty years with biologists, ecologists, architects, urban planners and other artists to initiate collaboration dialogues to uncover ideas and solutions which support biodiversity and community development. Their work resonates with our group as we are taking key ideas such as supporting biodiversity, as well as the ideas that result in reusing found materials. Full Farms commissioned by the Houston Museum of Contemporary Art, was an exhibition that was to shed light on how easy it is to create a farm that can grow produce. We as a group were inspired by this style of work of installing the gardens into the exhibition space. As it is brings the environment into the space which we are considering.

https://youtu.be/BgsFnRzGrJY

Presented by New Georges with 3LD Art & Technology Center and Urban Water Artists in collaboration with Guerilla Science

June 5-30, 2017

Works on Water is the first triennial dedicated to art made on, in and with the water. The inaugural event featured artworks, theatrical performances, conversations, workshops, and off-site expeditions that explore diverse artistic investigation of water in the urban environment.

Works on Water is an organization and triennial exhibition dedicated to artworks, performances, conversations, workshops and site-specific experiences that explore diverse artistic investigation of water in the urban environment. We seek to strengthen and nourish the community of artists working on and with bodies of water and to provide a platform to increase awareness of artists and organizations working on and with the waterways.

Jonathan Kay

Fieldwork by Jonathan Kay is a photographic experiment follows the methodology and framework of scientific ‘fieldwork’, where observation and data collection can provide insights into specific environments. Fieldwork adopts this concept, but employs an artistic approach to create a site specific experiment. Fieldwork uses the photogram process to expose the reaction between light sensitive material and the physical forces; water, ice, and light. Fieldwork utilised 19th century alternative photographic process of the cyanotype more commonly known as the blueprint. This artwork Is looks at the melting glaciers of the world and how climate change and the warming of the climate is affecting us. This artwork shows us and gives us an understanding of an issue in front of us and through art Jonathan Kay has shown us this in a public space.

Yona Lee: In Transit

8 December 2018–24 March 2019

Yona Lee makes large, maze-like installations. Hundreds of metres of stainless-steel pipe are cut and welded to form elaborate linear structures, bisecting and transforming gallery spaces and the activities that take place there. By incorporating a miscellany of surprising urban and domestic fixtures, Lee infuses her pipe structures with an everyday surrealism.

Eve Mosher

Created by artist Eve Mosher, Seeding the City is a grassroots project that incorporates social networking to find methods for greening the city. With the philosophy that every small contribution can add up to large scale change, Mosher posed the question: “Why have just one roof with 1,000 ft2 of green, when you can have 1,000 roofs with 1 ft2 of green?” City residents were invited to build compact garden modules to install on their rooftops to create a large-scale green roof system throughout the city to counter the urban heat island effect. We as a group Liked the concept of the project that is looking at the concept of ecological art set in an urban setting. The project is aimed to introduce attainable methods for environmental remediation and increase awareness about the benefits of green roofs in reducing heat output from dense housing and buildings. Being in Wellington this project can be influenced to create something like a roof garden or a backyard garden the benefits to the work looks into the idea of being sustainable and self certificate to creating food in your backyard and helping the environment.

Kai Hau Kai – the art project.

Created by Ron Bull jr. and Simon Kaan.

Extending a project first presented in New Mexico in 2012, Simon Kaan presents Kai Hau Kai, a Ngāi Tahu exchange working with communities to explore the concept of sharing of food, and its importance in creating and maintaining social and economic relationships.

https://youtu.be/TnYQ286F2xI?list=UUJ4kDoGBsEVa454HEH5kTjg

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buzzfeedreader · 7 years

Photo

Jonathan Leibson / Getty Images

SZA’s Ctrl is a black girl’s Tumblr come to melodic, vibrant life.

SZA, who is 26 years old and grew up in New Jersey, is speaking in a specific vernacular that will be familiar to black women who spend chunks of their time in certain corners of the internet. It is apparent right from the opening song, "Supermodel," which begins with a recording of the singer’s mother speaking on the grand theme of the record (“That is my greatest fear. That if, if I lost control or did not have control, things would just, you know. I would be be...fatal”). It’s not that the lyrics come in the form of some impenetrable fancy language, necessarily — it is standard (African-)American English, after all — it is the attitude with which she throws out the lyrics that catches the ear, and then makes the words linger on the mind.

When she plaintively sings “Why can’t I stay alone just by myself / wish I was comfortable just with myself” on that opener, for example, you can almost taste the minimalist Tumblr theme; if you close your eyes you can picture an ironic Blingee lighting up on a loop behind your eyelids. Ctrl is covering much of the ground that fills my own dashboard up every single day, the hundreds of posts that essentially boil down to a quest for self-determination — self-determination in a world that seems hell-bent on pushing us into predesignated roles and situations. And that is expressed in pithy but heartfelt text posts about black girl magic in all its forms, mood boards and videos of hair and fashion inspiration, and the men and women we fancy and love, alongside photo sets and GIF sets of nostalgia-nourished TV shows and age-relevant quotes about life and love and self-care. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that SZA was for a good long time an active Tumblr user (I have followed her on there for years). Even now, via her million-follower Instagram, her preferred platform these days, SZA is still doing much of what her Tumblr used to do (minus the direct contact afforded by her Ask box). Last month she posted a screenshot of a Tumblr post about awkward flirting with the caption: “who dragged me like this?”

SZA’s reputation has been building for years via a couple of well-received EPs, See.SZA.Run and S, and her first studio album Z. In 2013, she signed with indie label Top Dawg Entertainment, the home of Kendrick Lamar and the rest of the Black Hippy crew — the first woman to do so. Three years later, she appeared on and co-wrote Rihanna’s opening Anti track, “Consideration.” Collaborating with the likes of Jill Scott and Chance the Rapper, she’s been making atmospheric, lush, and moody R&B that is as much throwback as it is forward-looking, and it is a combination that has made listeners consider her a safe pair of hands (3.9 million monthly listeners on Spotify is no small feat, after all) — the evidence of which lies in her label’s ease with releasing Ctrl in the same week as Katy Perry’s latest.

Music like SZA’s found its first home on Black Girl Tumblr. Or, at the very least, gained loyal followings there. Artists like SZA, H.E.R., Jennah Bell, Jhené Aiko, and so on were the much-cherished discoveries of like-minded girls and young women who were also yearning for their own reflection to come back undistorted. And so perhaps it is inevitable and fitting that listening to SZA’s Ctrl often feels like reading a series of all lowercase, punctuation-free Tumblr text posts. Those posts are often telling a version of the truth, comically bemused but with an arched eyebrow. SZA is earnest, yes, but that doesn’t mean her eyebrow isn’t raised throughout Ctrl.

You can almost hear that eyebrow creak upward on "Garden (Say It Like Dat)” in which she sings engagingly about self-doubt and anxiety: “Lie to me and say / my booty gettin’ bigger even if it ain’t” is a funny, relatable lyric. And even before she expands it into something more plainly stated, it carries undertones of a little sort of sadness. The latter half of this second-verse lyric, for example, is tongue in cheek and on the nose: “I know you'd rather be laid up with a big booty / body hella positive ‘cause she got a big booty” (her ad-lib — an incredulous “wow” — is pitch-perfect). But then the emotion pinballs quickly again with the quiet admission that comes by verse’s end: “You know I'm sensitive ‘bout havin' no booty / havin' no body / only you, buddy / can you / hold me when nobody’s around us?”

In many ways SZA is singing about the things we have come to expect from our indie-slash-folksy white female singer-songwriters, but what Ctrl is delivering comes as experienced and reported through a firmly black girl lens. Like another young musician who has developed an ardent following, British singer-songwriter Nao, SZA makes pop that's sincere — almost painfully so — but she is also playful and smart and funny. Even when she is not in control (of her gravity, of her ex, of the size of her booty), she’s still "finding herself" while remaining refreshingly self-aware — she knows who she is and roughly where she wants to end up. I thought a lot about Nao’s For All We Know while listening to Ctrl and had a clear thought: Where Nao’s constructions sound something akin to black girl church, SZA sounds like the aftermath of a black girl night out (one in which you might have found yourself crying in the club). It perfectly encapsulates that keyed-up post-club, pre-sleep 3 a.m. feeling when feelings are close to the surface.

There is also a firmness in SZA’s persona on this record, best exemplified by her grandmother’s short, spirited interlude at the end “Love Galore”, addressing SZA by her given name, Solána Imani Rowe: “But see, Solána? If you don’t say something, speak up for yourself, they think you stupid. You know what I’m saying?” It’s a nod and a wink to the listener. SZA knows who’s listening, and who that message is for. Another noteworthy and matter-of-fact exemplification comes straight out the gate on “Doves in the Wind”: “Real niggas do not deserve pussy.” Which is self-explanatory.

On “The Weekend,” a soon-to-be sidepiece classic, SZA is funny: “My man is my man is your man / heard it’s her man too,” she coos dismissively before telling her paramour to make sure he’s at her place “by 10:30 / no later than / drop them drawers / give me what I want.” And on “Drew Barrymore” (a geniusly titled song, effortlessly conjuring as it does images of '90s teen rom-coms and coded norms of suburban insecurity and acceptance), she is sharp: “I’m sorry you got karma comin’ to you.” When she sings wistfully about the titular character from 1994 film Forrest Gump (first in cinemas when she was 4), SZA’s being cute but also serious — imagine a world in which pussy was given to only deserving men! “Where's Forrest now when you need him?” she intones almost solemnly on "Doves in the Wind.” “Talk to me.”

The dip into the '90s oeuvre of Robert Zemeckis notwithstanding, Ctrl is very much of the now. Even with its dizzying array of producers, the entire record sounds cohesively and fluently like 2017: Peep the references to Netflix show Narcos (which also got a shoutout on Stormzy’s 2017 LP Gang Signs and Prayer) or the aforementioned “body positive” (a term whose overuse has given it an unearned negative reputation on Tumblr and beyond). On “Normal Girl,” SZA borrows liberally from Drake’s 2016 single “Controlla” (“You like it / when I be / aggressive”). Even the nostalgic TV Ctrl harks back to is curiously very current again: that period in the '90s that young people have rediscovered and which they quote liberally from, thanks to streaming. SZA refers to comedy sketch show MadTV on “Doves in the Wind,” and on “Go Gina” she uses one of Martin Lawrence’s catchphrases from his sitcom Martin.

Ctrl is a mishmash of so many influences, which will continue to reveal themselves as it beds in with listeners. Its pop DNA is evident in its many catchy hooks and choruses (“Prom” sounds like a 2017 update of Gwen Stefani’s “Cool,” for example), and her guest stars — Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, James Fauntleroy, Isaiah Rashad — add weight but are never overwhelming. SZA has an ear for what is aurally pleasing and commercial: Upon my third listen to the record, I was struck by how happily pretty much every song would sit on the soundtrack of a teen show (won’t someone invite her to score a black girl coming-of-age movie, please?).

What sells the record best, though, is SZA’s own conviction. Like the black girls who live their multi-adjectived lives on Tumblr, she is the best chronicler of her own life. It’s an expansion of self-identity that stretches beyond Strong Black Woman (which is not entirely discarded as one facet) and travels into the territory we have always known was in us. SZA’s music is vulnerable and sweet, self-questioning and self-affirming, all at the same time, in a way that is performative, yes — but also intimate and tender. It is a snapshot of one 26-year-old’s life right now, much like all those Tumblrs are moments in amber. Ctrl feels “Dear Diary” real, which is to say it is Black Girl Tumblr writ large. Control, in all avenues, is the defining characteristic, and it is powerful. “I belong to nobody / hope it don’t bother you / you can mind your business / I belong to nobody” SZA sings on “Go Gina.”

Listening to Ctrl, you don’t doubt it.

—Bim Adewunmi on SZA’s new album

#sza #blackgirls #r&b #carefreeblackgirls #sadblackgirls #music #reviews #photos #bim adewunmi

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